Leading or most popular? Ah My Goddess and Bakemonogatari directly come to mind for leading ladies, I would have to look up individual series for character polls for the latter.
edited 24th Sep '17 1:38:43 PM by Memers
Bakemonogatari is kind of complicated in that regard. Senjougahara is ostensibly the lead, at least in the original season, and she has some yandere tendencies, though given the nature of the series it's hard to tell whether she's being serious or just screwing around. She also can't actually hurt Araragi because he's an immortal vampire.
Suruga might also count given what she does to Araragi, but that's more out of actual envy (as Senjougahara's already dating him) and being cursed than anything else.
I think overall, yandere tendencies are hard to fit into a harem because they're kind of antithetical to harems if they're high-grade yandere. They're also hard to see as the main female lead, at least for me, because it's very much not an attractive character trait.
It's been fun.Love Tyrant possibly. Certainly a very prominent Yandere in that show, but there's some room for debate about whether she's the female lead or the silver medalist. It's managed by making the entire main cast immortal so that the Yandere stabbings don't actually do anything.
edited 24th Sep '17 5:58:00 PM by Gilphon
Overall impressions
- Katsugeki Touken Ranbu: Watch this for the sleek and flashy action scenes courtesy of ufotable. And maybe if you're into pretty guys doing pretty guy things, because there's really not much else to see here.
- Knights and Magic: Isekai done right. Still has a bit of power-fantasy feel to it, but MC's cheat-like ability is easier to swallow here, and avoids a lot of the typical isekai pitfalls. The supporting cast also breathe as characters in their own right, instead of being there simply to make the MC look good. Anyway, it's all about the fun of giant mecha. Those towering hunks of metal have gorgeous designs, and they have plenty of nifty toys to play with. Some choice bits of robot R & D from the manga are relegated to exposition dumps (if not outright cut out), which is a shame, but the story makes up for it with fight scenes that actually incorporate weight and velocity into the choreography. This series basically reads like enthusiastic fan mail to the mecha genre, which is only fiiting, really.
- Princess Principal: Cute girls doing spy things and cool spies doing cute things. And more often than not, those two plots don't mix very well. The girls are quite incompetent at espionage, to be frank, but it's still those episodes that focus on the spy thriller action that I enjoyed the most, and I wish we got more of that since the CGDCT component wasn't too hot anyway. It also ends with somewhat of a whimper. The steampunk setting is rad, though, and overall solid in terms of visuals and sound design.
edited 25th Sep '17 8:55:56 AM by fillerdude
@Memers: Hence my statement. I dislike the Harem Series as a thing, but it seems that it's easy to make an interesting show if you keep the harem as strictly a b-plot or if you vary up the formula some.
Must check out DxD.
Hijinks that make out all Tsundere's as violent harpies that get away with everything is exactly why I despise them and Love Hina especially.
Watch SymphogearWell Love Hina basically created the modern version of genre, just "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny is in effect 'copy cats can do it better by correcting errors thus people who watch those first hate the original'.
Without Love Hina there wouldn't be a Highschool DXD. DXD doesn't avoid Tsunderes as well...
edited 26th Sep '17 1:58:50 PM by Memers
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I'm not so sure that there wouldn't be a DxD. The harem genre did exist before Love Hina. Love Hina set the standard by having the harem aspect front and centre as part of a Rom-Com but there was stuff before it like Tenchi where the harem aspect was part of a sci-fi adventure series (with Rom-Com elements) as well. And in that respect High School DxD is a much more direct successor to Tenchi than it is to Love Hina
edited 26th Sep '17 3:54:55 PM by KnightofLsama
From what I know of it, Love Hina was better when it was called Tenchi Muyo!.
Though I have to ask, aren't the majority of harems some variety of harem+something instead of pure romantic comedy?
edited 26th Sep '17 4:19:26 PM by Ramidel
I find Love Hina pretty dull and outdated. I won't call it bad because it did appeal to the crowd in its heyday, but it's very uninteresting to me when I examine it. That's not to say modern harem anime can't be blander or worse than it, because most of them are.
edited 26th Sep '17 5:31:17 PM by VeryMelon
Love Hina is very much "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny, with tropes that are already perhaps not very attractive even when 'refined' by later shows.
It's been fun.Not much of a compliment, honestly. Aside from the art, and Akamatsu already gotten better since then.
Like with UQ Holder, even though it sucks worse then Fairy Tail
Watch SymphogearOverall impressions
- Kakegurui: Not a big fan of the manga, but the anime adds metric tons of style (in particular, horror stylings) and is honestly the version to go for, especially if you have a hankering for crazy bitches with gambling problems. Disclaimer: the last episode is anime-original, and it's actually more than decent, though still open-ended.
- Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni: Utterly mediocre even by the standards of the genre, which against all odds actually makes it... relaxing? Amusing? The mediocrity actually helps highlight the actually cool parts. Plus, there's no pretenses here— it's just an isekai guy doing isekai things. He'll beat a dragon with the magic equivalent of a banana peel, no problem. Get an actual harem ending, no sweat. Would not recommend it to anyone, but it was honestly an okay timewaster.
- Vatican Kiseki Chousakan: Priests that examine the veracity of reported miracles often up in murder cases instead. There is lots of ham in the acting and depending on your mood it can actually be quite funny. I've mentioned it before, but I loved that one exorcism scene. Also have to give props to the writers for doing their research on Christian mythology. I'll give it a Dan Brown/10. Oh, and it's a haven for slash fic, but heck, it's about priests, of course it is.

Also the Tsundere is almost always the most popular character in Japan by like miles, there are very few works where they are even close. Those few that dont will have a Yandere, Kuudere or Dandere leading.
edited 24th Sep '17 1:03:22 PM by Memers