*Author's note: In the interest of not trying to procrastinate on these anymore and to move on to other anime, I'm going to try to cut down on the length of these reviews, as such from this point forward I won't really be doing deep dive plot summaries anymore. Also this is my 50th review and 1st review for the year! Yay!*
Before we talk about Season 3, let's take a look back at Seasons 1 and 2 for a moment:
The first couple of seasons of Rent-A-Girlfriend were a bit of a mixed bag for me: Season 1 struggled on some aspects of execution and had some cringe moments with Kazuya being a hard to like MC. However the reason I would rank Season 1 higher than Season 2 was that it had a lot of good, interesting and funny moments. It introduced a rather bizarre concept and ran with it pretty well and presents some interesting questions (can something that's fake become real?). Season 1 introduced a lot of intrigue into its story and though it struggled to deliver at times, it was genuinely interesting to watch unfold and would've ended on a really good cliffhanger had they not bungled it by having a post-credit scene. Overall, Season 1 was truly a fun watch.
While Season 2 had its good moments, it had all of the same problems that Season 1 did and handled it worse. While by the end of the season the story did manage to get back on track, the first half of this season was very hard to watch with the episodes being hit or miss between actually advancing the story or them being a complete cringe fest brought on by Kazuya being Kazuya. Towards the middle things started improving but the first half of Season 2 was an absolute wreck to watch.
So how does Season 3 hold up? Honestly, surprisingly well. While I don't know if I would rank it higher than Season 1, it was a definite improvement over Season 2. I didn't even go in with high expectations into watching this season, so it's always nice to be surprised!
What I believe this sets this season apart from its predecessors is that we actually got to see some quality character development (and improvement) from Kazuya. While he still has his flaws and moments of cringe, they weren't as many when you compare it to the last two seasons. As a matter of fact, there's a few times this season that I actually applauded him for pulling some good, even Chad-like moves. One example that comes to mind is when Chizuru's Grandmother is about to pass on and Kazuya barges in and plays the full movie for Chizuru's Grandmother to see, thereby fulfilling Chizuru's wish of having her Grandmother seeing her on the big screen (even if it wasn't quite that, it was honestly a heartwarming moment and the definite highlight of the whole season).
There's multiple times that he powers through his moments of self-doubt and social awkwardness and is able to move forward by helping Chizuru achieve her dream and helping her through a rather tumultuous period of her life. Additionally, we get to see Chizuru grappling with her feelings for Kazuya. While she assures the other characters such as Ruka, Kazuya himself and a new member of the cast: Mini, that her feelings for purely platonic and professional, in her private moments we can tell she seems genuinely conflicted about how she feels. She's even still emotional about the prospect of ending their "rental agreement" and telling Chizuru's Grandmother the truth right before she passes, but ultimately elect not to (though she does admit the truth to her now deceased Grandparents at the funeral but her Grandmother died seemingly believing that they were together, though there's some inkling that she may have known the truth but wouldn't have really cared either way in their final moment together). I would say Chizuru is in denial about how she truly feels about Kazuya as she tries her hardest to keep things on task by making the movie. Which would also help explain why she seems blind to the obvious signs that Kazuya likes her. Though considering Chizuru's Grandmother dies towards the latter half of Season 3, it might take for her to fully sort her emotions. Still, Mini catches on pretty quickly about their mutual feelings and Ruka obviously suspects it, so I do feel like this season really moved the Kazuya-Chizuru train along and hopefully brings us closer to them actually becoming an official couple. Additionally, if you take a step back and look at the whole story, you can see how Chizuru has clearly warmed up to Kazuya and how she acts around them. I'd say you can call them genuine friends by the time the season ends, which just goes to show just how far their relationship has come.
The story for this season was well written and had solid execution. There was a central plot in which Kazuya was helping Chizuru make her movie and all the work that goes into that. It was genuinely fun to see it all come together, though one thing I personally would've loved to seen was more of the recording phase of movie making. After the movie is finished and Chizuru's Grandmother passes, the story shifts towards Kazuya trying to help a grieving Chizuru through the pain of losing her last family member, though she puts on a brave face and says she's fine, save for firework scene in Episode 11/12 where she drops the persona for a moment, which was for sure a heavily emotional scene to watch. At least looking at all 3 seasons of the show, I would say Season 3 handled its story the best, though Season 1 made its story more comical and enjoyable while Season 2 really struggled until the end when it coincidentally introduced the plot for Season 3. It was a more serious story than that of the last 2 seasons, and while it continued some of the flaws that have been present in the show, it generally handled things well. Though with how Season 3 ends, it doesn't offer a clear direction for what would be in store for Season 4 (assuming they do it which I believe they will), but I believe it'll probably deal with Chizuru dealing with her emotions and settling on how she truly feels about Chizuru. So we may see a return to the overly-dramatic and endearing at times moments that plagued Season 2, but we'll see how it goes.
On the production side of things, Season 3 was just as good as the other seasons. The animation, art style, voice acting and music all stayed consistently good. The season's intro, Renai Miri Film, was a good and enjoyable song to listen to and reminded me of the first season intro in some ways. I'd probably rank this above the Season 2 intro but below the Season 1 intro. Additionally, the visuals for pretty fitting for the season by making it all "movie-themed". I do think the last 10 seconds of the intro were pretty interesting from a story perspective: Kazuya helps Chizuru up from sitting down, but grabs her by the wrist, as the shot pans out of them staring at a heart made of these twisted iron (or metal, who really knows?) bars. It's certainly symbolism, and if I had to take a shot at it, it would probably be Kazuya putting aside his more lustful thoughts to genuinely help Chizuru through her struggles as they stare at what's looming question for both of them: do they love each other? It's a question they can't run forever from. The Outro song, End Roll, wasn't anything super special but it was a nice song to listen to. The visuals for it are largely a recap of moments from Chizuru throughout the anime (which is on brand considering how much of a focus she is this season in particular). The last 10 seconds are so her and Kazuya sharing a moment on their respective balconies which was funny and wholesome. Interestingly, there was also a ballad version of the outro song that played at the end of episodes 8-9 as it was clear that Chizuru's Grandmother's death was upon us. It was a perfect fit that captured the mood of the story and it was sad but beautiful song to listen to.
There's really not a whole lot to criticize this season over, but there's two things I believe are worth bringing up and it's more of a criticism of the overarching story rather than the season as a whole.
First thing, they really need to stop this whole farce of a relationship between Kazuya and Ruka. It's just getting sad to watch at this point. At first, I genuinely felt sorry for Ruka and thought Kazuya was being extremely disingenuous by putting up with this "trial relationship" that's gone on for who knows how long by the story at this point, but now I really don't feel sorry for Ruka. Just about everyone can see that Kazuya is not into Ruka and the only person trying at this point is her. While I can understand and respect that Kazuya doesn't want to hurt Ruka's feelings by ending things with her, if he's going to actually get with Chizuru, he's going to have to "break up" with her. Personally, it's just better to get it over with now rather than dragging it on. Maybe they'll end it in Season 4, but they've kept it up this long without any signs of resolution....
Secondly, I'm baffled by the lack of screentime Mami has. Other than appearing in the intro and a few cameo appearances in thought bubbles, we literally don't see her until the last scene when Kibe meets up with her and Kazuya's Grandmother for some reason. That scene left me with more questions about what's going on with her, and more importantly, why are those characters together? Considering Mami has been consistently billed as one of the major characters in each season, we've seen by far the least from her and know next to nothing about her. I would hope that Season 4 gives her screentime so we can finally understand why she decided to dump Kazuya, but it's starting to look like more wishful thinking on my part at this point considering I said the same thing back in my Season 2 review. So I don't know if she's just a sidelines character or what, but they haven't handled her character very well at all (well, they haven't done anything with her!)
On the other hand, I was glad that Sumi had some more screentime and she consistently delivered powerful moments in throughout her appearances from helping Kazuya to the fliers, to giving him advice on how to help Chizuru. She's always a sweet, shy little bundle of joy and anytime she was on screen, I knew things were going to be great in the episode! The season also did a great job with Chizuru in showing her struggles throughout the season of trying to get the movie done in time to dealing with the loss of her Grandmother and dealing with her emotions to Kazuya. She's by far the best written character in the season, and they've done a good job layering her.
Also to weigh in on the new character: Mini. I'll be honest when I first saw her character in the trailer I was thinking: "Good God, the last thing this anime needs is another rental girlfriend". Suffice to say I was wrong and I'm glad I was. While Mini does oddly view Kazuya as her "master" for some reason (despite her giving him all the advice on what to do?), I actually liked her character. Yes, she's quirky and is probably the first real "zoomer" anime character I've come across and I had to put up with the cringe that came with all that, I believe the point of her character is to drive Kazuya and Chizuru together. She's the third party that was needed to bring them closer together, and for the most part her schemes in this season were successful. Now she has yet to seal the deal but I think that if Kazuya and Chizuru do end up getting together like I expect them to, it'll largely be because of Mini's efforts. I hope that she doesn't fall in love with Kazuya by accident or something because that would add another layer of drama that this anime quite frankly doesn't need. But throughout their interactions I didn't sense anything like that between them. I do have high hopes for Mini's character and I think she's a fresh breath of air into this anime which was starting to grow stale from the merry-go-round of Kazuya simping for Chizuru.
I believe that Season 3 was solid and largely on par with Season 1, which for me represents an improvement from Season 2. It offered the most character development we've seen yet and a more centralized story with some great moments from Kazuya, Chizuru and Sumi that made this season surprisingly emotionally-charged, but a well-done. The addition of Mini's character freshens the story and hopefully drives things to a conclusion. There's still plenty of story left to be told for Rent A Girlfriend, and I hope in the next season it continues to move forward rather than taking a step back.
