The core refrain of the first season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend was “They are such horny idiots.” – That refrain remained true in the second season of the series, with the addition of another Horny Idiot to the series.

Picking up quickly after the first season of Girlfriend, Girlfriend, this season adds one of the supporting characters to the domain of lead characters, with Sakisaki’s best friend, Shino, revealing that she too has a crush on Naoya, and she wants to tell him how she feels about him. This adds to the conflict of whether she feels comfortable joining the polycule, alongside Saki Saki and Nagisa, or opposing the polycule and taking Naoya for herself, like Rika.

In the larger context, this means that while Shino is rather petite compared to the other leads, she ends up amping the fanservice compared to last season. Indeed, Shino’s spotlight episodes during the hot springs trip in Season 1 ended up having some of the most fanservice of the series. This season amps the fanservice entirely, with the additional twist that this season establishes that Shino’s character trait is “accidental pervert”, that is she’s really good at getting naked and falling on Naoya in ways that put him in a compromising position.

In particular, this results in Shino getting stuck on an island with Naoya while she’s naked, and Naoya is wearing only his swim trunks. It’s to the credit of this series, compared to (say), Rent-A-Girlfriend, that not once do we get a joke about Naoya pitching a tent in his trousers or needing to masturbate about all the women in his life (particularly the women living with him or frequently ending up naked). Rent-A-Girlfriend would have not hesitated to make a joke (had there been a similar scenario with Kazuya and any of the women in the cast) to have had an uncomfortable erection (or even sudden ejaculation).

Yet for all the nudity and general fanservice in Girlfriend, Girlfriend, while they’re willing to talk about threesomes, they otherwise have the good grace to not focus on the one-sidedness of the relationships between the male and female cast by using masturbation as a frequent coda for episodes. It’s probably part of the reason why I just dropped Rent-A-Girlfriend entirely but have kept watching Girlfriend, Girlfriend. (Note for the record: masturbation is fine and a healthy thing for people to do, both physiologically and psychologically, however, the way that Rent-A-Girlfriend handled the topic felt like the creator perceived it as gross and shameful and leaned into it).

If I have an odd complaint about Girlfriend, Girlfriend, it’s that the series, at this point, feels just a little too chaste, despite all the nudity and occasional discussion of group sex. Hand Holding and kissing are still, within this season, considered giant steps in the main character’s relationships, even though these characters have seen each other naked (and in particular Naoya has repeatedly had his head shoved into the breasts of some of the female characters) repeatedly. Out of curiosity, I went looking for doujinshi for this series to see what the most popular ships (or most popular characters to be lewded) were, and if such doujin existed, they haven’t been scanned and uploaded to the usual services.

In all, I enjoyed the series, and if we get a season 3 I will watch it. However, by all accounts, a lot of the (ahem) thirst focus has shifted to the 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really Like You, and I understand why that is the case. I’m sticking with Girlfriend, Girlfriend mainly because the smaller cast gives the characters more time, whereas the other series can face issues with managing a deliberately larger cast.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

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