Rent-A-Girlfriend (彼女、お借りします) is a slice of life romance comedy based on the manga of the same name by Miyajima Reiji. The anime has so far had three seasons broadcast between the Summer of 2020 and the Summer of 2023 for a total of 36 episodes.
At a low point of depression following the sudden break up with his girlfriend, college freshman Kinoshita Kazuya decides to try out a rental dating service to take his mind off of things. The girl he ends up renting for an afternoon date is the beautiful and pleasant Mizuhara Chizuru. The situation becomes complicated when he drags her to visit his grandmother who was just admitted to the hospital. Kazuya is the sole heir to his families and his grandmother, being the strong matriarch that she is, wants nothing more than to see the future of her family secured after she is gone. Fearing that his grandmother is on her deathbed, he uses the timing to show her that he does indeed have a girlfriend and not to worry about him. The arrive to find that it was a minor incident and the old woman won't be dying any time soon. She however has taken a great liking to Chizuru and in conversation realizes that she is friends with her grandmother, who is also currently in the same hospital. Due to Kazuya's panic and knee-jerk reaction to the situation, Chizuru also has to lie to her grandmother about the nature of their relationship, too keep her work as a rental girlfriend secret.
What was only intended to be a one time thing to cheer him up during his heartbreak has now become a complicated recurring nightmare for Kazuya. He plans to tell his grandmother that he and Chizuru have broken up, but is unwilling to do it so soon. Instead he has to continue to rent her out on trips to the hospital to keep up appearances. Meanwhile he discovers that Chizuru, whose real last name is Ichinose, is also a student at his college and his next door neighbor. What is a man to do when the hole he keeps digging does nothing but go deeper and deeper with each lie. More and more people see the two of them together, causing the girlfriend lie to grow further, to help protect Chizuru's job secret. A college friend of Kazuya's even goes so far to present his own rental girlfriend as the real deal in a double date. The secret is threatened by the other girl, Sarashina Ruka, when she realizes the truth about Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship. They convince her to keep their secret but instead Ruka quits her work and forces Kazuya to start dating her for real. Chizuru, not actually in a relationship with him, thinks its a good idea and convinces him to do so, seeing the situation as an opportunity to put and end to their charade.
Kazuya doesn't actually have any interest in Ruka, going along with it partially due to Chizuru's insistence. He keeps trying to find a n end to his problem but recognizes that he has developed feelings for Chizaru. He knows its pointless, since she appears to have no feelings for him and is only around him due to the continued rental services. He knows she is bothered by his constant participation in her life. But he is determined to do what ever he can to see her dreams come true, even if its just as a friend. He learns that she started working as a rental girlfriend to earn money for acting school as well as give her opportunities to practice acting and performing. her life's goal is to be an actress in movies, so that her grandmother, who acted in her youth, can see her perform. As Chizuru's grandmothers health worsens will she be able to fulfill her dream and can Kazuya ever end the lie he has been spinning so wide all of this time?
Rent-A-Girlfriend has gained a rather notorious reputation and it's not undue. The entire plot of the show could easily have been completed in the very first episode. Instead the main character, who falls into the category of other personality devoid MC's continues to refuse to admit to his mistake, choosing the path of greatest resistance instead. The situations he finds himself in exist outside of the realms of reality, particularly all of the coincidences that tie he and Chizuru together. The fact that almost everyone is fooled by the two versions of her in the first season is equally as unlikely. She hides in plain sight in the same manner as Clark Kent does and everyone is fooled by it. Ruka as well is a less than believable character. Her entire conviction for falling for Kazuya is....strange to say the least. She suffers? from some heart condition that is more used as a plot device in the beginning than anything else. I mean, what kind of condition is having a low BPM really? She's drawn to him because he raises her heart rate to a normal level? Then there is a whole other group of throw away characters that serve momentary purposes with little meaning for the over all story. Coming and going as they please for a momentary distraction, offering little in the way of actual plot advancement.
Yet...I continued to watch the series all the way through. At first I wasn't sure why, perhaps due to the easy progress in downing one insipid episode after another over the course of a few days. But something changed in the second season, the story actually started to become interesting...well it had the potential to be interesting. I started to realize that Chizuru was a character that had depth and realism to her. Once the story starts to dig into her life and her circumstances it took on a different tone. It started to move away from ridiculous harem rom-com with all of the usual trappings, into a story about a woman who is struggling with her ambitions in the face of reality. I had an idea, a different way the story could be told that would make it a more interesting and less uncomfortable story. If the story would have been written from Chizuru's perspective, we would have a much more grounded narrative. Kazuya is throw away and pointless. Ruka only serves the roll of a convenient plot device when needed, being ignored the rest of the time...poor Ruka with her heart condition. Everyone else is significantly more disposable.
Forget Kazuya and his pointless background and future. It's understood that the series will likely end with he and Chizuru being honest about their feelings with each other and becoming a real couple, but there's not much worth in that predestined conclusion. What is interesting and engaging is Chizuru herself. She lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her grandparents. They were loving and genuine, her grandfather being a hopeless romantic and her grandmother being a kind realist. She learned that her grandmother has once been an actress, appearing in films. She had given up that ambition when she chose to start a family. Chizuru feels guilt for this and takes it upon herself to fulfill her grandmothers forsaken life, with her grandfathers support. Her desire is to make both of them happy, showing them a film with her as an actor, carrying on both of their dreams. Unfortunately her grandfather is killed in a car accident before she graduates high school. In college, with her sole ambition driving all of her decisions, she struggles with the fact that her grandmother will not be alive for long, leaving her to be all alone in the world. She desires nothing more than to achieve her goal for her grandmothers sake, since she was unable to do it for her grandfather. But...we only see her story from the perspective of our worthless MC, Kazuya... Side note....I didn't really notice it until season 3, but they are really inconsistent with the size of Chizuru's chest. And it goes with out saying, there is a lot of tepid fan service in this show.
The series is widely available in both dub and sub formats...if you feel like slogging through some crap to get to some interesting story. Not unlike Clannad.
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