Winter 2012

Being generic is inherently bad for everyone involved. The people making it have no hope of it doing better than mediocre, and the people watching it don't get anything they haven't seen before

And the Chaos Head anime was nigh unwatchable

Harem anime is unlikable cause the leads suck and the chicks are just there for the Fanservice, it's a rare occasion one of them could even be considered a character as opposed to an object.

It's about characters who are engaging and unique without going down a checklist and striking off traits and personality. It's about a setting that stands apart from other settings, or at least doesn't blatantly copy them in the hopes of cashing in on their success.

Ok so I'll tell you a problem: If we follow what you wanted, it isn't harem anymore. I don't view Chaos;Head as a harem, and neither is 11-eyes and Fortune Arterial. Negima was supposed to be one... got turned to Shounen part way through.

...about a setting that stands apart from other settings

Something like space or the surface of the sun?

BTW: No complete list yet?

edited 18th Aug '11 5:43:40 PM by djmaca

I don't know why you keep talking about Chaos Head in relation to this discussion. Chaos Head was awful for reasons that have nothing to do with being generic and wasn't a harem in the first place. Also, to me, your argument sounds like admitting that harem anime are inherently bad, and I don't think that's necessarily the case. For example, I consider Hayate The Combat Butler and stuff like maybe even Clannad to be roughly in the harem genre.

No. Like moving it out of the high school setting, or have it more than just a bunch of girls surrounding the unlucky everydude for no apparent reason. Or changing up circumstances so that it doesn't fall into completely obvious patterns.

Clannad, harem? It's drama isn't it? It doesn't have any harem elements... The shows not even funny right of the bat, because the protagonists' wife and kid died.... And as for Hayate No Gotoku, The only ones consciously chasing the guy is Hinagiku and that hamster(?)

Edit: Like, in Clannad, you can see death a mile off. You know she's gonna die because she inherited her mom's disease.

edited 18th Aug '11 5:50:38 PM by djmaca

^^^ At risk of taking a joke description too seriously (too late?) if a show can ne accurately described as a "generic harem" then its blandness has gone beyond merely using many common tropes.

Also setting isn't just about location.

edited 18th Aug '11 5:47:33 PM by UltimatelySubjective

Of course not. We're in the middle of the summer season. They've barely begun announcing the series to air in winter

So as soon as someone strays even slightly from Strictly Formula, it doesn't count anymore? You're banning creativity? And not considering Hayate at least a parody of the harem genre is silly. Indecisive Parody, mostly.

edited 18th Aug '11 5:57:36 PM by Arha

Parody, very good. At least we can agree on that.

SO given the chance, I think I already did this with the Nanoha fan-boys, how would you write the perfect harem show? Remember: Harem show that is funny = normal, sad or tragic = deconstruction.

Here's Mine.

An Average Ordinary High-School Student guy finds himself in an all girls school. A few Accidental Pervert scenes and all that happen during the day, as well as Unprovoked pervert payback from soem of the distruting females. By the end of the day, we see him in his dorm. And the resulting Pervert Revenge Mode that had happeend to him actually starts causing him to spasm violently in pain, and then he feels like no one likes hm there because of it.

The story starts to really pick up from there.

edited 18th Aug '11 6:06:42 PM by Demongodofchaos2

What. I... what? No. No, that's not how it works. Neither harems nor deconstructions work that way

Why does tragic have to be deconstruction? Why does funny have to equal generic? Hayate is not a deconstruction and it's not much of a parody really. Being generic is aiming for mediocrity.

You know what makes a show funny? Having more than two jokes. And then when you have your three or four jokes have different ways or presenting them. The cliche scenario of the Accidental Pervert can only be funny so many times when you don't play with the situation at all.

If no creativity was the case, more than half of the anime listed on the Harem page wouldn't be there. There's a wide variety of settings and characters in them. Not all harem anime involve a stereotypical blank-slate protagonist with five girls slobbering all over him.

Also, funny isn't a requirement for harems; neither is ecchi.

harem shows can actually have drama.

And given the chance I wouldn't base a show around harem elements. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to avoid them though.

Also everyone else made this point better.

edited 18th Aug '11 6:11:46 PM by UltimatelySubjective

.....I Still think my Scenario sounds interesting......

Isn't that nearly Ladies X Butlers... with out the Perver Rage Mode...

My basic idea for a harem:

A NEET finds himself visited by a mysterious, Crazy Awesome Manic Pixie Dream Girl. This attracts the attention of a bunch of other girls with strange powers and abilites, some of which are Not Quite Human. They battle each other over misunderstandings at first, blah blah blah, they become friends eventually, and start living under protaganists roof. The series would be more focused on action and comedy than the romance. In fact, the main character is more of a witty Deadpan Snarker (with shades of eccentricity) who's really not interested in romance at all, and most of the relationships the girls would have with him would be friendship-based than anything.

So it'd basically be a shonen disguised as a harem.

edited 18th Aug '11 6:56:55 PM by Rynnec

So it'd basically be a shonen disguised as a harem. Ken Akamatsu would love you as his assistant. He did that after five volumes of Negima. Nice plot.

But were off-topic now. I made a separate thread. Can we move the discussion there?

edited 18th Aug '11 7:03:18 PM by djmaca

Girls Bravo says hi.

I know that. What I meant for it was to be played for legitimate drama and not a cheap laugh

It would eventually go like this.

Each episode would be devoted to a certain section of the girls in the school, , giving them character development and warming up to him. The main character somehow instinctively becomes aHaremSeaker in a subbtle way, but the amount of Accidental Pervert situations and Pervert Revenge Mode's starts taking a toll on his mind and overall health, making him more and more emotionally vunerable inside as we see glimpses of a Terrible childhood and our Unlucky Every Dude is not all what he seems to be.

edited 18th Aug '11 7:16:29 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Kinda sounds like The World God Only Knows... without the traumatic childhood part.

Is Girls Bravo a harem?

Yes.

... Yes.

Oh, ninja'ed even in a single three letters word!

edited 18th Aug '11 7:24:52 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

@Demongod I know Abuse Is Okay When It’s Female on Male is a pet peeve trope of yours, but your "solution" is kinda creepy.