All-Purpose Harem Fanfiction Discussion Thread

No protagonist in Pokemon has a harem (thank God), Serena is the only girl in the anime that's shown confirmed romantic attraction to Ash. Anything anyone else says about the matter is wearing their Shipping Goggles only.

edited 18th Jul '16 10:18:30 AM by VeryMelon

Funny thing is, Gary is the closest thing Pokemon has to an actual harem protagonist.

"I got a girl in Johto, I got a girl in Kanto, I even got a girl in Mystery Dungeon..."

You are making the mistake of looking only at Ash.

As I said in my note, Dawn has the qualifiers, all in her own season. Here are the guys who have definite interests in her:

• Unlucky Childhood Friend and Friendly Rival Kenny
• Conway, who becomes a Stalker with a Crush
• Her own Piplup

As for Ash, Tracey thought that there was some "there" there with Ash and Misty in the Orange Islands. Similarly, the parents of Angie, the girl of the week from the Summer Camp in Sinnoh, commented once on her crush on Ash. I will grant, however, that neither of these two girls are concurrent with either each other or Serena. Dawn's suitors are concurrent, however, which allow her to qualify.

You could make a case for Ash in the Ono Toshiro manga.

I said "No protagonist in Pokemon", so the mistake is yours. I mentioned Serena liking Ash only to make a point regarding shippers.

And yeah, I disagree with Dawn having one for a variety of reasons.

Outside of fanfics, which are the worst harem protagonists anyone's seen?

For me its, Kirito, Ichiko Orimura and Ayato Amagiri.

I was considering also Issei Hyodo but despite his personality being obnoxious at times, I realised that at least he had a personality, one that was obnoxious enough to make him clearly not a stand in but enough that I would find him more tolerable if he wasn't in a harem. Which I can't say about the three previous characters.

edited 14th Aug '16 1:45:30 PM by Archivist10

Minase from Bible Black.

Itou Makoto at his worst spites at that guy in sheer disgust.

Natsuru from Kämpfer and Ichika from Infinite Stratos are uniformly the worst ones in the genre, from my experience.

Never fully watched Bible Black since I never found the art-style that appealing, but from what little I saw the main character left such little impression that I forgot he existed.

As for Makoto, I've heard enough about his anime to have never bothered to watch it.

edited 14th Aug '16 1:47:57 PM by Archivist10

Issei is actually a solid contender for being my favorite harem protagonist, the other being Tsukune Aono.

Issei isn't that bad, hell in many ways he's a less gentlemanly version of Sanji. But I just feel that sort of character doesn't work as a harem lead since I feel that the series is rewarding his negative behaviour.

And since you brought it up Raku from Nisekoi might be my favourite harem lead.

And Tsukune...my only experience is the anime nuff said.

edited 14th Aug '16 1:51:19 PM by Archivist10

I actually really like the first season of the Rosario anime, even if it's slightly heavier on the fanservice than it needs to be.

You definitely ought to read the manga though, it's fucking awesome.

I considered it, but the art style doesn't appeal to me, that overly pretty and graceful design is too distracting for me to read. Its one of the reasons I never read CLAMP or Sailor Moon manga.

That and if I'm going to read a harem it better have something really good to draw me in, like Nisekoi's comedy or Highschool DXD's setting.

edited 14th Aug '16 3:29:11 PM by Archivist10

Rosario didn't really start emphasizing prettiness until around volume 11 or so, but I'll take your word for it.

If you ever pick up Rosario+Vampire, I caution against watching the second season of the anime. I've also never watched School Days because of Makoto, who in that anime is honestly one of the worst non-serial killer protagonists I've ever heard of.

Eh, to give credit where it's due regarding Capu 2, at least Funimation's cast Kokoa's dub voice damn near perfectly. I can at least appreciate that much.

edited 14th Aug '16 7:56:28 PM by EvaUnit01

If you think Makoto Itou is bad, his dad, Tomaru Sawoge is even worse then he is.

Just look up his character on the overflow-verse character page, and you'll know what I mean.

Issei is definitely the best harem protagonist, especially after volume 11 onwards.

edited 30th Oct '16 7:47:06 PM by Demongodofchaos2

I'm gonna be honest here: I'm kinda surprised that Code Geass never got any mentions. Lelouch is one of the main characters and his father has/had 108 consorts, but Lelouch also loses points by virtue of romance being one of the last things on his mind and the Code Geass version of Earth being a Crapsack World in general. Considering what happened to Shirley, he may have a good reason to avoid having a harem let alone have a relationship.

Forget what happened to Shirley, see what he accidentally did to Euphemia.

That is also a good point as well.

Moreso because he actually loved Euphemia in a possibly romantic way. Yes, I know she's his (half-)sister; Nunnally is his full-blooded sister, and yet there's some Incest Subtext between them.

So true... so true... We never see him do anything with Marrybell (who's from the canon manga Oz the Reflection), but she dies the same day that he does. Also sad because... Lelouch and Marrybell have very similar circumstances happen to them; the both lose their mothers at a young age, the both have younger sisters, and they both have very cunning minds. One key difference though is that Lelouch fights against Britannia while Marrybell is fighting for them.

... Now I want to see either a spin-off manga or a fanfic — be it a massively changed version of the canon story or a completely different timeline — where Lelouch is/has become Britannian Emperor, has 108 wives of his own (chief among them being C.C., Kallen, and Kaguya), and has proven himself to be a much more benevolent and competent ruler than his father... though he's still no good with anything remotely involving physical effort, still gets pushed around and snarked at by C.C., and everyone is exasperated with his Large Ham tendencies, including his obsession with moonlighting as a masked vigilante named "Zero" who "hunts down" (read: his bodyguards surreptiously do the dirty work) what few criminals dare to threaten the lives of his citizens, and insisting that he's definitely not Emperor Lelouch even when it's as painfully obvious that he is as it can get without unmasking him.

Oh, and Euphemia is alive and well... and the rumour mill insists that there must be something non-platonic going on between her and Lelouch, which they both vehemently deny.

edited 31st Oct '16 2:04:11 PM by MarqFJA

Hmm....... That would certainly be interesting, although I wouldn't write it myself... Oh Gods alive, why... I just saw myself imagining that Nunnally was one of those 108 wives of Lelouch.