Harem Anime

[TakerFoxx]

I have to admit, as dumb as it is, I've got a soft spot for To Love-Ru Darkness, at least the manga. There's a certain charm in its ridiculousness. It knows what it is and rejoices in it. Plus, the fanservice is pretty damned tasty and the ongoing war between it and Japan's censorship laws are a hoot.

 

[Fox12]

So I'll choose the anti-harem. Neon Genesis Evangelion.

See, now there's an anime I can fully get behind. A great TV series and a spectacular movie.

I actually re-watched the EoE the other day, for the first time in years. It holds up even better then I remember. It's one of those movies that offers something new every time you watch it. I guess I've had it on the brain lately, haha.

 

[Scars Unseen]

]Well, Monogatari is a harem series, and it's one of my favorite anime, so that I guess.

I was also a big Ranma 1/2 fan as a kid, and it was the first manga series I've read (although I never actually watched the anime.) I did recently read through a few volumes I still had and I still enjoy them.

Harem anime isn't usually my thing, but from time to time I'll sit down to watch one and I would probably enjoy it, and here and there participate in the usual "waifu war."

I'd argue that Monogatari is more of an anti-harem. The protagonist gets a girlfriend early on and sticks with her for the entire series. There are other girls that are into him, but he turns them down when propositioned.

My favorite harem? Knights of Sidonia. Mostly because it's a sci-fi mecha action/drama first, harem slice of life second.

Oh, and Nisekoi. Love me some Nisekoi.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Timeless Lavender]

I can not stand them. Then again, I have low tolerance for romance, wish fulfillment, lazy tropes, dumb comedy and terribad writing in general. The fact that this genre does nothing to push innovation and creativity in the anime industry speaks volume why I do not care about this genre.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think this is porn for people with a very oblique approach towards porn.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I don't have any inherent objection to them, nor any particular love. Tenchi Muyo was the second anime I became a huge fan of (before dropping off it when it left Toonami), I was okay with Love Hina for a while (until the cringe comedy drove me away), and I'm a fan of other series with the "multiple competing love interests" trope without necessarily being identified as harem (like Hayate the Combat Butler, or Negima). Ultimately, a series being harem neither attracts nor drives me away.

All told, I only have two strong opinions on harem anime.

1) Ai Yori Aoshi is not harem. I don't care if it's only a personal definition, but when a story is outright based on a strong, specific romantic attachment. Tina's attraction was an individual character arc, not her being a love interest. And Mayu was just irritating.

2) Even if it's in jest, I hate the "criticism" that male harem protagonists surrounded by sexually available women never seem willing to get it on with any of them. Mostly because it implies that they're male, so they should be utterly willing to bang anything that moves, which creeps me out.

 

[LetalisK]

Dork has a group of gorgeous women throwing themselves at him despite having the charisma of burnt toast? Always seemed like sad wish fulfillment to me. Of those that I have seen, the protagonist is always a passively unlikable worm.

 

[Paragon Fury]

This is the one anime genre that offends me. I wonder how things would go if the genders were reversed, just to hopefully allow people some self-enlightenment.

I despise this genre. It just reeks of wish fulfillment for lonely men.

But I'll ignore the moral implications of the genre for the moment, in favor of the quality. It's uniformly terrible. Bad writing, paper thin characters, and Ill advised attempts at humor. It's pandering in its worst form. It's television by commitee, where a bunch of men in suits check off a list of cliches. The tsundere, the yandere, ect. And the otaku buy it hook, line, and sinker. The saddest part is that it's strangling a medium I otherwise respect.

So I'll choose the anti-harem. Neon Genesis Evangelion.

My favourite is the one with the girls with the preposterously large tits.

Oh, wait...

Hey, some of us ARE lonely men who like wish fulfillment. And big boobs.

But besides that, a lot of them can be pretty funny and entertaining. Sekirei is very hard not to burst out laughing, while others like HighSchool DxD are more action-intense.

I think this is porn for people with a very oblique approach towards porn.

Porn isn't very good - most of the women in it aren't very attractive, there isn't much to it except...well, fucking. Hell, even hentai is easier to watch than porn because they at least try with their stories.

 

[Fox12]

snip

There is a lot of negativity in this thread, isn't there? Heck, I'll play ball.

I do remember liking Tenchi Muyo as a kid, though I didn't fully understand it then, and I'm not sure it's held up. Pretty much everything on the toonami block rocked back then, and I wouldn't mind rewatching it for nostalgia's sake. I vaguely remember there being a pretty decent space arc.

 

[Hochmeister]

Eh, I'd argue there's more bad in drama personally. Harem as a whole is very much full of camp and cheese, two things that sorta make it easy to overlook the less than stellar parts(at least for me), as opposed to shows that take themselves completely seriously. I mean, for every Monster or Perfect Blue, there's something like three RaphXeon or Blood-C(or +, there's alot of Blood dash random symbol titles in anime)

Like with alot of things, people see what they wanna see, and I really think people are severely limiting themselves if harems are an instant turn-off. Especially with the last six or so years have a resurgence of them with a plethora of subversion and deconstructions mixed in.

Sturgeon's Law I guess; every genre's going to have a healthy proportion of garbage. I can't really comment on the quality of drama shows since that's not a genre I usually watch. I do suspect there's a lot of backlash against harems and moe for moving anime away from its more traditional action/sci-fi niches, sentiment I'm not entirely unsympathetic to.

I despise this genre. It just reeks of wish fulfillment for lonely men.

But I'll ignore the moral implications of the genre for the moment, in favor of the quality. It's uniformly terrible. Bad writing, paper thin characters, and Ill advised attempts at humor. It's pandering in its worst form. It's television by commitee, where a bunch of men in suits check off a list of cliches. The tsundere, the yandere, ect. And the otaku buy it hook, line, and sinker. The saddest part is that it's strangling a medium I otherwise respect.

So I'll choose the anti-harem. Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Man, I wish every harem show had a yandere in it, they tend to make things interesting! Sure the worst harem shows are like that, but as others have said there are some gems and many, including myself, enjoy their type of humor. Besides, it's not like anime's ever been different in the past, it simply used to rip off what used to be popular like Jojo, Gundam, Dragonball, or Sailor Moon. Heck, it's not even unique to anime, everything you said could equally apply to Hollywood these days.

Besides, what's wrong with a little escapist wish fulfillment?

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Oh, hey look. Salt. Cute.

Anywho!

Well, considering that the best girl rarely actually gets 'picked' by the MC (*cough*KUROFUCKINGNEKO*cough*), the idea is wish fulfillment at its finest, and I have a hard time watching girls getting hurt/having their feelings be denied, I'm fairly lukewarm to the genre.

With notable exceptions:

1. Monster Musume is fantastic.

2. Monogatari series is fantastic.

3. To Love-Ru (half-naked waifus for all!) is a staple of ecchi....and Yui <3

4. I genuinely liked Oreimo (I consider it a haremish title, considering the 3+ chicks vying for his attention) until like half-way through the second season. Ugh.

And, finally...

5. Girls und Panzer.

'Cause Tank-kun knows what the ladies like.

 

[Redryhno]

Eh, I'd argue there's more bad in drama personally. Harem as a whole is very much full of camp and cheese, two things that sorta make it easy to overlook the less than stellar parts(at least for me), as opposed to shows that take themselves completely seriously. I mean, for every Monster or Perfect Blue, there's something like three RaphXeon or Blood-C(or +, there's alot of Blood dash random symbol titles in anime)

Like with alot of things, people see what they wanna see, and I really think people are severely limiting themselves if harems are an instant turn-off. Especially with the last six or so years have a resurgence of them with a plethora of subversion and deconstructions mixed in.

Sturgeon's Law I guess; every genre's going to have a healthy proportion of garbage. I can't really comment on the quality of drama shows since that's not a genre I usually watch. I do suspect there's a lot of backlash against harems and moe for moving anime away from its more traditional action/sci-fi niches, sentiment I'm not entirely unsympathetic to.

Eh, if that's the reasoning, then people haven't really been paying attention to anime for all that long. No offense intended. The moe crap I can agree with to a point, but it started dying out a few years ago and now there's only like three shows in the last year that qualify as moe blob crap(do the math of something like 30-50 every four months and it's a tiny percentage). I mean, the harem genre is really only like fifteen years behind those traditional niches, of which there's plenty of in nearly every season as well. Harem's nearly as traditional as those action/sci-fi niches if we're gonna go by history. Hell, there's only like five harem shows on right now as well.

I mean, I can understand people not liking that it's not true to roots, but that's sorta like complaining that Disney adapts fairy tales to more modern settings anymore.

I can even understand people being repulsed by it, but some of the reasons given are just sorta wonky. Most of the time it all just leads back to them not liking it, and I'd rather them say that than give the reasons they give in most cases. NOthing wrong with not liking it.


And I'd advise you to watch some of the drama pieces, they're really worth the watch.

 

[NiPah]

This is the one anime genre that offends me. I wonder how things would go if the genders were reversed, just to hopefully allow people some self-enlightenment.

Most Boy Bands and YouTube stars have more girls who want to bang them then any harem anime could ever have, it's just a fact of life that multiple females may find the same male attractive. As foe reverse harem shows there are loads of them, I don't find them offensive at all since I don't believe fictional characters demean my sexuality, pretty sure watching Fruits Basket isn't going to damage some poor girl into thinking all males exist only to have sex with, likewise I don't believe watching harem anime plays a major role in shaping the worldview of it's male viewership.

With all harem anime just like any other media there will be good ones and bad ones, most are meh but I've seen a few good ones, Monster Musume (at least the manga) is great, Sister Princess is not.

 

[EyeReaper]

I think Harem anime (and shounen, for that matter) is kinda like the gateway drug. Everyone seems to start with a Love Hina, a He is My Master, or a Chobits. Probably because teens and Woah! Tits.

I generally don't watch harem anime anymore, because they all get kinda samey after a while. I'd still recommend series like Henneko and Clannad.

Don't worry if you do like Harem though, As a fan of schoolgirl slice-of-life shows, I too am used to the "Durr it's dumb otaku pandering killing anime moeblob" comments.

 

[balladbird]

I like tenchi, but I'm not really sure how much of that is nostalgia, since I haven't watched the show since it departed toonami... and toonami departed the earth for almost a decade.

Can't say the genre does much for me. Fanservice, in anime and games alike, has always struck me as a milquetoast attempt at being erotic by someone who doesn't quite have the stomach to make porn. And since pornographic games/hentai are easily accessible here in the internet age, fanservice as a genre has kinda become something akin to flashing tits in a PG-13 movie: A quaint reminder of what people were forced to work with before the internet became what it is today.

That said, I don't despise the genre, it tends to wear what it is on its sleeve; it carries no pretenses of being anything other than what it is, and it's hard to hate something with that level of honesty.

I can watch a harem series if it's on, though I'll only really enjoy it depending on the lead guy. A lot of series took their otaku-pandering too far, and gave their lead characters typical japanese otaku traits, (read: made them assholes) which I loathe. Others make them so incredibly dense that anything short of a written invitation to wed will fly over their heads, which I loathe equally.

Sadly, those two extremes describe 99% of harem anime male leads... but the occasional interesting one is out there.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think this is porn for people with a very oblique approach towards porn.

Porn isn't very good - most of the women in it aren't very attractive, there isn't much to it except...well, fucking. Hell, even hentai is easier to watch than porn because they at least try with their stories.

Nobody watches porn for the story?

 

[zerragonoss]

The noblest of anime - the kind of situation every man dreams of. But which ones do you prefer? Or do you think truly stand out above the rest?

Never really understood this, the limited amount of harem anime I have seen is very long on emotional attachment and sexual tension, and very short on the actuall sex. My reaction to that kind of situation would be to be very unhappy about it. Sure their is likely one girl in the group I could be happy with, but no matter what I do there are half a dozen girls, at least, that I would have to reject, and potentially seriously hurt; a prospect that seems quite unappealing.

 

[Rahkshi500]

To an extent, it's a guilty pleasure of mine. On one hand, like some have already said, characters can tend to be shallow and uninteresting, with lame humor and certain messed up implications behind some of the relationships, and bad writing in general. One the other hand, some characters do handle their archetypes better than others, there is some good humor in some series, and some plot ideas are interesting enough to catch attention. I ain't gonna slam the genre for the pandering aspects, though, due to that regardless of whether some like it or not, pandering does have its place in fiction and everyone wants to be catered in some way, shape, form, or fashion, even if it's the not necessarily the same kind of catering.

But if there is one big gripe I have with the genre, is that it can definitely be much more; if anything, this kind of genre is a good opportunity for portraying polyamorous relationships in a positive light, showing the things of what life in being an actual relationship with multiple people can be like, with their ups and downs. Unfortunately, it never ever takes that opportunity, nor do I think anyone had ever tried that. Instead it's more often a couple of people vying for the attention and affection of the protagonist, which is opposite of how polyamorous relationship should work.

 

[StormShaun]

Fury, you just flipped my switch.

I hate this genre.
I hate this genre.
I hate this genre.
It shouldn't even be a genre.

"To Love Ru" destroyed me, but Clannad built me back up.
They say Clannad is a harem, but now they're in my basement, desperate for the basic substances required for human life.
This harem shaped me, molded me, from the darkness. Now my taste is beyond the darkness, and now I soar in the open sky that is defined by mind mind.

I will use this picture in a joking sense, but realize, I harbour my foul, hideous, and horrendous words for this genre.
To be better than this genre, I throw away those words, and I will sum up my feelings with this picture.

Spoiler

Gaze at it, and feel the hatred I feel for the harem genre. How I wouldn't mind if the world was on fire to destroy it.
Yet... I know I'm better.

...

...

Phew, well now I feel better.
Now I shall wash my mind of this discussion, by writing a horror scene, in a story of mine that actually has good story and character. Excuse me if that sounded rude, but my feelings for this topic have barely scratched the topic.