Girlfriend’s Gotta Have a Gimmick – This Week in Anime

Lucas and Coop take a look at this season’s other overwhelmingly popular genre: romcoms!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.

I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? is available to stream on HIDIVE.

Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms, I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons, OKITSURA, I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class, and The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You are available to stream on Crunchyroll.

Baban Baban Ban Vampire is available to stream on Netflix.

Unlicensed: I Have a Crush at Work isn’t available to stream in the States.

Lucas

Coop, are you ready to do a RomCom round-up? While not quite as prevalent as the isekai that our TWIA contemporaries tackled in the previous column, there are still enough of them that we should help our readers avoid potential heartbreak by letting them know which ones we loved, and which ones we plan on ghosting.

Coop

I sure am, Lucas! Even though Chris and Steve covered a ton of isekai titles, it looks like we also have our hands full! We have over one hundred girlfriends (and even some boyfriends) to talk about!

While I’d appreciate more grounded poly representation in anime, 100 GFs is both validating for me and deeply entertaining. From the very beginning of season one when Rentaro declares to God that he loves women TOO MUCH to let any of them be heartbroken, and instead dedicates himself to being the best boyfriend ever to all 100 of his destined soulmates, I knew this series was only going to be something special.



13 episodes and 7 girlfriends later, my love for this series has only grown as it’s becoming nothing but funnier, hornier, and cuter. 100 GFs was my pick for most anticipated for this season, and it’s already well on its way to being my top anime of Winter 2025!

I’m not sure if it’s exactly my cup of tea, but I understand why folks are head over heels for it. Also, did the body swapping at the top of this episode remind anyone else of Scooby-Doo?

Specifically this scene.

Haha, that thought did cross my mind! (Also, it’s a really good bit of character writing that the hyper-efficient Nano would be the first soul to return to her body.) For as much as people say that Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed engrained some kinks into them, there were quite a few awakening moments in the original James Gunn movie too!

Oh yes indeed!
Speaking of creatures that bump in the night, let’s quickly shove a stake into Baban Baban Ban Vampire‘s disgusting heart.

There have only been a handful of times when I’ve flipped something on and I was sick to my stomach five minutes later. It comes down to the plot and actions of its protagonist. A 450-year-old vampire has inserted himself into the life of a 15-year-old boy (who he’s known since he was 5 years old) and plots to control every part of the kid’s love life so he can suck his virgin blood when he turns 18.

That is a disgusting display of predatory behavior…and it’s played up for laughs. It only becomes more upsetting when Ranmaru, the vampire, is presented rather effeminately—playing into vile stereotypes used in relentless attacks against anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community.
I’d call it “stranger danger” and toss this garbage into the dumpster ASAP.

I could try to dig into how Baban Baban Ban Vampire is engaging with vampire fiction and how that mico-genre has become increasingly queer over time, but the whole “groomer comedy” demotivates me from examining it further or watching any more of it. What a weird anime for Netflix, of all streamers, to pick up!

The idea of talking about it any further leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

In that case, we can pivot into talking about another RomCom from this season to feature a predatory queer character, I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? Which I thought was perfectly fine, if a bit bland, right up until that predatory lesbian showed up and was practically introduced crotch first.

I appreciated that out-of-left-field Sega Saturn shoutout, and the ninja girl owning a fight stick despite apparently sucking at fighting games was pretty funny considering I know a few people who bought that expensive peripheral exclusively for the clout!

That being said, I probably wasn’t going to check out more of this one before the homophobic story beat, and I’m even less incentivized to do so after!

If there’s anything I can commend the series for, I liked how Shizuri (the NEET Kunoichi) starts to realize pretty quickly how her relationship with Tsukasa could go south if he’s handling everything by himself. I’m not confident they’d dive into that topic further, but I think it would be a solid point to base the season’s main source of tension around.

Speaking of tension, the crux of the tension in I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class comes from two teenagers in the same class getting married despite hating each other! That’s it, that’s the entire show. It’s exactly what it says on the tin.

Ignoring the premise of two teenagers being forced by their guardians to marry each other (ew!), there could be a fun, odd couple dynamic to this show if were written just a bit better. If either of the main characters had a personality outside of hating each other in the first episode, I might be inclined to watch more.

That premise sure did stick in my craw though… Especially because it’s their grandparents’ way of making up for the relationship they DIDN’T have. But it’s also clear that they’re together now, and when you add marriage into the mix, it gets squicky fast.
At least this exchange gave me a big chuckle. Moment of the episode.


Also, I’ve gotta ask… What is up with this slice of pizza?

Much like this first episode of I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class, that pizza doesn’t quite come together! Even with a few solid jokes and an animation style that finds clever ways to cover up its limited budget, the premise is pretty hackneyed and the characters are not nearly fun enough to make up for it.

It’s not the worst RomCom of the season, but I could do without 12 episodes of the leads rotating between “I hate this person!” and blushing at every part of having to cohabitate.

I’d also say it’s far from the worst, but I don’t see it as anything special either.
On a similar note, Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms didn’t exactly leave a lasting impression on me, either. However, a few elements could make this solid in the long run.

Since she was a baby, Mona’s charmed everyone she’s met. But that changes when the titular character transfers into her school and he’s seemingly impervious to her charms! However, we eventually learn that Kuroiwa’s rough exterior comes from his nervousness, and this makes her want to charm him even more!

The series’ combination of gender flipping the traditional tsundere tale and its “there’s no lifeguard at your beach, but this is a bathtub”-energy has the makings of something fun. We’d have to see how it plays out.

I’m a bit torn on Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms! On the one hand, I love that Mona essentially has Miquella from Elden Ring‘s power to inspire unwavering love, and think it’d be fun to see how that plays out in this vastly different setting. On the other hand, Kurokawa is giving me some religiously motivated incel vibes, and that can get tricky fast if the writing isn’t on the ball.

That being said, the subtitling in this one was so good that I’d be willing to give it the three-episode test based on them alone!

The affection that went into OKITSURA, and the location and culture it’s depicting, are apparent from the get-go! The on-screen text that’s lovingly subtitled in matching color and positioning is incredible, the animation is fun and engaging even if it’s not highly produced, and most scenes have a very warm color palette that makes the show feel like home. Which is appropriate, since it depicts the home of much of its cast of characters.

While I’m curious to see where this love triangle goes and learn more about Okinawa, I’m a little worried that the show will give the tourist-friendly version of this region, rather than dig into its complicated history marked with repeated exploitation under imperialist bodies. I’m excited to check out more of OKITSURA, but hope it doesn’t turn into Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! but a few longitudinal lines southward.

That thought crossed my mind more than once while watching this. Despite how I felt (and probably romanticized it), if we went there, we would justifiably be treated with suspicion due to America’s caustic and complicated role in the island’s history.
On a less serious note, I loved the extended Evangelion send-up—complete with its own legally distinct Sagisu-esque music to back it up.

100 GFs is still my pick for the funniest (and best) RomCom of the season, but OKITSURA knows how to pack the jokes in, too! I didn’t prep any formal ranking for these shows before this chat, but OKITSURA is probably my second favorite out of every RomCom premiere from this quarter!

OKITSURA is my favorite of the bunch. It hit all right marks for me…and now I’ll try making sata andagi…

On a different note, I’ll try more episodes of I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons, but the first episode didn’t give me much material to form an opinion of the show.

The setup is that our lead, Leticia, is engaged to Prince Clarke at a young age and is forced to attend etiquette classes, even though she despises them and the pomp and circumstance of the nobility. Then, at the end of the first episode, Prince Clarke reveals that he’d rather marry someone else, and Leticia is free to be her brash, gremlin self again. It wasn’t a bad episode, but it didn’t give a sense of what the story will look like in the rest of the season.

It makes up for the plot’s relatively slow burn and abrupt twist with stylistic choices that make the series stand out. While I think the character designs are too saturated and incongruous with the backgrounds, I admire that the Princess Lessons plays around with aspect ratios and silent film-style title cards.

Agreed on that! Shifting to a widescreen format for the flashbacks was a nice little touch.

In addition to those screen shake-ups, I loved how the passage of time was portrayed by showing this tree’s leaves changing with the seasons!

While it’s too early to get a feeling of where it will go, there might be something here. I found myself constantly thinking of classic English literature—famous novels such as Jane Eyre and Pride & Prejudice. Because of that, I could see bookish teens getting into this series. Teens (especially teenage girls) deserve more titles catered to them. However, I’ve also been informed that it goes in some rough directions, so take this initial impression with a grain of salt.

I couldn’t agree more and, thankfully, it seems like we have two “by young women, for young women” RomCom anime this season! While Princess Lessons seems like it could go anywhere after the first episode, Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You seems like it’ll be more straightforward, “who will she chose” romance.

I was taken right away by the fact these boys all seem to have the same haircut.

This isn’t quite a case of the same face-kun, but the original mangaka, Haruka Mitsui, clearly has a type!
Also, is this a pandemic story? I didn’t realize we were still doing pandemic stories in 2025!

I appreciated that element of the story. I was well out of college when the pandemic started, so I can’t imagine what it was like to be a teenager and pulled away from the things you like about school.


I know it’s different for everyone, but for some kids, the social element of school is their whole life.

If my school had hot guys feeding each other, I’d be bummed that classes were canceled, too!

I don’t think Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You will quite be my cup of tea unless it leans more heavily into queer themes and imagery; but I hope that the audience it is targeting enjoys it!

I’m there with you. I’m just glad to see there’s a nice-looking, compelling show around for that audience! It doesn’t all have to be for the Oldtaku.

And with that, I believe that’s all the love out in the air.

You’re right! That’s every new RomCom from this season (plus 100 GFs because I like it and it deserves to be talked about more!). We could talk about I Have a Crush at Work, but it’s not available legally in the US and, after watching the first episode, I’m like:

If you need a good workplace romance, may I recommend Wotakoi? It’ll keep you more than held over until next week’s 100 Girlfriends. Who knows, maybe one of the titles we talked about today will end up as a solid recommendation in the future!

It feels like we have a broader spread of RomCom anime than usual this season! With varying settings and ratios of romance to comedy, I’m looking forward to seeing where the genre goes in the next couple of months! Fingers crossed this gets the ball rolling on an even wider array of stories, settings, and characters appearing in these romance series in the seasons ahead.

kshf38701 esi etd iod ui