Little Busters! - Haruka Saigusa Route & Character Discussion

[cjlim2007]

Disclaimer: I originally experienced this story in the anime about 3 years ago, then read the VN about 2 years ago. Back then, my goal was for emotional payoff. This time however, I wanted to analyze how it all came together. My memory is not super good so I went into this reread knowing their secrets but I forgot how the whole thing got resolved. Needless to say, this route excited me a lot. I was seeing a lot of activity on this route discussion due to repeated bumps (I monitor this stuff yah know) and I generally just wanted to get to it fast. Lowkey the post that I meant to write for Kurugaya got shafted because now Haruka’s route is the only thing on my mind, oops. Also it was cool getting to read you guy’s discussions and made my feelings for this route even stronger. Oh yeah and… I still can’t figure out best girl yet tbh. This route is definitely goddamn fantastic though.

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So what the fuck did I just read?

Good shit that’s what that was. First of all, double shoutouts to Suzuki Keiko for playing both main roles here and being fanfuckingtastic. You can feel the power of her voice with the contrast between Haruka’s rage, fear and melancholy (of a noisy girl?) vs Kanata’s sarcastic, cold and snide. It really gets your blood boiling; you can really feel what Riki feels. This brings me to one of the main reasons why I think this route is exceptional.

Empathy

Since you’re playing as Riki, you see mostly one side of this conflict, but you also get glimpses of the other. You never entirely can see each side because you can never truly be another person. But empathy is super important in this route and in real life. Only by empathizing can people ever understand each other’s differences. First you see Haruka being hated by all the prefects, especially Kanata. When Riki approaches Kanata by himself, she treats him like Haruka by association, but sometimes she holds off on insults by being truthful or just being a little bit open. For example, she asks him about whether or not this world distributes happiness equally. He is taken aback because she normally is openly antagonistic to him and Haruka. Another part is where she actually goes ahead and tells him the truth behind her “egg allergy” when he doesn’t really deserve that information. This small action shows us, both Riki and the reader, that she doesn’t truly hate Haruka completely. Soon the ball gets going and we see small actions where you can tell both girls start getting conflicted within themselves which leads up to them opening up to each other.

This isn’t a smooth process, people aren’t easy to understand. One scene in particular that I am fond of is when Riki asks Kanata to meet Haruka in the courtyard after school. After an extra hour or two, Kanata does arrive but she is still openly hostile. Even so, it’s one small step. It shows that Riki can see Kanata tripping up and takes advantage of that opportunity to help the sisters resolve their differences. After Kanata leaves you see that Haruka lost the bet. She had bet that Kanata would not come. Riki believed in Kanata, believed in the good, and through this action slightly changed Haruka’s worldview.

As the route continues, more information is exchanged through Riki for empathy to occur. In an ideal world, they would understand each other immediately. This isn’t one. Little Busters, and well, Key works in general are usually pretty realistic and down to earth. This is one of the shining moments. It shows that real people are broken. They can’t resolve things instantly. It’s a slow bumpy process where a misstep, especially in such an unfair world, can push someone to the point of no return. To death.

But there is hope. In this case, Haruka is beaten and broken down to the point where she can only trust Riki. Riki handles this very well (in the good end at least). He reaches out to places that Haruka cannot: Kanata. He has seen her trip up in her act to completely isolate Kanata so he knows she cannot be completely evil. He empathizes with her to realize that the pain affects both of them. It isn’t a zero sum game between the two of them. Then he proceeds to arrange meetings between the two as well as reassure Haruka that she doesn’t need to compete with Kanata, she just needs to be herself. It’s further emphasized by the fact that Riki can (or cannot in the bad end) distinguish between the two. Through these actions, Riki causes Haruka to question her worldview and relationship with her sister and ultimately causes her to finally let go of the hate she once held for Kanata.

It’s currently 12:15am so I’ll conclude this here. There are still two more big points in this route I want to talk about. But feel free to ask some questions here because right now I’m really into this Haruka thing. I think Haruka’s route has to be my favorite out of the rereads so far, but I’m not sure how much I like Haruka as a character. I still don’t know who my LB best girl is.

[Rincchi]

I’ve always found this line from the common route really curious (this is from the trial of courage with Haruka and Kud)

Of course Kanata would have had birthday cakes, and I imagine Haruka was allowed to share. Really, it would be ridiculous not to let her have cake as well. But, huh, putting out the candles as well? I feel like that would have been a privilege for Kanata and Kanata alone. Poor Haruka.

So, what do we have here? Truth? Or a mere fantasy of Haruka’s?

[HeliosAlpha]

it would be ridiculous not to let her have cake as well.

These people would invite Hitler over for tea. She had to have made that up, or it was just an oversight by Tonokawa.

[Natsume]

Actually, no. Not everything that doesn’t match up is an oversight. It was likely her pretending (that she’d had a similar childhood to most of her friends out of fear they’d reject her for the truth) and projecting something she wished was part of her life.

And Rincchi’s idea fits this notion as well.

[Odinbeard_McSparkles]

I know a few people already chimed in on this, but I’d also like to add that myself and more than a few people I know (I’d probably need all my fingers, plus a few toes…) can relate to this story on a deeply personal level. As is customary, LB! takes things to extreme level. While the issues Haruka deals with might be on a higher level that me and the friends I know experienced, it may not be as big of a leap of logic as you might think at first glance. In this case, I think this is the difference between something being directly relatable or something being believable within the context of the story being told. For me, I certainly found it believable.

In fact, too believable. So much so that I had trouble removing myself from my own head and getting lost in the story itself. It put me through quite a ringer of emotions, from anger and sadness and loss for Haruka, to utter disdain and contempt for her “family”, most obviously with Kanata. It’s incredible how unlikable she is, until you remember she came from that crazy family too, so expecting her to come out unscathed would be a bit unfair. Not to mention that when she finds out Haruka is trying to figure whose kid is whose, it’s within reason to assume that Haruka is doing it to spite her/take her place. Sure, she was still a total bitch beforehand, but you can’t break the evil cycle with more evil.

Which leads me to Kanata’s world view, which is that happiness and sadness can only exist when the other also exists. When I first read that, I assumed she was talking about them. The more interesting question was: “Who is supposed to be the happy one?” No one who acts, talks, and does what Kanata does is anywhere near happy, and we’ve already seen enough of Haruka to know she’s putting on a facade most of the time. They assume the other is the one who is happier or better off, but they are both miserable. As some have already pointed out, they aren’t able to understand one another, and weren’t ready to before this point.

I want to touch on the “message” of the ending. There are many ways to interpret what Haruka says, but the way I saw it was someone who had lived their whole life hating something realizing that it was only hurting them and those around them in the end. I don’t think Haruka truly believes that there is no one who is intentionally evil or does any evil intentionally, but rather that people do bad things reactively. Haruka acts the way she does to get Kanata is trouble because she wants to get back at her/her family. Kanata keeps “winning” so as to not be in Haruka’s place, but doesn’t want really to. Haruka and Kanata’s parents hide the truth in hopes the two will be able to make their own way without being held down by the circumstances of their birth, but it backfires. And the Saigusa/Futaki families…well, it’s basically impossible to defend their brand of evil: they are adults and should have known better. However, the only way I can explain it is that they likely did what they did because that’s how they were raised: to put their bloodline and tradition above individuals for the sake of the whole family. I’ve seen enough, in others and myself, to know that we resemble our parents and their values in many more ways than we are sometimes aware of. I’m not saying it’s right, but I think I can at least see part of the thought process, regardless of how royally fucked it is. I think this is also seen by Haruka/Kanata’s parents: they are setting the tone for the next generation, and it is likely that the old line of thinking won’t persist beyond that.

[Tidulimar]

Forgive me please for beeing terrible at structuring.

Like many, at first, I was annoyed by Haruka and did not like her. However, with getting used to her and no longer being annoyed, I started really liking her. I already like that character type of, how @Apasher described it, “energetic airheads”. This probably also why I enjoy Komari as a character as much as I do. Over time, Haruka made it high on my personal current best girl list, not sure if she or Rin are on the top spot. And like every other route so far, their route made me like her even more.

Kanata is also a very interesting character. She makes a really good villian, I duper duper hated her. But I can forgive her. Mostly because one of the scenes she had she mentioned that she is trying to get Haruka to leave the school, because she thinks is better for the two, because she wanted to avoid any more conflict with her. She also ended up being such a nice person after her redemption.

The route itself, like many others mentioned, was really ,good at making me feel emotions. A wide range of them. Anger, depression, joy, sadness. No other route did it as good as others. Including goosebumbs. I wanted to punch Kanata so hard when she destroyed the bench. So hard. I kind of wish Riki did.
The first bit, maybe 1-2 hours, did not do that for me. Haruka went back to annyoing me. There was no conflict yet, just A LOT of scenes with her. It was a bit too much for me. Just before I could not bare it anymore, the conflict started showing itself in Haruka’s emotions end reactions.
How the heck did Riki not notice the similarities between those two though? How can you not notice? He only was considering them being related just before the reveal.
I also wonder how it took Riki so long to realize that Kanata was faking being Haruka. On the other hand, the cues were spelled out to us as a reader, so we noticed it faster than Riki did. Ironically, I know there was at least one scene where Kanata took Haruka’s place earlier, but I am not sure how many there actually were. I might have missed a few times that happened. So good how the route did this to me.
The second bad ending was not only really great, but also really sad. And I realized pretty early in that scene that it’s Kanata in that scene, which made Riki not realizing it really hard to see.
What was a little bit of an issue, as some people have said before, was the pacing in the last half. It was really slow for the most part, including some scenes that were not pushing the overall plot forward. And after Kanata tells her side of the story, everything just happens so fast. It was a great finale and epilogue, so much peace and love there . It’s okay to wrap up things pretty fast after the climax, I mostly pointed that out because of the contrast to the pacing before that.

The romance in this route was kist so good and cute It was long, it was down to earth, and it was super cute.
I can relate to Haruka a lot myself, I had times of very low self worth in my life as well. Which is probably one of the reasons why I like her route even more.

When they went to ask Shou who is which daughter, I did expect Haruka would just be fine, so I was not disappointed when it happened. At that point, it would not matter either way.

Also, there is a class trip in a bus coming up? And Haruka wants to sneak in with Riki’s class? The hints to an accident are getting stronger!

Overall, I think this was my favourite route so far. Maybe tied with Komari’s route. The route was really good, although slighly flawed, I enjoyed it a lot.

[Zosonte]

I’m not quite sure where I wish to begin this post. This is one of the best stories Key has ever told me. It shows both the deepest dregs of humanity, and the strength and tools required to overcome it. The ability to discover who we are, and what our identity is. Where our place is in this confusing and painful world. I cannot express in any way what feeling gnaws at me as a gossamer web of light and hope rests upon my heart. Is it satisfaction? Joy? I feel drained, for sure. This is not only a sad story, but a dark and disturbing foray into what we wince to look at and confront. It was something I expected from 07th Expansion, not Key.

So, my first impression of Haruka was actually quite high. Yes, she’s a prankster and a ball of energy, but I knew enough that all such characters carried hidden depths, and beneath Haruka’s cheeky smile and wide blue eyes I pondered as to what dreamlike secrets and mistakes bubbled within. Did the stench of blood and tears hide beneath that citrus shampoo? As I grow out of a cynical, lesser version of me, I grew also to enjoy the sprightly and innocent; those that remind me of who I was once was, and who I strive to be now. Haruka was no exception. She was third in my heart behind Kurugaya and Mio, and she still stands tall there now, a smile unburdened gracing her gentle face.

One final thing before the route begins, is that feeling of a “nest” I was acquiring as I read through Little Busters. As Komari has the rooftop and Mio the zelkova tree, I had Little Busters and Kazamatsuri. It is here, skimming through common for the sixth(?) time that I truly reached through the blue mist of dream and wonder and felt the solid connections I felt to these characters. The Little Busters are like my own friends, now. I feel safe when I read this work of literature. I feel at peace when I’m with them, these friends of mine.

Haruka, the enigma. This is what laid in the deep pockets of her identity, beneath the pliers and nails: a lonely girl crying for help, trapped in the endless million-toothed torture of no self-worth. Have we all not suffered these deep and drawn cuts? Haven’t we all craved to be needed, to be loved and praised? I know I have. It is a vine I continue to grapple with, and may cross my path for the rest of my life. It is a base need of humanity, of all mammals to belong and feel wanted. Everyone deserves such. This is where Little Busters continues to impress and inspire me; I have never related to any cast of characters as well as I have to the Little Busters. These characters are written so undeniably well I am almost scared. No horizon, no sky nor sea darkened with the shadows of unknown knowledge or experiences has ever daunted me like the way these characters have, basking in the morning light and penned by those who peer into the human spirit.

After the typical journey of Riki and the heroine spending time together and discovering those ever-beautiful seeds of love blossom, pure in their stem and timeless in their petals, we reach the zenith of the route, where Riki and Haruka are threatened to be cleaved asunder by the axe of ancient and immeasurable fate. Like many of you, this struck me out of left field. At best I believed Haruka was simply being neglected or abused by her parent(s). Not… this. This primal, overbearing, ritualistic abuse by the tribal family unit, ruling and beating harder than any god or king. Something no human deserves; something no human should ever experience. As a God-fearing man, I sympathized with Haruka as she curses His name. To be told from birth that you are inferior, that you are weak and you are better off dead, to be beaten until you submit to those who others cheerfully smile at, to be told that someone within arms distance is better, I can think of no worse life. I can think of no worse blight on the human soul. Haruka grows up, shaped by anger at those around her and the rest of the world. Defined by her hatred, she runs away into the guise of a joker, if only to have a different identity, to feel something other than the subhuman she was taught she was. I would have broken long ago. I would have heeded the siren song and taken my own life, if only to make those who pushed me from the cliff a little less burdened.

I remember, it was at this screenshot here that I felt the first tear caused by Little Busters to roll down my cheek. Previously in Mio and Komari’s routes, I only felt that beautiful fogginess cloud my sight. Now, I am truly home, and here we arrive to the tale of Kanata Futaki, and her attempts to push her sister away for Haruka’s sake. The foreshadowing of her pretending to be Haruka was almost too heavy-handed to miss for even a dense person like me, and the bad ending it led to if I accepted it was so shocking I could do no more than feel my heartbeat remind me that I still lived, while Haruka took her own life, having even Riki stolen by the person she hated most. Only when she hears those words above, that while Kanata may seem better than her, Haruka is the one Riki loves, and no one can replace her in his heart. She is unique, she is special, and that is something only she can do. As anyone who loves another, this is perhaps the most concrete truth in our world.

As usual, however, it is Riki, and by extension us as the reader who decides not to give up and fight for the future we desire. To forge the very core of who we are, and build upon that with the help of those we love. Riki really impressed me in this route. He rejects the notion of being a hero to Haruka, and states over and over again to Kanata that he is not giving her a handout, but instead a hand up. He does not bear the world for her, rather he supports her arms with his own. I remember crying out again when Haruka stated to Shou that she no longer cared whose daughter she was; that was not what defined her. Neither was it her deep-seated hatred for Kanata, which she was finally able to let go of. Haruka is Haruka. Nothing more, nothing less. To hear something so common, something most take for granted, stated so plainly by this girl who suffered so much, is the ultimate catharsis for me. Haruka and Kanata are freed from the rusty and twisted chains that have lied to them for so long, that they could not be misconstrued as anything but truth. As it is said, they have reached the starting line. Both of their lives can truly begin, and they can finally live it as themselves.

So, this route was beautiful. It was a tale of two girls rejecting the circumstances pushed onto them with the ancient and tested powers of forgiveness and understanding, sprinkled with the love of an everyday boy. It is, in every way, a triumph of humanity. It may have changed me; how, I’m not sure. It may take days or weeks to settle, so that I may pick the diamonds from it and learn more about myself and how to further my purpose on this Earth. I know that with clouded eyes I type this, ready to break into tears. I do not fear that, however, for whenever I am broken by the beauty Key presents me I am only reforged into a better person. I know who I am and what my purpose is because of Key, and I walk this path because I love this world and the people in it. Haruka and Kanata stand at the starting line just as I once did. This story, dark and painful as it may be, just tells me that once again there is always something worth fighting for.

[Pepe]

Oh my, well that was definitely a route! And it was just as good as I remembered it being. Mad props to Chika Shirokiri for making a story that’s just so raw and so real and such a blast to read.

Now, onto my impressions for my second readthrough of this route, after so many years. One thing I noticed about this route is that there are just so many scenes that only make sense in hindsight. Like, why did Futaki go crazy over Haruka’s erasing the blackboard (because at that point we didn’t know that the rumor was being spread and Futaki was also bothered by it), or why was Haruka acting strange and smelling like mint (because it wasn’t Haruka, dumdum). Heck, if there’s any mystery that was never explained in this route I guess it would have to be…

What in the world did Komari and Rin do during their study session that caused Rin to turn into a lazy kitty??

Joking aside, I felt that this was one of the best parts of the route as it helps to really get the reader into it and start thinking about everything that’s happening, instead of just sitting around like a reader, waiting for whatever to happen next. Really gets you more involved. The best part was with the whole masquerade, with hints after hints being subtly dropped here and there. It’s the kind of thing where if you really weren’t paying attention, it wouldn’t show itself… But if you were, you’d immediately notice something wrong.

Although, they do take it to a different extreme, especially in the new bad end. I don’t quite remember the details, but in the original release, failing to notice that Kanata is masquerading as Haruka gets you a bad end that just subtly shows you that you should have payed more attention. This new bad end goes for quite a while, leading to a brand new scene; playing with doggies, going to the nurse’s office, and a big reveal in the rain. While it was dramatic, I felt it a tad unnecessary, and preferred the subtlety of the original.

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Now that my impressions are done, I came here for a specific purpose. After all, I do owe @Aspirety a counter-argument.

“That there are no evil ones in this world.”

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…

Now, when I argued against this point, I definitely felt that something was off… Aspi wasn’t wrong, for sure. But there was something wrong because I felt that I never understood it that way. Heck even @Kanon points it out:

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

I STRONGLY DISAGREE

This is a horrible message, yes. But why did I never notice it before? Well, I thought this was one point that I wanted to make sure that I understood before I proceeded with everything else. I even had to skim through the whole route a third time just to get it… and you know what, I think I understand it even better, and it’s even more powerful to me. So, let’s get onto it.

There are no evil ones in this world

So what exactly does this mean? Well, wording is very important here. She does not say “there are no evil people”; she says “there are no evil ones” (in japanese she uses 誰も as opposed to, say どんな人も). Let’s stress the ones here. My understand ties in to something Riki said earlier:

“struggling against an unseen chain whose links had been long forged by other people. A chain whose links were sharp as blades.”

And that’s when it hit me: there really are no evil ones in this world. As much as fiction tries to imply, there are no supervillains; there are no evil masterminds; there is no single person who is, by themselves, evil. However, evil takes a form: it is a form forged by the small ill thoughts of many people who you would not consider evil. It is shaped by the situation and background of many people. And this evil is the most powerful evil of them all. The evil that, you don’t notice as it slowly creeps into society, so you let it pass. Until the point that it becomes too out of hand for anyone to be able to do anything about it…

And this is what I think the message of the route is trying to say:

Haruka constantly tries to find the villain: somebody to hate. Somebody that she can push the blame on. But can she really do that? It’s easy enough for us readers to label the “Saigusa Family” as evil but… who exactly are these faceless “Saigusa family” members? The head of the family who controls everything? The bitchy aunt who always judges you? The kind but stern uncle who gives you an extra piece of candy but later that night hits you with a belt?
This is an entire family we’re talking about, and it would be pretty much impossible to point out one single person as a “villain” in this story. At the same time, we would not be able to label every single member of the family as “evil” or a “villain”. Each and every single person in this family has their own story behind their harsh mask. Maybe their story is just as deep and harsh as Haruka’s and Kanata’s. Or maybe it isn’t. But can we really so easily judge them as evil?

At the same time, don’t we think the same way too? Whenever something bad happens we always find somebody to blame. Whose fault is it? Who made it like this? Why is it so bad? Some people find a scapegoat, maybe in a leader. Maybe even blaming a faceless divine being with questionable existence. And you know what? Finding this entity to blame is just sad.

By the end of the story, Haruka gets over this:

“No one is in the wrong… So I don’t have to hate anyone…”
And this is what the route is trying to tell us. Stop the hate. Stop trying to find somebody to blame. Yes, there is evil in the world, and YES we need to do what we can to stop this evil. But nothing comes out of hating. In fact, fighting this evil with more hatred just breeds even more hatred that swirls and creates an even longer and more dangerous chain that grows into an evil that becomes even more unmanageable.

What we need is understanding. What we need is forgiveness and the willingness to come to an agreement. And what we need is the ability to determine when we are wrong and the ability to let other people know and agree when they are wrong, without simply hating these faceless beings.

This reminds me of a movie I watched recently, entitled “Look Who’s Back,” a dark comedy detailing a what-if scenario should a famous fascist dictator come back to life in modern times. Spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched it yet: The movie portrays Adolf Hitler as very human. A human with horrible ideals, yes, but not the kind that would go on a rampage and start killing Jews left and right. But a human that sees the problems that other people see in the world: he points out the stupidity of television, the looming danger of immigration, and other issues like this. And he convinces normal, everyday people that their hatred is justified, in a comedic manner, even. By the end, we are reminded that Hitler wasn’t able to amass the entire Germany by shouting his own hatred, but by amplifying the hatred of normal everyday people. He alone may have had evil thoughts, but this evil was only able to grow through the forged links of hatred added on by the common man. And his evil wasn’t any worse than the kind of thoughts we hear from some conservative politicians, heh.

As much as I don’t want to bring politics into this topic, I hope you’ll let me for a minute. It is 2017 and I am left speechless whenever I hear stories of fascism, racism, sexism and general hatred for people. And how do people respond to that? Well, of course, very antagonistically. They respond with a lot more hatred. And the worst part is that this just aggravates the other party, causing even more hatred. I’ll be honest, I don’t like where things are going, and I just think so much can be done more to help bring understanding into the world.

These people that we see that fight against what is right and go against the common good are people that we know. They are our family, our friends, the people we went to high school with, or the people that we work with. I don’t think we can, by any means, call them evil. But they have looming thoughts that, when built into a chain, will become something dangerous enough to break our entire society. We can’t just choose a scapegoat to push our hatred on; that if this sole evil were gone, the evil will be gone. But we fail to understand that this evil is pushed by others who we wouldn’t be so quick to blame. And the only way we can stop them is not by pushing our hatred for these people, but by understanding them. By letting them know that they should stop hating and that the people that they hate need to be understood. That the people they hate are not evil.

It’s very optimistic of me, I know. And I know that it may even be impossible to bring this spiral of understanding to the whole world. But I think I can start it by myself. And who knows, if I can convince somebody else of this idea of understanding over hatred, maybe they can do the same. It all starts with us, after all.

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I hope that I was able to give more insight into this controversial topic. Well I did get a bit too passionate there at the end, but if it helps get more people to understand and bring this message into heart, then perhaps I may have succeeded in getting even more people to value this wonderful route

[Nav]

And the only way we can stop them is not by pushing our hatred for these people, but by understanding them

I would say you took the words right out of my mouth, but there is no way that I can explain the long and convoluted thought process of mine with such clarity and conviction (I’m not one for writing, as you can see).

This topic is fairly controversial and, dare I say it, has practicality issues. It’s going to take a saint to follow this path to the end. But it is an interesting approach to society, and if more people heed this belief even if just a little bit, it could change the big direction of humankind for the better.

I feel like I went a little off-topic there, this post was meant to show admiration to @Pepe for voicing and throwing light on the thoughts I had but couldn’t make clear sense of by myself.

If I were to give a word of conclusion to Haruka’s route, it would be “empathy”.

[grooven]

Haven’t finished the route again, but man, Haruka is just so hilarious she has to be one of the funniest Key heroines yet. Just hanging out with her is such a blast! I wonder how I will feel about her route on the re-read. I would say her’s ranks in 3rd place (I know they’ve added more to Kud’s route so I will see)

[HeliosAlpha]

I got a key point mostly directed at veterans. What do you think of the times when Haruka becomes the narrator? Those scenes weren’t in the original 2007 edition but were instead added throughout the several expansions.

The first one felt very front loaded with stuff you originally learned about when the article was posted. I didn’t get why they felt that was needed. The second one was just brutal, and I love it. (My thoughts on the suicide one hasn’t really changed since last time I posted about it.)

[Kanon]

Now this is a story all about how when I first posted my Bookclub post here, @Naoki_Saten criticised how I said ‘I don’t think this is the message of the route’ but did not actual clarify what the message actually is.
I agreed with him on that, but unable to properly word it myself, I never actually put into writing what I think about the actual message.

Then Peeps strolls in and flexes his biceps

And this is what the route is trying to tell us. Stop the hate. Stop trying to find somebody to blame. Yes, there is evil in the world, and YES we need to do what we can to stop this evil. But nothing comes out of hating. In fact, fighting this evil with more hatred just breeds even more hatred that swirls and creates an even longer and more dangerous chain that grows into an evil that becomes even more unmanageable.

Yeah he gets it. He also points out how much of a shit I am. Even though I agree with this message, even though even Haruka can stop the hate at the end of this route, I still hold nothing but scorn for that family.

I can’t fully subscribe to forgive and forget, I’m not a good girl like Haruka, the most I can do is get over it and move on, and by get over it I mean be incredibly bitter regarding the whole ordeal.

[Lionpaw]

After finishing her route just a day ago, I have to say: her route is certainly very moving, especially if you can (somewhat) identify with her situation (no, I have not been whipped in the past, luckily).
Being Asian myself, I am aware and I have heard how cruel some parents can be, just to force their children to be successful or in pushing them into the direction they believe is right.
However, the thing that moved me the most in this route is the fact that Haruka learns to accept the unfairness of the world, the crimes that has been done to her and let loose the raw hatred that she has been coping during her whole life.
To be able to forget horrible things is one thing, to forgive and learn to love those who have hurt you is something entirely else. The character development that Haruka undergoes is therefore very moving and I would definitely recommend reader her route if you have not done so.

[Miky225]

I realy loved Haruka route.I felt sorry for her and the bad ending realy made me sad :(.
Even her kissing scenes was amazing.She was realy cheerfull and energetic.

[machelmore]

So originally I was gonna do a much longer post about my impressions on the route, but I figured I wouldn’t be able to do so without just regurgitating what’s been said a million times already, and I was hit with an intense wave of disgust at the thought. So all I’m gonna say is:

Maybe this wasn’t the best route (though it was up there), but Haruka’s still best girl.

Edit: Despite how much I’ll hate myself for it, I’ll do it anyway.

So, best girl. She has a bit of an unfair advantage because Keiko Suzuki is best voice actress, but even without that Haruka’s design is probably my favourite even though I usually favour hair being worn down at all times, and her personality’s probably first for me too, with the only real competition being Saya and Kurugaya.

My interpretation of the route’s message pretty much agrees with what we’ve already established, that you don’t need to find someone to blame. I think it’s enough to accept that “something bad happened to me” without needing to think “someone did something bad to me”. Finding someone to blame doesn’t help the situation at all, it just makes you wallow in hate. I’ve always thought that it was a bit of a weak mindset that “having someone to blame makes things easier”, and this route seems to agree.

So I was still going through a bit of a “finding myself” phase during the time I first played Little busters and still am, and if anything, I’d say that the thing this route really drove into me above anything else was that everyone has their circumstances. Don’t jump to conclusions. A lot of people have their reasons, i.e. Kanata and Haruka’s parents.

[HeliosAlpha]

Stop trying to find somebody to blame.

I’d say blame is the center piece here. The central word used, with very few variations, is 悪い[Warui]. The most typical translation for this is “bad.” In EE we see “bad” “evil” “in the wrong” etc. but I’m inclined to include “at fault” as a valid translation; it feels less intentional than the others.

Remember that this word is one that would be directed at Haruka most of the time. Haruka has been brought up on the idea that the world consists of the good and the bad, the haves and have nots. However, she only started intentionally causing trouble in high school(or maybe middle school). As a child, she wouldn’t have done anything “evil,” yet she was always somehow “at fault.” It’s this indoctrinated mindset that makes her seek someone else to take the role as “the bad one.”

So I figured the line about no evil in the world, “誰も悪くない世界,” is more about Haruka’s existence. The world isn’t split between the people “at fault” and the people who suffer from those faults. If we look at the quote below.

I thought that everything in the world had to be either against me or someone else

Her worldview was that a group of people were born to be hated, and she had been put in that group. She fought to escape that group but couldn’t. In the end, she sees that this division never existed; there is no universal black sheep who is always to blame. So I’d say the line is about enforcing her and Kanata’s existence, not forgiving the shitbags’. That’s what I thought of when I saw people talking about the line being too idealistic.

[Aspirety]

I was already unsettled by that scene without that extra stuff, damn. It really felt to me like Haruka was contemplating suicide, and she was desperately clinging to Riki to escape from that darkness. This further cements my idea.

[Kanon]

I was already unsettled by that scene without that extra stuff, damn. It really felt to me like Haruka was contemplating suicide, and she was desperately clinging to Riki to escape from that darkness.

No part of this is vague. Even in vanilla LB I feel like this nasty ass thought process was established to have presence. THAT’S WHY I MUST PROTECC

[Zosonte]

So I was still going through a bit of a “finding myself” phase during the time I first played Little busters and still am, and if anything, I’d say that the thing this route really drove into me above anything else was that everyone has their circumstances. Don’t jump to conclusions. A lot of people have their reasons, i.e. Kanata and Haruka’s parents.

This route is great at showcasing just how flawed these characters are. Kanata is presented as the antagonist and it is easy to hate to her, but savvy readers will immediately assume that there is a reason for outlandish methods. I only wish that the greater-scope problem, the Saigusa-Futaki feudalism, was dealt with in some way.

[Aspirety]

I have a key point that has been bothering me.

Why was Kanata such a fucking bitch?