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The story
A thread titled ‘Mushoku Tensei is creepy — sorry, but what exactly was wrong with it?’ kicked off a heated discussion on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo G (general livestream) board. It started with the observation that ‘they turned a series written for creepy otaku into mainstream anime,’ sparking a wave of criticism aimed at the content itself — namely that the protagonist and the characters around him are nothing but ‘scumbags’ and ‘weaklings.’ Pushback followed, with some arguing ‘don’t lump the whole work in with one messed-up character,’ alongside analysis suggesting that contrived plot developments and a lack of explanation are what’s really breeding the sense of disgust. The conversation gradually expanded to cover ‘Narou’ series in general, how harem stories should be judged, and even a debate over viewing attitudes — namely, what to make of otaku who keep watching something while calling it ‘creepy.’
What people said
and turned it into mainstream anime
I mean, I figured it was an anime made for creepy otaku anyway
Right? Like, it's about an unemployed guy getting reincarnated.
Of course that's gonna be creepy, lol 🤣🤣🤣
Actually, to begin with — 'changing jobs after being unemployed'? Does that even make sense in Japanese? (misreading 転生 'reincarnation' as 転職 'job change')
Wait, do you think the title is 'Unemployed Career Change' (無職転職)?
Age-related farsightedness is rough, huh.
You should make the text on your phone bigger
Paul's a scumbag
The protagonist Rudeus is a perverted lecher
That's really all there is to it
Judging the whole show because one character's messed up seems off
But the protagonist is what drives the story
if the protagonist's messed up, the story's messed up too
Isn't it because making that scumbag/pervert thing work requires contrived plot developments, so the only women who show up around him end up being crazy and conveniently written?
Rudeus is a scumbag juggling three women
Paul's a scumbag who slept with and dumped Lilia before he even met Zenith
Lilia's a scumbag who seduced Paul even though Zenith was pregnant
Zenith is a weak woman who couldn't satisfy Paul
Aisha is a scumbag with incest tendencies
Norn is a weak woman who became a shut-in
Sylphiette is a weak woman traumatized over her green hair
Roxy is the same kind of scumbag as Lilia
Eris is a scumbag who slept with and dumped Rudeus
Well, since they're portraying an unemployed guy, there's definitely a 'might as well go all the way with the bit' vibe to it
Honestly, having thin, shallow content can even make it easier to watch — kind of like Mito Kōmon (a classic, formulaic samurai drama): simple and easy to follow
You should give it a shot instead of writing it off without watching.
If you're someone who can enjoy entertainment content in general, there's at least some enjoyment to be had
Like the 'slave who's also your friend' trope, for instance
I don't think the harem angle itself is the problem.
Isn't it more that the plot gets so contrived that it fails to give readers enough reasoning or explanation to actually buy in — and that's what breeds the disgust?
For Narou stuff, something dumb and low-effort like 'Vending Machine' (a series about reincarnating as a vending machine) is actually just the right level. Re:Zero and Mushoku Tensei are both too creepy to watch seriously — they just come off like they're trying to tell an earnest story
If you apply that logic strictly, wouldn't it make almost everyone's opinion in here worthless too?
All Narou stuff is a waste of time anyway, so something as ridiculous as 'Vending Machine' is just about right for it
It feels kind of weird to check out trending stuff just because you're an otaku.
I'd get it if you watched everything regardless of trends, though
Well, you've at least got to keep up with trends at a minimum — that's just how it is
There's a Narou series with the hardcore-sounding title 'The Witch and the Mercenary' getting an anime adaptation — let's watch that one 🥺
There's only like one person here hyping up 'Vending Machine' though, lol
You see plenty of people wanting to praise garbage that's even worse than 'Vending Machine'
Like what, for example?
Anything below that level would basically be 'Smartphone Tarō' territory (slang for a cliché, poorly-written isekai protagonist)
Re:Zero is below 'Vending Machine' level, honestly.
It's neither original nor interesting — just a Mito Kōmon-style show built entirely out of hollow, papier-mâché catharsis
Stuff like the 'Kirara' genre (cutesy slice-of-life 4-koma anime) and its relatives are mostly below even Narou level, and the double standard in how people praise them makes it even worse
Now people who just dig up info and go to events to hang out with fellow otaku call themselves otaku too.
Times sure have changed
Yeah, I don't really get the clique-y types either.
I basically go to events (live shows) solo myself.
Part of it's that more people who don't think much about the culture have shown up, but on the flip side, I do have quite a few movie-otaku friends
It's because it's an easy way to rack up likes on social media
If we're talking isekai transportation/reincarnation stories, this is the one.
The middle-aged protagonist is just good at cooking — no particular quirks to him
The thing with these isekai slice-of-life series is that they tend to turn into a platform for showing off trivia knowledge…
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
“Mushoku Tensei” is a flagship title of the “Narou” genre (isekai reincarnation stories born from web novels), and after its anime adaptation it spread beyond its core otaku fanbase to a broader mainstream audience. That “Narou” genre is often marked by contrived plot developments and harem elements, making it a genre that tends to split opinion among otaku-oriented audiences. The debate that split the thread broke down into roughly two points. One was criticism of the content itself — that the protagonist and the characters around him are nothing but scumbags and weaklings, which comes across as creepy — versus pushback arguing that this “conflates the flaws of a single character with a judgment of the whole work.” The other was mockery aimed at people who keep watching while calling it “creepy,” met with the counter-argument that “you have to watch it to be able to criticize it,” which shifted the conversation from discussing the work itself to debating the propriety of how people watch things. Some posts even misread “Mushoku Tensei” (無職転生, “Reincarnation of the Unemployed”) as “Mushoku Tenshoku” (無職転職, “Career Change from Unemployment”), leading to a minor mix-up over how to even read the title. It’s worth noting that generalizations like “Narou series = harem stories” and comparisons to “Vending Machine” (the isekai-vending-machine series) are strictly discussions about the work or genre in the abstract, not attacks aimed at any specific individual.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “‘Mushoku Tensei is creepy’ — sorry, but what exactly was wrong with it?.”
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