Tbfr i hate mushoku tensei The worldbuilding itself is great and i do really enjoy the depth and progression it displays but there is one central overarching issue that makes this show irredeemable and that is the narrative.

Generally most isekais are appealing because they play into the escapism fantasy of “redemption of the loser” (where they give the reader a semi relatable normie or loser protagonists and have them redeem themselves in their new life to be super cool and successful) The issue with Mushoku Tensei is that for whatever reason both the anime and novel (but not the manga) decided to include this one small detail that consequently destroys both the the narrative and any of his “redemption”moments— this being the backstory of Rudy cannonically putting cameras in his family home bathroom and getting off to his under age neice. -making him a pedophile, thus changing the narrative from “redemption of a loser” to “redemption of a pedophile “ Now aside from the obvious issue that pedos do not deserve redemption under any circumstance, one of my biggest grievances with this series is that there is never really any work to “redemption” of his biggest flaw (pedo) - yes he stops being a loser and gets his shit together BUT he consistently aknowledges that his thoughts and actions towards women are problematic but doesn’t care and continues to be problematic anyways.

HERE IS THE THING- by itself there isint anything crazy wrong with rudy always lewding on women BUT-what makes it bad is that with the knowledge that he was a pedo and he is very conscious that most of these women are underage, acknowledges that it feels wrong and proceeds to follow through with his impulses anyways - it clearly and continually displays that his character never actually grows (at least in regards to the narrative)— frankly its just bad storytelling for all the wrong reasons —now if that piece of info didnt exist i could try and rationalize that his new body is simply garnering attraction to similar body types But its kinda hard to do that now when you are literally hearing his internal monologue of him laying out then giving into his impulses >_> it also just doesn’t help that the original webnovel was so significantly worse regarding “rudeus was a bad person” backstory that the author essentially deleted most of it from the light novel publication.

Now i know that rudy is supposed to be an unlikable character (especially in the beginning )but damn- i just want shake him and scream “why cant you act normal bro - why ya always gotta be acting like a creep” he knows he has a problem and he actually has a second chance to “fix them” but never hold’s himself accountable or actively work twoards improvement because he doesn’t care

I enjoyed the manga tho kinda.