Games

100 Girlfriends Season 2 Episode 1: The Mind and Fourth Wall Breaking Continues

Published

18 seconds ago

January 14, 2025

Christoph Rediske

Summary

Table of Contents

Season 2 of 100 Girlfriends maintains season 1’s vibe with interesting plot points and references.
Body-swapping and fourth-wall-breaking antics keep the new season entertaining and unhinged.
The 7th girlfriend, Kurumi Haraga, adds depth with a unique design and personality quirks tied to food.

Quick Links

Girlfriend #7: Kurumi Haraga

Title	The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Season 2, Episode 1 “Her Name”
Studio Advertisement	Bibury Animation Studios
Air Date	January 12, 2025

Warning: The following contains spoilers for 100 Girlfriends, Season 2, Episode 1, “Her Name”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

After a year of waiting, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You season 2 has finally arrived. Season 1 ended with Rentarou wooing six girls, and based on this season’s opening and ending themes, he’ll have at least five more girls fall for him.

For those worrying that the second season might not be as good as the first, don’t worry. The first season’s vibe is so well-kept, that if you binge-watched the entire first season of 100 Girlfriends and immediately hopped onto the first episode of season 2, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a new season. The only way you’d find out is because the characters blatantly say it’s the second season in some fourth-wall-breaking jokes.

The Biggest Similarities Between Girlfriend, Girlfriend, and 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
Advertisement

Two anime featuring polyamorous relationships are airing this Fall season, but there may be more similarities to them than meets the eye.

Freakier Friday

Body Swapping Girlfriends

Body Swapping. It’s a trope that had to happen at some point in 100 Girlfriends. Kusuri made a drug that was supposed to keep Rentarou’s love for the girls fresh, but made a mistake that caused the six girls to swap bodies instead.

The solution? Rentarou has to kiss all of them because it causes their spirits to leave their bodies, allowing them to return to their original bodies. If you were worried 100 Girlfriends season 2 was going to be more tame than season 1, then this part should ease your worries. It’s almost as if Rikito Nakamura, the series creator, is saying: “Oh, you thought I’d run out of ridiculous bits? Oh ye of little faith.”

“Switched places? Like in Your N*me?” – Rentaro after learning what happened to the girls

Poor Fourth Wall-kun Keeps Getting Broken

Just like with the first season of 100 Girlfriends, season 2 is going hog wild with all the fourth-wall-breaking and reference-making. Your Name, Castle in the Sky, and the Lawson convenience store chain all make an appearance in this episode and are all blurred out or cleverly altered for comedy and to avoid copyright infringements. Even the episode title itself, Her Name, is a direct reference to Your Name, since the first bit of the episode is about people switching bodies.

The-18-Best-Harem-Manga-With-No-Anime-Adaptations

The 31 Best Harem Manga With No Anime Adaptations

There have been plenty of great harem anime over the years, but these fantastic harem manga have yet to receive adaptations.

Girlfriend #7: Kurumi Haraga

The Hangry-dere

Now that the whole Hakari-Hahari debacle is over, Rentarou is back on track on his hunt for the remaining 94 girls. He finds the 7th soulmate in the next half of this episode, Kurumi Haraga, a 3rd-year middle school student he bumps into in the cafeteria during lunch. Say whatever you want about the show, but they know how to design characters well. Kurumi’s design gives off cool lone-wolf vibes, sort of like Anby from Zenless Zone Zero. She has short purple hair and emerald eyes and wears a dark gray hoodie with green and purple highlights. She also constantly wears headphones, which she uses to avoid hearing the outside world, which ties into Kurumi’s personality.

She has an enormous appetite and fast metabolism, so she constantly thinks about food. Hearing or seeing anything that could even be remotely connected to or resemble anything food-related will give her a massive craving for whatever food it reminds her of. To combat that, Kurumi purposefully always wears a hoodie and headphones to limit the amount of things she sees and hears. At first, Kurumi seemed like a tsundere type like Karane, and just when you thought they were running out of stereotypes, the show gives Kurumi some more nuance. She was only acting grumpy because she’s in a near-constant state of hangryness, and eating the food she wanted flipped her switch and made her cheerful.

Like all the girls that came before, Kurumi’s name is a pun based on her character, which is a common thing they do in anime, but is especially important in a show that’s going to have 100 “main characters”. Her last name, Haraga (原賀), directly translates to “field” and “joy”, but “hara” can also mean “stomach”, though it does use a different kanji. So, Kurumi’s family name can mean “stomach” and “joy”, which describes her to a tee.

Visuals and Audio

How Do They Compare to Season 1?

For an anime that isn’t a shōnen battle show and is a relatively new IP, the animation in 100 Girlfriends has always been surprisingly good, and that remains to be true with season 2. There are no noticeable drops in the quality of art, animation, voice acting, and audio mixing, which, to be fair, is to be expected for the first episode of a season. Hopefully, 100 Girlfriends can keep up this quality for the rest of the season.

Opening and Ending Themes

100 girlfriends season 2 ending theme unmei?

The opening theme is called Thanks for Being So Lovable, and just like the season 1 opening, it’s sung by the voice actors who play Rentarou’s girlfriends, giving it that nice personal touch that most other anime openings don’t have. The song’s vibe is very similar to the first opening, To You Who I Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love, in that they’re both very colorful and upbeat.

The ending theme is called Unmei?, which translates to “Fate?”, and just like the opening, the tone and even the song’s lyrics are closely related to the show. There’s even a chant in the middle of the song where the girls cheer for Rentarou. Just like the last ending theme, Sweet Sign, the visuals for this song are the girls in chibi form playing and hanging out with plush toys of Rentarou. While the first season’s songs sound more iconic, these new ones aren’t bad by any means, and maybe they just need to grow on you in 100 Girlfriends‘ next few episodes.

100 Girlfriends Hakari and Karane blushing

Does the Winter Get More Romance Anime Titles Than Other Seasons?
Advertisement

There’s a certain atmosphere that comes with the winter anime season. Maybe it’s the new isekai titles, or is it the fact that romance is in the air?

100 Girlfriends is now available to stream on Crunchyroll. The release date for 100 Girlfriends season 2, episode 2, is set to be January 19, 2025, at 6:00 AM PT.