Reviews

I read Kanojo, Okarishimasu or Rent-a-Girlfriend solely for its premise a little before the anime got announced. The phenomenon of Japanese herbivore men who don’t want to put in any effort of going outside and forming a real bond with someone is a pretty interesting topic. Worn down by school and work, they instead watch embellished romcoms, VTubers, and have imaginary waifus that provide easy-access escapism. Most importantly, some rent out girlfriends to do shit couples do. I thought this show would tackle that humorously.

I didn’t know that the author would turn the rental girlfriend business into the shittiest anime romcom I’ve seen since Senryuu Shoujo.

Dickhead main characters are good if written right. Kazuma and Ataru are horny degenerates, but it’s still fun to watch their antics. Kazuya is not fun to watch like holy shit dude he reminds me of Zenitsu and Zenitsu made Demon Slayer worse. The only thing I like about him is how much he jerks off, his pet fish, and his friend Kibe. His overall bitchiness just never makes for good content.

He’s supposed to improve from the first episode onward. He’s supposed to be less of a loser and more sensible, but it never happens. Main characters have negative traits so they can be fixed, but he never changes. Watching him stumble again and again to progress the relationship between Chizuru is like going through Groundhog’s Day, because it never gets anywhere and their dynamic is terrible. Everything is just a series of contrived coincidences.

Chizuru is the only sane person in this show who’s just trying to get money and work toward her dream job. That is all.

Ruka forms the love triangle because Kazuya was nice to her one time, I guess. Her entire character is just to love him even though he doesn’t even want her/care about her. Think Yui Yuigahama but lobotomized and trepanned. You can self-insert as Kazuya and imagine being surrounded by all these chicks, but I’d honestly feel bad for you.

Sumi is a watered down amalgamation of Komi-san and Miku Nakano. The only point of her character is to be cute and submissive. She’s also my thirteen year old cousin’s waifu alongside Rem and Miku, which I find funny.

Mami is the best part about this show. Her interactions make for great content. It’s not often that a romcom has a shallow asshole ex as some main villain, but her saving grace doesn’t get enough screentime. I don’t know why she’s so engaged with Kazuya’s life, but what matters is that she makes the show watchable. She moves the plot forward more than he moves his dick.

I want you to know that KissAnime shut down while this season was airing, so piece the two together and it’s abundantly clear that Rent-a-Girlfriend was so awful KissAnime didn’t want to host it and offed itself. Thankfully, they won’t have to deal with hosting the second season in the afterlife.

Positives: The Peggies made the opening. It’s a good song. Like I said earlier, Kazuya’s pet fish is funnier than him and Kibe is too sensible for this show.