Kara Dennison
March 21, 2022 
This summer, Rent-a-Girlfriend is returning for its second season. The series, about a guy embroiled with several “rental girlfriends” for various reasons, brought us some of our bestest girls of recent anime seasons. So of course, we’re ready for it when it returns.
The hype is real broadly, but we’ve got our little wish list of things we’re hoping to see. How about you?
Character Development for Kazuya
Rent-a-Girlfriend makes a big point of the whole rental-girlfriend scene being therapeutic. Well, at least potentially therapeutic. This whole thing kicks off because protagonist Kazuya is getting over a nasty breakup. Wacky hijinks ensue involving his family, particular his grandmother’s adoration of Chizuru. This makes breaking off the non-existent relationship increasingly difficult.
Kazuya is a real piece of work. Not a bad dude deep down, as we often see, but kind of a mess. His navigation of both his relationships and his non-relationships needs work. We believe in him, though. And we’re hoping that, whatever happens, he actually does get something good out of this whole scene. Not just a real girlfriend. Although…
Will They or Won’t They?
Naturally, Kazuya and Chizuru’s “relationship” is a driving force of Rent-a-Girlfriend. Their pretend-dating status exists primarily to appease Kazuya’s family. Though, admittedly, that’s in part because he continues to put off telling them the truth. (Remember, his grandma is crazy about Chizuru — it’d break her heart if she found out.) But as time goes on, both of them are dealing with feelings for each other.
Kazuya, not being the pro that Chizuru is, is a lot more on main about his feelings. But it’s not a one-sided thing. She’s got feelings for him in return. Where that will go is anyone’s guess, but we’re looking forward to seeing how this develops. Especially since Chizuru seems to have decent advice for him.
Sumi
Rent-a-Girlfriend has a lot of best girls to love but… let’s be real. Sumi is best of the best. The shyest of the girlfriends got her own spinoff manga, giving us insight into her reasons for taking on such a job. For those who haven’t read it — she’s looking to become an idol. We fully support this.
Sumi initially “dates” Kazuya to improve her rental girlfriend skills. And, of course, she develops feelings for him. This does leave us feeling a little torn. We’re all about seeing him get together with Chizuru, but we also want Sumi to be happy and get everything she dreams of. It’s a tough call. Bare minimum, we’re just going to be happy to see her again.
The new season of Rent-a-Girlfriend kicks off July 11. Will you be watching along with us?
While you wait, check out our favorite super-sweet, supernatural anime couples.
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