In my opinion, becoming a full couple in the middle of a story actually means more danger for the side characters in a straight-up ecchi romcom. Since "will they-won't they" is no longer applied to them, authors often would write them out, or at least severely reduce their panelspace.
Now, if it was a romance drama, side characters becoming a couple would most likely guarantee their longevity, since they'd become a "beta couple" and play a mentor role for the "prime couple". They could even get whole plot arcs to themselves.

That depends on the author, Konoka and Setsuna got a good ending while Risa and Mio got practically written out of To-Love-Ru.

Someone had to do it at some point!! all harem lovers or harem authors should read this one-shot and realize how much the concept of harem is ridiculous. I don't care about harem-focused series because I never bother to watch most of them(though i'd watch them if they were yuri harem) but when a harem development ruins a good series(be it yuri or het) then it becomes an issue. I actually wouldn't have minded if this one-shot was about one of the heroines falling for another guy instead of a girl, it's all the same. if you read more deeply into this one-shot. it is not actually a parody, more like a horror. where the girls are trapped in a world where they are forced by the creator in a generic ecchi situations with the "innocent" protagonist or else they'll lose their position or screentime or existence or whatever you want to call it, without having the right to pursue their true love.

"besides, why does everyone like that guy, he's not all that attractive" this, I don't bother asking this question, because i know that harem protagnists are created only for unpopular boys so they can feel better about themselves, or for horny boys to satisfy their fantasies. I mean, as a guy myself, i'm not gonna lie, I sometimes fantasize about having multiple girls lusting after me(with some yuri action xD) but that's only in hentai terms. I don't need to watch a boring and generic harem anime that will never go anywhere to fulfil myself, i'd just go and read a hentai harem doujin. harem feels more like a fetish rather than a genre tbh. that said, i wonder when will we ever gonna break free of this harem curse that's taken over anime, and have the creators work on more serious works.
aaand that concludes my hatred-for-harem rant xD

last edited at Nov 26, 2018 6:02PM

i feel like they could be great if it was done a certain way, but i don't see many pulling it off successfully.
inb4 the two girls get a spinoff manga but seriously i would not mind a continuation to this if it was possible

last edited at Dec 12, 2018 6:39AM

There's not too much to be done with a sequel here, but we definitely need a chapter with the poor fourth heroine. Her showing which manga she's supposed to be in would be a good opportunity to give some closure to this one as well.

Re-reading this is always good fun. It proably doesn't have a series in it, but I could see an epilogue happening.
Maybe the next reader poll comes in and Misaki takes 1st with Megumi 2nd. Suddenly the author has to start writing a yuri manga, demoting Protagonist-kun to a supporting role. Misaki becomes the new protagonist, and then has to reconcile her new role with her dissasitisfaction about how the manga's world works. That'd make for an interesting read. She seems to have the most agency of all the characters, including Protagonist-kun, so maybe she'd use her new "powers" to give all the background characters free will, too?

... I think I just wrote the epilgoue myself... Welp, the author can have this one for free I guess!

woulld read

Really meta, and I enjoyed that Misaki is the type of protagonist I would love to see. Megumi being the aggressive one is also refreshing as well.
One of the ways this could have a good ending is that they become such a popular couple that they end up with their own spin-off manga, especially with the premise that characters can be in different mangas. I really do love this concept and I'm still holding out for a sequel or for someone else to be inspired by it.

It's like a rewrite, but for real.

can I have chapter 2 pls

can I have chapter 2 pls

It's a oneshot...

It's easy for yurifans to hate Protagonist-kun. But you shouldn't, because all this is not his fault, he was just drawn that way.

It's a good doujin. In the end to run away from the condition of secondary characters of a ecchi manga, she became the protagonist. Is fun, that she straight attacked the other girl.
I think this idea works and could be a good series.

Now even though the majority of the harem mc aren't beautiful, the reason the girls fall for them, is not appearence, but because of the personality or because the mc is someone or did something important to them. Usually harem's start with the fact that the mc is a good person, with a hearth of gold and help anyone in need, no mattering who is the person and is friendly with everyone. So he starts being friend with a bunch of girls, that lately become attract to him, because he's good for them. I would even say that in a lot of harem's, the girls matter more than the mc. The MC is more of a vehicle to give them happiness, than the opposite.

The boy of this doujin, is not a good harem MC.
I'm trying to think how this cardboard mc, have a popular series. Like he doesn't seem to care about the girls or even have some interesting personality traits. He wouldn't be popular. Maybe the series was popular, because of the girls since the beginning, so no one cared when he was cut-off

last edited at Dec 5, 2019 1:09PM

Wellhello posted:

It's a good doujin. In the end to run away from the condition of secondary characters of a ecchi manga, she became the protagonist. Is fun, that she straight attacked the other girl.
I think this idea works and could be a good series.

Now even though the majority of the harem mc aren't beautiful, the reason the girls fall for them, is not appearence, but because of the personality or because the mc is someone or did something important to them. Usually harem's start with the fact that the mc is a good person, with a hearth of gold and help anyone in need, no mattering who is the person and is friendly with everyone. So he starts being friend with a bunch of girls, that lately become attract to him, because he's good for them. I would even say that in a lot of harem's, the girls matter more than the mc. The MC is more of a vehicle to give them happiness, than the opposite.

Have you seem series like Sekirei or Sora no otoshimono? I almost puked with how incredible awful they were (I think I saw one or two episodes of each), specially with otoshimono, the protagonist is the most worthless piece of shit in existence... But all the girls like him. And in others series the girls would fall for them for picking up their handkerchief or giving them directions. In other words, when it comes to harem anime, they set the bar so incredible low that is ridiculous, is a world made for them to be happy.

last edited at Dec 5, 2019 1:48PM

I love the concept and the execution here. I particularly enjoy the bits with the girls reading their own manga, and I applaud the outside the box thinking on Megumi's part — yeah, being the girls the MC always walks in on will keep you in the fan polls.

But talk about a terrifying world to live in! I can only hope the protagonist isn't fourth-wall-aware, or he's either the most tortured person ever or a complete sociopath. It's almost as bad as living in a world where Calvinism is true

I came back to this one and gave it a reread. And I don't remember the bit where the girl ment for the love manga ended up in the war story in Misaki's place. After noticing that, I could help thinking about the poor romantic comedy heroine suddenly stuck in the middle of a battle. Seriously I want know if she is safe.

I came back to this one and gave it a reread. And I don't remember the bit where the girl ment for the love manga ended up in the war story in Misaki's place. After noticing that, I could help thinking about the poor romantic comedy heroine suddenly stuck in the middle of a battle. Seriously I want know if she is safe.

Oh God I wish you had never noticed that. Now I'm seriously worried too.

Love this oneshot to bits. Still hold out hope it will get serialized someday!

Ehhh, do you think this would work as something long-running? It kinda already covers everything it wants to (which is what makes it as good as it is, really).

Ooh so glad to see this featured!

But talk about a terrifying world to live in! I can only hope the protagonist isn't fourth-wall-aware, or he's either the most tortured person ever or a complete sociopath

Yeesh, if a series was ever made expanding on this concept it would be really interesting to see how the protag functions. It seems like everyone else is self-aware to a certain point (do background characters count?), so it's like... does he know what's going on? Does he do pervy acts with everyone because otherwise they'll fade away into the background (almost effectively dying?)

Now even though the majority of the harem mc aren't beautiful, the reason the girls fall for them, is not appearence, but because of the personality or because the mc is someone or did something important to them. Usually harem's start with the fact that the mc is a good person, with a hearth of gold and help anyone in need, no mattering who is the person and is friendly with everyone. So he starts being friend with a bunch of girls, that lately become attract to him, because he's good for them. I would even say that in a lot of harem's, the girls matter more than the mc. The MC is more of a vehicle to give them happiness, than the opposite.

Have you seem series like Sekirei or Sora no otoshimono? I almost puked with how incredible awful they were (I think I saw one or two episodes of each), specially with otoshimono, the protagonist is the most worthless piece of shit in existence... But all the girls like him. And in others series the girls would fall for them for picking up their handkerchief or giving them directions. In other words, when it comes to harem anime, they set the bar so incredible low that is ridiculous, is a world made for them to be happy.

the protagonist of Sekirei not that bad and get better over time he's just a person with very little confidence. Who because of his repeated failures at something he should be able to easily pass doesn't seem like much at first. I don't know how the anime did him but in the manga he turns out to be a cool dude.

Why the hell does this manga give me such DDLC vibes

Ehhh, do you think this would work as something long-running? It kinda already covers everything it wants to (which is what makes it as good as it is, really).

It might be able to work as a one-volume story, but no longer than that. But really, all it needs is a follow-up for the poor girl who ended up in the war manga; it'd be interesting to see what would happen if she manages to upend that one as effectively as Misaki did this one.

Ehhh, do you think this would work as something long-running? It kinda already covers everything it wants to (which is what makes it as good as it is, really).

Each Other's Guardian started as a one-shot, but was only recently put in the form of a manga so it's not impossible. As for how to continue it, I think the fourth girl could eventually start winning all of the other girls over to her yuri harem somehow.

This is so accurate if the heroines could really just love the person they REALLY love

I need moarrrr