#kanokano

Kaito - Naoya Mukai

Meiko - Saki Saki

Hatsune Miku - Nagisa Minase

Kagamine Rin - Rika Hoshizaki

Girlfriend, Girlfriend is the story of one high school guy, and the four girlfriends that move into his house. Which the anime seems confused about. You see, the anime tries to focus on one high school guy and his two girlfriends that move into his house, but then adds two more characters for the full run of the story that are also in love for him. The intro makes it extremely obvious that these two are future haremettes. The main goal of the story is the four becoming a harem together, which means that the primary antagonists should be the ones that stop this from happening.

But the primary conflict from the story is from wanting to be an mff story while writting an mffff story. They skip straight passed the parents objecting, and explicitly have the latter 2 haremettes falling in love with the protagonist, along with the protagonist falling in love with them.

So, what does Girlfriend, Girlfriend decide to do? Subvert expectations by having the primary antagonist be one of the haremettes. And it's not enemies to lovers, but her literally falling for him like an anvil, and trying to break up his relationship so she can be his girlfriend. And since this is the only real conflict that lasts in the story, she becomes more and more psychopathic about it, to the point she literally, repeatedly drugs and kidnaps him. She even tranq'ed her little sister. And this is like Family Guy, where if you keep the same joke about abuse, it just stops being funny. It stopped being funny after her showed up. Not because of him, but because after this she became more and more unhinged.

So, the easy answer is to NOT skip passed the parents.

Saki literally lives next to the protagonist, and once they started going out, her mother just started seeing wedding bells. So, her response to them moving in together is "Finally!" followed by "Grandbabies!" Of course, it doesn't have her dealing with the fact that Naoya moved in with his two girlfriends.

But then, all of the other parents are against this relationship. Which is reasonable. The anime deals with it fleetingly, and then... doesn't have any real conflict for the story. It also frames it as being bad to oppose their daughters trying to get with someone who was already two-timing.

Let's start with Minase, because she was the first one to move in. If you daughter disappeared, and you discovered she was living with a man AND his live in girlfriend, he'd be lucky she didn't call the cops. This is Japan, which is still quite happily Patriarchal. You can't do that to the parents until she's 20. So, have Naoya talk to her mother, and then talk to her father. The father is busy at work, so this could be drawn out for quite a long time.

Then Mrs. Saki, (she named her daughter Saki Saki), having to deal with the fact her daughter's one-true-love turned into a threesome. At least one good episode out of this. She eventually convinces her husband it's a good idea to let them try. Folly of youth. She also knows that Naoya's relationship with Saki is ironclad and won't fail, so the most that might happen is the third gets kicked out.

Then who do we introduce first? Shino is already in love with him. I understand why they have Rika be the first one introduced, but doing this also seriously drags out. If we have Rika first, thence have Shino, and have them parallel arcs that end with Shino convincing Rika to stop acting like a super villain, (long before we go to the drugging part).

And then you have two more families to deal with.

And then Naoya's future school finds out, and it puts the whole thing in jeopardy.

But wait, kept mistresses are perfectly legal. If the old men in charge are a little jealous about how openly they can do it. So, he has to choose which one will be the true wife. He then convinces them that he won't treat the others as lesser than the wife.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Season 1 was good, because you thought it was going towards resolution.

Most harem anime are based off the premise of not resolving the harem. If they resolve the harem, then all of the shenanigans stop. Of course, they could focus on character and relationship development, but that takes too much thought and planning.

Kanojo, Kanojo starts with the main character getting two girlfriends in the first episode, and then moving in with them. And then, any time the characters get close to even kissing, it stops them. And then it introduces two new characters in love with the main character, and instead of rolling them into the actually harem, it instead plays will-they-or-won't-they.

One of the girls is so determined so turns psychotic, and then psychopathic. All the while the main character barely gets to the point of holding hands with one of the two girls he's actually going out with.

I kind of expected a show that literally starts with the protagonist moving in with his two girlfriends would not fall into the generic harem trap, but apparently it's that powerful.

Note: Not Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo, or anything else with Kanojo in the title.

This is a story that makes no rational sense, but makes emotional sense. A high schooler finally talked his childhood crush into going out with him, she says yes, and another girl confesses to him. He tells his girlfriend, and asks her to let him date another girl.

A few hyperviolent red-headed Tsundere punches later, and she agrees. And they all move in together.

The new girl has worked long and hard, i.e. most of her day, in order to make herself as cute as possible, and teach herself to cook. So much so that she impresses the original girlfriend.

Despite the absurd premise, it's actually a wonderful series, both heartfelt and enthralling, as the protagonist dedicates his life into make sure his girlfriends are happy.

But, he admits that he is weak, and might falter against other girls.

Mukai Naoya (Girlfriend, Girlfriend)