The Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 release date is confirmed to be in July 2023, the Summer 2023 anime season.
Kanojo Okarishimasu Season 3 will be directed by a new director at returning Studio TMS Entertainment.
Kanokari Season 3 will have Kazuya Kinoshita and Chizuru “Mizuhara” Ichinose making a movie together! We’ll still be cringing as Kazuya fumbles through his conflicting feelings for Mami Nanami, Sumi Sakurawawa, and Ruka Sarashina, never mind when new girl Mini Yaemori begins playing wingman to her “Master”!
Mini will be voiced by Japanese voice actress Yu Serizawa.
On September 16, 2022, anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed that Kanokari Season 3 was in production. Anime news leaker Sneaky commented, “Kanokari getting a Season 3 but your favorite anime doesn’t even get a 2nd. Reiji owning you all and it’s so easy…”
Only an hour later this leaked information was substantiated by a teaser trailer featuring chibi versions of the characters. The official Twitter confirmed that a special event is planned for March 2023 where more info about Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 will be announced.
The first two seasons of the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime were produced by a collaboration between Studio Comet and Studio TMS Entertainment. The studio is best known for its Lupin III, Detective Conan anime, and the Fruits Basket reboot. Their subsidiary, Telecom Animation Film, produced the Tower of God anime, Rick and Morty vs. Genocider, and Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro. The Yowamushi Pedal Season 5 release date was in Fall 2022.
In the future, Tower of God Season 2 is confirmed to be in production and the Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro Season 2 release date is confirmed for 2023. Studio TMS Entertainment is also working on Dr. STONE Season 3 and Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles Season 2.
Studio TMS Entertainment is returning to make Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3. The second featured a returning main staff (who are usually contractors), but there will be a new director named Shinya Une in charge of making Kanojo Okarishimasu Season 3. Otherwise, the character designer, writer, and composer will remain the same.
The first two seasons of the anime project were helmed by Director Kazuomi Koga. Before Rent-A-Girlfriend, the director had directed Rainy Cocoa and worked as an episode director on Akame ga Kill!, Goblin Slayer, The Devil is a Part-Timer!, and Steins;Gate 0. (The Devil is a Part-Timer! Season 2 release date was also in Summer 2022.)
“The third season is the most exciting part of the original,” tweeted the animation director when Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 was announced. “I believe that the Kanokari staff and actors will make a wonderful anime.”
Returning artist Kanna Hirayama was the character designer and animation director. Returning writer Mitsutaka Hirota (Animegataris, Hunter X Hunter, Persona 4, X-Men) handled series composition. Returning composer Hyadain (Baka & Test, Hunter X Hunter, One Punch Man, Punch Line) created the music.
The Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
The Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 OP “Himitsu Koigokoro” was performed by CHiCO with HoneyWorks, while the ED “Ienai feat.asmi” was performed by MIMiNARI. For the first season, the Rent-A-Girlfriend OP “Centimeter” was by the peggies, while the ED “Kokuhaku Bungee Jump” was by halca.
During Summer 2022, the second season was streaming exclusively on Crunchyroll in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS. That means you couldn’t watch Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, VRV, or HIDIVE.
The second season’s finale, Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 12, was released after midnight on September 16, 2022 (effectively September 17th in Japan).
The 12 episodes were released as four Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Blu-Ray volumes. Volume 1 came out on October 26, 2022, Volume 2 on November 30, 2022, Volume 3 on December 21, 2022, and Volume 4 on January 25, 2023.
- Updated February 16, 2023: Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 release date in July 2023 confirmed. New director and returning staff announced.
- Updated September 16, 2022: Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 is in production.
This article provides everything that is known about Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 (Kanojo Okarishimasu Season 3) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve into what is certain.
Why the Kanojo Okarishimasu Season 3 release date is in Summer 2023
As of the last update, Studio TMS Entertainment, Kodansha, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 release date. However, the production of a Rent-A-Girlfriend 3 sequel was officially announced on September 16, 2022. The premiere time frame was confirmed to be July 2023 on February 16, 2023.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
Similar to Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! (the Uzaki-chan Season 2 anime is confirmed), the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime series overcame negative reviews from vocal people who simply consider the anime unwatchable since they feel the main character is unlikeable as a person. To be fair, the cringe factor is real in the second season, never mind the first, but enough people are still streaming the episodes in high enough volume to overcome any critics.
Just like these girls faking dates for cash, it’s all about the money, baby! In that regard, the anime’s second season failed to give a major boost to Rent-A-Girlfriend manga sales since it didn’t make Oricon’s Top 20 manga series chart for July 2022.
As of December 2021, the main manga series had over 10 million copies in circulation according to Crunchyroll News. The Rent-a-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend manga spin-off had 250,000 copies in circulation after releasing 3 volumes.
To be fair, the only Summer 2022 anime series to make that chart was Kingdom, Ao Ashi, and Call of the Night. Even the Chainsaw Man manga made it to the Top 20 based on sheer hype for the upcoming Chainsaw Man anime release date in Fall 2022. (We’re also predicting that Kingdom Season 5 and Ao Ashi Season 2 will happen in the future.)
However, manga sales are only an indicator of an anime series’ popularity in Japan, whereas global streaming revenue is the major factor. In that regard, the second season did well since it was regularly featured in Crunchyroll’s popular anime list in Summer 2022.
Animation studio schedules are booked out years in advance. Since Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 was seemingly planned out in advance, TMS Entertainment is fairly well known for doing multiple seasons for anime series they produce. For their 2023 production schedule, the only project announced so far is the Winter 2023 anime High Card and the Spring 2023 anime Dr. STONE Season 3: New World.
Since the third season was announced in September 2022, in the best-case scenario, Anime Geek successfully predicted that the Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 release date would be in the 2nd half of 2023.
Crunchyroll’s Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 English dub release date predictions
Crunchyroll’s Rent-A-Girlfriend English dub was released on August 28, 2020, with new episodes airing every Friday. Crunchyroll’s Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 English dub release date was on July 15, 2022.
The Rent-a-Girlfriend dub cast includes Kazuya Kinoshita being voiced by Aleks Le, whose previous credits include Dorohedoro and Demon Slayer (see our story on Demon Slayer Season 3).
Chizuru Ichinose is voiced by Lizzie Freeman, whose previous credits include JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and In/Spectre Season 2.
Mami Nanami is voiced by Laura Stahl, whose previous credits include The Promised Neverland.
Presumably, Crunchyroll’s Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 English dub release date will be announced within several weeks of the third season’s premiere with English subtitles.
Rent-A-Girlfriend manga compared to the Kanojo Okarishimasu anime
The story for the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime TV show is based on the Kanojo Okarishimasu manga series by Reiji Miyajima. Serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine since July 2017, the manga has over 250 chapters, and it’s up to Volume 28 as of September 16, 2022.
The Rent-A-Girlfriend manga’s ending hasn’t been announced, nor is the series in its final arc. However, fans have been predicting that the Rent-A-Girlfriend manga’s final arc should be coming up.
Some fans feel that meaningless story arcs were dragged out and that the character development began to stagnate after Chapter 150 (which should be adapted by Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 4). Rent-A-Girlfriend Chapter 218 was especially infamous for Kazuya’s behavior and a NTR scene. Thus, it’s believed that the end is just over the horizon since the manga series has exceeded the threshold where many stories begin to wind down the narrative toward the conclusion.
A manga spin-off series called Rent-A-Really-Shy-Girfriend (Kanojo Hitomishirimasu) launched in June 2020. Also written by Miyajima, the spin-off focuses on the Rent-A-Girlfriend character Sumi Sakurasawa although Mami does make appearances.
Kodansha Comics USA is publishing the official English translation of the manga series. Volume 14 was published on September 20, 2022, while Volume 15 is scheduled for October 18, 2022, and Volume 16 for December 20, 2022.
When rom-com manga series are adapted for a TV series, the scriptwriters will often greatly rearrange story arcs, skip chapters, and condense content for time. A perfect example is the Kaguya-Sama! Love Is War anime (see our story on Kaguya-sama Season 4), which shifted chapters around with ease since most of the story arcs are self-contained.
By contrast, the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime is a more straightforward adaptation of the manga series largely due to necessity. There is a definite story progression between most of the chapters, so making any changes has major ramifications due to all the connecting plot points.
That’s not to say the anime didn’t make changes. For example, Episode 1 switched some of the events of the first two chapters around by having the hospital scene take place before the college scene. Sometimes the dialogue is condensed, and they skipped some minor scenes like the beach pocky kissing game of Chapter 11.
The most notable change made by Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 was that it skipped Chapters 54 and 55. This change was probably made to maintain a consistent timeline since the first season skipped a scene related to Kazuya’s dad that connected to these chapters.
The adaptation pacing was also noticeably faster near the end of the second season, which meant that certain scenes were skipped. For example, there was a major Sumi fan service scene that was skipped by Season 2 Episode 11. In the manga, when they go fishing Kazuya’s finger gets hurt and Sumi started sucking the wound.
Here’s a guide to how the anime adapted the manga chapters:
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 1: Chapters 1-2
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 2: Chapters 2-5
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 3: Chapters 6-10
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 4: Chapters 11-14
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 5: Chapters 14-18
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 6: Chapters 19-22
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 7: Chapters 23-28
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 8: Chapters 28-31
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 9: Chapters 32-37
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 10: Chapters 37-41
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 11: Chapters 20, 41-45, 54
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Episode 12: Chapters 46-50
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 1: Chapters 51-53
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 2: Chapters 56-58
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 3: Chapters 59-62
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 4: Chapters 62-65
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 5: Chapters 66-69
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 6: Chapters 70-73
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 7: Chapters 74-77
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 8: Chapters 78-82
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 9: Chapters 83-87
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 10: Chapters 88-92
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 11: Chapters 93-99
- Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 12: Chapters 99-104
All in all, the second season’s finale, Kanojo Okarishimasu Season 2 Episode 12, found a stopping point corresponding to manga Volume 13: Chapter 104.
It’s the best stopping point since it ends in a dramatic fashion with Kazuya convincing Chizuru to take a leap of faith and pursue her dream of making a crowdfunded movie so her grandma can watch it on the big screen before she passes away. The finale scene with Chizuru in the bath also indicates that she’s starting to feel something for Kazuya.
To end the second season earlier in the middle of Chizuru’s flashback wouldn’t have made sense, and it’s just too sad to end with Chiziru’s failure at the Love Doki audition. Ending with Sumi’s practice date was also a bad stopping since it ends with Kazuya and Sumi literally crying together over the whole situation.
The good news is that the manga currently offers more than enough source material for Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 to be made. Arguably, the manga is already long enough for Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 4 and 5!
Better yet, English-only manga readers wishing to read ahead of the anime series can jump straight to English Volume 13. (When the first season ended, manga readers had to wait until Summer 2021 for the English Volume 7 to release.)
Rent-A-Girlfriend 3 anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
The last time audiences watched the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime, Sumi helped Kazuya work through his feelings even as Chizuru was doubting her own resolve.
Ruka has kissed Kazuya yet declared a ceasefire in respect for Chizuru’s grandma Sayuri facing death. Sumi’s surprise birthday/practice date took things to the next level with her growth and repaying the favor by being a wall for him… never mind the apparent confession!
Chizuru doesn’t want to show her true feelings to Kazuya, but she wants to tell her grandma she became an actress before she passes so it really hits hard when she failed at the Love Doki audition. But now the movie crowdfunding idea has lit a spark of hope in Chizuru’s heart.
And although it’s a new source of hope for both of them, the clock is still ticking. Will they be able to get the money and make a film in time before Grandma Sayuri dies? A new relationship unfolds between the pair as they go from rental girlfriend and customer to actress and producer!
While Chizuru and Kazuya do everything they can to garner support, a wrench is thrown into the works by a nosy neighbor: Mini Yaemori!
Mini first meets the main characters a the apartment when she overhears Chizuru calling Kazuya the producer. Observing how they act together, Mini jokingly asks why Chizuru and Kazuya aren’t in a dating relationship already, which instantly makes things awkward.
It turns out Mini also goes to the same college as Kazuya. He tries to clear up any misunderstandings she might have of him, but with her short attention span she quickly goes off on a tangent. (She also has the annoying Gen Z habit of taking inappropriately timed selfies.)
When Mini accidentally overhears a conversation between Ruka and Chizuru she realizes the girls are rental girlfriends and immediately deems Kazuya a playboy. “Kidnapping” Kazuya, Mini forces him into her room and he confesses the whole sordid story to her!
Deeply moved by Kazuya’s story, Mini deems Kazuya her “Master” and promises to become his cupid by helping Kazuya make Chizuru his real girlfriend. Both Ruka and Chizuru are annoyed when Mini declared herself to be Kazuya’s self-proclaimed servant, especially when work and love begin to overlap!
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!