Rent-A-Girlfriend

Episode 1-2

Going into this season, I put Rent-A-Girlfriend as my most anticipated new show of the summer. My reasoning was that the premise was poised for two major possibilities: it could either be a unique and interesting twist on RomCom anime with a bit of bite to spice up a formulaic setup, or it could be a contrived trainwreck that would at least be entertaining to watch burn. So far the jury's still out on which it is for me – there are some genuinely interesting ideas at play here and a surprising amount of characterization for our leads, but it all feels like it's walking a tight rope and one misjudged step could sent it toppling into an open dumpster.

Let's start with the premise – while it may seem a tad weird on the surface, “rental girlfriends” are indeed a real thing, and in fact there's quite a few similar services available in some cities in Japan. My favorite that I've seen so far is Ossan Rental where you have your pick of quality middle-aged men who will hang out with you, wait in line for you, or maybe help you lift some moderately heavy boxes. But this series is about renting women, specifically for male lead Kazuya to assuage his post-breakup misery by getting a “girlfriend experience” for a few hours. It's a subject with a lot of room for exploration, especially in regard to what might motivate either party to participate. Does the “girlfriend” get something out of the job besides presumably a decent paycheck? What kind of circumstances might lead one to pay for what they know is manufactured, wholly temporary intimacy? The former question is still up in the air with regards to our for-profit heroine Chizuru, but the latter is largely the focus of these opening episodes.

If there's one thing guaranteed to be divisive about the show from the get-go, it's our protagonist. Kazuya is a real piece of work – a consummate sadsack who veers between miserable self-pity and myopic impulse near-constantly as he fumbles a balancing act of self-loathing, intense horniness, and the echoing whispers of better judgment that trail through his psyche on moonless nights. On the one hand, he's far from likable and folks looking for a more typical self-insert protagonist to enjoy some vicarious harem antics through will likely run screaming from this show by minute 5. But on the other, he's at least a character with a definable personality that can bounce easily off others and actually moves the story forward of his own volition. In a sea of same-faced potatoes who get by on being nebulously kind and clumsily falling into cleavage, Kazuya is an oversalted yam that at least earns attention by being different.

He also seems to have at least a little depth to him. So far the series has taken no prisoners in dunking on him every time he becomes his worst self (which is often) be it through Chizuru or his grandmother, and that gives me hope the story won't just excuse his faults because sometimes he's kind of nice to a pretty girl or three. There are also moments where even he recognizes he's doing the wrong thing and needs to start doing the hard work to fix himself, but as of these two episodes he's still in the vicious cycle of self-flagellation, moping, and ego massaging that a lot of young guys with self-esteem problems can find themselves in. It doesn't help that his friend group seems to be at least mildly toxic. His closest friends casually diss him for being a virgin in a way that seems tongue-in-cheek until you see just how much Kazuya hates that aspect of himself, and in episode 2 it's telling that nobody takes it upon themselves to really stand up for him after Mami trash talks him into the ground. If her claim that “this is our usual group dynamic” is true, it would explain a lot about how much Kazuya's internalized being a crummy loser. Dude seriously needs to listen to some Teenage Bottlerocket.

Chizuru, on the other hand, is simultaneously more likable and more nebulous. Part of that is just because we're not in her head for either of these episodes, only catching glimpses of her own thoughts. There's a lot of room for speculation there, especially as to why exactly she's so dedicated to being a rental girlfriend. While not as, ahem, involved as straight-up sex work, her job still involves commodifying her apperance and subsuming her personality with a cutesy, eternally accepting girlfriend fantasy, and I'm curious to see how she feels about all that. There are hints that she gets something from the feigned intimacy she shares with her clients, like how she ends all of her dates/appointments by holding hands, even the one she takes with Kazuya in episode two just to visit his grandmother for an hour. There's many possible avenues the series could take to explore or expand on that, and I'm hoping that comes sooner rather than later.

What's not up in the air is the comedic chemistry Chizuru shares with our lead. Rent-A-Girlfriend is still a comedy after all, and if these two weren't funny to follow it wouldn't matter how well realized their personalities may or may not be. Thankfully whenever she's not in business mode, Chizuru is a perfect foil, taking exactly none of Kazuya's shit and being sure to tell him in no uncertain terms that she doesn't owe him anything in the wacky lies and misunderstandings he's gotten her tangled in. It helps that she's going along with the fake girlfriend thing more for Kazuya's lovable grandma than for him, since having her cave solely to Kazuya's embarrassing prostrations would make their dynamic feel more manipulative than funny. it's a balancing act that sometimes leans too far, but overall both of their strong personalities combine well. Kazuya's sadboi routine can get pretty funny on its own, like his solemn soliloquy to his dick about it “staying homeless” while taking a leak. That's so awkward you either laugh or cringe out of your skin, and for me it's the former.

That said, enjoying the comedy definitely requires being inoculated to RomCom contrivances. Nearly every aspect of the plot beyond the initial rented dates feels like the author bending over backwards to make the fake-relationship story possible. “Talk about a coincidence” might as well be the show's catchphrase with how often it's said, and with at least 2 more girls to insert into this setup we're almost certainly due for more. Having read and loved Nisekoi I am all but totally immune to this aspect, but those less battle-hardened will probably roll their eyes out of their skulls. This aspect more than anything is what threatens to shove the story off a cliff, and if my prediction of Rent-A-Girlfriend becoming a trashfire comes true, I won't be surprised if it's thanks to one of those two other chicks in the OP.

Speaking of the OP, it's an absolute bop like everything else The Peggies put out, and overall a nice microcosm of the show's technical qualitiies; bright, well-directed, with a number of appealing character designs and an overall inviting aesthetic. If not particularly memorable, it works for the overall tone of the series and there's quite a lot of expressive faces and reactions to be mined for screenshots. The general animation is largely serviceable if rarely impressive, but strong timing and clever framing keep the whole thing from feeling too static. It gets the job done, and with TMS Entertainment's track record I can trust that if things start to tailspin it at least won't be the visuals' fault.

All in all, I'm excited to see where this whole mess ends up going. There are pieces and ideas that, if utilized well, could make for a sincerely compelling dramedy about figuring out what you want in a relationship and whether or not that's the right way to get it. However Rent-A-Girlfriend certainly wouldn't be the first harem comedy to slowly choke the life out of its own potential. All I can really ask is that, for good or ill, it be entertaining.

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Rent-A-Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.