Playing With / Unwanted Harem

Basic Trope: Single guy suddenly attracts several extraordinary women, all of whom want him for their own.

• Straight: Kenta, an Ordinary High-School Student, suddenly finds himself with several suitors: New Transfer Student Noriko, Childhood Friend Yukari, Cosplay Otaku Girl Megumi, Student Council President Makoto, The Alpha Bitch Erika, Shrinking Violet Chihiro, Tomboy Nene, School Librarian Kyoka, Idol Singer Shinobu, Gorgeous Foreign Exchange Student Gabriella, Tsundere Tiny Tyrannical Girl Touko, Ojou Proper Lady Nadeshiko, Cousin Mei, Tragically Disabled Love Interest Chiyo, Girly-looking boy Yuu, Passionate Sports Girl Takahashi, Adopted Sister Midori, Miko Hitomi, Wrench Wench Habara, Japanese Delinquents Ryuuko, Chuunibyou Chika, Half-Japanese Hana, Hot Teacher Ms. Yoshimura, and Sister Christina. Kenta is not amused.
• Exaggerated:
  • In addition to the above, there's Cute Monster Girl Tasha, Time Traveler Konaka, Cute Witch Ichigo, Kunoichi Suzune, Pirate Girl Umi, Zombie Saga, Robot Girl ER-7, Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot Momo, Opposite-Sex Clone Kenko, Humanoid Abomination C'thiala, Human Alien Lunaru, Cute Ghost Girl Rumiko, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Nanami, Esper Ryoko, Succubus Kaoru, Valkyrie Franhilde, Archangel Loveliel, Henshin Heroine Raymeister, Dark Magical Girl Miyako, Cat Girl Momoko, Werewolf Shizuko, Human-Elf Hybrid Ariel, Benevolent Genie Ritsuko, Mermaid Coral, Fairy Sexy Flora, Oni Twins Hikari and Hiyori, Samurai Shinobi Tsubaki, Ninja Maid Nozomi, Cowgirl Clara, Princess Velvet, Metalhead Maria, Benevolent Boss Tsuki... It's over 9000!!! *BOOM*
    • Kenta's suitors include every living thing, even infants, elderlies, and animals aren't exceptions.
  • All female population of the whole world are Kenta's suitors.
• Downplayed:
  • Kenta acquires a large number of female friends, but none are overtly interested in a romantic relationship.
  • Kenta is being pursued by three or four unusual young women who don't do anything crazy while he's around, even though it's no secret that they're all in love with him.
  • Celibate Hero Kenta's Betty and Veronica love triangle ensues between the Yamato Nadeshiko and the Tsundere Anime Chinese Girl, to his dismay.
• Justified:
  • No Guy Wants to Be Chased
  • Kenta is Blessed with Suck, forced to attract infinitely many women, only to be unable to love them back. He might already have a girlfriend, is gay or asexual, or finds the constant belittling and one-upping of the other girls to be unattractive, explaining his lack of interest.
  • For one reason or another, Kenta hates being the center of attention.
  • (for Exaggerated #1 and #2) Relationships with different species and someone with huge age gaps isn't admirable for Kenta.
  • (for Exaggerated #3) Kenta is the sole male survivor of Gendercide and the most important thing that he needs is his safety, letting the huge amounts of girls chasing him may even cost his life.
• Inverted: Kenta is a Casanova Wannabe Harem Seeker, but the only attention he gets from girls is getting beaten up by them.
• Gender Inverted: Keiko is Naïve Everygirl, and the harem is made of male suitors.
• Subverted:
  • Several girls appear in Kenta's life, but none of them are interested in him.
  • Kenta acts like he hates the attention, but secretly enjoys it as he's a playboy.
  • Two of the girls are fighting over Kenta... but it's actually an inside joke among friends because of how Kenta looks like a stereotypical harem protagonist. Things are strictly platonic between them.
• Double Subverted:
  • ...At least, they don't appear to be at first... but it soon becomes clear that they are interested in him for one reason or another.
  • Kenta begins to resent the harem because their clinginess hinders his ability to have one-night stands.
• Parodied:
  • Kenta gets a harem of ugly girls, to his dismay.
  • Kenta gets a harem of guys, to his dismay.
  • Kenta somehow gets a harem of ghosts, animals, robots, even inanimate objects.
• Zig Zagged: Initially, each girl in Kenta's harem has a hidden agenda and will leave him once they fufill their goal. However, spending time with Kenta made them realise he is actually a good guy and they actually fall for him.
• Averted:
  • Kenta only attracts one girl, and they form the Official Couple.
  • Kenta attracts no girls.
  • Harems do not exist in the story.
• Enforced: "We hear that fans really like to ship Kenta, but there are so many different pairings. Let's give him a whole bunch of girls so there's no definite couple."
• Lampshaded: "See that guy with nine different women fawning over him? Yeah, he doesn't love any of them."
• Invoked: Kenta is a Casanova, and is wooing all these women intentionally to stroke his ego, although it goes wrong in the way too much for his actual desire.
• Exploited:
  • Kenta is the son of a millionaire and the girls are actually thieves who are using their proximity to Kenta in order to plan a major heist, using their harem antics to distract people from their plans.
  • To plan the heist, the girls fake interest in Kenta, hanging out with him at his vast house as a cover for scoping the joint out.
• Defied:
  • Kenta rejects the girls and tells them to bugger off.
  • First Girl Wins, and Kenta makes it clear before he even meets a second one, let alone the others.
  • Since the girls' tensions are going worse and inherently cause problems due to the competition over Kenta, whether he is gay or not, Kenta rejects the girls and he chooses The One Guy, Yuu, instead.
• Discussed: "Kenta, do you really want to save her from that monster? You know she'll join your fan club then..."
• Conversed: "This guy has more hot women fawning over him in one week than I'll ever even see in my life, and all he can do is moan about it?"
• Implied:
  • Kenta always has a few ladies following him around. They never say anything, but they obviously think he's hunky because of how they react to the heroic things he does. He never outright expresses his disdain for their presence either, but he obviously doesn't like having them around.
  • We never see his admirers, but Kenta refuses to go to certain parts of town because they live or hang out there and make his life miserable when they're around. The most he'll say is, "Because I'll run into them," and it takes a moment but his best buddy soon says, "...Oh," as it dawns on him what Kenta might mean.
• Deconstructed:
  • Eventually, the competition over Kenta gets so fierce that some of the girls decide to try whittling down the field through murder. The deaths cause others to step back, ask what they found so attractive about him anyway, and give up. Kenta is left completely alone... or worse, with one murderous suitor who won't take no for an answer, assuming she wasn't killed or arrested.
  • Kenta realizes that with these bizarre girls comes equally outlandish trouble. Kenta's house becomes a battlefield on weekly basis, with Loveliel fighting hell spawn, Rumiko struggling against hunting shinigami, ER-7 driving away the evil organization that wants the hidden data in her memory chip, Lunaru trying to avoid alien hunters, Raymeister battling the Monster of the Week and C'thiala devouring Starfish Aliens send by her parent Eldritch Abomination. None of them would bother him if it weren't for his harem.
  • Kenta himself eventually snaps and starts forcibly ejecting the girls from his life by whatever means necessary.
  • Kenta is gay and trying to find a boyfriend but can't because there's an infamous group of girls that are in love with him and thus everyone thinks he's straight.
  • Kenta is disowned by his family for leading a "sinful lifestyle", leaving him barely able to support his Pretty Freeloaders.
  • Kenta's ability to attract so many girls is actually a form of unconscious mind control. While he initially enjoyed the attention, he soon realized the implications of this power, and refuses to take advantage of anyone. He searches for a way to remove the power while being relentlessly pursued by his brainwashed harem.
  • Kenta examines how he can't possibly be with all of the girls all the time, and the story shows how, above the comedy, they cause when they're around and clash with each other, they pine for him when they're each alone and realize that at some point Kenta will have to make a decision. The most likely scenario is he'll give an answer not all of them want to hear, and if he doesn't provide one at all, they'll find themselves strung along for who knows how long waiting for something to give while still competing with each other and wondering if they even measure up to his standards. At some point, some of them may even give up on him and start dating someone else because they find they've wasted enough time trying to win over an unwinnable person while there is still plenty of fish in the sea.
  • Instead of the girls' attempts to win Kenta's affections being seen as endearing, other characters eventually see that it is nothing more than sexual harassment due to how many times Kenta has rejected each girl's attempts to get close to him. It gets to the point where Kenta forces all the girls out of his life with restraining orders and killing anyone who is stubborn enough to ignore the court documents...
  • After crossing the line one time too many, girls' relationships with Kenta affect their life as well. Noriko is forcefully moved out to another school, Shinobu's contract is terminated and she loses her entire career, Gabriella is sent back to her home country, Nadeshiko receives detention, Mei and Midori are prevented from visiting Kenta, Takahashi is kicked out of the team, Ryuuko and Chika are expelled from school, Ms. Yoshimura is fired due to her unfair attitude toward Kenta, and Sister Christina is sent to the stricter convent and forcefully abstinence due to her "sinful behaviors".
• Reconstructed: Despite any initial tension within Kenta's harem, all of the girls eventually become close friends with each other, respecting each other's feelings towards Kenta even if they sometimes argue about it. Likewise, Kenta becomes close friends with all of the girls, even if he can only pick one to be his girlfriend.
• Played For Laughs:
  • Kenta comes out of the closet, but the ladies all believe they can turn him straight. Cue the Chase Scene and The Benny Hill Show music.
  • The girls begin Cat Fighting against each other while Kenta just sits back, watches, and eats some popcorn only for his amusement.
• Played For Drama:
  • While the girls scheme and connive to eliminate each other, Kenta goes emo over his inability to love a woman and how they never leave him alone.
  • Kenta can't decide who he loves and has a place in his heart for all of them... And they 'won't stop fighting over him. He's sick of watching the women he loves to make each other (and themselves) miserable competing for him... But he can't just say so, or he'll have even more pressure to pick somebody... and lose everyone else.
  • Fawning over the same person leaves each woman emotionally drained knowing that each one wants him for herself and won't be satisfied if he does pick them all, as well as the fact that if he can only have one, the answer he gives will be one most of them won't want to hear. They're just bracing themselves waiting, and in the meantime, craving him to this extent causes them actual distress because he's tacitly refusing their advances, which makes them question their self-worth or how attractive he really finds them. He might even be warming up to them as his friends, a status none of them want to be relegated to and which means even his newfound friendships are being put to the test by the romantic/sexual tension.
  • The situation in Played For Laughs #1 quickly goes south when it turns out the ladies are dead serious. They sexually harass him (or worse) to try to force him to turn straight.
• Unparodied: Kenta gets a harem of ghosts, animals, robots, inanimate objects, but all of these can shapeshift into a Moe Green-Skinned Space Babe.

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Back to Unwanted Harem, there are fewer thirsty girls here.

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