Kanojo, Okarishimasu

"There's no one who's truly not lonely. Most people try to hide it, but everyone has a hole in their hearts."

This manga is one of the most deceitful manga I've read.

This isn't your typical romance manga.

The beginning makes your head scratched in frustration for the incompetence displayed by the main character. Almost unbearable to read. I was so close to dropping it as for so many but for some reason, I was intoxicated in this manga and kept reading.

And was I surprised.

This is hands down one of the most realistic manga I've read. What your getting here isn't just a romance, you're getting a manga where the characters deal with their identity and self-worth. The MC painfully aware of his "worthlessness" brings great agony to those reading the manga, where many reduce it to "cringe" or "he's a simp". While many refuse to accept their weakness, the MC does. Slowly but surely, you see the progression of the character as he starts to figure himself out.

The flaw that made him the most unbearable character possible, ended up enchanting me in its relatability and how we deal with ourselves. It was like looking into the mirror.

You might get disappointed initially, but if you wait long enough, you might be surprised, and even enchanted as I was reading this.

Multiple boys or girls fawning over a mutual love interest is no contemporary trope in pop culture; love triangles, squares, and dodecahedrons have been part of the entertainment industry seemingly since the dawn of time. And so when a new show rears its head around saying “hey guys we have something that’s completely new and different that will blow your minds!”, deep down you know it’s bound to be exactly the same thing.

Kanojo, Okarishimasu! (彼女, お借りします), known better by its anglicized name ‘Rent-a-Girlfriend’ or abbreviated ‘Kanokari’, presents viewers with a premise brimming with potential yet failing to deliver. Rather than taking place at middle school or high school like the genre’s five million predecessors, university is where we lay our scene (a solid choice for the writers who wanted an adult-oriented cast but wanted to steer clear of ending up in the Sing Yesterday For Me spiral).

If mangaka Miyajima Reiji took this concept and delved deeper into the intricacies and budding romance between Kazuya and Mizuhara (two characters, mind you, that don’t conform to any particular anime protagonist traits, and are rather well written as individuals and in their interactions), this show’s upcoming negative critique and criticism would certainly be replaced by praise and admiration. However, that isn’t the universe we live in, and the reality is that three other potential lovers were added to meddle with the connection between our hero and heroine.

Rather than creating classic harem dramaturgy, committing this heinous crime has taken the smooth seas that the Chizuya ship was sailing on and plagued the waters with molten lava, tsunamis that begin to measure on the Richter scale, and divine interference from Cthulhu R'lyeh itself. A pretty nasty scene, but entirely accurate. By taking the spotlight away from the mains and instead throwing away precious 20-page weekly chapters left, right, and center for Mami, Ruka, and Sumi, not only has character development progress been hindered, but in tandem with the overall pacing and flow of the story.

Shows like Nisekoi, written 8 years prior to Kanokari, prove that pacing and flow are of the utmost importance when dealing with the harem genre. Although your first thirty to sixty chapters may be filled with foreshadowing and references galore, take too much time to stretch out the story and you’ll soon be met with fewer viewers coming back each week knowing that nothing will progress. Sadly, Rent-a-Girlfriend has been a follower of this unacceptable trait in the manga, leading many like yours truly to start doubting whether or not all this dedication was worth it. With chapters 100 and beyond setting up many potential areas of exploration but not delivering even 50 chapters later, it’s no surprise that the official viewer ratings on MAL have been slipping from its ruling position at the beginning of the season (Summer 2020).

Despite the lack of invigorating story development, the characters themselves are actually designed quite decently (in both aesthetic and personality), with the four girls having bits and pieces of different anime stereotypes rather than sticking to just the one. Doing so allows Miyajima to add the surprise element in terms of the decisions his characters make, by putting them in unfamiliar situations that draw out their hidden traits and help build onto the cast and the world. In terms of creative profits, this action has also started a sales-boosting “waifu war” where audience members pick one of the girls to support and thus buy their assorted associated goods - a trick that may sound devious at first, but can you really call yourself an anime fan if you don’t have at least one piece of merchandise?

Nevertheless, I have to applaud Studio TMS Entertainment for their ability to turn this melting pot of wasted possibilities into something enjoyable in comparison. The beautiful manga panels are definitely key attractions to the manga for those who appreciate the art style, but preserving, refining, and inking that quality of sketching is no easy task, yet a task that has been completed flawlessly. Backed up by the killer soundtrack that remixes classical music with 8-bit chiptune, an OP by none other than the peggies (famous for their work on Rascal Doesn’t Dream Of A Bunny Girl Senpai, Sarazanmai, and Boruto), and an ED by the one and only halca (famous for her work on Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Wotaku), both the music and the art elevate the entire show from its dumpster fire tier to a higher plane.

In the sea of new releases and episodes that get published and spread on the internet every day, it’s no surprise that a show starring four cute girls with a title that immediately attracts audience members both English and Japanese would get popular at such a rapid rate. That being said, with the manga disappointing in almost every aspect, the currently airing (as of 20/8/2020) anime adaptation covers for some of the flaws, but not all of them. Recommended to die-hard fans of the harem genre, but even still, why not watch something better like The Quintessential Quintuplets or Ouran High School Host Club?

Rating: 5.5/10

Spoilers I guess but it wouldn't ruin your experience reading it if there's any

I really don't get the hype around this manga. The girls are great don't get me wrong, but if you look past that, there's really nothing this manga has to offer.

Sumi shows up for like 5 chapters, Mami's presence slowly fades out as the manga progresses, Ruka becomes annoying because the authors are trying to push the Mizuhara x Kazuya ship to the front and she keeps interrupting.

The story just progresses painfully slow, some chapters were cringeworthy to read. My main problem with this piece of S named Kazuya.

He is SOOOOOO bad. I know the writers wanted to make him a (relatable) simp but after 160 chapters of little to no character development, I just got really sick and tired of this guy. I know people believe he's nice because he looks out for Mizuhara, but other than that, how could he ever, EVER get her to like him when he just has no self-esteem and holds her on such a high pedestal. Every second he sees her he just admires and compliments her. I'm sure that a third of this manga's dialogue is dedicated to Kazuya's compliments to Mizuhara.

Here's a summary of basically half of the chapters

Kazuya takes Mizuhara on a date or sees her --> Some strangers pass by say and say oh she's so beautiful/make some sexual comments --> Kazuya fantasizes to himself and stares at her --> One line of development at the end of the date.

Rinse and repeat for about 160 Chapters and you got yourself this really boring manga with little to no reward for reading.

TL:DR ==> read it for the memes

This is truly a great manga, in the start you do wonder in what direction is it going to go and how they going to drag out the concept, but the different scenario's and how the story grows is unbelieveable. Truly cant want for the next chapter to come out . I have read and watch many different kind of manga's and anime's in the past and this is for sure by far my number one I am actually at a point where I wish the story will never end but know there must come a end someday,but it just gets better and better with each Volume. Truly take the time and read, it really a good laught.Personally I dont think they need to add the nudish type scenes as the manga is really good on it's own, some try and get people hooked by artwork that awakens feelings in you but really this manga dont need it I personally feel is just good on its own.

The review may contain minor spoilers for the first few arcs.

This is trash. Insultingly bad trash at that.

So, I've started this because I've seen a page of it in a YouTube video, and based on that I thought this is going to be a sassy, funny series. Boy, it's been a while since I've been THAT dead wrong.

Story - 2

As with most romcoms, there's not much of a plot to talk about, it's all about the characters and their interactions (and man, those suck, but we'll get there in a bit). Protagonist gets dumped by his manipulative girlfriend, can't get over her so he uses one of those rent-a-date services to pretend having an actual girlfriend for a while. After some shenanigans his grandma (who is hospitalized) thinks they are an actual couple, is super happy and the protagonist not wanting to break her heart leads her on.

The two main leads have pretty much no chemistry together even after 10 chapters. The only reason they interact is because of ridiculous coincidences: oh, she just HAPPENS TO attend the same university, just HAPPENS TO literally live next door to the protagonist, just HAPPENS TO visit the same beach at the same time than the protagonist for vacation, etc. You get the idea. Basically the author had to force the two characters into these situations one after the other with no rhyme or reason, or they would want nothing to do anything with each other. All the plot and character-development (what minuscule amount of them we have anyways...) happens through contrived coincidences and forced interactions, which is just bad writing in general.

Art - 6

Ehh, decent I suppose. I can't for the life of me differentiate between the side characters, but the main characters are well drawn and the scenery can be nice every now and then. Nothing to write home about though.

Characters - 1

Characters either don't have personalities to speak of or they are unequivocally pathetic excuses of human beings. So far there are 3 prominent characters: Kazuya (protagonist), Chizuru (the titular rental girl, main female lead) and Mami (Kazuya's ex-gf).

Kazuya is your typical awkward, stupid, perverted, pathetic virgin harem protagonist character with absolutely no unique traits or redeeming characteristics. The only even remotely unusual thing is that he is a university student, not a high school one, not that that changes anything whatsoever. He rents a girlfriend from one of these sugar-daddy services, then gets all pissy when he realizes that she is nice to him out of this being her job and not out of actual feelings (like, duh, dumbass) and that she is just as nice to all the other costumers. when the misunderstanding with the grandma happens, he just runs with a lie and ends up groveling at Chizuru's fate, literally begging her to allow him to rent her again and again to keep up with the ever growing pile of lies, because he cannot grow a backbone and fess up. All the while wasting a fortune on his fake girlfriend, despite not having a job and living off of the money of his parents. A real keeper, this one. Oh, and his interest in romance is skin deep: he is fine with any manipulative, mean girl, as long as she has a smoking hot body.

Chizuru is the girlfriend for rent Kazuya hires. She starts out with this saccharin-sweet, blatantly fake attitude at first, but it doesn't take long for her real personality to show: mean, smug, business-like and bitchy, who, according to her very own statement, is having the time of her life doing her job. Her job, which is basically raking in money by leading on a different creep / loser virgin every day with her faked sweet persona to pump as much money out them for her "services" as possible. Every time she does something nice or uncharacteristically decent with the protagonist and I thought ("okay, so maybe this is where she'll show some positive traits, aside of being a manipulative, mean b****"), the very next chapter always starts out with a protagonist getting a hefty check with several times of her normal fee for being nice, accompanied by an ice-cold, all-business letter. To put it simply, she keeps the protagonist around, because he is an easy cash cow for her who is literally groveling and begging her so to allow him to keep paying quite a bit of money consistently, only so that he wouldn't have to grow a backbone and own up to his shit. The only difference between what she does and a prostitute is that prostitutes at least give actual service, not just fake smiles and false hopes. But I guess that would have been too raunchy for Shounen Weekly.

Momo is very similar to Chizuru in that she puts up this cutesy persona, which the protagonist swallows hook, line and sinker. In reality, she just likes to mess around with guys and then dumping them, but then she gets all jealous and vindictive when she thinks the protagonist is over her and decides to break up their non-existent relationship. Honestly, both her and Chizuru excels and enjoys leading on morons like the protagonist, the only difference is that one does it for money, the other out of sheer vanity. Which is worse, well, I leave that up for your consideration.

All three of them are horrible people and the supposed romance between the two main leads is pathetic and basically non-existent. I suppose, in a way, they deserve each other.

Enjoyment - 2

Reading this is like watching a trainwreck: you know it's horrible, it pisses you off, you know you'll have bad memories of it, but it's still so fascinatingly terrible, that you can't just look away. That's why I might keep up with this one out of bile fascination, because I'm somewhat curious how many more total asspull "coincidences" will it take for the mangaka to try to make some form of chemistry exist in between the two main leads and to, heavens forbid, try to do the impossible and make me not despise them with a passion. It kinda gets close to the "so bad, it's good" territory, though it's mostly just bad.

Overall - 2

Again, trash. Bad writing, tired and unoriginal jokes, terrible characters with zero chemistry... it fails at every aspect.

Don't get me wrong, I know that the characters will eventually be changed into something resembling decent human beings (note that not "developed", but forcefully "changed", because the gap here is way too big for natural character development). As I said, run of the mill garbage so I expect zero originality. At this point I've only read 12 chapters, so these are not spoilers, just my personal guesses, but I'd willing to bet my bottom dollar on them with how predictable these stories are:

- the will they / won't they will go on for a long time, both finding more fun in each other's company, but that won't stop the protagonist from being pathetic or the female lead from fleecing the protagonist for all his worth

- After some time some crisis will come along, that will push the protagonist to come clean, if I'd have to venture a guess, Plot Device Grandma will come down with a serious case of UTDNPC (as in Unidentifiable Terminal Disease of Necessary Plot Contrivance), that's where hospitalizing older parental figures usually go

- this will push Chizuru into facing the feelings she developed for the protagonist by then and after some drawn out bullshit melodrama they will have their happily ever after

- at some point we'll have some family melodrama about Chizuru just pretending to enjoy the constant dating, that she is just really lonely, maybe had some traumatic experience, yadda-yadda, basically some made up nonsense about how she is not as much of a manipulative b**** as she looks and really is an innocent, pure girl at heart (this seems to be a growingly popular genre with the entire "pure gyaru" archetype and all, might as well try to ride the coattails of a trend, not like the mangaka has a single original idea anyway)

- there are going to be random side-girls being attracted to the total failure of a guy the protagonist is for no real reason, because we have to have harem antics and melodrama in a romance story, right? They gonna play up their antics, then get pushed to the sidelines for new ones to replace them once the mangaka runs out of stereotypical jokes to crack at their expense

Again, I don't know any of this at the time of writing this, so these are not spoilers. Still, I'd be genuinely, REALLY surprised if I'd be wrong even on a single point.

Overall, just don't waste your time, not worth it.

SPOILERS HEAD!

I think this is like my second review for manga because I'm seriously enjoying this so far! The manga is well thought out and the whole "Rental Girlfriend" thing is a nice thought way of getting turning it into a romance manga. The romance is slow and you'll almost find no extreme romantic moments between the main characters at all which will make you feel all lovey-dovey. As you read on you kinda think "Damn this is gunna turn into a harem" and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up that way lol. The art isn't over the top amazing but it's average and the characters are decent with the tsundere towards the beginning and then it slowing down as it goes. I don't know if I'll find myself back reading it after today simply because I'll forget about it because it's not finished.. but I definitely think this manga needs an anime adaptations to top it off.

Kanojo, Okarishimasu has an interesting concept in its approach to a romcom.

Story - 7
The story is character driven and is somewhat a harem. The reason I'd say somewhat a harem is because the author makes it pretty clear who the girl will be with the MC. (Can't be 100% since the series is still ongoing). I think the author does a good job showing glaring faults of many characters and giving them room to grow as the series goes on. The growth, however, is quite slow and subtle but it shows promise.

Art - 10
The characters are so well drawn and sometimes they would have a full page portrait showing a character's moment.

Character -7
I believe this will be the weakest part of the series and I think it takes a bit of empathy to understand the characters. In fiction, we would like to create perfect and likable characters. The author starts out showing major flaws with these characters and make them a bit difficult to like at first.

Kazuya - The main character with many flaws. Nothing about him to talk highly about other than the fact that he's a kind person? He's awkward, perverted, and insecure. I took a moment and realized two things. His character just shows how human he is and the fact that I can, unfortunately, relate to him. Although he has these flaws and a showcase to be unlikable at first, this gives Kazuya a lot of room to grow as a character and that's what is shown throughout the series so far: his character growth.

Mizuhara - The main heroine of the series. Throughout the series, you start to learn about her flaws as a person too. The author has put some care into her character growth throughout the series. She's more of an enigma since most of the story revolves in Kazuya's thoughts and perspective. Nevertheless, you start to see her development and understand her throughout the series.

The side characters are either a hit or miss. Whether its their family or friends or the girls in the "harem". Most of them play an integral part of the character development for Kazuya and Mizuhara.

Enjoyment - 9
Despite how I feel about the story and characters, I've went on a binge spree on 150+ chapters of this series. I'm fond of seeing the growth of two flawed characters. It took a while and many chapters, but I started to love and connect with those two characters over time. Its quite an investment to keep pushing on a weak start. I would've dropped this if I found no sign of character development, but I think the author is doing a good job. My only complaints would be the exaggerated faces when something ecchi is related and the story is stalled because of a character i find unimportant, dramatic, and obnoxious.

Overall - 8
I think the series is great but I do think it starts out really weak. Usually you'd want to capture your audience early and stay on a pace of telling a great story. This series starts out weak, but given a chance and some empathy that people aren't perfect, I think its wonderful with the character growth its showing.

I have written few reviews so I will try to analize this the way I can until the most recent chapter to this date.
First, this is a manga of the harem genre, so it's typical not having such a great history and the fanbase being more focused in the enjoyment without rigid technical aspects. Kanojo, Okarishimasu is a manga that doesn't struggle against the Nisekoi's pattern for harem, but that is also good enough to have an identity despite this fact.
About the advantages, I can mention that the manga has few cliche situations, like the fireworks festival and the bath in the thermals. These situations are so common in other harem anime that they look like programmed situations of a game and it turns the show more artificial, as if they wanted to fill the gap of the development with this. They also develop well their characters, like Mizuhara and Kazuya.
About the disadvantages, it takes too long for the romance to evolve, there are already 180 chapters and the things could have ended up much earlier, but it did not happen. Also, the show has good characters, but the manga misuses some of them, Mami Nanami and Sumi Sakurasawa have few appearances, Sumi has just a support function in the story but had a much greater potential.
About the characters, the manga has another advantage: Kazuya is a very hated character, but it also means he is not a cliche protagonist, so he has a well designed personality, so you can understand his feelings and thoughts. It may trigger you out, but it's a good thing to the manga. Mizuhara is also a good character in the aspect she is a tsundere, but isn't childish. She looks like she has the age she claims, unlike the most generic tsundere girls. It means she has maturity.
In general, this is a manga with harem romcom genre, it is more recommended for those who already like the genre. I also recommend you to be patient with the first chapters, the manga has more than some people comment about the anime.

I read this manga after watching "Day in the Life of a Japanese Manga Creator" and boy am I glad I did.

It takes the general RomCom formula and kinda plays around with the possibilities to make it feel kinda refreshing.

Story: 8
Well I'm a sucker for those slice of life, romcom manga or anime so this is for me. But the start was a bit rocky as this series wouldnt even exist if the MC said "Oh yeah she is just a friend" at the beginning (which any normal human being would do but whatever it was funny). OVerall, it gets better as there are actual development and moments where you feel sympathetic for the characters.

Art: 10
Yeah I fw it. Very clean.

Character: 8
I didn't like the MC at first. Not a bit. He is extremely flawed (constantly lying, spineless and a bit pathetic). But, he does grow more mature (albiet really slowly) as the chapters go by.

However, there are instances where I felt like everyone's the asshole. An example would be when the MC didn't flat out reject a girl who is heads over heels for him but instead does a "trial" date that doesn't seem to end till the universe explodes. Or when the heroine is acting bitchy towards the MC for no apparent reason. Sometimes the MC is a bit entitled too but I'm not going too deep into details on that. Oh and the MC's ex is manipulative as fuck so theres that. But I mean she doesn't get too much screentime so its aight.

What makes me give it a high score would be moments where characters have heart to heart exchanges. Those are really warm. I know a lot of manga and anime, hell even any story, does these at least ONCE. But the heart to hearts just feels kinda natural here and I really like it. It's really cozy.

Enjoyment: 10
With everything combined, I find it a really enjoyable read and would definitely reread it if I have time :)

Overall: 10
I really like this series. Yeah I ranted a lot on the characters but still, there are character developments so I'm fine with a rocky start, as long as it works out for the better.

Kanojo, Okarishimasu

MINOR SPOILERS

Story: 1/10
I initially thought that the premise for this manga was a little weird, but I could see it progressing in the right direction. However, this did not happen. In fact, more often than not, nothing ever happens to the story. On the rare occasion that the plot develops for once, it goes in a direction that I really dislike and sends the wrong messages to the audience (buy love with money!). A 1/10 is not an exaggeration.

Art: 8/10
Pretty good

Character: 1/10
The characters are easily the worst part of the manga. The main character is a pathetic human being that attempts to purchase his crush's love and attention. It is frustrating that the story has to revolve around this worthless character, because all he ever does is fantasise about girls and throw money at them. The female lead is half decent for the most part, but even then she gets annoying later on. The other female characters are very one-dimensional and pretty much equally as pathetic as the main character because their only function in the story is to be part of the main character's harem. I think a 1/10 is generous here, but you can't really go any lower on this site.

Enjoyment: 1/10
You would think a harem romcom manga would be at least fun, because you can at least self-insert into the generic "romcom situations" that happen to the main character. That is not the case for this manga - nobody would want to self-insert into the main character's pathetic situations. The dialogues aren't needed at all because you can pretty much just skim through each chapter and still fully understand everything that goes on.

Overall: 1/10
One of the worse manga I've read for sure, and I've read a lot of bad ones. The story starts off alright, but quickly heads in the wrong direction. The characters are horrendous because they are either very one-dimensional, or they do the most ridiculous things. The only redeeming thing about the manga is the art, but that is not enough to push the score to be above a 1.

First of all, this is my first review here in mal and also in a manga. I just wanted to put my impression while I'm reading it (I'm still on chapter 11) and my first thoughts about the characters, art and the first scenarios (tho I'll edit this comment after catching up with the latest chapter and change my review again) I want to compare what my first impression and my experience after reading it.

Then I'll start. First is the mc, here we go again to the usual pathetic male. Who is weak and just make many problems to himself that eventually he will solve with another lies. Every chapter the mc is always proving that he is pathetic asf. I wanted to like this series, because the story has the potential to improve but the mc keeps my hopes goes down. The art is also good and I'll rate it 8. Somehow, I'm looking forward for some character development to the mc and change his pathetic horny side by being a mature (even a lil bit won't hurt)

Also the harem side, I hope this will not end up with some harem shit that the mc loves all the characters and at the end he can't choose one of them because as usual it's a fucking HAREM. I'm getting this vibes from the start and I hope this will change soon. If not I'll be really disappointed in this series. Seriously, I'm looking for any reason to like this manga that's why I'll give it a chance (maybe up to 50 or 90 chapters) if no improvements to the pathetic side of mc. Might as well drop it for good.

A defense to some points thrown around.

Story:
Hating a character doesn't make a story bad. having an unlikable main character can be used in a way that makes a great narrative.
Some say the main character is not developed but has a 45 page list of reasons why they hate him. That being said, the characters are still shit.
A story can be about something "bad" like murder and still be good. Some people say the story is shit because they're disgusted by prostitution and sex work. Even if your morals say it's bad, a story can talk about those themes and be good. Still, that being said, The story is shit. The main character is a knight in shining armor that has come to save the poor girl from sex work. Its shit, and done in a shit way.

Art:
This guy is very good at drawing, and I believe his assistants are very skilled individuals. Still, art is not just being skilled at drawing. The drawings don't convey any feelings and the dialogue could be just plain text in a novel. The drawings are just the background where these words are floating. It doesn't add anything to the story.

Enjoyment:
One day I finished a great manga and thought to myself "Happiness needs sadness, so maybe I need to read bad manga so I can really appreciate good manga."
In a fit of rage combined with self hatred and destructive impulses, Ive binged 100 chapters of rental girlfriend.
those were painful hours to bear, but I think I have a new appreciation for good manga

Overall:
It feels like the author has nothing to say.
He touches on some themes like sex work, aspirations, ambitions, romantic love. But doesn't have anything to say or comment. It makes sense if we think the person who wrote this is a regular otaku guy that doesn't know anything about sex work, romance, relationships and everything else in the manga.

Read 136 Chapters of Kanojo, Okarishimasu

This manga felt pretty bad in terms of the story line. The main heroine caught my attention mainly because she is a tsundere towards the main antagonist. This manga is like the typical slice of life/romance anime. There weren't a lot of funny parts to it just a lot of dating as to what the whole manga is about. Overall the plot for me is 6/10.

I felt like the art was ok not fantastic. Although I am really excited for the anime thats going to premier which would illustrate many of the characters.
Art: 8/10

Theres not that many characters to remember in this novel. The characters are kinda typical in a romance anime. You have your crush which is Chizuru, the ex girlfriend and the side characters Sumi and ruka who all adore the main protagonist.
Characters: 7/10

Although this manga had an average story I had fun reading it and could be pretty hard not to binge watch the whole manga.
Enjoyment: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

This manga is definitely frustrating because you know the thoughts of the characters but can't help but feel helpless when something happens and you're stuck there just reading it what they choose to do in every situation. I highly recommend it because it'll keep you entertained and personally I believe the ecchi tag is almost unwarranted. It's very simple this manga keeps it very close to real life and so there is going to be sexual scenes as the plot advances. I feel like ecchi as a whole get's a lot of hate but this is a manga that shouldn't be glossed over because of that tag.

Now for my actual review of it.
Storyline:
The main character starts off as what we believe to be a coward, but if you look beneath that he's just another broken heart-ed kid and if you put yourself in his shoes you'd very clearly see that. The author keeps you intrigued by either the progression of the story or the absolute frustration knowing you can't control what happens next. You just want a single thing to happen and just want it to progress but you keep enduing either the main antagonist or some other series of unfortunate event. Be it the MC's own voice inside his head telling him he's being stupid or something getting in the way. The MC himself isn't weak by any means, I'd argue he's what you would call reliable. He stands up for people when they need it and he sacrifices for the people he loves. This isn't a manga about best girl because he loves them all but from the moment he has a realization there is no wavering as to who he's after. The storyline up to where I've read, which is completely caught up is amazing. I genuinely love reading this and from the last chapter issues we're waiting to see if finally the spark turns into a small flame. This is definitely worth your time to read if you enjoy long, breath holding romances about a college student who's struggling in relationships and his own virginity and sexual fantasies. It isn't crude and it doesn't push the ecchi aspect at all, if it happens, it happens naturally it isn't over the top as some artists would go.

Art: Honestly I've taken like 20 different screensnaps of certain images and scene's to make them into memes because some of the moments in this manga are just great, that aside, while this isn't the manga if you want to see amazing forests and what not. It's still very beautiful, the art is intricate and definitely does the story justice. It doesn't take itself too seriously in some area's either, there are area's where the art get's less intense for comedic value or to stress the mood. Definitely love the way it's drawn.

I'm going to keep following this manga till the end and since a million+ copies have sold, I don't see it ending and hope if it ever does turn into an anime. It gets the justice it deserves. The female character's are beautiful and adorable in their own ways (except one evil person) and as we watch the MC grow as a human being we can't help but smile and see that he's truly becoming the person he wished to become from the beginning. It's a beautiful experience.


TLDR;
This is definitely worth your time to read if you enjoy long, breath holding romances about a college student who's struggling in relationships and his own virginity and sexual fantasies. It isn't crude and it doesn't push the ecchi aspect at all, if it happens, it happens naturally it isn't over the top as some artists would go. The story pushes itself along naturally and we read the next chapter fingers crossed to finally get that long awaited real kiss.

it started of pretty good, i really enjoyed the anime, but after the movie arc it become awful. Its been 174 chapters and no progression between Chizuru and Kazuya has happened, if you want to waste your time read this shit manga, honestly just read the first 100 chapters and drop it after that. Kazuya is also maybe the worst protagonist of all time, he is a horny fuck that cant calm his dick down for a second, whenever you think something will happen it never fucking does and just gets dragged on for 50 more chapters. The main character deserves none of the main girls, except Mami. I really hope Ruka breaks up with him and Chizuru finds a chad. I really thought Kazuya was getting development but instead he's just a horny fuck who doesn't deserve Chizuru at all. I know this is probably the worst written review on MAL i'm just really fucking pissed of at the creator of this story and what he did to one of my favourite anime

Overall:3

The concept of rental girlfriends in a romcom was a very interesting idea and I really expected this manga to be a "masterpiece" as a lot of reviewers here claim but I was utterly disappointed.

Characters:2

The MC is a 20 year old virgin, he's really pathetic and he acts like a highschool boy. There isn't anything wrong with it, it's actually a good thing that we can see a character develop from this to a slightly better person while the story goes on but in the latest chapter which I have read(144) this guy still lies to his family for no good reason, has a trial gf that loves him? And he let's her be his gf because "IdOnTwAnNaHuRtHeRfEeLiNgS" he's either gonna go with the main heroine which he actually has feelings for or just go full harem cliche and finish it with everyone ends up being happy together which is very unlikely based on the story so far.

The "rental girlfriend" Chizuru Ichinose is actually the only toleratable character for me. She has a dream of becoming an actress, works hard for it, helps the stupid MC lie to his grandparents (wait what) and is a good person in general. She was inspired by her grandmother and movies/theater?(I forgot what she watched) to become and actress, her grandfather was very supportive towards her dream.

Ruka Sarashina is a girl who has a heart disease that makes her heart beat a lot slower than the average person's. She meets the MC then her heart beats fast af for some reason then the MC says a nice thing to her and she decides to be his girlfriend. Now this is very realistic indeed it's almost as if she's not one of those harem girls that loves the MC for some reason.

The other characters are extremely retarded. Why? They think Chizuru is another person when she wears glasses and uses a different hairstyle, the MC's dad think he borrowed money from Chizuru(Is that what comes into your mind first when your son who didn't have a girlfriend for years suddenly has a very beautiful girlfriend?).

Story:1
At the start of the story a massive amount of coincidence and actions that don't make sense happen. The entire fucking story only happens because of their grandparents and idk man doesn't that seem really weak? Yes it is. The story from then on progress in a very stupid ridiculous and slow way, it's so slow it almost turned into a slice of life manga. Finally!! Some development finally happen in the 100th chapters but yeah no nothing's probably gonna happen until the 500th, this story is stretched out for too long and I'm just uninterested in the repeating dates with different girls. It was fine with Mizuhara at first but they just keep adding girls and it's not it's gonna be better with more girls, in hentai that might be the case though. Even though the story is not very good I should be able to enjoy this right? No, I'm not enjoying looking at this MC dig his own grave for 100 chapters and then he finally does something, but did he just say "your dream is my dream?" What the hell I thought only couples did that?or family idk. The guy clearly doesn't have his shit together, often addresses it to himself and other people so he is aware but he doesn't really do anything about it. This guy's 20 years old. He's a nice guy, average nice but he needs to start thinking about his life dude. He spends too much, looks at cleavage,thighs,ass, every part of a girl in every chapter, lies to his family for no good reason, has a trial girlfriend because why not? It's not like I have feelings for this other girl and I'm probably gonna hurt this trial but who cares? She's cute. I would've enjoyed this manga better if his fish was the main character. The movie making arc was great, the MC finally does something logical, every character plays their part, there's development but that just doesn't make up for all the shit that happened on the first 100 chapters.


Art:7
It's fine I'm not really an art critic but it looks good to me soooo.

Enjoyment:2
I just can't enjoy ridiculous coincidences, horrible harem girls, pathetic MC that doesn't change(he's a little nicer now but not nice enough so I can't hate him), adding more girls doesn't help, and so much lies for no good reason I know I've been mentioning him lying to his family lot he doesn't stop there, the guy's digging his own grave and I'm frustrated af here looking at him.

Could've been really better
Would easily be a 10/10

--THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS--

I have read 138 chapters of this manga and this is the worst rom-com manga I have ever read.

Short Review:

The story is not really developing and it feels like it's on infinite loop at this point. Characters are really boring and MC really sucks. Romance does not make sense and comedy is repetitive. Art is nice.

Long Review:

ROMANCE AND COMEDY:

-First of all, Romance in this story doesn't even make sense since MC is not really handsome, has low self-esteem and can't do anything on his own and still girls love him. There are some moments here and there but characters act like nothing happened very next chapters of the manga it feels like the story is on infinite loop and it does not feel satisfying to spend time with the manga.

-On the comedy side, best and only thing manga can do is expose some skin of a female character and make MC react like a loser. It is really repetitive and boring that I can't even talk so much about it.

CHARACTERS:

I will only be talking about 5 characters (MC, Chizuru, Mami, Ruka, Sumi) since most characters are really easy to forget. There is really little character development in the first 80 chapters and after 80 chapters characters stop developing (excluding Chizuru).

-Let's start it off with our MC. If the word simp was never ever used by humans in history, I would create the word simp and call this MC a goddamn SIMP. As I mentioned before, MC has low self-esteem and can't make moves on his love interest. He sometimes questions why he acts the way he does and does literally nothing to improve himself. MC is also a really overreacting person and it is really unoriginal, annoying and stupid. Overall really boring character.

-Chizuru is the only character that's developing on the recent chapters. Chizuru is not honest with her feelings towards MC in a really annoying way and it just does not fit her character but still, she is the only character that has some decent backstory so I really can not hate her.

-Mami...Where the hell is mami????She was the only thing that made the manga a little interesting and she just disappeared out of nowhere. As much as she made the manga interesting, she is not interesting as a character and she is really predictable. She is your typical villain hoe that wants to destroy MC's love life. There is not much to talk about her since she did not appear in the manga a lot.

-Ruka is really clingy but at least honest with her feelings. Her reason to fall in love with MC is unique but still, it is really stupid. She has some kind of back story but I feel like it is a poor excuse to make her fall in love with MC. She is really trying hard to be a proper girlfriend for MC but it does not make sense, as I mentioned before, MC is a loser and he fails as a human being. I feel like her only purpose on this manga is stretch the run time of the manga and vanish from the story when the time comes.

-Sumi is your typical shy cute girl. Being a rental girlfriend doesn't even fit her character at all but since MC can not interact with women like a man, there is no way to meet with the MC (and she is, you know, shy) so it was necessary for her to be a rental girlfriend in the story. Also, she is the only character that is bearable and actually acts like an actual human being. She is not an original and never seen before character by any means but it's nice to see a character that is not overreactive and calm and also tries to actually develop and change as a human being. Unfortunately, she is used as a tool for MC's so-called development and did not appear in the story again.

ART AND DESIGN:

Female character designs are really detailed and cute. Their clothing is really fashionable and I really appreciate the time and effort spent on these kinda things. Male character designs, however, feel like they are quick sketches. While female characters flexing on us with their fancy fashionable clothes, MC has like 2 outfits. Art is nice and stable through series but it has the same issue character designs has.

This is a manga I really, really want to like. It's got some great and nicely detailed art - at least for the main characters - interesting characters and development, and the story arcs are reasonably interesting in and of themselves.

The problem is the pacing. This could have been a really satisfying short love story if it was paced to end after say 50 chapters. The main premise inserts a level of tension unsuited to a long on-going story and I'm tired of reading the same cycle of drama over and over. it really does seems like the author is being forced to stretch it out with meaningless drama and character introductions just to fill a slot in the publication, and it's truly unfortunate.

Widowers of Domestic na Kanojo, here you can find a resting place.
“Kanojo, Okarishimasu” is an anime about a trend going on in
Japan for some years now: apps where you can rent a girl to hangout with you pretending to be your girlfriend and she can even do lewd things like ... hand holding. Actually more like a trophy to display around since they mostly just act cute – or if you want her to behave differrently, you can ask, but it all boils down to this, an “act” - around you, but that’s it.
Kazuya (aka Trash), the protagonist, starts off the series in a relationship, but the rug he is standing on is pulled from under his feet, Mami, his then girlfriend of a month, says that she is in love with someone else and breaks up with him. That’s when Kazuya out of desperation hires a cute girl from one of those apps. Enter Chizuru – which goes by a different name on the app. He got in touch with her because she was feeling down and rejected and the rental “girlfriend” seemed like a great idea to soothe his sadness.
The pacing on the first chapters is terrible (maybe up to chapter 15?), afterwards it gets better. The main objective of the story is simple: the protagonist is a grandma’s boy and after years of never being able to get a girlfriend, he strives to introduce a girlfriend to his grandma. So with that, something feels lacking content wise, at any moment it feels like a dream he has to work hard for it, making the core of the story quite frail.
The characters follow, mostly, the same standard of animes of the same genre. As I mentioned before, it is a great manga for those that finished reading Domestic na Kanojo, it has the same vibe in to it, considering the relationships and how those people react to each other, considering these relationships.
On early chapters we could more often see how horny the protagonist is, specially when he is trying to peep a cleavage or when a girl on a skirt would squat and he would try to look under it. As the chapters progress, this gets less often, but we get more showers moments – which even he mentions he loves drawing those, the manga has some 4th wall breaking some times – and sometimes Kazuya (aka Trash)’s vivid memory can make him imagine unrealistic things.
About the art, it is okay, some backgrounds don’t seem drawn, more like a real picture that was turned into a bg with a photoshop, but the female characters look good. What is praise worthy though are the two pages spread that get more often, I can’t pin point when, maybe after chapter 80? But the mangaka start using some two pages spread and some of them are so nice looking, I am afraid, however that he might be overusing them, diminishing the impact they could bring to some moments.
(----Following paragraph has spoilers----)
Continuing about the characters, Kazuya (aka Trash) is the same spineless, pathetic, but “good-hearted” you have already seen in the genre, anything about him isn’t new, and in almost 150 chapters his development is limited; Chizuru is the heroine, she knows what she wants, she is willing to work hard for it, also basically speaking she is a tsundere, but not so much, and not everything goes as she plans, which is also good to put some reality in this world; Mami is one of the best characters in this story, but she is absurdly underdeveloped - we are currently on chapter 147, last time she appeared we were around chapter 77 -, we weren’t shown the reason she broke up with Trash - there is a moment early on that you can assume those are her reasons, but I particularly don’t think she is such an one sided character – and she seemed to be someone that would be willing to go long lenghts to ruin people’s lives (mangaka dropped some hints that had become loose ends: the talk she has with her brother and when she starts following Kazuya’s grandma on twitter, after that, we got 0 info on her, she was mentioned in one of the more recent chapter but its was like a 3 panels thing, really quickly, which makes me think Japanese fans might have disliked her and that is a shame); Ruka is a character where the fanbase is divided in either understanding her side or hating on her, so let’s just get this straight if Kazuya (aka Trash) wasn’t a spineless loser, he would have broken up with her already and would have been honest, however by not doing it so he is feeding Ruka with illusions and she truly believe that she will be able to win Kazuya over, when he is head over heels for Chizuru, I feel sorry for Ruka, she is a nice girl though; Sumi is a recently hired rental girlfriend, Chizuru is her friend and asks Kazuya (aka Trash) to help her friend practise, Sumi is socially awkward she can’t speak around people, but she is willing to go above and beyond to make people comfortable and enjoying their time, eventually she starts typing on her phone to communicate with people and even gets to openly speak, little by little; than we get the most recent character, Yaemori a streamer/youtuber/cosplayer that so far has no romantic interest whatsoever on the protagonist, she even actively act to help him with Chizuru, not much else has been said about her.
(----End of the paragraph with spoilers----)

Honestly I've never been so happy to reading something based off a homie that just gets a fake girlfriend because his real one dumped him. Jesus Christ lets talk about something. This manga started off amazing its art is great setting, the plot was pretty good. I apparently am a blind idiot and missed a tag that must've been written in tiny ass letters "Rom- com". LET ME tell you that you should 100 percent skip this manga if you HATE rom -com. I mean this is the worst of worst like WORST OF THE WORST. The main character does everything to get this girl to like him. Waste his allowance, time, effort, EVERYTHING just to get this female (main) protagonists attention. I guess she acknowledges him but doesn't really make a move towards anything of it!

Real reason of my rating is the following reasons

-The main male character has another character that does everything to be noticed as a female towards him who is WAY cuter, does everything to seem attractive for him! its stupid because he can admits that she is the best and ideal girl for himself and STILL IGNORES HER.

-Basically same thing for the main female character! The main character does everything for her and she ignores the living shit out if his feelings. Holy shit my guy both of these characters were semi creative at the start but as the anime/manga progression goes on it just goes down hill. Fuck the two main characters.

-In terms of art, the anime style is quite amazing! I loved all the color added to it and how detailed everything is. each character has something on them on all times to show what kind of character they are. The settings usually take places more than one spot considering its a "dating" anime. The manga/anime does a fantastic job on capturing its surroundings.