Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Episode 12

So that was…messy. I'm not gonna lie, I feel a little bit cheated. When I first started watching Girlfriend, Girlfriend, it seemed like the show was just using the idea of polyamory as a new way of presenting us with a wacky harem comedy. While the show always stuck firmly to its comedic roots and made it clear that was always going to be one of its main priorities, I was genuinely surprised at how careful the writing progressively got as the series went on. It got to the point where some episodes were genuinely good not because of their comedic payoffs, but because of well-written character moments and surprisingly thoughtful insight into the struggles of trying out a serious, open relationship. It really seemed like the show wasn't doing this by accident, and was gradually moving in the direction of finding a balance between over-the-top comedy and thoughtful commentary. At least that's what I thought it was building towards until this last episode just kind of reset everything. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I'm a little disappointed that Girlfriend, Girlfriend decided to take this route.

When we last left off, we were getting into Nagisa's backstory regarding how this whole relationship dynamic is arguably the most unfair to her because she doesn't wanna rock the boat. She doesn't feel like the primary partner and keeps trying to assure everybody that she's content with waiting things out because she doesn't want all the hard work that she's put into getting closer to Naoya to go to waste. She accepts the fact that she was always going to be fighting a losing battle, and I kind of feel bad because that can be a struggle that pops up in actual polyamorous relationships. Sometimes partners are content with only receiving a certain degree of affection compared to others, and I sort of like how Naoya calls her out on her bullshit by saying that she's only doing things because she's afraid, not because it's what she genuinely wants. It's also great that she fired back by asking him what he would have done if Saki didn't give into his demands. The back-and-forth they have was shaping up to be the start of a conversation that was a long time coming regarding how the relationship dynamic isn't fair to anybody involved, and that the only reason why it has lasted this long is because people were either ignorant or holding back for the other. There wasn't any real communication going on, which can be a problem in any relationship. In other words, the setup is great and it feels like that's what these past four episodes have been building up to, but I can't say that I'm happy about the solution that they came to… because it doesn't feel like they came to a conclusion at all.

All the characters fully admit that the relationship dynamic is weird and frustrating, but the best thing they can come up with is that Nagisa is going to stop holding back while Naoya is just going to try harder to make both of them happy. Sure this sounds good on paper, but based on how Saki reacts to this, it just feels like we've gone back to this being a standard love triangle. This is no longer a relationship where the three of them are working in tandem towards something; instead, it honestly feels like everyone is more disconnected by the end because Nagisa and Saki have firmly established that they are going to be competing against each other like rivals to obtain that sense of priority. I genuinely cannot tell if this is what the writer has always been setting up, or if he got cold feet at the last minute and just immediately took a hard right back to how things were before.

None of this is helped by the fact that this was probably the weakest episode of the series in terms of presentation with a lot of still shots and a lot of those weird dramatic layering effects that the show was also prone to doing. The best thing about this episode was the implication that was left literally in its last five minutes but even then this feels like it's set up for season two where Saki's best friend is struggling with this dynamic because it makes it harder for her to give up Naoya romantically herself. It's interesting that the open relationship dynamic is almost framed here as a means of giving her a chance but she struggles with whether or not she even wants to walk down that route. That's interesting! I would love to see it go somewhere but until another season, that's not gonna happen. So the series just kind of ends on this weird little unfulfilling note. I really didn't want to rip into this episode as much as I have because there were so many nice moments throughout the series that I was genuinely surprised by and overall I had a funtime. I think the series had potential to be more than what it initially set up and to see it take this direction in the 11th hour it's honestly a shame.

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Girlfriend, Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.