By the year 2000, the harem genre was pretty much established. After being more of a novelty in the '90s and barely even being a thing in the '80s, series like Tenchi Muyo! Turned that on it’s head and made the harem genre something seen as frequently as other primarily anime genres like mecha or shonen.
Much of the series we got to see were fine with being set in the modern era, and introducing a ton of buxom women around a typically forgettable or average dude who was “special” in a way that made multiple women want to chase him around for an entire series, but some of them got pretty creative. Take a look!
10 SHUFFLE – 6.9
Airing in the summer of 2005 and animated by Xebec, Shuffle has one of the more absurd premises, which makes sense as it was originally an erotic visual novel. Shuffle takes place in a world where humans, gods, and demons all live together after their worlds wind up all connected.
The story follows Rin Tsuchimi, who’s trying to live out a normal high school life. But then one day both the King of gods and the King of demons decide to move in next door to him. As it turns out, both kings’ daughters developed crushes on Rin, and are now vying for his affections, taking the chance of a “regular” life from Rin.
9 HAYATE THE COMBAT BUTLER 2 – 7.0
During the latter half of the 2000s and the early 2010s, anime series about butlers and maids became all the rage. One of the more popular series about that was Hayate the Combat Butler.
A popular series that spawned several sequels, the story followed Hayate Ayasaki, a young boy sold to the yakuza to pay off his family’s 50 million yen debt. Not wanting to serve the Yakuza for life, Hayate winds up in a series of mishaps that end with him serving a young girl named Nagi Sanzennin, daughter of one of the richest families in all of Japan.
8 ROSARIO + VAMPIRE - 7.0
Rosario + Vampire was one of the more experimental harem series that came out near the end of the decade, heralding what the protagonist of those series would lean more into in the next.
Brought to us by studio Gonzo, Tsukune Aono was a teen who couldn’t get into any other high school, only to wind up going to Youkai Academy, where all the kids are monsters learning how to live alongside humans. Aono runs into Moka Akashiya, a vampire with incredible powers, and his bravery around her leads to other women falling in love with him.
7 TENCHI MUYO GXP – 7.0
What’s a harem list without some Tenchi Muyo? Seina Yamada is an unlucky kid who’s having a rough time in life...until he gets recruited by the Galaxy Police. Well, less recruited and more forcibly coerced by his family who believe the application is actually a prize for something else.
Seina’s awful bad luck in the Galaxy Police is taken advantage of though, as they use him to capture a number of pirates at once, giving him a reputation as one of the most impressive GP members in the galaxy...and chased by a bevy of beauties.
6 THE FAMILIAR OF ZERO – 7.1
The Familiar of Zero came out in Summer 2006, courtesy of studio J.C. Staff. The story was technically about Louise, a young mage studying at Tristain Academy, but it winds up being more about Saito, a young man she summoned from another world. That’s because Louise is pretty bad at casting spells, which is what gets her the nickname “Louise the Zero”.
The Familiar of Zero was fairly popular when it came out, running for four different seasons as Louise and Saito develop a relationship, and Louise learns not to see Saito as a slave she’s summoned.
5 NYAN KOI – 7.1
Airing in the Fall of 2009, Nyan Koi comes courtesy of AIC. Based on a manga series, the lead character is Junpei Kousaka, a young man with a strong cat allergy. One day, Junpei misses on kicking a can into the trash and instead hits the statue of a cat deity.
Afterwards, he learns how to talk to cats, and is told he must do one hundred good deeds for cats or risk being turned into a cat himself. There’s a lot of harem stuff present in this series, but to be honest everyone just watches for all the cats.
4 AI YORI AOSHI – 7.2
A series coming from J.C. Staff, Ai Yori Aoshi introduces us to Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student who runs into an out of town girl looking for a place in his neighborhood. Aoi invites her to his restaurant when they fail to find it, but when Kaoru gets a photo of the location, he realizes Aoi is ,not only his childhood friend, but the woman he’s been betrothed to.
Of course, with a plot like this one would think it’d be hard to lean into the harem-y tropes to land on this list, but when the two are forced to hide their relationship, the shenanigans begin to pop up quickly.
3 HEAVEN'S LOST PROPERTY – 7.4
Brought to us by AIC, Heaven’s Lost Property came out in the Fall of 2009.
In Heaven’s Lost Property, Tomoki Sakurai is a teen who’s had dreams of a certain angel since he was a kid. Looking for help, he and his friend seek out Eishirou Sugata, who explains how Tomoki’s dream is connected to the New World, a strange anomaly in the world. Tomoki decides to see the anomaly, but when he does he winds up meeting Ikaros, a woman who comes from the sky and begins calling him master.
2 TENCHI MUYO! WAR ON GEMINAR – 7.6
This series isn’t technically named after Tenchi, that’s more of a dub name... but when the protagonist is identical to Tenchi, with the same last name, it’s easy to see the relation.
Kenshi Masaki was kidnapped and brought to the world of Geminar, a place of magic and giant robots. He’s asked to assassinate the empress of another country, but when this attack fails, Kenshi winds up working for the empress. Why? Because he’s male, something that’s exceedingly rare on Geminar, so rather than being killed he’s introduced to an academy where he can be trained and learn how to better pilot giant robots. Animated by AIC and BeSTACK, things got pretty creative with this one, and it’s no surprise it’s one of the higher rated series.
1 OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB – 8.2
In the Spring of 2006, studio BONES brought us another hit anime series with Ouran High School Host Club.
The series is set (where else) at the Ouran High School, where a young lady named Haruhi Fujioka has recently made it into the school off scholastic ability, earning a scholarship to attend. She happens to find her way into the “Host Club” of the school one day—a place where the most handsome boys in the school entertain the women of the academy, and while she’s there, shatters an expensive vase. To pay it off, Haruhi takes advantage of her masculine appearance and becomes a member of the Host Club, getting into tons of shenanigans while there.