After being into Anime and Manga seriously for over 10 years now, I can say with confidence that I'm familiar with the medium, as well as the genres. But there isn't a genre that I'm more judgmental of than harem romcom.

In the beginning I was accepting of most harem stories if the main character finally chose one girl by the end. But as I got older, I had more and more expectations and became less tolerable of certain tropes. It's because of this that I've ignored Harem series as of late.

But then I came across Umi no Misaki. I'd seen the series cover on Mangareader many times but never felt the need to read it until recently. The series begins typically for the genre and sets up to be a standard series; depending on the level of sexuality and nudity of course.

I was surprised to find that the series quickly dispatched the typical tropes of the harem genre. Not all of them mind you but a good portion of them. The repetitive demonizing of sexuality and labeling of the main character a pervert doesn't happen; except once at the beginning as a joke. Instead, there overall seem to be a celebration of sexuality and no shunning takes place. This trope has been the main reason to why I don't read harem series anymore. There doesn't HAVE to be sex in the stories, but the demonizing of sexuality, especially for men is insulting and repetitive.

Overall the series is very well written with a great story and developed characters. It still has its share of problems however. By the final act of the series, the story deteriorates leaving you completely confused about what's going on. The Dragon God backstory is never explained, which is a problem since it's the MAIN PLOT. And for a Dragon God, not much magic or godly activities happen, which is very disappointing. Furthermore, Rinne's past life as the lover of the Dragon God comes out of no where and goes no where.

I know I'm supposed to avoid spoilers but I find it impossible to properly review ANYTHING without some spoilers. The ending is abrupt and inconclusive, and the Christmas special right after adds to the lack of closure. According to this website there are 135 chapters, but every Manga hosting site says the series ends at chapter 127. If there are 8 missing chapters, though it wouldn't fix much, it makes sense given the incompleteness of the conclusion.

I want to give the series a higher score, but I honestly can't given how incomplete it feels. It doesn't help that at a certain part of the story, it feels like a horror movie. No joke, it feels like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and just as overrated and confusing. Seriously, no word of a lie I fell asleep while watching that Anime.

In short, Umi no Misaki is a good Manga that breaks the mold well, but the last part can really ruin the experience; it did for me at least. I'm rating it a 5/10, though why this website classes "Decent" below "Mediocre" I don't know.