Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 8

Youth and Girlfriend

Rent-a-Girlfriend 2nd Season Episode 8 was a pretty decent episode. Kazuya was insufferable, as always. But, this episode included a lot of good Chizuru content. And all three of the other girls also made short appearances. That doesn’t happen very often.

At the start of the episode, Kazuya finds that Chizuru is no longer considered a rookie. Chizuru graduated from rookie to regular rental girlfriend. And this promotion comes with an additional thousand-yen fee for renting her out.

I wonder how many tiers of rental girlfriends there are. At some point, are their fees based on individual ranking? Like, in the highest tier, is the top-ranked girl priced higher than the girl ranked second? I guess we’ll have to wait for Chizuru to make it to that point to find out.

Now that Kazuya has to pay more to rent Chizuru out, he decides to get a bit more greedy with his requests. Customers can make requests when booking dates — something Kazuya never did before. But, this time, he decides he’s going to request that Chizuru wear a high school uniform on their date.

Of course, he doesn’t make this request because he’s into high school girls. Instead, Kazuya wants to pretend that they’re high schoolers on a date. He never got to have that experience while in high school himself. Now, the only way he can move on with his life is to force Chizuru to act it out with him.

I’m not sure how I feel about this cosplay date idea. On one hand, I don’t care if they want to cosplay as high schoolers on their date. But on the other, it is a little desperate. I actually think it’d be less weird if only Chizuru was cosplaying.

Kazuya the Functional Human Being

Back in my review of Episode 6, I argued that Kazuya isn’t actually that bad. When out drinking with his and Chizuru’s friends, he was the least cringe of the guys. In a social setting, Kazuya can act surprisingly normal.

In this episode, though, we saw the other side of Kazuya. It’s not as if we didn’t already know this. But, when he’s alone with Chizuru, he’s incapable of acting like a normal, functional human. Whenever he’s alone with Chizuru, he forgets how to speak and just stares at her.

I understand being nervous around the girl you like. And if the girl you like is someone you admire from afar, of course, you won’t know what to say to her. But, that’s not the situation Kazuya’s in. He’s known Chizuru for a year by this point.

Let me be clear, being in the presence of someone isn’t the same as knowing them. You could be in the same class as someone for a year and still be nervous in a one-on-one situation with them. But Kazuya knows Chizuru. Even if he thinks she views him as nothing more than a client, he knows her.

Think of all the time Kazuya spent with Chizuru so far, whether on dates or on their own time. Their friend groups overlap. Their grandmothers are friends. Chizuru talks about her dreams and goals to Kazuya. Kazuya watched Chizuru’s first play performance. Chizuru has been to his apartment multiple times.

Nerves can no longer explain how Kazuya can’t function when alone with Chizuru. By this point, he should be very familiar with her. He should be comfortable talking to her regardless of how he feels about her. But, I know not to expect him to change.

The Perfect Rental Girlfriend

With my Kazuya rant out of the way, let’s appreciate Chizuru for the rest of this review. Specifically, let’s appreciate how Chizuru is the perfect rental girlfriend. We all know that she’s the perfect girlfriend. But, being the perfect rental girlfriend is a bit different.

During their date, Chizuru tells Kazuya some of her favorite things about her job. One of these things is how she’s able to help shy clients become more confident. Some guys are too nervous to talk when they first rent her. But, over time, they gain confidence and get real girlfriends.

When she says this, Kazuya realizes this is what Chizuru has been doing for him throughout their date. Every time he got too nervous to talk or didn’t know how to ask for something, she took the lead. And this is what makes Chizuru the perfect rental girlfriend.

What do you think the point of a rental girlfriend is? Their job is really to make their clients feel better. For some, like Kazuya at first, they turn to rental girlfriends after a breakup. Others rely on rental girlfriends to give them the confidence they need to get a real girlfriend.

There are many other reasons why someone would want a rental girlfriend. But, regardless of the client’s reason, the rental girlfriend has to make sure they have a good time. Chizuru is great at this. She can see when something’s bothering her client and then tries to take their mind off it or reassure them.

It didn’t take very long for Chizuru to realize why Kazuya made the request he did for their date. It was obvious that he wanted to experience something he never got the chance to. And rather than make him feel bad, she helped him.

Conclusion

What do you think of Kanokari 2nd Season Episode 8? Do you think Kazuya’s date request is weird? Are you a nervous wreck like Kazuya? And what do you think is the most important trait for a rental girlfriend? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 9 is available now.