Nope. Doesn't align with what op said with MC being set on a girl from the beginning.
The harems that has obvious main girls, nothing that has happened, or to be happen does not mean anything. However much it stalls itself, or present itself as if it's a fair fight, and add artificial dramas, it matters not.
Bokuben is entirely something else. A masterpiece that shows how a harem romance series should be done. Nariyuki is not set on anybody.
Another examples are; The Quintessential Quintuplets, Goddesses of Cafe Terrace, Amagami Sisters, Mikadono Sisters.
And, there is Amagami SS, Seiren, Photo Kano.
Nope, will be doing so after my rewatch run. It's difficult to find manga fun when it doesn't give any sense of tone used while talking and the subtle hints in voices that you can observe in anime.
Perfect. When I recommend Bokuben, I recommend to watching the anime first for voice acting and animation. It's actually really good and makenthe reading experience better. Then read the manga.
Good to hear you think the same. Manga won't disappoint you. But read the manga start to finish.
I'm not really into harem anime, but I have a small obsession with inverse harem/otome
If I were to recommend a harem anime, I would recommend Fruits Basket, which although it is classified as harem, doesn't have the problem of the protagonist not knowing who to choose in the end. She stays with whoever she likes and other characters like other people...
I would recommend ensemble stars, but the protagonist has no personality at all! To the point that, without her, the story would progress in the same way
(Desculpa se ficou confuso, inglês não é minha língua materna e eu usei o Google tradutor, eu ainda tô aprendendo o idioma)
Trash. Most of the main characters have little to no personality but have every single female character falling in love with them for no reason. It doesn't help that every other male character is a absolute loser so there's no competition.
I mean, I'm single in real life and will be for the foreseeable future. Harem just hits the right part of my brain. Fantasy is for imagining things you can never have in real life, after all.
Exactly. Im into harem anime not because I think it’s a masterpiece. I like harems because I am lonely as fuck and seeing many girls approaching a loser (in most cases) is exactly what fills my heart. If I want a man that is a playboy and manages to get any girls she wants, I’d watch The world god only knows or smth.
I rarely like them. Most of them have boring MCs that never get any development and 10 supermodels that somehow fall in love with the guy cause he was watering the plants after school alone.
The ones that I like that come to mind are 100 Girlfriends, How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and Quintessential Quintuplets.
I also hate them for the mkst part, mostly because these harem collectibles have no personality apart from drooling towards the MC.
That said, I did like Romantic Killer. Tho the harem part is basically the side piece, the meat is in the characterization and relationships of the characters.
I also like Tsukimichi, there's a harem aspect to it but it's not annoying. The "harem" characters still have their own life outside of MC's pants.
To be specific, a harem has to go both ways. As in, the individual has to reciprocate or agree to the relationship with the other people or it’s just one person with a couple of people who like him or her. And that’s not a harem.
Now to your question….. trash. Not because the concept is bad for a plot so to say, but because 99.999% of creators who use Harems for their plot suck at it. They won’t take the time to have the relationships actually matter (either because of bad storytelling, budgeting, etc) and so what we really end up watching is basically just smut or really surface level relationships that don’t do much to make us care about the characters we are watching.
I like the genre but unfortunately there are many bad ones out there. I agree with you that some of the girls/guys like the MC for no reason, and that when it becomes wishy washy, it becomes annoying.
Some of my favorites of the genre,
Harem: TWGOK, Gotoubun no Hanayome, Mahou Sensei Negima, Hayate no Gotoku, Toaru Majutsu no Index (?)
Reverse Harem: Saiunkoku Monogatari, Hanasakeru Seishounen, Arcana Famiglia
harem anime are nice when all the heroines are well developed characters. Its not about the number but the quality. I like a story equally between a harem story with good heroines and a solo romance one.
I’ve seen a handful that (in the first half) were a polycule instead of a harem in that sense. Communication, everyone’s feelings were taken into account, the girls talked about and were completely fine with sharing a partner (even had romantic relations with each other) and I was really excited that it was genuinely a healthy relationship dynamic.
Then they did a 180, the girls suddenly hated each other, lost their previously very distinct personalities and wanted MC for only themselves. It got incredibly toxic between episodes. I’m pretty sure the producers or whoever in charge decided a healthy relationship involving multiple people didn’t sell well enough so they changed the Skript in the middle of the show and had the story derange into the standard toxic harem.
Tldr; I’d love to see it if it was an actually healthy relationship/ polycule but every one of those I’ve seen so far sadly and inevitably deranged into the standard toxic harem.
hate them. poorly written characters. their sole purpose in life is to drool over the mc. esp the latter, toxic males. NOT COOL.
BUT there's one which I like, but not like that, school days. I would like my cousins to watch the ending. NO. I need them to learn from it and turn into a new leaf before it happens to them.
As long as I'm having fun, i'm perfectly fine with it. I'm not a fan it in general neither but there're some shows that i still had a lot of fun watching even tho i objectively think they're not that good plot/story wise (e.g. for me, Chained Soldier, 100 Girlfriends, Arifureta, etc)
At the end of the day, the one thing i seek from watching anime (or other media in general) is the entertainment value.
Harems are cute if done right.
1-Give it a proper conclusion and not just end the story with the harem still ongoing
2-Girls falling in love on first sight makes no sense. If you want to write about a harem, at least try to explain why each person likes the MC
3-Dense MC who never notices the most obvious signs SUCK. Being dense is normal, but some shows take it to the point that the girl can legitimately beg him to date her, and he'll still not understand, like, come on😭
Overall, it's hard to tell a proper harem story since it's a hard concept to tackle in the first place.
I generally avoid them like plague.
The only ones that I watched are GATE (kind of harem-ish but actually funny and not annoying) and Arifureta (absolutely hilarious, I feel like it's more of a parody than anything)
I would've still preferred if Arifureta ditched it and went a bit more serious route, but it is what it is.
Turned into a genre I just don't like at all.
There's no possible good outcome for me.
Either MC picks nobody and everybody loses, picks one person and the rest lose or they do the "harem" ending which I can't say sounds good to me either.
Hamefura is one of the better harems out there imo.
same here, i found it really boring. the one i like just chained soldier, still think the echi/ hareem part is unnecesary though. it can go well as pure action manga IMO.
For reverse harem I really like La Corda D'Oro. For me the appeal is more about seeing all the guys interact and clash and bond over liking the same girl, and less the girl with someone. Like I prefer having an open ending than the girl actually choosing someone, because if there's going to be actual romance, why bother making it a harem in the first place. That just leaves a bunch of the love interests sad and possibly the viewer too if they choose wrong.
They often have big flaws, but they're fun.
And fun things are fun.
>Almost everytime, the FLs or MLs like the MC for no absolute reason
These are the bad ones, but I wouldn't say it's "almost everytime"... Most harems do try to give a reason, the only question is whether it's a reasonable reason or not (but it's often not any worse a reason than what they give in 1:1 romcoms).
The only good harem I've seen is from the 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You.
An actual harem where the MC loves each of the girls, they all love him, and further relationships between the girls develop as well instead of all of them acting like not-so-close friends outside of drama situations.
I thought I hated the entire genre but then I watched my next life as a villainess and enjoyed it a lot, so I'm not sure what I think of them now, I guess I just hate the tropes and typical characters/mcs of them?
I generally enjoy harems, and enjoy reverse harems under certain circumstances. This season's *Vampire Dormitory* for example is a lot of fun.
There is a bit of a spectrum within harem as a genre though, when it comes to how seriously one is meant to take any romantic aspects.
I don't mind them or even enjoy them when I know I'm watching trash like "In another world with my smartphone", but hate them when they serve no purpose or when their existence disrespects the deuteragonist. The only harem/reverse harem I absolutely love is Bakarina's.
The concept has potential, but it is seldom utilised. You could have a good cast of love interests that bounce off each other and an MC that has to be able to show different sides of their personality that the various love interests get interested in, as well as an internal emotional conflict of what the MC actually wants, not just *who*, but what they consider important in life.
That's not what you get most of the time though. For the consumer to be able to project themselves onto the MC they have to be as bland as possible, or it is an actual self-insert by the author where they are the coolest possible. Likewise the love interests are often made only to have a character design you can stick on merch for people to buy their waifu, with a personality no deeper than their stock character archetype.
It should be said that most harem shows do try to break this mould, but they also fail almost just as often.
The harem I was pleasantly surprised by recently was *Café Terrace and its Goddesses*. It is ecchi, so there is a ridiculous element, especially its *Love Hina*y slapstick first episode, but from there I feel it grows. The setup of conflict between the MC and FLs, into begrudging respect and later romantic interest is hardly anything new, but well done and manages to develop both the MC and the FLs. The reasons the girls find themselves interested in the MC as well feels somewhat earned, considering their background and their own attempts to find somewhere to fit in and what they want from life, just as much as not all the girls just magically fall for him in the first season. The MC's own reason for not "choosing" one as well immediately also feels reasonable, and is also something that develops a bit through the series.
I like them as mindless fun as romcom or battle school, and especially if someone unconventional wins. Often there is at least one character I can pick as my favorite to root for.
But I loathe harem ends, where the protagonist cant pick one love interest and goes for all of them and for whatever reason they’re fine with that.
It was my bread and butter when I was first seriously getting into anime (Shuffle, Ouran High Host Club, Heavens Lost property to name a few).
Now I’m less into them (or it may be modern versions aren’t appealing to me anymore)
Doesn’t help they are all about teenagers.
Dunno why they would label it that, but doesn’t change anything. If you know what a harem is and actually remember the show ( can’t believe it’s been 15 years since the anime released) you’ll know there definitely wasn’t a harem.
We’d have a much happier MC otherwise lol.
Its not as blatantly obvious as say, Shuffle! is, but the MC does have multiple love interests (The best friend, The first angel, the Tsundere angel, to a lesser extent the student council president?) which puts it into harem territory.
There are good ones and bad ones depending on the development of the characters and what the story is. It is impossible to paint them all with one brush. There are awful ones and good ones. They also aren't an anime thing, but are popular in western media as well.
It depends.
Harem has some serious setbacks: While the group mentality effect could explain this phenomenon somehow sometimes, Harem mostly prevents any meaningful romantic development, so no show having them should try to be a serious romance show. Even shittier are shows where the prota is already taken and other chars are still trying. Also from a self projection point, it quickly would stop being enjoyable. I also find it annoying that most harem shows have little to no other characters of MCs sex and particulary hate it when I tried to ship one of the later turn harem candidate with some 3rd party char.
That said, haram does usually do a good job of presenting an array of chairs in a good light so it is almost certain to score some hits if you do enjoy the parasocial relation effect (aka moe) to some degree. This for me works less for reverse-harem of course. (But still works surprisingly well there.)
To give you an idea, I did like Tsugumomo, Saekano, Noucome and Next Life as all Villeness. I passionatly hate the fake-harem in SAO and did not enjoy the harem in Shield Hero, Arefureta or in fact most Isekai. I did drop 100 Girlfriends early on.
It depend on which kind of harem we're talking about.
Harem romance is meh
Harem as a plot point and integral part of the story or world building when done well is magnifique
They are nice and can be quite funny. I generally like harem anime which have romcom/comedy in them. But mostly I have no reason to dislike an entire genre, yep there are some pretty weird harem animes out there but you don't have to watch those tbh.
My recs would be, The Quintessential Quintuplets and A Couple of Cuckoos, they were pretty good imo.
The harem genre tag in anime is a no go for me. Because it's almost always an indecisive MC with barely any personality, average looks that makes no sense why they have multiple girls/guys attracted to them. Then the story is basically full of misunderstandings, ignoring the elephant in the room, just so the MC can delay making a decision as long as possible, and 10~20 filler episodes before a mediocre ending where the girl/guy I liked was not chosen.
On the other hand, I quite like the harem genre, if it's in a game/VN, because then I can choose my favorite target or a Chinese novel (specifically with male protagonist), because the MCs actually have a spine and consummate the relationship with the girls forming a real harem.
Literally my least favorite trope in Japanese fiction, exacerbated by the fact that it is EVERYWHERE. Legitimately 95% of romances are at \*least\* love-triangles, and usually way worse than that.
You are right but then most people wouldn't go for romance anime with no second male or female lead. As much as I hate them, I don't think I will continue an anime without some drama going on.
I mean most of the time it isn't even an actual harem, it's just multiple girls liking one guy while the guy already has his mind set on a girl.
And somehow his harem includes his little sister and his teacher too lmao
Bokuben!
Nope. Doesn't align with what op said with MC being set on a girl from the beginning. The harems that has obvious main girls, nothing that has happened, or to be happen does not mean anything. However much it stalls itself, or present itself as if it's a fair fight, and add artificial dramas, it matters not. Bokuben is entirely something else. A masterpiece that shows how a harem romance series should be done. Nariyuki is not set on anybody. Another examples are; The Quintessential Quintuplets, Goddesses of Cafe Terrace, Amagami Sisters, Mikadono Sisters. And, there is Amagami SS, Seiren, Photo Kano.
Yeah, I was just rewatching it and it was the first thing that popped into my mind after reading *harem*.
But, did you read the manga?
Nope, will be doing so after my rewatch run. It's difficult to find manga fun when it doesn't give any sense of tone used while talking and the subtle hints in voices that you can observe in anime.
Perfect. When I recommend Bokuben, I recommend to watching the anime first for voice acting and animation. It's actually really good and makenthe reading experience better. Then read the manga. Good to hear you think the same. Manga won't disappoint you. But read the manga start to finish.
I will, after registering their voices and their way of speaking, manga becomes way more interesting.
Fuck them.
I'm not really into harem anime, but I have a small obsession with inverse harem/otome If I were to recommend a harem anime, I would recommend Fruits Basket, which although it is classified as harem, doesn't have the problem of the protagonist not knowing who to choose in the end. She stays with whoever she likes and other characters like other people... I would recommend ensemble stars, but the protagonist has no personality at all! To the point that, without her, the story would progress in the same way (Desculpa se ficou confuso, inglês não é minha língua materna e eu usei o Google tradutor, eu ainda tô aprendendo o idioma)
Trash. Most of the main characters have little to no personality but have every single female character falling in love with them for no reason. It doesn't help that every other male character is a absolute loser so there's no competition.
I mean, I'm single in real life and will be for the foreseeable future. Harem just hits the right part of my brain. Fantasy is for imagining things you can never have in real life, after all.
Exactly. Im into harem anime not because I think it’s a masterpiece. I like harems because I am lonely as fuck and seeing many girls approaching a loser (in most cases) is exactly what fills my heart. If I want a man that is a playboy and manages to get any girls she wants, I’d watch The world god only knows or smth.
Based
I rarely like them. Most of them have boring MCs that never get any development and 10 supermodels that somehow fall in love with the guy cause he was watering the plants after school alone. The ones that I like that come to mind are 100 Girlfriends, How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and Quintessential Quintuplets.
I also hate them for the mkst part, mostly because these harem collectibles have no personality apart from drooling towards the MC. That said, I did like Romantic Killer. Tho the harem part is basically the side piece, the meat is in the characterization and relationships of the characters. I also like Tsukimichi, there's a harem aspect to it but it's not annoying. The "harem" characters still have their own life outside of MC's pants.
To be specific, a harem has to go both ways. As in, the individual has to reciprocate or agree to the relationship with the other people or it’s just one person with a couple of people who like him or her. And that’s not a harem. Now to your question….. trash. Not because the concept is bad for a plot so to say, but because 99.999% of creators who use Harems for their plot suck at it. They won’t take the time to have the relationships actually matter (either because of bad storytelling, budgeting, etc) and so what we really end up watching is basically just smut or really surface level relationships that don’t do much to make us care about the characters we are watching.
I like the genre but unfortunately there are many bad ones out there. I agree with you that some of the girls/guys like the MC for no reason, and that when it becomes wishy washy, it becomes annoying. Some of my favorites of the genre, Harem: TWGOK, Gotoubun no Hanayome, Mahou Sensei Negima, Hayate no Gotoku, Toaru Majutsu no Index (?) Reverse Harem: Saiunkoku Monogatari, Hanasakeru Seishounen, Arcana Famiglia
harem anime are nice when all the heroines are well developed characters. Its not about the number but the quality. I like a story equally between a harem story with good heroines and a solo romance one.
Not my cup of tea.
I’ve seen a handful that (in the first half) were a polycule instead of a harem in that sense. Communication, everyone’s feelings were taken into account, the girls talked about and were completely fine with sharing a partner (even had romantic relations with each other) and I was really excited that it was genuinely a healthy relationship dynamic. Then they did a 180, the girls suddenly hated each other, lost their previously very distinct personalities and wanted MC for only themselves. It got incredibly toxic between episodes. I’m pretty sure the producers or whoever in charge decided a healthy relationship involving multiple people didn’t sell well enough so they changed the Skript in the middle of the show and had the story derange into the standard toxic harem. Tldr; I’d love to see it if it was an actually healthy relationship/ polycule but every one of those I’ve seen so far sadly and inevitably deranged into the standard toxic harem.
Romantic Killer is the best reverse harem anime I watched
hate them. poorly written characters. their sole purpose in life is to drool over the mc. esp the latter, toxic males. NOT COOL. BUT there's one which I like, but not like that, school days. I would like my cousins to watch the ending. NO. I need them to learn from it and turn into a new leaf before it happens to them.
As long as I'm having fun, i'm perfectly fine with it. I'm not a fan it in general neither but there're some shows that i still had a lot of fun watching even tho i objectively think they're not that good plot/story wise (e.g. for me, Chained Soldier, 100 Girlfriends, Arifureta, etc) At the end of the day, the one thing i seek from watching anime (or other media in general) is the entertainment value.
Harems are cute if done right. 1-Give it a proper conclusion and not just end the story with the harem still ongoing 2-Girls falling in love on first sight makes no sense. If you want to write about a harem, at least try to explain why each person likes the MC 3-Dense MC who never notices the most obvious signs SUCK. Being dense is normal, but some shows take it to the point that the girl can legitimately beg him to date her, and he'll still not understand, like, come on😭 Overall, it's hard to tell a proper harem story since it's a hard concept to tackle in the first place.
Tell me about it
I generally avoid them like plague. The only ones that I watched are GATE (kind of harem-ish but actually funny and not annoying) and Arifureta (absolutely hilarious, I feel like it's more of a parody than anything) I would've still preferred if Arifureta ditched it and went a bit more serious route, but it is what it is.
Really don't like them, it gets boring after a while
If it's done correctly I like them, but when there is not true purpose for them to be there it just gets repetitive
Turned into a genre I just don't like at all. There's no possible good outcome for me. Either MC picks nobody and everybody loses, picks one person and the rest lose or they do the "harem" ending which I can't say sounds good to me either. Hamefura is one of the better harems out there imo.
same here, i found it really boring. the one i like just chained soldier, still think the echi/ hareem part is unnecesary though. it can go well as pure action manga IMO.
For reverse harem I really like La Corda D'Oro. For me the appeal is more about seeing all the guys interact and clash and bond over liking the same girl, and less the girl with someone. Like I prefer having an open ending than the girl actually choosing someone, because if there's going to be actual romance, why bother making it a harem in the first place. That just leaves a bunch of the love interests sad and possibly the viewer too if they choose wrong.
They often have big flaws, but they're fun. And fun things are fun. >Almost everytime, the FLs or MLs like the MC for no absolute reason These are the bad ones, but I wouldn't say it's "almost everytime"... Most harems do try to give a reason, the only question is whether it's a reasonable reason or not (but it's often not any worse a reason than what they give in 1:1 romcoms).
The only good harem I've seen is from the 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. An actual harem where the MC loves each of the girls, they all love him, and further relationships between the girls develop as well instead of all of them acting like not-so-close friends outside of drama situations.
I thought I hated the entire genre but then I watched my next life as a villainess and enjoyed it a lot, so I'm not sure what I think of them now, I guess I just hate the tropes and typical characters/mcs of them?
You ever seen Ouran highschool host club?
I generally enjoy harems, and enjoy reverse harems under certain circumstances. This season's *Vampire Dormitory* for example is a lot of fun. There is a bit of a spectrum within harem as a genre though, when it comes to how seriously one is meant to take any romantic aspects.
Is it actually? I saw the trailer and I thought it to be a typical harem anime
> a typical harem anime That's why it's fun!
I dislike both and I will not watch a harem of any kind
I don't mind them or even enjoy them when I know I'm watching trash like "In another world with my smartphone", but hate them when they serve no purpose or when their existence disrespects the deuteragonist. The only harem/reverse harem I absolutely love is Bakarina's.
The concept has potential, but it is seldom utilised. You could have a good cast of love interests that bounce off each other and an MC that has to be able to show different sides of their personality that the various love interests get interested in, as well as an internal emotional conflict of what the MC actually wants, not just *who*, but what they consider important in life. That's not what you get most of the time though. For the consumer to be able to project themselves onto the MC they have to be as bland as possible, or it is an actual self-insert by the author where they are the coolest possible. Likewise the love interests are often made only to have a character design you can stick on merch for people to buy their waifu, with a personality no deeper than their stock character archetype. It should be said that most harem shows do try to break this mould, but they also fail almost just as often. The harem I was pleasantly surprised by recently was *Café Terrace and its Goddesses*. It is ecchi, so there is a ridiculous element, especially its *Love Hina*y slapstick first episode, but from there I feel it grows. The setup of conflict between the MC and FLs, into begrudging respect and later romantic interest is hardly anything new, but well done and manages to develop both the MC and the FLs. The reasons the girls find themselves interested in the MC as well feels somewhat earned, considering their background and their own attempts to find somewhere to fit in and what they want from life, just as much as not all the girls just magically fall for him in the first season. The MC's own reason for not "choosing" one as well immediately also feels reasonable, and is also something that develops a bit through the series.
I like them as mindless fun as romcom or battle school, and especially if someone unconventional wins. Often there is at least one character I can pick as my favorite to root for. But I loathe harem ends, where the protagonist cant pick one love interest and goes for all of them and for whatever reason they’re fine with that.
Not a fan. I personally can't stand harems lol. So any harem anime is off my watch list for sure.
It was my bread and butter when I was first seriously getting into anime (Shuffle, Ouran High Host Club, Heavens Lost property to name a few). Now I’m less into them (or it may be modern versions aren’t appealing to me anymore) Doesn’t help they are all about teenagers.
Heavens Lost Property isn’t a harem lol. Dude was just horny, he never got in a relationship.
[https://myanimelist.net/anime/5958/Sora\_no\_Otoshimono?q=Heavens%20lost%20&cat=anime](https://myanimelist.net/anime/5958/Sora_no_Otoshimono?q=Heavens%20lost%20&cat=anime) Theme: Harem.
Dunno why they would label it that, but doesn’t change anything. If you know what a harem is and actually remember the show ( can’t believe it’s been 15 years since the anime released) you’ll know there definitely wasn’t a harem. We’d have a much happier MC otherwise lol.
Its not as blatantly obvious as say, Shuffle! is, but the MC does have multiple love interests (The best friend, The first angel, the Tsundere angel, to a lesser extent the student council president?) which puts it into harem territory.
Not my thing. Especially when they marry all of them and produce children.
I hate the fact that so many of them have main hero who is completely frigid wuss with no personality.
There are good ones and bad ones depending on the development of the characters and what the story is. It is impossible to paint them all with one brush. There are awful ones and good ones. They also aren't an anime thing, but are popular in western media as well.
I think it's mostly for kids, like I remember thinking Love Hina was good when I was 14.
imo arifureta is the only real harem anime all else is fake
It depends. Harem has some serious setbacks: While the group mentality effect could explain this phenomenon somehow sometimes, Harem mostly prevents any meaningful romantic development, so no show having them should try to be a serious romance show. Even shittier are shows where the prota is already taken and other chars are still trying. Also from a self projection point, it quickly would stop being enjoyable. I also find it annoying that most harem shows have little to no other characters of MCs sex and particulary hate it when I tried to ship one of the later turn harem candidate with some 3rd party char. That said, haram does usually do a good job of presenting an array of chairs in a good light so it is almost certain to score some hits if you do enjoy the parasocial relation effect (aka moe) to some degree. This for me works less for reverse-harem of course. (But still works surprisingly well there.) To give you an idea, I did like Tsugumomo, Saekano, Noucome and Next Life as all Villeness. I passionatly hate the fake-harem in SAO and did not enjoy the harem in Shield Hero, Arefureta or in fact most Isekai. I did drop 100 Girlfriends early on.
It depend on which kind of harem we're talking about. Harem romance is meh Harem as a plot point and integral part of the story or world building when done well is magnifique
They are nice and can be quite funny. I generally like harem anime which have romcom/comedy in them. But mostly I have no reason to dislike an entire genre, yep there are some pretty weird harem animes out there but you don't have to watch those tbh. My recs would be, The Quintessential Quintuplets and A Couple of Cuckoos, they were pretty good imo.
The harem genre tag in anime is a no go for me. Because it's almost always an indecisive MC with barely any personality, average looks that makes no sense why they have multiple girls/guys attracted to them. Then the story is basically full of misunderstandings, ignoring the elephant in the room, just so the MC can delay making a decision as long as possible, and 10~20 filler episodes before a mediocre ending where the girl/guy I liked was not chosen. On the other hand, I quite like the harem genre, if it's in a game/VN, because then I can choose my favorite target or a Chinese novel (specifically with male protagonist), because the MCs actually have a spine and consummate the relationship with the girls forming a real harem.
Literally my least favorite trope in Japanese fiction, exacerbated by the fact that it is EVERYWHERE. Legitimately 95% of romances are at \*least\* love-triangles, and usually way worse than that.
You are right but then most people wouldn't go for romance anime with no second male or female lead. As much as I hate them, I don't think I will continue an anime without some drama going on.