Not familiar with RAG but I like this dynamic and this art, it'd be awesome to see this turned into a full manga.

1. Every character except Mami is one-dimensional and boring;

Isn’t Mam’s whole thing just being a POS? Shes just one dimensional in an interesting way

1. Every character except Mami is one-dimensional and boring;

Isn’t Mam’s whole thing just being a POS? Shes just one dimensional in an interesting way

She has something resembling inner conflicts, and her character flaws cause real consequences she has to deal with. Not saying she's super complex or anything but she's a clear tier above the others. Look at how much more interesting this fanfic comic is just by making her the protagonist lol.

Going to tell my grandchildren this was Rent A Girlfriend.

1. Every character except Mami is one-dimensional and boring;

Isn’t Mam’s whole thing just being a POS? Shes just one dimensional in an interesting way

She has something resembling inner conflicts, and her character flaws cause real consequences she has to deal with. Not saying she's super complex or anything but she's a clear tier above the others. Look at how much more interesting this fanfic comic is just by making her the protagonist lol.

Unlike every other character in the manga, she ain’t a pussy lol

She actually talks the talk while the other characters are timid… although the short haired girl with the bow is also pretty forward but Mami’s more interesting cuz she’s not buddy-buddy with Kazuya

Also, out of all the chars, she’s most memorable. I haven’t even thought of RAG for years but i still remember that blonde jerk lol

FINALLY

Honestly, I think people focus way too much on the cucking/NTR thing. There's exactly one chapter where Kazuya fantasizes about getting cucked and, frankly, I think it's hilarious and one of the few good chapters in the manga. The real problems with Rent A Girlfriend are:
1. Kazuya is an incel piece of shit;
2. Every character except Mami is one-dimensional and boring;
3. It's 380 chapters and counting and essentially nothing happens in, like, 370 of those.

Ppl in the RAG subreddit hate Chizuru more now lol

Well yeah because the only people still invested in the manga are misogynistic incels who relate to Kazuya lol

#REAL

I need more like this so badly, I need the mods to add a toxic yuri tag or something alike, I need it sooooo bad

I have no idea what Rent a Girlfriend is (and apparently I'm not missing out on anything, good to know!) but this is so soooo good

I have no idea what Rent a Girlfriend is (and apparently I'm not missing out on anything, good to know!) but this is so soooo good

it's a harem story about a college student with low self estimate and limited romantic experience, who alternates between harshly criticizing himself (as his grandmother and ex-girlfriend did to him) and selfish behavior where he blames others, with rare moments of doing something cool instead. he rents fake girlfriends to go on dates with him, which is a real service in japan, and his love interest is the first one he rented. the story prioritizes drama over logic and has allegedly failed to advance the main relationship, despite being very long. it's success combining drama with cute girls got it a large audience, which led to it getting a large hatedom among those who could not accept the protagonist, and the hatedom becomes more dominant the more people who enjoyed early parts abandon the story.

the women in this comic are his toxic ex who dumped him at the beginning of the story and his main love interest.

rents fake girlfriends to go on dates with him, which is a real service in japan

Real service elsewhere, too, though maybe harder to find in the currently puritan US.

Well, illegality aside, we've got plenty of escorts in the US and some of them do provide the girlfriend/boyfriend experience of also doing non-sexual things over a longer time window. We can imagine some people hire them entirely for the non-sexual aspect, even if it's a minority.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were some rental girlfriend specific agencies in the US at this point, especially with the success of the comic and anime, but it seems to not be the structure that resonates most with people here.

last edited at Jun 23, 2025 6:22PM

I wasn't expecting to find this here xD
Chizuru and Mami as a toxic yuri couple wasn't on my 2026 bingo card...

You can insult me online or beat me up in a public square, but I'm a fan of the series despite the story not being well-developed (that's a FACT, I must admit ⊙⁠﹏⁠⊙). Even so, it's absurd to have reached almost 50 volumes with over 15 million sales worldwide, 5 anime seasons (the 6th season is already confirmed and in production), and so much merchanding and collaborations - the most notable is the collab with the Spa Resort Hawaiians in Fukushima, the location where the "Girlfriend and Paradise" arc took place (both in the manga and anime).

It has somehow become Kodansha's "golden goose".

last edited at Aug 7, 2026 3:04AM