Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time is another reverse harem manga series I studied to pick out repeated themes and tropes of the reverse harem genre. In this series, a young woman from our time is thrown into the past, where she discovers she is the priestess of a dragon god, and is tasked with saving the capital of Japan by gathering the eight guardians (who are, of course, all handsome young men).
La Corda
As is often the case, my collection of books within the series is a bit of a hodgepodge. Some copies I found brand new, whereas others were discarded library copies. Which, if you don’t know, can be a great way to pick up cheap paperback and hardback books! When libraries get rid of old books, they frequently sell them for less than a dollar a piece.
Some of the plot elements I used from my Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time research is pretty basic to reverse harem manga, but they’re still important aspects of The Genie Whisperer.
| Plot Element: | Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time | Genie Whisperer |
| In a crazy situation, the main character will pick herself up to do the next thing she can do! | The main character is thrown into a truly crazy situation when she finds herself in the past, but rather than stewing over it, she decides to do what she can. | Ali finds herself in many crazy situations, thanks to the genies, but she’s not one to sit back and let someone else dictate her life. If there’s something she can do, she’s going to do it. |
A love interest tells the main character he’d like to be the person she confides in, because she needs someone. He also admits he also wants the main character to be that person for him. | I honestly have no recollection of how this happened in the manga . . . other than that it was one of the guardians who said this, lol. | Illan essentially says this to Ali in book six, The Three B’s of Genie Whispering, when she’s so upset after encountering the puppet genie. |
| How each guy addresses the main character matters. | In Japan, there is social etiquette around how you refer to others, with some methods being more formal and other more familiar, that are used depending on your relationship with the person. This is often relevant in manga, with reverse harems having the guys refer to the main character in a variety of ways. | I thought it would be a lot of fun to have the genies call Ali a variety of things. As of book six, only Rajan and Tavor call Ali by her name alone, and that’s only sometimes. The rest use nicknames or titles, either to insult Ali or put distance between them and her. And then there’s Illan, who always refers to her as Miss Ali. |
I think the plot line of a young woman with special abilities/a special destiny being surrounded by devoted and capable guards is a lot of fun, and is one I might want to explore someday. I have a few story ideas related to that, but since I have dozens of tentative ideas, I can’t say that those stories will ever be written.
As for the Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time manga series, my overall feeling toward it is ‘meh.’ I included it in my research, but I feel that the overall story lacks depth and the main character’s obsession with the villain simply because he was beautiful drives me crazy. The manga was based off a video game, and it’s a pity that mangas weren’t created of later versions of the game, since I found later heroines far more compelling.