Girlfriend, Girlfriend

[ExarchOfAfrica]

A story about a guy two-timing. Its strongest moments are with whacky stories and arcs, its weakest are with drama and conflict.

The story begins stupid, MC has a girlfriend yet asks to two-time. The premise of harem is silly, really being able to love two or more women simultaneously seems far-fetched. That's not to say I don't like harem (I really do), but I personally don't like to confront this hard truth about harem and have yet to see a single manga which gave me a satisfying answer to this. The comedy here more than makes up for this shortcoming. We see a fair bit of fanservice too, always a treat in harem.

The story does the best in the middle chapters when the characters motivations are explored more, making them actual humans rather than Pixie Girls or satellites around the MC.

The ending is a disappointment. Fifteen chapters of drama without any breathing room until the very end, by which point there's a lack of fanservice to compensate for the drama. The ending also faces the problem's with harem as a genre, but I take away that the girls in MC's harem are ultimately uncomfortable with the whole arrangement and need to hide this discomfort under a veneer or group happiness. This irked me, as I saw multiple characters who I came to respect as free agents be subsumed by the wishes of the mangaka.

A fine manga that did strongest with fanservice and character development, but struggled with its ending.

6/10.

 

[VanVassille]

shino best gril

 

[kashema]

ive held out on this one bc it looks boring. idk if it'll be worth it

 

[FloridaBoi]

He gave up on Aho Girl for THIS?!?!?!?!

 

[TheQuietKidd]

The reason we like harem endings is because stories usually build up our like ratio for a character. Being sweet, nice, caring and cute throughout a story builds up our desire to see that character happy.

We don't wanna see the characters we like cry and have their hearts broken.

This is why in certain manga where it's obvious the MC will just pick the main girl or already picked one girl,

Examples:

Spoiler

(Komi-san, Senryuu Shoujo, Seishun Buta, Monogatari series, Nisekoi, Gotoubun Hanayome, Saenai Heroine)

we hated how they added likeable girls that were made to just have their hearts broken in the end.

Sometimes we just want a sweet, nice romance manga, but it usually is broken by how the author wants to add in another girl that is just made as a supporting character for the main character's romance.

Harems are fine for me, as long as no hearts get broken in the end.

To some extent that makes sense. Tbh, idrc about the harem tag, it makes no difference to my enjoyment of the story.

 

[Josehsmentol]

I came here to ask if I would be disappointed by this manga after having read The 100 girlfriends who really really really really really love you? Any insight?

 

[spauldo]

I came here to ask if I would be disappointed by this manga after having read The 100 girlfriends who really really really really really love you? Any insight?

I haven't read that one, so I can't compare them, but I somehow doubt they'd be very similar. This manga's about a guy that falls in love with two girls and can't give either of them up. The MC never lies and always says what he's thinking, which adds to the humor but also means they try to work out their problems by talking (which is a nice change from normal manga where no one has communication skills).

I didn't care much for one of the characters (Marika) and the ending seemed a bit abrupt. I think they should have spent a little more time addressing the sexual ramifications of their arrangement - lots of good opportunity for humor there. Overall though, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

[Phuocphuc46]

Kanojo mo Kanojo is a harem manga that mostly embraces the absurdity of the harem genre - a recent development in the genre itself. Unfortunately, that uniqueness is massively overshadowed by the story's flaws and ultimately, Kanojo mo Kanojo is just another okay-ish addition in the sea full of mediocre harem manga.

I know the manga doesn't take itself too seriously, but everything's just so over-the-top that no character development or dramatic moments really stuck. The pacing didn't help with this issue, either. A little bit slice-of-life, then an issue arises followed by a stretch of never-ending drama arc that never really broke the characters out of their mould, rinse and repeat. The main cast's personality and daily life didn't feel that fleshed out as a result and I never got emotionally attached to them. The humour is, undoubtedly, this manga's selling point, but I find it to be repetitive really quick. The art is gorgeous honestly, and the fanservice... is okay.

I do enjoy how, despite already knowing how this manga will end from the premise, the author still manages to build suspense and intrigue every arc of the way up until the very end, to keep the readers on the tip of their toes on how the manga will truly end. And once it ends... seriously, there needs to be some sort of renaissance in how manga should end. Just because the premise and major plot points got brought to a conclusion doesn't mean that's a wrap. How the world, the characters go on normally afterward can be just as interesting as everything before it - especially for a harem manga, where chemistry between the main cast both off and on their romantic relationship means everything!

Harem is a doomed genre. Any premise is fundamentally unrealistic, immoral and absurd, and only God knows how to build a story, and especially the many characters, around it in a way that's natural, entertaining but also satisfying at the same time. Kanojo mo Kanojo tries to put a different spin on things, but at the end of the day, it still has many of the same pitfalls as the many manga before it - lacklustre character development, messy pacing and a weak conclusion. If you find its premise interesting, give it a read! I'm sure you'll at least enjoy the journey. But I think this manga just isn't for me.

 

[spauldo]

Harem is a doomed genre. Any premise is fundamentally unrealistic, immoral and absurd, and only God knows how to build a story, and especially the many characters, around it in a way that's natural, entertaining but also satisfying at the same time. Kanojo mo Kanojo tries to put a different spin on things, but at the end of the day, it still has many of the same pitfalls as the many manga before it - lacklustre character development, messy pacing and a weak conclusion. If you find its premise interesting, give it a read! I'm sure you'll at least enjoy the journey. But I think this manga just isn't for me.

Poly groups aren't unrealistic or absurd. Those exist in the real world, and they can work. I doubt they're common in Japan (Japanese views on marriage and romance and the balance of personal freedom vs. responsibility to society are quite a bit different than western views), but they weren't unusual historically in Europe. They're becoming more common in America. A good friend of mine has been in a two man/two woman group for over a decade now, and my own family situation is somewhat adjacent. As far as morality goes, well, that sort of thing is subjective - I personally find a system that tries to shoehorn everyone into nuclear families to be immoral. Love shouldn't be legislated.

The story is unrealistic because the characters and situations are over the top - an intentional (and, in my opinion, correct) choice by the author. The author gets some stuff right, but obviously the comedy takes precedence.

As to how to build a story - this is a decent example of such a story. There are challenges, and the group works to overcome those challenges in an entertaining way. I suspect if the author had tried to avoid some of the common manga tropes (and had Marika fall off a cliff or more to Tibet or something), it would have been even better. A story with a more realistic polycule (although the story itself is unrealistic) is the webcomic Leftover Soup.

Anyway, I don't think this manga belongs in the Harem genre anyway. A harem implies inequality in the relationship - usually a bunch of girls competing for the affections of a guy. That's not the case here - if anything, Saki has the most power in this relationship.

 

[Phuocphuc46]

Poly groups aren't unrealistic or absurd. Those exist in the real world, and they can work.

Spoiler: drawn-out spoiler-free reply to this user

Hey, you're right! I used such description because of my own view on how a harem manga premise usually goes - and partially because, like you said, I live in Asia where polyamory relationships are nigh non-existent and as such don't generally put a lot of weight into my opinion on it. The general consensus on polyamory would be "don't care", since such practice is so far removed from social norms, so "immoral" could be used at least from Eastern perspective - after all, this manga did have the message of other people's views be damned and you should do whatever makes you happy! Though "unrealistic" was definitely the wrong word here, I should have said unorthodox instead.

So I assumed that this manga would delve a bit into that poly aspect, after all, it did start strong from that direction. But honestly, despite how much this manga said that: although their relationship isn't normal, there's still a special happiness for all of them that only they can have... what I got from all of this is four individual romantic relationships bound together by the girls' acquiescence for each other's happiness. I don't think there were a lot of chapters where the male lead was romantically associated with more than one girl at a time. The manga does get some stuff right, obviously, but, you know, I thought... Oh, who am I kidding, I went and placed my personal expectation on a comedy manga made by the author of Aho-Girl, no less, and then have the gall to be disappointed by it. Boo hoo.

I think the Harem genre... generally... just refers to a media that depicts one single character being involved with multiple partners simultaneously. Kanojo mo Kanojo should be a harem. Power structure shouldn't really be considered a major factor, if it does, then shouldn't all the power lies solely on the single character? I'm judging by historical precedent, but I feel that this would make more sense, since more often than not how a harem romance concludes revolves around the choices of the single character.

So harem is technically only a form of polyamory, one that, in my opinion, is easier for people to digest. Despite that, I have rarely seen this genre done justice, at least in manga form, beyond the harem aspect used as a set-up for slapstick, or used as a peculiar premise to raise romantic tension only to develop into a monogamous relationship in the end. Despite despite that, I have only ever seen two, maybe four good harem-focused manga, despite the genre having existed since the previous millennium. It will probably take a millennium more for there to be a manga that do justice to poly relationships

 

[spauldo]

...

Yeah, I wish the manga had fewer unnecessary distractions and more focus on trying to make the relationship work. But you're absolutely right - that's a lot to expect out of a comedy manga.

Still, it's probably the best treatment of the subject I've seen in manga. Like you said, it's just not horribly common in Asia, so realistically the author probably doesn't have a lot of good sources to draw from.

It's funny how you say harem is easier for people to digest. I suspect that's another cultural difference. In manga, love rivals usually stay friends and even encourage each other. I'm not sure how realistic that is for Japan, but in the US things get pretty nasty if two girls are after the same guy. I've personally seen badmouthing, broken friendships, vandalism, and assault. Two guys after the same girl is a little better, but fights aren't uncommon and there's an expectation that you don't chase after a girl your friend is interested in. Poly tends to make more sense in the west because it's often associated with the LGBT+ community and they tend to be more open minded about this sort of thing.