*lost his original purpose
Haruki didn’t lose sight of his original purpose. If his goal was to improve himself to be worthy of the woman he’s in love with, then his promotion to Editor-in-Chief by the end of the chapter demonstrates that he stayed true to that purpose. Claiming otherwise doesn’t make sense.
*his lack of self-esteem for believing not be able to be loved by Tsukino without needing to achieving something.
This statement would hold true if Tsukino hadn’t set specific conditions for Haruki to meet in order to be with her. She’s the one who initially rejected him, saying, “I would go out with you, but I’m afraid it would complicate things with your job. You haven’t been progressing in the four years since you started here. Even your rival is being called the next ace.” She emphasized his rival’s achievements, prompting Haruki to ask if she would go out with him if he improved himself. Tsukino replied, “I don’t know about a relationship, but we can talk about doing other things.”
From that moment, Haruki pledged to improve himself for her. And what did he do the very next day? After making that promise, he went straight to his rival, asked for help on how to improve, explained his goals, and admitted why—he wanted to surpass his rival to become worthy of her. She’s the one who set those conditions. Criticizing Haruki for seeking help to improve himself and claiming he’s not worthy because he didn’t do it alone is absurd. That’s the most ridiculous argument to make.
Not only did Tsukino set those conditions, but the only reason she showed interest in him after he started improving was jealousy. She couldn’t stand that he was succeeding at an alarming rate while she remained stagnant. How can you not see that? Think about it: if they entered a relationship, and Haruki stopped improving or plateaued, would she have stayed with him? The answer is no. Her jealousy proves that her core problem lies within herself, not Haruki.
No one who truly loves you would root for your downfall or envy your success. Tsukino’s actions—knowingly sleeping with his rival while making sure Haruki witnessed it—prove she wanted him to hurt because she was hurting.
In conclusion, it’s ridiculous to criticize the main character for improving himself, especially when he did so under the conditions Tsukino herself set.
For him losing Original purpose,
I will add something to your version of "original purpose" :
"to improve himself to be worthy of the woman he’s in love with" so they can be together in the end.
And it that case, it really depends if two years post initial confession (so they night she cheated on him), they are together or not.
If they are, please excuse me, I was wrong about that.
If they are not for, I will say it again, MC lost his initial purpose. Even by accepting his explanation the night just after the date, you would tell me in 18 months and everything he had to achieve to get a award while being on TV, that he still didn't "achieved result that he could be proud of using his own abilities" according his own word, then I say it's bullshit, our protagonist learn the joy of progress and prioritized that over the initial goal. I would like to add he could have still continued with his self-improvement at work while going out with her.
For the lack of self-esteem, It not about his quest for self improvement, not at all.
I'm sorry if I made it sound that way, it's for 3 others reasons, 2 hypothetical or based on my assumptions, and the last far more justified :
- 1 = his explanation after there first date that his success is because of others and coincidence sounded far too much like someone with imposter syndrome.
But maybe that just me.
- 2 = 2 years post initial confession, the night he got his award, I had the assumption they still aren't together, so like I said earlier, if after everything he did in his job to get a award on Live TV, he still feels he is still not enough to officially asked her out, then Yep there really is a problem with self-esteem.
But maybe my assumption is wrong and they were already together.
- 3 (the true reason) : his response for after he found them that night. Even if it were a coping mechanism, he justified what she did (whether they were going out or not at that time) by "it's not her fault, I'm the one in the wrong, it's because I'm still not enough." He never held her responsable when he obviously should, and still tried to run after her for years after that night until he became editor-in-chief and still try afterwards. If you tell me he don't have serious self-esteem problems that he would excuse someone to trample his heart (if not blatantly cheated on him) and make it his own fault, please explain. It's not a rethorical question, please explain it to me, I don't understand.
And once again, with my previous comment if I made it sound like that his self-improvement make at fault for getting destroyed like that, it wasn't what I meant, and for that I will add another thing :
I think that even in an alternate version where they would officially get together after their date 6 months after his confession, she would still end up cheating on him.
Simple reasoning, even in the case they would have got together, she is the one who taught him that he had bring result in his job to be worthy of her so he would have still strived to be better.
Like we saw in the story, he is good, so he would have gone on on being better than and outclassed her and his colleague so they would still ended feeling inferior to him.
The two sharing the same feeling would still seeing eachother to shared their struggles, instead of working on it.
And as MC go higher and higher than them. Which would have brought them to the same state that night.
So finally I will say who I BLAME in order :
- Yuzuki is most to blame by a land slide, she is the one who made Haruki go to that route, start pouting when he started becoming better than him a got a problem with it, and then destroyed him because she couldn't accept it.
For the two others it depends of several assumptions =
A : MC asked her out between their first date and that sad night and they were together since then.
B : Haruki and Yuzuki weren't just colleagues who had started at the same time but friends
If A and B are false, I can say nothing to Yuzuki, he like the woman, 2 years earlier he helped his colleague to be with her yet he has done nothing since then. Game is game.
If either A or B is true, he is a bastard, for either sleeping with his friend's dream girl, or the girlfriend of someone he knew.
And if Both assumptions are true, he is a fucking monster.
For Haruki, our protagonist, even if nothing he has done make him deserved that, if A is not true, I will complain "why did he play with his food when it was ready to be eaten."
And I would still say that his lack of self-esteem is a fault when after everything she has done to him, he still doesn't understand that she doesn't deserve him.
Thanks you very much if you read my response until here.
Have a great day/evening/night.
