Trust me, smiling depression is more dangerous than you think. About normal depression, you can see and recognized they're depressed without telling by hearing their words, seeing action. But smiling depression is completely different and hardly to identify. They'll keep pretending they're fine and give a fake smile to the others, even creating a wall in their mind. You'll never know they're actually depressed or not until it's too late.
I met up with my friend last week and he told me his other friend just jumped off the building because of depression. He said the dude always seem happy and chill, but then one day he just went and did it.
Me. I have had bouts where I relate and understand Makoto but I relate much more to Kotone because that's my depression most of the time. Masking and pretending things are fine and dandy and happy when they're REALLY not. I've had people legit tell me I'm lying when I've been in a bad depression swing and mention it. After all I don't "act depressed". Because society says I shouldn't be. Society says I should smile. Society says if you just act happy you will be. But that's not how it works. Kotone resonates more for me because she's my depression in action. Just like I had to learn it's okay to ask for help and make friends so does she. That connecting can be real. That people DO care. Both ways of depression are valid. But Makoto's way of expressing it is the more accepted "oh they're depressed!" way. As we see with the masses of people who try to deny that Kotone is depressed...
thank u for touching on this omg its not that she 'doesn't fit' p3's theme its that she's literally just a different representation of depression and ppl dont bother to acknowledge that
@@chrisdiokno5600 Kotone was introduced as someone who cares for everybody & thinks about others think/feeling which is the reason she hides her problem with smiles. Makoto fits more with P3 tone because he's in apathy (he doesn't care about his life & others) but as the story progresses, his dialogue changes from a lot of "I don't care" to a person who sometimes jokes around. P3 story is all about the MC learning how to live again (basically a person who has no will to live but learns to live again as the story progresses) so having Kotone being introduced as a person already cares for others or others' feelings is a little bit unfit for the P3 theme because she never reject living to begin with
@@JaclyneChinI think what they were going for is that they approached makoto's problem through the opposide side(just like their genders) and eventually reach the same conclusion. One who cares too little and one who cares too much. And whose to say that kotone immediately cared about her friends? She could just be sticking with them at first just so she wouldn't be lonely. P3's story can interpreted in many different ways, it doesn't have to be about learning to live or care about someone, but about learning to live with and care for yourself, art is subjective after all.
Let's be real, a well-adjusted person will not feel a need to shoot themselves in the head as they hold what they perceives to be a real gun. The fact that Kotone has the audacity to do so already shows that something is wrong with her.
@@Thelowestofthelowtiersneither has a fear of death and are both fine with it all ending on that day. Makoto is just more obvious with how little he cares
@@secondaegis9190 This is not to say that Kotone actually cares either. Maybe she cares because it's an obligation forced on through societal expectations, not because she actually has any concern for others. And even if she did, it's mostly surface level, if you know what I mean. This is only true at the beginning of various social links and the game in general btw, in the later stages it's clear she has developed a truly inseperable bond with her friends.
Having both protagonist is a great reflection on the two sides of depression. Like faces on a coin Makoto is the more stereotypical melancholic side, openly apathetic. Kotone is the opposite side, showing how people cope by smiling through the pain, fooling herself and her peers that she’s ok, even when she isn’t. It’s something we rarely see in the media and i’m glad the writers at Atlas were bold enough to explore it
@@docholiday4129 It’s not needed though, there’s only one true storyline with this game, and that’s Makoto’s. Kotone is a half assed what if scenario. I don’t know what you’re talking about either, it’s not like FeMC has some revolutionary personality and it’s absurd to suggest Makoto’s genuine feelings of apathy and depression as the result of losing his parents at a young age as “stereotypical”. What a presumptuous statement made just to make the FeMC seem like she has any value.
Kotone's masked depression hits harder for me personally. So many people have friends who's committed su*cide who always smiled, always seemed fine. "I never knew how much they were hurting. They seemed so put together. So happy." Is such a common sentiment. Hell, many people cite their friends seemingly ever more chipper and happier on their final days. As if they've accepted their end and were happy for their suffering to end. Anyone who says she doesn't fit just doesn't understand the themes if P3. Her and Makoto are two sides of the same coin. We get the pleasure of seeing two types of ways of dealing with mental illness and these people finding the value in life through it. Both protagonists are great.
except it makes the final sacrifice not hit like at all makoto's story is him growing to care about life and the things around him kotone starts the other around she already does she still depressed but she still cares it worsens her sacrifice because while makoto finally cared about the people around him and saw the meaning of life and did everything in his power to save them kotone already did care about those around her so all it is her sacrificing herself it hides all of her development and just makes it seem like she's still suicidal by the end and just saw her opportunity
Any psychologist will tell you that if a depressed person suddenly seems to be more cheerful out of nowhere for seemingly no reason it's a gigantic red flag because it may be that they're planning to die and are pleased by the fact that their pain will soon end and that they're "doing something" about it
@@dsfmdiya7500 it's very implied throughout the game as early in the story there are a bunch of I dont care options while near then end they nigh disappear
@vernessawashington9007 Disagree, because I don't interpret Kotone's cheerful facade as her caring any more or less than Makoto, but I get why you'd feel that way.
I know that you wish that she was in reload, but there are some mods that are trying to add her to reload but it's still being worked and they got pretty far but it's not completely done yet and I like their mods so far
@@animemaster768 i hope that femMC mod for 3 Reload will get finished one day. I refuse to play 3 Reload otherwise. Plus, the $70 price for the game, and SEGA has the NERVE of charging you extra, to buy The Answer DLC, is plain greed.
I hate the "she's not canon" argument so much. Shin Megami Tensei is literally all about multiverses, they could get the Pakistani air force to nuke Tartatus and it would still be canon
Plus, her inclusion in PQ2 was Atlus acknowledging that she is canon and that both her version of Persona 3 and Makoto's version exist alongside each other.
I actually think Shinji living and being in a coma is better than him killed is better for the story. Hear me out. I think the situation is actually more taxing for Akihiko because of how uncertain the situation is. Death can be made with peace with because you have that closure. I think a lot of people who say it’s not that bad with him in a coma have honestly don’t really get the gravity of the situation when things are like that. Having your friend in such a precarious situation? Where he’s that close to death knowing there’s NOTHING you can do? At least with his death, you can have that closure? But him in a coma no, it extends the pain and keeps you in a loop of anxiety until it’s resolved. And people saying that Castor died so Shinji has to, by that logic there’s three other characters you should’ve died as well. Mitsuru Fuuka and Yukari. Oh! Don’t forget Aigis! Mitsuru: Amazon queen, who was killed by Achilles Fuuka: Christian martyr Yukari: lover of Zeus, who was cursed to turn into a cow and got chased down by Hera Aigis: statue literally made to honor the dead friend of Athena.
I 100% agree with this take. The one thing about Shinji's death that never sat right with me was how he got a funeral at Gekkoukan. Sure he's a student there and most likely it was organized but at the same time I feel that it would have been more impactful if he got no such thing and instead Akihiro went to the alley that Shinji hung out instead. The funeral scene while pretty doesn't really work in my opinion. even after death life continues on and that is what the FEMC's save shinji route shows. We don't get a fancy funeral scene but instead a man in a coma. SEES is not allowed a chance to grieve like the funeral. they have to go about their lives while keeping quiet about what happened to their friend. honestly that is even more painful
I can only imagine what Shinjiro would be like if we ever got The Answer for a Femc route, imagine waking from a coma only to find out the girl that saved you is now dead herself. I believe he is also the only romance option that doesn't say “I love you” to her, that's gotta eat you up inside, wishing you could have told them before either one of you are dead, but I guess he really didn't want to leave any baggage behind.
THANK YOU. I am so sick of reading "shinji living ruins the themes of persona 3 bc persona 3 is about death." its an incredibly shallow take on a very nuanced and complex topic that persona 3 discusses. i always hated how shinjiro was simply treated as a means to an end for akihiko and ken, and not as his own character. i honestly think ppl are so hostile to shinjiro living bc its not executed very well in portable. i wish there was more follow up for after 10/4; maybe you could visit him in the hospital on christmas, maybe you could get a scene of him waking up in the hospital AFTER kotone's death, ten fall out of that, and how he could reconcile his relationship with ken and the others. therses so much potential that they just never tap into, and i really wish they did. him regaining a will to live despite his limited time due to the drugs is a perfect representation of persona 3s themes to endure and live to the fullest in face of your approaching death. and what youve said here as well is also fantastic. based.
There was a fanfic about FeMC’s Answer route except with Shinjiro as the protagonist struggling to come to terms with her death. I wonder if it ever got finished.
This why i like Portable so much because the story is the same but its so different and sucks shes not in reload. She has a different personality and different interactions. Most people i know who are depressed and committed sewerslide were the happiest people i knew. Also her and shinji’s relationship is perfect
I’m devastated because being able to romance Ryoji brings in so many angst scenarios and lore implications. The end of his social link always hits me so hard
As someone who’s going through a rough patch in my life, my mum said I’ve always smiled as a kid and I started smiling just to make me feel abit better about my situation but learning about her story makes me so happy that I’m not alone in the pain. I should really play persona 3 portable now just so cry more aha Thanks for the video
Sorta surprised the musical (which is where the name "Kotone" originated from) didn't get mentioned. While her personality lines up a bit more with the male protagonist, there are moments where it's clear they were writing for her specifically. Two examples off the top of my head. After the battle aboard the train, Yukari takes note of Kotone's kind of lack of reactions and does a solo number in order to try to connect with Kotone a little better. It doesn't really work, though not for lack of Yukari trying. Then came the Full Moon Operation where they rescue Fuuka. Initially, like the movies, Mitsuru tells Kotone to take Fuuka and run for it. Kotone, however, goes in front of the Shadows to fight them herself and tells the others to take Fuuka and leave. She was fully willing to throw away her life in that moment, even saying she didn't care about herself as long as the others would survive.
Probably the bit from the musicals that stood out the most to it is actually from the second one. After almost two hours of her trying to get closer to Shinji, the dude falls into a coma and while it seems that compared to everyone else she's mostly keeping it together, but then when she tries to comfort Ken it's _her_ who ends up breaking down into tears, probably the most vulnerable she is across all five parts, and while afterwards she mostly goes back to business as usual... the final part makes it pretty clear she never _really_ got over it, just chose to keep on living in spite of the pain. After all, as Shinji himself said in the game, for some reason she just looks best when she smiles.
I think Kotone is a fantastic character. She's more than just female Makoto, but a different representation of the games themes. Her music being more upbeat than Makoto isn't a bad thing at all, it's a different take. I love them for their different experiences with dealing with depression and loss. Kotone is her own character just like Makoto, which is just awesome to me. Both carrying the message of this game and what it means to us. In the end both Makoto and Kotone still arrive at the same beautiful conclusion. I love them both so much, and for the everlasting beauty that Persona 3 represents.
I always thought of this: She is depressed, but she puts that negativity into her energy to keep moving forward. While Makoto is just that depressed level where he can’t control it well and just let out his anguish. (Even though when playing P3 Reload, his Dialogue choices showed he has more life to him than what we thought, besides the normal “I don’t care” line.)
As a therapist, theres no such thing as a "different kind of depression", but theres an enormous cataloge of coping mechanisms, self defense, survival mechanisms, and levels of intensity in adjustment/functionality, suic. risk and self care. Kotone works in a "happy"/temper/funtional "mask" in front of people, the ones that socked everyone around when something triggeering happend, or the ones that perfection how to work sistematicly but alone they go down to 0 and lack motivation for anything self related and just drown. Any kind of clinical depression is hard, but isnt just a category/name/style change.
As a person who has suffered severe depression i can relate to both. But i am much more similar to Kotone in life than Makoto. Robin Williams was seen as an incredibly happy. Ive been referred to as the same. Yet, ive suffered severe depression most of my life. Finally going through skme good changes. But I feel people dont generally realize that people like that definitely exist. We smile and make people happy. Maybe because we dont want them to be anything like how we are feeling.
I'm someone who actually connected better with Kotone more than Makoto. Playing though P3R just leaves me feeling disconnected in strange way, unlike P4/5 where I just play the funny characters, P3 wants you to understand it's melencholy. But I know that idea of wearing a smile, saying your fine, making sure those around you are happy and looking forward to the next day, while forgetting your own feelings to make sure it stays that way, far more than pure apathy. Also you can say you prefer hot chocloate over coffee in Junipies social link so shes just like me
I guess that was my subconscious reasoning why I refuse to play 3 Reload due to only having a maleMC route, besides my hatred it's $70 for the base game with extra money they charge you for The Answer. I connect with Kotone allot more than maleMC. The unyielding pain of needing to mask one's own emotional suffering, is something I live with every day. There are rarely moments that I'm truly happy at that time. I mask my emotions frequently, because I don't want others to be troubled by what I'm sad and depressed about. And yet, I bear that pain, and press onto each day, despite the pain. Never once thinking of ending myself.
THANK YOU FOR THIS! I could never have said it better myself. I LOVE the FEMC for so many reasons and this also helped me to feel seen, and from reading the comments others as well. The reason Kotone exists is not only to explore the themes of the game differently, but because literally half of the people playing the game are female! It expands the demographic and player base and anyone who LOVES THESE GAMES and the stories they tell like myself should be very glad about that!
Knowing Joker, he could probably tell she was faking her smile the entire time since he's probably the most familiar with wearing a mask people want to see
I like to see it is less she wants to khs, more she just wants something to take her out, as she feels obligated to keep going due to societal expectations, and it's just so mentally taxing while dealing with her grief that she just wants to rest in death that she can't bring herself to bring upon herself.
Very awesome video! I feel like people fail to see how many forms depression can take. Depression isn't simply a "i don't care" "i don't want to do anything" type of mood. It varies greatly from person to person. You did an AMAZING job touching upon this topic, thank you!
Great video :D to add on, I think a part of her character that should be discussed more is WHY someone in the same circumstances as makoto would end up cheery on the outside. And i think that has to do w the very fact that she is a girl. When men are usually given the "oh boys will be boys" treatment, girls are expected to be more sympathetic, more positive, to fit in. Makoto could fly under the radar with his apathetic personality, but kotone would not have been able to, so she had to adapt into a more cheery mask in order to 'survive'. I love femc as a character and i always love getting more content of her on yt sorry for ranting lol 🥹
Don't be sorry! This is an absolutely exceptional point. If I ever return to the topic to make another video, I will certaintely give more credence to the societal expectations of women in Japan. Thank you for your input!
@@Hihi-zk3pc The thing is though. It's her CHOICE to act this way. She isn't uncaring inside like he is. (At the start of the story) Their situations are completely different. Makoto has straight up not connected with ANYONE throughout his life after his parents died due to how little he cared. There's the unhealthy disadaptation. While Kotone didn't act that way not because she was actually depressed and was hiding it with a smile (she isn't depressed, because she doesn't show any debilitating somatic symptoms, chronic fatigue, lack of will to do anything substantial. All her emotions fall into the subclinical sadness category at most. And reactive dysthymia in January. Which is a normal human reaction towards the looming end of the world) but because she actually DID CARE about how people perceived her, she cared about how others feel, she cared about their well-being. This goes completely against the original narrative of Persona 3. Makoto is supposed to be someone, whose condition parallels Apathy syndrome people start suffering from, and slowly "recovers" from it with the help of bonds. He is supposed to be a hollow husk of a person, who doesn't see value in anything to the point of not caring enough to even take his own life, because that would be logically pointless as well. He was afraid of caring about someone again for that someone to be gone from his life forever. Kotone... just doesn't embody this notion AT ALL. Not saying she's badly written. She just doesn't fit this game's themes.
something I wanna say as sort of a point against but more me saying why I don't understand it is that Makoto wouldn't care if someone else didn't like how he got on, in fact people often don't like it but he does it anyway because he simply doesn't have any will left, to the point of looking like an actual skeleton in his official art, also it's seriously not this simple, guy's don't just get to be apathetic and no one will really care, you would probably get made fun of for acting like Makoto does and not paying much attention to anything around you and overall being depressed, either that or teachers or other people will talk to you, things don't just go unnoticed and swept under the rug, but that's not why I don't understand Kotone ending up with smiling depression, it's what I said previously, why does Kotone care enough about what people think to end up like this, if Makoto doesn't and hasn't really cared about what's going on, why does Kotone, why is Makoto going through the exact same experiences, both caring just as little ended up like the physical incarnation of apathy syndrome while Kotone hasn't, why does Makoto not care about all the expectations that are out upon him while Kotone does. If I had to think of a reason it's just that Kotone is a different person who has delt with everything differently thus not ending up like a nigh rotting corpse by the start of the game
@@Door3234 Man, ironically, this comment section is so full of good cases against Kotone being a good representation of the game's themes, it's fascinating. As someone who is only ever interested in characters that work with and for the story... I just don't understand why people are so eager to defend someone that just doesn't fit this criteria. Is that really the power of boobs and boners?
Spot on. At risk of sounding pretentious, FeMC arguably fits Persona's whole Jungian thing better-but I'm not going to partake in MC vs FeMC debates as the FeMC route obviously complements the original story, and so both ought routes to be played. Subbed!
Honest to God, FeMC is my favorite Persona protagonist next to Yu. Just like how you can pick all the weird dialogue choices for Yu, the amount of personality Kotone brings to P3P is insane. She’s kind, silly, and when it comes down to it, downright cutthroat during some interactions. Atlas could’ve easily copy and pasted a female Makoto and washed their hands of it, but they didn’t. They made her stand out as her own character. Shit, part of me wishes they had just done that, then we wouldn’t be lamenting how the series treats her . What’s the point of having this distinct protagonist when you pretend she never even existed? Still, I’ll always stan her.
I always thought that of her I think that’s what Altus was trying to show how other people deal with depression but since people didn’t seem to understand it I guess it falls flat.
I knew I loved FEMC, but now I really love her! She truly feels relatable! Smiling depression is a term I haven't heard of, but now I'm glad I know of it. This was an incredible video! Thank you for pouring your time analyzing her character. This was amazing.
Something not discussed here about Kotone is Persona 3's theme of death. Makoto represents the usual view of death being sad, gloomy, and his coping mechanism being his signature "I don't care" line. Why should we care when in the end it doesn't matter. Kotone wears hairclips in the shape of XXII (22 in roman numerals), representing the number of cards in the major arcana tarot deck. While the Fool is obviously 0 to represent a blank, it's also believed that completing the entire tarot circles back to the Fool (as in after the World, next is the Fool). Cycling back to the Fool's Journey can be interpreted as learning everything and going again, either with a new perspective or finding something new. In this interpretation Kotone is not only a meta reason for a new game+, but she has accepted life as it is of memento mori. She understands that death is a part of life (like you said in the conclusion). Instead of brooding about the inevitable end like her male counterpart, she enjoys the life she's living before she reaches the end. Like petals fluttering in wind, are beautiful, but they too will decompose. Just as death is inevitable, FeMC's tears, and MC's smile are things that are just as likely to happen in their lives.
This is a great analysis of Kotone. One of the things I love about Persona 3 Portable is how instead of just copying Makoto over as a girl, they took on this different expression of depression and created a female protagonist that really does have her own aura about her. It's not just "female Makoto", and that really adds to the experience when you play with Kotone as the MC.
Yes, THANK YOU so much for this! Just like you, I hate when people write her off as "a waifu" or "not fitting P3's themes" so much, without even getting into those who are just being misogynists. Thank you for summing up why she's a great lead for P3 so succinctly, this was a great and cathartic watch. Please keep up the great work! And because we're all thinking it: Screw you for not putting her in Reload even after making an Expansion Pass, Atlus.
I've always resonated with Kotone, having to mask her inner turmoil and project hope instead. It feels like as a woman, you have to act all bubbly, cheerful, ecstatic around others, or you're doing something wrong.
I like that. And I think that gives her a more unique reason to at least want and hope for death, if not be outright suicidal. She feels obligated to keep going and be cherry because of societal expectations, and it's so mentally taxing that, on the outside she's sufficiently cheery enough for society, but on the inside, she's like "I'm so tired of this, I just want to die so I can finally rest"
Yes! I'm so glad someone mentioned this! It's so absurd that haters say she doesn't fit the themes of the game even though smiling depression is a thing. If anything, smiling depression can be more dangerous than regular depression. A person in this state might be more broken than people think, and if they reach the point of no return and decide to... Log out from life... It can be even more devastating to others who begin ask "but (s)he was always happy! Why would (s)he do such a thing?! " A real life example would be Selen/Dokibird, whose toxic work came so close to making her end everything, despite how happy she may have seemed to her fans. But my favorite aspect about Kotone isn't the Stepford smiler, for how much I like that trope, it's her defiant stance on the hardships of life. I feel like, where Makoto would just accept his fate, Kotone would be more defiant and wouldn't go down without a fight. Both approaches are good and valid, but Kotone's personally inspiring and I think it's underrated. This is also true for the themes of the game, as death is inevitable and we have to accept it (Makoto), but humans are able to keep on living because they can always hold onto hope that they can still avoid it even for a little bit (Kotone) TLDR : she's underrated and fits the game way better than others give her credit for.
It’s true, I feel smiling depression leads to a point of care free that’s the ultimate danger, as now theh feel nothing, they are nothing, and don’t care what happens next (what could turn into that I mean) I really like how you put it.
I played p3p a decade ago and I never knew people criticized Kotoni’s character. I always thought she was unanimously accepted by the persona fanbase lol. I also thought her name was Minako. But great video. Her bubbly nature always felt like she was putting a brave face as the leader but I never thought it would be a coping mechanism to hide her severe depression. She really is the epitome of “fake it till you make it”. Thanks for the new perspective, i might pick up the game again.
Love the analysis and yes she very much represents a different side of psychology the game is literally about masking your real emotions and fitting your answer to the right person, but remeber that misogynists are everywhere so gut feeling that it's the same people saying shit about her because "she's a woman" she's just badass period.
I always find it cute and sad at the same time when she smiled through everything and basically stayed as an upbeat girl to the end compared to how Makoto handled his depression. Two sides of the same coin, Kotone spreads happiness and Makoto absorbs sadness. GREAT video.
Having high functioning depression myself, it is very connectible to someone, there is something about being the rock people lean on, yet being able to relate to people so hard, and not just empathize, but rather sympathize with others, it really is hard to open up and accept your own feelings to be akin to what others are feeling: Genuine, fixable problems. We face hard times due to that fact, and being able to have others lean onto you, yet not having others be able to do the same for you, unless you want to break that illusion people really desire out of you, someone who is truly vulnerable, and not untouchable.
Im so happy people are willing to voice this part about Kotone. I relate to her on such a deep level that speaks to me in so many different ways. Especially moonlight daydream. Such a fire song. Her character in general means so much to me. Amazing video that really voiced the words I couldnt form
Realising this about Femc hit me SO HARD like damn, she’s shockingly similar to me, I’m a little shaken by that realisation cause I always felt like I was just fooling myself or people were misdiagnosing me by calling my mental crashes as depression because I’m so optimistic and upbeat usually. That really hits hard. Damn.
it wont surprise me if Atlus simply implemented her as a DLC, she is way popular to leave her behind, IIRC she was one of the top picks in a popularity poll atlus made a while ago, so they know people love her. However is still making basically another persona 3 reload, or at least half of it since most assets are still there (be it having to cast extra VA's for her new social links and Theo, re-cast the old VA's for both story moments and new lines in the social links, pay the animation studio for her story segments and maybe even new intro, also pay for the remixes of the songs of her side of the story, etc), so it is still kinda on the fence there. if it sells, without a doubt atlus will do it, its just a question of when they will do it, if it doesnt sell however... kotone will never see the light of HD graphics
The other day I saw an article calling Persona 3 Portable misogynistic, partially because of FeMc’s pink UI. So aggravating, it’s pink because it counteracts Makoto’s blue, reflecting their different attitudes
So it's not really heavier so much as weight more at the end, which actually helps you hit a lot harder if you're not as strong by using the physics of a longer weapon. That's my experience doing combat sports/LARP at least, I'm not very strong, I intentionally use top heavy weapons, it let's me compete and challenge blows much better.
Nah, stop the cap. That's like saying P4 characters are stronger mentally than everyone else cuz they confront themselves. It's mostly the movies that have Makoto that apathetic, but in the games, he's always been just as caring
I've spent a long time thinking, talking, and playing Persona 3 since 2012, and I've never quite had the verbiage to be able to explain her this way. Thank you so much.
Having not played P3P but being told about it by a friend, I never realized how much I relate to Kotone until now. 90% chance those comments are from people who didn't even play the game.
It feels like the people who act like Kotone has no character or doesn't fit the themes of P3 are just... willfully ignorant. Like, how can they talk about P3's themes when they barely understand the concept that people with depression aren't necessarily obvious about it? That depression doesn't automatically equal quiet and apathetic like we see in Makoto? That for others it manifests in different ways?
Because I feel the fandom majority now are the ones that start from and expected Persona 5 where you play Chad Thundersona and you fight god and get your harem.
Smiling through depression is often a symptom of depression itself. Depressed people often feel like they don't belong in this world. Emptiness, lack of self love, it often leads to a feeling where depressed people feel like a burden, like a badly transplanted organ. But they also think they don't have a reason or right to complain, because other people have it so much harder. You know, no food, every day a battle for survival, abuse. So, at the very least they don't want to be a burden to the people they love. If someone smiles in your face while feeling like ending it, it isn't lack of trust. They just love you so much they don't want to eat away at your life.
Hello, person with the Smiling Type of depression here 🙋♀️ I've heard "but you don't look depressed™" quite a few times so let me just add: It's not wrong to call it a "mask" but for me personally (and this how I see Kotone as well) it's also about a strong desire to simply just be exactly just that: happy, outgoing, friendly. I try to be bubbly and optimistic because that's what I want to be and there are phases when I succeed being (mostly) in that headspace. But (and the pun is kinda intended) that light casts VERY dark shadows and the phases where my mental health crashes are BAAAAD. Most people won't notice those phases though, as I try to keep them to myself as much as I can. A) I don't want anyone to worry and b) bc there's a lot of shame tied to it. So yeah, just because you seem happy it doesn't mean you can't be depressed (by that logic, Junpei would have to be quite well mentally and he certainly isn't 😬) My personal headcanon (partially inspired by a twitter thread I read) is that Kotone used to be a lot more quiet and reserved for most of here life but then decided to try and live now that she is back to where it all started 10 years ago. That's not to say that I think she's faking her positivity, but rather that she's trying to be who she used to be before her trauma. To me that really ties into what I see in Persona 3 as a whole, as I think it's actually more about life than death. It's about how you deal with pain, sorrow and loss as well as joy, community and love. It asks you what you want to do with the time you are given. And from that angle, both Kotone and Makoto fit the game perfectly. I'd even go so far as to say that having two different angles to view the world and story from makes it even better! It's so cool that P3P let's you choose - like, it's fine if people think the male protagonist is enough, but I think it's neat we get the option. Not just because I am a female or because I identify with Kotone a little more (though both are true), but because P3 just gives us a little more to explore that way, more to think about and well... more to enjoy ☺️
That is why I prefer her over Makoto. We have seen many representations of depression like his but is hard to find someone talking about her type of depression. And is something serious, as you mentioned, is hard to help this people. I love Persona games for things like this.
I’ve struggle with severe depression since I was 12 years old, and Kotone really helped me learn about how I coped with my depression when I first played P3P. After I broke up with my e bestie, tried my best to hide my mental state from my friends because I didn’t want to hurt them with my problems.
I talked to a psychiatrist during a class (not a visit) telling him I've actually been depressed for 10+ years, he just didn't believe me because I'm "able to make a phone call and show up to important things". I know.....i'm very high functioning but everyday feels meaningless and nobody cares because i'm upbeat enough on the outside
I can say for a fact that as a teenager (mostly elementary to middle school), I smiled through all my trauma and depression over the years up until high school. The only sign of my depression was only ever the fleeting moments where I was stuck in my own thoughts, staring at nothing in front of me, as was brought to my attention by a teacher at the time. So when I played P3P just a week before my high school graduation, her character really clicked with me. I saw a glimpse of who I was back then, and to some extent, still am at 21 yrs. A girl trying to find her place in a world that keeps taking. Whether it be from loss, betrayal or the sting of loneliness. Apathy was something I tried to achieve, but I’m just not the type of person who can do that. And, as you mentioned, her social link with Ryoji really highlighted this perfectly. Ryoji, who also hides his inexplainable melancholic personality under a layer of smiles and charm, drops the flirtatious attitude to really ponder the incredibly heavy feeling of emptiness. A nagging sense of dread at seeing beauty in the world, or the difficult sensation of wanting to live in the moment but being hesitant to, because a voice in the back of his head is telling him he isn’t allowed to. That he is forgetting something important. All this to say Kotone really served as the Ryoji to me and my journey through P3P.
So much kotone hate and copium in these comments lmao great video, persona 3 to me was always about human connections and how they mold and change our lives, and kotones story is an excellent example of that. Its fine to prefer makoto but ppl in the comments are being so obnoxious anyway kotone slaps
Tbf, there are obnoxious Kotone fans as well(that for any Persona character) But its only some people. They just tend to be the loudest with their opinions
I don’t know. Makoto’s one of my favorite Persona characters but I’m still enjoying Portable so far. Like, some of the worst social links in 3 (Keisuke, Kenji, Suemitsu) are swapped out? That’s amazing! “Time” also might be my single favorite Persona song. Somehow even though I heard it for the first time like 3 days ago, it just sounds like nostalgia to me. Honestly, my biggest problem so far is how Junpei (another one of my favorites) becomes kind of a woman hating asshat in Kotone’s route. Like he’s a horny idiot in Makoto’s route, but actually misogynist? Not really.
even though I'm not the biggest fan of P3's doom and gloom energy, i like kotone not only because she's more fleshed-out as a character, but also because on a certain level, i can see where she's coming from. im not depressed, at least im 90% sure im not, but i understand the 'smiling even when it hurts' mentality. some people just fall directly into the dumps when some bad shit happens but i know personally i try to keep up appearances for as long as possible. im much easier to break since i have few major life struggles and have people to support me, but i know that when im sad i usually just blow it off if someone asks or i tell them in sort of a joking manner. im not special, i think a lot of people can identify a bit of themselves within kotone, but she speaks to me a little more as a character than makoto does. is me writing this cringe? yeah. does anyone care? nooope. but i felt i should say something.
If you have to ask yourself if you're suffering from depression, real chronic depression that is, then you probably don't have it. It's hard to describe, but the most accurate description would be it feels like there's a black hole in your chest. When you look to the future and have no hope, dreams or aspirations because you know it's never going to get better anyways. All you see is darkness when you envision what it'll be like in 5 years.
@@Da1337Man yeah no, definitely not having endless darkness tunnel in my brain. ofc i was already mostly certain that i was all good, and i didnt mean to appropriate it in any way. mental health and a lack thereof can be extremely confusing to diagnose and even harder to treat. hope YOU'RE doing well though, sounds like you've had a brush with it yourself.
@@grandmasteryoda2605 You're the first person in years to genuinely ask _me personally_ how im doing and actually mean it. That means more to me than you can imagine. Thanks man. Honestly though, i couldn't tell you how im doing. My depression is somewhere inbetween Kotone and Makoto. Im not emo like Makoto, but i also don't go around fake smiling like Kotone all day. I just go through the motions, knowing that one day, my apathy and lack of motivation will cost me everything. And until then i just wanna enjoy life as much as i can. Im not gonna whine over it though, because i can't expect others to give a shit about me if even i can't be bothered to do so.
@@Da1337Man Hey its no problem man, and this is done to death but you should remember that it *always* gets better. the two ways out of depression is fighting your way out or die trying. And if you die, there will *always* be somebody who misses you. There are people who are going through the same thing too, so you're not alone. In the end I don't perfectly understand how you're feeling but I can still with full confidence that I believe in you.
its really funny that people say she isnt depressed bc she looks happy bc i am the happiest person and i know around people but i also live like trash because of my depression
She is also said to be dependable and tough, just like how a leader should be. Although she seems to be always in high spirits, she hides her suffering and burdens, which is why everyone, mostly Junpei Iori and Akihiko Sanada, worries so much about her. Though she might go out of her way to cause herself suffering to be friendly, at the same time she is especially sensitive to negative criticism from others, such as from envious female classmates when she hangs out with Akihiko and Ryoji Mochizuki, describing their glares as "physically painful" or "burning at her skin." Ryoji's Fortune Social link as well as her dialogue choices after his reveal and learning of Nyx show a lot of her personality that's hidden under her bright and cheerful exterior. The tone of her dialogue choices shift, ranging from indifferent to outright depressed, contrasting her usual tone but similar to some of her male door-kun dialogue choices. Lastly, the lack of her comrades to fight alongside her can prove to be traumatic for her and can put her into a breakdown as seen in Persona Q2 where she is the only Persona user who has to fight alone.
I just realized all of femce songs are super cheary but hide more depressive meanings Way of life is about two people being at opposite ends being unable to properly meet eye to eye Time is about forgetting the old past come with a new future
Good Kotone deserves the praise and good vibes, nice video! also i just love Kotone's relationships, ESPECIALLY WITH AKIHIKO! That is adorable and flipping precious! God i wish she got into reload!
So that she could finally die again and be trap forever as a seal? That's Kotono advanrzge over her male counterpart. There isn't the Answer... So as far as we know, she just die. No more.
kotone having a different personality than makoto is my favorite part of her, she’s not just a fem version of makoto which i appreciate a lot. if p6 has two mcs, i hope they both have different personalities from each other
Great video. I definitely do not recall this level of depth to her character from when I played her route back on PSP like 10 years ago. Looking forward to playing it again in Reloaded once that mod is complete.
Kotone being thrown into PQ2 is an absolutely gut wrenching concept. This isn't her S.E.E.S., they don't know her, but she knows them. And it's all the more painful, as she puts on that happy smile and social butterfly act, knowing that she can't just break down in front of, effectively, a bunch of strangers. No matter how much you care about them, or love them, they only see you as a suspicious stranger dressed in their uniform.
“Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died…”
Kotone reminds me of a girl I knew in highschool who was popular, pretty and had a great personality. (I obviously had a crush on her). In our last year of highschool, I noticed she had a bad case of depression. She missed multiple days of school, visited the school therapist and casually confessed in class to trying to OD at home. Idk what it was like for her the years prior, since our classes were separated due to covid. Even though she showed obvious signs of depression, she still seemed cool and somewhat cheerful. Anyways, I think Kotone is a great MC. FEMC is also best girl.
Kotone was a genuinely GREAT Addition to Persona 3's perspective of Death and Life because while Makoto had to learn how to open up and connect with other people to get to where he is... Kotone learns how to be honest with herself and her connections. It's two different ways to learn the good of living. There's also a LOT of FeMC-oriented Social Links that tackle a lot of things girls go through like Saori, Rio, Aigis, Mitsuru's was honestly so good in that she vents out how much she tries to be girlboss and dommy and yet she is still forced to be tied to old societal traditions. And it kinda sucks hard that people would hate and bash on the cute Hamsteak because "she's too happy" or "Shinji's death would be meaningless" or "Ken route" (dw even the female fans don't actually like THAT route and even then the EN translation TONED THAT DYNAMIC DOWN to something more understandable but still weird). Just say you don't like complex Female Characters and go-
Ive always found her relatable because also of how mostly a female protagonist is portrayed in media and well, how you would adjust to new surroundings like her story. As a female, you blend in more if youre this “infalliable” sunshine and the more other people see that and believe it the more you fall in the darkness behind it. KOtone best protag imho
One thing you failed to mention is with her conversations with Pharos. While she starts just as confused as Makoto and ends up calling him a friend, when it's just her and him, she lets her mask fall. Her responses change from apathertic, to actually somewhat bitter. It's the first inclination of the mask slipping.
I'm somehow able to connect even more with Kotone because every rough patch I have had in my life I tried to keep smiling. Not let people see I'm struggling so much and try to numb everything. Even now I'm forcing myself to smile at everyone while inside I want to just curl up and never see anyone again. While I play the game I actually feel like I am her and there. The moment where Junpei yells at me I didn't think twice in clicking the option to yell at him because I felt the frustration and fear too. With any other MC from the Persona games I don't feel the connection there at all like I feel with Kotone.
I can kinda compare her smiling depression to comedians who have inner demons that they hide from the public and either try to face to get better, or succumb to them and remove themselves from existence. I agree with you that Kotone/ Minako does that beautifully and I hate how most of the P3 Fandom accuse her of being a "Mary Sue" for her positive persona(no pun intended). Heck, even her theme song in PQ2 HIGHLIGHTS HER TRUE FEELINGS OF LONELINESS AND DEPRESSION
I definitely relate more to Kotone than Makoto. When I was younger, I was really depressed, but I put on a happy face because I felt like I didn't deserve people caring if I was ok, and thought that if people did know then they would pretend to be concerned because they had to, but wouldn't actually care.
![The Best OP Nobody Explained Right-But I Will [Persona 3 Reload]](/img/n.gif)
Trust me, smiling depression is more dangerous than you think.
About normal depression, you can see and recognized they're depressed without telling by hearing their words, seeing action.
But smiling depression is completely different and hardly to identify. They'll keep pretending they're fine and give a fake smile to the others, even creating a wall in their mind.
You'll never know they're actually depressed or not until it's too late.
Smiling Depression also comes with the caveat that the "Clarity" phase many have in regards to suicidal ideation is significantly harder to see.
I met up with my friend last week and he told me his other friend just jumped off the building because of depression. He said the dude always seem happy and chill, but then one day he just went and did it.
Yeah, hi, that's me. I always just kinda figure that if I'm miserable I can at least make other people feel better.
Me. I have had bouts where I relate and understand Makoto but I relate much more to Kotone because that's my depression most of the time. Masking and pretending things are fine and dandy and happy when they're REALLY not. I've had people legit tell me I'm lying when I've been in a bad depression swing and mention it. After all I don't "act depressed". Because society says I shouldn't be. Society says I should smile. Society says if you just act happy you will be. But that's not how it works. Kotone resonates more for me because she's my depression in action. Just like I had to learn it's okay to ask for help and make friends so does she. That connecting can be real. That people DO care. Both ways of depression are valid. But Makoto's way of expressing it is the more accepted "oh they're depressed!" way. As we see with the masses of people who try to deny that Kotone is depressed...
Smiling depression always reminds me of Sayori from DDLC
thank u for touching on this omg its not that she 'doesn't fit' p3's theme its that she's literally just a different representation of depression and ppl dont bother to acknowledge that
Yup
Respectfully disagree.
She kind of messes up the themes and stuff.
Doesn't mean she's not a great character.
@@Hyp3rSonic How so?
@@chrisdiokno5600 Kotone was introduced as someone who cares for everybody & thinks about others think/feeling which is the reason she hides her problem with smiles. Makoto fits more with P3 tone because he's in apathy (he doesn't care about his life & others) but as the story progresses, his dialogue changes from a lot of "I don't care" to a person who sometimes jokes around.
P3 story is all about the MC learning how to live again (basically a person who has no will to live but learns to live again as the story progresses) so having Kotone being introduced as a person already cares for others or others' feelings is a little bit unfit for the P3 theme because she never reject living to begin with
@@JaclyneChinI think what they were going for is that they approached makoto's problem through the opposide side(just like their genders) and eventually reach the same conclusion. One who cares too little and one who cares too much.
And whose to say that kotone immediately cared about her friends? She could just be sticking with them at first just so she wouldn't be lonely.
P3's story can interpreted in many different ways, it doesn't have to be about learning to live or care about someone, but about learning to live with and care for yourself, art is subjective after all.
Let's be real, a well-adjusted person will not feel a need to shoot themselves in the head as they hold what they perceives to be a real gun.
The fact that Kotone has the audacity to do so already shows that something is wrong with her.
So I guess when Makoto does it, it's just him flexing a suicide I suppose?
@@Thelowestofthelowtiersneither has a fear of death and are both fine with it all ending on that day. Makoto is just more obvious with how little he cares
@@secondaegis9190 This is not to say that Kotone actually cares either. Maybe she cares because it's an obligation forced on through societal expectations, not because she actually has any concern for others. And even if she did, it's mostly surface level, if you know what I mean.
This is only true at the beginning of various social links and the game in general btw, in the later stages it's clear she has developed a truly inseperable bond with her friends.
@@giahuynguyenkim6389 true. That bond between people is of THE core messages of P3
What's wrong with you
Having both protagonist is a great reflection on the two sides of depression. Like faces on a coin Makoto is the more stereotypical melancholic side, openly apathetic. Kotone is the opposite side, showing how people cope by smiling through the pain, fooling herself and her peers that she’s ok, even when she isn’t. It’s something we rarely see in the media and i’m glad the writers at Atlas were bold enough to explore it
@@docholiday4129 It’s not needed though, there’s only one true storyline with this game, and that’s Makoto’s. Kotone is a half assed what if scenario. I don’t know what you’re talking about either, it’s not like FeMC has some revolutionary personality and it’s absurd to suggest Makoto’s genuine feelings of apathy and depression as the result of losing his parents at a young age as “stereotypical”. What a presumptuous statement made just to make the FeMC seem like she has any value.
@@jairekambui7738 get a load of this guy, lol
@@SuperDude1546persona 3 fans are so elitist even towards each other 🤦🏾♀️
Kotone's masked depression hits harder for me personally. So many people have friends who's committed su*cide who always smiled, always seemed fine. "I never knew how much they were hurting. They seemed so put together. So happy." Is such a common sentiment. Hell, many people cite their friends seemingly ever more chipper and happier on their final days. As if they've accepted their end and were happy for their suffering to end.
Anyone who says she doesn't fit just doesn't understand the themes if P3. Her and Makoto are two sides of the same coin. We get the pleasure of seeing two types of ways of dealing with mental illness and these people finding the value in life through it. Both protagonists are great.
except it makes the final sacrifice not hit like at all makoto's story is him growing to care about life and the things around him kotone starts the other around she already does she still depressed but she still cares it worsens her sacrifice because while makoto finally cared about the people around him and saw the meaning of life and did everything in his power to save them kotone already did care about those around her so all it is her sacrificing herself it hides all of her development and just makes it seem like she's still suicidal by the end and just saw her opportunity
@@vernessawashington9007
But he didn’t have this arc in the game, only the anime?
Any psychologist will tell you that if a depressed person suddenly seems to be more cheerful out of nowhere for seemingly no reason it's a gigantic red flag because it may be that they're planning to die and are pleased by the fact that their pain will soon end and that they're "doing something" about it
@@dsfmdiya7500 it's very implied throughout the game as early in the story there are a bunch of I dont care options while near then end they nigh disappear
@vernessawashington9007 Disagree, because I don't interpret Kotone's cheerful facade as her caring any more or less than Makoto, but I get why you'd feel that way.
Way of life was the start to this hint, then people said that "Sun" was too quick of a mood change and it all just clicked
"she's too happy." well happy people experience death and tragedies too.
Some people hide their depression behind their smile, but you could tell they are deeply hurting from inside behind that happy outlook.
I really wish they added her to reload. She was (is) so amazing. Her social link with Saori ALONE is enough to absolutely LOVE the femc route.
I know that you wish that she was in reload, but there are some mods that are trying to add her to reload but it's still being worked and they got pretty far but it's not completely done yet and I like their mods so far
@@animemaster768 yes, I’ve seen those! I’m playing it on Xbox unfortunately though. I’ll definitely add those mods when I get it on pc.
@@animemaster768 i hope that femMC mod for 3 Reload will get finished one day. I refuse to play 3 Reload otherwise. Plus, the $70 price for the game, and SEGA has the NERVE of charging you extra, to buy The Answer DLC, is plain greed.
I hate the "she's not canon" argument so much. Shin Megami Tensei is literally all about multiverses, they could get the Pakistani air force to nuke Tartatus and it would still be canon
Plus, her inclusion in PQ2 was Atlus acknowledging that she is canon and that both her version of Persona 3 and Makoto's version exist alongside each other.
LMFAO
She is canon she’s just not canon in the main universe
The Pakistani pilots are truly 🍇 for saving us from the shadows and Nyx, I commend them, even as an Indian. 🫡
I mean it's a fictional story... who cares about canonicity? The game exists, what more do you want?
I actually think Shinji living and being in a coma is better than him killed is better for the story.
Hear me out.
I think the situation is actually more taxing for Akihiko because of how uncertain the situation is. Death can be made with peace with because you have that closure. I think a lot of people who say it’s not that bad with him in a coma have honestly don’t really get the gravity of the situation when things are like that. Having your friend in such a precarious situation? Where he’s that close to death knowing there’s NOTHING you can do?
At least with his death, you can have that closure? But him in a coma no, it extends the pain and keeps you in a loop of anxiety until it’s resolved.
And people saying that Castor died so Shinji has to, by that logic there’s three other characters you should’ve died as well. Mitsuru Fuuka and Yukari. Oh! Don’t forget Aigis!
Mitsuru: Amazon queen, who was killed by Achilles
Fuuka: Christian martyr
Yukari: lover of Zeus, who was cursed to turn into a cow and got chased down by Hera
Aigis: statue literally made to honor the dead friend of Athena.
I 100% agree with this take. The one thing about Shinji's death that never sat right with me was how he got a funeral at Gekkoukan. Sure he's a student there and most likely it was organized but at the same time I feel that it would have been more impactful if he got no such thing and instead Akihiro went to the alley that Shinji hung out instead.
The funeral scene while pretty doesn't really work in my opinion. even after death life continues on and that is what the FEMC's save shinji route shows. We don't get a fancy funeral scene but instead a man in a coma. SEES is not allowed a chance to grieve like the funeral. they have to go about their lives while keeping quiet about what happened to their friend. honestly that is even more painful
It would make Soul Phase as the P3P OP a stronger theme considering this.... Death is not solely about the absence but the inability to communicate.
I can only imagine what Shinjiro would be like if we ever got The Answer for a Femc route, imagine waking from a coma only to find out the girl that saved you is now dead herself.
I believe he is also the only romance option that doesn't say “I love you” to her, that's gotta eat you up inside, wishing you could have told them before either one of you are dead, but I guess he really didn't want to leave any baggage behind.
THANK YOU. I am so sick of reading "shinji living ruins the themes of persona 3 bc persona 3 is about death." its an incredibly shallow take on a very nuanced and complex topic that persona 3 discusses. i always hated how shinjiro was simply treated as a means to an end for akihiko and ken, and not as his own character. i honestly think ppl are so hostile to shinjiro living bc its not executed very well in portable. i wish there was more follow up for after 10/4; maybe you could visit him in the hospital on christmas, maybe you could get a scene of him waking up in the hospital AFTER kotone's death, ten fall out of that, and how he could reconcile his relationship with ken and the others. therses so much potential that they just never tap into, and i really wish they did. him regaining a will to live despite his limited time due to the drugs is a perfect representation of persona 3s themes to endure and live to the fullest in face of your approaching death. and what youve said here as well is also fantastic. based.
There was a fanfic about FeMC’s Answer route except with Shinjiro as the protagonist struggling to come to terms with her death.
I wonder if it ever got finished.
This why i like Portable so much because the story is the same but its so different and sucks shes not in reload. She has a different personality and different interactions. Most people i know who are depressed and committed sewerslide were the happiest people i knew. Also her and shinji’s relationship is perfect
I’m devastated because being able to romance Ryoji brings in so many angst scenarios and lore implications. The end of his social link always hits me so hard
The only thing that sucks is that you could romance Ken
Shinji x Kotone is full on the canon ship for me.
Dude, it is so disrespectful to say "sewer slide" when referring to someone actually taking their own life.
@@statesminds too bad the makoto crybaby fanboys won't accept the facts
As someone who’s going through a rough patch in my life, my mum said I’ve always smiled as a kid and I started smiling just to make me feel abit better about my situation but learning about her story makes me so happy that I’m not alone in the pain. I should really play persona 3 portable now just so cry more aha
Thanks for the video
REAL
Makoto: "Life is meaningless, we might as well give up."
Kotone: "Life is meaningless! No use worrying! ◕ᴗ◕✿"
More like, "Life is meaningless! ^_^🌸 🔫 (I can't type kaomojis)
Sorta surprised the musical (which is where the name "Kotone" originated from) didn't get mentioned. While her personality lines up a bit more with the male protagonist, there are moments where it's clear they were writing for her specifically. Two examples off the top of my head. After the battle aboard the train, Yukari takes note of Kotone's kind of lack of reactions and does a solo number in order to try to connect with Kotone a little better. It doesn't really work, though not for lack of Yukari trying.
Then came the Full Moon Operation where they rescue Fuuka. Initially, like the movies, Mitsuru tells Kotone to take Fuuka and run for it. Kotone, however, goes in front of the Shadows to fight them herself and tells the others to take Fuuka and leave. She was fully willing to throw away her life in that moment, even saying she didn't care about herself as long as the others would survive.
Probably the bit from the musicals that stood out the most to it is actually from the second one. After almost two hours of her trying to get closer to Shinji, the dude falls into a coma and while it seems that compared to everyone else she's mostly keeping it together, but then when she tries to comfort Ken it's _her_ who ends up breaking down into tears, probably the most vulnerable she is across all five parts, and while afterwards she mostly goes back to business as usual... the final part makes it pretty clear she never _really_ got over it, just chose to keep on living in spite of the pain. After all, as Shinji himself said in the game, for some reason she just looks best when she smiles.
I think Kotone is a fantastic character. She's more than just female Makoto, but a different representation of the games themes. Her music being more upbeat than Makoto isn't a bad thing at all, it's a different take. I love them for their different experiences with dealing with depression and loss. Kotone is her own character just like Makoto, which is just awesome to me. Both carrying the message of this game and what it means to us. In the end both Makoto and Kotone still arrive at the same beautiful conclusion. I love them both so much, and for the everlasting beauty that Persona 3 represents.
I always thought of this: She is depressed, but she puts that negativity into her energy to keep moving forward. While Makoto is just that depressed level where he can’t control it well and just let out his anguish. (Even though when playing P3 Reload, his Dialogue choices showed he has more life to him than what we thought, besides the normal “I don’t care” line.)
As a therapist, theres no such thing as a "different kind of depression", but theres an enormous cataloge of coping mechanisms, self defense, survival mechanisms, and levels of intensity in adjustment/functionality, suic. risk and self care. Kotone works in a "happy"/temper/funtional "mask" in front of people, the ones that socked everyone around when something triggeering happend, or the ones that perfection how to work sistematicly but alone they go down to 0 and lack motivation for anything self related and just drown. Any kind of clinical depression is hard, but isnt just a category/name/style change.
As a person who has suffered severe depression i can relate to both. But i am much more similar to Kotone in life than Makoto. Robin Williams was seen as an incredibly happy. Ive been referred to as the same. Yet, ive suffered severe depression most of my life. Finally going through skme good changes. But I feel people dont generally realize that people like that definitely exist. We smile and make people happy. Maybe because we dont want them to be anything like how we are feeling.
I'm someone who actually connected better with Kotone more than Makoto. Playing though P3R just leaves me feeling disconnected in strange way, unlike P4/5 where I just play the funny characters, P3 wants you to understand it's melencholy.
But I know that idea of wearing a smile, saying your fine, making sure those around you are happy and looking forward to the next day, while forgetting your own feelings to make sure it stays that way, far more than pure apathy.
Also you can say you prefer hot chocloate over coffee in Junipies social link so shes just like me
The power of "shes just like me fr" is unmatched
Everything about this. Even the hot chocolate part.
I guess that was my subconscious reasoning why I refuse to play 3 Reload due to only having a maleMC route, besides my hatred it's $70 for the base game with extra money they charge you for The Answer. I connect with Kotone allot more than maleMC. The unyielding pain of needing to mask one's own emotional suffering, is something I live with every day. There are rarely moments that I'm truly happy at that time. I mask my emotions frequently, because I don't want others to be troubled by what I'm sad and depressed about. And yet, I bear that pain, and press onto each day, despite the pain. Never once thinking of ending myself.
and he likes that for some reasons xD
THANK YOU FOR THIS!
I could never have said it better myself. I LOVE the FEMC for so many reasons and this also helped me to feel seen, and from reading the comments others as well.
The reason Kotone exists is not only to explore the themes of the game differently, but because literally half of the people playing the game are female! It expands the demographic and player base and anyone who LOVES THESE GAMES and the stories they tell like myself should be very glad about that!
Knowing Joker, he could probably tell she was faking her smile the entire time since he's probably the most familiar with wearing a mask people want to see
Makoto: I want to kms 🙁😐🫤
Kotone: I want to kms 🫠☺️✨
I like to see it is less she wants to khs, more she just wants something to take her out, as she feels obligated to keep going due to societal expectations, and it's just so mentally taxing while dealing with her grief that she just wants to rest in death that she can't bring herself to bring upon herself.
Very awesome video! I feel like people fail to see how many forms depression can take. Depression isn't simply a "i don't care" "i don't want to do anything" type of mood. It varies greatly from person to person. You did an AMAZING job touching upon this topic, thank you!
Great video :D to add on, I think a part of her character that should be discussed more is WHY someone in the same circumstances as makoto would end up cheery on the outside. And i think that has to do w the very fact that she is a girl. When men are usually given the "oh boys will be boys" treatment, girls are expected to be more sympathetic, more positive, to fit in. Makoto could fly under the radar with his apathetic personality, but kotone would not have been able to, so she had to adapt into a more cheery mask in order to 'survive'. I love femc as a character and i always love getting more content of her on yt sorry for ranting lol 🥹
Don't be sorry! This is an absolutely exceptional point. If I ever return to the topic to make another video, I will certaintely give more credence to the societal expectations of women in Japan. Thank you for your input!
THANK YOU!
@@Hihi-zk3pc The thing is though. It's her CHOICE to act this way. She isn't uncaring inside like he is. (At the start of the story) Their situations are completely different.
Makoto has straight up not connected with ANYONE throughout his life after his parents died due to how little he cared. There's the unhealthy disadaptation. While Kotone didn't act that way not because she was actually depressed and was hiding it with a smile (she isn't depressed, because she doesn't show any debilitating somatic symptoms, chronic fatigue, lack of will to do anything substantial. All her emotions fall into the subclinical sadness category at most. And reactive dysthymia in January. Which is a normal human reaction towards the looming end of the world) but because she actually DID CARE about how people perceived her, she cared about how others feel, she cared about their well-being. This goes completely against the original narrative of Persona 3. Makoto is supposed to be someone, whose condition parallels Apathy syndrome people start suffering from, and slowly "recovers" from it with the help of bonds. He is supposed to be a hollow husk of a person, who doesn't see value in anything to the point of not caring enough to even take his own life, because that would be logically pointless as well.
He was afraid of caring about someone again for that someone to be gone from his life forever. Kotone... just doesn't embody this notion AT ALL.
Not saying she's badly written. She just doesn't fit this game's themes.
something I wanna say as sort of a point against but more me saying why I don't understand it is that Makoto wouldn't care if someone else didn't like how he got on, in fact people often don't like it but he does it anyway because he simply doesn't have any will left, to the point of looking like an actual skeleton in his official art, also it's seriously not this simple, guy's don't just get to be apathetic and no one will really care, you would probably get made fun of for acting like Makoto does and not paying much attention to anything around you and overall being depressed, either that or teachers or other people will talk to you, things don't just go unnoticed and swept under the rug, but that's not why I don't understand Kotone ending up with smiling depression, it's what I said previously, why does Kotone care enough about what people think to end up like this, if Makoto doesn't and hasn't really cared about what's going on, why does Kotone, why is Makoto going through the exact same experiences, both caring just as little ended up like the physical incarnation of apathy syndrome while Kotone hasn't, why does Makoto not care about all the expectations that are out upon him while Kotone does. If I had to think of a reason it's just that Kotone is a different person who has delt with everything differently thus not ending up like a nigh rotting corpse by the start of the game
@@Door3234 Man, ironically, this comment section is so full of good cases against Kotone being a good representation of the game's themes, it's fascinating. As someone who is only ever interested in characters that work with and for the story... I just don't understand why people are so eager to defend someone that just doesn't fit this criteria.
Is that really the power of boobs and boners?
Spot on. At risk of sounding pretentious, FeMC arguably fits Persona's whole Jungian thing better-but I'm not going to partake in MC vs FeMC debates as the FeMC route obviously complements the original story, and so both ought routes to be played. Subbed!
I think we need more alternate protags in general, every new angle of view highlights new perspectives and brings new insights.
I hope Kotone gets the remake treatment officially someday.
@@IrvingIV there's a full blown mod for her in the works, its actually crazy. i love the femc community
@@neomori_rhythm
Oh yeah i've seen some of that.
the fact that i have smiling depression too
You're not a shepherd, you're just a sheep. A combined effort of everyone you meet, you're all flesh, with no bone.
He didn't order a yappachino @@sirfattymann1787
Same. I do it so that I wouldn't make my family worry as the oldest child
@@sirfattymann1787what the what
@magentasky234 man idk either I was zoinked as hell when I wrote that my bad
This is why she is my most favorite character in the whole persona series. I can relate really well.
Honest to God, FeMC is my favorite Persona protagonist next to Yu. Just like how you can pick all the weird dialogue choices for Yu, the amount of personality Kotone brings to P3P is insane. She’s kind, silly, and when it comes down to it, downright cutthroat during some interactions. Atlas could’ve easily copy and pasted a female Makoto and washed their hands of it, but they didn’t. They made her stand out as her own character. Shit, part of me wishes they had just done that, then we wouldn’t be lamenting how the series treats her . What’s the point of having this distinct protagonist when you pretend she never even existed? Still, I’ll always stan her.
Deadpool ahh depression
I always thought that of her I think that’s what Altus was trying to show how other people deal with depression but since people didn’t seem to understand it I guess it falls flat.
Fr honestly, kotone is the best protag
If only it was not for the pedo romance...
Aigis is the best protag
Tatsuya is the best protag
You are all wrong. Tanaka is the best protag
@@вашеимяможетбытьздесьcouldn’t agree more
Kotone has just as much of a place in the world of Persona as Makoto does, anyone who says she "doesn't fit" is just wrong
maybe in a game with different themes her character just resists against themes in to many way to work
I knew I loved FEMC, but now I really love her! She truly feels relatable! Smiling depression is a term I haven't heard of, but now I'm glad I know of it.
This was an incredible video! Thank you for pouring your time analyzing her character. This was amazing.
Something not discussed here about Kotone is Persona 3's theme of death.
Makoto represents the usual view of death being sad, gloomy, and his coping mechanism being his signature "I don't care" line. Why should we care when in the end it doesn't matter.
Kotone wears hairclips in the shape of XXII (22 in roman numerals), representing the number of cards in the major arcana tarot deck. While the Fool is obviously 0 to represent a blank, it's also believed that completing the entire tarot circles back to the Fool (as in after the World, next is the Fool). Cycling back to the Fool's Journey can be interpreted as learning everything and going again, either with a new perspective or finding something new.
In this interpretation Kotone is not only a meta reason for a new game+, but she has accepted life as it is of memento mori. She understands that death is a part of life (like you said in the conclusion). Instead of brooding about the inevitable end like her male counterpart, she enjoys the life she's living before she reaches the end. Like petals fluttering in wind, are beautiful, but they too will decompose.
Just as death is inevitable, FeMC's tears, and MC's smile are things that are just as likely to happen in their lives.
This is a great analysis of Kotone. One of the things I love about Persona 3 Portable is how instead of just copying Makoto over as a girl, they took on this different expression of depression and created a female protagonist that really does have her own aura about her. It's not just "female Makoto", and that really adds to the experience when you play with Kotone as the MC.
Yes, THANK YOU so much for this! Just like you, I hate when people write her off as "a waifu" or "not fitting P3's themes" so much, without even getting into those who are just being misogynists. Thank you for summing up why she's a great lead for P3 so succinctly, this was a great and cathartic watch. Please keep up the great work!
And because we're all thinking it: Screw you for not putting her in Reload even after making an Expansion Pass, Atlus.
I've always resonated with Kotone, having to mask her inner turmoil and project hope instead. It feels like as a woman, you have to act all bubbly, cheerful, ecstatic around others, or you're doing something wrong.
I like that. And I think that gives her a more unique reason to at least want and hope for death, if not be outright suicidal. She feels obligated to keep going and be cherry because of societal expectations, and it's so mentally taxing that, on the outside she's sufficiently cheery enough for society, but on the inside, she's like "I'm so tired of this, I just want to die so I can finally rest"
My favorite Persona protagonist. I was super happy when you mentioned the Dear Girls anthology. Excellent video
Yes! I'm so glad someone mentioned this! It's so absurd that haters say she doesn't fit the themes of the game even though smiling depression is a thing.
If anything, smiling depression can be more dangerous than regular depression. A person in this state might be more broken than people think, and if they reach the point of no return and decide to... Log out from life... It can be even more devastating to others who begin ask "but (s)he was always happy! Why would (s)he do such a thing?! "
A real life example would be Selen/Dokibird, whose toxic work came so close to making her end everything, despite how happy she may have seemed to her fans.
But my favorite aspect about Kotone isn't the Stepford smiler, for how much I like that trope, it's her defiant stance on the hardships of life. I feel like, where Makoto would just accept his fate, Kotone would be more defiant and wouldn't go down without a fight. Both approaches are good and valid, but Kotone's personally inspiring and I think it's underrated. This is also true for the themes of the game, as death is inevitable and we have to accept it (Makoto), but humans are able to keep on living because they can always hold onto hope that they can still avoid it even for a little bit (Kotone)
TLDR : she's underrated and fits the game way better than others give her credit for.
It’s true, I feel smiling depression leads to a point of care free that’s the ultimate danger, as now theh feel nothing, they are nothing, and don’t care what happens next (what could turn into that I mean) I really like how you put it.
I played p3p a decade ago and I never knew people criticized Kotoni’s character. I always thought she was unanimously accepted by the persona fanbase lol. I also thought her name was Minako.
But great video. Her bubbly nature always felt like she was putting a brave face as the leader but I never thought it would be a coping mechanism to hide her severe depression. She really is the epitome of “fake it till you make it”. Thanks for the new perspective, i might pick up the game again.
Love the analysis and yes she very much represents a different side of psychology the game is literally about masking your real emotions and fitting your answer to the right person, but remeber that misogynists are everywhere so gut feeling that it's the same people saying shit about her because "she's a woman" she's just badass period.
I always find it cute and sad at the same time when she smiled through everything and basically stayed as an upbeat girl to the end compared to how Makoto handled his depression. Two sides of the same coin, Kotone spreads happiness and Makoto absorbs sadness. GREAT video.
FeMC Stans gathering at this video like Apostles during the Eclipse
Having high functioning depression myself, it is very connectible to someone, there is something about being the rock people lean on, yet being able to relate to people so hard, and not just empathize, but rather sympathize with others, it really is hard to open up and accept your own feelings to be akin to what others are feeling: Genuine, fixable problems. We face hard times due to that fact, and being able to have others lean onto you, yet not having others be able to do the same for you, unless you want to break that illusion people really desire out of you, someone who is truly vulnerable, and not untouchable.
Im so happy people are willing to voice this part about Kotone. I relate to her on such a deep level that speaks to me in so many different ways. Especially moonlight daydream. Such a fire song. Her character in general means so much to me. Amazing video that really voiced the words I couldnt form
Realising this about Femc hit me SO HARD like damn, she’s shockingly similar to me, I’m a little shaken by that realisation cause I always felt like I was just fooling myself or people were misdiagnosing me by calling my mental crashes as depression because I’m so optimistic and upbeat usually.
That really hits hard. Damn.
Its so refreshing to see someone talk about Katone for her actual character. Not the pedophile shit. Thank you
atypical depression is really dangerous. i have done a lot of studies on mental health and i think kotone is a good representative for it.
I'm 100% CONFIDENT that they'll Give Reload the Royal treatment and they'll implement our icon just you wait!!!
it wont surprise me if Atlus simply implemented her as a DLC, she is way popular to leave her behind, IIRC she was one of the top picks in a popularity poll atlus made a while ago, so they know people love her.
However is still making basically another persona 3 reload, or at least half of it since most assets are still there (be it having to cast extra VA's for her new social links and Theo, re-cast the old VA's for both story moments and new lines in the social links, pay the animation studio for her story segments and maybe even new intro, also pay for the remixes of the songs of her side of the story, etc), so it is still kinda on the fence there. if it sells, without a doubt atlus will do it, its just a question of when they will do it, if it doesnt sell however... kotone will never see the light of HD graphics
The other day I saw an article calling Persona 3 Portable misogynistic, partially because of FeMc’s pink UI. So aggravating, it’s pink because it counteracts Makoto’s blue, reflecting their different attitudes
Great video, thank you for putting my exact thoughts in words!
This is why I think Kotone is stronger than Makoto, mentally or maybe even physically? She does carry a heavier weapon than Makoto.
Definitely mentally because she knows how to hide her true feelings with a smile so she wouldn't be a burden to anyone
So it's not really heavier so much as weight more at the end, which actually helps you hit a lot harder if you're not as strong by using the physics of a longer weapon. That's my experience doing combat sports/LARP at least, I'm not very strong, I intentionally use top heavy weapons, it let's me compete and challenge blows much better.
Nah, stop the cap. That's like saying P4 characters are stronger mentally than everyone else cuz they confront themselves. It's mostly the movies that have Makoto that apathetic, but in the games, he's always been just as caring
I've spent a long time thinking, talking, and playing Persona 3 since 2012, and I've never quite had the verbiage to be able to explain her this way. Thank you so much.
Having not played P3P but being told about it by a friend, I never realized how much I relate to Kotone until now. 90% chance those comments are from people who didn't even play the game.
this video is so well put together, thank you.
It feels like the people who act like Kotone has no character or doesn't fit the themes of P3 are just... willfully ignorant. Like, how can they talk about P3's themes when they barely understand the concept that people with depression aren't necessarily obvious about it? That depression doesn't automatically equal quiet and apathetic like we see in Makoto? That for others it manifests in different ways?
Because I feel the fandom majority now are the ones that start from and expected Persona 5 where you play Chad Thundersona and you fight god and get your harem.
Smiling through depression is often a symptom of depression itself. Depressed people often feel like they don't belong in this world. Emptiness, lack of self love, it often leads to a feeling where depressed people feel like a burden, like a badly transplanted organ. But they also think they don't have a reason or right to complain, because other people have it so much harder. You know, no food, every day a battle for survival, abuse.
So, at the very least they don't want to be a burden to the people they love. If someone smiles in your face while feeling like ending it, it isn't lack of trust. They just love you so much they don't want to eat away at your life.
Goddamn I need to talk about this with my therapist DAAAAAMN YOU NAILED IT
I love Kotone so much
Because she and i? Are like this 🤞🤞🤞🤞
Kotone fans rise up, lets protect our silly depressed tomboy.
Momento Mori, Carpe Diem.
Hello, person with the Smiling Type of depression here 🙋♀️ I've heard "but you don't look depressed™" quite a few times so let me just add: It's not wrong to call it a "mask" but for me personally (and this how I see Kotone as well) it's also about a strong desire to simply just be exactly just that: happy, outgoing, friendly. I try to be bubbly and optimistic because that's what I want to be and there are phases when I succeed being (mostly) in that headspace. But (and the pun is kinda intended) that light casts VERY dark shadows and the phases where my mental health crashes are BAAAAD. Most people won't notice those phases though, as I try to keep them to myself as much as I can. A) I don't want anyone to worry and b) bc there's a lot of shame tied to it. So yeah, just because you seem happy it doesn't mean you can't be depressed (by that logic, Junpei would have to be quite well mentally and he certainly isn't 😬)
My personal headcanon (partially inspired by a twitter thread I read) is that Kotone used to be a lot more quiet and reserved for most of here life but then decided to try and live now that she is back to where it all started 10 years ago. That's not to say that I think she's faking her positivity, but rather that she's trying to be who she used to be before her trauma. To me that really ties into what I see in Persona 3 as a whole, as I think it's actually more about life than death. It's about how you deal with pain, sorrow and loss as well as joy, community and love. It asks you what you want to do with the time you are given. And from that angle, both Kotone and Makoto fit the game perfectly. I'd even go so far as to say that having two different angles to view the world and story from makes it even better! It's so cool that P3P let's you choose - like, it's fine if people think the male protagonist is enough, but I think it's neat we get the option. Not just because I am a female or because I identify with Kotone a little more (though both are true), but because P3 just gives us a little more to explore that way, more to think about and well... more to enjoy ☺️
you did justice for best girl
That is why I prefer her over Makoto. We have seen many representations of depression like his but is hard to find someone talking about her type of depression. And is something serious, as you mentioned, is hard to help this people. I love Persona games for things like this.
I’ve struggle with severe depression since I was 12 years old, and Kotone really helped me learn about how I coped with my depression when I first played P3P. After I broke up with my e bestie, tried my best to hide my mental state from my friends because I didn’t want to hurt them with my problems.
I talked to a psychiatrist during a class (not a visit) telling him I've actually been depressed for 10+ years, he just didn't believe me because I'm "able to make a phone call and show up to important things". I know.....i'm very high functioning but everyday feels meaningless and nobody cares because i'm upbeat enough on the outside
My sweet baby Kotone Is getting some love!!! ❤️
I can say for a fact that as a teenager (mostly elementary to middle school), I smiled through all my trauma and depression over the years up until high school. The only sign of my depression was only ever the fleeting moments where I was stuck in my own thoughts, staring at nothing in front of me, as was brought to my attention by a teacher at the time. So when I played P3P just a week before my high school graduation, her character really clicked with me. I saw a glimpse of who I was back then, and to some extent, still am at 21 yrs. A girl trying to find her place in a world that keeps taking. Whether it be from loss, betrayal or the sting of loneliness. Apathy was something I tried to achieve, but I’m just not the type of person who can do that. And, as you mentioned, her social link with Ryoji really highlighted this perfectly. Ryoji, who also hides his inexplainable melancholic personality under a layer of smiles and charm, drops the flirtatious attitude to really ponder the incredibly heavy feeling of emptiness. A nagging sense of dread at seeing beauty in the world, or the difficult sensation of wanting to live in the moment but being hesitant to, because a voice in the back of his head is telling him he isn’t allowed to. That he is forgetting something important.
All this to say Kotone really served as the Ryoji to me and my journey through P3P.
So much kotone hate and copium in these comments lmao great video, persona 3 to me was always about human connections and how they mold and change our lives, and kotones story is an excellent example of that. Its fine to prefer makoto but ppl in the comments are being so obnoxious anyway kotone slaps
Tbf, there are obnoxious Kotone fans as well(that for any Persona character)
But its only some people. They just tend to be the loudest with their opinions
@@Hyp3rSonic Im specifically talking about this video. Reading some of these comments is very frustrating.
@@stormfallvalkyri8389 understandable, but thats to be expected. Not saying it's ok, but that comes with making a video like this
I don’t know. Makoto’s one of my favorite Persona characters but I’m still enjoying Portable so far. Like, some of the worst social links in 3 (Keisuke, Kenji, Suemitsu) are swapped out? That’s amazing! “Time” also might be my single favorite Persona song. Somehow even though I heard it for the first time like 3 days ago, it just sounds like nostalgia to me.
Honestly, my biggest problem so far is how Junpei (another one of my favorites) becomes kind of a woman hating asshat in Kotone’s route. Like he’s a horny idiot in Makoto’s route, but actually misogynist? Not really.
even though I'm not the biggest fan of P3's doom and gloom energy, i like kotone not only because she's more fleshed-out as a character, but also because on a certain level, i can see where she's coming from.
im not depressed, at least im 90% sure im not, but i understand the 'smiling even when it hurts' mentality. some people just fall directly into the dumps when some bad shit happens but i know personally i try to keep up appearances for as long as possible. im much easier to break since i have few major life struggles and have people to support me, but i know that when im sad i usually just blow it off if someone asks or i tell them in sort of a joking manner.
im not special, i think a lot of people can identify a bit of themselves within kotone, but she speaks to me a little more as a character than makoto does.
is me writing this cringe? yeah. does anyone care? nooope. but i felt i should say something.
If you have to ask yourself if you're suffering from depression, real chronic depression that is, then you probably don't have it.
It's hard to describe, but the most accurate description would be it feels like there's a black hole in your chest. When you look to the future and have no hope, dreams or aspirations because you know it's never going to get better anyways. All you see is darkness when you envision what it'll be like in 5 years.
@@Da1337Man yeah no, definitely not having endless darkness tunnel in my brain. ofc i was already mostly certain that i was all good, and i didnt mean to appropriate it in any way. mental health and a lack thereof can be extremely confusing to diagnose and even harder to treat. hope YOU'RE doing well though, sounds like you've had a brush with it yourself.
@@grandmasteryoda2605 You're the first person in years to genuinely ask _me personally_ how im doing and actually mean it. That means more to me than you can imagine. Thanks man.
Honestly though, i couldn't tell you how im doing. My depression is somewhere inbetween Kotone and Makoto. Im not emo like Makoto, but i also don't go around fake smiling like Kotone all day. I just go through the motions, knowing that one day, my apathy and lack of motivation will cost me everything. And until then i just wanna enjoy life as much as i can. Im not gonna whine over it though, because i can't expect others to give a shit about me if even i can't be bothered to do so.
@@Da1337Man Hey its no problem man, and this is done to death but you should remember that it *always* gets better. the two ways out of depression is fighting your way out or die trying. And if you die, there will *always* be somebody who misses you. There are people who are going through the same thing too, so you're not alone.
In the end I don't perfectly understand how you're feeling but I can still with full confidence that I believe in you.
What a beautiful video essay. Thank you for your great analysis of Kotone. She deserves that.
Can definitely relate to smiling depression. Getting help is really hard when the person that’s supposed to help you says, “You look fine to me.”
its really funny that people say she isnt depressed bc she looks happy bc i am the happiest person and i know around people but i also live like trash because of my depression
She is also said to be dependable and tough, just like how a leader should be. Although she seems to be always in high spirits, she hides her suffering and burdens, which is why everyone, mostly Junpei Iori and Akihiko Sanada, worries so much about her. Though she might go out of her way to cause herself suffering to be friendly, at the same time she is especially sensitive to negative criticism from others, such as from envious female classmates when she hangs out with Akihiko and Ryoji Mochizuki, describing their glares as "physically painful" or "burning at her skin."
Ryoji's Fortune Social link as well as her dialogue choices after his reveal and learning of Nyx show a lot of her personality that's hidden under her bright and cheerful exterior. The tone of her dialogue choices shift, ranging from indifferent to outright depressed, contrasting her usual tone but similar to some of her male door-kun dialogue choices.
Lastly, the lack of her comrades to fight alongside her can prove to be traumatic for her and can put her into a breakdown as seen in Persona Q2 where she is the only Persona user who has to fight alone.
This is really great. I wish you'd covered her scene in the fourth movie of PQ2 though
Now this... can bring a smile back to any face.
I just realized all of femce songs are super cheary but hide more depressive meanings
Way of life is about two people being at opposite ends being unable to properly meet eye to eye
Time is about forgetting the old past come with a new future
Then there's the song pull the trigger as the sees members tell her they got her back
Of all the ways one could use the "just built differently" meme, using it on* Kotone is one that really fits.
Good Kotone deserves the praise and good vibes, nice video! also i just love Kotone's relationships, ESPECIALLY WITH AKIHIKO! That is adorable and flipping precious! God i wish she got into reload!
So that she could finally die again and be trap forever as a seal?
That's Kotono advanrzge over her male counterpart. There isn't the Answer... So as far as we know, she just die. No more.
Kotone was always much easier to identify with for me, and I think this helped me clarify why. So thank you for this.
kotone having a different personality than makoto is my favorite part of her, she’s not just a fem version of makoto which i appreciate a lot. if p6 has two mcs, i hope they both have different personalities from each other
Noone can run from the persona 3 playable character depression. It gets everything it touches...
Great video. I definitely do not recall this level of depth to her character from when I played her route back on PSP like 10 years ago. Looking forward to playing it again in Reloaded once that mod is complete.
I'm honestly surprised anyone would say that she's not depressed because she acts bubbly? ime, that's extremely common in women.
Kotone being thrown into PQ2 is an absolutely gut wrenching concept. This isn't her S.E.E.S., they don't know her, but she knows them.
And it's all the more painful, as she puts on that happy smile and social butterfly act, knowing that she can't just break down in front of, effectively, a bunch of strangers. No matter how much you care about them, or love them, they only see you as a suspicious stranger dressed in their uniform.
“Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died… Everything was fine until Senpai died…”
honestly smiling depression fits me better than normal depression
she just like me fr fr
finally, someone understands her character! Fantastic video ❤
Thank you for making this video. It made me learn more about Kotone and understand her character. I feel bad for her tbh.
Kotone reminds me of a girl I knew in highschool who was popular, pretty and had a great personality. (I obviously had a crush on her). In our last year of highschool, I noticed she had a bad case of depression. She missed multiple days of school, visited the school therapist and casually confessed in class to trying to OD at home. Idk what it was like for her the years prior, since our classes were separated due to covid. Even though she showed obvious signs of depression, she still seemed cool and somewhat cheerful.
Anyways, I think Kotone is a great MC. FEMC is also best girl.
Kotone was a genuinely GREAT Addition to Persona 3's perspective of Death and Life because while Makoto had to learn how to open up and connect with other people to get to where he is... Kotone learns how to be honest with herself and her connections. It's two different ways to learn the good of living. There's also a LOT of FeMC-oriented Social Links that tackle a lot of things girls go through like Saori, Rio, Aigis, Mitsuru's was honestly so good in that she vents out how much she tries to be girlboss and dommy and yet she is still forced to be tied to old societal traditions.
And it kinda sucks hard that people would hate and bash on the cute Hamsteak because "she's too happy" or "Shinji's death would be meaningless" or "Ken route" (dw even the female fans don't actually like THAT route and even then the EN translation TONED THAT DYNAMIC DOWN to something more understandable but still weird). Just say you don't like complex Female Characters and go-
Ive always found her relatable because also of how mostly a female protagonist is portrayed in media and well, how you would adjust to new surroundings like her story. As a female, you blend in more if youre this “infalliable” sunshine and the more other people see that and believe it the more you fall in the darkness behind it. KOtone best protag imho
One thing you failed to mention is with her conversations with Pharos. While she starts just as confused as Makoto and ends up calling him a friend, when it's just her and him, she lets her mask fall. Her responses change from apathertic, to actually somewhat bitter. It's the first inclination of the mask slipping.
"That's what the Mask is! That's what the point of the Mask is!"
Thank you sm for the video
I'm somehow able to connect even more with Kotone because every rough patch I have had in my life I tried to keep smiling. Not let people see I'm struggling so much and try to numb everything. Even now I'm forcing myself to smile at everyone while inside I want to just curl up and never see anyone again. While I play the game I actually feel like I am her and there. The moment where Junpei yells at me I didn't think twice in clicking the option to yell at him because I felt the frustration and fear too. With any other MC from the Persona games I don't feel the connection there at all like I feel with Kotone.
I can kinda compare her smiling depression to comedians who have inner demons that they hide from the public and either try to face to get better, or succumb to them and remove themselves from existence.
I agree with you that Kotone/ Minako does that beautifully and I hate how most of the P3 Fandom accuse her of being a "Mary Sue" for her positive persona(no pun intended). Heck, even her theme song in PQ2 HIGHLIGHTS HER TRUE FEELINGS OF LONELINESS AND DEPRESSION
I definitely relate more to Kotone than Makoto. When I was younger, I was really depressed, but I put on a happy face because I felt like I didn't deserve people caring if I was ok, and thought that if people did know then they would pretend to be concerned because they had to, but wouldn't actually care.
in a weird way, i feel kinda seen thanks to this video, thank you :)
Thank you!
great video!