[frubam]

I was on the reddit and I saw a topic asking about understanding Chako. That got me thinking about it a little more and I had this response(just gonna copy the post I replied to and my reply cause i'm lazy =0v)

Spoiler for commenter reply:

Hmm, it's been awhile since I last revised the last 20 or 40 English translated chapters, but I remember Chako telling Reiji that she didn't care much about him for most of his life.

Her father told her, when she was a little kid, that Reiji was a good kid, but that he was someone who was not worthwhile making friends with, and as such Chako grew up seeing Reiji as being beneath him.

Then she ''introduced'' him to Nagi by showing him video clips of Nagi's idol pop band, and he sorta got hooked on it and developed a fan-based crush on Nagi, and then when Nagi came to town, and Chako just happened to see Nagi and Reiji riding on his bike all lovey-dovey, she became really jealous and developed a somewhat twisted romantic interest in Reiji.

It doesn't happen that the guy has rejected her sexual advances only god knows how many times, which I suppose can be pretty hurtful for a woman, considering quite a lot of guys don't have any standards in women, and will smash anything.

So for Chako to be offering free sex and for Reiji to reject it.. ouch, her self-esteem takes a nosedive.

Even when she lost massive amounts of weight and changed herself to ressemble Nagi as much as possible, Reiji still wouldn't sleep with her or date her. That adds insult to injury, because she knows how obsessed Reiji is with Nagi, and Chako was trying to replace Nagi in reiji's life, and despite looking so much like Nagi, now, the kid still doesn't want to sleep with her.

I feel like Chako has never been interested in Reiji, at least romantically, but growing up, in a small town with very few kids her age, and with a growing desire in her heart to leave her town and to move to Tokyo, she began to see Reiji as her ticket out of Tokyo, like Esemori's experience with that girl who also wanted to leave their town with him, to move to Tokyo.

Chako somehow tricked herself into believing she is in love with Reiji. But she is not. Right now, the only woman who is in love with Reiji is sensei and sensei is, well... kinda mentally ill, and way too old for Reiji?

There's Gen, but reiji isn't attracted to men.

Anyway...I'm a bit concerned about Chako.

When Reiji law saw Chako he seeded her mind with the possibility and desire for suicide, and they lost their way when they arrived in Tokyo, and haven't seen each other in what, 1 to 3 days up until Nagi takes Reiji to her run-down apartment to tell him her life story?

It's possible that Chako is gonna try to kill herself.

Spoiler for my reply:

Great points, really enjoyed reading everyone's response, but I'd like to add some clarifications(imo ofc).

Reiji turned Chako down sexually only once. They only had 2 chances to have sex; at the manga Cafe and when he visited her at her home after her weight loss. At the manga cafe,, Reiji told her that she was special to him, and that by having sex, she would be like everyone else. This same event actually happens in the author's previous work, Himegoto. Reiji was willing to commit to have sex with her(like Nagi, he is a person who will try to satisfy others, even if he is against it) but she declined, since she didn't want to lose that special place in his heart. I think this is important to remember, since she is the only character he has had a positive appreciative comment for.

Gen never really "loved" Reiji. Reiji himself conjectured this, but given the events its clear that who Gen actually loves is Yuko. Gen himself probably twisted his perspective of loving Reiji as a coping mechanism, making himself believe it was for Reiji when it was actually for Yuko.

I don't think Chako "tricked" herself to like Reiji. I feel that Chako has loved Reiji, before she even realized it. Yes, at 1st, she did see him as someone pitiful, and indulged in this "superiority", but after the first kiss playground event, she saw him in a different light. Maybe even before then. It's not like he only said some honeyed words(which he did), but it was also all the previous interactions that he was something important to her. Leaving Tokyo was just a pretext; she could have done so during the Reiji-Yuko standoff if she asked for Esemori's help, but what she really wanted was to be with Reiji. That's why she was so dejected when he abandoned her. I think this is a bit of a parallel with Yuko, since she was also abandoned by Akira(which was mostly because he felt inadequate to Uryu, but still, the end result is the same).

I also feel that people may be undermining Reiji's concern for Chako. I still believe that she holds a special place in his heart. Right now, I think that what Chako is going through is very much like what Reiji has been through and that the penultimate climax will be how he pulls her from this depressed state. You compared Chako to past-Saki, and for good reason. However I think that she is more like past-Yuko where she is slowly being pushed into a corner(not considering possible past-Yuko machinations) and needs(wants) to be saved... or she'll edge herself to her death..

This current interaction with Nagi is just a means to that end.... at least that's what I feel. But we'll see....