Web Video / Persona Memeverse

The Persona Memeverse is a series of videos based on the Persona series (primarily 3, 4, and 5, though characters from previous games also make appearances) created by YouTuber Jamezietocool. The plot centers around a mix of characters from all three games as they go about their day-to-day lives. Occasionally, they must fight against the forces of Atlus, who seek to bring various characters back under their control through any means necessary, among other things.

That description doesn't really do the series justice, though. What it actually is is a Stylistic Suck Quirky Work fueled by memes, flanderizations of the characters, and unexplained Fandom inside joke-based transformation powers, loosely connected by the above-mentioned plot. Hilarity, action, and (rarely) drama ensue.

Two spin-offs of the series have been made and are in progress, "Persona 3 in a Nutshell" which is a comedic retelling of Persona 3 (And Persona 3 Portable with FEMC), and "Haru's Bizarre Adventure" which focuses on Haru.

In late 2021, Jamzietocool Quietly Cancelled the series after it was uncovered that he had been emotionally abusing and harassing his former girlfriend. While he stopped uploading new content, he kept all existing videos up. In June of 2023, for reasons unknown (though likely related to this drama) Jamezietocool finally deleted all of his videos, including the entirety of the Persona Memeverse series.

The Persona Meme-verse contains examples of:

• Adaptational Curves: Yu wasn't nearly this buff in the original game.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Rather than use Personas most of the time, most of the characters have Super Modes which allow the user to increase their power by transforming into objects normally based on well-known Persona memes, referred to as Meme Forms. While the original Joker did use Arsene in battle, he was soon killed and replaced with Meme Form user HaremF**ker249 shortly into the series' run.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Naoto, Makoto Yuki, and Yu are part of the group sent to capture FEMC, alongside canon villains Akechi and Adachi.
  • Played for Laughs in "Persona Villains in a Nutshell", where the judge of villains trying to cast the new villain for the then-upcoming Persona 5 Strikers consists of Tohru Adachi (the Big Bad of 4), Goro Akechi (The Dragon to the Big Bad in 5)... and Sophia, one of the main heroes of Strikers.
• Aerith and Bob: Among the normal Japanese names the rest of the cast has, there's also FEMC/Phem See, Aigis, and HaremF**ker249.
• Air-Vent Passageway: How Koromaru and Tatsuya get into the warehouse Team Atlus is based in.
• All Just a Dream:
  • "Persona Shipping" ends with this reveal.
  • "Atlus Makes a DREAM Game" is one, as Mr. Atlus reminds Joker to the point of annoyance.
• Alternate Self: The Makoto Yuki who debuts at the end of "Complete Season 1" is a different character from the antagonistic Makoto from earlier in the series.
• Ambiguously Gay: Joker's second question upon seeing Morgana in human form is to ask why he's suddenly so hot.
• Anachronic Order:
  • Despite being the second episode in the Season 1 playlist, “Detective Akechu” is shown as the first episode in the full season video.
  • "Persona 5 the Royal in a nutshell" and "Scrambled Screen Time" take place right after "Haru and the Lost Screen Time" and during "FEMC becomes canon," despite being posted after many videos that take place after them.
  • ""You'll never see it coming" in a nutshell" is one of the earliest episodes of the first season, but takes place during immediately before "Tatsuya Saves Everyone".
• Animation Bump: The episode "Tatsuya Saves Everyone" experiences one, with the animations becoming much more fluid (though still relying on clip art).
  • The episodes "Persona 3 in a Nutshell" and "Persona 3 FEMC in a Nutshell" both feature limb movement for the characters' clip art. And recently, blinking animations were added as well.
  • "Joker Ruins Breakfast" is animated... in full 3D.
• Arc Number: 249, for whatever reason.^spoilers It's at the end of the second Joker's real name, and $249 is apparently how much a single clump of Haru Floof is worth.
• Arc Words: Forgetting and remembering (and variants thereof) are brought up throughout the series.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Haru, who burns down Atlus when they don't recognize her or give her more screen time and chases after people with an actual ax later. (She's also responsible for two of the series' Character Deaths.)
  • Futaba seems a bit too excited at the prospect of murdering multiple Jokers...
  Morgana, go get Sojiro’s chainsaw!
• Badass Normal: Haru and Mishima both possess decent fighting skills despite seemingly not having Meme Forms. The latter is notable as he was a non-combatant in the source material.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • The very first video in the Memeverse series, "Haru and the Lost Screen Time", has Haru searching through Atlus to find her screen time. In the process, she's shown the trailer for Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, where she ends up seeing she was kidnapped and captured by Kamoshidaman. The next moment we see is ATLUS being burnt to the ground, with the synopsis for Q2 and a TV with the trailer in question outside it.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't tell Akechi to stop saying "pancakes".
  • Don't break curfew, or Morgana will find you and will send you to bed by force.
• Big Bad: Atlus. More specifically, Yu Narukami, as they're directly commanding Team Atlus.
• Big Damn Heroes: Koromaru and Tatsuya take down Akechi right before he shoots Makoto Niijima.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: "Dumb dumb" is used as an insult very often in the series (and in Jamezietocool's content in general).
• Big "WHAT?!": "Nani?"
• Black Comedy: A lot of it is used throughout the series, with many characters suffering Amusing Injuries to various degrees, or taking serious events in the original Persona series in a more humorous light.
• Black Speech: Used in the first episode when the director is referring to the Persona 5 anime and Goro Akechi.
• Bond One-Liner: After defeating Yusuke in his Persona form, Akechi asks Naoto "Did you want that lobster for here or to go?"
• Book Ends: "Tatsuya Saves Everyone" begins and ends with Haru getting run over and someone saying "This is going to be a long car ride..."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: While pointing out that Aigis can just slip through the bars of her cell, Morgana adds that they're all just paper cutouts.
• Breakout Character:
  • Haru went from a Butt-Monkey whose entire purpose is to barely appear Once per Episode to the main protagonist of season two, with the plot revolving around her trying to get her own TV show with the help of Justine and Caroline.
  • FeMC becomes the new protagonist in the uncancelled P3 in a Nutshell following the events of "FeMC Steals The Show".
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Poor, poor Haru. Initially, whenever she makes an appearance in an episode she would suffer some sort of misfortune in her search for screen time. It's gotten somewhat better with time...if not dying once an episode anymore counts. Though she does manage to get her own spin-off series where she's the main protagonist and no longer suffers this role.
  • Kasumi isn't much better, making the fewest appearances of any Phantom Thieves and always either getting killed through meta circumstances or relegated out of the plot almost immediately.
  • Makoto Niijima starts becoming this in later videos, as a Take That! towards her more... intense fans, whether it's putting a potato over her face, or excluding her outright.
  • Akechi instantly gets voted out in the Among Us session right as the game starts, despite not being the impostor.
• By-the-Book Cop: Makoto Niijima, who believes in following her boss' orders to the letter and not bothering with civilians, which puts her at odds with Tatsuya.
• Cain and Abel: Makoto Yuki and FeMC, the former being the Cain and the latter being the Abel.
• Canon Welding: "Persona 3 Femc In A Nutshell" establishes that both "Persona 3 In A Nutshell" and the rest of the Memeverse are canon to it, although it also establishes that they take place in separate timelines.
• Captain Obvious: After Makoto chews out Tatsuya for wanting to rescue civilians before actually arresting the criminals, Aigis tells him that she and Koromaru think she's mad at her.
• Car Fu: Aigis runs over Akechi to stop him from attacking Tatsuya, Koromaru, and Makoto Niijima, and later does it again to escape Makoto Yuki.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Nani?" seems to be one for every character in the series.
  • Akechi has "pancakes" as his.
• Chain Pain: Haru-line fights using the “Chain of Rebellion.”
• Characterization Marches On: In his first episode, Makoto Yuki seems to show reluctance towards the idea of having to hunt down his sister, FEMC. Later episodes remove this aspect of his personality, making him a more generic bad guy.
• Chekhov's Skill: In "Futaba Gets A Toaster", Aigis' rapid-fire curry-making skills end up taking down Labrys when nothing else worked.
• Christmas Episode: "Morgana vs. Christmas", in which Morgana tries to stop Tohru Adachi from stealing presents with the help of Tatsuya Suou.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Tatsuya suffers from this; he refuses to try and arrest the criminals he's after until after every civilian has been pulled out of the crossfire.
• Clip-Art Animation: Done to an utterly hilarious degree.
• Continuity Nod: Despite being a One-Episode Wonder and a massive source of Creator Backlash, "Persona 3 In A Nutshell" is given one in "Haru Gets Her Show":; the contract that Haru signs in the latter is already signed "ToasterFricker249", implying it’s the same one that Igor made the P3 Protagonist sign in the former. This also bizarrely implies that Yu Narukami and Igor are either the same person or they share contracts, since the hooded man who gives Haru hers clumsily reveals that his name sounds like the English word "you".
• Compilation Movie: Season 1 has one that also serves as a Recap Episode, which sets up the season’s episodes in chronological order.
• Cool Bike: Tatsuya can turn into one as his Meme Form.
• Crack Fic: Well, the entire series, but special mention goes to the PIAY videos, which are videos where Jamezietocool animates suggestions from his twitter that basically amount to one-sentence prompts for Crack Fics of a series that is in and of itself a Crack Fic.
• Crossover Cameo: The Demi-Fiend from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne ends up at try outs for the next Persona villain, wondering where the hell he is.
• Darkhorse Victory: Joker wins the "Best Persona Protagonist" award with the most votes, but because he presented the award (and recency bias), the award goes to FeMC, who ironically spends much of the episode trying to actually steal the award.
• Damsel in Distress: Aigis, who's been captured by Team Atlus at the beginning of "Tatsuya Saves Everyone".
• Death by Genre Savviness: In "Haru gets her Screen Time", Shinya shoots down Haru as she's sneaking up on him and proclaims that he won't be the victim of a generic first kill. Seconds later, the not actually dead Haru kills him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In "Persona Ships", Kanji, Yukari, and Ann get into a fight over which of their (sailing) ships is the best. When Joker tries to mediate the situation by telling them that all ships are great, they immediately gang up on him for daring to bring their ships down.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Mishima is all too willing to help Joker get beaten up by his brother when the latter pledges servitude to Morgana for saving his life and prompty honors his request to take vengeance.
  • The Phantom Thieves' Among Us session selects Haru to be the imposter, giving them full reign to wreck everyone's shit long before Ryuji's stupidity softlocks them out of victory.
• Dull Surprise: Since everyone is voiced by a text-to-speech program and are constantly depicted with a static image that barely ever sees any editing, they all react to things with the same monotone inflection.
• Elite Mook: Labrys is apparently this for Atlus, being more powerful than any previously-established field agent.
• Enemy Without: Shadow Junpei acts as The Big Bad of Persona 3 in a Nutshell 2
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Makoto Yuki seems to genuinely love his sister, and doesn't want her to be forgotten by Atlus.
• Expendable Clone:
  • No sympathy is given to the multiple Joker clones, as killing them is the only way the characters can get rid of them. HaremF**ker249 is also not above using one of his clones to distract Akechi. Also inverted in the sense in that Ren Amamiya is implicitly killed.
  • Makoto and FeMC couldn't care less about having to off their own groups of clones multiple times.
• Eye Scream:
  • Haru chops Mishima's eyes out with an ax at the end of their fight.
  • She later gouges out one of Rise's eyes.
• Fate Worse than Death: It's implied that being "forgotten" by Atlus is one; it's already happened to the characters from Persona 1 and 2 (though Tatsuya seems to have escaped this fate somehow), and Makoto Yuki doesn't want the same fate to befall FEMC.
• Flanderization: Several characters undergo this to fit the comedic tone of the series:
  • When she's not busy being a Butt-Monkey, Haru's Ax-Crazy tendencies are ramped up considerably.
  • Akechi only mentioned pancakes once in his home game. Here, "pancakes" is all he says, and his Meme Form is a stack of pancakes. It's also shown that he drives an IHOP van around.
  • Morgana is shown utterly destroying Joker if he doesn't go to bed on time.
  • Akihiko's interest in protein powder is turned into an outright obsession, and is the basis of his Meme Form.
• Flat "What": Morgana's response when he learns that Joker and FeMC plan on giving Christmas gifts to all the children in town.
• Flechette Storm: Phem See uses this during the battle on the train in Persona 3 In A Nutshell 2 with churros of all things.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "Joker's Treasure Hunt", the map reads "First turn 180 degrees south, and take one step for every brain cell Ryuji has" (which is just one). It seems weird that whoever made that map takes the time to take a shot at Ryuji, but at the end it's revealed that the map was made by Morgana, who constantly insults Ryuji.
  • Joker ended up having good reason to be suspicious of Haru mosying about in Medic while the group were playing Among Us, as they ended up being the imposter.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: "Haru gets her screen time" breaks away from the formula because it begins with the narrator claiming you're watching the Persona Wildlife channel.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The Phantom Thieves almost all subject one another to mutual abuse, but Akechi, Kasumi and especially Haru are prone to getting the brunt of it as a result of being Sixth Rangers or Out of Focus in canon. Akechi usually serves on Atlus' side, and Kasumi has been Ret-Gone as a result of Persona 5's multitude of spinoffs several times.
• Fun with Subtitles: The subtitles are used to translate what Haru (who initially only spoke in voice clips from her game) and Akechi (who can only say "pancakes") are saying.
• The Gadfly: Phem See in "Persona 3 FeMC in a Nutshell". She hijacks the public train and school PA systems, makes fun of Pharos and Ikutsuki's lack of legs, and drives Yukari crazy literally running around the Port Island instead of taking the train. Mitsuru thinks she's just "a little lost", but Yukari believes otherwise.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Yusuke's Persona lets him turn into a giant lobster.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In "Futaba Gets A Toaster", when Sojiro asks her where Joker is, Futaba replies that he's running an errand. Cut to Joker being forced to do a Devil May Cry roleplay with Ryuji.
  • In "Justine Rises Up":
    Caroline: [Justine] may act like any generic text-to-speech character, but she's strong! There's absolutely nothing she can't overcome!
    Justine: (while being pinned down by Rise's Anthem of Truth) I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT OVERCOME THIS!!
    Rise: Very specific choice of words :/
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • The word "fuck" is almost never used as anything other than part of Joker's name, as "Frick" is frequently used in its stead.
  • Ryuji's inability to say fuck in canon despite all the other foul language he spews out is a sore spot for him in this series, as he is desperately in search of the F-Word pass in order to not need to say eff instead.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Atlus' goal seems to be getting every "Wild Card" Persona user under their control. So far they have Makoto Yuki, Goro Akechi, and Yu Narukami.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • It's implied there was one in "'You'll never see it coming' in a nutshell", possibly Atlus.
  • Atlus is also this in "Morgana vs. Christmas", as we learn in the end that Tohru Adachi is on their payroll.
  • As of "Tatsuya Saves Everyone", the highest-ranked associate of Altus seen thus far is Yu Narukami.
• The Grinch: Morgana spends most of the Christmas episode as one. Just like the trope namer, he comes around at the end.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Though his status as an orphan isn't mentioned, Ken is clearly meant to fill this role in the Christmas episode.
• The Hero Dies: Played for Laughs, but still a plot point. The first Joker(Or at least Ren Amamiya) ends up dying in "Joker Finds His Canon Name" in the chaos of the Joker clone massacre (Whether he was killed by the cast's attempts to cull the cast, or if Akechi killed him is rather ambiguous). However, he's quickly replaced with another Joker, HaremF**ker249, with the only objector to this being Futaba who's not a fan of the new Joker's name.
• Hope Spot: In the first episode, the head of Atlus finally seems to remember who Haru is, realizing that she appeared in the beginning of Persona Q2...except she was initially absent from that cutscene. And she didn't stick around long enough to see the point when she did make her appearance.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Makoto Yuki and Akechi are Wild Card holders who antagonize fellow Wild Card holders FeMC and Joker. There's also their boss, Yu Narukami.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Mishima, Shiho, and Shinya hunt down Haru like she's an animal, though, for the purposes of that episode, she is one.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Akihiko's response when Makoto Niijima claims she's the only police officer who actually wants to do her job.
• Improbable Weapon User: In Persona 3 In A Nutshell 2, due to plot reasons, Phem See chooses to go through the battle on the train throwing razor-sharp churros and an Igus (an Aegis themed smart device) at the enemy.
• Killed Off for Real: Some characters (namely Haru come back after getting killed multiple times, but the same can't be said for Adachi, Teddie and Rise.
• Kill It with Fire: FeMC did this with her clones in the past.
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  • After Makoto Niijima tells Tatsuya that they need to start acting like a pro team, Akihiko holds up a bottle of protein and asks "Don't you mean protein?" Makoto immediately tells him to go to Hell.
  • Mitsuru threatens to "suplex [Ikutsuki] off a flight of stairs" if he makes one more bad pun. And she makes good on her promise.
• Legacy Character: Joker, in a sense. The first Joker's name is implied to be Ren Amamiya, whereas the second is the one and only HaremF**ker249.
• Lighter and Softer: The series is MUCH more comedy-focused in comparison to the more realistic and dramatic scenarios of the original Persona games it's based on.
• The Load: Akechi for Team Atlus, as he's easily distracted, hard to understand (Aside from Naoto), and attacks people at bad times.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Haru is implied to be this, as in "Justine Rises Up" she refers to Joker as "Ren" instead of "HaremF**ker249".
• Low Count Gag: Makoto responds to a simple math question (10 - 10) with "The amount of sh*ts I give". Mrs.Toriumi accepts that answer.
• Lower-Deck Episode: "Haru gets her Screen Time" focuses on Mishima, Shiho, and Shinya as they try to find the rare Haru.
• Made of Iron: After getting shot off a building by Akechi and landing on Morgana, FeMC's only response is a flat "ouch".
  • Joker survives getting stabbed in the chest with a meme.
• Mad Scientist:
  • Makoto Yuki shows shades of being this in "Tatsuya Saves Everyone".
  • Futaba and Ryuji have access to Shujin Academy's science labs - and not only do they prioritise making dangerous weapons, they outright encourage further reckless usage by getting people to wear blindfolds when testing them.
• Meaningful Name: Joker's brother's name is Choker. You do the math.
• Me's a Crowd: Joker ends up suffering this as a result of his status as a Hello, [Insert Name Here] protagonist. FeMC reveals that she and Makoto Yuki also suffered it in the past, and the only way they got out of it was by killing all the clones. Ultimately, the others decide to keep HaremF**ker249 and kill the rest, as he was the one who helped them fight Team Atlus.
• Mundane Utility: Aigis uses her abilities as a robot to make curry and coffee quickly.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • In "FeMC Steals the Show":
  Joker: Welcome ladies, and that ONE mistake...
  (Makoto Yuki flips him off)
  • And in the same episode:
  Joker: But what is an emo kid without a crew of his closest allies! And Ken.
  • Haru is frequently excluded from the Phantom Thieves' activities or singled out due to inexperience or inferiority.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The majority of the Personas/Meme Forms shown in this series are references to memes in the Persona fandom:
    • Yusuke, Akechi, Adachi, and Akihiko transform into a lobster, a stack of pancakes, a head of cabbage, and a bottle of protein powder, respectively, based on how the fandom declared these their Trademark Favorite Foods.
    • Makoto Yuki transforms into a door. The fandom has given him nicknames related to doors as a reference to him becoming the Great Seal in his home game.
    • Joker transforms into a chair, as a reference to the many chair-related nicknames fans have given him.
    • Tatsuya Suou transforms into a motorcycle, as a reference to the infamous "motorcycle noises" negotiation option in Persona 2.
  • When he's about to shoot Makoto Niijima in the head with the super weapon, Akechi word-for-word quotes his dialogue in the bad end of Persona 5, where he kills Joker.
  • The tables Shadow Junpei summons during the battles against him are Laughing Tables^note At least visually, Laughing Tables in P3 are (ironically) weak to fire, not electricity or wind, are strong against Pierce attacks, which Makoto's gun and Phem See's churros would mostly likely count as, and use ice magic, not wind. Mooks that can actually appear during the sections of Persona 3 the party fight him at (Floor 20 of Tartarus and the train the Arcane Priestess boss fight happens).
• Narcissist: Yusuke displays this in his first appearance.
  Yusuke: Ouch. You've hit me right in my fabulous spot.
  Naoto: But he hit you everywhere.
  Yusuke: Exactly.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Akechi shooting FeMC off of a building is ultimately what allows FeMC to escape Team Atlus and seek refuge with Joker and Morgana.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Apparently, every time Sojiro leaves Futaba alone, someone ends up dead, on fire, or (in Haru's case) both.
  • How Team Atlus captured Aigis in "Tatsuya Saves Everyone" is left unexplained.
• Oh, My Gods!: Naoto says "What in the name of Yaldabaoth is that?!?" at one point.
• Once More, with Clarity: "Persona 5 the Royal in a nutshell" and "Scrambled Screen Time - Persona 5 Scramble" expand on Haru's rampage from the first episode, and show us how exactly Joker and Morgana ended up in the right place at the right time in order to rescue FeMC.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, since there are Makoto Yuki and Makoto Niijima. FeMC calls Yuki "Makoto #1" in her debut episode.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Joker. His real name Ren was used in "When Joker Doesn't Go to Bed", but this seems to be more Early-Installment Weirdness than anything else.
• Only Sane Man: Naoto seems to be this for Team Atlus as a whole.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Caroline figures out that Rise is using invisible AirPods to pump music into Justine's brain because she quotes the lyrics to Great Days, which is "new music" that she "would never listen to."
• Overused Running Gag: The "You'll never see it coming" meme has become so overused In-Universe that Joker, FeMC, and Morgana decide to turn it into a Discredited Meme by force.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: "Justine Rises Up" has Haru disguise herself as Joker, under the name Har-renFricker249, except the only thing disguising her is Joker's hair covering her forehead and a pair of glasses. Everyone falls for it.
• Percussive Maintenance: Futaba performs this on Aigis to snap her out of her literal Heroic BSoD.
• Pet the Dog: Femc decides to take Junpei on a date in Persona 3 in a Nutshell 2 to cheer him up after his failed bout as a field leader, while Makoto Yuki also gives him a pep talk.
• Pokémon Speak: Akechi can only say "pancakes" (except when he’s in Persona mode). The subtitles translate what he says.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: The Complete Season 1 video ends with a Sequel Hook to Jamezietocool's later spin-off series Persona 3 in a Nutshell.
  • Similarly, "FEMC Steals the Show" is a leadup to another spinoff series, Persona 3 FEMC in a Nutshell.
• Power Floats: After getting more screen time, Haru starts floating in the air.
• Precision F-Strike: Ryuji finally obtains the F-word Pass near the end of "Persona 5 Strikers In A Nutshell", and proceeds to say "fuck". The world explodes. But Joker had another save file handy, so that never happened!
• Punny Name: In "Persona 3 FeMC In A Nutshell," the titular character names herself "Phem See Yuki."
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Naoto, Akechi, and Makoto Yuki serve as this for Atlus. Adachi serves as a Guest-Star Party Member.
• Rage Against the Author: Every character that opposes Atlus is doing this.
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: The result of Haru getting more screen time: the world becomes tinted red, the head of Atlus starts forgetting who everyone is, Kasumi disappears into nothing, dozens of Haru clones appear, and it all ends with The End of the World as We Know It.
• Running Gag: Phem See's Igus (think an Aegis themed Alexa) playing Time^note The school theme for the female protagonist in P3P whenever someone asks it what time it is.
• Sacrificial Lion: Yusuke is hunted down and seemingly killed by Akechi’s meme form in the "Detective Akechu" segment at the start of the Season 1 movie, with Joker saying in the season recap that Yusuke’s no longer relevant after that moment. Though subverted when it turns out he survived and returned in Season 2.
• Self-Duplication:
  • During the climax of "Scrambled Screen Time - Persona 5 Scramble", Haru makes clones of herself appear to fight Joker.
  • FeMC's inability to choose a specific name to write on her contract in "Persona 3 FeMC in a nutshell" ends up spawning another set of clones of her and Makoto, the one she fought in place of the Magician helping her kill the rest.
• Serious Business: Memes are serious enough business for people to go to war over them.
• Shout-Out:
  • Morgana's Persona is just him dressed in a Sonic the Hedgehog costume.
  • The Metal Gear "surprise" noise makes a brief appearance in "'You'll never see it coming' in a nutshell".
  • In "Morgana vs. Christmas", when she’s informed that Santa isn’t real, FeMC lets out the Best Cry Ever. Makoto and Ryuji later do the same in "FeMC Steals the Show".
  • Ryuji apparently does Devil May Cry roleplay.
  • In "Haru gets her Screen Time", we're briefly treated to a Pokémon parody during Haru and Mishima's fight. Battle music from the games also plays during the big fight in "Tatsuya Saves Everyone".
  • Kasumi's death scene in "Scrambled Screen Time - Persona 5 Scramble" involves her fading into nothing and saying "Mr. Atlus? I don't feel so good..."
  • The arsonist Tatsuya failed to apprehend was Pyro.
  • The way Morgana gets out of being imprisoned in "Tatsuya Saves Everyone" is extremely similar to an Ability Required to Proceed from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
  • According to Joker and Morgana, Spyro the Dragon is the best Persona game.
  • In "Persona 3 in a Nutshell", Mitsuru can be seen watching DEATH BATTLE!, specifically the episode Weiss Vs Mitsuru, and she has some choice words for its results.
  Mitsuru: You're damn right I won.
• Spanner in the Works: Haru's rampage against Atlus ended up laying the groundwork for FeMC to escape.
• Stealth Pun: FeMC's Persona is a can(n)on.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Arsene causes numerous explosions while defeating the rampaging Harus.
• Stylistic Suck: The series is animated using low-quality clip art, and all the characters have their voices provided by text-to-speech programs or voice clips from the games.
• Super-Empowering: Akihiko's Persona let's him do this to others.
• Super-Speed: Morgana's Persona grants him this power.
• Take That!:
  • A number of jabs are made towards Atlus and the various decisions they’ve made when creating the Persona games (for example, not giving Haru much screen time).
    • The series also doesn't seem to like how Atlus was hardly revealing news about Shin Megami Tensei V prior to Nintendo's 2020 Mini Direct and E3 2021 trailer, as "SMTV news" is used as a euphemism for being dead while another joke is about stepping on the last and only copy of SMTV as well.
  • When Persona 5: The Animation is mentioned in the first episode, its title is stated in Black Speech.
    • Also in "Persona but it's scary (PIAY #3)", Joker is left screaming in horror when he's forced to binge watch the series, more than quick to start slamming his head on the desk repeatedly when he's only at the start of the opening.
  • The characters from the first two Persona games were apparently forgotten and abandoned by Atlus, which is treated as a Fate Worse than Death. Tatsuya Suou somehow escaped this fate.
  • In "Joker Finds His Canon Name", Futaba tests a Joker by asking him what her favorite video game is. The Joker guesses Fortnite, and she immediately shoots him in the head.
  • Funko Pop Morgana is one towards the Funko Pop figure line in general, with Futaba outright calling him ugly.
  • "Persona Villains in a Nutshell" is about characters auditioning for the role of Persona 5 Strikers' Big Bad, and features multiple characters doing so by quoting the climactic speech from Joker (2019) verbatim (with one word changed),^note "You get what you fricking deserve!" while sporting a Palette Swap that resembles the film's title character. They're all passed up as potential villains, and the last one, Joker from Persona 2, gets shot mid-sentence by the judges.
  • The titular treasure of "Joker's Treasure Hunt", to the chagrin of everyone involved is a copy of Gex that they can't even make a profit from selling online since the shipping is more expensive.
• Take That Us:
  • After Persona 3 in a Nutshell was cancelled and given complaints on the limb animations, the cast has poked fun at the spin-off series' cancellation and animation on multiple occasions.
  Fuuka: (Currently trapped in monkey bars for an eternity) Well at least this is more compelling than 'Persona 3 in a nutshell'!
• Teleport Spam: Adachi's main ability.
• Tempting Fate: When Makoto Yuki threatens her with an evoker, FeMC tries to point out that he can't actually shoot it...only to get shot down mid-sentence. By Akechi, not Makoto.
  • Joker tells Morgana that one of the upsides of being a cat is that he'll never get into any danger. Then FeMC lands on Morgana.
  • In "When Joker doesn't go to bed", Ryuji tries to calm Ren's fears by telling him Morgana doesn't even know where he is. Cue Morgana.
  • In The Stinger for "Tatsuya Saves Everyone", Adachi tries to reassure Makoto Yuki that their boss won't do anything to punish them...only for said boss to kill him.
  • Before the battle on the train in Persona 3 In A Nutshell 2, Shadow Junpei summons two Laughing Tables to attack his counterpart, with Junpei mocking the small number. Shadow Junpei simply says "If you insist!" and summons more.
• The End of the World as We Know It: What will happen if Haru gets more screen time.
  • As "Persona 5 Strikers In A Nutshell" reveals, this is what happens when Ryuji successfully obtains the F-word Pass.
• The Stinger: "Scrambled Screen Time - Persona 5 Scramble" has one: Haru teleports into the middle of a road, and is immediately hit by a car. Inside the car are Tatsuya Suou and Makoto Niijima, going over an unknown plan.
  • "Tatsuya Saves Everyone" also has one: Makoto Yuki, Akechi and Adachi's boss comes in, berates the team for their failure, kills Adachi, and reveals himself to be a surprisingly buff Yu Narukami.
• Translator Buddy: Naoto is the only one who can interpret Akechi's Pokémon Speak, and acts as a translator for others.
  • Only Aigis and Makoto Niijima can understand Koromaru the dog, and they translate him for others.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even after he saves her life, Futaba still wants to shoot Joker, because his name is HaremF**ker249.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: In the Among Us session, Ryuji somehow manages to softlock the wires task out of sheer stupidity, allowing the impostor Haru to kill all of the crewmates with ease.
• Unusual Euphemism: Suicide is often referred to as "Persona 3 (FES/Portable)/Shin Megami Tensei V news myself."
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: How Personas are portrayed in this series; they allow one to transform into an object, thus increasing their power.
  • Naoto has the ability to shapeshift into other characters, having transformed into Yusuke and Yu in two episodes.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Kasumi only lasts a total of two episodes before becoming a casualty in Haru's rampage.
• Wham Episode: "Tatsuya Saves Everyone". The motives of Tatsuya and his team are finally revealed, which ends with them teaming up with Joker and his friends. Meanwhile, Team Atlus' boss — Yu Narukami — is finally stepping in himself.
• Wham Line: In "Persona 5 the Royal in a nutshell", as Kasumi is trying to get Joker excited about her debut:
  Kasumi: How about this! We gave Haru screen time!
  (crashing noise)
  Joker: What the heck did you just say?
  Kasumi: Uh...Haru has screen time now.
  Joker: (shouts a lengthy Big "NO!" as the screen turns red) You idiot! Did you know what you just did?
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Seriously second Joker, HaremF**cker249?!
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Tatsuya has some difficulty trying to get Aigis out of a cage...until Morgana points out that the bars are wide enough for her to slip through.
• With Friends Like These...: The Phantom Thieves are as far from being blood brothers as close as they were in the series canon, screwing each other over in the name of profit as soon as the opportunity arises and frequently forgoing missions where cooperation is vital in favor of sabotaging each other for shits and giggles. Even the tight-knit Power Trio of Joker, Morgana and FeMC aren't immune to tormenting each other at a moment's notice.
• You Are Grounded!: Sojiro grounds Futaba at the end of "Futaba Gets A Toaster". The worst part is that Futaba had nothing to do with Leblanc getting destroyed, as it was caused by collateral damage from Aigis and Labrys's battle.

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