Mushoku Tensei

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Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (Japanese: 無職転生 〜異世界行ったら本気だす〜, Hepburn: Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu, lit. "Jobless Reincarnation: I Will Seriously Try If I Go to Another World") is a Japanese light novel series by Rifujin na Magonote[a] about a jobless and hopeless man who reincarnates in a fantasy world while keeping his memories, determined to live his new life without regrets. Originally published on the internet web novel website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in November 2012, a year later, it was announced the series would receive a print release under Media Factory's MF Books imprint with illustrations done by a Pixiv user called Shirotaka.[b]

Mushoku Tensei
The first light novel volume of Mushoku Tensei
無職転生
GenreFantasy, harem, isekai[1]
Novel series
Written byRifujin na Magonote
Published byShōsetsuka ni Narō
Original runNovember 22, 2012April 3, 2015
Volumes25 (List of volumes)
Light novel
Written byRifujin na Magonote
Illustrated byShirotaka
Published byMedia Factory
English publisher
ImprintMF Books
DemographicMale
Original runJanuary 23, 2014 – present
Volumes24 (List of volumes)
Manga
Written byRifujin na Magonote
Illustrated byYuka Fujikawa
Published byMedia Factory
English publisher
MagazineMonthly Comic Flapper
DemographicSeinen
Original runMay 2, 2014 – present
Volumes14 (List of volumes)
Audio drama
Mushoku Tensei ~ Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu 〜 Ten'i Meikyū-hen
StudioFrontier Works
ReleasedApril 26, 2017
Manga
Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious
Written byRifujin na Magonote
Illustrated byShoko Iwami
Published byKadokawa Shoten
English publisher
MagazineComic Walker
DemographicSeinen
Original runDecember 21, 2017 – present
Volumes6
Manga
Mushoku Tensei ~ 4-koma ni Natte mo Honki Dasu
Written byRifujin na Magonote
Illustrated byNogiwa Kaede
Published byASCII Media Works
MagazineComic Dengeki Daioh "G"
DemographicShōnen
Original runOctober 25, 2018August 27, 2020
Volumes3
Anime television series
Directed byManabu Okamoto
Written byManabu Okamoto
Music byYoshiaki Fujisawa
StudioStudio Bind
Licensed byFunimation
Original networkTokyo MX, KBS, BS11, SUN
Original run January 11, 2021 – present
Episodes11 (List of episodes)
Video game
Mushoku Tensei ~ Gēmu ni Natte mo Honki Dasu
DeveloperAiming Co., Ltd.
PublisherBeaglee Co., Ltd.
GenreRPG
PlatformAndroid, iOS
Released2021

A manga adaptation by Yuka Fujikawa began serialization in the June 2014 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the tankōbon volumes of the manga for localization in North America. The company also has licensed the original light novels. On Syosetu's rankings, the web novel has made cumulative appearances as the most popular work on the website.[2] An anime television series adaptation by Studio Bind premiered in January 2021.

Plot

An unnamed 34-year-old Japanese NEET is evicted from his home following his parents' death. Upon some self-introspection, he concludes that his life was ultimately pointless. He intercepts a speeding truck heading towards a group of teenagers in an attempt to do something meaningful for once in his life and manages to pull one of them out of harm's way before dying. Awakening in a baby's body, he realizes he has been reincarnated in a world of sword and sorcery. He resolves to become successful in his new life, discarding his past identity for his new life as Rudeus Greyrat. Due to inherited affinity and early training, Rudeus becomes highly skilled at magic. During his childhood, he becomes a student of demon magician Roxy Migurdia, a friend to demihuman Sylphiette, and magic teacher to noble heiress Eris Boreas Greyrat.

As Rudeus finally feels like he has found his place in the world, a major magical catastrophe destroys his nation, teleporting and stranding hundreds of thousands of people far from home - some into dangerous places or situations, resulting in their deaths due to murder, war, execution, monster attack, or exposure to the elements. Stranded practically on the other side of the world in a foreign land, Rudeus resolves to escort Eris home, aided by a strong warrior named Ruijerd Supardia who he has befriended. During his thousands-of-miles-long journey, Rudeus is contacted by a mysterious, untrustworthy being calling itself the Human-God, who gives him questionable advice for an unknown agenda. After three years of struggle - including being defeated by an incredibly powerful world-class warrior named Orstead - Rudeus successfully escorts Eris home to the remains of his shattered homeland. Political events and a personal misunderstanding with Eris leaves Rudeus heartbroken.

Two years later, the incident with Eris has made Rudeus impotent. He enrolls in Ronoa Magic University under the Human-God's advice. There, he is reunited with Sylphiette, who heals his impotence, and the two are wedded shortly after. Rudeus rejoins his father's quest to save his mother, ignoring the Human-God's advice. He reunited and developed a romantic relationship with Roxy during the adventure and takes her as his second wife. He is then visited by a dying future version of himself, warning him the Human-God will cause the deaths of everyone he cares about. To appease the Human-God, Rudeus feigns an attempt to kill Orsted, who is one of Human-God's enemies but instead, Rudeus offers his allegiance to Orsted in exchange for his family's protection. Shortly after, Rudeus takes Eris as his third wife.

The series continues episodically with a series of story arcs based around Rudeus work with Orsted to ensure the Human-God's precise demise, as well as his daily life and growing family. After a large scale attack on Rudeus' life fails, the Human God gives up on his plans against him, opting to scheme against Rudeus's descendants. Rudeus lives the rest of his life peacefully before his natural death at the age of 74.

Media

Web novel and light novel

Rifujin na Magonote published his work on the online web novel website, Shōsetsuka ni Narō (Shortened to Syosetu); the first chapter was uploaded on November 22, 2012.[3] In November 2013, the author announced his work was to be released as a light novel under Media Factory's MF Books imprint; regardless, the author stated his intentions to continue publishing his chapters online.[4] The illustrator for the light novel is a Pixiv user called SiroTaka.[5] Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the light novels for publication in North America.[6] They made localization changes in their translations of the light novels, such as toning down Rudeus' perverted behavior and removing references to rape. They later decided to "re-evaluate" their localization decisions.[7]

After publishing the first parts of his work, Rifujin wrote that he intended the series to last at least a hundred chapters.[8] Due to criticism towards his work, Rifujin considered ending the series prematurely, but was inspired to continue when his work reached the first place on Syosetu's daily rankings.[8][9] Originally, the story arc where Rudeus' reunites with Aisha was supposed to be completely different from the published work.[10] The author intended to have Lilia die off-screen, and Aisha to be hiding under a different identity. However, he found Lilia's death anti-climactic and decided against it; thus, he had to rewrite the story arc to have her survival and lack of contact make sense. Rifujin stated the story arc might be bizarre due to the changes but expresses no regrets in his decision; he noted Lilia's survival made him reconsider Zenith's condition in the story.[10]

Rifujin intends on creating a sequel to the web novel series that's based in the Six-Sided Universe. On January 15, 2021, the author stated that he plans to finish the Orc Hero web novel first. He also suffers from health problems and plans on spending time healing before starting the new work.[11]

Manga

In the May 2014 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper, it was announced that the manga adaptation of Mushoku Tensei by Yuka Fujikawa would premiere in the June issue;[12][13] though Yuka is the author of the manga series, character designs are credited to SiroTaka.[14] Media Works collected the individual chapters into tankōbon volumes; the first volume was released in October 2014.[14] In January 2015, Seven Seas Entertainment announced its licensing of the manga series for localization in North America under the title Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.[15]

Anime

On March 15, 2019, the official website of MF Books announced that an anime adaptation project of Mushoku Tensei would be produced.[16] The anime was later announced on October 18, 2019 to be a television series, which is directed by Manabu Okamoto and animated by Studio Bind, with Kazutaka Sugiyama designing the characters, and Yoshiaki Fujisawa composing the music. Egg Firm is credited for production.[17] The series was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020,[18] but it was delayed until January 11, 2021.[19][20][c]

At the conclusion of the first part on March 22, 2021, a second part was announced.[21] The second part was originally set to premiere in July 2021, but was delayed to October 2021 due to "various circumstances."[22]

The opening theme song is "The Traveler's Song" (旅人の唄, "Tabibito no Uta"), while the ending theme song is "Only" (オンリー, "Onrī"), both performed by Yuiko Ōhara.[23] Funimation licensed the series and is streaming it on its website in North America, Mexico, Brazil and the British Isles, in Europe through Wakanim, and in Australia and New Zealand through AnimeLab.[24] Muse Communication has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia and is streaming it on their Muse Asia YouTube channel, and on iQIYI and Bilibili in Southeast Asia.[25] On February 13, 2021, Funimation announced the series would be receiving an English dub, with the first episode premiering the next day.[26]

Game

A smartphone game titled Mushoku Tensei ~Game ni Nattemo Honki Dasu~ (Translated: "Mushoku Tensei - I'll Seriously Try Even If It's Made Into a Game") will be released in early 2021.[27]

Reception

On Syosetu's rankings, the web novel made cumulative appearances as the most popular work on the website.[2] The light novels have appeared on Oricon's charts and have also ranked on T-site's novel popularity polls.[28][29][30][31] However, the main character Rudeus has been criticized for being overtly perverted.[32]

On February 8, 2021, before the premiere of the fifth episode, the series was suspended from Chinese streaming network Bilibili due to controversial content described as "immorality" by some critics, most prominently a streamer named LexBurner, who called the anime "for bottom-feeders in the social hierarchy," which led viewers to leave low reviews for the anime on the streaming site. This also led to LexBurner, one of Bilibili's top streamers, to be banned from the site.[33][34] Later, author Rifujin na Magonote commented on LexBurner's actions as follows: "His words are only his personal opinion, and he is free to hold whatever views he likes. Although I am displeased at how he has insulted other viewers, anime is not just made for successful people, so I hope that those who can enjoy it will enjoy it.", he further commented: "If that is the kind of online presence he is, that's just the way it is sometimes. Even in Japan, there are plenty of people like him, although they might not have his influence. As far as I am concerned, instead of engaging with him, I think it is more important to ignore him and grow your own communities. Thank you!"[34]

The series has also received user criticism in China for containing perceived misogynistic comments and content.[35]

Notes and references

  • ^WN represents the web novel of the series in the format of X.Y, where X represents the volume and Y represents the chapter number. P stands for the prologue chapter, which is not numbered.
  • ^LNS represents a special chapter added in the light novel volumes. The number beside the note denotes the volume number.
  1. ^ Japanese: 理不尽な孫の手, Hepburn: Rifujin na Magonote, lit. "Unreasonable Backscratcher"
  2. ^ シロタカ, Shiro Taka, lit. "White Hawk"
  3. ^ Tokyo MX lists the series premiere at 24:00 on January 10, 2021, which is effectively 12:00 a.m. JST on January 11.
Japanese
References
  1. ^ "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (Light Novel)". Seven Seas Entertainment. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Comic Flapper's new series, Mushoku Tensei" (in Japanese). Natalie. May 2, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  3. ^ Rifujin na Magonote. "Mushoku Tensei official web novel website" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  4. ^ Rifujin na Magonote (November 23, 2013). "Light Novel adaptation" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  5. ^ SiroTaka (November 4, 2014). "Mushoku Tensei light novel 5 and manga released" (in Japanese). Twitter. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
  6. ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (July 8, 2018). "Seven Seas Adds Railgun, Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Orphen Spinoff Manga; 3 Light Novel Series". Anime News Network. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  7. ^ "Seven Seas Issues Statement Regarding Mushoku Tensei, Classroom of the Elite Light Novel Localization Changes". Anime News Network. February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Rifujin na Magonote (November 28, 2012). "The Anxiety Begins" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
  9. ^ Rifujin na Magonote (November 30, 2012). "Second blog post" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Rifujin na Magonote (March 20, 2013). "Apology and Excuse" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
  11. ^ Rifujin na Magonote (January 15, 2021). "Announcement of animation and so on" (in Japanese). Shōsetsuka ni Narō. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  12. ^ "Monthly Comic Flapper" (in Japanese). 2014 (May). Media Works. April 4, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ "Monthly Comic Flapper June 2014 issue" (in Japanese). Kadokawa Corporation. Archived from the original on February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Mushoku Tensei manga volume 1" (in Japanese). Media Factory. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  15. ^ Green, Scott (January 7, 2015). "Seven Seas Licenses Akuma no Riddle, Golden Time, Mermaid in My Tub, and Mushoku Tensei Manga". Crunchyroll. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  16. ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 15, 2019). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Novels Get Anime Project". Anime News Network. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  17. ^ "「無職転生」に森川智之・金元寿子・Lynn、ルディらメインキャラの声聴けるPVも". Natalie (in Japanese). July 8, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  18. ^ Sherman, Jennifer (October 18, 2019). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Anime's Promo Unveils Staff, 2020 Premiere". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  19. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (June 19, 2020). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Anime Reveals Cast, 2021 Delay". Anime News Network. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  20. ^ Loo, Egan (October 10, 2020). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Anime Reveals January Debut, More Cast, Smartphone RPG". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 10, 2020.
  21. ^ Medellin, Alejandro (March 21, 2021). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Part 2 Officially Confirmed". Funimation. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  22. ^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn (May 19, 2021). "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Anime Delays Return From July to October". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  23. ^ "Myūjikku | Terebi Anime "Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu" Kōshiki Saito" MUSIC | TVアニメ「無職転生 ~異世界行ったら本気だす」公式サイト [Music | TV Anime "Jobless Reincarnation: I Will Seriously Try If I Go to Another World" Official Website]. mushokutensei.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  24. ^ Friedman, Nicholas (December 6, 2020). "Welcome to a World of Magic! Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Streams This Winter on Funimation". Funimation. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  25. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (January 7, 2021). "iQiyi Adds 8 Winter 2021 Anime for Southeast Asia". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  26. ^ Friedman, Nicholas (February 13, 2021). "A Second Chance! Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation English Dub Announced". Funimation. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  27. ^ "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Smartphone Game Will Cover Paul's Past". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  28. ^ "Oricon weekly literary rankings (October 20–26, 2014)" (in Japanese). Oricon. November 3, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  29. ^ "Oricon weekly literary rankings (February 23–March 1, 2015)" (in Japanese). Oricon. March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  30. ^ "Fukui Residents Vote on Favourite Local Novels" (in Japanese). Tsite.jp. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  31. ^ "Top 50 Local Novels as Voted by Men" (in Japanese). Tsite.jp. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  32. ^ Morrissy, Kim (January 20, 2021). "Mushoku Tensei Author Addresses Criticism about Perverted Protagonist". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 5, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ Liu, Rellie (February 9, 2021). "He Was Bilibili's Top Livestreamer. Then He Insulted Some Fans". Sixth Tone. Retrieved February 11, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  34. ^ a b Morrissy, Kim (February 10, 2021). "bilibili Suspends Mushoku Tensei Streaming in China Due to 'Technical Failure'". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  35. ^ Davis, Rebecca (February 11, 2021). "Bilibili Faces Brands Boycott Sparked by Accusations of Misogyny Ahead of Hong Kong Share Listing". Variety. Retrieved February 12, 2021.