This is my guilty pleasure watch of the season, being sufficiently guilty that the Girl didn't even watch it with me. Not really surprising given just how lewd this decides to go on more than one occasion.
So, first obvious point, that will either turn you immediately off it, or at least set your skeptic sense tingling. It's an isekai, with no small number of harem-y bits, and an overpowered protagonist. (In fact, you could probably describe it relatively well as a filthier Overlord.)
Just to be as generic as possible, Takuma is a young Japanese chap, playing an MMORPG, which he has pretty much mastered, having hit the level cap, acquired all the coolest equipment, and developed himself into a Demon King, known as Diablo. At the same time, in a parallel universe, two summoners, Shera and Rem, are attempting to summon a creature they can control in order to become adventurers and start questing.
Of course, what actually gets summoned is Takuma, in his Diablo avatar. (Diablo is, unlike Overlord, a remarkably normal looking chap, although he does have far too many abs.) Luckily for him, one of the cool pieces of equipment he has is a magic reflecting ring, which bounces back the "enslavement collar" the two summoners try to put on him. Now they're under his control, and have to do anything he wants them to do.
Fortunately for them, he is as ethical as any other isekai main character and absolutely never uses this for evil. Which means over the course of the series, it mostly turns into a sneaky BDSM-style symbol of the consent they want to give him. That doesn't stop the series from getting filthy far too often, but he is at least a bit tortured about it. The various women involved do constantly throw themselves at him in a painfully stereotypical way however, especially after he's been vaguely nice for two or three episodes.
He's nice, but also a complete shut-in, which means he has to have all of his conversations as his persona, with angry evil growling being the only way he knows how to interact with strangers. This is the first sign that actually this show is far funnier than I expected it to be. His incompetence at social niceties means that you get a running commentary in his head, which is always an entertaining insight. (Should point out at this point that I watched the dub. The sub may be more or less funny.)
The other excellent source of comedy in this is Rem, a catgirl with a demonic secret. While Shera is a depressingly stupid (and eager to please elf-maiden - seriously, her plot development feels like mostly grinding on things), Rem is a sarcastic bugger. She's still overly fond of him a bit too quickly, but her snide interjections to every conversation lead to some properly hilarious moments.
At the same time, that comedy is balanced by a few particularly grim elements. There are characters who take a very cruel approach to achieving their goals, and this gets a lot gorier than you'd expect in a comedy isekai. The villains tend to escape and come back worse a couple of times, such that they actually achieve interesting things. I'm expecially fond of the religious horror, with members of the clergy being horrifically manipulative.
The villains aren't the only strong characters though. More or less everyone in this has a few motivations, keeping the plot less simple than you might expect. Even the intentionally over the top "white knight" who is the self-proclaimed defender of all women turns into a nice satire and then character development.
Really though, I kept watching this because it was incredibly funny. I think I laughed at this more than I have anything else this season, and though the unnecessary perviness can be a bit distracting (and could have been easily hacked out), it's worth getting through for the mad number of jokes.
Tagged: Anime Comedy Isekai Fighting Harem Hidive Dubbed