I was watching Konosuba, and I thought it was strange that the male MC spent so much time in the world and making only close female friends. And I realised how common this was. In real life, if a man has only close female friends, that would raise a few eyebrows. It would be considered unhealthy.
People look down on the whole "harem" trope as just a fantasy for males who want to be surrounded by hot women. But I'm starting to think there is some weird, deeply psychological reason why males want to be surrounded by women that give them approval. Whether it goes back to deeply rooted self ideas about a male otaku's own failed self conception of their masculinity. Or whether its some weird Freudian thing, like male otaku have dysfunctional relationships with their mothers that they are trying to subconsciously resolve or something.
If I saw a guy exclusively hanging out with women then I'd assume he's a flaming homosexual
John Bailey
I trust other males less than I trust women and I don't trust women at all, they just have pussies I can fuck.
Jaxon Campbell
>I was watching Konosuba, and I thought it was strange that the male MC spent so much time in the world and making only close female friends He's friends with that blonde spear guy (Dust) and a few others but they don't get much screentime because everyone just wants to see cute girls
Ethan Sanchez
It's important for a harem series not to have male main characters, for one you don't want to attract shippers to the series, and you also want to feel like every girl has a special relationship with the protagonist, so everyone's favorite girl doesn't have a chance of being pushed off to some other guy.
Jeremiah Roberts
It would be more interesting if there was more screentime with Kazuma hanging out with his bros and getting up to antics. It would make him a way more interesting character.
And yeah, harems are all about seeing cute girls. But it seems like its not so much that they are desirable, but that they are safe and non threating and can be opened up to emotionally. And the males, even the way they are drawn, they are like hyper-masculine, distant, and unapproachable. Its fucked up when you think about it, but this is the way otaku see the world.
Dominic Hill
That's how I see the world.
Answer me this, what is the point of showing Kazama with male friends when he treats Aqua and Darkness with little regard for their gender? The point of male friends in the real world is because someone is always tiptoeing around speaking more freely with women because he's scared of offending her or she actually is easily offended, or because they have ultramasculine hobbies that you just won't see a girl doing, and if they do it's on a totally different level, like sports. Without either of those problems; if you don't give a shit about offending a girl or she isn't easily offended, and you either don't have physically demanding heavily male dominated hobbies or like in the case of Konosuba, the females are on Kazamas or greater, then why not just have cute girls as friends instead?
Samuel Sullivan
Kazuma does have male friends though. The anime doesn't everything from the LNs
platonic male camaraderie isn't as common in japan as it once was. Groups like the army, yakuza, soccer teams, but you don't see it as much with adult men who aren't a part of organized groups in japan because of how isolating their work culture is. They feel obligated to go to drinking partys with their coworkers and you will see them acting like they are friends and having a good time but it's all fake and stressful for them because its ingenuine.
The japanese people that write light novels and the mangakas that read light novels that then have their shit made into anime are not part of masculine organized groups they are typically lonely sad people.
This, it’s not that complicated and cartoons aren’t real life.
Luis Cox
The entire point of having friends is simply because you both share interest in something and it's much more fun if you have people to share and cultivate a hobby and experience.
Male friendship is seen as something special. Men are independent and have no real need for emotional attachment. It takes great effort for 2 men find need toward each other and if 2 males become friends, it's a matter of brotherhood and solidarity. Breaking the bro code is an act of evil and evil people tend to destroy themselves in the end.
Female friendship is fickle as it is nothing more than ensuing each other as "not a threat to me". Their relationship crack easily once one started becoming a threat and boy does the overemotional bitches see everything as threats. Getting stabbed at the back is everyday for girls.
In the real world, the idea of having a harem is not truly a chad thing. Media culture wanted to portray it as some sort of ultimate pleasure but truth be told, no great future awaits the polyamorous.
The founder of playboy lived life in the high clouds. He is seen as a bachelor surrounded by sexy girls all day every day in his mansion He became a sleezy old man and died surrounded by nothing but gold diggers.
For all the talk about male friendship on the decline, it is still the norm for a man to have males as their closest friends. And anime and manga still portray close male friendships. But I'm talking about the specific harem niche that is extremely popular in some anime. And lots of anime are produced by neurotic males for neurotic males.
Levi Garcia
For a moment I thought of making a meta-analysis of this season but I'm lazy
Oliver Rogers
jesus christ you can't just blame every single little damn thing on work culture Especially in a case like this where it makes no sense. If japs wanted friends they would talk to their damn coworkers and be friends. People are friends with their cowokers everywhere else, and unlike Japan they aren't even encouraged to do it! If it's work culture that's ruining jap friendships so much then it would stand to reason that the most social and friendship filled japs are NEETs. But that's not true. Japs have more issues wrong with them than just working a bit too long
Henry Evans
As its already been pointed out he has two male friends Dust and the other dude whose name I forget not to mention the big guy who is always giving him advice/praise, its just his dumb group of bitches come first since they are useless without Kazuma leading them.
Elijah Morgan
OP is gay
Joseph Bell
self inserters get upset by other male characters interacting with female characters
Dylan Baker
>They feel obligated to go to drinking partys with their coworkers and you will see them acting like they are friends and having a good time but it's all fake and stressful for them because its ingenuine. What the fuck that’s literally me.
