You know, a hot male fantasy and a hot anime fantasy is for a guy to have a harem of beautiful women, all catering to his every whim and desire. What if you could actually have one? What if you discovered it was a lot more work than you realized? What if your humanity was reduced to a mere cypher? This is kind of the plot for “World’s End Harem” (“Shūmatsu no Hāremu”), where, like Transformers, there’s more than meets the eye.

We start off with the year 2040 (Hey, that’s just around the corner. No hover boards. Still.) and high school student Reito Mizuhara (that confused individual to the left) is put into cryostasis. You see, he has cellular sclerosis (although some subtitles give him multiple sclerosis) and the treatment lasts five years. This can all be done while he’s taking the big nap and by 2045, he’ll be right as rain.

He leaves behind his childhood sweetheart Elisa Tachibana. Look, don’t worry, things will be OK. Five years will pass like nothing. And, well, five years pass like nothing. He is awakened by Mira Suo (that purple-haired lass. You can’t see it, but she is packing some heavy heat). He learns that he is fine, but something far worse has happened and that is the MK Virus, which we later find out stands for the Man Killer Virus. In a mere four years, the male population of the world went from seven billion (it IS 2040) to almost nothing (and I’ll talk on that point later).

Fortunately, all those guys in cryostasis are a kind of lifeline, but here’s the rub: in vitro fertilization does not really work, so Reito and whomsoever they pull out of the deep freeze are going to have to sleep with every nubile woman that they can. The series contents itself with this problem and all the machinations going on behind the scenes.

Here is what, for me, was the real drag: it ain’t appealing. There were a ton of questions presented that were glossed over or ignored. For the anime, there appears to be only five guys who can do this function. In doing research for this show, the manga implies that there are actually closer to one million men worldwide, all in the cooler and to be trotted out when the time is right.

There is a theory afoot that the virus was man-made, designed by a cabal of women of which Akane Ryūzōji (the ginger), Reito’s nurse, who wants to knock boots with him, has her mother on the Council of Rulers. Now, because he is a precious commodity, he is assigned a girl, Sui Yamada (that green hair), who is as strong as they come, to be a body guard, as there are factions afoot with ulterior motives. Together, they all try to get to the bottom of this.

How can I say this? For something that should have been more sexy, it was less sexy. For something that should have been more of a mystery, it was tepid. For a political drama, it was ‘meh’. And since we follow four story lines, not everyone gets their due and things fall by the wayside. To wit, one of the stud muffins, Shota Doi, now that he is in a position of power and authority, turns out to be a real jerkbait. He torments some of the ladies and it is not uncommon for him to have a porkfest, as he nails three or four ladies at the same time. It’s just the ladies are trying so hard to be sexy and appealing, it loses interest. So many naked boobies. *yawn*

There was also a comment made that in the four years since the virus made itself felt, many sciences have fallen apart, as there is no one to do them. What? Are you implying that if it weren’t for men in science, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere and women are not all that capable? You know a show is in trouble when you (or I; I mean, I did come up with this thought) see all the tremendous flaws in this approach, where all that is asked of him is to have sex with some other woman every night. It’s more complicated than that, but someone felt if we just show naked boobies and a lot of slamming the ham, it will cover the innumerable plot holes presented.

Personally, I would bypass this for a variety of reasons. Aside from it not being all that interesting, there is the difficulty of trying to find an uncensored website that doesn’t give you the Red Box of Death. And you want it uncensored, just to avoid annoying light shafts and fog bars and other modesty blockage so you don’t lose your mind. You will lose your mind for other reasons, OK?

Binge? Not in the least. It doesn’t help the plot; it showcases the absolute banality of the situation; you will get bored of the fan service in nothing flat; there are better shows to binge. Whether the results are from the parent material or other decisions were made, it’s five years late and 100-yen short.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (There’s a kind of uncertainness to the art)
Plot                  7 (Interesting idea left to its own blah devices)
Pacing              7 (Too herky-jerky)
Effectiveness   6 (Motivations are a bit scanty)
Conclusion      5 (It reaches a coupler point, but not even close to an end)
Fan Service     8 (A similar show would be “Sekerei”)

Overall            6 (Whoda thought sex could be so mayonnaise?)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Hey, are you gay?