Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Episode 6

This show is an absolute trip. One minute it seems to almost accidentally give really compelling insight about the struggles of being non-monogamous in a predominantly monogamous society and then the next minute, it just continues to build on the insanity with a cheeky sense of self-awareness. I feel like I should be getting some kind of mood whiplash considering how spontaneous things are on a moment-to-moment basis but it all just kind of...works, and I guess it's my job to keep figuring out how.

Naoya was at the forefront of this episode and – dare I say it – I actually empathize with his position for the first time. My problem with the character from jump was the fact that he seemed to just fall in love a little too easily and that came at the expense of those around him. Here, the character is displaying a sense of self-awareness regarding his overwhelming capacity to recognize the hard work of others to the point where he can easily foresee himself falling in love again. Yes, he considers all the girls present attractive physically but as we saw at the beginning with Nagisa, it's the actual dedication that wins him over and Rika is nothing if not dedicated. Naoya is trying to have foresight and stop an outcome that would lead to more people getting hurt – even if that means having Rika hate him (seriously though if he doesn't care about her hating him, just call the police dude). That is actual genuine character growth that I thought the show would straight-up never address, but here it is on full display!

I admittedly do feel a little bit conflicted about the fact that he's basically telling his girlfriends that they shouldn't trust him. However, he actually does have a point regarding the fact that not only has this already happened before, it's also literally what started this whole show! So I respect the efforts that he's making to ensure that it doesn't happen again (as extreme as they are); he's already hurt one girlfriend, so he's going to try his best to make sure he doesn't hurt two. Plus, that self-awareness does still have a limit since it's that same honesty that ironically causes Rika to genuinely fall for him. Yea it's super cliche (right down to the disapproving parent) and I was sort of hoping that we would have continued to subvert this trope, but the fact that Saki and Nagisa literally give commentary on the cliche as it happens in real-time was kinda great. Seriously, this feels like characters really struggling to come to terms with the fact that they are ethically non-monogamous without actually crossing that line of self-realization. Maybe they will down the road? I don't know; it's hard to say since this show has offered one surprise after another, and I certainly welcome more.

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Girlfriend, Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.