#you'd be amazed how many unrelated franchises you can smash together with a little elbow grease

[devilofthehounds]

[image id: Pictures of Zenkichi Hasegawa from Persona 5 Strikers, Kakeru Hasegawa from Monark, and Saori Hasegawa from Persona 3 Portable. Below each person is their name written in English and Japanese. /end id]

I know not everyone with the same last name has to be related, but hear me out!

They're either siblings or cousins; the timeline's making it hard for me to decide.

Under the cut for timeline discussion. Major Monark spoilers, you have been warned.

Zenkichi: October 1

He has a line in Strikers where he says he's in his forties.

Strikers takes place in 2017, meaning he would've been born 1977 or earlier.

Kakeru: April 9

In the game, he has a line where he's like "I'm still in my early thirties."

In issue 10 of Petit Monark, he insists that he grew up in the Heisei era.

On the walls throughout the academy are posters that say "Open School 10/23 Sat – 24 Sun", which lines up with 2021.

Based on this information, we can say he was born between 1987 and 1991. If we limit ourselves to saying he was born within the Heisei era, that narrows the range to 1989–1991.

Saori: Unknown

She's in the same year as the protagonist, but she lived overseas for two years. This would make her two years older than the protagonist.

Since Persona 3 takes place in 2009, this means she was born between April 1990 and March 1991

Mitsuru (not pictured): August 15

The only things we know about his age are that 1) he enrolled in the academy for high school and 2) he died ten years prior to the game.

Since his profile says he died on academy grounds, he probably died while he was still attending, which means we can say he was born between 1995 and 1997.

Tl;dr

Zenkichi: October 1, 1977 or earlier

Kakeru: April 9, 1987–1991

Saori: April 1990–March 1991

Mitsuru: August 15, 1995–1997 (through assumptions)

Cousins is probably more plausible, but siblings would be funnier if only because it means Zenkichi's parents had a kid while he was away at college.