The crap to gold ratio for anime is pretty bad (especially with the harem genre since such shows are cheap and easy to produce.) After watching one piece of mediocrity after another, I became jaded to practically all anime and seriously considered quitting the medium.

Ultimately, Elfen Lied and “policy changes” changed my mind. I became super-selective and killed my completionist attitude for anime (Currently, I drop about half the anime I watch… although 2007 is going strong.)

I give hyped shows five episodes to entertain me, and new shows one. Sure, at first, half of my brain went batshit crazy at the new policy, but I was able to derive more entertainment per show and, thus, watched more anime as a result.

However, a part of me wanted to see the good old mindless harem, mecha and shounen action anime I started out with.

This is why when shows I love shows like Zero no Tsukaima and Code Geass. They might not have unforgettable stories, but they are sure as hell entertaining to watch. After watching several shows here and there, I realized that I really have no innate hatred for any genre (save guro). I just got caught up in the trap of “quality” and somehow lost sight of “fun.”

My first exposure of it was probably from Love Hina manga, which I thought was absolutely hilarious. But I didn’t started watching some harem anime until later on, and there was a period of time when I watched a few at once, like Maburaho, Shuffle, Magikano, which I thought were all aboslutely disastrous. Complete waste of my time. They were all filled with silly jokes, with very little plot, and in general I am a person that needs character development in order to be entertained, which they barely provided any.

I ended up watching Love Hina anime and was literally skipping episodes. It was a major disappointment for me cause one I read the manga and found it entertaining, and two many people said the anime was just as good, but it wasn’t.

To sum up, I was never a big fan of harem, and still am not. I read your entry and thought about picking up Amaenaide yo, so I anidb-ed it and read the description of the first season, was going to download it, but then saw that there was a second season, and the description went like this:

“In this sequel, a girl named Kazuki joins up with the 6 girls and Ikkou. With Kazuki around, Ikkou will find himself in more embarrassing situations with these nuns-in-training.”

And all of a sudden my interest in this series just went into the dumpster.

I think the biggest problem I have with harem is the lack of conclusion, or rather, the lack of development leading to a good conclusion. Most harem’s ending comes abruptly and without a good setup, and it’s hard for me to find enjoyment in shows like that.

On the other hand, I have been entertained immensely by Hayate no Gotoku, and that’s probably because the character interactions there are quite interesting. I think if more harems focused less on the silly side and more on the characters’ side, I would start watching more of them.

If anything, I’ve become even more disinterested in harem anime the more familiar I’ve become with anime, as I realize just how little inspiration goes into the genre. Saying something never intended to be more than mindless entertainment isn’t going to make me look at it any different. I’m more interested in what something actually is than in what it is trying to be.

Despite this, I have my own guilty pleasures in the world of anime. I have quite a fondness for Yu Yu Hakusho, enough to buy all the R1 DVDs, even though it’s little more than a shounen action series. I also get way more enjoyment out of reading Negima! manga than I should be getting from something of that quality.

>_> moving on…

I have to say, I agree with you partially. I mean, I can really like a show that I would review badly. Like, to me, reviewing is more than just what I personally enjoy, but more of an assessing of an anime’s strengths, weaknesses, and appeals. There’s some opinion from it, but I can derive entertainment very easily from almost anything. In all honesty, I’ll admit – sometimes I watch beyblade before going to school. It’s a great show to watch when you’re half awake and eating cereal with freeze dried fruit that hasn’t fully been absorbed with water – to me. I’m sure others will disagree. Is it a good show? Hell no. But it’s good to let one’s hair down every once in awhile an indulge in a, for a lack of better term, “guilty pleasure.” And yeah, some harem anime fall into that category – vandread. Laughably bad, but somehow endearing.