Isekai has been around for a long time, but it has only recently begun to gain popularity, which many people attribute to the release of Sword Art Online, or SAO. But that isn't technically correct; while it did generate a lot of interest in the transported to another world story, it wasn't the one that propelled true isekai to the top of the popularity rankings.
This is a story with the potential to be the best isekai of the season, but first, let's look at what it's about. Isekai has steadily grown in popularity due to a significant history that explains how it came to be a part of. Let's travel back in time to 2012, before volume 1 was even released, because, like many other popular light novels, mushoku tensei began as a web novel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with shosetsu, it is a Japanese website where amateur writers can publish their stories as they are written.
It was here that mushoku tensei began, and it was here that the main story was published until it ended in 2015 after 25 volumes. That said, two very important things happened during those three years. The first was that this story grew in popularity, and it didn't take long for it to become the top-ranked web novel on the entire platform. The second thing was that sword art online, a series that brought massive hype to the concept of virtual reality or anything similar, was released, a series that would continue to hold that position for years to come.
Keep in mind that isekai wasn't even a genre at the time, and while there were a few stories that dealt with the subject, no one did it quite like mushoku tensei. So the hype from Sword Art Online for this type of otherworldly plot element, combined with the popularity of mushoku tensei as the top-ranked web novel, reacted to create this massive wave of interest in this relatively niche theme of isekai, a wave whose resonant ripples can still be seen today.That's right, the massive influx of isekai that pushed itself into the medium as its own genre was heavily influenced by this single work of fantasy, so when people call it the "Grandfather of Isekai," I think it's a title that's well deserved.
Even if you disagree with anything I just said, the author clearly put a lot of effort into making mushoku tensei into what it is now. It has proven to be one of the best web novels ever created. It may not be at the top of the shosetsu rankings any longer, but it has remained in the top five for many years. It's a pretty impressive achievement for a novel to maintain such a high ranking after being completely finished for over five years.
Anyway, if that wasn't enough to convince you to watch mushoku tensei, let's talk about the plot. The reason this series has so much potential isn't because it tries to put its own spin on an oversaturated genre; rather, it's because it doesn't mean that mushoku tensei takes a very standard approach. It has a lot of generic isekai tropes that you might find cliche or overused, but the key difference between them and every other series that uses them is that it uses them in a different way.
In story, the world of anime is as typical as it can be for an isekai anime. In the medieval era, Rudy is reincarnated with the same magical elements in most other anime isekai. But the amount of detail that I appreciated the most in this episode. In this episode, for instance, the new language of the world must be learned from the very beginning.It shows also how he learns progressively how the magic of the world works gradually and not overpowered from the very beginning. Besides that, a reincarnation side, which is usually overlooked, is also rare to see an isekai anime. I mean that the protagonist begins his new life from a child and goes back to adulthood, which is the more credible approach. Is this mushoku tensei uses them correctly? After all, it was almost the first time that they used this, so you can argue that mushoku tensei invented many of the usual isekai tropes we see today.
Since Rudy is basically 34 in a body of three to seven years, some of the more sexualised elements of the artwork make sense because he has more mature sexuality than a typical child. It is no less unsettling if Sylphie, Rudy's age, is drawn sexually, so readers who are sensitive to it are ready.Although Rudy hears that every night his parents have sex, there is nothing sexually overwhelming, which in a child story doesn't work for everyone. In addition, the art of Yuka Fujikawa is very enjoyable and the pages are easy to navigate. The Seven Seas edition includes color pictures and the material on the inside of the jacket, which is always a good bonus.
Anyway, the last thing I want to discuss is the anime itself, not the story or the characters, but rather the people who are working on it. You might be surprised to learn that the studio behind it has no previous works to its credit. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave things open-ended in terms of production because we don't know what to expect. So far, all we know about them is that a production company called egg firm, which is responsible for shows like Danmachi and SAO, teamed up with studio whitebox to invest in studiobind.Initially, their involvement was limited to assisting with certain episodes of Karakuri Circus, but they've now been given the opportunity to debut their first solo anime.