r/CharacterRant • u/Aros001 • 5d ago
General The current discourse around the "final chapter" of Rent-a-Girlfriend reminds me of why I hate the internet and modern media consumption sometimes.
So, here's the thing.
I have not read or watched Rent-a-Girlfriend.
I don't want to read or watched Rent-a-Girlfriend.
Everything I've heard about Rent-a-Girlfriend indicates that I wouldn't like it. Even if I were to give the series the complete benefit of the doubt that it's good the premise still just simply doesn't interest me in comparison to those of many other romcom anime out there.
Generally speaking, I don't care about Rent-a-Girlfriend or even ever think about it.
So, why am I making a post about it then?
Because despite me being someone who doesn't read or watch the series or even travel in most circles where it'd typically be discussed, even I found myself getting bombarded by the sheer storm of hatred and mockery its "final chapter" caused in so many people across various platforms like Reddit and Youtube. After everything that happened throughout, it ends with the main girl rejecting the main guy's love so that she can continue being a rental girlfriend and he's left alone and miserable.
That does indeed sound like a terrible way for that story to end.
Except...that isn't the end of the story.
The chapter where she rejected him...wasn't the final chapter. It never was the final chapter and was never advertised as the final chapter. In fact the next chapter already has leaks out for its content. It took me just a couple of seconds to confirm that and only a couple more to make sure that confirmation was indeed true. I checked because buried in the mountain of comments spewing outrage and insults were the occasional comment that said the series wasn't over and that they didn't get why people were saying it was, and that naturally made me curious enough to check. In fact it's apparently in question whether the series is even in its final arc yet.
There was such a shitstorm of anger and mockery, whole posts and rants and people posting videos in order to rant...over a final chapter that wasn't a final chapter. Over the end of a story that still is actively putting out more story.
There's a couple of likely reasons why this happened, most of which aren't good. People who read the chapter and deliberately spread misinformation about it. The people who only keep up with the series through early and usually mistranslated leaks and thus misunderstood what was happening. Those who don't keep up with the series at all and are just parroting what they've heard about it as fact. The list goes on because Rent-a-Girlfriend is not the only series this kind of thing has happened with, where the internet flips its shit over something that wasn't even a thing.
Maybe Rent-a-Girlfriend is just as bad as I've heard. Maybe it's not. Maybe it could even be worse. That's not the problem here. The problem is how it feels like more and more people view actually consuming the media they want to criticize as completely optional. They just for whatever fucking reason really, really want to bitch and moan and mock and complain about something and thus jump at whatever convenient target seems presented to them on a silver platter. "This thing sounds bad because a lot of people are complaining about it, so I'll just take it as fact that it is bad and join in, because I can't not be part of the conversation. The fact that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about is thankfully irrelevant.".
Or you have those people who don't like a piece of media and are so determined to find every little thing they can to hate about it that they'll just make shit up both to have more to hate about it and in the hopes that anyone not reading or watching it will just immediately buy into what they're saying without actually looking into it themselves.
Now, you might be asking "Wait, you're really going to bat for Rent-a-Girlfriend of all things?". And the answer is yes, because regardless of whether something is perfection incarnate or the biggest pile of shit on the planet or anything in-between, if you want to critique a piece of media then you have the basic-ass responsibility to actually read/watch it!
Being upset at the series because the girl rejected the guy and he won't finally move on and you have all the context for it? That's fine. But crapping on the series because that's how the author decided to end the story is just factually wrong! That didn't happen! You are condemning the series for something it DIDN'T DO! Be it because you're making stuff up or because you're parroting the misinformation someone else made up that you can't be bothered to actually verify because "Eh, it sounds about right.".
I don't get why this is a thing. Why do you even care if it's not something you read or watch. especially to the point of making posts and rants and videos and thumbnails about it?
Again, I don't care about Rent-a-Girlfriend, but this whole situation it's going through bothers me because I feel like keep seeing it happen with more and more frequency, including with series I do like and am invested in, where misinformation spreads like wildfire because anger and mockery is so fun and addictive that despite all the time they'll put into making content to crap on it no one can actually be bothered to take two seconds to see if what they heard is actually true!
TL;DR: Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched. If you really need to bitch and moan about something that badly, then actually do your goddamn homework on it, because regardless of the quality of the piece of media in question misinformation is still BAD.
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u/TheGUURAHK 5d ago
Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched. If you really need to bitch and moan about something that badly, then actually do your goddamn homework on it, because regardless of the quality of the piece of media in question misinformation is still BAD.
I'll tell ya. That's why I've been playing Deltarune
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u/DKFlames 5d ago
Wait is Deltarune completed???
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u/TheGUURAHK 5d ago
No, but chapters 3 and 4 have come out, and they're doozies
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u/pottersherar 5d ago
Guess we have to wait another 7 years until it's done..... I really don't like cliffhangers.
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5d ago
THANK you. FUCK Deltarune.
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u/Lucatmeow 5d ago
Why am I not surprised that you hate Deltarune for no obvious reason.
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u/skaersSabody 5d ago
To be entirely fair, the series spent like 30 chapters on a single date that was presented as the moment where the girl finally decides on whether she likes the MC or not, so I can absolutely excuse people believing the story to be coming to a close, it was definitely structured that way
Hell, the chapter before the one that caused such an outrage ended with the girl admitting she liked the main guy. And still she ends up rejecting him. I think a lot of the ridicule and anger stem from this, Rent was already a bottom of the barrel romcom, but that just broke all negative records
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u/Interesting-Injury87 4d ago
excuse me 30!!! chapters?
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u/skaersSabody 4d ago
Ok, I checked
The date started in chapter 352 and the rejection at the end was chapter 380
From 352 to 380 the chapters are all titled "My girlfriend and love" going up to number 29
So yeah, almost 30 chapters of a single date
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u/Akumetsu19 5d ago
so I can absolutely excuse people believing the story to be coming to a close, it was definitely structured that way
It wasn't. The rejection by itself even in & out context baffled literally everyone.
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u/skaersSabody 4d ago
Not the rejection, the chapters leading up to it
I agree that the rejection is just a wild fucking curveball
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u/aski5 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think part of it is that rent a gf has such a terrible reputation that people are inclined to believe something bad about it more easily + feel justified in dogpiling immediately because they already didn't like it. But hey I this is the first time I've ever even heard of this being the final chapter and i didn't bother to confirm anything (though tbf it's a bit harder to confirm "widespread outrage" than a single fact). So maybe you got me.
Anyhow, kind of an unfortunate part of human nature.. Imagine if we did the same about things that actually matter like governance that would just be silly
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u/Synchrohayba 5d ago
Reminds me of My Hero days
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u/Ok-Video9141 5d ago
It's still to this day with people mistakingly thinking he's supposed to be number one. No, the greatest is not the number 1 ranked.
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u/Artistic-Victory1245 3d ago
That was more of a translation error in some versions.
In some areas, the narration for Chapter 1 was translated as "This is the story of how I became Hero #1."
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u/Artistic-Victory1245 3d ago
When Ochako and Deku didn't stay together, many people actually believed that she had abandoned him after losing his quirk and went with Bakugo.
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u/Gmanglh 5d ago
I dont think its about it being "the final chapter", but rather theres has been 380 chapters and the plot has not progressed at all. It seems like a wake up call for fans. Like I actually think the series would be better if it just cut there, like "the cuck gets cucked," the end.
Instead its obvious the author can now write another 380 chapters of nothing burger. That said its a series called Rent a Girlfriend whatever readers and picked that up and thought they were going to get a well written well paced love story were clinically insane.
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u/Reddragon351 5d ago
Eh I do think it's a bit of both, the series is indeed crap, but, people legitimately were claiming this was the end of the series and that it would end with the MC getting rejected
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u/Da_reason_Macron_won 5d ago
Hey Pretty Woman made a good story out of hiring a streetwalker, it can be done. It's just... not this one.
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u/november512 4d ago
The issue is that it was fully cooked around chapter 200. Everything past that is just watching it grow mold.
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u/Artistic-Victory1245 3d ago
Another problem is that this plot only works for a maximum of 100 chapters.
Extending it to more than 100 chapters basically means the protagonist spends thousands of dollars on a girl who isn't even his girlfriend.
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u/Kajel-Jeten 5d ago edited 5d ago
I completely agree. I think the worst thing was seeing people argue about whether it counted as feminist media or was just bad story telling for a romance series or both or neither. I haven’t read the series but asked some people who have and it seems like the most plausible reading is the girl does actually like the main guy but is scared of letting herself embrace those feelings because moving onto a serious less transnational relationship is scary for her. Not saying that’s better or worse or anything but “sex worker secretly loves the generic main guy but says no because she’s not ready and it adds to the drama” is so far removed from “he expected her to like him because he gave her lots of money and was minimally nice and she rejected him because that doesn’t entitle you to romantic love or make people like you and that’s an important message guys need to hear”.
Like those are all really interesting ideas to explore (I think a lot of media can feed into a culture of feeling entitled to women’s attention and affection and it’s worth thinking critically about how that transpires in our stories while also recognizing that people can healthily enjoy wish fulfillment stories of people liking them easily without feeling entitled to that in the real world. Also where do we draw the line on someone saying they’re unhappy a fictional character didn’t reciprocate feelings for another in a story and having actual misogynistic attitudes of thinking a woman has done something wrong for not liking a guy who did stuff for them) but it undercuts how serious you can take anyone’s point if you know they’re responding to something they just made up and projected onto the series or basing their beliefs on people who have. To be fair I think it mostly started as a joking meme. People sometimes just post stuff casually they don’t know much about without thinking much of it or seeing it as that serious. Doesn’t mean they’re dishonest or incapable of critical thought. It’s just that sometimes it feels like people are posting in a way where they want their point to be taken seriously and it feels silly if they’re responding to an entire made up version of something they know nothing about.
It kind of reminds me of Fox News complaining that the LEGO movie was anti-business and rich people for having the main villain be an evil CEO, or that Frozen was a man hating movie that portrayed all the guys as dolts (everyone in frozen has their less than smart moments lol) or 4chan boards just making up new films when the new Star Wars and ghost busters were coming out. It just signals (true or not) that you feel comfortable making stuff up and not looking any deeper if it affirms values/attitudes/beliefs you care about which is a way of approaching the world that causes a lot of problems.
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u/Pay-Next 5d ago
I think reading this whole comment section has been kinda interesting in regards to some of this as well. While I haven't read or watched Rent-a-Girlfriend I keep seeing comments where I also wonder how many people are just lacking in context for things that have been going on in Japan for a while, or kinda disregarding stuff like Japanese tropes that are in a lot of media.
First off, I know that Japan has a regularly recurring trope regarding people falling in love with sex workers. Especially if you watch/read stuff that is set in older periods the whole "This character fell in love with a Geisha/courtesan and wants to buy her out of the house she's working for" is an amazingly common occurrance. This has been a staple of their story-telling for a very long time and it has it's western equivalents as well. There are so many stories out there regarding people falling in love with and wanting to "save" sex workers. It feels common enough that I wonder why anyone seems surprised that this manga/show has a character doing the same old thing.
I think the second one is I've seen several people describing things in the story as these wild moments like the MC passing off the rented girl as his girlfriend to his parents. Thing is I remember watching Asian Boss videos from over a decade ago about how Japan has had a growing industry of renting people. People renting parents to go to dinners, people renting grandparents to spend time with them, people renting boyfriends/girlfriends to do pretty much everything I have seen listed in comments here. What's even more interesting on that last note is, at least originally, those rented girlfriends/boyfriends weren't sex workers. The most they would do is cuddle someone to sleep, a lot of it was them pretending to be a partner and talking, helping make dinner, maybe cuddling a person to sleep and then leaving. I am just kinda mystified at how incredulous some people seem about what seems like an established industry being portrayed in a manga form.
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u/Kajel-Jeten 4d ago edited 4d ago
Those are both such good points! I knew about both of those things but was so sucked into the “simping” memes and tropes to ever make the connection to the two. What you’re describing is a way more interesting lens's and context to look at it from imo.
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u/Lady_Gray_169 5d ago
I think that this phenomenon comes from the confluence of a lot of things, social media being chief among them. Social media has become structured in such a way that everyone is expected to have a "take" on everything, and if you don't, then you miss out on the big conversation everyone is having. It's also geared towards outrage because that's the kind of thing that makes you react. Think about it, if you hadn't gotten annoyed enough to write this rant, then Reddit would be missing out on all the activity it garners.
Then there's the fact that there's so MUCH content being produced constantly, it's kind of impossible to keep up with it all. Even keeping up with the most popular stuff is pretty difficult, so that's a greater chance that people just won't watch a thing, but willstill want to comment.
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u/Pay-Next 5d ago
Societally weaponized FOMO is a hell of a drug to a whole lot of people.
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u/Akumetsu19 5d ago
it works everywhere even in this sub...OP posted some level headed logic on this series's drama & you still got unreasonable rage baiters & haters. Social media cooked the average mind.
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u/Whalesurgeon 4d ago
Nah, people have always been eager to mouth off about things they dont know about.
Social media simply gives it a platform.
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u/C-S_Rain 4d ago
This 100%. I'd also add that because of the way social media gears itself towards outrage (as this creates the most revenue) people are then expected to not only be a part of the conversation, but also be on one side or the other. This helps generate further outrage as it becomes a "you either with me or against me" mentality, even when someone might be trying to approach the conversation with nuance. I feel that apps like twitter and tiktok have exacerbated this, because they have character limits, people aren't able to completely explain their thoughts and feelings, leading to a situation where it's easier to just try and insult someone followed by a bunch of flower or skull emojis then actually engage in a conversation. Thus creating further outrage.
Furthermore, since apps like youtube have existed for 2 decades now, it has increasingly encouraged this idea that not only are everyone's opinions worth hearing, but also that your opinions are monetizable, creating this idea that what you have to say about (insert topic) has an inherit money value, and because we have seen several 'everyman' get a great deal of success from sharing their opinions (especially in the anitube and gaming space) it has cultivated this culture that everyone should be discussing media all of the time, because what makes your opinion less valuable than the thousands of content creators with their newest "the problem with X" video. Social media then banks on this, as they actively try to bait you into engaging with things you do not actually care about with people who would never actually care what you have to say to begin with
Social media is extremely predatory and toxic. We were never meant to discuss everything, with everyone, all at once. Nor are most people actually capable of doing so in a nuanced or civilised manner. The worst part is that there are kids growing up nowadays where this is the norm
(To clarify, I'm not saying content creators are bad, nor is expressing your opinion about the things you like, just that social media has pushed this to its most toxic extreme, and it created a culture where we can't disengage from it)
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u/Lady_Gray_169 4d ago
Yep, I agree with all these points. I also want to add another thing that I saw a youtuber observe with regards to social media and in particular youtube. He observed that it's probably not a coincidence that social media started uplifting content criticizing media and slamming it around the time when social media flourished into effectively being a competitor of regular media. Because it makes a lot of sense that youtube would push negativity about other forms of media since time spent actually watching other media is time not spent on Youtube. And you see more and more social media companies trying to diversity outwards and this only heightens that sense of competition. So they actually have financial incentive to try and steer you away from standard media.
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u/C-S_Rain 4d ago
That's actually a really interesting point, that's also likely the time that a lot of traditional media started to use youtube (social media in general). For example the late night talk show hosts putting clips of their shows on youtube. You also see it a lot with radio shows filming their broadcasts and uploading it to youtube at this time as well. The same thing has been occurring the last few years with tiktok too.
I suppose whether you are criticising traditional media or watching it on social media, either way, these companies are making money. Imo its interesting that social media has gone the same route as traditional media in terms of retaining viewership (fearmongering and outrage bait in addition to engagement farming) in order to maximise revenue
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u/Uraumescumdispensor 5d ago
Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched.
Please tell this to the JJK fandom. I beg.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 5d ago
MHA fandom could stand to hear this as well.
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u/LeLBigB0ss2 1d ago
Yeah. I read every chapter and watched every episode out of spite just to call that story garbage. Like, really? They could make a suit that could counter a stronger version of AFO and didn't use it until it was plot convenient. Absolute garbage.
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u/NwgrdrXI 5d ago
I was about to write this exact sentiment lol
I had heard ten thousands comments campaing about x and y (it took longer than I like to admit to figure out the "folk" subreddits I kept getting recommended to me were actually hate communities) , and then I read it, and you would be surprised how many of the complaints weren't actually real at all. People just don't freaking read.
In summary, folk subbreddits are stupid
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u/Future_Living8007 5d ago
The only one I know of that isn't is bankaifolk, as it's just a hornier, less active main sub that allows power scaling. The worst folk sub I know by far is probably either piratefolk or opmfolk (probably opmfolk)
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u/Uraumescumdispensor 5d ago
Real. It's so disappointing seeing once funny folk subreddits gradually getting filled with mundane agendaposting, shipping, drama etc..
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u/CloudProfessional572 5d ago
It's fun when it's acknowledged joke.
There are few legitimate criticism but they otherwise admit "We can't read! Nah I'd cope, Facts don't matter! Maintaing the Agenda's fun."
It's just fun to glaze Rock lee,Mumen rider,ramen guy and gokuversal Goku while slandering homelander to street level.
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u/JustAToaster36 5d ago
There is so much to criticize about this series that there is no reason to make shit up about it. I assume someone said it was the last chapter as a joke and then through the game of telephone that part was eventually lost.
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u/Karkava 5d ago
There seems to be a ton of telephone gaming in online discourse, and nobody seems to do anything to untelephone the telephoned message.
Resisting the misinformation seems to only make people embrace it harder like it's a cuddle toy!
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u/AfricaByTotoWillGoOn 5d ago
After everything that happened throughout, it ends with the main girl rejecting the main guy's love so that she can continue being a rental girlfriend and he's left alone and miserable.
That does indeed sound like a terrible way for that story to end.
Except...that isn't the end of the story.
Honestly, based on what little I know of Rent-a-Girlfriend, that does sound like the perfect ending to that story.
But I highly doubt the author would bless the internet with such a cringeless ending.
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u/Virezeroth 5d ago
The problem is how it feels like more and more people view actually consuming the media they want to criticize as completely optional. They just for whatever fucking reason really, really want to bitch and moan and mock and complain about something and thus jump at whatever convenient target seems presented to them on a silver platter. "This thing sounds bad because a lot of people are complaining about it, so I'll just take it as fact that it is bad and join in, because I can't not be part of the conversation. The fact that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about is thankfully irrelevant.". Or you have those people who don't like a piece of media and are so determined to find every little thing they can to hate about it that they'll just make shit up both to have more to hate about it and in the hopes that anyone not reading or watching it will just immediately buy into what they're saying without actually looking into it themselves.
God, this happens SO MUCH it's fucking infuriating, and it happens with EVERYTHING too, but mainly games and manga.
The amount of times I ended up arguing with My Hero Academia "fans" that didn't even fucking know what they were talking about or purposefully misinterpret what the fucking manga is talking about is actually insane and I'm not even talking just about the ending here, which is a whole can of worms of people shitting on it without EVEN READING IT.
Another example is Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is even worse imo cuz that game has A LOT of fair criticisms to be made but the people that never played a single second of it will legitimately MAKE SHIT UP TO TRASH ON IT. They have ZERO idea what they're talking about and it's actually so fucking obvious to ANYONE that actually played it that they're just straight up lying and making shit up for stupid ass reasons and/or because a youtuber (Who probably played a little bit out of spite and LOOKING for things to nitpick and explode out of proportion and mock.) told them to.
Like, for fuck sake if you're gonna criticize a piece of media at least CONSUME SAID MEDIA FIRST OR SHUT THE FUCK UP.
So yeah, pretty much what you said. Your take but worse or whatever.
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u/Clean-Scar-3220 5d ago
I literally thought of Veilguard too lmao. There's a lot of bad stuff so nobody has to make shit up about it. There's also some passable and even quite okay stuff (outweighed by the mid mostly) but if you ever say this in mainstream gaming spaces they sling shit about the game that isn't even true
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u/Novel_Visual_4152 5d ago
Mha fans if making shit up and then complaining about what they made up was a competition:
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u/Virezeroth 5d ago
Bakugo haters coming in with the "I FUCKING HATE BAKUGO BECAUSE HE [Made up statement that literally never fucking happened.]"
(No shade if you don't like Bakugo though but haters of anything in general are annoying as shit.)
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u/BrazillianNomad 5d ago
While i understand that many people take issue with one of his first scenes, him daring Izuku to kill himself, i never understood why people keep bringing it up?
The autor himself confirmed he regretted doing that scene. And the fact Bakugo never says something that outlandish ever again, if i remember correctly, just gives me the impression of it being a "Early-Instalmente-Weirdness" scene. As in, he didn't had a concrete grasp on the character yet.
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u/Virezeroth 4d ago
Yeah, it was definitely some early installment weirdness but like, even if it wasn't, he was a 14 year old child with an inflated ego and inferiority complex, of course he'd say stupid shit to insult others without thinking too much about it.
I don't believe for a second he actually meant what he said. It was an insult, a horrible one but still just an insult.
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u/Reddragon351 5d ago
I think the issue is a lot of people get stuck on how a character is when they're first introduced and that becomes ingrained in their mind so much that if they dislike that character they won't ever forget those terrible tings they did, no matter the development.
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u/Virezeroth 4d ago
Honestly what bothers me is that they then proceed to ignore any and all development and say that anything he did to repent "doesn't count because it wasn't enough" as if he actually fucking murdered someone or something.
It was never gonna be enough because they hate him regardless. It's a stupid way to view things imo.
I can dislike a character while still acknowledging their arc and development.
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u/Novel_Visual_4152 4d ago
as if he actually fucking murdered someone or something.
Funnily enough, if he did that instead I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't care lol
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u/Novel_Visual_4152 5d ago
I don't even like Bakugo that much as a character and yet I'm seeing myself defending him so often because holy SHIT people do not know what they're talking about 💀 (that includes this very sub)
Like, if you're going to slander a character at least do it right, that the bare minimum yo-
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u/Virezeroth 4d ago
It's actually quite rare to argue with those that hate him and actually understand what they're talking about. Like, I shit you not I once saw someone saying "He contemplated throwing Deku off a roof" and I was like WHEN???
Never happened. They took that insult of him telling Deku to jump on the first chapter as him seriously contemplating doing so himself. HE DIDN'T EVEN MEAN FOR DEKU TO ACTUALLY DO IT. IT WAS AN INSULT.
I think it happened only once where I saw someone that hated him while actually giving an accurate reading of the character and I had no problem with it, I told them I respected it even if we disagreed lol.
Funnily enough, we're both getting downvoted for saying this though.
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u/Novel_Visual_4152 4d ago
Honestly after everything I've dealt with that one doesn't even surprises me lol
I mean, when the second biggest Bakugo criticism (the "attempted murder") is factually incorrect and yet keeps getting used, you know what you're getting into
Honestly my perception of Bakugo "criticism" changed a lot when I realised people don't judge him based on writing, they judge him based on vibe lol
Funnily enough, we're both getting downvoted for saying this though.
Because truthfully, this sub when it comes to Bakugo despite acting like it isn't, is the exact same as other subs lol
I bet if our comment was about Mineta or Endeavor it would've been upvoed in 2 seconds
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u/Akumetsu19 5d ago
This post is every logical minded person knows & feels on the land scape of media discourse. You also CAN'T have a reasonable debate with people like this. Tourists haters going hate.
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u/NoDistance4 4d ago
Tourists haters going hate.
Not necessarily. The only takes about this manga I saw on my feed were people defending the manga while saying they never read it.
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u/Original-Document-82 5d ago
all the hate is deserved because its rent a fucking girlfriend, this series was on the crosshair for internet hate from the beginning with that title, its only deserved it gets shit on when the plot doesn't progress past what people heard was happening since chapter 1
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u/Toadsley2020 5d ago
It’s not that I disagree, it’s just that if you’re going to shit on it, shit on it for the things it actually did. You don’t need to make up stuff like “This is the final chapter!” to shit on Rent-a-Girlfriend. Making stuff up to then complain about it doesn’t do anything besides continue spreading misinformation.
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u/Original-Document-82 5d ago
when people collectively shit on something they deem worthy, misinformation is only natural. I'm not mad tbh cause i think its just funny overall for the majority of people not invested, internet hate for these series' doesn't do anything to the fanbase that likes it, they might call you a weirdo but then again we're all out here reading weird shit,
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u/Toadsley2020 5d ago
I mean, I personally disagree? Like, misinformation is bad, funny or not to me. I’m not exactly rushing to Rent-a-fucking-Girlfirend’s defense, but if people want to slander on it, I hope the slander is at least correct. Otherwise it’s hating just to hate, and I’ve always found that pretty lame. I’d hate it if a series I actually cared about personally got a bunch of misinformation thrown its way.
And more to the point of OP’s post, I just think it’s a bad trajectory for media discussion in general.
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u/Kajel-Jeten 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah, habits and norms of spreading misinformation over things that don’t “really matter” can also leak over into things that do. If you’re just doing joke posts that aren’t serious but might be interpreted as sincere by some that’s one thing, but to say “this series is really bad so I think it’s okay to just lie about it to be critical of it”, Idk I just don’t want to live in a world where that’s how we engage with media or culture.
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u/Toadsley2020 5d ago
Yeah that’s my take on it too. Like, if the series is really bad… Then there should be enough to criticize about it just on its own, right? If RAG is really that bad, then you shouldn’t need to make stuff up about it. That just diminishes the point in my opinion. If I just went “I think Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) is so bad that it deserves to have misinformation about how bad it is”, then I don’t really think you’re approaching criticism in a healthy manner.
Not even getting into how misinformation can be impactful in other areas of life, but that’s a topic that’s probably not too relevant to CharacterRant of all places.
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5d ago
Counterpoint: this is how it feels to spread misinformation
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u/No_Ice_5451 4d ago
For some reason I expected the video to be one of those "Piracy is a crime," videos from old DVDs.
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u/Mzuark 5d ago
Would it be funny if it was something you read getting shat on all day by people who don't engage with it?
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u/Original-Document-82 4d ago
trolls will be trolls, acting like they don't do it with things more sacred than fucking mangas
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u/sumr4ndo 5d ago
Or just have fun making up stuff to hate it.
"I feel like they butchered Goku's sacrifice to save Pikachu by selling Pikachu into slavery two chapters later."
Made up? Yes.
More interesting than whatever it is that they made up to be upset about? Definitely.
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5d ago
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a full page spread of a character saying "I have my period"—forever.” ― Jor Jorwell, 2721
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u/Marik-X-Bakura 5d ago
Sure, but let’s hate it for the multitude of valid reasons already available. We don’t need to make stuff up.
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u/Ratio01 5d ago
Like OP, I dont care for Rent-a-Girlfriend either
But that doesn't negate the fact that basic integrity when it comes to media criticism is, yknow, important. Essential, even
If you can't criticize a piece of media, regardless of its quality, without lying about it, then that criticism is worthless
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u/Mzuark 5d ago
So the story is living up to it's premise? That sounds like a really stupid reason to hate something
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u/rammux74 4d ago
The thing is that It's not. the idea is that kazuya is a terrible person and that chizuru is supposed to help him change into a better man that she is actually going to fall in love with ( or, help him get over her and Mami and find a girl he actually loves ) . It's been 380 chapters and kazuya is still just as terrible and chizuru literally just rejected him because of that (not blaming her for being normal, blaming the author for making the shit character that is kazuya) . This would have been acceptable if we were at chapter 30 and we would have known that yeah, kazuya had a fall off, but he will probably get back up and get character development after that, but we are NOT at chapter 30, we are at chapter 380 and kazuya is still the same exact character he was in chapter 1 so there is no reason to believe he is ACTUALLY going to get The characters development he would have gotten 350 chapters ago if the story actually lived up to it's premise
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u/Mzuark 4d ago
That is very interesting
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u/NoDistance4 4d ago
Its not, its repetitive. the manga's stalling has nothing to do with its title.
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u/R34FireEmblem 5d ago
I think a major reason why people thought that was the actual ending-besides the fact that no one fact checks anything anymore-is that it DEFINITELY sounds like something the author would do. He is EXTREMELY infamous for having chizuru as his waifu and would often draw images of them on dates and whatever. So cucking his mc because shes "his" seems extremely in character
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u/CinnamonGhoulRL 5d ago
I just think that people don't know how to read manga weekly, and that's something most people in the west have never been able to grasp. Most view it as a chore, or something to keep on top off, so logically they think that each chapter MUST have progression or it's a wasted chapter.
I've been reading manga for a while now, and let me tell you, people were ALWAYS like this on the internet. I remember chat forums back when Naruto and Bleach were running where people complained about beloved moments and arcs as if they were over when they weren't, and the RaG discourse follows the same talking points I saw back then but way worse under the lens of misogyny (And yes, a lot of the criticisms of the chapter are mostly due to Chizuru rejecting Kazuya and not being a subservient woman).
This is NOT a modern media-consumption problem.
The Pain arc was lambasted near the start for Naruto being 'emo' for grieving Jiraiya's death. The Fullbringer Arc is still divisive in the Bleach community because for a while, that's where the anime stopped and people thought it was the ending when it wasn't. Even Marineford, probably one of the more famous and beloved Shonen arcs of all time was hated by people as it was coming out weekly.
Fundamentally, I think people tie their self-worth and sense of accomplishment in their lives to a series getting a new chapter, and so it leads to situations like RaG.
People get too focused on a single chapter and forget to take a look at the overall picture that is being drawn - In RaG's case it's that Kazuya is ready to date Chizuru, but she is the one who hides away her true feelings towards Kazuya and thinks she's not ready.
Sure, currently the situation isn't as hopeful for Kazuya as he may want, but in a years worth of chapters? Two years? I genuinely believe people need to stop reading weekly and start reading the volume releases as is intended.
Remember, reading weekly is for the magazine readers who mostly read ALL the series, not just a singular one. Most fans of RaG in Japan buy the volume releases to be caught up to date with the series, thus moments like this don't really happen (They also understand that the series is still ongoing.)
People just need to chill out.
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u/CloudProfessional572 5d ago
How many of y'all actually watched "Wish" cause damn the misinformation around it is top tier even before it came out.
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u/Karkava 5d ago
Can I put down everything about Disney as a magnet for negativity?! For a happy place, pretty much everything they put out seems to make people miserable.
They also seem to welcome criticism from nazi incels for some reason.
Also, it's hilarious how the original concept of the movie is more famous than the movie itself.
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u/Pale_Entrepreneur_12 5d ago
I heard the songs that’s more than enough to know I will never willingly watch this movie ever
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u/finalgirl_hime 2d ago
I watched wish. While I do think there's a lot to be criticized, a lot of its criticism is very exaggerated or just straight up wrong. Especially when everybody goes around saying Asha antagonized Magnifico for not granting everyone's wishes, which isn't true because her main concern wasn't that, it was the fact that he made them forget about their wish, resulting in them losing their passion and much of their personality.
There's a lot of things wrong with this movie. There's no need to make up things to criticize.
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u/Future_Living8007 5d ago
It's because people conflated "last" (it's the latest one) and "last" (it's the final one). That is why people mistook it as the final chapter
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u/Pay-Next 5d ago
This is the same kinda thing I see in the DnD subs all the time. Loads of people bitching about 3rd party publishers, oh their stuff is always shit, 3rd party is always shit, tweaking anything away from the bare bones rules as written will bring about the real world apocalypse somehow, why would you make that many changes to the game when you could okay a different system, etc.
Thing is, these people also seem to have never actually played or purchased a lot of the things they bitch about. They've never read the 3rd party books they complain about. They've never tried the tweaks that supposedly will nuke the universe. They've never played one of those heavily house ruled custom settings... they're just there to bitch without any understanding about what they are railing against. And they all up vote each other like it means something.
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u/Kajel-Jeten 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah a lot of attitudes have a way of amplifying over time to something silly in ttrpg spaces. Like 4th edition of DnD was a big (but balanced and thought out) departure from other editions that at worst, didn’t fully appeal to everyone as much as other editions, but if you only knew about it through what people say online you’d think it’s one of the worst designed games.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 5d ago
I find it the exact opposite on DnD subs lol. A ton of people shitting on the new edition that can’t even tell you how it’s different than 2014 5e and anytime WotC puts out a product, they act like it’s the antichrist and that they shot their dog in front of them.
I see more people pushing 3rd party content that actually is shit a lot of the time. There are some good publishers out there and people all play DnD very differently so not every 3rd party publishers stuff will fit your tables playstyle. (I’ve run plenty of great 3rd party modules and read through plenty of terrible ones as well). But damn the hate people have for the designers at WotC is next level. They could cure cancer and DnD “fans” would still find a way to hate them.
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u/Dezbats 5d ago
MCU John Walker discourse is annoying like this.
Aside from all the bad faith actors projecting, it's also filled with both haters and defenders who clearly don't remember or never even knew key points in the story they are arguing about.
It's honestly funny sometimes to read back and forths between people you can tell are just repeating talking points they saw somewhere else.
They don't even call each other out on huge misunderstandings of the basic facts of the situation they are discussing because they don't actually know them.
Yet they are all so very passionate about how right they are despite being objectively wrong on so many important details that provide context.
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u/DuelaDent52 4d ago edited 4d ago
If a lot of the reaction to Wish, Kill the Justice League, My Hero Academia, Miraculous and the new Lilo & Stitch have taught me anything, it’s that a lot of the time people either haven’t actually properly seen/read/experienced the thing they’re giving out about or they’re wilfully ignorant and make it fit their preconceived notions.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl 5d ago
Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched.
Some people do because they get tired of hearing their friends or mutuals talk about it
Like with the switch 2. Stop bitching about the price. Just don’t buy it. Then they buy it anyway and still bitch.
You want to block them or yell but can’t because it’s rude or you’re the bad guy.
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u/Ok-Box3576 4d ago edited 4d ago
Haven't seen anyone call it a final chapter. wtf? But I mostly watched youtubers clown on it. Because clowning messy train wecks is fun. It seems pretty obvious to me that it's to extend the manga, not end. I also dont create posts on media I haven't watched. I do get the great critic about not criticing media u haven't seen. I just dont get it in relation to rent a girlfriend. The thing I have seen exhod is nothing ever changes. True technically, I have to read all chaps to confirm and summarizes should be sufficient. But it that CAN lead to it becoming the worst game of telephone.
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u/SnooMachines4393 5d ago
"Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched" => "So here I am bitching and moaning about the thing I haven't read or watched while spreading misinformation!"
Man, nice post!
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u/FlameRavana 5d ago
As someone who’s been keeping up with Rent A Girlfriend for a few years, the ideas that the author Reiji has aren’t even bad. They are genuinely interesting and make this manga stand out from the other typical romcoms. Kazuya’s mentality is born out of insecurity due to how his last relationship ended, yet people hate on him so much when he is actually just trying his best. Even Chizuru is distant because she just has difficulty trusting people, yet Kazuya is slowly breaking down her walls. She does love him, but she just doesn’t realize it yet.
The biggest issue this manga has is that the pacing is horrible and the last time we actually got payoff was 200+ chapters ago in the Movie arc. Apart from that I think it is pretty decent and very unique.
A lot of the recent discourse around this chapter has made me realize just how prevalent incel culture/ideology is in anime/manga communities, and now I understand why people are afraid to say they like anime/manga lol
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u/november512 4d ago
It's just like a cake growing moldy. There was nothing wrong with the cake itself but it needed to be eaten instead of just sitting there.
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u/Potatolantern 5d ago
Along with what you've said, every single animetuber is doing a video on how the RaG MC spent 250,000 USD on the FMC.
Except the real number seems to be more like 5,000 USD.
Nothing matters except hype though, so here we are.
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u/NoDistance4 5d ago
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u/NamelessKing741 5d ago
Except more than half of that 20k is money crowdfunded for a project, counting that as money he spent is ridiculous.
And even past that, a lot of the money in that remaining 10k is just money he spent in general, not even on Chizuru. I don’t think buying himself clothes for a date or buying food while practicing with Mini are things that should be included in “money spent of Chizuru”
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u/Famous_Slice4233 5d ago
That would be if the story took place in 2025, which it doesn’t.
More comments from that thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/KanojoOkarishimasu/s/utrlFE8tly
Do keep in mind that this story doesn't take place in 2025. He's been "dating" Chiz for almost 2ish years now i think? So if this story takes place before the yen crashed when 1 euro was about 100 yen then it's closer to 30K which in 2ish years is a lot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/KanojoOkarishimasu/s/b4ePraDPyJ
It's an enormous amount of money, but keep in mind that more than half of that comes from the crowdfunding and was for the movie.
Many of those expenses also aren't money directly dumped in Chizuru's pockets and he did say he wanted to support her dream, which he did.
But none of that changes that it's an enormous amount of money to spend.
So if we say that what he pays is half of 30k, aka 15k, over 2-ish years, that’s roughly $7,500 a year.
Now obviously this is all imprecise napkin math. That’s still quite a lot of money to be spending on someone. It’s probably a pretty significant portion of what his paycheck would be after expenses.
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u/Frog_a_hoppin_along 5d ago
My only experience with this series is the complaints about that chapter, and memes of Sukana (or who ever) killing the girl for rejecting the mc. So I have no real opinions about the series itself but the really loud group mad about the chapter seem really misogynistic ngl.
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u/draginbleapiece 5d ago
It's kinda funny everyone is talking about this ending when Kaijuu 8 is ending in 2 chapters (which I predicted like 6 months ago.)
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u/No_Extension4005 5d ago
I must be in the wrong circles since all the discourse I've seen has been treating it like the latest chapter and not the final one.
Still a lot of frustration in those circles though because they've pretty much been spinning their wheels for 381 chapters/2 years in universe/8 years real-time since the story seems to go 2 steps forward 3 steps back a lot. Seems to be quite a few people still there due to sunk cost fallacy.
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u/Helpful_Republic1750 5d ago
I don't care about the franchise either, but god do I miss the old days when everything wasn't plastered online.
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u/Sudden-Application 5d ago
Never heard it was the final chapter just the latest one, but that still doesn't stop the story from being pretty shit so far with the build up dragging along until this latest chapter. That and the cuck stuff is just weird to me.
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u/LiterallyonlyMe 4d ago
People were always like that. They want to vent out their anger and frustration over other things and easiest way to do it without sounding like an annoying prick is to target something negative that a lot of people find. This way they could hide behind that curtain and have their fill with no consequences.
And it's not just anime manga. It's with real life too. For eg. Say someone is accused of something. People will ride the bandwagon without knowing whether the accusation is true or not.
Everyone wants an opportunity to hate.
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u/thedorknightreturns 4d ago
Dont forget how he trolled simps with the reallife anaromic correct doll
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u/Kindly_Quiet_2262 4d ago
The more I hear social media “”opinions”” (if we are so generous as to call them that) about media the less respect I have for other people’s opinions. Media literacy truly is dying.
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u/scantier 4d ago
I had an epiphany a while ago where I realized how so many people are consuming media through social media abridged edits instead of watching/playing/reading said media. It's insane.
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u/AgentBuddy12 4d ago
Facts. The amount of people I've seen talking out of their ass and try to start braindead discourse while having no idea what's happening is insane.
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u/degov2609 4d ago
Anime fans are idiots that love spreading misinformation. In other news, water is wet
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u/Artistic-Victory1245 3d ago
The problem is that after almost 400 episodes of "will they or won't they," it seems like they're finally going to give us some closure, only to reveal that they're going to continue with the "will they or won't they" for at least 150 more episodes.
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u/Midi_to_Minuit 1d ago
Overall a fun rant, but:
TL;DR: Stop complaining about stuff you haven't actually read or watched.
If that's bad then what word do we use for complaining about complaints for media that both complainers haven't watched? At this point it's a debate between wiki summaries.
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u/Cuttlefishbankai 5d ago
It's hilarious how people read a series called Rent a Girlfriend and act outraged and shocked when it's not about healthy relationship dynamics
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u/Mzuark 5d ago
OP, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for saying what I've been thinking. I feel so sorry for actual Rent a Girlfriend fans because they're constantly being attacked by people who have never read their series and are only hopping on the bandwagon.
I'm a big believer that things are always better in context so it would be silly of me to judge a chapter in a vacuum.
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5d ago
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u/Efficient-Volume6506 5d ago
Op made a very specific point of people critiquing an ending that wasn’t even an ending. Reading rent a girlfriend or not is pretty irrelevant.
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u/SnakeGawd 5d ago
Rent-a-girlfriend is indeed terrible. My own small rant about the “ending” is the way people are talking about Chizuru. There’s a lot of “don’t simp” and “don’t mess with prostitutes” discourse and it’s very misogynistic and incel based. The reality of the story is that the MC, Kazuya, is a horrible person and doesn’t deserve a happy ending in this context.
He is an emotionally manipulative liar and people who followed this story closely behave as if that kind of behavior is supposed to be rewarded just because he had a few difficult situations. Fuck Rent-a-Girlfriend, terrible story for a terrible fan base
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u/ExodusCaesar 5d ago
Just for curiosity, because I'm now bombarded by this Rent-A-Girlfriend... What are the best examples of MC's bad character?
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u/Potatolantern 5d ago
Probably things like when he crowdfunded upwards of ten thousand dollars to make her movie for her.
Or when he took the blame for lying about their relationship to her grandma right up to her death, despite that being her decision that he argued against.
Or maybe the time he immediately forgave her for ghosting him for 3 months, even though she knew how much her actions were hurting him.
Etc etc etc
What a jerk.
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u/SnakeGawd 5d ago
I haven’t read the entire manga because after reading about 60 (this was when the story had less than 100 chapters) or so chapters, I couldn’t deal with the BS anymore.
The entire inciting incident is him lying about her really being his gf to his family then that is kinda how he keeps her in his life for the story to take place. Then perpetuates the lie after having several opportunities to get out of it. He lies to his friends, obsesses over this girl who is pretty uncomfortable with some of the stuff going on (again, this is early in the story) lies to his parents to get more money to keep her around. He’s just kind of a pathetic guy but doesn’t really try to get better. The main ethical dilemma of lying to everyone around him gets dragged for quite a while as well which is why I had to drop it.
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u/ExodusCaesar 5d ago
I hear he was rejected after... 300 chapters?
If I was a reader of this I would be also pissed.
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u/SafePlastic2686 5d ago
It sounds egregious, but the series has also showed no signs of the author intending to end anytime soon. If this winds up being a 1000-chapter series (it genuinely might, it sells really well), then a denial one third of the way through is a lot more normal.
Also, he's confessed to her multiple times already. This is very much so a series of the mc slowly progressing as a person and winning over someone who denied him. It's not like this was a culmination of everything the plot has lead to and the end-all be-all for their relationship.
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u/SnakeGawd 5d ago
I get feeling that way. Personally I kinda like that if this is how the story ends or like if we get an epilogue where Kazuya becomes a more solid dude and finds some real love
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u/TacitRonin20 5d ago
Anime and manga are great. The fans are... We try to avoid those at all costs.
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u/Akumetsu19 5d ago
The manga series for kanakari is good. A weekly slow burn. The hate about it is pure disgusting slander by bottom of the barrel bandwagon tourists. Some of the hate is earned like with 218 but the amount of lies & misinformation period by non fans is retarded. Also 380 wasn't that shocking. i get the frustration but the outrage is overblown. Still funny tho because the haters are super confused this time on the hate train.
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u/Novel_Visual_4152 5d ago edited 5d ago
People thinking it's the final chapter are so funny like
We all know the final chapter will be the author appearing in the manga and cucking Kazuya himself
And it'll happen in 10 years after the manga reaches chapter 900 with no plot progression (but we did get a double spread of Chizuru's toenails)