Mushoku Tensei

• 1. Introduction

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  Mushoku Tensei opens with a 34-year-old man being thrown out of his home. He is a NEET, meaning someone not in education, employment, or training, and he drifts through the streets lamenting his life and wishing for a do-over.

  Then he notices a group of teenagers quarrelling, and the sight reminds him of a childhood friend he loved in middle school. A speeding truck threatens the group. He pushes them out of the way and dies.

  This Japanese light novel series, written by Rifujin na Magonote and illustrated by Shirotaka, turns that bleak ending into a beginning. The man wakes inside a baby's body in a world of swords and sorcery. He sets himself one goal: to live this second life without regrets.

  What sort of writer sends such a hero into a new world? Why does that hero divide readers so sharply? And how did a story posted on a website grow into novels, comics, anime, audio dramas and video games?

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• 2. A Writer Who Quit

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  Rifujin na Magonote graduated from university in 2007 and began sending manuscripts to publishers. Nothing came of it, and he eventually gave up on the idea.

  Years later he was reading Re:Monster, a novel by Kanekiru Kogitsune, and through it he found the web fiction site Shōsetsuka ni Narō. After browsing some of the serials there, he figured nobody would ridicule his writing, so he started posting his own.

  His aim was to depict a student who fails at school and gets another chance at life. He built the setting by blending elements from several popular Naro-kei works into a story he had long wanted to tell.

  Isekai stories, tales of people carried into other worlds, were everywhere at the time, and the mindset around them was practical. One line of thinking ran, "If I'm going to be reincarnated, I should write about my childhood properly." Another asked, "Is it possible to make use of the settings before reincarnation?"

  Magonote's own past fed the work too. In his youth he was a fan of arcade fighting games, and he often regretted leaving his hometown. He channeled that sorrow into the drive to overcome his earlier difficulties and carry the story to its end.

  He names Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and Parasyte as influences, both of which focus on family and human relationships. Those influences would shape how he handled his hero's flaws, a subject he later discussed openly.

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• 3. Life as Rudeus

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  Roxy Migurdia, a mage, becomes the first great teacher in the life of the reborn Rudeus Greyrat. Thanks to inherited affinity and early training, he grows highly skilled at magic. In childhood he also befriends an elf named Sylphiette and tutors a noble heiress, Eris Boreas Greyrat.

  Just as Rudeus feels settled, a major magical catastrophe destroys his nation. It teleports hundreds of thousands of people far from home and strands them. Many die from murder, war, execution, monster attacks, or exposure to the elements.

  Rudeus and Eris land in a foreign country, and a noble warrior named Ruijerd Superdia helps them begin the trek home. Along the way a mysterious entity called Hitogami approaches Rudeus with cryptic advice and unclear motives.

  After three years, and a defeat at the hands of a powerful warrior named Orsted, Rudeus gets Eris back to their devastated homeland. Political tensions and a misunderstanding then drive Eris to leave suddenly, and Rudeus is left heartbroken.

  Two years on, he enrolls at Ranoa Magic University on Hitogami's advice. There he meets Sylphiette again, and she helps him recover. They marry soon after.

  Rudeus then joins his father's quest to find his missing mother, ignoring Hitogami this time. On that journey he falls in love with Roxy, who becomes his second wife.

  Orsted warns him that Hitogami will cause the deaths of people close to him. Rudeus tries to kill Orsted but ends up pledging his allegiance in exchange for his family's safety. After making peace with Eris, he marries her as his third wife.

  The story settles into his daily life and growing family, alongside his and Orsted's plans to bring about Hitogami's end. After a failed attempt on his life, Hitogami drops his designs on Rudeus. Rudeus dies at 74, but by then Hitogami has turned his attention to Rudeus's descendants.

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• 4. Choices on the Page

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  Magonote made Rudeus aware of his own controversial personality, hoping his actions would grow more meaningful as the story went on. He left the judgment to readers. He also wanted the audience to pay close attention so they could relate to the man.

  Episodes 6 and 7 of the web version, in which Roxy takes Rudeus out, drew a great response. That acceptance made Magonote think, "Let's grow in this direction." He states the message of the series as "everybody can make mistakes."

  He first planned to write at least a hundred chapters. Criticism of the work made him consider ending it early. He carried on after it topped the daily rankings on Syosetu.

  The arc where Rudeus is reunited with Aisha was meant to be entirely different. Magonote planned for Lilia to die off-screen while Aisha hid under another identity. He dropped that plan and rewrote the arc to explain why Lilia survived yet stayed out of contact.

  He admits the result may feel bizarre, but he has no regrets. Lilia's survival also led him to rethink Zenith's condition in the story. The climax drew some of its influence from Re:Zero by Tappei Nagatsuki.

  For the ending, Magonote weighed two options. One was to write until Rudeus died. The other was to stop when Rudeus reached the age at which his first life ended. Because the prologue shows an unemployed man thrown out of his house, he did not want the story to finish with someone being beaten up.

  On the 15th of January 2021, Magonote announced a plan for a sequel to the web novel series, based on the Six-Sided Universe. He said he would finish the web novel Orc Eroica first, and health problems have since delayed its completion.

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• 5. From Website to Bookshelf

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  Chapters of the web novel went up on Shōsetsuka ni Narō from the 22nd of November 2012 to the 3rd of April 2015. In November 2013, Magonote announced a print edition under Media Factory's MF Books imprint. The illustrator is a Pixiv user called Shirotaka.

  The light novels ran for 26 volumes, from the 24th of January 2014 to the 25th of November 2022. The seventh volume is completely original, rather than a retelling of the web version.

  A spin-off after-story series appeared on the same website as nine short stories, from the 19th of May 2015 to the 9th of September 2017. The seventh story, "The Day Aisha Quit Being a Maid," was removed shortly after publication.

  Media Factory will publish Redundant Reincarnation from the 23rd of June 2023. Its first two volumes hold three stories each plus an extra original short story. The third volume is rewritten as "Jobless Red Carpet," which keeps most elements of the removed Aisha story.

  Two companion volumes came out from Media Factory on the 25th of March and the 25th of November 2022. The first is a digital collection of 32 short stories set between the first ten volumes, with one new story and an interview with Magonote. The second has the series chronology, a special manga by the artists adapting the series, 40 short stories including five new ones, and an interview with Shirotaka.

  Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the light novels for North America and published them from 2019 to 2024. Its translations made localization changes, such as toning down Rudeus's perverted behavior and removing references to rape. The company later decided to "re-evaluate" those choices.

  Cliff Kurt narrated an audiobook edition that Seven Seas released from the 26th of September 2023 to the 31st of October 2024. In 2024 the publisher also issued Recollections, in digital and audiobook form, along with A Journey of Two Lifetimes and the first volume of Redundant Reincarnation.

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• 6. Comics and Spin-offs

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  The May 2014 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper announced a manga adaptation by Yuka Fujikawa, set to begin in the June issue. Character designs are credited to SiroTaka. Media Works gathered the chapters into tankōbon volumes, and the first appeared in October 2014.

  In January 2015, Seven Seas Entertainment announced it had licensed the manga for North America under the title Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.

  A second manga series, illustrated by Kazusa Yoneda, began on NTT Solmare's Comic Cmoa website on the 20th of December 2021. It adapts the light novel's seventh volume, the one that is completely original.

  Shoko Iwami illustrated the first spin-off manga, serialized on Kadokawa Shoten's ComicWalker site from the 21st of December 2017 to the 14th of July 2023. It filled twelve tankōbon volumes. Seven Seas licensed it in September 2018 and released it from the 30th of April 2019 to the 10th of September 2024.

  Kaede Nogiwa drew a second spin-off for ASCII Media Works' Comic Dengeki Daioh "g" magazine, running from the 25th of October 2018 to the 27th of August 2020. It was collected in three volumes.

  Take Higake illustrated a third, serialized on Square Enix's Gangan Online from the 15th of March to the 11th of October 2022. It was compiled into one volume on the 25th of November that year, and Square Enix's Manga Up! service published it in English on the 24th of November 2023.

  Media Factory also issued a three-volume anthology by various artists. Side: Roxy came out on the 22nd of March 2019, followed by Side: Eris and Side: Sylphie on the 23rd of December 2020.

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• 7. Anime, Audio and Games

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  In March 2019, the official website of MF Books announced an anime adaptation. On the 18th of October 2019, it was confirmed as a television series directed by Manabu Okamoto at Studio Bind. Kazutaka Sugiyama designed the characters, Yoshiaki Fujisawa composed the music, and Egg Firm is credited for production.

  The premiere was first scheduled for 2020 but slipped to January 2021. The first half aired from the 11th of January to the 22nd of March 2021 on Tokyo MX, KBS, BS11, and SUN.

  A second half was announced right after the first ended. Planned for July 2021, it was delayed to October and aired from the 4th of October to the 20th of December 2021.

  Toho released the first season on Blu-ray in four volumes, starting on the 21st of April 2021. The fourth volume arrived on the 16th of March 2022 and included an unaired episode.

  A second season was green-lit in March 2022, directed by Hiroki Hirano with scripts supervised by Toshiya Ono and character designs by Sanae Shimada. Its first part aired from the 3rd of July to the 25th of September 2023, with the opening song "Spiral" by Longman. Yuiko Ōhara performed the ending theme.

  The second part ran from the 8th of April to the 1st of July 2024, with Ryōsuke Shibuya replacing Hirano as director. Hitorie performed the opening, and Ōhara returned for the ending. A third season was announced after the second season's final episode and was set to premiere on the 6th of July 2026.

  On the 26th of April 2017, Frontier Works released an audio drama in which Hiro Shimono voiced Rudeus. Shimono enjoyed the job despite not knowing the novels, though he found it hard to deliver lines where the character yells. Eiji Takemoto voiced Rudeus's father, Paul, and wanted to connect with his "son" during recording. Shimono found the drama quite dark, even though he thought the original novel was more comical.

  A smartphone game from Aiming Co., Ltd. launched on Android and iOS on the 27th of March 2021 and ended service on the 31st of August 2022. The light novel artist supervised it, especially the "Paul Gaiden" scenario.

  On the 20th of June 2024, Lancarse and publisher Bushiroad Games released the role-playing game Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Quest of Memories for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Characters have also turned up in the smartphone titles The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross and Grand Summoners.

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• 8. Praise and Criticism

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  Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, an annual light novel guidebook, ranked Mushoku Tensei fourth in its 2017 edition. On Syosetu, the web novel consistently appeared as the most popular work on the site. The light novels also reached Oricon's charts and placed in T-site's novel popularity polls.

  Circulation reached 8.5 million copies by August 2021. It climbed to over 13 million by June 2023 and to 14.8 million by February 2024.

  Rudeus himself draws the harshest complaints. Critics have called him overtly perverted, and Anime News Network found his immaturity made him hard to sympathize with. The novel has also been criticized for sexualizing underage characters.

  Another commentator voiced concern over how the narrative portrays Rudeus's previous life, with its heavy focus on reclusive former students and their problems. That critic drew a comparison to the light novel series Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World.

  Defenders point to his effort. Rudeus's commitment to overcoming his flaws in the new life helped make him more sympathetic. Real Sound writer Niji Kusano argued that the key to the series' success was what Rudeus achieves in his new life, even though reincarnation is a common isekai trope.

  Tappei Nagatsuki, creator of Re:Zero, named the handling of Rudeus as one of the series' strongest aspects. He observed that Rudeus suffers in a way similar to the main character of the visual novel Clannad.

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