“Pathetic, misguided humans, obey me! Only I can lead you, the ignorant! If you will not obey, then you will DIE!”
Joker, also known as Jun Kuruso, is the main antagonist turned main ally in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and a major supporting character in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. He is the second antagonist in the series.
In Sumaru City, there are rumors that a mysterious man known as the Joker can answer wishes submitted to him by calling one's own phone number. However, if the person who summons them doesn't have a wish on their hearts, Joker instead claims the dreams of his victims, and reduces them to shadows of their former selves. Joker's victims remain on the spot soulless and frozen, and they will be erased completely from the cognition of others. When Joker manifests in front of Tatsuya, Eikichi and Lisa for the first time, much to their surprise, he seems to recognize Tatsuya, bearing great hatred against him, implying that this was actually a person Tatsuya used to be acquainted with. He attacks the trio with several demons, who were all defeated. They rush in to use a Fusion Spell against Joker, but to no avail, and Joker easily overwhelms them and was close to killing Tatsuya. However, since Tatsuya has no recollection about him, he decides to leave them alone and leaves the Iris flower for him to remember his past sins.
Jun Kashihara, named as such due to his father still being alive, is lured to the Aerospace Museum by the new JOKER, actually Tatsuya Sudou wishing to awaken his memories of the other side and have him rebuild the Masked Circle, and assists Maya and her party in saving the children in danger from Sudou's bombings. Sudou attempts to rekindle Jun's memory, but is stopped by Tatsuya. While Maya and her party fight off Sudou on the blimp, Tatsuya orders Jun to drive it, remembering that Maya crashed it during Innocent Sin. Inside Xibalba, a metal version of Jun attacks Tatsuya alongside metal versions of Lisa and Eikichi, representing Tatsuya's guilt over his sin of refusing to forget the Other Side. The real Jun is captured by Nyarlathotep alongside the real Lisa and Eikichi, who attempt to reawaken their memories to undo the new world they created by giving up those memories. Maya and her group manage to save Jun as he dangles from above the scene of the last boss fight, and defeat Nyarlathotep. During the ending, Jun meets Lisa and Eikichi for the first time in this timeline at the Alaya Shrine, and shares their expression of feelings of inexplicable sorrow, confusion and regret upon seeing the place with their own eyes.
He is a Persona User who wields Joker-Nyarlathotep in his Joker form and Chronos as Jun.
Physical Appearance[]
Joker's main appearance is in a white suit with black and yellow details. He has pointy black shoes with a black and yellow triangle motif all over his outfit. He wears a mask that is white, black, and yellow that resembles a jester's mask, that makes his face appear white with black lipstick and purple eye liner. His Joker emblem appears on his chest and gloves, and purple poms are attached to the ends of the spiky parts of his mask and his shirt tail.
Design Variants[]
Jun has brown eyes, black hair that covers his right eye, and pale skin. It's stated in-game that he's unusually attractive as either gender; his group contact with Lisa has her lament that he looks better with makeup on than she does. As a student of Kasugayama High School, Jun is usually seen wearing the school's light blue gakuran-style uniform with black loafers. He wears the silver wristwatch he received from Tatsuya on his left, and a yellow iris in the buttonhole of his jacket.
His childhood self appears similar to his present self, albeit with shorter hair. His outfit consisted of a white shirt and suspenders.
At the end of Eternal Punishment he appears as Gold Jun.
In-Game Appearances[]
| In-Game Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Joker's model in Innocent Sin  Jun's model in Innocent Sin  Jun's portait |
History[]
Persona 2: Innocent Sin[]
In Sumaru City, there are rumors that a mysterious man known as the Joker can answer wishes submitted to him by calling one's own phone number. However, if the person who summons them doesn't have a wish on their hearts, Joker instead claims the dreams of his victims, and reduces them to shadows of their former selves. Joker's victims remain on the spot soulless and frozen, and they will be erased completely from the cognition of others. When Joker manifests in front of Tatsuya, Eikichi and Lisa for the first time, much to their surprise, he seems to recognize Tatsuya, bearing great hatred against him, implying that this was actually a person Tatsuya used to be acquainted with. He attacks the trio with several demons, who were all defeated. They rush in to use a Fusion Spell against Joker, but to no avail, and Joker easily overwhelms them and was close to killing Tatsuya. However, since Tatsuya has no recollection about him, he decides to leave them alone and leaves the Iris flower for him to remember his past sins.
The Joker is also the leader of the Masked Circle and is gathering the Ideal Energy from his victims' dreams to awaken the ancient city of Xibalba, in accordance with the prophecies in In Lak'ech.
It was later revealed that the Joker's true identity is Jun Kurosu, Maya's childhood friend, and the Masked Circle used to be a Featherman-roleplaying group consisting of Maya, Tatsuya, Eikichi and Ginko. The Joker is merely a form Jun took to claim punishment from those he deemed guilty for the fire that "killed Maya Amano" years ago, supposedly being his childhood friend Tatsuya Suou. In reality, the person he believed was the arsonist was a false memory created by Nyarlathotep, and the real arsonist was Tatsuya Sudou, whom Suou defended against by awakening his Persona. Maya was also shown to be alive, although scarred with pyrophobia. Nyarlathotep, as seen during the game's events, took the form of his father and manipulated Jun into doing his bidding.
When the party finally reaches him at the Caracol, the Fuhrer, his troops and the Shadow Selves of Tatsuya, Lisa and Eikichi can be seen alongside Joker, who collects the five crystal skulls to unleash Xibalba. Maya tells him that dreams shall not be given but attained via one's own power, yet Joker rebukes her as having an overly sugarcoated view, with the Furher agreeing with him, that humanity only wants a ruler to think for them, and Joker announces that he will guide humanity to a golden age. However, when Xibalba emerges from the ground, the Joker displays signs of remorse for unleashing Xibalba and suddenly recollecting that he's actually Jun. He also had a feeling that Tatsuya Suou might not be the arsonist who traumatized Maya. Queen Aquarius sacrifices herself to protect Joker/Jun from one of the Longinus Knights, revealing herself to be actually Jun's mother. Joker tries to fight back with his Persona, Nyarlathotep, but to no avail, and the Furher flees alongside his troops. He then orders Shadow Lisa, Shadow Eikichi and Shadow Tatsuya to leave, before displaying further signs of fully recollecting his true identity. Despite this, Nyarlathotep reaches out to him and tells him that he is Joker and Tatsuya Suou is the arsonist.
After Joker is defeated, he is possessed by Nyarlathotep and is forcibly transformed into Angel Joker. Should the party defeat the Angel Joker as well, he will be freed from Nyarlathotep's manipulations and revert back instantly into Jun Kurosu. Jun will join the party permanently in place of Yukino Mayuzumi afterwards.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment[]
Jun Kashihara, named as such due to his father still being alive, is lured to the Aerospace Museum by the new JOKER, actually Tatsuya Sudou wishing to awaken his memories of the other side and have him rebuild the Masked Circle, and assists Maya and her party in saving the children in danger from Sudou's bombings. Sudou attempts to rekindle Jun's memory, but is stopped by Tatsuya. While Maya and her party fight off Sudou on the blimp, Tatsuya orders Jun to drive it, remembering that Maya crashed it during Innocent Sin. Inside Xibalba, a metal version of Jun attacks Tatsuya alongside metal versions of Lisa and Eikichi, representing Tatsuya's guilt over his sin of refusing to forget the Other Side. The real Jun is captured by Nyarlathotep alongside the real Lisa and Eikichi, who attempt to reawaken their memories to undo the new world they created by giving up those memories. Maya and her group manage to save Jun as he dangles from above the scene of the last boss fight, and defeat Nyarlathotep. During the ending, Jun meets Lisa and Eikichi for the first time in this timeline at the Alaya Shrine, and shares their expression of feelings of inexplicable sorrow, confusion and regret upon seeing the place with their own eyes.
Personality[]
Jun is a rather warm and caring person who is highly protective of his friends, particularly Tatsuya, whom he had forged a tight bond with since they were children. Maya Amano was also a respected authority figure of his. However, this was taken advantage by Nyarlathotep to unleash mass world destruction by rigging the circumstances, having been implanted with false memories of the arsonist who threatened to kill Maya being Tatsuya Suou rather than Tatsuya Sudou. Nyarlathotep also indirectly killed his father via a series of rumors that led to him committing suicide, and impersonating him in order to feed on his insecurities. This led to him being transformed into the infamous Joker by Nyarlathotep's power, reducing him into a madman under Nyarlathotep's control, constantly seeking revenge against Tatsuya Suou under the belief that he committed arson against Maya.
Upon realizing that he's manipulated by Nyarlathotep, the malevolent creature continues to persuade him to fight the party, only to be snapped out by force. With Yukino Mayuzumi sacrificing her Persona to give Jun one, his bonds with his former friends were reinstated and his true personality as a courteous young man who cares about his allies show.
Hobby-wise, Jun understands flower language (花言葉, hanakotoba) and likes astrology. He is also highly intelligent and philosophical; he has a patent for an orthopedic shoe, loves inventing, and excels at both math and physics. However, due to his asocial nature, he doesn't like group sports and instead prefers walking.
Jun is heavily implied to be gay, and his present feelings for Tatsuya are suggested to have extended back to their childhood; he's flustered at Maya's insistence that the two of them are alike, and is generally very happy to be likened to Tatsuya. As teenagers, Jun asks Tatsuya out to dinner, assures Tatsuya that he will never leave his side, and is considered a serious competitor alongside Lisa for Tatsuya's affections. The player may have Tatsuya choose to confess feelings for Jun, in which case Tatsuya and Jun will be treated as lovers. Jun is also repeatedly stated to have no attraction to women, as evidenced by in-game demon contacts.
Powers & Abilities[]
Joker-Nyarlathotep[]
The rumors orchestrated by Nyarlathotep include the revival of Nazis in Antarctica and the Oracle of Maia, both of them which are fictitous events brought to life via people's thoughts. He also manipulates Jun Kurosu into exacting revenge against Tatsuya Suou as the Joker by making him think Suou killed Maya Amano. This is a blatant lie intended to manipulate Jun, and the true arsonist was an insane man known as Tatsuya Sudou and Maya was seen alive and well early on in the game (albeit suffering from pyrophobia).
Hermes[]
Hermes is the initial Persona of Jun Kurosu, the one that assumedly causes Jun to be transferred to Kasugayama High School after his continual manifestations caused serious injuries to students who bullied Jun. Hermes' appearance follow the original god's pattern with the Caduceus (modeled after a rocket ship) held in his right hand, but the wings adorned on his cap and shoes are replaced by mechanically fashioned rockets. The rocket/plane motifs in his design are likely a nod to Jun's favorite book, The Little Prince. He is of the Fortune Arcana and his power is involved with the wind element, capable of reflecting any kind of attacks related to it and nullifies dark, although he has a weakness against lightning.
Chronos[]
Chronos, of the Fortune Arcana, is the evolved Persona of Jun Kurosu, obtained by mutating his prior Persona, Hermes, in the Velvet Room after having it equipped during the Aquarius Temple boss battle. His design shows him to have a clock instead of a face, attached on his head and four wings are attached to his back, with two of them sheltering his shoulders toward the front. His helmet also has wings, similar to Hermes. This evolution allows Jun to block any kind of attacks of the Wind, Light, and Dark elements, but its weakness against Earth may be a concern. Chronos learns powerful Wind-based spells and some useful recovery skills, and is also capable of performing one of the most powerful Fusion Spells in the game, Grand Cross.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Joker is meant to be a figure of ambiguous gender in the Japanese script of the game, which explains why Lisa was able to make the incorrect guess that Joker's identity was "Big Sis," a girl. This ambiguity is removed from the English localization, which establishes Joker as male from his first appearance.
- Joker uses gender-neutral speech in the original script as well as the archaic gender-neutral personal pronoun ware (我), in contrast with Jun's more masculine boku (僕).
- During Joker's first appearance in the Japanese version, his voice is composed of multiple male and female voices combined with an echo effect. After his identity is revealed, Joker's voice changes to Jun's regular voice with an echo effect.
- Joker's introduction profile is written in yellow font, while male and female characters use blue and red font, respectively. The only other characters in the game to use yellow font are the Order of the Holy Lance. This was changed in the PSP port as Joker's profile now uses blue text and the Order of the Holy Lance uses regular white text.
- In Persona 3, Joker's mask can be seen surrounded by various Featherman masks at the Naganaki Shrine during New Year's Day as a reference to the masked circle.
- His favorite book is Le Petit Prince by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which provides the quote engraved on his father's (later Tatsuya's) Zippo lighter.
- Tatsuya and Jun's exclusive Personas are representative of the exchange of their "treasures" as children; Vulcanus and Chronos are the Roman god of fire and Greek personification of time respectively, while the most famous myth involving Apollo and Hermes is the exchange of the lyre and the caduceus between them, both of which became heavily symbolic of their owners.
- Jun wore the black Featherman mask during his childhood. This is most likely an allusion to him being the last party member in Innocent Sin, as the black hero is often the last hero to join the other heroes in Tokusatsu shows.
- The Great Father boss features a limb representing the father of each party member. Unlike the other party members, whose fathers target their own children, Tatsuya and Jun's fathers call for and taunt each other's sons.
- Jun's game over quote "The winds of the Netherworld" is a reference (perhaps a mis-translation to and from Japanese, as the original phrase is "The winds of Hell") to a Christian hymn, Hallelujah for the Cross.
- The iris in Jun's coat is yellow in his portrait art, but appears blue on his in-game model.
- Jun is the only party member in Innocent Sin not to have a Shadow variant.
- Goro Akechi of Persona 5 can dress as Jun with Persona 2 styled DLC.
- Jun's favorite foods are chocolate and his mother's homemade omelet. He hates cup ramen because it's what he ate during his lonely childhood.
- On Jun's sexuality and romance route, according to an interview with Atlus, the appeal is based toward female Japanese fans of media that value romantic relationships between fictional male characters. The developers were wondering about whether they could satisfy said fans.
- Jun's interests are astronomy, astrology (which he learned from his father), reading, and cooking
- Jun's skills include playing organ (which he learned from his mother when she was still nice to him, although he later started practicing to please her), inventing things (he later won an award in craftsmanship from the ministry of education), and crossdressing (as he can look more feminine than most women).
- Jun has difficulties with his mother, noisy places, and sports (which demand too much exercise for his liking).
- His future dream is to be a person who can express their ideals to others, like Maya did when they were young.
- His favorite school subjects are physics and math.
