Is Tohru Adachi a Good Villian?
Yes, and here’s why…
This blog contains some topics that some readers may find disturbing, as well as spoiling elements from ‘Persona 4’ and it’s extension ‘Persona 4 GOLDEN’. Consider this your warning folks!
If you have played ‘Persona 4’ or/and ‘Persona 4 GOLDEN’, you would know that the neatly dressed, mild-mannered, bad pun creator, cabbage hating detective Tohru Adachi was the mastermind behind the various murders in the game’s peaceful fictional town of Inaba.
The game spends a vast amount of time trying to get you, the player, and your (in-game) friends in The Investigation Team work out just who is responsible for these crimes and to be honest, anybody with a pulse could have worked that he was behind it. Adachi is the only major character in the game you don’t start a social link with, and whilst ‘Persona 4 GOLDEN’ does a better job at hiding it with an added interesting social link, it is still fairly obvious.
I am going to make an assumption that this twist in ‘Persona 4’ is well known, as I have had heard/read many discussions online, and a couple in real life, about Adachi being the villain in ‘Persona 4’. Many people would tell you that Adachi is not a particularly good villain for the world of ‘Persona 4’, for his motives for killing people are unrealistic. At first glance, this makes sense, as he openly admits that he enjoys causing people pain, sees humanity as worthless and casually claims he wants to wipe out the entire human race. He also admits to not really having any reason for doing the things he does, which is where the unrealism makes itself known. To quote from the game;
Reasons…? None, really. I could do it, that’s all. And it was fun…I guess that was my reason? — Tohru Adachi, ‘Persona 4’
It is this mindset that is questioned by fans, and it is this mindset I wish to explore with two questions, that may at first seemed separate from each other, but are actually rather similar.
- Is Adachi a realistic character, whose villainous behaviour true to life?
- Does this portrayal of him fight within the story and themes of ‘Persona 4’?
Answering Question 1
Like working out the plot twist to ‘Persona 4’, it does not take long to find real-world comparisons to Adachi’s character. For example, the diary entries of Eric Harris, one of the two students responsible behind the Columbine High School massacre that took place 20th April 1999.
From reading the first entry of this diary, it is very clear that this kid needed a psychiatrist…and an exorcist. You can find the full diary here (amongst other places), but if you don’t want to read it in whole, I will quote snippets to you;
I have a goal to destroy as much as possible so I must not be sidetracked by my feelings of sympathy, mercy, or any of that…I want to burn the world, I want to kill everyone except about 5 people, who I will name later, so If you are reading this you are lucky you escaped my rampage because I wanted to kill you.— Eric Harris, 23rd October 1998
I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don’t fucking say, “well thats your fault” — Eric Harris, 3rd April 1999
On 18th May 2018, a Dimitrios Pagourtzis was taken into custody as the suspect killer behind a school shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, Ten people (eight students and two teachers) were fatally shot and thirteen others were wounded. It is said that Dimitrios was a victim of bullying by multiple students and coaches (or PE teachers to you Brits out there) and his journals on his computer and phone suggested that planned on doing this for some time (source 1 & source 2).
Both of these people were probably left on their own, brooding on their isolation, thinking that they are better than the rest of the world, with no proper way to engage with the rest of society. If you are filled with such hatred for humanity, believing you are wolf among sheep, then why should you care if the cattle are worth living? Better still, they should be grateful for this blessing. Letting this sort of thinking go unchecked, you become a Dimitrios Pagourtzis or an Eric Harris, or, more relevantly, Tohru Adachi.
In ‘Persona 4’, Adachi spends most of his time on his own, with no friends to be with. He is bored out of his mind in Inaba, which would have none of the excitement of his former city life. Until the murders of ‘Persona 4’, he is doing paperwork and probably doing more petty crimes, being treated like garbage from Ryotaro Dojima, his boss, and the rest of the police force. None of them really respects him. That covers the aforementioned isolation.
It is shown frequently across the ‘Persona 4’ games that he is rather intelligent, an ace in the police academy. He knows he’s smart and hates his position at Inaba Police Station, seeing them, the town and everyone within it, below him. It’s terrifying really, what isolation and arrogance can do to a person, twisting and distorting their mind into thinking that life and everyone is worthless and deserves to die.
Using my previous case studies, they were limited by reality to commit their crimes. Adachi has the power to follow his thought process, through his gift of summoning Personas (and being partially possessed by Ameno-sagiri), where he becomes pretty close to annihilating everything. You can probably see the realism of his villainy when compared to this case studies of mine. He is no manipulator wanting world domination through power, money and respect who twirls and strokes his malevolent beard/moustache, cackling sinisterly to himself and/or his empire. These more stereotypical villains can lack this simpler humanity of Adachi’s motivations.
I think ‘Persona 4’ makes you want to think there is a more traditional mastermind behind the murders. Adachi doesn’t shove people into the TV because of some sick trauma that he is replicating, but because said victims have angered him in one way or another and just can, not really caring what happens to them. To cast aside the expected villain arch for likes of Adachi is something I admire.
Adachi is a good villain (to me at least) because you can easily trace how he became what he is by the end of the game, and when you begin to connect the dots, it is rather frightening how easy it is to see that. But how does this all fit into the world of ‘Persona 4’?
Answering Question 2
To answer that, one must ask another question: what is the point of ‘Persona 4’, as a narrative?
Well, it is made clear at the beginning of the game when the player is introduced to Igor and Margret in the Velvet Room. They make you VERY aware that your social links (or confidants to you ‘Persona 5’ only players) are the sources of your strength and therefore determine who you are. You must go out into the world, make some friends, learn from them, have a better understanding of life and thus become a better person as a result (this is actually the common theme throughout all of the ‘Persona’ games, as well as many films, anime and over forms of media).
It is actually how we, in real life, evolve and mature, but the Persona games reward the player for helping your friends out, being there for them and giving them plenty of shoulders to cry on. The game does this by allowing you to fuse/create bigger and better Personas of a certain arcana (Tower, Emperor, Moon, etc). It forcibly demonstrates that strong bonds equal strength itself and not allow one’s self misery overwhelm you, which is where Adachi returns.
Adachi is the perfect reflection of the protagonist of ‘Persona 4’. Whilst you are having fun making friends, Adachi is a loner. Whilst you are learning and growing, Adachi is stuck, obsessing how shit his life is. You approach the world with gleeful optimism and do your good deed(s) for the day, Adachi doesn’t. He is above everyone else and doesn’t need such folly. He plans to introduce as much pandemonium as possible before ultimately smashing the reset button on society. It is so over the top that it borderlines cartoon levels of silly, but it is a real trap that real people fall into constantly. Some fall deeper than others…
During ‘Persona 4’, each of your party members must confront a nastier part of themselves, that manifests itself as their Shadow, which they must accept and integrate into themselves, to form a strong bond with oneself, manifesting in the form of a Persona. The only member of The Investigation Team who doesn’t do this is you, as ATLUS have no idea what your insecurities are, but the game will know your social links, the friends and decisions you’ve made, trying to do good and save Inaba from a crazy murderer.
With a good 80 odd hours under your belt, you eventually face off the closest thing that you can compare to your Shadow, which is Adachi. He is your darkest possible outcome, which would spawn if you hated life as much as him. Without all the things you did in ‘Persona 4’, you would become Adachi. If that hasn’t convinced you, Adachi’s main Persona, Magatsu-Izanagi, is a darker version of your main/starting Persona, Izanagi!
Coda
Once you defeat Adachi, you see something that you do not want to become, recognising the darkness that lurks within us all, which could cause great harm to yourself and/or anyone else if said thoughts are not checked up on. Sure, the writing of ‘Persona 4’ and ‘Persona 4 GOLDEN’ aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but it is quite the shame that people only like him because he is has a similar Persona to you and/or people hate because of his lack of narrative progression, that he’s too ‘edgy’ and has unrealistic motivations. His way of thinking has shown itself on many, similar evil people before him, and there have been more after him. Under the right conditions, you could be next…
If you have found this blog at all interesting, I wrote a blog which I review ‘Persona 4’ and ‘Persona 4 GOLDEN’ (to an extent), which are more than welcome to read, if you so wish.
What do you think of Adachi? Let’s start a conversation, people!
