Best Harem Anime

Protagonists with various romance routes and vague romantic labels have always been a popular trope in fiction. Anime, however, ups the ante with its harem genre. This sitcom formula has withstood the test of time, and viewers can now consume a plethora of harem anime in case they want to see some hyperbolic gender dynamics and exaggerated attraction.

Some of the titles in this theme or genre can be rather “daring” or worse, a crass representation of harem. As such, if someone is looking to start their genre journey, they should check out these upcoming shows first since they are the best harem anime on the market.

Updated April 6, 2024: Winter 2024 is done and dusted, and it was not an especially strong season for harem stories. Even though they don’t rank with the genre’s greatest offerings, Chained Soldier and Tales of Wedding Rings are still fine enough options. Hopefully, Spring 2024 hits a few home runs.

Exciting Spring 2024 Harem Anime

The launch of a new anime season is forever a cause for celebration. Wiping the slate clean, each quarter brings renewed vigor and hope that some all-time greats might be on the horizon. In reality, only a small handful of seasonal anime will be remembered within a few months, while the rest will blend into indecipherable but hopefully positive memories.

On the surface, Spring 2024 does not seem to have many pure harem anime, with most shows not getting the tag on platforms like MyAnimeList. However, the season has quite a few series that cater to the genre’s audience, at least to an extent.

Provided it sticks to the light novel, Re:Monster will eventually amass an uncomfortable harem. The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases rushed through the harem process, quickly pairing its protagonist with a range of trope-fitting girls. A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics should be more of a comedy than a harem, but it will likely include elements from the latter. Vampire Dormitory should fill the season’s reverse harem quota. Date a Live will also be airing its fifth season, which will almost certainly be good.

KonoSuba, The Misfit of Demon King Academy, and The Irregular at Magic High School are not harems (or do not emphasize that element), but they might still hit the mark with fans of the genre. The

Still, let’s take a look at a few more traditional harems.

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included‘s opening episode can be slightly misleading as it sets up a standard romance rather than a harem. One morning, Shintarou wakes up to find a girl, Towa, sleeping on his balcony. Perplexed by his guest’s presence, the high-school student’s confusion intensifies when she reveals herself to be an angel. Naturally, his initial reaction is to get her out of his apartment. However, when he learns the naive girl is planning to spend a night with a guy at a hotel, Shintarou decides to let her stay at his place. Also, Towa truly is an angel.

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included is based on a decent manga by a fairly well-established creator, and the show’s relaxing tone and confident humor reflect that expertise. That said, Shintarou and Towa’s interactions can be flat at times, so the anime will hopefully improve once the cast expands with the arrival of a few other girls.

Now, let’s get started on the best harem anime ever…

23 Girlfriend, Girlfriend

MyAnimeList: 6.54 (Season 1)

Naoya is living with his two girlfriends, Saki and Nagisa, a situation his partners are not equally thrilled about. He is also stalked by another girl, Rika, who refuses to take a hint and is not afraid to break a few laws to get her way. To make matters even more complicated, Saki’s friend, Shino, moves in with Naoya to try and make sure he does not hurt her bestie; naturally, she also develops feelings for the lead.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend is at its best when highlighting its characters’ charming stupidity, an element heightened by Naoya’s blunt and earnest nature. Saki and Rika are both capable of producing hilarious moments and tend to overshadow the more subdued Nagisa. Shino’s increased involvement in season 2 was a mixed bag, but she helped keep the story moving.

22 Amagami SS

MyAnimeList: 7.29 (Season 1)

Amagami SS offers a more relatable and grounded main character for a harem story. It’s about Junichi Tachibana who has been suffering from social anxiety ever since getting stood up on a date a couple of years back. However, his luck at romance begins to turn around when suddenly, several girls start showing interest in him once again.

To add to Junichiro’s dilemma, all of them are interesting stereotypes of high school girls in anime. Amagami SS is a fairly wholesome take on the often mature harem genre, and the anime generally opts against fan service.

21 Saber Marionette J

MyAnimeList: 7.38 (Season 1)

An oldie but a goodie, Saber Marionette J is a childhood classic for a lot of millennials today. This harem anime is quite a handful as it combines several other genres, ranging from mecha to comedy. It takes place on a colonized planet far from Earth where the women are merely androids called Marionettes due to a failed expedition that killed off the female part of the colony.

Marionettes were inherently emotionless, but one day, a special boy found three unique examples who showed the ability to be empathetic. Therefore, it’s up to the boy to teach the three Marionettes what it means to be human while preventing war.

20 TenPuru: No One Can Live On Loneliness

MyAnimeList: 6.73

TenPuru is a harem anime featuring a monk and nuns. Well, they are at least aiming to go down that route. Wanting not to turn out like his lecherous father, Akemitsu joins a temple in order to become a monk; unfortunately, his new home happens to be a nunnery featuring nothing but girls around the protagonist’s age. Also, as this is an ecchi show, Akemitsu’s commitment to celibacy is regularly challenged.

TenPuru is a quintessential harem comedy, in the sense that the show really sticks to the genre’s tropes. The characters are all fairly stereotypical, but they are bad either. Akemitsu is quite pleasant since he generally has good intentions, even if he tends to regularly make dumb mistakes. The girls are a bit more of a mixed bag since, so far, only a few of them have been properly spotlighted, but they produce their share of laughs as well.

Like quite a few harem anime, TenPuru leans heavily into ecchi territory, which is not going to be for everyone. The show loves its fanservice, and these sequences can be repetitive and uninspired. However, the anime’s humor frequently hits the mark, provided a viewer does not mind banter that comes with a healthy dose of stupidity.

19 How Not To Summon a Demon Lord

MyAnimeList: 6.85 (Season 1)

How Not To Summon a Demon Lord is about a shut-in gamer who gets isekai’d into his own game. Instead of being a normal guy though, he assumes the role of Demon King Diablo, his in-game avatar. Sure enough, as soon as he arrives in his newfound world, he accidentally enslaves the two girls who summoned him.

However, despite being very powerful, Diablo agrees to help these girls unbind their contract, although the journey to get there might be more troublesome than expected. Leaning heavily into comedy and ecchi, this isekai anime is arguably slightly underrated, especially its entertaining first season that produces plenty of great laughs along with quite a few intense moments between Diablo and his summoners. Unfortunately, season 2 struggled to replicate its predecessor’s charm.

18 Lord Marksman And Vanadis

MyAnimeList: 7.11

Lord Marksman And Vanadis is one of the few harem fantasy anime that has a somewhat serious tone. The plot revolves around an ongoing territorial war in a fictional version of Europe; consequently, the series has plenty of political undertones and subplots.

At the heart of this conflict is the unfortunate Tigrevurmud. He is one of the archers of a faction whose army was decimated by Elen or Eleonora of the opposing faction. In a strange twist of fate, Tigre is spared by Elen, and thus begins the former’s turbulent struggle as a defector/prisoner of war for a female general.

17 Rent-A-Girlfriend

MyAnimeList: 7.03 (Season 1)

Rent-a-Girlfriend is unforgettable, both in good and bad ways. The protagonist is a college student named Kazuya Kinoshita. The anime starts with his girlfriend suddenly becoming his ex, so he seeks comfort by rebounding in the arms of a rental girlfriend found through an app. The two quickly find themselves to be incompatible, but it is a little late for that as both of them have to fake a relationship to appease Kazuya’s ill grandmother. Along the way, more colorful and quirky girls appear to challenge Kazuya’s fake relationship.

If nothing else, Rent-a-Girlfriend knows how to get a reaction out of viewers, even if that response is frequently frustration. Kazuya can be infuriating since he is not really written to be cool or traditionally charming; in fact, he tends to get lost in his anxiety, which can get repetitive and tiresome when it happens for multiple seasons. That said, he is at least a memorable lead, which is not something that can be said for every harem protagonist.

Rent-a-Girlfriend loses some points as a harem since the end goal is never in question, to the point that the other girls can come across as distractions rather than contenders.

16 Rosario + Vampire

MyAnimeList: 6.75 (Season 1)

Looking for another disorderly twist in a harem anime? Why not monster girls? Rosario + Vampire explores that notion. Protagonist Tsukune Aono enrolls in Youkai Academy thanks to his stingy parents, but he soon discovers that it’s actually a school for supernatural monsters such as succubi, werewolves, and vampires.

Thankfully, he falls in the company of Akashiya Moka and other monster girls who view him as a precious friend since he’s the only human in the academy. It’s not all ecchi situations and opportune moments for Tsukune though as he also helps the girls address the school’s most glaring issues. Rosario + Vampire is one of the most popular and well-known harem anime out there, and it does feature quite a few of the genre’s tired tropes and conventions; however, the supernatural twist gives it an edge over most of its contemporaries and successors.

15 A Couple Of Cuckoos

MyAnimeList: 6.92

A Couple of Cuckoos features a conservative dose of fan service, which will either be a positive or a negative depending on the viewer. Also, in a surprisingly rare change of pace from most of the genre’s shows, the anime’s main male protagonist arguably earns his harem. That would be the straight-A student, Nagi Umino. He was supposed to be rich, but the hospital accidentally switched him with another baby after birth.

When he did turn 16, he finally met his real parents and the girl he inadvertently switched lives with at birth. The problem is, his adoptive and real parents now want him to marry the girl. Other problems arise when Nagi starts pursuing someone else he genuinely likes, and, on top of that, his adopted sister also has her eyes on him.

14 We Never Learn: Bokuben

MyAnimeList: 7.28 (Season 1)

In We Never Learn, an impoverished student named Yuiga gets a chance to be admitted to a top-ranked university on a full scholarship. However, there’s one condition: he’ll have to tutor the school’s geniuses in their weakest subjects.

Of course, all these geniuses are girls with dynamic and eccentric personalities, meaning it’s quite a monumental task for someone like Yuiga. While there’s nothing that stands out with this rom-com, it does everything decently and is generally an entertaining watch.

13 To LOVE Ru

MyAnimeList: 6.98

To LOVE Ru is a harem classic where a typical boy MC named Yuuki Rito actually has an ideal partner who’s also his childhood friend. Things get complicated, however, when an alien girl from another planet lands on Earth and sets her eyes on Yuuki.

To make matters worse, the said alien girl’s sisters also want a piece of Yuuki and have uprooted themselves and now live in his house. Oh, and there’s also a weapon girl who wants to kill Yuuki but also serves as a potential romantic tangent for him. But hey, Yuuki still loves his childhood friend no matter what. Sort of. Maybe.

12 The Familiar Of Zero

MyAnimeList: 7.22 (Season 1)

The Familiar of Zero initially comes across as a cliched harem ecchi anime, but it sets itself apart rather early. The MC here, named Saito, is actually a slave since he’s a familiar accidentally summoned by an inept budding sorceress. Turns out he is a powerful familiar, but his circumstances have forced him to be weakened.

Hence, Saito comes to terms with his new life, all the while struggling to stay loyal to his master as other magicians and sorceresses turn his life upside down in a way that only a harem anime can. In any case, it’s a harem with magic involved, which alone should make it interesting.

11 The Café Terrace And Its Goddesses

MyAnimeList: 7.32

Hayato Kasukabe inherits his grandmother’s cafeteria following her death, only to find that it comes with five girls who had been living with his relative. Not amused with the situation, both parties start off hating each other, although they eventually form an agreeable relationship and decide to reopen the shop.

The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses does not leave a stellar first impression since the girls come across as rather annoying in the opening two episodes; however, that begins to change once Hayato starts to get to know them a bit better. With a strong male lead, enjoyable humor, and genuine character development, this series was comfortably Spring 2023’s standout harem show.

10 Date A Live

MyAnimeList: 7.15 (Season 1)

Date A Live delivers a unique setting for the harem genre. It begins several decades after a massive devastating earthquake killed 150 million people on Earth. These quakes have subsequently been happening on a smaller scale and are seemingly caused by pretty girls called Spirits.

Luckily for the MC, Shidou Itsuka, his little sister is working on a plan to prevent these further disasters by rehabilitating the Spirits. And what better way to tame them than to make them fall in love with a boy? That’s Shidou’s job from there henceforth; saving the world by flirting like a mythical Chad. Along with delivering fun harem shenanigans, Date A Live is also a pretty great action show in its own right, particularly in its later seasons. In fact, this series is a great harem gateway option for people who are not sure where to start with the genre.

9 The Fruit Of Grisaia

MyAnimeList: 7.48 (Season 1)

The Fruit of Grisaia might seem like an ordinary harem anime with the typical cast of dynamic girls and a quiet boy, but it adds more stakes by featuring some deep-seated psychological issues. It begins when transfer student Yuuji Kazami enters a new school. Initially, he was excited to begin a new life but was soon disappointed on his first day.

Yuuji quickly finds out that the school is devoid of its student population save for him, the principal, and five other girls. The outlandish scenario is drenched in mystery, which Yuuji eventually unearths by socializing with the girls and finding out their hidden trauma. Unlike most entries in the genre, The Fruit of Grisaia and its sequel, The Eden of Grisaia, tackle some rather mature and uncomfortable themes.

8 Tenchi Muyo! War On Geminar

MyAnimeList: 7.74

Speaking of harem anime with impressive premises, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar takes the cake. The show is also an isekai anime, on top of dipping into the mecha and fantasy genres. In any case, protagonist Kenshi Masaki gets spirited away into a bizarre land where he is tasked with assassinating a crown empress by piloting a mecha.

Only, Kenshi fails to do this, but his ability to serve as mecha pilot saves his life since men are not usually capable of accomplishing this task. Refusing to execute her assigned assassin, the empress keeps Kenshi around to train him among the female pilots in her army. Despite featuring moments of action, the anime is not that fast-paced and focuses heavily on the characters, most of which are trope-heavy but endearing.

7 Saekano: How To Raise A Boring Girlfriend

MyAnimeList: 7.48 (Season 1)

Weird title aside, one might find delight in Saekano‘s endearing (albeit predictable) plot. One day, Otaku Tomoya Aki decides to fulfill his dreams of creating his own visual novel. So, he recruits a bunch of old friends and acquaintances (all of whom happen to be female) to help him with the project.

Sure enough, the visual novel he concocts is romantic in theme. More than that, the visual novel game they are making is more of a dating simulator. Hence, they all inadvertently pour their hearts and souls into the visual novel in the most genuine and “method” way possible.

6 Hayate The Combat Butler!!

MyAnimeList: 7.51 (Season 1)

A harem classic, Hayate the Combat Butler!! owes its success to a mix of genres and the fact that it’s a lighthearted approach to a rather disheartening plot. That’s because Hayate Ayasaki was abandoned by his parents after they accumulated a crippling amount of debt. After being sold to the Yakuza, he plots his escape by trying to kidnap a rich girl to pay off his parent’s debts.

Luckily (or unluckily) for Hayate, the wealthy girl mistakes his actions as a confession of love. Therefore, she forgives him and even grants him a job as a butler. Joining the chaos is the female entourage of the wealthy girl who inadvertently fall for him.

5 Nisekoi: False Love

MyAnimeList: 7.57 (Season 1)

An anime centering around the Yakuza, Niseoki: False Love makes the notorious gang instrumental in its romance tangle. At the center of that turmoil are Raku Ichijou and Chitoge Kirisaki, heirs to two rival gangs who are forced to play the part of a couple in order to maintain an uneasy peace.

The problem is that Raku hates Chitoge and vice versa. Also, Raku somewhat promised himself to a missing childhood friend who conveniently re-appears while he’s still in a pickle with Chitoge. Although the anime loses steam as it goes along, Nisekoi has plenty of genuinely hilarious moments, particularly during its opening season.

4 Yamada-kun And The Seven Witches

MyAnimeList: 7.55

Here’s a unique one: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is a harem anime with two main characters who can swap bodies. The weirdness gets started when a transfer student named Ryuu Yamada accidentally kisses a beautiful honor student.

To their surprise, they learn they can switch bodies after the kiss. Their newly acquired power brings them into the circle of the Supernatural Studies Club, where they make it their goal to find out who else among certain individuals shares the same ability. Filled with likable characters, Yamada-kun is one of those shows that is just pleasant to watch, and its animation is decent for the genre too.