Rule of Three: Rent-A-Girlfriend - Moving Pictures

The Rule of Three is when you watch three episodes of a TV show and make a judgment based on that whether you’ll continue watching. If a show isn’t sufficiently entertaining after about an hour (not counting ad breaks), then it’s probably not going to be at all. I'd heard about Rent-A-Girlfriend and, being a fan of harem sitcoms, figured that I should finally check it out despite it.

What's a lonely college student to do when his first girlfriend breaks up with him after only a month? That's right, get on the apps. Specifically, the app which lets him hire someone to pretend to be his girlfriend for a couple of hours. That's the plot of this anime with five seasons currently on Crunchyroll.

So, the main character, Kazuya, hires Mizuhara to be his girlfriend, and he takes offence when she does her job well. Her reviews are public, so he's miffed that the others got the same experience as him, and hires her again specifically to shame her. The date ends prematurely when Kazuya has to rush to the hospital to see his grandmother, so Mizuhara decides to accompany him without prompting. Things escalate when she introduces herself as his girlfriend, and they have to meet Mizuhara’s own grandmother, too!

Afterwards, they say their farewells and figure they'll never meet again… until they run into each other at college. Mizuhara's got a Clark Kent thing going, so she demands that Kazuya stays away from her at college, and they figure they'll never meet again… until they leave their apartments at the same time and discover they're next-door neighbours.

Since Kazuya’s grandmother loves Mizuhara, they agree that he can hire her once per week to visit at the hospital. But the next visit ends with the couple in a restaurant with his friend group, which includes his ex-girlfriend Mami. The ex tries to trash-talk Kazuya but, being good at her job, Mizuhara tells her off. This sets Mami on a quest to break the pair up, and judging by the third episode, it's something that takes up at least most of the first 12-episode season.

See, I'd been warned off of Rent-A-Girlfriend because “it's trash”, but I just had to know what was “wrong” with it. I laughed, Kazuya masturbated several times, every scene has some contrived coincidence, Mami is uncomfortably characterised, Kazuya kept popping boners, Mizuhara is a professional and yet blames Kazuya for her decisions… I can see how it got its reputation if this is how it began, and even more so if it continues like this.

But, dang, if I actually want to watch more. Who are the two other women in the title sequence? How will people react to Mami’s secret rage Twitter? How long until Kazuya's money runs out? When it does, how will he afford tissues and/or therapy for his excessive self-abuse?

Rent-A-Girlfriend is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.