Little Busters! - Haruka Saigusa Route & Character Discussion

[Odinbeard_McSparkles]

I think it’s a matter of culture and how you interpret that sentence. I don’t know much about western culture in this aspect, but in China (so I presume, in Japan) the family seeks to benefit as a whole, there are innumerable tales, fictional or not, that tells how a family sacrifices a particular person to ensure the family’s prosperity/safety (e.g political marriages).

I really like this angle, and can give you my quick (and biased based on my experiences) perspective from the rather individualistic culture that is America.

Similar to most cultures (I assume), expectations of success are rather high in America. You are expected to do well in school, get into a good college, land a decent job and buy the fancy house with a nice picket fence around it. The key difference as I see it (and admittedly, I don’t understand much about collectivist cultures), is that success is expected but not necessarily to honor or perserve the family legacy/name, but for the individual to make a name for themselves. There is a mentality that everyone is on similar or equal footing in terms of opportunities/potential to succeed. You are given the tools to be successful (IE: an education/values/work ethic) and then once you have them, you are supposed to work hard and make something of yourself based on your own merits, and live and maintain your life independently once you have achieved that. There’s a lot of cultural pride in the whole “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” thing and conversely, many stigmas regarding things like dropping out of high school/college (or skipping college altogether), living with family past early adulthood (early to mid 20s), or not living up to your expected potential. Even if you are content with your lot in life, you can still be viewed as somewhat lazy if you had opportunities to be more successful but passed them up.

As for how this cultural perspective is used in the route itself, I’m actually still sorting through my feelings on it. I do want to read up a bit more on collectivist culture, as I don’t have a great understanding of it, and maybe that will help my overall understanding here. As the “black sheep” of my own family, this route hit me particularly hard for a number of personal reasons (again, my bias on this sort of topic). It’s always really hard for me to keep a cool head when I hear these kinds of stories, considering my own experiences and after hearing so many similar ones from friends and others. I’ll definitely have more to say on it soon.

[BlackHayate02]

I do want to read up a bit more on collectivist culture, as I don’t have a great understanding of it, and maybe that will help my overall understanding here.

From how I understand it, in collectivist societies, actions by an individual is associated to their entire family. I think this is especially the case for more influential families. A positive deed made by a person is attributed to the entire family. (I come from an Asian country, but not really Japanese, and frankly collectivist attitudes in our place is I think more prevalent in the provinces than in the capital. I know some people who voted a particular politician because this person happened to be related to a very well-regarded person by blood. That’s how political dynasties thrive.)

However, that can also mean that the shame brought by the individual is shame brought to the entire family. One person does something wrong, the entire family is looked down on for it. I’m not sure how prevalent this is in Japan though, but I get the impression that this is what happened to Haruka and Kanata’s families. Having a part of their family become a criminal will seriously stain their reputation, which is something that they carry by name.

[Kanon]

Oh boy. Where do I start.

Well lets begin by a little disclaimer for those who don’t know me, I am…passionate…about Haruka. This route had a huge impact on me in my youth, I got feels of abnormal magnitude that haven’t gone away, so there may just be rambling gushing in this post.

I’ll start with the girls.

Haruka, Easygoing Noisy Girl

[inhales]
So Haruka is fucking love, her hectic bouncy personality is a thorough joy to read, her shitposts are a laugh, the melodic way she talks is a pleasure to listen to(huge shoutouts to Suzuki Keiko), I was drawn to her straight away, always being my favourite girl in the common route as I waited for her route to get translated all those years ago. She’s instantly and easily likeable and if you don’t like her you can fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck right off.

But enough about Common Haruka, lets talk more about the character beneath that thin layer of kookiness, the girl that is only hinted about in common, the broken insecure needy girl, the girl who’s entire personality is a fabrication crafted to get her attention and praise that she so desperately craves.

I want to protect that girl. I want to embrace that girl and tell her I won’t let anything bad happen to her. This is such an abnormal emotion to me, I do not have passion like this to another fictional…or none-fictional person. These feelings are genuine, they were genuine years and years ago and the persisted, resurfacing such as strongly today. Is this weird? Yeah, probably. Will people disagree with it completely? Yeah absolutely. I don’t care, this is love.

She’s perky yet depressed, kind yet selfish, stubborn and weak, a fundamentally flawed character. That’s what makes her a person, that what makes me want to reach out to her in times of need, her happiness is my happiness.

I’m sure I made some people cringe with that, but to me a piece of work that can make one feel emotion and write something so embarrassing without a hint of shame is truly something of quality.

So lets talk about that other bitch.

Kanata

Man I wanna punch her in the face.

The exact opposite of her sibling, a moody sour smug cunt of whom the presence of is a rather unappealing prospect.
I know, I know she was scared, I know she felt guilty, and by all means, I know Haruka actively brought her scorn upon by her own actions intentionally, but I cannot accept some of the vile things she says and does, she deserved a punch in the face, I know she was actively looking for one and that stopping the S E V E R A L people who wanted to give her exactly that is a good thing, is the correct thing, but I don’t care, I want to punch her in the face.

I do not hate her. Let bygones be bygones and forgive her as Haruka did, that I can do easily, something a lot of people I know won’t do and still chose to hate her in the end.

So how about that fucking disaster of a family.

I W I S H T O B U R N T H E I R F U C K I N G H O U S E D O W N

While subdued this time, I vividly recall the genuine fury I felt towards the family, hereon refereed to as ‘scum’, for the absolute atrocities committed against the twins, Shou might be a bag stealing shithead but I have respect for the man who stood up to the scum. It annoys me to so much as see other characters refer to Haruka as Saigusa, that tainted fucking name that links Haruka to the scum. The scene early in common where Haruka insists Riki call her by her first name was the first thing to emotionally sting me in this reread. The fact that Kanata will dismantle the scums despicable traditions is both wonderful but also infuriating as it’s the only comeuppance they’ll ever get.
Again something to praise the writing for, even if it is a negative emotion like SEETHING RAGE, it make me feel something so strongly is an accomplishment worthy of praise.

So I’ve alluded too it but I think this route is pretty well written, the depths of Haruka’s despair are fully depicted, it doesn’t pull any punches, this route is moody and brooding, nitty and gritty a strong contrast to her bubbly common personality. It dives head on into a nasty ass subject, depects a person in shambles as a result and while I’ve heard it be called ‘overly dramatic’, I think it’s worth respected. And I don’t even want to think about that bad end.

I L O V E the contrast of Citrus(specifically Orange) and Mint, most obviously represented in their taste in scented shampoo as Riki, ever the deviant, sniffs the shit out of their hair. But it’s also present in their food tastes. Oranges are sweet, orange is a warm colour, minty tastes are bitter and is associated with pale colours. I looooove that alongside the usage of their dominant hand, these smells are the biggest clues when Kanata is impersonating Haruka. The hint for this is dropped super early on too, Haruka remarks that she got a whole bunch of flavoured sweets from Komari, except for Mint, she rejected the Mint ones, Kanata returns the favour later, saying it’s not eggs she’s allergic too, it’s Citrus.

You know what other smell is present in this route? FUCKING CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE. Riki says some fucking DORKY ASS SHIT in the more romantic scenes, Haruka even calls him out on this dorky ass shit, but frankly, one of my absolute favourite scenes, ever, not just Little Busters, or Key, ever, comes from one of those dorky ass lines in one of those cheesy ass scenes:

“What can I do that she can’t”
“Make me fall in love with you”

I melt. Every time, almost every line in that scene is good, but Riki’s lame ass deceleration is something I find profoundly enjoyable to read.

Not to say I don’t have some grievances with Riki in this route, once again I vividly recall back the first time, screaming at him to “EMBRACE HER, PROTECT HER, HELP HER RIKI”, as he hesitated early on, he gets better, but I do think he should have jumped in quicker.

So how about we talk about Kazamatsuri’s favourite karaoke song Melencholy of a Noisy Girl(good lord even her theme hints at the tonal shift her route takes).
So I fucking love this music, the perfectly flawless theme of common route Haruka, noticeably takes a backseat in the route itself, but one of the most memorable tracks in Little Busters, the energy, the strange instruments, the jumpy bounciness of it all, the DO DO DO DO DO and CLAP CLAP. It’s impossible to not sing along to this song, it’s impossible to not clap clap to the clap clap. I have sung along to this silly little melody of beeps and boops both drunk and sober with several Kazamatsuri members before and I will do it again, it’s charm is undeniable.

Right then, lets stop beating around the Elephant in the Bush.

"Nobody was in the wrong, I don’t have to hate anyone. There are no evil people in the world"

I STRONGLY DISAGREE

No I get it completely Haruka, you’ve lived your life having a ‘bad guy’, now that you know she wasn’t the villain you wanted, needed her, to be you want to let bygones be bygones, let go of your hatred and stress that you don’t think that way anymore, you don’t need to justify yourself as ‘the good one’.
But there is somebody at fault, there is evil people in this world, and while I really really really agree that you should just let your hatred leave and forget about it, I can’t stop hating the scum.
I don’t think the message the route was trying to stress is that ‘always forgive everyone no matter how horrible they are’, but some poor wording makes it seem that way so while I don’t dislike how the route ended, I think some better care should have been taken with it’s ending.

OVERALL, this route is good, not perfect, but consistently high quality and meaningful, in the end I will only be able to remember it well because, well, I’m actually in love with Haruka.

[Zeldamaster7453]

It killed me a bit on the inside after Riki mentions he smells mint on Haruka. Oh god no, let it not be so. *chooses “Give up”
At that moment, Riki knew he screwed up.

I liked haruka route, but since I saw the anime first, I guess I remembered slowly what happened. It was still enjoyable.

I felt a bit annoyed at how Haruka was taking the situation, but then again Futaki was egging her on.
(Insert pun here )

Nothing was really spectacular until the last 30 min when they meet Shou Saigusa. Questions were finally going to get answered. All but the most Important of all, just who is Shou Saigusa’s Daughter?

Well I guess it wasn’t that important. (The driving force making you read and wait for that anticipation to go WOOAAHH when you learn the truth. Then start rambling trash talk and say I knew all along.

I was reading the Give up bad end and was wondering when Haruka’s text box appears - (the purple one) She talks about how theres no reason to be around and a car horn is heard and Asphalt is seen. She was thinking of just disapearing and shoes striking a puddle reverberated in her ears. Is this telling us she killed herself? I’m not sure so I need clarification and later when talking to Kanata an Ambulance siren is heard

[Kanon]

All but the most Important of all, just who is Shou Saigusa’s Daughter?

You mean least important of all. Who cares!

Is this telling us she killed herself?

Absofuckinglutely.

[Zeldamaster7453]

You mean least important of all. Who cares!

That whole scenario was pushing the story for like the last portion of the route. When things were finally getting interesting. Then she changes her mind.

Sure, finding out probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Because Haruka didn’t want to switch places with Futaki (if they would even do that) but having the notion of looking into it, she learns that Futaki isn’t as bad of a person like she thought. Plus they start trying to repair their relationship.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is Haruka is a likeable character, but her route frankly, is boring and a bit predictable. Most certainly, there’s room for improvement. They could have expanded a bit more on whose daughter is whose. And how they work together to fix this family issue.

This might be because of the twins in Clannad. Like when Kyou cut her hair and impersonated Ryou.

I figured after learning that Futaki was indeed her sister that it would happen. (I mean, just by looking you can tell)

[Naoki_Saten]

Most certainly, there’s room for improvement. They could have expanded a bit more on whose daughter is whose. And how they work together to fix this family issue.

I might look weird saying this, but @Kanon is right. The whole point of the route is to give Haruka her sense of self-worth back, which has been utterly destroyed by her family. Her family had hammered into her head that she is trash because she’s the daughter of a murderer. That’s bullshit. Haruka is Haruka. She is her own person. It does not matter whose daughter Haruka is. She wanted to know who her father is in hope of finding out that it’s not Saigusa, the murderer, because, according to her family, that would mean she’s not trash.

When Haruka had finally regained her confidence, she realized that the father issue was of no consequences to her. Not caring about it anymore was the proof of her recovery, just like her ability to reconcile with Kanata. She didn’t need to be a Futaki to feel good about herself. She didn’t need to believe in the same ignorant superstitions as her outdated failure of a family.

[Zeldamaster7453]

The whole point of the route is to give Haruka her sense of self-worth back

Yes, you are correct, but self-worth isn’t the only message this route is trying to get across.

All I was saying was how I felt a bit robbed, like searching for the holy grail as an example. All this work to learn something and not getting the info, a change of heart. This was what the story was going off of. So, a bit of a let down.

I have no complaints other than they had numerous opportunity to make this route even better than it was. And that was one thing that could have been brought up sooner and gave it more time to explore.

There should have been more to her route to make it more interesting. Not to say that it isn’t interesting, its just kinda plain at spots, her situation also is something hard to relate to.
Its just too bizarre of a situation that anyone can relate to under normal circumstances.

Each (in-game) day is repetitive. Pretty much the same conversations but masked so that they are seemingly different. Sort of like how Haruka’s parents always asked her the same questions at the dinner table.

I know, having each day being the same kinda gives us a taste of what Haruka felt growing up with constant trash talk and beatings every day of her life. But after an hour or 2, it got sick real quick.
It almost made it a chore to read.

And yes, I have sympathy for Haruka’s situation, but having her keep asking Riki and Futaki “Why” all the time got on my nerves.

I felt relieved when Futaki made the comment to have Haruka think for herself and stop questioning everyone/everything. By that point Haruka had a noticeable change in character development. So she was more tolerable.

It just got to be annoying trying to save this girl when You are sitting at the computer and not physically there to tell her this is what you should do.

Also, reading the rest of the posts on this thread, practicality everyone has a positive view of Haruka’s route. Not judging, but we also need to see this routes flaws as well. But this is just my opinion.

[Natsume]

It’s popular because it’s one of the routes most grounded in reality. It does have its flaws, yes, but Haruka’s entire situation as a whole is something that many can extensively relate to (which I’d recommend really not making any assumptions on that part because that could be taken as insulting towards people who, too, had “abnormal” lives) and it’s part of why you seem to be the only one of the only ones who was bothered by her repetitive questioning attitude (which is a trademark of abuse leading to doubt about whether people actually care about you, are lying about it, or feel obliged and don’t actually care).

I’ll also have to agree with Kanon here, since the point wasn’t to satisfy the reader’s curiosity but to make the reader understand the importance of self-worth in a situation of abuse (in which you shouldn’t want to tell them what to do but teach them how to reach answers by themselves in a healthy manner).

Would I have liked to know who was Shou’s daughter for the sake of my curiosity? Sure.

Does it matter to the message the route was trying to convey? No.

This relates to something @technololigy had tweeted a while back IIRC, but the gist of it basically went that if you want to save someone, you need to teach them how to save themselves. Otherwise you’d only be shifting the problem to another source. It teaches that you won’t always have the answers to everything in life and don’t need to either, while we’re at it.

[Kanon]

Does it matter to the message the route was trying to convey? No.

Not telling us matters to the message. Acknowledging it matters at all is only supporting the idiotic family’s thought process.

[Natsume]

Poorly expressed that. I meant rather in the way of whether it impacted the route and its enjoyment as Zeldamaster seems to think (which it doesn’t, since it’s an integral part of the experience) moreso than its relevance to the plot itself.

[octoberpumpkin]

I really liked this route. As someone mentioned above, it was something I can personally relate to. It hit me especially hard since I have been going through one of my depressive episodes and have been feeling pretty worthless. So it was definitely something that resonated with me in places. I also liked how they didn’t reveal who was whose daughter. I was expecting the stereotypical “she’s not the lesser daughter all along!” but I felt it had more impact this way and fit the story better. I would have been a bit disappointed if they had revealed it either way, so this felt most appropriate.

There were a few confusing bits and poorly written bits. At times I was cringing a lot because of my therapy training and just how much Haruka needs to develop a personal sense of self-worth rather than relying on MC-kun to give her that worth. I think overall they handled that pretty well and she became more self-dependent, but there were some red flags here and there that made me worried he was going to swoop in and save her. It did turn out better than expected. I am going to be interested in seeing her sister’s route because she came off as pretty unsympathetic during a lot of this and, while somewhat redeemed, I would like to get a better look at her perspective.

Also are there any normal fraternal twins in media? They’re always identical, which is a small percentage of twins, and now we finally get fraternal twins and its another extremely rare occurance. Not a genuine complaint, more just amusing x3

[StarfishBender]

OK well I have been able to enjoy Haruka’s character in small doses but during her own route I found it a bit too much to take all of the time, found myself going off to do other things to get a break from it - and Futaki got on my nerves too with the relentless antagonism.

BUT then as Key so often manages, the story did gradually bring me around and I started to root for Haruka more and rather then just feeling sorry for her hoping that she would find her way out of this spiral. I think that leaving the issue of whose father and whose daughter unresolved was actually the right choice for the story. It did feel stronger for the fact that Haruka ultimately decides that she needs to pull herself around without ever finding out who was her real biological father, and in doing so, find a way to connect with Futaki rather than simply trade places. Nonetheless I see why Kanon thinks the “message” of how Haruka decided to reconcile herself to not apportioning blame could be seen as skirting the issue of the insidious behaviour of the adults that could so easily have had tragic consequences.

I did feel though that what with the three possible bad ends too it seemed to all drag on a bit longer than felt necessary as there was some repetition. I think this is my least favourite route so far, not by any means an unsatisfying one though.

EDIT: I’d meant to add it was interesting to get another POV in this route than Riki even though it was fairly brief.

[Tsukishiro]

Just finished the route for the second time (after 6 years) but there’s still a small question lingering in my mind.

If the Saigusa’s wanted to know which kid was whose, why didn’t they do the DNA test on the Futaki father? The one that Haruka lives with.
Did he also refuse the test? It would make sense if he did, considering that he was exiled until recently and all, but it was never brought up.

[Dunciboy]

Haraku’s story kinda show how important having good family can be and how damaging it can be to have bad family, I couldn’t imagine how it would be to have to challenge your sister or brother what i saw in this story.

Something like who her sister was where kinda easy to deduct and the sprite only available in the bad end really show the resemblance between them when they’re hair isn’t tied up.

Overall I really liked reading this character route, it show how somebody who acts all happy and laughs can actually hide the deepest scars.

[machelmore]

I imagine even if they asked him, he would have refused because of the agreement with Shou to tell the twins everything if they ever came to him together. It would’ve been pointless if they did it themselves, and depending on the results, could cause a lot of turmoil in the family - which some people would consider them accountable for.
As for why Riki and Haruka never thought to ask, maybe they thought the same thing, maybe it never occurred to them, or, in my opinion, most likely, that Haruka had already asked them in ages past and they refused to help so she just never brought it up in the story.

[Aniglacial]

I just finished the route yesterday and I really enjoyed it. I had one problem with it though that resulted in me giving it a 4/5.

What happened with the Futaki family ?
Didn’t they say they would punish Kanata if she got close to Haruka? Then what was with the happy family scene in the end? Did the Futaki family somehow get taken out of the picture?

These are a few things that bugged me. Regardless it was a great and emotional route that was really heartfelt in the way it showed family bonds.

[Nav]

You really don’t need those spoiler tags here.
As for the question, I always just assumed that Kanata and Haruka sorted thing out with the family.
The only 2 reasons for Kanata to be obeying the family are 1.Haruka, and 2. fear of being left alone, since “punishment” is NOT going to work well towards a high school student in this civilized day and age (being optimistic here). So if Haruka is now on Kanata’s side (along with their parents), this can give her the courage and the bargaining chips she need to negotiate with the family. Judging by her capabilities and what she has on hand (heir to the family, that sort of thing) I’m not surprised if she is now head of the family (happens a lot in stories like this).

[Aniglacial]

As for the question, I always just assumed that Kanata and Haruka sorted thing out with the family.

The only 2 reasons for Kanata to be obeying the family are 1.Haruka, and 2. fear of being left alone, since “punishment” is NOT going to work well towards a high school student in this civilized day and age (being optimistic here). So if Haruka is now on Kanata’s side (along with their parents), this can give her the courage and the bargaining chips she need to negotiate with the family. Judging by her capabilities and what she has on hand (heir to the family, that sort of thing) I’m not surprised if she is now head of the family (happens a lot in stories like this).

I agree that Kanata did it for Haruka but it already stated pretty clearly that they were keeping up with the abuse until recent times despite “this civilized day and age” which is what confused me.

People like the Futaki family can be difficult to reason with in my fair opinion, even when having a plausible argument.

The last statement you mentioned seems to be the most likely scenario. That Kanata became the family head and silenced any outcries against her and her sister so they could live happily.

[Nav]

they were keeping up with the abuse until recent times despite “this civilized day and age” which is what confused me.

The “abuse” is more of a declaration of power, Kanata could have gone to the authorities after being abused, but she stayed for the 2 reasons I mentioned above. The violence itself wasn’t that big of a deal (sad but most likely true).

Your problem might be that the family is confident enough to be violent in public, which probably seem to indicate the family has a lot of power, but unfortunately this isn’t true (trust me on this, personal experience), they were just exploiting Kanata’s weakness, the two reasons she could not go to the police.
So once Kanata regained her family, there was pretty much next to no chance the family would use any sort of violence (or any illegal method, for that matter) towards her for fear of coming into contact with the law. After all, their goal is to ensure the family’s prosperity/safety, not burn the house down because of a rat, especially if the “rat” in question is the heir to the head of family.

That Kanata became the family head and silenced any outcries against her and her sister so they could live happily.

Yeah, though the best scenario to me would be Kanata and Haruka just break all ties with the main family completely, but since they spent a lot (time, resources) on Kanata this is less than likely.