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BURNING. (jun kurosu)

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Persona 2 stuff ... Life has been so wild that I think doodling P2 on the side is one of my few solaces at the moment

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Peace diner

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Persona Tribute Illustrations scans

Hello! I finished scanning my copy of "Persona Tribute Illustrations", a collection of full color Persona 1 and 2 artwork made for various anthologies! It's 100 pages long with special color comics at the end! I hope everyone enjoys checking it out!

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yuka 🫶

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Drawing of Baofu from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment as part of a commission for a client. I had lots of fun drawing this piece!

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...!

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i'll grow up and get rid of the bad guys!

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ohhh i loike persona twooooo

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i am thou, thou art i

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been binging persona 2 while studying.

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Kazuma Kaneko's design inspirations for Vulcanus and Apollo

Since I already posted the analysis for Kaneko’s design for Maya’s Personae here are the inspirations for the designs of Tatsuya’s personae:

Hephaestus/Vulcanus:

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_%28mythology%29

Hephaestus (Vulcanus) was the Greek God of blacksmiths, metals, fire and sculptors. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He designed pretty much all powerful weapons and trademarks of several gods for example: Hermes’ winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis shield, Aphrodites’/Venus’ belt, Helios’ chariot, Eros’ arrows (kinda funny since these are all P2 Personae: Hermes is Jun’ persona, Helios is Katsuya’s and Venus and Eros are Lisa’s personae).

He is considered to be the most most ugly God in Greek mythology (He is also described as “lame” and it is said that he is the male counterpart of Athena since Hera gave birth to Hephaestus herself just like Zeus gave birth to Athena himself) which is why Zeus gave Aphrodite to him to prevent the Gods from fighting over Aphrodite. However Aphrodite cheated on him with Ares/Mars and this marriage was over.

Maia is mentioned as Vulcanus’ wife in Roman mythology. In Roman mythology Maia is an Earth goddess and not mentioned as one of the Pleiades at all which might have caused some confusion and probably they were originally not the same goddess at all. The original Maia was the daughter of Atlas (*cough*) and was actually just another woman tricked by Zeus and the mother of Hermes.

Kaneko drew Vulcanus so that he resembles a lighter (Jun’s present to Tatsuya when they exchanged gifts). His association with fire and metal is clearly shown as well and I even think that is hilarious that Tatsuya can imitate motor cycles and engines since it kinda fits with Vulcanus’ tasks at Mount Olympus.

Apollo:

Apollo is the Greek God of arts, plague, music, the light bringer (see Tatsuya with his lighter) and god of the sun (He replaced the original sun god Helios). He is said to be the most handsome male God and is the ideal form of the kourous (not yet a man but not a boy either which fits with Tatsuya’s character in EP). Apollo is also the God of divination (Oracle of Delphi) and truth.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Artemis_Apollo_Louvre_Myr199.jpg

I think his relationship with his twin sister Artemis (Diana, Maya’s persona) is interesting: They were both punishing gods (see how they killed off Niobe’s children because they insulted their mother Leto): Apollo brought plague like deaths and Artemis brought icy deaths (fits with how Tatsuya and Maya attack).

Both Artemis and Apollo never married  and the two can be seen as husband and wife, and there seems to have been a tradition which actually described Artemis as the wife of Apollo. (according to Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1197.). I think that it’s ironic that they are so connected and that Apollo even chased away men who dared to look at his sister in an inappropiate way since Apollo was actually one of the reasons why Artemis vowed to remain a virgin in the first place (Artemis was the first born and she is said to have had a trauma since she had to help her mother to give birth to Apollo which connects Artemis with Ilithyia the Goddess of childbirth).

Even though Apollo is the most handsome god his love life is a complete disaster. Cassandra of Troy and Daphne rejected him as well as countless other women.

Apollo by the way had male lovers as well like Hyacinthus (who is on this picture) who died brutally and is connected with flowers and even turned into the flower which is named after him (a basis for TatsuJun?).

Apollo’s pattern looks like the War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army or Sun flages in general. Japan is also called the land of the rising sun.

Tatsuya’s arcana being Sun fits as well since Apollo is connected with the sun and the Sun arcana is supposed to be the tarot card which represents manliness (“Being a man means … *cough*).

I love that all P2 characters are mythologically connected and their Personae are not randomly chosen which is why I love P2’s mythological background.

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guy in the computer

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One of my favorite moments in eternal punishment <3

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Maya!!

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relationship: friends?