#i think goro is overrated just a lil secret….

[meloriri]

AKECHI GORO — PERSONA 5 NAME ANALYSIS

Major p5r spoilers, minor “The Boy Detectives Club” spoilers.

First and foremost, I’m starting with Akechi because I thought his name was the most obvious, so I know the references in his name better. I will be making a post about Joker too, and hopefully more if I find enough material.

Akechi, meaning wisdom and intellect, Goro meaning “Fifth son.”

You might think that it was smart of the persona devs to name him Akechi for this reason, but it actually goes far deeper than that. (There’s reason for the name Goro too!)

(i promise this is relevant) Edogawa Rampo is a Japanese author who is highly important to mystery and thriller genre. He lived through the 19th-20th century and wrote many books considered classics.

Being a mystery writer, of course Edogawa had a main detective character. Known in the stories as “Japan’s greatest detective” is Akechi Kogoro, a private investigator inspired by Sherlock Holmes. That being said, naming your detective character “ Akechi” is pretty much equivalent to naming your detective character “Holmes.” Funny, right?

Akechi Kogoro is undeniable a genius, but quite eccentric. (For any BSD fans, the character Rampo is somewhat based off of Kogoro!) He appears in MANY of Edogawa’s books, as well as Edogawa’s juvenile fiction series, The Boy Detectives Club. Kogoro is a master of disguise, particularly good at disguising as young women. (Perhaps explaining Goro’s more typically effeminate appearance?)

Of course, Akechi Goro in Persona 5 is inspired by Akechi Kogoro, but it goes farther than that! I believe Goro is specifically based off of Kogoro in “The Fiend Of Twenty Faces,” the first book in Edogawa’s juvenile fiction series. The fiend of twenty faces is a gentleman thief based off of Arsène Lupin. I don’t want to spoil his name, So I’ll be calling the gentleman thief Kichi. Kichi and Kogoro have a relationship of mutual respect despite being rivals. Kichi is particularly well known for a character inspired by him, that character being Joker from Persona 5. I’d say Kichi is a notably worse person considering he threatened a group of ten year olds, but thats another story.

I won’t get too into whatever Kichi has going on since that’s more related to Joker than Goro, but you get the idea. Initially however, Kichi was going to be called “The phantom thief of twenty faces” but it was ruled out because… It wasn’t appropriate enough for kids..? Regardless, Joker and Goro are clear parallels to Kichi and Kogoro, from Mutual respect to their rather dramatic rivalry.

SECTION TWO - Akechi Goro & Akechi Mitsuhide

Goro’s name holds a genius double meaning — The other being historical figure Akechi Mitsuhide. Considering this is based on reality rather than fiction, this part may be a bit disturbing. I’ll be using Goro for Akechi Goro and Akechi for Akechi Mitsuhide, because it feels wrong to use his given name.

PS: Im a random canadian teenager, Please tell me if i got any history wrong!!!

Akechi was a samurai in the Sengoku period, but also a grand traitor. Best known as Oda Nobunaga(One of the three great unifiers of Japan)’s killer. Akechi was Oda’s bodyguard, but rebelled against him and forced him to commit seppaku, which is essentially suicide. Goro’s use of mental shutdowns is likely a reference to this, as is his rebellion against the Phantom Thieves.

SECTION THREE - Crow, Kuro, and Karasu.

Goro’s codename “Crow” is pronounced in Japanese as “Kuro”, which is “coincidentally” also the word for black. Because of this, as soon as the Black Mask was mentioned (i had already been spoiled on Goro’s codename) I immediately knew it was going to be him.

Crows represent misfortune and death, but also self-reflection and intelligence.

And finally, something that was most likely unintentional but I found funny nonetheless. When Akechi first teams up with the Phantom Thieves, he suggests his codename be “Karasu”, meaning crow. The other members suggest Crow instead since they all have english codenames. The first time (I think?) Joker is given an official name is in a spin-off manga, in which they call him Akira Kurusu. It probably means nothing, but I found the idea of codename Karasu working with Kurusu pretty funny, so I decided to mention it anyway.

That’s all I caught on to!! Let me know if I got anything wrong :)