English Dub Season Review: Girlfriend, GIrlfriend Season Two

Continuing the antics of Naoya Mukai’s crazy 3-way lifestyle of balancing his time between both of his girlfriends, Saki and Nagisa, remains as hectic as ever. Additionally, the blonde bombshell internet celebrity Rika Hoshizaki also has her sights on Naoya, complicating his already convoluted love life.

As if the ridiculousness of the situation couldn’t be topped any further, another girl inserts herself into the situation: Shino Kiryuu, who is determined to end Naoya’s two-timing and ensure Saki’s happiness. However, Shino harbors secret feelings for Naoya—a longing she believes she must forsake—yet simply cannot due to the deep attraction he inspires.

On the technical side, Season two was produced by SynergySP, with Takatoshi Suzuki serving as the director, Kazuhiko Inukai serving as scriptwriter along with Ōchi, Shouko Hagiwara serving as the character designer, and Kanade Sakuma and Junko Nakajima composing the music along with Sakurai and Saiki. Hikari Kodama performed the opening theme song “Dramatic ni Koi Shitai” while ClariS performed the ending theme song “Forira”.

While Season one was wacky and sometimes heartfelt beneath in its cringy absurdist humor, the second season doubles down on its commitment by presenting its previously established formula in chaotic yet fun ways. It extends the fanservice beyond the first season’s limits and introduces more drama towards the end which is executed surprisingly well. 

Season two also addresses some of the past criticisms from the first season, showing improvement in terms of quality. Upon research, the first season, covered three manga volumes per anime episode, but this installment attempts to top itself by covering at least four, resulting in a faster-paced story progression. This change also works in terms of pacing, while trying to balance each character and how they all connect to Naoya in different ways. 

The plot also continues to revolve around our three leads while also making Shino the focus compared to the last season which had her prominently in the promo material with the other girls but here she has lots of screen time along with a unique character arc while doing it’s best to focus on other characters during its proceedings and also introducing new characters such as Mirika/Rika’s sister and a challenging proposal Rika has for to Naoya later on…

Despite the change in studios, the animation remains consistent, with a particular focus on the characters’ distinctive eyes and improved shadow and lighting techniques, but thankfully SynergySP does a passable job with what they’re given with the visual and audio elements effectively support the storytelling and character interactions despite this being what’s essentially a wacky absurdist Harem Anime at it’s core.

Overall, this season is fun and passable, but only if you were a fan of the first season mainly to connect the narrative dots. Despite some odd character choices and occasional slow-paced moments, it was fun and sometimes emotional in places. While the plot feels unfinished, it remains to be seen if Season 3 ever happens at some point in the future, but it has potential given that the Manga that it’s based on is already finished and may give the animators more ground to cover for a potential Season 3. But at the end of the day, if everyone within the cast and crew is having fun with this hilariously dysfunctional mess of a Harem Anime, it has to count for something right?