Manga / Persona 3

Cover to Volume 1

Persona 3 is a manga adaptation of the video game of the same name, written and illustrated by Shuji Sogabe. The series ran for 11 volumes between 2007 and 2017, and was published by Udon Entertainment in America.

In addition to those on the main page, this manga contains examples of the following tropes:

• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • Minato gains the ability to fuse Persona in the midst of the battle with Nyx Avatar, before fusing Orpheus and Thanatos into Messiah.
  • When it seems that nothing can stop Nyx, Minato gains access to the Universe arcana and the power to seal Nyx.
• Adapted Out:
  • The manga only runs to the end of the original game, so the events of The Answer aren’t touched upon.
  • The manga began publication before Persona 3 Portable was a thing, so there’s no reference to the Female Protagonist.
• Adaptation Distillation: For pacing, some events from the game are either removed completely or glossed over.
  • Minato only wields a total of three Persona across the manga, as opposed to the full compendium of the game.
  • The exploration of Tartarus is largely glossed over - Minato, Yukari and Junpei are shown embarking on their first journey into the tower, and then the exploration of the tower is largely glossed over until they need to reach the top to confront Nyx.
  • The operation at Shirakawa Boulevard is largely glossed over, with the only part of the operation shown to the reader being the Lovers shadow attempting to mind control Minato and Yukari into sex, and the same with Akihiko and Junpei.
  • Most of the Social Links are completely absent from the manga, with the narrative only touching on those belonging to Yukari and Aigis.
  • Whilst the manga doesn’t touch upon the events of The Answer, the Playable Epilogue of Persona 3, it does incorporate some of the flashbacks seen in the Abyss of Time - namely Mitsuru awakening to her power, and Yukari receiving her father’s letter.
  • Junpei’s backstory revolving around his relationship with his father isn’t touched upon in the original game, and is instead only mentioned during The Answer and his Social Link with the Female Protagonist in Persona 3 Portable; here, he talks about his relationship with his father as SEES try to decide whether to kill Ryoji or not.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • During the first half of the manga, Ryoji is shown sharing a close friendship with Minato. At the time of publication, only the original version of the game and Updated Re-release FES been released, with Ryoji's relationship with the Protagonist not being developed until the release of Portable in 2011 provided a Social Link between him and the Female Protagonist.
  • Mitsuru’s execution is simply a Fate Worse than Death left for the player to imagine in the game; the manga was the first adaptation to depict it as Mitsuru literally freezing people with her Persona’s Ice magic, which would carry over to her Instant Kill in Persona 4: Arena.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Orpheus, the starter Persona in the game, is Arisato’s Persona through most of the manga.
  • Akihiko stays behind to fight Jin one-on-one whilst the rest of the team heads to the summit of Tartarus; similarly, Mitsuru does the same with Takaya, before Junpei takes her place after she is disarmed. Both fights require a full party in the game, whilst the anime depicts Jin and Takaya facing a team of Akihiko, Junpei and Aigis.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Minato summons Thanatos during the fight with the Hanged Man shadow; it’s impossible to summon Thanatos without first completing the Death Social Link, which automatically completes following the battle.
• Adaptational Name Change: The nameless protagonist of Persona 3 is named Minato Arisato here, as the manga began publication before Makoto Yuki became his Canon Name.
• Adaptational Personality Change:
  • Junpei’s resentment and jealousy of Minato isn’t as prominent as in the original game.
  • Akihiko is much more vocally angry after Ikutsuki moves Ken into the dorm than he is in the game.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Aigis towards Minato, as of Volume 8. She realises her feelings for him after Chidori’s resurrection, but when she tries to tell him, Minato thanks her for giving him the life he currently has by sealing Death within him, which the manga treats as a polite rejection.
• Almost Kiss: Yukari and Minato share one after he comforts her at Yakushima Beach upon finding out her father is responsible for the Dark Hour, before Junpei interrupts.
• Ambiguous Situation: The final volume ends in the same manner as the game, with one notable change - as the members of SEES arrive on the Gekkoukan rooftop, having remembered their promise to meet there on graduation day, Arisato stands up to greet them. It is unclear if this is supposed to indicate his survival, or if it is just symbolic of him watching over his friends.
• Ambiguously Gay: Akihiko, most heavily implied when the Lovers Shadow mind controls Junpei in an attempt to seduce him in the same manner as Minato and Yukari.
• Anachronic Order:
  • Heavily utilised over the course of the first four volumes, as Volume 1 begins in the midst of SEES fighting the Hanged Man shadow on the Moonlight Bridge, before skipping ahead to Ryoji’s arrival at Gekkoukan High, before finally going back to Arisato's arrival at the Iwatodai Dorm in April. The following two volumes jump between these two narrative points; SEES working to eliminate the Greater Shadows in the Spring, and Ryoji arriving at Gekkoukan and befriending Arisato and Junpei in the lead up to the Kyoto trip.
  • Volume 4 begins 8 years in the past, as Mitsuru awakens to her Persona, jumps ahead to Mitsuru grieving her father’s death during the Kyoto trip, jumps back to the aftermath of the July full moon operation and up to the first day of the Yakushima trip, before jumping back to the aftermath of the November full moon operation and the death of Mitsuru’s father, before jumping back and forth between the aftermath and the Kyoto trip to contrast Yukari and Mitsuru resolving to keep fighting, before ending with the Hot Springs incident.
  • Chapter 31 features Ryoji and Aigis’ confrontation at the Moonlight Bridge, before Chapter 32 cuts back to July and Aigis’ first encounter with SEES, and Chapter 33 shows Chapter 31’s climax from the perspective of the rest of SEES.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When Messiah faces off against Nyx Avatar, both entities are large enough to drawf the Moonlight Bridge.
• Big Entrance: Aigis at the Kyoto hot springs.
  Yukari and Fuuka are relaxing in the hot spring, before being disturbed by the door slamming open.
  Aigis: I HAVE ARRIVED!!
• Brought Down to Normal: Yukari has trouble summoning Io when she starts questioning her resolve during the August full moon operation.
• Butt-Monkey: Junpei, perhaps more so than the original game, with the manga’s version of the July full moon operation featuring Junpei trying to seduce Akihiko whilst under the influence of the Lovers shadow, and numerous instances of Junpei getting punched in the face by another member of SEES.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • The silhouette of Labrys from the drama CDs and Persona 4: Arena is seen as SEES are told about the Anti Shadow Weapon initiative, after first meeting Aigis.
  • The various Social Links and shopkeepers from Persona 3 appear as onlookers during Nyx’s arrival.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • After Yukari gives Arisato his extra homework assignments to catch up on the week of school he missed after awakening to his Persona, she immediately turns to Junpei and informs him that their teacher also asked her to tell him to study harder otherwise he’ll be held back a year.
  • The girls realise they're not alone in the Kyoto hot springs after Arisato nearly drowns and bursts out of the water gasping for air. On top of that, it’s the boys' attempt to escape unseen that ultimately winds up getting them caught.
• Chekhov's Gun: The knife Yukari gives Arisato to protect himself during the Magician shadow’s attack on the Dorm. He ultimately uses it strike the final blow against Nyx Avatar.
• Continuity Snarl: Yukari is shown using her Persona’s wind magic through the first six volumes of the manga; her inner monologue during Volume 7, however, suggests that her Persona doesn’t have an ability to help her fight on her own and just has healing magic.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Thanks to the story being told in Anachronic Order, the first four volumes are built around Ikutsuki’s betrayal of SEES. Subsequently, Strega take centre stage as the antagonists following their introduction in Volume 5.
  • Volume 4 as a whole is one for Yukari and Mitsuru, with the narrative contrasting their respective relationships with their fathers.
  • Chapter 32 is focused on Aigis, featuring her reawakening at Yakushima and first encounter with the rest of SEES, her background as an Anti Shadow Weapon, and her perspective on the events surrounding the November Full Moon operation.
  • Chapter 35 is largely devoted to adapting Yukari’s Social Link and Christmas date from the game, and her romantic feelings for Minato.
  • Portions of Chapters 40 to 44 adapt Aigis’ Social Link from the game.
• Did Not Think This Through: After the girls catch the boys in the Kyoto hot springs, Ryoji tries to avoid Mitsuru’s execution by disguising himself as Arisato. Mitsuru just freezes them both within a block of ice instead of executing them individually.
• Dramatic Irony: Yukari resolves to tell Arisato how she feels about him after the battle with Nyx; she loses her memories of their time fighting together - and the extent of her feelings for him - after the battle, and doesn’t regain them until graduation day, when Minato is running on fumes and (potentially) about to die after sealing Nyx.
• Epic Fail: Arisato's attempt at playing a train driving arcade game is so disastrous that Junpei and Ryoji are left stunned at the trail of destruction left in the game.
• Everyone Can See It: Yukari realises that Aigis has developed feelings for Arisato, despite Aigis never speaking to her on the matter.
• Fanservice:
  • Yukari’s infamous shower scene during the July full moon operation at Shirakawa Boulevard is shown in flashback, and not only features a full body shot of Yukari wearing a towel, but a full on topless shot.
  • The scene at the Kyoto hot springs is much more risqué than in the original game, with numerous shots of the girls showing off their figures - and rather than wrap a towel around their bodies like in the game, they instead opt for just holding it in front of themselves.
• Gratuitous French:
  • Each volume is referred to as a "Chapitre"^note French for "Chapter" and is numbered in French, and each individual chapter is referred to as a "Piece" and given a French name.
  • Notably absent from Mitsuru's dialogue in the English translation.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Aigis realises that she has feelings for Arisato, she admits to Fuuka that as much as she wants to be by his side, she’s aware that she can’t interfere if Arisato has feelings for someone else or vice versa, as doing so would qualify as causing harm to a human, which runs contrary to Aigis’ programming.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Akihiko and Ken try to stop Junpei’s Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Strega by invoking this.
• Implied Love Interest: As the manga doesn’t include the majority of the Social Links and instead focuses on telling the main story, the only love interests from the game to receive any noteworthy teasing are the two that are teased within the main narrative of the original game,Yukari and Aigis - which are also notably, the only Social Links to be partially adapted to the manga. Ultimately, the manga settles on Yukari as the de-facto love interest and gives that relationship the most focus and teasing.
• Inconsistent Dub: Early volumes of the manga had all of S.E.E.S. on a First-Name Basis, with even the initially aloof Mitsuru using first names on others. Later volumes had most of the characters be on a Last-Name Basis with each other, more like the original Japanese version of the game.
• Mythology Gag:
  • During the battle with the Hanged Man, Arisato is disarmed and winds up borrowing Junpei’s katana; in the original version of Persona 3, the Protagonist was able to wield every weapon in the game.
  • Junpei winds up wearing Teddie’s gag glasses from Persona 4 at one point during SEES’ Christmas party.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Part of the reason the guys were still in the hot spring when the girls turned up is because after being asked about the hot springs, Minato and Akihiko took 20 minutes to finish their table tennis game.
• Offhand Backhand:
  • Akihiko delivers one to Junpei after they’ve been separated in Tartarus whilst trying to rescue Fuuka.
  • Yukari delivers one to Junpei after she fails to get a straight answer from Aigis over her interest in Minato, and Junpei subsequently teasingly accuses Yukari of being jealous.
  • Akihiko delivers another one to Junpei as S.E.E.S. take a photo with Mitsuru’s father as they prematurely celebrate the end of the Dark Hour; as opposed to Junpei somehow losing his balance and falling over as in the original game.
• Personality Powers: During Volume 7, Yukari’s inner monologue suggests that the reason her Persona is so adept with healing magic is because it’s an embodiment of her fear of losing more people she cares about.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Zig-zagged. After defeating Nyx, the members of SEES lose their memories of the Dark Hour, but retain their memories of their interconnected relationships - there’s just holes relating to their activities in SEES; most notably, no-one remembers Aigis and even she doesn’t remember anything after her reactivation during the group’s trip to Yakushima.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Chidori sacrifices herself to save him, Junpei is so enraged that Moros is unable to fully protect Jin from Trismigestus' fire attacks, and Takaya is nearly burned alive. It ultimately takes Arisato intervening with Thanatos to stop him.
• Save the Villain: After Junpei nearly burns Takaya alive after Chidori’s death, Yukari uses her Persona to heal him.
• Ship Sinking: When Aigis tells Minato about her desire to be with him in Chapter 44, he responds by thanking her for the life he’s currently living as a result of her sealing death within him 10 years earlier, which Aigis’ inner monologue notes isn’t much of a response. The ship is fully sank in the subsequent scene, as Yukari admits her feelings for Minato to Aigis, who had noted in the previous chapter that her programming dictates that she can’t interfere if someone has feelings for Minato as doing so would count as causing harm to a human.
• Ship Tease:
  • Minato comforting Yukari at Yakushima Beach is escalated to include an Almost Kiss.
  • Chapter 35 adapts several scenes with romantics overtones from Yukari’s Social Link and her Christmas Eve date, and as such features several scenes of the two going on dates together. Additionally, these scenes all take place after Ryoji gives SEES the choice to fight Nyx or not, and Chapter 36 opens with them returning home on Christmas Eve, whereupon Yukari admits to Fuuka that she’s made her decision - which in turn gives the implication that part of the reason for Minato and Yukari resolving to fight to the end is due to their feelings for one another.
  • In Chapter 43, Aigis realises that her desire to protect Minato has remained even though the motivating factor that she sealed Death within him no longer applies, and that she has romantic feelings for him.
  • In Chapter 44, Yukari tells Minato about her intent to speak with her mother once they’ve stopped the Fall, with this scene being positioned as the last conversation Minato has before SEES set-off for the top of Tartarus on January 31st.
  • As the second years head to school in Chapter 48, Yukari admits that there’s something she wants to tell Minato, but she can’t remember what it is due to losing her memories of the Dark Hour. When they’re back at the dorm, Minato asks her to let him know when she remembers, before assuring her that there’s no rush as they’ll still be together going forward.
• Shout-Out:
  • Minato taking Junpei’s katana in Chapter 1 is accompanied by a “Yoink!” sound effect.
  • Junpei's reaction to Chidori's revival is to ask if he's being Punk'd.
• Silent Protagonist: Subverted with Minato. Whilst the change in medium from video game to manga requires that he speak, he largely remains silent and only speaks when necessary.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Chidori's Disney Death introduced in Persona 3 FES is included here.
  • The ending of the manga is deliberately ambiguous as to the fate of Arisato, with one interpretation of the ending being his survival.
• Spotting the Thread: After losing their memories of the Dark Hour, the various members of SEES begin spotting the holes in their memories.
  • As in the game, Junpei realises that he doesn’t remember how he became friends with Yukari.
  • Yukari realises that she intended to tell Minato about her feelings for him, but without the context of their deeper relationship, just recognises that she wanted to tell him something but can't remember what it specifically was.
  • Akihiko realises that he can’t remember doing anything other than boxing and occasionally hanging out with the others at the dorm.
  • Mitsuru and Akihiko both realise that the photo the team took with her father is dated for the night he died, which doesn’t line up with their memories of him dying from illness.
• Strip Poker: On the train to Kyoto, Yukari agrees to a game of poker with Junpei, Kenji and Ryoji to pass the time; the three boys then decide to make it a strip poker game with the goal of focusing on Yukari. Junpei loses the first hand and his hat, and then Ms. Toriumi tells them to knock it off.
• Super-Deformed:
  • When the infuriated Yukari defeats the Lovers shadow in flashback, she’s depicted in this style.
  • Utilised again during Chapter 32, when Junpei teases Yukari about being jealous of Aigis’ attachment to Minato.
    Aigis: Yes. Being by his side is what matters most to me.
    Yukari: THAT DOESN’T ANSWER ANY OF MY QUESTIONS!
    Junpei: What’s this? Is little Yukari feeling jealous? That’s adorable! But you know she’s a robot, right?
    [Yukari backhands Junpei in the face.]
    Yukari: I’M NOT JEALOUS!!
• Switching P.O.V.: The manga switches perspectives between members of S.E.E.S., depending on who's central to the story at the moment.
• Traitor Shot: Subverted in Aigis' spotlight chapter, which shows her talking to Ikutsuki and features a prominent shot of the remote he uses to control her and capture the rest of S.E.E.S. after they discover the Dark Hour hasn't been destroyed - it comes several chapters after Ikutsuki's betrayal, but serves to remind the reader of the events that are about to transpire.
• Trauma Button: Junpei trying to burn Takaya alive triggers Yukari’s trauma over her father’s death, as the sight of Takaya engulfed in flame reminds her of the video showing her father die in an explosion.
• What Does She See in Him?: Yukari asks this of herself, after falling for Minato.
  Yukari: Geez. [Sigh] Why on Earth did I fall for a guy like him? He barely speaks. He’s always got that blank look. I can never tell what he’s thinking.
  Aigis: No, none of that is true at all! Minato is a wonderful person.
  Yukari: No, Aigis. This is where you’re supposed to support what I’m saying.