Duty and Desire: what drives Chitanda?

In part two of our series on Chitanda Eru, we take a look at the reasons why Chitanda behaves as she does. What compels this girl to do as much as she can for people? Why is she so eager to please and be earnest with what she does? I feel her actions are mostly driven by her role as the future Chitanda family head and the upbringing that was likely associated with it. Not only that, but Chitanda is a person with a great sense of duty, which drives her to do whatever she needs to in order to get a job done. Together, these two parts of Chitanda’s being produce an inexorable desire to please others.

I highly recommend reading Ibu’s article on Chitanda’s two personas either before or after this. The articles were written with each other in mind, so they share a lot of ideas and fit together nicely.

In Ibu’s article, two sides of Chitanda Eru are discussed. Her “Eru” persona – the curious, whimsical girl – and the “Chitanda” persona which is professional, direct and seeks to get things done. Her “Chitanda” persona stems from her role as the heir to the Chitanda family farm and business. It is likely Chitanda was brought up in a manner which would mould her into a girl who could maintain the status and prosperity of the family. I’ll be referring to the character as Eru in this article, simply because I mention the family a lot as well.

Ibu’s article talks of the “Eru” persona and how this is expressed through Eru’s curiosity, and how the “Chitanda” persona is expressed through fulfilling duties and behaving in a manner befitting an heir. As such, I feel these two personas also represent Eru’s desires and duties, and the balance of the two form her public persona.

The “Eru” persona is most evident in situations with the Classics Club solving a mystery. Ibu’s article explains how the Classics Club is a refuge for Eru: there, she is (generally) free of any real obligations other than to be herself and have fun. Free of responsibility, Eru is able to act on her whims, and she does this as often as she can. I think Eru is just one of those naturally curious people who, if something piques their interest, has to know everything about it, no matter how silly the situation. The environment of the Classics Club (mainly, the accessibility of Houtarou) affords her the chance to solve these mysteries and really enjoy herself by doing what she wants.

Eru adopts her “Chitanda” persona when acting as the Chitanda family heir, or meeting some commitment. This part of Eru is driven by her need to fulfil her duties, and this need is what drives her in a lot of situations. Eru takes full advantage of scenarios in which she can do as she desires (as discussed above), but what about if she desires to fulfil her duties as well? And what if in order to meet expectations, Eru has to ignore what she herself wants?

Assumedly, Eru knew from a very young age she would eventually become the Chitanda family heir. As Eru said in the final episode, she has thought about how she can best perform her role as the Chitanda family heir from a young age. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that this is because, from an early age, she was raised in a way that would best prepare her for the position of Chitanda family head.

Likely, Eru was taught as a child to make sure she completed things to the best of her ability, or to even go beyond that, as your business partners will never appreciate someone who can’t pull through. Pleasing others is paramount, as how else will you earn a positive reputation? Take control of a negative situation and use your authority to turn it around. There’s always a solution. My parents own a business, and these are the kind of lessons I picked up from them just by watching them and asking about it, and I was never expected (or wanted, for that matter) to take over the business. For someone expected to take over the business, though, I imagine these ideas would be drummed into you (just like it was drummed into me that no one likes a sloppy handshake from an early age; every parent has their weird things they harp on about, after all!). Our parent’s expectations aren’t something we can easily escape, and they tend to bleed into our personal lives.

The obligation to meet other’s expectations is clearly evident in the Kami Fest arc, specifically Eru feeling the need to perform as club president. The surplus of Hyoukas need to be sold, and Eru takes it upon herself to see to this as club president, approaching people about selling copies. Following her conversation with Irisu, Eru is convinced to manipulate people. Although this goes against Eru’s nature, she agrees because she feels this will enable her to fulfil her role as club president. Here, her duty to sell the Hyoukas outweighs her personal feelings on the matter. Even though it exhausts and upsets her, Eru continues to push onwards in order to complete her task.

I think, however, the ultimate display of Eru ignoring her own desires so that she may do that which is expected of her is the final discussion between her and Houtarou.

Eru’s fate has essentially been decided. She must return to Kamiyama City as the Chitanda family head after university. And while she is indifferent to this, it’s obvious from the way she speaks of it that it causes her trouble, and she hasn’t discussed it before. As the show has established already, Eru dislikes upsetting people and being sad herself, so why bring up something like this? I can only imagine it must be intensely frustrating (and to me, depressing as well) to have very little say in your life’s direction. Eru would likely feel that telling others this would burden them, so she keeps that part of herself hidden from others.

Any plans contrary to continuing the family business have been abandoned so that Eru can fulfil her duty. To me, this speaks volumes of how dutiful Eru really is, and how seriously she takes her role as the future Chitanda family head. She has literally given up the possibility of any other future so that she can do that which is required of her. This minute or so of narrative manages to develop her character wonderfully, but also serves to clarify Eru’s feelings towards Houtarou.

Eru immediately follows her future “plans” with a description, or an explanation, even, of the location in which they are standing.

“Take a look, Oreki. This is my place. All that’s here is water and soil. The people here are growing old. I don’t think that this place is the most beautiful. I also don’t think this place is full of potential. But… I wanted you to see it, Oreki.”

It seems unusual to immediately jump from a rather deep conversation on Eru and Houtarou’s futures to this rather inconsequential little speech. However, Eru had just finished explaining the history of the Chitanda family. An old family who has worked the land for many years and helped established Kamiyama City. Because of this, the land is essentially part of the Chitanda family and thus, by virtue of being the Chitanda family heir, the land and city is a part of Eru.

That is, when she is speaking of the place in which they are standing, Eru is speaking about herself. To me, this sounds as though Eru is telling Oreki, “Although I may not particularly like this part of me which has dictated my future from the moment I was born, and even before that, I cannot hate it and cannot ignore it. I want to share it with you, anyway. It’s still a part of me, and you’re someone I want to share my entire being with.”

It’s a bitter irony that one of Eru’s primary desires is to carry out her various duties, to the detriment of anything else she may want. I believe this why Eru has feelings for Houtarou. That he “completes her” by being able to sate her curiosity might be a part of it. The primary reason, I feel, is that because Houtarou is so apathetic, he doesn’t care if Eru isn’t putting maximum effort into everything she does. She doesn’t need to be meeting any expectations other than those she sets for herself, and even then, if it’s too much effort, forget it! Houtarou is someone she can be herself around. Someone she can relax with and just generally do what she wants. We see this in episode 19, where Eru’s mannerisms are different to what we’ve seen before; she’s much more relaxed and casual. No obligations and no expectations gives Eru the opportunity to be a little silly, and I really loved the interaction we see between the two.

Now that Hyouka is finished and I’m able to look back on the series in its entirety, I find Eru to be a much more engaging and interesting character than I first thought. The final scene of the series was extremely powerful, and pulled off some of the most amazing character development I’ve seen in the space of a few minutes. I hope our articles on Chitanda managed to give everyone a little more appreciation for her character and its depth, and demonstrate just how well Hyouka constructed and developed the cast.