Question Why do people rate harem stories low for being harem stories?

People who hate smut, harem, reverse harem, GL, and BL are consistent haters.

 

That is extremely incorrect. "Beta male" refers to characteristics such as lack of personal initiative, submissiveness, excessive permissiveness, inferiority complex, being emotionally fragile and requiring external validation, low self-esteem, passiveness, self-loathing, whining, passive-aggressive behavior, self-pity, overriding fear of confrontation (and consequent tendencies towards ridiculously circuitous problem-solving or letting small problems pile up and snowball into bigger ones), envy, inaction, tantrum-throwing, general inability to stand up for himself until he explodes and goes nuclear, dependent behavior and accordant inability to accept personal responsibility for his own wellbeing, poor handling of interpersonal relationships, and so forth. A "beta male" does not need to exhibit all of the traits described in the above list, by the way. That would be a pretty extreme case. The major traits of a beta male are typically lack of personal initiative, excessive permissiveness, dependent behavior, overriding fear of confrontation, bending over backwards to please others, and/or inferiority complex. Another easy way to end up labeled as a beta male is if a guy is just a pathetic loser or lets someone else steal his girlfriend. Pretty much any MC of the "my childhood GF left me for the hero" genre tends to be a beta male.

Sometimes beta males are also "nice guys" who believe that acting polite and fawning on someone means they are owed loyalty and (sexual) attention.

This cannot be understated. Harem protagonists have an excessive tendency to essentially be thinking with their dicks at all times with all the grace of a stereotypical sexually frustrated virgin. The romance tends to be flat and/or cringe. And harem novels also seem unpleasantly fond of non-consensual sex, from rape to aphrodisiacs to mistaken identity as well as various forms of sexual harassment that are usually either played for laughs (even when there's actually nothing comical about the way the author does it) or handled self-righteously (like when a MC takes revenge on a girl for beating him up while he was "accidentally" peeping on her while running an internal monologue lavishing description on her sexual characteristics).

And that's also another side of things. Somehow harem protagonists manage to be even more self-centered and narcissistic than other protagonists in the genre.

Anyway, the reason why people rate harem novels negatively isn't because they just dislike harem but because most harem novels just have really bad writing in the way they do harem.

 

im ok with a reverse harem where female lead is a bad bitch and not some simpering idiot
males with harem is a no no because most of the time its just done badly, where females are portrayed as just objects of sex and nothing more than glorified titty anchors. and i dont find straight ecchi, hentai appealing so i end up hating harems. im mostly a consistent hater, tho i can give exceptions if the plot is outstanding like in Sekerai the anime. tbh the plot was shit but my highschool self liked the concept of duos.

harems with male leads are generally dislikeable due to female degredation and portrayal in an tasteless way and ruin the story

 

Many rate Harem low, because they often think is destroyed the Story/Novel. Many Harem novels dont have much Focus on the Harem or only till they became "MC's Harem/Wife".
Have seen many low Ratings because these people dislike harem, not even writing a single word about the Novel, but i know that even people who dislike (Not hate only dislike) Harem, will like a Real harem novel, even if there are only a few of them.

 

@Lisant You're not wrong, but based on the context of the question, for sake of brevity, I assumed OP asked what the term meant in reviews of harem novels. Because I assure you, if a man has a harem and gets laid regularly, he usually won't be called a "beta" in reviews even if he has all the qualities you mentioned. Like, hm, Pure Love x Insult Complex, where the main character is everything you said, an extreme case in every way at that, but because he actually gets laid and is violent at times, most people don't associate him with the term "beta". Even most negative reviews (I think the most common view of him in bad reviews is "a talking dildo").

 

Dont know i just disagree with what you say. Even though i understand why people read harem it does not make me a person who does not read harem a person with low iQ and pretentious snob.

On the contrary i feel harem to be overly unrealistic even in fictional setting. Fictional setting also needs some common sense at least which most harem novel do not portray in terms of relationship. Can you ask how many women are willing to share love of their life in this day and age? Chances are null. But author doesnt even mention anything like all the women are pure angels they are fine with everything.

That makes it too unrealistic even in fictional setting. I have read some harem novels that i enjoyed too but it was not due to harem but rather other plots.

City of sin
Martial world (Didnt know it was harem, when i knew i was too into the story but still it was way back i was new to xianxia)

 

Too young, too simple. Your age group can be recognized immediately as a young teen. Nothing wrong with your perspective.

In China, many people enjoys CEOs and Palace harem Drama/ Stories. In real life, adults don't really care anymore especially mdidle age men and women:X

There is a saying. Young people are idealist and unrealistic. Too young, too simple. Young readers can't take drama or plot twists well cos too shelter or mind not complex enough. Even good stories can be rated low IQ or the MC is too dense or stupid. Everyone is stupid except the reader

Mature adults are a lover of stories, the more variety, the more outrageous, the spicy it is! More drama please!

 

Lol hahaha yea i am a young teen. It really sounds good to be young lol. Only if i can rewind time though. I am not old fuck but at least you are way off.

I think you are the one who hasnt matured, i dont see women as treasure to be collected i see them as equals with equal rights. At least i have learned that much in life and it taught me in a bitter way. I am not really idealistic i never said i am not fine with NTR infact i love NTR novels. Harem means polygamy which is ridiculous for me. Doing deeds here and there is fine but marrying everyone is kinda unbelieveable makes the story shit with forced relationship plot by author. Another problem is Mc is really immature constantly thinks with his lower half, who cannot even control himself.

Calling others immature over not reading harem novel is really "immature". Idealistic and unrealistic lol dont wanna hear that from someone who reads wishfulfillment harem novels.

For me personally i have watched countless chinese dramas as i am ardent follower of chinese history or world history in general. Most Palace harem drama are almost real history with some mix of fantasy unlike these novels which are completely fantasy with "idiotic" plot. Empresses in the palace and empress of china ( Wu zetian) are some of my favourite series along with nirvana in fire, The qin empire and The legend of chu-han

 

I am actually a old fuck haha and I like my female companionships.

There are many harem stories with only one love interest and is tagged harem. I am just responding to the people that replies the same as my remark. If you aren't, then my respect to you because the remark isn't for you. Unless of course you are immature too reply the same.

But you are truly young because the way you worded your reasoning aren't mature enough to warrant alot of reads. For example:
Harem means polygamy which is ridiculous for me (who says harem stories have to be polygamy?)

Another problem is Mc is really immature constantly thinks with his lower half, who cannot even control himself. (That is smut and I don't read those. But even ladies read it).

100% you have never read romances because the woman will always like a manly male like 40 shades.

If you are not a teen, then you are probably in your 20s, and still trying to grow your mature thoughts.

 

Well do you have harem in real life? Jk jk
Chinese emperors had 3000 beauties in their harem. Harem means polygamy sir if you dont know this much i do not want to debate further. False harem like most of the jap novels are not harem. Yea i am in my late twenties still havent married so you win thanks to your age.

One thing your right though i dont read much romance novels. As i read history most of the time i dont really think romance is that improtant.

"100% you have never read romances because the woman will always like a manly male like 40 shades".
It does not take a genius to know this, Loving someone and knowingly sharing your lover is a different thing. But still life is long and nothing is certain. There are chances of husband and wife minding their own buisness but still thats toxic relationship.

Have a nice day.

 

That is because you are setting a standard for yourself and it has the situational to become a double standard.

Real life and imagination life is different. My wife and I reads harem and joke around wtf all the time with the story. It is the story and the silliness that makes reading fun, not setting a standard. The worse people are usually people that hold biased views like nationalism, racist, discriminations, hateists, religionist etc.

Have a nice day too!

 

I really didn't get what you meant but everyone knows its a fictional world. If you want to go read realistic works then read history. Its that simple.

You branded everyone who does not like harem as ' immature" i dont know what makes you so mature? You can re read your post it makes no sense at all. Now you are telling me to be open minded, just look at the hypocrisy. Except whining about age your arguments really did do nothing at all.

Liking or not liking something depends on personal preferences and futhermore harem is such huge genre. for any genre there are people who will not like it. Whats your problem?

 

It is hard enough to write one good female character let alone multiple good female characters.
This is especially a problem for authors that usually have few interactions with actual females eg Japanese authors.
A hikikomori cannot be expected to write one good female character let alone multiple.
One bad female character is easy to stomach but multiple are difficult to deal with.
You do not have to believe me. Japanese expert storytellers agree like Hayao Miyazaki
https://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/01...strys-problem-is-that-its-full-of-anime-fans/

 

The topic is why do people rated harem low. You know it is kinda low ball when you don't like to read harem stories yet you are rating it low? This isn't a topic about why you don't like harem. I can well read the OP title. Yet you even give an example about emperor with 3000 harem? So if I read a science fiction in another planet, this means that I must have a space shuttle? So if I read superman, I must have superman powers? Good riddance!

 

I am just talking about this quote. Its fine we have our own set of beliefs but this statement was really extreme.

 

It does make a lot of sense, really. At the expense of making stereotypes, you can't really expect people to write about things they have no experience with and have it be realistic. Not that realism is the be all and end all, but anime fans aren't really the most... experienced people. There's a reason why escapism is so popular.

“You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, ‘Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.”

“If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it.”

“Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves.”

“Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know.”

“It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans.”

“And that’s why the industry is full of otaku!”​

That quote. Right in the liver, ouch.

 

Japan now has a huge social interaction problem.
Escapism taken to the extreme is dangerous and detrimental to everyone.
Japan as a whole is suffering due to this

• You have men marrying digital dating sim girlfriends
• People who are so socially inept that they result to violence.

Given the Asian culture with conformity, mental health issues are hidden which just exacerbates the problems.
Instead of meeting professional therapist, they decide on rental sisters, rental girlfriends etc
This drama was fun
https://asianwiki.com/Rental_Lover#:~:text=Drama: Rental Lover (English title,Writer: Shigenori Tanabe
But it is only fun in fiction. In reality, it is horrible