#grooming in hakuoki ssl

[eleiyaumei]

Grooming in Hakuouki: Sweet School Life: Harada

Everything here is my personal interpretation and opinion. I am not declaring anyone to be a groomer, I am just looking for signs that one might interpret as signs of grooming. Also: Feel free to criticize and correct me.

Eventually, I will take a look at Hijikata and Kazama as well.

Sources: HSSL translation by @hakuogakuen​.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/202010/how-recognize-the-sexual-grooming-minor

CW: Discussions of grooming of minors.

If you do not want to read about this topic or about Harada’s potential involvement in it, do not read any further. Take care of yourself and be safe.

 Note: I do not intend to attack you or your love for this fictional character. My intention is to educate others in this fandom (esp. minors and people that are close to their underage relatives) on the characteristics of grooming.

I am not saying people shouldn’t fantasize about (their) teachers (as a teenager I also had a crush on a teacher – who was a tiny bit like Hijikata, actually) but I am recommending anyone to watch out IRL for warning signs of grooming concerning yourselves and the minors that are close to you.

Yes, fiction is not reality. But it can inform and/or warp our perception of reality. Many of you are probably able to distinguish between the two and would not endorse this behavior IRL. And this game might have already taught you about this topic. (Toma’s route in “Amnesia: Memories” taught me to recognize the warning signs of abusive relationships and even though he was my favorite love interest there, I knew what he was doing was not okay.)

Still, I wanted to make this analysis. Because as a teenager, I only knew that that one teacher in our school shouldn’t be touching his students in the manner/frequency as he did. But no one, including me, felt the need/ was confident enough/... to report this behavior to our parents, other teachers, or the director. And there are so many other ways that teachers (or in general people in power) can be inappropriate.

Analysis below the cut.

[eleiyaumei]

Harada has always been like this

ID: There are two pictures. The first consists of two rows of screenshots of Harada speaking, one row from the game “Hakuouki: Sweet School Life”, the other from the game “Hakuouki: Kyoto Winds”. In the first row, Harada says: “A kid, but not a kid, huh? ... Is that so? You’re so innocent still.” (then, smiling teasingly) “...You’d better wish for a nice gift from Santa.” In the second row, Harada says with an insecure smile: “Huh? Well, you’re not an adult.” (then, smiling teasingly) “...Oh, does it bother you? Being a little immature isn’t always a bad thing, you know. ...A little bit of vulnerability and innocence always makes a woman much hotter...” The second picture juxtaposes two kisses between Harada and Chizuru, one from “Hakuouki: Sweet School Life”, the other from “Hakuouki: Edo Blossoms”. In both, Harada is grabbing Chizuru and kissing her while she stares at him with wide eyes.

I’m sorry for this critical/negative post, Harada fans! I’m sure you can separate fiction from reality perfectly.

But I don’t since I think fiction can always have an impact on us, consciously or uncounsciously. Plus, I want to be critical and honest about a franchise I rather like.

After finishing reading the HSSL translation of Harada’s route by @hakuogakuen and reading over and over again “He’s so mature... I’m just a child... He’s the gold standard among teachers. ...We could be seen as lovers...but the world around us wouldn’t accept that so easily.” among many other iffy sentences, I got upset.

I’ve been an insecure, lonely girl like Chizuru in HSSL but I was lucky enough to never meet a man like Harada in my teenage years who would have been worse in real life than in-game. I’m afraid HSSL might have taught teenagers that this kind of relationship was okay and they might have gotten into similar “relationships” with older men and might have been hurt from that... (That’s just a worry, no accusation!)

I’m working on a “Grooming in Hakuouki SSL: Harada” analysis right now.

Feel free to ignore this post and any other related to this.

[eleiyaumei]

Currently reading @hakuogakuen‘s translation of Kazama’s route for my “Grooming in Hakuoki SSL: Kazama” analysis but I slowly get the feeling I should do a “abusive relationship” analysis instead or on top of that...

[widemushroom]

Im waiting for what you write

Currently reading @hakuogakuen‘s translation of Kazama’s route for my “Grooming in Hakuoki SSL: Kazama” analysis but I slowly get the feeling I should do a “abusive relationship” analysis instead or on top of that…