Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi: Dorei Kenshi no Nariagari Harem Life · review
Foreword: This is an odd one. I still have slightly mixed feeling about this; not because of the adult content or anything really, but because it steps quite heavily on the toes of Berserk and Conan equally, and shamelessly so. A massive, musclebound protagonist. He's a natural warrior who favour massive weaponry most people can't use. Fearlessly facing humans and monsters alike throughout his journey to one day become a ruler by his own hand. While he's addicted to women and wine, he still treats the strong with respect and counters insult with violence. The oddity here is that I like hte Conan aspects being brought in, asthat's rarer to see. The Berserk parts are more superficial in that the MC looks like a Guts copy, even down to his armour design, but the depth of character and story is lacking by comparison.
The story: Basic starting premise. Escaped gladiator slave teenage MC heads off into the world with only a sword to try and find fame and fortune. This is pretty much the entire story for the length of the whole comic. There are plenty of contrivances that work in MC's favour, so one can't say quality of writing is particularly deserving of praise here.
Unexpectedly a great amount of time is spent on the MC dealing with building a life outside of combat and the struggles of integrating within a monarchical society.
The characters: There is no particular depth or development for any main character. The focus is on combat, and surprisingly more on a mass scale than the individual MC showing off his strength. There are not a great number of male characters that matter, though almost all tend to be significant plot points. There are a LOT of female ones, but they don't really impact the plot at all. Any of them.
The content: It's adult content clearly. MC is a sex fiend and collects almost every woman who takes his fancy that agrees to stay with him. It's a ridiculous power fantasy, equally absurdly mirrored by his giant black horse having an identical personality.
I started to wonder if this was actually satire, as his bedding multiple women at night is really taken to comedic extremes sometimes.
Yes, there's graphic sex scenes, but I'm assuming the average reader to be a normal, functioning adult, so who cares?
As I mentioned, this heavily evokes the spirit of early Conan issues and it comes out as extremely entertaining and engaging, despite the mid-writing and mid-level art. Nothing thought provoking is present or really necessary.