It’s impossible. Protagonists in the anime industry were not always well-developed characters, I know, but a few years ago it seems that the new “default settings” for them became this unrealistic mixture of typical japanese teenagers with a desire for social power where none of their actions has real-life consequences. This mixture boomed Kirito (Sword Art Online), a dick of a boy whose terrible choices always seem to veer him towards success instead of failure and conflict, or Subaru (Re:Zero), who always makes wrong choices and yet reaps benefits at every turn. It’s a formula that may work on very specific occasions, but not as a new standard.

The isekai shit-wave came to consolidate this sort of protagonist, giving him god-like powers and no worries to deal with the consequences of their actions. No matter what they did, no matter how they acted, the rest of the cast had this pre-set assumption that, as a protagonist, he must be loved and cared for.

The harem subgenre, for most part, had managed to keep with its two more “realistic” templates: the shy guy who is pulled into perversion by the horny girls, or the perverted guy who was pushed away from the girls he likes. Now, however, it seems the new “default settings” have reached the harem realm… and god, it is an awful combination.

Rent-a-Girlfriend is the story of Kazuya, a 20-year-old guy who was just dumped by his first and only girlfriend and is trying to cope with his failure. Without much thought, he pays for the service of a rental girlfriend and ends up in a sequence of lies and coincidences that makes him stuck with Chizuru, the contracted girl. Keeping up the lie and trying to not fall in love with her is pretty much impossible.

Kazuya

Ok. Let’s get rid of this. Kazuya basically makes the show impossible to enjoy. The idea behind him is to depict a guy coping with his own failures and lack of ability to get a girlfriend, yet what we have is a teenager who is a dick, a weakling, not funny, and lacks common sense. He is a social disaster, and that would be ok if the story progressed accordingly, yet…

Everyone loves him. No matter how stupid he is, no matter how he drags people into his problems without any thought, the other characters either fall in love with him, are his best buds, or only complain to him when he is about the break up with the “hot girl”. It’s impossible to enjoy the show this way, because it is not funny and it is not dramatic. It is just plain annoying. You watch as he creates dozens of problems, yet they are solved by others simply forgiving him automatically.

It’s the recipe of disaster

Instead of having funny situations where the ecchiness of harem and the traditional cliches about pantsu and blushing take place, what we have is this guy dicking around and somehow never facing any form of danger or problem. He is not the overpowered isekai lead in terms of physical strength and magical prowess, but he is simply immune to enmity.

The show tries very hard to create situations where he must keep up with his lies to avoid public shaming for having paid a prostitute to act as his girlfriend, but every issue stemming from his choices vanish in a flash. The girl, Chizuru, never really pushes him away even after all the bullshit. Well, she instead falls in love with this ridiculous guy.

It forces its way too

Sometimes the show can get you a bit of fun when the coincidences come to play, but at some point, when a clear solution to his problems is presented, the protagonist makes a complete turnaround in personality and stops being a perverted guy completely. In one episode he is fapping for his ex-girlfriend and commenting on how hot the new girl is, and when the new girl wants to bang him… yeah, he dumps her and stops commenting on her sexual appeal completely. It makes no sense.

I have always been annoyed by ecchi leads pushing away girls who wanted to bang them, but they were shy guys at their concept. Not here though, Kazuya is this “loser”, but he is a fucking pervert. Yet, when the time comes, he simply jumps into being the innocent and timid 14-year-old.

It had a chance though

Rent-a-Girlfriend could be a lot more enticing with very little changes though. The idea of getting stuck into a lie and trying to make away with it is interesting, but the show tries to be a love-comedy with no compromises with a lead that is an utter disaster.

Some of the girls are nice. Chizuru seems bothered and really has a more mature aura when compared to the boyish lead, and the evil-ness of Mami is quite spot-on with cheap jealousy we can find with ease among friends and acquaintances. They, however, have no reason to like the protagonist guy, no reason at all. It becomes even worse when the show dumps more girls to the harem. Yeah, I know it’s a harem, but the guy needs to make SOME effort to please the girls, not the opposite.

It’s cute too

TMS Entertainment does an amazing job with the cute girls, the colors, and a great deal of consistency that elevates the work. It becomes at least a cute harem show to watch, but with the downside that it is extremely conservative in terms of ecchiness. Yup, as I’ve said, this is more of a love-comedy than a perverted harem.

It’s a real struggle to keep watching a show where the lead is such an annoying and terribly established character, especially when the premise behind everything seems interesting. At many moments during this struggle I was thrown back to past harem leads who annoyed me, but not so much, and after some thought I came to understand that, although bothersome, those guys at least acted accordingly with their presets and had many problems with their love interests. The shy guys never managed to get close to the girls besides some “accidents”, the perverted guys were slapped and yelled at, and so on. Kazuya is completely immune to that. He has no problems getting close to the girls, he is supposed to be the perverted guy, yet, when he acts as a dick he is received with love and care. It makes no sense.

Kazuya’s template, however, is not news to me. This is the preset of the isekai leads, guys immune to backlash, guys who can act however they want and never suffer with the consequences. It’s already annoying in fantasy worlds where these leads are super powerful saviors and magicians, but here, in a “real world” setting and playing a love-comedy… gods, it gets damn infuriating.