Girlfriend, Girlfriend

, also known as for short, is a Japanese romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from March 2020 to May 2023, with its chapters collected in sixteen volumes. The series focuses on a high school student who engages in a polyamorous relationship with his childhood friend and another girl who confessed her feelings for him.

An anime television series adaptation produced by Tezuka Productions aired from July to September 2021 on the Animeism programming block. A second season by SynergySP aired from October to December 2023.

Plot

Naoya Mukai is a high school student who has recently begun dating his childhood friend Saki Saki. One day, another classmate of his named Nagisa Minase, who is in love with him, decides to confess her feelings to him. Initially, Naoya only saw Nagisa as a friend and showed no romantic feelings for her at all, but after some initial hesitation, he eventually accepts her request to be her boyfriend as well. Naoya decides that he will have both Saki and Nagisa as girlfriends at the same time. As Naoya currently lives alone due to his parents living elsewhere for work, Saki and Nagisa decide to live with him. The series follows their daily school life, as Naoya, Saki, and Nagisa experience difficulties and challenges in maintaining their non-monogamous relationship, which is only worsened by the arrival of Rika Hoshizaki, whose extreme obsession of Naoya constantly terrifies him. Before long, another girl named Shino Kiryū also gets involved as she too has unrequited feelings for Naoya.

Characters

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:Naoya is Saki's childhood friend. He confessed to her every month until she accepted, but also agrees to take Nagisa as a girlfriend as well as he found her to be cute, even though he initially did not like her in a romantic way. He is an only child; as such, he hopes to have a girlfriend who has siblings. While he loves Saki and Nagisa, he shows no romantic feelings for Shino and Rika at all, but reluctantly accepts Shino as his third girlfriend for Saki's sake, even though he does not want to. Rika on the other hand is given a challenge to win over Naoya before a deadline, or else she will have to stop trying.
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:Naoya's childhood friend and first girlfriend. She shares a first and last name as her parents thought such a name would be cute. While initially not romantically interested in Naoya and constantly rejecting him every month, she eventually accepts and starts to genuinely fall in love with him. She has a complex about her small chest, especially when compared to Nagisa. Although cheerful and kind, she is very hot-tempered and has a tendency to be violent and aggressive, even towards Naoya. She is a member of their school's basketball club.
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:A classmate of Naoya, who becomes his second girlfriend after confessing to him. She was previously a shy girl who felt that she was not good at anything, then fell in love with Naoya as he inspired her to pursue skills that she was good at. Naoya initially did not like her at all and rejected her on the spot, but once she finally proved herself to him, he realized he is in love with her as well and accepts her alongside Saki.
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:A schoolmate of Naoya. She is secretly a popular vlogger who goes by the online alias . She becomes extremely obsessed with Naoya, and desperately wants to be his third girlfriend, going as far as stalking him and his girlfriends, camping outside his house to get his attention, as well as nearly raping him against his will. Her obsession with him slowly takes a toll on her sanity, which makes the group even more terrified of her. Despite this, Naoya constantly rejects her, since he has no romantic feelings for her at all, and often tends to stay away from her out of fear. In spite of this, she eventually becomes a part of the group, but it is only so she can be given a chance to make Naoya fall in love with him before the end of the year or else she will have to leave him alone for good.
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:Saki's best friend and classmate who comes from a rich family. She is at the top of their class academically. She discovers Naoya's romantic arrangement with Saki and Nagisa and she disapproves of it. It is later revealed she is secretly in love with Naoya as well, although he does not show any romantic feelings for her at all. Eventually, he does accept Shino as his third girlfriend, but he only does it for Saki's sake, and not because he actually loves her.
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:Rika and Risa's father.
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:Rika's younger sister.

Production

''Girlfriend, Girlfriend'' is based on ''Seiseidōdō, Futamata-suru Hanashi'' (, "A Story of Two-timing but Fair and Square"), which Hiroyuki had uploaded on Twitter and later published in Comiket 86 in August 2019.

Media

Manga

''Girlfriend, Girlfriend'', written and illustrated by Hiroyuki, was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from March 4, 2020, to May 24, 2023. Sixteen volumes have been published from June 17, 2020, to July 14, 2023. A commercial to promote the series, starring Ayana Taketatsu and Ayane Sakura, was released on October 23, 2020.

In February 2021, Kodansha USA announced the English digital release of the series in North America and the first volume was released on April 6, 2021.

Anime

In November 2020, the 51st issue of ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation. Tezuka Productions animated the series, with Satoshi Kuwabara as director, Keiichirō Ōchi as scriptwriter, and Akiko Toyoda designing the characters. Miki Sakurai, Tatsuhiko Saiki, and Sayaka Aoki composed the series' music. It aired from July 3 to September 18, 2021, on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS, and BS-TBS, as well as AT-X. Necry Talkie performed the series' opening theme song , while Momo Asakura performed the series' ending theme song . Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia, and streamed it on its YouTube channel and iQIYI.

On September 16, 2022, it was announced that the anime would be receiving a second season. It was produced by SynergySP, with Takatoshi Suzuki serving as the director, Kazuhiko Inukai serving as scriptwriter along with Ōchi, Shouko Hagiwara serving as the character designer, and Kanade Sakuma and Junko Nakajima composing the music along with Sakurai and Saiki. The second season aired from October 7 to December 23, 2023. Hikari Kodama performed the opening theme song , while ClariS performed the ending theme song .

Notes

References

External links

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{{Animeism

Anime and manga set in schools
Anime series based on manga
Animeism
Crunchyroll anime
Fiction about polyamory
Harem anime and manga
Kodansha manga
Muse Communication
NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
Romantic comedy anime and manga
Shōnen manga
Tezuka Productions