Girlfriend, Girlfriend

Girlfriend, Girlfriend (Japanese: カノジョも彼女, Hepburn: Kanojo mo Kanojo, "She Is My Girlfriend Too"), also known as KanoKano (カノかの) 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 tankōbon 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.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Saki Saki
カノジョも彼女
(Kanojo mo Kanojo)
Genre
Manga
Written byHiroyuki
Published byKodansha
English publisher
ImprintShōnen Magazine Comics
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Magazine
DemographicShōnen
Original runMarch 4, 2020May 24, 2023
Volumes16 (List of volumes)
Anime television series
Directed by
  • Satoshi Kuwabara (S1)
  • Takatoshi Suzuki (S2)
Produced by
List
    • Season 1:
    • Hiroyuki Aoi
    • Kentarou Hattori
    • Masahiro Hibi
    • Souichirou Naitou
    • Sumio Udagawa
    • Shintarou Yoshitake
    • Season 2:
    • Mika Sugimoto
    • Kou Tachibana
    • Hiroaki Yamazaki
    • Daisuke Aramaki
    • Kazuo Tsutsui
    • Toyoshige Miyashita
Written by
  • Keiichirō Ōchi
  • Kazuhiko Inukai (S2)
Music by
  • Miki Sakurai
  • Tatsuhiko Saiki
  • Sayaka Aoki (S1)
  • Kanade Sakuma (S2)
  • Junko Nakajima (S2)
Studio
Licensed byCrunchyroll
Original networkMBS, TBS, BS-TBS, AT-X
Original run July 3, 2021 December 23, 2023
Episodes24 (List of episodes)
icon Anime and manga portal

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

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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.

Characters

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Naoya Mukai (向井 直也, Mukai Naoya)
Voiced by: Junya Enoki[3] (Japanese); Kevin D. Thelwell[4] (English)
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.
Saki Saki (佐木 咲)
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu[5] (PV), Ayane Sakura[3] (anime) (Japanese); Brittany Lauda[4] (English)
Naoya's childhood friend and initial girlfriend. She shares a first and last name as her parents thought such a name would be cute.[a] 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.
Nagisa Minase (水瀬 渚, Minase Nagisa)
Voiced by: Ayane Sakura[5] (PV), Azumi Waki[3] (anime) (Japanese); Madeleine Morris[4][b] (English)
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.
Rika Hoshizaki (星崎 理香, Hoshizaki Rika)
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu[3] (anime) (Japanese); Megan Shipman[7][c] (English)
A schoolmate of Naoya. She is secretly a popular vlogger who goes by the online alias Milika (ミリカ, Mirika). 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.
Shino Kiryū (桐生 紫乃, Kiryū Shino)
Voiced by: Rie Takahashi[3] (anime) (Japanese); Elizabeth Maxwell[4][d] (English)
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.
Mr. Hoshizaki (ミリカ父, Mirika Chichi)
Voiced by: Tomokazu SekiEp. 6 credits (Japanese); Ben Phillips (English)
Rika and Risa's father.
Risa Hoshizaki (星崎 理沙, Hoshizaki Risa)
Voiced by: Aoi Koga[12] (Japanese); Rachel Thompson[13] (English)
Rika's younger sister.

Production

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Girlfriend, Girlfriend is based on Seiseidōdō, Futamata-suru Hanashi (正々堂々、二股する話, "A Story of Two-timing but Fair and Square"), which Hiroyuki had uploaded on Twitter[14] and later published in Comiket 86 in August 2019.[15][16]

Media

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Manga

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Girlfriend, Girlfriend, written and illustrated by Hiroyuki, was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine from March 4, 2020,[17] to May 24, 2023.[18] Sixteen tankōbon volumes have been published from June 17, 2020,[19] to July 14, 2023.[20] A commercial to promote the series, starring Ayana Taketatsu and Ayane Sakura, was released on October 23, 2020.[5]

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.[21]

Anime

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In November 2020, the 51st issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation.[2][22] 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.[23] 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.[3][24][e] Necry Talkie performed the series' opening theme song "Fuzaketenai ze" (ふざけてないぜ), while Momo Asakura performed the series' ending theme song "Pinky Hook" (ピンキーフック, Pinkī Fukku).[26] Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Asia.[27] Muse Communication licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia, and streamed it on its YouTube channel and iQIYI.[28][29]

On September 16, 2022, it was announced that the anime would be receiving a second season.[30] 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.[12][31][f] Hikari Kodama performed the opening theme song "Dramatic ni Koi Shitai" (ドラマチックに恋したい), while ClariS performed the ending theme song "Forira" (ふぉりら).[33]

Notes

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  1. ^ Her full name contains the same reading but not the same kanji in writing.
  2. ^ Kelsey Maher filled in for Morris as Nagisa in episode 16.[6]
  3. ^ Bryn Apprill filled in for Shipman as Rika in episode 15 while the latter was on maternity leave.[8]
  4. ^ Corey Pettit filled in for Maxwell as Shino in episodes 21 and 22.[9][10][11]
  5. ^ MBS listed the series premiere at 26:25 on July 2, 2021, which is July 3 at 2:25 a.m.[25]
  6. ^ MBS listed the season premiere at 26:23 on October 6, 2023, which is October 7 at 2:23 a.m.[32]

References

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  1. ^ Waxman, Nicole (July 11, 2021). "Girlfriend, Girlfriend's Hero Begins Building His DREAM Harem". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 11, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Hazra, Adriana (November 16, 2020). "Hiroyuki's Kanojo mo Kanojo Manga Listed With Anime". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 28, 2021). "'Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime's Teaser Reveals Cast, July Debut". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Luster, Joseph (August 9, 2022). "Girlfriend, Girlfriend English Dub Goes Live on Crunchyroll!". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on August 10, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c 漫画『カノジョも彼女』PV公開 佐倉綾音&竹達彩奈がヒロイン演じる (in Japanese). Oricon. October 23, 2020. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Cruz, Jordan Dash [@DashCruzVA] (November 10, 2023). "Hey! So Rigg had @kelseymaher voice match Maddie this week! (I directed this scene, so I got a chance to work with both Kevin and Kelsey!)" (Tweet). Retrieved December 13, 2023 – via Twitter.
  7. ^ Shipman, Megan [@18moptop] (August 25, 2022). "✨MILIKA HERE!✨ You can hear me as Milika aka Rika Hoshizaki in the dub of "Girlfriend, Girlfriend"! Thanks @StudioNanoCo for a good time! You can watch new episodes each week on @Crunchyroll 💜✨" (Tweet). Retrieved August 27, 2022 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ Bryn, Apprill [@BrynApprill] (November 4, 2023). "As some of you may have noticed Ive temporarily stepped in as Rika for #GirlfriendGirlfriend while @18moptop is on maternity leave ❤️ I'm so excited to be a part of the series and Ill do my best with the bombastic bombshell Rika. Huge thank you to @RetroJono for all his guidance!" (Tweet). Retrieved November 6, 2023 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Rigg, Jonathan [@RetroJono] (December 17, 2023). "Corey Pettit" (Tweet). Retrieved December 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ Rigg, Jonathan [@RetroJono] (December 23, 2023). "She's on a pre-planned vacation. This is not to say she won't be back before the end of the season, but I can't promise anything." (Tweet). Retrieved December 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Maxwell, Elizabeth [@AboutElizabethM] (December 28, 2023). "Wanted to say a big thank you to @GeekCatnip for stepping in as Shino while I was in Australia! Understudying is hard work, & is so appreciated 🫶 I've missed my lil prickly puff & the rest of the krazy krew, can't wait to get my dub on for Ep 11! #girlfriendgirlfriend #kanokano" (Tweet). Retrieved January 7, 2024 – via Twitter.
  12. ^ a b Hodgkins, Crystalyn (March 25, 2023). "'Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime's 2nd Season Premieres Reveals October Premiere, More Cast, New Staff". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
  13. ^ Tai, Anita (October 22, 2023). "Crunchyroll Announces English Dub Casts for A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, 4 More Anime". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on November 9, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  14. ^ かーずSP (April 16, 2021). 【インタビュー】『カノジョも彼女』ヒロユキ「『二股しても許せる男なのか?』を読者に問われ続ける、難しい主人公を描く」(1 / 2) (in Japanese). comicspace. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  15. ^ 正々堂々二股する話 (in Japanese). MELONBOOKS. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  16. ^ Hiroyuki (June 19, 2020). 「カノジョも彼女」第一話 (in Japanese). pixiv. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2021.
  17. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (February 27, 2020). "Aho-Girl Author Hiroyuki Details New Manga". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  18. ^ ヒロユキ「カノジョも彼女」が週マガで完結、最終回記念のプレゼント企画も. Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. May 24, 2023. Archived from the original on May 24, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
  19. ^ カノジョも彼女(1) (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  20. ^ カノジョも彼女(16) (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on May 22, 2023. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  21. ^ Mateo, Alex (February 22, 2021). "Kodansha Comics Licenses 'Girlfriend, Girlfriend,' Nina the Starry Bride, More Manga". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  22. ^ Sherman, Jennifer (November 16, 2020). "Hiroyuki Confirms Kanojo mo Kanojo Manga Gets TV Anime in 2021". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  23. ^ 「カノジョも彼女」本PV公開、榎木淳弥・佐倉綾音・和氣あず未出演の放送直前特番も. Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc. June 23, 2021. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  24. ^ Mateo, Alex (April 20, 2021). "Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime Premieres on July 2". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  25. ^ "On'ea | Terebi Anime "Kanojo mo Kanojo" Kōshiki Saito" ONAIR| TVアニメ「カノジョも彼女」公式サイト [On Air | TV Anime "Girlfriend, Girlfriend" Official Website]. kanokano-anime.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  26. ^ Mateo, Alex (May 19, 2021). "Necrytalkie, Momo Asakura Perform Theme Songs for 'Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  27. ^ Cardine, Kyle (June 22, 2021). "Crunchyroll Announces Summer 2021 Anime Lineup!". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  28. ^ Hazra, Adriana (July 3, 2021). "Muse Asia Streams 'Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime on YouTube". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
  29. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (July 7, 2021). "iQIYI Adds 10 Summer Anime for Southeast Asia". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  30. ^ Loo, Egan (September 15, 2022). "Girlfriend, Girlfriend Anime Gets 2nd Season". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  31. ^ Mateo, Alex (July 13, 2023). "'Girlfriend, Girlfriend' Anime's 2nd Season Unveils Teaser Trailer, Key Visual, Staff". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on July 13, 2023. Retrieved July 13, 2023.
  32. ^ "On'ea | Terebi Anime "Kanojo mo Kanojo" Shīzun Tsū Kōshiki Saito" ONAIR | TVアニメ「カノジョも彼女」Season 2 公式サイト [On Air | TV Anime "Girlfriend, Girlfriend" Season 2 Official Website]. kanokano-anime.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  33. ^ Dempsey, Liam (August 30, 2023). "Girlfriend, Girlfriend Season 2 Anime Premieres on October 6". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on August 30, 2023. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
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