I think Rent-a-Girlfriend does three things well. It has a nice presentation, it looks good, and it has the honor of having The Peggies do its OP. I'll get to the other parts it does well later. I'm going to refer to Rent-a-Girlfriend as Rag for now on because it's easier and seems like an appropriate nickname for it.

A quick plot summary with a few gripes along the way, Rag starts with our MC Kazuya recently getting dumped by his girlfriend of one month, Mami, the seemingly conniving and manipulative type. To get over this, Kazuya masturbates, a lot. Like too much. My god who thought having inner monologues over a dude fapping would be a good idea. The soft colored presentation of the anime really is betrayed by Rag's tendency to implied jerking off scenes and the weakest attempts at ecchi. Then, Kazuya discovers an app that's the Door Dash equivalent of getting an escort. Through this he meets the stunning and charming Chizuru, who through a series of the most nauseating and eye rolling inducing decisions made to hamstring some sort of conflict for the show is now stuck with Kazuya. They have to fake being a couple to their friends and Kazuya's grandma, who desperately wants her grandson to stop being such a loser and introduce the love of his life to her before she dies. In a crazy twist of fate, these two turnout to be neighbors.

As for the characters, the overlying problem with Rag is that no matter how good or best "waifu" material they may seem to you basement dwellers, they are all tied to Kazuya and having to like him because he is a harem MC. Chizuru switches between acting as the perfect girlfriend to an assertive, do anything to keep her job a secret type. Throughout the entire running of the show, Kazuya does nothing beneficial for Chizuru. He stalks her and begs for her to keep up this charade for him. There is no quality Kazuya possesses or action he does for it to be believable that Chizuru can hold any sense of feeling for him outside of pity. Just understand that this is a harem and the ladies need to flock around him because it's easier to do that than to write a competent romcom.

We get introduced to Ruka later on, who is a rented girlfriend for his loser beaver-tooth looking friend. Her shtick is that she has a heart condition and goes on dates to find the one that can make her heartbeat properly or something along the lines of that. Turns out, that man is Kazuya. Yet again, he does nothing to win over the affection of the girl, he is simply given it as they start to date. Ruka's condition is only explained through the ED of her first episode appearance, and honestly I thought it was a nice way to present it, as this is still a secret from everyone else. Ruka's fault is that she is annoying, and she is a cuckold, as Kazuya refuses to stop renting Chizuru, now out of a genuine feeling of love for her. Which was realized during a masturbation sequence. Very cool.

The character who caught my eye the most was Sumi, for having a really cute character design. She shows up at the second to last episode. You see more masturbation in Rag than you do Sumi. Her deal is that she is taking the job to become less shy and she looks up to Chizuru as a role model for the job. She gets set up on a rented date with Kazuya to practice. It's a simple, cute episode of them going on a date, albeit a bit boring. Everything goes well and you just know the seed of affection in the wide, vast fields of loving a harem MC is planted. These girls should have a higher standard. Nonetheless, Mami spots them during their date.

The best part of Rag is Mami. She is voice acted by Aoi Yuuki who does a phenomenal job. Mami is the main antagonizing force of Rag and really brings spicy conflict. She's still possessive over Kazuya for whatever reason. She plays dirty and is manipulative. It is genuinely entertaining to see the other characters wrapped around her finger like they’re her plaything. But, this loops back around to the big problem with Rag. All of these girls are tied to Kazuya.

Kazuya is the biggest loser. It’s okay to be a loser, and he’s not an incel, but he is extremely irredeemable. There is nothing he does that would entice any of these girls to like him. The last thing I think Rag does well is a very small detail. Him and Chizuru’s first date is at the aquarium. A small detail yet plays the only part in Kazuya’s positive character development. You go into his apartment and notice he has posters of fish and a good collection of aquatic creatures he takes care of. It was a nice detail to give Kazuya some dimension of personality of him having an interesting hobby and having it be a background detail. That is literally one of the only things Rag does well. That’s it. The harem fails as the object of everyone’s affection is this contemptable loser. Every plot point is so forced with conflict that could be resolved with just a single conversation. Rag cannot not have Kazuya on screen at all times, as he literally secretly listens into almost every conversation like some creep. Kazuya never improves, he never learns, and does nothing to win over any girl. He simply begs and pines for Chizuru’s affection and masturbates, treating his actual girlfriend like an unwanted side piece because he’s to much of a coward to confess his feelings.

Rag, as a harem romcom, has very little spice, very little humor, terrible romance, and half-assed ecchi. Just watch Nisekoi or Bokuben instead. At best it’s a bit spicy, at worst it’s incredibly boring.