YMMV / Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World

• Alternate Character Interpretation: It's very clear that Alan manipulates Michio on a number of occasions, most notably by dangling Roxanne in front of him. What's less clear is why? Does he manipulate all of his business associates? Does he realize there's something special about Michio? Does he know more about Michio's situation than he's letting on?
• Funny Moments:
  • Roxanne, once she gets purchased by Michio, apologizes to him. Michio expects that she no longer wants him to buy her or even that she's working with the slave master, though Roxanne then explains that she's sorry for thinking one time that he wouldn't buy her. Cue Michio having a dull reaction as he is chibi'd and a zoom in on his face as his internal monologue kicks in:
    "As of today, you shall be known as Melos-anne."^note This is likely a reference to Osamu Dazai's short story "Run, Melos!".
  • Roxanne asserts her dominance as the alpha female by purposely bouncing her breasts in front of Sherry.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Michio's treatment of his harem. Yes, he has sex with them regularly and drags them into combat. Outside of that, he gives them the best life possible, giving them high-quality food, clothing, shelter, cleaning (bathing and soap are considered high-luxury in this world), asks them to give their opinion on his decisions, and often treats them better than some husbands treat their wives. Compared to how slaves are usually treated in the world, he's one of the best masters they've could asked for.
  • A double moment fairly early on. In this world, the default rule is that if a master dies, their slaves are buried with them. This is a deterrent for a slave to attempt to free themselves by killing their master. Michio decides he trusts Roxanne enough that he wants to rewrite his will to free her when he dies. Roxanne states that her loyalty wouldn't change if the will is altered, and she'll go along with it if he insists, but she says she wants Micho's will to remain as-is. She states her devotion is entirely to serve him an he's already treated her better and given her a better life than she could have ever hoped for.
• Misaimed Fandom: Michio gets a lot of grief from some very vocal fans of the story. Many don't like the fact that he keeps secrets from his harem, who are all slaves and can't betray him, and tends to come across as somewhat cowardly. These fans neglect the fact that in chapter 1, it is well documented that he was perusing suicide websites due to horrific bullying, since elementary school (that's age five, at the oldest) to the point he needed to take up sword-fighting to defend himself, and when these bullies, including his own father realize that he actually can fight back, they not only proceed to ignore him as if he doesn't exist, but pressure everyone else to do the same, and they comply. All of which was left out of the corresponding episodes of the anime. Furthermore, Michio has given ample rational reason for keeping said secrets. Once he purchases Roxanne, he shows her how some unscrupulous person, or group of persons, could use any secret she knows to come after both of them and use one to pry it out of the other. In fact, many of the times he gets in over his head is because he wasn't being paranoid enough!
• Suspiciously Similar Song: People have pointed out how similar the OP song 'Oath' to My Hero Academia's sixth opening song 'Polaris', Particularly its chorus see for yourself
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Michio, in spite of being a normal person from our present day world, gets used to the idea of becoming the owner of a Battle Harem of Sex Slaves alarmingly quickly. Not helped by how the main factor behind his decision to buy Roxanne was that he found her to be really hot. The Hero's Slave Harem trope is questionable on its own, and the way this series emphasizes Michio's sexual attraction to his slaves only reinforces the negative feelings. Another issue is the fact (stated by Alan) that runaway slaves become classed as bandits and are therefore free to kill or steal from, meaning there's a nonzero chance that some of the "bandits" Michio killed while trying to get the money to buy Roxanne were simply ex-slaves who wanted to live like actual people. This possibility never crosses Michio's mind because he's too busy obsessing over buying a sexy wolfgirl. The heavy censorship in the simulcast inadvertently hurts his case even further, since they bleeped out the part where Alan states that Roxanne specifically consented in her contract to having sex with her eventual purchaser (which still runs hard into Questionable Consent given the power dynamics present).

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