This Week in Anime

100 Girlfriends Is The Endgame Of Harem Anime

Nick
I'll do ya one better, Chris. Instead of talking about a show with two measly girlfriends in the title, let's do about 50 at once. That's how we'll earn the big anime bucks.

We must go further! Decades of harem anime have been developed to achieve this, the next step in evolution. If we remain satisfied choosing just a single girl in each show, we'll never expand our horizons to the stars!

There's a weird amount of serendipity this season. We've got two rapping shows, two racing shows, and now two shows about the good word of polyamory.

Honestly, I feel kind of bad for Girlfriend, Girlfriend. Not only is its author deep in debt thanks to buying too many fancy wristwatches, but it has to compete against a show that goes harder than it in every single way. It's Allen Iverson vs Tyronn Lue, but for cartoons about polygamy.

I think it's a fair comparison. Where Girlfriend, Girlfriend flirts with the idea of polyamory, it seems fully convinced that Naoya will inevitably have to choose just one partner to have a "real" relationship. Whether that's the show's official statement about poly romance in general or just the reality of this particular group of idiots is up to debate. Still, it ultimately leaves the show in the same place as any other harem romcom, leading up to an eventual "winner" in the game of love.

It's certainly a formula that's paid dividends before, but I've never really liked how the discussion of these series hinges so heavily on who "wins" in a given series. Just that terminology insists that any ending for a character that doesn't involve them getting with their crush is a failure. So for all that it's silly and over-the-top, I respect that Rentaro's story throws the idea of competition out the window as soon as possible.

I mean, who could be a greater expert in hiding their true feelings?

When you solve the question of who gets to smooch the main dude immediately, you can spend time developing rapport and relationships between the love interests rather than setting them against each other! You can also get down to a whole lot more smooching too.

I also love how every new character comes with her own mini-love story. The spark of romance may come down to destiny, but the actual process of Rentaro getting to know each girl allows them to explore different ideas around love and romance. I can think of very few anime that have handled something like Shizuka's selective mutism with so much empathy and compassion.

Rentaro's heart is like a diesel engine. It took a while to get it running right, but it can keep on burning forever once it does.

In a genre where the male leads are usually either a milquetoast Nice Guy or a slobbering douchebag with a secret nice side, Rentaro is an absolute maestro of love.

Please, Chris, you can't forget his powerful eyebrows. They're his true charm point!

I wouldn't put it past them to have Rentaro be the secret 100th girlfriend, and the final moral is to learn to really, really, really love yourself.

See, that's where my expertise as a Harem Connoisseur comes in handy. I've sampled many of these and can help us discern between the trash, the merely trashy, and the purestrain garbage that's not worth sitting through. Hint: the latter category mainly consists of any harem series that's also an isekai.

That's because many of these authors do not understand the true appeal of a harem. Philistines might think it's all about wish fulfillment, of allowing the viewer to indulge themselves through the vicarious romances of the male lead, but it's actually in building a stealth ensemble comedy that can work double as an occasional romantic drama. You have to make the girls distinct and memorable and craft a unique connection with the MC so the audience can get attached to them as they fill a new role within the group dynamic. Just tossing a bunch of generic designs and personalities on the wall gives away that you don't care.

You are the one who ended up unironically liking How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, so you brought it on yourself.

Much like its whole slave gimmick, that show makes its trashy premise work by giving the girls distinct personalities and allowing them to fall for Diablo through their own stories rather than tossing them on the pile. That's really what separates these series and why many isekai-adjacent ones fall flat: they don't care much about any individual character, but just the sheer amount.

I lost any respect for that series when the manga cowardly crafted an individual ending for every love interest. They establish a cut-off point at a specific chapter and tell you to start reading the volume-length ending arc for your preferred candidate.

It is that lack of commitment. Part of what can make picking a "winner" meaningful is that it still offers a chance at closure to the characters' arcs. With We Never Learn's approach, it keeps each relationship in stasis to resolve it in its timeline, like the opening act of a dating sim, but it lasts 80% of the series. That means many of those love stories are stretched out and weakly resolved.

Meanwhile, if you want a childhood friend to win, let me suggest Nisekoi: False Love, where the secret is that all the girls are secretly childhood friends. Also, one of the girls spends 10+ episodes hating the main character's guts.

Too bad, I've been stumping for this series for over a decade, and I don't plan to stop. Seriously though, the Nisekoi manga commits itself fully to its final couple in a way that's satisfying not just for them but also for the rest of the cast. It builds entire arcs as final sendoffs for the other girls and gives them closure that's genuinely touching and occasionally even devastating for the characters.

You should probably check out The Quintessential Quintuplets while you're at it. It's not quite as good, but it manages to make for a pretty fun time and develop the characters in unique ways—despite them having the same face.

Oh, that's an easy question, Tsubaki. She's the Best Girl.

It felt that way by season two, and stuff like only having male love interests available in the spin-off game tells me that somebody is badly missing the point of that whole setup's appeal. Half the fun of harems is in exploring different forms of love!

If we want to talk about harem shows that don't get it, I must bring up Rent-A-Girlfriend, a show as woefully unable to commit as its main character. Heck, season 3 gives up any pretense and sidelines 75% of the harem for a season-long story about Chizuru.

Ironically, it's easily the show's best material, but still. We deserved more Mami.

I mean, at least one girlfriend should probably be in jail, but we'll get to her eventually.

Aw dammit, who spoiled you on the catgirl girlfriend?

Fair. However, I hope that 100 Girlfriends will prove to be enough of a success to spur further evolution in the genre. To any aspiring harem authors out there, I say let yourselves be free from the shackles of monotonous monogamy. Embrace the true power of love, and go crazy out there. What's the worst that could happen?