Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

[Kraco]

All I can conclude from that is that this WHOLE world is full of ecchi, and that this behavior is normal there. But the only way to accept that is by acknowledging that this is a dumb ecchi-anime, because if you wanted to depict REAL medieval times, you'd have to portray all the sex-related mischief as more negative. Mushoku doesn't do this, however, it's all "funny" or otherwise inconsequential.

This is still a story created by the entertainment industry. What you are saying basically equals to 95% of Hollywood action movies ending prematurely because the action hero actually was, mysteriously, unable to take out 50 enemies all on his own and thus he died. The end.

Ask yourself this: Would Mushoku be any worse if ALL the ecchi scenes (not counting the flashback to his old life) were missing? I can answer that with a definite NO. If the author wanted to portray Rudy's struggle with old, nasty habits, he could have done that A ) all inside his head, and B) without the cringe hentai-grin. Rudy is voiced by frikkin Kon's voice actor, WHO BETTER would be able to act the thoughts of a distressed mind?! No need to show and act out any criminal pervert scenes, just have Kon argue with himself. It was such an obvious choice, but instead they give Rudy a cheap pervert grin. sigh

Again, because I want to make this clear: I'm mostly enjoying this anime. And I'm okay with degenerate scenes, with ecchi, with gratuitous rape, with any heinous shit. I'm 100% against censorship and pro-creative freedom. But: I want it to make sense. That's what makes a good story. Internal logic. And Mushoku is missing that internal logic whenever it tells us anything ecchi.

Yeah, like I have said, some of the scenes weren't needed. However, this show is going out of its way to not pretend humans don't have any sexual drive or that a person like the MC, who lived a totally terrible past life, wouldn't try to live his second life, with a much better beginning, as fully as possible. Nevertheless, his character had been schooled by an endless amount of porn games and other material in his past life, so it immediately affected his priorities and decisions in this life. In my opinion Rudeus being a kind of screwed up individual is better than some goody two-shoes.

You know what would have been more meaningful and thus better? If Rudy had full-on raped Eris. Rape her, satisfy his own nasty urges. Then afterwards DEAL WITH IT. Show us what it did to Eris (and no, not in the Zenith-way of showing her all happy and fallen in love with her rapist ...). Show us how she lost all her confidence suddenly and is shy and such. Show us Rudy feeling miserable about what he did and how he intends to make up for it (admit his crime and go to prison/execution? Be sent on a punishing mission? Avoiding punishment, but ask for Eris forgiving + maybe taking responsibility and marry her? Etc, etc.. ). THAT would be meaningful development. When the merchant offers him an aphrodisiac, have Rudy make a loud scene how dare that old man tell a 7yo kid about sex and stuff!!1, like that.

You certainly would make quite a niche author if you started to write manuscripts... But no, exactly what part of Rudeus's personality makes you think he's an evil rapist? Not to mention he couldn't rape Eris even if he wanted to, unless he used his magic to render her unconscious or dead before doing the deed. But yeah, that wouldn't be Rudeus. Who knows what has made you think he's so utterly evil. It's like you are talking about a different character from a different series. He's a pervert, but he also admires Roxy and only wishes the best for her, he went really out of his way to help Sylphie and is planning to further that assistance, and he suffered a lot to try to make Eris accept education for her own good. Yes, he has lewd fantasies about all of them and wouldn't be above copping a feel, but he wouldn't want to hurt them (he just doesn't understand that groping already could hurt them).

This is what makes all this dumb ecchi scenes so frustrating: There's so much potential for a good story, for good development. But it never happens.

After reading how you wanted Rudeus to brutally rape Eris, I'm quite sure I don't want to see your version of a "potential for a good story".

That's why he explained in detail to a 7yo boy how he'd be able to "thrust it into a woman 10 times!!1", eh?

There are far worse merchants (scammers) in the real world. It's nothing short of realistic.