5 Things To Know About... #1

30 April 2007 Richard Veino

Hi there! I'm Richard and I'm the new MediaGauntlet Otaku (MGO for short). There wasn't an old one, but I noticed a distinct lack of anime coverage, so I talked with Ryan and, ta-da!, here I am.

Originally, I was going to do an introduction of myself and cover why I may be qualified to talk about anime in general, but I decided that would be boring. Instead, I decided that I would start with a list of observations about a certain style of anime, the Harem anime.

What is a harem anime? Well, you could look HERE, but what it boils down to is a romantic comedy. It usually features one male lead, and he's surrounded by a bevy of really cute girls (usually 5 of them) that have feelings for him, usually romantic in nature. Each girl usually represents a stereotypical anime girl-type (for example, the girl with glasses, the really athletic one, the girl into the occult, etc.). It's usually set in a high school, although not always. Some good examples of this genre are Love Hina, Tenchi Muyo, and Shuffle! What makes it different than other anime romantic comedies is the lack of other male characters, it's not always clear who the main character will end up with in the end (if anyone at all), and the female characters aren't necessarily all sterotypes, among other things.

Why start with that one you ask? Well, it's gotten really popular of late, and I've been watching A LOT of them lately, so it seemed like a natural choice. In the future, I plan on discussing some of my favorite animes that are coming to the States, DVD reviews, or even more lists like this one, so I hope you enjoy!

5 Things To Know About Harem Anime...

The main male character will ALWAYS be living with or next to his main love interest.
Sometimes it's a sister who you find out he's not related to by blood, but, usually, it's just someone he's known forever. Why? Well, it's really convenient to have them so close. They usually take on the responsibility of waking him up in the morning, because, otherwise, he'd be late to school. And he always takes her for granted.
Parents are non-existent.
Either one or both of your parents are ususally dead, which is why you are living with the girl mentioned above. Of course, one of her parents is likely deceased as well. Any living parent will constantly be away on businesss trips or will have been transferred overseas.
The male lead is always a really nice average guy, who helps out everyone.
Why is that? Well, I want to say that 50% of these shows are usually based on a Japanese Adult PC game (I'll have to do the math later), so since the main character is basically you, who wants to be an asshole, really?
One of the girls is always a Robot, Alien, or Lab Experiment.
I'm sure there's another option, but those were all I could come up with. The reason behind this, you ask? Well, since, like I said, 50% of these animes are based on adult games, usually the youngest looking one is one of the above. Why is that? Well, since they're not human, it's okay that they look like they're 10, and you can still think they're hot. Really.
Somewhere around the last few episodes, the storyline will turn very dark.
I mean, it reallly gets gloomy. Why? I don't really know. I guess it just makes the happy ending seem happier.

I could actually come up with another five, like the "childhood promise", the "beach episode", the "festival episode", etc., so maybe you'll see part two of this list later on. So, as long as you know this and can accept it, you can enjoy watching Harem Animes! Well, that's all for today. Hope you enjoy!