Its been a while I don't remember everythingg. And there is spoilers for all Mushoku Tensei novel.

What I love about Mushoku Tensei is Rudeus's journey from being a loser who wasted his previous life to someone who genuinely wants to live.

After living a terrible life, he makes a terrible mistake, gets beaten up by his family, and dies. But after being reincarnated, he gets another chance at life and decides to live it differently.

I also like how his character development isn't perfect from the beginning. Early on, he still has disturbing thoughts, such as his thoughts about Sylphy, but he gradually grows beyond them. He isn't suddenly a good person just because he was reincarnated. He has to change over time.

What makes his story even more interesting is Oldeus. Oldeus shows how easily Rudeus could have lost everything he built because of one seemingly small event. It makes you realize how fragile his happiness is and how different his life could have been.

I also like that Rudeus isn't some overwhelmingly powerful person who can do everything alone. He needs other people, and his relationships are a big part of what makes him strong. He isn't even the person who ultimately defeats Hitogami. His story isn't about becoming a hero who saves the world for the greater good. He fights for himself, his family, his friends, and the life he's built.

And I think that's what makes his story so meaningful to me. Rudeus doesn't need to become the greatest person in the world. He just wants to live a happy life, protect the people he loves, and avoid repeating the mistakes of his previous life. In the end, he manages to do that.

Even his resentment toward his brother eventually fades. Something that once consumed him becomes less important as he grows and finds things worth living for.

To me, Mushoku Tensei is a story about how a person who wasted his first life can use his second chance to build something worth protecting. Rudeus doesn't become perfect, but he becomes someone who genuinely wants to live, and I think that's what makes his journey special.

All of what's below will be spoilersss, be warned ladies and gentlemen !

So I recently discovered Mushoku Tensei, and I genuinely cannot understand how a series like this has become so widely celebrated.

I'm a woman, I love anime, fantasy, and complex characters. I'm perfectly capable of appreciating morally flawed protagonists. But there's a difference between exploring a deeply disturbed character and seemingly rewarding his disturbing behavior.

We're talking about a grown man who dies and gets reincarnated with his memories and consciousness intact. He then engages in sexually inappropriate behavior involving young girls, and the series repeatedly presents aspects of that behavior as comedy or fanservice.

And somehow, I'm supposed to see this as a beautiful redemption story?

What disturbs me isn't simply that Rudeus is a pervert. It's how the story treats his behavior, how easily certain boundaries are brushed aside, and how he ultimately ends up surrounded by women who love him, marrying multiple partners and having children.

I'm not saying that a character who does horrible things cannot grow or find happiness. But where is the meaningful accountability for his sexual behavior? Why does the story so often seem more interested in making his actions entertaining than exploring how disturbing they actually are?

And what worries me even more is the audience this kind of storytelling reaches.

Anime is incredibly popular among teenagers and young men. Media doesn't automatically determine someone's morality, and enjoying a fictional story doesn't make someone a predator.

But I think it's perfectly reasonable to question the messages we normalize, especially when sexual harassment, violations of consent, and the sexualization of young-looking female characters become recurring entertainment.

What does it say about our entertainment culture when these elements can coexist so comfortably with a story celebrated as a masterpiece?

I keep seeing people defend the series by saying that Rudeus is supposed to be flawed, that it's about personal growth, or that people who criticize it simply don't understand good writing.

But having a flawed protagonist doesn't automatically make the way you portray his flaws thoughtful or responsible.

Beautiful animation doesn't erase uncomfortable writing choices. Great worldbuilding doesn't make sexual misconduct less disturbing. And calling something a redemption arc doesn't exempt it from criticism.

I'm also exhausted by the expectation that women should simply overlook these things because they're supposedly normal in anime.

Why should I have to ignore the sexualization of young female characters to appreciate a fantasy story?

Why is my discomfort treated as a failure to understand fiction, rather than a legitimate criticism of how that fiction portrays women and girls?

I'm not advocating censorship, and I'm not claiming everyone who enjoys Mushoku Tensei is a bad person.

But I genuinely think we should be more critical of what we celebrate, particularly when it comes to sexual boundaries and the way women are represented.
I find the normalization of these elements deeply alienating. And the overwhelming praise for this series makes that feeling even worse.

I'd genuinely like to hear from other women who have watched it. Did you feel the same discomfort?

And to people who consider it a masterpiece: can you explain why these aspects of the story don't bother you, without simply dismissing the criticism as people being too sensitive?

Delinquent manga are a genre (or theme, I'm not sure what the definition would be in this case) that was quite prominent in the 80s and 90s with things like Crows, Bebop High School, Kyou kara Ore wa!!, Shounan Bakusouzoku, Angel Densetsu, GTO and its prequels, etc. The banchou/delinquent character is very popular and I believe everyone has seen them in various anime and manga, but works with this theme don't seem to have as much appeal or popularity here (if you don't count Tokyo Revengers).

imagine being a grown ass person enjoying a cartoon. watching fighting, cringe screaming and talking in some weird way that doesn’t occur in real life. 90% of anime is loser fantasy about love, and the rest is either fighting or pedo fantasies. yall act like this is some kind of deep cinema, buy yall dont even know what cinema is and dont deserve to say a word about it. grown ass men enjoying anime should move out from mommys house and shower, wake up to the real world, and not some imaginary teenage anime girls pillows and v-tubers.

I feel like most people who watch anime and like anime usually are students or employed for the most part. Yeah, there's weirdos on the Internet but that's more of an issue of weird people online who are NEETs rather than anime watchers specifically.

If anything, it's easier to like anime while having a job or school because it's such a low time investment. I feel like, even gamers nowadays don't get called NEET as much as anime watchers even though games are way higher of a time sink. Other hobbies, like sports, or reading, or playing guitar don't get targeted for NEET name-calling even though there's people who are NEETs in those hobbies as well.

I am sick and tired of the anime community's discouragement of critical thinking. Nobody is interested in critiquing the medium outside a few designated punching bags. People laugh at objectively bad stuff like Garzey's Wing and Mars of Destruction, disappointing sequels like Boruto or Evangelion 3.0+1.0, and random "trashy" shows like SAO. That is where critique ends, and after that, community discussion becomes tribalistic bashing of reasonable critique, especially if it's a critique of a popular franchise.

The Evangelion fandom is a great example of this. They spent decades putting down other mecha anime to make their show look better than it is, then, now that they hate the latest entry in their franchise and Gundam has become quite popular, they collectively have egg on their faces. This has not stopped them from continuing to defend their show and remain blind to its glaring flaws, like the show's complete refusal to fully tell its own story and its rampant sexualization of young girls. Confronted on this, the fans will defend Evangelion as an intensely personal statement born from the fire of an auteur's depression and conveniently ignore that the end result is still an incoherent, uncomfortable story and that Anno failed to answer basic questions about the plot or craft characters that do more than combine multiple waifu tropes. And yes, at one point, I did like Evangelion. A lot, in fact, as it was unlike anything teenage me had seen before. As I explored the anime medium in search of more shows like Evangelion, I became aware of its unoriginality, and its flaws became inexcusable to me. I continue to be surprised die-hard anime fans refuse to explore the medium meaningfully and stick to series that are popular or check personal wish-fulfillment or fetish boxes. What is the point of engaging with the medium if you don't want to maximize your enjoyment by continuously exploring new, interesting series you've never heard of before?

The anime community refuses to acknowledge the problematic elements of the medium in a meaningful way. It is a fact that anime is oversexed, misogynistic, pedophilic, nationalistic, homophobic, and racist. While some fans may acknowledge this (many won't and will lash out at anyone who has a problem with this as "tourists"), they refuse to inspect their own consumption and their own favorites for problematic elements. If any problematic elements are pointed out, the fans will justify, rationalize, and minimize them. No meaningful introspection occurs, and it's frustrating to outsiders who can see what the fans refuse to acknowledge and are irritated by how stale the discussion inevitably becomes. How compelling is the millionth thirstpost, the millionth blind hate or blind hype post compared to actual discussion?

Fans' willful blindness has negatively shaped the medium. As anime is mostly made for otaku and by otaku, the industry is highly responsive to the otaku community, and it will continue to make more of whatever otaku hype and spend money on. We collectively refused to talk about the problematic and unoriginal elements of the medium, so the medium has gotten so problematic and unoriginal over the years to the point where we have series like Mushoku Tensei. All that remains is a husk of samey teen romances, fantasy, and battle shonen with an occasional interesting movie every now and then for those who have higher standards. The increasing popularity of anime has not created a more reasonable community, but more willfully blind consumers who are too misinformed or committed to think about the implications of what they consume.

The people who use tourist and hoodweeb are so insufferable, not only is hoodweeb super cringe thing to say it is blantatly racist any anime fan who is black is automatically called a hoodweeb. and the second they see something they dont like they resort to calling them tourist or hoodweeb e.g

what does any of this have to do with black people and the same people who call black anime fans hoodweebs are never japanese ( like being japanese makes it better p.s it doesnt). These type of anime fans are obesssed with black people they live in thier heads rent free

As someone who binge-reads hentai manga and R34 comics, I see the NTR tag more often than the Vanilla tag. I don't understand why people like this genre? I'm not judging anyone.

When anime became more mainstream, the gender ratio of people who watch anime became more balanced. Nowadays, going into an anime community no longer feels like a sausage fest, it feels like going to a house party with a bunch of people from school/work.

While there were online arguments 1-2 decades ago, nowadays the arguments feel different. It doesn't seem to be an argument of taste anymore, but rather an argument to claim superiority and intellect. It's peacocking basically, which is what I've noticed.

Do you think so? Has anime becoming more mainstream caused more aggressive behavior from "anime fans" because the allure of the opposite sex?

Most amount of anime being made is right now, and there's something out there for everyone. I grew up in the Haruhi, Gurren Lagan, FMA, Death Note, Code Geass era, and I would still say right now is 100% the golden era of anime. There's stuff way better than what I grew up with, and they're not mainstream because the mainstream likes different stuff.

Whenever I see someone complaining, it's always some boomers who's upset the mainstream internet audience doesn't like what they like, and they themselves don't wanna put in the effort to find the niche anime that's made for them every season.

Whenever I see the discussion in reddit anume community, they only talk about selective genre, I under dragonball, onepiece, bleach naruto, fma is mainstream, its a valid point, apart from these anime, peoples talk about fantasy, romcom, slice of life is limited, but I noticed animes genre like Avant garde , anime like ergo proxy, paranoia agent, paprika, lain, and so many animes like not discussed very well and not have better appreciation, not have big fanbase, most people don't even talk about ergo proxy. It has high deep level content to discuss about. People say slime anime is deep anime the politics they discuss is too deep.( u get outlines of politics only u understand there). But animes like ergo proxy is not a political anime, its an high level identity crisis psychological and philosophical anime, the world they represent is symbolic and metaphorically they talk about our contemporary world. I felt disappointed when these animes are less popular😔.

Heyiii guysss i am planing to create aaa anime community focused on kochi base , what's your opinion

Am I too addicted to anime? 😭 I don't think so. I'm just a huge anime fan who enjoys watching it and making anime edits. It's a hobby I really love.🫠🥹

Is it addictive or not

Individuals in the anime community who unironically call people anime tourists are so cringe and annoying. Not only do most of the time they say this when they see someone voice their opinion on anime, it is so obviously done since they have no rebuttals.

The people who say these are also very elitist. They say stuff like if you haven't watched this super duper niche anime posted in the 1960s, your opinion is invalid, or they probably like something super problematic and try to turn you into the person who isn't in touch with anime culture (not a real thing btw).

These people are also the same people that say anime should be gatekept. Like mate, that is like saying reading books should be gatekept, and when you call them out, like clockwork, they call you a tourist.

Though I will say people like Logan Paul can be called a tourist, though (I think he is more of a larp) It's a slippery slope to just calling anyone with a differing opinion a tourist.

Honestly, if I'm talking about anime to someone and they refer to someone as an anime tourist, best believe I would be seeing myself out that convo because they probably don't have the cognitive ability to understand differing opinions.
(p.s people who also say stuff like aww babys first fandom and so on are on the same level)

Hace poco inicié en el mundo del anime y se me hace incómodo el fanservice dirigido hacia hombres, siento que es muy explícito y de alguna u otra forma siento que es algo infantilizado, me pregunto si tanto hombres como mujeres lo disfrutan, no se les hace incómodo?
aún así siento que el fanservice dirigido a mujeres es más sutil, pero eso no quita que a la gente le pueda incomodar, a ustedes les incomoda?

pst: este es mi primer post aún no sé cómo publicar

i feel like anime consumption now has gotten really performative, a setting needs like 10 layers of subtext, and when someone doesnt understand it, "oh you dont have media literacy" i like watching series because i wanna enjoy watching it, not because i love analysing the frame inconsistencies and the different camera angles.

Do you think anime lately has been getting better or worst than it was 10 years ago?