Heh I’z agree … make my harems full of pretty girls in awkward situations.

I see that human mind can rationalize everything, and the most sophisticated that mind is, the better it is on rationalizing and excusing. Kanon is not a harem show, because… there’s no threesome? I think you’re clinging to straws here, collegue.

Lolikit: You would too, wouldn’t you.

Voodoomage: I hate harem shows and I hate you.

Wontaek: Totally off topic lol. It was meant as a joke, but it’s good to see that people are aware of slave labour.

Pete: I mentioned in my article the one thing that all harem shows share in common but is missing in Kanon - the jealous interactions and rivalries of harem members, which I deem to be a requisite for harem shows. That’s the main drive behind my argument of Kanon not being a harem show and I believe it’s a very valid one. You can either a) tell me where I can find such bickering in Kanon or b) show me something else that proves Kanon IS a harem.

Thank you for saying my mind is sophisticated though. I don’t even like Kanon that much.

Philip: I’m not going to utilise the actual meaning here, since you’re not going to see many sexing in common anime. I’m categorising harem as shows with the following traits:

1) Male (sometimes lecherous, sometimes nice, always a loser) protagonist surrounded by many females who are constantly vying for said male’s attention.
2) Excessive fanservice relying mainly on tits, asses and panty-shots.
3) The many females are often jealous and/or hateful of each other and engage in constant bickering or other acts of jealousy.
4) If the above is not true, then one or more harem members must often and continously stumble into (an)other harem member(s) doing perverted things with the protagonist, whether that perverted act is the result of an accident or a misunderstanding or not.
5) The ‘comedy’ must consist of either or both of the above two points, and those only. If that is not the case then it’s either not a harem or a harem hybrid which might still have some redeeming value.

Examples of harem anime: Love Hina, Amaenaideyo!!, Magikano.

Kanon isn’t a harem anime, but it is definitely a ‘moe’ anime, which is a hyper-genre harems often fall under as well.

(I hope no one takes these bullshit ‘traits’ too seriously)

Hey I like harem/ecchi comedy too. In fact I used to think Love Hina was the best show in the universe ever.

But the problem now lies in the demonizing of the harem genre, partially in fault thanks to the production studios themselves who try to sell everything at the lowest common denominator.

However, one point that everyone keeps conveniently forgetting is that h-games NEVER give you all the choices, they just merely provide multiple ones and you MUST choose one, not ALL.

Of course, this leads to many different fan factions even amongst a single game and when making in the anime, where profit is in mind, it would be economic suicide to solely concentrate on one single route, thus the studios are forced to include all the routes together. However, whether they manage to pull if off nicely is still another matter…

well, the first harem u watch will probably get your liking more than the 10th harem u watch of similar premises. im sure if i watch too many keyani shows, I will get sick of it too.

Son Gohan: I don’t mind drama/romance series. Kanon is a bit too emo for me, so I only partially enjoyed it, but it (K-2006) definitely classifies as a good series in my books. But, I would definitely have preferred a third season of FMP. I want my Chidori fix!

Kuro: I don’t mind people not reading my walls-of-texts, but when you write a long reply like that without even just skimming through say, the first line where I say I don’t watch harem shows, I get a bit worried.

I agree with you that the genre is ‘dumbed down’, so to speak, to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Because it’s so easy to make shitty harem, and so many fans just gobble them up like crows at a garbbage dump, they keep getting made. Just in recent memory, we had Happiness! and the Cabbage with absolutely abysmal production quality. Yet I bet there were still people who watched every single episode of those shows. I don’t know, maybe if there was some original harem with an interesting story, truly likeable, non-generic characters and actually funny jokes, I may be able to like it.

Oh wait, it’s already been done. It’s called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Alkan: I know, I hate Love Hina. It finished in 5 volumes but the same shit just went on for another 9. It was good the first time I read it though, since I was young and didn’t realise the crap that Akamatsu pulled.

Danny: I think if there’s significant story variation between the different KeyAni shows, I won’t have any problem with them; but that’s a major problem with the generic harem shows. THEY ARE FUCKING GENERIC. Tautologies are awesome.

Aime: I haven’t watched the Toei Kanon, so I can’t comment on the fanservice bit, but thank you for being the first someone who actually got my point and agrees with me. Much love.

@Lupus… Come on .. you know mindless harem shows rule the anime world…heh… and I’d perfer you hate me than love me… I don’t swing that way…

I didn’t think opinions would be so divided about this pretty unimportant issue (which is whether Kanon is a harem or not, instead of Jaalin’s original, more controversial point that Kanon isn’t worth KyoAni’s resources and loving attention). I’m going to stop arguing about this because flame wars with people that I semi-know over the internet is scary. The internet is serious business.

Oh, and for the record, I haven’t even watched half of Kanon 2006, but I really liked what I watched. I wrote this post because I wanted to write something, and there was something conviniently brewing for me to feed more wood to the fire, but I don’t like how big this fire is getting. I’m not proud of my unprofessional journalism. Not that I think of myself as a professional or anything.

Maybe I’m just trying to justify my like for Kanon against my hatred of harems, but I really can’t think of Kanon as a harem show.

>>Read everything and I’m amazed. If only such passionate minds were devoted in keeping world peace…Ehem. ^^

The thing is that none of us are actually passionate.

Lupus, I love being right.

… can I have your babies?

Here’s a thought: What if instead of just calling it a “harem” show, we call it a “romantic drama with harem elements”? Sorta like how we’d call Code Geass a “mecha show with harem elements”. Or how Haruhi is a “sci-fi school comedy with harem elements”.

Seriously, though, it’s staggering how many shows these days are referred to has harems, like Shakugan no Shana or Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. It’s almost as hard to define as “moe”, which is just rediculous.

…So I hear you like Mudkips.

>> open your eyes, and what you’re pointing at? Yeah. That’s moe.

*does the whole mojo, opens eyes*

I’m pointing at… My Watarase Jun wallscroll.
…omgosh you’re right!!! O_o

it fails everywhere, characters suck (rip-offs anyone? flat anyone? 1-dimesnioanl anyone?) plot sucks, well there’s not plot pretty much. originality is the worst part of this anime it takes every single cliche and makes it so much worse