WIXOSS is a popular trading card game which has amassed quite the following, but things are not quite what they seem. Kominato Ruuko is a high schooler who quickly realises something is off about WIXOSS when she receives her first deck of cards and finds a girl trapped inside her avatar card. Ruuko soon finds others in the same situation and discovers that she has become a “Selector”, WIXOSS players who experience a special version of the game in which players can battle each other for a chance to have their deepest wish come true. However, there is a catch: being defeated three times leads to a player’s life being thrown into ruin. Deceptively light-hearted at first, Selector Infected WIXOSS is a card game anime which closely follows the very well-lit path paved by other card game anime before it (hello, Yu-Gi-Oh!) in how it quickly develops into a dark sinewy watch with psychological elements that make it an incredibly jarring watch if you go in expecting happy times with trading cards. The contrast between the bright and peppy artistic direction and the manner in which things quickly deteriorate into full-blown pandemonium for individual characters makes it a memorable watch too.

Japan has clamped down on all that is considered to be obscene through the implementation of morality laws which subdue the public. Using special collars to enforce the policy, the Japanese government has all but ensured themselves a chaste society. Okuma Tanukichi is the son of an infamous criminal known for opposing the chastity laws, and he has just entered high school and gotten involved with the student council in order to get closer to his childhood crush, the Student Council President, Nishikinomiya Anna. Okuma soon realises that the vice president, Kajou Ayame, has been leading a double life, donning a mask and assuming the identity Blue Snow, a criminal dedicated to spreading obscene material to the general public. With his father being such a notorious terrorist, Okuma soon becomes the subject of Kajou, no, of Blue Snow’s attention. He is soon dragged into her secret organisation, SOX, and forced to spread lewd material which will stir the public and allow them the chance to destabilise the society the Japanese government created. How will Okuma deal with having to support a movement which clashes with his values? Shimoneta is hilarious because of its absurdity. From the very first scene we are shown the lengths to which the Japanese government is set to suppress the sexual curiosity of the average Japanese citizen. However, maybe there is something to be taken away from the way in which they frame sexual learnedness as an oppressed quality to which society is entitled. Maybe Shimoneta is just fun because we get to live vicariously through the main characters who dish out social justice while wearing underwear on their heads.

Saiki Kusuo has a wide range of supernatural abilities which range from telepathy to x-ray vision. Most people would consider these a major asset; however, Kusuo is adamant that his powers have only ever made his life difficult. All he wants is a normal life, but his psychic powers consistently attract strange characters who together create a whirlwind of inconveniences which further drive home Kusuo’s opinion on his abilities: a curse. Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan is a show with individual episodes of a fairly short runtime of only 5 minutes; however, don’t think they don’t pack their fair share of wacky psychic-powered excitement! The comedy is the main attraction to this anime, as Saiki’s life continues to become entangled in wackier and wackier scenarios alongside several eccentric and humorous characters.

Four high school boys who have known each other since they were children hang out together at school every day. The Asaba twins, Yuuki and Yuuta; the quiet Matsuoka Shun and the calm Tsukahara Kaname have grown used to a dreary, boring life; however, the entrance of half-Japanese, half-German transfer student Tachibana Chizuru might prove to be the spark which ignites the excitement in their lives again as his energetic personality and stories of life abroad breathe new life into the dynamics of the group. A solid slice of life when you need one, Kimi to Boku is a calming title which can go unnoticed even on the J.C. Staff roster. With a character dynamic somewhat reminiscent of Kyoto Animation’s K-On!, Kimi to Boku is the show you need when you want a little bit of high school comedy to liven up your day. The anime is simple and covers all the bases if you want something funny and a little romantic on your watchlist.

So many things have gone wrong in Ayasaki Hayate’s short, miserable life, but the word “mishap” would be a gross understatement when describing how his parents accumulated a debt of over 50 million yen and abandoned him, leaving him with no choice but to sell himself off to the Yakuza. One night he runs into a girl named Sanzenin Nagi and tries to kidnap her in order to pay off his family’s debt, but Nagi misunderstands their interaction to be Hayate’s confession of love for her. When he saves her from actual kidnappers, Hayate is hired to be Nagi’s personal butler as she is revealed to be part of one of the richest families in Japan. With his horrible luck but great skills, Hayate must navigate the task of serving his employer while living through the mishaps which plague him daily! A fairly well-known title, Hayate the Combat Butler is a show within which, fun fact, we can find a fairly great example of an archetypical tsundere. Back to the anime itself, the premise is outlandish and really serious, but when you get down to watching the show, you realise just how funny Hayate the Combat Butler can be. With its recurring theme of Murphy’s Law in Hayate’s life, the anime blends in a fair amount of comedy, romance and a bit of drama into each episode.

Hachimitsu Private Academy is an elite all-girls boarding school on the outskirts of Tokyo, known for its disciplined students and high quality education. However, upon the revision of school policy, male students are now being accepted at the school, with the school’s first ever crop of boys being a meagre five individuals. This places the girl-to-boy ratio within the school at a whopping 200: 1. The five, Kiyoshi, Gakuto, Andre, Shingo and Jo quickly fade away into the background as none of them are able to talk to girls. Unable to talk to their female peers, the five decide to peep into the girls’ bath instead. Their plan is thwarted by the Underground Student Council, who promptly throw the five boys into the school’s harsh prison for an entire month. Prison School is an artistic beauty with the art style which leans closer to more realistic features, especially where faces are concerned. The show has a marked darkness to it due to the use of shading and shadows on the characters themselves, giving it an incredible amount of depth. The show is outrageous and can even get somewhat uncomfortable with how far it goes with the banter; all while satirically exploring the hilarious day-to-day struggles of the five main characters.

After surviving a freak accident, Tada Banri suffers from extreme amnesia, which completely suspends all memories of his past somewhere in the recesses of his mind. After befriending Yanagisawa Mitsuo, Banri decides to move to Tokyo in order to attend law school. His steady college life is rocked when he meets the beautiful Kaga Kouko in a dramatic meeting. Banri’s college experiences continue to offer him a sense of belonging and purpose; however, discovering who he is and discovering who he used to be can prove to be more difficult than he could have anticipated. The show deals with the issue of identity, using Banri’s amnesia and the possibility of the imminent return of the Tada Banri who existed prior to the accident. While being a pleasant romantic slice of life in some aspects, Golden Time can get fairly dark at times, and attempts to grow its closely-knit protagonists together in intensely dramatic ways. At the same time, those who love J.C. Staff anime will also note how Kaga Kouko looks like an older Aisaka Taiga from Toradora, in case you weren’t already convinced to catch the show.

Academy City is a city at the forefront of scientific discovery and the location of the esper development program. There are seven “Level 5” espers in Academy City, the strongest in town and Misaka Mikoto is ranked third among them. Known for her powerful electricity manipulation powers, Mikoto’s abilities have earned her the nickname, “The Railgun”. When strange things start happening throughout the city, Mikoto investigates and discovers it all to be connected to “Level Upper”, a device allegedly capable of increasing an esper’s level. With more investigation, Mikoto soon realises that the Level Upper case goes further beyond anything she imagined and that Academy City isn’t quite what it claims to be. Railgun is an anime in the same universe as another J.C. Staff title, A Certain Magical Index. Index’s protagonist, Kamijou Touma, sometimes appears in the Railgun series, albeit as a supporting character. Characters in Railgun have incredibly flashy powers which are incredibly well animated in the scenes with combat. Overall, the “A Certain” series have been incredibly beautiful from an art perspective, with its backgrounds often being incredibly intricate and breathtaking.

Ayusawa Misaki is her school’s first ever female Student Council President, given that the school was very recently an all-boys high school. Misaki’s strong presence and her disciplinarian attitude have earned her the nickname, “Demon President” by the boys at her school, and she will stop at nothing to ensure that the female students have a good school experience. However, under all that authority, Misaki is hiding the fact that after school, she works at a maid café in order to help her family get by. She has managed to keep it a secret for a long time, but a chance encounter with Usui Takumi, the most popular boy in school, leaves her reputation in his hands. With so much power over her life, Usui could destroy her reputation forever... or he could use this chance to get to know Misaki better. Straight-forward shoujo tropes in Kaichou wa Maid-sama bring us a healthy dose of romance and slice of life elements, as well as a fair bit of drama. Coming from the highly successful manga series of the same name, Maid Sama’s anime adaptation by J.C. Staff is a humorous and highly enjoyable anime title to watch, with the romance aspect taking centre stage in the story progression.

Life in the city of Orario is exciting, especially for Bell Cranel, a young man who hopes to become the greatest adventurer. After a fateful encounter with the goddess Hestia, Bell is inches closer to achieving his dream. With her support, he delves deep into the city’s dark monster-filled catacombs, where death lurks around every corner. Survival is not guaranteed and many don’t make it out of “The Dungeon”. Be that as it may, Bell is convinced he will one day be the greatest. DanMachi, as the show is affectionately called, is a beautifully animated tale about a young man who wishes to achieve greatness and J.C. Staff pulled out all the stops with character and world design, making the expansive fantasy land of Orario feel full and fleshed out. The fight scenes are beautiful, particularly the dramatic final fight against a particular entity which shall not be named… Watch DanMachi for fantasy and RPG elements nicely put together into a brief yet exciting story.

Like with all anime ever, music anime will always, in some way or another, explain the music being performed or prepared OR they will have sheet music everywhere. Just like how ecchi anime shower the viewer with fanservice, music anime does the same with sheet music and exposés. It is not a bad thing per sé, as this allows the series to really drive home the concept that this is a music anime. It is not to say that the series loses focus, but rather that the viewer is able to, more often than not, be sucked into the story to the point that sometimes the characterizations seem to overpower the music itself. Thankfully though, it always comes full circle as music seems to be the healing force of everything.

Kousei Arima is a musical prodigy. He has been referred to as “the human metronome” and is an accomplished pianist. However, the loss of his mother proves to be too painful and he loses the ability to play. He happens to be in a park one day and meets a quirky girl named Kaori Miyazono. Suddenly, his dark world is lit up and sets him on the path of rediscovering what he was so talented at and what he loved: music. Though his journey he falls back in love with music while being perfect every time is not what music needs. Music is living and breathing and Kousei is about to learn that. The beauty of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is that what you think you are getting and what you get, are two very different things. This expands and goes well beyond the story as you see Kousei struggle with his past, Kaori with her reality, and the two of them working passionately for music. Not to mention, too, you should definitely bring a box of tissues to this anime as you will go through a variety of emotions that may just shock you to your core. So sit down, and get ready for a musical journey based on a chance encounter in a park.

Kaoru Nishimi is a pianist who finds himself now attending school in Kyushu in the south of Japan. He’s more or less given up on making friends and just goes with the flow. However, he happens to meet Sentarou Kawabuchi and from there, he learns just how diverse music can be. You see, Sentarou is really into jazz music. This pushes Kaoru to want to learn more and he suddenly gives up on the hopeless resignation that this year was just another year shut off from everyone. Then, he meets Ritsuko and the three start playing jazz music learning more and more while forging a powerful bond. This year is going to be the summer of his life and Karou is oddly ready to dive headfirst into this magical, musical, and whimsical world of lazz. If there ever was an anime that really hits home what the concept of what a music anime should be, it would be Sakamichi no Apollon. The series focuses on students from various walks of life and helps them form a deep, strong bond over fantastic music. Even more, they focus on classic jazz music and even go into the stories of the music, the artists, and the rhythms. One only has to start the first episode to realize that this is going to be a fantastic series, and it truly delivers.

Yes, idol anime falls under the umbrella of music anime, but thankfully, especially since it has its own genre and article like this on Honey’s Anime, we will not focus on major idol anime works. However, it still is an important part of music anime, because what would idols be without music? Soundless dolls dancing to a tune that does not exist? Creepy. Meanwhile though, music anime tends to err on the side of wholesome for the most part as seen by one of the other two anime on this list. The really cool thing about the other anime is that it beckons to a future setting in fantasy where music has a real, visible power and can change the flow of battle at the drop of a hat. Sure, it might not always be as magical as we want, but the other show likes to play the “what if?” card as much as possible.

Due to a past traumatic incident that occurred when Kumiko Oumae was in a middle school band competition, she quit music. Straight up, she did and went on to high school where she was sure she could turn over a new leaf. However… that was not the case as as soon as she got there, Kumiko immediately missed being involved with music and finds the motivation to once again join the school brass band. There, she meets a variety of girls who also are all interested in playing instruments and together, they try to make music. However, chaos and disarray await them and while they want to aim for nationals, just making it to a local festival is a massive struggle. They have got to do something to have their music reverberate all over the town and country! Hibike! Euphonium is a beloved anime by many for its incredibly wholesome story, captivating characters, and of course, fantastic music. The characters, brought to you by Kyoto Animation, are all unique and yet mesh together so well that it is rather surprising. Of course, this is a music anime that is actually going to focus on an actual band and spoiler alert: the anime has done very well for itself with a slew of movies and sequels. The world of anime is very odd as it’s very wide and broad, however, it is something like Hibike! Euphonium that actually takes the focus to the band and the instruments playing for the story. You will not regret a single moment of watching this KyoAni masterpiece.

Humanity has fled to the stars. Ever since a war with the Zentradi, humanity has been fleeing them across the universe aboard a massive floating colony/spaceship known as Macross Frontier. Life goes on though, and for the most part, the people do not see attacks on the ship by hostile forces and their lives go on steadily. All of this changes when the famous singer Sheryl Nome lands on Macross Frontier to perform a concert. Alto Saotome is roped in with his colleagues to do a routine for her show in their mecha suits. But after a malfunction and a race of biomechanical aliens known as the Vajra attack the Macross Frontier, things change in an instant. An audience member known as Ranka is saved from the Vajra by Alto and this leads to the government aboard recruiting him to help them in their fight against this new menace. Macross Frontier is, as far as we can see, one of the most beloved installments of the Macross franchise, and that is why it has a spot here. The music portrayed in this anime is moving, dramatic, and tells a story on top of the story that is already being told. It is said that there is power in music, and Macross Frontier is a perfect illustration of this. From inspiring people to work harder, delaying and hindering foes, to moving hearts, this sci-fi, action, music anime does that in a fantastic tale that for a moment, you lose sight of the fact that this is a music anime. However, once you get into it, the series is captivating making you want to smash that next button as soon as you finish an episode.

With Persona 5 being a very long game, it would be impossible to try to fit the hundred hours of gameplay into about eight hours of anime. Even though the anime cuts out and trims downs parts of Persona 5, it still has a pacing problem. All of the major story events like the palaces are in the anime, but they are trimmed down and finished in just a few episodes, giving the viewer little time to digest all of the info and concepts that are being thrown at them. The characters also suffer from pacing issues with each character getting little screen time and few of the social building scenes seen in the game. The anime just doesn't have the time to develop the characters the way the game did, and then when they do incorporate scenes that help develop the characters, they fall mostly flat due to a lack of execution.

The anime's pacing is a big problem on its own, but it is also the cause for a bigger and a much larger issue with the story being incomprehensible to people who haven't played the game. Things like the metaverse, the palaces, and the plan to steal the heart get very little explanation and even by the end of the Madame arc, newcomers have been given very little room to understand the overarching plot of the series. While the plot and explanations needed to be cut down to save time, leaving out the important details that give the explanation of how and why the Phantom Thieves go about carrying out the changes of heart are one of the anime's biggest downfalls. The anime not only ostracizes its new viewers, but it also struggles to keep the viewers who played the game entertained, with its various shortcomings.

While the story pacing and the inaccessibility to newcomers are understandable to a degree, the low quality in the overall production of the animes visuals and battle scenes are much less defendable. The stylistic change in the anime's character designs are fine and match the artistic style of the world, but everything involved with the battles and the movement of the characters is lacking. The battles are the one aspect of the game the anime could have greatly improved upon, but the action ends up being mostly static. A special mention must also be given to the anime's version of the all out attacks, which also suffer from being less action-packed and less visually stunning. The anime also makes scenes less visual interesting by making scenes like the persona awakenings and the all out attacks less gruesome.

Poor, poor Kanou Shinichi. His childhood friend brutally rejected him, he can’t find a job, and he’s been an otaku shut-in for the past few years. That all changes when he responds to a suspicious job ad asking for someone exactly like him. He finds himself becoming a type of otaku evangelist for a parallel fantasy world of the Eldant Empire. There, he finds that elves, magic, and dragons are all commonplace. He also finds himself in the midst of something of a growing harem all to himself. Thrust between his half-elf maid, the loli Empress of the empire, an indentured beast girl artist, and his own handler/bodyguard, Shinchi has come to appreciate his life just a bit more than back in Japan. The show has a heavy dose of comedy, and while light on the romance elements typical to the genre, it definitely hits all the expected tropes while making light of them with its parodies. A classic of recent years for those looking to enjoy a new show.

Negi Springfield is quite the precocious go getter. This teacher is a kid and he’s got his whole class after him! He’s also a wizard -the magical kind. In order to pass his final test and become a Master Wizard, Negi Springfield must prove he can survive undetected in the human world, and as an English teacher no less. It doesn’t take long before the girls realize something smells fishy about their new 10-year-old teacher, and not just because he’s a little short. A longstanding harem comedy, Negima is full of laughs and misunderstandings that audiences can enjoy.

Living in a rural prefecture in Japan, Masaki Tenchi thought his life would remain the same forever. However, the arrival of a space pirate by the name of Ryouko changes his fate. Thrust into a huge mess between the Jurai Empire, galactic space police, and a whole host of intergalactic tomfoolery, simple Tenchi can only ask “Why me?” One thing does remain a constant throughout his ordeals: the ladies are definitely taking notice of Tenchi. One of the most iconic harem anime ever, Tenchi Muyou! is worth a watch even now.

People like girls, right? And some people like monsters, sure. So why not put them together? That makes some sense, but why they’re all invading Kurusu Kimihito’s house is another question altogether. A lazy agent from the interspecies exchange program decides to drop off a lamia named Miia at Kimihito’s house on a whim, telling him he’s now her new host family. Miia quickly falls in love with him, and due to the success, the agent decides to send several more to live at his house as well! Also, there are talks of marriage to smooth things over politically?! Say what you want about harem anime, but when they go for it, they go all out. You’ll find just about every flavor of monster girl you can imagine in this one, and all have it out for “Darling”. This is a funny, ecchi-filled everyday life harem anime for your enjoyment.

Why is it always the MCs that want nothing to do with love that end up with a harem? That’s the case for Kidou Eita at least. He believes love is fake and wants nothing to do with romance, but when the most beautiful girl in school blackmails him into pretending to date her, he can’t avoid it. Suddenly, his new, fake relationship causes the girls around Eita to treat him differently. They’re all trying to win over his affection, meanwhile, he’s just trying to survive being the number one guy with a target on his back thanks to his evil new girlfriend. A harem comedy with a lot of romances all spelling disaster, Oreshura is a very enjoyable watch.

Forget having a girlfriend, Hasegawa Kodaka’s goal is just to have one single solitary friend in general. Given his dad’s work, his family has moved around constantly, not allowing him to socialize much. Not to mention he looks like a delinquent despite being a normal teenager. However, after joining the Neighbor’s Club at his new school, he’s surrounded by socially outcast girls all hoping to make friends. It’s lucky for him that they’re unperturbed by his awkwardness, and Kodaka is quickly on his way to getting a girlfriend far before he makes his first real friend. If you want to see how one lucky guy gets a harem overnight, give Haganai a watch.

Yuuki Rito, aka the undisputable “god of fall”. How many women have met their undoing by merely stepping into his path, only for him to slip and grope them mercilessly? Despite having a natural aversion to girls, his alien fiancee Lala’s younger sister Momo has her heart set on making him a harem. Rito, who still only has real affection towards his classmate Haruna, is troubled by this. What’s more, bounty hunter Darkness has growing feelings for him, and her little sister Mea arrives as well. Not good for the gynophobic MC. To LOVE-Ru Darkness is one of the wildest, lewdest, and most completely out of control harem shows in existence. Despite being the very definition of the spineless, cowardly MC, Rito has a charm to him that only he could pull off. The situations he finds himself in are just too comical. Definitely worth a watch for harem fans.

To put it simply, Kazama Yuuji is a human weapon. After successfully completing so many secret ops for the Japanese government, his only desire is to experience life as a normal high school student. Easier said than done, but his wish is granted with his transfer to Mihama Academy. However, the environment is anything but normal. The only other students there are a group of girls of mixed ages. One of them even tries to kill him on his first day, while another confesses her love. What’s going on? Fruit of Grisaia is anything but your typical harem anime. It’s a drama that shows the dark side of human nature in a way that very few series try to explore. After coming into contact with the girls, their circumstances become clear and their hearts open. After enough time, Yuuji’s opens as well. Can a boy who only knows how to kill and be betrayed truly become a harem MC? Watch to find out.

Can you think of another MC who would casually find himself in bed with two girls, only to be interrupted by a third and invite her to join them? The answer is no. Kasuga Arata is a man’s man’s man. He has no shyness, hesitation or cowardice when dealing with his harem, even when they often threaten to kill him. After the life he knew crumbles around him due to a magical phenomenon, Arata heads to Royal Biblia Academy to discover the truth. There, he learns that the only way to return to normalcy is to seek the aid of the Trinity Seven, the most powerful girls at the school. Some seek to help him, while others feel his presence puts them all at risk. In any case, the adventure Arata finds himself in is hilarious, exhilarating, and above all, sexy. You can’t ask for more from a harem anime.

There are weak and timid harem protagonists, and then there’s Tomoya Aki. He’s not afraid of women so much as he wants nothing -and I mean nothing- to do with them. He believes that 2D girls are pure and worthy of devotion, and anything less is an affront to his goddesses. Despite his overwhelming otaku nature, this doesn’t stop him from being well-known at school. One day, after he encounters a mysterious beauty, he is awestruck. His life’s passion has turned to making an erotic dating sim that depicts her beauty. However, it turns out she’s merely his plain classmate Megumi Kato. Thus begins Aki’s quest to turn Kato from a normal girl into the ultimate waifu. Saekano most notably turned the harem genre on its head by having the usual vacation bathing scene in its very first episode. From then on, it proceeded to both ridicule and utilize every trope in the harem book with sharp and witty dialogue. It’s certainly nothing new, but it did what very few harem anime have done in the past, and that is give the characters a compelling reason to be interested in each other. Each of the girls is there despite knowing Tomoya has no desire for them as women, but their pasts connect them deeply. It’s also incredibly humorous seeing the lengths one man can go to avoid getting laid, to some hilariously insane levels.

Much like another entry found a bit further down on this list, one could make a pretty compelling argument towards mentioning this series and the word 'classic' in the same sentence. Yukinari is a small guy with a big problem: he's allergic to girls. Even when his best friend approaches him he breaks out into hives. One day though, he is magically transported to a new world where he meets Miharu, the only girl that he's ever met that doesn't trigger his allergic reaction. With a harem that includes the strange girl from another world named Miharu, Miharu’s older sister, the token best friend character, the primary antagonist's little sister and many others you can imagine that there are a number of standard tropes that appear throughout the run of the series and you’d be mostly right in that regard. What makes this series such a rare treat within the harem genre though is that Girls Bravo walks an interesting line between ecchi and not ecchi. It certainly has its fair share of suggestive scenes and moments but it doesn't feel the need to rely on these elements at all times to make you laugh or tell its story.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (also known as Haganai for short) is an interesting harem series in that while the main character is absolutely and obliviously in a harem setting, all he truly wants is to have friends. Everyone in Kodaka's class thinks that he's a delinquent because of his blonde hair and a series of misunderstandings that occurred on his first day of school. When he is given a chance to join the "Neighbor's Club" and make some new friends, he jumps at the chance only to find out that everyone else who joins is just as socially inept as he is! Subtle is not a word that you can often use with series that fall into the harem genre but barring a few momentary exceptions, subtle would be an appropriate word to use to describe Haganai. This is a series that doesn’t beat you over the head with the typical tropes. With all of the girls being completely inept at expressing themselves or knowing how to behave around other people, the progression of the romance is slow and steady. While seasoned anime fans will recognize the direction that this series eventually heads toward, those who aren’t as familiar with the harem genre may find the romantic angle that is eventually explored surprising. The humor can certainly be on the nose but the romance is delicately done which really emphasizes the social awkwardness of the female characters.

In this off the wall comedy, the hero is Rito Yuki. He's in love with a girl at his school named Haruna but before he can confess his feelings to her he finds himself in a compromising situation. A compromising situation that involves an alien princess named Lala. While taking a bath one night, Lala appears and he accidentally gropes her breasts which in her culture means that they are now engaged. This doesn’t sit well with her father but rules are rules so he decrees that he either goes through with the marriage or the Earth will be destroyed! To Love Ru is a harem series through and through and there is no denying that. Between the alien princess Lala, the schoolmate Haruna, the uptight Yui, the assassin Golden Darkness and the many others who express some kind of sexual desire towards the main character throughout the run of the series; Rito certainly has his hands full (sometimes literally if you catch my meaning). To Love Ru may be heavy on the ecchi elements but that doesn't change the fact that at times it can be comedy gold. Never afraid to dive head first into absurd territory, this is a series that revels in the tropes of the genre.

Lots of people like to think that an anime series can either be ecchi or have a good story, but it can never be both; High School DxD takes that perception and shatters it. You know how in most harem series the hero is a timid guy who doesn't actually want all the attention that is being showered on him by beautiful women? That's not really the case in this series. Issei is a pervert. He admits it and is seemingly pretty proud of it. Deep inside though all he really wants is a girlfriend... who will let him fondle her breasts whenever he wants. He's a man of simple tastes. One day he finally gets his wish when a beautiful girl asks him out on a date. Things are going great until the end of the date when she attempts to kill him. On the brink of death, Issei is saved by the even more beautiful Rias who brings him back to life as a devil who must now serve her unconditionally. Always looking on the bright side though, Issei figures out that if he works hard he might someday become as powerful and respected as Rias which will allow him to form his very own harem! Ironically, while Issei spends most of this series working towards forming his own harem, he doesn’t actually need to work that hard as one forms around him without him even realizing it. Rias starts things off but soon she finds herself in competition with other willing females, including one of her subordinates, a former nun, and even possibly a male classmate who sometimes makes Issei uncomfortable with his remarks. Admittedly to read the synopsis you might go into this series not expecting much in terms of plot or humor. That is a mistake though as High School DxD proves to be filled to the brim with clever writing and plot twists that keep the audience entertained throughout its run.

It can be hard to do something that is truly classified as unique and different these days but Is This A Zombie? manages to do just that by combining harem and magical girl elements and creating an amazing blend. Life isn't easy when you're a zombie trying to go to school and hide the fact that a beautiful, mute necromancer is living in your home. Life can be even harder when you come across a magical garment girl, accidentally steal her powers and are forced to take over her job of defeating villains until she can figure out a way to fix the situation. Add in a vampire ninja and you have the makings of one twisted harem. The thing that you have to love about Is This A Zombie? is how incredibly tongue in cheek it is. It's a harem series that doesn't take itself seriously in the least and goes out of its way to poke fun at the genre making it a series that is worthy of being watched again and again.

Form a harem or the world will come to an end. No pressure or anything. In this reality, there is a new type of disaster called spacequakes. These disasters can hit at any time and cause massive amounts of damage. Thinking that he needs to save his little sister from one of these disasters, Shido runs towards the epicenter of a spacequake and finds... a beautiful sword wielding girl? Soon after he finds out from his little sister (who was safe and is actually the captain of an elite squadron) that this girl and others like her (called Spirits) are the cause of the spacequakes. Along with this he also learns that he must figure out how to make these spirits fall in love with him in order to make the disasters stop. Date A Live takes the harem genre and does something that not many others do: exploring the consequences of actually trying to date multiple girls at the same time. Sure, it's easy for an anime to say that the main character is going to form a harem with girls who are totally into him. However, what if one (or more) of these girls is the jealous type who wants the main character all to herself? This issue and others like it, are just some of the things explored by the plot of Date A Live.

Shuffle! might go down as the harem series with the darkest ending ever. Rin was living a normal high school life until one day when the king of heaven and the king of the underworld both burst into his classroom. If that weren’t strange enough he is also informed that he has to choose to marry one of their daughters which doesn't sit well with any of the other girls who already had their eye on him. His childhood friend Kaede and his friend Asa are just two of the many girls in Rin’s life who had their eye on him way before he was presented with two princesses on a platter. While I won't go into specifics on why Shuffle! features one of the darkest endings ever (you'll just have to go watch it to find out what I'm talking about), this series belongs on the list because it's not afraid to go to some dark places and give viewers a satisfying ending that will stick with them for a very long time afterward.

The word classic gets thrown around easily by anime fans. However if there's one entry in the harem genre that truly deserves to have that word attached to it, it would be Love Hina. Keitaro Urashima made a promise to a girl when he was a kid that they would someday be reunited after they both got into Tokyo University. Unfortunately Keitaro has failed the entrance exam multiple times and his family is getting fed up with his lack of forward progress. Finally they force him to go work for his aunt... who happens to be the manager for a boarding house inhabited entirely by beautiful females of various types and ages. Naturally, pretty much all of them find their own reasons for falling for him. From the crafty older tenant, Mitsune, down to the junior high students, Shinobu and Kaolla (plus a few more friendly females who don’t live in the boarding house). Keitaro is never lacking in attention from the opposite sex (not that he has any idea what to do with it). Love Hina is a series that has aged gracefully since it first aired. It is true that you can accuse it of relying on jokes that we've come to take for granted or have just plain gotten used to over the last decade or two. This is a series that broke new ground in the genre when it made its debut by giving the audience at the time fresh humor.

Based off a long running manga series and first airing in the winter of 2014, Nisekoi is a harem for the modern fan in every sense of the phrase. In this series, the main character is Raku Ichijo and he's poised to become the next leader of a yakuza family (despite not really being cut out for it). As a kid, Raku made a promise to a girl that someday they would be reunited and they would get married. Naturally though he can't really remember much about her including what her name is. Over the course of the series Raku's harem will include: the daughter of a rival gang that he must pretend to be engaged to, his classmate that he actually has a crush on, a girl who wants to kill him in order to end his relationship with Chitoge, the daughter of a police officer, the little sister of his classmate, and more. If you're a fan of classic harem antics that include an ever increasing cast of characters, and eye catching animation from the same studio that brought you another famous harem that you might have heard of, Bakemonogatari, then you're going to want to check this series out post haste.

Another word that doesn't get used with harems very often is innocent, but that's exactly the right word to use with Hayate the Combat Butler. Hayate has the worst luck imaginable. He works as hard as he can while also going to school but one day he comes home to find out that his parents have deserted him. Not only that but they’ve left behind a huge debt that he must pay off. Feeling like he has no choices left, he attempts to kidnap a young girl who mistook his words for a love confession. One thing leads to another and she ends up hiring him as her new butler. Hayate the Combat Butler is one of the purest and sweetest harem series ever. It never relies on fan service to make a joke and the love that the characters feel for Hayate is pretty chaste. With so many series feeling that ecchi automatically equals funny, it's nice to have a series like this one to fall back on when you just want some clean comedy.

The first major difference between the manga and anime can be seen in early on with Fuuka herself. In the manga, Fuuka is carefree, impulsive, and wants to make her life have meaning, while in the manga, her traits are simplified and she is given more generic tsundere character traits. Both versions keep Fuuka's magnetic personality and her desire to cut her own path in life, but the changes to her character ultimately cause the anime and manga to have very different tones and outcomes. The manga version of Fuuka shows off her complexities and the way she thinks during her first interaction with Yuu, where she calls him a pervert, but then immediately helps him look for the phone he lost during their interaction. The anime version of Fukka is much colder and just ignores Yuu, giving the viewer the first hint that their relationship will be vastly different in the anime. This coldness towards Yuu carries on throughout the anime, never allowing Fuuka to grow as close to Yuu as she did in the manga and causes her to go her own way at the end of the anime.

Both the manga and anime have Fuuka and Yuu confessing their feelings for one another, but the level of importance and the amount of time spent on the romantic side of their relationship is drastically different. Early on in the manga, Fuuka and Yuu turn their friendship into a romantic relationship. In the anime, Fuuka's feelings end up developing too late as Yuu starts dating his childhood friend Koyuki Hinashi. After Yuu starts dating Koyuki in the anime, Koyuki starts getting much more screen time and ends up taking over as the main character while Fuuka slides more into the background. During the time Koyuki and Yuu are dating, Fuuka has some of her worst character moments that detract from her overall character and ultimately makes it less satisfying when Fuuka ends up confessing her feelings at the end of episode 12.

The biggest and most important difference between the anime and manga is about the events that surround the truck that the internet has lovingly named truck-kun. In the anime, Fuuka has a close encounter with a truck on her way to her band's concert, In the manga, however, Fuuka doesn't fair as well with her encounter with the truck and is killed off. This is the last major difference that sets the anime and manga apart and sends the story in two wildly different directions. After learning of Fuuka's death in the manga, the characters all struggle with what they want to do next. Fuuka was the character that dragged them all into the band and each character struggles with their desire to keep the band going, but in the end, they decide to keep the band going in order to honor the memory of Fuuka. The whole incident is especially hard on Yuu and getting over Fuuka's death proves to be his biggest character development moment in the entire series. With the anime keeping Fuuka alive, it misses out on the darker emotions and a reason for the characters to grow, but it does give the characters a more light-hearted struggle that leads to a happier emotional climax.