Hayate Reflections: Chiharu Harukaze -- The Character I Came Closest To Hating

If there is one thing that Hata has been criticized for, it's that he introduced so many characters into the story that some of them were basically useless. Off the top of my head, there's Hisui Hatsushiba, Ruri Tsugumi, Yozora Housen, Kananiwa, and Android Shii (or Android Elle if you prefer).

Also, because there were so many characters, most of them never got a chance to become fully developed even though the manga ran for 568 chapters. In the end, the story was just about Hayate and Nagi and the focus of the finale obviously went in that direction -- to the disappointment of many fans who were hoping for more of a closure to many of their favorite characters and who saw a lot of wasted potential. Yeah, I get your gripes guys... that doesn't mean I agree with them though.

Now with that said, I think most of you would agree with me that Hata's characters (apart from Hayate's parents who were basically made to be hated) are pretty hard to really hate -- right?

Anyway, the one character that I really came close to hating was actually Chiharu Harukaze. The reason for this being that I really, really disagreed with the way she was pushing Nagi in the mangaka arc. I didn't like her seemingly high and mighty attitude at that time. Thinking that she knew better and trying to force Nagi to improve.

Well, if you were thinking of arguing with me because of the previous paragraph, you can stop. I was wrong -- completely wrong. This has been really proven in the last few chapters of the manga. Chiharu wasn't being high and mighty with Nagi at all -- rather, she was one of the few characters who actually respected Nagi and treated her as more than a kid. I never realized it until that moment when she gave Hayate a big fat slap (which he deserved, I might add) when she learned about the misunderstanding with Nagi. Now I won't say that she was in the right to slap Hayate here or that she was doing it for the right reasons -- but really, that's beside the point. What that moment confirmed for me is that Chiharu never took Nagi lightly and that she really did think of Nagi as a good friend rather than some kind of little sister character to be pampered and coddled.

In my opinion, she was one of the few people who treated Nagi the way she always wanted to be treated -- as someone capable of taking care of herself. This one is easy to confirm: in chapter 568, note how Nagi thanks Hayate (while he's not around) because he doesn't protect her anymore.

While we're on the subject of chapter 568, after the 2 year timeskip, we see that Chiharu is still living together with Nagi in the now renovated and repurposed Violet Mansion. Sure, she may be doing it out of necessity, but the back and forth banter between her and Nagi shows that she really was Nagi's friend through and through.

So yeah, I totally read Chiharu's character wrong and admittedly, that's because I was personally overprotective of Nagi that I didn't want to see someone "bullying" her.

Still, Chiharu is the character that I came closest to hating in this series. As for Hayate's parents... I can't say that I personally hate them. It's like, you can't hate a cockroach, you simply crush it beneath your feet if it gets in your way. It's that simple.

With that said, I leave you with some fanart of Nagi for now (ink and watercolors on drawing paper) See you next week for sure~