History Main / SupportingHarem

One of the causes for this set-up might be if it is the adaptation of a VisualNovel, where every girl got the focus of attention in her own route, but only one route got an adaptation.

* LightNovel/RakudaiKishiNoEiyuutan has Ikki and Stella [[FirstKiss getting together]] by the end of the first volume of the light novel / first arc of the anime adaptation. The other girls still develop romantic feelings for the protagonist, but, while he cares about them, the romance is one-sided.

* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'': From the start, it's very obvious Chitoge is the girl who will end up with Raku; the main plot of the series is about them [[TheBeard pretending to be a couple]] to stop their families from starting a gang war and then they [[BecomingTheMask fall in love with each other for real]]. Raku may have about 5 other girls vying for him, but only [[RomanticFalseLead Onodera]] seems to actually have a chance against Chitoge. Even then, no matter how much he tries to deny it, Raku's preference for the latter becomes painfully obvious even to him.

* ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' is clearly this, as the lead girl Aoi has already won within the first few episodes. It's just that she and the male lead Kaoru feel the need to keep their relationship a secret for various and pretty complicated reasons, so the rest of the harem doesn't know this.

* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' has a GenderFlipped version, with Tamahome as the lead [[spoiler: He actually marries Miaka later, as a [[ReincarnationRomance reincarnation]] by the name of Taka.]], and the other Seishi as supporting members.

* ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'': [[EmotionlessGirl Ikaros]] is in the lead and she's [[CantActPervertedTowardALoveInterest the only girl that Tomoki won't act perverted toward]], but Tomoki still has [[TokenMiniMoe Nymph]], [[PatientChildhoodLoveInterest Sohara]], [[DumbBlonde Astraea]] and [[LoveFreak Chaos]] as candidates.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' has Moka as the only girl Tsukune clearly loves. The other girls try but there's nothing they can do. Until someone suggests he MarryThemAll, that is. Other than the OfficialCouple, everyone thinks it's a great idea.

* ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' started out as this, with Lala and Haruna getting all the screen time, with WordOfGod claiming they were intended to be the main focus of the story. However, as time went on, more girls were introduced and screen time evened out and it became much less clear who Rito would choose (it was a bit Lala-centric at first); in other words, it evolved into a BalancedHarem. In fact, the sequel To Love-Ru Darkness, is aiming for the MarryThemAll (or at least, one of the harem members is actively trying to make it happen) and Lala and Haruna have been OutOfFocus, aside from ADayInTheLimelight stories.

* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' is a somewhat strange take on this. From the start, it's very obvious Chitoge is the girl who will end up with Raku; the main plot of the series is about them [[TheBeard pretending to be a couple]] to stop their families from starting a gang war and then they [[BecomingTheMask fall in love with each other for real]]. The only thing distracting Raku is his crush on Onodera. However, as the series progresses more love interests are introduced and they all get plenty of focus and development, giving it a BalancedHarem vibe. Still, Raku's relationship with Chitoge gets the spotlight over anyone else.

* ''Manga/HeavensLostProperty'': [[EmotionlessGirl Ikaros]] is the main heroine and the girl Tomoki gives most of his attention to, but he still has [[TokenMiniMoe Nymph]], [[PatientChildhoodLoveInterest Sohara]], [[DumbBlonde Astraea]] and [[LoveFreak Chaos]] as candidates.

* In ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'', Nagisa and Mikan are pining after the main character Asahi, but he only has eyes for Youko, who clearly returns his feelings. [[spoiler:And in chapter 86, the two went through a RelationshipUpgrade and started dating. Mikan didn't give up even after that, since she considers "it's fine as long as she ends up as his wife", but she clearly hasn't much hope left. Nagisa did give up… or she would like to, but she has trouble completely getting over Asahi.]]

* ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'': Haruyuki is very clearly in love with Kuroyukihime and not only she reciprocates, she confessed her feelings first from early on; the only reason she and Haruyuki are not an OfficialCouple yet is because he has too many self-esteem issues to believe any girl could ever love him. While Haruyuki is often put into a lot of various... situations with many other girls, the series never acts like anything will come of it.

* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' is a somewhat strange take on this. From the start, it's very clear Chitoge is the one who will end up with Raku; the main plot of the series is about them [[TheBeard pretending to be a couple]] to stop their families from starting a gang war and then they [[BecomingTheMask fall in love with each other for real]]. The only real rival for Chitoge was Raku's crush Onodera. However, as the series progresses more love interests are introduced and they all get plenty of focus and development, giving it a BalancedHarem vibe. Still, Raku's relationship with Chitoge gets the spotlight over anyone else.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' has Moka as the only girl Tsukune clearly loves. The other girls try but there's nothing they can do. [[spoiler:It gets deconstructed. Kurumu and Mizore know they don't have a chance, but they still love him... and it becomes really complicated: Kurumu's nature as a succubus means that unrequited love is literally killing her, while Mizore is a biological ChristmasCake and due to her love for him and no one else, she'll sooner or later end up ''barren''.]] Until someone suggests he MarryThemAll, that is. Other than the OfficialCouple, everyone thinks it's a great idea.

* ''Manga/{{Nisekoi}}'' is a somewhat strange take on this. From the start, it's very clear Chitoge is the one who will end up with Raku; the main plot of the series is about them [[TheBeard pretending to be a couple]] to stop their families from starting a gang war and then they [[BecomingTheMask fall in love with each other for real]]. The only real rival for Chitoge was Raku's crush Onodera. However, as the series progresses and more love interests are introduced and they all get plenty of focus and development, giving it a BalancedHarem vibe. Still, Raku's relationship with Chitoge gets the spotlight over anyone else.

* In ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'', Nagisa and Mikan are pining after the main character Asahi, but he only has eyes for Youko, who clearly returns his feelings. [[spoiler:And in chapter 86, the two went through a RelationshipUpgrade and started dating. Mikan didn't give up even after that, since she considers "it's fine as long as she ends up as his wife", but she clearly hasn't much hope left. Nagisa did give up… or she would like to, but she has trouble completely getting over Asahi.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'':
** "Louise The Zero" is not just the title character, but also connected to the protagonist [[MadeASlave with a magical contract]] [[AMagicContractComesWithAKiss sealed by a kiss]].
** He confessed his love to her on the second season, [[spoiler: and they even got married at the end of ''F'']]. It doesn't stop more girls joining in with each succeeding season, for a grand total of four extra girls all in all.

* Keitaro and Naru from ''Manga/LoveHina'' are a very good example of this. It was obvious by the end of the first manga volume that Naru was Keitaro's "Promise Girl" and not even the "complications" that came with Mutsumi [[spoiler:(who ''also'' made a promise with Keitaro... and another with Naru...)]] and Kanako could put a dent in it. The author did ''try'' by having Naru be a couple of years younger than Keitaro (while not really a big deal by the time Keitaro moves into the Hinata Inn, it would have been a substantial age difference when they were pre-schoolers) and having her state flat-out that she wasn't the "Promise Girl" (using pretty much exactly that reasoning), but by that point Naru is clearly Keitaro's favorite regardless of whether she's Promise Girl or not. [[spoiler:Turns out she actually is; she just doesn't remember it because she was so young, and Keitaro has retconned Promise Girl's age in his own mind since ''he'' was too young to remember it properly.]]

* ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' has a GenderFlipped version, with Tamahome as the lead [[spoiler: He actually marries Miaka later, as a [[ReincarnationRomance reincarnation]] by the name of Taka.]], and the other Seishi as supporting members.
* A variant in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': It is clear to everyone, from the start, that however much he may care for the other girls he hangs out with, Issei is in love first and foremost with Rias, and his relationship with her gets the spotlight over anyone else. However, the rest of the girls still pursue him... with Rias' blessing, as she [[{{Polyamory}} doesn't mind Issei being with multiple girls]] as long as she's number one. The EX Novel shows that they do eventually end up like this: Rias is officially his wife, but several of the girls have taken the Hyoudou name (while Issei took the name Gremory), and most, if not all, of them had children with him.

* A variant in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': It is clear to everyone, from the start, that however much he may care for the other girls he hangs out with, Issei is in love first and foremost with Rias, and his relationship with her gets the spotlight over anyone else. However, the rest of the girls still pursue him... with Rias's blessing, as she doesn't [[{{Polyamory}} mind Issei being with multiple girls as long as she's number one]].

* A variant in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': It is clear to everyone, from the start, that however much he may care for the other girls he hangs out with, Issei is in love first and foremost with Rias, and his relationship with her gets the spotlight over anyone else. However, the rest of the girls still pursue him... with Rias's blessing, as she doesn't [[{{Polyamory}} mind Issei being with multiple girls as long as she's number one]].

* In ''Manga/ActuallyIAm'', Nagisa and Mikan are pining after the main character Asahi, but he only has eyes for Youko, who clearly returns his feelings. [[spoiler:And in chapter 86, the two went through a RelationshipUpgrade and started dating. Mikan didn't give up even after that, since she considers "it's fine as long as she ends up as his wife", but she clearly hasn't much hope left. Nagisa did give up… or she would like to, but she has trouble completely getting over Asahi.]]

* In ''Manga/ActuallyIAm'', Nagisa and Mikan are pining after the main character Asahi, but he only has eyes for Youko, who clearly returns his feelings. [[spoiler: And in chapter 86, the two went through a RelationshipUpgrade and started dating.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'':
** "Louise The Zero" is not just the title character, but also connected to the protagonist [[MadeASlave with a magical contract]] [[AMagicContractComesWithAKiss sealed by a kiss]].
** He confessed his love to her on the second season, [[spoiler: and they even got married at the end of ''F'']]. It doesn't stop more girls joining in with each succeeding season, for a grand total of four extra girls all in all.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' made it very obvious in the first scenes who was the main love interest, and the harem concept was entirely dropped during the first season anyways. In the original visual novel, the alternate routes can still be pursued, but only one of them gets a substantial follow-up in ''After Story''.
* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' has Moka as the only girl Tsukune clearly loves. The other girls try but there's nothing they can do. [[spoiler:It gets deconstructed. Kurumu and Mizore know they don't have a chance, but they still love him... and it becomes really complicated: Kurumu's nature as a succubus means that unrequited love is literally killing her, while Mizore is a biological ChristmasCake and due to her love for him and no one else, she'll sooner or later end up ''barren''.]] Until someone suggests he MarryThemAll, that is. Other than the OfficialCouple, everyone thinks it's a great idea.

* Keitaro and Naru from ''Manga/LoveHina'' are a very good example of this. It was obvious by the end of the first manga volume that Naru was Keitaro's "Promise Girl" and not even the "complications" that came with Mutsumi [[spoiler:(who ''also'' made a promise with Keitaro... and another with Naru...)]] and Kanako could put a dent in it. The author did ''try'' by having Naru be a couple of years younger than Keitaro (while not really a big deal by the time Keitaro moves into the Hinata Inn, it would have been a substantial age difference when they were pre-schoolers) and having her state flat-out that she wasn't the "Promise Girl" (using pretty much exactly that reasoning), but by that point Naru is clearly Keitaro's favorite regardless of whether she's Promise Girl or not. [[spoiler:Turns out she actually is; she just doesn't remember it because she was so young, and Keitaro has retconned Promise Girl's age in his own mind since ''he'' was too young to remember it properly.]]
* ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' is clearly this, as the lead girl Aoi has already won within the first few episodes. It's just that she and the male lead Kaoru feel the need to keep their relationship a secret for various and pretty complicated reasons, so the rest of the harem doesn't know this.

* Similarly subverted in ''Manga/StrawberryOneHundredPercent''; while Junpei does initially express feeling in Satsuki, Tsukasa, and Aya, it becomes clear that Aya is his primary love interest. [[spoiler:In the end, he chooses Tsukasa instead]]. Fans weren't happy.
* ''Manga/ToLoveRu'' started out as this, with Lala and Haruna getting all the screen time, with WordOfGod claiming they were intended to be the main focus of the story. However, as time went on, more girls were introduced and screen time evened out and it became much less clear who Rito would choose (it was a bit Lala-centric at first); in other words, it evolved into a BalancedHarem.
* Another gender-inversion is ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'', where from very early it's clear [[FlirtyStepsiblings Yuu]] will win, no matter how much Ginta and the others try. At least [[PairingTheSpares they get their own girlfriends]]. It's also a straight example from Yuu's point of view. It's [[LoveDodecahedron that kind of show]].
* ''LightNovel/MayoChiki'' has Subaru as the clear lead girl. How clear? [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer Even the other haremettes love her!]]
* It's pretty clear from the start of ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' who is going to be Ranma's love interest. While Shampoo and Ukyo get screen time here and there, Akane is on screen almost as much as Ranma is, and he actually lives in her house. She also gets his attention far more than the other girls. At the end of the series, [[spoiler:Ranma [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove inwardly declares his love]] for Akane and there is a [[MaybeEverAfter Maybe Ever After]] ending.]] Take that as you will, [[{{Shipping}} shippers]].

* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' in which every boy who knows she's a girl (not quite, but close) falls for Haruhi, but it's obvious she's going to end up with Tamaki, the host club president. It's not over done though, and only one or two actively seek to win her over, and even for them it's more of a journey of character than anything. It's Lampshaded by Tamaki in one episode in which he famously (and unwisely) pegs himself and Haruhi as the romantic leads and the rest as the homosexual supporting cast.
* Kirito's "harem" in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' is unquestionably this. Kirito and Asuna actually get ''married'' before the end of the first book, so there's really none of the normal WillTheyOrWontThey or ShipTease you'd get in a real HaremSeries. Most of the girls who fall for him are presented as quiet tragedies, since they never had a shot with him in the first place. Asuna also has a harem of her own, but most of the named members are her husband's friends, so again, there is no ShipTease.
* In ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid'', it is very clear that the male lead Nagasumi only has eyes for his fiancée, Sun, despite some other females also harbor interest in him. Sun has her own admirers as well, but is extremely devoted to Nagasumi.

* ''Manga/MedakaBox'': Both Medaka and Zenkichi get a few admirers of their own; Medaka attracts the attention of Akune, Oudo, Kumagawa, and a few other enemies, as well as Zenkichi himself. Zenkichi gets his own best friend Shiranui as well as Emukae. Despite this, it's fairly clear that the primary relationship is between Medaka and Zenkichi.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' made it very obvious in the first scenes who was the main love interest, and the harem concept was entirely dropped during the first season anyways. The original visual novel plays the trope more straight, as the alternate routes can still be pursued, but only one of them gets a substantial follow-up in ''After Story''.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' made it very obvious in the first scenes who was the main love interest, and the harem concept was entirely dropped during the first season anyways.

* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' became this, although it started out as more balanced between Lum and Shinobu, only later Lum become more popular and Shinobou got an alternative LoveInterest.

* Gender-inverted in ''Manga/TheWallflower'', where it's blatantly obvious that the only real love interest for Sunako is Kyohei, especially when all the other guys get love interests of their own and begin trying various ways of getting Sunako and Kyohei together.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' is a very complex case of this since there is only one pairing that is really presented as it might be serious that is Negi and Nodoka early on which slowly became a Triangle with Yue, others are not that serious at all (besides Ako which is a whole other can of worms. [[spoiler: Recently struck down in a good way]]). The early Magical World arc gave a lot more focus to Chisame than to most of the other girls, though not in a romantic way.
** [[spoiler:Ultimately, most of the harem is unresolved at the end of the manga]]

** It's spiritual successor ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'' is quite a bit better about this, mainly because Haruyuki has too many self-esteem issues to believe any girl could ever love him. It also doesn't play it up nearly as much as SAO does, and while Haruyuki is often put into a lot of various... situations with many girls, the series never acts like anything will come of it. It seems to be setting him up with Kuroyukihime for the most part but every now and then Chiyuri seems more likely. So less a balanced harem and more a balanced triangle.

* Keitaro and Naru from ''Manga/LoveHina'' are a very good example of this. It was obvious by the end of the first manga volume that Naru was Keitaro's "Promise Girl" and not even the "complications" that came with Mutsumi [[spoiler:(who ''also'' made a promise with Keitaro... and another with Naru...)]] and Kanako could put a dent in it.