“Night on the Galactic Railroad” references in Persona 5 Royal (ShuAke-related meta)
I recently discovered that the 3rd Semester story may have some references to the “Night on the Galactic Railroad” story.
What is the “Night on the Galactic Railroad”? It is a popular kids story in Japan about two guys who went on a galactic train that takes them around the Milky Way Galaxy, but it has a bittersweet ending. A popular movie was later adapted to represent this story where instead of two guys, there are two cats.
The blue cat is Giovanni, the main character of the story, while the red cat is Campanella.
I recommend watching the movie on Youtube to fully grasp what happened in that story. I already watched the movie myself and I’m going to reflect on some of the things I saw there in this post, and then compare it to the things I saw in P5 Royal.
Who represents Giovanni & Campanella?
I believe Joker represents Giovanni, and Akechi represents Campanella.
This is because in the 3rd semester, Joker was wearing a blue scarf, while Akechi was wearing a red plaid scarf. Remember that Giovanni is the blue cat, while Campanella is the red cat.
Giovanni also comes from a poor family, while Campanella comes from a rich family. The way the cats were dressed clearly indicates that. Campanella wore a suit and tie, while Giovanni only wore an open vest.
In comparison, Joker grew up in the countryside before coming to Tokyo for probation (and Sojiro called him a country boy too lol), and he doesn’t really care about his appearance nor his bad posture.
Akechi, on the other hand, has lived a pretty extravagant life ever since he started working for Shido, and became a famous Detective Prince. He also has expensive tastes and carries cosmetics with him.
In the Night on the Galactic Railroad movie, Giovanni suddenly started seeing the Galactic Express Train as if it was a dream, and hopped onboard. In that train, he spotted his friend Campanella there, and they rode on the train together.
In P5 Royal, this reminds me of how in January, Joker had a strange eerie dream inside Shujin Academy before entering the Dream World. Shortly afterwards on January 2nd, he met Akechi again and made a deal to work together.
The Galactic Journey
Giovanni and Campanella saw and experienced many things throughout their Galactic journey, but I would like to point out that some of the things they saw has Christian elements, such as the Northern and Southern Crosses, which are basically giant Christian Crosses.
Giovanni and Campanella were also given an apple during the train ride as well, and had listened to the “Nearer, My God, to Thee” hymn through the radio signal.
In comparison, Maruki’s palace also has Christian elements, especially the Book of Genesis with the whole Adam & Eve, and Garden of Eden. Maruki is also associated with apples too. I like to think that Maruki’s Dream World represents this Galactic Journey.
There’s this one part in the movie where the two cats watched someone catch herons, and turned those herons into candy. I can see this as Maruki looking for shadows in Mementos and using his actualization ability to change their cognition.
There’s also this other part in the movie where the two cats learned about the Scorpion story, where the Scorpion perished in a well and regretted it, wishing to bring happiness to others in its next life. I can see this as Maruki having his research stolen and discontinued by Shido in the Real World, but was able to bring happiness to others with his new powers in the Dream World.
Campanella’s goodbye
The galactic train’s 2nd last stop was the Southern Cross. This stop was where the rest of the passengers left the train except for Giovanni and Campanella. The two cats then watched those passengers go to Heaven in the Southern Cross. It makes me think that the Galactic Journey is actually the Journey to the Afterlife. To Heaven.
The gold tree roots area in Maruki’s place probably represents this. It’s the 2nd final area of the palace. In this area you see people happy while ascending to the sky to Eden.
After the Southern Cross, the two cats were the only ones left in the train. They were heading towards the final stop, the Coal Sack Nebula, which was at the edge of the universe. To compare this in P5R, that final stop would be the top of the tree where the player will fight Maruki.
As they were about to head towards the Coal Sack Nebula, Giovanni then told Campanella that he wanted to forever continue the train journey with him.
“Hey, let’s just keep going like this forever, okay? That’s right! We’ll always be together, won’t we Campanella?”
But Campanella told Giovanni that he wanted to go to the “True Heaven” at the edge of the universe, where his mother was waiting for him. I think this implies that Campanella’s mother is dead and he wanted to meet her again in the afterlife. Campanella then left the train and said goodbye to Giovanni. Giovanni was devastated and chased after him but it was too late.
Then Giovanni was suddenly not on the galactic train anymore. He was back in reality, back in his hometown as if he just woke up from a dream.
In his hometown he discovered that Campanella fell into a river while saving one of his classmates, and probably drowned and died. Campanella’s body was never found, so there’s no confirmation that he truly did die. It seems that Giovanni doesn’t think Campanella is dead because while looking up at the stars in the sky, he said this:
“I know Campanella is out there. He’s there, at the edge of the universe. I know because we explored it together”
That whole scene reminds me of the ShuAke 2/2 scene and how Akechi disappeared after Joker went back to the real world.
Joker had a choice to stay in the Dream World (The Galactic Journey) with Akechi forever, but Akechi didn’t want that and wanted to go back to reality. The “True Heaven” in this case. Like Giovanni, Joker is devastated about this but ultimately chooses to go back to reality.
Also Akechi’s mother is already dead in reality. If Akechi really is “dead” in reality too, then like Campanella, he would probably meet his mother in the afterlife.
But just like Campanella, there’s no confirmation on whether or not Akechi is truly dead. Akechi’s fate stays ambiguous.
I think the P5R “Our Light” song reflects similar to how Giovanni thinks Campanella is at the edge of the universe while looking at the stars. Notice how the lyrics of the Our Light song mentioned the stars in the sky:
Even if we’d never meet again
Even if the time that has passed should transform into pain
That pain will guide me
Towards the stars of the sky that shine above me.
Joker is being just like Giovanni here huh?
Mawaru Penguindrum
Lots of Japanese stories today tend to reference Night on the Galactic Railroad. For example, Mawaru Penguindrum is an anime that heavily references it. Knowing that will help you understand what’s really going on in that anime.
In the anime there is a red-haired character named Kanba and a blue-haired character named Shoma. They represent Campanella and Giovanni respectively in that story. The anime is heavily associated with trains as well.
Since Mawaru Penguindrum is also connected to Night on the Galactic Railroad, I made a P5 Royal version of one of its opening themes. If you’re interested in watching this video I made, please check it out below! 😊
I’ll make the P5 Royal version of the 2nd opening theme soon!
Thanks for reading another one of my ShuAke TED talks, I hope you learned something out of it.
I don’t care what anyone else says, ShuAke is so damn romantically poetic. I don’t think I can ever stop obsessing over this ship. 😌💖☕🥞
