"Tell Me, Why Are You Drifting Away From Me? Tell Me, Why Do You Say It’s My Fault?"

This is gonna be so harsh but- Actually it isn't going to be harsh at all I thought this through a lot. It was gonna be harsh at first but ahn fuck it I'll still say it. Damn it really seems like everyone in Haruka's case was a bit negligent.

Like I'm still curious how he even got near the second kid to be honest since the details were scarce on that but this is mostly gushing about how good that video was and how it wrapped up mostly everything about this case.

Me reading the report on Haruka,

Born in 1997, in Nagaoka, Niigata. From an early age Haruka Sakurai developed more slowly than his peers. His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs. The gap in developmental achievements between him and his peers kept widening, so much so that when Haruka 15 years old, he could still not adequately read kanji.

It was around that time that his parents simply gave up, and they shift from overprotective to disinterest. From then forth, his parents acted as if Haruka did not exist. Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.

"Tell me, why are you drifting away from me? Tell me, why do you say it’s my fault?"

"Why is it breaking? Tell me why? Please don’t change."

Haruka starts to kill animals in secret from around that time. He killed insects, he killed mice, he killed stray cats and dogs.

"It’s fine, it’s all my fault right? It’s enough, I am a “disappointment”."

"You praised me by saying “You’re crazy.” Thank you, I’ll do my best. How many more times do I have to do this so I can be human?"

He felt relieved that there was life in the world that was inferior to him. Haruka's actions soon escalate, and he starts to kill pet dogs and cats as well.

The following day, as he witness the tormented screams of the people who had suddenly lost a life they so cherished, he has a deep emotional reaction where he feels for the very first time that he is indeed connected to the world. The neighborhood increased its security soon afterwards, and Haruka's unsophisticated crime soon came to light.

The police detained and questioned him harshly. Haruka experiences a heightened sense of excitement with all of this interest and attention directed at himself.

Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:55s,

"It felt so strange warden...! Warden-san, you forgave me so, so much, it felt like a whole lot of people had accepted me! Ahh... It was the first time I've ever felt something like that!"

When he saw the faces of his parents, who were called in for him and him alone, that heightened excitement reached a fever pitch, and he fainted.

The day he was released, Haruka committed murder. The victim was a small child, clearly much less powerful than himself. It was the day of the fireworks festival. He targeted the child who had strayed away from her parents.

Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,

"This child's life was probably much more valuable than my own." "A future much brighter than mine was probably awaiting this child."

Haruka Metamorphosis of the Weak 2:30s

"It is. I felt uneasy about it this whole time... Someone as worthless as me having killed someone to gain attention, and a person who surely had more worth and more of a future than me, at that..."

"Why did I end up like this?"

"Why was I born like this? Why does it hurt so much?"

Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented.

He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest. When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.

I really love the implication here that he wasn't cognizant of his attack on the second child.

When he comes to, he was strangling the neck of a second child.

As well as the report just saying he strangled the other kid. Yes this kid is still a victim but he was not murdered like the other girl. Milgram has been making it a note since the trial three commencement to not call anything outside of murder, murder. Something I really love with how ambiguity has been used over the course of the series to claim anything outside of murder can be murder if stretched far enough.

Not specifying murder with the attack of the second child like with the case of Shidou and Amane in contrast to Haruka and Mahiru's cases to me highlights that the second incident did not escalate to murder. Because if it did they would have added clarification which Milgram has been great at doing in other cases. So this is more than likely just assault and not even attempted murder because as the report states Haruka was not cognizant when he was doing this.

Outside of that- I'm about to say some shit that sounds like victim blaming but hear me out all the way it's not that I swear.

The first incident was also a byproduct of parental negligence. Certainly the report tries to blame the child for wandering off from her parents. Like ahn well she wandered off but like she was with another child and her parents brought her there to the event. I mean it is the responsibility of the parent(s) or guardian(s) to watch the child when at a crowded public event venue where one is not sure of the intentions of all parties present.

I'm sorry I feel bad for her parents and this truly was a traumatizing and life destroying event them losing their child. However, my father wouldn't let me as a child walk around a fireworks show alone or with friends without him like a little ways away. This was contributed to by gun issues in the US but at the same time, the size of crowds at those sort of events, and how easy it is to lose a child at big events or in crowds. Yeah no he was not letting go of my hand when I was seven to high school actually.

Hell Haruka's mom does that and we have documented proof of his parents negligence now.

However, I'm once again proposing that possibly the neighborhood Haruka grew up in/around was simply so gated and peaceful residents could not comprehend, imagine, or even anticipate anything like this happening within it.

Making this less willful negligence on the girls parents part and back on Haruka's parents.

Because they knew their child was just released for killing animals. Of course at this point Haruka was a grown man he was in his twenties. One could be excused for believing what he did was now beyond his parents control. However he was still to his own admission with no information claiming the contrary provided by Milgram in the report,

Q.07  Tell us your family structure.

Haruka: My father and my mother and me.

A dependent of and living with his parents. To take it further despite being an adult when taken to be questioned by the police- The authorities called his parents in. Even if Haruka was lying about still living with his family which I highly doubt. His parents were both called in, made aware of his behavior, and still continued to do nothing to intervene or seek help for him.

Furthermore, they neglected to warn anyone of the risk he posed to others in their community animal or person. Then the authorities released Haruka and instead of even attempting to better supervise him his parents to Milgram's admission continued on as though he did not exist,

Haruka tried to regain his parents' attention by causing problems and disturbances, but his parents' attention was never directed at him again.

This allowed him to just go out completely unsupervised by his parents or restrained by the law which led to a child's death. Now I'm not gonna blame the authorities they more than likely kept Haruka for as long as they could considering the severity of his crime. They even reprimanded him for his actions and informed his immediate family and guardians of his behavior. At best probably went,

"Sir and madam we are releasing your son back into your care after this horrendous incident please move forward with getting him proper help and treatment as not to repeat this."

The Sakurai parents in response to this information and possible reasonable request. No he can just wander outside alone still actually. He's a disappointment he'll never get it-

"Then what should have I done instead?! Tell me! Tell me so even I can understand!"/"I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!!! Making you waste your life on someone like me...!!"

Let's speak on his parents real quick.

Anyone else remember when the mom was just getting blamed for this and no one wanted to even take a crack at the internalized bigotry and ableism parents (and people in general) carry in them when it comes developmental delays and disorders.

It was just abuse and neglect not anyone going,

Let's discuss how parents in particular behave as though having any mental health difficulties or diagnoses is a death sentence. How they behave as personally ashamed that their child is experiencing these setbacks. As well as on some level have internalized that their children having these issues reflects poorly on them genetically and as parents.

How Haruka's parents felt this way so much about what Haruka having these delays and possible diagnoses would mean about them as parents/people and for Haruka and his future that they decided like a lot of parents do they were just not gonna think about it. No instead they were just going to pretend everything was fine, there was no problem, their son was fine and did not need any extra help or accommodations. He was just like every other child because he had to be because if he wasn't what did that mean about them.

If Haruka doesn't catch up that's a personal failing not something they could have prevented because he's fine, he just needs a little extra at home attention, he isn't having those sorts of serious problems. He's not a weakling he doesn't have weaknesses or delays when it comes to his growth and education. He's a good kid.

Love that they added this line to allude to the fact it was definitely his parents being like that,

His overprotective parents would not accept that their child had developmental delays, and did not provide him with an educational environment suited to his needs.

Like I love that they note they were overprotective at first here.

That the series even implies that it was Haruka's parents' overprotectiveness and possibly fear of having their kid labeled as one of those kids that led to them not getting him accommodations that would have allowed for him to thrive. Because that is usually what causes that. Many people who are ruining their kids futures due to deeply rooted and unchecked ableism think they're helping them. They do not get up and think I'm about to ruin my kids life for no reason.

They get up and they think what many people think,

"Oh no if it's that then my kid will get bullied, my kid won't be able to get a job, my kid will have to carry this stigmatizing label on them for the rest of their lives. I'm not going to do that to my kid. Because I know how people who are different get treated. We can just figure it out in the home. If I put in a little more work the problem should fix itself. They're just a little behind it's not that big of an issue. They just move at their own pace we can work through it at home."

People who think this way truly believe that they are making their child's life easier by having them be in the same classes as everyone else their age, that their making sure that their kids don't stand out negatively for being different, or actively being shown getting treated different.

Leading to the kid seeing that they can't keep up with their peers, falling behind, and internalizing that they were just born wrong. All the while the parents who know there's a problem but don't want to put a name to that or admit that become more and more frustrated going,

"If you just apply yourself then you can get this. I know that you're smarter than this. Are you really trying. You can do x just fine so why can't you do y? Are you just being lazy? Or do you just act like you don't know to get this extra attention from me. We've been over this a million times. It's not that difficult."

Then they just go cold they just distance themselves entirely. Because they begin to associate the child being bad at school as another form of attention seeking behavior and believe that if they stop coddling them like they have been up until that point they'll figure it out. Because the world isn't going to be easy on them so better to be tough now.

Also this all definitely puts a new spin on that trial one question and answer.

Q.14   What’s an event that’s stuck in your memory?

Haruka: Fireworks

Haruka cried, night after night after that, and repented. He thinks about the future of the child he murdered, and claws at his chest.

"I was wrong. Yes, it was me."

This also explains why Weakness was like that. He wasn't saying yes it was me to get more attention he was admitting that the reason this girl was missing or found dead was because of him. Something that only makes sense now given the tidbit about him hiding the body. He was literally confessing.

Haruka weeps, as he clumsily hides the body,

Just all around really good stuff in this report. That wraps everything up so well.