The Lungfish Diaries

Chizuru Ichinose is one big, fat chicken, but the biggest chicken of them all is Reiji Miyajima because once again we get a glimpse of Chizuru’s true feelings only for the audience to enjoy while Chizuru’s actual affection for Kazuya remains hidden partly behind a wall. In this chapter, there are two moments that exemplify this. Chizuru laughs at Kazuya adopting her feelings on marriage. Backing down when the opportunity is there For Chizuru to back down when she had the change to push their relationship forward past a point of no return is no surprise. This is precisely what she did back in the Date (?) arc when she asked if he had feelings for her (174) . Given the opportunity to retreat back to safety, she did just that and attempted to reestablish a line between them and her position as the supportive rental girlfriend. Of course, Kazuya had already been pushed past that point; after all, Chizuru had no reason to withdraw the question unless she was invested i...

I won’t say too much about the obvious tease this week, with Chizuru asking Kazuya to wait while he’s still on top of her. Much has been said by other astute observers already about the evolution of her reaction here, from the first time in chapter 2, to the second time in chapter 59, where she got cut off after asking him gently to move. Miyajima loves his repetition and parallels, and I’ve said that a lot already, too, so there’s not much more to observe with that. Instead, I want to focus on this look. Chizuru says, “Oh?” That look is the dagger! This game’s over! Kazuya, my man, this is the look that tells you you’re in. Chizuru has been coy with Kazuya only a handful of times: When going to meet the director, she momentarily teases him about needing to pay like a rental (117) She slips back into girlfriend mode to get a reaction out of him on the cheer-up date (158) She touches a soda can to his neck, catching him off guard after the premiere (167) But...

This past week on Rent-A-Girlfriend , Chizuru brought Kazuya to her childhood home, and much of how Kazuya acted reminded her once again of her departed grandfather, Katsuhito. Kazuya’s supportive attitude and optimism (at least when it comes to anything outside himself) are traits he shares with Katsuhito, and the association between Katsuhito and Kazuya has been explicit ever since Katsuhito’s introductory arc. Moreover, it was heavily implied, retroactively at least, that Chizuru took a liking to Kazuya and cut him a lot of slack in part because his attitude toward his family is relatable to her. In other words, Chizuru felt comfortable with Kazuya (to an extent) from the start because he reminded her of Katsuhito. Seeing Kazuya spare no effort, just like Katsuhito once did, Chizuru can’t help but remember… Given how strongly Kazuya has paralleled Katsuhito, it’s valid to ask, then, whether Chizuru really loves anything about Kazuya at all outside of that feel...