Max Narukami

Getting back into Persona has given me the joy of absolutely simping for Ryuji, but then just not being able to romance him. I know a lot of people complain about this, however that isn’t my goal. Let me explain.

I find that with the girl romances they just become more passive and compliant in a lot of cases, possibly even stuttering messes. While this can be seen as cute, it may take away from the characters buildup over the course of the game. I’d love to have buildups to where you try to date Kawakami and she just goes “yeah, no, you’re my student and past experience has told me to not get overly involved.” and it ends in rejection. But instead she’s just like “can’t believe I’m doing this with one of my students... oh well!” Or maybe Haru just has a bit of a hard time being affectionate to you because of her ex-fiance, or Ann resorting to her ‘terrible acting’ or getting annoyed whenever you make her flustered. There’s so much potential with their written characters but it just ends up being flipped to fan service. People can enjoy fan service, not trying to bash their tastes. I just find it odd that a game with such heavy themes and use of physiological theories would end up resorting to “every girl falls for the protagonist and will become completely passive and will dedicate their lives to everything this man says, even if it cause them to lose their voices and turn into blushing tomatoes.”

In a way, I’m kind of grateful that we don’t have male routes. I feel like the choice to use fan service, rather than base it on the characters would apply here and could upset people due to inaccuracy. One thing that comes to mind is Boys Love (BL) Manga, which can either go the fan service approach or have genuine relationships build up while also building and staying in character. With the way the world has been progressing, people have been leaning more towards the stories that have plot and character to them, rather than just fan service. Could the shy blushy trope work for the guys in canon? Absolutely. Ryuji and Mishima could fall into that category easily. Yusuke? His character portrays him as dense, so it takes a bit to rile him up. (You’d have to be very blunt.) Iwai? I can’t even picutre it. Even Akechi would have more of a “I want you dead but I also want to kiss you” trope than a “my heart won’t stop racing, my face is all red, please take me into your arms and never let go!” type beat. That all said, the lack of canon for these relationships makes room for so many headcanons. No one can tell you you’re wrong because the only canon there is to base it off of is just their characters. You don’t have a sugary fluff piece that was tossed in for fan service, just some guys trying to deal with the cards they’ve been dealt.

@sparkofsummer

Warning: Minor/Very Vague spoilers for Ann’s character.

I’m honestly in agreeance about the close up shots for fan service. They just feel uncomfortable for most of the people who are playing the game for just the story and not the fan service. I feel like scenes like that have a better place in Catherine, since it fits in with the general themes. I can understand wanting to use the whole “horomonal teenage boy” trope, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to be shown those close ups.

Ann’s whole confidant is about becoming strong and sexy, like the female villians in anime, which is one of my favourite parts of her character. Part of it is her choosing them as rolemodels because she thinks they’re cool—but it can also be seen as a way to overcome what she faced with Kamoshida. Throwing in sexually charged close ups of her body just sends out the wrong vibe, reminds me of Kamoshida in a way even. Like I said in the start of this post, not here to bash fan service, I’ve written my fair share of fanfic. It’s just something I found odd playing through the game, considering what she’d dealt with.

(For the record, I think her thieves outfit is fine and it does relate to her confidant events. It makes me think of characters like cat woman, which ties in with the sexy, strong villain concept. I don’t want to seem like I’m shunning her for being in tight latex or showing off clevage. People can wear what they please, clothing is a great form of expression. I just believe we could do with less sexually charged close ups on the body figure of a minor. Feeling confident and sexy isn’t necessarily the same thing as being sexual.)

As for the relationships, I’m not sure if I’d call it a minor aspect. I know that you have to date certain characters to get certain decorations (if people are doing a 100% run.) Also, the game just builds up to it by the time you max the confidants. So while yes, you can choose not to date them, the game does partially force it. Of course, the insentive to reject all women is a ‘date’ with Ryuji, which is also fairly tempting.

Getting back into Persona has given me the joy of absolutely simping for Ryuji, but then just not being able to romance him. I know a lot of people complain about this, however that isn’t my goal. Let me explain.

I find that with the girl romances they just become more passive and compliant in a lot of cases, possibly even stuttering messes. While this can be seen as cute, it may take away from the characters buildup over the course of the game. I’d love to have buildups to where you try to date Kawakami and she just goes “yeah, no, you’re my student and past experience has told me to not get overly involved.” and it ends in rejection. But instead she’s just like “can’t believe I’m doing this with one of my students... oh well!” Or maybe Haru just has a bit of a hard time being affectionate to you because of her ex-fiance, or Ann resorting to her ‘terrible acting’ or getting annoyed whenever you make her flustered. There’s so much potential with their written characters but it just ends up being flipped to fan service. People can enjoy fan service, not trying to bash their tastes. I just find it odd that a game with such heavy themes and use of physiological theories would end up resorting to “every girl falls for the protagonist and will become completely passive and will dedicate their lives to everything this man says, even if it cause them to lose their voices and turn into blushing tomatoes.”

In a way, I’m kind of grateful that we don’t have male routes. I feel like the choice to use fan service, rather than base it on the characters would apply here and could upset people due to inaccuracy. One thing that comes to mind is Boys Love (BL) Manga, which can either go the fan service approach or have genuine relationships build up while also building and staying in character. With the way the world has been progressing, people have been leaning more towards the stories that have plot and character to them, rather than just fan service. Could the shy blushy trope work for the guys in canon? Absolutely. Ryuji and Mishima could fall into that category easily. Yusuke? His character portrays him as dense, so it takes a bit to rile him up. (You’d have to be very blunt.) Iwai? I can’t even picutre it. Even Akechi would have more of a “I want you dead but I also want to kiss you” trope than a “my heart won’t stop racing, my face is all red, please take me into your arms and never let go!” type beat. That all said, the lack of canon for these relationships makes room for so many headcanons. No one can tell you you’re wrong because the only canon there is to base it off of is just their characters. You don’t have a sugary fluff piece that was tossed in for fan service, just some guys trying to deal with the cards they’ve been dealt.

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Persona 4 Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Narukami Yu, Hanamura Yosuke/Seta Souji, Hanamura Yosuke/Persona 4 Protagonist, Hanamura Yosuke & Kuma | Teddie, Amagi Yukiko/Satonaka Chie, Hanamura Yosuke & Satonaka Chie, Kuma | Teddie & Seta Souji, Kuma | Teddie (Persona Series) & Narukami Yu Characters: Narukami Yu, Hanamura Yosuke, Satonaka Chie, Amagi Yukiko, Kuma | Teddie (Persona Series), Tatsumi Kanji, Shirogane Naoto, Kujikawa Rise, Dojima Nanako, Original Male Character(s), Original Non-Human Character(s) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Suicide Attempt, Suicide, Swearing, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe, Slow Burn, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Fluff, Teddie and Yosuke are Brothers, Human Teddie (Persona Series), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Character Death, Car Accidents, Amnesia, Aged-Up Character(s), Original Character(s) Summary:

Legend stated that the gods created humans with mismatched eyes so that they may find their soulmates without the stress of heartbreak. Upon the realization of their love, their eyes would change to match. However, if they attempted to disregard this gift and cheat, they would pay with their lives. At least, that’s what the storybooks and rumors said… It’d been a year since Yosuke had moved to Inaba and already he could tell that his chances of finding his soulmate were becoming dim, just like his stupid grey iris.