Haruna Kurodate from Blue Archive is the president of Gehenna Academy’s Gourmet Research Society. She stands 163cm tall, and her uniform shows off her silhouette beautifully; with her coat worn over her shoulders like a cape, she gives off a distinctly elegant, aristocratic air.

Still, my first impression of Haruna was, honestly, fairly standard by subculture character standards.

But the more I looked into her, the more she turned out to be the kind of character packed with intricate details and surprising charms.

I’m a pretty timid person, and I’m not good at saying harsh things to others, so there was a kind of vicarious satisfaction in watching Haruna’s fearlessly blunt personality. At the same time, it also made me think I wanted to be a little more like her. So I wanted to leave a few thoughts on her story here.

First Impressions and the Early Relationship

At the beginning, there was nothing particularly special about Haruna’s relationship with Sensei.

Haruna saw Sensei as little more than someone useful, and she was openly distrustful, saying, “You must have been caught doing something weird again.”

On top of that, she would half-force Sensei to follow her around under the pretense of researching gourmet food, so it was very much a relationship where she dealt with them entirely on her own terms.

The Beginning of Emotion

The turning point comes in her bond story.

Haruna eats cup ramen with Sensei and finds herself satisfied by a taste that feels strangely more special than usual. Later, though, when she makes it alone under the exact same conditions, she can’t reproduce that flavor.

The reason is simple: food tastes better when you eat it with someone you like. Before Haruna even fully realized it herself, her feelings for Sensei had already begun to deepen.

The lobby scene where Haruna tells only Sensei that bungeoppang is her favorite food captures that emotional shift especially well. Her official profile says she likes greasy food, but in front of Sensei, she goes out of her way to bring up bungeoppang instead.

After Realizing It Was Love

In the Valentine event, Haruna makes matcha chocolate with Sensei. When Sensei says, “Thinking that it’s filled with Haruna’s feelings makes it seem even sweeter,” Haruna is visibly shaken.

Through this event, Haruna comes to realize that when you sit face-to-face with someone you like and share the moment together, you can feel sweetness even without sweet food.

New Year Haruna appears even more mature, with a much fuller range of emotional expression. Dressed in a furisode, she takes the initiative and links arms with Sensei first, boldly doing the kinds of things that are, for all intents and purposes, what lovers do.

Inner Change

Haruna’s biggest change is in how her beliefs about gourmet food evolve. The old Haruna was someone who thought a bad restaurant deserved to be blown up with a bomb.

But through her relationship with Sensei, that belief gradually shifts toward the idea that gourmet food is something you eat and share with someone you care about. Her once-extreme values start turning in a warmer direction.

Her actions reflect that maturity too. When she finds a great restaurant, she helps keep it from going out of business, and the scene where she apologizes for kidnapping Fuuka makes that change feel especially tangible.

Closing Thoughts

▲Ever since the 2024 gym uniform version, there’s been no new Haruna news… I want to see a swimsuit version!!

At first, she seems like the sort of character you could easily pass by, but if you follow Haruna’s story, there comes a point where she lingers in your heart much more deeply than you expected. Behind that bold, confident exterior, there’s an unexpectedly delicate emotional texture hiding underneath, and that was the part I loved most.

That kind of portrayal is one of Blue Archive’s real strengths, and it’s also why, whenever a new character is added, the first thing I get excited about is what kind of story they might be carrying.

I’m also really looking forward to May 26, when we finally get to meet Armed Rio, Himari, and Toki.