Jobless Reincarnation not Mushoku Tensei is the Anime I started liking.

Or rather Mushoku Tensei is an Anime I only like Dubbed.

I was late to trying this show in the first place, when I finally watched it even the second cour of season 1 had already been Dubbed for awhile though season 2 was still in the future.  What turned me off from watching for so long even though I actually like Isekai being an overplayed trend right now is the way it was talked about by many of it's fans.  How it was painted as almost a "Deconstruction" of the Isekai genre know it all Anitubers were getting tired of, (or "Unbuilt Trope" for those selling that "Grandfather of Isekai" narrative).  That it was about how Rudy is a bad person because he's a degenerate Otaku and the show is about his redemption arc.

When I finally watched it however I concluded it was another show that the Anti-Otaku types were trying to impose that moralizing narrative on.  That whatever criticisms the show does have of Rudeus's character none of it is because he was an Otaku.  And a large part of what lead me to that conclusion is in Episode 5 in the kidnapping incident after thinking in his head about the lessons he learned from Dating Sims accidently says out loud "Money can't buy Waifus".  And that moment instantly assured me this wasn't an Anti-Otaku show,, it was an Otaku affirming show.

Thing is recently as I watched a Mushoku Tensei youtuber talking about a very different issue she said something about the Kidnapping Incident that made me start to think there was a fundamental change in meaning in the Dub of this scene.  So I went to Hulu found the subbed version of this scene and indeed it's different.

1. The Inner Monologue talks instead about how he regretted wasting so much of his old life playing VNs and video games.

2. The key line is instead "Money can't buy Dere".

Number 2 is a difference that doesn't matter, Western Otaku don't use "Dere" on it's own like that so it's a Dub decision I'd defend but wouldn't see as an improvement inherently.

Number 1 is the issue.  Leaning about number one makes me fear the show is what I feared it was all along.  No it's still not blaming VNs/Dating Sims themselves for anything per se, but I want more then that from my Otaku Hero's Journeys, I want Otaku values and Otaku Media to be explicitly affirmed not merely tolerated at best.  I want them to be the reason for our protagonists' virtues not in any way related to their vices.

And this isn't the only Dub vs Sub difference along these lines.  As I learned from Explanation's Point's horrible video on the show after Rudeus's first almsot night with Eris, in the Sub the ideas he learned from Dating Sims are blamed for what happened while in the Dub he blames himself for failing to learn from them.  And so I start wondering how many other times the Dub changes are being more approving of Otakudom?

Now if this Blog has any Normie readers you're probably baffled at the prospect of saying a show should teach the Dating Sims/VNs are a good place to learn about how to treat women.  Well they may not be the absolute best place, but the thing is there are plenty of good thoughtful Dating Sims that are trying to educate their male players on exactly the gender issues these cynical Anti-Otaku think the medium as whole merely uncritically reproduces.  Especially among the classic 90s Bishojo Games that the 16bit Sensation was appealing to nostalgia for.  Amilee Doree is a YouTuber who's a woman who's talked about those kinds of VNs fighting to give them the credit they deserve.  

But this is also a localization change worth talking about for how it's the opposite of what most of these modern Anti-Dub reactionary Anime fans think is driving the makers of modern Funimation/Crunchyroll Dubs.  They think these Texans are hyper Woke scolds trying to appeal to the Noralities types even though it's them who made the Ghost Stories Dub.  A Dub that is explicitly more Pro-Otaku then the Sub should absolutely destroy their entire world view, but instead no one's talking about it.

Now there are a lot of good reasons to mock Explanation Points in his bad Rudeus video, but the fact that he said he was unsure which was more accurate to the Japanese is not one, Subs can make translations mistakes as well. There is good reason many assume they'd be smaller and that a reinterpretation of the text that virtually reverses the meaning could only be made by a Dub.  But as someone constantly going back and editing really embarrassing typos on this very Blog I know full well how easily forgetting to include one word can completely reverse the meaning of what I meant to say.  The fact is the simple fact that the Sub was made day of broadcast while the Dub had at least a couple weeks means it had for better or for worse more thought put into it.

Now that LN readers seem to affirm the accuracy of the Sub here is the main reason I think the Sub is probably accurate.  They of course are reading those LNs via translations and this Anime has not always been faithful to the LNs  But still I will concede that in all likelyhood the Sub is what's accurate.

But I don't actually care about Accuracy, the Dub versions of these two scenes is what I prefer for ideological reasons that don't even relate to why I generally watch Dubs in the first place.