Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we discuss the wasted potential of our favourite
waifus.
I've had Persona on the brain a lot lately, and watching this great video series dissecting
P5's characters from a Japanese cultural perspective, the discussion of how Ann is handled in the
immediate aftermath of the opening arc got me thinking about how jarring that part really
is again and how it could have easily been handled better.
To recap, Ann Takamaki (best Phantom Thief girl fight me) is a mixed race highschooler
who is being sexually harassed by her teacher, Kamoshida, along with her best friend Shiho.
The abuse reaches the point where Shiho attempts to end her own life. This gives the fledgling
Phantom Thieves the drive they need to change Kamoshida's heart even with the risk of killing
him, and Ann joins the team to help take the abuser down. Ann's perseverance is genuinely
inspiring and the game takes its story very seriously in this arc. There's a reason this
arc is generally seen as the strongest in the game.
Then, in the very next arc, Ann is blackmailed by Yusuke into posing nude for a painting
and the entire thing is played for laughs. Again, right after the game took her sexual
exploitation very fucking seriously. And yes, Ann dressing up in an obscene number of layers
to buy herself time is a funny bit, but the placement of this story is all wrong. It's
about on par with having Ann's dramatic awakening immediately precede a fight against a demon
on a fucking toilet. And on top of that, it's astoundingly out-of-character for Yusuke,
who typically seems generally oblivious towards the opposite sex, and not nearly as aggressive
as he's presented here. Coming back to this scene after getting to know Yusuke, it seems
totally alien for his character to be doing this.
So, I have one change for each character to make this part work a little better. It doesn't
fix it entirely, but I'm not sure you could do that without a total rewrite of the scenario,
especially since Ann's plight here is also used to introduce the concept of secure locations
in the real world being impenetrable in the Metaverse and how to get around that.
First, we have Yusuke. Again, this whole sequence feels totally wrong for him, given how he
is characterised in every other scene he is a part of. What we're going to say is that
there is an external force compelling him to act this way. Yusuke is being pressured
into doing a nude painting, either by Madarame, who understands the value of such pieces and
wants to exploit Yusuke for his upcoming exhibition; or Yusuke is taking part in some art competition
and nudity is pivotal to the theme, if only from Yusuke's later-established limited understanding
of art and beauty.
This way, this bizarre character turn feels less jarring because he's not taking the initiative
to do this. He's being pressured into making this rather intimate art piece that he struggles
to do, since he's quite awkward and hasn't been able to secure a model due to that. In
his desperation, he is compelled to abuse this leverage he has over Ann. He will, of
course, later apologise to her over this and she'll forgive him because she understands
what it's like to be backed into a corner where you feel like you don't have any other
choice. This helps to strengthen her own characterisation as well by showing off her empathetic side
some more.
Given how important the concept of forgiveness evidently is in Japan, based on how often
characters are just abruptly forgiven for heinous acts, it seems shockingly rare for
them to actually apologise and seek forgiveness and redemption themselves, instead of just
being handed it on a silver platter by the people who have suffered because of them!
As for the other alteration, the way Ann is forced into this by the writers would also
change. Instead of Ryuji very casually saying, "Welp, guess you gotta," and Joker's only
option being to wish her luck, we'll have Ryuji and Joker be very reluctant to ask her
to go through with this because of recent events, even if it is their best option at
that point. Ryuji can say, "Hey, you don't have to do this" and Joker says, "We can find
another way," but Ann will say, "No, I can do this," with fierce determination. This
changes the scene from Ann being exploited again and creating an astoundingly tone-deaf
scenario, to her deciding for herself that she will go through with this, showing her
growth from the previous arc by finding the determination to go through this to save Madarame's
victims, including the one trying to coerce her right now, and reclaiming her sexuality
in some way.
We can still keep the multiple layers of clothing bit, though, since, in addition to being a
funny bit, it also works as Ann thinking outside the box to buy herself time. Maybe we can
even slip in something of Ryuji's and Joker's to Ann's clothing collection to suggest the
boys helped her a little here.
It's not perfect, but I think a small change like this would help a lot, and is the type
of thing the team should absolutely have considered in Royal, along with cutting or reworking
the girls beating up Ryuji for no reason that one time, instead of more pointless faffing
around with Yoshizawa.
You know, the rereleases are a great opportunity for the devs to look back over the story and
consider, "Could this have bene done better?" "Is this thing a bit of a problem?" "Does
this makes sense with how the characters end up being developed later on?" and working
to make the core experience of P5 better, instead of just setting up the new story arc
that, as I've said before, would've bene better served as a separate game, where we would
have more time to actually explore that narrative.
Still, for all P5 and Royal's faults, at least they didn't push Marie as a viable love interest,
so the writing is certainly improving...
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Today's recommended video is the aforementioned Ann Takamaki & Japanese Sociocultural Issues
by LadyVirgilia.
"And Ann-" Cos I saw in the script that it said "Ann join the team" last time I was going
over it. I put "Anns join the team." Multiple Anns? When did this happen? Why did no one
tell me? ?There can't possibly be two Anns!