Need a moment to wax poetic about one of my other favorites (even if he doesn't hit my top 5 but man there's so many character's to love?? lmao..anyway...)
Something I felt like talking about a bit is how I genuinely think Hiragi had (and has) all the potential and personality(?) to be in Umemiya's role rather than his current one?
A lot of his flashbacks with Sako, Kaji, and even Umemiya himself, we see that Hiragi has been a very kind individual for quite some time, if not his entire life. He genuinely loves and cares about people, and fights on the belief that those that are weaker shouldn't be pushed around or bullied needlessly, but also goes out of his way I think to make sure those that are weaker learn how to be stronger, even if that means teaching them.
And on that note - he might argue against it personally, but I think Hiragi was made to teach in some way. He is pedagogical at his core it seems, even before Sako asks him to teach him how to fight, his first comments are guidance on what to do in a fight. How Sako shouldn't just let them beat him up. He's also the first person who figured out what Kaji probably needed and taught him how to control his rage. And also is the one that's there to put him in the right head space following the first year incident?? He is so ridiculously teacher coded and i love it??
But let me get back...He's kind. He loves. He cares so much about his friends and his town. It's so obvious. He steps in to save Sako. Not only steps into help the people Kaji is attacking BUT ALSO realizes enough that Kaji isn't himself that he stays and genuinely seems concerned that he had to hurt Kaji in the first place.
he's also very blunt and straight forward too. which i think is a very important quality. and one thing that gets pointed out is that early on his strength and charisma earned him a following.
Hiragi has the kindness and care, the charisma, and the strength to not only want the same thing Umemiya wants for the town, but also to have possible achieved it if he tried.
Here's the kicker about Hiragi though - he doesn't have Umemiya's ambition and the motivating selfishness to back it up.
Like I know it sounds bad to throw a word like "selfish" around when talking about Umemiya's dream to ally Furin and the town and protect it. But even he says as much - he knows there's a fuck ton of people that don't want this to happen and a ton more that will be nervous and unwilling to change because they're so used to the status quo.
Hiragi seems less than interested in the fact that he has a following. And he's rather closed off as an individual about his personal life it seems which can maybe make for difficult relating to the community as a whole sometime. And initially he sees Umemiya as someone who is simply trying to make a power play and drag him along. He's also so used to the status quo and pragmatic about it that as much as he probably wants to change it, he doesn't think he can because again he does not have that same drive that Umemiya has. To do everything within his power (and maybe even beyond) to see it through. Meanwhile Umemiya is an unstoppable force in his beliefs (shown very much in how incessant he was about getting Ume on his team lmao, among other scenes) and very much is going to do something about that.
Hiragi had the potential to be the leader of Furin, but his flaw is that he isn's as driven as Ume BUT he is perfect as Umemiya's "right hand" and lowkey narrative foil. Because he has all of the same positive traits: the care, the love, the drive to protect etc. But where Umemiya's selfish ambition could easily blind him at any point - Hiragi doesn't have that same drive and therefore is the EXACT person that can step in when Umemiya steps wrong. (Not to mention he, you know, lowkey hated Ume in the beginning lmao but I think the reason i just mentioned is why even NOW that he's friends with Ume, he's still very much the compass that keep Umemiya steady)
The two of them together feel very much like Hiragi using Umemiya as a battering ram on the status quo to see through to the same outcome they both desire.
Anyway thanks for reading this. I love Hiragi and his dynamic with Umemiya a lot okay???