Mushoku Tensei is a great looking anime, and its fine as an isekai. But I cannot deal with these characters.

Mushoku Tensei is an anime that I dont feel like I hate,but the more I mention it, the more pissed I get.To put it out there. I dont like the isekai genre.Not at all. Almost every anime in this genre doesn't just copy paste the formula of each other, they also copy the setting, the power dynamics, and even the archetypes to an unapologetic degree. And sadly despite being the “grandpapi of isekai” or whatever, its guilty of copying those traits as well. But one thing,mushoku does that other isekai i have seen dont do is emulate its setting very well through its art and some of its writing, but it is just as shame that the characters are sooooo deplorable,that it basically tanks my enjoyment of this show immensely.

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Story.__
Cutting to the chase, the world of mushoku tensei is nothing to write home about,its your standard medieval world where there is magic and dragons. I heard some people think the magic system in this anime is brilliant.Its not, it basically just feels like a ripoff of Black Clover, and I know BC didnt invent spell books or wands, but the magic is just people shooting stuff out of their hands.There’s no pizzazz to it. The best part of the worldbuilding is the fictional language, there are extensive scenes of other people talking in those languages and the amount of vernacular made was really impressive.When it comes to the actual plot though, most of it really bored me.Its just that it felt aimless for a majority of it, until about episode 9 where it just decides to interrupt its current storyline and plops into a different one before the previous one was concluded.It did pick up greatly afterwards, since it felt like an actual adventure with tension,stakes, and really serious/funny moments,but keep in mind this is only a fourth of the entire show and i still didn't enjoy it because the characters, and its juvenile sense of humor, this show is ridiculously horny, its like a hormonal child wrote it.and not only that but its sexual nature does not mesh with its themes at all. If mushoku even had themes to begin with ugh.

Animation.
it looks great, it moves great, it sounds great, the backgrounds look great, great all around.Studio Bind? Theyrreeeee Grreeeeeat!

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-Sound.__
It was fine, whatever.I dont remember the soundtrack to this show to save my life but still.

-Characters.
Alright, sit tight during this section,because I have a shit ton to say. And I honestly never ranted so hard about characters before but still
.Before I lose my composure, I just want to give praise to the only likeable character in the entire show.Ghislain, I thought I would be in trouble at first, since her incomprehensible outfit made her look like some boob fanservice furry girl, but I liked how she was developed. She is portrayed as both a teacher and a student to Rudeus, and her learning how to do math and teaching about sword techniques and different languages was nice, definitely shows that hot girls in isekai can be well written.

What about the rest, VVU? Well… other characters are fine, but the story interrupts their arcs for other things,and they end up feeling super hollow,which is the case with Roxy, and that other girl. Maybe they're saving that for season 2, but I honestly don't know if I even have the strength to watch s2 because everyone else in the show is absolutely horrible, including Rudeus, the main character. The show started me off on the wrong foot with them, and they barely change,so I don't even feel like watching them anymore.Oh, and did I mention the rest of the characters suck? Because they do.Eris sucks ass. I get the writer was trying to make her arc one of redemption, but they overdo it on making her so unlikeable at the beginning that when she develops as a character, she still has a very unlikeable personality, she is constantly screaming, being stupid, and being creepily lewded despite being 12, so there is no respect given to her.

Almost every single male character is the fucking worst.They’re either creepy, immoral, or just down right annoying.And they take up so much screen time despite me not liking them.Also the show never goes to the effort to make them being awful look like a bad thing .One guy, who is the father of Rudeus, cheated on his wife, with their live in maid, and does he face punishment for this? NO. not at all. Instead he just takes this anger out on his son, kicks him in the face, and yeets him out of his house with no communication. And his arc is literally never touched on for the rest of the show. And this is played off as humorous mostly because these scenes have this dopey music to it. Its not funny, it's cringe.

Speaking of “its not funny, its cringe”.That phrase represents Rudeus’ whole character. To explain. Rudeus is the main character, in his previous life, he was a degenerate mid aged neet, and he is given a second chance at life, but his mind of when he was 40 is put into the body of a young boy. As a result you get a painful amount of one off jokes about how he is perverted, how he is a creep, and how he is a virgin, and he makes really cheesy mmo jokes whenever he can.Its painful, it's not funny at all. He is written in such a cynical way where he is not downright bad, but he is just really arrogant and self centered,and speaks to people like in such a dehumanizing way like a goddamn sociopath when he sees fit to.

A Lot of discourse around this show is with Rudeus. Some say he develops as a character. I would agree with that, but the development that he has is so cheap and lame. Most of his development in the first half is just him getting over his anxiety after he was treated horribly in his last life. But that never clicked with me at all because I honestly dont get why he would act that way if the body and the world he is in is COMPLETELY different from his previous one. Its so ridiculous,and even then he doesn't evolve from his previous self because he makes jokes constantly about how he is a creep and a pervert.

Also,Rudeus still has that awful reeking of an isekai protag that is supposed to be overpowered and unbreakable so I didn't care for him at all. Despite him working towards his goals, his challenges at improving seem less like a defining character moment and more as an inconvenience portrayed through montages. At the beginning of the show, he is born a prodigy, when he receives a tutor, he pulls off a spell that took his teacher an entire lifetime to do, with no sweat. I just don't care about him, in fact other elements about him make me loathe him even more.

I think the most deplorable thing not just with him,but with this writer’s sense of humor is that its fucking naaaaasty.its gross its eww its awful.Rudeus is a perv, thats the biggest takeaway for his character, when he is first reincarnated, the first thing he does is talk about his mom's breasts, he steals panties from people,and so forth.One scene that drew the line for me was a scene where Rudeus, who is mentally 40, is straight up fondling the body of a 10 year old child and taking off her underwear,and its treated as a funny moment.

Disgusting.

Oh another example is the time he started making cringey ass anime figurines out of clay and sold them but didn't know how to replicate Ghislain's tail, so Ghislain just decides to drop trou in front of a 9 year old boy and let him poke her ass. THERE IS NO WAY THIS SHIT WASN'T WRITTEN BY A PERVERTED TEENAGE BOY.

One defense i'm gonna steal straight from rebelpanda's review is that some think this show’s constant sexual nature is a sign that the show is “mature and not for kids”. But the show's sexual stuff is treated like a joke almost all the time. And I hear defenses about this sexual nature being realistic to its historic setting which is bullcrap by the way. This is a magical setting where people cast spells, furry people exist, shop vendors sell aphrodisiacs' to children, and the top bodyguard in the world dresses like a stripper.

And it may just be me having some common sense, but the aggressively mysogonistic nature in this show is there but its so unironic and not self aware in the slightest. Every single girl in this show whether leading or supportive gets either sexually fondled by some guy, has sex with some guy, gets screwed over by some guy, assaulted/harassed by some guy, or gets objectified by some guy. And its really immature about it.-__-And the men just screw and not develop at all.
The show has this cynical nature about it where Eris can act very unlikeable and gets poorly treated/humiliated/and violently assaulted for it. Yet the main character can sexually assault her, and yea he gets punished ,but its treated more like a joke rather than a “fuck me, rudeus is sick” moment.Does Rudeus learn from his moments? Lol no. He is fully aware that what he is doing is wrong since he has the mind of a 40 year old, but he never ever ever makes an effort to change being a creepy perv, and the fact he is aware of it, makes it even worse.In conclusion, Rudeus sucks,and I hope he chokes on a blade, then again if he did, we would get like five more seasons of this show,because he would keep getting reincarnated.

ENJOYMENT
Season 2 is airing at the time of this review, but naw man, i think one season is enough for me. Its the characters that do it for me. Everyone is so unlikeable,and the way they interact with each other is unlikeable as well. I wouldnt call this show necessarily fun at all. I mentioned it picking up around the ending, but still when the gang are fighting giant lizards, they just kill it like no biggie, and since their characters are just hazardous I dont feel a sense of satisfaction or fun being with them. Ruijard's arc has potential, but it doesnt go much of anywhere for a character with so much baggage.For most of Mushoku i was either bored out of my mind, or pissed the hell off,because these characters (besides Ghislain) are some of the most loathsome people I have had the displeasure of experiencing this year.I wanted them all to die, but i doubt they would do that.And thats that, I’ll be fine going for the rest of my life without watching another episode of this show thank you very much.