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Analysis of Haruka
The idea for this analysis of Haruka didn't come to me spontaneously. It started after I watched a video. Before watching it, I had a general understanding of his character, but I didn't understand why he acted the way he did or how he perceived what was happening around him. And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that my understanding of Haruka was divided into a before and an after.
The video suggested that Haruka could hypothetically have developmental difficulties, problems with his mother, and limitations in everyday life. All of this was gradually explained through an analysis of his songs and their music videos. After watching it, simply knowing how he behaved wasn't enough for me anymore. I wanted to understand why.
Previously, I thought that the way he acted was simply connected to his personality. He does X because that's just how he is. He perceives Y that way because that's simply how he understands things. After that video, this explanation stopped being enough for me. If we assume that he really could have some kind of developmental difficulty, then his reactions and actions can be interpreted as a consequence of him understanding and perceiving things differently from people without such difficulties.
For example, the analysis suggests that Haruka's mother was extremely attached to her dog. Haruka, already feeling lonely, becomes jealous. The author draws an analogy with a cat, suggesting that, because of his limited way of thinking, Haruka may have seen eliminating his "competitor" as the only way to get his mother's attention. He wanted attention, whether it was positive or negative. And he got it. As a result, a connection could have been reinforced: if he eliminates the person or thing receiving attention instead of him, that attention will go to him. In a way, this becomes a learned behavioral pattern.
A similar situation happens with the fish. His mother pays attention to the aquarium, and Haruka once again eliminates the object of her attention. What matters here is the repetition: the problem remains roughly the same, and the solution remains the same as well.
What I mean by this is that he doesn't seem to look for another way to get attention. In the situations shown to us, he repeatedly eliminates whatever he perceives as an obstacle between himself and his mother. But then, if his first victims are insects and other small animals, they gradually become larger: he goes from insects to rats, cats, and dogs. What matters isn't only the increasing scale of his actions, but also the fact that the original pattern continues to repeat itself and is presumably reinforced, even as the consequences become more serious.
If the method of solving the problem remains the same, why do his actions become more serious?
Maybe the issue is no longer just his mother's attention, but also violence becoming a way for Haruka to prove his own significance. Perhaps he thought that, in order to be noticed, he had to be noticeable, and that he had to mean something. But what does being significant actually mean to Haruka?
This may be why his reaction to his own crimes is especially important. He doesn't just commit them, he also tells the police about them with pride, treating them as achievements of his own. However, the author suggests that, because of his difficulties, he may not understand how horrible his story sounds to other people. His pride therefore cannot be unambiguously interpreted as proof that he sees murder as a way to prove his own significance.
At the same time, the second song shows that his mother's attention toward Haruka gradually becomes less and less. This is suggested by how increasingly disheveled his appearance becomes. Against this background, the change in his behavior becomes especially noticeable: the less attention he receives from his mother, the more animals become targets of his actions.
It creates a rather grim pattern: the lack of attention doesn't disappear. His attempts to obtain that attention simply become more and more serious.
If he kills for attention, then why do the killings increase when he already knows that it works?
Maybe the problem has long since become more than just attention, and murder has become a way for Haruka to prove his own significance. I assume that he needs to feel capable of doing something meaningful, something that has weight. Perhaps at first he only wanted attention, but gradually he wanted to become the person receiving that attention. At that point, killing stops being simply a way of eliminating competition and becomes proof that he is capable of doing something, causing a reaction, and that he is not useless.
But this is where the contradiction appears. The way Haruka tries to prove his own significance simultaneously becomes the reason he grows further and further away from his mother. The more serious his actions become, the more impossible it becomes for him to receive the very attention and acceptance he originally wanted.
This can be seen in the killing of the dog. If his actions before this could be interpreted, among other things, as an attempt to get his mother's attention, then after the killing, nightmares and guilt appear.
Haruka does what he believes will make him significant, but the result is not his mother's recognition or the attention he wanted. Instead, it is the final destruction of his relationship with her, along with guilt and fear. Haruka is confronted with irreversible consequences. What was supposed to make him significant instead becomes a source of guilt and fear. And I think this is important, because it shows that he does not perceive what happened as something completely meaningless to him. He is capable of realizing that he has done something serious enough to continue haunting him even after the event itself.
In the end, I don't think Haruka's behavior can be explained simply by his desire for his mother's attention. Perhaps that is where it begins. He realizes that eliminating whoever receives her attention really does make her pay attention to him, and gradually this pattern becomes reinforced. And, honestly, to me, Haruka's story is about how a way of coping with feeling unwanted, once reinforced, can gradually become more and more destructive.
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