A young and completely ordinary male who has previously been unlucky or ineffectual with the opposite sex suddenly becomes the focus of several lovely ladies.
Hilariously destructive love battles ensue, particularly if some (or all) of the women happen to be super-powered.
The sex never happens, although our main hero does gain a happy if somewhat dysfunctional family unit, and contents himself with accidental peek-shows and inadvertently crashing head-first into any number of cleavages. This is often accompanied by copious amounts of nose bleeds – code for ejaculation.
This is the abbreviated version of almost every harem series in existence, and despite attracting a good deal of negative attention over the years, these types of show have become such an integral part of anime that scarcely a season goes by without one or two new titles.
A quick summary for the uninitiated: in broad terms, harem anime can be defined as a genre characterised by a teenage male protagonist who, by some twist of fate, finds himself surrounded – and usually romantically desired by – at least three members of the opposite sex.
Many harem titles remain unspecific as to which girl the male character is truly interested in until near the end, if a romantic decision is made at all. In such cases a series will often conclude open-endedly, or else imply that the protagonist has chosen to remain single in order to spare everyone’s feelings. Conversely, some harem titles narrow the focus down almost immediately to only one member of the female cast, making the audience aware of the canonical choice. Other female characters then exist simply to provide temptations, subplots, humorous obstacles, and general comical chaos. When an opposite pattern occurs, and one female protagonist is surrounded by at least three male leads, it is commonly referred to by Western audiences as a reverse-harem.
Although harem anime are occasionally depicted as dramatic, emotional, or even dark, the majority tend to be light-hearted and humorously self-aware, usually with a healthy dose of fanservice incorporated into the mix.
‘Harem’ in reference to the genre of anime and manga was created, as many anime-specific terms now are, by Western fans – such titles are usually still referred to in Japan simply as lovecomi (love comedies). Indeed, the term ‘harem’ anime only first came into usage with the success of the Tenchi Muyo! series in America in the late 1990s. However, the history of the genre itself began far earlier with the release of Urusei Yatsura (Those Obnoxious Aliens), the anime version of which spanned 6 films, 11 OVAs, and 195 half-hour episodes. These episodes premiered in Japan between 1981 and 1986, and was later aired across much of South and Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, France, and of course America.
The story tells of a high school student named Ataru whose one talent is chasing after girls.
When a group of aliens invade Earth, they decide to play a game to determine Earth’s fate: if a randomly selected earthling is able to defeat their champion in a game of tag, they will call off the invasion. Naturally, this random earthling turns out to be Ataru, and his opponent, the bikini-clad princess Lum. Shinobu, Ataru’s childhood friend, promises to marry Ataru should he succeed at the game. Ataru eventually manages to steal Lum’s top, tricking her into flying at him to get it back and then catching her. In his moment of triumph he yells, ‘Now I can finally marry her!’ Misunderstanding this as a proposal, Lum accepts on the spot and immediately moves in with him.
From this point on, the tale follows Ataru and Lum as legions of attractive aliens attempt to steal Ataru from Lum or vice versa, along with the appearance of creatures from every corner of space.
Urusei Yatsura is now one of the most popular titles in the history of anime, and was the first series to inspire fan-written translations. Essentially, it is the series responsible for establishing the model of almost every harem anime to follow, and its success paved the way for many more similarly structured love comedies.
In the early 1990s, the modern bishoujo game came into being, with perhaps the most notable subgenre of these being ren’ai games – better known outside of Japan as dating sims, in which a male character is placed in a game with the overt goal of having sex with as many female characters as possible (although paradoxically, the ultimate goal is the selection of a single female character and the orchestration of a happily-ever-after ending). Such video games often serve as the basis for plots of harem and male-orientated romance anime titles today (anime such as Sakura Wars, Shuffle!, and Rumbling Hearts are based on them), and influenced the creation of the next landmark in harem anime history: Tenchi Muyo!.
The Tenchi OVA debuted in 1992 and, like the bishoujo games of the time, was clearly intended for a young male audience who enjoyed the by now tried-and-true concept of a single male character surrounded by a bevy of attractive young women.
If Urusei Yatsura introduced the original framework for this type of anime, it was Tenchi which popularised it. It also allowed for the eventual successes of similar shows; in particular, Tenchi creator Kajishima Masaki returned to the harem concept with later projects such as Saber Marionette, Martian Successor Nadesico, Hand Maid May, Steel Angel Kurumi, Love Hina, and Kanon. By this time the American audience had also been prepared for these types of shows, some of which gained mainstream attention – Ah! My Goddess and Love Hina especially became hit shows overseas.
However, the overall reception of harem titles outside of Japan isn’t a particularly favourable one. The genre has been heavily criticised for its use of obligatory fanservice, and in the United States especially, such prominent themes are often shunned by female viewers who find them to be sexist misrepresentations. Although not every harem series is reduced to using fanservice as its main selling point, there are some titles which would seem to be genuinely offensive to the female population in general (I’m thinking particularly of DearS, which centres around a high-schooler named Takeya and his self-professed alien slave girl, Ren. The series also features a bunch of competitions between Ren and another alien that mostly revolve around cooking and various other house chores, and a teacher who apparently likes to dress in sexy lingerie and lounge about on her desk during class for no apparent reason).
That said, DearS is by no means a representation of harem anime as a whole.
The fact that most harem titles lack any male characters outside of the lead may be explained by the creator’s wish to control the size of a typically already-large cast, or that they simply have no desire to design another male character in whom a predominantly male audience will not have an interest.
Meanwhile, a large female cast maximises the chance of every audience member finding at least one character they like, both in terms of personality and physical design. In the case of those titles which quickly make apparent the main couple, any strong sexual interest is concentrated on that one character, as opposed to approaching the entire female group as a kind of sexual prey.
More importantly, many if not most reverse-harems have the equivalent stereotypes in their cast, and I feel that certain criticisms are rendered hypocritical from those who perceive harem anime to be intrinsically more ridiculous or sexualised than those pandering to a female audience – e.g. Fushigi Yuugi, Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, The Wallflower, Hakuouki, Uta no Prince-sama, and Hiiro no Kakera, to name only a few.
Finally, there is also the common assumption that all harem titles are comedies, and are therefore inferior to titles of a more serious or complex nature. Opinions about what makes an anime superior or inferior aside, it’s important to note that there are also relatively serious harem titles which draw on drama, sincere romance, and even occasionally dark thematic elements. While rare in comparison to their comedic counterparts, these titles can and do demonstrate that the genre doesn’t have to resort solely to fanservice and slapstick humour to tell a story. Ah! My Goddess, Ai Yori Aoshi, Elfen Lied, Kanon, Shuffle!, and Clannad are all strong examples of this.
Of course, the fact that harem titles commonly include at least some form of comedy isn’t necessarily a drawback – that’s more a matter of personal taste than anything else. In response to harem anime backlash, some anime fans have urged others to ‘think of it [harem anime] as a light fruit dessert after a heavy three-course meal; it’s sometimes refreshing to watch a minor show about a jacked-up guy trying to score after you’ve just watched something like, say, Evangelion, which makes me want to slit my wrists and listen to Marilyn Manson.’
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