#persona shadows

[109thyme]

Shadow ocahko for my fic, is it cringe to make my own fanart ? Maybe. But it's 2026 and I do what I want.

[creator5240]

Pyrrha Aura Farming Against Shadows

[anime-grimmy]

As is expected of me, now that I’ve spent some time getting into Persona 4, it is rambling time. (I’m also writing this at work on my PC cos no way I can type all that out on mobile)

Since Ive started documenting my P4 story in my insta stories, I’ve been told multiple times to look out for the fandom, bcs considering what you like or what hc you subscribe to, they can be vicious. Now, I’m not new to fandom spaces, I know how bad people can get, but thankfully, from what I’ve seen so far, the current fandom seems a lot more laid back and open to many different interpretations of the characters than what has been broadcasted to me.

Still, since I love discussing such things, I’ve wanted to add my own 2 cents. I will preface this whole thing with admitting I do not care what you headcanon for the characters. If you think Yu Nurakami eats onions raw, be my guest, as long as you’re having fun, pop off. However, now having experienced a good portion of the game and having delved into older discourse about the game, I do want to talk about why I personally will not subscribe to certain headcanons, mostly because I feel that they miss the point.

Obviously, this is about Kanji’s sexuality and Naoto’s gender identity.

Again, you can interpret Kanji as purely homosexual and Naoto as transmasculine, that’s alright. The reason I do not subscribe to that is because I’ve seen people get up in arms about Atlus being cowards for not “pulling through”(while true in some aspects) while missing the point of what the shadows try to convey (imo).

Shadows are part of the repressed true self, yet, they also ARENT. To me it reads as them being the thing the characters DONT want their true self to be / what they are scared of as to what their true self is perceived as. The reason they so vehemently reject them is because the shadows are the bad endings they suspect if they DO show their true self, or rather to what ends they would have to go to be accepted in society.

Applying this to Kanji and Naoto, Kanji thinks his preference of men must mean he cannot fall in love with girls and that means ppl really see him as a “raging homosexual”. Naoto tries to literally alter her body, because ppl only see her as a “female child detective” and being a boy must be the only solution to be taken seriously. Those aren’t their true feelings, however, it’s the fears they harbour of what their true selves would lead to.

My fav and I think the most obvious example of this is Rise. Because yeah, she wants to be her real self and show people who she really is, but the distorted version of this is literally “baring it all” and there’s no way Rise would actually want this, no matter how flirty and flamboyant she is.

That is why, people interpreting Kanji to be gay (instead of bi) and Naoto to actually be trans misses the point for me. Especially for Naoto, imo being trans it’s like she actually gave up fighting for what she wants - being acknowledged for what she is, a female, child detective, but a full blown detective nonetheless.

Again, I do not mean to take away from anyone what their transmasc Naoto hc means to them, if you can gain something from that, more power to you. I myself am neither queer nor trans, so I won’t claim I can 100% empathize. But me being right in the midst of Naoto’s story and seeing how her shadow just tries its damn hardest to change itself cos “THAT’S THE ONLY WAY” makes me think her actually accepting herself as male misses the point.

Also as someone who also grew up liking more “masculine” things and often being mistaken for a boy, I can find myself in both characters a lot, even if I cannot 100% empathise.

Maybe this is also another thing why I personally dont enjoy the transmasc Naoto hc, bcs I’ve found myself in her shoes before and being told “you should have been a boy” quite often as a kid (even wanting to be one at some point), but being THAT young and just, giving up the fight for what you want to be just cos it’s “easier” to be man, I dunno, doesnt feel right to me, esp. in the narrative of the game.

Either way, I do love how the ambiguity on what the shadows actually are allow for many different interpretations. It’s awesome to see how many thoughts ppl have of this series (I havent even started on Adachi or Yousuke, or even the other games…), so I’d love to have discussions with fellow Persona (4) fans!

[cartoonicle]

The Twins’ Shadows

Since the beginning of Summer I have been getting into Persona so and I just love the dynamics and drama between the characters rather it is between friends or family. I just had to make shadows of Mariana and Brandon to express their true feelings rather they want it or not.

This is kind of like a Persona x Cursed Princess Club (Can you imagine) well actually more like Persona x CPC future than the actual series.

I plan to write one shot stories soon I just want to give a drawing and description.

Shadow Mariana- Mariana the Protector

Persona 4: The darkest part of Mariana formed from the most shameful parts of personality. There are some things she admits and some things she doesn’t. The truth is even though she loves her family the ones that aren’t assholes at least she has a bit of a resentment towards them even though she would never admit it and stuffs those personal opinions deep inside her where she hopes she can never see it again convincing her self that it’s for the best and those feelings aren’t real thus her shadow was born. She feels like she has to do everything for her family, from fighting for them, to seeing which friends are suitable or not, to speaking for them and doing everything to protect them; it’s a lot of pressure for such a young person but she thinks she’s the only one who can because everyone else in her family is either too nice, too trusting, too stupid, or too weak hearted; thus the hardening of the heart evolves.

Persona 5: Some time after Gwen and Frederick died the relationships people had with Mariana seemed to have faded over time whatever chance Blaine, Helena and Jesse had with Mariana had completely went out the window. Blaine did promise his brother to take care of his kids even if it meant enduring more of Mariana’s verbal abuse. Mariana has had a secret agenda to change to world since age nine and her shadow was born from the lack of relationship with others and her hatred towards the world. She believes that becoming powerful in magic and not in empires and respect can change everyone she deems evil in this world, no matter what she will change people’s minds.

Shadow Brandon- The Silent King

Persona 4: Everyone has a secret part of them that no one knows or won’t admit to, Even Brandon. Brandon has grown up always having everyone do everything for him, his family fights his battles for him, his sister plans his tactics of winning people over, some people talk for him, his cousins; everyone thinks that just because is nice and sweet like his mom and grandma he’s faint hearted and can’t stand up for himself, but in reality that’s not true; he gets annoyed with people like anyone else and the truth is he holds a grudge against some people like his sister does he just doesn’t show it. His shadow was formed from bottling all his emotions in: his annoyance towards his sister for thinking she has to do everything for him, his secret disdain on his mom and grandmother’s weak character, his cousins ignorant and above and beyond attitude and the cursed princesses club’s quick to judge and selfishness.

[wyrarollo]

Character/Persona/Design reference pages from the Persona 3 movies.

More underneath about how I got them and archival stuff.

Never seen these posted anywhere on the internet before, but as an archivist, I snapped some quick photos. From my understanding, these are re-prints of reference images and sheets the animators used for all four of the Persona 3 movies. They were distributed in these blue, books almost? I know they have a proper name, but the one I got in my lot lacked one. It also came with multiple reprints of the og animation sketch cels. (I am a cel collector, while they are very good remakes/reprints, they are not the originals.)

I have several more pages to post, and eventually I plan to get hi res scans of them, its just a matter of finding time and a place to do so!

Just hope yall find this as interesting as I do!

[kumquats-are-gay]

Based on the Persona 4 shadow encounters each party member has. Did one for myself, it’s what I imagine my shadow would say. 🤷‍♀️ Didn’t mean for it to look THAT unhinged but oops. Hell yeah, time to expose personal feelings I’m not proud of !!

And after watching my friend play P4G for the first time (their first persona game in general) I’ve gotten back into the P4 brain rot. They still haven’t gotten the true ending tho lmao they failed the first time

[draconicdeityarts]

A concept for a shadow Haru.

[mysteriouslynn]

So I made the enemies for Personarune. We have Jack Frost and Pyro Jack/Jack-O-Lantern. A green snowman and a white headed pumpkin.