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.

Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou! – 01 (First Impressions) – A Slight Improvement

In this suddenly wintry economic climate filled with the fear of viral transmission, the prospect of nodding off in front of your self-quarantine dinner and waking up in a completely different world…doesn’t sound so bad?

Our protagonist doesn’t live in Coronaland (the first anime to reference is probably a couple seasons off), so his is a more general ennui towards his meager lot in life. But when he wakes up at a sumptuous wedding banquet in the body of a five-year-old boy named Wendelin, he rightly presumes that lot has improved greatly.

Alas, the extravagant banquet was only to keep up appearances for the noble guests of his noble family. In reality, they’re dirt poor, sad little lords of a backwater knightdom. Their grand manor is falling apart, and the next meal he has is dry brown bread and soup that’s mostly just water.

Not only that, he’s not the third son of the lord of these lands, but the eighth, when factoring in two half-brothers. Meaning despite technically being nobility, nothing of the very little his family has will ever come Wendelin’s way. And yet, this is still probably a better deal than his salaryman existence.

That’s because in this world our protagonist has mana, which means he’s able to perform magic, something only one in a thousand people in this world can do. Yet after reading a very brief note on how to use a crystal ball to measure his mana, his father’s library doesn’t have any other material on harnessing that mana. More to the point, his Dad can’t even read!

He heads out into the woods to try to figure things out on his own, hastily drawing a magic circle, striking poses, and calling out names of spells to no avail. That’s when he’s approached by Alfred Rainford, a former court magician who sensed Wendelin’s mana and is confident he’s bound for great things.

When Alfred accidentally drops a boulder on a giant wild boar, he helps Wendelin summon his wind power and unleash it on the charging boar. It doesn’t do much, but it’s pretty good for a very first try, and Alfred takes care of the boar with a much stronger and more focused wind spell. Still, he thinks Wendelin will surpass him one day.

Sure enough, this episode begins ten years after the MC arrives in this world. He’s a cool cocky teenager wearing the same magician’s robes as Aldred, and having tea with no fewer than four pretty ladies (who mercifully don’t fight over him). I’m not quite sure such a flash-forward prologue was necessary, but I guess the show didn’t want to keep us in the dark about whether Wendelin would make it in this world.

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? is…fine? It borrows elements from Youjo Senki, except that the MC becomes a boy rather than a girl and is in a Renaissance-era world rather than WWI steampunk. It has some decent moments of levity. What it lacks in originality it makes up for in its spirit of escapism. But even with Re:Zero 2 pushed to the Summer, this show is likely to be supplanted by better isekai anime airing later this Spring.