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With harems in high school anime so common these days, it’s always refreshing when a potential harem doesn’t come about. Chivalry of a Failed Knight really struck me with how it handled the relationship between the protagonist Ikki and his roommate, the heroine Stella. While Chivalry has all the tropes and conventions for a harem anime practically gift wrapped – a school for teens with magical powers, a shy swordslinging girl a particularly… forward little sister in the character Shizuku, etc. – it goes out of its way to establish Ikki and Stella as a faithful, monogamous couple surprisingly early in the series. After establishing the relationship, a good chunk of the anime is focused on their relationships, all the pitfalls only teenagers could fall into, the heartwarming ways they resolve their relationship problems, and even delves into sexuality in a relatively mature, tasteful way. The two even get engaged by the end of the first season. the potential members if Ikki’s harem are all sent on their platonic ways: the shy sword girl returns to her life after getting her father’s dojo back and said father wakes up from his coma, Shizuku accepts the fact that she won’t win her brother’s heart and is given a shoulder to cry on by her own roommate, etc. While harem works do have their place, writers need to really think about whether or not it’s the best writing decision for the project they’re working on.

This is a good, detailed article. A bunch of people like to bash Digimon as a Pokemon ripoff, but it really is unfair to compare Digimon and Pokemon: Aside from their “X Monster” newspeak titles and monster companions, they’re almost completely different shows/games and concepts. It would be interesting to compare the Digimon video games and examine their art, writing and conventions as well: Digimon World Dawn/Dusk and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth both focus on similar gameplay elements (like leaving your Digimon in customizable areas to level up on their own and repeatedly evolving and devolving Digimon to get the level cap high enough so you can digivolve your ideal monster), but the graphics and soundtrack vary wildly (with World’s pixel art and somewhat generic songs compared to Cyber Sleuth’s 3D models and Danganronpa-esque soundtrack).

It will be interesting to see how she will fare in the American market. The Eastern and Western pop scenes seem like total opposites in places. For starters, the Eastern pop scene is more openly and shamelessly “corporate” than Western pop. While Western bands put effort into a relatable, “human” image to suit the youth’s rebellious anti-corporate ideals, Eastern pop fans are notably, even stereotypically older and are fully aware that the groups they listen to were recruited and put together by a company. Western pop stars are almost encouraged to date so fans and tabloids can speculate on the who’s dating whom and who’s cheating on whom conspiracies. In Eastern cultures have a reputation for being far more strict about who their idols can be with (i.e. nobody, because a boyfriend would shatter the illusion that the fans have a chance of being with them) and the consequences for breaking the rules can be severe. I look forward to seeing how it all works out; will she thrive as a siren or flounder like a fish out of water?