If you like the show, I ask you to read the review and understand where I am coming from. Remember, you don't have to agree with my arguments, this is just my perspective, reviews can be well written and understandable and disagree with you. Thank you.
I'd like to make myself clear when I say that I don't understand the praise this show gets, it's not that I can see where they are coming from, and I don't agree, I fully do not understand. I will admit from the forefront that I despise this show, whatever the few redeeming qualities it has, they cannot be overlooked in the face of its horrific flaws.
To start off on a positive note, the animation is amazing. The effort put into even minor scenes is astonishing, and there are several scenes which show genuine creativity on the part of the director and the animators. My favourite example of this are the Man God scenes. The beautiful, misty, unclear environment with chromatic aberration creates a sense of dream like haunting beauty. The design of the Man God himself is also amazing, making him pure white with only shadow highlights hides him in the environment and in most shots he is hard to see, which really aid in making the event mystical. Even him being animated in 3D is a great choice, it actively distinguishes him from the rest of the cast and again aids in an otherworldly atmosphere. If the main reason you care to watch the show is for animation quality, and you are willing to ignore glaring story and character issues, I can give the show a tepid recommendation, though I can't in good faith recommend the show even for that when I look at the state of everything else.
The characters in this series are bland, there is only one standout character I can think of where I actively wanted to see them on screen, that being Paul. Rudeus is a failed character, for reasons I will discuss later, Eris is unoriginal and while I don't think she is horrible, she is uninteresting and largely 2-dimensional. The same goes for Ruijerd, he was uninteresting and largely cookie cutter. Most of the issues I have with the side characters are not too big of a deal and could be forgiven if Rudeus was a good character.
The world building is the only other thing I can praise about this show, the way the characters have to travel throughout the world make the world feel big and diverse, with interesting lore to get into. While I could spend time praising this aspect further, I'd rather get into my issues with the show do to them being so monumental.
The biggest thing I hear in praise of the show is that Rudeus' character rehabilitation is well done and fulfilling. While admittedly, he is a different person by the end of the first season, especially in season 2, the journey to that point was not rewarding.
However, before we look at examples, we must discuss Rudeus. At the start of the series, even the fans of the show admit, Rudeus is a scumbag. To summarise simply, he is an incel paedophile. Due to severe bullying, he has become a shut in and as a result, became how he is now. I would like to make myself clear, I don't disslike unlikeable protagonists, the cast of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia are horrible people, yet they are all interesting and entertaining. Films such as the Wolf of Wall Street have a terrible person as the frontman, and that works. BoJack Horseman has very similar framing to Rudeus, and that show is a masterpiece. My issue with this is there needs to be a reason. It's Always Sunny utilises its protagonists as a vehicle for comedy and their attempts at scheming blow up in their face, Jordan Belfort is also used for entertainment purposes, and it works, BoJack heavily condemns its main character when he does things very similar to Rudeus. Rudeus' character is redeemed through his rehabilitation, which is a perfectly fine angle to take and can result in fascinating introspective shows. Again, my issue is that this is not done well.
Let's look at the first major event of this near the start of the series. To overcome his fear of going outside, which defined his life as a shut in, takes one episode. Roxy takes him outside and while he is scared, he gets over it in one scene and from then on he rarely struggles going outside. While in the timeline of the show this change may have taken a while to do, due to the fast-paced timeline at the start of the season, as an audience, this was over the course of a few minutes, which is not rewarding to watch. Basically all of Rudeus' issues are solved in this way or just implied over time that he has changed.
This biggest thing the show needed to focus rehabilitating about Rudeus was his paedophilia, which is never addressed in a serious manner and only stopped because Rudeus grows older and is no longer surrounded by children.
It is impossible to discuss this series without bringing this aspect up. Rudeus is an unambiguous paedophile. He is over 40 when he meets Eris and instantly tries to sleep with her and sexualise her. Again, I am not taking issue with Rudeus being a bad person, but this is where the writing of the show and even the director fail. The framing of the show does not condemn this behaviour. Take the scene where Eris is unconscious and Rudeus attempts to take off her panties, this scene was framed as comedic, the way it was shot was made for comedy, Eris' punch was famed as just a joke. While this clearly does show that what Rudeus is doing is bad, it is comedic and light-hearted. The topic of paedophilia should not be handled this lightly, while I can handle edgy jokes, this is a story where you are supposed to sympathise with the character. I would even consider letting this go as Eris was just a minor Character, but she becomes the 2nd most important character in the season.
The final episode of the season has Rudeus have sex with Eris, and this was framed as romantic and intimate, a reflection of their connection over the years they knew each other. Let's not delude ourselves, Rudeus groomed Eris from the moment he met her, this was not a beautiful moment, it was truly disgusting. The fact that this scene was not played to be disturbing and evil genuinely baffles me, sexualising young characters like this is not OK. While there is the argument that this will be addressed properly in the later seasons, without getting into light novel spoilers, it only gets worse. Briefly mentioning season 2, the main issue Rudeus deals with is his mental health after the child he groomed ran away from him. I do not feel sorry for this character in the slightest, and before someone says that that is the point, 1. That is not a bulletproof shield you can rely on, 2. The show frames this in a way to where you are supposed to feel sorry for him, 3. The show has had 24 episodes to address this issue which, to normal, non-cretinous humans, should be the forefront of his development. Throwing shit into the eyes of the audience to disgust them is not always good. When I look at scenes involving Rudeus being a paedophile, I want to vomit, this is not something normal humans should tolerate.
This is made worse by the fact that there is a needless amount of characters that are made to look like children. Roxy being the biggest example. There was no need to make her look as young as she does given her age and experience, this makes the creeping that he does on her even weirder and the fact that her panties are a reoccurring item even into the second season even more baffling. Again, without getting into light novel spoilers, this gets so so so much worse.
I've heard people say that the issues with paedophilia are more to do with his outlook overall on women, then why are so many of the characters he creeps on children? I agree that he has a massive issue with women, but even people with terribly misogynistic views are not paedophiles and will draw the line at that. I question the author on why he thinks that this is not the horrifically loathable behaviour that it is.
I hate this show. That is the quickest I can summarise. This show gives me visceral hatred and disgust, and I can not comprehend why people can look over what happens here. I ask politely to the people who like this show to explain why you do. There are other shows that do rehabilitation better, that tackle heavy topics that the show does better, and won't leave you disgusted.
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