jamais vu
n : the experience of being unfamiliar with a person or situation that is actually very familiar

DO NOT READ THIS PAGE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE HORRIBLY SPOILED FOR TSUMI.

KASHIHARA JUN

The former Joker on the Other Side. Maya dubbed him Tatsuya's doppelganger, and he's definitely his best friend (unless you picked them to be lovers in Tsumi, in which case he's a friend-with-benefits? *laugh*) Anyways, Jun is extremely important in Tsumi's storyline and Tatsuya's weird life on the Other Side, so that's why you *have* to meet him, no matter which route you intend to take.

Q: How is Batsu Jun different from Tsumi Jun?
A: As usual, he's kind of spacey, but his presence is still a bit striking. I'm sure he's mumbling about flower language as always. *laugh* His family has the most perfect relationship in the world, so I think that he's much more easygoing than he was in the previous game. Therefore, when he was summoned by King Leo, without doubt, he nonchalantly went. Also, I think he's having his own kind of deja vu-like feelings, so he probably wanted to see for himself what was going on.
In the Batsu world, Jun and the others never played the Persona-sama game, but since some of the Tsumi side is mixed in, they should tentatively be able to call forth Personae. But they wouldn't do so unless they were in trouble.

Apparently the note that Jun got from Sudou read, "It has to be you." Rumor was that it must have been from an ex-girlfriend! *laugh*

Kasugayama HS is a school for problem boys and juvenile delinquents (Eikichi got in because of his tendency to get into fights). On the Tsumi side, Jun went there because he really was a juvenile delinquent. He was so pretty that other boys liked to pick on him, whereupon Jun would summon his persona and almost kill them. So he had a really terrible reputation; he actually scared the crap out of all the juvenile delinquents in Kasu HS when he transferred in! (I don't know where people got the idea that he got beaten up by juvenile delinquents...no, he was the one administering all the beat-downs. He's pretty and wispy and likes flower language, but he'll kill you if you annoy him. Scary guy...but then, he is the former Joker!) So the question is...if he's not as cool and violent on This Side, why's he still going to Kasu HS? He's probably smart enough to get into Seven Sisters.

Q: Why does Jun go to Kasu High even in the Batsu world?
A: It's fate. *laugh* In Tsumi he was bullied, and his Persona came out...that was the reason, but he's actually quite smart. That's why I think that perhaps he had circumstances similar to Student Council President Inoue's - he was sick in bed on the day of the entrance exams. Well, he didn't think much of it. Maybe he just decided to go because it's close to where he lives. He doesn't seem like the type who'd pay a lot of attention to such things.

That lighter scene on the blimp. What's up with that? Well, on the Other Side, Tatsuya and Jun were best friends when they were kids. They were so close that they were almost two halves of the same person. So they decided to exchange presents, things that were really important to them. Jun gave Tatsuya his father's lighter (he said, 'Since you're me, it's not like I'm giving it away; I still have it!') and Tatsuya in return gave Jun his own father's watch. (If you look at the Kaneko art for both boys, you can see Tatsuya's holding the lighter and Jun's obviously wearing that watch.) So on This Side, Jun feels the strange compulsion to give Tatsuya his dad's lighter...but Tatsuya has nothing to exchange for it, so he apologizes.

Q: Where did Jun get the lighter that he had?
A: Jun's father gave it to him when he quit smoking. "I'm not smoking, so I'll give it to you." He exchanged it with Tatsuya for a watch in Tsumi, but since the two of them had never met in the Batsu world, naturally, Jun still had the lighter.

If you take the Nanjou route, you meet Eikichi again. Eikichi is a gang leader at Kasugayama High School (well, the type who prevents his classmates from smoking and bullying each other, of course.) On the Other Side, Tatsuya and Jun both joined his band, Gas Chamber, so that's why you see him idly suggesting the idea to Miyabi at the end of Batsu.

MISHINA EIKICHI

Q: In Batsu, Eikichi wanted to be Nanjou's pupil, so...?
A: What WILL come of that? Nanjou smiled and seemed to be finished with the issue. But because of Sugimoto and other things, he might still sometimes see Nanjou after the incident. But because Nanjou knows everything about the situation, it might be a complex state of mind for Nanjou. Therefore, I don't think he made Eikichi his pupil.

Q: Did Eikichi become the Captain by force in the Batsu world?
A: Well, I think he thought something like "I'm the only Captain there is." Since Tsumi Eikichi is mixed in with Batsu Eikichi, he should have Persona ability, but since he's been an average human up until now, he didn't bring out his Persona and use its power to become Captain. Naturally, since the Batsu world was created from their unconscious desires and whatnot, becoming Captain might be something that Tsumi Eikichi had wished for.

In Tsumi, Miyabi and Eikichi had been friends when they were kids, and she was popular while he was fat and dorky and liked to draw manga. But someone pulled down his pants in front of her and she told him that she hated fat people, so he went a radical weightloss program/image makeover. She, conversely, felt horrible at having been peer-pressured into insulting him (yeah, whatever) and let herself become chubby out of guilt. So in Tsumi, when you meet Miyabi, she's chubby and completely unrecognizable to Eikichi. Part of the game involves rescuing her when she does stupid things, like joining the Masquerade to become skinny again.

Q: Has Eikichi's relationship with Miyabi remained unchanged since they were kids?
A: It hasn't changed. They've been good friends, and they're still together now. That's also due to Eikichi's wishes. Since they never hurt each other, Miyabi never got fat and remained a slim beauty. You could say that things sure worked out nicely. *laugh* Since they shouldn't have changed at the basic level, I think Miyabi's personality is the same as it was in Tsumi. I think that her boorish traits such as pigging out were naturally cut out. *laugh*

But if you take Eriko's route, you get Lisa. Lisa is a gen-yoo-ine Caucasian in Japan; she really does have blonde hair and blue eyes. Since she was raised by complete Japanophiles, she's fluent in Japanese and can barely speak a word of English, despite appearances. On the Other Side, her blonde hair and blue eyes made her stand out so much that she got picked on as a kid, and she developed a big complex about being unique and having people assume that she was a cool English-speaking gaijin, so she became quite the social-ladder-climber. She became a idol singer as a result of rumors (Joker-sama was trying to draw out his old friends through rumors). But it looks like on This Side, a lot of her more unpleasant social-climbing tendencies have been eliminated, and she's not pissed off at her parents anymore for being such Japanophile freaks. (Her dad is basically Steven Seagal..*laugh* Even the Japanese make fun of him!)

LISA SILVERMAN

Q: So Lisa is making her debut with the MUSES again?
A: In Tsumi, Miipo and Asacchi alone asked Joker-sama to make them debut as idols, but the Batsu world situation is also a reflection of Lisa's wishes. Her wish was not to become an idol, but she felt guilty and wanted to better her relationship with Miipo and Asacchi. As for why Ginji Sasaki is producing the MUSES again, I feel like that's probably another of Nyarlathotep's fateful interventions.

Lisa also had a huge crush on Tatsuya in Tsumi; she thought he'd make a great trophy boyfriend because he was cool and distant and popular. So she'd call him her Ching-yan (Darling...she used a lot of Cantonese she picked up from Bruce Lee flicks!) and run after him, scaring the hell out of him. But as the game progresses, she gets to know Tatsuya better and actually gets a crush on him for who he is. And you can choose whether to return her feelings or not. Either way, she handles it gracefully and doesn't really cause a scene, except for comic relief. *laugh* She really does grow up in Tsumi...

Q: Does Lisa also like Tatsuya in Batsu?
A: Well, I think that she admires him. She thinks it might be nice to hook up with him, but after all, he is a "bad boy" in Batsu *laugh* so she also thinks he's kind of scary and probably can't say anything. Whether Lisa would approach him after the incident is dependent on whether or not she got her memories back from Tsumi. If she got her memories back, it must be painful for her, but I'm sure that she isn't able to do anything about it. The Tatsuya that she loved went home in order to protect the world. It might end with her simply watching him. Well, I think that might make people who like the Tatsuya and Lisa pairing mad, though. *laugh*

Q: What happened to the relationship between Lisa and her father in Batsu?
A: In Batsu, their relationship has improved. In Tsumi, Lisa used Cantonese in order to rebel against her father, but in both worlds, her love for kung fu movies persists and I think she learned some from there. This time, she doesn't have a complex about English, though we don't know whether or not she can speak it. Therefore, I think that the image that the people around Lisa have of her is probably pretty close to who she really is.

[ OTHER SIDE]