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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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# ? Sep 27, 2020 02:54 |
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# ? May 2, 2024 22:09 |
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Mami a poo poo.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:07 |
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first for The Peggies
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:08 |
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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
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:12 |
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Paracelsus posted:Mami a poo poo. Close the thread, we nailed it
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:18 |
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Wark Say posted:Fixed the thread tag, if you don't terribly mind. Thank you so much. I’ve been listening to that album a lot, but Suru is my favorite off it
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:28 |
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Right on. Also from another show with a good girl voiced by Nao Touyama.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:40 |
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Space Flower posted:first for The Peggies It's nice to have a thread where we can all agree on things.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 03:47 |
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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
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 05:22 |
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Yeah Mami is the definition of La Toxica
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 05:24 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 05:38 |
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Mami owns and I'm disappointed we didn't really learn what her deal is yet.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 06:13 |
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Robviously posted:Mami is interesting because I absolutely hate her but I have absolutely known women with the same attitudes and toxic traits. 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.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 06:20 |
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Sindai posted:Mami owns and I'm disappointed we didn't really learn what her deal is yet. 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:
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 14:01 |
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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
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 15:14 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 17:22 |
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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.
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# ? Sep 27, 2020 17:51 |
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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
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# ? Sep 28, 2020 15:53 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 3, 2020 16:13 |
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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?
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# ? Oct 4, 2020 21:09 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 15:55 |
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AnoHito posted:Except for Ruka, she deserves better than a lovely boyfriend who barely even remembers she exists.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 17:21 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 17:49 |
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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"?
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 19:44 |
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im gonna kick the protagonists loving rear end
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 19:55 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 20:49 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 23:42 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 5, 2020 23:59 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 00:13 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 02:12 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 04:30 |
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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?
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 04:32 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 04:48 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 05:15 |
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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
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 11:24 |
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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.
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# ? Oct 6, 2020 13:51 |
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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 and and enough drive to power through things.
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# ? Oct 7, 2020 03:25 |
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https://twitter.com/rentgirlfriend/status/1322491458834714626?s=20
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# ? Oct 31, 2020 14:15 |
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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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# ? Nov 2, 2020 09:27 |
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# ? May 2, 2024 22:09 |
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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? 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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# ? Nov 2, 2020 09:34 |