Brother read the manga. Ruka is a brat, manipulative, liar, clingy, pushy, pos. Shes blackmailing kazuya into a relationship, even when she knows he has no interest in her and that he loves chizuru.
Also, ruka doesnt love him. Shes just obsessed bc of her medical condition thing.
While that is true, from what I’ve seen he hasn’t made much effort to break up with her. While she’s clingy and a little much at times, she at least keeps him in thought perpetually. Kazuya seems like he barely thinks of her, cares for her, and I just feel he should break up with her properly instead of leading her on constantly
>from what I’ve seen he hasn’t made much effort to break up with her.
https://preview.redd.it/7wgwyrne7awc1.jpeg?width=1115&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94a0a92a4d80327b6822bdc8369b08138992e24a
Are you sure about that? Kazuya made it very clear that he wanted to break up with Ruka because he was in love with Mizuhara and wanted to be on good terms when he confessed his feelings to her.
I don't know if you've caught up to the manga or not, but it's been clear for a long time that he does not like her, he just feels bad and doesn't want to go out of his way to hurt her feelings, and >!he actually has literally tried to break up with her and she just flat out said no and keeps clinging to him and making him try to accept her feelings. He's not changing his mind, and he wants to get her to move on. He's being way too nice to let her do and say whatever she wants, and she keeps kissing him without him wanting her or giving her permission. It's not good for her, and he's genuinely too nice a person to be rude to someone like her after all the annoying shit she's done. She even lied to Chizuru about her and Kazuya having sex and all he did was worry about making sure Chizuru believed him instead of her.!<
He doesn't care about her. She black mailed him into a "relationship" and he's been trying to end it and has told her he cares about mizuhara. He's not awful to her. He's actively trying to get her to move on.
How can Kazuya be labeled as horrible to Ruka when she was the one who blackmailed him into a relationship he didn't want to be in? Let's not forget he tried to break up with her before the Paradise arc, but she refused to let him go. She's the one who insisted on continuing this relationship, not him. So it wouldn't be fair to blame him for a relationship she forced him into.
During the three months when Kazuya was depressed over Chizuru ghosting him, Ruka should have let him go. However, she still refused to do so, which isn't right.
Ruka forces Kazuya into a relationship by blackmailing him and Chizuru.
He does not love her, he doesn't want to date her and she still forced him to.
Reverse the genders. If I guy forced a girl to date him by blackmailing her, would you still think she was being mean to him. Should girls be forced to be intimate with someone they don't like?
That's the situation Kaz is in.
I'm just going to leave this here:
[Ruka isn't as naive as people seem to think she is. How Ruka knows exactly where she stands with Kazuya, and why people who portray her as a victim are mistaken.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KanojoOkarishimasu/s/8CGv4hLQKY)
Anyone who defends Ruka gives the vibe that they’ve never interacted with a woman. She’s literally awful, forced him to date her, sexually assaults him, and straight up acts like a whiny kid. There’s plenty to criticize the manga about, but Ruka taking a back seat in the story is good.
If they entered the relationship under any other terms I’d agree with you. That said Kazuya clearly does not want to be in a relationship with Ruka and is only going thru the motions because he literally has to because blackmail.
If you want your guy to treat you right, don’t force him into a relationship under duress.
Given the circumstances of his **trial** relationship with ruka, present and past, he's being way too nice with her. Curious, if you're anime only, anime is notoriously horrible in depicting kazuya and chizuru.
I am anime only to be fair, just saying my opinion I don’t know the full story in its entirety I guess. She may be a trial but she clearly actually genuinely loves him and he could at least give her the time of day in return
Love? She is pretty much giving a shit about what he wants, all she cares about is that she gets him even if he doesn't want that... That's not love... That is holding someone hostage if you ask me...
Ruka's feelings and actions towards Kazuya are entirely selfish; that's not love. She has a lot of growing and maturing to do before she's ready for any kind of real relationship.
She might genuinely love him, but he clearly doesn't love her, and that's been evident since the beginning to ruka as well, and he is in a trial relationship with ruka not by choice, he is only tolerating her for chizuru, because ruka has leverage over chizuru's career.
Kazuya has attempted to break up with Ruka at least three times, two of which were serious talks. Kazuya has also let ruka know that he is in love with chizuru, and she went on a speil about how she already knows. Ruka refuses to let things end because she's determined to make him love her eventually, so she is well aware he's thinking of other girls. Most of the time they spend together is actually her trying to keep his mind off her, aka getting in between them.
Ruka is determined that chizuru will never like Kazuya and is using him for money, so if anything she might back off when she realizes he has a chance. Conversations quickly escalate to terms and conditions and how Kazuya has no chance almost every time.
It's true that ruka blackmailed Kazuya into the relationship, but it's also true that she's doing this for his benefit. If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not.
Nobody is really in the wrong in my opinion. For the plot ruka is horrible but that's only because we know how the story would end, but her intentions make perfect sense because she doesn't want Kazuya simping over a rental his whole life.
But you can not pretend Kazuya hasn't attempted to break things off
She's not doing anything for his benefit; she is doing it all for her own. She doesn't bring up the rental agreement terms because she believes Chizuru doesn't have feelings for him, but because she is desperate to convince Kazuya that he has no chance with Chizuru. Ruka does this because she hopes that if Kazuya gives up on Chizuru, then he will give in and accept Ruka the way she wants him to.
It's not endearing, it's not considerate; it's calculated and manipulative.
>If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not.
Even going from that angle, while it's true that irl it would be very unlikely him and chizuru would have had any realistic chances, it still wouldn't change the fact he never shown any serious interest for her Romantically, despite having the opportunity and permission, and acknowledging she is attractive.
Something that is apparent both in the fact his thoughts never show any serious hesitation towards her(meanwhile he at the very least took time to get over mami, and likely would have have accepted if she took him back), he often is annoyed at her texting, and he refused offer from sex that were undoubtedly enthousiastic.
Just because getting with chizuru is an unrealistic outcome does not make ruka chances better. Maybe if they let earlier, but that s not the case
>It's true that ruka blackmailed Kazuya into the relationship, but it's also true that she's doing this for his benefit. If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not.
I disagree with this in general. Not the notion that Kazuya would normally have no chance in a real life situation. That is of course true. But Ruka actually knows (or suspects) very heavily that Chizuru has some amount of feelings for Kazuya. She uses the futility of this situation in general as a manipulation technique to distract Kazuya from the specifics of the actual situation.
Dude ruka has nobody to blame but herself. She knows that kazuya is in love with chizuru and she is still wasting her time chasing after him. He’s tried to break it off with her multiple times but she refuses to acknowledge that or take the initiative and leave him be. I don’t feel bad for her at all if anything it’s pathetic how bad she is chasing after someone who is obviously in love with someone else. He’s not leading her on either considering how he told her verbatim that he is in love with Chiz. It’s her fault
While that’s true, her personality is developed by things in her life, like she may have attachment issues, or just be obsessed with Kazuya. I get that she is brining it on herself but Kazuya could at least man up and end things if he loves Chizuru more and just set the poor girl free.
If you were to read after Ch 167 and just future chapters after the anime, she is shown to be very immature and in huge denial that Kazuya loves Chizuru. >!(he tries to break up with her in a chapter but she refuses the breakup because "Chizuru is a rental girlfriend and nothing more can come of it").!<
>!In other chapters too she knows she needs to keep an eye on Kazuya because he might be trying to make it official with Chizuru. But instead of looking for him, she just has fun by herself at the water park and loses focus. If she truly did love him, she'd be searching non-stop.!<
I'm not trying to defend Kazuya's actions. I think it's ridiculous and he should've left her a long time ago. But then there's always the card of "does Chizuru really love Kazuya?" When Ruka and Mami ask this question, Chizuru doesn't really have an answer because she can't even navigate her own emotions. So because Chizuru can't express her emotions easily, Ruka thinks Chizuru should just buzz off even though Kazuya didn't even want to be with her originally and it was Chiuzuru who said to be with her as a "trial girlfriend".
The thing is even if chizuru was out of the picture for good, she wouldn't get kazuya either. He just doesn't like her that way, and he doesn't jive with her relationship style either (for instance you can see him visibly annoyed at her very fresuent texting).
Back in the beach session, mami tried to get him to come back by enticing him and pretty clearly implying sex and he was into that offer, and would have likely took it if chizuru did not fell off the boat and he didn't pass out trying to save her. He did have a pretty long period where he wasn't over mami, however he never showed any serious hesitation towards loving ruka(and we see his thoughts all the time)
On the other hand ruka has univoquably stated her interest and have proposed sex >!Even trying to go farther when he expressed clear refusal!< multiple times, of her own initiative and he refused each times. He is not uninterested in the matter in the least, and acknowledge she is cute/sexy, so if he actually had feelings for her, or at least felt that he intended on at least trying to make it work in earnest rather than a hookup you cannot tell me he wouldn't have taken it.
Agreed. It made me laugh so much in one of the chapters in paradise, when he was down in the dumps and depressed after he came to the conclusion that chizuru had rejected him in paradise, even while he was facing public humiliation, in his thoughts he still thinks ruka as a bully.
https://preview.redd.it/gohmfm264awc1.png?width=931&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f24e958fb4fcd1ab68dae3d6c5c06f174fc7508
Kazuya doesn't have full control of the break up process due to being blackmailed into this. If anything he is too nice to her. If he was a bigger jerk she might lose interest on her own
While I don't think Ruka deserves much sympathy for what she does prior to the Hawaiians arc, I can understand your concerns.
Yes, Ruka blackmails her way into a "trial" relationship with Kazuya and is constantly overstepping her boundries...and the extent of her feelings for Kazuya aren't shown. Some may even say that her emotions aren't even real love. She "loves" him because he makes her heart beat faster, not because of Kazuya's other qualities...which are only truly shown to Chizuru anyways. Kazuya could have handled the situation differently, and Ruka could have been different if Kazuya ever really gave her a chance...but that wasn't meant to be.
As a side note, I follow some bigger "anime" twitter pages and I realized that people who usually dislike Kazuya, also really like Ruka. Ruka is as beautiful as Chizuru (in Kazuya's own words) and she's very direct and aggressive with her love. She's the second most popular Kanokari girl and in another story, she could have probably been the female lead. Kazuya rejecting all of her advances and "renting" the girl he truly loves, definitely pissed off many people, especially those who are anime-only.
Okay, we can debate all day long about Ruka does right or wrong and what she accordingly does or doesn't deserve in terms of treatment from Kazuya, but I'm not here to debate that. Because whatever your stance, the inconsistency in his attitude towards her is fucked up.
Sometimes it's clear from his thoughts and narrations that he pities her and feels empathy for her in spite of everything. Other times he thinks of her as an annoyance and will very harshly try to shut her up, and 9 times out of 10 that's when her emotional reactions to situations are preventing him from getting what he wants with Chizuru. In his head she's sometimes this poor kid in a bad situation, and then as soon as she's in his way she's nothing but an annoying obstacle and gets treated as such. I don't care what your moral stance is on Ruka, you should at least have one that's consistent and doesn't entirely flip based on your agenda at any given moment. I understand getting frustrated with her, but this is ridiculous. The two extremes could not be more opposed, especially when he goes covering her mouth and physically dragging her away from situations he doesn't want her to interfere with.
I have infinitely more respect for a consistent moral compass that disagrees with mine than I do for an inconsistent one that changes based on what inconveniences you at a given moment. At least with the former you actually have morals instead of self-interest masquerading as morality.
That’s not inconsistent, it’s a very human response to Ruka. It’s not hypocritical for Kazuya to feel annoyance when she is disrespecting his boundaries and directly affecting him and Chizuru with her toxic behaviours, while also having pity and sympathy for her over her personal circumstances.
I have pity for my ex-girlfriend over her medical conditions and cognitive distortions, but I’m absolutely allowed to feel offended and put-off by her immaturity, selfishness, and callousness towards me and others that drove me to break up with her.
I'm actually really glad you're pointing this out, because this is an important clarification. What you're describing is a stable but unpolarised moral position, not a dynamically altering one. This wouldn't be so bad if Kazuya had a consistent position where, for instance, he still exercises some trace of empathy when trying to navigate a situation she's obstructing, or he continues to recognise during his bouts of sympathy for her that her treatment of him is wrong and is not excused by the factors he's sympathetic for. Instead he acts like nothing she did ever happened when he feels for her, and then immediately switches to behaviour as extreme as putting his hands on her and dragging her away from situations when he pleases.
Likewise, I'm sorry to hear what you've described about your ex, but your view seems to me like a consistent moral position in which you recognise her wrongdoing while being sympathetic over some issues. You're not (I hope) alternating between paying no regard to what she did and applying physical force to discourage her.
Yes exactly he needs to decide how he feels about her. Regardless of the situation ship they have if he wants to pursue Chizuru and genuinely loves Chizuru he needs to man up and break up with Ruka. Most of the time his stance with Ruka is heavily based on his current position with Chizuru and that is just so messed up.
I think you're right. If you look where all this started, it was because Kazuya played with her heart in the very beginning. He lead her on for months, originally accepting her request for a relationship even though he never did care about her in that way. She gave him the privilege of being her first boyfriend, letting him spend her first birthday in a relationship together. And how does he repay his "girlfriend"? By basically telling her, "Sorry, I never actually did love you, I wasted so many of your firsts, I wasted so much of your time, and now I want to officially break-up with you because I'm in love with a girl that doesn't even know I love her yet. It might not work out, but I'd rather be alone than with you." Of course she's not going to take that well! She was played for a fool by both Kazuya and Chizuru, and was abandoned by everyone involved. You can't treat her like that, with so much disrespect, and just expect her to leave amicably. Now it would be for the best if she were able to be the bigger person and move on, but that can't be easy for her after she was betrayed for so long.
Kazuya was horrible to Ruka, and how she's acting now is the least of the consequences he's incurred from stringing her along for so long. Ruka deserves better, and she certainly won't get it in this story, but she will eventually heal and move on. A girl with a heart as pure as hers will surely find someone else to love her, and actually love her for real. I've gotten sick of her becoming an afterthought myself, so I started writing my own independent story for her. Ruka deserves all the love in the world <3
Someone with a "pure heart" does not blackmail the target of their "affection" into a relationship, sexually assault them, use sex and other means to try to manipulate them, gaslight them, lie to others about whether the two of them have had sex, or tear them down emotionally in an attempt to get them to give up their own hopes and settle.
Ruka didn't blackmail anyone, she is just trying to save the person who accepted her relationship request from what seems to be a fake rental girlfriend trying to steal him away from her, when she most likely doesn't even feel the same way. Chizuru is not a normal girl in this situation fighting for his affection, she's being paid to pretend to like him, and Ruka is trying to wake him up to that fact. Stop wasting your money on a fake girlfriend when you have a real girlfriend who doesn't cost anything.
Be a man and say, "Oh well, I got caught. Go ahead and tell, because I'm not really interested in going out with you." That's a part of the risk of renting a girlfriend, and if he wasn't prepared to deal with the consequences of that risk, he doesn't get to drag Ruka along with him just because he keeps consuming himself in a web of lies. It's his lies that are the reason he is where he is, not Ruka confronting him about them.
You're delusional. Ruka wasn't confronting Kazuya about his lies to get him to come clean. She was using them for leverage to get what she wanted. That's the literal definition of blackmail.
Exactly, and Ruka knew this because Kazuya had already told her that he was keeping the secret to protect Chizuru. Ruka was directly threatening Chizuru, intentionally jeopardizing her livelihood, because she knew how Kazuya felt about Chizuru and knew that he would jump to Chizuru's defense. It was a deliberate move to force Kazuya into accepting the relationship. Truly evil and disgusting.
People can talk about Ruka's good qualities and Kazuya's faults all they want, but none of it negates the fact of what Ruka did.
Brother read the manga. Ruka is a brat, manipulative, liar, clingy, pushy, pos. Shes blackmailing kazuya into a relationship, even when she knows he has no interest in her and that he loves chizuru. Also, ruka doesnt love him. Shes just obsessed bc of her medical condition thing.
KAZUYA? is horrible to RUKA? The girl who keeps sexually assaulting him and literally won't let him break up with her? He's way too nice to her.
While that is true, from what I’ve seen he hasn’t made much effort to break up with her. While she’s clingy and a little much at times, she at least keeps him in thought perpetually. Kazuya seems like he barely thinks of her, cares for her, and I just feel he should break up with her properly instead of leading her on constantly
>from what I’ve seen he hasn’t made much effort to break up with her. https://preview.redd.it/7wgwyrne7awc1.jpeg?width=1115&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=94a0a92a4d80327b6822bdc8369b08138992e24a Are you sure about that? Kazuya made it very clear that he wanted to break up with Ruka because he was in love with Mizuhara and wanted to be on good terms when he confessed his feelings to her.
I don't know if you've caught up to the manga or not, but it's been clear for a long time that he does not like her, he just feels bad and doesn't want to go out of his way to hurt her feelings, and >!he actually has literally tried to break up with her and she just flat out said no and keeps clinging to him and making him try to accept her feelings. He's not changing his mind, and he wants to get her to move on. He's being way too nice to let her do and say whatever she wants, and she keeps kissing him without him wanting her or giving her permission. It's not good for her, and he's genuinely too nice a person to be rude to someone like her after all the annoying shit she's done. She even lied to Chizuru about her and Kazuya having sex and all he did was worry about making sure Chizuru believed him instead of her.!<
Funny thing about what happens when he tries to break up with her.
He doesn't care about her. She black mailed him into a "relationship" and he's been trying to end it and has told her he cares about mizuhara. He's not awful to her. He's actively trying to get her to move on.
How can Kazuya be labeled as horrible to Ruka when she was the one who blackmailed him into a relationship he didn't want to be in? Let's not forget he tried to break up with her before the Paradise arc, but she refused to let him go. She's the one who insisted on continuing this relationship, not him. So it wouldn't be fair to blame him for a relationship she forced him into. During the three months when Kazuya was depressed over Chizuru ghosting him, Ruka should have let him go. However, she still refused to do so, which isn't right.
Ruka forces Kazuya into a relationship by blackmailing him and Chizuru. He does not love her, he doesn't want to date her and she still forced him to. Reverse the genders. If I guy forced a girl to date him by blackmailing her, would you still think she was being mean to him. Should girls be forced to be intimate with someone they don't like? That's the situation Kaz is in.
I'm just going to leave this here: [Ruka isn't as naive as people seem to think she is. How Ruka knows exactly where she stands with Kazuya, and why people who portray her as a victim are mistaken.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KanojoOkarishimasu/s/8CGv4hLQKY)
Anyone who defends Ruka gives the vibe that they’ve never interacted with a woman. She’s literally awful, forced him to date her, sexually assaults him, and straight up acts like a whiny kid. There’s plenty to criticize the manga about, but Ruka taking a back seat in the story is good.
If they entered the relationship under any other terms I’d agree with you. That said Kazuya clearly does not want to be in a relationship with Ruka and is only going thru the motions because he literally has to because blackmail. If you want your guy to treat you right, don’t force him into a relationship under duress.
Gotta wonder if folks would be as sympathetic to Ruka if she wasn’t an 11/10 smokeshow.
Given the circumstances of his **trial** relationship with ruka, present and past, he's being way too nice with her. Curious, if you're anime only, anime is notoriously horrible in depicting kazuya and chizuru.
I am anime only to be fair, just saying my opinion I don’t know the full story in its entirety I guess. She may be a trial but she clearly actually genuinely loves him and he could at least give her the time of day in return
Love? She is pretty much giving a shit about what he wants, all she cares about is that she gets him even if he doesn't want that... That's not love... That is holding someone hostage if you ask me...
If she loved him the fact that he clearly does not and never has wanted to be in a relationship with her might have registered.
Ruka's feelings and actions towards Kazuya are entirely selfish; that's not love. She has a lot of growing and maturing to do before she's ready for any kind of real relationship.
She might genuinely love him, but he clearly doesn't love her, and that's been evident since the beginning to ruka as well, and he is in a trial relationship with ruka not by choice, he is only tolerating her for chizuru, because ruka has leverage over chizuru's career.
Kazuya has attempted to break up with Ruka at least three times, two of which were serious talks. Kazuya has also let ruka know that he is in love with chizuru, and she went on a speil about how she already knows. Ruka refuses to let things end because she's determined to make him love her eventually, so she is well aware he's thinking of other girls. Most of the time they spend together is actually her trying to keep his mind off her, aka getting in between them. Ruka is determined that chizuru will never like Kazuya and is using him for money, so if anything she might back off when she realizes he has a chance. Conversations quickly escalate to terms and conditions and how Kazuya has no chance almost every time. It's true that ruka blackmailed Kazuya into the relationship, but it's also true that she's doing this for his benefit. If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not. Nobody is really in the wrong in my opinion. For the plot ruka is horrible but that's only because we know how the story would end, but her intentions make perfect sense because she doesn't want Kazuya simping over a rental his whole life. But you can not pretend Kazuya hasn't attempted to break things off
She's not doing anything for his benefit; she is doing it all for her own. She doesn't bring up the rental agreement terms because she believes Chizuru doesn't have feelings for him, but because she is desperate to convince Kazuya that he has no chance with Chizuru. Ruka does this because she hopes that if Kazuya gives up on Chizuru, then he will give in and accept Ruka the way she wants him to. It's not endearing, it's not considerate; it's calculated and manipulative.
>If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not. Even going from that angle, while it's true that irl it would be very unlikely him and chizuru would have had any realistic chances, it still wouldn't change the fact he never shown any serious interest for her Romantically, despite having the opportunity and permission, and acknowledging she is attractive. Something that is apparent both in the fact his thoughts never show any serious hesitation towards her(meanwhile he at the very least took time to get over mami, and likely would have have accepted if she took him back), he often is annoyed at her texting, and he refused offer from sex that were undoubtedly enthousiastic. Just because getting with chizuru is an unrealistic outcome does not make ruka chances better. Maybe if they let earlier, but that s not the case
>It's true that ruka blackmailed Kazuya into the relationship, but it's also true that she's doing this for his benefit. If this was IRL, she would be more in the right because it's very unlikely Kazuya and chizuru would ever actually be a thing, and chizurus job is in fact leading men on. This is actually all very realistic and endearing in a way, but we as viewers get to see that there is a chance that ruka does not. I disagree with this in general. Not the notion that Kazuya would normally have no chance in a real life situation. That is of course true. But Ruka actually knows (or suspects) very heavily that Chizuru has some amount of feelings for Kazuya. She uses the futility of this situation in general as a manipulation technique to distract Kazuya from the specifics of the actual situation.
She's his stalker. If anything, he is too nice to her
Dude ruka has nobody to blame but herself. She knows that kazuya is in love with chizuru and she is still wasting her time chasing after him. He’s tried to break it off with her multiple times but she refuses to acknowledge that or take the initiative and leave him be. I don’t feel bad for her at all if anything it’s pathetic how bad she is chasing after someone who is obviously in love with someone else. He’s not leading her on either considering how he told her verbatim that he is in love with Chiz. It’s her fault
While that’s true, her personality is developed by things in her life, like she may have attachment issues, or just be obsessed with Kazuya. I get that she is brining it on herself but Kazuya could at least man up and end things if he loves Chizuru more and just set the poor girl free.
Bro. He TRIED to end things with her she refused to listen to him. Multiple times.
Isn’t she in high school and he’s in college
If you were to read after Ch 167 and just future chapters after the anime, she is shown to be very immature and in huge denial that Kazuya loves Chizuru. >!(he tries to break up with her in a chapter but she refuses the breakup because "Chizuru is a rental girlfriend and nothing more can come of it").!< >!In other chapters too she knows she needs to keep an eye on Kazuya because he might be trying to make it official with Chizuru. But instead of looking for him, she just has fun by herself at the water park and loses focus. If she truly did love him, she'd be searching non-stop.!< I'm not trying to defend Kazuya's actions. I think it's ridiculous and he should've left her a long time ago. But then there's always the card of "does Chizuru really love Kazuya?" When Ruka and Mami ask this question, Chizuru doesn't really have an answer because she can't even navigate her own emotions. So because Chizuru can't express her emotions easily, Ruka thinks Chizuru should just buzz off even though Kazuya didn't even want to be with her originally and it was Chiuzuru who said to be with her as a "trial girlfriend".
The thing is even if chizuru was out of the picture for good, she wouldn't get kazuya either. He just doesn't like her that way, and he doesn't jive with her relationship style either (for instance you can see him visibly annoyed at her very fresuent texting). Back in the beach session, mami tried to get him to come back by enticing him and pretty clearly implying sex and he was into that offer, and would have likely took it if chizuru did not fell off the boat and he didn't pass out trying to save her. He did have a pretty long period where he wasn't over mami, however he never showed any serious hesitation towards loving ruka(and we see his thoughts all the time) On the other hand ruka has univoquably stated her interest and have proposed sex >!Even trying to go farther when he expressed clear refusal!< multiple times, of her own initiative and he refused each times. He is not uninterested in the matter in the least, and acknowledge she is cute/sexy, so if he actually had feelings for her, or at least felt that he intended on at least trying to make it work in earnest rather than a hookup you cannot tell me he wouldn't have taken it.
Agreed. It made me laugh so much in one of the chapters in paradise, when he was down in the dumps and depressed after he came to the conclusion that chizuru had rejected him in paradise, even while he was facing public humiliation, in his thoughts he still thinks ruka as a bully. https://preview.redd.it/gohmfm264awc1.png?width=931&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f24e958fb4fcd1ab68dae3d6c5c06f174fc7508
Kazuya doesn't have full control of the break up process due to being blackmailed into this. If anything he is too nice to her. If he was a bigger jerk she might lose interest on her own
While I don't think Ruka deserves much sympathy for what she does prior to the Hawaiians arc, I can understand your concerns. Yes, Ruka blackmails her way into a "trial" relationship with Kazuya and is constantly overstepping her boundries...and the extent of her feelings for Kazuya aren't shown. Some may even say that her emotions aren't even real love. She "loves" him because he makes her heart beat faster, not because of Kazuya's other qualities...which are only truly shown to Chizuru anyways. Kazuya could have handled the situation differently, and Ruka could have been different if Kazuya ever really gave her a chance...but that wasn't meant to be. As a side note, I follow some bigger "anime" twitter pages and I realized that people who usually dislike Kazuya, also really like Ruka. Ruka is as beautiful as Chizuru (in Kazuya's own words) and she's very direct and aggressive with her love. She's the second most popular Kanokari girl and in another story, she could have probably been the female lead. Kazuya rejecting all of her advances and "renting" the girl he truly loves, definitely pissed off many people, especially those who are anime-only.
Kaz, get some balls and kick her to the curb. The one 2 blocks over!
Agreed. And she has actually chosen him. Lets face it though, if this was reality, he wouldve chosen Ruka a long time ago
That’s true to be fair. Chizuru is better but for most of the time his chances with her have been next to none.
Okay, we can debate all day long about Ruka does right or wrong and what she accordingly does or doesn't deserve in terms of treatment from Kazuya, but I'm not here to debate that. Because whatever your stance, the inconsistency in his attitude towards her is fucked up. Sometimes it's clear from his thoughts and narrations that he pities her and feels empathy for her in spite of everything. Other times he thinks of her as an annoyance and will very harshly try to shut her up, and 9 times out of 10 that's when her emotional reactions to situations are preventing him from getting what he wants with Chizuru. In his head she's sometimes this poor kid in a bad situation, and then as soon as she's in his way she's nothing but an annoying obstacle and gets treated as such. I don't care what your moral stance is on Ruka, you should at least have one that's consistent and doesn't entirely flip based on your agenda at any given moment. I understand getting frustrated with her, but this is ridiculous. The two extremes could not be more opposed, especially when he goes covering her mouth and physically dragging her away from situations he doesn't want her to interfere with. I have infinitely more respect for a consistent moral compass that disagrees with mine than I do for an inconsistent one that changes based on what inconveniences you at a given moment. At least with the former you actually have morals instead of self-interest masquerading as morality.
That’s not inconsistent, it’s a very human response to Ruka. It’s not hypocritical for Kazuya to feel annoyance when she is disrespecting his boundaries and directly affecting him and Chizuru with her toxic behaviours, while also having pity and sympathy for her over her personal circumstances. I have pity for my ex-girlfriend over her medical conditions and cognitive distortions, but I’m absolutely allowed to feel offended and put-off by her immaturity, selfishness, and callousness towards me and others that drove me to break up with her.
I'm actually really glad you're pointing this out, because this is an important clarification. What you're describing is a stable but unpolarised moral position, not a dynamically altering one. This wouldn't be so bad if Kazuya had a consistent position where, for instance, he still exercises some trace of empathy when trying to navigate a situation she's obstructing, or he continues to recognise during his bouts of sympathy for her that her treatment of him is wrong and is not excused by the factors he's sympathetic for. Instead he acts like nothing she did ever happened when he feels for her, and then immediately switches to behaviour as extreme as putting his hands on her and dragging her away from situations when he pleases. Likewise, I'm sorry to hear what you've described about your ex, but your view seems to me like a consistent moral position in which you recognise her wrongdoing while being sympathetic over some issues. You're not (I hope) alternating between paying no regard to what she did and applying physical force to discourage her.
Yes exactly he needs to decide how he feels about her. Regardless of the situation ship they have if he wants to pursue Chizuru and genuinely loves Chizuru he needs to man up and break up with Ruka. Most of the time his stance with Ruka is heavily based on his current position with Chizuru and that is just so messed up.
Agreed. For how much they try to portray him as kind-hearted, this is a really big stain on his character.
I think you're right. If you look where all this started, it was because Kazuya played with her heart in the very beginning. He lead her on for months, originally accepting her request for a relationship even though he never did care about her in that way. She gave him the privilege of being her first boyfriend, letting him spend her first birthday in a relationship together. And how does he repay his "girlfriend"? By basically telling her, "Sorry, I never actually did love you, I wasted so many of your firsts, I wasted so much of your time, and now I want to officially break-up with you because I'm in love with a girl that doesn't even know I love her yet. It might not work out, but I'd rather be alone than with you." Of course she's not going to take that well! She was played for a fool by both Kazuya and Chizuru, and was abandoned by everyone involved. You can't treat her like that, with so much disrespect, and just expect her to leave amicably. Now it would be for the best if she were able to be the bigger person and move on, but that can't be easy for her after she was betrayed for so long. Kazuya was horrible to Ruka, and how she's acting now is the least of the consequences he's incurred from stringing her along for so long. Ruka deserves better, and she certainly won't get it in this story, but she will eventually heal and move on. A girl with a heart as pure as hers will surely find someone else to love her, and actually love her for real. I've gotten sick of her becoming an afterthought myself, so I started writing my own independent story for her. Ruka deserves all the love in the world <3
Someone with a "pure heart" does not blackmail the target of their "affection" into a relationship, sexually assault them, use sex and other means to try to manipulate them, gaslight them, lie to others about whether the two of them have had sex, or tear them down emotionally in an attempt to get them to give up their own hopes and settle.
Ruka didn't blackmail anyone, she is just trying to save the person who accepted her relationship request from what seems to be a fake rental girlfriend trying to steal him away from her, when she most likely doesn't even feel the same way. Chizuru is not a normal girl in this situation fighting for his affection, she's being paid to pretend to like him, and Ruka is trying to wake him up to that fact. Stop wasting your money on a fake girlfriend when you have a real girlfriend who doesn't cost anything.
"I won't tell anyone about your rental girlfriend relationship as long as you go out with me." How is that not blackmail?!?
Be a man and say, "Oh well, I got caught. Go ahead and tell, because I'm not really interested in going out with you." That's a part of the risk of renting a girlfriend, and if he wasn't prepared to deal with the consequences of that risk, he doesn't get to drag Ruka along with him just because he keeps consuming himself in a web of lies. It's his lies that are the reason he is where he is, not Ruka confronting him about them.
You're delusional. Ruka wasn't confronting Kazuya about his lies to get him to come clean. She was using them for leverage to get what she wanted. That's the literal definition of blackmail.
Kazuya isn't the only one affected by her outing the lie though. Chizuru is too. It is because of Chizuru he agreed to date Ruka in the first place.
Exactly, and Ruka knew this because Kazuya had already told her that he was keeping the secret to protect Chizuru. Ruka was directly threatening Chizuru, intentionally jeopardizing her livelihood, because she knew how Kazuya felt about Chizuru and knew that he would jump to Chizuru's defense. It was a deliberate move to force Kazuya into accepting the relationship. Truly evil and disgusting. People can talk about Ruka's good qualities and Kazuya's faults all they want, but none of it negates the fact of what Ruka did.