#background jin shirato

[extinct-fish]

Another silly thing to the collection

Squids and octos don't have bones, yet I needed to draw a ribcage for this mf

[krystaldragonart]

future Strega keycharms (WIP)

Really looking forward to finishing this and getting them made so I can sell em on 3tsy :'D this has been taking me 8+ hrs and I'm not quite done yet haha...

[asingleshampdition]

Sympathy for Jin Shirato

In all honesty, I actually feel just as, if not worse for Jin, than I do Chidori; especially in Reload, despite Chidori being the most fleshed out of the Strega three. This character analysis will not include developments from Shadow Cry, as I'm not aware of most of its contents enough to include it. (P.S. There are no visuals because for some reason, Tumblr doesn't want to save with them.) I think the motivations of the three Strega members are very important. All of them came from the same background, as child experiments; and thus, we can draw fair conclusions from them.

Takaya wants to get back at the world for hurting him. He's a man who is very weak-willed, and wishes for death, as long as it means others come along with him. He's adopted this view in which his only purpose in life is to bring everyone down with him: as he's been granted the power to do such (in the form of Hypnos), he's under the impression that his life is meaningless otherwise. This is why he's so unwilling to give up the Dark Hour to SEES; he's unwilling to start over, because in his mind, he's built up meaning for himself. Takaya doesn't really care for anyone; everyone he comes across, to him, is either an asset he can use to achieve his goal (Jin and Chidori), or an obstacle (SEES). As much as I'd like to believe Takaya genuinely did care for Jin and Chidori, I can't see it. At the end of the game, Takaya becomes a cult leader; Strega had always had parallels to such, and cult leaders, like Takaya, don't typically care about their followers. Rather, they see them as tools, to get their way. From my point of view, Takaya is an irredeemable piece of garbage, in the games, and cannot compare to Jin or Chidori in terms of sympathizing potential. As previously stated, I'm not accounting for Shadow Cry in this post, so I don't really know how the pathetic wet cat man is portrayed there. Chidori's motivation is that she, quite literally, has no motivation. She finds no purpose in life, and therefore, doesn't really care what happens either way. In her eyes, dying just means she'll never wake up again, and the end of the Dark Hour? "Cool, more days to live until I inevitably die," is probably what she would've made of it. Either that, or, "oh no, Medea!" Chidori's motivations are so radically different than both Takaya and Jin's motivations, and I believe this is why she was able to break away from such a cynical, nihilistic line of thought, much more easily than the other two. The only reason she followed, and was loyal, to Strega, was because Jin and Takaya were similar to her. Other than that, she held no regard for them, and did not consider them friends. It did not matter, to her, who she followed. If Takaya had been a better guy, maybe with hopes of reform, she probably would've turned out better as well. The only person she really cared about, until Junpei, was herself; as selfish as that sounds. She considers Medea her only true friend, as a representation of how she isolates herself, in order to not be afraid of death. So, where does that leave Jin? I believe Jin, unlike Takaya and Chidori, possesses a trait that neither of the other two have: genuine care for the few people close to him. The reason Jin doesn't want the Dark Hour to disappear is very similar to Takaya's; however, as shown in Reload, this isn't really the case. We have to remember that Takaya, essentially being a cult leader, even before he starts such, is incredibly manipulative and charismatic. Think of Jin as a young, impressionable dude, who is at an incredibly low point in his life; someone who is emotionally vulnerable, someone who can be targeted. The perfect candidate for a potential cult member. Then comes along Takaya: someone who is kind to him. Someone who treats him with dignity, with respect; someone who is there for him when he needs it most. Someone who 'saves' him. Kind of like Chidori, I believe Jin could've fallen for anyone; it didn't have to be for Takaya, it just had to be someone who was kind to him during the darkest time of his life. Unfortunately for him, Takaya does not truly care for him, unlike the vice versa, and whatever kindness Jin experienced from Takaya may or may not have been an act of manipulation. Kind of like how cults usually target young, impressionable, emotionally vulnerable individuals. Jin was manipulated into siding with Takaya; and kind of like a cult member and a cult leader, the member would align with the leader's ideals. Therefore, I do not believe Jin's true reason for standing against the Dark Hour's absence is the same as Takaya's.

This is not to say Jin doesn't have a 'real' reason; unlike Chidori, I believe he does. His statements on 10/31, being: "If the Dark Hour disappears, we might forget everything that happened, won't we? / I'd forget you and Chidori, the things we did together, our time at the facility... All of it." I find this line an incredibly simple way of painting Jin in a sympathetic way; and yet, it's incredibly tactful. Jin values the time he's spent with Takaya and Chidori; he values them. To him, they're like family. They are what SEES is to Makoto/the protagonist: his friends, the only friends he's ever had, and he'd rather die than forget about them. The only problem is that both Takaya and Chidori hold little to no regard for him. I'm somewhat sure he knows this, and yet, he still chooses to view them in such a way; even after Chidori pays virtually no mind to him as a person, and when Takaya separates from him in the final stretch of Tartarus, knowing that Jin would probably die.

This conclusion does raise some questions, though; when Chidori sacrificed herself for Junpei, why didn't Jin say anything? Rather, why didn't he try and stop her? After all, he's mostly silent, and Takaya does most of the talking during the sequence. Strega's philosophy on death is to not fear it, as it is inevitable. Perhaps this is also why Jin does not show sadness when Chidori dies? To Jin, as well as Takaya and Chidori, they've accepted that they will all die someday, because of the suppressants, as well as their Personas. Jin doesn't view Chidori's death as sad, not because he doesn't care for her, but because Strega has already established that death is inevitable for people like them. Another potential reason for Jin supposedly not caring for Chidori's death is the presence of Takaya. As a cult member is to a cult leader, Jin is dependent on Takaya. Since Takaya only views Chidori as a pawn, perhaps Jin would take on Takaya's view on the matter; to Jin, Takaya is wiser than anyone else. I really can't think of any other reasons as to why Jin wouldn't show much emotion during Chidori's death, other than either one: Jin specifically referring to Takaya, and only adding Chidori in as an afterthought, in his quote, or two: bad writing. The first one I doubt, as I feel like Jin would be one of the last people to tell a half-truth (to Takaya, of all people, to boot); especially since his last name is Shirato (white door), referring to how he can't keep his fatass mouth shut when talking about important information with SEES. I don't really think the writers would make such an oversight; adding Jin's sympathetic statement, and then forgetting to make him sympathetic otherwise. Not saying it's not possible; it definitely was, considering the quality of the villains' writing in the older versions of Persona 3. I just find it unlikely. This all just goes to show that Jin could've ended up just like the SEES members, if not to a greater extent than Chidori. He loved the ones he was close to, and he believed in bonds, to some extent. Of course, maybe not in the way SEES does, but the point is that he did; and bonds are the entire premise of the Persona series. Takaya never believed in bonds at all, throughout the entire game; he's too focused on himself, so he's out of the question. Chidori doesn't believe in bonds until Junpei shows up, even with Jin and Takaya in the picture. Jin is the only Strega member who would go as far to die for his found family, the only member who loved his companions from the start.

The more I think about it, the less I really blame Jin for who he became. Like I've mentioned before, you have to think of Jin as a cult member. A cult member who was 'indoctrinated' by Takaya, because he was naive, impressionable, and a lost soul; looking for someone to love him, respect him, stay by his side, and 'save' him. Would you fault a lost soul, someone who is incredibly emotionally vulnerable, as well as naive, for being manipulated into a cult? Sure, you could view Jin as 'stupid' for falling for Takaya, but that's the thing: people who become cult members aren't always stupid. They could be the brightest, most mature person you know; and that's not the point. Cults target people who are lonely; who want love. No matter how bright, mature, talented, well-read you are; at the end of the day, you are not immune to manipulation, if the manipulators pull the right strings. I think that's what's most scary about Jin: his story revolves around how someone so bright, so talented, someone who was one the right track, who more or less had the right mindset about relationships, was thrown off course, because he was also lonely, naive, and lost. It's very similar to many people who join cults; his character, even in Reload, can be written off as just some cynical, Takaya-obsessed bomb maniac, kind of like how a lot of people write cult members off as off-putting, evil, and sadistic. I think Reload did a terrific job at exploring this part of his character, even if it was just a few extra scenes. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing because he's my favorite character lmao, who knows?

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO EXO COSMIA, JIN SHIRATO. 🌑

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: han age: 25 pronouns: she/they ooc contact: lowheeledshoes on twitter, 0nceandfutureking on tumblr other characters in xc: damian wayne, hunter, fern

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: jin shirato age: 18 pronouns: he/him series: persona canon point: immediately post death app triggers: child abuse, child death, human experimentation, supernatural allegories for suicide, drugs, terminal illness

personality: 

to 99.9% of people, jin is frankly very unpleasant. he’s mean, with a short temper and a sharp tongue. he doesn’t trust most anyone any farther than he can throw them, and poor health has made it so he can’t throw anything heavier than a grenade to begin with. 

he’s a genius, but mostly with computers, and specifically in the “kid at your school that hacked the entire system with a usb drive once so usb drives got banned for the whole district” way. he’s also very good at information gathering, to the degree that it is a skill his otherwise entirely offensive persona shares. 

more notable than his anger or his intelligence, though, is his loyalty, which will alway overpower both in moments that count. when emotionally attached to someone, jin would do anything for them, with very little exception. due to his lack of trust, that doesn’t really apply to anyone outside of takaya and chidori, but miracles could always happen. 

something your muse struggles with: an extremely short temper

your muse’s greatest strength: loyalty

history / background: 

there were 100 children initially taken by kirijo group’s ergonomic research division off the streets of iwatodai and tatsumi port island. 99 of them were determined to be the subjects of project strega.

the goal of project strega was to create persona users by any means necessary in order to explore tartarus, a winding tower that was crawling with dangerous shadows that could only be defeated with such power. a naturally developed persona was rare, the strength of heart necessary to manifest physically uncommon. but it could be forced, with high stress tests and other various experiments. 

personas forced upon their users were dangerous, though, temperamental and likely to strike against their own hearts. between deaths from beserk personas and losses within tartarus itself, the majority of the children died, and project strega was canceled within six months. 

there were 3 survivors, who escaped not long before the experiment was officially ended: takaya, chidori, and jin.

though free, their personas still would strike out against them without experimental drugs to control them. these drugs, while keeping them from being killed by their own personas, slowly shut down their organs, leaving them sickly and dying. they knew from the moment of freedom that even then, they would die young. they still no longer belonged to the world they had been stolen from. 

the three lived anyway they could for some time, until jin learned enough about computers to set up a website offering their services. anyone could pay to get vengeance on another that slighted them, no questions asked. when the dark hour, a hidden hour only experienced by persona users, struck, they would carry out the requested revenge, and reality would overwrite their deeds as random crimes once the hour ended. 

they no longer cared about getting revenge on kirijo group for what was done to them, but they understood the anger of a heart destroyed regardless. using what had been forced upon them for such tasks was the best solution. calling themselves strega was just a reminder of why.

but while takaya and chidori avoided despair over their circumstances by rejecting attachment to the world they would soon leave on any level, jin instead devoted his entire being to them. nothing else mattered, as long as strega could survive for as long as fate allowed. 

especially takaya, who had given jin hope to live for the present when there was no future. he would do anything to bring about any wish takaya had, anything that could make his savior happy for even an instant. 

even the end of the world would be fine, if he could see it with takaya. 

thanks to the meddling of so-called heroes with personas they could actually control, jin fell before he could see that. but it was fine, because he believed in takaya until the end. 

powers / abilities:

jin has the power of the persona moros, which has the following skills:

weakness scan: a total scan that identifies the weaknesses of his foes to be exploited

eigaon: a heavy attack with dark magic 

agidyne: a heavy attack with fire magic

concentrate: a buff spell to greatly increase next magic attack

inherent abilities:

technology: strega’s resident webmaster and computer nerd, jin can do anything with computers from hacking to canonically being a popular blogger, for some reason

information gathering: good at investigating and memorizing things about targets

chemistry: at least enough to make grenades, though he does sometimes mess up the formulas 

hand-to-hand combat: at least enough to hold his own

items / weapons: 

persona suppressants: drugs that keep his persona from attacking him

briefcase: a larger silver briefcase. what does he keep in there? wouldn’t you like to know

grenades: handmade grenades with a range of attack power. thing he keeps in his briefcase #1

laptop: thing he keeps in his briefcase #2

evoker: device used to summon moros

starting ability: moros existing but not having any skills 

starting item: persona suppressants

extra: 

reload had new strega scenes and gave me everything

  discord id: jin.shirato

[stillness-in-green]

Stillness is wildly impressionable when she sees memes, news at 11.

Read @robotlesbianjavert's post she wrote in reply to me asking her about her favorite Gay Little Henchmen and immediately had to do my own. Added some runners-up also. Sorry for the nonsense, all.

#5: Lieutenant, The Legend of Korra—

Surely in my ranks of "characters I like most wildly out of proportion to their importance in the show," but that's what a good mustache and an emotive delivery on a last line will do for you.  It probably doesn't hurt that, despite the Lieutenant never even getting a proper name, that one last scene gives him more chemistry with Amon than Korra had with Mako the entire season.

Anyway, I liked him in the show and definitely went out hunting for fic/art for the pairing based just on that, but I do have to give a shout-out to @scumtrout for her fic The City Will Follow You for keeping the fire burning for this poor sad asshole.  Give it a read if you want, among other things, the Lieutenant being sad and fucked up and incredibly dangerous as he processes how Amon used him and the rest of the Equalists.

#4: Shirato Jin, Persona 3—

The littlest of the little henchmen on this list for reasons of being a teenager and a computer nerd (but still a dangerous criminal because I know what I'm about).  Jin is like if Skeptic were a decade younger, staving off a terminal disease with illegal drugs, and was a little less goth and a little more rave.  Also, packing a lot more grenades.

He's got a good balance with his cult leader of choice wherein Takaya is the one prone to big, dramatic actions to emphasize his rhetorical points, while Jin has to be like, "Hey, I agree with all your rhetorical points, but I also want us both to survive long enough to savor you being right about everything, so let's exercise the better part of valor here."  In that way, they're on the more equitable end of the power dynamic spectrum pairs like these run.

Strega in general got handed an incredibly raw deal, both in-universe and in terms of the broader narrative, and boy oh boy are they ever a good predictor for how hard I fell for the League of Villains.

#3: Tadashi Kikuchi, Sk8 the Infinity—

Soft-spoken manservant designed to look like a background character compared to the rest of the cast, but efficient and skilled in the wildly different spheres of Illegal Underground Skateboarding Park Management and Upstart Japanese Politician Personal Assistance.  Tadashi is kind of terrifying when you really stop to think about him, not just for how scary competent he is, but for being, in his own way, just as unhinged as his boss, but ten times more oblivious to that fact.

He's a henchman willing to act out for what he thinks are his boss's best interests, and it is extremely hilarious how much of Sk8's overarching plot is caused directly or indirectly by Snake and Adam's relationship drama. Incidentally, Tadashi is a rare case of a Gay Little Henchman whose feelings are requited!  That mostly serves to make things more complicated, however, because the feelings in question are, "I could never, ever leave him, but I think he's really fucking me up."

#2: Nemoto Shin, My Hero Academia—

Of all the candidates BNHA offers for this—not a small number—I have to give it to Nemoto for scoring the best across all categories.  Transparently only there because he fell for Overhaul like a wing snapped off an airplane.  Absolutely zero other motivations.  Knows about Overhaul's evil plans and horrendous crimes, and 100% does not care.  Not only is he a henchman, he denigrates other henchmen.  You just know that if he could do all the things his boss needs done on his own, he'd run the rest of the underlings out ASAP.  Absolute top tier The #1 Henchman Here Will Be Me energy.

#1: Tomo, Fushigi Yuugi—

Tadashi is nearly a match for him in terms of, "Yes, it's canon," goes further in terms of not being a predatory stereotype, and is doing better in the reciprocal affections category, too.  Still, all that said, Tomo remains my 90s shoujo problematic fave.

He's got a theatrical flair that he gets by virtue of a theatrical background; he's striking in his costume and, for my tastes, the most beautiful man in the series out of it.  While the visual quality of the anime runs towards the dubious during his stretch of episodes, he has a purring, silken voice that made Tobita Nobuo my favorite voice actor for years afterward.  Then there's the ruthless pragmatism that echoes Nakago's while also going further, because being the boss means you get to set your own hard limits, whereas being in love with the boss means you can go as far as you want while telling yourself it's all for him.

Tomo, like Ashitare and Miboshi, deserved a better and more nuanced portrayal—no shade to Watase Yuu, who was a lot younger when they wrote the series, but FY was the series I learned to love characters out of spite—but I will go on liking them anyhow, because authorial write-offs make me ornery like that.

Runners-Up in no particular order—

Spinner, My Hero Academia: Every bit as homoerotically obsessed with his boss as Nemoto (or any of the other fantastic candidates the series has on offer), but the League/Spinaraki's more equitable relationship means Nemoto's "henchman" vibes are stronger.

Isurugi Camice, Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans: I love him for the hints of wounded stoicism, which are always catnip to me, but he hides his feelings too well and too long to be an ideal fit for the topic.

Ein Dalton, Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans: Probably does a better impression of being homoerotically obsessed with  Lieutenant Crank than Gaelio, but definitely more Gaelio's henchman than Crank's, so he loses out for splitting focus.

Disqualified For Reasons But I Can't Not Mention Them—

Ivan, Giant Robo: Astounding henchman vibes, and I like him and Alberto quite a lot, but he's not anywhere near obsessed enough with Alberto to fit the bill.  Ivan's maladjustedness lies in other areas.

Listor, Hugtto PreCure: JESUS CHRIST, THIS HAMSTER.  The wounded stoicism fells me again, and I 100% believe that he and his boss have had sex at least once (LOOK, you don't set up all the repeating patterns Hugtto did with George Kurai and then lead an episode framing him and Listor through gauzy pink bedcurtains if you don't know good and well what you're implying).  Still, while I love that awful pairing to death, I don't think Listor is "homoerotically obsessed" so much as he is "unbelievably lonely and in no position to turn George down."  If this were my list of Top 5 Wounded Stoics, though, you'd better believe he'd be right at the top.

Uryuu Ryuunosuke, Fate/Zero:  His sexual preoccupations are less about his boss than the perverse body horror he and said boss enact on their victims.  Which is a shame, because he would rank higher than anyone on this list if "little henchman" were the only criteria.  That kid is thrilled—just ecstatic—to be living the life he's living.

Innouva, Magic Knight Rayearth:  Given the huge magic wolf form, his vibe is less "pining for his boss" and more "loyal hound will fuck you up."  Bitchy gay attitude is fully intact, however.

Lord El-Melloi II: I probably can't count him because I don't actually ship him with Rider, but the evidence of "forever single because he's dedicated his life to living up to his king's final order" speaks for itself.  An incredible retainer-who-outlived-his-lord character whose devotion makes me weepy every goddamn time.

[jinandtakaya]

Here’s hoping that Jin “canonically knows Sexy Dance” Shirato and Takaya “legs for days” Sakaki are in P3 Dancing Moon Night.