Mushoku Tensei is not popular with women

We've previously talked about GEM Partners' listings, which show the most-watched series week after week across streaming platforms in Japan. While many pass this list off as "the most official of the official," in reality they are simple surveys similar to those done by sites like Anime Trending or Anime Corner.

Still, GEM Partners' listings are more than interesting to analyze, especially since they refer exclusively to the Japanese market. Recently, the site released the analysis of the most watched in the third week of April-2024, placing "Detective Conan" in the first position, followed by the live-action "Queen of Tears" and "One Piece".

If you're interested in the rest of the positions, from fourth to tenth place are listed: "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken", "Sousou no Frieren", "Dungeon Meshi", the live-action "Fallout", "MASHLE: Magic And Muscles", "Kusuriya no Hitorigoto", and "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation".

Mushoku Tensei is not popular with women

However, the curious thing is not the results of the list, but another section that appears below where the most popular series are broken down by gender (men and women), and which were the following (in descending order):

Most popular series among men: (1) "Detective Conan"; (2) "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken"; (3) "Fallout"; (4) "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation"; (5) "One Piece"; (6) "Sousou no Frieren"; (7) "Dungeon Meshi"; (8) "MASHLE: Magic And Muscles"; (9) "Kingdom"; (10) "Yuru Camp".
Most popular series among women: (1) "Detective Conan"; (2) "Queen of Tears"; (3) "Dungeon Meshi"; (4) "Sousou no Frieren"; (5) "One Piece"; (6) "Kusuriya no Hitorigoto"; (7) "Black Butler"; (8) "MASHLE: Magic And Muscles"; (9) "Haikyuu!!"; (10) "Boku no Hero Academia".

What do you notice about this list? Well, what the Japanese noticed and immediately trended on comment forums was the fact that "Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation" is not being popular among women. This is evident considering that the franchise is about seinen demographics (based on where its manga adaptation is published), but also that Rudeus is not exactly the archetype of character that would succeed among a female audience.

However, it's worth noting that demographics don't imply that a work is limited to a certain social group, as evidenced by "Haikyuu!!" and "Boku no Hero Academia," two shonen demographic series that are popular with women, even though they're aimed at men. Anyway, this situation definitely attracted comments from netizens:

"Because the protagonist is creepy."
"Because the protagonist solves everything, and the people around her (especially the women) are mere props and don't have a specific place of action."
"It's disgusting, even from a man's point of view."
"It's disgusting even for a man, it's impossible for a woman to see it."
"History is getting less and less unemployment and it's more boring."
"Because the backstory is too graphic."
"Even from a man's point of view, it's kind of creepy. I put it down after reading it for a while."
"Just because it's boring as hell. I suppose weak men enjoy this fantasy of power."
"If you had made the fat recluse of your previous life a little softer and more normal, women would have been able to follow you."
"I'm a fan, but I don't think it's possible to be popular with women. I know it's not much, but I've seen men cheat on their girlfriends and have relationships with lovers. It's hard if you're not a woman who can look favorably on a man's love affairs and mistresses."
"It was entertaining even if it gave you half the chills, but now it's only shivering."
"Although Mushoku Tensei is hard to watch even for men. The question of Roxy's panties came close to the limits of embarrassment."
"There aren't a lot of attractive male characters. The only one that seems to be popular with mangy people is Orsted, and it usually has a creepy element to it."