Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation S3 Eps 1 & 2 Review
It’s been a long two years, you guys, but we’re finally back with the new season of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. The Isekai series is more popular than ever, so much so that when Crunchyroll put out their trailer for the summer season, they had Eris as the thumbnail on YouTube.
And speaking of Eris Boreas Greyrat, it’s pretty much an open secret that this will be the season that will see her reunite with “her man.” But before that happens, the story decided to shed some light on what she was up to during her training arc. In the light novels, we got this in the form of side stories sprinkled through each volume. The manga took it a step further by giving her own spin-off about some of her adventures. But now, it’s time to see what the Mad Dog has been up to on her anime training arc. Or, as I call her, the Heartbreaker.
Yes, I am holding what Eris did to Rudeus over her, and I will do so for as long as I please.
Where did Eris go?
The season premiere starts up in the aftermath of the moment that changed Rudy and Eris’ lives forever: the night they traded v-cards, but now from her perspective. And, already, we have a moment where I think the anime doesn’t do the story justice found in the manga or light novels. In the manga, the moment when Eris notes how small Rudeus’ hand is compared to hers, I think she starts to have PTSD-induced flashbacks of Orsted. Seeing her boyfriend come close to dying with her unable to do anything about it was, hands down, the worst moment of her life, and something that she NEVER wants to see happen again. Hence why she decides to go on her training arc to the place Ghislaine learned how to use a sword, the Sword God Sanctum, up north of the Asura Kingdom.
Oh, sweet Eris. I get why she chose to do this, but I really wish she had added an extra sentence to her goodbye letter. Something like “Think you can wait another five years for me?” Or anything to indicate you were coming back. But that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to see what the Mad Dog did while training.
The Mad Dog Goes on an ABSOLUTE TEAR!
So, after some time on the road with Ghislaine, the two make to the Sword Sanctum, run by Ghislaine’s old teacher, the Sword God Gal Farion. AKA one of the seven strongest people in the world. And the first thing that Eris says to him?
And then when Gal gives her a chance by dueling one of his students:
And then he has her duel his daughter, Nina, who you might recognize from the second season. But look:
She made the girl wet herself! If it wasn’t for Gal deciding to spar with her, she probably wouldn’t have stopped until she had beaten everyone in the dojo. But Gal is so impressed with her that not only will he train her, but makes her a Sword Saint on spot!
I couldn’t help but laugh at this entire scene! That’s our Mad Dog for you! I can’t wait for the dub to hear Lindsay Seidel’s voice again!
The animation is still awesome!
Enjoyment about getting to see Eris again aside, the real winner of these two episodes has to be the animation. I know that the anime dipped in quality in the second season, though I can’t quite tell when. What I can say is that the quality picked up in these two episodes. Every time we see Eris train or fight someone, we see how good the animation looks. More than that, though, I was impressed with how the show changes Eris’ look. At some point in the first episode, we see Eris’ facial features lose their childishness and become sharper, symbolizing how she’s coming closer to full adulthood like Rudeus. It’s a nice touch. It also highlights why Eris is called the Mad Dog by her peers. Not that she cares. She only cares about beating Orsted, and that means learning as much as possible from everyone. Including the other sword styles.
But first, she has to start coming out of her shell.
This moment had me laughing!
By the time of the second episode, some time has passed, and Nina has taken it upon herself to be Eris’ rival. Eris couldn’t care less, but when Nina tries to shame her by saying she’d be a virgin forever, Eris hits her with the Uno Reverse Card.
Nina denies it at first, but the more she learns about him, the more she realizes that Eris wasn’t lying. Not only was her self-proclaimed rival beating her in the sword, but in romance. So she comes up with the half-baked plan to go to Ranoa, kidnap Rudeus, and drag him back as her servant to make Eris jealous. Which is how she wound up present in the second season with the Beastmen and Badigadi and sees what happens.
She promptly returns home, now enlightened as to why Eris trains like a woman possessed. And that leads her to become a lot nicer to Eris.
Eris has friends that aren’t Rudeus or Ruijerd?
The crux of the second episode is mostly about getting Eris to come out of her shell as a person. She’s always been aggressive and off-putting to a lot of people, but if you earn her trust, then she’ll sing your praises, as Rudeus knows. Case in point, Gal invites the Water God and her apprentice, Isolte, to train her and Nina, with each of them managing to balance each other out. Eris can beat Nina, Isolte beats Eris, and Nina beats Isolte. It’s a balance of equals that leads all of them to spur each other on. Before long, the three of them actually become friends. And then, we get this awesome, anime-original moment where we see how Eris get this awesome jacket that will become sort of her trademark in the series.
This is the stuff that I have been waiting two years to see, you guys! And it was worth the wait! I can’t wait to see more of this season, because we’re about to head into the best part of the entire series.
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