I just started her confidant (luckily she's the LATEST in the game) and thought of something interesting : she says at the beginning of her second rank she recently started drinking coffee. Wouldn't that be because of everything happening around her after Kunikazu's death ? We wery well know the invigorating effect of caffeine on human body. And later on she almost faint. So she has to drink to keep pace with the company + school + PT (especially at this time during Sae's palace). Maybe you breifly talked about it in the video but I don't remember ^^ Thanks for your hard work !
I'm not sure if this comment will be answered, but I just have to get this off my chest: Haru's fiancé has the most disgusting plot armor I've ever seen in a video game. In every other Palace, the deadline was directly set by the ruler (Steal Kamoshida's heart or he will expel you! Steal Madarame's heart or he will sue you! Steal Kaneshiro's heart because he blackmails you! Steal Futaba's heart since you need her!). But in Okumura's Palace, the Phantom Thieves could've eliminated the deadline by tracking the fiancé down in Mementos and stealing HIS heart! However, that never happens. Instead he continues being a problem until the end of Haru's Confidant.
(Spoilers for Strikers included). My favorite aspect of Haru is her post arc after her dad dies. Out of most of the characters shes one of the only ones who fell for Joker really early on in her confidant. She’s really lonely being rich and technically having ownership of a massive franchise making people perceive her as hard to get to know even though that’s not the case. She’s also not got the best of social skills seeing as she’s not really been known to initiate too many conversations or interact much with others. Joker is the character that she feels the most open to and openly complements him and shares all of her hobbies and interests. She gets along well with the other girls just not as on an emotional level. Probably the most open with all of her emotions to Joker as seen in Strikers with her arc with Mariko during the fountain scene. She gets the most emotional when being rejected because of how attached to someone she feels will finally provide a loving relationship with someone who truly cares rather than an asshole rich guy that wants a tie to the brand. I love her character because she feels like someone trying to reclaim their love life and finally have someone in her life that she can rely on and have them rely on her as well.
The part about not initiating conversations makes sense when you consider that in Shido's Palace, she says that she attends business functions with her father, but was only expected to communicate in simple pleasantries. Because of that, Haru seems to feel that she doesn't have much to offer some conversations. I find that Haru seems close to Makoto, due to both being third-years, and also due to Haru identifying with Makoto's desire to save her sister from herself.
"She gets the most emotional when being rejected because of how attached to someone she feels will finally provide a loving relationship with someone who truly cares rather than an asshole rich guy that wants a tie to the brand." And this, ladies, gentlemen and non-binary peeps is one of the reasons why you never go the harem route in P5. The route is funny (I guess) but... It's just scummy for so many reasons.
@@akiumzeno I don't usually romance her I don't know if just feels a little late for a romance to feel as good but I still like her as a good friend but yeah always feel awful when I turn her down
Haru was one of my favorites, she's just so sweet. I felt like after her father's death was one of the bigger missed opportunities, though. There was no time spent to even show that it should be a devastating and shocking turn of events, which i think was an injustice to her character. It basically just cut to a couple of days later, and she was back and just like "no i'm fine guys". Something really felt like it was missing there, to me. It almost made it feel like she could be a sociopath or just didn't care for her father. But both things are proven false later, so it was just weird to me.
She isn't handled well no matter the context of it really, my culture isn't that different from Japan either, the game makes jokes about how violent and how much of a psychopath she is due to how she is also wielding an axe and shit, but it doesn't do much for her characterization, and for some reason Haru felt more emotion over Mariko that she talked to once or twice when she was 5 over her father's death, I know he's an asshole but the game made it clear she wants her father to live again constantly but it just falls weird, sure there is the idea of her holding on, but there is no point at all she's showing those vulnerability, even when you get to know her she's still distant, it's like her ex fiance that she hates knows her better than the rest of the cast, and I know, point is she doesn't trust easily, but here's a thing, I'm still not getting much even after finishing Strikers
This makes soooo much sense! I'v ealways wondered why Haru's reason for awakening her persona was about not wanting to marry and not something grander but now it totally makes sense why she wouldn't want to marry because it shows her strength in combatting mukoyoshi
I already had so much respect for Haru before this video, but damn, this makes me somehow respect her even more? Like seriously, this game has some strong ass women, and Haru is definitely no exception. Her not having that much screentime truly was a shame, but her arc in Strikers was fantastic! I'm really glad for all these analyses because they make me respect the characters I already love so much more (this is literally my favourite fictional cast ever, just its something you've always wanted, and I'm happy to say my friends remind me of the Phantom Thieves, and it's a great feeling), and just overall, this game has changed my mindset on a great many things. Thank you for this!
I had to look up the Nintendo presidents after you mentioned this, and the president between the Founder and the previous pres. before Iwata is a straight example of Mukoyoshi. His name was Sekiryo Kaneda, but he was adopted into the family and changed his name to Sekiryo Yamauchi. Super interesting so thanks for mentioning this!
I enjoyed the Okumura arc a lot more when I went through it during my Royal play through. I do wish Haru got more spotlight later in the story, but I get why she doesn’t. Still, her confidant is one of my favorites. And yeah, it’s nice that Takakura is a good guy since Haru has few adult figures around her who are genuinely good people. The info regarding business and Mukoyoshi are really interesting. Anyway, nice video Lady!
I personally think Haru was actually used fairly well in her limited screentime, and actually got to do a fair amount in the Niijima and Shido arcs despite not being the main focus.
I feel like people look at Haru's confidant and don't think very much of her because of her simple desires and that is what makes her character incredibly underrated.
Wow. I had no idea mukoyoshi was a thing, never mind how common it is. I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen this criticized more often in Japanese media. The strong business women character in an anime is usually presented as an oddity, a joke... or a fetish. Now I know why.
While a lot of this analysis I saw coming, I'm definitely gaining a new appreciation for Haru after seeing this (which only makes it more annoying how underused she was in vanilla P5), because it never really occurred to me how inspiring she'd be to women in Japan going through what she did. I think Haru, Kunikazu and her arc (well, the part of it that's focused on her, anyway) get a lot of rap from western fans due to... for lack of a better word, their whole situation maybe coming across as "cartoonish" to them. Arranged marriages to obvious assholes is something that modern western works tend to only use in overly melodramatic period dramas or romantic comedies, at least I find, which might make her arc harder to take seriously for some. And while the brutality of many Japanese workplaces is common knowledge in the west, Mukoyoshi isn't really, but it also explains a lot. It's true that Mitsuru's personality makes their experiences very different: she's always been strong-willed and calls her fiancé out on his crap instantly. Side note: I remember back when I first saw Mitsuru's SL I had a hard time taking the arranged marriage plot seriously because, again, it brought to mind bad rom-com tropes. (Growing up with a sister in the early 2000's, I was force-fed a lot of those) It wasn't until your Akechi video and I heard you talk about Mukoyoshi that everything made sense. Side side note: Mitsuru's difference in personality is why I don't like the way her SL transitions to romance while I feel Haru's is a lot more natural. Seeing Mitsuru so strong and in control all the time, it felt very jarring that she'd suddenly turn into a "blushy-crushy" mess around the MC, some people find this "cute" but it's never been my thing. (Makoto doesn't feel like she loses her strength on her romance route) Actually even if I ship Joker more with Makoto than with Haru, Haru's confidant might be the one that has the best-handled romance route to me. There's no jarring shift, and the buildup feels natural. (The downside is it makes rejecting her painful) I like how you briefly touched on the possible reasons WHY Sugimura ended up a total ass. He's often dismissed as a cardboard cutout to facilitate Haru's development and provide social commentary, but it would be interesting to explore what his psyche might be like. The game doesn't give a lot to go on but I've always been interested in what kind of cultures lead to this kind of entitlement. Haru's arc in Royal was really sad, wishing an abusive parent back. I remember that one hitting hard when I first played, especially the line where she wonders if everything really is okay. Good job with this analysis video, now the OG PT crew is done (at least the humans...). I know it'd be a lot of work but I'd love to see analysis on the Palace Rulers one day. Especially Shido, he's another character who's seen as "cartoonish" in the west but might be more interesting with knowledge of Japanese politics. I hear political satire (outside of period pieces) is very rare over there, unlike most western countries. So if I could say one thing that's kinda unrelated to this: (I'm not assuming to know anything about Japanese culture, please correct me if I'm wrong), I wonder if the prevalence of adoptive siblings as love interests in Japanese media is related to Mukoyoshi and Japanese traditionalist ideas of family? Maybe there's something "wrong" about someone not related by blood being considered family, and marrying into the family "corrects" this? Or it could just be trying to appeal to incest fetishes without actually having incest, but I don't know, maybe it's something deeper.
Yeah yusuke and haru wishing for their abuser to be decent people is heartbreaking and kinda mess up Also knowing Mukoyoshi, it makes the haru and joker romantic route more cathartic, as joker is rather poor himself
@@lildrawhub1025 according to my calculations, 9 million yen is worth about 68,283 USD. Pretty high up there, though I don't know if it crosses the artificial threshold of being rich or not.
Here at last. Time to celebrate the most underrated character in Persona 5. And then it’s onto the final two!!! After these are done, could you please do some analysis videos on the trails series? I really like those!
Haru grew to be my favorite character. Hands down. I was worried I'd find her too meek, but the way she both takes charge of the company but simultaneously works to follow her own dreams , all while maintaining her kind personality, is one of the most boss things I've seen in a persona character
I doubt she’s “the most powerful corporate female in p5 verse” considering the fact that persona 3 takes place in the same universe. Mitsuru is in almost the exact same position that Haru is, but she’s ALSO in charge of the shadow operatives, and by this point in the story she’d have been in charge of the kirijo group for 7 years and the shadow ops for 6. She’s THE boss bitch in Japan.
@DavidJoh nah, it's the same universe. Characters from p3 and p4 are acknowledged in p5 (such as Akechi being the "second coming of the detective prince" because the first one was Naoto from p4; tanaka's shady commodities" being a reference to the character Tanaka who was the devil s link in p3 and the sunday shopping channel guy in p4; posters of Rise being all over the subway etc) and p3 and p4 are in the same universe, as seen by the fact that several characters appear in both (the p4 characters even take a school trip to the setting of p3) and they all meet explicitly meet in p4 arena/ p4 arena ultimax. You're thinking of personaQ, which is more dubiously canon and does involve alternate universes. But in the main persona 5 universe, p3 and p4 at the very least are very much canon to it
As clumsy as the writing around Haru is, I adore her character. I loved her awakening so much. I just kept mumbling “Kick his ass! Kick his ass!” when Milady first appeared. I knew that arranged marriages were still somewhat common outside of the west but I didn’t know to what extent until watching your series. No wonder Haru goes buckwild with her ax and grenade launcher! She needs an outlet! It was interesting to hear your brief thoughts on Sugimura’s motivations as well. He always felt like he was entitled to Haru, but I didn’t realize it went beyond just “this guy’s a rich jerk” until you talked about how he and Haru were raised for certain roles. This was a great analysis all in all! Side note: Haru’s costume is probably my favorite. The gunslinger is such a great choice for her. The color choices are great. I’m glad that they didn’t just rely on black and call it a day, like 80% of the other PTs, including the Striker duo. That little pop of color is sooooo needed among the cast. And most importantly, I love her little hat! ❤
as someone playing a game culturally different from my own, Haru is a dope-ass character. She has the kind of backbone strength even the most masculine men I know irl wish they had. When you notice a character like that, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, _you pay attention_ because in a game like Persona, you know this dainty cinnabon roll is gonna teach you some valuable lessons i don't like the shallow mitsuru/haru comparison, if anything yukiko can relate to haru, having to find her inner strength to break free from the chains society has smothered and bound her with
wait... p5 verse... Yeah Haru might be the richest of the main cast of p5. But Mitsuru is canonically part of the universe. Rise exists in P5 which confirms p4 is canon too. Which confirms P3 exists through Arena being canon. So technically Mitsuru has her beat. Would be cool if Haru formed a business alliance with her though.
That was such a great analysis! I'm mostly unfamiliar with the business side of Japanese culture and all of this just made me appreciate and respect my favorite girl Haru even more. I'm still going through Royal, actually at the end of Okumura's palace (though I know what happens story-wise) and now I'm even more excited to play through Haru's personal arc!!
@@LadyVirgilia All that is left is Sumi... it’s sad that despite our best efforts to have her win the polls, she ended up being dead last in the lineup. Just like Cinderella being covered in ashes.
Their something satisfying about joker(someone who rather poor) dating haru(who a modern princess). Yes I did date haru in my first playthrough in royal. This may be somewhat unrelated, but one thing I really like about strikers it gave the munch need development and screen time she needed in persona 5.
Funny that you mention Strikers, as this was the game that made me go from being a Makoto simp to becoming a fully fledged Haru connoisseur, i.e and even bigger simp. Seriously, they did Haru so much justice in this game, it's incredible. To quote a certain P5 Strikers discussion video: "Someone at Koei Tecmo is a big fan of Haru"
@@freezycastform99 yeah someone in Koei like fluffy hair women. Haru best part are her yelling at Mariko(basically her aunt) for being no better then her father and haru showing how crazy her driving is. Also haru is one the better characters gameplay wise.
@@starmaker75 Ikr! Her fighting style is so much fun, and the kit they gave her is really damn good. Also, her entire arc was so amazing, and is the main reason she grew so much on me. They uncovered a new side of her I never saw before and I really appreciate they did. Man, P5S is such a good game
@@mystery8820 Yes, absolutely. Ann also grew on me a bit more during the first arc. Maybe it's just because they made the whole Alice arc as bombastic as they could, but it still gave Ann some solid characterisation
One part of me from the original P5 that still sticks in my mind to this day is Sae being told by the SIU Director that she just find a man and get married so she can quit work and raise kids. All while the other SIU agents are men. Just goes to show how many glass ceilings Sae had to break and part of why she's so hard on Makoto.
"...bears resemblance to Yusuke's struggles when it comes to..." As someone who ships these two together, I look for any fodder to add to my growing list of justifications. Thank you.
@@AJkingwing -It's the Emperor and the Empress. -She's rich and he's poor. -He's perpetually starving and she's all about the vegetables. -Their fighting styles complement each other: he's super precise and tactical, and she's ax crazy/blow em all to hell. -Plus they get a few cute moments in Strikers together. It's a match made in heaven.
One recurring theme of your analysis videos for p5 is how each character's prominent stats and abilities tie into who they are as people. In Haru's case her moves in my opinion reflect being the mama bear of the group, as well as her affluence. While Ryuji is the protective muscle, she protects the team in a way that's more costly (expensive reflection skills, high HP amount for gun skills), which you can argue takes away the amount she has left for herself.
Before watching your videos (especially the part about cultural differences between Japan and the west ), i found the situations caricatural. Your explanations make them quite realistic and i find it frightening.
Glad to know about this. I actually wrote a book that takes place in Europe, but one of my characters is a Japanese girl who ran away from home because of this. (This and the guy was a creepy rapist.) I'm not sure if I had heard of it before or if I made it up at the time, but now that I know mukoyoshi is a cultural thing, I can now legitimize that part of my story.
Finding this video a year later. When my Dad immigrated from Japan to Canada he thought he'd be establishing the family name here. But then had 2 girls. I remember him talking about mukoyoshi and hoping one of us would find a husband who would take our surname. We don't have a family business or any significant inheritance but my Dad was disappointed the name would end in a generation.
I really love these videos, they are so informative about japan as well as the characters and i really like it, even more since i've learned alot about japanese customs of japan via manga(i read ALOT) and these videos only cement some of the concepts i learned there.
One thing to note that once you maxed out the confidants of the females... you have the option to start a romance with them or turned them down. Once you turned them down... all the girls are okay with it... except Haru. If you turn Haru down for a romance option... she is visibly hurt. If the other girls are hurt by the Ren/Akira's rejection... they are good in hiding it or release their sorrow off screen and we don't get to see it... but with Haru we do see it and she does try to hide it... but we can see she is hurt by his rejections.
It makes me sad that the number is only 6% for women-owned businesses, and that a lot of women in Japan have doors closed to them, even more so than in the West. Your video makes me appreciate Haru more & I definitely will be checking out more videos on your channel.
Not related to the video but I finished the summary for the crossbell games, but thanks for spoiler marking for the ending of CS2 at the end of Ao no Kiseki as I only finished CS1 (and watched the summaries of Trails in the Sky and crossbell games bc I couldn't play them) Also I noticed the ending of Ao no Kiseki has some similarities w Royal's third semester (spoilers for both) - - - - - the Idea you shouldn't run away from reality and erasing the struggles that allowed you to mature is not the way is present in both how Lloyd and the others convince KeA to step down as sept-terrion 0, and it is also the reason the Phantom Thieves reject Maruki's reality
This is the first video from this channel I've seen on my recommended feed. I watch and and am listening and notice.....is that Trails of Cold Steel Old Schoolhouse dungeon music? Did I actually find another Trails content maker by accident watching a Persona 5 related video (I quickly check you playlists), YES, YES I did!
To be honest, at first I didn't vibe with Haru that much at first, I didn't dislike her or anything, she just wasn't my favorite, but now she's probably one of, if not my favorite persona girl. I admire her so much
Thanks for the context on Haru! I know japanese generational politics was different than the world, I mean, we all went through Sun confidant, but I never expect it to literally be a lineage based like that
Hi ! Do you know how the creator found their persona for each character ? Like the research ? If you have a answer thanks you ^^ And I like so much your video ! For me haru is the best of the one ! ( and because she is my favorite character lol )
Good character, mediocre arc. Me: Dang it, Persona 5 writers, Royal was your chance to fix the whole arc, but you only fixed half. I mean you did an amazing job with Akechi, why not the second half of the arc?! Dr. Maruki: Perhaps I- Me: Shut it Dr. Maruki!
Me and my friend just started Strikers and got to the Sapporo arc where Haru plays a major part. I’m curious as to what your take on her strikers counterpart is.
Didn't see this coming, based on the mousy voice... I never could understand how this was a thing, all the way back to Persona 3's Mitsuru. (But, honestly? I'm not sure I can thank you for the explanation. This sort of thing gives me mad gas... Too chilly to open windows atm.)
I don't want to shit on their culture, especially here. But. Man. I thought our political game is rigged. Lol. Does that political line tie into the Sun arcana, too? Politiician boy? 😊
I think this idea is a bit misguided as well. In most cases, Mukoyoshi are a free marriage, and most enter the marriages willingly. Many notable female personalities had also enter into this kind of marriage as well on their own will. It is also not true that the family is inherited by the son-in-law. In most cases at least today, the inheritance will be inherited by the couple as a common property with the husband as the representative. In most cases it is simply arranged so the children of the marriage inherit the mother’s surname instead of the dad, thus continuing the mother’s family clan.
