Eagle Time Reading List

It sometimes piss off Rothfuss fans when I describe it as a harem anime, but it totally is. Roughly three-quarters of the notable characters other than the main guy are hot, somewhat-older-than-him women (when I met Rothfuss I asked him how he went about striking a balance with depicting the sex lives of teenagers, and I swear to God he said "all those characters are eighteen") with at least a hint or a shadow of romantic/erotic attraction to him. Most of them are well-written characters, but they're shaped in some way by that framework.

I've been thinking about this since you posted it and I think I figured out why it bothers me. It's not that it doesn't have some of those elements, but it is very reductionist to describe it like that. There's so much more to the message of the series that gets lost if you say it's just a "harem anime", and while romance plays a big part in the story, it's not the main point. I think rather the multiple affairs he has is more of a homage to ancient myths and legends, just like the word choice, plot, and magic systems are.