Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo

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Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo was one of the first isekai light novels to ever exist, and it's pretty much the godfather of isekai as we know today, the WN and LN both came before Mushoku and Re:Zero were published, and many LN authors have cited it as an inspiration for their work. LN fans in Japan even consider it to be a classic among LNs.

And because of this I was curious to read it, and I can see why so many have taken inspiration from it. The story starts in a pretty interesting way, with our MC browsing suicide sites online because of ... how horrible his life was, and while surfing the dark web he encounters a mysterious game, and then before starting the game he does everything he can to get the best possible character build using a randomizer option, and I mean that in a really desperate way. When he finally gets that, he desperately starts the game while ignoring the warnings that says that he will never be able to leave the game.

And that's how it starts, a pretty compelling way to start a isekai story, leaving your old shitty life where you had been bullied, abused, and had no friends, to starting life in another world with abilities that make you much stronger than everyone else. This may seem like a cliche, but back when the WN first started, those type of stories weren't as common as they are today, and this is another reason why so many authors were inspired by this series, some people just like to read wish-fulfillment stories like that, and the concept of starting life in another world is really captivating and interesting to some.

Now that I've gone over the premise and the back story, I would like to talk about the actual enjoyment that I had with reading it. One of the first things that I immediately noticed is how much "explanation" there is, the MC just has too many monologues and is always "overthinking" things if you could say that, this kinda took out a little bit of the enjoyment because things happen reaaaally slow. It takes pretty much the whole of volume 1 just for the MC to get his first slave, and while exploring the labyrinth he is always testing everything about his own skills and abilities, I kinda appreciate how much detail the author puts into his character and abilities, but it does feel a bit dragged out at times.

One of my main complaints however would be the art. I was used to light novels having really good art because all of the series I had read so far were relatively more modern series. But this LN has the same artist that worked on Fullmetal Panic and that's a really classic LN series from the 90s. So the art-style is really similar to those you see in classic anime from the 90s and 2000s.
This is even more disappointing because this is supposed to be an ecchi series, but the art really doesn't help it and it feels wrong to call this an ecchi.

And this leads to another complaint that I have, I thought this was supposed to be a really heavy ecchi series, from what I've heard from some manga readers, and MAL even labels it as "erotica", but this is definitely not even close to that. Compared to other ecchi LN series like Shinmai Maou and Masou Gakuen HxH, this series is not ecchi at all. Yes the MC has a harem of sex slaves, but pretty much none of the illustrations show them in a fan-service way, nor are their moments together on the bed even written or described.
So if you are coming to this series expecting an ecchi or fan-service than be prepared to be disappointed because pretty 80% of the LN is just about exploring the labyrinth.

Still it had it's moments and as far as fantasy LN goes it's pretty well written in that part.
I'd say from the 4 volumes that I read so far:
Volume 1 was the best
Volume 2 was decent
Volume 3 was boring
Volume 4 was ok

I heard the manga has better art-style and has more fan-service, so if you are looking for that than better read it instead, but if you strictly in for the fantasy, labyrinth exploring, and world-building, then you would be better off with the LN.

The best way to describe this light novel is so close to being good it's frustrating.

The author developed an interesting world, with interesting mechanics of how things like levels and abilities work. It's a pretty decently well thought out backdrop and I honestly like everything about the world and its nuances.

The problem is the main character. Many people complain that he's paranoid or overly cautious or whatever, but none of that is the issue. The issue is that the author spends FAR TOO MUCH TIME on the character's inner monlogue. Every single thought the character has is given to us. Even when his mind ... wanders, we're treated to 2 or 3 paragraphs of his train of thought going off on a tangent before he gets back to whatever he's supposed to really be thinking about.

It's like if you were reading a novel and it took time out to describe every bathroom break the characters have. Like... you know the characters use the bathroom, you don't need to read about them going in, sitting down, the size and shape as they do their business... none of that is necessary. That's what this is like. Every thought, even if it's a random thought, ESPECIALLY if it's a random thought, is given to the reader in full detail. So when he goes ot make a decision, you get to hear his ENTIRE train of thought as he tries to make up his mind about something. It just grinds the story to a hault, and that's why people complain about him being paranoid or overthinking things.

It's actually not a bad thing that he's thinking things through, and honestly if you were in his situation, you'd do the same thing probably, or at least I would. But we as the reader don't need to know every thought that went through his head to come to his conclusion. Especially when the decision is something like "what will we eat for dinner tonight?" which is a decision he makes EVERY DAY and that we have to read about EVERY TIME.

Because of this, the story grinds to a hault often and it's really frustrating. This is why the manga and anime get better reviews because you don't have to deal with any of his internal monologue (or significantly far less of it).

The other issue is that the author is slow. The story is already slow and drawn out, and the author takes his time releasing new novels, so it makes it painfully slow. There are actual things that you want to learn and know, like there is an actual good story burried beneath the MC's train of thought, but it's nearly impossible to get to becasue of how slow everything is.

So like I said, it's so close to being good that it's frustrating. I can't help but think if this story was in the hands of a better writer it would be amazing. It could still be slice of life, that's not the problem, it's that the author does not know how to tell a story, it's like everything he's thinking about he writes down as the character's thoughts and that's how he writes. It's a shame.

If you enjoy turning your brain off for some light dungeon exploring with minimal world building with a side of slave-girls it's an OK read!

I can distinctly remember two segments that are genuinely good in the LN, the first one being when Michio is exploring the starting town at night trying to find and take care of a bandit gang. During these segments we receive some decent exposition exploring this town's workings surrounding the bandits and how Mochio should operate to deal with them. The second segment being a near death encounter in the dungeon that he sets out to explore. These moments are a ... great contrast to the other chapters of the LN because it's mostly downhill from here.

The LN's overall structure is slow paced. This can be explained by the story's non-exclusive focus one dungeons and the fact that Michio is somewhat cautious when exploring , which is not an inherent problem. However when it's combined with excessive retelling of similar dungeon exploring moments it gets drab pretty quickly. This combined with the subpar world building and little character interactions leads to a situation where the world feels empty and lifeless.

As the synopsis states, there are video game systems implemented in the story that are tied to character growth. I usually love rigid leveling systems, seeing the main character min-maxing his potential growth as well as its straightforwardness in determining power levels. While Michio is the guy to min-max, he is completely terrible at it, to the point of frustration. Not only does he pick bad builds but the LN math is incorrect when calculating the different benefits that he receives, leaving an awful experience when reading segments that focus on min-maxing.

There is a reason why the manga and anime focuses on ecchi, which did not even exist in the LN. It's because the other aspects are not that well written or unique. If you want to read the LN, the first book is the best one by far, so go on ahead. However I personally do not recommend this LN.

For those who came here after watching an anime series and want some nighttime action, I've read the first book and half of the second. When going through the first book and finding the night action skipped, I thought, "Okay, maybe the anime jumped ahead for faster storytelling," but after the night was skipped multiple times, I came to the conclusion that there will be no such action in the light novel. There was only ear rubbing and very uninterestingly described kisses. I do not consider this a romance or erotica story.

The story is repetitive. Reading about skill distribution all the time is boring as ... hell. Nothing fancy is happening in the story. You basically read just internal monologues.