Rent-a-Girlfriend – 35 – Renting Is Insufficient

Kazuya’s mission is to take Chizuru on such an amazing date it totally cheers her up and makes her forget her grief, at least a little bit. Kazuya has it on authority from both Mini and Sumi that this is something he can do and something Chizuru will appreciate.

While we end up in Kazuya’s head as he fawns over how pretty and perfect Chizuru is far more than I’d like, something else also happens. Kazuya has his typically nervous and neurotic moments, but he’s also thoroughly enjoying himself.

I should hope so, considering the cash he’s throwing down. After a shopping trip (he happens to picks out a perfect fall outfit she likes, so she wears it the rest of the date) they hold hands to the next leg of the date: the kind of auteur-y highbrow film he knows she’ll geek out about.

Then it’s off to a fancy Italian trattoria for lunch, and Chizuru, who has been in Rental Girlfriend Mode this whole time, puts her elbows on the table to make sure Kazuya isn’t doing all this for her sake, because honestly, she’s fine. Kazuya insists he’s doing this because he wants to.

After lunch they head to the rock-climbing center, which he knows she enjoyed last time. Not only does he get to see Sporty Chizuru in all her splendor, but she insists that they stretch together, resulting in far closer contact than Kazuya was ready for.

So exhaustive was his research on this date that he’s able to give her advice to reach the top of the intermediate wall, which gives both of them a shot dopamine from the victory. Then he takes her to an even fancier crab restaurant for a crab dinner.

On the way to their table, Chizuru spots a little girl with her grandmother, and for a few moments while Kazuya isn’t looking, her Rental Girlfriend mask drops. That it really didn’t take much for it to happen speaks to how emotionally vulnerable she still is…which is only understandable!

Chizuru never lets Kazuya see the face she made at the entrance, but instead demonstrates how she’d make the perfect traditional Japanese wife, taking command of the dining table, preparing plates, pouring his beer, etc. Despite designing this date to make Chizuru happy, Kazuya finds that it’s making him just as happy.

As a fortune cookie fortune once said: “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.” All the extra shifts Kazuya pulled were more than worth it, because not only did all the cash he made help make Chizuru happy, but seeing Chizuru happy makes him happy. He also has a relatively inexpensive way to close out the date: fireworks!

While he was initially worried they’d be too childish, Chizuru is all up for it, and wants to light a sparkler first, since that’s how her gran used to do it. But as he leaves her side for the second time to fill a bucket with water, the sparks fizzle in Chizuru’s eyes, she recalls a vivid memory of lighting sparklers in the yard with her grandparents, and finally can’t help but break down.

When Kazuya returns, even though Chizuru’s back is to him he can see her trembling, and that’s where the episode wraps: with a vital decision to make. Kazuya can’t worry about his date to make her happy suddenly being ruined or something because of the sparklers. When her sparkler goes out, all he needs to do is what her grandmother did years ago: re-light it with her own sparkler. That’s all he needs to do!

Chizuru is, and has been, able to grieve as she sees fit, of course, but her lapses this week show that perhaps what she needs is space and time to let out the emotions she’s clearly keeping bottled up. Just as he picked the perfect outfit for her seemingly out of instinct, so too has he created that space and time for her. I hope she gets to use it, and that he can simply be there for her, and show her that she isn’t alone.

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 34 – Sea Breeze

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The show knows its audience would riot if we didn’t get at least another scene or two of Sumi before closing out the season, and lookie here, we get a whole episode of her being awesome as always! Sumi is and always has been RAG’s Bestest Girl by dint of her caring nature, her emotional intelligence, and above all her selflessness.

She may have feelings for Kazuya, but accepts that they’re not requited, and instead does everything she can for him and for Chizuru, whom she considers her dear friends. When Kazuya books her for a fleet 30-minute date and tells her about Granny Sayuri passing, she knows those dear friends are in pain, and takes immediate steps to alleviate that pain.

Kazuya is in a bit of a bemused daze in the early parts of the episode, as at the end of their date Sumi leads him to Shinjuku in order to board a train to the beach. They’re no longer on the clock at this point; Sumi verbally tells him they’re going as friends, and Kazuya, moron that he is, is astonished she considers her a friend. Of course she’s your friend, ya dope!

After a quick trip to the beach, Sumi is on the move, walking with speed and purpose up the stairs to an observation tower above the hill where they can get an even better view of the ocean. In the process, simply by being herself, Sumi attracts the attention of all the other guys there, and makes all of their dates jealous.

But Sumi isn’t just a cuteness WMD; there’s a method to her madness. When they return to the beach, off come her shoes and socks and she wades into the surf to do the splashies. Kazuya can’t help but join her, and when he trips on a sand castle and gets soaked, he starts to finally let loose and embrace the youthful calming energy of the sea.

This is what Sumi wanted: to reset Kazuya’s stressed-out brain and give him a place to lay down his worries. She also communicates to him, mostly by “texting” in the sand, that while she can’t know what’s in Chizuru’s head, she knows that she, Sumi, would want to be cheered up by him if she was in pain. She ends up making a great case by cheering Kazuya up thoroughly.

Even Ruka, who is a lot more emotionally intelligent than her clingy behavior would suggest, basically concurs with Sumi that under these circumstances, what Chizuru needs is to be cheered up by a friend. While she tosses out a lot of lip service about Kazuya never being able to “bridge the gap” between himself and Chizuru, that’s just wishful thinking on her part; a last-ditch defense mechanism.

On some level, she probably knows her days as Kazuya’s boyfriend may be numbered. But like Sumi, she’s too good a person to give Kazuya anything but the correct guidance. As for how to cheer Chizuru up, that’s up to him. He throws himself into his work, taking every open shift he can to save up so he can rent Chizuru for an entire day.

The two haven’t spoken or seen one another since her grandmother’s wake, but that she accepts his ambitious appointment says a lot. At this point in her and Kazuya’s relationship, she can probably gather why he booked an entire day at great expense. He’s not doing it for him. He’s doing it for her. She’s worked and struggled and grieved so hard. She deserves the best date ever, arranged by the guy she’s grown fond of. He’d better not screw this up!

Rent-a-Girlfriend – 33 – 99 Lies

I’ll admit it, like I always do: this episode got me. I was lucky enough to know all four of my grandparents when they were strong and full of life, but also when they were weak and passed on. Anyone who has experienced a grandparent (or anyone, really) passing away would be able to relate to Chizuru’s situation.

Just when she felt like she wasn’t quite “good enough” to shine on the screen for her granny, Kazuya barges in, but only to silently set up a projector and laptop so Granny Sayuri can watch, or at least listen, if she can hear. Chizuru was mired in the depths of despair, but Kazuya gave her one last chance to fulfill her dream.

Sayuri is incredibly weak at this point, but she’s still able to open her eyes for about ten minutes of the film. However much else of the film she’s able to hear, we’ll never know, but we do know that she hears Chizuru crying as she’s suddenly unsure whether to tell her the truth or not.

Part of Chizuru knows she’ll regret telling Sayuri, as it feels like she’s only doing it to make herself feel better, and it would let her down in her final moments. But she’ll also regret not telling her. She’s stuck in a state of indecision, but in one more show of strength, Sayuri lifts her hand and places it on Chizuru’s cheek to comfort her.

When Chizuru comes out and says she lied to her, Sayuri says she’s similarly unsure of whether she wants to know or not know. But she wants Chizuru to know that whether she tells her or not, she’ll accept it. She says that our lives our 99% lies and 1% truths, but she’s proud of what a strong and fine young woman her granddaughter has become; a woman capable of searching for those rare truths.

In the end, Chizuru doesn’t come right out and say she and Kazuya aren’t a real couple. Instead, she lets her gran say the things she needs to say with her final breaths: she was so beautiful in the film, and she loves her very much. Chizuru reciprocates, and embraces Sayuri as she passes away. Folks, this scene wrecked me. Many tissues were spent.

We transition to the next day or so, when Kazuya informs Mini of Sayuri’s passing. Mini’s cartoonish bawling almost felt out of place, but she’s genuinely grieving. She also rejects Kazuya’s feeling that perhaps Chizuru is strong enough to get through this and live her life all alone. She may indeed be strong, but as Mini says, “No woman is an island.”

Kazuya’s last interaction with Chizuru was to ask her if she was okay, after she told him to go home and rest up and walked away. She only turned around once, with her brightest Rent-a-Girlfriend smile, and said “I’m fine.” But she really wasn’t fine, and Kazuya should have known that.

Kazuya cleans up for the wake, to which his own grandmother accompanies him, as she and Sayuri were best friends. She addresses Chizuru on behalf of Kazuya and formally offers her condolences for her loss. Chizuru is calm, collected, and keeping it together, but one can still sense the searing pain just below the surface.

Kazuya’s gran doens’t spend long in front of Sayuri’s grave, surprising him as he assumed she’d make a bit ruckus bawling. She says she doesn’t want to be a bother, and will also see Sayuri again before long. She then tells Kazuya to figure out what it is only he, her boyfriend, can do for Chizuru.

They leave without speaking to Chizuru again, but back home, Kazuya wrestles with his dilemma. He assumes Chizuru only sees him as just a neighbor, especially now that the film production is over. But he’s selling himself short. He’s become much more than that to her, even if they’re not “officially” girlfriend and boyfriend. Hopefully he heeds Mini and his granny’s words and realizes that soon.

CERTIFIED GODDAMN TEARJERKER