Forbidden SIREN Harumi Yomoda – Harumi’s Room on Promo Site

The Content of the Promotional Site

I wrote the details about this in the previous article about Naoko Mihama, but this promotional site was interactive, and when you clicked on an item, some sort of event would occur. (Kind of like point-and-click computer games in the early 2000s.)

The site featured four characters, Kyoya, Akira, Harumi, and Naoko, and when you clicked on an item in each character’s room, an event would occur, and you could learn about their backgrounds and side stories.

I’m currently examining each of the four featured characters on this site one by one in this blog.

This is the first page. The four names are written on a small wooden board called “ema” (votive tablet) – from the right, Naoko Mihama, Harumi Yomoda, Akira Shimura, and Kyoya Suda. There is a bowl of incense sticks above each ema. When the incenses are lit, you can click on the character’s ema and go to their room.

Now that I’ve finished exploring Naoko Mihama’s bathroom, let’s take a look at Harumi’s room today.

Harumi Yomoda

Harumi’s Room

The crosses are the items that can be clicked. Clicking on an item triggers an event, but before that, I will check out things that catch my interest.

Purikura

Prikura stickers under the paper

This is a sheet of purikura photos/stickers. Purikura became popular among young girls from the late 1990s to the 2000s in Japan. With dedicated machines, you could take full-body photos and add various decorations and effects to them. It’s kinda expensive, around 400 yen per session, but since it’s usually taken with friends or lovers, splitting the cost makes it around 200 or 100 yen per person. (Currently, the price seems to  have increased to 500 yen per session.)

Around 2010, smartphones became widespread, their camera quality improved, and apps with filters emerged, so I thought the purikura culture might decline a long time ago but, it still seems popular among young girls.

The purikura photos in Harumi’s room feature a young couple. It’s obviously not Harumi, and they seem too young to be her parents either (plus, Harumi’s parents are already deceased), so I wonder who they could be.

Zori (Footwear)

Zori – Traditional Japanese Footwear

Are these zori Harumi’s? Or could they be a memento from her deceased mother? They seem a bit small in size, so they may belong to Harumi. It’s quite old-school for a 10-year-old to wear zori.

Let’s open the drawer and see what’s inside.

Inside, there are toys, boxes, photographs, and various other items.

Now, let’s go through the clickable items one by one.

Black Box

Harumi is still a 10-year-old child but seems to possess some sort of ESP, such as clairvoyance and precognitive abilities. It appeared that she knew something ominous was going to happen in the village.

A few days before the ritual, she met Miyako, who also had clairvoyant abilities, and became friends with her.

Photo

Harumi lost her parents in a car accident caused by lightning. Reiko, her teacher, feels a particular sympathy towards Harumi because she also lost her own daughter in an accident.

On a side note, it’s mentioned that Harumi kissed her deceased parents at the hospital. Initially, I wondered, “Hmm, would a Japanese child, especially in such circumstances, kiss their parents?” because it doesn’t seem very typical of Japanese culture. But perhaps it’s because this promotional site was aimed at Western audiences.

After the movie ends, you return to the room.

Oh? There’s something on top of the book that wasn’t there before…

I briefly thought, with some excitement, “Could this be the Hanyuda Triangle Beetle!?” But, hmm, this is probably just a large spider.

Hanyuda Triangle Beetle

“The Rhinoceros beetle unique to Hanyuda village. It features distinctive triangular patterns on its wings. While the adult beetles feed on tree sap, little is known about their ecology.”

Diary

The subtitle translation is missing after “But their eyes were very hard.” at 00:16. She said, “I couldn’t hear their voices, but I understood what they were saying.”

The diary is interactive, and you can flip through the pages.

Page 1:

“Dream”, “Dream”, “Dream”…

 

Page 2:

The left page – “Protect Mommy and Daddy!” / The right page – “Eye”

 

Page 3:

“Moon”, “Star”, “Star”, “Star”, “Star”

Page 4:

“Monster”

Page 5:

“Star”, “Star”, “Star”…

Book About Constellations

One translation is missing in the subtitles. After “It’s cold” at 00:30, she said, ” I hear some strange noises…”.

Harumi, Reiko, and the principal, the three of them, get involved in the incident while stargazing in the schoolyard at night during an event called “Stargazing Party,” initiated by Reiko (with Harumi being the only student participant).

If you look closely at the bottom right, you can see a figure approaching…

(This is at double speed.)

The hat and walking figure kinda look familiar. Isn’t it this guy?

The old guy shibito with the hat

This is the frame shot that appears for 0.1 seconds at 0:42. It looks like the moment when Reiko is being attacked by a shibito in school.

There is indeed this shibito with a gun in the school stage.

The movie ends, and when you go back to the room, the spider has moved on top of one of the zori.

All the items have been checked and clicking on the cross on the zori triggers an in-game video featuring Harumi.

This is the end of Harumi’s room.

The Uniqueness of Harumi in the Game

Harumi wanders through the debris, crying.

In the game “SIREN,” Harumi is indeed a special character. When playing as Harumi, being attacked by Shibito results in an instant game over. If Shibito gets too close to Harumi, she cowers in place. She doesn’t have weapons, so she cannot even fight back.

Given that she’s only 10 years old, it’s understandable that she can’t battle monsters. However, the reason why the game ends if Harumi is attacked, is more related to the fact that, in the story, Harumi is a character who “must not be attacked”.

The reason for this is within the world of SIREN: “Anyone who has the otherworldly substance known as ‘red water’ within them, regardless of whether they become a Shibito or not, can never return from the otherworld to the real world.”

Harumi is the only character in the game who can return to the real world, and for Harumi to return to the real world, she must not allow any red water into her body.

If she were to drink the red water or get injured, allowing the red water to enter her body, she would no longer be able to return to the real world.

Thus, characters like Kyoya, Yoriko, and Tamon are still alive but cannot return. They are doomed to spend their lives in the otherworld for good. (That’s so terrifying.)

This concept of “not being able to return to the real world if you have otherworldly substances in your body” comes from a Japanese folklore called “Yomotsuhegui.”

What is Yomotsuhegui？

Izanagi visits the land of Yomi to pursue the deceased wife, Izanami in Japanese mythology.

“Yomotsuhegui” refers to consuming food cooked in the cauldrons of Yomi-no-Kuni (the land of Yomi), the underworld in Japanese mythology and folklore. It was believed that consuming food from that world would prevent the individual from returning to the realm of the living.

Harumi Snake

Harumi is unable to fight and can only escape from enemies, which makes it challenging to play her in the game.

However, due to her ability to skillfully evade the monsters and make a safe return to the real world, she’s often dubbed “Harumi Snake” among some Japanese fans.

Who is Snake?

Solid Snake

Snake is the protagonist of the Metal Gear series of games. He infiltrates enemy bases and facilities, employing stealth and tactics to accomplish various missions.

The Actor of Harumi

The actor who played Harumi Yomoda is Chiaki Kominami. Currently, she is pursuing a career as a singer under the name COMiNUM.

Chiaki (COMiNUM) somewhat resembles Harumi.

Surprisingly, she has released a song titled “Starry,” which is themed on Harumi! She has a very lovely voice. If you are a Siren fan, give it a listen.

Harumi – the only one who was able to return to the mortal world. I’m sure she has grown into a wonderful adult in the world of Siren too.

Final Thoughts

Like Naoko, Harumi is also a character I felt attached to. She can’t fight, gets tired quickly when running, and overall, she’s a challenging character to play. However, because she can only flee without fighting, it made the game more like a simple game of tag, which was enjoyable in its own way. Especially the stage where everyone in the Maeda family turns into monsters and Harumi is trapped in the house with them is one of the best stages in the game. I think I played that stage like 100 times.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this article.

Next time, I’d like to write about the third character, Akira. Give it a read if you’re interested.