English Dub Review: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Really Love You “The Rise and Fall of the Proud Girlfriend”
Overview
Rentaro introduces the gallant Kishika to the family, and she breaks the ice in the way only she knows.
Our Take
Picking up from the previous episode, Rentaro introduces his seventeenth soulmate, kendo club captain Kishika Torotoro, into the Harem. At first, Kishika comes across as a stoic and incredibly badass upperclassman, but her introduction quickly reveals a much softer and more unexpected side. After meeting the rest of the family, Kishika gets a memorable welcome that leads into a chaotic kendo battle against the other girlfriends. The fight is easily one of the episode’s highlights, with everyone using their own unique abilities and quirks in increasingly ridiculous ways. Without spoiling the payoff, the episode once again proves that Kishika has found herself among exactly the right group of weirdos…
The second half shifts to a ramen challenge, where a determined restaurant owner keeps creating increasingly absurd dishes for the girlfriends to overcome. What makes the segment work is how each challenge seems to be outdone by the next, often because the ridiculous conditions, out of sheer happenstance, play directly into the strengths of whichever girlfriend shows up. As a result, the challenges reach new levels of absurdity while also giving us some fun and unexpected character pairings. The ramen segment may not be the strongest material of the season, but the rapid-fire jokes, visual gags, and escalating insanity make it an entertaining change of pace.
Overall, Kishika’s introduction is another hilarious addition to the ever-growing Rentarō family, and her combination of impressive swordsmanship and unexpected vulnerability makes her an entertaining new girlfriend. The kendo battle is easily the highlight, while the ramen segment provides plenty of laughs and some welcome interactions between the girls. With only two episodes remaining, I’m interested to see how the anime uses the remaining time to give the existing girlfriends more attention now that the introductions are temporarily out of the way. If nothing else, this season continues to find new ways to make an already ridiculous premise somehow even more ridiculous in the most comedic of ways.
