thiscityneedslessfog

[thiscityneedslessfog]

A kid coming in and saying “I did it all! It was me!”

I saw Episodes 10 and 11 of the Persona 4 anime, and it made me want to talk about Kubo’s dungeon and how it highlights his relationship with the Midnight Channel Killings, and the overall roots of his motive for being the Copycat Killer.

Kubo’s dungeon is titled “Void Quest” and looks very similar a 3D version of old school JRPGs released in the late 1980s to early 1990s. I also want to note that Void Quest specifically resembles the games of the late 80s-early 90s, which makes me want to call attention to the fact that the game takes place in 2011, while the main characters were born between mid-1994 and early 1996.

Now, why does Void Quest look the way it does? Rise accuses Kubo of seeing the entire situation as a game, but I'm not so sure this is quite it. Kubo is portrayed as a hermit prior to becoming the Copycat. Now, Kubo is actually not a hikikomori as many would believe, since he still is shown to attend school, as he’s in uniform when he asks Yukiko to go out with him, and not attending work or school is a requirement to being a hikikomori.

In the first epidemiological study 4 of this phenomenon in 2003, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare defined hikikomori as a state in which a young person (a) mainly stays at home, (b) cannot or does not engage in social activities such as going to school or working, (c) has continued in this state for more than 6 months, (d) has neither a psychotic pathology nor medium to lower level [intellectual disability] (IQ  <  55~50), and (e) has no close friends.

[Source]

But, he's still very much shut-in and not known to have any friends. I believe that since Kubo's Shadow in the anime is shown to be playing video games, and that in his berserk form, his shadow resembles a fetus inside a shell of an RPG protagonist, that part of the reason the dungeon looks the way it does is that Kubo's best way of processing the world is through video games.

Also, the timeframe of the games it’s inspired by are games that were released slightly before to around the time Kubo was born, such as Dragon Quest. This can give a sense of childishness to Kubo, like he’s trapped in his young childhood. Which is supported by the appearance of Kubo’s Shadow in berserk form.

The idea of seeing the world through video games is supported by the fact that the floors show the events of the Midnight Channel Killings from Kubo's perspective... sort of. Obviously, there's the details that Yamano and Saki's names aren't remembered and they're just registered as "Defeated," while Morooka is named and registered as "Killed," meaning Morooka is the only one Kubo actually killed, but I want to call more attention to the stat changes Kubo gets after he "defeats" the "bosses." But it does show that this is how Kubo processes the world. And we hear commentary from the only consistent presence in his life, presumably his mother. I think the world isn't quite a game to Kubo, but games are how Kubo processes the world. Such as the “rotten orange” scene.

Actually, fun fact: This is implied in the game, but Page 143 of the Persona 4 Club Book confirms that the rotten orange guy is Morooka!

He was formerly a student of Yasogami High, but was messing around in the shopping district when he was seen by King Moron and given a suspension. This incident was a blow to Mitsuo's pride, and he dropped out of Yasogami. He ended up changing to a different high school afterwards. Since then, Kubo held a violent grudge against King Moron, which led to him to be considered the perfect target in his copycat killing.

I translated this. I struggled a bit, but I hope I did well.

Post-Midnight Channel Killings, Kubo has “Emptiness” go up both times, and in Saki’s case, his “Sadness” increases when he “levels up.” This isn’t guilt for killing Saki as we know he didn’t kill her, but we actually do know that Kubo was frustrated about the Midnight Channel Killer not being caught prior to framing himself to be them.

If you are wondering why this isn’t a screenshot, this comes from images taken from Yosuke’s player’s recording. She did not know how to screen record at the time.

But when Morooka dies, things look very different. Partly because Kubo did kill him, but because Kubo turned himself in, all eyes are on him. And here’s the stat increase instead.

So Kubo killed Morooka (and claims he killed Yamano and Saki) and states he did it for the recognition. I actually believe Kubo, unlike the real Midnight Channel Killer, was honest about his motive when he states what it was. Also, when Kubo recognizes Yukiko when he's defeated, he pretends like she came back to him because he killed Morooka when she really was just trying to get him arrested. (I do believe he in part really believes she’s interested, but he is lying to himself here.)

So, why does Kubo want attention so badly? Well, something that’s clear is that Kubo is very much a hermit. We barely see him socialize at all. (He’s not very good at it, for what it’s worth. He pretty much just rants at anyone who will listen, as Rise mentions, and you can experience—Kubo will rant about biker gangs in the “screenshots” I took earlier about him being angry the MCK has yet to be found!)

Now, something I’ve reiterated many times throughout my writeups, especially whenever I discuss the real Midnight Channel Killer, is the relationship between power and connection. Kubo knows this relationship, but can’t connect to anyone. And as such… Kubo doesn’t make much of an impact without people around him. And if you don't make much impact on the world, history won't really remember you. This is a fear that impacts a lot of people: being forgotten after they die. Robert Waska discusses it while talking about parental therapy.

In the course of conducting psychoanalytic treatment with individuals and couples, we come into contact with certain patients who dread the prospect of death because of the very primitive threat of being forgotten forever. This is a pre-depressive or paranoid-schizoid phantasy (Klein 1946) of losing connection with the world, of no-one caring, of no-one being able to remember them. As one patient put it, "I would become nothing," and then she broke down sobbing over this unbearable terror.

[Source]

This is reiterated when Kubo confronts his Shadow, who has a very blunt takedown of who Kubo is.

Kubo just wants the recognition, and is genuinely afraid by the prospect of being forgotten to the point it just overrode his sense of right and wrong, so he committed murder and obstructed justice for the sake of being remembered. Well, I hope he got what he wanted, because all he got was made fun of by the news. And then the Investigation Team found the real Midnight Channel Killer! So all he is is a footnote in this case!

[thiscityneedslessfog]

you ever wonder what Kubo’s Persona would’ve been had he ever accepted his Shadow?

[thiscityneedslessfog]

so I got the persona 4 club book. I’ve been making more silly commentary about it to my friends but you guys are probably going to see me actually like. talking about extra details I think we should know. (I’ll probably cover the Q&As and extra worldbuilding and whatnot)

[thiscityneedslessfog]

The Bridge That Wouldn’t Burn

bet you thought you’d seen the last of Adachi on my blog huh? HAH. This spider’s living in my head rent-free and won’t fucking leave! I’ve met Johnny Yong Bosch over this guy, you think I’m possibly normal about him?!

That aside, I do want to talk about his relationship with Dojima and how interesting I think it is.

The first time we see the detectives have a conversation, it’s initially professional for the most part. Adachi questions if the murders were related to Hiiragi and Namatame, to which Dojima mentions they couldn’t have killed her personally. But Dojima makes a rather obvious comment that the killer is somewhere in Inaba, which leads to Adachi responding with this:

It’s a crack of a joke, and the first sign that these two actually get along pretty well as people. The second sign is the fact that Dojima just straight-up invites Adachi to dinner. There are multiple occasions where Adachi’s just in the Dojima residence with no warning, such as when he’s invited over to the Dojima house after Yukiko’s rescued, and playfully teases Dojima after seeing him talking to Nanako (to which he gets told to “shut up and eat”)

Or the significantly more disorienting scene where he just showed up to the Dojima house after Naoto’s saved. Out of nowhere, wasted drunk. I really want to share it solely because it was funny after we got over the shock of “why are you here? DRUNK??”

Also, Adachi is shown to be attached to the Dojimas. See his relationship with Nanako, pretty well-established in Ranks 4 and 5, such as the scene where he playfully teases her over her mispronunciation of “stew,” and his… questionable life advice to her that shows just how cynical and checked out he is from life.

Also, I’d like to make an argument about the second threat letter. I’ve said it before, but I believe it’s actually a panic letter. Because we already know Adachi was lying when he told the Investigation Team that the kids being kidnapped by Namatame and not dying because they were saved by the IT was purposeful. Unused voice lines make it clear as day it’s Adachi standing here.

I don't think there's any mistaking that rasp... Also, in the scenes leading up to Adachi's Ending, where you burn the second threat letter, Adachi almost openly admits his fingerprints were on the letter and that it could "turn the case upside down" (meaning get him convicted).

Adachi's an incredibly impulsive guy. So, what actually prompted him to bring this second letter? He'd already sent another letter that could clearly be explained as "Adachi throwing a fit over his plan to frame Namatame being repeatedly screwed over." Also, Nanako had already started showing up on the Midnight Channel, and it's realized by Yosuke that the people on the Midnight Channel were most vividly seen by those who knew about them.

Like Nanako. And Adachi is a Persona user who knows Nanako and has been clearly shown to be friendly with her. So it's very likely Adachi actually panicked and was sending an SOS to make sure Namatame wouldn't kill her. Because she's the only kidnapping victim of his that he actually likes.

He also looks after Dojima while he’s in the hospital, as shown in his Rank 7.

No harm done at all. You could argue Adachi would become more suspicious, but Namatame also would be because they’re both at the same hospital, and at this point pretty much everyone (except for, of course, Namatame and Adachi) mistakenly thinks that Namatame is the Midnight Channel Killer.

But Adachi doesn’t seem to seem to realize what he means to Dojima at all. Which is crazy, since he himself states that he’s Dojima’s only real friend after Nanako is kidnapped.

After he unintentionally unveils himself as the Midnight Channel Killer, Adachi openly becomes hostile towards anyone who approaches him. He berates Yu for ever trusting him, not even considering how much his closeness to Dojima may have colored Yu’s view of him, and when Yu calls him out and asks if he’d say that to Dojima, you know, his best friend, Adachi dodges the question to insult him.

Also, when he talks about how the Midnight Channel Killings played out from his perspective, we’ve already proven he outright lies about the kidnapped people being supposed to be alive and that it was all purely a game, which is in part meant for him to distance himself from the Dojimas (and by extension Yu), and in part just meant to make himself look like he was more in control of the situation than he really was.

And he even actively tries to sever himself from Dojima, as dialogue in January shows, where Adachi refuses to speak with Dojima whatsoever while in prison.

thank you @aroaceyunarukami for giving me these screenshots, couldn’t find ‘em anywhere…

But this doesn’t really work. Dojima is persistent in trying to talk to Adachi, and furthermore, even despite the fact Adachi was accidentally indirectly responsible for Nanako almost dying, Dojima called an ambulance for Adachi to make sure he was okay.

Which shocks Adachi. He's tired, thanks to getting wrecked by seven teenagers and a… bear who also is technically a teenager, and then losing his body to a deity, but he even had remarks to say to the IT after that. Here, no snark, no anger, nothing. He’s just shocked into silence. I don’t think he knew how much he mattered to Dojima and how much he cared about him. I think to Adachi’s memory they were just coworkers and drinking buddies, even if he did have some attachment towards him (that, let’s be real here, he vehemently denies. Adachi is outright afraid of attachment). But Dojima's not willing to let their connection sever. He wants answers and clearly genuinely cares deeply for Adachi, which is clearly not something Adachi expects.

I don’t think Adachi really has a grasp on just how lucky he was to have Dojima there, as someone he couldn’t just burn bridges with like he wanted. Adachi is a chronic bridge-burner, he refuses to connect with anyone and that's a big part of the reason his situation isn't all that favorable to him, because he constantly destroys any support network he could have had. But this time it couldn't be destroyed. And as shown in Dojima's January dialogue, he's kept trying. But in the epilogue it's made very clear Dojima never stopped visiting Adachi.

I've not played the story of P4AU, as with the exception of Rise, none of the other players have played Persona 3, so I'll be taking them through it. But I’m a bit curious if Dojima will show up, and if he does, will we get to see more of Adachi’s relationship with him since he shows up in the main story? Part of me hopes so.

[thiscityneedslessfog]

Who Am I, Really

So, I’ve made it no secret I love Rise. She’s bar none my favorite Persona 4 character. So, I wanted to talk about her Shadow, named Himiko, and more specifically what she represents. (I won’t be covering her connection to her namesake, Queen Himiko, as I’ve done so in a previous writeup.) I also want to talk about Rise’s dungeon in the anime, but this will cover game content as well.

I’ve stated before I believe Himiko is the embodiment of two things:

1. Rise’s resentment towards the isolation and mistreatment she faces as an idol

2. Rise’s fear of not being able to unmask and what she finds beneath being nothing but the objectified versions of herself that the public sees her as.

But why do I assert this? Well, for one, see Himiko’s in-game dungeon dialogue as you traverse the floors of Marukyu Striptease. This is an example from the fourth floor of her dungeon.

She’s pretty much performing for an audience the whole way through. The previous dungeon Shadows, Konohana Sakuya and Take-Mikazuchi, while both performing, both have moments where the performance slips, such as Konohana Sakuya on Floor 6 of Yukiko’s dungeon. Himiko never has that. Best you have is Rise on the advertisement you see at the beginning of the game, which is still a performance.

Furthermore, Himiko is the only one that constantly addresses the audience. Konohana Sakuya and Take-Mikazuchi don’t always acknowledge the presence of the Investigation Team, Himiko does.

Also, the way Himiko is probably the most blatantly sexualized Shadow, wearing JUST a golden bikini in human form, a representation of two things:

1. Rise’s desire to “open up” to others and not “wear a costume,” as she constantly has to hide who she is.

2. The internalization of the young sexualization Rise faces as an idol.

To elaborate on that second one, I want to discuss sexualization of the idols within the industry, especially teen idols (which is what Rise is as of the events of the game, she is 16 years of age), and show how it connects to Rise. Ng Lay Sion (surname first) writes in her essay View of Never-ending Gender/Sexual Cannibalism? about the way this sexualization is intricately linked to consumerism in Japan.

The scenes of a late adolescent female idol in a swimsuit at a pool, followed by her wearing pyjamas in bed, then her donning a maid’s costume in a restaurant—all these separated scenes accompanied with different clothing offer a great deal of excitement and perverted space for the male otakuto gaze and fantasise freely. Furthermore, through the process of gazing into/knowing about her body, the male viewers gain a kind of perverted dominating power over the idol’s body. Here, the lack of any genital exhibition enforces a decentered eroticism that not only maintains the purity of the idol but also exhibits an urge to visualise, ‘a cinematographic perversion’ (Galbraith 196). Ultimately, this perverted, erotic and dominating gaze leads to the consumerism of more photographs or videos that are associated with the images of the female human idols.

[Source]

We see examples of this a few times during the game, such as Rise pointing out that Himiko, right before Rise is thrown in, can't be her because Himiko is noted to have larger breasts than Rise.

In the anime, we also see Rise look at a gravure magazine featuring mainly herself in a swimsuit, and it shows how teen idols like herself are sexualized. There are a few explicitly romantic lines shown within the magazine, but what struck me was the first image's text.

That literally just says "Rise's perfect body," with "perfect body" being in English katakana. (the little bump is Rise's hip, she's wearing various swimsuits in this image.)

Marukyu Striptease is quite a bit shorter in the anime than it is in the game, as the team is pretty much shown to walk onto Himiko’s stage almost immediately. But I want to talk about the scene where a bunch of different “cognitive Rises” as I will call them rise up on the stage.

It’s a very evocative image, using multiple different Rises being present, as these Rises are all facets of what the public sees of Rise Kujikawa, and a piece of her identity crisis. Also, do you remember my word choice of “wearing a costume?” All of these Rises are putting on special costumes for commercials they’re in—costumes and makeup for a performance. It’s all performing for Rise. All the way down. And hell, Himiko is literally on a stage.

To go back to Ng's essay, she also talks about the fictionalization of idols and how this is important to their images.

Constantly present and exposed, the female human idols become real only through the production of their images. As John Fiske suggests, ‘[i]mages are made and read in relation to other images and the real is read as an image’ (qtd. in Galbraith 186); images lead to more images, not to a real person. In Japan, exhibitions on idols, portraits of anime and video game characters are often displayed alongside portraits of idols, emphasising the female human idols as images (Amano 2007). This parallel position between human idols and fictional characters frequently attracts a lot of attention from the male otaku.

[Source]

This is part of the reason Rise kept insisting that the various masks she puts up are not truly her, as she knew she had to put up a specific image in order to work as an idol. And also why Himiko insists this as well, in her rant to Rise, when she tells Rise she's tired of putting up the mask as Risette. This rant I feel is obligatory to mention when it comes to talking about Rise and her Shadow.

Also, one commenter made a very astute observation that Himiko's Supreme Insight, foreshadowing Rise's status as the Navigator of the Investigation Team, may be her way of lashing out at stalkers like the one the Investigation Team and Detective Adachi found and arrested right before Rise was kidnapped. Rise got no privacy whatsoever, so in Himiko's eyes, nobody else deserves it either.

Rise also discusses in Rank 7 of her Social Link how she was deeply isolated because of the image she had to keep up.

This brings us back to Himiko herself, who as you likely can tell is in part the embodiment of Rise's resentment towards her isolation caused by the images she has to keep up. But I’ve stated the other factor is fear. Fear of the people who consume her like a product and sexualize her being correct.

There are pretty clear hints Himiko is this fear in game, but I think the anime spells it out, so I’m going to discuss it here.

During the anime, in Episode 10 after Rise argues against Himiko's assertion that she's the "real" Rise, Himiko in a rage demands she tell her who the "real" Rise is, to which all the cognitive Rises surround the complete Rise and each one starts insisting she’s the real Rise as their eye colors collectively change to gold, as Himiko asks Rise who the real one is. Rise panickedly exclaims she doesn’t know, letting her fear completely break loose. (Honestly you should watch this scene, Laura Bailey did a great job).

Himiko's berserk design also enforces this idea. Her face is meant to resemble the patterns of a kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscopes are pretty interesting things. They use a bunch of mirrors and other things like colored glass to create unique, symmetrical patterns. And you never see the same pattern twice--there are infinite patterns. [Source]

But also, Himiko doesn't have any notable features distinguishing her connection to Rise other than her twintails. Her body is in a million colors and her face is a kaleidoscope pattern to represent how there are so many different ways to see her that Rise feels like a husk. Like there's nothing beyond what she portrays to the public.

Not to mention that as Rise begs Himiko to stop, Himiko just straight up uses a slut-shamey insult on her, emphasizing how deep this fear runs.

Himiko, as Rise's Shadow Self, represents Rise's fear of having no identity, and rage over having no control over her life, whether as an idol or outside of the industry's bounds. Which makes me really like how Rise apologizes to her as she accepts her--she knows that Himiko is doing all this, analyzing the people around her so they can't hurt her and lashing out at Rise herself, because she's just as afraid as Rise is. After all, she is literally her suppressed fear and anger that's been left unaddressed for way too long.

And immediately after this, Rise acknowledges to Himiko that she is a part of her, and that Risette and the various forms of her, as well as the various ways she expresses herself to others, are all equally valid. Even her performances still have Rise Kujikawa shining through somewhere.

This is reiterated in Rise’s Rank 10 dialogue.

I love Rise. And I really love how they handled Himiko in the anime. There was such clear care put into her dungeon, and as someone who has her as my favorite character, that greatly pleased me.

[thiscityneedslessfog]

I wanted to talk about Marie and her relationship with fate and connection.

Marie is “not of man,” meaning, she isn’t human. She doesn’t know what she is, and her Social Link is trying to help her gain a “self.” This goes haywire once she realizes what she actually is—a deity. And believes she has to die in order for the world to be saved, calling herself a “being destined for nonexistence.” Though, she doesn’t totally realize the extent of what she is yet.

When Marie realizes what she is, she actively pushes the Investigation Team away, and desperately denies herself her attachments to the Investigation Team. She believes she’s damned to die, as that’s what she’s been told her purpose is. Her denial is to the point that it corrupts the items of the Investigation Team. The weapons they wield drain their SP, and they have no items beyond what’s in the Hollow Forest. The reason she denies it so hard is because she’s in part terrified of harming the Investigation Team when the fog takes over her psyche.

Also, look at the statues around her dungeon. These are haniwa. If you don’t know what haniwa are, they’re little clay sculptures, often put around a grave, especially in the Kofun era. Here they’re basically meant to guard Marie’s grave, which the Hollow Forest itself. As she’s meant to die by absorbing the fog. Though, that's not their only purpose here--they're meant to be a source of comfort for her as she passes away. In Fumio Miki's book Haniwa: The clay sculpture of Protohistoric Japan, this is on pages 18-19:

[T]he Haniwa seem to reflect a much more human relationship between the upper and lower strata of early society [compared to that of China]. It is difficult to imagine anything but genuine love and affection for their departed rulers on the part of the artisans responsible for some of the best Haniwa figures. Without these qualities, the notably human and often even warmly lifelike sculpture of much of the Haniwa repertory would be virtually unthinkable. The same holds true for the Haniwa replicas of inanimate objects; not fear and servility but only the warm human desire to provide the departed with the best possible reproductions of the objects he used and loved while still alive can account for the care and affection evidently lavished upon their production.

But look at her dungeon. There are more than just haniwa. There are fragments of Inaba everywhere within the dungeon. Such as the sign of Souzai Daigaku, the steak skewer place you visit in her Rank 1, just casually lying around.

It's of Inaba, and a bunch of things she remembers from her time in Inaba. There are two meanings to the presence of the fragmented but recognizable pieces of Inaba in her dungeon: one, to show that she's lying later on when she claims she hates the Investigation Team and wishes she never met them, proving it's just her way of trying to help them because she genuinely believes she cannot get out of her situation. Two, to show that she doesn't want to die. She loves and adores Inaba, and wants the chance to make any memories she can--she loved living with the Investigation Team, and truly does want to continue. And she’s panicking when they finally confront her, because she genuinely believes this is the only way to save everyone. But she resents it. She’s terrified of and hates the idea of fate and how it can bind her. She makes it abundantly clear she doesn’t want to die at all, fighting off tears as she tries to comfort herself and fails, then cursing her situation.

She makes it abundantly clear she believes there's no way to fix the situation for herself, telling the IT it's impossible to save her. But the Investigation Team proves that she isn’t fated to die at all, because when they ask if there’s any other way, she does explain one, but says it’s risky. She chooses to make a gamble and trust the Investigation Team to literally break fate.

And you know how she learns fate doesn’t exist? Because the plan works. She straight up survives and she just wrecked the idea that she was destined for nonexistence. Much to her own shock and even just incredulously asking why the hell the Investigation Team would do that, claiming they wouldn’t get anything out of saving her too, forgetting the simple truth that they love her and that they got her out of saving her.

And afterwards, she helps Yu fight her other self, Izanami. And Izanami in a sense perpetuates fate as well, because she believed the person who won the battle between "Despair, Emptiness, and Hope" was the Midnight Channel Killer, Adachi. Who had this to say about fate, firmly believing in it:

But Marie's learned that isn't true. And furthermore, I made another writeup about Marie and Izanami’s potential dynamic—it was in part speculation, but we know Marie is Izanami. Specifically, she’s the part that loved humanity as she granted their desires.

I believe Izanami casting Marie away with that magic comb, and the scene where Izanami expresses disdain for Marie, are representations of Izanami throwing away her trust in humanity, as trust is required in order for love to be healthy. Trust and connection changed the course of Marie’s life from being destined to die to having no destiny and being free to live as she wanted, leaving her no longer bound by fate. But Izanami hasn’t learned this yet and won’t until the Investigation Team prove it to her face. I like this because Naoto’s words before the fight against Adachi are correct—you can’t do everything alone, and pushing people away will only hurt you—if Marie succeeded in pushing the Investigation Team away, she would have died. But she chose to trust them instead and have faith in them so that she could live alongside the world, and live however she likes.

[thiscityneedslessfog]

watched more of the p4 anime with my friends and Losing My Mind. I’m so pleased with how Rise was handled.

Also what the hell was with the girl with the location device voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris???

[thiscityneedslessfog]

Differences between Yukiko’s dungeon: Game and Animation

Wanted to talk about Yukiko’s dungeon in the anime and how it differs from the game. I’m mostly going to cover my favorite dungeons (except the eighth, it’s not in the main anime), like Yukiko, Rise, and the Midnight Channel Killer’s. But I might do the others if they particularly catch my interest. I'd have to analyze some of their dungeons individually though...

First of all, the sheer size of it. Look at the platform Konohana Sakuya is standing on. These dungeons are so much bigger in the anime... likely they were always meant to be this big and only looked small because of gameplay limitations.

This size was implied by her comment when they meet her on the second floor of her dungeon, but man I didn’t think it’d be that crazy.

Most of the dungeon enemies are the same. You can see Trance Twins, Lying Hableries and Black Ravens present, which are all found in Yukiko's dungeon. Also, the former two are shown before Chie gets her Persona, which means she's on Floor 1 of the dungeon, where said shadows are located. Good attention to detail!

Though, the Avenger Knight, the miniboss, is absent from the anime.

Second of all, they expand a lot on Yukiko’s character. And she’s already one of Persona 4’s best-written characters, in my opinion. In Episode 3, they show you Yukiko’s room in black and white. I really like the way they use the color red in this scene, emphasizing how Chie’s presence in her life gives her life color, showing how much she deeply cares for her.

They also really drive home her association with birds, adding in that she used to have a pet bird. It’s clearly some sort of songbird. And her leitmotif, Alone In This World, has lyrics that directly state she feels like a trapped bird.

feel like a pet bird (confined) I wanna be who I wanna be

[Source] sorry man i couldn't find genius lyrics There were already signs of this in the game, which is wrapped up in the animated version of the Konohana Sakuya fight, so it will be discussed while I discuss her association with birds.

First, I want to draw a parallel between Yukiko’s relationship with the bird and her relationship with the family. Both Yukiko and the bird are seen as caged, but I want to add that Yukiko puts the bird in an unusually small cage to put a bird in.

Most bird owners would give their birds much larger cages. This isn’t terribly good for recreational activity for a bird, and it doesn’t give the bird much room to move around. Yukiko didn’t seem to realize the bird can fly, as it had fallen and was injured when she found it, but she could’ve given it a larger cage for it to hop around in.

But, Yukiko genuinely cared for the bird, and her parents genuinely care for her. I truly don’t think Yukiko’s parents and their workers were aware of the idea that she might have felt pressured and caged by the fact that she was to become the okami of the Amagi Inn. Just as Yukiko didn’t realize the bird would be able to fly on its own and didn’t realize she wasn’t giving it better options. She did love the bird and didn’t think about the possibility that the bird would feel like it was trapped because of her, she thought she and the bird were both in uncontrollable situations.

Yukiko Amagi: You're just like I am. We can't live anywhere but here...

But the bird breaks free from the cage on its own, which makes Yukiko panic because she hasn’t quite realized she can break out of her own situation yet.

During the fight, Yukiko’s trapped literally in the same birdcage that she put the bird in, further drawing a parallel between herself and her former pet, so she can’t help the Investigation Team oppose Konohana Sakuya. Who, both in-game and in the animation, takes the form of a giant caged bird when berserk.

(As an aside, I also like how it’s clear Konohana Sakuya can control the dungeon herself, such as the scene where she uses candle wax from the chandelier to pin Yu and Yosuke to the ground so they can’t move.) Also, I want to make an assertion about the chandelier that falls on the Investigation Team and pins Jiraiya to the wall that Yosuke's player pointed out to me. I think the chandelier that Konohana Sakuya represents Yukiko’s fear to leave. And you know what fear does to a person if they don't confront it? It completely crushes them. The chandelier is being used to crush Yu and Yosuke, much like Yukiko's fear threatens to crush her.

And Yukiko, when encouraged by Chie to break out of the cage that she was trapped in by Konohana Sakuya, initially asserts she can't do it.

Chie Satonaka: Yukiko, you are one of the strongest people I know. You wanna escape? Then do it! You can break free of that cage all on your own!! Leave there and go wherever you want! You've gotta listen to me... I know you can do this! Yukiko Amagi: You're wrong, Chie, I can't. I'm far too weak to leave... the same was true then [when my bird flew away]...Truth is, I wasn't heartbroken, I was mortified. The bird that I thought was trapped just like me... got up and flew away. All on its own. I admit, I did forget to lock the cage door... but that bird mustered the courage and strength it needed to open the door on its own.

But after some encouragement from Chie and seeing how Chie, Yu and Yosuke are fighting Konohana Sakuya, she... proves herself wrong near-immediately. She breaks out of the cage herself, which is the biggest thing that weakens Konohana Sakuya as she's no longer repressing her, and she is trying to overcome what she represents.

Because Yukiko believed she has no power. That's her story--learning she has more power to change her situation than she originally believed. She thought she had no control over her life, but she does have control. She just needs to take advantage of it. I also like that it's her closest friend who pep-talked her into it--emphasizing the whole "power of trust" theme of Persona 4. This feels more like an extension of my Yukiko dungeon analysis, but there's just a lot added here that adds to Yukiko's already great character. She gets a theme song, for crying out loud!! And it's beautiful!

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IT’S RISE’S BIRTHDAY AND I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING PREPARED WHAT AM I DOING

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Adachi’s on the mind. I was thinking about his presence in P4AU and how my friend casually dropped he has his own story route?! And all I can think is… wow, Atlus loves this little shit. And they make it known. They apparently added him to a game series that wasn’t even Persona via BlazBlue.

And I have mixed feelings on that, to be totally honest. On one hand, I feel their pride in him is utterly justified and they know it. That’s why they do this—I think they understand that Adachi is bar none the best main villain Persona has. I think it’s genuinely not a contest, it’s this bitch. He strikes a perfect balance of being both utterly unsympathetic and a person you can see yourself easily meeting in real life. That’s rare—usually if a villain is one, they’re not the other. He is a fantastic depiction of the phrase “monsters are human.”

But on the other hand, the fact he’s the Midnight Channel Killer is a twist. In Persona 4, you’re not supposed to know he has Magatsu-Izanagi. Putting Magatsu-Izanagi on his own, without his user, is one thing, because then it’s more up to you to figure out who his user is. But that’s not what normally happens. He’s usually shown with his Persona, actively in the post-reveal state. Which is a spoiler! They don’t hide he’s the MCK!

I know fans can spoil who the MCK is anyways (though I do know about the unused P4G message saying “hey don’t spoil the game,” don’t know if that would’ve worked), but I think the Midnight Channel Killer should have been allowed to stay hidden at least by his creators.

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Starting the Persona 4 Anime!

So, me and most of the players got together to watch Persona 4: The Animation together. I was actually recommended the show by one of the actors who worked on it, who described the show as a "fun silly time." Yosuke, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, Teddie, Naoto and I all came together with one other friend invited to watch the anime. (Chie opted out due to a heinously busy schedule). Here's our comments on Episodes 1 through 5.

I think Yu’s portrayal will only be covered once I finish the anime. Just know I like it.

I really like the expansions they add to the shadows and a pretty much explicit confirmation of my idea of “dungeon rulers can manipulate their dungeons, but most (with one VERY spoilery exception) do so subconsciously.” Since that’s pretty much exactly what Yosuke did during the Jiraiya fight with the screens showing his memories.

I liked the scene with Chie and all her masks during the Tomoe fight. The way she would slowly fade away as if she was becoming one of the masks was a very good way to show Chie “giving in” in a sense. I also like how the Shadows all proceed to verbally tear into their full selves as they fight. I also liked how the IT helps the person fight their Shadow by basically talking/knocking sense into them. Also, Erin Fitzgerald had some great voice acting here and in Episode 4, all kudos to her.

I also liked a lot of the expansion they did on Yukiko’s dungeon, such as the scene where Chie sees her room in black and white before the red comes in, but I’m considering doing a writeup on like, comparison, since I like it (and Yukiko herself) that much. But on more minor news, I liked the horse jokes Konohana Sakuya made during Yukiko’s Midnight Channel Episode.

The art style is very unique and Naoto mentioned enjoying it. I like Adachi and Chie’s designs especially in this art style.

I don’t like the fight choreography. It does a poor job to me of showing that Personae and the people who use them are one and the same. I think the Jiraiya fight was the worst with this, where Yosuke and Teddie were distracting Yu and there was no clear effect on Izanagi thanks to it. Konohana Sakuya’s and Tomoe’s fights were better with this with the scene where Jiraiya got pinned by the chandelier in Konohana Sakuya's fight and Yosuke was clearly in pain from it. The way they frame some shots is really hype, though.

Also really don’t like how Kou and Ebihara’s social links were crammed into one episode.

I got assured by the new friend that I would get to see genuine hand-throwing during the Midnight Channel Killer’s fight, which I’m very excited for. By the way. I WILL talk about their dungeon when we get to it. I cannot wait.

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okay, hold on, time out. that’s not fair. if they’re allowed to shoot energy beams using the power of friendship, i should be able to summon a monster using the power of divorce

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putting this to remind myself to update the directory

also any tips on decorating it? like banners or images or whatnot

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I’m mad we don’t know a lot about Saki so I’m making a post all about Saki and what we know about her

Saki Konishi is the first witness and the second victim of the Midnight Channel Killings. And we don’t know a lot about her personally, all spoken accounts of her being word of mouth from her younger brother, a friend who knew her for about six months, and the bitch who killed her. We do meet her, once. And see her chatting very not casually with her younger brother once. I’m not going to include stuff like “she was the first witness” because, that’s not really much on her as a person.

So I’m compiling it.

She really liked cream puffs

We see Saki arguing with her younger brother Naoki over them. Naoki’s Rank 7 dialogue also talks about how she used to keep stealing them from Naoki, but now that she’s dead, when he bought some they just… expired.

She began working at Inaba’s Junes about six months before the events of the game

This source is from the Magician comic from the official Persona Magazine, as in Chapter 3 she is seen working at Junes and says she started working there. (Albeit, I read in English with friends and the fan translation we got did quite the poor job, from typos to completely messing with characters’ voices to even screwing with the names, so maybe they messed up the words. I’d honestly like to retranslate it myself.) The date on this chapter is November 10, 2010, which is exactly 156 days prior to her death on April 14, 2011.

So she’d known Yosuke for a little while at this point, but not really long enough to have gotten super close when she was murdered.

She also seems to have not liked talking about herself, as when Yosuke asks her if she’s okay, she lies and says she’s tired before muttering about how she shouldn’t have left school early.

The Twisted Shopping District is 100% her Mindscape/Dungeon

A Famitsu article dated 2009 about Persona 4 confirms it was Saki’s. It just shrank down tremendously postmortem. However, since Shadows tend to die with their full selves, it’s unlikely that what we heard was a remnant of Saki—I wonder if this was related to her conflict of interests between working at Junes and being a Konishi. (Oh, also her dad is voiced by Dan Woren, I think)

These places were built from the mental images of the already deceased Yamano and Saki Konishi. Compared to the other dungeons, these are quite small. When the two were first dropped into the TV, their dungeons were much larger. Like Yukiko and the other victims, they got lost in the mazes and came face-to-face with their Shadows. But since the owners of these mental images died, their dungeons have been scaled down. All that remains is a part akin to a core, like a ghost bound to the place where it died.

I wonder how similar to Yukiko she was. I also compared her dungeon to Adachi’s when my friends and I were disputing who her mindscape belonged to before I finally found this answer. During that analysis I mistook it to be Yosuke’s. Whoops.

She was actually quite a bold gremlin

just ask Naoki, who talks about her in his social link Rank 10—she’s his sister. He knew her best.

She's actually shown to be pretty tough in other ways. According to Naoki, she was pretty responsible when she needed to be and was working at Junes for extra money so that she could support her family. Albeit, she is implied to not have said this to her parents as when Yu, Yosuke and Teddie enter her dungeon, we hear no answer to her father's questioning as to why she's working at Junes.

She had an ex-boyfriend who was in college(?)

This actually led to her being slutshamed a lot, primarily by other female students. But men would do so as well, albeit we only see a man shame her once. And I’m not showing that quote! But here in Yosuke's Rank 7 she's gossiped about, and these words are the start of a conversation about Saki apparently having an ex-boyfriend.

Probably part of the reason she was so accepting of Yosuke, she was ostracized too for daring to be connected to somebody else. And when she started working at Junes, well, the rumors about her only spread further. This actually leads to why I think she and Yosuke were friends, which is supported by the Magician comic:

Yosuke actually realizes the old women at the store are gossiping about Saki and subsequently runs to take Saki away from the situation. And the Magician makes a point to show how both she and Yosuke are gossiped about and mistreated for the crime of… being connected to Junes at all. That on top of her being shamed for being someone who’s dated a lot of people makes her situation similar to Yosuke’s, where people try to destroy her reputation by saying “oh, she dared do something.”

For some speculation, I really can’t imagine Saki actually disliked Yosuke because of that. They bonded over the whole getting gossiped about, and Yosuke tried to help her out so she didn't have to deal with it... It’s likely why they got along so well that they both felt comfortable joking around together.

If others could hand me more information about her premortem that I missed, it’d be nice.

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I feel like June’s going to be absolutely insane for this blog. I’m going to be watching the p4 anime and that’s going to cause me to be real chatty, plus the writeups I have that are works-in-progress that I can’t finish in time for the end of this month.

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Yukiko’s Castle of Escapism

I really love Yukiko’s dungeon and want to talk about it. I think the imagery in it is great and conveys her character very well. This writeup was honestly long overdue, I should’ve written it back in like February.

I’ve said it before (major spoilers!), but I believe the crux of Yukiko’s story is her relationship with power and how she originally feels she has no control over her life, before learning she has more agency than she believes.

I want to drop a lot of context first, though.

Contextualizing the Amagi Inn

So, one of the first things we learn about Yukiko is that she is the heiress of the Amagi Inn. But what does that mean to her? What is the Amagi Inn and why does she feel so much pressure to inherit it?

Well, the Amagi Inn is a ryokan. Which, “inn” is a pretty good way to translate the word, but ryokans have a lot more diversity than most Western inns do. They also have hot springs, called onsen (温泉)!

Chris McMorran, in his book Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan, discusses the difficulty of the job of the family that owns a ryokan.

This convergence of home and workplace in time and space, along with its relative lack of privacy, makes some ryokan owners feel trapped. Managing a ryokan is a twenty-four-hour a day, year-round commitment. Most of the face-to-face hospitality occurs between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., but someone needs to answer late-night requests or emergencies. These calls typically go directly to the owners’ residence. They answer the 2:00 a.m. request for an extra blanket or the occasional desperate plea from a woman fleeing an abusive spouse and begging for the physical safety that will come with a job (see chapter 7). Busy inns like Yamazakura close only a few days a year for maintenance and major family events like weddings or funerals.

[Source] located on page 62

As for Yukiko's role, she is in training to be the okami of the ryokan. Which is easily the most important role in the ryokan in total. The Japan Ryokan Association's website describes the role of an okami in the ryokan pretty well.

The okami not only bears the greatest responsibility for waiting on and taking care of guests but also acts as the chief service manager on behalf of the ryokan. The okami's role corresponds to that of a general manager in a Western hotel. In many cases, the okami is the owner of the ryokan or the wife of the owner, which means that the okami, as the representative of the ryokan, attends to all external affairs such as business matters and cooperation with the local community. [...] In the majority of ryokans, the role of the okami is handed down from mother to daughter or to daughter-in-law. In either case, the younger generation studies under the older generation, and devotes herself to mastering the responsibilities and principles of the position of okami.

[Source] page 62

In Yukiko's case, the implication is mother to daughter, as she is the only child of the owner of the Amagi Inn and her husband.

Furthermore, Chie calls the Amagi Inn “the pride of Inaba,” and describes it as basically what’s keeping Inaba economically afloat in the first place, and with the advent of the Junes competition, there’s even more pressure on the Amagi Inn as a bastion of Inaban culture.

Traditional Japanese femininity and the Amagi Challenge

Yukiko also is seen by her peers, male and female, as a personification of traditional Japanese femininity, a "Yamato Nadeshiko." Now, if you don't know what that is, it's the traditional ideal of a Japanese woman. Satoko Kakihara in her dissertation about Japanese femininity titled Flowers in Contradiction: Japanese Imperialism and Gender Construction Through Women’s Writings, 1895–1945 succinctly describes exactly what that is.

Another common label in Japanese discourse is the cliché of the Yamato nadeshiko (大和撫子), a phrase that describes the figure of a beautiful woman, the kind of elegant, flower-like beauty that has become naturalized and idealized in Japanese society. Nadeshiko (撫子) is Japanese for the genus of flowers called Dianthus, which includes more commonly known species such as the carnation; Yamato (大和) is another name for the nation of Japan, used also in phrases such as Yamato damashii (大和魂, the Japanese spirit), which essentialize and valorize Japanese nationalism. Yamato nadeshiko thus literally indicates a flower that belongs to, or is native to, the Japanese nation, embodying its positive and requisite characteristics. This standard of female beauty points to a particularly Japanese female beauty that is found only among the “Japanese”, perhaps even recognized or appreciated by only the Japanese as well—a beauty prized in a society that places significance on nature, the passing of seasons, the grace of flora that enriches the Japanese environment.

[Source]

This leads to her being distinctly sought after by the male students around her. Even older guys who don't actually have any romantic interest in her, like the reporter who interviews her before she's thrown in the Midnight Channel, comment on how beautiful she is and how she must have many suitors. But when it comes to the male students, she has had approximately zero interest in any of them. Even her best friend Chie comments on it.

Which... only makes them more determined for some creepy reason. They made a game out of it, the "Amagi Challenge," to see who the hell is going to get Yukiko as his actual girlfriend, and if he gets rejected, how brutally?

So Yukiko just constantly gets thrown around and hit on, much to her understandable aggravation.

The Castle Itself

So let’s start with the layout of Yukiko’s dungeon. It’s a castle. But an odd detail about it and the aesthetics of the shadows within is that it looks nothing like Japanese castles you’d see all over, well, Japan, which is Yukiko’s home country. It looks very European, resembling more specifically Mediterranean architecture. The shadows within also keep this trend of Western Renaissance-era clothing rather than anything that a Japanese person would be familiar with in their history, such as her fifth floor miniboss, the Avenger Knight, or her post-dungeon boss, the Contrarian King.

Part of the image Yukiko presents from her physical appearance is that of a traditionally feminine Japanese woman. Her hair is in a princess cut. And she states herself that she has never left Inaba.

Yukiko’s Shadow, Konohana Sakuya, keeps saying throughout her dungeon that she wants a prince to take her far, far away, to run away where nobody can find her.

Notably, Yukiko’s own breaking point leads to her admitting she wants to run the hell away herself, which is in Floor 6 of her dungeon, features an interview from a reporter that touches on two huge sources of stress for Yukiko: namely the unwanted attention she gets from her male peers and the fact she is the heiress to the Amagi Inn--in this scene she's recalling being asked about the Amagi Inn by a fellow student

When it comes to the stress on her from her male peers, she understandably doesn’t like the idea of just being seen as a prize to be won, which they clearly act like she is.

She sees everything in Inaba and her association with it as a cage, and uses the idea of this Western castle as an escape because it’s so starkly different from everything she knows—there’s no way Yukiko would be recognized here.

The music in the dungeon has almost no traditional instruments either. It's full of chaotic synths, incredibly modern instruments. It has a slower, gentler side, but still nothing like a shamisen or a flute is audible in the music piece.

Konohana Sakuya, Yukiko’s Shadow

Now let’s move on to her shadow. Her Shadow, later her Persona, is named Konohana Sakuya. If you don’t know who Konohana Sakuya-hime is, she’s the goddess of Mount Fuji, and has some pretty significant impact on Japanese culture—her presence is hugely important to Yukiko’s character. But she is not just the goddess of Mount Fuji. She’s the maternal great-grandmother of Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan, and she is considered the goddess of motherhood and one of the most beautiful deities in existence.

There’s a pretty good summary in the Encyclopedia of Shinto in Kokugakuin University.

Konohanasakuyahime became pregnant in a single night, and asked Ninigi to make special preparations, since she would be giving birth not to an ordinary individual, but to a child of the heavenly kami (amatsukami). Ninigi, however, was surprised at her claim to have become pregnant in a single night, and suspected that the child was actually the offspring of an earthly kami (kunitsukami).

Shamed and enraged at Ninigi's accusation, Sakuyahime entered a doorless parturition hut, setting fire to it with the vow that the child should not be injured if it were truly the offspring of the heavenly kami. Ninigi. Inside the hut, Sakuyahime gave birth to three kami, including Hoderi, Hosuseri, and Hoori (according to Kojiki; the names differ somewhat in the various other accounts).

[Source]

Sound familiar? Yukiko’s often sought after for her beauty, and actually, much like Konohana Sakuya-hime, is associated with transience because of the latter’s association with cherry blossoms, which only bloom for a very short time before giving way to leaves.

Right before we meet Tomoe, who is Chie’s Shadow, Yukiko’s thoughts talk about how little she thinks of herself and how much she hates her name precisely because of its association with transience, as her first name (雪子) literally translates to “snow child” or “snow girl.” Yukiko states she believes that because of that short lived nature of snow, that she's only meant to inherit and continue the inn as the okami and nothing more. She believes that is the only fate for her because of how low her self-esteem is.

I spoke about the pressure on Yukiko from the expectation to be the next okami of the Amagi Inn. But I didn't quite talk about how that ties into her relationship with her status as a woman, which is actually much more tied with the Amagi Challenge than you'd think. Something I didn't mention about the role of the okami is one specific detail: the fact she's also to create a successor and train the next manager and okami of the ryokan, as mentioned in McMorran's book.

This ideal of the eldest son as successor places intense pressure on ryokan families to produce a male heir and on eldest sons to accept the duty. However, a disproportionate burden falls on the emotions and bodies of okami. Ryokan owners, male and female, current and retired, frequently told me the most important job of an okami was to bear a son.

[Source on page 83]

It's pretty related to Konohana Sakuya-hime's importance as one of the ancestors of the Imperial dynasty of Japan, as her display of loyalty was to set the house she was giving birth in on fire to show that the kids she was having were actually fathered by Ninigi.

But it's a clear display of the pressure on Yukiko to marry a guy in order to head the Amagi Inn. But according to both herself and Chie, Yukiko hasn’t even had any male friends, let alone a male lover.

And furthermore, you know how I mentioned she’s considered the goddess of beauty and Mount Fuji? That’s a pretty huge piece of Japanese cultural identity, which further ties Yukiko to her status as a Japanese person who is deeply tied with Japan's traditional culture.

Now let’s look at Konohana Sakuya, the Shadow’s, design. She’s a princess, just like her mythological self. But she’s not portrayed as a Japanese one at all. Much like the Shadows and the castle’s layout, Konohana Sakuya adorns herself in a Western princess’ clothing.

Note, princesses are the female children of the royal family according to history. But normally, a princess is not going to be the heir to the throne despite the power she’s supposed to have as a daughter of the most powerful family in the kingdom. Instead, princesses tended to be married off as ways for kings to consolidate power, and usually she never had a say in this situation. So Konohana Sakuya being portrayed as a Western princess represents two things:

1. The perceived denial of power that’s supposed to belong to Yukiko as princesses were denied power for being women despite being royalty

2. The sense of desiring escape from her life by visually rejecting everything she associates with the inn, which includes the traditional Japanese architecture and fashion she’s used to in her life.

Now let’s analyze her Midnight Channel Episode, very clearly based on the idea of the Amagi Challenge, where people have to win “Yukiko’s” affection to be her prince. And it’s pretty clear Yukiko’s basically considered the princess of Inaba, from Chie’s words about her family’s ryokan being the economic backbone of the city. It’s also highly sexualized, which is going to be a theme in the Midnight Channel Episodes, but in Yukiko’s case this sexualization comes from the Amagi Challenge and how she is seen as a gold standard for traditional Japanese femininity. She doesn't feel like anyone can see her as anything else whatsoever, so Konohana Sakuya is, in a sense, giving into what she sees as her fate by sexualizing herself.

Also, the way she presents herself once actually in her dungeon is very clearly meant to invoke the damsel in distress archetype so common in folklore and in video games. Nintendo, even, has frequent damsel in distress stories, and their video games are a modern creation despite they themselves being made in 1889. Damsels in distress frequently do not have much in the way of agency, only meant to be rescued by male protagonists, like how Pauline is rescued by Mario from Donkey Kong in the Donkey Kong games, and Princess Peach (sometimes) in the Super Mario games. These damsels by game mechanics are just destinations, prizes to be won, just as Konohana Sakuya portrays herself to be in her Midnight Channel Episode.

Konohana Sakuya is meant to show how Yukiko feels she has so little control over her life, that she feels she has to meet the expectations of everyone around her, even if she doesn’t want to. Not only that, but she represents Yukiko's relationship with loyalty and connection through her being drawn to Yu, Yosuke and Chie as her "princes," methods of escape from her perceived fate.

Yu and Yosuke are obvious. Yu is a guy from the city and has seen tons of things that Yukiko has never seen before due to living in Inaba all her life, so he represents a life she's interested in living. And Yosuke is the son of the Junes manager, and Junes is seen as an enemy to Inaba, so being with him, likely by working at Junes as she rejects him when he asks her out, would be an active sense of rebellion. But Chie is special. Chie is someone she's known for a long time and therefore trusts the most--and aside from that, Chie is not a guy. She's a girl. Which means unless they adopt (or Chie is transgender without bottom surgery, which is not implied to be the case), there is absolutely no way for Yukiko and Chie to produce a child together. But Konohana Sakuya has eventually come to the conclusion that despite how much Chie means to Yukiko and by extension herself, Chie cannot save her from this situation, likely because Konohana Sakuya realizes her and Yukiko's bubbling jealousy of Chie means that can tear the two of them apart and make Chie a less viable or stable option of escape.

How much or little power does Yukiko have?

Yukiko is the only daughter of the Amagi family. Zero siblings are mentioned whatsoever. So all eyes are on her to lead the ryokan because there's no other known heir, and it seems that everyone just assumed Yukiko would take over the Amagi Inn. Furthermore, Yukiko cannot escape the sexualization of the boys around her despite her repeatedly rejecting their advances, the sheer fact they make a challenge out of it shows how little she is truly respected.

All of this on top of the fact that the job of a ryokan worker can lead to very little privacy, from childhood to adulthood, can lead to the working family members such as Yukiko feeling trapped. And considering Yukiko is an only child, if she does not inherit the inn, who will? The inn might be forced to close, putting more pressure on Yukiko.

And this culminates in Konohana Sakuya's rant:

Yukiko believes that she has no control over her life, and a bitter resentment is growing from that perceived lack of control. Tomoe, Chie's Shadow, points out the bubbling jealousy that Yukiko feels over Chie Satonaka, her best friend, for not having so much unwanted male attention on her.

And Konohana Sakuya insults the inn, as she sees it as a source of stress and a prison. This Western portrayal of a princess is her rejecting this perceived cage that her status as a traditional Japanese heiress gives her. Konohana Sakuya implies that she believes the only way to get out on her own is to sever ties with her family, especially since when she initially starts seeking various jobs, she starts out hiding this fact from her family.

But, there’s actually way less pressure on Yukiko than she initially believed, as shown by a little detail: Konohana Sakuya’s berserk design. She’s a bird in a gilded cage. (One friend pointed out she actually could be considered a lovebird considering the heart on her chest, symbolizing how she's tired of being pursued by the male students around her. I thought that the heart represented how she wanted help from loved ones outside of the inn to escape her situation.)

Of course the sexualization of her because of her femininity is something out of her control, but something she learns isn’t is whether she inherits the inn or not. She doesn’t have to at all. There were already hints other than Konohana Sakuya that her family is more open-minded than she thought, simply because Yukiko is an only child and therefore has no brothers, and sons are seen as the ideal to head ryokans as we've established. But she’s a daughter and she was considered a satisfactory heir. But at the epilogue of her social link, she confirms it.

Her family and their workers are totally okay with her doing what she wants, because they love Yukiko. No strings attached, they just straight-up adore her. They want her to be happy and if that happiness can't come from the inn, that's fine. Yukiko’s the one in control of her life. And she doesn’t need to burn any bridges at all, she’ll be supported all the way through.

Yukiko doesn't really have to escape from anything, at least not related to the inn. She can leave it entirely if she so pleases, and she has Chie and the rest of the Investigation Team by her side. And now she's realized she has everyone at the inn, too.

[thiscityneedslessfog]

I’ve been having a category 5 Yukiko event and holy crap sometimes I forget how insane I am about her. Well pretty soon we’re all going to remember HAHAHA

edit: remember