Rent-A-Girlfriend

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 Maison Ikkoku is definitely the superior story, no arguments there. I'm just saying the appeal of THIS story for me is the same as the appeal of Maison Ikkoku: an immature college student falls in love with a woman much more mature than him and he has to grow up and become a man before he can win her heart. Ironically, in both cases, the fastest path to getting the girl is to NOT focus on the girl but of course both MC's are simps so they end up taking half a decade to learn this. This story would've been much better if it wasn't a harem and the MC actually dated one of the girls while growing up into the kind of man Mizuhara could fall in love with but what we got isn't that bad. It still has a Maison Ikkoku-esque feel to it, it's just not as good.

 

[PedroContinuous]

@pano1g you literally said exactly what I think! I don't get why people just can't deal with time consuming stories!!

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g i dont feel that at all, tho i luckily dropped it and didnt waste my time on it
didnt he date that annoying shit girl at some point? some childhood friend or sth

 

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 In Maison Ikkoku? Yeah Godai dates a girl, she wasn't his childhood friend or anything, just a girl that worked at the same place as him for a time. Pretty similar to Ruka's situation honestly, though Ruka is alot more obnoxious. What makes it work better in Maison Ikkoku though is Godai DOES actually take his relationship with the girl kind of seriously, even though he really wants to be with Kyoko. Here it's just a bunch of blackmail and leading on. Honestly the way Ruka is handled is the part of the series I dislike the most. I find most of the other relationships and dynamics in the series to be believable for the most part.....but Ruka+Kazuya is REALLY stretching it.

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g ah no, I meant it in this series

 

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 So you mean Ruka. Yeah, Ruka is the worst part of the series. Not even necessarily her character though, she can be entertaining. Rather, the dynamic at play with her is just the worst. It makes her look bad, it makes Kazuya look bad, heck it even makes Mizuhara look bad and you just know that eventually when it does get resolved she's going to be heartbroken and she'll have wasted a couple years of her life doting on a guy that didn't love her and never will. It's not good. The irony of it is that the existence of best girl Sumi proves that it didn't have to be this way.

Sumi does seem to be in love with Kazuya too, but even if her love ends up unrequited she's getting something positive out of her interactions with him and similarly Kazuya is getting alot of emotional support out of her as well in his darkest moments. Even Mizuhara is getting something positive out of having her around because they both genuinely care about one another's well-being and want the best for eachother. Sumi is a straight up net positive for the series, and further highlights how bad the treatment of Ruka is.

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g yep, I dropped the manga because of her, is she still around? well her being heartbroken will be a good moment

 

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 Yeah, Ruka is still around unfortunately. Actually, at first the setup for her wasn't terrible. But the longer she sticks around pretending to be Kazuya's girlfriend while not eliciting any feelings from him and not doing the kinds of things couples are supposed to do it just begins to feel more and more forced for the sake of harem. I'm sorry, no girl, especially not an attractive one is gonna stick around for over a year when you never kiss, hug or do anything remotely sexual and you don't even get her a present on her birthday...I just don't buy it.

As i mentioned though, Sumi is a delight. It's not even a matter of me wanting her to end up with Kazuya or anything like that. She's just a good character with a reasonable purpose within the series who benefits everyone and also is benefited by being around.

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g well I found her introduction and entire purpose pointless, but yeah it just got worse and worse...

 

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 Well I didn't find Ruka entirely pointless at first for two reasons:

1) She proved that Kazuya doesn't HAVE to be single and he doesn't have to keep renting girlfriends. He does have the potential to get a real girlfriend. This is important for his development because getting dumped right from the beginning was a massive hit to his self-esteem and even now the biggest obstacle he faces to getting with Mizuhara is once again his lack of self-esteem.
2) She could've acted as a legitimate romantic rival that could've jumpstarted Mizuhara's relationship with Kazuya. To some extent Ruka has succeeded in this, but, past a certain point in the series her presence has become merely a hindrance.

Her introduction wasn't meritless, it just outlived its usefulness and now she's still kept around to excite the Ruka stans that don't care about good writing.

Now if you're talking about Sumi though I really have to disagree. Everything about Sumi is excellent imo.

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g Well, I respect your opinion and I see your point, but I'm generally on that view that adding a love rival to move a romance story forward is not the best writing. Don't remember who sumi is, so dont have an opinion on that

 

[pano1g]

@BrahMoment420 Well i can respect that. But I do want to give you ONE example from early on in the series where I felt like Ruka "jumpstarting" their relationship worked really well and I'd like to gauge your opinion on it.

So, if you can remember. In the very beginning Kazuya and Mizuhara pretty much only met up with eachother to go on paid dates to keep up the lie to his grandmother and family/friends. Kazuya really had no excuse to see/talk to her outside of these circumstances and Mizuhara herself made it clear that she had no interest in doing so either. This put their relationship at a standstill. With the introduction of Ruka however, she FORCED them to start being around eachother in private (without Kazuya having to pay her) in order for them to figure out how to handle her. Furthermore, because she forced her way in as a "girlfriend" she forced Kazuya to really consider whether what he wants is just a cute girlfriend to have sex with (something which he could easily have with Ruka) or if he really just wants Mizuhara in particular. The fact that he decides to not submit to Ruka's advances reinforces the notion that no one but Mizuhara will do, which is pretty romantic in my opinion. These elements of her introduction actually worked for me, but, as I mentioned previously, it has dragged on past the point of believability or merit.

 

[BrahMoment420]

@pano1g I remember, and yes I agree with your point here, tho the same result could've been achieved with other things IMO, but that's maybe too high level for a romcom mangaka But yeah if we stick to the story that makes sense, too bad she stayed 100more chapters than she was supposed to haha

 

[kanapp]

If this doesn’t finish in the next 20-30 chapters I feel like it’s gonna be hella stale

 

[Thoxi1026]

@Haniif
I don’t quite hate this manga although as it is just annoying (Most of the time, not even just sometimes), especially the mc kazuya, realistic u say? far from that (for me at least) I don’t see anyone here blushing over everything their crush does, I mean, if he’s going to blush that hard, let’s just glue tomato to his face always. Rental girlfriend? If those do exist, I wouldn’t have a crush on them although if they were beautiful I might just admire them, not quite realistic there (as I said, for me, my opinions), somebody liking you based on their heartbeat? Not realistic, but we don’t like manga just because it’s unrealistic (At least in some aspects), I read manga because it’s fun, easy to read, enjoyable, brings me smiles, tears, excitement, fear, etc. But this? As I said, it’s just annoying (FOR ME) most of the time, I still read it though, because it still brings me some of the things that make me enjoy, manga.

 

[MercWithAaMouth]

It’s only my opinion but the progression they have for Kazuya and Mizuhara is great. I understand why people believe it is slow but the story telling is good and I personally wouldn’t want the characters to develop so fast. I’m enjoying the ride they are taking us on. Some people are like Kazuya and some people are like Mizuhara. They are both relatable characters that in one way or another you can understand and connect with. Sometimes you think Ruka is annoying but other times you feel for her and respect that never give up mentality. Sumi is so cute and awesome! I really like her character and how she’s shy but so caring. All the characters are realistic to me. I may not be 100% the same as one specific character in the manga but I do have things I share in common with each one and can understand why they do some of the things they do. Some people believe they should cut it soon but I would enjoy seeing what they can do beyond this.

 

[MRain]

Short review of the manga (so far) :
The story is good especially the MC, the MC is a really good character although he is way too horny but that's my opinion, what I really have a problem about this series is the love interest. First let's talk about the side love interest Sumi, Sumi is a nice character she is cute, who doesn't like cute thing but the problem is Sumi character(as of now) is really unnecessary, like c'mon you can just remove her from the story and nothing will change, her presence in the story is so small that it doesn't even impact anything. While we are at it let's talk about the new girl, the neighbor girl she is completely irrelevant to the story and is just there to move the plot like c'mon rather than the MC making the girl realize he is in love with her you need a new character entirely like wtf, both of these characters as of now are really unnecessary in the story I hope that they will get developed more especially Sumi. Before talking about the main girl let's talk about her "rival", first let's talk about the failed rival Mami, her character was about to get developed on the early arc, but they just decide to drop her for 100 chap or so, I think she is too little late to introduce again since it has already been 100 chapters or so, and the MC already developed a strong bond with the female lead, so if her ex suddenly just pop up again and wanted to take him again it will be weird, now let's talk about the second rivals Ruka, she is a nice rival I kinda empathize with her thing, but she is written so annoyingly to cuck the MC from the female lead it's kinda annoying, I think the author really need to refined her so that Ruka can come out of the annoying girl shell, lastly let's talk about the female lead Chizuru, Chizuru overall is a decent main love interest, her story about her grandparents is nice and heartwarming, but she is in too much denial in her love for the MC, it kinda annoys me.

TL;DR this manga is a nice read if you have time for it, the MC is a great MC but the love interest is meh aside from the female lead, she is alright.

 

[rarewaifu]

guess the anime really did help make the score higher, i remember when it was barely a 6 lol

 

[Goku003]

Lmao, The latest uploaded cover is insane

 

[EdTheSurvivor]

Nice cover