Prince Adil has already been teased as the romantic rival for Sanagi in the previous volume. But here, it’s obvious he’s becoming attracted to his brother’s wife.
Yes, wife — Sanagi officially marries Lui in volume 3! But during their PG-rated honeymoon, one of Lui’s backers adds his granddaughter, Aila, to Lui’s harem. While Lui is willing to wait for Sanagi to be ready before they have their first night, well, Aila is totally down with making With the Sheikh in His Harem a rated R work…and not just by wanting to sleep with Rui but by getting rid of Sanagi if necessary.
With the Sheikh in His Harem continues to rely on a lot of the standard romance tropes. But still, Lui continues to be the most atypical part of the manga. Not all shoujo manga feature tsundere main love interests, but 90% of the time, it’d be the Adil-like character in the main male role. So while Sanagi nursing a sick Adil falls into the Disney Princess-level of absolute kindness, at least she’s complemented by a sweetheart who doesn’t need to be scolded about treating people well.
Adil will likely continue to mellow out as he realizes he likes/loves Sanagi, but Aila seems to be going on the opposite path. She’s introduced as a chill, casual tomboyish childhood friend, but she seems to be getting more desperate about getting Sanagi out of the picture. It’s not so much that she hates Sanagi as she hates the fact Sanagi (and Lui) won’t allow him to have another wife, one who wants to bare him a child of royal blood on both sides. (Sanagi also gets some culture shock at how common it is for a man to have multiple wives!) It’s too bad she’s being a villainess here, as I really wanted to like Aila. She introduced herself as a fan of Japan, so a lackadaisical otaku princess would be a great counter to everyone else’s seriousness. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
But while she’s mostly scheming in the background, the brothers are directly at-odds. They are forced to go together to investigate some local disappearances, and Sanagi, of course, gets mixed up in the situation. Young children are involved and wielding weapons, and that’s rather unsavory in a purehearted romance like this. With the Sheikh in His Harem has touched on sensitive subjects before (like Lui’s suicidal thoughts in volume 1), and while child-warriors are, unfortunately, a thing, I’d rather concentrate on Lui and Sanagi.
The two of them have some sweet moments in these two volumes, but a lot of them feel overshadowed by the drama of the brothers competing in an archery contest or Lui literally having to overcome an aphrodisiac Aila gave him. And fans who want more of the main couple’s doting relationship over the drama are not going to like how volume 4 ends.
Interestingly enough, though, the manga is maybe setting up hints that this is a more fantastical tale than just in the romantic sense. I’m not totally sure how I feel about that yet, but there is one thing I did feel strongly about: the art. Scenes like the wedding show off the glitz and beauty, and Lui’s pleas and declarations to Sanagi and his people are presented with full passion. Aila also has a cool character design. Miasa may go with more simplistic layouts, but they allow readers to fully indulge in the pretty visuals. It all looks even sharper than before.
I am crossing my fingers that soon the visuals will go back to highlighting Lui and Sanagi’s relationship, but the manga has a lot of story threads to weave that could prevent this from happening. If the series wants to focus on drama, I wish it would return to the queen’s machinations rather than love rivals and child terrorists.