the 100 girlfriends who really really really really really love you

CHADtaro Strikes Back

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Anime REvisited , , , , , , , , ,

RJ Writing Ink’s Recap of Season 1 of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Pt 2

Welcome back to our three-part recapping of the first season of 100 Girlfriends. In the first part, we met our protagonist, Rentaro Aijo, a boy who just wants to find love only to be rejected over 100 times. It’s then that he learns that he’s destined to meet 100 soulmates in high school, only to learn that if he doesn’t date them all, they will die. Thus, he doesn’t hesitate to make them all his girlfriends and ensure they’re all happy. He currently has three girlfriends: Hakari, the first girl who acts sweet but is a massive pervert. Karane, the insecure tsundere who acts as the group’s straight man. Lastly, there’s Shizuka, the natural-born smol floof who communicates using books and a text-to-speech app due to her shyness. But there are still 97 girlfriends left for Renataro to find and make happy as the story continues.

Girlfriend #4-The Kuudere

The school exam results are being posted, with everyone being eager to see how they did. The one who ends up taking the top spot, though, is Nano Eiai, a kuudere who lives up to her surname by eschewing emotion in favor of logic and efficiency. Unfortunately for her, she winds up being the next of Rentaro’s soulmates, something she tries to reject since she thinks love is meaningless. So Rentaro asks her to go on one date to prove her wrong, with the two heading to an amusement park. Despite Nano not seeing the point behind the rides, the two do end up bonding, and Nano does admit that she had fun.

However, when she still sees the whole thing as meaningless, Rentaro activates his CHADtaro powers. By threatening to burn the photos he took of their date, he makes Nano stop him, proving that, contrary to her beliefs, Nano does care about love and bonds.

Having come to realize how much she has to learn about being human, Nano surrenders to her feelings and becomes Rentaro’s fourth girlfriend.

Water Park Antics

To celebrate their growing group, Hakari suggests they all head to a water park that just opened to get closer with each other. However, things don’t go the way they planned at first. Karane begins getting cold feet due to feeling insecure about her body after seeing how developed Hakari and Nano are. Shizuka gets swept away by the lazy river and winds up stranded on an island when her inner tube breaks. When Nano and Hakari try to get Rentaro to choose who has the best body, he passes out from blood loss.

And when the two try to find a lifeguard, theyre accosted by a trio of gawkers who try hitting on them.

Thankfully, when Karane sees what’s going on, she looks for Rentaro, finds him half-dead, and revives him by mentioning how Hakari and Nani are in trouble.

After the two girls prove they’re both dating the man, the unwanted men back down to Rentaro’s CHADness. After that, Rentaro rescues Shizuka, helps Karane stop feeling insecure about herself, and the group finally enjoys their day out in peace.

Girlfriend #5-The Child(?) Prodigy

At a later date, the group is headed to enjoy a special event in the lunchroom when they pass by a lab. There, Rentaro locks eyes with a beautiful red-head in a lab coat, and gets the familiar zing. However, when he returns the next day, the only person present is a little girl named Kusuri Yakuzen. Kusuri is an example of the child prodigy archetype. She is to chemistry what Tony Stark is to engineering, being an unparalleled genius able to create drugs that defy common sense, like a drug that can magnetize the iron in one’s blood. She also wears diapers since she doesn’t want to be bothered going to the bathroom during an experiment…and gives Rentaro a love potion because she’s in love with him.

Rentaro winds up overdosing on the love potion, though, forcing Kusuri to force-feed him the antidote via mouth-to-mouth. That’s when Rentaro learns that Kusuri is actually the woman he saw yesterday, his senior at age 18, and the chem club’s president/only member. The reason why she looks like she’s 8 is because she was trying to create a drug that could grant immortality, only for it to leave stuck as a kid unless she takes a neutralizer. And contrary to most child prodigies, she’s very friendly, but her eagerness to let others use her drugs made all the other chem members leave. Rentaro, though, doesn’t hesitate to make her his fifth girlfriend and introduce her to the growing family.

It doesn’t take long for Kusuri to accidentally cause chaos, though. Not learning her lesson, she tries again to give Rentaro a love potion, only for the girls to drink it instead. As a result, their minds become focused on kissing Rentaro and they become kiss zombies.

With the drug in danger of permanently destroying their personalities, Rentaro and Kusuri race against time to reverse the effects, leading to even more comedic moments. Thankfully, they manage to cure the others in the nick of time, and everyone happily forgives Kusuri, who finally finds acceptance.

Wait, What Just Happened?

For their next outing, the group goes to this flower park for this event involving a bouquet toss. Whoever catches the bouquet will receive a special prize: a couple’s photoshoot surrounded by the park’s finest flowers! Unfortunately, they face stiff competition in the form of the Gorilla Alliance, whose leader wants the bouquet for herself and her boyfriend. While Karane winds up going toe-to-toe with the leader, Shizuka gets blown into the sky where she manages to catch the bouquet…only to fall back to the ground.

Rentaro catches her in time, though, Karane befriends the leader, and Hakari winds up winning the honor of getting the wedding photoshoot. All seems right with the world…until Hakari drops a bombshell by asking Rentaro to break up with her.

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As it turns out, Hakari’s mother learned that her daughter, an extremely wealthy CEO, was dating a guy who was five-timing on her. Since she’s a good mom, she told her daughter to break up with Rentaro and planned to have her transfer to another school. However, since their situation isn’t typical, and because the whole “the girls will die if they don’t date Rentaro” issue remains in effect, Rentaro and the others cannot allow this to happen. Despite how many resources Hakari’s mom has at her disposal, they all agree to get Hakari back by breaking into the mansion and rescuing her.

And that is where we will be ending part two of this recap. Tune for part three as we see how things turn out as Rentaro meets his sixth soulmate.

Yes, 100 Girlfriends Just Went There

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Anime REvisited, Blogging , , , , , , , , ,

RJ Writing Ink’s Recap of Season 1 of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Pt 3

Last time on 100 Girlfriends, Rentaro continued to meet more soulmates and grow his family of lovers. First, there was Nano Eiai, the kuudere who values logic and efficiency only to discover the value of bonds and emotions. Then, there was Kusuri Yakuzen, the genius chemistry girl who looks young most of the time, but was actually this beautiful 18-year old! Just as the Rentaro Family was enjoying their growing bonds, Hakari asked Rentaro to break up with her. Having learned her daughter was dating a five-timer, her mother decided to forcibly separate the two. Not wanting this to happen, the Rentaro family mounts a daring rescue mission straight out of Mission Impossible, complete with similar music and everything!

Mission: Girlfriend Impossible

As the group arrives at the Hanazono family mansion, they work together to overcome the security and make it inside. Shizuka offers herself up as bait to distract the guard dog, quoting Gandalf in the process. Thankfully, her natural smolness means the dog refuses to harm her, licking her instead. Next, they must get past a hallway with infrared sensors, prompting Kusuri to use a drug that lets someone see in infrared (and only infrared). She was going to use it to apply for a big pharma company, but this was more important. With Rentaro and Karane working together Tom Cruise style, they get past the sensors with minimal issues!

Sadly, as soon as they reach Hakari  they get caught by her mother’s security guards. After that, they are forced to meet face-to-face with Hahari Hanazono, Hakari’s mother at 29 years old.

Hahari’s age is important because it doesn’t just make her an example of the absurdly youthful mother. Hakari is 16 years old, meaning that Hahari had her daughter at the tender age of 13, which in and of itself is terrifying. The reason why is just as tragic, though. When she was 13 and fell in love with Hakari’s father (who was the same age), he was dying from a terminal illness. She was so desperate to have something to remember him by that she used her family’s wealth to artifically inseminate herself with his DNA. Tragically, he died before Hakari was born, leaving Hahari to raise her daughter alone. Which she could do since she was super rich. But she could never replace her deceased lover, and she knew how much Hakari was like her, so she didn’t want her daughter to fall in love with someone who would take advantage of her.

To put it simply, Hahari is being a good parent and trying to look out for her daughter’s well-being. Rentaro is reduced to tears, washing out the eyedrops and letting him see again. And the second he and Hahari’s eyes meet…ZING!

Girlfriend #6-The Absurdly Youthful Mother

Yes, the sixth of Rentaro’s soulmates is the mother of another one of his soulmates. And by this point, it becomes obvious that 100 Girlfriends is different from other harem anime. It’s not afraid to do things that others would find controversial, like pairing up the underage protagonist with an actual mother. As for Hahari, how does she respond to this new feeling?

She was blinded again by love. It takes Karane’s straight-man routine to bring the two to their senses, at which point Hahari still refuses to let Rentaro date her daughter. To prove his sincerity, she forces him to take a lie detector test, even using Karane as a guinea pig to prove its validity. After Karane embarrasses herself at the others expense, Rentaro passes the test so easily that the anime decides to abridge it. However, things grow dire when word reaches them that Hakari is threatening to throw herself out the window!

Karane restrains Hahari so Rentaro can make it in time, and he manages to convince her that ending her life not going to solve anything, only create more misery. Unfortunately, Hakari winds up slipping and falling out anyway. But thanks to Rentaro diving after her and using his CHADtaro powers, he protects her from the impact and manages to land them both in a fountain below, saving their lives.

Seeing him save her daughters life, Hahari is now convinced that Rentaro’s feelings for her daughter are real. Thus, she gives him her blessing to date Hakari. Rentaro, in turn, sees how good of a mom that Hahari is, and vows to make them both happy.  Which means that Hahari now joins the Rentaro Family as girlfriend #6, much to Hakari’s utter exasperation. She now has to share her boyfriend with her own mother! A literal mommy-daughter double whopper!

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And to make it even crazier, the episode she starts dating Rentaro has a special ending dedicated entirely to her and how much she loves Rentaro-Chan! Complete and utter chaos!

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Well, this is Happening Now

Hahari wastes no time in joining in on the family’s antics, allowing them to stay the night so they can bond. And she proves to be as perverted as her daughter is, as she uses the night to try and get closer to her new boyfriend. She dresses up all the girls in pajamas and costumes she has, and then makes Rentaro dress like a girl for her own enjoyment! He winds up fainting from embarassment, and has to be woken up by Nano dressed as a prince like a reverse Sleeping Beauty!

Then, Hahari and Hakari convince all the girls to try and peep on Rentaro while he’s bathing, with Shizuka being the only one who refuses. Both their attempts fail miserably, though, but because she was trying to stop it, Shizuka winds up being the only one who sees by complete accident.

Her lack of emotional maturity aside, though, Hahari is shown to have been deeply scarred by the loss of her first love. It gets to the point where Rentaro has to reassure her it’s not wrong for her to find happiness with someone else, which leads to their first kiss. Get used to it; this is how things will be.

Oh, and Rentaro meets the ghost of Hakari’s father, who’s been watching over the two girls all this time. Having seen how Rentaro has saved them both, Hakari’s father thanks him before finally moving on to the afterlife.

The day after the ordeal, everyone leaves the Hanazono mansion to head to school, with life returning to normal…is what you’d think would happen. Not wanting to be apart from Rentaro, Hahari used her money to buy their entire school, becoming its new chairwoman. All of this just so she can see Rentaro more!!

And with that, we reach the end of the first season of the peak of harem anime, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. It’s uncertain whether or not we will cover the next season on here. However, if you haven’t watched this anime yet, I recommend you do. Even if you think that harem anime are trash, the great thing about this series is that it knows it’s trash and embraces it. Every girl in this series is going to be best girl, and you can’t help but admire how absurdly dedicated he is to making his girlfriends happy. If the world had more people willing to do that much for their lovers, there would be no such thing as incels anymore.

And yes, I like this anime. It’s funny.

100 Reasons Why I’m Obssessed with CHADtaro

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews, Anime REvisited, Blogging , , , , , , , ,

RJ Writing Ink’s Recap of Season 1 of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Pt 1

It’s a new year, and with that, comes new anime and returning anime with new seasons. And one of the anime that I’m most eager to see return also happens to be the pinnacle of the often-maligned harem genre. The reason why it’s the pinnacle is because it goes out of its way to avoid many of the pitfalls of that genre while also fleshing out the girls involved so that they are not cookie-cutter, one-note individuals. I’m talking about The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You.

I’m RJ Writing Ink, and welcome to my hilarious recapping of the first season of 100 Girlfriends to get you primed for the upcoming season. There will be major spoilers ahead, so either keep reading or go watch it on Crunchyroll.

Why Can’t Rentaro Get a Girlfriend? Because a god Messed Up

Rentaro Aijo is a boy who only wants to find love and get a girlfriend, and he’s spent his entire life bettering himself towards that goal. Unfortunately, despite being the ideal that every boyfriend should strive for, the poor boy keeps getting rejected. It’s gotten to the point that by the time he leaves junior high, his rejection streak has hit 100! Out of options, Rentaro goes to a local shrine to pray for love. Miraculously, he gets some divine intervention in the form of the shrine’s Love God. Said deity explains that he’s not destined to meet his soulmate in high school. He’s destined to meet 100 soulmates! He will know who they are because when they eyes meet, they’ll get that zing of love.

Rentaro then threatens to burn the shrine down if the Love God is lying (No cap)

Girlfriends 1 & 2: the Love Freak and Tsundere

Sure enough, on Rentaro’s first day of high school, he literally walks into his first two soulmates, Hakari Hanazono and Karane Inda. This is also when the story starts demonstrating how each girl serves as a deconstruction of their archetype. In this case, Hakari acts sweet and cute, but she’s really a girl whose very aggressive in her affections and willing to take things to the next level. In contrast, Karane is a tsundere, but that’s because she’s very shy and insecure about her feelings. That doesn’t stop her from acting as the straight woman to Hakari and the other characters craziness, though.

By the end of the day, the two girls wind up confessing their love for Rentaro and beg him to go out with one of them. At a loss, Rentaro goes back to the Love God for advice, only to learn something horrible. Getting a soulmate uses up all of a person’s luck, and if they reject them, that person will die. And the reason why Rentaro has 100 soulmates is because the Love God was distracted with his paperwork the day he was born watching a Miyazaki film. In other words, the Love God has put the lives of 100 people in danger!

Rightly horrified, Rentaro doesn’t know what to do. At first, he considers dating the two and any future soulmates behind their backs…but he punches himself for even considering that. In the first of many examples of why he’s CHADtaro, Rentaro understands how scary it is to confess your love to someone and fade reflection. Rather than let them experience that and face death, he makes the only move available to him: he will date them all.

Rentaro Aijo manages to prove himself a step above almost all other harem protagonists. He will not only date all 100 women, but will love them equally and make them all happy! And to prove his sincerity, he gives Hakari and Karane two pink four-leafed clovers that are said to make a love confession succeed. The two girls are so in love with him, they wind up agreeing to this insane proposal.

And with that, girlfriends one and two are secured. The next step is deciding who will get to kiss him first.

The Perfect First Kiss

Since the two are his first girlfriends, Rentaro has yet to receive his first kiss. At first, the girls try to fight each other over the right to claim his lips first, but being the savvy man he is, Rentaro figures out what’s happening. Thus, he comes up with this convoluted scheme involving blindfolds and earbuds to make sure no one knows who kissed him first. It doesn’t go so well, and when the two start fighting again, he gets so upset he runs through the hallway to attract the inhuman vice-principal and recieve her unholy kiss of death. Thankfully, the girls threaten to get her fired, saving the day. After that, they just agree to kiss each other at once, and all is right with the world.

Girlfriend 3-The Mute Bookworm

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But then, they head to the library, and Rentaro gets another zing, heralding the arrival of the next soulmate. Meet Shizuka Yoshimoto, the shy, quiet, and sweet cinnamon bun girl who loves books. However, her quietness not by choice. She has a hard time speaking, so she communicates using phrases from her books. All that does is weird people out, including her own mother, making her even more isolated and insecure than she already is. So what does Rentaro do to help her? He commits his next action as CHADtaro: he takes her favorite book, transcribes it all onto a text-to-speech app by hand, and then has her download the app onto her phone, allowing her to finally speak with others! Once she confesses her love, Rentaro happily accepts.

And with that, girlfriend #3 has been secured.

The Harem Grows

After Rentaro introduces Shizuka to his other two girlfriends, their reactions are mixed. Hakari’s overjoyed to see how much love Rentaro has for all of them and thinks Shizuka is the cutest thing in the world. Karane gets mad at first but rolls with it because she loves Rentaro so much. The problem is that Shizuka remains uncomfortable around the other girls, so to break the ice, he has them all play old maid with the winner getting to tickle the loser.

Rentaro proceeds to win the first three rounds and tickles each girl, with comedic results. When Shizuka wins, though, she holds back, greatly irritating Karane. When Rentaro senses things are going wrong, he steps out, allowing the three girls to speak honestly. Karane tells Shizuka off for holding back her true feelings, and Shizuka tells them how insecure she feels to each of them for their beauty and confidence. The three talk their feelings out, and when Rentaro re-enters, Shizuka gains enough confidence to ask him for her first kiss.

Peace is restored!

And this is where we will end part one, as this is too long for us to cover in a single post. Part two will continue things as we head to girlfriends numbers 4 and 5.