Looking to start a new anime, any recommendations based on my favorites list?

My bad, I'll clarify.

**TL;DR Female Harem (Mediocrely characterized and almost indistinguishable female characters) vs Women (Engrossing and relatable female characters).**

I am referring to the mediocre characterization of the main female characters, which becomes most apparent in the second half of season 2, and this being the result of these heroines being shoe-horned into creating a harem (because the writer thinks that a harem must exist at all costs no matter how poorly it fits into the story, and judging from the pacing, as early as possible).

Given that the OP hasn't seen Mushoku, I won't list the specific events yet.

I feel that the harem worked to the detriment of the story, making the female characters feel shallow and identical to one another, and that this ironically spilled out to sabotage the male protagonist that the story is attempting to dignify.

The story is supposedly about "growing to change and become a stronger person". So you'd expect him to have unreasonable obstacles and struggle (season 1, and the first half of season 2 actually did a great job of creating conflict, which was great). If he grows up, then he should be given his homework to prove himself to the audience (root for an underdog). A good example of someone growing up because of a harsh environment would be Thorfinn from Vinland Saga (that poor bastard).

But then the story just places too many rewards onto the hero's lap one after another, cancelling out all the struggles that the obstacles brought, trivializing the "harsh" fantasy world (bring back the Dragon God!), and cheapening the "adversity" of the protagonist.

The more the story advances, the more it comes off as a wish fulfilling harem anime (while fans have been claiming about this being some sort of "coming of age" saga). Mushoku Tensei is just far too convenient!

That said, Harems with well written women DO exist, such as the ingenious gag manga "100 Girlfriends". I just used "harem" as a derogatory term because most harem anime are badly written.

And then there's the separate topic of the sexual assault, the much more common complaint seen on the internet. I know this is the worst part, but I am personally not affected by this topic in fiction and can easily tolerate it.

Oh man… if you haven’t seen these you’re severely missing out.

My recommendation for you haha, really great anime

Yup f/strange fake is considered arguably the best among the current gen fate entries (along with f/type redline) and as someone who has red the source material all I can say is your in for a wild ride.