-- the following is a discussion on everyone's favorite mc and character underuse. --
I feel like Rent-a-Girlfriend gets a mass amount of hate for simply being what a lot of its contemporaries are too - a romance with a weak male MC.
There's a reason why Kazuya is so hated, even by people who just have a general idea of what this show is. He has an innate ability to make situations more awkward and his inner-monologues don't really help. Whenever it seems to be going a little too well for him when it comes to Chizuru, he seems to throw in a "is this okay given our provider-client-relationship?" and other interjections which bring his interactions to a grinding halt. Every time a heartwarming scene takes place, there's a mention of money, rent status, etc. Hell, the first episode has Kazuya saying he'll support Chizuru's dream financially by renting her more than before... being supportive is good, but it has the silver lining of being a mainly monetary investment rather than an emotional one. I have to admit that while Kazuya is growing as a character, realizing what other people want from him and being able to, well, understand human emotions a bit better, he's still a very unenjoyable protagonist to follow. It's hard to root for him in any sense and most laughs seem to be at him rather than with. Everything seems to always just fall into place to be almost terrible and then somehow work out. That isn't to say that he's completely devoid of usefulness. There are genuinely good moments not only centered solely on the female MCs, but also ones involving him. These several outliers though aren't enough to ignore Kazuya's failure as a MC.
I joked with my friend during last season that Sumi really isn't in the running at all. And, well, now this season it seems like her AND Mami are completely ignored. Sure, Sumi has a great episode near the end (probably the best thus far) and Mami is involved during the beginning of this season, but their presence compared to the other two is insanely disproportionate (Chizuru is the main, but having the other love interests be this underrepresented is a weakness). At least that by the end of the season, each female MC seems to have something going for them that could prove interesting in the future.
It's a standard offering of romance that fails pretty hard in the comedy department. There's good character design, the animation is usually pretty smooth, the OP and ED continue the pretty great trend (while the actual OST is decently varied), the voice acting is quality, and the scenarios that are depicted are enjoyable to witness. I think this whole series as a 'trainwreck we all can't stop watching' is an overstatement - more like two trains hurling towards each other, but there are a few redirects and five miles before collision. It's still not a great situation and doom is possible, but it isn't that bad.
