Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3

Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3

A Late-Night Visit from Chizuru

Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3 was another pretty good episode. I mean, if you ignore all the parts where it’s Kazuya and Chizuru standing in silence blushing at each other. The actual content wasn’t that bad — even though it did something I was glad Episode 2 didn’t do.

The first thing I enjoyed about this episode was the music. Maybe I haven’t paid much attention to the Kanokari soundtrack before. But, I thought the music in this episode was pretty good. In particular, there were two songs I liked.

First, the song at the very start when Chizuru showed up at Kazuya’s apartment was good. And the song when Chizuru enters his apartment was also good. I don’t know about music, so I’m going to say it was salsa-like (it probably wasn’t). Either way, I liked it.

Chizuru putting up her hair from the anime series Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3
Chizuru putting up her hair

Kazuya missed out on his best opportunity with Chizuru in this episode. And no, I don’t mean that this was his best opportunity to get with her. I mean this was his best opportunity to act like a real man and impress her. But, instead, he did everything wrong.

From the start, he should have invited her in. Don’t stand there wondering why she came to your apartment when she says she lost her key. What’s there to think about? She lost her key and now she wants to come in. She’s not a stranger — let her in.

Now, I assumed that Chizuru was going to attempt the balcony. I guess I’m a bit smarter than Kazuya. But, even so, once he learned that she was going to do that, he should have intervened. He should have offered — or insisted — that he be the one to climb over the railing.

Chizuru’s Tragic Backstory

Last week, I said I was glad that Chizuru wasn’t given a tragic backstory. At that time, she got a somewhat sad backstory. But, I’m not going to say that her being lonely as a child is “tragic.”

Well, that’s changed now — sort of. Chizuru’s backstory got a bit more fleshed out and now you could argue that it’s tragic. We now know that the reason she relied (and still relies) on her grandmother is because that’s all she has. Her grandmother is the only family she has left.

When Chizuru was little, her father left. I guess he went out to buy a pack of cigarettes and never returned. Then Chizuru’s mother died shortly after the two of them moved in with her grandparents. And when Chizuru was in high school, her grandfather died as well.

Chizuru disguised as a nerd at school from the anime series Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3
Chizuru disguised as a nerd at school

I’m still not convinced that this counts as a true tragic backstory. Would Chizuru have rather her parents been around? Of course. But, it’s not like her situation is extremely rare or anything. There are plenty of kids who grow up without their parents. And, this doesn’t seem to have had a huge, negative impact on Chizuru.

The only thing tragic about this whole situation is that, once again, Kazuya reacted in the wrong way. After Chizuru tells him all this, his response is to bring up how he still has a loving family. It’s almost like he’s making all the wrong choices on purpose.

Even his explanation wasn’t good. He started going on about how Chizuru can be whatever she wants because she doesn’t have a family. That’s not a good reason for saying that. But, he somewhat saved it in the end by telling Chizuru he wants to be with her.

Kazuya is Down Bad (and Dumb)

In Kazuya’s own words, he’s down bad. He’s so down bad that he was photocopying pictures of Chizuru at school. Okay, well, he wasn’t actually doing that. But, it might be worse that he was hallucinating to the point he thought he was.

The thing is, though, despite how much he loves her, Kazuya doesn’t understand Chizuru at all. He’s always questioning everything she does. And the most infuriating part is that he usually gets close to the right answer. But, every time, he then decides that the obvious answer can’t be it.

Why did Chizuru take Kazuya to the batting cages? Why does she continue to tell her grandmother they’re dating? Why did she go to him when she lost her key? And, the thing that ties these questions all together — why does she rely on him so much?

Kazuya photocopying pictures of Chizuru from the anime series Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3
Kazuya photocopying pictures of Chizuru

It’s clear to everyone other than Kazuya that Chizuru likes him. He’s incapable of getting over the fact that he and Chizuru have a “business” relationship. He thinks about how he pays Chizuru to go on dates with him. But, he ignores all the time they spend together outside of that.

This week’s episode was one of the times when Kazuya came so close to the right answer that he could have touched it. He said that he feels like Chizuru knows he’s in love with her. And then he reminded us that him being in love with her would be bad for her job.

So, he thinks, “considering all that, why is she nice to me?” And then he goes so far as to imagine that she feels the same way about him. But, that’s where he stops. He doesn’t connect the dots between his (logical) imagination and reality.

Conclusion

What do you think of Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 3? How would you have handled a late-night visit from Chizuru? Do you think Kazuya and Chizuru should have confronted Mami? And, have you ever made photocopies of the girl you had a crush on? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 3 is available now.

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