Haru Okumura

Haru Okumura is a playable character from Persona 5.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Playable Character; Empress Confidant

Design
Haru has chin-length curly light auburn hair and brown eyes.

She wears her school's uniform modified to her taste; a pink turtlenecked cardigan with short puffed sleeves with a long-sleeved white shirt underneath. The cardigan is zipped open up to her navel, and has two big pockets on the front. She wears the standard black and red plaid skirt, white tights with black flower patterns, and black mary janes.

Her burglar outfit consists of a mauve cavalier hat with a plumed feather, violet gloves, long sleeved light pink blouse with a cravat, black corset vest, puffy mauve shorts, black pantyhose, a holster belt carrying ammo, and she wears a black bandit mask.

Personality
Haru lives an sheltered life and is naive to what the actual world is like but has good communication skills. However, she has quite a stressful life due to her affluent father's occupation and him constantly giving her orders, and she grew up always being told what to do, how to think, and was raised to simply be an obedient girl instead of someone who thinks and acts for herself.

Due to being born into a wealthy family, Haru is so rich that she does not have to work a single day in her life, and is the complete opposite of the poor Yuko Himeno from Persona who has to work tirelessly to support her family. However, although she grew up with all the luxury, glamor, elegance and splendor that money could buy, it came at the cost of her free-will, freedom and happiness. Haru becomes chained down by the societal expectations of her father and society. A gilded cage is still a cage. As a result, she does not find value in human relations and has avoided connecting with others for this reason. Lonely as a result, Haru finds it difficult to discover who her true friends are, and decipher who truly values her, or who merely wants to use her for her family's wealth.



After meeting and joining the Phantom Thieves, Haru becomes passionate and rebellious. She learns how to properly convey her mind and connect with others. Getting mixed up with the Phantom Thieves will help her learn how to break out and fly free from her subservient chains.

Although she is part of the 1%, it is not by choice and was a privilege she was born into; Haru is sympathetic and empathetic towards the plight of the 99% and her less well-off Phantom Thieves. Haru is modest as she never boasts or brags about how wealthy she is. The Phantom Thieves soon realize she has a strong-willed, yet kind and gentle heart who, in the end, isn't that different from they are. Haru and the Phantom Thieves share the common mission of reforming society and changing the hearts of humanity. Haru is the type of human being who is unable to be happy if everyone else is unhappy.

In her spare time, she enjoys taking care of plants.

Persona 5
Haru is a third year student in Shujin Academy. She is the daughter of the president of Okumura Foods Incorporated. She has an arranged marriage with a fiance, whom she despises for his controlling and angry nature.

She first met Morgana by coincidence, seeing him wandering on the street after having a falling out with the other Thieves and approached him, resulting in her being dragged into the Palace where she awakened to her Persona. Not wanting to get married, she decided to work with Morgana to change her father's heart.



She is met at the Okumura's Palace. Morgana introduces Haru to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts as the "Beauty Thief". She and Morgana then challenges the Phantom Thieves to a competition to see who can get the treasure first-which she very quickly proves to be absolutely terrible at, succumbing to stage fright when first meeting the Phantom Thieves, blundering into a room packed with alert Shadows, and crashing the Morgana mobile when she attempts to escape from the Thieves' pity.

The protagonist then meets Haru again at school, and Makoto confirms her identity as the Beauty Thief whom they met at Okumura's Palace earlier. Makoto tries to convince Haru to cooperate with them since they are also after her father, but Haru refuses, insisting she will only work with Morgana since this is her family's problem. However, when the party sees Haru's fiance grab her by the arm and kick Morgana, Haru finally reveals that the true reason she wants to change her father's heart is not to redeem him, but to escape the marriage he arranged for her. Finally being honest with herself, she and Morgana decide to team up with the Phantom Thieves.



With the help of the Phantom Thieves, Haru defeats both her dangerously abusive fiance and father, who chooses to stay in denial and ignore his daughter's unhappiness for the sake of maintaining his business. Haru's father, once his heart is stolen, does reveal that he truly loves his daughter and wants nothing but the best for her, earning the respect and admiration of the Phantom Thieves. In the same broadcasted speech he makes before the crowd, he is about to reveal the true mastermind behind the Palaces when he is abruptly assassinated, sending Haru into spiraling sadness and shock.

After some time, Haru decides to stay a Phantom Thief to discover this mastermind her father spoke of, honor her father's legacy and atone for his death, feeling guilty and responsible for it in some way.

If the player does not complete her dungeon in time, she will be forced to marry her fiancé, and a complaint is filed against the protagonist, leading to his arrest. As with the other "time-out" bad endings, it is revealed that this is a false recollection caused by the protagonist being heavily drugged during Sae Niijima's interrogation. She leaves to let him collect himself, at which point Goro Akechi takes the opportunity to assassinate him.

Confidant
Haru's Confidant can be unlocked on October 30th. Starting her Confidant will allow the protagonist to harvest vegetables with her at the school. Maxing this Confidant makes Mylady evolve into Astarte and unlocks the fusion of Mother Harlot.

The item received by maxing Haru's Confidant is "Coffee-stained handkerchief", which can shorten gardening harvest time.

Trivia

 * Haru's Personas specialize in Psy skills that has not appeared in the franchise since Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner.
 * Noir in the Japanese official site is given the title of "Phantom Thieves' Noble Daughter", implying she still acts like a wealthy lady during the heist.
 * Haru acts as a contrast to Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3. Both have a Persona of the Empress Arcana, come from rich families, are a year older than the protagonist, were put into an arranged marriage and lose their father throughout the game. However:
 * Mitsuru is very professional, outspoken to the point of brutal honesty and addresses most of the group by their last names (with the exception of Akihiko and eventually Yukari and the protagonist of Persona 3). Haru, on the other hand, is very shy, much more friendly and prefers first-name basis with affectionate honorifics. Mitsuru discourages silly behavior, while Haru embraces it.
 * Mitsuru engages in athletic abilities (fencing), while there is no evidence Haru is athletic.
 * Mitsuru is extremely loyal to her father and first created SEES to protect him, while Haru opposes her father and joins the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to reform him.
 * Mitsuru was the first member to join SEES, while Haru is the last (female) member to join the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
 * Mitsuru is resigned to (albeit not perfectly happy) with her marriage and actually seems to go through with it (if the player doesn't do her Social Link), while Haru is immediately desperate to get out of hers.
 * Mitsuru's marriage has no relevance to the story, while Haru's is the reason she joins the Thieves.
 * Mitsuru's father gives Mitsuru her own space, free will, and allows her to do almost anything she wants, while Haru's father is controlling.
 * The deadline of reforming Kunikazu is before Haru's marriage. In the Japanese version, this is written as "x days before Haru's body being sold" which almost disturbingly looks like "prostitution".
 * Haru may be a historical reference to (平塚明), a Japanese feminist in the early 1910's. Haru's last name "Okumura" may be another reference to Hiroshi Okumura (奥村博史), artist and lover of Haru Hiratsuka.