Review with slight spoilers
Before I begin I must warn you that this is a negative review and I only ask you to read my reasons before you get furious.
At first I did not intend to see this anime because of its title "rent a girlfriend" which seemed horrible to me for being male chauvinist, but then I discovered that this job existed in real life and that it is not as bad as it seems, so I decided to watch the anime because I had liked the Go Toubun no Hanayome harem and I thought I was going to like this one too. Bad decision.
To begin with, the first chapter is full of clichés, ecchi moments typical of every harem, a supposed love triangle that we already know how it will end from the beginning, the typical "I know someone in a circumstance but then it turns out that they have another personality and another life" And the most ridiculous: the protagonists are neighbors and they never knew it.
The good thing about the first chapter is that a lot of things happen and it keeps you hooked, what's more, there are things that I liked, like the personality of the protagonist who, at times, showed human qualities and continues to do so throughout from the rest of the series, but then he does something super stupid like following his fake girlfriend for an entire day out of jealousy. Ridiculous. I want to clarify that I do not like the protagonist, I only accept him as he is and nothing else.
The big problem is that I don't like any couple, maybe I like Sumi with Kazuya a bit, since he takes the initiative and stops being ridiculous for a moment, but Chizuru with Kazuya I don't think so. I never felt that Chizuru could fall in love with Kazuya, a depressed person with many personal problems. . . But I like their relationship, as friends.
Chizuru as a character sometimes I don't like her, but as a person I like her, so I'm not going to complain. Ruka seems unbearable to me, I detest typical harem characters who are crazy about the protagonist, they are stupid, they do not seem real. The only thing they seem is: a character that an author wrote for his work, and that this character is crazy (excessively) for a protagonist who does not feel the same, but, at the same time, his audience likes this character and them they want the same thing to happen to them, but in real life nobody would act like that, or at least they would have more brains.
Sumi is fine, I mean, there are people who are shy in real life and it is a problem that needs therapy but those people exist and I think it is good that a problem like this is addressed in this anime.
Well, as you can see, anime has good points but it is boring, or at least it was for me. Nothing interesting happens, this season Kazuya is lying, lying and lying. The only thing that changes is that at first Kazuya was crazy about Mami and then he starts to develop feelings for Chizuru. In that case, I don't know what characters like Ruka and Sumi are for, just to have a harem, mainly Ruka.
Also, am I the only one who thinks that all conflicts are the protagonist's fault? That is, conflicts are ridiculous and only exist because without them the plot would not exist. And it is bad to think that they are so easy to solve but still nothing happens.
In conclusion, the only thing I expected from the anime is that it would demonstrate the work of a rental girlfriend or the experiences that one has, but what I get is a harem ecchi with a protagonist who cannot say what he feels and covers everything with lies. It is a harem for the male audience, and yes, I know that the harem is mainly aimed at men but, as I said before, Go Toubun no Hanayome is a harem and I feel like it can be liked by everyone regardless of gender.
So if you like the harem, if you like ecchi, if you like cute characters, toxic ex-girlfriends, an embarrassing protagonist, and love triangles, you will like this.
Otherwise, I do not recommend it. I was reading the other reviews and everyone was saying it wasn't a perfect anime, but it entertained them, and I get it, they all have their own tastes. But at least I'm not the only one to admit that this anime has several flaws, personally more than I expected.
