Why does most harem anime tend to have uninteresting male leads?

[Bulba.Saur]

I'd say Clannad can fall under a Harem hehe

I think the female characters are the focus on the anime...even though the mail is the centralized character, but cmon who watches harems for the guy stuck in the middle?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Ok now... What makes Clannad not a harem? Since there is no harem end in the game? or its just because there are multiple routes where he can end up with one of the other girls. Clannad AS is an exception since we know who he ends up with.

Anyway, same question applies to Koicho and Da Capo...

Basically, the difference is in the way the story tends to play out.

Visual novel-based anime tend to inherit their "harem" nature out of an effort blend a large number of otherwise incompatible routes. But the original source is generally "4-6 different romances", so the romantic chemistry between the lead and each heroine is more important. Even though the protagonist may have a bit of an "everyman" sort of personality (so that they're compatible with every possible pairing), there is often more room for personality and growth (because they are intimately involved in the narrative of every route). The portion of the plot that may center on romantic indecision in the anime is either a) part of the "common arc", or b) a necessity as they try to combine elements of otherwise incompatible routes. In the end, though, chances are the male lead will have a more defined personality assuming they stay faithful to the source material. In my opinion, the best visual novel adaptations are those that more-or-less pick one route and stick with it to the end. Animating different routes would be okay too, but they rarely have the time.

Light and manga novels that are more romance-driven can take on some of the same traits as these, and the key differentiator is generally whether the story really revolves around romance itself.

The "shounen romantic comedy" sort of harem anime, on the other hand, are generally linear stories whose main focus is not actually "romance", but on creating situations that will extend the hijinks and indecision as long as possible. Usually the protagonist plays a direct part in keeping this going by generally being a "lucky sukebe" (as they say) and being unable to either a) choose the person they like, or b) be allowed by the plot to successfully choose them. These sorts of stories are way more likely to result in an inconclusive ending, because the essence of the fantasy is preserving the "who are they going to choose?" question going for as long as possible.

The are some visual novels that have this sort of story, but they are rarely either all that popular or adapted to mainstream anime (because there are plenty of manga and light novels that already have that sort of theme).


So anyway, you can call them all "harem" if you want, but they don't generally have as much in common as you might think by that label alone.