English Dub Season Review: Rent-a-Girlfriend Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Rent-a-Girlfriend is a modern romance anime with a fake dating twist. The story follows a guy who’s just been dumped by his girlfriend, Kinoshita Kazuya. During his emotional distress he decides to rent a girlfriend to overcome the loneliness of the break up. He meets Mizuhara Chizuru, a rental girlfriend who appears to be perfect. However things get complicated and they end up in a fake relationship because of their grandmas.

There’s also his friends who run into the two on a “date” and Nanami Mami, Kazuya’s ex-girlfriend which causes the two to continue fake dating for a while. After that there’s Sarashina Ruka, a former rental girlfriend who’s set on dating Kazuya for certain reasons and Sakurasawa Sumi, a shy rental girlfriend in need of practice to get out of her shell. In the madness of his love life Kazuya realizes that he has feelings for Chizuru who has her own goal that she’s accomplishing with the rental girlfriend business. However it’s hard for him to confess because he doesn’t feel worthy of her.

Our Take:

This anime is a decent romance with multiple factors to add on to the fun. The animations from TMS Entertainment are great and offer a lot of depth to the scenes like in the beginning with Kazuya in his apartment heartbroken over his breakup. Admittedly there’s a lot of romantic implications in some scenes that can give mixed signals on whether or not the girl likes Kazuya in that romantic manner. The soundtrack is nice, I liked the one when Chizuru gets into her girlfriend mode. The voice acting was also great and fit in well with the characters and their personalities.

Now the anime has fake dating and the classic trope of being next door neighbors with Kazuya and Chizuru. It has a small harem, but I’m reluctant to label it that. Some of the girls don’t appear to have a definite romantic interest in him or are introduced late into the anime to solidify their position as a romantic choice. However there are minor scenes where it appears that the girls are starting to feel a romantic interest towards Kazuya. This anime shows both the positive and negative sides in relationships with some of the character’s actions. It has moments that are relatable like trying to be a better adult and overcoming loneliness with some companionship. The emotional moments in the beginning can resonate with anyone who dealt with a breakup. Also there’s a few conflicts both internal and external for Kazuya, often because of him and his attempts to keep the fake dating a secret from his friends and grandma.

Speaking of Kazuya, he’s a guy so there’s going to be some naughty thoughts. He’s got some low self esteem and knows that he’s pathetic in the eyes of his friends and family. However there are times where he can be decisive and confident. Throughout the anime, Kazuya repeatedly backslides from a majority of his decisions and that can take a toll on the overall enjoyment of the anime. Thankfully the anime doesn’t always stick to Kazuya, but some scenes feel like the audience has to stick to Kazuya just to find out something important. For example, the Christmas episode where Kazuya follows Chizuru on what appears to be a date due to his overthinking thoughts. In that episode we get to learn more about Chizuru’s goal and her reasons for becoming a rental girlfriend. Her goal was nice to learn about, but the journey there was painful to watch personally. At any rate Kazuya can be embarrassing to watch, but he does try to change himself into a more confident adult little by little.

Each of the girls from the title have their own goals and personalities. Mizuhara Chizuru also known as Ichinose Chizuru gets dragged into some of Kazuya’s problems. However, she agrees to help him nevertheless because she understands that at heart Kazuya is a guy with a good heart. Then there’s Mami and while she appears to be nice there’s glimpses that show her manipulative personality. She definitely causes a problem when she’s on screen. Next there’s Ruka, a former rental girlfriend with a heart condition. She’s persistent in her goal, but she does know when to back off with her attempts. Lastly there’s Sumi, Chizuru’s rental girlfriend coworker who is extremely shy. However she’s introduced in one episode and it could be likely that she’ll have more screen time in the next season. Now while there hasn’t been enough episodes to really judge if they all have feelings for Kazuya, they are leaning towards that romantic part of the anime.

There’s also the minor characters like Kibe and Kuri, Kazuya’s friends that have an impact on the story. Take Kibe who called Kazuya out on his behavior during their trip to the beach till the point of getting into a fist fight. Then there’s Kuri who also rented a rental girlfriend and how Kazuya decides to tell him his secret with Chizuru to cheer Kuri up. Kazuya’s grandma is a fun grandma and the episodes that she’s in are very entertaining with how she interacts with Kazuya and Chizuru. Additionally she does have emotional conversations occasionally that help her listener in some way.

Overall, the pacing in the anime could use a bit more work with how some plot threads are dropped or not even addressed. For example the anime doesn’t explain Ruka’s heart condition in the story, instead just reveals it in an ending. There’s also how the anime stays on Kazuya’s perspective a bit too much when it’s shown that it can stray from Kazuya like with Sumi’s introduction. Furthermore the anime ends on a cliffhanger which is deeply unsatisfying and frustrating to see Kazuya try and reverse what he said to Chizuru. The only solace for viewers from that ending is that there’s a second season in the works. Rent-a-Girlfriend can be frustrating and embarrassing, but it does have emotional moments.