truly the character ever

Ken is possibly one of my favorite characters of all time because she is one of the most well written depictions I've seen of how it feels to have suicidal ideation in a long time. Which is only made better because she is 11! It's so rare to see child characters written as human beings and treated like a person by the other characters and narrative. And it's also one of the only cases where it is acknowledged that children can go through the same mental health struggles as adults, as well as the frustration born from a lack of autonomy that adds onto it. I wish I had played persona 3 earlier, because I was suicidal at a young age, and it would've been great to know that I wasn't ridiculous or ungrateful for having those feelings. Most of the time, back when I was 7 and presently, whenever there was/is a character with suicidal ideation, they're a grown adult or, rarely, someone in their late teens who's dealing with explicit abuse, loss, or some other struggle that is meant to make their want for death understandable or rational to those who've never had suicidal ideation before. Ken resonated with me so heavily because her loss was years ago, and we don't see her explicitly mistreated by other characters. But she is still suicidal, and her struggles are not dismissed. We see how she has drawn herself into a shell that is suffocating her. How she desperately wants to live, but doesn't feel like she can, or that she deserves to. We see that even though none of the people around her are outright cruel, they still aren't the person she needs because they don't know how to look past that shell. And we see how people not taking the time or effort to help her, just because she seems fine, leads to a tragedy. I also love it because, unlike so many other stories, we actually see her get better. She still hasn't broken out of her shell entirely, but she bangs against it hard enough that air can get through again. Even with all the tragedy building up around her, she still chooses to live. And we get to see her fight for it, we get to see her change. We even get to see her deal with loss yet again, and still come out the other side wanting to live.

Also, it was a major missed opportunity for the writers when they had the characters decide to not search for her when she ran away. They made a game about overcoming apathy and learning to live through the bonds you form with other people, and then they decide that a character whose arc is at the thematic core of said game will run off on their own and come to the realization that they want to live, even through their struggles, while they are isolating themselves from the people they have formed bonds with. It would've suited the game's themes so much better if her realization came from the other characters putting in the effort to show her that they're there for her. They even had something similar where whether Chidori lives or dies depends on whether or not Junpei (with the protagonists urging) takes the time out to show her that he cares about her. And while that is a good story, it's also optional, between two people, and is a romance sub-plot. So while individual connections are important, they could've done so much more with Ken if they had shown how the community and bonds she had saved her, rather than just having her isolate herself and emerge with a new outlook on life.