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Why Everyone is Mad at Rent-A-Girlfriend
—and Why There is Hope
12th of June, 2025
Why everyone is upset about Rent-A-Girlfriend (Kanojo Okarishimasu)?
Oh, boy. It has been a long time since I’ve seen a manga or anime blow up the internet like this. Actually, that’s not true. “The Beginning After the End” enraged the fanbase, although due to poor animation and not for the same reasons Rent-A-Girlfriend caused such a great upset.
To summarize, the story is about Kazuya who “rents” Chizuru Mizuhara to pretend to be his girlfriend after his real girlfriend dumped him. In Japan, there are services where you can rent a girl to pretend to be your girlfriend (it is also possible to rent a mom, a father, a child, etc). But nothing sexual happens. They simply engage in conversation and spend some time together.
Mizuhara is a struggling actress. She uses this job to make some money and to improve her acting.
Drama ensues and after 300 chapters, they both acknowledge that they are in love with each other, but in the most recent chapter, Mizuhara turns him down, saying that she wants to continue living her current life, and does not want to give it up for a boyfriend.
Okay, reasonable enough. Why is it causing such an uproar?
It is because of everything leading up to it.
First of all, there is her incredible indecisiveness.
In Mizuhara’s hour of need when she wanted to make a movie to show to her dying grandmother, Kazuya helped her raise the money and did ALL the work to put together a script and a team to film it.
When they got kicked out of their housing, she offered him to stay with her (along with another girl).
They went to family events together and even kissed.
But here is the real kicker.
Mizuhara agreed to go on a ‘real’ date with Kazuya to find out about her feelings for him.
Okay, reasonable. Why the great upset?
During the date, she essentially does a marriage interview, asking him what he considers cheating, how often he would want to meet up, what kind of life they would lead hypothetically, what he is planning for the future, how many kids he would want and so on.
There was even an episode where she recalls her late grandmother scolding her for not taking the feelings of others seriously and to properly reject a guy if she doesn’t see a future with him.
I think what everyone is upset about is the reason why she turned down Kazuya after everything they have gone through together, after everything she asked during the date, after all the way she hinted at being together, even after saying that she is in love with him.
The reason for turning him down is that she does not want to give up her current “lifestyle” and “job.”
Her lifestyle and job being working as a rental girlfriend and trying to get acting jobs.
It’s totally okay for her to want to keep her current job and lifestyle if that is what she prefers. It’s just that if she fundamentally does not want to change her life in any way, then why even tell him that she will seriously consider going out with him and that she needs time to investigate her feelings?
Isn’t that just wasting his time?
It’s even more maddening because all of her questions hint at a future together and that she wants to know what they’re together will be like.
But if she does not want to make any changes—any changes at all—to her current life, then isn’t she just being disingenuous?
But there is hope!
Looking at the last few pages of the latest chapter, it does not seem like Kazuya is gonna cry and sink into despair. In fact, it looks like he is kind of angry.
For the first time, it looks like he is growing some backbone. Even he must understand how unreasonable it is.
It’s totally okay for her to reject him. It’s just her reasoning for it makes it seem that everything has been a waste of time.
It also seems that this rejection hurts Mizuhara more than it does Kazuya. I’m not sure if I’m reading too much into it, but the wound on Mizuhara’s heel might be a metaphor.
My gut feeling tells me that there might be a minor time skip.
Kazuya grows some backbone while Mizuhara is hurt by her own decision.
That expression on his face gives me hope.
—Oniisanbomber
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