Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 3 Discussion (2024)

GridironOtaku

Now that Kazuya is going full-speed ahead on helping Chizuru fulfill her promise to Sayuri before she passes away, he has quite a lot of work ahead of him. But in the meantime, Kazuya's neighbor on the other side, Mini, is starting to take notice. The next night, Chizuru makes late-night visit to Kazuya's apartment where the two are working on ideas for the film, and then Chizuru cooks a meal for Kazuya with ingredients from her fridge seeing that Kazuya's is practically empty. And then Ruka makes an unexpected visit just as Chizuru was leaving. This show is back, and it looks like things are going to be more focused this season compared to the first two when it spent a lot of time showcasing just how much of a wuss Kazuya is, and I remember just how many conveniences the story takes, and the first one is there at the end of this episode with Ruka choosing a bad time to make a surprise visit.

GridironOtaku

That was totally on Kazuya once again as he forgot to check his messages. But while talking about this rental girlfriend business, Mini captures them on video. As it turns out, Mini is a cosplay enthusiast, and she thinks that Chizuru actually loves Kazuya as a real boyfriend. Of course, Kazuya just isn't that kind of guy to admit stuff like this. But in the meantime, the filming continues as he has his work cut out.

Gafennec

auroraloose

So now, within this exercise of performative genre extremes in the service of consumerism, we have an avatar of performative internet consumerist extremes. Of course Mini confuses Kazuya; she's the embodiment of the variety of discourse that produces things like Rent-A-Girlfriend, and Kazuya can't be allowed to escape.

I'm hoping Mami ends up liking her.

"He who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."
—Arthur Schopenhauer

GridironOtaku

Things were going well at first, but crowdfunding has stalled. Kazuya happens to run into Sumi, and thanks to her word is starting to get out. So with that, the script is done, Chizuru is in a time crunch needing to familiarize herself with the script, and the project still needs some more money otherwise this whole project comes to a halt. Even though both Kazuya and Chizuru acknowledge that this is not a real romantic relationship, Mini is not so sure and things get heated when the girls talk about it. So with that, Ruka and Sumi are in the loop about the project leaving only Mami, and it's best if she's left out of it as who knows what damage she'll do to it.

camay1997

HOOfan_1

camay1997 said:
There I was putting on the costume, about to destroy the world for this season's lack of best girl when she appears. And all is calm, all is serene.

the shy girl?

camay1997

Xuhybrid

camay1997 said:
There I was putting on the costume, about to destroy the world for this season's lack of best girl when she appears. And all is calm, all is serene.

GridironOtaku

The guy Kazuya bumped into on Christmas has returned as Chizuru's colleague Umi is being asked to retweet (or should I say rexeet after what Elon Musk did to Twitter) the campaign. And then Umi asks Chizuru to go see a play together with him on the final day before the crowdfunding deadline. Mini urged Chizuru to go to the play while Kazuya, Mini, and Ruka handle the flyer handout. Since Umi has Nanaho as his boyfriend that there's nothing to worry about. Except that they broke up, and now Umi is going after Chizuru, and seeing that she can't break a promise to a friend that she declines a dinner invitation. But in the end, Chizuru holds firm by saying something down the lines that Kazuya is nothing more than an important friend. With that, it didn't take long for the crowdfunding goal to hit. It's no wonder why Umi broke up with Nanaho as being aggressive like that is not good.

Xuhybrid

auroraloose

I liked Mini for the first two episodes, since she is obsessive like Ruka but in a less obnoxious direction. But then I don't know even: Did the author summon Mini to break everything he was doing the first two seasons? Rent-A-Girlfriend has meticulously avoided saying anything outright for 26 episodes, and has deliberately maintained its ridiculous facade by whatever convoluted and strained means were necessary. Now it's going to throw all that in the trash? And more than that, assign belief in its facade to Chizuru as what she needs to overcome to have a relationship with Kazuya? This is a harem anime, so gaslighting is built into the hermeneutic, but this is too much. Granted, Chizuru did do this to herself, and her individualist-opportunist instrumentalization of romance for profit is the real villain of the show. But this is what made Rent-A-Girlfriend good—the tension generated by the shamelessness of its plot and its characters. Now everyone's slotting themselves into friendly supportiveness, as if the first two seasons never happened. Even Mini's mistake of blurting out to Chizuru the truth of Kazuya's feelings is an error of earnest support, and not of craziness, conniving, or stabilizing deceit.

I guess, to be fair, the narrative convolutions necessary to maintain the rental facade the past two seasons have strained believability for a while now; maybe it was too hard for the author to keep it up. Given that this was going to end with Kazuya getting the girl, we had to get there eventually. It seems to me like the author ran out of steam and just switched gears to denouement mode. Thus Rent-A-Girlfriend is over, and what we have here now is just sappy cleanup. This can still be reasonable; over two seasons we've learned what the characters are like and thus can appreciate more relational shenanigans (e.g., Ruka being Ruka, more Sumi). But the central conceit, the shamelessness that made Rent-A-Girlfriend good, is gone. Mini at the moment is functioning as a distraction so we don't notice what's missing. The events of the plot seem more haphazard in general now actually. I don't think even Mami can save us this time; maybe she's cooking something up, but since the show's undergone this narrative reversal all it can do is make her terrible outright, which she's never been and which would be even more of a disappointment.

Mini is fun though. She's powering the whole thing at this point. Well, I'll take what I can get.

"He who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."
—Arthur Schopenhauer

GridironOtaku

Now that Kazuya has the budget to make the film, the next order of business is to shoot it. Everything goes well, but then comes the final scene at Madarao as the filming crew have their own film that they need to start work on. And then Kazuya enlists help from Mini and Ruka to help out. But it turns out to be a trap as she waited until after Kazuya and Chizuru stepped onto the bullet train when she told Kazuya that it will be just the two of them as Mini feigned catching the flu, and she told that to Ruka. Just one last scene, but it's going to be quite the challenge to do seeing that Kazuya is all by himself to do it.

auroraloose

Ignoring all the film stuff because it's only there because it has to be, I think this is the first time I've actually felt annoyed by Kazuya's bitching about himself and Chizuru. I guess it took so long because before now there was enough to be invested in that I was distracted. Now that nothing at all is happening anymore the bad parts are laid bare.

But to be fair, this episode Rent-a-Girlfriend actually brought back its manipulation shenanigans—the Good Witch Mini has succeeded the Wicked Witch Mami, even coopting Mami's evil theme music. But the show hasn't reversed its decline; it's still in denouement mode, and that Mini has effectively replaced Mami as the mover of conflict means even the return of shenanigans won't bring us back to the tension and Farce of earlier seasons, which were what made Rent-a-Girlfriend good.

"He who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."
—Arthur Schopenhauer

GridironOtaku

Mini really did it setting up Kazuya and Chizuru in a romantic setting for what should have been a business trip. Not only did she set this trip up for the four of them only to back out later, they got those two sharing a room. Madarao is a ski resort, but during the summer it's pretty empty. So Chizuru tells Kazuya the truth about where this promise came from and why she turned to Kazuya as it turns out the promised was originally made between her and her grandfather, but he was killed in an accident and instead made the promise to be with her grandmother, who doesn't have much longer to live. And with auditions going nowhere that she turned to Kazuya to make it happen. So with that, the filming is all wrapped up and just needs to be edited before it can be shown to Sayuri. In the meantime, Ruka is none too pleased at what Mini did and is demanding Kazuya to make it up by going on a date on her birthday.

Xuhybrid

HOOfan_1

Gafennec

GridironOtaku

And Kazuya goes on a date with Ruka to make up for all the trouble he caused and everything, as well as to celebrate her birthday. They head out to the pool, and the old suntan lotion cliche happens. So after all that, it's time for Kazuya to get to work with the video editing and stuff as Sayuri doesn't have much time left to live, and things are progressing quite nicely. Things are better this season without Mami stirring up trouble as Kazuya already has enough problems on his hands.

And on that note, there's no episode next week as the World Athletics Championship is happening next week. As the event is happening in Hungary, that means it's happening in the late night hours in Japan.

HOOfan_1

Gafennec said:
All I got was "Oops; something went wrong. Try again." So I tried 5 times and got the same error message. I'm highly irate.

Try replaying the previous episode then jump to the end and let it auto-play the newest episode.

Crunchyroll has really been screwing up new releases the past couple of weeks.

Xuhybrid

Gafennec said:
All I got was "Oops; something went wrong. Try again." So I tried 5 times and got the same error message. I'm highly irate.

Gafennec

Tried that. Previous episode gave me the OOPs message. Thanks for helping.

Gafennec

I don't have Ublock or Brave Shield. I'll try turning off adblocker for CR. I, too, have premium. Thanks for helping!

HOOfan_1

I switched to edge and that worked.

Gafennec

I dislike EDGE a lot. I've been a Mozilla/Firefox user since version 2? 1? But if I have too; I will. I need my anime fix.

auroraloose

Okay, I am caught up, and—I know he's been somewhat like this since the beginning, but Kazuya has advanced to a stage beyond the average harem protagonist this season. His constant self-commentary on his pathetic nature and horniness is reaching absurd levels. I can't imagine a normal person being that nervous and apprehensive about the opposite sex, or doing so that obsessively about even little things. It's as if, because the harem genre is already so ridiculous as to have left the atmosphere, Rent-a-Girlfriend has been able to launch Kazuya out of the solar system: The unreality of the situation has forced this insane internality onto his character. I regularly say that anime is nowhere near serious literature, and regularly invoke Dostoyevsky when I do so; but it's the crazed, obsessive internal lives of the Dostoyevskian male protagonist Kazuya reminds me of.

Maybe he'll murder Chizuru's grandmother.

"He who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."
—Arthur Schopenhauer

MenchiK1

Xuhybrid

MenchiK1 said:
Hadn't watched this yet but caught up this week. Hmmm this movie arc is pretty bad, forced them to add the neighbor girl so there was someone at least competant on how to do crowdfunding. Though I guess all sitcoms need a nosy neighbor. Altjough her already seeing the obvious along with Chizuru's grandma are making this that much more painful as is Ruka being such a sweet cutie. I mean date or move on quit torturing the audience with this forced will they or won't they already. Ruka sticking around seems less and less plausiblle every episode, he waa at least nice to her before now I don't get it.
The first two seasons worked because they kept coming up with ridiculous romcom situations that kept them apart (romantically) but constantly having to do things together but now that its doing everything to get them together its just getting painfully awkward that they aren't hooking up romantically. You know its bad when even the other characters are pointing it out.
If its not going to stick to its original formula the author needs to admit he is out of ideas and wrap it up. I mean not one rental date this season, where are his friends while he was working on the movie, where is Mami (one cameo for the season?)
This seems like a completely different show than the first 2 seasons and its not really funny, or romantic. I feel bad for Chizuru, because now if she dates him its like she's doing it to repay him of course if she doesn't she is coming off as just stringing him along. And his attitude toward Ruka ughh please put her out of her misery, her getting turned on by him putting sun tan lotion on was just really creepy.
Don't know how this show ruined a good thing but it did. Can't imagine how the manga is still going if this is the direction it went in after last season.

GridironOtaku

Everything is all set for the premiere screening with Sayuri and 200 backers of this project inside the theater. Despite the doctors recommending against her going out, she does ahead of the screening to see the venue, and afterwards she collapses. Chizuru's grandmother is now on the verge of passing away as she was exerting herself quite a lot there going out at her age and condition. Doesn't look like the promise will be upheld, but at the very least Chizuru gained valuable experience that will go a long way.

MenchiK1

Xuhybrid

MenchiK1

Xuhybrid

At this point it's on her, but i have a feeling Kazuya is still going to go out of his way for this ungrateful child.

eddie1255

You know what I wouldn't mind another season just to see how they would handle the NTR scene.

camay1997

GridironOtaku

And with that, Sayuri has passed away. However, thanks to Kazuya thinking things through for a change that Chizuru was able to fulfill her promise as she watched the movie from the hospital in her final moments. While she slept through a good portion of it, she made it through to the end. So now that Chizuru has no more family left, it will be interesting to see how things unfold in the future. This show is always better when it is focused on actually building the characters rather than rely on convenient story writing hacks that are way too commonplace in the first two seasons and are largely absent this season. Hopefully, this season can finish up strong with the final three episodes.

GridironOtaku

With Chizuru needing some time alone as she mourns the loss of the last member of her family, Kazuya goes out on a date with Sumi to the coast. And then he comes back to inform her and Ruka about Sayuri's passing. And in order to get Chizuru to get her life back on track, Kazuya asks for an advance on his salary and ends up working extra shifts in order to have enough money for a critical date. After all the grief that happened last time, now Kazuya is making quite a bold move there seeing that they are still a fake couple and everything.

GridironOtaku

And with that, Kazuya goes all-in on this date seeing that her mental health is in the tank with not only the passing of her grandmother, but of her last remaining member of her family. Kazuya brings her to watch a movie, then eat at an Italian restaurant, then go sports climbing just like during one of their previous dates when Ruka tagged along, and then have dinner at a fancy crab restaurant. And it ends with fireworks. Along the way, Chizuru is reminded of all the great times of her youth in contrast to the sad reality she lives in. Kazuya sure didn't hold anything back with this date and it's no wonder why he asked for an advance on his paycheck as this was all about Chizuru in helping her cope with her loss. One more episode left in this season, and I have to think it ends with the premiere and after explaining the context of the project, Chizuru gets a ton of support and an opportunity.

GridironOtaku

And with that, the date is over, and while Chizuru tries to hide it, Kazuya isn't buying it as she tears up there. Next day, Kazuya is trying hard to forget about it, but it doesn't work, not when Chizuru is next door and so is Mini reminding him about his relationship. And Chizuru knows exactly what Kazuya's ideal girlfriend is. It all ends with the premiere screening for the movie, and everybody in the theater liked it. As for Chizuru's future plans, she's going forward with her acting career as that video got her to realize just how much she loves acting, and that a bigger stage awaits. And for the only time this season Mami appears at the end. The ending didn't answer all the questions, but at the very least Chizuru was able to move forward with her life as she's going all-in on her acting career. Kazuya's ideal girlfriend, who Chizuru turns to next now that her family is gone, and what Kazuya's future endeavors involves are all something for another day. I was hoping for much more out of the season finale, but it is what it is.

One other thing is that the QR code on Mini's shirt leads to the Instagram page of her seiyu, Yu Serizawa.

Final Thoughts

This season is an improvement over the first two in that some of the major problems plagued them are largely absent in this season as it has a more serious tone to it, all while allowing room for it to be the romcom it has always been. In particular, Mami, who is easily the worst character in this series, is absent in this season having only one moment of screen time, all while the show focuses on the story and does everything with that plot in mind. And above all, Kazuya is much less of that cringeworthy loser this season. In all, it helps that this season is much more focused and doesn't fool around with anything pointless or conveniently drawn up. While better than the previous seasons, this show continues to have issues with story writing and characterization, just to a lesser extent.

Grade: C+ (7/10)

HOOfan_1

6/10