The isekai genre has been a source of neverending torment for animanga fans for almost a decade now, with blatant, boring and offensive escapist garbage coming out in droves every single season. Few would defend this trend beyond a handful of exceptions that are deemed to be interesting enough to stand out from the crowd, ranging from comedies like Konosuba, Maou-sama or Hamefura, stories that use the setting to tell a legitimate story like Log Horizon or commentaries about escapism and finding self worth (though not a fan of the show) like Re:Zero. The isekai genre's history is long and complex, having roots in having been originally aimed at women (with stuff like Twelve Kingdoms and Inuyasha) before Sword Art Online's explosion in popularity gave birth to the current trend we see today of blatant pandering and unapologetic lazy writing that is devoid of any legitimate literary merit. Why create a fantasy setting when you can just copy and paste a basic RPG so your audience of teenagers who don't know better would just read it? Why give your main character any sort of personality worth analyzing when you can make him the blandest Gary Stu imaginable that is so perfect that women in the setting are begging for him to insert his chaste penis into them? Why bother writing a story with compelling characters when you can just list off a pack of tropes, implementing them in the blandest and most stereotypical way possible without a shred of originality?

Mushoku Tensei is frequently attributed as the godfather of the isekai genre in its modern state. Now, I do not know if this is true, but regardless I can confirm that this series is nothing but a stain upon anime in general, and a painful reminder of just how far the anime community is willing to overlook flaws in series that otherwise have great production values. More than anything, it is rather telling that a genre infamous for low quality shows would traces its origins to something as instinctively repulsive as this pile of trash.

There is precisely zero reason to care for any character in Mushoku Tensei, and the author of this work displays a hatred of things many would call common human decency to make the audience's reaction to the entire cast as hostile as humanly possible so long as you do not fall within the camp this show is clearly pandering to.

Pedophilia. Grooming. Sexual harassment. Sexual assault. Voyeurism. Adultery. Kidnapping. Abuse.

I had, have and always will be a supporter of tackling sensitive subjects in series irrespective of genre or demographic, but the extent to which this show decides to pander hard to the worst of the anime community and make its main character as repulsive as humanly possible is insane. Rudeus - a reincarnated, 34 year old man - is a pedophile and his values (which the show never genuinely questions as of right now in any meaningful way, who knows what happens in future seasons) make it impossible to like him or feel anything beyond disgust. Rudeus takes advantage of the fact he is in-setting a baby to constantly grope women, hide panties away and pray at them, listen in on his new parents having sex, watch his tutor masturbate to his parents having sex, monologue about grooming a child, allow a student of his to get kidnapped and roughened up to the point she has BROKEN TEETH AND IS COUGHING UP BLOOD ON THE FLOOR and the list goes on and on and on. Anyone who unironically sees likable traits in Rudeus should legitimately take a long, hard look at themselves and question where exactly they went wrong.

Perhaps the worst scene in the series - and the scene that ironically communicates everything wrong with the series in a handful of minutes - is when an antagonist walks up to Rudeus and offers to tie up his student in order to impregnate her in exchange for joining him. Rudeus declines before walking off, then monologuing in regret how he wishes he accepted the offer so he would have had a harem of hot maids. OK, maybe it's a joke, whatever, some jokes are pretty out there...then he goes back to his room, finds his student in his room, sexually assaults said student and almost actually rapes her before he gets kicked out of the room.

Are...are you seeing the problem with this shit? Why should I root for this guy? Why should ANYONE root for this guy?

The side cast vary wildly in quality, but those who are clearly designed to be sympathetic similarly exhibit unlikable traits, varying from getting groped non-stop by Rudeus if they're a woman to almost definitely being some kind of cheating if they're a man. This goes on and on, and even characters who don't have unlikable traits worship Rudeus (even if it's not technically their fault considering none of them are away this is some 40 something dude in the body of a child), completely destroying any and all possibility to take any of them seriously.

There are various things that I do think are worthy of merit in Mushoku Tensei. Rudeus has PTSD from a past where he was persecuted nonstop and bullied, and there's clear neatly written hints into that show leading to a neat climax where he finally leaves his home to visit the outside world. The production values - ranging from animation quality, character designs, backgrounds, soundtrack and sound design - are absolutely fantastic, and have me looking forward to Studio Bind's future works. Traces of a redemption story for not living life to the fullest do exist in this series, even if undermined by an awful main character for whom these attempts to evoke sympathy ring hollow for. Some side characters are occasionally likable and have alright ideas for character arcs - Roxy, Ruijerd and Sylphiette among them. I don't think what this show is trying to do is hard to make a great show out of, and great stuff has been made out of elements in this series, but what's instead here is a laughably broken pile of dirt, whose positive reception exhibits just how much anime fans are willing to forgive atrocious writing in favor of amazing production values.

Stay far, far, far away from this, unless you hatewatch stuff like I do. Find some friends or something to start a drinking game over this or something, I don't know, maybe the show'd be tolerable to watch then.

Now excuse me while I read The Faraway Paladin or something unironically good.