1 in 100 (GFs) – This Week in Anime

Chris


Lucas, it’s only been a week since the third season finale, and I can already feel myself going through 100 Girlfriends withdrawals. Like Rentaro, I love all these girls so much!

But unlike Rentaro, I don’t know that I can love them all equally. To me, that means it’s the perfect time to send all these girls off by debating the age-old question of any ensemble romance: Who is the Best Girl(friend)?

The institution of the “Best Girl” (or “Best Boy” or “Best Enby”) in an anime is distinct from the discussion of “Waifu,” I feel like I should clarify to start. A waifu tends to denote some kind of attraction and doesn’t even have to be a main character ranked with the others. While the Best Girl in a romantic comedy ensemble (or a “rom-com ensem”) is all about actively calling who you think is the best, greatest character in the bunch. And there are a lot of criteria and granular elements to assess to narrow this dense field down to a decision.

Unless you’re me. The answer is Iku. Next question.

Obviously people’s personal predilections are going to factor into who they think of as “best,” and my appreciation for Sports Girlfriends is decently well broadcast at this point. Lynzee’s called me out on it a couple times, at least. I’m the guy who’s probably going for Nozomi on a Tokimeki Memorial playthrough, so I was pretty thrilled when the second season of 100 Girlfriends at last added its own Sports Girlfriend.

And yeah, her requisite characterization shoe drop moment (every girlfriend in this series gets one) revealing that she’s an enthusiastic masochist? How could I not love her?

It’s always fun when this series gives characters plots that aren’t wholly dependent on their specific gimmick, and I’m sure this will come up as we rank the other girls. But even as Iku doesn’t get quite as much time to shine in the third season due to the ever-expanding polycule size, she does also demonstrate how the anime gets mileage out of all the girls by finding connections that let them form potential sub-couples.

In Iku’s case, it’s her simmering realization that new Big Girlfriend Yamame could positively flatten her, and I for one am rooting for this baseball bestie to score in the way she’s craving.

I may be a BanG Dream! fan first, but I’ll still post this dog every Thursday.

I can absolutely see the appeal of Mei. Each one of the girlfriends is hypercompetent in their specific gimmicky niche, but Mei’s class specifically means she’s super-strong in a litany of arenas. This includes being the only one who can even kind of corral the terminally, troublesomely horny Hahari. She’s important to have around!

I also want to highlight how Mei is an instance of what’s become a neat little tradition for the last couple 100 Girlfriends seasons: The Secret Character Girlfriend! She was hanging around for several episodes without even a hint (for anime-onlies, anyway) that she was a candidate until partway through the second season!

That is part and parcel to the process of picking a Best character, and what I meant about setting them apart from a “waifu.” Moca’s my Best Girl in BanG Dream!, but I have nothing approaching simulated romantic interest in her: I actually relate super-hard to her and find that interpersonal insight makes me love following her. So I get you having that same feeling with Mei, and I appreciate how as the series has gone on we’ve gotten to see continued instances of her letting herself accept affection and being waited on herself.

100 Girlfriends has instances of big, sweeping character development moments in its run, but as with the developing sub-couplings between the girlfriends, I almost more appreciate glimpsing these tiny instances of them becoming more eased and comfortable in being themselves as they occupy this arrangement where they’re loved and accepted.

…or in the parlance of one girlfriend, more free to be exactly who they are.

An intro so powerful, Crunchyroll had to retcon it, the cowards.

Ol’ Naddy Ice is a character I’d been eyeing from manga readers posting for a while, so I was looking forward to her debut this season. Then just a little before the premiere, I caught that her full name was actually “Yamato Nadeshiko” and I thought “Okay, that’s a really good gag.” She was always primed to be a potential Best Girl, and that’s before her own screamingly funny characterization shoe drop moment.

Other instances of this sort of thing can obviously be in extremely poor taste, but as an American I’m giving Naddy a pass on this because she is great.

With Avengers: Endgame back in theaters this week, we are primed to make a joke about America’s Ass.

I will say, Naddy is so wonderful that she exemplifies a limitation 100 Girlfriends runs into occasionally: as the girlfriends increase, there are fewer chances for each one to get focus of their own. Naddy in particular doesn’t get quite as much to do as the third season goes on, which can be a little disappointing for someone who makes such an incredible impression out of the gate.

Yaku was this season’s Secret Character girlfriend, as they snuck her in without teasing her in either the premiere cold open or the OP. It works really well with her, as it forces you to at least momentarily reckon with the question of if Rentaro is actually going to date his 89-year-old grandmama-in-law.

And of course he is. This is 100 Girlfriends, I will be shocked if he doesn’t add at least another GMILF before this is all over.

It’s interesting, in Yaku’s case I’m not as bothered by her simply hanging around when she’s not shining. It helps that at her age it makes sense that she’d just kind of chill and vibe with all these kids who she can understand, tops, about 30% of the slang. And I know her very particular gimmick means she’s going to be a Best Girl to plenty of viewers out there.

There’s so much to this series that the translation and dubbing team is having fun with, and I respect their commitment to that dubbed version meaning more and more English dub actors are going have work so long as 100 Girlfriends seasons keep coming out.

And while giving absolutely everyone bits to do all the time is harder as the numbers go up, I also respect the anime’s efforts at making sure previous girlfriends get to come back for focus segments to keep them in the Best Girl conversation. During our pregame discussions for this debate, Lynzee threw in that her own Best Girlfriend was Nano, who got a couple good portions to herself this season!

Granted, one was a pretty…small part.

Yeah, she’s another character you can tell the people behind the series have an especial fondness for. And because she’s been around since the first season, she’s quietly demonstrated a lot of growth over so much of the series. You can see how she’s gotten more comfortable interacting interpersonally with the rest of the family, with her shrinky-dink focus episode this season even focusing more on her willingness to rely on others, instead of primarily focusing on her efficiency fixation.

The more a character grows (or shrinks, I guess), the more different facets they can show off to provide a reason for them to be in consideration for the “Best.” Never mind that Nano got to show off caring for others in the penultimate episode of the season anyway.

She’s the only Eiai anyone should have for a girlfriend.

Ah, we’ve been talking about the Best Girls in this series, so it’s only fair to recognize how it managed to introduce an unequivocal Worst Girl.

It’s especially wild after the earlier stuff with Naddy’s parental estrangement was played pretty hard for laughs. The whole show just turns pointedly dark and dour when Shizuka’s mom is involved, and to it’s credit it’s extremely well done and only ups the protectability of Shizuka herself. But man, is it way rougher than people might’ve been primed to expect.

Props for what it does for Rentaro, Nano, and Shizuka herself, though. Especially in Shizuka’s case it was fun to watch this storyline raise her own Best Girl stocks, as her flappy game of charades propelled her to escape velocity as a little meme over the week. She’s doing great!

If 100 Girlfriends‘s most notable flaw is “All the girls are so great I wish they could find a way to let them do even more,” then its girls must all be their own flavor of Best. Some of them aren’t my personal faves for a few reasons—I love that Momiji’s one of the most explicitly bisexual from the jump, but her whole deal is pretty basic, Kishika came in so late I think she needs a little more seasonal time to shine, and Kurumi is criminally underutilized—but there’s not an out-and-out loser in the bunch.

Given that they didn’t even get to the Gyaru Girlfriend by the third season’s end, it shows there are still so many sights for them to show us.

This girl got one of the biggest laughs out of me in the season finale, and you’re relegating her to second-string tsundere?

Good lord…

What I’m hearing is that I have a whole heaping helping of reasons to finally just go ahead and catch up with the manga version of 100 Girlfriends. I hope the anime version’s continued to be successful and I want them to keep making more. Every season’s made it into ANN’s own Best Of roundups, and it seems like we spend at least one column here on TWIA talking it up any time it’s airing. But I also don’t want them to rush in turning out such a measured adaptation where, as we’ve discussed, they clearly have a lot of appreciation for these girls as Rentaro and the audience do.

We didn’t even get to talk about how Rentaro is a Best Boy among Best Boys in a show where he’s basically the only guy. 100 Girlfriends really is the Best Girlfriends!

One of those who isn’t Rentaro himself anyway, since it turns out he’s also the Best at that.

That’s a whole lot of Best Girls, but like the best relationships, they should just push us all to become better ourselves.