Please Stop Recommending Mushoku Tensei

I watch too much anime. And because I regularly find myself running out of shows to watch, I often find myself browsing anime recommendation subreddits and reading “best upcoming anime” lists. As a result, I’ve recently spotted a lot of people (and even a few well-known websites) recommending an anime that I am, unfortunately, already well acquainted with: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. If you’re unfamiliar with Mushoku Tensei…good. Close this tab and leave things there. But if you have heard of Mushoku Tensei and you’re tempted to watch the wildly popular anime which is often called “controversial,” I understand. After all, I too felt the call when its first season dropped in 2021. There’s a pedophilic elephant in the room we have to address before we go much further, but I want to preface this by stating that Mushoku Tensei’s well-known problematic story elements are not the only issue here. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that the protagonist of the story is a 50-year-old groomer in the body of a teenager certainly isn’t a positive for me, but there’s another, simpler reason I cannot recommend that you waste your time on Mushoku Tensei: it’s just poorly written. Let’s get the positive stuff out of the way first, because there are reasons that Mushoku Tensei is so widely praised: Studio Bind’s animation is incredible, the world-building is top-notch, and the character designs are, for the most part, genuinely cool. Rifujin na Magonote, the pen name of the author behind Mushoku Tensei, has crafted a compelling setting with a magic system that has well-defined rules and limitations—I just wish a different writer would have filled said world with better characters and a story that actually makes sense. For the uninitiated, Mushoku Tensei is about a 34-year-old man who dies and gets reincarnated as a baby into a fantasy realm called the Six-Faced World. His new parents name him Rudeus Greyrat, and, as a result of him retaining both his consciousness and his memories, they immediately assume him to be a magical prodigy. It’s a standard setup as far as isekai anime go, and although the fanbase often likes to refer to it as the “godfather” and originator of the genre, several isekai manga, such as Magic Knight Rayearth, predate Mushoku Tensei by several decades. However, being unoriginal isn’t a crime, especially where isekais are concerned, so what’s the issue? Rudeus Greyrat is the issue. He is selfish, cringe-inducing, and spends the entirety of the story perving on girls in their teens. Yet the problem here isn’t just that he’s an immoral loser; it’s that Mushoku Tensei’s story implies that Rudeus is on a journey of self-realization and redemption. He was a piece of shit when he died in our world, but this is his second chance, and he regularly proclaims that he wants to change and evolve into a better, more righteous version of himself. But does he? Spoilers inbound, but no. He actually gets worse as the story progresses. The finale of the first season culminates in Rudeus and his companion Eris having sex. Really, though, considering Eris was 9 when she met Rudeus, who was mentally 41 years old but physically 7 years old, and Eris is 15 years old (making Rudeus mentally 47 years old and physically 13 years old) when the season finale occurs… let’s just call a spade a spade. They didn’t sleep together; Rudeus groomed a child. But, again, it’s not just that this is gross and that Rudeus (or the author for that matter) doesn’t seem to perceive this as a problem; it goes against the redemption arc that Mushoku Tensei is trying to sell. There’s nothing wrong with having a protagonist be an awful person, nor is it an issue if they never learn from their mistakes. The problem is that Mushoku Tensei never punishes Rudeus or even addresses his greater faults, yet it still pretends that he’s becoming a better person. In fact, season two actually attempts to make you feel sorry for Rudeus, because the 47-year-old man becomes so sad that the 15-year-old Eris leaves him that he—I shit you not—spends the entirety of the 24-episode-long season attempting to combat depression-induced erectile dysfunction. And how does he get over it? By forming a harem, which consists of a 16-year-old that Rudeus met when she was 5 and a 50-year-old who met Rudeus when he was 3. Christ, even typing this just makes me feel like I’ve been put on some kind of list. The author of this grooming-based harem story disguised as a fantasy isekai has either refused or forgotten to give Rudeus a comeuppance for these crimes, and instead rewards him for them, so again, a “redemption arc” this is not. To that end, I’d like to formally request that people stop tricking unsuspecting anime enjoyers into watching this—not just because it’s problematic, but because it’s problematic and crap. If you really need a new isekai to watch, just watch Reborn as a Vending Machine instead. It’s not good, but at least the vending machine isn’t a sex criminal.