Earlier this year I took a look at the anime series World’s End Harem, a series that I felt was a mid-level” ecchi that had some cool ideas and concepts that it only explored at a knee-deep level. There were some great characters and moments, but also hampered by a frustrating main lead. Yet with no news of a second season to round out ‘part 1’ I figured why not just go over the manga version and give my complete thoughts? Well one trip to the bookstore later, I have purchased the entire series and I can do just that! After the cut lets take a dive into the back half of the manga version of World’s End Harem!
If you recall where the anime ended, Reito and his crew (sans Mira) have escaped japan to seek refuge with his long-time love Elisa in order to evade United Women’s’ American branch, more specifically, Chloe Mansfield, who’s desire to create a female only world endangers them all. On the other side, we see Shota Doi and his scheming handler Karen Kamiya plot their rise to power and fuck every girl he can get his hands on.
From this point on, the manga of World’s End Harem concerns itself with trying to find a cure for the Man-killing virus, and letting Reito come to terms with his situation. There are sub-plots of course, but for the main chunk of the remaining manga, we follow Reito and his harem as they try to science their way out of this crisis. And once again this remains the weakest part of the story. While Reito does have more stuff to do, and his refusal to have sex with anyone does get resolved, I found myself just not caring about him and his story. It’s just not that interesting when you picture this setting and while I do understand him keeping his eye on the prize, considering that this anime is all about the cheese cake, I wish it was a bit different. Still, there are some good moments and his relationship with both Elisa and Mira is well developed and the payoff is worth the read. I especially loved how Mira’s backstory is explained which makes you feel for her and her situation.
Thankfully the two major sub-plots of WEH’s back half more than make up for it. Shota Doi remains the best of the male characters, his transformation from a nerdy boy to an attractive and sly young man is paid off great, and his relationship with Karen and her true intentions make for some good reading. I like how they are both trying to use each other, but understand that they work best as a team and will control all of Japan together. They frankly should have been the main characters of the story, they just pull the reader in more, and it is also where the majority of fanservice comes from. Perhaps that is actually best, as Reito focusing on the main plot allows Shota to just indulge completely in the ecchi of the series.
The second plot is new to the back half, and introduces the group Izanami, a cult of females who worship one of the remaining men as a god figure. Zen Kinebuchi doesn’t have much in the way of character or personality, but his story arc shows another side of this female-only world. If Shota and Kyoji represent the male power-fantasy and Reito is the hero’s path. Zen is the one of chaos and debauchery, showing the insanity some women will go to ensure the species survival, and how they will turn a good, if dull man into a literal semen demon. It feels straight out of a hentai series and honestly I love that WEH is able to explore different sides of this world instead of indulging in only one. It keeps things fresh and reminds the viewer that despite its massive amount of tits and ass, the author is actually committed to telling a story with all the trimmings one would expect.
Overally, the second half of World’s End Harem is a good continuation of what is a pretty good ecchi series. Things progress steadily, characters go through growth and change and there is plenty of fanservice to drown yourself in. This will never be a top-tier series, but neither is it the bottom of the trash either. It’s well developed, actually built upon and has several concepts and ideas that are very interesting to see on display. There are also several hints dropped about the still running second half that tells us the vaccine may not be the salvation people wanted. It makes me want to read more and I’m sure I will be re-visiting this series as soon as I can. If anything I said in this post and my previous one interested you, I hope you’ll give it a look as well, because if anything, it’s got some nice boobs.
Shallow Dives in Anime 