10 Best Harem Anime Of All Time, Ranked

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Feature header showing characters from Urusei Yatsura, Watanare, and Tenchi Muyo

Updated Oct 23, 2026, 11:30 PM EDT

Joshua Edward Ryan Fox is a freelance writer for Screen Rant with a passion for pop culture. Joshua grew up in Connecticut where he developed an appreciation for writing and entertainment and has earned a Master's degree in professional writing and technical writing. His writing has been quoted by both the anime streaming site Crunchyroll and the anime YouTuber Gigguk.

For even the most casual observer of the anime fandom, few genres get quite as many side-eye glances as the harem genre. Simply put, it's the genre in which a single protagonist is pursued romantically by three or more prospective partners. It's a saturated category, with various generations able to point to a series they were at least passively aware of. For millennials, this may have been Love Hina, while younger audiences might latch onto contemporary hits like Quintessential Quintuplets. Each of these series have a bit of a sliding scale of content in terms of fanservice and overall substance, and for a while now, the genre has certainly leaned more into the former.

But what harem anime can do with said fanservice is where it can shine as compared to other anime. Approaching these anime with an open mind, especially as many are self-aware in a less shameless sense, creating a deep story while potentially parodying or deconstructing their overarching genre in thoughtful and fascinating ways. They are, however, broadly still wish-fulfillment at the end of the day, with predominantly male audiences in mind barring peaking interest from the past decade in reverse harems. The genre can be loaded with shallow and outright silly experiences, but every now and then, a few choice gems rise to the top of the harem anime scene.

10 High School DxD

In Passione’s High School DxD, Issei Hyodo was having the time of his life on his first real date when his date suddenly revealed herself to be a fallen angel and killed him. Issei was brought back to life as the servant of Rias Gremory, the beautiful head of the student council and secretly a devil, and as dangerous as Issei’s new life of demons and magics may be, it’s exactly what he needs to live out his dream of becoming a harem king.

High School DxD being so open about its trashy elements from day one gives it an element of charm that other harem anime lack, and, combined with a fun cast and surprisingly thoughtful worldbuilding, it has far more going for it than mere fanservice. For over a decade now, High School DxD has been one of the premier harem anime around, and overall, it’s easy to see why.

9 To Love-Ru

Xebec’s To Love-Ru stars Rito Yuki, a mild-mannered, yet clumsy boy who has a chance encounter with the beautiful alien princess Lala Satalin Deviluke after she runs away from home. A variety of misunderstandings lead Lala to fall in love with Rito and the two to become engaged, and from then on, Rito’s life is filled with human and alien women alike falling for him, even when his clumsiness always leads to accidental moments of perversion.

To Love-Ru is another harem anime that goes all-in on trashy fanservice, and that lack of shame, combined with just how far it’s willing to go with it, makes it incredibly fun to watch for the pure audacity of it all. To Love-Ru is often regarded as the absolute peak of harem anime, and even after almost 20 years, it’s easy to see why.

8 My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!

My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom! Catarina being given sweets by Maria, Geordo, and Keith

Silver Link’s My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! opens with a nerdy gamer being reincarnated as Catarina Claes, the villainess of the popular otome game Fortune Lover, who’s doomed for death or exile. To avoid her worst possible fates, Catarina starts using her knowledge of the game to change her life for the better, all while obliviously catching the eye of all of the heroine’s potential love interests, including the heroine herself.

It’s one thing for My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! to be a harem anime with male and female love interests, but with how fun the cast is and how great their chemistry is with one another, it’s a rare harem anime that’s actually worth watching for the characters. It’s a series that takes great strides in lampooning both isekai and harem anime, and surprisingly, it succeeds on both counts.

7 Girlfriend, Girlfriend

After years of romantic pursuit, the protagonist of SynergySP’s Girlfriend, Girlfriend, Naoya Mukai, has finally gotten his childhood crush, Saki Saki, to go out with him and become his girlfriend. Not long after, though, Naoya finds himself immediately falling for Nagisa Minase, another girl who had fallen for him, and in a crazy move, he decides to try to get permission to date both girls at once.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend succeeds where other harem anime—and even regular romcoms—fail because it has the self-awareness needed to be as goofy and absurd as possible without ever feeling forced, all of which is balanced out with a surprising amount of heart at every turn. Harem parodies are hardly rare, but even then, it’s easy to see Girlfriend, Girlfriend as one of the best examples around.

6 There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless…

Studio Mother’s There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… stars Renako Amaori, a shy girl who tries to reinvent herself in high school by befriending a group of beautiful and popular girls. Years of living as a loner still have Renako feeling out of place and doubting herself, however, and making things even worse for her anxiety is how each of her new friends seems to start falling in love with her.

At its core, There’s No Freaking Way I’ll be Your Lover! Unless… does all the same things as a typical harem anime, but not only is there plenty of novelty in seeing that translated to the yuri genre, but the surprisingly fun and well-developed cast makes it plenty worthwhile, as well. Even without the gimmick of a same-sex harem anime, it was one of the biggest surprises to come out of 2025, and it’s bound to remain a great harem anime for years to come.

5 The World God Only Knows

In Manglobe’s The World God Only Knows, when evil spirits escape from hell and possess 14 unassuming girls to replenish their power, it falls onto the Spirit Hunter Elsie to force the spirits out of the girls and bring them back to hell. The only way to do so is by “conquering” the girls’ hearts with the power of love, and to do that, Elise enlists the help of Keima Katsuragi, a man known as the God of Conquests for his mastery of dating sims and hatred of anything other than 2D.

As much as The World God Only Knows plays into the typical conventions of the harem genre, with a premise that does wonders to play around with its tropes and a surprisingly thorough supernatural plot, there’s surprisingly a lot to take away from it, even for those who don’t normally watch harem anime, and that’s why it’s still held in such high regard over a decade after the fact.

4 Kanon

In Kyoto Animation's Kanon, seven years after moving, Yuichi Aizawa returns to his childhood home to go to high school alongside his cousin. While Yuichi has forgotten most of what he loved about the city, remembering all of that slowly brings him closer to several girls with connections to his past, all of whom have problems only he can solve, even when they’re related to the supernatural.

While the animated adaptation does tone down a lot of the harem elements in the pursuit of a linear story, Kanon still more than succeeds as a story for how well it balances romance and melodrama, no matter which specific route is being adapted. It’s an easy contender for one of the best Kyoto Animation anime around, and 20 years later, it still holds up incredibly well.

3 Tenchi Muyo!

The cast of Tenchi Muyo! in a express their personalities in a promotional image for the anime

AIC’s Tenchi Muyo! is a long-running franchise of anime and OVAs starring Tenchi Masaki, an aspiring young priest who accidentally releases a demon sealed away by his ancestors for 700 years prior. As it turned out, though, the demon was actually the flirtatious space pirate Ryoko, and with her release, it isn’t long before Tenichi gets involved in one intergalactic crisis after another, all while building an increasingly massive harem of alien women.

Tenchi Muyo! has always been one of the most iconic names in harem anime, and with how much it commits to its premise alongside telling an ever-escalating story with great visuals and worldbuilding, it more than deserves that level of prestige. With over 30 years of material, Tenchi Muyo! is one of the most extensive harem anime to get invested in, but overall, it’s more than worth someone’s time.

2 Urusei Yatsura

The main couple in Urusei Yatsura in an official key visual for the anime's remake.

On a seemingly ordinary day in David Production’s Urusei Yatsura, alien invaders known as Oni threaten to take over the world unless someone can beat their princess, Lum, in a game of tag within a week. Against all odds, the young Ataru Moroboshi wins the game and saves the world, but he accidentally gets Lum to fall in love with him, and now his days are filled with hijinks from human and alien women alike, and while Ataru tries to stay faithful to his girlfriend, that doesn’t stop him from being a pervert.

While some parts of Urusei Yatsura’s writing have undoubtedly shown their age after 50 years, there’s still an undeniable charm to its comedy and romance, and it still holds up incredibly well, especially with how great a job David Production's Urusei Yatsura reboot did of modernizing. The series not only kick-started Rumiko Takahashi’s legendary career, but it also helped pioneer the harem genre as a whole, so it’s no wonder that it’s so great.

1 The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

Bibury Animation Studios’ The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You stars Rentaro Aijou, a boy who, despite his obsession with love, has been rejected 100 times since he was a baby. After the 100th rejection, though, the God of Love appeared before Rentaro and told him that to make amends for his constant heartbreak, Rentaro would meet and fall in love with 100 soulmates throughout high school, all of whom he must love equally so they don’t die of a literal broken heart.

Between doubling down on its harem elements in the biggest of ways, making it work by giving everyone depth and chemistry with each other, even outside of the romance plot, and complementing it all with hilarious absurdist comedy, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is a harem anime that succeeds in every regard. There’s never been an anime like 100 Girlfriends, and that makes it the biggest contender for the best harem anime around.