So, I Can’t Play H! (Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai)

Zach Goodier

Ryosuke Kaga is a high schooler who lives as a social pariah due to his excessive perverted behavior, which he always lets out without any hesitation or filter. His only friend is a girl named Mina, who finds his behavior funny and honest. Ryosuke lives alone, since his father died and his mother conducts research abroad. His life takes a very unexpected turn when a girl appears outside his house, named Lisara Restor, who decides to form a contract with Ryosuke to use him as a source of energy for her powers. Lisara is a Death God, sent to our world in search of a being of great power to help in her quest. In order to help Lisara fuel her power, Ryosuke needs to build up energy, which just so happened to come from the things that make a person feel alive, in his case: being a pervert. What follows is a growing cast of female characters who meet up with Ryosuke and Lisara, and become involved in their quest in various ways. As you might have already figured out, this is a harem show. But there are a few little twists on the overused formula.

I tried to find a picture of Ryosuke not being a total pervert... impossible.

For the most part, I will just skip a lot of the description to say that the characters all fill the general harem spots. Lisara is more or less the “tsundere,” or the girl that pretends to loath Ryosuke, and feels insecure about her smaller bust (chalk up two harem clichés there). Mina is the childhood friend with the massive bust that has been trying to open up about her true affections for some time, but hasn’t. Quele is a relative of Lisara, who fills the role of the younger girl vying for Ryosuke’s affections alongside the big girls, and Iria is the vain seductress who uses her feminine charms to get what she wants, and has even made a career out of it. There is a villain, who reveals themselves midway through the series or so, and they do provide some interesting action and character drama, so that’s a plus.

It's ok, Lisara, I don't find some of this stuff amusing, myself.

So for the most part, it doesn’t seem that there’s all the much here to impress in terms of characters, but it’s the execution that sets this show apart from other harems, if only slightly. For one, they actually follow the logic through where Ryosuke has to make that choice that all harems avoid: who he truly has feelings for. I won’t spoil anything, since it does fit into the plot later on, so I’ll just move on to the other thing that helps the show out: the action.

I just try to force myself to believe that these outfits allow for more mobility, that's the only way to accept it as serious combat attire.

While the show isn’t action heavy, it does feature action segments where someone, usually Lisara, has to activate her powers to fight off monsters. Her outfit isn’t too bad, but they all serve as lust fuel for a mostly male audience. Still, the fights look pretty decent with elemental powers well animated to produce some great scenes. It’s just a shame that this series, like many other recent releases, places more focus on the comedic antics of a pervert in the middle of his own private harem rather than the world and powers surrounding it. One of the reasons why I got so into anime originally is the human element, the depth of character mixed with excellent visuals, and these recent series usually just throw that all out the window and just use excessive cleavage and panty shots to get their following, which is a shame.

It's a pity that so much of the lore and ideas brought up in the series are never really explored in any detail to create a richer world and characters.

Still, I did find the powers, and even a lot of the concepts that drive the plot forward to be interesting, even if they are never fully explored or explained. Ryosuke never really impresses all that much as a protagonist until the last few episodes, but Lisara does have some great character moments, if we go by the standard set by most recent shows. I would probably recommend this show as some light viewing for people who don’t really want to get overly invested in a darker, more serious story. There are more than a few entertaining moments in this series, but its over-reliance on sex appeal takes a potentially great action/fantasy story and turns it into a mostly typical harem series, a good one, but still ultimately a harem full of unrealistic and underdeveloped characters in a world that is just taken for granted rather than explored in a serious or meaningful way.

Good:

-Fairly interesting ideas and world.

-Some decent action.

-A couple of strong character moments that make them slightly buyable.

Bad:

-Never fully explores its own story or lore to an extent that really satisfies.

-Typical overuse of sex appeal as fan-service to distract from some weak characters.

Scully Rating: 6 out of 10