Mushoku Tensei Just Exposed The Biggest Flaw in Isekai 

Can't get over that scream....

Normally, isekai protagonists have nothing left to go back to....

Imagine isekai actually showing their characters missing their own world. Mushoku continues its weekly dosage of peak.

This episode should have been called Nanahoshi far from home

You can't blame her she was living out her life unlike Rudeus just to have it ripped away from her by some random person anyone would feel her pain right now

That's where isekai originally started. Like every isekai was originally about trying to get back home.

Nanahoshi follows the isekai of old. Isekais like Escaflowne, Fushigi Yuugi, etc where the main character is all about getting back home. Whereas Rudeus follows this newest breed of isekai where the character wishes to stay or totally ok with the world. Old isekais the people had powers just like they do now what is interesting is that old isekais were mostly all girls while this new breed of isekais have been guys. These 2 characters represent the dichotomy of the 2 separate isekai styles.

Agreed, I want more isekai to ask questions like: "How does this affect the individual, or the individuals friend's and families?" "How would the summoners react when they're hit with the realization that they're ruining lives when summoning people?"

There is a manhwa about a similar topic. An isekai protagonist returns home only to be hated and to learn his life was ruined by being isekaid. He ends up turning into the villain and making the human world a post apacolypse. It also does the reverse isekai in bringing magic to this world. It is called Hero has Returned.

I think the secret sauce to Mushoku Tensei is that the story follows Rudy, but the author treats him as just a single character in the story of the world. So you end up with all of these different characters like Nanahoshi who have their own conflicts, motivations, and circumstances which all play into the story of the world at large (like with her introducing many technologies), but by following Rudy we only really see the immediate impact they have on the people around them.

This was such a well thought out contained short story within this episode. Bravo mushoku tensei and bravo chibi for recognizing the great writing

Mushoku tensei is the only series I could actually take serious because everything the mc and sc do always have a consequence later on

The main characters hardly ever get isekai'd with literally nothing to tie them to the other world. They tend to always arrive with something. Like a skill, a blessing or another person who acts as a guide and are usually born into privilege, like as a hero or an aristocrat. And when that happens they are basically remade to naturally exist in that new world. Nanahoshi got literally none of this. She was teleported in her current state, zero changes were made to her and she was just dropped in the new world. Like a rabbit being dropped into a world full of wolves. As fantasical as the new world is, Nanahoshi simply cannot engage with it in the same way that everyone else does, so she doesn't even have the option to adapt to her new surroundings because the new surroundings have basically rejected her from the start. So yeah, I'd want to go home too and write off that world as a bad dream.

99% of isekai protagonists died before being snatched. That one percent are not accepting that there is no way home. Nanohoshi is really the first character that brokedown. The only other that comes to mind is Naofumi he wants to go back, but he is priortizing that he needs to insure the safety of world first over finding his way home. At the same time his commitment to go home is slipping.

6:20 "Nanahoshi is just and ordinary girl" !SPOILERS! (mild backstory spoilers) To this point in the story Nanahoshi has started a very successful trade organization, she can spend all her time doing research at university because she's effectively a billionaire, but she absolutely could not care less about anything in this world so that means nothing to her.

Ascendance of a bookworm does fairly well in its own way. It doesn't show her put a lot of time into trying to go back but it does her break down about her previous life a few times

This was such a great episode despite all of the things that were left out from the LN. Nanahoshi's voice actor popped off. Mushoku does such a good job with its characters. Such real and relatable displays of human emotions. The ups and down of life, growing from them, bonds, depression, trauma, happiness etc etc. It's just so refreshing to see and experience. Absolute peak and no one will change my mind.

"FFF class trash hero" - a comedic manhawa with a protagonist that just wants to come back home

Nanahoshi doesn't deserve this (Spoiler) > He has a family and loved ones in the old world. > She doesn't feel at home in her new world because of its depraved morals, especially since she lives in the 21st century. > Since being in Isekai, she has a disease called "drain syndrome" which makes her body weak and vulnerable, because her body has no magic power or "mana" it becomes a poisonous figure for her body. > May have a mental burden for the teleportation disaster that eliminated many lives. > Has a heavy burden because it deals with the internal conflicts of that world or it can be said that it has a duty to save that world.

Isekai is an escapist genre tbf. It makes sense that the character/s original world is treated more like an afterthought and , usually, the character/s have no reason to *want* go back. Sometimes its given a good reason like in Overlord where Ains's world was a dystopian mess or the character/s having an otherwise crappy life, but despite the characters having their own lives, once they switch over to the new world & life, they show no emotion for having lost that. So its kinda nice that an isekai actually acknowledges how messed up it is for someone to have their life cut short or taken away so suddenly and be thrown into a world that is *way* more cruel and depraved

Digimon also techniqually qualifies as an isekai and the entire first season is literally about how they all want to return home. So its not that Mushoku Tensei does something new, it just brings back something that almost seems lost in Isekai, making the character feel human. This is also why i like Re Zero in that it also focuses on the humanity of the characters as it has an entire episode focused on Subaru missing his home but also shows how and why he was able to accept that he might never go home again and accept to live his life in the new world.

To be fair Chibi, there are older Isekai's that do have the character goal to return to their home world. Digimon and inuyasha are old examples. The difference is how they set up the characters and the world they're in. Also, you forgot to give Cliff and Zanoba their due credit.

Almost reminds me of Log Horizon. There were several arcs exploring the idea of people missing their home world.

*clears throat * Allow me to introduce you to a little story called "K`ll the Villainess" the way how this FL tries to go back home is both funny and tragic at the same time!

It is so interesting to me how it used to be the standard that the people who got isekai'd wanted desperately to return home and that was usually the focus of the story but Mushoku Tensei was one of the stories that popularized the shift towards the character's embracing their new world, while it shows quite clearly how gut-wrenching being stuck in a world that isn't home. So many tropes were popularized in this show but just stripped of the nuance it had in this show.

Nanahoshi's va literally showed really trauma. Goddamn these VAs are getting real good. On par with Subaru imho

This was such a beautiful episode for Nanahoshi,I can’t even imagine what would be like to be in a completely different world,away from everything you know and love…Shion Wakayama popped off with her performance in this episode,even the song cover for the ed is living rent-free in my head

when i say this episode hit, it hit fr. no words, this show just hits different now that ive gotten past where i was in the novel

And that’s why I hate happy go lucky MC’s. Like they don’t even care about leaving everything behind and just go enjoy the new world like nothing ever happened. And Nanahoshi’s mental state is beautifully animated.

I don’t think that is a flaw in Isekai. It’s all up to the author’s choice and what they want to focus on for their theme.

I remember in isekai ojisan, ojisan tried to go back home and did very dangerous stuff in an attempt to do just that. Like the dragon thing do as to create a spatial distortion or something. Though its a more comedic series, its an example

to be honest, even though isekai's exciting... I'm sure most of us can agree that if we're nothing but ordinary people there, it's no different in living in the medieval ages, and what's more it's even dangerous. not to mention that if you have no interest in isekai stuff it's even worse. imagine getting transported in barbie world?? it's strange. i have this grand father who hates technology and spends most of his life either working or doing nothing. his place was like an another world. if you don't have a hobby that suits that another world you'll go insane. my hobby at the time was playing games, so just to pass time in a week in there, i was forced to either read a bunch of hand written books by him or do nothing, making me think how bigger my life used to be until i got there.

A good story that expressed the sadness about not being able to go back was The Saint's. Magical power is Omniscient. The character of the teenage girl was absolutely devastated that there was no way back for her, that she'd never been able to see her friends and family again.

Exposed is a huge reach and very disingenuous to the works that do considering, that on one side. You have protags and side characters that want to go home, and show the desperation of that. Then you have protags and side characters who prefer to stay in the world they was isekaied too. Just say you was impressed on how this anime portrayed it. 😂😂😂

Rudeus took the blade. Think about that for a moment. Let's say that Rudeus and friends DIDN'T figure out something with the magic circles and Nanahoshi said "Just kill me." Should he oblige that request? Like he was about to do with Julie from before? Would it be right? I don't think so which is why he took the blade.

This reminds me of this upcoming isekai anime called isekai shikkaku or No Longer Allowed in Another World (from the creators of Love After World Domination, highly recommend it with the anime adaptation coming out in July this year) which questions the isekai system while none of the people that got isekai haven't said out loud that they want to go back to their old world, it's doesn't change the fact that a good chuck of them are perfectly miserable in the new world they were isekai to and knowing their backstories just shows that the world they were send to is no different than the miserable lives of their world. But after the MC gives them a lesson they are send back to their old world with their experience and new and improved selves. Basically like a good chuck of Westerns version of isekai: you go to a new world to learn a lesson and get transported back to your old world with your new found self and knowledge from your journey.

Good reminder that the reincarnation aspect is a foundational plot point of the story, rather than just a throwaway "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" introductory element.

Arifureta is literally this. That is the entire plot. However, it’s the only one i can think of where the mc gives up completely on the new world does whatever it takes to return. It’s pretty good, but i recommend reading the LN and web novel and the after stories for the web novel. There is little difference between them except LN cleans some stuff up. The anime is not that bad but could’ve been way better.

Saitou from Familiar of Zero managed to get back to his world, + he managed to bring his wife he married there with him back home too

I don't think its a "FLAW", thats a bit of a stretch BUT i do think it's played out and we need other stories where the MC is trying to get back to their own world and are having a hard time with being in this new one

Transportation vs. reincarnation, at least in reincarnation case u died for the most part in the original world. VS transportation where u can care about the old life.

In our defense, most of us are descendents of people that thought Europe was such a bump they decided to take a ship to a 'new world' and never come back. These guys are the original Isekai. And it happens.

I understand Nanahoshi’s emotions right away after she failed the experiment, since i also understood her worries and why she locked herself in a room trying to learn everything about magic circles and teleportations. Just think it like this, not only that she got teleported into an unknown world, she doesn’t even have mana, or magic powers to keep herself safe, and not knowing whether if it’s only her, or someone else also got into this world from Japan, and what happened to her family, friends and so on. So many questions can be asked in Nanahoshi’s mind, and the answer is only when she can get back to Japan. When she failed, i knew she’ll lose her mind, considering how long she learnt it and no progress whatsoever (sure, some of you might’ve felt like 2[?] years? meh it’s not that long, but, the disappointment of not getting a progress towards something you really wanted is quite high), so thats why she’s so happy when there’s actually a progress of that water bottle! And the party at the end of the episode, with Nanahoshi singing Tsubasa for the ending, literally made me almost cried, the emotions actually reached me. also, regarding the flaws, i can quite understand, yet i do agrees with some scenes; for examples - if the mc died irl, and then reincarnated into isekai, i understand why they’ll accept it right away or not, because even if they could go back to their world, they’ll be a different person, unless they could magically respawn themselves, or they got rebirth as themselves, and relives as themselves (like going to the past), and since you’ll be a different person, your family, friends would be different aswell, so I understand why they wouldn’t want to go back to their irl world. - however, if they were teleported into the world, without them dying irl, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that they accepted their life in isekai, but i would still want them try to go back to their world, or some scenes that they were thinking, worrying what the other world is thinking about his disappearance, so thats why i can understand the flaw here. there are an anime that i watched that essentially avoids the flaw, and still an isekai (some of the “isekai” are just people playing games, so i wont count them as isekais), which is Saving 80 000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, quite an okay one for me, and made me quite sad when she was thinking about her irl mother. well yea, this episode of Mushoku Tensei is indeed a masterpiece, still listening to Nanahoshi singing Tsubasa :D

There’s actually a manwha I’m currently reading called, I Hold The Heart Of A Tyrant, that the MC died and was reborn in a new world, but she doesn’t accept it, and since childhood to adulthood researches magic to go back to our world. Her motive is her mother, who single-handedly raised her. She maintains a distance with her current family, and is struggling if she should accept the love of Male Lead because in her previous life, she was cheated on. The current chapter at the moment has recently revealed that there is a way to go back to our world and it’s a once and a life time opportunity because the event for it to happen is extremely rare. I found this one good because like, Kill The Villainess, she’s searching and not giving up returning to the real world. But the way, I recommend reading, Kill The Villainess, because the MC does succeed returning to our world and the ML goes with her.

This isn't really something of a flaw is it? It's up to the main character to decide if they want to go back or not. And writers under this, which is why they usually give them backstories where they either don't want to go back or alternatively are finding ways to go back. It's not only not a new development, but Mushoku Tensei is definitely not the first one to acknowledge this. Zero no Tsukaima, Rising of the Shield Hero, Overlord, Ascendance of a Bookworm, That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, Arifureta, and many more all acknowledge the process of reincarnated/transporting to another world, and find ways to cope/deal with the issue. Even if you personally don't like one of the anime mentioned, it has been shown to be talked about extensively. Also, what is wrong with characters not wanting to return? For example, in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Yuna has no reason to return, and finds that her life is more fulfilling in this new world than her old one. She acknowledges this idea of returning to Japan, but ultimately finds herself wanting to stay. Overall, this is probably just obvious clickbait, but I still am tired of seeing stuff like this.

Another thing to take into consideration is that in Mushoku tensei the isekai life started all the way from being a child. You're pretty much stuck in that infant body, no power to even try getting back home. Starting out as a baby makes it easier for you to actually end up accepting this new world. Some isekai protags adjusting in a few days either had a shit life or it's just bad writing.

? Isn't it depends on MC in the first place? I think when it comes to thinking of past life, majority of isekai is either (or multiple) 1.) MC don't miss past life (but would, either briefly or in-depth, in future arcs revisit their psyche, typically after growth or at peace). Primary example is Re Zero but I think Konosuba too, No Game No Life, Overlord, Tensura, and probably a bunch i just don't remember rn cause I haven't read so far for the isekai novels that became anime. 2.) MC is dead. Well, i think most isekai is in here. From Tanya, Tensura, Otome Mob, all the way to Strongest Assassin (the one with same author as Redo of Healer), Death March, Isekai Smartphone, etc. Literally the truck kun meme. MC usually has regrets in past life but they now has a new life in here and isn't to spend time regretting everything, already dead anyways (though can go to (1) in revisit like Tensura ... I am being vague to not spoil). The past life is usually addressed already in early chapters/episodes. With the acceptance of death, MC usually has left their attachments of the previous life and pursues a new happiness in this life. 3.) Inherit memories, but still a resident of another world. Alongside (2), this is quite common in web and light novels, idk about manga. Similar to (2) where their "prev life" is dead or unknown what happened is just not theirs, they have their own life. Examples like Seirei Gensouki, the one whose MC is Katarina Klaes i forgot the name sorry, etc. This point is also addressed usually in early chapters/episodes, no guarantee to be readdressed as MC doesn't have any regrets. 4.) No way back, usually revenge stories cause summoning side is evil / kidnapper (?) Idk much bout transfer type Isekai other than styles like Arifureta tbh. Perhaps this one is usually what people meant by "trash Isekai" but *shrugs, the transfer type isn't my preference other than some things that caught my eye like Arifureta. I think this point is usually combined with other points. 5.) Seeking something in the new world. I just put this for exception cases of MC with abnormal personality like Cid Kagenou who is happy to has reached the new realm of his evolution i.e. magic, Cautious Hero where there's a way back home but MC is willing to save another world (or in Seiya's case he has regrets in his past failure, sorry for the spoiler), No game no life where the siblings literally accepted the deal as they're bored, etc. Sorry long comment, just putting my thoughts on isekai but do note I only remember and watch/read ones that caught my attention/interest. Plus I have been more into reading web novels and light novels so much so I don't really remember which series is getting anime adaptation (cause usually old novels that I've left aside to stack up on updates are the ones to finally get an anime adaptation, probably after a manga has been adapted too). Haven't read manga much or at all.

Great episode expressing her anguish and eventually a bit of hope gave her new focus at the end. But the biggest news, Chibi, is your boi is BACK! 😀

This was a very real episode. From Nanahoshi's breakdown, to her depression and Rudy's friends coming together for her and be a support group was very touching.

I think Log Horizon also have something like this... Some people kept dieing just to see memories of their old world.

It's not really a flaw with isekai, it's more so that we just don't get those kinds of stories anymore. Most of the older isekais were all about the main characters stumbling throughout this new world while looking for a way home even though they went on all these adventures and made new friends. Personally I prefer isekai stories nowadays where the main characters are either dead or got reborn into a better life, since in old isekais it kinda feels like a cope out where the main cast has the same tearful goodbye over and over and over even though the main draw of the story was for the mc to abandon this brand new world just to go back to their mundane lives.

You know Nanahoshi isnt the only character who is isekaid who wants to go home in some genre, but she's trying her best to look for ways to go home

I think overlord does somewhat of a decent job with ainz dealing with it as well like throughout the show you see him learning to accept more and more that his friends from his prior life aren't coming back and he becomes more and more protective of the npcs since they're like the kids of the of his friends from the guild

I think it's an added layer of isolation and alienation when you realize Nanahoshi cannot interact with the magic of the world in any meaningful positive way (not to mention the powerlessness she has due to the fact she has to rely on others to be able to even just test ways to get back home). In fact (light spoiler for later in the anime): Her presence in the world is also actively killing her, albeit slowly, due to the fact her body doesn't function properly with mana build-up.

her VA is Takina from Lyoris Recoil and Mie from The Girl I Like Forgot her Glasses

The thing is that the isekai genre is made to make you feel like the protagonist most of the time. It's made on the premise that the audience watching it is the typical Japanese hikikomori or neet who has nothing to lose or the adult who works in a black company and has a rubbish life. That's why a lot of isekai anime is the fantasy of these people. awesome powers, harem, fantasy, etc... And although there are some protagonists who do want to come back, the stories are not as popular and are less likely to be made into an anime. The arifureta anime deals for example with this protagonist, but the anime rushed the novels so much plus the bad cgi that much of hajime's development during the dungeon was never seen, making him a more edgy protagonist and taking away a lot of his motivations. If you are still interested in this kind of plot I would say that Korean mahwas have more stories with protas with this premise. I don't think this is a problem for isekai because first of all the isekai genre was born as a desire to escape reality and go to another world and although the plot of trying to get home is interesting for the Japanese audience it is not something that is very entertaining. Those are my thoughts at least.

1:00 to 4:00 almost perfectly explains the protagonist of Arifureta: From Commonplace to Worlds Strongest, the protagonists had a fulfilling life, caring family, friends, a lover/someone who loved him, almost accepted the new world but didnt after being betrayed, he wasnt rlly a shut-in but he was kinda introverted, he fought and killed to return to his own world and made it back in the end of the light novel, he wasnt instantly overpowered but after he did become overpowered through hard work he never changed his goal of returning to japan,

Yea nanahoshi breakdown is frighteningly understandable. Ol rudy came got a fresh start, while she was living her life and was ripped away from it. Years spent on the focus of going home and the isolation growing every moment and every failure in the attempt. Its as impactful as the moment soldat stopped rudies dagger.

This is why I love my instant death ability is overpowered because in that story, the MC wants nothing bout to go back to his previous word. He had loved ones and a life in his previous world he does not want to stay in the other world. He wants to go back to his mother and live a normal life and right now in the story he’s doing everything he can to get back to his previous world.

Hold up, Let Chibi Cook...

It's basically being forcefully transfered to a new server without gear and no ability to level up or use skills.

I think this reflects why Isekai became so popular. I think there are a lot of people who wish they can abandon their lives they are discontent with and have an adventure in a fantasy world, and isekai mc's mirror that

She did this moment perfectly, flaw what flaw tons of characters Go full evil because they can't go back....

Now and then Here and There was the first and last Isekai I've watched where the isekai world was terrible and they wanted to go back.

Rifujin better have a plan to what to do with the next novel (roadmap) because he wrote a peak of a prequel. Also your question of "if Rudeus will be happy getting sent to earth" is perfect. That would be a parallel to what nanahoshi is feeling and I feel as if Rudeus will also do everything he could to return back. He has yet to reunite with his sisters and the letter will worry Rudeus to death, considering Paul trusted them to him. (Sorry for my bad english)

Boss, as much as I agree that there need to be stories where the MC wants to go back. But have you seen the living conditions of Japan? Get bullied to hell while in school, get bullied at work, get bullied in life by everyone forcing the individual into being part of society until they rot from within OR get kicked from society to rot on the streets. Who in gawd's given right mind would want to return to that? There IS a reason why there are so many Isekai anime. Frankly? People are just fed up with society and their rules.

Although very edgy, Arifureta does a good job with the same concept. Main character is so determined to go back home that he would even kill a god if he had to

I think most of the summoned isekai would end like this ... once the world is saved and u learned they lied u cant return. But the show never shows the true end of the story

I have often times hated my life. One of the mental escapes that I did was imagine if I could "reincarnate" into my childhood and experience it again. Make different choices, use future knowledge to make my life better. This changed after I got married. I started to feel guilty thinking about going before my marriage. It would be like breaking my marriage vows, or I would live knowing that I'd never be able to be with my partner again. Then this happened again, but at a MUCH stronger way when my kids were born. I can never think back prior. If I died and got then got isekai'ed, then yeah, I could eventually be able to accept it, but I'd still be SO depressed. If I was isekai'ed without the reincarnation...? I'd be like her...

Better representation is actually in Log Horizon with the Odysseia Knights. Not only do they feel trapped ,but depressed, lonely and lost. This was a great Mushoku Tensei episode too tho, I hope we get more stories like this

Hmm did you notice the bottle was naked, if she is sent back think she will be in for a surprise.

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said!

7:14 Yea, no. The reason she got over so quickly was because the anime decided to speed run. In the books, it took *over a month* for her to recover. And then like another few week to a month for them to fix her design. It was not quick in the least. Hell, the show made Rudy’s sylphie’s life look like it’s only been maybe a few weeks, when by the time Nanahoshi broke down in the book, they has been together for almost half a year. One thing the show didn’t do so well, is how they are rushing us to the “good” part. When what they actually doing is cutting out a lot of the story that get us attach to each character. Like at this point in the story, had any of the side character so much as get badly hurt, the reader would likely riot. But the show cut so much of the interaction with them, we really don’t have that level of attachment to any of them. We maybe able to give a brief character introduction for each, but we don’t really *know* any of them yet.

Somebody with nothing to lose usually gets reincarnated, but she was somebody with everything to lose, from family, hard work, and regret from a small argument in a partnership. Then she spent all her time working on getting back, no friends in this world or anything other than Rudy and his connections which inevitably saved her.

It would depend on your circumstances in the new world. Even if you had a decent life in your original world, if you had godlike powers in the isekai I'm pretty sure many people would take that trade and choose to stay in the new world. Certainly in Nanahoshi's case it makes sense she would want to go back as her circumstances do not lend to a favorable isekai.

Not sure if I can relate to this because some people include me don’t care about our world and our world can be crueler than fantasy for example what if someone was stupid and couldn’t get good degree or what if someone get good degrees but was forced into a low pay company that doesn’t increase his salary even when he had good degree where many calls the degree useless Anime has too be relatable and tge minority are the one who love isekai because at least they could attend power money that they couldn’t afford in the real world there are many people like rudeus While they are few like tge girl that wants to return

6:00 You forget that Nanahoshi haven't been aging since she came to the world roughly 6 years ago (the Mana disaster which summoned her happened right after Rudy turned 10, and currently he is 16+).

This story was always top tier storytelling kind of wish the author would have continued it.

Well anyone like Rudy or any of the other isekai protagonist would love their new wotlrld where they have the power of change unlike in the old world where they were nobody but in this new world they sre heros in most cases ee should also remember that in most cases the mc is either bullied or has no friends . It's just human nature why would i care to return to a world of despair ehere i a nobody like most of the humans

Another isekai that still touches the grounds of going back is Tsukimichi, MC was forced to go into another world because its gonna be him or his sisters, they even hinted that MC might became powerful enough to make the impossible possible. (like going back and fort into different worlds)

It should also be noted that its touching even more that Rudy would be there for her. He was after all during the first part of the season, reduced to this exact same state, and even after somewhat picking himself back up fell down to it again. For someone like Rudy who in his previous life had been exactly the same as her there. While also having that same experience in that world. Should show just how much more both Rudy has grown to were seeing it doesn't spin him into a spiral anymore, but also even more to how Nana Hoshi has fallen to the point were she is in Rudy's last life's shoes, all because he tried to save her in his previous life.

Imagine if she talked about how someone saved her from getting hit by a truck and then she says she would have preferred being hit and dying.

Shizu from tensura

she straight up asks Rudeus "do you even want to go back?" the first time they meet at the school and he says "no, I died so I'd have nothing to return to"

The reason Isekai fans don't care much about this is because these people's lives are boring, monotonous, with bad families and they have nothing to lose in this world, they are already in a dissociative state with reality.

Hello there. :D

Hi

That's what have always weirded me out about Subaru. I'm anime-only and some LN readers said that in the LN, even at the point of Season 1, he's already accepted that he can't return to Japan. And at first I was like, I guess that's understandable. Maybe he had a bad life and this new world is like a video game, but then we learn in S2 that his parents are basically almost perfect. It's very different with Rudy since he was a shut in and he knew that he got ran over and died. So it's more understandable that he just accepted that he got transported to another world. But Subaru was just suddenly teleported. It's so weird that at least in the anime, he never once thought about his parents until the trial and he never once wondered if he could return to Japan.

I really like how empathetic the characters are, especially Rudy. I also like how Rudy didn't solve the problem himself, he called on his friends to help him find a solution. Everyone contributes.

Above all the desire to come back home there's a biggest reason why she is so desperate in this scene

🥶🥶

Meanwhile Arifureta has the MC literally unintentionally killing God and making a harem... As literal side activities on his attempt to get home. I do notice that they try to ignore the mental breakdown in most Isekai as a "The MC doesn't have anything back home that they are personally attached to." Yeah it is a cop out and honestly I love that Mushoku Tensei had the balls to do a scene like this. And a VA willing to do that to their throat. Because some of that can leave your throat Raw for a while.

My Big issue with modern isekai is, they are suposed to be fish out of water stories, people from other worlds and that is supposed to be the centeral conflict not the deamon lord or what ever. most isekai characters forget about their knowlege and experiences from their origin world.

Its also important to note that guys tend to have easier time letting go and starting again. Business go burst, dropping everything and go explore the new world, head to an unknown country for missionary work, getting enslaved and sold to another country, getting jailed for life. Humans, especially men, are great at adapting to the new reality. Women, while still capable at adapting to the new reality like how they have been doing for millennia leaving their father's house and live with someone they barely know, women still have stronger attachment to the people and places

Arifureta's MC also tries desperately to get home but A) he enjoys many aspects of that new world and B) he doesn't ever have a "oh shit, I CANNOT get home" phase, but tbf, he's already been beaten down and broken so that phase was probably skipped in the midst of all that torture

MCs wanting to go back was common place in older anime/manga. Isekais right not focus a lot more on the escapism to the point I think it should be a completely different genre because not only are they being thrown into a different world, they are being reborn into a completely different life with their past lives being only an afterthought

At a point in my life I would've taken the Isekai without hesitation. I got a disease and took care of my mom until she passed. I had almost nothing left back then and another world with a new body? sign me up. But nowadays I'm used to the disease and have friends around me who support me and we keep each others spirits up. And I'd hate to be thrust somewhere else and lose that. It does all depend on a persons situation and time and place in life. Rudeus was stuck in a place without much to lose and probably at his lowest point. So for him a new fresh start was perfect. I do love seeing the other side where a character being thrown into another world is just miserable because it's also realistic. Everything you knew and had is just gone in the blink of a eye. I think most people would panic and break down.

bro like i wait every fucking day just to watch your videos, you're great. Amazing episode, i really enjoyed it, when rudy said to sylphie "what i want isn't children, it's the fruit of love with someone i cherish" brooooo that hit me really really hard, beautiful beautiful scene and wonderful chapter. Rn actually i completely respect rudy in a lot of ways thanks to this kind of stuff.

Nanahoshi has circumstances well beyond "My old life was good". Remember that she the only person on the six-faced world with Japanese features, and is unaging (which some people would consider a positive, but in reality just intensifies her sense of isolation).

My friend and I talk about this idea a lot and it's very similar to what you were saying. Imagine the MC is a successful business owner with a very loving and supportive family and friends. Everything is going so well, the MC is so satisfied with life they couldn't ask for more, but then they get isekai-ed into a world that's similar to Berserk or AoT's setting, and shit starts to immediately go downhill from there. It turns out, one of the gods, the god of envy decided to interfere with fate because MC's life is almost perfect. This god then chose the worst possible world in the worst possible dimension just because. it would be very interesting to see the MC struggle with this sudden change and then seeing them regain a positive outlook as well as the motivation/drive to change the world into a better place. It's just like, can you imagine a person that didn't experience major hardships, struggles, and suffering of any kind get so low so suddenly you'd be convinced they'd most likely end their life?