Kanojo mo Kanojo (Girlfriend, Girlfriend)

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.

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

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kiryuu, Shino

Main

Takahashi, Rie
Japanese

Minase, Nagisa

Main

Waki, Azumi
Japanese

Saki, Saki

Main

Sakura, Ayane
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

Kuwahara, Satoshi

Director

Motoyama, Satoshi

Sound Director

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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

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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

HellLyter

Recommended

This anime is hilarious, and don't feel pressured by anime "standards" to hide your true feelings if you think so too.

Let me pose a question. What is the reason why we watch anime, and on a larger spectrum, consume all varieties of media? Is it so we can critically dissect all of the aspects of a show and nitpick on all of its faults? While I'm sure this can be...fun?...for some (and a headache for others haha), I don't think so. It's because of entertainment. We crave excitement, something that can function as a brief escape from our realities and act as a stimulus ... for our minds. That to me is the key component of all media, regardless of genre. While there are a variety of factors that can contribute to a work of fiction being a success, to me it ultimately boils down to two things: Does it keep me interested and do I enjoy watching it? And let me tell you, Kanojo mo Kanojo is easily one of the most entertaining anime that I've seen in years!

The premise is stupid. The execution of the story is stupid. The characters and their actions are stupid. And I absolutely love it. Contrary to popular belief, an anime does not in fact have to be on a scale of epic proportions or contain beautifully written symbolism to be good. Besides, that would limit creativity and expressionism if everybody tried to write similarly. We gotta expand our horizons and get a little more diversity! To me, Kanojo mo Kanojo is a success because I was able to enjoy the heck out of it despite its simplistic, limited, and in ALL cases, silly content.

So the show pretty much revolves around the premise of the main dude two timing, and the biggest plot development involves another girl trying to get him to be a three timer. Oh boy! This is one of those weird ideas that I doubt you would see any other country bar Japan dare attempt to implement in their works because of all of the potential controversies. Japan doesn't give a crap of course because Japanese people are seemingly just too badass to care. But hey, this anime doesn't attempt to glorify polygamy like other certain anime seemingly try to paint other negative practices like slavery in a positive light, so I don't really care what the ideas used are as long as they're utilized appropriately in the narrative. And to me, it works because of the absurd way that the cast deals with it.

The characters do not act like normal people. Naoya is beyond dense and loves to shout everything he thinks out loud. He also tries WAAAAY too hard at everything. The man has no stop button or shame, but it's great. He stands out because of how ridiculous he is, and this dude's antics never failed to crack me up. Whether it's *Gasp*...HAND HOLDING...with two girls out in public while screaming about his love for them or forgoing his pants so he can make a point, Naoya's over the top nature really makes him memorable, and his amazing voice acting certainly helps.

Saki is Naoya's initial girlfriend, and my personal favorite character in the show. As her good friend Shino puts it, Saki is stupid. And you know what? That's ok!!! I absolutely love the chemistry between Saki and Naoya, their moments had me burst out laughing on various occasions. I'm glad that she at least tried to fight the whole two timing thing for awhile, but eventually caved in because her, Naoya, and Nagisa were simply made to be in a love triangle...no really, that's how the author wrote it. But truth be told, it's primarily because she's a baka. And she's also big pushover who was easily won over by Nagisa. I was honestly surprised at how lewd Saki was and especially the way her horniness (Wait, is this a real word?) was portrayed. I'm used to anime girls being like "Oho! I'm going to get him to look at my slightly exposed cleavage! How perverted!!!" But Saki over here is just like "I want sex and can't stop thinking about it" while still being fidgety and nervous about it all because she has no experience. Which I weirdly respect and, I dunno, somehow find more realistic and endearing? Yeah, maybe I'm just a baka myself. This anime seems to push the ecchi levels further than most with things like this, and that little extra nudge helps make it stand out to me. Saki's various comedic expressions and reactions to the insanity that is this anime are great. Plus the absolutely phenomenal voice acting for her really helped to elevate Saki's character even more. Seriously though, why are the seiyuu in this anime so darn good!?

The other characters are fun too. Nagisa is the reason why the whole plot THICCens in the first place by confessing to Naoya. As you can imagine, everything about her is turned up to 11, such as the fact that she has to put in thousands of hours of effort into things just to try and be average at them. I can only imagine that this is because, like the rest of this anime, Nagisa is stupid. But hey, she's an excellent cook, so there's that!!! Milika is a girl who appears in order to move the plot along, which makes sense since she has, uh, a, b, c, d, e, f...G-reat PLOT, if ya know what I mean~ Her dedication to getting Naoya to fall for her is admirable, if not borderline insane. I was worried that her antics might start to lesson my enjoyment of the show, but the reverse happened. She has plenty of funny moments and I'll be rooting for her to turn this two way anime into a THREE way anime!!! The last girl to mention is Saki's elegant friend Shino, who is anything but elegant in her one big scene. She hasn't appeared much, but if her short yet amazingly anime-esque confrontation with Naoya is anything to go by, she has a lot of potential...just not in her chest. Gah, I tried to hold back, but I couldn't, I'm sorry. But anyway, here's hoping Studio Tezuka Productions will get on that second season!!!

If there's anything you can take away from my review, it's this. Please, don't take this show seriously. You'll only hurt yourself if you try to, trust me. Logic simply doesn't exist in this series, just like how boing boing doesn't exist on Saki's flat chest and how opinions don't exist in the minds of ignorant people.....ok, I couldn't decide which comparison to use since the first one makes me seem perverted and the second one makes me come across as rude. So naturally, I decided to use both of them. Why?

Because I'm stupid. Just like this anime. So in the end, maybe that's why I feel such a connection to it...

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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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'Kanojo mo Kanojo' Gets Second Anime Season

The official website of the Kanojo mo Kanojo (Girlfriend, Girlfriend) television anime announced on Friday that a second season is in production. Produced by Tezuka ...read more

Sep 15, 2022 8:42 AM by chipsql | Discuss (69 comments)

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Here is a collection of promotional videos (PV), television ads (CM), and trailers for the last week. This thread excludes videos that have already been featured in ...read more

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Why many people hate this show? ( 1 2 ) InvisiblePsycho - Jun 21, 2022	61 replies	by cvbnm07 »» Jun 3, 12:36 PM
Poll: Kanojo mo Kanojo Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Sep 17, 2021	168 replies	by mikkel_the_goat »» Jun 1, 11:01 AM
Poll: Kanojo mo Kanojo Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 10, 2021	93 replies	by basskiller »» May 13, 10:27 PM
Poll: Kanojo mo Kanojo Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 3, 2021	87 replies	by basskiller »» May 13, 5:44 PM
Poll: Kanojo mo Kanojo Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Aug 27, 2021	125 replies	by basskiller »» May 13, 7:44 AM

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