The first 11 episodes are just your standard bland harem romcom, with the occasional foreshadowing that there may be more going on in the plot, however none of it is really explored until after the episode 12 tonal shift. It's not like the show becomes a surprise horror or anything like that but the story goes into darker areas and becomes more of a drama than a comedy. Some of the plot-twists in the second half of the show were actually quite cool in my opinion, however the next episode previews kind of gave some of them away, so maybe skip them if you don't want to be spoiled.
While I put up with the first 11 episodes (which isn't saying much since I rarely drop shows unless I'd rather search for a needle in a haystack than watch the full series), I always got the feeling that the show could be more than it was. I felt like there was a lot of wasted potential, considering they have a whole magic system that's barely explained and just seems to exist for the sake of the premise. Most of my concerns were addressed with the later episodes however I still feel like the world of the devils and (especially) the world of the gods was severely underdeveloped. Maybe they are explored further in the source material, I wouldn't know because I haven't read it, but I'm reviewing the anime so that shouldn't matter anyway. Point is, the existence of magic in the first half only really serves as a gag.
So yeah, the first 11 episodes are basically just a collection of all your favourite harem and ecchi tropes, you've got the nice guy protagonist, the caring childhood friend who the protagonist never registers as a love interest, the girls from powerful families who fall for the protagonist because he was nice to them like a decade ago, the perverted male side-character (who actually seems to be semi-successful in this one) and of course the groups of incels who harbour a burning envy for how the protagonist is always surrounded by girls. One thing that was unfortunate as a western viewer was the acronym for one of these incel groups, specifically the one dedicated to the childhood friend. If you decide to watch the show you will definitely know what I'm referring to when they show up. Of course, these characters stop being relevant as soon as the more serious second half of the show comes in.
I found the second half of the show way more interesting than the first half, for once I felt like I was actually engaging with the story rather than just turning my brain off to each obligatory harem event. It's possible that the only reason I enjoyed the second half as much as I did was due to the contrast between that and the first half, but I thought it was fine. The story is not the most complex thing ever and there are some plot points that don't really make that much sense but I mean my standards weren't that high so it at least felt like an improvement. There are still a load of tropes in this part of the show but I wasn't expecting a subversive masterpiece. I liked the darker direction the story went in, although it definitely makes two characters in particular a lot less likable than they were before if you really think about what it is they're doing. it might not be clear which characters I'm referring to, so to avoid too many spoilers I'll say it's the characters who are basically responsible for what happened during the arc where they all go to the world of the devils. They never really face repercussions for this and once the arc is over it's only really brought up again as part of the explanation for one of the later plot-twists.
To round this review off, I'll say I commend this show for at least having an actual ending. This shouldn't be something noteworthy but it always feels like there's so many harem anime these days which will do literally anything to prolong the conclusion, so I'm glad that this show has an actual ending, even if I do wish the world could have been developed further. To be honest, this review is kind of pointless because the type of people who would want to watch this show wouldn't bother reading a review first anyway. I wouldn't recommend this as anyone's first harem show though, this is one I'd watch once I'd already seen the better ones and just wanted to view something to pass the time. If you don't mind standard harem shows or dramas, I'd say there's no harm in putting this in your "plan to watch" list for when you've got nothing better to do.
