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Old 2017-04-06, 10:54   Link #1
BWTraveller
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Join Date: Oct 2014
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Harem full of girls saved from despair

Plenty of harems have a girl who has a horrible backstory, a girl who lives a life buried in despair and desperation, whom the hero "saves", sometimes literally and sometimes just by somehow creating a way for the girl to find hope once more. I was wondering if there were any harems with several such girls.

Three great examples of this type of girl come to mind: Lily from Danmachi, Sinon from SAO and Raphtalia from The Rising of the Shield Hero (nicknamed Shieldbro).

Spoiler for Lily:


Spoiler for Sinon:


Spoiler for Raphtalia:


I love these sorts of characters. It's not that I like harem members who feel some sort of dependence or gratitude or anything. Rather, it's just that I love the brightness you see in them. Light seems so much brighter when you see it after escaping a dark tunnel, and for this sort of character the world truly comes alive for the first time in a long time, bringing about some incredibly touching scenes and a bright personality that I just love. It's for this reason that I'd like to see if there were a harem series with more than just one or two girls who'd been thus pulled from the abyss, so to speak.
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Old 2017-04-06, 16:42   Link #2
AnimeFangirl
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The World Only God Knows is about a guy who goes around saving various girls by making them fall in love with him. I think? It's been a long time since I watched it and I didn't really like it. But anyway there's a whole bunch of troubled girls who fall in love with the main character. I don't think he makes a harem out of them though.
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Old 2017-04-12, 15:25   Link #3
cyberdemon
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Date A Live is built on the premise
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Old 2017-04-12, 16:37   Link #4
erneiz_hyde
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A lot of VNs are like this, hell this is pretty much the default VN story structure only in varying degrees. Grisaia, Sharin no Kuni, Yume Miru Kusuri, to name a few.
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Old 2017-04-13, 19:08   Link #5
frivolity
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The Grisaia series embodies this entire concept. The bonus is that after the MC saves the girls, it's later their turn to save him.
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Old 2017-04-15, 02:53   Link #6
~Yami~
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KEY series are mostly composed based on this... Clannad, Little Busters, etc
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Old 2017-11-12, 05:20   Link #7
0cean
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Elfenlied pretty much took this entire concept to it's extreme. With the main guy having, for reasons that don't matter, this really big house/hotel and then, over the course of the anime, all those tragic heroines just moving in with him. But fans will vehemently deny Elfenlied to be a harem-anime. Even though it is one. Just like people will deny horror movies the genre and call it something else if it was really good. People are weird that way.
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Old 2017-11-13, 11:10   Link #8
BWTraveller
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 0cean View Post
Elfenlied pretty much took this entire concept to it's extreme. With the main guy having, for reasons that don't matter, this really big house/hotel and then, over the course of the anime, all those tragic heroines just moving in with him. But fans will vehemently deny Elfenlied to be a harem-anime. Even though it is one. Just like people will deny horror movies the genre and call it something else if it was really good. People are weird that way.
OK, I'm not buying that one on multiple reasons. For one, it's not actually a harem: Lucy and his cousin love him, but that's it. The others don't show any romantic interest in him. Additionally, I wouldn't really say they'd escaped from their despair. Mayu's free from her mother and abuser, but Nana's still dealing with all sorts of stuff that won't go away, including knowledge of just how dangerous Lucy and the others are; not to mention that, while Lucy manages to find love and some happiness, she's still haunted by a deep darkness within her that cannot leave. Basically, it feels like the author's showing them "escaping the dark tunnel" as I described only for the bright light to reveal a barren wasteland that can never bear fruit. I don't know, it was just a really dark show and made the impression that any time someone finds happiness it's just a prelude to deeper despair.
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Old 2017-11-16, 12:33   Link #9
Zefyris
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Technically Fate Averuncus' harem in Mahou sensei Negima (manga) is 100% that.
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Old 2017-11-16, 17:05   Link #10
BWTraveller
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zefyris View Post
Technically Fate Averuncus' harem in Mahou sensei Negima (manga) is 100% that.
Quite true. It's kind of convenient to have those that serve a big bad (he was for a time both bad and the biggest visible) possess such traumatic pasts. It gives them an excuse for why they're so determined to do such evil things without them being just plain bad people. I recall in the old series Raimuiro Senkitan, the villain had two girls who eagerly sought to achieve his goals, and both are shown to have lived hellish lives that nearly ended before he saved them and offered, if not love, at least value as tools for someone who needed their power.
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Old 2017-11-16, 17:35   Link #11
cyberdemon
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High School DxD has several characters who the main character saved from a variety of reason who ended up becoming part of his harem. some who were saved from enemies, one who was saved from a unhappy engagement, some saved from traumas from their past.
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Old 2017-11-16, 20:40   Link #12
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Strange no one mentions Index. The girls Touma saves in turn save others.
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Old 2017-11-17, 00:21   Link #13
dniv
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Yeah, VN's tend to cover this sort of stuff. I third Grisaia. That one's REALLY good.

Bakato's also spot on with Toaru Majutsu no Index. To a large degree, it's got a harem full of girls saved from despair. And it's handled in one of the best ways I've seen in general. ~
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