With the next season of IS: Infinite Stratos in full swing -- and a small conversation cropping up around my Mr. Nice Guy post -- I really starting to question the purpose of the stereotypical male character. I've always had a distaste for such a bland character, and now I'm wonder what would happen if you broke this overused formula of a harem formed around a nice, but oblivious male lead, by remove him -- in Infinite Stratos' case, Ichika -- from the picture entirely.
Considering that his only purpose is a stand in for the male viewer to replace himself with, it is that far-fetched of an idea; but what would be the consequences of such an idea? Lets say that Ichika was out of the picture, would there be any real reason for the girls to be so close to each other? The fact that one of the main reasons that so many females are gather in one place is to get a piece of Ichika, I don't really think that the girls would ever really ever cross paths. And for the most part, I think that the main reason most people stick to the very generic harem sub-plot is for the females -- and if there was an actual story, that might be another reason.
The other thing that Ichika contributes is quite obvious; following the common pattern of, do something to make one of the females angry or be anykind of "perverted", and the male character gets hit; so you can assess that this dynamic is where the comedy comes from. Even if this pattern relies on two or more people, it is more likely for the male to initiate the sequence. So without him, there might either be less comedy, or just none what so ever -- although, I haven't found this method all that comical for some time now.
Lastly, going off the idea of being a cookie cutter character -- the fact that if there is no male character -- the audience might not feel compelled to watch. By removing that one entry point, you lose the connection for one or more girls that the viewer might have had; which exposes the inherently weak bond that most viewers had toward their favored character, if you peel back the layers slightly.
The more you look at this dilemma, for a character that feels like the most useless, you can't really remove him or you lose the "magic" of what is the romantic harem comedy formula. Even if most of the love in a series like this feels unrealistic or disingenuous, the male character has some value in the series, in order for most of the girls in the harem to prosper.
Really the closest thing that attempts removing the male main character, and rapidly became its own genre, was the four girl moe blob. I dislike these types of series far more than generic harem, but the moe blob attracts more than the young male demographic -- however, I'm not really focus on these gross blobs.
Really the only thing that I find interesting is the Infinite Stratos isn't classified as a romance, so this charade of "who is Ichika going to pick", could go on for as long as the series wants, without any repercussions.