LogFAQs > #926828180

#16: Yasuhiro Hakagure

Unless Toko, it seems they actually tried to make this guy likable. But they failed spetacularly. The first issue is that he feels less like a character and more like a random amalgamation of occultist babble.

I'd like to compare him to Hifumi. Hifumi also has a "profession" that is not very respectable and is a disgusting person all around. But with Hifumi, it seems they actually made some effort to learn what otaku culture is about and write a character who feels like a real person. You may not appreciate Hifumi, but you get what he is about. He likes 2D girls and he has a lot of appreciation for his art and the art of his peers.

Hiro just randomly spouts crap about the future, and aliens, and ghosts, and fails to make sense. Sometimes he's energetic about it and sometimes he's angry that you are mistaking his "work" for "the occult", whatever that is. There are characters in fiction who are all about occultism, but even when they are fake, they still try to make you feel like their field is some kind of science. With Hiro, it feels like someone read a bunch of occult books and randomly plastered sentences from them into his dialogue. He is less like an "Ultimate Clarivoyant" and more like that guy from college who is trying to make a quick buck by reading the future of depressed undergraduates.

They tried to make him the comic relief, but it doesn't work well because the stuff he says is too random, so like I said before, he rarely lands his jokes.

Hiro's other issue is how he is used a plot device. He has the IQ of a plant, so whenever you need to make a trial longer, or when you need some very obvious concept to be explained to the audience, or you when need a scapegoat, you bring Hiro into the fray, have him act like a dumbass, and there is your filler. But that is lazy writing, and is made annoying by the fact Hiro is a bad character.

The reason he is not dead last is that sometimes he is funny, and his English dub helps at that. Also there is a side of him that is this cool dude that can be chill even when other characters are nervous, but it's very rare, as he's usually the first to panic.