Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are checking in on the hundred girlfriends at a moment of crisis, as Kusuri’s well-intentioned yet morally dubious love potions have sent her fellow girlfriends into a kiss-hungry frenzy. With a pack of feral lovers nipping at their heels, Rentaro and Kusuri must now engage in a race against time to return these girls to normal, lest they be trapped forever as amorous animals in human form.

So basically, it’s just another day in the life for Rentaro and company. Well, mostly – Kusuri’s introduction has undeniably raised the overall chaos level of the production, and from all the “yes… soon…”s that I’ve been receiving from friends on Twitter, I imagine things will never be the same. She is a delightful amoral goblin with far too much power at her disposal, and I look forward to seeing what nonsense she inflicts on our innocent polycule next. Let’s get to it!

Episode 8

We open with Kusuri smiling and making a bunch of weird Kusuri noises, a clear sign of a superior episode

I imagine this show was a fun challenge for the voice actors, as maintaining distinction between such a vast array of heroines essentially demands an intense degree of comic exaggeration, and a lot of that has to come through the larger-than-life vocal affectations of the characters

I’ll admit, I was thinking it would take longer than five girlfriends to reach “the girl who absolutely loves drugs.” We’ve mostly run through the default harem members at this point, meaning future girls will likely be defined less purely by affectation and more through interests and circumstances. Of course, there are still some archetypes left to pursue – “childhood friend” might not work with Rentaro’s backstory, but the “older sister/mature beauty” type is sitting right there

Amused by the animators’ attempts to make Shizuka any sort of intimidating in her zombie mode

Great drawings right from the start here, leaning into 100 Girlfriends’ generally angular, personality-rich character art while expanding on its characteristically low drawing count. They’re going all-out for this episode

Love that even zombie Hakari stops to pick up Shizuka when she slams into the ground

Kusuri just flings half a dozen vials from her coat as she searches for a proper countermeasure. She is a walking chemical waste disaster

“The Melt-Ya-Face-Off Medicine!” Yeah, Kusuri has rocketed us into previously unimagined levels of insanity

The fellow zombies helping Shizuka is now a running gag, with Nano grabbing her hand so she can keep up. The Littlest Zombie

Zombie Nano plans a pincer operation! Even zombification cannot overcome her logical thinking!

Actually burst out laughing at Shizuka just face-planting in her pursuit of Rentaro. The girl is just not equipped to be a properly intimidating zombie, and Nakamura is taking full comedic advantage of that. I’m beginning to see one of the routes for continued drama and humor here – taking all of these diverse girlfriends and throwing them in a variety of unfamiliar scenarios, so as to let the distinct aspects of their personalities shine in new ways

Also a great punchline here of Rentaro immediately rushing to her aid. Using Rentaro’s chivalry against him is a natural riff on his personality that I’m sure we’ll return to

Rentaro’s concern for Shizuka is so overwhelming that he briefly forgets our episodic conflict altogether

A good character-defining beat here. Rentaro is briefly overwhelmed with Shizuka’s kisses, but then recalls how she normally is, and resolves to get her back to normal. Simply being able to kiss his girlfriends without end would not make Rentaro happy; he loves them for their full personalities, for the joy of spending time with them as well as the pleasure and intimacy of kisses. So many harems and even more straightforward romances treat women’s personalities as “challenges” to be “solved” and overcome, eventually resulting in a complacent intimacy dispenser. Rentaro does not want that – he loves them for the full spectrum of their personalities and interests, and this drug destroys everything of them but their desire to kiss

And then of course we get a perfect sight gag, Shizuka just helplessly hanging by her sweater from a coat hanger

Karane just straight-up flings Hakari at him. Delightful smears for the moment of collision

Rentaro deftly defeats the pair of them by turning their kisses towards each other. A uniquely 100 Girlfriends way of affirming the bonds of love between Rentaro’s co-lovers

Zombie Nano of course went directly to the chemistry lab, again valuing efficiency even as a zombie

Rentaro hides in a handy locker, but finds Kusuri there as well. Whole bunch of great Kusuri faces this episode

Kusuri reflects on how her obsession with drugs always leads to her being isolated like this. Look, I sympathize with being ostracized for your passions, but you gotta stop feeding people dangerous chemical mixtures, Kusuri

I appreciate this entirely unnecessary cut to a Pokemon battle for demonstrating the concept of feeding Nano the reversal medicine. It doesn’t actually clarify their actions in any way, just a flourish included for the hell of it

It turns out Kusuri actually has one dose of the reversal medicine on her, which she promptly chugs herself. A tidy articulation of Kusuri’s personality here, that she’d think of fooling Nano by “disguising” herself in her older form before considering just feeding Nano the mixture herself. A defining trait of Kusuri seems to be that she’ll happily take a more convoluted route over a simple one, so long as the convoluted route involves brewing and consuming weird potions

Of course, this route also results in the essential situation of Rentaro and full-sized Kusuri being stuck in a cramped locker together. This story has its priorities, after all

And gosh, the animators sure are having fun with all these Kusuri faces. She clearly has a face that’s naturally suited to stretching, squashing, and simplifying in all sorts of funny ways

Full credit to Ayaka Asai on her vocal performance as Kusuri, which demands both this sultry older voice and the insane chipmunk noises of her tiny form

And of course, Kusuri blows her cover immediately, and gets tied up by Nano in the horniest way possible. Kusuri might be a genius in one field, but she is clearly enough of an overall idiot to fit neatly into Rentaro’s family. And actually, her general unwillingness to think things through pairs quite nicely with her obsessions – she’s an “experiment first, debate ethics later” kinda gal

Nano takes a moment for an easy The Shining reference as she closes on her target

Ah, the false credit drop, a timeless structural gag

“I waited until your reversal medicine wore off.” “Oh right, that’s how I got out of there. I thought you’d used some kind of Melt-Ya-Ropes-Off medicine.” Yep, effectively leaning on Kusuri’s utter lack of common sense, and determination to use the most chemically circuitous method to solving all her problems

Rentaro ends the episode with a sacred vow to clean up any of Kusuri’s future drug-related messes. You’ve set yourself quite the challenge there, Rentaro

And Done

Ahaha, this ridiculous fucking show. Well, I’m not entirely sure what moral or romantic lesson we can draw from “I will forever be your accomplice in cleaning up experimental drug-related messes,” but I’m glad everyone seems happy with their newly expanded family arrangement. I get the feeling things are only going to get more ridiculous from here on out, as we’ve now introduced a chemical wizard who can justify basically any sort of supernatural nonsense. Rentaro’s dedication to supporting his girlfriends is swiftly migrating towards collusion in god knows what insane acts of criminality, but as long as he and his many girlfriends are content, I suppose things will turn out fine in the end. Congratulations on surviving this kissing crisis, everyone!

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