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| Ayame Gouriki as Remi in Rental Noi Koi |
Our drama opens with a merry man skipping gaily down the street humming Jingle Bells to himself, a HUGE gift wrapped present in one hand. He is on his way to deliver a special gift ordered by a potential client….
Arriving at the apartment of a derpy guy named Kosuke Yamada (Taiga), the jolly man sets the huge present down and breathlessly says, ‘I’ve delivered her”. Ehhh? what did he mean?
Kosuke has no time to wonder as the box begins to open and he is engulfed in a blinding, heavenly light! When his eyes adjust, he is greeted by the sight of the most beautiful young girl, beaming a smile at him!
“Hello Ko-Chan…and Merry Christmas!” Her name is Remi (Gouriki Ayame) , and unbelievably, she is there to be his rental girlfriend! She taps a timer on her watch, and says, “We’ve got three hours! Let’s go!”
How did this happen? To find out that, we must go back a few days. It is a few days to Christmas, and Kosuke has been feeling down about having no one in his life to spend the holidays with, and while passing out flyers, he is presented with a tissue pack with a mysterious company name “Rental Lovers’ printed on it.
Usually leery of such stuff, he is desperate enough to try it out, only to find that all the girls, though every pretty indeed, are booked for Christmas!
Fortunately for Kosuke, Remi, the company’s “Number One Girl”, has had a cancellation and he is told he can have her for a beginner’s rate of only 6000 an Hour! What does he have to lose? He is told to await his delivery, and this is where we came in...!
Ko-chan is beside himself as Remi smiles at him , ready to go on their date…He just can’t believe that this gorgeous girl is there for HIM! D-Does he even dare to hold her hand as they walk down the street? He doesn’t even have to wonder- she grabs his hand right away! WHOA!!! it’s really happening!
Having never has such a beautiful girl as a date before, he tries to make it the best date ever…but true to form, even though he gets a stunning, beautiful girl as his girlfriend, he still has the shleppy mindset of the loser that he is, and continually blows his chances on the date to be “cool”...
When Remi says she wants to go to the aquarium for her date, as all couples go there, he readily agrees. but when he gets there, he is much more preoccupied with bragging to his friends about her and showing her off. Before he knows it, they’ve left the aquarium and have arrived at the park.
When it comes time for a meal, he realizes that he hasn't booked anywhere for them to go, and on Christmas Eve, finding a place that will seat them is impossible! Agh! it’s tough trying to be a suave guy!
Lucky for him, as Rental Lovers Number One Rental Girl, Remi knows how to make the best out of ANY situation, and she masterfully turns all of his flubs into positive points- When Kosuke misses taking her to the aquarium, she says she PREFERS the park!
When Kosuke hasn’t made restaurant reservations, she says she’s GLAD because she’s made him a special CHRISTMAS BENTO for lunch and wants him to try it! She even changes into a Neon Genesis Evangelion putfit as she's noticed he's a fan from his collection at home! She is 100% the perfect girlfriend for a clumsy guy like him!
Things are going so smoothly that Kosuke decides to extend the time with Remi, even though he has been warned not to by the handler. When his bill comes at the end of the day, he finds that it’s a whopping 138000 Yen! He thought that he was paying only 6000 an hour, but forgot that only the initial 3 hours was at a special rate…the extended 2 hours were at Remi’s normal rate…a massive 60000 an hour service! Such is the command price for the company’s Number One girl, and Kosuke’s plans to permanently rent Remi as his full-time girlfriend is out of the question!
The ironic thing is, (as usual in j-dramas like these), there already is a real flesh and blood not-pretend girl who truly loves him, his sweet and caring childhood friend Sumire (Yukino Kishii), but he is too thick-headed to see it.
When Sumire shows him that she bought tickets for a Christmas Eve Classical concert, the clueless Kosuke, who has no idea that she’s inviting HIM to accompany her, instead says she is brave for being able to go to one of those alone.
She is hurt by the slight, but tries to keep optimistic anyway. Of course, she is crushed when she eventually sees Kosuke out on his date with Remi. Now THAT is a girl that Kosuke seems to love!
But Remi is never going to really be Kosuke’ s girlfriend, truthfully, her entire persona is a disguise, and the dazzling, perfect and capable girl he thinks she is is nothing but a job, and when she is off the clock and alone at home, we find that Remi is just as lonely and lost as the rest of us.
Seems to be a great show so far, sweet story and MY GOSH, for someone who’s always loved Ayame Gouriki in pretty outfits, this one’s the freaking ZENITH!
AW HELL YEAAAAHHHH!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
