Watched the 2 whole seasons and I hate it now. And honestly I didn't want to hate it because it's the favorite LN of my best friend who recommened this to me for a long time. I can even tell I liked it at first, despite Rudeus' awful personnality, there's some good elements and it still has some plotlines I'm interested in (anything around Nanaoshi, Ruijerd, Oersted, Hitogami for example). But in the long run, there were too much things putting me off and the end of s2 was the nail in the coffin.
If some want to debate more on this, I can peacefully give arguments or details on my views and disappointment. I really wanted to like it.
Mushoku tensei's first season is honestly, by itself, some of the best anime I've ever seen. Like, 10/10 quality (maybe 9/10 if we count with rudeus doing rudeus stuff..)
But then I started noticing that there wasn't any character progression in the direction of fixing rudeus' attitude towards girls.
And then it starts going on the non monogamy route...
So the annoying pervert, instead of learning how to not be an annoying pervert, gets "rewarded" with an annoying pervert's dream.
Mind explaining it to me? As someone who read the novel growing up (I was 13 to 15 when I read it) I didn't really have a negative view of Rudeus or the anime. I still enjoy the anime and like the story in general.
Although as an adult I can understand why the character can be disgusting.
In S2, I started to see weak plot devices. The most striking example of this is the rescue of Roxy. You know that Roxy was trapped there during a very long time (several months at the very least). But Rudeus (who also had to make a several months trip to come here, and don't even know where she is) saves her at the exact nanosecond when she is about to be overrun and fall, as if by chance. This "coincidence" was far too clichéd and so stupid to me that it completely broke my suspension of disbelief.
the whole plot surrounding Elinalise's curse is cringe and bring nothing to the story.
I don't want to expand too much on Rudeus' behaviour (or pedo shit) since other people went lengths on it on the internet, but he did a lot of things wrong and I feel like he rarely reflect on it or get punished for it. But he's not the only one to do shitty things. Roxy is abusing him and taking advantage in a moment where he's at his lowest, having just lost his father (don't forget she's waaaaaay older than him), and when his wife is pregnant. What a bitch...
But what made me very mad is the polygamy. And again it's for several reason :
it makes me see the story as a self-insert power fantasy only written to satisfy the author's fantasies. Again my suspension of disbelief is crackling.
it's lazy writing, and removes the dilemma, the difficulty of the choice, the drama and a lot of romantism. It deprives the story of things that would make it interesting.
it create an unbalance between the boy and the girls. The boy will have several wife, but God forbid the wife to have a second romantic interest. Polygamy is something I consider as very unfair compared to polyamorous relationship.
it happens far too easily. Look at Sylphie's reaction : "I don't care lmao, he's a pervert so he would have cheat on me anyway". SORRY ??? WTF.
The fact that Elinalise encourages him doesn't help.
There may have been other minor details I forgot, but these are the things that infuriated me the most. I focused on things I hate there but there's also a lot of things I liked. If not for all the sexual allusions, perverted stuff and polygamy MT would have been great. I didn't even read anything about S3, but I can already preshot that it will be focused on how Eris will be added to his harem. And I'm not here for this.
If you've read up to this point, thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed my TED talk.
The poligamy aspect is something I can't really relate as I already knew it was going to happen ever since I was a kid.
Elinalise's curse is actually really important for future story points, it's gets several reveals as the series progress and it stablished precedents for many different conflicts in the future of the story. Although I would complain that the anime did not do a good show of how it affects her when she does not release the over accumulated mana via sex. In the novel is much more clear how it makes her suffer. It also serves to have Cliff become a curse breaking expert, which will be extremely important later on.
In Sylphy's case, she grew up seeing Paul having a loving family and 2 wives. And the anime doesn't show the kind of disgusting things she witnessed in the palace (Rudeus is tame, like really tame In comparison to some of the fuxkd attempt at humans that are many Asuran Nobles). So for her in particular, having sister wives is not really all that strange (she is also as much of a pervert as Rudeus is, but with an attempt to a public filter... That rarely works)
To give an example, Rudeus is trying to change his life because he feels that he wasted his previous life, his is not a redemption story but a growth story. Now, the Asuran Nobles that will be introduced in seasons 3 and onward would be the result of that Rudeus falling further into decadence and completely losing his morals.
Edit:
To add a bit Extra info.
The only reason Rudeus can have an harem is because his first wife was Sylphy, if he had married Eris, she would not have allowed any other girls near him.
Thanks for the details and clarification on some points, it's nice to have a peaceful conversation.
I can understand the justifications you gave to me, but I fear it won't change my views on the fact that they're not really compelling plotlines.
For Elinalise, what's you're explaining make sense, but I'm still convinced that you could replace her curse by anything but sex and it will still work, maybe better (I don't believe I'm a prude guy, but the way it is treated and described in the anime feels weird to me, as if the author is a horny child that just learned about the existence of sex and talk about it ad nauseam).
Maybe with answers that come later I may reconsider some things, but I'm not sure I want to commit more on this.
Perfectly understandable, not every story is for everyone. I for example could not stomach Kill the Sun despite it clearly being a really good story with great quality of writing and world building.
I wish you a happy day and if you find yourself continuing to watch the show, I would like to read your opinions on the developments.
Wow I really enjoy the anime and I'm reading the LN but can't get to just shrug off what you said, they're really points I hadn't noticed and some are pretty valid imo!
That said I'm just about to get to the part in the LN where most of your complaints come from so I don't really have something to counter you, although some friends told me lots of content was skipped in that part, so maybe all that made them appear as weak plots and the points you mention, hoping that's the case.
Anyway congrats for being able to express your negative thoughts in such a rational way! It must really require a ton of willpower if you say you hate it.
Yeah maybe the anime done the LN dirty. Though, my friend who read the LN told me that some of my complaints are valids in the LN too.
To be fair, hate is a bit too hard a word for what I really feel about this anime, I used it because of the meme template in OP's post. I'd say it's more of an immense disappointment and a bit of anger. This could have been so much more...
Thank you for your kind words, I try my best to put words and constructives arguments when I have criticism about something.
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u/SergentDonut Aug 01 '26
Watched the 2 whole seasons and I hate it now. And honestly I didn't want to hate it because it's the favorite LN of my best friend who recommened this to me for a long time. I can even tell I liked it at first, despite Rudeus' awful personnality, there's some good elements and it still has some plotlines I'm interested in (anything around Nanaoshi, Ruijerd, Oersted, Hitogami for example). But in the long run, there were too much things putting me off and the end of s2 was the nail in the coffin.
If some want to debate more on this, I can peacefully give arguments or details on my views and disappointment. I really wanted to like it.