GRcade

site23 wrote:This isn't Twitter, there's no need to be mean.

Qikz, I mostly try to avoid this kind of discussion these days, but here's a serious response for you to think about. I haven't played the game, but I think it's difficult to say "the ending isn't a harem, it's polyamory, which is actually progressive" if the game doesn't actually engage with polyamory as a theme. Are Nia and Mythra bisexual, for example? Are they in love with each other, as well as other people? Does the game's story firmly establish and explore that?

I don't want to assume anything -- you'll have to let me know. But usually in anime and related media, when the protagonist ends up romancing all his companions (it's hardly uncommon!), it's not framed as particularly queer or progressive. It's just intended to fulfil a fantasy for the viewer. And the harem fantasy is rooted in objectification.

People might roll their eyes, but it doesn't make you a bad person if you enjoy a story with that element. I like lots of anime romcom nonsense. You have to be honest about what it is though -- a lot of anime stories that I think are fun, because they have entertaining comedy or a cute romance or whatever, have some misogynistic plot beats. It doesn't do anyone any good to pretend that's not the case.

I think there's also an interesting discussion to be had about people who are poly and might claim this as a kind of representation despite the faults. I think that's OK! You can have a positive interpretation of something even if it's written poorly or is even actively adverserial in some ways. I see it a lot with queer people finding something to enjoy in mangas which are perhaps less than stellar on their own terms - maybe written from a fetishistic perspective - in the yuri, BL, or otokonoko genres.

You aren't obligated to engage in any of this media analysis stuff at all, Qikz, but at the end of the day it's a good skill to be able to spot things that are a bit misogynistic (or racist, homophobic, etc.) and resist the urge to reflexively defend them because you like the overall story. I think it's worth thinking about whether, in this case, you might have given too much weight to an argument which doesn't really hold up, or is at least a fairly esoteric interpretation of the source material.

Knoyleo wrote:My only experience of harem anime is the below, and I intend to keep it that way.

Victor Mildew wrote:Rex sounds like a LAD.

Tineash wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:Rex sounds like a LAD.

It is essential to the complex meta-canon of the Xeno series that THIS guy

strawberry floats So Much

And that is art