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(4.16/5)Good as a first manga in Japanese but predictable story and characters.
Short manga series This is a short manga series about a little girl who rents a big brother to play the part her real, hikikomori, brother doesn't play. Rental services don't come as a surprise for people into Japanese culture, but it gets sad at times, and for western culture kind of distopic, too.
Language learning ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This wasn't my first manga in Japanese but I can see how a beginner could benefit from reading this. It has furigana, not super complicated words or sentences and no weird use of kana. I would say you can read this comfortably at a N4-ish level without having to look up many words per page.
Entertainment ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a manga series that first appeared on Pixiv and then was published. The drawing and art style are reaaally good but the story... well, it's quite predictable and characters are very cliche. The big brother (the real one, not the rental) has to be one of the poorest written characters out there. When the parents die he suddenly becomes aggresive and abbusive towards her little sister, who, until then, he loved to death? Doesn't sound right. Then, by the end of the series he becomes a loving brother again??? Nah... that's not how an abuser's mind work. The ending part felt really rushed, and felt like the author just made up some plot fillers that didn't fir that well with the story (Parents being abusive and the brother protecting the little sister). This tends to happen with auto published , short stories, so I believe this is normal, just like it could happen with an auto published book on Am*z*n Some parts were so absurd and cliche that I ended up having fun reading this and commenting it with some friends who are missing out because they can't read Japanese.
Will I reread it? Nope.
Spoiler review:
I feel that the ending was rushed and a bit too tidy. It's definitely one of those stories where the moral is 'if you're nice and never give up, you can change people!!!!' which is a nice idea but isn't really true in reality. Abusers are not going to have a sudden change of heart and want to be a good person again, so the change of heart from real oniichan didn't ring true to me. I didn't like that he was magically nice again and so Kanami could forgive him and just go back to living with him and have a happily ever after, especially since the abuse went as far as hitting a child. I would have preferred something like, Makoto takes in Kanami and they live together, but real oniichan is allowed to visit and begin to build his relationship with Kanami again. That way it wouldn't have felt too tidy to me, but you could see that he's serious about repairing the relationship
Good ending to very nice story
I'd like to offer an oposing view to critical reviews for this manga and its ending. This is a nice short story but containing some difficult emotional topics.
Not every story needs to be 50 volumes long, not every story needs to be realistic and brutal. レンタルお兄ちゃん is short and sweet, the characters are interesting and likable. The ending is probably a bit predictable but for this type of story it's a good thing. It will make you feel sympathetic for its characters and will leave you satisfied and happy at the end.