Kanojo, Okarishimasu

Kazuya Kinoshita is a 20-year-old college student who has a wonderful girlfriend: the bright and sunny Mami Nanami. But suddenly, he doesn't. Without warning, Mami breaks up with him, leaving him utterly heartbroken and lonely. Seeking to soothe the pain, he hires a rental girlfriend through an online app. His partner is Chizuru Mizuhara, who through her unparalleled beauty and cute demeanor, manages to gain Kazuya's affection.

But after reading similar experiences other customers had had with Chizuru, Kazuya believes her warm smile and caring personality were all just an act to toy with his heart, and he rates her poorly. Aggravated, Chizuru lambastes him for his shameless hypocrisy, revealing her true pert and hot-tempered self. This one-sided exchange is cut short, however, when Kazuya finds out that his grandmother has collapsed.

They dash toward the hospital and find Kazuya's grandmother already in good condition. Baffled by Chizuru's presence, she asks who this girl might be. On impulse, Kazuya promptly declares that they are lovers, forcing Chizuru to play the part. But with Kazuya still hung up on his previous relationship with Mami, how long can this difficult client and reluctant rental girlfriend keep up their act?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ichinose, Chizuru Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Kinoshita, Kazuya Main

Horie, Shun Japanese

Sakurasawa, Sumi Supporting

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Sarashina, Ruka Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Nanami, Mami Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Kibe, Yoshiaki Supporting

Akasaka, Masayuki Japanese

Kinoshita, Nagomi Supporting

Nozawa, Yukari Japanese

Ichinose, Sayuri Supporting

Sadaoka, Sayuri Japanese

Flea Market Saleswoman Supporting

Kowaka, Wakana Japanese

Kuribayashi, Shun Supporting

Kajiwara, Gakuto Japanese

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Simone, Jamie Producer

Matsuzaki, Yoshiyuki Producer

Terao, Yuri Producer

Reviews

Feb 19, 2025

patitopatito

Recommended

Focusing on the most common criticisms, I can say that Kazuya is a good character within his own context. He's a jerk with no idea about love or women, which isn't unusual considering that in Japan and other places this topic isn't dealt with clearly, leading to many misconceptions about what "love" means to him. However, he has done very significant things throughout the series and, although he doesn't always realize the impact of his actions, he is doing so in small steps.

The series is full of coincidence after coincidence that generate unexpected scenes and awkward moments, but they are funny and enjoyable (even the ... biggest haters will have enjoyed the cringe he gives in many scenes), and the animation manages to enhance these moments. The characters, in general, are quite good and you could even say that they represent different important aspects in Kazuya's life. However, my biggest problem, and something I can't really defend, is that the story moves too slowly. I don't want to spoil, but the development that one would expect simply doesn't come in the time it should. This is especially felt in the last few episodes, where the events don't quite meet my expectations. I wish the other characters were explored more, and not just Mizuhara. Seriously, the biggest challenge you're going to have watching this series is figuring out if what Mizuhara says is something she really feels or if she's just doing it for her job and to keep the secret. SPOILER: In fact, a truly important and personal scene that reflects her aspirations only appears in the last episode of season 2.

Despite everything, even though the series didn't give me exactly what I wanted, I grew very fond of its positive aspects and I hope that what really brings me peace when watching it won't be lost in the future. I had a good time, and both the opening and the ending are a 10 out of 10.

Lastly, I don't want my opinion to be taken seriously. I believe that anyone can like anything depending on their own tastes, so if it catches your attention, give it a chance and decide for yourself.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 14, 2025

Neimaj

Mixed Feelings

What a goofy little, lovey dovey romcom to review just in time for Valentine's Day. Half a decade after everyone stopped caring about it. Oh boy. In my mind, I made a promise to myself that I would lean more towards positivity in my reviews this year. For this, I just wanted to throw my thoughts and opinions out into the ether. I'm torn on Rent-A-Girlfriend. I vaguely remember the negativity surrounding this anime during 2020. Anime fans have the tendency to either harshly judge an anime that doesn't fully deserve it, or overpraise it to high heaven. Reading reviews now, it seems more divisive ... than anything. Just a wide range of opinions that are slightly leaning towards terrible. I probably consider myself to be in the middle. However, as I'm writing this review, I am a few episodes into season two, and my overall score for this show is dropping fast. Things are going downhill pretty quick, but I will try my best to only speak about the events of season one. I was in the mood to watch a show like this. So I brought this upon myself.

Kazuya Kinoshita is a twenty year old college student who was recently dumped by his girlfriend, Mami. Despite only dating for roughly a month, this shatters Kazuya's heart. Young love, I guess? Shortly after this, Kazuya finds an interesting app called Rent-A-Girlfriend, and it's exactly what it sounds like. You rent a girl to go out with you so you can mitigate the emotional pain. Out of desperation and loneliness, Kazuya does it. He's gonna Electric Wind God Fist the hell outta this woman. Enter Chizuru Mizuhara. She's essentially the perfect girlfriend and my personal favorite girl in the show. You could argue she's the only good one, but we'll get into that later. She works for the agency that runs the app. At some point, Kazuya realizes how emotionally manipulative the Rent-A-Girlfriend app is and takes his aggression out on Chizuru. Chizuru blows up on the guy even harder, and at this moment, the anime introduces a common trend throughout the rest of the show. Well, not a trend, but the idea that Chizuru is acting. Because of course she is! She's putting up a front to seem like the perfect girlfriend. She does it for her job, duh! One thing leads to another, with Kazuya introducing his fake girlfriend to his family. The only noteworthy reaction was probably from his grandmother, who immediately takes a liking to Chizuru. Kazuya is such a loser that the idea of having a girlfriend moves his grandmother to tears. And what a little cowinkidink! Chizuru's grandmother goes to the same exact hospital and is good friends with Kazuya's grandmother. WOW! Long story short, Kazuya and Chizuru must put on this charade of acting like boyfriend and girlfriend, because it'll might make both of their grandmothers upset? I'm adding a question mark to that because it's pretty stupid and baffling as I'm saying it out loud. Especially with how long and drawn out the lie is. It's really exhausting to watch after a while. I'm trying my best not to speak in hindsight after watching part of season two.

Let's get this out of the way first and foremost. This show is not good. There. I said it. Although, it is engaging. Orginally, I was going to refer to Rent-A-Girlfriend as a guilty pleasure anime. Then quickly remembered that guilty pleasures shouldn't exist in the first place. No one should ever have to feel shameful or guilty for enjoying something. It also doesn't concisely describe my overall feelings towards the show. A 5 out of 10 is not a good score. It's mixed feelings. And it's sad, because I legitimately enjoyed the first five episodes of Rent-A-Girlfriend. Everything after a certain major event in episode five feels redundant and annoying. The show just becomes an ordinary, dime a dozen, generic, romcom anime. I've seen them all, okay!? The only difference here is that Rent-A-Girlfriend has the gall to introduce four girls to it's non-harem, and three quarters of it is just flat out bad. Okay, maybe not that last girl. She just doesn't seem cut out for her own job, and she's in a total of two episodes. Maybe three. And yes, I called it a "non-harem." I don't view Rent-A-Girlfriend as a harem anime, even though it's disguised as one.
The first girl introduced is Mami Nanami. A complete and utter sociopath. It's a real shame too, because I think Mami is really cute with an adorble character design. She's just horribly two-faced and actively tries to sabotage Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship. Now, admittedly, Mami kind of being an agent of chaos was entertaining to watch for a while. However, she's not a good person, and this is a major plot point. Kazuya, for whatever reason, what's to hook back up with Mami!? Despite Mami being a morally dubious person, and never treating Kazuya with respect! What!? Even by the end of season one, I still didn't fully understand why Kazuya wanted to patch things up with her. And he thought the Rent-A-Girlfriend app was emotionally manipulative. Mami is far worse and just so nosey. I guess you can say that Mami is the antagonist of Rent-A-Girlfriend.

You wanna know who else is just as bad, if not worse? Ruka Sarashina. The next girl who is introduced. It's strange because when she's first introduced, she's seemingly a nice, normal, inconspicuous girl. Then later on, it's revealed that Ruka is also working as a rental girlfriend just like Chizuru. Ruka is my least favorite character in Rent-A-Girlfriend. She uses a heart monitor to scout out her ideal boyfriend. I believe her criteria is at least 90 BPM. I can't quite remember. Kazuya is able to make Ruka's heart race like crazy. Mazel Tov! Immediately after this, she becomes obsessed with Kazuya to a frustratingly annoying degree. Constantly shoving her way into the plot and his face. She insist that she's Kazuya's girlfriend, when the only reason why he chose to date her, was out of pity and through Chizuru's suggestion. She's also a saboteur similarly to Mami. Ruka's antics only get worse as the series goes on. She's awful.

Finally, Sumi Sakurasawa, the last girl introduced in this season. I was alluding to her earlier in the review. She isn't a bad girl at all. She's actually quite sweet. I love how we get a brief peek into Sumi's daily routine, and surprise surprise, she's also a rental girlfriend. She views Chizuru as a role model and someone to look up to. Despite the two being very close in age. Chizuru has been far more successful in the rental girlfriend business compared the Sumi. At some point, Chizuru asks Kazuya to go on a date with Sumi. Sumi is extremely shy and she doesn't like to speak much. Because of that, she's been getting a lot of negative reviews on her dates. Kazuya is the only guy Chizuru trusts with Sumi, because she believes that Kazuya can help Sumi come out of her shell and interact more. Sumi is not a bad girl, I just don't think she's very well suited for her job.

Explaining the rationale behind these characters and the show itself gives a headache, but I need to dump these thoughts somewhere. The main plot of Rent-A-Girlfriend is for Kazuya and Chizuru to pretend to be a serious couple for the sake of their grandmothers' happiness. IT'S THE LYING THAT KILLS ME. The lie goes on for so long, evolving into this needlessly convoluted mess. The incessant bluffing from these two is another thing I find irritating. Kazuya and Chizuru are always planning to tell everyone that they broke up, and will never be seeing each other again. It never happens. They just never go through with it, or there's some sort of interruption. Another thing that's so strange is that Mami and Ruka easily have the power to ruin their relationship. Ruka is in an even greater position to do so. And they just never do it because there would be no story. Fine. Okay. Sure. Cool. Whatever. Even the ending of this season was bad. Episode twelve reverts all of the "PROGRESS" between Kazuya and Chizuru back to zero. That ending scene was pretty bad, not gonna lie. And yet, in spite of all of that, I still can't hate all of it. Like I said earlier, I genuinely enjoyed the first five episodes of Rent-A-Girlfriend. There were no glaring issues that I had with it. Mami was genuinely entertaining to watch in those early episodes. She was like a devil trying to tempt Kazuya at certain points. Like some sort of devil gene, I don't freaking know! At that point, I wasn't even sick of these characters just yet. I didn't even mention Kazuya's stupid friends, Kibe and Kuri! On the surface, Kibe and Kuri seem pretty shallow in terms of personality and character. However, they truly do care for Kazuya and want what's best for him. Hell, Kibe even calls out Mami for being an asshole and has a meaningful conversation with Chizuru. Probably my favorite scene in the show, a heartfelt moment that I really liked. All of episode five is great, too! There's a good amount of positivity in this season worth mentioning, and I feel somewhat obligated to defend it. Although! The exact moment where things started to get rocky was when Ruka was introduced, and I already explained why that was a problem. The second-half of this season was rough. So as a whole, I'm split on Rent-A-Girlfriend. The show starts off as a strong 6, then fizzles into a 5, by the end. Straight down the middle. It's passable yet frustrating. I don't have a strong desire to speak about the production values of Rent-A-Girlfriend. Visually speaking, everything is fine. Nothing stands out in any way. This looks like your run-of-the-mill modern anime. Same goes for the music; nothing of note. Not really what I wanted to touch upon in this review. I just wanted to ramble about the silly writing choices and the story. Orginally, I had plans to review season two and season three after this. Uhhh, that ain't happening anymore. I can defend some of season one, and that's it. 5 out of 10.

By the way, here's my ranking of the girls. I had to do it.

1.) Chizuru (Best <3)
2.) Sumi
3.) Mami
4.) Ruka

Also I've read chapter 218 of the manga. It essentially cemented my current feelings with the series. Pathetic...

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 8, 2025

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

I mean... it's Rent-a-Girlfriend. You probably already know what you're getting yourself into.

If you don't, I'll briefly explain why it's not really all that noteworthy.

People who are calling it CRINGE and THE WORST ROMANCE ANIME OF ALL TIME or whatever are kind of overexaggerating but it's a show where, for me, one girl is a clear winner (in my eyes... also in the anime itself but that's besides the point) and the rest are kinda bleh.

The male cast kinda sucks. Kazuya is a big, stinky loser who is the choosiest of beggars. He's supposed to be this big loser that cannot ~acquire female companionship~ and ... after losing his one opportunity, he rents a girlfriend (he did the thing! He Rented-a-Girlfriend!) and blah blah blah now God and everyone thinks Chizuru is his girlfriend, right

And Chizuru's like "okay, I'll just help you until you find a girlfriend"

And around episode 7, he finds a girl who is just desperate, pleading, BEGGING for a morsel of his attention... and then he just goes "yeah, but I don't like her"

And, like, bro, you're a loser.

You just had your first girlfriend (of a month) ever break up with you and you are renting girlfriends out of desperation and a girl asks you out and you're like "hmm... no, I don't care for it"

She is publicly acknowledged, by Kazuya himself, to be a hottie on the level of the girl he actually wants, so it's not like she's ugly. She's just slightly too possessive. But, like, he even says "shouldn't a guy like a possessive girl?"

It's not like she's a yandere and going around trying to stab people (which would still be based and it would be cringe of Kazuya to deny her), she just wants him to like her social media posts and not ignore her text messages.

Oh no.

The horror.

We see him peeling the banana multiple times and he just is thinking with the wrong head a lot. Like, one of the other girls starts licking some ice cream and he imagines her French kissing him and bro, my guy, LOCK IN

One of the other friends also tries to rent a girlfriend and as soon as Kazuya tries to make something up for him, he rubs it all over Kazuya's face.

I guess the guy who physically assaulted Kazuya was okay?

But let me put it this way, I never questioned why these guys were hanging with Kazuya. Birds of a feather and all that.

But who cares about the male cast in a harem show, how are the girls?

Let's talk about Chizuru first. Clearly the main girl, clearly the author's favorite. Idk, I guess I didn't hate her but other than her design, I don't see the vision. It's kind of like Kirino from Oreimo where I understand why she's being a tsundere bitch to the MC (not to mention Kazuya's a way bigger loser than Kyousuke, especially if you aren't taking Kyousuke's... choice of waifu into consideration) but unlike Kirino, idk, I never really found a reason to like her either.

If you don't like tsunderes, you probably won't care for Chizuru.

That does bring me to another big problem I have with this series, The Lie. Throughout the season, the lie that Kazuya and Chizuru are dating snowballs to where everyone at one point thinks they are dating for real and it's just exhausting to watch rather than funny or cute. It feels more like a forced way to keep Kazuya and Chizuru interacting than anything, which isn't fun to watch.

Next, Mami! I... I also didn't hate her. She was fine. I did not care for her one way or the other, she kind of gets replaced as the "antagonist" of the season for a few episodes and she was already kind of cold for me by that point and by the time she comes back, she's kinda ice cold. She never really presents a serious threat to Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship and the one time she might have, An Event happens and she just kind of pouts and that takes care of that, I guess?

By character introduction order (I guess Mami'd be first anyway), someone else should be next but let me get the last girl out of the way first. Sumi... I literally could not care less. I know I was also cold on Chizuru and Mami but Sumi is just "moe" dandere fluff to me. Chizuru and Mami are nothing but Sumi is AGGRESSIVELY nothing.

Let's talk about the one good character in the show, Ruka!

She's introduced in kind of an antagonistic way but thanks to ~reasons~ (another one of my big issues, let me put a pin in this for a second), she falls in actual love with Kazuya.

Ruka does not fuck around. The only reason Kazuya isn't interested in her is because the marriage would already be consummated by episode 12 if Ruka had her way. It's kind of frustrating to see Kazuya reject her when she is a girlfriend who is willing to be the girlfriend he wants but she can't be the girlfriend he wants because Kazuya doesn't want her because the story demands to go on.

She'll go out of her way to tell Kazuya's family that they're dating, she is willing to cut the crap and she's willing and she's attentive. She has a sort of energy and willingness to be the clingy, possessive, bratty member of the cast and it makes her interesting to watch for me.

I'll admit this is my personal taste climbing in and if you don't like girls like that, you'll probably find Ruka annoying, but Ruka adds at least one point to the score alone, probably more.

However, one thing bothers me about her

Kazuya ends up making both Chizuru and Ruka fall for him by saving them from falling.

Kazuya doesn't attract any of these girls (except arguably Sumi?) through, like, being a nice guy

I know it's a harem and they hardly have the best reasons to date in the best case scenarios but Kazuya seems particularly lame in comparison.

The show looks decent enough, I like the little crayon sketch or whatever you'd call that fuzz on certain objects.

The OP is really good, way better than the other Peggies OP I've heard (although I have to admit Bunny Girl Senpai has a catchy OP, even if I don't particularly like it)

It's just not a particularly good show.

It's not even particularly noteworthy in how bad it is, despite its relative infamy. 3 of the 4 girls aren't very interesting and Kazuya, while bad and a loser, it's not really aggravating enough to be annoying, he's just an unpleasant protagonist.

Even if you like tsunderes or danderes and Chizuru or Sumi do it for you, unless you like all 3 a lot or something, I don't really see why you'd continue watching this, even to hate-watch it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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