Back to Tylaen's Profile Tylaen's Profile

Like any continuation, it builds on it’s the left behind foundation though some things will nevertheless still be required reiteration. That is to say, we start the cour of this patch of episodes as we ended the last; by having Rudeus ogle Eris like a piece of underaged meat. It's quite the message to send to your audience! Both scenes are occupied by the same jovial attitude a great many people criticized episode six of the prior season for, both are largely indifferent to the character of Rudeus having these deviant desires aside from the entertainment value his pedophilic attitude grants the scene and beyond ... that, it never finds itself the focus of a scene.

Now, why would I focus on something that's seemingly not the point of the anime? Why can't I let this seemingly minute detail just slip past me and enjoy the remainder? As I've seen, there's some conflict as to whether one could discern this story of "Rudy" to be that of redemption, that we're not supposed to be rooting for Rudy in these weird moments of his and that he is at his lowest at this very moment, that to abandon him on this spot would be ill-considered given he has just begun the journey of improvement. To an extent, I believe that to be true! Rudy has, in some ways, changed from when he first transferred into his new body.

He has largely gotten over his anxiety of going outside, courtesy of Roxy. Via help from Ruijerd in his reprimanding after his blunder against the snake, Rudy ceases to view the people around him as more than props for him to move around and more as people and by his own, he realizes in the hay alongside Eris that he truly squandered his prior life. As a character, there has been progress along the way, no matter whether I consider a single horse-ride with Roxy a cure-all for what seems to have been a decade or more worth of anxiety built up in him after his own self-isolation in his prior life.

Either through circumstance or interference from an errand god, Rudy in this second cour gets a fair share of hero moments. He rescues slaves from slavers, though not before ogling these captive children. He gets to contrast himself against their leader, who find himself objectifying them except he's baaaaaaaaad while doing it. The very same having to be said about the next antagonist, who can summarily just be described as "Rape Prince". The antagonists faced are just bad enough that it makes Rudy look mild by contrast and he gets to look the hero as he coasts through the adventures, protected by Ruijerd's impressive strength and the omnipotence of a god.

Only around mid-way through the cour when a previously lost character gets reintroduced is Rudy permitted to be uncool, his sharp and vindictive tongue getting the best of him. It's largely a point-well made that people, in their attempt to sheer one up, one can come across as insensitive to the plight of the ones they're trying to help.

Ruijerd gets some semblance of progression as well. Him growing to understand that he can do something about his own circumstances and that it isn't all helpless, though unfortunately the same can't be said for Eris. Nothing is fundamentally different about Eris from the first episode to the last; the narrative gives her a couple of "You tried" badges by making her the mentor of a boring episode,... I mean catgirl whose personality is the equivalent of a wet noodle and she eventually gets the "You're an adult" from Ruijerd after her combat skill has grown. Alas, power levels aren't a replacement for compelling character moments though given how the narrative ends for Eris this cour, one can suspect she MAYBE has her progression backloaded outside of this portion of the story.

I can luckily say that she may get some progression, that she may change for the better. The structural narrative promises this to me however low my enthusiasm is for it, I can expect such to occur in the future. Unfortunately, I must complete my circle and say the same can't be said for a specific portion of Rudy, namely that he finds himself rewarded for the worst vice he has. How do I know? The narrative goes on in the finale to say that, what it implied to be the case, wasn't and that his own narrative is a tragic misunderstanding. He finds newfound resolve in yet another damsel to rescue, and ultimately, while the event hurt him, the circumstances surrounding it weren't reflected onto this quality of his.

So, why can't I let go? Because the title of the story promised me that he'd try his best, because several micro-narratives in the story emphasize the improvement of his character and yet it effortlessly circles around this one specific vice; his lust or ambivalence of wanting to have intercourse with the children he found himself surrounded by in his physical youth. It, much like the prior cour, goes unaddressed for more important narratives in need of telling.

This is avoidance is only compounded by the lack of detail the narrative itself puts on the world, moving from place to place too fast for anything more than lastingly generic and barebones fantasy tropes, and thus we're only left with Rudy's thoughts once more which flip-flop between "Good-natured smart isekai protag" and "Deviant" when we're not being dragged through bog-standard DND stories. If not for its blatant disregard for this one theming error and the lavish production values Bind pumps into it, it would be a largely forgettable affair punctuated by sakuga.

But hey, Roxy, despite being an almost eternal monument to his fetish, Is still cool right!? Can't wait for Rudy to reunite with her and tell her how he worships her underwear...

Anime fanservice comes In all shapes and sizes, and to understand this review you should be aware that I am in general opposed to what the anime community universally mean when they utter “fanservice.” In stories intended to arouse things other than what is below your nether region, it serves little to no purpose and more often than not, Is just a manifestation of an author’s fetish. I say this so, reading this review, you’ll have a general idea of what sort I am and because the major flaw that permeates this story is directly related to this.

Rudeus is, by all intents and purposes, ... the self-insert of this anime. In spite of being a lazy-lay about in his previous life, the man possesses latent potential and a heart of gold…supposedly. The narrative of this anime heavily focuses on the journey, hearing the inner thoughts of Rudy contemplating every bit of information. Very often, he is the brains behind an operation and adults will even defer to his actions during his physical childhood. Given his presence in the prior world, the only reason we are given to suspect that he never put this intellect to use was due to him being bullied, which is an arch that’s summarily cut extremely short and he gets over the trauma practically asap.

The world has a tendency to give Rudy exactly what he wants and so, the world rains copious amounts of girls on him. You see, Rudy wasn’t just any sort of neet, he was the pedophilic kind that went out of his way to get footage of real-life underaged girls in the prior world and so, not only does his teacher look like a kid but his two other interests are literal children instead of metaphorical ones. This story is, supposedly, meant for Rudy to get another chance at life and do his best in this one, and that much is reflected in all his actions except his tendency to want to have sex with underaged girls. Not only is it not reflected in him, but the story also consistently makes light of his behavior and through the cour, it’s not addressed in any shape or form. The anime will dedicate significant dialogue to the importance of working hard, the value of life and do its best to maintain consistency to drill home its points yet it’ll play whimsical music over Rudy groping underaged girls and zoom in on their most private parts while he squeezes in the most “flattering” light. To put it simply, this is a redemption for his failure to not do his best in his prior life and not a redemption of him overcoming his pedophilic tendencies.

The vast majority of the adult women are also sexualized, and we get the opportunity to have the animators give us the detailed sway of breasts. To add insults to all of the above, all “important” women only serve to be eye-candy for Rudy and make no valuable decisions, and they’re effectively just there to be ogled. Now one could retort and say that the women in this series are plenty strong, like Ghislaine. Yet she is dumb as rocks and makes no significant decisions at all; her contribution is to have her ass poked and her tits ogled when she isn’t being used as a shield for the main character.
The maturity of this anime begins and ends with sex. A large majority of the male cast is obsessed with sex and will discuss it at length with each other, and it’s not at all afraid to portray an intimate couple. The last part is the only anomaly, yet it’s simply used to further feed the leering nature of the camera and Rudy. You’ll be hearing Rudy’s dirty thoughts a lot, practically non-stop for the vast majority of the season and at no point does it contribute to the plot, or advance his character, it only pads the run-time of the given episode.

In the latter part of the anime, it recovers from this tendency a bit, but it’ll make certain to make tsundere jokes about it, further cementing that it does not at all take Rudy’s child molesting tendencies seriously in the least.
The story surrounding all this is, thus far, a big nothing. You’ll go through the everyday life of Rudy navigating this setting and inflicting his pedophilia, and sex pest tendencies on all the women, and at some point, it’ll shift to a by the numbers fantasy adventure mode. What little experience he gains in this new world, he remains unchanged from beginning to end.

The things I did find to enjoy within the anime were in large parts due to the newly formed Studio bind. They brought a level of medieval detail and animation to even minor actions, and a good amount of the character designs. Rudy’s curiosity toward the world was in many parts a highlight, yet it was always occupied with his lecherous thoughts and constant objectification of the women around him of which the anime always silently condoned. In no way does this aid a story that largely relies in threadbare stereotypes to carry our main character and we barely have any time to truly familiarize with any character before they are shuffled away, with the exception of Eris whose only change being that she becomes an armpiece for Rudy.

For all its attempts to give Rudy hardships, it always wipes them away with ease and in the end, the one major character flaw that’s consistent throughout is treated like a joke. The underlying nothing of a story can’t support the burden that is that the show does not at all acknowledge pedophilia as a flaw, the writer's hand goes out of its way to treat Rudy with kiddy gloves and his supposed flaws are brushed past quickly.

I can't in good faith recommend this show.