Part 123: Volume 2

It's time for a MEGA ART UPDATE.



People

Protagonist


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From top to bottom: I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS, chilling on the status screen, chilling on the status screen with glasses.

Yosuke Hanamura


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The Junes scion, or Junpei II for those who have played Persona 3. He stance is friendly and inviting, but at the same time lacks weight, making it seem like he could fly off at any time. His headphones suggest some manner of isolation from the outside world as using them drowns out external noise; a similar design is seen in The World Ends With You's protagonist, Neku Sakuraba. However, his not wearing them at the moment shows that he has some outer connections.


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Yosuke's design sketches. Of all characters, the US artbook notes, he changed the least from conception to final design. His headphones seem to be a later addition.


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Facial Expressions: KICKASS, normal, glasses.


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Shadow Yosuke's expressions. Note the heavy shadows and almost pupiless gold eyes.

Teddie


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CG. He looks exactly like a stuffed bear; you could actually preorder special versions of the game with a stuffed Teddie when it first came out. He is extremely cute, probably to endear himself to the player. The giant buttons and color scheme invoke comparisons to court jesters. Why he is empty but still has a zipper is a mystery.


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Expressions. I don't know how he makes them when he's a giant bear costume(?).

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Sketches and design, with height comparison to human at top left. His design varied greatly over the creative process, ranging from "OH GOD WTF IS THIS THING" (see multicolored nightmare bear) to "why am I not in a Disney movie?" (see giant eyes in the middle of the page).

Mayumi Yamano and Misuzu Hiiragi


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Mayumi and the object of her hatred, Misuzu Hiiragi. Hiiragi is in traditional dress; makes sense, given that she's an enka singer and what we see of her are publicity photos and posters. Yamano is pretty normal looking. There are probably tons on Japanese women that look like her.

Saki Konishi


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Expressions and concepts. Saki is also rather mundane, although she's pretty morose looking. Her normality and Yamano's is probably intended to disturb. "Normal people" like you and I are supposed to live normal lives, not be killed.

Persona

Izanagi


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CG. The US artbook notes that Izanagi is supposed to look like a "bancho", or highschool delinquent leader. His stance is similar to the Protagonist's, and his dark clothes match the Protagonist's. His mythology includes a myth similar to the Greek Orpheus (who is P3's Protagonist's starter persona) and Eurydice.


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Concept sketches. His eyes seem to be of great importance and are quite menacing close up. Although Izanagi protects the protagonist, he is not exactly kind.

Jiraiya

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CG. No, he's not Mickey Mouse, those are eyes and the yellow V is his mouth. Jiraiya was a ninja who could turn into a huge toad, which is why the persona has froggy fingers, green trimmings, and such a huge grin. The stars are probably meant to be shuriken.


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Design sketches. Some of the earlier concepts are evocative of an actual ninja (bottom left), while others feature a warrior on a toad (bottom right).

Enemies

Hablerie


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Design and sketches. "Habler" (ah-blay) is French for "to brag"; it's borrowed from Spanish "hablar" (ah-blar), "to speak"; "hablerie" is boasting. Their large mouths and tongues are certainly appropriate.

Shadow Yosuke (Boss)


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Sketches. Looking at the second page and the top of the first, one can see that the original intention was for a creepier version of Yosuke's human shadow to ride a toad version of Jiraiya. Along the way, the human half of Jiraiya has taken his place, making the boss look much more like the resultant persona.

Objects

Glasses




The Protagonists and Yosuke's glasses, respectively. The colors of each are meant to be their "signature" colors.

Yosuke's Headphones



The headphones themselves are in his signature orange color. For some reason he uses a CD player despite living in Japan, land of cheap MP3 players.

Illustration of the Day


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Protagonist summoning Izanagi. I wish that this was how he always did it, but the PS2 does have graphical limitations.

Sketch of the Day


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Saki's body on the antenna, with concept for the TV world entrance at bottom. The body is skewered sideways on the antenna instead of hanging upside down. The TV world concept features a couch just like the one most people watch TV on.

Next Time: Pretty pink princesses, yay!