The Full Story Behind Persona's Best Boy - Character Obsessed 

Love how you can see Shinji's stand-offish nature, or rather his inability to reach out too close and keep in his own lane, scared to touch others, because he tries to always keep his hands in his pockets, slouched over as if pushing them deeper in. Shinji's a wholesome hero that considers everyone and who displays that no matter how good hearted you are, it's possible to make mistakes. But ultimately you have to move forward. If you run away, if you withhold yourself, then you'll never have an opportunity to make things better. You can't let your fear control you, you have to jump. And you have to hope, you have to believe, and you have to work through the issues that caused you to lose control in the first place. Strength isn't just the ability to manifest a reality you idealize. It's also the ability to understand yourself and others, accept yourself and others, and also move forward with levity in your heart as you figure out what went wrong and try to resolve it instead of locking your power away. It's also fascinating that Shinji is met in the same area that Ken's mother was killed. :) Something I say a lot: "you don't pay debts with your death, you pay them with your life, with others at your back as you live for them and yourself." Shinji paid with his life, but fortunately in a way that actually mattered. So it wasn't JUST a death. :) Seeing Shinji's death scene is so well made I choked up seeing it again, which wasn't expected. I think the main reason Ken intended to kill himself after killing Shinji was primarily because all that hatred bubbling up inside of him had nowhere to go. A kid who had no idea how to deal with his emotions, who needed therapy. It would've been a hollow satisfaction, and ultimately his hatred would have directed at himself, as it already was. Hatred for not being enough. Hatred for failing to protect his mother. Failure for being able to bring her back. Failure for being unable to shed the weight. Hatred toward the world that was so unfair others had personas and could lead to cruel, meaningless events like the death of the one he loved most. Anything and everything the brain can come up with to hold on, to latch onto that fear, that hatred, that anger, instead of work through it one spiral at a time, processing it. The worst deaths imo are the ones that had so much potential. The ones that are the most unfair - where someone finally had a chance to get out of their circumstances only to die right before they passed through or after they got to the other side. Also excellent video overall. Well-use of clips, peak script - good segmentary doses of humor that help keep the tone light and break up the pace so it's not all one single track. You're a pretty good writer Arek. My only real critique would be that you need to work on your voice when reading scripts, you don't go into it heavily enough, but I'm guessing that's because you'd rather not have to keep taking take after take, so you're really focused on reading it properly. Still, it's something worth working on. It also reminds me of how passionate I am about a lot of my favorite games, and how I could probably do similar small video essays with my thoughts. Problem is that getting footage and aligning it in a way that is entertaining can be difficult. Especially as it takes longer if your footage isn't properly organized. Which is all the more reason why this is quite beautiful. Not only a poignant analysis and gush, but also easy to keep up with, stay focused on, and well-made visually and literarally, and organizationally. Perfect video essay all around. All that needs work is your audio - and not the crispness and quality, just how you read. Glad to know Shinji and his smile is your type of man Arek. :V Of course you would take any opportunity to tell him you love him. :P It's sad that he feels like he can't control himself around another human being in his room. He's so restrained. Thanks for the video Arek!

It’s my birthday today and all I want is this video to do well! So please let me know what you think and share it around if you know someone who likes persona 3!

This is a great character dive vid, Foxy! Persona 3 is the last of the entire franchise that I played, so this brought back memories - especially hearing the music again. I still love Persona 1 the most due to nostalgia and its simplicity in comparison, but Persona 3 was a phenomenal advancement in the series. I always have a soft spot for possibly honorable silent guardian types (Daigo Kazama of Rival Schools is another example) since I was one throughout my teens and 20s. Although I became a grumpy old man in my 30s through to current day, that silent guardian persona remains for those I truly care about. I really liked Shinjiro as a result, but I couldn't shake the feeling that his fate was sealed while playing just because of how much of himself he hid and how things played out... And I feel your pain with Aerith. Aside from the fact that I favor mages in RPGs, at the time, I had a female friend/crush with heterochromia whom Aerith really reminded me of, so "that scene" was especially devastating to me. I always name Aerith after my friend, even to this day when I occasionally replay the PS1 version. Thanks again for the awesome work and passion you put into your vids!

Shinji is sooo cool man. I remember learning about more of the P3 cast through Persona Q and his design always stuck out to me. I will say it kinda sucks that in Persona Q they didn't take the chance to give him a real Ultimate Persona or evolved Persona. Akihiko got such a cool upgrade, would have loved to see Shinji get the same love even if it wound up being noncanon

Shinji is a painfully missed opportuniy And I do enjoy how P3 has Shinji and Akinari in the same game

Playing 3 as Reload for the first time right now, and the way you put it at 18:15 was a Sanada gut-punch. I went into this game completely blind, and just played through Oct4th and it screwed with me all day. I mentioned that timestamp earlier, because I put off. so many. TOO many of the instances to hang out with Arigaki for raising my social stats, the Elizabeth timed sidequests, Social Links, and Tartarus rescues. I prioritized as many of those as I could…but I put them before time I could’ve spent with Arigaki, and now he’s gone, just like that… As someone who’s been playing most of the Persona series backwards now-since starting with P5Royal, and 4Golden (haven’t finished 4 yet), I’d tried out P4 Arena Ultimax very briefly, and was first exposed to the P3 cast in their time skip incarnations. But to my surprise, only Iori, Takeba, Kirijo, Sanada, Aigis, and Amada & Koromaru are playable. (Yamagishi’s also not present, though I just assumed that’s because she’s the Nav of the group (however they even worked P4’s Rise into such a role so I worry if Fuuka’s also on a timer too??)). What I’m getting at is, my first exposure to Aragaki wasn’t till Reload, and looking back how the other SEES members were older in Arena, it all but confirmed that someone wasn’t there now because they die during 3’s narrative and their time as students. However, I arrogantly assumed Aragaki would be around for most of the game, and that his suppressants wouldn’t catch up with him until the final battle. I didn’t expect Amada or Takeya to escalate things just like that. And so…yeah, I think you really captured the sentiment of Aragaki’s character. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. Not for ourselves, or the ones we love…

It is sad that shinji did not have a lot playtime in persona 3 but him is my favorite ❤️😭