Just a little data dwaggy roaming the Internet for who knows how long now. I go by a fair number of names, such as Tesability Black, Celevoir, Talim Rave, Neos and/or Gemini Rivetter, Belril Sylminar, Michael Travers, Johann Magnusson...so if you somehow recognize some of those names, hai.
Pronouns: She/Her, but I play so many male characters, it doesn't bother me to be accidentally called he/him on occasion.
Simplified Chinese Sign: Earth Dragon
True Chinese Sign: Fire Rabbit (I was born close enough to the cusp that I've had the Chinese New Year land square on my birthday a few times. Being born on a cusp for various astrologies means you develop traits from both signs.)
Western Star Sign: Aquarius (Not a cusp baby on this one. That's my sister's, who's an Aquarius-Pisces.)
There's a rarer pair than what you've tagged that caught my eye, illx. And that's related to the ONE!! tale featuring Zenkichi Hasegawa and Muneshia Iwai.
(And I probably botched Iwai's name, too, dammit.)
"Daniel, stop. Think about the things I could show you- the doors I could open for you! You, Danny Phantom, and I- Vlad Plasmius. Together, we could rule."
So @speedsketch literally made me a custom Vlad Plasmius Funko Pop for my birthday. And I have NOT stopped geeking out about it.
Ok, so I was thinking about how to write my thoughts about Sumi and I remembered one criticism/accusation towards her character that always confused me: She's a Mary Sue.
Like, how exactly? Even before I started no longer liking her, I've always considered her to actually be a full-on deconstruction of the trope. Especially when she had the "Kasumi" filter. And then as time went on, cracks started to form before the illusion fully shatters in 3rd semester if you unlocked it by then. You don't see the "perfect twin" Kasumi, you see the flawed, damaged and even selfish Sumire. And that's why it's still such a damn waste that Atlus didn't explore that aspect further because that was actually a reasonable and understandable flaw to have but they swept it under the rug and softened all of it like she hardly did anything wrong. Not saying she's solely at fault, Maruki should have never allowed or enabled it to begin with so it's more than one party that fucked up. But still, in her case it's framed as sympathetic like his case was but at the same time it's still pretty fucked up when you think about it and I wished they explored it.
But anyways, Atlus screwed up big time with her? Yes. Mary Sue though? Eh... No for me. She has far too many flaws for me to think of her as one and again, I always felt like she was an attempt at a deconstruction of it. Idk though, that still confuses me so much to this day.
Honestly, I think the way Atlus handled her is EXACTLY why she's viewed as a Mary Sue by many. And, since her Survivor's Guilt isn't exactly a result of the system as a whole, but her own specific way of running from it, there's a fair number that believe it doesn't make sense of her to have a Persona. At least not until after the start of the Third Semester, which is when the Persona could emerge as a form of rebelling against the alternate identity she forced upon herself with otherworldy help and start to finally be herself. That and the whole...magical girl sequence that literally none of the other thieves got, including from Strikers.
Cendrillion (Cinderella) also doesn't make much sense, either, due to the fact that the jealousy that Cinderella got was aimed at her, not her being jealous of her stepsisters and stepmother. Cinderella herself stayed the same the whole time, but circumstances changed around her through SUPERNATURAL means (such as the Actualization, in Sumire's case). There's one way that Cendrillion makes sense...if Cendrillion herself is a way that Kasumi indirectly comes back to be at Sumire's side, but residing within her heart instead of physically being by her side.
Which amuses me, since that's a concept I plan on toying with in a tale...
There are so many that want this with certain characters...but there is also a joy for giving those same characters the redemption (either self-redemption or in the eyes of others) that they finally deserve after so long of struggling to earn it.
So I was making those two my phone's lock and home screen backgrounds when I noticed that the color schemes remind me a lot of the Portal games and now I can't unsee it. XD
A/N: If you just love to make hate messages over personal thoughts over what someone thinks and are willing to accept the character that is being written about, who you don’t even know, on their posts just because of it then what’s even the point of having a matter of honest opinions anyways?
Fandom(s): Persona 5: Royal
Summary: Yoshizawa rubbed me off the wrong way since the moment I saw her. I immediately got the sense of ‘Market Seller Waifu For Increase In Sales For Royal’ after seeing her unoriginal thief getup. And I’m unapologetic to admit that she’s my absolute LEAST favourite character despite the ridiculous amount of positive reviews she’s had after Persona 5 Royal’s release. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it after the Atlus announcement for Xbox and PC. Then I figured, I thought to finally expel these annoying thoughts in order to release my pent up frustration.
So here’s why.
Warnings: Spoilers for Persona 5: Royal.
NOTE: As much as I appreciate you willing to lend kind responses and opinions with me, please don’t exceed so many, otherwise I will feel the need to reply to all of them and they can get really lengthy and time consuming. I really need to get back to writing and finishing requests and chapters. And hey, we all have our opinions and not all of us have to have a debate over our personal thoughts. Agree to disagree or we meet somewhere in the middle, and that’s okay, too.
My Conversations with Others Regarding This Topic (think of it like extensions from this post): 1 | 2
Main Masterlist
Or as I call her: the tropey Doormat Kohai.
I know. I put her in my Entwined Hearts story but things will be different as the chapters progress.
The only time she really does anything in the real world is defend and help Joker when he is arrested, but ALL his confidants do that! They’re supposed to do those things after he deepens his bonds to max level, there is nothing new or unique about it with her!
A side note: I find it humorous that crossovers adding Yoshizawa just have to be emphasized with Royal and not simply Persona 5 even though Royal is Persona 5 in general.
Kasumi is a static character, Sumire is the flat.
Her very presence is a shoehorn. Her appearances never really feels natural. She just pops in and out whenever she wants. I would’ve honestly forgotten her if it wasn’t for the ridiculous amount of fans she has that just worships the ground she walks on or anything else she does. Which isn’t a whole lot.
Her looks are an uncreative and reusable mix of FeMC, Mitsuru, Yuko and from P3.
Overly attached to Joker because he’s pretty much the only person she wants to revolve around in her life. She hardly interacts or befriends anyone else. Her gymnastics club members, classmates, other schoolmates, her parents who barely show relevance to her personally, other honour students (there’s no way in hell she’s the only one), and the thieves. As Kasumi, for someone who acts like an extroverted socialite it doesn’t really make sense as to why she doesn’t. Like, talk to a single regular person at all.
And about the thieves; they, for some reason, blindly love her so much after only meeting, like, twice. They barely know her and have rarely interacted or hung out outside the Metaverse. She basically ignores their existence to have this weird honeymoon phase on Joker.
She does not contribute anything to the main plot except for 3rd Semester. Which is at the end of the game. Her first entrance to “save” Joker in Sae’s Palace was wasteful. He’s, not counting Mona, the most experienced fighter out of all the thieves. Joker did not need her help in any way shape or form. P5 vanilla proves that, he didn’t need any of the other thieves as backup when he was evading the Shadows. He’s the freaking main character! Joker’s supposed to have the spotlight for the player. It’s just a lazy introduction to a Mary Sue as a show of fan service beloved by everyone for anything she does or doesn’t do. And that gives the thieves a reason to have her for their “Hey, We Saved The World From Corruption By Taking Down a False God” party?
She rarely figure out the problems presented to her on her own. It’s mostly Joker doing it for her.
KaSumi/re’s social link for the first couple of ranks go the SAME route. You do a family friendly activity, she falls into her so called “slump”, you cheer her up, she promises to work harder than ever, and the cycle repeats to the point where it’s predictable and easy to gain her rank up. How is that interesting?
The same can be said for when she is back to being SUMIRE. Where after ONLY knowing her as Kasumi, you continue her confidant from where you left off. It would’ve made more sense if we were to start over her social link so we’d get to know Sumire properly (even if it’s already January but still). Yet we don’t.
There was nothing off about her being Kasumi in the first place that led to the indication that she wasn’t actually Kasumi. Her attitude stays the same, perky, polite, overly positive, being an airhead (That goes for Sumire too. Seriously, how does one take crappy code names as Appetite and Leotard into actual consideration? How do unused scenes like Akechi suspecting her as the Palace Ruler because of her association with said Palace being about one who craves attention and just let it slip by her?) her talk about her “younger” sister’s death just seemed like something to add for her backstory. Nothing really showed that anything was wrong in her happy go lucky world aside from the few interactions she has with Maruki. Which still hardly makes a difference. Though it didn’t matter if her reveal would’ve happened or not, Sumire just goes back to being the SAME person as when she first started. What were all those 120 hours of progress for..?!
Morgana wanting to recruit her then changing his mind because of Shido makes me deadpan. The thieves faced a perverted and abusive P.E. teacher, a manipulative and gaslighting artist, the freaking mafia, and a selfish and money-hungry CEO father! Everyone had their own lives on the line each! What makes Yoshizawa’s any different..?! I just don’t get it! Didn’t that cat say that powers in numbers is a good thing after recruiting Ann? That whole conversation after Maruki’s Palace was stupid. Because it meant nothing for the main story.
Her reason for awakening is weak and contradictory. Because, when voices of people who talk poorly of her, her motivation for awakening is that they spoke down on the dream she shares with her sister. This goes completely against P5’s themes and it doesn’t work. KaSumi/re never even cared about their opinions anyways, she even vocalizes this as a statement. And her potentially losing her honour student status was her own fault. Even with her second awakening being more meaningful, it still doesn’t justify having a “Spirit of Rebellion”.
Her thief outfit is nothing but a market seller for Royal. Atlus even admits it in their interviews. The only symbolism it has is that she admires Joker so much and sees him as a spitting image of rebellion that she replicates her attire to his, including keeping her Kasumi ponytail. Even Atlus admits this in their interviews that her outfit was just a market seller! The only thing original about it is the leotard because she’s a gymnast, but it’s so impractical. She might as well been wearing a swimsuit, it’d make no difference. And when she finally awakens as Sumire (though not really), her outfit stays the same, hair the same, Persona the same. There is no visible representation of Sumire showcasing individuality that separates her from Kasumi/re. Which is a clue to how she goes back to looking the same as when she was in the beginning. Character development what now? Violet is the same way, Kasumi with just a mask on.
She got to have a magical girl/sailor moon transformation for what? Fan service. Which doesn’t fit with the game’s themes and aesthetics whatsoever but her Persona is Cinderella so sure, why the heck not? (sarcasm) Heck, if that were the case then the thieves should’ve gotten the same treatment. The idea of watching Ryuji do a spin is too amusing for me. Yusuke could pull it off given his theatrical eccentric side.
Black just doesn’t seem like Yoshizawa’s colour palette. There’s no reason for wearing black when the only time she does wear it is her Shujin blazer and that’s it.Gymnasts don’t really wear plain black either; it’s usually with a flashy design that comes with dark and light colours, or one with a simpler look. Her leotard being plain black is too… simple? Purple works since she actually wore that for her gymnastics. Everyone somehow loves the inaccuracy of her in a sleeveless leotard that showcase exaggerated body that isn’t her at all, they seem to like using her just for their perverse entertainment, (then again pretty much every female fictional character is like that so this isn’t anything new or a big deal anymore, I don’t know, I can’t be bothered to give a crap knowing that the media does whatever it wants), when gymnasts always wear sleeves. This is just a notice I have over her costume.
Her showtime is weird. (Plus, why can’t Joker have showtime that gives him the spotlight?) So she jumps into his arms for a spin as he shoots down enemies, tosses her to make this strange performance with her deceased sister (does that mean she’s actually touching air and Kasumi is all in her head?), and has Joker twirl her into a dip. Just how deprived of his attention are you? Did Nintendo really have to give us the unnecessarily pointless scene of Yoshizawa’s dancing and her showtime as part of P5’s trailer of branching out to other consoles? Akechi’s showtime clip hardly balances that out considering it was short and at the end.
What was the whole point of that ridiculous dance cutscene of her and Joker? A shoehorn by Atlus as ship bait between the true star of the game and Trashy-zawa. Guess they’d go with any shoehorn to get people to continue talking about Royal.
Sumire’s backstory is just a recycle from the other girls’ story arcs. Especially Lavenza, who goes on to have an identity crisis herself where she is split into TWINS. I find that no body that I’ve seen has mentioned this. We didn’t need another twin story AGAIN.
There was also no purpose for Joker to be meeting her father. It only left the impression of a random encounter who you meet only once. Which is exactly what happened. What, is it so Yoshizawa would see something off-putting from Maruki’s Palace? That could’ve been done any other way or time.
Her connection to Cendrillon is off and strange. All the stories of Cinderella have many things in common: she’s a waif, she is looked down on by her household, verbally abused, put into forced labour, shown to be a genuine person, and is saved by a man who solves all her problems. All these bad things in Cinderella’s life happens TO her out of jealousy, spite, and cruelty. Sumire goes through none of that. She has a sister who cares about her, and parents that care about her, too. There is no ill mistreatment anywhere done TO her from when she was Sumire before Shujin. The thing she said about Kasumi making the decisions for her, like her clothes, is because Sumire lets her. She could’ve said anything at anytime and Kasumi would’ve listened. They’re siblings! Twins for crying out loud! They would’ve spent everything together knowing each other’s quirks, habits, and flaws. Yet Sumire puts the image that Kasumi is perfect in every way (Mary Sue) when she’s spent years with learning all about her twin. Sumire’s a Mary Sue for the fact that everything she does or doesn’t do is positively received no matter the situation. There’s also the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any ground reason as to why Sumire has an inferiority complex over her sister other than that Kasumi is considered the better gymnast. Is that all? Depression can happen to anyone, of course, but her large amount of jealousy of Kasumi feels kinda off in the writing aspect. And since we only get to see Real Kasumi once, ONCE, we don’t know the dynamics of their relationship. She and Cendrillon share only two things: they go to a ball pretending to be someone else and is saved by a man who solves all their problems. Joker saves her by revealing the truth of her identity, and her coming back as Sumire after almost a year of being brainwashed. Though the same can be applied to Maruki as she sort of consented to the identity crisis, and tried to stop Joker from undoing so. And what, after a short timespan when the thieves rescue her she figures herself out and then suddenly accepts Kasumi’s death with a big ole speech? Sure, she talks about it with Joker, and while it’s nice to have someone to talk to about these things, that doesn’t magically solve all of a person’s problems in one fell swoop. Sumire should’ve gone back to therapy with an actual therapist, and talked honestly to her parents about her mental problems. She doesn’t struggle much from being in her own skin again. Joker isn’t the center of her existence! She feels like an imaginary friend from all the times she’s around Joker and no one else. It’s like she ignores them. Having Cendrillon as her Persona just feels like a symbolism of entitlement, considering that her Persona doesn’t change after reclaiming herself as Sumire.
When the game FINALLY reveals what Trash-izawa’s deal is in being a Persona-User in the first place, I’ve already clocked out, exited, lost interest in her reused backstory that the element of surprise failed. To have to go through the main plot (the important part) of the entire game, we had to reach the end with Third Semester to get her reason for being (useless) meaning, to the end, just leaves everything dry. We could’ve gotten to know more about how Maruki’s powers work and what other patients he might have affected. Because is it really believable that he only inflicted Yoshizawa throughout the time he had gotten his Persona?
This chick gives me mixed signals. I can’t tell if she just feels guilty for being the cause of her sister’s death, or that she even misses her, or even that she blames her as an overbearing sibling. You allowed her to be that way! And, isn’t it also because she wanted to become Kasumi so much that found an opportunity to do so deep down?
She’s in loves with Joker no matter what you do. It’s like she doesn’t know what platonic relationships are. It’s like spending time with a guy has to mean romance. Then again, any person but Joker doesn’t exist to her. And who did you love him as exactly, Sumire? Kasumi or you? Because Joker has only ever known Kasumi. To him he’s only just met you. It makes me appreciate Aigis, Rise, and Marie more because they were nothing compared to the level of shoehorning Yoshizawa brings. At least Marie interacts with everyone.
KaSumi/re seems to have the habit of being an overbearing airhead. Everything flies passed her unless it’s about herself. Makes sense for the 10% amount of times she shows up in the game.
Whether it’s Kasumi or Sumire, they’re stalkers regardless. Her following the thieves into Sae’s Palace because she “felt something big was going to happen” is such a poor excuse. What, does everything Joker does have to apply to you? Just how long did you wait in the Palace? Did you have anything to eat? Creep. Her stalking the team in the nurse’s office out of no where was weird. How long have you been tailing them, huh? How did you conveniently find out about their meeting? Answer: there’s no explanation for it. It’s a plot hole players have no problem ignoring like it’s a reasonable thing.
Why does her being skinny while eating a lot matter so much to everyone that it has to be brought up all the time? She’s an athlete, we get it. Ryuji is no different! He’s an athlete for track for track and field!
All Kasumi cares about in this big wide world is gymnastics and nothing else. Sumire’s goal is not too different either. Yet her growth for betterment feels too short for someone who had an identity crisis for almost a year.
KaSumi/re has hardly any stakes as a Phantom thief. She doesn’t even have a reason to join their cause! She didn’t even agree with them that time she met up with Joker and Akechi.
When she said that only the person has to be the one to change their situation, she is literally undermining what happened with the cases of Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro, Shiro. Their victims were people who couldn’t stand up to them because they were powerless with hardly much choice. Joker, Shiho, Mishima, Ann, Yusuke, etc.
She gives me the same vibes as Marinette Dupen-Chang from Miraculous Ladybug. Who is also not a good character.
Joker, Violet, and Crow are a bizarre team. Her and Crow don’t even have anything in common for their dynamic. Their first meeting was just a shoehorn. It wasn’t necessary, it’s just lazy writing.
Thank gods she isn’t in Strikers, all she’d be was an out of place extra who is unable carry her weight. And she has no motive to even be one of them. Royal’s true ending proves that when she isn’t in the van with the thieves. Guess that goes to show how much of an afterthought she was to Atlus.
Part of me was disappointed that Persona 5 vanilla wasn’t coming to Switch so that I could avoid the pain of dealing with Yoshizawa. At least there’s 3 and 4 to look forward to.
But hey, if you can make reasonable opinions over this then I’ll respect that, and maybe my thoughts of her will be persuaded. Unless you want to be an asshole about free will of opinions and open mindedness then please leave this post now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It’s not like this post is a matter of life or death that demands bitchy responses. I draw the line on hate over just having an honest opinion different from others. Especially with any fans of any fanbase, that take things unnecessarily too far. Your love for this character doesn’t give you the right to attack me when I’m only pointing out what I’ve noticed about her and how my personal perspective is affected by those points. And as I’ve stated, I am open to seeing her in a different light, given reasonable and understandable viewpoints without the hostility.
I may continue making these points further. I just had to get this off my chest, even if her fans blast me for my personal opinions that have obvious pointers. Annabeth Chase from the Riordanverse books will eventually become my next rant. She and the “Percabeth” ship had always bothered me since I first read the series as a kid. And growing up, I learned plenty of reasons as to why.
God, I love Ryuji. Persona 5 really spends over an hour in the beginning hammering home just how badly society has screwed over the protagonist for doing the right thing. Literally everyone he meets, authority figures that he should be able to rely on, like cops, teachers, and parental figures, treat him like garbage. You could hardly blame him if he chose to become a villain after everything he goes through, after seeing how being good worked out for him.
And then you have Ryuji, a loud, blond punk. Basically, the poser boy for being a bad influence. Literally the first thing he does on-screen is curse out a teacher. He’s angry, rude, and confrontational. And yet, the moment the protagonist is in danger, he grabs a guy over twice his size and yells for the protagonist to run.
Like…Ryuji single-handedly restored the protagonist’s faith in people. Because Ryuji helped him, a total stranger, just like he helped that struggling woman. It proves to the protagonist that his decision to help was not a mistake, despite what everyone has been telling him. That he is not alone in wanting to stand up to injustice. And this motivates the protagonist to awaken, because he won’t let Ryuji be punished for doing the right thing the way he was punished. Everything that follows, the whole plot of the game, happens because Ryuji was willing to risk his life to help some guy he didn’t even know.
A good number of the Thieves (especially Futaba and Morgana) may rag on Ryuji, but literally the whole world should be bowing at Ryuji's feet. Because while Ren might be a Wild Card, he could have easily succumb to ruin himself (along with the world as a whole) if Ryuji hadn't helped him out when he did.
