Discussion ?!?!?why are harem novels so...

As long as you stay away from the mind control tropes and the hard core smut, the smut with a story can be mildly entertaining. Tbh my preferred harem type are the ones that admit sex is a thing, but mostly fade to black. Sex is a part of a relationship, denying its existence is either so the reader can self-insert with their favorite wifu, or because the plot is more about misunderstandings and the drama is causes. In either case, the MC is destined for a case of blueballs no matter how much of a lucky pervert he may be.

 

Well.. that sometimes does happen, but I have to mention this. The reason harems are rare, is that only the most wealthy, most powerful men are able to have them. For a man of that level, as distasteful to say it.... those harem woman are pretty much just play toys or bargaining chips sold to him. Why would he have much respect for them?

 

actually in post war time for ex most men would be wipped out so...... more women and children than sturdy men

and mostly wealthy men have a harem
at least i don t see someone having hard time feeding his children being able to afford another wife and more children to boot

so yeah it s more a matter of wealth
and being able to provide for everyone
so even in times when it s legal to do so not everyone can afford it
mostly the upmer class and businessmen maybe??

 

dont get me wrong, i dont deny the sex or the smut. for me a story without it in a good amount is plain and lacking. but it isnt entertaining when every two three chapters it revolves around the same thing with zero plot. im not saying it would be a bad read, just not what im looking for

 

Harem stories are written mostly for men, and their are few stories with good romance targeting male audiences. I don't know why this is. Maybe authors who are good at romance don't want to write such stories, or maybe male audiences aren't that into it. Anyways, that just seems to be the way it is.

 

as for harem that work it s quite difficult
women are jealous by nature and men are unable to balance favor with every one of the wives

so of course some will try to get a better life than the other
and need to plot and seduce to live better
it s pretty rare to have a fonctionning harem
it needs a good first wife to rule the household and a balanced man who can create a good equilibrum between his wives and concubines

 

Actually completely disagree with you. While do agree that any relationship requires work, it doesnt mean that having multiple partners of either gender precludes them from having a strong enough bond to become a family unit.

 

thank you so much-i can only imagine how hard it is to translate, i dont blame them really. i just hope these kinds of books are more available globally.

 

@Femme Fatale
Think your better person to field this one xD

 

I don't deny that a trio could work, and even if it's a minuscule chance 4 people. But at what point does the man simply not have enough time to divide between women to form a strong enough bond?

 

while women do tend to be jealous do remember that this would be an era where harems are the norm for them. like how different kinds of sexuality are nowadays a norm for us the polygamy was for them too.

 

yes those harem novels are targeted towards maless due to the sexual content in it. it appeals to them more than the female readers,

 

Many reasons. Libido, extenuating circumstances(twins, ect), a group of childhood friends that dont want to be separated, political... the list is endless. Tbh it is also about the iindividual's circumstances and culture. Most Americans see harems as a taboo because of our puritan religious dogma. That doesnt make either side wrong, they just hold different values.

 

Mushoku Tensei. It is extremely long though, but it has the most realistic harem Ive seen so far.

 

as multiple people have mentioned its a political thing, since we are talking about the harems more commonly existing among nobility the women do have their uses not to mention just because it starts of politically it would not end up with feelings or reliance? these are people who have each others child and spend the rest of their lives with them. while yes the men are said to be out busy but compared to now where men travel across the world for months where would a few hours compare? not to mentioned the usually get married at early ages such as 13+ in which, yes, our mentalities can not compare but those are also the years of passion and when the mind in not yet ripe. Its way easier to form understandings if not love/affection during those ages and especially when everyone seems to have a 'role'. Do not use modern mentality to define them, every era has its own set of rules and possibly beliefs-at least in my opinion.

 

This. You're basically asking authors to simultaneously write 2/3/4/etc good romance novels at the same time and then do all the interactions while keeping the deep lore of those characters as they interact with each other. That's a ton of work especially when you imagine how hard it is to write a single good to great romance story featuring only two characters in the first place

 

I don't think that's quite correct. The main issue is that the translators who tackle Romance novels tend to be women and they gravitate towards books written for female audiences. Male translators don't really gravitate towards this kind of book so it's just yet another genre or sub-genre that's underserved. To be fair, seeing the number of people looking for books with ruthless/evil/asocial protagonists with no romance makes me think that there's a reason why translators do this.

That's right. And it happens too! You'd need a good writer to pull it off though.

 

i somewhat disagree. females read and likes as much sexual content as males do. just look at the BL or shoujo/josei genre. a lot of them have Adult or Smut genre accompanying the main genre. it is just not getting translated as much as the more mainstream, male-oriented genres. or maybe you're not in their circle, so you overlooked this.

 

Depend on what you read, harem are quite enjoyable like Arifureta and Mushoku Tensei
But i doubt any CN where mc keeps climbing up realms will have an enjoyable harem tho. Same with those beta MC

 

i agree that its a lot to ask for but its not impossible, there are some really good reverse harem novels out there, i feel that writing harem novels is not a thing yet because people have not promoted it nor shown intrest towards it.
im not asking the novle to be centered around that one topic, no it doesn't have to be. essentially it could be the harem added in as a background setting where its just who the male MC is with...do you get what im trying to say? like how they can have their friends/subordinates mentiones they can have their wives mentioned without the poisoning the constant hatred and all the dark stuff we are usually shown-again exposing a side of harems that is not usually shown, portraying the beauty of how the people in that era did it and lived with it.