Unwanted Harem - Television Tropes & Idioms

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alt title(s): Harem Anime; The Unwanted Harem; Reverse Harem; Too Many Love Interests; Harem Series

Is... is he lucky or unlucky?

Well, I'm driving down the road

trying to loosen my load,

I've got seven women on my mind.

Four that wanna own me.

Two who wanna stone me.

One says she's a friend of mine.

— The Eagles

This is a subset of the Love Dodecahedron — a young man (often an Ordinary High School Student), who never before had much effect on women, suddenly becomes the focus of the romantic attentions of a number of lovely young ladies, all of whom view themselves as being in competition for his exclusive affection. Often these young ladies are super-powered or otherwise exceptional, leading to highly destructive arguments and fights. Even if he does like one or more of the girls, the young man won't or can't admit it. Besides, until the point comes where one of the girls is in danger, the young man would rather have his nice quiet life back.

While this is, as might be gathered, usually a male wish-fulfillment trope, gender-reversed versions of The Unwanted Harem have recently begun to appear. One of the best-known examples is Yuuki Miaka and the Suzaku Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi.

Some fans believe true harem shows currently exist mostly in the realm of adaptations of dating simulation computer games, since those plots are implicitly built to be open ended. If the author has an obvious preference towards a certain character, this is established quite early, and anyone else becomes a harmless Pretty Freeloader over time.

In the rare cases the center of the harem isn't specifically averse to the attention (or outright encouraging it) they will never be able to enjoy it. Other times, the character is protected by having an extremely innocent viewpoint towards the whole thing, and will only see the harem as a group of friends. In many of these cases the central character is also designed to actually be appealing to the audience to explain why the harem likes them, while still being harmless.

Typical harem members might include (individually or in blended combinations):

For male harem leads:

For female harem leads:

As shown by poor Tsukune in the above picture, the most common and immediate consequences of said Harems is the hilarious (if incredibly painful to watch) Tug Lover War.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

The best known example of The Unwanted Harem is seen in the various versions of Tenchi Muyo! (Especially the one where the girls use Applied Phlebotinum to turn his bathroom into a literal harem.)
Likewise Ranma 1/2, which can be viewed as Ranma having an unwanted harem, plus Akane in an inverse of the trope having an unwanted harem of guys interested in her, plus a load of related complications.
- Female Ranma also has an Unwanted Harem of guys, which is even bigger than Akane's or male Ranma's own harem. Thankfully, most of them are one-shot characters.
Kyo Ani's AIR, Kanon 2006, and Clannad feature an ordinary (or not so ordinary) high school student who attracts girls of every moe and general description type into a long-running harem.
El Hazard The Magnificent World
Sakura Taisen, naturally, as it's based on a game that is partially a Dating Sim.
Love Hina, and by extension, Mahou Sensei Negima (both by Ken Akamatsu) — Negima is different in that the male lead is 10 years old, and all the girls are well above his age, so the romance is mostly played for laughs.
- Of course, Mahou Sensei Negima starts heading off into Shonen territory around the 3rd volume, and as of right now barely resembles an Unwanted Harem.
In Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual, Kazuki Yotsuga accumulates a harem made up of The Libby, an Alien Robot Girl, a sleepwalking ditz with a split personality who is also the daughter of the enemy leader, 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.
Urusei Yatsura shows how this was already a cliche back in the 1980s — Ataru Moroboshi, who is actively trying to assemble a harem, repulses most girls and has to "settle" for the alien princess Lum, who lives in his closet and thinks they're married.
A particularly interesting (and unusually non-romantic) variation on this trope can be found in the anime Sister Princess, in which a young man discovers that he has a baker's dozen half-sisters he never knew existed. Having grown up alone except for a few servants, he finds their slavish adoration of their "big brother" somewhat overwhelming, but grows to love and treasure them all.
- There is, however, a romantic version in the Dating Sim games. Some of the Multiple Endings reveal that many of the sisters (not coincidentally, all the ones that are legal) are Not Blood Siblings.
Angel Tails features a harem of Magical Girlfriends.
Saber Marionette J, in which the entire harem is made up of Robot Girls and one guy (on an all-male world, where this would be expected). In its various sequels, the one real girl in the entire world also apparently wants in on the harem.
- This makes a certain amount of sense however - the robot girls in question were created based on her personality. If they want him, it stands to reason she would too.
The same thing with Steel Angel Kurumi except for the spoiler detail.
- And Steel Angel Kurumi 2, ups the ante by placing a girl in the center and adding a flesh-and-blood Rich Bitch to the harem.
Mahoromatic, with Mahoro as the obvious winner and catalyst for the harem situation. Other competitors are the Triomatic (Rin, Miyuki, and Chizuko) and the very disturbing Ms. Shikijo.
Hanaukyo Maid Tai.
Vandread.
Photon.
Irresponsible Captain Tylor.
Yumeria.
Shuffle!
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 over a decade. 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.
The Wallflower has a rare male harem surrounding a girl.
- Although it's made clear fairly early on that Kyouhei's the only love interest, since two are in a steady relationship, and the third is a Chivalrous Pervert thats something of a Cake Eater.
...as does Ouran High School Host Club. She was popular with the girls at her own school, but for other reasons.
- Only two or three guys have shown romantic interest in Haruhi, the others have been hinted at.
  - When you count Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, Kasanoda, and Arai (an old friend of Haruhi's from middle school) there's about five known guys in the show who are explicitly or implicitly shown to have at least some romantic feelings for Haruhi.
  - Honey and Mori even mention at one point when by themselves that they figure that either Kaoru or Kyouya also likes her but hasn't noticed yet. Renge also claimed to like her, but that only came up again one more time before being forgotten.
- Then, when you take into account episode 3 in the anime when Kyoya reveals that Haruhi received at least one declaration of love from a different boy each month in middle school, she could very well have some sort of secret male harem lurking in the shadows somewhere.
And the manga Me and my Brothers, a non-romantic one.
- It's worth noting that in both male harem series there is a clear Official Couple pairing with one of the guys.
Another all male harem is in Kyou Kara Maou: The reason it is unwanted is the central figure in this harem is Yuuri, a man.
The manga 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 Meganekko, 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 technically a guy.
- 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.)
Subverted in Elfen Lied. What could've been a major Harem Show is actually one really' screwed up drama.
Nagasarete Airantou. Not only is it an Unwanted Harem, it's also on a deserted island.
Martian Successor Nadesico could be described as the wacky, bipolar love child of Tenchi Muyo and Mobile Suit Gundam. There's a lot of women on that ship, and much to the chagrin of the male crew, almost all of them insist on fighting over the Unlucky Everydude who has enough problems of his own. Lampshaded in one scene where one of them points out it's a popular anime trope.
The Suzumiya Haruhi anime/novels. An alien, an ESPer, a time traveler, a time traveler, and an unknowing goddess. Remember, this is a show that sinks its meathooks into any trope it can find and folds and spindles it to shreds...
- The show rather averts (but not completely) this trope in that it's not focused on the "harem" aspect and it's not really unwanted. Kyon has a crush on Moe Moe Mikuru, who is not the archetypical "first girl" (And has admired Badass Bookworm Yuki on multiple occasions, too.) He simply can't, because you know how "special" Haruhi is. Lots and lots of Ship Tease would fit the description better.
- One also has wonder whether its Kyon's harem or Haruhi's.
  - Yuki appears to be uninterested in Haruhi romantically and vice-versa, so while Haruhi had a harem mentioned in-show, Kyon's is larger in terms of characters. We also have Sasaki and maybe even Kyoko and Fujiwara in Kyon's harem.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has this with how the girls randomly fall in love with the teacher Itoshiki, when he promises to "take them with him" when he commits suicide. Unfortunately for Sensei, most of the characters fall square in the Yandere type...
Tokyo Mew Mew, sort of (and gender-reversed). Ichigo, whose official love interest is the Neutral Male (who has his own Unwanted Harem of fangirls), has to deal with a bunch of other guys having feelings for her — Mission Control, Stalker With A Crush and Mysterious Protector. It doesn't help that the latter turned out to be said "Neutral" Male.
Averted (somewhat) in Code Geass. In the first season, Lelouch/Zero accumulates a rather large group of girls who have feelings for him, including C.C., Kallen, Shirley, Milly, Kaguya, and even his half-sister Euphemia. He just doesn't do anything about it, since for the most part he's too busy trying to overthrow the government to pursue romance. The staff has said that the second season will deal more with his romantic entanglements. (And note that all this is ignoring the Brother Sister Incest and Ho Yay-slash-Foe Yay ships with Nunnally and Suzaku, respectively.)
- The second season seems to poke fun at this; as a result of his Ninja Maid running around in a Latex Perfection Lelouch disguise and being generally nicer, Lelouch ends up scheduled to go on dates with no less than One Hundred And Eight girls. And there's Kaguya fantasizing about a Tenchi Solution...
- And yes, the staff sort-of delivered it. Not only Rolo became a second Gay Option (who was all "Bitch, PLEASE!" at Sayoko for the 108 dates), but there is more focus on Lelouch's love life... Specially when it hit Fatal Attractor levels and later Suzaku manages to ensnare the position of The Dragon to Lelouch, with all the Ho Yay squeals it implies. See the entry.
- This was played with in one of the first seasons audio dramas where Shirley considers asking him to go to a concert and with her and imagines him revealing that he was in love with and getting married to Kallen, Nunnally, Suzaku, Milly, Rivalz, and even Arthur the cat in that order. At the end they all decide to share him and invite Shirley in on the action. Note that Nina was not in the fantasy and it was set only hours before the Table-Kun incident.
  - Holy Goddamned Shit. That's awesome. ILU SHIRLEY.
Tsukune of Rosario To Vampire accidentally enrolls in a monster school and acquires — mostly through conquest — a vampire, a succubus, two witches, a snow woman, adn recently a MALE Yasha. ~~A Tenchi Solution is ruled right out, due to the harem's tendency to spontaneously break out into superpowered free-for-alls both over and against him during bouts of jealousy~~, though the loli witch does repeatedly ask for a threesome with the vampire. Even harem aside, their unique... quirks... would make a relationship with any rather hazardous (though Ruby is a pretty safe option, if you Whip It Good like Tsukune).
- Notable in that he's already clearly picked his favorite, which the others notice.
- Surprisingly it was the newcomer of the harem, a guy to boot, who actually proposed a Tenchi Solution. Most of the girls like it. The Official Couple doesn't.
  - Neither does inner Moka, if you want to consider her a separate character.
Nagisa from Strawberry Panic has her share of unwanted admirers. Since she lives at the dorms of an all-girl high school, you know what that means. Hikari also boasts her fair share of unwanted admirers, making Strawberry Panic a series that has two sets of unwanted harems.
Rune Soldier Louie looks like a Harem Anime at a glance — Louie does get unexpectedly involved with a bunch of beautiful women, after all — but it never really plays up any of the genre's tropes beyond Louie being stuck between Ila and Melissa (and Melissa doesn't even like him that much); Merill and Jeannie just treat him as a cool brotherly type/drinking partner. In any case, the action and comedy take precedence over the relationships.
Maburaho
Transformers Super God Masterforce has a gender-flipped and G-rated version — each of the boys has a crush on Minerva. Minerva herself just seems to think they're being childish.
Athrun Zala from the series Gundam Seed Destiny has this. At its height, there are no less than four lovely young ladies vying for his attention in the series. And to make things worse, by the end of the series he still hasn't settled on anyone in particular. Much wank has followed
- He already settled for the first one at the end of the Gundam Seed, before Destiny even started, and he was never interested in the others. Not to mentioned they either died or moved on.
  - Not quite true. He broke up amiably with the Tsundere, saw the Idol Singer die tragically, and remained friends with the Shorttank (who hooked up with someone else) and the Naive Everygirl. Whether he returns to the side of the Tsundere, chooses the Naive Everygirl over her or just stays alone... that is what we don't know.
  - Considering he only broke up with the Tsundere because the writer did not like her voice actor, a good number of fans do not want to see it that way.
  - What about us who want him to hook up with the Tsundere AND the Naive Everygirl, Executive Meddling and rabid haters of the poor Naive Everygirl be goddamned? That, and the Tsundere is now a Queen and she's got much more important things to do, like working on her kingdom's well-being. How dares a woman choose duty over love without crying self to sleep, indeed.
Most of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga out there are high school romantic comedies with Asuka, Rei, and Kaworu lusting after Shinji. So Yeah...
- So do several fan fics, which may also include Misato in the roster... and/or Ritsuko... and/or Maya... and/or Hikari (and/or one or both of her sisters)... and/or Mana Kirishima (from Girlfriend of Steel)... and/or Mayumi Yamagishi (NGE: 2nd Impression)... and/or one or more fan-made characters... and/or Yui as a Mama Bear Harem Nanny (Not that way, you preverts... Usually). Yeah, turns out being the universe's Butt Monkey in your previous life (assuming the "Third Impact spawning a zillion alternate universes" theory) is a sure way to make such an attractive Chick Magnet out of you that even the guys want you. Too bad Shinji is usually a Chaste Hero.
Happy Lesson has a school full of hot teachers who all decide to play mom for the socially withdrawn Chitose, who doesn't really grow to appreciate this sudden forced invasion of personal space until well into the series, and even then he still blows his top when he thinks they go too far.
To Heart 2 fits this trope extremely well.
- It got downright ridiculous and hilarious in episode one of the Another Days OVA. Takaaki gains amnesia because Tamaki used the Iron Claw on him since he almost read a love letter she wrote to him when they were little and the girls take advantage of this by filling up his memory with events that never actually occurred.
  Manaka: "Takaaki-kun, you and I are lovers, and we're happy together."
  Takaaki: "Lovers!?"
- It should be noted that Takaaki's seiyuu was ~~Lelouch vi Britannia~~ Jun Fukuyama. Hoo boy...
Not a harem anime but every single guy in Touch wants Minami. They don't stand a chance against the Childhood friend Jerk with a Heart of Gold Tatsuya but they still persist.
In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Tsuna has one... unfortunately for him, instead of being beautiful and sweet Yamato Nadeshiko, it consists of a bunch of aggressive Bishounen, many of which express their affection for him violently and possessively. And the harem has been getting bigger.
- Way back in the begining of the series, remember all the fangirls in the school dying to give Gokudera and Yamamoto chocolates? Gokudera, of course, considered it an this, and told them to "Stop following [him] around!"
In To Love Ru Rito unwittingly ends up gathering a harem of his own, due largely to the attentions of his Genki Girl Magnetic Magical Alien "Fiance", Lala.
- Said harem includes at least 3 alien princesses (possibly 4) one of which changes genders when s/he sneezes, a Tsundere, a Girl Next Door, and when he was a girl his male best friend. There are also hints of the assassin falling for him, as well as his little sister,and at a strech, The Tease, but she might be well, y'know.
Sahashi Minato of Sekirei unknowingly/unwillingly becomes an Ashkabi and starts what This Troper can only describe as a Battle Harem after one act of kindness, and proceedes to add two more girls to his harem, largely unwillingly. (They surprised him with a kiss). Then it is subverted, as he actively pursues his next member, at his Sekireis encouragement, directly asks if the next one want's to join (she does) and then finally chases down another.
Iono The Fanatics, with the small twist that a) it's not Unwanted and b) the center of all the attraction is the eccentric queen of a foreign country. By the end of the series, Iono's lesbian harem numbers in the tens of thousands (and rising), and she had caused a noticeable enough drought of straight females that the males are complaining.
In Omamori Himari, Amakawa Yuuto has an Unwanted Harem comprising two Unlucky Childhood Friends and at least twice that number of Cute Monster Girls.
- Three Unlucky Childhood Friends. Himari is booth Cute Monster Girl and (to at least some degree) Unlucky Childhood Friend, Rinko and Kueso just Unlucky Childhood Friends.
Gokujou Drops uses a Girls Love version of this trope with a Seme harem and an Uke harem lead.
Ninin Ga Shinobuden parodies this in episode 11 when Sasuke takes over the show. He promptly makes all the female cast members (including Kaede's mom) fall in love with him.
Kurogane Pukapuka Tai is a Girls Love version of this, in which Oblivious To Lesbianism Commander Kuki is the center of a harem of women after her: violently protective but shy XO Mamiya, (mostly) Chivalrous Pervert U-Boat captain Nina, and aggressively womanizing Royal Navy Captain Ann. Much violence (but little blood) ensues, naturally.
Maiku from Onegai Twins reluctantly starts harboring a pair of girls the same age as him; both of them (a) think they may be his twin sister and (b) are in love with him. There are two other harem members at his school (one of each gender), but it turns out that they're only pursuing Maiku to avoid facing their feelings for each other.
UFO Princess Valkyrie is this, in the classic line of Tenchi Muyo. Alien princess crash lands into a bath house, severely injuring the (young bishounen) owner in the process. Princess ends up indebted to him and stays on earth, several of her alien sisters (and her head maid) follow. Hilarity Ensues.
Tenshi Na Konamaiki has another female main character with a male harem although there are some gender issues.
After the Drama Bomb, Toradora settles into this trope.
The World God Only Knows is a rare example of the lead character working for his harem. It's still unwanted though: he's only doing it because he has an Explosive Leash forcing him to.
According to an un-canon pre-anime sketch, this happens in Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. After Keiichi goes even more bishonen then he already is, it's shown that Rena, Mion, Rika and Satoko all like him.
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.
Can't forget the lesbian Love Triangle in Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl 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.
This seems to be the situation in Tona Gura, til you scratch the surface. While nearly all the cast is female, very few are interested in Yuuji; the one who seriously is reels from how he apparently changed from a sweet boy to a 'pervert'.
EVERYONE IS STRAIGHT OR GAY FOR NATSURU!!!

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Literature

Harry Potter ends up with a large number of admirers in the sixth book.
The Odyssey: dozens of foreign nobles seek Penelope's hand in marriage after her husband is presumed dead. He returns and kills them all.
Bella from Twilight is a female example of this with a total of five guys in love with her, two of them supernatural. And she didn't have any boyfriends before moving to Forks. So Yeah.
- Of course, Robert Pattinson gets this in real life, to his bewilderment.
  - Ironically, he said in an interview that he often gets out of dates with random girls by acting like Edward, albeit, his own interpretation.
Anita Blake, the eponymous heroine of Laurell K. Hamilton's monster hunting series, although as the harem gets bigger it seems to be less and less unwanted. When it was just a vampire and a werewolf she was stressing over it.
Sookie in The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries has been romantically/sexually persued by Bill, Sam, Eric, JB, Alcide, Calvin, and Quinn, at least. She is inexperienced with relationships, both sexually and socially, because her telepathy means that any human she dates will drive her crazy with unwanted eavesdropping. Combine with supernatural politics and the rarity of telepaths, and her love life becomes quite unmanageable. As of All Together Dead she has dated four of them (one at a time) and her exes are still hovering hoping to kiss and make up.
In the House of Night series, heroine Zoey Rebird has three admirer/boyfriends: Heath, her human ex-boyfriend, the quarterback of the football team, Erik Night, the hottest guy in the vampyre high school, and Loren Blake, a teacher and poet.
- Don't forget stark inn the later books
In In the Net of Dreams various events result in Riplakish traveling alone with seven beautiful women. To be fair, only five of them are attracted to him at the time.
In The Wheel of Time series, each of the main three male characters (Rand, Mat and Perrin) all end up with multiple women pursuing them, sometimes even teaming up against the man.

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Live Action TV

The Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" features Xander trying to do a love spell on Cordelia after she has dumped him for being too uncool for her to date, only for the spell to go wrong and every woman in Sunnydale (including Buffy, Buffy's mother, Drusilla and witch Amy) to fall head over heels for him. The only person who seems unaffected is Cordelia, but it transpires that she was already in love with him, she was just pretending not to be, so the spell wouldn't work on her anyway.
- Yes, Xander was indeed Blessed With Suck, by obtaining his Unwanted Harem, but your review needs a couple of adjustements. First of all, Cordelia didn't dump Xander "for being too uncool for her to date", she was just mocking him out of anger. Cordelia dumped Xander because she caught him cheating on her with another girl (Willow). Second of all, the reason why the spell didn't work for Cordelia has nothing to do with her loving him. The spell was intended for Cordelia, and when it backfired it just hit any woman but Cordelia. In fact, there was another girl who was in love with Xander at the time, Willow (straight, back then): on her, the spell had a worse effect than on all the other women, turning her into Ax Crazy.
- Another Buffy episode, "Him", has Buffy, Willow (who by this time has come out as a lesbian), demon Anya and teenaged Dawn falling for a high school boy, to the point where they are each trying to kill perceived rivals (or in Willow's case, work a spell to turn him into a girl) for his affections. The boys manage to work out that the boy is unwittingly wearing an enchanted letterman jacket which causes women to fall madly in love with the wearer.
Ned's Unwanted Harem on the live action but Animesque Neds Declassified School Survival Guide call themselves "Club Ned" (but are referred to by Ned and his friends as The Huge Crew). They may be a tough, intimidating, leather-and-bandanna-wearing gang, but on the bright side, they don't see any other girls who like Ned as competition, but invite them to join the club!

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Video Games

Fate Stay Night. Shirou's harem includes (depending on the route) four girls who live with him (Saber,Rin, Sakura and Ilya), one who might as well (Taiga), and one outsider (Rider - see the sequel Fate/hollow ataraxia), though never all at the same time. (Doujin writers like to throw in Ayako, Bazett, and Caren too.) Almost all of these girls are magical, though in different ways. Which one Shirou actually ends up with depends on the route you take; the potential winners are Saber, Rin, and Sakura.
- Who lives with him depends on the route. Rin moves in at some point in every route, but never stays past the end of the war, even in her route (although it's likely that she's there a lot following UBW, as his girlfriend, and it's stated in the HF true epilogue that she was a "regular visitor" prior to moving to London). Saber lives with him as long as she is alive throughout all three routes. Ilya moves in after her defeat in Fate and Heaven's Feel, but only stays following the war in Fate, and Sakura moves in (and remains following the war) in Heaven's Feel (but, in the other two routes, she's there for pretty much every meal, at least until the war gets serious). Rider, of course, moves in with Sakura, and remains with Sakura, because her sole interest is in protecting her.
In Tales Of Symphonia, Lloyd already has the klutzy Messiah and Monster-summoning Ninja girl after him. If they so desire, the player can also get the Cute Bruiser or his teacher (who happens to be his best friend's sister) after him as well.
Tsukihime. Five girls with their own routes plus one without. Most of them are quite violent about it too; the fact that many of them already hate each other's guts for other reasons doesn't help the matter.
- Mustn't forget Sion or Akira! Arihiko even lampshades the 'unpopular guy suddenly having 42378978 admirers' tendency in his Kagetsu Tohya side story.
- Hell, even Len might considering that in order to make a contract, there are two choices. She prefers the one where she has sex with him. Even the girls at school seem to think he's cool. They're not utterly insane though so it's a limited attaction.
Baldurs Gate only has three options, although due to class and/or alignment you're pretty unlikely to keep them all in the same party...
Persona 3 plays this trope straight: the main character has quite a lot of potential followers: considering the 6 datables girl + the homeroom teacher + the girl at the shrine + Elisabeth + the subtext with Ryoji and the Dying young man it seems that the writters tried to put as much fetisch as they could in a single game. Then again, none of them is exactly unwanted by the main character, as he could (ahem) Boldly Accept or Politely Refuse any of them at any time.
Riviera The Promised Land. Main character Ein has five canonical love interests (Fia, Lina, Serene, Cierra, and Rose) and two fanonical ones (Ledah and Malice) — and several minor NPC characters after him.
In Yggdra Union, there's the lovely Roswell. Mistel, Eudy, Pamela, Ortega, Ros ary, Ygg dra, and Nessiah all seem to want to get into his pants, but the poor guy isn't interested in any of them. ...except maybe Yggdra. Maybe.
Hakuoro of Utawarerumono sleeps with six women throughout the game, five of whom love him. Kuuya, empress of the bunnypeople, also seems to love him and offers her best friend as a concubine without knowing quite what that means. Mikoto and possibly Mutsumi in the back story. Yet he's entirely oblivious of how most of them feel until the very end of the game, thinking of them as mostly friends/retainers and of the sex as being rather casual.
You'd think Galaxy Angel is like this. Nope, the game enforces a strict Road Cone early on in the game. The sequel even makes the fact about which girl Tact married very obscure until the last minute to keep it in line with your own choice in the previous games.

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Marten from Questionable Content, following a series of events between strips 500 and 700, lives with a woman in whom he was once interested, while dating her boss, the owner of a coffee shop with an all-female staff, and spending most of his free time with the obsessive-compulsive neighbor girl, all while working at the Smith College library. Although this doesn't meet the common definition since only two of these women have ever been more than his friends, he once quipped to his mother (before he started dating his roommate's boss) that he wanted to "build a harem of unattainable women," after which his mother takes to calling his female friends his "harem."
Lampshaded in Tsunami Channel here
Piro from Megatokyo is a geek and harem anime fan, yet he views his own with an increasing level of bemusement and disbelief, completely unable to communicate his feelings (mostly fear and confusion) to any of them.
In Too Much Information, Ace (despite his name, more of an Unlucky Everydude) has as his primary contenders a stripper/nurse and his boss's granddaughter, but has also had sex with the boss herself, a local police officer, a ghost haunting the house, and her great-granddaughter, and Ship Tease moments with his Butch Lesbian roommate, and the one ex-girlfriend who isn't bisexual.
Inverted in Strange Candy, where Daisuke wants a harem and uses magic to try to get one, but none of girls he summons is the least bit interested in him, and in fact are pissed off that he yanked them out of their home worlds.
A rather unusual case in Misfile, boy turned girl Ash has Emily, Missi, Cassiel who is only tempting Ash to get at Rumisiel, Colin the counter guy, Vashiel, and finally James.
- But not Rumisiel, who all but a rare few know as Ash's boyfriend.
  - It would be hilarious is Rumi did eventually fall for Ash.
Cassie in The Wotch ends up accidentally building up one of these in her attempts to get Robin to drink a love potion, instead attracting Robin's younger brother Kirk, Xander, and finally a plant. And now it's starting to look like Robin and Cassie might start going out anyway.
Keith from Two Kinds has a gender-confused wolf-woman, an ex-fiancee, and a cute seargent gunning for him. This would be a good thing except his people can only get off once a year.
Mye of Charby The Vampirate appears to have admirers wherever she goes, although she describes herself as not all that pretty.