Application for Demeleier
Player Name: Linda
Player LJ: superfluously
Contact: Pb2Ag (AIM)
Character Number: 1
Character: Kanji Tatsumi
Fandom: Persona 4
Personality:
At first glance, Kanji is a delinquent. He dyes his hair and slicks it back, sports all black with skulls and lots of metal. The police know his name well, and the majority of his peers believe him to be in a biker gang (despite the fact that he's the one beating up the biker gangs). He skips school. He's quick to resort to shouts and insults. Everyone in Inaba (subtracting his mother and those who know her), previous to his social link, would call him a bad kid. A very bad kid.
While all these things are certainly true, they don’t properly describe Kanji. We're breakin' out the Gesalt form of interpretation to describe him- the parts don’t equal the whole.
Much of his personality stems from what his father told him before he died: “If you’re a man, you have to become strong.” Taking the word “strong” to the extreme, Kanji modeled himself after typical, manly traits. Most of his actions and responses in the game are very "gung-ho." From wanting to charge into the TV after Naoto's been kidnapped to supporting the "push the bastard in" option when deciding Namatame's fate, he's definitely an extreme-action kinda guy. Action seems to be the only way he can think to deal with a situation. For example, when Nanako died, his first response was demanding action, blood-for-blood in a way. He explained how there's no way he'd leave Namatame's room without doing anything, despite all the discrepancies between Namatame's (lack of a) story and the murder cases.
That also means that he doesn't put much thought into things at all. Following the "men are the brawn of a group" sort of mentality, he's a total bench warmer when the rest of the Investigation Group try to talk things out. But, damn, he warms that bench good. Kanji, in these investigation situation, acts as the guy who asks obvious questions to fill in the viewer, just in case they weren't following along.
However, as we see in Kanji's level of the game, the whole "manly man" thing is a façade. At his core, he wants acceptance. He wants people to accept him for who he is, what he likes (be it men, sewing, whatever), and how he feels. When he was in elementary school, he mended a girl's bag (because he liked her). The next day, all the other girls in their class made fun of them, causing his friend to cry. When you're a kid like that, the rationale of "ohhey, what a bunch of dicks," doesn't really pop into your mind-- in fact, it's quite the opposite. Kanji felt that it was his fault, somehow. It was his fault for being too nice, or "soft" when dealing with people, and it was his fault for having skills that are considered "feminine." So he hid that side of him.
Which, as you can guess, makes it really hard for Kanji to express himself. His default emotion seems to be rage-- no matter what the situation. When he made a doll for a little boy who lost his, the boy responded with a totally adorable "Thank you, sir." Kanji's response was to verbally focus on the "sir," yelling at the kid to not call him that. Through that, he didn't have to acknowledge the "thank you," something that obviously left him flustered, especially considering the fact that he always believed his sewing ability to be "bad" or "negative." When finding out his mother, who he heard was in the hospital, was only there because she took someone else, he yelled at her and ran to avoid expressing his relief.
Eventually, through ~*~*character development~*~*, Kanji finds that, while he still sucks at expressing himself, he's more open about who he is and what his interests are. When confronted by the police over a string of bullying, his previous attitude had been to let them think what they want, even if it wasn't the truth. People had already formed their opinions about him, and like hell he'd bother to change them. But when Souji, his mother, and a kid he had helped stood up for him, confronting the police when Kanji would not, he realized that his actions and words did have an impact (in the case of Souji and the kid), and that he could change people's preconceived notions about him.
At the end of his Social Link, he sets two rules for himself: "1) Be myself, and 2) Get people to understand me." It's hard, since "acting tough" is so much easier, but from that point on, Kanji honestly tries to live by those new rules.
History: The plot of Persona 4 can be found here. Kanji's role within that plot can be found here. I'll be taking him after the True Ending of the game with a maxed Social Link.
Abilities: Kanji is the tank of the group, with obscenely high HP, little SP, and crazy attack strength. His weapons of choice are very unusual, ranging from chairs to desks to shields to flat sheets of metal. Needless to say, strength-wise, he's a beast.
Outside of that, Kanji is able to summon a Persona, or the physical form of "the strength of heart required to face oneself." Because I'll be taking him after his Social Link with Souji has been maxed, he will be able to summon Rokuten Maoh, as opposed to Take-Mikazuchi.
The powers he will be able to use with Rokuten Maoh are as follows:
Ziodyne - Large Electricity damage (1 foe); costs 12 SP
Vile Assault - Large Physical damage with bonus if opponent is "Down" (1 foe); costs 12% HP
Maziodyne - Large Electricity damage (all foes); costs 22 SP
Primal Force - Severe Physical damage (1 foe); costs 22% HP
Matarukaja - Increases Attack for 3 turns (all allies); costs 24 SP
Elec Amp - Increases Electricity damage output 50%; passive ability
Mighty Swing - Moderate Physical damage (1 foe); costs 14% HP
Elec Break - Nullifies Electricity Resistance for costs 3 turns (1 foe); costs 15 SP
Link to an image of the character: nothing's more manly than skinny jeans
