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The best part of Mushoku is its degeneracy. Let’s atleast be honest with ourselves here. Mushoku wouldn’t be this popular if it wasn’t as shamelessly self-indulgent as it is. Even I, a deviant of the highest caliber, one who can almost call Rudeus my equal, felt inspired. I revere Mushoku for its honesty. Its disregard for vain and illusory confines is key to its ascendency. It’s one man’s vision reigning supreme; his perverse fantasy stands alone. Let the moralists sneer! Or as I delineate them: Liars. Oh those self-deceivers! – those tartuffes, who masquerade as moral. Don’t let their vanity fool you, dear reader; to ... delight in Mushoku’s deviancy is a marker of good taste and of an impeccable conscience.

Anyway, apart from its titillating comedy and the occasional decent action scene, Mushoku is quite mediocre. There isn’t much to say; it executes the isekai genre completely straight and does all the trite tropes to an acceptable level of quality. It’s fine. But there is a but.

My problem is that Mushoku is too honest, even for me. And I’m not talking about lusting after lolis, or – for those of finer taste – all the gropey, rapey stuff. When I say honesty, I think of Mushoku’s appeal as akin to a VN/eroge: You know very well that you’re going to die alone, so you boot up that 2000’s bishōjo game for the 10th time and replay your beloved waifu’s route to pacify yourself – it’s this level of honesty is what I’m talking about. It’s precisely what Mushoku is but for isekai.

The entire show is a revenge power fantasy that’s been turned up to 11. It's genuinely sad to watch. With no tongue in cheek, it's unironically going "if only I was born in a different world... then everything would've gone my way!" Full blast on its cope. The main character gets fellated by everything and everyone all the time. It never stops.

The author expects me to believe that suddenly this 30 year old hikikomori can now navigate the world and is superior to all the other characters, all because he was born with better circumstances. It has this nasty undercurrent of spiteful arrogance for the world. There was a scene where Rudeus condescendingly lectured his new father on being better. It was here where I initially dropped it. The author seems oblivious to the fact that the protagonist is supposed to be a complete failure at life, and not suddenly a person who’s in a position above others. There’s no room for actual character development in a way that’s believable. It’s screaming “If I was born better… If my circumstances were better! It’s all the world's fault… I’m going to have it my way…” It’s taking this sad, juvenile, and resentful view of the world and affirming it. It’s disconcerting to say the least.

Compare this to Konosuba: NEET hikikomori gets isekai’d, but he’s still a complete shitter in the next world. It’s hilarious and it does isekai correctly – if there was a way to do it correctly. There’s a distinct difference in attitude between the two: Konosuba has a lack of hatred for life. It doesn’t cry about unfair circumstances or blames the world; one never gets the sense that it's shaking its fist at God for all its problems.

But Mushoku? Rudeus quite literally sneers at God and holds him in disdain for the problems in his previous life. (Note: I’m not talking about God in a religious sense; I do not care for that. I’m talking about a life-affirming/denying – hatred for existence sort of sense.) This would be fine IF it was just Rudeus’ specific character flaws, and many will proclaim that it is; however, I argue that Mushoku does a piss-poor attempt at exploring that, and really is just the author’s whiney diatribe about existence. I can’t help but feel that I’m watching a toddler throw a temper tantrum because reality slighted his fragile ego. The author ended up writing the most self-gratifying and self-aggrandizing fanfiction to date.

Weirdly enough, I don’t recommend against Mushoku. The ecchi-comedy is fun, to those with taste, of course, and it has some good action too. It’s just the cope though; it needs to lighten up. Take notes from Konosuba or that slime isekai.

Bye bye!

“If only she got over him… then maybe I could have a chance!” cries the light novel author as he writes his NTR doujin.

Nothing is special about Makeine. It’s the 10000th rendition of a cast of cute girls involved with some loser. But atleast there’s a twist this time: The girls get cucked hard out of their love interest. This is the only interesting thing about Makeine. Everything else sucks.

The main problem of Makeine is that, despite being subversive, it’s no different from the classic, and well-beloved, loser harem show. We have a blank self-insert and a bunch of cute girls involved with the main ... character for no good reason. It’s not special at all. No matter how much it wants to paint itself and its vapid cast of characters as special with manipulative presentation.

Makeine tries to sell its hollow characters by how much they appeal as your ideal waifu. While it walks through introducing our beloved heroines one by one, it’s so obvious that they’re crafted to appeal to specific sets of tastes. Every heroine embodies an exaggerated archetype. Every anime is guilty of this to a certain extent, but with Makeine one gets the sense that an entire character's selling point is that archetypal template. Think of Love Live: Every idol in that show is made to print money; they’re marketable waifu templates made to peddle to lonely otakus. Makeine is no different. This is the business model of anime after all.

And that is as far as the characterization for each heroine goes. They’re as blank as rocks and just do what you would expect them to do based on their archetype. See this super shy and socially awkward girl? At every interaction and scene, said character would play out that role to a tee. There’s very little deviation or any substance to be found with anyone in the show.

One of the worst parts of Makeine would have to be the protagonist. Somehow, out of all the cope anime I’ve seen, this is the worst self-insert. Not only is he devoid of ANY personality, he can easily be mistaken for an eunuch—a term for castrated males who are assigned subordinate roles; their emasculation makes them the perfect docile slave, to not only to rule over, but to ensure the safety of the women in a royal palace.

Seeing that as the lead character is excruciating. He gets dicked around by all the other characters. His role seems to only be a vehicle to get the other characters to do things – rather than being an actual character himself.

The mere existence of the protagonist is what causes a lot of my problems with Makeine. Remove him. He’s unneeded. Not only does he add nothing to the show, he changes the entire lens and the expectations going into it. It could just be a handful of cute girls and their failings with romance; instead – since there's some blank, hypogonadal self-insert of a main character – the anime turns into some perverse anti-harem.

We’re not watching cute girls failing at romance; we’re watching a twisted and backwards harem anime.

“Oh… but that’s the point! See? It’s subversive and self-aware!” – says imaginary Makeine defender.

I can entertain the idea that it’s doing something similar to School Days and that it’s taking the piss out of MY expectations going into it. But even taking that as true, it comes off as a half-assed attempt at it.

Sure, it’s playing on an expectation and being subversive, but it doesn’t do anything interesting with that apart from doing the subversion. Other than that, it’s a generic romcom that’s considerably more annoying to watch – precisely because it fails at meeting the expectation it created from being subversive. It just ends up playing out how any romcom would in an infuriating way.

The most annoying part about all of this is that Makeine expects the viewer to applaud it for doing something mildly subversive. It presents itself with an air of sentimentality and entitlement. After it has shown you its groundbreakingly creative premise, it thinks that it already has you emotionally invested. I’m groaning at all the contrived sentimental scenes, at the sappy piano track, and at all its attempts to convince me that it’s some serious, deep and emotional masterpiece—It’s not. It really isn’t.

Its vapid presentation isn’t a redeeming quality. The visuals are just an eye roll; they’re painfully inoffensive. Sure, it does everything right. One could say that it looks good. But I can’t help but feel nothing towards it all. It does all the trite modern techniques—all the right camera shots, all the right editing and directing—because that's the industry standard and the formula that guarantees success. There’s no life or creativity. There’s no original or exciting animation or directing that would even hint at a spark of vision. Think of anything made by Trigger or Gainax.

This is what good anime is supposed to be apparently. Just formulaic cash grabs and with an interesting twist as the selling point. That’s Makeine for you.

Anyway! This sucks. Dropped. 1/10.

Hulaing Babies is fun and nothing else.

It's a psychedelic trip, crazy, wacky and ultimately meaningless.
Narratively there isn't much going on than what's said in the synopsis, but that's hardly why it's enjoyable.

Hyper condensed fun and aesthetically dreamlike.
There isn't much animation in terms of frames, but the colour palette and editing make up for this. Its high energy editing keeps things moving and entertaining. The characters have personalities that bounce off each other - sometimes literally thanks to the editing. Everything looks fantastic. Character designs work in perfect synergy with one another whilst complementing the dreamy background art.

The comedy is character-driven and visually spastic.
There ... are mostly multiple things happening at a given time. 2 characters having a conversation about something random and in the background, other characters will be doing their own thing. Either playing cat and mouse or bouncing off the walls. At least 1 thing is funny.

The ED is banter.
Just some dad playing a ukulele sharing some humorously dark stories about his failed marriage and daughter issues, maintaining a light-hearted tone while laughing about it, that feels totally out of place and it's fucking hilarious. Simultaneously acts as a break to calm you down and prepare you for the next episode, do not skip it.

Watch it, you'll like it.