A type of Author Appeal in the Harem Genre. Like a particular Moe character type? There's not just one character that fits in this show/game/what have you, but the whole cast is composed of them! (Well, usually. Sometimes there's an odd haremette out, just for variety's sake.)
Necessarily needs something like Four-Girl Ensemble or Four-Temperament Ensemble to differentiate their personalities, if not attaching other moe stereotypes to each of the characters, because you can't very well have four or five pining childhood friends that have been waking you up in the morning for fifteen years without a bit of variety between them.
Also, doesn't seem to apply to settings; even though these are actual and well-known moe attributes, "they're all soldiers" or "they're all schoolgirls" doesn't count, or we'd have every harem series on here and then some. Plus it's really about personality type. If they were all the hardened soldier type with a secret Bodyguard Crush or tall high-school students with inferiority complexes, now that would be different.
Super-Trope of Hero's Slave Harem.
Examples:
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Originally Eroge and Visual Novels
- Kanon has four childhood friends; in fact, the fact that Shiori is a standard Delicate and Sickly girl with no previous connection to the hero (making her the odd haremette out) may explain why she always gets shafted in adaptations and merchandise. In this case, Nayuki has the traits of the typical Patient Childhood Love Interest, living with the male hero and harbouring a crush on him for years.
- The eroge Little My Maid is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a meido-centric game (although you could also go after the ojou); the title is actually a pun because it turns out the maids are actually mermaids and, more to the point, the daughters of Urashima Tarō and mistress Hime was his wife, Otohime and is their mother.
- Lets Meow Meow has 3 catgirls (one of which is a Meido, one is a Robot Girl and the third is a Miko), a rabbit girl, a police officer dog-girl and a Childhood Friend who doesn't mind dressing up like a Cute Monster Girl from time to time.
- Futakoi, at the very least, had six sets of twins for the harem. It really took things to the next level and, naturally, repeatedly pushes the protagonist into some sort of awed dizziness (that is, when he's not too busy running from his harem's own "harems" or other "defenders").
- Higurashi: When They Cry plays with the trope a little: it only pretends to be a harem series until people start dying, but it's not until that point that it becomes clear that the "harem" has a Yandere/Cute and Psycho theme. There are two odd haremettes out, but both are played up to be crazy before The Reveal.
- Katawa Shoujo is set in a school for special needs students, and so all the girls are somehow disabled, ill, or otherwise physically "vulnerable": you get to choose between one who is deaf-mute, one who is blind, one with no arms, one with no legs, and one who is covered in horrible burn scars.note
- Dracu-Riot! is about vampire girls, with one exception for variety.
- Imouto Paradise is, unsurprisingly, about Little Sister Heroines. Five, to be specific.
- Invoked in Tsukihime. Shiki is said by fans to have this strange "Tohno Gland" that specifically drives away normal girls, and attracts incredibly beautiful but incredibly crazy women. Thus, all of his girls have something to do with the supernatural.
- Purino Party sets the player up for girls with different sexual interests.
- Both Yandere I Love You So I Want To Kill You and My Harem Heaven is Yandere Hell revolve around a harem of Yanderes.
- In Seven Hotties, All My Husbands, all of the love interests are celebrities with high-paying jobs.
- In Liar! Uncover the Truth, nine of the ten love interests are liars.
- In Extracurricular Activities, the main cast are muscular anthropomorphic men who are all tennis players that are on the same team as you, including the coach, and they have quirky personalities.
- Kamigami no Asobi features a harem of attractive gods.
- Star-Crossed Myth has a double theme - not only are all the love interests gods of the Zodiac, half of them are from the Department of Punishments, while the other half are from the Department of Wishes.
- Shall We Date?:
- In Shall We Date?: My Fairy Tales, all of the heroes are Gender Flipped versions of famous fairytales (with the sole exception of Hansel and Gretel - Gretel is gender-flipped, Hansel isn't).
- Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow has a harem of handsome male ninjas for a ninja Player Character.
- In Shall We Date?: My Sweet Prince, all six love interests are princes.
- Shall We Date: Destiny Ninja - another harem of male ninjas.
- In Shall We Date?: Blood In Roses, all the love interests are magical in some way (werewolf, vampire, wizard, etc).
- Diabolik Lovers is a reverse harem consisting of vampires, and they're all Fetishized Abusers, too.
- Enchanted in the Moonlight - a harem of ayakashi, all of whom have a Bodyguard Crush on the heroine.
- Starry☆Sky - a harem of good looking young men (3 per game) who each represent a sign from the Western Zodiac.
- Harem Island ~Otoko - a harem of Cosplay Otaku Girls (it's a fantasy-themed park).
- Eji Koi - a harem of Egyptian gods.
- The Black Foxes of Love Letter from Thief X are a harem of Kaitous.
- In Dream Daddy, all the potential love interests are single fathers (as is the protagonist).
- Seduce Me (Otome) - a harem of incubi.
- Pirates in Love: A harem of handsome pirates.
- Scandal in the Spotlight - the five attractive members of a boy band.
- Dame X Prince – another harem of princes. Eccentric princes.
- Missing Stars is set in a school for teenagers with mental health problems.
- In XOXO Droplets, the theme is...well, the trailer referred to the boys (and the protagonist) as "f***ing terrible people" for a reason. None of them reach Fetishized Abuser levels, but still.
Other
- In Do You Like Big Girls?, the girls are all members of the main character's sister's volleyball team, and (with the exception of the team captain Sanae) are MUCH taller than him.
- Ranma ½ features dangerous martial artists of some kind or another, however bizarre or outlandish. They're all Tsundere Clingy Jealous Girls, on top of that.
- Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei may count - the protagonist is male, and most of the other characters are female students. Many of them have crushes on or Ship Tease with him, and every single one of them has an unnerving psychosis of some kind. Some of them have actual psychological disorders, others are just plain weird.
- G-On Riders has nothing but meganekko.
- Minor joke in Black Lagoon fandom, as so far, Rock, of all people, attracted at least two Action Girls (Revy & Eda) and one Lady of War (Balalaika). Although it's definitely obvious that only one of them is clearly falling/lusting after him (in a way), at least they had some potential.
- The girls in Princess Resurrection are all dominant/assertive, with half being Aloof Dark Haired Girls.
- Rosario + Vampire - an Unwanted Harem consisting of five Cute Monster Girls.
- Guardian Hearts - a harem of Magical Girls.
- Tenchi Muyo! - a harem of Human Aliens. The original OVA series also has an incest theme - Ayeka and Sasami are Tenchi's great-aunts, Ryoko is technically Washu's daughter, Washu herself is actually a goddess and a sister of Tsunami (the goddess who is fusing with Sasami), which technically makes her Sasami's sister (albeit on a spiritual level rather than a genetic one), and Mihoshi is Washu's descendant.
- Hanaukyō Maid Team - a harem of maids.
- Hand Maid May - a harem of Robot Maids.
- El Goonish Shive:
- It was Played for Laughs once for Nanase
, who had a lot of ex-boyfriends whose name started with G.
- Played-Not-So-For-Laughs in the "Family Tree" arc when an evil magic user starts turning everyone at a holiday party into identical, subservient, mind-slaves (who happen to bear a striking resemblance to Nanase) in an attempt to rebuild the harem-cult he had controlled in the past.
- It was Played for Laughs once for Nanase
- Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is basically a harem of really weird girls — hence the name. The first part of its Japanese title (Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko) is often translated as "Lunatic Women".
- The webcomic Ow, my sanity - a harem of Eldritch Abominations who take the form of Cute Monster Girls.
- Marugoto Anju Gakuen - a harem of Youkai.
- Yumeria - a harem of Super Heroines.
- Magikano - a harem of Cute Witches.
- Monster Musume - another harem of Cute Monster Girls.
- Sekirei features multiple harems of Human Alien Magical Girlfriends, most of which are also Action Girls with enormous breasts.
- Ouran High School Host Club differentiates the characters into common types, but they all fall under Princely Young Man — and, if you ask the protagonist, Upper-Class Twit as well.
- Ah My Buddha - a harem of nuns (not Mikos).
- Nisekoi - A harem of childhood friends, more specifically the Forgotten First Meeting kind of childhood friends.
- Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! - A harem of Cthulhu Mythos Eldritch Abominations in the form of cute teen humans.
- Two harems of Robot Girls in Saber Marionette J - not only that; Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry have an Edible Theme Naming, while Tiger, Luchs/Lynx, and Panther have a Vehicular Theme Naming / Animal Theme Naming.
- Ranma Club revolves around Ranma gaining a harem in the form of the Winx Club, which results in a harem of Magical Girl fairies.
- Ghoul Instructor Naruto gives Naruto a harem of Cute Monster Girls in the form of the Grimwood Academy girls and Miss Grimwood's niece Gem.
- In Eromanga Sensei, the heroines all have a connection to light novels, be they writers, artists or readers.
- Fantômas had the Zodiac girls, 12 beautiful women of various nationalities each named after a sign of the Zodiac, although he never seemed to consider them love interests.
- Infinite Stratos: Ichika Quest – Fuck Status Quo has two examples - Ichika's Battle Harem and Dan's Nerd Girl harem.
- In Eiken, every female in the harem has huge boobs.
- In Happy Lesson, the haremettes are all A) Hot Teachers and B) Chitose's non blood related mother.
- In Omujo Omutsu Joshi, for reasons of personal need, personal pleasure, or the personal belief it's what the male lead is into, all three haremettes wear diapers.
- In the book Power Play: A Hockey Romance by Mia Moon, the heroine finds herself being courted by four hockey players.
- In Eight Cousins, all of Rose's love interests are her Kissing Cousins.
- In Ai Kora, every member of Hachibei's harem has one of what he considers to be the perfect attributes for a woman.
- In Unleashed by Bella Jacobs, the heroine's four love interests are all were-beasts (a werewolf, a were-lynx, a were-bear and a were-griffon).
- In the Power of Five series by Alex Lidell, the heroine finds herself bound to four fae warriors.
- In the Hijinks Harem series, heroine Arizona Smoke learns that she is the fated mate to six dragon elementals.
- 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.
- In Asa kara Pika Pika, all three of Itou's suitors are named Hiroshi.
- Butsuri-san de Musou shitetara Motemote ni Narimashita - yet another harem of Cute Monster Girls.
- In The Last Shifter Series, the heroine becomes the Love Interest of four wolf shifters.
- In The Phoenix's Ashes, the heroine is a phoenix shifter who becomes the love interest of three sexy dragon shifters.
- Bonjour Koiaji Patisserie - a harem of four aspiring pastry chefs.
- Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She's a Cutie? - a harem of female perverts.
- In The Quintessential Quintuplets, Fuutarou gains a harem where all five girls are identical quintuplet sisters.
- Every member of Ema's harem in Brothers Conflict is one of her stepbrothers.
- Gonin Hitoyaku demo Kimi ga Suki - another harem of quintuplets, with the twist that they're all pretending to be the same person.
- In Rebuild World: While this is more a straight up action Cyberpunk series, there is the theme of the teasing Cool Big Sis / Big Sister Mentor (known in anime communities as the "Ara Ara Onee-san" archetype), represented by Virtual Sidekick Alpha, the Friendly Shop Keeper Shizuka, and the two Heterosexual Life-Partners Elena and Sara. While Sheryl and Carol differ from that template, most of the mentioned characters are a Proud Beauty, as well. Although Akira denies having a type.
- I Summoned Her - Seven demon girls, each one representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
- Sister Princess is a harem made up of Little Sister Heroines, with 12 or 13 sisters running around proclaiming their Big Brother Attractions. In the Dating Sim adaptation, the legal ones all have optional endings where they turn out to be Not Blood Siblings, and in the original light novels and anime, one isn't even adopted and is only posing as their sister.
- Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~: Keita lives with three Gyaru Girls with active sex life.
