Heaven’s Lost Property is maybe one of the most ambitious harem series I have ever read. No other series in recent memory has come even close to desiring as much as this series does nor tries so hard to achieve its goals. This manga not only wants to be a heavily comedic ecchi harem series, but it also wants to have an intense plot full of unexpected twists and turns that leaves you wanting more. However, since this series grasps at so many different straws, it isn’t necessarily able to grab a hold of too many of them well or do so in the most elegant way. So then at the end of the day, is this series, with all of its ambition and shortcomings worthwhile to read? Well that depends on a few factors.

The first point that needs to be stated is the fact that this series can feel severely disjointed at times. It starts off as essentially just another typical harem comedy until at some point it hits you really hard with a crazy plot. Then, after a few chapters of that it will switch back to its original slice of life comedy style before suddenly forcing the plot back again. This series is constantly shifting gears from comedy to plot in a way that is unfortunately not very smooth. It’s the equivalent of watching filler episodes to a series that you really like. The contents of the comedy portions only tangentially affect the plot, if at all, so there were many points in time where I thought of just skipping whole chapters in order to advance the plot. Not to mention the fact that there is a big tonal shift between the comedy and the plot. This isn’t a series like The World God Only Knows where the plot itself, while being pretty interesting and fun, is more or less lighthearted due to the absurdity of it all. The plot of Heaven’s Lost Property genuinely gets intense and heavy (in some sense). Imagine having the Matrix get intercut with scenes of the main character trying to become panties to get into the girl’s locker room. So for anyone thinking about starting this series, this oscillation between content and tone is something you need to take into consideration.
It’s also worth mentioning that the comedy is basically the traditional harem comedy style of having ecchi things happen and then a girl/girls get mad and beat up the MC. I personally dislike this style of comedy, but there are admittedly a few moments that I genuinely found funny. The plot is also quite enjoyable as well when you look at it without all the comedy mixed in. The last two or three volumes are actually insane, especially in context of the genre you find yourself in so if you start this, I recommend reading to the end.

The second issue I want to bring up is the characters and the fact that they are severely lacking even by harem manga standards. I’ll say this straight up: I kinda hate the MC here, though that isn’t super rare in harem series. He’s just a perverted little ball of chaotic energy that occasionally does a good thing or two so he isn’t wholly unredeemable. However, besides my obvious dislike for the MC, I think that a lot of the characters feel either super flat, really unexplored, or both. I genuinely think that 80% of the characters don’t change from the start to the end. Like there is an astounding lack of character growth here, and believe me, I know not to expect much from any harem series already. The only characters that see any real type of changes are the angeloids, and their major character arc is trying to figure out what love is… which is literally the character arc for the large majority of robot/android characters in all media. So if you care about character a lot, I suggest maybe moving on to a different series (and different genre if we’re being honest here).

Just to make one last point, I want to mention something that could potentially only apply to me but is worth noting. As much as I hate to admit it, this series has made me think about philosophical questions far more than the majority of the series I’ve read. As I’m sitting here reading about a dude’s panty collection getting blown up one by one I’m thinking about the nature of love and whether it is binding or freeing, or whether the good of freedom should ever be disregarded in the pursuit of a potential higher good. I actually shudder at the fact that this series is the one making me think of these things but it is what it is.

So does Heaven’s Lost Property achieve all the things it set out to achieve? Well, in a sense I guess it does. The comedy is at times (very rarely) extremely funny and the plot is genuinely interesting. It’s even gotten me to think about questions that I never really wanted to think about. However, it comes at the cost of jarring tonal shifts, wack pacing and a lack of character development. So is this series worth reading? Honestly, I’m not too sure myself. I found myself hating the first half but getting really interested by the last quarter (though it took me a while to understand that the focus was on the comedy rather than romance or plot). If you’re looking for something different in the harem genre, maybe check this one out, but if not then I guess you should just stay away from it.