The show tells the story of a man who's been driven insane by rape (and other stuff but rape does is the main subject), hocus pocus himself back into time by whatever-the-fuck magic the author wants and begin to get his revenge over his abusers.
If you're a bit familiar with rape and revenge, you should know what to expect : the genre's prime objective is to draw out all humanly possible evil, suffering, nevroses and confront the spectator with what he might be or do. The point isn't to soft-soap your ass. It is not to question either you endorse what's happening or not. No, it is to make you aware of yourself. To question how you're feeling about it. Are you disgusted ? If so, why ? What does it tell about you ? Are you sure you wouldn't become them if you were in that situation ? Why do you feel pleasure when watching this ? Because you think they deserved to suffer ? Yes, but so did the abusers in the first place... humans rarely do something they think is absolutely unjustifiable. Or why are you condemning this poor soul who has suffered so much ? Do you think he's responsible of his actions ? How far would you go down that road ? That people's pains and circumstances justify their actions ? And if not, would you be ready to be judged on your acts solely, without any fuck given to the situation you where in ?
It doesn't want to question your particular ethics (lol, everybody believes rape is bad, myself included... you're such a virtuous person for thinking this way, aren't you ?) on that particular matter but to cast doubt upon the very picture you make of yourself by making you aware (hopefully) of your reactions to the events presented to you. Because we all want to believe we're truely good people and only others are bad ones. Those who succeed in deceiving themself that way are normal people and the others are in depression. But both want to believe it so much. So much that they're judging a fucking fictive character, convicting him like he was some real human with real evil dees to atone for and thinking they're good people for doing so. For condemning evil even in fiction. They're feeling like they have high moral standards for doing so, contrary to the people who don't. And so did I. I could'nt help myself but to instinctively try to determine if all that mess was morally justified, to separate myself from it. But truth is, I am not. That could be me, you or them. And this is precisely why we want to distance ourselves from it.
I hope you're still following me and my arguable english.
People like a good, simple, just-flawed-enough MC for him to be vaguely believable as a real human and not seem unattainable.
They need to identify to someone inherently good but making some mistakes from time to time, for they must maintain the lie that they're him and he's them. To forget they're essentially mediocre, filled with flaws and not even oustandingly evil (like some edgy teens believe they are). Just plain banal. They cannot achive moral perfection in real life so they're living it by proxy. Isekai are usually described as power fantasy but you're everyday show with a fundamentally upright character is "power morals" in the exact same, but more insidious, way.
In my country, France (baguette, fromage, hon hon), there were theatre owners who observed that, even bandits, prostitutes, hitmans and all the filth Paris had to offer, were booing bad characters on the stage. Yes, even them wanted fictive characters to be honest people when one could have thought, given their activities, that they wouldn't give a fuck, or even applause such characters.
But I would go even farther : the more you preach good ethics, the more you're feeling compelled to condemn bad ones even in fiction, the less you're applying them in real life. For where there is no lack, there is no need for overcompensation.
« l'enfer, c'est les autres » said Sarte, it means you need to be confronted to others' actions to unravel the darkness within you.
Rape and revenge is making that happen by focusing on a sacred subject : sex, so that it hits damn hard ; but it could be done with another thing.
Onto the show itself : it is not a good rape and revenge. Not terrible but still far from good. What makes it wortwhile in my opinion is Japan's exhuberance. It is definitely not a satire but still hilarious at times.
Characters, apart from mc, are close to blank and art is mid btw.
I didn't want to write a philosophy essay but here it is and I'm not deleting it.
But I want to apologize in advance for the SLIGHT off-topic vibe this whole's probably giving off.
(I used "them" but I am part of it, we all are at some degree.)
