anime corner had the great honor of sitting down with Reiji Miyajima, the creator of Rent-a-Girlfriend, during his visit to DOKOMI in Düsseldorf. Over the course of our conversation, he opened up about the ideas behind the series, his creative process, and what draws him to stories about love and human connection in the modern world. We’re deeply grateful for the chance to speak with him in person and to share his thoughts with our readers. A heartfelt thank-you also goes to the DOKOMI team, whose organization and hospitality made this interview possible.
Q: Rent-a-Girlfriend draws on the real-life phenomenon of rental girlfriends in Japan. What fascinated you about this concept as the basis for a story?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: In romantic comedies there’s always a demand for speed: the characters are supposed to come together quickly and grow close fast. With the rental-girlfriend phenomenon it’s much the same – if you pay, you can have a date right away, as fast as possible. That’s a very modern way of thinking, and that’s exactly what drew me in: on the one hand as material for a manga, and on the other as a motif, because this job actually exists in reality.
Q: The series deals with modern loneliness and the difficulty of genuine human connection. How far do Chizuru and Kazuya’s relationship reflect the challenges young people face in Japan today?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: The rental-girlfriend job is new, and at the same time it stands as a symbol of modern society. Today we have so much social media – and the more connections you have through it, the thinner and shallower they become. In a society like that, Kazuya wants a relationship with one single woman. There’s something heroic, almost charismatic, about that attitude, and I find it really cool – someone who holds on to one thing like that. That’s exactly why I made him my protagonist.
Q: The tension between “real” and “rented” feelings runs through the entire series. What do you want to say with it about authenticity in relationships?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: While I draw and write, I’m searching for that meaning myself, and I keep asking the question. Even if you love your partner and have grown very close, you never really know what the other person feels – whether it’s a rental girlfriend or a real relationship. Sometimes I even think there might be no difference at all between a rental girlfriend and a real girlfriend. And yet I believe there has to be a difference. I keep searching for it as I write, every single day.
Q: The series balances comedy and serious emotional moments. How do you find the right mix between humor and depth?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I personally love comedy. Roughly speaking, it’s about 90 percent comedy and 10 percent seriousness for me. My ideal is this: you’re reading along happily, laughing, and then suddenly you notice you’re crying. That’s more or less my balance.
Q: Many of your characters wear a “mask” or play a role. Is this idea of the performative something you consciously use as a recurring motif?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: This ties in with what I said before: as soon as two people are two different people, there’s a kind of mask or wall between them. In romantic comedy there’s often an expectation that you just enjoy yourself, nice and simple. But unfortunately it isn’t that simple. Many readers have probably had similar experiences – and that’s exactly the message I want to reach them.
Q: Chizuru embodies different expectations of femininity. How do you approach portraying female characters in a romcom? How do you research things like clothing, for instance?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I get asked that a lot; I also draw on fashion for it. I try to draw each character the way she herself would want to look. Chizuru, for example, is the ideal woman – with long black hair and so on. Ruka, on the other hand, desperately wants to be liked by Kazuya, so she dresses in a deliberately cute way and shows off her figure. Mami has a more petite build but beautiful legs, so with her I emphasize things like the collarbone. And Sumi isn’t very confident, so she tries to assert herself with lots of cute details.
Q: What role does the city of Tokyo play as a setting for the atmosphere and themes of the story?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I haven’t seen every city in the world, and I didn’t actively choose Tokyo – I simply don’t know other cities that well, so it was the obvious choice. Tokyo is a huge city, and now that I live here I notice how weak human connections often are. In an apartment block people live right next to each other, and yet you don’t know your neighbors’ faces and you don’t greet one another. It’s like a relationship: physical closeness doesn’t mean your hearts are connected. That’s very sad – and I think Tokyo reflects exactly that.
Q: The series was hugely successful internationally. Why do you think the story works so well across cultural borders?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: There’s probably no one who has never been in love – which is why almost everyone understands these themes. Weak human connections exist outside Japan too; it’s a theme of our time. I personally enjoy watching foreign series and films. Some Japanese values are perhaps too distinctly Japanese, but through engaging with foreign works I hope my own series becomes a little more universal.
Q: Are there any Western films, series, or books that have influenced the way you tell romance stories?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I really like Breaking Bad, Lost and Game of Thrones, for example. Works that you love, you watch again and again – and afterwards you realize you’ve worked very similar concepts into your own work.
Q: Many fans discuss the various love interests passionately. How do you deal with the community’s strong opinions and expectations?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: There are fans who support their particular character. But I wouldn’t actively build fan reactions into the ongoing story. Unconsciously, though, it’s quite possible that some of it finds its way into the future story.
Q: If you had to sum up the central message or the emotional heart of the series in one sentence, how would it go?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: My own personal favorites, incidentally, are often romantic comedies too. Being in love is difficult and sometimes sad – you can’t say it’s only painful, but it does have its painful sides. People who fall in love struggle with difficulties in their relationships, and that’s exactly what I draw in my series, though in a comedic, entertaining way. Whether love is fulfilled in the end, you never know. But anyone who reads the story should have fun. My message would be: let’s love anyway, in spite of everything.
Q: What was your path to becoming a mangaka? Was there a moment when you knew you wanted to tell stories?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: Even as a child I loved drawing, and I was often praised for it. Then in middle school I read One Piece and was deeply impressed by it. It became clear to me that a manga isn’t really a true story but a kind of “lie,” a fiction. And a single artist creates that fiction entirely on their own – and can move the hearts of countless people with it. That’s exactly what fascinated me from early on.
Q: How does the creative process begin for you with a new chapter – with the image or with the story?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: Broadly speaking, I begin with the story. With Rent-a-Girlfriend I wanted to write a romantic comedy, so first I looked for a suitable motif and then gathered information and material around it. That’s how I approached the series.
Q: Which character from Rent-a-Girlfriend is closest to you personally, and why?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: The one closest to me is the protagonist, Kazuya. It’s almost like a double: what I think, Kazuya thinks roughly the same.
Q: How has your drawing style developed since the first chapter?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: It has changed a great deal – though not because I deliberately wanted to change it. As I developed myself, the style shifted along with me. When I look back today at the beginning of the story, I’m surprised myself by how much it has changed.
Q: What does a typical working day look like for you? And: you work with assistants – how do you divide the work, and what do you most like to do yourself?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I draw for a weekly magazine, so really every day is different. A long working day looks like this: I get up at 6:30 and start drawing at 7:00. Lunch is at 11:30, from 1:00 p.m. I keep drawing until about 6:00 p.m., then until 8 or 9 p.m. – and after that I draw on until 11:00 p.m. It’s a very long day, but I only have one of those a week. What I like best is drawing the characters myself. My assistants handle the backgrounds, for example. The dialogue and everything I’ve worked out in terms of content, I do myself, along with the small corrections – the assistants take care of the rest.
Q: What role does your editor play in developing the story?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: In Japan the editor plays a very big role. I tell him what I want to do and what message I want to convey. He then reads it as a professional, stand-in reader and gives me tips on how the message can be conveyed even better and which way of expressing things I should choose.
Q: How do you cope with the pressure of weekly or regular deadlines?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I can’t write and draw well under pressure. So I try to finish everything as quickly as possible and much earlier than it’s actually needed. That’s a good approach: if you finish earlier, you can move on to the next chapter more relaxed.
Q: What was it like for you to see your characters brought to life through the anime adaptation?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: Through the anime, the characters suddenly move and speak – seeing that is a lot of fun. Manga and anime work differently: a manga is made for the readers, whereas in the anime a lot is realized differently. It’s very interesting to me that some things are expressed one way in the manga and quite differently in the anime. And above all, through the anime my work reaches the whole world. That’s very exciting.
Q: Which manga or which mangaka do you yourself admire the most?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: There’s one mangaka I’ve admired for a long time: Yuichi Kumakura.
Q: What advice would you give aspiring mangaka who are just starting out?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: My advice would be very simple: draw a lot – and do it with joy. There’s also a learning platform called “Kakikomi.” The site isn’t translated yet, but there are plans to expand it for an international audience. It’s a kind of a drawing school, and I give personal feedback there too.
Q: Is there a genre or kind of story you’d like to try one day?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: At the moment I’m not thinking that far ahead – first I want to finish the series. Generally speaking, there’s always some romance in all my works; that’s what I like. Whether I’ll stay in a similar area afterwards or do something completely different is still open.
Q: What would you like to say to your readers in Germany and Europe?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I’m here as a tourist for the first time right now; I’ve never lived abroad, and so far I’ve had hardly any contact with people outside Japan. But as I said: there’s no one who has never been in love, and everyone goes through painful experiences too. Even so, I hope my readers find courage when they read my works or watch Kazuya. That’s exactly what I’d like to give them.
Q: How are you finding DOKOMI in Düsseldorf and the fans here in Germany?
REIJI MIYAJIMA: I have a very good impression – it’s much bigger than I expected, and there’s a lot I haven’t even been able to see yet. The people here are far more intense and full of passion. Maybe the enthusiasm for manga and anime is so strong precisely because people here live so far away from Japan. Japan has events like this too, with lots of visitors, but somehow they don’t have the same festival feel. People have fun, but it’s a bit different from here. Here it’s really lovely, and people have a great time.
Q: Thank you very much for your time! It was a pleasure!
Also check out Reiji Miyajimas X/Twitter Account for near-daily posts.
Image Copyrights ©Reiji Miyajima, KODANSHA/″Kanojo Okarishimasu” Production Committee
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