The "Sub" girls in harems

I have a question to present to Fakku In a lot of Harem anime and manga even though there are several girls that like the protagonist many times there is clearly what I would call the main girl. A girl that is obviously closer to the protagonist and the one the protag seems to like the most. A example of this would be Rosario Vampire. Even though all the girls like Tsukune, Moka is the one that is clearly the closest with him. So the question is do you think that the "sub" girls in a harem will ever get to be with the protagonist? Should they get to be with him? Or are they just background in the love life of the protag and the main girl?

Well, since there's a thread about Shuffle I'll use it as a reference. I wouldn't say we haven't observed where a "sub" girl takes the lover role in anime. Again, I'm referencing Shuffle's ending.



Should sub characters be able to win over the protagonist? Yea sure, why not? I'm willing to go with whatever the author or creative minds who produced the thing want to show me. Actually, would you even consider "sub" girls to still be in that same position while in the process of winning over the protagonist? Wouldn't you promote that "sub" to a "main" girl?

A few animes are based off Visual Novels. Typically the sub characters have their routes done, but in the end the main girls is the one who wins the love. That's why if the VN is translated I'll try to play it after I watch the anime, since my favourite girl is usually not the main.

Should sub-girl ever win? Yeah I think they should, it's very rare, but if written correctly, can be a good plot twist. Though if a sub-girl is a Yandere, she will win, she will do what it takes to win.

Why can't the sub female roles have their own endings? For anime based off VN's we know almost everyone has their own story. In other stories, TLR and other serious harems notably, the author tries to balance all the girls to some degree but even then there are still people who appear less often. Frequently the sub girls are more interesting than the main girls too.

Its the fate of all the Harem shows that the girl never gets to be with the protagonist, it just never seems to happen.

In most cases I always end up liking the subs more than the main, hence why I praise the lord for giving us "routes" in Visual Novels.

I just wish that the "main" girl be less obvious. Shuffle was good in bucking that trend, but that's only one out of the infinite number of harem animes.

That, and I'm also not a fan of the cop-out open ends. It ultimately feels like you just watched the show for no reason. One could assume that their ultimate goal is that the shows are nothing more than elaborate advertisements for the games- but not everyone lives in Japan where we can just up and buy them.

My favourite by far has been Amagami's omnibus format; you get a taste of each of the girls.

It's a good question, and while I've never watched Shuffle!, I wish more series would dare to stray from the obvious main route.
There have been shows where I adore the "main" girl, such as Nagisa from Clannad, and still love some of the sub characters just as much (Clannad actually did a few OVA's where some of the minor girls wound up as the chosen girl in alternate universes, which was a nice treat if you liked them).

Making an OVA for every single character that doesn't find love, however, is highly unlikely for most series. Sad, but unlikely. Comic Party comes to mind...ugh, Mizuki. :/

5 centimeters per second



.. uuhhh the pain make it stop :(

Minor rant here:[size=10]although I know a lot of people will hate me for saying this[/h]

This was actually one of the reasons I started watching oreimo since I figured that there's no way that Main Guy x Main Girl would happen here since most Main girl are your typical redhead/blonde tsundere which has done to death already. and I was expecting kyousuke to end up with manami but sadly...you know..(I'm pissed since meganes almost never get developed and end up with the guy in harem anime without needing big boobs or removing their glasses for the rest of the series)

Although I guess you could consider kaminomi as one of the rare examples where (most)the girls get treated equally and that there's no obvious pairing.

Now that I finished watched haganai/NEXT I'm actually hoping that they wouldn't take the sen/yoz route and go for the rika end. Because rika is full of win and doesn't need to shove her ass up the screen frequently to prove it.


As for VNs and games with multi routes.. I don't really buy them because it bothers me that in some of those games most of the good story/plot/relationship stuff usually happens in the main girl's route..[size=10]cough... SAO infinity, Tsukihime, Brass restoration...cough[/h] and even no matter who you choose you can't deny the existence of the real main girl..[size=10]cough ...Rune Factory series and etc..cough although I liked the games[/h]

I can agree with you that it's more refreshing when they don't pick the main girl but sometimes best girl is just simply the best girl.

You can shove your best girl never wins thinking up your penis.

You mean like Houki of Infinite Stratos? Of all the girls of Ichika's harem she is the closest since they're childhood friends.
This thing of sub-girls seems to happen a lot in visual novels. Like in Clannad. Tomoya is closer to Nagisa than to any other girl in the game. But since this is a visual novel you can choose any route and make him end with any other girl, like Tomoyo or Kyou. But Nagisa's route is considered the true one in the story and she is the one ending with Tomoya in the anime, making her the sub-girl in Clannad. Maybe the authors made the sub-girls to put an official story in the game or to help indecisive players to choose.
And this makes me think in the case of the false-harems. A false-harem is when the male protagonist have his own harem but is clearly attached to a female character that stands more than the others and will end only with her even when he has more females interested in him, making a false harem. It's different of a sub-girl harem because here is no possibility of the male character ending with any girl other than the lead female. A good example are Saito and Louise in Zero no Tsukaima. This is not a harem because Saito only feels true love for Louise, even when he has more girls interested in him, like Siesta or Henrietta. He may be attached to the other girls, but only with lust. His true love is Louise and he will not choose any other girl. And that example of Rosario Vampire that you put is another good one: Tsukume is in love with Moka and he will not choose any other.

I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm getting less into harem animes, espeically if sub girls are not even developed properly. I don't watch much anime derived from VNs either as I like that you can choose for the VNs, and watching the anime ruins it a bit for me if one is chosen at the end.
The biggest upset back in my younger days is for the ending of Ichigo 100% (read the manga, didn't watch anime). I would've gladly picked either Aya or Satsuki instead.

I agree. In most if not all of the harems I have seen usually a sub-girl is my favorite.

Simple, because they don't have the budget and episode numbers for that. As much as I like the omnibus episodes like Amagami and Yosuga no Sora, The shorter their episodes the faster the pace gets and many details are omitted.

They "can" focus on the main heroine, but that means rage reactions from the fans who actually likes the other heroines, but then the plot becomes convoluted trying to mix all the heroines in the anime, creating more rage for the series. In the end it's a "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't" circle.

But this only applies to VN based anime, where the sub heroines actually have a route in the original source. You can't complain for the pairing of the main characters, where the sub heroines are just supporting characters.

Answer is yes. Yosugano sora is a good example.

first girl shown is last girl won. law of harems.
i cant evem think of a harem where you couldnt call from ep 1 who he would get

My memory is a bit hazy cause of time since I watched it. But Shuffle! I believe was hard to tell from ep 1. And We without Wings, cause well how the story is. Anything recent though it's usually easy to tell.

i havent watched either of those, sry