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wuggles
Jul 12, 2017



Rent-A-Girlfriend aka Kanojo, Okarishimasu is a romcom that began airing in the summer of 2020 on Crunchyroll as an adaptation of the manga of the same name, which has been serialized since July 2017. Two volumes of the English language manga are out with the third to release in October.

Rent-A-Girlfriend follows the romantic misadventures of college schmuck Kazuya Kinoshita, after he has been dumped by his first girlfriend, Mami Nanami, after one month of dating. In a fit of loneliness Kazuya hires top-ranked rental girlfriend Chizuru Mizuhara to go out on a date with him and fate intervenes to keep them stuck with each other after. Kazuya's coworker Ruka Sarashina and Chizuru's fellow rental girlfriend Sumi Sakurasawa round out the main cast.

I'm gonna be honest with you: I just started watching this ironically because I thought the girls were cute, but now I am very invested in Kazuya and Chizuru. This show is surprisingly heartfelt and funny to boot. Ruka's introduction is for me where the show went from good to great.

Also the intro slaps and now I just listen to The Peggies normally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM1WSovcn4I

On spoilers: It would be cool if we refrained from openly discussing the season finale (in the future, the latest ep) for about a week, and if any manga talk not also in the anime were also spoiler tagged.

On waifu wars: It's cool to have a favorite girl and talk about why you like them, but it's not a contest and don't get fuckin weird about it.

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Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya
Mami a poo poo.

Space Flower
Sep 10, 2014

by Games Forum
first for The Peggies

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
Fixed the thread tag, if you don't terribly mind.

Also, what's your take on Kimi no Sei/"It's Your Fault" by The Peggies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GoZOCNSIYw

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k

Paracelsus posted:

Mami a poo poo.

Close the thread, we nailed it

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

Wark Say posted:

Fixed the thread tag, if you don't terribly mind.

Also, what's your take on Kimi no Sei/"It's Your Fault" by The Peggies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GoZOCNSIYw

Thank you so much.

I’ve been listening to that album a lot, but Suru is my favorite off it

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
Right on.

Also from another show with a good girl voiced by Nao Touyama. :3:

Robviously
Aug 21, 2010

Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

Space Flower posted:

first for The Peggies

It's nice to have a thread where we can all agree on things.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

Robviously posted:

It's nice to have a thread where we can all agree on things.

Let's agree on this:

Mami rules and improves every episode she is in

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant
Yeah Mami is the definition of La Toxica

Robviously
Aug 21, 2010

Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

Mami is interesting because I absolutely hate her but I have absolutely known women with the same attitudes and toxic traits.

I think this series, more than anything I can remember off the top of my head, does a really good job of showing that wierd second coming of age that happens in college. Everyone is just a ball of hormones and you have the freedom to do stupid things that only make sense to them because of how they internalize it from their own points of view. I see it clearly in Maki, Kazuya, and to a lesser extent Ruka and it feels refreshing to have what should be a generic harem plot have deeper nuance like that.

I hope they avoid the Domestic Girlfriend trap and keep it on the rails.

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
Mami owns and I'm disappointed we didn't really learn what her deal is yet.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k

Robviously posted:

Mami is interesting because I absolutely hate her but I have absolutely known women with the same attitudes and toxic traits.

I think this series, more than anything I can remember off the top of my head, does a really good job of showing that wierd second coming of age that happens in college. Everyone is just a ball of hormones and you have the freedom to do stupid things that only make sense to them because of how they internalize it from their own points of view. I see it clearly in Maki, Kazuya, and to a lesser extent Ruka and it feels refreshing to have what should be a generic harem plot have deeper nuance like that.

I hope they avoid the Domestic Girlfriend trap and keep it on the rails.

Honestly I agree 100% and it's why I've kept up with the series, and was interested to see how the anime would handle it.


I think you can say that Kazuya is ultimately a good person. But the series does not hold back on showing you his struggles with doing the right thing. I never get the sense that he's some perfect gentleman, or some absolute scumbag. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and I've enjoyed that. I dislike Maki but only so much in that I'm supposed to. She provides a great wrinkle to an already goofy situation whenever she and Kazuya run into each other. I think Ruka is probably the character I enjoy the least, but it's more to do with how her arc got started. It was an odd premise.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Sindai posted:

Mami owns and I'm disappointed we didn't really learn what her deal is yet.
Mami's deal, from what I've watched so far (note: I have not read the manga; please keep me spoiler-free for at least a little while on this, tyvm), is that she was hoping she could make a bigger impact in someone else's life (in this case, Kazuya) and sorta feel like she's capable of affecting people. Like maybe she was kind of a nobody in High School and was hoping to have some impact, some validation that yes, she here and living it up. Was the way she went about it fairly ruthless? Sorta, yes.

Kazuya is also a horny fuckup (even if he's trying to get better about it) and tends to overshare some stuff; like sure, it's understandable to want to start a family as a goal and junk but maybe telling someone you just started dating how many kids you hope to have with them is kinda like "Woah, dude, hold your loving horses there", so that probably-to-most-definitely played some factor in her dumping him. And again, she did have an impact on Kazuya. Hell, she had such an impact on him that it basically led to him getting Chizuru involved with his antics. Mami, however, took this the wrong way: Like the way she parsed it in her head is around the lines of "This loving guy moved on already?"

Or something to that effect, I dunno. Like almost everyone who's been given some spotlight has had some surprisingly interesting background:
  • Kibe is Kazuya's childhood friend and knows that, despite him being a loving dumbass, he's not a completely lost cause + he helps run part of Kazuya's grandma business.
  • Ruka found someone who actually got her heart-beat rate to go into a normal rhythm so, even as gung-ho/pushy as she might be about things, she wants that sort of normalcy in her health + life.
  • Kuri (who's also been friends with Kazuya for almost as long as Kibe) seems like he might go down the abhorred MGTOW kinda poo poo from the comments Kazuya and Kibe made after Ruka exposed him, but he very clearly also wants to make the most out of these few years he has left to do something with his life before he has to go back and take care of the family business + seeing a dork like Kazuya with someone like Chizuru probably also made him feel hella inadequate.
  • Nagomi-grandma refuses to let the fact that she ain't no spring chicken anymore hold her down for long and has been obviously busting her rear end since she was a young adult trying to take care of both her husband's dream and her own son. Plus she clearly likes Chizuru a whole ton herself.
And then there's Chizuru. Chizuru would be a boring-rear end main character in the same vein as an Ippo, a Tsubasa Oozora or characters of the ilk given just her traits (she seems like a textbook case of a standard-as-hell Jump MC), but the way the story portrays her makes her so drat interesting. I'm not gonna go into further details with her because that warrants a post all of its own and I'm still kinda recovering from a sorta sleepless night + at work, but if the characters we've seen so far seem at least a little bit interesting even for the premise, I think there's something more to Mami, but she's keeping her cards close to her chest.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

Description of something the manga goes into, but no details I have heard the manga has more Mami scenes from the time covered in season one that flesh her out more I have the two English volumes but haven’t opened em yet.

And yeah, this series is really good about making potentially tropey characters interesting. Like I said in the OP the way it turned the Ruka thing on its head, and the technical way it was handled, was the moment I was all in

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant
Ruka's initial thing being "why won't you just like me" mirrors what Kazuya was going through with Mami in an interesting way. Because yeah from your perspective it may be devastating and incomprehensible but going through it changes it to Holy poo poo why me.

I feel like Mami's getting over something -- trauma, a bad breakup, etc -- and latched on to Kazuya as a safe choice. She thought she could string him along and rely on his dopey devotion to boost herself up and then that doesn't happen and it just drops her into a bad place.

As much as I think Kazuya is a total dumbest, it's been a fun ride. Even if I don't think the whole "go on date with buddy" was bright idea.

Robviously
Aug 21, 2010

Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

FilthyImp posted:

I feel like Mami's getting over something -- trauma, a bad breakup, etc -- and latched on to Kazuya as a safe choice. She thought she could string him along and rely on his dopey devotion to boost herself up and then that doesn't happen and it just drops her into a bad place.

I won't speak to any trauma she might have because that's not clear but I think a generous interpretation of what Mami did to Kazuya is the pretty common thing where two people will date, one decides that something's not clicking and it's only when they see them with someone else that they're able to be honest about their own feelings, ie expecting being in love to be cherubs trumpeting and poo poo and dumping someone when it isn't that. I don't write her off as a terrible person because even early on, she sees the good in Kazuya but just acts a fool in trying to fix the problem she created for herself. She seems to be a classic case of not being able to get out of her own way and getting angry with herself and lashing out for what she did because she can't handle the fact that someone moved on without her.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

I think the finale should have ended on Kazuya yelling "you're the one that I want!" and the wide shot of them both on the breezeway and that excellent credit sequence

Let me wait a year / until I read the manga to find out that his dumb rear end walked it back

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant
Mami's a little poo poo in the last episode but was the charm that glistened in the ending something Kazuya gave her? if not, it draws an interesting parallel between Chizuru's rental job and finding value in connecting with people, and Mami's whole Kept Girlfriend thing that leaves her emotionally empty.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

FilthyImp posted:

Mami's a little poo poo in the last episode but was the charm that glistened in the ending something Kazuya gave her? if not, it draws an interesting parallel between Chizuru's rental job and finding value in connecting with people, and Mami's whole Kept Girlfriend thing that leaves her emotionally empty.

Wasn’t it the one she claimed to lose when they kissed in the tide pool?

AnoHito
May 8, 2014

Marathoned this over the last few couple days. Everyone in this show is in a hell of their own making, and I am just stoked to watch it.

Except for Ruka, she deserves better than a lovely boyfriend who barely even remembers she exists.

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant

AnoHito posted:

Except for Ruka, she deserves better than a lovely boyfriend who barely even remembers she exists.
Yeah, but she's also in high school and "this is the person, they can fix me, they are my world" is high school to a t.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
Finally managed to catch up with the last 2 episodes of this: I kinda like that, despite the potentially trite premise (haremy/romcom hijinks), most of the main characters + a good chunk of the side cast as they've been portrayed so far are relatively down-to-earth in they being mostly "lovely people but with relatable flaws/behaviors"

Except Sumi. Sumi is a good girl and needs to be protected and I liked that, despite her being the way she is, she still tries to be a good service provider (even if she is more dud than stud... studette?).

Will probably make a bigger effortpost later, when I'm not tired and sore all over.

Mirage
Oct 27, 2000

All is for the best, in this, the best of all possible worlds
Asking as a manga reader: Is Kazuya just the worst in this too? Like, ultra-cringey fanboy obsessive weirdo? Or have they toned him down to merely "bad"?

Stairmaster
Jun 8, 2012

im gonna kick the protagonists loving rear end

AnoHito
May 8, 2014

Mirage posted:

Asking as a manga reader: Is Kazuya just the worst in this too? Like, ultra-cringey fanboy obsessive weirdo? Or have they toned him down to merely "bad"?

The show wouldn't be nearly as good if he wasn't, lol.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Mirage posted:

Asking as a manga reader: Is Kazuya just the worst in this too? Like, ultra-cringey fanboy obsessive weirdo? Or have they toned him down to merely "bad"?

He comes across more as "weak" than as "bad," to me. He foolishly chases short-term solutions (and solutions to those solutions), but he's not acting out of malice or cruelty, and is sometimes trying to at least partly act for the benefit of someone else rather than being a total narcissist.

I have a theory that a lot of Japanese comedy is informed by a variation on Samudaya: attachment and desire aren't just the root of suffering, they make us into complete idiots. And that's funny.

Robviously
Aug 21, 2010

Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

I touched on this before but I think a lot of people that claim that Kazuya is just the worst are uncomfortable with the facts of how an early 20-something nerd might act. I cringe because I see a good deal of what he does in what I did at that age. It's important that, as mentioned, he doesn't do it out of malice but out of loneliness and longing for what he thought would happen when he struck out on his own. He wants to live his perfect summer and is immensely disappointed in what the world actually is. This is something we all have been through and some of us handle it much worse than he has. He does dumb poo poo not because he intends to actually harm someone but because he is a dumb gently caress 20 year old doing dumb gently caress 20 year old things because he can't deal with his actual issues.

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant
Right, he and Mami are embarrassingly true to life and it can be a bit much to watch that car crash go down.

I.e. Mami scheming during the beach trip to break the couple up to satisfy her ego.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

I like Ruka a lot from the anime, want to see more of her.

Kazuya comes off as skeezier in the manga IMO.

The manga, despite so far not appearing to have much extra content (a few chapters into volume 2), is solidifying my love of Mami. I’m one of those depraved people I guess.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

Also apparently I kept seeing people talk about a light novel explaining about why Mami is the way she is stuck in an Arranged Marriage. So far from what I googled it's all unfounded rumors. Honestly the episode where Kazuya was stalking Chizuru was kind of hosed. Like dude why.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
I think I previously posted something like this, but that's the thing about most of the cast except for someone like Sumi (again, haven't read the manga). Even within the constraints of the dumbass RomCom/Harem shenanigans, everyone sorta has a very relatable background to them/something that makes them way more down to earth than what you'd find in something like, I dunno, Nisekoi or We Can't Study?
  • You know someone like Kazuya. Hell, chances are that you were probably a little like him or have/had someone like him as a close friend, given the amount of people I've read posting how he's just the worst. It takes people literally and metaphorically kicking his rear end (and not just "lol, just shittalking between bros, man") for him to start the process of removing his head offa his rear end, and even then he does relapse (like with that episode where he stalks Chizuru and the handsome boy). His VA (Shun Horie, who also voiced very good boy Linhardt in FE: Three Houses) was good enough to accentuate how sorta pathetic he can be a lot of the time, too.
  • You know someone like Mami. She's someone who, at first sight, seems to be, like, totally the best, you guys. Here in Mexico--and at least parts of Colombia and Ecuador, where I've also heard it-- there's a manner of speech called "de los dientes para afuera", which perfectly encapsulates Mami (the closest English equivalents would be like a bastard child of the phrases "skin deep" and "paying lip-service"), which really works well. Also, probably the 2nd best casting choice of the bunch: Aoi Yuuki absolutely knocked it out of the park when portraying all of Mami's sides.
  • As FilthyImp previously posted, Ruka has that familiar "big dumb energy" most people have as a high-school aged person. Nao Toyama's casting as her was a no-brainer: Even if she has demonstrated a good range with some of her previous voices, if this were the 90's and we were talking about cute girls with a plucky streak as if they were sick Death Metal solos, Nao Toyama is like the James Murphy of cute and plucky girls.
  • I actually see a really good friend of mine in the way Chizuru carries herself. And again, while not usually my favorite type of character, the way Sora Amamiya portrayed all her facets was what ended up gaining me over real fast. While not as varied/with as much range as either of the two previous actresses, Sora Amamiya has really come a long way, and Chizuru is a really good demonstration of that.
As a bonus, I appreciated how the line/whatsapp-type convos the guys had were crude and shittalky in a somewhat realistic way. Like, I've had dumbass convos with friends that were on that ballpark. Kinda in the middle of contemplating if I should just buckle the gently caress up and check the manga or if I should wait for season 2 (especially since it seems likely to be a sooner rather than later type of deal).

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

Unless you read Japanese or are going to :files: it looks like it’s going to take a year for the English manga to get through Season 1 material anyway.

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant
BTW I am a monster who doesn't really like Sumi all that much. There's shy and then there's crippling social-anxiety shy.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

I need to see more of Sumi before casting judgment but in her first episode she was too ~UwU~ for my tastes. But then again I like Mami so my brain is broken

Robviously
Aug 21, 2010

Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist.

FilthyImp posted:

BTW I am a monster who doesn't really like Sumi all that much. There's shy and then there's crippling social-anxiety shy.

I'm having a moment and can't remember if they went over it right now so I'm putting this behind spoilers but that's actually the entire point of the character. She took the job to help her overcome her crippling social anxiety.

FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant

Robviously posted:

I'm having a moment and can't remember

I'm almost sure that Chizuru mentions something like that about her. and I get it, but, I mean, there's probably better ways of dealing with that than awkward as gently caress compensated dating.

It's really her being a big vacuum of personality aside from :3: and :blush: and enough drive to power through things.

wuggles
Jul 12, 2017

https://twitter.com/rentgirlfriend/status/1322491458834714626?s=20

Cobalt-60
Oct 11, 2016

by Azathoth
Just watched the season. Can't decide if I like it or not. Swings between funny, depressing, and relatable.

Kazuya and Chizuru make an interesting contrast. He's a romantic; in love with the idea of being in love, regardless of who. She's pragmatic; someone who reveals exactly as much as she wants to.

And Sumi...well, proof that moeblobs aren't that interesting in a "realistic" setting. (And putting someone with no assertiveness in situations with clients who potentially have poor social skills and a sense of entitlement...BAD idea.)

One question: what exactly were Kazuya and Ruka getting out of their "relationship"? He didn't seem to enjoy it, even when we wasn't moping after Chizuru. And she just seemed to pick him at random. Did they even go out?

Maybe it's a deconstruction of harem tropes. Maybe it's another step away from highschool animes towards college animes. Or maybe it's Grandma's world, and we all just live in it.

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FilthyImp
Sep 30, 2002

Anime Deviant

Cobalt-60 posted:

One question: what exactly were Kazuya and Ruka getting out of their "relationship"? He didn't seem to enjoy it, even when we wasn't moping after Chizuru. And she just seemed to pick him at random. Did they even go out?
Ruka's medical condition made her feel shut off and Kazuya was the first one to give her the ol "my heart races when I see you" thing.

And since SHE'S A loving HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT she's like "He's The One Shot At Happy I Have!"

Kazuya just goes with it because he's incapable of taking action.

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