The eighth episode of Persona Stalker Club, hosted by popular Persona fans in voice actress Tomomi Isomura and freelance writer Mafia Kajita, is a special one that took place during Tokyo Game Show 2014, which was held last month. What could they have been up to?
[Note: skip towards the bottom of the post for the special segment on Persona 5.]
The episode starts off with the two at the Makuhari Messe, where the event is held each year, and they begin out by going around looking for fans who might know about Persona Stalker Club.
Before going into the Tokyo Game Show events, the program takes a look at a few fan letters from various fans across Japan. Kajita jokes about how most of the fan mail seems oddly positive and grateful, to which Isomura says that it’s probably because of all the work that awaits.
One fan mentioned how he accidentally bought “Persora – The Golden Best,” an album based off the fan-favorite “soramimi” antics from Issochi and Kajita, instead of the actual “Persona – The Golden Best” album. The two hosts had a good laugh over how he fell for the gag, but he seemed grateful to have learned about the show that way nonetheless.
In the next segment at 7:20, the duo returns to their quest of looking for fans who might be familiar with the show. However, the catch is that they’ll ask the so-called fans various questions about the show, and getting the wrong answer means having to get a taste of the meat-flavored gum.
The first person they find is an Akihiko cosplayer. He claims to be a fan from the very first episode, so they ask him what’s under Izanagi’s “zipper” which he got wrong, and has to suffer the taste of failure, which includes 20% more meat for the very special occasion.
The punishment backfires, however, as “Nikuhiko sempai” (niku=meat) actually ends up liking the gum. Following him, the next group of cosplayers ends up getting their question wrong as well, and even the Chie cosplayer does her best to show how much she liked the gum.
The following group gets it right, but they choose to get a taste of the gum out of curiosity, and oddly enough, they actually like it, too… well, except for the idol in Rise.
In the next corner, the hosts answer various Persona-related questions from fans, with the first one asking what’s up with Aigis’ legs and how she manages to put on shoes and why her creator didn’t make her more human-like in those parts.
According to Kajita, he’s been curious whenever he saw Aigis dressed in her school outfit, wearing shoes and socks. According to Atlus, she has a feature on her ankles that allows for optional equips. When her feet are pointy, it’s to increase movement speed and jumping power, similar to “Bambi or a horse”.
Isomura jokingly mentions that it was probably just because they got too lazy to draw the rest of her, so they just decided to give her straight legs.
The next question is another one is another question about Aigis, where a fan asks if her breasts and other parts are soft, because he gets the impression that they’d be hard, considering that she’s an android.
Atlus says that she’s been provided with extra defense to be able to defend against all kinds of attacks that you would expect from fighting against Shadows, but otherwise, she was originally “modeled” after humans. So, it seems like it’s up to the fans to decide.
Apparently, that is also a question that is most asked by companies that create Aigis models.
The following question points out that Junpei wears a cross in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, which resembles the one Chidori wore on her head, and asks if there’s any relation. Atlus says that it’s actually a necklace from Chidori’s favorite apparel brand, which she gave to Junpei as a gift.
Next, at 19:35, they go around asking various fans who their favorite male and female characters are. The top three favorites for male characters went from third to first with Kanji, Adachi, and Yu. The female top three is a tie between Rise and Mitsuru for third, Chie in second place, and Nanako with the top votes.
Then, at 21:14, they show a collection of various Persona cosplayers.
The 22:10 mark is the fan-favorite segment of “soramimi” with mangled lyrics to Persona songs. The first track from Persona 3 actually doesn’t have lyrics in the original soundtrack, so they ask singer and rapper Lotus Juice to share it over Twitter sometime.
However, it definitely sounds like it’s saying “shoyu, gohan gawari” (soy sauce instead of rice). Staff member Matsumoto appears once again, and he even has a side of his favorite choco cornet as a side dish.
The next track is from “Light the Fire Up in the Night ‘Mayonaka’” from Persona Q, where the lyrics say “in this vast gloomy night sky“ but it sounds like “Iindesuka? Sutoroberii naidesuka?” (Is it okay? Would you happen to have strawberry [flavor]?)
Following, is Isomura’s original soramimi for Persona Q’s “Light the Fire Up in the Night ‘Kagejikan’”. The original lyrics say “light that path whenever it’s dark,” which Isomura hears as “Rei-chan, panusto de ireba iisa” (Rei-chan, you should wear some pantyhose).
The last one is another from “Light the Fire Up in the Night ‘Mayonaka’” from Persona Q, where Isomura hears the “gloomy night sky” part as “moobii, naisu taitsu!” (Movie, nice tights!).
In the next part of the program, the two hosts take the show live on Atlus’ stage during Tokyo Game Show 2014, where they start out with a look at Etrian Odyssey Untold II’s latest trailer at 35:28, followed by some gameplay. They then share a little on Persona 4: Dancing All Night at 39:00.
A vote was held regarding “if you could dance with one of these characters, which would it be?” with the result of: Kanji (18.8%), Yosuke (24.3%), and Chie (56.8%).
Finally, they end the program with the part fans have all been waiting for: Persona 5. They start out with a look at the recent teaser trailer at the 45:00 mark, as an opportunity to share their thoughts and theories on what the game will be about.
After showing the clip, Isomura says that she’s already seen that video dozens of times, while Kajita adds that he’s seen it so much that he could throw up (in a good way!), too. Unfortunately, Atlus didn’t show any gameplay as they had hoped, but they discuss the trailer nevertheless.
According to Isomura, the blue train shown at the beginning passes through an area that looks exactly like a route she takes from south Shinjuku back to Shinjuku after her voice acting training lessons. The last bit is also Shibuya, so they say that it’s safe to assume that it’ll take place in Persona version of metropolitan of Tokyo.
Kajita points out that the character who appears to be the main character of Persona 5 is shown looking at news bulletins in the train that show all kinds of atrocious news.
He continues by saying that past games of the series focused on themes like the “Apathy Syndrome” in Persona 3, but judging by the messages on the train, it looks like Persona 5 might face more realistic problems, such as incidents of bullying and suicide.
Isomura also points out that the protagonist’s big glasses reminds her of the latest trend seen worn by models, and such, so it looks like he might be pretty fashion-conscious. On the subject of glasses, Kajita says that Persona 4 had a theme of glasses, so maybe this could possibly be an ongoing theme with Persona 5, but Isomura on the other hand, believes that it didn’t seem to be much of a focus, so it seems unlikely.
They then joke about saying that the protagonist could be wearing glasses to not stand out as much, but when he feels like looking good, he could take them off to say, “can I be hot now?”
Next they point out the part at the end of the trailer, where they flames are reflecting on the protagonist’s glasses, with a shadow that looks evil.
Isomura’s theory is that the scene looks like it could be when he first summons his Persona, as you could see him noticing something and looks around the crowd. She says that it’s almost as if he “found” someone, and it could be a Shadow that was hidden within somebody in the bustling streets.
The episode then ends with the Midnight Station corner, which shows the latest of products and events of all-things-Persona, followed by a thank you message from the show to all the fans and those who participated in the episode during Tokyo Game Show.
After a long and busy episode, Isomura and Kajita say they feel like they ranked up their Social Link with the viewers.
