It was never about the confession (Rent-A-Girlfriend Ch. 238)

The grand confession finally got across in the clear this week. It was an aside, a footnote to a greater conflict. If you blinked, you might not have realized it happened at all. And yet, if you were paying attention, it was clear that the confession point point was never the real issue. It was, and always had been, a misdirection, a piece of narrative sleight of hand.

Kazuya finally gets to say it in the clear.

That goes back to the beginning, when it was clear, albeit not explicitly stated, that Chizuru understood what he was trying to say, at least in large part (175). And yet after that, Kazuya got tunnel vision. He became more preoccupied with the possibility of asking her out for real and following through the confession he thought had not been understood. That led us to Paradise, where we got one story about Kazuya, comically, trying to follow up on his confession attempt, while largely, but not completely, oblivious to what Mami was scheming or what Chizuru was really going through.

Kazuya’s preoccupation with getting his feelings off his chest and trying to settle the whole situation, one way or another, is the story we expected. It’s been the obvious direction of the story from the beginning, and yet Paradise gives it to us as a farce. Kazuya is denied chances time and again and forced to declare his love openly in circumstances that call into question his sincerity. And none of that mattered because Chizuru already knew. Miyajima locked us into Kazuya’s perspective and bombarded us with Kazuya’s preoccupation with this issue while running the Chizuru and Mami plots in the background.

Now, fittingly, the plot point has been done away with. Kazuya reiterated his confession, not in some grand speech in front of the chapel but on some unnamed street in Harajuku—not trying to overpower her with his earnest feelings but quietly, while asking for an answer. In the end, I find this fitting. Kazuya was never gonna sweep Chizuru off her feet. She needed the space to step toward him, and he’s given her that. Moreover, Rent-A-Girlfriend has always been about Kazuya and Chizuru connecting vs. trying to win each other over romantically. That Kazuya’s most overtly big romantic gesture fizzled and gave way to this instead—a more low-key moment, an earnest request for their hearts to meet—could not be more appropriate.

This man thinks he’s making art

Miyajima’s obsession with walking back in time through the continuity of this manga continues, as he deliberately evoked the image of Chizuru giving a gift from ch. 31.

Chizuru apologizes, in stereo. (Ch. 31 vs. ch. 238)

One wonders where this pattern would end. Somewhere in chapter 1 would be most fitting. The fact that Miyajima even goes to such trouble to draw upon his continuity suggests he truly views this as a story worth telling and worth telling artistically, for all the imperfections this manga has. People say Miyajima is trying to stall sometimes. I don’t believe that can reasonably inferred. To Miyajima, this is his masterpiece.