At first glance, Junpei seems like a class clown and also an idiot. He joins SEES because he wants to be a hero and becomes increasingly annoyed with the protagonist, Makoto, when he is assigned the role of the squad’s leader for operations. The ex-baseball star spends the first few parts of Persona 3 recklessly trying to prove himself as an equally capable fighter and tactician, only to endanger everyone.
After being properly humiliated, Junpei feels listless for a while until he meets Chidori, a quiet Persona user who acts as a navigator for the rival team Strega. While he thinks they’re having a great time, she goes off the rails. Chidori and Junpei find themselves on two parallel journeys where they realize how precious life can be. For Junpei, this is the first time he thinks about the gravity of his situation. Up until this point, fighting Shadows had been a way to stroke his ego. He hadn’t considered how dangerous and life-threatening it was. Having Chidori gives him a new appreciation for how valuable life is and that there is something worth fighting for beyond admiration. Chidori, meanwhile, had given in to a nihilistic detachment before meeting Junpei. She wasn’t afraid of death because she didn’t value life. Now Junpei has come in and given her something to be afraid of losing.
Junpei starts off as comic relief (to different degrees of success), but as it continues, his story becomes one of the most profound explorations of Persona 3‘s topics. Attachment to others can be as much of a burden as it can be a reason to keep going. Junpei is the type of person who can easily slip into angry nihilism when things don’t go his way, but he doesn’t. He can’t be the hero for everyone, but he can be one for the person he loves the most. Regardless of what Chidori feels at the moment, Junpei proves that caring for someone isn’t a reason to fear loss, but that it’s all worth going through.
Yes, “Stupei Ace Defective” is at the top of our rankings. But everyone has their favorite persona Party members, so who is yours? Let us know and find out more about it below Reload Persona 3Checkout My cityreviewas well as some tips for diving into the remake.
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