Persona 5 Retrospective Part 10: Makoto and Kaneshiro
The Kamoshida arc was about Kamoshida, a villain-centric story of how his cruelties have hurt the other characters. The Madarame arc was kind of about Madarame, but it was just as much about Yusuke, so as a result Madarame lacked presence by comparison.
The Kaneshiro arc is all about Makoto. She has a cogent emotional arc from her introduction up until her awakening to her Persona.
Makoto faces high expectations as student council president, not to mention the younger sister of a respected public prosecutor. She has no social life or friends, instead spending all of her time studying. The principal treats her like an errand girl, dangling both her future1 and her family's reputation in front of her whenever she falters.
Makoto's reward for her endless labor? Everyone hates her. The teachers see her as the principal's pawn. The other students see her as a traitor, tacitly complicit in Kamoshida's crimes2. Her sister, driven half-mad by stress, describes Makoto as a useless parasite.
Seeing how disrespected, lonely and miserable Makoto softened my opinion on her. She comes across pompous and nosy but we see that she's driven by a desperate desire for validation from adults. Ann picks up on this and they butt heads, Ann rightfully pointing out that Makoto's a total failure at her main job as student council president, which is to protect the students.
This shakes Makoto, and she becomes sloppy in trying to stop Kaneshiro. This doesn't help anyone, it just makes way more trouble for her and the Thieves. They agree that now that they're all in the same boat, she should accompany them to the Metaverse.
Kaneshiro's Palace is a floating bank in the shape of a flying saucer. The Thieves can't access it at first, because Kaneshiro doesn't see them as his "customers". Once they're blackmailed by him, though, the path opens and we meet Shadow Kaneshiro. He immediately starts bullying Makoto the same way his real-world version self did.
This time, though, Makoto doesn't let him walk over her. She goes berserk, awakens her Persona, and scares Shadow Kaneshiro away. This is the strongest emotional beat in the arc, because the game's done a superb job of building to Makoto's moment of catharsis.
Buuuut... I have complaints, of course. I've heard the complaint that Makoto shouldn't be a Phantom Thief, because the original members are all social outcasts and Makoto is the opposite. This isn't exactly right- Makoto is an outcast, just in a more subtle sense- but I think this criticism hints at the actual problem.
Namely: what is Makoto rebelling against? Ryuji and Ann rebelled against Kamoshida, who had made their lives hell for months. Yusuke rebelled against Madarame, who had manipulated and used him for his entire life. Makoto rebels against... Kaneshiro, a guy she met once.
I get that Kaneshiro is meant to be a stand-in for all the adults who have dominated Makoto, but it's cheapened by the lack of emotional connection between them. Kaneshiro isn't the source of Makoto's anger, just a convenient locus for it. That's fine, but we never see this anger get resolved - Makoto never loses her temper again like she did against Shadow Kaneshiro. Her big act of real world rebellion is to politely tell the principal she won't be his toadie anymore. It ends up feeling like Makoto only went with the Thieves because she likes the idea of rebellion. I'd be okay with that as well but nobody ever frames it as such in-game.
I had the idea of deepening her connection with Kaneshiro by collapsing him with the principal to some extent. Kaneshiro is an administrator from a prestigious university who is dangling a recommendation letter over Makoto's head. He gets her to gather information on Shujin students as part of a "thorough background check" on prospective applicants. In truth he's using Makoto's position as student council president to find blackmail material to rope Shujin kids into the drug smuggling ring.
I get why they didn't do this; no matter how unwitting she was, that's a far more serious crime for Makoto. But I like the idea of her character trying to atone for past misdeeds, an element that's already present but underexplored.
Makoto's Persona is Joanna3 and her costume is that of a biker chick decked out in spiky leather. I like the design but have absolutely no idea why Makoto is a biker.
Like, Ryuji as a pirate and Ann as a cat burglar make sense on many levels. They're taking the thing they were ostracized for (Ryuji for his thuggishness, Ann for her looks) and turning them into a source of self-actualizing power. Yusuke as a ronin is a bit less textured but he talks a lot about Japanese history and identity, and it fits his personality besides.
What about Makoto is bikery? She's not an itinerant in any sense. She isn't associated with vehicles or machines, nor alcohol or drugs4. I don't see any similarities between her and the Japanese bōsōzoku biker subculture, so it's not a cultural divide.
Ultimately it's wishy-washy. She should have kept the bike and instead had a "loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules" aesthetic instead. Otherwise, she should have been modeled after a typical Japanese delinquent (pompadours and long jackets and wooden swords, all those cliches) to go with the motorcycle motif and her desire to rebel against adults in the Metaverse.
Fortunately Makoto is a lot of fun to hang out with. Her Confidant is a bit cliche - stiff good girl learns how to have fun - but there are charming moments like Joker taking Makoto to an arcade for the first time in her life. The meat of it concerns a classmate Makoto tries to befriend who is being manipulated by an older man. Makoto protects her classmate through persistence, accomplishing what she failed to do before.
She's reading a text message. I'm so sad this line isn't voice acted.
As a Phantom Thief, Makoto assumes the role of "brains"...which pretty much makes her the leader since Joker can only respond to other characters. The Thieves will spend the rest of the game following her lead. Fortunately there are no more idiotic moments like Ryuji screaming "WE'RE THE PHANTOM THIEVES" in public with Makoto in charge.
She's also ludicrously popular, second-place in the Japanese popularity poll and accomplishing similar acclaim from Western fans. Her appeal is a bit difficult to communicate if you haven't played the game - some people I know were surprised to learn that the most popular girl is the boring-looking one with short brown hair. But her combination of ferocity, conservatism and vulnerability works really well. I just wish she had a stronger foil in her introductory arc.
Why is he so fixated on Kaneshiro's lack of characterization? you may have wondered while reading last week's post. Not every villain should be as fleshed-out as Kamoshida. More creen time for Kaneshiro means less screen time for Makoto, and he just said he really likes Makoto.
All of that is true. But the structure of Persona 5 doesn't allow for Kaneshiro to fail as a character.
Anyone who's played Persona 5 knows that the game is uneven- but how can this be? The central mechanics are the same. The game's aesthetic and soundtrack is always on-point. Not every playable character is a winner but I don't think any of them are egregiously terrible either. The what and how are always identical, the only difference is the why.
We call this "context", and in Persona 5 the Palace Rulers do the heavy lifting in generating context. The Palaces form around them, and we explore their mindscapes instead of the heroes. The good Palaces tell a story of how this person ended up so twisted, or at least give us enough information to fill in the blanks.
The bad Palaces are the ones with bad Rulers, and this isn't a coincidence. Kaneshiro doesn't intrigue the player because he has so little screen time. He doesn't disgust because his crimes are too vague, and he doesn't anger because he doesn't really do that much to the protagonists.
Makoto's character arc (in relation to Kaneshiro) is completed before you explore the Palace, meaning she doesn't provide context either. There are no interesting character beats or plot developments from Makoto's awakening up until the boss fight against Kaneshiro. You'll spend several hours solving bad puzzles and fighting Shadows with no impetus to drive you except to hope the next Palace will be better5.
This is why you end up having thoughts like "these puzzles suck" or "ugh, more Shadows?" Kaneshiro as a character fails to provide the necessary emotional context to elevate this dungeon crawl to anything beyond a dungeon crawl- and as I've already discussed, the mechanics just aren't strong enough to be entertaining on their own.
Kaneshiro is defeated6, exits the story and my mind. The only notable thing is that his Shadow mentions that "someone" is using the Metaverse to commit assassinations, which corroborates something Madarame said. That's all there is to Kaneshiro. What a pointless character.
She needs a letter of recommendation from him to go to the college of her choice.
Which... she kind of is. The game downplays it. Makoto says she was truly unaware of what Kamoshida was doing, but that feels like willful ignorance considering how blatant he was being. However contrived, I think keeping Makoto (and Kawakami, Joker's homeroom teacher) totally ignorant of what Kamoshida was doing is necessary to keep them likable.
AKA Pope Joan, the (probably fictional) female Pope.
Well, she's photographed with booze bottles by Kaneshiro, but that barely counts.
It is, by a lot.
His boss fight in Royal is actually pretty fun. He brings on hired Shadow bodyguards who are insanely strong, then attacks you with money. When he runs out of money, the Shadows leave since he can't pay them anymore.