Mushoku Tensei features a sword and sorcery-esque vast world with an extensive cast of characters. The series is about an unnamed JapaneseNEET who reincarnates into a fantasy world as an intelligent, gentleman persona under his name Rudeus Greyrat while retaining his memories in secret, being determined to live his new life without any regrets.
Before his reincarnation, he was an overweight 34-year-old Japanese NEET who became a recluse following his high school persecution and dropout after being tormented by an upperclassman; although his family, friends and school peers encouraged him to return to school, he refused and pushed them all away. When his parents passed away twenty years later, he refused to attend their funeral, as a result, he was disowned by his siblings and kicked out of the family home, making him homeless; while wandering the streets, he spotted a truck headed towards a group of high school students crossing the street at high speed and ran over to save them; causing the truck to hit and kill him in the process.WN 1.P After his reincarnation, he discards his past identity, and works hard to make his new life as Rudeus Greyrat more meaningful. As such, he adopts a gentleman persona, though his past life's perversion sometimes emerges and scares those around him. Since he retains his intelligence, Rudeus was able to start magic training at age 3, and learn how to cast magic without chanting. Due to this training, he has an abnormally large mana capacity. Because his then magic teacher, Roxy Migurdia, helped him to overcome his fear of the outside world, he worships her like a god and ties his accomplishments to her.WN 1.10 During his spare time, Rudeus makes figurines to enhance his earth magic, which has become his main offensive magic.
A demon from the Migurdia species known for their telepathy, blue hair, youthful appearance, and longevity. She leaves her original village due to feelings of isolation: she is not telepathic, and other Migurdia prefer to use telepathy for communication.WN 5.S Unable to make a stable living as an adventurer, she becomes a traveling tutor and eventually becomes Rudeus' teacher. After the teleportation incident, Roxy helps Paul search the world for survivors.WN 2.S She later becomes Rudeus' second wife.
Usually called "Sylphie", is Rudeus' childhood friend and longtime crush, who is part human, elf, and beast race. Bullied as a child, she was helped by Rudeus. Rudeus then teaches her magic when she asked him to after she witnessed him helping her with his magic. Rudeus' influence helped her learn how to cast magic without chanting. She later becomes Rudeus' girlfriend and first wife.
A noble girl and a second cousin of Rudeus. She is a tsundere with a short temper but has potential in the Sword-God style. During her journey with Rudeus to return home following the teleportation incident, she grows to love Rudeus but gets worried after seeing how Rudeus was defeated by Orsted and nearly died as a result of her not being strong enough to protect Rudeus with her sword skills. She then leaves Rudeus on a journey to further enhance her sword fighting power. After reuniting with Rudeus, she became his third wife.
Rudeus' father. He discarded his noble lineage due to its restrictive lifestyles and became a proficient swordsman skilled in all three sword styles: Sword-God, Water-God, and North-God style.[6] He is described as a playboy and an adventurer with sharp intuition. Following the teleportation incident and unable to find his family, Paul falls into a depression and drowns his sorrows in alcohol until his reunion with Rudeus.WN 5.45
Paul's first wife and Rudeus' mother. She also left her noble home, the Lateria[Jp. 7], due to its restrictive lifestyle, and sought to become an adventurer with her skills in healing magic.LNS 1 Paul saves her from people attempting to take advantage of her and she falls in love with him.LNS 1 When Lilia becomes pregnant with Paul's child, Rudeus convinces her to forgive them.
Originally Paul's classmate in a swordsman dojo. A crippling injury forces her to leave her position as a princess guard. She becomes a maid to Paul and Zenith.WN 1.2 She later has an affair with Paul and becomes pregnant. After working through the revelation with the family, she is taken in as Paul's second wife and becomes closer friends with Zenith. Rudeus' behavior as an infant scared her, though she swears her loyalty to him after he helps her to reconcile with Zenith.WN 1.9
Zenith's daughter and Rudeus' younger sister. She was with Paul after the teleportation incident and loved him dearly.WN 5.45 When she saw a violent argument break out between Rudeus and Paul, she grew scared of the former and began to resent him.
Lilia's daughter and Rudeus' younger half-sister. From her mother's teachings, Aisha takes it upon herself to manage Rudeus' housework. She is exceptionally talented and intelligent but dedicates herself to housework instead of furthering her skills.
Rudeus' first child, and Sylphiette's first child and only daughter. At the age of three, she began to receive the same training as Rudy when she was a child, learning magic and swordsmanship. She always thought that because of her father was a great genius, she didn't have any expectations for the late-blooming children, so she have been working hard to get her father's praise and approval.
Rudeus' second child, and Roxy's first daughter. The way she grew up with her hair tied behind her back is very similar to her mother, to the extent that even her father once mistook her and hugged her from behind. Unlike Roxy, she has the telepathic ability of the Migurd tribe to talk to her. According to Rifujin na Magonote, it is heavily implied Lara is the key to defeat the Human-God in the future, which is one of the main factors that is afraid of.
Rudeus' third child, and Eris' first child and only son. He inherits his late grandfather's dead-ringing personality due to his similar hairstyle, sexual perversion, and interest of swordsmanship. When visiting the Holy Kingdom of Milis, he sneaked out with Lily and Sieghart for an adventure and was almost kidnapped when he got lost on the trip, but his half-aunt Aisha helped Leo appear in time to protect them. Originally, he secretly developed a romantic relationship with Aisha, having fathered their first child in one of the web novel chapters from Redundancy. As a result of controversy from readers as well as a violation of their terms of service caused by this decision, Rifujin na Magonote ultimately decided to remake it in the future, although he kept the relationship between Ars and Aisha the same.[10]
Rudeus' fourth child, and Sylphiette's second child and only son. Also known as Sieg. Due to his emerald green hair which is similar to previous antagonist "Laplace", Rudeus and Sylphiette felt anxious about his hair after the birth. However, Rudeus faced Perugius with the will to defend Sieghart to the end even if he was the reincarnation of Laplace. Perugius asked Rudeus to take Sieghart to the Sky Continent to complete a trial that allows Rudeus to dispel his doubts.
Rudeus' sixth and youngest child, and Eris' second child and only daughter. Out of all Rudeus' children, she is extremely attached to her father, causing him to describe her as a "Daddy's girl".
Voiced by: Satoshi Tsuruoka (Japanese); Ian Sinclair (English)
A human "God Child (神子, Miko)", a person born with unique abilities.WN 6.56 His ability grants him superhuman strength and endurance. Since his youth, he had a fondness for dolls.
An elf. She was Paul's former comrade and was part of Roxy's search party to help her look for Rudeus after his disappearance. She is also found to be Sylphiette's grandmother.
A princess of the Asura kingdom who competes with her brother to the right to succeed the throne. Ariel is wise charismatic but vents her stress out through sadistic acts.WN 9.83 She and her bodyguards develop a strong friendship during their time together. Ariel intends to become the queen to honor the people who died for her.
An unidentified being who calls himself a "human god". He appears in the dreams of the mortals, gives them omens, and manipulates the world according to his own convenience.
A kind man from the demon race known as supards.WN 3.23 They were manipulated and cursed by Laplace during the war between humans and demons. They developed a stigma of being murderous monsters. Under manipulation, Ruijerd killed his son, who could free him from Laplace's control. Following his species' death, Ruijerd travels the world to dissolve the stigma against the supard race.WN 3.23
A powerful swords-woman from a beast race and a member of the Dedoldia tribe, she has the epithet of "Sword King" and is a former member of Paul and Zenith's old party. She is also the aunt of Linia Dedoldia. Ghislaine is employed as the Eris' family bodyguard; however, because she never learned to read and write, she was susceptible to scams until Rudeus taught her literacy and magic, including spells to enhance her abilities.
The demon empress knew for her demon eyes powers and the ability to bestow others with demon eyes. She is engaged to Badigadi[Jp. 31], the demon lord of immortality. Badigadi has an older sister named Atoferatofe Raibaku[Jp. 32], a skilled swordsman who likes to conscript people into her demon army through the use of a magic contract.
A member of the dragon tribe, humanoids with powerful abilities. He is considered the strongest of his kind, giving him the title of the hundredth Dragon God. Orsted has a constitution that makes everyone that meets him feel fear except for a few individuals. He is also present at Rudeus deathbed, musing that Rudeus' offspring is the only lineage that didn't fear him as badly as others.
One of the warriors who defeated Laplace during the war between humans and demons. He resides in a floating castle and has eleven familiar spirit with an angelic humanoid named Sylvaril[Jp. 35] serving him. He awaits the day Laplace is reincarnated to kill him again.
Early response to Rudeus was primarily negative due to his perverted nature to the point the original writer noted that such was the point of his characterization.[25][26] However, his relationship with his mentor and his father Paul were praised for bringing the narrative hidden depths.[27][28] Roxy became a break out character in her own series which was praised by Otaku USA for being accessible but hoped to further develop her in future volumes.[29]Comic Book Resources said that Mushoku Tensei is enjoyable thanks to the large amount of characters.[30]TwinInfinite listed Roxy as one of the best teachers in anime.[31] In a manga review from the early arcs, Akiba Station noted that while Rudeus gets into less fights, he is contrasted by the parallel adventures of Roxy.[32] Roxy' figurine that Rudeus creates in the series was popular enough to get its own replica in real life.[33]
^WN represents the web novel of the series in the format of X.Y, where X represents the volume and Y represents the chapter number. P stands for the prologue chapter, which is not numbered.
^LNS represents a special chapter added in the light novel volumes. The number beside the note denotes the volume number.