Rent-a-Girlfriend is a show that i have followed for 3 years now. Season one was an average rom-com with a degenerate protagonist, but season two improved on the pacing and made it a really fun little watch. But this season takes a completely different turn with the story and actually decided to go full in on the drama to the point where the show is hardly recognizable.
Story – 7/10
I have to say, I really liked this story arc. Instead of an episodic romantic comedy with some ecchi scenes thrown into it, this season actually has an ongoing narrative in which the protagonist helps the girl of his dreams to become a film star. The show plays this part very serious and tackles topics like fundraising, producing and shooting an indie movie, which was very interesting to see. What made this special, is that the show doesn´t put the focus on the movie itself, but rather the struggles and the hard work that go into making it.
Another noteworthy aspect of the season is the drama. Rent-a-Girlfriend has never been a very dramatic series so I was a bit worried about this huge shift in tone for the show. However, they actually pulled it of and crafted a believable and realistic scenario, which really pulls on your heartstrings as the show goes on. This is also a finished arc, which means we get to see a lot of payoff in the final 3 episodes.
The huge flaw here is that as soon as the focus shifts away from the movie, it loses a lot of steam and the obvious flaws in writing from the previous seasons becomes very apparent.
Art – 8/10
The artstyle of the show is absolutely beautiful. I said something similar in my review for season two, but I really like the character designs. If you go on youtube, you can actually see some behind the scenes of the manga creation, showing that the author uses a lot of real-life examples for clothing styles and brands which appear in the anime. There are moments where the studio uses something called “make-up animation”, which was actually something that Studio Wit popularized with the first season of “Attack-on-Titan”. This means that there are many highly polished shots of the characters, making everything feel a lot more real and expressive.
Sound - 6/10
The Soundtrack of the show is pretty average. I do think the only times where it is noticeable is when they use elements of EDM during fast-paced scenes. The opening is pretty good, but compared to the classic first opening and the banger second opening, this one is a bit of a let-down. The ending was also less special than before, it doesn´t have the cringey visuals of the iconic(!) first ED, but something like that would have probably destroyed the serious tone of this season.
Characters - 8/10
This was by far the most needed upgrade this show needed. Rom-Coms rise and fall by their characters, and this show never really delivered on that part. All the girls were either severely underdeveloped, unlikeable or both and Kazuya, our protagonist, was just an irredeemable idiot.
This season changed the dynamics and decided put the harem aspect to the side and only focus on our two main characters Kazuya and Chizuru, giving each of them much needed space for development which paid of really well.
Chizuru was the biggest surprise, as she had a full, well-written and deep character arc in this season. It manages to be both dramatic as well as realistic at the same time, making her by far the most interesting female character in the show. Kazuya (surprisingly) does not suck anymore! He actually has goals now and goes out of his way on multiple occasions to help Chizuru with her ambitions.
The other characters were also lightly touched upon, but i think giving each character his own big arc is the way to go now for the manga.
Enjoyment – 7/10
While a bit slower than the fast-paced, ecchi-filled season two, the show has reinvented itself with a new tone and new plot structure. I am actually really looking forward on how the author decides to follow this arc up. Let´s hope season 4 gets announced soon.
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 7/10
