It's honestly really weird to me how Persona has established itself in the general zeitgeist of gaming as this progressive and forward-thinking series when it's honestly kinda bad at being that, but not without a lack of trying. This isn't going to be an old persona shill but I do find there's this really bizarre dissonance in how certain issues are portrayed across the series. Like, there's things portrayed in different games in the series that are treated completely different in those games.
Let's take Eikichi from Persona 2. Eikichi is my favorite character in Persona 2 for a variety of reasons but he's also one of the most interestingly written characters in the series, imo. Eikichi, on the surface, is a bit more shallow than his peers, being a egocentric narcissist with his silly visual kei look. Even his issues aren't really as hard-hitting as some of the others. His dad wouldn't approve of being in a shitty band? He used to be the fat kid? Small change compared to Tatsuya or Jun, clearly. But where Eikichi shines isn't where he develops or where his issues are; Eikichi is great because he's shown repeatedly to be an incredibly accepting and supportive person in general. He knows he used to be the fat kid, so why should he care if the girl he likes is heftier now? It's remarkably body-positive for a game from a country with rigid body standards like japan. Which is cool! Eikichi's cool.
But now let's compare to a more recent entry, Persona 4. Persona 4 has Hanako, a walking fat joke. Hanako is meant to be comedic and repulsive by the virtue of just existing. Her one joke and entire reason for existing is "lol fat girl who doesn't realize she's ugly lollllll" and it's just so... tacky. And it's pretty stupid too, because Persona 4 tackles a lot of mainstream issues relevant in Japan at the time and still relevant now. It's just so weirdly dissonant for Persona 4 to have messages about sexual identity and how your gender shouldn't preclude you from pursuing what you enjoy, and then to go around and make trite jokes about fat people being gross. Kashiwagi is another example of the same cut. Her entire character is "over 40 and desperate" which is a stupid trite character to have in a game that tries to push itself as challenging social standards and constructs. There's other nits I could pick in Persona 4, but they're not as standout as those two sore thumbs.
You starting to understand what I'm trying to say? It's so weird how Persona is upheld by the mainstream as this really forward series when it'll still turn around and make trite unoriginal jokes at the expense of transsexuals (briefly in P3, if you wanted to know, during "Operation Babe Hunt"), homosexuals, fat people, older women, etc for the sake of cheap laughs. Like, I've made the joke in the past that it's so crazy that the persona game where you can be gay was released in 1999, but it's seriously so fucking strange to me at how screwed up this series has gotten at hashing out positive messages while still spewing the same unfunny stereotypical jokes you could find in any dime store anime series.
This is where Persona 5 and some spoilers comes in, but once again I'm leaving names out so whatever.
Persona 5 has some of the most half-assed commitment to it's message that I have seen in this series and that's really impressive after everything they did in Persona 4. Even Dancing All Night, a game about having cute idols and rad teens dance to shitty pop mixes, has a shockingly dark story about how disgusting, harmful and uncaring the idol industry is. But Persona 5 is the game that will tell you to stand up to your oppressors and abusers and fight back, while still have jokes at the expense of groups that are still treated poorly in this day and age. Persona 5 spouts that you shouldn't tolerate the mistreatment of others and abuse of power, but has a party member, from an abusive background no less, blatantly and unapologetically bully another in the party with no good cause. Persona 5 is the game that says you shouldn't stand for injustice and stand up for the little guy, but has a character that is heavily implied to be on the autism spectrum have those aspects used as a springboard for "LOL SO WEIRD" jokes at their expense. Persona 5 is the game that says that what society thinks of you doesn't define you as a person, but feels the need to have the only gay characters in the game be tired stereotypes that exist to harass a straight character with how gay they are. Persona 5 is the game that shows how cruel and disgusting someone that exploits and objectifies women and children can be, but will still let the camera hug the ass and tits of its teenaged female characters, even if they're explicitly not okay with it in-context.
And it's really weird because it's not all onesided! Persona 5 actually goes out of its way to show the seriousness of certain conditions and mental illnesses and how they can be salved by a supportive social circle. One character is shown to have severe social anxiety and the party does what they can to help them gradually and comfortably adjust to social situations and experiences. It's shockingly well-portrayed, all things considered but wow, how about those wacky harassin' gays tryin' to molest all those straight boys? And it's not like the game needs to portray every social issue ever with supreme elegance and grace. That's just unreasonable to ask, but it's just baffling that a series that's considered by so many to be good at portraying social issues sympathetically to also have such a bunch of unoriginal, stereotypical, humorless, fuckin' stupid jokes and characters still worm their way into the games. And it all feels so avoidable with some marginally better writing. Leave out the gay jokes or the fat jokes! They aren't fucking funny. Let players romance who they want! It doesn't affect anything because the Protagonists in persona games, while they have clear personalities, are all still interpretive and play into the choices made by the player. Don't be so wishy-washy on shit because you can make a shitty buck on it, when exploiting people to make shitty bucks is something your game is trying to sell to me as a problem with society.
