I've seen lots of people reference the fact that apparently in canon Akechi tracked down and got recruited by Shido when he was 15, but I don't recall any moment in game that mentions this? I love your in-depth Persona analysis and mistranslation breakdowns so I figured you'd be the best person to go to.
Hi, and thank you! I'll do my best. This one stems from the meeting between Shido and Akechi on 11/21, the evening after Akechi attempts to murder Joker:
Shido: "It's already been two and half years since we met."
"two and half years", ah, Atlus West, never change
Two and a half years before November 21st, 2016 is, of course, May 21st, 2014—a matter of days before Akechi's sixteenth birthday. There is room for flexibility here; it could be exactly May 21st, or it could be some time out on either side; you decide. Myself, I think it's probably significant that this date places Akechi just below one of the thresholds for criminal responsibility, at age sixteen.
evil dad's evil dadding
By the way, I'm fond of this sequence, which I think gets an undeserved bad rap. It packs in a hell of a lot of backstory, and is a lot cleverer than it's often assumed to be.
Akechi: "... Wakaba Isshiki, was it? That researcher. She wouldn't have had to die if she just complied."
Remember, Akechi's seemingly-casual mentions of Wakaba are never casual; they are always associated with some kind of emotional tension. Wakaba was his first murder, and he's never forgotten. For all that Akechi seems perky as hell in this scene, he's not. He has only five lines in the first part of the sequence, and he mentions Joker in three of them!
It's easy to take the exposition in the second half of the sequence as entirely unprompted. But if you follow that thread from the first half, then you can see all this reminiscing actually has a purpose: Shido is building Akechi back up again.
He's talking about where they've been. He's talking about where they're going. He's praising Akechi for work well done, telling him how unique and special and necessary he is!—surely the sort of praise Shido has long found super effective. He tells Akechi he's irreplaceable. He does it all in a way that suggests this is their normal.
And he tells him repeatedly why Joker's murder was necessary:
This whole sequence, of course, suffers (and gains much of its bad reputation) from being translated through several old football socks:
Shido 無能なヤツらと一緒に滅びてやることはない。私が国家を復活へと導く。 munouna yatsura to issho ni horobite yaru koto wa nai. watashi ga kokka o fukatsu e to michibiku There's no need to be ruined along with such incompetent fools. I will lead this country to its revival. But ruin won’t be our fate, as those incompetents would have it. Instead, I’ll bring this country to its rebirth. Shido 理想の達成には、時に邪魔者の排除もやむなし⋯それが『異世界』の正しい使い方というものだ。 risou no tassei ni wa, toki ni jamamono no haijo mo yamunashi... sore ga "isekai" no tadashii tsukai kata to iu mono da Those who get in the way must be eliminated at times—that’s the correct way to use the Metaverse. There’s no way around it—if I’m to achieve my ideals, those in my way will sometimes have to be removed. That’s the right way to use the Metaverse.
In the first line, we have ことはない koto wa nai, often used to reassure people. "We don't need to be ruined along with those incompetent fools." Shido's first-person ～てやる ~te yaru, here, includes Akechi: "we will"; note that on the second sentence, he has to clarify that he now means only himself, with 私 watashi, "I".
And in the second line, we have that やむなし yamunashi, which expresses a sense of regret, of inevitability. "We have no other option here, no alternative".
This is not just shoehorned-in exposition, not just a poorly-written scene. Shido knows this is hard for Akechi. He knows Joker's murder hit him hard, and he is openly commiserating with him—and, of course, manipulating him. Shido knows Akechi is not a born killer, even if the audience often misses it.
This sequence is where we most clearly see Shido as the puppet master, pulling the strings of vulnerabilities Akechi can't admit even to himself. Shido is presenting Akechi with a poisoned apple, a toxic mimic of a father-son relationship. He's rewarding Akechi with what he can't admit he truly wants—time with his father, who listens to his problems and attempts to put them right. Even if it's in the twisted, mutually manipulative way you'd expect.
And this sequence is why I believe portrayals of this relationship where Shido is routinely, openly abusive miss the mark somewhat. Shido doesn't yell at people he wants something from. No, he charms them, manipulates them. He gives them what they want—and in return, they give him everything.
And Akechi, the boy from the gutter, wants so much.
revision history
Click here for the latest version.
v1.0 (27th July 2025)—first published.
v1.1 (27th July 2025)—clarification.
