Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 is a fun comedy-romance for romantic genre fans. The anime series features animation produced by TMS Entertainment (Kamisama Kiss, Fruits Basket). Created by Reiji Miyajima, Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 features theme music performed by CHICO with Honeyworks (opening), asmi (ending), and MIMiNARI (ending). The series features voice-performances by Shun Horie, Sora Amamiya, Nao Tōyama, Rie Takahashi, and Aoi Yūki.

Kazuya Kinoshita (Shun Horie) is in over his head. The romantic struggles continue for the unexpected love bird. Kazuya never expected to have so many romantic entanglements. Things certainly change when Kazuya falls in love with his girlfriend-for-rent Chizuru Mizuhara (Sora Amamiya).

Yet things certainly are complicated further by Chizuru contemplates a career change. If Chizuru leaves her girlfriend-for-rent job will that mean the end of their romance? Kazuya has been trying so hard to make the romance-for-compensation become something more real.

Meanwhile, Kazuya is still being pursued by other girls. Both Ruka Sarashina (Nao Tōyama) and Sumi Sakurasawa (Rie Takahashi) are interested in him. There’s even Kazuya’s former girlfriend, Mami Nanami (Aoi Yūki). What’a a guy to do?

The characters add a lot of warmth and charm to the series. Kazuya is a compelling lead character and one that many audiences will relate to. The character certainly is a compelling protagonist. The cast of supporting characters add to the series, too. The girls are charming and the balance between Chizuru and Kazuya is essential to the series.

The character designs by Kanna Hirayama (Oshi no Ko, Selection Project) are effective and certainly add a lot to the production. The designs showcase a lot of wonderful things about the series aesthetic – the character designs working well for the drama and comedy in this romantic series. Well-done, Hirayama.

The animation is beautiful and adds so much to the production values. The series features excellent art direction by Minoru Akiba (Grand Blue Dreaming, Magical Girl Site). Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 has an impressive sense of style. The chief animation direction by Kanna Hirayama (Oshi no Ko, Seven Senses of the Reunion) adds to the series and helps to expand the visual storytelling. The animators certainly did an impressive job with the series and the artwork is all the more enriching as a result. The animation quality is better than average and a step above. Fans of quality Japanese anime will appreciate the impressive art – it makes a nice difference with the series.

The cinematography by Shintaro Sakai (The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases, A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics) adds to the series aesthetic. The cinematography nicely highlights the series animation – colorful and bold. The bright and vibrant cinematography style certainly is compelling.

The score composed by Hyadain (Yomawari Neko, Miyakawa-ke no Kūfuku) is elegant and refined. The enjoyable score music adds a nice component to the production. The music helps to highlight the fun energy of the romantic-comedy. These elements certainly are important to the series. Fans will be pleased with the music and its significant role in the production.

Written by Mitsutaka Hirota (Bibliophile Princess, Yowamushi Pedal), Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 offers fans more charm and romance. The second season continues to build on the first season with more adventures and romantic entanglements. Horita enjoys spending time with the characters and the romantic longing.

Directed by Kazuomi Koga (The Dreaming Boy Is a Realist, Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible), Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 will appeal to series fans. Fans will certainly want to continue the journey. The second season offers more excitement for fans to explore as the romance and comedy unfolds. A vibrant series aimed at the romantic audience, the series is well-directed and has a good and fun personality. Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 knows what its audience wants and it delivers on that romantic-comedy promise.

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Crunchyroll, Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The animation is bold and colorful. The presentation provides excellent color reproduction and this is a significant part of the encode. Colors "pop" with considerable wow-factor on the release. The art is highlighted in a great way with good detail in the background animation, line art, and encoding. An impressive presentation.

The Blu-ray release has a nice advantage over streaming video services. Streaming video services tend to provide lower video bit-rates compared to physical media. Physical media provides higher video bit-rates and also a more consistent viewing experience compared to streaming services. Streaming is sometimes also inconsistent if there are issues with the high-speed datastream (especially in big families, apartments, and rural areas).

Home theater enthusiasts wanting the best picture quality certainly prefer physical media for its distinct advantages. Though that difference its always night-and-day (sometimes it is even subtle) the difference still makes for a more impressive presentation and this is something that enthusiasts cherish about the format. Comparing streaming to physical media, it's a bit like compared a processed meal to a gourmet one. The Blu-ray provides the gourmet experience.

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 (with English subtitles). The sound direction by Hajime Takakuwa (Black Clover, Spice and Wolf) is well reproduced. Dialogue is crisp and clear on the release. The soundtrack is excellent and certainly plays a compelling role in the sound design. The dynamics of the audio mixing helps the presentation to reward. With the soundtrack, the score plays an especially vital role is the audio presentation and score fans will appreciate the lush qualities of the music in the presentation.

Blu-ray offers a distinct advantage over streaming video services. Streaming video services only provide lossy (non-lossless) audio encoding. For audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts seeking the best audio presentation achievable, Blu-ray has an advantage that streaming does not. This is certainly important and a nice distinction between streaming and physical media. Streaming is often limited to MP3 quality audio on many audio streams – in fact, sometimes even Disney+ uses MP3 quality audio (even sometimes below 320kbps) on 4K feature-film streams – an example of how dramatic the audio difference can sometimes be.

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release comes with a nicely designed o-card slipcover. The slipcover artwork is exceptional and adds to the package design. The limited-edition slipcover is limited to the first print run of the release. The artwork underneath the slipcover is also unique and different from the key art on the slipcover. For enthusiasts wanting a more well-rounded package as far as packaging goes, the design looks nice. Certainly, a well-designed set with good artwork. Fans will appreciate this about the release and it also adds extra collectability for slipcover fans.

On disc supplements include:

Character Promo Videos (HD, 3:00)

Promo Videos (HD, 2:17)

Textless Opening Song (HD, 1:32)

Textless Closing Song (HD, 1:32)

Unfortunately, the release does not include any extensive on-disc supplements. The release could have used a more well-rounded bonus features package. The set could use some audio commentaries, cast/crew interviews, making-of featurettes, photo galleries, and more. The set is sparse in the supplemental department and this is the only significant drawback to the set.

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rent-A-Girlfriend: Season 2 is a charming and sweet-natured anime series. The anime has colorful animation and a wonderful sense of energy. The characters add a lot to the series. Fans will be enormously pleased to continue the journey with the second season adding to the experience.

The Blu-ray release provides a quality package. The release has impressive high-definition video, lossless audio, and a well-designed o-card slipcover. The limited-edition slipcover adds to the collectability of the release. The slipcover features unique art different from the standard artwork underneath the slipcover.

The only significant drawback to the release is a lack of any meaningful on-disc supplements – only a few standard extras are included. Collectors looking for a permanent copy for their shelf may still wish to indulge and the packaging looks great in hand. Fans may not be able to resist. Recommended.