Rent a girlfriend is even worse
.
Rent-a-Girlfriend's worth as a series lies in its ability to be both infuriatingly bad and hilariously entertaining. 100 Girlfriends is just the former. It serves as a prime example of the "so bad it's good" entertainment phenomenon, thereby endowing it with a certain level of value that distinguishes it from similar works of its ilk.
Throughout season one, I can picture viewers holding themselves back from flying to Tokyo, calling the police, and getting the ricecel who wrote this arrested. I have a very high tolerance when it comes to things that I'm
supposed to get mad at, but even I agree that Kanokari is pure fucking DEGENERATE shit. This is encouraging the uncountably many hopeless young men out there to pay for OnlyFans prostitutes with daddy’s money and catch feelings. This is advice that, if heeded, WILL hurt real, vulnerable, naive people in the real world, and it WILL jeopardize their relationships and careers, both academic and professional. It remains true that the show itself recognizes this is no foundation for a healthy relationship whatsoever, but the messaging still is never direct enough, nor does it ever stop excusing its bad actors. Ruka makes a public spectacle of drama, cries like a petulant little brat, commits blackmail, and gets exactly what she wants; Kazuya and Chizuru use lies to manipulate the emotions of their elderly and/or dying grandmothers, and that works out swimmingly; Kazuya is caught stalking the woman he (allegedly) loves, and she rewards him with a Christmas present; Kazuya gets a part-time job to pay for prostitutes because his parents’ allowance money wasn’t enough to sustain his spending, and this newfound time commitment doesn’t seem to endanger his education at all; I could go on.
Some fiction is about morals; they’re about learning a lesson and watching role-model characters, and others are not. [Mushoku Tensei] is very much in the later category… Kanokari, however, is very much in the former category. It’s about watching a confused, indecisive borderline incel to whom the target audience can heavily relate, learn to (very fucking) slowly but (I assume) surely learn to grow a spine and commit to a relationship with the one he loves. Therefore, since it’s ultimately trying to demonstrate self-betterment, the themes and suggestions it presents to its audience should be appropriate and virtuous enough to be presented in front of—and effectively taught to—its impressionable target audience of young incel-adjacent men. But this is not at all the case. Indeed, as described, it is very much the opposite. It tacitly endorses all the bad behavior listed above and more, and going beyond even that, what it chooses to actively and openly endorse is sometimes absolutely fucking wild. And how it went about this was exactly what got me invested.
It also helps that it's as good of an adaptation of whatever it's adapting as it probably could be, and I don’t think I need to read the manga to say that. Though the animation isn't particularly strong, the exquisite character and outfit designs work in harmony with the series' outstanding artwork. It is clear that the author's aim is to communicate the idea that these girls are worth money, a perspective that, for a significant number of them, holds true, and he definitely succeeded. The solid use of colors and backgrounds adds a sense of stability and visual appeal, while the music greatly enhances the overall experience. Especially the voice actresses' in-character insert songs are a standout feature, showcasing their talent and adding an extra layer of enjoyment to the production.
And if the obvious outpouring of effort wasn’t enough to convince you this production had some soul, I now take this time to direct you to the fucking *zawa zawa* Kaiji reference in season 2. Like, wtf?! What teenager or college kid watching this trash is going to understand or even catch that??? It’s just one of those baseline inclusions that makes you say, “Well, okay, at least the people making this clearly cared.” However, all of this is just fluff, as the real reason that captivated my interest was all that juicy, bloody, red meat shit: That feeling when you see another woman’s purse in your ex-boyfriend’s apartment; that feeling when you imagine your ex-girlfriend hooking up with some bigger, Chaddier, manlier guy; that feeling when you have to talk to the guy you like the morning after you heard another girl at his place; the feeling of your girlfriend, who you’re not even that serious about, having a family who truly trusts you to look after their daughter, or granddaughter in this case. This show could genuinely be viewed as a normie relationship simulator that showcases just some of the bullshit and drama they have to go through in order to keep one afloat, and in that regard, I think it's unmatched because of how amusingly (and relatably, for some) specific it's willing to take the scenarios.
I fully realize the position I’ve put myself in—that of somewhat standing in defense of an anime which every thinking individual seems to rightly despise for many valid reasons, all of which I’ve acknowledged and even criticized myself, but none of which I’ve even attempted to outright justify at all—and I’m struggling to find the answer to the question, “How and why did I enjoy watching this show again?” Because, I’m gonna be honest here, I know I, of all people, was the last person who should have.
The evolution we see from season 1 to season 2, where Chizuru kicked Kazuya off of her in the hospital bed with that big, over-the-top anime reaction, to season 2, where he falls on top of her in an equally retarded fan-service set-up, yet, this time, she instead looks to him vulnerably and tells him to get off in a demure, understated voice, letting him make the choice himself. Realizing Ruka bought condoms, or seeing her force herself on Kazuya because she knows she’s losing the emotional race. Getting wrapped up in the late-night Gossip Girl shit, the drama, investing in the competition, being fucking disgusted with Kazuya—it’s all part of the process. I love allowing myself to get invested in peak trash like this just so I can see if it has what it takes to frustrate me and force my cold, dead, icy heart to feel literally anything other than passivity and dejection, and 100 Girlfriends has none of that, nor any of what makes Kanokari get a green flag from me.
