"I really do like acting for you, Senpai."
Pseudo Harem (Giji Harem) is a manga by Yuu Saitou, originally posted as a webcomic on Twitter from 2018 to 2021 and later serialized in Monthly Shonen Sunday from 2019 to 2021.
First year high school student Rin Nanakura and her senpai Eiji Kitahama are members of their high school's Drama Club. One day, Eiji off-handedly makes a comment about wanting to be popular at least once in his life and his dream of having a harem. A star actress in the making, Rin quickly demonstrates the problem with that dream by switching into a cheeky girl and a tsundere, showing him the problems that would come with a harem.
From there, the manga follows their daily life and the various personalities Rin uses to enjoy her time with her beloved senpai.
An anime adaptation was announced on April 2023
, starring Saori Hayami as Rin and Nobuhiko Okamoto as Eiji. The two had previously voiced the characters in a voice comic adapting the first chapter, serving as a promotional video for the manga.
This manga has examples of:
- The Ace: Rin is one for the Drama Club. In fact, despite only being a third-year high school student, her performance on a play that was later put on the Drama Club's page racked up so many views Eiji and his friends have a freak out. Rin even gets scouted by a talent agent.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Played with during Rin and Eiji's day trip to Kyoto. Rin slips into Eiji's bed when he's asleep, and when he wakes up understandably worried and confused she stammers that she had a whole thing planned. However, her hair is a mess, she's in her sleeping clothes... she just isn't ready to say what she wants to say. Eiji sweetly tells her he'll wait as long as he has to until she's ready, and in response she wails that that kind of thing is why she loves him.
- Becoming the Mask: Zigzagged. Rin generally treats the Pseudo Harem as what they are (i.e. characters she performs), but on occasion she's treated them as separate entities (though usually as a joke or punchline).
- Casanova Wannabe: Before they actually start dating, Eiji's desire to be popular often provides the catalyst for the chapter's gag or discussion. The only reason the Pseudo Harem exists is due to him mentioning to Rin that he wanted to be popular at least once in his life, and he'd dreamed about having a harem.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- Rin sometimes feels jealous and frustrated when it seems that Eiji can only communicate his feelings towards the members of the Pseudo Harem, rather than Rin herself.
- After Eiji graduates from high school and enters university, Rin starts worrying that he'll run into more mature and attractive women. It gets to the point she asks if she can visit, and she spends part of her time there giving the stinkeye to any girls who get close.
- In Chapter 110, when Rin uses her Spoiled-chan personality in a teasing attempt to get more birthday gifts from Eiji (something she's done before in other chapters) Eiji shuts her down by telling her that there is only room for one girl in his heart. This leads Rin to conclude that Spoiled-chan and the rest of the Pseudo Harem have just been dumped. She sulks about it for the next few chapters.
- Did Not Think This Through: When Rin recruits Eiji to help look after her little sister and friend at the local swimming pool, she does a whole seductive filtratious routine to make Eiji blush, only to wind up blushing like mad herself.
- Distant Finale: The epilogue for the series is set seven after years after the ending, with Rin now a successful actress and Eiji planning to work at a TV station. He finally proposed and she accepts.
- Everyone Can See It: A lot of Rin and Eiji's friends and clubmates aren't particularly surprised when the two become an item, since they spend so much time together.
- First-Name Basis:
- In Chapter 50, Eiji walks Rin home after she took shelter at his home from a sudden rainstorm. He observes that she's befriended his mother, since his mother calls her "Rin-chan". She stops walking, and then asks him to call her "Rin" too. He does, though it embarrasses the heck out of him.
- Chapter 51 still has him embarrassed to call her by her first name, and when he invites her to call him by his first name so she can see how it feels he's floored instead.
- The Gadfly:
- Eiji often does silly things or teases Rin to get a laugh out of her (or just to amuse himself), and Rin has been known to return the favour. For example, when Eiji takes Rin on a day trip to Kyoto to watch a theatre performance, he has a freakout when Rin implies she didn't ask her parents' permission and that they have no idea where she is. The only thing stopping him from screaming in terror is the fact that the performance had already begun. Rin teasingly assures him she was only joking.
- A flashback reveals that Eiji has always been like this. When he encounters Rin for the first time and she tells him she's looking for the drama club, Eiji tells her he's the final remaining member of the club and that he hopes with her help the club can be revived. Cue them walking into the very busy club room, where the club president quickly sets Rin straight.
- Gaslighting: Played with in Chapter 119 when Eiji visits Rin at high school and reminisces about things that never happened.
- Gilligan Cut: Used during Eiji and Rin's trip to Kyoto, where Eiji declares that the play they'd just watched pumped him up so much he doubted he'd be able to sleep at all. Naturally, the next panel has him fast asleep, with Rin retorting, "He's dead!"
- Girlish Pigtails: When in Tsundere-chan mode, Rin makes a point to set her hair into pigtails. Time willing, she actually ties her hair up, otherwise she simply uses her hands.
- Highschool Sweethearts: Eiji and Rin's relationship keep going strong even many years after they both graduated high school. In the epilogue set seven years after the ending, Eiji finally proposed to her and she accepts.
- Last-Name Basis:
- As is typical for their age group, Eiji addresses Rin as "Nanakura" for a big part of the manga until she's able to ask him to call her by her first name in Chapter 50.
- When Eiji visits high school after his graduation to help with a short movie based on when he and Rin first met, he teasingly addresses her "Nanakura" again.
- Like Brother and Sister: Played with. When Eiji is invited to the pool by Rin (to look after her little sister and her sister's friend), Eiji jokes that it feels like he's looking after his little sisters. He then praises Rin's swimsuit, and then curses himself for his bad timing because it sounded like Rin was genuinely his little sister... and he was checking her out.
- Not So Stoic: The Stoic Cool-chan is just Rin playing a role, so when Rin tries to go into Cool-chan mode to handle her fear of ghosts it is only slightly successful.
- Oblivious to Love: For the longest time, it wasn't clear whether or not Eiji was aware of Rin's feelings for him. As time goes on, however, it's made clear he's not only aware, he reciprocates.
- Relationship Upgrade: Eiji and Rin eventually become a couple. The only reason that isn't a spoiler is because it becomes fairly obvious early on that both Eiji and Rin do like each other.
- Security Cling: Done by Rin whenever the supernatural gets involved. An example is during the preparations for the school festival, when many students stay the night at school. When she goes to get changed, Rin is so freaked out by how creepy the school looks at night she insists Eiji accompany her.
- Sickening Sweethearts: While not as bad as some examples, Rin and Eiji are quite affectionate with each other.
