History YMMV / GirlfriendGirlfriend

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Pretty much every major character save for Rika and maybe Shino, whose actions we're supposed to be seem as rather dubious, can come off as this.
** Naoya is an otherwise earnest and NiceGuy who wants what's best for those he cares about, but his stupidity and inability to take no for an answer earns him the ire of a good portion of the fandom. One of the major reasons for this is that he's pursuing the two-timing relationship because he wants to make both girls happy, but by doing so he's effectively forcing Saki to take this option, putting them at the risk of suffering severe social stigma in the process and making them {{Insecure Love Interest}}s. Even though he claims he doesn't play favourites, some could argue that he favors Nagisa over Saki at times (could be because she's new, but still not completely fair to Saki). Even his inability to take "no" for an answer can make him come across as selfish beyond HypocriticalHumor.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Pretty much every major character save for Rika and maybe Shino, whose actions we're supposed to see as rather dubious, can come off as this.

** Some tend to see Minase in this light. While she [[InsecureLoveInterest doesn't come out of entering the relationship unscathed, with her own issues and insecurities]], it can be hard not to see her as either [[DidntThinkThisThrough someone suffering the consequence of her decision to go along with a two-timing relationship]], or a blatant homewrecker who, like Naoya, is forcing Saki into the relationship so she can be happy. Her tendency to resort to shady means to keep the relationship going also doesn't. [[spoiler: Then there's the fact that she fell for Naoya because she was inspired by [[{{Determinator}} him trying his hardest]]...to confess to another girl entirely, which either adds to the whole "homewrecker" reputation she's accumulated, or [[DidnThinkThisThrough makes her stupidity seem on par with Naoya's]].]]

** Naoya. Is he really the [[IdiotHero completely idiotic]] {{Determinator}} we see him as? Is he actually a more toxic CovertPervert who's ObfuscatingStupidity and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] Saki, Minase and the other {{Love Interest}}s to live out some harem fantasy? Or is he actually not actually that dumb, but has a bad tendency to [[DidntThinkThisThrough jump to the first idea he thinks up in a panic and]] [[IMeantToDoThat goes all the way with it in a vain effort to not look like an idiot]]? In later chapters, it seems to point to the former as he keeps rejecting Mirika and [[spoiler: Shino]]'s affections and desire to date him.

* BrokenBase: Regarding the love situation in general. Some are fine with it exploring how much of a headache a romcom harem would actually be, but think that Hiroyuki's madcap comedy is not the right approach for it and has to trivialize everything to make it work like it does now. The other half of the fandom enjoy it for the farce it is, and think the people who expected a more nuanced take on harem or the characters [[MST3kMantra are taking the series way too seriously]] and find that the miscommunication works for the type of series it is.

** Saki unnamed classmate friend for [[spoiler: being very chill about the two timing relationship, believing in the "age of diversity," poking fun at others for their insanity but ultimately doesn't care enough to put her nose into their business.]] With some of the fanbase wanting her to join the group at some point.
* GrowingTheBeard: While the series is still a BrokenBase for others, some who stood by it seem to agree that the moment Rika and Shino join the cast, the series got a lot funnier, by adding people who challenge Naoya and his two-timing relationship so it can grow and provide new kinds of jokes.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: The English dub has received a lot of praise for its hilarious script, punched up dialogue, and for fully embracing the show's premise to the point where the [[RefugeInAudacity sexual jokes are made much more blatant and direct]]. Many particularly love Creator/BrittanyLauda's performance as Saki and all the names she comes up with for breasts, such as "mammary foam pillows" and "mommy milkers." Yes, the phrase "mommy milkers" is actually said out loud in the dub.

** Naoya is an otherwise earnest and NiceGuy who wants what's best for those he cares about, but his jaw-dropping stupidity and inability to take no for an answer earns him the ire of a good portion of the fandom. One of the major reasons for this is that he's pursuing the two-timing relationship because he wants to make both girls happy, but doing so he's effectively forcing Saki to take this option, putting them at the risk of suffering severe social stigma in the process and making them {{Insecure Love Interest}}s. Even though he claims he doesn't play favourites, some could argue that he favors Nagisa over Saki at times (could be because she's new, but still not completely fair to Saki). Even his inability to take "no" for an answer can make him come across as selfish beyond HypocriticalHumor.
** Some tend to see Minase in this light. While she [[InsecureLoveInterest doesn't come out of entering the relationship unscathed, with her own issues and insecurities]], it can be hard not to see her as either [[DidntThinkThisThrough someone suffering the consequence of her decision to go along with a two-timing relationship]], or a blatant homewrecker who, like Naoya, is forcing Saki into the relationship so she can be happy. Her tendency to resort to shady means to keep the relationship going tends to lose her sympathisers. [[spoiler: Then there's the fact that she fell for Naoya because she was inspired by [[{{Determinator}} him trying his hardest]]...to confess to another girl entirely, which either adds to the whole "homewrecker" reputation she's accumulated, or [[DidnThinkThisThrough makes her stupidity seem on par with Naoya's]], whose own stupidity makes him a BaseBreakingCharacter.]]

** Saki's reasoning for letting Naoya two-time. Did she allow it due to being weak to pressure or did she do so in the hopess of getting together with Nagisa? Shino hint at the former due to Saki's simple nature while later chapters point to the latter with her being [[AmbiguouslyBi in denial]].

** Naoya has polarizing opinions from audiences, with some viewing him as an absolute stud and an icon of manliness due to his earnestness, directness, hilarious and uncompromising morality in stating exactly what he wants and doing whatever it takes to get it without dishonesty or deceit. Others, however, see him as a childish and selfish scumbag who is basically forcing Saki into a polyamorous relationship that she does not want. Naoya also will ''not'' take no for an answer, becoming extremely persistent at getting what he wants. While he has never been shown to be deceitful or verbally abusive, he does repeatedly ignore his girlfriend(s) outright ''begging'' him not to do something dangerous or stupid.

* BrokenBase: How the audience is supposed to see the love situation. Some are fine with it exploring how much of a headache a romcom harem would actually be, but think that Hiroyuki's madcap comedy is not the right approach for it and has to trivialize everything to make it work like it does now. The other half of the fandom enjoy it for the farce it is, and think the people who expected a more nuanced take on harem or the characters [[MST3kMantra are taking the series way too seriously]] and find the miscommunication works for the type of series it is.

** Nagisa, before meeting Naoya, had an extremely difficult time finding what she's good at. She required more time than others just to memorize basic knowledge. It got to a point where her mother is worried about her future despite how much hard work Nagisa put into them. It gets so bad, Nagisa was close to quitting until she discovered Naoya--and his actions inspired her to work on herself and inadvertently makes her fal in love with him in the process.

** Naoya. Is he really the [[IdiotHero completely idiotic]] {{Determinator}} we see him as? Is he actually a more toxic CovertPervert who's ObfuscatingStupidity and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] Saki, Minase and the other {{Love Interest}}s to live out some harem fantasy? Or is he actually not actually that dumb, but has a bad tendency to [[DidntThinkThisThrough jump to the first idea he thinks up in a panic and]] [[IMeantToDoThat goes all the way with it in a vain effort to not look like an idiot]]? In later chapters, it seems to point to the former as he keep rejecting Mirika and [[spoiler: Shino]]'s affections and desire to date him.

** Naoya. Is he really the [[IdiotHero completely idiotic]] {{Determinator}} we see him as? Is he actually a more toxic CovertPervert who's ObfuscatingStupidity and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating]] Saki, Minase and the other {{Love Interest}}s to live out some harem fantasy? Or is he actually not actually that dumb, but has a bad tendency to [[DidntThinkThisThrough jump to the first idea he thinks up in a panic and]] [[IMeantToDoThat goes all the way with it in a vain effort to not look like an idiot]]? In later chapters, it seems to point to the former as he keep rejecting Mirika and [[spoiler: Shino]] affections and desire to date him.
** Saki's reasoning for letting Naoya two time. Did she allow it due to being weak to pressure or did she do so in the hopess of getting together with Nagisa? Shino hint at the former due to Saki's simple nature while later chapters point to the latter with her being [[AmbiguouslyBi in denial]].

** Shino been proven to be very popular among the fanbase for her serious personality, trying to get Naoya to stop the two timing in order to help Saki [[spoiler: despite being in love with Naoya herself]] and humorous interaction she has with Naoya and Saki. Her popularity grew more [[spoiler: after she confess her feelings for him, becoming a lot happier and willing to help the cast out more.]]

** This is how some people felt after [[spoiler: the drama bomb after chapter 124, including Mirika finally joining the harem near the end of the series. While everyone becoming his girlfriends was pretty much the end goal of it all, the issues mainly come from not only how the bomb took a realistic approach to the whole situation, with the argument that it shouldn't have been a thing in the first place due to it being a comedy, but that it also had a ''huge'' roadblock with Mirika's stance on remaining monogamous up until the end. It got to the point that some felt that she shouldn't join due to said stance and her being the "villain" of the series and should've just left and went her own way after the 5 month period was up, since it would've not only stuck to her character, but she probably would've been happier that she did try her absolute best and with her realizing that getting the guy isn't always the best outcome. It didn't help that it brought up Naoya's worst trait of being stubborn to practically forcing the multi-timing to happen.]]

** This is how some people felt after [[spoiler: the drama bomb after chapter 124, including Mirika finally joining the harem near the end of the series. While everyone becoming his girlfriends was pretty much the end goal of it all, the issues mainly come from not only how the bomb took a realistic approach to the whole situation, with the argument that it shouldn't have been a thing in the first place due to it being a comedy, but that it also had a ''huge'' roadblock with Mirika's stance on remaining monoganous up until the end. It got to the point that some felt that she shoudn't join due to said stance and her being the "villian" of the series and should've just left and went her own way after the 5 month period was up, since it would've not only stuck to her character, but she probably would've been happier that she did try her absolute best and with her realizing that getting the guy isn't always the best outcome. It didn't help that it brought up Naoya's worst trait of being stubborn to practically forcing the multi-timing to happen.]]

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: At one point, Nagisa describes herself as needing far more time than the average person to learn something, and having had to put an obscene amount of effort into her schoolwork throughout her life in order to get by, which suggests that she may have some sort of learning disorder.

* BrokenBase: How the audience is supposed to see the love situation. Some are fine with it exploring how much of a headache a romcom harem would actually be, but think that Hiroyuki's madcap comedy is not the right approach for it and has to trivialize everything to make it work like it does now. The other half of the fandom enjoy it for the farce it is, and think the people who expected a more nuanced take on harem or the characters [[MST3kMantra are taking the series way too seriously]] and find the communication humor to be hilarious rather than secret keeping.

** Naoya is an otherwise earnest and NiceGuy who wants what's best for those he cares about, but his jaw-dropping stupidity and inability to take no for an answer earns him the ire of a good portion of the fandom. One of the major reasons for this is that he's pusuing the two-timing relationship because he wants to make both girls happy, but doing so he's effectively forcing Saki to take this option, putting them at the risk of suffering severe social stigma in the process and making them {{Insecure Love Interest}}s. Even though he claims he doesn't play favourites, some could argue that he favors Nagisa over Saki at times (could be because she's new, but still not completely fair to Saki). Even his inability to take "no" for an answer can make him come across as selfish beyond HypocriticalHumor.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the series is still a BrokenBase for others, some who stood by it seems to agree that the moment Rika and Shino join the cast, the series got a lot funnier, by adding people who challenge Naoya and his two-timing relationship so it can grow and provide new kinds of jokes.

** Saki, at times, doesn't escape from this either. While there are quite a few fans that sympathize with her for her anger over the whole thing, there's also a number of fans who believe that her hair-trigger violent reactions can be off-putting. It's been made clear by Naoya that he would stop if Saki committed to a firm "no", but at the same time it makes ''both'' of them unsympathetic because he's putting responsibility for his actions in her hands, and she could end this nonsense any time she wants but won't. It should however be noted that Saki says multiple times that she wants the arrangement to work and for her to get past her insecurities regarding it, rather than end it.

** Saki [[spoiler: not giving an answer to Shino wanting to be Naoya's girlfriend. Is she in so much shock that she needs more time to think about it or does she secretly want Shino to join them? It doesn’t help that Saki continues to allow Shino to live with them, doesn’t look that jealous that the two are getting closer and even invited Shino when drunk on chocolate. There’s also the theory that, like Nagisa, Saki wants to date Shino as she was disappointed that the confession was for Naoya and not her.]]

* GrowingTheBeard: While the series is still a BrokenBase for others, some who stood by it seems to agree that the moment Rika and Shino join the cast, the series got a lot funnier, by adding peoplewho challenge Naoya and his two timing relationship so it can grow and provide new kinds of jokes.

* GrowingTheBeard: While the series is still a BrokenBase for others, some who stood by it seems to agree that the moment Rika and Shino join the cast, the series got a lot funnier. Having someone who challenge Naoya and his two timing relationship.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The very premise of the show is extremely unique, as polyamorous relationships in any media are almost nonexistent. The show does exactly nothing with this premise; instead of exploring the kind of dynamics a real polyamorous relationship would have, it's more of a standard harem LoveTriangle series where the main character just decides through InsaneTrollLogic to date two girls at the same time. They don't even use the word polyamory, instead calling it "two-timing".

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The very premise of the show is extremely unique, as polyamorous relationships in any media are almost nonexistent. The show does exactly nothing with this premise, turning out to be a standard harem LoveTriangle anime. That doesn't even use the word polyamory, instead calling it 'Two-timing'.

** Saki, at the start of the series, is in a happy (if eccentric) relationship with her ChildhoodFriend Naoya and, in spite of his oddities, is very much in love with him. Then one day, completely out of the blue, Naoya approaches her with a girl named Minase, who's [[NiceGirl nice, sweet]], [[BuxomIsBetter has a more curvaceous body]], and is a SupremeChef, and says he wants to date the both of them. She gets understandably upset by this, but in the end, she's effectively made to go along with it (something her friend Shino states is something that's easy to do with enough persistence due to her easy-going nature). Saki becomes a major InsecureLoveInterest over her perceived lack of curves compared to Minase and Mirika, and being unable to do anything to help around their share-house, with all her attempts at doing so ending in {{Epic Fail}}ure. This all culminates in her resorting to BeAWhoreToGetYourMan, only for Naoya, out of a sense of fairness towards Minase and realizing something is wrong, to turn down her advances, [[TenMinuteRetirement causing her to briefly drop out of the relationship and go back to her house]]. Saki, however, does ease up into the situation a bit, but remain jealous against Rika.

** Saki reasoning for letting Naoya two time. Did she allow it due to being weak to pressure or did she do so in hope of getting together with Nagisa? Shino hint at the former due to Saki simple nature while later chapters point to the latter with her being in denial.
** Naoya reasoning for having Rika move out of his house. Is he genuinely growing feelings for her like he did with Nagisa and didn’t want to start three timing or he is overly paranoid and doesn’t want to take any risk of ruining his two timing relationship? As the series goes on, while Naoya admit to admiring Rika determination and video skills, her actions (especially illegal ones) are a bit off-putting for him.
** Naoya rejecting [[spoiler: Shino confession.]] Did he do so cause he doesn’t have feelings for her or because Saki was in front of him, Naoya rejected her as not to break Saki’s heart. [[spoiler: In later chapters, the two are getting very close to one another, to the point that Saki and Nagisa can pick up on it.]]
** Saki [[spoiler: not giving an answer to Shino wanting to be Naoya girlfriend. Is she in so much shock that she needs longer time to think about it or does she secretly want Shino to join them. Doesn’t help that Saki continue to allow Shino to live with them, doesn’t look that jealous that the two are getting closer and even invited Shino when drunk on chocolate. There’s also the theory that, like Nagisa, Saki wants to date Shino as she was disappointed that the confession was for Naoya and not her.]]

** Naoya, an otherwise earnest and NiceGuy who wants what's best for those he cares about, but his jaw-dropping stupidity and inability to take no for an answer earns him the ire of a good portion of the fandom. One of the reasoning being that he's pusuing the two-timing relationship because he wants to make both girls happy, but doing so he's effectively forcing Saki take this option, putting them at the risk of suffering severe social stigma in the process and making them {{Insecure Love Interest}}s. Even though he claim he doesn't play favouritism, some could see he's playing favorite with Nagisa over Saki at times (could be cause she's new, but still not completely fair to Saki). Even his inability to take "no" for an answer can make him come across as stalkish.
** Some tends to see Minase in this light. While she [[InsecureLoveInterest doesn't come out of entering the relationship unscathed, with her own issues and insecurities]], it can be hard hard not to see her as either [[DidntThinkThisThrough someone suffering the consequence of her decision to go along with a two-timing relationship]], or a blatant homewrecker who, like Naoya, is forcing Saki into the relationship so she can be happy. Her tendency to resort to shady means to either keep the relationship going tends to lose her sympathisers. [[spoiler: Then there's the fact that she fell for Naoya because she was inspired by [[{{Determinator}} him trying his hardest]]... to confess to another girl entirely, which either adds to the whole "homewrecker" reputation she's accumulated, or [[DidnThinkThisThrough makes her stupidity seem on par with Naoya's]], whose own stupidity makes him a BaseBreakingCharacter.]]
** Saki, at time, doesn't escape from this either. While there are quite a few fans that sympathize with her for her anger over the whole thing, there's also a number of fans who believe that her hair-trigger violent reactions can be off-putting. It's been made clear by Naoya that he would stop if Saki committed to a firm "no", but at the same time it makes ''both'' of them unsympathetic because he's putting responsibility for his actions in her hands, and she could end this nonsense any time she wants but won't. It should however be noted that Saki says multiple times that she wants the arrangement to work and for her to get past her insecurities regarding it, rather than end it.

** Saki, at the start of the series, is in a happy (if eccentric) relationship with her ChildhoodFriend Naoya and, in spite of his oddities, is very much in love with him. Then one day, completely out of the blue, Naoya approaches her with a girl named Minase, who's [[NiceGirl nice, sweet]], [[BuxomIsBetter has a more curvaceous body]], and is a SupremeChef, and says he wants to date the both of them. After getting understandably upset by this, but at the end, is effectively made into going along with it (something her friend Shino states is something that's easy to do with enough persistence due to her easy-going nature). Saki becomes a major InsecureLoveInterest over not being able to do anything to help around the house. With all her attempts at doing so ending in {{Epic Fail}}ure, to the point that she resorts to BeAWhoreToGetYourMan, only for Naoya, out of a sense of fairness towards Minase and realizing something is wrong, to turn down her advances, [[TenMinuteRetirement causing her to briefly drop out of the relationship and go back to her house]]. Saki, however, does ease up into the situation a bit, but remain jealous against Rika.
** Nagisa, before meeting Naoya, had an extremely difficult time finding what she's good at. She require longer time than others to study just to memorize basic knowledge. It got to a point where her mother is worried about her future despite how much hard work Nagisa put into them. It gotten so bad, Nagisa was close to quitting until she discover Naoya that inspired her to work on herself and ends up falling in love with him in the process.