Mushoku Tensei is a Rance-Inspired Masterpiece

[@jessepbigjdp]

I really appreciate your emphasis on how funny the series is, I still regularly get a chuckle out of remembering extra chapter 1 of volume 5, in which a bad Yelp review unleashes one of the strongest people in the setting back into military service 😂

[@Adze]

The thing I'm really appreciating on my reread (which is going slow since I'm taking notes) is how quickly it can shift from serious to funny and vice versa. Like, it'll often do a complete 180 in a single sentence and the contrast ends up highlighting the resulting tone really well. Thinking about Roxy's farewell halfway through Vol 1 always makes me laugh.

[@VarticTube]

Great video, I totally agree with your points. I love how you managed to present them in a concise and clear manner without going into spoilers. It is absolutely amazing how the author does escalation. The stakes get raised every arc in a natural way. Going from an isekai adventure with next to zero care in the world to making me absolutely terrified to turn the next page. Not scared because I was reading about an eldritch monster or how Namek is about to explode in 5 minutes. I was scared reading about moments where a character is taking a step, or turning around, or opening a door.

[@Adze]

I really wish I could have talked about some of the technical stuff I loved but I just couldn't find a spoiler-free way to do so. Like, I loved how the Rudy/Eris interaction at the end of the Demon Continent arc parallels Rudy and Sara's first arc with a bit of dramatic irony. Or how Zanoba and Pax are basically alternate versions of Rudy's own growth arc. Man, the inciting incident for the story as a whole doesn't even happen until you're like 2 or 3 arcs into the series (depends on if you consider the Boreas Greyrat household section a full arc or just the introduction to the Demon Continent arc)

[@VarticTube]

@@Adze Yes. There is this huge trend of parallels or in fact history repeating itself throughout the whole story. I am very excited to talk about them during certain arcs. For what the anime covers so far my favorite parallel is between Ghislaine and Eris. They were both misfits in their society, whether it was the high society that Eris was born into or the proud and noble beastmen village for Ghislaine. Both girls were violent, unruly and unsocial, only when they learned to fight did they find a place where they fit in the world.

[@TheAnimeKoala]

Absolutely fell in love with the series when the anime first started in 2021 and once the first half of season 1 ended I dived right into the LN/WN. For well over a month I spent every day waking up reading and thinking about the things I read all day long even when trying to go to sleep. Even after finishing it I just felt like all I wanted to do was reread it. I haven't been able to find a series since to immerse me so much. Truly a special experience. Looking forward to your breakdown videos.

[@Adze]

I'm noticing so much on my reread it's ridiculous. SO much foreshadowing and a ton of crazy connections that you wouldn't even notice until a second read. Like, I'm 95% sure that the person Lilia was guarding before she was injured (forcing her to move to Buena Village) was Ariel. It's never explicitly stated, but everything lines up with her being that "Asuran princess"

[@TheAnimeKoala]

@@Adze Oh yeah its absolutely crazy just how much stuff you can find when going back and rereading. Just singular lines of dialogue that somehow connect to something later on. I hadn't even thought about that Lilia thing but now that you say it that seems very possible.

[@oof5992]

RANCE MENTIONED

[@Adze]

GAHAHAHA!

[@BananaDangoGreyrat]

Todavía espero más videos de Mushoku :c

[@Adze]

It's being worked on. I've got more than an hour's worth of script written already, but there's still a ton of work to go.

[@kgregorius8550]

Good timing seeing as Mushoku Tensei came out today.

[@cybersoul2809]

Great video Two little corrections: While it is true that there are only a few warriors in the King tier for Sword God and Water God. There are around 50 North Kings in the world. The universal rule for all schools seens to be that there are never more than 5 emperors and god tier fighters combined in each school The other thing is that the rule about having to defeat another King to become an Emperor only applies to the Sword God style

[@Adze]

Yeah, I noticed a few minor mistakes myself that I'm only realizing via my reread, though thankfully nothing that distorts anything important. I was pulling a lot of the details from memory. I also kinda butchered the categories of magic, but nobody caught that one lol.

[@HanSDevX]

What's the top 10 books you've ever read? including manga, light novel, visual novel, books. Also the adventure genre is my favorite, I don't care if its isekai, regression, VRMMORPG or just straight up fantasy. So long as it has a good world, good magic system and a great story im all for it... Which is why I usually give most isekai a chance despite many being generic af. Im thinking of reading rezero but I haven't prioritized it :/

[@Adze]

It's hard to give a definitive ranking, and things definitely get weird if you include VNs (they give me a different kind of feeling). But here are some of my favorites: The Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett The Muv-Luv VN trilogy The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks The Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks The Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM (yes, I know they're probably never getting finished) Mushoku Tensei (duh) Shining Song Starnova VN (not on the same level objectively, but I personally love it) Euphoria VN I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (the movie was one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams There's plenty of other stuff I like, but these are some of my favorites. I haven't read Re:Zero yet, but I plan to since I really like the anime

[@crittysmelody8520]

Excited for the critique series!

[@Adze]

It's being worked on, but don't hold your breath. For reasons that will be very apparent when the first video drops, this is going to take me a while

[@crittysmelody8520]

Sure take your time! In the mean time, I'll subscribe!

[@deepank9283]

Hi, Loved your video. I went though your twitter a bit, were you able to read the side stories. Redundancy, Old dragons tails and jobless oblige. They add a lot to the world and many things to the characters who we didnt got enough in the main story. There is no officially released translated version, but you can easily find the WN versions.

[@Adze]

I haven't yet. I plan to after I finish my critiques of the LN series.

[@juusovuolle8251]

I've really enjoyed reading the light novels. finished volume 18 recently. I feel there should have been more adult conversations between Rudy and his love interests. Felt like it was happening too fast. But I have really enjoyed the journey so far and I am excited to find out what the final 8 volumes will bring.

[@ezequielfernandez476]

i dont know if you are aware but there are several side novels that complement the main MT novel, jobless oblige, old dragons tale and mushoku tensei redundancy, the last one is currently publishing but the web novel version is completed, i strongly recommend to you to read them but if you dont have the time at least read old dragons tale, is a must read to get the full picture of the story, im looking foward to those review videos man, great job

[@Adze]

I'm going to wait until I'm done with the critique series before I read them. I kind of just want to focus on the main 26-book series and I feel like reading the side stuff could potentially color my opinions in a way I wouldn't like for the purposes of the critiques (it's not uncommon for supplementary stories to change the overall tone, scope, and/or feel of the story as a whole). And who knows? Maybe I'll make videos on them too depending on how well the critiques are received.

[@da1l616]

Redundancy and Oblige slot right into the timeskip at the end of the main story. I don't unterstand why they were not incorporated into the LNs as one story. Old Dragons Tale is a prequel explaining how the world of MT came to be.

[@NickLim-e4g]

Lance was a pioneer for many great things babyy

[@mugendono23]

You should check out Old Dragons Tail, it goes into the history of the Mushoku Tensei world.

[@theblackphantomthief]

When the anime series comes to an end, I wanna read the novels from beginning to end, I've already read novels 7 and 8 before Season 2!

[@FengLengshun]

I remember reading the WN from start to, latest at the time, the end of Turning Point 4 in two days and two nights. The only time I could immediately remember I was similarly engaged was me reading all of Azumanga Daioh in a single day and laughing so hard it hurts. There's very few stories that has done that for me.

[@socks2423]

"if you're the type to 'sail the seven seas' ..." ah I see what you did there! ... wait that _was_ a pun, right? I'm not so sure now

[@flaviusiacob1558]

Nice video man

[@l30nard03]

Yep Mushoku Tensei is amazing 🤩

[@cargobob]

Great video. Also, It would be awesome if you covered Subahibi, I wanna hear your thoughts on it

[@Adze]

It's on my "eventually" list. I'm not too knowledgeable on philosophy, so there's a good chance I won't catch everything (I heard that Subahibi goes into come complex philosophical stuff that I'm thoroughly uneducated on)

[@cargobob]

@Adze I understand, but I also believe that you don't really have to be knowledgeable on the philosophical aspects in it to enjoy it. Hell, I had little to no grasp on the philosophical concepts present in the novel, yet I still enjoyed most of it.

[@Miraihi]

"Reincarnated as a sword" (Or Tenken) web-novel has been completed recently, and I've read all of it in japanese. Light novel version still has a long way to catch up, not even mentioning manga/anime. Still when you've been describing your impressions in "Other cool writing stuff" section I felt a bit of deja vu, because Tenken shares the same "Sneaky namedrops that suddenly become relevant much later" style of plot development. I think fantasy light novels in general are really good at playing the long game. You can clearly see how the author gradually goes from "Light-hearted fantasy adventure about adventurers and dungeons" to "Fantasy epic with political intrigues, conspiracies and artocities" as he becomes more and more ambitious.

[@blazearmoru]

SENGOKU-RANCE SAMA \O/

[@mcgibs]

I wonder if adult Rudeus would speak with the same voice as NEET guy. Or maybe they'll just go the Goku route and have the same voice actress for both ages.

[@Adze]

I could see it going either way. Same VA would make sense as a way of highlighting that he's the same person on a different path, but since he's in a different physical body it would also make sense if his voice developed differently. [Arguably mild spoiler below. Read at your own risk] Also, the story of Mushoku Tensei only lasts around 25ish years if I'm remembering correctly, so we never actually spend time with Rudy when he's at the same age as his old life (34). It would make sense still if his voice sounded different as there's a decade of difference

[@lucasvanwijngaarden670]

2 months? Pffft, that's rookie numbers.

[@El_Ace]

you read that many books? well.... I think Imma need some book content, I might need some good recs from someone been knee deep in that field 😅

[@sonofsatan6662]

Rance>>>>>>

[@emanimation2926]

Can You make a video comparing rance and mushoku???

[@Adze]

I'll have to think about that one. There's actually not a whole lot of similarities outside of some worldbuilding elements, some character/species design, and the occasional reference. And also Rudy's father Paul is most likely *very* loosely inspired by Rance himself, though the similarities are only really surface-level. If I can do the video well, I'll do it. But there just might not be enough there for me to really work with. I'm just not the type to pump out a video I won't be proud of even if I think it'll do well. But then again, I still have several Rance games to play, so maybe there'll be other connections for me to work with.

[@coreyrobinson1900]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@damiancrowley569]

Idk if I found the right thing. You said rance inspired and i immediately looked up rance, and it says "the longest running erotic video game series" Am I in the right place? Lmfao

[@Adze]

Yes. That series is actually pretty influential in Japan. The game Kichikuou Rance specifically inspired the Nekopara franchise

[@AmirDarkOne]

everything is a rance reference😂

[@luis-mora4444]

I dislike the idea that someone has to actually "Die" and be reincarnated to actually start doing things that will start improving their quality of life. Anyway, the design of that tall beast girl is simply delicious, this artstyle looks awfully familiar but I can't really tell if I read or saw other media by this artist.

[@Adze]

Shirotaka has worked on a few other LNs, but Mushoku Tensei is by far what s/he is best known for.

[@gulliblegallade8624]

The loli obsession turns me off (not judging, just not for me) but the novels are still very great. Love this series.

[@Adze]

My take is that the loli stuff is supposed to be uncomfortable (even when it's done for comedic effect). As he matures and finds fulfillment, companionship, and purpose he completely stops viewing them sexually. During his degen phase, he kind of interpreted everything through a sexual lens and IMO, being able to form a healthy perspective on his sexuality was an important part of his charactet arc

[@lampenpam]

Don't you just have to read past the first few chapters? Seems like a kinda dumb way to get filtered, especially because it's just there to have more character-growth

[@whatamess8894]

​@@AdzeThat's also what I understood. You have to remember that the fantasy world Rudeus is in is an image of the fantasy world in otaku midia, which is exactly a conflict that the show itself addresses. There are moments when rudeus has difficulty filtering that world from just fantasy, there are moments when he treats people like NPCs, etc., having a certain ignorance about certain circumstances. Roxy is someone who brings this conflict too, at first Rudeus sees her as a loli, just a fictional figure being projected in front of him, but then he filters this barrier and sees her as someone quite respectable and a symbol of maturity for him...and Roxy herself presents this conflict because as shown from the beginning she has a desire for a relationship with the opposite sex but due to her circumstances, because she does not have a mature body as normally desired, she ends up never being taken seriously in this sense what causes her insecurities. It's a situation in which Mushoku tries to take a step beyond the superficiality of what is seen

[@SanyaBane]

As a Rance fan, I totally disagree. If anime adaptation was indeed not bad, original novel was just disgusting for me to read (and I've attempted multiple times). And it's not because of "loli stuff", etc. Just a style of writing shows that author describe his vision of "perfect life", which he obviously didn't got, so the only way for him to escape is to transfer all of this to text and share with others (well, that's how it look for me). "Fanfic for teens" - the best description I can think off. Yet, many fanfics are way better.

[@Adze]

I can't agree with this assessment at all and in fact, I think it's directly contradicted by the majority of the overall story. The series does start out as a soft parody of the isekai genre, but that's mostly because it's largely told from the perspective of a total degenerate who has yet to really grow up (and arguably can't separate fantasy from reality). Rudy really only has his first breakthrough at the end of the first arc with Roxy amd even then he still has a LONG way to go and it's really not until a few major arcs deep that he becomes anything resembling an actual adult (he's physically around 17 or 18 and mentally in his 50s at that point). And as far as the "perfect life," it's abundantly clear that you didn't get very far because Rudy suffers quite a lot throughout the course of the series. Hell, there's an extended period of time (more than a full arc of the overall story) where he tries and fails to overcome legit sexual trauma (the anime hasn't gotten there yet. Hell, the anime hasn't even kicked off the primary conflict yet. Twitter's gonna be fun when that happens). It just... you're talking about a story but you haven't even gotten through the first act.

[@SanyaBane]

@@Adze >>It just... you're talking about a story but you haven't even gotten through the first act. Yep. I can't force myself to go through this "first act". Maybe I will watch second season of anime later (I've watched only first), but novel is definetly "sealed" for me.

[@jeanbob1481]

Same here sorry Rance is mature and it is a super funny series with great taste. Mushoku Tensei is boring pedo shit with as you said unrealistic perfect life. Something piss me off about Rudy and I cannot put my finger on it but he is similar to Midoriya Deku and Natsuki Subaru. You just want to punch them and they are annoying in their ways of being. Call it naive or childish but I can't get over these characters are supposed to be adults or have the mentality of ones but act like bitches. Mushoku and Arifureta are basically teen fanfics. There is no alternative to Rance, it is just that great. If you want funny cool isekai Eminence of Shadow is GOAT. Basically anything Rance does is to get laid and look cool. Cid Kagenou does anything to be the eminence of shadow and it is funny as fuck. I mean if I wanted unfunny Rance I would go and watch Redo of healer at least the sex is not pedophiliac at all. If I wanted GOAT LN Mushoki is bottom tier. Warlock of Magus World, Age of Adept, Reverend Insanity, Return of Hero, Dragon MArked War God, Emperor DOmination, so many great LN out there with no weakness to them. Mushoki is childish in comparison.

[@jeanbob1481]

@@Adze Sexual trauma lol. Sorry but this is not something to be overcame in any kind of good story. I mean having your entire clan uprooted and killing the fucker who did it down is what overcoming adversity is all about. Vague sexual trauma is weird it sounds like a chick story or something, even Redo of Healer that is widely considered trash never made a big point out of his sexual trauma he just killed the fucker down and went on his merry way. I mean in any kind of good stories the MC has to survive by levelling up and killing the big vague assholes who wents him death be it an enemy clan, the entire world, heaven will, demons from other universes etc. Sexual trauma? Sorry do you have the time to be traumatized when you have to save humanity, yourself, gain eternal life or basically any of your grand goal you are trying to accomplish. Heck you do not even need any grand goal like say Eminence of Shadow or The World of Otome Game is tough for mobs. But Mushoki Tensei MC is such a pussy it is impossible to enjoy it. I get the same feeling I did watching Natsuki Subaru being a retard. YOU LITERALLY HAVE THE POWER OF ETERNAL LIFE AND INFINITE RETRIES. You use it by being more of a pussy then Shinji Hikari and dumber then a 6 years old kid. Like dude could do anything but he just repeats dumb shit. If I had Natsuki power I would have trained until becoming a master at anything and then just wrecked anything on my way. But no he does dumb shit over and over again wasting his gift. Rudy feels the same way to me but mostly because he is literally a pedophile, I cannot just go damn this MC is cool and enjoy the story. Same shit with Arifureta but more edgy. MC starts off as super great but once he gets his harem the genre suddenly become some kind of dumb romantic comedy and anything built up to this point is destroyed.

[@bighatastrea]

I'm not a huge Mushoku fan, the fanservice didn't really work for me either. Where Rance is funny and enjoyable to watch, Rudeus... idk, maybe he hits too close to home? He's the typical worthless otaku loser who got a new chance to live an amazing life, which leaves a weird aftertaste. Especially with the emphasis on his former life and the constant reminders that he's a virgin coomer, which many other isekais don't do (while Kazuma from Konosuba is pretty much the same loser type, the series is still very positive and inspiring). Mushoku just drags me down with the "your life is bad, nobody wants you, you die now and get to live an amazing fantasy life" thing being too much in-your-face. I don't really understand why this series tends to make me feel much, much more depressed than others. And while I love the Rance fanservice, I somehow couldn't really get the hang of it in Mushoku. The author stated that he's just a massive pervert and while the polyromance was written well, it's still as standard harem as you can get. My biggest issue was the part where he got away with nailing Roxy and Sylphy without any consequences. The entire series felt like it was about not getting another chance and living with the bad results, but Rudeus just straight up gets a harem because for some reason Roxy really had to be horny and Sylphy had to be submissive as hell. I don't really get the message behind that, "just cheat and go with the moment, your less sexy girlfriend might forgive you and you'll get a harem" Have to accept that it's a very old series though, the novel set some isekai standards and imo it's a good story if Rudeus wouldn't be so annoying

[@Dvovsky]

RANCE MENTIONED