Except your crazy family… It’s entirely their fault.
My memory is horrible but is that in the VN as well?
If so then welp, you sure ain’t wrong about that.
But hey, maybe they do have a point and we simply aren’t shown it. Maybe the Saigusa/Futaki family aren’t necessarily evil and have their own reasons for being all crazy about it.
oh who am I kidding
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Apparently so.
<6302> {Haruka} “Yep… I’m me, and that’s all there is to it. It doesn’t matter ‘which one’ I am.”
// <6302> {葉留佳}「うん。…私は私でしかないんだ。もし『どちら』だったとしても」
<6303> {Haruka} “I am me. And…”
// <6303> {葉留佳}「私は私。そして…」
<6304> {Haruka} “I just… wanted to confirm to myself that there aren’t any ‘bad ones’ in this world.”
// <6304> {葉留佳}「私は、世界に悪者がいないか、確認したかっただけなんだ」
<6305> {Haruka} “No one is in the wrong…”
// <6305> {葉留佳}「誰も悪くない…」
<6306> {Haruka} “So I don’t have to hate anyone…”
// <6306> {葉留佳}「だから誰も憎まなくていい…」
<6307> {Haruka} “…I, I just―― wanted to say that!”
// <6307> {葉留佳}「…私、それが――言いたかった！」
<6308> {Haruka} “So I’m fine not knowing.”
// <6308> {葉留佳}「だから知らなくてもいいんだ」
<6309> {Haruka} “I thought that everything in the world had to be either against me or someone else.”
// <6309> {葉留佳}「世界中の全てが私を、誰かを悪く思っていると考えてた」
<6310> {Haruka} “But it’s not like that… I’m glad that I’m who I am.”
// <6310> {葉留佳}「でもそうじゃなかった…私は私でよかった」
<6311> {Haruka} “Nobody…”
// <6311> {葉留佳}「誰も…」
<6312> {Haruka} “I don’t have to hate anyone… and no one was in the wrong.”
// <6312> {葉留佳}「嫌わなくていい…誰も悪くなかった」
<6313> {Haruka} “I’m happy just being able to confirm that.”
// <6313> {葉留佳}「私、それが確認できただけでじゅうぶんだよ」
<6314> {Haruka} “That’s it, the thing I really wanted to know.”
// <6314> {葉留佳}「それが、私の本当に知りたかったことなんだ」
<6315> {Haruka} “And it was what I wanted to believe more than anything.”
// <6315> {葉留佳}「そして何より信じたかったこと」
<6316> {Haruka} “That there are no evil ones in this world.”
// <6316> {葉留佳}「誰も、悪くない、世界を」
What a stupid thing to say… there’s plenty of evil in the world, and not just Haruka’s family. It really grinds my gears. I think something similar was said in Kud’s route too, but I’d have to check.
5 Likes
This is probably already known that Haruka would have not been able to continue with her life if she were not able to stick up for herself knowing the true evil of the world but the hardships that both Haruka and Kanata were facing back then were completely out of their control and had to follow the Saigusa/Futaki orders because of the situation that was deemed impossible from their point of view. I do think the family were horrible monsters and that for them to treat them both as a competition is downright low and sickening, but they were probably only following their standard procedures on what they think was best for them (though I can’t agree with their actions). Riki had to be the only person to not only convince Haruka that not everyone is evil, knowing of course that’s not really possible, but she had to find her own reasons what she needed to do to think for herself that keeping her hatred for that long was wrong and finding her true place in the world.
2 Likes
It kinda did. I remember Haruka saying that her family told her that the abuses hurled towards them are for a greater good or something (can’t recall the exact words). And Haruka was believing it. As much as I liked the route because of Haruka and Kanata’s dynamic, I thought that part screamed problematic at best, and condoned domestic abuse at worst. :((
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It’s fiiiine, nobody’s wrong, I’m sure my family had a good reason for abusing us and forcing us into conflict for all our lives…
But Aspi this is the best Key character route of all!
No.
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Well, you’re not wrong,
BUT
did anyone who watched or read this route really assume that its message is
?
I seriously doubt it. Personally, I was glad that Haruka could forgive Kanata. I was never expecting her to forgive her family, nor did I want her to. Kanata was being a bitch, but she had her reasons and when the truth, along with her love for Haruka came to light, Haruka forgave her. That was awesome.
After finishing the route, I was glad that the twins managed to make up and become a true family again. I certainly was not inspired to think “Ah, we should always forgive everyone because nobody is truly evil”. In fact, I have completely forgotten about Haruka ever saying anything like that.
So the way I see it right now, the author did try to make nobody-is-evil this route’s message, but failed. And nobody really paid attention to it (or they simply didn’t care). They simply loved all the other parts of the route.
4 Likes
Sure, I get that. But I’m not ignoring that there’s some pretty stupid writing going on behind this message 
If someone’s gonna call this route the best one, you bet I’m gonna dig at a flaw like that
Well, for me Haruki’s and Kanata’s family wasn’t the true, main, only evil in the world. I see them as a symbol of society. What the route taught me is that one should not follow society’s believes blindfoldedly. Her family were a clear representation of how society believed that if someone’s father was a criminal, that someone has to be in some way a criminal, or just someone who doesn’t do things right.
Therefore, with this theory, the complain @Aspirety had with the message of the route disappears, since the evil part becomes the society, which is a non localized thing. Evil can’t be localized, no one is evil, but our association through society makes us evil.
This is the way I see it at least…
1 Like
Man that really is a stupid comment.
But here’s the thing, Haruka is a broken mess anyway but she’s my lovely flawed broken mess, I never took that line at face value because she’s a emotionally broken mess just beginning to heal. I can understand her fucked up head coming to that logic.
I don’t defend the choice to add a line like that, and I certainly don’t support the idea that it’s supposed to be a quote to follow, but I have an obligation to post my view on it, and that is it.
4 Likes
This is what I was about to bring up as well, although not so bluntly.
This kinda reminds me of the (Akane)Earth Dragon argument back in the Akane topic. Just because a character says something doesnt make it automatically true! I personally see those lines as Haruka realizing that Kanata was not “truly evil”, justifying that Haruka should rekindle her relationship with her now, even though she hated her before.
@Naoki_Saten said something about "no one would read those lines and assume that the message was that nothing is truly evil. Haruka, too, was probably not actually thinking this literally. That was a very emotional moment for her. All she was thinking about was Kanata. Thinking of her family in this situation would have hampered her progress with Kanata. Or perhaps she was being optimistic in this moment of happiness, considering that it might be possible the rest of her family, like Kanata, wasnt all bad after all.
I will also point out that these lines are a way of showing how both Haruka and Kanata’s characters changed. Haruka believed that because Kanata had done bad things to her, Kanata must but “truly evil”. Kanata believed (dont remember the lines exactly, but it was more toward the middle of the route) that when someone was happy, someone else had to be sad. Both of them were proven wrong when they stopped hating each other.
Now, even if all that I said was true, do I think that writing it that way was really the best choice (seeing as it obviously caused this whole current argument)? Ehhhhhh:
There is another possibility that I wanted to bring up, though Im not sure how likely it actually is, so I put it at the bottom. (Refrain) The entire world was created so that the people in it, such as Haruka, could fulfill their regrets, yeah? Wellllllllll, the only thing we hear about Haruka’s family comes from Haruka. So I guess what Im thinking is, is it possible that we dont get the whole story, because the world doesnt always follow reality? It changes to be optimal for ridding them of their regrets, so maybe the optimal situation was that none of the characters we hear from know the reason why the Saigusas/Futakis acted the way they did? I dont know, seems kinda unlikely, and yet, I think its completely possible.
4 Likes
It’s about alarm-clocks.
Riki want to give a alarm clock to Haruka because she has trouble waking up when she sleeps at her house.
That whole “there are no evil ones in this world” could be explained with her trauma. She realized what Kanata did was to protect her, so she’s probably using that same logic to explain her family.
Not that it’s true. But she’s been abused for years, give the girl a break.
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Yes, I can read. I mean, what does she have against bells? I don’t remember that being mentioned anywhere.
I just kind of assumed it was a matter of personal preference and not necessarily symbolic of anything larger. A throwaway line that just tells you something small about her, I guess. It’s been a while since I read the route, but I don’t remember bells ever being a big deal. She’d probably have something against Rin otherwise…
Sorry, short question, simple answer.
I recently played at her route and she doesn’t explain why. But at the time, I thought it reminded her of bad memories.
If there is a reason, I think it is one of many details that gives clues and made the ambience of game.
Saigusa Shou was not a delinquent: he was a convicted criminal. There’s quite the difference in the severity of those expressions. You’re comparing tardiness to assault and attempted murder.
I’ve been reading Saigusa Haruka’s route in LB! and wanted to highlight something. I don’t know if it has already been mentioned here…
I really like her VN route, the development and behaviour of the characters here really tugs at my heartstrings. However, it feels like some people doesn’t enjoy the drama inside, feeling like it’s too mild, absurd or pointless. The main reason of it may be the cultural distance? It feels like, if we forget about Air, Saigusa’s route, at least in terms of drama, is one of the most “japanese” in any Key works. The family issues, the inheritance… Maybe it’s the main reason why, storywise, some people don’t enjoy Haruka’s route.
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When I reads the route of Haruka, I often wonder when Kanata begins her fake front and when she is honest.
Most of time, it’s easy to find because she is very sarcastic towards Haruka but I’m not sure for three moments:
- When Haruka finds that Kanata pretends to be her for Riki.
- When she requests her help the first time, to meet together their father.
- Jus before that Kanata told her side of the story.
The three times, she isn’t really sarcastic but seems only angry against Haruka. I don’t think it is an act but she surrenders perhaps to her feeling to be forced in the bad role, rejecting a little the fault about Haruka. Who for Kanata, doesn’t understand her burden.
The only trial, I find Kanata too fast to calm herself before her confession. I think she is also used to that, it seems me weird that she reveals her true feelings when she is sad for her sister.
If someone has his opinion on the matter. I would be happy to have my lantern lit.
