I have to say, I want to think about my two favorite Persona 4 characters, Rise Kujikawa and Yosuke Hanamura. And I realized something:
They’re pretty similar, huh? Both Rise and Yosuke put up a cheerful front because they’re both well-known—Rise is beloved as a teen idol while Yosuke is hated for being the Junes manager’s son, but it leads to the same outcome of them having to hide a lot of themselves. I mean Jiraiya directly calls Yosuke out on it with talking about how sociable Yosuke tries to be.
And Himiko… holy shit, Himiko. She’s easily the most unnerving Shadow because she represents Rise’s sheer terror at what she’ll find if she drops the mask. Is she nothing? Is she just a doll to be played with? She’s certainly a case of Rise’s objectification by the media being internalized, and Rise’s dungeon indicates her knowledge of everyone watching her every move. I really want to talk about Rise’s dungeon in a post of its own because it’s one of my favorites and crowned Rise my favorite character!
This leads to Rise and Yosuke both being isolated from their peers and unable to make friends their age. It’s to the point that Yosuke mentions in his Rank 3 that he doesn’t change his address in hopes that his former friends will talk to him again.
And for Rise, she internalizes the mistreatment she gets. She gets brutally insulted by Himiko. Himiko mocks Rise’s desire to find someone she can let down walls around, sexualizing it like Himiko knows the people around her and Rise—her full self—would and have done. I couldn’t fit Himiko’s whole rant into this screenshot, she literally calls her a slut-shamey insult.
This leads to them latching RIGHT onto Yu Narukami when he befriends them both. They have a friend. A real, genuine friend. Yosuke had one before but she got murdered by the Midnight Channel Killer the day before he faced Jiraiya. Rise openly has a crush, and you’d be forgiven for thinking Yosuke has one too via some of his lines. Not to mention his love for Saki because she… just wasn’t an ass to him over being the Junes manager’s son. She was actually pretty great, from what you learn in Yosuke and Naoki’s social links. You find that he gets attached to pretty much anyone who tries to see past the whole “Junes manager’s son” thing, just like Rise gets attached to pretty much anyone who tries to see past the whole “Risette” thing.
They’re also both incredibly kindhearted and put others before themself, always. In Rise’s later ranks, she talks about a young girl who writes her letters, and who she always looks forward to reading, and how that girl’s happiness gave her drive to keep going even as being objectified drained her of her passion.
I mean, that girl was the final push to bring her back into showbiz, as she mentions in her epilogue rank.
And on Yosuke’s end, take some of his dungeon dialogue for example—in lower ranks of Yukiko’s, if you have both him and Yukiko off the team, she talks about part time jobs. Yosuke assumes the inn’s in a rut and immediately offers financial help.
I… guess I have a type in favorite characters, huh? I’d have to see them in comparison with my favorite characters of other works, but that’s super interesting that my favorites are so similar…
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