What about pseudo-harems where MC has a choice and picks only one? Pretty sure that's also called real life relationships.
It's like the summer action movies, which are often dumb & have explosions. Therefore movies that have explosions have the reputation for being dumb, despite Terminator I & II, Robocop I, Predator I & Alien/Aliens combing smarts with the boom-boom. So we know that the brush paints too broadly, but there are movies *cough* Michael Bay *cough* that use loud explosions & flashy effects to disguise paper thin characters & simplistic plots that are paint-by-numbers affairs. Analogously, Gary Stu wish fulfillment often have legions of women throw themselves at a supine wuss. That is distaste by association. Also a badly timed action scene or drawn out gun fight can kill a movie, by displacing too much plot or character development. Likewise, a harem member in a WN/LN need to be introduced & worked into the story. If it handled clumsily, the character could distract from a promising relationship between the ML & FL or cause such a big distortion to their relationship that the author has to rescue the story by creating bigger plot problem or even destroy a character by having him/her act completely out-of-character. Like any other clumsily handled element, a harem can destroy a story. Some people may have read a story that was OK or promising then was killed by a poorly handled harem, so harems become a warning sign that they might be seeing a trainwreck up ahead. The keys to have a good harem story are the same as any other story: well developed characters & story. Good writing craft & setting also help. That means that there is no one scenario that makes for a good harem. Below are some varies approaches in how harem is employed in the story. Spoiler: Example: Mushoku Tensei In "Musou Tensei", the MC actively pursues relations with multiple women. However, he started as absolute scum & I found myself rooting for him as he tried to live a better life and got caught up in various antics. The harem was integral to the MC's motivation & mental make-up. Spoiler: Example: Risou Himou In the case of the slice of life "Risou Himou" (Ideal Spounger's Life). The MC is deeply in love with his wife & the addition of a harem member is one of the major disruptions to his life that he must overcome. It is the warmth between Zenjirou & Aura that is long-term draw to this story and how they overcome the harem as an intergral conflict. Spoiler: World is Tough for Otome Games At the other end of the drama spectrum is the farcical "World of Otome Games is tough for Mobs", where the MC gets involved with a reverse harem & unintentionally entangles with his own harem. That harem later become plot elements in the setting. This series really shouldn't be good with an inconsistent setting, deus ex machinae aplenty & obvious villain. However, it's earnest jackass of an MC & attitude manage to make it a whole lot of fun. This earnestness is essential for almost all of my favorite series. Spoiler: Conquer the World with Zero Believers Whereas, "Zero Believers" is an action lit-rpg. His harem members are his companions & associates. The existence of the harem is on primarily the result of preserving his relation between them & secondarily a source of humor. In other words, it is a fun action series that happens to harems. In fact, the MC isn't even the main Gary Stu. Spoiler: Tenchi Muyo: Ryouki The venerable "Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-ohki" anime had the resolution of his harem as the core conflict. The interstellar battles & ancient God-like forces at work are the setting & add a zany spice to the series, but his interaction with his harem members were what the series was really about.
Not really, for a truly equal situation in all regards it can't be a case where they all fight over the mc, because that would usually put the mc in the power position of the relationship. So I'm mainly talking about a situation where none have anything to gain from fighting each other and also where the relationship between the love interests is as strong as the one they each have with the mc. Again this is an ideal scenario, not exactly something I'm having much hope for the vast majority of authors to pull off well with a harem, or even attempt.
A standard good harem for me is MC have relationship with the heroines and have harem ending, thats all. Really hate those fake harem (nisekoi, toraburu, tsuki tsuki, seikoku no dragnar). Why they cant be like Kanojotachi No Saishuu Teiri? Even better if MC get the harem through effort (100 kanojo, Magika no Kenshi to Basileus) not just coincidence or just a forgotten marriage pact or love at first sigh = instacapture. The harem member would be best if their relationship with each other is tolerant, not something like super friendly or super jealousy. My benchmark for each heroine's relationship is like Abnormal-Kei Joshii manga. Nowadays I avoid harem novels with half-dead eyes MC and cheerful girls on the cover, I know dont judge the book by the cover but I can easily imagine what will they do. MC with black eyes and black hair as dark as the night says with his expressionless face and half-dead eyes says, this is fertiliser we used in the earth Girl A : Amazing! Harvest is superb! (while jumping around cheerfully) Girl B : Amazing! I never saw tomatoes this big (while holding a harvesting basket cheerfully) Girl C: Amazing! Girl D: Amazzzzzing! Roxxane: Amazing!! As expected of master
Really, a good harem novel boils down to just two things: good characters and good character interactions. Any harem story that fails to achieve this can only be decent at best, and any harem story that manages to succeed is at least wroth checking out. Of course pulling this off is a lot harder to do than it sounds and it's why there are so many bad harem novels out there. Yeah, Japanese harem stories tend to be terrible, but that's mostly because the female characters tend to be naked archetypes with no real depth (and not much reason to exist). It'd be a miracle if a writer could generate a good story out of this.
a good harem, is when the harem is not mindless zombies that follow the main character for the sake of being the main character >_<. When the author takes the time to developer each character and give everyone and proper story, that is when harems shine . Actually, romance is not absolutely necessary because there are many forms of love like friendship, co-worker, best friend, family, and even envy could be a form of twisted love. I think it’s just really hard to find an author that doesn’t take shortcuts.
While the characters may feel conflicted about being a part of a polyamorous relationship, if they're all choosing to stick with it, then that means that they accepted those circumstances to their relationship. That doesn't mean that they can't fight or that they can't have divergences on what their thoughts about the relationship are, but... It also doesn't mean that they have to fight. Basically, having fights in any given relationship is normal and honestly expected... This include polyamorous relationships... That doesn't mean that the author has to depict said fights though. It's fine if the author depicts a happily ever after scenario.
I only really care about #2. More harem members only makes it harder to develop each character, so it's a symptom but not the disease. Honestly, it can even be okay to add more harem members without proper character development, depending on the protagonist and type of novel. For instance, one where the protagonist has mind control powers or what-not, and it's both caused by and causing his growing corruption, and the tension of the story is whether or not he'll be fully corrupted in the end, and then how he redeems himself or whether or not others can stop him. In that case, harem members can just be used to show the protagonist's character development and advance the plot. It's an awfully specific kind of story, though. For the most part, I just want characters to be... relevant? They matter to the plot/setting, to the protagonist, to the reader. They act in a way that makes sense (if not immediately, eventually it's explained). I don't like throwaway characters, whether they're arrogant young masters who only exist to die and become loot and exp for the main character, or beautiful women who only exist to be saved and become harem members for a virgin main character who will never even really glance at them once he knows they're in love with him. Or rather, it's even worse when a protagonist drags around harem members and other side characters when there's a clear gap between them and little character development. The rest all together struggle against the mini-boss monster only for the protagonist to defeat it with a single attack. Or, they just serve as reusable damsels in distress so they can get in trouble wherever the team goes to let the protagonist save them and show off. That's not only a harem thing, since I've seen it in novels with a 1:1 romance and novels with no romance at all and it's just a friend who gets to be damsel in distress.
Ah, I mostly agree, I mean... I don't even mind the number of harem members in stuff like Negima, even though he has a pretty big harem and stuff... Because well, most of them are pretty well-developed overall~ But well... At some point the number of people in the harem make it impossible to properly develop them, I guess... Like... 100+ harem members is like... Yeah, at that point the harem definitely does not consist of real characters. So at some point just knowing the number is enough to make me know I won't like the story's harem as a whole.
that a hit on 100 kanojo >_> ? the manga where one guy is destined to have 100 soulmates? a manga with no losers? like others have mentioned, the one novel that came to mind was sevens where they all compete with one another. the extreme opposite of that would be something like 100 kanojo where honestly it feels like one big polyamorous group.
Ah, I didn't even know 100 kanojo existed! xD 100 just felt like a big enough number to use as a hyperbole... Maybe I should have went with 1000... >.>
I'm not that fond of harem but i find the tag acceptable if the male protagonist was badass enough to deserves all that female attention. A guy who openly says that he only want 1 girl not a harem would be the worthy man girls would fight over imo. Not the usual beta little shjt who don't even know what he wants so he can't choose or the other usual perverted horny dog in heat 24/7 who openly expressed that his goal is to build a harem.
Well written harem? Depends on what the author's goal is. If the women just exist to satisfy sexual desire then there is no need to flush them out. However, if he is going to make an attempt to flush them out he should do it well. The harem couldn't be too big since it is just too much work to flush out 100 people. Three to five would be the best range. They should have a backstory with the MC. They would need to show some sort of character development whether as a group or individually over the series. The author would have to create dynamic relationships between all the harem members. X may hate Y but loves Z while C is neutral about Y but also loves Z. He couldn't make the relationships too complicated or else it would feel like a headache. They also need to be organic or else it would feel like a tv drama. Personally though I prefer authors to write the first type of harem. I read novels for action, not drama.
A good harem is a DEAD harem! All seriousness aside, the big problem with a harem is again, how poorly most stories are done. You need more than just character development, you need actual purpose. Nothing is a bigger turn off then learning one harem member is was the strongest in the world, only to after meeting the MC ends up being rescued from even basic thugs. Aka, it shouldn't make you wonder how the character ever lived all their lives before the MC! They need to have their own goals, their own contribution (not MC being better at everything then them), and they need to actually be interesting! Like interesting enough that if they got their own book, people would be glad to read it. Cause that is the thing about character development, if you have so many harem members, and giving all of them character development, you pretty much get nowhere in the plot. So character development should also be part of the plot, and at same time interesting enough. To be fair, it isn't always that straight forward. Especially with web novels. Sometimes you can go with no harem as it starts, then go full blown harem as it goes on. One popular title(not giving the name), the author promised it wouldn't be a harem... lol, and you can guess how that turned out. That is still harem as far as tags/genre is concerned. Imaginary real life relationships. /s
1. reasonable number (generally 3 or less) 2. actually meaningful male characters to counterbalance the casts 3. harem member actually have their own circle of friends and hangout instead of always being 24/7 with MC. Knowing how they interacts with non-MC gives them more vibrant characters. Basically they need to have their own independent life too. 4. Can carry their own weight, damsel in distress gets old real fast. I hate when author gave them godly stats, growth potential, book smart, heaven sent magician, etc etc without them actually be able to utilize their power with brain, wits or ingenuity a.k.a. they have stats but never ever do anything useful.
IMO the so called Harem-MC should have a sense of responsibility over his harem members and not playing favoritism (throw away the old and embrace the young) which is often happens in Harem novels. Also, those harem members shouldn't be presented like a mass-produced items! I'm filled with rage when the MC just say 'i like lolis but onee-san isn't bad so i'll get both' as if he's picking cabbages in a market. What about their opinions? Their thoughts? It's as if they don't have any self-worth beside 'looks like loli', 'looks like a tsun blonde foreigner'. (I think) one of the good example in Harem genre is I Just Want To Be a Shenhao Quietly, MC has a girlfriend but when girls want to be his side lover he asked his girlfriend's opinion first, after the girlfriend give a green light he then proceed to date with other girls, but he didn't limit them as 'accessories' (like those generic OP MC) and he often listen to their thoughts about life, college, etc. The MC also didn't force the girls to do what he wanted to do (like during s*x, when the girl said she isn't ready he went to another room and just sleep), even when his girlfriend rarely contact him because she was busy with college he visited her instead and helped her relax during weekend. Seriously, he's just that good to the point that I also want to be his side lover
A good harem should be like Rimuru's in the Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken, Rimuru's whole country is like his big harem, if you ask me. They admire him, love him, worship him and he protects them, loves them back. Everyone is in some way special to him, like Shuna had said "For Rimuru-sama... for each of us, everything is fine as long as Rimuru-sama is by our side but for Rimuru-sama even missing just one of us could lead to his mental state crumbling." Everyone is working for everyone's sake, not 'One for all' or 'All for one'. The thing I want is for the harem members to be connected, don't hate each other, be ready to fight for themselves and for each other if the need arises. Even if Rimuru can regian his 'little son' it's not like he will choose someone, he won't choose anyone, he will choose everyone, he will protect them and . The harem members's main goal is to be of help to Rimuru, not to be the only one to him. But to be serious I'm reluctant to harems. Not because there are too many, or becasue they are well-written or not, it's because I believe that everyone has their other half somewhere. It's mainly about the way they present the harem, for me. What if you don't have just one other half? I would say that in that case I would be okay with it. I like to believe that every person is a piece of puzzle. Some are missing one piece, some are missing more than just one piece (they are basically broken) and some are already whole even without another piece. For those who are already whole they are in waiting for another one who is whole so that they can become better together.