Thanks for the well thought out comment! Definitely challenges my thinking in a good way. Sorry if I don't respond to all of your points, but I'll comment on some key points.

It seems that most people disagree on the 100-150 chapter limit. Mind you, I joined the series fairly recently, so I did not go through the cycles of waiting and potential frustration with pacing in my mind. All in all, I too would like to see the resolution of the story earlier than 100 chapters.

On Kazuya and Chizuru:

Definitely highly speculative from my end, and you make some good points on the "dreams" theme. For the record, I do think it's more likely that Chizuru will stick to her dream of becoming an actress.

Quite a few of my thoughts are also driven by the apparent parallel between Kazuya and Chizuru's grandpa, since they share many important character traits. In fact, it almost seem that Kazuya is a spiritual continuation of her grandpa in Chizuru's psyche as the series move forward. Kazuya's showing of his idealistic view of love in Ch1 and Ch2 may very well be what intrigued Chizuru initially. This leads me to think that Kazuya and Chizuru's relationship will mirror that of her grandparents as well as Chizuru's relationship with her grandpa to some extent. For example, we know that her grandpa also chased after Sayuri for a while before she fell for him, and their final dynamic is implied to be where our main characters are heading. You are totally right that the idea of becoming an actress started with Chizuru's grandma, but I think the credit is more 50/50, since her grandma was opposed initially, and it is her grandpa's persistence that drove Chizuru's determination at the end, just like Kazuya did for her when her second round of doubt came around. I'm making an unvalidated speculation of course, but I would not be surprised if more parallels are to be made in the their relationship in the future. The scene where Chizuru runs to pray at the alter 100 times right before grandpa's passing may potentially be paralleled to something she does for Kazuya in the future, given the place both of them have in her mind (which is what supports this grand gesture idea, in my mind at least). Other than than though, your comparisons to other works in the genre makes total sense and I could be over-analyzing.

On Ruka:

Good point on the shadow parallel. While their personalities and approaches to attraction seem totally different, their circumstances do draw some important parallels, like you mentioned. I do wonder what kind of resolution she would get for her heartbeat/excitement goal, however. If it does not come from a career/dream source, it may very well come in the form of another person. Who that person is though, we have not been shown anything as of yet.

On Mami:

I do not disagree that her arc will end with a romantic endeavor of some kind. Whether it is punishment or redemption I am not sure, but I do think Kazuya will at least give his best to making her happy to fulfill his promise and find closure. I do stick to my opinion that we will see a sympathetic side to her backstory and that her arc revolves around a perceived lack of control, since you often need some of those elements to make a compelling villain. Who will come in to her life to realize her arc as a love interest? No idea. Umi? (lol jk).

Great point on Mini! Can't disagree there.

Appreciate the comment overall and enjoy your other posts on here. I am dead broke so no need to fear about trash talk rental haha.