Name: 100 Kanojo Review – Came looking for thrash and found peak fiction
Item: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You
Rating: 100
Author: zorbak962

Waifra

100 Kanojo Review – Came looking for thrash and found peak fiction · Waifora

The 100 Girlfriends who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You. Oh, I know what you’re thinking. I thought the same thing. This is another run-of-the-mill, silly seasonal anime that maybe gathered a bit of a cult following because of how stupid the premise is. And I can’t blame you (or myself) for that. Everything about the title sets your expectations for that kind of show. So I decided to give it a try even though it had been on my radar for at least a year or more and found probably one of my favorite anime of all time. This is seriously, unironically, a gem of a series!
Where do I even start? I guess the very out-there title/premise makes it a hard sell to begin with. The title is pretty self-explanatory, a protag-kun with 100 girlfriends. Your mind immediately thinks it knows what you’re getting into: in an anime landscape flooded with harems, this one’s pushing the number of girls to stand out. Not exactly 4-D chess. It evokes the same eye-rolling reaction from seeing a title like World’s End Harem or any of those Isekai “That Time I went Here and This Happened and That’s This Anime’s Excuse of a Plot”. Again, I get it. But if you can get past that you’ll find a very satisfying, at times even emotional, and above all else FUN series to enjoy.
I’m not going to pretend to be some harem connoisseur, but you only need to watch a couple of shows to get the gist of it: a bland protag-kun meant to be a self-insert for a Japanese teenage boy gets a bunch of girls to fall in love with him head-over-heels for some reason. That reason is usually A) a very basic act of human decency that makes him the nicest of Nice Guys ™. Or B) because he is a super badass, stupidly overpowered edgelord (usually in a fantasy setting) who is just so damn cool every girl loves him. So far I’ve said nothing new; harem series are a vehicle for wish fulfillment. They’re anime junk food: dumb, formulaic and they seemingly print money. But this is all just a way to get several girls romantically involved with the protagonist as quickly as possible to establish the harem.
The way this show goes about justifying its ludicrous premise is via a god who gives protagonist Rentaro 100 soulmates by accident, with the added caveat that if a person doesn’t end up with their soulmate, they are doomed to die. Not exactly galaxy-brain but it gives a very nice justification for characters falling in love at first sight. He gets an Hotel-Transylvania (I completely stole this reference from other reviews) type of zing to signal a new soulmate has been found.
Now, two things to keep in mind. This is, after all, a harem, which a lot of people would reasonably dismiss as something gross because it’s inherently sexist. If that’s you, there’s nothing I can say that can possibly get you interested in this series. No amount of fun anime bullshit will change your mind. Then again, if you’re even reading this, you probably are open-minded about it to approach this series with the right suspension of disbelief. If not, that’s completely fine. This just isn’t for you. The other thing, also strongly tied to suspension of disbelief, is just how silly the amount of love interests. Even with polyamory becoming more accepted, you can maybe sell the idea of two or three partners, but one hundred clearly draws a line. This series is clearly not taking itself seriously on that end, nor expecting you two.
With that out of the way, what makes 100 Girlfriends better than your standard, run-of-the-mill harem? Well, one of the series’ biggest strengths is really just showing how low the bar is by clearing it easily. So if you’ve watched any lesser shows, harem or even romcoms, you can tell within the first couple of episodes:
• The MC is a moron and/or coward: protag-kun is either completely oblivious to the fact the girls like him or just tiptoes around his own feeling. The kind of annoying “why don’t they just say they like each other?” excuse for tension these shows have. Rentaro is a wholesome gigachad of a character, but he’s not flawless. He constantly is grateful and happy for their companionship. And most importantly, he clearly shows romantic interest in his girlfriends and acts on it (and is reciprocated). Wild concept, right?
• The girls are cardboard cutouts: they are limited to a single trope, which 100 Girlfriends seems to also do at first. But trust me, they become more layered as time goes on. And even when they’re introduced as a clear archetype, the series is self-aware enough to point it out (the series acknowledges this without quite going into parody territory).
• There is a “main girl”, defeating the whole point of a harem: there is no pretension of polyamory, there is always a girl with whom the protagonist will clearly end up, making the rest of the girls extras. Not here. It’s clearly established that all girls are equally important. This also makes the eternal debate of “best girl” a lot more interesting.
• They do a bunch of will-they-won’t-they BS: even the better romcoms thrive on this, and a lot of people (myself included) find it infuriating. The characters in 100 have agency, they show their interest and affection, as mentioned in the previous point. They actually act as romantic partners.
You’ll notice I haven’t gotten into the specific girl characters, and that’s because it’s more fun to meet them for yourself as you go along. What I can say is that, other than the fact that all girls receive traits, character and design-wise, as well as backstories and motivations, they have different dynamics with Rentaro and amongst each other. And the show constantly keeps them relevant. You’d think a show like this would follow a simple of formula of introducing a girl, giving her the spotlight in her episode, then move on to the next girl, leaving her in the background. But no, they all continue to grow and play a role in the story. The balancing act this show has given the size of its cast is seriously impressive.
Much like the variety of girls, this show does an awesome job of jumping from one thing to another at a very fast pace, then slowing down when it needs to. Some episodes are dedicated to meeting a new girl, others to participate in a group activity where you get to see their dynamic. Some are very casual, slice-of-life type episodes, while others go completely batshit insane and into fantasy territory. Some moments are absolutely hilarious, while others are genuinely emotional and heartfelt. I’ve never been able to get into comedy anime, always feeling like maybe Japanese humor isn’t for me, but this show has had me WHEEZING. On the other hand, I rarely (if ever) cry with movies or TV, let alone anime. Tragic backstories usually just come off as melodramatic. But this show had me bawling on episode 3. There’s only so much one can say about these moments without going into boring detail or giving spoilers. Also, because the characters constantly show their affection for one another, both physically but also as people, 100 girlfriends has many moments that had me giddy with how cute their interactions are.
There’s so much I can say, but I can see my arguments less and less structured as this review goes on. There is so much to enjoy about this series that it genuinely caught me off guard and made me a fan in record time, an experience that I’d never had with an anime before. Of course, I ran and bought the manga and started reading. I’ve read a lot of people praise this as the harem to end all harems, not because of the number of girls but because of how memorable they are. I can’t recommend this series enough!