Does this show deserve hate due to MC?

Zarator said:


You know, in real life women don't fall in love with you just because you save their life and/or act like a barely decent human being-err, I mean, "being kind".

Or, to put it in other terms, the character himself is "realistic". The way other chars around him act (especially the girls) is... not.

Hrybami said:

I agree the girls are idealized a bit too much. I was mostly talking about the MC obviously.

Hrybami said:
I find this funny how people say the characters are unrealistic and garbage. Have they even seen real people? These characters aren't that bad compared to what happens in real life. And obviously by hearing the inner thoughts of the MC we could picture him as an assholes, though in his behavior he's not so bad. I'm sure by knowing everyone's inner thoughts they would seem more evil than what they seem from the outside.

The problem with this anime is not the lack of realism. This anime is too realistic it hits us too close on our past experiences.

Andiuxy said:
No, people just live in a SJW bubble, while the anime depicts something that ACTUALLY exist IRL.

Yeah MC is a piece of shit, but the show would not work if you had your perfect ikemen lol, people don't make sense haha.

Zarator said:


This line would bear more weight if people weren't capable of providing examples of MCs that are a-holes or rude (btw Kazuya isn't exactly an a-hole or rude to begin with so I'm not sure where this comparison comes from) which are still better or preferable to Kazuya.

Unless, that is, you basically want to default to "it's just not YOUR anime" for any kind of criticism of what you like.

Kippix said:

What i don't understand is why some people spend so many posts to write continuously about something that they dislike. Because from all the post in this section i read from you it's just constant opposition to every positive thing one's type about this anime.

Zarator said:


Well, if I already agree with a person, I generally don't feel a need to post because what needed to be said was already said by somebody else - at most I'll just click a "Like" button if it's there. On the other hand, if a person says something I disagree with or if I feel like a certain view is missing in a discussion, I'll post up if I have the time and will to do so. I don't see what about it can come as a surprise to anyone.

I'm not rly sure why you would come to a thread like this to begin with, without expecting at least some people to hold a view unlike your own, and/or a view critical of the source in question.

skyUFO said:
This Guy Has FISH!!

Zarator said:

I dunno what your meter for what a "good score" is, but 7 is still a good score - and, frankly, a LOT more than I'd give this show. It does sadden me that there're so many actually good shows with less than a 7/10 MAL average while this sits at 7.22. But then again not every show has the luck of receiving free 8s, 9s and 10s from ppl who have hardly watched any good anime in their life.

skyUFO said:

Humans aren't and can't be all capable beings, Kazuya put his skill points into the aquarium while others put them into social skills, by his age he just doesn't have enough life experience to put a lot of skill points into both. Once you actually understand this, Kazuya is extremely relatable and a very well built main character at least in my eyes.

skyUFO said:
I just came upon this forum post, I checked about half the comments here and honestly, do you guys understand what's going on with the main character at all?

As other said, our main character is at a somewhat difficult age, yes. He did not experience any relationships during high school and is currently suffering due to that, since he lacks that kind of social experience.

Normally there is no way a guy like this is not popular, or hasn't had any experience with girls by the time he's the age he is now. He's caring, actually rather outgoing and very kind.
The show has given us hints since episode 1 on why he sucks so much in relationships and girls though...

Back during date 1 with Chizuru, we saw how knowledgeable Kazuya was about aquariums. The dude f**king LOVES AQUARIUMS.
Here is a picture of Kazuya's house from this week's episode.

The dude has TWO AQUARIUMS. And several times we've seen what's in at least one of those right? That's no Neontetra or other super common easy to raise fish there. No no NO! That's a スネークヘッド / Snake Head. No everyday aquarium owner has there no, this is some real maniac level stuff only hardcore aquarium lovers would ever have. Kazuya probably spent his whole high school time so obsessed with his aquarium hobby that he simply didn't get to have relationships with girls or nevertheless outing like he's been doing in university now.

Humans aren't and can't be all capable beings, Kazuya put his skill points into the aquarium while others put them into social skills, by his age he just doesn't have enough life experience to put a lot of skill points into both. Once you actually understand this, Kazuya is extremely relatable and a very well built main character at least in my eyes.

Andiuxy said:
No, people just live in a SJW bubble, while the anime depicts something that ACTUALLY exist IRL.

Yeah MC is a piece of shit, but the show would not work if you had your perfect ikemen lol, people don't make sense haha.

Better go watch your Brainless Shounen with worst character development lol.

CesarMagnan said:
I mean the show could be about those 4 girls (well 3 one of them doesnt rent herself right?) and how they do their job about being a Rent Girlfriend with different types of clients alongside their normal lives, without having a MC.

Even adding more girls this way would make more sense rather than trying to relate their stories to this MC.

Hectotane said:


In all honesty; getting dumped and having to deal with your personal devastation moment is that "elephant in the room" that needed to be addressed much sooner than later.

Let's not forget that Kazuya's still popular as an anime character. And there's a reason why blue-balling dumpster fires like Rent-A-GF, Hajimete no Gal, B-Gata H Kei, on down are popular. Japan is a pressure cooker of sexual repression. So yeah.

CesarMagnan said:

I mean the protagonists of those shows are not the popular ones, the waifus are popular, also there are shows like Getsuyoubi no Tawawa (not that great anime but also not that bad) that have male mc with no personality; or face, that are more relatable or at least they don't make me hate them.

Wait, B-Gata H Kei is not like those shows the MC is the girl trying to lose her virginity, also it doesn't try to be a harem and the girls have their own romantic stories with other guys.

Also for the animes that you mentioned to be honest it is better to wait for a compilation of fanservice rather than watch them, with the exemption of B-Gata H Kei it is actually funny.

Andiuxy said:
No, people just live in a SJW bubble, while the anime depicts something that ACTUALLY exist IRL.

Yeah MC is a piece of shit, but the show would not work if you had your perfect ikemen lol, people don't make sense haha.

Better go watch your Brainless Shounen with worst character development lol.

Hectotane said:

All the more reason why I'd watch H-anime. The /e/ animu that's mega-popular now can't even compete anymore. And I can understand that these H-companies are trying to get more work making /e/ anime. (As long as they're paying their animators more than slave-wages.) But still...

Whitre said:


The only thing real with this show is that guys at that age can actually be that horny and constantly cannot help themselves thinking with their dicks. Everything else are kinda meh... except maybe Mami because manipulative but innocent looking girl like her is actually pretty common in real life. If this is real life, MC would have close to no friends and no female friends, because if you are actually that cringy in real life people will just distance themselves from you. Girls won't even acknowledge you, if they don't already talk about how creepy you are behind your back to other people, and you are unlikely to have real guy friends who really give a damn about you.

Chizuru is unreal in the sense that if she is actually as caring as the show tries to portray her to be, I don't even think she would wanna be a rental girlfriend in the first place (she would probably work in a more traditional job). And even if she is a rental girlfriend by circumstances, the moment she realizes MC is a childish cringy creep, she would more than likely try to do everything in her power to distance herself from a guy like that. Keeping a guy like that around is literally asking for big troubles, especially given the nature of her job. There is no way she would want to be involve with a liar who constantly creates trouble for her and drags her into his mess of a life all because of his own childish irresponsibility... I mean no one does, but especially not for very attractive girls because they actually have tremendously better options in real life.

Girl 3 simply doesn't exists in real life, she is just a tropey harem girl, or at least that's how much the show itself has illustrated so far.

I mean, in the end, it doesn't matter too much since this is just an anime. Trying to find realism would be kinda silly. I simply don't agree that this show has any semblances to real life whatsoever, so I really doubt people hate this because it hits too close to home.

Which brings to my next point, which is that.. I think it's fair to hate this show because of MC, all because the crazy unbelievable stuff in this story actually happens because of MC. He is almost the sole reason anything happens at all in this show, and the entire show is about him and his cringy life of trying to simp for a girl out of his league by being a clingy creep with too much cash at hand.... I mean, if that's the premise of the show, then of course it's valid that people hate the show because of MC. IMHO, it's actually worse that some of the girls like Chizuru are likable, because you actually feel bad that they are constantly being used as a device and dragged into the pathetic-ness of MC and has no way out because that's the whole point of the show. At least, that's how my wife felt when she dropped the show almost immediately.

I am still watching because the cringe can be pretty funny and I just wanna see where the show actually tries to go (plus the VAs doing god's work as always). But yeah, I think a lot of the criticisms are still pretty valid.

Zarator said:


Yeah but I kinda think that's the crux of why the show sucks according to most ppl. I mean, as I said before, having flawed MCs is nothing new, and there're plenty of shows with such MCs that are actually praised for it.

The problem with Kanojo is that Kazuya's story in general seems less like a honest view at people who rent a girlfriend and more like your typical escapist romance - where the original premise is there mostly for marketing reasons and then the actual story is a vapid typical romcom where a dumb, "can't help it" guy gets around with girls because he's apparently "kind", even if he basically does nothing other than... existing, I guess? I mean, if Kazuya passes as "kind", then the majority of guys I know are kind too and I rly don't get what's so special about Kazuya in the first place. Either that, or Japan's a far worse place then I can believe :-)

In short, the MC might be realistic, but little to nothing about... everything else rly is. And mind you, I'm not asking a cynical, no-holds-barred view of the moral misery of renting girlfriends or w/e. It's perfectly possible to treat an argument with a touch of idealism in order to cut the harsher corners but still being overall faithful to reality - just look, say, at Welcome to the NHK. Kanojo, on the other hand, doesn't seem to care about any of that - it's just a cheap 3rd rate comedy that doesn't even try to be anything else other than what we've seen dozens of times.

Hrybami said:

What I find a bit unrealistic (or rather unbelievable, not entirely unrealistic) is how the guy is 21 years old and never had girlfriend before that day he was dating Mami and now suddenly every girls fall for him for little to no reason. If he was that kind all along, then I believe he would have easily gotten a girlfriend before, but no. This is weird.

There was someone who also told be it is unrealistic for a Chizuru to fall in love with Kazuya just because he saved her life. I can't remember who said that, but I just wanted to say that people can crush rather easily and it usually don't require much for someone to start getting interested in the person if there already is some chemistry. Kazuya and Chizuru already had chemistry while going out and doing some activies together, and even sleeping in the same room in a ryokan. If saving her wouldn't be enough to push their relationship forward, then I don't know what could.

Zarator said:


I get what you mean, but the "chemistry" between Chizuru and Kazuya was pretty unlikely to begin with - again and again it feels like she warms up to him for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and I seriously can't believe she never met a better "client" than him before, especially if she's been into this business as much as it's suggested in the show. Kazuya just isn't that special, period.

And the whole "saving girl" trope might be somewhat justifiable for Chizuru and Kazuya, but when the show pulls this shit again only 2 eps later with Ruka it does become hard to bear with.

Hrybami said:

While it's true Kazuya is nothing special, he doesn't actually need to be for being allowed to have a girlfriend. Some of my female friends are nice and sweet girls, but for some reason they only date assholes who don't treat her correctly. As for Chizuru, Kazuya is not so bad of a pick. He's pathetic, but he still have some qualities. Chizuru might have seen better clients for her, but it's not really how love works. You don't decide who you love or who love you. They wouldn't be close to be the weirdest couple I've seen to be honest.

Zarator said:


Tbh I've never met a person as socially inept as Kazuya who actually gets around this much with girls. As much as love is blind and all that, this entire story reeks of wish fulfillment on part of all the otakus in Japan who wish they just needed to be "kind" in order to be loved for what they are.

5olomon said:
My answer is NO.
MC is awesome and and beautiful. If not true, then why so popular??

DeepMind2038 said:
Maybe some people see too much of themselves in him and they don't like what they see.

Zarator said:
I keep hearing this whole "he's very kind" compliment thrown around, both here and in the show, but I'm just not seeing it. I dunno in what kind of world you live, but the "kindness" Kazuya shows is... pretty normal, to be honest. He doesn't really do anything special worth a note as in "wow, so many people wouldn't have been as caring as he was". He just feels like a relatively normal guy, with some serious social issues. Which I don't mind, per se, but I wish we could stop treating normal decency as if it was some kind of rare gift instead of something quite widespread among both genders.

Hrybami said:

Yes, most harem anime are wish fulfillment and this anime is striking hard in the societal problematic of Kazuya's generation. These college students are virgin and have trouble getting in relationships. They even rent fake girlfriend just to show how inapt they are at building relationship. This anime sends harsh political messages and this is a reason why opinions on this anime are that cleaved.

Armados said:

So yeah, this show deserves all the hate it gets, specifically because of how horrible of a character Kazuya is, and how every freaking character around him just keeps on giving him free passes.

Zarator said:


I think the latter part is key, here. For comparison, Tomoko Kuroki in Watamote was also a horrible person in many ways, but the show really gave her no free pass at all - if anything, she had it even worse than she deserved. That really helps making an otherwise awful character acceptable.

Kazuya, on the other hand, is a shallow person who only sees girls as sexy bodies - even this last episode pretty much confirmed it, both with him fapping to Mizuhara having a shower and his imagination during his chase of Mizuhara and her suspected boyfriend. Kazuya simply doesn't really have a reason for loving Mizuhara other than "she's hot" - or at least the show rly doesn't give us any reason to think otherwise. Hence the shallowness.

Yet, unlike Tomoko, Kazuya has it all in his way. What does he get for stalking a girl and act in an incredibly rude way? A present ofc, and the equivalent of a slap on the wrist. It's like Mizuhara isn't even slightly troubled by the fact this guy would stalk her the entire day. FFS, I'd feel troubled if my girlfriend stalked me like that, and Kazuya isn't even her boyfriend to begin with!