The Truth About Ann Takamaki (Character Analysis in Japanese Context)

so today we'll be taking a deep dive look into on her role in the story and how she highlights the plight of japanese ha foods and the casual xenophobia they face in their own country hey guys i'm lady and i love doing analyses on the persona games so if that's your thing you've come to the right place anyway if you're worried about p5r spoilers in this video don't be anything unique to royal will be delegated only to the final section which will be time stamped so with that said let's dive right in [Music] all right so first off it's important to note that persona 5's premise is unique in that it distinctly focuses on societal issues that are prevalent in japan sure there will always be some degree of understanding and relatability across cultures but it can't be overstated how different japanese cultural values are from those of the wider western or eurocentric world for example japan and wider asia's collectivist values place emphasis on group cohesion over the self while the individualistic values of the west favor the freedom of the individual over the collective this means that sticking to the natural societal order of things is extra important in collectivist japan if you want to know more about why it's so important to grasp these cultural differences when it comes to p5 check out the video in the cards above so why do i care so much about these things you ask well i am of japanese descent so this research is like connecting to my own heritage and i'll also be graduating with a degree in social work soon so all this sociological psychological and cultural stuff is super interesting to me with that said let's briefly introduce on we see that she has quite the bubbly and energetic personality once she breaks out of her shell she can come off as sarcastic when upset but is compassionate deep down and quite good with people gameplay-wise she's an absolute magic nuke and is especially fiery when it comes to standing up against abusers after what happened to her best friend shiho as a whole om's background and character arc highlights two socio-cultural issues of japanese society and those are one the casual discrimination that hofus and foreigners face and two the abuse of power in teacher and student relationships [Music] so before we can dissect the whole mess of kamashita's abuse on his students we have to talk about what drew him to on in the first place she says in her confidant that kamoshira first took notice of her during one of her modeling shoots which leads us to the topic of anne's appearance and more specifically her physical features as a hafu stemming from the english word half ha fu is the colloquial term that japanese people use to refer to those of mixed heritage so how can we tell that on is a hafu and not completely non-ethnically japanese well we can assume this from her last name takamaki it's most likely that on's dad is japanese while her mother is of caucasian descent considering that 96 of marriages in japan take the father's name so now going back to ahn's physical appearance i really love the way she's introduced in the story being one of the only animated cutscenes this whole shot emphasizes on's beauty and looks which joker can't help but be transfixed by for those few seconds this scene perfectly highlights how on must feel on a daily basis due to her foreign features and how they completely stand out in homogeneous japan among a sea of black and browns on's long blonde hair surely draws unwanted eyes and attention no matter where she goes remember what we talked about when it comes to collectivist japan it's important to fit into the societal norm anyone who doesn't will be deemed a troublesome individual who will be ostracized from society we learn later via her confidant that all anyone ever paid attention to was her looks prior to her meeting shiho she had no friends growing up here in japan and even considered dyeing her hair black to fit in though shiho approached her before she could follow through with it you see hafus face a lot of societal stigma and casual racism even if they've grown up in japan all their lives with many hofus having been bullied at school during their adolescence so considering the nasty rumors that spread about on regarding kamoshira let's take a deeper look into the socio-cultural issues that on's backstory highlights [Music] so let's face it every nation deals with their own immigration and diversity issues but japan in particular isn't exactly known for its diversity not like the united states or canada are by any rate for example the united states population includes 23.7 percent minority ethnic groups as of a 2019 estimate in contrast japan is one of the most homogeneous societies in the world today with 98.5 percent of the final population comprised of ethnically japanese people if we take this a step further we see that interracial marriages account for only 3.7 of all marriages in japan in 2018 with mixed race babies accounting for about three percent of all births both of these statistics are increases from previous years by the way so that means there were even fewer people of mixed heritage at the time of p5's development and release the general japanese public has this sort of improper fascination with mixed heritage people aka hafuz solely because of the country's historical lack of immigration discussing japan's complicated past with the outside world including its isolationism which later turned into imperialism not to mention the fact that it's never been colonized would require several books at the very least to cover it all so we won't be delving too far into the history of it the main takeaway is that a sizeable portion of japanese society still pushes a sense of japanese exceptionalism while playing up the otherness of foreigners there's this belief that's still relatively prevalent that's centered on the yamato or distinctly japanese race in other words there's a purity of this island archipelago that consists of one nation one language one culture and most importantly one race it's not hard to see how this kind of rhetoric leads to xenophobic beliefs and actions towards those who are considered foreign even though the historical data reveals this belief in a pure yamato race is just a myth the japanese archipelago has always had heterogeneous origins starting with the migration of peoples from southeast and east asia over once existing land bridges japan today still struggles with discrimination against the ainu and rukuen people who were the early northern and southern settlers of the islands respectively this all goes to say that there's no such thing as a singular race of people that originates from the japanese islands but unfortunately even though the yamato race has been disproven the belief still persists in a good-sized portion of japanese society this has led to the severe ijime or aka bullying of many foreign and hafu adolescence in fact one study found that two-thirds of returny children who had lived abroad at some point have been bullied for what is attributed to their overseas experiences such as their english ability at the expense of their competence in japanese ruji literally calls out on for her only good subject in school which just so happens to be english a huge emphasis is placed on social conformity in japanese schools which stifles uniqueness and personal expression among individuals while also forming a kind of social consciousness that is suspicious of outsiders this means a pac mentality easily forms among peers against any student who happens to stand out most japanese schools from junior high onwards have strict rules and guidelines requiring students to maintain a conservative appearance such as keeping a clean-cut hairstyle with a natural black color wearing no makeup having no piercings and etc many schools have even tried to force children who don't have naturally black hair to diet now recall that on was once considering doing this exact thing many hafus have been tragically driven to suicide due to the severe bullying they face one such example is miyoko takahashi who was half canadian and half japanese she was called an alien and was told to go back to canada by her peers while growing up on another note ariana miyamoto a japanese model who was born to when african-american father and a japanese mother was crowned miss universe japan in 2015. back when she was still a student one of her hafu friends killed himself due to the bullying he experienced ariana says that her friend's untimely death has inspired her to use her platform to spread awareness of the challenges hafu face all while facing racist remarks herself while it's not entirely pertinent to on story in particular i do want to point out that hafu have different lived experiences depending on their race for example japanese chinese or japanese korean hafu have an easier time blending in based on appearance alone but can face fierce discrimination and racism if they reveal their non-japanese heritage this is in no small part due to the storied history among these asian nations but going back to ahn's experience in p5 we can clearly see how it reflects the real lives of adolescents who don't look like their japanese peers thankfully on herself wasn't driven to taking her own life though of course we can't say the same for shiho this lets us transition to the other major sociocultural issue that's specifically brought to attention in on and shiho's arc and that's the horrid sexual harassment of japanese girls by their teachers [Music] so let's be real here sexual harassment occurs in schools all over the world unfortunately but the sheer pervasiveness of this problem reaches an entirely different level in japan so much so that a record number 282 public school teachers were punished for sexual offenses in 2018. when including private schools the total number of cases increases to 767. takashi iketani has been looking at these cases since 1990 a year where only three teachers which is still three too many were disciplined for committing obscene acts against their underage students fast forwarding to 2012 and the number of disciplined cases had risen to 119. this number then proceeded to skyrocket to a record 282 cases in 2018. however iketani notes that it's not the quality of teachers that has dropped since 1990 but rather that they're now being punished for sexual offenses that were once overlooked in a survey conducted in the chiba prefecture in 2017 153 high school students complained of sexual harassment by teachers the common complaints ranged from making comments about the shape of their bodies to blatantly staring at their chests and legs during pe classes then there are the actual statutory rape cases such as when a sixteen-year-old girl was infected with genital herpes after her teacher had sex with her the girl didn't tell her parents anything until she wound up in the hospital with a high fever now as a preface it's absolutely not my intention to diminish the struggles and shame that victims of sexual assault in the wider western world experience however remember what i mentioned about confucianist values in my other p5 video a core tenet of confucianism is filial piety which entails a strong loyalty and deference to one's parents to one's ancestors and by extension to one's country and its leaders this means all elders such as teachers superiors in one's profession and just anyone who's older in age should be treated with respect this entire host of social conventions is what makes it incredibly difficult for victims to come forward so they rarely have until recent years tamoshita was clearly written to bring attention to this problem and considering that vanilla p5 released in 2016 it's quite sickening that a high school teacher in the shizuoka prefecture was finally disciplined in 2018 for an incident that occurred a year after the game released this teacher lured one of the female students who was in the club he was advisor to to a lodge where he got her drunk then proceeded to do obscene things to her that could have been on on that day that joker spoke with her at the diner and that literally was what happened to shiho thank god that chiho survived and has made a recovery though she'll be dealing with the trauma of komoshida's horrific crimes against her for what likely will be the rest of her life this spurs on to righteously stand up against a true villain like kamoshida which now brings us to ons growth in the main story and her confidant after witnessing her best friend try to kill herself and kamashita's distorted view of her on decide side she's finally had enough she awakens to carmen and joins the guys in taking down their corrupt teacher but once kamashita's palace is dealt with the only updates we get on shiho's condition is via on's confidant in the early ranks we learned that on feels guilty for not placing more faith in shiho's ability and for failing to stand up for her she admits to placing too much weight on kamashita's authority in the end but that's thanks in no large part to the powerful social conventions that dominate japanese society it is understandable that on would feel some sense of survivor's guilt despite the truth of the matter being she has nothing to answer for having been a victim of kamashita's predation and the social stigma of her peers in response to this life-changing trauma is a desire to become stronger though to not allow the same things that kept her silent before to silence her ever again and so on sets off on a quest to make her heart stronger with joker's help when taking a closer look at aung's overall confidant two things in particular stand out to me and those are one finding strength and opportunities in the face of adversity and two not taking the easy route in turn out of anyone's confidant ons has a deliberate focus on building resilience in the face of adversity this is most notably shown when she recounts shiho's grueling rehab after the major injuries she's sustained in ahn's rank six confidante the sheer amount of pain that shiho endures during her physical therapy helps on realize that this strengthening of her heart that she's seeking is really about the power to fight through adverse situations it's about building one's mental and emotional strength you see han's attempts at this in earlier ranks weren't quite hitting the mark in reality her idea of having joker say mean things to her and her airheaded response to it all is just one big example of taking the easy way out she barely listens to the things he says in round one and even attempts to cover her ears and round two which is easy to do when a trusted friend is the one who's saying the things in the first place but it's shiho's and mika's examples that inspire on to develop true mental discipline and yes you heard that right ons encounters with mika play a huge role in her personal growth since unlike on mika puts her all into preparing for each modeling shoot she deliberately controls what she eats so she won't gain weight works with a personal trainer to tone her body and make sure to take the theme of each particular shoot into account on has no self-discipline in comparison especially when it comes to eating sweets she had vowed to strengthen her mental fortitude in rank 2 and so refrains from getting any more fountain drinks as the first step yet fast forwarding to rank 5 she only resists giving into crepes with joker's helpful reminder but before we can dissect on's growth in her later confidante ranks we need to talk about the fictional villainess she looked up to in her childhood we need to pay particular attention to ahn's ability to pick out her good traits ones such as her perseverance and cunning despite the fact that she's an antagonist this example reinforces this idea that on finds strength in the bad things that she sees opportunities to learn and grow from adverse circumstances like we've brought up before she sees the sweaty and grimacing she-hoe as beautiful knowing that her friend is continuing to press on through her painful rehab in a similar light on can't help but admire mika's cleverness and willpower even though she's really to her and in the end instead of getting pissed off at mika for her rude attitude on gets pissed at herself for not taking modeling seriously it's these encounters that forces on to confront her current lackadaisical approach to her modeling hobby will it remain as such or will she decide to make it her career path after all this decision alone is on's way of overcoming the adverse circumstances in her personal life in her early ranks she says she didn't want to pursue modeling as a career mostly because that's how kamashita first took notice of her yet on the other hand she admits that modeling is something that helps her feel connected to her parents which is a huge benefit to her psychological health considering they're away for work often so even though kamoshida's predation was a horrible time in her life mika unknowingly shows on the beauty and modeling again remember how on used to be bullied for her looks well mika shows her that modeling is more than just that that it's not just about one's physical appearance and beauty a truly talented model also requires the mental fortitude to put her all into the craft that includes physical conditioning and understanding how to act in order to pull off any style as needed like what we see when mika completely shows up in unprepared on but it's this humiliation that spurs on to work harder even if it won't be easy the once undisciplined blonde deliberately restrains herself from eating her favorite sweets and even goes to the gym for the first time in her life in general on begins building some mental toughness by saying no to temptations and by doing difficult things that she doesn't want to do and what do you know her hard work does pay off in the end not only in how she actually gives mika a run for her money in rank 10 but in how her efforts to become a better model end up serving as an inspiration for shiho that's right her first ever friend in japan who had to fight for her life and her physical recovery and the best friend who inspired on herself so much has found motivation in on's own modeling journey i have more to say about shiho and on mutually inspiring each other but we'll touch on that later on a final note i just want to say that ahn's decision to let kamoshida live really seems like a reflection of this theme considering all the horrible things he's done to her and the heat of the moment it would have been easy to just let shadow kamoshida die in flames but her decision to hold back and let him live serves as the better outcome in the long run but with him confessing to his crimes which would be true justice for shiho and the rest of his victims i really like ahn's overall confidant since focusing on strengths and building up resilience in difficult times is a widely prevalent practice in social work so it's a shame that her role in the main story is kinda all over the place after the kamushita arc concludes like on one hand i do appreciate the attempt at portraying her as this sort of femme fatale in some moments like with the vip on shido's ship for example out of any of the girls it's most fitting for our pigtailed phantom thief since carmen is a classic femme fatale character in literature and just as a quick additional note ons techniques in the metaverse such as crocodile tears and sexy talk are ideas she took from mika who happened to use her female charms to secure her position so clearly atlas tried to play with this character archetype in the main story what with the incidents with yusuke and shido's vip unfortunately though it just comes across as insensitive and tonally dissonant to me since p5 takes such a serious stance on the male predatory behavior and sexual harassment that on faced in the first arc it's just jarring to see them try and play it off as comedy in the ark right after the beat up ruiji scene also clearly left a bad aftertaste in many mouths mine included i see it as on and the other girls just falling prey to a style of comedic scene that's common in the newer persona games and in anime as a whole though it just seems so out of character for all the girls to do something like that that i can't help but see it as a tacked-on fulfillment of quota for a lack of a better description but those are just some of my thoughts i'm curious to know what you guys think about these more controversial scenes and if you have any ideas on how to improve them but with all that covered i must warn you now that spoilers for persona 5 royal are ahead i repeat spoilers for royal are ahead you've been warned [Music] it's in maruti's reality where we get to see on and shiho interacting as they likely did before their troubles with kamoshida began and seeing how close they both are really shows just how much shiho means to on as her first and only friend in japan before the phantom thieves but on eventually comes to her senses and honors what she hold in the true reality taught her and that's how to be strong in the face of adversity she also stays true to the lesson she and the other phantom thieves learned from their struggle against yada belf which is that no one is going to create their future for them but they themselves back in rank nine of her confidant the one where the two best friends say farewell what with shiho transferring to another school on learns that she was just as much of an inspiration to shiho as her friend was to her and so on reaffirms her intention to become the best model out there doing more work abroad and learning more about other cultures is just one way she hopes to improve her craft i mean her parents must have learned so much about fashion and design through such travels themselves so considering that shiho is not only still recovering but will also be facing new challenges as a transfer student at her new school i like to think that aunt's best friend's reality helped inspire her decision in royal's ending since on ongoing abroad will be a new beginning just like what her best friend will be experiencing it's also her confidant's focus on tackling adversity and its view on the whole mika fiasco as just a challenge to overcome that makes ons ending in royal fitting and truly meaningful at least to me and that's a wrap on panther leaving a like and or comment will really help this video out so i'd really appreciate it guys i still have other p5r sociocultural videos coming for the other party members so remember to subscribe and vote in the polls on my community tab for who's up next thanks so much for watching and until next time guys take care see ya

Channel: LadyVirgilia

Views: 110,561

Keywords: Ann Takamaki, Ann Takamaki analysis, persona 5 royal, p5r, persona 5, Ann character analysis, ann psychology, ann sociocultural context, ann takamaki character study, persona 5 character analysis, ann persona 5 royal, persona 5 ann, shiho suzui, persona 5 japanese context, persona 5 society, ladyvirgilia, persona 5 analysis, persona 5 royal analysis, ann takamaki persona 5

Id: kKDQ9Oh3E7I

Length: 32min 57sec (1977 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020

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