~ Joining critisism with harem + Victoria's Secret~ / Sunday, January 21, 2007
Firstly, I need to thank Moshi (although indirectly) for introducing me to watching
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu. I feel that a good anime was what I need these holidays (thank god...I almost died re-watching the entire Dragonball series...)I've come across a couple of these opinions in the past, and as such, have decided to conform and write one of my own.
(Honestly, for those who havn't heard about the show, or watched it...I highly recommend!)
After watching this anime, I decided to reflect upon the status of anime of these days. Especially within the genre of the 'harem' lead.
A friend once told me:
The male lead (harem lead) must be identifiable to the target audience. This is the whole point of using wimps isn’t it? That the harem lead is supposed to embody the Everyman. The problem is that they go to extremes and make the Everyman into Ikari Shinji and that is where harem shows often fall down.
The male lead must take the initiative now and then. If the whole point of the show is to pander to people with no lives, no spine and an active fantasy world, having the girls always being the movers and shakers probably just adds to the sense of helplessness. Sure it might be what some of them want but as Densha Otoko has shown, there is a market for the shy otaku working actively to get the girl.
2) The male lead must give us a reason to cheer for him.
Some may be blessed wit and some may be Kyon-sama but at the very least the harem lead has to be likable. An old example is Maison Ikkoku’s Godai Yuusaku (and his salaryman counterpart from Yume de Aetera). He knows the girl he wants, he pulls up his socks and tries to woo her to the best of his ability. The fact that Kyoko is the wishy-washy one just adds to our ability to empathize with him. Another is Manaka Junpei from the Ichigo 100% manga, while having a spine made of super-slinky at least has a dream that he’s shooting for and actively working for. The fact that each of the girls appeals to him in a different way and that they are largely part of the same ‘circle’ makes it more realistic that he really can’t choose one easily.
Since they started working towards the lowest common denominator (is male, horny, still breathing) harem leads have degraded quite a fair bit. Ranma doesn’t *want* a harem, he wants a cure. Morisato Keiichi has his problems but ultimately he’s a nice guy, a decent student and passionate about his hobbies. That’s an Everyman that we can cheer for without feeling guilty. Mahoraba’s Shiratori is also such a case. We always knew he wants Kozue-chan and while also having Slinky Spine Syndrome, he is surprisingly firm on this (as well as other things, Ousama Gamu anyone?). He comes across as a genuinely nice guy rather than a fellow with no guts that gets pushed around all the time.
-End of Gary's email to me regarding the boring holidays we both suffered and the remedies in essay writing we should send to each other regarding common grounds (ie. anime)
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Personally, I feel “less is more” is definitely a guiding principle for harem leads. I was mu
ch happier with Ai Yori Aoshi when it was just a romantic story than I was when it was a harem show. Zero no Tsukaima is a bit closer to a “standard” harem, but it keeps it down to a dull roar, with only two realistic options. (Also qualifies excellently as a show where the male lead gets it together, for all of its other failings.)
Look at the basic concept of a harem show. “Look at this male character… he is utterly unremarkable, just like you, the horny viewer. But he can be surrounded by cute girls who are attracted to him, for no reason other than his ability to be minimally nice and polite. YOU can be minimally nice and polite too!” It’s kind of a lowest common denominator of harem show fan - you don’t have to have any kind of special qualities to imagine yourself in this character’s position.
But isn’t that insulting to the viewer? I mean, NOBODY thinks of themselves as that pathetic. Even the loneliest guys, on the inside, have some pride in themselves. So the key is to find a way to differentiate your character from “hopeless idiot” in a way that doesn’t alienate the viewer. You can’t make him punch through brick walls, because your viewer can’t do that, and if your harem lead can, you suddenly have an action show with lots of romantic interests and not a harem show at all. But there are traits that the harem lead can have which make him more likeable than a total loser, yet don’t cause the viewer to say “well, so much for me being like him!”
Nobody wants to imagine themselves as a passive participant in their own story… which is why the appeal of a harem lead is greatly increased when he “gets it together” and takes the reins of his own story. Even LH headed there, though not in the anime; Keitaro the excavator was a much more appealing character than Keitaro the human punching bag. Furthermore, the ability to “get it together” is a trait that people like to think they possess themselves, which enhances the ability to empathize with the character’s position. “I could get it together too” is the key message. It’s a way to distinguish the lead from a hapless blob, in a way that doesn’t alienate the viewer.
This is why wit is such an effective addition to the arsenal of the harem lead. It’s another quality that people almost universall
y fancy that they have, even if they in fact don’t. Nobody thinks they aren’t funny! And yet, the addition of wit doesn’t make the harem situation more complicated; you don’t have to be special so long as you can wisecrack a little about the situation. Take Kyon here. In many ways, he’s more passive than even Keitaro - he goes along with the flow, with only token protest, and doesn’t actually DO much throughout the series… saving that one scene, naturally. ;p But the viewer is extremely able to empathize with Kyon, because we have access to his internal monologues, and they turn him from a totally passive character into a dynamic one.
(It doesn’t hurt that being a little bit mean actually lines up quite well with observational experience, which is to say that the nice guy rarely gets the girl in real life…)
I’ll give Shirou a pass, mainly because Fate/Stay is an amalgam of a bunch of different stories and his character turns into a lowest-common-denominator because the mashed-up plot won’t work if he’s not. Same with Shiki in Tsukihime. Man, Type-Moon… ah well, the translation patch for the Tsukihime game was just completed, so perhaps I’ll try it out, see if he’s differentiated sufficiently on the various story paths.
Another example of show-gone-wrong is Maburaho. Main character is so passive that it kills the show (and the women too over-aggressive to be attractive, frankly.)
What about the polar opposite? Sousuke from FMP is not a harem lead, despite being surrounded by a few cute girls. Why not? The viewer can’t identify with him. He is, on the one hand, skilled in many ways the viewer is not (and his character relies on those skills; Sousuke without his military training is a very different character, whereas taking Shirou’s magic from him would leave him basically the same.) On the other hand, the viewer is radically superior to him in social abilities. It’s excellent from terms of a comedy, because it sets up the “oh look, Sousuke did something dumb again!” situation, but it kills the harem element. Nobody watches FMP because the cute girls are attracted to Sousuke!
Hopefully we’ll see less and less of the harem show. Haruhi is a very good example of this - you have a show with a “harem lead” and cute girls, but very little of what goes on can be classed as “harem hijinks”. The show goes where it’s going to go regardless, and if occasionally Kyon has a cute moment with someone, the payoff is much greater for the relatively subtle way the show goes about it.
I need a life....T____T
[Edit]
Maybe Life is worth living. Victoria's Secret was on...mmhmm..
The girls...*dies*
Honestly though, it scared me. After watching Victoria's Secret so many times, I shocked myself when I found myself tutting at some of the girl's lingerie. Instead of checking them out (as any normal healthy guy should), I was critiquing on their actual lingerie...
Scary huh?
AND OMG!!
JT!!!!! NEED I SAY MORE?!
This is perfect. Good thing I taped it. I hated how in his mv's his dances are always chopped by transitions! At least now I can learn "My Love" properly! I know what I'm doing this week! (Btw, he's so frikk'n hot, he was the 2nd person I drooled over tonight...)
I think I also have a thing for brunettes....so spicy!
Labels: holidays, rant
/because of my high tolerance.
6:22:00 PM
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