Kanojo mo Kanojo (Girlfriend, Girlfriend)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Kanokano

Japanese: カノジョも彼女

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 3, 2021 to Sep 18, 2021

Premiered: Summer 2021

Broadcast: Saturdays at 02:25 (JST)

Producers: Mainichi Broadcasting System, Kodansha, Half H.P Studio, Nikkatsu, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, Forecast Communications, Myrica Music

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Tezuka Productions

Source: Manga

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Themes: Harem, School

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.54¹ (scored by 181,991 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #6789²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #631

Members: 370,945

Favorites: 2,436

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6.54

Ranked #6789Popularity #631Members 370,945

Summer 2021TVTezuka Productions

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

Naoya Mukai is having the time of his life after his childhood friend Saki Saki finally accepts one of his countless confessions. Ensuring that their relationship will stay strong, he spares no effort in showering affection to his now beloved girlfriend.

However, one afternoon, another girl named Nagisa Minase suddenly confesses to Naoya following months of preparation. Even though he politely rejects her, Nagisa's irresistible charm and determination continue to attract Naoya. Wanting to fulfill both Saki and Nagisa's desires, Naoya ends up proposing a crazy idea—to date the two of them simultaneously, with both girls fully aware. This unprecedented state of affairs ultimately causes wacky and hilarious situations in whatever they do to keep their unusual relationship going.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Kanojo mo Kanojo
Sequel:	Kanojo mo Kanojo Season 2

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kiryuu, Shino

Main

Takahashi, Rie
Japanese

Saki, Saki

Main

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Minase, Nagisa

Main

Waki, Azumi
Japanese

Hoshizaki, Rika

Main

Taketatsu, Ayana
Japanese

Mukai, Naoya

Main

Enoki, Junya
Japanese

Saki's Mother

Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami
Japanese

Mirika's Father

Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Aoi, Hiroyuki

Producer

Udagawa, Sumio

Producer

Hattori, Kentarou

Producer

Yoshitake, Shintarou

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Fuzaketenaize (ふざけてないぜ)" by Necry Talkie (ネクライトーキー)

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Ending Theme

"Pinky Hook (ピンキーフック)" by Momo Asakura

Reviews

Sep 17, 2021

IrrelevantGuy

Recommended

Have you ever watched an anime you hated at first but then came to like it? That's my exact experience with Kanojo mo Kanojo. "Like" is an understatement though, because I found myself laughing my ass off watching pretty much every episode of the show. In a season which has suffered from the "lack of good shit" syndrome, Kanojo mo Kanojo has legitimately been my favorite anime to watch. Yes, legitimately.

First, let's get the bad things out of the way. If you don't enjoy "dumb", "illogical" anime and dislike the seemingly awkward two-timing concept of KmK, chances are that you won't like the show either. ... This is very clearly a hit-or-miss series; you are either going to love it or hate it. Even someone like me, who absolutely adores the show now, had a rough time sitting through the first episode. It wasn't because of the "dumb always equals bad" mentality that most people seem to have, but because of how awkward I found the circumstances to be. There's another major reason behind my initial dislike for the show, but I will get to that in a bit.

So what makes KmK good compared to other dumb, "low-effort" harem romcoms out there? For example, what's different about it compared to something like Osamake? It's hard to explain. Maybe it's the fact that KmK actually feels like a genuine parody of harem—as opposed to a series that only claims to be a parody while unironically being the exact thing that it attempts to make fun of (Osamake, for instance). The scenarios in KmK are also far more outlandish, with each scenario constantly one-upping the earlier one in terms of ridiculousness. Everything about the show feels like the most cliched trope you could ever imagine—just amplified to an unthinkable extent.

Then there's the fact that the characters are actually likeable and entertaining, which is one of the biggest differences between KmK and most other harem romcoms.

The characters are by far the best part of KmK, and they are basically what make the show's awkward premise somehow work. Yes, most of them are unbelievably stupid, illogical, and embarrassingly straightforward, but they are still entertaining. Their apparent lack of braincells doesn't make them the least bit intolerable; instead, they are more enjoyable because of it. Another noteworthy side is that there aren't many characters in the cast; the series only focuses on a select few individuals and doesn't dabble in any unnecessary subplot. This is rather uncommon in harem romcoms, most of which have a tendency to stray away from the original storyline by introducing redundant side-characters and the like.

However, if you had asked me about my outlook on KmK two months ago, I probably would have given a much different answer, and that's mostly because of just one guy: Naoya, the protagonist.

Naoya is a very difficult character to like, and I completely understand why. He is as stupid and clueless as a brick, seemingly very selfish and self-centred, and above all, like Rika describes, he is a "two-timing bastard" and the root cause of this fucked up situation. But man, is he honest and straightforward. I would have had no qualms repeatedly punching his face if it had been a few weeks ago, but as the story progressed, I kind of started liking the guy to be honest. Not in any conventional way, though. Let me explain.

Naoya doesn't have any depressing backstory or even a compelling trait that will make you like him, but what he does have is his overly frank and persistent personality and his commitment to keep both of his girlfriends happy, which is admirable in its own way. Naoya will go out of his way to make sure that Saki and Nagisa are treated equally, leading to some questionable yet nonetheless hilarious scenarios. All this collectively made it difficult for me to dislike him, albeit I totally hated him at the beginning of the story. In the end, you could say that he is essentially what makes this show, and say what you want, but I don't think you would find a better replacement.

Enough about Naoya, though. Let's talk about the girls now.

For starters, Saki is the best girl of the show. The other three are also very likeable (although Shino gets focus for like only 2 episodes), but Saki's surprisingly sympathetic persona and unpredictable behaviour makes her the most memorable out of all. But again, all the other girls also deserve credit. They all love Naoya for their own reasons and come up with various plans to protect and express their love, which kinda makes your root for all the three at the same time—no matter how disastrous the result eventually turns out to be. As the story is now though, Saki and Nagisa seem like the only potential winners, but given the kind of series we are talking about here, honestly anything could happen.

In terms of production values, the animation of KmK clearly isn't top-tier, but it isn't really bad either. There are a lot of awkward faces and stiff movements from time to time (that weren't intentional), but the overall quality of the animation is fine. I like the vibrant color scheme of the show as well, and most importantly, all the girls look very attractive (although their faces can become quite deformed sometimes—either for comedic purpose or unintentionally).

Regarding the soundtrack, I thought it was surprisingly good. Some of the tracks that played on the background were very memorable and caught me off guard to be honest. Along with the decent soundtrack, KmK also has one of the best opening and ending themes of this season. The opening song "Fuzaketenaize" is very catchy, and the ending song "Pinky Hook" is especially good with its outstanding pre-chorus, which gets me hooked (see what I did there?) every time I hear it.

Kanojo mo Kanojo is easily one of the most enjoyable harems I have ever watched, and there honestly isn't any sense of irony when I say that. Whether or not the show has good writing may be debatable, but one thing is for sure—it knows how to have fun, it knows how to embrace its stupidity. This type of unassuming and "not giving a fuck" attitude makes the show a rare find and, in my opinion, a legitimately compelling anime to watch. You wouldn't find anything remotely meaningful here even with the most rose-tinted glasses, but that doesn't stop it from being any less enjoyable.

After all, not all anime need to be profound and rational to be considered genuinely entertaining, and Kanojo mo Kanojo just might be the best example of that.

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Sep 17, 2021

Luubie

Mixed Feelings

Polygamy is a difficult subject. Animes prove this. Harem shows try to treat their romances with increasingly repetitive approaches and at the same time don't know what to do often when it comes to finishing a show. Authors and storyboard creators have the difficult task of concluding the story and convincing the audience at the same time. Kanojo mo Kanojo arrived bringing a very different form of love that exceeds a couple, putting on a relationship that, while seeming innovative and different, demonstrates how lostand desperate romance animes are these days.

For those who don't know, "polygamy" is an emotional relationship in a group with ... more than 2 people. This kind of thing is still a controversial debate, because it not only involves the group of people involved, but also the entire external society that expresses this relationship in a negative way most of the times. Usually, acceptance comes with difficulty, which is fair enough. In the show, after receiving a girl's confession, Naoya proposes to Nagisa a relationship between 3 people. Naoya had from the beginning of the story a fling with Sakisaki, while Nagisa would be his second girlfriend. Sakisaki, like every person who has a normal functioning head, refuses at first sight the awkward and uncomfortable situation. Hearing this proposal from her own boyfriend is like receiving a betrayal, even if it doesn't seem like it. Having to share a closed relationship with another person in this way is something that really needs patience and understanding. Even with this, Sakisaki accepts living with Naoya and Nagisa in this way.
So far, the show looks cool, it's an idea that if it's put to good use, can cause interesting moments and messages, even with this distortion within what is meant by a harmonious relationship. The problem of Kanojo mo Kanojo is actually not this, but the progression of the show added to the difficult to follow coexistences during the episodes. At first, the anime tries to turn this perception into a difficult state until it is something the audience accepts as normal. But the show chose not to do that competently.

In fact, much of what the show has done is leave in hyperbolic drama moments that are just absurd and wouldn't cause that much amazement (remember, this is a show that wants to try to make a relationship between three people natural). You don't need to see much of the anime to identify this. From a hug request to the involvement of a fourth person in the story (in this case, Mirika), the direction of the anime puts the most frivolous and the most absurd moments into pure bliss, as if they were something similar. The way the show approaches this causes outrage with those watching. Imagine you see Naoya hugging Nagisa in front of Sakisaki while she feels a euphoria because she thinks she is developing a fetish, or imagine being surprised by a girl dressed as a rabbit or a maid in front of you. These things are really seen as odd, but they have turned this kind of attempt to relate the characters in a way that hurts the show itself. Honestly, putting a background with green and purple colors to cause a character's astonishment is not amusing, but pathetic. More than pathetic, it is a laziness of the show to innovate. What was supposed to cause humor by what you are seeing, causes laughter by the absurd way the studio decided to do some scenes.

And on the subject of innovation, Kanojo mo Kanojo is actually not a revolutionary anime, but an increasingly common cliché in manga, light novels and harem shows. One can see the increasingly bad trend of stories being poorly reworked and often concluded with contempt from the creator of the project himself. Without quoting spoilers of the endings of these manga, but "Gotoubun no Hanayome", "Domestic na Kanojo" and "Bokuben" were recent examples of adaptations that even having a conclusion did not please and in most cases caused a bad reception about the genre. When making a show of this kind, I imagine that the author needs to have the ability to conclude his work in a way that sparks interest in consuming other projects by him or the magazine he distributes, but unfortunately this does not happen. Kanojo mo Kanojo is not guilty of this trend, perhaps it was even the original idea of the show to be like this. But that doesn't take away from the responsibility to change the parameters of this demographic that is declining year after year.

It's not like the whole show is flawed, particularly some episodes and scenes are cool to follow, but they can't sustain everything else. These isolated cases are like gold found in a desert. You will feel accomplished, but all you will notice around you is misery. The misery of this show is the limitations of a better contact with the viewer. For many times I realized that the anime, instead of trying to be more casual or even slice of life, it uncontrollably tries to use already repeated, banal and unnecessary subjects to extend and perhaps create more time with this awkward involvement. Whenever it has some drama regarding a character's insecurity, their breasts are one of the first factors to be told, or the girl being pretty, or even the relationship of it being a story where more than 2 people have a love involvement.

Finally, Kanojo mo Kanojo is a disappointment, but a planned disappointment. You wouldn't expect anything good in a show that once again has "Kanojo" in its title (need I mention that this is getting more and more worrisome?), but at least I thought the humor and charm of the anime would be enough to withstand 12 episodes. Well, that's not what occurred. It's a show that has damaged itself and gone from "innovative" to just "weird".

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Sep 17, 2021

An1meDweeb

Not Recommended

Well-written

Have you heard of "fake stories within a story?"

Take the "Home Alone" franchise, for example. Kevin McCallister spends his Winter holiday evenings watching the noir movie "Angels with Filthy Souls." The fake film and its fake sequel are really funny mafia parodies; despite not originating from an actual movie, "Merry Christmas, ya' filthy animal" is still an incredibly iconic movie line. Both of these sketches are short and sweet, with each sitting at under 2 minutes. I call them fake stories because they're clearly not meant to hold any narrative importance. The same goes for a sappy romance manga titled "Go Sweet" that Shirogane and ...

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Poll: Kanojo mo Kanojo Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jul 23, 2021	106 replies	by ninjaberserker »» Apr 24, 4:36 AM
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Kanojo mo Kanojo

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