![Due to my distrust of the localization’s use of honorifics, I have decided to turn to Persona 3’s original Japanese for information on how the cast refer to each other. In my opinion, it is quite important for looking into these cultural nuances helps one understand the characters more, as well as get another perspective on the cast’s relationships. Ensuring the accuracy of this information would not have been possible without the help of EirlysTylluan, who was very helpful during the information gathering phase of this endeavor.
Information gathered here was taken from the drama CD, playthroughs of the original Japanese game, and the official manga. The MC is not included in the infographic due to his nature as a silent protagonist. Koromaru, on the other hand, is also out of the graphic for more obvious reasons.
An analysis of the infographic follows under the cut, as well as more name trivia, including how the rest of the cast refers to the two omitted cast members.
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Fuuka and Ken are very polite, never addressing anyone without an honorific. The former might be because of her upbringing, while the latter is understandably the youngest in the crew, so the respect is a given.
In addition, Ken’s use of “boku” also emphasizes his general deference to others, as “boku” is a less aggressive way of referring to oneself as a guy, as compared to “ore” which is more assertive. “Boku” is also commonly used by younger males, so this should not come as a surprise.
The whole “no honorific” thing is not only limited to Mitsuru, and seems to be the norm among the Senpai of S.E.E.S.
Junpei has nicknames for his peers, though strangely has none for Fuuka. He calls Chidori “Chidorin” on occasion, though for the most part he calls her “Chidori” without any honorifics.
Mitsuru and Yukari eventually move to first name basis after Mitsuru’s Persona evolves.
Shinjirō calls Mitsuru by her first name at one point in time in the drama CD, though that may have been a slip of the tongue.
The fact that Akihiko and Shinjirō are on nickname basis with each other highlights a history together, with their choice of reference alluding to a long-time friendship—though of course this might be common knowledge by now.
Aigis always addresses people with “-san”, probably because it was programmed into her. She does seem to have a sense of who her peers are, for she uses the first name plus “-san” combo with those in her year level, and sticks to surname plus “-san” for everyone else. Mitsuru seems to be the exception to the latter rule, probably because she was developed by the Kirijō Group and the name reference is deference to the fact that she is a younger Kirijō.
Yukari switches between “watashi” and “atashi” a fair number of times, and it would seem that she favors the former when speaking to her seniors, and the latter with her peers, as she tones down her formality when around them.
No one calls Ken by his first name. Lmao.
People are not very consistent when referring to Koromaru, though “Koromaru” and “Koro-chan” are favorites among the cast. Only Aigis calls Koromaru “Koromaru-san”.
Regarding the MC, given the name “Arisato Minato”, Aigis refers to him as “Minato-san”. Mitsuru and Akihiko call him “Arisato”. Yukari goes for “Arisato-kun”, whereas Fuuka uses “Leader”. It is quite difficult to pinpoint what exactly the whole cast uses, for the Japanese have a habit of dropping the pronouns or names when it is obvious who they are referring to. If we were to infer how the rest of the cast refers to the MC, for Ken it would be “Minato-san”, for Junpei it would be “Leader”, and for Shinjirō it would be “Arisato”.
Interestingly, Akihiko refers to Junpei as “Junpei”. It’s quite interesting because the only other people he refers to by first name are Mitsuru and Shinjirō, and the rest of the cast are relegated to a surname-only naming scheme. Such address implies a degree of informality, though funnily, Junpei does not reciprocate by calling Akihiko by his first name without honorifics. This can be attributed to how rare it is for juniors to address their seniors outside their surnames plus a suffix, because otherwise is usually seen as disrespectful.
EDIT: An extension to the original post: http://dimensionslip.tumblr.com/post/48419734998/cecilmurdock-dimensionslip-due-to-my](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9c93faef521596b9a6c6aaa4b91b8344/tumblr_mliflvtOHZ1r8x55lo1_500.jpg)
Due to my distrust of the localization’s use of honorifics, I have decided to turn to Persona 3’s original Japanese for information on how the cast refer to each other. In my opinion, it is quite important for looking into these cultural nuances helps one understand the characters more, as well as get another perspective on the cast’s relationships. Ensuring the accuracy of this information would not have been possible without the help of EirlysTylluan, who was very helpful during the information gathering phase of this endeavor.
Information gathered here was taken from the drama CD, playthroughs of the original Japanese game, and the official manga. The MC is not included in the infographic due to his nature as a silent protagonist. Koromaru, on the other hand, is also out of the graphic for more obvious reasons.
An analysis of the infographic follows under the cut, as well as more name trivia, including how the rest of the cast refers to the two omitted cast members.
Read More
I blame this post and this post.
Headcanon: Besides Twitter, Fuuka and Jin had Tumblr accounts and mutually followed each other before the whole Strega mess started. Jin was Tumblr-famous and had more followers than Fuuka, but was quite nice to Fuuka, if a bit of an insufferable genius. They send each other ask memes, more so Fuuka than Jin though.
Their interactions started to lessen during the days leading up to the Chariot/Justice battle, with Jin being unresponsive to Fuuka’s messages. They stopped interacting after that incident, though they still followed each other for the sole purpose of keeping tabs on each other.
Also on the eve of January 31st, Jin sent an email to Fuuka confessing all his inner thoughts throughout the past months as well as his account details in the event he did not survive his encounter with them. However, when Fuuka opens her inbox and discovers the email on the morning of February 1st, she more or less deletes it without reading, thinking it was spam due to the unfamiliar handle, all thanks to the post-Fall aversion memory wipe.
maniaccatscrawlings:
dimensionslip:
maniaccatscrawlings:
dimensionslip:
maniaccatscrawlings:
Headcanon: Not only does Akihiko uses Internet Explorer to surf the Net, his main search engine of choice is…….BING. Fuuka punches the wall in her room in frustration when she finds out about this.
Additional: Akihiko also owns a MacBook, but after the initial boot and being basically unable to adjust to it, it quietly sits inside a box in his room. Fuuka punches another section of her bedroom wall when she finds out about this.
*SCREAMS*
Akihiko pronounces stuff like GIFs and JPEG by spelling them out one-by-one, sometimes types out announcements/notices for the Boxing Club in Comic Sans or Jokerman to make them “look more exciting” and installs one too many useless toolbars in the Internet Explorer browser, causing the dorm’s computer to take 1 minute just to load a webpage.
Fuuka pasted a photo of Akihiko on her wall to punch her heart out until said wall started to crack and chip off. She puts a pretty floral calendar over that section of the wall to hide the damage.
In addition to her Twitter account, Fuuka has a Tumblr and there was one time that she was tempted to check it in the lounge. Her dashboard loads to a post that Jin reblogged—only that it was something ecchi and as fate would have had it Akihiko happened to be glancing over her shoulder that very moment to ask a question about adding transitions to a powerpoint presentation.
Things have been awkward since then, and Fuuka never checks her Tumblr in the lounge anymore. Also, a wall clock now covers another section of the wall which has been sacrificed for Fuuka’s ideals.
OMG
Fuuka’s Tumblr is full of technology news and Mori Girl fashion. She follows Jin because the dude provides some really good tech info and reviews, despite the occasional manga porn he reblogs.
When Akihiko saw that ecchi post, he thought that Fuuka was into chicks and awkwardly (in a big-brotherly way) says that Fuuka can like whatever she wants as long as she doesn’t watch “stuff like that” in public because it is indecent and unladylike, despite her flustered protests that she isn’t like that. That night, Fuuka complained about that to Yukari in Yukari’s room while eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream, while Yukari soothes her and brushes Fuuka’s hair with a hairbrush.
In addition, Akihiko does not delete his search history and the pages he visits consist of tips on how to interact with women, if not boxing tips or protein shake recipes. However, there was a time he clicked a website which lead to a virus and made his browser redirect to a porn site every few minutes.
Fuuka helped in removing the virus, though not without gentle reproach on the merits of properly checking the websites one visits.
maniaccatscrawlings:
dimensionslip:
maniaccatscrawlings:
Headcanon: Not only does Akihiko uses Internet Explorer to surf the Net, his main search engine of choice is…….BING. Fuuka punches the wall in her room in frustration when she finds out about this.
Additional: Akihiko also owns a MacBook, but after the initial boot and being basically unable to adjust to it, it quietly sits inside a box in his room. Fuuka punches another section of her bedroom wall when she finds out about this.
*SCREAMS*
Akihiko pronounces stuff like GIFs and JPEG by spelling them out one-by-one, sometimes types out announcements/notices for the Boxing Club in Comic Sans or Jokerman to make them “look more exciting” and installs one too many useless toolbars in the Internet Explorer browser, causing the dorm’s computer to take 1 minute just to load a webpage.
Fuuka pasted a photo of Akihiko on her wall to punch her heart out until said wall started to crack and chip off. She puts a pretty floral calendar over that section of the wall to hide the damage.
In addition to her Twitter account, Fuuka has a Tumblr and there was one time that she was tempted to check it in the lounge. Her dashboard loads to a post that Jin reblogged—only that it was something ecchi and as fate would have had it Akihiko happened to be glancing over her shoulder that very moment to ask a question about adding transitions to a powerpoint presentation.
Things have been awkward since then, and Fuuka never checks her Tumblr in the lounge anymore. Also, a wall clock now covers another section of the wall which has been sacrificed for Fuuka’s ideals.
maniaccatscrawlings:
Headcanon: Not only does Akihiko uses Internet Explorer to surf the Net, his main search engine of choice is…….BING. Fuuka punches the wall in her room in frustration when she finds out about this.
Additional: Akihiko also owns a MacBook, but after the initial boot and being basically unable to adjust to it, it quietly sits inside a box in his room. Fuuka punches another section of her bedroom wall when she finds out about this.
