Are you weirded out by mental age-gap romances in other isekai fantasy anime?
With a new Mushoku Tensei season getting teased, the age old arguments are popping up again. But I'd like to ask not about Mushoku Tensei, but the other anime that have a very similar premise.
From TBATE to Sweet Reincarnation, Parallel World Pharmacy, World's Finest Assassin, Seirei Gensouki, By the Grace of the Gods, and dozens of others. There's *a lot* of iseka anime out there, and while in some of them the isekaied MC gets brought to the fantasy world as a teen, there's a significant portion where the MC is an adult in the real world, dies, and is reborn as a baby in the fantasy world with his or her memories of their former life intact.
And in a lot of those anime, there is some kind of love interest, or several, who are physically the same age as the MC's new body. Which means they are mentally years if not decades younger than the MC. Those anime tend to play a little "out of sight, out of mind" shell game with their stories, where they just heavily imply romance, or leave it at the 'engaged' stage, or keep them as cute goofy kids for most of the show, which allows the audience to forget about the age gap and what *will* end up happening with the MC and their mentally much younger love interest. But if you take all of those anime to their logical conclusions, all those much older MCs do end up getting with someone much, much younger, and quite often when they're not adults. They play it off as crushes or awkward kisses and such, and dole out comedic beats a lot more often to paper over it, but the same thing is still happening.
How many of you think about that when watching those other anime, and how many of you have a problem with it in those? Again, I'm specifically *not* talking about Mushoku Tensei. I'm talking about other anime that have MCs in essentially the same kind of situation, but use a different tone to sort of pretend it's not the same, or have their MC just not act like they're an adult even though they should and still think internally like an adult. When Pastry in [Sweet Reincarnation] >!gets engaged and falls in love with Licorice!<, or when Lugh in [World's Finest Assassin] >!ends up sleeping with Dia or stripping his girl servant Tarte naked to examine her and kisses her later on!<, does that creep people out the same way it does in MT? Or do people just forget about that factor since those shows try to rely on comedy or action or other tone shifts to distract the audience from the age gap?
A lot of these stories functionally do the exact same thing, but one of them shines a spotlight on the weirdness of the MC and the fact of the matter, while most of the others try to distract from it by shifting the tone around. Does that effectively work on you, or are you still aware of what's happening and are grossed out by it?
From TBATE to Sweet Reincarnation, Parallel World Pharmacy, World's Finest Assassin, Seirei Gensouki, By the Grace of the Gods, and dozens of others. There's *a lot* of iseka anime out there, and while in some of them the isekaied MC gets brought to the fantasy world as a teen, there's a significant portion where the MC is an adult in the real world, dies, and is reborn as a baby in the fantasy world with his or her memories of their former life intact.
And in a lot of those anime, there is some kind of love interest, or several, who are physically the same age as the MC's new body. Which means they are mentally years if not decades younger than the MC. Those anime tend to play a little "out of sight, out of mind" shell game with their stories, where they just heavily imply romance, or leave it at the 'engaged' stage, or keep them as cute goofy kids for most of the show, which allows the audience to forget about the age gap and what *will* end up happening with the MC and their mentally much younger love interest. But if you take all of those anime to their logical conclusions, all those much older MCs do end up getting with someone much, much younger, and quite often when they're not adults. They play it off as crushes or awkward kisses and such, and dole out comedic beats a lot more often to paper over it, but the same thing is still happening.
How many of you think about that when watching those other anime, and how many of you have a problem with it in those? Again, I'm specifically *not* talking about Mushoku Tensei. I'm talking about other anime that have MCs in essentially the same kind of situation, but use a different tone to sort of pretend it's not the same, or have their MC just not act like they're an adult even though they should and still think internally like an adult. When Pastry in [Sweet Reincarnation] >!gets engaged and falls in love with Licorice!<, or when Lugh in [World's Finest Assassin] >!ends up sleeping with Dia or stripping his girl servant Tarte naked to examine her and kisses her later on!<, does that creep people out the same way it does in MT? Or do people just forget about that factor since those shows try to rely on comedy or action or other tone shifts to distract the audience from the age gap?
A lot of these stories functionally do the exact same thing, but one of them shines a spotlight on the weirdness of the MC and the fact of the matter, while most of the others try to distract from it by shifting the tone around. Does that effectively work on you, or are you still aware of what's happening and are grossed out by it?
Commentaires
virtue signaling is all it is everyone wants to be so special
He does act 15 so whatever. Problem is he also had a relationship with an adult Kikyo before getting frozen so now it's creepy no matter how you look at it.
I don't remember how old Kikyo was when he was with her though. That could be weird if she was over 20 but if she was like 18, 19, that wouldn't be that bad.
Kikyo is 18 at the time of their relationship. I know that's not uncommon in fantasy, but I still find it gross.
I'm too old to gain anything meaningful from watching horny kids being horny
Since you mentioned Mushoku Tensei, rather than Sylvie or Eris, it's Roxy who is more questionable. As her age is 60 or something.
That's why I don't care much about this kinda stuff.
Unfortunately, most people do this.
It's a thread about Mushoku Tensei.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1ptw8uh/comment/nvk03ow/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1ptw8uh/comment/nvk03ow/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
It's never been okay. It's weird at best and pedophilia at worst. Or vice versa.
Did you not read your own post!? Are you only here for people to tell you theres nothing wrong about the show/MC? Is that why you specifically call out that's it not about it? It feels like I'm being ragebaited. You can't be that dumb
Mushuko Tensei is like the poster boy for all the gross perv pedo shit in anime. It's a reverse of the loli that's actually 1000 years old trope. It's gross.
Other anime that do this are also fucking gross.
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So it depends on how it is handled. With mushoku tensei specifically I can't stomach it. It's too disgusting seeing the MC act the way he does. These aren't even just minors but pre-pubescent is too much for me and puts me off the series.
With Tbate it's handled more to my taste, the way he acts and is shaped by growing up and even touches on how his body is affecting his mind but deals with it with the maturity of his actual age.
I know this is going to spark a lot of disagreement but it's just my take.
His maturity lies in his innocence; even though he's over 40 and a king, he knows nothing about adult matters.
As for adult matters. What do you mean? The war and parenting parts?
Nothing compares to a mentally healthy 40-year-old man having the innocence of a child.
But I can respect if people prefer to not watch show where it comes up.
Which felt different from others like Mushoku and others in that vein where they seem to intentionally aim for the actual mental children around them.
I generally dislike it but it is an interesting question that none face. Whe. You're an adult in a kid's body, what is moral? The actual kids technically your age? Or the adults who would technically be the predators?
Honestly, I am generally tired of isekai that follows a 10 year old genius. At least with TBATE and Mushoku, the MC ages into late teens or early adults quickly enough into the story.
It's not *bad* but it helps to keep in mind these issues largely stem from being written by novices or skilled novices.
Yes, the power and life experience is what makes the adult-kid with kids bad. But an adult with the adult-kid is also equally bad. The adult-kid has no ethical or moral outcome except purely abstaining.
>I don't see an issue with a reincarnated teenager being with an adult
How do you not? Excluding the fact that in most stories, most people are not made aware of the reincarnator status, the adult would have to believe such a thing. Nor would that stop the judgment of society who can only see an adult with a MINOR.
This argument is equivalent to an adult in our world saying "well, the 14 year old has the maturity of a 30 year old." It's the literal same argument from the perspective of every character within the isekai world outside of the reincarnator.
Yes. That is also bad.
In the case of Mushoku Tensei, this doesn't happen because the work doesn't want you to forget that Rudeus is internally a 34-year-old piece of trash, even if Rudeus himself wants to pretend otherwise.
It's also worth remembering that relationships with a large age difference are common in our world; it's a reality In the "modern internet society," some even encourage this type of relationship between older women and younger men, claiming it's a fight against "ageism."
So I basically only took issue when:
1). Rudeus just happens to run into Silphy. "Tragic separation"
2). All the women regress as characters and lose individuality/agency upon meeting the self-insert.
I can't relate. It seems like many just fixate on the pride and insecurities of the protagonist while not paying attention to the glaring flaws in this "coming of age" story.
The female characters only exist to gratify the ego of the male characters, which is such a waste. This makes Mushoku incredibly niche, if not straight up a bland story.
This isn't as apparent in season 1 (but the signs are still there).
Honestly, it's easier for an isekai writer to explain a same-physical-age relationship. It lets the MC fit in with society, doesn't cause any questions to be raised in their new world, and allows for the MC to develop into a different person than their original life. Some do things the right way. Some, like Mushouku Tensei, do things the very wrong way. It's about the presentation as opposed to the topic.
Long answer: as someone who is in ethics and Neuroscience, it's complicated. Your mind influences the body and vice versa. Or at least it's supposed to. But here's the thing: these stories don't play by our logical rules. If you were isekaid into a baby's body, your body shouldn't even have the capacity to process your former memories. But most of the time, these characters can remember everything right from the start. So I can't really say just how much the body can influence the brain/mind for these characters. You'd also have to take into consideration that the mental age may not translate as is into the new world. If a 25-year-old from a developed earth living an easy life isekais into a world where 15-year-olds are treated like warriors and fight on the front lines , can he still be said to be mentally older than his age mates? Throw in different species and other anime gimmicks and its a whole lot of mental gymnastics.
In the end, I just stick with physical age.
Mushoku Tensei heavily uses and constantly refers back to Rudy's previous life and traumas, and makes his past experiences a large part of who he is. Which IMO is a good thing as it's a far more useful and interesting use of the isekai trope, to actually have those past life memories and experiences matter. But that's why the people who can't disengage who Rudy was in a previous life from his new life also have so many problems with it.
Alright, now for the spicy part of the question. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a lot of disagreement for this. But when it comes to sexual interactions, there is typically two different aspects that needs to be looked at. The "thought crime" where people are disgusted that you would even find a young character attractive. And the "actual harm" where a character manipulates or does something with their age/experience to take advantage of someone. I find this is where a lot of people WANT to make claims that a character just by virtue of being older is "grooming" a younger character, implying actual harm. But not understanding that grooming is actually a more specific type of abuse that often the criteria isn't meant for. Like having a teacher/student romance is usually bad and full of problems while that power dynamic exists, but if the teacher/student dynamic ends, and then the characters end up together after, some people will yell grooming even though nothing abusive or manipulative actually happened.
So to answer your question more directly: No, I don't think in a Fantasy Reincarnation situation, we should harshly judge the thought crime of someone being interested in characters their own physical age, even with a mental age gap. We have no idea how hormones and brain development would alter our feelings and consciousness in that scenario, which is why it's fantasy. But if the character is acting in a manipulative way or taking advantage of others due to their experience, and you can demonstrate actual harm, then yeah I'd say it is totally reasonable for someone to be upset with that materiel.
Not to mention, if they kept their memories after reincarnating but now possess a brain of a kid, which cannot physically have the same neural links as an adult's, and grow up in an unfamiliar world gaining all life experiences from scratch, can we really consider them adults, and not kids who inherited someone else's memories of a world they will never visit again? There were kids in real life recounting memories of their past lives - whether you believe in those or think those are hoaxes is irrelevant here, but would you ban those kids from having relationships when they become teenagers, on the basis that they are adults stuck in younger bodies and are thus being paedophiles by default?
When we are talking about fantasy situations like that, it all depends on how it's being portrayed. In Erased, the MC went back to his childhood body, but he clearly still considered himself an adult and wasn't interested in pursuing anything with the young girl whose life he was trying to save. In most isekai anime, the MC accepts their new life more or less immediately and doesn't really act in any way differently from a typical anime child who's "wise beyond their years". If the work is trying to be as psychological and realistic as possible, it could try to bring to light all the issues of being a 37 year old salaryman stuck in a 15 year old boy's body. If it's an escapist self-insert comedy meant for the 30-something audience members to live through a fantasy of being young again, then it won't do that. If the author is trying to get me concerned about what's going on, I will, but I know when to focus on other things and leave the self-indulgent fantasy aspect alone, it's not for me, it's for some guy who thinks he'd flunked his high school years and wants them back, and also a sword and an elven prom date.
I mean...it's not really hard to avoid these sorts of situations. You could start your story off with a character well in his teenage years, you could have the character only regain his former past memories later in life, you could have his past life be depicted more as a set of memories rather than a distinct personality. You could have your character be a child when he reincarnates so there is less of gap between his appearance and mental age. You could just reincarnate him into something where age is irrelevant.
By the way I don't think it's necessary the age gap IN GENERAL. I think few people would have an issue to legally consenting adults even with widely different ages, assuming there were no other mitigating circumstances. It's specifically the adult vs child gap that is the point of contention.
But this works for me when we get reincarnation. The "soul" moving a new "entity" born in a new world and just happens to have retained the memories of his/her past life. The reborn person will be affected by the experience of being a child again, growing up, the brain will redevelop. So the past life is just memories (I actually find this stressful)
In many series you have, then, characters with an internal conflict of "who am I" as these memories crash with the new "entity" they are. (Mushoku Tensei, Slime are examples of this, in one being born as a human, in another as slime)
We have other types, like when an older guy is transported into a rejuvenated body (not being born again, just appearing as a young self in a new world). For me these can be an issue, as the character does not experience childhood, so their growth, experiences and personality are mostly the same. Their brain is basically the same. (Sozai Saishuka no Isekai Ryokouki is a recent example)
I also hate when the memories of the past life come magically at some point, because is like erasing a person (Bookworm deals with this case, but thankfully it does it well)
So, for me: If is a full reincarnation, with full childhood and developing again, I'm ok. If is memories suddenly appearing, is troublesome if not properly written, and if is just magically appearing in a young body, I take issue as there is not development.
Also please consider that all this also is different for must of us in the west due cultural factors, usually influenced by religion (even if you are an atheist like me), as the promise of "eternal life" is WAY different for us. This makes an interesting discussion as humanity has been thinking about this for millennia, and we have come with A LOT of different solutions.
Isekai’s are usually about getting a redo, or starting over in a new world. Experiencing things that they couldn’t experience the first time around back home.
If it came from a creepy place, I think that might *make it creepy*. Like if the MC was slobbering over kids their original world for example.
Besides in 90% of isekai’s, the MC is the ultimate Japanese male who acts like holding hands is 3rd base and thus stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the advances of the women around him.
Death of the Skeleton Swordsman (literature), MC only sleeps with women. He won't sleep with attractive teen girls, mentally saying, "I don't do that with children."
At least in my opinion the main character forming a relationship with another of the same physical age is the least problematic. At least in my opinion you can either give them a pass to have a relationship or say they shouldn’t have any relationship at all.
If a character just looks like they are younger than what they are physically, then I would think that is questionable but this isn’t the case with those types of isekai.
But either way, I just want an entertaining story. Liking a show or character doesn’t mean that I morally endorse the stuff that happens in it.
This is largely based off things I've read and not things I've watched, as I don't watch a ton of isekai anime, and even fewer of those have featured romance in any significant way.
I don't think glossing over is the correct way to describe the sorts of works I'm referring to. A child, regardless of how bright they are, thinks fundamentally differently than an adult. The author deciding to write the character as a child and not as an adult isn't pretending the issue is not there; instead, they wrote their story to structurally avoid it.
Always a good time to start
[](#mugiwait)
I have, however, read all of _Ascendance of a Bookworm_. That counts for something, right?
Why should I weird out because of some fictional character that does not really exist ? I don't understand
If you want to say its cringe, sure, the whole concept is cringe. These anime exist as wish fulfillment and escapism for people who have a hard time dealing with the difficulties of real life. Which is why I avoid 99% of this stuff, with really the only one I can say I am a fan of is Oshi no Ko, something where I think the whole reincarnation thing should have never existed as part of the story.
In an anime we usually have access to a character's backstory, their inner thoughts and experiences, and together with the direction, meta-elements and plot points of the story we can get a good idea of what a character's (or anime's) actual intentions are, and whether they are abusing or going to abuse someone.
In this context an age-gap functions more like a flag that warns us about the *possibility* of an abuse. If the abuse never happens in the anime or if we get enough information to quell any fears about a possible abuse taking place in the future, then the age-gap has no real relevance.
On that note, I have no concerns regarding Haruto / Rio from Seirei Gensouki being potentially abusive, nor plenty of other reincarnated MCs from other isekais. I also have 0 concerns about the two age-gap relationships in Violet Evergarden, just to name a non-isekai anime with age-gap relationships.
I do have some concerns about Lugh from World's Finest Assassin, given his background and some of his actions in the new world.
Obviously I have a ton of concerns about you know who from \[the one that shall not be mentioned\] >!MT!<. And the guy from Re:Monster is ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.
As a general proposition I don’t think age gaps matter among consenting adults or at least are overblown by people looking to assert moral superiority. If a 25 year old girl in real life wants to date a 45 year old man, I do not care as long as she has the intellectual capacity to have agency over her life. That’s not the case in MT. They are teens and not adults, and they don’t actually know he is 45, and he doesn’t care at all. He just wants to fuck young girls and it’s very much played up as a power fantasy.