Comment by Athanasia_Miyo on Home page

Lets start with engaging with fiction is an escape from the pressures folks face in their day to day for a good number of fans. It's arguably one of the most popular means of procrastinating (and this has been true for a long part of human history), it's just internet has made it more accessible and given variety

Many men and even some women at least entertain the notion of having more than one partner in life (particularly those who have either legal or religious restrictions that state only one partner at a time, used to be partner for life, unless the spouse died early enough in the marriage). Harem stories are a way to entertain that guilty pleasure.

The problem with the harem genre is most authors rely on troupes or cliches like fan service, the hard to get or tsundere female lead who is beautiful yet seemingly unattainable to a plain/goofy male lead (this isn't true for just harem, other genres like horror, romance, isekai suffer similar issue because the genre is popular and folks are spitballing ideas to meet demand but this creates a vicious cycle where folks feel disillusioned by the poor quality of works being produced because most authors are writing for demand rather than doing what they are passionate about), banking on no matter what they do, the story will sell well (and when you have to make a living, you do what you gotta do). For every masterpiece of a harem story, there are 100 or more sh.it-show harem stories. For every decent harem story, you got 10 trash class stories. A big part of the appeal is the art, and the storyline is baked in or non-existent (this may be influenced by piracy that many would be customers don't buy works, and the ones who do buy just buy anything with good art. Unfortunately, the industry must follow the buyers who keep their lights on, not the readers who browse.

Harem itself has 3 subgenres:

Stories where the lead has competing love interests aka shipping wars. This is probably the most common type, where the lead is popular for seemingly plot convenient reasons that make little to no sense. The story is about who the lead will choose to end with shennaningans/situations to appeal to the audience to root for the best girl/wifey/partner. In most cases, the visual appeal is what matters most rather than the progression or character development. 5toubun no Hanayome (5 identical sisters for their tutor) or Rokudou no Onna-tachi (MC has a magic that makes deliquent girls fall for him) are good examples of this categorization

Stories where the lead takes everyone/most: The sub genre that is best representative of what harem should be in my opinion. Whether its plot mechanic to take multiple partners or because the MC acts on their desire to take/woo the heart of whomever they are pursuing, the story ends with the MC in a romantic relationship with multiple girls. In some cases, even has started a proper polygamy and/or family with the leads. Sekirei or DearS are good examples of this genre

Stories that aren't really harem: There are quite a few stories that are attributed as harem, but really aren't. Whether its the story of an MC that is in short term relationship, breaks up and gets into a new relationship (aka continual rebounder) or the MC has an affair (NTR) on their partner with another person, they are labeled harem but really aren't. Beyond Myriad Peoples is a good example (all the MC does is talk with women on simple conversational topics and while he does have a couple of women express fleeting interest once in a while, nothing happens to indicate a harem, unless having a huge fanclub worshipping you is supposed to be harem)

For harems more than novels or comics here I have watched Dramas since they depict it beautifully 😍 make me go through all the highs and low with the characters 
Like Wu Zentian , Ruyi's love in Royal Palace are some from C drama 
And Empress Ki from Kdrama these are long but I kind of like such hare's more maybe because its a show or maybe because its related to historical events so they do feel more relatable and understandable.
But your explanation helps me understand the genre more though I tried NTR but I just couldn't go through more of such works which is weird Since I do watch Harem works (or more of I like straightforward communication of one's desire than the hidden manipulation or cheating must I say , I would rather they be open of what kind of relationship they want to pursue unless it really is due it being a stigma due to the era or settings/conflicting background the story is set in ).

The production cost of a drama is significantly higher and since dramas have better purchasing returns from how the content is distributed, there is more focus on the story/character development (unless we are talking animated drama). Comics/Novels have low production cost and significantly more ptions for readers, but nowhere near as much purchasing returns, so art tends to be the focus since the cover art is often a deciding factor for a reader to consider reading. Granted, that doesn't mean there aren't creators who don't do a good job with the storyline, because there are, it's just sadly the exception rather than the standard, especially in popular genres.

NTR while common in quite a number of harem and sm.ut stories and some romance is not necessary for harem (unless the harem is at the point where the lead engages in intimacy with more than one partner, but most would not see it as NTR if all the other partners are accepting of the arrangment). It's a plot device to create tension and/or evoke mixed reactions in the audience (NTR is the act of a character deliberately cheating on their significant other with someone they aren't in a romantic relationship with).

Yui_Athanasia

I totally agree with you🥰💙

@Yui, trying to be low-key about the ask, not sure how comment notifications work.