Hakari Hanazono, Karane Inda, Shizuka Yoshimoto, Nano Eiai, Kusuri Yakuzen, Hahari Hanazono, Kurumi Haraga, Mei Meido, Iku Sutou, Mimimi Utsukushisugi, Meme Kakure, Chiyo Iin, Nadeshiko Yamato, Yamame Yasashiki, Momiji Momi, Yaku Yakuzen, Kishika Torotoro, Aashii Kedarui, Uto Nakaji, Mai Meido, Momoha Bonnouji, Rin Baio, Suu Hifumi, Eira Kaho, Tama Nekonari, and, of course, Rentaro Aijo. Every member of the Rentaro family is my precious cinnamon bun and if anything happened to any of them I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself. After seventeen volumes I'm thrilled to share that neither the premise nor charm of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You has even begun to wear thin, and that each new chapter is as delightful as every one of Rentaro's 25 girlfriends.

Coming in with only a quarter of the promised girlfriends and 149 chapters, volumes two through seventeen of 100 GFs are a lot in both its scope and conceit. Focusing on Rentaro, a young man who is blessed by God to find 100 soulmates and who decides to date all of them because he's the best boi and couldn't stand to break a single one of their hearts, there are two qualities that make this work stand out from the body of harem manga that it's openly iterating upon. The first difference is that 100 GFs is funnier than just about any harem series to come before it, and the second is that the mangaka team of writer Rikito Nakamura and illustrator Yukiko Nozawa actually like and appreciate women.

The humor in 100 GFs is a blend of absurdity and grounding pop culture references. For instance, Kusuri Yakuzen, introduced in the volume two and Rentaro's fifth girlfriend, is functionally a mad scientist who uses a drug to shapeshift between a petite and a vivacious form at her convenience and whose experimental concoctions are used as a vehicle to parody zombie media, Evangelion, and other madcap scenarios. These sixteen volumes also include references to or parodies of: I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, the SAW film franchise, Studio Ghibli's filmography, Super Smash Bros., various Marvel properties, Golden Kamuey, Yamcha's death pose, various Apple products and programs, and the Wachowski sisters film The Matrix.

Hopefully the sheer scope of the cultural touchstones that 100 GFs is drawing from makes clear that this work is less a narrative with a deliberate plot, and more a joyous possibility where anything can happen to these characters. This means that, if you show up to these volumes of 100 GFs expecting a more traditional harem romcom where the protagonist ends up with a supposed “best girl” after a couple misadventures, you're going to be disappointed. However, what you'll instead find in these tomes is a celebration of life, love, and the characters participating in them as one giant, enviable polycule.

While all of the titular girlfriends are introduced with fairly singular qualities — such as: gets hangry, is obsessed with numbers, is a maid, wants to be a cat, or is a maid and wants the affection of her big sister maid — they all become more examined people thanks to their relationship with Rentaro and the other members of the polycule. For instance, both in her introduction arc and in following chapters one of the aforementioned maids, Mei Meido, learns that she can't solely rely on acts of service and dedication to express her affections for her loved ones and that her partner(s) will appreciate her when she expresses her own needs. Seeing Mei learn these lessons is incredibly validating to me personally as someone who struggles with giving my loved ones too much of myself, and it's incredible that I can get this kind of affirmation from a manga that also infrequently features characters pissing themselves for comedic or erotic effect.

While at first it might seem like these volumes of 100 GFs are having their cake and eating it too in regards to balancing the sentimental and smutty, it's exactly because these characters are so defined in themselves and their relationships that both the gags and spicy moments work so well. No scene in any of these volumes feels like it exists solely for the gratification of the viewer, but rather like a natural consequence of these adorkable, horny characters being trapped in a room together. I've endured countless peeping scenes in anime, and all of them pale in comparison to the first six girlfriends talking themselves into sneaking a peek at their beloved BF in the bath. Both the jokes and the fan service in 100 GFs work so well because they all feel motivated and believable even while being patently absurd, and that is an incredible accomplishment in character writing.

Also, if I'm allowed to fan out a bit in this review, I love that the girlfriends get closer to each other as 100 GFs progresses to the point where many of them now are basically dating in their own right! Though they would never admit it, the original two girlfriends Hakari and Karane are now functionally in a lesbian relationship, it's a joy to see Mei and Iku bond over their shared love of casual machoschism via physical exertion, and it will always be adorable to see the hyper competent Nano protect smol bean Shizuka. Every character in this polycule has some kind of relationship or entanglement with another and that makes this Rentaro Family feel incredibly fleshed out and like a real, loving community.

As a polyamorous person, I'm still waiting for a more grounded depiction of my lived experience in media, but god, 100 GFs understands how much I love my partners and how much fun I have with them. For a work that gets so much right so consistently, I struggle to think of a single negative quality worth mentioning here, and hope everyone who's even a little bit curious about this franchise checks out these volumes. There's a burnt out office worker who aspires to be a cat waiting for you in the 17th volume! The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is worth the read for Tama Nekonari alone, with so many other fun, touching, and affecting moments and characters along the way that makes it all the more worthwhile.