The rented romance lasted shorter than Kazuya’s date. Roblox quietly removed Rent-a-Girlfriend (Kanojo, Okarishimasu) from its official creator license catalog just two days after announcing its arrival as part of a deal with publisher Kodansha.

It all started when the platform introduced an update to its licensing system to allow developers to sell official items in their games. The initial announcement included four Kodansha franchises: Fairy Tail, Knights of Sidonia, Ghost Encyclopedia, and the popular work starring Chizuru Mizuhara. However, the inclusion of the latter immediately sparked doubts in the developer community.

Creators quickly pointed out the clear contradiction between the series’ premise, centered on rental girlfriends and paid relationships, and Roblox’s community guidelines, which strictly prohibit suggestive content, nudity, or using the app to seek real-life romance. After several questions about how such a license was approved, the company edited the original post to reduce the list to three franchises, removing any mention of Reiji Miyajima’s story without providing direct public explanations. Despite the change, the overall agreement with Kodansha remains active for the other titles.

Written and illustrated by Reiji Miyajima, the Rent-a-Girlfriend manga has been published in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine since July 2017, with 47 compiled volumes in the Japanese market. The story follows Kazuya Kinoshita, a university student who, after a painful breakup, uses an app to rent a temporary girlfriend, crossing paths with the brilliant Chizuru Mizuhara. The work has an animated adaptation airing, which has confirmed its sixth season.

Do you think Roblox did the right thing by removing the license, or do you consider they overreacted with the measure?