Hi everyone, today I bring you a review of a very popular anime, Rent a girldfriend or Kanojo Okarishimasu, now why is it so popular, is it because of its story? because of its characters? the truth is below:
Synopsis:
Kazuya Kinoshita is a normal university student who finally has a girlfriend but suddenly she cuts him off and leaves him devastated, while he checks his networks he finds an ad for a bride for rent site (an escort service but only for romantic dates), tired of his situation he rents Chizuru Mizuhara a beautiful and refined girl who even though after a misunderstanding ends up introducing her to his family from this will start a series of entanglements that will bring this young couple closer and closer, what will be the fate of these two? Will the lie become the truth?
Analyzing the characters:
- Kazuya Kinoshita: He is designed to make us feel identified, a guy with no luck in love, despite this he is quite kind worrying about the rest before him, he started renting Chizuru to deal with his breakup with Mami but after realizing that everything was a farce and what he did with him was the same with the others, He decides to rent her again to tell her his truths but by doing so he creates a great scandal forced her to reveal her true personality, a capricious and quite proud girl but in that her phone rings and her parents tell her that her grandmother fainted and that she is in the hospital, without thinking twice she runs to the hospital but Mizuhara follows him and ends up introducing her to her family, from this they will start a series of entanglements that will unite them in a strange way. In spite of his problems he manages his relationship with Chizuru well, although being a virgin and his inexperience gives him complications, he can be quite indecisive and has very low self-esteem telling himself that it is impossible for a girl as pretty as Mizuhara to fall in love with him and even though she is a rental girlfriend he treats her as one if she were his real girlfriend by caring for her and protecting her secret as well as helping her achieve her goals.
- Chizuru Mizuhara: She is quite an egocentric girl but at the same time has a good heart, she says she helps her clients with their love problems but in reality she only uses them to practice her acting as she dreams of being an actress, even though she acts mature most of the time she has many childish traits that come out when she is stressed or with Kazuya most of the time. He considers her the perfect bride and believes that she will be able to grow up by his side although this is an excuse to stay together, after being saved from drowning by him she begins to develop feelings for him but her stubbornness and her position as a rental bride prevent her from saying what she feels, so she also begins to make excuses to stay with him. He is a quite contradictory character because even though he wants Kasuya to get a girlfriend and end his fake relationship, he doesn't want to leave it feeling jealous and even buying a Christmas present for him on his day off.
- Ruka Sarashima: She is a happy and determined girl who was born with an irregular heartbeat and because of this she is constantly protected as she cannot do any hard work to get out of this she decides to become a girlfriend for hire in the hope of finding someone who will make her heart beat faster in a safe way. She met Kasuya when she was on a date with this Kuri's friend and later they had a double date in which she unmasked Chizuru as a girlfriend for hire, Scared Kasuya chases Ruka to protect Mizuhara's secret but due to his insistence she gets distracted and falls down the stairs being saved by Kasuya who ended up hurting her. This fact leaves her captivated and reveals her that she is a rental girlfriend. Since it is the first time she falls in love, it is a dangerous mixture of inexperience and emotion. She is a very possessive girlfriend, although she has her limits, since she could not reveal the truth to Kasuya's grandmother, since she saw how much this would hurt her.
- Sumi Sakurasawa: She is an extremely shy girl that becomes a surrogate girlfriend to overcome this, she is a friend of Chizuru and admires her a lot, thanks to her she was able to have a practice date with Kasuya and she managed to understand better what it means to be a surrogate girlfriend, she is quite a kind girl so much that she makes an effort trying to do new things even if this is bad for her or embarrassing for her, she mostly communicates with signs or speaking in a low voice to make Kasuya feel uncomfortable because she did not know how to deal with her.
- Mami Nanami: She is Kasuya's ex and the main antagonist of the story, this character is designed for us to hate him and how not to do it, since she constantly comes between the protagonists and insists on separating them, we don't know the reason why she started her relationship with Kasuya but one thing is for sure she wasn't in love with him, in the end she ends it with the excuse that she was dating someone else, which was a lie, she knows how to manipulate men to do what she wants especially Kasuya since she knows how to attack their weak points. She has a double personality, since for everyone she is a lively and kind girl who is a friend to everyone but deep down she is irritable and vindictive, she spends her time writing horrible things about others on her twitter account, this personality rarely goes outside only when she is upset or things don't go the way she wants, this personality scares everyone who is close to her.
Relationships between the main characters:
- Chizuru and Kasuya: They have a very complicated relationship, even though it started as a commercial transaction they quickly became close due to the entanglements they caused with their families and also due to the fact that they are neighbors and go to the same university. Even though Kasuya is a complete disaster he knows clearly how he feels about Chizuru but instead she is not allowed to accept him so she prefers to end her relationship with Kasuya and focus on her acting career.
- Ruka and Kasuya: Their relationship didn't start off in the best way, at first she was hostile to him thinking he was just another guy who rented girlfriends to show off but after being saved and seeing how he was trying to protect Mizuhara she fell in love with him, their relationship is quite chaotic as she is constantly claiming and feeling jealous of Chizuru, His insistence and motivation could be considered an obsession, but Kasuya feels uncomfortable with her since at the beginning she was blackmailing him to go out with her.
- Sumi and Kasuya: At first it was difficult to get to know each other since Sumi was shy and made it difficult for both of them to talk, but in the end she began to have more confidence and could talk to him in a low voice. Both had a nice date although Kasuya spent all his time trying to get her to relax, he couldn't help but notice how pretty she was and how happy he would be with a girlfriend like her, Although he was still thinking about Chizuru so he was not allowed to fantasize much, Kasuya encourages Sumi not to worry too much about his shyness as he had fun on his date, grateful Sumi has the courage to say goodbye to Kasuya with a nice smile which makes him blush.
- Mami and Kasuya: They don't tell us much about their relationship with Kasuya but according to Mami he was constantly trying to "take advantage" of her by taking her to bars at night and stuff like that, which made her uncomfortable. After breaking up with him, they meet when he is on a date with Chizuru and he begins to say uncomfortable things about their relationship in front of all his friends, something that bothers Mizuhara, During the trip to the beach he tries in a more active way to make her break up with Chizuru, all in vain because in the end these two become more united, he no longer feels anything for Mami but he is still uncomfortable with her presence, instead Mami begins to show signs of feeling something for him.
Conclusion:
This romantic comedy, even though it's crazy, is quite entertaining and even though I don't think that the best option for loneliness is to pay someone to go out with you, I think that when I see everything that this guy goes through with rental girlfriends it makes me understand that love has different forms and that even though it can bring a giant amount of problems it's worth playing every last card to find it.
Sources:
By: Ángel Solorzano
