Simpin’ Ain’t Easy
This is one of the few animes that was actually physically difficult to watch. It wasn’t because it was necessarily bad, but it is one of the cringiest ones I’ve ever watched. The main character is Kazuya who is immediately dumped by his girlfriend Mami at the onset of the show. Driven by despair, Kazuya finds an app that allows you to rent a girlfriend for a date. He ends up getting Chizuru and the two have what seems like a perfect date. Of course, Chizuru was just doing her routine, it is her job after all, and Kazuya initially gets upset after seeing reviews of others describing similar dates. He books her again, ostensibly to tell her off, but during their date his grandma is apparently in the hospital and they both go to see her. The main drama gets setup here with both parties lying that they’re really dating, Chizuru’s grandma is an in-patient there too and doesn’t know about her job, and awkwardness ensues. Things are further complicated by the fact that both of them not only go to the same school, but live next to each other. Similar events occur with more and more lies causing Kazuya to keep renting Chizuru to save face. Mami also grows jealous of Kazuya now and schemes to break up the fake relationship. Apparently, as the series goes on more girls are added and it becomes harem-esque but he keeps renting Chizuru during all of it.
I personally cannot deal with cringe. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too empathetic or what but watching it makes me physically uncomfortable. Kazuya keeps making poor decisions after poor decisions and ends up in so many awkward positions, and is just an awkward person in general, that I struggled to keep watching how things would turn out. As I said before, this doesn’t mean the show is bad (though I can see it trending that way). It is nice to have a pretty flawed main character and they do a good job making the cute Mami into an “evil” character, but the cringe permeates almost every second of the show. Kazuya is also made very horny, to the point that we see a few of his lewd visions and implies masturbation, so that’s also a thing (oh and of course sexualized shots of the girls). This is a trash anime to be sure, though your mileage may vary on if this is the kind of trash for you.
Is it trash? YES
Rating: ★★☆☆☆