2012-06-19, 03:00 | Link #41 |
Autistic NEET bath lover
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: France
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I do enjoy both kinds of shows : for me, harems feature a young male lead surrounded by girls, but he is oblivious to the main heroine's feelings due to misunderstandings and accidents, and he can't really stand up for himself (unless he's strong or something) because of her. In opposite side, the all-girls shows features strong emphasis on relationships between the heroines, their motivations and their dark pasts, and the various emotions displayed by them are executed well and fit what they do. However, I don't have any preference for any of them, but I do love them because of their interesting plots presents in many shows.
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2012-06-19, 04:28 | Link #43 | |
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
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Personally I don't really care but I would prefer a mixed gender cast over either options. |
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2012-06-19, 04:39 | Link #44 |
RUN, YOU FOOLS!
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Formerly Iwakawa base and Chaldea. Now Teyvat, the Astral Express & the Outpost
Age: 44
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I too would prefer a mixed genre option. What would be refereshing about the harem genre would be a boisterous or a "big brother-like" male lead like Rider from Fate/Zero, or Eikichi Onizuka. Another interesting take would be MORE THAN ONE male lead, something like three brothers or three friends, and watch the shenanigans and chemistry.
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2012-06-21, 22:43 | Link #45 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
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*walks in with a cane*
The biggest difference between anime now and back in my day is that back then (late 90s) was that the main thing people talked about back then was "complex plots" Now, it's all about "cute girls"... What happened? Now get off the dang lawn! ...If the cute girls thing is here to stay, then where's the moe Evangelion, the moe Cowboy Bebop, and the moe Serial Experiments Lain? Even if we're stuck with cute girls doing cute things, I want more of cute girls doing cute things... with a plot! Madoka is a step in the right direction, even if it overplays the grimdark. Well, at least we have a moe Akagi. Wait. Akagi was already moe!
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2012-06-21, 23:03 | Link #47 |
Last Engage
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Florida
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Characters are more important than plot, I believe. You can get a lot of mileage out of character interaction, and the right character interaction can lead to what is traditionally called a plot. An audience will remember strong characters, though I do see the importance of plot twists and such.
It depends on if one thinks characters are there to serve the needs of the plot, or the plot is there to serve the needs of the characters. |
2012-06-21, 23:10 | Link #48 | |
Not an expert on things
Join Date: Jun 2007
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For me, I don't really watch a harem and watch an "all girls" anime expecting the same things from both. They don't have to be similar at all. |
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2012-06-22, 00:37 | Link #49 |
Administrator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Age: 41
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It took a bit of Google searching to find this old article (some content on the site may be slightly NSFW, but the article itself isn't), but I think it's relevant. Without wanting to regurgitate the whole thing, the author proposes that there are four different categories of moe images, and that they exist on a sort of continuum that involves different levels of involvement of "the male gaze" (or that of his narrative proxy). The net result, if you buy into his theory anyway, is that both harem anime and these "all girls" anime (as they are so-called here) can both very much center around moe characters, but the main difference is the type of moe on display in the work. So I think it's quite true that a) these sorts of works have less in common than some (like the OP) might think, and b) you can't really try to approach them in the same way just because it seems like both types of works center around female, moe characters. It's pretty clear that the kinds of interactions that are shown and encouraged in a show featuring moe characters with a prominent male lead are totally different than the types of interactions you would find in a show where there is no male lead at all, but this is because the shows have totally different objectives/goals.
I would say "Late-Night TV anime and the Internet happened", but this is really a topic for another thread (that has, granted, been done before).
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2012-06-22, 01:19 | Link #50 |
✘˵╹◡╹˶✘
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Australia
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Anyone still have that short comic of a guy explaining how harem series turned into "all-girls" manga/anime to his guy friend (with his friend mostly butting in something like "Why am I even your friend in the 1st place")?
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2012-06-22, 02:06 | Link #51 | |
Enjoying Snack Time!
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Every character is different and I also find it interesting to see what motivates them to do what do, and the ups and downs that comes with the steps they take. Motivation varies from case to case, but the drive and the risks they take to do what they feel is right can help a story flow naturally just like the interactions between each character.
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2012-06-22, 03:00 | Link #52 | |
Gamilas Falls
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
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Space Battleship Yamato 2199 *Cough*
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2012-06-22, 08:35 | Link #53 | |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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I don't get the whole premise of the thread (and apparently neither do many other people). An "all-girl cast" isn't a genre. Conflating "Queen's Blade" and "K-on!"? And why does the presence or absence of a male character drive comfort? Since this is like the 3rd or 4th thread like this in a couple of weeks ("girls, they're scary, durr?") I'm starting to get trigger-twitchy. I *do* prefer mixed cast ensembles (e.g. Sketchbook ~full colors~) though I *get* that japanese fans find the "mysterious" (rofl) world of girls talking to girls fascinating. I also prefer non-high school settings simply due to the utter overkill of high school settings. Yes, its nostalgic for 20-somethingish salarymen but surely college was a fun lark as well?
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2012-06-23, 11:20 | Link #55 | |
Banned
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I prefer harem. Jokes, romance, action, tsundere, moe and sex clashes are never boring for me.. and which has a good plot... |
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2012-06-24, 01:00 | Link #57 |
#1 Akashiya Moka Fan
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The thing with high school is, IMO, that it's a time of "purity" and "innocence", before you graduate and realize what the Real World has to offer. There's also the fact that usually whenever the setting is at college, the plotline tends to get more mature and sexualized (not that all anime that happens at college follows this)
But anyways, I have to go with harem personally. While an all girl cast does have its place, a good portion of the time there are yuri undertones caused either by the director or the fans putting on the goggles... and I am one of the few guys in existence that strongly dislikes yuri. At least in a harem, it's heterosexual love with at least one (usually three or more though) girls, and even if the guy is a complete loser, I can still identify with him*. In an all girls cast... unless the plot is also strong and interesting, I can't really connect with a character. *Please note that I also bash my head against the wall repeatedly when the male lead is a pathetic loser. And as for harem males getting better... well, here's what I've noticed: if you have around 10~15 harems shows per year, if you're lucky, three to five of them will have a strong male lead. The rest... are just TnA fests
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2012-06-24, 01:08 | Link #58 |
Senior Member
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There's an old adage amongst writers - "Write what you know."
What it basically means is don't write something that exists in the real world that you have no real world experience with. The reason being that when somebody who does have RW experience with that reads what you wrote about it, you run the risk of seeming like a total hack writer to that person. It's like writing a story all about politics when you've never been involved in politics at all, or writing a story where the main character runs a company when you've never ran any businesses at all, etc... Now, what's something that just about everybody goes through in today's world? High school. So this is something that the VN/LN/manga writer knows, from personal first-hand experience. College they might be less knowledgeable about, and hence not feel as confident about. Maybe many VN/LN/manga writers never went to College? I honestly don't know. I'm just putting that out there for consideration.
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2012-06-24, 01:27 | Link #59 | |
We're Back
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
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Now that's an interesting statement Lets use 2011 as a sample since it's the most recent complete year, by my count there are 24 harem shows (or shows with harem elements in them).... If I missed out one let me know, after all I don't watch everything... Spoiler for list:
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Last edited by Chaos2Frozen; 2012-06-24 at 01:41. |
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2012-06-24, 01:40 | Link #60 |
Tastes Cloudy
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Snake Way
Age: 35
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My Ideal harem anime's are Tenshi Muyo and Rosario + Vampire(Manga) Neither have dimwitted leads and both of them have pretty damn good story and very evened out and reasonable fanservice, not thrown at you like a pie at a circus.
My only gripe with all female cast shows is the people who assume any girl/girl interaction is lesbian. And the badly over loaded fanservice ones like Queens blade. So if there were more GOOD anime's of these two.... yea.. @ Chaos2Frozen - maken-ki 's lead is Meeeh. he's not really strong as the female leads. But he has the ultimate power deep inside him.
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