Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World
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zztop
Posts: 645 |
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The thing is that Labyrinth Harem's novels were never written as campy and in your face like World End Harem. It reads more like a dungeon-diving/daily slice of living in a fantasy world type of series, with much focus on levelling and grinding. The sexy stuff is there, but it's not the laser focus of the story. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1871 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Well, it's not like our complaints or praises are going to change minds on the Japanese production side of things...
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Hal14
 Posts: 666 Location: Heart of africa |
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They're not!!?? Golly gee. Welp, I guess we might as well never discuss any show ever again. And to think, i was sure discussion threads were actually suggestion boxes delivered directly to japan! |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3650 |
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I'll put this in spoilers because it just came up in the manga, but it's really nothing I imagine most people would see it as such. Anyway, it's mentioned that there are three best case scenarios for a slave in this world: spoiler[1: Being bought by someone very rich who takes a liking to you and makes you their concubine or similar position, giving you a comfortable life 2: Being bought by a (usually older) widower instead of them remarrying so they have someone to take care of them, so they get taken care of and get freed when that person passes away 3: Fighting in the labyrinth. Over time as they increase in strength, they become more valuable, and would get treated better. If they're strong enough and get treated poorly, they may even seek out someone else to buy them] With the first two being rare, the third outcome is the most common one to hope for. |
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Seraph89
Posts: 26 |
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Someone already mentioned them as theories but I'm going to straight up confirm some stuff here. spoiler[Roxanne is a genuine battle junkie to the point she use to pull the stingers out of some toxic wasp monsters when she was a child and use them to fight other monsters. The manga, nor the anime will get to the point where that's explained but yeah. She saw Michio was an adventurer that would let her fight and that was why she was so down to be his slave in specific. The fact that he's got boyish good looks was just a perk.] The other stuff the person who did some speculating said were also partially true but that was the main theory I wanted to confirm.
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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I didn't expect this show to be another Ishizoku Reviewers but I was pretty much expecting it to have more sexy content, considering it is made by the same studio, in fact the (uncensored) few shots we got of the prostitues in episode one had a remarkably similar artstyle.
as bland as the protagonist is (lol, I just realized I have already forgotten his name again, even after just having read it in the review) I find it fascinating that the narration is making everything in its power and runtime to depict him as an unlikable amoral bastard. from showcasing minimal regret after commiting murder, to wanting to partake in slave ownership, to that one seemingly random flash forward about him having impregnated and forsaken a random village girl. I hope the show is trying to at least work this into some sort of commentary, maybe not something deep such as the nuances of murder but at least some kind of depiction of the concecuences of lacking empathy. |
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Ishida_Akira(fake)
Posts: 113 |
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"As of these first three episodes, Harem Labyrinth seemingly sees you, the audience, the same way the story's inciting slave-trader sees the main character whose name I keep having to Google: A sucker, a mark, a human resource ripe to drain time and metrics out of with a stringing-along a business plan"
I'm sorry, but you're completely wrong on this. The slave trader does indeed see the MC as a target, but definitely not a sucker. His whole thing is going out and looking for people who would make good masters for his slaves. He does not sell his slaves to possible abusers, and correctly saw the MC as someone who would be worthy of his slaves. Yes, he sells slaves, but no, he's not evil.
I love it when people complain that the story doesn't do X, but completely miss all the clues about said X. We already have a clue about why he doesn't care to go back to his world (his mentioning of being completely alone in this world as well), and we'll get more information about why this random dude knows how to sword fight. Get this: there's an actual reason. But I don't see why a show has to say EVERYTHING in episode 1. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1392 |
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Just want to highlight this sentence as the perfect encapsulation of this whole argument. Like ah, yes, what an ethical and upstanding slave trader. Truly he is a noble paragon whose example we should all follow. 
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1871 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Last edited by KabaKabaFruit on Sun Jul 24, 2022 11:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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If we go by that logic, where the world is not made out of scales of gray, but merely black and white, then you no doubt condemn the founding fathers (and not glorify them as noble paragons), since not only they lacked (just like our protagonist) the backbone to oppose slavery, but thrived thanks to slave ownership (which means, of course, dealing with slave traders, which in your opinion were all the same). Nope, they were not the product of the time they lived in (which is not that far removed from our own), they are simply morally appalling and not worthy of being in your paper money. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 1392 |
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That is correct, yes. Bringing this back to the actual show, Ishida_Akira's original post does highlight an interesting part of these types of slavery narratives that keep popping up. At their most basic, outside of the obvious sexual implications (which this show makes explicit), the appeal of these stories seem to me to be power fantasies about wielding a fundamentally unethical power (In this case: owning slaves) in a supposedly ethical manner. It's basically a paradox, and to compensate for that very glaring hole these stories typically try to soften things by adding mitigating factors in an attempt to earn the audience's sympathy for the main character. In Shield Hero, they put Naofumi at a spot where his best chance at survival is to buy a slave, and then introduce a number of post-hoc justifications, such as saving her from a terminal illness, the slave pact helping her get stronger faster, etc. It's an argument that rests on the idea that the reason slavery is bad is because it allows Bad People to be abusive. And while that's certainly an aspect of what makes slavery inherently immoral, it's ultimately only one particularly nasty symptom of the core evil of taking a sentient being and turning them into property incapable of having agency over their own self. Pretending that abuse is the only reason slavery is bad is a mental slight-of-hand that allows for the idea that if you're a Nice slave owner/trader, then what you're doing isn't actually that bad. It's also funnier because of just how bad HLAW is at the whole thing. It not only never grapples with the question of enthusiastic consent, thanks to some unexplained rule that sex slaves have to consent to becoming sex slaves instead of non-sex slaves, but (seemingly unintentionally) paints a picture of the exact dehumanization at the root of why slavery is a horrific system. Michio catches a guy stealing, which through the regular laws of the land sentences to thief to a life of slavery. Then we learn that if a slave flees or kills their owner, they are instantly labeled a criminal, and killing them without provocation becomes a totally legal act. And then it shows Michio killing criminals to collect bounties on their head, in order to buy a slave. Through different stages it paints a perfect timeline of how, in a system that enshrines slavery, somebody committing a relatively minor crime (or simply being found guilty of a crime, which isn't the same thing) will not only ruin them, but doom them to a life as legal property or legally condone their execution at the hands of anyone with a sword and a desire for gold. And it seems to expect the audience to either ignore or miss that, and just accept that anyone labelled a bandit is inherently, irredeemably evil and deserves what happens to them, but because selling sentient beings is legal, that makes it okay. And I suspect that conflating of legality and morality - presumably combined with the power fantasy appealing to them - is what allows folks to say "yes he sells slaves, but he's not evil" without a second thought. After all, so long as something is allowed by the law, it must be okay, and even if it's a cruel business, so long as you're not a total bastard, you're not doing anything too terrible, yeah? Last edited by lossthief on Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Seraph89
Posts: 26 |
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Comparing Alan to the founding fathers wasn't the best way to try and argue your point Akira.
Also the "flash forward" spoiler[wasn't a flash forward at all but a "What If?" scenario Michio gets shown later on in the novels.] It shouldn't be taken as context to show Michio's amorality. |
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Gamen
Posts: 221 |
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And to forestall a lore-based counterargument, yes, technically it's actually the World itself changing people's jobs to thief or bandit when they commit an action the World considers a crime, like Michio taking those sandals and having his 2nd job changed to thief automatically. That doesn't mean the residents of this world have to go along with the World's rules. Just because the World doesn't consider killing someone with a bandit job a crime, doesn't mean society couldn't. They don't have to use the slavery system the World provides, or put stock in the identity cards. |
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Ishida_Akira(fake)
Posts: 113 |
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I did no such thing. That's three comments down from mine. My argument was basically that the salve trader has no evil intentions, not does he look down on the main character. In fact, he likes him a lot. |
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FeelMyBlade
Posts: 142 |
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That's one of the things I like about anime, actually. Lupin the Third is a womanizng sexual assaulter, Monkey D Luffy is friends with rapists and cannibals, and Goku lets genocidal mass murderers live so he has people to fight later on. But they're all still portrayed as a generally good-natured people. Good people can do bad, flawed, and questionable things but still be good people overall. I find those characters and stories more interesting than boy scout heroes who writers go out of their way to ensure never do anything even approaching morally or socially questionable. I like seeing how characters adapt in worlds where the rules don't see certain evils as, well, evil, but the norm, but still maintain their morality. |
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