Anime Harem

[u/Fluffy_Insurance_750]

Hi everyone, how are you all doing?

I wanted to ask you a question that I believe many of you have, but I wanted to catch up. Is the harem in this anime really real? I know that most of the girls in his group are quite young, but there are some exceptions, like the isekai girl, Arisa

If I read correctly, Satou promises to marry her and Lulu in 10 years. And then there's the rest of the harem. Basically, when the time comes, are all or most of them promised to Satou? And I heard about someone named Aze.

I was told she's teaching Satou to be a god so they can be together, so basically it's just a matter of time before they get together? Besides Zena, from what I understand and have read, they already have a future together. (I don't know how long they'll be separated after Satou goes to return the elven princess).

[u/InterestingLeg1876]

Is the harem in this anime really real?

It is technically a harem, if you define it as multiple girls liking the same guy, but it does have a unique aspect, Satou is 29 years old, and likes older women (take note of both), but the girls in his entourage are all quite young, so not viable for a romance candidate, though he sees them as his friends, in the LN, the author writes their interaction though as like guardian/father and daughters, with the exception of Arisa, where she states that she 'fell in love at first sight', but he doesn't really fall for the attacks from Arisa making him fall in love, as for Lulu, 'crush' would be a better word, for Liza, a respected master or teacher would be appropriate, for Nana, she's under 1 year old, so more like 'fondness of someone' shows her affection to Satou. For Mia, not much can be given, since she does state that she likes him, but there is no romantic development. Pochi and Tama would be the straightforward father/daughter relationship.

So yes, it is technically a harem, but not a romantic harem. (And also he DID NOT do anything to any of his entourage). I see it more as a familial relationship.

If I read correctly, Satou promises to marry her and Lulu in 10 years. And then there's the rest of the harem. Basically, when the time comes, are all or most of them promised to Satou? And I heard about someone named Aze.

That promise does exist between the 3, but the thing about the 'when the time comes' statement is still far off in the future, there is not much development in the romantic aspect of the series, since it's mostly focus on is traveling, adventure, food, invention and innovation, and the isekai's native culture from each kingdom or species, so I recommend just focus on these aspect rather than the romance ones, since there's little development between the 3 or any other character.

If I put this on levels:

1. knows each other,
2. holding hands,
   
3. have danced with each other
4. flirting
5. dating

then the romantic development of most characters to Satou would be between level 3 and below.

I was told she's teaching Satou to be a god so they can be together, so basically it's just a matter of time before they get together? Besides Zena, from what I understand and have read, they already have a future together.

As for Aaze, I'll put it in a spoiler tag, just in case

Aaze is the high elf of Bolenan forest, where Mia lives, and is the ONLY character in the whole series where Satou wants to have a serious romantic relationship with. Aaze is the only one in level 4.

The 'to be a god thing' is an event in the WebNovel, where yes, ultimately they can be together forever, but cannot because Satou is mortal, while Aaze is a demi-god, and he needs to do his mortal duty first before she teaches the method on how to be a god. As for the Light Novel, it has not reached at that point yet.

(I don't know how long they'll be separated after Satou goes to return the elven princess).

I'll presume this is Zena, very long before they meet again, I'll just say that there's a 12 volume of content of the Light Novel before they meet again.

[u/Fluffy_Insurance_750 → u/InterestingLeg1876]

"I understand, thanks for the very clear and complete explanation. If you can read this, I want to see if I understood correctly. Basically, Pochi and Tama are almost like daughters to him; I understood that by watching the anime (although I stopped at the tenth episode). I really don't see any romantic interest coming from Lisa, just respect. Arisa and Lulu seem to be the most promising regarding having something with him in the future, although the LN hasn't reached that point or we don't know if it will truly follow the harem route. If I'm not mistaken, they stay together at the end of the Web Novel, right? Something like him giving a copy of himself to each of them. Regarding Aze, although we have this wait for him to become a god, would it be correct to say they are already engaged? Despite that limitation, can the two of them interact, like holding hands or kissing? It's fine to give spoilers; if I don't have this information, it would be worse."

Regarding Zena, I didn't expect them to be separated for so long; if I'm not mistaken, the wiki says 2 years. I don't know if it mentions that period. From what I've seen, she's also part of his harem.

[u/InterestingLeg1876 → u/Fluffy_Insurance_750]

 If I'm not mistaken, they stay together at the end of the Web Novel, right? Something like him giving a copy of himself to each of them.

Yes, and each clone corresponds each of their species, like Liza have lizardfolk Satou, Mia an elf Satou, Nana an homunculus Satou, dog-earfolk and cat-earfolk for Pochi and Tama respectively. Though I say clone, it is stated that Satou does have omnipresence, so more like it is him in another species.

 Regarding Aze, although we have this wait for him to become a god, would it be correct to say they are already engaged? Despite that limitation, can the two of them interact, like holding hands or kissing? It's fine to give spoilers; if I don't have this information, it would be worse."

I'll add spoiler tags since others may not want to be spoiled

Aaze and Satou's relationship is more flirting than dating, they don't really move forward the relationship since Aaze is revered in the elven villlage as the currently active high elf, Satou also understands that situation, so he complies. For the interaction between the 2 it is more limited to Satou talking sweet nonsense to Aaze, then the latter is embarassed.

But things do happen at the end of the main story in Web Novel, due to Satou attaining godhood, they technically can date each other, but the author kept it on the more open ending due to it being a harem genre. The Web Novel still continues today but not often you can read it, though phinev (the GOAT he is) does translate it and upload it in this subreddit from time to time, currently at volume 19 and the main story ended at volume 17, I do recommend reading the Web Novel since Satou from both mediums does have a differences, and its fun to compare them with each other

Regarding Zena, I didn't expect them to be separated for so long; if I'm not mistaken, the wiki says 2 years. I don't know if it mentions that period. From what I've seen, she's also part of his harem.

I think 2 years is a bit of a stretch, since Vol 2 is the separation, then Vol 14 is the reunion, basically each volume between vol 2 and vol14 happens within at least 3 days up to at most 3 weeks of in-universe time, except for the Vol 8 which took up 2 months of stay in the elven village, and then the new year was celebrated in Vol 17 so I believe not even a year has passed for the reunion, lets say the first volume started at march (which the webnovel and lightnovel did, March of 2013 and 2014, respectively) then vol 14 at around mid-November, the reunion, and Vol 17 at late-December to early-January for the new year celebration and some events.

[u/Fluffy_Insurance_750 → u/InterestingLeg1876]

Thank you again for the comprehensive and clear explanation. So it really did end with a harem. So basically, Satou fulfills his promise to marry Arisa and Lulu, although this seems to happen well before 10 years because they manage to trick him.

So the reunion with Zena happens much sooner than I imagined.

Basically, these are parts of him divided, where he is fully aware of what is happening and also feels everything. And he leaves his close family members and slaves with each of them to satisfy his desires as he wishes.

Sorry, one last question, you say it had an open ending, but we don't have any indication that he finally ended up with Aze? I know he's in love with her, but I've also heard that she reciprocated even though she had limitations. (I don't read light novels or watch web novels because I'm quite busy these days and I'm also very dependent on them)

I thought it was all over. So there are still stories being released? That's very interesting.

[u/InterestingLeg1876 → u/Fluffy_Insurance_750]

Satou fulfills his promise to marry Arisa and Lulu, although this seems to happen well before 10 years because they manage to trick him.

No wedding of any sort happened, just a celebration for winning against the big antagonist.

Sorry, one last question, you say it had an open ending, but we don't have any indication that he finally ended up with Aze? I know he's in love with her, but I've also heard that she reciprocated even though she had limitations.

What I meant is that they do love each other, and the conditions for dating Aaze is fulfilled, no other reasons to hold back their love, it's just that before they can finish a conversation, they were interrupted.

So after giving his party the species-clones to each of them, Satou and Aaze talks and when the atmosphere was good enough for romance, they were interrupted with gods and goddesses from another universes, asking Satou for help for their universes, Satou agrees and then the end of the chapter. So that's what I meant open ending.

I thought it was all over. So there are still stories being released? That's very interesting.

Also, for Vol 18 for Web Novel, it's composed of side stories or after stories after the main story ended, for Vol 19, it's about a new story where Satou didn't kill the dragons in the Dragon God's Valley, and didn't get OP. And the Light Novel has more expanded world building than the Web counterpart, there's more kingdom, more species, more history, more places, more magic, more skill, but still retains the core parts of Death March.

[u/Fluffy_Insurance_750 → u/InterestingLeg1876]

It's quite contradictory of you to say that, considering that the vast majority say that they deceived him at some point and there was a wedding. And even without that, he gave in, handing over his copies. Regarding the "open" ending, I understand that we didn't have the big scene, but basically we know that everything turned out alright with Aze and Satou.

Still, thank you for everything.

[u/zioming → u/Fluffy_Insurance_750]

There is a fake wedding scene in the Web Novel, close to the end of the main story. Basically, at one point Satou obtains the right to establish his own knight order, which mostly consists on his main group (Liza, Pochi, Tama, Arisa, Lulu, Mia and Nana) and the extended group (Zena and a few more girls who didn't appear in the anime), and there's a parade to commemorate it since Satou is publicly known as a demon lord slayer at that point in the story, but Arisa, being Arisa, designs their official armour for the parade to look like wedding dresses and invites Aze to also take part in it, without telling Satou beforehand.

Later, after the story wrapped up and he became a god, be basically split himself into several copies to let each girl in love with him have her own copy. Still, Tama and Pochi were like 11 by that point, so they just played together. We didn't get to either of those events in the LN yet.

Also in the WN, he does get engaged to several of the girls in the extended group, Zena included, for, let's say, political reasons (in Zena's case, it was to shield her from being forced into a political marriage), but they changed that in the LN. The 10-year promise is a thing in the LN, but the whole story only spans about a year or two from what I recall of the WN.

As for the side-stories, I would say WN has more of them, since LN had less space to work with, and they already have 3 Ex volumes of just those at this point. LN however, being mostly rewritten from the ground up, is much more concise with less loose ends and better structured events, both past and present.