Responding to THE ANIME FEMINIST's bad Mushoku Tensei takes (as a female anituber) 

We can't even get to the moral arguments if we don't have the media critic presenting the author's writings accurately to begin with.

It amazes me how so many people miss the fact that Rudy's overall mental/emotional maturity and well-being are directly reflected in his sexual deviancy. At the start of the series, he's a severely damaged person who interprets basically all positive interpersonal emotions sexually (I could go on about this. There are SO many instances where it happens) and a lot of his growth is marked by overcoming sexual hurdles. Of course at his lowest, he's going to do the most repugnant things. After the Sylphie clothes incident, he becomes way more respectful of her boundaries and even overcorrects, making it awkward. When he takes things too far with Eris, he feels terrible that he hurt someone he grew to care for and when they make their "5 years" promise, he resolves to keep his hands to himself in regards to children (in the books he literally says "Lolita good, touching bad"). When he rescues the beastfolk children from the slavers, he interprets his protectiveness sexually, but it actually makes him uncomfortable because his morality has developed enough that he intuitively understands that it's wrong. And I would say that the point where he finally grows up in terms of sexuality (not to say that there's zero growth beyond this point) is after he overcomes his own sexual trauma. It's genuinely shocking that supposed media analysts can't catch on. If they disagreed or disliked this messaging, that would be one thing (and I would actually be interested in reading an article from that perspective). But it's about as subtle as a brick through a window. Then again, this article could very well be self-aware ragebait. That is a viable business model, unfortunately.

As soon as I hear that Lilia part, I immeditely knew the wrtier is full of crap. It is exlicitely stated that the gap between the SA and the affair is wide. Fuck, Lillia makes her hate for Paul very clear and made her intentions clear as well, even her making the moves clear. And Paul never being called out? Really? The guy who is almost always shat on cause there are way more people that hate him than there are that actually likes him?

I find it odd how many people want a "meta" punishment for characters in media. Like because a person does "bad" in the series, they must be punished or otherwise have something bad to them because of some sort of like karmic force? even when it doesn't make sense. The article might say that isn't what they want, but I call bullshit. Case in point with Rudeus... what consequences should he face that would make sense in the context of the setting, world and characters? What punishment do you give to a 9 year old who does something and how extreme were those things from the perspective of Eris? (because they're definitely referring to that). Eris does react in an understandable way to what Rudeus does, she beats him up and shuns him for a period of time. Same with Lilia... what do they expect Lilia to do to a toddler, the child of her employer... because he steals her underwear? What's the reasonable reaction from an adult to a 2year old? I thought the show did briefly mention why Sara dislikes Rudeus? not like a huge amount, but I thought she did talk about it to him. Also, I find it amusing how you brought up Konosuba briefly... as no one seems to complain about that when Kazuma repeatedly sexually harasses girls all the time, and it literally is played off as a joke with very limited consequences.

I feel that every show that's not standard in every way is liable to getting backlash. People thought that american psycho was misogynistic and homophobic when it was actually critiquing how the upper class treat those people.

You notice how quiet everybody is during season 2's run? Rudy is on his best behavior and not enough drama or chaos is happening! Oh if ONLY something that could cause him to backslide into degeneracy so we can complain! Perhaps an animal that is a harbinger of some calamity might do the trick. . . .Perhaps a snake, or a rat. . . . Which would then change the entire flow of the story so far, like a turning point of some kind. . . .

Those weirdos who keep bringing this up are hoping the others slide into their DMs. I have seen them talking about it on Reddit. Their moral compasses are broken.

Funny how writers say a book is a favorite and completely misses the condition of the main character. Covenant was not a shut in, he was a leper. His condition affects his virility so when he gets transported and is miraculously cured his urges gets the best of him. He is totally different from Rudeous. The characters have very little similar

Sounds like they haven't read "A Song of Ice and Fire" (Game of Thrones), grimdark stories (worse than Mushoku Tensei) don't superimpose normal societal morals onto their settings; it's okay to have grey characters and no moral vortex that warps the plotline punishing "bad" characters and not the good guys. The best thing about Game of Thrones is the feeling that anything can happen, just like in REAL LIFE history, it's not so black and white

Honestly with how they were running down the list of offenses from Rudy, and Paul. I’m surprised they didn’t also include Grandpa Greyrat indulging himself with the beast-kin help.

This "Garrick" dude sounds like the kind of person you just want to block in real life. Holy f, imagine living your life THAT insufferable.

Nat dunking on dumbasses from twitter is my favourite genre.

Even if it's his second life he's also not an adult. Just because you have the memories from one wouldn't mean there aren't things in check to force you into the role suited to your new body. I don't think he acts like a child because he was a hikki for most of his life. I think he acts like one because he literally just is one. So it makes even less sense why he would need punishment of any kind. He also has no common sense from the world he is in. This is a world where slavery exists, where you have to learn how to fight cuz demon beasts exist, and where magic exists. His previous life experience really has no value to him here. Not to mention we really don't know the common sense between love in this world either. We don't really know if people find their partner when they are like 9 and grow into it like what used to happen in the past. Arranged Marriage definitely seems to be a thing here. Women also seem to have rights in this world which is a major difference between this fantasy one and our world. I'd imagine it's a change that comes with magic because magic gives women a path they can do and not be dead weight in a combat situation. Combat is super important in this world in general and there are adventurers in the world considering Ghislaine used to be one. Most of the adult characters used to be one and we see how the process works through Rudy as well. So there isn't really any reason to compare this anime to real life in any way. It's so far detached that you can't really say this anime can cause any real life problems in it. Even if it is a 1 to 1 to our world people are watching anime because it's not real to begin with. So no one really cares about anything twitter bickers about.

The fact that this anime is so utterly despised by idiots on twatter was half the reason I watched the series.

I really hate how the word "P*dophile" has become a buzzword when judging any sort of isekai character. The point of the isekai genre is letting characters get a second chance at life and become better people if not, display that they already are good person. Mushoku Tensei isn't a Shonen, it's clearly listed underneath the Seinen demographic because it focuses on adult themes and one of those themes is consequence.

This sadly happens a lot with MT. You meet a lot of bad faith actors in regards to talking about the series. The series is not without flaws, that much is for sure, but the points they always bring to the front are most of the times very forcefully done so. Like Rudeus being a P in his previous life always makes it sound like he actually did cause some kind of harm, where in fact he "only" consumed a whole lot of eroge, and certainly some with the "loli" tag. We also should remind ourselves that the writer wanted us to imagine Rudeus being at the lowest acceptable point in life. He is not a monster, but also very much degenerated from the way we expect humans ought to be. Most arguments start off to make Rudeus out to be the worst kind of human being, where his past is in fact the flaw he has, which demands that literally every action taken within this new life should serve the purpose of redemption. Whenever he does something that doesn't serve this purpose, he is automatically the reincarnation of the anti-christ and the series is excusing whatever fallible behavior he has shown previously. Especially for people who see themselves as critics is this kind of argument actually disgraceful. Because there is a certain refusal to engage on a deeper level. They fall prey to prejudice, where they dislike the series from the start or even with the intention of justifying their dislike. If you watch a series in this way you are quick to connect dots, that do not exist to fill in the gaps to make a complete picture of what we want to believe. The best example is the repeated false assumption that Rudeus taunts his victims with their stolen underwear. As Natalie stated - that's Kazuma. But the situation in MT is not dire enough for the "critic" at this point and he seemingly wants Rudeus to be some kind of deviant he is not, which is where assumptions, false interpretation, simple oversight or even like in this case confusion with other mindliked series comes into play. And in this case it's not like there is only a certain nuance that hints to how we should see the situation. In most cases the series is pretty damn straight forward with it, because Rifujin wanted us to understand this. It is the core message of the series and what he intended to convey first and foremost: "We can do better". What I also often hear as an argument is how Rudeus undressed Sylphie back in the days and they often ommit the fact why he did it in the first place. This time the person in question at leasted mentioned his misconecption about the gender of Sylphie (which a lot of people do not mention at all - so props here for that), but falsely connects this to the reasoning behind Sylphiettes admiration for Rudeus. I don't have proof for this, but it is very likely that this connection was made, because the prejudice got hold of the train of thought again and understandable mistakes have to make a turn for the worse, because at the end we ought to hate the series. So this interpretation serves the purpose of fulfilling the demand of dislike. Sadly I encountered enough arguments about Mushoku Tensei, where I witnessed this exact behavior. Even if the series did something the other side can not disregard as bad, there has to be some kind of loophole to make this positive into a negative, no matter what. Because more often than not, it is not about understanding the series. It's about winning an argument, where one has to prove, that the series is bad from a moral perspective. Sometimes I wonder if some people did not experience life at all. I'm just thinking about the Sylphie undressing equals love argument again. Whenever I meet an old friend and we reminiscence about the past, we often remind ourselfes of stories, where we did stupid stuff. Like how we used to fight over the last row seats in the bus or how we stole some apples and ran away from an angered elder. Some time later he offered us apples directly and reminded us that we were stupid to do that. It's often a tale we tell ourselves and others to remind us, that we grew past our mistakes, but we are not ashamed of them. They made us who we are today. Some memories shaped us more and some less. Sylphie is fond of her memory, where Rudeus made this mistake, because she idolized him and this scenario reminds her that he is actually also pretty stupid from time to time. It kind of humbles him for her, which is important for her relationship. Something that is also mentioned quite often is how Rudeus thinks about making Sylphie his ideal wife. Yes, he thought that and it was stupid. But, did we ever see where he actually followed through with this? Of course he didn't. Because we often tend to think up stupid stuff and end up doing nothing with it. Most of the time because we know, that it is stupid. Rudeus only cared for Sylphie after that. She is precious to him. Which is why Paul seperated them, because he was afraid that both of them would grow dependend on each other and thus unable to grow individually. Paul was very rough with this, but he did something right in this regard. Everything Rudeus thinks that is bad is put on a golden scale, where everything he positivly actually does is put on the other side of it. Positive thoughts do not matter in this case, but the negative ones do. This is kind of unfair? Isn't it? Anyway, Natalie adressed almost all points in a great capacity. Only the last one is something I thought should be added in, because he didn't do anything with it. Rudeus is a deviant in the eyes of many critics without them ever considering what he actually does and if he actually is a deviant. He is a pervert, for sure, yes. But that's not his whole character. The only great display of MT was mentioned to be how the Sara and Rudeus situation was handled, and I think it was one of the worst kinds. Because in the back of my head I always thought: "I hope they have at least one final talk about it." - but they don't. This conflict remains unresolved. If this is how an ideal outcome is imagined by "The Anime Feminist", I'm glad that I did not encounter any other media takes from this person.

Fun fact: I always thought that Mushoku Tensei was a pedo, and all that shit, anime because of what everybody was saying about it, but someday I was like "no way and anime can be so bad and still in crunchroll", I must see with my own eyes. To my surprise the anime is just awesome and now is my number one anime for life.

I love it. IIm sutting here listening to you read the article and thinking "THAT IS NOT HOW THAT SEEN WENT! WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WAS ---" just for you to present the actual scene with all its context . I truly detest people like the author of the article (who insist on having opinions on things they never consumed) since ive missed out on great shows, books, movies, and games because of them. I almost passed this show by because of its reputation.

I've read the entire Thomas Covenant series. What this male feminist didn't mention is that Thomas assaulted the 15 year old girl immediately after she greeted him as the world's savior and cured his leprosy. She then didn't rat him out to her father because she valued saving the world over her own safety. He did suffer consequences, but they were by no means immediate. Also, he in fact did have power over his victim, who thought he was the only person who could save the world. This is compared to a shut in who stole panties and humiliated bullies. Really. Really!?

10:10 Rudy not only never hurt anyone, he actually got to where he was by trying to CORRECT an injustice. He was targeted after trying to stand up to bullies, who were bullying him and others. He became the way he is only after his sense of justice and human decency were completely trampled by the bullies behavior.

Natalie you beautiful bastard ! You summed up a lot of what I thought were poignant things about what Mushoku and Rudeus is about, such as the redemption part; redemption for what ? doing nothing and being a failure ? I thought that word was reserved for events like what Thorfinn goes through in season 2 of Vinland Saga. Morever, what I would say Rudy warrants in the early parts of the show is pity not hate, how can you hate a pitiful shut in who has wasted his life ? All I can really muster up is pity and hope he'll live a more fulfulling life in his reincarnation.

Holy crap you read Thomas Covenant! I really love the fantasy setting in that series! The Land (and the cool 6th sense you get there) blew my mind!

29:42 And Rudeus is just as much an object, a character with no autonomy whatsoever, so all is fair when everyone is the same.

Most critics of Mushoku Tensei are based on the thesis “this is a redemption story, which is supposed to show us that even the worst person can become good". And then they talk about how dangerous this trope is and how poorly it's delivered. But where did it come from? Did Rifujin ever say anything like that? This interpretation of the story seems forced, and the conclusion simply means that the initial description doesn't fit. I've always thought it's actually the other way around: the story wants to show us that what is done cannot be undone, that it's not easy to change yourself, even if you start from scratch, and that you can't escape the past. And if you look at Mushoku's story from this point of view, it is almost perfect and has no major flaws. That is, the problem is incorrect presupposition, which I'm afraid in this case is “a feature, not a bug”.

14:34 there’s also the little thing of it being in the head of what 99.999% of people in that universe would assume is a child who wouldn’t even know how to do it.

I will never understand why specifically Mushoku Tensei became the target of so many people, is it because the MC was ugly in the past life? is it because some girls are lolis? is it because it was a famous show? like, why is it that specifically this show got to be the target? You know the story is good when those people need to make things up and/or appeal to morality in order to make any sort of "critiscism", while it's pathetic it's also sad to know how many people those hate videos/posts can influence in order to hate the show without even watching it. Thank you for once again going into the abyss and coming back with a clever response, it's always good to hear you answering to those idiots on the internet. I hope things get better with you financial situation btw, maybe you just get lucky and win the lottery, who knows, right? XD

Here is my response on this. "He is a" one of those "because his mind is 40ish" Well, that would be valid if they did not also argue "that vampire looks like a child, it doesn't matter if she is 1000 years old!" Either the body counts, or the mind counts. By making both arguments, you lose any credibility that either stance could have.

I'd like author projection for 1000 Natalie. Thank you for this great deconstruction of an author clearly ignorant of the source material. I wonder how hurt they will be when they find out that Eris doesn't leave forever, who the mysterious blue haired girl is, and that Sara and Rudy on seeing one another again, apologize to each other. It amazes me that the worst offenders of what these people claim to hate about MT get free passes seemingly because they are women, like Lilia *groomer* and Ariel *grapest*. It is somewhat amazing that Rudy becomes as good a person as he does in the MT world. He had many opportunities to go bad, but his dedication to taking advantage of his second chance at getting serious about living is what I find inspiring.

These people somehow forget Rudy was playing with Sylphy all day long, every day! If anybody spent time with their small relatives would know it is God damn BORING. Sure, i love my nephew and like spending time with her if it is less than few hours as i can't bare it longer. But somehow "adult man" Rudy was playing with Sylphy entire day for months if not years. He didn't even know Sylphy was a girl back then, again "an adult man" would notice it without any question. Simply because he wasn't feeling nor thinking like an adult man rather a child. His memories were making him a wise child at best, in fact there are so many his childish mistakes and antics in the story. So many people miss this fact and somehow consider him as "an adult man" which is just ridiculous. If somebody thinks Mushoku tensei anime is "pedo" you can bet they either didn't watch the show or are below average intelligence..

You're amazing Natalie, thank you for your Mushoku Tensei videos 👌🏽

man the amount of projection is insane 18:05 hahahhahahaha

Tell me you didn’t read/listen to the LN or watch the anime without telling me you didn’t read/listen to the LN or watch the anime. 🤣

Couldn’t help but notice the original didn’t even mention Rudy almost committing during the Sara portion makes me think they didn’t even watch it and just got their info from reddit or Twitter

"should she be traumatized and..." Yes. To these people absolutely yes; because they would be traumatized by a feather so long as it was a male holding it.

I am so sick of these "Fans" who decided a piece of Fiction isnt good because they dont handle a Subject the way the deem it should. This always happens with Popular Anime, just like Shield Hero and the False Accusations, or the Trope of Slaves in Isekai. If the dont like it, then just DONT WATCH IT. There are sooooo many other types of Anime/Manga out there. Instead of them Complaining about one they dont like, they could just talk about ones they do. I always hear about them complaining about the OP Male Isekai Hero, but I never hear ANY of them talk about the ones with Female Heroes, like Heretical Last Boss Queen.

Always a good day when nat makes a video

this gives me the feel of someone who read Mushoku Tensei from the rumors rather from the source material and decided to write an article about it. or they did read it and selective memory is one hell of a drug.

See here's the thing about reincarnation and the keeping of your memories is that it could be seen as a harsh punishment and burden all in one. You can't speak of a past life without sounding like a complete nutter in a fantasy world or imagine you left behind a wife, kid, family or friends behind in your old life and now have no way of ever returning or seeing them again. Your memory of a past life would outright haunt you. We know the past haunted Rudy for a very long time even in his new life and took him serious hard work to fully get over with the help of some amazing people. Is that not enough of a punishment that his past trauma follows him everywhere. Even in S2 it's still there. He suffered bullying so humiliating that is way beyond what most ordinary people could deal with. Most people would struggle to deal with that even if given a second chance at life. The fact is Rudy didn't get a chance to grow up normally, hell because of what happened during puberty it would have liked caused to him regress in mental age. So in terms of punishment he is constantly being punished through out his life in other ways like through plot elements or character relationships. Eris "abandoned" him and causing his issue with women, a mental block to having relation with women for a long time. He got teleported to a hostile place and only managed to survive thanks to good fortune. His new family and friends he knew were scattered across the world. We also have things like whenever he tried to do something a little pervy with Eris, he got his ass beat. What more do you want as punishment? Him being executed? See him locked up for years for what back in those days as soon as boys and girls hit puberty you were adults, no such thing as a teenager back in those kind of times. Now let's be honest a lot of teenagers today get up to far worse behind closed doors. I know friends who as a teen got another teenager pregnant or got themselves pregnant and became a father/mother way too young and no I ain't speaking as an old man. I'm a young man in his 20's.

Of course this person comes to the conclusion that they did. To someone like this every work of fiction has to not only agree with their world view, but it has to do so in the most obvious way possible. Oh, and context--like the setting--has no meaning, unless we're talking about something they themselves did and then it's the most important thing. Any story that doesn't send an obvious message that agrees with their narrative of the world is dangerous because it then must be sending the complete opposite message.

When I think of stories with morally grey protagonists, the “redemption” usually has little to do with being punished and is more about choosing to do something noble or selfless. Narratively speaking, “punishment” is generally what happens when a character fails to depart from a certain path in time to avoid the full consequences of that path. Hence, it’s a fate usually reserved for an antagonist, or the protagonist in a cautionary tale, rather than for characters with questionable morals per se. Rudeus’ redemption begins in literally the first couple of chapters with the resolution to do his best in this new life: which we see him put into from basically the moment he’s able to do anything himself. Meanwhile, any problematic interactions he has with other characters are shown to be a function of his naivety and sexual frustration rather than the calculated manipulations of a sexual predator (side note: but even the thing about training Sylphie to be his perfect woman gets dropped seconds later in the light novel, with Rudeus himself acknowledging that this would make him a “very pathetic type of villain”). It’s not something he needs to atone for so much as a lesson he failed to learn in his previous life, but once he does learn it there’s no problem anymore. That’s what his journey is about: going through all the stages of development he missed out on the first time around. And honestly, why would Sylphie or Eris bear him any sort of grudge for those early incidents? As kids, they were also naive about these things, and as adults . . . well, they aren’t third wave feminists, so it’s safe to assume they would just look back and say “My, young Ruddy was prodigious in more ways than one, wasn’t he?”

I know it's not the writers intention but definitely makes me want to be hit by a truck.. but this story hits harder than most I've watched since the likes of Eva, GitS, Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Beebop.. there's been some funny and good ones but this one hits differently.. failure, regret, remorse, loss and being the subject of the 'class's' rejection and bullying.. What would you do if given another chance with the memories you have now..? Thing's probably very different.. I will support this anime till I die..to detractors be glad my desire isn't like Redo of Healer even if the world deserves it.. or Berserk for that matter... the rot is rather deep after all.. this one helps me get up in the morning to face another day of doldrum.. false hope but hope none the less..

I love your examples of Bojack and Baitmen. Rudeus is easily in my top list of favourite protagonists, along with Bojack, Ainz, Walter White etc, layered protagonists are easily the best kind. I now that sounds like a “well that’s obvious” kind of take, but there are so many stories that I love but usually I find the main character so boring.

Rifujin did a good job to trigger debates about his work story of redemption from a reincarnated man that was reprehensible in his previous life. Truck-kun started it all and is really the true hero. Good to see you Natalie. Thank you for the content as always.

24:03 having thrown water at while naked in a jail in the middle of the jungle is not humiliation

Its sad the number of people these days that can't separate fiction and reality.

Stories should invoke emotions including those you are uncomfortable with and be able to tread on topics to empathize with, to distain and to be angry about. There is a world to be craft, story to be told and for the hero's journey participate in which we get to scrutinize and see a redemption. It is too bad those that hate idea of redemptions and growth of characters or bringing any understanding of characters using dispicable resources available to them. Like the Sylphette stripping, Rudeus did try to face up to his mistake, would this writer actually take any responsibility of mistakes they would have made? What about all those who suffer through social anxiety, they suppose to magically be able to set aside their struggles and able to do what they need to perfectly in stressful situations? there is no sympathy from these people it seems.

Hearing all of this article being read just makes me think this person has never actually watched it by giving it a fair shake. It sounds like they came in with preconceived notions that Rudeus is reprehensible. This sound like this person is watching the show to be able to say that they watched it while writing the article without actually pondering about why the author had chosen the specific way that it was portrayed.

the article had me shaking my head so many times in disbelief. What I first got out of the series was that it was about second chances (I can be very much wrong about that) and I saw myself in Rudy at least a few times while going through it. This was a very nice video.

Being a fan of anime and a fourth wave feminist is a oxymoronic

Always a good day when we get a Nyatalie video

I don’t understand what exactly Rudas has done that people think he deserves punishment for or consequences. True he does think about doing some bad things, but he never actually acts on his thoughts usually when he tries, he’s usually prevented from acting it by outside forces

Its so obvious when critics of the show have only read wikis and forum posts rather than actually reading the books and having an opinion from them. Its ok to not like the show, novels or manga, but be honest why you don't enjoy it, and not just repeat stuff you read on a wiki or forum.

A lot of the hate for this show boils down to people's dislike of Asian culture IMO. I was just talking about this show with a friend because we watched a movie made in America called Lisa Frankenstein and they literally have a scene where a teen girl is being masturbated by a reanimated corpse. I brought up how I see stuff like this in Western media all the time but if it were an anime people would be freaking out.

the fact that the website also only approves comments that agree with the article is so funny

8:15 Bro the way they are skewing the events is crazy

Why must people "suffer"? This person's proclivity to say that the moment Sarah tells off Rudy as "The most satisfying moment of the show" really tells me a lot about this person. That moment was devastating to me, and it was meant to be devastating. You're supposed to be rooting for Rudy's improvement and to see him throw a lot of it away felt horrible. You shouldn't *feel satisfied* about someone "getting what they deserve". That's just psychopathic behavior. Searching for a vessel that you believe to be worthless enough that you justify the hatred of. The reason it felt bad is because Sarah was right, Rudy was spiraling, and was hurting people around him. I don't understand why people are obsessed with this idea of "you must SUFFER for your actions..." It gives me lots of creepy original sin self whipping vibes.

For a group that promotes tolerance and acceptance of other cultures. They seem to really hate them when it does not conform to their sensibilities.

1:33 now I kinda want a voice recording of "I will fulfil you very soon" :D

The bit about his treatment of Eris. Rudy and Eris essentially lived together for at least a year or two, practically alone except for Ruijard, are we to assume there wasn't at least discussion about it for all that time? For that situation, just because it's not shown, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If you're still offering the sound clips when I start streaming, I'll make sure to think of you for a sound alert. Probably something Shield Hero or Mushoku Tensei related

Natalie, you are really on point with your reply to the article.

How does someone see a cripplingly awkward child who wants to apologize for doing something bad, and instead of seeing all that go "yup, he's objectifying that woman". Brainrot this bad should get you committed.

Love you hope all is well

I love these call out videos. I would love to watch your spoiler videos to support you but I’m anime only.

It's really unfortunate that the ED Arc didn't give us Rudy's inner dialogue during the first half as he became Quamire Rudeus. The ED Arc is actually my favorite Arc as we watch him confront his worst personality traits one by one. And, because his reasoning behind his actions is called out one by one, it would be harder for someone to twist what the show is really about. Without his inner dialogue, we really skim over just how much heartache and emotional suffering Rudy went through. It's part of the reason why i don't debate anyone's personal takes on Mushoku. Even when people are completely wrong about the show and its intentions, it's hard to showcase exactly why they are wrong using the anime only information. I think mushoku is a wonderfully written story about overcoming yourself, your past traumas and doubts, to take a step forward and another chance on life. And im glad that there are other people that got interested enough in its story to read or listen to the light novel to truly come to love the show as much as I do.

The Anime Feminist? Ugh, doubtful anything of merit ever came out of that site. And seeing what they said about this, I'm not wrong. Mushoku is an incredible story, and it gets better as it goes. This is just a take they know people are going to be annoyed at and hope for rage clicks.

Thanks for posting this. Sometimes it feels like a whole bunch of outsiders that aren’t exactly attuned to anime in general topics like this and or run with it without any further information….

it honestly feels like there will always be people who have an issue with this series purely because of rudy and always try to push political or heavily misguided narratives all to keep themselves from enjoying the anime or reading the novels. i'd pretty much given up at this point trying to convince these people that they're missing the point of everything and refuse to put on their thinking caps in order to see the bigger picture.

funnily enough, the way that rudy is spoken of reminds me of rudeus's reputation as the owner of the dead ends, everyonethinks he's a sadistic tyrant who goes around oppressing people with sheer might

The moment the writer began with stating (erroneously) that Rudeus is a "pdf file", I knew it was all hogwash. I can't take you seriously If you can't even keep your facts straight.

Nice video I can really only assume the person who made that article or whatever never actually watched or read Mushoku Tensei as none of their arguments made any sense especially not their conclusion

Also heres the thing, a woman directed American Psycho and I would totally recommend the Directors Cut of the film and out of all the films directed by women, American Psycho never even gets a single nod, but of course as for the topic at hand, I think women should enjoy anime even if the protagonist is questionable at the beginning as long as the story is gripping and also entertaining as well, people are just doing this just because they have no value to their life and want to feel like they are the victims in this situation, they keep saying it is all about them and make these disgusting hit pieces without doing any actual research, that's the thing that irks me, nobody does any research. I mean try to enjoy watching anime for what it is.

I'd like to introduce this person to the Redo of Healer anime, and watch as they get an aneurysm over fiction while there are so much more in the real world we should be concerned about..

Its really the same song and dance with these people. if someone gets reincarnated and apparently keep thier minds and past life brain in tact. They don't want to think of that person who is now an acutal child to be seen as one but to be only known for their past age. Ive brought this up somewhere else but how the hell is it they think well if hes this age then he should only be dating people around thier mental age. In this case Rudy should only date roxy . But here is the problem lets say they get that wish and rudy dates a woman his age and she was human, do they understand that they paired a child with an middle age to elderly person and that won't look right anywhere? No , so imo rudy waited till he was in a real relationship especially with slyphie amd they are both consenting adults. So stop with the gacha momemts of going see ! See! He is a creep and people like this eewwww!

Alright so i rewatched the episode involving Paul and Lilias affair and it did mention later that paul did SA Lilia in the past through a conversation between Rudeus and her. I then went and watched some reaction videos and it turns out that some Interpreted that conversation to be about the recent event, and also them taking what Rudeus said to Zenith at face value. Doesn't excuse this Journalist since their job is to get facts right but turns out its possible to come to that conclusion without listening to heresay.

24:20 Remember the free apartment ad in the Great Forest, in Dedoldia Village? he got it for free after saving the children and the holy beast, then he got an upgrade after saving the village from fire. Worth mentioning about Galus fight, if the holy beast hadn't joined in, he would've let him do what he wanted..Still, he played the crucial role of defeating him while others tanked/distracted him

Paused at 8:19. Ouch that was a hot take. Had he brought up Paul there as the one that failed to guide Rudy better or some such more like that; I might be able to understand the point better. I see what you mean that they seem to miss the point already.

Great video! Rlly enjoyed ur takes! I get u prob dont want to give more attention to dumb articles but id love to see paragraphs, clips from manga or just in general text when reading something to also make it easier to follow for my slow brain xD Still very enjoyable

The thing about amnesia-free reincarnation is, we have no idea what it’s like because it doesn’t happen to us. We don’t exactly know how relevant or resilient “mental age” is to the hormones and impulses of biological age. When I was 15 years old, I was sexually attracted to 15 year old girls in my grade. As a dad in his 30s, I’m no longer attracted to 15 year old girls. Is that a result of my age or the fact that I’m no longer shackled by a puberty bombarded teenage vessel?

at this point I simply ignore these discussions. it all started with Tate no Yuusha back then, people talking shit about stuff they shouldn't talk about, or rather those people shouldn't be heard at all. free speech is sadly a double edged one lol, all you can do is ignore the white noise.

Didn't expect a Different Strokes reference. Bravo

Watching your responses to these people commenting on Mushoku or Re: Zero and hearing about their takes for the first time really makes me question if they watched the same show that I did.

I don't get how people are more sympathetic to a character like Walter White, who becomes more evil as the narrative of Breaking Bad progresses, than Rudeus, who goes in the opposite direction. Maybe people just hate anime for the sake of hating anime idk.

i recently saw someone saying (on Reddit) Redo of a healer was better than Mushoku Tensei for writing, in their words not exactly but the sum of what i remember "it makes more sense for what the character is doing in Redo than Rudy." they did mention the character is Redo is a psycho but still was trying to make some kind of downplay of Mushoku, now i hope they were a troll and not serious but after reading some of the people thoughts on the series/ip i would not be shocked.

I just realized it was the writer that was making those comment about Rudy being a pdf Im silly XD good video Nat

We live in a time where Social Media platforms, RU-vid and other content forms reward bad takes and good takes equally. Post a bad take and everyone is up in arms over it? Take in all the traffic and issue a small apology. It's the new version of there is no such thing as bad PR, as long as people are engaging in your content the platform is happy. I am not saying everyone does this, but the most influential people who should be responsible and not put out garbage takes, are there to grab attention and don't care who keeps repeating their bad takes. There are 2 types of people who put out L takes on the story, those who hear distorted information from second hand sources and don't bother to check and those who lost the plot and are only going through the story to back up their bad take. They post their bad takes, people argue and the platform promotes the discussion, if there is anything not getting punished its the promotion of misinformation, The kind bad info that can lead people to ingesting disinfectant to clear a virus ...

31:42 I can imagine a fair criticism for malecentric guidance in the general bildungsroman: the masculine mentor typical for a boy to grow under doesn't need to be male to fit their role; however, in a society where men fill the roles that boys take up, such as in the world of MT, it is appropriate for men to predominantly mold the bildungsroman.

As with a lot of these sorts of arguments, I feel that they aren’t really engaging with the work properly. There’s no hint that they have looked at the authors motivations or anything. Also, they are shoehorning their worldview or philosophical framework onto it without really interrogating it properly. Or at least that’s how it seems to me. The only thing I agree with particularly is the bit about Roman Polanski but that has nothing to do with Mushoku Tensei at all.

A friend if mine just made a vtuber model but doesnt know how to stream with it... any chance you could help them with it?

Remember everyone, people how complain about Dark fictional stories, always end up having it in there likes, or are scretly hiding there feeling from liking the Dark stuff in fiction...So there is a good chance they are just being hypocrites over it...

Even just the premise that a redemption story must include some kind of recompense for actions before the start of the story is a bit misguided anyway. The key of a good redemption story is not repeating the mistakes of your previous failures and the struggle around doing that.

This deserves way more views. Mushoku Tensei isn't a redeemtion story nor is it a power fantasy... it's bits and pieces of both along with real human emotion and struggle. This LN/WN getting an adaptation has been an amazing and terrible thing, I wish anime wasn't as mainstream anymore in the west.

That article sounds mind numbing to read, nice video going through it.

Hey Natalie, Have you thought about making more shorts and tiktok videos for more growth. You deserve all the hype so would really like to see you grow

People are OBSESSED with consequences in fiction for some reason. They're so obsessed that authors now make it a point to reach down with the hand if god and force these consequences even if it makes the actual writing of the story worse.

honestly i don't mind it, Mushoku Tensei being able to gate keep itself is a good thing and i wish more franchises could pull it off as effectively if they want to make articles to keep other leeches away... great

I remember this article being recommended to me by some hardcore MT-haters, who all were pretty far right in their poltical believes! MT haters will make any and every excuse to slander the story. As they have proven to me, they will even toss aside their own poltical opinions, just to endorse someone, who also hates MT like themselves. Astounding! And, yes, I read the entire article. What I took away from it is, that its author ignored everything in the story that would go against their claims (which are a lot of things!), just to sh*t on MT! This is a very classic tactic among the haters. Moreover, the article also gets many facts wrong and simply copypastes all the "scandals" (=mostly misinterpretations of dicey scenes), that the MT-hater have been peddling to that point. The authro basically admit in their own article, that they didn't care whether there will be any character developement in the future for Rudy (or other characters), because they had already made up their mind about the story. ---> THIS EXACT MINDSET is the epitome of the MT-haters way of thinking: "The story is pdf-file, because I have already decided, that this is what it is! I don't care about anything that happens on screen, unless it supports my claims and if something doesn't , I'll just ignore it!"

39:00 No. Does it really want that? I didn't get that out of it. It was more like "What would you actually do if you were transported to another world" or "How to live your best life" or something like that.

These modern “journalists” cannot be taken seriously. They must be mocked

Spoilers, maybe. Seems people continually think change must only happen after retribution. While that's not a bad idea for some cases, it's not always required. Rudeus doesn't require retribution to change as an individual. Also, one thing people seem to forget is that everyone sees rudeus as a child in those scenes. Why would Sylphie and Eris be traumatized even in retrospect of their life? All they remember is him as a child in those times. Also, their section on Sara is just hilarious, especially knowing the future. Lastly you just know they thought their final conclusion was some epic own. I mean it was, it tells me they know nothing on the series.

So to break it down for the haters, he was damaged emotionally and stunted in that regard. In his new life negative actions always have consequences and he grows. And he develops real relationships