No, these things aren’t mutually exclusive. Haruka existing doesn’t discount Mio’s lacking confidence or enforce how she behaves.
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I don’t remember any ending where Haruka commit explicitly suicide, the only ending where she, supposely, died is her bad ending where she is supposely killed by someone of the family (if I well remember and, also, until I remember is not really completely confirmed that she died), there are some new bad end in the steam version where her suicide is confirmed?.
I already buyed the steam version but I don’t read it yet.
It’s never explicitly stated iirc. It is heavily implied with the whole talk about an ambulance and flower of blood on the ground and various other descriptions.
Well, in Kanon (mayor spoilers) when the Nayuki’s mother get involved in the car accident is almost the same and she is alive
I don’t want to admit the existence of an ending where she is dead 
Edit: Even if she TRIED to kill herself there is always the possibility that she survives to that try and Kanata says Riki to not go with her or the same situation could be repeated
MUST I.
Of course she kills herself, she already suggested the prospect earlier but Riki shuts her down.
When she does it Riki has been stolen. Explicit confirmation is not given, but there is not subtly about it.
Now can people please stop asking this so I can stop reading talk of that fucking bad end.
[SLURPING NOISES]
YEAH THAT’S THAT GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD SHIT.
Must protecc.
Good post though, the duality of Haruka’s personality is definitely a fascinating thing. If I might add to it, there is another face that she shows with less frequency, most noticeably appearing in the CG in her room, and the CG with her phone.
The calm mellow Haruka, not screaming and meming, not wallowing in suffering, just talking in a quiet tone calmly about the things in life she enjoys.
That’s my favourite Haruka. That’s the Haruka whos found a moment to forget her horrible past and just enjoy life, not wearing the noisy smile, but a true one.
That’s the Haruka I want her to be forevermore.
Also I’ll address this here since I already gave my interpretation of this in Spoiler chat on Discord.
I think a lot of you guys are overthinking it, justifying it in a twisted way of protecting her. I don’t fully disagree with this, Ganesh_Swami suggesting she doesn’t like the change Riki could bring isn’t something I can completely deny. I’d say calling Kanata ‘possessive’ or ‘intentionally hurting her to push her further way’ is the parts I can’t agree with.
What I think is Kanata wanted one thing, to live a school life disconnected from Haruka, and then to never see her again after it.
Haruka is the one who fucks this up. Haruka actively picks fights with Kanata, Haruka is the one who kills this plan, Haruka is the one who makes them enemies, in short I think part of the reason Kanata is such a fucking bitch is because Haruka is actively trying to piss her off and she’s tired enough of Haruka’s shit that she’s gotten nasty over it.
There is some semblance of love remaining in that twisted mess, and I do not wish to imply that Kanata is justified in everything she does(bench), but Haruka did, on purpose, provoke the retaliation and attacks back at her and to S O M E extent Kanata being a bitch can be chalked up to putting up with an annoying little shit baiting her.
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Kanata does drop a few hints to explain her behavior, although those hints are scarce and pretty cryptic.
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After the disciplinary committee meeting that ends in a brawl, Kanata approaches Riki, saying that the distribution of happiness in the world is a zero sum game. If someone is happy someone else must be sad
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Kanata loses her composure when the flyers appear, twice. The second time after Riki confessed and the rumors keep spreading, Kanata almost screws up her act and calls Haruka just by her first name while confronting her in the courtyard. When Haruka leaves, she tells Riki "She’s going to destroy herself, that girl." She mocks Riki for assuming she’s trying to destroy Haruka. She says her goal is the exact opposite.
screenshot 1
“I’m not chasing her out to destroy her. Rather, if I don’t do it, she will be broken.” She believes she’ll be happier that way. “Next one… It will have to be the next place where Haruka Saigusa finds her place in the world.”
“I’m a bully. Just like you’ve said so many times.” (they’re translating ‘Hitodenashi’ as ‘Bully’ again)
“I’m a bully… therefore I can do whatever needs to be done. But, Riki Naoe, you are also a bad person. And because of that, I hate you.”
“I’m not crazy about you either.”
“Oh, then it seems we match. Hmm? Why don’t you give up on Haruka Saigusa and go out with me instead?” “Oh dear. I was rejected. Well then, this heartbroken maiden will just take her leave.”
- Rain scene bad ending.
(Sorry, @Kanon, for bringing it up after all)
Kanata, disguised as Haruka, reveals her identity.
Riki blames her for “snatching it all away” from Haruka.
"I told you before, didn’t I? My reason. That if I didn’t do this, that child would be broken."
screenshot 2
She casts away her disguise and lectures Riki on happiness and negatives. That some people aren’t given a place to exist.That Haruka is one of those who always gets all the bad things. That she cannot be saved by anyone. But maintaining the status quo is enough.
"She held that hatred tight, and kept looking ahead… And maybe that way she was able to find a little bit of happiness.
Riki’s narcolepsy kicked in. Kanata’s voice is the last thing he heard.
“…Don’t get close to Haruka Saigusa. You can’t save that girl. You can’t even recognize her. Just by losing one thing, that girl gives up… She’s that kind of person. I’d rather not smell that stench of blood anymore. I don’t want to see that flower of blood on the asphalt. So, stay away from her… Don’t ever get close to her again.”
If you pick the right choice and get the non-bad ending rain scene, Haruka tells Kanata to die and comes really close to attacking her with a pair of scissors. Kanata gets mad over how Haruka is acting like a victim.
screenshot 3+4
https://i.imgur.com/NAbFBHz.png
https://i.imgur.com/RKuDYTF.png
Then Kanata gets mad at Riki for asking about her reasons all the time, but she explains. "If I take away everything she grasps onto, she’ll finally be forced to revert."
- Finally, during the last confrontation and Kanata’s confession:
Kanata is eventually prepared to spill the beans, but gives Haruka one last warning:
screenshot 5
"If you find out, you won’t be able to go on like you have until now."
Then she tells her part of the story:
"If it turned out that neither of us was appropriate to be the heir, they had no use for either of the twins… that’s what they told me."
They promised her everything as long as she would hate Haruka. She refused everything. Then they threatened to make her ‘like Haruka’. Little Kanata couldn’t oppose them, then. She was too afraid. “‘One of you needs to be culled,’ they said.”
If she didn’t hate Haruka, Haruka would be killed.
“If I didn’t… Haruka would… Haruka would disappear…”
Therefore, she can’t help her. Therefore, she cannot allow herself to be helped by her.
Summing it up:
a. For Kanata, it’s a universal law that Haruka will always get the short end of the stick and cannot be saved. (Because she’s bad at everything ?).
b. Haruka’s actions will eventually backfire and destroy her
c. Kanata believes she must take away the places Haruka wants to belong to right now, so that she will find the ‘next’ one where she actually belongs. Also, she would be “forced to revert”
d. That by holding on to her hatred, Haruka could keep going and maybe even find a little bit of happiness. Therefore, the “Status quo” should be maintained
e. Just by losing one thing, Haruka gives up… She’s that kind of person. In this case, it ends with suicide.
f. The family threatened to kill one of the twins if Kanata didn’t hate Haruka.
Ok, so those were the hints. Here’s my interpretation:
Back after my first playthrough, I was convinced that Kanata deliberately played the villain so that Haruka could support herself with hatred. I forgot why but I guess it’s because Kanata pretty much said so in the rain scene bad ending.
How was the conflict of this route resolved? By Haruka accepting that she doesn’t need a person to blame for what’s happening. That’s her achievement, something she learned after numerous trials. She broke free from the teachings of her family, which blamed EVERYTHING BAD on Haruka. Now imagine Haruka, before learning to not blame bad things on people, coming to the conclusion that her sister is actually a great person. Remember that Haruka made it something like her life goal to sabotage Kanata and became a troublemaker for that reason. What would happen? If Haruka can’t blame Kanata for everything, she would blame herself instead. And the obvious conclusion to that would be suicide. That’s why Kanata went out of her way to be extra bitchy. It explains Kanata’s final warning, and why she gave in when Haruka decided to stop the blame game.
Then there’s the part about Kanata “taking away” things from Haruka. Things like her classmates’ favor, the school, Riki, the bench, and AHEM, the maintnance committee. I believe that Kanata wants to take those away before Haruka gets REALLY attached to them, because she could lose them easily. This fits with the “protecting from family” interpretation that’s been mentioned here several times. As long as Haruka is still in that school, she is within the family’s grasp. Even if they don’t attack her directly, they could easily sabotage her school life if they wanted to by flexing their power muscles or simply ordering Kanata to. The more attached Haruka grows to the things she’ll lose, the more she will suffer. It could even end tragically. Therefore, it would be better for Haruka to go somewhere else. ALTERNATIVELY, if we leave the family out of the equation, according to the universal law that Haruka will always suffer, she will ultimately lose the things she gets attached to.
Kanata’s methods sure are awkward, rough, and over-the-top. They also add to her feelings of guilt…
phew. That was a piece of work
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BAM there we go! That put into words everything I was thinking but couldn’t put into my own words. You da man, Nick
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I want to start off by saying I entirely agree what Naoki has pointed out here. Very well written, couldn’t have done it better myself. I’m not one to get super in depth but I thought you put it into a great way overall.
I always saw Haruka, especially heading into her route, as someone who doesn’t even remotely know who she is anymore. She puts on such a front that there are a ton of inner struggles going on, all the time and I can’t even begin to imagine how she feels after all those years of that horrific “life”. It was more of a nightmare than anything else and one that she couldn’t wake up from.
Besides the main route and Refrain, none of them made me feel more heartbroken than Haruka’s, mostly because I knew someone similar to her. Not to the extent of Haruka but with the same sort of problems. She was always cheery and giddy and loved to show off and for a long time, I thought that was just her. It took me a long time to realize that she was putting on a mask of some sort, almost all the time. At times you could tell when her true thoughts and feelings showed but they were few and far between. Haruka was the same to me.
The saddest part I was never really able to help her. We broke up but thankfully she’s doing good overall and living her life. I think one major point in Haruka’s route that I enjoyed as well is, family can come in the strangest of ways. Now obviously no spoilers with that but, it’s very impressive how they handled all of it and I cried like crazy with the ultimate ending. To add onto that as well, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard that would be to move on in a sense entirely. Not even beginning to mention all of the trust issues Haruka must have but all of her thoughts of what “family” was to her.
The only reason I mention her is because she was my first girlfriend and I spent a lot of time with her. I always tried to help but as said about the bad endings, one wrong step and you fell down a flight of stairs that you so desperately wanted to climb again but no avail.
I don’t know how to make the spoilers thing as this is my first reply on here other than my welcome message so I’m making this extremely long so people don’t see the SPOILERS BELOW THIS ENTIRELY
I don’t truly know where to end but I’m glad that they could both move on.
I loved the way Haruka and Kanata made up. I respected the way Kanata had gone about her life and truthfully, it’s a really cool thing to look at on the outside as seeing a younger girl deciding to put such a big burden on herself, and of course trying her best to make the right decision, is truly spectacular. It’s something I haven’t seen in anything else personally and I don’t know if the magnitude would be the same anyways.
I’ll end it by saying I loved, ABSOLUTELY loved this photo:
A lot of people do a lot of bad things in this world. A lot of people do a lot of wrong things in this world. Sometimes in both of those cases, they believe they’re doing the right thing. Does that make it better? Absolutely not but that quote really stuck with me. It’s not about pointing a finger. It’s not about getting revenge. It’s not even about trying to reason with incredibly hard if not impossible to understand ideals and thoughts. It’s about moving on, forgiving and forgetting. The ending made me want to believe that nobody truly has hatred in their heart and honestly with everyone here, and anyone else in the world, I think I do believe it now to an extent. I also wanted to believe in a world where no one is to blame.
There’s a lot of wrong reasons people believe they’re doing the right thing.
How this sweet girl who had such a rough upbringing, to see her become such a kindhearted and brave young woman, is incredible and I am extremely thankful to see it as well. (This includes two people for me)
(Here’s to hoping I worded this all properly because my thoughts sometimes get intertwined)
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I agree with this sentiment, as it definitely plays a part in things, but for different reasoning. It’s been bothering me for a while how nonchalant the route appears to be about this issue, as the focus is so heavily biased against Kanata (for admittedly obvious reasons) and her actions against Haruka. Riki tends to share an emotional level with Haruka as she goes through her struggles. There really isn’t necessarily anything wrong with this, (if I’m being fair), as Haruka is his friend and Kanata isn’t. Even if she isn’t being outright mean to Riki, she comes off unlikable enough that he never really seems to consider that Kanata could be just as broken as Haruka, considering how easily Kanata appears to shurg everything off. That being said, his interactions with her are relatively short and limited, and it would probably be unfair for me to say he should have tried to understand her better, and that could potentially have risked Haruka’s trust as well. (IE: Riki appearing to get too chummy with Kanata)
The only other explanation for Kanata’s bitchyness I’ve been able to come up with is that Kanata believes that you can’t save someone else: they must want to save themselves. Kanata is escalating the conflict between her and Haruka in order to force a resolution. She doesn’t seem to believe that a peaceful one is likely to happen, so she instead attempts to return things to how they were before by driving Riki and the Busters away from Haruka. That being said, I think she is hoping that she is wrong, and that Haruka will instead realize she must save herself and stand up to her. It’s possible that I could be just projecting, but I felt there were just too many inconsistencies in Kanata’s mean streak that something else was going on behind the scenes, something else we aren’t seeing here. For as composed and calculated as she appears, she gets careless far too many times for it to be a coincidence, the most relevant one I noticed being here:
And even Riki, in a way, mirrors this line of thinking at various points when supporting Haruka:
The reason she doesn’t want Riki to be responsible for saving Haruka is exactly the reason she pulls the swap trick: to prove that Haruka needs to be able to stand on her own, to have a reason to get up after being knocked down and not crumble when she loses something important to her. She needs to find a reason live, one that doesn’t rely entirely on hatred or the help of another. Kanata can drop hints, she can push her, but she can’t actively or directly help Haruka, as she needs to come to that conclusion on her own in order to create her own opportunities and reasons to move on and heal. Otherwise, it wouldn’t last. In that way, I think Kanata is actually doing the best she can, given the shit circumstances.
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I can understand and agree with this idea that Haruka needed someone to blame, and that Kanata was filling that position so Haruka wouldn’t push it on herself. I used to think that Kanata’s actions weren’t really defensible, but after reading @Naoki_Saten’s post, I can understand a little better. However, I don’t think all the questions have been answered.
First and foremost: Does it just not occur to Haruka to blame the family? I’m sure it can be hard to shake beliefs that were instilled in you as a child, but Haruka’s thought processes clearly show that she doesn’t accept/understand their bullshit. Does it really need to be a specific person, her sister at that?
And even still, I’m not entirely convinced that it was 100% necessary for Kanata to go so far. Given what Haruka had to go through up to that point, neglect on Kanata’s part would probably work fine rather than outright aggression.
Secondly, in response to this:
Makes sense and everything, but… Why is this no longer a problem? What about the end of the route frees them from this threat? I could understand it if the route’s end was portrayed more as a beginning rather than a resolution, and I’m not sure if other people maybe interpreted it that way, but that’s not how it seemed to me.
Really want the podcasters to discuss this: Is Kanata’s position defensible?
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tl;dr hello everyone welcome to the Kanata apologists thread.
It’s easier to focus on a person rather than a collective. Especially when that collective has controlled and brainwashed you.
That threat was made when they were children completely under the shithouse, cut off from the world.
The current twins are ingrained enough in society that murdering one is more likely to cause a few problems.
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That’s fair enough. I suppose that’s what the entire route is about, so I can’t complain too much. That said, a plot flaw doesn’t become excusable just because the story relies on its existence (not that I necessarily think it was a plot flaw - that’s what I’m trying to figure out). Still… maybe she could direct her blame towards the family head or something. And I agree that they’ve definitely controlled and brainwashed her, but we can very obviously see in her words and actions that she’s not under some illusion that they’re blameless - she hates all of them
Again, fair enough. But if you say that, then you can’t really use the threat as reasoning for Kanata’s actions (not that you specifically were, I just mean in general). I suppose you could say that Kanata was so terrified at the prospect as a child that it became a trauma that stuck with her, and as such she was unable to discard the idea even at this point. Even so, why would she get over it at the end if so? Maybe Haruka getting over her own issues inspired her or something? The whole argument feels like a bit of a stretch though. And, well, Shou Saigusa is out of prison at this point. Given what we’ve seen them get away with up to this point, they’d probably be capable of pinning it on him.
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“I want someone… to tell me… they love me. …I want to say I love them too… I want to hear… that they want me to be with them… and I want to say… that I want them to be with me…”
As we all know, the way Haruka was treated by her family has left her starved for love. She needed it so badly, she even admitted she would get attached to anyone, as long as they love her. She wants to be loved, to be treated kindly, to be spoiled, because those are basic needs for us humans. But she was denied all of those.
We also know that Haruka was not the only one who suffered by the hands of that horrible family. Kanata grew up just as devoid of love as her sister. The Futakis showered her with praise and presents, but that was an act that Riki compared to pouring poison onto her. They were only playing nice as long as Kanata was obedient and successfull.
Therefore, let’s take a look at love… from the Kanata side of things.
(Yes, that’s right. Scumbag Naoki just used a Haruka quote to start a Kanata post)
Just like Haruka, Kanata had a desire to love and be loved. But she’s scary and hard to approach. There are some mental scars and also the physical scars that scare the hell out of everyone who sees them. The game doesn’t mention anyone who might be friends with her, except for maybe A-chan-Senpai. But even their relationship doesn’t exactly reek of hugs and kisses. There’s no definite info, but I feel like Kanata is still keeping A-chan at a certain distance.
And what about sisterly love? I mean, her sister is right there in front of her, but for certain reasons, she can’t show her any kindness. Luckily, one day, a worthy substitute arrives.
Kud looks small and acts childish. She’s somewhat clumsy and makes you want to take care of her. Also, she becomes Kanata’s roommate if Riki doesn’t interfere. A perfect replacement for her little sister. Kanata pours all of her sisterly love into Kud and the two of them get along really well. Kud assures Riki that Kanata is a kind person at a time where it’s questionable whether Kanata is even capable of displaying kindness at all. She accompanies Kud when she’s out to play some supposedly childish games, helps her throw out a certain carboard box and overall behaves differently from when she’s dealing with Haruka or Riki. In a perspective change (the second one), Haruka mentions that Kud shows Kanata “the kind smile”, that she never shows to Haruka, making her jealous, that Kanata and Kud look like sisters from a distance. So their relationship is by no means one-sided. Kud knows when Kanata isn’t doing well, even if Kanata tries to deny it and wants to help her. She implores both Haruka and Kanata to make up. “If you don’t mind, I’d like you to show her the same kindness you showed me, next time.” She can tell the two apart and if she wasn’t so… weakened for some reason, she could’ve put an end to Kanata’s masquerade early on. Just pay attention to her reactions! Kud even asks Riki to help Kanata before retracting that plea.
Speaking of Riki, at the beginning, Kanata would sometimes glare at him like he’s her arch-nemesis. But over time, he does earn her respect for not denying his relationship with Haruka and being level-headed, unlike that emotional sister of hers. Eventually, when Haruka is not around, Kanata starts acting like a normal person around Riki and they even have a decent albeit short talk from time to time.
The (new) bad endings clearly show that Kanata had secretly developed a romantic attachment to Riki at some point. Maybe she was serious back when she asked Riki to go out with her instead of Haruka. I mean, those twins are really alike, so maybe Haruka isn’t the only one who says serious things, then tries to pass it off as a joke. Maybe, when she was playing the role of Riki’s girlfriend, she got a taste of a real romantic relationship and was reluctant to let it go. If Riki allows her charade to continue, she gets so close to him that her own feelings of guilt make her break down in tears, preventing her from to fulfilling that forbidden desire. (According to @HeliosAlpha, there is no H-scene in that nurse’s office in Haruka’s route, no matter what you choose.)
But it’s no wonder she grows attached. Riki does act manly and respectably around Haruka. He becomes a person Kanata can talk to normally. And eventually, he gets involved in the family issues of the twins. It matters because that creates a sort of common ground between them. So even if the idea seems foolish, he is someone she could turn for support to. As we know, both sisters need that support, and this is something Kanata cannot burden Kud with.
It’s a twisted situation where Kanata remains alone, forcing herself to treat her real sister cruelly. Therefore, her love for not only Haruka, but Kud and Riki too, takes on a twisted form as well, or rather, as things are before the final resolution, it’s the only form it can exist in.
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The new bad end of the route gives me the feelings to be a teaser for the route of Kanata, because it seems to give a parallel with her story (the scene with Strelka, her isolation from others).
We see an unknown aspect of the girl, who isn’t very different of her sister.
But, when I played the route recently, my impression was that when Haruka sees that people aren’t just evil. It was essentially meant for her sister, her mother and her two fathers. She started wanting to understand their motivation.
This has never been the case for the rest of clan Saigusa and they aren’t important here like they are not the ones she will confront in the route to know the truth.
They are an influence of her past that she can overcome and doesn’t have to forgive them to continue with her close family. Unlike Kanata, for who they still play a major role in her life.
I always appreciate those scenes in a heroine’s route when other heroines still make an appearance and do something, even if it isn’t much. Little Busters is a story of friendship, which we might forget if the other characters don’t show up to demonstrate it from time to time.
Haruka’s route had a lot of those moments, maybe even the most among the pre-refrain routes.
Therefore, I’d like to talk about Haruka’s relationships with the other Little Busters, both during her route and in the common route.
Kurugaya - just like how Kanata had substituted her little sister with Kud, Haruka was looking for an alternative big sister and tried burdening Kurugaya, who would often call herself “Onee-san”, with that role. But Kurugaya got mad. She refused to be used as a sister substitute, allowing herself be ignored as an individual and having her efforts to build a friendship denied. I don’t know if it’s ever been confirmed, but I think Haruka wanted to call Kurugaya “Yui-nee.” Haruka still refers to her as such, but only when she’s not around. It includes Kurugaya’s first name, which she is uncomfortable with if other people use it, giving her another reason to be mad. Instead, Haruka adresses her as “Anego.” Their relationship began when Kurugaya had helped Haruka get back some of her lost change, which was so important that Haruka celebrates the anniversary of that day. She often turns to Anego for advice or just to hang out. They aren’t as close as Komari & Rin, but still closer than most LB girl pairs. Also, Kurugaya was supposedly the first one to get a proper read on Haruka’s situation and gave the other girls instructions on how to behave around her.
Mio - I don’t remember her making an appearance in Haruka’s route, but in common and in other routes, these two are paired up as a comedic duo, reminescent of a manzai act. Haruka keeps trying to prank Mio, who looks like an easy target on first glance, but Mio quickly turns the tables on her and seems invincible, striking back twice as harshly. But in the end, there’s no hard feelings. Very entertaining.
Kud - most of the time, Haruka simply treats Kud like a dog or a plaything and sometimes goes just a little bit overboard. For example, if you consider Haruka as Kud’s roommate, Haruka would sneak up on her and Karate-chop her on the neck in an attempt to K.O. her. Clearly a display of how Haruka often misjudges the appropriate “distance” to a person, since she’s never learned to gauge it properly. But there’s that one newly added flashback where Haruka expresses her jealousy of Kud, who is her substitute to Kanata and is basically receiving the love that was rightfully hers. Haruka’s also envious of Kud’s overall popularity, since, according to Haruka, ‘everyone’ loves Kud. It’s a tricky situation where each of them has something that they don’t value as highly, but the other one most desires. Kud simply wants to help Haruka and encourages her to make up with Kanata, a notion Haruka initially rejects as impossible. Oh, and let’s not forget that Haruka is also a roommate candidate.
Komari - As usual, Komari is a mobile dispencer of good mood and sweets. She helps Haruka by giving her cake recipes. She also helps tearing down the bad posters. There’s a scene in the common route where Haruka treats Komari with such kindness that Riki compares them to siblings - only for Haruka to doodle on Komari’s face and making her really mad the next moment.
Rin - Remember that scene in the common route where Haruka found abandoned Kitties and brought them to Rin? Back then, Haruka was REALLY nervous (to the point where she displayed her ‘insecure’ sprite) around Rin because she’s supposedly the ‘serious’ type and might not take her usual shenanigans kindly. Then Haruka got praised and also called by her first name by Rin as requested, which apparently made her heart skip a beat. I guess Haruka was really afraid of being hated by Rin and she never expected everything to turn out so well. tl;dr: Rin brought out Haruka’s true nature for a moment! Rin also helps tearing down the bad posters.
Kyousuke - Haruka seems to respect him a lot and I don’t remember her trying to pull any pranks on him.
Masato - this may sound strange, but Masato is the reason why I wanted to make this post in the first place. You see, normally, Masato is super supportive of Riki and thus also of whatever girl he brings along. Except for Haruka. It’s like he’s doing his best to bear with her but he ultimately can’t. His patience runs out very fast. I assume that Haruka is the one person Masato simply cannot handle no matter how hard he tries. Of course, it doesn’t help that he is one of her prime targets and is mostly treated by her with little respect. Masato never displays outright hatred, but is quick to say some really harsh things. When Riki recruited Haruka for the team, Masato said he never told Riki to bring someone so useless. On at least two occasions, Masato demands Riki to choose between him and Haruka. One of those is an actual choice in the game. He sometimes outright tells her to leave. When Haruka was avoiding contact and Riki tried looking for her, Masato told him he’s just looking for trouble. All of those things are really, really hurtful to Haruka!
Kengo - some people are interpreting certain love-love-Hunters scenes as the game secretly shipping the two. Haruka’s prank causes Kengo to wear the school uniform, which he hates. Doing Kengo a favor unlocks a Haruka CG. He doesn’t seem to have a positive image of Haruka initially, but he keeps quiet. He later seems to change his mind after learning that Haruka is in the maintenance committee. That’s the scene where she takes some of Masato’s bread and later makes a snack out of it, which she tells Riki to also share with “Kengo-kun and the others.” Kengo is the first to notice that Haruka has gone quiet after getting two egg yolks in one egg while Riki is busy bartering with Masato over said egg. In the anime, Kengo calls Haruka a “Mood-maker” to cheer her up after she told her story and had a breakdown in the clubroom with all busters present. In the VN, Riki is the one to say that, though in a different scene, and he worded it differently. Kengo praised Haruka’s bento for how it had a traditional feel to it. Here’s the catch: it was actually Kanata’s bento and Riki could have caught on to it if he paid more attention, because “traditional feel” really isn’t Haruka’s style. On the other hand, Kengo also says it looks edible but can’t be trusted since Haruka had once switched out Komari’s sweets. But MOST IMPORTANTLY: Near the climax of the route, after Haruka got called home to meet Saigusa Shou, who didn’t Shou up after all (see what I did there?), Riki returned to his room but the one who greeted him was not Masato, but Kengo! He asked Kengo for advice, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Kengo couldn’t answer that, but also made it clear that Kyousuke wouldn’t tell him, either. The message here is: It’s entirely Riki’s decision. To conclude: Kengo shows up in Haruka’s route all the time, even though all of his appearances are rather insignificant. What stood out to me the most, however, was how Kengo took over Masato’s role in that last scene I mentioned.
Lastly, what does Haruka think of the others overall? She of course treasures her friendship with them. When the bad rumors about her are spreading, she chooses to keep their distance from the other girls so that they don’t get caught in the crossfire.
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I’ve also discussed this point with @Aspirety recently and I think my conclusion was that… No, it wasn’t no longer a problem. In fact, it still is a problem, and it’s probably only going to get worse from here on out.
At best, the family will probably end up shunning both Haruka and Kanata, removing them from the entire family, and all benefits that come with being part of the prestigious Futaki family (whatever those benefits may be). And at this point, I don’t think either of them really care about being part of that family anyways.
At worst, their lives are in danger, and those families will do all they can to see that Haruka, Kanata, their mom, and their dads, all suffer in any way possible. Would it go so far as to killing them? Maybe. And that is a problem. But I don’t think that family would kill them off so easily. Unlike Haruka and Kanata, that family still constantly tries to find someone to hate. And if that family kills them off, they would lose someone to hate and then start going into the family in-fighting So I think that they wouldn’t kill them off (even if they did threaten to do so when they were children) but they would make Haruka and Kanata’s lives much much harder. They may have a hard time getting into college when the family spread rumors about their background. They may even have a hard time getting a steady job when their employers find out their father is a criminal (this is a thing in Japan, I shit you not!). But I believe Haruka and Kanata will overcome it, by helping each other out and overcoming these problems.
They’ll both have a place in Little Busters Inc. once Kyousuke gets that off the ground, after all 
But this story leaves the problem unresolved, as you have pointed out. And to that I answer what I answer to every one doubtful of Key’s resolutions, both fantastical and not: that isn’t the conflict of this story. The conflict is Haruka’s own internal struggle with herself. No matter how much the story makes you think it, the conflict isn’t with her family and how shitty they are, and the conflict isn’t with Kanata either and how much of a bitch she is. The conflict is between Haruka and herself, and the resolution of the story fixed up that conflict in the most beautiful way possible.
I guess you could fault the story for misdirecting the conflict here, making you think it was a Man against Man or Man against Society story instead of a Man against Himself one. That’s probably the only thing I can fault this route for doing (and Chika Shirokiri ends up doing it again in Kud’s route, unfortunately). Everything else? Good shit.
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So I really, really like the writing in this route. The way Haruka’s conflicts are foreshadowed and subtly hinted really adds a ton of points in my book. I love it when words are not wasted. Every scene has significance to either reveal something about Haruka, Kanata, or how both have changed over the course of the story.
One of the scenes in early common shows Haruka telling Riki to call her by her first name instead of her family name. There’s many layers of depth to this act and it’s really interesting to see that all the layers of this onion will be peeled back by the end of the route. So how do we justify Haruka making this request? Well, first of all, we need to know that this act is significant. If you’ve seen enough anime stuff you know that calling people by their first names is really, really informal. You are expected to be pretty intimate if you’re gonna be on first name basis (I think…). So from this we can tell that maybe Haruka has feelings for Riki really early on. While that may be true, a second motive is later revealed. That second motive is that she hates being called by the name Saigusa because it is branded with the connotation of a criminal. By the end though, the third layer is finally revealed. Haruka hates the name Saigusa because it is a symbol of her inferiority to Kanata.
Another fun scene I like is when Riki is simply sitting on a bench and Haruka comes up behind him and rests her head on his. She says she wants to see the world from his eyes. In one respect, it shows that Haruka wants to know more about Riki and see the world from his perspective. In another sense though, this represents Haruka’s jealousy of Riki’s life. As far as she is aware, no one else goes through as much shit as she does, and Riki is no exception.
I still have a few more little things I’d like to write about for Haruka’s route so stay tuned but don’t expect anything real good.
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I haven’t really misinterpreted it to think that the conflict was between Haruka and the family. I agree completely that in both this route and Kud’s, the main conflict is internal.
However, I don’t think this can be used to justify such a glaring omission as:
The main conflict of the route is perfectly resolved. Good, great, loved that part. I still consider this among my favourite routes overall. But the issue isn’t something I can shrug off so easily.
“Yeah, the characters you’ve come to love could just be killed immediately following the beautiful resolution, but, have fun interpreting that however you want!” ~ Key, 2007.
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Well, I guess I have no counter-argument to this At least, until we someday get Harukanata no Mirai (or whatever @HeliosAlpha likes to call the Haruka/Kanata after we will never get) I don’t think we’ll ever see their fight against the Futaki family and how that all ends. I can imagine it is quite unsatisfying and trust me you’re not the only one who is left waiting for that resolution 
From everyone’s reactions, I take that we mostly agree on what the route’s actual message is:
A while ago, I have stumbled upon a quote that fits wonderfully to this message:
"Holding onto hatred is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."
The moment Haruka let go of her family’s teachings of always blaming someone for one’s own misfortune, her world became so much brighter. It became easier to breathe when she realized she didn’t have to blame herself. For she had cleansed herself of the poison she kept drinking even after leaving the hateful Saigusa house. And then, new pathways she thought were blocked long ago had opened to her.
It’s true that a lot of people miss what the true conflict is in both Haruka and Kud, but is it really misdirection? Isn’t it the same way in real life? Supposedly, someone did something bad to you and you resent them for it. Even if something bad happens to that “bad” person, it wouldn’t make your past any less painful, right? But if you don’t stop and think about it rationally, taking revenge feels like the one and only appropriate solution. You’re drinking poison, but you think it’s the other person who’s hurting you.
Imagine every single Saigusa and Futaki family member, except for Haruka, dying before the conclusion of the route is reached. Sure, nobody would be there to talk shit about Haruka, but then what? Would she automatically get better? On the contrary, with none of the ‘evildoers’ around to retract their statements, she might never get over the fear that she might indeed be the “bad” one. The failure. The murderer’s daughter. The issue with her lack of confidence would still remain.
You see, us humans LOVE to blame stuff on someone. It gives our anger a direction. It reduces the confusion in our hearts. It stops us from slowing down and taking a good look at ourselves. If we follow what initially feels right, we will arrive at the wrong answer.
Actually, I got a somewhat related quote for that, too:
Usually, people need something to judge so they never take a good look at themselves.
~ Mark Jefferson - Life is Strange, episode 2
If we didn’t discuss Haruka’s route, we might have arrived at the wrong answer.
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