Mushoku Tensei thread - For General discussion of the series that started the isekai trend. God help us all.

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Since we have multiple threads discussing specific anime series, I decided to go on ahead and start one for my current obsession...no, not Chainsaw Man, we already have a thread for that. Mushoku Tensei, the granddaddy of modern isekai. And its the perfect time to bring this series up considering that the second season just started airing. Honestly, kind of surprised that the series didn't engender discussion before now, considering all the controversy surrounding it in the west.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

I read the novel a long time ago, then some of the manga recently. If I have time to waste watching the anime I might as well go find truck-kun.

 

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

SAO is ten years older. I know truck kun wasn't involved but damn near every isekai has the protag ending up in some game like world. Mushoku Tensei is on my ptw list with about 800 others. Whenever I get around to watching it I'll come back and give my thoughts.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Mushoku Tensei is the one anime where I kept thinking that the people who like RE:ZERO would watch this, but then Rising of The Shield Hero came out and it just changed everything about the popularity of isekai up to this point.

Either way, I look at it the same I look at Isekai Ojisan — they’re both entertaining, funny and can be very good at handling drama and action when necessary.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

SAO is ten years older.

Yeah, the SAO web novel is quite a bit older (it was written in 2002 and the light novels were published in 2009, while Mushoku Tensei was first written in 2012), but SAO didn't become popular till after Mushoku Tensei became a cult hit. The Sword Art Online anime, which is when the series really took off, didn't start till 2012, ten years after the web novels were first published, and the same year Mushoku Tensei exploded onto the scene.

 

[Atatata]

Sword Art Online isn't an isekai and Mushoku Tensei isn't the grandfather of isekai.
Iirc Mushoku Tensei was partly inspired by another web novel isekai, Harem in the Labryinth of the Other World.
It also started around the same time as Re:Zero and other isekai, both authors call each other out as their inspiration. Interestingly enough, there was also a collab anime announcement celebration between the two.


Anyway, unfortunately it fell to the trend of second seasons not looking nearly as good but other than that I like the series.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

Anyway, unfortunately it fell to the trend of second seasons not looking nearly as good but other than that I like the series.

Yeah, there was a video posted prior to the series being released that explicit called this, and explained why this is. Long story short, staff turnover:

 

[topsykrets]

asshole leper hero > bishie fags

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I tried watching the first episode but got too weirded out by the protagonist having a sex drive at the very least st 10 years old

 

[Fcret]

I've never had a show make me feel so uncomfortable at certain parts and still come out as being one of my favorites from the last decade. Can't believe I slept on it for so long.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

isekai and its consequences have been a disaster for the anime industry. how deranged must Japanese society be when the biggest gen is too get killed and transported to a different world?

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Honestly, kind of surprised that the series didn't engender discussion before now, considering all the controversy surrounding it in the west.

What's this about? I smell something based.

 

[The Token Ethnic]

What's this about? I smell something based.

The MC was a bullied kid that became a reclusive, gross anti-social NEET but he tries to do the right thing when he's reincarnated. His inner monologues are pretty funny, and the guy is slowly overcoming his past trauma and his perverted past but still acts like he used to at the beginning. He is shown as a pervy baby and kid, he also has sex with a distant cousin and has two other girls waiting for him. There's also an elf girl that has to have random sex with guys due to a curse as well lol

 

[Back me up!]

The MC was a bullied kid that became a reclusive, gross anti-social NEET but he tries to do the right thing when he's reincarnated. His inner monologues are pretty funny, and the guy is slowly overcoming his past trauma and his perverted past but still acts like he used to at the beginning. He is shown as a pervy baby and kid, he also has sex with a distant cousin and has two other girls waiting for him. There's also an elf girl that has to have random sex with guys due to a curse as well lol

Does the MC also have ED for some reason?

 

[WelperHelper99]

Does the MC also have ED for some reason?

Yeah, because Eris ding dong ditched his ass with the most cryptic note imaginable the night after taking his virginity. His dick got traumatized lol

 

[Fcret]

What's this about? I smell something based.

Mushoku Tensei is the story of a Discord Moderator being reincarnated and learning to be a normal person. He's pretty gross and handsy initially but eventually learns to stop treating women like objects and realizes how fucked up his attitudes about women were in his past life.

So some of the early scenes generated a ton of backlash from the usual peanut gallery of zoomers who can't handle flawed characters experiencing actual on-screen growth.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

What's this about? I smell something based.

Basically what everybody else said. The main character, named Rudeus in this new world he reincarnated in, was a fat slob of a Japanese neet and hikkikomori in his past life. Part of the story is the main character overcoming both his initial personality flaws and the traumas that made him into a fat recluse in his old life. One of Rudeus's biggest flaws is that he's a pervert (back in his old life, he was kicked out of his parent's house when his siblings caught him masturbating to porn instead of attending their parent's funeral; in the initial web novel and I think the light novel, it was a candid video he took of his young niece changing, though this was changed or simply ignored in later adaptations).

After reincarnating as a baby in a new world, his perversions remained with him. Even as a baby, toddler and little kid. As a baby, he would do things like put panties on his head and enjoyed drinking his mom's milk a little too much. As he got older, he remained perverted and was attracted to girls "his age" (physical age that is; mentally he's still a 40 something year old neet and remembers his past life). He openly perved on Eris, his "cousin" (Rudeus is part of a noble family that has many branches and Eris is a member of another branch, so its not certain how closely related she and Rudeus are, though it can't be that close), and tried to sleep with her when he was physically ten and she was like twelve (his new world is a medieval fantasy world, so nobody bats an eye at kids having sex, and Eris's parents sent her to his room specifically to seduce Rudeus to convince him to marry her for political purposes). He does eventually lose his virginity to Eris when she was 15 and he was 13. Also, Rudeus had a childhood friend who was the same age as him that he openly thought about performing wife husbandry on and cultivating her into his perfect wife (before his father caught wind of how dependent said friend was becoming and separated them).

A lot of people lost their shit at how perverted Rudeus was and this caused massive backlash on places like Twitter. People seemingly didn't get that Rudeus's perversion is a character flaw of his that he has to grow out of and overcome, which he does to some extent.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

The god character that shows up in the MC's dreams is the best.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Well, my sharp instincts can't always be right, I guess

 

[Str8Bustah]

I read the WN about 5-ish years ago, then read it again after S1 aired. The most impressive thing about the adaptation is just how faithful they actually managed to make it, even with the ball being dropped on quality due to staff turnover for S2.

Plot wise, I won't give away any spoilers but the next arc and season 3 are going to be fucking wild.