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)?
Lucas
I couldn't agree more, Chris! While Rentaro is certainly an aspirational figure and we should all strive to love women as much as he does, we're critics, and that means it's our job to analyze, interpret, and evaluate media like The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You as well as the characters in it!
We're up to 17 of these lovely ladies in the anime and 37 of them in the manga! And while Rentaro is right to love them all, I think we can all agree that some of these characters have more going on under the hood than others, or even just a stronger gimmick than their contemporaries. That's why I couldn't be more excited to join you in this 100 GFs Best Girl Battle Royale!!!
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?
Oh my god, yes! Sporty, masochist tomboy is such a powerful combination! I especially appreciate how 100 GFs manages to make Iku look super heckin cute without relying on the visual language and shortcuts that anime usually use to make an audience like a character!
She even gets some breakout moments where she expresses anxiety over her femininity without it devolving into the trope of "I'm self-conscious about my breast size." For as often as 100 GFs uses her for a quick gag or break in the narrative tension, this character is touching on a good amount of grounding material that we don't see in popular media all that often!
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.
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.
Listen, when a character makes this big of an impression right out of the gate, how can I not fall in love with them immediately???
Also, never forget...what Crunchyroll took from us by changing this localization.
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.
Dude, I've got to talk to fans of the series in Japan about Naddy, because her whole westabo schtick and how it's casually a roast of Americans and American culture is why I, as an American, think she's in contention for the best girl title!
The idea of a young woman being so indoctrinated into traditional, suppressive Japanese culture that it reverse-polarizes her into idealizing American culture is already an inspired idea. Taking it one step further into Naddy only really being familiar with superficial American aesthetics and therefore making her every line of dialogue a critique of a country that absolutely deserves global ridicule is nothing less than genius!
It's so rare that a character this fun is also informed by such clever writing! Though, it definitely doesn't hurt that everyone involved in this project seems to really enjoy drawing Naddy when they have the opportunity!
Agreed, through as someone who's caught up on the manga, I'm happy to report that the spotlight is regularly turned on Naddy, even as the cast grows further, and is even teeing up some bigger story beats for her down the line.
And, even if Naddy does get sidelined in season three shortly after showing up, I did think it was fun that she was pretty quickly buddied up with the best loli-grandma in all of anime, Yaku Yakuzen.
It is so much fun for me personally to see these two characters together as, on paper, they have SO MUCH in common, but their idiosyncrasies making nearly impossible for them to even have a conversation. They're both such silly characters with such specific gimmicks, and they make the best parts of the other shine even brighter when they're on screen together!
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.
Yeah~ Yaku is one of those characters in 100 GFs whose gimmick is so specific that it's hard to fit her into most storylines, but she's cute enough that she brings the vibe up just by being there!
Though I'll admit that I'm a little bummed that the otherwise spectacular 100 GFs English Dub hasn't found a great way to incorporate Yaku's "doesn't understand loan words" gag from the original Japanese version of the series so far; but fingers crossed these creases get worked out a bit as the show goes on!
Beyond having a really strong "less is more" character design in a series where characters need to be distinctly recognizable, I think Nano is automatically in best girl contention for anyone who has to be a grounding presence for other people in their life.
While Nano's hyper competence is incredible and the show is rightfully rizzing her up about it regularly, it's also isolating and leads to her having strained social connections as her talents are antithetical to her learning the soft skills necessary for interpersonal relationships. The fact that Nano has gotten at least one breakout episode every season is proof to me that 100 GFs sees the universality in a character that's learning to connect with people outside of what she can do for them with her hyper-competency, and that's really great to see.
It also helps that Nano is so often paired up with ultimate smol bean Shizuka, who is also definitely a favorite of the folks working on this show!
While not my personal favorite as "must protec" characters don't often do a lot for me, the show has a lot of fun with her timidity and I had completely forgotten how hard the stuff with her mom goes until the season three finale rolled around!
A parent not being able to meet their child while simultaneously frustrated with what they perceive as their child's shortcomings is a VERY real dynamic, and I'm still floored with how well this anime, which is also aggressively horny and just a few episodes ago introduced an ageless grandma girlfriend, handled this very sensitive situation.
As Aashii Kedarui is a pretty passive character, I do worry that she's going to get sidelined fairly quickly once she shows up in season four, but considering a big part of her appeal is "no thoughts, head empty," that might be fine actually.
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.
Listen, I'm not even the biggest Kurumi stan, but there has got to be a better use for a hangry girl other than just deploying her as a straight man when Karane has filled that role one too many times lately!
This girl got one of the biggest laughs out of me in the season finale, and you're relegating her to second-string tsundere?
Kurumi deserves to be a headliner, damnit! Though, I could say the same for the upcoming alcoholic girl fail (that I will ping Sylvia about when she arrives), tanned karate girl, an "I'm a healer, but..." girlfriend, and the burnt-out catgirl that I think might literally rewire a bunch of people's brain chemistry when she shows up in the anime.
You're right! With all these best girls in the show already I completely forgot to get on my soapbox about how the series needs to introduce a girlfriend who is a boy already! (the people yearn for a boi girlfriend!!!)
Hmmm, it just now occurred to me that 100 GFs hasn't done a gender swap storyline yet, which also only feels like a matter of time and like it will awaken something in a lot of people...
And yes! I want nothing more for us to get a new season of 100 Girlfriends every year to year-and-a-half until the heat death of the universe, as that seems to be the production cadence sweet spot for the folks at Bibury on this production! In the meantime, though, I can only hope that the enduring success of 100 GFs inspires other romcom writers to step up their game, and that we start getting more introspective, nuanced, and hilarious characters in this genre to fill in those gap years.
