The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 3 ‒ Episode 35
It means an actual, dedicated Hahari segment gets to be a lot more earnest about her desires beyond just getting hot and bothered by younger girls like she regularly does. Honestly, if I was feeling generously analytical, this entry provides more evidence that Hahari's…antics are driven by the parts of her younger years she missed out on due to her wild upbringing and entry into motherhood. So beyond her yearning for the youths, she's had passing moments where she wants to flash back to her own girlhood, and of course that's what Rentaro picks up on in taking her out on a date this episode.
For as over-the-top as it is, Rentaro's efforts as a boyfriend could actually go a long way as emulatable advice for anyone looking to learn how to be a good partner. Yes, he's superhuman in that he can do it to keep up with 17 people, some of whom are absolute cryptids, but at the end of the day he's simply staying attentive to what his loved ones say they'd like, and then delivering on it. So he lets Hahari dress as a high schooler for their date, and takes her to a destination designed after her favorite childhood toy and TV show. It's cute, and funny enough in places, but sheer basic understanding of regular relationship rules is what ties it all together for me.
That said, the writing still uses Rentaro's superhuman attentiveness to fuel some great jokes, especially by the trivia contest at the end. Confirming that Hahari's childhood teddy toy had its design changed specifically because she wouldn't stop making out with it got me to ugly laugh as only 100 Girlfriends can. And of course it's still tied into the "heartwarming" nature of Rentaro and Hahari's connection since it's all predicated on him loving her for who she is, insane eccentricities and all. It naturally winds up going back to her concerns about her age and missed childhood, as Rentaro reinforces that he would "want to be with who you are now every time." It really is that simple—funny, but also right about relationship.
So take that propelling concept of accepting your loved ones for who they are and mix it up with another mother, and 100 Girlfriends delivers the second stretch of this episode, and the seeming setup for another finale-grade plot. It's also another one of those "meet the parents" stories it's been dipping into lately, and confirms it won't always be easy. The mom to meet in this case is Shizuka's, and the audience is dropped into the mother and daughter's calculatedly dreary home life before any of the other characters enter. It's an arresting, immediate departure that sets up the stakes purely on visuals, making apparent that 100 Girlfriends is going for one of its odd serious setups.
At first it's simply melancholy, made out by Shizuka not having her phone and thus not being able to speak. It's cute watching her attempts to charade her communications, as well as naturally sweet watching the rest of the family accommodate her. Of course, this mostly applies to her preferential galpal Nano, who gets to realize, along with the audience, just how endearing Shizuka is, verbal communication or no. New, non-talky ways of expressing herself, glimpsed like her little hair strands flapping up and down, reinforce how lethally cute she is, and propel Nano to go for it…as much as she needs to actively "go for it" with a girl she's already in a polycule with. Is that inefficient? I'm sure Nano has crunched the numbers.
What she's also calculated is that Shizuka's behavior is affected beyond not having her phone. Even before the reveal, though, the anime's commitment to the quiet, contemplative atmosphere propelled by the efficient Nano and the silent Shizuka is positively stunning. It's not that 100 Girlfriends hasn't done serious before; it's that in this particular case it makes that out-of-character tone feel in-character. This is how these quieter characters would communicate in this context. It feels right for them while also signaling how something is wrong with Shizuka's communication methods. And as it turns out with Shizuka's phone, it's not that anything is broken; it's that something was taken away.
Shizuka's always been a character whose traits of tiny helplessness were effectively played for laughs and moe appeal. But the desire to protect she elicited was earnest, and in this instance, learning that her own mother callously took away her main means of communicating with her loved ones—stole her voice—prompts a feeling of genuine anger on her behalf in both the characters and the audience. Shizuka's mom comes off every bit the unsympathetically selfish parent who is incensed that their child (whom they feel they have ownership of) didn't turn out "right" and is forcibly trying to correct that. I admit it's possible, likely even, that there's more to the story which will be touched on next week, but I don't know that the series needs to consider making excuses for her. Simply showing how Shizuka's time talking with Rentaro and the rest of her family has let her grow in her own way ought to be enough to prove her mom wrong.
With that in mind, Shizuka's mom is shown to be incorrect in her assumptions just from Nano and Rentaro resolving to help the little girlfriend the instant she opens up about what's going on. Like with Hahari in the first half of this episode and so many others throughout the show, Rentaro loves his girlfriends for who they are, and unlike Shizuka's mom, doesn't want to change her. From the first time he met her, it's been about acceptance and accommodation in having her as part of his life. Again, all basic relationship navigation, but it's valuable to make clear to people in this context—and righteous in Rentaro heading off to declare it to Shizuka's mother. That honestly makes it even stronger that the show so wholly shifts into serious mode for this segment: Shizuka's ways are not just some character quirk to be mined for laughs; they are who she is and should be taken as seriously as any other romantic relationship. That's dedication from the story of 100 Girlfriends, as dedicated as Rentaro is to his 100 girlfriends.
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The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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 and see which cartoon girlfriends he's reposting art of over on his BlueSky.
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