The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

Episode 22

I'd say this episode represents the last new girlfriend who will be introduced in this season of 100 Girlfriends, but they've thrown curveballs before, like leaving Meido out of the OP at first, and this episode is all about misdirection. With a couple of episodes left, I won't count out a swerve to finish things, especially considering the dramatic arc this show's first season tackled by its end. This is a lot of rambling preamble apart from paying attention to the actual content, but then, the girlfriend introduced here wouldn't want it any other way.

Given the larger-than-life personalities that define each of Rentaro's partners, it actually makes sense that "shy" isn't one that had prominently come down the aisle yet. Yes, there's Shizuka, but she's defined more by her anxiety and initial communication issues—once those were accommodated, she was able to find a fun place for her dynamic pretty well and even cause mass casualties with her radiant cuteness. A girl properly defined by her bashfulness needs a crowd to hide away from (or in) so it makes sense that this trope couldn't be brought with the extremes that 100 Girlfriends demands until Rentaro had amassed at least a tenth of his polycule. But now, we can finally see Kakure Meme in all her glory. Or not see her, as it were.

I'm sure she's around here somewhere.

The trick with Kakure is that she wants nothing more than to accommodate her driving shyness by living as inconspicuously as possible. However, she's been cursed by artist Yukiko Nozawa to have a design that's not only as noticeable and memorable as any of the other girls adorning the cover art of this series, she's potentially more standout even compared to their standards! It's hard to live the loner life when everyone knows and gossips about how hot and awesome you are.

Kakure wasn't doing it for me right at the start. I get the unique spin she's putting on a well-worn archetype like this. But this extreme bashfulness can dead-end into doormat territory kinda quickly, and that's a character concept I'm virtually never crazy about. Yes, I know my favorite, Iku, is a bottom, but that's different. Look how much moxy she has about it. Kakure, comparatively, leans super-hard on the self-deprecating styles in her introduction, which always just rings as frustrating to me—to say nothing of being a bit repetitive. That said, repetition is a comic device that 100 Girlfriends has always wielded with more skill than other, lesser would-be madcap comedies. Plus I recognize that Kakure's trope type is one that does work for plenty of other viewers who aren't me. All that and they do get down to actually doing something with her pretty quickly.

As this second season has been regularly strong at showing, Rentaro has pretty well figured out this boyfriend thing by now. He immediately clocks the kind of feelings Kakure has that he needs to be considerate of, and starts coming up with how he can make that work; as this episode reminds us, he kinda needs to to stop Kakure from dying due to the power of romantic destiny. And predictably, but properly, Rentaro's way of opening up with Kakure is to accommodate her feelings of inadequacy by affirming that her quirks and qualities are why he loves her. He does that with all the girlfriends, loving them because of, not despite, who they are. Even if they change and develop because of the relationship, that's just recognized as another part of the romantic journey. That's the point that Rentaro drives home to Kakure in his courtship: anyone deserves to fall in love, even if their best way of showing it is to hide from it.

With Kakure clearly having studied the ancient stealth arts of the ninja, it's expected, enlightening, and entertaining that a game of hide-and-seek would be her introductory activity to the rest of the girls. After she provides them with hand-knitted plushies appropriate for all of them. Can't believe there were a couple of minutes where I didn't accept that this was the cutest girl in the world. The hide-and-seek game itself is a fun enough exercise in seeing all the girlfriends do their established Girlfriend Things. Iku straining herself stuck to a ceiling with Mei is a fun sight, and it's fantastic that they engineered the stuck-in-a-sexually-strained-supply-shed situation for Hakari and Karane with zero irony. As the girlfriends multiply, pairing them off into several sub-relationships is going to be the best way to manage them. With that in mind, I am a little disappointed that Mimimi and Nano didn't end up off together, but seeing Shizuka and Nano hiding together in a cardboard box is cute as frig, so I'll allow it.

It works overall to show Kakure already warming up to the rest of the family, as they shower her with the praise she absolutely can't take, then see her demonstrate her own love language of zwee-ing out of view only to immediately reveal her hiding place to them. It is all a perfectly cute, unique enough girlfriend introduction episode. Now I just wonder what else they'll do with the ballooned character dynamics, and what 100 Girlfriends might have to finish out what's been a very sweet season so far.

As I understand that Kakure shuns the spotlight, I'll have all the other girlfriends handle the episode review thumbnail, while she can sit comfortably tucked away in an alternate image down here. See, there she is!

Rating:

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The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

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 on those and other subjects over on his blog, or see which cartoon girlfriends he's reposting art of over on his BlueSky.