Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Episode 5 Review - Rudeus and the Tsundere, Eris

Warning: Spoilers up to the end of Episode 5 follow. 

The episode picks up where the previous episode left off, with Rudeus waking up from being knocked out by Paul. Rudeus learns from a letter written by his sleazeball father that he’s been sent off to do a job, as he requested. But that job means Rudeus has to leave his family, home and Sylphiette for five whole years, and not communicate with them even once. And Rudeus was knocked out so he didn’t get a say in the matter. 

Paul was worried that Rudeus was becoming too dependent on Sylphiette and vice versa. I’m not sure if that was true or not, but I don’t like listening to sleazeballs. It seems the womanizer even slept with Ghislaine as well, and still considers her as one of his girls. Creep.

Ghislaine is the bodyguard for Philip Boreas Greyrat, Paul’s cousin. Rudy meets him and learns that he is to tutor his daughter, Eris. But she’s a tsundere, and that might be too soft of a description for her. 

When first meeting, the two exchange slaps to the face, and then she pins him down and pummels him with punches! For Rudeus, this brings back memories of being physically bullied in his former life. I’d feel sorry for him, but since he’s so pervy and admires a cheating father, I say he had it coming.

Rudeus comes up with a clever scheme to get Eris to respect him. He has Philip’s servant stage a fake kidnapping of both Rudeus and Eris. By helping her escape, he has a chance to show Eris the valuable skills he has to teach her. It works, but the kidnapping was actually real. One of Philip’s servants really wanted to harm her.

The bad guys try to bribe Rudeus to join their evil scheme. But the principles that Rudy learned from RPG’s have come in handy. He’s learned not to take such deals.

The kidnappers would have killed Rudeus and/or Eris if not for his magic ability and wit. We see the best action scenes in the series thus far! Rudeus is able to shapeshift the earth in ways that Fullmetal Alchemist’s Edward Elric would approve. 

Still, he’s just a child vs. two grown adults. He would have met his end by a sword throw if Ghislaine hadn’t converged on their position in the nick of time! By the way, Ghislaine’s abilities as a sword king are godly. She was able to slice off the kidnappers heads in a move that looked faster than time itself!

In the end, Rudeus thinks his plan has failed. But it actually worked! Eris respects him so much that he can even call her by her first name without honorifics. The tutorship begins!

One thing I like about this episode is that time didn’t jump forward abruptly. I’m sure things won’t remain that way. Let’s see how fast we speed through these five years.

(image source: Amazon)