My sister has pointed out that Hanako is basically the rabbit in this story: www.bokksu.com/blogs/news/japanese-folktale-rabbit-on-the-moon Again, moon symbolism, and throwing herself on the fire for man. Damn.
You must've missed that at the end of the phone calls during the credits Hannako does offer V a job as a bodyguard. Which considering who Arasaka could have access to says a lot. I get what you said though since a lot of people are so over Arasaka with that ending that they don't bother to watch the credits phone calls.
On a personal level, I’d argue she’s even worse-she chooses this self-delusion of family values in order to fulfill her selfish desires. At least Saburo is obviously evil and self-aggrandizing.
Yes, but then she was raised to be sub-serviant and totally programmed by her dad, so there wasn't really a possibility that she would turn out to be different.
This chick made my skin crawl when I walked into embers. She had everything set up to try and wooo me. Everything about that meeting was designed to make her appear this refined beauty that needs me to swoop in and save her. From her playing the piano to look cultured as I enter, her having all her minions vanish so she could pretend this is an intimate moment, her invading my personal space at the bar, and that flyer that conveniently flies past so she can pretend to be afraid of it. I have something she wants and she thinks she can just dazzle me because I'm supposed to be a dumb commoner and she's my better. That woman just screamed trouble from the moment she looked at me.
@@BonhartofEbbing When I walked in, it just felt wrong because she appeared to be so lightly guarded. I didn't realize she was trouble until she stopped playing the piano.
love how they played on the stereotype of a weak and feeble east asian "peach blossom" needing to be saved from the tyrannical, snakish asian masculinity that cowardly dominates them. Only for it to be a complete 180 and knowing their audience well, fed their preconceived notions only to rob them at the end of their desired ending of riding off into the sunset with some asian beauty. In reality, she just ghosts your ass and you're left to rot as some science experiment.
I think Hanako’s biggest weapon is her demureness. She goes out of her way to appear like a delicate flower and uses it to manipulate people. She’s helpless against her brother, no way could she stop him without V… minus the fact that all she needed to do was show the board daddy’s chip and she won. She presents herself like a dove but underneath she is a red tailed hawk. Ok I want to lay out this theory for you about the engram chip. It does seem obvious Saburo’s plan was to take over Yorinobu’s body. But that begs the question, why was Silverhand’s engram on that chip? Out of all the possible choices why him? I suspect the chip was always intended to be used to see the effects of the chips takeover. When Hellman learns you slotted the chip he is very interested to how you are adapting to it. But with Yorinobu in charge he doesn’t want the chip going back into his hands so he tells you to ignore Silverhand. But why would he say that? I think this ties into the false memories of Silverhand. We know that things went down very differently from what we see in Silverhand’s flashbacks. I suspect Hellman altered Silverhand’s memories to make him hellbent on getting revenge on Smasher. Then when the person who ended up chipped is set loose and they turn fully into Silverhand the body would fall right back into their hands when it squares up with Smasher. So when Silverhand does exactly what they expected and sent V after saka and right into Hanako’s hands everything seemed to have worked put as they expected. In most endings she wouldn’t have anticipated V surviving Smasher. And in the Devil ending she would have the chip and V’s body if V killed Smasher or not.
It always seemed to me that Yorinobu stole the chip as is. So he wouldn’t have loaded Johnny onto the chip in the first place. And once he had it he started floating it around to Netwatch. Which still begs the question, why load Johnny Silverhand onto your experimental body takeover chip.
@ I keep trying to comment but UA-cam might be automatically removing it. Anyway no Yorinobu specifically chose Johnny please go to the cyberpunk wiki and read Yorinobu/computer and Brian Mosley/computer entree’s since I can’t quote what they say.
Hanako Arasaka is the true antagonist of Cyberpunk 2077. Her greatest trick was to get the player to think her idealistic brother was the actual enemy.
@@mateuszslawinski1990 @mateuszslawinski1990 Think onto the mandatory meeting you have with her at Embers. Here she presents the entire narrative with her brother as the antagonist to V's plight and her as the only solution. As a kind, sympathetic authority that will give V their life back if only they will do the small favor of testifying on her behalf. Only she's lying. She has no idea if Arasaka can help V and she's very, very likely to know that Yorninobu will attack after this provocation which will draw V into Hanako's fight. Then she uses V as guinea pig, all without V ever figuring it out. Yorninobu ironically would likely empathize with V and work in good faith.
I'm too much on Johnny's side to ever feel any sympathy for Hanako. She comes from the ultimate world of wealth and privilege. She is the daughter of the most powerful man on Earth, who can turn a third of the world into an irradiated wasteland, controls a system that steals the consciousness of people away, and is making tech to make her evil father immortal. Arasaka is the pinnacle of evil, and part of me always figured justice was served when you realize that Yorinobu was trying to finish what he started all those years ago and destroy the company. He says as much in the Devil ending. So when I naturally did the Nomad ending, you realize that his efforts will succeed, and the most privileged family in the world is being brought to their knees.
I would argue that Arasaka isn't even the most evil corporation. Just the one we know the most about. Biotechnica experiments on living people such as pregnant women, and assassinates anyone who might create cheap/sustainable food sources that aren't owned/sold by Biotechnica, and they are developing mind control tech. Then Militech were the ones who canonnically bombed Arasaka Tower (as it has been confirmed that the novels & game are both canon, meaning Johnny's engram memories are all fake/modified), and is trying to use the Blackwall and the A.I. beyond to create military weapons. If anything, Arasaka is like maybe mid-tier evil. Militech literally runs the NUSA and in the ending after the DLC where V returns to Night City, they appear to have enacted martial law and taken over the city itself. Which might imply by the sequel that Militech basically owns/runs all of the United States including Night City. Which if you thought having a borderline lawless Night City was bad, imagine having a singular corp who owns/runs everything and dictates all the laws. From the lore currently, Arasaka doesn't even intend to take over Night City and their presence has always just been as the biggest corp present. But you take them off the board and they technically don't even care, they already dominate Japan. But Militech essentially gets a free uncontested pass to move in and take over the entire city. (It's one thing I appreciate about Mike Pondsmith's writing. He basically created the world where the bigger your "blaze of glory", the absolute worse off everyone else is in the long-run. It's like if you had 2 kings in a deadlock over who gets to rule the land. While killing 1 is a good idea on paper, it just instantly allows the other side to take all the power and establish a much worse and even more unstoppable enemy.)
@@sgg3586 oh, definitely. What i would like more than seeing how a unified USA under Millitech works for Edgerunners, is how life is in orbit. a game that has absolutely no ties to anything dirtside would be more interesting to me.
I don’t feel bad for her But the thing is she doesn’t really have much power within her family. The men in her life won’t always just bend to her desires. And her position of wealth is contingent on her playing the role they may out for her. Now that said she does still choose to stay in that life. But she’s probably the least powerful of the family
@@anthonydelfino6171 Yes, she is the least powerful. But even without that power, she has more money than god. All she had to do to be free for the rest of her life was to erase her father's engram (or tell her brother about its existence), send Oda after Anders Hellman, and walk away. Yorinobu would have ignored her if she did nothing to prevent his coup. Michiko might have given her actions a few minutes worth of attention though. Probably set someone to watch her aunt, just to be safe.
I had a more sinister take on Hanako after playing the game, especially considering the events of the game. Given the fact that we learn she is intimately aware of her father's machinations, particularly for Yorinobu, I always saw all of her "family first" behavior and dialogue to be particularly hollow and fake. You mention how she tries to encourage her brother to "accept his role in the family", but we know from the events of the game, that that "role" is simply replacement sleeve. Nothing more than a fresh meat suit for her father to inhabit. That's why he was so invested in the relic project, and was willing to allow Yorinobu to get away with more transgressions than he would likely allow others. He didn't want to damage his new sleeve. After playing the Devil ending, and learning about the engram of her father was still running things, with Hanako as his loyal pair of hands to enact his digital will from beyond the grave, I always assumed that the course of events basically boiled down to as soon as daddy dearest died, she went to the vault and talked to his ghost, per established policy, and basically just continued to obey him. That she had been so terrified and groomed by her family to obedience, that the idea of not obeying the ghost of her father, even at the cost of her brother, didn't cross her mind. That's partly why Yorinobu wasn't too worried about her safety during the "rescue", because he knew what his father's plan were for him, and he also knew that Hanako was very much a Company Woman, loyal to the end. It's why I think, she wasn't surprised to learn it was Yorinobu who killed their father, in fact she flat out says she knew it was him. But she doesn't care. Because she knows he's still alive as an engram. In fact she's been following his orders off-camera this whole time. There really wasn't anything different in her eyes. And given how physically intimate and sensual their embrace is in the Devil ending, right before Hanako erases her brother, cradling him in her lap, I always got something of an incestuous vibe from the family. In a world of implants, cyborgs and radical full body transformations, the idea that "you can't have sex with your family" is something of a thing of the past. I mean if you've replaced you're entire body with cybernetics, what is the risk? There is no genetic mutations to worry about, and that's only if you are actually trying to breed. And even then, in a world of INSANE levels of genetic manipulation and cloning, that too is something of a triviality. So I always got the impression, that Saburo simply saw his children as resources to use. One for his literal rebirth, and one as his concubine. In fact I wonder whether or not she had literally been groomed for that role her entire life. And that she had accepted it, so fully, that even after her father's death, she couldn't break free of the restraints, and obeyed him from beyond the grave, even if that meant the death of her brother, and her own perpetual enslavement. Perhaps her driving factor was fear and being trapped, seeing no other way out, but the end result is that she calmly, and easily, erased her brother, in order to resurrect her father, so that he could continue to rule over her for several more centuries now with a fresh body. And again, I always got the impression that Saburo was just as interested in her body as he was Yorinobu's....but just for a different reason. And that she was a broken bird, staying in her cage, even when she could've stepped away, but chose to remain there, for whatever reason.
oh god my brain never even went in the concubine direction and im so sad how much sense that makes ughhhhh. the saburo analysis just got even more layered.
@@lydiscott Yeah, because you mention the bit about seeing Hanako erasing Yorinobu, and I've seen clips where they blow up that image and zoom in on her, and it does look like she reaches to her waist (likely a pocket) and then takes whatever is in her hand, and puts it to the back of his head. I forget what she says, but if you have subtitles on, you can see a tiny text bubble over her head. I think it says something like "sleep now" or "it will all be over soon", or something equally final and sinister. It's right as V is hobbling into the elevator, so it's easy to miss, as you are also having a lot Relic static on the screen, but yeah I agree with the internet theory that we actually witness the moment Yorinobu is overwritten by his father. I also wonder if part of Hanako's motivation was self-preservation. Because if Yorinobu died...well....there's nothing saying his daughter couldn't become the next vessel for his engram. She's just as genetically compatible as Yorninobu. So what if it's a female body? The gender-fluid, transhumanist reality of CP 2077 probably means that Yorinobu wouldn't even care if he was in a woman's body, as long as he got to live. And even though he was born back in the early 1900's, so maybe he does have some old-school bigotries about gender, well....again so? He could just rebuild her entirely with a cybernetic body, change the chassis to be more male-presenting, and just redefine himself as a guy instead of Hanako. Since he's openly declaring it's him at the wheel, that would likely seem even less of a problem for people. So she might've been motivated to secure Yorinobu so that SHE didn't end becoming the sacrifice to her father's immortality.
Sex and nonconsensual sex are deeply ingrained in the world of cyberpunk. Child brothels, sex toys and ads everywhere, public masturbation (seen in Edgerunners) are all normalized. It's not a stretch to say that incest is a possibility here.
@@humanresources8404 i mean it actually does happen in the game. one of the NCPD incidents you can come across is an Old Boy reference, but it's about the Barely Illegal brothel and a guy who ends up renting a session with a girl who turns out to be his own daughter. And he goes apeshit about it. So yeah, doesn't seem all that unlikely to me either.
@@happyninja42 I have always thought that there is no ambiguity on what Yorinobu was for, and that he was not Saburo's son, but a clone intended to be inhabited by Saburo when his own (Saburo's) body failed. Hanako knew this, and was complicit in finally completing the first step in granting her father immortality.
“Evil isn’t a brutal psychopath destroying everything in its path, it’s a weak but corrupting force, all it needs is one way in and present that way in with a smile.” - Isaiah Wilson
I love how she was written. You can feel that she truly is an enigma. Going through The Devil ending lets you know that she does have some good in her, although the "bad" part i.e. her devotion to Arasaka may outweigh it. Also, holy crap at 18:04 I have multiple playthroughs in this game and I never noticed Adam Smasher during that scene because it was so chaotic and things happened so fast.
I love Hanakos design. She is literally the 'golden child' everything she touches isnt really her. Its Arasaka. She is the hands of Arasaka. And the way the gold weaves through her body. She is woven through Arasaka, tied to it. I wonder if the Japanese method of fixing pottery with gold (kintsugi) was influential in her design. Arasaka keeps her whole. Her gilded cage wrapped literally into her body.
Yorinobu kills his father. Hanako kills Yorinobu and uses his body to bring back their father. And now Hanako is once again a slave under his rule. That's one messed up family.
I think Hanako represents wasted potential in a lot of ways. She's smart, cunning even, she shows in The Devil ending that she works well and swiftly in a leadership role. She's effecient and precise. But she's wasted it being her father's loyal lapdog. At the beginning of the game during the heist Jackie gets mad if you compare him to Yorinobu, mentioning he can't see why somebody with every advantage like that would waste it to play at being in a gang. But really Yorinobu didn't waste his wealth, education, etc, he used it, he tried to break free and he developed an identity of his own, however shortsighted and rebellious it is. Hanako on the other hand *does* waste her intelligence, her wealth, her resources: everything Yorinobu had, she had too, but instead of forming her own identity and ideals or rebelling in any way she bowed to her father and fully lets him lead her around by the nose even as a grown adult. It's embarassing. She had a chance to be rid of him forever and sacrificed her brother to let him back into the world. She's not the corporate princess she often gets portrayed as, for all her elegance and fame and her aura of mystery, she's just another lame yes-man minion in a city full of them. The moral of Hanako's story is that it takes real bravery to just say NO. And she didnt have it in her, even with every advantage on her side.
You're right, once Hanako has carried out her duty-to resurrect Saburo-you're not needed anymore. At best, you're a research project for the Relic developers to learn what they can about its effects on someone who was never intended to use it. When you finally have enough, Hanako sends someone to pacify you. Either you agree to go into Mikoshi, become Arasaka property, and be shunted into the back of a virtual warehouse forever; or you say no, go back to Earth, die in six months and solve the problem that way. The real kicker is the credits scene call, where they say "We know you're dying, but you shouldn't waste your talents until you do, and Arasaka can always use someone like you . . ." Gee, thanks
The Devil Ending is an amazing sequence, the eerie unreality of the testing, the reunification with an obviously conflicted Takemura, the final conversation with the guard before you go under. Definitely my preferred ending. If it's not depressing it's not Cyberpunk.
Funny how Hanako sees V as a mere puppet when she dies in every ending, other than Devil, where V either directly attacks Arasaka or stays out of the conflict (Tower).
"How long have I got Vik?" Vik: "A week, maybe 2 tops. Then you'll just be....gone." *proceeds to play for over a year of in-game time, 100% fine with zero side-effects of the Relic because I'm doing side content, not the storyline* 🤣
"That AV has been flying around for a while..." "No I mean _really,_ V, they've been flying nonstop for months. Should we... should we call someone...?"
The fact she never questions or challenges her position is precisely what makes her so evil. She will unquestioningly follow Saburo if it means her family stands to gain
I'm sure this has been pointed out, but Hanako matching Saburos office(s) gives me the vibe that they both saw her as his tool. No different from his marble desk, she is the tool to carry out the Arasaka will
18:10 - now-now, Smasher being a bad choice for leading a rescue mission is a narrative first and foremost propagated by Hanako, who was likely propping it up to get extra sympathy points from the player. Having underestimated Goro Takemura once, Arasaka probably wanted someone capable of standing up to Goro no matter how much implant control he'd regained, and with Oda dead or recovering Smasher is the only acceptable option. We also see him perform his job very competently: separating V and Takemura before striking, and then disengaging from the fight the moment Hanako is secured. Say what you will about him being not very stable, we never see his bloodthirstiness jeopardize any of his jobs.
Another fantastic video! After watching this, I can't help but see some parallels between Hanako and So Mi. Hanako is like a twisted version of Songbird that prefers to be caged rather than freed. Are you still going to make videos for each ending? I would love to see you delve further into the Devil ending!
thats a really good point! ohh yes i am, and comments like this are super helpful. Im gonna try and make a list of paralells between all endings and characters, and your point about so mi and hanako is really cool.
Oh boy....the thing that seems the most chilling and leaves you with a sense of uncertainty is if you take the deal,but refuse to go into Mikoshi youll recieve a call from Hanako herself where she says she and her father are willing to retain your services for the last 6 months of your life. It makes you think takemura was lying about "the arasaka's have forgotten you already" if they wanted to hire you. I personally wish we got to see more of Yorinobu and Hanako's in this game. Yorinobu is the heir to the Throne and Hanako is Saburo's most treasured thing on earth and despite the feud between Father and Son,the Daughter was the neutral ground between the two
It might also be an English mistake on Takemura's part, he doesn't use TLX software, evidenced by the fact he repeats "you do not look so bad" even at times that don't really make sense. "Forget" can also be translated as "Forgive". It could be Takemura's clumsy way of letting V know their deeds have been forgiven buy the Arasaka family.
At Embers, doesn't she admit that she - as well as others - didn't just doubt her brother's story? I recall her saying that she (and they) already *knew* that her brother killed her father. They just knew they couldn't move against him without splitting the family. I don't think she was as interested in V as a witness to the murder as she was of V's experiences with the Relic. Here was proof that someone (Saburo) could come back in a different body. This aspect seemed to have been untested. Anders Hellman says it was assumed that the Relic would be used on a corpse - suggesting that was never tried (either on a corpse or a living person.) Hanako then believes it is very important that her brother remain alive (so that he can be replaced with Saburo) just as V was alive when taking on the Relic. I don't think anyone ever mentions to her that the Relic (Silverhand) only really activated after V died. Unlike her brother, Hanako doesn't take chances. She doesn't make uncertain moves. She doesn't live with uncertainty at all. I believe that she is certain who murdered her father, and is certain that she was supposed to be collateral damage in her *rescue*, etc.
The whole narrative of "Needing V's testimony" doesn't even pan out. The board is-- rightly-- immediately incredulous of V's story, which is strange knowing that they have a very good idea of what actually happened. It ultimately does not matter what you say, she didn't need you for the testimony, she needs you to be her weapon and tool. And just like So Mi in Phantom Liberty, what's a tool without a use?
I don’t think it was entirely about the Relic, sure that plays a part but I think it was V’s skills as a fighter. I mean you gotta think V easily takes down Adam Smasher and hordes of top arasaka soldiers while their body is basically self destructing. I think that’s why the kept you around after removing the Relic, sure part was to test the effects but I think they wanted you as an Arasaka solider and when they figured out you were gonna die anyways why they wanted to put you in mikoshi
Saburo is an even eviler Tywin Lannister; in fact, he’d be impressed by the level of narcissistic and disgusting control Saburo is able to impose upon his family.
Incredible analysis!! You picturing her as a bird who is content to be in a comfortable cage is so good. Cant wait to see more characters from the cyberpunk universe in your story telling, Alt Cunningham would be cool :)
Throughout my multiple playthroughs I was so oblivious to all of this, now i finally get it. *love the editing style of your videos, it makes me chilled
Your not weird for liking dark/somber stories. Everyone is different and some minds are drawn into the things that others avoid. That's makes us humans after all. Individuals. Thanks for this Video. You brought to voice what I couldn't figure out at her, what disturbed me to no avail.
Great video! In the world of Cyberpunk no-one is one dimensional. When it comes to the Relic V ends up adopting, it begs one to wonder what for is it in Yorinobu's prosession containing the engram of Johnny Silverhand. Perhaps the brother, aware of his planned fate, intended to perform the ultimate irony. Kinda makes me wish to see the outcome of that.
I have to admit I did give a small smile of satisfaction when her fate was relayed in and angry phone message from Takemura as I rode off on a basilisk.
Ad. 13:25 this might be a reach, but there is this japanese art technique called kintsugi that consists of using gold (or just powdered gold on lacquer) in order to repair broken pottery by glueing the broken pieces back together. "As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."
@26:00 I watched a different lore video where there's a shard that says saburo told him as a high schooler that saburo will take his body directly. That's why in highschool yorinobu abandons the family and doesn't come back for several years
The devil ending was my first ending, and it was kind of an accident. The whole time i went in with the intent on turning on Hanako, because i chose the corpo path and was RPing that V wanted final revenge on Arisaka by cutting off the head, or what was left of it. Sadly no opportunity presented itself to cap Hanako and Yori in that war room at the end (despite clicking my left mouse button really fucking hard repeatedly) and was ushered to leave them be by Hellman. I was so annoyed.
I got the devil ending the first time and I really love it I like how as soon as you pick it everyone in the game tells you it’s a horrible decision and they’re gonna betray you and that’s exactly what happens. I loved getting the snippets of the news on how the world is reacting to saburo taking over yorinobu’s body. I loved the constant repeating of the same thing over and over till it drives you insane and I love how in the end it shows you that in the eyes of anyone aligned with arasaka, V was nothing but a tool something to be locked away in mikoshi when he/she no longer serves a purpose
I really enjoy your CP 2077 lore videos. They bring a form of comfort and relaxation. I usually put your videos here at work, or after their debut i re watch em at home. Anyways again great video. She always gave me weird vibes. I dont think shes a good person but i dont think shes evil, just very...into her family and morals. Cold.
I think its called Realskin or something along those lines. There are Implants that can change your entire look, we see some who used this to leave theyre past behind
You gave such a concise story on Hanoko. I’ve learned new story lines and a deeper understanding of her motives and how V fit or didn’t fit in them. I truly enjoy your narrative style. ❤
A fellow 99er!! We should’ve had one night of passion! ‘For the family’ is an all too common phrase in Latin & Asian families. Some are strong enough to move away, some aren’t. A sad tale.
Now that I think about it, Arasaka probably has the engram of Hanako. Since she already knows about her father's digital copy, they might as well clone her consciousness too. Even though she dies in some of the endings, it is possible they will still attempt to clone her in the future. It's probably not going to happen in the next game, but that's still a possibility. That's one way to explain why a dead character is canonically alive in the sequel.
Always thought that Yorinobu rebelled and to ran after understanding that his role is to be just a vessel, but it was Hanako who convinced him to come back and to try to accept it. So she is very manipulative when it needs to be.
A lot of stuff I had no idea about, and perspectives that I never thought of, like Hanako having "used" V and not given a crap after their expiration date. Very cool!
The self-imposed tragedy of Hanako leaves me struggling on whether to despise her or not. She’s a tool for the men in her family, and she seems to realize this, but she still plays what she sees as her role. In the end, she’s just a little girl wanting daddy’s approval. I’m also with the “Yorinobu wants to destroy Arasaka” theory. So much makes sense that would otherwise seem incomprehensible.
Yorinobu and Michiko (Yori's and Hanako's niece) are the two most decent members of the Arasaka family. When you read extended lore, Michiko also did several things to undermine Arasaka over the years. Which makes her lackluster role in the main game even more disappointing.
I would love to do a video on her. Gotta go read more about her! Her design also stands out a lot with the bright colours lol, makes me sad she wasn't in the game more. Gives rebel vibes.
@@lydiscott Michiko's outfit in Cyberpunk RED is actually more serious (black suit and relatively short black hair). She often acted as a cutesy airhead in public while actually being a sharp criminologist.
Michiko is a very interesting character on her own. She and her mother were sent to live in Night City because Saburo would disapprove of a half-American grandchild. After her father died during the Fourth Corporate War, and threatened with deportation went to Washington, meeting with President Kress who arranged for her to remain in the country. She formed Danger Girl after graduation from Stanford, a PI firm, and became the figurehead of the liberal Hato faction inside Arasaka. At the same time, she carried out her agreement with Kress in secret-to dismantle Arasaka operations in the States. She's a fascinating person on her own, and the Danger Girl book might be helpful
For me, I always distrusted all of the Arasakas. Saburo definitely had more power than any one person should with the ability to literally glass a third of the earth. Yorinobu, despite wanting to bring down Arasaka always struck my as someone who just...was ineffective. and Hanako always seemed like a viper in the grass to me. That said, I also thought Johnny went to far with nuking the tower. Overall, I ended up thinking that fighting the system was the right idea, but not to the point of nuking the place and letting tens of thousands if not millions die as a result of me shoving a nuke down their throat.
I love these videos. I can confirm, you are able to see her slitting the chip into Yorinobu, but not when walking away, but when the elevator doors close. It is really hard to make out, with all the "Relic Fizz" around, but you can still see it.
Unrelated note, but why does the Relic fizzle effect resemble an eye? I don't want to immediately call out the Blue-Eyes connection, but given the Relic's link to Soulkiller tech and the Blackwall...
Hanako is death, but a specific kind of death. Hanako is the death of a snow covered mountain, frozen but beautiful. She is the icy cold of freezing to death. The kind of death that comes quietly and seductively, convincing you that you're overheated so you take off your coat and lay down in the snow peacefully. The death you acquiesce to thinking you're just falling asleep, not realizing you will never wake again.
Ok, there is so much more to the Arisaka familly in the extended lore of the TT RPG- there is a specific source book on the lore of the corporation. You point out that Saburo married 3 times, and there are Saburo's Grandchildren from these earlier children to factor in, to the equation. You can't avoid the source material, as the game background is built on this even if it does not reveal in shards through the game. Japan is a very different culture to what we understand as westerners, familly is very important and in some of nations- family name comes first as an expression of that. The familly in this case is the object which should always go on- it is Saburo who twists this to make his life 'eternal' over that of his son (who was probably bio engineered to be a posible future proxy for Saburo - i think he thinks thst long term). I have already revealed on another video my own theory about the deep plot of Saburo (,such that i think the Devil ending is the canon ending for the game designer, as it keeps the game arch-protagonist alive for the future). You point out that we see a snippet of this plan working out in the game and that is my reasoning for my theory.
Hanako had a whole decade more or less where she ran a group of edgerunners in Night City in the 40's while Arasaka was exiled. Its oulined i. The Danger Girl suppliment.
When it comes to Arasaka you must always read between the lines. The game's perspective is put in such a way that villainizes Yorinobu for all the bad stuff happening but in reality, all that are consequences of the internal struggle within the family. A lot of the relevant information is not shared with the player but can be acquired through other ways from lore and makes everything clear. Yorinobu snapped at Saburo because he is not his son, he is Saburo's clone and his coming-of-age gift was knowing (besides the truth) he would "very graciously" give his existence so Saburo could live again(as we see in the devils ending). As a creation of Arasaka(His body was manufactured by Biotechnica for Arasaka if I'm not mistaken) he has a deep hate for everything it stands for, that is the reason he chose Johnny as his inspiration to "become the bomb" and destroy it from the inside and for this he needed Alt to fry Mikoshi along with the spirit of dear old dad. depending on the ending he reached various degrees of success based on the influence V has on the outcome. Ultimately in most endings excluding the Devil he accomplishes his mission because Saburo's shard is never concluded so he can never get slotted and survives long enough to "downsize/ruin" the company.
I love imagining how the sequel could start in any ending. In the Devil Ending, id imagine V being brought back and donning a new nickname in a new body (either Vince or Val, for instance). Then, Hanako would remove the emotional memories from a copy of V's engram and create a special forces group. This group would be made up of willing and loyal elite soldiers of arasaka submitting thier bodies to the engram. The engram would then replace specifically the skills and fighting experience of thiers with V's while maintaining their memories and loyalties. Thus creating a V Army, essentially.
Well, seeing Hanako's character from the big picture perspective like this really killed off any modicum of sympathy I might have had for her in any other ending where she meets her untimely demise. Normally I'd try to contribute any lore tidbit the video might have missed or post my most interesting theories, but this video covered Hanako Arasaka so well, that I have nothing else to offer. I'm really looking forward to the lore video on Yorinobu Arasaka, the hidden hero of the cyberpunk world, and what speculations you might make if V ever met Yorinobu under different circumstances. Imagine Johnny's face if he realizes that the heir of the Arasaka corporation has more in common with him than he thinks!
2:41 Those cyber gold fingers are so cool. I want them in game. One could probably recreate them with metallic materials in real life. 5:05 Oh wow. That's something
You must've missed that at the end of the phone calls during the credits Hannako does offer V a job as a bodyguard. Which considering who Arasaka could have access to says a lot. I get what you said though since a lot of people are so over Arasaka with that ending that they don't bother to watch the credits phone calls.
I was only briefly thrown off my mistrust in Hansel after the rescue when she seemed genuinely afraid. It helped solidify my mistrust with Johnny screaming in my ear. In meeting her at the restaurant I was completely paranoid and ready for an ambush. My instinct was on too high of an alert to go along with anything she suggested.
I never trusted Hanako from the begining but i did do the devil ending once to see if she did help. I usually assult Mickoshi alone and do that ending.
That's the ending I got the first time around, I got stuck on the decision and the deciding factor was Takumura's endorsement because I found him to be one of the most honest and decent people in the whole game.
Another important sort of tangential note: Arasaka is spelled with the Kanji 荒坂, which if you literally translate each character, 荒 means "Barren" or "Ravaged" or "Wild," while the second character 坂 usually means "Slope" or "Hill" In that sense the name is a metaphor for their state. At the top of the world, high above everyone else, yet without any passion, empty and lifeless. It could also represent how they have sucked the world of its resources, its hope, leaving it ravaged while they sit at the top of their barren hill.
I have to doubt anyone took Hanako's offer in their first playthrough (I gave my body to Johnny first off because I didn't know I had to wait 5 minutes for the Solo ending). Having played Cyberpunk in the 90s I learnt not to trust any Arasaka other than Yorinobu (who was one of the good npcs back then). CDPR did a good job of making Hanako and Takemura such likeable characters that even I ignored Johnny most times (although I did leave Goro to die because I didn't have any cybernetic leg implants to get back up and save him). Hanako was always Saburo's and it made absolute sense that Daddy had an engram of himself done with regular updates to make certain when the time came his rebirth was as close to his death as possible. All the evidence is provided from his diary where he admits to planning to Nuke Night City to the tests on recently dead subjects to try and transfer an engram into a body. The man was a monster and Hanako is a willing and vital part in making certain that Saburo returns regardless of who has to suffer. Beware of what is fair but inside is foul and do not assume that which looks foul is not inside fair.
I first played this game was when I was 14 and I was holding onto hope that I could have a good outcome with the corpo ending. Maybe playing this game at such a young age wasn’t a good thing but it made me discover the nuance in “bad” people from that. A lot of people in cyberpunk purely help you for their gain because your want is something that gets them closer to their own goal. Hanako wants to use you in order to restore the Arasaka name same as someone like Judy was willing to help you because it would let her find out about Evelyn. Arasaka isn’t fully bad because it’s this great superpower of a military, it’s bad because the people enabling it believe that their means justify the ending. You get duped in the devil ending, plane and simple. Not because of blind evil but because Hanako helped you until you weren’t useful. That experience is why this game is still my number 1, it’s amazing.
My big argument for Hanako is that Yorinobu wanted to destroy Arasaka by starting a FIFTH CORPORATE WAR. The last time one of those happened, the sky turned red and seemed to rain blood from all the fires and fallout. Corporations screwed with the Blackwall to create weapons. Then there was peace and the corps got half a century to make worse weapons. There’s a very good chance a fifth corporate war would unleash something (AI, plague, bomb, AI plague bomb) that would wipe out all life on earth. That risk is unacceptable, and I’m willing to forgive anything that prevents it.
Aw thank you!! OH YES FOR SURE! I’m trying to cover as much base game as I can think of/as the comments can recommend first, then PL, and then, I’ll cover Johnny/V/Saburo, maybe some tabletop stuff and theory things.
@ I wish there was more on Kurt Hansen and his similarities to Colonel Kurtz. Or the relationship between So Mi and Solomon. That first trailer of them talking while he is on the train tells me their relationship was probably fascinating. He truly trusted her and she pulled the rug. Not sure if there is a lot to go on but I would not have found half the stuff you spoke of in your videos so maybe there is enough for someone like you to uncover. Either way, keep up the good work.
I really wish we could learn more of Michiko, she was such a weird and unique character on the PnP, It was incredibly surprising to see her (alone too) at the Devil Ending.
my first playthough, i genuinely believed Hanako was the best choice. goes to show how extensive the corps are in any way to maintain control. shes willingly not her own person.
I believe Yorinobu knew, that this was bound to happen to him and tried to fight it first by running away and rebelling and then by stealing Johnnys chip AND planning that botched heist V is part of. Ultimately, the chip has been a trojan horse placed all those 50ish years back by Alt, Morgan or both of them (since Johnny on that chip has altered memories as Blackwall Alt says that).
In a way, Hanako is somewhat like Nemo from the Fish Finding series of movies. Dory even points out the flaw in Marlin and Saburo's approach in Finding Nemo proper. "If nothing ever happens to him, then nothing will ever happen to him." In other words, if kids aren't allowed to screw around, find out, and gain common sense, they'll never have any stories to learn from.
I personally got the Devil ending the first time I played and was quite happy with it. This ending effectively lays the groundwork for another sci-fi series "Altered Carbon" which I really like. As such the Devil eding is the only ending in which functioning immortality tech is available, which I would consider a significant step in human development. Of course having this technology exclusively in the hands of a single corporation spells desaster for the future, but I like the ending narratively.
Hanako Arasaka's story reminds me a lot of Anthy Himemiya's: a woman groomed for nefarious purposes by a masculine family figure in her life for the ultimate goal of maintaining and controlling life and power, using demure and high-femme aesthetics to mask both their own feelings on matters and the true purpose behind their actions and schemes, appearing to be in control of a situation until it's finally revealed who's holding onto the golden manacles she wears. And like Anthy, Hanako *could* leave at any time, Saburo has no real power over her; nothing really stops her from leaving other than the sheer conditioning she had been put through all her life.
I feel like the Moon might represent Saburo and his narcissistic ambition to "remain the same" beyond death via Soulkiller, but I think you're onto something with Hanako's white attire representing death. Love your analyses! Edit: On second thought, I feel like you may still be right, as the moon is generally connotes the feminine in East Asian cultures. Or, maybe it's not either of them, but the enduring family line or the corp? Anyway, fun fun.
In my first playthrough, I went with Hanako‘s deal. I came to regret it part way through but I thought it was an interesting and somehow fitting end as well. It wasn’t that I trusted her, not at all. I knew she was dangerous. But I thought that, unfortunately for me, she was the most likely person to be able to remove the relic and stop V‘s death through her wealth and influence. Alas, you can’t win. It was a bad deal and in hindsight, the sacrifice was too great. Nevermind the fact that the ending hints the chip or its effects at least are not completely removed. Who knows what kinds of experiments Arasaka did. 😅
My sister has pointed out that Hanako is basically the rabbit in this story: www.bokksu.com/blogs/news/japanese-folktale-rabbit-on-the-moon
Again, moon symbolism, and throwing herself on the fire for man. Damn.
Arasaka to the moon!
You must've missed that at the end of the phone calls during the credits Hannako does offer V a job as a bodyguard. Which considering who Arasaka could have access to says a lot. I get what you said though since a lot of people are so over Arasaka with that ending that they don't bother to watch the credits phone calls.
She gave off a vibe of purity but deep inside she was just as evil as her dad
On a personal level, I’d argue she’s even worse-she chooses this self-delusion of family values in order to fulfill her selfish desires. At least Saburo is obviously evil and self-aggrandizing.
Oh, surely she's worse, as she effectively wipes her brother.
Yes, but then she was raised to be sub-serviant and totally programmed by her dad, so there wasn't really a possibility that she would turn out to be different.
Lawful evil incarnate
@@SquidgyPixelbiochipping the Son/brother genetically killing him off one cell at a time.
Meet Hanako at Embers
All roads lead to *Meet Hanako at Embers*
NEVER
She's screwed man, I have ADHD and shit, I barely have a grasp of what time is. I'll always be on my way to meet Hanako at Embers.
no
This chick made my skin crawl when I walked into embers. She had everything set up to try and wooo me. Everything about that meeting was designed to make her appear this refined beauty that needs me to swoop in and save her. From her playing the piano to look cultured as I enter, her having all her minions vanish so she could pretend this is an intimate moment, her invading my personal space at the bar, and that flyer that conveniently flies past so she can pretend to be afraid of it. I have something she wants and she thinks she can just dazzle me because I'm supposed to be a dumb commoner and she's my better. That woman just screamed trouble from the moment she looked at me.
You knew she was trouble when you walked in???
@@BonhartofEbbing When I walked in, it just felt wrong because she appeared to be so lightly guarded. I didn't realize she was trouble until she stopped playing the piano.
love how they played on the stereotype of a weak and feeble east asian "peach blossom" needing to be saved from the tyrannical, snakish asian masculinity that cowardly dominates them. Only for it to be a complete 180 and knowing their audience well, fed their preconceived notions only to rob them at the end of their desired ending of riding off into the sunset with some asian beauty. In reality, she just ghosts your ass and you're left to rot as some science experiment.
I think Hanako’s biggest weapon is her demureness. She goes out of her way to appear like a delicate flower and uses it to manipulate people. She’s helpless against her brother, no way could she stop him without V… minus the fact that all she needed to do was show the board daddy’s chip and she won. She presents herself like a dove but underneath she is a red tailed hawk.
Ok I want to lay out this theory for you about the engram chip. It does seem obvious Saburo’s plan was to take over Yorinobu’s body. But that begs the question, why was Silverhand’s engram on that chip? Out of all the possible choices why him? I suspect the chip was always intended to be used to see the effects of the chips takeover. When Hellman learns you slotted the chip he is very interested to how you are adapting to it. But with Yorinobu in charge he doesn’t want the chip going back into his hands so he tells you to ignore Silverhand. But why would he say that? I think this ties into the false memories of Silverhand. We know that things went down very differently from what we see in Silverhand’s flashbacks. I suspect Hellman altered Silverhand’s memories to make him hellbent on getting revenge on Smasher. Then when the person who ended up chipped is set loose and they turn fully into Silverhand the body would fall right back into their hands when it squares up with Smasher. So when Silverhand does exactly what they expected and sent V after saka and right into Hanako’s hands everything seemed to have worked put as they expected. In most endings she wouldn’t have anticipated V surviving Smasher. And in the Devil ending she would have the chip and V’s body if V killed Smasher or not.
ohhhh.... i really REALLY LIKE THIS!!!!
I presumed silverhand was inserted for the shenanigans netwatch had in mind when they would get the chip if their purchase wasn't interrupted by you.
Yorinobu was planning on selling it to Netwatch and netwatch wanted Johnny to summon Alt.
It always seemed to me that Yorinobu stole the chip as is. So he wouldn’t have loaded Johnny onto the chip in the first place. And once he had it he started floating it around to Netwatch. Which still begs the question, why load Johnny Silverhand onto your experimental body takeover chip.
@ I keep trying to comment but UA-cam might be automatically removing it.
Anyway no Yorinobu specifically chose Johnny please go to the cyberpunk wiki and read Yorinobu/computer and Brian Mosley/computer entree’s since I can’t quote what they say.
Hanako whole color scheme gives Kintsugi pottery. And it fits her character well.
Omg that’s an awesome comparison!
Hanako Arasaka is the true antagonist of Cyberpunk 2077. Her greatest trick was to get the player to think her idealistic brother was the actual enemy.
Without player's help she's nothing. And Takemura was swaying V against Yori all the time.
@@mateuszslawinski1990 @mateuszslawinski1990 Think onto the mandatory meeting you have with her at Embers. Here she presents the entire narrative with her brother as the antagonist to V's plight and her as the only solution. As a kind, sympathetic authority that will give V their life back if only they will do the small favor of testifying on her behalf. Only she's lying. She has no idea if Arasaka can help V and she's very, very likely to know that Yorninobu will attack after this provocation which will draw V into Hanako's fight. Then she uses V as guinea pig, all without V ever figuring it out. Yorninobu ironically would likely empathize with V and work in good faith.
I'm too much on Johnny's side to ever feel any sympathy for Hanako. She comes from the ultimate world of wealth and privilege. She is the daughter of the most powerful man on Earth, who can turn a third of the world into an irradiated wasteland, controls a system that steals the consciousness of people away, and is making tech to make her evil father immortal. Arasaka is the pinnacle of evil, and part of me always figured justice was served when you realize that Yorinobu was trying to finish what he started all those years ago and destroy the company. He says as much in the Devil ending. So when I naturally did the Nomad ending, you realize that his efforts will succeed, and the most privileged family in the world is being brought to their knees.
with the only innocent in the family, Michiko, paying with her life for his win, let's not forget :3
I would argue that Arasaka isn't even the most evil corporation. Just the one we know the most about. Biotechnica experiments on living people such as pregnant women, and assassinates anyone who might create cheap/sustainable food sources that aren't owned/sold by Biotechnica, and they are developing mind control tech. Then Militech were the ones who canonnically bombed Arasaka Tower (as it has been confirmed that the novels & game are both canon, meaning Johnny's engram memories are all fake/modified), and is trying to use the Blackwall and the A.I. beyond to create military weapons.
If anything, Arasaka is like maybe mid-tier evil. Militech literally runs the NUSA and in the ending after the DLC where V returns to Night City, they appear to have enacted martial law and taken over the city itself. Which might imply by the sequel that Militech basically owns/runs all of the United States including Night City. Which if you thought having a borderline lawless Night City was bad, imagine having a singular corp who owns/runs everything and dictates all the laws.
From the lore currently, Arasaka doesn't even intend to take over Night City and their presence has always just been as the biggest corp present. But you take them off the board and they technically don't even care, they already dominate Japan. But Militech essentially gets a free uncontested pass to move in and take over the entire city.
(It's one thing I appreciate about Mike Pondsmith's writing. He basically created the world where the bigger your "blaze of glory", the absolute worse off everyone else is in the long-run. It's like if you had 2 kings in a deadlock over who gets to rule the land. While killing 1 is a good idea on paper, it just instantly allows the other side to take all the power and establish a much worse and even more unstoppable enemy.)
@@sgg3586 oh, definitely. What i would like more than seeing how a unified USA under Millitech works for Edgerunners, is how life is in orbit. a game that has absolutely no ties to anything dirtside would be more interesting to me.
I don’t feel bad for her
But the thing is she doesn’t really have much power within her family. The men in her life won’t always just bend to her desires. And her position of wealth is contingent on her playing the role they may out for her. Now that said she does still choose to stay in that life. But she’s probably the least powerful of the family
@@anthonydelfino6171 Yes, she is the least powerful. But even without that power, she has more money than god. All she had to do to be free for the rest of her life was to erase her father's engram (or tell her brother about its existence), send Oda after Anders Hellman, and walk away. Yorinobu would have ignored her if she did nothing to prevent his coup. Michiko might have given her actions a few minutes worth of attention though. Probably set someone to watch her aunt, just to be safe.
I had a more sinister take on Hanako after playing the game, especially considering the events of the game. Given the fact that we learn she is intimately aware of her father's machinations, particularly for Yorinobu, I always saw all of her "family first" behavior and dialogue to be particularly hollow and fake. You mention how she tries to encourage her brother to "accept his role in the family", but we know from the events of the game, that that "role" is simply replacement sleeve. Nothing more than a fresh meat suit for her father to inhabit. That's why he was so invested in the relic project, and was willing to allow Yorinobu to get away with more transgressions than he would likely allow others. He didn't want to damage his new sleeve. After playing the Devil ending, and learning about the engram of her father was still running things, with Hanako as his loyal pair of hands to enact his digital will from beyond the grave, I always assumed that the course of events basically boiled down to as soon as daddy dearest died, she went to the vault and talked to his ghost, per established policy, and basically just continued to obey him. That she had been so terrified and groomed by her family to obedience, that the idea of not obeying the ghost of her father, even at the cost of her brother, didn't cross her mind. That's partly why Yorinobu wasn't too worried about her safety during the "rescue", because he knew what his father's plan were for him, and he also knew that Hanako was very much a Company Woman, loyal to the end. It's why I think, she wasn't surprised to learn it was Yorinobu who killed their father, in fact she flat out says she knew it was him. But she doesn't care. Because she knows he's still alive as an engram. In fact she's been following his orders off-camera this whole time. There really wasn't anything different in her eyes.
And given how physically intimate and sensual their embrace is in the Devil ending, right before Hanako erases her brother, cradling him in her lap, I always got something of an incestuous vibe from the family. In a world of implants, cyborgs and radical full body transformations, the idea that "you can't have sex with your family" is something of a thing of the past. I mean if you've replaced you're entire body with cybernetics, what is the risk? There is no genetic mutations to worry about, and that's only if you are actually trying to breed. And even then, in a world of INSANE levels of genetic manipulation and cloning, that too is something of a triviality.
So I always got the impression, that Saburo simply saw his children as resources to use. One for his literal rebirth, and one as his concubine. In fact I wonder whether or not she had literally been groomed for that role her entire life. And that she had accepted it, so fully, that even after her father's death, she couldn't break free of the restraints, and obeyed him from beyond the grave, even if that meant the death of her brother, and her own perpetual enslavement. Perhaps her driving factor was fear and being trapped, seeing no other way out, but the end result is that she calmly, and easily, erased her brother, in order to resurrect her father, so that he could continue to rule over her for several more centuries now with a fresh body. And again, I always got the impression that Saburo was just as interested in her body as he was Yorinobu's....but just for a different reason. And that she was a broken bird, staying in her cage, even when she could've stepped away, but chose to remain there, for whatever reason.
oh god my brain never even went in the concubine direction and im so sad how much sense that makes ughhhhh. the saburo analysis just got even more layered.
@@lydiscott Yeah, because you mention the bit about seeing Hanako erasing Yorinobu, and I've seen clips where they blow up that image and zoom in on her, and it does look like she reaches to her waist (likely a pocket) and then takes whatever is in her hand, and puts it to the back of his head. I forget what she says, but if you have subtitles on, you can see a tiny text bubble over her head. I think it says something like "sleep now" or "it will all be over soon", or something equally final and sinister. It's right as V is hobbling into the elevator, so it's easy to miss, as you are also having a lot Relic static on the screen, but yeah I agree with the internet theory that we actually witness the moment Yorinobu is overwritten by his father. I also wonder if part of Hanako's motivation was self-preservation. Because if Yorinobu died...well....there's nothing saying his daughter couldn't become the next vessel for his engram. She's just as genetically compatible as Yorninobu. So what if it's a female body? The gender-fluid, transhumanist reality of CP 2077 probably means that Yorinobu wouldn't even care if he was in a woman's body, as long as he got to live. And even though he was born back in the early 1900's, so maybe he does have some old-school bigotries about gender, well....again so? He could just rebuild her entirely with a cybernetic body, change the chassis to be more male-presenting, and just redefine himself as a guy instead of Hanako. Since he's openly declaring it's him at the wheel, that would likely seem even less of a problem for people. So she might've been motivated to secure Yorinobu so that SHE didn't end becoming the sacrifice to her father's immortality.
Sex and nonconsensual sex are deeply ingrained in the world of cyberpunk. Child brothels, sex toys and ads everywhere, public masturbation (seen in Edgerunners) are all normalized. It's not a stretch to say that incest is a possibility here.
@@humanresources8404 i mean it actually does happen in the game. one of the NCPD incidents you can come across is an Old Boy reference, but it's about the Barely Illegal brothel and a guy who ends up renting a session with a girl who turns out to be his own daughter. And he goes apeshit about it. So yeah, doesn't seem all that unlikely to me either.
@@happyninja42 I have always thought that there is no ambiguity on what Yorinobu was for, and that he was not Saburo's son, but a clone intended to be inhabited by Saburo when his own (Saburo's) body failed. Hanako knew this, and was complicit in finally completing the first step in granting her father immortality.
Yorinobu was the bird in the cage, Hanako was the cat watching it.
Both trapped within the confines of Saburo's house. Tragic in all honesty.
What she did to Yorinobu in the Devil ending is beyong horrifying.
She gently guided him to fullfill his destiny. It was beautiful.
@@Alpha_Digammawe know thats you saburo
Everything about that last scene with them is just ughhhh what did I doooo 😭😂
@@lydiscott it's called the Devil ending for a reason, I guess.
“Evil isn’t a brutal psychopath destroying everything in its path, it’s a weak but corrupting force, all it needs is one way in and present that way in with a smile.” - Isaiah Wilson
That Devil ending made me hate her for making me look like a gonk.
It ain’t preem, choom.
You made yourself look like a gonk to be fair, the game does nothing but let you know the arasaka corp is the actual spawn of satan.
Gonna need Trauma Team's platinum insurance package to recover from that.
I love how she was written. You can feel that she truly is an enigma. Going through The Devil ending lets you know that she does have some good in her, although the "bad" part i.e. her devotion to Arasaka may outweigh it.
Also, holy crap at 18:04 I have multiple playthroughs in this game and I never noticed Adam Smasher during that scene because it was so chaotic and things happened so fast.
In Japanese culture, red is associated with authority, strength, sacrifice, joy, and happiness.
I love Hanakos design. She is literally the 'golden child' everything she touches isnt really her. Its Arasaka. She is the hands of Arasaka. And the way the gold weaves through her body. She is woven through Arasaka, tied to it. I wonder if the Japanese method of fixing pottery with gold (kintsugi) was influential in her design. Arasaka keeps her whole. Her gilded cage wrapped literally into her body.
Yorinobu kills his father. Hanako kills Yorinobu and uses his body to bring back their father. And now Hanako is once again a slave under his rule. That's one messed up family.
I think Hanako represents wasted potential in a lot of ways. She's smart, cunning even, she shows in The Devil ending that she works well and swiftly in a leadership role. She's effecient and precise. But she's wasted it being her father's loyal lapdog.
At the beginning of the game during the heist Jackie gets mad if you compare him to Yorinobu, mentioning he can't see why somebody with every advantage like that would waste it to play at being in a gang. But really Yorinobu didn't waste his wealth, education, etc, he used it, he tried to break free and he developed an identity of his own, however shortsighted and rebellious it is. Hanako on the other hand *does* waste her intelligence, her wealth, her resources: everything Yorinobu had, she had too, but instead of forming her own identity and ideals or rebelling in any way she bowed to her father and fully lets him lead her around by the nose even as a grown adult. It's embarassing. She had a chance to be rid of him forever and sacrificed her brother to let him back into the world.
She's not the corporate princess she often gets portrayed as, for all her elegance and fame and her aura of mystery, she's just another lame yes-man minion in a city full of them. The moral of Hanako's story is that it takes real bravery to just say NO. And she didnt have it in her, even with every advantage on her side.
You're right, once Hanako has carried out her duty-to resurrect Saburo-you're not needed anymore. At best, you're a research project for the Relic developers to learn what they can about its effects on someone who was never intended to use it. When you finally have enough, Hanako sends someone to pacify you. Either you agree to go into Mikoshi, become Arasaka property, and be shunted into the back of a virtual warehouse forever; or you say no, go back to Earth, die in six months and solve the problem that way.
The real kicker is the credits scene call, where they say "We know you're dying, but you shouldn't waste your talents until you do, and Arasaka can always use someone like you . . ." Gee, thanks
The Devil Ending is an amazing sequence, the eerie unreality of the testing, the reunification with an obviously conflicted Takemura, the final conversation with the guard before you go under. Definitely my preferred ending. If it's not depressing it's not Cyberpunk.
Funny how Hanako sees V as a mere puppet when she dies in every ending, other than Devil, where V either directly attacks Arasaka or stays out of the conflict (Tower).
Imagine Hanako waiting at Embers for weeks....months even!
"How long have I got Vik?" Vik: "A week, maybe 2 tops. Then you'll just be....gone." *proceeds to play for over a year of in-game time, 100% fine with zero side-effects of the Relic because I'm doing side content, not the storyline* 🤣
"That AV has been flying around for a while..."
"No I mean _really,_ V, they've been flying nonstop for months. Should we... should we call someone...?"
So happy to see your take on Hanako, the comments are friggin wild and are adding more layers into a very complex webbing of emotion and manipulations
AGREED. I feel like I could make an extended version of her character analysis with everything, there’s SO MANY COOL COMMENTS
The fact she never questions or challenges her position is precisely what makes her so evil. She will unquestioningly follow Saburo if it means her family stands to gain
I'm sure this has been pointed out, but Hanako matching Saburos office(s) gives me the vibe that they both saw her as his tool. No different from his marble desk, she is the tool to carry out the Arasaka will
18:10 - now-now, Smasher being a bad choice for leading a rescue mission is a narrative first and foremost propagated by Hanako, who was likely propping it up to get extra sympathy points from the player. Having underestimated Goro Takemura once, Arasaka probably wanted someone capable of standing up to Goro no matter how much implant control he'd regained, and with Oda dead or recovering Smasher is the only acceptable option. We also see him perform his job very competently: separating V and Takemura before striking, and then disengaging from the fight the moment Hanako is secured. Say what you will about him being not very stable, we never see his bloodthirstiness jeopardize any of his jobs.
Another fantastic video! After watching this, I can't help but see some parallels between Hanako and So Mi. Hanako is like a twisted version of Songbird that prefers to be caged rather than freed. Are you still going to make videos for each ending? I would love to see you delve further into the Devil ending!
thats a really good point! ohh yes i am, and comments like this are super helpful. Im gonna try and make a list of paralells between all endings and characters, and your point about so mi and hanako is really cool.
I love how at the 13:20 Takemura's suit chages to white for the only time in the game, because at this point he is under Hanako's control.
Oh boy....the thing that seems the most chilling and leaves you with a sense of uncertainty is if you take the deal,but refuse to go into Mikoshi youll recieve a call from Hanako herself where she says she and her father are willing to retain your services for the last 6 months of your life. It makes you think takemura was lying about "the arasaka's have forgotten you already" if they wanted to hire you.
I personally wish we got to see more of Yorinobu and Hanako's in this game.
Yorinobu is the heir to the Throne and Hanako is Saburo's most treasured thing on earth and despite the feud between Father and Son,the Daughter was the neutral ground between the two
It might also be an English mistake on Takemura's part, he doesn't use TLX software, evidenced by the fact he repeats "you do not look so bad" even at times that don't really make sense. "Forget" can also be translated as "Forgive". It could be Takemura's clumsy way of letting V know their deeds have been forgiven buy the Arasaka family.
At Embers, doesn't she admit that she - as well as others - didn't just doubt her brother's story?
I recall her saying that she (and they) already *knew* that her brother killed her father. They just knew they couldn't move against him without splitting the family.
I don't think she was as interested in V as a witness to the murder as she was of V's experiences with the Relic. Here was proof that someone (Saburo) could come back in a different body. This aspect seemed to have been untested. Anders Hellman says it was assumed that the Relic would be used on a corpse - suggesting that was never tried (either on a corpse or a living person.) Hanako then believes it is very important that her brother remain alive (so that he can be replaced with Saburo) just as V was alive when taking on the Relic. I don't think anyone ever mentions to her that the Relic (Silverhand) only really activated after V died.
Unlike her brother, Hanako doesn't take chances. She doesn't make uncertain moves. She doesn't live with uncertainty at all.
I believe that she is certain who murdered her father, and is certain that she was supposed to be collateral damage in her *rescue*, etc.
The whole narrative of "Needing V's testimony" doesn't even pan out. The board is-- rightly-- immediately incredulous of V's story, which is strange knowing that they have a very good idea of what actually happened. It ultimately does not matter what you say, she didn't need you for the testimony, she needs you to be her weapon and tool. And just like So Mi in Phantom Liberty, what's a tool without a use?
I don’t think it was entirely about the Relic, sure that plays a part but I think it was V’s skills as a fighter. I mean you gotta think V easily takes down Adam Smasher and hordes of top arasaka soldiers while their body is basically self destructing.
I think that’s why the kept you around after removing the Relic, sure part was to test the effects but I think they wanted you as an Arasaka solider and when they figured out you were gonna die anyways why they wanted to put you in mikoshi
Saburo is an even eviler Tywin Lannister; in fact, he’d be impressed by the level of narcissistic and disgusting control Saburo is able to impose upon his family.
Saburo is what you get when you give Tywin Lannister a path to immortality and even fewer moral restraints. And that's terrifying.
I love these character analysis videos, they’re such a pleasure to listen to.
Aw thank you! :D
You blew my mind with your theory about the tests and why they were done. That makes so much sense!
OH WOW thats actually awesome to know! I feel like I’m not good with theories lmao! HELL YEAH THANK YOU
Incredible analysis!! You picturing her as a bird who is content to be in a comfortable cage is so good. Cant wait to see more characters from the cyberpunk universe in your story telling, Alt Cunningham would be cool :)
Throughout my multiple playthroughs I was so oblivious to all of this, now i finally get it.
*love the editing style of your videos, it makes me chilled
AW THANK YOU SO MUCH :D
Your not weird for liking dark/somber stories. Everyone is different and some minds are drawn into the things that others avoid. That's makes us humans after all. Individuals. Thanks for this Video. You brought to voice what I couldn't figure out at her, what disturbed me to no avail.
Let's gooooooo! Been waiting to get your analysis on Hanako.
Ahhh THANK YOU FOR WATCHING! :D
Great video! In the world of Cyberpunk no-one is one dimensional.
When it comes to the Relic V ends up adopting, it begs one to wonder what for is it in Yorinobu's prosession containing the engram of Johnny Silverhand. Perhaps the brother, aware of his planned fate, intended to perform the ultimate irony. Kinda makes me wish to see the outcome of that.
I have to admit I did give a small smile of satisfaction when her fate was relayed in and angry phone message from Takemura as I rode off on a basilisk.
I was surprised when Takemura calls: "Rot in hell Kuso-Yarou".
Too bad he had to die, he's quite honorable.
Ad. 13:25 this might be a reach, but there is this japanese art technique called kintsugi that consists of using gold (or just powdered gold on lacquer) in order to repair broken pottery by glueing the broken pieces back together. "As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."
@26:00 I watched a different lore video where there's a shard that says saburo told him as a high schooler that saburo will take his body directly. That's why in highschool yorinobu abandons the family and doesn't come back for several years
24:28 Can i pet that Doooog? But jokes aside really nice video again, i just cant get enough of cyberpunk and this video series.
I just started playing Cyberpunk 2077 and dang. I got like incredible amount of Content to watch. I love these analysis so much
Ahhh thank you for watching! Have fun, it’s a great game 😊
@@lydiscott I just realized you also do Arcane stuff. I will watch that too. :)
12:10 especially since you find the moon tarot card where she is during the devil ending
The devil ending was my first ending, and it was kind of an accident. The whole time i went in with the intent on turning on Hanako, because i chose the corpo path and was RPing that V wanted final revenge on Arisaka by cutting off the head, or what was left of it. Sadly no opportunity presented itself to cap Hanako and Yori in that war room at the end (despite clicking my left mouse button really fucking hard repeatedly) and was ushered to leave them be by Hellman. I was so annoyed.
I got the devil ending the first time and I really love it
I like how as soon as you pick it everyone in the game tells you it’s a horrible decision and they’re gonna betray you and that’s exactly what happens.
I loved getting the snippets of the news on how the world is reacting to saburo taking over yorinobu’s body. I loved the constant repeating of the same thing over and over till it drives you insane and I love how in the end it shows you that in the eyes of anyone aligned with arasaka, V was nothing but a tool something to be locked away in mikoshi when he/she no longer serves a purpose
i was waiting for this!!! you GOTTA do oda sometime, i would love to hear your thoughts about him!
Accidentally helping Yorinobu Arasaka via wrecking Arasaka Tower in every other ending will never not be funny to me.
I really enjoy your CP 2077 lore videos. They bring a form of comfort and relaxation. I usually put your videos here at work, or after their debut i re watch em at home.
Anyways again great video. She always gave me weird vibes. I dont think shes a good person but i dont think shes evil, just very...into her family and morals. Cold.
Thanks so much for the kind words! 🤗
I love-absolutely love-your Cyberpunk content.
Aww thank you!!!
Could you do a video on the anti aging cyberware that Hanako, Rouge, and Kerry use if there's enough information out there
Ohhh that would be very cool! :D I'll add it to the list.
I think its called Realskin or something along those lines.
There are Implants that can change your entire look, we see some who used this to leave theyre past behind
White also resembles funerary clothes in Japan. She might has been wearing that color in mourning, and perhaps doesn't normally wear that color.
You gave such a concise story on Hanoko. I’ve learned new story lines and a deeper understanding of her motives and how V fit or didn’t fit in them. I truly enjoy your narrative style. ❤
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!
A fellow 99er!! We should’ve had one night of passion! ‘For the family’ is an all too common phrase in Latin & Asian families. Some are strong enough to move away, some aren’t. A sad tale.
Now that I think about it, Arasaka probably has the engram of Hanako. Since she already knows about her father's digital copy, they might as well clone her consciousness too. Even though she dies in some of the endings, it is possible they will still attempt to clone her in the future. It's probably not going to happen in the next game, but that's still a possibility. That's one way to explain why a dead character is canonically alive in the sequel.
Always thought that Yorinobu rebelled and to ran after understanding that his role is to be just a vessel, but it was Hanako who convinced him to come back and to try to accept it. So she is very manipulative when it needs to be.
A lot of stuff I had no idea about, and perspectives that I never thought of, like Hanako having "used" V and not given a crap after their expiration date. Very cool!
Cool video, thx! Waiting for the Kimiko video XD
The self-imposed tragedy of Hanako leaves me struggling on whether to despise her or not. She’s a tool for the men in her family, and she seems to realize this, but she still plays what she sees as her role. In the end, she’s just a little girl wanting daddy’s approval.
I’m also with the “Yorinobu wants to destroy Arasaka” theory. So much makes sense that would otherwise seem incomprehensible.
Its not a theory, he literally gets mad at u in the Devil Ending for stopping him from killing Arasaka
Yorinobu and Michiko (Yori's and Hanako's niece) are the two most decent members of the Arasaka family. When you read extended lore, Michiko also did several things to undermine Arasaka over the years. Which makes her lackluster role in the main game even more disappointing.
I would love to do a video on her. Gotta go read more about her! Her design also stands out a lot with the bright colours lol, makes me sad she wasn't in the game more. Gives rebel vibes.
@@lydiscott Michiko's outfit in Cyberpunk RED is actually more serious (black suit and relatively short black hair). She often acted as a cutesy airhead in public while actually being a sharp criminologist.
@@kotorandcorvid4968OOOOHHHH THATS AWESOME
Michiko is a very interesting character on her own. She and her mother were sent to live in Night City because Saburo would disapprove of a half-American grandchild. After her father died during the Fourth Corporate War, and threatened with deportation went to Washington, meeting with President Kress who arranged for her to remain in the country. She formed Danger Girl after graduation from Stanford, a PI firm, and became the figurehead of the liberal Hato faction inside Arasaka. At the same time, she carried out her agreement with Kress in secret-to dismantle Arasaka operations in the States. She's a fascinating person on her own, and the Danger Girl book might be helpful
What an amazing video. You have talent.
Oh wow, thank you!!! I’m so glad you like the video!
For me, I always distrusted all of the Arasakas. Saburo definitely had more power than any one person should with the ability to literally glass a third of the earth. Yorinobu, despite wanting to bring down Arasaka always struck my as someone who just...was ineffective. and Hanako always seemed like a viper in the grass to me. That said, I also thought Johnny went to far with nuking the tower. Overall, I ended up thinking that fighting the system was the right idea, but not to the point of nuking the place and letting tens of thousands if not millions die as a result of me shoving a nuke down their throat.
I love these videos. I can confirm, you are able to see her slitting the chip into Yorinobu, but not when walking away, but when the elevator doors close.
It is really hard to make out, with all the "Relic Fizz" around, but you can still see it.
Unrelated note, but why does the Relic fizzle effect resemble an eye? I don't want to immediately call out the Blue-Eyes connection, but given the Relic's link to Soulkiller tech and the Blackwall...
Hanako is death, but a specific kind of death. Hanako is the death of a snow covered mountain, frozen but beautiful. She is the icy cold of freezing to death. The kind of death that comes quietly and seductively, convincing you that you're overheated so you take off your coat and lay down in the snow peacefully. The death you acquiesce to thinking you're just falling asleep, not realizing you will never wake again.
Ok, there is so much more to the Arisaka familly in the extended lore of the TT RPG- there is a specific source book on the lore of the corporation.
You point out that Saburo married 3 times, and there are Saburo's Grandchildren from these earlier children to factor in, to the equation. You can't avoid the source material, as the game background is built on this even if it does not reveal in shards through the game.
Japan is a very different culture to what we understand as westerners, familly is very important and in some of nations- family name comes first as an expression of that. The familly in this case is the object which should always go on- it is Saburo who twists this to make his life 'eternal' over that of his son (who was probably bio engineered to be a posible future proxy for Saburo - i think he thinks thst long term). I have already revealed on another video my own theory about the deep plot of Saburo (,such that i think the Devil ending is the canon ending for the game designer, as it keeps the game arch-protagonist alive for the future).
You point out that we see a snippet of this plan working out in the game and that is my reasoning for my theory.
Awesome video :)
Hanako had a whole decade more or less where she ran a group of edgerunners in Night City in the 40's while Arasaka was exiled. Its oulined i. The Danger Girl suppliment.
When it comes to Arasaka you must always read between the lines. The game's perspective is put in such a way that villainizes Yorinobu for all the bad stuff happening but in reality, all that are consequences of the internal struggle within the family. A lot of the relevant information is not shared with the player but can be acquired through other ways from lore and makes everything clear. Yorinobu snapped at Saburo because he is not his son, he is Saburo's clone and his coming-of-age gift was knowing (besides the truth) he would "very graciously" give his existence so Saburo could live again(as we see in the devils ending). As a creation of Arasaka(His body was manufactured by Biotechnica for Arasaka if I'm not mistaken) he has a deep hate for everything it stands for, that is the reason he chose Johnny as his inspiration to "become the bomb" and destroy it from the inside and for this he needed Alt to fry Mikoshi along with the spirit of dear old dad. depending on the ending he reached various degrees of success based on the influence V has on the outcome. Ultimately in most endings excluding the Devil he accomplishes his mission because Saburo's shard is never concluded so he can never get slotted and survives long enough to "downsize/ruin" the company.
You’re telling me Hanako is my age 💀
* Chants Rogue, Rogue, Rogue* in the background😂 but seriously, these videos are amazing!!
I love imagining how the sequel could start in any ending.
In the Devil Ending, id imagine V being brought back and donning a new nickname in a new body (either Vince or Val, for instance). Then, Hanako would remove the emotional memories from a copy of V's engram and create a special forces group. This group would be made up of willing and loyal elite soldiers of arasaka submitting thier bodies to the engram. The engram would then replace specifically the skills and fighting experience of thiers with V's while maintaining their memories and loyalties.
Thus creating a V Army, essentially.
Well, seeing Hanako's character from the big picture perspective like this really killed off any modicum of sympathy I might have had for her in any other ending where she meets her untimely demise. Normally I'd try to contribute any lore tidbit the video might have missed or post my most interesting theories, but this video covered Hanako Arasaka so well, that I have nothing else to offer. I'm really looking forward to the lore video on Yorinobu Arasaka, the hidden hero of the cyberpunk world, and what speculations you might make if V ever met Yorinobu under different circumstances. Imagine Johnny's face if he realizes that the heir of the Arasaka corporation has more in common with him than he thinks!
I recently did the devil ending for the first time, she fucked me up fr
Ooooooofffff that would’ve been quite the gut punch
Yesss! New video :) Let's go
2:41 Those cyber gold fingers are so cool. I want them in game. One could probably recreate them with metallic materials in real life.
5:05 Oh wow. That's something
I find the whole family interesting especially Michiko since she grew up outside of the family.
You must've missed that at the end of the phone calls during the credits Hannako does offer V a job as a bodyguard. Which considering who Arasaka could have access to says a lot. I get what you said though since a lot of people are so over Arasaka with that ending that they don't bother to watch the credits phone calls.
I was only briefly thrown off my mistrust in Hansel after the rescue when she seemed genuinely afraid. It helped solidify my mistrust with Johnny screaming in my ear. In meeting her at the restaurant I was completely paranoid and ready for an ambush. My instinct was on too high of an alert to go along with anything she suggested.
I never trusted Hanako from the begining but i did do the devil ending once to see if she did help. I usually assult Mickoshi alone and do that ending.
That's the ending I got the first time around, I got stuck on the decision and the deciding factor was Takumura's endorsement because I found him to be one of the most honest and decent people in the whole game.
Another important sort of tangential note:
Arasaka is spelled with the Kanji 荒坂, which if you literally translate each character, 荒 means "Barren" or "Ravaged" or "Wild," while the second character 坂 usually means "Slope" or "Hill"
In that sense the name is a metaphor for their state. At the top of the world, high above everyone else, yet without any passion, empty and lifeless. It could also represent how they have sucked the world of its resources, its hope, leaving it ravaged while they sit at the top of their barren hill.
I have to doubt anyone took Hanako's offer in their first playthrough (I gave my body to Johnny first off because I didn't know I had to wait 5 minutes for the Solo ending). Having played Cyberpunk in the 90s I learnt not to trust any Arasaka other than Yorinobu (who was one of the good npcs back then). CDPR did a good job of making Hanako and Takemura such likeable characters that even I ignored Johnny most times (although I did leave Goro to die because I didn't have any cybernetic leg implants to get back up and save him).
Hanako was always Saburo's and it made absolute sense that Daddy had an engram of himself done with regular updates to make certain when the time came his rebirth was as close to his death as possible. All the evidence is provided from his diary where he admits to planning to Nuke Night City to the tests on recently dead subjects to try and transfer an engram into a body. The man was a monster and Hanako is a willing and vital part in making certain that Saburo returns regardless of who has to suffer.
Beware of what is fair but inside is foul and do not assume that which looks foul is not inside fair.
I first played this game was when I was 14 and I was holding onto hope that I could have a good outcome with the corpo ending. Maybe playing this game at such a young age wasn’t a good thing but it made me discover the nuance in “bad” people from that. A lot of people in cyberpunk purely help you for their gain because your want is something that gets them closer to their own goal. Hanako wants to use you in order to restore the Arasaka name same as someone like Judy was willing to help you because it would let her find out about Evelyn. Arasaka isn’t fully bad because it’s this great superpower of a military, it’s bad because the people enabling it believe that their means justify the ending. You get duped in the devil ending, plane and simple. Not because of blind evil but because Hanako helped you until you weren’t useful. That experience is why this game is still my number 1, it’s amazing.
24:49 - 24:54 Yass, gurl. I appreciate a dramatic ending too.
24:29 An acceptable compromise
My big argument for Hanako is that Yorinobu wanted to destroy Arasaka by starting a FIFTH CORPORATE WAR. The last time one of those happened, the sky turned red and seemed to rain blood from all the fires and fallout. Corporations screwed with the Blackwall to create weapons. Then there was peace and the corps got half a century to make worse weapons. There’s a very good chance a fifth corporate war would unleash something (AI, plague, bomb, AI plague bomb) that would wipe out all life on earth. That risk is unacceptable, and I’m willing to forgive anything that prevents it.
These videos are extremely well done. Were you planning doing any deep dives on Dogtown characters?
Aw thank you!! OH YES FOR SURE! I’m trying to cover as much base game as I can think of/as the comments can recommend first, then PL, and then, I’ll cover Johnny/V/Saburo, maybe some tabletop stuff and theory things.
@ I wish there was more on Kurt Hansen and his similarities to Colonel Kurtz. Or the relationship between So Mi and Solomon. That first trailer of them talking while he is on the train tells me their relationship was probably fascinating. He truly trusted her and she pulled the rug. Not sure if there is a lot to go on but I would not have found half the stuff you spoke of in your videos so maybe there is enough for someone like you to uncover.
Either way, keep up the good work.
I really wish we could learn more of Michiko, she was such a weird and unique character on the PnP, It was incredibly surprising to see her (alone too) at the Devil Ending.
Please do one on Songbird would to hear your analysis on her
ah neat i love more CP77 audio essays.
Thank you so much for listening! :D
great video
Thanks for watching! :D
my first playthough, i genuinely believed Hanako was the best choice. goes to show how extensive the corps are in any way to maintain control. shes willingly not her own person.
I did too, and i thought everyone telling me arasaka was gonna betray me was just a red herring.
I believe Yorinobu knew, that this was bound to happen to him and tried to fight it first by running away and rebelling and then by stealing Johnnys chip AND planning that botched heist V is part of. Ultimately, the chip has been a trojan horse placed all those 50ish years back by Alt, Morgan or both of them (since Johnny on that chip has altered memories as Blackwall Alt says that).
In a way, Hanako is somewhat like Nemo from the Fish Finding series of movies. Dory even points out the flaw in Marlin and Saburo's approach in Finding Nemo proper.
"If nothing ever happens to him, then nothing will ever happen to him."
In other words, if kids aren't allowed to screw around, find out, and gain common sense, they'll never have any stories to learn from.
I personally got the Devil ending the first time I played and was quite happy with it. This ending effectively lays the groundwork for another sci-fi series "Altered Carbon" which I really like. As such the Devil eding is the only ending in which functioning immortality tech is available, which I would consider a significant step in human development. Of course having this technology exclusively in the hands of a single corporation spells desaster for the future, but I like the ending narratively.
Yorinobu being a hero was not on my bingo card when i first finished cyberpunk
Devil ending was my first ending. I genuinely felt broken by it and needed time to process it
27:36 - 28:00 "It's a big club and you're [the player] not in it."
Hanako Arasaka's story reminds me a lot of Anthy Himemiya's: a woman groomed for nefarious purposes by a masculine family figure in her life for the ultimate goal of maintaining and controlling life and power, using demure and high-femme aesthetics to mask both their own feelings on matters and the true purpose behind their actions and schemes, appearing to be in control of a situation until it's finally revealed who's holding onto the golden manacles she wears. And like Anthy, Hanako *could* leave at any time, Saburo has no real power over her; nothing really stops her from leaving other than the sheer conditioning she had been put through all her life.
I feel like the Moon might represent Saburo and his narcissistic ambition to "remain the same" beyond death via Soulkiller, but I think you're onto something with Hanako's white attire representing death. Love your analyses!
Edit: On second thought, I feel like you may still be right, as the moon is generally connotes the feminine in East Asian cultures. Or, maybe it's not either of them, but the enduring family line or the corp? Anyway, fun fun.
In my first playthrough, I went with Hanako‘s deal. I came to regret it part way through but I thought it was an interesting and somehow fitting end as well.
It wasn’t that I trusted her, not at all. I knew she was dangerous. But I thought that, unfortunately for me, she was the most likely person to be able to remove the relic and stop V‘s death through her wealth and influence.
Alas, you can’t win. It was a bad deal and in hindsight, the sacrifice was too great. Nevermind the fact that the ending hints the chip or its effects at least are not completely removed. Who knows what kinds of experiments Arasaka did. 😅