He has a harem, but he only loves and listens to one girl so he thinks the other girls are burdens and doesn’t give them too much attention. He’s powerful and smart For example the manga Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou where he only listens and loves yue
Well, almost said "definitely Arifureta" but it isn't, eh? Also, need more detail Maybe it's "the world god only knows"?
Transcending the Nine Heavens kinda fits. Althought it's not like he completely uncaring about the rest, but they are not as important as his main waifu. P.S. I kinda forget the name because "nine" is used in every ninth Chinese novel or something, and was forced to search "pedo-chu" meme to find the novel. Good thing that there is no FBI in my country. "It's hard to be a friend" probably fits too, but it's a bit more complicated than this. And I think it doesn't have manga
This was literally the definition of a harem before the isekai popularity boom. Nobody read a harem thinking the protagonist would end up with multiple love interests. Rather a harem used to just mean a love triangle with more than two options. Essentially it was a given that eventually the protagonist would make their choice and whomever wasn't chosen would just be flat out of luck. This was the norm for a very long time. It wasn't until the isekai boom, and the appearance of the harem seeking lead that the definition of harem was changed. Choosing one lover and disbanding the harem was no longer the end goal. Instead the goal of having a harem was to literally have a harem, i.e to have multiple romantic partners simultaneously.
Moon's Labyrinth The catch here is that he doesn't care about the girls that are interested in him, he just views them as acquaintances and nothing more. The only girl he cares about is his daughter.
Outliers can always be found if you look far enough, what we're talking about here is how the harem genre used to be defined, not when the first story with an actual harem appeared.
Now I remember! There's that... wait... it wasn't a manga. Never mind. You're asking for a hard bargain. We have better chances if you removed one of your requirements, since most harem MCs aren't strong and smart while loving only one girl.
Are you talking about Conan the Barbarian specifically? That was originally a comic book series I believe, and now also has several films and video games based off of it. Now I've never read it but I'm guessing you brought it up because the protagonist has a harem in the story? Could you clarify I am trying to figure out why you chose this as a counter example to my original statement.
Not exactly formal harem, but he basically constantly saves helples women and then demand them to repay him with his body. Over and over again. Often same women multiple times. Not quite rare that they are villianes or in grey zone at least in different books. Actually, he himself lampshades it, and trying to ignore helpless women, but it's never works.
Yeah that doesn't sound anything like harem, he's just fucking a lot a different women. For it to be a harem they need to actually be together in some way; like boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, master and concubine, etc. Just having sex once or twice with someone doesn't mean anything. Like did you leave something out, do the women he sleeps with become part of his entourage, do they stay by his side and travel together, or go back to his home to await his return.
No, that girls are just his concubines, they are not important, although some that he saved was ended here. His official concubines call him the King instead of master thought. His official harem is boring statists only to confirm his status. But his Chinese Fantasy / Japanese Issekai harem is like pokemons, they are a bit different, and you constantly run into them. And not in all anime harem is with protagonist all the time. He probably travels with Red Sonja the most, but she is Female Conan, he can't seduce her, lol. Not for the lack of trying.