Reading this, I thought I would dislike Serizawa more than I did based on the comments. Granted, he is immature, impish, and impulsive and his attitude isn't always great, but to hate him is to look at the story in a very surface-level way. Serizawa is definitely not a perfect guy and he might not even be a very good guy, but with the exception of just one of the relationships in this story, he not only isn't the piece of shit people seem to believe he is but he's not even the piece of shit he thinks he is. Most of the major relationships of this book weren't even ruined because of him, they were ruined because the women he was seeing deliberately sabotaged it-- and in most cases, not even for especially good reasons if any at all --and didn't even have the decency to end things themselves and instead opted to say nothing until things became so inhospitable that he couldn't tolerate it anymore and ended it.
And you know how you can tell it wasn't all him? The last girl, who thrived with him, they had a good relationship that both sides were obviously looking forward to progressing and then... bam, she liquidates her life one day and tells him "Lets break up" over the phone, purely at random and even though he apparently ends up with her at the end, we still have no idea why she bugged out. But what we learn at the end is that not only is Serizawa not as bad as he or the reader is supposed to think, but none of the girls he attempted to date were victims of anyone but themselves and the last girl doubly so and she doesn't deserve him. Despite his flaws, Serizawa is obviously a better person than she is and the fact that she refused to even tell him why she bugged out reinforces that.
Quite frankly, the only girl worth a shit in his life is the only one he actually hurt himself, and that was a mistake of youth. Honestly, if anyone in this entire story actually deserved to be with Serizawa, it was the Prince who was a legit good person.
I don't know where the last chapters went, but it's on numerous other sites so you can read it there. Overall it was an enjoyable read with an unnecessary final arc(nana and nana) and a rushed ending that ends on basically a cliffhanger. Also, MC is getting unnecessary hate. Yeah he made a few mistakes, but 80% of the time it was the girl's fault that the relationship ended.
I don't understand why the girl the manga spent the longest time on acted the way she did once she started dating him. Her personality completely flipped. I can only weakly assume that she got bashful about realizing that they were dating now so she stopped the playful banter and was too embarrassed to even go for intimacy. But that's completely different from her character, unexplained, and doesn't really fit with the information we get after the fact. Although I can forgive a lot of that because the point of the manga is that you can't know why it people act the way they do. It's still jarring to have that moral delivered in such a heavy handed way by dismantling a perfectly good character. Especially after his high school girlfriend who had the same arc but shorter and actually justified.
The "mysterious phone call girl" premise of the manga is a total red herring and an excuse to flashback though the guy's whole life story. Although that sounds like a clever and engaging story element, it has mediocre execution.
He does the same thing to the girl on the phone that he did to the girl at the Ramen shop even though she chewed him out so much about it. Although even that was just a variation of the same mistake the main character repeats every arc.
The main character drives himself into a corner repeatedly for over half his life in a deeply gripping, believable, and emotional way. This manga is so absolutely fantastic in this regard that I can forgive everything else about the characters and the plot. It doesn't hurt the portrayal of this deeply flawed MC that he continues to make almost exactly the same mistake over and over again. You've spent 7 volumes with this guy hoping to finally see him grow and be happy. He never changes from this self destructive behavior until the very last chapter, which is split into two parts and a hundred pages.
We get one panel of that (maybe) paying off.
I have never been so utterly disgusted by anything in my life.
Honestly... this story is incredible. A commentor below, fickleroger, basically had said everything I wanted to say, but...
I believe that the main male lead, contrary to most comments here, is the best thing this manga has to offer. His personality at the first dozen chapters isn’t the least tolerable, he has made terrible decisions and done some horrible things, but all the falling through wasn’t just his fault - and he does learn from each break-up, only after it though, feelings from the other party and develop himself to become a better person, just like a real-life person would. He’s not perfect, but he’s always trying, and growing, to be. Honestly, he’s as much “human” as a manga character can be, and probably is one of the best romance protagonists, though it might just be me. His growth, both in personality, thoughts, emotions and actions and appearances is apparent, made a huge impact and wonderful to see it came through. The story complements his it perfectly as well, with everything guiding him to find his heart and resolve to be with the love of his life and leave everything behind, even his family issue arc, the Nana and Nana arc, which most people find pointless.
The story runs sooo smooth. It was definitely planned from start to end and I really liked the “mysterious girl calling” premise, it did its job amazingly, having the protagonist flashback and even gives him the final push in his journey. The arcs are great, all helping the main lead with his development, all of them going and ending pretty satisfying. So well that each break-up, it will leave an ache in your heart, especially
she seemed lively... just like when I met her for the first time.
Art is amazing. Portray each character perfectly, each small detailed filled and some panels are just eye-candy to look at. This artist is pretty talented.
And the ending... again, I’d have to say it’s breathtaking. The protagonist’s development and journey is finally coming to a close, and for the course of the ending just feels so natural it’s amazing. I had no complains with the girl who “won”, though her break-up (and another one) that occurred beforehand was one of the low-points in the manga. The break-up felt forced and was just out-of-character for her to do. But nevermind that, even if you didn’t like anything in the manga, the ending should makes all the reading worth it. It’s not the best ending for some people, another girl (or boy) should’ve won and I also agree, but again I had no problem with this wonderful ending.
All and all, maybe I have a soft spot for this manga, maybe in the future I’ll take another look at this and see just more and more flaws, but for now, I see this as a wonderful classic worth a 9 rating. Definitely worth a read.
A more mature Rental Girlfriend where the MC fucks up every time and doesn't grow and all the girls are better off without him. Ending is already out and nothing major happens.
I remember starting to read this and felt comforted by the narrative compared to other series of "20 volumes, 5 years in-universe with zero development and after a confession, they hold hands and that's it: the end."
But damn the last two volumes were such a catastrophe. The filler nana arc was made for... what exactly? You can subtract those 5 chapters, replace them with the last two chapters and it will be same thing. Hell, it will be logical since the last 2 chapters are a continuation of that relantionship.
And those two last chapters, oh boy. They felt like "ok, you just finished the arc of those girls with the same name and sales are kinda bad so you need to finish the series. You have 3 chapters. No, wait. 2 chapters."
And man, what a lucky guy! He just leaves his work during a snow night, decides to go to sam-soon ex-office/apartment? and sam-soon's friend was, coincidentally, just walking on the street under the snow! And, coincidentally, she was talking with her over the phone!. And now she agrees to meet him! I'm sure talking to her about how she felt will fix everything... somehow? I hope he didn't sold the ring like he said (we actually never saw him doing that) since he also said that he never had the chance to give it to her so... but regardless I'm also sure that despite the year+ or so after her disappearance (and without any way to contact or locate her) in reality she was just waiting for him to call!. What a lucky guy...
I also love how the last two chapters gives some sort of closure for some of the girls but the other ones like the teacher and the british? one are completely forgotten. Not to mention his friend, who turned out to be gay and had a crush on him, who despite "I'm an adult now and I'm still friends with him" we never saw him ever again! And who knew! His father was a nice dude all along! And his mother is not-really-that-ok but who cares, right?
Great manga but i hate the mc (even doe he progress so much).I mean the mc fell alot in the same hole but the mc start crawl up,circleling the hole and fall down again and again.If the mc had some backbone and balls back then he'll never set himself in a circle of doubt,self doubt,trust issues,complex,anxiety,and paranoid.
I can agree with that, but the last tl arc with Yamaguchi and Makino was partially his fault, but mostly just him and Makino being dishonest leading up to the situation and Yamaguchi being assertive even when she knows that he still thinks of Makino all the time. At some point, you just gotta be the one that steps down before you encounter unnecessary drama, even if it hurts.
Tho I still really feel bad for him, The best honest relationship he had was with the British Girl, but she's too afraid of Long Distance Relationships.. if only it could end with them together after all tho :<
Abandoned project? Too bad
This manga is actually legit
[Edit]
Finally finished this manga on another site, pretty amazing and really love the rollercoaster feeling on each arc, the development of protagonist (damn i love him when in hermes arc), but tbh i don't like the ending
I mean, it would be good if the story didn't stop there and just like that, what happen to the british girl and yamaguchi?
I really hate cliffhanger ending or open ending which is I must imagine the ending by my self and not officially told by the author
I thought the story will about the protagonist that fell in love again with his first love after many years passed but it's not (ahh cmon at least meet her and talk properly and wait.. did nobuta and her manager (that fatty ugly ass) going out or what??). So sam soon didn't marry her ex even though she was proposed? And she is waiting for serizawa all the time? And finally they met each other and then what? Telling him that she is merried like what makino had?
Plz anyone tell me about the ending, serizawa deserves for happiness, i can't let the story hanging like that
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This is the best drama manga i've ever read. The struggle the mc experienced and the fucked up things he did was realisticly done.He may have been a dick in some part of the story but his struggle with his family and all the misunderstandings he got really helped me to empathize with him.
Fuck man this is really way too much for me.This even made me feel self concious about myself.What a trainwreck of emotion. GG author