Pretty good
This is it. This is the final answer. To what question? It's simple: "can we make Ivern like an harem?".
The Polygamy Illuminati gathered and laboured with one, burning objective: to make me fall. To conquer me. Me, the Ultimate Castigator of Harems. The Avenger of Screentime. The Arbiter of Characterization.
They created this one. They employed good artists, and even added a bit of male body fanservice, to please my dìck. They designed a well rounded power system, with interesting magic and original uses of skills. And they managed the impossible: they juggled 5+ LOVE INTERESTS with average parity in screentime and characterization development. The writing was given attention too: each of the girls has a definite psychology and clear tropes, they are coherent, they are a side cast worth its name! Not to mention the form: actually great!
It was...a miracle.
And they failed.
Because there are objective, impossible limits they cannot overcome. Those are built in the harem trope, and that will never change. All of the corrections you made, Polygamy Illuminati, have a price. And all miracles require sacrifice.
The insane amount of screentime required to make the girls work demand that the action has little space. This is, in fact, not a shonen, but an illustrated dating sim playthrough. Fights aren't built with meaning behind them, are sparse, and clearly not the focus. What is there IS enjoyable, and it is too little.
As a romance, to make the harem work, it had to sacrifice MC. Ed has no feelings for any of them, he remains dead cold, and he has no choice but that, for the manga to function. Ergo, I do not feel invested. It's courtship masturbation that remains superficial, and I find it boring. Its end, by intent or inevitability, is to pander, and it shows.
All your efforts availed you a 8+ on the Ivern Scale™️, Polygamy Illuminati. You made a high functioning harem, and I still don't like it. Congrats.
The Polygamy Illuminati gathered and laboured with one, burning objective: to make me fall. To conquer me. Me, the Ultimate Castigator of Harems. The Avenger of Screentime. The Arbiter of Characterization.
They created this one. They employed good artists, and even added a bit of male body fanservice, to please my dìck. They designed a well rounded power system, with interesting magic and original uses of skills. And they managed the impossible: they juggled 5+ LOVE INTERESTS with average parity in screentime and characterization development. The writing was given attention too: each of the girls has a definite psychology and clear tropes, they are coherent, they are a side cast worth its name! Not to mention the form: actually great!
It was...a miracle.
And they failed.
Because there are objective, impossible limits they cannot overcome. Those are built in the harem trope, and that will never change. All of the corrections you made, Polygamy Illuminati, have a price. And all miracles require sacrifice.
The insane amount of screentime required to make the girls work demand that the action has little space. This is, in fact, not a shonen, but an illustrated dating sim playthrough. Fights aren't built with meaning behind them, are sparse, and clearly not the focus. What is there IS enjoyable, and it is too little.
As a romance, to make the harem work, it had to sacrifice MC. Ed has no feelings for any of them, he remains dead cold, and he has no choice but that, for the manga to function. Ergo, I do not feel invested. It's courtship masturbation that remains superficial, and I find it boring. Its end, by intent or inevitability, is to pander, and it shows.
All your efforts availed you a 8+ on the Ivern Scale™️, Polygamy Illuminati. You made a high functioning harem, and I still don't like it. Congrats.
Review legend: GAI🏅= READ IT | 5✴️ = Good read | 4✴️ = 'tis fine | 3✴️= on the verge of being shockingly okay | 2✴️ abysmal | 1✴️ = READ IT (your pain sustains me)