Dustin Holder
July 22, 2021 
It’s a wish fulfillment trope that’s made it into almost every anime genre, from romantic comedies to scif-fi and fantasy. Plot circumstances drop an ordinary average guy into a close living/working situation with a group of attractive women, and inexplicably they all fall for him and begin fighting for his attention. This trope spawned the label “harem anime” and last weekend we asked our readers to vote on their favorite series associated with the term.
Because our poll system uses multiple choice, it was a bit tough trying to provide every conceivable option, but we managed to cover over 30 of the most popular harem anime series. This is such a hot button topic with readers that we received over 800 replies within the first 24 hours, so let’s get into the results:
19. No Game No Life (10 votes)
18. Shuggle! (11 votes)
17. Urusei Yatsura (12 votes)
16. High School of the Dead (13 votes)
15. In Another World With My Smartphone (14 votes)
14. The Testament of Sister New Devil (15 votes)
13. Arifureta (22 votes)
12. Clannad (30 votes)
11. To Love Ru (31 votes)
10. Ranma 1/2 (33 votes)
9. Rent-A-Girlfriend (36 votes)
8. Love Hina (37)
7. Sekirei (43 votes)
6. Rosario + Vampire (48 votes)
5. Monster Musume (55 votes)
4. Danmachi (63 votes)
3. Quintessential Quintuplets (67 votes)
2. High School DXD (134 votes)
1. Tenchi Muyo (139 votes)It’s worth pausing to mention a few omissions from the multiple choice options, like Negima and UQ Holder, that readers pointed out during the polling process. How Not To Summon A Demon Lord is one we feel dumb for missing, since it’s a very recent hit which could have made it pretty high in the results. Evangelion was also mentioned, and Shinji’s relationships with coworkers are definitely played gratuitously at times, but the series already tops so many lists that we’re ok letting someone else win for a change.
There were a couple suggestions for male harem titles like Ouran and Brothers Complex: we actually deliberately saved those for a future dedicated “reverse harem” poll, so the topic can get the dedicated attention it deserves.
Did any of the results surprise you? Are there any other choice harem anime missing from the original poll options? Let us know in the comments!
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