I've said before that I'm not a huge fan of isekai. But when I heard that Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation was raising a bit of a storm, I checked it out on a whim. It's gotta be something special if it's barely two episodes in and people can't stop talking about it; mainly how pervy the main character is.

What I got, though, was a fairly standard isekai - well-animated for sure, but not the kind of plot I vibe with. You know the drill; a 34-year-old unemployed NEET gets evicted from his home after his parents die. He tries to save a group of youths from an incoming truck but dies in the process. Then he wakes up in Generic Fantasy Setting #3145315, and this series' USP is revealed. It follows the protagonist's life from his birth in this new world, while he retains his knowledge from his former life. He's reborn as Rudeus Greyrat, a child blessed with strong magic potential and the mind of a perverted 34-year-old.

Mushoku Tensei has a fair amount of fanservice so far, with Rudeus relishing in his youthful appearance and using it to creep on his magic instructor Roxy at night, or using his magic to look up her skirt. Normally most people would ignore that kind of thing but here we're given Rudeus' internal dialogue. And watching a 5-year-old perv on a teenage girl while a grown-ass man narrates definitely ups the creep factor so I can see why would complain about something like this. 

Rifujin na Magonote, the author and creator of the series, took to Twitter to address complaints people had about Rudeus' horny tendencies:

"There are a lot of people who can't accept how in Mushoku Tensei, the protagonist remains a pervert even after he reincarnates. It's the same in the original work. But it's not as if he has loads of regrets about being a pervert in his previous life. That's why in the isekai he doesn't necessarily think, "I'm going to live life seriously! That also means stop being a perv!"

Tentatively speaking, in the original work, he's 100% a perv and 0% serious at the point when he is born. When he decides to "live life seriously," it settles down to 20% perv and 80% serious, but since the anime doesn't include that moment of change, the perv ratio feels bigger compared to the original work.

I also think that when [stole] Roxy's panties, he still wasn't acculturated in the other world, and he half-perceived people other than himself as something like video game characters. I kind of think that he still wasn't aware of them as other people living their own lives. His understanding of other people goes up at the end of episode 2 and in episode 3, so look forward to it!

I think that as his level of understanding goes up, he will do less criminal actions and other things that ignores other people's feelings. However, his fundamental nature as a perv won't change, so if you're one of those people who think that being a pervert in and of itself is bad, I hope you don't sweat it too much!"

Have you guys seen Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation yet? What do you think of it so far? Does Rifujin have a point? Let us know what you think!