Chizuru standing up to Mami and calling her out for her treatment of Kazuya.
When Kazuya mentions that he's planning on breaking up with Chizuru, Kibe punches him and calls him out on his behavior. Kibe may not know the entire story, but his behavior is a necessary wake-up call for Kazuya.
Kibe then follows it up by telling Chizuru about Kazuya and asking her to give him a chance. She's impressed enough by his speech that she can't refuse the ferry tickets he gives her.
When Chizuru ends up falling off the ferry, even though Kazuya's already on the phone with Mami, the moment he realizes what just happened, his first instinct is to jump in after her. He drops his phone and leaves Mami hanging to save Chizuru's life, even if she is a rental girlfriend that he's not supposed to fall for.
When Chizuru is alone with Mami on their "date", Chizuru asks her point-blankly if she cared that Kazuya was still pining for her. Mami's speechless expression as Chizuru explained her definition of love to her is satisfying.
When Ruka meets Mami and realizes she's Kazuya's evil ex-girlfriend, Ruka absolutely flips her lid and verbally rips Mami apart by calling her out for visiting with ulterior motives, rubs it in her face about dumping Kazuya, and tells her that she's never, ever getting him back. Stunned, Mami has absolutely nothing to come back with and simply makes her leave. Even though Ruka lied about sleeping with Kazuya and wasn't in a position herself to complain about feeling entitled to him, it's cathartic to see someone finally put Mami in her place.
The crowdfunding campaign for Chizuru's movie manages to achieve its goal of 1.82 million yen within the deadline due to the main characters' hard work.
As Sayuri lies on her deathbed, Chizuru despairs that her grandmother will never get to see her film. Kazuya wordlessly goes into the hospital room, starts up his laptop, and projects the film onto the wall, fulfilling Sayuri's final wish.
The fact that Kazuya, our gutless, clumsy, and pitiful Loser Protagonist stopped at nothing to get Chizuru's film made, succeeded, and can actually call himself a film producer.
Although it didn't end the way he had hoped, for the most part, Kazuya succeeded in cheering up Chizuru throughout the "cheer up" date when he was prepared for the worst. She ended up loving the movie and went into full Squee mode, they had fun wall climbing together and gave each other a high five, and Chizuru discovered her new favorite food. Unfortunately, she went into tears the more she was reminded of her recent loss, and when she tried to hide it, Kazuya refused to let it slide and told her what his perfect girlfriend was to him, finally giving her an indirect Love Confession of sorts while assuring her that it was okay to cry. Overwhelmed and after bottling up her pain for so long, she finally rushes to Kazuya and cries for an entire half-hour. Recalling the incident to her family shrine the next day, she remarks that she finally felt cleansed after crying to him, allowing her to move on.
Chapter 224: After Mami exposes Chizuru's relationship with Kazuya as a total sham, Kazuya does jump to her defense in his attempt at turning the conversation on its head insisting that everything was his fault and that Chizuru was innocent of the claims being tossed her way by Mami.
Chapter 227: Following what Kazuya has said, Chizuru clinches the statement by kissing him on the lips much to the shock of the others and to Mami's inner enragement.
Rent-A-(Really Shy!)-Girlfriend
Mami uses her feminine wiles to get a few guys to get her a drink, do her homework, and pay for her food without getting up or spending a yen. She might be a despicable Manipulative Bitch, but she's good at what she does.
Other
In February 2022, Reiji Miyajima decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign to pay for advertisements of the anime’s second season to be put up in Shibuya station, based on Kazuya’s crowdfunding campaign in the movie arc. Within less than half an hour, the campaign exceeded its six million yen goal.
to pay for advertisements of the anime’s second season to be put up in Shibuya station, based on Kazuya’s crowdfunding campaign in the movie arc. Within less than half an hour, the campaign exceeded its six million yen goal