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EP. REVIEW: Rent-A-Girlfriend


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Sisyphusson66



Joined: 04 Dec 2018
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:25 pm Reply with quote
Its been a while since I had read the parts covered in the beginning of Rent-a-Girlfriend, but on this second exposure I came to the realization that all of the characters are kind of not-so-nice-people. But it is not just that this is the case, it is also that the characters, to this point, outside of our main two are bigger not-so-nice-people that make the two mains appear better in comparison. Kazuya is definitely not a great person and kind of insufferable, but compared to the his guy friends, he's great. Chizuru as well. While at this point probably the nicest character, Chizuru has twice single-handedly perpetuated their lie, a lie which neither of them are happy with. However, when compared to the other female characters so far, she seems nicer to Kazuya (a twenty-year-old who has had a girlfriend before) than his overly-critical grandmother, and the stuff with Mami basically screams "look how much better Chizuru is because Mami is horrible."

Easily the best moments are where Chizuru and Kazuya are at each other's throats bickering, hopefully this adaptation will give us more of that and less of the "you're such a virgin" stuff.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 8:44 pm Reply with quote
I think I'm in much the same headspace with this show as Nicholas is: wary, but cautiously hopeful that the time I'm investing watching this won't ultimately be wasted. Dude definitely has to cut ties with his ex, Maki - she's pure poison. I wonder if the show will ultimately mitigate her personality because right now she's, like, the worst.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:21 pm Reply with quote
I think the only way I could potentially be interested in the show is if I knew ahead of time that the two of them wouldn't end up with each others, but the law of rom-com are absolute and the female character must fall in love with the male character when he does one nice thing for her after 7-8 episodes of being a complete jackass, and I have just 0 interest in that.
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Galap
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Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:42 pm Reply with quote
So far, this has been the most enjoyable thing of the season so far for me. I'm one of those weird people who really really llikes to watch things that make me cringe/feel secondhand embarrassment. Somehow it hits me really hard but it also really funny at the same time. And this show is absolutely S-tier cringe, and I love it.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:52 am Reply with quote
@ Galap - you must have absolutely adored the British version of The Office!

I feel I do have to comment on one part of Nicholas's review:
Quote:

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 actually even better than that. I believe she genuinely likes Kazuya's grandmother, but more importantly his grandma knows her grandma (all part of the vast tapestry of coincidences that this show lives on as Nicholas points out) and she's afraid that knowledge of her rental girlfriemd job may bet back to her family which justifies her going along with certain things.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5406
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:12 am Reply with quote
I am actually liking this show way more than I anticipated. Call me shallow or insensitive, but as long as the show keeps me entertained or laughing I can put up with the crappy attitude of the main character and the ex-girlfriend.

If this show was a Noitamina drama I would care a lot about the characters and their flaws, but a romantic comedy is meant to be dumb and carefree.
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Bayuro2.0



Joined: 08 Jul 2020
Posts: 74
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:38 pm Reply with quote
At least the male protagonist on this anime look diversely customized unlike most male harem or isekai protagonists which are look like boring clones.
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Minos_Kurumada



Joined: 04 Nov 2015
Posts: 981
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:04 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
I think the only way I could potentially be interested in the show is if I knew ahead of time that the two of them wouldn't end up with each others, but the law of rom-com are absolute and the female character must fall in love with the male character when he does one nice thing for her after 7-8 episodes of being a complete jackass, and I have just 0 interest in that.


I concur.

It remembers me when I read Nisekoi (and now that I think about it it's basically the same plot), I originally (and stupidly) thought for a second that it would be different that time and I have no idea of why.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:51 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, yeah Mami's pretty toxic. I can't tell yet if she's pissed at Chizuru and using Kazuya to get back at her, or if she's the kind of woman who isn't interested in a guy until other women show interest/approval. I'm leaning toward the former right now.

Dunno if I'll keep up with this or not. As a fellow garbage person myself, I do kinda relate to Kazuya a little bit, though not his irrational anger issues. The first two episodes were amusing, but I didn't find it as funny as the reviewer did.
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-SP-





PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 1:20 am Reply with quote
You are about to witness the making of the biggest Simp in Anime history, after Brock
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#844391



Joined: 09 Sep 2015
Posts: 517
PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:42 am Reply with quote
I never got into the manga because I don't think I've ever seen an MC as despised as this one whenever I checked for opinions on this series heh. After reading plenty of romance/harem series where the MC is either a dense brick or a wimp I decided to pass. I wonder how long I'll be watching this.
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Sisyphusson66



Joined: 04 Dec 2018
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 4:37 pm Reply with quote
This may come off as an unpopular opinion given her stance amongst readers and viewers, but I think Mami (at this point in the show at least) is the most interesting character by far. Yes, she is very manipulative, but it's at least interesting, especially since it shows that her hidden personality is something none of the other characters know about. It is certainly more intriguing to watch than Kazuya's constant ogling and fantasizing about Mami and Chizuru.

It also doesn't help that I have very little sympathy for Kazuya. The line he thinks regarding Chizuru in the car ride to the beach alone, "of course I would want to treat her right, if she was my real girlfriend," speaks volumes to his character at the moment. He treats her as a place holder for Mami, which will undoubtedly backfire on him, and as a convenience when he needs it. The only reason no one has figured out who she is because his friend group is afflicted by the same visual impairment that keeps people from seeing that Superman is Clark Kent without glasses.

Nick is right, Chizuru is the most likable character in the series. It is not just her kindness and courtesy, but how she is at the same time exhausted and annoyed by Kazuya's self-serving, self-deprecating attitude. Its the type of honesty that he needs to internalize and take note of if he wants become a better human being, something he certainly isn't getting from the other characters.
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michizure



Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 177
PostPosted: Mon Jul 27, 2020 8:41 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
So outside of a radical twist down the line there's not much to talk about as our cast bumble from one awkward not-date to another, leaving me with little to do but dig into the characters and what the show might be doing with them.

Perhaps there are other romantic comedy train-wrecks to compare "plot" points with? I would be interested in a comparison between this show and, say, Golden Time. Offhand, I think there's a case to be made that the former is a gender-switched version of the latter, with Kazuya playing the painfully clueless and hapless Kouko.

That said, Kazuya's behavior is awful enough that I'm not sure I want to keep watching.
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yeehaw



Joined: 09 Sep 2018
Posts: 418
PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2020 11:05 am Reply with quote
Why did Chizuru just not lock the door in ep 3. It's a bathroom, lock the door. Mami would have had to give up and leave eventually. Now Chizuru is in this Hannah Montana situation where she's at the beach with two different groups and we never actually saw her return to her original group so I assume they saw their friend go to the store and then she never came back/came back after several hours of them worrying about her.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:14 pm Reply with quote
^ For that matter, why didn't Kazuya lock it to begin with so Chizuru (or a total stranger) couldn't lob in on him?

All of this story actually hinges not of what Kazuya decides to do or not do to make the girl of his dreams (aka Chizuru) fall for him, but on why Chizuru was doing the rent-a-date gigs in the first place. I suspect we won't learn that until episode 10 or 11.
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