So let's get the obvious outta the way, YES, this title does feature a lot of fan service but let's not avoid the elephant in the room and the horrific nature of the situation. The year is 2040 and Reito has been diagnosed with a rare disease that will have treatment in 5 years, not having that long, Reito puts himself in cryostasis in hopes that in 5 years the treatment will be available. Saying goodbye to his older brother, younger sister, and girlfriend Erisa, Reito awakens 5 years later only to discover that he is 1 of 5 men left on the planet and a mysterious virus has killed all the men. With humanity facing extinction, the only way to ensure mankind's survival is through sexual intercourse with the remaining men...copious amounts of sexual intercourse. Now you're probably asking yourself, if they live in such a technologically advanced society (and they do) why not use artificial insemination. Luckily this is already addressed and the logic holds up.
The remaining women did attempt artificial insemination but each male child died shortly after. If I may offer an explanation, given that the virus is airborne and targets men, one could argue that because sperm cells have a gender the sperm cells became infected once exposed to air and the virus grew once the gender was officially sorted out in the womb. The only way to ensure the sperm cells don't come into contact with air is if it is released directly into the woman, ergo through sexual intercourse. And if the remaining men are immune to the virus, it'd make sense that the immunity would be passed on. For such a premise as this where quite a bit of sex is involved there is quite a bit of death to discuss and there in lies the horrific nature of the situation. And "World's End Harem" doesn't downplay the reality of situation either, we understand what's at stake and what the reality is.
What I mean to say is this isn't portrayed as anything light-hearted and humours, even Reito's caretaker Mira sees her role of making sure Reito mates with as many women as possible as simply a job, and the women themselves will be set for life financially should they bare Reito's (male) child. Ultimately, the world in this series is fully realized from the start and that's what I like about it. Everything is clinical and scientific rather than funny and silly, which I think really turns the harem genre on it's head. Now granted the women in Reito's harem do find him attractive and Reito has a slew of women complied specifically for him who are buxom, comely and more importantly young and fertile but again all of this is clinical and their willingness to mate with Reito is understandable as they all understand that humanity is at stake.
While I only read the first volume, I am interested in reading more to see what other issues the series attempts to tackle and maybe meet the other men who survived. We meet one of the other survivors Kyouji Hino who is fine with the current circumstances as (like most men) he's only focused on banging as many hot chicks as he wants to, which is understandable. Reito, however given the fact that he does have a girlfriend (who is absent at the moment, not sure why) he's more hesitant to engage in any activities until he can find her, which I also understand. As a Christian, I'm torn because logically all of the reasoning behind this makes sense and should such a scenario arise where mankind's survival hinged on copious amounts of sex with various women, I'd be questioning the morality of that myself, but ultimately I think I'd treat it as clinically as possible. Likewise, if I'm immune to the virus than it'd be in my and humanity's best interest to not only pass along this immunity but discover how to make others immune as well, and possibly studying the immunity of any offspring I produce would help with that.
Once again, this is NOT treated as a joke and that's what I like about it. Most harem animes throw the protagonist into a situation with a bunch of women who are after his bones with little to know explanation other than "He was nice to me.". Here the protagonist is thrown into a situation where all men but 5 are dead, humanity is at the brink and it's up to him to aide in repopulating the Earth, again, a lot of death. And so we end volume one with Reito searching for his girlfriend asking Mira for 1 month to find her before he starts his "ardous" task of nailing as many hot chicks as he likes. This was an enjoyable read for the first volume because it gives us all the stakes, information and everything we need to know about the world immediately without including the gender politics they crammed into Hulu's "Y: The Last Man". "World's End Harem" is a fantasy turned nightmare and I feel like despite everything the series is going to get slightly darker as it goes on. It doesn't mince words about men's contributions to society at large and industry in general. It doesn't cowtow to feminism at all and makes it clear that while women are capable BOTH genders are ESSENTIAL for the survival for mankind. The characters are great, Reito is a decent everyman character, Mira's a great character with a cool design, The doctor and bodyguard are also pretty cool in their own right. Looking forward to checking out more. Catch you guys later!
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