Story (3/10 - Poor)
The main character, Kou, returns to his home world after being summoned to another as a hero. He wants to escape the horrors of war he was forced to participate in and wants to settle into the role of the wingman of his best friend, Kaito. He wants nothing to do with love and romance, but somehow finds himself growing closer to his best friend's younger sister, Hikari, as well as several other girls that you typically see in harem stories: the childhood friend, the space case, the track ace, and etc.
The story itself is not badly written, far from it: the characters and their interactions are a lot of fun to read through. However, at the end of the 32 chapters, nothing is resolved. For that reason, I have to rank this section low: this is not a complete story as it is. You could call it a complete arc at best.
Art (8/10 - Very Good)
The character illustrations are well drawn with appealing designs.
Character (7/10 - Good)
The characters are the best part of this story. Kou is a fun and witty protagonist that plays off the rest of the cast in a satisfying way. There were several times when I laughed out loud reading through his (incomplete) story. The cast itself is made up of the usual harem suspects, but the main players all have at least one thing about them that stops them from being completely generic.
Enjoyment (7/10 - Good)
Despite the story ultimately going nowhere, I can't say I had a bad time reading it, especially volume 1. The author, Toshizou, wrote a range a scenes, from the heartfelt, the hilarious, and even a bit of tragedy and darkness that stuck their landings more often than not. I do think volume 2 went off on a few tangents that added little to the plot though.
Overall (4/10 - Decent)
Even though this score is a bit low, these aren't bad books; the story just stops and that is disappointing. There is clearly more to it but it seems what happens next is left up the reader's imagination, which is fine in pure slice of life stories I guess, but is unsatisfying in one like this. Will Kou move past the horrors of his past? Will he allow himself to be vulnerable and let someone see the real him? Will the other world really allow their hero to just leave? We will never know these things among others because the 32 chapters is all we get.
I like Toshizou's writing style and I will check out any other works that get an English release. Here's hoping Toshizou's other works lead to satisfying conclusions. The Sidekick Never Gets the Girl, Let Alone the Protag's Sister! feels like an abandoned project, which is just a shame.
