I Know Strikers Takes Place About A Year After P5 But... The Designers Definitely Missed Some Opportunities

I know Strikers takes place about a year after P5 but... The designers definitely missed some opportunities with the PTs' character designs. That and Yusuke growing his hair out is one of my favorite HCs!

(Another thing I noticed while fighting Sumire, if you watch the background, you can see Maruki calling out to you guys every now and then in the distance. So uh. Yeah that’s a thing!)

Huh, very interesting! Like, what does he say? That is unless it's inaudible? I'm just very intrigued and curious!

Phantom Thief Akane notes!

Self-explanatory! Shall we start?

Persona ideas:

-Cosette (Also from Les Misérables and Jean Valjean's adoptive daughter, self-explanatory there).

-Esmeralda (Hunchback of Notre Dame, also by Victor Hugo.), third tier would be Esmeralda's birth name Agnès but that might be confusing since that's a name shared with Makoto's third tier so not sure. Element would be fire. Just feel like the character fits Akane's fiery personality pretty well (regardless of whether you're familiar with the book or Disney version) and Zenkichi's Persona was also from a Victor Hugo novel so it would be some fun theming with the two.

-Hua Mulan (pretty sure we all know that one), Mulan's own story would probably be something Akane would relate to a bit after her change of heart (Mulan having disguised herself as a man to take her father's place in the military as a way to protect him (as he is of old age)). It would maybe symbolize her desire to protect Zenkichi now after he did so much to protect her. Now it's her turn. The element for this Persona would probably be either Bless or Nuke (Or Ice as a reference to Mulan starting an avalanche in the Disney film). Though going with this, it would be tough to figure out the second and third tiers for her.

-The initial concept I have right now is: Esmeralda -> Hua Mulan -> Agnès but again, not quite sure.

Design:

-The ideas I do have are somewhere along the lines of maybe being inspired by old fashioned fencing outfits or taking inspiration from one of Asami Sato's outfits from The Legend of Korra (namely her fighting outfit).

Codename: -My bf came up with the perfect Codename for her: Lupine! To add a Wolf theming with Zenkichi and apparently there is a flower under that name too and the meaning fits Akane to a T!

-Plus, the "Lupin" part of the name would be a cute reference to Joker since his Persona is based on Arsene Lupin. Especially if we go with the HC of Zenkichi adopting Joker! Weapons:

-This is tough since I DOUBT Zenkichi would let her use a gun. I imagined her melee weapon being a type of rapier but I'm not sure.

-A Twitter mutual also suggested a fan, sword, sai, or a form of a cognitive weapon.

You could say this is a somewhat remake of an old ponytail edit I did a while back!

Here's my interpretation of Zenkichi's mother as she would appear in "Prison of Grief." Both normal and Cognition forms! More info under the cut! (tw: talks of various forms of abuse (namely child abuse and spousal/domestic abuse), mentions of victim blaming too)

Maki Hasegawa was a very cold and abusive woman to both her son and even her husband, Junichi. She controlled every aspect of Zenkichi's life and decisions. What he should look like (to the point of forcibly cutting his hair when he kept growing it out), who he interacts with, relationships, everything. She planned out his whole life to the letter. Why though? Because she didn't want to have him to begin with and she made sure he knew that whenever she got mad at him. That and having him took away any youth she had, prompting her to often dress up and go out every night even when Zenkichi would ask questions. Her husband could barely do anything and simply shuts down whenever Zenkichi gets scolded. He and Zenkichi did try to report her but were dismissed. They were ignored because no one would believe that the two were being abused, let alone by a woman and that they should just endure it. Zenkichi especially since he's still growing so therefore, he might have deserved it. She also NEVER approved of Aoi when Zenkichi met her as a child, thinking of her and her family as "bad influences" since meeting her provided the catalyst to him becoming more independent and regaining his own life. This whole experience became part of why Zenkichi decided to take up a career in law enforcement, so that no one would suffer the way he did. Especially because of societal stigmas. Junichi does eventually get him out and gain primary custody of him, but it still ended up going south for them before Zenkichi decided to cut BOTH of them out of his life.

Show em what you’re capable of~