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Rent-A-Girlfriend Review: It was the best of times it was the worst of times Spoilers ahead:

It was a frustrating read that I couldn’t put down. Reading Rent-A-Girlfriend is the manga equivalent of watching Instagram Reels car crash videos. Now, stop me if you have heard this one before: it is a romantic comedy with a perverted and infuriating to-watch main character, Kazuya Kinoshita, trying to win the heart of the girl of his dreams, but there is a full cast of other beautiful girls. Should he go for the self-evident choice, Chizuru Mizuhara, his prominent rental girlfriend and also the girl that he holds the most romantic value towards, or stray from the path that the author has laid out through the series and chase after the other girls: his ex, Mami Nanami who serves as sort of the series antagonist, Ruka Sarashina (the best option) who is also a rental girlfriend option, and Sumi Sakurasawa who works with Chizuru Mizuhara as another rental girlfriend who doesn’t get as much of a spotlight and is mostly irrelevant towards the latter end of the series? What Rent-A-Girlfriend does to stand out from the sea of similar manga series is use the “rental date” gimmick where our main character has the opportunity to go on a date throughout the entire series. Since it is only a business transaction it doesn't have too much gravity on the romantic part of the story and, in theory, uses these dates to gain experience on what it’s like to go on an actual date. Unfortunately for our main squeeze Kazuya he takes an excruciatingly long time to learn lessons. This alone is one of the reasons many people who have read this series in the past dropped it, the early chapters of Rent-A-Girlfriend are funny, but they give you a glimmer of hope that Kazuya could change. Kazuya starts the series depressed that he has broken up with his girlfriend, Mami. He expresses his grief by… choking the chicken (like I said, a frustrating main character) and through his post-nut clarity realizes he doesn’t want to be alone. So he sets his eyes on a new goal: to get a new girlfriend. With this newfound purpose, he turns to the rental girlfriend service, Diamond. Kazuya would use this app to gain experience to get a new girlfriend until he caught feelings for Mizuhara, the first girl he rented. Kazuya would go on fun shenanigans and get in and out of sticky situations, the series would keep this repetitive nature and leave readers wondering if we would ever get any real romantic development or just continue with these teases. Towards around 100 chapters many had lost almost all hope that Kazuya would ever lock in and get the girl (it didn’t matter which one at this point) and by the infamous chapter 218 it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

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Every hotel got that one chair

Rent-A-Girlfriend received a tarnished reputation from, what many call, the worst manga chapters ever. For those of you unaware of the infamous chapter 218, it starts with a downtrodden Kazuya remorseful that the feelings he had for Mizuhara were not shared by her, but surprisingly he tries not to let this get the best of him and proclaims that he is gonna enjoy this beautiful day at the pool. Until his imagination runs rampant and he has vivid thoughts of another man taking the role that he wished he could have had with Mizuhara, Like Tom Holland watching Zendaya in Challengers (2024). He cries in anguish and sinks to the bottom of the pool as one of the most awkward and uncomfortable chapters comes to an end. (that is the PG summary of chapter 218). Any character development that Kazuya had was left at the bottom of that pool. Fans were outraged, rightfully so, at this chapter. what could have been a great way for Kazuya to, perhaps, move on from this unattainable dream girl. Instead, patient readers were punished. Essentially starting at zero, Rent-A-Girlfriend needed to do something huge to win over its rapidly dying fan base. Unsurprisingly as all hope had seemed to be lost, a huge turning point in the series came to fruition.

A kiss between Kazuya and Chizuru was shared, and although the chapter would have you believe it was nothing more than an escape rope from the brewing conflict arising at the moment, this would go on to lead into the series' next major arc (which also happens to be its best parts). Faith in the series was restored and the series was on a steady increase. Our main character Kazuya seemed to break the romantic-comedy-harem manga curse and finally get the girl, right? Well… this is still a romantic-comedy-harem manga and at this point in the story, it is welcomed to see Kazuya grow out of some of his old perverse nature while keeping some of the humorous moments, but it still suffered from loads and loads of padding with chapters that felt as though if they were skipped over, nothing of value would be lost. The next major arc after this involving Kazuya, Chizuru, and Mini (a female side character who is always in Kazuya’s corner) is some of the best the series has to offer.

#The ideal and the real The beauty that comes from his development is only seen after you get past all the low points from Rent-A-Girlfriend and low points are abundant in this series. The manga makes it clear that Kazuya’s perverted thoughts and self-deprecation are his biggest vices and only if he can rid himself of these sins then he can be a better person and better boyfriend. There is a lot more manga of this genre that do it much better than Rent-A-Girlfriend, but many people treat this series like it has no redeeming qualities and people who read this series should be ashamed of themselves, but there is some fun to be had in this manga. Watching Kazuya get into the most illogical predicaments and somehow get out, for the most part, unscathed is more entertaining than it has any right to be. The times when Kazuya is genuinely human and acknowledges his lustful intentions and feels guilt about it are satisfying because it shows that he isn’t too far gone, he can improve, and he can muster the courage to ask someone on a “real date.” (If only it didn’t take 300+ chapters to get this development, but I digress.)

Seeing Kazuya get thrown to the ground so many times in a row, in what seems like the author's attempt to play out the world's most cruel and complicated Saw trap, and then FINALLY getting rewarded with a nice moment of peace is a well-earned treat to the reader for begrudgingly getting through this series. The slog of chapters involving Kazuya play out a perverted fantasy in his mind, wrestling with the consequences of said fantasy, and then getting into a predicament similar in nature is a dime a dozen in this series. When we get a moment of our main character doing something that has a positive impact on the story and the people who are involved in his life, it is a sight for sore eyes.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

As this review is being written Rent-A-Girlfriend is on its 321st chapter and it’s great to see how the art has evolved throughout the series. Especially how Reiji Miyajima draws his female characters, gives you the impression that the women in this series are as unobtainable as Kazuya makes it out to be. One of the highlights of the series is the unique design of each rental girlfriend and of course attention to detail on the outfits of every character. One of the most significant aspects of the series is how fitting each person's attire is. Kazuya is lazy by nature so he mostly rocks a simple graphic T-shirt and shorts. While Mizuhara and the other rental girlfriends are way more styled to match their elegant personalities. There is a reason this review doesn’t discuss the other characters in this series and that’s because half of the manga ignores them, to be completely honest, it’s not a bad thing because most of them aren’t even all that interesting. The other rental girlfriends, Kazuya’s male friends, and even the parental figures of Kazuya and Mizuhara seem like nothing more than set pieces in the Kazuya-Mizuhara Super Show. If the writing was even half as good as the art style this would not be considered the butt of the joke in the anime community, but unfortunately, this is not the case. With laughably bad choices made by our protagonist and dialogue exchanges that make you want to put this series down out of embarrassment and take a few laps around your room while you weigh out the pros and cons of continuing this manga... SPOILERS! There are very few pros.

#The grass is greener… after about 300 chapters, bro. trust me! Compared to other reviews on this topic. This one seems to be on the more positive side, but don’t let that distract from the fact that this manga sucks! All the positive aspects have to be fought for through treacherous amounts of mediocre writing and obnoxious choices made by our main characters. Fortunately, it was an easy read and somewhat entertaining. It sucks to beat the dead horse so I can do nothing but wish for a happy ending to our man Kazuya and the author of the series. If this is a series where you are looking for any excuse to pick it up, consider this your excuse. There is a lot of fun to unpack with this one, as long as you are also willing to put up with some cringeworthy moments, don't take it too seriously, and have no shame. ~~~

Kazuya is a flawed protagonist and Mizuhara is a goddess sent from the heavens to torment his hormonal mind.

Rent-A-Girlfriend is a series that I never thought I’d read and while I can’t say “Oh wow! That was way better than I thought” I also don’t regret my time with this manga. It doesn’t demand a lot of focus or attention from the reader, it is manga that knows what it wants to be and does a pretty fine job at it. I can’t necessarily recommend it to people due to its reputation that proceeds the manga itself. Said reputation has made it hard to post my chapter count on Anilist for all my friends to see.