okay i played harumasa's agent quest w my friend and it put me in my feelings about him again so here r my assorted thoughts:
the idea that harumasa wanted to be a genius / acted like a good kid (super diligent and hardworking) with his master because he doesn't want to be abandoned again by a parental figure only to seemingly be "thrown away" when his master left him anyways... perhaps he realizes the way he acts doesn't matter when it comes to keeping people close to him.... #HISABANDONMENTISSUES !!!!
in the eng dub, how he's usually kind of high-pitched, whiny, and light-hearted, but his voice drops and he speaks more slowly when he gets serious.... i <3 contrasts...
i like how harumasa is so crafty and sets up plans from the beginning before he even takes seemingly his first step towards achieving something. and ALSO he has a habit of lying/never being honest, but his lies are usually for the sake of someone else... a kindhearted liar...
ON THE NOTE OF HIM BEING CRAFTY. i enjoy how he tested seth by poking/ provoking at him to get a sense of who he was and to check if he could trust seth with raiding kirishima's sanatorium. he wants to ensure seth was the sort of person who would prioritize protecting the kids and wouldn't be tempted by the ether enhancing drugs,,, also, the argument he uses with seth (who cares if a few kids who are going to die get hurt when the majority benefits) are probably words he's heard himself/an argument he's internalized so it means a lot when seth fights against it,,,
the way he calls himself a bad guy and says it with such honesty and seriousness bc he genuinely believes it... he's willing to get his hands dirty / act more unscrupulously so his colleagues don't have to, and he knows that he's dishonest and a liar.... more than that, he's afraid of his capacity to turn into an ethereal and hurt other people and to truly become a "monster." and he's so self-aware about everything!!
i also have feelings on the thematic examination of who / what are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of progress in his story quest and we see it in watt commenting that the ether enhancing drug wouldn't be such a bad thing if it could help them and seth biting back that sacrificing other people for it isn't it okay... his master's entire conflict between making a drug to save others vs sacrificing harumasa for it... even harumasa wavering bc he doesn't want to sacrifice other people but he believes it's okay to sacrifice himself (his self-sacrificial tendencies and utilitarian mindset towards himself ie i'm going to die anyways so it's fine to use me), only to learn he's someone worth saving through seth's words, the proxy's support, his master deciding to make him a cure, and even section six's support....
also the throwback to harumasa's childhood belief the headband would make him netter at archery and then the headband being a symbol of his master's support / reminder of his words in the scene where he shoots at kirishima...
the two sides of harumasa's master reflected in the cgs we get... the first one where he's cast in shadow and hiding the syringe behind his back and we cant see his face and the scene is cast in very cold lighting vs the second one with the gentle yellows and close up of his face as he pats harumasa's head where he's finally humanized for the first time.... it reflects the two sides of his master, the cruelty and the kindness, and the conflicting feelings that harumasa holds between love + hate...
for someone who is sooo afraid of being alone / left behind, he refuses to let others close to him because he doesn't want them to be left behind when he passes............ he is a hypocrite and both so selfish and unbearably selfless..................
