Except for the fact that I do think Chiaki was aware on some level this is a completely awesome summarization of events. Not that Chiaki being aware makes what Ayumi is doing acceptable in any way. I'm just saying that he might have been aware, which has nothing to do with whether he consented or not to anything.
The reason I think he's aware is because, as someone else said, Chiaki said at one point that he wanted to see Ayumi's desperate face.
I actually agree with you on this, to an extent. I think Chiaki is very intuitive, i think he can tell that Ayumi is... Disconnected... But i don't think he knew to what extent till now.
Agreed.
I get what you're saying but since this is still connected to the Kirakira fuzzy couple i think it deserved a bit more to get the readers prepared. Same world but vast tonal differences are hard to adjust to.
For example Rouge and the spin off. The couples are very different and the level of conflict is highr too in the spin off, but the overall tone was kept the same.
I'm not really sure what to say to this other than that i don't, personally, agree. I don't think manga within the same world need to have the same tone as i personally take each story as they come, finding out a story is connected to another i've read is just a cool little plus. Honestly, this is objectively not realistic as well, if you think about it there are just so many different types of stories to be heard regardless of where you live, if we're talking irl, or what you're reading. There're many book series in the same world that aren't the same, it's a very common thing. Besides, if they all had the same tone just because they were in the same world how would we differentiate? It'd all be the same thing. How would we choose which was best? And once we did, wouldn't that mean that all the other books were objectively worse in your eyes since you looked and decided that one was better? Reality doesn't work like this, people write their stories with the intent to leave an impact and for that they need individuality.
I think the whole POINT was to make it sudden... Not because they didn't have time or whatever. There was definitely foreshadowing about Ayumi's mental state, it's just that the manga didn't put emphasis on it. The goldfish thing was foreshadowing, the having no friends thing was foreshadowing, him liking to watch Chiaki's emotions was foreshadowing. The story was written in a way that sweeps Ayumi under the rug, the main focus is on Chiaki, but if you think about it, the story has painted Ayumi as a lordling who feels no emotional attachment to even people who he spends time with every day and who wants things others have to the point of wanting to take it from them without any remorse for how they might feel(he recounts the goldfish tale and still shows irritation that he couldn't have it, even though he saw the kid looking happy that he got it.), all while coming across normal to those around him. He's a sociopath. This was really well portrayed through the 180, Chiaki woke up expecting things to be normal because Ayumi passes as normal, they had been interacting with no issues, so aside from the questionable moments he had no reason to expect what was coming, hence the "is this a joke? Are you serious?" dialogue. When Chiaki says "i can't get through to him" he is pointing out that in Ayumi's head he isn't doing anything wrong, he just doesn't get it. "What's wrong with holding on to something you like"? You get it? Ayumi has been a sociopath this entire time, it was clearly foreshadowed, but told in a way that made you put it on the backburner as "thats weird, but whatever" while you were distracted by Chiaki and Ayumi's love story.