Harem Genre Narrator

MEDIA EXAMPLES

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin, with the main character gaining a harem of up to 100 girlfriends. It also deconstructs and parodies a lot of the usual tropes of the genre, however. Ah My Buddha: A Buddhist priest-in-training lives at a temple with six cute nuns, who alternately tease him, support him, and beat him up. Ah! My Goddess can be considered a precursor to the harem genre, even predating Tenchi Muyo!. It involves lovable loser Keiichi Morisato dialing a wrong number and accidentally calling a goddess to his apartment. Thinking it's a joke, he wishes for her to stay with him forever (not that he's averse to that). Over time, Belldandy's sisters Urd and Skuld move in, too, with other female characters joining in at various points. That said, while several of the other women tease Keiichi at times, he only has eyes for Belldandy. Ai Kora (from the creator of Midori Days) plays with this: Hachibe Maeda, a guy with very particular tastes in women definitely wants the harem so long as they have exactly one of the attributes he's looking for in a girl: Tsubame-sensei, the Harem Nanny, has long, streamlined legs; Sakurako, the Tsundere, has big, blue eyes; Yukari, the Bespectacled Cutie, has big, perky breasts like a bullet train; and Kirino, the Little Miss Snarker, has a husky voice. Later we meet Ayame, the Ojou, who has Maeda's ideal waist. This is taken to the extreme with Haiji, who has the ideal ass but is a guy. And a bisexual, no less. Ai Yori Aoshi. In a surprising twist, the first girl has already won, long before anyone else gets a shot thanks to a Childhood Marriage Promise which she and Kaoru have kept for nearly two decades. The other haremettes are kept from becoming Pretty Freeloaders with help from Harem Nanny Miyabi, as they're called on to do housework whenever Aoi is unable to perform. Miyabi-san takes her job very seriously. Aizawa-san Multiplies is a harem with a twist — all the girls are Literal Split Personalities of the title character. Angel Tales features a harem of Magical Girlfriends that are reincarnated animals that the protagonist used to own. Nadja Applefield (or better said, Nadja Preminger), from Ashita no Nadja is another of the female examples, having one of these (with four pre-teen boys and three guys in their mid-to-late teens) when she's just thirteen. While a draw of the Azur Lane game is for the Commander (you) to marry as many Ship Girls as you can, the anime and manga adaptations take this trope in different aspects. It's averted in the 2019 anime where the Commander is Adapted Out. The Azur Lane: Slow Ahead! manga meanwhile has the Commander as The Ghost, but as the Ship Girls constantly fawn over him and even have off screen dates with him, Slow Ahead is an odd case of being a harem series where the lead doesn't make an on screen appearance, instead focusing on the antics of the haremettes and how they'll win his affections. The Azur Lane Comic Anthology manga is the most direct example of this trope in the franchise since the Commander finally makes on-screen appearances and even when he doesn't, the Ship Girls are usually talking about him and how to get into his pants anyway. As the Anthology has no continuity between chapters, unlike Slow Ahead where continuity means a Ship Girl has to stop at dates with the Commander, a number of stories actually do end with a Ship Girl Promoted to Love Interest. Brynhildr in the Darkness is the Spiritual Successor to Elfen Lied and plays it more straight. Like in Kohta's case, a lot more girls are living in Ryouta's club house, since they are all refugees from Vingulf, a laboratory that creates Magicians. At least three of them have fallen in love with him, with Kuroha turning out to be his Childhood Friend Kuroneko, who was believed to be dead, is the one he truly loves, but several incidents force them to be Star-Crossed Lovers. The only girls who aren't in love with him are Kana and Kotori. Meta-wise, Die for Our Ship is avoided by the fans, since death is very possible in this series, as Kotori dies in the climax of the first part of the series, and Nanami died before even joining the main cast. The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses is about the main character re-opening his deceased grandmother's cafe after discovering that five cute waitresses still work there. Classi9 is a reverse harem manga starring a glamourized version of teenage classical European musicians as the harem and the female version of the Japanese composer Taki Rentarou having to crossdress to stay in their elite One-Gender School as the lead. A Couple of Cuckoos has several girls in love with male protagonist Nagi, with the twist being that he was accidentally Switched at Birth with Erika, the first girl he meets. Do You Like Big Girls? focuses on Sota Tachibana's exploits with his sister's volleyball team, both comical and sexual. And there is plenty of the latter. In Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure, Kazuki Yotsuga accumulates a harem made up of the Alpha Bitch, an alien Robot Girl, a sleepwalking ditz with a split personality who is also the daughter of the enemy leader (and the analogue of the Libby from a parallel universe), and an ex-Ace robot pilot who is also his homeroom teacher. In a clever subversion, the girls compete by cooking for him, rather than by blowing up things. Elfen Lied uses the window dressing of the genre, with several strange girls inviting themselves to live at an Ordinary University Student's house and Hilarity Ensuing, but this is essentially a side story. The real story is high drama about the Dark Magical Girl Of Mass Destruction female lead, not a Romantic Comedy about her Unlucky Everydude love interest. Also unlike other harem series, Kohta has only two actual love interests (female lead Lucy/Nyu and his cousin Yuka). The other girls living with him aren't really that into him; Mayu Does Not Like Men (except Bando), Nana is a Daddy's Girl, and Nozomi developing feelings for Kohta is only mentioned once, but this is never picked up. El Hazard: The Alternative World. The original El-Hazard series had a few characters somewhat interested in the male lead, but it was tapped for occasional fanservice and comedy rather than being the focus. However, the third OVA dove straight into this genre by having three girls fight over the (taken) main character in every episode. This is one of the reasons that it's seen as inferior to the first two. The genre is taken to it's logical conclusion in Fukumaden by Cool-Kyou Shinsha. A bunch of girls wait around for their turn to have sex with the hero (who is such a non entity that he never appears on screen) and make small talk. Bonus points for taking place in a literal harem. Gender-inverted with Fushigi Yuugi and its protagonist Miaka, with the added bonus of some minor overlap with a traditional Royal Harem. The yuri one-shot The Fourth Heroine is one big parody of ecchi harem manga and anime, in which the characters openly discuss and deliberately attempt to invoke numerous romcom and harem tropes, even going as far as directly referencing the fact that they're characters in a manga. It centers around Misaki Haruna, the titular "fourth heroine"; aka the fourth girl being introduced to act as a potential love interest for the nameless protagonist. However, she has no interest in him, nor does she care to take part in any of the antics common in such series', doing things such as locking the doors to the classroom so that the protagonist can't accidentally walk in on all the girls while they're in the middle of changing clothes. This upsets Megumi, the third heroine, who takes her role as one of the protagonist's love interests very seriously. However, Megumi begins to reevaluate everything after Misaki questions what the point of it all is, since the chances of her actually ending up with the protagonist are basically nonexistent. As a result, she quickly begins to notice that the protagonist isn't nearly as handsome and charismatic as she initially believed, and soon finds that she's fallen in love with Misaki instead. Futakoi is about a Themed Harem of 6 sets of twins. Girlfriend, Girlfriend takes a more literal approach to this genre; the story starts with main character Naoya having just started a relationship with his childhood friend Saki, but when his classmate Nagisa also confesses to him, he decides to go out with both her and Saki. Later on, other girls develop feelings for Naoya and try to become his girlfriends as well. Girls Bravo centers around Yukinari, who suffers from an allergic reaction to girls after being bullied by them for years. Enter Miharu: a strange girl from another planet, who falls in love with him at first sight and is the only one who doesn't trigger his allergy. There's two other girls for her to compete with… except not really. Girls Saurus: After being beaten up and hospitalized by an morbidly obese girl, Shingo develops gynophobia. In an attempt to overcome his fears, he decides to join the boxing club, only to learn that all of the club members are girls, one of whom is the (now much slimmer) girl who put him in the hospital in the first place. Gonin Hitoyaku demo Kimi ga Suki: On his first day at school, Taiga Makihara falls down a manure pit and is saved by Chika, the student council president. Falling in love with her, he then discovers that the president is actually a fake identity assumed by five quintuplet sisters with different personalities and abilities. Unable to tell which girl he fell in love with, Taiga decides to make them all his girlfriends. Gou-dere Bishoujo Nagihara Sora: An Affectionate Parody of the genre where a manga character comes to the real world and declares that the protagonist should Take Over the World. Hilarity Ensues. Hanaukyō Maid Team revolves around a guy who inherits an estate where the staff consists entirely of attractive maids. Hand Maid May centres around Kazuya and the Cyberdolls who move in with him after falling in love with him. Happy Lesson revolves around an orphaned teenage boy and five attractive female teachers who take it upon themselves to make him a more productive students—which, of course, results in a lot of romantic tension of the Teacher/Student Romance kind. Harem Royale - When the Game Ends - is a much darker take on the trope, since the typical harem setup is arranged through a Deal with the Devil; the members of the harem must fight to earn the protagonist's love or else be cast into Hell. Hayate the Combat Butler, a strange combination of the guy being even more clueless than usual and the girls mostly being knowledgeable about and completely alright with competing for his affection between them. Several of them actually work very hard to get one of the other girls to win! Tomoki Sakurai from Heaven's Lost Property has a harem consisting of Ikaros (who still hasn't quite realised it), Nymph, Sohara, Hiyori, and possibly Astraea. However, he's way too busy thinking of perverted schemes and being a pervert to actually notice. Only Hiyori has confessed to him, and he's even stunned upon receiving her confession. According to a non-canon pre-anime Drama CD, this happens in Higurashi: When They Cry. After Keiichi goes even more Bishōnen than he already is, it's shown that Rena, Mion, Rika and Satoko all like him. There is also a Kira episode that's a better example, with Shion, Rena, and Mion all out for Keiichi. Holy Corpse Rising: To win a desperate war against evil witches, Nikola Eskalibur manages to bring members of the "First Witches", who are not aligned with the evil witches, back to life and convince them to help him seek out and destroy the evil witches. What he didn't count on is by the ancient laws, bringing back a First Witch counts as marrying her. Soon he has several incredibly powerful girls fighting over who gets to be top wife. I Don't Know Which One Is Love, a Yuri Genre series featuring a college student stumbling into a five-girl Themed Harem on her first day of college. I'm the Main Character of a Harem Manga, but I'm Gay So Every Day Is Hell for Me is a one-shot parody of the Harem Genre. Touge isn't interested in all the girls who are chasing him for obvious reasons, but he keeps being thrown into all sorts of contrived situations that he despises. Iono the Fanatics, a Girls' Love harem series featuring a horny queen on a quest to make her thousand-strong harem even larger. Isuca: Shinchirou Asano winds up living with four girls that he literally owns thanks to I Know Your True Name. Unfortunately for him, one of those four girls is a Tsundere. Hi-jinks ensue. I Summoned Her - Yuta, an Ordinary High-School Student who has never experienced love before, meets Raas, a demon who asks him to sign a contract where he agrees to be her boyfriend. He agrees, although he wonders why he has to sign six more contracts as well. Then he learns that he's actually agreed to be the boyfriend of seven demons, each one representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins - and that if he doesn't manage to make them happy, they'll use their powers to influence the sins in mankind to destroy the world. Deconstructed in the ecchi series Kanojo de Ippai, where having seven different girls coming into his appartment at various times nearly gets Akira evicted on suspicion of running a prostitution ring. Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl: Can't forget the lesbian Love Triangle from which Hazumu has to choose either Yasuna or Tomari. In addition to that loads of other characters be they guys, girls, aliens, or family members all have a thing for Hazumu. Kiss Him, Not Me has a male harem with the added twist that the focus of it (Kae) is a Yaoi Fangirl and would rather have her harem start dating each other, but continue being friends with her. Koi ka Mahou ka Wakaranai!: Kaito gains the ability to make anyone who meet his eyes fall in love with him, but is unsure if they really love him, or they're only interested in him because of the charm. Komorichan Wa Yaruki O Dase is a Yonkoma about a teen boy living in an apartment with a little girl who sometimes won't even eat by herself, a neighbor girl, and a land lady with a "Mystery career". La Corda d'Oro which has five boys interested in one girl. Love Flops is an ecchi harem anime where five girls are arranged to live in the same house to be the bride of protagonist Asahi. Hilarity Ensues. Halfway through the series, it's revealed that the whole harem setup is actually a virtual simulation made to teach AIs how to love. The main character of Love Hina, Keitaro, is living in an all-girls inn and by the end of the series he had attracted a Tsundere, a Shrinking Violet, a Genki Girl/Wrench Wench/Princess, a Hard-Drinking Party Girl, a Kid Samurai, a Cloud Cuckoo Lander/Unlucky Childhood Friend, his adopted sister, and a Bratty Half-Pint… maybe. In an unusual twist, they suggest he Marry Them All but he refuses and marries his Victorious Childhood Friend, Naru. Love Tyrant has the main character get with his crush near the beginning of the story, only for the cupid who arranged it to fall in love with him as well, and soon two other girls try to get with him as well. The anime of Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! is a typical example, but the original Visual Novel isn't, as no more than two of them are really interested in Yamato at almost any given time, with one them always being Miyako. Maken-ki!: Takeru enrolls at Tenbi Academy, a former All Girl School that's recently turned co-ed. On his first day there, he reunites with his childhood friend, Haruko, and meets a strange girl named Inaho, who claims she's his fiancee. Plus, the school's resident twin-tailed tsundere seems to have it in for him. And by the end of the day, they've all been assigned to share the same hostel. You get the idea. Midori Days also has harem elements. Seiji has horrible luck with girls until Midori shows up, at which point everyone seems to be after him (in the manga, this includes a guy). Monster Musume adds a twist to this genre by making all the females some variation of a monster girl. So far there's a Lamia, Centaur, Harpy, a Slime Girl, a Mermaid, an Arachne, and a Dullahan. There's also the MON girls (an Attractive Zombie, an ogre, a cyclops, and a doppelganger), who aren't technically part of the harem but flirt with the protagonist all the same. My Girlfriend is Shobitch: Features Haruka, a shy and gentle boy who is a second-year in high school. He is quite popular with the girls in his neighborhood, but remains unaware of, or is simply not interested in, their romantic inclinations towards him. My Monster Secret: Starts off looking like this, but is ultimately subverted. While Asahi does have multiple girls interested in him, from the very beginning he's only got eyes for Youko. The girls are all friends and they all gladly support the couple while trying to get over their own feelings for Asahi, which tend to fail for the sake of comedy (which is just as much a part of the story as the romance). In fact, the series doesn't just avoid Fanservice, it takes great delight in mocking the concept repeatedly; for example, despite being quite attractive Youko couldn't seduce her way out of a paper bag, and her idea of "sexy poses" makes her look like a reject from a Super Sentai team. Nectar of Dharani: While trying to fulfill a promise in a magical world that is slowly industrializing, Kai gains the attentions of a princess who grants superpowers (by saving her life), a pureblooded werecat (by rescuing her from slavery), an army captain (by leading her suicide mission to victory), an alchemist (by teaching her how to make dynamite), and another princess (by saving her entire kingdom). The manga mostly focuses on Kai's adventures and the technology he brings with him, but the harem gets lampshaded a few times. Corporal: I'm just glad we have a mission that isn't about getting the major another pair of tits. Negima! Magister Negi Magi, being created by the author of Love Hina, started with this genre at first, involving a 10-year-old Child Prodigy and his all-female class of 31 girls. Then it took a massive Genre Shift midway into the second major arc, but reverted back (sort of) to this genre in the closing chapters. Most of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga out there are high school romantic comedies with Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu lusting after Shinji. Played with in the manga Otomari Honey, where we see the situation from the perspective of one of the haremettes — she goes to the house of a boy she has a crush on to ask if she can live with him to get away from her own home, only to find that he's already got three other girls with the same story living in his room. Ouran High School Host Club is a Reverse Harem, with Haruhi as the female protagonist with numerous male love interests. The series is also an Affectionate Parody of reverse harems, as the members of the Host Club all intentionally play different "types" of love interests common in such series as part of their duties to entertain the school's female population (and Haruhi herself joins in, though due to her Bifauxnen looks the girls all believe she's male). The Quintessential Quintuplets, in which every member of the harem is one of the titular quintuplets. Throughout the story there are Flash Forwards to main character Fuutarou marrying one of the sisters at some point in the future, but with all five girls falling for him in the present, the question remains which one it will be. Ranma ½: Not only do Ranma and Akane have Belligerent Sexual Tension with each other, but they each have various suitors vying for their affections. Ranma has two — one as a boy and one as a girl — while Akane has plenty of male characters interested in her.