Hagumi Hanamoto
Hagu is undoubtedly the most unusual character of the cast, and probably the one that most viewers find difficult to deal with. I was among the many who found that it was hard to take her seriously due to her character design, and her child-like actions would force anyone to raise an eyebrow. It’s almost as if she’s permanently chibi.
However, Hagu’s character begins to make a bit more sense when you factor in her upbringing, and, more importantly, her attraction to art. Raised in a quiet, reclusive environment with none of the social pressures that city dwellers are forced to deal with, she was always a distant child who lived in her dreams. The scenes from her life in middle school illustrate this well: she’s shown looking out the window in class more than the average harem lead, except I’m sure her mind was filled with something more important. It’s as if she lived in a completely different world, and didn’t bother learning the basics of society. As a result of that, she looks like a child when compared to her classmates, and she needs someone like Shuu to take care of her like a father.
The interesting thing about Hagu’s “love life”, if that phrase is appropriate in this case, is that the problem wasn’t that her love didn’t return her feelings. In fact, the problem isn’t that she wasn’t in love, either; the one episode she spent with Morita was more than enough to make the point that she liked him. And yet, she returned to Shuu – her father figure – craving the comfort of her home life and her canvas. What does this say about her as a character? It says that she fell in love like an elementary school student’s first crush, and that she chose not to pursue it further. It was an unpleasant feeling – not unlike the other characters’ experience with love – and it hindered her ability to do what she really wanted to do. As the three male characters involved later discussed, what was it that Hagu wanted out of life? What were her priorities? It wasn’t that she wasn’t in love; it was that she didn’t care about it. And the reason why she wasn’t interested in love was very simple…
Seeing her face and her unblinking eyes, I realize that she was sketching with her eyes, ears, nose, and brain. After memorizing this whole scene with the giraffe, she’ll probably spit it all out onto a canvas back in Tokyo, whether she absorbs all of it or not.
There are more boxes to open than physically possible; an artist’s creations are limited only by their human life span. Hagu felt romantic love towards Morita, but her true love was art. It’s as simple as that.
