Last July 2024 Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 4 was announced and this past week we got a teaser poster. It showcases the upcoming Paradise Arc. I’ve been an on and off Rent-a-Girlfriend manga reader since 2019, and I haven’t read any weekly chapters in almost two years. I have read the Paradise Arc though and this is what you need to know: this arc is infamous in this manga community.
I remember reading this arc almost weekly. As I mentioned, the Paradise Arc is infamous in the Rent-a-Girlfriend community for its terrible pacing and one chapter in particular. To give you an idea, the manga was a weekly release (barring any holidays or delays), and the total chapters for this arc was 44.
Basically a full year for a single arc, and within the story this all takes place within two to three days. What makes it worse is that barely any story progression was made. The only thing that saves this arc is Reiji Miyamura’s amazing art. It is a standout for the manga.
Why I Think Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 4 Will Be Special
I think a lot of anime only watchers will finally understand why the manga readers consider this story a dumpster fire. In my opinion this is where the story started to become really terrible. Which is a shame since the Movie Arc was good.
Season 4 will be special because of these infamous scenes. The manga readers always joke about these scenes and can’t get over them. The community calls it the Chapter 218 incident. It was so bad, in a sense that they were odd to add to the overall story. Additionally, at best, there was minimal story progression.
This isn’t anything new to the series. The manga is coming up on 400 chapters, and Kazuya still gets flustered and still doesn’t know how to talk to Mizuhara. The community, myself included, continue to read this manga not because it’s a good manga, but because it’s a dumpster fire.
I don’t want to spoil this arc since I’m curious if TMS Entertainment will tweak those scenes a bit. From what I recall watching, they stayed true to the manga and didn’t change a lot. I’m hoping they keep staying true to the manga and won’t change any scenes in this arc.
I’ve only watched the first season, and a couple episodes of season 3 due to the mentioned Movie Arc. I will be watching season 4 though. The projected release date for season 4 is in July 2025, I didn’t add this to the first or second half of the Best Upcoming 2025 Anime since I’m watching it for the wrong reasons.
Teaser Trailer
About Rent-a-Girlfriend
Rent-a-Girlfriend, Kanojo Okarimashu or KanoKari, is a Japanese manga that Reiji Miyamura writes and illustrates. It has been releasing on Weekly Shonen Magazine by Kodansha since 2017. The story is very popular in the romance / harem genre.
As a result it received an anime adaptation in 2020, a second season in 2022 and a third in 2023. A fourth season is on the way in 2025 with no release date but is scheduled for Summer 2025.
Synopsis
You can rent a girlfriend, but can you buy love? Reeling from a bad breakup, Kazuya rents the beautiful, polite Chizuru for a date. But rock bottom might be so much lower than he thought! Chizuru is much more than the pretty face and sweet demeanor he thought he’d bargained for…
In today’s Japan, “rental” services can deliver an afternoon with a “friend,” a “parent,” even a fake girlfriend! After a staggering betrayal by his girlfriend, hapless freshman Kazuya gets just desperate enough to give it a try. But he quickly discovers how complicated it can be to “rent” an emotional connection, and his new “girlfriend,” who’s trying to keep her side hustle secret, will panic when she finds out her real life and Kazuya’s are intertwined in surprising ways! Family, school, and life all start to go wrong, too… It’s sweet but naïve boy meets cute but ruthless girl in this 21st-century manga rom-com!
Taken From Official Kodansha Website
