The Winter 2021 season is long gone and we are currently waiting for the next season of “Mushoku Tensei” which is set to premiere in July 2021. The show was regarded as one of the best anime that aired at that time but also, sparked some controversy. Today, however, we will talk about “Rance”, one of the games which inspired “Mushoku Tensei”.
When asked about his inspiration, the author Rifujin na Magonote mentioned a lot of games and light novels. Among them was “Rance”, but for starters, let’s talk about “Mushoku Tensei”.
“Mushoku Tensei” is a series that was extremely anticipated and it managed to please the fans around the world with the quality of its adaptation. The thing that helped achieve the level the show was on was Studio Bind, the studio that got founded just to produce “Mushoku Tensei”. Over at Anime Corner, the show ended up on second place in our “Top 10 Anime of the Winter Season“, ranking as the best non-sequel of the season.
In case you don’t know what “Mushoku Tensei” is about, you can read the synopsis of the show below:
When a 34-year-old underachiever gets run over by a bus, his story doesn’t end there. Reincarnated in a new world as an infant, Rudy will seize every opportunity to live the life he’s always wanted. Armed with new friends, some freshly acquired magical abilities, and the courage to do the things he’s always dreamed of, he’s embarking on an epic adventure—with all of his past experience intact! (Funimation)
Now, let’s talk about the game that is “Rance”. “Rance” is a role-playing video-game series created, developed, and published by AliceSoft. It is the oldest continually-running erotic video-game series. The first entry in the series premiered back in 1989 and was titled “Rance – Quest for Hikari”.
The “Rance” a lot of people know now, is from the game that was a remake of the first entry in the franchise, “Rance 01”.
The game has a total of 17 parts, counting remakes, and the latest one, “Rance X – Showdown -” was released in 2018. The remake of the first game, “Rance 01”, also inspired an adult anime called “Rance: The Quest for Hikari” which consited of 4 episodes.
In case you don’t know what Rance is about, you can read the synopsis of the first Rance game below:
Brutal warrior Rance’s mind is filled to the brim with thoughts of doing adult stuff with girls. And wherever he goes, screams of beautiful women resound.
He’s been traveling around randomly with the mage girl he recently bought, Sill, but now he has a different purpose in mind. His target this time… Or rather, his destination, is the Kingdom of Leazas, which is known to be the most wealthy nation in the world.
The daughter of a noble family, Hikari, who attended Paris Academy there, has gone missing, and he’s taken up a quest to find her.
Rance sets off to enjoy the beauties of Leazas!
…And while he’s there, he’ll find Hikari and enjoy her too, of course. (MangaGamer)
After playing the game and watching the anime, we can clearly see that “Rance” inspired “Mushoku Tensei” in a way. A lot of the games and novels that influenced Rifujin an Magonote were set in a fantasy world and “Rance” series isn’t an exception.
The similarity that is instantly visible are the protagonists of both series. Both Rance and Rudy are, for different reasons, perverted. In the “Mushoku Tensei” anime, we can see that Rudy is extremely interested in doing indecent stuff with other girls. The same goes for Rance, the only difference being that Rance is more forceful and often tries to go “all the way”.
Another similarity is the presence of adventurers in both of the works. Having strong adventurers taking care of the guild’s request is a very popular trope in works set in a fantasy world, so it’s not a surprise that both “Rance” and “Mushoku Tensei” included this profession in their respective worlds.
Throughout “Mushoku Tensei”, we get to see a lot of indecent stuff happening on a daily basis. The show doesn’t throw those scenes out of proportions though, and it just makes them “fit” normally in the world we are shown. The same goes for “Rance”. Even though it’s an eroge, every character acts like those kinds of things are a natural course of action.
There are some similarities which show the inspiration, but obviously it’s not like they are identical. “Mushoku Tensei” was inspired by a lot of works and it just took small pieces to feature in its own way.
If you want to try out “Rance” yourself, you can buy the bundle with the first two “Rance” games on MangaGamer here!
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