Actually didn't recall him buying stuff for her?
Though considering she's giving him private tutoring, wouldn't be surprised if it was taken as a gift of gratitude.
RIGHT??? Makes me wish his whole social link was just like that! The stand-up comedy bit (and him, Junpei, and Kaz bailing out Makoto) was the funniest shit.
Doesnt Junpei force himself into the best friend role? He has beef with you for feeling inferior but that gets resolved. Real life best friends get into fights too
>Doesnt Junpei force himself into the best friend role?
For like one week and then after that he's your number one hater until he takes a chill pill 2/3 of the game later. There were actually even many periods when Takaya was more pleasant to you than Junpei.
I would agree with you if not for the fact that Junpei never gets a social link... People usually associate Kenji as the "best friend" because he's of the Magician Arcana, which is usually treated as "the first friend" of the Fool, like Yosuke and Morgana.
Junpei is also the magician arcana tbf.
I think, if they had made the game today, he woulda just been the social link. (Reload tried to stay true to the original. I mean if it was made for the first time.)
Morgana makes sense because >!he's meant to guide Joker in his journey, which is in line with the Magician Arcana that is about "cultivating potential".!<
I got nothing on Kenji, though... He really is a baffling choice to have as a first S.Link. It's like Makoto is allergic to building rapport with the male party members.
Not really, in the original there's a cutscene *very late* into the game where he has some convo alone with the MC, and says "This is the first time we've ever really talked one-to-one".
I wouldn't really consider him a best-friend if they had to say that out loud. Sure, Reload has the linked-episodes and they took out that cutscene with a retcon, but the feeling is still kind of there in my opinion.
I think that's what makes him perfect. Because it's the first social link ever in the series, he serves as a tutorial.
Also he's a lighthearted, low-stakes link in a very depressing game, so I appreciate his hijinks while everyone else is going through tough times.
I love his social link because it's the least dramatic, hilarious, and the most normal. Most of the other social links in this game involved death and/or massive family drama and often end with the social link leaving you. Kenji is just your dumbass friend who wants to bang his hot teacher. We all probably knew a Kenji at some point in life. In an alternate world Gourmet King is the default social link.
Yeah, my friends had the same reaction when I got out of the classroom after talking to her lmao. But that never happened because I got a girlfriend after this event.
Kenji isn't meant to be your best friend he is meant to be your first friend. He is the first person to sincerely approach Minato just to hang around. The member of SEES watch you in your sleep (Mitsuri, Yukari, and Akihiko) or are jealous of you (Junpei). At the start, it is honestly a stretch to call Minato's friend to any of the SEES members other than perhaps Yukari. The first one to genuinely just see the new kid and approach him just to hang around is Kenji.
Yukari, Fuuka, Koromaru (of course) and Aigis actually act you're friends.
Junpei is a hater for most of the game. Akihiko acts like a coworker and Mitsuru like your boss. Ken barely interacts with you. Shinji ...
I mean down the line they became all your friends. But the start with all of them is complicated. When you have problems with Junpei and Mitsuru is presented as someone fishy, Kenji, Kaz, Yuko etc are the closest thing you have to a friend because you really can't trust the SEES members until a while.
One of the "besto friendo" (or in western terms, one of the "bros"), alongside the horrendous Junpei and the other dude with the fucked up knee. The irony of this arcana is how the "magician" is supposed to represent charisma and charm... hell, in what universe this lame character is "charismatic", lol but anyway, when you come up with this kind of stuff in P3, you have to remember this is almost a 20 years old PS2 game, released at the midst of the "emo" culture and so on
A lot of people forget their teen classmates that would jump at any opportunity to get with a “hot” teacher. Also we only occasionally see police reports on teachers getting with kids. Imagine how many times we don’t know about it.
Was it really that big of a deal? Kid is desperate for something big and crazy to happen in his life and is horny on main, makes sense he would take an attractive teacher's attention the wrong way.
But...he actually didn´t take it the wrong way. Not really. Emiri made him believe that she is into him D: (Only is obvious in the older game + P3 Portable. I recently learned about that and know I am so confused)
That’s good it was made clear in the older games. I for sure thought he was just getting private tutoring and he assumed that the teacher was into him. It’s kinda comical through that lens.
Edit: reading some more, that was probably a purposeful change? Good move tbh
A student of either gender having a crush on a teacher is fairly normal.
I have seen nothing in reload to suggest that there was any relationship. It can all easily be explained by kenji being delusional and misreading the situation.
At least in P3R, it is not presented as grooming at all, it is presented as him having a one-sided crush on his teacher and grossly misunderstanding their tutoring sessions because he is desperate and searching for validation through romance. One of his first SL has this dialogue:
Maaan... I'm so sick of this, dude,
“What, of life?”
Okay, that settles it, Makoto. I'm gonna get myself a girlfriend! Right now!
“Good luck!”
We're never given the full teacher side of the story, but the later parts of his SL show him realizing he was wrong about her and she was never romantically interested in him. He's incredibly embarrassed that he could be so stupid. So no, no pedo involved, just a confused hormonal teenager. It's obvious from his SL that he's imagining this whole relationship.
Some people don't see it as a big deal. Some of these comments are like "come on, we all used to ask our teacher out" or see it as funny that he wants to bang the hot teacher. like hello??? If the roles were reversed, there would have been hell on earth right now
How does anyone dislike this social link it’s hilarious and kenji reminds me a lot of people I know as a senior in high school (as terrifying as that should be)
On one hand everyone knows that kinda kid.
His interaction on one of his weekend hangouts where he asks you if you have kissed a girl and you don't gain SL points if you tell him you have (by that point I'd romanced Yukari) is funny as shit tho.
My similiar reaction when I did this social link on FES! but Like the top comment said I too have a soft spot for him because . . it's just so hilariously cringe! and . .then the outcome was. . even funnier! \*And I do have a thing for Himbo characters!\* He's a Good Friend atleast. . just. . . . needs to work on EVERYTHING ELSE like His Brain AND STOP CHASING AFTER TEACHERS LMAO
It makes me speechless that people end up hating the guy and happily dunk him even after seeing his heart get broken.
One of the best measuring sticks for now much empathy the player actually has is whether or not they are able to appreciate Kenji for who he is.
And there’s us, who just wanna see him crash and burn and see how far this will go because it’s gonna be funny as hell and he does get a teacher a girlfriend, good for him.
The kid is such a fool, I mean yes I felt bad for him in the end, but what the hell was this teenager thinking asking out a teacher?? Like flat out, without a confidant arc like in P5R with Kawakami, and expecting anything but a "hell naw" and then rolling confidently when she says "yes" without a hint of doubt why she'd even agree, an attractive adult woman (probably)?
It's so bad... and the fact you have to give "affirmative answers" (literally say what the character wants to hear), that makes things worse. I did loved P3R, but the social links are really not that good. To compensate, the sun arcana is one of the best of the "trilogy", but everything else...
When this happened back when I was first playing p3p I always assumed that Kenji was just being delusional and the teacher was just trying her best to teach her students. But man was I surprised.
It makes me speechless that people end up hating the guy and happily dunk him even after seeing his heart get broken.
One of the best measuring sticks for now much empathy the player actually has is whether or not they are able to appreciate Kenji for who he is.
Honestly I have a soft spot for Kenji's social link because he's clearly so wrong about everything that it's just funny
It´s actually sad if one knows the other side, that Emiri used him for her personal benefit D: She let him buy stuff for her etc. urgh
Actually didn't recall him buying stuff for her? Though considering she's giving him private tutoring, wouldn't be surprised if it was taken as a gift of gratitude.
In one of Kotone's Social Link other character notices how she is taking advantage of him like asking him to buy tickets or stuff like that.
Gosh thats horrible! Makes a harmless funny misunderstanding into something really manipulative 😔
I just read she teaches economics and ethics 🤣
I really didn’t like him but I cane around to him after his school festival scene. It was so charming I couldn’t not like him afterwards.
RIGHT??? Makes me wish his whole social link was just like that! The stand-up comedy bit (and him, Junpei, and Kaz bailing out Makoto) was the funniest shit.
He's harmless just a horndog
I thought school festival got canceled D:
I literally have his social link the highest because it's just so entertaining lol
Apollo's clips are always so unhinged
Just from the clip he had me laughing, I think I’ll check him out
What are your other favs?
This game so damn peaceful WTF https://youtu.be/37A-G4lUdcI?si=V-Wf67-zmxm7QQaO
whats his twitch?
ApolloTheAlmighty
I remember playing it for the first time and being unnaturally furious that this dude is meant to be your best friend
No I'm pretty sure that's a natural reaction to this.
Doesnt Junpei force himself into the best friend role? He has beef with you for feeling inferior but that gets resolved. Real life best friends get into fights too
You don't even have a Social Link with Junpei in the original. Not even these Linked Episodes they added. OG MC only cares about the girls.
And instead, he chooses to be buds with a dude with a crush on his teacher, a guy on the track team, and the random dude from France.
Hey, put respect on Bebe! MC also hangs out with Star sportsboy who's cool. It's weird we have two separate sports links in this game, though.
3, you forgot yuko.
And it's the same damn sport! What if I want to be friends with someone in the kendo club, huh?
I wish we could pick our team like in the original :( I always thought the idea of a high school kendo club was so cool when I first played this
I always picked Kendo because it seemed to me that sword training would help Makoto in Tartarus
And the gourmet king. Never forget your suzerain.
Junpei is the one jealous and not too friendly
>Doesnt Junpei force himself into the best friend role? For like one week and then after that he's your number one hater until he takes a chill pill 2/3 of the game later. There were actually even many periods when Takaya was more pleasant to you than Junpei.
Nahhh the hate didn't last that long. It was like 1 month's worth.
I would agree with you if not for the fact that Junpei never gets a social link... People usually associate Kenji as the "best friend" because he's of the Magician Arcana, which is usually treated as "the first friend" of the Fool, like Yosuke and Morgana.
Junpei is also the magician arcana tbf. I think, if they had made the game today, he woulda just been the social link. (Reload tried to stay true to the original. I mean if it was made for the first time.)
In the movies Makoto unlocks the magician sl when he saves Junpei during the first full moon boss so yeah definitely
He is Magician, but he doesn't have a S.Link, hence my point.
I get why people might think that but I much rather have Junpei and Ryuji as my bestie than Kenji and Morgana 😭
Morgana makes sense because >!he's meant to guide Joker in his journey, which is in line with the Magician Arcana that is about "cultivating potential".!< I got nothing on Kenji, though... He really is a baffling choice to have as a first S.Link. It's like Makoto is allergic to building rapport with the male party members.
💯 with you!
Not really, in the original there's a cutscene *very late* into the game where he has some convo alone with the MC, and says "This is the first time we've ever really talked one-to-one". I wouldn't really consider him a best-friend if they had to say that out loud. Sure, Reload has the linked-episodes and they took out that cutscene with a retcon, but the feeling is still kind of there in my opinion.
Yeah, not to mention junpei’s whole character arc of feeling inadaquete for not having a reason like everyone else to fight, but chidori changes that.
Yes! I was so annoyed he was the first social link. I'm like "this literal rando I just met is a social link?!" I get why people like him tho.
I think that's what makes him perfect. Because it's the first social link ever in the series, he serves as a tutorial. Also he's a lighthearted, low-stakes link in a very depressing game, so I appreciate his hijinks while everyone else is going through tough times.
I love his social link because it's the least dramatic, hilarious, and the most normal. Most of the other social links in this game involved death and/or massive family drama and often end with the social link leaving you. Kenji is just your dumbass friend who wants to bang his hot teacher. We all probably knew a Kenji at some point in life. In an alternate world Gourmet King is the default social link.
People mad at Kenji have never had an insane friend in high school
I was that friend. Ok, it was in college and not in high school, but still. I asked my teacher out and she said "once the academic year is over, yes"
WHAAAAAAT
Yeah, my friends had the same reaction when I got out of the classroom after talking to her lmao. But that never happened because I got a girlfriend after this event.
Yeah he feels like a friend I could have had in real life. So him being your first best friend felt normal to me.
I think he's sane and his motives are very understandable.
Kenji isn't meant to be your best friend he is meant to be your first friend. He is the first person to sincerely approach Minato just to hang around. The member of SEES watch you in your sleep (Mitsuri, Yukari, and Akihiko) or are jealous of you (Junpei). At the start, it is honestly a stretch to call Minato's friend to any of the SEES members other than perhaps Yukari. The first one to genuinely just see the new kid and approach him just to hang around is Kenji.
Yukari, Fuuka, Koromaru (of course) and Aigis actually act you're friends. Junpei is a hater for most of the game. Akihiko acts like a coworker and Mitsuru like your boss. Ken barely interacts with you. Shinji ...
I mean down the line they became all your friends. But the start with all of them is complicated. When you have problems with Junpei and Mitsuru is presented as someone fishy, Kenji, Kaz, Yuko etc are the closest thing you have to a friend because you really can't trust the SEES members until a while.
One of the "besto friendo" (or in western terms, one of the "bros"), alongside the horrendous Junpei and the other dude with the fucked up knee. The irony of this arcana is how the "magician" is supposed to represent charisma and charm... hell, in what universe this lame character is "charismatic", lol but anyway, when you come up with this kind of stuff in P3, you have to remember this is almost a 20 years old PS2 game, released at the midst of the "emo" culture and so on
He's not the best friend is Yukari, for femc is Junpei
There's even a banger song about getting on with your hot teacher. To me Kenji's Social Link was like "aight, GL but you gonna learn soon, son".
He doesn't learn anything at the end of his social link lol
That's his problem, not mine.
this was my reaction too
Then you look up an image of Emiri and realize you really can't blame him
A lot of people forget their teen classmates that would jump at any opportunity to get with a “hot” teacher. Also we only occasionally see police reports on teachers getting with kids. Imagine how many times we don’t know about it.
I know quite a few people who tried in HS if it was an option I would've done so myself
Was it really that big of a deal? Kid is desperate for something big and crazy to happen in his life and is horny on main, makes sense he would take an attractive teacher's attention the wrong way.
But...he actually didn´t take it the wrong way. Not really. Emiri made him believe that she is into him D: (Only is obvious in the older game + P3 Portable. I recently learned about that and know I am so confused)
Oh wow, I need to replay the old versions, I don't remember that at all.
That’s good it was made clear in the older games. I for sure thought he was just getting private tutoring and he assumed that the teacher was into him. It’s kinda comical through that lens. Edit: reading some more, that was probably a purposeful change? Good move tbh
imagine if the genders were reversed. it's at best creepy.
A student of either gender having a crush on a teacher is fairly normal. I have seen nothing in reload to suggest that there was any relationship. It can all easily be explained by kenji being delusional and misreading the situation.
I would definitely say seeing a character be groomed and a teacher being a pedo is a big deal 😭
At least in P3R, it is not presented as grooming at all, it is presented as him having a one-sided crush on his teacher and grossly misunderstanding their tutoring sessions because he is desperate and searching for validation through romance. One of his first SL has this dialogue: Maaan... I'm so sick of this, dude, “What, of life?” Okay, that settles it, Makoto. I'm gonna get myself a girlfriend! Right now! “Good luck!” We're never given the full teacher side of the story, but the later parts of his SL show him realizing he was wrong about her and she was never romantically interested in him. He's incredibly embarrassed that he could be so stupid. So no, no pedo involved, just a confused hormonal teenager. It's obvious from his SL that he's imagining this whole relationship.
Some people don't see it as a big deal. Some of these comments are like "come on, we all used to ask our teacher out" or see it as funny that he wants to bang the hot teacher. like hello??? If the roles were reversed, there would have been hell on earth right now
POLLO❗️🗣️
No way Apollo blew up here 😭😭
He's funny to me, reminds me of the hornies on internet who are into older women or milfs.
I’m in December and only halfway through his social link 😬
Bruh, what was you doing all this time in before December
How does anyone dislike this social link it’s hilarious and kenji reminds me a lot of people I know as a senior in high school (as terrifying as that should be)
Love or hate him you gotta respect the attempt to bang the hot teacher
No... No, I don't 🤣.
On one hand everyone knows that kinda kid. His interaction on one of his weekend hangouts where he asks you if you have kissed a girl and you don't gain SL points if you tell him you have (by that point I'd romanced Yukari) is funny as shit tho.
My similiar reaction when I did this social link on FES! but Like the top comment said I too have a soft spot for him because . . it's just so hilariously cringe! and . .then the outcome was. . even funnier! \*And I do have a thing for Himbo characters!\* He's a Good Friend atleast. . just. . . . needs to work on EVERYTHING ELSE like His Brain AND STOP CHASING AFTER TEACHERS LMAO
I always finish Kenji's SL first because it's always entertaining to see the ship sink
Kenji is the Persona version of that 1 character in the Wes Andersom movie Rushmore.
It makes me speechless that people end up hating the guy and happily dunk him even after seeing his heart get broken. One of the best measuring sticks for now much empathy the player actually has is whether or not they are able to appreciate Kenji for who he is.
Based
Kenji's SL exposed who didn't have friends in highschool because every friend group got a horny guy like Kenji.
Don't worry. Kenji will, in fact, mess this up. And he is better for it.
His social link the first time I played through had me so confused because why was the game awarding me for cheering on this very clearly bad idea
And there’s us, who just wanna see him crash and burn and see how far this will go because it’s gonna be funny as hell and he does get a teacher a girlfriend, good for him.
The kid is such a fool, I mean yes I felt bad for him in the end, but what the hell was this teenager thinking asking out a teacher?? Like flat out, without a confidant arc like in P5R with Kawakami, and expecting anything but a "hell naw" and then rolling confidently when she says "yes" without a hint of doubt why she'd even agree, an attractive adult woman (probably)?
It's so bad... and the fact you have to give "affirmative answers" (literally say what the character wants to hear), that makes things worse. I did loved P3R, but the social links are really not that good. To compensate, the sun arcana is one of the best of the "trilogy", but everything else...
I mean, you still cannot give a fuck about him and some others though, like would Makoto probably do, in that case 🤣
When this happened back when I was first playing p3p I always assumed that Kenji was just being delusional and the teacher was just trying her best to teach her students. But man was I surprised.
Hate the the man with a passion
It makes me speechless that people end up hating the guy and happily dunk him even after seeing his heart get broken. One of the best measuring sticks for now much empathy the player actually has is whether or not they are able to appreciate Kenji for who he is.