Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Episode 6 Review - Rudeus Has a Tough Time Tutoring Eris

Warning: Spoilers up to the end of Episode 6 follow. 

Well, what do you know? No time skip again. This episode picks up pretty much where we left off in the last episode. Rudeus has officially been handed the job as Eris’ (and Ghislaine’s) tutor. We meet Philip’s wife, Hilda, who shares a resemblance with Eris. She doesn’t take too kindly to Rudy and has almost zero lines in this ep. 

And we also meet Sauros Greyrat, Philip’s father. Right away, both Rudeus and we, the audience, can tell that Eris picked up her rudeness and quick temper from her grandfather. I found his introduction to be one of the more humorous moments in the ep. Another great moment occurs when Eris is ordered to politely ask Rudeus for help, and she comes out with a ridiculous, kawaii beast person impersonation. I didn’t see that coming. The Greyrat men definitely have a fetish for beast people, as you can see from their servants!

Nothing too spectacular happens in this episode. Through pseudo-montage, we see Rudeus’ difficult challenge in tutoring Eris. She’s still quick-tempered and rude. She still punches him and runs away when she’s forced to study reading, writing and math. 

Rudeus enlists the help of Ghislaine to share with Eris some of stories of her life as an adventurer, the times she suffered from being ignorant. Eris is really infatuated with the adventurer lifestyle, so learning this motivates her to try harder in her studies. Meanwhile, Rudy has difficulty learning the sword from Ghislaine. He still flinches before being struck, thanks to the trauma he’s carrying over from his previous life.

I have to spend a minute to talk about Rudeus’ perversions again, as it’s a source of debate for the anime-watching community. This time he gropes Eris, a twelve-year old girl, and tries to take her panties off while she’s sleeping. It’s a gag that feels really out of place in this series to me. I’ve been amused by plenty of ecchi, boobs, and pantsu jokes in other anime, so it’s not like I’m completely against that type of humor. But there’s a time and place for everything, and other factors as well. At those times, ecchi gags work as low-brow comedy. 

Perversion and sex seem to be a driving motivation for Rudeus, a seven year-old who has an adult’s wisdom (and inner voice), which feels icky. Everything else about this anime is really polished - the narration, the art style, the pacing - to the point that constant pervert gags only cheapen the overall execution.

Fans argue that he’s learning and he will become a better person in the future, according to the manga and light novel. Well, anime is a different medium. With anime, we’ve waited 6 weeks for this character to grow, and he hasn’t. Maybe in the way the manga/light novel are consumed, the jokes fit, I wouldn't know. Again, time and place for everything.

(image source: Amazon)