Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 episode 3 aired on Sunday and I really wish it didn’t. At no point during this episode was I once hooked on anything going on. I want to go to bed tonight and completely forget this episode ever happened. Luckily, tomorrow is a new day. The sun will rise again but Rudeus sure looks like he won’t anytime soon.
Better yet, why did this have to be a thing? I understand the perversion of Rudeus’ character that we all grew with during the first season. However, this entire episode had no significant meaning at all from beginning to end. I couldn’t care less about anything production-wise from this episode. And unlike Rudeus, I was glad knowing the episode was at least going to finish.
Rudeus having problems “getting up” adds nothing to his character, his development, or this story at all. We just had years worth of a time skip, him getting over the past, and enjoying his time with new friends — especially Sara. Now, years later, he can’t pitch a tent because he… subconsciously misses Eris?
This episode was bad. Really bad. How is Soldat basically Rudeus’ older brother trying to help him out now after two straight episodes of bullying from him? And now Rudeus joins Soldat’s group of guild members who, yet again, I will have zero attachment to, just as I did with Counter Arrow. Rudeus is back to who he was in episode 1 as a woe-is-me whiny child, leaving me to hope that in the next episode, we can see Sylphy or Eris or just about anyone who isn’t Rudeus at this point.
It’s not just about what he said to Sara at the end or how he went about everything. It’s the fact that I just sat through a 23-minute Viagra commercial and it almost ended with Rudeus taking his own life. The development correlates with the time skip, or at least it should’ve. Now, since Sara has run away from Rudeus and never wants to see him again, her character feels completely pointless.
I’m not going to look back at the past three episodes one day and say, “Remember that development arc that Rudeus went through when he looked like teenage Captain America one minute and then went limp the next?” All I’m going to think about is how he can make fire and water appear out of thin air but not have a spell in his arsenal to help him “perform”.
Mushoku Tensei Season 2 needs something to knock this season back into shape because it’s falling off fast. The prologue episode with Sylphy was its best one yet with no other episode coming close to it this season. Now, there’s no real character development. There’s no character attachment. And besides one or two well-animated action scenes, there’s no thrill, excitement, or adventure that could even hold a candle to everything we experienced in the first season.
I don’t want to hear about it being a slow burn because this season is rushing through many moments that make it hard to accomplish any of the things I just mentioned. I held onto a little bit of faith that the season would get better. Unfortunately, it’s been as disappointing as Rudeus. I wish I could say seeing Elinalise at the end of the episode made everything better, but at that point, I couldn’t have cared any less than I already did.
Three straight episodes of Rudeus’ nonsense have me praying we see Sylphy or Eris, or both, again and fast. I don’t think I can take another episode of Rudeus being mopey because he’s having attachment issues. Let’s not forget, this is still a grown man in a teenage body and he almost offed himself because he upset a teenage girl.
Depression is a serious issue and Rudeus is completely in the right to feel lost without his loved ones around, especially while being in a constant state of worrying about where they might be. But from the out-of-nowhere time skip to now, this is just such a bad way to go about showing how depressed he actually is.
There were just so many wrong things with this episode that other fans have already gone into more detail about. This is one of the worst episodes of the Summer 2023 season and I hope by tomorrow, I can forget ever watching this. This story is hitting a terrible part right now and it’s becoming a serious disappointment.
Episode 3 rating: 2/10
If you enjoyed this week’s episode of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 then make sure to vote for the series in our weekly poll! The next episode will air on Sunday, July 30. The series is streaming on Crunchyroll with English subtitles.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©Rifujinnamagonote/MF Books/”Mushoku Tensei” Production Committee