#//im gona laugh for the third time when google docs tries to

[m0e-ru]

Persona 4 Golden Anime Episode 7 Analysis

Disclaimer: P4 Golden, P4A and P4GA spoilers. This is all my interpretation based on the games, the Golden and original anime series. Also A LOT of Adachi. And I got tired near the end whoops sorry.

*In comparison to the original anime series, it elaborates on Adachi’s desire to cover the whole world of fog. He is the representative of the human masses who do not desire the truth.

He will allow the world to be covered in fog and everyone turned into shadows. Everyone will live a world of their own making, and the world will no longer be “shit.”

But here in Golden, it focuses on Yu and Adachi and their bond, almost nothing about the decision to cover the world in fog. This is about the conflict within the two of them. Their relatedness to one another, as having almost the same persona, representing that they are two sides of the same coin.

Right after the opening, we see the IT discuss about the murder, as usual. All the evidence points to a certain someone, Adachi. But Yu, who has a bond with Adachi--a friendship, he thinks, leaves the diner. 

Cut to the Velvet Room where Marie feels Yu. She’s afraid that he might disappear into the fog of peaceful lies. That he himself might be willing to turn away from the truth. That his friend might be the bad guy, and would rather not accept it.

Margaret tells her this might be an effect of obtaining the Jester arcana, a representation of his bond with Adachi. She tells her that it is currently unstable, that Yu’s perception of this bond is also wavering. And depending on the choices he makes, it would either change, stay as it currently is.

Then cut to Adachi taking care of Dojima in the hospital. He soon leaves for Nanako's room. Yu has a call with his uncle, and the moment he says Adachi’s out to visit Nanako’s room, Yu panics and runs for the hospital. As if he’s worried that Adachi would do something to her.

He’s worried, realizing Adachi’s true nature--that he is the murderer. He thinks clearly, in the front of his mind, “This man is going to hurt my little cousin.” 

Nanako is okay, fortunately.

But his mindset about him before was “This man is my friend, we had a good time together /gestures to the social link/.” He even left the discussion about who the murderer is out of discomfort and doubt.

And now he is in conflict with himself. Does he think that this man is a good guy and a good friend? Or secretly a psychopath who started everything out of some crazy motive? He gets himself together and “believes” that this man is a good guy.

Yu confronts Adachi, hoping to knock some sense into him because he thinks this man is his friend. But Adachi plays around with Yu. He waits for him in the eerie bedroom. Not in Magatsu Inaba, but somewhere more accessible. And it's funny because he mocks Yu, “Haha I'm a bad guy and I want to see you and your friends confront me and try to defeat me.” But when Yu asks to talk to him, Adachi says “I don't have anything to say to you.” 

To the point he visits the TV world himself. He finds his way to the eerie bedroom himself.

He thinks that Adachi has already escaped into the TV world, which he did. He left the Dojimas behind, after having a snack with Dojima, and tucking Nanako into bed.

It makes sense in the game where he closed the portal to Magatsu Inaba and then appeared right behind Yu. 

But here, he waited, said his piece and then said he has “nothing to say” to this boy who feels betrayed by him. Adachi says Yu betrayed himself, believing in the lie 'Yu' made up himself and continuing to believe in it after he saw all that happened. 

Adachi holds a card, about to summon his persona, and it implies he has accepted the truth, himself. His eyes are still normal, but as he summons his persona, his eyes turn yellow, as if his shadow overwhelmed him and has taken over his ego. I'll explain more about this some other time when I'll re-watch p4g. 

He is now talking as his shadow, the side he hides from himself and everybody. But even like Futaba, Shadows and your Real Self aren't the same. 

“We have the same persona but mine's tainted bc of evil here's the world from my perspective blah blah blah” then Adachi tells Yu to go home, back to his friends. Yu still persists, until he falls to his knees, paralyzed in fear from a bullet that almost grazed the side of his head. 

The character the anime gave him is Someone who cares about people very much, but also is still very much afraid of pain and death. Not someone who is cool and still standing, even after he almost got shot.

Heck, this just says this was actual Adachi, not some hologram illusion whatever he made just to confront him from afar. The bullet wasn't an illusion (I mean, it also was pretty real in the game), his persona Actually clashed with his.

Yu could have actually punched him that very moment as compared to when Kanji tried to do it. But he didn't.

Then it cuts to the Velvet Room, where Margaret explains to Marie about Yu's current dilemma, the now warped looking Jester arcana card. As if the arcanas represented in each bond Yu makes is his own interpretation. He unconsciously assigns the arcanas to all the bonds he makes. 

The Jester is still unstable and is now distorting. Marie listens and watches the entire time, worried about her friend and this bond he made and is currently unsure about.

Yu comes back to the real world, where Yosuke's fully aware that Yu left on his own to the TV world to confront Adachi, hopefully, with a plan. Yosuke tells him to trust his friends and not make them worry, where he shows Marie who voluntarily left the Velvet Room out of worry. 

She tries to talk to Yu and tells him to explain his feelings. She's the type of friend who is very direct, and will push you around, intentional or not. It's just how she was brought up, she had to learn everything all over again. But having these kinds of friends are important. Those who really keep it real rather than sugar coating everything. If she can't understand something, she will ask for a clear explanation. This further rules out the possibility of implication and misinterpretation. And that's good. 

She brings Yu to the same hilltop he brought her to, then wonders why the view is so obscured, by fog nonetheless. But here, she cheers him up, a complete opposite to whatever happened with Adachi. She rebuts Yu's conflicts he muttered to her. Then, she gives him her comb. Ironically, not intended as a symbol of separation, but a strong bond. The promise to keep it, and to return it, to see each other again no matter what. 

Then the sun shines through the clouds, penetrating the fog. Symbolism that Yu's judgement has been cleared from the doubt and betrayal that clouded it. The rest of his team come over, saying they'll be by his side and that he 'shouldn't run off like that’ as if Yosuke snitched on him and told everybody and went into the TV world on his own.

Here, Marie re-states the words of Izanami, whether remembering unconsciously, or just something she heard and appeared on the top of her head. 'People see what they want to see, and believe only what they want to believe. But as the individual entity she is now, She says her own opinion, But you're not like that, [Yu]' And with strengthened resolve, Yu tells his team to pursue Adachi on the same day, while Marie stays on the hilltop.

Then it cuts to the Velvet Room, where the Jester turns into Hunger, as if Yu reevaluated his bond with Adachi and accepted it. It's no longer warped and he will see this bond through. 

The IT focus on clearing the shadows while they tell Yu to confront Adachi himself. Adachi is clearly amused as he toys around with the IT, playing his game he's having fun with. Yu says he rejects Adachi. The Adachi that betrayed him, mocked him, and hurt him. He knows that there is good in Adachi, that he is rejecting the one he is currently facing. 

Adachi battles Yu, mocked and disgusted by the bonds he made, represented by the personae he was able to make. Yu 'relies' on the power of bonds, something that Adachi thinks is humiliating and unneeded, all because he was so deprived of one for so long. He asks Yu what a 'bond' is, and he replies with, “to believe in the person at your side, in your friends.” Something he tried to do with Adachi at the eerie bedroom, and soon contradicted in this confrontation where he 'rejects' Adachi. 

Adachi's perception of 'belief' and 'bonds' is something negative, implying he himself hasn't gotten anything good out of it. It makes you selfish by 'believing' an ideal of how you want someone to be. Adachi is telling Yu that he shouldn't have made a bond with himself in the first place, he is clearly pushing him away. Now look where it got him, it got him hurt, and again, betrayed. He constantly calls him an idiot with this persistent mindset. 

Yu continues to reject Adachi and all that he says. He 'believes' that what he is doing--that making bonds--is a good thing, even a bond with Adachi. 

But Adachi still continues to fight Yu. He speaks sarcastically about his friends and his relationship with them. As if they’re not genuine. “You’ve seen each other’s ulgy sides, how pathetic you can be. But you're like ‘Oh, that's okay’ Pretending to be generous, smiling.” He calls it creepy and weird, another way of how Adachi views the concept of bonds.

He continues to elaborate his point by saying “As if you could actually like someone’s ugly side.”

“Trying so hard not to hurt others because you don’t want to get hurt yourself,” and he thinks this is pathetic. Yu retorts, saying that he and his friends have truly accepted themselves and one another, and will always get back up to look for the truth. Again, Adachi speaks back and this time calls it “whitewashing,” that it’s covering up more of the ugly truth. 

However he was brought up, it might have included being taught that he should not appreciate the ugly side of people. Once Yu realized Adachi’s true self, Adachi fled. He could have been scared that the Dojimas, the only people he believed trusted him, would also realize this. He is throwing everything away so that they won’t get hurt like Yu. Betrayed that he is not who he really is. Not some bumbling fool who ends up being a good drinking partner, or a kind adult who helps you with homework and eats dinner with you.

Adachi might be empty, but this side of him, and how this is elaborated with his new relationship with Yu, has made it been interpreted that he cares. He doesn’t want to continue hurting the people he cares about. He regrets this. 

Adachi is now really fed up. Tired of listening to this boy who is so much better than him, despite also being almost the same. He is constantly shown by seeing him with his friends, helping other people, being with the Dojimas, and now, he’s going head to head with him. Adachi just wants him to go, he doesn’t want to see his face. And is Yu decides to stay, Adachi will just have to defeat him, to get rid of him himself.

Their personas crash into the Dojima residence, which was clearly still intact, compared to everything in Magatsu Inaba. The comb falls out from Yu’s uniform. Now, they are tired from summoning their personas. Adachi's eyes are not yellow anymore. (But in the original, his eyes stayed yellow when uhh Izanagi legit stabbed M-Izanagi in the face then he disappeared aahaha)

Yu takes his chance to fight adachi, one on one as two people. Adachi brings out his gun, but gets knocked in the head and falls to the ground.

Yu goes HAM and takes it all out on Adachi. He takes out all his hate, anger and his feelings of betrayal.

Adachi, now weak, talks about his failure and self evaluation. Yu looks around and finds Adachi’s mug and sets it up with the rest. “You had one yourself,” saying that he is part of this family, that he is cared about. He calls him “Adachi-san” and asks him to come back to the real world with him. To settle down and atone for sins. But also in a gentle manner, with no malice or hate, like the emotionally deprived good friend and family member he is.

At that moment of weakness, the shadows merge with Adachi, bringing out Ame-no-Sagiri, the “ruler of fog” and the aspect of Izanami who watches humans from the heavens. Briefly cut to Marie, still on the foggy hilltop immediately feeling this presence.

Yu looks up and calls Adachi’s name, worried about what possesses him. Being blasted away, he hears Adachi’s voice, being sarcastic, but also as a form of encouragement to defeat Ame-no-Sagiri. We continue to see brief scenes of Marie on the hilltop, saying she is aware of what is currently happening the moment Ame-no-Sagiri awoke. Yu summons Magatsu-Izanagi as a separate persona, symbolizing the “maxed out” bond he has made with Adachi. And yelling “I'm taking you back,” means he wishes to save him, like all the dear friends who needed help. 

He slays Ame-no-Sagiri with this new, quite chaotic, persona and catches Adachi, continuing to keep him safe. 

Yu feels his chest pocket, as if he’s missing something, but quickly brushing it off, as if their memories have truly been taken away. Marie says her goodbye, while the IT thinks they’ve saved Inaba from the fog.

Now a final cut to Marie, where the fog that dispersed from Ame-no-Sagiri envelops the Inaba at an alarming rate. She hears an unknown voice that calls her to awaken, “Ame-no-Sagiri has been slain. The fog shall return to its rightful place,” which is Marie. Another flash of memories that comes with a sharp pain comes to Marie, her grave, as if the Hollow Forest was made long ago, to prepare her for this. She squats down in pain, finally remembering her duties as the one to absorb the fog.

With this memory and task she must fulfill by disappearing, she takes all her friends' memories with her and clears the fog. She wishes not to hurt them by telling them that she should die to save them, and instead takes every single memory about her from her friends. This way, they wouldn't have to care for a girl that they can’t even remember.