Forum - View topic(The) 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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(The) 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You (TV) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 14 volumes, written by Rikito Nakamura, illustrated by Yukiko Nozawa) Demographic: Seinen Animation Studio: Bibury Animation Studio Genres: comedy, drama, romance Themes: absurdity, ecchi, gods, harem, parody, school Plot Summary: Rentarou Aijo is a hopeless romantic – emphasis on "hopeless". Before starting high school he'd already confessed his love to 100 different girls, and was rejected every time. But a trip to a local shrine of the God of Love brings him good fortune, of a kind. Due to a clerical error in the heavens, Rentarou is indeed guaranteed to find that special someone – 100 of them, to be precise. He is destined to have triple-digit soulmates, and it's up to him to find them all, cherish them all, and keep this Love Hectogon stable, lest disaster befall him and his many, many, many, many loves. Air Date & Platform: October 8, 2023 (Sunday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes ---------------------------------- Man, what an annoying title. And the fact that it currently has 14 volumes makes me wonder if this is the harem version of Bleach (too many characters to handle). But the parody descriptor has me curious. I'm not usually into harem titles, but maybe this can be another Ouran Host Club and completely surprise me for the better? Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Jan 11, 2024 2:00 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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Yup, that was a crazy amount of fun in the first episode. Be it the jokes, the extreme tsundere actions, the god being something special and the mc being as over the top as you can get, there was not a single boring moment for me. It is Kanojo mo Kanojo but better and more crazy.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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Oh man, this is such a fun series. The second episode had me laughing a lot due to how crazy it is. I hope others will try it out as well, it is something truly over the top.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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This show is every hetero guy's wet dream: to be equally in love with 100 variously attractive girls who will equally love you back the same. If there isn't already, I'm sure there has to be eroge or doujinshi versions of this, because why not? If it also weren't so absurdly comedic, I'd probably feel icky for watching this. But even with the ecchi elements, there's just enough heart to keep the MC feeling like a genuinely nice guy. It has greatly exceeded my expectations, so far.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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Agreed, episode 3 only reinforced that feeling too. This week's episode was all about Shizuka and it was one hell of a charming one (kudos for animating the book, that is anime only content). They managed to make the courting/confession feel completely different than the one before and it has a strong fairy tale feel (which fits the character and her interests). Rentarou once again went beyond the norm with him inputting the entire book into a text to speech app so that Shizuka can look people in the eyes while selecting what she wants to say.
3 down, 97 more to go. |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1164 |
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Having Isekai as one of my go to genres, I watch a lot of harem comedies indirectly, which I guess could be considered a bonus or collateral damage depending on how you look at it. But that’s not why I watch them, and it’s been a while since I really enjoyed a harem comedy per se. I liked A Couple of Cuckoos and Quintessential Quintuplets enough to watch them all the way through, but they were more like harem dramas with humorous moments mixed in to lighten them up.
And the thing is, when I first started watching anime (I guess nine to ten years ago now?) I was gleefully plundering through Hulu and Crunchyroll and Netflix archives, and there were a lot of harem comedies floating around from recent, previous years that I really enjoyed. Baka and Test. Oreshura. Haganai (season 1 anyway). Etc. I’m sure they were utter trash, but so am I, I guess, because I loved them anyhow. But there weren’t a lot of new harem comedies coming out that did it for me. I watched Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs when it came out, and I enjoyed it, but it was more of an exception. Anyway, this topic has been coming up a lot lately in various threads, so I sat down and tried to figure out what has changed, at least for me. I don’t think I’ve become a more mature or better person, so no need to panic there. This is what I came up with: (1) All of those harem comedies that I liked also had protagonists and heroines that I liked even if I didn't necessarily admire them. Eita, from Oreshura, was a smart, decent, hard-working student who got drawn into a lot of chaos when all he wanted to do was become a doctor and work on a cure for his childhood friend. Yoshi, from Baka Test, was an idiot, but he was a brave, kind hearted idiot. He was the only one in his class who stood up for Hemiji when she was unjustly failed during an evaluation because she was sick. Kodaka of Haganai stood up for the weak and was a solid, decent guy even if he didn't have great social skills. The female protagonists weren't pathetic for liking these guys...in fact, they were often showing insight and guts that the general high school zombies weren't capable of. That’s a bit different from the current popular scenario where some shmuck, perv, or timid wuss who’s only virtue is not being a complete asswipe suddenly has women instantaneously falling all over and around him for no discernible reason other than the story not being able to exist otherwise. It’s not plot armor so much as plot amour. (2) The other factor is that all of those shows that I liked weren't just harem comedies about smugly being harem comedies. Oreshura is about an elaborate house of lies that gets built in front of the viewers’ eyes one lie at a time and the increasingly awkward and bizarre situations that the growing cast of characters find themselves in because they can't be honest with themselves or each other. Baka and Test is about a group of students trying to get some of their own back in a particularly elitist school system. Haganai is about the creation of a “friends” club and how it plays out for a bunch of outcasts and misfits. Yuuna is about an exorcist who has vowed to free a ghost from whatever still binds her to this plane before her soul begins to descend into evil. The harem aspect might be central to these stories, but it isn't the framework/conceit/self-involved be all end all. The over arcing plotlines of these shows aren’t just a hastily contrived, thinly veiled excuse to set a bunch of overdone harem tropes into play; the story frames are interesting, and important on their own merits. Apparently, factors 1 & 2 are important to my enjoyment. It’s not about right or wrong. I can’t imagine anyone trying to plant Yuuna and the Haunte d Hot Springs like a flag in their moral high ground. Anyway, I recognize that this 100 girlfriends anime is better than a lot of harem comedies that have come along recently, and I don’t begrudge anyone who finds joy in it. Nobody’s particularly unlikable, I don’t think, and some of the screwball hijinks type stuff lands. But I’m not feeling it quite as much. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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I get what you mean, a lot of harem series of old had a male mc that was an actual great guy. He had qualities that are rare or at the very least, he had something positive to offer. The same can not be said of many recent harem shows, with many mc's that are popular simply because they need to be. As for the setting/story, it helps that there is more to the whole thing than just it being a harem show.
All that said, 100 girlfriends works for me because it switches between comedy, romance and honest emotional moments pretty well. The show also makes some archetypes like a tsundere extreme to the max for some hilarious moments. Finally, there is Rentarou who actually makes an effort to get to understand and know each girl, while trying his best to make them all happy. Episode 4 is a perfect example of this in that the entire episode is basically about giving some more depth to the characters and making them actually function as a harem. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11304 Location: Frisco, TX |
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This show is the biggest surprise of the season to me. When I said I had low expectations, I was thinking it would be a 3 or 4 out of 10. But the comedy is so absurd, it positively embraces many character stereotypes, and still manages to have so much heart, I can't rate it any lower than an 8, right now. I love the MC's honesty towards the girls and appreciate how considerate he's being for all the scenarios presented, thus far, when any number of other guys would probably be a total lech in this kind of situation. At this pace, it might even make it into my top-10 romance titles.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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Yeah, it really is a lot better than one would initially expect. Episode 6, aka the pool episode was another fun time. It gave each of the girls a situation to overcome and that they did together with Rentarou. There were even bits of actual character development, especially for Karane and her feelings of insecurity. Also plenty of jokes and a spicy moment or two.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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I know that this anime is not at all realistic and gets pretty out there, yet this week raises the bar in how sheer crazy it gets. Kissing zombies, all types of bizarre potions, some lewd and even bunny ears, it is a wild time.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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Huh... so the harem will include mother and daughter.... huh, that sure is a progressive harem.
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4613 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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It is telling how little has to change in a harem comedy to flip it on its head.
Really, the only thing that's essentially different is not the mega-harem or multiple girls liking the guy. The key switch is that the GUY is so absolutely committed to all of his girls in as "pure" a way as you can get in the situation. For as long as the title is, it could also use "... and you love them back." None of that wishy-washy "do I really love them? Is it wrong? I can't do this!" stuff. He dives in headfirst with all with all his sincerity. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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There is that. but the harem is also more than just a collection of girls who like the same guy. They have become something like a family and the girls help and support eachother, which is a nice change of pace compared to many other harems that have lots of jealousy/fights and thus do not function.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4613 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Ah, not strange to Tenchi OVA fans. Guy currently in my avatar (Seina Yamada) has a harem well over a dozen (and growing), almost all get along (and Jovia is a great foil), married to ten, still can't take anyone flirting with him.
Actually not as strange as you think to have the harem get along. Definitely common in the "one-girl" resolutions as the "losers" will usually stay friends. And True Harem resolutions will usually eventually resolve with a family group. Even "classics" like Ai Yori Aoshi or Love Hina revolve around the girls being tight-knit artificial family. It's just the fighting polygons that get stuck in the always fighting mode. And that usually only lasts until the end. The Quint Quints are literally family. This just starts with the agreement instead of needing an eventual realization. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 1997 |
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I suppose you are right, there are many other harems that feel like a family eventually, though emphasis on that eventually part. Sure, there was a bit of conflict in 100 girlfriends in the first few episodes, but I find it very refreshing that the infighting was over and done with early on. Karane is a great example in that she had insecurities and the girls helped her overcome them with their support. Even as kiss zombies they supported each other....
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