[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

Well I think one area where I differ from a lot of people when it comes to Haruyuki is that while I recognize him as a very flawed character I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing by default. I think I differ from a lot of people on a lot of shows in that regard though. There seems to be this idea that if a characters manner of dealing with things is clearly flawed that it must be some fault in the writing, but I just never really saw that in this show. Whatever Haru did it was believable for his flawed character in context save maybe for the deliberately exaggerated OVA episode. People look at his mistakes and shortcomings though and seem to treat it as a fault of the writing and bad characterization rather than that just being the script which seems to me to show a great disconnect between what the show is about and what they perceive it to be.

I guess it's sort of the same as the massive hatred for Shinji in Evangelion for example where the point IS that he's an obviously very flawed character who we are observing. Obviously the tone is a little different there and it's a bit more mature, but it's sort of the same operating theory of a main character. This isn't the traditional weak willed protagonist played up for laughs or as a cardboard stand-in to me which is what I think a lot of folks see. This almost looks like a character that's suffering from some form of severe bordering on pathological self-confidence issues that he's struggling to pull himself out of and who has his own character arc going on. Maybe for some this doesn't matter though and it's just that big of a turnoff, but I find that kind of compelling (it helps that he's a really loyal guy that is ultimately dependable in the long run, if he wasn't I'd probably look at him as cardboard male lead), but he could stand to be naked a little less.

I gotta agree. I thought Haru was a breath of fresh air for a main character.

Male main characters (especially for harem-esque anime) tend to be "perfect" pretty often somehow; bish-looking, kind, sensitive, friendly, etc, yet are somehow shown to be average or lower on the social ladder (mostly with girls). The only real "flaws" ((which is really just for comic relief or (forced) character development on the guy and/or girl(s) these days)) they tend to have are also pretty typical these days and I'm not really sure can be seen as "flaws" anymore; being dense to various degrees to the feelings of the girl(s), being clumsy and ending up in unintentional ecchi situations, and so on.

In the end, a lot of them you just can't really believe are as "low" as the story says they are and it makes them pretty unrelatable.

Haru, however, not only acts the part, but LOOKS the part, so you can actually believe his character and the development that comes from it. And even with his development, you still see hints of his doubt creep up time after time. It's not like he develops something like his courage and then it never, ever comes up again with him never being truly afraid anymore. He constantly second guesses himself and how someone like Kuroyukihime could possibly like someone like him.

So, as mentioned, it's nice to see characters have such flaws. It's only bad if it's over-exaggerated, off-time, etc.