Forum - View topicINTEREST: Mushoku Tensei Author Addresses Criticism about Perverted Protagonist
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El Hermano
 Posts: 450 Location: Texas |
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I don't think he's sidestepping anything. Without knowing which complaints he was specifically referencing, it's very well no one mentioned the age aspect at all and was specifically talking about the perverted actions. The closest thing to context I could find by browsing the author's recent Twitter feed and mentions was someone saying MT was being watched by elementary schoolers. This could be more of a soccer mom thing than anything else. Without full context, it's hard to really accuse the author of deliberately omitting anything. The author is most likely not referring to English complaints if they tweeted this out in Japanese.
We would see the change coming long before it started affecting the anime industry. We'd no doubt see the changes on real industries like gravure idols and music idols long before any fictional depictions of this stuff would get changed. |
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cloud8100
Posts: 550 |
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Gonna be a pass from me from what I've read about the series. Animenewsnetwork and myanimelist are like night and day. Most people over there are defending it.
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ETX
Posts: 344 Location: England |
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No surprise this thread is thriving...
The only thing I can say really, is that if you've heard bad things about an anime that are putting you off from watching it, maybe it's best to follow through with that sentiment annd just let the people who do enjoy it be. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23986 |
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How was it established that he was watching child porn? I went and rewatched that scene and couldn't see anything that established that other than the dude with the baseball bat was clearly disgusted by whatever was on the screen. Did I miss something? |
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PabloGarciaCoutino
Posts: 18 |
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This is an adaptation from a Light Novel/Web Novel series. I was drawn to this story because social media stated that it was the best isekai/anime of 2021 (wholesome and family oriented). But it is not. Not by a long shot. I read the whole light novel (vol8 published in English) and to the end of the web novel on october 2020.
Setting aside the author's criteria that pervertedness somehow allows (because it's an isekai and international law does not apply) Statutory rape, pedophilia and incest In Japan and most of the rest of the world things like polygamy incest and pedophilia are crimes, promoting them is also a crime called apology of crime i.e. most of the movies and series that promote illegal drug use.[/i] It is a light novel/web novel anime made for teens and adolescents. There is no restriction or warning about all of the lewd behavior on the published novels, manga or anime. I do not recommend this series because the author incessantly writes that the main character Rudeus is unable to overcome his prejudices, his low intelligence and low ethical values. Basically the author promotes a failure, coward, wimp as a role model, and makes his success, not because of Rudeus actions but because of his wives and acquaintances. In addition, Rudeus was bullied at middle school in his previous life, but the author insists on making him the biggest bully at magic university. Promotes his total impunity and the light novel is never really funny, nor good, for me it's super depressing. Uses drama from family loss/problems of Rudeus to promote infidelity, alcoholism, etc. His most used magical powers serve him and his wives to cure hangovers over and over. It's really not about Rudeus always being lewd, it's that the author never really understands what overcoming inmaturity, improving and having ethical values are. It's never really about the character being a pervert or lewd, it's about the author making and writing him up in this way. If only the author would have reincarnated Rudeus without his previous-life's memories-failures-prejudices. Most if not all of the issues with this story would be irrelevant. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2991 Location: Email for assistance only |
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It isn't made obvious in the anime, only in the light novel. |
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RenimLS
Posts: 127 Location: North America |
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I've only read some of the WN for Redo of Healer and the manga version of Mushoku Tensei, so I don't know what may have been changed between the WN and Manga versions, but I have a hard time buying your comparison. Redo of Healer depicts the main character raping and torturing various people and in the end gets rewarded for doing so. The main character also consistently lies and uses others and also is consistently rewarded for such actions. The series also depicted negatively the like only two homosexual characters in story. If my memory serves me right, spoiler[the only homosexual man depicted (at least up to the point I read) was one of the hero party and he's depicted kidnapping young men/boys so he can rape them, and almost always ends up murdering them because he suffers uncontrollable rage issues. The main character wants to kill him because he was consistently raped and beaten by him. The only lesbian depicted is another member of the hero party, and she's depicted as a man hater who goes around drugging and raping women to show them it's better without a man, and of course occasionally ends up killing the women she kidnaps. The main character also wants to kill her cause she would beat him, which partially stemmed from the fact she was attracted to him because of his effeminate appearance. The main character kills her by having her raped by a bunch of zombified men who afterwards eat her.] Given this, I have a hard time seeing what part of MT reached this level that you would find them comparable in the manner you describe. |
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Joa
Posts: 98 |
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In the web novel it does say that it's a video of his niece that he secretly took while she was in the bath. That's why his brother (the niece's father) reacts with such disgust when he sees the screen. |
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Kibako
Posts: 40 |
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It was mentioned in the novel/web novel. I don't remember if the manga also mentioned it, but in the novel: 無修正ロリ画像（兄の娘を風呂に入れた時にデジカメで撮りました）- uncensored loli video (taken by a digital camera when he gave his niece a bath, this part is web novel-only) was told. Mushoku Tensei is one of my first ever read novel, which gave me quite a big impact. But looking back, it can never be called a great one. Despite getting some remarkable ranking at Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, the author's writing is quite immature and sometime too biased tbh. About Rudy's perverse, I have never actually got a problem with it (the altar was a bit too much I guess). It could be Japanese's different thinking the main reason. Not a Japanese myself but been living here quite long enough so I could say lots of Japanese are perverse from blood and are quite open about sex. Spoiler ahead: spoiler[Honestly, I don't think Rudy's perverse was mentioned that much later on, thanks to the "turning points" I guess. May be once or twice per volume. He only had Eris as a girl by his side after the "accident" - who already gave him an OK but promised to waint until they both become adults, but then he became ED until Sylphi cured it and they married right after that. At this point most of his perverse scenes are around that certain pantsu iirc. The story became darker and darker to even noticed those anyway.] MT is not a great novel, it's still worth giving a try, but you won't feel regrettable if you pass it because of Rudy's character either. And I doubt if anime will be able to get to the best part with only 2 cours anyway. Sorry for the bad English, just want to give some of my opinions. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23986 |
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Ah, thanks for the info.
Thank you for the additional insight but this is a handy reminder that sometimes it's better not to ask questions... [Do not double-post. Use the "Edit" button instead ~Zalis] |
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Pidgeot18
 Posts: 101 |
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I had never thought of that before and now I can't unthink it. Thanks a lot. 
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Charou
 Posts: 123 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Can't claim credit for it. I suspect some other Eva-saturated weeb-scholar went there first, but when Anno explicitly uses the line 'mother is the first Other' and we're aware that he was devouring the sort of highfalutin stuff that capitalises the word 'Other' at the time *and* it's very strongly implied that Eva units are somehow casements for human souls (or something, it's been a bloody long time since I 'read' Eva seriously), it's hard not to connect the dots. Overthinking MT in 2021 to overthinking Eva like it's 2001...yeah, I'd say I'm done here. 
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AleisterC
Posts: 5 |
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This story, questionable content and all, was popular enough in Japan to be greenlit for an anime.
The anime studio knew what they were animating. Isn't everyone's problem here with Japanese culture itself, and not a garbage character? |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1438 |
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uhhhhh no? There's nothing innately "Japanese" about pedophilia. Framing it like that seems like you have some weird, monolithic ideas about Japanese culture yourself, honestly. |
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pikabot
Posts: 169 |
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This is absolutely true. By lumping together all sexual behavior under the banner of 'pervyness', they get to elide the distinction between healthy sexual behavior, overcharged but ultimately innocuous behavior, predatory behavior, and outright harmful behavior. It's an attempt to flatten to moral field entirely and get you arguing about the merits or demerits of 'pervyness' in general rather than the specific acts and behaviors in question. Functionally, it's a type of Motte and Bailey argument.
Come on, dude. I've been watching anime for well over twenty years. I spent more than my fair share of time in the 'pervy side character' salt mines. I'm a big fan of Masturbation Master Kurosawa. It's not an unfamiliarity with anime tropes or a general antipathy for horny bastards that fills me with disdain for this show and characters. In fact, quite the opposite. If I was totally new to anime storytelling, I might be able to be convinced that the author of this work was pulling a Nabokov and trying to craft a uniquely repulsive protagonist. But because I'm aware of the context, I'm able to recognize: oh, no, this is actually just a tuned-up version of a stock character that shows up all over the place in mainstream anime. When he muses about Roxy's pubic hair or steals her underwear or talks about getting to suck on his mom's breasts for free, these aren't specially crafted moments meant to especially repulse the audience with a glimpse into his depraved mind. These are laugh lines lifted from any of a half dozen sources and lazily deployed. It makes him not just a morally bankrupt sex pest; it also makes him deeply uninteresting. |
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