Studio Gokumi Archives | 100 Word Anime

Whether you were looking forward to the eventual actual release of Shuumatsu no Harem (World’s End Harem) or just kind of curious about this title, I’m pretty certain if you are watching it via the official stream on Crunchyroll you will agree that censorship has literally destroyed any potential this anime may have had. I will admit, I wasn’t all that excited about this anime coming out as ecchi titles aren’t something I generally follow but the sci-fi aspect at least made me curious enough to try episode 1.

Shuumatsu no Harem has been intrusively censored to death.

For those who weren’t sure what Shuumatsu no Harem is about it begins with our protagonist Reito having to go into cold sleep because he’s sick and while modern technology (it begins in 2040) is working on a cure it won’t be ready for up to five years. Five years later he is awoken and cured only to find out that pretty much every other man on the planet is dead due to a virus sweeping the world. Then, in he’s informed he needs to pretty much mate with as many women as possible and no artificial insemination won’t work (though why isn’t actually explained but clearly they wanted that option off the table).

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It’s Shuumatsu no Harem’s convoluted justification to have the main girls strutting about the facility in incredibly tight clothing that doesn’t seem in anyway functional, or in line with what women in the community are wearing, as well as a reason to throw a whole range of female types at the protagonist. Which could quickly just become someone’s escapist fantasy rather than a plot if handled poorly.

There’s more than a few issues with the premise as a whole such as the deterioration of a city that was more or less technologically run even before Reito went to sleep. Shuumatsu no Harem makes a big deal about more than half of the scientists and engineers in the world dying but that really shouldn’t have had an impact on basic maintenance on technologies already in existence. Rather it should just slow down future developments with less people working on them.

Also if Reito, the medical student (or at least that was the implication) somehow finds a cure for the disease that swept the world after 5 billion women couldn’t while he was sleeping, I think that would just be enough to make me want to face palm myself into oblivion.

Though Shuumatsu no Harem have added at least one potential plot element that could be worth following and that is Reito’s search for actual love. Prior to going into cryogenic sleep he gave the girl he liked a necklace and he still kind of wants to find her only she’s apparently ‘missing’. Pretty sure monogamy isn’t going to cut it in the world being set-up here but it is kind of sweet.

But let’s stop putting it off and address the real issue of the episode. While the virus premise is kind of superficial at this point and the sci-fi world so far feels pretty flat and lacking substance all of it serving only as justification for wanting to set up Reito with a bunch of hot anime girls, anyone watching for the ecchi moments will be very disappointed. So much so that if you read the comments under episode one of Shuumatsu no Harem on Crunchyroll most of them are complaining about the censorship or directing people to where they can watch an uncensored version.

It does kind of make you wonder why bother streaming an anime if you feel the need to be that intrusive and ridiculous in your censorship. Either put proper warnings on it and let your viewers decide for themselves or don’t add it to your platform but using large black scribbles across huge portions of the screen to cover over pretty much an female skin (in a show that is apparently going to have a lot of it) is just ludicrous. And ugly.

What makes it worse is that there’s no actual sex in this first episode and the censorship is still that intense. Reito being asked to view his potential partners through glass could have been done in a sterile scientific way but due to the intense censorship over every subject it actually made it almost laughable.

Basically if you were curious about Shuumatsu no Harem for the ecchi elements, you are out of luck on official streaming sites. If you were curious about the sci-fi aspect, its so far pretty meh. It could develop some of its plot elements into something that is interesting but I suspect the sci-fi is going to get eaten by the ecchi and we’ve already established that’s a bust.

Images from: Shuumatsu no Harem. Dir. Y Nobuta. Studio Gokumi, AXsiZ. 2022

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Karandi James

Cute Girls Do Hero Things? Go ENDRO!

I’m going to honestly say I wasn’t planning on watching Endro! The cutesy characters and pastel colours shining on all the images I saw of the anime prior to watching were more or less a flashing warning sign to stay away. It was Matt from Anime Q and A who suggested I should try this one after the first episode aired. Now, if you follow both of our blogs you will know our tastes in anime are vastly different as is our hook for watching, and yet knowing that Matt still suggested I give this one a go. That certainly got me curious.

While Endro didn’t end up being an anime that wowed me, I am kind of glad he made me pay attention to it. For all that the slice of life and the cute girls doing cute things tropes are definitely there, the fantasy setting and the comedy built around the heroes defeating the demon lord which is such a vastly overused setting actually work pretty well. There’s certainly a range of reasons to try Endro and depending on what sort of anime you like there’s different things you might take away from it.

Now generally when an anime tries its hand at too many things what you end up with is a convoluted mess. Endro is actually pretty skillful at working its different aspects together. The opening sequence is the class scene you would normally see at the end of a story with the four heroes finally attacking the demon lords stronghold and making their way toward the final foe. The fact that the heroes are four pastel and scantily armoured girls in this instance is just something you can put down to anime at the time because otherwise the scene is playing out exactly as you would expect.

However, as the heroes launch their final spell you notice things aren’t exactly going right and soon we are back in time with the demon lord now an obnoxious loli character who decides to become a teacher at the school the girls who will become the heroes are attending in order to ensure that they never become a threat to her.

From fantasy, to self-aware satire, and then into a slice of life school life kind of story, the transitions are relatively seamless and all seem fairly logical at the time. Where it is less appealing is that as we move away from the adventuring to the school living side of things my overall interest in the characters took a dive. Still it wasn’t as though the story just jammed itself in neutral after it got there.

At fairly nicely spaced intervals the girls go on other adventures and face other dangers. So those enjoying the fantasy quest angle will get enough to hold their interest, just as those who enjoy the quiet moments talking about dreams in the school dorm will get their fill. As I said, it is a rarity, but Endro does balance things nicely and never leaves you waiting too long. Where it didn’t quite succeed for me was the main characters themselves.

Don’t get me wrong. They’re all beautiful and charming in their own way with sufficient diversity in hair colour and personality to pull off a reasonable group dynamic. Yet individually none of them were all that compelling and really, for the slice of life elements to do more than mark time (for me) I really need some kind of actual connection with the characters involved. Here they were fine. Which made watching those segments fine. But would I do it again? Probably not.

The cast is made a little less thrilling in the earlier episodes by how truly annoying and childish the demon lord is in her schemes. Later on, they manage to make her character far more interesting and a little bit likeable, but she’s hard to take early on in the series, unless you find her funny in which case you’ll probably like those moments a great deal more than I did. Still, I would have liked a little more ‘thought’ in some of her plans as she is given a prime opportunity to do away with her potential killers and yet she’s almost laughably bad at it (laughably bad is not the same as actually funny).

Though it isn’t all bad news from a character point of view. As mentioned, they are all very cute, which is probably a must for the cute girls doing cute whatever fans out there. And then we have the introduction of the Princess, Rona, who really turns things on their heads on her arrival. Few characters get an introduction episode like Rona and honestly, she’s a breath of fresh air, manages to comment on the role of Princesses in stories and on same gender romance, and is just a fun character all in one package. Admittedly, she has diminishing returns after her first appearance, but it was quite a solid entrance.

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I will admit that I was a little fatigued with the comedy aspect of Endro by around the three-quarter mark but I’m glad I hung in there. This story does get a nice and complete ending and overall there’s a lot more to like in the show than there is to criticise.

There’s also a very weird focus on food throughout the story. Maybe it is part and parcel of the slice of life genre but whether it is camping out, preparing a meal for a sick teacher, or just dreaming, there’s an ongoing food obsession in this story. Part of that probably comes from one of the characters nibbling on another’s ear when she gets hungry and there’s no food, but they really do find the weirdest moments to bring food up and make it a feature.

If you want your fill of cute girls doing hero things in a fantasy world, Endro is definitely worth a try. While it may not work for everyone, there’s plenty of appealing attributes and for once they’ve thought about how to make it all come together. The end result is relatively satisfying to watch even if not the most compelling.

Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James