I picked seven, because I like the number 7. Honestly though, however many the writer can properly support. If every character is unique and has their own inter-harem relationships and characterization, then even if its a thousand and the dudes written enough to die halfway through it's still fine. Poly relationships work that exact way; everyone supports everyone. So long as the writer is capable of making every character meaningful, then there's no reason to say it's too many.
leap year has 366 days. An extra day where you either rest or have all 365 in an orgy. Once every 4 years, you have an orgy. Unless you have 366 girls and have one girl only get attention once every 4 years, it is not a problem.
negima no matter how much we would like isn't a true harem a lot of the girls like him but you never see nor read any advancement negi from the looks of the story and such is just with asuna(spelling I'm horrible with names) even the sequel (uq holder) is in the same rut though atleast Negis grandson has a choice early on that is clear. As for sevens does his harem progress beyond him liking one and not wanting a harem to him actively liking and being romantic with the other girls? I stopped around chapter 120ish and the harem just seemed to be a not a real harem, harem. I know from what I saw in an after chapter it does become one just want to know if during the story he stops being a spinless test in regards to the girls.
Exactly. Although it slightly changed genres to focus on battle, it was really well done from the relationship standpoint (although the personalities are definitely "anime/manga" personalities. Or in other words, exagerrated and simplified, The characters actually developed genuinr feelings and didn't feel like simply a nameless addition given a name The end of the series iirc was based on the auther wanting to preserve some of his rights to the series that would have otherwise been taken from him. Not sure on the details, but thats why he cut it short and it feels like those series that were axed. PS: UQholder was a huge disappointment for me. Would have been better if he didn't tie it to negima at all
the only good harems are those with proper character development. harems where the female character becomes super devoted and in-love for no reason, and keep talking about how amazing the MC is, are terrible. I'd say as many as the author can properly put in.
Btw third option ain't so bad, solution is one gets lucky every four years or a day break for harem king
Best case would be when each character is developed properly and has a personality and also not forgotten after few chapters like it is usually done in many novels.
Five is the limit in my opinion. You can have a few more, but it would be difficult to give them different personalities. There's also the issue of having them interact with the character enough, so they might be minor characters instead. An example of that would be how To LOVE-Ru has a lot of characters that can be easily forgotten.