"...serials about awkward young men very pointedly NOT having sex with a selection of eager women."
Harem is a genre/plot frame that is mostly present in the Japanese media of anime, manga, Light Novels, Visual Novels, and Video Games. It typically features a High School–aged male lead with at least two (usually at least three and often a lot more) available girls who may be actively interested in him but at the very least are bound by circumstances to be close to him. Gender Inverted, LGBTQ, and If It's You, It's Okay examples exist, as do age-adjusted renditions for younger audiences. Typically each harem member has a markedly contrasting personality, often personifying a single classic characterization archetype while (usually) the opposite applies to the protagonist.
The protagonist may take it as an Unwanted Harem, react as a Harem Seeker, or be Oblivious to Love; but he almost never actually enters a consummated romantic relationship with any of them, except perhaps as the grand finale. Particularly pure examples of the set-up, where the plot is designed to keep the "race" for the male protagonist's heart in a perpetual dead heat, are known as the Balanced Harem subgenre. Other possible dynamics include the "Harem Route", where the girls choose to share the lead character amicably rather than risk losing him and their friends completely, or the "Shuraba" ("Bloodbath") route, where There Can Be Only One and the contenders ruthlessly sabotage each other to secure mastery. There is also the hybrid option where the harem is "led" by a female lead in a conventional Official Couple relationship with the MC and "backed" by a Supporting Harem. In such cases, the work usually indicates only one or two girls as the main characters, in contrast to the standard harem works.
Not surprisingly, Harems frequently go hand-in-hand with the Ecchi genre and gratuitous Fanservice. That said, outright Hentai harems are rarely seen and often poorly exemplify a genre where Wanting Is Better Than Having and Unresolved Sexual Tension is a primary source of dramatic interest.
Contrast Royal Harem, which is about the literal, traditional sort of harem as found in a royal palace. See our handy-dandy guide if you want to write one of your own. Often overlaps with Starring Smurfette, though the presence of that trope doesn't necessarily mean a harem story is taking place.
Harem genre tropes:
- Accidental Pervert
- Allergic to Love
- All Women Are Lustful
- Anguished Declaration of Love
- Arranged Marriage
- Audience Surrogate
- Balanced Harem
- Battle Harem
- Beach Episode
- Be a Whore to Get Your Man
- Because You Were Nice to Me
- Belligerent Sexual Tension
- Betty and Veronica
- Big Brother Attraction
- Bromantic Foil
- Cannot Spit It Out
- Chaste Teens
- Chick Magnet
- Childhood Friend Romance
- Childhood Marriage Promise
- Crash-Into Hello
- Crashing Through the Harem
- D-Cup Distress
- Distressed Dude
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male
- Escapist Character
- Expectation Lowerer
- First Girl Wins
- First Kiss
- Flirty Stepsiblings
- Funbag Airbag
- Harem Nanny
- Harem-Powered
- Harem Seeker
- Hero's Slave Harem
- Hopeless Suitor
- Hotsprings Episode
- If It's You, It's Okay
- Innocent Cohabitation
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
- Last Girl Wins
- Loser Protagonist
- Love Dodecahedron
- Lover Tug-of-War
- Magnetic Girlfriend
- Master of the Mixed Message
- Men Are Generic, Women Are Special
- Moment Killer
- No Romantic Resolution
- Not Blood Siblings
- Not What It Looks Like
- Oblivious to Love
- Ordinary High-School Student
- Pervert Revenge Mode
- Polyamory
- Pretty Freeloaders
- Schoolgirl Lesbians (for shoujo ai stories)
- Single-Target Sexuality
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man
- Stalking Is Funny If It Is Female After Male
- Suggestive Collision
- Supporting Harem
- Thanks for the Mammary
- Themed Harem
- Those Two Guys
- Top Wife
- The Unfair Sex
- Unlucky Everydude
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback
- Unwanted Harem
- Vanilla Protagonist
- What Does She See in Him?
- Will They or Won't They?
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl
Common character types for the Harem members:
- The Ace — almost always applies to one of the heroines, usually the School Idol.
- Action Girl
- A-Cup Angst — usually applies to the tsundere.
- Aggressive Submissive
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
- Bastard Boyfriend / Bespectacled Bastard Boyfriend
- Big Brother Mentor — most male harems include a big brother type; expect the heroine to worry that he only sees her as a younger sister.
- Bokukko — almost always the Childhood Friend.
- Broken Bird
- Butt-Monkey — almost always applies to the protagonist.
- Designated Monkey — many of them eventually fall into this.
- The Casanova / Ladykiller in Love — a flirty popular guy is a must for any reverse harem.
- Cat Girl
- Chaste Hero — usually applies to the male lead.
- Childhood Friend — the female lead usually fills this spot.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend — the expected outcome in most instances.
- Clingy Jealous Girl — in order to perpetuate the triangle and romantic tension.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander — usually most of the members will have at least one cute quirk, but especially strange/dreamy types are also popular.
- Cool Big Sis — usually she keeps order in the harem, but, she can also portray a more experienced girl as Love Interest.
- Cute Clumsy Girl
- Cute Ghost Girl
- Cute Sports Club Manager — less common nowadays, but still shows up sometimes. Leads of reverse harems sometimes act as this for their love interest(s).
- The Cutie
- Defrosting Ice Queen — typically either the Emotionless Girl, or The Ojou.
- The Ditherer — The lead is very often one of these.
- Dumbass Teenage Son
- Elegant Gothic Lolita — usually the Defrosting Ice Queen type. Also likely to be a Mysterious Waif.
- Emotionless Girl
- Extreme Doormat — usually applies to the male lead.
- Face of a Thug — scary-looking and tough-talking guys with a soft side (stereotypically involving taking care of a kitten) are common to reverse harems.
- Genki Girl
- Girl Next Door — usually the protagonist's childhood friend.
- Handsome Lech — always present in a reverse harem but his chances of success are often close to zero.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl — A fixture of the classic harem is to have at least one rowdy and sexually liberated girl.
- Hunk — A must-have in any reverse harem is a strong-built and traditionally masculine type.
- Ill Girl
- Kavorka Man — often exists as a role-model for the protagonist
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine
- Little Sister Heroine — Almost always complete with Not Blood Siblings or Kissing Cousins, if she wins or will be treated as a legitimate part of Love Triangle. Nevertheless, you can meet the real Brother–Sister Incest but only as a play for laugh or drama.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy — reverse harems always have one of these
- Lovable Jock — reverse harems typically include at least one sporty guy, usually either a cheerful idiot (affectionately termed the 'sports baka') or a reserved guy not used to talking to women.
- Kawaiiko
- Magical Girlfriend
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl
- Meganekko
- Meido
- Moe
- Mysterious Waif — usually a strong contender to be the lucky girl, since their intrigue enhances their appeal and draws the protagonist to them.
- Nice Guy — which is usually why they're all drawn to him; also common in reverse harems, often as big brother types
- Noble Male, Roguish Male
- No Respect Guy — when the story makes the protagonist as the only Nice Guy while his peers are envious Jerkass.
- Non-Action Guy — as a contrast to the Action Girl to make the protagonist an Expectation Lowerer.
- Ojou — A rich girl, who can often have a mixed European-Japanese background. Traditionally portrayed as Foil to Yamato Nadeshiko as a European ideal of beauty.
- One of the Boys — Almost always the lead female and childhood friend of the male protagonist. Her chances of being the lucky girl are usually slim and none.
- Otaku Surrogate — Usually, either the Genre Savvy heroine, whose remarks and behavior make up for everything that the protagonist can not do for censorship reasons, or Wrong Genre Savvy character as the male lead's best friend.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest — as a rule, the main Love Interest of protagonist, which he however, does not notice.
- Peerless Love Interest — almost always overlaps with The Ojou.
- Petite Pride
- Princely Young Man
- Psycho Lesbian — Often a foil and/or a rival to the male protagonist for the affections of one of the Haremettes.
- Ridiculously Average Guy
- School Idol — almost always applies to one of the heroines, very often overlaps with The Ace.
- Sharp-Dressed Man — usually at least one by default in any reverse harem, and alternate suit costumes for the rest of the cast will likely be very popular.
- Shrinking Violet — no harem is complete without one.
- Smitten Teenage Girl
- Stalker with a Crush
- Stoic Spectacles
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome — sometimes the protagonist is this to explain his success with women.
- Token Mini-Moe
- Tomboy and Girly Girl — usually the main two competing haremettes.
- Tsundere — a girl who switches between affection and aloofness/hostility; usually either the main female, or the main competing haremette.
- Yamato Nadeshiko — The traditional Japanese ideal of femininity. It has appeals to different kinds of fans and can provide a contrast to a Tsundere.
- Yandere — The inversion of the Tsundere, just keep a close eye on her tendencies.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
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Literature
- Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note: While downplayed due to this being a series about and primarily aimed at tweens, there's no escaping the fact that it's one girl surrounded by boys that she and everyone around her consider to be cool and good-looking, and she even develops some feelings towards some of them. While not as strong as older Reverse Harem series, it still has the same effect.
- In Tairen Soul, Ellie is surrounded by handsome men who swear they'll die to do her bidding. They (officially) don't want to be together or sleep with her, however.
- In BladeArc, Yuuto has an elf, a thief, a female ogre, a swordwoman, a princess, a crew of female warriors, and Death herself in love with him.
- In Eight Cousins, Rose Campbell goes to live with her Uncle Alec, and becomes the target of affection to her seven handsome male cousins.
- In the book Power Play: A Hockey Romance by Mia Moon, the heroine finds herself being courted by four hockey players.
- In Harem of Fangs, heroine Ally Swift finds herself being courted by five powerful vampires.
- The Succubus Lord series revolves around a guy and his harem of succubi.
- Harem Prince deconstructs and parodies a lot of tropes associated in the genre a la The World God Only Knows and Toradora!.
Live-Action TV
- The HBO show Big Love (although in this case, the harem is justified as the characters are fringe Mormons).
- The ABC series The Bachelor counts as this. It involves 20 women competing over the course of a few weeks for the affection of one man.
- Million Yen Women, which is about a struggling male author made to live five women who are complete strangers to him, while technically a Psychological Thriller, gets a few elements of this thanks to the living arrangements.
Webcomics
- Parodied in Not Quite Daily Comic's "Not Quite Harem Anime Arc"
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- Ow, my sanity has one made entirely of Eldritch Abominations.
- Questionable Content. Marten has, over the course of the comic's run, had many female friends who could be potential love interests. However, only two have actually progressed to that point, and the first relationship ended badly. With the rest, the chances of this happening are slim at best for one reason or another.
- Deconstructed in My Dear Cold-Blooded King. Mei may be surrounded by hot guys all interested in her, but the experience of being courted by all of them, along with the lengths they're willing to go to in order to get her, is incredibly taxing for her psyche.
Web Original
- Hilariously lampshaded by Mother's Basement's PSA, How to Survive a Harem Anime
