Published on August 15th, 2022
“Rent-a-Girlfriend” or “Kanojo, Okarishimasu” is an anime that started airing in the Summer Season of 2020. It is being animated by the Animation Studio “TMS Entertainment,” whose famous TV series include “Dr. Stone,” “Fruits Basket (Remake),” “Baki,” and the long-running Shounen series “Detective Conan.”
Rent-a-Girlfriend follows the story of a college boy “Kazuya” who is suddenly rejected by his beautiful girlfriend “Mami.” Seeking relief, he decides to hire a rental girlfriend to soothe his pain. He rents “Chizuru,” a goddess-like girl who spends a perfect day with him, and Kazuya thinks she is the one he must now date. But he soon realizes that she does all this to gain the customer’s affection, and he rates her badly.
One thing leads to another, and they both realize they are studying in the same college, and Chizuru disguises himself in a different appearance. Kazuya later learns that Chizuru is doing everything to pursue her dreams. Somehow, Chizuru is now his actual girlfriend of Kazuya in front of his grandmother, and things get complicated. And to make everything worse, they even live next door. So, they decide to become friends with benefits and spend everyday life trying to keep their secrets and live a normal life. Kazuya also falls for every cute girl who gets a little frank with him.
This anime gained popularity mainly because of Chizuru’s goddess-like appearance, and the “Harem” genre (more than one girl interested in the main character) explained in a completely different way. We later discovered the slice-of-life genre, too, in both the lives of Chizuru and Kazuya, which makes the anime more compelling.
Here are 11 anime recommendations like Rent-a-Girlfriend, which share the same theme or are closely related to some aspect of the series.
1. The Quintessential Quintuplets
The Quintessential Quintuplets follows the same “Harem” and “Comedy” setting as Rent-a-girlfriend. The series follows the story of “Uesugi” an intelligent but poor boy. One day, he starts a fight against a girl “Itsuki” in the cafeteria, and he gains an enemy.
But soon, he receives an offer to be a private tutor which he has to accept because of his family conditions. The only thing is that he has to tutor Itsuki, his enemy, and her four other quintuplets. All of them are very bad at studying, and he has to make all of them graduate.
The good thing about this anime, which is just like Rent-a-girlfriend, is that you don’t know which girl is going to win, so, everyone can have their best girl and cheer on them to win at the end!
- Number of Episodes: 24 episodes + 1 movie
- Personal Rating: 9.20.
2. Nisekoi: False Love
“Raku” is the son of a yakuza leader. One day, he loses his precious locket when a girl “Chitoge,” hits him. Chitoge is also the daughter of a yakuza boss of the opposite faction of Raku’s parents. By coincidence, Chitoge transfer to Raku’s school and he forces her to look for his locket.
During the search, both of them start to hate each other but they get the news that the gangs their parents are part of have decided to stop fighting by the marriage of Chitoge and Raku. Raku, on the other hand, has a crush on another girl in school and more candidates start to arrive to marry him. So, it starts the life of our protagonist trying to find her perfect soul mate in a bunch of beautiful girls with different personalities.
Nisekoi: False Love is one of the most popular romance series and has a pretty good play on the “Harem” genre just like Rent-a-girlfriend. And similar to Rent-a-girlfriend, the main girl thinks of the protagonist as a loser but falls in love later on.
- Number of Episodes: 32 episodes
- Personal Rating: 8.50.
3. TONIKAWA: Over The Moon For You
Tonikaku Kawaii follows the same rom-com theme as Rent-a-girlfriend. “Nasa,” an extraordinary genius boy, one day comes in front of a truck but is saved by a beautiful girl “Tsukasa.” Even though his head is still bleeding, he follows Tsukasa and confesses his love at first sight. He asks her out, but she says they can only date if married.
So, without making sense of the situation, they both get married and start living together. This anime has by far the simplest anime yet. This might be the best rom-com on this list. It is quite cute, with the fact that two young opposite genders living together for the first time and discover each other.
What makes “Tsukasa” is her voice actor, who also performed the Banger opening song of this anime, the talented and relatively new “Akira Kitou,” whose famous roles include “Nezuko” from Demon Slayer, and “Kate” from Shadow House. It also has a little touch of Harem in it too.
- Number of Episodes: 12 episodes + 1 OVA
- Personal Rating: 9.50.
4. Golden Time
Golden Time follows the story of “Banri,” a country boy who has been through amnesia and knows very little about his family and hometown. He travels to Tokyo to study law and meets “Mitsuo,” a teenager like him. He motivates him to move on in life and keep going on. Banri sometimes goes across “Kuoko,” Mitsuo’s childhood friend, who is head-over-heels for Mitsuo and wants to marry him.
But things get complicated as Mitsuo is irritated by her as she always asks for his attention. So, they break up, and Banri starts dating Kouko as he feels like she is the perfect one for him. So follows the story of Banri as he discovers new things in life by being in a relationship for the first time. This anime has no “Harem” element, but it is one of the best rom-com anime, just like Rent-a-Girlfriend.
- Number of Episodes: 24 episodes
- Personal Rating: 8.00.
5. A Couple of Cuckoos
“Nagi”, a high school genius boy, and “Erika,” a high school social media star, one-day cross paths as they both are troubled by something. But they both match vibes and think they can be friends. But later on, both of them realize that they were swapped when they were born, and now, their families want them to go to their respective families by marrying each other and connecting both families, making them a big family without causing any problem.
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Naturally, both of them reject this idea, but Erika’s dad gives them an apartment and tells them to think about this situation. So, both of them start a fake lover’s relationship. Just like Rent-s-Girlfriend, both main characters fake their relationships for their families. And this anime has quite a good collection of voice actors, including the famous “Konomi Koharu,” whose most famous role is “Chika” from Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
- Number of Episodes: 24 episodes
- Personal Rating: 7.50.
6. Love and Lies
Love and Lies anime takes place in the future where the Government decides marriages based on compatibility calculated by them for a successful marriage. When a person reaches 16 years of age, the Government sends them a notice, which tells them their desired partner. “Nejima” is a high school boy who has a crush on his classmate “Misaki’, but he is scared of his notice which is about to arrive. He still confesses to Misaki and she complies, but Nejima notices his notice and his desired partner is not Misaki.
Things start to complicate as Nejima’s assigned partner, “Ririna,” also starts to support his love for Misaki. Facing love and lies daily, we see our protagonist searching for his soul mate through thick and thin. Like Rent-a-Girlfriend, the main protagonist enters a fake relationship after his first romance sinks.
- Number of Episodes: 12 episodes.
- Personal Rating: 8.50.
7. Horimiya
“Miyamura,” a high school boy, and “Hori,” a high school girl, have images in their schools that are completely different from what they are in real life. One day, they get to know each other’s real images and decide to keep quiet about it from the whole school. This makes them close, and they start to fall in love with each other. It does not follow the fake relationship part, but the main characters keep quiet about their identities from others, just like Rent-a-Girlfriend.
- Number of Episodes: 13 episodes
- Personal Rating: 8.00.
8. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki
“Tomozaki” is an unsocial high school boy. He is a master of the game “Tackfam,” as he plays it daily, without paying attention to socializing. One day, he gets an invitation to meet another top Tackfam player. When they meet in real life, Tomozaki is shocked by the fact that the top player is his beautiful classmate “Aoi.”
Aoi is disappointed after realizing that the game’s top player is Tomozaki, and she decides to change Tomozaki and help him succeed in the real game of life. Like Rent-a-Girlfriend, the main girl has a main role in the development of the main protagonist. It is a pretty strong romance anime, which is kind of like a Harem anime later on.
- Number of Episodes: 12 episodes
- Personal Rating: 8.80.
9. Boarding School Juliet
The premise of this anime takes place in the prestigious Dahlia Academy, where students come from two rival countries. “Inuzuka,” a boy from the Eastern Country, and “Persia,” a girl from a Western Country, are both leaders of their dorms and representative of their nations in the academy too. One day, Inuzuka calls Persia out for a match late at night and confesses his love for her.
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And though difficult, these two love birds start dating while there is still a feud between their countries. It has a completely different setting from Rent-a-Girlfriend but is quite a good rom-com anime.
- Number of Episodes: 12 episodes.
- Personal Rating: 8.90.
10. Girlfriend, Girlfriend
“Naoya” is a high school boy who is dating her childhood friend “Saki,” who is also her classmate. One day, another classmate of Naoya “Nagisa” confesses to him, but he rejects him as he is already dating Saki. But Naoya keeps getting attracted to Nagisa, so after the consent of Saki, he starts dating both of them.
The series follows him dating two more girls, and this complicated relationship keeps sailing. Just like Rent-a-Girlfriend, this anime also features “Rie Takahashi” as one of the girls, and both anime have a harem of four girls who are somehow interested in the main protagonist. However, the protagonist’s personality is completely different in both.
- Number of Episodes: 12 episodes.
- Personal Rating: 8.50.
11. Toradora
It is an old classic rom-com of the 2000s. It follows the story of “Ryuuji,” a hardworking high school boy who is mostly discriminated against because of his scary face. On his first days at school, he meets the ferocious tomboy “Taiga,” and they become enemies instantly. Coincidentally, Taiga has a crush on “Kitamura,” Ryuuji’s best friend, and Ryuji has a crush on “Minori,” Taiga’s best friend.
So, they become friends with benefits, but things don’t go as planned as they start to develop feelings for each other. It is a slow yet soothing romance series with a slice-of-life touch that you will most definitely like.
- Number of Episodes: 25 episodes + 1 OVA
- Personal Rating: 8.90.
What are your thoughts on the “11 anime like Rent a Girlfriend” recommendation? Do you think we missed out on an anime similar to Rent a Girlfriend? Let us know in the comment section down below.