English Dub Review: Rent-a-Girlfriend “Beach and Girlfriend”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Mami admits to lying about having a boyfriend and they talk for a bit. Kazuya admits that he still likes her as the reason why he let her talk about him like that.  Then Kazuya returns to his apartment and apologizes to Chizuru who says it’s fine since she’s just a rental girlfriend. She offers her services since she knows he’s going through a rough time with everything. After that Kazuya and his group of friends went to the beach and he made an excuse that Chizuru couldn’t come. While he and Mami reminisce on their one-month relationship, Mami brings up one of their dreams and how it’s no longer possible.

Kazuya almost confesses that Chizuru and he aren’t really dating when a friend greets a classmate who brought Chizuru in her normal form out with them to the beach. After getting into an awkward situation where Chizuru has no choice but to put on her girlfriend mode, she heads back to the beach with the group. Then Kazuya escapes questions from his friends on how they met by going into the ocean where Mami asks him to help her find her bracelet. After slipping on a rock Mami unexpectedly kisses Kazuya.

Our Take:

Kazuya’s emotions are understandably still geared towards Mami since he has lingering feelings for her. It’s even more evident with how he holds her up on a pedestal of niceness while calling her an angel. His horniness aside, it’s going to take a while for him to break down that pedestal since her actions are misleading. For example, when she makes sure that Kazuya’s invited to the beach trip even though their friends are worried about how awkward it would be for them. Speaking of their friends, I’m hoping that at least one of their friends brings up their observation of Mami’s actions and how it affects their perception of her. She may look hot, but if she talks about a friend like that then that’s a red flag.

Now when Mami starts making comments about Chizuru by the vending machine, and Kazuya defends Chizuru seriously while saying that she doesn’t know her. It’s surprising considering he couldn’t stand up for himself, but it shows that Kazuya won’t hesitate in defending the people he cares about even if that person is someone that he’s only known for a brief amount of time. Then there’s the conversation that Chizuru and Kazuya have right after the incident. It was a good scene to develop Kazuya more with his apology and self-awareness of his selfishness. Chizuru’s words on how people could need a “goodbye” or “see you later” were comforting with her offer to help him heal from his heartbreak. Also, the scene in the market bathroom was a good follow up to that, the trembling camerawork lends a lot of emphasis to Chizuru’s explanation and firm belief that he’s just her customer while she’s just his rental girlfriend.

Mami’s voice actor, Laura Stahl does an excellent job with Mami’s immediate refusal to her friend’s comment in that dark tone and then switching to her light cheerful voice. The change in tone was a great display of how two-faced Mami really is along with her tweets about Kazuya’s relationship status. Her tweets establish her pride over her position in his heart and how bruised it is to the point where she plans to get them to break up. Her plan is definitely working with bringing up their past relationship on the beach especially with that talk about the name of their future kid and how that’s a dream now. Honestly for them to even discuss kids in a one-month relationship seems a little too fast to me. In the end, that cliffhanger of Mami kissing Kazuya while Chizuru says that she trusts him has me anticipating what’s going to happen next.