The NU définition: Harem-A series involving one male character and many female characters (usually attracted to the male character). A Reverse Harem is when the genders are reversed
I always hated the term harem being used on works with no sexual implication. I get that the term has been sterilized for the current generation. But seks, if the seks is not there, why you need a harem for? For feeding you toasties?
IMO a harem has to have at least 3 people in it. 2 people is just a love triangle (or a love V). Indeed.
for me, as long as 2+ major or high screen time characters are in love with the MC is enough to be a harem, the MC don't need to be in a relationship or can be as clueless as a brick. tho my standard kinda come from JP harem romcom.
I dont like those pseudo "harems" where MC ends up with one love interest. That's not harem... that's literally just a normal romance novel.
I definetly agree, a Harem should be more than 2 romantic interests with an ending where the MC is involved/married/implied to them (either all or a few, as long as its more than 2), ongoing with the possibility of harem (ie, an Isekai or Cultivation novel with allowed poligamy and an interested MC) or ongoing with the MC already in multiple (more than 2) relations. That thing that japanese novels/manga/anime does with an MC with a crapton of pretenders and the MC ending with one of them (often the bland first girl that appears, or the one one the cover of the first volume, etc.) should not be a harem, hell I'm more inclined to think of a Harem as those stories with multiple romantic interests and zero romantic conclusion at least we dont get to see all the dissapointed heroines...
3+ 2 is just a love triangle. The most cliche of Harem novels is a Oblivious Male MC inexplicably pursued sexually and/or romantically in a passive aggressive way by multiple women/little girls who really shouldn't be any where near this guy. They serve little purpose besides as fan service and to get kidnapped every once in a while and have about as much personality as a paper sack. There's better and worse versions, but that's it in a nut shell.
Harem should be the MC really have relationship with the harem member till the end or having the relationship near or at the end (harem ending) and pseudo harem should be something like MC did have relationship with the harem at some point (but not in the past) and sadly it turn out not going very well and lead to break up until there is only last girl (OTP ending) or none at all I hate those fake harem, especially if the MC don't want the girls or MC already have crush and see the other girls as a hindrance while the other girls want MC so badly.... and they call it harem??? Something unwanted harem is not deserved to be called harem Contrary to what people defined as harem need 3 or more of love interests, but i think as long as the love interest is more than 1 is enough to be called a harem and sadly if the love interest is 2, they call it love triangle (and strangely there is also something called love quadruple, love dodecahedron but no one care about that) Imagine if you watch or read harem themed story but MC as protagonist don't want a harem from start till the end and the ending is just open ending (no relationship). Its totally fraud, its harem themed but what you see its actually a friendship themed story (did they call it nakama or something?)
This is like saying novels with romance tag should have seks.. What do you mean current generation? harem never meant smut anytime... Ps: harem is there just like how "weak to strong" "magic system" "comedic undertone" are... it is a label to identify the different sub plots in a novel... Even though I hate harem myself, but I hate it even more when it's just about filling holes. Tbh i never understood how anyone can relieve themselves from a smut novel....comic i get, vids obviously....but words?
Lissi-sama!? S-such l-lewd thoughts... Harem- A male lead, who is usually dense and deserves to explode, is the target of affection for multiple girls. True Harem- The above with the inclusion of Lolis
You need a shit ton of descriptive words. At least that is the case for me. By then it is just a stroke story/ erotica. Also, never underestimate the power of imagination To each have their own issue I guess, since half the times when I read a novel labelled with "harem", I was half expecting a fruitful love story between a guy and more than just one girl and by fruitful, it can be as simple as conveying their true feelings to one another, trusting and caring deeply, perhaps to the point of discarding self preservation. And I supposed that somewhere it might lead to fulfilling the carnal desires. It can be offscreen, R15 to R18, I don't really care. The only thing I care is that bond and how MC manages to split his love to more than one woman and not have them on each other's necks and his.
Wait....you only want to know they feked?..... That's...an odd preference... Thought it was about wanting adult scenes...welp doesn't matter... I do agree if it's there then it needs to be more fleshed out, rather than just glimpsing over it as nothing.
If the MC have a 3+ lovers, I really hate if the story has a harem tag but the mc only end up with one guy/girl
Harem is fine for as long as there are multiple love interests~ Lots of people seem to dislike the way the genre is used, but it is what it is. You don't need a polygamous relationship to get the Harem genre... Because like, that's just how the genre is kinda defined at this point. However, I will note that I find it a bit troublesome when people try arguing that X story is a Harem story because it has one Male Lead and multiple Female Leads... Even though the Male Lead has been in a relationship with the Main Female Lead since v1 and never paid any romantic attention to the other Female Leads. Like uhn... Yes, I get it, 10 girls fell in love with the MC, but he's still in a relationship since the start... Does that really constitute a harem? I dunno, I feel like the dynamics are different enough at this point to make it so that Harem wouldn't quite count. That said NU's definition for the genre is fairly straight-forward, so no use arguing about the point above as far as NU genres go. It's just where I personally draw the line. I don't mind the story ending with only a single love interest being chosen and the story still getting harem genre, but when there are 0 harem dynamics and the MC is in an obvious and clear relationship since the start... Then that's not a harem to me. It's just a really popular MC that is already in a relationship.