The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

Episodes 13-14

Everyone integrates into the polycule at their own pace. That said, 100 Girlfriends has tended to feature a pretty regular rate at which its multitude of mates get familiar with each other. First, as in the second season's premiere, a new girl like Kurumi crosses into Rentaro's field of vision, and like some polyamorous Pokémon trainer, he immediately leaps into action to win her heart. It's then in the following episode that the given new girl gets to know the other girlfriends, giving viewers an idea of how their gimmick will work within the dynamic of this eventually hundred-strong harem.

Episode 13 was a strong return to form for the overall antics of the Rentaro Family and a solid introduction to funny little food gremlin girlfriend Kurumi. It's natural to follow that up with the standoffish eating machine warming up to her fellow gal-pals. With the fourteenth episode, a natural consequence of that strong structure starts to become apparent. That is, with each additional girlfriend, that's one more member of the cast that each new addition is going to need to include in her interactions. These character connections are getting exponential, the kind of romance math that can only be calculated when writing an equation to eventually solve for 100.

Coming back to 100 Girlfriends in last week's season premiere episode, I was delighted to see something like the body-switching shenanigans as a way to get viewers reacquainted with each girl, their gimmick, and how they bounce off each other (and Rentaro). But a week later, oh right, lining these things up so that each girl gets a chance to shine is just what the series does. The anime is like Rentaro himself, always wanting to promote what's great about all of them. No girlfriend left behind. It's great because it creates situations where both characters and viewers are still discovering new sides of these sister wives. Whether it's finding out that Shizuka's tiny baby mouth is an asset in situations like needing to effectively chew tea boba or seeing Nano demonstrate her fear of heights as the most efficient mechanism to force herself to finish a serving of sushi, this is why doing activities as a family is important: you learn new things about the people you love, such as their gag reflex (or lack thereof).

The other point is that as girlfriends pile up, particular connections between some of them will need to be forged. Just because each girl already "won" the Rentaro relationship doesn't mean a wild web of other love lines can't be charted. Kurumi seems to have been generally won over by the family—she happily samples all their rainbow-colored gelato, after all—but a few lines sprinkled here and there indicate she might be predisposed to particularly getting on with Karane. It's only natural, Karane is the alpha tsundere in the group, a trait Kurumi affects that waxes and wanes with her hangriness. It's downright heartwarming to see one tsundere earnestly (that is, passive-aggressively) encouraging another. I hope they get more bits together, though don't think this means I've stopped shipping Karane with Hakari.

Communicating all these characters means I must also shout out the localization for this simulcast. Compared to some of the other sub-jobs hosted by Crunchyroll, the team on 100 Girlfriends is here to have a blast with the material. The season premiere features the brilliant line "An embarrassment of bitches" while the fourteenth episode gifts viewers with gems like "Our girlfriends are in danger of becoming hurlfriends." They even go the extra mile, translating all the incidental on-screen text in the opening theme (and there is some gold in there). 100 Girlfriends is a series that thrives on mile-a-minute nonsense, so the translation must match that tone.

The late, great Nick Dupree, my predecessor on these episode reviews and 100 Girlfriends lover extraordinaire, made a point of including bonus images in his reviews to make sure all the girlfriends were highlighted, in the interest of fairness. And in the interest of fairness, I feel it's only right for me to continue that practice, so if you will, enjoy this smorgasbord of all the different flavors of girlfriends in this spread.

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Chris has watched at least 100 anime, and really really really really really thought most of them were at least okay. You can peruse his thoughts on those and other subjects over on his blog, or see which cartoon girlfriends he's reposting art of over on his BlueSky.