[felix]

What is it?

Harem plot that just orbits male lead stupidity.

Worst Offenders?

Sadly, it has become the de facto definition of a harem anime. So, yeah everything under the sun. Series like IS are just pushing it to the next frontier, to the point the main protagonist almost looks gay. Actually, maybe if he was officially gay it would probably make for more interesting plot.

What makes it popular?

Uh… it's not really popular; just cheap. Really cheap! It's more of a popular technique, just like filler is popular technique.

Reasons I hate it?

Because even a corny explanation is better. Because the crappy male lead, typically implies even crappier backplot — and that's if they don't just have X is classmate, Y is childhood friend, etc. Because female leads in this environment simply can't be anything more then one of the standard bad stereotypes we've all seen a 1000 times. Because, shit, you know he either won't end up with any of them, or pick the worst one that just happens to look pretty (on paper), never the caring one, never the deserving one, never the skilled one, never the charming one, no-no always has to be the one with the shitty attitude and problems (how else are they gonna emphasize how retarded he is). Because it's overused, and tends to creep into what should be technically "serious stories" — mind you I'm not against series like IS that are designed to be watched with your brain off, but still.