9th
NOV
The Secret to a Successful Harem Anime
Posted by tsubaki | Filed under Anime, Editorial
A lot has been said about Kanon episode 5, so I’m going to skip that and just say that Kanon redefined the harem notion.
People tend to have very negative perception of Harem genres in anime. There are 2 types of viewers when it comes to harem anime:
a) OMFG IT’S A HAREM YES! MOAR CHICKS. But that fucking lame male lead sucks. He’s totally ghey for not falling for them!!11111
b) Harem sucks. They all do. They all sucks. It’s so brainless. But I’ll watch it anyway.
I personally fall somewhere in the middle. I started out watching harem animes, and the more I watched, the more I hated them for their sickening male lead characters.
Every single male lead is a fucking wuss, and they don’t get a boner from being surrounded by girls. Instead, they get a boner whenever the tsundere of the party bitchslaps him into the sky, ala Team Rocket style.
I can’t even remember the last good harem I watched.
Well actually I do, but in case hordes of people slam me for saying that, I think it’s wise for me not to mention that. Hahaha.
So here comes KyoAni, barging into the harem scene and knocking down all the building blocks.
They introduced the number one anti-harem lead character, Yuuichi who comes equipped with a bloody sarcastic sense of humor and in your face comments that would probably make you the most unpopular student in school if you were to ever attempt to pull off his comments.
Most harem leads have the following characteristics:
a) Looks ugly.
b) Has no interest in any of the girls, yet.
c) Girls are attracted to him like bees to honey.
d) Strangely enough, he seems to be the only guy that’s worth following, every though the support male lead looks better.
It’s because of them that give harem series a bad name. I can hardly count the number of times I’ve pulled out my hair while watching the male lead interact with the girls.
“WHY WON’T YOU FUCKING FUCK THEM?”
I suppose that’s why everyone love anti-hero/harem/etc type of leads. It makes them more fun to watch. School Rumble’s Harima wins so hard because he’s exactly that anti-harem type of male lead. But he’s sorta soften a lot in the second season.
It’s a pity he didn’t get to bag Yakumo instead.
Those characters give us what we really want to see, but for some strange reason, the studios keep churning out weaklings in harem animes. What’s it with the japanese infatuation with weak males?
Anyway I digress. I was told that the Yuuichi from the first Kanon was the typical weak and sickening harem lead.
Thank god KyoAni fired him and brought Tomokazu Sugita, their ace card instead.
And presenting the secret to a successful harem anime:
The Empowered Kyon with more sarcasm, this time, instead of narrating, speaks his mind with such wit and insanity, you can’t help but love the new Yuuichi.
A good Harem series, needs a good lead and of course, hot girls.
Yuuichi is so slick and sly with the girls, it makes you wonder whether is it really possible for someone like him to exist in reality without getting hated, or it’s just simply the snow that’s making the girls are hot and horny for a guy like him.
Me thinks it’s the snow. Makes girls horny and amnesic at the same time.
And of all the horny little girls in Kanon, I love her laughter the most.
Now, if you’re one of those that dropped or have not started Kanon 2006, may I suggest that you watch up to episode 5. If that episode doesn’t change your mind, then perhaps Kanon isn’t really for you.
And… what the fuck. I end up talking about Kanon more than what I intended to do.
So much for being a former hater.
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November 9, 2006 -
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Why is Love Hina in the top pic when the topic is ’successful harem anime’? Could it be that ‘good harem I won’t speak of’ of yours? :P
Yuuichi definitely looks poised to take the MVP Award for Best Male Lead/Pimp this season.. all other possible noms are miles behind as I see it.
Its karma my friend. For harems..I feel the same way. Harems are soo predictable. The male lead pops up from nowhere, pisses of the tsundere, gets involved with that shy girl who harbours love intentions, pisses of the tsundere again, pisses of a couple more girls, shy girl confesses love, tsundere is jealous, other girls get jealous…this could take forever D: Harems, love em ,hate em. Thank god for kanon 2006.
Yuuichi is indeed an awesome character but I see practically no harem elements in the show apart from the number of girls. Right now, no one seems to have any interest in Yuuichi, and he only finds maybe one or two of the girls hot or something, but he too isn’t falling for anyone. I’d say if you watch Kanon for the harem…you must really like harem!^^
You know most of the popular REAL LIFE males behave like him right? They don’t get hated at all.
“What’s it with the japanese infatuation with weak males?”
they think us otaku types relate to them, i’m guessing.
but i gotta say, i love ahaha girl too even if she doesn’t seem to stand out as much as some of the other girls. she is awesome.
I can’t really see Kanon as a harem series. More like romance if it continues like this.
The way I see ‘harem’ is:
1) Full of fanservice.
2) The male is the absolute loser(or can be a real big brother to all, it depends).
3) Girls chasing the male(which is, well, quite impossible in real life lol)
One very good example is Sumomomo Momomo.
Right now, Kanon has:
1) 0 fanservice.
2) The male is made of win(the only 1 real reason Kanon is not a harem series).
3) The girls doesn’t really care about the male right now.
Long way for Kanon to turn to a harem show, but I would rather want Kanon to stay as a romance show instead.
Let’s start discussing if Love hina is a harem, since Keitaro and Naru is obviously together, the rest being extras. :P
eh. i used to get my stuff from vision animate!!
@Tedfox Yes…until the point where keitaro and naru got married. I mean, someone has got to get hitched in a harem right?
@kapcy Actually no, this was the only decent picture i could get from danbooru when I type harem. The rest are just too work unfriendly. Lol.
@Crayotic I totally agree. He’s most likely going to bag best male this month.
@elohir Harems would have been a lot more entertaining if their males weren’t a pain in the ass.
@Danny You’re right at the moment, but Kanon is a harem game (so i think)! Teh disguise it!
@tj han Those out of the circle of friends all think he’s a prick.
@wackedfoo Ahaha, I’m teaching my baby sister to laugh like her. Hope I succeed. Ahaha.
@sinistral So in order for an anime to be a harem, it must have a lousy lead? Damn, no wonder harem sucks. I still think Kanon’s a harem show, just a very good one. Wasn’t harem shows about 1 male and many girls? Since when was that changed to 1 lousy male lead and a bucket of fanservicable girls.
@TedFox It is, if you follow my understanding of what harems are.
@snk Uh? You were refering to the previous entry ah?
Of course you love Sayuri’s laughter, that’s the same person that voiced Kamio Misuzu =P
HARIMA FTW! ’nuff said!
i’d say school rumble is the best evar harem evaaar..it doesn’t really show that it is a harem type of anime
just my 2cents =P
#tj han
You know most of the popular REAL LIFE males behave like him right? They don’t get hated at all.
very true…one of my classmate acts sacarstic all the time and no girls seem to hate him. on the contary, they like him all the more.
@abao Really? I should go try that.
@tsubaki Thats true, but if that happened, it wouldn’t be called a harem now would it?
@abao & elohir Fine line between sarcastic and witty. Go overboard with sarcasm and you’ll find yourself a target of blacket parties.
@tsubaki,
Haha no, what I meant was how I define ‘harem’ now. Everyone might have different opinions though..
Well, Yuuichi was like that in the game as well, so the point’s moot. Kyoto Animation simply sticked to what made Kanon great, unlike dudes at DEEN and Toei who thinks that they need CHANGES (( like historical ~> movie adaptions )) to stay away, and define themselves. Arrogant faggots.
A lot had said that Kanon isn’t really harem, but Kyoto Animation is making it harem, because the girls ARE the life of Kanon, and it’d be dumb to see 10 minutes an episode seeing Yuuichi studying and walking home and another 10 focusing on the girl of his choice, when we can have him divide his attention to EVERY girl every 2 minutes or so.
Frankly, I wouldn’t call this a PURE harem series, so I digress in opinion. However, La Corda D’Oro this season (( it’s male harem so I don’t tsubaki will care )) is imo one of the finest true harem shows in a long time. Nothing outstanding, but there’s no girl sappily in LUV unrealisticly and hawt, popular guys ALL FAPPING over ONE girl either, but instead we get nice relationship developments and most importantly, nice character developments.
[...] With ultra cute girls, a sarcastic harem master at the helm, and the king of beautiful animation KyoAni, what could go wrong with this show? Why aren’t you watching Kanon already? [...]
The former voice actor of Yuuichi, is also the voice actor of Mamoru from Kage Kara Mamoru, if you didn’t notice.. I couldn’t imagine him voicing Yuuichi after watching him voice Mamoru, lol.
Oh and, harem is love. XD
I suppose I’m more old-school; I tend to prefer leads that:
1. Are kind and considerate to people of either gender.
2. Build others up, instead of tearing them down.
3. Have a dose of humility.
4. Values teamwork and support, instead of trying to do everything on his own.
5. Tend to be inclusive, not exclusive.
6. Won’t take abuse, and can be firm when necessary.
7. Can be either uptight or relaxed, depending on what the situation calls for.
8. Refuses to exploit others.
Unfortunately Yuuichi scores very low on my scale. Hiroyuki in To Heart, Jyunichi in Da Capo, and Yukito in AIR score much higher – for me, Yuuichi is simply painful to watch. He reminds me of some less-than-savory characters back in high school and college.
I actually preferred Yuuichi from the manga version to this one – there, he is a bit more immature but seems to be more understanding and willing to learn. I just don’t see that from the 2006 anime version.
But have heart; Yuuichi still has a long way to go before he sinks to the level of Takayuki in KGNE.
Good news! The torrent you want is now torrented!
Yeah you was hating on Kannon for a min. Im glad you came back to your Otaku ways (young one) lol im playing. I love Kanon its my favorite show this season the girls are sooooooooooo cute and Yuiichi is the man he is so funny. I usually have favorites in Harem anime’s but in this one I like them all if I had to choose I would choose all of them. The girls are all cute in there own way. Kanon my vote for number 1 anime of the fall season and 2006!!!
uh I tried that b4.. the girl told me to go buy it myself -.-
Well, I’m feeling too lazy to read everyone’s comments but yeah, Kanon is a harem anime. Considering it comes from a harem visual novel in which the choices you make cause you to follow a particular girl’s plot line ala traditional harem visual novel eroge style.. (damn Haeleth for quitting the translation of the game T_T) The fact that no-one seems to be falling for anyone yet doesn’t stop it from being a harem anime since it doesn’t have to occur right at the beiginning and harem-anime are allowed a deeper plot. Besides, you can’t really tell which girls Yuuichi likes the most, IMO he seems a lot like Kyon who wouldn’t accept the fact that he liked Haruhi…
And, on that note: you guys heard the news? Fuck yeah!
I reckon the chance of that information being true is like 75% considering Sushi-Y has stated the source is the same guy who first brought out info about the EVA movie (although it turned out be movies) so it seems trustworthy and apparently the ZnT S2 announcement has mentioned by a few people. ^_^
Last thing: tsubaki, play Tsukihime!!
lol seriously…… who would ask a girl that question….
but got to agree that kanon is not a harem anime… and hope that it doesn’t become a harem anime…. stay as a romance anime please….
@tsubaki
oh ya. gomen.. click too far back to reply xD
Oh I’ve been keeping up with Kanon alright, and I’m loving it more and more. Have to agree with you, episode 5 is made of win. I also enjoyed School Rumble and Love Hina very much. Is it just me, or is Tomokazu Sugita just friggin’ awesome?
[...] On that note, what does this all say about me? It would seem that I do in fact watch harem anime, but look at them with slight disgust. And according to Tsubaki, I would be the “Harem sucks. They all do. They all suck. It’s so brainless. But I’ll watch it anyway” type. Stereotyping rules. j/k [...]
Well I am a harem anime junkie I’ve made sure to watch everything on mister polls havem poll (except sakura wars for which there seems to be no subbed eps anywhere) I’ve also watched the newer harems tokimeki memorial negima!?(whats available of it antway as I think the show might have been cancelled rightly in my opinion because it got way too random and was soiling the good negima name). The new tenchi muyo eps (why can’t we have tenchi muyo on the same scale of ranma or naruto that would be brilliant) the new toheart2 ovas and will be starting da capo 2 soon. Oh yeah I’ve also watched all the ranma and urusei yatsura. My verdict so far; harem anime is really great though to fair the newer harem anime could be better I mean what the hell was up with the tokimeki ending but anyway. joy to Harem Anime contact me at fatmanrolo@hotmail.com for more (excuse the address my sister has a weird sense of humour) HAREM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!