Thread: Harem Manga endings.

I just finished reading Ichigo 100% on a whim, and it murdered me. It was also kind of this way for Suzuka (havent finished it yet though) and Love Hina (but not reaaaally).

I just feel like these manga can only end in disappointment for both the characters and the readers. A lot of people genuinely fall in love with one person, and that person HAS to break hearts (unless they subscribe to polygamy - *ahem* can someone point me in the direction of a manga like that). Is that fun to read about? I definitely don't think so anymore.

How do you feel when a character (or characters) you really wanted to have a pleasant ending get their feelings massacred over and over again?

*edit* I just realized this should go in General manga discussion...

In most harem you just KNOW how it will end, really. There's no point in reading them if you want a good story, at least not for me. Can't really give an opinion on endings, i just remember Ichigo at the moment.

That said, i would only recommend reading harems if they have loads of comedy.

In Mahoraba, the hero sort of gets five of the girls. Or at least, she claims so.

But I know what you mean. I have a similar issue with some Western romances with love triangles -- what's wrong with settling down into menage a trois? Sometimes, that's clearly the wrong answer, but sometimes they're both right for the guy/girl.

In harem anime/mangas I tend to have a couple of favorite pairings for one character (Onigiri and Flag... more on Onigiri though) but I won't be dissatisfied with the ending even if my favorite pairing doesn't end up together. well just as long as the story is good and I had fun reading it.

Harem only really works if it's funny, unrealistic, and not serious. Otherwise, it turns into School Days.

yeah yeah beowulf is sooo right.
if it's serious you'll get ending like school days.

I have no idea what school days is.

My response is just for manga series in general, because even if shounen adventures usually aren't harems, people still have favourite pairings. And all I can say is... I agree with Zaephyr. Most of the time, you know what's coming from an early point in the story, and if you don't like it, no one's forcing you to read the story. I tend to like the pair that gets together in the end... say, 99.9% of the time because that's just the best one. If you don't like the main pairing and it's obvious your favourite is getting shunted to the side, well, by all means, feel disappointed, but you had it coming and so you have no right to whine about why it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. It couldn't have because the mangaka wrote the story the way he/she wanted to, and made their preference the best in every way. Granted, I'm mostly talking about shounen adventures since harems are kinda stupid when it comes to romance, but the rule still basically applies. So what if you like some other girl? It's your fault for focusing too much on someone less important and/or hoping for something you knew would never happen.

Actually, I really liked Ichigo 100% despite not usually being a fan of that genre (not that I read them anymore). Aside from the fact that the characters were a little more three-dimensional than the norm in that genre, it was kinda interesting to see how unpredictable the end was. A lot of people would have preferred Toujou (myself included), but at the same time, the ending worked. It was a sensible ending. Everyone had a good life, so what's there to be disappointed about - that your personal feelings didn't get considered by the mangaka?

I agree with above^...the ending to Ichigo 100% was different and most people wanted toujou...however i was not one of them....i was a nishina fan from the begining and was happy it turned out that way....i have a habbit of liking the right couple lets hope it stays that way lol.... there is the new manga out called Kimi no Iru Machi which has 2 possible girls. at this point in the manga you cant really telll who hes gunna end up with but i just hope it keeps comign out sooner i cant wait =p

I wouldn't say that harems can't end well, but chances while the author may be to write a humorous story it's harder to write a believable ending where the women all decide to share a man without it turning the story more serious and that kills the primary appeal harems (humor).