Rent-a-Girlfriend Creator Faces Surprise Backlash After Its Main Character’s Makeover

Rent-a-Girlfriend‘s creator has gotten a surprise backlash from fans after its main character went through a major makeover in its latest chapters. Despite all of the controversy it has seemingly stirred up online (at least from fans outside of Japan), Rent-a-Girlfriend continues to be a massively popular series. Not only is the anime preparing to return next year with a fifth season, but the manga is on track to surpass major franchises like Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball in terms of how long it has gone on. The series just can’t keep itself out of the negative spotlight with fans, however.

Rent-a-Girlfriend is now celebrating crossing over 400 chapters of the manga (as the series prepares to cross over a major Dragon Ball milestone with its next volume), and series creator Reiji Miyajima kicked off this whole new era of the series by giving Kazuya Kinoshita a makeover. Going back to his natural hairstyle rather than the blonde he had through the series before, fans can’t help but point out that the main character looks a lot like Miyajima himself. Sparking some rather wild self-insert allegations from fans like @Santanaelchan on X.

Rent-a-Girlfriend Creator Faces Backlash Over Kazuya’s Makeover

Kazuya has been through quite a lot in Rent-a-Girlfriend’s run so far, and initially kicked off his story by hiring a rental girlfriend to make up for the fact he was just brutally dumped. Then falling in love with this rental girlfriend, Chizuru, Kazuya tries his best to date her. But over and over again, he confesses and is outright turned down. This is a pattern that has continued through nearly 400 chapters, and it’s created some major backlash with fans as it seems like there’s no true endgame in sight for Kazuya anytime soon (especially after his latest failed confession).

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This new makeover for Kazuya, which returns him to his more natural look he had during middle school, seems to mean the start of a new era for the character where he will handle himself differently, but fans have noticed how he now looks a lot like the creator. These self-insert allegations might seem like a surprise after such a makeover, but unfortunately this is not the first time fans have wondered about the creator’s actual connections with his characters in the series’ run before this point either. To them, it seems like it’s just more evidence to support that fact.

What’s Going On With Rent-a-Girlfriend?

Miyajima has sparked controversies in the past with fans with the use of AI and more, but the biggest concern came from his series of illustrations for Chizuru. Imagining the character in intimate situations, but in real world locations, on social media, fans had begun to wonder whether or not the creator was starting to like his creations a bit too much. There’s no real weight to all of this, of course, but this makeover doesn’t help in that regard as fans are now crafting the narrative that Miyajima wants Kazuya to be a self-insert ending up with Chizuru.

It’s just another wild controversy and debate in a string of debates fans have had since Rent-a-Girlfriend first began, and will likely be far from the last. The series is showing no signs of slowing down even after 400 chapters, and continues to fly off the shelves in Japan with each new volume. If this makeover is what helps it bring it all to an end, fans might look at it a bit oddly but accept that the end has come at last nonetheless.

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