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Mushoku Tensei's blandness is masked heavily by it's art direction and the shock value of sexual violence. All its potential to tell a captivating story is washed away by its stubbornness to be anythign but a rapist power fantasy. The world, while beautiful at times, is mostly generic, and any rare success in storytelling is brought down immensely by the uncomfortable amount of sexual harrassment and assault, mostly by the main character. At best it's incredibly tiring, and at worst it's disgusting. I don't know how this series can maintain any semblance of profoundness when it forces in scenes of sexualized children just to secure ... an audience from pedos. Aside from his sexual violence though, I like Rudeus as a character. He's somewhat human, and you can see when he celebrates because he achieved something, or when he slips up. And he slips up a lot. There are so many times when his utter lack of respect for other people and their bodies results in him hurting people and ruining whatever he had going for him in the situation. What I don't like is how easy that usually is for him to recover from. He faces little consequences for his sexual assault, and it's frustrating that he never has to learn to respect other people. I do like how the isekai nature of the story lets us see how Rudeus copes with past trauma, but I feel it isn't explored deeply enough. There really aren't all that many instances of Rudeus struggling in the new world with his social anxiety. The few times we do see how he struggled with social anxiety and his frustration with the world are really gripping. Rudeus's angst towards the world that met him with violence and ostracization is so interesting and I wish we saw more of that instead of him both succeeding without struggle, and enacting similar violence on others in the new world he's given a second chance in. I can't help but see the irony in that. I understand that he put in effort to get more comfortable with other people, but we don't really see a lot of how he's done that or how he struggles when placed in a situation that brings back his trauma. I have problems with most of the characters being too bland, but Eris is one that I think is done well. She struggles, gets frustrated, and perseveres. That's what I want to see more of. I want to see Rudeus struggle, fail, and give up at times, and I think some good instances of that in him do happen later in the season, but his successes with magic and sociability early in the series come too quickly and easily. I think this problem goes hand in hand with the lack of exploration of Rudeus's trauma. It makes sense that being reincarnated as a child with all the experience one's gained in their life would make them really competent in whatever they try to do, but that's not interesting enough on its own. What would be interesting would be seeing how that competence is balanced with overcoming one's past traumas, and yet the series doesn't explore this nearly enough. I do love the opening sequences that show the ambient life of the areas we're brought through though, so that's pretty cool.

Fukigen Cinderella is an interesting case to me because while the characters' motivations and logic can at times seem absurd or contradictory, the pacing is excellent enough to keep me reading.

The main character is pretty despicable considerign his utter lack of regard for any other person in his life, and while the backstory and his actions later in the manga begin to atone for his past sins, I can't bring myself to like him as person. This is ok though becausee my enjoyment of the manga does not have to rely on how much I agree ... with the characters. Even If I don't agree with him, I still enjoy Kanna as a character, and find great interest in how his past dictates his present actions as well as his shift towards a better person.

One character that dragged down the manga if only a little bit, was Reina. I understand that she is vital to the story as a way to force Kanna/Aki into interesting and formative situations, but her finnicky personality is just too unrealistic for me to see her as a character rather than a plot device.

My biggest problem with the manga was it's ending. I feel the manga simply ended too quickly. I think one of the biggest strengths of manga like this one, where a main character is desperately hiding something from the other characters, is the reveal to the other characters and seeing how they respond. The tension of these stories relies on this, and I see so much potential for interesting character interactions because of the relationships that have been formed during the story. For this reason, the manga seems rushed. While I understand this is better than dragging out the manga to depreciating results, the pacing was good enough to counterract such a risk, and leaving these characters when they are growing to their most interesting is such a waste to me.

Despite this, I found the combination of VERY interesting characters, an unlikable MC, and the sex switching concept at the core of the manga both unique and highly enjoyable.

This manga more than any other I've read forced me grow attached to each of the characters, even the majorly flawed ones. While this isn't so much the case at the start of the manga, the horror elements are perfectly subverted with light comedy with a lot of thanks to megchans excellent scanlations. Even the side characters are so lovable and characters from past chapters are often brought back for later conflicts, so if you have a soft spot for any of the excellently written side characters, you might be able to see them again.

Although the abrupt ... ending leaves a little to be desired, it's really nice to see how each character grows by the end. I haven't even mentioned another great part of the manga which is the multitude of interesting paranormal concepts that it explores. Each conflict that the characters have to struggle through is exciting and this is especially the case for the multi-chapter arcs that are sprinkled throughout the manga.

Possibly the most important aspect of this manga that allows it to shine in the way that it does is Uguisu's excellent facial expressions that perfectly communicates how each character is feeling about the various predicaments they get pulled into throughout the manga. I wasn't expecting this during the beginning of the manga, but all these aspects being so masterfully weaved together is what makes Shibito no Kow wo Kiku ga Yoi one of my favorite manga of all time.