All-Purpose Harem Fanfiction Discussion Thread

Can't comment on most of those. But Keiichi being there seems weird to me, since the harem aspect is not nearly so emphasized—gets maybe two or three mentions total—by comparison to the everyone-dying-bloodily aspect.

Negi Springfield is not on the list. Neither is Tenchi Masaki. That's all you need to know about the credibility of that list.

I thought Negi was on it, but only at rank 38. Which, yeah, is kinda bullshit.

Ah, my mistake. That is still a load of bullshit, though.

To be fair, Negi DOES lose harem master points on being only ten, and on having a mess of a resolution that makes it very unlikely he scored polyamory, if not making a clear case for him not ending up with anyone, period (no, I don't think Touta is his actual grandson at all).

Honestly, in ranking these, I'm unsure just what criteria I would end up using. You could try to go solely by the lead, but even there you have multiple axes, and the actual quality of the show and people's impressions of it (which I imagine is largely the real driver behind people's responses to that poll, even if it's notionally about the leads alone) will depend on a lot of things, many of which have nothing to do with the lead specifically. I know I would be a lot more inclined to highly rank a series with a proper resolution, even if the quality of the lead character was lower than some others.

Why is Hayate of the lesbian army not on the list?

Because subtle Ship Tease or Ho Yay subtext that never amounts to anything in official materials appears to not count... nevermind that the voice actresses of the two main characters that debuted since the first installment have gone on record to explicitly say that those two characters are indeed in a more-than-platonic relationship.

edited 22nd Jan '15 9:48:11 AM by MarqFJA

Issei not being number one is crying shame.

Especially when you consider the hilarious Oppai Dragon Song.

... Someone needs to translate the lyrics and include them as subtitles, because I can barely understand half of what he's saying. And it's an utterly hilarious "I love boobies!" chant in multiple variations.

Okay, if anybody wants to see any kind of harem, Japanese webnovel seems to be good place to starts. Sturgeon's Law applied, very harsh, though.

Tate No Yuusha No Nariagari basically examines most conventions on many Japanese webnovel, playing them to most logical conclusion, and in effect, tear those apart under its own weight. For example, Harem Genre. Basically, it makes pain to shows that you can't just attract many girls and take them all willy-nilly, no Sir. Dude who did this, at first, sent to another world as result of [[isualNovel/School Days Makoto-style]] Incident. He didn't change his behavior as Hero, and as result, goes Insane. And he's arguably got it light,, since many other Heroes/ Reincarnator involved in Wave basically not only lost their mind, but also their morals, to put it lightly. The successful harems in this stories results from accident. The eponymous Shield Hero got his harem from mostly his slaves. The first is the slave he bought, basically to be used as his weapon (he can't attack, that's the perk of his Class), and fall for him mostly "Because You Were Nice to Me" (she's demi-human, still a child when being sold, and Fantastic Racism is in full effect). Note that Shield Hero considering his "nice" treatment simply as common sense. The second is a 12 years old Princess basically told by the Queen to bind him to their Kingdom cause. Her older sister is basically the one who make Shield Hero's life miserable. He doesn't take it well, she's not amused. They finally settles down, with the Princess acts as administrator for his territory and liaison to the Queen, but most of their interactions basically are Snark-to-Snark Combat. The third is a young, sickly demi-human slave basically bought as insurance for her brother. From all the girls, she's the most devoted to unhealthy extent because her clan culture. To say both her brother and Shield Hero are awkward with this is, well....

The second (theoretical) harem revolves about Sword Hero, who got saddled with Wrong Genre Savvy and Nice J Ob Breaking It Hero. His first notable assignment is slaying a dragon that nesting too close to a settlement. He killed the dragon, takes parts he needs, bag his reward, and goes to next adventure... while leaving unused carcass behind. Rotting carcass that become plague source. Then it become a zombie dragon. Then Shield Hero found out that one of his demi-human slave is that dragon's adopted daughter. The reason said girl got dragon as Papa? Because her dying mom asked the dragon to help her, with her being lynched by, you guess it, that village asked for dragon extermination. Said dragon simply trying to protect his family (including bunch of monsters act as his harem). When Sword Hero found out, he's devastated. and trying to apologize... and promptly slapped in the face by the crying girl. She seems to be his wives in the end, but it's implied that he had to work hard to win her approval. His first love interest basically Queen's Swordwoman beating the crazy out of him (long story) after the BIG fiasco he made with Spirit Turtle. He then made contacts with her on regular basis, mainly to improves his own swordmanship. the swordwoman only falls to him (sort of) after he grew older, and build more muscles (among other things).

Also worth to point out that in working harem, the girls usually, at least, amicable with each other (if not outright goes Les Yay). This especially prominent in Rosario + Vampire (shame that guy only likes Moka. Outer Moka, in that). And it shows what happened when the ladies are not amicable: bloody business ensues.

In Highschool Dx D, the harem could work because how the Devil instinct and habit works. Note that most harem involves single Peerage, which at best can be summed up as True Companions. Even Riser, asshole as he is, seems to, at least, makes his harem/Peerage could work together as a group.

Even in real life, Prophet Muhammad SAW. actually takes care to acts as fair as possible on His wives, and for the most part, His wives are amicable with each other. There are bout of jealousy here and there, but usually it didn't last long.

Extra fun about Rosario: in the second season of the anime (say what you will about the rest of it), Tsukune actually attempted a Harem End. Yukari, Kurumu, Mizore, Ruby, they were all cool with it.

And then Inner Moka punted him into next week, that selfish bitch.

Inner Moka is an awesome action manga character but a just plain terrible harem character. Although she might work fine as a Harem Nanny. In that she's like, well, look at my avatar.

Outer Moka, OTOH, is a complete waste of space.

Hey! Don't talk like that about your friend's mom!

Akeno is best harem girl in High School Dx D.

@Nap: Don't know who your avatar character is.

I've only seen the first season so far, but I can't actually put any single one of Issei's girls above the others. Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Asia... I like 'em all.

She's Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. Quite popular as a character, and for◊ very good reasons.

And no, you're not seeing things. That outfit in the middle of the second pic really is called "Seduction Armor".

Also, her debut is awesome. You know for sure that someone is badass when she manages to put the stupidly strong and stubborn Idiot Hero and his rival in their place and turn them all chummy with other (when they were literally at each other's necks until a second beforehand) just by them noticing her mere presence. Why? Because she's their mentor.

edited 2nd Aug '15 6:35:58 PM by MarqFJA

Of course, the manga has a habit of making her too badass at tmes.

Since the franchise a harem series, and a good place to talk about it, but doesn't it seem like High School DXD fanfic writers often hate on Issei when they bring in their OC fan character?

They often end up stealing Issei's canonical harem, and if Issei is in it, he's usually made into a worse joke then he actually was in series!

They even say that their character wouldn't be a pervert like Issei and totally deserve his harem more then he does....which misses the entire point of the light novels entirely.

edited 6th Sep '15 10:56:27 AM by Demongodofchaos2

I did run into a fanfic involving a Copy Cat Sue Fallen Angel Naruto using Boosted Gear that was colored , had Tiamat sealed inside it, and had Naruto and Tiamat treat Issei exactly as you describe. He has a Childhood Friend Romance with Akeno that was poorly developed but it's not exactly harem stealing.

EDIT: Nope, Nauto gets Issei's harem and is the father of one of the most powerful beings in Dx D canon.

edited 6th Sep '15 2:05:46 PM by VeryMelon

Obviously they only like the girls (and probably just because of their looks) rather than the plot as well as the point behind Issei's character (namely, a Chivalrous Pervert whose emphasis on chivalry over perversion leads to many moments of awesome, and which is a major reason that the girls tolerate his perversion if they weren't OK with it in the first place).

Yet not one of seems to have a problem with Aika Kiryuu from the same series(Glasses girl who's basically female motohama)...

That's because:

1. She's another girl.
2. That can be added to their harems.
3. Who is not the main character of anything.

I tried to watch the High School DXD anime to write fanfiction based on it and I couldn't get past the first episode. Keep in mind I actually kind of liked the Rosario to Vampire anime and stomached through the whole of Girls Bravo. It was the first harem anime I dropped since Dear S.

edited 6th Sep '15 12:32:30 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Your missing out, then.

That, or read the light novels online.