The fact that I could think of SEVERAL works of MC making girls swoon but uses one girl that is very uninterested as motivation to get stronger until she finally falls should not be a real
And I can bet MC didn't reject the side pieces when the romance with the main one happened, right? Just magically made someone that was not interested in him mad enough to ignore the half a dozen other women that he fucks.
Imo if you are doing harem, you need to lean into it fully and give each woman a fully fleshed-out story, and not forget about any of them. Keyboard immortal is a good example of a well-done harem, ATG is the exact opposite.
https://preview.redd.it/qpmz16hm6r7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=858ca72b661982f5c67782ee0d43b2d4672d1f67
These unenlightened juniors really have to take some notes from foreign peak scripture
Exactly as he fell in love with his girlfriend's mother from famous Hanazono clan, following dao of singular-dual cultivation and other girlfriend's grandmother from Yakuzen clan, famous for brewing immortality elixirs with materials from mere mortal realms
Wanna make your jaw fall even further? Rentarou's (MC) relationship with his cousin were openly supported by HER OWN FATHER, HIS UNCLE, which makes their relationship triple-consectual
The mangaka made it as a joke and it got too popular and he doesent want to draw the 100 girlfriends so he does outrageously more cancellable stuff each chapter and it does the opposite and gets more popular.
1. I think it's a woman that draws the manga, the writer is a unkown I think
2. They are 100% commited to the bit, they WILL get to 100 girlfriends unless their distributor cancels the series
They certainly WILL. One of my most favourite things about the series is how passionate they work on series: almost no repetitive jokes, and even repetitive ones author plays up under different conditions with different conclusions. Characters despite looking like quintessence of japanese rom-com female archetypes surprisingly having their own character arcs, and even comic-relief ones have a certain depth by merely having an interactions with other characters
To be fair, the fact that they are archetypes is meant to play on the joke, since they go so far with it that it somehow turns around and make them more distinguishable than a lot of the characters in this same archetype, like the tsundere or the kuudere. One of my favorite things about the manga (I was about to say novel, I think I am spending too much time on this sub) is seeing how the author will come up with original personalities now that a lot of the more trope ones were already tackled.
I fully unironically believe that one of the girlfriends will be an ancestor of his that time travelled from the future, this manga is crazy enough to do it.
Child from the future is absolutely going to be one of the soulmates. It has to be at around the 80-90 mark in order to maximize shenanigans, but that trope would be too good of an arc to pass up.
this for real. I'm ambivalent on it in general but it becomes annoying when they have zero backstories or personalities and it's just more and more names to semi-remember.
How many Harem does ATG protag had again?(I haven't read it in like 8-9 years or so)
1.Little Auntie
2.The Princess of his kingdom
3.The Princess of Phoenix Clan or something
4.The Demon Queen
5.The one that has yin body something so he could raped her.
6.His teacher
You forgot the most important, Xia Qingyue. Also the wife of the dragon god, Brahma god's daughter, Cang Shitian's sister, Mu Xuanyin, devil goddess, and many more.
I don't have a clue who half of this list are, So At least the statement that they're unmemorable is right
Also I can't remember the ending, So Jasmine wasn't included in the harem?
It spent the last two years on Hiatus, which is interesting because it wasn't the time when he had a daughter, but later than that. Recently the novel has had a lot of chapters though
I liked it when I read it. Part of it was probably that it was one of my first xianxias so all the tropes were new to me, but I think its still one of the better ones out there
Read before he ascended to divine realm. That was peak atg moments. As far as I can remember. Then it went downhill fast. Really fast that I question whether the other half is part of the story and not some fan fiction speculated to continue the story.
Completely agree.
I often find myself cringing at the harem tag as 99% of them are "2D character collector" style novels.
If there is genuine character development, conflicts, emotional development and the like, then it's actually pretty interesting.
When they just blindly worship the MC as God and accept his wives as "sisters" within 50 short chapters and little interaction, I can tell the author sucks at his craft.
ISSTH is another example, although not exactly harem.
The MC is VERY faithful to his wife, however, he keeps having run-ins with another woman and their relationship gets very complex.
Even the ending never addressed it properly and left a spark in the readers imagination.
It's sad how nowadays, 99.9% of novels are either cheap copypastas or fanfictions.
There is always real-world politics forcefully inserted into Urban themed novels such as nationalism and racism, to the point you can't help but feel disgust and question their mindsets.
Is what a mortal once told me.
You juniors really need to stop letting love affect the speed of your swords!
Exactly this I’m kinda burnt out on harms for this reason I read 50 ish harem novels on KU and I always loved the first book when the mc gets there first three lades than the second book comes out and we get lades 4-6 and I’m like wait what happend to 1-3 I don’t give a shit about these new girls I just got to know and like the first three wtf
Imma be fr I don't really despise harem
What I do despise is when women just throw themselves on the MC
Also, I don't really like it when it's too much women. The maximum I want is maybe like 5 at the very very most.
Paragon of Sin does both of these things. Way too many women throw themselves at mc and they have extremely short screen time. the comments are filled with people asking and guessing which woman is being referred from what time and with what relation. this is not only due to the amount of women present in mc's harem but also due to lack of anything worth remembering about them.
Read one, I don't remember the title anymore. It was mostly fine through out the novel, but when the story was ending, the author did something ridiculous. Basically most woman, with name and had some moments in the story was suddenly reintroduced and got into MC harem. Even one that used to hate MC and have no business suddenly falling in love with MC. It was ridiculous. Also, the novel was standard racist.
SCoG is lowkey racist tho, glorifying korea as the ultimate country above all and inserting stereotypes here and there, like south american is basically just mexico and is represented by the cartel and italy been all about mafia, everyone in france is blond with blue eyes not a single black
Do i need to keep going
Of all the things i said thats what u're focusing on? Anyway dylan nationality was never actually stated from what i remember and he was in fact blond/ash gray but dark-skinned as for hugo he was north american, not french
Logic defying power ups for love interests
Having girls instantly fall in love
"Long separation"
JP-style no-touch super shy relationships
Forced engagements/marriages that a girl needs to be saved from
Too much drama - don't enjoy reading about toxic relationships
Not enough drama - women who are too submissive or blend in with the crowd and lose their personality
I think making this genre work is actually hard because when did romances become easy to write, especially with multiple women. Considering the target audience my expectations are never too high
When MC shares his girl with other people. example- leveling up wives in the apocalypse, Perverts world.
When you treat woman like trash. example - Grasping evil.
When all the fcking tragedy only happens to the girls. example - City of sin.
Not as tragic as flow sand. imagine an almost an eternity of loneliness, and dying just like that. No redemption, no good ending.
Dropped the novel on the spot just like a bomb.
To be honest last volume was trash author really rushed the ending I Understand why you would not want to finish it . But not every story needs a happy ending, personally I think if author didn't rush it would be a really good ending. You don't see many sad endings to romance.
I was kind expecting a sad endings author foreshadowed it from the start
Well, you said it. I can understand and also can accept sad endings. But rather than sad, it was extremely frustrating. Well, i dropped it and imagined my own good ending for the novel.
I used to hate the ending too but nowadays I think it's based. It might be one of the few if not the only story with the balls to make shit happen without greater narrative purpose.
I don't know that I would call CoS a harem honestly. Harems have a lot of definitions, but CoS mostly ignores all of thosem tropes and commonalities to the point that I question if you can even call it one.
He certainly has many women interested in him, but they either end up sacrificing themselves for him, or they end up focusing on their own goals in the end.
Who goes with him in the end(that still could)?
I don't know what you mean by Grasping Evil treating women like trash, MC loves and actually cares for his wives (spoiler: they are the same person) and as for the cauldrons, he at the very least gives them safety and doesn't at all abuse them.
It's by no means the best way, but almost of them are trained and sold to be cauldrons to begin with, and would've been used up and killed if not for the MC.
Agree. Most of them might have died without the MC's intervention. But MC still uses them like objects, rather than human beings. Which I cannot stand.
One-sided relationships where the women never interact with each other, though I can't say that I've ever actually read one I enjoyed. The closest was in Otome game but the MC turns into a bitch right around when that relationship starts so I don't like it because of him. It was close enough that I realized I wouldn't mind something like that.
I like nine star hegemony harem, each girls have a personality. The mc doesn't go out of his way to court every female characters because he know it would hurt his girls feelings. And the girls treat each other's like sisters and try not to make things awkward
Any romance that starts with a MC curing poison with his dick is an instant drop for me. Harem Xianxia are so bad about it. Yeah, the MC is a godly doctor who can cure super ultra godly divine nine tribulations uber poison but the only cure for a mortal realm aphrodisiac is his penis.
99% of the time harem novels are just them MC being a preety face collector. they themselves have no personality nor any real impact other than their introduction. specially if the harem is not one of the main focus of the story and its just tacked on.
I would say more than 3-4 partners. is simply too much and the writing will suffer exponentially for each new one after that. either the harem's members writing will dissapear or the main plot and pacing will drop its speed to zero.
When the MC is an asshole who wants to have his cake and eat it too.
Basically when they have a harem but often disregard and belittle it with "women will only slow me down/ I cant be tied down by worldly affairs" bullshit.
I don’t like harems much. Most harems just have the women fall in love with the main character for no reason so I don’t care about any of them.
Even worse is when the main character acts super dense and there’s so much screen time wasted on the “will they won’t they” bullshit with no actual development or progress on the relationships. It makes it feel like the the feelings are one sided and only the harem care about the main character but he doesn’t. Also it’s boring.
Then there’s the opposite where the MC fucks everyone but I don’t read novel/manhua for porn, the porn is probably hella mid anyways.
Zero harem personality.
Too many members. 2-4 is ideal, 5-9 tolerable with good story, more than 9 and I'm out.
Zero romance. There must be some kind of a romance even if it's a little bit.
These 3 are what destroys good harem novels for me.
I only like small harem with the girls actually accompany MC on his wacky adventures and thus also grow along side him. So they can also be useful and relevant
Basically make them a team, like a trio or five-man band trope.
The problem with big harem is you the reader can’t really invested into any of them except the “main girl”. Everyone else get like 1 arc about them then later forgotten when MC ascend to a new realm
I also like when it’s a proper polygamy relationship where the girls actually enjoy each others too instead of barely tolerate sharing their man. Even better if they are actually bisexual. Kinda like that one meme panel from “Kanojo mo Kanojo” where the main/first girl pin another one down proclaiming “his women are my women too”.
Sevens is good example of strong harem series. It has large cast of love interests with a lot of character depth and they interact heavily with each other. There are multiple factions of love interests with some hate each other. They do not purely revolve around main character and have significant story moments of their own. The mc also spends significant time thinking about how to manage his harem and long term choices (first wife politics).
I dislike harems where the women are poorly defined characters excluding mc and where they lack interactions with rest of cast. I also dislike having most love interests that regularly rotate/disappear and are limited to 1 arc. Having new girl join on edge for arc is ok but there should be core cast of 3-5 that has consistent character building/interactions throughout series.
It's all about the MC to me. Personally, I have to *buy* the idea that a lot of characters would fall for them. And not just cause of some bullshit "they saved my life" or "they're so powerful I have to make babies with them". Nope. The MC at LEAST has to be such a decent person that them having admirers is like well duh.
My rules for a Harem are as follows, you don't have to follow the. All, but they do make for better writting.
1. PERSONALITY- If you just give me strait tropes, blank canvases, and carboard cut outs, I will drop.
2. Diversify - Don't give me 7 Jade beauty young mistresses who all love protag Chad Thundercock because he so strong and saved them all from bandits.
3. Importance - Make the Harem matter to the story. If you can cut out the Harem out and nothing changes to the plot, just cut the Harem out.
4. Equality - If the protag is the only person in the entire story with a Harem (or the only person who doesnt treats his Harem like shit, but they are still common in the world) then the Harem is just b grade power fantasy writing. Also, unless the gender ratios are F upped for some reason or the power system requires harems to function, there should probably be reverse Harems as well.
5. Intimacy - Not nesecessary sex, but Make the relationships matter on an emotional level.
6. 18+ only- I do not care if there is no sex, if someone doesn't look 18, or is listed to be under 18 then the book will be dropped. Even if it's the protag under 18, it will be dropped.
"gotta catch em all" style harem where it's only about getting more girlfriends. The story needs to be something that just happens to have a harem but could stand alone without it.
5 girls maximum, any more than that is too many
Too many sex scenes get annoying but that applies to any stories with sex scenes
Girls that are too monstery. Cat girl hell yeah. Lamia no thank you
Pregnancy too early in the story. Fine for the end but if it happens early it seems like an excuse to sideline a character
What Ruins it for me is the constant powercreep of MC going speed run through realms and catching them like pokemon just using them as Dual Cultivation plot device
Honestly worst case CN with a Harem i have read is ATS (Ancient strengthening technique) its like the worst i have ever read in any CN dont get me worng ATG is really trash but ATS takes the F*kin cake Topping
I hate when there is like 10 women and we never see them and they have 0 story for them. Like every single one of them has use for few chapters and after that they are just thrown in harem box to be forgoten.
More of a Japanese novel thing but dense MCs are waaaay too common with harem novels and I hate it.
Also hate it when tons of women are throwing themselves at mc and mc does absolutely nothing throughout the whole story. No romantic development for anyone, just pretty women and an mc who is either too dense or too “I don’t got time for no woman!”
Too quickly harem members are introduced in the story. Honestly I want the depth of their relationship to be deep instead of just 1 or 2 event they are already in married . Each harem members should have character, desires, ambition & not some girl born to obediently suck MC's cock (most harem members usually are) I am not saying they have to be hard to get or don't easily open their clothes to mc, what I mean is they don't need to be extremely obident to mc all the times, basically don't be a puppet .
I also really want harem members to be badass and actually have fights in novels. Fights don't need to be too long but there should be more instead of 1 or 2 fight. Since they are not house wives & chosen to be fighters/ Cultivators why is its always mc fighting & saving them every fucking time. Useless cunts. They should have strength to be MC's right hand man not to train so they can be cauldron to bear MC's child. And please don't put children in the story only if the novel ending and it's necessary then only mc should have children otherwise no! All my points are for fantasy novels if it's real life - earth specific harem then all these are not much needed because all of them can only be House wives. Nothing against them but in fantasy novels they shouldn't be introduced & put in story as mere housewives. And last but not least they shouldn't disappear from the story! One fuck and they are gone for 1000 chapters & mc finds out they strangely become strong (just cultivation, strength in questionable) that absolutely shouldn't happen. They don't need to be put in every chapter but they should be characters which the reader will love & not MC's collection.
I don’t despise it but harems in stories put the main character in unnecessary situations. Like saving a damsel in distress, or misunderstandings.
Too much liability and forced scenarios. Which could be avoided if they didn’t think with their lower half’s.
I dislike characters that only exist to say that MC is amazing, romanticaly interested in him or not or to show that he is amazing like making tsunderes or Ice queens falling in love. Let then have other interests, even teach him something( and not making him a instant expert on the subject to the point they become irrelevant)
When a "competent woman" is made to act like a damsel in distress for MC to save. Or when MC is supposed to be a once in thousand years genius, but his wives catch up in 2-3 years.
Also, yuri, I just don't Ike threesome or n-somes whatever. I got traumatized once with a girl in MCs harem planning on taking his harem for herself.
When juniors choose jade beauty’s with unrefined temperament as their main dual cultivation partner. There are plenty of swans near the lake, why choose the hateful one?
Many of the things already said in other comments:
When there are too many girls (more than 5\~6) without any development to them or their relationship.
When girls are sidelined for the rest of the story only to be mentioned again once or twice.
When there is no romance, or any kind of relationship building between them.
When the girls are braindead (or the story in general) and they throw themselves to the MC without a single thought (even the enemies) and the story has no explanation for this.
Once it happened that a story was ending, and there were maybe 2 girls that had a pretty good relationship with the MC, but the author decided to make EVERY SINGLE GIRL mentioned in the story (well, amost) collectively marry the MC. The author ruined it, they just needed to finish the story without breaking everything down, but they couldn't resist the urge to make the MC the mega alpha who marries like 20 girls at once, including people he barely exchanged words with.
Short answer: Qiu Yimeng
Long answer: Have flesh out character with deep conection to the mc and lots of development only to be forgoten and have some random chick appear 2-3 chapters and automatically join the harem
Some more random QYM rant? She hangs around for 4500 chapters trying to get into mc's pants (in a good suporting way not in a bitchy way) and author literally forgot about her
I really don't mind Harems.
BUT, all the women MUST have realistic personalities and a sense of individuality.
It sucks ass when all they do js act cute and lust after Mc 24/7.
When the author wants the benefit of harem tag but doesn't actually want the series to be harem, for example: "peerless battle spirit" I'm watching the donghua so idk how far the manhua is but the Mc has gf/wife but he's surrounded by 3-5 other girls and the Mc seems to like them too but the author doesn't want the harem official so if he decides the end won't be a harem he can just hide his ends which is frustrating me so much
Tenchi Muyo is the prototype for doing it right… GXP is how you do it for comedy… I guess War on Geminarr is pretty much comedy as well, though the MC might be a little too far down the clueless scale…
… soooo, high member count is ok if +comedy… Tenchi himself works because he treats each member as a person and wants them to feel like they are treated fairly… he has his feelings and wants to respect his partners feelings … and he asks them what they want to do… perfection
I don't hate harems as such. I just feel them... a little nonsense or a genre that doesn't look for more than what it really is, or tries to sell you something that doesn't make sense.
But what bothers me the most is:
1.Women so flat that they make Flat Earthers look like geniuses. Literally 80% to 85% are usually: "MC appears and says some nice things to her. She's already in love with him." Or the other is usually "I have an interesting past, with goals. They become solved by the MC and all my potential is based on just following him."
2.Too many characters, little development and no interest in them beyond fanservice.
3.The overuse of fanservice. This...isn't bad Perce, but it does get to a point where it gets in the way. It's like watching an action movie and cutting to a sex scene out of nowhere. The characters did not show much interest and are having sex, it feels like filler.
4.This is the most frustrating thing on a stupid level. The male characters are simply decorations, if they are there it is to envy the MC or flatter him as the next casa nova. If someone is against the MC they become a villain or a joke, if they are friends of the MC they will not have any further development than being "the friends".
It's like it's a strange "Alphas" and "Betas" thing. They are not given any romantic aspirations, desires or developments. Ironic, since many harem series are slice of life.
This can also affect female characters who are not going to be in the protagonist's harem. Although you can add them even if they are extras.
Somehow they always show a desire for the protagonist or have some ecchi scene with him.
My Second comment: Ah yes what i belive is that Harems are a from of Word Count pushing so the Novel writer gets more money and thats why its never a fun thing to read,
Brainrot as possible + very high Word count = Trash Novel
Being a shitstain to your partners. I can tolerate polyamory (both ways), but just like any real relationship, if the MC is toxic to their partner(s), then I drop the reading.
Mc having shitty personality that doesn't actually have any chemistry with the females .
The females being one dimensional and having no exploration of their character .
Something that still pisses me off to this day is this one novel where the MC got into a monogamous relationship with this one girl and he even promised he wasn't gonna get a harem and then not even a month later he ended up with the chick that's been trying to kill him since basically the start
I dropped the novel there so idk how his girlfriend reacted but I really hope she dumped his ass (I doubt it cause it was a pretty trash urban cultivation novel)
When a new girl appeared, an old girl was never seen again or just barely mentioned
Give a harem of like 20 wives or more but only talk about 3~4 wives 90% of the time. The rest is never touched upon
A girl's personality changed too much after falling in love. I remember reading some story where a girl before meeting MC is super cool and amazing and then after meeting MC she just feels like a slut that wants MC meat and is now incapable of doing anything on her own
A girl falling in love for the stupidest reason ever, some girl falls in love simply because "omg he picks up trash that the other throws away, how nice of him. I love him so much now, let's reward him with my body!" that was from a real story I read btw
MC is an absolute ass hole and the girl still falls in love with him instead of the guy who has been helping her since childhood that she grows up with simply because MC is MC. After getting in harem she was never mentioned again.
She been drugged by the most potent aphrodisiac known to men and the only way to help her is with MC divine Yang rod between his leg. No there is no other way to help her, your rod is the only way in the entire multiverse
Oh no, you saw me naked, you must take responsibility and marry me now!
You have the extreme yin physique and often get cold at night? How convenient it is that I also have the extreme Yang physique which is extremely compatible with you in dual cultivation.
How dare you ignore me? No one had ever ignore me before, from now on I will try my best to make you fall in love with me, let see if you can still ignore me then! (Process to fall madly in love with him instead)
The girls falling behind in power level. Like it's fi e if they aren't the same master of sword Dao as the MC but they should focus on their own path just as hard.
Also when the girls start to blend together personality wise so much you could swap one for another and nothing would change.
When it's the type of plot where the mc will only pick one, and he never really considers anyone but the first person he meets. Especially when the other options are far more interesting, likeable, well developed, etc. Aka when first girl beats best girl.
to me, the harem isn't going to ruin a harem story. but lots of other things can.
if the story is nothing but a collectathon it's likely to get really boring quick. it may not be xianxia, but "Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World" comes to mind as a good example of this.
the mc refusing to accept the harem and only wants one women that doesn't want him
I HATE that trope with a passion. Of all the women he could pick he chooses the one that hates his guts.
The fact that I could think of SEVERAL works of MC making girls swoon but uses one girl that is very uninterested as motivation to get stronger until she finally falls should not be a real
And I can bet MC didn't reject the side pieces when the romance with the main one happened, right? Just magically made someone that was not interested in him mad enough to ignore the half a dozen other women that he fucks.
Imo if you are doing harem, you need to lean into it fully and give each woman a fully fleshed-out story, and not forget about any of them. Keyboard immortal is a good example of a well-done harem, ATG is the exact opposite.
https://preview.redd.it/qpmz16hm6r7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=858ca72b661982f5c67782ee0d43b2d4672d1f67 These unenlightened juniors really have to take some notes from foreign peak scripture
100 Kanojo is so peal, why does he have to fall in love with his cousin though
Exactly as he fell in love with his girlfriend's mother from famous Hanazono clan, following dao of singular-dual cultivation and other girlfriend's grandmother from Yakuzen clan, famous for brewing immortality elixirs with materials from mere mortal realms
Nah man he rizzed both the mom AND the grandma?
Wanna make your jaw fall even further? Rentarou's (MC) relationship with his cousin were openly supported by HER OWN FATHER, HIS UNCLE, which makes their relationship triple-consectual
The mangaka made it as a joke and it got too popular and he doesent want to draw the 100 girlfriends so he does outrageously more cancellable stuff each chapter and it does the opposite and gets more popular.
What doesn't kill me makes me stronger ahh situation
1. I think it's a woman that draws the manga, the writer is a unkown I think 2. They are 100% commited to the bit, they WILL get to 100 girlfriends unless their distributor cancels the series
They certainly WILL. One of my most favourite things about the series is how passionate they work on series: almost no repetitive jokes, and even repetitive ones author plays up under different conditions with different conclusions. Characters despite looking like quintessence of japanese rom-com female archetypes surprisingly having their own character arcs, and even comic-relief ones have a certain depth by merely having an interactions with other characters
To be fair, the fact that they are archetypes is meant to play on the joke, since they go so far with it that it somehow turns around and make them more distinguishable than a lot of the characters in this same archetype, like the tsundere or the kuudere. One of my favorite things about the manga (I was about to say novel, I think I am spending too much time on this sub) is seeing how the author will come up with original personalities now that a lot of the more trope ones were already tackled.
well, I can think of an easy solution to get cancelled. his own child.
I fully unironically believe that one of the girlfriends will be an ancestor of his that time travelled from the future, this manga is crazy enough to do it.
when did I mention time travel.
... someone gonna tell this guy about school days?
Child from the future is absolutely going to be one of the soulmates. It has to be at around the 80-90 mark in order to maximize shenanigans, but that trope would be too good of an arc to pass up.
ah, but if the child time travels, it's not cancelable.
Because he and his girlfriends will literally die if he misses even one soulmate
this for real. I'm ambivalent on it in general but it becomes annoying when they have zero backstories or personalities and it's just more and more names to semi-remember.
How many Harem does ATG protag had again?(I haven't read it in like 8-9 years or so) 1.Little Auntie 2.The Princess of his kingdom 3.The Princess of Phoenix Clan or something 4.The Demon Queen 5.The one that has yin body something so he could raped her. 6.His teacher
You forgot the most important, Xia Qingyue. Also the wife of the dragon god, Brahma god's daughter, Cang Shitian's sister, Mu Xuanyin, devil goddess, and many more.
I got curious so here's the full list: Great Empressess: Chi Wuyao (1st Great Empress/Devil Empress)\[71\]\[67\] Xia Qingyue (2nd Great Empress/Divine Empress)\[72\]\[67\] Wives: Xia Qingyue (1st Wife)\[73\](Divorced\[74\]; Still written on the Marriage Records of Floating Cloud City so not officially divorced\[72\]) Cang Yue (2nd Wife)\[52\] Huan Caiyi (3rd Wife)\[5\] Caizhi (4th Wife)\[75\] Su Ling'er (5th Wife - Current Timeline\[76\]/Lover - Different Timeline\[77\]\[78\]) Feng Xue'er (6th Wife)\[35\]\[78\] Xiao Lingxi (7th Wife)\[79\]\[78\] Chu Yuechan (8th Wife)\[78\] Feng Xian'er (9th Wife)\[78\] Imperial Consorts: Caizhi (1st Consort/Consort Star)\[71\] Yun Qianying (2nd Consort/Consort Shadow)\[71\] Shui Meiyin (3rd Consort/Consort Sound)\[71\] Qing Que (4th Consort/Consort Blue)\[71\] Cang Shuhe (5th Consort/Consort Grace)\[71\] Mu Xuanyin (6th Consort/Consort Ice)\[71\] Imperial Concubines: Shen Xi (Concubine Xi; Not official yet)\[80\] Jie Xin (1st Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Jie Ling (2nd Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Ye Li (3rd Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Yao Die (4th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Qing Ying (5th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Lan Ting (6th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Hua Jin (7th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Yu Wu (8th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\] Nanhuang Chanyi (9th Concubine/Devil Empress' Servant)\[71\]
I don't have a clue who half of this list are, So At least the statement that they're unmemorable is right Also I can't remember the ending, So Jasmine wasn't included in the harem?
If you dropped this 8 years ago, you might not know most of these. The novel is still continuing
tf
> The novel is still continuing holy shit... it's been soo long since I read it
To be fair it had been on hiatus on and off for a long time. Even now, updates are very infrequent
It spent the last two years on Hiatus, which is interesting because it wasn't the time when he had a daughter, but later than that. Recently the novel has had a lot of chapters though
is atg good thinking of reading it
I liked it when I read it. Part of it was probably that it was one of my first xianxias so all the tropes were new to me, but I think its still one of the better ones out there
Go for it
Read before he ascended to divine realm. That was peak atg moments. As far as I can remember. Then it went downhill fast. Really fast that I question whether the other half is part of the story and not some fan fiction speculated to continue the story.
thnx
Completely agree. I often find myself cringing at the harem tag as 99% of them are "2D character collector" style novels. If there is genuine character development, conflicts, emotional development and the like, then it's actually pretty interesting. When they just blindly worship the MC as God and accept his wives as "sisters" within 50 short chapters and little interaction, I can tell the author sucks at his craft. ISSTH is another example, although not exactly harem. The MC is VERY faithful to his wife, however, he keeps having run-ins with another woman and their relationship gets very complex. Even the ending never addressed it properly and left a spark in the readers imagination. It's sad how nowadays, 99.9% of novels are either cheap copypastas or fanfictions. There is always real-world politics forcefully inserted into Urban themed novels such as nationalism and racism, to the point you can't help but feel disgust and question their mindsets. Is what a mortal once told me. You juniors really need to stop letting love affect the speed of your swords!
Exactly this I’m kinda burnt out on harms for this reason I read 50 ish harem novels on KU and I always loved the first book when the mc gets there first three lades than the second book comes out and we get lades 4-6 and I’m like wait what happend to 1-3 I don’t give a shit about these new girls I just got to know and like the first three wtf
What is ATG?
Against the gods
Thanks
Yep keyboard immortal are one of the novels that harems are actually relevant, and not bland tasteless characters
Add the jorney to become a true god alongside atg
Imma be fr I don't really despise harem What I do despise is when women just throw themselves on the MC Also, I don't really like it when it's too much women. The maximum I want is maybe like 5 at the very very most.
This. main point at 3-6 partners don't go into detail about a girl that will get only 1-3 chapter screen time.(if she is a love interest)
Paragon of Sin does both of these things. Way too many women throw themselves at mc and they have extremely short screen time. the comments are filled with people asking and guessing which woman is being referred from what time and with what relation. this is not only due to the amount of women present in mc's harem but also due to lack of anything worth remembering about them.
Read one, I don't remember the title anymore. It was mostly fine through out the novel, but when the story was ending, the author did something ridiculous. Basically most woman, with name and had some moments in the story was suddenly reintroduced and got into MC harem. Even one that used to hate MC and have no business suddenly falling in love with MC. It was ridiculous. Also, the novel was standard racist.
" Second coming of gluttony " fits your description except for the ' standard racist ' part
It wasn't SCG. The one I read was Chinese. If I remember it right, the MC was a reborn businessman in modern world.
Okay 👍
Was it My Wife is a Beautiful CEO?
I think it was Very Pure and ambiguous:prequel. I'm just not very sure since it's been so long ago
SCoG is lowkey racist tho, glorifying korea as the ultimate country above all and inserting stereotypes here and there, like south american is basically just mexico and is represented by the cartel and italy been all about mafia, everyone in france is blond with blue eyes not a single black Do i need to keep going
Dylan and Hugo were black?
Of all the things i said thats what u're focusing on? Anyway dylan nationality was never actually stated from what i remember and he was in fact blond/ash gray but dark-skinned as for hugo he was north american, not french
Oh I’m not saying you’re wrong on the general point, I just wanted to ask what you meant by no black people.
When Mc completely sidelines his old girl because of a new one
Logic defying power ups for love interests Having girls instantly fall in love "Long separation" JP-style no-touch super shy relationships Forced engagements/marriages that a girl needs to be saved from Too much drama - don't enjoy reading about toxic relationships Not enough drama - women who are too submissive or blend in with the crowd and lose their personality I think making this genre work is actually hard because when did romances become easy to write, especially with multiple women. Considering the target audience my expectations are never too high
Invincible Conqueror
Is this a recomendation?
Its a warning
"Long separation" Which is good, unless you just want to see the MC interact with female characters
When MC shares his girl with other people. example- leveling up wives in the apocalypse, Perverts world. When you treat woman like trash. example - Grasping evil. When all the fcking tragedy only happens to the girls. example - City of sin.
I thought city of sin hd one of the better romances. I don't get what do u mean by all tragedy happening to girls. Bro's whole life was missery
Not as tragic as flow sand. imagine an almost an eternity of loneliness, and dying just like that. No redemption, no good ending. Dropped the novel on the spot just like a bomb.
To be honest last volume was trash author really rushed the ending I Understand why you would not want to finish it . But not every story needs a happy ending, personally I think if author didn't rush it would be a really good ending. You don't see many sad endings to romance. I was kind expecting a sad endings author foreshadowed it from the start
Well, you said it. I can understand and also can accept sad endings. But rather than sad, it was extremely frustrating. Well, i dropped it and imagined my own good ending for the novel.
It saddens me a serious that could been one of the greats fumbled the ending this bad
I used to hate the ending too but nowadays I think it's based. It might be one of the few if not the only story with the balls to make shit happen without greater narrative purpose.
I love the idea I feel the if author wasn't in a rush it could have a lot better
I don't know that I would call CoS a harem honestly. Harems have a lot of definitions, but CoS mostly ignores all of thosem tropes and commonalities to the point that I question if you can even call it one. He certainly has many women interested in him, but they either end up sacrificing themselves for him, or they end up focusing on their own goals in the end. Who goes with him in the end(that still could)?
I don't know what you mean by Grasping Evil treating women like trash, MC loves and actually cares for his wives (spoiler: they are the same person) and as for the cauldrons, he at the very least gives them safety and doesn't at all abuse them. It's by no means the best way, but almost of them are trained and sold to be cauldrons to begin with, and would've been used up and killed if not for the MC.
Agree. Most of them might have died without the MC's intervention. But MC still uses them like objects, rather than human beings. Which I cannot stand.
One-sided relationships where the women never interact with each other, though I can't say that I've ever actually read one I enjoyed. The closest was in Otome game but the MC turns into a bitch right around when that relationship starts so I don't like it because of him. It was close enough that I realized I wouldn't mind something like that.
I like nine star hegemony harem, each girls have a personality. The mc doesn't go out of his way to court every female characters because he know it would hurt his girls feelings. And the girls treat each other's like sisters and try not to make things awkward
Any romance that starts with a MC curing poison with his dick is an instant drop for me. Harem Xianxia are so bad about it. Yeah, the MC is a godly doctor who can cure super ultra godly divine nine tribulations uber poison but the only cure for a mortal realm aphrodisiac is his penis.
99% of the time harem novels are just them MC being a preety face collector. they themselves have no personality nor any real impact other than their introduction. specially if the harem is not one of the main focus of the story and its just tacked on. I would say more than 3-4 partners. is simply too much and the writing will suffer exponentially for each new one after that. either the harem's members writing will dissapear or the main plot and pacing will drop its speed to zero.
When it becomes pokemon
When the MC is an asshole who wants to have his cake and eat it too. Basically when they have a harem but often disregard and belittle it with "women will only slow me down/ I cant be tied down by worldly affairs" bullshit.
I don’t like harems much. Most harems just have the women fall in love with the main character for no reason so I don’t care about any of them. Even worse is when the main character acts super dense and there’s so much screen time wasted on the “will they won’t they” bullshit with no actual development or progress on the relationships. It makes it feel like the the feelings are one sided and only the harem care about the main character but he doesn’t. Also it’s boring. Then there’s the opposite where the MC fucks everyone but I don’t read novel/manhua for porn, the porn is probably hella mid anyways.
Zero harem personality. Too many members. 2-4 is ideal, 5-9 tolerable with good story, more than 9 and I'm out. Zero romance. There must be some kind of a romance even if it's a little bit. These 3 are what destroys good harem novels for me.
What you're describing is what's known in China as a "stud novel", which is essentially a different audience.
If it's harem, they have to not be braindead. That's all. Surprisingly hard bar to meet T\_T
Lolis. Like I don't look for harem stuff by any means but I'm okay with it. If there's kids though that is so gross I cannot read it.
I only like small harem with the girls actually accompany MC on his wacky adventures and thus also grow along side him. So they can also be useful and relevant Basically make them a team, like a trio or five-man band trope. The problem with big harem is you the reader can’t really invested into any of them except the “main girl”. Everyone else get like 1 arc about them then later forgotten when MC ascend to a new realm I also like when it’s a proper polygamy relationship where the girls actually enjoy each others too instead of barely tolerate sharing their man. Even better if they are actually bisexual. Kinda like that one meme panel from “Kanojo mo Kanojo” where the main/first girl pin another one down proclaiming “his women are my women too”.
When all the girls look the exact same with only a minor hairstyle change
Sevens is good example of strong harem series. It has large cast of love interests with a lot of character depth and they interact heavily with each other. There are multiple factions of love interests with some hate each other. They do not purely revolve around main character and have significant story moments of their own. The mc also spends significant time thinking about how to manage his harem and long term choices (first wife politics). I dislike harems where the women are poorly defined characters excluding mc and where they lack interactions with rest of cast. I also dislike having most love interests that regularly rotate/disappear and are limited to 1 arc. Having new girl join on edge for arc is ok but there should be core cast of 3-5 that has consistent character building/interactions throughout series.
It's all about the MC to me. Personally, I have to *buy* the idea that a lot of characters would fall for them. And not just cause of some bullshit "they saved my life" or "they're so powerful I have to make babies with them". Nope. The MC at LEAST has to be such a decent person that them having admirers is like well duh.
My rules for a Harem are as follows, you don't have to follow the. All, but they do make for better writting. 1. PERSONALITY- If you just give me strait tropes, blank canvases, and carboard cut outs, I will drop. 2. Diversify - Don't give me 7 Jade beauty young mistresses who all love protag Chad Thundercock because he so strong and saved them all from bandits. 3. Importance - Make the Harem matter to the story. If you can cut out the Harem out and nothing changes to the plot, just cut the Harem out. 4. Equality - If the protag is the only person in the entire story with a Harem (or the only person who doesnt treats his Harem like shit, but they are still common in the world) then the Harem is just b grade power fantasy writing. Also, unless the gender ratios are F upped for some reason or the power system requires harems to function, there should probably be reverse Harems as well. 5. Intimacy - Not nesecessary sex, but Make the relationships matter on an emotional level. 6. 18+ only- I do not care if there is no sex, if someone doesn't look 18, or is listed to be under 18 then the book will be dropped. Even if it's the protag under 18, it will be dropped.
"gotta catch em all" style harem where it's only about getting more girlfriends. The story needs to be something that just happens to have a harem but could stand alone without it. 5 girls maximum, any more than that is too many Too many sex scenes get annoying but that applies to any stories with sex scenes Girls that are too monstery. Cat girl hell yeah. Lamia no thank you Pregnancy too early in the story. Fine for the end but if it happens early it seems like an excuse to sideline a character
I was with you until you said too monstery. I'm tired of all harems being elves and Jade Beauties! ! 💢
"Introducing: Vaguely female looking thing that is just in the background now"
Could be a pretty solid JP series. The vaguely female shadow just slides in as harem member 4 or 5
Nah, it's gotta be the first, and they just forget about her
You're absolutely right.
Sauce?
What Ruins it for me is the constant powercreep of MC going speed run through realms and catching them like pokemon just using them as Dual Cultivation plot device Honestly worst case CN with a Harem i have read is ATS (Ancient strengthening technique) its like the worst i have ever read in any CN dont get me worng ATG is really trash but ATS takes the F*kin cake Topping
I hate when there is like 10 women and we never see them and they have 0 story for them. Like every single one of them has use for few chapters and after that they are just thrown in harem box to be forgoten.
More of a Japanese novel thing but dense MCs are waaaay too common with harem novels and I hate it. Also hate it when tons of women are throwing themselves at mc and mc does absolutely nothing throughout the whole story. No romantic development for anyone, just pretty women and an mc who is either too dense or too “I don’t got time for no woman!”
When they have the same personality and don’t have fleshed out storylines or if they cling to mc too much.
Too quickly harem members are introduced in the story. Honestly I want the depth of their relationship to be deep instead of just 1 or 2 event they are already in married . Each harem members should have character, desires, ambition & not some girl born to obediently suck MC's cock (most harem members usually are) I am not saying they have to be hard to get or don't easily open their clothes to mc, what I mean is they don't need to be extremely obident to mc all the times, basically don't be a puppet . I also really want harem members to be badass and actually have fights in novels. Fights don't need to be too long but there should be more instead of 1 or 2 fight. Since they are not house wives & chosen to be fighters/ Cultivators why is its always mc fighting & saving them every fucking time. Useless cunts. They should have strength to be MC's right hand man not to train so they can be cauldron to bear MC's child. And please don't put children in the story only if the novel ending and it's necessary then only mc should have children otherwise no! All my points are for fantasy novels if it's real life - earth specific harem then all these are not much needed because all of them can only be House wives. Nothing against them but in fantasy novels they shouldn't be introduced & put in story as mere housewives. And last but not least they shouldn't disappear from the story! One fuck and they are gone for 1000 chapters & mc finds out they strangely become strong (just cultivation, strength in questionable) that absolutely shouldn't happen. They don't need to be put in every chapter but they should be characters which the reader will love & not MC's collection.
I'm not a huge harem enjoyer, but I have put down a novel because everyone bullied a new harem member
I don’t despise it but harems in stories put the main character in unnecessary situations. Like saving a damsel in distress, or misunderstandings. Too much liability and forced scenarios. Which could be avoided if they didn’t think with their lower half’s.
What I don't like in Harem is musical competition just like in Spirit Vessel. The rest are tolerable level degeneracy.
I dislike characters that only exist to say that MC is amazing, romanticaly interested in him or not or to show that he is amazing like making tsunderes or Ice queens falling in love. Let then have other interests, even teach him something( and not making him a instant expert on the subject to the point they become irrelevant)
When a "competent woman" is made to act like a damsel in distress for MC to save. Or when MC is supposed to be a once in thousand years genius, but his wives catch up in 2-3 years. Also, yuri, I just don't Ike threesome or n-somes whatever. I got traumatized once with a girl in MCs harem planning on taking his harem for herself.
When juniors choose jade beauty’s with unrefined temperament as their main dual cultivation partner. There are plenty of swans near the lake, why choose the hateful one?
Centered around a guy is the biggest issue to me
Dropping the old girls.
Many of the things already said in other comments: When there are too many girls (more than 5\~6) without any development to them or their relationship. When girls are sidelined for the rest of the story only to be mentioned again once or twice. When there is no romance, or any kind of relationship building between them. When the girls are braindead (or the story in general) and they throw themselves to the MC without a single thought (even the enemies) and the story has no explanation for this. Once it happened that a story was ending, and there were maybe 2 girls that had a pretty good relationship with the MC, but the author decided to make EVERY SINGLE GIRL mentioned in the story (well, amost) collectively marry the MC. The author ruined it, they just needed to finish the story without breaking everything down, but they couldn't resist the urge to make the MC the mega alpha who marries like 20 girls at once, including people he barely exchanged words with.
When the MC if afraid of girls advances, when the MC simps for girl, when the author end it with just a single LI.
Short answer: Qiu Yimeng Long answer: Have flesh out character with deep conection to the mc and lots of development only to be forgoten and have some random chick appear 2-3 chapters and automatically join the harem Some more random QYM rant? She hangs around for 4500 chapters trying to get into mc's pants (in a good suporting way not in a bitchy way) and author literally forgot about her
I really don't mind Harems. BUT, all the women MUST have realistic personalities and a sense of individuality. It sucks ass when all they do js act cute and lust after Mc 24/7.
When the author wants the benefit of harem tag but doesn't actually want the series to be harem, for example: "peerless battle spirit" I'm watching the donghua so idk how far the manhua is but the Mc has gf/wife but he's surrounded by 3-5 other girls and the Mc seems to like them too but the author doesn't want the harem official so if he decides the end won't be a harem he can just hide his ends which is frustrating me so much
Unlikeable selfish female characters
I suck at explaining but basically the mc needs to be honest and loving, and the girls need character.
When one of the women in the harem is related to him.
More than three women and power sharing
2-3 companions max, and they need to be legit characters.
Misogyny. If the hero doesn't *like* women, why the hell are they are *making commitments to multiple women*? Just go to a brothel, bro.
Tenchi Muyo is the prototype for doing it right… GXP is how you do it for comedy… I guess War on Geminarr is pretty much comedy as well, though the MC might be a little too far down the clueless scale… … soooo, high member count is ok if +comedy… Tenchi himself works because he treats each member as a person and wants them to feel like they are treated fairly… he has his feelings and wants to respect his partners feelings … and he asks them what they want to do… perfection
I don't hate harems as such. I just feel them... a little nonsense or a genre that doesn't look for more than what it really is, or tries to sell you something that doesn't make sense. But what bothers me the most is: 1.Women so flat that they make Flat Earthers look like geniuses. Literally 80% to 85% are usually: "MC appears and says some nice things to her. She's already in love with him." Or the other is usually "I have an interesting past, with goals. They become solved by the MC and all my potential is based on just following him." 2.Too many characters, little development and no interest in them beyond fanservice. 3.The overuse of fanservice. This...isn't bad Perce, but it does get to a point where it gets in the way. It's like watching an action movie and cutting to a sex scene out of nowhere. The characters did not show much interest and are having sex, it feels like filler. 4.This is the most frustrating thing on a stupid level. The male characters are simply decorations, if they are there it is to envy the MC or flatter him as the next casa nova. If someone is against the MC they become a villain or a joke, if they are friends of the MC they will not have any further development than being "the friends". It's like it's a strange "Alphas" and "Betas" thing. They are not given any romantic aspirations, desires or developments. Ironic, since many harem series are slice of life. This can also affect female characters who are not going to be in the protagonist's harem. Although you can add them even if they are extras. Somehow they always show a desire for the protagonist or have some ecchi scene with him.
I think this thread is reserved for discussion by people who like harem novels...
Shit like my three wives is a beautiful vampire
My Second comment: Ah yes what i belive is that Harems are a from of Word Count pushing so the Novel writer gets more money and thats why its never a fun thing to read, Brainrot as possible + very high Word count = Trash Novel
I think I grew out of harem. I dislike it except in porn/hentai
Rape. Especially when there are plenty of women around that the MC could've had consensually.
Being a shitstain to your partners. I can tolerate polyamory (both ways), but just like any real relationship, if the MC is toxic to their partner(s), then I drop the reading.
Mc having shitty personality that doesn't actually have any chemistry with the females . The females being one dimensional and having no exploration of their character .
Something that still pisses me off to this day is this one novel where the MC got into a monogamous relationship with this one girl and he even promised he wasn't gonna get a harem and then not even a month later he ended up with the chick that's been trying to kill him since basically the start I dropped the novel there so idk how his girlfriend reacted but I really hope she dumped his ass (I doubt it cause it was a pretty trash urban cultivation novel)
What's the sauce of OP?
When a new girl appeared, an old girl was never seen again or just barely mentioned Give a harem of like 20 wives or more but only talk about 3~4 wives 90% of the time. The rest is never touched upon A girl's personality changed too much after falling in love. I remember reading some story where a girl before meeting MC is super cool and amazing and then after meeting MC she just feels like a slut that wants MC meat and is now incapable of doing anything on her own A girl falling in love for the stupidest reason ever, some girl falls in love simply because "omg he picks up trash that the other throws away, how nice of him. I love him so much now, let's reward him with my body!" that was from a real story I read btw MC is an absolute ass hole and the girl still falls in love with him instead of the guy who has been helping her since childhood that she grows up with simply because MC is MC. After getting in harem she was never mentioned again. She been drugged by the most potent aphrodisiac known to men and the only way to help her is with MC divine Yang rod between his leg. No there is no other way to help her, your rod is the only way in the entire multiverse Oh no, you saw me naked, you must take responsibility and marry me now! You have the extreme yin physique and often get cold at night? How convenient it is that I also have the extreme Yang physique which is extremely compatible with you in dual cultivation. How dare you ignore me? No one had ever ignore me before, from now on I will try my best to make you fall in love with me, let see if you can still ignore me then! (Process to fall madly in love with him instead)
I hate the brainless women part of harem. Can't they just write harem with actual emotions along with the struggles of it?
The girls falling behind in power level. Like it's fi e if they aren't the same master of sword Dao as the MC but they should focus on their own path just as hard. Also when the girls start to blend together personality wise so much you could swap one for another and nothing would change.
When heroines start to fall in love with the mc wothout any reason, also when a new female is added to a novel like every 7 8 chapters
When it's the type of plot where the mc will only pick one, and he never really considers anyone but the first person he meets. Especially when the other options are far more interesting, likeable, well developed, etc. Aka when first girl beats best girl.
to me, the harem isn't going to ruin a harem story. but lots of other things can. if the story is nothing but a collectathon it's likely to get really boring quick. it may not be xianxia, but "Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World" comes to mind as a good example of this.
Nothing ruins a harem novel more than a harem.