Harem series and communication failures

Can you have a harem comedy where everyone is willing to talk their problems over and still have plenty of conflicts? It seems that many harem works rely on Poor Communication Kills trope in order to have conflicts and I was wondering that if it is truly necessary.

edited 13th Oct '11 4:41:31 PM by dRoy

God I fucking hate this. If anyone of these people knew when to open and close their mouths, we wouldn't have to put up with over half the shows in this damn subgenre.

Two things. One, it depends on how strict a definition of harem you're using. Two, isn't it a staple of far too many stories not to tell people things they need to know when they need to know them? Harems may be pretty prone to it, but so are lots of series.

Ugh, definition. Oh right, how about harem comedy than primarily focuses on antics between girls and the main chick magnet.

For once, I'd like to see a realistic harem scenario. One that focuses more on the tangled relationships and the pressure of having to choose, as opposed to seeing who can flash their panties in the protagonist's face the most.

Which, Ironically enough, the Manga version of Rosario To Vampire manages to do much better than most others, as one of the main females will die of Heartbreak because of it (The Succubus).

Then with that definition I think you're setting criteria that are doomed to failure because you've limited yourself. If they're focusing on the antics, then that means there probably aren't any other pressing issues to distract people.

However, if you allow a split focus you probably have more leeway. Also, I think a certain amount of keeping your mouth shut when it would be better to speak is entirely understandable. For example, Heavens Feel route of Fate Stay Night is intentionally based around Sakura's issues with not speaking up even when it's obvious to everyone but her that she's already won. For splitting your focus I might as well given an example with Tsukihime and say that for cases like Ciel or Kohaku's routes the love triangles are largely the driving force of the plot.

God I fucking hate this. If anyone of these people knew when to open and close their mouths, we wouldn't have to put up with over half the shows in this damn subgenre.

Thread Hop

But then, there won't be much drama to drive the plot even more.

You could just instead have the MC already have preset relationships with the harem(childhood friend, bestfriend, cousin, etc) and just have the MC be pressured with choosing like in Infinite Stratos.

edited 13th Oct '11 5:14:16 PM by djmaca

It tends to be an issue in romance stories in general, not just harem ones. (Or heck, any kind of story that involves relationships between people)

You can basically have two variants, either the obstacles are external (something is preventing the two from fully enjoying their relationship) or internal (something within one or both of the characters are preventing this) Remove both of these and well... You don't really have a plot per se. (which is not to say a plot is strictly neccessary, especially not if you have something else to focus on)

Often it's a combination of both external (disapproving parents/friends/invading robot armies/misunderstandings/freak accidents) and internal (shyness, anger, feelings of ineriority) that keep things from progressing, and the story is about how the characters deal with these.

That is of course, when there is a story. I think a lot of harems aren't really meant to be plots in that sense, as much as they're just characters put in a situation. The things they do is far less important than what they are and the actions are only important in allowing them to represent the characters.

The answer to this problem is simple.

If people thought rationally in romances, there wouldn't be any conflicts or stories. After all, love is often stupid.

Same goes for harem series, although in this case it's because we have common anime fans watching. Nine times out of ten, this "anime connoisseur" just wants to see T&A of their favorite waifus. Why would anime directors botch that deal up by making characters think?

The reason I liked that show is, that I had no clue what I should do as well... there wasn't really an obvious solution. Though you could argue that the premise might feel a little artificial.

I don't think it's impossible to have a harem setup that can be played for laughs, but there still are no communication failures. I suggest: Protagonist is destined for some girl (waiting for her to come back from a foreign country to propose), everyone knows it, and they only try to have as much fun as possible while they still can. Just as an idea. Maybe not perfect, but I thinks it's at least somehow possible.

edited 13th Oct '11 6:11:18 PM by Uchuujinsan

Christ, it's that moe thread all over.

You know what, you guys know which shows I'm referring to. I'm not going to go in details on semantics.

No, it's not the same thing. You're saying shows that are based around harem hijinks have harem hijinks issues. That's obvious. Once you start branching away from that the series doesn't fit the definition you've given.

edited 13th Oct '11 6:11:00 PM by Arha