Well, he was scared of chicks and then was attracted to what he then thought was a boy. He's confused. When this game tackles real life issues you can treat them like real life issues so that means in the end who cares about someones sexual preference.

I really enjoyed how Kanji was portrayed, he wasnt a total gay stereotype, he was just a confused teenager struggling with the feelings he was experiencing. For spoiler reasons I wont explain further, but I liked the interactions between him and Naoto. After beating the game last night (82 hours!) I cant wait to go back through and try to pick up on these subtlties my second time through.

Wonderfully written article! Cant wait to read more from you

Also, Digg

I'm so hyped for Persona4. Only 1.5 months until it's release! Europe ftw.

Great article! You pretty much wrote the conclusion. :)

I think the way they handled Kanji's character was great. Definitely one of my favorite characters. Also, I think my wife has a crush on Kanji. I'm about halfway through the game and she keeps wanting me to increase his social link. HIM ONLY...

Spoiler warning for Persona 4:

I don't think Kanji is gay, but rather, just Bisexual. He displays an infatuation with Naoto, even after revealed to be a female pretending to be a male. I did like to see how he was the more normalized "conflicted teen" though, rather than an outright stereotype(shadow Kanji an exception).

End spoiler warning

I wouldn't really care about the sexual preference of the main character unless it hindered the rest of the game somehow(which seems unlikely).

@Superflossy(idk if your looking at this, but incase)
Nice article. Really enlightening to the context of the commentary in the game.

I think the part about how homosexuality exists in Japan, and how it's OK to engage in it, but not have it as part of your identity was very interesting. Now it makes a little more sense why they were so ambiguous about him in his actual plot sequence.

Either way though, it's a shame he's like, the worst character in the game to actually use =<.

Massive spoilers follow.



Kanji is not gay. He is not even bisexual. Anyone who arrived at either of these conclusions need to play the game again and actually -read- what is being said.

Kanji is afraid of girls because of an incident in his past when he was made fun of by girls in his class for liking to sew. This made him decide to hide his hobbies from the world and to become an over-aggressive macho guy to make himself appear more "manly" in his and other's eyes. The -real- point of Shadow Kanji's insistence that people accept him for who he is isn't about sexual identity, it's about him being scared of people finding out about his un-manly hobbies and not accepting him as a person because of it.

I mean Jesus Christ they even tell you at the end of the game that everything the Shadow Selves say is wrong because the Midnight Channel is designed to show people what they want to see, not what is actually the truth(The only part that can be trusted is after the show is over, IE once they actually confront themselves and the boss appears. If you'll notice, Shadow Kanji immediately loses his lisp, his smile, and every single gay stereotype he was suffering from just before the boss form appears). In fact, that's the WHOLE POINT OF THE GAME.

And if you need further proof, once Naoto's true identity is revealed, Kanji is on her like a wolf. And consider that he gets a nosebleed (Japanese for sexual arousal) at seeing the girls in their swimsuits at the riverbed. And similarly at the hotsprings later in the game. How anyone can even begin to consider that Kanji is gay is completely outside my realm of understanding.

Urgh, this whole topic makes me ill. People need to learn to read, srsly.

ITT: We pick out tiny little mis-speaks in people's posts and blow them way out of proportion, then bitch about them and make a fuss to get internet street cred.

The fact that anyone is (still) angry at Chad for that is completely insane.

Jesus Gen calm down, nobody is saying he's gay, you're acting like every single person here wrote "KANJI IS A GIANT HOMO".

Anyway, I love Persona 4, actually that's not a fair assement, I FUCKING ADORE IT, ONE OF THE BEST RPG'S EVER.

I love the music, its so ungodly catch, I'm at 30 hours and I just beat Rise's dungeon, using Chie, Kanji and Yukiko though I wanna try Teddie out, I love how every character is flawed, they all have something they hid and that's why the shadows came to life like that, Kanji is someone anyone can relate to because at the core of his issues is one thing that about 90% of people have expirienced.

Being rejected for who you really are.

Would it be disturbing for you to play a game as a female character?

Would it be disturbing for you to play a game as a black character?

Would it be disturbing for you to play a game as a midgit, tree, or mountain character?

What's disturbing is that anyone would feel the need to ask a question like that.

@Kyosuke: Like I said in my post, I'm just sick of hearing people say this every single place I go. I refuse to believe so many people completely ignored all the facts the game gives you regarding this.

Kanji isn't gay, but ok...

I thought he was at first, too. And I'm not trying to convince myself that he isn't without proof. The game shows, several times, that Kanji isn't gay. Play through the entire game, and it'll be kinda obvious.

You guys amaze me sometimes.

I posed the final question because I wanted to stimulate discussion, not because I am homophobic. Why would I be interested in commenting on a game character if I had a problem with his sexual status? I think it's incredible that Atlus created a character like Kanji and was brave enough to present him to gamers. No matter what people say, sexual issues aren't questioned often enough in games, and I am deeply impressed by his presence in Persona 4.

As for me personally, if you bothered to know anything about me rather than just judge my words as you see fit via a website, you would know I am one of the most open-minded, gay friendly people you've ever met. The fact anyone would lose their shit, or leave this website, because of the way they choose to interpret a sentence specifically designed to get people to discuss the topic, is mindblowing.

The theme of Persona 4 is fear of being accepted for who you are and accepting others as they are. Perhaps people should consider that when discussing these types of topics instead of judging and leaping to conclusions.

I think that the presentation of Kanji's character and his dilemmas were done in a very thoughtful way in Persona 4. They found a way to convey a serious, and sometimes uncomfortable for some, topic in a way that I thought balanced serious issues and humor that helped dissolve the possible awkwardness.

I personally was left with the impression that he was possibly Bi-sexual or maybe just straight but made to THINK he was gay by "society's standards". I didn't max out his social link though so I missed out on some quality Kenji time.

I loved his voice actor though. Also I wonder why I seem to take more time to beat RPGs than most other people hah. I clocked in just under 130 hours on my first play through of P4, granted it was on expert or whatever the harder difficulty was. Persona 3 took me 150 hours on a first playthrough O_O. I wonder where I will get the time to continue playing my SMT games once I graduate college this spring.

Well, considering that one of the supporting characters in Enchanted Arms was OPENLY homosexual, I would say I don't mind to much. Although Makoto was flamboyant to the point of ridiculousness.

Did anyone here play Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within? That one had sort of an Anne Ricey homoerotic relationship between Gabriel and the antagonist character It was kept ambiguous, and relatively subtle, but if you read all the backstory in the library it was pretty clear.

When I first played that game in 1995 I was impressed by how it handled the subject in a way that wasn't really sensational. It was just an aspect of the characters that informed some of their decisions, and made the story as a whole more tragic.

I agree with Colette. Its healthy and refreshing to see these types of characters coming into our games, with real problems, and from Atlus too.

I personally don't mind about a characters preferences (sure, I play games to escape and have fun), but if it shapes their character with good/bad substance, making a game more fun, this shows signs of an industry maturing, the more of it we should see, so long as its not tagged on for the sake of it.

One of the reasons these kinds of characters have been slow to see in western games is because the majority of gamer are male, probably less emotional and seeking predictable male action n thrills.

There are still many immature male gamers who won't even play a game where you are a female character, so there's still an uphill battle for hearts and minds. Only positive change and games like Mass Effect, Persona 4 will help the cause. When games reach that point, more non gamers will play hopefully.

I guess the main point of Kanji's story is that it doesn't matter if he's gay or not. Kanji is Kanji. Still Kanji isn't gay, he's confused. He basically spent his entire childhood being called 'fag' (for all intents and purposes) because he's always had interests that were atypical to the mainstream idea of what masculine hobbies and interests should be. As a result he has spent his life overcompensating for this by creating a misanthropic, violent and exaggerated masculine persona for himself. He's gotten used to repressing his true personality while still knowing what he is on the inside that he's begun to label his true feelings and self in the same way that others did in the past.