I'm late to talking about Watanare.

Full name There's no freaking way I'll be your Lover! Unless...

This was somewhat hyped in 2025, but that it was going for an actual Poly resolution was not something I recalled coming up. As much as I am a long time Yuri fan I have spent the last few years feeling less obligated to watch every Yuri, especially when so many are still not even being Dubbed. 

I have talked on this blog before about by enthusiasm for Polly Anime of all forms but also wanting them to come in more forms then just some variation of one guy and multiple girls. Even the excellent Dusk Beyond the End of The World as much as it wants it's world building to be about more then that the main trio we're following is still one guy and two girls. 

So a Yuri Anime with a true Threesome resolution is something I wish I'd heard about sooner. 

This is still only the start.  I want more Yuri Polycules but I also want Yaoi Threesomes and Polyandry and a Polycule form of Anime's common 3 girls and 2 boys School Club dynamic. And also some with Non Binary characters. 

I would like to see an Anime adaptation of the Light Novel/Manga Kono△Love Comedy wa Shiawase ni Naru Gimu ga Aru by Chihiro Haruna, it is a 1 guy and 2 girls Threesome in the end but the girls are explicitly unambiguously also in love with each other (there is some slander going around right now that this is a Homophobic story turning the girls' straight, that is not what happens).  It is a good story, you can argue the Threesome nature of the resolution felt abrupt, but I think it worked. 

Getting back to Watanare. Besides having this satisfying ending it's also a good build up, lots of Comedy and Drama and all the characters are fun. Where the Anime currently ends it's just a Threesome but it seems like it could expand to a full 5 person Polycule. 

So this is now tied with In Another World With My Smartphone for being the best Poly Anime. 

Jobless Reincarnation and Polygamy

When I wrote about why In Another World With My Smartphone is still the best Poly Anime, the closing episodes of Jobless Reincarnation season 2 hadn’t aired yet.  I as a Dub watcher waited till it was all done to binge the last 6 episodes.

Light Novel fans however knew this was coming and if they saw my post at all were perhaps annoyed at me being so presumptive. Thing is I still like Smartphone the best actually, but this has things going for it that I can see why some would consider it better.

The Polygamy in Isekai so often comes with the convenient explanation of how perfectly legal and accepted it is in this world.  Here however we see that Polygamy is still disapproved of by the dominant religion, so some degree of cultural Intolerance is implied.

And I know what the response to my argument for why I prefer the idea for it starting with the girls if it’s going to be specifically Polygynous is.  The difficult situation of being a guy asking for it is exactly the challenging part some people want to see a protagonist have to deal with.

Thing is in the pilots of those recent shows with the word Girlfriend in the name, it’s done so quickly and so comically that it doesn’t feel very relatable to how such things would usually happen in real life.

Jobless Reincarnation However by spending around 50 episodes building up to it actually created a version of that scene that does potentially feel real.

Smartphone Season 2 retry

I decided to rewatch season 2 of In Another World With My Smartphone and see if I could get over what made me feel so disappointed the first time.

And I did enjoy it more this time, the different Dub Voice Actors for some characters aren’t so jarring anymore.  And in general this show may be better binged.

One interesting thing to praise is how very harsh it is on Slavery, actively avoiding one of Isekai’s most commonly complained about pitfalls.

That said I do think I like it less then season 1 still.

I mentioned before not liking the confirmation that Leen will become one of the official wives. In general though I always had kind of mixed feelings about the Polycule expanding.  I kind of consider 5 the ideal number for a core Anime cast in general because of a lot of notable examples.  And for a Polygynous Harem I kind of consider 4 wives the ideal because of how much my Biblical defense of Polygamy is based on Jacob’s family.

Add to that how the additions to the group made post Toya becoming officially a geopolitical entity are going to have a disadvantage at feeling properly integrated.  Much of season 1 was like a lot of Fantasy Anime based on the vibe of a group of friends playing out an RPG campaign.  It’s hard for me to buy that they can recreate that now.

Isekai Smartphone is still the best Polly Anime

Season 1 specifically of In Another World With my Smartphone which aired in the summer of  2017.

Recently we’ve had shows that more quickly got the attention of people looking for Poly rep in Anime because they made that the title of the show, Girlfriend, Girlfriend and 100 Girlfriends.  And I enjoyed both those shows, the former more than the latter (which itself deviates from popular opinion) but I think the latter will get better once the gap between new Girlfriend introductions is longer in future seasons.  

The first problem however is that the way those shows Parody their own set up gets in the way of being at all helpful in actually normalizing it.  In Isekai Smartphone the way it happens feels much more organic.  And there is comedy in Smartphone, but not full Parody in my view.

The first problem with the state of Poly representation in Anime is that all three of these examples are Polygynous, with only 100 Girlfriends even kind of making Yuri between some of the Girlfriends explicit, but as far as what’s animated so far it kind of feels like it’s just a Joke each time it happens.  I want that problem resolved, I want a proper Anime adaptation of the first Boogiepop and Others LN and I want the gender flipped counterparts to all three of these shows, and Poly Yuri and Poly Yaoi and truly Pansexual Group Marriages.  But while we’re stuck in the context of comparing Polygynous arrangements in Anime, Isekai Smartphone is better for one simple reason.

The idea for the Poly arrangement comes from the Girls, they are the ones given agency in this situation.  We’re not fully shown it till the end of the season but it happened in episode 6, I could tell that’s what had just happened even though it was offscreen at the time, it was very obvious even to viewers who didn’t know this was part of the show going in.   I like how there are still times when they are kind of competing with each other, because I know what they’ve agreed to it always feels like friendly competition and not like the "fragility of female friendships” meme.

The way to make a Polygynous relationship not seem inherently Patriarchal is to frame it as the girls choosing to share the boy they mutually love.

The counter argument would perhaps be that that makes it even more of a male fantasy, the male protagonist doesn’t even have to do the "work" of asking for it.  Girlfriend, Girlfriend and 100 Girlfriends are defined by their male protagonists who are incredibly honest and upfront about their feelings.  However the convenience that makes that work is the issue of whether or not the Girls might also then want multiple lovers never comes up.  

As someone who was assigned male at birth and developed the Non-Monogamous part of my ideology before I started seriously questioning my own gender identity, I indeed always intended to be honest about my views. But we don’t live in an ideal world, the current status quo is still patriarchal and one aspect of that is women being conditioned to feel devalued by a boyfriend even suggesting the possibility of not being exclusive.

I’m not saying Smartphone is perfect.  There is that moment in the season 1 finale where Yumina says having multiple wives would prove his masculinity which is an unfortunate implication I wish wasn’t there. 

But the same idea is unstated in the other shows, especially with the people for whom 100 Girlfriends is the only of these shows they like, all the talk in YouTube videos about Rentarou being some ideal male protagonist no one else in Anime can compete with, reinforces the very patriarchal notion that it’s the man who’s supposed to prove he deserves even one lover much less multiple while the girls are the prizes he has to earn.  Such ideas reinforce Patriarchy as well as Capitalist Meritocracy.  

These Anime Protagonists not exactly fitting a standard understanding of Masculinity helps.  But it’s still there.

I’ve been comparing these three because they’re less than a decade old; recent enough that I followed all three when they were current.  Cat Planet Cuties is a show I wish I knew about sooner.

Update August 2026: I have been informed that in the LN material that the Anime hasn't gotten to yet there are is Polyandry in the Isekai Smartphone world, as well as a Woman with a Bisexual Harem. 

Looking back on 2023

For starters it’s my second year as a Detective Conan aka Case Closed fan, the only Movie I hadn’t already seen by the end of 2022 was the one that wasn’t out yet, which this year I as expected had to wait till November to see.  I enjoyed movie 26 but it might be the hardest movie to recommend to franchise newcomers. This year was also big for Conan fans in getting 50 new Dubbed episodes on Tubi, and the Dub for movie 24 The Scarlet Bullet was finally released seemingly just before Christmas for Digital Purchase on Amazon PrimeVideo.  And on the main show some long awaited developments in the main storyline.

For Pretty Cure, Soaring Sky I do think is probably the best show we’ve gotten since Hugtto but I wasn’t able to finish it for reasons that have nothing to do with its quality.

The Pokémon Franchise gave us both Paldean Wings and Path to The Peak which were each very good.

Lupin III vs Cat’s Eye was decent, and this year also had some movies I still haven’t been able to see yet, like the Sailor Moon Cosmos movies and the second SAO Progressive movie.

And outside the realm of Anime was the Willow series which I mostly enjoyed but Disney decided to bury. And from Star Wars I enjoyed both Mandalorian season 3 and Ahsoka.

But let’s look at regular Seasonal Anime now.

Winter had 9 shows I watched to Completion, not all as they were airing, plus two that finished then from prior seasons.  Two of the sequels were In/Spectre which is still pretty cool and Vinland Saga which was also good.  

Tomo-Chan is a Girl was a fun RomCom, I’m not as into the main premise as I think a lot of other people will be but I enjoyed it’s Kuudere character. I already made a post about her as a great new addition to the Kuudere Canon.  

Buddy Daddies is a show in an unfortunate situation because I suspect it will ultimately be mostly forgotten in Spy x Family’s shadow even though I think it was a more overall satisfying show.

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady kicked off this being perhaps the best year for Yuri since 2018.  It was a great show, very funny but also genuinely emotional.  And it ended in such a way where there is room for a season 2 but it won’t feel unfinished without one.

Onimai was awesome.

Uncle from Another World, Ningen, Fruit of Evolution season 2, and Rougo were all fun Isekai.  

I’ll share my thoughts on both seasons of Eminence in Shadow up front here, it’s good but I’m not gonna be as inclined to list it as a favorite as some other people are.

The Super Mario Bros movie and Across The Spider Verse were both great western Animated films.

Spring dropped an instant classic with Heavenly Delusion which I do hope gets a season 2. 

Honestly there are a lot of shows this year I haven't finished or watched yet but which I still might.  Like Tsundere Villainess, and the second season of Tonikawa and Bofuri.

My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at lv999 was a very good RomCom Anime.  Dead Mount Deathplay was a fun new Reverse Isekai Premise.  Season 2 of The Witch From Mercury was also great but not something I have particular thoughts on.

My thoughts on Psycho-Pass Movie Providence I already tacked on to the end of my Dystopian Sci-FI post from earlier this year.

Yuri Is My Job was very fun as well, it kind of felt like a true throwback Yuri in the best way possible.

Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers is one of those shows that had a strong start but I don’t really like where it ended.

The main show I have complex thoughts on for the spring season is In Another World With my Smartphone season 2.  As someone who’s been season 1’s most vocal online evangelist since it aired back in 2017 I don’t like reporting that I felt disappointed by season 2, but I kind of do.  Part of it is how the Dub had to replace some cast members, but in a way that tried to keep people from noticing which only made those performances sound more forced.  It’s the kind of failed recasting I do not blame on the actors.  However I don’t think that’s the only reason I think this period in the story in the original LNs was perhaps a low point.  Also the confirmation that Leen is going to become one of the nine wives I don’t like.  I like Leen but as a mischievous perverted little gremlin side character, I don't think her as a main Waifu will work.

For another digression outside of Anime I watched The Flash and I did like it, but I don’t feel like going out on a limb for it.  My view that the accusations against Ezra Miller are pure Transphobia hasn’t changed.

The Summer season was pretty fun too.

Zom100 technically isn’t a show I completed but that’s because it’s one indefinite hiatus, it’s a fun show with blatant Marxist Subtext which I highly recommend.

Am I Actually The Strongest? Was another fun Isekai.

Liar Liar feels like a distinctly more light hearted take on the Battle Royal inspired genre, it's a Death Game set up but without the Death, which it turns out appeals to me perfectly.

Rent-a-Girlfriend season 3 was great, the more frustrating aspects of the series were toned down this season to focus on our main characters actually achieving a goal and dealing with some real emotions.  I never agreed with the hate on the first two seasons but for season 3 anyone claiming they watched it and that it’s no better is simply lying.

Jobless Reincarnation season 2a was also good, don’t listen to the haters.

Fate/Strange Fake Whispers of Dawn was a neat little special and I will definitely watch the full show when it airs.

For more non Anime digressions season 2 of Apple’s Foundation series was great, it massively improved on what I already enjoyed about season 1.  Now you have to accept that it's not Isaac Asimov’s vision at all, but once you accept it as its own thing it’s a perfectly enjoyable and interesting Sci-Fi show, perhaps the best the west has had since Caprica.

Dungeons & Dragons honor Among Thieves was also a more enjoyable movie then I expected, it’s the closest any Western Fantasy show can come to the appeal of an Isekai or rather “I can’t believe it’s not Isekai'' style Anime since it has that living in a Game world Vibe.  But without the distinctly Otaku Elements has an even broader appeal.

Venture Brothers Radiant is The Blood of The Baboon’s Heart is a pretty satisfying movie, if it indeed is the send off for that franchise it’ll have been a fitting one.

The Fall season I’m most hesitant to even cover here since it isn’t over yet.  

I did watch two Netflix Anime in October, Good Night World and Pluto which were both awesome, and then November had a neat Slime Reincarnation ONA.  Besides that there’s only 4 shows I’ve watched to completion, one I already covered up above.  There are a number of shows I put On Hold that I feel there’s a strong chance I will return to like Frieren.

I’m In Love With The Villainess was fantastic, another required viewing for Yuri fans.

Tearmoon Empire was also cute and fun.

16bit Sensation Another Layer was a great show with Deep Cuts for someone like me who's spent the last two years researching the history of Visual Novels and Dating Sims and related game genres.

For one last non Anime addition I saw  Rebel Moon Part 1 but I’ve decided to stick to Mastadon for expressing my thoughts on it.

I suppose Suzume can count since it’s not originally from 2023 but the Dub I watched probably is, it was good.  I could also add Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War - The Kiss That Never Ends, which was very good.

If I included everything I watched for the first time in 2023 but which is actually older this post would be twice as long.  A lot of them were via browning Tubi.TV.  Some of them I’ve already discussed in various Blog Posts.

If anything new is added before midnight on Christmas Eve I’ll add an Update.  In the meantime Happy New Years.

Update December 28th: Well I just finished BOFURI season 2, which also happens to be my 900th completed Anime.

Poly Anime needs to diversify

Back when I first defended In Another World With My Smartphone season 1's Poly plot twist as an inherently progressive step forward I also said that we need other types of Poly representation in Anime as well.  And now that we have two Polygamous Anime airing in the same season it's time for me to restate that.

I'm enjoying both Girlfriend, Girlfriend season 2 and 100-Girlfriends so far.  This is not me condemning either of them, I find Weeb Revolution's overly cynical analysis of them rather annoying.  This is simply me demanding more. A Harem that takes a Non Monogamous Resolution will always get points from me over the most that don't.  Cat Planet Cuties is a show I wish I'd known about sooner.

The first alternative likely to enter one's mind is Polyandry.  Post 2017 Anime already had an opportunity to drop some Polyandry rep and rejected it in how the 2019 Anime adapted the first Boogiepop and Others Light Novel.  But even that would have been among side characters to the main plot, Shoujos and Otomes deserve the same wish fulfilment fantasies that these Shounen and Seinen Anime are providing to their target audiences.

But more importantly then that I want scenarios where it's not just 1 person with multiple other binary gender partners.  One thing firmly baked into post Haruhi Anime culture is the idea of a show built around a core cast of 5 with 2 guys and 3 girls.  How about one of those where it's also a Pansexual Polycule, I recently watched Gamers from 2017 and it feels like it should have just gone there.  But also the mainstream Binary Genders shouldn't be the only ones in on the fun either.

But even going back to the topic of Heteronromative Harems that take the "marry them all" option, there are a lot of assumptions involved in assuming they can only appeal to someone projecting onto the one guy or girl and not the other gender involved.  In the world of online Erotica I've seen a lot of evidence that people of either Gender can be into the idea of sharing the object of their affection, and I don't just mean in the Cuckolding fetish type way either.  One old Meme is that written porn is for women, well I've read a lot of written Porn that is Polygynous.

It's frustrating how many criticisms of Non Monogamy as a concept still assume the alternative has to be Polygyny in it's worst most blatantly Patriarchal forms.  I watched one Youtube video recently where some guy felt it made sense to refute Gen Z Polyamory culture by talking about Bride Price and stuff going on in Africa.

But returning to the topic of recent Poly Anime I think about that Girlfriend, Girlfriend scene where Shino asks Naoya if he's thought about how he was gonna support two people, and how at no point did anyone think to question the assumption that it has to be the guy alone providing the financial support.  Because even in how to do Monogamy Japan is still fairly old fashioned in it's default way of thinking.  When Marriage is still being defined by a Patriarchal starting point actually doing Polygamy is a lot more viable for the wealthy.  But obviously a Communist Polycule is going to take a more Collectivist approach.  From each according to their ability to each according to their needs.

Isekai, In Another World with My Smartphone, Why Wish Fulfillment is Art.

The Isekai genre is arguably more purely escapist wish fulfillment then most, being literally about escaping this world, going all the way back to C.S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The With and The Wardrobe.  It may not quite be the first Isekai story, but it is the most important in popularizing it.  And it was translated into Japanese as early as 1985.

It's not common to use this Anime term to describe western novels like the Narnia series.  No one would deny that the term applies and so they are technically the same genre.  But the development of Isekai in Japan, in Otaku centric media, has been very particular.  With increasing nods to Video Games of the RPG genre, (making them perhaps feel slightly more Tolkien then Lewis).  But also filled with Anime cliches, including the influence of Anime's most dreaded genre, The Harem.

I haven't watched a lot of Isekai Anime.  I tried both Konosuba and Re:Zero in 2016 and wasn't able to get into them.  If you count trapped in an MMO shows as Isekai, then I've seen 2 seasons of SAO and will see more when it's dubbed.  My onions on them are complicated.

Right now I'm currently watching In Another World with my Smartphone, via it's simuldub so I'm a few episodes behind most watching it, episode 8 I finished recently.  I'm really enjoying it, the number 1 of the Summer season was Princess Principal, but this show has been fun.

I never thought I would be this into a Harem show.  I've liked other Anime with the harem stuff going on, but never all that much liking it for the Harem, but rather preferring to imagine the girls kissing each other.  In this case I like that the show is seemingly building to a non monogamous resolution, as of episode 6 four of the girls have basically already agreed to share the main character.  And it helps that I kinda see why they like him, he is nice, clever, has a sense of humor, and I'm not afraid to say he's kinda pretty.  So not as Bland as the usual Harem protagonist.

The Haremness isn't the only thing that's blatant wish fulfillment about it.  He is also really OP, but in a way that is fairly well explained in the story and so doesn't come off as inexplicable as Kirito or the MC of Log Horizon.

This show, and the two 2016 shows mentioned above, are Light Novel adaptations, and so as expected are very Meta, but in different ways.  Those two were a Parody and a Deconstruction, two things that kinda overlap sometimes.

The Meta in a parody and/or deconstruction involves a scenario not playing out how you expect, or playing out fairly straight but in a way that seems designed to undercut the idea that this fantasy is a desirable situation.  Something deconstructive can have an ultimately optimistic ending, concluding it's worth it, but is still largely about the price.

This show is Meta, it's definitely winking at the audience subtly at times.  But rather then spoofing or criticizing it's own genre, it seems to be an unashamed unapologetic wish fulfillment fantasy.  And I actually find that refreshing.

Today critics of fictional media are growing more and more obsessed with rejecting wish fulfillment.  Praising every deconstruction that comes along.

Of course a lot of shows criticized for being pure Wish Fulfillment are ones perceived as putting on a pretense of being something more, of having something deeper to say, but seemingly in the end don't really.  I think that's what a lot of the hate SAO has received comes down to.

This show has no pretense, it does not want to trick anyone into thinking it's deeper then it is.  And yet that does not result it becoming pure memetic trash like Eromanga-Sensei.

Digibro has expressed the view that Meta in Anime is lazy if it's not in some way subverting or rejecting the trope being referenced.  That simply telling us you know what you're doing doesn't make it okay.  Well I agree it can come off that way sometimes.  I haven't seen the main shows he was attacking in that video.

But I do see value in being meta in a way that purely and unironically celebrates the fantasy the show is indulging in.  And that is what appeals to me about In Another World with My Smartphone.

We definitely need art with messages and deeper meanings.  Including that fiction that warns us to be careful what we wish for in-case some cute silver tongued BunnyCat offers you a contract.  But I think Art that's pure wish fulfillment is just as artistic and worth praising.

Isekai is a wish fulfillment fantasy going back to Narnia, which was about escaping war time England.  But Lewis did have messages he wanted to send, and for fans who don't quite share his peculiar brand of Christianity, those messages sometimes become the story's weakest parts.

So an Isekai story that is unafraid to simply be about the fantasy of being sent to a High Fantasy world with your smartphone and demigod like magical abilities, and meeting a bunch of cool cute girls to hang out with, is exactly what I need right now.  So in a way I like it similarly to why Digi likes Ponyo.