The QR Code on Mini's Shirt in Rent-a-Girlfriend Actually Works: Here's Where It Goes

The QR code printed on Mini Yaemori’s T-shirt in the Rent-a-Girlfriend season 3 finale is a real, scannable code. We decoded it from the broadcast frame: it opens the TikTok account of Yu Serizawa, the voice actress who plays Mini. Nobody on the production mentioned it; viewers who paused on the shot found it the night the episode aired, 30 September 2023. Here’s the scene, the frame, a clean copy of the code, and what makes this one different from the other anime QR codes that work. Last checked on 19 October 2026.

Most QR codes drawn into anime are texture. A grey smudge on a poster in the background, a block of noise on a phone screen, nothing you could scan if you tried. Every so often one is real, and the ones that are real tend to appear in the same place: on a phone, in a contact-exchange scene, pointed at something official.

Rent-a-Girlfriend put its real one on a T-shirt.

The scene

Season 3 ran from July to September 2023, directed by Shinya Une at TMS Entertainment, streaming on Crunchyroll. Its big addition to the cast was Mini Yaemori, Kazuya’s new neighbour: a streamer and a schemer who actively tries to push Kazuya and Chizuru together rather than get between them. She’s voiced by Yu Serizawa.

In the finale, episode 12, “Ideal Girlfriend and Girlfriend”, Mini turns up at Kazuya’s apartment. She’s wearing a plain white T-shirt with a large QR code printed across the chest, and the shot of her standing there, arms at her sides, puts the code squarely in frame. It’s drawn cleanly, with the three finder squares in the right corners, which is the giveaway that someone intended it to be scanned.

Where it goes

Viewers scanned it within days of the broadcast, and the write-ups that followed, DoubleSama’s episode review among them, reported that it opened Yu Serizawa’s account on X. That’s half right. We decoded the code from the broadcast frame ourselves, and it points at her TikTok, @iris_s_yu, the same handle she uses on X but on the other platform. Easy mistake to make when you’re scanning a paused TV in 2023 and your phone offers to open whichever app it likes.

The reading that spread at the time is that this was product placement of a sort: Serizawa is also a member of the idol group i☆Ris, and her management got the code pointed at her account rather than at a sticker shop or a tie-in page. Nobody has confirmed that, and the production never commented, which is itself in keeping with how these are usually done.

What makes it unusual is that it isn’t a contact-exchange scene. Kaguya-sama’s code is a LINE contact being swapped, and so is the one in Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky; the phone has to be on screen, so the code gets a free close-up. Mini’s shirt has no such excuse. The animators drew a functioning QR code onto a character’s clothing for a shot that didn’t need one, and let it sit there for anyone paying attention.

A real-world footnote: a white “Yaemori Mini (QR code)” T-shirt was sold as official merchandise at the Rent-a-Girlfriend exhibition in Hakata Marui, and it circulates on Japanese second-hand sites now. Whether the code printed on the shirt is the same one as in the episode is something we haven’t been able to confirm.

Scan it here

Decoding this one took more than a phone camera. The code is draped over a drawn T-shirt rather than flat on a phone screen, and that curve was enough to defeat two ordinary decoders working from a still; it took a decoder built for curved surfaces to read it. Here’s a clean copy carrying exactly the address the shirt does:

If you’d rather scan it from the episode, pause on the shot in episode 12 where Mini stands facing the camera in Kazuya’s apartment. A phone camera pointed at a paused stream usually reads it; a photo of a TV or a screenshot that’s been through a chat app usually doesn’t.

Why studios keep doing this

A QR code costs the production nothing to make real, and the viewers who pause to scan it are exactly the ones who post about it. Kaguya-sama pointed its code at the series’ LINE stickers in 2020; Kakekoi pointed its code at a hidden chat between the leads this summer; the Sword Art Online finale went as far as renting a real server for an IP address. Rent-a-Girlfriend’s is the only one of the set that points at a person rather than a product or a page, which is either the most cynical of them or the most honest, depending on how you feel about idol management.

If you want more of the story

The anime finished its fifth season on 27 June 2026, and the manga is a long way ahead of it. Reiji Miyajima’s Rent-a-Girlfriend is published in English by Kodansha, in print and digitally. That’s the easy route for the licensed chapters.

The newest chapters appear first in Weekly Shonen Magazine in Japan. If you’d rather read them as they come out, Madomi translates each page as you scroll, the same way it does for the Japanese publisher platforms. Our step-by-step guide to translating Japanese manga covers the setup in five minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Does the QR code on Mini’s shirt in Rent-a-Girlfriend actually work?

Yes. In the season 3 finale, episode 12, Mini Yaemori wears a white T-shirt with a large QR code printed on the front, and the code is real. We decoded it from the broadcast frame: it opens the TikTok account of Yu Serizawa, the voice actress who plays Mini. A clean copy of the code is above.

Where does the Rent-a-Girlfriend QR code go?

To Yu Serizawa’s TikTok account, @iris_s_yu. She voices Mini Yaemori and is also a member of the idol group i☆Ris. Early write-ups said the code went to her X account; the code itself, decoded from the frame, points at TikTok.

Which episode has the QR code shirt?

Rent-a-Girlfriend season 3, episode 12, “Ideal Girlfriend and Girlfriend”, which aired on 30 September 2023 in Japan. Mini turns up at Kazuya’s apartment wearing the shirt, and the shot of her standing in the room shows the code squarely.

Can I buy Mini’s QR code T-shirt?

A white “Yaemori Mini (QR code)” T-shirt was sold as official merchandise at the Rent-a-Girlfriend exhibition in Hakata Marui, and it turns up on Japanese second-hand sites. Whether the printed code on the shirt matches the one in the episode isn’t something we’ve been able to confirm.

Where can I read Rent-a-Girlfriend after the anime?

Reiji Miyajima’s manga is published in English by Kodansha and runs far past the anime, which finished its fifth season in June 2026. The newest chapters appear first in Weekly Shonen Magazine in Japan; to read those, Madomi by Pawaka Labs translates each page as you scroll.

Pause on the shirt

The shirt is still in the episode, the account is still live, and Mini would absolutely approve of the engagement numbers. If you know of another anime code or address that genuinely resolved to something, we’d like to hear about it.

Episode still and key visual © 宮島礼吏・講談社／「彼女、お借りします」製作委員会 (Reiji Miyajima / Kodansha / Rent-a-Girlfriend Production Committee). Used for editorial commentary.

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