Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World

Episode 8

I feel like I've made it pretty clear in previous episode reviews, but I think at this point I need to really articulate just how much I fundamentally do not understand Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World. Like in this episode, upon transferring operations to the new region of Quratar, Michio re-establishes his system of setting up teleportation into its labyrinth as a way to skip the queue and avoid the entry fee required of other Explorers to get in. Except needing to wait in line and pay money to enter a dungeon isn't a system that the basic-bitch RPGs which Harem Labyrinth is aping actually utilize; It's entirely a made-up inconvenience by the author that exists just for Michio to seem clever for solving, which he does simply by utilizing the convenient powers the setting bestowed on him with little effort. Why it's almost akin to, oh I don't know, a supposedly-sexy isekai anime padding its salacious content with hours of boring procedural stuff to sit through, before blocking what we're here for behind walls of censorship which you then have to pay money to excise. And like Michio's easy-to-utilize teleportation powers letting him enact a fantasy FastPass, I think most of us know how torrents work.

Nonsensical as that mechanical setup for underground entry is, it does clearly speak to the worldview that's become apparent at the heart of Harem Labyrinth: Every interaction Michio has with someone has to involve him screwing them over, or just screwing them. Elaborate work-arounds concocted for inconveniences that only exist to be worked around like that dungeon system are one thing, but that mercenary need is present even in the show's mandated more mundane elements. The centerpiece of this episode is Michio's acquisition of a new house for him and Roxanne, initiated by a hardware shop owner seemingly sympathetic to Michio's 'unique' situation with his legally-loyal spouse and offering to show the place to them. But that then devolves into our main duo going out of their way to get a deal over on the lady via knowing negotiations on the perceived value of the property, with her sparring back with counter-offers. It's an attitude that rounds back to the point that Michio could never conceive of teaming up with someone like Roxanne for mutual benefit, he had to specifically pay for her on account of her utility. As far as this author is concerned, no one in this world would ever want to genuinely help anybody else, it must always be about getting one over, scoring a deal or acquisition.

It honestly all winds up instilling in me a genuine sadness for the mind behind this story as I'm watching it. A point that comes up is that, in order to safeguard against anyone but him being able to use teleportation entrances in his new home, Michio cannot allow anyone else further into the house than the entryway. Neither the character nor the author behind him can conceive of ever wanting to entertain guests, or be visited by friends that he's evidently unbothered by not having. It calls back to the storytelling issues of so many other garden-variety isekai protagonists: There's potential to reflect on the characters' pre-fantasy life, what kinds of experiences and background they had that would lead them to spurn so much socialization and live with this level of disinterest and distrust for other people. But we aren't interested in that level of characterization, and instead Michio and the author's attitude comes off as mere garden-variety misanthropy borne out of being regarded by society as, well, as someone who would jump at the chance to enslave another person, given the opportunity. What actual complexities might we have had in Harem Labyrinth's story had the person behind it had at least a single fucking friend?

Lest you think I'm being too hard on over-analyzing Harem Labyrinth's driving worldview in a desperate attempt to make sense of its layout, know that the structure of its story remains as antithetical to entertainment as ever. A quick check reveals that HGTV's House Hunters has been running for over twenty-three years, so presumably there's some sort of audience for a show like that where you might also occasionally see an anime boob. But I don't know that the kind of 'storytelling' meant to take up space on old people's TVs left running in the background can apply to the same standards as something viewers deliberately load up on a streaming service and then resolve to pay for uncensored Blu-rays of later. Though to that end, it's worth noting that Harem Labyrinth sees fit to bless us with two whole sex scenes this week! The first one depicting Michio and Roxanne's last night in the inn is as functionally the same as all their other times. But at least the second one reaches for some absurd entertainment value, as a lack of light in their new home results in Michio apparently sticking it in the wrong hole, leading to a meandering, dissonant mid-coitis conversation on candle economics. At last, the characters have become as bored as we are by their basic banging and are just taking the time to talk about something, anything else.

There are elements of Harem Labyrinth that wind up technically-interesting to analyze with this week's episode, but they're all depressing extrapolations on top of the same painfully plodding procedural we now expect from the series. Like the personally-fulfilling video-game thought experiments powering it, so much of this stuff might work as numbers and concepts filling out someone's notebook, and might even function as a curiosity as a brisk light-novel read. But for the eighth week in a row I have to ask why they thought they could make this work as a fully-produced animated series? It's a transactional test akin to the same maneuvers Michio keeps using to manipulate discounts out of people, except now you, the viewers, are the ones being finessed. They initially promised you a font of fantastical sex-slave scenarios, and two months in, have negotiated that down to the same scene with a single girl regularly repeated in-between stretches of characters shopping for hardware and having their furniture delivered. Take a tip from Michio in this episode: Skip the line, and don't bother paying.

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Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is a freewheeling Fresno-based freelancer with a love for anime and a shelf full of too many Transformers. He can be found spending way too much time on his Twitter, and irregularly updating his blog.