Is Everything Just Hopeless? || P4G Analysis - Eri Minami

for a series named after a psychological concept, i rarely see people actually discuss the views on human nature and belief systems that the series presents, at most just throwing out the name Carl Jung and moving on. the segment you had on determinism and then actually explaining its fallacies was really great and different from basically all persona content ive seen. loving this series :)

after watching i regret not doing the daycare link i feel like this is one of the most relevant social links to the actual themes of the game. theres so much about truth and misinformation, understanding your own situation and your bonds. kinda mad that such a skipped over SL is one of the most thematically relevant

24 minutes? But I thought everyone forgot this character! What could you possibly say about this lady??

Honestly, when Eri brings up religion there is a missed opportunity to say "I prefer Tarot readings, I know a guy if you wanna try it"

I remember this link a lot. My mom was a single mother and got the reaction of "Oh what a struggle you poor thing" a lot from her co-workers and classmates when she went to collage. Not to mention she had 2 kids with one (my brother) having autism, she sorta fell into this mind set of "Am I doing what I need to for my kids". I always liked this link because it looks into that prospective.

I read in a famitsu article with Katsura Hashino that temperance is also the tarot theme of persona 4, with 3 being death, Catherine being both the devil and the tower, and 5 being the star. in a quote i just translated "and so, with persona 4, one needs to gather information to proceed in life, so one comes in contact with various information and experiences, and so part of this game is simulating taking that in and finding your own justice to go with. in tarot this is the 14th card temperance. humans face a reset(in reference to the cycle of life and death being a repetition of experience multiple times in a life earlier in the article) and proceed with a sense of balance; it's that kind of story. not being swayed by the information and emotions in front of you and using your head to reach the true ending is how I set it up, and how i put the theme of temperance in the background. "

This link isn't my favorite, but it does have a special place in my heart. I was a fan especially of how Yuuta was depicted, since the game went out of it's way to show that he's actually a good kid who just doesn't know how to properly express that part of him. Also went he punched Yuu thinking that he had upset Eri, that part made me tear up a little since that was the first time that both parties became aware that they do actually care about eachother.

Eri is interesting on a few levels. Her step-son is an integral part of her story which makes it a bit more involved than some other social links. Same goes with the unusual circumstance. She is the new wife entering that family structure and having to figure things out. Plus, like the player she’s going from the big city to the countryside. So not only is she the ‘new wife’ but she’s the outsider. No wonder it’s a stressful time for her. Of course she did have to grow and she wasn’t simply a victim of circumstance. But the whole situation has layers to it. Mother and child had to grow a bit and did so.

I didn't even realise this SL was unpopular, it's always been one of my favourites... Although I suppose almost every SL in P4 is "one of my favourites"

Temperance is slept on; I found the SL really interesting, and I like how it allows us to explore a life so different from that of a high school student. Keep up the good work!

People brush off this SL a lot, but man I really liked this one. It's like a parallel for the player's own found family in the Dojimas. Thanks for covering this!

amazing analysis on the complex structure of the link and the psychologies of Eri and also the connections with mainline SMT plus even though i'm lucky enough to have great and loving parents i feel like i could really relate with Yuuta and a few years ago i was the problematic kid that ever one tried to make angry and chased around punching other kids and being seen as "the violent one" basically just a really great videothiscommentisgettingtoolongthankyouforreading

One of your best videos yet! Poor Eri often gets shafted and brushed aside when it comes to discussion of characters in this game. I think part of that is also the fact that she has to compete for the player's time with a bunch of other great characters. This was a thorough analysis for a character that I never realized had this much depth! I especially liked how you talked about stoicism and determinism as concepts relevant to Eri's struggle. While it's true that her problems may not be very relatable to most of the player base, I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said that we can replace the lies of TV feeding into her sense of complacency with other things in our lives.

Your doing wonderful work man. I look forward to every single upload of this series. Thank you!

P4 is my least favourite Persona game but it does have a few stand out social links, and Eri has always been one of my favourites. In regards to her (and Yuuta) I also think it's important to mention the Japanese perspective of what's going on in this SLink. Especially as regards to social perceptions and pressure and cultural expectations. First, Eri's situation is... not as fictional as it might seem. You called her husband a "scumbag"... and I have a hard time disagreeing with you! But there are Japanese cultural ideas at play here like "A man is incapable of raising a child on his own", "A woman cannot live without a husband", "Women are unmarryable after age 27", and "A man of a certain age without a wife is probably a deadbeat". These ideas are (slowly) changing in modern Japan, but we have to remember that this game originally came out in 2008, almost 15 years ago. Further, I'd bet dollars to donuts that her husband is at LEAST ten years older than Eri, maybe 20, making him of an even OLDER and MORE traditional generation than the general cast. He probably married her for not for love or even sex, but for the express purpose of raising his child, cooking his meals, and generally managing the household. I don't know how common that sort of thing (older man and younger woman marrying to satisfy social expectation) is or was in real life, but it's a very common trope in Japanese media even today, and Eri's character was clearly intended to play off of it. Further, it's important not to underestimate the EXTREME social pressure in Japan. In the west we say "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" but in Japan they say "the nail that sticks out gets the hammer". Japanese society is all about going along with the group and being the same as everyone else, and most aspects of it have built-in mechanisms to reinforce that ideal (hence why people like Eri end up in her situation to begin with). One of the worst things in Japanese culture and the general Japanese mind is to have other people think badly for you; appearance is more important than reality (Hey! That's what the whole game is about!) It's usually not as overtly malicious as is often portrayed in anime and manga, but the trope of gossiping classmates and neighbours is ABSOLUTELY a real thing that happens in real life. It's a bit of an extreme example, but the gossip and rumors that dog the MC in Persona 5 are sadly not entirely outside realm of possibility in Japanese society. Perception isn't EVERYTHING in Japan, but it's a LOT, and most Japanese people work very hard to cultivate their image for this reason. Soujiro's initial outlook of the MC's situation in that game is, again, a bit extreme but not atypical for a Japanese person ("It doesn't matter what your intentions were, it's your fault for butting in between adults. Mind your own business. Don't stand out. I don't care about your situation or excuses, just go to school and come home and keep out of trouble. If you damage MY image with the neighbours, I'll kick you out.") This informs both Eri and Yuuta's positions, and I think it's important to view their actions through this lens. Yuuta picking fights with kids IN DEFENSE OF OTHERS is all the more significant when you understand that when Yuuta does something like tell the other kids they're wrong or says "I don't want to play the same game as you" (or "I've never seen the show everyone else likes") HE IS STICKING OUT. He is being *different*, for better or for worse. And we see the consequences of his non-conformity ripple out when Eri has to deal with the dreaded scorn of the teacher regarding her son's behavior. Japanese culture is often as much about what isn't said as what is, and the interaction between her and Yuuta where she recognizes that he is doing bad things for good reasons is extremely significant, because she ACTIVELY CHOOSES not to reprimand Yuuta into conformity (as, for example, Soujiro might have). I want to take a moment to say that, as is the point of P4, perception is not necessarily "truth". Obviously, Persona 4 is fiction and the reality of Japanese society and culture is far more nuanced than I'm describing it. Basically I don't want anyone to think that Japan is a horrible oppressive place or that Japanese people are super toxic judgmental. They're not any better or worse than any other culture, they just have a different outlook that requires a different method of navigation, and even all that isn't universal. Anyway, this ended up being way longer than I expected. Truly an interesting and nuanced social link, and it doesn't hurt that Eri is kinda super hot lol Can't wait for you to get to Ai and Rise!

its a solid social link, I think one reason that it's overlooked is because of the family dynamic shown between nanako and dojima with their own SL's. I keep hearing that people don't find this one to be exciting in comparison and they don't pay enough attention to this social link because of that fact. It's a real shame

You never disappoint me in these videos Hiding. I'm honestly more captivated by the social links of other characters besides my own allies, because I am a spectator that will slowly get to know these people besides the ones that I will see everytime. Can't wait for more my guy, keep it up

Truly, another amazing entry to add to the list. I wasn't expecting there to be so much nuance wrapped up in her Social link because, well, as you said, most folks going through their first blind playthrough may not pursue hers, and I didn't. There's truly beautiful writing hidden within and I'm glad you could help me see it. Thank you for making these!

I started this link on my second playthrough and I'm sad that I never got to finish it by the second end of the journey. It really spoke to me how you brought her perspective and her beliefs to light and showed the thought process of both the mom and the child. While it's understandable why many people would forget this link, surprise surprise; the deeper you dig into it, the more interesting it becomes and oh boy, it was a pleasure to watch it in full detail. Once again, excellent job as always.

I slept on this social link for two playthroughs and it ended up being one of my favorites in my final one. Very happy too see it appreciated as it deserves