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Picking favorites can be even more difficult because of all the good choices. On the other hand, one can only iterate plain-jane-protagonists-and-their-orbiting-boy-band stories so many times before the formula gets too predictable. So it’s high time to take a good look at the pioneers and heavyweights in the reverse harem genre. These are the ones the started it all or the ones that kept the flame going.
Updated February 8, 2022 by Sid Natividad: Anime as a medium is on fire right now what with all the big names unleashing the biggest crescendos in their storylines. Once that’s over though, some viewers might want to go back to the more relaxing stuff and that’s where the reverse harem anime comes in.
While there’s already a sizable collection down below, there are so many good reverse harem animes that not including some of the best among them is unfair. Thus, we’ve added more to the list of the best reverse harem anime in history for more opportunities to feel that warm fuzzy feeling after being surrounded by slender, pretty men.
15 Uta No Prince Sama
Release date: July 3, 2011 Other themes/genres: School, comedy, music
For a music-themed reverse harem anime, one cannot go wrong with Uta no Prince Sama. It’s about the goals and aspirations of protagonist Haruka Nanami. As usual, she’s a country girl with big dreams and she plans to get her senpai idol to notice her. The only problem is that the guy is an elite rockstar and musician. That doesn’t deter Nanami one bit.
She enrolls in a music and arts academy with her goal of being a great composer. To her surprise, however, everyone else in the academy is either an idol, composer, or poet. Of course, the most handsome among them gravitated toward Nanami’s awkward provincial girl mannerisms.
14 Yona Of The Dawn
Release date: October 7, 2014 Other themes/genres: Drama, action, historical
The beauty in Yona of the Dawn apart from the main character and her male warrior entourage is that it subverts some prevalent reverse harem tropes. Yona herself is far from a stuttering and helpless girl. She’s a budding warrior and an inheritor to the throne.
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The anime also doubles as a coming-of-age adventure where Yona embarks on an epic journey to reclaim her kingdom after her father, the king, gets murdered. She’s naive and sheltered at first but quickly adjusts to her new life thanks to her brave escorts.
13 Hanasakeru Seishounen
Release date: April 5, 2009 Other themes/genres: Drama
Hanasakeru Seishounen is a lovely and idyllic tale of another rich girl who must choose a husband in a coming-of-age story. Unlike the other reverse harem anime, there’s no pretense or pretext here as picking a lifelong partner is Kajika Louisa Kugami Burnsworth’s mission from the get-go.
She’s tasked with this seemingly monumental goal after her rich industrialist father shelters her in her own private island only to be yanked out of her bubble after she turns fourteen. Everything about her and her father’s life now hinges on how well Kajika can choose a husband.
12 Kakuriyo: Bed And Breakfast For Spirits
Release date: April 2, 2018 Other themes/genres: Drama, gourmet, supernatural
Aoi Tsubaki from Kakuriyo has always had a special vision where she can see and communicate with man-eating spirits. For fear that these spirits might consume her, she regularly feeds them and has honed her cooking skills well enough to keep the dangerous souls fed.
Her life takes a twist when a violent king of the spirits suddenly wants to marry her as some kind of debt settlement. What does Aoi do? She vehemently refuses the proposition and instead tells the spirit king that she will open up a restaurant instead to pay off her debt. Her customers? Man-eating souls. Oh, and some of them are hot bachelors who are into the furry scene.
11 My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!
Release date: April 5, 2020 Other themes/genres: Comedy, fantasy, isekai
It’s rare to find a reverse harem anime set in an isekai world but My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! takes on that challenge. It’s similar to something like Re:Zero where the main girl has died and gets resurrected as a character in her favorite dating sim game.
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The catch is that she’s the villain in the game she used to play. To make matters worse, most of her actions accelerate her in-game death. She must tiptoe around her interactions with the characters in the game so that she gets a chance to live longer and also find some prospect among the slick and handsome bachelor selection.
10 Fruits Basket
Release date: July 5, 2001 Other themes/genres: Comedy, drama, romance, slice of life, supernatural
Those who have seen this anime back in its original release are probably feeling the pressure to get married or start a family right now. It’s a warm and fuzzy reverse harem classic where an innocent and kind girl named Tooru Honda finds herself reluctantly living with an old family of brothers.
The catch is that the brothers are “cursed” to transform into their zodiac sign animals if ever they’re hugged by someone of the opposite gender. From there on, Tooru’s life was never the same, especially after she keeps meeting more of the family members and learning of their dark past.
9 Kamisama Kiss
Release date: October 2, 2012 Other themes/genres: Comedy, fantasy, romance, supernatural
Anyone looking for a spiritual successor to Fruits Basket will find Kamisama Kiss a reverse harem contender. In fact, it incorporates a rather similar promise for the protagonist. Girl (named Nanami here) becomes homeless due to financial issues and gets “adopted” by a slender and feminine-looking man.
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The man turns out to be a fox god of some sort and she gets bound to him by accident which inadvertently turns her into a deity. Now, her life is never the same as she tries to live with her newfound life as a god of some sort as she fends off a snake man who wants to marry her, monsters who want to eat her, and also managing her feelings for her fox god familiar.
8 Kamigami No Asobi
Release date: April 6, 2014 Other themes/genres: Fantasy, romance, supernatural, isekai
This time around, the protagonist isn’t a destitute homeless girl with no choice. Yui Kusanagi is a cushy high school student who pulls a sword in her family’s storehouse unironically expecting nothing to happen despite the pop culture suggestion. Lo and behold, she gets transported into another realm.
It’s not just any realm, but rather a god academy that Zeus (Greek mythology) himself created to teach five handsome lean young god men into getting in touch with humanity. And what better way to reconnect them to their human side than introducing a high school girl to them? It’s up to Yui to teach the five divine wayward gods some human manners.
7 Ouran High School Host Club
Release date: April 5, 2006 Other themes/genres: Comedy, romance, school
For an even wackier and more dysfunctional enrollment into high school, Ouran High School Host Club is quite the ride. It starts off when the protagonist Haruhi Fujioka gets admitted to an elite school. Too bad she gets her first taste of the school’s snobs, the Host Club in the wrong way: by breaking a vase worth several millions of yen.
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Thus, she became a gender-bent literal errand boy where she essentially became a slave for the all-male Host Club so as to pay for the vase she broke. This anime is also one of the hard-to-replace classics of its genre on top of being an awesome comedy.
6 Vampire Knight
Release date: April 8, 2008 Other themes/genres: Drama, mystery, romance, supernatural
Vampire Knight offers something more than other reverse harem anime: mystery and action. It follows the story of Yuuki Cross who thankfully isn’t a clueless human girl; she’s a fully-fledged vampire after being rescued from death by Kaname Kuran, a vampire.
Ten years later, she then acts as a peacekeeper in Cross Academy which has both a day class for humans and a night class for vampires. Despite being one of the vampires, Yuuki still refuses to see humans a prey which makes her one-of-a-kind among her peers, most of which are enigmatic vampire males with sharp fangs and even sharper bangs.
5 Brothers Conflict
Release date: July 2, 2013 Other themes/genres: Romance
Most reverse harem anime usually just introduce a single-digit number of potential suitors or orbiters, Brother’s Conflict isn’t having any of that timidity, it gives the protagonist 13 step-brothers to choose from! So who’s the lucky girl? That would be Ema Hinata.
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Ema’s widowed father recently remarried which is how Ema got into the situation. The other family has an army of 13 brothers all slim, graceful, and more importantly, vying for her attention as if she’s the only woman in the world. However, will she choose?
4 Code: Realize - Guardian Of Rebirth
Release date: Other themes/genres:
Code: Realize - Guardian of Rebirth has one of the most outlandish and ridiculous plots ever in a reverse harem anime. Its heroine, Cardia Beckford was born with what can only be described as an atomic bomb in her heart. Now, a terror organization, as well as the army, wants to keep her because she’s a weapon.
Moreover, her heart makes it so that everything organic gets melted in contact with her skin. Still, that didn’t prevent a dashing thief from stealing her, who also promised that he will steal Cardia’s heart, both literally and figuratively. Now, thousands of men are chasing her but mostly because she’s a walking time bomb.
3 Hakuouki
Release date: April 4, 2010 Other themes/genres: Historical, action, drama, supernatural
Tired of the usual hapless schoolgirl getting in debt or servitude to several gorgeous guys? Then Hakuouki is a breath of fresh air as it picks the Edo era of Japan (the 1600s to 1800s as the setting. In it, Chizuru Yukimura is looking for her missing father when she gets entangled with the Shinsengumi, Japan’s special police force.
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Turns out they are also looking for her father. Hence, she now has to work with them which isn’t too bad considering how some of the members were single and ready to mingle. It also helps that they all represent several shades of masculinity with little to no physical imperfections. Who knew looking for one’s father could be a fun dating opportunity?
2 The Wallflower (The Seven Metamorphoses Of Yamato Nadeshiko)
Release date: October 4, 2006 Other themes/genres: Comedy
Now, back to something more palatable for the contemporary audience but a classic reverse harem anime nonetheless. The Wallflower is quite the riot as it compels four physically near-perfect shoujo anime male stereotypes to live with the Japanese version of an Ugly Betty.
The girl’s name is Sunako Nakahara and it’s intentional that her name is quite close to a horror movie staple, Sadako (Samara in the US) from The Ring. Why must they live with her? Because her filthy rich aunt wanted to teach Sunako how to be a woman and apparently, the best way to do that is by introducing her to four men who are clueless about feminity. Ignore the logic, one doesn’t watch a harem anime for a brain exercise anyway.
1 Fushigi Yuugi
Release date: April 6, 1995 Other themes/genres: Adventure, drama, romance, fantasy, isekai, comedy
Quite a handful classic this one. As the oldest title in the list, one would think that Fushigi Yuugi won’t age well but here we are. It’s only one of the most fun reverse harem anime in existence. A young high school girl named Miaka Yuuki gets transported to a mysterious fantasy world where she turns out to be a prophesized priestess who has the power to summon a god that will grant three wishes.
Before that though, she must find her bodyguards or celestial warriors to protect her. Unsurprisingly, they’re all spindly male soldiers and two of the most attractive ones want Miaka for themselves. The others are just there for flings or to add up to the conundrum.
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