I'll be straightforward in my points and won't delve into too much details, just wanted to shed some light on points I haven't seen discussed much.
To start with the positives, this season was still a great watch and I did love it. The biggest praise I have for this season is the way the previous girlfriends are still relevant in the story and their screen-time does not feel cheated in any way. When more and more girlfriends are added - this will become an inevitable issue (unless they do 3-hour episodes) but that doesn't apply here.
The next thing was the creativity of making the new girlfriends engage in activities with the family in order for them to integrate nicely. The fact that all the girls have their own interests and friendships outside their relationship with Rentaro is the peak factor and what makes 100 Kanojo the best harem.
But there are 3 things in this season that I wasn't a fan of compared to the 1st.
The first is the overusage in 4th-wall breaking - this show was never going to be a super immersive, thoughtful story, but nontheless, I didn't enjoy the 4th-wall being broken almost every episode. It didn't need to have it to emphasise that it's a parody. That is already apparent with its insane premise.
Secondly, the number of references - I felt as though the references made to other media felt too direct in their mentioning. Of course, I recall the iconic Kara no Kyoukai power-up from season 1, but this season, it was throwing names of titles around too often for my liking.
Lastly, and the most important point, in my opinion, is the amplification of the supernatural element of this story and the tone change that resulted from it. It seems this series is shifting to a preferred tone from here on, which is to lean more into its exaggerated, stupid and fun atmosphere. Now, this is still great to watch because 100 Kanojo's comedy is incredible, but for me, it takes away from some of the feelings I had when watching the previous girlfriends' stories. A couple of examples are the super saiyan transformation in the baseball game and the entire Hahari hair episode - I felt as though it was out of place in Iku's trauma story and learned nothing of meaning in the Hahari episode.
The moments in this show I absolutely loved - aside from romance, ridiculous fanservice, comedy is the way Rentaro is able to delve into each girl's hearts and resonate with them. Nano's episode in season 1 is a good example of which her outlook on life has changed and the principles she lived by she began to doubt. Rentaro showed her the value of fun times.
In this season, there were flashes of these wholesome messages of course - the tactic Rentaro used to teach Mei to appreciate herself more was beautiful. It was still rushed, but compared with the other new girlfriends such as Mimimi, Kurumi, Meme, I didn't find their stories as enticing. It was instead filled with fun games, like the food and the beauty contest, the hide and seek etc, which were still entertaining sure, but didn't make me care for them on the same level.
The biggest letdown from this season for me is the lost tsundere arc. Comparing the tone to that of the Hakari retrieval arc is a revelation of the now intended direction of this story. The supernatural elements used back there were just a means to infiltrate the mansion further, which led to good, emotional dialogue between the characters. Karane slapping Hakari was a strong moment to name one. The Hahari story on the side was excellent too.
However, here, we have a great arc idea and are left with Karane taking medicine straight away - it would have been more genuine growth if she came over her tsundere side while in her tsundere mode. But by first stripping her personality in this way, the acceptance of her tsundere attitude and wanting to go back was too fast in my opinion.
The main plot and resolution of the arc is a Spirit Bomb of Tsunderays.... well...again, it all ties back to the increase of the supernatural scale and the show becoming more comedic.
Ahh, just not ideal because Karane is my favourite character.
It isn't what I hoped for, but still, I really enjoyed this season even if it seems like I didn't very much with all this yapping.
Hoping for a Season 3 and will read manga should it take too long.
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