Okay, I've just thought about my ideas a bit. It sounds a bit depressing when I think about it, but hey, that's what happens to me when I watch the team lose.
Here's the set-up, part of something that I will dub 'From the Outside' for the moment - there are three 'primary' characters and the rest of the cast. The cast...they can be anybody, really. Emphasis on them differs as the series would hypothetically go on. The setting, I suppose, would be in university. To be honest, I'm not sure if this is really even a harem
The three characters that will be focused on consist of Boy 1, Boy 2, and Girl 1. Boy 1 is a good natured, good looking young lad. He's smart, somewhat athletic, but occasionally a bit of a klutz. Despite that, he holds a certain amount of appeal with the opposite sex, setting up for the potential harem situation. In addition, he has a rather unfortunate ability to attract attention from almost anything. He's a definite, unintentional troublemaker, so to speak.
Boy 2 is Boy 1's long time friend. However, he stands at a relative contrast to Boy 1. While 2 is just as smart, he is certainly not as attractive or athletic. He's socially awkward, a definate loner and more of a geeky nerd type that spends more time on his own as of late. However, he is exceptionally insightful and is a person who can analyze and understand people very well.
Girl 1 is a more cutesy close friend type. Girl 1 doesn't have the huge bust or the nicely shaped ass, but rather, a beautiful nerd sort of figure. But, it could be said that she is quite a looker. She has known Boys 1 and 2 for a long time, and the three have been a close group for just as long. She's smarter than both Boys 1 and 2 and while she is kind, she can occasionally display a rather impressive show of personality.
The basic history behind these three is that they were all social outcasts in the past, and all of them were drawn together at a young age. They stayed as extremely close friends for most of their junior high and early high school lives. However, as high school rolled around full force, their lives have begun to change. Boy 1 certainly changed and eventually became an athlete and now appears as quite delicious in the eyes of the opposite sex. In fact, he is now becoming a bit more of a playboy and an alpha male figure. The same with Girl 1, although she 'grew up', so to speak, a bit slower, but is on the way to transforming from nerdy little girl to babe and is beginning to want more from the rest of the world.
As for Boy 2, he has grown very little. He still remains in a socially awkward state, and he is certainly not the type that catches anybody's attention. Despite the changes amongst the group, they all retain a close sense of friendship with each other.
The true nature of their friendship would be revealed in flashback scenes and references. In present tense, the story takes place as all three enter a private university or school district. With them, they meet a whole range of people, in particular, the other members of the female cast. There's a lot of them, and they are of a rather wide variety. Also, with Boy 1 and Girl 1 having experienced growth, they're now ready to head into their new world.
The story would be narrated from Boy 2's perspective. His narration would tell the story of the original group of three, as well, describe the events that occur in particular to Boy 1 and the number of girlfriends and such that he will have relations with. Of those girls, it would be inevitable to consider Girl 1 as part of it as well.
Boy 2 would passively be the witness to all the adventures that would happen to Boy 1, Girl 1, the others, and occasionally, himself included - especially, as Boy 1 attracts the attention of the girls in the university. However, 2 acts as a bystander, watching as the world passes him by, taking his two friends along through the next step in life that has forsaken him. Essentially, what I would want it to tell the story from the perspective of an outside individual, but tell it so well that it would appear directly as though it is just being told normally, and to truly emphasize to how insignificant the narrator is in the series of events.
What I'd hope to accomplish with an idea like this is to analyze and approach a harem situation from a different view. Normally, we see the situation from the perspective of the male lead being involved directly in it. What about somebody who has no chance what-so-ever? What about the person who will always remain in the sidelines, figuratively, fated to be only able to look in from the outside? In such a case, that person would be a step back and he would be able to look at it and try to understand everything.
It would be more of a character developing process, especially when Boy 2 begins to talk a bit and think about the various girls that Boy 1 gets involved with, in particular, Girl 1 as she struggles with her feelings for Boy 1 and her attempts to understand where her life will go now.
...
Okay, weird idea, I know. I'm not even sure if it counts, fully, as a harem or whether I've simply wasted my time writing this. But, it's an idea I've had for a bit. I'm hoping it's different, but generally, I'd prefer developing my war idea more than anything else.
