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

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Kazuya recalls as he first met Mami as they kiss behind the rocks before returning to their group of friends. Kazuya gets a call from his grandma who tells him that she’s being discharged, and with that Kazuya decides to announce that he and Chizuru broke up. His friend, Kibe is furious at his wishy-washy reason given how Chizuru said she trusts him and punches Kazuya. They start a fight as their other friends intervene while asking Chizuru to let them settle this. Kazuya steps away to cool off and runs into Chizuru who comments that his actions were right and that his friends don’t know the whole story.

Chizuru goes back to her friends, but before she could do that Kibe asks if they could talk. On the way back to his friends Kazuya spots the two and eavesdrops on them. Kibe gives a big speech on Kazuya about while he is an idiot Kazuya is a nice guy. After getting caught Kazuya and Chizuru get tickets to the ferry ride from Kibe who hopes that they’ll talk it out. After agreeing that they’re done as a couple, Chizuru and Kazuya go on the ferry ride. However Chizuru isn’t feeling well and she goes overboard when Kazuya was on the phone with Mami, but Kazuya jumps out after Chizuru.

 

Our Take:

Kazuya’s recollection of how he met Mami and how they started dating was a decent starter on why he’s so in love with her. Those small snippets show how he and Mami acted in that one month with Kazuya’s affection being really high and Mami’s being just standard. Meanwhile, Mami’s plan appears to be working with how Kazuya can’t stop thinking about the kiss and how he decides to tell his friends that he and Chizuru are breaking up. However, his pathetic reason for breaking up is what leads Kibe to punch him. From Kibe’s perspective, he’s completely justified seeing as how just a few minutes ago Chizuru said that she trusted Kazuya not to cheat on her.

Kibe is a true friend in calling out Kazuya’s idiotic behavior. His glances to Mami, while he has Chizuru, are a dead giveaway. Not to mention that he calls Mami out on her behavior for leading Kazuya on and her reaction just screams to the audience that she’s lying. It was cathartic to watch that messy scene enfold with their other friends attempting to break the guys up. Kazuya may be a complete mess, but he has some good traits which I hope we get to see more of that than him being so indecisive all the time. Then there’s Chizuru and Kazuya’s conversation about their fake dating farce. It’s a step forward for Kazuya to grow and become a more decisive adult. Even though he calls himself a loser Chizuru snaps him out of it and comments on how it was fun and that it was a part of her job in the first place. They part on good terms as the camera transitions to the sandals she wore as a gift with the implication that he bought them for her.

Furthermore, Kibe’s conversation with Chizuru on Kazuya was pretty good in showing Kazuya’s extreme optimism and Kibe’s thoughts on their relationship. He’s happy that his best friend has someone that can see his good qualities. Despite the flimsy reason Kazuya gave his friends, Kibe hands her ferry ride tickets to give the couple some alone time then Kazuya gets caught eavesdropping on them. Chizuru agrees to go for Kibe’s sake and since it’s just them they wouldn’t have to act like a couple. They can be done with their fake relationship with Kazuya telling his friends that they talked it out properly to break up.

Now on the ferry ride, it is clear that Chizuru isn’t feeling well, but she still goes on with the ride. Her effort in helping him keep their story straight and her encouragement for him to do everything he can to get back together with Mami worked well in showing how she is as a person. Kazuya’s actions were just frustrating to watch at that point because of his lack of assistance in helping Chizuru who’s clearly sick. After his promise to avoid Chizuru, she asks him to leave her alone and he goes outside to answer the phone call. Kazuya talks with Mami who asks to meet him and says that she’ll wait for him in the hotel’s pool. However, Chizuru goes outside to the railing and then falls overboard. Then when it comes down to it Kazuya without thinking jumps overboard to save Chizuru and in the process drops his phone and by extension Mami. This was a decent episode and I’ll be coming back for more because of that dramatic cliffhanger.