Question Am I the only one that prefers a bromance over harem collecting mc?

LONG TIME WHOLESOME BROMANCE >>>>> HAREMS WITH FISHES WHO HAVE NO CHEMISTRY WITH MC WHATSOEVER

 

Bromance with fujo bait as a spice?

 

This ^. Even the JP ones are fujobait (Yamada kun and 7 witches, Durarara, Horimiya etc)

Besides most harems or romance series tend to have way better bromance than the "bromance" series, (Baka to test, Sora no Otoshimono, Re:Zero). From non-harems with bromance as the main focus, the only ones I can recall being awesome enough that I would read over a decent harem novel is Grand Blue.

So yeah I would rather read Harems.

 

Most bromance novels actually have good characterization for side characters and substantial interaction with the protagonist, you can actually feel the brotherhood relationship and sense of camaraderie & friendship. Most harem novels only have "kingdom-toppling beauties" that only exist to stroke MC's ego, be shocked if there's actually meaningful romance.

 

It's a slippery slope. Authors are actually the biggest shippers themselves, seeing as so few write pieces where the hookups don't happen and there is little or no sexual tension ( be the pairing straight or gay).

Things like Illimitable Until Death, sounds like good shit. Until you read 400-500 chapters into it and realize author's idea of character development for an ice cube MC is to make him a damsel rescuing chick magnet who will get involved with a new girl every arc and sometimes multiple. Why does the girl side accept a harem when being a mission worker in jp works all the "heroines" are some form of tsundere, blushing maiden,...?

First girl is for some reason super understanding and even takes out girl number two for a talk offscreen and voila, MC has a pass to get involved with tons of women he meets from now on.

Bromance as pointed out often nosedives straight into "goddammit, this is totally gay, and the author is fucking with the readers whoring the charas out for fujobait". A real shame, that. And they aren't above making the setting a mere cliche background for this.

Yaoi is getting a lot more tl exposure, don't care there is a filter.

The shit part is when the work with that has an inflated rating despite being as mediocre as all those yy novels that get joked with like 80's action movies. They are subpar ( yy is mind masturbation), it's just that this stuff isn't any better despite a massive rating difference. Same thing on mtl sites like comrademao, mtlnovel,....

So, the least evil is as @otaku31 says, the female harem despite not liking harems at all.

 

Sometimes bromances can be poorly written as well, and male MC should be able to have female friends and they should be able to find fulfilling romantic relationships outside MC and his circle of friends.

Really I'd just like to see better relationships of all types in more contemporary cultivation novels. Some authors do okay sometimes, but in some novels it seems like characters can only do things for each other in term of helping them get stronger or beating the bad people, but we not actually enjoying each other personalities and just talking sometimes.