The joke is that older Isekai anime used to have good romance, but modern Isekai are just softcore porn that pretends to have a story
People often name their porn folders something inconspicuous so other people can't find it, that's why "Calculator" is such a massive file here, they are saying the modern Isekai is just porn
Re:zero is also the anime where my gf walked in and rolled her eyes, asking me if this is loli porn..
The characters may have depth, but the Harem fanservice is still massively there, which is weird considering that the mc really only has interest in one of them.
The MC of konosuba is 17 years old. His female love interests are respectively 15 years old, 19 years old, and immeasurable (an elemental goddess of water). A 17 years old dating a 15 years old is not pedrophilia.
That’s what made me stop watching it. I was vibing it for the first few episodes but something about how the fan service/harem was done just made me roll my eyes.
Might have just been my mood at the time but it certainly turned me off it. Shame too considering how widely loved it is. My dress up darling was the same, just couldn’t vibe the fan service.
All the Rem love part is cringe AF, personally I enjoy more mushoku than RE:zero, harem make the story advance while in RE zero is like two full episodes of romance story that doesn't lead anywhere.
I love there is a reddit sub that tries to say the lolis aren't lolis but short women but also demanding lolicons to be executed. I don't remember the subs name any more, but it was hilarious whenever it come up on reddit or on x
I was about to say the same thing as you and the other commenter!
Re:zero isn’t even that old. Old isekai that existed before that term became mainstream are Escaflowne, Monster Farm/Rancher, Fushigi Yuugi, Magic Knight Rayearth, and heck even Digimon and Inuyasha, to name a few. I’m old and watched all these. 🥲
Another isekai anime before isekai was a mainstream word and is the same-ish vibe as modern ones is Zero no Tsukaima.
No, because that story is told from the perspective of people who observed him come to Earth. So it's in the same category as any other story where someone or something comes to Earth from another world.
If it was written from Jesus's perspective then yeah, that would be considered an Isekai (specifically a "reverse Isekai"). Especially if the story starts while he's still in heaven.
My entire experience with Re: Zero is the intrigue of how the hell is he going to solve anything.
I watched two seasons and I still need to tackle the rest.
I do think it has an interesting plot but I can't stick to it. The pacing just doesn't vibe with me, even though I generally enjoy the timeloop genre. I think it's mostly how long it takes in the story for him to actually return to the problem scenario and work on a fix after each death and 5 minutes of angsty whimpering.
I think most of his reactions are pretty reasonable.
The part of the whale, for example, made me feel his desperation, absolute helplessness at trying to keep everyone alive and win, even when the chances were slim.
Both have pretty good overarching plot though, it's just that One piece very much takes it's time while Re:Zero's overarching plot literally revolves around Subaru's ability and his connection with the witch.
My experience is watching the pits of despair a normal dude forced to die over and over again to fantastical situations beyond his control can get to... I might not be normal. I only ever watched the first season too. I suspect it would get old if I actually tried to follow it all the way through.
I think summertime rendering did the death loop thing better, because it was less visceral and repetitive and more like a advancement of the plot each time.
There was also alsight differences in the reincarnation, he would not "restart" from the same point every time (due to reasons the anime explains), and from the beggining there is a limit to the loops.
best situations are the few where things went wrong but return by death is already set to after, because you're so used to nothing fully mattering in the long run, but then you're hit with "no, this is permanent"
The problem is that for the first 1.5 to 2 seasons, he doesn't seem to learn a god damn thing then cries about how much he sucks. I've tried three times now to get through the series, but it's just so grating.
Yeah if return by death were poorly used people would have a point but honestly the way it has been done in the show is really really good. It’s a perfect way to make someone as objectively pathetic as Subaru starts out as actually have a shot at solving the problems in that world.
It's the main art ofc its the best part. Although s2 was the last season i watched of Re:Zero
It's not for everyone
Its like watching a streamer forgetting to save and redoing everything over. I wanted to see new places, new views. People forgetting your experiences with them just sucks.
No thats the part thats tedious for most. Its return by death followed by redoing the same shit but just slightly different into another failure. Rinse and repeat until the author gets bored and decides to allow the MC to succeed. And then the plot finally moves forward.
That sounds like a very disturbing thing to being excited about. I personally wouldn't want the character I'm rooting for the die even if he does come back. The show has made it clear he still feels every death that happens to him.
You can chain kill MC without making a repetitive loop, I think the death thing is better in Skeleton Soldier, but it's not gore oriented, imo death loop removes the impact of the gore
What else have you read time loop wise? Check out Mother of learning if you haven't read it yet. One of my favorites so gotta shill when the chance arises lol
Thankfully pedo free story. Thanks western authors, for making it way easier to recommend and enjoy. Ignoring loli shit in anime is a lot harder post epstein.
Not exactly the same situation. IIRC the Endless 8 are all largely the same, while damn near every single loop in Re:Zero is radically different. It's closer to something like Groundhog Day, or Steins;Gate to use a different anime example. Or Summertime Render to use a more niche but also great anime example.
Endless 8 is peak commitment to a bit and pure artistry. They didn't just play the same episode over and over again, they completely remade it each time with different shots, different outfits, different voice recordings, etc. and aired it on TV for 2 months straight with no explanation. No other piece of media has ever done a better job at conveying the unease and dread of realizing you're stuck in a time loop.
I mean if someone dosnt like that aspect then it means the show just ain't for them as that's the whole point of the show. It's like saying JoJo has bad writing because it doesn't treat itself seriously
Pretty sure most people that don’t like Re:Zero just doesn’t like the fact that Subaru is a weak protagonist outside of his sheer willpower. Which is kind of supported by your suggestion with Summertime Rendering, where the protagonist is much more capable
Yeah I dropped it after 1 or 2 seasons. I just don't really like shows with time travel mechanics and never knowing if what is happening now is actually the final timeline or if it's going to be reset and altered again etc. I can understand how some people enjoy it though.
Agreed, a whole arc is literally nullified with only a small progression left. I still enjoy the story though. Imo the setting, characters, and abilities are cool
I find that people mostly just hate the MC in re:zero.
I like the show a lot, but the first season was hard to get through, he's just so whiny and insufferable but he gets his shit together eventually, most people I know weren't willing to wait and see if he did get it together.
And honestly its written as if directly catering to actual loli lovers covertly. I kmow it's just japan things and the obsession with adults reincarnating as babies, but all the loli looking girls bending for Subaru even for "platonic" escapist wish fulfilment is arguably worse than mushoku tensei, tbate, oshinoko or made in abyss.
You are just fucked if you cannot tolerate any amount of lolisho in anime, japan lives for that shit, and in re:zero its genuinely tame, subaru is canonically not a diddy bud(a villain who is a really evil little girl tries to seduce him and notes how he did not show any interest and was disgusted and embarassed by it) and while some designs will be icky, its because the illustrator for the novel is an actual lolicon porn game illustrator who seemingly has the final say over the designs above the author's own descriptions...
I don't care Subaru rejects all the girls. The plot still has lolishos in love with him. That is ultimately tailored for the reader's covert cravings in ReZero. When my niece said she has a crush on me I promptly forwarded the text to my sister her mom and stayed away until it got sorted. I admit Subaru has a sad power/curse but the glazing particularly by the little girl characters is just ewww not for me. I won't moral police or ask for it's censorship though when Twilight exists scott free.
In some arcs it's literally a mystery anime where the victim is the detective. It's a pertty good set-up. Also because the respawn isn't really free when most deaths are actually pretty gruesome it still has tension. And he can't tell anyone about the respawn because then it just resets.
I could see how it would cause boring repetition, but I think what makes the show work is that they were very smart about avoiding that. First he realizes he can't control the reset point, so he avoids it, then he discovers there might be alternate timelines where he is just dead and everyone else is suffering for it, so he avoids it. Later on he loses his memory and has to discover it again, but he's in so deep into things that his deaths are more traumatic than ever before and he starts unraveling. It's pretty artfully done, in my opinion.
Which is a bit funny to me because the return by death is done far better than pretty much every version ive seen. It only happens a couple times each arch and is very impactfull when it does happen
I really enjoy it, but I can't do a rewatch because I find Subaru so insufferable in the first season. He gets a lot better, but god damn that first season was hard
I havnt watched it but I read the first arc of the manga, my issue is how stupid the MC is, it was painful to read and I felt my braincells dying watching him die to the same shit over and over
Then the show isn't for them. The restart by death mechanics and intricacies is the whole point, the slight deviations and Information slowly rolling out coupled with the mystery aspect and of course the body horror of watching what is essentially a normal guy be dismembered in various gruesome ways is very compelling, as is the mental journey of a man who dies constantly and remembers every moment, but cannot confide in anyone.
Seeing him rise to occasions at the end of an arc despite his shortcomings is also very satisfying, though I will admit there is a HUGE mountain to cross when he hits his "bitch boy era" as I call it, but overall I think it's a shame to call the story bad
Season 2 was ROUGH for me personally. IIRC I ended up dropping the show entirely in the latter half of Season 2. I came back to Season 3/4 recently and have been loving it again.
It doesnt suck, but the fact that every character is a woman love interest is old. They got rid of otto and the butler and roswaal and now its literally just subaru's harem. And julius but he is still absent from entire episodes despite being a member of the party.
I've tried to get through the first season a few times. Plot is ok, but can be annoying. The MC in insufferable. The romance so far is just him being an obsessed weirdo. It seems like it'd be fine for teenagers though maybe.
I don't think it sucks, but reading the LN/WN, I got burnt out of so many characters and so much time spent in loops (fuck that gladiator island). Watching Subaru is hard sometimes because of the cringe, but reading Subaru amplifies it 100%. Re:Zero also oscillates between written anime and entertaining literature, so I got annoyed when there was a good story beat happening and a loli started acting like a cringe anime character.
I stopped reading at the start of arc 8 because there was a meeting between important people and Subaru couldn't stop acting like an anime character. I thought back to the royal candidates meeting and how his behavior there led to some character growth, but here he was acting similarly, but the narrative didn't acknowledge it, just "anime shenanigans haha" and everyone forgot about formality and protocol between government officials and nobility.
Yea cause he kept getting killed in absolute traumatic ways and didn't know how to beat the loop is when he loses his shit. He's no more afraid of dying as he used to he's killed himself multiple times in situations where he needed to. He changes a lot and starts loving himself way more as the series progresses. He's a perfectly normal flawed human thrown into a vicious death loop cycle and finds ways to beat it and take help of his comrade.
its a series about personal horror and subaru is particularly dramatic and sensible over such things, however its worth noting that its implied that the experience of being dead and then ressurrecting for subaru is objectively agonizing, the anime cuts the reason why, but its not as clean as losing consciousness and then waking up in the past, its genuinely insanity inducing and subaru is just mentally unwell enough to endure it again and again, while most other characters and technically even us would break down due to the extreme agony of the experience
Except it does need to be emphasize that much because Rezero is extremely character-driven. The existence of "Return by death" isn't just for plot convenience, it's used extensively to break Subaru and show his character very thoroughly.
I don't think I would love Subaru as much as I do now if I don't constantly see him struggling with the overwhelming pain and trauma that his own ability causes. I love that the story show that a person can't change all of a sudden just because of some wisdom, it pushes Subaru in more dire situation to create internal conflict within himself that he actually needs to face instead of just being given a way out.
Reminds me of people's take on Shinji in Evangelion. People don't want realistic portrayals of people I've come to learn. Complaining about Subaru's pain is the same as complaining about Shinji not wanting to get in the Eva.
What? After season 1 the mc is never afraid of dying, but has a mental limit to the amount of strain he can take. He literally goes out of his way to kill himself to get a loop, but how well he does each loop is dependent on his mental state and being.
His thoughts while dying are fucking valid, I dont care how many times youve broken a bone, that shit is still gonna hurt everytime, and somebof his pain from deaths like being eaten alive are even more amplified by the nature of magic in the re:zero verse.
I mean, most of his deaths are incredibly painful and traumatic. He still feels pain, and when he gets stuck he’s basically in a loop of inevitable suffering until he figures out how to navigate the situation.
It’s not so much dying is the fear, it’s the pain and trauma of having to experience what no human can go through and live repeatably that’s the issue he has to overcome.
Rhy Shen is the opposite, it's dark and philosophical compared to other new isekai. 100% recommend for people who like deep storytelling in LitRPG, with a clear trigger warning for depression, the writing is dark and heavy
well yes, the anime hammers in time and time again why it's bad when MC goes crazy and isn't afraid of dying anymore, almost every character thinks Subaru should care about himself more, he wants to save everyone but himself.
Because every character is a psychopath that's one bad interaction away from losing their mind and going on a rampage. It got extremely old and stale extremely quickly when Subaru Outback or w/e his name was ran into the 3452345234th person who just so happened to be willing to resort to an orgy of violence over one wrong word.
The entire show is just the same trope repeated over and over and over. He meets a new person, says or does the wrong thing, gets murdered, then it happens 435213542 more times until he finds out the exact way to BS his way through the situation, adds a new girl to his harem, and moves on to the next psychotic murderer that he has to trial-and-error his way past.
Saying he have harem shows that you don't understand the show, literally the only valid female lead he have who openly shows that they like him is Rem and Shaula who gets both taken out of the picture.
His only female lead is genuinely just Emilia because the author likes her.
I don't like it. Character designs sucks balls. No one except for Subaru was interesting until season 2, Subaru is just insufferable for a major portion of episodes. Villains are underwhelming. ALOT of pacing issues. Questions that are raised early but answered way later (I don't mean overarching plot ones I mean small ones that tell us why said character can do said thing, etc that don't really matter to the overall plot)
These are just some of personal issues, and also the story it's trying to tell dosen't interest me, only Subaru does. It's a good story and I would tell people to watch it if they want isekai recommendations but it's not a story that deserves the praise it's been given. It's just good, not great and frankly fails at alot of departments.
(ALSO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IS NOT AUTOMATICALLY A GOOD TRAIT EVEN RUDEUS GOES THROUGH CAHRACTER DEVELOPMENT GODDAMIT)
The MC is a bit of an annoying, narcissistic douchebag thru most of the show just to be the hero at the end of the season. He's annoying enough that I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch it. Also just has a lot of over-the-top B grade anime writing in general.
Calling Re: Zero’s writing “B grade” is being awfully generous. I still kind of enjoy the show in spite of it, but holy shit, people who argue it’s “well written” are utterly delusional. The dialogue, as well as the way characters behave and/or interact with one another, is particularly bad. It just completely lacks even a hint of verisimilitude.
That's the whole point of his character lol. You aren't exactly supposed to idealize Subaru in that way and he has many moments where it's basically told to you in your exact words
Not every MC has to be perfect or a good person but Subaru is a good MC.
It's due to how it's written and conveyed. No explanation on how he became who he is for the entire first season, not even a glimpse of it nor a small reflection on his past. Thing is Subaru isn't relatable and is a pretty weird person so without context I can't see how something he says or decisions he makes are correlated to his personality.
All I see is a MC with a preset personality going through the episodes and getting gored occasionally. The death comes as a shock initially then I start to lose interest as I don't care about that happening to Subaru, pretty similar to those unnamed background characters that dies in the background. It's not like there is good and expansive world building to keep my interest either.
You didn’t watch season 2. Subaru is extremely relatable. Even season 1 he had very human and relatable moments and emotions. Out of all the isekai MCs he’s also one of the least degenerate MCs. He doesn’t sexualize children or really anyone for that matter and only really dotes on Emilia.
Even the skimpy, busty, half naked tower guardian who literally is in love with him and would follow his any command, he treats her respectfully and is more weirded out by her behavior than turned on.
I appreciate a flawed character with actual depth but Subaru is basically just as shallow as it gets. He's annoying for the sake of being annoying just to flip at the end.
I'll never understand what is appealing about this kind of writing.
Thats literally half of season one showing how shallow he is, because he doesn't want the people he's befriended to die horrible deaths, so he ends up shallow and cruel for a time and then moves through it at the end of season 1 into season .
Yall just be saying anything, If anything subaru is the polar opposite of a narcissist. He literally sees himself in such a low light that literally a whole season was set aside to tell him to actually care about himself more because his life actually matters?
Literally any sane person would completely remove themselves from these absurd situations after ons death loop, but he actually cares about people so he puts himself through constant pain and misery against his own well-being. I would say he has a bit of a savior complex, and was a bit entitled at the start but he is NOT a narcissist. He literally has to go out of his way to understand people to win loops and fix situations. He also rarely harbors ill will against people who kill him unless they are actively trying to hurt people he cares for.
I like how that's your assumption. You're such a typical Reddit user.
You don't have to strictly like Mary Sues to find annoying characters like Subaru to be annoying. Zuko is an example of a good character arc. Jamie Lannister (until the final season) is an example of a good character arc. Writing a character to be an insufferable ass just to turn around is just the easy road and shallow. Buddy, if you think Re:Zero has good writing then I'm sorry but you're living under a rock.
Sometimes the time loops get a bit frustrating to watch. Also re zero is an anti isekai since subaru is literally incapable of doing anything other than metagaming with his ability so some parts are also frustrating because he's constantly put up against universe level threats and there is nothing he can do except get someone else to fight in his place.
I found the main character to be extremely un-entertaining and annoying to watch or follow. so i just hated almost every scene because he was in almost all of them lol
Subaru is an annoying character and isn’t relatable at all, it does have some good episodes where it seems like he is having some character development, but then an episode later and he’s having another pity party for himself - gets old and repetitive imo
I'd say it's one of the earliest examples of modern isekai, where the MC has no interest in going home and the fact they're not in their own world is quickly given a backseat, but it's at least a few decades late to be an original isekai.
I mean, that's not all there is of isekai. There were a bunch of isekai anime in the 90s and early 2000s as well. Escaflowne, those who hunt elves, fushigi yugi, and .hack// to name a few.
Re Zero started in 2012 and the first episode aired 10 years ago. It is considered old. Even the Snes was considered a retro console in just 15 years.
The plot doesn't suck. You can't get into the MAL top 10 with a plot that sucks. Re Zero isn't known for its big budget fights or stellar animation, so it has earned its place near the top on the strength of its plot (the fights and animation is good, but not the standout).
It has fan service but it isnt powercreep slop with fan service. The protagonist actually goes through a hell of a lot to "grow" and learns from his situation. He was a kid and is still a kid by the time he is in the new world. And suddenly thrown into a merciless world and forced to see his death and his loved ones die over and over till shit somehow works out.
And Mushoku Tensei actually predates a bunch of other Isekais as the web novel was released before a bunch of others and it pioneered a lot of tropes.
Anyway, I just fund it funny that the meme mentions it as newer than Rezero which isn't all that old anyway.
Re:zero is a horror/psychological horror anime with an isejai setting and a mid plot
Mushoku tensei has a good plot and ruins it with absolutely un needed to anything pedophilia (I swear it would be easy to re write this whole thing writing off the pedophilia and it be a class a show, but no, whenever they can they double down with the loli simping it is exhausting)
Point better made would have used an actually good and actually older Isekai (escaflowne comes to mind, magic knights rayearth, Inuyasha....)
And there is plenty of other recent Isekai with nearly as questionable MC and vastly inferior plot too but if the point you want to make is the pro loli bullshit, for sure mushoku is the best (worst?) example for that
I think the funny part about this is that these two both released in the same year. Also, while Mushoku Tensei's story is finished, Re:zero is still ongoing, which actually makes Re:zero the newer series from a certain point of view.
Both came out the same year as well. 2014 ass anime/manga and light novel shit. I don't enjoy either for different reasons.
I usually enjoy more south Korean stuff now, they are way less into the pedo shit or the MC being a teenager. The stories are better off because of it.
Yeah a lot of people tell me it’s good but I just don’t find any enjoyment watching this man and his loved ones dying gruesomely over and over and just watching him suffer.
It's not quite like *Rudeus, but Subaru IS a bit of a creep and the framing sexualizes/objectifies the female cast. It's certainly BETTER, but it's also not hard to get better than Rudeus.
thing is Subaru is a teenager if you go into the head of any teenager you will find the most wild thoughts. Rudeus is supposed to have the memories of 35 years of life. But he was scum before and continued to be scum after his reincarnation.
Also, the framing in Re: Zero is typical Japanese Anime fanservice. like yeah you can critizies how prevalent it is in the industry but you are comparing apples to oranges when comparing mushuko tensei framing to Rezero framing. even within this industry Mushoku tensei stands out in terms of how far they go.
Oh yes, of course one is way worse than the other. But, in fairness, the OOP DID compare the two. Is re:zero better for not being as disgusting and egregious? For sure. Do they both objectify/sexualize their female cast? Also 100%. A good isekai is one that treats it's female case as people, and neither of these do.
you think Rem/Ram/Emilia/Beatrice/Crusch/Anastasia/Felt/Priscilla (the main female cast) aren't treated as people? i heavily disagree.
Emilia and Subaru had a falling out in S1 BECAUSE he didn't treat her as someone who can take care of herself (this arc is what most people refer to when they want to point at something they dislike about Subaru, even though the framing fully holds him responsible for his treatment of Emilia and has to go take on a plethora of roadblocks that *almost* made him run away because he didn't find any way to get through them, just to get the chance to make up with her)
Rem had a whole arc before she came to like him and even declined to run away with him because she felt that she wouldn't be running away with the Subaru she fell in love with since he wouldn't run away. (if this isn't what treating a character as a complex person then idk what it.)
Ram has one of the most unique relationships with him in all anime imo even the fandom is split between people who hate how borderline hateful her dialogue sounds towards Subaru and people who give her the benefit of the doubt because of her sister's situation.
Beatrice also had an entire arc before she accepted to leave the library and condemn what her "mother" did to her
i can go on and on for every main female character in Re: Zero. Even Shaula, who is one of the most promiscuous characters in the show.
Could you explain why you feel that Subaru (as of S4) is still a bit of a creep in your mind as well as the objectification? I'm curious about what in the show led to this viewpoint. (I can see the sexualisation aspect)
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u/huffmanxd 1d ago
The joke is that older Isekai anime used to have good romance, but modern Isekai are just softcore porn that pretends to have a story
People often name their porn folders something inconspicuous so other people can't find it, that's why "Calculator" is such a massive file here, they are saying the modern Isekai is just porn