Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi - Vol. 5 Ch. 27 - New Business With the Wife

[Warmuffin]

And Sui helped

 

[fform]

@Nod

The catholic church got really weird about denouncing personal hygiene a few times

iirc that was more a denunciation of public bathhouses, because they didnt approve of what people got up to in there.

 

[miyako19]

@givemersspls Did you speed-reading this? The merchant knows that it is soap and even stated that his wife likes these soap products. But soap produced in this medieval time won't be as good as those in our modern time. The chemists in our era do mix in other chemicals and stuffs in the soaps that can't be found in this medieval era that make them have higher cleaning strength and stronger scent.
From what my grandmother and parents said, just only 30 years ago, the soaps were already not as good as our time. They weren't scented and look just like a bar of lard. I still remember seeing those yucky soaps when I was a child.

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls things he bought from his skill got a magical property that buff you when consumed, so that might be why the hair product works so fast.
won't know for sure until he appraised it tho.

and on the very first chapter that he brought up rice, he immediately bought one from the supermarket.
that one time he despaired 'bout lack of rice is 'cause he got "craving" in the middle of meal but he ran out of cooked rice.

also, the guy ain't even that surprised with that soap. he just judged it rightfully as a good quality soap, not something otherworldly or stuff. like he has seen something similar before.
so unlike that merchant from early chapter with the salt and pepper.

and as an aside, dunno how it is in japan, but here in my country, supermarket typically stocks goods from multinational brand.
so that soap might not even be japan's soap
heck, the one he's using even got "milk" carved in english.

 

[Drifter]

I like the idea of cosmetics having magical properties just like the foods. Imagine finding that your "age defying" cream really made skin younger.

 

[Wilhelm_Stenvall]

Can't he buy a bathtub from the supermarket skill?

 

[Chacha11]

Thank youuuu

 

[Eksentrysyti]

@Wilhelm_Stenvall Have you ever seen a bathtub for sale at a supermarket?

 

[nobaka]

he's kinda getting railroaded here

but since he's got the divine protection of a (pretty high quality, tbh) divine harem, feru, and best boy(?) sui, he really doesn't have to worry about anything

even if they rob him blind, which i doubt they will, he'll never have any trouble with anything. he's just missing out on establishing his own brand

 

[The_DCG]

The pair showing off in front of the single dogs. Priceless. 😂

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls

As to the English on soap, that doesn't really prove much. I won't go into it at length, but single, simple English words on Japanese products isn't entirely uncommon.

Well, we're talking about Glorious NIPPON here. Ain't no way Glorious NIPPON will have any filthy gaijin words in their goods.

Even if it is completely non-Japanese soap, that doesn't really address my point. It's about making the Japanese character look better. That's the MC here. We don't see a soap maker. We don't see the supermarket manager or any of that.

Oh, so that is your point.
Instead of "It's another Glorious NIPPONJIN with their SUPERIOR NIPPON PRODUCT, and I hate it", which is understandable to an extent, your point is more "It's Japanese person doing something that isn't self-degrading and I hate it", to which I can only say this potentially controversial idea to you.
It's okay to be Japanese.

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls wow, that's rude and unwarranted.

the Japanese self-insert main character who literally represents all of Japan in this story

woah, so in your eyes a character is defined solely by his nationality, one that only receives a passing mention here and there even?
that's a really nasty personal hell you're living there.
not to mention that there's actually other japanese in this story and our mc already established that he's different than the majority of the japanese in this story.

is made to look good over and above all other [human] characters.

and that's a nice tunnel vision you got there.
it's not like they only met other human character like, 20% of the time since they spent most of their time traveling.
it's not like he's been treated like slave by all other humanoid character all this time.
it's not like he's also treated like slave by something that traditionally is lesser than a human all this time.
but no, it must be a human specifically, not elves, not beastman, human.
next, you'll narrow it specifically to a good-looking caucasian male within the age range of 18-25, with short black hair and black eyes, must be able to support a widow and a child...

and clearly, selling a good quality item is all it needs to look good over and above all human. i really wish demon lords and nobles all over isekai shares your view.
if you look at what actually happening, not even a shred of praise is given to mc regarding the soap sales. it's all given to his product. he's nothing more than a courier for what he brought.
and that somehow supposedly made him look good over and above others?

and even with all that, nothing's inherently wrong with making a main character looks good over and above other character, in some things.
our mc has been shown to lacks many things, let him have his good moment sometimes (even if it's not exactly right now)
because while a constant mc dick-sucking is boring, mc that constantly sucks is also boring

 

[collagen]

mukouda you are too slow. commercial soap? pull a Roland from Release that Witch and bring steam boats and G U N S into the country already. 😂 (jk i really like the peaceful wholesomeness of this story too i hope it stays that way)

The 2nd drama cd for this novel/manga is coming out soon~ ^^ you can listen to the samples of the first one for free here https://over-lap.co.jp/narou/865541670/ click the play button.

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls what
what are you even drawing comparison with there?
kirito is bland because of some trait he has,
in the same vein, mukouda here is japanese because of the trait he has?

just what kind of reason even made mukouda defining character trait is, well, being japanese? like, if you take off the moonrune, then there's practically no sign of mukouda being a japanese.
like, there's only his backstory that only mentioned in like, 1 chapter, or his cooking, but then again, he also made a lot of chinese cuisine.
and how exactly can you assign nationality to a character trait?

and what exactly do you mean with the second half?
that this manga follows a certain genre, that's build off the trope of japanese mc looking good?
how exactly can you call this manga builds off that specific trope when the so-called japanese mc spends 90% of the time being pushed around instead of actually looking good?
and that one specific instance in this chapter isn't even have him looking good, it's his product that's looking good.
are you sure you assigned the right genre here?

 

[goodhunter]

@primrosea yea, I just happened to have watched a history channel that talked about medieval hygiene and what not, so I know a little bit about medieval soap lol

 

[goodhunter]

@Awsim good soap has existed, but it still isn't as good as what we have in modern day. The fragrance and quality would still top the good soap during that time, and today's soap lathers up really well compared to medieval soap. Even if the merchant was somewhat wealthy, even for him such a product would be an extravagant luxury that he can't just frivolously use without second thought. And definitely, hair products (even if it is a trope) would be something amazing for them. At best, the richest people would have access to various oils from herbs and what not to use in their hair, but none of that can compare to the hair products we have today in terms of cleaning and strengthening. Modern days' access to various chemicals and ingredients synthesized through research and development will outshine in effectiveness medieval days' cleaning products. And considerably more affordable and available.

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls how's kirito being bland comparison relevant to that?

and that's some leap of logic you got there.
just because x looks a lot like a, and a lot of a is b, doesn't always mean that x is b.
you need to either prove first how 100% of a, no exception, is b, or you just need to show that x is b.
and you know what, by your logic, Release That Witch then falls under that category of "isekai where they all goes look at this Japanese stuff that the MC has and how awesome it is, regardless of whether it actually makes sense in the new world"

also, if you, the one most annoyed by the fact that he's japanese, can't even recall off the top of your head which chapter he said that, how does that even make that fact relevant to the story then?
i never denied that he once said he's japanese, i'm just saying that the story doesn't treat that fact as relevant, and you just proved it for me.

and going back to the roots of this discussion, how's the selling of soap that might or might not be japanese even relevant to your point now?

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls See, that inference fails when the things that makes X similar to A doesn't have a relation to B in the first place.
Take for example a water gun.
Water gun looks a lot like a gun, and a lot of gun is used as a weapon of murder. Does that mean a water gun is a weapon of murder?
When the similarity is merely surface level, jumping the gun and claiming that X is B is just that, a leap of logic.

Let's take Release That Wich for example.
It has the MC be weak and basically be carried by absurdly powerful companions. Cute goddesses fawning over him and gifting him with powers beyond compare.
MC somehow an expert of a certain niche knowledhe and everyone gushes over his knowledge and how applicable it is in the isekai? Check.
Demons attacking humanity? Demon lord waging wars against human? Check.
Nobles being a dick? Not exactly a trope as it is inescapable fact, but also check.

And yet Release That Witch has this tiny little quirk that keeps it from fitting that whole Japanese self-insert MC doing Japanese thing in isekai.
The MC is Chinese. It's a Manhwa released for Chinese.

In the end, a trope is just trope, nothing more, nothing less.
You can't assign nationality to a trope.
Any story can choose to fits some trope, regardless of nationality of the reader and author.

Now if you say that this manga fits into the whole isekai trope, then I'll wholeheartedly agree with you.
It's just being Japanese has nothing to do with that.
Any story can be an isekai garbage even if it got Canadian MC with Canadian author making it for Canadian people.

Also, the merchant only choose the MC in the first place because he just conveniently came when he still considering what to gift his wife.
He might not even give his wife a beauty product if MC doesn't came with his products. Heck, he might even decides to take her to a nice honeymoon trip for all we know.
And he's even being watchful and tries it first.
It's his wife that's overly enthusiastic for MC's product. _{typical of women, amiriteguys}
But then again, the enthusiasm is perfectly justified in this world specifically, since, other than MC potentially undercharging his product, there's also the whole thing of, you know, otherworld items automatically got buff and all.
On top of that, the MC isn't exactly getting that sales without effort. That merchant is the guy he saved before not just some random guy, he then butters him up first with selling what the merchant has been saying he wanted, and then he even delivers that whole salesman speech to him.
It's a well-earned sales.

It only fits the trope if you throw all the details, all the context surrounding it.

And unrelated, but goddamn that digibro.
how can someone even say the same fucking things over and over in the span of what, 13 hours? like, you just need to watch the first couple vid when he actually talk about asterisk war to get all of his point. everything else is the same shit repeated ad infinitum, and he even stops talking about the titular asterisk war.
like, the only good thing that came out of that is the one comparison with some other battle-harem airing in the same season. but it only happens like, near the end iirc.
curses you human psyche with your desire to see things to completion.
is he even alive at this point? last i heard there's some controversy around him and he even changes his channel name a few times.

 

[mage_goo]

@givemersspls See, there's nothing inherently Japanese there.
In easier term, this manga is garbage because it's garbage, not because the MC is Japanese or things like that.
Lack of depth and failure to execute trope in an exciting way isn't exclusive to Japan. The mold you're talking about also isn't even exclusive to Japan, their neighbor has started adopting it.
If only you didn't put so much emphasis on MC being Japanese, as if it's an important part of your point, then I'd also seen your actual point a lot sooner, and we won't need this drawn out discussion.

Looking back at it, MC didn't come to the merchant to sell his product, but actually just to price it.
And the merchant actually react pretty natural the first time around, like he has seen a good quality soap before, unlike what you seems to paint him as, and in contrast with the salt merchant way before.
So he's actually reacting rationally, just like the real world counterparts.
Things only really changes after he actually used it.
Even though there's an in-universe explanation of the soap being an otherworld magical soap, I can see how people would be mislead to draw the conclusion that it's only because isekai soap is just that bad, which isn't true in real world medieval.
My conclusion is different, but it's still an understandable and valid point. I can agree with that.

Would you look at that, MC being Japanese isn't actually relevant here.

You may not be able to assign nationality to a trope, but you can definitely assign a trope to nationality. Creator provincialism is literally about exactly that.

But that's stereotyping, or in modern term, racist.

 

[Shakur]

Bathtubs are not even that hard to do actually, he could make one with Earth magic when camping. Showers are way harder to do. So I just can't understand jap isekai people going all surprise when they see a bathtub, even a larger bucket can be uses as a bathtub.
And the thing with soap, people didn't had all that refinement to make soap so fragrant so this actually makes sense.