u/AgentOfACROSS

AKA I took a harem comedy anime too seriously and I'm making it everyone else's problem now.

So I'd been hearing positive buzz around 100 Girlfriends ever since it really came out. About how it's so wholesome and how the main character Rentaro is such a good boyfriend.

But the more I watched the show the more I became disillusioned with it and I think the problem I have boils down to the central premise.

Most harem anime I've seen do have the problem of having a bunch of women inexplicably want to throw themselves at this bland nothing of a man. Well, this show has the solution of just making the god of love decide that these women are now destined to end up with this one man and will love him madly no matter what.

It frankly gives across the impression that there is no free will and these girls don't actually love Rentaro for who he is but because they were promised to him and have to love him.

And sure, maybe Rentaro is a good boyfriend but he's still super bland. Like is there a single character trait this man has outside of "loves his girlfriends"? And the more the series goes on the less it feels like Rentaro loves all these girls and more like he's doing it out of obligation. All of this makes it feel like these "wholesome moments" just ring hollow.

And fine, maybe you can say it's meant to be a parody of harem romcoms. But in the end it's still doing the thing. For as much as it pokes fun at character archetypes common in these anime it tries to play the romance as sincerely as possible. It does want the audience to care about Rentaro's relationships and sure, maybe sometimes it succeeds but the longer the show goes on the more those implications of the love god thing start to bother me.

By the time I got to the end of season 2 the formula and gimmick had kinda run its course for me.

Also, I dunno if it's just me, but it feels like this show has a barely contained contempt for women who aren't part of Rentaro's harem. Like some of the only prominent recurring women outside the harem are gag characters who are intentionally drawn to look weird like the vice principal, the gorilla biker gang lady, or the dinosaur girls from the baseball episode.

I do acknowledge that I'm taking this show probably more seriously than it takes itself. But after seeing so much positive buzz and memes about what a great guy/"chad" Rentaro is I guess I was expecting more.