Heine Wittgenstein, a brilliant man who commands respect despite his childlike stature. The king of Grannzreich has called upon Heine to become the new royal tutor of four princes in line for the throne; however, this undertaking has driven away many people before him. The four princes have vastly different yet equally troublesome personalities: Licht is the flirtatious youngest prince; his older brother, the immature Leonhard; the studious third prince, Bruno; and the oldest brother, Kai – the quiet one. Heine’s role is to prepare each prince for the throne, but that may be easier said than done as Heine’s mysterious past and certain dark elements in the present threaten to cause havoc in the kingdom.

The greatest similarity Royal Tutor has to Gotoubun no Hanayome is the presence of multiple main characters who are siblings. All the siblings in the setting are the same sex and despite them having similar upbringing, each one is unique. Both anime also have characters who mean to serve as tutors but end up having their work cut out for them because each unique sibling has their own set of personal circumstances that the tutor needs to overcome in order for them to become more receptive to teaching.

The Sakurada siblings live a typical Japanese life in a typical Japanese household. Or rather, their father, the king, would love it if they could live normal lives. Being of royal blood, each of the siblings has a special ability and as a result, over 2000 security cameras have been placed all around town to keep them all safe! In addition, all of the nine siblings are potential successors to the throne, with the next ruler being decided through an election. For the third eldest daughter, the timid Akane, who wields the power to manipulate gravity, the constant attention is a total nightmare. With the cameras constantly monitoring their movements and sometimes even broadcasting the footage on the Sakurada-dedicated TV channel, Akane can’t help but dream about what she’d do as ruler. First order of business would be to get rid of all the cameras, but how will she convince the public that she’s the best candidate if she can’t overcome her shyness?

Like Gotoubun no Hanayome, Joukamachi no Dandelion focuses on a large group of characters who also happen to be blood siblings. In both anime, the large families are fairly well off or of a higher social standing than most people. Much like Gotoubun no Hanayome, Joukamachi no Dandelion makes an attempt to display varying strengths and weaknesses through their characters which make them unique; but at the same time, the ties of family present something which is shared by all the siblings that is important too.

The Matsuno household is mostly made up of its six identical siblings: the self-centred Osomatsu, manly Karamatsu, mature Choromatsu, the cynical Ichimatsu, the hyperactive Juushimatsu and the lovable Todomatsu. Despite all being over the age of 20, they are all incredibly lazy with no motivation to do anything productive, choosing the NEET life instead. On the odd occasion that they do go and pursue something fruitful, their eccentricity tends to be overwhelming. From trying to find the perfect job or picking up girlfriends, the Matsuno brothers are always up to something a little bit bizarre, a little bit unordinary!

Osomatsu-san is an exciting case of nostalgia within the world of anime as this reboot was made to commemorate the 80th birthday of late author Akatsuka Fujio. Much like Gotoubun no Hanayome, Osomatsu-san features several characters who look alike as a result of being quintuplets, or in the case of Osomatsu-san, sextuplets. The anime is also similar to Gotoubun no Hanayome in the way in which there is a healthy helping of wacky sibling shenanigans!

Katsuragi Keima, known online as the legendary “God of Conquest”, is capable of conquering any girl’s heart – provided they are in dating sim games. His obsession with the two-dimensional world of gaming has rendered him unable to appreciate much else. When he arrogantly accepts an anonymous offer to prove his ability at conquering dating sims, Keima is misled into helping a naïve demon named Elucia “Elsie” de Lute Ima with her mission – to retrieve runaway evil spirits that have escaped into the human world and scattered themselves. The only way for Keima to capture these spirits is to conquer what he hates the most: the unpredictable hearts of three-dimensional girls! Shackled to Elsie with a deadly collar, Keima has no choice but to put his title of “God of Conquest” to the ultimate test, navigating the heats of several real-life girls!

Perhaps serving the harem aspect more than anything else, The World God Only Knows is highly entertaining. Much like Gotoubun no Hanayome, the show does more towards creating a harem for the main character – it’s how they go about doing this that is vastly different. Much like Futarou, The World God Only Knows’ Katsuragi Keima has to learn what makes different people tick and apply that in order to help himself out of a fairly dire situation.

Kidou Eita’s parents’ infidelity in their marriage not only caused their family to fall apart but left Eita completely skeptical when it comes to love. Having no romantic desires whatsoever, Eita devotes his entire high school life to studying in order to become a doctor. It didn’t take too long for the popular Natsukawa Masuzu to notice Eita’s standout apathy towards her beauty. Tired of the attention she gets, Masuzu asks Eita to pretend to be her boyfriend. Quick to refuse, Eita soon realises his hands are tired when she brings up a relic of his embarrassing past – his journal! Caught up in a fake romance with the most desired girl at school, Eita’s life is turned upside down, but rather that than have the contents of his journal leaked to the general public, right?

Much like Gotoubun no Hanayome, OreShura is a harem anime which places his “girlfriend” Masuzu at odds with his childhood friend, Harusaki Chiwa. Maybe that childhood friend element is one of the major similarities between these two series, but we’d rather not say. What we will say; however, is that the series both have academically capable main characters. In fact, both do extremely well at school, but on a less positive note, both are left stunted in certain respects by the decisions of their parents.

“I am a commoner with a fetish for men’s muscles,” says Kagurazaka Kimito. Well, at least that is what he must keep saying if he is to stay out of trouble at Seikain Academy, a prestigious all-girls school he now attends. Kidnapped while at school under the assumption that he only desires men, Kimito is made to be their “commoner sample,” the individual exposing the girls to both commoners and men so that their post-high school transition goes smoother than it has in past years. Threatened with castration should it be that his sexual preferences differ from the school’s assumptions, Kimito continues to live his school life, one decorated by the constant appearances of eccentric individuals in his life. They are namely Aika, the well-known social outcast; the young genius Shiodome Hakua; the samurai-obsessed samurai daughter, Jinryou Karen, who is also obsessed with defeating Kimito; as well as Arisugawa Reiko, the embodiment of the perfect student, who has delusions of marrying Kimito. Together with Kimito, the four girls make up the Commoner Club, which seeks to teach girls more about the life lived by regular people, while he learns more about the girls in his vicinity.

Absolutely wacky and packed with several humorous moments, Shomin Sample and Gotoubun no Hanayome share a particular taste for comedy. The difference is that Shomin Sample can create extreme hilarity out of most of its events, while Gotoubun no Hanayome does a little more for the personalities of the female characters. Both; however, share one major thing: they are both harems with quite a lot of charm and loads of comedy!