I realized today, that coincidentally, I followed pretty much every harm-ish anime this season (other than Freezing, although I'm a little inclined to go back to watch it for this post). As such, I've decided to rate them based on their harem lead. It's just some random fun before the next season kicks in, with lots of sampling many first episodes of the new season.
So, to set the standard of what I consider the perfect male harem lead, I'll give the example of a 10/10 winner:
Makoto Ito from School Days. Why did I pick him, you ask? Well, it is quite simple. If he replaced the main character of any of these harem anime, I can assure you that everything would be more entertaining.
So, a run-down of the categories that I'll be rating based off:
Playa - how well the character can string along these girls, keeping them around him. It clearly takes skills to be able to juggle multiple girls at once, all the while keeping them all happy enough to be in his harem.
Allure - Some of the girls in these shows just throw themselves at the main character. You would think that this has nothing to do with the main character, but I beg to differ. Apparently, they must be secreting some super scent to attract them like flies, and that is what must be rated.
Distance - I couldn't think of a better term, but this is quite simply how far the main character gets with these girls. Is he able to sleep with his entire harem? What is the point of having a harem if you're not getting things from all of them?
I guess I'll start with the most popular harem this season: from Infinite Stratos, Ichika Orimura.
Playa: He does a horrible job at juggling the girls. He pretty much tries pushing them away (other than on some select occasions). Quite clearly, this is relying heavily on his allure to hold the girls in his harem and not his mad skillz.
~5/10
Allure: This is the largest harem this season, with five main girls and an entire school as side characters, after him. This is, quite literally, girls throwing themselves at him. When you're the only male IS pilot, I guess you definitely give off a good vibe.
~9/10
Distance: It's nowhere significant. He got a kiss from two of the girls, one of the girls slept beside him in bed, and he caught another one coming out of the shower. He was given a lot of openings, but he didn't take them. What a crappy harem leader.
~5/10
Overall: This is more your average harem leader nowadays, actually. Girls flock to him but he pretends that he doesn't want it. No normal man would ever act like that in the face of his harem, which led to scoring him as a half-baked harem leader.
Final Score: 7/10
I guess the second one I'll do will be the other obvious harem-based anime: from Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara Ne, Shusuke Takanashi.
Playa: He puts in nearly zero effort at juggling the girls, since he actually pays them zero attention except for one. Quite clearly, this shows that he has no intention of trying to hold onto his harem. This is the epitome of what a true harem leader shouldn't be doing.
~2/10
Allure: He's got two girls solidly chasing him around much more diligently than your average harem girl would, and a third one that is a bit "tamer". That's some very strong vibe that he's got, to get that level of stalker out of two girls. The girls still seem semi-sane, though, since they're using high-level tactics to try to be the winner of his harem. There's nothing like a good competition between girls to show how good he is.
~10/10
Distance: Well, he could've gotten somewhere - not through his own skills, though. The girls provide plenty of panty shots through their own will. He could have easily made the homerun on all the girls at any time, if he wanted to. It's too bad that he was too focused on one specific girl. Tsk-tsk.
~3/10
Overall: He's very undeserving of his harem. He quite clearly did not want it, and only had eyes for one girl. It's such a waste of a perfectly good harem.
Final Score: 4/10
Next one up is my most hated anime this season: from Dragon Crisis, Ryuji Kisaragi.
Playa: Another one that is horrible at juggling. He makes zero attempt at leading on any of the girls. Heck, even with the one girl that he wants he can't seem to convey his feelings. This is the epitome of his skill-less-ness (yes, I needed to make up a word to describe it properly).
~0/10
Allure: It's pretty small-time, comparably. He's only got maybe three girls solidly after him, and maybe another two undecided ones. I guess he gives off too weak of a vibe to attract more of them. At least he's constantly swarmed by girls?
~5/10
Distance: Zero, nada, zilch. Girls weren't throwing themselves at him, but he also took zero attempts to make the magic happen. Sometimes you just need to make the opportunities happen yourself.
~0/10
Overall: A harem well wasted. Nothing was taken advantage of, and he didn't have the allure to get girls to do everything for him. A quite useless harem lead that didn't help an anime that was bad to begin with. Just imagine what Makoto could have done with this. Tsk-tsk.
Final Score: 1/10
The fourth one is another very weak harem leader: from Yumekui Merry, Yumeji Fujiwara.
Playa: Zero moves; so much so that, if I didn't know better, I'd think he was gay. Girls are constantly around him, yet he doesn't even flinch. I mean, at least make a passing attempt at something?
~-1/10 (Aaro Note~ : Yes, that's a negative.)
Allure: He has a firm grip over his childhood friend while two other girls probably like him but won't admit it yet. It's pretty weak stuff to have such a weak aura. He should spend less time pretending he can fight and more time getting the girls.
~1/10
Distance: The closest thing he got was walking in on two of the girls while they were taking a bath. I guess that is still more than Dragon Crisis, but nothing in comparison to other anime.
~1/10
Overall: I don't even know why I'm including him in this list. I guess it's since he's surrounded by enough girls, with at least two girls with an actual interest in him. Quite clearly, he is just some small fry that doesn't really deserve to be listed, but owelz.
Final Score: 0/10
Finally, the last harem-ish anime that I watched this season: from Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?, Ayumu Aikawa.
Playa: Finally, A character that makes an attempt at juggling multiple girls. He clearly wants Yuu, but he makes the attempt to juggle the three other girls and humour them a bit. He gives them a bit of what they want, which is just enough to keep them coming back.
~8/10
Allure: I can't say that he has anywhere close to as much power as some of the other characters. It seems like only one girl really throws herself at him. The others seem to stick around due to his superior skills at wooing them. At least he's holding a decently sized harem that all seem to be interested in him.
~7/10
Distance: I can't say that he got very far here. He got three of them to live with him, which he does take advantage of occasionally - but nothing too big. He could've really taken advantage of his situation better, what with so much contact.
~5/10
Overall: He's got the skillz to go all the way. Maybe if he was given another season, he could get somewhere with his harem (unlike the other shows). They would be perpetually stuck due to their incompetence.
Final Score: 7/10
In the end, none of the characters these days can match up to Makoto. How I wish he could step in and take over for a couple episodes, just to spice things up. Sigh, these crappy harem leads these days. Maybe I should just stop watching these garbage harem-ish shows. These characters just anger me sometimes.
Side note: when I thought of this post idea, it sounded much better in my head. Multiple times while making this, I considered just scrapping it, but I trudged on through. I think it's been a while since I've posted something I feel kind of unsatisfied with. To think that I even considered watching all the harem-ish anime next season, to make this post again, before I started... Blech. Maybe I'll look back on this and like it, but it might take a while.
~Pearz
