After Sugar Style heavily disappointed me in characters, humor, and structure, I was afraid of HaremKingdom since it seemed to be going both a nukige (which im not big on) and isekai (I do not like this genre at all) route. However... HaremKingdom definitely surpassed my expectations, likely being my favorite (moe)nukige and isekai series now.
So what makes HaremKingdom stick out for me? I'd say the humor and characters easily. Even lighthearted isekais Ive tried like that Slime anime have really boring characters and humor so it was a slog to finish S1 even watching with friends. HaremKingdom goes all in on SMEE's degenerate weird humor style and arguably alone makes its selling point.
There are definitely a lot of jokes that work by SMEE basically making fun of the isekai genre, like how the initial world warp was (initially) unexplained [thank god there was no truck], the "dickdick" animals, Staffs of creation and stuff, and even just the concept of the king needing a harem specifically to get energy to keep a kingdom alive. Compared to more 'grounded' settings in previous SMEE VNs, its almost like the comedy writer was able to let loose and have even crazier/hilarious situations than usual. I'd almost argue it's the most consistently funny SMEE to date, but I'd have to think about that.
The route structure was... interesting. Where the type of harem you choose how the MC or heroines chooses to act, as well as the final chapter of the route solely focusing on the heroine who gave the original harem idea.
However, the surprising aspect... was how surprisingly wholesome and likable the characters and their development were. Even in the common route, I really liked seeing how the MC was able to get all 5 heroines to mutually consent to join the harem. Which was nice since a few characters in particular were basically originally forced by their families to join the harem. But since MC helped them out individually and gave very good reasons (for the most part) for all of them to legit love him enough and not just feel like a job, it made the harem aspect... actually appealing?
And thankfully once all the heroines join in, just about all of them are pretty likable. Sophia is naive princess but just wants to be herself, Char is the surprisingly deep "imp" character, Kiki being very shy due to being a former slave made sense, and Marrou was a nice mature older character who can joke around.
However my absolute favorite character was Hikari easily. She was basically the closest thing to my favorite kind of eccentric weirdo character. She's a very goofy, blunt, sometimes even openly degenerate tomboy-ish girl who's constantly hilarious. She's usually the one most willing to make a goofy remark, make the loud SMEE-like retort, and the one most likely to say some good ass Engrish. Her role as a childhood friend almost felt like it was parodied as much as the isekai genre. A childhood friend duo being close, know they like each other, both being awkward about romance, and just being terrible at getting together up until the end of college is quite the extreme. However, there were some certain twists that made their relationship... oddly sweet? With a mix of Marrou and Hikari's flashback we got to see how they met, how they became freinds and in love early, how MC tried to save her after she got hit with an arrow, how Hikari remembered the stuff MC forgot, and did her best to play along while also feeling bad, etc. Basically, I loved her flashbacks and revelations alot.
Now with all that said, I'd say this VN is still just a good, but not great VN. Despite it being wholesome for a harem moenukige, I still would have preferred each heroine have their own individual route. I still would have preferred these characters' personalities in a non-isekai setting. If there was gonna be a harem aspect, I wish all the characters' development, backstories and the paths the MC took were more unified in 1 route For example, I want MC to take charge more in 'Me' route, but I also wanted the option of easy Japan access he thought of in 'Earth' route!, but I also wanted the revelations of Marrou and especially Hikari from their routes. While I liked 4/5 of the routes for being interesting and/or comfy, sadly I wasn't a fan of most the Fire route, the heroines ended up being too savage to one another. Basically this was a case of I liked this VN DESPITE these base issues I had.
That said, I still overall quite liked HaremKingdom. While it didn't quite reach Making Lovers level (mostly cuz I prefer the down to earth adult age setting and Mashiro Tsukino), it might actually be my 2nd favorite SMEE currently. Beating out Fureraba (HK had overall better humor and characters), and easily beating Sugar Style (which I couldn't even finish).
If you guys just want more SMEE comedy and like/don't mind harems and/or isekais, I actually highly recommend HaremKingdom.
So what makes HaremKingdom stick out for me? I'd say the humor and characters easily. Even lighthearted isekais Ive tried like that Slime anime have really boring characters and humor so it was a slog to finish S1 even watching with friends. HaremKingdom goes all in on SMEE's degenerate weird humor style and arguably alone makes its selling point.
There are definitely a lot of jokes that work by SMEE basically making fun of the isekai genre, like how the initial world warp was (initially) unexplained [thank god there was no truck], the "dickdick" animals, Staffs of creation and stuff, and even just the concept of the king needing a harem specifically to get energy to keep a kingdom alive. Compared to more 'grounded' settings in previous SMEE VNs, its almost like the comedy writer was able to let loose and have even crazier/hilarious situations than usual. I'd almost argue it's the most consistently funny SMEE to date, but I'd have to think about that.
The route structure was... interesting. Where the type of harem you choose how the MC or heroines chooses to act, as well as the final chapter of the route solely focusing on the heroine who gave the original harem idea.
However, the surprising aspect... was how surprisingly wholesome and likable the characters and their development were. Even in the common route, I really liked seeing how the MC was able to get all 5 heroines to mutually consent to join the harem. Which was nice since a few characters in particular were basically originally forced by their families to join the harem. But since MC helped them out individually and gave very good reasons (for the most part) for all of them to legit love him enough and not just feel like a job, it made the harem aspect... actually appealing?
And thankfully once all the heroines join in, just about all of them are pretty likable. Sophia is naive princess but just wants to be herself, Char is the surprisingly deep "imp" character, Kiki being very shy due to being a former slave made sense, and Marrou was a nice mature older character who can joke around.
However my absolute favorite character was Hikari easily. She was basically the closest thing to my favorite kind of eccentric weirdo character. She's a very goofy, blunt, sometimes even openly degenerate tomboy-ish girl who's constantly hilarious. She's usually the one most willing to make a goofy remark, make the loud SMEE-like retort, and the one most likely to say some good ass Engrish. Her role as a childhood friend almost felt like it was parodied as much as the isekai genre. A childhood friend duo being close, know they like each other, both being awkward about romance, and just being terrible at getting together up until the end of college is quite the extreme. However, there were some certain twists that made their relationship... oddly sweet? With a mix of Marrou and Hikari's flashback we got to see how they met, how they became freinds and in love early, how MC tried to save her after she got hit with an arrow, how Hikari remembered the stuff MC forgot, and did her best to play along while also feeling bad, etc. Basically, I loved her flashbacks and revelations alot.
Now with all that said, I'd say this VN is still just a good, but not great VN. Despite it being wholesome for a harem moenukige, I still would have preferred each heroine have their own individual route. I still would have preferred these characters' personalities in a non-isekai setting. If there was gonna be a harem aspect, I wish all the characters' development, backstories and the paths the MC took were more unified in 1 route For example, I want MC to take charge more in 'Me' route, but I also wanted the option of easy Japan access he thought of in 'Earth' route!, but I also wanted the revelations of Marrou and especially Hikari from their routes. While I liked 4/5 of the routes for being interesting and/or comfy, sadly I wasn't a fan of most the Fire route, the heroines ended up being too savage to one another. Basically this was a case of I liked this VN DESPITE these base issues I had.
That said, I still overall quite liked HaremKingdom. While it didn't quite reach Making Lovers level (mostly cuz I prefer the down to earth adult age setting and Mashiro Tsukino), it might actually be my 2nd favorite SMEE currently. Beating out Fureraba (HK had overall better humor and characters), and easily beating Sugar Style (which I couldn't even finish).
If you guys just want more SMEE comedy and like/don't mind harems and/or isekais, I actually highly recommend HaremKingdom.