The Best Harem Anime With Very Little Fanservice

Summary

• Harem anime often includes fanservice, but some shows like Masamune-kun’s Revenge strike a balance to prevent excess.
• Oresuki is a self-aware harem anime with pleasant, relatable characters and limited fanservice.
• Amagami SS offers a unique visual novel adaptation with cute stories, realistic art, and safe content for viewers.

Harem anime is something of a fantasy genre where a male protagonist has a lot of women surrounding him and falling for him. Generally speaking, it seems to go hand-in-hand with ecchi elements, and while fans might like a little nod from the anime creators from time to time, the fanservice can get a bit excessive.

Thankfully, there are a great deal of shows for the moderate fanservice enjoyer who doesn’t mind the occasional creator wink, but isn’t willing to drown in it. These harem anime typically have a bikini here and there and some suggestive content, but never walk down the path of peak degeneracy, and avoid fanservice whenever they can.

10

Masamune-kun’s Revenge

A Standard Show That Doesn’t Do Anything To Push Viewers Away

The premise of Masamune-kun’s Revenge is interesting enough: a boy who used to be overweight and was brutally rejected by the girl he liked decides to undergo a makeover and become a handsome high schooler. His plan? Make the girl fall in love with him only to dump her as a form of revenge.

Masamune-kun’s Revenge is one of those shows that does everything just fine, meaning that it never goes overboard, and is a good show to watch just for the fun of it. There’s some fanservice, but it’s never heavy-handed. All in all, it’s a pretty decent watch.

9

Oresuki Are You The Only One Who Loves Me?

Oresuki’s Self-Awareness Is Only A Strength

Oresuki is a harem anime that is very aware of what it is. Joro has been asked on a date by two beautiful girls, only to find out that they both want his help in nabbing his best friend as a boyfriend. This only serves to irritate the protagonist, who was hoping he’d be the generic romcom lead.

Joro does try to help the girls, and for the most part, a lot of the cast are unpleasant; not in a bad way, but rather in a human way. One girl does like Joro, the mysterious bespectacled Pansy. Joro is mean-spirited, but it almost comes off as cute, as are the girls in this series. Thankfully, the audience never sees ‘too much’ of the girls.

8

Amagami SS

Does Visual Novel Adaptations Differently

Amagami SS is a visual novel adaptation of a fairly popular work in which the protagonist could potentially go out with 6 different girls. The anime is split into 24 episodes, with four episodes each chronicling Junichi’s potential route with each girl.

The art is striking, as it is a lot more realistic than a lot of harem anime out there, and the situations are cute and amusing. The main character is good enough and there will probably be a romance or two that every viewer will like and connect with. The story keeps things safe and never goes too far into dodgy territory, which makes it a reasonably safe anime to watch.

7

How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

Focuses More On Strategy

19-year-old Kazuya Souma wants to be a civil servant and suddenly finds himself transported to another world where he has to lead an ailing kingdom to prosperity. Like with a lot of isekai anime, fans are introduced to an ‘OP’ protagonist. The thing is, Kazuya’s power lies in his ability to strategize.

As Kazuya looks to fix the economy of his kingdom and navigate a looming war, of course, a lot of women fall in love with him. The romance, though, is more of a side story, and while there are insinuations of many things, the anime keeps things vanilla. Kazuya’s realistic character is refreshing, and the grounded nature of the show (even as an isekai) gives it extra marks.

6

Saekano: How To Raise A Boring Girlfriend

Making A Game Is Not Easy

Tomoya Aki wants to make a game, and so he enlists three beautiful girls to help in the development. The center of attention is the stoic Megumi Katou, who is to be the inspiration for the game.

Saekano is a show made for otakus, and therefore, it is loaded with references left and right. The jokes are pretty funny and will regularly elicit a laugh. The girls are not unlike other girls from many other shows, but they are still a lot of fun. While the show doesn’t delve into the technicalities of creating a game, it still does a good job of making the protagonist’s task matter and pay off.

5

Yamada-kun And The Seven Witches

The Show Is A Kiss-A-Thon

Yamada-kun has the power to switch bodies with anyone he kisses, something he discovers thanks to Urara Shiraishi, an honors student who wants a better social life. The two switch bodies, but other people begin to find out about their secret, and it turns out Yamada’s powers work with all sorts of people.

With a premise like that, it is clear that there is a lot of kissing in this show, but it never goes beyond that, which is tame compared to what’s out there in the harmen anime world. Even so, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches isn’t all about kissing, as there is a mystery of sorts at its heart, with the protagonists in search of the fabled Seven Witches of Suzaku High.

4

Ah! My Goddess

A Sweet Romance That Stays Tame

Keiichi Morisato accidentally summons a goddess and wishes for her to stay with him forever, a wish which is surprisingly granted. As such, he now has this gorgeous goddess that he’s living with. What’s more, there are other goddesses also coming into Keiichi’s life.

The romance story in Ah! My Goddess is a sweet one, and the chemistry between Keiichi and Belldandy is quite engaging. While it’s a seinen show that sometimes deals with more mature themes, it doesn’t veer into anything too sexual in nature. The characters are beautifully designed, and the animation holds up well enough even for a series that is now 20 years old.

3

Nisekoi

Raku Ichijou Is An Incredibly Oblivious Protagonist

Raku Ichijou is the son of a yakuza family who is made to be in a pretend relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki, who is from a rival family, even though the two do not get along. There’s also a girl in his class that Raku likes, and a mysterious girl he made a promise to years ago that he wants to find, but has no idea how to do so.

Nisekoi is a pretty popular series and it does have a lot of merits. The jokes are decent, and the animation is stellar. Raku is one of the more oblivious harem leads, as he doesn’t ever notice Kosaki Onodera’s feelings towards him. The show is also tame and doesn’t go beyond the occasional pervert joke and nosebleed.

2

The World God Only Knows

Gotta Catch Them All

Keima is a master at romancing 2D girls, but then he finds himself in a situation where he has to try his skills with 3D girls…or else. The World God Only Knows surprisingly works, mainly because Keima is a compelling lead, and he’s not a pervert, which is nice.

The girls he has to romance are given a fair amount of attention so that fans can start to like them and root for their success. There are some suggestive scenes and some mild comedic violence, but that’s about it. As a result, the show manages to tell a fun story without forcing the audience to navigate risque themes, which is all some viewers will ask for.

1

The Quintessential Quintuplets

A Surprisingly Feel-Good Harem

The painful part of any harem show is the fact that the viewer knows that for every successful romance, there will be a string of broken-hearted girls who didn’t get to be with their crush. With The Quintessential Quintuplets, this isn’t something that one thinks about too much, as the feel-good nature of the show somehow makes it work.

Fuutarou Uesugi is a poor high schooler who gets a golden opportunity to tutor a group of girls for a lot of money. There are only two problems: the girls are quintuplets, and they are not interested in studying. It’s impressive that this show is able to give each of the five girls a distinct personality, and their design is brilliant, as each sister can easily be told apart. It also holds back on the fanservice, but gives out just enough to keep things interesting.