I've never ready the original Rent-a-Girlfriend series, but have seen the anime. I could not stand the MC in it, and I couldn't keep watching it. This is a very nice joyful read. The characters are genuinely well thought out the girl he chooses is kind and thoughtful worried less about money when he can't pay, and Masato isn't a coward nor incapable of coming clean about something when stuff goes wrong.