Explain the appeal of Harem Anime

[Metalix Knightmare]

Sorry. I don't think there is a nicer way to categorize this entire genre of garbage.

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

The other girl, being my ex girlfriend, I talked to about these kinds of things at greater length about, so I can be a bit clearer with her: She enjoyed harem shows exclusively for the female characters. Since a harem needs multiple women to be a thing, and in order for the fans to buy it the girls need to at least fill different archetypes from each other, harems provided her with the chance to see female characters actually have a major role in a series without them being either prim-and-proper yamato maidens, or tsundere best-friends-from-childhood. She said that when harem shows got away from the male lead and developed the characters in the harem, they were some of the most interesting parts of the series.

Yeah the good shows have good characters, that's basically why I like the ones I like myself. I think most people who like them are like your girlfriend and myself and few actually really go at it like a hikkikomori or whatever.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, no one liked Tenchi Muyo for Tenchi.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

I haven't seen one of them and the other is almost as old as Macross. I think 99% of sitcoms are garbage, too, but I still love Becker.

I think 99% of animu in general is garbage, still love Akira, Patlabor, Mononoke-Hime, etc.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

I haven't seen one of them and the other is almost as old as Macross. I think 99% of sitcoms are garbage, too, but I still love Becker.

Still strikes me as rather rude to refer to an entire Genre like that. I freaking hate sports games and most online shooters but I don't call them garbage for it.

Jesus... shit's fucked, yo. I'd seen the term in the tons of hot sweaty hentai various manga I've read, but I kinda assumed they were like American teen idols you see on magazines aimed at that demographic. Turns out I'd underestimated the weirdness of Japan once again. Is that really the case? As in, they're presented as perfect fantasy girlfriends to the public? 'cause that's jus' wrong, man. Reminds me of that time when Ex Machina had an ad disguised as a Tinder profile for Ava (the AI from the movie). Something about that kind of thing crosses a certain line for me.

Yeah, if there's one thing I'll say against Japan it's that the idol industry is utterly and completely fucked up.

That said, the main idea IS supposed to be pop starlets. They sing, dance, some act, some do bits on TV, if there's media for them to get involved with, they'll usually be there in some form or another.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Still strikes me as rather rude to refer to an entire Genre like that. I freaking hate sports games and most online shooters but I don't call them garbage for it.

Rude and accurate.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Still strikes me as rather rude to refer to an entire Genre like that. I freaking hate sports games and most online shooters but I don't call them garbage for it.

Rude and accurate.

Not really. Again, there's a fair bit of good stuff in there. Mahou Sensei Negima! would technically count as Harem, as would Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Both of those are kickass series.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Not really. Again, there's a fair bit of good stuff in there. Mahou Sensei Negima! would technically count as Harem, as would Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Both of those are kickass series.

Would you prefer it if I said nearly all harem anime is utter garbage and ridiculously retarded, with no plot because plot would alienate from indescribably pathetic notions being surrounded by sexual tension is impossible to watch for anythong more than the vaguest skin of integrity that is the worst aspects of style over substance in consumerist aesthetics?

That it is representative of art for the worst possible reasons for its existence, purely artifice, and the fact that it is so economically feasible to produce it is perhaps the greatest single detriment to the integrity of visual artistry and cheapens its existence as a whole?

Or would you rather I just said it's garbage and save you a rant rather than spend longer conceptualising my particular dislike? I will say I don't particularly care if you like it. My problem with it is bigger than if you like it or not. And I'm not really that invested in this actual subject to query whether it is at all redeemable. I've seen enough to tell me it's generally awful. Just like I've seen enough Big Bang Theory to know it is genuinely awful. Also enough House of Cards to know it will never be as good as the BBC classic.

 

[sageoftruth]

Not really. Again, there's a fair bit of good stuff in there. Mahou Sensei Negima! would technically count as Harem, as would Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Both of those are kickass series.

Would you prefer it if I said nearly all harem anime is utter garbage and ridiculously retarded, with no plot because plot would alienate from indescribably pathetic notions being surrounded by sexual tension is impossible to watch for anythong more than the vaguest skin of integrity that is the worst aspects of style over substance in consumerist aesthetics?

That it is representative of art for the worst possible reasons for its existence, purely artifice, and the fact that it is so economically feasible to produce it is perhaps the greatest single detriment to the integrity of visual artistry and cheapens its existence as a whole?

Or would you rather I just said it's garbage and save you a rant rather than spend longer conceptualising my particular dislike? I will say I don't particularly care if you like it. My problem with it is bigger than if you like it or not. And I'm not really that invested in this actual subject to query whether it is at all redeemable. I've seen enough to tell me it's generally awful. Just like I've seen enough Big Bang Theory to know it is genuinely awful. Also enough House of Cards to know it will never be as good as the BBC classic.

Actually, yeah. The rant at least suggests that you have a reason beyond, "I'm not into it and thus I dismiss it as garbage." You could take the ambiguous route, but everyone will just assume the worst about you if you do.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Actually, yeah. The rant at least suggests that you have a reason beyond, "I'm not into it and thus I dismiss it as garbage." You could take the ambiguous route, but everyone will just assume the worst about you if you do.

It's not beyond reason by its definition. It's nothing if not partly a rationalism. And if you have a problem with people at least explaining why they don't like something, then I warrant you are the one who is actually "beyond reason."

Dare I posit that if your only response with me calling it as thinly veiled, shallow artifice like most people in this thread is; "Nuh uh..." then congratulations for arguing tone rather than anything else.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Not really. Again, there's a fair bit of good stuff in there. Mahou Sensei Negima! would technically count as Harem, as would Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Both of those are kickass series.

Would you prefer it if I said nearly all harem anime is utter garbage and ridiculously retarded, with no plot because plot would alienate from indescribably pathetic notions being surrounded by sexual tension is impossible to watch for anythong more than the vaguest skin of integrity that is the worst aspects of style over substance in consumerist aesthetics?

That it is representative of art for the worst possible reasons for its existence, purely artifice, and the fact that it is so economically feasible to produce it is perhaps the greatest single detriment to the integrity of visual artistry and cheapens its existence as a whole?

Or would you rather I just said it's garbage and save you a rant rather than spend longer conceptualising my particular dislike? I will say I don't particularly care if you like it. My problem with it is bigger than if you like it or not. And I'm not really that invested in this actual subject to query whether it is at all redeemable. I've seen enough to tell me it's generally awful. Just like I've seen enough Big Bang Theory to know it is genuinely awful. Also enough House of Cards to know it will never be as good as the BBC classic.

I WOULD prefer you go into detail actually. Pretty much all I'm getting from you so far is "I don't like it so it's garbage."

I mean, if you just left it at "I don't like it" that would be one thing. Not everyone is going to like a genre, and to expect otherwise would be madness. (Again, not a fan of sports games.) But to refer to an entire genre of a medium as garbage is the sort of thing that draws eyes, and to leave it as you did basically implies that you consider it garbage simply because it doesn't interest you.

I mean, alter a few choice words in what you put down here and you could pretty easily turn it into a condemnation of Shonen comics, Romance Novels, Romantic Comedies, and Slasher Movies.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Sorry. I don't think there is a nicer way to categorize this entire genre of garbage.

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

Can't speak to Monster Girls, but Ranma Half was a martial arts comedy that had a lot of female secondary characters.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, no one liked Tenchi Muyo for Tenchi.

That just means you were wrong twice [/joke]

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I WOULD prefer you go into detail actually. Pretty much all I'm getting from you so far is "I don't like it so it's garbage."

Been a good enough reason for film critics to exist for 100 years.

I mean, if you just left it at "I don't like it" that would be one thing. Not everyone is going to like a genre, and to expect otherwise would be madness. (Again, not a fan of sports games.) But to refer to an entire genre of a medium as garbage is the sort of thing that draws eyes, and to leave it as you did basically implies that you consider it garbage simply because it doesn't interest you.

Okay.

I find it pandering nonsense, with 2 dimensional writers writing 1 dimensional characters which archetype human behaviour to the point of popularised concepts of moe and the fact that that's enough makes me feel insulted to watch it beyond an episode in most cases. Because, let's face it, one episode is enough to get concept and the only reason to watch more than one episode is to see the potential of cliche dramatic additions of new characters to the mix.

That the grand majority of them are so frightened (spineless) of pissing off their audiences by picking a vapid, farcical archetype as canon love interest over the others exists simply to maintain a teased viewership of idiots who invest far too much of their passions holding up a consumerist vision of stupid, hollow, beauty-less characters and which of the automatons should get shipped with what amorphous, unmemorable character that is at best an indescribable void emulating humanity with the subtlety and nuance of Robot from the 60's Lost in Space.

I find it much more fun to imagine I'm watching conspiracy theory proof of Reptilians.

Placing any cultural value of it in the realms of 90s sitromcoms and daytime soaps, and in the latter they at least have the courage to have characters actually hook up (even if they then suffer something like death/amnesia by drama). It's mindless pap... and if that's good enough for you, fine. But then don't cry crocodile tears when someone finds it mindless pap.

To put it plainly. 99% of them are destined to be forgotten in a few years time. It's the instant ramen bowl of visual content. Something which is palatable only when you exclude the effort to have anything else. Empty energy that is occupying time in your life and that's disappointing, but understandable. Considered decent if only by association to an amorphous genre of ridiculously similar content that serves to reinforce mild deviations of flavour as if to be so separate from the whole.

Oriental Maggi noodles is crap. So is beef.

Both disappointing and both understandable.

I'm not going to conclude all instant ramen tastes like congealed rat vomit ...I'm also going to have misgivings about the next new one I eat.

I mean, alter a few choice words in what you put down here and you could pretty easily turn it into a condemnation of Shonen comics, Romance Novels, Romantic Comedies, and Slasher Movies.

Hell no. I fucking love Patlabor. I fucking love Ash vs. the Evil Dead. Spice and Wolf, read the manga, all the light novels, and own two individually bought collections of the anime, and I'll treat it as if its own thing regardless of the artistic method of its creation.

Spice and Wolf is smart, funny, and at the sametime ... I get the sneaking suspicion that's why it's so fucking difficult to get a Season 3 of the anime because you can't ship characters and the characters don't just devolve into moe but grow, change, react differently, and even begin to reflect the qualities they see in eachother which influence sll aspects of their life on the road and their life goals which are mutable as is anyone's.

And when I see the dominance of sequelitis in U.S. tv shows, and harem anime they mostly leave me with the same impression ... that this sells, and ultimately something like Spice and Wolf has to sacrifice for artistic integrity.

House of Cards, like many British television programmes, told a meaningful story that 4 seasons of U.S. version can't. It's also why I quite like Rogue One. It's an entire story constrained to a single movie. That takes far more skill than making an interconnected trilogy of plot... which is why RotJ is fucking garbage and the constant re-envisioning of the originals by Lucas is so bad that even diehard fans hate the guy with a passion. Visceral hate.

And this is a problem in every media form. It's an accepted condition of market forces. Fine. But harem anime, even going so far as to cut and paste plot, character, narrative structure, gets a free pass because it's technically a different animu show even as people piss vinegar how the protagonist in Rogue One is somewhat similar to the protagonist in The Force Aakens? I can't be the only one with cognitive dissonance trying to understand this phenomena.

If the prime argument is; "Yeah, but different standards..." then it's not unfair to say those standards are based purely on one's tolerance for mindless crap. Your tolerance might be higher than mine. And all power to you.

 

[maninahat]

Pandering to virgin shut-ins

I question the need of 'virgin' and 'shut-ins' when it comes to sex. Like the Harem anime fantasy seems pretty straight forward to me, "Here's a hot girl, you can have sex with her. Here's another hot girl, you can also have sex with her. Here's a third hot girl, you know what to do, etc..."
That just seems like a pretty standard sexual fantasy to me, one that virgins and people who have had sex both have. And shut-ins? I'm not sure that's necessary. I think most people would enjoy being able to have sex with multiple attractive people, regardless of social skills.

I think its just straight up sexual fantasy.

I think it is apt, in that anime has an appeal towards teenagers and young adults, and an ego stroking fantasy in which a guy has a gang of nubile women literally falling into his lap would appeal particularly to the sexually inexperienced, socially awkward guy. That's not to say it can't be other people's fantasy of course, but they are a bit specialized. I remember the first one I watched, Chobits, and even at the time I couldn't help notice that every woman in the show seemed to share some degree of brain damage.

 

[sageoftruth]

Actually, yeah. The rant at least suggests that you have a reason beyond, "I'm not into it and thus I dismiss it as garbage." You could take the ambiguous route, but everyone will just assume the worst about you if you do.

It's not beyond reason by its definition. It's nothing if not partly a rationalism. And if you have a problem with people at least explaining why they don't like something, then I warrant you are the one who is actually "beyond reason."

Dare I posit that if your only response with me calling it as thinly veiled, shallow artifice like most people in this thread is; "Nuh uh..." then congratulations for arguing tone rather than anything else.

Saying you don't like something isn't the same as calling it "garbage".

 

[Sonmi]

Escapism.

Harem anime are the male weeb equivalent to sappy romance novels/serials featuring romantic triangles.

Also, waifu wars are an efficient way to sell your product.

 

[Metalix Knightmare]

Sorry. I don't think there is a nicer way to categorize this entire genre of garbage.

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

Can't speak to Monster Girls, but Ranma Half was a martial arts comedy that had a lot of female secondary characters.

And most of those female secondary characters wanted in Ranma's pants.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Sorry. I don't think there is a nicer way to categorize this entire genre of garbage.

Daily Life With Monster Girl and Ranma 1/2 are garbage to you?

Can't speak to Monster Girls, but Ranma Half was a martial arts comedy that had a lot of female secondary characters.

And most of those female secondary characters wanted in Ranma's pants.

So do most of the male characters, at least initially. Point is, the harem aspects aren't what the show is about. Ranma is a martial arts comedy.

 

[Satinavian]

With the same argument you could argue that fate stay night or Schwarzesmarken are not harem animes as there are other things beside the harem aspect present - as is for pretty much every harem anime series out there.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

With the same argument you could argue that fate stay night or Schwarzesmarken are not harem animes as there are other things beside the harem aspect present - as is for pretty much every harem anime series out there.

At no point did I ever get the impression that Fate Stay Night was a harem anime.

EDIT: Or Sword Art Online, for that matter. I mean, I only started paying attention halfway through the first arc, but most of the aspects of a harem show just aren't there. Plenty of waifus, sure, but SAO isn't about them. To the point where when I look at a cast list I don't recognize most of them, because they stop showing up.

 

[McElroy]

those people usually have high anxiety issues

This implies producers of harem anime are exploiting people with anxiety issues. Way to go!

Basically, people are entitled to like what they like, if you don't see the appeal then just ignore it rather than try to insult the fans for it.

Harem anime panders to a pathetic market that nobody would voluntarily be a part of (otakus that is). That much needs to be said.

 

[sageoftruth]

I WOULD prefer you go into detail actually. Pretty much all I'm getting from you so far is "I don't like it so it's garbage."

Been a good enough reason for film critics to exist for 100 years.

I mean, if you just left it at "I don't like it" that would be one thing. Not everyone is going to like a genre, and to expect otherwise would be madness. (Again, not a fan of sports games.) But to refer to an entire genre of a medium as garbage is the sort of thing that draws eyes, and to leave it as you did basically implies that you consider it garbage simply because it doesn't interest you.

Okay.

I find it pandering nonsense, with 2 dimensional writers writing 1 dimensional characters which archetype human behaviour to the point of popularised concepts of moe and the fact that that's enough makes me feel insulted to watch it beyond an episode in most cases. Because, let's face it, one episode is enough to get concept and the only reason to watch more than one episode is to see the potential of cliche dramatic additions of new characters to the mix.

That the grand majority of them are so frightened (spineless) of pissing off their audiences by picking a vapid, farcical archetype as canon love interest over the others exists simply to maintain a teased viewership of idiots who invest far too much of their passions holding up a consumerist vision of stupid, hollow, beauty-less characters and which of the automatons should get shipped with what amorphous, unmemorable character that is at best an indescribable void emulating humanity with the subtlety and nuance of Robot from the 60's Lost in Space.

I find it much more fun to imagine I'm watching conspiracy theory proof of Reptilians.

Placing any cultural value of it in the realms of 90s sitromcoms and daytime soaps, and in the latter they at least have the courage to have characters actually hook up (even if they then suffer something like death/amnesia by drama). It's mindless pap... and if that's good enough for you, fine. But then don't cry crocodile tears when someone finds it mindless pap.

To put it plainly. 99% of them are destined to be forgotten in a few years time. It's the instant ramen bowl of visual content. Something which is palatable only when you exclude the effort to have anything else. Empty energy that is occupying time in your life and that's disappointing, but understandable. Considered decent if only by association to an amorphous genre of ridiculously similar content that serves to reinforce mild deviations of flavour as if to be so separate from the whole.

Oriental Maggi noodles is crap. So is beef.

Both disappointing and both understandable.

I'm not going to conclude all instant ramen tastes like congealed rat vomit ...I'm also going to have misgivings about the next new one I eat.

I mean, alter a few choice words in what you put down here and you could pretty easily turn it into a condemnation of Shonen comics, Romance Novels, Romantic Comedies, and Slasher Movies.

Hell no. I fucking love Patlabor. I fucking love Ash vs. the Evil Dead. Spice and Wolf, read the manga, all the light novels, and own two individually bought collections of the anime, and I'll treat it as if its own thing regardless of the artistic method of its creation.

Spice and Wolf is smart, funny, and at the sametime ... I get the sneaking suspicion that's why it's so fucking difficult to get a Season 3 of the anime because you can't ship characters and the characters don't just devolve into moe but grow, change, react differently, and even begin to reflect the qualities they see in eachother which influence sll aspects of their life on the road and their life goals which are mutable as is anyone's.

And when I see the dominance of sequelitis in U.S. tv shows, and harem anime they mostly leave me with the same impression ... that this sells, and ultimately something like Spice and Wolf has to sacrifice for artistic integrity.

House of Cards, like many British television programmes, told a meaningful story that 4 seasons of U.S. version can't. It's also why I quite like Rogue One. It's an entire story constrained to a single movie. That takes far more skill than making an interconnected trilogy of plot... which is why RotJ is fucking garbage and the constant re-envisioning of the originals by Lucas is so bad that even diehard fans hate the guy with a passion. Visceral hate.

And this is a problem in every media form. It's an accepted condition of market forces. Fine. But harem anime, even going so far as to cut and paste plot, character, narrative structure, gets a free pass because it's technically a different animu show even as people piss vinegar how the protagonist in Rogue One is somewhat similar to the protagonist in The Force Aakens? I can't be the only one with cognitive dissonance trying to understand this phenomena.

If the prime argument is; "Yeah, but different standards..." then it's not unfair to say those standards are based purely on one's tolerance for mindless crap. Your tolerance might be higher than mine. And all power to you.

There we go. That's far more enlightening. A real interesting read.