Unwanted Harem/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Single guy suddenly attracts several extraordinary women, all of whom want him for their own.

  • Straight: Kenta, an Ordinary High School Student, suddenly finds himself with several suitors: New Transfer Student Princess Velvet, Childhood Friend Yukari, Cosplay Otaku Girl Megumi, Student Council President Makoto, The Alpha Bitch Erika, Shrinking Violet Chihiro, Tomboy Nene, School Librarian Kyoka, Idol Singer Shinobou...
  • Exaggerated: ...CuteMonsterGirl Tasha, Time Traveler Konaka, Cute Witch Ichigo, Kunoichi Suzune, Kendo Team Captain Takahashi, Robot Maid ER-7, Opposite Gender Clone Kenko, Humanoid Abomination C'thiala, Human Alien Lunaru, Cute Ghost Girl Rumiko, Adopted Sister Midori, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Nanami, Esper Ryoko, Miko Hitomi, Succubus Kaoru, Valkyries Franhilde, Archangel Loveliel, Henshin Heroine Raymeister...
    • Or, the suitors go to even more unhealthy extremes than usual, leading to the invoking of Rape Is Okay When Its Female On Male on a regular basis or Kenta becoming violent in self-defense.
  • Justified: Kenta is Cursed with Awesome, forced to attract infinitely many women, only to be unable to love them back. He might already have a girlfriend, is gay or Asexual, or finds the constant belittling and one-upping of the other girls to be unattractive, explaining his lack of interest.
    • He is overloaded with fear.
    • Kenta: "TOO MANY!"
      • Kenta realizes that with these bizzare girls comes equally outlandish trouble. Kenta's house becomes a battlefield on weekly basis, with Loveliel fighting hell spawn, Rumiko stuggling against hunting Shinigami, ER-7 driving away the evil organization that wants the hidden data in her memory chip, Lunaru trying to avoid alien hunters, Raymeister battling the Monster of the Week and C'thiala devouring Starfish Aliens send by her Papa Wolf Eldritch Abomination. None of them would bother him if it weren't for his harem.
  • Inverted: Kenta is a Harem Seeker, but the only attention he gets from girls is getting beaten up by them.
    • Or, Kenta is female, and the harem is made of male suitors.
  • Subverted: Several girls appear in Kenta's life, but none of them are interested in him.
    • They all could have figured about each other's wanting for Kenta. They could work it out with each other or Kenta, or seek out others like him. Now Kenta doesn't have a harem, and the girls may or may not be happy. But that wouldn't be interesting, would it?
    • Or, the harem is wanted, as Kenta is a playboy.
  • Double Subverted: ...At least, they don't appear to be at first... but it soon becomes clear that they are interested in him for one reason or another.
    • Kenta ends up resenting his harem because of their clingyness.
  • Parodied: Kenta gets a harem of ugly girls, to his dismay.
  • Deconstructed: Eventually, the competition over Kenta gets so fierce that some of the girls decide to try whittling down the field through murder. The deaths cause others to step back, ask what they found so attractive about him anyway, and give up. Kenta is left completely alone... or worse, with one murderous suitor who won't take no for an answer, assuming she wasn't killed or arrested.
    • Or, Kenta himself eventually snaps and starts forcibly ejecting the girls from his life by whatever means necessary.
    • Or, all the girls in the harem automatically lose interest once Kenta does.
  • Reconstructed: Despite any initial tension within Kenta's harem, all of the girls eventually become close friends with each other, respecting each other's feelings towards Kenta. Likewise, Kenta becomes close friends with all of the girls, even if he can only pick one to be his girlfriend.
  • Zig Zagged: Initially, each girl in Kenta's harem has hidden agenda and will leave him once one fufill her goal. However, spending time with Kenta made them realise he is actually a good guy and actually fell to him.
  • Averted: Kenta only attracts one girl, and they form the Official Couple.
    • Or, Kenta attracts no girls.
  • Enforced: "We hear that fans really like to ship Kenta, but there are so many different pairings. Let's give him a whole bunch of girls so there's no definite couple."
  • Lampshaded: "See that guy with nine different women fawning over him? Yeah, he doesn't love any of them."
  • Invoked: Kenta is a Casanova, and is wooing all these women intentionally to stroke his ego.
  • Defied: Kenta comes out of the closet, or rejects the girls and tells them to bugger off.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "This guy has more hot women fawning over him in one week than I'll ever even see in my life, and all he can do is moan about it?"
  • Played For Laughs: Kenta comes out of the closet, but the ladies all believe they can turn him straight. Cue the Chase Scene and the Benny Hill music.
  • Played For Drama: While the girls scheme and connive to eliminate each other, Kenta goes emo over his inability to love a woman and how they never leave him alone.
    • Kenta can't decide who he loves, and has a place in his heart for all of them... And they 'won't stop fighting over him. He's sick of watching the women he loves make each other (and themselves) miserable competing for him... But he can't just say so, or he'll have even more pressure to pick somebody... and lose everyone else.

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