In Character InformationName: Kanji Tatsumi
Series: Persona 4, Persona 4 Arena
Canon Standing: After waking up in the TV world during the events of Arena, right before meeting Yosuke.
Age: 15
Birthday & Astrology Sign: January 19th, Capricorn
Arcana: The Emperor
Personality:
He is the king-hearted sewing-loving human-bulldozer.
To understand Kanji better, one must first look at his past and know that inside, he is an individual who actually doesn't enjoy violence unless it's necessary (or a competition). Yeah, trust me, you'd never know this seeing him. He follows his mother's strict curfew to the letter and cares deeply about those he has formed bonds with. It would be hard to guess that Kanji's hobbies are sewing, knitting and Hawaiian Quilts (I don't know why Hawaiian specifically either). Actually, like a lot of the members of the Seekers of Truth, Kanji's personal life would be hard to guess when he's involved. Making it worse is that he desperately wants to be accepted for who he is, and fears rejection. It is something he has been fighting with all his life and he understands he will continue to have those problems for a long while.
That's mostly due to a few events in his life which shaped him up to where he is now. Like all members of his team, he comes with an excessive baggage that gets slowly unwrapped as you play the game. Kanji's main problem is, however, wanting to be a man while he feels what he is doing is too 'girly'. Basically, enjoying what is typically thought as female activities (cooking, cleaning, sewing) in traditional Japan that isn't as accepting of guys doing that. It caused him to lash out at everyone in an attempt to prove that he was a real man, but in the end left him with everyone being afraid and leaving him alone and even questioning his sexually after he met Naoto, had a small crush on her and thought she was a guy. And do to his previously mentioned fear of rejection, it made him extremely jumpy and hateful. For a time, anyway.
Thankfully, like all of his team, Kanji's biggest personality turning point was facing his own Shadow. After realizing his own faults and problems and accepting himself for who he was, the real Kanji started to emerge and the people who ended up helping him became good friends. They found someone who was surprisingly polite and caring. Those close to him could finally get to to see more of Kanji for who he really is. Oh and his crush on Naoto never left him, even when he found out he was a she. He tends to blush whenever he gets too nervous around her. Too bad she's rather clueless herself in that department...
Kanji is...sometimes not very bright. Falling asleep, then tripping inside the TV world, THEN believing it was just all a totally sweet and awesome dream? Very few guys could pull it off like he did. He tries, really, but he's what you might call 'sometimes a wee bit over his head'.
Surprisingly, despite skipping so many classes and being terrible in most subjects, Kanji apparently holds promise. Yu mentions that it is just his perceived image of what a man should be that he blocks himself from reaching his true potential. Too bad it can't stop him from falling inside TV sets. And this is true in many things - instead of taking what should be an easier path, Kanji will sometimes ask himself WWAMD (What would a Man Do) which does lead to him making some less than useful decisions (like punching out entire biking gangs in his neighborhood because the noise they made woke up his mother who couldn't sleep). However, he will have incredibly bright flashes of intuition, such as being the first to put on his glasses when they notice the fog has been appearing in the real world. These are, however, offset by all the things he DOESN'T do.
Thankfully if problems are replaced with things he actually understands, such as sewing and knitting, he can draw really good parallels.
For hiding all those skills away for so long, Kanji's actually been coming out of his shell in that aspect as well. Not only because of Yu's help, but taking his cues on how Naoto is dealing with similar problems. Kanji really respects his older classmates, calling then all senpei, despite Yosuke's constant teasing of him. He's been giving lessons to the nearby neighbors in sewing and knitting, and his dolls are being sold regularly in the family textile factory. He's actually pretty damn happy and proud of this fact. Not bad for a guy that a year ago barely had any friends and could only respond by being threatening.
And look threatening he does when Kanji wants to be, especially around authority figures (old habits are hard to shake off, after all), but he surprisingly speaks politely to his seniors and his friends. Of course when he's surprised or flushed he tends to go back to old habits, for example, he will call his mother Old Hag when he's angry with her, but then goes right back to calling her Mom. Considering he hadn't had any good friends for a long while, he is really protective of them. In fact...to those who listen he won't stop talking about them. If anyone on his team gets threatened, he'll be there to crack some skulls, despite his hate of violence in general. It's just his natural protective streak...not to mention the fact he is easy to get riled up.
Backstory:
Once upon some murders happen in rural Japan it was pretty special and then
some tournament happened in an "arena" but Kanji just thought it was a dream and still thinks he is dreaming.
Canon Powers:
>>Persona: Since these get changed in the game, this does not need to be detailed here
>>
Punching (Strike) Kanji has a pretty mean punch.
Canon Weapons|Items:
Chairs: (Strike) These are your typical chairs you might find anywhere. Made of metal, he has a few on hand in his apartment. They don't break easily and are useful for whacking things.
Perun Plate : (Strike, Lightning) This is a fancy item that Kanji carries around. It looks like a mirror and is near impossible to break. The weapon also increases his lighting powers by 25%
Canon Baggage:
- A lot of sewing materials including his sewing machine, yard, pretty frilly things...
- His wardrobe
- Toiletries including his hair dye (enough to last him for maybe a few months)
- Around 20 knitted toys that he made himself.
-
A copy of when he was on TV that Yu madePersona[TAKE-MIKAZAUCHI]LVL (2) |
EMPERORWEAK: Wind, Mind | REFLECTS: N/A | ABSORBS: Lightning | BLOCKS: Physical | RESISTS: EarthCOMBAT SKILLS▶ Cruel Attack (Inflicts a medium amount of Physical damage on one enemy with even greater power on Downed enemies.)
▶ Rakukaja (Increases an ally's Defense.)
▶ Mazionga (Inflicts a medium amount of Lightning damage on all enemies)
▶ Power Charge (The next normal attack, physical skill, or Almighty physical attack will be 2.5 times greater in power. Self.)
▷ Ziodyne (Inflicts a large amount of Lightning damage on one enemy)
▷ Vile Assault (Inflicts a large amount of Physical damage on one enemy with double the power on Downed enemies.)
▷ Heat Riser (Increases an ally's Attack, Defense and Agility)
▷ YOU WANT SOME?! (50% chance of inflicting the Fear, Confusion or Rage ailment on all enemies.)
★ The Man Series: Brofist (Inflicts a large amount of lightning and physical damage on one enemy up to three times.)
PASSIVE SKILLS▶ Apt Pupil (Doubles the chance of delivering a Critical Hit.)
▷ Lightning Amp (Increases Lightning damage output by 50%.)
▷ Resist Wind (Reduces damage from Wind attacks. Voids weakness to Wind.)