Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Rent-a-Girlfriend's Kazuya Bad or The Absolute Worst?
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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Wouldn't that be awesome. Every episode could have the girl get rented by a parody of a protagonist from some famous rom-com or even anime in general (Shinji, Renton, etc) and just point out how messed up most of them are. |
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1799 |
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I remember reading a few chapters of RAG a wile before the anime was announced because I liked the visuals and figure "Ok sure, I'll give this romcom a try as a light read on the side!" I absolutely hated the first chapter, though I figured the story was going to try and make a point about Kazuya changing so I kept going for a few more, only to grow even more annoyed at it and it's constant narrative contrivances, quitting when Ruka said she wanted to date Kazuya. When the anime actually came out I was surprised that people were busy dogging on Uzaki-chan (a series I think nothing of, I read a few chapters of it then forgot it even existed) when I was sure the dumpster fire of the season that was going to get people arguing with each other was going to be this show. To my surprise not only did that not really happen (at least in my circles) but when I ran into a couple of people telling me it wasn't that bad, both online and IRL, I thought I got flung into freaking mars. Did we really go over the same material?
I never watched the anime adaptation in it's entirety (I gave up after about 7 or so minutes of episode 1, the visuals are pretty but GOD) but I did continue on to read the manga, and honestly I could see where those people were coming from. Not that it invalidates my issues with what I read before or peoples experience with the anime (which again, I never watched in full). It left me feeling so surreal reading this and some of the episode reviews, where the reviewers were feeling the exact same way about episodes 11 & 12 that felt about the contents of the episode 1 and such. It never feels like Kazuya SERIOUSLY gets put to task for his actions, you can never really get behind Kazuya getting into a relationship with anybody period nor really buy why Chizuru would like Kazuya at this stage in the story, and the contrivances it can come up with are super lame. What's worse it's less out of the characters own faults/mistakes/choices but rather trying to please their grandmothers, who I sincerely wanted to see die so the story would stop using them as a crutch. I also don't find it to be super funny either which helps very little and while my opinion of the series has somewhat improved with the material beyond here (saying it gets good feels like a bit of a stretch but it is genuinely trying) I feel the writers frustrations 100%. I too hope the production team gets to work on better material at some point in the future though. Edit: As I was reading, I too wanted a spin off solely based on Sumi but then I realized that was basically just Komi san. |
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Marzan
 Posts: 518 |
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The worst thing is that it's never explained why all these incredibly attractive women fall for someone without appealing features. Kazuya is neither smart, attractive, funny, charismatic or anything of the sort. I know that making your MC good looking is a no no if its a show targeted at males, but if you're going to give your MC a harem, at least make sure that he's other redeeming characteristics,( or pilot a huge mecha, be the worlds best gamer, saviour of the world etc etc).
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Saury
Posts: 18 |
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THIS. Genius! Imagine if a master of savage, dry meta-humour like Koji Kumeta wrote this concept... (has anyone read his satirical bonus chapter for TONIKAWA?) If done correctly, it would easily be anime of the year material. |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
Posts: 1032 |
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As it turns out, there actually is a Sumi spin-off, though I have no idea as to the actual content.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15573 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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No mention of that one episode where that other guy is wallowing in the pity of being by his rental girlfriend that he is totally on the direction of being an actual incel, we are meant to feel sympathy and happy about how the main character fixes it by hiring out his rental girlfriend to him. It just kind of feels gross how this in particular felt like it used the girl like a commodity to fix this guy's problems, which maybe not a problem if it felt like the focus was on her choice rather than Kazuya is doing a good deed by setting it up.
There is partially this kind of possessiveness from Kazuya onto Chizuru, where we can't see her taking on other jobs, and the one time she might be he has to stalk her the entire episode. I think the show was trying to say it was aware of this fault in how Kazuya is wrong for pretty much shaming her in their first date, but it doesn't really get over it, and arguably worse in how it uses him saving her life as like a foundation of a maybe relationship. A reward for Kazuya not letting her die like a guy wanting his reward for being nice. |
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murgleis1
Posts: 44 |
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There's plenty of anime out there (otome-game based stuff is particularly guilty of this) that depict men as garbage, damaged goods that only the main nondescript female MC can fix, etc. Women aren't some sacred cow in this particular field.
Having read a fair amount of the RAG manga, Kazuya does start to change as it goes along and you start to get a feel as to what the girls see in him. But it is certainly slow going, no lie. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1184 |
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Holy crap, there are people who actually, unironically, like Nisekoi?
I understand liking the first 30 or so chapters, when it looked like it was gonna do something different, before becoming the most generic harem romcom possible, but not the whole manga, I remember how my friends and I only read the thing to make fun of how terrible it was. It even had an official meme posted every week: 
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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Interestingly, I've heard the source manga is very popular with Japanese readers. And it's the mangaka's most popular work ever since he went solo.
Although I think people definitely read it more for the girls and how attractive/cute they are. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1346 |
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Eh, SAO and Negima already do that in regards to making the MC so “cool” or whatever that girls will fall head over heels in love with them. Just for those reasons, although their charm, bravery, chivalry, machoness, or charisma can definitely play a huge role here. I have to disagree with what you’re saying here because, quite honestly, I wish these harem anime or any romance anime in general doubled down on the so called “loser MCs”. Like instead of making them depicted as these weird, perverted, dorky types, I wish they were just not good at anything much, very shy and/or very socially awkward, not the most attractive looking either, with their kindness and empathy towards others the few qualities they have, give them more sadder, tragic, backstories and overall make them the kinds of characters you just to give a big hug and want to protect. Shrinking violets so to speak. Make them less like typical male protagonists in a Shōnen or harem romcom and more like female protagonists of a Shojo romance series, or hell even an Otome game. Last edited by Heishi on Thu Oct 01, 2020 9:11 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Cryten
 Posts: 1136 |
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I dont think the point of nisekoi being pointed to was that it was an exemplar of positive relationships but that it could do the appeal part of a harem show with a lot less garbage.
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TexZero
Posts: 591 |
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Nope can't get behind this one.
Calling Mami the best girl in the show and ragging on the Grandmas. The Grandmas were the best part of the show. Kinda sad we didn't get more of them trying to conduct the S.S Fail to it's final destination. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1440 |
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I actually liked the grandmas for a bit! But after Granny groped Chizuru in the bath and had a whole speech about feeling like she's in love with her grandson's girlfriend, I was very much done with whatever the show's doing with her. |
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gridsleep
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Bragging rights about who is (not has) the biggest dick? So, a show about guys on the Internet? Also, should this be subtitled "The Life and Times of Yound Donald Trump"?
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MesousaGaby
 Posts: 71 |
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Okay, guys, let me fix this show/manga:
Have it be about a duo of a likeable pair of a boy and a girl they want to give dating a try,and, wait for it, have it be about BOTH the guy and girl renting a boyfriend AND a girlfriend. This way, we get variety, intrigue and charm. And maybe add a bit of LGBT cause there's lots of possibilities for this silly premise to do something beyond focusing on desperate hetero males. |
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