Best Harem Manga With No Anime Adaptations

Key Takeaways

• The harem genre, popularized in the 1970s, keeps audiences guessing about potential lovers for the protagonist.
• While some harem manga have been adapted into anime, many great ones remain unanimated.
• Tying the Knot With an Amagami Sister
  will make its anime debut in October 2024, joining the ranks of adapted harem manga.

Why design one love interest when multiple ones will do? That’s how the harem genre was formed, as it kept readers and audiences guessing over which potential lover the protagonist will eventually pair off with. It popped up in the 1970s but blew up in subsequent decades with the rise of classic anime like Urusei Yatsura and Tenchi Muyo.

The genre is still around today, whether it puts a guy among girls like High School DxD, a girl among guys like Ouran High School Host Club, or has an LGBTQ twist like Iono-sama. While those all made it into animation though, others didn’t make the jump. In fact, there are plenty of great harem manga that haven’t been animated yet.

Updated September 26, 2024 by David Heath: There are only a few weeks to go until the Tying the Knot With An Amagami Sister anime finally arrives. Whether it’ll match the manga in quality is another matter, but previous list graduate, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, managed to catch on in anime form by being just as tongue-in-cheek as its manga. Tying the Knot might work for viewers who want something more straightforward with its premise than playing up to the genre’s trashiness.

Though most harem manga are all about fulfilling fantasies, some go for genuine themes like self-improvement, caring for others, and how difficult having a love life can be. This is why this list has been updated with some more lesser-known harem manga that, to date, haven’t been animated yet.

28 Chitose Is In The Ramune Bottle

MyAnimeList Score: 6.61

• Written by Hiromu
• Illustrated by Bobcat
• 2020-Present
• Available in English via Yen Press

Starting life as a light novel by Hiromu and raemz, Chitose is in the Ramune Bottle has been running in Manga UP! since April 2020. It caught on so well that the city of Fukui set aside ¥6 million for a Chitose-based tourism campaign in the middle of 2022. Both the light novel and manga are available in English via Yen Press, though the light novel has kept up its momentum better as the manga’s MAL score has really fallen over the years.

Nonetheless, both are about Saku Chitose, the most popular kid at Fuji High School. Everything seems to be going perfectly for him until his teacher asks him to help a shut-in student called Kenta Yamazaki break out of his shell. He uses his connections and social knowledge to help Kenta get on in school. In other words, it’s like the Nerd & Jock webcomic with a narrative and a bunch of women to charm.

27 Tensei Kenja wa Musume to Kurasu

MyAnimeList Score: 6.65

• Written by Ryu Kotohira
• Illustrated by Uso Uzaki
• 2019-Present
• Fan Translations only

Not to be confused with the similarly titled Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life, which did get adapted into an anime as My Isekai Life, Tensei Kenja wa Musume to Kurasu (The Reborn Sage Lives With His Daughters) is its non-union, harem-based equivalent. The premises are nearly identical, only TKnIL‘s Yuji was sucked into a computer world. TKwMtK‘s Kento actually dies, yet both end up stronger than they expected.

In his old life, Kento was a salaryman who was literally worked to death by vile bosses. As his life ebbed away, he came across a god called Raidel who offered him a new life. Though skeptical, Kento requested to live a slow life with just a house and a knack for farming. He seemingly gets that when he’s sent to a medieval era, but soon discovers he’s got magic powers and other ‘cheats’, which soon catches the attention of the locals. His slow life is about to speed up and earn him some followers.

26 29 And JK

MyAnimeList Score: 6.67

• Written by Yuuji Yuuji
• Illustrated by Kakito Katou
• 2017-2020
• Fan Translations only

29 and JK began as a light novel until it was adapted into a manga for Gangan Online. The title has a worrying implication, as the lead male, Eiji, is 29 years old, and the leading lady, Karen, is the titular JK, or joshi kōsei (high school girl). Luckily, it sets out to keep things between the two platonic. They met in a manga café during his break from his call center work. They had a chat where he encouraged her ambitions to become a writer.

Eiji thought that’s where it would’ve begun and ended. However, he learns Karen is the granddaughter of his boss, who encourages Eiji to mentor Karen. That would be simple enough, but things only get complicated from there. His work gets busier, his sister moves in with him, and his childhood friend comes back into his life. Between his stresses and suitors, helping Karen with her writing may be the only peace he’ll get.

25 You Guys Are All Annoying!

MyAnimeList Score: 6.72

• Written & Illustrated by TOBI
• 2014-2020
• Available digitally in English via Mangamo

After being translated by fans in multiple ways, be it “You Are All Annoying” or “All of Them Are Troublesome Girls”, the Japanese harem manga ‘Omaera Zenin Mendokusai’ is now officially known as You Guys Are All Annoying via its digital Mangamo translation. It’s a fitting title, as it shows how Kunihiko Kunitachi is driven up the wall by the girls at his school. He works as a language and art teacher and often has trouble with Kazumi Kazumiya, one of his students.

When he suggests she make some friends, she asks him to be her first friend. He agrees, only for Kazumi to end up following him around everywhere. Even when he tries to introduce her to new people, like Riho Kurihara and Eiko Enomoto, he only makes things more complicated. Surprisingly, while the manga hasn’t been animated, it did get a live-action movie in 2019 with Kensho Ono (Giorno Giovanna’s VA in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) as Kunihiko.

24 Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi: Dorei Kenshi no Nariagari Harem Life

MyAnimeList Score: 6.80

• Written by Kai Yumizu
• Illustrated by Toshinori Itou
• November 2019-Present
• Fan Translations only

Most of the entries on this list have been cheeky or sensual at most, with many manga being more on the sweet and romantic side. Oukoku e Tsuzuku Michi: Dorei Kenshi no Nariagari Harem Life (Road to the Kingdom: The Enslaved Gladiator’s Jumped-Up Harem Life) goes into more adult territory, as an enslaved warrior named Aegir escapes the arena to join a band of mercenaries. Things go south for him when they’re all killed by a vampire named Lucy.

Aegir would be next on the chopping block, but Lucy instead takes him into her castle and instructs him in the ways of the world, literally and figuratively. Two years later, Aegir and Lucy make a mutual promise: if he can turn the land around Erg Forest into a kingdom, she’ll become his woman. So he sets off on his quest to do so. The manga cover suggests the fantasy is limited to the setting, but the covers of the original light novels reveal Aegir is conquering more than just huge tracts of land, as Lucy is just one of many intrigued by his charms.

23 Reiji Yonakano’s Harem

MyAnimeList Score: 6.95

• Written by Akira Kojima
• Illustrated by Yohei Kazama
• 2018-2020
• Fan Translations only

Perhaps better known under its Japanese title Yonakano Reiji ni Harem wo, or as Midnight Harem (because “Yonakano” means “at midnight”. It’s a pun that doesn’t quite survive translation), Reiji Yonakano’s Harem is a rom-com with a spooky edge as Reiji, an ordinary school kid, manages to meet his “fated person,” who just happens to be a ghost. Invisible to most other people, Rei makes it her (un)life’s mission to help Reiji find a girlfriend.

The problem is that he isn’t interested in romance, or even socializing. But whether it’s his shy classmate Yomi, or Minori the Public Moral Chief, Rei won’t stop until she’s found Reiji the perfect partner, or partners if need be. It’s a unique premise told with plenty of charm that makes it a genuine hidden gem, as it’s also a scanslation-only treat for readers outside Japan.

22 Magika Swordsman And Summoner

MyAnimeList Score: 6.95

• Written by Mitsuki Mihara
• Illustrated by Lin Meng
• 2013-Present
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

Magika Swordsman and Summoner started as a light novel under its original Japanese name ‘Magika no Kenshi to Shōkan Basileus’. Then Lin Meng adapted it into a manga for Comic Alive. In its world, people discovered magic and the ability to summon mythical beings. The world decides to form pacts with these beings where they get to choose a trainee as their official Summoner, who’ll work in tandem with a Swordsman.

Then, nearly a decade and a half later, things get complicated. Kazuki gets chosen as a summoner, despite the position usually going to women due to them having more mana. As such, he sticks out at the all-girls summoner school. He’s bottom of the class, and his elder foster sister Kanae would rather he became a Swordsman instead. But Kazuki is determined to live up to the Summoner role and prove everyone wrong.

21 The Death Mage

MyAnimeList Score: 7.02

• Written by Densuke
• Illustrated by Takehiro Kojima
• July 2018-Present
• Available in English via One Peace Books

On the surface, The Death Mage is more like an isekai with a twist, as its lead hasn’t just died once, he’s died three times and isn’t keen on doing it a fourth. As a high schooler named Hiroto, he died in a terrorist attack with his classmates. As test subject D-01, he was tortured and experimented on, and the scientists discovered he had the uncanny ability to zombify himself until he was gunned down.

Now, as the dhampir Vandalieu, he’s found a loving home with his mother, the dark elf Darcia. When she’s executed for birthing him, he snaps. He’s had enough of his many lifetimes of bad luck. Using the “death attribute” he heard about in his old life, he raises an army of the dead to ensure he lives happily ever after. Some of of those revived dead vie for his affections, like the battle maids Rita and Saria, and his accidental fiancées Privel, Gizania, and Myuze, among others.

20 Dragons Rioting

MyAnimeList Score: 7.09

• Written & Illustrated by Tsuyoshi Watanabe
• 2012-2016
• Available in English via Yen Press

While the entries on this list largely keep things clean, some of them do come close to the line between mature storytelling and mature content. Dragons Rioting keeps things PG, or at least PG-13 with its premise. Rintaro was diagnosed with a condition where he could die if he got aroused. To help him overcome this, his father took him to the mountains to train him how to keep cool under the collar, so to speak.

At 16, he enrolled in Nangokuren School, thinking it was the largest all-boys school in the country. Unfortunately, he finds out the hard way that it was the largest all-girls school that recently went co-ed. He tries to transfer out, only to get the attention of the Dragons-three notorious female students who run the school’s biggest factions. While he befriends Ayane, the other two, Kyōka and Rino, aren’t so amiable. They want to be the strongest students, and Rintaro’s only hope is to prove his mettle against them while keeping his composure.

19 Sekai no Owari no Encore

MyAnimeList Score: 7.13

• Written by Kei Sazane
• Illustrated by Ryū Usui
• 2015-Present
• Fan Translations only

Sekai no Owari no Encore, a fantasy harem adventure, was originally a light novel by Kei Sazane and Haruaki Fuyuno. Then it was converted into a manga by Ryū Usui for Comics Alive. Surprisingly, for a modern fantasy tale, it’s not an isekai. Instead, it involves a mystical MacGuffin known as the ‘Encore’. It was the last record of the end of the old world and the rebirth of the new one, and it was last seen in the hands of the legendary hero Elline.

Ren, a young boy with a striking resemblance to Elline, aims to become a heroic knight like him. Unfortunately, he’s so hopeless with a sword that the locals call him a ‘fake hero’. Nonetheless, when Kylse the Dragon Princess awakens from her seal, she sees potential in Ren. Alongside the archangel Fear, and Elise the Demon-Lord, they form a party to find the Encore together. With friends like them, who needs foes?

18 Reborn As A Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting The Strongest Starship!

MyAnimeList Score: 7.22

• Written by Ryuto
• Illustrated by Shunichi Matsui
• November 2019-Present
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

If the long title didn’t give it away, Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship was originally a light novel. Shunichi Matsui just got to tell its story with more illustrations for ComicWalker. Both sources are available via Seven Seas Entertainment, so if anyone wants one, the other, or even both, they can give SSE’s translation a try.

Takahiro ‘Hiro’ Satou went from being an ordinary salaryman with an interest in the MMORPG Stella Online to waking up as the pilot of the spaceship Krishna during a pirate attack. Luckily, Krishna is the most advanced spacecraft in the galaxy and makes short work of them. With his OP ship and pilot skills, he becomes a space mercenary and gradually builds up a crew of pretty women. But they can only take him so far as there’s more to the galaxy than he realizes.

17 Gun X Clover

MyAnimeList Score: 7.32

• Written by Mikoto Yamaguchi
• Illustrated by D.P.
• 2012-2017
• Fan Translations only

Gun X Clover originally ran in Dragon Age magazine (no relation to the other Dragon Age) from 2012 to 2017. It hasn’t received an official English release, but its scanslation proved popular enough for the series to get a wiki page. The combination of martial arts and harem must be a potent one. Despite Mikado High School’s reputation for producing top-flight mercs and bodyguards, Morito has no rank and no hope.

Not until he’s suddenly assigned to protect his classmate Kotonoha, a girl who could potentially end the world, and thus has had several bodyguards die in the line of duty. How did Morito end up getting such a deadly job? It turns out he may be not as weak as his lack of rank suggests.

16 Stardust★Wink

MyAnimeList Score: 7.32

• Written & Illustrated by Nana Haruta
• 2008-2013
• Fan Translations only

Made by the same author behind shojo romances like Love-Berrish and Tsubasa and Hotaru, Stardust★Wink sees Anna Koshiro caught between three guys. She’s had trouble finding love because most people assumed she was with, or would end up with, one of her two childhood friends, Sou and Hinata. But she’s more into her classmate, Enamoto.

It only gets more complicated when Sou, despite already having a girlfriend, has a low-key crush on Anna. But she’s sure she only sees them as friends. The manga is generally considered to be a harem since it’s about one character and multiple suitors. Yet instead of titillation, it offers a tangled web of complex emotions that provide some awkward encounters and difficult feelings to navigate through.

15 My Wife Is Wagatsuma-san

MyAnimeList Score: 7.33

• Written by Yuu Kuraishi
• Illustrated by Keishi Nishikida
• 2011-2014
• Available in English via Crunchyroll and Kodansha Comics USA

It doesn’t hurt to have dreams, but some of them can feel far out of reach. For example, Hitoshi isn’t popular at high school and is as average as average can be. But suddenly, for a brief while, he finds himself flung ten years into the future where he somehow managed to get married to Ai Wagatsuma, the prettiest and smartest girl back at school. Hence, the title: My Wife is Wagatsuma-san.

As these time slips grow frequent, he uses them to try and get to know Wagatsuma more. But he has to be careful, or he could end up with other suitors, like the exchange student Silvia, substitute teacher Itsuko, or Ran, one of the girls from a gang his friends have a rivalry with. The original strip ended in 2014, but can be found in English via Crunchyroll and Kodansha Comics USA’s ebooks.

14 Umi no Misaki

MyAnimeList Score: 7.37

• Written & Illustrated by Kō Fumizuki
• 2007-2014
• Fan Translations only

As famous as Kō Fumizuki’s Ai Yori Aoshi was, its anime adaptation was criticized for not blending its comedy and drama as smoothly as the original manga. So, it might’ve been good that his next work, Umi no Misaki, didn’t get animated as soon as possible. It was about Goto Nagi, a student who moved to his late mother’s home in Okitsushima. He learns she served as a Cape Maiden, the representative for the island’s Dragon God. Once the locals discover he was born on the day of the god’s death, they start venerating him as its reincarnation.

But the position comes with responsibilities. For one, he has to pick one of the three new Cape Maidens to settle down with. Unlike many harem series, Umi no Mizaki focuses on the emotional narrative rather than titillation. Readers are kept guessing as, while lead girl Shizuku takes center stage, her rivals Soyogi and Karin get just as much due care and attention. Nagi grows as a person as he adjusts to his new role, rather than being an ordinary, unchanging, average Joe.

13 Fujimura-kun Mates

MyAnimeList Score: 7.40

• Written and Illustrated by Seiichi Shiki
• 2009-2013
• Fan Translations only

Fujimura-kun Mates passed by with little notice during its run on Gangan Online. However, those who managed to check the strip out ended up getting into it. It helps that the manga leans more toward the comedy aspect of the genre than the wish-fulfillment aspect. Haru Fujimura has plenty of suitors, yet he doesn’t really want any of them. He’s a juvenile delinquent who’s feared by his classmates and cares little about learning.

That all changes when class president Eriko Usami forces him back to school by threatening to paint his cat black. She makes herself his friend, intending to become his girlfriend. As does the linguistically challenged Inui, the clumsy Shizuru, creepy Himuro, and fellow delinquent Subaru. Fujimura is left as the frustrated straight man to a host of wacky women, like a harem take on manzai acts. It’s a breath of fresh air for manga readers who prefer something more nutty than saucy.

12 Gal Gohan

MyAnimeList Score: 7.44

• Written & Illustrated by Mari Taiyō
• 2016-2020
• Available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment

Gal Gohan originally ran in Young Animal (the same magazine that featured Berserk), but it didn’t exactly explode with success, and the author has since moved on to short story anthologies like Nō Hakaisunzen!? But its printed chapters remain popular with readers who fancied its romantic Food Wars-like premise. It told the story of Shinji Yabe, a home economics teacher who was asked to help one of his students.

Miku Okazaki is a typical Japanese “gal” or “gyaru,” an underachiever who’s more interested in fun, frolics, and fake tan than studying. With Yabe’s guidance, she makes a batch of cookies tasty enough to convince her other teachers not to flunk her. Inspired, she then joins Yabe’s cooking club to see if the way to a man’s heart is truly through his stomach. That is if her clubmates don’t manage to out-cook her.

11 Love Theory

MyAnimeList Score: 7.44

• Written by Keiya Mizuno
• Illustrated by Masaki Satou
• 2012-2014
• Fan Translations only

If Reiji Yonakano’s Harem impressed a few readers, then they may like the similarly supernatural story Love Theory. Only instead of a ghost trying to make a reluctant guy open up to love, they have to make a hopeless guy better at talking to girls for the sake of his future. As Kanji Yarahata is so nervous and nerdy that he can barely carry on a conversation with a woman, let alone form a relationship with them.

Then, one night, a ghost called Aiya appears before him and reveals he’s been given a mission to help Kanji find a girlfriend by the end of the year. If he fails, then Kanji will remain single for the rest of his life and the Yarahata bloodline will end with him. His part-time job gets him a potential suitor in his coworker Saki, and Aiya helps him get over his nerves to befriend her. But when it comes to romance, he still needs a lot of practice.

10 Kagetora

MyAnimeList Score: 7.46

• Written & Illustrated by Akira Segami
• 2001-2006
• Previously available in English via Del Ray Books

It’s surprising Kagetora didn’t get more attention back in the day, as it has an interesting premise, and caught on well enough to get an official translation. Maybe it was a little too old-fashioned, as its fanservice-based comedy is more 1990s than the 2000s. Though getting up in arms over ecchi gags in a harem manga is like being annoyed with all the pirates in One Piece. It’s pretty much its bread and butter.

The esteemed ninja, Kagetora, is tasked with serving a noble family of martial artists, with his main job being to teach their heir how to defend themselves in battle. It’s a trickier proposition than he thought for two reasons: the first being that she’s hopeless in combat, and the second being he’s into her. He can’t admit to that though, as he’d be betraying his duty. So, he does his best to keep things all business. Though with each awkward encounter, and rivals to both their affections, suppressing his feelings for Yuki becomes as difficult as teaching her.

9 Pastel

MyAnimeList Score: 7.47

• Written & Illustrated by Toshihiko Kobayashi
• 2002-2017
• Previously partially published in English by Del Ray

Love isn’t always as smooth as cooking. For Mugi Tadano in Pastel, it bumped him right off the road when his girlfriend had to move away. To ease his heartbreak, he took a summer job at a beachside inn owned by his friend Kazuki’s aunt. While there, he got to meet a stunningly pretty girl called Yuu. Despite making some unfortunate first impressions, Kazuki manages to pair the two together on a blind date.

They had fun, but Mugi then accidentally walked in on her while she was bathing. He hoped to apologize to her the next day, only to discover she left early the following morning. Just as he thought he had more heartbreak to deal with, he discovers Yuu and her little sister Tsukasa are now his roommates. Between them, his childhood friends Manami and Sayuri, classmates Urara and Moe, and more, Mugi ends up spoilt for choice, but still only has eyes for Yuu.