TV-Series
Description
Chizuru Ichinose, also known by her professional alias Chizuru Mizuhara, is a university student attending Nerima University, where she majors in literature. To pursue her dream of becoming a famous actress, she works part-time as a rental girlfriend for an agency called Diamond, a role that allows her to hone her acting skills and earn money for her acting workshop. Her real surname is Ichinose, and she adopted the pseudonym Mizuhara to protect her identity and avoid being recognized in her personal life. She lives in an apartment complex next door to Kazuya Kinoshita, the series' protagonist, and her grandmother, Sayuri Ichinose, was a close friend of Kazuya's grandmother while they were both in the hospital.
On the surface, Chizuru presents herself as a kind, considerate, and exceptionally professional young woman. This carefully crafted persona consistently earns her the highest ratings from her rental clients, who appreciate her warmth and attentiveness. Before a date, she researches her client's interests; for example, she once studied marine life in detail before an aquarium visit. However, beneath this perfect exterior lies a more complex personality. She takes great pride in her professional reputation and can become irritable and sharp-tongued when her ratings are threatened, a side she rarely shows except to people like Kazuya, who once gave her a low score out of spite.
Chizuru is frequently described as an iron lady due to the robust emotional fortitude she has built around herself. Though she can appear outgoing and cheerful, she maintains a strong boundary between her public image and her private self, making her genuinely difficult to read. This guarded nature often leads others to misinterpret her as aloof, cold, or uncaring. Her defense mechanisms are so deeply ingrained that she sometimes struggles to understand and navigate her own emotional landscape. This is a stark contrast to her personality in junior high school, when she was known as a clingy crybaby who would often get into arguments with boys who teased her for being parentless. Her interest in acting was inspired by watching films with her grandmother and through encouragement from her grandfather, who both played a significant role in her upbringing.
Her primary motivation throughout the story is to become a successful actress, a dream she connects deeply to her late grandfather, who passed away before she could achieve it. This ambition is the driving force behind her rental girlfriend work, which she views not merely as a job but as a practical training ground for performance. Her motivations become more personal through her relationship with Kazuya Kinoshita. What begins as a standard client-professional relationship, initiated after Kazuya was dumped by his ex-girlfriend, evolves into a complex arrangement where they pretend to be a real couple to satisfy their families. As the story progresses, Chizuru finds herself developing genuine feelings for Kazuya, though the professional nature of their relationship and her own emotional restraint make it difficult for her to act on or even fully acknowledge these emotions. She also feels a sense of guilt, as she realizes Kazuya continues to rent her partly to support her financially, rather than solely for the girlfriend experience.
Within the story, Chizuru serves as the main heroine and primary love interest for Kazuya. Their relationship is the central axis of the narrative, characterized by a slow-burning romance complicated by secrets, misunderstandings, and the transactional framework of their initial meeting. Beyond Kazuya, she has several key relationships. She acts as a supportive senior and friend to Sumi Sakurasawa, a shy fellow rental girlfriend whom she helps become more confident in her work. She has a more contentious relationship with Ruka Sarashina, another rental colleague who is openly in love with Kazuya and considers Chizuru a rival. Her most emotionally significant relationship is with her grandmother, Sayuri Ichinose. Sayuri's declining health forces Chizuru to confront the possibility of losing another loved one, and her emotional restraint begins to break down as a result, revealing her deep-seated vulnerability and fear of regret.
Chizuru undergoes notable development, particularly in learning to lower her emotional walls. Triggered by the kindness and persistence of Kazuya, as well as the tragic circumstances surrounding her grandmother, she gradually begins to accept that it is acceptable to rely on others and to express her true feelings. Her journey is one of reconciling her professional, fake persona with her genuine, vulnerable self and learning to process grief in a healthy manner. In terms of abilities, Chizuru is a talented actress, which she demonstrates through her flawless execution of the ideal girlfriend role. She is also noted to have a pleasant singing voice. Physically, she maintains a high level of fitness; her routine includes home-based yoga, and she has demonstrated proficiency in rock climbing and baseball. As a precaution for her job, she also knows basic self-defense to handle any potentially aggressive client.
On the surface, Chizuru presents herself as a kind, considerate, and exceptionally professional young woman. This carefully crafted persona consistently earns her the highest ratings from her rental clients, who appreciate her warmth and attentiveness. Before a date, she researches her client's interests; for example, she once studied marine life in detail before an aquarium visit. However, beneath this perfect exterior lies a more complex personality. She takes great pride in her professional reputation and can become irritable and sharp-tongued when her ratings are threatened, a side she rarely shows except to people like Kazuya, who once gave her a low score out of spite.
Chizuru is frequently described as an iron lady due to the robust emotional fortitude she has built around herself. Though she can appear outgoing and cheerful, she maintains a strong boundary between her public image and her private self, making her genuinely difficult to read. This guarded nature often leads others to misinterpret her as aloof, cold, or uncaring. Her defense mechanisms are so deeply ingrained that she sometimes struggles to understand and navigate her own emotional landscape. This is a stark contrast to her personality in junior high school, when she was known as a clingy crybaby who would often get into arguments with boys who teased her for being parentless. Her interest in acting was inspired by watching films with her grandmother and through encouragement from her grandfather, who both played a significant role in her upbringing.
Her primary motivation throughout the story is to become a successful actress, a dream she connects deeply to her late grandfather, who passed away before she could achieve it. This ambition is the driving force behind her rental girlfriend work, which she views not merely as a job but as a practical training ground for performance. Her motivations become more personal through her relationship with Kazuya Kinoshita. What begins as a standard client-professional relationship, initiated after Kazuya was dumped by his ex-girlfriend, evolves into a complex arrangement where they pretend to be a real couple to satisfy their families. As the story progresses, Chizuru finds herself developing genuine feelings for Kazuya, though the professional nature of their relationship and her own emotional restraint make it difficult for her to act on or even fully acknowledge these emotions. She also feels a sense of guilt, as she realizes Kazuya continues to rent her partly to support her financially, rather than solely for the girlfriend experience.
Within the story, Chizuru serves as the main heroine and primary love interest for Kazuya. Their relationship is the central axis of the narrative, characterized by a slow-burning romance complicated by secrets, misunderstandings, and the transactional framework of their initial meeting. Beyond Kazuya, she has several key relationships. She acts as a supportive senior and friend to Sumi Sakurasawa, a shy fellow rental girlfriend whom she helps become more confident in her work. She has a more contentious relationship with Ruka Sarashina, another rental colleague who is openly in love with Kazuya and considers Chizuru a rival. Her most emotionally significant relationship is with her grandmother, Sayuri Ichinose. Sayuri's declining health forces Chizuru to confront the possibility of losing another loved one, and her emotional restraint begins to break down as a result, revealing her deep-seated vulnerability and fear of regret.
Chizuru undergoes notable development, particularly in learning to lower her emotional walls. Triggered by the kindness and persistence of Kazuya, as well as the tragic circumstances surrounding her grandmother, she gradually begins to accept that it is acceptable to rely on others and to express her true feelings. Her journey is one of reconciling her professional, fake persona with her genuine, vulnerable self and learning to process grief in a healthy manner. In terms of abilities, Chizuru is a talented actress, which she demonstrates through her flawless execution of the ideal girlfriend role. She is also noted to have a pleasant singing voice. Physically, she maintains a high level of fitness; her routine includes home-based yoga, and she has demonstrated proficiency in rock climbing and baseball. As a precaution for her job, she also knows basic self-defense to handle any potentially aggressive client.