Dec 1, 2023
There was once a time where I stumbled upon a debauched harem novel I now thankfully don't remember the name of. It had the protagonist hypnotise different girls to love him. It had more than 10 girls from different age groups and backgrounds with different personalities, one of them was even 11 y.o. (it even had a "Initiation ceremony" which was basically a giant orgy). I also remember that this harem was very lax when it came to sex. It had 2 "rules": It doesn't count as cheating if it's between family; If it's between girls in the family, everything is allowed, except penetration.
That was
...
the most disgusting thing I have ever read. Since then for a while I started feel aprehensive towards the harem genre, but I didn't lose my mind, because I consoled myself, saying stuff like: "Nobody knows about it, even the people who know about it describe it as disturbing and hate-read it" or "If something like that were to be available to a wider public, everyone would definitely ridicule and despise this, just look how people reacted to Rent-A-Girlfriend and its MC's strange fetishes, so you have nothing to worry about". And then I saw this anime and understood that for it to be accepted all it needs is to call itself a parody.
Won't beat around the bush, in one of the episodes the MC's girlfriends are drugged by basically some aphrodisiac, which makes them want to kiss the MC. When the MC is cornered by two girls, he shoves their lips together and watches them with a red face how they share the most passionate kiss ever. And, apparently, this wasn't the end of it, since in the manga their repeated kissing continues to this day, and in one of the chapters they kissed (and maybe even more) for the entire night. And, apparently, the manga has multiple girls in a harem kissing and doing other stuff with each other. And, apparently, the MC knows and doesn't mind this.
This is the main problem I have with it, it made me feel extremely uncomfortable, so I immediately dropped it. Some people say that it's just a parody of a harem genre and isn't meant to be taken seriously, but I disagree. This show might wear the cape of a parody by making fun of harem tropes, but it also embraces the harem part of itself and takes it very seriously and since the main product of a harem is its girls, it treats them very seriously. This show doesn't just make them into embodiments of harem archetypes like I've heard people say, it fleshes out their characters, tries to make them interesting and likable, it tries to make you care. So it isn't "just a parody" and the focus isn't just on comedy.
I have to give it to this show though, before the yuri-bait episode this show had decent(5/10) comedy, but the yuri-bait being a part of the comedy is what killed my investment(especially after finding out that it continues). This is supposed to be a harem romance comedy, but how am I supposed to be invested in the romance when the show tries to pair the girls with each other? This just makes me uncomfortable, especially with the MC liking it. This may be simple to the people who love yuri, but not for me.
I usually just watch anime and don't comment or rate it on this site, but I've made an exception for this one, since it brought about a feeling I've long forgotten.
This review is for anyone who expected a harem story without any yuri between the love interests or for people who find it questionable when the guy tries to pair his girlfriends with each other or for anyone who cares about the romance in general. If my ravings managed to convince you, please skip this one and don't look back. If you still want to give it a watch know this: it's 95% comedy and 5% romance(if you continue with the romance in manga, know that a good portion of it is at some point becomes subtle romance between the girls); the anime and source material has yuri-bait between the harem members; God forbid you take the romance seriously, get attached to one of the girls and ship her with the MC.
TLDR: Look at my name + this show has yuri-bait + me didn't know that = me disappointed. If you the same = don't watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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