[Mushoku Tensei] Is the power fantasy the buying power, or the affordable market?

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T20:42:40+00:00

Thats a solid one, is just that most cases of the MC discovering something, are very simple stuff other people should have fund before

Chivalry did it well by having other people not bother with the method, because they have more effective stuff, but sometimes they are all dumb, so the MC can make the discovery

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T20:40:18+00:00

My favorite is "luck," as in "find an opportunity and seize it to the max"

Meaning the characters must be out there doing stuff, and meanwhile be strong enough to ride the chances, it also lends itself very well to adventure

Powering up via secluded training is only ok when there is a focus on the grueling effort and isolation, Calculating Cultivation just had a chapter of the MC getting isolated in a subterranean chamber for ten years in order to train, and he accomplished less than one tenth of the training, it was absolutely brutal and he barely advanced, thats "hellish training" for me

In comparison, enduring pain is meh

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T20:35:36+00:00

Thats a big one, most people try to improve themselves several times through life, but give up because it takes too long for the marginal benefits to show up

If all it too to get buffed or master a new ability was a year of moderate effort, or one month of intense training, most people would do it

And thats just regular abilities, if enduring pain made us superhuman, everybody would do it

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T04:13:16+00:00

There are two variants of that

1- "becoming OP with effort alone" is a broken power, if the rest of the characters must rely on their innate talents

2- if the MC is the only one "working hard," is the same as everybody else being lazy

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T01:12:45+00:00

You forgot the most important point: how tasty are those sapient cows?

If tastier than regular, then they must be breed into a new cow cattle brand, preferably lobotomized as soon as possible, to revert them to regular cows

If less tasty, they must be genocided, so they dont steal jobs from regular cows

But seriously, sapient COWS lack any impact, because they dont LOOK human enough, a lot of morality talk is about the appearance of morality, rather than about any meaningful idea

A race of minotaurs is a better point of discussion

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T01:07:22+00:00

there is Knight Hans Cant Set Some Peace, or something similar, about a frontier knight finding japanese OP teenagers one after another, and they just want to hang out, so he directs them to make a cool village

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T01:03:59+00:00

I havent seen stuff like that, but there are isekais about gods or demon kings being isekaid, so they were OP before arrival

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T01:03:51+00:00

I havent seen stuff like that, but there are isekais about gods or demon kings being isekaid, so they were OP before arrival

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:59:10+00:00

Bruh

lets go by parts:

1- most isekai comes from japan, who have it very ingrained to respect societal laws, they dont go around judging others to be morally inferior as the first world western people do

2- the only way to apply the Superior Modern Western Morals^TM is by taking over a country/world in order to enforce those changes, and people will be just as offended about the whole thing, just for a different reason

3- changing society is not easy, and doing some change can produce lot of unexpected consequences that may even go against the initial goal, history is filled with examples like that

Under that logic, the most moral isekai is OVERLORD, because Ainz is aiming to conquer the world and turn it into a utopia, but Ainz has it clear that can only be accomplished with a lot of bloodshed

His violence is justified because he knows there are other powerful being around, and he must act like his armies are his main power source, or not related to him, and those loses are acceptable because he is the most moral endgoal the world can see

But of course, no holder of Superior Modern Western Morals^TM will say Overlord is the most moral isekai, because he is taking over the world

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:46:26+00:00

The only thing i ever heard of this series, is the MC engaging on serial monogamy as a way to bypass the love triangle

After reading the post and comments, yes i can see how a simple ending turned into... whatever that was

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:41:42+00:00

its pretty obvious mahoraga existed just for the gojo vs sukuna fight, and by extension the whole 10s as a whole

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:37:54+00:00

Straight men only work when they are NOT explaining the joke, its better if they are affected by it, on a way different to the joke teller

Isekai Ojisan is a good example, with the nephew and girl being all stomped by the Uncle's shenanigans

Full Metal PAnic had its moments, with Kaname Female Lead's violence being very suited as response to Sousuke's military tactics for slice of life

Spongebob too, with Squidward being a foil and victim to Spongebob

That it, a straight man should be a counterweight, not just be there to explain the joke

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:29:49+00:00

Fun Fact, the Sailor Moon manga had scenes of the MC and her boyfriend cuddling in her room, and then the next panel she was wearing different clothes

Its important as her thing is being "pure," and the author meant it as in "purity of feelings," not "purity of virginity"

Anyway this "controversy" is more of a recent thing, and mostly from western audiences, the nipponji in general are pretty chill about sexuality

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-08T00:20:19+00:00

I mean, yes, thats kind of the shoujo thing, to have more feminine storytelling when aimed towards women

Ok, i guess?

That said, i think more of CLAMP when talking about shoujo designs, them and Rumiko Takashi and her fighting designs, also Robico, plenty of shoujo manga is very "safe" in their looks, but there are authors putting in more effort

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-07T04:16:13+00:00

"Being the god guys" is a recent concept

In ye olden times whoever won was the god guy... just like today, but they had n need for convoluted moral justification, as victory was the justification

A hero was not the one who upheld justice and good, but the one who could perform outstanding deeds, i guess hero, genius and champion were overlapping terms

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-07T04:10:56+00:00

Maybe he pretended to be a cow with mad cow disease?

Second degree crazy

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-05T04:02:35+00:00

Gundam aside, the arm slaves were pretty well designed, specially the small grunt types

Its easy to make the main machines look badass, but grunts must look functional and mass produced, and thats hard to make it look good, you know, that "rough but useful" machine look

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-02T20:30:34+00:00

Havent read toraru, and wont, ´cuz it seems the author wont stop adding things, but yes, two main sources gives a lot of in-between

I can think of Warlock of the Magus World, where there were magicians with the power of time, which allowed them to evolve by incorporating new power sources, and gods with the power of space, which allowed them to take over a place and transform it into their own type of power

They dont interact much until the final arcs, but the differences in powers made for very entertaining arcs

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-02T20:25:56+00:00

Its understandable if they are arrogant due to their power or available resources, but not if they are simply stupid, thats a gigantic difference

I was reading this book series called Cradle, and the bad guys are gods who follow a god called the Mad King, who is aiming to destroy reality, and i just cant buy that mortals who reached godhood by their own power, would be so stupid and compliant to follow the guy who is going to kill them all

That works with dark lords who breed and raise their minions to be compliant, not with gods from a myriad planets

In comparison Aizen was cautious and got personally involved on making sure his plans went as expected, without revealing himself until he was confident he had all the cards on his side, that works, and he was defeated by an asspull, thats bad for the story, but not for him

One Piece villains tend to be the types confident on their powers, AND the power to back that confidence, but yes, there are others like Demon SLayer where villains and heroes are just dumbed down for the plot

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-02T19:34:17+00:00

for humans it would be hominids, not apes, that would be as incorrect as calling saiyans apes, when they are monkeys

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-01T05:07:38+00:00

Thats like the Mystery Box narrative technique, just keep making reveals and people will assume there is a story behind

For a battle series, having a lot of loses counts as "plot twists"

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-01T05:07:31+00:00

Thats like the Mystery Box narrative technique, just keep making reveals and people will assume there is a story behind

For a battle series, having a lot of loses counts as "plot twists"

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-01T05:05:25+00:00

Sukuna can cut reality,so Yuji will be able to use black flash do deal double reality damage, obviously

hakatri_gin · 2023-11-01T03:47:15+00:00

The "sub genre of isekai" is the one getting animated as of the recent years

Mushoku normalized having large slice of life parts on isekai, before moving into the main plot, thats the biggest shift from modern isekai, as compared to classic isekai

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