The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 3 ‒ Episode 36
Last week's 100 Girlfriends set up a finale-level event surrounding one of the girlfriends, and now this week's finale episode delivers…technically. That is, the resolution of Shizuka's plot is a key part of this episode. Still, it hardly fills the entire entry, so the resolution is quicker and less dramatic than the structure might have suggested (anime-only viewers, anyway). The rest of the episode features plenty of girlfriend hijinks, as one would expect, and even wraps up by reinforcing the joys that come through the power of polyamory. It's technically a fine episode of 100 Girlfriends. But is that enough?
One reason I will acquiesce to a quicker resolution, with Shizuka's mom being preferable, is that this lady is such a piece of work that spending more time than necessary would drag down the anime's affable tone. Even as it's affecting a "serious" approach for this storyline (which it did so well last week), there are limits. Getting harsher confirmation that Shizuka's mother is the poorly considering parent who has an obsession with "fixing" her different child is rough enough; confirming that this includes her physically abusing Shizuka tilts it so far into unsympathetic territory that it's a wonder Rentaro doesn't end up on the news going to his girlfriend's defense. I appreciate 100 Girlfriends's interest in exploring new storytelling tenors and its general success at performing them. It's just a bit jarring that it's now necessary to include content warnings for some viewers in this funny ha-ha harem comedy.
The frustration, at least, is intentional, felt by Rentaro and the audience in parallel as all involved burn with the knowledge of how much progress Shizuka has made over time. It's one of the points that makes straining against her mother's words so palpable. It's the comedy of the collective harem setup played for dramatic irony…as well as regular comedic irony. It's a genuine sign of this series' mastery of its material that, even in this dead-serious context, it can work in a line like Shizuka's mom confidently, cluelessly saying, "...there's no reason Shizuka is the only one for you." If only she knew.
Unlike other iterations of meeting the parents, however, the whole polyamory point isn't a factor in Rentaro changing this mom's mind. What he can declare is a resounding refrain of the point that was so effectively iterated with Hahari last week: Rentaro loves his girlfriends for exactly who they are, not for who he wants them to be. It's good old genuine Rentaro, and alongside Shizuka's halting, desperate efforts to communicate the truth of that love herself, it might just be enough to get you misty-eyed.
If that's enough for us playing along at home, it should have been enough to sway Shizuka's mom, but it still can't help feeling a bit cheap, clean, and quick when it inevitably happens. She ruminates, in an internal pity party for her mom's sake, and realizes her treatment of Shizuka stemmed from self-loathing over what she saw as her own failings as a parent. I don't have to hand that to her, but I can see how being shown that those weren't failings at all might cause her to turn. But it's still hard to see Shizuka get her phone back and tacitly forgive her mother over casual breakfast conversation as an immediate, heartening turnaround. But then, how long should a series like 100 Girlfriends linger on breaking the cycle of generational trauma and forgiving the intentions of abuse? This is the show where the lead is also dating his age-regressed grandmother-in-law and his American-cosplaying teacher.
Getting back to them and all the others is the whole point of the rest of the episode. It's the ending; they just need to let people, and Rentaro, enjoy spending time with his septendecimtet of girlfriends. It's fun and funny to see how the ballooned group goes through a day in the life, including walking to school all together. It also reinforces how some have gotten shortchanged thus far, such as that it had been so long since it came up that I'd forgotten about Yamame's pyrophobia. But Rentaro didn't. That's the point, really: that by spending time with them, through Rentaro, everything that's really, really, really, really, really lovable about these girlfriends can be brought back to the fore. I like the way they're able to highlight new interactions made possible, like Momiji enthusiastically helping to massage all the girls, and the consternated "MTR" reaction she prompts in Kusuri when she outdoes her on a massage given to Yaku. Also, there's just an all-timer gag of awkwardly spaced silence as Kurumi contemplates the possibility that Hahari wants her to baby-bird her a bit of some big beef jerky.
I could go on the bullet list of pitch-perfect gags in this stretch. It's 100 Girlfriends; this is what it excels at. It's nice to see Big Kusuri again for a moment after so long. It's heartwarming, in its own way, that Rentaro barrels straight past any incest issues to decisively denote Chiyo as his girlfriend when asked. This is what it's all about, and it's why it leads up to Rentaro having a check-in with the God of Love at the end to assess this season themselves. More gags, yes—it's also funny that Rentaro loves all his girlfriends so much that he's actively mad at the God for putting them in danger with this arrangement—but that drives the revelation that Rentaro really has been thinking about this setup, regardless of its absurdity. He takes it seriously. And it confirms the broader point that even with occasional diversions like the serious Shizuka storyline, the series' heart will always be in the right place. No one should feel forced to love someone; after all, Rentaro wants to express his gratitude for how his loved ones saved him from his own personal tragedy.
If the point so soundly made is about each one of the girlfriends being enough, Rentaro himself being enough, then I honestly must conclude that this episode is enough! Imperfect, wildly, but it is doing what it wants to with confidence. Insufficiencies even provide their own opportunities, as shown by this finale's final indulgence: taking care of all his girlfriends causes Rentaro to collapse (you know how bad that is for you, right?), and so said girlfriends allow him to recover by using all their laps as a pillow. It's another one of those punchlines that can only be done in this anime, and it's only topped a moment later by Rentaro's fantasy of being looooooooooooooooong enough to let all the girls lie on his lap! If that doesn't count as a finale-level event for 100 Girlfriends, I don't know what else will.
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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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