I Don’t Know How to Feel About Ann Persona5
I really want to like Ann Takamaki. Ann is a character that needs to exist more both in video games in general and in Persona games specifically. If video games are to have women utilize or even weaponize their sexuality, then doing so deliberately and with purpose to explore how that can be expressed and the ways it can both fall into and defy societal norms is a natural step. In a series fundamentally about the conflict between our outer and inner selves, and the ways people manipulate that gap in order to function in society, a woman who consciously utilizes sex appeal and her learning how to navigate a degree of sexual desirability she may not even want is a natural and obvious storyline.
But Ann just isn’t that character, not really. Make no mistake, when she awakens to her Persona Carmen and takes the form of Panther, that is the storyline Persona 5 promises. It just never gets there and only rarely even tries after that moment.
Before digging into just the general malaise of disappointment I’m going to express, there is one facet of this I won’t be digging into, and it’s a shame because I feel like it’s a key component I’m just unfortunately not equipped to analyze well. Ann is universally considered as “the hot one” of the group and the game frequently mines humor (add scare quotes as required) from this. But more than that a lot of this humor arises from her thinking literally or not understanding idioms and tact. She feels like a deliberate play on the blonde bimbo stereotype, one which wouldn’t be native to Japan. Did the writers import it from American pop culture? Transpose a related Japanese archetype onto her? I dunno, I just don’t have the context or sufficiently accurate cultural research to answer the question. Similarly, it seems significant to me that “the hot one” who is frequently used as a quick objectification gag is also the blonde bi-racial girl who lived in America for years, but is that me reading into things, a deliberate use of an existing trope, or an unconscious use of real-life biases? I don’t know and don’t have enough context to uncover a satisfactory answer.
All that to say, I cannot escape the sense I cannot make a full and adequate analysis of Ann’s character or her usage in the game, and that’s one reason this is going to be more of a quick and dirty piece rather than some 20 page epic about Persona 5’s themes in general. But Ann does feel emblematic of what I got out of Persona 5 in general, so even quick and dirty perhaps someone, even if just me, will get something out of this.
Ann is introduced nervously accepting a suspiciously offered ride from Kamoshida, leaving Ren to walk in the rain (and ultimately stumble into Kamoshida’s Palace in the Metaverse). The following days Ren and Ryuji are frequently present for the spreading of rumors suggesting Ann is “Kamoshida’s girl”, and that her academic success and part-time modeling gig is fueled primarily by performing sexual favors. Indeed, Ann seems to have only one friend, a girl on the volleyball team Kamoshida runs named Shiho, and no one else in the entire school seems to respect her or be willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Ann sees the suffering her friend and her teammates are going through and intuits that Ren and Ryuji seem to be trying to do something about it, but has trouble trusting them, and this hesitancy only escalates when Kamoshida calls to proposition her in Ren’s presence and ultimately turns him down.
Which of course leads directly into Shiho’s attempted suicide after Kamoshida assaults her (the extent of which is never fully elaborated on). The realization that her spurning Kamoshida was a direct prompt to Shiho’s assault drives Ann to recklessness and her managing to tag along with Ren into the Metaverse. And thus, she’s placed at last in a situation where the only way out is to embrace her inner rebel and awaken Carmen, granting her the form of Panther. However, it’s important to note that as soon as the moment has passed, Ann’s reaction to Panther’s outfit is one of distress, not merely at the magic involved but at the revealing nature of a cat suit with a hefty cleavage window. This sets the stage for Ann’s core conflict: her internal sense of rebellion is that of a temptress torn between capricious affection and a need for freedom, yet she’s rarely wholly comfortable with her sexuality or how people perceiver her, and she must somehow reconcile these elements.
Now, anyone familiar with Persona will know the core plot cannot fully address this conflict; the format of the game requires there to be character conflict and growth set aside for social links, and further their growth within the core plot will always be hampered by the story not ‘knowing’ how far along the link the player has gotten. So there’s a mere two moments that stand out as advancing this arc in the main plot.
- In order to gain access to Madarame’s atelier, the Thieves pretend to indulge Yusuke’s desire to have Ann model nude for him. He turns this around and instead blackmails them: Ann poses nude or he calls the police. This ends up being a… gag for lack of better word, of her trying to drag the process out long enough for her cohorts to get the evidence they need before actually going through with it.
- On Shido’s ship, in order to gain access to his chambers the party must obtain credentials from (among others) a former noble. Ann takes the lead and adopts the persona of Ann Windsor, an English heiress there with her servants. Ultimately he gets grabby and Ann calls in the reinforcements, but after getting the recommendation they need.
But naturally we’ll have to look at her Confidant to continue our assessment. So let’s just list that out real quick.
Level 1- a required scene wherein she formally joins the Phantom Thieves.
Level 2- Ann relates reconnecting with Shiho and laments lacking the inner strength to help her before things escalated.
Level 3- Ann asks you to insult her to strengthen her heart, then realizing this is very silly ends up telling you how she kinda fell into her part-time modeling job.
Level 4- Ann relates how her looks alienated her from her classmates when she moved back to Japan, until Shiho broke the ice by insulting her work in art class then ended up becoming friends anyways. She then resolves to break into action movies, finding motivation from villains who are defeated every weak yet always come back with a new scheme to take over the world.
Level 5- A plan to visit Shiho in the hospital during rehab is derailed by a sudden modeling gig. There, another model named Mika pumps Ann for information on her diet and beauty regimine, whereupon Ann notes she doesn’t particularly have one because this is more of a hobby for her. Mika of course resents this intensely and becomes her wanky anime rival for the remainder of the Confidant, and fakes being derided by Ann for sympathy from the producers.
Level 6- Ann finally does visit Shiho in rehab, and was utterly unprepared for the physical strain Shiho would be putting herself through or the emotional impact sitting through it would have on her. She worries being so impacted by such a thing is a sign of weakness and has to be consoled on the point.
Level 7- Another modeling photo shoot, at Mika’s request. Mika explains the theme and all the preparation she put into it, putting Ann on the back foot. During the actual shoot, Ann attempts her normal, casual style and is completely wrong for the theme, leaving dejected. Even realizing she was invited specifically to be put down, Ann is angry at herself for her lack of dedication.
Level 8- Ann recruits Ryuji to devise a workout regimen for her. After he comments on how much Mika stood out in the photos from their last shoot, Ann double times it until Ryuji’s mom calls him home. She remarks she only rarely sees her parents and grew up quite lonely, coming around again to Shiho’s progress, hoping that perhaps sharing her own resolve will help her.
Level 9- Shiho returns to the school roof to say goodbye both to her demons and Ann, as she’s completed her rehab and will be transferring schools. She says she doesn’t think she could have come so far without knowing Ann was there at the sidelines with her every step of the way.
Level 10- It turns out Mika had been sabotaging other models by posing as the agency and lying to them about shoot locations. Ann decides she’s basically a cartoon villain and can’t really be angry at her anymore, and this realization solidifies her confidence and ability to perform for the camera.
So… gosh that only tangentially relates to the arc her joining sequence set up for her! This instead looks like an attempt to solve a writing problem; by going so hard in the opening and using Shiho as the catalyst for Ann’s resolve to fight, it would be completely negligent not to resolve her storyline, but doing so during the main narrative would slow down an already very long game stuffed with dozens of small plotlines. And of course, establishing how Ann acts when she’s alone and giving her a hobby is normally part of how SLinks are written, so the game awkwardly tries to somehow tie those two things together and… just doesn’t really get there. “Draw confidence from the understanding that people who would mock you for those things are childish and merely seeking to hurt you” is an attempt, but when you’ve so overtly drawn attention to the character’s body and sexuality this is a complete cop out.
And it’s unfortunate this messiness defines Ann for such a large portion of the game, because she’s an entirely decent character who gets some good moments few others do. In particular, after Kamoshida’s change of heart, Ann is the one to call out his declaration that he cannot live with his shame. “Don’t run you bastard! Shiho’s still alive even after all the things that made her want to die! You have no right to run from this!!” I dare say that no other character in the game gets quite as strong a moment as this, at least not unto themselves. And if we were to look at the game after the first Palace as a distinct entity, Ann’s just… a pretty typical Persona character, and her writing is at a rough par with anyone from Persona 3 or 4. Her arc isn’t bad (the odd cringey sexist joke aside), but the game wrote a check it wasn’t willing to pay out when the time came by going so hard in the opening hours with her design, backstory, introduction, and catalyst to join the party.
Which is pretty much the most honest analysis I can provide for Persona 5 as a whole. The entire game sets itself a lofty bar, naming the abject apathy that allows deep societal sicknesses that have plagued humanity from pre-history to fester and thrive as its subject and establishing each of the original Thieves as representing a sort of person who has been crushed and shunted to the side by those same sicknesses… only to lighten up, focus on small victories, never truly delve into the same subject matter it originally raised, and repeatedly casting doubt on just how villainous that sense of Not My Problem really is. And to be sure, in much the same way Reed Richards can’t cure cancer because it would diverge the comic world too radically from the real world, the Phantom Thieves can’t actually thwart societal apathy because there’s no meaningful way to craft a plausible narrative for them to do so that would be satisfying and in keeping with their stated principles. But that the game ends up so anemic on tackling the specific things it brings up in the early going, like Ann’s relationship to her sexuality, amplifies the sense that the game is empty and has nothing to say.
Persona 5 is a pretty good game that does have things to say. But it never really says anything about the topics its format and presentation suggest it wanted to talk about. It is, ultimately, a Persona game doing Persona things and while it’s quite smooth and playable in keeping with its 2016 release, it’s still relying on a playbook from 2006 that was notably flawed when it was written. And nothing exemplifies this more than Ann Takamaki, a character I think is pretty okay that I should absolutely adore.
