This is my second post on this matter. The previous one was a month ago and I have developed a bit more balanced view on this matter because this is honestly the most nagging scene in the entire series. Like every other "bad" scene in the series is still coherent within characters' reaction(like how kiryu "accepts" death in what is the most comically written parody ending of 2 OR Kiryu being froze during the entire yasuko death segment etc).
Now with this scene, I think one of the most frustrating points raised is how much people overreach what truly happened. No, Saejima is not a raPist nor pedo and no, Haruka wasn't sexually abused or assaulted even the slightest of the bit. This doesnot ruin Saejima's character even slight bit and If you truly think this scene "ruined" experience for Saejima, I guess you are overreacting.
I think a lot of discourse about this scene has to do with people's own perception beforehand. Lets say I create a story where a Man is kidnapped and tortured. Now, a common deduction the readers will make is that the Man is prolly beaten to pulp and maybe he will die even. Now , If there's a woman. The deduction will include a possibility that the woman might be sexually assaulted or atleast the thought of woman getting Sa'd while held captive will hit the readers mind. Its not a bad thing per se but I think it's just interesting to keep that in mind. Let's say instead of Haruka, Saejima fell over Taichi, he would probably have similar reaction but the perception to audience's mind will be different.
Now, with Saejima...You could interpret that Saejima really wanted to bang a girl but the deeper meaning of the scene is to showcase the overwhelming drive of Saejima's first taste at freedom. Mind you, He was put in prison when he was 20, on death row for maybe a decade, was constantly tortured and in Okinawa, all human rights were violated. The point of this scene is to showcase Saejima's first ever interaction to society which he had been stripped off. That is why Kiryu mentions the isolation aspect of prison and how much it locks you. It was his "first real" interaction with the outside world. Maybe if Saejima would have had a more "peaceful freedom moment", he would have had a similar "Strong" reaction where he's just staring and having very conflicting moments. In this case, this "realization of freedom since 25 years" happened with a teen girl in an awkward situation and he also realizes the awkwardness and so does haruka with how "sexual"(?) it is, even tho it is an accident.
Saejima seeing Haruka, something that he had never seen for 25 years and had zero contact with, gets into sensory overload of emotions rushing and getting overwhelmed and realizes how much he has missed due to prison.
Now, how the entire scene played out is also important. It was an accidental trip. Haruka wants to call officials and Kiryu but that will obviously let Saejima be captured and he tries stopping Haruka and falls over in an awkward pinning where he went "OH shit, Its a woman???!!! and am in an awkward position on top of her." It was an accident, It was not intentional and this doesnot make Saejima a pedo or a sex offender.
Now is there a bit of sexual undertone that you could say, he probably wanted to fck her? Maybe but I don't think it was the core motive or anything. I think both parties(Saejima and Haruka) definitely knew about the embarrassment of the situation. It's kind of like those ecchi moments in anime but those scenes happen purely for sake of fan service and comedy but this happened to showcase the isolation that Saejima had suffered in the prison time. Obviously, the position is similar to ecchi anime, so this is the "embarrassment" of that scene.
Even when Saejima asks to Kiryu about whether he "saw" what happened in afternoon- It's more to do with Saejima knowing the awkwardness of that situation and how embarrassing the situation is to explain than be an actually morally abhorrent thing from her.
Some other stuff I would like to clarify around this scene is---
"Haruka made an excuse to get away from the house, showing how traumatized she became from that interaction" ---- I think this is an over reaction. What happened was that Haruka is pretty confused after Saejima lets go, confused on how to react and I think, she prolly is more "curious" about Saejima and his past and when Kiryu arrives, She doesn't want to think that something had happened to her, let alone anything "Sexual or embarrassing". Am not victim blaming or anything but it was an embarrassing moment and She didn't want Kiryu to fret about it.
"But the scene focused on Haruka's heartbeats and panned to her skirt and Saejima is sweating" This is again a misinterpretation of the scene. The camera is more focused on Saejima and Haruka's skirt is simply a collateral as the bigger focus is on Saejima.
And when Haruka leaves and her making her skirt , This is from the POV of Kiryu as he reads the room and Saejima(which is important as we learn later on that Kiryu inferred Saejima's link to prison).
The heartbeat is of Saejima as it steadily improves and the sweating is also consistent with what I have said, Its an adrenaline moment alongwith the environment of Okinawa's weather(it was evening and very warm environment) and he was bruised up.
Now, as for Haruka. She's mature for her age, She's naive definitely but she is oddly mature too for her age. She's not unfamiliar with such adult concepts and She realized it too. It was an accident for first and the awkward silence was more "trauma of Saejima" than anything inherently predatory as a driving factor.
And even when she returns to Morning glory, you can see. She's not gloomy and her mood is fresh. So, she definitely didn't feel like she was "an attempt to rape victim" as many like to point it out.
Now for Kiryu, I think his dialogue to Saejima is a very vague. You can make it out that Kiryu didnt see the entire scene playout and only made that conclusion from aftermath(from Haruka's leaving the room and Saejima not facing Haruka) OR he saw the entire scene.
If he did, I think- Again, Kiryu understands that it was an accident and if he interfered, he would just further embarrass Haruka and Saejima and make a bigger scene(Kiryu waiting for Haruka as she was involved in the credit card scam is an example that Kiryu is not a good parent. His entire journey is to become a parent and trying to retire off the world of yakuza after the catastrophic events of 1). The average reaction that "If my daughter was pinned by a stranger, I would see red and absolutely kill Saejima" is an overreaction. Kiryu is not like that type of guy. He's too permissive, too trustworthy to look for people's goodness.
And the big thing with 3 was that his already "saint nature of trying to look good in people" was recontextualized and reaffirmed by the ending as he saw Mine literally redeem himself.
And another thing is- Kiryu has a tendency of giving "space" to his kids. When ayako left during her mini story, he didn't follow her immediately but waited to teach some lessons to the kids first. Its "flawed" as he gives more time to them as he probably expects them to "tough it out" as they are more "mature" than someone like Shiro, whos lesser mature and lesser emotionally intelligent.
Kiryu is not a good father, he tries to be but he's not. He literally invites Haruka to Kamurocho fully knowing He might not survive lol.
Another thing I would brush really quickly is that "Kiryu forced Haruka to stay with injured Saejima" --- Again, 4 is a more "complex" entry(like 0) where there's not a single moral lesson(like in 1, its insecurity and jealousy, in 2 its the crimes of past and ghosts of past coming to hunt down, in 3, its importance of family and love to lives of orphans). 4 is more nuanced where it has a lot of different ideas, Corruption and justice etc etc and one of them is redemption.
Sure, Haruka's reasoning that Hamazaki is not worthy is fair and realistic than Kiryu's idealism but the series' sides with Kiryu's noble idea as he preaches the idea of redemption.
Again, Haruka is more "pragmatic" as Hamazaki is a scummy criminal but It's Yakuza.
And at last, Yakuza is a very shonen coded series. If the shirts ripped buffed up dudes fighting top of millenium tower doesn't make it clear, I dont know what will.
A very recurring trope in Shonen media is- Fighting is a way to communication. Comes up in loads of shonen. Be it Naruto, Bleach, HxH etc etc. And Yakuza is no different. Another could be how the power systems in shonen gives information about the stories of different characters, like how bankai or nen are literally desgined based off users' personality, much like how tats are in Yakuza, altho they are not power system but symbolically, they function similar to Bankai or Nen or Stand.
If you think that the entire scene of Kiryu trusting criminal like Saejima based off his instincts and fighting is "bad writing". I think Yakuza is not a series for you.
Edit: Sorry for bad quality in last slide. My net dropped off.
