The Father of Isekai aired as an anime this past 2021 Winter season and will release its second one sometime this Summer. The brainchild created between White Fox and Egg Firm is Studio Bind which was established specifically to work on Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. White Fox makes Re:Zero by the way.

Now that we live in a world where content is king there’s a demand for high output. Anime has continually experienced soaring popularity as of late. However, quantity over quality doesn’t seem to befall Studio Bind’s efforts. Having one studio dedicated to one anime guarantees focused content that drops jaws. That’s exactly what you can expect from watching Mushoku Tensei.

Modern day isekai or other anime that fall into that general category tend to suffer from look-at-me-I’m-special syndrome where characters reincarnate as slime, spiders, overlords, or other cheap quirky fish bobbers designed to real you in. Mushoku Tensei felt truly refreshing exactly because it didn’t try for special. Its story acknowledges only hard work begets the results you desire. In other words, you reap what you sow. One cannot deny spiders do sow webs but you can be damn sure slime doesn’t.

So now we have a more intriguing question to answer. What makes Mushoku Tensei the father of isekai?

The short answer is that that it was first to establish most tropes common to isekai today, especially the reincarnation trope. The long answer is that no one really knows and most don’t know whether to agree or disagree. Perhaps it’s the father of isekai on a technicality, but technicalities rule life. That’s law. No, literally, that’s law. The law functions on technicalities, so in all fairness, I can’t hate if that’s what it boils down to in determining that Mushoku Tensei is indeed the daddy-sama in its genre.

Really though, none of that matters. What really matters is that you enjoy watching the uphill struggle toward success. I’ll warn you though: the catch to this anime comprises the lewd tendencies only a man can think up. However, I can guarantee that it doesn’t detract from the story. It only detracts if you seriously take issue with it. So enjoy the show as it comes.

Do you enjoy magical fantasy? Check.

Do you like Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild? Check.

Do you love 40 year old men reincarnated as babies? Check.

You can expect the main character to express his thoughts through internal dialogue. You can expect him to want a harem. You can expect him to work hard, fail, and learn from his mistakes, because in all honesty? Anything other is kinda boring.