| After coming to mal, I often saw people saying, "Do you know, what harem actually is?" Questions and debate but in the end result there is no definite answer in any of the discussion. Now, anyone can ask, "why didn't you google?" I already done checking and on the research, I also checked google recs and mal recs (honestly I done this long ago). But now I'm kind of lost 'cuz someone told me to learn what harem actually is. From there I am curious that am I watching wrong or anything. So, I like to let know what I know/ think about Harem and what you think or define harem. Definition- A genre what is complete fiction and where the protagonist, often male, pursued by multiple love interest and which is built with romantic and comedic situation. Nisekoi, How raise a boring Girlfriend, School Rumble, Domestic girlfriend- is those are Harem? correct me if I am wrong, plz. (this is from my recent harem recommendation in mal where I am questioned.) |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone  |
| Harem is one boy and very many multiple girls who seek his attention and affection. |
| I'm not sure if there even is a clear definition for the genre between anime fans, because I see the word being used for everything between "MC just has a lot of characters of the opposite sex around them" and "MC having multiple romantic/sexual relationships at the same time". Sometimes, harem also seems to be used as a synonym for Love Poligons. It can be arbitrary, so the context is very important (in the case of the harem recommendation discussion, something that is on a similar level as Quintessential Quintuplets) For me personally, just having multiple girls compete for a boy doesn't make it a harem, it needs some more spice. Haven't really heard this anywhere before, but I'd say that the boy should actually be in love with multiple of the girls, otherwise it's not a harem (edit: This is definitely not the common definition though, it's usually enough if he just has multiple romantic encounters with them). I haven't watched the anime you're ve listed so I don't know if I would count them or not. |
Vaturna8 hours ago
| These days a male protagonist even having more than 1 female friend around them is considered a harem. Which is fucking stupid to me how people have no general concept of friendships with the opposite sex. They just view every girl around the protagonist as a love interest. And tbh I do get it to a certain degree, cuz there are authors who literally make every girl available in a story a love interest for their protagonist, but it has literally ruined the word harem for me and made the genre completely ambiguous. |
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| Considering that Rent a Girlfriend is tagged as harem even if the fact that all the girls want the mc is kinda debatable, the only way to define the genre is: subgenre of romance with a flock of girls around the mc. |
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| Harems nowadays means the MC hangs out with more than two people from the opposite sex. |
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Well the meaning of the word at its origins and the one assigned to it as a genre are vastly different... As for how I define the 'harem' genre, it'd be a plot setting where more than two characters are actively romantically engaged with the main character (where active romantic engagement means that the characters are obviously contending for a romantic relationship with the MC).. so I'd not consider Domestic Girlfriend as a harem anime.. |
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| 3+ love interests and no resolution. |
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| females fighting for holy chunchumaru that mc possess so mc is forced to go into training arc. mc holds breath to avoid detection as to not breathe the same air as those pursuers. mc travel to east to meet eastern one and so on and so forth until one of them turned into yandere to kill him harem is like a chance for me to see some comedy where i hope mc at least have proper human quality instead of being treated like a plot device. my gripes with harem show is certain character is forced to have severe flaws in order to keep the show appropriate or stick to the plot which is not fun to see. stick to the plot as in what heroine c says does not hold weight because she's not the chosen one by author so it gets swept under rug like nothing happened. usually it's open harem without showing anything substantial so everyone wins, well they can always improve on their creative writing. i do not fret what harem should entails, it's just an aspect of story that can always be molded into something different. |
Reply to Luchipher-Zen
Well the meaning of the word at its origins and the one assigned to it as a genre are vastly different... As for how I define the 'harem' genre, it'd be a plot setting where more than two characters are actively romantically engaged with the main character (where active romantic engagement means that the characters are obviously contending for a romantic relationship with the MC).. so I'd not consider Domestic Girlfriend as a harem anime..
| @Luchipher-Zen Luchipher-Zen said: it'd be a plot setting where more than two characters are actively romantically engaged with the main character in this logic every love polygon is harem, isn't it? 'cuz also in there (polygon), more than 1 or 2 person is interested or actively in a romantic relation with the protagonist. Luchipher-Zen said: so I'd not consider Domestic Girlfriend as a harem anime.. Again, in Domestic Girlfriend, two sisters and his classmate was interested in the protagonist romantically. so, it's kinda unfitting.... |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
| Protagonist has one love interest - romance Protagonist has two love interests - love triangle Protagonist has three or more love interests - harem (Love polygon is where love interests are all over the place rather than all centred on a single protagonist.) |
| depend on the type of harem. het/straight or reverse harem are literally masturbate genre. |
Reply to nirererin
@Luchipher-Zen
in this logic every love polygon is harem, isn't it? 'cuz also in there (polygon), more than 1 or 2 person is interested or actively in a romantic relation with the protagonist.
Again, in Domestic Girlfriend, two sisters and his classmate was interested in the protagonist romantically. so, it's kinda unfitting....
Luchipher-Zen said:
it'd be a plot setting where more than two characters are actively romantically engaged with the main character
it'd be a plot setting where more than two characters are actively romantically engaged with the main character
in this logic every love polygon is harem, isn't it? 'cuz also in there (polygon), more than 1 or 2 person is interested or actively in a romantic relation with the protagonist.
Luchipher-Zen said:
so I'd not consider Domestic Girlfriend as a harem anime..
so I'd not consider Domestic Girlfriend as a harem anime..
Again, in Domestic Girlfriend, two sisters and his classmate was interested in the protagonist romantically. so, it's kinda unfitting....
@nirererin Themes for an anime are not unary... an anime can be love polygon and harem at the same time.. so where the difference resides?.. its in the definition.. in love polygon romantic contenders can be two or more, i.e. it is a love polygon theme even with just two characters going after MC.. and the definition I gave you for harem was that it should be more than two, not just two... basically all harem anime can be considered love polygon themed, but that ain't true vice-versa.. Again this too can be contended if we debate how many "vertices" generally define the polygon.. Also, I see "interested" and actively vying for romantic affection as two different approaches, and non synonymous.. In Domestic Girlfriend, active romantic pursuit was by the two sisters only.. atleast that's the way I see it.. compare that to some major harem titles.. say High School DxD or Quintessential Quintuplets.. there more than two characters have been in active pursuit of romantic relationship with the same MC (even though they are two different breed of harem anime when taking the ending into account).. Then there are also titles where the lines are diluted, such as Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai where there is visible romantic interest but no pursuit, still they have been labelled as harem in MAL (but the characters are >2).. so I think MAL's definition clearly dun match mine.. but under both definition something like Domestic Girlfriend ain't a harem anime.. same is true for another similar anime : Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.. |
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Luchipher-Zen said: @nirererin Themes for an anime are not unary... an anime can be love polygon and harem at the same time.. so where the difference resides?.. its in the definition.. in love polygon romantic contenders can be two or more, i.e. it is a love polygon theme even with just two characters going after MC.. and the definition I gave you for harem was that it should be more than two, not just two... basically all harem anime can be considered love polygon themed, but that ain't true vice-versa.. Again this too can be contended if we debate how many "vertices" generally define the polygon.. Also, I see "interested" and actively vying for romantic affection as two different approaches, and non synonymous.. In Domestic Girlfriend, active romantic pursuit was by the two sisters only.. atleast that's the way I see it.. compare that to some major harem titles.. say High School DxD or Quintessential Quintuplets.. there more than two characters have been in active pursuit of romantic relationship with the same MC (even though they are two different breed of harem anime when taking the ending into account).. Then there are also titles where the lines are diluted, such as Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai where there is visible romantic interest but no pursuit, still they have been labelled as harem in MAL (but the characters are >2).. so I think MAL's definition clearly dun match mine.. but under both definition something like Domestic Girlfriend ain't a harem anime.. same is true for another similar anime : Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.. Well, it's logical. there's nothing I can say more. harem and love polygon can come together on a same anime theme, that is justified. but it's undeniable that harem and love polygon is so close with each other and sometimes it's conflict with each and other concept or definition. Like you say 2 persons (interested in mc)= Love polygon and 2+ persons (interested in mc) = Harem. So, it’s easy to say for you number the variable to determine which is harem and which is love polygon, right? anyway keep it aside, it's not topic we talking here, let's come to main topic. DomGirl isn't a harem. As you 2+ person if interested in mc then it's harem. example- QQ, it's a define harem 'cuz number, setting everything is tiptop for a harem anime or manga, whatever you like. here's no doubt. but for a moment if I forget about your number logic or setting and come to ending- QQ's mc have 5 options, but he choose only one girl, because it's realistic (I'm not saying QQ isn't harem). Now if I come to Domestic girlfriend, in the ending of manga, he choose both. So, if I think as real life, it's a straight up polygamy which is harem. So, now how can Domestic girlfriend isn't harem? Everyone has there own perspective to describe anything so, it not unbelievable if your opinion don't match with everyone. No offence. |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
| Harem is anime genre if 3 or more female character have romantic feeling to a male character at the same time. |
  What Does Pot of Greed do?  |
tchitchouan said: Harem is one boy and very many multiple girls who seek his attention and affection. simple but relatively accurate enough. |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
DX_impulse said: depend on the type of harem. het/straight or reverse harem are literally masturbate genre. no kidding like kimi no ga dai dai dai dai dai dai tshuki 100- nin no kanojo. u r not pulling ur punches 😂 |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
| Harem is a relationship where a male has more than 1 lover at a time and everyone agrees with it. Reverse Harem is a relationship where a female has more than 1 lover at a time and everyone agrees with it. Unfortunately most of the so-called harem anime are either pseudo-harems or love polygons. |
This dance is the pinnacle of human achievement. |
Reply to nirererin
Luchipher-Zen said:
@nirererin Themes for an anime are not unary... an anime can be love polygon and harem at the same time.. so where the difference resides?.. its in the definition.. in love polygon romantic contenders can be two or more, i.e. it is a love polygon theme even with just two characters going after MC.. and the definition I gave you for harem was that it should be more than two, not just two... basically all harem anime can be considered love polygon themed, but that ain't true vice-versa.. Again this too can be contended if we debate how many "vertices" generally define the polygon..
Also, I see "interested" and actively vying for romantic affection as two different approaches, and non synonymous.. In Domestic Girlfriend, active romantic pursuit was by the two sisters only.. atleast that's the way I see it.. compare that to some major harem titles.. say High School DxD or Quintessential Quintuplets.. there more than two characters have been in active pursuit of romantic relationship with the same MC (even though they are two different breed of harem anime when taking the ending into account)..
Then there are also titles where the lines are diluted, such as Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai where there is visible romantic interest but no pursuit, still they have been labelled as harem in MAL (but the characters are >2).. so I think MAL's definition clearly dun match mine.. but under both definition something like Domestic Girlfriend ain't a harem anime.. same is true for another similar anime : Kimi ga Nozomu Eien..
@nirererin Themes for an anime are not unary... an anime can be love polygon and harem at the same time.. so where the difference resides?.. its in the definition.. in love polygon romantic contenders can be two or more, i.e. it is a love polygon theme even with just two characters going after MC.. and the definition I gave you for harem was that it should be more than two, not just two... basically all harem anime can be considered love polygon themed, but that ain't true vice-versa.. Again this too can be contended if we debate how many "vertices" generally define the polygon..
Also, I see "interested" and actively vying for romantic affection as two different approaches, and non synonymous.. In Domestic Girlfriend, active romantic pursuit was by the two sisters only.. atleast that's the way I see it.. compare that to some major harem titles.. say High School DxD or Quintessential Quintuplets.. there more than two characters have been in active pursuit of romantic relationship with the same MC (even though they are two different breed of harem anime when taking the ending into account)..
Then there are also titles where the lines are diluted, such as Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai where there is visible romantic interest but no pursuit, still they have been labelled as harem in MAL (but the characters are >2).. so I think MAL's definition clearly dun match mine.. but under both definition something like Domestic Girlfriend ain't a harem anime.. same is true for another similar anime : Kimi ga Nozomu Eien..
Well, it's logical. there's nothing I can say more. harem and love polygon can come together on a same anime theme, that is justified. but it's undeniable that harem and love polygon is so close with each other and sometimes it's conflict with each and other concept or definition. Like you say 2 persons (interested in mc)= Love polygon and 2+ persons (interested in mc) = Harem. So, it’s easy to say for you number the variable to determine which is harem and which is love polygon, right? anyway keep it aside, it's not topic we talking here, let's come to main topic.
DomGirl isn't a harem. As you 2+ person if interested in mc then it's harem. example- QQ, it's a define harem 'cuz number, setting everything is tiptop for a harem anime or manga, whatever you like. here's no doubt. but for a moment if I forget about your number logic or setting and come to ending- QQ's mc have 5 options, but he choose only one girl, because it's realistic (I'm not saying QQ isn't harem). Now if I come to Domestic girlfriend, in the ending of manga, he choose both. So, if I think as real life, it's a straight up polygamy which is harem. So, now how can Domestic girlfriend isn't harem?
Everyone has there own perspective to describe anything so, it not unbelievable if your opinion don't match with everyone. No offence.
@nirererin As I said, something like High School DxD or the large harem titles are a different type of harem than a title like Quintessential Quintuplets or say Temple or Megami Cafe no Terrace.. themes are assigned based on it's prevalence throughout the series and not just the ending... if that were not the case, Quintessential Quintuplets won't have been a harem where the MC finally has to choose one out of all his romantic partners (I think the case is similar with Temple and Megami Cafe no Terrace)... Love Polygon is a morphed theme.. it has been derived from Love Triangle, to also include some titles where there are more vertices than just 3 including the MC (and due to some weird unknown reason harem was not suitable tag).. if you ask me it's on a title by title basis it's all ambiguous as the definition can change depending on the title in question.. So as to why Domestic Girlfriend cannot be a harem anime, it's because the prevalent theme throughout the anime has been a love triangle... a polygamous end won't change that (and for MAL a show can't be both harem and love polygon)... And it won't be easy to open discussion with comparisons to real life, as in real life harem had a greater meaning than what mostly is ascertained as number of women in a relationship with a man.. a harem was a section of the palace populace that included not only official wives, but mistresses and concubines, eunuchs, slaves etc.. And no offense taken.. you simply asked for a definition.. and I am giving that and it's explanation.. it doesn't have to be acceptable by all, unless it is a universal truth (which matters of themes of anime are not).. I mean there are grey line and exceptions filled with the whole tags crap in MAL database.. |
Luchipher-Zen4 hours ago
|
Zarutaku said: Harem is a relationship where a male has more than 1 lover at a time and everyone agrees with it. Reverse Harem is a relationship where a female has more than 1 lover at a time and everyone agrees with it. Unfortunately most of the so-called harem anime are either pseudo-harems or love polygons. that's the point. in most of the recent harem, they started with more than 1 love interest, but in the end, to give a so-called satisfying ending, mc choose only one for being morally realistic where there is no realism to being with. if so then QQ is a pseudo-harem or one kind of love polygon. |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
| I consider a harem where one male has at least 3 female companions (and no male ones) whether there is romance or not is secondary for me. Though most usually have at least one girl being dumb in love. So all polyamorous is harem but not all harem is polyamorous |
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Reply to nirererin
DX_impulse said:
depend on the type of harem.
het/straight or reverse harem are literally masturbate genre.
depend on the type of harem.
het/straight or reverse harem are literally masturbate genre.
no kidding like kimi no ga dai dai dai dai dai dai tshuki 100- nin no kanojo. u r not pulling ur punches 😂
| @nirererin meh! I never even watched that! |
| that reaction lol................ |
Talent is something to nurture, and wisdom is something to hone |
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