i feel like there’s multiple issues that can come with understanding akechi, some being:
- your knowledge of Japan’s ideology compared to maybe western ideals
- the age at which you play p5r; adults vs teenagers will view him in a different lens
- your values in atonement and punishment under the law
his character relies heavily on your own morals. but my favorite part about him is that if you take the time to open your mind and actually want to take him in as a character, is that he makes you question your morals. and he does this narratively by him being a direct foil to joker and the phantom thieves as a whole, who’s existence in the story is to show you/them that it’s not as black and white as good vs evil. that you can’t just expect to take out the evil bad guys and have it be okay. the issue runs deeper, it’s systematic, and runs through the entire way we operate under the rule of the government.
the phantom thieves had a pretty shallow view on victims (which is not a diss to them, but rather something very narratively interesting) and how they should act and proceed through life. they are hurt traumatized children who are rebelling cause the adults in their lives failed them. their want to take out the disgusting acts of man is admirable. akechi envies it, actually.
so what happens when someone like akechi gets thrown into the mix and throws everything off? that he’s someone that the adults failed too his entire life yet didn’t end up as perfectly heroic as the phantom thieves purely based in unfair circumstances? that there are issues far deeper than akechi himself, that reveal a lot about the system and how it creates hurt people (children) like akechi? He fits the definition of everyone before they/you changed the heart of: evil, because of his acts. so why does it feel different this time?
he is supposed to make you uncomfortable. because you question your morals on wether or not he deserves sympathy, or uncomfortable at the fact you do feel sympathy. or uncomfortable by your own acts of justice as playing as a phantom thief, wondering if you aren’t as inherently good as you thought you were. he is unpleasant and nasty, and very, very broken. uncomfortable because he just makes you question your ideals. he is an uncomfortable victim. as many victims are, but we tend to like to dance around it.
him taking the lives of people very obviously, ticks off the thing in our brain that goes: this is bad! this is evil! this is horrid and uncomfortable!
and then you learn about the disgusting things, systematic issues, in general awful things that led to him believing murder was the only path, and you go: this is bad! this is evil! this is horrid and uncomfortable!
so those two things end up fighting neck to neck on the morality scale and deciding on akechi’s “evilness” and what he deserves. And it’s hard to look any deeper into something that is so cruel and uncomfortable to us, such as a murderer.
it’s an uncomfortable conversation in real life, because it’s very very easy for someone to say “i’m a teenager/when i was a teenager i knew murder was wrong” when, yes, everyone, including people who kill people, know it’s wrong. but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that teenagers who have murdered exist. and more often than not, it occurs because they have been failed under the care of adults/the fact society at large treats children to the extent of being an oppressed group. “murder being wrong” as an inherent truth means quite little in discussions about this.
persona 5’s messaging is very strongly “we treat children like shit and they are constantly being failed under our system” and so them being children is incredibly important. the childish “stupid, evil adult” beliefs the main cast has is very much on purpose. it’s a lot more comfortable to engage with the PT’s who are victims but are actively doing good, than akechi who is a victim that is actively doing bad. it’s easier. it’s more right.
the game views akechi as a failed child. a broken victim. the PT’s themselves were sympathetic to akechi to the point it may actually have been jarring, and recognized akechi was merely the gun that shido used. i think its a great disservice to the game, and the refusal of the messaging, to not also take in akechi as a failed child, even if opinions on him as a person vary greatly in your own ideals.
but there is a reason why the phantom thieves directly yell at shido’s shadow about using akechi. how the crimes committed were more on him than they were akechi even if it was done by his hands. it took a lot of purposeful understanding and changing their principles to be able to do that. they went the extra mile to understand when they would have every right to fully despise akechi if they wanted. but they don’t.
i think akechi is just really interesting to get both the thieves and the player to almost have to play a mind game with him of what you’re supposed to think and feel.
