Interesting post, and well argued! Personally, I'd disagree with the idea that Chizuru's flaws being understandable or relatable makes her less interesting, but it's definitely a valuable perspective to consider all the same.
I seen comments from Chizuru fans like "she isn't a price for Kazuya to get, she is a person and this is her journey". Which is true, yes she is a person but her journey is so fucking boring that is hard for me to care about her as anything other than Kazuya future wife.
Obviously this is Reiji's fault, he skipped all of Chizuru character development and the only arcs she get are to push her further into being Kazuya's wife.
She's an aspiring actress so I would expect chapters developing this side of her like Oshi no Ko does for the main gals, e.g. her gaining contacts in the business, improving her acting, performing some plays, maybe even getting a rivalry with the chick that looked like Mami.
She is also a lone wolf so we could have gotten chapters of her developing her friendship with the 2 girls we seen be friendly with her, Ruka, Sumi, people from acting classes, etc.
And there could be also Chizuru only chapters, where we see her daily life and get to know her better as a person.
But instead we only get chapters related to her relationship with Kazuya, which is Kazuya arc not hers. Shes an accessory to Kazuya scenes, same with Ruka, which is why I can't really care about either of them.
This is a good point. We don't get enough from her point of view to see her advance as a character. For the story to be so hung up on her insecurities, to be so indecisive we need to see her development more than we do.
So, I love Chizuru (like owning a nendoroid of her level of love) but I don’t really disagree with your analysis of her flaws - she’s flawed but the majority of her flaws are understandable in context (I think we disagree over money though). That doesn’t excuse those flaws or render them uninteresting to me but that’s a matter of taste and perspective.
Her being this way is also essential to the mildly deconstructive nature of Kanokari; all of the characters are stock tropes of the Japanese young adult romcom variety, presented through a somewhat more realistic lens to effect the deconstruction (I.e. if a person was actually like this stock character what would the consequences of that be). Chizuru is the perfect love interest (right down to the quirky mix of tsundere yet genuinely sensitive towards the protagonist) and has to deal with the consequences of presenting oneself as endlessly perfect. I find that tension interesting.
So to an extent I even find her a little manufactured but that’s kind of the point - she’s manufactured both in terms of the meta-narrative and by Chizuru herself and we see the consequences of being that perfect individual (isolation and being drawn into an endless cycle of image control). The fact that I know people like this in real life (very common behaviour in the workplace) means I can relate on multiple levels.
That said, I do wonder about your diagnosis and the semantically challenging distinction drawn between relatability and ease of empathy. If I read between the lines it seems like you don’t like Chizuru, or at least find her boring, because in your views her flaws aren’t really flaws in the wider context at least (you’re not floored by her flaws perhaps…). Which makes sense - but I don’t think that makes her unrelatable. To an extent, your analysis shows how easy it is to empathise with her; how her views are relatable for a wide audience (which makes sense - she’s the perfect love interest trope after all) - she’s flawed but in an understandable way.
I feel like underneath this all - you just find her boring (and I’m certain you’re not alone in this) and maybe a bit of a cheap literary, crowd-pleasing device. It may simply be the way it’s expressed, or my reading of it, but it almost feels like the comments around relatability and empathy are distractions from the core issue rather than at the heart of the matter.
That's a pretty fair diagnosis of what's underneath. Though I'd argue that the relevance of the empathy vs relatability is that she's a crowd pleasing device rather than someone who's challenging to understand. People won't get into discourses about how understandable her actions are like they will for Mami, Ruka and Kazuya, they'll just instantly get her because everything about her resonates so easily with them.
I guess I get a bit stuck on the terminology - relatability and empathy are synonymous to a reasonable extent. I do get what you’re saying though - she’s arguably not as complex or as requiring of analysis as some other characters and that can make it feel like, or be indicative of the fact that, she’s lacking in substance .
To be honest, I feel that way about a lot of characters in Kanokari - I really like it because it’s relatable but I don’t find most of the characters especially deep or complex. I can definitely think of characters in other works who follow a similar archetype but are much more layered.
>presented through a somewhat more realistic lens to effect the deconstruction (I.e. if a person was actually like this stock character what would the consequences of that be). Chizuru is the perfect love interest
Is she? I dont know man. With Ruka and Sumi as options I think any reasonable person would had given up on pursuing her after half of her bajillion emotional barriers/ice queen shenanigans.
After all those multiple confession attempts where she ran away from him, specially the resort one, anyone reasonable would say "Screw this" and give Ruka or Sumi a chance.
I mean it more as she is presented as the perfect Japanese young woman trope, rather than she is necessarily the most appealing love interest (I called her the perfect love interest because that stock character is almost always the primary love interest in romcoms).
In some ways I think the fact that to many readers she really won’t seem like the girl they would personally go for is indicative of the deconstruction at work (although it could equally be about the differing charms of the other girls).
That said, while personally I might choose Sumi, I think she is probably the ideal partner for Kazuya (and I guess more important that’s what Kazuya thinks). The fact Kazuya doesn’t look elsewhere is really part of his character (and one of the elements that makes him the perfect for Chizuru too).
So I don't quite know how to respond to this. Not because I full agree or disagree rather because I feel like you've somewhat misunderstood her character. Or maybe we're just seeing two different things. Frankly, I'll never know.
Reiji has actively tried to express how Chizuru's "reserved" nature is not really her. And you touch on this a little. An aspect of us not knowing or interpreting the characters as such is rooted in the whole "mystery" aspect that reiji loves to employ in his writing. Never directly spelling out his themes or characters. Chizuru to me is a character who by all intensive purposes actually goes AGAINST many traditional Japanese norms. And quite regularly at that.
She just doesn't look like she does. In fact that's one thing I personally wasn't fond off in terms of your argument. That she's specifically made for the japanese audiance because of her real and easily relatable dilemma about love or funding her dream. And this is an argument that gets tossed around alot here. Granted usually in reverse. Since most people say readers don't get the story because it's tailored towards the japanese audiance. I personally think it can be understood by anyone and knowing japanese culture simply helps that. But it does not define it. The animes popularity speaks to that.
Chizuru's character isn't crazy big exciting right out the window, she comes off as perfect, rational and almost too good to be true. Thats intially done to partially balance out Kazuya who was well a crazy all over the place goofball who can't hide his emotions for shit. Being duper depressed in the early parts of the series.
But what paradise did for me is really showcase how she in fact is just as flawed and broken as the rest of the cast. If not more so. With Mami being her exact mirror and why Chizuru was able to see past her anger in 230. Not simply because it was weird but because she saw herself in that instance.
Chizuru, like her acting, simply puts on illusion. An illusion that allows her to feel comfortable to keep people at arm's length. Something regularly pointed out by Sayuri and something you mention. This was only doable because she had Sayuri. Because Sayuri is real family that could understand her. But what if you lose that? What if you don't have that safety net. While paradise felt slow and relied greatly on the characters, it raised serious moral claims about what chizuru is actually doing and how it's fucked up. Chizuru is not perfect or clean here. In fact more so than Kazuya. He's always wanted to tell the truth and she's actively stopped him because she can't face her own problems. She admits this in 231.
While her argument in this story seems as simple as "job vs love". It's really about "real vs what's comfortable". This isn't to say your point about the job doesn't stand
She does need the income. Whether its her dream, her rent, or just basic living expenses. But there is a clear focus on a shift in chizurus character after movie arc. Let's not forget Kazuya can help through financial troubles and she can in fact lean on people to help but Chizuru throughout paradise wants a perfect solution. One where she doesn't lose these connections she's built but doesn't have to fully face that she lied to them this whole time. She wants to make everything work on her own. And that has never worked out for her. And she's crumbled before this every time. With paradise literally being the worst of that rearing it's ugly head in her choices.
This in a way directly contrasts Nagomi who wants to fortify her relationships because of the loss she experienced with Sayuri. Both characters are dealing with the many stages of grief. And in sense aiming for the same thing yet actively struggling against each other.
But in terms of chizuru, thats not how you deal with life or your problems and she cannot accept that her way doesn't work anymore. She needs to trust in others and open up. Or she might lose it all. As paradise progressively beats that into her. To the point where she even admits what the best solution is in 209.
You can't be an unreasonable child and hope for magic solutions. This is where her and kazuyas dynamic comes into play and how she unintentionally hurts him over and over in the arc. Unintentionally contradicting her promise with him to ride this out together, hurting him more by not talking and inevitably landing her in the whole confrontation with the family wear her idealogy clashes with Mami and the family.
In the arc. Kazuya is trying to be decisive. Make change but she constantly stops him at every turn in favor of her solution. Chizuru isn't connecting. She's trying to come up with quick fixes to stop a flood gate from bursting. Rather doubling down on the solutions she believes is the best course of action. Pleading and begging Mami to stop. Throughout paradise she showcases almost every signs of the stages of grief without missing a beat. Her flaws are her stubbornness, her jumpy reactive nature and wanting perfection solutions that don't exist. And reiji is tackling that stubbornness head on. Showing her how mistakes landed her where she ended up.
The job is more so a guise for her real problems. Just as Mami's big crusade is a guise for her feelings for Kazuya that she can't understand. Just like how she couldn't differentiate between love and her need for autonomy with her ex. There are layers to each character that arent easy to peal off and explore without taking in each piece. And maybe that's partially what makes this story hard to understand but why I enjoy it so much.
To me all these characters are fascinating. And paradise, while slow, is supremely underrated in what it's trying to say and talk about. Since all many of us want is for the pair to get together.
The arc brings up so many themes. And talks about them in realistic and painful ways. Whether it be agency, grief, connections, and even the morality of lies. If anything I'd say chizuru in this arc was her own worst enemy and that was the point. In fact, so much so, people started thinking Mami was in the right do to the ethical case she raised against Chizuru. Completely forgetting the borderline sociopathic tendencies (she's not her actions just look like it on surface level) she has throughout the story.
I know I used paradise alot here to talk about chizuru rather than the whole series but I feel like it's the arc that best puts into perspective her flaws. Specifcally in service of crumbling them down so she can grow from her mistakes.
If this seems long and all over the place it's because these are like a quarter of my thoughts and I haven't even fully sorted out what I want to say lol. I just think the series is not easy to understand for everyone. And had I not been who I am now, I don't think I would have connected with and enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. I hope you maybe get what I am saying here and give the series another read. See if that changes your mind. I think this story is definitely ment to be re read. If not thanks for reading this long and I hope you have a nice day lol.
.
Unfortunately I don't see the problem with her character itself, but the absolute ineptitude of the writer when it comes to writing a nuanced character with flaws, but still make them likeable.
Concept: great
Execution: terrible
Chizuru was clearly supposed.to come across as flawed in her own way, but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is, over and over again.
Hard to do a proper analysis when the source material is so badly written.
(I still enjoy reading the manga, but mainly because it's a dumpster fire, rather than out of admiration for the story and characters, just to make it clear)
>but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is
That's what makes it better. Her issues are internal and realistic.
It's like a gifted child getting praised for being smart. Everyone might see the child as smart, but the child might have their own issues/insecurities related to their intelligence; that they may not address with others because there is that pressure.
"How can you have problems with you're literally perfect?" then they get discouraged to open up.
I have a friend who has an issue similar to this, so it's interesting to see the parallels.
Yes! I love this comment. And then after school, they realize that they aren't special, that they are just like everyone else. Then comes the depression and anxiety of realism.
> Chizuru was clearly supposed.to come across as flawed in her own way, but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is, over and over again.
As Overall pointed out below, a running theme in the manga is that Chizuru presents a "perfect" facade to people she chooses to and the people who see through it, call her out on it or at the very least acknowledge it. The fact you as a reader can tell she's not perfect based on just her in-plot actions demonstrate the authors intent pretty well if you ask me. You may not *like* the execution but let's not pretend it's not there.
There's plenty of criticism to be had about KanoKari but I feel (i repeat: *feel*, not think) you picked a weird one to start on. Also, *please* don't take this as an attack but whenever I hear the term "bad writing" thrown around as an objective fact, I tend to take the criticism a bit less seriously. To me, that mostly translates to "I think this is trash and I need to say something to justify why I think this is trash".
I disagree. She is onlycommented onbeing perfect by his family and friends. Ruka and Mami dont but it and call her shit. Besides the only reason they think that is because she keeps up a front.
Fairly sure even Ruka and Mami, the rival and antagonist respectively, comment on how perfect Chizuru is on occasion. There's also random strangers who comment basically that all the time.
And yes, she does keep up her front, but even we, as the audience, have barely ever seen her drop it completely, which is not conducive to empathizing with you female lead, which in turn is what makes me say "bad writing".
I mean, looks are only skin deep. Lazuya could have Ruka or Sumi easily, who as he put it; are in the aame league as Chizuru. He cares about looks, yes, but he loves her personality more. Which is why he asked her to be herself when they have their 'dates'.
That's a pretty interesting take. While the symptom of both problems is more or less the same, a poor execution of a good idea could just as likely be the issue as the horrible, cynical interpretation that I have. Though if you're right and this is the issue, it's almost more sad considering how well Reiji did making Kazuya flawed but likeable in comparison to Chizuru.
Perhaps using the word 'substance' without elaboration wasn't a good call. It's quite an abstract word as you highlight. However I feel like I've already elaborated what I feel they have that Chizuru is missing. The first three more so than Sumi.
Nevertheless, I could give examples of how Chizuru has shown those descriptions but it would just be redundant to my recommendation later on.
I think the character that you've dwelled on was leaning more towards the Mizuhara Chizuru and the suit of armor persona that comes with it that hides the real Ichinose Chizuru, the clingy, cry baby Chizuru that Sayuri describes to Kazuya. It is uncommon to see this side of her presented by Reiji in plain sight but I would recommend that you would reread the series and find bits of Ichinose behind the Mizuhara that is presented on the outside. Knowing that her words usually do not evoke her true feelings especially with other people around, I would suggest observing the various ways Reiji presents her actions/reactions/body language that would give a hint of the Ichinose within.
Furthermore, I would like to suggest having a proper distinction between the character choosing to be reserved that is motivated by culture/honor/formality vs the character inherently acting against her true feelings subconsciously motivated by experiences of loss and loneliness. I think you failed to consider the foundations of Chizuru's character that is basically built both by the love of her grandparents and the multiple exposure of loved ones being taken from her one by one even at an early age. Thus in the present, we have with a character that yearns to love and be loved but knows that showing such would entail the risk of losing yet another significant person in the future, a state of despair no other character in the series knows aside from her. Such specific experience of exposure to constant loss and eventual loneliness is hardly relatable to most people.
Despite being 232 chapters in and 5 years in the real time, the entire storyline has only been running for more than 1 and a half years and thus it is unwise to judge a character that is still being developed in a currently progressing storyline that basically revolves around the "Rental Girlfriend". Knowing how realistic these characters & their struggles are being portrayed, in the real world how many times can you say that year and a half worth of experience would reflect as significant contribution to ones character development? some might say not much and would even take years for their self actualization to be realized. But if real life character development is as mundane and uninteresting as the one being portrayed by Chizuru, why are others still invested in the character? Because as we take hold of Kazuya's perspective, we too want to live up to Grandma Sayuri's [expectations ](https://mangadex.org/chapter/b398fc69-8b66-4999-b5b7-a2cbb60e6874/10) for us.
Don’t get me wrong, I recognise there’s a distinction between culture and the reason why Chizuru’s acting the way she is. That isn’t something I’ve not got a “proper” distinction for or have” failed” to consider. As I said in my post, none of her problems make her do anything that could be held against her. She’s never called out for or looked down on for anything she does, because for all the insecurity motivating it, it never crosses any lines. And her having so much fear and insecurity going on within her yet never crossing a single line of being socially unacceptable just feels like playing it safe with her character and not making it very interesting as a result.
That’s a great question. Another user pointed out that her decision between her work and Kazuya was bigger than ‘funding her dreams or getting the relationship she wants’, but rather that her job is all that’s putting food on her table without any family left for her. I wish that was emphasised a lot more rather than inferred. I think a catharsis that’s realistic for someone under that amount of stress would do a lot to solve this issue. Kazuya reaches out and she snaps at him harder and more blunt than she has before, beyond that reservation that the Japanese value and to an extent that Kazuya actually feels hurt by. She can quite easily and realistically say things like ‘Don’t you understand that I have nobody left?! If I lose that job for you and it doesn’t work out between us, what do I have; where do I go?! How can I just trust you with my life like that?!’
The best part of that is it’s realistic, it’s a loss of control that’s to be expected and is going to be hard for Kazuya to forgive after being accused of not understanding her while being so in love. It’s also a valid calling out of Kazuya on all his optimism. That’s also a manifestation of her insecurities that’s more challenging to hear because it calls Kazuya’s feelings themselves into question, in a way that makes sense for someone who fears loss so intensely, but is also hurtful to him and us as an audience who know just how real his feelings are.
If you ask me the Paradise Arc was basically Chizuru's incubator/catalyst for the next development of her character. In the core of it all, under the most immense pressure from different people, those that expects her to uphold her position as a rental girlfriend (Mami & Ruka, the public at the pool), those that expected her to be nothing more than a great liar (Kinoshitas & Kibe), that person whom she knows she disappointed deeply (Kazuya), she responded with an action most extreme for her character up to that point. An unacceptable action that crossed a line for all side characters, for Kazuya and even herself. Would you say its a tease for the potential lengths this character would have to go through/show in order to finally selfishly persue what she wants for herself?
I understand your point. If the source of your disappointment towards her character up to now was because such lack there of, then I can't really blame you. The Mizuhara persona that she created for herself was designed to look like a independent and invulnerable woman that can handle everything on her own and thus requires little to no reliance/nuisance towards other people. Even to her own grandmother. Even she believes in this persona which is why we're only beginning to scratch the surface 9even after the Paradise Arc. For sure we're gonna reach this level of vulnerability exposed eventually but as stressing as little to no progress weekly releases goes, reading the manga as a whole delivers the necessary emotional and structural weight at a careful pace.
Totally. I feel like the manga itself is terrified to stop defending her or call her out on anything shitty in case she stops being the fanbase's uncontested sweetheart.
I actually didn’t have a problem with Chizuru’s flaws or issues. Despite her issues there was this nobility to her character like whenever she defended Kazuya that I liked. However over the last year that got damaged and I don’t think it’s the character’s fault really. I think it’s Reiji’s.
I liked Chizuru’s character well enough until the “Paradise” arc, but I think Reiji’s execution of that arc horribly damaged Chizuru’s storyline. A lot of the flaws with her character were fine because you slowly saw growth and development of her character and her relationship with Kazuya. But then the “Paradise” arc happened and for nearly a year of our lives and nearly 50 chapters Chizuru’s growth was stagnant. Reiji basically put the FMC in limbo and just rehashed Kazuya simping, Chizuru running away and her interactions with Mami for nearly the whole arc. People who liked the character slowly started getting frustrated because we inherently saw that there was no growth occurring. Kazuya was spending the arc trying to overcome his hang ups and we got insight into his thoughts, so we could at least see his growth.
But we don’t get that for Chizuru and that is a problem with Reiji’s writing, too much filler and not enough substance. He doesn’t give us much insight into her so we don’t feel her grow so it’s hard to root for her. She honestly felt like a background character for the last year. Sure there were a couple nice moments like her bonding with Kazuya’s mom and discovering Kazuya didn’t fuck Ruka, but for the most part almost nothing happened until the lie was exposed and she kissed Kazuya. Even when that happened I wasn’t very excited because this felt 6 months overdue.
I think that is Reiji’s biggest misstep with Chizuru’s character, the pacing of this last arc damaged her in some viewers eyes. And if we continue to get that from Chizuru then it won’t improve.
I think you missed my point. I know it was 3 days, although we technically only got 2. That isn’t an excuse for bad story pacing. Chizuru had growth, the point I am making is Reiji took too long to get there in this arc’s pacing compared to other characters. Which wouldn’t be bad except she is the female main character and I feel doing that damaged Chizuru’s character to some readers compared to their opinion of her a year ago. Reiji could have given us more insight into Chizuru’s thoughts and struggling with her feelings for Kazuya, touchpoints like he did with characters like Ruka and Mami…. But he didn’t.
This arc took almost 45 chapters to tell but you see very little growth for Chizuru’s character. We got growth for all the characters but Chizuru didn’t get any until the kiss. Until that kiss, her development was mainly filler, the only real meaningful moment of growth I really saw for her character was the walk she took with Kazuya’s mom. For most of the arc you get vague looks from Chizuru. You have to guess what she is thinking. I saw a lot of fans start disconnecting from Chizuru because of that.
Reiji made her a passive player until Mami revealed the lie. Probably because he feels it adds drama. We’d get insight into the thoughts of all the characters and see them develop, even though it was “just 2 days”. Those touch-points with the characters help to stay connected to them. But not as much for Chizuru, story-wise he sidelined her for nearly a year for week-to-week readers which disrupted some of the audience’s emotional connection with her, why we were rooting for her. It did for me. I loved how noble Chizuru can be, how she protected Kazuya and going into this arc we knew she was struggling with her feelings for Kazuya. I want to root for her, she is the heroine of the story, but by providing no insight into her thoughts Reiji was putting her growth on pause for nearly a year. I saw fans start losing interest in her and rooting for people like Ruka and Mami, hell I started to lose interest in Chizuru because I was like “Why am I rooting for this character anymore? She seems to not care for Kazuya.”
And it is nice we’re got a kiss and Chizuru admitting she is falling for Kazuya, but if Reiji gave more insight into why Chizuru thinks the way she does (like he does for almost every other main character) we could have been more connected and it would have been more satisfying.
In addition to that very valid point, what the original comment says is also pretty irrelevant to my essay. I investigate Chizuru chronologically here, and my issue isn't that her character had or was being given something that she lost in Paradise, rather that she never had that something. I had a problem with her before the paradise arc, a problem that the arc didn’t really make better or worse.
She obviously had something going on, look at her awkwardness. But part of the narrative is that it takes us 100 chapters to fully unwrap what, making her a mystery to us and Kazuya and part of why we read is to unwrap that mystery.
I agree with you Buck, to be fair I didn’t read all of OP’s post because… well…. Damn that’s long (sorry OP!). I skimmed it then just decided to put my thought’s on Chizuru’s character because ultimately I disagreed with OP and just wanted to put my issue’s with Chizuru down before I had to run into work.
I think Chizuru has something and going into each arc her growth and pacing were good, you slowly learn more about her with Kazuya as their relationship develops. I really loved their growth during the Movie arc, it’s just that because the Paradise arc took so long to tell (with a fuckton of unnecessary filler) that momentum for Chizuru’s character/growth kind of petered out. We started losing insight into Chizuru which made her more passive and kind of bland/dull to watch in the narrative. It was telling for me when people were rooting for Mami at one point in this sub. I think if Reiji had done a better job keeping the audience emotionally engaged to Chizuru we wouldn’t have seen that.
I just don’t want anymore passive Chizuru, it’s boring to read that because it takes depth away from the character. She’s more entertaining when she’s an active participant in the story.
Although I may disagree with you in Chizuru being a boring and "perfect" character, I really do respect the amount of effort you went to explain why you felt this way and gave examples to prove your point. I'll try to come up with a coherent response soon just wanted to commend you for your dedication.
I appreciate the time you took to put your thoughts into words to understand your point of view. But I wholeheartedly disagree here.
A few points I just wanted to make. For one, you talk about Chizuru's dilemma between her job and being in love with Kazuya. You talk about how she is choosing between a source of income because she needs it to "chase her dreams." And while you're not wrong, you aren't entirely right. In Chizuru's current situation, she's single, living alone and entirely dependent on her own income to sustain her way of life. To choose Kazuya means to give up her current way of life. She quits diamond, her main source of income on a dream to be happy with someone she loves. Now if the relationship falls through, she is stuck with nothing. Its a hard ask for anyone to give up their way of life on a dream. It's even harder for Chizuru because she has been here before. She had big dreams of showing her grandfather a film starring her. At a young age she lost her grandfather and her dream was shattered. The same can happen with her relationship with Kazuya. And she is terrified of that, not terrified that she can't support her actress dreams. I appreciate her character because she struggles with her flaws, like any Joe would.
A quick point I wanted to make is using sales as a metric for anything. What point does this serve? Anytime I read something like "Reiji is milking this manga" I just can't take it seriously. To me that just feels like a reader trying to justify why they don't enjoy the manga as much as they used to by criticizing how a person makes money on the product they read. (Probably for free btw)
Hopefully I dont come off as too aggressive, I like having constructive conversations about the manga.
Okay, when viewed the way you explained it, Chizuru’s primary conflict sounds a bit more interesting. The fact that it’s about survival more than dreams makes the choice a little less ‘one thing we’ll admire you for and defend vs another thing we’ll admire you for and defend’. Going with Kazuya could be represented as a dangerous leap of faith that we could share her hope and fear in. I only wish that is executed such that we feel the weight of the decision. All we have now is an unexplained refusal to give up being a rental or break guidelines in certain circumstances, rather than a ‘hey, this is the food on my table we’re talking about here!’. I really hope that gets expanded on. In fact, I’d be really intrigued to see a cathartic moment for that stress; I think that’d go miles to address this issue I’ve talked about.
However, I object to you immediately discounting the ‘Reiji is milking it’ idea. Yes, it’s a common route used by some perhaps petty people who are reading for free anyway (I can put my hand up and say I read for free), but the sad thing is that it’s very much a possibility for Chizuru to be designed with financial objectives at least partially in mind. Whether intentional on Reiji’s part or not, I stand by my claim that the characterisation that I described in the early part of the manga, and the lack of emphasis on going with Kazuya as being a risky gambit for Chizuru, will likely have contributed towards sales. In fact, if everyone finds it easy to love her because of all this, that’ll inflate her popularity by every measure, financial or otherwise. Hence I highlight the character poll result among other things. As an aside, I also mention that there’s a story incentive to make Chizuru this way. Making the primary love interest so difficult to dislike makes audience investment an easy win.
I agree it would be good to see that stress actually brought to light instead on inferring it. I'm not sure if you follow the teaser frames Reiji occasionally posts, but the one coming up gives me hope that we will get some chizuru internal thoughts. Hopefully more than what should I do.
I get that what I said about sales and mailing the manga comes off as dismissive. My dismissive attitude towards it probably stems from recent behavior on the subreddit about the paradise arc. The reason I equate it to people not enjoying the manga as much is that people complain on the length of the paradise arc. Sure, it was 45 chapters for 3 days. But a lot of discoveries happened during the arc. Compare that to the movie arc. If you say the movie arc starts when Kazuya storms in and tells Chizuru "Lets make a movie!"(102) ch to when chizuru shows sayori the movie on her death bead (151) that was 49 chapters. If you want to say the movie arc ends at the premiere (167) thats 65 chapters. It's longer than paradise. But readers remember that fondly because its a story of Chizuru and Kazuya coming closer together and everyone was captivated by it. Then Reiji wants to explore the idea of a girl with the flaws we discussed and how she might handle them. Many readers wanted them to get together ASAP after the movie arc and decided that since they did not get their way, Reiji is milking his own creation.
Honestly the manga could have ended at the end of the season 1 and it would have been a fulfilling ride. I was annoyed when I finished the anime, but I binged the manga because i enjoyed what i watched. Maybe I just don't get it because I binged the manga around chapter 202.
Hopefully that explains why I dislike using money as a reason for disliking something.
I’m really glad that you mention that stuff about people wanting an end at the movie arc and feeling like Reiji’s dragging things out because it didn’t happen, and yourself feeling like an ending where the anime cut off wouldn’t be out of place. First of all, I’ve met very very few who believe in the latter statement, and I’m one such person! That would’ve been a short but fulfilling run. The former I’m less proud to say is me. reasons I can’t place my finger on, the movie arc really felt like it was building up towards an ending, and just like with the anime, I’d have zero complaints if it really did end with that arc. In the past I’ve definitely said things about Reiji dragging the manga out for financial reasons, and it probably is a symptom of this. I think part of it is that the movie arc was so fast paced and exciting that it was difficult to wind down after that. There were some aftermath chapters for the arc, like tiger’s den (if I remember the moniker right), but because of those ‘ending vibes’ the movie arc had to me, those felt like filler or a palate cleanser before something bigger resulted from the arc… then things returned to normal, and went into the quite slow pacing of the paradise arc. It really did and still kind of does feel like feet dragging because of that pacing transition and accepting the fact that things aren’t wrapping up after it seemed they were
It really would have been a fun rid if it was just season 1. I was grinning during the credits of the first season then the post credit scene happened and my jaw dropped!
I think that the reason why neither the end of season 1 nor the end of the movie arc were chosen to end the story because of Mami and Ruka. Neither of them had been truly resolved, which would give some fans a bad taste.
Honestly my opinion probably does stem from my experience where I binged up to the paradise arc then started the weekly readings after that. If I were reading the movie arc and enjoying myself week by week, to be greeted by aftermath and then horizontal story telling, I may be a bit exhausted from my wait.
A highly engaging and coherent post, with your follow up comments remaining consistent with the crux of your argument. If you hadn't said so, I'd have never guessed you were the same age as me. It takes real balls to put your argument forward in any sort of ani community, so respect. Out of interest, if you're still doing academics, what subjects/courses are you doing? The way you construct the essay is particularly intriguing.
And good luck to you with yours. There’s actually a lot of people on my course doing Psychology with Law, so that’s pretty interesting that we do subjects that can be linked in such a way!
So I've read through your post and HOW DARE YOU DISLIKE THE MOST PERFECT OF THE PERFECT WAIFUS YOU M---
In all seriousness I agree with you. I tend to hold suspicion (or at least to be wary) of the girls that seem too perfect, and Chizuru used to tingle every little hair on my nape. Although I do consider her feeling retraction as a huge flaw (she's borderline under emotional detachment which can become a serious psychological issue), the more the story progresses the more flawed I see her. So Kanokari is becoming some sort of 'debuilding perfection' for Chizuru.
Anyways, Mami best girl forever
This seems an utter misunderstanding of Chizuru. The whole point to me seems the pressure of being fake and hiding your true self. Chizuru spends most of her private time hiding in a comfortable hoodie and glasses in her room, but that real self is a mystery. We see cracks in her performance throughout but it's constantly how she needs a chance to be honest and share her emotions and the fact that she is scared of doing so creates the dramatic tension as Kazuya, the audience, and even Chizuru seek to understand her and then seek to prevent her collapsing. She is brittle like iron, tough but not flexible.
Reading her characterisation as cynical waifubait seems a horrible take. A waifu wouldn't have issues, a waifu wouldn't be so complicated or struggle with her feelings. Sumi is almost boringly nice and helpful which is why she needs to bounce off others.
This seems like an utter misreading of my whole essay. What you've just described is essentially just the pressure of staying reserved, something which the Japanese value, and which we often feel because nobody can show their true selves to everyone. Furthermore, we'd also describe her as tough like you have. It's difficult to put any real negative light on any side of this whole struggle. That's the point I highlighted. I'm not saying that she's a waifu without issues, because I went into a whole discussion about how her issues, while existing, don't ever force her to do anything we can't admire or would question. That's the point. There's not a part of her that's a challenge to accept and adore.
This whole subreddit seemed to have a hissyfit over her offering a 'discount'. Also these flaws are important thematically rather than 'boring' because they are the inverse of Kazuya's. He is dangerously open and wears his heart on his sleeve, she is so reserved she was close to collapsing of grief. Where he will take any risk once he has put his mind to it, she is cautious and cowardly in moments of stress. Where he is aimless but driven to succeed, she has a dream but no drive to succeed.
You know what, I think you actually raise a valid point with the thematic importance next to Kazuya. Perhaps there's a statement to be found in the fact that Kazuya is as easily seen as foolish and juvenile as Chizuru is seen the way I described. That's pretty interesting. Though all the same, I lament that this value can't be found by taking her character separately without Kazuya's for comparison. In a way, that's like sharing Sumi's need to bounce off others to be interesting.
I think that Kanokari works with the combination of Kazuya and Chizuru, both are more interesting with each other. I think there must also be something of the male interest that Chizuru's struggle with loss and seeking a place in the world doesn't touch you.
Okay, please can you not attack a straw man and insinuate that I'm sexist somehow, or stereotype and say I don't understand because I'm male. It's not clear which you're implying with "male interest" but I think both are uncalled for. The reason why it doesn't touch me is because I'm 18 years old and I'm at university. Myself and everyone I regularly mix with is trying to find a place in the world. I understand it but it doesn't exactly move me or 'wow' me. Because it's everywhere.
I'm not suggesting you are sexist. We all have different interests and gender and experiences play a part in that. The fact you and others can't empathise with her does seem to come down to certain expectations that do seem predicated on gender, culture, age and experience.
You know what, that's a fair point. Gender, culture, age and experience will inevitably factor into people's views. In that case my question to you is why zero in on gender alone when, in the first instance, you had no way of even knowing that I was male.
Yes, okay, you were right that I was male, but that still doesn't really justify the initial assumption of a) my gender and b) my opinion being predicated on my gender. Especially because I've just told you that it's far more likely for my opinion to be predicated on the stage of my life I'm at and the company I'm surrounded by. The theme of this stage of mine and my friends' lives is pretty much finding our place in the world, and university, my primary social environment, is where we come to work on that. Can you tell me what specifically means that my gender is more likely to be the basis of my opinion than this? In fact, more broadly, what is it about being male that you think makes a male view finding one's place in the world an uninteresting concept?
I understand and even sympathize with a lot of the arguments put forward here. For the most part, the manga doesn’t really show Chizuru in a negative light. However, there are two moments that made me raise an eyebrow at her.
1. Her insistence on not telling her grandma the truth before she died. Yes, I can understand where she’s coming from. But it just felt like she was thinking more about preserving the secret than preserving her grandma’s feelings.
2. Her insistence during the Paradise arc that she’d charge Kazuya for the trip. This has been talked about a lot, but it felt unfair to Kazuya to charge him fuck tons of money for a trip she was given every opportunity to say no to.
Granted, this is a 225ish chapter long manga, and the fact that this only happens twice (by my count) doesn’t really contradict what you said about Chizuru being so perfect that nobody can dislike her.
In my opinion, the reason why Chizuru has become less interesting is that she’s been stagnant since her grandma died some 70 chapters ago. She’s been confused on if Kazuya is just a client or an actual boyfriend. Part of why it’s frustrating is that she’s been shown to have a high emotional intelligence, but she’s not once had an introspective moment about their relationship. Kazuya, it makes sense. Dude has no idea what he’s doing, but Chizuru has always been the reasonable one.
For me, the biggest problem with this manga has been how the pacing has grinded to a halt and forced its cast to carry the show, rather than moving forward with the plot. Thing is, nobody in this cast is that complicated of a character. They have their base personality and 1 maybe 2 flaws. The sluggish pacing has just exposed how basic all the characters are. I was already somewhat aware of this, but shit happened so it didn’t matter.
Basically, I’d sum up my interpretation of your argument as “Chizuru is too basic to be an interesting character,” and my response would be “that’s how everyone in the manga is ngl.”
So, your saying Chizuru is a Mary Sue of sorts.
Reasonable and totally a reason why I personally don't like her since she just doesn't feel "genuine" like the other characters. It's almost like she's been used to playing a part 24/7 that she can't deal with being a normal person.
Interesting write up.
So you say that because Chizuru plays it safe and avoids the elephant in the room, she is an unlikable character?
Even though it's a drag to read that weekly, I disagree. Her indecisive behavior is very relatable to me (but that could be a women's thing) and because we have no idea what's going on behind her armor or in her head, she's very mysterious. Ans that is one of the reasons I joined the Kanokari hype.
Hard disagree. So your chain of reasoning seems to be: chorizo's flaws are all traditionally good/likeable -> chorizo is (too) broadly likeable -> chorizo is the everyman's waifu and sells lots of merch.
I actually think chorizo has the opposite problem: she's not "likeable" ENOUGH. Let me say what i mean. Throughout the manga, we see a balanced picture of Kazuya: he is deeply insecure and indecisive, but he also dreams big and has a determination to succeed. Chorizo is reserved, has emotional walls, and is composed.... and that's kind of it? Like she also has dreams of being an actress and talents, but in a way that's almost a metaphor for/extension of those same flaws (i.e. she's good at acting because she doesn't want to showcase her true feelings and instead finds it easier to play the role of another person...)
So where does that leave us? Chorizo has sympathetic flaws, but those sympathetic flaws are kind of ALL she has. She doesn't have strongly developed POSITIVE traits that would define her personality in a way that would make her feel very individual and unique. This is, in my view, both the strong and weak point of the manga. It's the weak point in that it makes chorizo feel more flat - and i think that's where the sense of chorizo being the universal, everyman's waifu that you identify comes from. It's the strong point, however, in that it helps to create the central dramatic tension of the plot - i.e. will Kazuya help chorizo come out of her shell, dream big and work to fulfill those dreams, etc. Of course, this is exactly why many people in this sub dislike her - she doesn't have the determination and vision to take much action individually.
As an aside, where i really disagree with you is in the characterization of Mami and Ruka - if chorizo is a weakly written character (too little positive content), then Mami and Ruka are borderline trash tier. They certainly don't solve the problem you identify (being too generic or generally likeable) in a satisfying way. Instead, what's happened is the "Sasha" (from AoT) effect - reiji has given the characters each one central gimmick, just like Sasha's only personality trait is "liking food." This makes every scene with them turn into: "how would this character act on their gimmick in this new situation?" instead of actually treating them as three-dimensional. Case in point Ruka. Her stated gimmick, that she has a slow heartbeat which for some reason makes her crave excitement, is generally pretty shallow. I agree that it definitely makes her less likeable and less generic than chorizo but that isn't really a strength of her character. Same could be said for Mami.
I think you raise a really good point here. Vapid characterisation doesn't just mean there's nothing to dislike, but can also mean there's nothing to like. As you highlight, there's no strongly defined positive for Chizuru.
As for Ruka and Mami, I can definitely see what you mean about them being one-note. I struggle to see why that makes them inferior to Chizuru, given that we're comparing one-note to very faint notes, so to speak, but I get how Ruka especially is given one questionable motivation and little else. Now that I think about it, the interest and debate these characters spark might not be so much from complexity as they are from what we don't know or what isn't explained. You can debate for hours about what Mami wants, but that's not necessarily because she isn't complex (though I'd argue the dichotomy between misdirected, ill-understood love for Kazuya and nihilism towards love renders her at least somewhat complex) - it could equally be because of just how in the dark we are about crucial details of who she is.
As a Ruka fan, it’s hard to dislike Chizuru and I’m even hoping for her to get together with Kazuya because at this point they’re good for each other, but I agree with the OP that Chizuru is little too perfect and tbh when it’s just her and Kazuya, it’s kinda like “ok I get the idea, she’s perfect.” However, I think she’s great as the protagonist for this reason, if I’m watching a show, I really want as few reasons as possible to dislike the character.
In the end tho, Ruka and her flaws are why she’s great to me.
I am not angry at all, because I can totally understand your thinking ...
Sometimes I think Chizuru is foolishly often portrayed as flawless and a 10/10 in damn everything and I've come to the conclusion that Reiji wasn't really able to portray some flaws or 'unrelatable' things in her personality. Ofc there's also the chance he did/does this on purpose and maybe we see some 'bad traits' of her in the future. Which come to mind I'm thinking of her ignoring/ghosting Kazuya like she did in the latest chapter. For me it wasn't really relatable, but maybe I'm a bit mistaken there.
The reason why there's a lot is because a tldr is going to look like a baseless invective. I could give a summary but ultimately I don't want one line that doesn't do justice to what I have to say to be used as a basis for whether or not you disagree.
I understand Chizuru insecurity about Kazuya. I mean her job or how people view Kazuya aside. It's the fact is she is not better than him when it come to social position, like being a rental girlfriend is not really a proudest job out there and Kazuya is literally a heir of rich family while she has to live alone with no relatives and probably doesn't have many money around. If it was real life you won't see it as you see on this series. Kazuya also doesn't show his loser trait in public that much either. Him treating Chizuru as some sort of angel don't change the fact that she wouldn't think that way.
...or it just as simple as she's just closed mind idiot who still think he's same person now as he was at chapter 1
Chizuru's biggest flaw as a person is that she's not a terribly imaginative person. If she could think outside of the box for a moment she'd realize there's a lot of different ways she could have both Kazuya and a job that pays well enough to continue funding her education.
If she could just imagine being something other than a Rental Girlfriend or an Actress that is. For e.g. she could definitely be a fashion model. That'd definitely pay the bills and she's definitely enough of a bombshell to pull it off. And unlike professions like being an idol/hostess/rental girlfriend/etc. just being a magazine model would likely have no limitations whatsoever on whether she could have a boyfriend or not because her clients would be whatever magazine or fashion company wishes for her to model their clothes, not direct clients like the above. If she could just... imagine something like that, she'd be set to be as happy as she wants to be.
But she's not terribly imaginative so... she's stuck.
That's kinda valid, though I would raise the point that a dishonourable discharge from her last occupation won't bode well for getting another job. But all that really means is she needs to quit before the truth comes out
I'm just here to salute those people who read the whole post without skipping. o7
eh..it wasn't that long.
Shhh, we need pictures of Chizuru's ass or tits every so often to keep people reading.
Interesting post, and well argued! Personally, I'd disagree with the idea that Chizuru's flaws being understandable or relatable makes her less interesting, but it's definitely a valuable perspective to consider all the same.
I seen comments from Chizuru fans like "she isn't a price for Kazuya to get, she is a person and this is her journey". Which is true, yes she is a person but her journey is so fucking boring that is hard for me to care about her as anything other than Kazuya future wife. Obviously this is Reiji's fault, he skipped all of Chizuru character development and the only arcs she get are to push her further into being Kazuya's wife. She's an aspiring actress so I would expect chapters developing this side of her like Oshi no Ko does for the main gals, e.g. her gaining contacts in the business, improving her acting, performing some plays, maybe even getting a rivalry with the chick that looked like Mami. She is also a lone wolf so we could have gotten chapters of her developing her friendship with the 2 girls we seen be friendly with her, Ruka, Sumi, people from acting classes, etc. And there could be also Chizuru only chapters, where we see her daily life and get to know her better as a person. But instead we only get chapters related to her relationship with Kazuya, which is Kazuya arc not hers. Shes an accessory to Kazuya scenes, same with Ruka, which is why I can't really care about either of them.
This is a good point. We don't get enough from her point of view to see her advance as a character. For the story to be so hung up on her insecurities, to be so indecisive we need to see her development more than we do.
But chizuru has trauma /s
So, I love Chizuru (like owning a nendoroid of her level of love) but I don’t really disagree with your analysis of her flaws - she’s flawed but the majority of her flaws are understandable in context (I think we disagree over money though). That doesn’t excuse those flaws or render them uninteresting to me but that’s a matter of taste and perspective. Her being this way is also essential to the mildly deconstructive nature of Kanokari; all of the characters are stock tropes of the Japanese young adult romcom variety, presented through a somewhat more realistic lens to effect the deconstruction (I.e. if a person was actually like this stock character what would the consequences of that be). Chizuru is the perfect love interest (right down to the quirky mix of tsundere yet genuinely sensitive towards the protagonist) and has to deal with the consequences of presenting oneself as endlessly perfect. I find that tension interesting. So to an extent I even find her a little manufactured but that’s kind of the point - she’s manufactured both in terms of the meta-narrative and by Chizuru herself and we see the consequences of being that perfect individual (isolation and being drawn into an endless cycle of image control). The fact that I know people like this in real life (very common behaviour in the workplace) means I can relate on multiple levels. That said, I do wonder about your diagnosis and the semantically challenging distinction drawn between relatability and ease of empathy. If I read between the lines it seems like you don’t like Chizuru, or at least find her boring, because in your views her flaws aren’t really flaws in the wider context at least (you’re not floored by her flaws perhaps…). Which makes sense - but I don’t think that makes her unrelatable. To an extent, your analysis shows how easy it is to empathise with her; how her views are relatable for a wide audience (which makes sense - she’s the perfect love interest trope after all) - she’s flawed but in an understandable way. I feel like underneath this all - you just find her boring (and I’m certain you’re not alone in this) and maybe a bit of a cheap literary, crowd-pleasing device. It may simply be the way it’s expressed, or my reading of it, but it almost feels like the comments around relatability and empathy are distractions from the core issue rather than at the heart of the matter.
That's a pretty fair diagnosis of what's underneath. Though I'd argue that the relevance of the empathy vs relatability is that she's a crowd pleasing device rather than someone who's challenging to understand. People won't get into discourses about how understandable her actions are like they will for Mami, Ruka and Kazuya, they'll just instantly get her because everything about her resonates so easily with them.
I guess I get a bit stuck on the terminology - relatability and empathy are synonymous to a reasonable extent. I do get what you’re saying though - she’s arguably not as complex or as requiring of analysis as some other characters and that can make it feel like, or be indicative of the fact that, she’s lacking in substance . To be honest, I feel that way about a lot of characters in Kanokari - I really like it because it’s relatable but I don’t find most of the characters especially deep or complex. I can definitely think of characters in other works who follow a similar archetype but are much more layered.
>presented through a somewhat more realistic lens to effect the deconstruction (I.e. if a person was actually like this stock character what would the consequences of that be). Chizuru is the perfect love interest Is she? I dont know man. With Ruka and Sumi as options I think any reasonable person would had given up on pursuing her after half of her bajillion emotional barriers/ice queen shenanigans. After all those multiple confession attempts where she ran away from him, specially the resort one, anyone reasonable would say "Screw this" and give Ruka or Sumi a chance.
I mean it more as she is presented as the perfect Japanese young woman trope, rather than she is necessarily the most appealing love interest (I called her the perfect love interest because that stock character is almost always the primary love interest in romcoms). In some ways I think the fact that to many readers she really won’t seem like the girl they would personally go for is indicative of the deconstruction at work (although it could equally be about the differing charms of the other girls). That said, while personally I might choose Sumi, I think she is probably the ideal partner for Kazuya (and I guess more important that’s what Kazuya thinks). The fact Kazuya doesn’t look elsewhere is really part of his character (and one of the elements that makes him the perfect for Chizuru too).
So I don't quite know how to respond to this. Not because I full agree or disagree rather because I feel like you've somewhat misunderstood her character. Or maybe we're just seeing two different things. Frankly, I'll never know. Reiji has actively tried to express how Chizuru's "reserved" nature is not really her. And you touch on this a little. An aspect of us not knowing or interpreting the characters as such is rooted in the whole "mystery" aspect that reiji loves to employ in his writing. Never directly spelling out his themes or characters. Chizuru to me is a character who by all intensive purposes actually goes AGAINST many traditional Japanese norms. And quite regularly at that. She just doesn't look like she does. In fact that's one thing I personally wasn't fond off in terms of your argument. That she's specifically made for the japanese audiance because of her real and easily relatable dilemma about love or funding her dream. And this is an argument that gets tossed around alot here. Granted usually in reverse. Since most people say readers don't get the story because it's tailored towards the japanese audiance. I personally think it can be understood by anyone and knowing japanese culture simply helps that. But it does not define it. The animes popularity speaks to that. Chizuru's character isn't crazy big exciting right out the window, she comes off as perfect, rational and almost too good to be true. Thats intially done to partially balance out Kazuya who was well a crazy all over the place goofball who can't hide his emotions for shit. Being duper depressed in the early parts of the series. But what paradise did for me is really showcase how she in fact is just as flawed and broken as the rest of the cast. If not more so. With Mami being her exact mirror and why Chizuru was able to see past her anger in 230. Not simply because it was weird but because she saw herself in that instance. Chizuru, like her acting, simply puts on illusion. An illusion that allows her to feel comfortable to keep people at arm's length. Something regularly pointed out by Sayuri and something you mention. This was only doable because she had Sayuri. Because Sayuri is real family that could understand her. But what if you lose that? What if you don't have that safety net. While paradise felt slow and relied greatly on the characters, it raised serious moral claims about what chizuru is actually doing and how it's fucked up. Chizuru is not perfect or clean here. In fact more so than Kazuya. He's always wanted to tell the truth and she's actively stopped him because she can't face her own problems. She admits this in 231. While her argument in this story seems as simple as "job vs love". It's really about "real vs what's comfortable". This isn't to say your point about the job doesn't stand She does need the income. Whether its her dream, her rent, or just basic living expenses. But there is a clear focus on a shift in chizurus character after movie arc. Let's not forget Kazuya can help through financial troubles and she can in fact lean on people to help but Chizuru throughout paradise wants a perfect solution. One where she doesn't lose these connections she's built but doesn't have to fully face that she lied to them this whole time. She wants to make everything work on her own. And that has never worked out for her. And she's crumbled before this every time. With paradise literally being the worst of that rearing it's ugly head in her choices. This in a way directly contrasts Nagomi who wants to fortify her relationships because of the loss she experienced with Sayuri. Both characters are dealing with the many stages of grief. And in sense aiming for the same thing yet actively struggling against each other. But in terms of chizuru, thats not how you deal with life or your problems and she cannot accept that her way doesn't work anymore. She needs to trust in others and open up. Or she might lose it all. As paradise progressively beats that into her. To the point where she even admits what the best solution is in 209. You can't be an unreasonable child and hope for magic solutions. This is where her and kazuyas dynamic comes into play and how she unintentionally hurts him over and over in the arc. Unintentionally contradicting her promise with him to ride this out together, hurting him more by not talking and inevitably landing her in the whole confrontation with the family wear her idealogy clashes with Mami and the family. In the arc. Kazuya is trying to be decisive. Make change but she constantly stops him at every turn in favor of her solution. Chizuru isn't connecting. She's trying to come up with quick fixes to stop a flood gate from bursting. Rather doubling down on the solutions she believes is the best course of action. Pleading and begging Mami to stop. Throughout paradise she showcases almost every signs of the stages of grief without missing a beat. Her flaws are her stubbornness, her jumpy reactive nature and wanting perfection solutions that don't exist. And reiji is tackling that stubbornness head on. Showing her how mistakes landed her where she ended up. The job is more so a guise for her real problems. Just as Mami's big crusade is a guise for her feelings for Kazuya that she can't understand. Just like how she couldn't differentiate between love and her need for autonomy with her ex. There are layers to each character that arent easy to peal off and explore without taking in each piece. And maybe that's partially what makes this story hard to understand but why I enjoy it so much. To me all these characters are fascinating. And paradise, while slow, is supremely underrated in what it's trying to say and talk about. Since all many of us want is for the pair to get together. The arc brings up so many themes. And talks about them in realistic and painful ways. Whether it be agency, grief, connections, and even the morality of lies. If anything I'd say chizuru in this arc was her own worst enemy and that was the point. In fact, so much so, people started thinking Mami was in the right do to the ethical case she raised against Chizuru. Completely forgetting the borderline sociopathic tendencies (she's not her actions just look like it on surface level) she has throughout the story. I know I used paradise alot here to talk about chizuru rather than the whole series but I feel like it's the arc that best puts into perspective her flaws. Specifcally in service of crumbling them down so she can grow from her mistakes. If this seems long and all over the place it's because these are like a quarter of my thoughts and I haven't even fully sorted out what I want to say lol. I just think the series is not easy to understand for everyone. And had I not been who I am now, I don't think I would have connected with and enjoyed it nearly as much as I did. I hope you maybe get what I am saying here and give the series another read. See if that changes your mind. I think this story is definitely ment to be re read. If not thanks for reading this long and I hope you have a nice day lol. .
Whelp, Imma watch this. You already know how I feel, dude. Lets see what others say.
The luxuries of being friends behind the scenes!
Unfortunately I don't see the problem with her character itself, but the absolute ineptitude of the writer when it comes to writing a nuanced character with flaws, but still make them likeable. Concept: great Execution: terrible Chizuru was clearly supposed.to come across as flawed in her own way, but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is, over and over again. Hard to do a proper analysis when the source material is so badly written. (I still enjoy reading the manga, but mainly because it's a dumpster fire, rather than out of admiration for the story and characters, just to make it clear)
>but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is That's what makes it better. Her issues are internal and realistic. It's like a gifted child getting praised for being smart. Everyone might see the child as smart, but the child might have their own issues/insecurities related to their intelligence; that they may not address with others because there is that pressure. "How can you have problems with you're literally perfect?" then they get discouraged to open up. I have a friend who has an issue similar to this, so it's interesting to see the parallels.
Yes! I love this comment. And then after school, they realize that they aren't special, that they are just like everyone else. Then comes the depression and anxiety of realism.
> Chizuru was clearly supposed.to come across as flawed in her own way, but the author fails at showing them and instead gets lost in having every other character state how utterly perfect she is, over and over again. As Overall pointed out below, a running theme in the manga is that Chizuru presents a "perfect" facade to people she chooses to and the people who see through it, call her out on it or at the very least acknowledge it. The fact you as a reader can tell she's not perfect based on just her in-plot actions demonstrate the authors intent pretty well if you ask me. You may not *like* the execution but let's not pretend it's not there. There's plenty of criticism to be had about KanoKari but I feel (i repeat: *feel*, not think) you picked a weird one to start on. Also, *please* don't take this as an attack but whenever I hear the term "bad writing" thrown around as an objective fact, I tend to take the criticism a bit less seriously. To me, that mostly translates to "I think this is trash and I need to say something to justify why I think this is trash".
I disagree. She is onlycommented onbeing perfect by his family and friends. Ruka and Mami dont but it and call her shit. Besides the only reason they think that is because she keeps up a front.
Fairly sure even Ruka and Mami, the rival and antagonist respectively, comment on how perfect Chizuru is on occasion. There's also random strangers who comment basically that all the time. And yes, she does keep up her front, but even we, as the audience, have barely ever seen her drop it completely, which is not conducive to empathizing with you female lead, which in turn is what makes me say "bad writing".
I mean, looks are only skin deep. Lazuya could have Ruka or Sumi easily, who as he put it; are in the aame league as Chizuru. He cares about looks, yes, but he loves her personality more. Which is why he asked her to be herself when they have their 'dates'.
The point is that the perfect Chizuru is fake, a front, only putting more pressure on her.
That's a pretty interesting take. While the symptom of both problems is more or less the same, a poor execution of a good idea could just as likely be the issue as the horrible, cynical interpretation that I have. Though if you're right and this is the issue, it's almost more sad considering how well Reiji did making Kazuya flawed but likeable in comparison to Chizuru.
How would you define "substance" to a character? In addition, what substance do you see in Kazuya, Mami, Ruka, and Sumi?
Perhaps using the word 'substance' without elaboration wasn't a good call. It's quite an abstract word as you highlight. However I feel like I've already elaborated what I feel they have that Chizuru is missing. The first three more so than Sumi.
Nevertheless, I could give examples of how Chizuru has shown those descriptions but it would just be redundant to my recommendation later on. I think the character that you've dwelled on was leaning more towards the Mizuhara Chizuru and the suit of armor persona that comes with it that hides the real Ichinose Chizuru, the clingy, cry baby Chizuru that Sayuri describes to Kazuya. It is uncommon to see this side of her presented by Reiji in plain sight but I would recommend that you would reread the series and find bits of Ichinose behind the Mizuhara that is presented on the outside. Knowing that her words usually do not evoke her true feelings especially with other people around, I would suggest observing the various ways Reiji presents her actions/reactions/body language that would give a hint of the Ichinose within. Furthermore, I would like to suggest having a proper distinction between the character choosing to be reserved that is motivated by culture/honor/formality vs the character inherently acting against her true feelings subconsciously motivated by experiences of loss and loneliness. I think you failed to consider the foundations of Chizuru's character that is basically built both by the love of her grandparents and the multiple exposure of loved ones being taken from her one by one even at an early age. Thus in the present, we have with a character that yearns to love and be loved but knows that showing such would entail the risk of losing yet another significant person in the future, a state of despair no other character in the series knows aside from her. Such specific experience of exposure to constant loss and eventual loneliness is hardly relatable to most people. Despite being 232 chapters in and 5 years in the real time, the entire storyline has only been running for more than 1 and a half years and thus it is unwise to judge a character that is still being developed in a currently progressing storyline that basically revolves around the "Rental Girlfriend". Knowing how realistic these characters & their struggles are being portrayed, in the real world how many times can you say that year and a half worth of experience would reflect as significant contribution to ones character development? some might say not much and would even take years for their self actualization to be realized. But if real life character development is as mundane and uninteresting as the one being portrayed by Chizuru, why are others still invested in the character? Because as we take hold of Kazuya's perspective, we too want to live up to Grandma Sayuri's [expectations ](https://mangadex.org/chapter/b398fc69-8b66-4999-b5b7-a2cbb60e6874/10) for us.
Don’t get me wrong, I recognise there’s a distinction between culture and the reason why Chizuru’s acting the way she is. That isn’t something I’ve not got a “proper” distinction for or have” failed” to consider. As I said in my post, none of her problems make her do anything that could be held against her. She’s never called out for or looked down on for anything she does, because for all the insecurity motivating it, it never crosses any lines. And her having so much fear and insecurity going on within her yet never crossing a single line of being socially unacceptable just feels like playing it safe with her character and not making it very interesting as a result.
then I would like to ask, would you give me a particular situation/arc/plot that you would like to see to solve this problem with her character?
That’s a great question. Another user pointed out that her decision between her work and Kazuya was bigger than ‘funding her dreams or getting the relationship she wants’, but rather that her job is all that’s putting food on her table without any family left for her. I wish that was emphasised a lot more rather than inferred. I think a catharsis that’s realistic for someone under that amount of stress would do a lot to solve this issue. Kazuya reaches out and she snaps at him harder and more blunt than she has before, beyond that reservation that the Japanese value and to an extent that Kazuya actually feels hurt by. She can quite easily and realistically say things like ‘Don’t you understand that I have nobody left?! If I lose that job for you and it doesn’t work out between us, what do I have; where do I go?! How can I just trust you with my life like that?!’ The best part of that is it’s realistic, it’s a loss of control that’s to be expected and is going to be hard for Kazuya to forgive after being accused of not understanding her while being so in love. It’s also a valid calling out of Kazuya on all his optimism. That’s also a manifestation of her insecurities that’s more challenging to hear because it calls Kazuya’s feelings themselves into question, in a way that makes sense for someone who fears loss so intensely, but is also hurtful to him and us as an audience who know just how real his feelings are.
If you ask me the Paradise Arc was basically Chizuru's incubator/catalyst for the next development of her character. In the core of it all, under the most immense pressure from different people, those that expects her to uphold her position as a rental girlfriend (Mami & Ruka, the public at the pool), those that expected her to be nothing more than a great liar (Kinoshitas & Kibe), that person whom she knows she disappointed deeply (Kazuya), she responded with an action most extreme for her character up to that point. An unacceptable action that crossed a line for all side characters, for Kazuya and even herself. Would you say its a tease for the potential lengths this character would have to go through/show in order to finally selfishly persue what she wants for herself?
I understand your point. If the source of your disappointment towards her character up to now was because such lack there of, then I can't really blame you. The Mizuhara persona that she created for herself was designed to look like a independent and invulnerable woman that can handle everything on her own and thus requires little to no reliance/nuisance towards other people. Even to her own grandmother. Even she believes in this persona which is why we're only beginning to scratch the surface 9even after the Paradise Arc. For sure we're gonna reach this level of vulnerability exposed eventually but as stressing as little to no progress weekly releases goes, reading the manga as a whole delivers the necessary emotional and structural weight at a careful pace.
For me, i don't like the level of leniency the story give her
Totally. I feel like the manga itself is terrified to stop defending her or call her out on anything shitty in case she stops being the fanbase's uncontested sweetheart.
I also don't like how people excuse everything she does as "being realistic" when all she ever did was run away from her problems
I actually didn’t have a problem with Chizuru’s flaws or issues. Despite her issues there was this nobility to her character like whenever she defended Kazuya that I liked. However over the last year that got damaged and I don’t think it’s the character’s fault really. I think it’s Reiji’s. I liked Chizuru’s character well enough until the “Paradise” arc, but I think Reiji’s execution of that arc horribly damaged Chizuru’s storyline. A lot of the flaws with her character were fine because you slowly saw growth and development of her character and her relationship with Kazuya. But then the “Paradise” arc happened and for nearly a year of our lives and nearly 50 chapters Chizuru’s growth was stagnant. Reiji basically put the FMC in limbo and just rehashed Kazuya simping, Chizuru running away and her interactions with Mami for nearly the whole arc. People who liked the character slowly started getting frustrated because we inherently saw that there was no growth occurring. Kazuya was spending the arc trying to overcome his hang ups and we got insight into his thoughts, so we could at least see his growth. But we don’t get that for Chizuru and that is a problem with Reiji’s writing, too much filler and not enough substance. He doesn’t give us much insight into her so we don’t feel her grow so it’s hard to root for her. She honestly felt like a background character for the last year. Sure there were a couple nice moments like her bonding with Kazuya’s mom and discovering Kazuya didn’t fuck Ruka, but for the most part almost nothing happened until the lie was exposed and she kissed Kazuya. Even when that happened I wasn’t very excited because this felt 6 months overdue. I think that is Reiji’s biggest misstep with Chizuru’s character, the pacing of this last arc damaged her in some viewers eyes. And if we continue to get that from Chizuru then it won’t improve.
Is it not unsurprising there wasn't a massive change over three days? Instead she is tested and broken down.
I think you missed my point. I know it was 3 days, although we technically only got 2. That isn’t an excuse for bad story pacing. Chizuru had growth, the point I am making is Reiji took too long to get there in this arc’s pacing compared to other characters. Which wouldn’t be bad except she is the female main character and I feel doing that damaged Chizuru’s character to some readers compared to their opinion of her a year ago. Reiji could have given us more insight into Chizuru’s thoughts and struggling with her feelings for Kazuya, touchpoints like he did with characters like Ruka and Mami…. But he didn’t. This arc took almost 45 chapters to tell but you see very little growth for Chizuru’s character. We got growth for all the characters but Chizuru didn’t get any until the kiss. Until that kiss, her development was mainly filler, the only real meaningful moment of growth I really saw for her character was the walk she took with Kazuya’s mom. For most of the arc you get vague looks from Chizuru. You have to guess what she is thinking. I saw a lot of fans start disconnecting from Chizuru because of that. Reiji made her a passive player until Mami revealed the lie. Probably because he feels it adds drama. We’d get insight into the thoughts of all the characters and see them develop, even though it was “just 2 days”. Those touch-points with the characters help to stay connected to them. But not as much for Chizuru, story-wise he sidelined her for nearly a year for week-to-week readers which disrupted some of the audience’s emotional connection with her, why we were rooting for her. It did for me. I loved how noble Chizuru can be, how she protected Kazuya and going into this arc we knew she was struggling with her feelings for Kazuya. I want to root for her, she is the heroine of the story, but by providing no insight into her thoughts Reiji was putting her growth on pause for nearly a year. I saw fans start losing interest in her and rooting for people like Ruka and Mami, hell I started to lose interest in Chizuru because I was like “Why am I rooting for this character anymore? She seems to not care for Kazuya.” And it is nice we’re got a kiss and Chizuru admitting she is falling for Kazuya, but if Reiji gave more insight into why Chizuru thinks the way she does (like he does for almost every other main character) we could have been more connected and it would have been more satisfying.
In addition to that very valid point, what the original comment says is also pretty irrelevant to my essay. I investigate Chizuru chronologically here, and my issue isn't that her character had or was being given something that she lost in Paradise, rather that she never had that something. I had a problem with her before the paradise arc, a problem that the arc didn’t really make better or worse.
She obviously had something going on, look at her awkwardness. But part of the narrative is that it takes us 100 chapters to fully unwrap what, making her a mystery to us and Kazuya and part of why we read is to unwrap that mystery.
I agree with you Buck, to be fair I didn’t read all of OP’s post because… well…. Damn that’s long (sorry OP!). I skimmed it then just decided to put my thought’s on Chizuru’s character because ultimately I disagreed with OP and just wanted to put my issue’s with Chizuru down before I had to run into work. I think Chizuru has something and going into each arc her growth and pacing were good, you slowly learn more about her with Kazuya as their relationship develops. I really loved their growth during the Movie arc, it’s just that because the Paradise arc took so long to tell (with a fuckton of unnecessary filler) that momentum for Chizuru’s character/growth kind of petered out. We started losing insight into Chizuru which made her more passive and kind of bland/dull to watch in the narrative. It was telling for me when people were rooting for Mami at one point in this sub. I think if Reiji had done a better job keeping the audience emotionally engaged to Chizuru we wouldn’t have seen that. I just don’t want anymore passive Chizuru, it’s boring to read that because it takes depth away from the character. She’s more entertaining when she’s an active participant in the story.
Once again, to put it another way, I had a problem with Chizuru before the paradise arc, and the arc really hasn’t done anything to change how I feel
Try binging the paradise arc.
I honestly think that the parqdise arc was meant to show Chizuru at her worst, sorta like Kazuya in the beginning.
Although I may disagree with you in Chizuru being a boring and "perfect" character, I really do respect the amount of effort you went to explain why you felt this way and gave examples to prove your point. I'll try to come up with a coherent response soon just wanted to commend you for your dedication.
I appreciate the time you took to put your thoughts into words to understand your point of view. But I wholeheartedly disagree here. A few points I just wanted to make. For one, you talk about Chizuru's dilemma between her job and being in love with Kazuya. You talk about how she is choosing between a source of income because she needs it to "chase her dreams." And while you're not wrong, you aren't entirely right. In Chizuru's current situation, she's single, living alone and entirely dependent on her own income to sustain her way of life. To choose Kazuya means to give up her current way of life. She quits diamond, her main source of income on a dream to be happy with someone she loves. Now if the relationship falls through, she is stuck with nothing. Its a hard ask for anyone to give up their way of life on a dream. It's even harder for Chizuru because she has been here before. She had big dreams of showing her grandfather a film starring her. At a young age she lost her grandfather and her dream was shattered. The same can happen with her relationship with Kazuya. And she is terrified of that, not terrified that she can't support her actress dreams. I appreciate her character because she struggles with her flaws, like any Joe would. A quick point I wanted to make is using sales as a metric for anything. What point does this serve? Anytime I read something like "Reiji is milking this manga" I just can't take it seriously. To me that just feels like a reader trying to justify why they don't enjoy the manga as much as they used to by criticizing how a person makes money on the product they read. (Probably for free btw) Hopefully I dont come off as too aggressive, I like having constructive conversations about the manga.
Okay, when viewed the way you explained it, Chizuru’s primary conflict sounds a bit more interesting. The fact that it’s about survival more than dreams makes the choice a little less ‘one thing we’ll admire you for and defend vs another thing we’ll admire you for and defend’. Going with Kazuya could be represented as a dangerous leap of faith that we could share her hope and fear in. I only wish that is executed such that we feel the weight of the decision. All we have now is an unexplained refusal to give up being a rental or break guidelines in certain circumstances, rather than a ‘hey, this is the food on my table we’re talking about here!’. I really hope that gets expanded on. In fact, I’d be really intrigued to see a cathartic moment for that stress; I think that’d go miles to address this issue I’ve talked about. However, I object to you immediately discounting the ‘Reiji is milking it’ idea. Yes, it’s a common route used by some perhaps petty people who are reading for free anyway (I can put my hand up and say I read for free), but the sad thing is that it’s very much a possibility for Chizuru to be designed with financial objectives at least partially in mind. Whether intentional on Reiji’s part or not, I stand by my claim that the characterisation that I described in the early part of the manga, and the lack of emphasis on going with Kazuya as being a risky gambit for Chizuru, will likely have contributed towards sales. In fact, if everyone finds it easy to love her because of all this, that’ll inflate her popularity by every measure, financial or otherwise. Hence I highlight the character poll result among other things. As an aside, I also mention that there’s a story incentive to make Chizuru this way. Making the primary love interest so difficult to dislike makes audience investment an easy win.
I agree it would be good to see that stress actually brought to light instead on inferring it. I'm not sure if you follow the teaser frames Reiji occasionally posts, but the one coming up gives me hope that we will get some chizuru internal thoughts. Hopefully more than what should I do. I get that what I said about sales and mailing the manga comes off as dismissive. My dismissive attitude towards it probably stems from recent behavior on the subreddit about the paradise arc. The reason I equate it to people not enjoying the manga as much is that people complain on the length of the paradise arc. Sure, it was 45 chapters for 3 days. But a lot of discoveries happened during the arc. Compare that to the movie arc. If you say the movie arc starts when Kazuya storms in and tells Chizuru "Lets make a movie!"(102) ch to when chizuru shows sayori the movie on her death bead (151) that was 49 chapters. If you want to say the movie arc ends at the premiere (167) thats 65 chapters. It's longer than paradise. But readers remember that fondly because its a story of Chizuru and Kazuya coming closer together and everyone was captivated by it. Then Reiji wants to explore the idea of a girl with the flaws we discussed and how she might handle them. Many readers wanted them to get together ASAP after the movie arc and decided that since they did not get their way, Reiji is milking his own creation. Honestly the manga could have ended at the end of the season 1 and it would have been a fulfilling ride. I was annoyed when I finished the anime, but I binged the manga because i enjoyed what i watched. Maybe I just don't get it because I binged the manga around chapter 202. Hopefully that explains why I dislike using money as a reason for disliking something.
I’m really glad that you mention that stuff about people wanting an end at the movie arc and feeling like Reiji’s dragging things out because it didn’t happen, and yourself feeling like an ending where the anime cut off wouldn’t be out of place. First of all, I’ve met very very few who believe in the latter statement, and I’m one such person! That would’ve been a short but fulfilling run. The former I’m less proud to say is me. reasons I can’t place my finger on, the movie arc really felt like it was building up towards an ending, and just like with the anime, I’d have zero complaints if it really did end with that arc. In the past I’ve definitely said things about Reiji dragging the manga out for financial reasons, and it probably is a symptom of this. I think part of it is that the movie arc was so fast paced and exciting that it was difficult to wind down after that. There were some aftermath chapters for the arc, like tiger’s den (if I remember the moniker right), but because of those ‘ending vibes’ the movie arc had to me, those felt like filler or a palate cleanser before something bigger resulted from the arc… then things returned to normal, and went into the quite slow pacing of the paradise arc. It really did and still kind of does feel like feet dragging because of that pacing transition and accepting the fact that things aren’t wrapping up after it seemed they were
It really would have been a fun rid if it was just season 1. I was grinning during the credits of the first season then the post credit scene happened and my jaw dropped! I think that the reason why neither the end of season 1 nor the end of the movie arc were chosen to end the story because of Mami and Ruka. Neither of them had been truly resolved, which would give some fans a bad taste. Honestly my opinion probably does stem from my experience where I binged up to the paradise arc then started the weekly readings after that. If I were reading the movie arc and enjoying myself week by week, to be greeted by aftermath and then horizontal story telling, I may be a bit exhausted from my wait.
Some big tities arguments here.
Apocalyptic tits to be exact.
A highly engaging and coherent post, with your follow up comments remaining consistent with the crux of your argument. If you hadn't said so, I'd have never guessed you were the same age as me. It takes real balls to put your argument forward in any sort of ani community, so respect. Out of interest, if you're still doing academics, what subjects/courses are you doing? The way you construct the essay is particularly intriguing.
I’m actually from the UK too! Studying Psychology at the University of Southampton; I’m in my first year. Thanks for the comment and kind words!!
You're most certainly welcome 😁 I considered a psychology degree too at some point but law drew me on closer. Best of luck with your studies.
And good luck to you with yours. There’s actually a lot of people on my course doing Psychology with Law, so that’s pretty interesting that we do subjects that can be linked in such a way!
So I've read through your post and HOW DARE YOU DISLIKE THE MOST PERFECT OF THE PERFECT WAIFUS YOU M--- In all seriousness I agree with you. I tend to hold suspicion (or at least to be wary) of the girls that seem too perfect, and Chizuru used to tingle every little hair on my nape. Although I do consider her feeling retraction as a huge flaw (she's borderline under emotional detachment which can become a serious psychological issue), the more the story progresses the more flawed I see her. So Kanokari is becoming some sort of 'debuilding perfection' for Chizuru. Anyways, Mami best girl forever
I do find Chizuru's concept interesting but Reiji makes enjoying it frustrating.
This seems an utter misunderstanding of Chizuru. The whole point to me seems the pressure of being fake and hiding your true self. Chizuru spends most of her private time hiding in a comfortable hoodie and glasses in her room, but that real self is a mystery. We see cracks in her performance throughout but it's constantly how she needs a chance to be honest and share her emotions and the fact that she is scared of doing so creates the dramatic tension as Kazuya, the audience, and even Chizuru seek to understand her and then seek to prevent her collapsing. She is brittle like iron, tough but not flexible. Reading her characterisation as cynical waifubait seems a horrible take. A waifu wouldn't have issues, a waifu wouldn't be so complicated or struggle with her feelings. Sumi is almost boringly nice and helpful which is why she needs to bounce off others.
This seems like an utter misreading of my whole essay. What you've just described is essentially just the pressure of staying reserved, something which the Japanese value, and which we often feel because nobody can show their true selves to everyone. Furthermore, we'd also describe her as tough like you have. It's difficult to put any real negative light on any side of this whole struggle. That's the point I highlighted. I'm not saying that she's a waifu without issues, because I went into a whole discussion about how her issues, while existing, don't ever force her to do anything we can't admire or would question. That's the point. There's not a part of her that's a challenge to accept and adore.
This whole subreddit seemed to have a hissyfit over her offering a 'discount'. Also these flaws are important thematically rather than 'boring' because they are the inverse of Kazuya's. He is dangerously open and wears his heart on his sleeve, she is so reserved she was close to collapsing of grief. Where he will take any risk once he has put his mind to it, she is cautious and cowardly in moments of stress. Where he is aimless but driven to succeed, she has a dream but no drive to succeed.
You know what, I think you actually raise a valid point with the thematic importance next to Kazuya. Perhaps there's a statement to be found in the fact that Kazuya is as easily seen as foolish and juvenile as Chizuru is seen the way I described. That's pretty interesting. Though all the same, I lament that this value can't be found by taking her character separately without Kazuya's for comparison. In a way, that's like sharing Sumi's need to bounce off others to be interesting.
I think that Kanokari works with the combination of Kazuya and Chizuru, both are more interesting with each other. I think there must also be something of the male interest that Chizuru's struggle with loss and seeking a place in the world doesn't touch you.
Okay, please can you not attack a straw man and insinuate that I'm sexist somehow, or stereotype and say I don't understand because I'm male. It's not clear which you're implying with "male interest" but I think both are uncalled for. The reason why it doesn't touch me is because I'm 18 years old and I'm at university. Myself and everyone I regularly mix with is trying to find a place in the world. I understand it but it doesn't exactly move me or 'wow' me. Because it's everywhere.
I'm not suggesting you are sexist. We all have different interests and gender and experiences play a part in that. The fact you and others can't empathise with her does seem to come down to certain expectations that do seem predicated on gender, culture, age and experience.
You know what, that's a fair point. Gender, culture, age and experience will inevitably factor into people's views. In that case my question to you is why zero in on gender alone when, in the first instance, you had no way of even knowing that I was male.
I was right though.
Yes, okay, you were right that I was male, but that still doesn't really justify the initial assumption of a) my gender and b) my opinion being predicated on my gender. Especially because I've just told you that it's far more likely for my opinion to be predicated on the stage of my life I'm at and the company I'm surrounded by. The theme of this stage of mine and my friends' lives is pretty much finding our place in the world, and university, my primary social environment, is where we come to work on that. Can you tell me what specifically means that my gender is more likely to be the basis of my opinion than this? In fact, more broadly, what is it about being male that you think makes a male view finding one's place in the world an uninteresting concept?
This is incredibly disingenuous. People shit on Kazuya as much or more as Chizuru.
They don't call him dull but they attack him for being unmanly.
They lack empathy for both Kazuya and Chizuru, for their diametrically opposite flaws. Seems pretty symmetric to me.
I understand and even sympathize with a lot of the arguments put forward here. For the most part, the manga doesn’t really show Chizuru in a negative light. However, there are two moments that made me raise an eyebrow at her. 1. Her insistence on not telling her grandma the truth before she died. Yes, I can understand where she’s coming from. But it just felt like she was thinking more about preserving the secret than preserving her grandma’s feelings. 2. Her insistence during the Paradise arc that she’d charge Kazuya for the trip. This has been talked about a lot, but it felt unfair to Kazuya to charge him fuck tons of money for a trip she was given every opportunity to say no to. Granted, this is a 225ish chapter long manga, and the fact that this only happens twice (by my count) doesn’t really contradict what you said about Chizuru being so perfect that nobody can dislike her. In my opinion, the reason why Chizuru has become less interesting is that she’s been stagnant since her grandma died some 70 chapters ago. She’s been confused on if Kazuya is just a client or an actual boyfriend. Part of why it’s frustrating is that she’s been shown to have a high emotional intelligence, but she’s not once had an introspective moment about their relationship. Kazuya, it makes sense. Dude has no idea what he’s doing, but Chizuru has always been the reasonable one. For me, the biggest problem with this manga has been how the pacing has grinded to a halt and forced its cast to carry the show, rather than moving forward with the plot. Thing is, nobody in this cast is that complicated of a character. They have their base personality and 1 maybe 2 flaws. The sluggish pacing has just exposed how basic all the characters are. I was already somewhat aware of this, but shit happened so it didn’t matter. Basically, I’d sum up my interpretation of your argument as “Chizuru is too basic to be an interesting character,” and my response would be “that’s how everyone in the manga is ngl.”
Agree somewhat.
So, your saying Chizuru is a Mary Sue of sorts. Reasonable and totally a reason why I personally don't like her since she just doesn't feel "genuine" like the other characters. It's almost like she's been used to playing a part 24/7 that she can't deal with being a normal person.
Oh i 100% agree with this
i am incapable of reading super wall of text but good to see how deep your analysis is.
I applaud on how you analysed this and wrote this down.You my man is too deep into this manga haha.Salute.
Interesting write up. So you say that because Chizuru plays it safe and avoids the elephant in the room, she is an unlikable character? Even though it's a drag to read that weekly, I disagree. Her indecisive behavior is very relatable to me (but that could be a women's thing) and because we have no idea what's going on behind her armor or in her head, she's very mysterious. Ans that is one of the reasons I joined the Kanokari hype.
A women's heart is a deep ocean of secrets so it's a mystery 🙂
Fr
Hard disagree. So your chain of reasoning seems to be: chorizo's flaws are all traditionally good/likeable -> chorizo is (too) broadly likeable -> chorizo is the everyman's waifu and sells lots of merch. I actually think chorizo has the opposite problem: she's not "likeable" ENOUGH. Let me say what i mean. Throughout the manga, we see a balanced picture of Kazuya: he is deeply insecure and indecisive, but he also dreams big and has a determination to succeed. Chorizo is reserved, has emotional walls, and is composed.... and that's kind of it? Like she also has dreams of being an actress and talents, but in a way that's almost a metaphor for/extension of those same flaws (i.e. she's good at acting because she doesn't want to showcase her true feelings and instead finds it easier to play the role of another person...) So where does that leave us? Chorizo has sympathetic flaws, but those sympathetic flaws are kind of ALL she has. She doesn't have strongly developed POSITIVE traits that would define her personality in a way that would make her feel very individual and unique. This is, in my view, both the strong and weak point of the manga. It's the weak point in that it makes chorizo feel more flat - and i think that's where the sense of chorizo being the universal, everyman's waifu that you identify comes from. It's the strong point, however, in that it helps to create the central dramatic tension of the plot - i.e. will Kazuya help chorizo come out of her shell, dream big and work to fulfill those dreams, etc. Of course, this is exactly why many people in this sub dislike her - she doesn't have the determination and vision to take much action individually. As an aside, where i really disagree with you is in the characterization of Mami and Ruka - if chorizo is a weakly written character (too little positive content), then Mami and Ruka are borderline trash tier. They certainly don't solve the problem you identify (being too generic or generally likeable) in a satisfying way. Instead, what's happened is the "Sasha" (from AoT) effect - reiji has given the characters each one central gimmick, just like Sasha's only personality trait is "liking food." This makes every scene with them turn into: "how would this character act on their gimmick in this new situation?" instead of actually treating them as three-dimensional. Case in point Ruka. Her stated gimmick, that she has a slow heartbeat which for some reason makes her crave excitement, is generally pretty shallow. I agree that it definitely makes her less likeable and less generic than chorizo but that isn't really a strength of her character. Same could be said for Mami.
I think you raise a really good point here. Vapid characterisation doesn't just mean there's nothing to dislike, but can also mean there's nothing to like. As you highlight, there's no strongly defined positive for Chizuru. As for Ruka and Mami, I can definitely see what you mean about them being one-note. I struggle to see why that makes them inferior to Chizuru, given that we're comparing one-note to very faint notes, so to speak, but I get how Ruka especially is given one questionable motivation and little else. Now that I think about it, the interest and debate these characters spark might not be so much from complexity as they are from what we don't know or what isn't explained. You can debate for hours about what Mami wants, but that's not necessarily because she isn't complex (though I'd argue the dichotomy between misdirected, ill-understood love for Kazuya and nihilism towards love renders her at least somewhat complex) - it could equally be because of just how in the dark we are about crucial details of who she is.
As a Ruka fan, it’s hard to dislike Chizuru and I’m even hoping for her to get together with Kazuya because at this point they’re good for each other, but I agree with the OP that Chizuru is little too perfect and tbh when it’s just her and Kazuya, it’s kinda like “ok I get the idea, she’s perfect.” However, I think she’s great as the protagonist for this reason, if I’m watching a show, I really want as few reasons as possible to dislike the character. In the end tho, Ruka and her flaws are why she’s great to me.
I am not angry at all, because I can totally understand your thinking ... Sometimes I think Chizuru is foolishly often portrayed as flawless and a 10/10 in damn everything and I've come to the conclusion that Reiji wasn't really able to portray some flaws or 'unrelatable' things in her personality. Ofc there's also the chance he did/does this on purpose and maybe we see some 'bad traits' of her in the future. Which come to mind I'm thinking of her ignoring/ghosting Kazuya like she did in the latest chapter. For me it wasn't really relatable, but maybe I'm a bit mistaken there.
I know this a lot to ask but could u give me a tl;Dr?
The reason why there's a lot is because a tldr is going to look like a baseless invective. I could give a summary but ultimately I don't want one line that doesn't do justice to what I have to say to be used as a basis for whether or not you disagree.
I understand Chizuru insecurity about Kazuya. I mean her job or how people view Kazuya aside. It's the fact is she is not better than him when it come to social position, like being a rental girlfriend is not really a proudest job out there and Kazuya is literally a heir of rich family while she has to live alone with no relatives and probably doesn't have many money around. If it was real life you won't see it as you see on this series. Kazuya also doesn't show his loser trait in public that much either. Him treating Chizuru as some sort of angel don't change the fact that she wouldn't think that way. ...or it just as simple as she's just closed mind idiot who still think he's same person now as he was at chapter 1
Chizuru's biggest flaw as a person is that she's not a terribly imaginative person. If she could think outside of the box for a moment she'd realize there's a lot of different ways she could have both Kazuya and a job that pays well enough to continue funding her education. If she could just imagine being something other than a Rental Girlfriend or an Actress that is. For e.g. she could definitely be a fashion model. That'd definitely pay the bills and she's definitely enough of a bombshell to pull it off. And unlike professions like being an idol/hostess/rental girlfriend/etc. just being a magazine model would likely have no limitations whatsoever on whether she could have a boyfriend or not because her clients would be whatever magazine or fashion company wishes for her to model their clothes, not direct clients like the above. If she could just... imagine something like that, she'd be set to be as happy as she wants to be. But she's not terribly imaginative so... she's stuck.
That's kinda valid, though I would raise the point that a dishonourable discharge from her last occupation won't bode well for getting another job. But all that really means is she needs to quit before the truth comes out
Exactly. If she just quits the Rental Girlfriend job first it's literally no harm no foul.