Discussion Is it posible to write a good harem with over 50 women?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by luffyfan37, Jan 13, 2020.

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  1. Reindeer

    Reindeer RynDeeVuo

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    The only way I can think of is if the MC is the only man left in the world. Let's say for example, a janitor in an all girls school and then suddenly the world ends but the school manages to survive. Eventually some girls start accepting the janitor and becomes willing to be his woman for the sake of continuing humanity and boom, you get a legit plot for a long running r18 series that shows the various reactions and interactions of the girls with MC. Of course, not all the women would accept the MC, maybe some would reject him in memory of their dead husband. The point is to make a scenario where a harem of 50 is completely natural.
     
  2. RadiantDreamtide

    RadiantDreamtide Active Member

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    Personally, I HATE all harem stories. I feel as if that aspect ruins pretty every story it is in especially in the area of the stories romance. I find that it only really works in a story where the MC actually CHOOSES a romantic interest to be exclusive with and reject all of the other harem mates for that position. That way the romance can add conflict for all characters involved and give the MC more of a personality outside of being an audience stand-in. But it also depends on the author's ability of course.

    Personal biases (mostly) aside...

    Stories that focus on a smaller cast tend to mate the characters more intimate because they have more time to be more fleshed and and intimacy = interest. Trying to write a story with 50 characters who are all on the same side, in the same group, probably possessing the same goal, and who all have the same romantic interest sounds like a really tall order especially if you have to give them all distinct, consistent characters and make them all interesting outside of their plot introduction. Then you have to consider creating legitimate conflict towards such a group. Separating the group has the problem of leaving the ones not focused on to be forgotten and keeping them all together will be REALLY messy. Eventually, it will just feel as if a lot of them just become like the unused Pokemon in the PC while there are a small select number of them that will stand out while others get forgotten and are simply a number to the size of the MC's harem.
     
  3. Bright_Lucky_Star

    Bright_Lucky_Star [Previously Known as OrdinaryUser] The Blessed One

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    :blobjoy::blobjoy::blobjoy::blobjoy:
    50 women fight for one guy. I'm not judging you, go ahead if you can write something like that :blobokhand:
     
  4. OverlordPotato

    OverlordPotato Well-Known Member

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    :blob_plusone:
    50 seems less like a harem, and more like a personal legion.
     
  5. AryaX

    AryaX Less-Known Member

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    If the story revolves around the mc adding girls to their harem, but the harem is basically only implied to exist, with the girls in the harem being effectively forgotten soon after their introduction as the mc goes after the next pair of...
    Is it still a harem story?

    The Villains Need to Save the World? - I am not sure if its more or less than 50 girls at this point, but it feels like the girls are being forgotten soon after introduction, which is somewhat annoying... I am still addicted though...
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2020
  6. BigBadBoi

    BigBadBoi Well-Known Member

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    I think Sevens is the only one with like 20+ women in his harem and is still a pretty great novel. Fs in the chat for Lyle's hair that might fall off from stress
     
  7. EnerHighwave

    EnerHighwave Holy Daugther of Kyuu 8❤️ Speedy's pet Lovely's ❤️

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    Nothing is impossible, but it will be rather troublesome to make something like that work
     
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  8. S4TY4

    S4TY4 Well-Known Member

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    Looks & scamming aside, maybe something like Pseudo Harem (manga)?

    Negima, Tenchi GXP and/or Isekai Sekishi Monogatari? :LOL::LOL::LOL:
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2020
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  9. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    It's impossible. While it is possible to have dozens of good characters in a book, you can't do justice to so many love interests. Even if the love interests are supposed to be irrelevant to the story, then all the author is doing is adding redundant elements into a story and that's a pretty big no no when it comes to storytelling. One of the best harem writers out there even commented that he didn't plan out his first book so he ended up with too many characters in the harem to handle. And the thing is, he's actually great at writing female love interests and there were only 11 or 12 harem members.

    Nah, having that many characters in the harem actively hurts the book. I'd also argue that Sevens isn't all that great to begin with.
     
  10. Diametric

    Diametric Waifu Connoisseur

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    Why do you need to do them justice? If someone had 50 people in his harem then each individual bar a few probably wouldn't play a massive role in his life in comparison to other high profile figures. Similarly, they wouldn't play a massive role in the story and should be relegated to being side characters who might not even be seen directly.
     
  11. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Because if you can't make the love interests interesting, then you're basically wasting the readers' time. Just see how Sevens uses its irrlevant harem members to drag the story down.
     
  12. Diametric

    Diametric Waifu Connoisseur

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    Are you "wasting the readers' time" when you don't flesh out the mc's classmate who sits across the room? Or the servant who delivers his food?

    You're placing weight on the importance of these characters simply because they are love interests, when in reality if someone had that many love interests very few of them would hold a significant position in his life.
     
  13. Nimroth

    Nimroth Someone

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    I won't say it is impossible but i will say that it is extremely unlikely.

    This part here is where I would say it falls apart as with that many "major" characters you will either end up with a constant switching of characters where none really get enough time, or you end up having to make many story arcs focusing on 1 or a couple characters at a time with the rest being left in the background for long sections of the story.
    Having that many major characters sharing the spotlight is hard enough in general even without them being love interests.
     
  14. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    And that's exactly what the problem is. Why add characters who are less important and less interesting than his footstool? If they don't contribute anything to the story then they're just a waste of space.

    This is also a good point. Especially when it comes to otaku novels, writers often have a hard time doing a good job with even the core cast of characters. Expanding this core cast to more characters is just asking for trouble.
     
  15. flannan

    flannan Well-Known Member

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    The biggest harem I have read is Mahou Sensei Negima manga. It starts with a young teacher getting a class of 30 in all-girls school. And a few more were added later.
    The author, Ken Akamatsu, is a famous harem master (he is also the author of Love Hina and Ai Love You), so he had plenty of previous experience. The author had to resort to "cast herding", where less important girls were sorted in groups that mostly act together (with the library girls getting the biggest collective role). And it was a manga, so at least all the girls had a unique look and could be recognized.
    At 38 volumes, after many years of publication, not all of the class was properly fleshed out, and we are still confused as to what Zazie Rainyday is supposed to be. And the author had to drop that manga because of some conflict with publisher.
    So I say that doing 50+ is too ambitious of you.
     
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  16. Villager Anonymous

    Villager Anonymous Well-Known Member

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    No, I may or may not care about the protagonist so I am not going to care for love interests very much especially fifty of them. Unless you meant one of those Cn historical dramas about political intrigue but even then many will only be mentioned as I won't remember that many characters. Remember they either need to be largely unimportant or a manageable enough for each to get their own POV chapters often enough.
     
  17. Diametric

    Diametric Waifu Connoisseur

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    If the main character is an emperor or something of that degree, not having a harem would be unnatural. The harem would be to show the mc's personality and status, not to introduce individual characters.

    Imagine if you had a story of someone who was the headmaster of a school. Why does his school have so many students? They're not adding anything to the story, so they're just a waste of space, right?

    No. These characters shouldn't even be classified as characters; they're just world building. Background characters. Of course we wouldn't meet the majority of the students, most of them aren't that relevent to the story. But if we pretend they don't exist then the story doesn't make sense.. Just draw the comparison between the headmaster and harem leader, and between the students and harem members.
     
  18. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    If they're non-characters then they wouldn't count as members of the harem for any practical purposes. Remember that we're talking about harem members in the sense of writing here.
     
  19. flannan

    flannan Well-Known Member

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    When counting harem size, we usually refer to unique characters, not nameless crowds.
    Otherwise, Kamijou Touma (and his harem of about 10 000 Misaka clones) would exceed all the OP's expectations.
    There is also Hanaukyo Maid Tai, which includes a small army of maids. Or maybe a large army of maids - most army scenes in anime have less soldiers than there are maids in that mansion.
     
  20. Diametric

    Diametric Waifu Connoisseur

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    When did we ever decide such a thing? Isn't it obvious from the start that I've been arguing for a harem that's the exact opposite of that?

     
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