Actions that echo through time (Rent-A-Girlfriend Ch. 223)

Hello again, friends. This week, we were treated to a new memory of Sayuri that put Nagomi’s actions into context, Kibe got violent again, Mami couldn’t resist enjoying her seeming victory, and Chizuru froze up, but what I want to talk about most is something that most people might not have noticed: a little line at the end of the chapter. Does it sound familiar?

She's still not that kind of girl. (Ch. 223 vs. Ch. 6)

Miyajima’s long, strange trip through the history of Rent-A-Girlfriend continues

That’s right; Kazuya’s remark at the end of this chapter, coming to Chizuru’s defense, is a word-for-word repeat of what he said way back in chapter 6. Back then, flat on his behind while Mami cast aspersions on Chizuru’s character, Kazuya came to Chizuru’s defense and wrestled himself free from Mami’s manipulations, at least for the moment. Hmm.

That goes along with the rather more obvious repeat performance this week: Kibe’s decking of Kazuya, this time for seeming to have let Nagomi down, but more on that later.

I remarked a few weeks ago that “the repetition was the point”–Kazuya going through the same heartbreak as in chapter 1 served to illustrate how different he is now, how much more resilient he is… while also serving to show how much more Chizuru meant to him, but this week, I want to emphasize a different aspect of Miyajima’s use of repetition: this is Rent-A-Girlfriend: Endgame.

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that this is the conclusion of this manga. It might be, but that’s beside the point. After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t ended after Endgame. Rather, “Paradise” is meant to be Rent-A-Girlfriend’s biggest and most climactic arc.

And in fact, we can see that that extends before we even came to Fukushima. The first act of repetition is Chizuru’s asking if Kazuya has feelings for her, a direct follow up to the first time she asked, back in chapter 30. Again, it may not be clear due to BCS’s interpretation of the line vs. Jet Yau’s, but these are the exact same words. The pattern continues:

• She practically quotes one of his most romantic lines back at him on the date to Umi’s party - cf chapter 61
• Ruka bluffs her with the condom, echoing her scheme in chs. 62-65 to sleep with Kazuya or, failing that, convince Chizuru she is sleeping with Kazuya
• Chizuru and Nagomi’s visit to the baths is reminiscent of the hot springs meeting in ch. 18
• I’ve already covered the similarities between ch. 218 and ch. 1
• Now, we have Kibe’s punch and Kazuya’s refutation of Mami echoed once again

It’s all well and good to observe a pattern, but if it really is a pattern, then it must lead somewhere, and it must lead somewhere you can predict. The pattern here isn’t strictly linear in time—the strong repetition of chapter 1 has already come and gone—so it’s not as easy as simply extrapolating. We should instead look for what would be the most impressive moments to echo going forward:

• “Nice to meet you. I’m Chizuru… Ichinose?” A reintroduction of Chizuru to the Kinoshita family as Kazuya’s girlfriend would be a satisfying conclusion to this arc. Of course, we’ve already seen this brought up just last week, so I consider this somewhat unlikely.
• "I’m your girlfriend after all. Another form of affirmation for their relationship–but it’s hard to see how, even assuming Chizuru comes to Kazuya’s defense, this would be a satisfying conclusion. Chizuru has so much more to say than to just assume the role naturally.
• “My ‘perfect boyfriend’ is…” This would be a full-throated declaration of love on Chizuru’s part, carrying with it the understood meaning that has been withheld all this time.

There are a lot of options to choose from, and you’ll note I have taken the last one and made it Chizuru’s to say, similar to how Chizuru echoed Kazuya’s sentiments from ch. 61 later. After all, there can be no more relationship between them unless Chizuru overtly accepts one. Unfortunately…

Chizuru is still shell-shocked

Disappointing though it may be, Chizuru still hasn’t gotten a word in to defend herself, but her thought process is given to us through some important clues this week: tell me, what do all of these have in common?

We don't often get much of Chizuru's mindset, but this is as clear a signal as any.

They all have to do with Kazuya being her boyfriend! It really could not be clearer. She cannot speak, cannot defend herself, because of how attached Sayuri was to the idea that Kazuya was her boyfriend. And, probably Chizuru herself was attached to it, too. This all goes back to how much Chizuru wanted to please her family and make them happy, much like Kazuya.

But while Chizuru is frozen, there’s something else I’d like to comment on…

Though Kazuya’s flat on his butt, it’s Chizuru’s butt that falls flat

I could chop onions on that!

Now, it seems unbecoming for me to remark on Chizuru’s glutes. This is a good and wholesome blog I run. But actually, I’m not here to admire anything. In fact, I think… Chizuru is drawn rather underwhelmingly for someone Kazuya feels is the image of Venus herself.

Beautiful without a doubt, but for a shonen romcom, don't you feel something is a bit... off?

There’s no denying Chizuru’s style, and that hair is fabulous to be sure, but overall, her figure is rather on the athletic side, even taking into account her bosom. Chizuru is drawn to be an attractive woman to be sure, but for a series about dating rental girlfriends, at minimum adjacent to sex work, the girls in this series are drawn avoiding the easy ways to be sexualized. Miyajima has given us multiple shots of Chizuru’s butt, such as when they met the director. This… is nothing to write home about. Charitably, it is cute (though I will acknowledge the thigh gap angle that was all the rage a couple years ago and I hope is deader than disco by now). This is not the butt of the Woman Above All Women as Kazuya might have you believe Chizuru is.

Miyajima’s style is distinctive. Compare the image of Chizuru introducing herself in 222 versus the original drawing and the anime design by Hirayama:

Chizuru introduces herself (anime ep. 1, ch. 1, ch. 223).

Note the ratio of Chizuru’s head to her shoulders–she’s very wide in the modern style, which has a more naturalistic and textured look compared to the early, cartoonish design in chapter 1. Hirayama’s design clearly is more influenced by Miyajima’s more recent art style, but it still makes several choices that make Chizuru slightly cuter in the anime: her eyes are closer together, and perhaps a bit larger (again, look at the head relative to the shoulders too), and she’s given more of an embellished figure. Just look at these bathing suit comparisons (here using only the more recent art style):

The body shapes are very, very different. (Anime ep. 3 vs ch. 197)

This isn’t the closest shot of Chizuru’s Paradise bikini, but it is straight on, and notice the relative flatness of her curves compared to the embellished hips in the anime. The difference is really night and day.

Part of what makes Rent-A-Girlfriend different is that, even when our male lead is ogling the girl he’s into, the art style and proportions downplay how much we, the reader, ogle her along with him. Miyajima, rightly, does not care to pander in this respect, and he maintains a greater separation between the reader and Kazuya’s viewpoint than most similar series, but that’s an entire topic of conversation for another time.

Paradise was for Nagomi all along

With this week’s interesting little flashback to Nagomi and Sayuri, along with Kibe’s comment that Nagomi had to be hospitalized over Sayuri’s death (something they kept from Kazuya), it becomes clear that this trip to Hawaiians has been for Nagomi’s sake all along. It is what she could do, for Chizuru and to honor Sayuri’s memory. It is her part to play along with what she thought Kazuya would do for Chizuru as her boyfriend.

Remember Nagomi promised that Chizuru had a family still. That she could depend on them, where needed, and so on. This entire conversation in ch. 203 takes on added weight now that we see how hard Nagomi took Sayuri’s death and how much she worked toward, essentially, adopting Chizuru into the family–not as Kazuya’s future wife but as Sayuri’s granddaughter.

And it is on this basis, not her disappointment that Chizuru isn’t Kazuya’s real girlfriend, that Nagomi is most disturbed: her commitment to honor Sayuri is now at a crossroads. How can she support Chizuru, who appears to have betrayed Sayuri’s trust and love?

This is quite an interesting turn; I think many of us expected Nagomi to be heartbroken over her crush on Chizuru being dashed, but Sayuri’s death has tempered her feelings into an actual form of love, not just mere obsession. Of course, that love is being tested. She gives Chizuru one chance to explain, and when the moment is gone, she seems to close the book on it.

Misc hits

• Notice the cut to Ruka on this page? This flashback is from her conversation with Nagomi in 204, a conversation which we still haven’t seen the end of. Nagomi’s feelings are put into better context here, but there is still something missing.
• Mami, of course, flashes an evil grin. In case you thought she was still just trying to do what is right, I think Mami has one thing to say to that.