Harems in manga

[DoubleSnake]

Lets face it, the only reason anyone desires a harem is because they have low self esteem and are incapable of loving themselves. All the isekai protags are these milquetoast boring characters with no discernible qualities, which for some reason makes all the girls want to jump on their dick.
I mean really, without looking up their name list someone that has a harem. You can't, you don't know who they are; its all a bland character for people that can't get bitches to imprint themselves on.
Naruto didn't have a harem, Guts didn't have a harem. But this guy Yamada Toyota somehow got a bunch of girls to like him doing nothing, bullshit.
I mean i get it when it comes to power fantasies, everyone want to feel like they are in control. But when someone is put in a position of power over someone else under the guise of consent, thats when it starts to become weak.
But i guess if someone like it, thats fine. But for me it reeks of inequality.
Anyway, feel free to try and prove me wrong. I'll read any examples where you think im wrong. I ain't afraid to eat crow.

 

[DavidianMillerian]

Lets face it, the only reason anyone desires a harem is because they have low self esteem and are incapable of loving themselves. All the isekai protags are these milquetoast boring characters with no discernible qualities, which for some reason makes all the girls want to jump on their dick.
I mean really, without looking up their name list someone that has a harem. You can't, you don't know who they are; its all a bland character for people that can't get bitches to imprint themselves on.
Naruto didn't have a harem, Guts didn't have a harem. But this guy Yamada Toyota somehow got a bunch of girls to like him doing nothing, bullshit.
I mean i get it when it comes to power fantasies, everyone want to feel like they are in control. But when someone is put in a position of power over someone else under the guise of consent, thats when it starts to become weak.
But i guess if someone like it, thats fine. But for me it reeks of inequality.
Anyway, feel free to try and prove me wrong. I'll read any examples where you think im wrong. I ain't afraid to eat crow.

the controversial thread's here, matey

 

[NotGary]

nah, I'm no sultan or middle eastern prince. I don't want no harem.

I want a commited monogamous relasionship with my wife.

sure, it does sound nice at first. but personally, not for me for a multitude of reasons, the main one being, thqt I know for a fact its gonna be hella complicated.
but sure, as a sex fantasy, a harem does sound nice, I guess.

 

[DavidianMillerian]

I may have low self esteem, and I may be a loner, and I also may be incapable of giving myself love, but

I don't think I'm stupid enough to want a harem

it's like @NotGary said, hella complicated

managing your relationship with one woman's hard already, but you want to add on more?

no wonder almost all protags who get isekaid and get a harem were once office workers

 

[Manko-sensei]

Harem series existed long before isekai, and can be surmarised as "uninteresting guy with a lot of free time to care about girls with social or mental problems", and that covers beyond romcoms and isekais. They're written for average Japanese teenagers to say "it's good being kind" and hook them in. The Royal Battle format, Power Fantasy and anything that makes school life out of ordinary are that, tools of escapism, even fantasy series that are not isekai. I wouldn't say it's about low esteem and ironically most of the times end when the MC chooses only one as a partner, it's about repeating what others do, putting all the troupes together and make belief it's something new. Like everything there's a really small amount which turns good if it's funny, but generally the harem is used to mask the story while the no-good-for-nothing achieves something. I normally say "bored of run-of-the-mill isekais? Read Isekai Ojisan", for me the best answer is always a parody.

 

[PantsMan]

I have a very big soft spot for harem comedies. I get that they're an easy target to make fun of because they're so "artificial" even by power fantasy standards, but I think there's a lot more to their appeal than just self-insert. Not to mention, as far as self-insert fodder for the lonely and disaffected go, I think action series like Dragon Ball are far more likely to be prime real estate for fantasies than Love Hina, but you don't hear that being used as a slam against Goku & Co.

My favorite harems tend to be the ones where it's just a disguised group of friends who get along (or don't) with each other, united by their aiming for a common goal (usually Toyota-kun). You could say "why not just leave them at being friends, then?" (which we do have series for; CGDCT and the rarer 'just a couple of guys' series). But I think the clear romantic end-goal helps to give these stories more structure and feel like they are going somewhere, even when the harem is more of a sub-plot to the main adventure. I'm a fan of the dynamic between two people who get along well with each other, but are forced into conflict over romance (or the opposite, where two romantic rivals eventually put that aside as the series goes on because they just get along well/hate a third rival more)

I also like the "rotating spotlight" way harems are told, where usually each character gets a dedicated arc where they get to shine. And, in better-written series, previous characters and their hang-ups get nicely integrated into other characters' arcs, rather than just sticking to the protagonist being the only person who interacts with each individual heroine.

Harem protagonists get a lot flack, and tend to be the weakest link of these stories regardless if they're genuine ladykillers or clueless nice guys. While there is still plenty of room for more unique leads like Ranma, which often other series neglect, harems aren't really about that as much as how well the group works as a whole. The series I like best tend to focus more on the latter rather than trying too hard to justify the protagonist.

I can't speak too much about the series where the focus is more on the polygamy side, since I haven't read as many of them. But I imagine that on top of the personal fantasy the appeal of a group of people that get along well and genuinely love each other is still there.

It's a bit like the Mecha genre; it's an inherently unrealistic and very contrived concept where it's easy to not see the appeal, dismiss it wholesale or get lost in nitpicking at the details if it doesn't immediately speak to you. It's not for everyone, but I think it does a lot of stuff that is unique to the subgenre that is interesting, particularly with its focus on conflicts/relationships among the main cast, and how they mix with each other.


Read Sumomo Sumomomomo. Jitsu Wa is a better example of the concepts I'm describing here, but go read Sumomo anyway. It's fun.

 

[IlaiaCorde]

I can't tell if the OP is being serious or not. lol

 

[IlaiaCorde]

Lets face it, the only reason anyone desires a harem is because they have low self esteem and are incapable of loving themselves. All the isekai protags are these milquetoast boring characters with no discernible qualities, which for some reason makes all the girls want to jump on their dick.
I mean really, without looking up their name list someone that has a harem. You can't, you don't know who they are; its all a bland character for people that can't get bitches to imprint themselves on.
Naruto didn't have a harem, Guts didn't have a harem. But this guy Yamada Toyota somehow got a bunch of girls to like him doing nothing, bullshit.
I mean i get it when it comes to power fantasies, everyone want to feel like they are in control. But when someone is put in a position of power over someone else under the guise of consent, thats when it starts to become weak.
But i guess if someone like it, thats fine. But for me it reeks of inequality.
Anyway, feel free to try and prove me wrong. I'll read any examples where you think im wrong. I ain't afraid to eat crow.

P.s, generic japanese-mc kun isn't named Yamada Toyota. His name is Yamada Yamada.

Get it right! 🙃😉

 

[KATCRX]

Harem manga often end with the male main character either remaining a virgin or ending up with just one girl.

 

[Greenfrost]

I'm ok with harems if there's a harem ending. If there isn't and the main character picks a character I don't like, I will throw the books out onto the street and run them over with my car.

I'm not joking. I did that once. That's why I don't buy harem manga anymore and refuse to read them until I know what the ending is.

 

[IlaiaCorde]

I'm ok with harems if there's a harem ending. If there isn't and the main character picks a character I don't like, I will throw the books out onto the street and run them over with my car.

I'm not joking. I did that once. That's why I don't buy harem manga anymore and refuse to read them until I know what the ending is.

Same same.

But the oblivious MC's who are as dense as lead also sometimes have the ending where they don't romance any of the love interests, but the girls or boys stick around anyways. I call this the Eternal Virgin ending.

 

[Manko-sensei]

Funny enough the harem centered series I love are yuri all of them, when it comes to straight ones they need to have a strong focus on something else, I like to say that good romcoms are those that are comedies with some romance to pass as one of the genre. Of course in VN/eroge it's a different story, but returning to manga I've learnt to quickly identify the development, but I guess not everyone nurtures that skill because that spoils their fun (though good stories are good no matter how many times you read them). Any way or another, there's also the bad habit of Japanese publishers/editors of turn good-sellers into never-ending stories so the average manga romcom has 24 volumes and they ask the authors to repeat all the topics/scenes and always at the cost of quality, that's why most of them turn lucklaster, predictable and quickly forgotten, though nowadays trend is returning forever to the same status quo (

Spoiler

Kanokari

) or make multiple endings (

Spoiler

Bokuben

). The latter one infuriates me because that shows they never intended to give it a proper closure and it's again another marketing method taken from VN.
So yeah, in summary, it's what happens when you turn culture into a product, they lose any kind of trascendence.