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  Spoilers for Innocent Sin will definitely follow, so don't read if you want to play the game and find out for yourself. Consider yourself warned if you've only played Batsu. (A lot of the details of his backstory come from the game guide and the conversations between Kaneko Kazuma and Satomi Tadashi, if you're wondering.) PERSONALITY Eikichi is the infamous "Shinigami Banchou" of Kasugayama HS, the boys' school for juvenile delinquents. He's called that partially from his reputation as a badass and partially because he's a Persona user. He didn't know there were any other Persona users, or even what his Persona was (incidentally, it was DEATH class Rhadamanthus), so he assumed that he was unique and could summon a Shinigami (spirit of death) to help him fight. (His first summoning call is "Let's go, Shinigami!" instead of the usual "Persona.") He claims to protect the weak from bullying in KasuKou. He's feared and respected at his school because he can kick your ass if you give him trouble, but he has a set of flunkies who obviously think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and he also has a fangirl (or two?) at Seven Sisters High School. ^_~ Eikichi's a bit of a narcissist (a bit?!) and claims he's the sexxxiest thing on two legs. He has a band called Gas Chamber, whose logo he wears around his left arm. (He designed it himself.) The other band members are Shogo, Ken, and Takeshi (I call them the Three Stooges), and they practice in Sumaru Prison after school. They aren't terribly good - Eikichi's always ranting about how awful they sound, and Ken meekly reminds him that they haven't played instruments since they were kids - but Eikichi still thinks they'll have their big debut soon. He, of course, claims that his lyrics and vocals are good enough on their own to make the band famous. >D The most distinctive thing about Eikichi - besides his narcissism - is his visual-kei looks: pale, flamboyant, with a lot of makeup and rings and jewelry. What's visual kei? It's a genre of music that relies heavily on the flamboyance, makeup, and androgyny of glam rock, new wave, and the New Romantics. With visual kei, the look and style is FULLY as important as the music. Basically, it's the least-traditional thing around...so you have Kankichi, the extremely traditional sushi chef, and his son, Eikichi, the extremely modern visual kei boy. Eikichi's dad would throw a fit if he knew Eikichi were dressed like that, so everyday Eikichi sneaks out of his home, goes to a public restroom, dyes his hair blue, puts on his makeup and modifies his uniform, and then goes to school. On the way home, he reverses the process (although how can Kankichi not see his black nail polish?) and Kankichi is apparently oblivious to his son's daily transformations. (Eikichi's mom doesn't seem to mind; she's the type who'd go, "My, my, isn't that nice!" and smile.) That thing Eikichi wears isn't a skirt, by the way - it's a long "tunic" under his uniform top. He...trims his nostril hairs, apparently. Eikichi also uses a LOT of Engrish. Unlike Eriko, who is presumably fluent and throws in random English words in roman letters, Eikichi's speech is peppered with random english phrases in katakana: MAI SUIITO SUIITO HANII, OKEI EBURIBADII, MAI FURENZU, BEIBII, RISSEN PURIIZU, and so on. He's not very good, but gosh, it's so cute. It's almost a shame to translate his speech into english because you lose all his random Engrish. Eikichi is loud, brash, and emotional, in contrast to the quiet, reserved Tatsuya. Eikichi is always loudly declaring what he feels about a situation or a person, and his exaggerated reactions are usually hysterical to watch. He's always fighting with Ginko because, really, they're more alike in personality than either would like to admit. He's kind of proud and sensitive, and it drives him APESHIT when people call him "Pantsu Banchou" instead of "Shinigami Banchou." Eikichi's narcissism isn't really because he thinks so highly of himself - I think he's really sensitive and has a very low self esteem, so he overcompensates with his "super-cool Michel-sama" act the way he goes overboard with the visual rock look. He's trying to become the complete opposite of how he was when he was a little kid - fat, shy, and dorky - so he overreacts when anyone reminds him of how he was. He's loud, he's stupid, he acts before he thinks - but he usually has his heart in the right place. Eikichi, despite his bad reputation, is probably the nicest guy in Tsumi. He's incredibly devoted to his friends and will do anything to help them, and he blames himself if anything happens to them. For example, he cries and thinks it's all his fault when his Three Stooges get their dreams stolen by the Joker and turn into Shadow People, and is heartbroken when they disappear for good. He also is the first to suggest that they go help Ginko when she's with Prince Taurus, and practically froths when Tatsuya says to leave her alone. When Ginko is upset and depressed, he does his best to cheer her up and says he's there for her. Hell, he'll even protect his enemies; in Tsumi, Sugimoto was a Boss Fight because he kidnapped Miyabi. But in Batsu, Eikichi breaks into a lab and risks his life to save Sugimoto, just because Eikichi is the school Banchou and he feels that it's his duty to take care of all his classmates, even the annoying assholes who want to kill him. Eikichi lives in a sushi shop, but he hates sushi (he must eat it all the time - apparently his hatred of sushi is based on Kaneko Kazuma's hatred of sushi and all kinds of seafood. *laugh*) And his school uniform is blue because Kaneko wanted a different color than the Sevens and Hermelin uniforms, so he picked the "color of spring" for KasuKou. ("Kasugayama" = "Spring Day Mountain" :D) I *think* he has an after-school job in a "live house" - a club where bands perform live. His most interesting relationship in the group is with Lisa. They are ALWAYS at each other's throats, insulting and yelling at each other. They even gave each other insulting pet names - Ginko calls him "Pantsu Banchou" - Captain Underwear - and he's the one who nicknamed her "Ginko" (I assume that it's because "gin" = silver, and her name is Lisa Silverman, and she's a "freakish gaijin who speaks perfect Japanese and is always saying stupid stuff he can't understand," so she'd hate a Japanese nickname). But, despite their constant bitching and fighting, they're always the first to leap to each other's defense - even though in Ginko's case it means bitchslapping him when he nearly gets himself killed. :D Eikichi frets and worries when he knows Ginko's alone with a possible Masquerade Executive - Prince Taurus - and wants to run and rescue her, but Tatsuya stops him. Likewise, Ginko's the one who really wants to jump in and stop Sugimoto from beating Eikichi up, but, again, Tatsuya stops her. I really like them together; they bring out aspects of each other you wouldn't see normally. Without each other, Ginko would probably seem like an annoying Tatsuya-obsessed fangirl, and Eikichi would seem like an annoying egotistical rocker. So their relationship is really important in that sense; it fleshes out their characters. :D Ginko always takes out her frustration on Eikichi; when she sees Jun and Tatsuya flirting, she runs over and punches Eikichi. When she's worried about him, she hits him for acting like a dumbass. It's one of those painful relationships. XD HISTORY massive spoilers follow. got that? good. When Eikichi was about 6 years old, he met a bunch of other children playing "Phoenix Corps Featherman" at Araya Shrine and he joined them as the Yellow Owl. (In this game all the kids wore masks, so they never saw one another's faces.) He was a chubby, shy boy who stuttered a lot and liked to draw manga (note how his talent is drawing...) He was always falling down when they played together, but he loved his friends because playing with them allowed him to be someone else, someone who could do what he enjoyed without being teased for it. He also loved the middle-school girl, Big Sis, who came to play with them, and he was devastated when Big Sis announced that she was going to move away and couldn't come play with the Masquerade any more. Eikichi, Lisa, and Jun decided that if they locked Big Sis in Araya overnight, she couldn't leave them. When Tatsuya protested, they locked him in with her, and left, intending to return the next day and let them out. When the three returned the next day, Araya had been burnt to the ground, so they thought they had killed Big Sis and Tatsuya! Horrified, the three remaining children hid the five Masquerade masks in their hideout in Mt. Iwato and went their separate ways, forcing themselves to forget what had happened. In school, a lot of kids made fun of him, but the pretty, popular Hanakouji Miyabi was his best friend despite everything. The other kids got jealous of him and pulled down his pants in front of Miyabi. To add insult to injury, someone told him that Miyabi hated fat people. His ego was essentially squished into the sidewalk by this double-whammy, and he underwent a massive weight-loss/image makeover program. He became a vegetarian and worked out to lose the weight, and he started dressing like a visual rock star and kicking people's asses to erase the image of him as a chubby, shy loser. To get revenge on the people who embarrassed him in front of Miyabi, he'd pull down the pants of everyone he beat up. ;;^^ He got into so many fights, I guess, that he ended up in Kasugayama High School, and he continued kicking ass until he was the Shinigami Banchou of Kasugayama HS. (But people called him the Pantsu Banchou behind his back, because of his bad habit of pulling down people's pants, and that's how Lisa heard that nickname.) Eikichi's dad is a sushi chef at the Gatten sushi. Eikichi is terrified by his dad, because Kankichi pretends that he knows 18 forms of martial arts - "including capoeira!" - and can kick Eikichi's ass if he catches him doing anything silly. Eikichi knows his dad won't like the Michel-sama act, and knows that his dad wants him to take over the Gatten Sushi one day, so he lives in fear of his dad kicking his ass. Well, Eikichi has been in love with Miyabi ever since he was a kid, since she was so nice to him. But he didn't recognize Miyabi when he met her again; she was fat and went by the nickname "Hanaji" - nosebleed - and didn't tell him her real name. Even so, he kind of liked her, and wasn't at all upset to find out that she was really Miyabi, despite the teasing he got from Sugimoto for "being in love with Miss Piggy." Miyabi, however, felt unworthy of him and joined the Masquerade to become skinny again, even though she knew that she was joining Eikichi's enemies in the process and that he'd have to come back and save her...stupid girl. (Sorry, I don't have much patience with characters who deliberately let themselves get captured and require constant rescuing. You have to rescue Miyabi TWICE in this game; that's two times too many. Compare that to Ginko, for example. Miyabi is way more traditional and helpless than Ginko will ever be. When Ginko was alone with the "lolicon-bastard" Prince Taurus, Eikichi's reaction was essentially "hoo boy, we better get to them before she kills him! You know that crazy bitch!") |