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Forum - View topicThe stlylistic evolution of boys in harem anime
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Wolverine Princess
 Posts: 1100 |
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A few years ago, the uniform design of main characters in harem anime (I'm referring to boy-surrounded-by-girl harems, not the reverse) was something like this:
Brown hair, big sparkling eyes, and generally slightly effeminate and timid in appearance. The uniform personality was "shy loser who can't do anything right", and even though these boys appeared to have no redeeming qualities, every girl he meets flung themselves at him. But lately it the boys of harem, and romances for teenage boys in general, have evolved into this: 
Shorter (and uglier) hair, big eyes with small irises, generally thicker eyebrows (although Seiji here doesn't have thick eyebrows, I've seen it in a lot of other boy's romances) , and a bad attitude. They have even less redeeming qualities then the harem boys from the past. Since I assume these guys are supposed to be relatable characters for the target-audience boys who read these stories, have Japanese boys suddenly got a lot uglier and meaner? Why this change? As a girl, I'd personally, I'd be more likely to pursue a cute, shy dweeb than an angry unattractive one. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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And girls fling themselves at the bad-ass dudes also? That is a noticeable change. A cliche I noticed about "older" harem anime is that the guy would walk in on the girl he likes while she's changing and he gets the book thrown at him. As a guy though, I really can't put too much of my opinion into this, but I can say that maybe they're trying to bring about a change of pace.
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Stupidman007
 Posts: 394 |
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Yuji from Shakugan no Shana fits very well the first design, yet the series was made in 2005, so what your saying isn't completely correct, but I cannot really say more about it because I don't know much about harem.
Also, what I've found to be a trend is more like the Rin form Shuffle, Motosuwa from Chobits, Takayuki from KgNE, and Kohta from Elfen Lied. They all have similar traits both in personality and looks. Perhaps that's also a design to consider? |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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In my opinion, that was caused by elements of harem has seeped into the field of shounen manga. Midori no Hibi isn't exactly your typical bishoujo game-styled harem; it's a shounen title from start, with some harem elements. Love Hina, however, was designed after tried and tired formulae of harem games, according to Ken Akamatsu himself. The only exception I could think of was Yukito Kunisaki, male lead of AIR, who has spikey hairs. On the other hand, AIR is not your stereotypical bishoujo game either.
That's a relief. 
Rin and Takayuki are straight from games; Hideki and Kohta are designed with bishoujo game elements in mind, I'd say. |
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xuebaochai
 Posts: 85 Location: An unstable world |
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The world has become a better place... in my days, the bad boys beat out the shy dweebs 99% of the time. I wonder if the relative proliferation of bad-boys-with-a-heart-of-gold is not another reflection of the "tsundere" phenomenon. The whole point of those bad guys is that, inside their hard crust, they have a soft chocolate core of pure "gentleness" (as opposed to the old-fashioned harem milquetoasts: spongy exterior, soft filling, i.e. human twinkies). I think the contrast of hard-and-soft is the attraction, much like the hot-and-cold of the fierce-but-shy tsundere girl is a draw (come to think of it, that could be one of the reasons why the Harima and Sawachika pairing is so popular). Those personality mixes are hardly new, but there remains the interesting question of why their popularity seems to be on the rise... any ideas, anyone? |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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It looks to me like there is more potential for character development if you start out with a brash guy. When the romantic interest is introduced to his life, he softens up -- a plot direction that doesn't exist if the guy started out as a softie in the first place.
In short: old: NICE GUY - - - -> NICE GUY new: NOT-SO-NICE GUY - - - -> NICE GUY Clearly, the latter "goes somewhere," while the former shows no development (apart from the fact that he gets the girl). It's a new dimension to an existing story formula. |
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Evolve? into the bad boy with good heart? It would be nice if there was more example provide than Midori's day which isn't even a harem. But if you're talking about regular romance about bad boys that is tough on outside and maybe soft on the inside, than Slam dunk have been doing it for years since the 1990 (over 101 episode and 30 volume of manga) and i'm sure it's not the first either.
If you want to talk about harem, Negima is recent and the formula of dorky guy surround by beautiful girl still is a standard with Ken Akatmatsu. Another recent harem series is Girl Bravo in which you have loser boy Yukinari. |
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Wolverine Princess
Posts: 1100 |
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What about this guy, hunh? 
Okay, I know Karin isn't a harem anime, and that it's just another boy's romance, but I'm actually having difficulty coming up with characters that fit this persona specifically from harem anime. Maybe I should change the title from harem to boy's romances in general. |
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sweet gimmick
 Posts: 69 Location: Somewhere in Everyone's heart...hopefully |
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Ummm...what anime is he from, he looks kinda familiar?
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Urd
 Posts: 317 Location: Paris, France |
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Bad anime.
Bad anime. And... bad anime. 
You should watch Shuffle. 
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5586 |
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Kenta from Karin. |
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frentymon
Forums Superstar
 Posts: 2362 Location: San Francisco |
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Kenta Usui from Karin, a wacky anime about a vampire girl who...apparently, "untakes" in blood. Is infamous for looking too much like a certain "Mad Dog Sawamura" from Midori no Hibi... [Edit] Wow, people are fast.[/Edit] |
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Wolverine Princess
Posts: 1100 |
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Here we go, another angry ugly boy actually from a harem anime to add to my case:
(Takeya Ikuhara of DearS) |
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prettygirl
 Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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Hmm... I don't find him ugly at all Kinda cute, actually. Is it just me? Of course my opinion is based solely on this picture since I haven't seen the anime.
And I totally agree with Patachu about the appeal of "NOT-SO-NICE GUY - - - -> NICE GUY". Reminds me of Kyo from Fruits Basket. Not really harem but he's a guy with a bad attitude. He eventually won my heart as the anime went on. Not to say that in real life I like guys with bad attitudes (I don't). It's just that in anime, I'd rather watch a tough guy come to terms with his weakness(es) and soften up than to watch a guy without a backbone get beat up all the time by some ultra-aggressive female (such as in Love Hina). What do you think? In response to xuebaochai's comment about "the bad boys beating out the shy dweebs 99% of the time", I think that's just because the shy guys are too shy to act out any of their thoughts so the more aggressive bad boy gets the girl. Or did you mean girls are more attracted to bad boys than shy boys? |
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