Really loved it, great execution and subversion of tropes, while giving a new meaning for a harem protagonist.
Keep in mind,
this is not a YURI novel, this is absolutely a Shonen Harem novel abusing the absurdities of some Yuri Novels for its own sake.
To explain the good points, I will start by the world building itself rather than the characters.
This is an isekai to a World of Yuri, it's based on a modern world that has access to "another world". Think of it like a large portal where people can come and go, but because of this connection, things became "unstable", so you have magic, dungeons and monsters on Earth, and people evolving in different ways, be it by being born with unique skills like Magic Eyes, or even new races like Elves, Spirits and Dragonewts.
However, this is
not really a recent event, and it seems that the world has been like this for a very long time, so although it seems that wars existed in the past, a treaty was made among the races between both world and peace is now normal.
Now,
here we get the first subversion of a trope. This is a story of a man, born as a male character in a Yuri game, in a world that heavily supports this type of relationship. what I mean is that, when you see a case of a man born in a world where the women are the majority, usually men are weak and are treated like weak girls, however, they are still necessary for breeding, right? Well, in this story, there are (at least)
2 ways of having babies, the two main ones are: between a man and a woman, and between
a "magical kiss" between 2 women (does not work with men). This is also true for all races. So in this world, men are really "leftovers" and absolutely unnecessary.
Not only that, as one would expect from a Yuri game,
men are "almost non-existent", as in, they have a vague presence, almost like you are seeing a mere silhouette, even the protagonist recognizes that. The MC is the sole exception, but the main reason is (likely) because he is a character in the game.
His position is also that of the sole heir to a ducal house (yeah, there are nobility status in this isekai modern japan). Now imagine, you have a matriarchal society that can easily ignore men, and the sole heir is a boy... Well, technically, it can be dealt with, as this house is kinda more like a mafia run by the heads of branch families (old hags) who want him dead.
The reason that lineage is important, however, is because of unique skills, as the protagonist is born with the capability of inheriting the magic eyes of his bloodline, which are really strong, and being the one with the strongest blood, he would be the best option.
The old hags however want his little sister (distant relative from a branch family, and of the same age) to inherit the family, as they just need a puppet. The old hags force him into the Magic School (not an all-girls school, but because girls are the majority, are the only ones with achievements and so on, it's pretty much an all-girls schools with some silhouettes around).
Let's also mention that, in this matriarchal world where men have pretty much no privileges and character MC reincarnated into is the "joke annoying" character, he supposedly dies a lot for any reasons.
He stole the ice cream of the elf princess heroine? She literally kills him. Not just sends him to space and he returns next week in a new episode as if nothing happened, he is attacked and dies painful deaths. Keep this in mind.
So this is the main base plot of the story and the protagonist circumstances.
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Now, about the protagonist, he is a "Yuri Fanboy", a "Yuri Aficionado",
he absolutely loves Yuri, and if it depended on him, he would have all men dead and let beautiful women have Yuri love. And as a big fan of the game,
he hates the male character who sandwiches himself into Yuri, and absolutely loves when he dies.So here is the second subversion: When the protagonist is reincarnated into the hated character, they understand that they had a harsh life of unfairness, and try to change their ways, thus improving their situation and so on, and become loved, while MC accepts himself, right?
Well, remember when the protagonist hates his own character, and everyone loves when he dies? That doesn't change here, although he is afraid of dying (so don't expect him to kill himself), he also understands the story of the game,
and worries of the dangers "the Yuri" will face, so he wants to ensure that all Yuri is saved... And yeah, he does that, and attracts the attention of the heroines who fall in love with him.
But his reasoning gives a new meaning to his selflessness, he is not the protagonist who fights a losing fight for the sake of his friends and still wants to live,
he fights the losing fight for the sake of Yuri, and he really doesn't care if he dies, because if he dies, that's also a good thing for Yuri!Also,
he has no memories from the past character, meaning that he has no idea about the character's personality in the past.
Another constant characteristic of the MC is that he is a complete Yuri Idiot: Everything is for the sake of Yuri, he is a self-proclaimed "180 Yuri IQ" Genius, he creates plots to save girls while giving the credit to other girls, or even ways to try to ruin his own reputation for the sake of Yuri. When he has to live in a dorm and they have to chose a room, which would usually require sharing it with another girl, he voluntarily suggests moving into the Attic, when they think it's unreasonable, he insists, he does not want to mess with the Yuri, he wants to be invisible to preach Yuri. This also means that he is very easily baited with Yuri.
And although relatively dense, he also is in the idea that women should not care about him, not only that, girls should absolutely hate him, and find love with another (girl). If a girl were to confess to him, he would likely refuse, and tell her to go find someone else (a girl).
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There are many heroines, but the ones that we start with are:
- The Elf Princess - She met him by chance in a dungeon, and warned him about it being dangerous and to go back, he refused and she dueled him. He tricked her and won, she got angry, and from there on she started pursuing him to new duels, he even accepted them and lost in the background for her sake, but she did not feel satisfied. She then decided to live in his house completely abusing her power.
- The Elf Lu Bu (Strongest) - The Princess' bodyguard, and the strongest character in the world of the game, the Elf Princess will inherit a super bow from this character in the future, and she also tries to kill the MC. He "survives" (He can't win) and she takes a liking to him, she is a 420 years old elf girl (equivalent to 21) who is adapting to modern technology for the sake of interacting with her pupil. She learned to stamps in instant messengers.
- The Little Sister - MC's little sister (distant relative), she first appears hating MC, but after noticing he changed, claiming he is like he was in the past, she now loves him.
- The Maid - A snarky tsundere maid, works under the Little Sister. She got fired and moves to live with MC, because MC wants no love and is worried about the attention he is getting from the Elf Princess, she suggests marrying, so that he could claim that he has a fiancee to other girls. Usually he would refuse, however, because this maid is a "mob character", that didn't appear in the game, it's not like all women in this world fall in love with women, so although he doesn't want to ruin the Yuri he knows off (characters in the game), he is not enforcing Yuri in characters who may not be into that (he encourages it though).
- The Game Protagonist - The game protagonist is a cool girl who is strong and is seeking strength, she likes strong people, and she got interested in MC after he defended against her attack. MC wants her to earn all credit of his achievements, because he wants her to blooms many Yuri. As a fighter she is actually quite strong.
A non-heroine (at first) but lovable character is the "Ojou-sama", the stereotypical noble girl that goes "Ohohohoho" and boasts (exaggerates everything) about herself whenever she argues against the game protagonist, but she is super weak and always instantly loses, but she never loses her spirit. You know that, whenever she appears in the story, a funny scene will happen.
Others appear in later chapters, each with their own moving stories and developments.
The development of some of the later characters, specifically those related to a certain family touched me.
Spoiler
The "Vegeta" girl who starts as an enemy, who hates and wants to kill MC, has to be defeated with MC going Kaioken and destroying his own body. They eventually fall victim to a mental attack that requires them to work together in a environment that is constantly brainwashing them, however, once they leave the place, they will lose the memories. The girl falls in love with him, and is reluctant to leave the place, he trusts her, she comes late to the fight, and together they win. He forgets everything, but thanks to a "guardian angel", she does not, and leaves MC confused with how lovable she has become towards him.
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Spoiler
The little sister of the above girl, who was always called a failure because she has no magic, she can only throw her family name around and is constantly belittled not only by classmates, but even by her family, for all her life, only has a maid, and now MC to supporting her. She goes through great character development, and learning an ability unique to her that, although not OP, uses the sneaky tricks she learned from MC and becomes very attached to him.
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Spoiler
The "Mage Killer", one of the strongest assassins, a former mage among the strongest, lost her magic, and became a deadly chinese martial artist with no more emotions. She actually was a teacher for the above girl, however although this girl has a different body unique because of her former use of magic, the girl above was born with no magic, so it was impossible to teach her technique. She actually semi-killed MC a couple times.
Spoiler
With MC having saved her heart (she loved the 2 above girls older sister who died, who remembered her words about justice), she becomes extremely attached to him treating him like a little brother, and she is the overprotective martial artists OP adult tall (with larger breasts than he expected) onee-chan who pampers him, feeds him, buys stuff for him, helps him with studies, praises him, sleeps with him, takes bath together with him, anything that an onee-chan does. She is so attentive that MC is slightly brainwashed, starting to believe that maybe they really are siblings, it's even funnier when he naturally yells "ONEEEEE-CHAAAAAAAN" and she appears from the roof like any OP character would, and hugs him to calm him down. And because he is not explaining anything, she wonders if he ingested poison, so she kisses him deeply to get it out, alarming him even more (Remember, he doesn't want to NTR girls, so he doesn't want to see Yuri girls doing that sort of stuff to him, a man).
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The only con I could give is that, if you end up liking one of the initial heroines... Well, there will be many times when they will be kinda "forgotten", returning to action out of nowhere but now with improved abilities and stuff.
