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Originally Posted by Hemisphere
It doesn't just rob them of a dignified ending; haremized characters are also robbed of any potential for growth/development. Once they enter a harem, whatever characterization they have left is usually stripped away and replaced with an unnatural need to pander to the harem lead (and by extension to the audience) by over-exaggerating the asset/s of whatever archetype said character happens to represent. They are either reduced to comic relief, or forced "dramatic tension" stories which are just ingratiating. It's especially galling when characters end up haremized after they get their character development, because it feels more like a step backwards; suddenly, all development is lost and whatever characterization they had or could have had from this point on ends up flanderized badly as just another harem character trying to win the lead's affection, as if lobotomized.
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Yeah, I feel like that backwards development the characters inevitably suffer by becoming haremized is practically like suffering Disney death, in a way. They really do "die" as a character because they become a completely different character from what was established in their previous appearances and roles- And it is always a tragically negative transformation as all they do from there on is to, as you said, act jealous while competing with the other haremized characters to get closer to the main character's dick. While they at least
attempt to act somewhat similar by keeping a part of their personality that defined their character (hence people thinking Kurumi would be the typical "yandere" archetype once she joins the harem), their whatever motives/intentions and the deeper parts of their characterization are completely lost. And it is at that point where the character just becomes unlikable and makes audience feel bad for liking that character in the first place- Watching them turn into something like such is just all the more painful to me because it means it's then canonical that they are no longer good characters. It's really like watching a fanfic becoming canon where butchered characterizations become reality. Truly terrifying.
And yes, harem stories where the heroines running after the male lead- That is also quite a pain to go through. It artificially puts focus on the main character, no matter how completely uninteresting the character is, and unsurprisingly, the main leads are almost always never interesting in anything that involves harem. (To Love Ru, Infinite Stratos, SnO, etc) Their personalities are flat as a stone, and only really serves as a self-insert target. It's all the more painful when the author attempts to put some sort of personality into them, but it only comes out extremely forced because it's just completely out of context with their established flat personality. Again, this serves to completely devalue the actual interesting characters, and I hate it when that happens.
And also yes, I actually want the whole seirei-Shidou relationship to be more of a teacher-student thing than a lover-lover relationship (outside of say, Tohka, as she is the main female lead) since it wouldn't necessarily result in them being jealous over another in an attempt to get closer to Shidou and I feel like that could actually somewhat salvage these characters from becoming a typical harem character. Instead of Shidou, they would be more fascinated with the new world they discovered, and they see Shidou as a key or a guide that can help them get familiarized, and ultimately, become a part of it. (Or at least, until the ending)
Kurumi is a special exception- I feel like she's already too established to be a character that serves to bring misfortune to be grouped with the other seireis. I actually did cringe a bit when Kurumi took Shidou's "I will rescue you" speech to the point that she just wanted him to "take it back" and caused the whole drama over it after she was built up to be a merciless cold-blooded killer. Like, really? Unless this was supposed to be a foreshadowing of some sort regarding Shidou's some hidden secret magic potential where his words become reality, I just couldn't understand how a character that was built up as a terrible killer would be taken aback by few words. You might disagree, but that little bit of characterization seemed way too forced to me, as if the author was trying to humanize Kurumi in some way, but it just came out extremely wrong. Of course, this character becoming a part of the harem would all the more make no sense to me. I'm not against this character slowly veering towards sanity, but it's definitely not something that I think should be happening anytime soon, in my opinion. I'd think where she does visibly and explicitly show the sign of her becoming more accepting of humans as an appropriate character ending for Kurumi, rather than showing the outcome of the actual change in character. (That or tragic death works just as well)
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Originally Posted by Hemisphere
Personally speaking, however, DAL struck me as Kaminomi meets Evangelion meets Strike Witches, so I thought of giving it a shot. Entertaining, as I've mentioned, and well-suited for light reading as the author doesn't use heavy Japanese kanji, but...
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I'd say DAL is closer to Kaminomi meets Infinite Stratos than Strike Witches, but yeah, that sounds about right. And while I didn't like Infinite Stratos after they completely butchered a certain character's personality and introduced rather few annoying characters, I liked Kaminomi enough to the point that I would pick a similar series up.
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Originally Posted by Hemisphere
The premise was clearly inspired by TWGOK/Kaminomi (to be a parody of several galgame tropes), and the similarities are very much present (between the main characters' circumstances, who forced them into their job, kissing as a means of solving their problems) but unlike Kaminomi, DAL seemed more imaginative in its scope - at first. I liked the way Keima solved the heroines' problems in Kaminomi with a mix of subterfuge and direct approach while using his repertoire of galgame knowledge (which is where the galgame parodies usually come in), but unlike in Kaminomi, DAL is rather brute-forced and straight to the point in its approach. Shidou meets seirei, Shidou gets forced to date seirei, cue Ratatoskr making the entire encounter as hellish as possible for cheap laughs assisting Shidou, seirei goes out of control, Shidou gives an impassioned speech, kiss, problem solved, new harem member obtained.
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I agree with this point as well. While DAL's built world is much more interesting, (to me, at least) and heavier serious tone is implied, (death actually being a relevant issue, though no significant character has yet to really die), it somehow manages to not satisfy any of its potentials. Due to the author's very formulaic method of resolving every volume and seirei problem, the characters' roles would inevitably stay the same. As you said, Reine/Kotori's roles become just establishing jokes that were initially funny, but repetitive. It's like some shows where the main character's perverted nature is initially used as a joke- It's funny, somewhat, at first. But after that, it just becomes extremely annoying quickly. It just bothers me that DAL does have potential to be actually
good, but it just falls flat in the end while Kaminomi manages to take something that doesn't have as much potential to turn it very fun to read. It just seems like whenever the author takes the "love comedy" route, the writing just goes all over the place, and usually ends up rather bad or repetitive. If Shidou managed to be as half as interesting as Keima, I feel like this series could really improve, since another big problem with harem shows is that the main male lead is never characterized as his own- and more by his relationship with characters who do. (before they become part of the harem, in which case, they lose their characterization too)