James EndicottI am finally getting around to watching *Girlfriend, Girlfriend*. It's a pretty run of the mill #HaremAnime. I'd put it somewhere around the first season of Quintessential Quintuplets but with a cast that feels like they're acting the age they're depicted.
The elephant in the room is that, pretty much from the word go, they're #poly. The characters have never heard of #polyamory. They make a lot of mistakes; dumb assumptions; and have ideas that will set off a mix of red flags and cringey memories for actual poly folx. But there's a boy who is in a sorta functional relationship with a girl who then is confessed to by another girl but is so insecure that he can't reject an advance. He pitches that he date both of them openly since he doesn't want to lie, cheat, or hurt feelings. New girl says she doesn't want the existing couple to break up because they are a good couple and she likes that first GF makes him happy, #compersion.
Unfortunately, it's mostly just a setup for normal harem #anime stuff. Introducing a third girl who wants in to the relationship happened way too early. There was a lot of interesting potential hinted at that they just kinda sped through to establish it as a status quo for third girl to shake up.
I'm on the fence about whether I'm glad or frustrated that they don't use words like throuple, triad, compersion, envy, and jealousy. Yes, this would be an unhealthy example to model a relationship on. But it's a comedy where everyone is dumb in their own way on top of everyone having an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. You aren't supposed to model your relationship on them but learning accurate terminology could still help some young people trying to understand what's going on in their head and heart.
At the end of the day though, it's probably a good thing that it got made, adapted, and dubbed. The mangaka, Hiroyuki, is monogamous and clearly didn't consult with poly folx on the project. His stated motivation was to tell an "unrealistic" story where nobody has to have their heart broken when the protag chooses one partner. Not great but someone with clout in the industry was able to use that clout to open the door. Hopefully in the future we'll get a show written by someone who knows unicorn hunters outnumber unicorns 50-to-1😅
The elephant in the room is that, pretty much from the word go, they're #poly. The characters have never heard of #polyamory. They make a lot of mistakes; dumb assumptions; and have ideas that will set off a mix of red flags and cringey memories for actual poly folx. But there's a boy who is in a sorta functional relationship with a girl who then is confessed to by another girl but is so insecure that he can't reject an advance. He pitches that he date both of them openly since he doesn't want to lie, cheat, or hurt feelings. New girl says she doesn't want the existing couple to break up because they are a good couple and she likes that first GF makes him happy, #compersion.
Unfortunately, it's mostly just a setup for normal harem #anime stuff. Introducing a third girl who wants in to the relationship happened way too early. There was a lot of interesting potential hinted at that they just kinda sped through to establish it as a status quo for third girl to shake up.
I'm on the fence about whether I'm glad or frustrated that they don't use words like throuple, triad, compersion, envy, and jealousy. Yes, this would be an unhealthy example to model a relationship on. But it's a comedy where everyone is dumb in their own way on top of everyone having an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex. You aren't supposed to model your relationship on them but learning accurate terminology could still help some young people trying to understand what's going on in their head and heart.
At the end of the day though, it's probably a good thing that it got made, adapted, and dubbed. The mangaka, Hiroyuki, is monogamous and clearly didn't consult with poly folx on the project. His stated motivation was to tell an "unrealistic" story where nobody has to have their heart broken when the protag chooses one partner. Not great but someone with clout in the industry was able to use that clout to open the door. Hopefully in the future we'll get a show written by someone who knows unicorn hunters outnumber unicorns 50-to-1😅