Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Episode 10

I have to admit, I was a little bit worried that after the progressive triumphs we got in the last episode, Girlfriend, Girlfriend would now feel the need to roll things back to the previously established status quo. However, I am happy to report that while not as strong as episode nine, episode ten definitely follows through on some of the promises established before. There aren't really that many breakout laughs here, but there are just so many cute character moments that I barely even noticed. In fact, the first two-thirds of this episode continue some of those conversations that you should see in a healthy poly dynamic. Nagisa, who had previously taken a backseat in the past couple of episodes, definitely has a more prominent role here as she displays how far she is willing to go not just for Naoya specifically, but also for the sake of this entire relationship – such as her willingness to put priority on the originally established couple before her turn. There's a nice little conversation that can be had here outside the show regarding how it's not super healthy to put others' needs above your own all the time, but when it comes to this type of dynamic, sometimes those conversations are bound to come up. Not everyone can do things at the same time and not everyone is going to be able to get priority at the same time, which is why it's important to have these discussions to establish when it's appropriate.

I do wonder what the resolution of this conflict will be. Maybe we'll get a bit more regarding Nagisa's past relationship with Naoya or how strongly she feels about the current situation that she's willing to go this far to defend it. There are a couple different directions you can go with this and it's exciting! However, there's more than one conflict being set up in this episode. Yes, we finally get more screen time with the elusive fourth girl of the series Shino, who's always been around but never really had much to do besides being Saki's best friend at school. Unlike Rika who's stalker tendencies are coming back out in full swing this episode, she seems to have a relatively reasonable approach to everything and is only following everybody to see if her best friend is getting cheated on. I mean...I can't really blame her when you consider how shifty the main trio act all the time and I can't wait to see the mental gymnastics that are bound to get thrown around. There are a lot of moving parts here and everyone is trying to look out for someone else's best interests, so I'm very curious to see what kind of conclusion they'll come to in the next episode.

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Girlfriend, Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.