adachimoe

[adachimoe]

wake up babes theres new adachi cabbage fan merch

(plus serph and hulkenberg)

[adachimoe]

Persona 4 anime sound drama CD #1, "I guess I'm not lucky after all"

Adachi isn't in this one at all (GIVE ME BACK THE HOUR I SPENT LISTENING TO THIS???) so this is not quite as in-depth lol. The drama adapts some of Yosuke's Social Link and also depicts August 15-20th in-game where the protag would either work at Junes or go to summer school with Kanji and Rise. It takes place concurrently with episodes 13/14 of the anime. (In episodes 13/14, the calendar shows the festival on the 20th and the watermelon on the 22nd, so the customer event must be on the 21st cause of the timing w/summer school.)

Yu, Chie, and Yukiko are hanging out at Junes while Teddie works at the shaved ice booth. Rise and Kanji aren't there because they got stuck in summer school. Yosuke thinks he's run into a bit of bad luck - he lost rock paper scissors and has to run the Junes customer appreciation event on Sunday. Yu, on the other hand, seems to have rather good luck. He offers to buy Yosuke a soda, and he's a lucky winner so he gets 1 free drink. Yosuke opens his soda and it's all shaken up, but Yu opens his and it's fine. (Like Yosuke's rank 4 SLink scene, two Mean Girl employees complain at Yosuke about their schedules.)

Yosuke goes over to the Dojima's to do summer homework with Yu. (This is combined with the segment from Yosuke's Social Link where they're in Yu's room, Yosuke asks him about The Goods, then Nanako comes up and mentions she is going to a friend's house.) Yosuke's bad luck comes up again, and he asks Yu if he knows a fortune teller. It turns out that Yu does, kind of.

Yu takes him to Tatsuhime Shrine where Margaret has a tent set up. She sits behind a cloth and has Aria of the Soul playing on a stereo lol. Yosuke thinks he was born under an unlucky star/planet sign, and asks if Margaret can do anything about his future. She very quickly replies that it's impossible. Rather than relying on her, she suggests Yosuke try to change himself, and points out of how Yu went through a lot this summer, pushed himself, and underwent change. She thinks Yosuke still doesn't see what's important, but new experiences will help him discover new truths.

One of the older girls who works at Junes, named Kazumi, calls Yosuke and says she can't work at Junes on the customer appreciation event day. To replace her, Yu and Chie end up agreeing to help, and Chie also volunteers Yukiko to come. (Kazumi is mentioned in Yosuke's SLink. The anime drama made her a character who Yosuke briefly interacts with.)

Come the actual day of the appreciation event, the Mean Girl duo from earlier hears that Kazumi doesn't have to work during the event, and they complain at Yosuke. (This incorporates the Yosuke Social Link scene with this where the girls shit talk Saki, his rank 7 scene, then Yu intervenes and says he feels bad for Saki.) The 2 girls leave work during the event, and Yu calls in Kanji and Rise to replace them. Since it's Sunday, the 2 of them won't be at summer school.

Yu boasts about Yosuke running the event to Nanako, and she thinks he's amazing, and that the roof is like some kind of amusement park. Yosuke downplays this, as he was only thinking of this as something he ended up doing cause he lost rock paper scissors.

During the limited time sale period, a stampede of women rush around Junes buying things that are on sale, and we lose both Teddie and Kanji, who Yosuke sent to die on the frontlines by assigning htem to herd customers around while him and Yu restock products. RIP in pieces, our fallen brothers in arms. After the sale period, Yosuke gives a speech about The Power of Friendship. Just like Margaret said, he didn't see what was important, but now he does. This whole time, he thought he was so unlucky, and that's all he could think about. But he has such good friends who show up and support him like this, and having them all here with him by his side makes him feel like the luckiest person ever.

...and then like 10 seconds later, it begins raining, and Yosuke realizes that his luck really is god awful.

[adachimoe]

In Chie's rank 4 social link, Takeshi, a boy she went to school with up until they went to different high school, appears and recognizes her. He asks her when she's going to graduate from being "the strong kid in the group", or the gakitaisho (the head brat). It's like a recurring character type - when you have a group of kids, there's always that one who's strongest fighter. Usually they're god awful at academics, sometimes they're a real cocky piece of shit, often they are good friends and stick up for the rest of the group. This description fits Kanji pretty well too.

Takeshi even remembers all of the various monikers she's had over the years. In kindergarten, Chie was part of a little kids gang (this is probably where Chie became known as a gakitaisho), during elementary school she was an ally of justice, and in middle school she was the warrior of the school lunch reformation. He assumes that nowadays, she's the protector of peace on earth. "To graduate from being gakitaisho" feels like another way of him asking her when she will grow up, or when will she get out of this phase.

The English version kinda has what Takeshi says backwards, as Takeshi instead asks when Chie will graduate *to being* king of the hill. King of the hill appears to be a translation of gakitaisho. This is likely based on the childhood playground game where you assert dominance over the other kids lol. I like this, it's pretty fitting haha. However, Takeshi now says "graduate *to*", meaning Chie is not yet the gakitaisho or the king of the hill. The meaning reverse and suddenly, he's asking when she's going to be the top dog, the strongest kid, etc!

[adachimoe]

oh, this reminds me of the "signs of love" sequence from visualive stage play. the gang splits up to go piece together info and figure out who the murderer is. instead of questioning people, protag-kun gets a bug catching net from margaret, then goes fishing

after, chie and yosuke approach him, they talk, then the scene goes immediately to them confronting adachi at junes lol...

did the sea guardian tell the protagonist who the murderer was???

i love the gag in the p4 anime where aika gives yu a free rainy day bowl after she hears about nanako's recovery, then naoto Very Seriously Talks about the case except you just hear yu's chopsticks clunking against his bowl in the background. he finishes the rainy day special for the first time, and is, mysteriously enough, shortly after able to identify adachi as the murderer.

the gang never would've solved the case if aika wasn't there... damn...

[adachimoe]

Investigation Team stuff from the dev corner in Persona Club P4

This was originally worded as a QA but I simplified it down to just what the dev responses were

Protag:

In Chie's SLink, the protag offers to "Do an impression of another Takeshi". In English, this was translated as "tell a joke". The "other Takeshi" is referring to Beat Takeshi / Takeshi Kitano.

The protag keeps a porno mag stash "that thing" under his futon. "That thing" remains under his futon even when he sleeps on top of it. Perhaps that's why he has random dreams about a random Social Link sometimes...

The protag isn't used to cooking since he has lived with his parents until shortly before the game started, but he's fairly good at it. Motherly, if you will.

The protagonist's knitting ability didn't improve much even after the ending of Kanji's rank 10 where he teaches him how to make a (frilly) animal oven mitt. The devs assume Kanji would like to keep teaching him, but the protag probably isn't interested in it. (In one of the dungeon chats with Kanji and Yosuke, it's mentioned that Tatsumi-ya sells frilly potholders, and the devs parenthesis'd the frilly part here in their response, suggesting the one the protag made with Kanji was also frilly. Show us the frilly animal potholder that the protagonist made, Atlus.)

Yosuke:

One of the cut scenes from P4 was Yosuke riding his bike right into the Samegawa

When Chie bought clothes w/Yosuke's money, she dipped into his scooter funds, so Chie thinks she did him a solid b/c scooter = dangerous (Book was from before Golden)

Yosuke dislikes tofu cause he thinks it's bland. He dislikes konjac jelly for the same reason.

He listens to popular and/or catchy music

Jiraiya's luck stat being so low is because the man is unlucky / has shit timing.

Chie:

Cats, such as the one on the school roof, are attracted to Chie because she smells like meat and/or carries around meat-related snacks

Aside from meat, Chie loves junk food like the croquette from Souzai and sweets/snacks from Shiroku

Chie's "club" is her practicing her own style of kung fu which she calls the Kung Fu Research Club. But on rainy days, it instead turns into the Meat Research Club.

Chie likes kung fu because she grew up around boys and watched stuff made for boys

Yukiko:

Yukiko doesn't like standing out, but wears red because Chie told her it looks good (iirc Yukiko says this if you pick her to go skiing with in Golden, but this book is from like 4 years before Golden)

Yukiko is banned from going grocery shopping because she mixes up all of the ingredients (when you meet her in Portable, she offers to help Kasai go grocery shopping, and Kasai is like "uhhhhhhhh")

Originally her rank 10 romance slink was going to uhh get pretty suggestive when the protag invited her on to his futon

Kanji:

Kanji picked out his necklace because he thought it was cool and he had no idea that it was a locket until his mom told him. Instead of perhaps a photo of his dead father, Atlus believes he's the kind of guy who would keep a photo of cute cat as like a mental wellness thing.

Kanji doesn't want to join the arts and crafts club at school cause he knows that his presence would frighten/upset the members, but he ironically has no idea that him standing outside their club room and staring in all of the time also scares the shit out of them

Kanji still hasn't figured out the answer to the "homework" that Naoto gave him, nor has Naoto told him the answer yet. (I believe this is referring to one of their dungeon chats? In the JP game, Naoto asks if Kanji has finished his "quiz" yet.)

Rise:

Rise helps out at the tofu shop mostly in the morning so she is free after school hence why she sometimes can be seen hanging around outside the store after school / on other days

Rise has been an idol for a little under 2 years. She has 2 photobooks and one of her songs was used in a CM. She doesn't have many photobooks or CDs yet cause she didn't start selling well until more recently.

Rise likes spicy food and cooks based on color rather than taste. She has tried to make red tofu before, but her grandma makes her use traditional recipes at the store.

Naoto:

Naoto isn't gifted at baking, she just made the other girls use a cookbook. (This is brought up by Rise during the Golden skiing trip, but again this book is from like 2008 or 2009.)

Naoto's real name is Naoto (gender neutral). Her parents didn't name her that way because they wanted to raise her as a boy, but rather they wanted to avoid naming her something feminine because they thought she would become a detective.

Naoto's girl uniform has a longer skirt than normal because it was picked out by Yakushiji, her grandfather's secretary.

Teddie:

Atlus has no idea how Teddie can make glasses, how his bear outfit works, or how his human form fits inside the bear. They call of this "Teddie Power" and for the bear suit, compare it to Schrodinger's Cat lol. (In the Golden fan book, they later said that Teddie makes the glasses using materials from an eyeglasses store in the TV World version of Inaba.)

Teddie has a cell phone that Yosuke bought for him. Teddie decorated out himself. Yosuke also pays for all of Teddie's other expenses, like his phone bill and his food.

Teddie mentions that since he's lived in the TV for a long time, he has ways of making himself feel at home. The devs suggest he has some kind of like, Teddie Cave or hut somewhere in the TV World that he resides in. Since getting a human form, he started living in Yosuke's closet instead. (Book was pre-Arena, before they actually showed Teddie living there lol)

Regrettably, there's no Adachi dev q+a in Persona Club P4 lol

[adachimoe]

O, btw - Aika delivering using real dishes, telling customers "leave the bowls there", customers paying on arrival, the thing on the back of her scooter in the anime, etc, is how some smaller restaurants deliver food:

You load a tray or box w/the dishes on the back on the bike and the mechanism on the back hangs the food upright so it doesn't spill while you drive around and make turns. When they're done eating, customers leave their dishes outside, and you come back later and retrieve them.

summary of the persona 4 anime sound drama "perfect delivery"

I cheated and skimped on details on the earlier tracks cause this is an hour long and tracks 1-3 are setup to get Yu into the situation he finds himself in on track 4 which is where it really begins.

I put it under a read more cause this is loooooooooong.

Tracks 1-3

Margaret turns into a wine aunt in the Velvet Room and accidentally admits she spilled wine on the Persona compendium. After a talk about making the hypothetical Glasses Arcana, she realizes that she's hungry and considers ordering delivery to the Velvet Room.

Meanwhile, Yu and Nanako make a bunch of croquettes to take to a picnic near the Samegawa with the rest of the Investigation Team. At the picnic, they find that they're the only ones who actually made any food. Yu asks where everyone else's stuff is. Chie says, "Any second now..." and right on cue, Aika shows up to deliver everyone's meat bowls from Aiya. Aika overhears that Yu made croquette and is curious about him being able to cook. Chie is surprised she's still there and it turns out none of these dorks have paid yet lol.

After Aika leaves, Rise takes note of Aika's interest in Yu's cooking, as if she has yet another competitor for Yu. Chie and Yukiko start talking about how neither of them really remember Aika from 1st year of school or remember if she was in their class. Later, when Yu comes home, he finds a letter from Aika asking him to come by Aiya, and it includes 10 vouchers for free meat bowls.

Track 4

Yu shows up at Aiya as requested and finds out that Aika kiiinda bamboozled him. She told her dad that she had a friend at school who could come and help work in the kitchen at Aiya while her mother's back is broken. Before Yu can clear up the misunderstanding, her father starts going on about how he didn't think Aika had friends and that she might get bullied, so he's super relieved that she has a good friend like Yu. Aika comes back from making her deliveries during this and goes to work in the kitchen.

Yu gives up on trying to explain anything to her dad and goes to help Aika (his first task: getting grease/oil off of a pan, good luck). He begins asking her about her dad being Chinese because of how he talks (Kyowago) but Aika tells him that no one there is actually Chinese and Yu has this moment of clarity where he's like "oh ok yeah". Aika has no idea why Yu is actually staying and helping, and thinks he's a weirdo when he replies with his usual "I am helping you because you need help"-esque speech.

Following Yu starting to work at Aiya, he sees Aika at school. He turns down invites to go out with Yosuke and Rise, then Aika shows up and calls him Narukami-san. He thinks that sounds too formal like he's a customer at the restaurant so she instead begins calling him Narukami-kun, and Rise loses her mind.

Track 5 ADACHI ALERT I REPEAT ADACHI ALERT BEEP BEEP WAKE THE FUCK UP

At Junes, Adachi is being held by security (I assume...? this person isn't really identified or given a name or title, but contextually...) cause he's been suspected of being a shoplifter lol. Namely, Adachi was moving around all suspiciously inside of the store. Adachi insists this is all a big misunderstanding - there seems to have been a lot of shoplifting lately at Junes, and he is just, y'know, being cautious and whatnot, and patrolling. A-At Junes. (Adachi is totally slacking off at Junes but this actually turns into something later lol)

Regardless, security finds him to be the most suspicious ass person at Junes, and despite Adachi saying "I'm a cop!", he conveniently forgot his police ID which just makes him look even more suspicious. Dojima then shows up and bails Adachi out, bringing Adachi's police ID for him. He apologizes to the security person -- who of course is in disbelief that Adachi is actually a cop lol -- about whatever bullshit Adachi has done and drags him out of the room they're in, to the main area of Junes. Dojima scolds him, and questions if Adachi reaaaaaaally saw someone suspicious in Junes. Adachi claims that why yes of course duh obviously there was. Junes will be safe for Nanako and Yu and blah blah.

Just then, Aika shows up with a delivery for Adachi. Dojima can't get over the fact that she's delivering to the middle of Junes. Adachi calls him old-fashion and explains that deliveries can be made anywhere~! Aika gets out a pork cutlet + egg bowl for Adachi, and Dojima asks why he ordered that. Adachi explains that being questioned put him in the mood for some, and Dojima is like... "u know, normally, detectives aren't the ones being questioned..........", and Adachi tells him to chill. Adachi asks if Aika brought the other thing too, which turns out to be a heaping side order of cabbage.

(This whole bit is a reference to an old 1960s-ish era detective TV drama trope where a suspect would confess to whatever they've done after being fed a bowl of pork cutlet. Ofc this is also >>implying something since Adachi is the real murderer and all, but generally speaking, I feel like pork cutlet is commonly served with cabbage?, so it goes with his character anyway. I think it's worth mentioning that the "hinting about Adachi being the murderer" thing was also in the other anime drama, May Fool, which has a part where Naoto tells a colleague, "I'm leaving for Inaba. The murderer there hasn't been caught yet", and then it immediately changes scenes to Adachi humming the Junes theme.)

Before she leaves, Aika says her usual, "Leave the empty bowls there" line, and Dojima - who is still in disbelief over all of this - asks where, exactly, you're supposed to leave the bowl. While Adachi eats, Dojima once more questions if he really saw a suspect or not. (Dojima's lines makes me think of Padme in that 4 panel Anakin and Padme meme...)

On the rest of track 5, Aika delivers to Daisuke and Kou, who are in the middle of running during practice, then goes back to the store. There's a very large order to deliver, and Aika can barely lift it, so her father suggests Yu deliver it instead. Aika gets kinda possessive over Yu taking her job. Yu compromises and suggests they deliver it together since he doesn't know the streets as well as her. On their way back, Yu asks Aika if she enjoys delivering. She tells him that ever since she started doing this, people have started calling her names like "Delivery Girl", and it makes her feel happy because she doesn't have anything else.

Track 6

Yu comes home and is greeted by Dojima and Nanako, who ordered from Aiya earlier. Dojima heard that Yu is working part time at Aiya and asks if he'll participate in the shopping district versus Junes relay race that takes place in 2 weeks. The neighborhood association asked Dojima to see if his nephew to do it since he's so athletic and whatnot. Yu agrees, saying the event is like, "Down with Junes".

At school, the group minus Chie and Yukiko eat lunch together, and Yu has brought chakinzushi which happens to be one of Rise's favorites. (In game, you can cook chakinzushi for lunch and it's one that'll give Rise bonus slink points.) Kanji heard about Yu joining in the relay, and Yu repeats the "Down with Junes!" mantra while shooting a dirty look at Yosuke lol. Kanji is in the relay cause his mom asked him. Rise's grandma also asked her to do it and she was originally going to say no, but knowing that Yu is running, she's going to say yes.

Yosuke is surprised at all of this cause he thought it would be an easy win for Junes if they only had to race a bunch of old dudes from the shopping district. Yosuke reveals that, gasp, he's the anchor leg runner for Junes, so Rise calls him an enemy spy and Yu begins muttering insults under his breath at him. After, Yukiko and Chie show up to lunch late cause they took Aika to the nurse's office after she injured herself during PE. They remark on how unexpectedly fast of a runner she is.

While working at Aiya, Aika tries to make a delivery with her injured leg, but her father tells her no. Eventually, Yu offers to give her a piggyback ride to the delivery destination so she can still "make" the delivery. Carrying her and the delivery box, he very quickly discovers how heavy meat bowls can get. Aika asks him why he's going this far for her. He has no idea, but he understands that this is really important to her.

Track 7

Teddie is helping(?) Yosuke, Kanji, Rise, and Yu train/exercise for the upcoming relay race. But instead of training, Yu is talking to Naoto about Aika. Naoto very quickly profiles her from what Yu has said about her and what Chie and Yukiko said about her on track 3. Before Aiya started doing deliveries in spring, Aika is someone who had no outstanding characteristics or qualities, thus no one really remembered her. But thanks to the deliveries, she has found her niche as the delivery girl, and she's serious about having "nothing" besides making deliveries. Teddie interrupts the Aika psychoanalysis by reminding Yu that he needs to train.

Naoki shows up and meets with the rest of the group as he is also on the shopping district team and is there to train with them. Yosuke talks about how recently, he feels like people in the shopping district have been looking at him funny, but he thinks it's his imagination / paranoia. Rise and Kanji tell him that, why no, you aren't imagining any of that. The neighborhood association is taking the race very seriously cause the shopping district has been on a decline for a while and has been losing in sales/profits to Junes. None of the shop owners can really do anything about that, but they *can* crush Junes in the relay race. (I appreciate the petty tbh.) Yu tells Yosuke that none of them hate him.......... even if he's the enemy. Yosuke decides that if the shopping district is taking this seriously, then Junes needs to up their game and take it seriously too.

Track 8

One week until the relay race, and Aika's leg has healed. The two are working together at Aiya, and Yu asks Aika about running in the relay race for the shopping district. Aika thinks about it, but before she can reply, her dad suddenly comes back and is very very excited about something. He's been thinking about moving and opening the restaurant elsewhere since the shopping district has been on a decline for a while now. He finally found a hidden gem of a location in a larger city and he's already put an advance down for the place. The new location is in a central area that will get lots of customers organically, thus they won't need to delivery anymore cause customers will come to them instead of having to go to them.

Since she won't need to deliver anymore, dad wants to improve Aika's skills in the kitchen so she can cook as fast as him to keep up with all of these new customers they're going to have. Aika tells her dad she feels unwell and excuses herself for the night. He tells her to rest up before she begins her training. Yu asks Aika again about the race, suggesting she makes a memory with everyone from the shopping district before she leaves. But Aika doesn't see the point of it and turns him down.

Track 9

The day of the race has come and tons of people are there to watch. Rise thinks it's cause soooo many people hate Junes, which she says while glancing at Yosuke. The shopping district team is Naoki, Rise, Kanji, Yu, and Daidara. Yosuke shows up with four "Secret Weapons" on the Junes team - Ai, Kou, Daisuke. Rise accuses Yosuke of cheating / having ringers since it's supposed to strictly be people associated with Junes and shopping district. But dohoho, Yosuke oh so conveniently and veeeeery recently got all of them part time jobs working in the food court. HmmmMM funny how that works out.

Ai starts complaining about having to work and having to run. Kou thinks doing stuff like this is okay once and a while, and tells Ai that she's in great shape and she looks like she's a good runner. Cause of Ai's complaining, Daisuke says he'll just run her leg for her, but due to Kou, Ai suddenly most certainly 100% definitely wants to participate now. Neither Kou nor Daisuke understand her sudden change of heart. The last member of Yosuke's team is Hanako, who's staff meals were more costly than her paycheck. Hanako justifies this as needing proper nutrition to maintain her legs so she can gallop like an antelope.

Chie and Yukiko show up and deliver the bad news: Daidara, the anchor leg runner for the shopping district, made so much art yesterday that he hurt his back and there's no way he can run today. The shopping district team suddenly finds themselves down a person. Chie offers to take his place, but it has to be someone associated with the shopping district. Yu thinks of Aika, and runs off to call her.

Track 10

Yu asks Aika to come and fill in at the relay. Aika refuses again, saying that she's nothing without deliveries. Yu tells her that doesn't matter: they don't need her to have something, they just need her. Yu has to go due to the race starting, but Aika reacts to the idea that she - as a person - is needed.

The race goes as follows:

Naoki vs Hanako: Naoki remarks on how Hanako is waaay faster than he'd think, but he ultimately pulls ahead of her and wins the 1st leg

Rise vs Ai: Teddie hijacks the sound system and starts playing True Story to support Rise. Rise claims to have superior stamina due to her idol training. Chie cheers on Ai even though she's the enemy. This pisses off Ai and she pulls ahead of Rise.

Kanji vs Kou: Yukiko suggests Naoto cheer on Kanji, so she very mildly and oh so meekly says, "G-Go, Ta-Tatsumi-k-kun". This causes Kanji to mentally turn into a Victorian schoolboy seeing a bare ankle for the first time, and he noticeably starts to slow down. Chie sees this and yells at him to focus up. Yukiko assumes that Naoto needs to support him more since Kanji started slowing down, so she encourages Naoto to this time wave at Kanji. Naoto does so, and Kanji collapses.

Yu vs Daisuke: Yu starts running late since Kanji fell but he starts gaining on Daisuke. Nanako cheers him on, and she's so cute that everyone around her also starts cheering for her big bro. Like, "C'mon big bro don't make this little girl cry". But even if Yu makes it, the shopping district has no anchor leg runner. Before Daisuke hands off to Yosuke, Chie BMs Yosuke and yells, "HEY HANAMURA! FALL OVER!" and people around her start laughing at him. As Yu approaches the hand off point, Aika finally shows up, and takes over running as the anchor leg.

Aika vs Yosuke: Even though Yosuke got a head start on her, Aika runs fast and starts gaining on Yosu--

ADACHI ALERT BEEP BEEP. Just then, Nanako and the other girls see Dojima and Adachi chasing someone down. Adachi very un-ethusiastically yells "Hold itttt" while running, then curses his poor luck that he should actually find a shoplifter while "patrolling". Dojima yells at Adachi that the shoplifter ran somewhere near / towards Adachi (yo this is hard w/o visual lol), and Adachi seemingly tackles/corners the guy, causing the shoplifter to fall over. Adachi is amazed that he was actually able to catch the guy, but acts big to Dojima, saying "well yeah ha ha of course I can do that much ha ha".

However, when the suspect collapsed, the stuff he stole had gotten dumped onto the ground all at once, and you hear the sound effects of stuff he had stolen falling out of bags and rolling around. Yosuke is heard derping around before falling due to some cans and other stuff. After, he asks why the hell there was a cabbage rolling around.

With Yosuke taken out, Yu encourages Aika to finish it, and she finishes the race, winning it for the central shopping district team. Everyone congratulates her and thinks she was amazing.

Track 11

In the aftermath, Yosuke mentions he got kinda scared there. Chie is like, "Hey it was fun, so, alls well that ends well :)" and Yosuke reminds her that she screamed at him to fall lol. Naoto comments about this being a form of kotodama. (I guess a more natural way to say this is like, Chie tells Yosuke, "Hey Hanamura, I hope you fall", then Yosuke later accuses Chie of jinxing him.)

Yukiko and Rise bring up that Aiya's relocation fell through through, and that Aika's dad likely fell for some kind of scam. Naoto comments that the land also got short sold, so there's a very small chance he'll even get his advance payment back. Due to this, Aika will have to work extra hard on her deliveries. Chie says, "Any second now…" and right on cue, Aika shows up to deliver everyone's meat bowls from Aiya, and she thanks the group for their continued patronage.

the enddd

[adachimoe]

summary of the persona 4 anime sound drama "perfect delivery"

I cheated and skimped on details on the earlier tracks cause this is an hour long and tracks 1-3 are setup to get Yu into the situation he finds himself in on track 4 which is where it really begins.

I put it under a read more cause this is loooooooooong.

Tracks 1-3

Margaret turns into a wine aunt in the Velvet Room and accidentally admits she spilled wine on the Persona compendium. After a talk about making the hypothetical Glasses Arcana, she realizes that she's hungry and considers ordering delivery to the Velvet Room.

Meanwhile, Yu and Nanako make a bunch of croquettes to take to a picnic near the Samegawa with the rest of the Investigation Team. At the picnic, they find that they're the only ones who actually made any food. Yu asks where everyone else's stuff is. Chie says, "Any second now..." and right on cue, Aika shows up to deliver everyone's meat bowls from Aiya. Aika overhears that Yu made croquette and is curious about him being able to cook. Chie is surprised she's still there and it turns out none of these dorks have paid yet lol.

After Aika leaves, Rise takes note of Aika's interest in Yu's cooking, as if she has yet another competitor for Yu. Chie and Yukiko start talking about how neither of them really remember Aika from 1st year of school or remember if she was in their class. Later, when Yu comes home, he finds a letter from Aika asking him to come by Aiya, and it includes 10 vouchers for free meat bowls.

Track 4

Yu shows up at Aiya as requested and finds out that Aika kiiinda bamboozled him. She told her dad that she had a friend at school who could come and help work in the kitchen at Aiya while her mother's back is broken. Before Yu can clear up the misunderstanding, her father starts going on about how he didn't think Aika had friends and that she might get bullied, so he's super relieved that she has a good friend like Yu. Aika comes back from making her deliveries during this and goes to work in the kitchen.

Yu gives up on trying to explain anything to her dad and goes to help Aika (his first task: getting grease/oil off of a pan, good luck). He begins asking her about her dad being Chinese because of how he talks (Kyowago) but Aika tells him that no one there is actually Chinese and Yu has this moment of clarity where he's like "oh ok yeah". Aika has no idea why Yu is actually staying and helping, and thinks he's a weirdo when he replies with his usual "I am helping you because you need help"-esque speech.

Following Yu starting to work at Aiya, he sees Aika at school. He turns down invites to go out with Yosuke and Rise, then Aika shows up and calls him Narukami-san. He thinks that sounds too formal like he's a customer at the restaurant so she instead begins calling him Narukami-kun, and Rise loses her mind.

Track 5 ADACHI ALERT I REPEAT ADACHI ALERT BEEP BEEP WAKE THE FUCK UP

At Junes, Adachi is being held by security (I assume...? this person isn't really identified or given a name or title, but contextually...) cause he's been suspected of being a shoplifter lol. Namely, Adachi was moving around all suspiciously inside of the store. Adachi insists this is all a big misunderstanding - there seems to have been a lot of shoplifting lately at Junes, and he is just, y'know, being cautious and whatnot, and patrolling. A-At Junes. (Adachi is totally slacking off at Junes but this actually turns into something later lol)

Regardless, security finds him to be the most suspicious ass person at Junes, and despite Adachi saying "I'm a cop!", he conveniently forgot his police ID which just makes him look even more suspicious. Dojima then shows up and bails Adachi out, bringing Adachi's police ID for him. He apologizes to the security person -- who of course is in disbelief that Adachi is actually a cop lol -- about whatever bullshit Adachi has done and drags him out of the room they're in, to the main area of Junes. Dojima scolds him, and questions if Adachi reaaaaaaally saw someone suspicious in Junes. Adachi claims that why yes of course duh obviously there was. Junes will be safe for Nanako and Yu and blah blah.

Just then, Aika shows up with a delivery for Adachi. Dojima can't get over the fact that she's delivering to the middle of Junes. Adachi calls him old-fashion and explains that deliveries can be made anywhere~! Aika gets out a pork cutlet + egg bowl for Adachi, and Dojima asks why he ordered that. Adachi explains that being questioned put him in the mood for some, and Dojima is like... "u know, normally, detectives aren't the ones being questioned..........", and Adachi tells him to chill. Adachi asks if Aika brought the other thing too, which turns out to be a heaping side order of cabbage.

(This whole bit is a reference to an old 1960s-ish era detective TV drama trope where a suspect would confess to whatever they've done after being fed a bowl of pork cutlet. Ofc this is also >>implying something since Adachi is the real murderer and all, but generally speaking, I feel like pork cutlet is commonly served with cabbage?, so it goes with his character anyway. I think it's worth mentioning that the "hinting about Adachi being the murderer" thing was also in the other anime drama, May Fool, which has a part where Naoto tells a colleague, "I'm leaving for Inaba. The murderer there hasn't been caught yet", and then it immediately changes scenes to Adachi humming the Junes theme.)

Before she leaves, Aika says her usual, "Leave the empty bowls there" line, and Dojima - who is still in disbelief over all of this - asks where, exactly, you're supposed to leave the bowl. While Adachi eats, Dojima once more questions if he really saw a suspect or not. (Dojima's lines makes me think of Padme in that 4 panel Anakin and Padme meme...)

On the rest of track 5, Aika delivers to Daisuke and Kou, who are in the middle of running during practice, then goes back to the store. There's a very large order to deliver, and Aika can barely lift it, so her father suggests Yu deliver it instead. Aika gets kinda possessive over Yu taking her job. Yu compromises and suggests they deliver it together since he doesn't know the streets as well as her. On their way back, Yu asks Aika if she enjoys delivering. She tells him that ever since she started doing this, people have started calling her names like "Delivery Girl", and it makes her feel happy because she doesn't have anything else.

Track 6

Yu comes home and is greeted by Dojima and Nanako, who ordered from Aiya earlier. Dojima heard that Yu is working part time at Aiya and asks if he'll participate in the shopping district versus Junes relay race that takes place in 2 weeks. The neighborhood association asked Dojima to see if his nephew to do it since he's so athletic and whatnot. Yu agrees, saying the event is like, "Down with Junes".

At school, the group minus Chie and Yukiko eat lunch together, and Yu has brought chakinzushi which happens to be one of Rise's favorites. (In game, you can cook chakinzushi for lunch and it's one that'll give Rise bonus slink points.) Kanji heard about Yu joining in the relay, and Yu repeats the "Down with Junes!" mantra while shooting a dirty look at Yosuke lol. Kanji is in the relay cause his mom asked him. Rise's grandma also asked her to do it and she was originally going to say no, but knowing that Yu is running, she's going to say yes.

Yosuke is surprised at all of this cause he thought it would be an easy win for Junes if they only had to race a bunch of old dudes from the shopping district. Yosuke reveals that, gasp, he's the anchor leg runner for Junes, so Rise calls him an enemy spy and Yu begins muttering insults under his breath at him. After, Yukiko and Chie show up to lunch late cause they took Aika to the nurse's office after she injured herself during PE. They remark on how unexpectedly fast of a runner she is.

While working at Aiya, Aika tries to make a delivery with her injured leg, but her father tells her no. Eventually, Yu offers to give her a piggyback ride to the delivery destination so she can still "make" the delivery. Carrying her and the delivery box, he very quickly discovers how heavy meat bowls can get. Aika asks him why he's going this far for her. He has no idea, but he understands that this is really important to her.

Track 7

Teddie is helping(?) Yosuke, Kanji, Rise, and Yu train/exercise for the upcoming relay race. But instead of training, Yu is talking to Naoto about Aika. Naoto very quickly profiles her from what Yu has said about her and what Chie and Yukiko said about her on track 3. Before Aiya started doing deliveries in spring, Aika is someone who had no outstanding characteristics or qualities, thus no one really remembered her. But thanks to the deliveries, she has found her niche as the delivery girl, and she's serious about having "nothing" besides making deliveries. Teddie interrupts the Aika psychoanalysis by reminding Yu that he needs to train.

Naoki shows up and meets with the rest of the group as he is also on the shopping district team and is there to train with them. Yosuke talks about how recently, he feels like people in the shopping district have been looking at him funny, but he thinks it's his imagination / paranoia. Rise and Kanji tell him that, why no, you aren't imagining any of that. The neighborhood association is taking the race very seriously cause the shopping district has been on a decline for a while and has been losing in sales/profits to Junes. None of the shop owners can really do anything about that, but they *can* crush Junes in the relay race. (I appreciate the petty tbh.) Yu tells Yosuke that none of them hate him.......... even if he's the enemy. Yosuke decides that if the shopping district is taking this seriously, then Junes needs to up their game and take it seriously too.

Track 8

One week until the relay race, and Aika's leg has healed. The two are working together at Aiya, and Yu asks Aika about running in the relay race for the shopping district. Aika thinks about it, but before she can reply, her dad suddenly comes back and is very very excited about something. He's been thinking about moving and opening the restaurant elsewhere since the shopping district has been on a decline for a while now. He finally found a hidden gem of a location in a larger city and he's already put an advance down for the place. The new location is in a central area that will get lots of customers organically, thus they won't need to delivery anymore cause customers will come to them instead of having to go to them.

Since she won't need to deliver anymore, dad wants to improve Aika's skills in the kitchen so she can cook as fast as him to keep up with all of these new customers they're going to have. Aika tells her dad she feels unwell and excuses herself for the night. He tells her to rest up before she begins her training. Yu asks Aika again about the race, suggesting she makes a memory with everyone from the shopping district before she leaves. But Aika doesn't see the point of it and turns him down.

Track 9

The day of the race has come and tons of people are there to watch. Rise thinks it's cause soooo many people hate Junes, which she says while glancing at Yosuke. The shopping district team is Naoki, Rise, Kanji, Yu, and Daidara. Yosuke shows up with four "Secret Weapons" on the Junes team - Ai, Kou, Daisuke. Rise accuses Yosuke of cheating / having ringers since it's supposed to strictly be people associated with Junes and shopping district. But dohoho, Yosuke oh so conveniently and veeeeery recently got all of them part time jobs working in the food court. HmmmMM funny how that works out.

Ai starts complaining about having to work and having to run. Kou thinks doing stuff like this is okay once and a while, and tells Ai that she's in great shape and she looks like she's a good runner. Cause of Ai's complaining, Daisuke says he'll just run her leg for her, but due to Kou, Ai suddenly most certainly 100% definitely wants to participate now. Neither Kou nor Daisuke understand her sudden change of heart. The last member of Yosuke's team is Hanako, who's staff meals were more costly than her paycheck. Hanako justifies this as needing proper nutrition to maintain her legs so she can gallop like an antelope.

Chie and Yukiko show up and deliver the bad news: Daidara, the anchor leg runner for the shopping district, made so much art yesterday that he hurt his back and there's no way he can run today. The shopping district team suddenly finds themselves down a person. Chie offers to take his place, but it has to be someone associated with the shopping district. Yu thinks of Aika, and runs off to call her.

Track 10

Yu asks Aika to come and fill in at the relay. Aika refuses again, saying that she's nothing without deliveries. Yu tells her that doesn't matter: they don't need her to have something, they just need her. Yu has to go due to the race starting, but Aika reacts to the idea that she - as a person - is needed.

The race goes as follows:

Naoki vs Hanako: Naoki remarks on how Hanako is waaay faster than he'd think, but he ultimately pulls ahead of her and wins the 1st leg

Rise vs Ai: Teddie hijacks the sound system and starts playing True Story to support Rise. Rise claims to have superior stamina due to her idol training. Chie cheers on Ai even though she's the enemy. This pisses off Ai and she pulls ahead of Rise.

Kanji vs Kou: Yukiko suggests Naoto cheer on Kanji, so she very mildly and oh so meekly says, "G-Go, Ta-Tatsumi-k-kun". This causes Kanji to mentally turn into a Victorian schoolboy seeing a bare ankle for the first time, and he noticeably starts to slow down. Chie sees this and yells at him to focus up. Yukiko assumes that Naoto needs to support him more since Kanji started slowing down, so she encourages Naoto to this time wave at Kanji. Naoto does so, and Kanji collapses.

Yu vs Daisuke: Yu starts running late since Kanji fell but he starts gaining on Daisuke. Nanako cheers him on, and she's so cute that everyone around her also starts cheering for her big bro. Like, "C'mon big bro don't make this little girl cry". But even if Yu makes it, the shopping district has no anchor leg runner. Before Daisuke hands off to Yosuke, Chie BMs Yosuke and yells, "HEY HANAMURA! FALL OVER!" and people around her start laughing at him. As Yu approaches the hand off point, Aika finally shows up, and takes over running as the anchor leg.

Aika vs Yosuke: Even though Yosuke got a head start on her, Aika runs fast and starts gaining on Yosu--

ADACHI ALERT BEEP BEEP. Just then, Nanako and the other girls see Dojima and Adachi chasing someone down. Adachi very un-ethusiastically yells "Hold itttt" while running, then curses his poor luck that he should actually find a shoplifter while "patrolling". Dojima yells at Adachi that the shoplifter ran somewhere near / towards Adachi (yo this is hard w/o visual lol), and Adachi seemingly tackles/corners the guy, causing the shoplifter to fall over. Adachi is amazed that he was actually able to catch the guy, but acts big to Dojima, saying "well yeah ha ha of course I can do that much ha ha".

However, when the suspect collapsed, the stuff he stole had gotten dumped onto the ground all at once, and you hear the sound effects of stuff he had stolen falling out of bags and rolling around. Yosuke is heard derping around before falling due to some cans and other stuff. After, he asks why the hell there was a cabbage rolling around.

With Yosuke taken out, Yu encourages Aika to finish it, and she finishes the race, winning it for the central shopping district team. Everyone congratulates her and thinks she was amazing.

Track 11

In the aftermath, Yosuke mentions he got kinda scared there. Chie is like, "Hey it was fun, so, alls well that ends well :)" and Yosuke reminds her that she screamed at him to fall lol. Naoto comments about this being a form of kotodama. (I guess a more natural way to say this is like, Chie tells Yosuke, "Hey Hanamura, I hope you fall", then Yosuke later accuses Chie of jinxing him.)

Yukiko and Rise bring up that Aiya's relocation fell through through, and that Aika's dad likely fell for some kind of scam. Naoto comments that the land also got short sold, so there's a very small chance he'll even get his advance payment back. Due to this, Aika will have to work extra hard on her deliveries. Chie says, "Any second now…" and right on cue, Aika shows up to deliver everyone's meat bowls from Aiya, and she thanks the group for their continued patronage.

the enddd

[adachimoe]

i love the gag in the p4 anime where aika gives yu a free rainy day bowl after she hears about nanako's recovery, then naoto Very Seriously Talks about the case except you just hear yu's chopsticks clunking against his bowl in the background. he finishes the rainy day special for the first time, and is, mysteriously enough, shortly after able to identify adachi as the murderer.

the gang never would've solved the case if aika wasn't there... damn...

[adachimoe]

Random translation / trivia stuff

As the title says, here are some completely random pieces of trivia stuff.

Queen Tut

In Golden, there's a question where Teddie asks:

Ms. Sofue, AKA "Queen Tut," always carries a rod. Which hand does she carry it with?

Why does the quiz game suddenly call her "Queen Tut"? In Japanese Persona 4, when you did Sofue's quests, they were named "Khamen's Extracurricular Activities" with Khamen being a nickname for Sofue derived from Tutankhamen. In the English game, Khamen was never translated to anything because the quests were shortened to "Extracurricular Activities". But in Golden, the Midnight Trivia quiz also calls her Khamen, and here it was translated as Queen Tut.

Btw, Persona Club P4 confirms that Sofue's older brother is Ono, the teacher with a samurai helmet from Persona 3. But it clarifies that he is her brother in law, hence why they have different family names.

Philemon

When Yosuke comes up with the mission to get scooters and pick up girls in Okina, he says that their pheromones will get them girls in no time. Kanji then asks, "Phi? Phile? Mon?", referring to Philemon (フィレモン), and Yosuke thinks he's saying filet mignon (フィレミニョン), so he replies, "No, not filet, are you Chie?"

In English, this was changed to Kanji mishearing it as "feral zone" and Yosuke asking if he's a cat. P1/P2 erasure, obviously. (I've never played P1/P2.)

Hosoi's "Ventriloquism"

During Hosoi's lesson in July, a female student asks him about a kanji in a book they're reading. In English, instead of "Female Student", the speaker is "Li'l Hosoi", which makes it sound like Hosoi is doing ventriloquism and using his hand puppet to ask himself a question.

[adachimoe]

Random translation / trivia stuff

As the title says, here are some completely random pieces of trivia stuff.

Queen Tut

In Golden, there's a question where Teddie asks:

Ms. Sofue, AKA "Queen Tut," always carries a rod. Which hand does she carry it with?

Why does the quiz game suddenly call her "Queen Tut"? In Japanese Persona 4, when you did Sofue's quests, they were named "Khamen's Extracurricular Activities" with Khamen being a nickname for Sofue derived from Tutankhamen. In the English game, Khamen was never translated to anything because the quests were shortened to "Extracurricular Activities". But in Golden, the Midnight Trivia quiz also calls her Khamen, and here it was translated as Queen Tut. In the English game, Khamen was translated as Queen Tut in some missable NPC dialogue!

Btw, Persona Club P4 confirms that Sofue's older brother is Ono, the teacher with a samurai helmet from Persona 3. But it clarifies that he is her brother in law, hence why they have different family names.

Philemon

When Yosuke comes up with the mission to get scooters and pick up girls in Okina, he says that their pheromones will get them girls in no time. Kanji then asks, "Phi? Phile? Mon?", referring to Philemon (フィレモン), and Yosuke thinks he's saying filet mignon (フィレミニョン), so he replies, "No, not filet, are you Chie?"

In English, this was changed to Kanji mishearing it as "feral zone" and Yosuke asking if he's a cat. P1/P2 erasure, obviously. (I've never played P1/P2.)

Hosoi's "Ventriloquism"

During Hosoi's lesson in July, a female student asks him about a kanji in a book they're reading. In English, instead of "Female Student", the speaker is "Li'l Hosoi", which makes it sound like Hosoi is doing ventriloquism and using his hand puppet to ask himself a question.

[adachimoe]

ok lol the tl;dr of this hour long audio drama about aika = "adachi sabotages yosuke with a cabbage"

there is a shopping district vs junes relay race with naoki / rise / kanji / yu / daidara as the shopping district team (yu is helping out at aiya, so he counts as a shopping district person), and hanako / ai / kou / daisuke / yosuke as the junes team with yosuke's justification being "i found them in the food court". "they oh so conveniently got jobs in the food court recently".

(continuing the subplot from the anime, daisuke actually initially offers to run for both him and ai cause yeah okay there's no way in hell that ai is doing this, but kou compliments ai's figure, and ~suddenly~ she really wants to participate.)

daidara ends up making too much art on the night before the race and can no longer participate. yu calls aika and tells her that they need her to participate. the race starts, and when yu reaches the 5th leg, aika shows up and she over as the group's anchor.

however, at the same time, dojima and adachi are chasing a suspect who... i think they stole groceries from junes...? (dojima doesn't seem to say what exactly this person did but there was an ongoing plot line in an earlier track about a shoplifter at junes and the stuff that rolls out of his bag later is food items.) adachi somehow manages to catch him and is shocked at himself. i too am shocked and wish this had visuals so we could see adachi flail around like a dumbass while catching a shoplifter. he tries to play it cool and tells dojima something like, "w-well yeah o-of course i can do that much haaaa".

when adachi catches the suspect, you hear the sound effect of the suspect falling and cans rolling around. and later, adachi remarks that, when the suspect fell (actually i'm not 100% about this verb i should re-listen when im actually awake), the stolen goods got dumped out all at once. like they were running with bags of stuff, and that's why the cans start rolling, etc. anyway chie and yukiko remark on the things rolling around. then you then hear yosuke derp around and fall, and he remarks after, "why the hell was there a cabbage rolling around here?!" as it seems one rolled out of the shoplifter's bag loooooooooooool

list of crimes that anime!adachi has committed against yosuke:

kills a girl he likes

accidentally sabotages him in a relay race

but... was it an accident? earlier, on track 5, adachi orders aiya to the junes, and aika brings him katsudon with a helping of cabbage... perhaps adachi was actually trying to help aika all along..........

[adachimoe]

finally more Souada shippers! The ship is so tasty!

yaa! i really like shuada. the back of my brain for like 2 yrs now has been a bunch of intrusive thoughts about "tsundere adachi getting dicked by his boss's nephew".

[adachimoe]

i tried labeling a few things on the map to visualize:

based on the directionals you're given, you spend the whole game in the south west quadrant of inaba. the rest is probably a bunch of mountains (the yaso hills) and other pockets of people outside of the yasoinaba area.

Persona 4 - Inaba Setting Guide

Happy New Years!

This is all written up from the lore/setting/etc books that Atlus released for fans, Persona Club P4 and the Golden Premium Fan/Fun Book. I didn't wanna do a 1:1 translation because this is multiple full text pages from two books so this is more like a summary or tl;dr of what's in the books.

I put this under a read more because it's a looot of text. I will probably inevitably edit something later when I realize I made a dumb typo.

General / Meta stuff not in the book that I feel the need to note first

Is Inaba a "town" or a "city"? Inaba is Inaba city (市). The qualifications to become a city are having ~50k residents and 60%+ of the central area being homes. Per the Premium book, Inaba does indeed have 50k citizens. The characters in-game also call it a town/neighborhood/area (町). (Think how in English, we have sayings like "back in town" even when we're not talking about towns?)

Inaba is not a real city, but Atlus lists multiple inspirations for it: Fuefuki, which they drove to randomly and spoke to people; Tottori, which is where the legend of the Hare of Inaba is said to have taken place and is where names like "Yasogami" come from (and it also used to have an Inaba province); and "an unnamed developer's hometown" which was used as a reference for the central shopping district and the area around the Dojima house.

A briefer on the Hare of Inaba: A hare tricks a bunch of sharks (wanizame or same) into lining up so it can cross their backs to get to the mainland. The hare is an idiot so it proclaims that it deceived the sharks, and the last shark takes a chunk out of it. Meanwhile, Okuninushi and his brethren (collectively known as the Yasogami) come across the hare on their way to woo a princess. The Yasogami troll the shit out of the hare and makes its back worse, but Okuninushi actually helps the hare by telling it to roll in cattail, and this cures the hare. The hare then reveals it is actually a god, and Okuninushi is given the princess's hand in marriage.

From here on, anything from me that I felt like I needed to note or give my Unwanted Opinion on is wrapped in ( )s.

History

Sengoku period: A feudal lord built a castle on Mt. Yasogami, the highest mountain in the area, and a castle town formed at the base of the mountain. The area was never caught up in any of the major wars or battles of the Sengoku period.

Edo period: After the warring period ended, people began traveling to Inaba because of the hot springs. One winter, someone living in the castle started a fire, it went out of control, and the castle burnt down. The feudal lord's family returned to their old territory and left Inaba.

Meiji period: After the black ships, Japan's opening, Perry, etc, coal was in high demand. Coal was discovered in Mt. Yasogami, people began to move there to work in the coal mines, and this was when Inaba became Inaba City. Presently, many of the people living in Inaba are 2nd and 3rd generation descendants of these coal miner families.

Showa period: During the later end of the Showa era, the world swapped from using coal to using oil. The coal refineries began closing, and by the 1980s, the coal mine also closed, people began to move away, thus leading to the current state of Inaba during the time of P4.

Modern Day

Inaba has around 50k citizens

The city center is a flat area surrounded by mountains called Yasoinaba (so Yasoinaba is a region/district within Inaba, not the other way around)

The local plant is cattail (see the bit about the Hare of Inaba) and there is a lot of cattail that grows downstream on the Samegawa

The local animal is the rabbit and many facilities have rabbit decorations (Namatame's family's delivery service also uses a rabbit with a mail bag)

There has been a recent push to make Inaba Beefsteak a thing as part of the revitalization of Inaba efforts, but... since they have no local cows or beef farms, people don't know where the meat comes from, causing there to be rumors about the meat in town... Atlus notes that it really is beef, but it is unknown where it comes from...

Transport in Inaba

Inaba is sandwiched between other larger urban places (think a metropolis like Tokyo), but the closest one is 3 hours away even by train so Inaba isn't really a place you live in while commuting during the day for work to a bigger city

The only train station in the south part of the city is Yasoinaba Station which is the central/headquarters-like station for the local train line, the Inaba Line

Yasoinaba Station is last stop on the Inaba Line, and the stop before it is called East Inaba. Okina is also somewhere on the Inaba line.

The Inaba Line doesn't take you to straight to one of the highly populated urban areas. You also have to transfer to another train at the Yasogami Hills train terminal (the protag does this in the opening anime movie)

There are only a few bus routes: Less used ones that go north/south and connects the city area with Mt. Yasogami, and others go east/west and connect Inaba with other cities. (Shu's house, the hospital, the Amagi Inn, and the outdoor daycare are all known bus stops. In Arena, Nanako also takes the bus to the train station.)

Even though most people get around by car, the national highway - access to the outside world - only runs for 300m at the southern edge of the city, and there's no regular expressways to quickly take you to other nearby cities

Overall, people tend to live their lives within the confines of the city

Yasogami Hills and Mt. Yasogami

The mountains in Inaba, with the tallest being Mt. Yasogami, are collectively known as the Yasogami Hills

Somewhere in the Yasogami Hills is a hot spring resort district and this is where the Amagi Inn plus other hot springs are located

The Amagi Inn has 30 rooms, half of which are located in a building detached from the main building so that guests can enjoy the mountains

The ski resort visited in Golden is located somewhere on Mt. Yasogami

The Samegawa

Named after the Hare of Inaba tale and how the hare tricked the "wanizame" or "same"; name meaning "shark river"

The Samegawa runs north and south through Inaba

Downstream to go fishing, upstream takes you to the source of the river on Mt Yasogami

Halfway up the mountain, near the headwaters, is a campsite which is frequented by fishers and outdoors lovers

Upstream, you can drink from the water at the source, but it's too cold to go swimming in even in summer (recall the June camping trip)

It is very specifically a "Class B river system"

Yasogami High School

Name comes from Okuninushi's bros in the Hare of Inaba tale, the Yasogami (Yasogami means "eighty gods" but that was figurative language where 80 means "a bunch", so the meaning is more like "many gods highschool")

Built in 1944 as Yasogami Military School. It was built on Mt. Yasogami where the castle used to stand to deter the allied forces from fire bombing Mt. Yasogami, thus using the school / students as a shield for the coal mine. After the war, it became a normal school, though there is still a plane on campus as a memento of when it was a military facility.

The JP name is 八十神高等学校. The school's nickname is 八高, derived from 2 characters in the full name. This is pronounced "Hachiko". (I think this was removed from the English version entirely, but if you ever play in Japanese audio and wonder why students say "Hachiko" sometimes...)

During the coal mining period, there were lots of students and the two buildings (what we know as the classroom bldg and the practice bldg in-game) were both classroom buildings. After the mines closed -> less people -> less births, they renovated the unused classrooms into vocational / practice rooms. This is how Yasogami High ended up with so many different things in the practice building lol.

There is a small baseball field in addition to the other outdoor facilities. (I don't think we see this in-game)

The book notes that there is not actual rule explicitly stating that girls can't wear a boys uniform.

You aren't allowed to ride a scooter to school, but according to Daisuke in one of the Strength hangouts (or so says the book; I don't think I've seen this hangout), people do so secretly.

Students have to get permission from school to get a part-time job. They're allowed as long as it doesn't interfere w/studies and the job is age appropriate.

The cultural festival is open to people outside of school, thus it is treated like an event similar to the shrine festival. Businesses from around Inaba also set up stalls at the festival and get into friendly competition with one another.

Many students who graduate from the school tend to stay in Inaba and get jobs there. Attending Yasogami High gives you an advantage / favoritism over students from private schools when job hunting.

Dojima Residence

A house that was built anywhere from a few years to decades ago

It's located in west Inaba

It's not a family home, Dojima bought it

The house has 3-4 bedrooms, exact number not given

The garden outside was started by Chisato, but of course it's been left alone since she passed

If the protagonist eats Nanako's pudding, she will just assume she ate it and forgot about it............................................... (I don't think Adachi would even do this shit.................................)

Junes

The store opened within the previous year

The manager is Yosuke's dad, Yoichi Hanamura

Many students and housewives work there part-time

Students make 690 yen per hr, adults make 900 yen per hr, but Yosuke is worked like a dog for 400 yen per hr

1F has the grocery department and a line of small specialty shops

2F has the clothing department and home appliances department

The part in July where you find Teddie on a massage chair is part of a special event space where they demo new products. Oh, and the Death SLink, Hisano, wins one of those massage chairs after submitting poetry for Junes' anniversary

The roof has the food court, children's land, and an event stage

1F with the grocery department is open 24/7 and they put out prepared foods every day at 4pm / 7pm / 10pm

The food court has a special called the Ultra Young Set (JP name from the JP slogan) or the Meat Lovers Combo (Eng) that has salisbury / hamburg steak, beefsteak, menchi katsu, and fried chicken; people besides Chie who eat this will be blessed with heartburn. In a dungeon chat, Yosuke wonders if it's made using fox meat since it's so cheap, but it's actually from cows and chickens at farms that Junes has partnered with.

Junes is located in the south area of Inaba and is accessible for people passing through on the national highway, bringing them customers who are passing by, Inaba locals, and even people from Okina

Junes doesn't sell Teddie's favorite snack, Homerun Bars (a real ice cream product, localized as Topsicles in English), so he spends his Junes paychecks buying them at Shiroku

Central Shopping District - South Map

Yomenaido Bookstore: The owner's family name is Yomenai, meaning "can't read". They didn't realize how much of a mismatch their name was for a bookstore until after they opened. At first they were concerned about their business, but have begun stocking books for their own tastes and hobbies, drawing other enthusiasts of certain hobbies to their store. Thus, the majority of books in the store are ones that the average person "can't read". ba-dum-tsh

Daidara Metalworks: JP name is "Metalworks Daidarabocchi", with the bocchi written as a dot (e.g. "Daidara。") Daidara makes pieces of art.

Shiroku Store: Shi and roku mean 4 and 6, and the name comes from an old story about there being a toad with 4 front legs and 6 back legs called the Shiroku Toad. It was originally a pharmacy and medicine seller (the shiroku toad was said to have medicinal purposes), but now the store sells a bunch of whatever. The capsule machine outside was handmade by Shiroku's deceased husband.

Marukyu Tofu: A tofu store that sticks to old-fashioned simple tofu recipes (my opinion here, but I believe this is why it's still around after Junes opened). Run by Rise's grandmother. The people in Inaba call her grandmother "Marukyu" as a nickname (in-game dialogue, the nickname is written differently than the sign on the store). Due to her old age, she has been open less hours and making less product. But once Rise comes back to town, she helps out at the store, and her grandma is back to making more tofu and staying open longer. Rise is in charge of (uhh insert word used in fishmongering that seems to express Rise is in charge of selling?) the first batch of tofu in the morning before school, leading to male customers lining up early.

Central Shopping District - North Map

Souzai Daigaku: The name means Prepared Foods University. It used to be a lingerie store until the new owners took over. They made it a butcher, then converted it into a store that sells prepared foods that are "a taste of mom's home cooking". But in a small place like Inaba, people aren't exactly nostalgic for that, compared to the big city. The owner later added beefsteak skewers to the menu, claiming they're 80% beef, 20% something else, thus fueling the "what is the meat in Inaba?!" conspiracies. Due to its cheap prices, it's popular with students.

Marutake: A small hobby shop where the protagonist receives Gundam / Avatar Turner reference plastic models to build. The owner works on farmland during the day and his daughter attends Yasogami High.

Aiya: It used to be an oil store, but now it's a Chinese restaurant claiming to be authentic Shanghai style food. However, the owner is a Mr. Nakamura (hence why Aika in P4 anime's last name is Nakamura) who was born and raised in Inaba. On rainy days, Nakamura serves the Special Meat Bowl which has 3kg "meat" and 3kg rice. The meat is pork (the dish isn't called the Mega Beef Bowl in JP), but when asked what it is, Nakamura replies that it's "authentic Chinese cuisine: sheep head and dog meat" which is referring to the expression "selling dog meat under a sheep head", a saying about selling misleading products. (Btw, the owner speaks in Kyowago, saying Aiyaaaa and ending his sentences in "aru". But during say, Kanji's Social Link, he drops the act. So yes, he is LARPing as a Chinese guy.)

Tatsuhime Shrine: The deity enshrined is Toyotamahime, who's true form is similar to a wanizame (refer back to the hare of inaba story), and story is similar to that of Izanagi and Izanami. She protects against water-related disasters (she comes from an undersea palace) and offers safe childbirths (her story involves her giving birth to Hoori's child). The fox that lives on the shrine grounds heals with Inaba's local plant, cattail.

(If you are wondering about the fox in general, the fox statues at the smaller sub-shrine suggest it is dedicated to Inari Okami, so the fox IMO is a messenger of Inari - not literally, but hey. The red apron/bib it wears is based on the red votive bibs that you find on statues at shrines to ward off evil spirits.)

Tatsumi Textiles: An older store from the Meiji era, from when people used to dye fabrics in the clean streams of the Samegawa. The previous owner, Kanji's father, was a famous dyer. (I believe this is why the store is doing well for itself despite the Junes invasion.)

Konishi Liquors: Saki and Naoki's family's store. Saki was working at Junes as she thought the experience would one day help when she takes over the liquor store. They had been doing poorly lately, but a lot of people began visiting out of sympathy after Saki's death. The store is named after former battle planner and now composer Toshiki Konishi whose family owns a liquor store called Konishi Liquor. The name was used as a placeholder during development and it ended up sticking. (Thus, the YouTube comments on Konishi's remix of Fog talking about "remixing a song that your killer dances to" are kind of on-point...)

And now for the non-Inaba locations visited during Persona 4, because those were included in the Town Guide too lol

Tatsumi Port Island

Kashiwagi books the class to stay at Hotel Hamaguri, the renamed version of the love hotel from Persona 3. Instead of a love hotel, it's now a regular hotel. (The decor, however...) Teddie appears on the building opposite the group and impersonates Takaya with two cats as his Jin and Chidori (Teddie even gets a weapon called the Strega Claw lol)

Two years ago before Rise made it big as an idol, she had an invite-only / secret live at Club Escapade. Due to a power outage, they had to cancel the show. This was caused by a mechanical failure and was not the night when SEES fought the Hermit Shadow. (IIRC, Shinji mentions the club had issues with the power -- due to the Hermit Shadow -- leading up to full moon mission, so it might be that?)

Club Escapade quit serving alcohol last year to protest drunk driving

Akinari's book, the Pink Alligator, was published after Mitsuru found it among a certain person's things. True to the story itself, people like it, but no one knows who the real author is...

One of the Kirijo Group's companies is Kirijo Telecom. Dojima's cell phone service is through this company. When he calls Nanako on November 5th, he gets an automated message about her phone not being unavailable from "KJ Telecom", with KJ standing for Kirijo.

When Naoto takes everyone to the hospital in October, she mentions she has read documents about Personas and Shadows. These are thought to have been leaked from a Kirijo Group research lab.

Okina City

Okina is to the north of Inaba, separated from it by Mt. Yasogami

It has 250k people

Okina was originally a city built around a large shrine

Known for having good water

Used to have a papermaking industry

Recently it became very industrial due to companies making factories there, then the workers and their families moved in, so the shopping mall around Okina Station was built with new retail stores, etc etc

(The station at Okina has a sign for the "Inaba Line", indicating that the local train line goes south from Inaba, to East Inaba, then ???, and then north to stop at Okina I guess?)

Shichiri Beach

Not much to note here except that it is a beach within a distance that high schoolers could realistically access via scooter lol

[adachimoe]

Persona 4 - Inaba Setting Guide

Happy New Years!

This is all written up from the lore/setting/etc books that Atlus released for fans, Persona Club P4 and the Golden Premium Fan/Fun Book. I didn't wanna do a 1:1 translation because this is multiple full text pages from two books so this is more like a summary or tl;dr of what's in the books.

I put this under a read more because it's a looot of text. I will probably inevitably edit something later when I realize I made a dumb typo.

General / Meta stuff not in the book that I feel the need to note first

Is Inaba a "town" or a "city"? Inaba is Inaba city (市). The qualifications to become a city are having ~50k residents and 60%+ of the central area being homes. Per the Premium book, Inaba does indeed have 50k citizens. The characters in-game also call it a town/neighborhood/area (町). (Think how in English, we have sayings like "back in town" even when we're not talking about towns?)

Inaba is not a real city, but Atlus lists multiple inspirations for it: Fuefuki, which they drove to randomly and spoke to people; Tottori, which is where the legend of the Hare of Inaba is said to have taken place and is where names like "Yasogami" come from (and it also used to have an Inaba province); and "an unnamed developer's hometown" which was used as a reference for the central shopping district and the area around the Dojima house.

A briefer on the Hare of Inaba: A hare tricks a bunch of sharks (wanizame or same) into lining up so it can cross their backs to get to the mainland. The hare is an idiot so it proclaims that it deceived the sharks, and the last shark takes a chunk out of it. Meanwhile, Okuninushi and his brethren (collectively known as the Yasogami) come across the hare on their way to woo a princess. The Yasogami troll the shit out of the hare and makes its back worse, but Okuninushi actually helps the hare by telling it to roll in cattail, and this cures the hare. The hare then reveals it is actually a god, and Okuninushi is given the princess's hand in marriage.

From here on, anything from me that I felt like I needed to note or give my Unwanted Opinion on is wrapped in ( )s.

History

Sengoku period: A feudal lord built a castle on Mt. Yasogami, the highest mountain in the area, and a castle town formed at the base of the mountain. The area was never caught up in any of the major wars or battles of the Sengoku period.

Edo period: After the warring period ended, people began traveling to Inaba because of the hot springs. One winter, someone living in the castle started a fire, it went out of control, and the castle burnt down. The feudal lord's family returned to their old territory and left Inaba.

Meiji period: After the black ships, Japan's opening, Perry, etc, coal was in high demand. Coal was discovered in Mt. Yasogami, people began to move there to work in the coal mines, and this was when Inaba became Inaba City. Presently, many of the people living in Inaba are 2nd and 3rd generation descendants of these coal miner families.

Showa period: During the later end of the Showa era, the world swapped from using coal to using oil. The coal refineries began closing, and by the 1980s, the coal mine also closed, people began to move away, thus leading to the current state of Inaba during the time of P4.

Modern Day

Inaba has around 50k citizens

The city center is a flat area surrounded by mountains called Yasoinaba (so Yasoinaba is a region/district within Inaba, not the other way around)

The local plant is cattail (see the bit about the Hare of Inaba) and there is a lot of cattail that grows downstream on the Samegawa

The local animal is the rabbit and many facilities have rabbit decorations (Namatame's family's delivery service also uses a rabbit with a mail bag)

There has been a recent push to make Inaba Beefsteak a thing as part of the revitalization of Inaba efforts, but... since they have no local cows or beef farms, people don't know where the meat comes from, causing there to be rumors about the meat in town... Atlus notes that it really is beef, but it is unknown where it comes from...

Transport in Inaba

Inaba is sandwiched between other larger urban places (think a metropolis like Tokyo), but the closest one is 3 hours away even by train so Inaba isn't really a place you live in while commuting during the day for work to a bigger city

The only train station in the south part of the city is Yasoinaba Station which is the central/headquarters-like station for the local train line, the Inaba Line

Yasoinaba Station is last stop on the Inaba Line, and the stop before it is called East Inaba. Okina is also somewhere on the Inaba line.

The Inaba Line doesn't take you to straight to one of the highly populated urban areas. You also have to transfer to another train at the Yasogami Hills train terminal (the protag does this in the opening anime movie)

There are only a few bus routes: Less used ones that go north/south and connects the city area with Mt. Yasogami, and others go east/west and connect Inaba with other cities. (Shu's house, the hospital, the Amagi Inn, and the outdoor daycare are all known bus stops. In Arena, Nanako also takes the bus to the train station.)

Even though most people get around by car, the national highway - access to the outside world - only runs for 300m at the southern edge of the city, and there's no regular expressways to quickly take you to other nearby cities

Overall, people tend to live their lives within the confines of the city

Yasogami Hills and Mt. Yasogami

The mountains in Inaba, with the tallest being Mt. Yasogami, are collectively known as the Yasogami Hills

Somewhere in the Yasogami Hills is a hot spring resort district and this is where the Amagi Inn plus other hot springs are located

The Amagi Inn has 30 rooms, half of which are located in a building detached from the main building so that guests can enjoy the mountains

The ski resort visited in Golden is located somewhere on Mt. Yasogami

The Samegawa

Named after the Hare of Inaba tale and how the hare tricked the "wanizame" or "same"; name meaning "shark river"

The Samegawa runs north and south through Inaba

Downstream to go fishing, upstream takes you to the source of the river on Mt Yasogami

Halfway up the mountain, near the headwaters, is a campsite which is frequented by fishers and outdoors lovers

Upstream, you can drink from the water at the source, but it's too cold to go swimming in even in summer (recall the June camping trip)

It is very specifically a "Class B river system"

Yasogami High School

Name comes from Okuninushi's bros in the Hare of Inaba tale, the Yasogami (Yasogami means "eighty gods" but that was figurative language where 80 means "a bunch", so the meaning is more like "many gods highschool")

Built in 1944 as Yasogami Military School. It was built on Mt. Yasogami where the castle used to stand to deter the allied forces from fire bombing Mt. Yasogami, thus using the school / students as a shield for the coal mine. After the war, it became a normal school, though there is still a plane on campus as a memento of when it was a military facility.

The JP name is 八十神高等学校. The school's nickname is 八高, derived from 2 characters in the full name. This is pronounced "Hachiko". (I think this was removed from the English version entirely, but if you ever play in Japanese audio and wonder why students say "Hachiko" sometimes...)

During the coal mining period, there were lots of students and the two buildings (what we know as the classroom bldg and the practice bldg in-game) were both classroom buildings. After the mines closed -> less people -> less births, they renovated the unused classrooms into vocational / practice rooms. This is how Yasogami High ended up with so many different things in the practice building lol.

There is a small baseball field in addition to the other outdoor facilities. (I don't think we see this in-game)

The book notes that there is not actual rule explicitly stating that girls can't wear a boys uniform.

You aren't allowed to ride a scooter to school, but according to Daisuke in one of the Strength hangouts (or so says the book; I don't think I've seen this hangout), people do so secretly.

Students have to get permission from school to get a part-time job. They're allowed as long as it doesn't interfere w/studies and the job is age appropriate.

The cultural festival is open to people outside of school, thus it is treated like an event similar to the shrine festival. Businesses from around Inaba also set up stalls at the festival and get into friendly competition with one another.

Many students who graduate from the school tend to stay in Inaba and get jobs there. Attending Yasogami High gives you an advantage / favoritism over students from private schools when job hunting.

Dojima Residence

A house that was built anywhere from a few years to decades ago

It's located in west Inaba

It's not a family home, Dojima bought it

The house has 3-4 bedrooms, exact number not given

The garden outside was started by Chisato, but of course it's been left alone since she passed

If the protagonist eats Nanako's pudding, she will just assume she ate it and forgot about it............................................... (I don't think Adachi would even do this shit.................................)

Junes

The store opened within the previous year

The manager is Yosuke's dad, Yoichi Hanamura

Many students and housewives work there part-time

Students make 690 yen per hr, adults make 900 yen per hr, but Yosuke is worked like a dog for 400 yen per hr

1F has the grocery department and a line of small specialty shops

2F has the clothing department and home appliances department

The part in July where you find Teddie on a massage chair is part of a special event space where they demo new products. Oh, and the Death SLink, Hisano, wins one of those massage chairs after submitting poetry for Junes' anniversary

The roof has the food court, children's land, and an event stage

1F with the grocery department is open 24/7 and they put out prepared foods every day at 4pm / 7pm / 10pm

The food court has a special called the Ultra Young Set (JP name from the JP slogan) or the Meat Lovers Combo (Eng) that has salisbury / hamburg steak, beefsteak, menchi katsu, and fried chicken; people besides Chie who eat this will be blessed with heartburn. In a dungeon chat, Yosuke wonders if it's made using fox meat since it's so cheap, but it's actually from cows and chickens at farms that Junes has partnered with.

Junes is located in the south area of Inaba and is accessible for people passing through on the national highway, bringing them customers who are passing by, Inaba locals, and even people from Okina

Junes doesn't sell Teddie's favorite snack, Homerun Bars (a real ice cream product, localized as Topsicles in English), so he spends his Junes paychecks buying them at Shiroku

Central Shopping District - South Map

Yomenaido Bookstore: The owner's family name is Yomenai, meaning "can't read". They didn't realize how much of a mismatch their name was for a bookstore until after they opened. At first they were concerned about their business, but have begun stocking books for their own tastes and hobbies, drawing other enthusiasts of certain hobbies to their store. Thus, the majority of books in the store are ones that the average person "can't read". ba-dum-tsh

Daidara Metalworks: JP name is "Metalworks Daidarabocchi", with the bocchi written as a dot (e.g. "Daidara。") Daidara makes pieces of art.

Shiroku Store: Shi and roku mean 4 and 6, and the name comes from an old story about there being a toad with 4 front legs and 6 back legs called the Shiroku Toad. It was originally a pharmacy and medicine seller (the shiroku toad was said to have medicinal purposes), but now the store sells a bunch of whatever. The capsule machine outside was handmade by Shiroku's deceased husband.

Marukyu Tofu: A tofu store that sticks to old-fashioned simple tofu recipes (my opinion here, but I believe this is why it's still around after Junes opened). Run by Rise's grandmother. The people in Inaba call her grandmother "Marukyu" as a nickname (in-game dialogue, the nickname is written differently than the sign on the store). Due to her old age, she has been open less hours and making less product. But once Rise comes back to town, she helps out at the store, and her grandma is back to making more tofu and staying open longer. Rise is in charge of (uhh insert word used in fishmongering that seems to express Rise is in charge of selling?) the first batch of tofu in the morning before school, leading to male customers lining up early.

Central Shopping District - North Map

Souzai Daigaku: The name means Prepared Foods University. It used to be a lingerie store until the new owners took over. They made it a butcher, then converted it into a store that sells prepared foods that are "a taste of mom's home cooking". But in a small place like Inaba, people aren't exactly nostalgic for that, compared to the big city. The owner later added beefsteak skewers to the menu, claiming they're 80% beef, 20% something else, thus fueling the "what is the meat in Inaba?!" conspiracies. Due to its cheap prices, it's popular with students.

Marutake: A small hobby shop where the protagonist receives Gundam / Avatar Turner reference plastic models to build. The owner works on farmland during the day and his daughter attends Yasogami High.

Aiya: It used to be an oil store, but now it's a Chinese restaurant claiming to be authentic Shanghai style food. However, the owner is a Mr. Nakamura (hence why Aika in P4 anime's last name is Nakamura) who was born and raised in Inaba. On rainy days, Nakamura serves the Special Meat Bowl which has 3kg "meat" and 3kg rice. The meat is pork (the dish isn't called the Mega Beef Bowl in JP), but when asked what it is, Nakamura replies that it's "authentic Chinese cuisine: sheep head and dog meat" which is referring to the expression "selling dog meat under a sheep head", a saying about selling misleading products. (Btw, the owner speaks in Kyowago, saying Aiyaaaa and ending his sentences in "aru". But during say, Kanji's Social Link, he drops the act. So yes, he is LARPing as a Chinese guy.)

Tatsuhime Shrine: The deity enshrined is Toyotamahime, who's true form is similar to a wanizame (refer back to the hare of inaba story), and story is similar to that of Izanagi and Izanami. She protects against water-related disasters (she comes from an undersea palace) and offers safe childbirths (her story involves her giving birth to Hoori's child). The fox that lives on the shrine grounds heals with Inaba's local plant, cattail.

(If you are wondering about the fox in general, the fox statues at the smaller sub-shrine suggest it is dedicated to Inari Okami, so the fox IMO is a messenger of Inari - not literally, but hey. The red apron/bib it wears is based on the red votive bibs that you find on statues at shrines to ward off evil spirits.)

Tatsumi Textiles: An older store from the Meiji era, from when people used to dye fabrics in the clean streams of the Samegawa. The previous owner, Kanji's father, was a famous dyer. (I believe this is why the store is doing well for itself despite the Junes invasion.)

Konishi Liquors: Saki and Naoki's family's store. Saki was working at Junes as she thought the experience would one day help when she takes over the liquor store. They had been doing poorly lately, but a lot of people began visiting out of sympathy after Saki's death. The store is named after former battle planner and now composer Toshiki Konishi whose family owns a liquor store called Konishi Liquor. The name was used as a placeholder during development and it ended up sticking. (Thus, the YouTube comments on Konishi's remix of Fog talking about "remixing a song that your killer dances to" are kind of on-point...)

And now for the non-Inaba locations visited during Persona 4, because those were included in the Town Guide too lol

Tatsumi Port Island

Kashiwagi books the class to stay at Hotel Hamaguri, the renamed version of the love hotel from Persona 3. Instead of a love hotel, it's now a regular hotel. (The decor, however...) Teddie appears on the building opposite the group and impersonates Takaya with two cats as his Jin and Chidori (Teddie even gets a weapon called the Strega Claw lol)

Two years ago before Rise made it big as an idol, she had an invite-only / secret live at Club Escapade. Due to a power outage, they had to cancel the show. This was caused by a mechanical failure and was not the night when SEES fought the Hermit Shadow. (IIRC, Shinji mentions the club had issues with the power -- due to the Hermit Shadow -- leading up to full moon mission, so it might be that?)

Club Escapade quit serving alcohol last year to protest drunk driving

Akinari's book, the Pink Alligator, was published after Mitsuru found it among a certain person's things. True to the story itself, people like it, but no one knows who the real author is...

One of the Kirijo Group's companies is Kirijo Telecom. Dojima's cell phone service is through this company. When he calls Nanako on November 5th, he gets an automated message about her phone not being unavailable from "KJ Telecom", with KJ standing for Kirijo.

When Naoto takes everyone to the hospital in October, she mentions she has read documents about Personas and Shadows. These are thought to have been leaked from a Kirijo Group research lab.

Okina City

Okina is to the north of Inaba, separated from it by Mt. Yasogami

It has 250k people

Okina was originally a city built around a large shrine

Known for having good water

Used to have a papermaking industry

Recently it became very industrial due to companies making factories there, then the workers and their families moved in, so the shopping mall around Okina Station was built with new retail stores, etc etc

(The station at Okina has a sign for the "Inaba Line", indicating that the local train line goes south from Inaba, to East Inaba, then ???, and then north to stop at Okina I guess?)

Shichiri Beach

Not much to note here except that it is a beach within a distance that high schoolers could realistically access via scooter lol

[adachimoe]

oo, on the subject of Mitsuo's dungeon:

I've never played Shin Megami Tensei 1 before, but the text that displays on chapter 3 / floor 3 of Void Quest is (largely) copy pasted from an early scene in that game where the protagonist talks to his mother:

This is the full text from English P4:

You seemed to have slept well last night. You slept so well that not even the noisy siren from the police cars woke you. I think something real bad happened... Can you go buy some coffee from the cafe at the arcade? Thanks. Did you hear a girl was killed? It's becoming a dangerous world out there... I don't even feel safe walking around town... Don't let your guard down, and make sure you're not out late, okay?

And as you go further in the dungeon, a garbled version of it appears (" can you buy some coffee from the cafe in the police cars").

I had no idea this was a reference until I saw that in PClub P4, they say something about how, "The text in the dungeon is from SMT", and then I Googled the Japanese lines and oh hey there's a whole script dump for SMT1. Like if you don't know it's a reference, it looks like it's a real convo referring to something that happened in-universe in Persona 4 haha.

Since it's a quote from another game, this doesn't seem to be a thing that actually happened IRL, but more like... since Mitsuo plays a lot of video games and escapes into them, he perhaps interprets his interactions with his mom like this? Like how he saw his encounter with Morooka on floor 2 as an enemy encounter.

"Shopping arcade" is another way of saying "shopping area or shopping district", so I'm guessing it's supposed to represent Mitsuo waking up and going out to the central shopping district (you can see his npc out and about on various days). Iirc, he's also not in his school uniform when you see him on those days, which might imply that he dropped out of his new school too.

[adachimoe]

Morooka and his rotten oranges

When the protagonist asks Morooka if he's calling him a loser, Morooka responds by saying he'll put the protag on his shit list. In Japanese, Morooka instead says he will put him in his "rotten orange book" (or rotten mikan) which is a reference to a Japanese drama about a high school teacher called Kinpachi-sensei.

Morooka then proceeds to call students "rotten oranges" throughout the game, and I thought it was disappointing that it's never translated as "shit (list)" ever again.

When Morooka shit talks Kanji, "rotten orange" was translated as "lazy punk":

During the camping trip, he says it while he's drunk and checking if students are out of their tents, and here it's become rotten apple (makes sense; rotten apple is something you say in english):

And then during Void Quest, in the RPG text, it actually is just rotten orange:

The first time it shows up is on floor 2, and there's no text surrounding it that indicates that Mitsuo is encountering Morooka, so the "rotten orange" (and pronoun; see below) bit is how you're supposed to know it's Morooka.

As mentioned in PClub P4 and the Premium Fun Book, Mitsuo used to be a Yasogami High student, but he got caught messing around outside of school by Morooka, got suspended, and then he was so ego butthurt mad that he dropped out of Yasogami and went to another school. So this text is referring back to that incident where Mitsuo got suspended by Morooka, why he held a grudge against him, etc.

(I think the text is oddly worded here too - "stand against me *for* being a rotten orange" could be interpreted as Mitsuo saying this while fighting Morooka, but it's Morooka saying it. Maybe more like, "You've got some nerve defying me, you rotten orange"? In Japanese, the text uses Morooka's pronoun (ワシ), so there's no ambiguity about who is speaking.)

Anyho, the 2nd time this appears is on Void Quest floor 8, and this time it explicitly says, "Morooka has appeared", so you know it's him.

Personally, I really like the "shit list" localization. Like it works really well since it gets Morooka's crass nature across. I feel like there's a missed opportunity that they didn't keep translating it as "shit" for the rest of the game: "Kanji Tatsumi, that shit", "Are there any little shits out of their tents?!", "You stand against me, you piece of shit", blah blah. This totally sounds like Morooka in my head lol.

Also related to Kinpachi-sensei is that Morooka seems to be named after him too. Kinpachi-sensei's name comes from the timeslot the show aired: Friday at 8pm. Friday in Japanese is "Kin"yobi, and 8 is "hachi/pachi", thus "Kinpachi".

Similarly, Morooka's first name Kinshiro uses the same "Kin" character as "Kinyobi" and "Kinpachi", and then "shi" is 4, and he's in Persona "4". (Hey the first character being "gold" works out too cause Golden came out later.)

[adachimoe]

Ah, I mixed up the bit about the fox meat - there is a 3rd source of "mystery meat" in Inaba: Junes.

Junes has an item on the menu in the food court called the "Ultra Young Set" (named after the Japanese slogan being, "Every Day, 'Young' Life") which has salisbury/hamburg steak, minced cutlet, fried chicken, and beefsteak. The text notes that if you are someone besides Chie, this will give you heartburn lol.

There is also a menu item called the "domestic salisbury/hamburg steak", implying that the other meat used for the "ultra young set" is not domestic meat.

In his dungeon chat with the fox from Tatsuhime Shrine, Yosuke wonders what kind of meat is used in the "ultra young set" since it's sold for such a low price, and then he glances at the fox..........

(In the book, Atlus gives the No Fun Allowed answer and says that the set meal uses beef and chicken from a farm that Junes is partnered with.)

Mystery Meat

One of the recurring mysteries in-game is whether the beefsteak served at Sozai Daigaku is actually beef; I believe Naoto mentions this too. Per Persona Club P4, there has been an effort to make "Inaba Beefsteak" a thing in recent years in an attempt to revitalize Inaba's culture, but since there's no meat farms local to Inaba, no one knows where the beef comes from, thus the town has started to spread rumors that it's not actually beef. (IIRC one of the NPCs mentions it might even be fox meat since a fox was spotted at the shrine?) In the "from the devs" comments, Atlus clarifies that it really *is* beef, but no one knows where it comes from, making it questionable where Inaba is purchasing its beef from lol...

The other source of "mystery meat" is Aiya. English speaking players wouldn't realize this cause it's specifically called the "Mega Beef Bowl" in English, but in Japanese, the rainy day special is just called the "Special Meat Bowl". This name doesn't specify what the meat is, thus furthering the conspiracy/mystery about the meat used in restaurants in Inaba lol. The book notes that it's 3kg of rice and 3kg of meat, and when customers ask the owner what the meat is, he replies, "Sheep head and dog meat, since it's authentic Chinese food". (This is a reference to "selling dog meat under a sheep head [sign]" -- an expression about being misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, etc. Note that this also applies to Aiya in general since the owner is also LARPing as a Chinese guy when in reality his family name is Nakamura and he was born and raised in Inaba lol.) In actuality, the meat is cheap, but still good, pork.