Recent series have so many long titles that it gets confusing, but this one stands out so wildly that it's fine. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You. Or "Hyakkano" for short. It's still running in Weekly Young Jump, but since you can also read it for free a week behind on the Jump+ app, I'd been reading the manga from episode one. I started it because it's a series with not a single losing heroine, but unlike "We Never Learn," another Jump series that refused to create losing heroines by drawing out every ending branch across parallel worlds, this work avoids losing heroines through the brute-force, sort-of-incomprehensible method of two-timing (a-hundred-timing?) and making everyone happy. The work's energy is permanently cranked to the max. It's the royal road of shonen romcom? A pure-love? story. I get it. I'm not even sure what I'm saying myself, but for this anime, this explanation isn't actually contradictory. You'll understand once you watch it...
The soundtrack isn't unhinged!
The series itself sells the joy of charging forward with a crazy energy, in the best sense, but the anime is incredibly well-made, and what's more, the soundtrack is extremely well-regarded too (it's genuinely rare for a soundtrack to get raved about on social media, so this is a big deal).
Because there are so many characters, the soundtrack doesn't kick in all that often, so as not to get in the way of the voice actors' performances. But even the stretches without music are wonderfully done as part of the staging, and you can feel the production team's love for the work. As for the all-important soundtrack itself, it's incredibly earnest in its craft! Even in fairly high-energy gag scenes, you'll hear a track with a beautiful piano melody that you'd expect in a serious romance scene from a pure-love story, and that mismatch in energy becomes an extraordinary kind of conviction that Rentaro and his Rentaro Family are taking their love seriously, while also creating a contrast with the gag scenes that makes them land even sharper. The formula of being crazy yet completely earnest about it is the kind of humor described as "serious comedy" in the classic manga Bakuman. And the fact that it's pushed even further by the soundtrack than it could be in manga form may be one reason for the high praise from viewers.
The OP theme is a lavish co-write with the soundtrack composers too!
It's usually correct for a soundtrack to stay out of the spotlight, supporting a work from behind, so it's rare to get a chance to learn about the soundtrack composers' work (which is exactly why this site exists). But one of this work's charms is that you can hear a lavish track, the OP theme "Daisuki na Kimi e," co-written by Tomoya Tabuchi, the bassist of Unison Square Garden and arguably a leading figure in anime music today, alongside soundtrack composers Shunsuke Takizawa, Shuhei Mutsuki, and eba.
Hyakkano lets you enjoy both the soundtrack composers' instrumental cues and vocal tracks. Why not give it a watch!
Quoted from the official site https://x.com/hyakkano_anime
