Periodic reminder that Ken Akamatsu, author of Love Hina, popularized (and maybe introduced) the trope of “what if we make the harem protagonist relatable by making him a sadsack who deserves violence against him not because of his actions — which are completely accidental — but because of some essential internal flaw that makes him useless”. This is an incredibly damaging trope, & seems to be based on a misunderstanding of Ataru’s role in Urusei Yatsura.
Like Ataru, Keitaro is cosmically unlucky & some people around him are annoyed by this. However, the women who like Ataru like him because something about him appeals to them (if shallowly), and they are annoyed with him because he is a shallow impulsive inconsiderate jerk.
Meanwhile, Keitaro’s harem accumulates around him because he’s the main character (or, in the rare instances when it’s explained in-story, because he showed a baseline of civil behavior — which, due to everything else he’s been doing, they shouldn’t accept). Multiple times an episode he gets punched into the sky for accidentally seeing someone who is walking around naked, & this is portrayed as a natural automatic reaction. Treating this as a natural & automatic reaction allows us to avoid the obvious conclusion: that, if these women believed (as they often claim) that Keitaro is a cunning pervert, they would not allow him to continue to stay at their residence, while if they did not believe that, then it would not be acceptable to hit him. Love Hina combines a weak excuse for domestic…
