Summary
- The harem genre, popularized in the 1970s, keeps audiences guessing about potential lovers for the protagonist.
- While some harem manga have been adapted into anime, many great ones remain unanimated.
- You Guys Are All Annoying didn't get animated, but it did get a live-action drama adaptation.
Why design one love interest when multiple ones will do? That’s how the harem genre was formed, as it kept readers and audiences guessing over which potential lover the protagonist would eventually pair off with. It popped up in the 1970s but blew up in subsequent decades with the rise of classic anime like Urusei Yatsura and Tenchi Muyo.
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The genre is still around today, whether it puts a guy among girls like High School DxD, a girl among guys like Ouran High School Host Club, or has an LGBTQ twist like Iono-sama. While those all made it into animation though, others didn’t make the jump. In fact, there are plenty of great harem manga that haven’t been animated yet.
Updated on April 9, 2025, by David Heath: It's usually the best and brightest harem manga that end up getting animated, or at least the most popular ones anyway. Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle kind of fell off in public perception after 2022, but will be making its anime debut in July 2025, where it may find fortune again. It'll also mean it'll graduate from this list like The 100 Girlfriends and Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister before it.
This list has included a few reverse-harem stories in the past, so for this update, all of its new entries will be reverse-harem manga, where one girl ends up surrounded by hot guys to capture her fancy. It's a formula that's worked for Fruits Basket and Fushigi Yugi, though time will only tell if it'll also lead to these new entries getting the anime nod someday.
35 Tensei Kenja wa Musume to Kurasu
Salaryman Gets Reborn in Another World with Built-in Cheats
- Creators: Ryu Kotohira (story), Uso Uzaki (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.64.
- 2019-Present.
- Fan Translations only.
Not to be confused with the similarly titled Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life, which did get adapted into an anime as My Isekai Life, Tensei Kenja wa Musume to Kurasu (The Reborn Sage Lives With His Daughters) is its non-union, harem-based equivalent. The premises are nearly identical; only TKnIL's Yuji was sucked into a computer world. TKwMtK's Kento actually dies, yet both end up stronger than they expected.
In his old life, Kento was a salaryman who was literally worked to death by vile bosses. As his life ebbed away, he came across a god called Raidel, who offered him a new life. Though skeptical, Kento requested to live a slow life with just a house and a knack for farming. He seemingly gets that when he's sent to a medieval era, but he soon discovers he's got magic powers and other 'cheats', which soon catches the attention of the locals. His slow life is about to speed up and earn him some followers.
34 Chitose Is In The Ramune Bottle
Popular Guy Uses His Charm to Help Shut-In Find Girls
- Creators: Hiromu (story), Bobcat (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.65.
- 2020-Present.
- Available in English via Yen Press.
Starting life as a light novel by Hiromu and raemz, Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle has been running in Manga UP! Since April 2020. It caught on so well that the city of Fukui set aside ¥6 million for a Chitose-based tourism campaign in the middle of 2022. Both the light novel and manga are available in English via Yen Press, though the light novel has kept up its momentum better as the manga's MAL score has really fallen over the years. Either way, it'll soon graduate from this list, as it'll receive an anime adaptation in 2025.
Nonetheless, both are about Saku Chitose, the most popular kid at Fuji High School. Everything seems to be going perfectly for him until his teacher asks him to help a shut-in student called Kenta Yamazaki break out of his shell. He uses his connections and social knowledge to help Kenta get on in school. In other words, it’s like the Nerd & Jock webcomic with a narrative and a bunch of women to charm.
33 29 And JK
Office Worker Ends Up as a Mentor to His Boss' Granddaughter
- Creators: Yuuji Yuuji (story), Kakito Katou (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.66.
- 2017-2020.
- Fan Translations only.
29 and JK began as a light novel until it was adapted into a manga for Gangan Online. The title has a worrying implication, as the lead male, Eiji, is 29 years old, and the leading lady, Karen, is the titular JK, or joshi kōsei (high school girl). Luckily, it sets out to keep things between the two platonic. They met in a manga café during his break from his call center work, where they spoke and he encouraged her ambitions to become a writer.
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Eiji thought that's where things would begin and end with her. However, he learns Karen is the granddaughter of his boss, who encourages Eiji to mentor her. That would be simple enough, but things only get complicated from there. His work gets busier, his sister moves in with him, and his childhood friend comes back into his life. Between his stresses and suitors, helping Karen with her writing may be the only peace he'll get.
32 You Guys Are All Annoying!
Teacher Gets Pestered By 3 Girls
- Creator: TOBI.
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.72.
- 2014-2020.
- Available digitally in English via Mangamo.
After being translated by fans in multiple ways, be it "You Are All Annoying" or "All of Them Are Troublesome Girls", the Japanese harem manga 'Omaera Zenin Mendokusai' is now officially known as You Guys Are All Annoying via its digital Mangamo translation. It's a fitting title, as it shows how Kunihiko Kunitachi is driven up the wall by the girls at his school. He works as a language and art teacher and often has trouble with Kazumi Kazumiya, one of his students.
When he suggests she make some friends, she asks him to be her first friend. He agrees, but only for Kazumi to end up following him everywhere. Even when he tries to introduce her to new people, like Riho Kurihara and Eiko Enomoto, he only makes things more complicated. Surprisingly, while the manga hasn't been animated, it did get a live-action movie in 2019 with Kensho Ono (Giorno Giovanna's VA in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) as Kunihiko.
31 Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi: Dorei Kenshi no Nariagari Harem Life
Ex-Slave Turned Hero Aims to Make a Kingdom of His Own
- Creators: Kai Yumizu (story), Toshinori Itou (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.79.
- November 2019-Present.
- Fan Translations only.
Most of the entries on this list have been cheeky or sensual at most, with many manga being more on the sweet and romantic side. Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi: Dorei Kenshi no Nariagari Harem Life (Road to the Kingdom: The Enslaved Gladiator's Jumped-Up Harem Life) goes into more adult territory, as an enslaved warrior named Aegir escapes the arena to join a band of mercenaries. Things go south for him when they're all killed by a vampire named Lucy.
Aegir would be next on the chopping block, but Lucy instead takes him into her castle and instructs him in the ways of the world, literally and figuratively. Two years later, Aegir and Lucy make a mutual promise: if he can turn the land around Erg Forest into a kingdom, she'll become his woman. So he sets off on his quest to do so. The manga cover suggests the fantasy is limited to the setting, but the covers of the original light novels reveal Aegir is conquering more than just huge tracts of land, as Lucy is just one of many intrigued by his charms.
30 Reiji Yonakano's Harem
Ghost Helps Antisocial Kid Find a Girlfriend
- Creators: Akira Kojima (story), Yohei Kazama (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.94.
- 2018-2020.
- Fan Translations only.
Perhaps better known under its Japanese title Yonakano Reiji ni Harem wo, or as Midnight Harem (because "Yonakano" means "at midnight". It's a pun that doesn't quite survive translation), Reiji Yonakano's Harem is a rom-com with a spooky edge as Reiji, an ordinary school kid, manages to meet his "fated person," who just happens to be a ghost. Invisible to most other people, Rei makes it her (un)life's mission to help Reiji find a girlfriend.
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The problem is that he isn't interested in romance, or even socializing. But whether it's his shy classmate Yomi, or Minori the Public Moral Chief, Rei won't stop until she's found Reiji the perfect partner, or partners if need be. It's a unique premise told with plenty of charm that makes it a genuine hidden gem, as it's also a scanslation-only treat for readers outside Japan.
29 Magika Swordsman And Summoner
Underachieving Male Summoner Aims to Prove His Worth
- Creators: Mitsuki Mihara (story), Lin Meng (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 6.95.
- 2013-Present.
- Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment.
Magika Swordsman and Summoner started as a light novel under its original Japanese name 'Magika no Kenshi to Shōkan Basileus'. Then Lin Meng adapted it into a manga for Comic Alive. In its world, people discovered magic and the ability to summon mythical beings. The world decides to form pacts with these beings where they get to choose a trainee as their official Summoner, who'll work in tandem with a Swordsman.
Then, nearly a decade and a half later, things get complicated. Kazuki gets chosen as a summoner, despite the position usually going to women due to them having more mana. As such, he sticks out at the all-girls summoner school. He's bottom of the class, and his elder foster sister, Kanae, thinks he'd be better off as a Swordsman. But Kazuki is determined to live up to the Summoner role and prove everyone wrong.
28 The Death Mage
Boy Reborn as Dhampir Raises his Harem from the Dead
- Creators: Densuke (story), Takehiro Kojima (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 7.01.
- July 2018-Present.
- Available in English via One Peace Books.
On the surface, The Death Mage is more like an isekai with a twist, as its lead hasn't just died once, he's died three times and isn't keen on doing it a fourth. As a high schooler named Hiroto, he died in a terrorist attack with his classmates. As test subject D-01, he was tortured and experimented on, and the scientists discovered he had the uncanny ability to zombify himself until he was gunned down.
Now, as the dhampir Vandalieu, he's found a loving home with his mother, the dark elf Darcia. When she's executed for birthing him, he snaps. He's had enough of his many lifetimes of bad luck. Using the "death attribute" he heard about in his old life, he raises an army of the dead to ensure he lives happily ever after. Some of those revived dead vie for his affections, like the battle maids Rita and Saria, and his accidental fiancées Privel, Gizania, and Myuze, among others.
27 Dragons Rioting
Boy Must Keep His Cool Among Strong Women to Stay Alive
- Creator: Tsuyoshi Watanabe.
- MyAnimeList Score: 7.08.
- 2012-2016.
- Available in English via Yen Press.
While the entries on this list largely keep things clean, some of them do come close to the line between mature storytelling and mature content. Dragons Rioting keeps things PG, or at least PG-13 with its premise. Rintaro was diagnosed with a condition where he could die if he got aroused. To help him overcome this, his father took him to the mountains to teach him how to keep cool under the collar, so to speak.
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At 16, he enrolled in Nangokuren School, thinking it was the largest all-boys school in the country. Unfortunately, he finds out the hard way that it was the largest all-girls school that recently went co-ed. He tries to transfer out, only to get the attention of the Dragons-three notorious female students who run the school's biggest factions. While he befriends Ayane, the other two, Kyōka and Rino, aren't so amiable. They want to be the strongest students, and Rintaro's only hope is to prove his mettle against them while keeping his composure.
26 Sekai no Owari no Encore
Fake Hero Proves He's the Real Deal with His Party of Women
- Creators: Kei Sazane (story), Ryū Usui (art).
- MyAnimeList Score: 7.12.
- 2015-Present.
- Fan Translations only.
Sekai no Owari no Encore, a fantasy harem adventure, was originally a light novel by Kei Sazane and Haruaki Fuyuno. Then it was converted into a manga by Ryū Usui for Comics Alive. Surprisingly, for a modern fantasy tale, it’s not an isekai. Instead, it involves a mystical MacGuffin known as the ‘Encore’. It was the last record of the end of the old world and the rebirth of the new one, and it was last seen in the hands of the legendary hero Elline.
Ren, a young boy with a striking resemblance to Elline, aims to become a heroic knight like him. Unfortunately, he’s so hopeless with a sword that the locals call him a ‘fake hero’. Nonetheless, when Kylse the Dragon Princess awakens from her seal, she sees potential in Ren. Alongside the archangel Fear, and Elise the Demon-Lord, they form a party to find the Encore together. With friends like them, who needs foes?