How popular is Sumi?
出典 : Amazon.co.jp
Since “Rent-A-Girlfriend” doesn’t have an official popularity poll, it’s not officially known who is the most popular.
However, all the websites and social networking sites that are asking for popularity rankings and voting surveys have Chizuru, Runatsu, and Sumi as the top three.
In other words, Sumi is one of the most popular heroines in the series.
How about the number of fan art, one of the parometers of popularity?
The number of illustrations posted on pixiv is the second largest in the series after Chizuru.
Considering that her first appearance was in volume 5, which is relatively late, we can say that this is a considerable consideration.
In addition, the official account of the anime offers a service called “Kanokari Call,” which allows you to call each heroine by dialing a designated phone number during a specific time period.
This announcement is made multiple times for each heroine, and the Sumi-no-Kari call has more replies than the other heroines, indicating that there are many deep fans.
Sumi is one of the most popular heroines in the series, if you put all these things together.
She was chosen as the main character of the spin-off “She, Shyness”, which the author draws herself
As evidence to support the extremely high popularity of Sumi, the existence of the spin-off work “She, Shyness” that started in June 2020 is essential.
Although it is a spin-off, it is an important work that also serves as an advertisement for the anime.
Moreover, the author, Mr. Miyajima Reri, himself worked on it and put a lot of effort into it.
Sumi was chosen to play the main role.
An example of a spin-off that the author himself drew, which started with the anime adaptation, is “Umaru-chan”. Umaru-chan” is another example.
Immediately after the first season of Umaru-chan aired, a character popularity poll was held, and the character Nana Ebina, who won first place in the poll, was chosen as the main character for the spin-off, which led to the second season.
Although not a manga, “Bless This Wonderful World” has released many spin-off novels. The first of these was “Bakugan wo Konowai Sekai ni Bakugan wo” (Give Fire to This Wonderful World!), starring the most popular character, Megumi. This wonderful world ni Bakken wo!
At the end of 2016, just before the second anime season, the sequel to the series, “Tsugaru Kono Awsai Sekai ni Bakken wo! was also released.
As you can see from these precedents, when a heroine other than the main heroine is chosen to be the main character in a spin-off, in most cases the most popular character is used.
The aim is to get people interested in the anime or to get people who have watched the anime to reach out to the spin-offs by putting a character with high centripetal force in the forefront. ……
In other words, characters that are not only popular with fans, but can also be expected to be liked by non-fans, are useful for spin-offs that are launched before or after the anime airs.
The heroines in “Rent-A-Girlfriend” are very active, with Chizuru who speaks her mind, Mami Nanami who has her own problems, Runatsu who is a carnivorous heroine, and Mini Yaemori who is a modern girl with her own pace. In any case, if she wasn’t a popular heroine, she wouldn’t have been chosen to be the main character during the critical period of the anime broadcast, which is proof of her high popularity.
Incidentally, this spin-off is introduced at the beginning of the story as “a tale of shyness and growth that looks into the life of an extremely shy Sumi who confronts the obstacles that come her way every day, sometimes winning and sometimes losing. The story is full of unique spin-offs, such as the episode where she meets Chizuru for the first time and the near miss episode with Asami and Runatsu, who are almost completely unrelated in the main story.
The story has been very well received by the fans because they get to see Sumi in a way that they don’t get to see in the main story, and it seems to be ranked number one every time it is updated in the magazine pocket where it is serialized.
This result is another solid piece of data that supports the popularity of Sumi.
Summary
The shy heroine is a royal character in romantic comedies, but she is quite unique in this work, and Kanokari, the Sumi episode, offers a different taste from the other heroine episodes.
In particular, the main character Kazuya is basically a scumbag, but when he interacts with her, his scumbag side is hardly noticeable, probably because he keeps his ulterior motives hidden.
For this reason, I think there are quite a few people who say that they especially like the times when Sumi appears.
I’m sure with the anime adaptation, her healing powers will become even more pronounced, and she’s bound to attract even more fans!
