#mandrin persona

[gomaan]

Mandrin's dialogue 

"You finally have saaaaid it!" "Think of it all as a kind of spice for the 'win' you want!" "It's good, it's gooooooood!!" "Being both quiet and direct is the order..." "You can do it, can't you?" "Because I am thou..."

「言えたじゃないの～?」 「全てはお前が望む『勝ち』のためのスパイスみたいなもんだって思うことよ！」 「良いじゃないの、良いじゃないのぉ～～～！！」 「ひそやかに、だがあからさまに…両方やるってオーダーだ…」 「できるだろぉ？」 「なぜなら…我は汝…」

[p5x-theories]

The full, transparent art of the returning P5X thieves' Personas that we didn't have yet, plus Rob Roy, Awilda, and Mandarin, whose lighting appears to have been changed from their previous full images (Mandarin's only very slightly.)

[complete-idiot-inc]

Mandrin awakening, 4th beta ver.

I thought you would say it!

Isn’t that all you wanted to give up? Pride, desire, will, even life?

Now you understand that even if you can fool yourself into believing it’s all your fault, it won’t change anything.

Even if you close your eyes, they’re still there, so an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

You’ve stopped “giving up” on yourself, and now you’re quietly, but unabashedly, “giving up” on yourself.

Let go and make a scene!

Yes you remember! I am thou…

[thieves-in-the-palace]

Some pics of the new playable characters in Persona Phantom X, including their Personas, code names, and cut-in graphics! These show up during game download. (The other established characters + Phantom Thieves also showed up, but I wanted to focus on the newer kids lmao)

✧ Shun Kanou, code name Soy! We've already seen him, but I don't think we've seen much of his Persona, Mandrin, yet.

✧ Tomoko Noge, code name Kotomo! Her code name seems to be an anagram of her given name, as Kotomo…doesn't really mean anything? With a Persona (and color scheme) like that, I'd be willing to bet she specializes in Psy skills.

✧ YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HIM, HE'S FINALLY HERE, IT'S LEO! Real name unknown. His Persona has a nice, super sentai sort of feel to it. Unclear if he'll be a character in the game storyline.

✧ Yaoling Li, code name Rin! I guess they decided to fully break away from the code name pattern? I don't think we've seen an in-game model for her yet, but she apparently exists in the P5X storyline as a Chinese transfer student.

✧ That guy we saw alongside Wonder, Kotomo, and Rin in that recent trailer: Kii! Real name unknown. Probably going to specialize in Bless or Fire skills, judging by his Persona design. Unclear if he'll be a character in the game storyline.

✧ And last but not least, Okyann! Real name unknown. Finally, a gyaru gets some time in the spotlight. She seems like she'll be an actual character, and I will cry if she winds up just being gacha fodder. Looks to be noticeably older than the rest of the playable characters thus far.

Of note: in the latest sticker set, Seiji, Mont, Yuki, and Leo only appear in their Thief gear, while Kotomo, Rin, Kii, and Okyann appear in everyday clothing. It would be reasonable to assume that Leo will be joining those first 3 in gacha fodder purgatory, while the other new characters will be incorporated into P5X's storyline.

[ennaakat]

Persona 5 the Phantom X News

Our next main story party member has been fully announced

Jun Kana

Codename: Soy (that's unfortunate)

Persona: Mandrin

Some looks at the second palace

And we also have our first in game look at this character

Beta 2 goes live in August

[shadowtarot]

OK so there is something BIG regarding Persona 5X that I want to make a post about in detail regarding playable characters.

This is the difference between Persona and Persona II (also known as Persona Duo).

If you've noticed in coverage from myself as well as others, sometimes a Persona Users Persona is referred to as a Persona II. What does that mean?

Simply put, that character is a Confidant. And their playable form is gained only through the Gacha as a Phantom Copy. It basically shows what a given person COULD awaken to if they truly gained the power of Persona.

As an example, let's look at two recently revealed Theives: Soy and Rin.

This is Yaoling Li (Codename Rin), a Chinese girl studying in Japan for college. Her Persona II is Meng Po. Given the wording of her descriptors, she's a confidant Wonder will have access to during the second Palace/Arc.

This is Kano Jun, codename Soy. His Persona is Mandrin. Jun struggles to get along with people his age. He has dreams of becoming a chef. Given he's been shown in anime images and the fact he's got a Persona and not a Persona II, this means he's an official member of the party and not just a confidant.

What's the big deal with the existence of Persona II though you might ask? Well what if they’re not limited to Wonder's confidants? What if we get to see what people like Mishima would be like with a Persona II?

Just something to think about.

[badlydrawndrawnings]

*sees that blue-hair student is a Persona User*

*curious to know about his Persona and what it means for the game*

Okay, so a quick search tells me that his Persona, Mandrin, is very likely to be one Louis Mandrin, was a French smuggler/highway man/French Robin Hood (another Robin Hood-like figure!) who was from Dauphiné, located in the southwest of France. Louis Mandrin hated the tax collectors, (which at the time was until the Old Regime that lasted from circa 1500 to the French Revolution of 1789).

In 1753, Louis Mandrin and a friend got arrested for a brawl and Louis Mandrin escaped, for on that same day, his brother was hanged for counterfeiting,  and Mandrin escaped, but on swore a personal war against the tax collectors.

Louis Mandrin then joined a gang of smugglers that was in the Cantons of Switzerland, France, ans Savoy, which at the time its own territory state. The gang smuggled bought the goods in Switzerland, and then sold them to the French population that didn’t involve taxes. Also apparently Louis Mandrin and his gang robbed the tax collectors, especially the unpopular ones. This allowed the gang to get lots of local support, but it had the tax collectors wanting Mandrin’s head.

So Louis Mandrin took refuge in Savoy. Remember how I said it was its own territory state? Well, the French tax collectors wanted Louis Mandrin’s head so badly, they sent in 500 men into Savoy in disguises to do that (help that two of Louis Mandrin’s own gang members sold him out). The Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, Charles Emmanuel III, didn’t approve of this AT ALL, and sent a letter to the King Louis the XV to return Mandrin back, but before the message could be sent, the tax collectors basically speed-run the trial to execute the guy.

Interesting here that this Persona goes back to the theming of the initial three Personas we know of: Jánošík, Awilda, and Rob Roy. They’re outlaws of sorts. The second set of Personas we learned of are Leucothea, Terpsichore, and Styx. They’re from Greak mythology.

I think it’s possible the blue-hair student, not using his name because it seems it’s still unknown at the moment due to different possible translations of the kanji of his name, joins after the initial first Palace. Maybe he’s the fourth party member. Or the fifth, for there’s still that unknown female party member left we don’t know about.

That, or there’s two groups of Persona users in P5x that start out as rivals, but eventually have to join forces to defeat in the new threat of the Metaverse. Group One is the new ‘PT’ of sorts, consisting of Wonder, Cattle, Closer, the Blue-Hair Student, and Unknown Female Persona User. Group Two is the ‘Classic Theme’ users, consisting of Seiji, Mont, Yuki, and maybe Unknown Male Star Arcana User.

Or I could be wrong on both accounts. Still, this gave me a lot to think about!

[gomaan]

The whole design of Mandrin, SOY's persona, came out and I compared it to the phantom thief outfit. They have horses motif as themselves?

Mandrin's face on the official P5X website, It looks like a wolf at a glance, but if you look closely, you can see that it is a horse motif.

Shun's code name is SOY. In slang, "Soy boy" means "herbivore boy". It may be an assertion that "Horses are strong and muscular even if they eat only grass!" Also Mandrin has a big gun with an axe-like blade attached to the firing port. It also has a horse's head on it and the mane is the axe part and a horse's leg on its trigger! Mandrin in original historical story was born in a seller of horses.

SOY's mysterious two long ribbons on the back could be a broken rein… If the rope around Mandrin's neck is from the hanging episode, and SOY's mysterious the ribbons is a broken rein, then these are "chains that someone was controlling" that were torn off.

There's something about SOY's phantom outfit, the cowboy, but I felt there was a metaphor that not only was it the figure of someone riding a horse, but the person themselves was also a horse. The way the mask is designed. Because his name is also 'Shun' (the original meaning of the Chinese character is 'fast horse').

Shun's code name is more like SOY, because the original Aassho-ken of Taisho-ken has soy sauce ramen as its signature dish? Looks like it.

… or something like that, I don't think the story fits with anything other than Mandrin's gun-axe. my Delusion.

[p5x-theories]

New thieves in-game, confirming their types!

Okyann is a navigator, Leo is nuclear, Kii is fire, Rin is curse, Kotomo is psy, and Soy is ice.

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About Soy

(as of the second beta; last updated 8/27/23!)

Shun Kanou, codename Soy, is a second-year at Kokatsu Academy in class 2D. He used to work part-time at the restaurant Ashouken, but since quit, and helps out at the restaurant Toraiken instead.

The codename "Soy" almost certainly comes from soy sauce, though as he hasn't picked it for himself in-game as of where the second beta ended, his exact reasoning for this codename is unclear. It probably has something to do with his interest in cooking.

His Japanese voice actor is Katsuyuki Konishi.

It's currently unknown whether Shun is a Confidant of the protagonist's, but as he is a teammate, it seems likely.

While Shun is seen for the first two times eating lunch alone on the school roof, he becomes relevant after Kiuchi's heart is stolen. Seeing Wonder (the protagonist) and Motoha together so often suddenly, he questions whether they're dating, and is abrasive towards Wonder at first.

However, when he invites the two of them over to the restaurant Toraiken, they see Shun helps out the owner there after school, and seems very invested in the quality of food and the wellbeing of Toraiken's owner. They also see that a famous food critic, Hiromu Miyazawa, is threatening Shun and the owner.

After this, Shun becomes a bit more open to Wonder, and explains that the owner of Toraiken used to own another restaurant, Ashouken, when Shun worked there. However, he refused to bribe Miyazawa for a good review, and Miyazawa destroyed his reputation. Shun quit Ashouken, but wishes he could do something about Miyazawa.

Miyazawa ends up publicly challenging Shun to a "Flavor Fight", where Shun must cook dishes in a set amount of time and have Miyazawa review them, which Shun furiously rushes into after being riled up by the taunting that accompanied the challenge. While it's currently unclear exactly how, after this Flavor Fight, Shun ends up stumbling into the Metaverse with Wonder, Cattle, and Closer, and awakens his Persona after encountering Miyazawa's Shadow.

Shun's role seems to parallel Yusuke's in the original P5.

Shun gives off the impression of a stoic, quiet loner type, which at least during what's been revealed so far, doesn't seem to bother him much. He's very invested in cooking and food in general, and focuses primarily on that along with helping out the owner of Toraiken more generally. It doesn't appear that he interacts with others much outside of this.

He is, however, quick to anger, and impulsive as well as physically aggressive once sufficiently riled up. He cares deeply about Toraiken, and can't stand to have it degraded by Miyazawa. It's also heavily implied by his investment in Motoha and Wonder's relationship that he has a crush on Motoha, though it's unclear whether his initial hostility towards Wonder was because he was unfamiliar with Wonder and thus protective of Motoha, more fueled by jealousy in regard to the perceived relationship, or a mix of both.

While he seems stoic, when he's thrown off guard it is extremely obvious. He flounders when Motoha approaches while he's threatening Wonder, clumsily lying about inviting them both for food instead, and when the team rushes back to Shibuya after his Persona awakening, he's so bewildered that he immediately forgets they're in a hurry to get back to school.

His Persona is Mandrin (based on a French smuggler sometimes known as the Robin Hood of France) and has Ice and Physical skills, resisting Ice while being weak to Fire.

In combat, his melee weapon is a hatchet, while his ranged weapon is a gatling gun. His highlight attack is shown from 0:39 - 0:54 in this video.

[p5x-theories]

Mandarin also being a type of orange seems to support the Soy is named after soy sauce.

He and Soy could be The Hanged Man given Mandarin is wearing a bright blue noosed.(Literally a man that has been hanged.)

Mandarin’s gun looks to be flintlock axe pistol which oddly enough was used by Polish cavalry not French which might serve as a connection to Wander given the the prominence Jánošík’s legends have in the country.

Ah, I made the same mistake at first- it's actually Mandrin, not mandarin! He's based on Louis Mandrin, after all. Granted, it still evidently makes us English speakers think of the orange, which as you said gives another connection to food, I just have no idea how intentional that really was, haha. But it's fun, at the very least!

I actually do agree the noose is a bit odd, since according to Wikipedia he didn't die of hanging (though he was, ultimately, strangled to death), but it would be a little unusual for a Persona to have that obvious of a visual reference to its Arcana, wouldn't it? Actually, now that I'm looking over his Wikipedia page again, his friend and his brother were apparently both hanged, and that led to Mandrin beginning his rebellion against the tax collectors of France, so maybe it's meant to be a symbol of that. In that case, it could suggest maybe rather than being the Hanged Man himself, Shun might have a personal connection to whoever the Hanged Man ends up being?

That'd be neat if they intended the gun as a reference to Wonder and his Persona! I don't really know a lot about guns, so I can't speak to that aspect much, but I do always like the idea of little connections between characters.

[p5x-theories]

Soy's awakening! Also featuring his Highlight Attack, One More animation, one of Mandrin's ice attack animations that seems more unique, his gun attack, and All Out Attack finisher.

It doesn't quite seem finished, though- the Palace background music is still playing, and the volume mixing seems off. The first beta also had some unfinished aspects that're more finished in this second beta, so that's not too surprising.

[p5x-theories]

A better look at the new character models!

[thieves-in-the-palace]

☆ That blue-haired boy from the rooftop joins the team! Introducing Shun Kanou, codename…Soy? i made fun of Cattle but damn dude that's kinda rough

★ Shun's Persona is apparently named Mandrin. It's likely based off the French highwayman Louis Mandrin of Dauphiné, who earned the title of "the Robin Hood of France" for his defiance of the deeply corrupt (and widely despised) Ferme générale – royal tax collectors. With no set limit to their taxation powers aside from what they were required to pass along to the king, the fermiers could (and did) tax people as they pleased for personal profit.

☆ Chihaya (and Wanna-kun!!) spotted! Her dialogue is something along the lines of "nothing good can come from pursuing your desires" and then a plug for her fortune telling services.

★ ya boy is Cooking

☆ Takemi is back with her array of helpful medicines!…not that we didn't already know that, but it's still nice to see the good doctor again.

★ Footage of Palace numero dos! As many have predicted, it appears to mirror the traditional Japanese aesthetics found in Madarame's Palace.

☆ A possible view of the next boss? Or at least some sort of enemy from the second Palace, judging by the design. (It's shoved between shots of what looks like an escape sequence from the first Palace & a view of the first Palace final boss, though, so who knows.)

★ A very short shot of Shun's Persona awakening! Based on the background, it looks like it'll be taking place in the second Palace.

☆ I know how to make gifs now so u KNOW I had to get something of Jánošík looking cool during Wonder's Persona awakening

★ A new All-Out Attack! For the life of me, I can't figure out what the flavor text is. That second character looks like it might be 志?

☆ Anyway, we also get a view of three new playable characters! Jury's out on who the first two are, but that bespectacled, pigtail-having girl looks an awful lot like a certain Tomoko Noge…

★ Last but not least, we get to see unique attacks for most of the playable characters thus far! Most of the attack sequences appear to have been shortened for editing purposes, but Yusuke & Ann's look to be pretty complete!

[p5x-theories]

What We Know About Soy

(as of the third beta; last updated 1/23/24!)

Shun Kanou, codename Soy, is a second-year at Kokatsu Academy in class 2D. He used to work part-time at the restaurant Ashouken, but since quit, and helps out at the restaurant Toraiken instead.

Shun picks the codename "Soy" after being told his codename should be something mysterious, and he thinks of soy sauce.

His Japanese voice actor is Katsuyuki Konishi.

Shun is a Confidant of Wonder’s, though his Arcana is unknown.

While Shun is seen for the first two times eating lunch alone on the school roof, he becomes relevant after Kiuchi's heart is stolen. Seeing Wonder (the protagonist) and Motoha together so often suddenly, he questions whether they're dating, and is abrasive towards Wonder at first.

However, when he invites the two of them over to the restaurant Toraiken, they see Shun helps out the owner there after school, and he seems very invested in the quality of food and the wellbeing of Toraiken's owner. They also see that a famous food critic, Hiromu Miyazawa, is threatening Shun and the owner.

After this, Shun becomes a bit more open to Wonder, and explains that the owner of Toraiken used to own another restaurant, Ashouken, when Shun worked there. However, the owner refused to bribe Miyazawa for a good review, and Miyazawa destroyed his reputation. Shun quit Ashouken, but wishes he could do something about Miyazawa.

Miyazawa ends up publicly challenging Shun to a "Flavor Fight", where Shun must cook dishes in a set amount of time and have Miyazawa review them, which Shun furiously rushes into after being riled up by the taunting that accompanied the challenge. While it's currently unclear exactly how, after this Flavor Fight, Shun ends up stumbling into the Metaverse with Wonder, Cattle, and Closer, and awakens his Persona after encountering Miyazawa's Shadow.

Shun's role seems to loosely parallel Yusuke's (and possibly a bit of Ryuji's) in the original P5.

Shun gives off the impression of a stoic, quiet loner type, which at least during what's been revealed so far, doesn't seem to bother him much. He's very invested in cooking and food in general, and focuses primarily on that along with helping out the owner of Toraiken more generally. It doesn't appear that he interacts with others much outside of this.

He is, however, quick to anger, and impulsive as well as physically aggressive once sufficiently riled up. He cares deeply about Toraiken, and can't stand to have it degraded by Miyazawa. It's also heavily implied by his investment in Motoha and Wonder's relationship that he has a crush on Motoha, though it's unclear whether his initial hostility towards Wonder was because he was unfamiliar with Wonder and thus protective of Motoha, more fueled by jealousy in regard to the perceived relationship, or a mix of both.

While he seems stoic, when he's thrown off guard it is extremely obvious. He flounders when Motoha approaches while he's threatening Wonder, clumsily lying about inviting them both for food instead, and when the team rushes back to Shibuya after his Persona awakening, he's so bewildered that he immediately forgets they're in a hurry to get back to school.

He's also much more friendly, and pretty open to working together with the others to stop Miyazawa, once they do eventually get to explain their Phantom Thief work to him.

His Persona is Mandrin (based on a French smuggler sometimes known as the Robin Hood of France) and has Ice, Physical, and one Support skill, resisting Ice while being weak to Bless in the third beta.

In combat, his melee weapon is a hatchet, while his ranged weapon is a gatling gun. His highlight attack is shown from 0:39 - 0:54 in this video.

[p5x-theories]

Me & @modrew71extra came up with some evolved personas for the Wonder Crew.

Wonder: Jánošík -> Sabaoth

Cattle: Rob Roy -> Lugh

Closer: Awilda-> Járnsaxa

Soy: Mandrin -> Wotan

Ooo, cool! Had to look these guys up, so I'll pop links in for them for anyone else who needs them:

Sabaoth Definitely see where you're coming from with this one, considering Sabaoth's connection to Yaldabaoth and the theories we've had floating around with Wonder possibly having a connection to Yaldabaoth as well.

Lugh Another fun one! I'm not sure if this was a specific aspect of what you were going for with this one, but I like that Lugh's also noted as being a master craftsman, with his domains including craftsmen, skills, and trade, because Ruferu was so insistent about Wonder getting a table to work on and learning to craft infiltration tools. (Which, granted, Morgana taught Joker as well, but Ruferu felt more insistent/serious about it to me, hah).

Járnsaxa Huh, a lover of Thor? I guess I see where you're coming from with her, having a connection to electricity, although I guess this one doesn't feel quite as much like it's clicking into place for me.

It looks like Wotan is from this, and is its name for Odin, if I follow? Curious about your reasoning for this one, because I feel like I'm not really following? But maybe it's just because I don't know enough/I'm missing something.

Thanks for sending this in, though!