The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 3

Episodes 25-27

It is time, once again, for culture. The specific culture in this case? Uh, my own, as The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, in its 27th episode, introduces a character I've been looking forward to since I glimpsed fans posting manga pics years earlier. Naddy-sensei might have missed the Fourth of July by a few weeks, but she arrives fashionably late regardless, with what might be the funniest damn episode of the series in a minute. Though maybe I'm just particularly tuned to this flavor of humor, but is that not in the spirit of harem anime? It's all about everyone finding a flavor of special friend that blows their specific skirt up.

It's not like the 27th episode even fully counts as Naddy's introduction. The third-season premiere played temporal tricks on both the viewers and the God of Love himself to give a girlfriend sneak-preview, and there the cute cowpoke was already talking about her "own personal 9/11." This temporal tomfoolery accentuates the absurdity of the characters speculating at the beginning of this week's episode about what their new teacher will be like. We already saw her; we've got an idea! Never mind that Karane's astute enough to double-reverse call the proceedings out by reminding everyone what anime they're in and to brace for the most absurd possible option.

That's why Naddy-sensei's appearance being as screamingly sputter-worthy as it is is so impressive. Okay, I think a huge portion of that is Ayana Taketatsu's pitch-perfect vocal delivery—she's busting down the doors in line with the enterprising American spirit. Every other thing she says is an atrociously pronounced English loanword, and the subtitles are doing their gosh-darndest to keep up. It also makes me even happier about her early appearance in the premiere episode, since it's been dubbed and I could get a taste of how Maganda Marie would be handling the character. She's equally absurd in her use of the southern twang and smattering of downright stereotypical slang, and all the best jokes from the subs are kept in, plus some new ones, so it's good to know that the 100 Girlfriends dub continues to be on the level.

The best part is how all those linguistic levels of setup lead into the proper reveal with Naddy's introduction and induction into Rentaro's harem. As with all the girls when they're still getting to be known, there's that sense of "Wait for it…" to interacting with Naddy, which is wild given how out-there she already is. But that's the twist itself, of course, that her united state of mind really is one she specifically adopted. Like, I already knew from checking stuff that her full name was "Yamato Nadeshiko," and I genuinely thought that was just a really good gag. I naturally referred to her as "American" when previewing that previous episode because, I mean, what else could she be? They got my ass.

Rentaro, paragon of paramour perception as he is, figures it out quickly enough. It's genuinely fantastic that the giveaway is the love confession itself, the institution this whole series is based around. The delivery, as it always has been around this character, is perfect, with no notes. That twist itself? Naddy actually being a very traditional Japanese woman who opted to start cosplaying Americanism is absolutely in line with the surprise-layered sensibilities that 100 Girlfriends's girlfriends always operate on. But is it weird? It is a little weird. It would be weird if this were an American character in an American show doing this with Japanese cultural signifiers. But also, the cowgirl pastiche that Naddy is putting on is so pointedly removed from American reality that it loops around into loving parody. She might as well be cosplaying Team America: World Police. She's not actually appropriating anything; she's more like that guy from Dodgeball who woke up one day and decided he wanted to be a pirate. And as Americans love making fun of ourselves this way, I can't even come close to taking this anime to task for affecting a similar setup. Look, what do you want from me? I was choke-laughing at Naddy's antics through the whole first half of this episode; I'm not too proud. They got our number.

More than that, even as Naddy is possibly the most bit-based character in a series full of characters who are all doing bits, she still comes with some impressive interiority and interrogation of her as a person. She was forced into playing the Yamato Nadeshiko role, as so many other harem archetypes in other stories might. And her outlet for freedom was to aggressively embrace the mannerisms and signifiers of this whole other country she fell in love with. How can I not be flattered by that? Then, of course, she fell in love with Rentaro, who accepts her and lets her be who she is. The other girlfriends also come around, with the possible exception of Karane, and I'm already deeply amused by the idea that the resident tsundere just can't deal with Naddy's earnest, American-style forwardness.

Getting her in among the rest of the family for some customary rooftop antics is naturally the next step for Naddy ice, and I'm of a couple of minds about it. As seen in the 26th episode's entry with Chiyo, getting up to a dozen and now a baker's dozen of girlfriends means diminished space to cram in all the interactions across them. Both segments effectively boil down to the new girlfriend seeing the previous girlfriends doing their established bits, then doing her own new established bit at them. The way 100 Girlfriends is spicing this up now, in this case, is by having the new girlfriends enact change-ups in the crowd. For Chiyo, it was just "fixing" them in effed-up ways, which led to a cavalcade of chaos. With Naddy, her push for "FREEDOM" starts with a bit of runway before showing off their liberal liberation in the form of, basically, pulling a bunch of special-edition gacha game outfits for everyone to show what they might look like at their most unchecked and outlandish.

I'm fine with letting the animators cut loose with rendering the girlfriends in cute new outfits, and as always, there are some real winners. Police officer Chiyo reminds me of how inherently funny small cops as a character concept are (remember Iino from Kaguya-sama: Love is War?), and after their interactions in the 26th episode, it's downright heartwarming to see Meme just dressing like Mimimi as a confidence boost. Also, Rentaro straight-up cosplaying Luffy from One Piece is a perfect swerve after all the Dragon Ball references that defined the second season of this show. A family of girlfriends can also be a nakama. It's a good time overall, even as Naddy's actual interaction with all of it is minimal before it turns out her frontier spirit was moved after all by this display of so much freewheeling freedom.

This makes clear that Naddy might mostly be funny all on her own, without worrying too much about avenues of actual interaction with other members of the Rentaro family. Though I'd love to be proven wrong, it's already a very funny momentary detail that Hahari hired her on the spot just because she thought she was cute. And this season has demonstrated that the established characters will find their own points of connection with the new characters—the girlfriend teaser in the 25th episode saw Iku following the super-tall Yamame around closely, hoping to be crushed by her, which you know I got a kick out of. But for now, I can't besmirch the actual latest additions: Chiyo pushed the show to be as self-aware as it ever was, and Naddy has just enough going on under the hood of her Ford F-150 to supplement how screamingly funny I think she is. It's 100 Girlfriends bigger, longer, and uncut, and this third season has already shown that it can go so far that the universe, the heavens, and broadcast standards themselves cannot contain it. God (of Love) help us all.

In the American spirit of equality, please enjoy my continuing commitment to including bonus review images featuring every additional girlfriend.

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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.