"I have only had Nanako for four hours. But if anyone were to harm her I will kill everyone in this town and then myself." -me during my first playthrough
When I was Nanako’s age, my parents separated. My dad was an alcoholic who sunk the pain from the break up into booze. I remember being so confused. Wanting to help my father but not even understanding fully what was wrong. And just how lonely I was. To add on, I had a big brother around the age of Yu. Who let me hang out with his friends. I completely understand why and how you as the main character must been so much to Nanako, the ways that my big bro meant everything to me when I was young.
I hope things are better for all of you now, and that you still have a good relationship with your brother. I didn't expect to come across someone whose circumstances so closely mirrored those in the game. The whole time I was playing, I kept thinking, "no child should have to go through this". Nanako seems almost unrealistically mature, but between her mother's death and her father's emotional neglect, much of that is likely because she was forced to deal with more than she should have at far too young an age through no fault of her own. I'm an only child myself, but I have also experienced living alone with a parent with alcoholic tendencies (my mother) though the worst episodes were sporadic and I was already a teenager then. I can say that if I had a younger sibling in that situation there is nothing I wouldn't have done for them. So yeah, I guess we can't always choose the hands we're dealt in life but I truly wish you the best.
Huh. Interesting. Obviously, I love Nanako as a character, but the only thing that bothered me is I did kinda wonder if her character was _too_ unrealistic. I mean, obvious is obvious, it's a game - but the cast of p4 is mostly comprised of very realistic and down-to-earth characters. Sometimes I worry if Nanako creeps into the territory of being "too perfect", and being a mary-sue. I'm not one to pick too much on kid characters for being presented as "too mature" in games much, in fact I feel a lot people underestimate how much young kids are capable of being able to grasp. Usually younger kids struggle to communicate complicated things, but not necessarily to understand them, given the time - They can often be missing a lot of important cultural context you can only really get by simply living your life for longer, but kids often understand far more in their head than they're able to communicate. That being said, with what she goes through in the game, I remember occassionally feeling a little sceptical a kid in her situation would really make so much more of an effort to patch things up with Dojima then he himself does. Not that I didn't think she would care, but I more would have expected her to get frustrated, and then simply decided to keep to herself once it didn't seem to work the first couple times. I must admit as well, I've always been a bit sceptical about if it's really realistic for Nanako to connect so well with Yu, too - but it sounds like when you lived through a similar experience, it was the case, so maybe I'm being too pessimistic. In fairness, come to think of it, maybe Nanako putting more effort into talking with Dojima than Dojima does to her is more realistic than I thought - In my own life, I have felt a frustration that my parents tend to feel I'm too much of a shut-in and don't talk with them enough - when (and maybe I'm wrong and just don't have the full picture here, but) I feel I've made far more of an effort to spend time with them and include them in my life in the past couple years than they have, but they have shut me down at every opportunity because they say their "brain is too tired", and aren't ever willing to hear me talk about anything I'm actually interested in. The few times I do get to, they limit how much I'm allowed to say before they cut me off and quickly change the subject. I have to admit, considering that alongside the fact they always used to tell me I talked too much when I was younger, it does feel a little insulting they're turning around now and pulling the "oh, why are you being so anti-social" card - even if it is out of a lack of awareness. They seem to have the idea that I need to be interested in more "normal" things, that I need to watch TV and follow pop culture to make friends - instead of watchjng RUclips, and being into games and music production. I really don't get where they got this idea from, the majority of the friends I've made both online and irl are people who I bonded with over our shared love of niche communities for games, youtube channels, or music - yet they still seem to think my interest in that is the problem? Well anyway, point being, I guess on reflection it's somewhat reflective of my own experience...
@@doublechindoge7 I think it’s also important to remember this game in its cultural context, as children are much more likely to know how to perform household chores and run errands in a way children in America are just not taught at such a young age. But also, I know many of people who grew up in single parent households and had to learn how to cook or clean when they should have been spending time enjoying themselves. I think Nanako goes through a process known as adultification, which I went through to some degree as a child. Growing up I took pride in it, but in the end it has caused me long term damages to my mental health. I really wish honestly, that my brother was as close to my dad as Yu is to Doujima. But then again, as much as Doujima reflects the things I love about my father but also so many of his flaws, I would say that in the end Doujima is better of a person than my dad ever was. Because he took so much accountability in the end for the shit he pulled with Nanako, in ways my father never has for me. I also think many children in that situation like myself still feel a natural desire to be close to their parents, it’s a matter of nature. Especially after a lost like Nanako went through. My mom is still alive, but she was very violent during the time of my parents split and so I sort of clung to my dad for any sense of emotional comfort, which similar to Doujima he did not know how to handle. I will say, seeing the way these characters arcs grew and developed was honestly a very major healing experience for me, and also cathartic in the sense that I got into these games *because* of my big brother. I never really see positive little sister (although I’m not a girl, I am transgender and was seen as a little girl growing up) and a big brother. And I’m really happy that this game highlighted it so well.
@@Harkz0r Took me a while to get to this comment, sorry about that haha. But does mean a lot to me what you said in a way that is hard to put into words. I can confirm that I am still very close to my brother now as I was as a kid. I went through a lot of physical traumas through out my life and in many ways he stepped up and took care of me when nobody else would or could. He even got me into this series to begin with, as he has been a Persona fan for almost 10 years at this point. I even sort of relate to Nanako being so upset when Yu had to return home, similar to how I felt when my brother went to college
@@pinksugarx3861 Yeah, obviously I'm not familiar enough with your situation, but it does sound like Dojima and your real-life father are very not so comparable people unfortunately... On the adultification thing, I will say, once you get to the point where you have to do all that work even as a little kid - it would make a lot of sense to me that you'd feel a sense of pride in it.
"We need you to tell the difference between these pictures" People who don't like the long intro People who don't like Nanako "They're the same picture."
I think Nanako playing piano at the end of the game is meant to convey the fact that she used music as a coping mechanism. The lyrics of Heaven have lines such as “Music keeps on turning me from the words that haunt my soul,” and “Finding ways through the favorite tune played all day with my eyes closed.” This can not only be interpreted as a connection to her mother playing piano, but it could also be a reference to her love of the Junes jingle. The parts about her closing her eyes and ignoring the words are meant to show that she uses the music to deny the truth that her mother is gone. So, just as how music used to get her through her struggles, she now learns to play music to help lift up others, as in contrast to the lyrics, one can not play the music with their eyes closed.
This is a good observation. I still think linking the June's jingle to the piano has a few too many in-between steps but I think the eyes closed and allusions to music atleast keeps a reference to music that would make sense to nanako pick8ng up music later. Cool thought!
Perhaps the Junes jingle itself was also Nanako using music as a coping mechanism; as infamously referenced by Hiimdaisy: “When dad’s busy at work, I sing the Junes song over and over again to make myself feel less alone! :D”
I'd argue that Nanako is a realistic child given her circumstances. She's basically left by herself to take care of herself practically 24/7. Therefore she wouldn't have time to do typical child things or act like a child. Plus it's a pretty common thing for especially mature kids like Nanako, for their maturity to be a result of the trauma they've gone through. It wouldn't make sense from a character perspective, to have Nanako be immature.
I think she’s just childish enough to still fit her age as a child’s brain isn’t developed enough yet to fully take in the mature nuances of the real world except under certain circumstances. A good, well-written child character is a difficult one to pull off properly without coming off as annoying just being there.
I think it’s also due to the fact that her family has been on hard times for a while and they’re even more isolated than they already were. Nanako seems to enjoy the housework and helpfulness to a degree and she also is high performing at school it seems. In a sense she’s in a very peaceful and undistracted environment so it makes sense that she would be more empathetic, appreciative, responsible, etc. she doesn’t have much going on and she’s been very well loved before, so now she’s very capable and genuinely caring because she appreciates essentially everything she has
@@HidinginPrivate just listening to the girls shedding tears, Yosuke and Kanji screaming and the lead up to the confrontation with Namatame. It brilliantly tearjerking. Not yo mention Yu crying afterwards. Props to Johnny Yong Bosch (Yu’s Voice Actor (and Adachi’s)) for making those tears feel so real.
I actually cried over her "death" because when a friend recommended me P4G, he said that there's no dark moments in the game. Her "dying" took my fucking guard down
Playing other P4 dungeons: careful strategizing to select the the correct day. Rescuing Nanako: DAY 1. ALL-OUT ATTACK. IF WE ARE NOT VICTORIOUS LET NO ONE COME BACK ALIVE!
I disagree, this seems like a clear case of the old school anime trope of establishing siscon/brocon characters. Hell Yu is even called the Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel. The things that really gives this away are the cooking and maturity even if we don't look at what happens with max link which just confirms it.
It's probably unintentional, but Nanako sharing her English VA with Izanami kinda makes Yu going into Heaven (an afterlife) to save her into a psuedo redemption for Izanagi.
Definitely unintentional. It's an interesting link but Izanagi doesn't need redeemed? In the Kojiki story the one in the wrong is Izanami and that is also the core message the game stands with in not averting your eyes to the truth. Also with how poor ATLUS was in 2008 and the state of the dubbing industry, most voices in Persona 4 are reused 2/3 times for smaller roles. Nanako being voiced by previous character Aigis also likely just made the process cheaper and easier since a business relationship was already established. There's more but I suppose this reply is long enough haha
@@HidinginPrivate Atlus west does have a tendency to reuse voice actors, which isn’t bad thing, as you said it’s easier to use VAs you are already affiliated and experienced with.
@@HidinginPrivate Not only that the Voice actor for Chie changed form the PS2 version of Persona 4 to P4G as well. I think Chie's OG VA retired just like the OG VA for Takemi in Persona 5. Also in the Anime Nanako's English VA also does the Voice of Kanji's mom.
I don't know why they chose the Piano specifically. But it seems to me that the reason they only reveal that Chisato was a piano teacher, her actual job and something fairly significant about her, in the time-skip scene is because it represents how Nanako and Dojima have moved past their grieving somewhat. Chisato is sort of a ghost in the house, and you don't learn a lot about her because Dojima and Nanako are both still grieving and don't want to think about how much they miss her. It's only when they come to terms with her death that she becomes more than a lost mother, and Nanako and Dojima especially are able to connect with her and talk about her as she was, without being bogged down in loss.
Broke into senseless babbling as soon as I saw the thumbnail, as someone who played the game while my own little sister was very little nanako took my whole heart and shattered it. Excited to see analysis of how devastatingly likable she is
@@HidinginPrivate haha well not to be a huge downer but I've been ✨disowned✨ so I don't know as much as I'd like, but she looks healthy and happy in pictures :') anyway video is banger keep up the grind
Good thing Kamoshida is all the way out in Tokyo. Away from Nanako and she’s safely outside of his sphere of influence to even know she exists. Adachi safe to play the role of the killer without someone making him look redundant.
Also gives you some social link points with the individual members of the investigation team. If you have a bunch of people you want to simultaneously increase stats in prepatation to move up social link levels, this is a good opportunity. However, if you don't want to consume in-game time and spend it somewhere other than the hospital, you could just make a separate save file to get the Nanako trophy achievement, then revert to you old save and continue.... that's a bit cold, though.
I am in that 5.3% of "Big Bro is Worried" on Steam, lol. I originally expected to hate Nanako based off what I saw before playing P4G, but her impact through the whole game made the ending sequences hurt so much more. It genuinely felt like she was your little sister, very fitting.
I love that small detail in the anime when Nanako felt her dad's presence when Yu summoned Kohryu during her rescue. This is after the Justice/Hiero Social Link episode and imo, it adds to Nanako's growth in empathy knowing her father is there protecting her, even though he wasn't physically in the TV world to rescue her. Even before that scene, Yu was being controlled to fight against his friends and snapped out of it from Nanako's silent plead to stop fighting. She was on the verge of dying and her thought was to stop her Big Bro from fighting his friends.
On my first playthrough, I kind of just dicked around throughout the whole game, didn't take much seriously. When heaven became available, I snapped into grind mode. I finished the dungeon, underlevelled, in one day.
Honestly, that’s a neat thing to add from your own personal narrative of the game. The idea that the IT was pretty lax about getting the newest victim out because they had plenty of time and knew exact deadlines, so taking their time to get through the dungeons while maintaining a work-life balance wasn’t really an issue. When Nanako is taken though, shit. gets. DONE. Just a little thing I love about video games. You have so much control over the narrative that you create!
Nanako is a powerful motivator and a strong reason why this game works so well. Just naturally integrated with both the main character and those close to him. When threatened, in danger, or just bringing joy, her actions matter. She's a good means of getting the player and character to resonate. I didn't even need tricky questions to get the initial bad ending when it came to Namatame. I was ready to throw that guy into the TV along with the others anyways. I like the epilogue for Golden since it does allow them to expand on her character some more. Get to see how Nanako and Dojima are moving forward. Trying to put it simply, Nanako's mother is a mystery for most of the game. We know she died, we know how she died, and we know the impact it had. But Nanako and Dojima give up few details while still actively grieving. So it makes sense in the epilogue to have a new detail emerge after they are feeling more comfortable. If you want to stretch it, there were hints. Nanako singing the Junes jingle just seemed like a normal thing a kid would do. But it could have been pointing at that musical interest she shared with her mother. Definitely a stretch, but maybe she and her mother sang now and then when she played the piano. Even if that had nothing to do with it, it makes sense that there were hobbies Nanako's mother had that neither she or Dojima were willing to talk about while missing her.
funfact: any social link event that should involve nanako has a somewhat more stilted version of the scene without her in case it is done during the time where nanako is in the hospital. obviously this does not apply to dojima, whose social link has a deadline for completion before that. It is interesting how the piano serves little importance to p4 as an in-world object until nanako brings it up at the very end, but at the same time has subconsciously been the heart of many songs and moments you had experienced up to that point. Regardless of in-universe explanation, tying an element of the game with such a description to a character like her feels like a perfect decision.
Nanako is amazing, is impossible not to love her. I want to mention too that everybody talks about her relationship with Dojima and how the MC is the "Big Bro" but her bond with him is really deep. She has a huge impact in her cousin and the manga explores this pretty well: Nanako is Yu´s mirror. Is hinted that he has been neglected by his parents (workholics moving from different places all the time) and had to grow up in the same way than Nanako does (everybody mentions how mature he´s but that was because he was alone) so that could explain the "obsession" with her, becoming the "Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel" and the amazing Big Bro that he is. He wants to protect her at any cost because he knows pretty well what loneliness is. He mentions in the manga that Nanako gives him "peace of mind" and stability if I´m not wrong. About the Justice Arcana, I´ve read some theories saying that the reason of why she´s dead if you kill Namatame could be that she´s Justice and to kill an innocent man is revenge not justice. You "killed" the justice with that act, you, the player who wanted revenge. That was a master move from Atlus toying with player´s feelings knowing that many of us would fall in the trap. And talking about theories is pretty interesting your vision about the piano mention. They could have added some info during her SL, specially in the moments where she sings.
@@Amarant127Considering that if he’s spared, she does come back and the same people who once held the opinion that he’s the killer now realised he is a pawn of someone else before going on the path to find the truth. The fact the Judgement Arcana is effectively The Fool Part II in 4 with it called Seekers of Truth or that it starts when they spare his life isn’t a coincidence and the same man responsible for the kidnapping is being seen by everyone else as the killer while the I.T crew works to prove his innocence of the crimes he wasn’t responsible for is justice. They questioned the narrative everyone else readily buys into because of confirmation bias due to who was his latest victim and found the real truth by being real detectives like Nanako. I do wonder if that Detective Nanako bit in P4 The Animation actually has a deeper symbolism than it appears on the surface...
26:31 A piano in symbolism represents contentment. the fact she picked up the piano knowing that her mom played it means shes now satisfied and content with her life knowing she found a other way to cope with the loss of her mother
The way they did her and dojimas moment in the animation was done so freaking well. The music and emotional weight was so hard man. Seeing how mature she in being probably the most mature out of the entire cast. Heaven showing her true nature. Not having a shadow of her own and showing just how freaking pure of a person she is. Her dungeon being the most unique and the saddest with the best song. When I noticed how much focus was being on Nanako towards the reveal of her being the next target, I knew something was wrong. I was nervous and wondered if she was going to be killed. When she showed up on that tv I was shook to the heart and how dark things after that made me realize she may not make it out of this Alive. They could be more hopeful about it but the game really tells you “hey this is more serious than you think”. The motivation they give all the players to go right into that dungeon and save Nanako has got to be one of the best motivating factors I’ve felt in a game. I called her the golden child the whole game and seeing how she looks in the timeskip warms my heart and I’m sure it does for everyone else. WE STAN THE GOLDEN CHILD
Given The Fool vs The Jester, what Yu did after rescuing diverged him from the path Adachi walked on before finding his own. In the bad ending, Yu became his own Adachi.
Blessed intro. I think Nanako actually had me the most emotional out of all the characters in this game. Like you said, she's just always there and is a very mature and compassionate kid. Her dungeon seriously kicked my ass in gear! I can't think of many other parts in games I've played that had me more driven and emotionally invested than November in Persona 4. Thanks for all your hard work and I can't wait to watch the party member vids soon!
Yeah fr when she gets kidnapped it's this big hype moment, not doing her dungeon in one go feels wrong. Also yup! Party videos incoming! Teddie comes out on Saturday, then we'll go in order Yosuke-Chie - Yukiko - Kanji etc etc
one thing you have to appreciate is how Nanako's portrayal puts a weight to the decisions in finding the true culprit. If Nanako wasn't so gosh darn likeable, having to talk the rest of your team out of yeeting Namatame straight back into the TV world wouldn't be nearly as much of a decision. Had it been anyone else who had gotten taken in, you the player would possibly not be emotionally invested enough in them to make enacting vigilante justice even the faintest consideration for most people. But " *He hurt Nanako, he's a monster* " is what ends up going through a typical players head and it requires you to put your emotional response aside to see the proper conclusion of the case, just as you must convince the rest of the team to do.
Seeing my friends play through Persona 4 Golden and I eagerly await to see their reactions to the story arcs Nanako is part of. Especially that first story climax. Everyone loves Nanako, she's so precious!
Her palace... Heaven... The most memorable and important thing in the entirety of P4... I do still remember it ever since I was 9 years old... Man, I rushed to get her back... Didn't do anything else, straight up. I replayed the game last year... Along with P3. It was as beautiful as ever. Too powerful, too good.
I never had a younger siblings. Nanako is so special to me. She's the closest thing to a younger siblings i've experienced. Might be dumb but i actually balled my eyes out when she died in the story and i really hated Namatame at first because of it and wanted to throw him in the TV because of that in my first playthrough. But then again i am a very emotional person i guess.
Same, an only child so she's like my lil sis for me. When first hours after replaying, I'm annoyed to not be able to start social link with her as soon as possible haha
i think the thing you said about expecting the vid to be longer says a lot about nanako as a character. --for starters, shes also short.-- basically theres so much content, but its all right there. unlike some other links, you can see everything about her character right there, and despite that there is so damn much character. you dont have to go three layers into the kojiki or bring up the tiniest detail from rank one just to make a grand point. she makes it easy, while keeping it quality. theres not a ton to analyse ngl just a ton to appreciate with a little bit of analysis on the side. and thats what makes her so great. you dont have to tryhard to love her
Persona 4 does an absolutely excellent job at motivating you to find the killer because as time goes on, Inaba becomes your home, your friends and family are here. Nanako is one of those important things you want to protect her and keep her and everyone in the town safe and happy. The scars left by the killer will always be felt and even those effected by their actions but because of the love and bonds you establish in that year drives you to protect your new home.
in all seriousness I haven't gotten around to watching the video yet but Nanako is such a good character. I think a lot of media has issues with portraying children, whether they act too mature at times or whatever, but Nanako is done very well because they know how to write her as an actual child. And well, when she's kidnapped, you bet I tore through Heaven in one day to rescue her, and I bet most people did too.
Even the first time through the game when clearing dungeons in one day is tough, I was all over getting through Heaven as soon as possible. With others there is a balance of making good use of the days to further social links. But with Nanako...rushing through it at max speed was required! Of course timing is always strange for me. Since my birthday is around the time of Nanako's capture. Which just mentally makes me think how depressing a birthday it would be if the MC shared the same day with me in that sense.
I think the reason Yu avoided becoming Adachi is not because of his friends but because of Nanako. With what we know of his background, who knows how few he has for friends before going to the Dojimas and that’s not going into the fact he’s an only child of his parents. Note what’s said about Yu’s mother from his uncle and the fact Nanako doesn’t recognise Yu at the start despite being related to her on her’s father’s side of the family, you get a good idea of what sort of disposition Yu was living in. Then when you piece together Adachi’s background along with what kind of life does he live outside of work and you have a similar backstory to Yu. Yet the two took two different paths in life and the key factor in that? Nanako was there for Yu in that period of his life while Adachi has nobody. Yet the few moments of humanity with Pre-Defeat Adachi is tied to Nanako as his Social Link shows. Considering The Jester is a corrupted The Fool and looking at the Justice Arcana, you could say Nanako is the pivot between both ends. The one really connecting the both of them together since The Fool feels connected to The Jester but The Jester doesn’t see The Fool as anything else than his boss’s cousin from out of town who just happens to be killing time at Junes. Had Adachi met his own Nanako; his rants about the state of the world would be less about how it sucks and more about how much it easily gives into discourse at a given moment while people like Nanako are unfairly caught in the mess by the irresponsibles. How the world wouldn’t be so chaotic if there were more Nanakos in positions of power to stop the current state of affairs. Maybe he’ll still fall to the dark side but his arguments against Yu would be harder to debunk because there’s not as many holes to poke through.
One of the best written and down to earth kid characters in fiction, also the anime episode dedicated to her and Dojima was great and that song they had to accompany it makes me cry every time. Also I'm surprised you didn't talk about the song that plays in her dungeon.
I really hope in P6 we get to see an older Nanako, if not as a party member or social link then just a cameo. While I love all of our buddies from Inaba and want to see them all happy as adults, I especially wish to see her future. While I understand some people would hate the "fan service", I think her being a future party member would be great. It would give us an immediate connection to her, but maybe she's changed significantly since Inaba. We could see her living on with her memories and lessons learned but now alone for whatever reason (probably a educational thing, exchange student maybe?) I don't know, I feel like there's alot of potential with her in general, and with such a cool "origin" story, it would be nice to follow her through another part of her life. Nanako for P6 Party Member, make it happen Atlus!
ATLUUS DO THIS AND MY LIFE IS YOURS 😭 But yeah I hope in the future games we get more direct references like p4 did for p3 but p5 did the references a little weird in my opinion okay yeah they're in the background on tv but that's it oh you get a poster for Rise wow Yeah it's fun service BUT IT WORKS
I've always wondered about Nanako's strong affinity for Junes... When I played the vanilla game all those years ago I attributed it to my own feelings of thinking "the mall is AWESOME" when I was really young.
What a wonderful analysis of the heart of Persona 4! I loved your interpretation of her learning piano, and the true ending version of Never More. To this day that song brings me to tears when I hear it. Your interpretation just filled me with more joyful tears. This game is truly a masterpiece, and I’m happy to continue learning more about the symbolism.
The fact that u counted how many people are seen in P4G before Nanako shows up is… insane lmao. I crave ur level of dedication (& possible masochism). And ofc I’m always excited to watch a vid about the 2nd most adorable persona character ever (1st being Koromaru, sorry Nanako) esp with ur thorough analysis! Nanako really is the emotional core of Persona 4, I remember that after I got the fake-out ending where it seemed like she died, I stopped playing the game for like a month bcuz I was like “what’s the point if I couldn’t save nanako” - then I found out she lived and picked it back up again thank god lmao! But it rlly shows how good Atlus was at getting u invested in the family of her & Dojima :,)))
Outta all the persona 4 characters, Nanako is the one I adore the most ((also my fav character)). Her kindness, sweetness, even stubbornness is all so adorable and I get how she deals with the death of a loved one since it isn’t easy getting over, nor does one really get over a death tbh.. Protect her at all costs ! 💕
wanted to say thanks for the epic intro bc nanako deserves it all. and thanks for making these videos because you can really feel the love you have for this game in them. i highly appreciate the amount of care and research that the p4/g vids i've seen so far have covered. you've been doing these characters and this game a ton of justice.
This video made me cry, nanako is so precious 😭💕 I love your headcanon, especially because when you go to load your game in golden it says to “Return to Inaba,” definitely reminds me of how you said it’s like reminiscing and I always felt that way about it even before this video! Like p4 is a time capsule of youth and experience and whenever you “Return to Inaba” you reexperience that time of your life
I’ve searched far and wide I’ve went from door to door shop to shop country to country and I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t like nanako even this amazing video all about nanako doesn’t have any dislikes.
I’m always so happy to see that Nanako is fairly popular. It would’ve been so easy to make her isolated in her school life as well, but they didn’t do that to her. And that’s fantastic
A part of me can't help but wonder if the piano inclination might be a reference to a musician that I lack the cultural context to recognize off the top of my head. Your analysis has made me keenly aware that there is significance to a lot of the decisions in Persona 4 that I had previously attributed to just iterating on popular tropes. I love being proven wrong, and I'm looking forward to watching more!
When I bought that I was like here we go again I have seen this story so many times so many different forms the anime the game from RUclipsrs playing the game for playing the game myself The manga (the mangaka loved Yusuke a little too much)the memes the comic dub It's just clicks with us
My first time playing P4G I made a tweet saying something along the lines of, "if someone messes with her I'll screw them up" you can guess how I reacted when she got kidnapped. X3
I only played Persona for the first time ever last year, with Golden to this day still being the only title I have played and when I beat Golden (not the true ending) and did a few of the endings, I came to understand just what an underrated masterpiece the game is. As well, your series which was recently recommended to me is a masterful analysis of all of the core concepts and themes the games present. I appreciate you for taking so much time to do it and know that it has been my company for the past few nights!
22:25 which is why nanako is the murderer! Balancing out her goodness with that evil Actually though, the portion about the beanstalks & how both of these people being here propelled them to heaven was definitely new to me, and your analyses are spectacular
Nanako is such a good character, every replay of the game I just enjoyed being with her. Awesome analysis (also you're playing guitar? I'm happy that you chose to show it).
"How do we get the players to genuinely consider killing Namatame?" "I got it! Nanako _dies!_ " "Johnson that's.... perfect! Who wouldn't Wana murder the bastard responsible for Nanako's death! But she is still alive, right?" "Oh of course, she's too perfect to actually kill. We'll just give the players a heart attacking thinking we did."
I agree with other comments here that theorise that Nanako took up piano to heal her pain (which is what music is known to do). But it's also a sign of her accepting that while her mother is gone, there are parts of her mother that remain alive within her. She is still her mother's daughter, and has inherited those parts. It's a beautiful touch, when you think about it. Only Japanese can create something so exceptionally powerful or touching in anime or games.
I've been enjoying watching your analysis so far, but I've been wondering if the videos are going to remain separated or if you're going to do a supercut. Keep up the good work, you speak with passion and appreciation for the work and it really comes across :)
I'm proud to be part of that 5.3% of players, the heaven dungeon is my favourite one and the theme is amazing, I even finished on the first day available and came back for some grinding and to hear the amazing theme.
Man starting with the lateral part of November I was lonely in the game not to getting to hear Nanako to welcome me home. Yeah with the Heaven dungeon it was personal I wanted to save Nanako as quickly as possible so I did that dungeon in 1 game day. I love Nanako as a character. She is very loveable. And during a part of Rise's SL I always thank her for cheering up Rise. I also love Nanako in the Anime during the summer festival she is portraying a character from a popular kid's TV show about a detective she is so cute in that outfit.
P4 is such a great game and Nanako is one of the greatest factor for that. I still remember how i easily convert my 2 sisters to the "Protect Nanako" camp with me lol
I won't lie: I was one of the people who thought she was kind of annoying in the beginning of the game, but I had NO idea how important she'd become to me by the end. Her dungeon was the only dungeon I cleared in a single day, spending almost all of my money on Fox to restore my health and SP so I could keep going back and trudging through. I originally got the bad ending of the game and that shit KILLED me. Part of me wishes she would've stayed dead for the emotional gut-punch it would've elicited like in the bad end, but it all worked out in the end. That last month there was just a rollercoaster of emotions.
amazing video! the analysis was crazy good and the details had my jaws dropped like how do you count how many people you see in the beginning of the game lol, and the intro to the video was really funny also cool that you also play the gooeytar :-)
Yeah I did a lot of meaningless counting and statistics in this one for the heck of it. I just thought it would be funny to be super overly thorough at the start
I'm glad that you pointed out the lack of people who got that achievement. I know it's a bit out of the way but it always baffled me that people didn't have it especially since everyone universally loves Nanako, I mean we literally kill god for her it's shocking so few went to visit her in the hospital.
Yeah, the guide I used said to do other things those days but I can't just not visiting her after what happened, especially she being someone really important to Yu and the Investigation Team.
For me it's a case of : I didn't know you could visit nanako at the hospital because the hospital isn't on the city map or the quick menu and the game doesn't inform you that visiting nanako at the hospital was an option.
She’s an example of stellar characterization and design (alongside the good job of her voice actress) because she is seen as a part of family by everyone who played p4, and everyone try their hardest to protect her (I went in the TV world the first possible day and busted through killing everything that was moving with Yoshitsune) Of course she is treated well by everyone she’s amazing and a pleasure to have around. So much so that someone even say Dojima doesn’t deserve her.
I fucking love Nanako. But I can't watch this video just yet. I need to finish the game for myself first before I can watch this and have my heart melt or shatter all over again. Thanks for letting me know about the achievement though, I'll be sure to get that when I can.
I have a much older half-brother, but I was raised as an only child. I don't really relate much to kids either. But Nanako, oh how I love her. I never felt the feeling of having siblings until persona 4, and I confess that in the first hours I was mad I had to deal with a virtual child. How did this thought bit me after a while. She is genuinely well writen and even in fiction, I felt a strong bond with her, far stronger then any other link in the game. I also love the tarot simbology in this game. The opposite of Arcana 8 is Arcana 11, but this is one of the split numbers in the game (Strenght in the Sports club, Hunger in Adachi's reveal). Justice is about natural action, balance, giving back what you receive. Strenght is about forced action, imposing your will, and as a split card, the sports team represent the good use of action, but Hunger represents the bad. Imposing your will for destruction, control and consume. Adachi is seen as a foil to Yu and the investigation team since both share the 0 as Fool and Jester, but as Hunger, he is the foil for Nanako. His palace is the opposite of Heaven, his intentions are the opposite of balance, his lies are the opposite of honesty, he encapsulates all that Justice fights against. In the hospital scene, I cried. A lot. I was ready for any loss, any death, any consequences for any character, except for Nanako. The following moments I was in the game, it was the most RP an RPG ever provoked me. I was angry, I wanted to kill the culprit, and at this point I was sure it wasn't Namatame, so the third act hit me so strong. Nanako may be the fictional character that most touched me in all media, and I'll always remember persona 4 firstly for her.
This is a series in P4G, since spin offs often change facts, rearrange or insert new scenes or otherwise mess with the Canon, to be consistent I am only covering events from p4 and P4g. I do want to talk about Narukami more, although most of it will be through other segments
Rather than being a social Butterfly, I consider Nanako a Social Mosquito: One who struggles to form social connections, but thrives when given access to social connections through someone they already know.
I found Nanako's depiction really personal and it made it easy for me to be attached to her character because I had a very similar upbringing that resulted in me having to adapt and become more resilient and mature when I was just a year or two older than her.
man persona knows how to write children characters, Ken and Nanako are both fantastic characters that you could relate to, both for very different reasons though.
Nanako is really amazing to me because I actually had my mum die fairly young, 5 years old. My father also worked too many hours, I cooked, especially for myself since my dad couldn’t be home, I gave my dad tissues when he cried about her, I tried to be the best son I could be, I read books more than the TV because I wasn’t really allowed it much but Nanako was like looking at what I wanted to be as a child, nicer, more social, better at cleaning. Nanako was closer with her mother but nonetheless, when I saw her, heard what she’d gone through, I genuinely think Nanako was the social link I immediately prioritised. When I played it the first time, I found her both bad and good-because I felt I wasn’t allowed to cry and be sad but she was so I had a need to shut her up-but also this deep feeling of ‘I wish I’d had someone, I want to be that someone through the MC’ (I didn’t really know his name well yet). Nanako, I genuinely think, helped me understand that I was a child, and that I am not yet healed because I felt that annoyance at feeling emotions about parental death. It’s been far more than a decade now, seems closer to 2, and my emotions are gone about my mother’s death, but Nanako genuinely helped me understand people can grief with emotions and it would’ve been okay if I had too.
If it didn't cause... complications, I still would've thrown Namatame into the TV even knowing the truth, after what he did. I completely understand why arena made the siscon joke, I would kill for Nanako and we both know that you, reading this, would too.
They have already been pre-edited two separate ways for export so that one is the big video version and one is the individual segment version. It's coming!
Nanako is the most successful motivating factor in gaming no debate.
Truly the emotional core of the story
Small children don't really motivate me to do anything. Golden Hands, though...
@@Vulgarth1 Shes more than a small child
"I have only had Nanako for four hours. But if anyone were to harm her I will kill everyone in this town and then myself."
-me during my first playthrough
I played the game and my sis would watch now she trying to act "cool" like nanako lol
When I was Nanako’s age, my parents separated. My dad was an alcoholic who sunk the pain from the break up into booze. I remember being so confused. Wanting to help my father but not even understanding fully what was wrong. And just how lonely I was. To add on, I had a big brother around the age of Yu. Who let me hang out with his friends. I completely understand why and how you as the main character must been so much to Nanako, the ways that my big bro meant everything to me when I was young.
I hope things are better for all of you now, and that you still have a good relationship with your brother. I didn't expect to come across someone whose circumstances so closely mirrored those in the game. The whole time I was playing, I kept thinking, "no child should have to go through this". Nanako seems almost unrealistically mature, but between her mother's death and her father's emotional neglect, much of that is likely because she was forced to deal with more than she should have at far too young an age through no fault of her own.
I'm an only child myself, but I have also experienced living alone with a parent with alcoholic tendencies (my mother) though the worst episodes were sporadic and I was already a teenager then. I can say that if I had a younger sibling in that situation there is nothing I wouldn't have done for them. So yeah, I guess we can't always choose the hands we're dealt in life but I truly wish you the best.
Huh.
Interesting.
Obviously, I love Nanako as a character, but the only thing that bothered me is I did kinda wonder if her character was _too_ unrealistic.
I mean, obvious is obvious, it's a game - but the cast of p4 is mostly comprised of very realistic and down-to-earth characters.
Sometimes I worry if Nanako creeps into the territory of being "too perfect", and being a mary-sue.
I'm not one to pick too much on kid characters for being presented as "too mature" in games much, in fact I feel a lot people underestimate how much young kids are capable of being able to grasp. Usually younger kids struggle to communicate complicated things, but not necessarily to understand them, given the time - They can often be missing a lot of important cultural context you can only really get by simply living your life for longer, but kids often understand far more in their head than they're able to communicate.
That being said, with what she goes through in the game, I remember occassionally feeling a little sceptical a kid in her situation would really make so much more of an effort to patch things up with Dojima then he himself does.
Not that I didn't think she would care, but I more would have expected her to get frustrated, and then simply decided to keep to herself once it didn't seem to work the first couple times.
I must admit as well, I've always been a bit sceptical about if it's really realistic for Nanako to connect so well with Yu, too - but it sounds like when you lived through a similar experience, it was the case, so maybe I'm being too pessimistic.
In fairness, come to think of it, maybe Nanako putting more effort into talking with Dojima than Dojima does to her is more realistic than I thought -
In my own life, I have felt a frustration that my parents tend to feel I'm too much of a shut-in and don't talk with them enough - when (and maybe I'm wrong and just don't have the full picture here, but) I feel I've made far more of an effort to spend time with them and include them in my life in the past couple years than they have, but they have shut me down at every opportunity because they say their "brain is too tired", and aren't ever willing to hear me talk about anything I'm actually interested in. The few times I do get to, they limit how much I'm allowed to say before they cut me off and quickly change the subject. I have to admit, considering that alongside the fact they always used to tell me I talked too much when I was younger, it does feel a little insulting they're turning around now and pulling the "oh, why are you being so anti-social" card - even if it is out of a lack of awareness.
They seem to have the idea that I need to be interested in more "normal" things, that I need to watch TV and follow pop culture to make friends - instead of watchjng RUclips, and being into games and music production.
I really don't get where they got this idea from, the majority of the friends I've made both online and irl are people who I bonded with over our shared love of niche communities for games, youtube channels, or music - yet they still seem to think my interest in that is the problem?
Well anyway, point being, I guess on reflection it's somewhat reflective of my own experience...
@@doublechindoge7 I think it’s also important to remember this game in its cultural context, as children are much more likely to know how to perform household chores and run errands in a way children in America are just not taught at such a young age. But also, I know many of people who grew up in single parent households and had to learn how to cook or clean when they should have been spending time enjoying themselves. I think Nanako goes through a process known as adultification, which I went through to some degree as a child. Growing up I took pride in it, but in the end it has caused me long term damages to my mental health. I really wish honestly, that my brother was as close to my dad as Yu is to Doujima. But then again, as much as Doujima reflects the things I love about my father but also so many of his flaws, I would say that in the end Doujima is better of a person than my dad ever was. Because he took so much accountability in the end for the shit he pulled with Nanako, in ways my father never has for me. I also think many children in that situation like myself still feel a natural desire to be close to their parents, it’s a matter of nature. Especially after a lost like Nanako went through. My mom is still alive, but she was very violent during the time of my parents split and so I sort of clung to my dad for any sense of emotional comfort, which similar to Doujima he did not know how to handle. I will say, seeing the way these characters arcs grew and developed was honestly a very major healing experience for me, and also cathartic in the sense that I got into these games *because* of my big brother. I never really see positive little sister (although I’m not a girl, I am transgender and was seen as a little girl growing up) and a big brother. And I’m really happy that this game highlighted it so well.
@@Harkz0r Took me a while to get to this comment, sorry about that haha. But does mean a lot to me what you said in a way that is hard to put into words. I can confirm that I am still very close to my brother now as I was as a kid. I went through a lot of physical traumas through out my life and in many ways he stepped up and took care of me when nobody else would or could. He even got me into this series to begin with, as he has been a Persona fan for almost 10 years at this point. I even sort of relate to Nanako being so upset when Yu had to return home, similar to how I felt when my brother went to college
@@pinksugarx3861 Yeah, obviously I'm not familiar enough with your situation, but it does sound like Dojima and your real-life father are very not so comparable people unfortunately...
On the adultification thing, I will say, once you get to the point where you have to do all that work even as a little kid - it would make a lot of sense to me that you'd feel a sense of pride in it.
"That extended introduction weeded out the weak people"
No, it weeded out those who don't appreciate Nanako. Good riddance.
Well good riddance to them for sure
What’s the difference?
exactly...the weak people
They're the same picture.
"We need you to tell the difference between these pictures"
People who don't like the long intro
People who don't like Nanako
"They're the same picture."
I think Nanako playing piano at the end of the game is meant to convey the fact that she used music as a coping mechanism. The lyrics of Heaven have lines such as “Music keeps on turning me from the words that haunt my soul,” and “Finding ways through the favorite tune played all day with my eyes closed.” This can not only be interpreted as a connection to her mother playing piano, but it could also be a reference to her love of the Junes jingle. The parts about her closing her eyes and ignoring the words are meant to show that she uses the music to deny the truth that her mother is gone. So, just as how music used to get her through her struggles, she now learns to play music to help lift up others, as in contrast to the lyrics, one can not play the music with their eyes closed.
This is a good observation. I still think linking the June's jingle to the piano has a few too many in-between steps but I think the eyes closed and allusions to music atleast keeps a reference to music that would make sense to nanako pick8ng up music later. Cool thought!
Perhaps the Junes jingle itself was also Nanako using music as a coping mechanism; as infamously referenced by Hiimdaisy:
“When dad’s busy at work, I sing the Junes song over and over again to make myself feel less alone! :D”
I'd argue that Nanako is a realistic child given her circumstances.
She's basically left by herself to take care of herself practically 24/7. Therefore she wouldn't have time to do typical child things or act like a child.
Plus it's a pretty common thing for especially mature kids like Nanako, for their maturity to be a result of the trauma they've gone through.
It wouldn't make sense from a character perspective, to have Nanako be immature.
I think she’s just childish enough to still fit her age as a child’s brain isn’t developed enough yet to fully take in the mature nuances of the real world except under certain circumstances. A good, well-written child character is a difficult one to pull off properly without coming off as annoying just being there.
I think it’s also due to the fact that her family has been on hard times for a while and they’re even more isolated than they already were. Nanako seems to enjoy the housework and helpfulness to a degree and she also is high performing at school it seems. In a sense she’s in a very peaceful and undistracted environment so it makes sense that she would be more empathetic, appreciative, responsible, etc. she doesn’t have much going on and she’s been very well loved before, so now she’s very capable and genuinely caring because she appreciates essentially everything she has
I rarely tear up over video games but man Nanako's "death" scene always gets me.
The whole team's reaction, Kanji hitting the wall and dojima falling to his knees. It's really well done
@@HidinginPrivate just listening to the girls shedding tears, Yosuke and Kanji screaming and the lead up to the confrontation with Namatame. It brilliantly tearjerking. Not yo mention Yu crying afterwards. Props to Johnny Yong Bosch (Yu’s Voice Actor (and Adachi’s)) for making those tears feel so real.
It's even worse if you tag the wrong killer, because those quotation marks vanish.
I actually cried over her "death" because when a friend recommended me P4G, he said that there's no dark moments in the game. Her "dying" took my fucking guard down
dojima's rage and despair also intensifies this feelings for me
In this house, we stan Nanako Dojima, absolutely zero exceptions
True!
Playing other P4 dungeons: careful strategizing to select the the correct day.
Rescuing Nanako: DAY 1. ALL-OUT ATTACK. IF WE ARE NOT VICTORIOUS LET NO ONE COME BACK ALIVE!
This is factual
IF WE CANNOT BEAT THEM WE WILL MAKE THEM BLEED LIKE PIGS
lol so true
Funny I one runned the dungeons day 1 every time on my first playthrough.
THE ONLY THING THEY FEAR IS YU
For anyone with younger siblings Nanako was designed to trigger those protective big bro/sis instincts.
Seemed to work though I really don't have younger siblings, effective designing I guess
Even without a sibling
Those instincts kicked in whenever I do her social link and when she was kidnapped
I disagree, this seems like a clear case of the old school anime trope of establishing siscon/brocon characters.
Hell Yu is even called the Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel.
The things that really gives this away are the cooking and maturity even if we don't look at what happens with max link which just confirms it.
It's probably unintentional, but Nanako sharing her English VA with Izanami kinda makes Yu going into Heaven (an afterlife) to save her into a psuedo redemption for Izanagi.
Definitely unintentional. It's an interesting link but Izanagi doesn't need redeemed? In the Kojiki story the one in the wrong is Izanami and that is also the core message the game stands with in not averting your eyes to the truth. Also with how poor ATLUS was in 2008 and the state of the dubbing industry, most voices in Persona 4 are reused 2/3 times for smaller roles. Nanako being voiced by previous character Aigis also likely just made the process cheaper and easier since a business relationship was already established. There's more but I suppose this reply is long enough haha
@@HidinginPrivate Atlus west does have a tendency to reuse voice actors, which isn’t bad thing, as you said it’s easier to use VAs you are already affiliated and experienced with.
Wait, Nanako and Izanami have the same English VA? I have to write that down!
@@HidinginPrivate Not only that the Voice actor for Chie changed form the PS2 version of Persona 4 to P4G as well. I think Chie's OG VA retired just like the OG VA for Takemi in Persona 5. Also in the Anime Nanako's English VA also does the Voice of Kanji's mom.
@@Fender178actually takemi’s original va for P5 wasn’t available to record for P5 royal due to her moving to a different city, so her role was recast
I don't know why they chose the Piano specifically. But it seems to me that the reason they only reveal that Chisato was a piano teacher, her actual job and something fairly significant about her, in the time-skip scene is because it represents how Nanako and Dojima have moved past their grieving somewhat. Chisato is sort of a ghost in the house, and you don't learn a lot about her because Dojima and Nanako are both still grieving and don't want to think about how much they miss her. It's only when they come to terms with her death that she becomes more than a lost mother, and Nanako and Dojima especially are able to connect with her and talk about her as she was, without being bogged down in loss.
Broke into senseless babbling as soon as I saw the thumbnail, as someone who played the game while my own little sister was very little nanako took my whole heart and shattered it. Excited to see analysis of how devastatingly likable she is
As you should have. I hope your sister is alright. This is a big one
@@HidinginPrivate haha well not to be a huge downer but I've been ✨disowned✨ so I don't know as much as I'd like, but she looks healthy and happy in pictures :') anyway video is banger keep up the grind
@@_gremlinboy damn hope you're doing great dude
*[Something bad happens to Nanako]*
Yu and the collective Persona fanbase: *THERE WILL BE BLOOD! SHED!*
Good thing Kamoshida is all the way out in Tokyo. Away from Nanako and she’s safely outside of his sphere of influence to even know she exists. Adachi safe to play the role of the killer without someone making him look redundant.
Same with Maiko in P3. If anything bad happens to either of them. I'd end everyone in the immediate vicinity.
I wasn't aware that you could visit her in the hospital! That's interesting and something I should probably do sometime
Yup! There are multiple cutscenes with small dialogue changes and what not
You get an achievement for visiting multiple times
i found out when i was looking what other players did, immediately visited her
Also gives you some social link points with the individual members of the investigation team. If you have a bunch of people you want to simultaneously increase stats in prepatation to move up social link levels, this is a good opportunity. However, if you don't want to consume in-game time and spend it somewhere other than the hospital, you could just make a separate save file to get the Nanako trophy achievement, then revert to you old save and continue.... that's a bit cold, though.
I think I only found out about it because of the achievement.
I am in that 5.3% of "Big Bro is Worried" on Steam, lol.
I originally expected to hate Nanako based off what I saw before playing P4G, but her impact through the whole game made the ending sequences hurt so much more. It genuinely felt like she was your little sister, very fitting.
I didn't even know you could visited the hospital. I know what I'm doing when the port comes to the XBone.
I love that small detail in the anime when Nanako felt her dad's presence when Yu summoned Kohryu during her rescue. This is after the Justice/Hiero Social Link episode and imo, it adds to Nanako's growth in empathy knowing her father is there protecting her, even though he wasn't physically in the TV world to rescue her. Even before that scene, Yu was being controlled to fight against his friends and snapped out of it from Nanako's silent plead to stop fighting. She was on the verge of dying and her thought was to stop her Big Bro from fighting his friends.
It's impossible to not like Nanako. She truly is an angel, that child.
This is true
On my first playthrough, I kind of just dicked around throughout the whole game, didn't take much seriously. When heaven became available, I snapped into grind mode. I finished the dungeon, underlevelled, in one day.
Kuino sagiri must have annoyed you to no end
Honestly, that’s a neat thing to add from your own personal narrative of the game. The idea that the IT was pretty lax about getting the newest victim out because they had plenty of time and knew exact deadlines, so taking their time to get through the dungeons while maintaining a work-life balance wasn’t really an issue. When Nanako is taken though, shit. gets. DONE.
Just a little thing I love about video games. You have so much control over the narrative that you create!
Nanako is a powerful motivator and a strong reason why this game works so well. Just naturally integrated with both the main character and those close to him. When threatened, in danger, or just bringing joy, her actions matter. She's a good means of getting the player and character to resonate. I didn't even need tricky questions to get the initial bad ending when it came to Namatame. I was ready to throw that guy into the TV along with the others anyways.
I like the epilogue for Golden since it does allow them to expand on her character some more. Get to see how Nanako and Dojima are moving forward. Trying to put it simply, Nanako's mother is a mystery for most of the game. We know she died, we know how she died, and we know the impact it had. But Nanako and Dojima give up few details while still actively grieving. So it makes sense in the epilogue to have a new detail emerge after they are feeling more comfortable.
If you want to stretch it, there were hints. Nanako singing the Junes jingle just seemed like a normal thing a kid would do. But it could have been pointing at that musical interest she shared with her mother. Definitely a stretch, but maybe she and her mother sang now and then when she played the piano. Even if that had nothing to do with it, it makes sense that there were hobbies Nanako's mother had that neither she or Dojima were willing to talk about while missing her.
funfact: any social link event that should involve nanako has a somewhat more stilted version of the scene without her in case it is done during the time where nanako is in the hospital. obviously this does not apply to dojima, whose social link has a deadline for completion before that.
It is interesting how the piano serves little importance to p4 as an in-world object until nanako brings it up at the very end, but at the same time has subconsciously been the heart of many songs and moments you had experienced up to that point. Regardless of in-universe explanation, tying an element of the game with such a description to a character like her feels like a perfect decision.
Nanako is amazing, is impossible not to love her.
I want to mention too that everybody talks about her relationship with Dojima and how the MC is the "Big Bro" but her bond with him is really deep. She has a huge impact in her cousin and the manga explores this pretty well: Nanako is Yu´s mirror. Is hinted that he has been neglected by his parents (workholics moving from different places all the time) and had to grow up in the same way than Nanako does (everybody mentions how mature he´s but that was because he was alone) so that could explain the "obsession" with her, becoming the "Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel" and the amazing Big Bro that he is. He wants to protect her at any cost because he knows pretty well what loneliness is. He mentions in the manga that Nanako gives him "peace of mind" and stability if I´m not wrong.
About the Justice Arcana, I´ve read some theories saying that the reason of why she´s dead if you kill Namatame could be that she´s Justice and to kill an innocent man is revenge not justice. You "killed" the justice with that act, you, the player who wanted revenge. That was a master move from Atlus toying with player´s feelings knowing that many of us would fall in the trap.
And talking about theories is pretty interesting your vision about the piano mention. They could have added some info during her SL, specially in the moments where she sings.
killing justice makes so much sense
@@illuminoeye_gaming Yeah, it was a total mind blow when I read it.
@@Amarant127Considering that if he’s spared, she does come back and the same people who once held the opinion that he’s the killer now realised he is a pawn of someone else before going on the path to find the truth.
The fact the Judgement Arcana is effectively The Fool Part II in 4 with it called Seekers of Truth or that it starts when they spare his life isn’t a coincidence and the same man responsible for the kidnapping is being seen by everyone else as the killer while the I.T crew works to prove his innocence of the crimes he wasn’t responsible for is justice. They questioned the narrative everyone else readily buys into because of confirmation bias due to who was his latest victim and found the real truth by being real detectives like Nanako.
I do wonder if that Detective Nanako bit in P4 The Animation actually has a deeper symbolism than it appears on the surface...
26:31 A piano in symbolism represents contentment.
the fact she picked up the piano knowing that her mom played it means shes now satisfied and content with her life knowing she found a other way to cope with the loss of her mother
The way they did her and dojimas moment in the animation was done so freaking well. The music and emotional weight was so hard man. Seeing how mature she in being probably the most mature out of the entire cast. Heaven showing her true nature. Not having a shadow of her own and showing just how freaking pure of a person she is. Her dungeon being the most unique and the saddest with the best song. When I noticed how much focus was being on Nanako towards the reveal of her being the next target, I knew something was wrong. I was nervous and wondered if she was going to be killed. When she showed up on that tv I was shook to the heart and how dark things after that made me realize she may not make it out of this Alive. They could be more hopeful about it but the game really tells you “hey this is more serious than you think”. The motivation they give all the players to go right into that dungeon and save Nanako has got to be one of the best motivating factors I’ve felt in a game. I called her the golden child the whole game and seeing how she looks in the timeskip warms my heart and I’m sure it does for everyone else. WE STAN THE GOLDEN CHILD
Given The Fool vs The Jester, what Yu did after rescuing diverged him from the path Adachi walked on before finding his own. In the bad ending, Yu became his own Adachi.
I swear man when i always get home and nanako says welcome back its literally spiritually lifting and soul warming
Blessed intro. I think Nanako actually had me the most emotional out of all the characters in this game. Like you said, she's just always there and is a very mature and compassionate kid. Her dungeon seriously kicked my ass in gear! I can't think of many other parts in games I've played that had me more driven and emotionally invested than November in Persona 4. Thanks for all your hard work and I can't wait to watch the party member vids soon!
Yeah fr when she gets kidnapped it's this big hype moment, not doing her dungeon in one go feels wrong. Also yup! Party videos incoming! Teddie comes out on Saturday, then we'll go in order Yosuke-Chie - Yukiko - Kanji etc etc
one thing you have to appreciate is how Nanako's portrayal puts a weight to the decisions in finding the true culprit. If Nanako wasn't so gosh darn likeable, having to talk the rest of your team out of yeeting Namatame straight back into the TV world wouldn't be nearly as much of a decision. Had it been anyone else who had gotten taken in, you the player would possibly not be emotionally invested enough in them to make enacting vigilante justice even the faintest consideration for most people. But " *He hurt Nanako, he's a monster* " is what ends up going through a typical players head and it requires you to put your emotional response aside to see the proper conclusion of the case, just as you must convince the rest of the team to do.
Seeing my friends play through Persona 4 Golden and I eagerly await to see their reactions to the story arcs Nanako is part of.
Especially that first story climax.
Everyone loves Nanako, she's so precious!
Her palace... Heaven...
The most memorable and important thing in the entirety of P4...
I do still remember it ever since I was 9 years old... Man, I rushed to get her back... Didn't do anything else, straight up.
I replayed the game last year... Along with P3. It was as beautiful as ever.
Too powerful, too good.
I never had a younger siblings. Nanako is so special to me. She's the closest thing to a younger siblings i've experienced. Might be dumb but i actually balled my eyes out when she died in the story and i really hated Namatame at first because of it and wanted to throw him in the TV because of that in my first playthrough. But then again i am a very emotional person i guess.
Same, an only child so she's like my lil sis for me. When first hours after replaying, I'm annoyed to not be able to start social link with her as soon as possible haha
i think the thing you said about expecting the vid to be longer says a lot about nanako as a character.
--for starters, shes also short.-- basically theres so much content, but its all right there. unlike some other links, you can see everything about her character right there, and despite that there is so damn much character. you dont have to go three layers into the kojiki or bring up the tiniest detail from rank one just to make a grand point. she makes it easy, while keeping it quality. theres not a ton to analyse ngl just a ton to appreciate with a little bit of analysis on the side. and thats what makes her so great. you dont have to tryhard to love her
Persona 4 does an absolutely excellent job at motivating you to find the killer because as time goes on, Inaba becomes your home, your friends and family are here. Nanako is one of those important things you want to protect her and keep her and everyone in the town safe and happy. The scars left by the killer will always be felt and even those effected by their actions but because of the love and bonds you establish in that year drives you to protect your new home.
in all seriousness I haven't gotten around to watching the video yet but Nanako is such a good character. I think a lot of media has issues with portraying children, whether they act too mature at times or whatever, but Nanako is done very well because they know how to write her as an actual child. And well, when she's kidnapped, you bet I tore through Heaven in one day to rescue her, and I bet most people did too.
Even the first time through the game when clearing dungeons in one day is tough, I was all over getting through Heaven as soon as possible. With others there is a balance of making good use of the days to further social links. But with Nanako...rushing through it at max speed was required!
Of course timing is always strange for me. Since my birthday is around the time of Nanako's capture. Which just mentally makes me think how depressing a birthday it would be if the MC shared the same day with me in that sense.
I think the reason Yu avoided becoming Adachi is not because of his friends but because of Nanako. With what we know of his background, who knows how few he has for friends before going to the Dojimas and that’s not going into the fact he’s an only child of his parents.
Note what’s said about Yu’s mother from his uncle and the fact Nanako doesn’t recognise Yu at the start despite being related to her on her’s father’s side of the family, you get a good idea of what sort of disposition Yu was living in. Then when you piece together Adachi’s background along with what kind of life does he live outside of work and you have a similar backstory to Yu.
Yet the two took two different paths in life and the key factor in that? Nanako was there for Yu in that period of his life while Adachi has nobody. Yet the few moments of humanity with Pre-Defeat Adachi is tied to Nanako as his Social Link shows.
Considering The Jester is a corrupted The Fool and looking at the Justice Arcana, you could say Nanako is the pivot between both ends. The one really connecting the both of them together since The Fool feels connected to The Jester but The Jester doesn’t see The Fool as anything else than his boss’s cousin from out of town who just happens to be killing time at Junes.
Had Adachi met his own Nanako; his rants about the state of the world would be less about how it sucks and more about how much it easily gives into discourse at a given moment while people like Nanako are unfairly caught in the mess by the irresponsibles. How the world wouldn’t be so chaotic if there were more Nanakos in positions of power to stop the current state of affairs. Maybe he’ll still fall to the dark side but his arguments against Yu would be harder to debunk because there’s not as many holes to poke through.
One of the best written and down to earth kid characters in fiction, also the anime episode dedicated to her and Dojima was great and that song they had to accompany it makes me cry every time. Also I'm surprised you didn't talk about the song that plays in her dungeon.
I really hope in P6 we get to see an older Nanako, if not as a party member or social link then just a cameo.
While I love all of our buddies from Inaba and want to see them all happy as adults, I especially wish to see her future.
While I understand some people would hate the "fan service", I think her being a future party member would be great. It would give us an immediate connection to her, but maybe she's changed significantly since Inaba. We could see her living on with her memories and lessons learned but now alone for whatever reason (probably a educational thing, exchange student maybe?)
I don't know, I feel like there's alot of potential with her in general, and with such a cool "origin" story, it would be nice to follow her through another part of her life.
Nanako for P6 Party Member, make it happen Atlus!
ATLUUS DO THIS AND MY LIFE IS YOURS 😭
But yeah I hope in the future games we get more direct references like p4 did for p3 but p5 did the references a little weird in my opinion okay yeah they're in the background on tv but that's it oh you get a poster for Rise wow
Yeah it's fun service BUT IT WORKS
I love your interpretation of the ending ost, sounds very plausible and adorable
Glad you liked it. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy
I've always wondered about Nanako's strong affinity for Junes... When I played the vanilla game all those years ago I attributed it to my own feelings of thinking "the mall is AWESOME" when I was really young.
What a wonderful analysis of the heart of Persona 4! I loved your interpretation of her learning piano, and the true ending version of Never More. To this day that song brings me to tears when I hear it. Your interpretation just filled me with more joyful tears. This game is truly a masterpiece, and I’m happy to continue learning more about the symbolism.
The fact that u counted how many people are seen in P4G before Nanako shows up is… insane lmao. I crave ur level of dedication (& possible masochism). And ofc I’m always excited to watch a vid about the 2nd most adorable persona character ever (1st being Koromaru, sorry Nanako) esp with ur thorough analysis! Nanako really is the emotional core of Persona 4, I remember that after I got the fake-out ending where it seemed like she died, I stopped playing the game for like a month bcuz I was like “what’s the point if I couldn’t save nanako” - then I found out she lived and picked it back up again thank god lmao! But it rlly shows how good Atlus was at getting u invested in the family of her & Dojima :,)))
Outta all the persona 4 characters, Nanako is the one I adore the most ((also my fav character)). Her kindness, sweetness, even stubbornness is all so adorable and I get how she deals with the death of a loved one since it isn’t easy getting over, nor does one really get over a death tbh.. Protect her at all costs ! 💕
wanted to say thanks for the epic intro bc nanako deserves it all. and thanks for making these videos because you can really feel the love you have for this game in them. i highly appreciate the amount of care and research that the p4/g vids i've seen so far have covered. you've been doing these characters and this game a ton of justice.
This video made me cry, nanako is so precious 😭💕
I love your headcanon, especially because when you go to load your game in golden it says to “Return to Inaba,” definitely reminds me of how you said it’s like reminiscing and I always felt that way about it even before this video! Like p4 is a time capsule of youth and experience and whenever you “Return to Inaba” you reexperience that time of your life
I’ve searched far and wide I’ve went from door to door shop to shop country to country and I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t like nanako even this amazing video all about nanako doesn’t have any dislikes.
I’m always so happy to see that Nanako is fairly popular. It would’ve been so easy to make her isolated in her school life as well, but they didn’t do that to her. And that’s fantastic
A part of me can't help but wonder if the piano inclination might be a reference to a musician that I lack the cultural context to recognize off the top of my head. Your analysis has made me keenly aware that there is significance to a lot of the decisions in Persona 4 that I had previously attributed to just iterating on popular tropes.
I love being proven wrong, and I'm looking forward to watching more!
I bought the volume 9 of the P4 manga. It as Nanako and the MCon the cover. Perfect timing.
I'm watching you!
When I bought that I was like here we go again
I have seen this story so many times so many different forms the anime the game from RUclipsrs playing the game for playing the game myself
The manga (the mangaka loved Yusuke a little too much)the memes the comic dub
It's just clicks with us
Once again another banger P4 analysis 🙏 Nanako is such a good character
Thank you, and she is!
Learning you could visit Nanako successfully made me feel like a worse person for not doing it. I love this game.
Rip. Guess you'll just need to replay It then
nooo...., I just finished it today.
My first time playing P4G I made a tweet saying something along the lines of, "if someone messes with her I'll screw them up" you can guess how I reacted when she got kidnapped. X3
Yu: “Yoshitsune. Get your coat on, we’re off getting some rare cuts. Very *rare* cuts.”
I only played Persona for the first time ever last year, with Golden to this day still being the only title I have played and when I beat Golden (not the true ending) and did a few of the endings, I came to understand just what an underrated masterpiece the game is. As well, your series which was recently recommended to me is a masterful analysis of all of the core concepts and themes the games present. I appreciate you for taking so much time to do it and know that it has been my company for the past few nights!
22:25 which is why nanako is the murderer! Balancing out her goodness with that evil
Actually though, the portion about the beanstalks & how both of these people being here propelled them to heaven was definitely new to me, and your analyses are spectacular
I remember i got the bad end because my anger took over and didn't think of logic thats how precious Nanako was to me
Understandable
Excellent analysis! The fact she's always watching TV when you get home was great foreshadowing for when she finally gets inside the TV world
True Justice is protecting her smile, even if it means sparing our worse enemies.
An enemy of Nanako is a weak person. Our enemies have no chance
Nanako is such a good character, every replay of the game I just enjoyed being with her. Awesome analysis (also you're playing guitar? I'm happy that you chose to show it).
"How do we get the players to genuinely consider killing Namatame?"
"I got it! Nanako _dies!_ "
"Johnson that's.... perfect! Who wouldn't Wana murder the bastard responsible for Nanako's death! But she is still alive, right?"
"Oh of course, she's too perfect to actually kill. We'll just give the players a heart attacking thinking we did."
Overheard at Atlus HQ
I agree with other comments here that theorise that Nanako took up piano to heal her pain (which is what music is known to do). But it's also a sign of her accepting that while her mother is gone, there are parts of her mother that remain alive within her. She is still her mother's daughter, and has inherited those parts. It's a beautiful touch, when you think about it. Only Japanese can create something so exceptionally powerful or touching in anime or games.
I've been enjoying watching your analysis so far, but I've been wondering if the videos are going to remain separated or if you're going to do a supercut. Keep up the good work, you speak with passion and appreciation for the work and it really comes across :)
Nanako is everything! She is so cute, I just can't believe any hair on her little head was in danger.
I'm proud to be part of that 5.3% of players, the heaven dungeon is my favourite one and the theme is amazing, I even finished on the first day available and came back for some grinding and to hear the amazing theme.
Man starting with the lateral part of November I was lonely in the game not to getting to hear Nanako to welcome me home. Yeah with the Heaven dungeon it was personal I wanted to save Nanako as quickly as possible so I did that dungeon in 1 game day. I love Nanako as a character. She is very loveable. And during a part of Rise's SL I always thank her for cheering up Rise. I also love Nanako in the Anime during the summer festival she is portraying a character from a popular kid's TV show about a detective she is so cute in that outfit.
P4 is such a great game and Nanako is one of the greatest factor for that. I still remember how i easily convert my 2 sisters to the "Protect Nanako" camp with me lol
I won't lie: I was one of the people who thought she was kind of annoying in the beginning of the game, but I had NO idea how important she'd become to me by the end. Her dungeon was the only dungeon I cleared in a single day, spending almost all of my money on Fox to restore my health and SP so I could keep going back and trudging through. I originally got the bad ending of the game and that shit KILLED me. Part of me wishes she would've stayed dead for the emotional gut-punch it would've elicited like in the bad end, but it all worked out in the end. That last month there was just a rollercoaster of emotions.
amazing video! the analysis was crazy good and the details had my jaws dropped like how do you count how many people you see in the beginning of the game lol, and the intro to the video was really funny also cool that you also play the gooeytar :-)
Yeah I did a lot of meaningless counting and statistics in this one for the heck of it. I just thought it would be funny to be super overly thorough at the start
@@HidinginPrivate well you certainly succeeded i thought it was really funny!
continues watching and chokes on my breath at the shinzo abe bit. very. uh. Timely
Yeah I never would have imagined that would happen to him, but I really didn't want to cut the bit
I'm glad that you pointed out the lack of people who got that achievement. I know it's a bit out of the way but it always baffled me that people didn't have it especially since everyone universally loves Nanako, I mean we literally kill god for her it's shocking so few went to visit her in the hospital.
Yeah, the guide I used said to do other things those days but I can't just not visiting her after what happened, especially she being someone really important to Yu and the Investigation Team.
For me it's a case of : I didn't know you could visit nanako at the hospital because the hospital isn't on the city map or the quick menu and the game doesn't inform you that visiting nanako at the hospital was an option.
a lot of people (me included) didnt know
It's pretty out of the way and it's really never even hinted at that you can go.
Nanako should've been the Mascot of Persona 4, prove me wrong
I just noticed you were playing P4G at 4 AM when you got the Big Bro is Worried Achievement
I was worried
I would start wars if it meant protecting Nanako ngl
One of the few valid reasons to do so tbh
The analysis we all needed. Nanako is Persona 4, I couldn't agree more!
Tony! It's you! The segments of major characters are gonna be rolling out back to back now
She’s an example of stellar characterization and design (alongside the good job of her voice actress) because she is seen as a part of family by everyone who played p4, and everyone try their hardest to protect her (I went in the TV world the first possible day and busted through killing everything that was moving with Yoshitsune)
Of course she is treated well by everyone she’s amazing and a pleasure to have around. So much so that someone even say Dojima doesn’t deserve her.
I fucking love Nanako. But I can't watch this video just yet. I need to finish the game for myself first before I can watch this and have my heart melt or shatter all over again.
Thanks for letting me know about the achievement though, I'll be sure to get that when I can.
I though you said "I love fucking Nanako" at first.
@@reivaldoaurelio4895 bro...
I just wanta thank you for making these videos, I love discussion/analysis videos about games I love to death, phenomenal analysis series 👍🤝
Thank you for supporting them with your engagement
Wait.. so if Nanako were real, she'd be turning 20 this year? Damn, that makes me feel old.😢
Nanako will become 18 years old this year, oh wow.
Wacky
That head cannon of yours is super sweet. I'm definitely going with that from now on.
this is really legit, great work man!
Thank you!
I have a much older half-brother, but I was raised as an only child. I don't really relate much to kids either. But Nanako, oh how I love her. I never felt the feeling of having siblings until persona 4, and I confess that in the first hours I was mad I had to deal with a virtual child. How did this thought bit me after a while. She is genuinely well writen and even in fiction, I felt a strong bond with her, far stronger then any other link in the game. I also love the tarot simbology in this game. The opposite of Arcana 8 is Arcana 11, but this is one of the split numbers in the game (Strenght in the Sports club, Hunger in Adachi's reveal). Justice is about natural action, balance, giving back what you receive. Strenght is about forced action, imposing your will, and as a split card, the sports team represent the good use of action, but Hunger represents the bad. Imposing your will for destruction, control and consume. Adachi is seen as a foil to Yu and the investigation team since both share the 0 as Fool and Jester, but as Hunger, he is the foil for Nanako. His palace is the opposite of Heaven, his intentions are the opposite of balance, his lies are the opposite of honesty, he encapsulates all that Justice fights against.
In the hospital scene, I cried. A lot. I was ready for any loss, any death, any consequences for any character, except for Nanako. The following moments I was in the game, it was the most RP an RPG ever provoked me. I was angry, I wanted to kill the culprit, and at this point I was sure it wasn't Namatame, so the third act hit me so strong. Nanako may be the fictional character that most touched me in all media, and I'll always remember persona 4 firstly for her.
Really thankful for all your hard work in this video series
Thank you! I hope to continue doing my best, and make a living doing so in the process
@@HidinginPrivate I’m not sure if I asked this before, but do you plan on doing other Persona games at some point?
Good lord, she'd be 20 years old this year if she were real.
God I'm old
Didn't think an analysis video could make me cry
god these essay vids are really good. curious if you might go into narukami's character arc/ development, which is kinda only seen in the anime
This is a series in P4G, since spin offs often change facts, rearrange or insert new scenes or otherwise mess with the Canon, to be consistent I am only covering events from p4 and P4g. I do want to talk about Narukami more, although most of it will be through other segments
awesome, on a similar note nanako and dojimas episode in the anime nearly made me cry
Rather than being a social Butterfly, I consider Nanako a Social Mosquito:
One who struggles to form social connections, but thrives when given access to social connections through someone they already know.
I don’t comment on ANYTHING that much but I love your videos and you told me to comment so:
Here’s a prayer to the almighty algorithm
I can’t believe Nanako is four years older than me. She would be in college right now. Kinda sad to think this tbh
nanako is the sole reason i wish i had a little sister. anyway time to watch
She's a good reason to wish for it
Thanks for the video! I was looking forward to this one.
Thanks for watching U! And also coming by on stream today. The videos are getting long!
Amazing analysis!
It is so weird how this pure and precious ball of sunshine and smiles shares the same arcana as Pancake Psycho.
I honestly feel like Mr Pancake should have gotten the same arcana as Adachi, the Jester
@@kaijielim4543 It woudl make sense, Loki sounds like a Jester Persona.
I found Nanako's depiction really personal and it made it easy for me to be attached to her character because I had a very similar upbringing that resulted in me having to adapt and become more resilient and mature when I was just a year or two older than her.
man persona knows how to write children characters, Ken and Nanako are both fantastic characters that you could relate to, both for very different reasons though.
Nanako deserves all the love ❤
These videos are great keep up the good work
4:34 in Yusuke's defense he does like Yu anyways
Must protecc my goddess Nanako.
Indeed
“I’m not masochistic” *proceeds to count every random person shown in the intro cutscene*
👀
Nanako is really amazing to me because I actually had my mum die fairly young, 5 years old. My father also worked too many hours, I cooked, especially for myself since my dad couldn’t be home, I gave my dad tissues when he cried about her, I tried to be the best son I could be, I read books more than the TV because I wasn’t really allowed it much but Nanako was like looking at what I wanted to be as a child, nicer, more social, better at cleaning. Nanako was closer with her mother but nonetheless, when I saw her, heard what she’d gone through, I genuinely think Nanako was the social link I immediately prioritised. When I played it the first time, I found her both bad and good-because I felt I wasn’t allowed to cry and be sad but she was so I had a need to shut her up-but also this deep feeling of ‘I wish I’d had someone, I want to be that someone through the MC’ (I didn’t really know his name well yet). Nanako, I genuinely think, helped me understand that I was a child, and that I am not yet healed because I felt that annoyance at feeling emotions about parental death. It’s been far more than a decade now, seems closer to 2, and my emotions are gone about my mother’s death, but Nanako genuinely helped me understand people can grief with emotions and it would’ve been okay if I had too.
I find playing through her dungeon and story very hard because my own sister is her age. I always complete Heaven as soon as I get.
If it didn't cause... complications, I still would've thrown Namatame into the TV even knowing the truth, after what he did. I completely understand why arena made the siscon joke, I would kill for Nanako and we both know that you, reading this, would too.
31:05 oh yes in the manga Nanako helps the twins you do a quest in the game and it's the cutest thing
I hope you put all of them into a massive video so i can binge watch all the parts. Very excited to see how it turns out
They have already been pre-edited two separate ways for export so that one is the big video version and one is the individual segment version. It's coming!