Kanojo, Okarishimasu - Vol. 21 Ch. 179 - The Girlfriend and the Tiger’s Den (Part 4)

[HalfCanadian]

@Strategistpro

I agree that the plot points to Kazuya and Chizuru ending up together. I find this unsatisfactory for the reasons I laid out. This is fiction, and the improbable can happen, but the message is sends is not one I'm entirely comfortable with.
But I've read the story this far, and it's hard to peel myself away.

@Revenant62

Sorry about that. I'll be better going forward.

 

[Kitarp06]

finally mc's pair got bigger,now i fkin hope that it stays that way

 

[arimareiji]

@Strategistpro Realistic? No, but this story never was realistic. That's why its fiction.
Healthy? Debatable. I personally think there relationship is good, but I see other dont share that perspective
Authors desire? Certainly, there have been many statements/signs to suggest that the author favours the chizuru pairing over the other. He's said the story was about them afterall.

I don't think it's possible to rationally debate any of those points under the circumstances. But my post wasn't intended as a clear assertion that any or all of them were in play, only as an assertion that they're separate matters from "protect[ing] the author's livelihood". And an inference that if one of them is going to win out, it's generally going to be "livelihood".

(The DomeKano comparison was intended as a contrast to the usual, i.e. Sasuga could afford to throw the buildup and rational expectations in the trash if she so chose.)

_{Edit: On reflection, I thought it would be better to add the quote since they're on different pages.}

 

[yun1que]

Are we reaching the endgame?? 👀👀
.
As always, Tysm Black Cat team for the Translations!!!

 

[etriuswimbleton]

getting some progress. At least now he thinks that mizuhara also longs for love too. He's always had it in his mind that she's an unreachable star or a goddess that is never swayed by such emotions.

and pretty much exactly what Kazuya said. I think most of the reader's ire of here in the comment section just hates Kazuya's pessimism. due to that he keeps on repeating how hes a wimp and chizuru is a goddess. I guess its intentional for his character to be written that way and probably not as a flaw in the writing so I dont mind.

 

[KrazyBean]

Do something about it then Kazuya!

 

[koda_mxllo]

well its been a long ride, looks like were approaching the end of times here

 

[Sorrowg]

kazuya pls....

 

[crossbt]

it feels like there'll be a soft ntr atempt before we get to the confession? hope the author don't try to milk this more, at least not this way.

 

[arimareiji]

@etriuswimbleton I think most of the reader's ire of here in the comment section just hates Kazuya's pessimism. due to that he keeps on repeating how hes a wimp and chizuru is a goddess.

I can't speak to any other reader's irritation, just my own -- but it's not even remotely rooted in "hat[ing] Kazuya's pessimism". Quite the opposite, and a reread helped me clarify why.

(prologue, collapsed for space)

Spoiler

If he truly believed all of the internal monologue we see, he would have stopped bothering her a long time ago. Instead, from the very outset he wants to believe he can get with her despite her being a goddess*. At the outset we see him build up wild fantasies along these lines, despite knowing nothing about her -- then when he reads her reviews page, it brings him back to harsh reality. Does he chuckle about it painfully, and consider that if he wants more than a surface relationship he needs to look beyond the surface?
_{* - Useful shorthand for his true feelings, which he's blatant about at the beginning: "Very sexually attractive on a physical level".}

No - he rents her again just so he can lash out at her, trying to publicly humiliate her and expose her for "looking down on him"** and "making him feel bad"***. I can't blame anyone for disbelieving how ugly his actions are -- it stunned me to reread it, considering how much the tone has changed since then. But look at the link above, and get through page 26 if you can. That's hideous.
_{** - She knows virtually nothing about him except his appearance and that he likes fish, so why is he convinced she's looking down on him because he "doesn't deserve" her? Because he's projecting his own motivations onto her.
*** - She did nothing of the sort. He wildly fantasized that there was more to it than the contract, then self-destructed.}

When she rightly yells at him for behaving like a vindictive, petulant brat who's trying to cause her multiple types of harm, does this bring him back to reality? Again, no. He thinks his awful behavior has revealed "the real her", and switches from the "OMG she's already my real GF" fantasy to "OMG she's showing me her true self and now I can conquer her." (>_<)

He gradually gets better at making it more subtle, and adds flourishes/excuses**** to why he wants her, but his true motivations remain there on a subconscious level throughout the series.
_{**** - Some of which he's managed to consciously convince himself he believes, but his actions belie them.}

He keeps repeating he doesn't deserve her, like a mantra... so why has he spent all this time pursuing her? The two most obvious answers are: 1) He truly believes he "doesn't deserve" her, in which case he's trying to satisfy himself at the expense of her happiness. 2) He truly believes that he'll "deserve her" if he can make her "owe" him enough (while pretending to be selflessly-motivated) before she discovers his goal - i.e. he can cash in on all the effort and money he's spent. As if she were an eroge, and he just needs to score enough points before the end of the game.

For the record, I don't want to believe option 1 (but I can't exclude that possibility, at least not on a subconscious level). I'd much rather believe that he's being subconsciously optimistic about option 2, while consciously preparing himself a massive "sour grapes" excuse. "She doesn't love me? Oh, it's not my fault - I didn't deserve her because I'm unattractive. Because she's just as shallow as I am."

 

[Revenant62]

@HalfCanadian : Sorry for the late reply. And, don't worry about it. That stuff is everywhere, I can't really blame anybody for thinking about it.

 

[WhisCalifa69]

Are you ready for the major development in 180???

Spoiler

U fkn sure? You still have a chance to ignore this

Spoiler

it was Kazuya dumping the Ruka for good, and her, as a consequence flipping her shit and showing her truest colors. Next chapters are gonna be seinen-tier drama.
Jakal posted an essay about why Ruka wasn't a love martyr or a naive dreamer chapters ago. Well, he was right all the way. Ruka was a psycho bitch all this time.

 

[S0viet_Noob]

@WhisCalifa69

Spoiler

3 things to say.

1) Somebody flipping their shit or being in a moment of rage doesn't always equate to how they really are.

2) Ruka....
Ruka is back alley dogwater. Just when I started to understand what startwindowsnormally was saying, Ruka does this shit.
She had stupid and control freak tendecies, but I thought she was good at heart. It seems she was just a control freak and insane. Anybody who liked Ruka or thought she had a chance should just give it up now. Asshole

3) Why would Ruka do something like that? It really doesn't make sense.

 

[WhisCalifa69]

@S0viet_Noob

Spoiler

1: it's not just that she only flipped her shit out of spontaneos rage. She insulted, shittalked and basically cursed out Kazuya and then went to stalk him when he was going to confess again. Good grief he just went full chad and pretended she doesn't exist all along.
2: tbf i tried to understand her before too... several times. But now that shit happened, i came to the conclussion chapter 168 kind of foreshadowed Ruka was only going to get worse once she called the truce off, even though Reiji baited us with character development for her during the movie chapters. She was overly toxic and clingy when demanding Kazuya to take her to the hotsprings, even more than her initial chapters. That, and Jakal's essay, both of them were a bad foreshadowing that Ruka's true colors weren't still shown yet. And if i already had her in a bad position, what she did now puts her in a worse position, even worse than Mami because her impulsiveness might bring chaos to Kazuya.
3: Kazuya unconsciously gave her false hopes by not being firm enough to remark the boundaries. Now that he found the resolve to become Chizuru's bf and partner in life, he reaped a scorned girl whose unhinged personality usually means things are gonna get from bad to worse to shit has hit the fan too hard it became NSFW for the MC in a romance manga. Now he has to deal with 2 potential social life destroyers in his life.

 

[arimareiji]

If the text-only purported spoilers on Reddit for 180 are true, I would be curious:

Spoiler

Will it be anywhere near as ugly as Kazuya's own behavior in chapter 1, pages 19-26?

 

[muglets]

based

 

[startwindowsnormally]

@WhisCalifa69
I was going to make a post about keeping things in perspective, but I'll hold out oh that for now, as I'm interested in this essay by this Jakal you've mentioned. Do you think you could link it?

 

[WhisCalifa69]

@startwindowsnormally

Spoiler

https://www.reddit.com/r/KanojoOkarishimasu/comments/ka3oxf/ruka_isnt_as_naive_as_people_seem_to_think_she_is/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

Anyway, Jakal is one of the BCS translators for this series.

@arimareiji

Spoiler

apparently, it's worse than Kazuya's behavior in ch. 1,because Ruka, aside from insulting him, curses him out.

 

[S0viet_Noob]

@WhisCalifa69

Spoiler

That Reddit post makes Ruka look like an emotion manipulating genius. And while she does compete in a competition that never started, make herself the alpha and power in the relationship, and forces herself on someone unwilling, why does she do that?

Does she love him? Doesn't look like it.

Does she hate him? She isn't Mami.

Can anybody answer?

At the end of the day, I'm not surprised that she went apeshit on Kazuya. Not getting what you want and as a result you use a disgusting, underhanded tactic or be a sore loser and put it on someone else. Classic Ruka

 

[arimareiji]

@WhisCalifa69

Spoiler

apparently, it's worse than Kazuya's behavior in ch. 1,because Ruka, aside from insulting him, curses him out.

Your mileage vary vary. Personally, I would consider

<trying to publicly humiliate Chizuru, insinuate she's a whore, expose her as a rental girlfriend, and endanger her livelihood out of pure spite - because he decided that it was her fault he chose to forget about the contract, start fantasizing about her being a real GF, then read the reviews and realize he was a fool>

to be considerably worse than using curse words. But that's just me, and to each their own. *shrug*