Sooooo, this was kinda dumb... so why did I enjoy it so much?!

Parallel Paradise centers around Tada Youta who get's isekaied into a fantasy world solely populated by girls were his mission is to defeat the local Demon King equivalent and bang just about everyone he comes across. If this sounds familiar to you, congrats, get yourself a treat!
Yes, the premis is about as bog-standard as it get's with these stories. It's in its execution were Parallel Paradise becomes more than the initial sum of its parts would lead you to believe... a little bit more at least.

First things first: This Manga contains a lot of sex! Gratuitous amounts of sex!! Entire chapters comprised of nothing but sex!!! This has two major consequences. The first one is of course that people who don't like smut in their Manga really don't need to bother with this one. You guys won't find much enjoyment here.
But even the rest of us still have to content with considerably slow pacing thanks to this. The whole thing can feel like trudging through molasses at times.
At first this was a major annoyance for me. I got somewhat frustrated when, in the middle of a quest, Youta had to fuck yet another girl for a dozen or so pages, when the story could have easily done with just two or three.

Befor long however, I started seeing the appeal. Not the intended one mind you. While it's pretty hardcore for an ecchi manga, it never crosses into hard R territory and as such isn't really suited to get your rocks off. The sheer gratuitousness however becomes quite comedic after a while. I'm not sure what's so funny about scores of girls becomming top-down fountains at the mere touch of a man, but it got me laughing every time and soon this became one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Manga.

Our Protagonist is the other part that elevates Parallel Paradise above it's mediocre premise. Far from being overly whimpy or a perfect goody toe shoes, yet not a villain either, Youta manages to strike a good balance between obnoxiously good or evil, making him quite relatable. While at first naturally perplexed by the situation he finds himself in, he soon starts to act like you'd expect a decent portion of 18year old guys would if beautiful girls started going crazy over them by the truckload; He gets cocky and dickish. He toys with the girls and properly pushes the line to see with how much he can get away with.
This usually only lasts for a few moments though and if one of his partners voices anger with that attitude he recognizes the line he overstepped and apologizes. He also tries to pull his weight whenever he can and when tragedy strikes he gets visibly upset and takes the initiative to find a solution. Overall a good guy, but not boringly perfect.

The remaining elements of this Manga are decent but nothing special. The art is good enough and consistetly so. The girls do fall into some established norms, but have enough unique characteristics to not feel flat. And while this is ultimately a huge wishfullfillment story, Youta has enough flaws and troubles for that aspect to not become annoying.

Last thing worth mentioning are the numerous mysteries set up until this point. So many infact that I became worried about how much the author really thought them through and wether or not they could have satisfiying conclusions. However seeing that Okamoto Lynn is an established Mangaka with multiple acclaimed stories under his belt I have faith that all of them will be neatly resolved and am eager to find out were they and the story at large lead.


7/10