-Written by: Right Stuf

Every quarter we are running a Manga Review Contest where you can submit a review from a selected list of manga. If you want to participate or learn more, click the link. Today we are highlighting two manga reviews that we liked and they're about the same manga, Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend.

Madison's Review

Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend is a spin-off of Rent-A-Girlfriend. about the character Sumi, a really shy and sweet girl. Since I'm a huge fan of Rent-A-Girlfriend and I love Sumi, I had to preorder this volume! It was definitely worth the wait.

In order to overcome her social anxiety, Sumi becomes a rental girlfriend to earn some money and practice her communicational skills. In this volume, Sumi is told that she needs five-star reviews to keep her job, which means that she has to break out of her shell. She turns to rental girlfriend pro, Chizuru Mizuhara, for help.

I loved seeing Sumi do her best to become more confident. I would rate this manga a 5 out of 5 because it was a nice and quick read that I enjoyed a lot. I couldn't put this manga down until I was done reading it, and that's saying a lot. I'd recommend this manga to anyone who can relate to the feeling of having social anxiety, being shy, or just anyone that's looking for a nice wholesome story.

It would be best to read some of the original series, Rent-A-Girlfriend, or to watch the anime first to help with the story’s details. Sumi is pretty similar to another popular character, Komi-san, because they are both extremely shy and are doing their best to overcome their social anxiety. This volume is cute and funny, and I can't wait to see what the next volume has in store.

If you're a fan of Komi Can't Communicate, then you would 100% love this manga. Another shy character that can relate to Sumi is Kaguya Shinomiya from Kaguya-sama Love Is War. I feel like the over-the-top feeling that you get from Love Is War is similar to the feeling this manga produces. This manga also definitely seems like something that Kaguya would love to read! If you like characters like Kaguya and Komi-san, I highly recommend this manga to you!

Ian's Review

I consider Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend to be the best thing to come out of Rent-A-Girlfriend since the early volumes. After volume upon volume of nothing happening in the series, fans needed a reprieve from the stagnant waters that was the story.

Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend is a spinoff of the hit manga series Rent-A-Girlfriend by Reiji Miyajima that follows fan-favorite character Sumi Sakurasaw through her everyday life struggling with very bad social anxiety. This spinoff takes place right before Sumi has met any of the Rent-A-Girlfriend cast, and shows her meeting each of them (minus Kazuya) in each chapter.

Coming into this after reading most of Rent-A-Girlfriend, I was excited but a bit weary due to the current state of the parent series. I thought to myself that a spinoff featuring a criminally underdeveloped character seemed like it could breathe fresh air back into the series and give fans a bit of what they loved so much from early volumes. I am happy to say that this series did not disappoint, but left a bit to be desired.

As a Sumi fan, I may come off as a bit biased, but that is exactly who this series is for anyway. If you read Rent-A-Girlfriend and didn’t really care for Sumi, you will most likely not care for this series. This spinoff does its best to flesh out Sumi a bit more as a character but seems to enjoy presenting the reader with cute panels of her blushing more than guiding an actual story. Each chapter feels like a one-shot with very little connecting each of them besides Sumi getting just the tiniest bit more confident in herself. I feel it is a bit shorter than it should be, (only coming in at six chapters), and doesn’t particularly allow itself to do all that much to separate it from the main series.

Generally, if you loved Sumi in Rent-A-Girlfriend, then you will probably love this series as well. While I feel it could have been better, getting to see extremely cute and almost diabetically sweet interactions between Sumi and the rest of the cast was more than worth the time for me. If I had to give this spinoff a numerical rating, I would have to give it 7 Best Girls out of 10.

Check back every month for our manga review contest page as we will be adding new manga to the list! Don't forget to submit your reviews for a chance to win a $75 gift card as Madison and Ian did!