Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-37185619-20181020220225/@comment-26509240-20200407151615

Sourcedartonline wrote: Harems don't generally have canon relationships that other girls in the series recognize and respect. They generally don't have the girls give up on a relationship with the main character. And most harems involve having all the main girls constantly around the main character, which also isn't a thing with SAO.

There are harem elements sure, but SAO is clearly not like any harem series I've ever watched or read. There are harems with canon endings. Pokemon is an example of a revolving door harem because Ash is married to his Pikachu and the girls are just side hoes. Joking aside, harem is just a very loose definition. The JP version is more like a mix of both the original and the westernized definition. Western as in lewd, and original as in, not lewd. The original meaning for harem was more of a place for family members and relatives or just females in general for the family to stay. Nothing really lewd, it's like a dormitory or whatever.

Also for those points, the issue is that they act like a group of scorned groupies. No real reason why they just hang around together as if waiting for Kirito to get them involved in something. Even Asuna gets pushed into the same place as the rest of them each time there is a new arc with new characters or when Kirito needs to focus on a new girl.