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sankatsuka · 7 months

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Haruka & Tsukasa Character Discussion - HFD: The Joy of Being Someone Else, Someone Who Makes Everyone Smile

I've been feeling like talking about Haruka and Tsukasa for the longest time... The intentions behind Project Sekai's writing still does confuse me, but I decided to take a personal approach as to what Haruka and Tsukasa mean to me.

Warning:

There will be HCs to fill in gaps

Spoilers up to BURN MY SOUL.

Mentions of ED

I am using my own experience with HFD to explain Haruka and Tsukasa's character

Messy. IT'S SO HARD TO TALK ABOUT PROSEKA CHARACTERS!!

Edit: Felt compelled to add more. I also just found out that it may be more appropriately called dysthymia?

The desire to become someone else is an ongoing theme in Project Sekai, an emotion insecure characters like Ichika and Akito have. I feel like it's very easy to see in both their characters - Ichika is definitely most obvious, Akito takes a little tiny bit of psycho-analysis but his commissions scream obvious. The two characters I feel these emotions are very prominent in as well, but aren't clearly shown are Haruka and Tsukasa, and I want to discuss this because of how interesting I find it to be.

Haruka's desire to become 'someone else' really only became crystal clear in That Day's Dream. The story made it very obvious with how she wished she could be like the Smiling Princess as a child. As for Tsukasa, that desire has ironically always been crystal clear in his claims to "Future Star". What these two share in common is that neither of them seem to be insecure. But... if you're able to tell Akito is insecure from how hard he pushes himself because he can't reach his goal - it's really the same with Haruka and Tsukasa, they are extremely hard on themselves when they can't deliver hope/become a star (Haruka's rehabilitation, Sky's Edge). It just isn't as obvious as Akito's because they are both capable of becoming that 'someone else': they don't have to push themselves to the brink of death like Akito to be stopped and realize an alternative: that you have your own light. (Haruka is slowly realizing it... not Tsukasa)

Haruka and Tsukasa's feelings to "become someone else" seem to come from a similar place: not being able to make their loved ones happy as children. Haruka as a child laments making her mother sad, whereas Tsukasa has once said in passing in Hinamatsuri that he always makes Saki sad. It's completely normal to let people down from time to time, but both Haruka and Tsukasa express a desire of wanting to make sure this never happens again (Haruka as a child working on her smile, Tsukasa trying to buy Hina dolls). We see this sense of responsibility in their present again and again: Haruka being extremely hard on herself for accidentally hurting Mai, Tsukasa continuously criticizing himself for his mistake in unit story. It's like it's unacceptable for them to make mistakes, even when it's not entirely their fault nor responsibility (Mai should have stopped herself, Nene and Rui were the ones who made the mistake in the first place and anyone serious about it would have gotten angry). This sense of responsibility is what's hurting them, but the question is: where did it come from? Why is it so strong?

We don't know, so it's theory zone here. Haruka's monotonousness as a child and her few facial expressions at present (when off-stage) to me seems like a general difficulty to feel positive emotions strongly. I like to think this is genetic, linked to high-functioning depression (HFD) and/or anxiety. Further evidence of this is in how Haruka randomly expresses discomfort being in crowds as a child, and how her parents have to check if she's fine with walking more - we see a bunch of negative emotions amplified with child Haruka, even in the present-day where she's the one who constantly worries for MMJ. Haruka is more capable of expressions when on stage as an idol, and to me that's because she's acting as someone cute who makes everyone smile. Perceiving something as 'cute' fills us with a pure sense of happiness. As someone who suffers from HFD, I feel happiest when I can make other people happy, with the things I love. I know I enjoy them, but I cannot feel it strongly. But when I create something out of the things I enjoy, and someone else enjoys it - it elates me beyond anything. As if your dull emotions reached someone who feels it strongly in your stead... It gives you a reason to work hard and live your life to the fullest and nothing else can make you that happy to look forward to the next day. I'm inclined to believe this is what makes Haruka feel so strongly responsible for others, she lives for them and wants to deliver only the best hope for them.

But having HFD also means you've suppressed the pain that comes with dulled emotions, that it becomes the norm to suppress other pains too to keep meeting expectations of the people you live for. It's where I think her ED stems from, and why she herself isn't fully aware of all the pain that comes with her perfect lifestyle in Break Time - because she's suppressed it all.

As for Tsukasa, it's more ambiguous. There are tons of theories with how little we still know about him - but this is one way to look at it at an angle of HFD. Most kids in his position wouldn't be as empathetic with being neglected for their sickly sibling, and children don't have empathy at a young age - we see how Rui couldn't understand why his classmates were afraid and how An gets angry when she doesn't get attention. Tsukasa demonstrates emotonal maturity at a young age, being able to just accept the situation without throwing a tantrum about why it has to be that way (so far). On top of that, he also has the emotional clarity to see that Saki is lonely and that she has to continuously force her smile. It again stems from emotional maturity - always putting himself in the other's shoes: in Hinamatsuri, instead of fixating on how hurt he was from the fall, he thinks more about how Saki must be sad about having to see the dolls she longed for all dirtied up like that.

But just how is he able to be this... easily selfless, without harbouring any spite for having to neglect his own desires? Once again, my HC is that this has to do with being born with HFD, that spending time with his family doesn't spark that much joy for him to get strongly upset over. But what he does express is a desire not to be left alone for too long, a primitive human emotion, but only to himself. But even with this loneliness, he prioritizes the emotions of his family. Because they're all having a hard time, what he can do is make them happy. Shows gave him his answer: becoming a star like Amami would let him give the best smile to his family and friends. He naturally wants to entertain them as much as that show excited them so they didn't have to keep suffering, and stardom was the answer to that.

For Tsukasa, this is the reason why he must be at Amami's level no matter what. He views this as the only way for him to deliver the best possible smile, to fulfil his life's purpose. As I said, with HFD you live for people - your life's purpose is to make other people happy with what you enjoy. Tsukasa didn't think much about the performance in the prologue, but he does note how just singing and dancing made everyone smile, which could be a hint to what about shows he enjoys (like how Haruka finds idols cute). But I think he's also been heavily misled to think being the top star is the only way - because, why not just be a star in your own right, as Tsukasa Tenma and not having anything to do with Seiichi Amami?

A notable difference about Haruka and Tsukasa's discoveries of their dreams is how they were introduced to it. Haruka was invited on stage as her own idol, Tsukasa was an audience. Haruka can be her own idol, whereas Tsukasa lacks this reference point of himself. And another difference is how their families treat their dreams - Tsukasa's family seem to view it as just an odd trait of his, whereas Haruka's parents took it very seriously when she expressed her desire to become an idol. In fact, Haruka's mother's words were probably most important in making sure Haruka remembered that she would always, always, always be enough as herself:

"Yeah. Because Haruka's smile... is the cutest in the world!"

It's Haruka's smile that's the cutest in the world to her beloved mother, and not just on stage. Wherever it was that Haruka was smiling, wherever it was that she found her happiness, it'd be the cutest for her mother. Her mother wants her to smile, to be happy, to remember idolhood is for her own happiness above all. Whereas for Tsukasa, his family was smiling at the star in front of them, not him. His own performance won't make anyone happy.

It doesn't change that Haruka is hard on herself though. Habits of taking on too much responsibility for the only thing you care about don't die easily, and the idol world is tough... But she has people who care about her, who were there for her when she was at her worst, and now she has MMJ. There's also the difference of how Haruka wants to be seen as a normal schoolgirl, whereas Tsukasa is always in future star mode and has never expressed a desire to be normal. Haruka can probably cling onto her normal self after quitting idolhood and not feel overly responsible about letting people down, because she knows it's just right that her real, non-idol self should be loved too. But for Tsukasa, this common sense doesn't exist, not when he isn't convinced that him just being there, being normal is enough to make Saki happy (Hinamatsuri):

Saki: "W-Wait, onii-chan! It's fine to be more normal about it! Icchan and the others will get surprised!

Tsukasa: "I-Is that so?"

Saki: "It is! Besides, it's enough fun with you just being here with me!"

Tsukasa: "Just being with me makes you have fun... That is indeed something only a star can do!"

Saki: "Ahahaha..."

This common sense doesn't exist because his upbringing has taught him that only through stardom will he be accepted and loved normally. Because he couldn't give anyone a smile when he was just himself, but they all smiled at the star - this is who he has to be in order for people to love him and so he can bring happiness to them. Unlike Haruka's parents who made it a point to show her how her own happiness is what makes them happy. And no one thinks there's anything wrong with Tsukasa's pursuits because he seems to be having fun, but he can only really have fun because of the false sense of security and belonging that the title of 'future star' creates for him. That we see the excruciating pain he goes through when suddenly, that dream of becoming a star seems to be impossible.

Because his parents never seemed to take his dream seriously like Haruka's (which is possibly the reason she was able to become an idol so early), Tsukasa has to work on the stardom he desperately wants on his own with no guidance since childhood. There's no reference point other than the star on the TV, no teacher to help him shape his very own acting style, so he has to imitate all of the star's mannerisms to get closer to them. It's similar to Minori, but because she was pursuing idolhood out of her own passion for it there wasn't as much pressure to get there quickly and do it right. But for Tsukasa, being a proper star is the only place he thinks he'll be happy in - a place he can finally make people smile and for the happiness he brings them to colour his dull world and save him, like how Haruka was saved with idolhood (HFD tingz). Unfortunately, that proper path was closed off from the beginning for him, because of the lack of parenting.

Minori once viewed idolhood as being just like Haruka, until her first live made her realize how idolhood was about working hard and shining as yourself over naively yearning to be someone you admire. Haruka always knew this because of how she was introduced to idolhood in way of 'you can be an idol, too!'. Tsukasa only seems to be realizing that now: his obsession with colouring his dull world with stardom made him not see how he as a person, his own emotions, has a role in achieving it as well. He can't just be a copy of others. As we can see from how he currently has a hard time grasping deeply emotional roles, it isn't far-off to deduce that his continuous emotional suppression, learning-from-imitation and lack of focus on self have hampered his ability to feel emotions purely as himself, and instead understands emotions from other people's perspectives - reflected in his empathy as a child.

Sky's Edge portrays Tsukasa's soul-crushing pain of being far away from the star of that day, of the impossibility of being that star, exactly because of how obsessed he is with stardom saving his dull, worthless days. The world became grey and colourless for Haruka when she suddenly became incapable of standing on the stage as an idol. But for Haruka... there was still a tiny bit of hope she can return to the stage by a miracle, because her own guilt was what was stopping her and her past proved that she always had the ability to. So more than permanent loss, it was frustration at being the way she was, how her own emotional weakness made the world became grey and made her unable to be an idol, when it was just... right... there. But MMJ showed her that it was fine to be that way, that she can still be an idol even as someone like that. Everyone has emotions, so she doesn't have to be hard on herself for it - share that pain with them, and then try again tomorrow.

Haruka's feelings in Painful Hope can be seen as a similar pain as the powerlessness and self-hatred that Tsukasa felt in Sky's Edge, but the difference is that Tsukasa doesn't have the hope she has. He never got a place on the stage as his ideal star before and now it's being shown to him how he will never get it because he may have reached his limit. Even though he tried so hard, getting past all the times he felt weak and wanted to give up - because something about him just wasn't enough (his emotions). It's as if it was all pointless. There's no proof to Tsukasa that his efforts were never pointless, like how Haruka's past successes prove to her. And this is all because Tsukasa never had the proper path to stardom in the first place, because his parents for some reason just didn't push him onto it despite how passionate he was.

But Tsukasa still reaches out, because he wants it and wants to be saved. Even the tiniest bit of hope that's there for his dream, he'll reach out for it. Just like Haruka did after she experienced her trauma on stage, until... it all felt impossible. Tsukasa seemed about ready to give up too at the end of Sky's Edge and just gave it his all, not expecting his performance to be any great but still wanting to try his best. Luckily for Tsukasa it worked, but for Haruka... it never did, until she met MMJ. But it may be better if things don't work out for Tsukasa at some point, like it was with Haruka - because it led her to meeting MMJ who taught her a happiness of not holding all her pain to herself anymore. Tsukasa and Haruka are humans, so getting too caught up pursuing an ideal without considering your own emotions is like rejecting your humanity, placing inhuman expectations on yourself. As If's lyrics goes, "A never-ending story? That's boring. I want to see a dawn that won't come 'forever'."

But... It may get very messy if stardom doesn't work out with Tsukasa, especially with his upbringing of 'not feeling loved as just himself'. Without stardom, Tsukasa will have nowhere to go. It will probably be a necessary mess at some point in the future so he can finally learn to embrace his humanity...

Maybe I'm biased, but with how Mafuyu and Touya have highly similar upbringings, maybe it's the same for the other SEKAI creator (Tsukasa) and Haruka. The difference does seem to be that the non-SEKAI creators were still loved. Even Touya by his own family, despite being wronged by them - he could tell his father was passionate, to the point he loved his father's music and he's still able to voice his complaints, but with Mafuyu it's just cold iciness. As if Touya can feel that his family will always care no matter how he expresses himself, whereas Mafuyu can feel that if she isn't the person her mother wants her to be, then she will lose the love her mother has for her (emotional manipulation...). And with Haruka and Tsukasa, this whole post details it - how Haruka's family's proper support is what has gotten her this far whereas Tsukasa's lack of it is what has led him astray.

If Mafuyu and Touya share 'winter' in their name, then Haruka and Tsukasa's relationship is in Tsukasa's use of the word 'haruka' in describing how far his dreams are 🤪

#project sekai #haruka kiritani #kiritani haruka #tsukasa tenma #tenma tsukasa

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xtealx · 2 years

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what is your favorite card for each wxs member

(turns around in my office chair)

IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!!!

Ok so for tsukasa

my favourite 3* is “Let me introduce you” i think both the untrained and trained r super cute

and as for my favourite 4* umm….. i cant really pick between “(trained)backstage encouragement”(HE LOOKS LIKE A PRINCE. SO COOL) ,

“dance!and!sing!”(the untrained is pretty funny and the trained makes me go OOOAOAOAOOAAOAOOAA i love the colors and the . the everything)

and “star melody”(self explanatory i think if you look at it)💀💀💀

sorry he has too many pretty cards (im totally not biased). i also rlly love “a sudden trouble meeting!?” (i love the untrained version like YASSS akitsukamizu besties and the trained makes my brain go GHRGHRGRHRH because i fucking. love knights in all medias)

emu

my favourite 3* is definitely “operation smile was a great success!” tbh i love all cards from that event Theyre all so beautiful… gorjus

for 4*s it’s definitely “an irreplaceable smile” i love the atmosphere so so much!!!’ I ALSO LOVE “making the same face as mister octopus” it’s considerably simpler compared to other 4*s but i love it :) she’s so cute especially in the untrained i want to squish her cheeks

Nene

my favourite 3* has to be “i thought i was a goner” the untrained is funny and the trained is very pretty imo :D eat that candy girl eat eat eat

my favourite 4*s are the UNTRAINED “gifts from the sky” (i dont rlly like the trained tbh at least when compared to the untrained, the untrained looks so…. peaceful… and nice… i love it), DEFINITELY “dazzling stage of dreams” like have you see it is so so so so pretty holy crap and i also love “invitation from the little squirrels” the trained makes me so happy :) i also love the cut-out style i love it i love it they need more cards like that also her outfit is pretty cool. go newspaper boy go

rui

i have a favourite 2* of him too. “rainbow cast” always makes me burst out laughing its so silly bro He’s eating the Gay Cake…. i know what you are

anyways

my favourite 3*…. im gonna admit i don’t like his 3*s he looks different in all of them??!?! idk how to explain but if i had to pick one then i guess i’d pick the untrained “phantom performer”. i like it

ok he may not have pretty 3*s like the others but he sure has a bunch of pretty 4*s like wtf. the proseka card people have a favourite wxs member and it shows

I liek “the fire within” but only the trained version i think he looks a little ugly in the untrained. it’s the lightings fault it’s not flattering at all BUT the trained is sosisoosososo cute i love the atmosphere so so so much it’s definitely one of m faves :D

i also really like “endless imagination and challenges” like i said i LOVEEE cutout styled wxs and also the trained looks so warm and nice :)

i cant say its a favourite but i like “blowing in the evening breeze” for the same reason i like that 2* card, it makes me laugh IM SORRY i know it’s supposed to be like super sad and all that I GET IT the story made me go 😦😦😦 too BUT HIS FACE IN THE UNTRAINED MAKES ME GO CRAZY HE LOOKS LIKE A SOPPING WET CAT 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭(/POS)

sorry this was so long i haven’t dumped my thoughts in a while . sorry

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bisexualocs · 2 years

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no cuz the 4star card of haruka from an angel spreads its wings gacha literally pisses me off so much. in terms of design it is absolutely the worst card in the game like what were they thinking 😭 i would take a good 3star card over this one any day.

like as just a piece of art it’s not bad. the render is good, it’s cute, pretty, whatever. but it’s not just an independent art piece, it is specifically a card in a video game. like you have to think about its function and that should affect the design. there are so many things wrong with this card. like

1. it’s non-specific. if you weren’t told which character this card belongs to there is literally no way to tell if this is a haruka, minori, airi, or shizuku card. every character is equidistant from each other with the exact same size in the exact same lighting and very similar poses. in fact, the only one who slightly stands out from the group is minori because she’s facing a different direction. even the stray feathers in the sky are making an arc towards minori (one literally looks like an arrow pointing at her), further emphasizing her in the piece. but this isn’t minori’s card, it’s haruka’s.

2. it’s dark as hell. don’t get me wrong, my favorite part of any good card is unique/strong lighting, but this isn’t that. this is haruka almost completely encased in shadow, making it super hard to even make out her features. it just looks like a silhouette, which is not what you want in a character card.

3. it’s blurry as hell. as a whole piece, the small size of the characters is fine, because the emphasis is on the environment. but you never see cards in project sekai as whole pieces except when specifically viewing them in the card’s profile. you only see zoomed in close-ups of the character whenever actually using the card/playing the game. because haruka is so small, her card appears extremely blurry when in use. it’s not QUITE as bad as the 4star cherry blossom miku card…but it’s bad. like, just look at her card next to other better-designed cards:

it seriously sticks out like a sore thumb in any team. this image is an example of the final issue:

4. it’s undetailed. haruka appears smaller than the others because it’s not quite as zoomed in, probably to minimize the already high level of blurriness. and because she was drawn so small on the canvas, her features, outfit, hair, etc have all been simplified. simplicity by itself is not a bad thing, but it does not at all fit with the detailed style of most other cards in the game. also, because her pose is plain and there is nothing but a blank sky behind her when zoomed in, that just adds to the effect of being way less detailed/complete than other cards. at least the offending miku one has some trees behind her. other cards with one-color backgrounds, like ichika’s paint-themed colorfes one, make up for it with interesting poses and more detail in the character themself.

this haruka card just takes all the bad elements of card design and throws them into one. the untrained art is bland (as most untrained art is, hence why training cards is supposed to make them look better) so that can’t even make up for the shitty trained art. if i were a big haruka fan i would be so pissed about this. i still am and she’s not even in my top 10 characters. proseka really forgot basic principles of design for this one huh 🤨

#bored in class so i wrote a mini rant lol #don’t take this seriously at the end of the day its just an anime gacha game lmao its not that deep #lorim.txt

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charcolor · 3 years

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ok. because nobody was asking about it, here's my proseka group ranking

25-ji - i am mentally ill and also i kin one of them. their covers/songs are all so good. it's also unique in a lot of ways (only group where none of the characters meet at school, only group with only 1 first year, only group with a sekai manifested from someone that isn't the leader, only group that was an established music group before their main story, etc) and i like that. and because i'm edgy i like their aesthetics, story, and characterization. there's lots of interesting and realistic scenarios with them. kanade has trauma and blames herself for her father's illness, mafuyu has ultimately been driven to suicidal depression mostly due to her overly controlling parents, ena has a severe inferiority complex because she works super hard on her art and gets no recognition or praise outside of 25ji even from her own family (kinnie moments), and mizuki has resorted to skipping school to avoid transphobic harassment from other students. these are real problems lots of people relate to, someone could even relate to all of them at once, so it makes the stories so intriguing and the characters so memorable

wxs - my gf likes this one so i have bias. i love the clowns because they're all totally autistic. i love tsukasa and emu's noises. i also like how colorful they are and i think they all have very good backstories. i'd really like emu in particular to be expanded on she definitely seems like she'd be a "my family is rich and cares more about money than my own happiness" kinda character but i might be reading too deep into it.

vbs - definitely the gayest of units. they also get the giga-p songs AND echo so huge bonus points for that. i love their styles, an in particular is my favorite character design in the whole game. their story also rules, the only thing that kinda bothers me is i think kohane should have kept her glasses. the haircut i understand, it's cool, but i don't like the trope of "character stops wearing glasses to signify Change" bitch she needs to SEE!!!!!!!!! i know she has contacts but i don't get what was wrong with the glasses :( (also i know kohane is first in the lineup but i'm not the only one who thought an was the leader at first right. like she's the one they show at the beginning of the vbs story, kohane doesn't show up til like halfway through chapter 1 and i dont think they even display her name at first. actually that kinda bothers me too)

mmj - i like them, i don't have any strong opinions. i like some of their songs but i definitely feel like the songs they cover are very inconsistent, in some cases i think they should have gone to other units (like i think patchwork staccato fits in more with 25-ji, maybe near as well). i think the concept is super interesting, 1 aspiring idol + 3 girls who quit being idols, and the story behind those 3 girls and WHY they quit being idols. the characters just don't really stand out to me though...they're not like, boring or copied from other characters or anything, they just don't super interest me. BUT i do really appreciate how their story is handled, and their subsequent event stories are realistic idol stuff like finding an agency or managing live streaming sessions, i think it's a good take on that stuff

leo/need - i think the story is very well done, and the individual characterization too, but i gotta be honest. the more i think about leo/need the more upset i am. it has everything to do with their songs. i don't generally like deco*27's style, he's very talented but his style is just not for me (but i like hibana and ghost rule). pretty much every song leo/need has other than teo, roki and hibana (though even with hibana i play with the meiko cover) is sooo boring to me to the point where i actively dread having to play through them in multilives. not to mention that ichika gets WAY more emphasis than any other group leader. off the top of my head i can think of 5 songs (hibana, teo, roki, dramaturgy, and umitetie katiyetan or whatever it's called. whatever that one is) that are just ichika and miku duets, which is way more than any other group leader. in fact the only other miku/unit member duet i can think of is hated by life itself (with kanade). ichika even gets a solo cover (night sky patrol of tomorrow) which im pretty sure literally no other unit member has (not counting another vocal versions obviously). saki, honami and shiho get NO songs of their own, or even like individual duets with ichika or miku (and luka has NOTHING. vbs and mmj let her sing with them but not the unit that she was literally assigned to!!). in the mvs for teo and roki they just play their instruments together in the background without singing. i get they're the band unit but all the characters are meant to be singers in some form, there's no reason the other members shouldnt get to sing. (and it's not like ichika herself doesnt have an instrument!! like it's not like everyone else is too busy!!) LITERALLY DURING SHIHO'S BIRTHDAY LIVE SHE DIDN'T SING AT ALL IT WAS ICHIKA AND MIKU DOING TEO. i didnt see honami's birthday but i imagine they didn't let her sing either. it just really pisses me off how they just, neglect ichika's friends way more than they would for any other unit. but yeah i just think their songs are boring

#.....i may have made this post specifically to complain about leo/need. sorry #aimee's antics #long post

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