Usually any characters introduced late into a JRPG are considered to be pretty weak and or not worth investing your time into. This might seem rather harsh but most RPGs have always adhered to these rules and often, the team you have is already leaps and bounds stronger than the newest ally due to your constant level grinding. However, Haru Okumura is far from the weak as the last member to join your Phantom Thieves of Hearts party. Haru Okumura has exceptional skills in combat and we’d love to highlight some of those to prove you should keep her constantly in your line up for the future battles to come.

Haru Okumura is one of the few users of Psy magic Persona users—and the first since Shin Megami Tensei: Devil summoner—which is especially necessary to defeat some of the later bosses and enemies. Milady—who later becomes the powerful Astarte once Haru’s social link is maxed out—has some high beginning stats in comparison to the other members. With a decent emphasis on strength, magic and endurance, Haru’s Milady actually can be used as a decent magic user and allows Haru to do some strong physical attacks with her might axe attacks. Plus, the fact that Milady’s only weakness is Nuclear means you’ll be able to have Haru out and attacking when other members need to guard themselves to avoid being hit with critical attacks from their weaknesses. Haru might not be the toughest member—that will always be your main protagonist—but having Haru leveled up will save your butt during bosses in the late game such as Shadow Okumura—Haru’s dad—and various Mementos bosses.

Those who have played Persona 5 can agree with us here at Honey’s Anime on one thing. There are indeed some cute waifu material girls in Persona 5! Either you can choose various confidants to romance or your female party members. That’s why it hurts our hearts here when Haru is usually excluded from various lists for the best girl in Persona 5. Then ironically, if you look at the actual title for Haru Okumura in Persona 5, she is literally called the Beauty Thief! How can you not have a love for Haru when even Persona 5 makes sure to label her as a beautiful girl?

Now you should know here at Honey’s Anime we like to prove the statements we make with hard evidence. That’s why we looked at Haru Okumura’s wardrobe—again for research purposes—to show she is deserving of the beauty thief title. During combat, Haru wears an outfit akin to a Three Musketeers outfit though without being all white and black but instead using pink and black. Outside of combat, Haru wears a pink sweater with short plaid skirt—though the summer attire is slightly different—with long leggings and black dress shoes. Thus, Haru kills you with her beautiful looks and even nicer dress attire. Who knew, looks could literally kill?!

If you go through Haru Okumura’s Confidant—which you should 100% do to maximize her powers and Persona—you learn that she has quite a lofty ambition for her future. As we learn from Haru’s backstory, she is actually in a family that controls food services called Okumura Foods. Despite Haru’s father near destruction of the company due to his failings, after he dies, Haru becomes the sole heir of Okumura Foods and aims to re brand the franchise. Instead of selling processed foods, Haru wants to sell wholesome and home grown produce. As we see in the beginning, Haru’s produce has a long way to go from being amazing but eventually we know Haru’s produce will become amazing and her business will become even stronger than before. Goes to show you never give up on your dreams and aspirations as you can do anything if you believe you can!

As we have established earlier, Haru is a pretty kind and cute girl. These are traits we actually really admire about Haru and we know these traits make others like her just as much. However, there is a secretive side of Haru that only those with a trained eye—like us here at Honey’s Anime—can notice about Haru Okumura. Haru can actually be pretty sadistic and that is rather intriguing to say the least.

Now, some of you might be going there is no way Haru Okumura the kind and seemingly gentle girl could be sadistic. Well, there are several pieces of evidence that show Haru’s sadistic nature that she seems to try and hide. Haru’s battle quotes are actually the best way to tell how intense she gets into the fights with Shadows with Haru saying lines like “How’s this? Painful?” and “Someone, finish it off!” when an enemy is nearly dead. These are rather intense lines showing Haru Okumura really gets into battling Shadows and finds joy from defeating them. Plus, Haru actually admits she gets rather excited when she’s in combat so that’s just more proof Haru has a rather sadistic side…

Here at Honey’s Anime, we have played Persona 5 multiple times and have explored all the girls endings—for research of course—to see how they rate among each other. We won’t lie folks, Haru Okumura’s romance ending is one of the cutest in Persona 5 without a doubt. In this romance path, Haru admits that she felt she lacked strength and that caused her to have doubt in not only herself but in her strength for the protagonist. Though, when Haru began to rebrand Okumura Foods she realized her inner strength and finally became confident in herself. This is when Haru finally is able to say things like she wants to spend time with you—the protagonist—and quickly leans on you ending the scene. Needless to say, we here at Honey’s Anime had a unified aww moment and instantly saw how amazing Haru Okumura is.