It's an old-school harem anime, but naughtier than most. The male protagonist has offscreen sex about once an episode. Mind you, it's toned down from the manga. We never see sex scenes or naughty bits (not even on the Blu-rays), but the manga has nudity from the bandit Shaga's kidnapped girls and when he tears off Primula's shirt. Unfortunately, though, for me, the sex angle killed what was otherwise a good anime. The show's mostly fine. If waitresses and beast girls in a pseudo-medieval world want to show gratitude, that's their business. However...

1. The show's almost proud of Ken'ichi's infidelity. An old woman announces that he's the kind of bloke who can't be tied down by a woman, because he'll dump her and go off when it's convenient for him, and the other women seem almost impressed. I didn't much like his detachment towards that waitress in episode 1, while later I hated the way he'd try to decline sexual invitations by saying "I've got a wife and family"... but then succumb anyway.

HATE LEVEL = 7.

2. Countesses and even queens behave like nymphomaniacs. Lady Canaan wants Ken'ichi to build a canal in episode 10... so she starts by offering her body and gets grumpy when he says "no". She orders him to share a bath with her. She fantasises about being forced to work as a street prostitute. (She's married and her perfectly nice husband is a significant character in the story too.) Later, Queen Amaranth of Kadan propositions Ken'ichi in front of the King (i.e. her husband).

HATE LEVEL = 10, although that only starts in the last few episodes. This killed the show. I was telling it to sod off and die. Everything else I could at least believe in, but this was ridiculous.

3. The show's poster suggested that the first purchase for our Middle-Aged Online Shopper was "children". Ken'ichi definitely isn't a paedophile, but his harem could still be argued to have contained three little girls. Princess Lilith orders her maid to offer herself to him. Anemone keeps climbing into his bath and bed, gets jealous of other women and announces that she's going to have Ken'ichi's baby. (He responds with "in five years' time", which hardly solves everything.)

HATE LEVEL = 2. to be honest, I quite like Anemone and can believe in her characterisation, but it's still dodgy.

4. The show's visuals are exploitative but timid. Do they think that'll please everyone? No sex scenes. No nipples. Nudity is censored. Well, hurrah... but Ken'ichi likes big boobs and there's a receptionist who keeps being introduced bust-first.

HATE LEVEL = 1. "Hate" is a strong word, but it's a bit pathetic.

Annoyingly, the show's otherwise decent. It's not trash. I'd been enjoying it, which made it all the worse to find myself hating episode 10+. It's unexpectedly dark and realistic in its portrayal of dangerous nobles, scary politics and feudal guilds as protection rackets. Salt and sugar are worthless because the state has a monopoly, stopping merchants from buying them privately. Spices are even worse, with gangsters. Ken'ichi is so keen to avoid attention that at one point he emigrates. A bandit gang kidnaps women for sex slavery and might be acting on the orders of an aristocrat. Sinister people might follow you around for months, or else say "Tch, what a nuisance, we'll just kill him while we're here."

Even after episode 10, this hard edge doesn't disappear. A little girl orders her maid to perform sexual services with a stranger. "Here's your reward. You may do with Mailen as you please." (Even worse, Ken'ichi accepts the offer.) The royal family are scared of ghosts because they've killed so many of their own citizens that they expect the afterlife to be full of their hate-filled victims. The royal court is a gang of sadists, looking forward to seeing Ken'ichi and his friends die in the arena.

RANDOM ASIDE: I recognise Ken'ichi's voice actor, Junichi Suwabe. What else has he played? Well, lots of roles, because he's been around for decades, but I think I was remembering Shota Aizawa (Eraser Head) from My Hero Academia.

Ignore anyone who dismisses this as a horny rip-off of Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. It's far more interesting than that, containing at least three shows. #1 is a dangerous pseudo-medieval world where people can get kidnapped or killed. Mind you, the longer the show continues and the more allies Ken'ichi amasses, the less we tend to think he's in real danger. #2 also undermines the show's edge, because Ken'ichi's goal is a peaceful "slow life" in which he avoids trouble. #3 is the sex nonsense, which is by turns half-hearted, distasteful and/or bloody stupid. I'd probably watch a second season, but I'd have rock-bottom expectations because (as often happens with harem anime) the show got worse as it went along.