It’s popular, yet everyone seems to hate it.
Summary:
- Rent-a-Girlfriend got popular very quickly, but after a short time, everyone went on to criticize it for multiple reasons.
- Some still read/watch it because they feel some kind of ironic enjoyment from it, while others feel like they invested too much time into it to drop it now.
- Funnily enough, the haters still contribute to the work’s popularity.
Rent-a-Girlfriend (Kanojo, Okarishimasu) has been a hot topic of online discussions since the very start of the manga. The anime made it even more popular, and over the three seasons that have aired to this day, it didn’t lose its popularity in the slightest.
There is a curious observation, however. Most otaku do not seem to enjoy Rent-a-Girlfriend — the discussions surrounding the manga and anime seem to be overwhelmingly negative. Despite that, people still continue to follow the work and criticize it at the same time. How come the series is so popular if no one likes it?
Reasons why otaku dislike Rent-a-Girlfriend
At first, many fans probably actually enjoyed Rent-a-Girlfriend. It was decently easy to read and/or watch, as is usually the case with romantic comedies like it. While it wasn’t anything special, fans seemed to have some fondness towards Chizuru, the main girl of the series.
The opinion on the series quickly changed, however. The male lead, Kazuya, is incredibly cringey, and many feel like he’s one of the worst main characters of all time. The series has also been criticized for lack of progress for hundreds of chapters and soap-opera-tier melodrama.
Yet despite all of that, the same people who criticize it are the ones who follow it.
Why are people still following it then?
There are definitely people who actually enjoy Rent-a-Girlfriend. Compared to the so-called haters, they aren’t as vocal. And among those who seem to dislike the series, many are still following it because of the ironic enjoyment — to some, it goes into the category of “so bad, it’s good”. Others just like reading/watching trainwrecks.
There’s also a huge factor of sunk cost fallacy. The logic behind the fallacy is simple: if you invested enough time into it, it might be too late to drop it, so they’re stuck with it now. Others seem to follow it simply because they like one of the girls — the female cast made the manga popular in the first place.
Haters make it more popular
Ultimately, bad publicity is still publicity. Even if someone dislikes Rent-a-Girlfriend, if they follow it, they are contributing to its popularity. There’s no doubt that the series is successful — otherwise it wouldn’t run for so long.
This also brings up the question of a potential sequel for the anime. It’s not announced, but it’s likely to happen. And if it does, without a doubt, we’ll see people watching it and complaining about it once again.