The Male Harem

Ah, male harems. Yes, I’ll be doing a future entry on lady harems, but first I feel I must focus on male harems. I must get all the shoujo recommendations out of my system before this blog gets a large amount of readers. (Or at least I hope I get a large amount of readers…)

Male harems are the easy way out for shoujo. What do I mean? Well, what easier way to create drama, romance and eye candy for the readers?

Think about it, 1 cute, clueless girl and five or seven dudes who could make any sensible lady cream their jeans who are all involved with her in one way or another. Sure, it’s pretty damn obvious who she’ll end up with in the end and who she’ll leave the obvious dude for when our dear heroine is confused, but she COULD end up with the dude who is YOUR favorite. That’s pretty much the point of this whole cliché. To cater to your tastes, to give you eye candy and to give you the hints of your favorite couple hooking up.

Onto the reviews.


The Good: Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
I love Ouran because it is ridiculous and by being so ridiculous it becomes a really fun read. Not only are there lots of hot boys, they are rich, sheltered private school boys and they’ve started the Japanese version of an escort service at their own school. Don’t get the wrong impression, Japanese host clubs are ALL about pleasing the ladies, but sometimes you kind of wonder. There are flamboyant costumes, prissy men, seemingly gay, incestuous twins and the president thinks that all the dudes are one big family, replete with a mother figure that is actually male. But since this is all a part of the host club members’ eccentricities, you know that they’re all crazy about Haruhi, the poor scholarship student who they’ve forced into cross-dressing servitude. Ouran is a good read because it’s funny as hell and when you start to really care about the characters, you start getting some of the touching, deep stuff mixed in. These guys are all true pals in the end. Right now Viz is putting out volumes as they get released in Japan, so if you catch up to the publishing schedule, you’re unfortunately in for a wait, but there’s no danger of Ouran disappearing anytime soon.


The Bad: Me & My Brothers by Hari Tokeino
I had to read this manga for research for an article. I wound up not using it because it was just that bad and I was supposed to recommend GOOD manga. Where do I start? Well, suddenly a grief-stricken orphan discovers she has four brothers that her family has kept from her. Since she has no one else, they take her in despite all being young with lives of their own. BUT WAIT! They’re not ACTUALLY her brothers, which is why they were kept from her. But they totally grew up with her when she was just a wee lass who couldn’t remember them yet and they TOTALLY BONDED GUYS. Totally.
Basically, this manga is a big, old hunk of cheesy artificial cheese and I can’t stand it. The manga never got past the point of trying to convince the heroine that they were really “family” and I just need more than that in my shoujo. I was never so happy that there was a side story at the end of the volume and I could put it down. I’m sorry, TOKYOPOP, but I really didn’t like this one.


The Classic: Fushigi Yugi by Yu Watase
Confession, Fushigi Yugi was my gateway drug into manga and that is why I could not resist putting it in this entry. It has all the great elements of shoujo manga, a girl spirited off to another world, an angst-filled romance, an epic journey to fulfill mystical duties and TONS of hot boys. The political intrigue of the story gives the reader a solid performance and more... personal politics are regularly involved. It can seem a little soap-ish, but it’s not a bodice ripper and not every plot twist has to do with romance. It’s a great fantasy epic as well as a love story. Check out the Viz Big editions, which I believe they are still putting out and the sequel Genbu Kaiden.