Zenless Zone Zero Asaba Harumasa: A Name Written in Water

In version 1.4, all proxies can get a agent for free, he is Asaba Harumasa, he is based on the genius swordsman who is a household name in Japan, and the details of his body reveal the designer's hilarious fun, how many more details do you know about Harumasa? Today, let's enjoy the new agent, Asaba Harumasa.

1. Design prototype of Asaba Harumasa

I'm sure that many proxies, like me, thought that Asaba Harumasa was a bright and cheerful young man who looked just like many of the Japanese animated bowmen. As we dug deeper, we realized that he was actually a genius swordsman named Okita Sōji, the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi.

According to in-game information, Harumasa's birthday is July 19th; he's also a genius on bows and swords; he has a coughing fit caused by the Ether effecting his lungs; he faints at important moments; and he can't get enough of his master. On the other hand, Okita Sōji was known as a genius swordsman; coughed up blood and even fainted due to tuberculosis; and in his later years kept asking people around him about his teacher due to his worry about his teacher's situation. It is worth noting that the anniversary of Okita Sōji's death is Harumasa's birthday, which is also July 19th. And Harumasa is the real name of Okita Sōji(Okita Sōjirō Fujiwara no Harumasa).

In addition to these similarities, Harumasa's weapons seems to perfectly support the suspicion that he is based on Okita Sōji. For example, Harumasa's bow can be quickly divided into two melee weapons, "Dormant Blossom" and "Dark Tide", which corresponds to the haiku "Those flowers and waters shine through darkness" that Okita Sōji left behind before he died.

It is worth noting that the name of Harumasa's Agent Aechives is "A Name Written in Water", which corresponds to the epitaph of the English Romantic poet John Keats: "Here lies one whose name was written in water." Keats also died of tuberculosis at an early age.

2. Appearance Design of Asaba Harumasa

On Harumasa's head is his signature Japanese element hairband, a bright yellow color that matches his pupils, which is very energetic and vibrant. The hairband is also a common accessory when practicing archery. In the game, Harumasa's hairband was given to him by his master, and it is both a source of support for Harumasa's spirit and his master's spiritual legacy. This may also explain why it transforms into a ray of golden light to show Harumasa's arrows the way to go.

The black neck ring around Harumasa's neck is to cover the pinhole scars from when he was used as an experiment at a young age.

The white shirt on Harumasa's upper torso both identifies him as a member of H.S.O.S.6. and echoes the dojo uniform worn when practicing the Japanese archery.

It is worth noting that Harumasa's left chest wears a chest protector that is commonly used in the modern use of bows and arrows to prevent the bowstring from hitting his clothes when it bounces back. However, this type of chest protector is usually worn with small draw bows, such as recurve bows, compound bows, etc., where the bowstring is only pulled up to the chin. The Japanese bows used in archery are large draw bows where the bowstring needs to be pulled behind the ear. That's why the chest protectors that work with Japanese bows are slightly different in shape from modern chest protectors.

Harumasa actually uses quite a few different bowing technique in the game, and the production team deliberately blended a variety of bowing technique as well as bow and arrow equipment.

3. Weapons Design

Let's talk about Harumasa's weapon, which is officially named the "Double-Bladed Compound Bow", which is both a bow and arrow and a double blade.

The shape of the bow is somewhere between an American hunting bow and a Japanese bow, which explains why Harumasa's shooting stance is constantly switching. When need to shoot fast in combat, Harumasa will use the archery posture of hunting bow. And when you are shooting from a distance, Harumasa will use the perfectly archery posture of Japanese bow.

The Harumasa Drawing Gloves have been cleverly designed to meet a variety of drawing needs. The overall shape of these gloves is derived from the three-finger gloves used in drawbows. These gloves are also known as "Yugake", yugake has a groove at the base of the thumb made of a special material to hook the bowstring. Since the entire thumb is hard, the index and middle fingers look as if they are spread out when drawing the bow, and this is also the reason why the Japanese archery has a nice hand shape when drawing the bow.

Let's go back to Harumasa's gloves, where we can notice the black color of his thumb part. Unlike the rest of the material, this should correspond to the hardening treatment we mentioned above in order to use Japanese bows' draw method.

Of course it can also be noticed that the hardened part of the thumb only goes as far as the first knuckle. It means that it can also be used for the thumb drawing action.

In addition to the thumb, the index finger, the middle finger and the web between the thumb and forefinger are all made of different materials on this glove. Harumasa can use the "Two-finger bowing" and "Pinch-arrow drawing" methods, respectively. The game also has a corresponding animation.

Finally, let me answer a question that many people have wondered. What is the meaning of "564" on Soukaku, Harumasa and Miyabi in Section 6. According to speculation, "564" is pronounced "goroshi" in Japanese, which corresponds to the Japanese word for "kill", "koroshi".

Harumasa's appearance answered many of the questions that the rope makers had in their minds about the new character, but it also created a lot of plot ambiguities. Regardless, Harumasa is still the cheerful, cat-loving boy we all love. We'll be updating you with more Harumasa content and merchandises in the future, so stay tuned