Mushoku Tensei II – 03 – That’s Our Quagmire

As the weeks and months roll on, Rudy works with Counter Arrow a lot, continuing to build up his reputation. His relationship with Sara has improved drastically, to the point she’s snuggling up right beside him at the tavern and asking if he’ll go on a dagger-shopping date.

Rudy’s date with an excited, bubbly Sara takes place sans audio as the opening credits roll, and it’s just about the sweetest, most adorable sequence Mushouku Tensei has given us throughout its run. Desensitized to this kinda thing as I am watching rom-coms with Zane, I never thought another shoe would drop…even though this is Mushoku Tensei!

But it does, when Sara gets a little tipsy and invites herself to Rudy’s room. She heads right to the bed and isn’t subtle about wanting to sleep with him. But while things start out okay, by the time they start taking off clothes, Rudy has a surprising and unfortunate problem: He can’t get it up.

He tries to manually jumpstart his little monster (his attempts are thankfully blacked out) to no avail. The mood is ruined, the moment passes, and Sara re-robes and excuses herself, saying she was only offering herself out of obligation since he saved her life. She even mutters “awful” under her breath as she goes. That reminded me of Asuka’s final words in End of Evangelion.

It’s an unmitigated disaster, especially considering how well things were going with Sara to that point. When Sol, short for Soldat, finds Rudy drinking his feelings, his first mocking barb gets him sucker punches. As Rudy wales on him he begins to break down in tears.

Sol apologizes, and urges Rudy to tell him what’s troubling him, so they can maybe find a solution. When they sit down at the bar and drink, Rudy is initially too formal. Sol liked it better when Rudy was giving him a peace of his mind (though less-so with the punching).

When Sol learns that Rudy’s first woman abandoned him the morning after, he suggest that might’ve been why he wasn’t able to perform with Sara. Whatever led to Eris leaving, and how it caused Rudy’s current issue, Sol believes the best solution is to let a professional take care of it.

They head to the red-lantern district, where Rudy just happens to be paired up with Elise, the big sister of the girl he healed for free when he was shoveling snow in the square. Elise is happy to be serving such a kind gentleman…but try as she might, she can get him to get it up either.

During post-attempt drinks, Elise figures Rudy fears the touch of a woman because he fears that woman will betray or abandon him, as he believes Eris did. The solution as she sees it is for him to try again, but with a woman he knows well and is certain won’t turn on him.

Rudy first thinks of Roxy, but wisely notes “that’s probably wouldn’t work”. As the dawn meets them and Rudy is super hammered, Sol suggests he try again with Sara, but not rush into things this time. Rudy believed Sara when she said it was just obligation, but Sol believes she’s “plenty into him”.

All they need is a reset. Rudy promises to talk to Sara soon. But then his drunk-ass and big fat mouth get the best of him, as he mocks Sara’s body, declares his preference for the bustier, Elise, and makes fun of the shopping date.

He does this unaware that Sara is standing behind him with Suzanne, and heard everything. She walks up to him, slaps him across the face, drops her new dagger at his feet, turns around and leaves, warning him never to let her see his face again.

I’ll be honest; I was a little heartbroken for Sara. They had such a nice rapport, and he was so kind to her. The rom-com fan in me wanted to run after her like Sol says, but perhaps the damage was done. But Rudy can be, and often is, a scumbag. We know that. He still carries his magic tutor’s underwear around like a holy relic for Chrissakes!

Better for her to learn that now that later. But if this is the last we see of Sara and Counter Arrow, I’ll miss her, and the little ephemeral paradise Rudy had built for himself in that little northern town. Sara was a good woman for him, but maybe he didn’t deserve her. That said, she also said some pretty mean things when she left his room.

So now it seems like he’ll be joining Sol and his party to a newly discovered labyrinth in the Duchy of Neris. No sooner does Rudy leave this town than Elinalise arrives, and puts her feminine charms to use learning that Rudy is in Pippin, Basherant’s second city. Something tells me eventually she’s going to find her quarry. I wonder what Rudy will be up to if and when she does, and how he’ll react to her finding him.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – 03 – The Naked Truth

We’ve watched the first couple of days of the zombie apocalypse from the POV Akira and the woman in pink (whose name is Shizuku), so it’s good to get an entirely new POV, in this case from the star host Shuu at a gentleman’s club. His latest client is a frightened little girl who has lost everyone and everything, but he promises to keep her safe.

Shuu and his handsome co-workers adopt an entirely different demeanor upon arming themselves, leaving the safety of the club, and setting out into the Shinjuku sun, ready to do battle with the seething hordes of mindless zombies. Akira arrives via motorcycle just as this battle is about to take place.

But let’s back up a few hours, as the show likes to jump back and forward in time. To Akira’s delight, the internet is back, just when he finally has time to reconnect with all of his friends he lost touch with due to his job. He arrives at another solemn moment when he realizes the internet only works because so many fewer people are using it since they’ve been turned.

One man who hasn’t (yet) been turned is his best bud from college and rugby club, Kencho (whose business card reads Ryuuzaki Kenichirou). When shit went down, he just happened to be in the bondage room of a Shinjuku brothel. Thus the woman he was to spend the night with was already tied up when she became a zombie.

He’s been trapped in the room with her for three days with ntohing but water, and he’s starting to fade…until he gets a phone call from an unusually chipper Akira, who asks him to text him where he is and he’ll come for him.

This Akira on the other end of the line is a far cry from the last Akira Kencho saw: they’d gotten drinks about a year ago, and Kencho boasted about how much success he’d had as a big-shot real estate guy. Politician clients, model girlfriends and day-trips to Paris. Akira, at the time, was thoroughly mired and soul-crushed by his job.

At the time, Kencho told him to simply quit that job, since it wasn’t doing him any good. But Akira didn’t want to hear it, not then, not from Kencho. Now, thanks to the distraction of a car horn (which also saves Shou’s life), Akira is able to clear out the brotel and get to Kencho…so he can tearfully apologize to his friend for not taking his advice and quitting a year ago.

Kencho wants to say something too, but the horde returns promptly, forcing them up to the roof of the building. The door barricade won’t last, and the only thing to do is  jump, which is actually not that crazy an idea in such a built-up, skyscraper-packed district. With the same conviction as he risked his life to buy beer and save his friend, Akira leaps and lands hard but safe on the roof across the street.

Kencho is astounded, but after a beat, he laments that he won’t be able to make that same jump. Instead, he decides to tell Akira the truth: he hated his job too. He had a knack for it due to his gift of gab and talent for schmoozing, but hated constantly lying, manipulating clients into signing bad deals, and maintaining the fiction of the ideal happy life.

He’s sorry to Akira for showing off when they last met, but Akira already knows Kencho went above and beyond to entertain him and their friends at school and on the rugby team. Kencho admits, loudly and tearfully, that what he really wanted was to be a stand-up comic. Akira tells him again to let go of his dour fake real estate job and leap to the rooftop where he is.

Suddenly suffused with confidence (or maybe just reckless abandon), Kencho listens to his friend and jumps—tossing off all his clothes in the process. Akira laughs harder than he has in years at the muscular naked spectacle, but is still able to grab Kencho when he comes up a bit short and lift him up to safety.

I cannot say how Kencho got his clothes back, but both he and Akira have a naked beer session in front of a fire on the rooftop as the sun goes down. Kencho admires Akira quitting his job, dropping everything, and moving on with his life, even as he’s doing the exact same thing simply due to the zombie apocalypse.

Still, it happened, and Kencho believes true success comes from escaping dead-end situations that cause apathy and despair. Akira and Kencho are now free from the jobs they hated, and free to define themselves how they see fit. Akira also gets to cross off another item on his list: Drink and laugh with my best bud.

This was a beautiful portrait of positive male friendship and love. If the ED ever becomes a reality and they’re joined by Shizuku and “Samurai Girl” in a survivor’s quartet, they’ll surely have to wear more clothes. But this was an exceedingly uplifting reunion.

Like Shuu’s struggle to keep one little girl safe at the club showed, nothing is over in this ruined world until it’s over. There’s still hope, as long as non-zombified humans can still breathe, drink, eat, love, and laugh together.