Thank you. One of the more annoying phenomenom is the fanboy numbnut "horserace" analysis of the worth of a series. "My girl didn't win so the story sucked" ... ... ... doesn't exactly endear the speaker to anyone who has minimal skills in story assessment.
Do the characters make believable choices based on the information they have? Do the characters make choices that illuminate their character or does it look like the writer is pulling them out of their ass or a polling group?
Sometimes I'll pull out the Love Hina example because its easy to follow: (spoilered in case someone under a rock doesn't know the series outcome)
I find that the types of characters I like in these romances rarely "win" .. apparently my tastes don't parallel either the authors or the sweaty little polling groups they seem to use. So I go into these looking for well written entertaining stories. Even though Kanon comes from an ero-game, I find it hard to think of as a harem story. To me, its a mystery with surreal fantasy aspects. Whether anyone actually connects up in the end is almost irrelevant, though looking at all the tracks, only two endings really make sense in terms of a written or animated story: (spoilered)
So, I'll say "Mai FTW" ... though its really for my own personal win rather than what is most appropriate for Yuuichi.