“Mushoku Tensei” (January 2021, Studio Bind) is a reincarnation story that actually takes time to develop the plot instead of giving some vague goal like kill the demon lord.

This story starts off with a 30-year-old shut-in getting hit by a truck and being reborn into another world by the name of Rudeus Greyrat (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita as his prior self and Yumi Uchiyama as the child). He eventually grows as a character over the show, from being unable to leave his house to traveling around the world as an adventurer.

The way this show is truly great is not in just one character, but in all of its characters.

One of the first great examples of unique characters is Ruijerd Superdia (Daisuke Namikawa) a superd and a demon which is feared due to atrocities from 400 years ago, who in actuality, is a really chill person. Due to the stigma behind the superd tribe, Ruijerd spends most of his life as a wanderer, roaming around the demon continent aimlessly until he meets Rudeus.

Another character with plenty of depth is Eris Boreas Greyrat (Ai Kakuma) being a tempered child that Rudeus has to tutor in magic, math, and literature. When Rudeus first met Eris, she snapped at him for being younger than her saying she would never learn from a kid, though when the two of them get stranded on the demon continent they learn to work together.

One last example of a great character is Rudeus’ master, Roxy, (Konomi Kohara) a demon who looks like she could easily be in her early teens but is rather near the age of a human grandmother. She first comes into Rudeus’ life by teaching him how to use higher levels of magic to the point where she feels conflicted since she considers him to be much greater than herself at magic even though he is only at such a young age.

The animation is phenomenal, the way characters move through the slightest of motions to even just the leaves blowing in the wind. The way the final product looks is like every single one of those frames was hand-crafted with care and love poured into it.

The soundtrack of the show enhances the animation even more, taking tense scenes to a whole other level with shivers going up the viewers spine. In contrast, when the scene calls for a calming song, it delivers, changing the world around it to be peaceful and silent.  

Although there is so much that this show does astonishingly well, there are of course a few drawbacks (as there are with most things).

The comedy can be a hit or miss for most audiences; it’s not exactly toilet humor but it’s also not exactly high brow either. While there are some quotes that might make the whole audience laugh, most of them are aimed toward adults. 

This show is really geared towards older viewers. While nothing is exposed, it doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination. The main character, Rudeus, is a grating for a lot of people. 

He’s a massive pervert, from his rebirth to his adulthood. His “holy relic” is a pair of undergarments he took from his master when he was five and he’s constantly snooping around catching other characters in compromising positions.

One of the first scenes is when Rudeus wakes up in his new world in his mother’s arms which happened to be placed by the chest, giving baby Rudy a straight shot to…well, you know what.

Another gripe is that near the end of the first season, there’s a scene that could be labeled as controversial but is looked over, in which two underage characters (at least in our world, 15 is apparently adult in theirs) are doing the deed.

Although there is not a lot that this show leaves to the imagination, it’s still worth a watch if an audience likes the fantasy genre.