Idol anime. An arena of anime as appropriate for appraising assemblages of adorable animated women as much as the storied harem genre—if decidedly different in intent. It might come as a surprise that 100 Girlfriends hasn’t gone all-in on tackling this topic before, but then this episode does end up providing plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t actually work. Still, you can’t blame ’em for trying, especially at Hahari’s behest in arranging precisely the kind of thin premise that would prompt this whole thing. It’s fair to call attention to certain idol groups rocking 48 members while the Rentaro Family is still sitting comfortably at a baker’s dozen. Hahari probably didn’t even need to go this far to get the girls to put on a show; what’s more integral to the family experience than attending dance recitals, after all?

I generally like idol anime. You put a new season of Love Live! on TV, and I’ll watch it. I’m even happy to admit that my beloved BanG Dream! is at least idol-adjacent. While I can’t say just from this episode if the author and crew of 100 Girlfriends are especially critical or irreverent toward idols as an enterprise, they clearly see them as ripe to be skewered for comedy value. Showing that they’re still not above outlandish bit-character guest stars alongside the ever-increasing main cast, this episode introduces Kuori Tina as the harem’s hard-driving tutor in all things idolatry. True to her name, she sees the “quality” in each of the girlfriends, but also strictly appraises which ones have the right quality to pull together a performance within the week or so they have to prepare here.

It’s the first of multiple differentiating details that 100 Girlfriends doles out in this episode to distinguish harem anime from idol anime. In idol shows, even extremely idealized ones like Love Live!, the girls may all have the capability to unite as a unit and shine together in their performance, but it still takes work to practice and unlock that potential. Harem anime, especially an exercise like 100 Girlfriends, is about love: true love, love at first sight, loving someone for exactly who they already are. It’s Rentaro’s whole ethos from courtship through caring for them as significant others. He and the rest of the family accept new members, completely unhinged warts and all, and all that chaotic chemistry enriches the tapestry of the polycule.

Maybe that sort of intertwined expression would fly if the girls were to put together a 13-person improv jazz session, but this is an idol performance we’re talking about here. And it’s already been smartly shown in previous episodes what happens when folks try to upend or sand down the edges that make these girlfriends girlfriends. Kuori may know she can’t do that, so naturally she proposes just going on stage with the members that work and making the most of that sort of show.

But of course, 100 Girlfriends is not that sort of show. Everyone’s got to be included in the polycule, even if Hahari’s massive mommy milkers make choreography challenging or Naddy’s coming down with a chronic case of Ooh Me Accent’s Slippin’. It’s these details down to 100 Girlfriends itself that make things sing even as it’s hitting so many expected notes about a group coming together to put on the best darn talent show this town’s ever seen. Kuori tries to get the more idol-predisposed poly-pals to cut the others out, and of course they refuse, in earshot of them, whom Kuori promptly trips over as she storms out. It’s par for the course for both these kinds of shows in general and the encouraging group dynamic of this show specifically. It’s fine if there’s little drama in the choice the girls make because we’re here to see them all together anyway—including little interactions like Hakari and Karane specifically coming together as they regroup. I myself am committed to including every girlfriend in review images every week in some form, I’m as onboard as anybody.

It is the idol performance itself that calls into question just how hard 100 Girlfriends is actively trying to razz the institution of idols. The girls’ outfits are nice enough. Their color scheme and energy call to mind Franchouchou of Zombie Land Saga a bit, but each also works to match each girl’s distinctive energy (love the ones in pants). It would be nice if they were able to actually subtitle the song itself in the episode, since I know this show’s translators have been working their asses off and there’s probably some gold in the lyrics there. But I also recognize that record rights can throw a wrench into these things, and given the way 100 Girlfriends goes, that might be too many chaotic words being thrown onscreen at once. There’s something very funny about the way their song just keeps rolling in the background while Rentaro works through the other parts of the plot.

Of course the crowd ends up empty partway through that first song; it really is like Love Live! that way. It’s perfectly cromulent rotoscoped choreography in the manner so associated with many also-ran idol shows, and the performance is, in-universe, a mediocre cobbled-together compromise between neophytes of wildly varying talent levels. Kuori could have impressed that point into them, but she didn’t have to be such a jerk about it—this isn’t even her genre. Still, there’s an alignment even she forgot about: idols aren’t anything without someone to idolize them, and these girlfriends have a hugely unproblematic fan in their boyfriend. Also his Uncle Hiro, but I’ll try not to dwell on his red flags.

Maybe the world of idols isn’t as cutthroat as Kuori would want to believe it is, or at least it isn’t for the way the Rentaro Family is engaging with it. Even after “the universe conspired to keep the girls’ families away” (an incredible detail to write in as a throwaway line), even after Rentaro and Hiro propped things up as a two-man wota section for the first song, the girls still pull numbers because…the other friends they made along the way show up to see them. It’s the love (live) of the game that so many other idol anime make effort to espouse, but in this case it’s very specifically couched in the romantic and familial love of each other. And it can supersede the attempt to turn the series into an idol anime itself by the end (at the behest of the incredibly named Jesus Nakai), because hey, idols can’t have boyfriends, so of course none of the girlfriends would ever actually become idols.

This is not the most uproarious episode of 100 Girlfriends. But dangit, it’s doing something, and showing that there are still new worlds to conquer with its competitive quantities of companions. It’s the sort of story that might have made for a season finale in previous seasons of this show, if the team behind it wasn’t so dedicated to arranging the arcs with whatever dark magic they have for plans of this adaptation. It argues that series dedicated to viewing anime girls like colorful fish at an aquarium don’t have to play by the stringent standards of idol rules while also shouting out sound bytes like the declaration of dissolution of the Candies from 1977. It should have been obvious: at the crux of her turnaround, Kuori questions who would want to watch the performance of these girlfriends. We’ve all happily been watching them for three seasons now.

Rating:

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.

Film also reveals performers for each story

The official X/Twitter account for Atsushi Nishigori‘s original anime film Grotesqqque (previously titled Grotesque) announced on Monday that Akio Ōtsuka is playing the Space Agency Bureau Director in the “A(E)liens” story.

The staff also revealed the musical performers for each story:

The 35 musical acts contributing to the film are:
“A(E)liens:”

“Yoroshiku★Girl”

“Nocturne: Nuit Grotesque”

The band METALVERSE perform the opening theme song “Shoot Shoot Shoot.” Haoto performs the ending theme song with lyrics by momosu momosu.

The film will open in Japan on November 6. The film is making its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which takes place in Montreal from July 16-August 2.

The film is an omnibus film of three stories with different worldviews:

• “A(E)liens”
• “Yoroshiku★Girl,” (also known as “4649 Girl,” pronounced as “Yoroshiku★Shōjo,” a pun on the words “Nice to Meet You★Girl” with the literal meaning of the kanji being “Evening Dew Heads to Its Death★Girl.” The numbers 4649 can be read in Japanese as “Yoroshiku.”)
• “Nocturne: Nuit Grotesque” (“Nocturne: Kono Grotesque na Yoru ni,” literally, Nocturne: On This Grotesque Night, romanized in a previous video as “Nocturn: En Cette Nuit Grotesque.”)

The film’s cast members and characters include:

For the “A(E)liens” story:

For the “Yoroshiku★Girl” story:

For the “Nocturne: Nuit Grotesque” story:

Atsushi Nishigori (The IDOLM@STER, DARLING in the FRANXX) is directing the film, and is also writing the screenplay and designing the characters.

The film comes from JOEN, the company jointly established by Sony media subsidiary Aniplex, its CloverWorks animation studio, Production I.G sister company Wit Studio, and publisher Shueisha. CloverWorks producer Yūichi Fukushima and Wit Studio producer Tetsuya Nakatake are the representative directors of JOEN.

Sources: Grotesqqque anime’s X/Twitter account and website, Comic Natalie