Rent-A-Girlfriend is back and I'm still as conflicted about the show as ever. On one hand, I really enjoy it. It's entertaining and silly and it has the potential to be a really interesting, mature story. It has great animation, I love the opening and ending themes and it's generally a good time. On the other hand, though, the series doesn't seem to know exactly what it wants to be or do. Like I just said, there is some potential for a truly great series that deals with more mature themes. Rent-A-Girlfriend consistently chooses to squander its potential by having a severely unlikable main character which leaves me questioning the romance in this romantic comedy.

Season 2 of Rent-A-Girlfriend picks up pretty much right where season one left off. Chizuru might be about to quit the rental girlfriend business and Kazuya is sad about it. This episode follows the main character as he goes to watch Chizuru's play, where she's hoping to finally make it as an actress. He watches the play, feels defeated because they won't be interacting anymore, and leaves. What he doesn't know is that behind the scenes, Chizuru didn't get her big break. They bump into each other outside of the venue and that's when things get awkward.

There's a scene that I think is supposed to be really touching, but just comes off as creepy to me. Despite not really being friends, despite Chizuru's insistence throughout the first season that her rental girlfriend job be kept quiet, and despite the fact that Kazuya has repeatedly broken boundaries with Chizuru... he does all three of those things right then and there. He screams in the middle of the street about how he'll rent her every week. He'll get a job just so that he can pay for her to continue her acting dream, and she can't give up. This leads to Chizuru going home and getting a little teary-eyed when she sees those date requests come in.

Alright, so what's my actual problem with this?

It's the fact that I'm not buying into the Chizuru is falling for Kazuya plot. It's no secret that a lot of people dislike Kazuya, take a look at any Reddit thread about Rent-A-Girlfriend. He's weird, he's obsessive and he's kind of a stalker. In fact, this entire show starts with him giving Chizuru crap for being good at her job as a rental girlfriend. There have been scenes where he follows her around and where, if I'm remembering correctly, he literally has to beg her to help him. None of it is endearing. None of it is cute. It's weird and creepy and... despite this, I still watch the show for its entertainment value.

I've come to accept that Rent-A-Girlfriend will never be as deep as I want it to. That helps me get through the show, and as long as no one uses Kazuya's behavior to model their own after, everything should be fine. I know it sounds like I hate Rent-A-Girlfriend, but I'm really just disappointed. But I can't lament what the show isn't and have to enjoy it for what it is.

So if you want a silly romantic comedy and don't mind Kazuya being a creep, this episode was actually a fairly decent opening episode for season 2. It felt very self-contained and was more about re-establishing the status quo than anything else, but that's okay in an opening episode. I also really enjoyed the scenes we saw in Chizuru's play. She was adorable, and heartbreaking all at once and really nailed the silly ninja vibe.

Rent-A-Girlfriend isn't the best anime out there, but it's at least good enough that I can't dispose of it completely.

Here's the official description from Crunchyroll:

Kinoshita Kazuya is a 20-year-old failure of a college student. He managed to kiss his girlfriend once, but was dumped after a month. "Ugh... Damn it. I never want to go through that again."Completely spiteful, Kazuya uses a certain method to date a girl. He goes to their meeting place and suddenly hears, "You're Kazuya-kun, right?" A beautiful girl brushing her long, black hair behind her ear was there, smiling at him. Her name was Mizuhara Chizuru. Something real is born after just a single rental! A reckless rom-com filled with love and excitement is about to begin!

Rent-A-Girlfriend airs on Fridays on Crunchyroll. You can catch up on the first season now, along with the first episode of the second season!

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