Poor Rudeus. This week in Jobless Reincarnation he is once again given advice by the ‘god’ thing and this time he follows it to the letter only the results aren’t exactly awesome (at least not yet). As if Rudeus didn’t have enough reasons to have trust issues.
After episode 18’s minor diversion to follow Roxy on her journey, this week Jobless Reincarnation firmly returns us to Rudeus and friends as they finally arrive on the central continent. After a dream conversation with god, Rudeus has learned that two of the people he is looking for are in the city Roxy went to work after leaving him, and he’s given some fairly non-specific directions of what to do once he arrives.
I don’t know about everyone else in the audience, but I was pretty sure Rudy was being messed with once again. Sure, last time he followed god’s directions he ended up with a demon eye but I’m still not convinced that was a great idea (and certainly sounded kind of painful to receive). This time, Rudeus ends up walking into a trap set by and idiot and I just can’t help but think that if Rudeus hadn’t been trying to follow the instructions he’d been given he never would have landed in that predicament.
Though he may never have located the two missing people either so maybe things will work out yet.
Jobless Reincarnation really likes to make you second guess the characters and their choices.
With the focus on Rudeus and his search for Aisha and Lilia, once again Eris and Rujierd are getting decidedly sidelined. I somehow suspect they will be important next week because if they don’t go looking for Rudeus I’m not sure how Jobless Reincarnation intends to get him out of his current predicament, but this week at least we get Eris feeling relieved that they are no longer on a boat and Rujierd has about one actual dialogue exchange with Rudeus.
I did begin to wonder during this episode if terrible reunions were just going to be the ongoing theme here. Largely because Rudeus and Paul had an awful first encounter after so long apart and now Rudeus finds and saves Aisha except that she doesn’t recognise him and the description she gives of her older brother being a pervert (while pretty accurate) is a little scathing.
Naturally Rudeus doesn’t actually introduce himself to her because you couldn’t continue the gag if you just cleared up the misunderstanding. Plus god told him not to…
Yeah, god really is just messing with Rudeus in Jobless Reincarnation.
Anyway, all of this culminates with Rudeus stashing Aisha with Eris and Ruijerd before a visitor from the castle (where he sent a letter to Roxy – though the audience already knows she isn’t there) arrives and leads him to a shady part of the building before asking him to leave his staff and equipment. Red flags are going off everywhere and yet Rudeus decides to just go through with it because he decided to follow the god’s instructions.
You know, I kind of hope something good happens at the end of all of this, otherwise Jobless Reincarnation is really just giving Rudy a kick in the guts because it can.
And then the penny drops, or rather the trap is sprung, and we more or less end the episode with Rudeus now completely trapped.
Admittedly, it is hard to really make any kind of decision about whether the events here are meaningful without knowing how this situation resolves and what Rudeus takes away from it. I enjoyed the episode but kind of hope there’s some deeper meaning in all of this than just god being amused at watching Rudeus fall.
You can read the full review of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation part 2 here.
Images from: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Part 2. Dir. M Okamoto. Studio Bind. 2021
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Karandi James
Here’s the thing: Rudy does *not* follow the god’s advice to the letter. Not *quite.*
He tells Rudy he’ll stumble on the scene with Aisha, but to give her an alias instead of using his real name. He did that, yes.
He tells Rudy to get Aisha to tell her about her situation. He did part of that, but he didn’t do it quite right. For instance, he didn’t get details about Lillia being held prisoner (kind of fumbled that) and he didn’t ask why they wouldn’t let Aisha send a letter. He didn’t think that Roxy *might* have left sometime in the last two years, and he was preoccupied with trying to look good for his little sister. If he’d asked more questions, been more alert, considered things as we know he can, he could have kept his guard up, at the very least.
Then comes the crux of it: the god tells him to *then,* AFTER meeting Aisha and getting info from her, THEN write “someone he knows in the palace.” With a bit more information, he could have altered his approach. In particular, he could have avoided falling into a trap set by a conniving, if also especially stupid and cruel, prince.
And this is all besides how Rudy blames the god for things which, quite frankly, were his own fault. His time in a jail, fighting with Paul, even how he looks like his former self instead of his newer self; that’s all Rudy’s doing, not the god’s. Much like his current predicament, where he foolishly made assumptions, ignored warning signs (like how the guards were the same ones he rescued Aisha from), surrendered his staff needlessly, and fell straight into a trap. I doubt that will make Aisha think better of him, but, ultimately, even her low opinion of him is his own fault, as is his current predicament.
So, while the god’s advice might have yielded some better results if he’d adhered to them a little more precisely and used his head, I imagine the god would not be adverse to letting Rudy learn a bit through some due humbling whilst in the process of saving his family.
That is true, but I still think the god is just amusing himself at Rudy’s expense.