Kanojo mo Kanojo

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]

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

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Udagawa, Sumio Producer

Hattori, Kentarou Producer

Yoshitake, Shintarou Producer

Reviews

May 30, 2024

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 (pun intended) 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 great 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 or even rational to be considered genuinely entertaining, and Kanojo mo Kanojo just might be the best example of that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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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".

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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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 ... the gang read in "Love is War." All we know about the manga is that it resembles a bunch of common shoujo plotlines, but to our characters it's a bestselling series that made them tear up despite its generic tropes. It's just a fake story that allows the real story to create some hilarious parodies, like when the author reimagined "Love is War" as a melodramatic shoujo ai. Much like our world, it makes sense that fictional characters also have their own in-universe version of television and books. These are usually jokes built on generalizations of the genre being made fun of, be it grimy crime dramas or sappy YA romance. I'm fond of fake stories, but mostly because they're fake. They aren't meant to be taken seriously, nor do they overstay their welcome.

"Kanojo no Kanojo" is what happens when one of these shitposts gets dragged out for a miserable 12 episodes.

This piece is spoiler-free, Tl;Dr below.

Naoya gets the girl. Equal parts daft and earnest, he's been pursuing his childhood friend Saki for years. In the first year of high school she accepts his feelings, and the two start out on their adorkable relationship. He's still as infatuated with his longtime crush as he's ever been, she's smitten by his sheer earnestness. The pair share a funny chemistry, thanks to comic misunderstandings and exaggerated declarations of love for one another. It'd be fun to see a story of these getting worked-up over every tiny thing in their blossoming relationship.

Kanokano is not that story. Heck, just calling it a story at all would be a stretch.

Out of the blue, a blue-haired first-year decides to ask MC out, in typical anime fashion. A girl whom this guy has no prior knowledge of just shoots her shot. Sure, she worked up the courage to confess for several months, but what would he know. He's content and attached to his first and only love.

Naturally, he says yes.

What follows is an absolute trainwreck. Rather than find himself having to choose between one girl and the other, MC decides to date both in a two-timing relationship. And as proof of his "TRuE l0Ve," he tells an enraged Saki of his horny intentions to start a high-school harem. That's right, he cucks both of his girlfriends openly. Now, there's nothing wrong with adults consenting to an open courtship with more than two people, but nothing about this weak-willed excuse of a MC screams "loyal" or "mature," given how quickly he fell head-over-heels over a stranger he just met. And to top it all off, the threesome moves into MC's home to live happily ever after, unsupervised and underage. Kanokano is all about the resultant polygamy, and the sheer idiocy that allowed it to occur.

Before discussing this abominable harem, we must direct our attention to our Harem Lord. In the past I've been harsh towards male protagonists with zero personality, but I'd prefer any number of them over this mess of a character. Naoya Mukai is quite easily the worst lead character in all of fiction; or, at the very least, the worst protagonist I've had the displeasure of coming across thus far. I really wish I was merely drumming up exaggerated anger for the sake of publishing a heated review, but he is genuinely revolting. At first glance, Naoya appears to be a perpetual loser who demonstrates his undying love with big romantic gestures. But really, the guy is a toxic manipulator who constantly gaslights those around him in order to fulfill his horny desires. He comically misunderstands the babes surrounding him and twists their words, with an idiocy so unfiltered that girls end up second-guessing themselves. Naoya is what happens when you cross the Machiavellian tendencies of a Gen-Z Light Yagami with the selfish, pathetic guise of ToG's Rachel. Self-deprecation is often seen as a weakness or an undesirable flaw, yet Naoya leans into his worthlessness so hard that it miraculously becomes a strength. He shamelessly proclaims he's a two-timing scum, but only because he loves his girls both equally and endlessly. Suddenly, his unfaithfulness is seen as a prized rarity, and every female above the age of consent would throw themselves at him to be the sole recipient of such undying love. But surely sharing a chode amongst so many impressionable teenage girls is a "hard" task, in more ways than one! Getting into Naoya's bandwagon (and pants) becomes more difficult as the series progresses, because he needs to "stay faithful" to the girls already attached to him. However, MC playing hard-to-get just ends up being an excuse for entertaining the humiliating advances of the chicks around him. Forget any notion of this series navigating a taboo polygamous relationship in Japan; Kanokano is a show about a cult - one where a serial manipulator unabashedly tricks the world into falling in love with him.

The cult of Kanokano is repulsive, but it's hard to feel sorry for the victims dumb enough to fall for MC's schemes. As an abridged mockery of the harem trope, each girl is defined primarily by their obsessive desires to win MC's heart. Character traits barely distinguish one empty husk of a character from the next; these idiots may as well be interchangeable target practice for Cupid's arrows. No one here is really in love with Naoya; rather, they crave only the idea of being the only one loved by him. Each girl steps outside of their comfort zones to "out-love" everyone else by catering to MC's fetishes. The end result? A clown fiesta of antics and grand gestures that rapidly decline in shock value. Forgoing sleep to profess love, camping in the cold outdoors as a pick-up strategy, bribing lovers with "gacha" rolls, getting aroused from NTR, putting on roleplay clothes in order to sleep with MC, and stripping down said clothes in order to sleep with MC - you get the perverted picture. It's the kind of immature bullshittery that'll make any reasonable soul call for a parent, if not for the fact that these parents are just as irredeemably shit as their insane offspring. Kanokano paints a nightmarish dystopia where society has regressed to the age of Neanderthals. Fathers and mothers don't just allow their little girls to play House with MC - they encourage it, praying that their respective child will be the one to claim Naoya's heart. This is a sick world so primitive that down-bad daughters attempt to make Sir Nice Guy shoot babies into them, while their irresponsible parents cheer their underage children on.

With a fervor not seen since Thanos' quest to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet, the nice guy Naoya hunts for babes to add to his trash waifu depository, with each new insipid addition more helplessly inept than the next. Redhead tsun tiddies. Loli-bait homemaker tiddies. Gyaru e-girl streamer tiddies. The list may as well stretch on and on, in turn tearing the fabric of realism as we know it. But let's not worry about fiction not being believable, that's not even the worst of our problems. The biggest issue with Kanokano is that it obliterates the very idea of love. This harem gives up dignity in exchange for dick, throwing themselves at a love as commonplace as it is disingenuous. Naoya could love anyone, which is why love loses all meaning. The goal of sharing an inseparable bond with a significant other gets utterly destroyed with the addition of countless "others." Love disappears, because love means nothing when it's freely handed out to every girl and my left foot. Romance is dead, and Kanokano has dealt the finishing blow.

This rancid experience does come with its bright spots. Production-wise, Kanokano benefits from a rather pleasant job. It's baffling that such a travesty would follow an otherwise successful streak for Tezuka Productions, a studio fresh off works such as "Dororo" and 2020's phenomenal "Adachi to Shimamura." The latter show's chief director and head director bring the same quirky visual identity to Kanokano, with a comic-book aesthetic and pastel colors. The series is also capable of nailing comedic timing and visual jokes that embrace the absurdity on-screen. Voice actors are the liferaft for the sinking 'ship(s) of Kanokano. Lines are delivered (and often shouted) with the crazy conviction the script requires. These VAs absolutely sell their lines and do their utmost to elevate some incomprehensibly crap material. For all the garbage persistent throughout the series, Kanokano at least executes its ideas relatively well. But if you ask me, it's a bit like polishing a turd.

If you made it this far, you may be wondering what my deal is. Kanokano is clearly a show that isn't meant to be taken seriously, so penning a roast about this steaming dumpster fire must be pointless. Well, if you're looking for an exercise in futility, look no further than Kanokano itself. The show is doing a parody, by taking the tropes associated with the harem formula and expanding on them, arriving in uncharted territory in the process. Kanokano is technically innovating here, but perhaps there is a good reason for why writers don't take things this ridiculously far. By pushing the harem trope to its extreme limits, Kanokano sacrifices all storytelling potential. It's nigh-impossible to see the show as anything other than an overly-long joke, because the show is so deliberately designed to be just that. Kanokano is not capable of grasping its own exercise in futility, because it's got its hands full groping its countless breasts instead. Let's not kid ourselves, no one here is watching Kanokano because of a well-developed cast or cohesive narrative. No, we watch Kanokano to laugh at how stupid it is. And honestly, that's really sad. Kanokano just isn't the kind of parody worth a full 5-hour runtime. All this colossal waste of space can offer are mind-numbing shenanigans. All this tasteless travesty can achieve is to rinse-and-repeat its toxic cycle of gaslighting and self-victimising. All this horrible harem can do is drown the audience out with noisy, over-the-top declarations of love that are as grand as they are empty. All this stupid series can muster is the vandalization of human romance, by stripping the concept of all importance. Much like the "love" the Kanokano cult share, all this story can amount to can be summed up in one word: "Fake."

Stories and entertainment have always been things that I enjoy. I've appreciated some really complex, profound works that have stuck with me. But I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I don't also treasure my fair share of simple pleasures, comedies and shitposts from time to time. Across all these pieces of media, I've always felt that these things have added to my life in some way, be it big or small. But Kanokano is the first time I've encountered a show that takes away. It's a show so dumb that I almost feel dumber just by sitting through it. If you're genuinely excited by any of the topics I've discussed so far, I won't hinder you from welcoming this chronic brain rot with open arms. Comedy is as subjective as genres get, and what failed for me might work wonders for you. My goal is simply to stay true to my personal experience and serve as a cautionary tale for those tempted to give Kanokano a fair shot. I find that the first episode kinda tells you everything you need to know, with its stupid humor and absurd execution. Feel free to try out that episode out of morbid curiosity. Who knows, Kanokano could fall squarely into "So Bad It's Good" territory.

***

BEST GIRL: Nope.

***

Thanks for reaching the end with me. This one was particularly fun to put together, as if to numb the pain from sitting through this harrowing experience. "I survived Kanokano." Now there's a neat idea for a shirt. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present, peace~

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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