Rent-a-Girlfriend Review: Another Show So Much More Than Its Name
Rent-a-Girlfriend is fantastic. It is a show that on the surface, boasts a similar feeling to Bunny Girl Senpai in the fact that they both have seemingly distracting or suspect names. Not to fret, Rent-a-Girlfriend follows Bunny Girl Senpai in the path of emotionally jarring and beautifully crafted romance animes with a nice comedic twist. It develops its characters beautifully as it delves deeper into their lives and the choices that they make. Splitting off from Bunny Girl Senpai, Rent-a-Girlfriend creates a drama with much more comedic elements. These types of shows are truly my favorite, the ones that make you care for characters and ideas that seem terrible at a first glance; yet upon masterful writing and direction, these characters become overly complex and enticing for the viewers. As I sit here a few weeks after watching that show, I can easily say it sits amongst my favorite.
Rent-a-Girlfriend is a story about Kazuya Kinoshita and Chizuru Ichinose, Kazuya being the newly dumped virgin college student, and Chizuru being the pristine and perfect girlfriend. The basic plot is that Kazuya rents Chizuru to be his girlfriend for a day, (don’t worry they are not allowed to do anything sexual, the “rent-a-girlfriend” is meant for people to have someone to be with for the day and hopefully help them through breakups or tough times Chizuru later mentions) and then they get caught up running into his friends, which ends with them being extremely jealous. Then, Kazuya’s grandmother is hospitalized and Chizuru goes with him, only to realize her grandmother goes to the same hospital. Eventually, they are of course found out and the grandmothers are in heaven, but the two protagonists are in their self-made hell as they now have to pretend they are dating. That is basically the plot of the story and of course, there are new girls introduced, one who is also a rent-a-girlfriend, Kazuya’s eternally jealous and evil ex, and a girl Chizuru wants Kazuya to help become a better rent-a-girlfriend. Overall, the main draw of this story for me is watching as the relationship between Chizuru and Kazuya evolves beyond just a rent-a-girlfriend and into something purer than most relationships I have seen executed on any piece of television.
(Spoilers follow, go to the end for closing thoughts)
Throughout this show, we see a plot point with a stark contrast from Bunny Girl Senpai, Kazuya does not get the girl after three episodes, in fact, he does not even get her by the end of the season. As we watch both Chizuru and Kazuya play around each other's feelings, the viewer is endlessly enthralled by them as Chizuru’s heart seems to gradually warm to the idiotic Kazuya. The development of both of these characters is spectacular, specifically Chizuru though. For Kazuya, we start off the story with him being portrayed as a basic weeb-style college student who hangs out with his friends who are virgins like him. As the story develops, Kazuya constantly makes mistakes and dumb ones at that, but can we really fault him? As Kazuya makes mistake after mistake with his attempted real relationship with Chizuru, that gets ever more complex as they are both stuck faking it for their grandparents who are friends. This extra layer of complexity makes the show all the more entertaining to watch.
When I consider how this story continuously evolved and became more and more a show that transcended being a comedy, and became more of a slice of life that genuinely delves deep into Chizuru’s character. If anything I felt more attached to Chizuru, besides being a waifu, than Kazuya. The way she was written seemed too stereotypical tsundere (when the girl hates the guy at first but gradually starts to like them), but she grew into a person who was able to put a professional face up around Kazuya and his friends, yet she became vulnerable on the inside and truly began to care for him. The entire plot of “main character dense and doesn’t realize the main girl likes him” is a trope that has been seen many times, yet Rent-a-Girlfriend brings a lovely twist on it. The conflict that is created throughout the show is so beautifully executed as their “relationship” is continuously threatened by the manipulative ex-girlfriend Mami, or Ruka, another rent-a-girlfriend who actually admits she is in love with Kazuya and always has the “I know your relationship is fake” card.
The basis of what I am trying to portray here is that this show seems to fall into many common tropes across all romantic comedies yet sets itself apart through the wonderful writing and direction used when we find our characters confronting one another. Every single person in this story seems to have a different take or grasp on what is happening in regards to a certain situation. How each character deals with these situations and with their limited or complete knowledge of them is quite interesting. As Kazuya is unable to fully take a handle on the direction of his life, having Mami constantly scheming against his relationship causes great tension and ever-present danger, whilst Ruka knows of the Rent-A-Girlfriend situation yet desires to be Kazuya’s true lover. This, contrasting with Mizuhara and Kazuya’s ever-intensifying feelings for one another just creates this atmosphere of never-ending tension.
Although this season did end with the somewhat predictable failed attempt at Kazuya admitting his feelings for Chizuru, I cannot help but want to come back and see more. I am fairly confident that in the end they will be together but there will be a lot of drama along the way. However, knowing this does not drain from the quality of the show in any manner. In the end, I am still in love with Mizuhara, Kazuya will never ask her out, Ruka will always be going after him, and Mami will keep being worst girl. This dynamic is highly intriguing and I am interested in seeing how they evolve each of the characters as time goes on. Honestly, the success of this show, in the long run, depends on their ability to not only keep the audience on their toes but allow the characters to evolve and grow into their own. I want to see Ruka eventually come up with an actual way to get Kazuya to like her rather than blackmail and forcefulness, I want to see Mami learn from her experiences and become less of a b$%&*. But in the end, this show is a Rom-Com and the entire point is to make us laugh, which it definitely did.
For this last part, I want to discuss my favorite episode, Hot Springs and Girlfriend. I am writing this a couple of weeks after I watched the show so pardon my rust on this episode but Kazuya saving Chizuru was just so damn powerful. On the surface it really is just an “omg guy is giving up everything to help girl,” but this scene is actually infinitely timed better. As this entire show has been built up so far as the struggle between our two characters of managing this ever-complex situation, we get our first glimpse into how deep these feelings are starting to become. The show even makes fun of the “you saved her so she must love you now” style trope but it shows us that in this situation it's true. I’m getting a little emotional writing this right now, but as we watch Chizuru contemplate her feelings and realize what it is that Kazuya did for her, you can’t help but feel for her. This tension that arises from that one situation is practically unfathomable, the entire show then stems off from there as this fake relationship begins to become something more in both their eyes, yet they can’t admit to it.
As Kazuya drops his phone whilst about to text Mami to meet up and leave Chizuru, jumping into the ocean full-on superhero style to save her, it is just a moment of bliss. It’s the moment at which you know that the relationship being formed here is more than what Kazuya has been thinking of for his entire teen years. No more is he thinking about Mami and what she is doing in another guy's bed, and how he wishes it was him, but he is thinking about Chizuru, and how beautiful she is, and how she is this beacon of light in his life. She seems too good to be true from his eyes, and we get a sort of She’s Out Of My League vibe from it as he merely thinks of himself as less than when compared to her. How can he compare? He’s just some virgin college student that has done nothing except being an incel with his friends and think about all of his sexual fantasies day in and day out. That is where the viewer realizes he is truly wrong, then how can I compare argument just doesn’t work. Kazuya had no shot in hell with this girl at the beginning, it seemed impossible, yet he put himself out there and gave up everything to save her. His actions weren’t some scheme to get into her pants that night, or an attempt at trying to get her to love him, but rather it was because he was falling in love with her. This pureness of heart that becomes everpresent throughout the series as Kazuya evolves as a character is truly a wonderful sight to behold. He reminds me somewhat of Subaru Natsuki from Re: Zero as they both follow the same path of merely being horny boys at the start yet growing in both maturity and respect for the one they have fallen in love with.
Conclusions
Whilst Rent-A-Girlfriend does not conquer the titleholders like Bunny Girl Senpai for my favorite rom-com/slice-of-life, it manages to exceed in almost every way possible and simultaneously use and evolve common tropes within the genre. Once more, anime has delivered a show that can be viewed merely at the surface level as another fan service waste of time, but upon watching this, I can gladly say that it is quite the opposite. As many shows love to utilize their fan service as a way to entice viewers to come back and hope to see a nice shot of the female lead, Rent-A-Girlfriend breaks that by centralizing the core message of the show around looking past material looks and sexual attractions that the main character and even the viewer have towards his female counterparts. This theme of overcoming the mere sexual surface of relationships and feelings, showing the importance and power of delving beyond, towards true feelings of affection and care truly makes Rent-A-Girlfriend spectacular. The interworkings of the relationships and the impact each character has on each other's situations are executed masterfully and truly sell this show as not only a great rom-com, but an amazing drama too. However, I would still like to see some evolution in our characters other than that of just the main protagonist, otherwise, this show will likely get stale if the same tropes repeat themselves over and over. Overall though, this show is extremely solid and delivers a great experience for any fan of romances or comedies, well deserving of an 8.7/10. As was implied, this show has little flaws that are easily pointed out, but it has yet to break completely free of its stereotypical rom-com chains and into a new territory of its own. I have high hopes though.
Thanks
Josh Whittington
