Suzui Shiho: The Girl Persona 5 Forgot

Almost all the villains in Persona 5 are based on real events that happened in Japan. Despite what the game claims at the beginning, this is not all fictional. To have such a high-profile game so blatantly show the underside of Japanese society is quite daring, and marks it as one of the most important games of recent years. However, the game is not perfect. One if its most persistent flaws is how it focuses so much on the villains, that their victims end up marginalized or forgotten in the process. Today we’re going to talk about one of these victims. Suzui Shiho. Spoilers after the jump, content warning for discussion of attempted suicide and rape.

The Meta of the Metaverse: How Persona 5 Tricked its Players

Everyone comes into media with expectations. Its unavoidable. Even more so when its a new entry in a popular series. These expectations may be fulfilled, or they may fall flat on their face, but generally that is only on the audience itself. Sometimes, however, a work is seemingly aware of these expectations, going out of its way to give the audience what they want, or purposefully give them what they don’t. It is the rare work, however, that integrates these expectations into its own text, and using them to surprise the audience in ways otherwise impossible.

Persona 5, the long-awaited and quite well received newest entry in its series is one of those works. What did it do? Well, if you’ve played it you probably know, but if you don’t or don’t ever plan on playing it, lets talk about it. Major spoilers, of course, after the jump!