Characters / Persona 4: Tohru Adachi

Persona 4 Main Character Index
The Investigation Team (Yu Narukami | Naoto Shirogane) | Shadows and Personas | Social Links and NPCs | Antagonists (The Killer)

This page details tropes for Adachi, an antagonist and Social Link character from Persona 4.

For the tropes related to before the reveal and his Social Link click here.

For tropes relating to him in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax click here.

All Spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Tohru Adachi

"Mangle them, Magatsu-Izanagi!"

"Dammit! You're all such a pain in the ass! I'll kill you, just like I did those other ones!"

Arcana: The Jester, Hunger^note Lust in the JP version (Golden)
Persona: Magatsu-Izanagi
Weapons: Pistols
Voiced by: Mitsuaki Madono (Japanese) and Johnny Yong Bosch (English)
Stage actor: Masami Ito (VisuaLive and VisuaLive Evolution)

Originally a side character turned antagonist, Adachi became a Social Link in Persona 4 Golden, representing the Jester and Hunger ^note Lust of the Thoth Tarot in the JP version Arcanas.

Adachi is a seemingly bumbling detective who was transferred to Inaba due to an unknown incident (presumably a serious offense). One of the main authorities on the murder cases along with Dojima, he has a habit of divulging critical information to the Investigation Team, making him a seemingly useful ally. Turns out that not only is this all just an act, but he's the one behind the murders.

After trying to force himself upon Mayumi Yamano in a fit of lust, he accidentally pushed her into the television world, discovering his powers. He then used Saki as a guinea pig to test his abilities after she came to the police station for questioning - but not before ranting to her about how he thinks girls her age should behave. Seeing the murders as a source of entertainment within a sleepy rural town he found insufferably boring, he manipulated Namatame into becoming his cat's paw by convincing him that the Midnight Channel predicted the murders and that the television world was a safe haven.

His social link focuses on his laziness and dissatisfaction with his job while dropping subtle hints about his true feelings, and is unique in that it can be leveled up at night as well as day^note Ranks 1, 2 and 6 are done in the day, while 3, 4 and 5 are at night. If his Social Link is Rank 6 before the endgame, his social link will rank up automatically with the plot. The Protagonist can later choose to either confront Adachi alone, or keep quiet about his suspicions. Choosing the former will shatter Adachi's Social Link and mutate it into the Hunger Arcana. If the Protagonist remains quiet, he is given the choice to aid Adachi by destroying a vital piece of incriminating evidence, increasing the Jester Social Link to Max Level and invoking the Accomplice Ending.

While he claims to be much more mature than the Investigation Team, it's clear the whole affair comes down to him throwing a tantrum over his poor lot in life. After he's exposed, he is chased into the Midnight Channel, where he reveals Persona powers not unlike Yu's. Defeated by a bunch of mere teenagers, he is dragged back to the real world, where he is arrested, tried, and convicted of his crimes. Adachi represents "Emptiness" in the experiment, and because his actions are the most influential, he unintentionally sentences humanity to an Assimilation Plot.

---

A-E

• Accidental Murder: It depends on the adaptation on his knowledge of the TV world when he killed Mayumi:
  • His first murder was one of these. He accidentally pushed Mayumi completely into the TV during what is implied to be either an attempt to rape her or scare her, unaware that people could go completely inside the TV and die inside.
  • Played with in Golden: The Animation. He was already aware of his powers at that point and intentionally pushed her in, but didn't outright intend to murder her.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • His game version is a relatively low-tier boss, much less complicated than both the Kunino-sagiri fight that came before him and the Final Boss that follows him. His anime version, on the other hand, demonstrates the power to summon multiple copies of the Reaper and fights Yu on basically even footing, even having an advantage for a large chunk of the fight.
  • In Golden: The Animation, he effortlessly dispatches several of Yu's late stage Personas, and Magatsu-Izanagi is capable of one-shotting the Final Boss.
  • The manga adaptation has him dominating Chie, Yukiko and Naoto at the same time without much effort, before proceeding to battle the Protagonist to a stalemate. Magatsu-Izanagi also has the ability to stretch and grow additional arms.
  • In general, every appearance Adachi makes that isn't in Persona 4/Golden implies that canonically he's at least as powerful as Yu with just Magatsu-Izanagi. The kicker is that in the games, he's not just fighting Yu, but the whole Investigation Team by his lonesome, and from a gameplay perspective he's probably intentionally made an easy boss as a warm-up for the much more punishing Final Boss.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Practically all adaptations following the original game make him at least somewhat more sympathetic. He even gets to join in on cheering Yu on during the final battle in Golden.
• The Aloner: He's not that keen on hanging around or depending on other people, finding it troublesome and believing true freedom to lie in solitude.
• Ambiguous Situation: When you first meet him, he is seen vomiting at the sight of Mayumi's dead body. It's left ambiguous whether or not he's faking it, or he's really shocked that he had just murdered someone.
• Arch-Enemy: While he is this to the Investigation Team as a whole, being the killer they had spent most of the year in pursuit of, he is especially so to two particular members:
  • The first is the protagonist himself. Not only is their animosity personal as Adachi had been a close friend to the Dojimas, but Adachi serves as the protagonist's Evil Counterpart and Shadow Archetype. Golden also implies that Adachi is jealous of the protagonist, having everything that Adachi could have wanted despite their similar circumstances.
  • He is also one to Yosuke. Adachi murdered Saki Konishi, the girl whom Yosuke had feelings for, with Yosuke angrily making it clear that he will never forgive Adachi for what he's done. Adachi on his part, however, simply laughs it off and spares Yosuke no second thought. There is also the fact that much like with the protagonist, Adachi is Yosuke's Evil Counterpart, being the person that he could have turned out had he never gotten over the Small Town Boredom that he experienced when he first moved to Inaba.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: He states that the only reason why he became a detective is that so he could legally use a gun without having to go through the process of earning a license to bear arms. Naturally, Japanese police have to take firearms classes and get certified to use a gun as part of their training. And that's not even getting into Japan's extremely strict gun control laws, which includes passing a written test with at least a 90 percent score, a doctor's note saying you're mentally stable enough to own a gun, and have an interview with the police as to why you should be allowed to own one. Considering that Adachi proves that he isn't the most stable cop on the force, it's a wonder any of the other cops even let Adachi near a gun. Of course, given that Adachi is such a compulsive liar, one must take his claims with a grain of salt.
• The Atoner: It's implied that, after being apprehended, he is inspired by both the Investigation Team's optimism and Dojima's kindness, and tries to honor their wishes, even showing up to give encouragement to the protagonist in the final battle (in his own way). The epilogue in Golden furthers this, revealing that he's been fully cooperating with the police and behaves himself in prison.
• Attempted Rape: Implied with Mayumi — he accidentally pushed her into the Midnight Channel before he could have his way with her.
• Ax-Crazy: He quickly descends into this after the reveal. This is especially prevalent in The Animation, where his Dissonant Serenity quickly descends into the deranged tantrum of a Psychopathic Manchild.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He's shown wearing a suit all the time, even when incarcerated in Arena. He once complains about how it got dirty while he was chasing down a lost cat, but the department wouldn't reimburse him for dry cleaning. His costume in Persona 4: Dancing All Night is called a "Fitted Suit."
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the Bad, Neutral and Accomplice endings, he gets away scot-free from his crimes. This is especially so in the Accomplice ending, where he effectively blackmails the protagonist for burning the warning letter that could have incriminated him.
• Batman Gambit: Pretended to be a bumbling detective in front of the Investigation Team in order to make them believe the police to be even more ineffective than they were, thus making them keep saving the people, thus feeding Namatame's delusion...
• Battle Theme Music: "A New World Fool", shared with Kunino-sagiri.
• Becoming the Mask: Implied in Golden. If the MC maxes his Social Link (without taking the Accomplice Ending), Adachi will support him during the final boss fight, implying that Adachi still considers him a friend, despite all that has happened.
• Beneath Suspicion:
  • No one suspects the goofy, bumbling detective, right?
  • When Yu forms a Social Link with someone, he gradually gains sharper insight into that person's feelings and true intentions. While he was probably spot-on with ascertaining that Adachi cared for the Dojimas, he misconstrues the young detective's enthusiasm regarding the serial murder case as a desire to see it solved instead of delight in the bedlam it was producing.
• Berserk Button:
  • He takes being rejected by women very poorly to the point where he threw Mayumi and Saki into the TV.
  • Persona 4: Arena Ultimax hints that insulting Dojima has become one for him. In P4AU, when the police were questioning him, he was being pretty passive and cooperative. When one of them starts talking ill of Dojima, Adachi proceeds to rip into the officer by bringing up the cop's own crooked, unethical methods, using dirt he had heard while he was still on the force and said cop flipping out.
• Big Bad: Adachi is the one whose actions kick off the plot, and he is responsible for most of the conflict in the story. While there is a Greater-Scope Villain with its own plans, Adachi's personal goals don't really intersect much with them.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With the Fog-Bringer, who is responsible for the apocalypse Adachi is hoping to see. However, they are both only pawns to the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Big Bad Friend: Persona 4 Golden adds him as a Social Link. Max it out, and you'll be able to summon Magatsu Izanagi. Also if you became great friends with him, but don't choose to follow with the Accomplice End, Adachi's dialogue during the Team confrontation against him changes slightly; it becomes more of a discussion between ex-friends (the Protagonist and Adachi).
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even before he gets outed as the murderer, there are a lot of hints that he's not very nice under it all. Underscored during his Social Link in Golden.
• Blatant Lies: When you first corner him and ask him question about the cases, his answers directly contradict everything your team just put together (for example, he claims he only spoke with Saki a few times, when in reality, he repeatedly questioned her about finding Mayumi's body). This is the final nail in the coffin that he is the killer you are looking for.
• Blow You Away: He frequently uses wind attacks.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: In Ultimax. Adachi considers his murders a game, and the Investigation Team arresting him and saving the world to be him losing the game. As the loser, he must now abide by the rules of the world that bored him, which means he's not going to let Sho Minazuki destroy everything and make his loss pointless. While Adachi still doesn't believe in the ideals of the heroes, he's a Graceful Loser and he's not going to let their victory go to waste.
• Breaking Speech: While making your way through Adachi's dungeon, he insists the Investigation Team did all this, pursuing the true killer, out of boredom with their ordinary lives. He asks how is that any different from him killing Mayumi and Saki because he too was bored.
• Breakout Villain: Initially just a one-off antagonist like the previous villains, Adachi's popularity led to developers giving him a more active role in future games. He got Social Links in Golden, and actually invokes the option of becoming great friends with the protagonist/Yu to the point of his crimes never being exposed, due to the protagonist/Yu leaving the town without telling anyone about Adachi's deeds (the Accomplice End); following that, Adachi's appearances in other games and animated adaptations have all been expanding his past to try and make him less devious, or at least someone tragic that devolved into a killer, also showing that he indeed turned a new leaf.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's far from stupid. He is, however, a humongous slacker, even going so far as to encourage Nanako to take shortcuts in her homework that involved reviewing a short children's picture book.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Downplayed, but when he's confronted for his culpability in the murders, he had to take some time remembering his second victim's name. Invoked in Golden, potentially, during Yu's confrontation with him at the climax of the Jester/Hunger Social Link.
  Adachi: What do you think will happen if I shoot you?
  Hero: You'd commit one more crime.
  Adachi: You're right. That's all it would be.
• Butt-Monkey: Constantly being yelled at by Dojima and treated like a joke by his peers. This causes his more malicious side to run loose.
• Characterization Marches On: The numerous adaptations and spin-offs (particularly Persona 4: Arena Ultimax) have fleshed him out into a more complex character than the Psychopathic Manchild presented in the original game.
• Child Hater: Downplayed example. He seems to have a sort of grudge against teenagers, considering them to be naïve and entitled. His words imply that he resents them for having the opportunities he was not able to have as a kid. Subverted with Nanako as he did appear to like her and during her death, it's implied he's actually taking it hard and has to tell himself that it was Yu's fault as a way to manage his potential guilt on how his game ended up targeting someone he cared about.
• City Noir: His dungeon, Magastu Inaba, is an urban wasteland consisting of sidewalks and roads glued together by police tape and street signs.
• Classic Villain: He embodies both Lust and Sloth.
• Combat Stilettos: Magatsu Izanagi uses them to stomp on downed opponents.
• Continuity Cameo: In Persona 5. He does not appear in person, but he appears on television on 12 December, being interviewed by a detective for the murders he committed years ago.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Adachi is this to the antagonist of Persona 3, Takaya Sakaki. Both have many similarities, such as being Straw Nihilists, abusing their powers to use Personas to kill people, and the fact they use revolvers as weapons. However, they also have differences as well.
  • The first is their physical appearances. Takaya appears as an albino whose unkempt appearance would make him a Devil in Plain Sight. Adachi, on the other hand, looks like an ordinary guy who would be less likely to stand out, especially in the small town of Inaba. This makes him harder for players to identify him as the Killer.
  • How they received their Personas are also different. Takaya's Persona was artificially created and forcefully implanted into him when he was just a child. Adachi, on the other hand, was given a genuine Persona by Izanami. Because of Takaya's Persona not being the real deal, he is not able to properly control it and is weaker compared to an actual Persona user. Adachi is able to easily control his Persona, and media outside the games have shown that his Persona is exceptionally powerful. Interestingly, the two nevertheless summon their Persona in the same way: clutching their head, as though in pain.
  • They also carry out their plans differently. Initially, Takaya and Strega directly antagonize SEES out of fear that they could end the Dark Hour and take away their powers. Adachi instead relies on the Investigation Team to succeed in their rescue efforts so as to keep his cat-and-mouse game going, and deliberately divulges information to the Investigation Team to help them rescue the abductees.
  • While Takaya fashions himself as a herald of Nyx through his cult, his actions have no bearing on Nyx's arrival nor does Nyx even acknowledge his existence. Adachi, on the other hand, is deemed as Izanami's chosen representation of what humanity desires due to his actions having the greatest effect on Inaba even if he was for the most part unaware of her existence.
  • Their relationships to the other human antagonists also differ. Takaya, while genuinely evil, still cared about Jin and Chidori and fought beside them as equals. Jin in particular was unshakeably loyal to Takaya and followed him unquestioningly. Adachi manipulated and exploited Namatame and Mitsuo and always fights alone.
  • Takaya and Makoto Yuuki never shared any personal animosity in the original games and Takaya barely acknowledges him above the rest of SEES when they fight. This is averted in Reload where they do team up once, with Takaya expressing interest in Makoto's power, though Takaya loses interest in Makoto once the latter rejects his nihilistic philosophy. Adachi and Yu, on the other hand, are played up as Arch-Enemy counterparts in the anime and Arena games, and their grudge in the Persona 4 storyline adaptations is considered personal given that they had a genuine friendship that Adachi betrayed. Their respective Personas also reflect this —Takaya has Hypnos, brother of Thanatos, which has a few parallels mythologically but looks nothing like Thanatos or Orpheus. Adachi has a literal Pallette Swap of Yu's Izanagi as his own Persona.
  • Both men are nihilists who believe life has no meaning due to negative experiences in their pasts and use this as motivation for their misdeeds. However, Takaya was a legitimate Tragic Villain who was forcibly given Persona powers through unethical experiments and is now dying because of the drugs he needs to take in order to keep said Persona powers from killing him, and he genuinely has nothing to look forward to other than a short, empty life full of pain. Adachi, on the other hand, is ultimately a spoiled manchild throwing a tantrum because he isn't getting the life he thinks he's entitled to; he does have a stable job and people who would gladly reach out to him if he would only let them in (Dojima and the protagonist), but chooses to shun the good things he could have in favor of short-term satisfaction, something that he comes to realise once he's defeated. And for all his nihilistic spiel, as pointed out by Yukiko, Adachi is actually afraid of dying unlike Takaya.
• Contrived Coincidence: His first two murder victims happened to be people who appeared on the Midnight Channel. Both Namatame and the Investigation Team ended up misinterpreting the Midnight Channel as a predictor of who the next victim would be, something that Adachi played to his advantage.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: All suspicions of him being the Killer are confirmed when he seemingly vanishes from a hospital room with a large TV in it and he's then found brooding in Mayumi Yamano's room in the Midnight Channel. This is Lampshaded by Yosuke.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The manga adaptation has him toy with Chie, Yukiko and Naoto at the same time. He easily dodges their attacks and dishes out more brutal counterattacks in return. What's more impressive is that he didn't even have to summon Magatsu Izanagi.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: In the manga, while he does kick Chie, Yukiko, and Naoto's asses, once they unlock their awakened personas, the three of them manage to back Adachi into a corner. He's then forced to summon Magatsu Izanagi to take them down.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He’s a lot more competent and professional at his job as a detective than you see him prior to Dojima’s accident, and there's his erudite rattling off of the Criminal Procedure Code to piss off a detective beating him up in Ultimax, meaning that he could've had an honest living working at the same level as Dojima hadn’t he turned to murder.
• Death by Adaptation: In the live action Visualive: The Evolution, he is struck down by the hero. His body disappears, and that's the last you see of him for the remainder of the story, giving the implication that he died. Subverted, since the Ultimax Stageplay shows that he survived.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Because he wasn't allowed to carry his gun off-duty, Adachi modified a toy gun to shoot real bullets.
• Detective Mole: It doesn't help him too much, since two better detectives are on the case and outrank him, but it does let him drive Namatame into doing some very foolish things. It also gives him a convenient excuse to wander around the town without looking suspicious.
• Dirty Cop: Claims the only reason he became a cop was so he could legally carry a gun, which is justifiable enough, given Japan's strict gun control laws. Though the veracity of those words is ambiguous, given his immaturity and tendency to run from the truth (and his encyclopedic knowledge of interrogation law).
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • When he's revealed as the killer, he at first acts as a cliché evil murderer, and does nothing but taunt the party and laugh at the victims' deaths. However, when he's later confronted in Magatsu Inaba, he seems to completely drop any pretense, and tries to rationalize with the party as to why he's become as cynical and bitter in the first place, and only loses his cool when the fighting starts.
  • This is played up in The Animation, where he's eerily calm and soft-spoken even as he's beating Yu to the ground and making his Breaking Speech.
  • He gets called out on this in December by Kanji when he sounds more annoyed that Namatame won't be convicted rather than genuinely upset.
• The Ditz: Or at least, plays a very good one.
• Driven to Suicide: He casually decides to blow his head off with his gun after the Investigation Team defeats Magatsu-Izanagi and the Reapers in The Animation. He's interrupted by Ameno-Sagiri taking over his body.
• Drunk with Power: Started when he realized his power to enter the TV World (and throw people in), and it just kept snowballing from there. He also gets scarily gleeful when he's allowed to let Magatsu-Izanagi loose.
• Duel Boss: In both anime adaptions, Yu has to fight Adachi alone.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: As soon as he's outed as the culprit his eyes become dull and lifeless, reflecting is fatalistic view of the world and his role as the Greater-Scope Villain's avatar of emptiness.
• Education Mama: His parents only cared about his grades when he was in school and the school was more or less the same way.
• Entitled Bastard: He thinks that his hard work in his youth means that the world owes him success and an intimate relationship. Because he has neither, he feels it's the fault of life, society, and the women around him. He also talks about his power to throw people into TV sets as if it was given to him to make up for his unsuccessful lot in life.
• Entitled to Have You: He becomes disgusted with the thought of Mayumi being sexually active with Namatame, arguing that he "had his eye on her first."
• Ephebophile: He, a 27 year-old man, tried to hit on high-schooler Saki Konishi while interrogating her. Her rejecting his advances, as well as slapping him for being a pervert, is part of the reason why Adachi threw her into the Midnight Channel, leading to her death at the hands of the Shadows in the TV World.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's implied that he does genuinely care for Nanako during his Social Link and from his reaction to her death, it's possible that he didn't expect her to somehow end up on TV, and Namatame's delusions led him to kidnap her and accidentally set up her death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He’s genuinely shocked when Yu betrays his friends in the accomplice ending and essentially punishes him for it by blackmailing him; in the Golden anime adaptation he's even disappointed by the outcome.
• Evil All Along: He spends most of the game as a seemingly amicable detective, only to be revealed as the game's resident Ax-Crazy Serial Killer right before the final dungeon.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • His aloof upbringing and the various misfortunes that befell him in the past have resulted in this mindset. Being treated with genuine kindness confuses him and he'll try to laugh it off, poke holes in the motivations behind the altruism, or simply flee. In the Golden anime, Yu gets a brief look at past events from Adachi's perspective, and finds out his earlier kindness caused Adachi to feel anger and revulsion. When Dojima's kindness has a stretcher sent to Adachi, he literally can't speak for his shock. While he cooperates with police, afterwards, Dojima mentions Adachi refuses to even see him. It's implied Adachi was trying to push his former boss away.
  • He assumes the Investigation Team is there to kill him and tells them to leave once he's defeated, since the Shadows will finish him off. He's utterly baffled when they tell him he's an idiot.
• Evil Counterpart: To Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie, respectively.
  • Of all the malicious beings that have qualities similar to Yu, Adachi stands out by being his complete equal and opposite. While Yu used his newfound powers to help people and wanted to gain friends, Adachi became Drunk on the Dark Side and ended up losing friends. The point is hammered home by his Persona, Magatsu-Izanagi, which is literally a more twisted version of Yu's own Izanagi. In the English dub, the two even share the same voice actor.
  • Like Yosuke, a lot of Adachi's misfortune serves as part of the game's comedic relief, and him frequently being yelled at by Dojima mirrors Yosuke often drawing the ire of the other members of the Investigation Team. Furthermore, both Yosuke and Adachi are rather lustful towards women, and while it wasn't as strong as his feelings towards Mayumi, Adachi also had an unreciprocated crush on Saki, even attempting to seduce her during his questioning of her (made much more blatant in The Animation) only to be violently rejected. But while Yosuke doesn't let his unluckiness and disrespect from his peers bother him too much, Adachi's grates on him to the point that it's part of his motivations. While Yosuke is a Chivalrous Pervert that still loves Saki in spite of learning that she secretly hated him, Adachi is a Straw Misogynist who was angered by Saki spurning his advances enough that it was part of the reason he killed her. To top it all off, Adachi's motivation for his villainous actions is that he was bored of Inaba after being transferred there from the city by his superiors, just like how Yosuke initially felt after being forced to move there by his parents.
  • Finally, both he and Teddie share a nihilistic mindset and believe that life is empty as a result. However, the conclusions they draw from that belief differ greatly. With the help of the party, Teddie understands that being empty isn't inherently bad, as he can create his own meaning and his life can be filled with good things. This is in contrast to Adachi, who concludes that the emptiness of life makes it all worthless and uses it to justify his crimes.
• Evil Is Petty: Both of his initial murders are for incredibly petty and perverted reasons; the first one was just him throwing a temper tantrum because a celebrity he had a crush on had an affair, and the second was just because he saw a high school girl talking to an older man and deemed her a "whore" who had to die. All of the other attempted murders were strictly For the Evulz; when they find out, the Investigation Team even lampshade how petty and childish Adachi is.
• Evil Laugh: Has an extremely unsettling one after the protagonist burns the warning letter in the Accomplice Ending.
• Exasperated Perp: The Investigation Team questioning him about Ms. Yamano's disappearance, his questioning of Saki and the warning letter he sent leads to him getting frustrated and impatient enough to blurt out something only the Killer would know.

F-J

• Faux Affably Evil: On the surface, he appears to be a goofy and Endearingly Dorky detective. However, beneath that dorky exterior lies an Ax-Crazy lunatic. Even though he retains his sense of humour, it only serves to accentuate his creepiness.
• Fighting from the Inside: In the manga, he resists after Ameno-Sagiri takes over, helping Soji and the others defeat it.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Even though he's now outed as the Killer for the rest of his life and has to serve a jail sentence later, he realises that something is very wrong after reading through Namatame's reports which were almost a carbon copy of how he heard about the Midnight Channel, prompting him to send a letter to the Investigation Team to warn them that there's more to the case than it seems and to find out how the Midnight Channel rumor started in the first place. This potentially causes Izanami to be uncovered.
• Fluffy Tamer: Possibly due to his knowledge of how the TV world operates and the powers Izanami bestowed upon him, Adachi is capable of controlling the Shadows. In The Animation, he's able to use three Reapers as his Elite Mooks against the Investigation Team. This ability becomes an important plot point in Ultimax when Sho Minazuki wants to use Adachi to control the monstrous Hi-No-Kagutsuchi.
• Foil: To many characters on the Investigation Team, as his "Jester" social link is an alternate take on the Fool. The Team is unsure of what exactly it's doing, but is determined to find the truth, while he is perfectly content with simply drifting through life, looking for the easiest and most amusing solutions. Specifically, though, he has a few direct opposites.
  • First off is Yosuke. While both characters are initially upset about moving to the countryside, Yosuke overcomes it by bonding with others, while Adachi snaps from the boredom.
  • He's also the Evil Counterpart to Teddie. While Teddie is a Shadow who desperately wants to be more human, Adachi is a human who has "the same goal" as the Shadows. Teddie became drunk off the pleasures of the human world once he attained a human form, while Adachi became drunk off the power to enter the TV World. Rise lampshades this if you ask about Teddie while meeting at the food court during December.
  • His attitude toward personal success and relationships is the opposite of Yu. Where Yu has to strive for those around him in relationships and develop himself, Adachi expects success to come to him.
• Foreshadowing: There are quite a few hints throughout the game that Adachi is more than who he appears to be:
  • He is one of the few major characters who does not have a Social Link in the original game which highlights his importance to the plot.
  • He is one of the few characters who does not have a Social Link but does have a character portrait in the original game, which sticks out like a sore thumb once you start getting Social Links from everyone up to supernatural otherworldly ladies dressed in blue and foxes you meet in the woods.
  • Even in the Updated Re-release, his Social Link arcana is unique in that it does not exist in reality, indicating that the bond between him and the protagonist is all an act. From Rank 7 onwards, his Social Link can only progress in story cutscenes which only occurs for story-driven events such as Teddie and the Investigation Team. And even once his true Arcana: Hunger (Lust in the Japanese version) is shown, the Arcana in question is from the Thoth tarot deck instead of the standard Rider-Waite deck the rest of the Social Links are based on. The only other cards from the Thoth deck that have been used in Persona are the Aeon, Universe and Apostle Arcanas, the latter of which only appears in a spin-off of Persona 4's sequel, the second at the very end of Persona 3 for the protagonist, and the Aeon by non-human characters like Aigis from Persona 3, and Marie from Golden.
  • In Golden, Adachi has a very irregular schedule and some of his ranks require meeting him at nighttime.
  • He acts extremely suspicious at times, mostly loitering around at Junes (the place where Shadow World can be entered) and claiming that "he is busy" even though he is clearly not.
  • The Personas associated with the Jester arcana are based on evil or mischievous figures.
  • You can see hints at his Straw Misogynist tendencies if you choose certain options in his Social Link.
  • The first time you see Adachi, Dojima asks him how long he's going to act like a rookie. Key word: Act.
  • When he comes across the Investigation Team at Junes after Yukiko was rescued, he's seen talking to himself about how the town's gotten a lot more interesting with the ongoing serial murder case, which foreshadows his view of the whole affair as a game.
  • At the start of Rise's arc, he seems far too eager to declare the case over and the murderer caught after arresting someone who just happened to be outside Rise's shop on an extremely flimsy pretext.
  • When Adachi is having dinner with the Dojimas after Mitsuo's arrest, he expresses gratitude that he could stop seeing suspects in every shadow.
  • During the events of Nanako's kidnapping, before the revelation of the kidnapper's identity as Namatame, various hints point to Adachi as a possible suspect. When the protagonist is in the interrogation room, the Investigation Team is guessing the identity of her kidnapper, who is thought to be the killer at the time. Should the player pick the option "Someone Dojima knows", everyone will turn and stare at Adachi who would be quick to defend himself. Adachi makes a legitimate point by saying that Dojima doesn't seem to have any other friends, but that only makes Adachi more suspicious.
  • Whoever delivered the warning letter to Dojima's house without attracting suspicion would be someone who regularly visits their house. Adachi is the only visitor to the house apart from the Investigation Team.
• For the Evulz: By his own admission, he kick-started the entire plot for what amounts to needing some entertainment.
  "Reasons...? None, really. I could do it, that's all. And it was fun... I guess that's my reason?"
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Used to wear glasses in his youth. He can get a pair of glasses in Arena Ultimax via DLC.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied via his possibly unreliable exposition and more or less outright stated in Golden: The Animation that his misanthropy was a result of him isolating himself and focusing on his studies so he could become successful in life, which led to his perception of people souring as he watched others make the connections that he failed to. When he actually got the job he wanted in the police force, he found that all of his hard-fought accomplishments were overlooked in favor of younger talent, leading him to believe that Hard Work Hardly Works. Combine both, and you get a sociopathic Psychopathic Manchild who believes relationships to be a sham, thinks the world is inherently cruel, and takes the first ounce of control he's been given in his life to mean that he's automatically entitled to everything.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Of course, the way he presents the above motivations makes him come off as a brat throwing a tantrum rather than elicit any form of sympathy in the moment, which the Investigation Team calls him out on. The only real tragic element that they find to Adachi's character is that they could've turned out like him if they had made different choices in life.
• Friendless Background: It's implied that prior to meeting the Dojimas Adachi never had any friends in his youth, preferring to keep to himself and focus on his studies.
• Glass Cannon: In spite of being the normal route's penultimate boss, Adachi is rather frail for the point you fight him, though he can still pack a helluva punch nonetheless. He can throw out Magarudyne, Maziodyne and Vorpal Blade, all of which dish out a ton of damage thanks to his high strength, Power Charge and Heat Riser. He also wields good status buffs and effects (along with Ghastly Wail for a One-Hit Kill). While you'll likely beat Adachi before long, he can fuck you up in a hurry if you don't take him out quickly.
• Graceful Loser: After he's defeated, he actually acts like this despite the trouble he gave the team:
  • He agrees to accept punishment for his crimes in whatever manner you choose. To his surprise, they instead drag him out into the real world and force him to take account for his actions. In addition, for all his rants about how much he hates The Power of Friendship, he acknowledges that if he'd been more like the protagonist, maybe things would've turned out better for him.
  • Taken to higher levels in Arena Ultimax. The way he sees it, he lost his "game" and as such must suffer all of the consequences of losing, which is why he fights against Sho Minazuki because his punishment cannot continue if the world he found too boring ceases to exist. He also harbors no grudge against the Investigation Team and is actually secretly happy he can still be friends with Yu.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Part of his fall into evil is his jealousy towards those who end up more successful in life than him.
  • Golden: The Animation implies that he is one to Yu. When Yu moved in with the Dojimas, Adachi felt subconsciously threatened that Yu was taking Adachi's place as a second family to the Dojimas. He's also jealous of how Yu has a successful school life with loyal friends to support him, which Adachi didn't have.
• Grin of Audacity: His Smug Smiler expression becomes this when he lackadaisically tries to feign ignorance when asked about his role in the murders, despite him being in the TV World being evidence that he had one.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: He claims to have devoted a significant portion of his youth to his studies. When life didn't pan out the way he liked despite his efforts, he took all the wrong lessons from the fallout. Persona 4 Golden the Animation pretty much implies that he is actually being sincere about this.
• Hate Sink: Depending on the adaptation, it’s either played straight or Subverted:
  • His original characterization in the vanilla game is meant to present him like this. He's an unrepentant murderer who instigates the deaths of others for his own amusement, and acts like everyone except himself is at fault for how rotten his life is. However, this ended up backfiring hard and he became beloved within the fanbase precisely for his evilness.
  • Subverted with Golden, which fleshes out his personality as a more sympathetic character beyond the Psychopathic Manchild of the original, or at least established that some of his Nice Guy feelings were indeed genuine.
• The Heavy: He's the one who is really moving the plot along and the one that the team is after. In fact, the Greater-Scope Villain came to the assumption that Adachi's desires represent humanity's wishes as a whole, as he had been the most active and impactful participant in their experiment.
• Heel Realization:
  • Of a sort. He's fully aware of how evil he is, but he only stops blatantly denying it after his Villainous Breakdown and subsequent defeat by the Investigation Team. It was extremely humiliating, and it left him humbled and at their mercy. Instead of killing him (as he expected), they instead haul him back to the real world (metaphorically and literally), demanding him to face the consequences of his actions just like everyone else. The final nail comes when he learns that Dojima (who had pretty good reasons to hate him) had requested, as a personal favor, that an EMT with a stretcher be sent out to treat and apprehend the exhausted Adachi because they had been partners. Adachi is completely unable to say anything. He later confesses to the first two murders, and shows full cooperation with the police.
  • In the True Ending, the Team receives a letter from the recently-convicted Adachi, which contains his suspicions about a higher being orchestrating the entire thing, the few vague clues he can offer. When the protagonist finally does face that being, Adachi is there to... call them a bitch too, and tell you you should think so too and thus kick its ass, since you're not like him.
• He Was Right There All Along: Realising this is how the player identifies Adachi as the killer, musing over the facts of the first two murders, the mysterious warning letters sent to Yu's house, and the fact that despite the increase in police presence throughout Inaba, nobody suspicious was noticed by the locals, and realising that Adachi, as a police officer, can walk around in plain sight without getting noticed, and has easy access to both murder victims as well as the Dojima residence.
• Hidden Depths: For a guy who claimed to have only joined the police so he can be legally allowed to carry a gun, Ultimax shows that Adachi can rattle off the Criminal Procedure Code without effort. This, alongside flashbacks of his past in Golden: The Animation, implies that Adachi did start off as an idealistic young cop whose idealism was crushed by constant setbacks in life.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He writes threatening letters that mention the word 'kill', even though he knew Namatame genuinely thought he was saving people, has a radical change in attitude after Dojima's accident and makes what essentially amounts to the same slip of the tongue twice. Ironically he had been intentionally "letting slip" clues to the investigation team earlier before revealing himself as the killer as a genuine slip up. In addition, the letters narrow down the culprit to people with unfettered access to the Dojima house, meaning the Investigation Team, Nanako, Namatame, Ryotaro Dojima, and Adachi.
• Humans Are Bastards: Believes humanity and the world it's crafted to be annoying, dull, and hypocritical.
  "If crimes could be solved by appealing to morality, we wouldn't need the police!"
• Hypocrite: His belief that humans are hypocrites is ironic because of how much of a hypocrite he really is. He makes other people's lives miserable while still acting like he's the only one who's had a rough existence, calls the Investigation Team self-righteous for their responses to his long tirade against how much humanity and reality suck, and claims that they're only pursuing him because they wanted some excitement in their boring lives. Then again, he probably knows it and just doesn't care.
• Ignored Epiphany: Unlike Namatame, he fails to recognize The Power of Friendship, thinking it to be bogus, and believes Yu to be a dumbass even when he's defeated by both. He can't fully bring himself to ignore that he was ultimately at fault though, and broods over the fact that if he had been more like the protagonist, things may not have turned so sour.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Like Yosuke, in many ways, he's bored out of his skull by the quiet country life of Inaba. But when he gets his powers, he starts using them for murder and mayhem. Furthermore, this attitude seems to stem from his frustration and disappointment on how his life turned out despite working hard and following the path set out in front of him.
• Indirect Serial Killer: Subverted; he tricks Namatame into pushing most of the people into the T.V. world, but thanks to the efforts of the Investigation Team, no one is killed.
• I Never Said It Was Poison:
  • He ends up giving himself away when he said that Namatame put the victims inside the TV — no one but the Killer and the Investigation Team would have known that was how the victims were murdered.
  • Adachi also gave himself away even before he was listed as a suspect. When the Investigation Team discovered Namatame's diary which had the names of all the people he put inside the TV, Adachi showed no surprise and proclaimed that Namatame was the Killer. Naoto later pointed out that most of the people listed were classified as by the police as mere "disappearances" and any connection between them and the murders had yet to established. On the other hand, Naoto had somewhat perjured herself in that regard, as she referred to the list names as 'victims' as a whole, even the ones who weren't killed, and Adachi could have easily explained away his statement as being in regard to what she herself claimed about them. Therefore, Naoto doesn't bring up that particular point until Adachi makes a more obviously guilty statement, using it as further circumstantial evidence of his guilt now that he's proven he knows more about the murders than he should.
  • In the animation, even earlier, when he helps the Investigation Team take down Rise's fanboy stalker, he shows no confusion as to their bizarre actions, which indicates he already knows the disappearance victims are people who appear on TV and that the disappearances and killings are linked, all things the police haven't figured out yet.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • Unlike the other social links, his progresses more easily if you act like a jerk, just not to him. Nicely encapsulated in how the only way to further ascend his dungeon is to jump down a giant, gaping hole.
  • Adachi himself indulges in this. For instance, he keeps insinuating that he only put Mayumi and Saki into the TV and that it was the world itself that killed them. The world shaped by the thoughts and feelings of all humanity. Therefore, everyone is responsible for their deaths, including the Investigation Team. They rightfully point out why that's bullshit.
  • If you confront Adachi alone and tell him you believed in him, he tells you it's your own fault because the version of him that you believed in just existed inside your head. Your decision betrayed you, so why should you complain about it to him?
• Interface Spoiler:
  • In the original, the fact that he's one of the few major characters who doesn't have a Social Link at all might make the player suspicious.
  • The original spoiler is removed in Golden, but replaced with an even bigger one — he has a Social Link now, but you can only rank it up to 6 the normal way, and after that it increases through the plot. A character with no Social Link could mean anything; a character with a plot-tied Social Link is clearly important. Then again, at the time of Golden's release, though, Adachi's true role had been a Late-Arrival Spoiler for quite some time, and it's perfectly possible that the player might be juggling too many Social Links at once to notice.
  • There's also the fact that Adachi's link is not only a 0 tarot card, but a Thoth tarot as well, specifically being the counterpart to the other 0 which is the Investigation Team. If the Investigation Team is the protagonists, then the other 0 must be...
  • Early in the game after the Investigation Team saves someone, the game will cut to a mysterious figure wandering around the fog-covered shopping district. Sharp-eyed players can notice that the mysterious figure resembles Adachi's character model.
• In Vino Veritas: Averted, as while he becomes genuinely inebriated, he's just as duplicitous in his "helpful" drunken babble and never implicates himself.
• Ironic Name: The kanji used to spell his name translates to "transparent." While he is pretty transparent about the police's movements, regarding his own actions, he... isn't.
• Irony:
  • Adachi in his Motive Rant comments how people like him, despite their hard work, will always get overshadowed by people with natural talent. Ironically, supplementary materials show that Adachi's power of the Persona is exceptionally gifted to the point of becoming an Instant Expert. Despite having no prior experience in the TV World, he's able to hold his own against the much more experienced Investigation Team.
  • He also claims to have joined the police force solely because he could legally carry a gun. Persona Stalker Club reveals protocol prevents him from carrying it off-duty.^note This is real-life protocol used by Japanese law enforcement agencies to prevent such a thing from taking place.
  • A confessed misanthrope who resents almost everyone around him for supposedly keeping him down and not giving him proper respect has nothing but positive emotions towards his partner and superior Ryotaro Dojima, who never hesitates to use insults or violence against Adachi if he screws up or is being a nuisance. Such fondness was never enough to make Adachi turn himself in, or hesitate to feed the world to the Shadows, but it's notable nonetheless.
• I Shall Taunt You:
  • In Persona 4 Golden, Adachi mocks you for actually burning the evidence that could've convicted him if you actually pursue the Accomplice Ending. He even takes your cell number and taunts you as you're boarding the train, knowing that he's getting off scot-free.
  • This is also his primary tactic when dealing with the Investigation Team.
• It Gets Easier: If him vomiting at the sight of Mayumi's dead body was genuine, it implies that Adachi was actually horrified that he had just killed someone, especially since he had never thrown a person into TV World before. But shortly afterwards, he had no compunctions throwing Saki into the TV. And later on, he even says that he "got a kick" out of throwing Mitsuo in as he hadn't thrown anyone in since Saki.
• It Is Beyond Saving: His worldview on humanity itself.
• It's All About Me: Whatever pain and misery other people go through, especially those of the families of his victims, is apparently insignificant to his suffering.
• Jaded Washout: Adachi's cynicism can be stemmed from dissatisfaction towards his job and being stuck in "the boonies". This causes him to believe that society ought to owe him something in return for his troubles, and is what drove him to murder Mayumi and Saki because they rejected him.
• Jerkass: Once he shows his true colors, he fits a little too comfortably into them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Develops into one after you beat him; he sends the Investigation Team a letter helping them to expose the Greater-Scope Villain and cheers Yu on in his own... special way during the actual fight.

K-O

• Karma Houdini: In the Bad, Neutral and Accomplice endings, he gets away scot-free with his crimes. Especially the case in the Accomplice ending, where he takes the opportunity to blackmail Yu after the latter destroys Adachi's confession letter, betraying everything the Investigation Team stood for.
• Kick the Dog:
  • His casual attitude toward the killings he committed. Even if you believe that he didn't know Mayumi would fall into the TV and die, it's clear that he was out to harm her from the beginning.
    "I was just trying to punish the stupid bitch a little for betraying me."
  • In the anime, Magatsu-Inaba is this to the Investigation Team. It's blatantly a wrecked and torn-down version of Inaba which Adachi formed. This hits Yukiko hard when she recognises the ruins of her Inn and Yosuke is Forced to Watch a replay of Adachi's memories of shoving Saki into the Midnight Channel.
• Lack of Empathy: Adachi encourages Yu to adopt this mindset when he gets older, claiming that life is tough enough as it is without having to be bogged down by the feelings of those around him.
• Large Ham: After getting outed as the culprit, he drops any hints of innocence and replaces it with utterly ham-fisted douchebaggery.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Some of his appearances in spin-off material quickly spoil his identity as the Killer.
  • Persona 4: Arena Ultimax is the worst about this, as he is blatantly identified as the Killer in his first scene.
  • Persona 4: Dancing All Night downplays this, as while nothing is explicitly stated, the fact that he of all people is a playable DLC character instead of more important supporting characters like Dojima should be a major red flag.
  • Persona 5 averts this during his Easter Egg cameo on the TV on 12/12; he is only identified as "Suspect Under Investigation", and no hints are given about his identity.
• Laughably Evil: Say what you will about Adachi, but you can't help but find him hilarious thanks to his goofy facial expressions and his needless heckling of the Investigation Team.
• Laughing Mad: Breaks into one in the Accomplice Ending should the protagonist burn the warning letter, accompanied with a new character portrait that is unsettling to say the least.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  "Games like this gotta have surprises or they get boring fast."
• Lestrade: Justified — since he was behind the whole scheme, he was always a step ahead of the Team. Therefore, it was imperative for him to play dumb as to not arouse suspicion.
• Living with the Villain: Your biggest hint to finding the killer is the fact that he's welcome at the Dojima household any time, giving the opening he would have needed to send the hero a threatening letter without arousing suspicion.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: He accused Mayumi of being a whore upon learning she was sexually active with Namatame. Then he accused Saki of being a whore because of the mere sight of her coming near Namatame.
• Manipulative Bastard: He first manipulated Namatame into attempting to commit the murders with delusions of messianic grandeur, then tries to manipulate the Investigation Team into chasing after Namatame.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He just wanted some cheap thrills and laughs. Once he's aware that his actions will have apocalyptic repercussions, he's pretty cool with it.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Adachi despises humanity, believing that deep down, everyone is just as selfish and cruel as he is and refuses to accept that one could truly be good at heart.
• Morality Pet: Nanako, of sorts. She's one of the few people whom he genuinely treats nicely. As shown in Persona 4 Golden: The Animation, he was actually pretty close to the Dojima family before Yu arrived. Once she dies, he seems notably beaten down and starts repeating to himself that "It's all Yu's fault".
• Moral Sociopathy: In Ultimax, it's clear that while he's still an unpleasant person, he's determined to ensure that no one doubts the conclusion that he's the killer or questions the outcome of the case, even if it means that he's punished for it. The reason? It's part of the "rules" he plays by.
• Motive Decay: His first two murders were largely motivated by jealousy and a Madonna-Whore Complex, respectively. All of the other ones were just For the Evulz. Despite this, he still manages to be one of the more realistic depictions of a serial killer, psychologically.
• Motive Rant: He goes into one just before the Investigation Team fights him. Part of it was Small Town Boredom, and part of it was feeling like there was Always Someone Better than him in spite of how hard he worked. Adachi tells the Investigation Team that the reason he committed the first murder was because he found out a celebrity he was crushing on had a sexual affair with a married man, and he threw a temper tantrum that she was "spoiled". And the second murder had a similar reason: when the killer spotted a high school girl talking to an older man, he accused her of being unchaste and murdered her for being "a whore". From then on, Adachi fell headfirst into For the Evulz, as he committed the rest of the attempted murders strictly because he thought he could get away with it. The Investigation Team is aghast that their entire adventure started because of one man's childish, perverted insecurities.
• Murder by Inaction: As he makes sure to let the Investigation Team know, he himself didn't kill Ms. Yamano and Saki; he merely threw them into the Midnight Channel and let the Shadows do it for him. Of course, they point out to him that since Adachi had some idea of what would happen to them when he put them in, that doesn't make much of a difference.
• Neck Lift: Does this to Rise during the manga. He then loads his revolver and prepares to shoot her in the abdomen before Chie stops him.
• Never Had Toys: He hints at this, complaining that his parents made him spend his childhood studying.
• Never My Fault: He got a bad shake, that's all, his idiot superiors dumped him in Inaba, they overreacted. Besides, he was gentlemanly, there was something wrong with those "stupid bitches" for getting it in their head to reject him. Besides, they were just playing Namatame, right? Really, he did the world a favor. For the record, you're all just as bad if not worse for going on this adventure to stop him, selfish brats... Yeah, you get the idea. Though it's implied he was being truthful about what he got in Inaba.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It's all but implied Adachi would have completely gotten away with the murders if he hadn't sent the threatening letters to Yu, as he eventually uses it to figure out the Killer's proximity to the Dojimas and a police officer being in on it all along. It's even the evidence that's required to arrest him.
• Nightmare Face: Adachi's scowl◊ just looks wrong on his face. Like a Slasher Smile someone flipped upside-down. It goes to show what an ugly person he is on the inside. The one he makes during the Accomplice Ending◊ is worse. Mainly because it's the face of a murderer who knows that he just got away with everything and has you, the idiot who covered for him, under his thumb forever.
• Noodle Incident: What got him transferred to Inaba. While he claims it was a small slip-up that got blown out of proportion, his crimes in this game imply it was much more serious. Persona 4 Golden: The Animation seems to imply that he's actually telling the truth. Adachi was actually a serious, hard-working cop at his youth that just never got along with people (possibly due to having to focus on his studies), and got shafted because of it.
  "I was supposed to be the best of the best, and instead they stick me in the boonies."
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He intentionally plays up his status as Dojima's Bumbling Sidekick throughout the game to lure suspicion away from himself.
• Obviously Evil: The Personas of the Jester/Hunger Arcana in comparison to those found in the Fool Arcana. While the entities in the latter are mostly noble at best and neutral at worst, the ones in the former are either overtly sinister (Baphomet, Chernobog, Pale Rider i.e. The Horseman of Death, Gurr, Kumbhanda) or immensely egotistical (Loa and Saiten Taisei aka The Monkey King). If that wasn't enough, one of them is the outright archenemy of Take-Mikazuchi, Kanji's initial Persona, and the ultimate incarnation is Adachi's own Persona, the evil counterpart of the hero's.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • After his Saying Too Much moment below, particularly in the anime.
  • Also in the anime: during the height of his Breakdown, he attempts to make good on his threats to kill Yu with a massive lightning attack while emptying his gun at the same time... only to nearly shit a brick when the smoke clears and Yu is standing there completely unharmed.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Adachi suddenly becomes more competent and helpful near the game's end, dropping the Obfuscating Stupidity as he does. This is a subtle implication that he's getting desperate, as he knows he's running out of time to throw the Investigation Team and the other cops off of his trail.

P-T

• Permanently Missable Content: In Golden, if the player does not complete Rank 6 of Adachi's Social Link by November, they will lose the opportunity to see the remaining events.
• Pet the Dog: Whenever he upsets Nanako with his apparently offhanded attempts to toy with Yu, he's quick to try and lift her spirits.
• Police Are Useless: Shares this attitude with the Investigation Team, but for different reasons. Being a police officer himself gives him a veritable front row seat to all the bureaucratic hand-wringing, shortcuts, pitfalls, and misfires of law enforcement that he finds himself lamenting over, more out of the consequence that as a detective, he has to get yanked around by these incompetent decisions. The fact that they can't seem to find the Killer out, despite him being smack dab in their midst, possibly amplifies this sentiment.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Is quite misogynistic, considering any woman who doesn't give in to his advances to be a "worthless bitch".
• Pre-Final Boss: He's fought right before Ameno-sagiri, the Final Boss of the normal route, though he's pretty easy to deal with due to his relatively low health.
• Precision F-Strike: In the manga, he screams "Go to hell!" before launching a lightning attack at Soji, and muttering "... Fuck. You pest... You pest!!" when Soji survives.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Outright called immature by Naoto and Yukiko. Despite his claims to the contrary, it's quite clear that he's basically throwing a massive temper tantrum.
• Pulling the Thread: When all the clues are assembled (how the TV world and Personas works, the timeline of kidnappings and deaths, the threatening letters at the Dojima house) and through deductive reasoning, it becomes clear that he is the only person who could have been the true killer.
  • To make use of the TV world, the killer had to have a Persona. This fact rules out the Investigation Team who all entered the TV world after Mayumi's death, all except the protagonist (who obviously didn't do it) got their powers after Saki's murder, and all except the protagonist, Yosuke, and Chie were victims themselves. It also rules out Mitsuo, who clearly doesn't have a Persona when he enters the TV.
  • Because he has been incarcerated since his encounter in the TV world, Mitsuo Kubo could not have kidnapped Nanako, which means he couldn't have sent the threatening letters at the Dojima house either. Mitsuo's entry into the TV world is also anomalous: The other victims were kidnapped in front of their own homes per Namatame's modus operandi; Mitsuo, on the other hand, disappeared inside the police station as he was about to confess his crimes, which brings up the question of how did Mitsuo get into the TV world? Mitsuo couldn't have entered himself because he clearly has a Shadow inside it (therefore no persona, therefore no way to enter on his own) and if he did know about the TV world and its role in the murders, he would've pushed Morooka in instead of bludgeoning him, which was a clear clue he wasn't the real serial killer. Namatame only managed to get away with kidnapping people because he was Beneath Suspicion as a deliveryman going to people's homes, but that wouldn't work in the middle of a police station, especially since the police would recognize him due to his being part of the investigation for Yumeno's murder. Whoever pushed in Mitsuo had to be a third party who wouldn't look out-of-place at a police station... like one of the only two named police officers.
  • The culprit would have to been able to closely monitor the Investigation Team to know they were rescuing people and know where the Protagonist lives to be able to deliver the letters. Since nobody suspicious has been spotted spying on the team or the Dojima residence, it would have to be someone who has regular access to a months-long case, and Dojima's house, and the Investigation team, which rules out people like acquaintances of the kidnap victims, or the other Social Links.
  • The Investigation Team is never seen on the TV when they go on their rescue missions, as there is no gossip about it, meaning the general population is unable to identify the members of the Team, nor connect the true nature of the TV world to the rescue missions. Whoever is sending the letters is not some random stranger, and would have to be someone who can link the Midnight Channel with the Investigation Team's activities, so the letters cannot be mistaken as a prank or coincidence.
  • Combining both of the previous points, the question arises as to why the letters were not sent to any of the other Team members' houses. The Protagonist's house is also the home of a detective who is actively investigating the case, making it an incredible risk to deliver a message that could have been sent to six other, less risky locations; the only reason for this to happen is if the killer knew they could be seen accessing the Dojima house without suspicion (say, they were someone who regularly entered as a guest), but couldn't be sure for the others.
  • Despite such high-profile and bizarre cases, nobody suspicious has been seen in or around Inaba, especially around the first two victims, Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi, despite both of them having media attention on them around the time of their deaths. The culprit thus has to be someone who would have a valid reason to approach both of them and not be suspicious. This means that the killer couldn't have been a stranger, ruling out shadows exiting the TV world like Teddie, who would’ve not only been a stranger in his human form, but also seem rather suspicious in his bear costume, or outsiders to Inaba like Hiiragi, who, while associated with Mayumi, is not associated with Konishi, and she would be seen as suspicious due to her celebrity status.
  • The police investigate Namatame the normal way due to his affair with Mayumi, and he's let go as he has a solid alibi. Killing someone via the TV world requires being in their physical presence, so even if Namatame had killed Saki (which he denies), there's no way he could've killed Mayumi. And his killing Saki also contradicts his stated motive, as he would have immediately realized the dangers of the TV world if someone he'd pushed inside had actually died, instead of the Investigation Team inadvertently fueling his misconception by rescuing all his victims.
  • The culprit would have to have some physical strength to be able to overpower an adult woman (and two teenagers) and throw her into the TV, thus making it likely that the killer is also an adult, not one of the teenaged or child characters. This includes Nanako, despite fitting a lot of the criteria^IncludingThe fact that she lives with the protagonist, meaning that she would’ve sent the warning letters without suspicion, and she would've likely partially know what’s going on, thanks to overhearing Dojima and the Investigation Team.
  • Despite also fitting the bill for many of those criteria, Ryotaro Dojima has been pushing for the investigation of the murders and kidnappings, when the rest of the station is just aching to close the case and be done with it; barring some convoluted, insane rationale, a smart killer would want the cases to be dropped ASAP, so why not have that happen by letting the corrupt police force just take their usual course?
• Reality Warper: Possesses a considerable amount of control over his area of the TV World, capable of outright barring the entrance to it from outsiders, creating multiple copies of himself, manifesting large scale illusions, kicking people out of it if you don't play by his rules, or even stopping the player from escaping it with spells or items. Adachi outright says that it seems the TV World itself is protecting him, apparently due to him desiring the same things the Shadows want, giving him considerable influence over his surroundings, enough to even shield himself from Rise's scanning abilities at first.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His persona, Magatsu Izanagi, is basically a blood-red version of Izanagi.
• Redemption Equals Life: After he's defeated, he tries to convince the Investigation Team to let him get killed off by Shadows in Magatsu Inaba. They refuse to let him do that, take him back to the real world, and he willingly cooperates in confessing to his crimes, even aiding the team in figuring out who The Conductor is from prison... while still calling him a dumbass, although this time is much more affectionate than hateful. Dojima later notes that Adachi has become a model prisoner and seems to be working on bettering himself.
• Redemption Rejection: During his Social Link, at first. You can try to appeal to him before delving into his dungeon, but he flatly refuses, even adding for posterity that a) he hates people who try to appeal to his better nature in person, and b) if crimes could be solved by appealing to morality, there'd be no need for police.
• Red Baron: Magatsu-Izanagi is also known as the "Tempter of the Void."
• Replacement Goldfish: For the old lady in his Social Link, as he has the same first name as her son who is usually away on business.
• Reverse Grip: Magatsu-Izanagi wields its weapon like this.
• Saying Too Much: Adachi accidentally outs himself when he claims in the Investigation Team and Dojima's presence that it was Namatame who "put them in". Earlier on, it's a plot point that the police don't know how the murders were committed (which is what reveals Mr. Morooka's death as the work of Jack the Ripoff, as he did have a clear cause of death), so how'd he find out?
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Golden he leaves the country if the Protagonist keeps his involvement a secret, but doesn't confront him...
• Serial Killer: Technically, he isn't one, as he only has two victims: Mayumi and Saki, and you need three to be officially considered a serial killer. The other victims were either Namatame's work (and all were rescued) or Mitsuo's. He does fit the spirit of the trope, however, as Namatame was his Unwitting Pawn he intended for Namatame to unknowingly kill the victims with the TV world.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Persona-wise, to Yu (his being the Evil Twin of Izanagi); motive-wise, to Yosuke (both share the same Small Town Boredom); but most of all, to the whole Investigation Team — whereas its members learn to accept themselves and each other for who they are and take responsibility for their actions, Adachi ignores his own faults, blames others for his problems, and keeps running away from the truth.
    • He's actually meant to be a counterpart to the main character in the sense that Yu uses his power to help people, while Adachi uses his power to harm. This is more apparent in the anime, where Yu had his own personality. The Golden further emphasizes this as Adachi had a similar childhood to Yu's and they share a mutual fondness for magic tricks. Furthermore, where the Investigation Team and especially the main character make friends, form bonds, have fun, relate to others, and generally try to do as much good as they can in their small town, Adachi stays isolated, broods over his less-than-glamorous situation, and thinks himself above everyone else, which leads him into his nihilistic viewpoint and his mission of destructive chaos.
    • Made even more apparent in Persona 4 Golden. He becomes a Social Link representing the Jester Arcana, which is an alternate version of the Fool Arcana that Yu represents. Moreover, should you get the bad "Accomplice" ending, Adachi will mockingly refer to you as his "partner" — Yosuke's affectionate nickname for Yu, perhaps reflecting that the protagonist has effectively swapped his "true" bond with Yosuke (which was based on trust, equality and a mutual desire to do good) for the "corrupt" bond with Adachi (which was based on deception and power imbalance). This also strengthens his status as Yosuke's Evil Counterpart.
  • While it's easy to miss, he can be one to Shu Nakajima, especially once Adachi's backstory is fleshed out in Golden and its animated adaptation. Like Shu, under pressure from his parents, Adachi had devoted his youth to his studies at the expense of his social life. And like Shu, Adachi developed deep-rooted jealousy towards those who were more talented than him. But while Shu realised under the tutelage of the protagonist that grades were not everything and learned to broaden his horizons beyond sticking to the "right" path of a good college and career, Adachi carried on the same path as he did and ultimately found himself in an unsatisfying and dead-end job. Had Shu not met the protagonist, it is likely that he would have ended up like Adachi.
• Shock and Awe: He uses lightning abilities during the battle.
• Shoo the Dog: In the additional months added in Golden, it's revealed that Adachi refuses to talk to or see Dojima in order to provoke this. It doesn't work, since Dojima remarks that Adachi has forgotten how persistent he is, and eventually gets through to him.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: He has quite a few one-liners to shut down the Investigation Team when they express indignation over what he's done and why he did it. Perhaps the most concise and to-the-point one is his response to calling him "a sad human being" or asking him what he'll tell Dojima.
  "You say the dumbest shit."
• Significant Double Casting: In the English version, both he (The Heavy) and Yu (The Hero) are voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch.
• Slasher Smile: Once when you chase him into the Midnight Channel. In the Accomplice End, when you burn the letter incriminating him, he laughs with a new character sprite.
• Small Name, Big Ego: For all his talk about being smarter than the hicks he shares a town with and being a criminal mastermind who got away with murder, the only reason the Investigation Team manage to narrow down and identify him as the true culprit is because of his own stupidity.
  • The warning letter he sent to the Dojima home without being noticed put him on a very short list of people who could do that.
  • By first trying to waylay suspicion to Namatame by saying how his list of victims "settles it", and later blurting out that Namatame "put them all in" when cornered, he pretty much incriminated himself with his own goddamn mouth twice, and the second time in front of his friend and the only good detective in town.
  • He thinks he's the center of the universe, and relishes in his status as the Killer. Too bad for him, as he's just a pawn of the Greater-Scope Villain.
• Small Town Boredom: His main motivation behind instigating Namatame's kidnappings, as he saw the cat-and-mouse game between Namatame and the Investigation Team as means to get excitement in his mundane life in Inaba.
• Smug Smiler: After being exposed as the true culprit, Adachi's main expression changes from Butt-Monkey to this. Whenever he reverts back to the goofy grin he had before, it now takes on a whole new level of smugness that was never there before.
• Smug Snake: Overly confident in his plans? Check. Outwardly arrogant and mocking of the heroes? Check. Aspiring for greater power only to turn out to be a pawn of a Greater-Scope Villain? Oooohh, check.
• The Sociopath: Adachi practically embodies this trope. Lack of Empathy for others? Check. Unwillingness to form genuine relationships with others? Check. Manipulative Bastard? Check. Grandiose sense of self-worth? Check. Pathological need for stimulation to the point that he would resort to murder? Definitely. On the other hand, unlike true sociopaths, Adachi genuinely cares for the Dojimas. It's just that he buries those feelings deep down and is unwilling to admit them.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Moreso in The Animation, where his voice is made softer and raspier in order to contrast with Yu's, due to them sharing the same voice actor.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Despite his Sour Prude attitude, he's shown to have some deep-rooted apathy and depression whenever he's alone. For all his claims that he finds fun in the bedlam caused by the murders he had committed, he can't even find satisfaction in his own sadism and depravity.
• Sour Prude:
  • When he accuses Saki of "fooling around" with Namatame, he acts disgusted with the thought of her being sexually active, then he mutters about his high school life.
  • He also projects this attitude towards success and intimacy upon the Investigation Team.
• Stalker with a Crush: To Mayumi and, to a lesser extent, Saki (because he thought Namatame, who "stole" Mayumi, was her sugar daddy).
• Straw Misogynist: Considers any woman who doesn't willingly give themselves in to him either a bitch or a whore.
• Straw Nihilist: When confronted, he delves into a rant about the pointlessness of life and how much easier it would be if everyone were to become Shadows. The Investigation Team calls him out on this, saying that he's just throwing a temper tantrum. On top of that, he's a hypocrite, because he thinks life is meaningless yet he doesn't want to die.
  "Those who succeed in life, they just happen to born with the magic ticket called 'talent.' If you don't have it, you can either accept or deny that fact until you die. That's your only choice. Once you realize that, all you have left in life is despair, the ultimate game over. Wouldn't it be better if that kind of reality was wiped away?"
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: He intends to merge the Shadow world and the real world basically because he can't conceive of anyone being happy in the world the way it currently is. The rest of the Investigation Team outright calls him childish for it.
• Super-Empowering: Those Adaptational Badass moments are suggested to be the result of being backed by Ameno-sagiri, who gives him control over Shadows and the TV world along with a power upgrade. Even after Ameno's defeat some of his power as a Sagiri remains in Adachi.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Gets these when inside the Midnight Channel, along with his Reality Warper powers mentioned above.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Certainly sees it this way at the very least. To his credit, besides Dojima, the Inaba Police force seems pretty incompetent.
• Tarot Motifs: As to be expected from an evil Social Link character, Adachi represents the Reversed Fool/Jester and the Reversed Strength/Hunger/Lust. His lack of maturity and his hedonism are indicative of the former while his unwillingness to face reality and habit of running away from the truth align with the latter.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: In such a small town like Inaba, it would be incredibly easy to fly under the radar by just not doing anything extraordinary. That makes it hurt more when the Investigation Team finds out that Adachi, the bumbling comic relief detective who works under Dojima, is the killer. It's hard to believe that a man the Dojimas have had over at their house for dinner several times is actually a closet Misanthrope Supreme who was willing to end the world just for kicks.
• Token Evil Teammate: Gets upgraded to this in Golden if you succeed in maxing his Social Link, where he cheers on Yu with the rest of the cast during the final battle, but does so by mockingly stating that if Yu gives up, he's no better than he is.
• Trick Boss: He starts out as a deceptively easy boss, then the Fog-Bringer possesses him and takes over.
• Troll: He constantly taunts your party as you progress through his dungeon.
  Adachi: Ahaha! I told you all to come, and you actually came!? Don't you guys have anything better to do? What a bunch of losers... "Let's find the culprit ourselves!" "Let's meet up today at the special headquarters today!" Am I right, or am I right? Man, it's embarrassing. How old are you guys? Ahahahahahahaha! Oh crap, my stomach's hurting... C'mon... You're all students, right? Shouldn't you be studying instead of wasting your time with this? Study hard, get into a good college, work at a respectable company, marry a cute girl... Why are you guys so desperate when it comes to something so useless? Won't you regret it once you're adults?
• True Companions: When all is said and done, despite Adachi denying it, Dojima is this to him:
  • Dojima cares enough about him to call in an ambulance to get his injuries treated immediately. The fact that his boss still cares enough about him for this surprises the hell out of Adachi and he seems to be touched.
  • By the epilogue, Dojima is stated to visit him in prison regularly, and Ultimax shows that Adachi is secretly glad that they can still be friends.

U-Z

• Ungrateful Bastard: While you definitely had it coming, his response to you burning the warning letter that could have incriminated him as the culprit is to blackmail you for abetting a murderer and rub the fact in your face.
• Unreliable Narrator: When he recounts his crimes, his rose-colored view of them is complemented by the player being shown exactly what happened. This is made more explicit in the anime, where the Investigation Team bears witness to full-on recreations of his past misdeeds while he narrates in a lackadaisical manner.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Due to going into the TV World for the first time, he lacks the battle experience of the Investigation Team. However, his Persona Magatsu Izanagi is incredibly powerful, and he's able to hold his own against the Investigation Team despite them being far more experienced in using their Personas than him.
• Unwanted Assistance: Feels this way toward the old lady in his Social Link and Dojima, whenever his boss deigns to be nice to him. Given who he is, he can never outright rebuke either of them. It also shows that he has no idea how to react to people who want to genuinely help him.
• Unwitting Pawn: His letter to Yu at the end of the game hints that he somewhat suspected he was being played by the Greater-Scope Villain Izanami, and his voicing such helps give the Investigation Team the little push it needs to flush out the true mastermind.
• Victory Is Boring: In the special Accomplice ending for Golden: The Animation, Adachi laments how boring it is once Yu leaves, even though Adachi had effectively won by blackmailing Yu for burning the warning letter.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: While Persona 4 has its fair share of dark moments, it is comparatively the most light-hearted and optimistic game out of the whole series. Adachi in contrast, does have his Laughably Evil moments, but is still an Ax-Crazy serial killer and a Sociopath.
• Villain Ball: The very warning letters he sent to Yu ultimately unraveled his game of cat and mouse. The messages he sent contradict Namatame's agenda of saving people, which causes the Investigation Team to realise that Namatame wasn't responsible for the murders and that there was another player involved. Not only that, but the warning letters also serve as a red flag that whoever sent them was familiar with Yu, which narrows down the list to Adachi.
• Villain Has a Point: Adachi has a hefty, if warped, understanding of the game's greater themes: the controversial nature of truth, the dissonance between perception and reality, the fickleness of human thought, and the arbitrary nature of who gets the things needed for success in life. While the heroes rebuke him during their battle, they come to the realization that they could become just like Adachi if they don't work towards bettering themselves. Rise points this out after Adachi asks whether the Investigation Team wants to catch the killer to fulfill their sense of justice or to alleviate their boredom. In conclusion, Adachi's premises (that life is random and most people are selfish and morally grey) are correct, but his conclusion (that life holds no meaning) is not.
  Rise: To be honest, I can't completely deny what he said... But that doesn't justify what he did... Right, Senpai?
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • When confronted at the end by the team once they rebuke his views in his face and call him out for his immaturity, he loses his smugness and lashes out at them in fury.
  • Taken up a notch in the anime after the team gets their Heroic Second Wind and begins defeating the Reapers one by one. He really does sound like a child throwing a tantrum.
• Vocal Evolution: In the English dub, Johnny Yong Bosch voices both Yu and Adachi. Since Yu doesn't speak much outside of battle grunts and calling Personas, Johnny's voice for Adachi is pretty much his regular speaking voice. In the anime though, where Yu actually gets to speak more, Adachi's voice is made more raspier, softer, and higher pitched to differentiate him from Yu, and to better fit both his fake role of Dojima's bumbling partner and his real one as the true culprit. This carries over into any spin off or adaptation from then on, although his voice loses the raspiness, his voice still maintains the higher pitch and sleazyness.
• Vomiting Cop: His first appearance. It's left ambiguous as to whether this was real or him faking it.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that he's a somewhat major character throughout the story - and a Social Link in Golden.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the Accomplice ending, Adachi gives a scathingly mocking one to the protagonist for burning the warning letter. While he took the opportunity to blackmail the protagonist, his off-guard reaction at first showed that he didn't expect that the protagonist had it in him to abet a killer simply due to personal feelings.
• When I Was Your Age...: Part of Adachi's motive rant against Saki after pushing her into a TV in a Yasoinaba Police Station interrogation room.
  "When I was in school, I wasn't allowed to do anything except to study my ass off."
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Actually does pull his gun on the Investigation Team during their final confrontation, but prefers to then duke it out with them using his Persona. In Golden, with a currently-maxed Jester link, you have the option to confront Adachi alone over their past friendship before the Investigation Team unites to tackle his dungeon the next day. With Adachi's Reality Warper abilities, he easily seals the entrance and teleports behind Yu with his gun pressed to his head, chiding his for his dumb actions of confronting a known adult killer alone. When Yu tries to claim Adachi doesn't truly have it in him to shoot his former friend, he gives a near-miss warning shot besides Yu's head to demonstrate that yes, he does, but he won't kill Yu straight away because that wouldn't be any fun, challenging him to return with the rest of his team and face him all together with their 'friendships' to make things more interesting for him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Has no qualms being abusive towards women who are his murder victims, even trying to sexually assault Mayumi when she spurned him. The manga adaptation shows him giving a brutal beatdown on the female members of the Investigation Team when they tried to battle him, including performing a Neck Lift on Rise, and he came very close to killing them.
• Would Hurt a Child: Has no qualms about murdering teenagers like Saki and the Investigation Team. The letters he writes also imply that he may have had a hand in trying to kill Nanako of all people, or at least knew she was going to be kidnapped by Namatame and did nothing to help her. On the other hand, he took it badly when Nanako died and the fact that he had to insist that "it was Yu's fault" to himself implies he regretted getting her involved and was trying to blame Yu for failing to save her rather than admit his own fault.

---

...Get up. You're not like me, right?

---