Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5 Episode 3 Review: An Episode Full Of Shock

The third episode of Rent-a-Girlfriend dropped on April 22, and it was quite shocking for everyone, including the characters in the anime itself. Mami has finally spilled the beans, and her acting is making others seem like bad people.

While the episode lacked any actual forward momentum, it did deliver a great sequence of shock as Kazuya realized his life was falling apart. Let’s take a quick recap of the episode, going through everything that happened, and review it as well.

TITLE	Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5
RELEASE DATE	April 8, 2026 (early release)
STUDIO	TMS Entertainment
WHERE TO WATCH	Crunchyroll
MAL RATING (as of April 22, 2026)	6.01 / 10

Mami’s Cruel Plan Worked, And She Is The Victim Now

At the end of episode 2, we saw Mami intentionally dropping her phone in front of Nagomi Kinoshita, Kazuya’s grandmother. And in her phone, Chizuru’s rental girlfriend profile was open for everyone to see. It could’ve been that simple, just show everyone that Chizuru is a rental girlfriend. However, she is very smart in a wicked way, as she still wanted to remain on everyone’s good side.

Instead of stopping after that, she told the lie that it was a joke, that the photo was photoshopped just for fun. But, of course, her “acting” was deliberately bad, which only made everyone even more doubtful. Kazuya’s grandmother then took out her own phone and confirmed that Chizuru is a rental girlfriend.

An interesting thing to notice here is that initially, no one doubted that Chizuru might be rented by Kazuya as well, especially Kazuya’s mother. It wasn’t until Mami started fake-crying and spilled the beans even further. She mentioned everything – didn’t leave a single thing out!

The way she framed each sentence painted Chizuru as an evil manipulator who was forcing Mami to remain silent. While Kazuya deserved everything that is happening to him right now, I do feel bad for Chizuru.

Nagomi Kinoshita’s Response Probably Broke Chizuru

Something Kazuya wanted to know really badly, that for him, the world was actually flipping around, was what his grandmother thinks. Is she too shocked to even speak? Is she crying? Is she angry? Disappointed? All sorts of questions were going through her head.

Eventually, Kibe, Kazuya’s only friend who wasn’t aware of Chizuru being a rental girlfriend, started beating Kazuya. Kazuya’s grandmother stopped him and asked him directly what was happening, but he couldn’t say anything. Furthermore, she mentioned how she’ll be fine, and one will just laugh back at this moment.

However, she dropped the bomb by telling Chizuru how she practically gave false hope to her grandmother, who had already passed away.

Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5 Episode 3 Final Verdict

So far, this anime has been just one drama after another. However, each of those situations involved only Kazuya and the anime’s main heroines. This time, the lie that had been going on for 4 seasons is finally out, marking a huge turning point for this anime. The episode actually did an amazing job at portraying shock, how Kazuya and Chizuru simply couldn’t speak.

As far as the story of this episode is concerned, it definitely stands out as a turning point. On the other hand, it felt like a voice-over, colored manga panel. It seems most of this anime’s budget goes into the opening sequence alone. The episode could’ve done a better job at showing the shock, that is, if we got any monologue from Chizuru at all. Kazuya getting punched by his friend was way too predictable as well.

But one thing this episode did better than anyone is making sure the majority of the fans hate Mami now.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on this episode? Let us know in the comments.

Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5 is streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 5 Episode 3 Review: An Episode Full Of Shock