#im going to be laughing about the yasu thing for a good year

[adachimoe]

Random tidbits from Hashino's interview in the Persona Club P4 book

At the back of the Persona Club P4 fanbook, there's a 6 page interview with Katsura Hashino about the making of Persona 4. This interview is spoilerific and you have to cut the pages of the book to even read it lol. I have 0 desire to translate the entire thing (I don't trust myself with that, ngl), but here are some fun highlights from it related to Adachi. This interview/book was published in 2009, so before the anime aired, before Golden, before Arena, etc.

The identity of the true culprit - who filled Adachi's role before Adachi?

While developing the story, it originally had Izanami (Hashino very specifically mentions Izanami was planned since the start) and Namatame, and one of the themes was "how the characters get info". From what Hashino says, Namatame's role during this earlier stage in development sounds very similar to what we got in-game. Back then, he was considered the true culprit and he was well-meaning, but he lacked some pretty critical info. After Namatame, there would be the feeling that there was still someone out there, but that someone was Izanami, not Adachi.

The staff felt the plot was lacking, so they wanted to add in a stepping stone between Namatame and Izanami as an extra plot twist - a true, true culprit. And the first character who they considered for the role of the true culprit was................... not Adachi.

The very first candidate for the true culprit was Yukiko. Yup. This came from a half-serious, half-joking convo between Hashino and Soejima. Their reasoning for picking Yukiko was because in the Kindaichi Case Files, whenever there's a murder in the sticks, it's always the lady who runs the ryokan who's the culprit.

The next person who they considered was.......... Yosuke. They thought that because of how his character was shown as a decision maker with a good head on his shoulders, maybe he'd have a relatable reason for devising everything? They talked about making him a villain who would still be adored by players regardless. But Hashino was against the idea of having one of friend group as the culprit.

Ultimately, the reason why neither Yukiko nor Yosuke became the culprit was because their motives for murder would be too personal. Hashino thought that if it's murder driven by personal motive, then players won't be as invested. A personal motive would be too much like the "Tuesday Mystery Theater", a Japanese mystery TV show that was - from my understanding - character driven drama.

Hashino went back to the theme of "how the characters get info". At the time, there existed a person in the plot who's function in the game was to give the main cast information from the police's side. This character just so happened to give you info, and seemingly consequence free on their part - after all, what you did with the info after had nothing to do with them. They were careless. And Hashino followed this train of thought, thinking that kind of carelessness went well with antagonism.

Originally, Adachi was the aforementioned character. He was not the culprit, and he gave the characters info about the police's investigation. Following Hashino's train of thought, then the person who was giving away information would become this new culprit between Namatame and Izanami.

But there was an issue - if he was giving the main cast info about the investigation, then he would stand out among the adult cast, and him standing out might spoil that he's the true culprit. Thus, Hashino changed directions during development and started to create Adachi's character.

(See bottom of this post for a footnote about Adachi's old character design and some ramblings about his old role.)

The Thousand Curses and the Myriad Truths

Per Hashino, Persona 4 is about media literacy (no seriously it says media literacy in katakana wasei-eigo even). Izanami's Thousand Curses represents the lies of the media that humans believe in. The protagonist's Myriad Truths represents how, in this sea of misinformation and lies, you can only trust and believe in the words of those who are close to you.

(I suppose now is a good time to mention that the Japanese name for Myriad Truths is "Tens of Thousands of [Mantras / True Words]". A mantra is a phrase/word you repeat over and over, so it seems the Myriad Truths is a visualization of the protagonist unleashing all of the truths from his social links and bonds. All 10,000+ of them.)

Adachi's Given Name

Adachi's given name was not always Tohru. At first, it was Tamotsu, which is written 保. Hashino changed it to Tohru because the character for Tamotsu 保 could also be read Yasu when used as a name, and at the time, the staff was trying not to spoil who the culprit was.

Why would Tamotsu / Yasu spoil the game, though? Because "Yasu did it!" is an old ancient ur-spoiler meme thing from the 1983 adventure game the Portopia Serial Murders. Think of like... "soylent green is people", "Darth Vader is Luke's father", "Sephiroth kills Aerith", etc. Not only that, but the main character of Portopia is a detective, and Yasu is your buddy cop sidekick.

Hashino was already aware of the Yasu comparisons because one of the staff who read the script reacted by going, "So Yasu did it, huh?" But Hashino thought that Portopia was so damn old that gamers wouldn't know about it. Only turbo nerds working at Atlus know Portopia, right?

Wrong lmao turns out a shit ton of people knew about the Portopia spoiler. After character art of Adachi was released in a magazine promo for Persona 4, people reacted with, "Yasu did it", so Hashino very quickly changed Adachi's given name.

They had already recorded the audio for the game at this point, which included a line of Adachi saying, "I'm Tamotsu Adachi" when he introduces himself. Hashino had the audio team cut out him saying "Tamotsu", and this is why Adachi says, "I'm Adachi" and not "I'm Tohru Adachi" in April.

I'm sure there's an alternate universe where his name stayed Tamotsu and in that universe I am instead blogging about how you can read it as "Yasu" while explaining the Portopia Serial Murders. :')

Footnote Commentary

If you're familiar with the Persona 4 Design Works, Adachi's page mentions that originally during development, he wasn't the culprit but rather a misdirect. After his role in the story was revised to be the true culprit, Adachi's design was also revamped to be the design we know of today. But this red haired design was his original design back when he was apparently just a leaky faucet. I suppose since we know his name used to be Tamotsu, we can call this version of him "Tamotsu" lol.

Hashino doesn't really go into what he meant by "create Adachi's character", but I'm assuming since the Adachi character already existed in the plot, he meant like... "re-create" the character to fit this new role as the true culprit with this consideration about how he'd come off in the plot.

Hearing that the character originally gave you legit info about the police investigation is interesting, cause in the Design Works, opposite this page of Adachi's old design, Soejima also mentions that Adachi was originally a red herring. I can see how those go hand in hand - a guy feeding you accurate info? How would that not be suspicious?

I also get the impression that Hashino is indirectly saying that the Adachi we got in-game also feeds you bullshit, as to make him seem *less* suspicious, if him giving you legit info would make him more suspicious. Which, well, considering the first thing he says is, "Yukiko did it!" ...Hmm yeah okay lol.

I was pretty amused to see that Yukiko and Yosuke were names being tossed around to be the true culprit. Wild to see that the ancient internet rumors are actually true. Notably, Dojima is still not true. Very funny to read that the real origin was some partially nonsense convo between Soejima and Hashino where they're like, "Hey, so, about the Kindaichi Case Files."

The real moral of the story here is that Adachi is truly no one's first choice. Even his role as the true culprit was originally just a confused Namatame.

[blamblamblairy]

Top 10 works of fiction ask? 👉🏻👈🏻

fuck this is hard for me without any order, it would probably have to be WTC Series - Ryukishi07: kinda obvious considering my blog. It covers all my favorite genres and it has relatable characters (i already know what you're gonna say.) (still need to start ciconia but i keep not finishing other things so i need to finish those first) Madoka Magica - Gen Urobuchi: lesbians, time loops and tragedy. honestly what more can you ask for. homura best girl (love them all tho) Neon Genesis Evangelion - Hideaki Anno: with my current list so far and including this i couldn't even lie about being mentally stable (not that anyone would believe a yasu is). eva is a series i hold really close to my heart. its focus on more introspective things rather than on the actual robot fights themselves led to me realizing and accepting some things about myself and for that i will always love it. K-On - Kakifly: not all my favorites are dark and emotionally driven, sometimes i just need a simple comedy to enjoy and laugh at. what can i even say about k-on other than haha funny light music club go brrrrrr. Spider-Man - Marvel: i have my fair share of issues with everything modern when it comes to superhero shit but everything pre 2006 of spider-man i still adore. compared to all the heroes on the level of gods and idols theres something special about an ordinary guy who got his powers by chance and still has to deal with the same struggles regular people face. Girls Last Tour - tkmiz: pretty simple series of a pair of girls and their lives at the end of the world. made me laugh. made me cry. truly wonderful series. (tkmiz's shimeji simulation will probably join this list but i wanna see where it goes further first. still deserves a mention tho.) Shin Godzilla - Hideaki Anno: i love this kaiju to death so ofc i had to put the greatest godzilla movie on this list. with a return to godzilla as a destructive force of nature as opposed to a semi hero type figure the american films have been trying and a new take with a constantly evolving monster, shin godzilla mixes new and old for a spectacle that can be taken both at face value and a little deeper. Devilman Crybaby - Masaaki Yuasa: (never read the devilman manga so idk if im missing out on anything) truly a beautiful series that says a lot about human nature and discrimination of people for being "different." would recommend to anyone Serial Experiments Lain - Yasuyuki Ueda: why yes i do have a thing for weird thought provoking shows. they're just so good. lain probably is the weirdest one i have on here but that adds to the intriguing nature of it. its hard for me to really talk about it without going too much into weird spoilery shit but funky internet girl. Chainsaw Man - Tatsuki Fujimoto: epic action series with devils and some horror elements and characters to get way too attached to. check out the manga or the anime later this year idk. its mappa so i expect it to be good. in conclusion im a huge weeb who likes things that make me think