Part of the reason I enjoyed it was its unique protagonist. We’ve had plenty of villain protagonists in anime, but most of them are acting for “THE GREATER GOOD” or for “JUSTICE.” This one is just “Screw it. The so-called heroes did vile shit to me so I’m gonna do vile shit to them back.” He’s twisted and definitely not a role model, but audiences can still kinda sympathize with him, especially those who have experienced sexual assault themselves. There’s a certain catharsis that we get when the antagonists get what is coming to them.
Most of the characters, however, are not nearly as complex as Keyaru is. The heroines, particularly, just take a back seat on the Keyaru Train the entire show, both sexually and in terms of plot. Any time we have potential for them to grow for themselves and get a chance in the spotlight they are completely overshadowed by Keyaru hogging it. It kinda makes sense since most of them are his “slave,” but there are times where Keyaru just dips to do stuff (the bad guy is stuff) and not giving them a chance to shine other than as a satellite love interest to Keyaru. The antagonists aren’t very complex either, being primarily cartoon baddies who will either get screwed, get screwed up, or, most often, both, by Keyaru. Princess Flare in particular has a lot of underutilized potential, with only mere hints to her complexity with the dynamic between her two personalities. The closest we get to character development from her is a tie in Manga chapter from the original artist.
Speaking of the artist, Shiokonbu’s character design and art really elevates the show and makes the cast look way more interesting than how they are written. The soundtrack is also solid, setting the wildly-changing tone of the series nicely, with a couple of really standout tracks in the OST. The presentation, though, is very inconsistent. As with most shows by TNK, the ecchi scenes and a couple of fight scenes are very well animated, but it will often be stiff in others, just like the tone of the series. This wildly changing tone can be a detractor for the series, going from torture one scene to wacky, often sexual, hijinks the next, like it doesn't know what type of story it wants to be. It also seems to do a lot of mental gymnastics to bring us to a lot of the edgy scenes, with one scene having an important city getting brutally pillaged because Keyaru was like “I forgor.”
However, the ridiculousness of the plot and its VERY twisted sense of humor is part of why I enjoyed this series. The author wrote this series to see just how far he could push the envelope and he certainly succeeded. It’s definitely not a safe series and it is very much aware of it. It is DEFINITELY not for everyone and fits pretty well on certain adult websites, but it is certainly something to remember in the sea of forgettable fantasy and isekai. It’s pure trash, but sometimes it’s okay to get a kick out of some blatantly edgy trash.
