Confession time; I truly, genuinely love the harem genre. I feel like a black sheep in Japan where many female otakus are into female-oriented shows with many boy characters, and they eventually start following the male VAs. I’m more into waifus than husbandos and only interested in 2D characters. So you know how much I’ve been dying to talk about my favorite harem show of this year.
Usually, harem shows begin with a boy protagonist and his classmate, senpai, kohai, sometimes teacher, neighbor, etc. They usually either tsundere, dandere, deredere, kuudere, whatever dere you can come up with. The setting is at school or home. Events like Valentine’s Day and Xmas Eve considered the top 2 romantic days in Japan, are significant.
Yes, the show covers those elements, but what makes Rent A Girlfriend different is that the main theme is the unromantic concept, “rental girlfriend,” and they turn it into a romantic comedic story. It is originally from the still ongoing manga on Weekly Shonen Magazine, and the manga’s sales skyrocketed due to the growing popularity of the anime adaptation.
If you have read the manga, you notice each girl’s attire is detailed and in style. The manga artist has given so many thoughts about character creations that he really did rent a girlfriend as research since the service was fairly new and unknown. The show is current as well as meticulous, and the anime depicts those elements incredibly well. The OP describes the show with catchy music and Tik-Tok-ish dance movements by all the love interests while matching the stylishness of original manga. The color choices for girls’ fashion and VAs are all spot-on. Everybody is as attractive as the original, or even better. Even though Chizuru is everywhere in my apartment, I genuinely like all of them. I’d love to have anyone as my wife, let alone a girlfriend.
