Fridge / Persona 4

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Fridge Brilliance

• Why does Izanagi use a naginata? It's because it's the Amenonuhoko, the spear he and Izanami used to create Onogoroshima. A naginata is also a common depiction of the spear.
• Why does Izanagi start off as weak? Because Persona is the power of the heart, and "bonds are the true strength." The point the initial persona are received is at the start of each game, when the protagonist is still a blank slate with no friends at all.
• Speaking of, what about the inverse? Why is Adachi's Magatsu Izanagi so damn powerful when he isn't a wild card like the protagonist (or if he is, he doesn't showcase it) and has no social links to power him? The way you and your friends got as powerful as you were was through social links, after all. That's just it though—Adachi did have social links, he just manipulated and abused them. As shown with his own, you don't necessarily have to like, respect, or even really know a person to have a relationship with them, and the power granted to you by that relationship will stay with you even after it changes. His manipulative facade is what made Magatsu Izanagi so powerful.
  • As well as that in the Golden Animation, even a small, corrupted Yu/Adachi social link powered up Magatsu Izanagi enough to easily defeat almost every one of Yu's highest level personas, ultimately portraying the power of bonds to be the strongest option... or Adachi as being so insanely powerful by default but usually unable to gain any more power due to rejecting friendship, that even that smallest friendship gave him a wild boost to power.
  • Alternatively, the reason Magatsu Izanagi is so powerful isn't because of manipulated bonds but because of Adachi selfishly drawing power from himself. Consider that while You have myriad Personas, Adachi has just one. He's eschewing bonds in favor of a self-serving mindset that makes his own Persona stronger at the cost of stunting his own potential. He's in many ways the reverse of You. You draw your power from your bonds of friendship, family and love and are endlessly versatile for it. Adachi on the other hand has no true bonds, and while his singular Persona is incredibly powerful it's ultimately all he's got.
  • A third explanation could be extrapolated from a different explanation below regarding Personas and their strengths. Given how Personas are how one projects themselves, their strength is dependent on how "effective" said Persona is with dealing with others. Given how no one suspected Adachi of foul play and he fools virtually everyone, that explains why his Persona is so powerful.
• The stories of Orpheus and Izanagi are remarkably similar in many respects- a god/hero journeys into the underworld in the hopes of rescuing a deceased lover, yet the act of seeing her ruins any chance he had to fulfill that resurrection. It probably isn't a coincidence that the first Persona received by the main characters of games 3 and 4 are Orpheus and Izanagi respectively.
  • Going even further with said legends, the legend of Orpheus trying to save his lover from the Underworld is treated as a tragedy, as she vanishes after he looks back, he can’t attempt to save her again, and he’s eventually killed. The legend of Izanagi and Izanami, on the other hand, is a folktale to explain the cycle of life and death, with Izanami being revealed as a monster after Izanagi looks back at her and the two basically becoming enemies as they are left feuding. These stories, in turn, play with the directions each of their stories goes in, with Persona 3 being a tragedy as the main character has to sacrifice his life to protect the world while in Persona 4 the main character ends up discovering the “monsters” causing harm to the town of Inaba (Adachi and the Gas Station Attendant/Izanami) and fights back to stop them.
• When you first meet Adachi he's puking at the scene of a murder. Why would he, if he's the one who killed her? More than likely, it's not that she died, it's that she was even there. Think about it. You just defied the laws of time and space to commit what has to be history's most perfect crime, in a place where no-one should be able to even find... only to abruptly discover that the body was spat back out onto a public street in the middle of town, where even a child can find the victim. After you were the last person not only to speak to her but to touch her. Adachi must've been certain his prints would be lifted off her.
  • That or Adachi is just that committed to rolling with the punches and playing the rookie detective as convincingly as possible.
  • Or his guilt/conscious/realization of what he's done is just then getting to him and making him physically ill; there's a big line between just saying life is meaningless and actually killing someone, and he is going through Stress Vomit.
• The inclusion of Marie in The Golden actually turns the entire Izanagi and Izanami dichotomy into more than just a Final Boss setpiece, but turns that story into an allegory for the game's entire theme. Think about it: for Shinto mythos, Izanami is very well the first example in human history of someone who averted their eyes to the truth they did not want to see, specifically of what she had become, and even lashed out violently when that truth was exposed — exactly the same as Shadows the day the fog lifts in their world. But the Marie addition takes this one step beyond, by creating a resolution for the entire legend of the two creator gods. In the case of Marie, i.e. Izanami no Mikoto, the original form of the goddess and Izanagi's wife, Izanagi^note Yu returns to Yomi^note her dungeon in order to save her for good, regardless of and even in the face of the monster she's become; only by accepting herself is she freed. On the flip side, in the case of Izanami no Okami, she's decidedly the rotted ruler of the underworld who swore revenge through the gradual murder of mankind, and Izanagi is returning to Yomi in order to end her threat to his progeny once and for all.
• If you try to talk to Marie in Golden on a rainy day, she will say she isn't allowed to go outside when her "existence is wavering, or something like that". This at first seems like something dumb to keep you from doing yet another social link on rainy days. But it makes perfect sense: the gas station attendant comes out on rainy days, and the attendant is Izanami. So allowing Marie to leave the Velvet room during the rain would bring her startlingly and dangerously close to the deity she was born from, who is later proven to be aware of Marie's existence and very disdainful of her.
• Unlike Yukari and Aigis, fellow long-range fighters Yukiko and Naoto sometimes stumble after missing an attack. This seems stupid at first until you realize that also unlike their Persona 3 counterparts, both Yukiko and Naoto get up close for their Critical Hit attacks and thus can stumble after missing said attacks - Yukiko makes several melee strikes with her fan at the start of her critical hit, and although Naoto doesn't kick at the enemy until the end of hers, she does walk towards the enemy while firing, making it possible for her to trip.
  • Actually if you ever watched how every character misses, trips and falls in both P3 and P4, you would see it's because they went out of sequence in doing their Critical Hit attacks (Akihiko doing his uppercut too early, Mitsuru missing with the front kick, etc). Therefore, when Naoto trips, it's because she tried to hit with her punt-kick-the-enemy too early without softening them up first.
• Another piece, courtesy of the Giant Bomb Endurance Run, concerning a baseball bat weapon for the main character: it deals good damage for the point that you can get it, but its hit rating is 30, a third of normal weapons. The two guys playing note that one out of three is a good hit ratio for a baseball player.
  • Except baseball players are hitting small balls flying at high speeds. The main character is fighting hulking monsters.
    • You could always use it to beat up knocked down enemies.
  • I thought that its low hit was a reference to Casey at the Bat, like the Casey Bat in EarthBound.
• It's often wondered both in and out of universe how the Investigation team got drunk from the imaginary booze in the drinks at the Pawlonia Club mall. Well, notice during that scene, the first person to start acting drunk is Teddie; Teddie is a Shadow, a cognitive being, and thus it makes sense for him to be able to get drunk off of drinks that people only perceive to have alcohol. As for the rest of the team, it's been shown that if one person in a group is drunk and the others aren't, the others can still feel and act drunk due to a combination of a desire to fit in and the placebo effect.
  • Even if one does follow the interpretation that the investigation team was genuinely drunk, it makes sense why some were more apparent than others. Chie through martial arts, Kanji through biking and general workouts, Yosuke through again biking and being a stockboy/assistant manager at Junes, Naoto through detective training, and (depending on how much one follows the sports team social link) Yu are all pretty physically active people, which raises one's alcohol tolerance. In contrast, Yukiko runs a traditional inn while Rise was an idol, meaning both probably have especially harsh expectations to remain in shape but not too muscular either giving them higher susceptibility to alcohol, and Teddie is a Shadow who might not have the biology to handle alcohol.
• How did Yukiko know about the King's Game? She learned it at the inn.
  • In fact, when the team goes to Shadow Rise's dungeon, she's quick to say that nobody at the Amagi Inn knows anything about such sleazy places.
  • This is Truth in Television, some of the tourists who come to rustic inns like hers often ask about places where they could get drunk/laid. And the Amagi Inn's influx of entertainers will require her family to have unofficially a good deal of knowledge about such places to stay in business. Or at least keep the number of sordid affairs to a minimum.
• In Persona 3, the MC seals Nyx to prevent human nihilism, AKA Erebus from contacting Nyx, causing Nyx to grant our wish and kill us all (or something like that). Aigis decides to try to change human nature so that this is not necessary. in Persona 4 killing Izanami causes humans to stop wishing for false things. This HAD to help Aigis.
  • Almost. Izanami didn't die per se, more like her physical form was destroyed, and she swore to stop intervening in human affairs. However, this doesn't invalidate the above point. Thanks to her fog and manipulation, Aigis's goal would have previously been impossible. At the very least, there's now a chance at success.
• Teddie's Rank 1 Social Link seems rather out of place - it's before he joins the party, and that's when you get the whole "You are now friends! (Name) WILL NOW DIE FOR YOU." However, this is a case of story and gameplay coinciding - before he joins the party, he takes a massive hit from knocking out Shadow Rise and saving the Protagonist from death.
  • I always thought that it was because you were now friends with Teddie. You became friends with Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, the rest of the party, and they took hits for you. I always just thought that Teddie was that much of a good friend.
  • Interesting, though it doesn't apply in Golden, where "(Name) WILL NOW DIE FOR YOU." doesn't appear until about Rank 9 in the link.
• Chie is somehow able to go around in winter in those tiny shorts without complaint. Why? Her persona is resistant/immune to ice.
• The anime has already done this. The very day the anime's website opened was on April 11th. What day did the protagonist move to Inaba...?
  • Even the PVs were put on the website the day the person gets kidnapped.
• This one hit me while I was reading the Protagonist's entry on the character page. I was wondering why Kanji initially trusts and admires the Protagonist more than the other party members, but when you think about it, the Protagonist is the only other party member that knows and embraces Real Men Wear Pink.
• The reason Rise's breasts appeared too large when she appeared on the Midnight Channel was because her agency added several centimeters to her measurements when they released them, and the public who read this was the source of the image.
  • Equally likely is that pictures of Rise were photoshopped to make her look sexier along with the above, considering this goes on in real life and it ties into the motivation for Rise quitting - It's another aspect of her life that's being faked for the cameras.
• Yosuke learns only a handful of healing spells and Chie learns only three ice spells plus Ice Boost. Teddie learns both healing spells and Ice spells. In other words, Teddie takes the skill types Chie and Yosuke give up - and he joins around the time Yosuke learns Diarama and Chie learns Bufula.
• The party only moves from the Fool Arcana to the Judgement if you avoid the false answers of the bad ending, becoming real Seekers of Truth rather than foolish Investigators.
• The background music for Yomotsu Hirasaka is spelled as 回廊 in Japanese; the doors in that dungeon are square-shaped, and resemble the first kanji.
• Yukiko has dark hair and pale skin and is usually associated with the color red. Her shadow takes the form of a princess because she's constantly waiting for a prince to come. Her name translates as "snow child". She's Snow White.
• It may be pure coincidence but Yu summoning Lucifer against Ameno Sagiri turns quite meaningful when you remember that Lucifer means "light-bringer".
  • And that Ameno-Sagiri claims that he will be the ruler of order in the new world. Now, what does good ol' Lucy represent again?
  • Lucifer is the ultimate Judgement persona and the Judgement arcana is about uncovering the truth.
• Yosuke means "helps" in Japanese.
  • Likewise, Yukiko's family name, Amagi, also means "freedom" in Sumerian.
• In Persona 3, money seemed to be a little object towards the end of the game, and it was quite easy to max out your money on a single playthrough. In Persona 4, however, money is a lot more scarce, and even towards the end, you may not have enough to really purchase everything unless you're being frugal. At first, it seems like a simple gameplay mechanic update, but in retrospect, it makes sense. S.E.E.S. is supported by the Kirijo Group, a powerful organization that Mitsuru is part of. Lots of money can be thrown in their direction since the Dark Hour is a serious threat. The Investigation Team, however, is just a bunch of teenage students trying to solve a mystery. There's no backing or anything, much less anything like the Kirijo Group being aware of the Midnight Channel. All their stuff they have to pay for out of pocket, so it makes sense they both have less money to throw around and they can't earn as much as their Persona 3 counterparts.
• When you really think about it, it's rather easy to figure out who the killer is. Out of all the main and side characters, Adachi's the one you know the least about. The only real fact you know about him is that he was transferred from the city because of a screw-up... And other than, that, you know nothing, and you continue to know nothing through the entire year. And until Golden came out, the fact that he isn't a Social Link despite you seeing him around in the story should be a big tip-off.
• Golden: Very fitting that at the end of the ski trip, Marie uses Ziodyne instead of any other attack on the boys for peeping on the girls at the hot springs. Considering Yosuke and Teddie are weak to lightning, while Souji/Yu and Kanji are immune to it, she knew who was really at fault and punished them accordingly.
  • Actually, Kanji can be heard screaming in pain along with Teddie and Yosuke, indicating that she probably really cast Hot Lightning (which despite the name, deals Almighty damage).
• Rie Kugimiya plays as an idol who is secretly sick of being pigeonholed into her role as a peppy teenage ditz. Hmm...
  • This can be a reason why Rie voices Rise, as, in some way, Rise is another side of Rie. To the fans, Rie is known as the Queen of Tsundere.
• Speaking of Rise, in Golden when Marie refuses her request to stop hugging the protagonist by saying "I'm tired of standing! Enough of getting up! Good thing there's someone even I can hug!" Initially, this makes no sense, until you realize that this is a direct jab at the ad that Rise was shown in AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME.
• During the fight against Kunino-Sagiri, he ends up turning your teammates against you. While fighting this boss in Golden, Rise chose to raise the team's attack the exact turn after they had been turned against MC. Originally it seemed like a glitch, but then it hit me; Rise had been turned against MC too.
• Why did the True Ending get an epilogue in Golden? It's providing a happy ending in place of the original's Bittersweet Ending. It's a golden ending.
• This slightly overlaps with Fridge Horror, but in Golden, it bothered me that Adachi's Social Link has the Arcana "Jester," which isn't a real Tarot card in any version of the Tarot that this troper is aware of (as opposed to, say, Marie's "Aeon," which is an occasionally-seen alternate for "Judgment"). But then I realized that the fake Tarot card makes sense: Adachi is only pretending to like you, and is secretly just keeping an eye on your actions as a player in his "game." The bond isn't genuine, hence neither is the Arcana.
  • Furthermore, why does it become the "Hunger" arcana if you don't cover up for him? Hunger for the truth.
    • Another note about the Hunger Arcana: it's numbered 11, same as Strength, but whereas Strength represents power with self-control, Hunger (aka Lust) is about the abuse of that power and the feeling of bliss associated with it. Concerning how it fits Adachi, take a look at everything he got away with during the course of the game.
  • Apparently, "Jester" is actually an alternate for "Fool"; Adachi does seem to fit the reversed meaning of the card (in the sense that one is squandering their abilities by going down the wrong path).
  • Mind you, "Jester" and "Hunger" are really supposed to be "Pierrot" and "Lust", both of which are from the Thoth deck, like the Aeon arcana.
  • Furthermore, the evolution into the Hunger Arcana also represents the bond itself. If you choose to cover up for him, the Social Link maxes out as the Jester Arcana, symbolizing the fact that you've solidified a false bond, and Adachi is smug, knowing that he's gotten away with everything. If, on the other hand, you choose to expose his crimes, then not only does it max out as the Hunger Arcana, but the story hints that Adachi might be on his way to genuinely atone for his crimes. In other words, your once fake bond has become the real deal.
  • Alternatively, the presence of the Jester Arcana can represent a bond that isn't necessarily false, but rather corrupt. By covering up for Adachi, the maxing of the Social Link as the Jester Arcana represents the fact that you chose to avert your eyes from the truth, unlike with other true bonds, which through them allow you to reach closer to the truth. Through forging a bond that reaches you closer to the truth, you have changed a person for the better and achieve resolution. However, by covering up for Adachi, you allow his weakness of character to get the better of you, and allow him to go off smugly. If you choose to expose Adachi's crimes and apprehend him, Adachi achieves a resolution in his own way like the other people you forged bonds with, and undergoes character development, leading him to rethink his own ways of life, thus finding his answer to life. This is represented as the Social Link maxing as the Hunger (Lust) Arcana. Furthermore, in the Hunger Arcana route, Adachi also gives you a few subtle hints through a letter that ultimately allow you to truly reach out to the truth, and find the mastermind behind the events of the game, thereby bringing you closer to the truth, as most of your bonds do.
• Adachi's rant involves him complaining about how only those with talent can get anywhere. Unsurprisingly Adachi himself is an easy boss who is only threatening because of his persona and can be easily taken down by Yu and his friends, effectively proving his own point.
• Adachi is implied to be corrupt enough that he and his shadow are one and the same. He's also the Investigation Team's collective shadow and much like all the others goes berserk when denied:
  • Much like Yu, he shares the same voice actor, is associated with Dojima, has an evil version of your persona and can access the TV world. He's basically the player if they skipped all the social links in favour of just completing the dungeons hence why he only has Magatsu Izanagi compared to the variety of Personas that the player has.
  • Much like Yosuke, he's bored of living in Inaba, wants some action with the ladies and is the companion of a member of the Dojima Residence. Whereas Yosuke overcomes his boredom through productive means, Adachi sates his through a twisted cat and mouse game.
  • Much like Chie, he relies on another to prop up his ego and wishes to dominate others so he can be superior to them. Whereas Chie grows out of her need to feel superior to Yukiko, Adachi continues to play Namatame for a fool because it amuses him.
  • Much like Yukiko, Adachi feels trapped in his life and wishes to escape it by running away. Whereas Yukiko learns to live on her own terms and embraces her role as future owner of the inn, Adachi uses the Fog to run away from the truth and complains about being stuck in the boonies despite that being his own fault.
  • Much like Rise, both of them want to be acknowledged by others for what they are and arrive at Inaba. While Rise is required to maintain different personas but wishes people to see her as herself; she also chooses to stay in Inaba willingly due to health reasons. Adachi resents how he put in the hours yet is overlooked by the police force and eventually transferred to Inaba due to an incident he was responsible for.
  • Much like Teddie, he's a shadow with a nihilistic outlook on life. Whereas Teddie finds value in his bonds with others and decides to be more than just a shadow, Adachi chooses to whinge about how society sucks and life is meaningless. Adachi is also consumed by his shadow and goes mad when rejected by the party.
  • Much like Kanji, his exterior hides his true feelings. Kanji wishes that people would accept him for having "feminine hobbies" and is actually a decent person under his tough guy exterior; Adachi is seemingly bumbling and incompetent but is actually a sociopath with entitlement issues who can't accept his reality as it is.
  • Much like Naoto, they work with the police force to solve the latest murder case and feel they aren't being taken seriously. Naoto has to pretend she's a boy and feels that people simply treat her as a child; she eventually comes to terms with her issues. Adachi doesn't have to change gender and is mad that people think he's an incompetent moron who is the very murderer the police are looking for
• Why does Naoto get votes from boys and girls during the Miss Yasogami pageant? She was the only one who didn't take part in the swimsuit contest, so it's possible that a large number of the girls voted for her because she was the only one who didn't go along with Teddie's game.
• In the ski trip in Golden, the Investigation Team pairs off in such a way that they were in the pairings which receive Ship Teasing during the game - the Protagonist & Rise, Yosuke & Chie, and Kanji & Naoto. The pairing of Teddie & Yukiko doesn't really receive any Ship Tease moments but isn't a case of Pair the Spares - They're the two biggest ditzes in the group, with Teddie's habit for Incredi-bear-ly lame puns and terrible jokes, Yukiko laughing at pretty much anything, and both of them being somewhat out-of-touch with reality.
  • Well, Yukiko did accidentally introduce Teddie to the concept of "scoring."
• The bad ending credits and the final dungeon have the same music. Why? In the bad endings, you're still trapped in the maze of Izanami's lies.
• In Golden, the player gains the opportunity to dress the Investigation Team up in various costumes, with the sole exception of Rise. Whilst this is ostensibly because she's in a support role and not part of the frontline party, there is an in-character reason for it - as an Idol Singer and actress, Rise had to dress up in various costumes for her job. In fact, her Shadow is explicitly based around her desire for people to see her as Rise and not the various characters her job has her portray.
• Shadow Teddie's design doesn't seem very symbolic at first, compared to the others. But after you've beaten the game, you might notice something familiar about his eyes — they're shaped like Ameno-Sagiri's eye since Ameno-Sagiri is the one who created him, as hinted by Rise.
  • You might also notice the giant cracks in his face and that they reveal nothing but a black void. He's empty inside.
  • Additionally, his Shadow self is just him, just bigger and more disturbing, as opposed to everyone else who has a drastically different design from their normal selves. Why is this? Well, Teddie's already a Shadow!
  • Shadow Naoto's design as well also doesn't seem very symbolic at first. After all, what does a giant flying robot have to do with wanting to be taken seriously as a detective? But reflecting on it, the appearance makes a lot of sense — robots don't age and have no gender, two things Naoto has struggled with in her career.
    • Another possible explanation, Shadow Naoto specifically looks like an action figure of some kind. When a kid looks at an action figure, they might see it as "cool" or "masculine," but when an adult looks at it, it's just a kid's toy. This could represent the way Naoto wants to be seen, but whenever she acts that way, her co-workers see her as a child trying too hard to be something she's not.
    • When you put her in the Featherman outfit, she slips up and reveals an encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise. It’s not a robot. It’s an armored super suit.
  • One of the harder shadows selves to pin down is the first one you fight, Shadow Yosuke. As it turns out though, its design is based on the "Frog in the Well" proverb, where a frog refuses to leave its well despite being told there are better things out there. This is meant to mirror Yosuke's feelings of entrapment within Inaba, and his desire to go back to the city. As for the figure on the frog's back, it's meant to represent a twisted version of Yosuke's ideal hero, which in itself represents the idea of him using the murders as an excuse to become a hero, thus alleviating him of his boredom.
• Why do the Persona 3 mooks (and most enemy map-avatars) look like a bunch of pitch-black hands holding a mask, while the Persona 4 mooks look like acid-trip balls with giant tongues? Answer: It's all based on how the people in each city LIE. At school where the battles take place, people talk and yap and push and bully and insult to create an outward appearance; a focused group effort at looking like total Jocks or Libbies. Meanwhile, in the rural television town, most of the lies come from rumors and myths; the shadows take the form of the obnoxious, big-headed rumor-spreaders. Oh, and 99% of what you hear from the television is made of two things; smoke and mirrors. And the smoke comes from the wrecked sets.
  • So why are both of them the very first shadows you face in Persona Q? Because the Investigation Team (from the rural town) & SEES (from the city) meet each other. It might also act as a hint that, whichever team you choose, you're not the only group of persona users to enter the Labyrinth.
  • Speaking of Shadows, carried over from Persona 3, there's a type of enemy known as the "Lustful Snake". Its weakness? Ice. Also, a Persona by the name of "Mara" appears frequently within Shin Megami Tensei as a certain pun on an object, even though its original history has nothing to do with said object. What's even weirder is that it, in this game, can naturally get "Makarakarn", a move that reflects Magic. Now which is more controversial: this Persona (which, in this game, arrives on a cart), or shooting yourself in the head?
• The elemental attributes of the Investigation Team's Personae pertain in some way to what each Persona was as a Shadow.
  • Jiraiya knows Garu spells because Shadow Yosuke just wanted to be rid of Inaba.
  • Tomoe knows Bufu spells because Shadow Chie was a cold-hearted bitch who wanted nothing more than to make Yukiko — whose own Persona just happens to be weak to ice — her bitch.
  • Konohana-Sakuya knows Agi spells because Shadow Yukiko was willing to burn down anything that restrained her — including the prison that was the Amagi Inn.
  • Take-Mikazuchi knows Zio spells because Shadow Kanji was willing to strike down anyone who didn't accept him for who he was.
  • Himiko is a scanning Persona because Shadow Rise was the Shadow of someone who wanted others to get to know her better.
  • Kintoki-Douji knows Bufu spells because Shadow Teddie had a cold and bleak outlook on life.
  • Sukuna-Hikona knows Hama and Mudo spells because Shadow Naoto was the Shadow of someone who wanted to keep others in the dark about her own insecurities as she worked overtime to bring the truth of things to light. Shadow Naoto's resistance to Agi spells is also representative of her hidden anger and frustration at being belittled.
• It should be obvious that Mitsuo isn't the real killer (except for Mooroka, anyway). He has a Shadow… which means he doesn't have a Persona, required to go to the TV World. More to the point, it's also required to be able to make a TV into a portal; without a Persona, he can't be responsible for anyone being sent into the TV World.
  • Another hint crops up as you progress through his dungeon. Check the dialogue boxes closely: A "female announcer" and a "corpse discoverer" are mentioned, obviously meant to be Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi, but are unnamed and "defeated". However, Mooroka is mentioned by name, and "Killed". He only knows vague information about confirmed victims one and two but explicitly knows about victim three, while also mentioning nothing about the members of the Investigation Team who were also thrown in.
  • Well, Protagonist, Yosuke and Chie entered TV World before unlocking their Personas... due to the Protagonist being the Wild Card, and explicitly being able to enter the TV World.
• Anybody who played either part of Persona 2 should immediately pick up on something. The villain(s) for those games was The Joker. Adachi's Jester arcana is just a synonym away from being a Late-Arrival Spoiler.
• I didn't notice it before but Namatame's role in the game is a satire on criminal justice in Japan. There is a serious problem in Japan where suspects are automatically judged to be guilty whether or not they actually did the crime, purely because they were arrested on suspicion of the crime, sometimes getting the death sentence solely based on them being arrested with no further proof. It got so bad that Japanese TV stations have to censor the suspect's hands so viewers can't see the handcuffs which might impair their judgment. In Persona 4, the Investigation Team was about to murder Namatame because the TV told them he was the culprit and half of them weren't even going to bother asking questions if it wasn't for Yu's intervention.
  • It's even better when we factor Adachi into the equation. The reason why the Investigation Team didn't even consider Adachi (or Uncle Ryotaro, for that matter) as a possible suspect? Well, it's another nod to Japanese society where there is a tendency to follow authority, sometimes blindly. It's also a criticism from Atlus that Japanese people put too much trust in the authorities - resulting in Namatame's scenario and his possible end as described above - and which is made even more apparent in Persona 5.
• If you romance Chie Satonaka in Golden, on Valentine's Day, you get a scene with her at the beach where she goes on about how surprised she is that you chose her when you could have had any of the other girls on the Investigation Team. This is actually Leaning on the Fourth Wall; as mentioned on the YMMV page, Chie is the least popular romantic choice, especially of the Investigation Team options, amongst the fans. She even engages in some Lampshade Hanging as to why; she's a Tomboy with a Girly Streak, meaning she's not as conventionally feminine as Yukiko, she's not as exotic as Naoto, and as for Rise, well, she's pretty much the epitome of desirability to average Japanese guys. It's quite understandable she's so surprised by the player's interest in her, she has every reason, In-Universe, to think she's not anyone's "type".
• Kaguya Hime, the ultimate persona of the Aeon Arcana, has a very futuristic, almost metallic design... and rabbit ears. The latter seems out of place unless you think about the origins of Kaguya Hime. Originally the main character of the famous Japanese folk story The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Kaguya Hime is later revealed to belong to a group of celestial beings living on the moon. The designers incorporated this into her design by referencing the Moon Rabbit, another famous mythical figure.
• The three people Izanami gives the power to enter the TV to can be seen as representative of the Id, Superego, & Ego.
  • The id is basically the person's primal instincts. A person with too much focus on the id acts on all of his desires and urges without regard for others, in other words a sociopath. Pretty much fits Adachi. His entire motivation for his crimes was because he was bored and wanted to get some kicks out of the situation.
  • The superego is basically the person's morality. However, too powerful of a superego can also be a bad thing since it only acts on whether something is morally right. Namatame threw people into the TV out of an obsession to be the hero and "save" everyone, not stopping to think about what he was doing or what the world he was throwing people in was really like.
  • The ego is the mediator between the other two. It takes both the compulsions of the id, and the morality of the superego and applies both to reality to form sound, realistic actions. Yu acts as the calm, levelheaded leader of the Investigation Team, as best demonstrated when he stopped the Team from killing Namatame so that they could learn the truth.
• A case of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - Namatame would've realized that he wasn't saving the victims if Yukiko died, but because you kept saving them from the Midnight Channel he thought that they were being kept safe from the killer through his actions. That's why he has a Messiah Complex when you confront him.
• The Big Bad chooses three representatives of humanity, one for hope, one for despair, and one for emptiness. As of Golden, there are also three aspects of Izanami's personality: Ameno-Sagiri, Kunino-Sagiri and Kusumi-no-Okami. Moreover, they correspond to each other: Adachi embraces Ameno-Sagiri's vision and is a key part of his plan, Kunino-Sagiri fights on behalf of Namatame in his attempt to "save" Nanako, and Kusumi-no-Okami is romantically involved with the protagonist as Marie. In this context, the ending makes a lot more sense: Marie absorbs Izanami and becomes the dominant personality corresponding to the protagonist's victory over Adachi and Nametame.
• Why does Magatsu-Izanagi have Magarudyne in its level-up skill set? Well, what is its rival, Izanagi, weak to again?
• It took me a while to notice it since it's such a tiny detail: when the investigation team is running after Dojima (who has taken off after Namatame in his car) and find that he's crashed, the first one to react is Naoto, who mumbles something about a car accident with a very uncharacteristic, shocked look on her face. Both her parents died in a car accident, and for all we know, she may have been there as well! Even if she only heard the news, the thought of someone close to her getting in one again must be particularly horrifying.
• Why does Rise constantly hit on the MC, even when he has a girlfriend who's standing right there? Her arcana is the Lovers. Further, what does she do in combat? Support you, like a good SO would.
• When you think about it, the Investigation Team's early theories about who's being targeted weren't actually wrong:
  • It's no coincidence that the first two victims were female: Adachi (who is presumably straight) targeted them for sexual assault.
  • It's no coincidence that the first few victims were related to the Yamano affair case: the affair was what brought Ms. Yamano to Adachi's attention in the first place and gave him an opportunity to get close to her by passing himself off as her police detail. The murder was what gave Adachi access to Saki. Her connection to the murder was the reason people were interested enough in Yukiko for her to be on the Midnight Channel.
  • It's no coincidence that the victims all appeared on the Midnight Channel: Obviously, for all but the first two, Namatame kidnapped them because of the Midnight Channel. For the first two, the same circumstances that made people interested in them (the affair and subsequent murder) and thus made them end up on the Channel were the same circumstances that gave Adachi access to them.
• Shu's social link requires Saintly understanding; "Motherly" (the second-highest rank) isn't enough. Makes sense, since Shu's problems mostly stem from his mother not understanding how he feels.
• Something that bugged this troper for a long time was why do shadows counterparts try to kill their doppelgangers? In the Jungian archetype, Shadows represent the feelings denied by the ego out of shame, which tend to be very selfish, negative, and destructive toward others. For Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko, these manifested as resentment, envy, and anger respectively. It would make sense to assume that they were just mad at being repressed and wanted to get revenge since they lack self-control and would immediately lash out with unchecked aggression. However, Kanji, Rise, and Naoto all had repressed sides that were more about the desire to be accepted for who they are, frustration that they weren't, and fears that they never would. Shadow Naoto even said that Naoto needed to accept that she was a child and there's nothing she can do about it. Why would these shadows lash out and try to kill their other selves? The brilliance part comes when you read into some of their dialogue. Shadow Chie, in the game and animation, said she'd "be the only one left standing" and that she'd "treat Yukiko very well, as her personal punching bag." During the fight with Shadow Kanji, he said that he'd "already made his decision to go through with this." Jung said that denying your shadow gives it more control over you and your actions. The shadows aren't trying to kill them out of anger or revenge. They're trying to take control and become the dominant personality.
  • Mixed Brilliance/Horror: If a person is killed, it's pretty obvious that their shadow would die with them. Except the shadows themselves don't seem to be aware of this. In their desire to become the dominant personality, should they succeed, they end up completely destroying themselves as well. Who's to say that isn't what some shadows want in the first place, as might've been the case for Mayumi and Saki.
• The anime's last episode where Yu is afraid to leave Izanami's prison makes sense on a meta-level. The player doesn't want the game to end, and neither does Yu.
• Literal fridge brilliance: Neither Nanako nor Dojima cook that much; Nanako knows how to make sunny-side up-eggs and salad, and Dojima knows how to buy takeout sushi. Yet every time Nanako goes shopping, there just happens to be everything you need for a specific dish, often with ingredients, it seems doubtful Nanako would ever use on her own. This isn't serendipity; Nanako is passive-aggressively suggesting that you make dinner for a change. Fridge Horror sets in when you realize that, oblivious to the hints, you kept fixing whatever Nanako wanted for dinner as lunch for your friends instead.
• A meta example: When the MC talks to Kanji after the fake culprit is arrested, Kanji expresses his annoyance about how the media takes apart every bit of information about Mitsuo and tries to make him seem like a born criminal. If you've played the game after you know who the culprit is, then you would be looking for all those hints, wouldn't you? Some of them are documented on this page!
• Overlaps with Fridge Horror, but Nanako represents the Justice Social Link. In the Bad Ending, Justice dies and the killer gets away with everything.
  • Nanako also is pleased to hear that her mother might have gone to Heaven, and her dungeon is based on a storybook version of Heaven, even if it's possible that Namatame's belief that the TV world was paradise also influenced it. In a nice coincidence, most of the Justice personas are angels, and the achievement for completing Nanako's dungeon is "The Return of the Angels".
• The TV World represents the collective unconscious of mankind, while the fog represents the illusions held by those who cannot see the truth. Initially, the TV World is bleak and filled with monsters, but when the fog lifts, it becomes peaceful and beautiful, representing how people appear evil, but for the most part, are fundamentally good - even the killer is not beyond redemption.
• The Velvet Room is a limo instead of an elevator in Persona 3. While both stop at the climax of the story, this represents how the Persona 4 protagonist has reached his destination but could return to Inaba someday, while the Persona 3 protagonist, like an elevator at the top floor, can go no further.
• How come that every time you recruit a new member to the Investigation Team, that new member is near as, slightly above, or the same level you are? How come Naoto starts off at such a higher level than Kanji or Chie for example? They are all high school students, and their physical abilities shouldn't be so far apart from each other, so how come their Personas are? It's because that the strength of the TV-world Personas mirrors the strength of the person's real-life social persona, as in how Carl Jung describes the Persona in his psychology theories. It just so happens that each party member you get has a stronger social Persona than the last.
  • The definition of Carl Jung's theory of the Persona is that the Persona is a mask that the ego uses to interact with the outside world while keeping the wearer safe from emotional damage and concealing the true self of the wearer. So, the Persona's strength/effectiveness is based on how well a person can interact with the outside world, while also keeping the user from getting emotionally hurt. Now, look at how each member of the Investigation Team interacts with the outside world, going in chronological order.
  • Yosuke: He doesn't start off with a strong Persona. He tries to hide his pain and fear of loneliness by seeming optimistic, cheerful, and funny. However, when Saki dies, he immediately drops this social Persona and becomes sad, regretful, and serious for a while. In fact, when anything serious happens, he completely drops his Persona and instead faces the problem as well as he can. His Persona also doesn't help him connect with others, he basically has no real friends (with the exception of Chie), and can't get new ones because the town hates Junes for ruining the shopping district (despite them shopping there.) This isn't Yosuke's fault, and it's doubtful any Persona would help him connect to other people when they hate him for no good reason. But because of this, he hasn't developed a strong social Persona that won't collapse in stressed situations. Ultimately, this Persona fails in both protecting him emotionally, as well as helping him interact with the outside world. It's not a strong social Persona, no matter how much we might like Yosuke.
  • Interestingly enough, this also makes him not so different from the protagonist. Both of them are starting on rough equal terms, which certainly explains why they are able to connect so well and understand each other on a deep emotional level. In fact, in Persona Q2. Yosuke reveals that he had to move quite often when he was young and so when he went to a new school, he often changed himself to fit in with the crowd. This adds another layer of similarity to him and the protagonist; additionally, it also explains why his social Persona is lacking: like the protagonist, he never had a chance to form a proper one because he never got a chance to connect with people.
  • Chie: She has an interesting Persona because her entire connection to the outside world and her own emotional strength revolves around her being friends with/being better than Yukiko. By being the one who protects the beautiful and popular heiress to the town's inn, as well as feeling that Yukiko isn't able to do anything without her help, Chie can feel good about herself and believe that she is 'better' than Yukiko. Everyone likes Yukiko, so by being better than her, Chie feels very confident in who she is. By having Yukiko as a pillar of support to her self-esteem, as well as an outgoing personality that makes it pretty easy to interact with people, Chie's social Persona is actually pretty effective.
    • However, that's also why she freaks out so much when Yukiko disappears. Besides the obvious reasons, it's also because Chie needs Yukiko to have a functioning social Persona. Chie's Shadow outright states that Chie is helpless without Yukiko.
    • Ultimately, Chie has a good social Persona, but it's also rather fragile and completely dependent on the presence of another person to work. This troper would call it effective, not sturdy.
  • Yukiko: Yukiko has practically been gifted a strong Persona by being born into a prominent family and having good looks. Her family is influential, so people respect her as the future inheritor of the inn, and people also mind their matters when speaking to her because she is the most beautiful girl in school. Because of this, Yukiko has not created her own social Persona but had it crafted for her by circumstance. By not choosing/creating her own Persona, she clearly suffers from it. She wants to run away from home and wishes to not be the inheritor of the inn. It's a strong Persona, but she feels it doesn't fit her, as she didn't choose to 'wear' it.
    • This is also reflected in the fact that her TV-world Persona, Konohana Sakuya, is a Japanese holy tree spirit that uses fire for offensive spells. Her Persona is also inherited/pushed upon her, but she actually uses fire, something that really doesn't fit into what kind of creature/Persona it is. This reflects how her true self is rebellious and different from what the Persona represents. After she gets rescued, she tries to turn her life around, but she discovers she actually does want to inherit the inn and fill the role that was pushed upon her from birth. The difference is that now, she chose it herself. It's a strong Persona that is good at both protecting herself as well as interacting with the outside world. Yukiko is just not sure how she wants to wield it, or if she even wants to wield it at all, and thus it's not as effective for her as later characters' Personas are for them.
  • Kanji: He has made a Persona/image of himself as a tough delinquent that everybody hates so that no one will come close enough to his heart to hurt him. Unlike Yukiko, Kanji totally owns this social Persona, as it's one he has developed for himself. It protects him from what he fears most: "being rejected", and it does this very well by making everyone hate him. This makes it so that their scorn was something he chose to cultivate and prevents him from being hurt by someone he trusts. The problem comes when it comes to actually communicating with the outside world; this social Persona leaves him with basically no one to talk to, besides his mother and maybe the cops when they try to lecture Kanji. In actuality, it's a very self-destructive social Persona and would have eventually led him to have a very bad life, if it hadn't been for the Investigation Team.
    • When someone finally accepts him, and he has people from the outside world who actually want to communicate and interact with him, Kanji becomes a lot stronger emotionally. It's clear that he will slowly develop a new social Persona for himself over time, but as for the time span of the game, it doesn't change. Since he now has solved what used to be the biggest problem with his original social Persona, having people that care for him, it becomes a strong social Persona that he can use proficiently, at least until he naturally develops a new one when he becomes less of a delinquent in the future.
  • Rise: Rise's problem is fascinating because her problem isn't that she has a weak social Persona, but what social Personas she does have completely rule her life. Rise is an actor, and she is so good at taking on another role different from herself, that she slowly loses track of who she really is. When she works as an idol, she always has to wear/be different Personas to get attention from sponsors and to simply do her job in general. Spending all her time in the studio, the producers and managers milk her for all she's worth and take up all the free time a high school girl would normally have, and because of it, she doesn't get the chance to interact with other people without her 'masks' on.
    • Rise's social Persona is incredibly strong, as she actually interacts with fans all over the country and establishes a strong connection with them. It's also good at protecting her inner self, it's just that her social Persona takes up so much space in her life that there isn't that much time she simply gets to be Rise, and not "Risette" or "the idol movie star" and so forth. That's also why her TV-world Persona takes the form of a satellite: her true self is one that searches for who she really wants to be. Because of this, it becomes a completely support-oriented Persona, who has the power to search for the true selves/presences of other people. More specifically, she is probably searching for their true selves as well, as she needs hints about the person to get anywhere.
    • Rise can't fight on her own, as she just isn't meant to do so. However, she can find others' 'masks', which she can interact with and nurture. Just like how she can't be her true self because she doesn't know which Rise is really her but can function very well with the world around her by taking on the masks she knows works in the social context she is in. Ultimately, Rise has a very strong Social Persona, she just doesn't know which one she identifies the most with.
  • Teddie: Teddie is someone who... actually, this troper doesn't know how well Teddie fits into all of this. He only gets a Shadow after he develops a strong ego in Rise's dungeon, but before that, Teddie was a Shadow. He had no true self, and his whole character arc is him developing a self and fitting in with the real world. Since this troper doesn't know, Teddie has to be skipped. Feel free to add a comment to this part if any of you can think of how he would fit into this whole thing.
    • That is just that: Teddie is just a Shadow. However, he was a Shadow that was curious about humans but to pursue that fascination he needed to fit in with them. Therefore, not only did he put on a literal mask (and matching costume and plenty of disarming mannerisms like puns and cowardice), but he deliberately forgot his own memories of actually being a Shadow. Discarding your entire old self and adopting an entirely new self, all by choice, is some big dedication. However, the mask is not perfect; Teddie spends most of the game trying to remember who he once was, and then reconciling the differences between his origins and who he is in the present.
  • Naoto has the strongest Persona of the whole team. For one, Naoto is completely sure of who she wants to be, and how she wants others to see her. Because of this, she can completely fit into her social Persona without having some detrimental effect on her true self, which neither Yukiko, Kanji, and even Rise couldn't do. Furthermore, her role as a detective allows her to go about interacting with the outside world and her job in a completely calm and objective manner, without having to establish any lingering emotional connection to anyone she meets through it. This is ideal for Naoto's personality, and she probably couldn't find a job or social Persona that fits her better than this one.
    • Naoto's problem is while that she is very mentally stable, has a good connection to the outer world, and can keep herself from getting hurt emotionally... she feels she doesn't fit her ideal image of a detective physically. She loves this social Persona; it's everything she could ever wish for, the role of being a detective. Yet, society tells her she can't be one because she's a girl. Ironically, Naoto feels like she was born for this job, but her birth as the wrong gender makes it so she normally wouldn't be able to pursue it. Naoto doesn't hate being a girl; she hates that because she is one, society won't accept her for who her true self is. That's why she rejects her gender and tries to be male because her true self is completely dependent on her being male for being able to do what she wants to be. The presence and friendship of the Investigation Team after she is rescued doesn't even help this aspect of Naoto, which is made clear after she decides to keep wearing the male school uniform even after everyone at school knows she's not a guy. But it's only around Yu and the Investigation Team that she feels it's fine for her to be a girl. Essentially, Naoto has a very strong Persona that couldn't fit her any more perfectly, besides the fact she is not a man, which the Investigation Team balances out by allowing her to be whoever she wants when around them. She is very balanced because of this and has the highest level Persona because of it.
  • All in all, everyone's level is based on how strong their real-life social Personas are in the game, and how well they interact with the outside world. Isn't that cool?
    • This also explains why Adachi's Persona is so powerful despite being the last to get it. It's an extensively effective front that has gotten him by life's struggles thus far and he would've continued it like none was the wiser if not the events of the game.
• In some cases, getting the items for quests from the TV might not be a bad excuse. After all, it could have been one of those "As Seen on TV" deals.
• Naoto's initial Persona, Sukona-Hikona, is very reminiscent of the heroes of Kamen Rider. Extremely appropriate, given that her dungeon was a tokusatsu mad scientist lab.
• Inspired by a T-Shirt that says, "I stopped fighting my inner demons. We're on the same side now." That's pretty much exactly what a Persona is: an inner 'demon' that fights for its user. A person's Shadow is the manifestation of everything they won't admit, or in other words, their inner demons. A Shadow becomes a Persona when the user stops fighting it and accepts it. The protagonist can use SMT demons as Personae, and Persona 5 introduces SMT demons as Shadows instead of just Personae.
• There seems to be a consensus that Yu was an idiot for not sticking his hand into the TV in front of Uncle Dojima. Actually, if we think about it, it was most likely for the best. Firstly, Dojima would raise all sorts of questions towards the Investigation Team as to how they discovered the details of the missing people - which results in a possible risk of them being considered as the killers of Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi and facing possible arrest. Secondly, even if they somehow managed to convince Dojima and the entire police force that they were actually trying to save people and to stop Adachi, a further risk arises in that Dojima would be worried about Yu (for a different reason) and forbid Yu from entering into the TV World. Even more, being a concerned parent and all, he probably takes steps to prevent these obviously reckless teenagers way over their heads from pursuing the killer on their own. He would ask the rest of the IT member's parents/guardians to supervise them more, and now everyone in the Investigation team would be more supervised to be made sure that they don't do anything dangerous to themselves. Particularly for Yukiko and Yosuke, the former's parents would have the easy choice of having one of their inn's staff chaperone Yukiko, while the latter's father (being a manager of Junes Department Store) would have the option to order some staff to keep an eye on the TV sets (and/or on Yosuke himself) to stop Yosuke and co. from entering through one of the TVs. The risks of the above are admittedly unknown, but it's something that the Investigation Team really would not want on top or everything else.
• While extremely unlikely to be intentional, it's still fun to think about: in a game about kids investigating the world that exists inside of televisions, what is the name of the spell you'd almost certainly use more than any other throughout? Media.
• Rise's Shadow Self is an Attention Whore stripper that has a fractal mirror for a face. Her Persona, however, has a satellite for a face, extending several feet past its head. What's special about this? The fact is that because of the shape of its head it can never look at itself. This can be related to how Rise has grown as a person in contrast to her Shadow's traits.
• This idea comes after a few years, but "Nana" is another way of pronouncing the Japanese word "七" which means "Seven" in Japanese. Now think about it: who is the seventh victim to be thrown into the TV World? The one after Mayumi Yamano, Saki Konishi, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa, & Naoto Shirogane?
• It makes sense that most of the shadow selves of the Investigation Team are in some way overly sexual or focused on their sex (Shadow Chie being a dominatrix, Shadow Yukiko trying to score a hot stud, Shadow Kanji being Camp Gay, Shadow Rise being a stripper, Shadow Naoto wanting a sex change operation). Shadows are the aspects of oneself that one denies or is ashamed of. Of course, teenagers going through puberty would have repressed sexual desires, especially in a traditional rural town like Inaba.
  • Furthering this point, the only two shadows who don't display this (Shadow Yosuke and Shadow Teddie) do nothing to hide their sexual desires, so their shadows wouldn't display this trait.
• Why does Teddie have such... inner beauty? Because so does the Midnight Channel—the passageway into people's hearts. Teddie was a shadow that fought for the truth and developed a form of conventional beauty for a young man because of it. This is the same for the Shadow World once Izanami is defeated, as it becomes a beautiful and refreshing prairie.
• Out of all the Shadows, Yu's Shadow in the Animation is the weirdest in terms of appearance. Most of the Shadows' appearances can be linked to some desire or issue their originator's faces, like Shadow Yukiko looking like a bird trapped in a cage it could easily escape, representing how Yukiko feels trapped in her own life. However, it makes sense as Yu's Shadows appear as a bunch of TVs with his face on them. It represents his desire to stay in the TV world if it means he won't lose his friends. Furthermore, the fact that it takes the form as a collection of things rather than as one being? It shows him using "multiple faces", which represents his status as a Wild Card being able to use multiple Personas!
• The two Red Herring bosses before the True Final Boss both give you hints. Kunino-Sagiri is a giant angelic TV antenna. Ameno-Sagiri is a giant camera eye. Kunino-Sagiri is a receiver of Ameno-Sagiri's signal, but someone has to be operating the camera, and it can't be Adachi because he IS Ameno-Sagiri.
• Normally, the members of the team who after gaining a Persona of their own, take a few days to recover from the shock, yet, Rise only takes a few minutes and can handle Himiko as if nothing happened. Given that she's held Risette as a persona of her own for years, handling a Persona in the context of a Fighting Spirit isn't much different.
  • There’s also the fact that the other party members would have lost a lot of adrenaline after their Shadow stopped trying to kill them emotionally and physically, this doesn't happen with Rise since Shadow Teddie appeared and attacked the party leading to no adrenaline crash
• According to Dojima, Namatame couldn't willingly replicate his TV World powers when being interrogated, given that in order for someone to enter the TV World, they need to acquire a Persona or be brought in by someone who does. Although, unlike Adachi who was granted Magatsu-Izanagi, Namatame's powers were likely in fact Kunino-Sagiri, who after being destroyed, probably took his powers with it.
• While there's a lot of evidence that (rightly) pointed to Adachi as the killer who duped Namatame, there is one further point that rules out everyone else besides him.
  • Problem: Nanatame somehow managed to throw Kanji and Naoto into the TV without his cover being blown, something that is very difficult to do unassisted and/or untrained. Kanji is tall, tough, and singlehandedly took out an entire biker gang, and Naoto surely would have had some self-defense training from Grandpa Shirogane as part of her detective work. Even if Namatame managed to throw both in, there should have been a scuffle between him and Kanji/Naoto - with the risk of Namatame's identity blown and him arrested earlier.
  • Solution: Adachi may have assisted Namatame indirectly with Naoto and/or Kanji by providing advice and information about the two, to mitigate such risks. As a police officer, he can share both the knowledge in how to subdue people and prior information about Kanji and Naoto which may further help Namatame's abduction. Also, Adachi said that he had been watching Namatame's actions from the sidelines for the majority of the year (and the "occasional nudge" he mentioned can be anything, considering how Adachi turned out to be less than honest about himself). Together with the tendency of Japanese society being biased in favor of authority figures, Adachi would have an easier time denying any sort of involvement even should things go south and Namatame gets arrested.
• So, every character in the game has a shadow form except for the main character. Why? Because he's you! You are his shadow! (or vice-versa. Whatever). The original website even labeled him as "your alter-ego". The main character is supposed to be a reflection of yourself (not that it stopped people from role-playing him however they wished).
• As Igor says in multiple games, the power of the Wild Card is the ability to "control one's own heart." Shadows come from the repressed feelings and thoughts of people. (Anime aside) The Main Character is thus able to not just repress what he's feeling, but genuinely decide what he's thinking and feeling and thus a shadow can't form.
  • This also ties to the MC's ability to use multiple personas. Persona are masks people use to interact with the outside world. The Main Character will if you're pursuing social links optimally change his personality on the fly to satisfy the people he's interacting with. The game actively encourages this because if you as the player try to keep the MC consistent in his personality like a normal person in the Persona universe would, this will result in social links progressing slowly if not grinding to a halt. Essentially, the Main Protagonist's persona he can change on effectively a complete whim in the normal world just as he can in the TV World.
• In the creation myth, when Izanagi flees from his half-rotten wife in the underworld, Izanami swears in a rage that she will kill a thousand of his children every day. Izanagi defies her, declaring that he in turn will sire ten thousand new children every day. This is the root of the "Myriad Truths" ability ... but even before that, look at the two holders of the Izanagi persona. Adachi is a lech whose sexual appetites help kick off the plot. And Yu, while more in control of himself, still gets called a "man-whore" by Margaret in the anime!
  • And that's not even getting into the harem you can get!
• With the exception of Yu in the anime who knows well enough by that point what would happen if he did, people who encounter their Shadows always immediately reject them as "Not Me". This isn't just because of the absurdity of the situation, embarrassment, confusion, etc. but because those Shadows actually aren't them or really even aspects of them. Given what you learn about the various people before and after they accept their Shadows this is actually true, Shadows really aren't "The True Self" despite their claims. i.e. Yukiko might think "I don't want to run the Amagi Inn and I want to get out of Inaba" and suppresses that feeling, but her Shadow is all but completely obsessed with the idea and then dialed up to an extent that the real Yukiko really wouldn't think of even at her worst moment. What Shadows are is a completely unrestrained and massive exaggeration of a person's thoughts and feelings that have reached a level that the person never would even conceive.
• One detail about Shadow Yukiko's design that only becomes obvious in hindsight - despite being a bird in a gilded cage, the door is wide open. This is foreshadowing for the crux of Yukiko's character arc - the Gilded Cage she believes she's trying to escape is a self-inflicted hell she's subjecting herself to because of her doubts, she knows deep down she can leave any time she wants and she knows everyone will support her if she did so, but she doesn't really want to abandon everyone and she does truly love the inn enough to stay and become the next in line to inherit it, so she remains in her "cage" freely and of her own will, with the option to leave always there if she wants it.
• Adachi's Social Link in Golden features him complaining about an old woman who (According to Adachi) has latched onto him because he reminds her of her son. Not only situation is reminiscent of the Death Social Link - where Chisato bonds with the protagonist because of his resemblance to her late husband - but Adachi's lack of interest in the woman and failure to understand her issues is effectively showing a neglected Social Link within the context of the game.

Fridge Horror

• Once you discover the identity of the killer, you can't help but think of all the times they just stood there, smiling with you, laughing with you, maintaining the facade of humanity. Think back on all the times they were helpful and friendly. Think of how they had dinner with you, and sat directly across from you the entire time. This person casually engineered the murders of almost a dozen people, including a 7-year-old girl and the son of a bitch just stood there smiling! The second playthrough is all the more chilling because you know what's happening but can't do anything to stop it...
  • Perhaps even worse? In the bad ending, Nanako dies, and Adachi was probably at her funeral putting on the act of a grieving family friend, whilst smugly thinking about how he's got away with everything.
  • This is all Truth in Television. Most of the cases involving murderers, psychopaths, and sociopaths happen because the killer knew his victims personally, likely as a family member or acquaintance, just as Adachi is a friend of Dojima's. Even if some adaptations make it clearer that Nanako was the ONE LINE Adachi regretted crossing, he was still planning to go forward with his plan of bringing Shadows into the real world despite this.
• To be honest the killer can literally be anyone in real life. Just imagine working hard but getting nothing in return. People pile up unrealistic expectations over you. You were treated as nothing other than a joke and everything you do gets you humiliated. And then you think that you are above all humans and should not receive that treatment; you want success handed to you on a silver platter. To top it all off, you were dropped into a small town with nothing to do for a mistake, just to humiliate you even more. There is no wonder that he would just go onto a murderous rampage to relieve his stress!
  • Adding to that is that the possibility that Adachi was being shafted for reasons related to politics, considering what the police and the government turned out to be in Persona 5 four years later. Maybe the higher-ups wanted an excuse to get rid of Adachi for being too good at his job and overstepping an unwritten taboo against a corrupt politician?
• The sexually-charged Midnight Channel debuts of Shadow Yukiko and Shadow Rise become a lot more disturbing when you remember that Adachi tried to force himself on one of their mates.
• Besides it being implied in the ending, there might be another clue that the Midnight Channel has been around for a LONG time. Remember the paintings of those people on the spiral at the entrance of the Midnight Channel? It could be people who were murdered before. And this painting is there even when you first enter the Midnight Channel. This reinforces the idea that the events of the game have happened before. And by the looks of the numbers of people, it was A LOT.
  • Actually, from what Mr. Kondo the PE/English Teacher says, the town gets covered in fog every 50 years. Which is rather disturbing...
  • While meeting your maxed S-Links one elderly character will mention that they remember there being a similar incident several years ago.
  • Well, TVs are recent inventions, so chances are, if a similar incident did occur in Inaba, it probably only happened one other time.
  • Who said it had to be TV? WMG, but what if we take the interpretation that it's people instantly trusting a media source because it's easier to do that than find out the truth? Meaning that it could happen with say, newspapers. Especially tabloids.
• At first, Yosuke's Shadow seems to be exaggerating how bored and lonely Yosuke feels deep down. Progressing his Social Link seems to support this idea as well. Then you realize that the Shadow is the side we DON'T want people to see and that part of Yosuke really did just see everything as a tool to block out his pain. What makes it worse is that his Shadow tried to kill you, not because you opposed it or invaded its territory, BUT BECAUSE YOU BORED IT! Makes you wonder how badly Yosuke would've ended up if the Protagonist wasn't there.
  • If you mean psychologically… He would've ended up like Adachi, obviously. …Not that that makes it any better.
  • A very horrifying thought indeed, because Yosuke and Adachi are so scarily similar in their motivations. One has to wonder what would happen if Izanami instead choose Yosuke to represent "emptiness" in her game rather than Adachi...
  • However Shadows are exaggerated to the point of not being accurate depictions of their host’s flaws and insecurities. So while Yosuke did have Small Town Boredom he probably wouldn’t see others as tools nor would he hurt people for his own amusement.
• The glasses that let you see through the TV-world fog are made by Teddie, but he claims he doesn't need any because he has that ability naturally. Are the glasses made of Shadow eyes?!
  • How would he have gotten the eyes from other Shadows at the start of the game? He couldn't fight at all.
    • He is a Shadow, he can already see clearly. Then again, if he hasn't fought yet and a reliable way of forging things is to fight Shadows and collect the materials they drop . . .
    • Who says materials can only be gathered from Shadows? For all we know, Teddie could have just gone to a glasses shop counterpart in his world.
  • They probably would have shown the shop if it were that significant. Plus he mentions that he made them himself, so it's highly unlikely there's a glasses shop.
  • Given that Teddie has shown to both be capable of recovering from extensive damage quite quickly and to make things out of himself, such as the doll he gave Nanako, it's entirely possible that the lenses used in all the glasses were his own eyes.
  • Teddie can also make TVs appear to exit the TV world remember? It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say he could just magically "poof" new glasses for the investigation team to use anytime he wants.
• When Nanako is kidnapped, the Investigation Team realizes that the kidnapper is able to snatch up his victims using his delivery job as a cover. Naoto specifically notes that Nanako must have opened the door to him because he had often delivered to the house before, and so wasn't a stranger. And what do you think he was delivering all those times? Why, all the things that you ordered from Tanaka's Commodities. Nice Job Getting Your Surrogate Sister Kidnapped, Hero.
  • What if you don't order things from Tanaka?
    • Remember the night before Nanako's kidnapping? Where the deliveryman had stopped by to ask where someone's house was? It was probably then.
    • If you order something after Namatame is arrested, you hear a deliveryman, then get your package. Namatame's not the only deliveryman, and he says he only worked part-time.
• The reason Adachi is reassigned from the city to Inaba is, according to him, some minor screw-up. However, considering his apparent psychosis at that point, just what would he consider a "minor screw-up"?
  • Considering how quickly he became violent towards Mayumi and Saki for "turning him down", this draws a disturbing parallel to the real-life epidemic of organizations transferring sexual abusers to rural locations...
    • Especially chilling when you consider that we have only Adachi's word that he was transferred for a minor screw-up, and he never seems to say more about it than it being a minor screw-up. People who've really had their careers derailed for something minor or petty are probably going to complain about it often and in detail (think about Julian Bashir and his preganglionic fiber). Saying nothing but it's something minor might imply that he knows other people wouldn't consider it so minor...
• One thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that Mitsuo although institutionalized now has the ability to enter into the tv world at will or worse to throw people in...scary.
  • Not really. Remember, he didn't accept his shadow and did not gain a persona. As a result, he lacks the power to enter of his own free will.
• Daidara is a man unfazed by and perfectly willing to accept requests he creates bladed weapons, and eventually functioning guns, that schoolchildren can conceal under their uniforms...
  • Of course, considering the state of the town's economy after Junes rolled in, he's probably willing to take any request he gets, regardless of morals.
  • Considering some of the strange requests Daidara himself makes, and some NPC conservations mentioning that the strange fog has appeared in Inaba before, it's a fairly popular theory that he's actually at least somewhat aware of what the Investigation Team is really up to, like Officer Kurosawa was in P3; hell, there's a conversation you can get where he'll give you a speech about how you should take pride in combating evil.
• Souji's parents travel around a lot, and the manga◊ seems to confirm that there were times when he was younger and all alone in his house. How much déjà vu do you think he feels looking at Nanako?
• "Personae", in psychology, are masks used by people to hide your inner personality. Meanwhile, "Shadows" in the game are "manifestations of the true self". Remember what causes the Shadows to go berserk? That's right, by denying your own self, you become a Persona. That's why people faint when they do so and Shadows get a huge power boost. Also remember how messed up Mitsuo ended up when you destroyed the Shadow...
  • Related to that, if a "Shadow" is a manifestation of the true self, that means that every one of the lesser Shadows you've been casually killing in the dungeons (i.e. the various Mooks) was a manifestation of somebody's inner thoughts. That's right, you have been destroying pieces of peoples' minds. Overlaps with Fridge Brilliance: Why does the population of Inaba start going crazy and panicking about the fog near the end of the game? Because they're unstable without the parts of themselves you destroyed. Nice going, hero!
    • Actually at risk of doing a little bit of WMG: Shadows without specific owners are just amalgamations made from desires, thoughts, and emotions of the people as a whole, for example, hands represent the desire to steal or hoard, cops desire to abuse power, etc. every time you kill a shadow you simply disperse them back into the environment. Moreover, it is implied that the shadow can only be really destroyed by a direct and honest rejection. So it's not like you create another Mitsuo. It can be theorized that Izanami herself is basically an ultimate concentration of humanity's desire to lie to itself. If that's the case you are doing the world a service as those concentrations can gain the power to greatly influence the real world as a whole. Personal shadows are quite different. They are gatherings of all hidden thoughts, desires, and emotions of one person; as such they are unique and quite powerful, but have limited influence on the outside world and manifest themselves fully only if the person is present in the TV world so they are possible to destroy completely because they are open to interaction with their counterpart.
• One of the WMGs of Persona 4's Good Ending hints at this. Now that the fog of deceit has been dissipated by the heroes and humanity can now witness the truth, that should be good, right? Well, Adachi and Mitsuo are proof that Be Yourself means accepting your inherent evil and depravity. Now there might be a new generation of villains accepting their shadows and gaining the power of Persona...
  • On a much lesser scale, there's the Amorous Snake miniboss. It's a wiggly white blob that fights by giving you lots of status ailments. You find it in a strip club dungeon. That means the status ailments are sexually transmitted diseases, and the white blob is semen. BLEUGH.
  • Let's not forget that the Shadows are Anthropomorphic Personifications of real mental issues that the characters are suffering. When battling any one of those bosses, just think about what it takes to create that.
  • Mitsuo's Shadow is meant to symbolize his immaturity and that he's always hiding behind his video games. However, it also says things like, "I'll end your emptiness. It'll be quick." and, "I need to know I exist. That is why I must kill you." This dialogue makes you wonder just what Mitsuo went through in his life to feel like that.
• The school campout. Kanji, having his manliness and sexuality questioned by Yosuke, ends up in the girls' tent area to prove his manliness. While it was not a smart move, he was not threatening anyone. Then, he got knocked out by Chie and Yukiko, no questions asked. Now, remember this is the guy who took out an entire biker gang by himself. The more you think about the amount of strength used on him, and consider it would have easily killed your average man, the more the scene reads like attempted murder. Made even worse by the fact they are actually discussing committing a murder because the hypothetical victim is snoring. Made more explicit in the anime.
  • "Discussing committing a murder"? It's pretty evident that Yukiko, cuckoo as she can be at times, actually thought covering up Hanako's nose and mouth was a perfectly normal solution to solving their snoring tentmate problems. Note that Chie immediately objects, since she probably realizes that it actually is dangerous. Not that anything of value would have been lost had they actually done it.
• Not really scary or anything, but Rise remarks that she was supposed to have a gig before in the Port Island Club, but was canceled due to a power outage. Think about that situation, and replay the Hermit boss fight from the third game.
  • Or even better, remember that Rise, two years or so younger at that time, had not yet awakened to the potential even if she does have it. So enjoy the mental image of the Dark Hour coming and Rise being transfigured into a coffin-like every other normal human during it.
• Once you know that Adachi is the culprit, it becomes evident that certain things like drawing attention to Rise's stalker and trying to prevent Dojima or the team from chasing Namatame were just to ensure that the kidnappings were completed.
• Rise's agency publicly released her measurements. Remember that she only turned 16 about a month before she first arrived in Inaba, and we're heading into seriously creepy territory.
  • While still creepy for western audiences, this is pretty standard fare for idols, no matter their age, and it's only made worse by how grey of an area that non-nude gravure modeling is in terms of legality in Japan. It's even mentioned in-game that there are pin-up books of Risette's sexy photo shoots and it's fairly likely that Kanamin has a few of her own pinup books despite being even younger. As long as they weren't nude and the posing could be reasonably explained in a nonsexual manner, their company would continue exploiting them...
  • Oddly enough, Persona 4 was released during a fairly large campaign to attempt to put an end to idol exploitation. This, as well as a revision to child pornography laws in 2014, has made cases like this less common. Junior Idol modeling is still a grey area in terms of legality, along with manga and anime featuring similar situations of young characters in sexual situations (both explicit and non-explicit), but many studios have opted for the safer option of using Junior Idols only in clean photo shoots and only using models of legal age for the more risqué shots.
    • then again, this could be interpreted as grooming teenage girls for when it becomes safe to do...
• Not so much horrific as depressing, but in Rise's Social Link, she mentions a girl who became a fan of hers after Risette took part in an anti-bullying campaign and that the girl has been sending Rise letters ever since telling her how she's going to try to make friends and that she won't let bullies get to her anymore. Come Golden & the new epilogues to the Investigation Team's Social Links, Rise tells the protagonist that she received another letter from that girl, telling her that she's not going to be a Risette fan anymore because her friends told they wouldn't be friends anymore unless she stopped liking Risette. The poor girl was bullied into abandoning something that clearly meant a lot to her.
• Teddie's disappearance was due to him deciding he was useless for being unable to prevent Nanako's death. He essentially lost his will to live and committed suicide.
  • Actually it can get so much worse if we think about Teddie’s origin as a shadow. Essentially the reason why Teddie is so different is that he is a shadow that gained a burgeoning ego from his admiration of humanity and friendship with the team, most likely in his depression/self-hate his ego and thus self-awareness could destroy itself leaving him to backslide into a normal shadow again
• The reason Kanji got a nosebleed with Yukiko and Chie but not Rise? Simple, they were high up on a mountain. Higher altitude means lower air pressure and that can lead to nosebleeds.
  • Or, if you choose to interpret him that way, consider that Kanji wasn't looking at the girls, but the guys, when he got the nosebleed.
• Ai Ebihara wears a pink choker around her neck against school rules, right? Well... during her Social Link she reveals that she made a Love Confession to a boy in Middle School only to be cruelly rejected. When she finds out her crush (Kou or Daisuke) has feelings for Chie / isn't interested in dating, she tries to throw herself off the school. Who's to say that she didn't try before?
• Just a thought, but imagine if, after Dojima discovered the warning letter, you actually showed him how you can enter the TV. When Nanako gets kidnapped, he would probably order you to take him into the TV world with you to save her, which then raises certain questions. We've seen shadows of teenagers and a shadow that's awakened to human emotions, all of whom have serious psychological issues on top of typical teenage angst. One of those shadows was able to become invincible and would've killed everyone if Teddie didn't go bear-serk. Teddie states that children can't have shadows, while Adachi and Namatame never really faced their shadows, but were instead granted powers by Izanami. What kind of Shadow could someone like Dojima, angry and guilt-ridden as he is, create? How powerful would it be? Could it even be fought?
• When you do the Athletes social link, you do either Kou or Daisuke depending on which team you joined, and if you complete it, you help them through their problems. What that means, of course, is that one of them will be left out in the cold and will still be dealing with their problems.
  • The same goes with the Sun Social Link, and you most likely never even meet the girl whose club you don't choose.
• Adding onto the above, this is essentially the fate of any social link you choose not to max or pursue. In some cases, where issues are relatively minor, it won't matter, but in more extreme cases, such as the Dojimas' family problem, it means you're leaving that person to probably never face their problems, which will most likely get worse.
• Interspersed with all the fantasy elements, the game has some pretty hefty doses of real-life mundanger.
  • A well-respected local politician goes through a messy divorce that becomes a media circus and ruins his career completely, reducing him to a broken alcoholic who was enticed by the serial killer to go "save" people for his amusement while working a dead-end job. All to the silent delight of the local townspeople who wants the publicity.
  • There's an unidentified serial killer running loose through town, who's already claimed two victims and whom the police are powerless to stop. Because he's on the force himself.
  • Junes is seriously threatening the businesses and livelihoods of many in the shopping district, to the point where it's practically splitting up families and making some fall into nihilism.
  • Several teenagers around town vanish over the course of a year, potentially for weeks at a time, depending on the player's actions. What must their families have been thinking?
    • This one's touched upon in-game. If you talk to Yukiko when you need to rescue Kanji, she implies that Mrs. Tatsumi puts on a cheerful front even though she hasn't slept since her son vanished (although Mrs. Tatsumi says this has happened before). Talk to Yukiko in the dungeon after the rescue, though, and she'll say Mrs. Tatsumi is quite relieved. Naoto also points out that in retrospect, Adachi realizing that the kidnappings were related to the case is suspicious because people regularly disappear for days at a time.
  • Chisato was killed in a hit-and-run on her way to pick her daughter up from nursery school and wasn't found until several hours later. Nanako was waiting there all that time, with no clue what had happened. Her own father also lied and told her it was just an accident.
  • Without his wife around, Dojima has no idea how to raise Nanako, believing himself to not be a worthy father. Instead, he devotes his time to trying to find his wife's killer despite so few leads. He keeps his distance, breaks promises, gets drunk, works overnight, and keeps telling himself that she'll understand one day.
  • Nanako thinks the distance, lack of pictures, and constant broken promises mean her own father hates her and her mom, or that he doesn't consider her his real daughter. Later, she's also the victim of another kidnapping and actually freaking dies, though this is only temporary if the player makes the right choice.
  • Mitsuo commits a copycat murder for no other reason than he wants attention and proof of his existence.
  • Imagine what must've been going through Naoto's head when she saw the smoke from Dojima's car crash.
• If the Investigation Team fails to save Marie in the Hollow Forest in The Golden, she's supposed to disappear and take away all their memories of her. The Fridge Horror kicks in when you realize that the "vanilla" version of the game could be this exact scenario playing out, meaning that the PS2 iteration of our heroes saved the world without ever knowing they had a friend they didn't manage to save.
• The Non-Standard Game Over at the end of December is that Shadows come over from the Midnight Channel into real life, killing at least Naoto on camera, and probably the rest of Inaba soon after. So why isn't everyone dead in the bad endings, when Adachi got away with the murders and the fog is still very visible in the ending cutscenes? It might be because, like in the Midnight Channel, the Shadows don't go berserk until when the fog lifts. That hasn't happened yet in the bad endings; everyone got so used to the fog that "sunny" is the fog in the ending cutscene. But the weather forecaster says the fog will be weakening soon with spring...
  • And to add to that, lots of people are buying gas masks upon the fog's arrival. Much like the masks the Shadows wear. The Shadows might not just be attacking people, they might be BECOMING the people! Now think of the effort it took to subdue just one of them for each of your teammates, and imagine an Inaba (if not the entire world) filled with them.
• What happens if you fail to save someone who was thrown into the TV World? Well, it's a game over in more ways than one. Not only is the investigation not able to continue because you failed to save someone who could've helped further it, but Namatame may have figured out that putting people into the TV World DOES kill them and that he's basically responsible for their deaths! He would likely either commit suicide, turn himself in or stop and try living with the guilt, but in any case, he's no longer part of the "game" that Adachi brought forth. Taking these above ideas into account, it's also plausible that since Namatame stopped doing the kidnappings and the protagonist failed to avert a death, Izanami could've declared that Adachi won and would enact her plans to shroud the world in fog and make everyone into shadows.
  • Even without that, the emotional impact of the death of another person in Inaba may be so emotionally devastating that it will push the town to economic depression and abandonment, Yukiko's death causes the historic inn to close down from the emotional loss of their cherished daughter and the media fallout of her death. Kanji's death would have caused his aging mother to pass away from losing her son and the senior community to mourn her loss. Rise's murder would have created a media firestorm over a famous idol's death in a small town. Mitsuo's death would draw a lot of bad press of a small town killer who is a Hate Sink already and his room revealing to be filled with creepy stalker material causes the town to be afflicted with the reputation of hiding a twisted teen killer. Naoto's death is a loss to the Shirogane family and a police incident that causes police to be reluctant to investigate in fear of sharing the same fate and finally, Namatame and Nanako's death causes the town to not only be eternally shrouded in fog but the heavy burden of losing a good politician and a Police detective's daughter that ended tragically.
  • Play the game a second time, and you realize this is a Morton's Fork that works for the true culprit.
    • If the Investigation Team rescues the victim, Namatame will see the victim is safe, so he has no reason to stop doing what he's doing, and the game continues its vicious circle. If it wasn't for Nanako being kidnapped and the protagonist deciding to take a moment to take all facts into account, the game would've never seen the end.
    • If the Investigation Team fails, Namatame would realize that the person he rescued is then found on a TV pole. He may have stopped then, but who's to say the true culprit, given his motive for doing so, wouldn't do the deed himself?
• Let's suppose for a moment that the Protagonist does in fact tell Dojima about the TV World and let's say the Protagonist convinces him. Not only would Dojima likely doom the investigation by stonewalling any attempts to investigate in a misguided attempt to protect his nephew, even if he didn't there's no way he (a police detective given a solid lead on the biggest case in his career) wouldn't insist upon going into the TV World himself to help. Just try to imagine the kind of Palace and Shadow a guy like Dojima might have, who is constantly shown to be a really closed-off, conflicted, and guilt-ridden person.
• The costumes Kashiwagi gives you...is she trying to get the Investigation Team girls arrested?!

Fridge Logic

• Rise's cooking is so spicy, it KO's Yukiko with one spoonful. Yukiko's Persona is resistant/immune to fire.
  • That just makes it even funnier. Rise's cooking is enough to override immunities!
  • Actually, there is a rather mundane explanation: spicy flavor is created not by heat but rather by a chemical within the food, such as capsaicin found in chili peppers. Now, eating too much capsaicin (roughly 6-8 grams for the average adult) in one sitting can have such lovely effects such as nausea (which we see Yukiko have), vomiting, or even death. Yukiko might be resistant to fire, but not to poison effects.
• So you've been taken to the police station and your uncle refuses to believe your story about Personas and your ability to enter television sets. If only there was a television set in the interrogation room that you could use to prove your ability... All he'd have to do is stick his hand in...
  • Or, y'know, one in the living room where you first told him this story.
    • I don't think Dojima was about to let him go on that demonstration. In fact, he probably might have thought he was a bit crazy with the whole story.
    • Would have been a moot point anyways. Dojima was not about to let his nephew out of police custody while a suspected serial killer was gunning for him.
    • When you think about it, it's a bit of Gameplay and Story Segregation designed to prevent the player from getting a bad ending based on stuff you have no way of knowing. If Dojima had been convinced of the TV World's existence, the first person he'd probably have told would be Adachi, giving him an excuse to know about the TV World and making his cover complete, and, since the MC has no reason to suspect Adachi at this point, he has no reason to stop Dojima from doing so. Considering that the only way the IT catches Adachi was to trick him into a I Never Said It Was Poison slip-up, giving him an excuse to know about the TV World would make it nigh-impossible to prove he was the killer. Since the player has no way of knowing s/he'd be trapped in an unwinnable situation, you're railroaded into a bit of Cutscene Incompetence for the sake of a better game.
    • Actually, if you spend some time thinking about it, it makes very good sense in-universe. Yu sticking his hand in opens up a whole new can of worms as stated in one of the entries for Fridge Brilliance. Firstly, Uncle Ryotaro would be even more suspicious of his involvement in the serial murders. Even should the Investigation Team successfully prove their innocence, Uncle would still be (understandably) frightened about a bunch of teenagers involving themselves in what he considers as dangerous, and he'll clamp down on Yu's investigations, all of which Naoto previously mentioned 1-2 weeks prior as the reason why she did not want Yu to show his first threat letter to Uncle Ryotaro. And Uncle Ryo can be thorough if he needs to be; most damningly, he can talk to Yosuke's parents, who in turn can check on security cameras or extra patrolling staff in the TV section of the Junes Department Store.
• Kanji being able to carry his Shield/Chair/School Desk/what-have-you to Junes, even though there's no possible way it can be concealed under his school uniform makes a lot more sense when you remember that most of the town still sees him as a dangerous and violent delinquent, despite the Investigation Team knowing that there's more to him than that. If you were an ordinary townsperson and you saw the town thug carrying a big, heavy piece of metal that could be used as a weapon, you wouldn't go up to him and try to stop him, you'd hit the bricks in the other direction as fast as your feet would carry you.
  • On that topic, how the hell are the Investigation Team able to conceal their weapons in their summer clothes? Concealing weapons in winter clothes at least has some plausibility if you suspend your disbelief a little, but if you think Kanji concealing his shields in his winter clothes is bad, imagine how bad it'd be in his summer clothes. Seriously, what does he do, shove it up his ass?
• Mitsuo Kubo: How did he get into the TV? It's established that he never threw Morooka into the Midnight Channel, so how did he get in? He seemed to be there of his own will, what with the whole "Come find me" deal. Also established above is the fact that he can't have a Persona (or enter the TV willingly) since he had a shadow, so how did he get there in the first place?
  • Said inconsistency is actually a bit of Fridge Brilliance and Foreshadowing. The real killer will later confess that Mitsuo was pushed into the TV World to throw the Investigation Team off the right trail, and so that the 'game' wouldn't come to a premature end by Mitsuo taking all the credit for the killer's crimes. Note that in P4 Ultimax, the killer helps the IT because he doesn't want Sho's actions to lead to deaths that would reopen the case, the only legacy he has. The image of Mitsuo in the Midnight Channel taunting the I.T. came from his desire for notoriety and as a result of the I.T. wanting to pin the guilt on someone and be over with the murder case. Failing to realize that the Midnight Channel pretty much shows whatever the viewers want to see can lead the player to pick the wrong choices during December's events.
• Why does Rise's Persona have stats?
  • Why do Rise's Persona's stats go down when you max out her Social Link?
    • She got used to never using her Persona to fight?
    • Rise's stats serve no real purpose and are merely there for cosmetic reasons, so it doesn't matter either way.
  • To prevent glitches if someone hacked the game to give the MC her persona. IIRC, the MC has unused voice clips for the other character's Personas for the same reason.
  • In Persona 5, Futaba has a playable model to prevent crashing, she just has no animations. This is in the same vein, I believe - to prevent crashes.
• If you rescue your party members as soon as possible, they've spent only about 1 day in the hostile environment of the TV world, but need approximately 2 weeks to "recover". If you rescue them on the last possible day, they've spent said 2 weeks in the hostile environment of the TV world, but are perfectly fine and fully recovered the next day.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation. The plot is designed to move forward on certain days, hence, if you've rescued the character in a timely manner, the game gives you the opportunity to work on Social Links, work, etc in the meantime to make sure you don't fall behind. Alternatively, if you waited until the last few days to rescue the character, the developers assumed that you procrastinated in order to strengthen your S. Links beforehand. Either way, it balances out perfectly.
  • Perhaps it's not simply the environment of the TV world but what you do there that's the problem. Presumably, victims would spend their first few days in the TV world panicking, despairing, running away from the scary-looking monsters, desperately trying to find their way out, &c. They'd probably be in pretty bad shape if you rescued them right then. By the time they've spent a couple of weeks there, they've probably figured out that the monsters won't attack them, that trying to find a way out is a waste of time and energy, and probably spend their days sleeping and trying to kill time. They'd be a lot better rested at that point, even if they'd been resting in the TV World.
• Why is Adachi the most significant player in Izanami's game when Namatame was the one behind most of the kidnappings and the player was off actually leveling up and using his persona?
  • Easy. Because without him, Namatame wouldn't kidnap people (he was tricked into doing it, IIRC) and throw them into the TV. And if there are no people inside the TV, the player wouldn't need to save anyone from the shadows. Basically, Adachi starts the game.
• Why does Izanagi want to make sure that his crotch is well guarded◊?
  • Well, remember, his wife is Izanami and you know how that turned out. Maybe he wants to be prepared if she ever comes after him?
• Why is the forecast on Christmas eve still endless fog even if you already banished all fog and restored a blue skies days ago? It's not like they can't revise forecasts.
• The stories told in Atlus games are usually very tight and coherent, so it was rather disappointing for this troper to realize that the murder mystery actually falls apart into nonsense towards the end. For almost the entire game you operate under the assumption that people who appear as silhouettes on the Midnight Channel are going to get thrown into a TV. Then you find out at the last minute that the Midnight Channel actually shows people that everyone in the town wants to know more about. And the fact that the first two people to appear on the Channel were also the two that were murdered is one hundred percent coincidence. Yet without that coincidence, Namatame would never have gone on his kidnapping spree, and the vast majority of the game's plot would never have happened.
  • Maybe this will help: Adachi killed Mayumi and her body appeared hanging from a TV antenna. Who found Mayumi's body? Saki. That's what made her popular. Saki left school early and found Mayumi's corpse, thus sparking an interest in her. Adachi wanted to know if Saki had seen anything important. When he made romantic advances at her and she turned him down, Adachi pushed her into the TV too out of spite. So if Saki hadn't found Mayumi's body, it would have been someone else. Either way, Adachi would have pursued them to see what they knew. They would have shown up on the Midnight Channel because everyone would want to know more about the person. Besides, both Mayumi and Saki were killed by the same person, so it's not really a coincidence like Morooka's murder was.
  • The problem is that the victims weren't chosen based on what the Midnight Channel showed. The part with Saki is somewhat justifiable. But Mayumi? Adachi didn't target her for murder. Her death was essentially an accident. Adachi just happened to be assigned to her detail. He became interested in her only because she was near him, for his own reasons, not for the reason that everyone else was interested in her. And that's what the Midnight Channel is all about, what everyone is interested in. The Midnight Channel showed the image of a scandal-embroiled newscaster, because that's what everyone was interested in knowing more about. Adachi was interested in nothing more than a hot piece of ass. And that's why it was a coincidence.
    • Except he wasn't assigned to her detail, because she didn't actually have one; it was a ruse he made up to be able to get access to her. He already had a crush on her from her TV appearances. Being able to flash a badge and have people trust that he really is on police business is something he abuses in both Mayumi and Saki's cases.
  • To be fair there was always going to be some coincidence involved since you'd only work out you can stick a hand into TVs in a fairly unusual set of circumstances.
  • Plots, in any kind of medium, typically start and are moved forward, by coincidences. Isn't it a coincidence that the MC came to Inaba right as the murders started? Isn't it a coincidence that he went to Inaba at all instead of some other town? Isn't it a coincidence that his parents have jobs that necessitate moving around a lot in the first place? Hell, isn't it a coincidence that the parents of any of the in-game characters conceived children?! Random events that happen to line up in a way that happens make a story, is what makes it a story, and not just a list of events.
  • We don't have any reason to believe that Mayumi was the first person to be shown on the Midnight Channel. The rumor of the Midnight Channel was obviously around long before the game started, and, rather than showing someone their "soul mate" it instead showed them people they were interested in. Given that Mayumi was embroiled in controversy at the time, most of the people in town were curious about her. That the Midnight Channel predicts the next victim was just a conclusion that the group comes to after just two examples. Beyond the second attack, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • Actually, we never find out why the murderer is specifically obsessed with Mayumi. Perhaps it was because that person saw Mayumi on the Midnight Channel, which supposedly showed your soulmate ... which would mean everything was caused by the Midnight Channel in the end after all.
  • The fact that it was all a coincidence was the point. The game's major theme is that most of humanity's minds are clouded by a fog of deception and this applies to everyone involved in the murder case as well. As Izanami put it, Namatame "had not eyes to see the truth" and so failed to properly awaken to his power. This doesn't just apply to his belief that he was "saving" people, but to the whole series of events that led to him being involved. He saw Mayumi on The Midnight Channel, then she died. He saw Saki on The Midnight Channel, then she died. As humans often do, he read a meaning into the pattern where no actual meaning existed and thus, convinced himself that anyone who appeared on The Midnight Channel must be in danger. The Investigation Team falls into this as well, convincing themselves that The Midnight Channel predicts the next victim. Neither side has the benefit of knowing the full truth of the Midnight Channel, so they end up chasing after an illusion instead. This is the kind of self-deception that the MC overcomes in the True Ending.
  • IIRC, we only have Izanami's word that that's how the Midnight Channel actually works, and given that she's trying to prove a point about humanity, it makes sense that she might overemphasize humanity's role in things and downplay her own (and her minions'). For all we know, she might have been putting people on the Midnight Channel based on her own interpretation of what (and who) people wanted to know about and trying to pass it off as all humanity's fault.
• Thought of this while replaying. In the opening scenes in the game, we see the Protagonist having a flashback to when he was about to transfer. The entire classroom sounds disappointed so that would suggest that he's already popular. So how come he doesn't have any friends at the start (as in, what would stop him from talking to his old friends if he had any), and why are his social stats so low?
  • He could have been one of those super popular people no one really knows in the end. A bunch of acquaintances who surrounded him said they were friends but really, if the manga is to be believed, he spends all his time traveling. Why would he try to get close to people? Plus, he does quickly make friends in the end.
  • Think of it like this; the stats are not permanent. Every time a person moves to a new environment with new people and new experiences, he/she must adapt to it entirely from the beginning - hence the reduction of the stats. Once a person gets to know and understand the people around him/her, the stats grow again (though this doesn't explain the knowledge stat, though one may handwave this by defining exactly what "knowledge" might entail - it might be more than just being school-smart). As for his old friends, it's suggested in the manga that because he's been moving so much from place to place due to his parents, he hasn't made any lasting friendships with anyone - take that how you will.
    • Here's a potential explanation for the Knowledge stat. In October, the team will have a group study session where Yosuke asks Naoto for study help. The latter declined, saying that she, being a first-year high school student, would know nothing of second-year material. That's basically what happened to the main character at the start of the game.
  • It makes sense if you think of how Personas work. The main character is The Fool, which means he can change his Persona at will. But personas aren't just the big magical archetypical figures you use to fight in Dungeons. According to Jung, the Persona is a constructed self, a personality that you wear like a mask in order to deal with life and function in society. The fact that he can change his so fluidly suggests that the protagonist is really good at putting up facades. Add to this the fact that his parents moved around so much, it sort of makes sense that he'd be popular but distant and disengaged.
    • Furthermore, that makes him a mirror to the killer. He himself is tailoring personality and emotion to the specific situation in order to behave for goal-oriented means instead of having a particularly preferred self that is projected universally. It’s the exact same method sociopaths can use to glide into people’s lives and win their trust, swapping between fake selves and their real selves as needed based on the social tasks at hand.
• How in the world did no one ever notice a bunch of high-schoolers jumping in and out of TV in the middle of an at least reasonably busy department store? Sure, they may have waited until no one was around before jumping in, but then how would they know when it's safe to jump back? Even if no one was around, there must have been some surveillance footage...
  • They were probably lucky not to be noticed those times. In Persona 4: Arena however, Aigis' storyline revealed that after dealing with their case, both they and the Shadow Operatives came out of the TV right in the middle of a crowd. Whether or not they were seen actually coming out of the TV is not stated, but their presence alone was enough for a public spectacle that they decided to make a run for it right then and there.
• Considering that Golden has a lot of Personae switch arcana to make way for Aeon and Jester/Hunger, why didn't Mother Harlot move to Jester/Hunger? She is what's depicted on the Hunger arcana card after all.
  • Mother Harlot would've had to have been given a major stat redesign to be in the Hunger Arcana - because she is the depiction she'd naturally have to be given the best stats out of that Arcana. Also, some people would prefer the Evil Counterpart to Izanagi to be the Ultimate Persona of that Arcana as it's an Inverted Tarot to the Fool.
  • Same reason why Amaterasu is High Priestess and not Sun. The Persona doesn't always match the tarot for some reason.
• It's an important plot point in the game that the place where you appear in the TV world depends on where you entered from in the real world. It's why the team always enters from Junes, so they'll come out near Teddie. But then, near the end of the game, Namatame kidnaps Nanako and throws her in the TV, drives halfway across town, then jumps in the TV himself. Yet they both end up in the same place! (Or at least close enough for them to find each other without special powers or Teddie's fog glasses.) What the heck?
  • could be that not the Place but the TV itself is of importance there. Could also be that the whole "same TV" theory is nonsense. Remember, they never actually tried to enter through a different TV, so they don't know if it leads elsewhere.
  • It's expressly stated that jumping in from any TV could land you anywhere in the Midnight Channel which is highly dangerous. While there are fixed locations the group refuses to risk going in through any other TV but the one at Junes because they could land either in a swarm of Shadows or in a dungeon they haven't yet explored. Also, Namatame used the same TV to kidnap all his victims but they all disappeared to different places. He kidnapped Nanako at the house while the TV was now crashing down the main street of Inaba.
  • We don't actually know at which point exactly Namatame throw Nanako into TV. It's quite possible she was sleeping (after some dose of chloroform or whatever Namatame uses), and he throw her and go himself at the same point (as he admits that he had hesitations about throwing a 7-year old girl), after the bust.

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