Rent-A-Girlfriend

Slight Spoilers ahead for everything before Chapter 360

Every community needs a punching bag. One series in particular that every community no matter how polarizing one thing is, everyone can agree this one thing is trash. Stuff like The Cleveland Browns, Sonic 06, The Emoji Movie, etc. come to mind.
For the longest time in the anime community that was Sword Art Online then in one day on July 11th 2020 everything would change (but just not immediately)
Rent-A-Girlfriend had a rather humble beginning in which the manga started on July 12 2017. Running in the same magazine as legendary manga such as Fairy Tail, Ashita no Joe, A Silent Voice, Love Hina, Fire Force, The Quintessential Quintuplets, I’m pretty sure you get it.
Back then the series had a fair reception though it did have some criticism such as with the series protagonist Kazuya Kinoshita but most of it was overshadowed because it was cool to hate on his ex Mami Namami.
However the manga itself would start to get criticism for its lack of progress and unlikeable characters. It reached an all time low when the infamous Chapter 218 was shown on social media in late December of 2021. Rent-A-Girlfriend suddenly went from just another Rom-Com series to an infamous one. And to this day it has never recovered.

So you’re asking “Why the hell are you reviewing this?” If I had another “Rent-A-Girlfriend is bad” thing to say like what Lois Griffin said during her debate of “It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One” I would not make this review because everyone else would have already said my thoughts. But surprisingly enough I had rather positive thoughts on Rent-A-Girlfriend.

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History

I started this series on September 26th 2020. Mainly thanks to Busham0’s old YouTube account WhatTheWut’s video which got me interested in the series that and also because of the memes calling Kazuya’s ex Mami “trash” and her being lumped with Malty from Shield Hero and Rachel from Tower of God as “Worst Girls” in their series.
I became up to date with it around the end of the movie arc and I really enjoyed it.
But over time the series was just frustrating to read and I dropped the series for the first time when the infamous Chapter 218 dropped. But picked it back up again because I betted myself that if both the Rams and the Bengals were in Super Bowl LVI i would pick up this series again.
(I’m a Browns fan, Bengals are Division rivals and we just traded OBJ to the Rams around that time).
Just like last time I still had a miserable experience reading the manga weekly. But in late June 2023 I had to pause everything that I was reading/watching because I went to Basic Training.
However my Basic Training journey wouldn’t last long. I won’t go into details but I was at Basic Training for 5 months and never graduated. So after that I picked up where I left off for numerous series I put on hold, but dropped Rent-A-Girlfriend because I didn’t want to continue reading it.
However one of my good Twitter friends made a bet that during the election if Donald Trump became president they were going to drop everything they were reading and read Rent-A-Girlfriend. That didn’t happen so I read Rent-A-Girlfriend for them.
And ironically enough I was up to date around the Inauguration.

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Story 7/10

The story centers around a college freshman Kazuya Kinoshita who gets dumped by his then girlfriend Mami Namami. Unable to cope with his feelings, he decides to Rent-A-Girlfriend named “Chizuru Mizuhara”. Their first date starts out ok, but when he checks the dating site he rented Chizuru he realizes she’s done this stuff with other guys before, so he gives her a 1 star review by saying “she’s so dumb, and doesn’t know what fish are called.”
During their second date Kazuya intentionally pisses off Chizuru by asking how she does this for a living, with him even yelling at her in front of an aquarium where there were plenty of people around them. This causes Chizuru to yell back at him in a quiet place where no one else was and she also figured out that Kazuya was the person that gave her the one star review.
However Kazuya would receive a call from his grandma who was in the hospital and Kazuya has to go see her but Chizuru comes along with him. While at the hospital Kazuya lies to his family that Chizuru is his actual girlfriend. Things only get worse when they discover that both of them attend the same college, both of them are next door neighbors, and both of their grandmothers are friends.

The series starts out with Kazuya and Chizuru faking their relationship to their families and Kazuya’s friends. Kazuya initially thought about getting back together with Mami and breaking up with Chizuru but one of his friends Kibe punches him for that. But he would give both Kazuya and Chizuru tickets to a ferry, in which Chizuru gets sick and falls out of the boat and Kazuya saves her which is where their relationship starts to begin. Then there’s one of Kazuya’s friends Kuri would get a (rental) girlfriend of his own that brings us Ruka. After Kazuya stalks Ruka to her house because she knows Chizuru is a rental girlfriend and Kazuya is afraid of Ruka telling Kuri about it, Kazuya saves Ruka from falling down the stairs. Ruka appears on campus the next day wanting to see Kazuya, he and Ruka hide in a classroom so Kuri won’t see them, however Ruka notices something on her phone as both of them were hiding, that being her heart increased. Kuri spots both of them and Ruka breaks up with Kuri after that, but she would blackmail Kazuya into being her boyfriend (Peanuts AAUGH) because if he does this she won’t say anything to anyone that Chizuru is a rental girlfriend.

There’s also Sumi who’s a rather shy rental girlfriend that Chizuru asks Kazuya to help out. In which he does and the two of them develop a friendship.

However, where the series starts to get interesting for me is when Chizuru tells Kazuya that her dream is to be an actress, which is one of the reasons why she even decided to become a rental girlfriend in the first place.
Like Kazuya (and Sumi) watching her perform some of her roles was really fun to see.
The series’ peak has to be the movie arc where Chizuru’s grandma Sayuri is close to dying so Kazuya and Chizuru make a movie for Chizuru’s grandma to see before her death.
This is easily the best arc in the series, and I love Kazuya’s development in this arc.
Also it introduces us to Kazuya and Chizuru’s neighbor Mini who’s really into cosplay and she also helps out with the movie.
The best part has to be the saddest where Chizuru’s grandma dies as the movie was being played.
The movie arc was one of my favorite arcs in any series I’ve ever read, and it was perfect start to finish.
The series lowest would also be the turning point. The arc where the infamous Chapter 218 came from: The Paradise arc.
Yeah this arc was terrible. Not going to sugarcoat it.
Starts out with just an excuse to show off the girls tits and asses, and then it becomes where nearly everyone but Kazuya, Chizuru, Kazuya’s mom, and Kuri is an unlikeable dickhead especially when all of them discover that Chizuru is a rental girlfriend.
But there are things I did like such as Kazuya’s grandma Nagomi apologizing for everything she’s done to Kazuya, Kazuya’s mom and Chizuru’s conversation, Mami’s backstory, and Kazuya and Chizuru’s kiss.
As of writing this review Kazuya and Mini are temporarily living in Chizuru’s house after a tragic accident happened to the apartment they lived in, and Kazuya finally manages to go on a real date with Chizuru, which was sweet.

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Characters 6/10

Rent-A-Girlfriend has a combination of some of the best characters and some of the worst I’ve ever seen.

Kazuya is surprisingly not a bad protagonist, he is a rather solid one. Sure he can’t stop thinking about fantasizing with a girl when he sees one and lies to his family and friends that a rental girlfriend is his actual girlfriend, but despite all that he’s a pretty human character. He has self esteem issues because of him being belittled by his family members and even his own friends. But even then he still cares for them. At first after lying to his family members that Chizuru was his actual girlfriend he didn’t really think much about Chizuru but over time his relationship with Chizuru becomes more of actual love towards her.

Chizuru starts out as a rather cold girl that wanted nothing to do with Kazuya and viewed him more of a client than as a boyfriend but over time grew to have actual feelings for him. I always love her dream to become an actress and Kazuya supporting that dream.

Ruka is awful. She literally has no purpose other than to separate Kazuya and Chizuru from being with each other.
You know that scene in The Peanuts Movie where Charlie Brown talks to Lucy about The Little Red Hair Girl and when he mentioned that TLRHG had a pretty face Lucy gets mad about it?
That’s what I would describe Ruka. That’s literally all her character is. And that backstory of her having a low heart rate doesn’t excuse her blackmailing Kazuya, sexually assaulting him by kissing him without his consent, and lying to Chizuru that she and Kazuya had sex. She’s just a frustrating character.

Mami is a pathetic person. She dumped her ex but still allows him to live rent free in his mind by just making his life miserable and nothing else. Like he’s moved on, what else do you want?
She stalks him occasionally and is even there when everyone goes to the water park.
Just a miserable person in general.

Sumi is amazing. She starts out as rather shy but becoming friends with Kazuya helped her overcome part of it. She even gave Kazuya advice on situations in his daily life which I love. Sumi is precious and must be protected.

Mini is pretty cool. Being Kazuya and Chizuru’s neighbor and having to deal with whatever noise they make. I love how huge she’s into cosplaying and how supportive she is to Kazuya with her even referring to him as “master”.

Kazuya’s family is a rather odd bunch.

Kazuya’s grandma Nagomi is a prune who treats Chizuru as if she’s God himself, and really belittles Kazuya. Like the birthday party that was supposed to be for Kazuya ended up being for Chizuru because Kazuya didn’t tell her Chizuru’s birthday was a couple of months ago. And she always thinks discipline her grandkid in front of his partner is a good idea.

Kazuya’s Dad beats up his son because he thought Kazuya was borrowing money from Chizuru. (Then again Kazuya did lie that Chizuru was his actual girlfriend but still)
He’s more tolerable than Nagomi but still bad.

Kazuya’s mom however is rather the only nice person in the family, even after she found out Chizuru is a rental girlfriend.

Chizuru’s grandma Sayuri is really amazing. She was a retired actress and was a really good grandmother to Chizuru. I also appreciate that she was more accepting of Kazuya than his own grandmother.

Kazuya’s friends are surprisingly one of the better romcom/harem (even though I don’t consider Rent-A-Girlfriend a harem series) anime/manga which I haven’t seen since Shu from Nisekoi.

Kibe has been Kazuya’s friend since childhood. He’s a rather dickish mindset with how belittling he treats Kazuya and objectifying women for their body parts. But since Paradise he’s been slightly better I guess.

Kuri is the better of the two. He’s genuinely more nice to Kazuya. After Ruka dumped him Kazuya allowed Chizuru to go on a rental date with Kuri just so he could feel better. Which was sweet.
After knowing Chizuru is a rental girlfriend (this was before Paradise mind you) Kuri keeps it a secret with Kazuya.
I really like Kazuya and Kuri’s friendship

Oh yeah, and Umi exists.

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Art 10/10

Love it or hate it this series art is fantastic. And not just when series mangaka Reiji Miyajima draws stuff specifically about Chizuru mind you. The spreads and the background are really amazing. Especially when it comes to the moments that hit hard

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Enjoyment 8/10

I feel like Agnes, Edith, and Margo when Gru reads them that unicorn story and he says “This is garbage. You actually like this?” in the first Despicable Me movie because despite the fact I expected to hate manga like everyone else, I surprisingly ended up enjoying it better than I thought.
Sure it’s not perfect by any means as you can see from my criticisms but I enjoyed reading this manga from what you can tell.

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Overall 7.5/10

Rent-A-Girlfriend is a manga with some of the highest highs and lowest lows. It’s a mixed bag to say the least. But there’s more to the series than just Kazuya fantasizing about women in certain chapters.
Rent-A-Girlfriend is about a person who thought he was worthless but over time through a girlfriend he rented he was able to grow as a person

Anyways, see all of you next week.