It’s So Interesting To Compare Haru’s And Jooan’s Characters As Someone Who Hears Things That Aren’t

It’s so interesting to compare Haru’s and Jooan’s characters as someone who hears things that aren’t really there vs. someone who can’t hear things that are (out of one ear albeit).

It makes for such an interesting comparison between their characters. Haru who believes things that aren’t real vs. Jooan who (symbolically) turns a deaf ear to what’s real but he doesn’t want to believe. Haru who cannot decipher hallucination from reality vs. Jooan who won’t accept reality.

And although they are contrasted in such a way, they both have a fabricated reality which is less painful.

You have Haru who has no outlet for his trauma, isn’t allowed to talk about it, and has to constantly lie to his best friends. Then, you have Jooan who wants to believe things will be okay with his father, things will get better and he won’t have to leave. Jooan who wants so desperately to believe it is just bad luck he’s deaf in his left ear and it isn’t his father’s fault.

Reality for Haru is twisted so he has someone he can talk to, someone he finally does not have to lie to. Jooan twists his own reality by ignoring the truth for something less painful.

This is only makes Jooan’s outrage at Haru’s believing in a friend that doesn’t exist all the more interesting to me since he essentially does the same thing. They both believe in lies.