“The ambitious branch president of SEBEC. Sinister rumors circulate about him...”
Takahisa Kandori is the branch president of SEBEC and a member of the New World Order. He is the main antagonist of Megami Ibunroku Persona, and a major supporting antagonist in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. He is the first antagonist of the series.
Takahisa Kandori is a former graduate and student council president of St. Hermelin High School and in the present the head of the Mikage-cho branch of SEBEC, which is used as a front to further development of the DEVA System. Using the reality-altering system, Kandori enters Maki Sonomura's mind, allowing him to make contact with her malevolent Id, Aki, through which he is able to gain control over half of Mikage-cho. While ultimately successful in becoming a demigod, Kandori becomes nihilistic in his outlook, losing his interest in the power he had accrued, and is on the verge of giving himself up to the group of St. Hermelin students who had fought their way to him when Kei Nanjo pelted him with insults and taunts, prompting him to prepare his Persona Nyarlathotep and enter his final battle.
During the events of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Takahisa Kandori is brought back to life through the power of Kotodama performed by the New World Order and poses as Guy Shinjo, the secretary to Tatsuzou Sudou. During the course of the game it is revealed that Nyarlathotep summoned him via rumors to develop the Joker Separation Machine that literally extracts Kegare from humans.
He is a Persona User wielding the Crawling Chaos himself, Nyarlathotep.
Physical Appearance[]
Kandori is a middle-aged man of average build who has dark purple hair and wears a black suit. In his appearance in Persona 2 he wears dark sunglasses to hide his sunken black eyes and two scars that formed on his face. In both his appearances he holds two metal balls in his hand.
Design Variants[]
In the Snow Queen Quest, Kandori appears as himself wearing a dark mask.
In his final battle in the first Persona, Kandori is transformed into God Kandori after fusing with Nyarlathotep.
In Persona 2, Kandori has black eyes and black lipstick when he takes off his sunglasses.
In-Game Appearances[]
| In-Game Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Kandori model in MIP  Kandori model in P2  Kandori portrait in P2 |
History[]
Persona 1[]
Takahisa Kandori is a former graduate and student council president of St. Hermelin High School and in the present the head of the Mikage-cho branch of SEBEC, which is used as a front to further development of the DEVA System. Using the reality-altering system, Kandori enters Maki Sonomura's mind, allowing him to make contact with her malevolent Id, Aki, through which he is able to gain control over half of Mikage-cho. While ultimately successful in becoming a demigod, Kandori becomes nihilistic in his outlook, losing his interest in the power he had accrued, and is on the verge of giving himself up to the group of St. Hermelin students who had fought their way to him when Kei Nanjo pelted him with insults and taunts, prompting him to prepare his Persona Nyarlathotep and enter his final battle.
In the confrontation with him, he asks only one thing of the party: kill him so he can experience death. In the end, Nyarlathotep possesses his body, forcing him to transform into a stronger form, called "God Kandori", before finally allowing him to die at the party's hands.
During the Snow Queen Quest, Kandori appears younger in a reflection of his St. Hermelin High School days, called the Masked Boy. He is an ally to the Night Queen alongside the Masked Girl but assists the party for his own amusement. He and the Masked Girl merge with the Night Queen and attack the party but are defeated. Despite this, the Masked Boy says that this is a minor setback and that he will have to take things into his own hands.
Persona 2[]
During the events of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Takahisa Kandori (now called Guido Kandori in the NA version, which also retcons "Guido Sardenia" as nothing but an alias) is brought back to life through the power of Kotodama performed by the New World Order and poses as Guy Shinjo (Hisataka Shinjo, 神条 久鷹 in the Japanese version), the secretary to Tatsuzou Sudou. During the course of the game it is revealed that Nyarlathotep summoned him via rumors to develop the Joker Separation Machine that literally extracts Kegare from humans.
He is fought in the Undersea Ruins alongside Chizuru Ishigami, who is implied to have developed feelings for him, which he at least partly reciprocates. If the player has chosen Nanjo's route, he will be fought against along with four X-2 robots. He suggests that he is Nanjo's "Shadow" while Nanjo assumes the "Light" role. When defeated, he encourages Tatsuya Suou to conquer the Shadow (Nyarlathotep) which has been toying with his fate but refuses to flee the collapsing ruin and stays with Chizuru to die despite the pleas of his old adversaries. He expresses some regret for his chosen path, but he admits he also believes he's too old to change. After his second death, Maki expresses regret that she wasn't able to speak to him again and later his half brother Reiji Kido, who wanted to kill him in the first game, shows signs of forgiveness and combines both brothers' name for Reiji's unborn child.
Kandori is a boss in the second part of Tatsuya's scenario, appearing before Tatsuya as he goes through the NWO base to find Shiori and free the other captured people. Before and after the battle he speaks of Tatsuya and Maya's role, the contradictions of creation, and how both himself and Tatsuya have been manipulated and exceeded the roles given to them by Nyarlathotep.
Personality[]
His characterization seems pretty one-note, but I think it works well enough to motivate the player, especially given that everyone in the game is pretty flat.
Using her compact with Aki's, Kandori is able to achieve his goal to become a god, summoning the large palace Deva Yuga into the real world. The MC and the others follow him into the real world and confront him at the top of the Deva Yuga, where Kandori, now grown nihilistic due to his apparent godhood, asks them their reason for living. After the MC gives his answer, Nanjo insults Kandori by calling him weak and cowardly, angering Kandori enough to attack them. When Kandori appears to be defeated, his persona Nyarlathotep forcibly enters his body, transforming him into God Kandori. After God Kandori is defeated, Kandori reveals the truth about Maki and the Deva System, then dies.
Powers & Abilities[]
Nyarlathotep[]
Nyarlathotep is the "Persona" of Takahisa Kandori. After Kandori is defeated by the protagonist and his friends, Nyarlathotep forcibly enters Kandori's body and transforms him into God Kandori, saying he will grant him the power he seeks. Retroactively, Nyarlathotep has been mentioned to have engineered the whole incident with the intention of giving the humans a chance to destroy all of reality, allowing him to win his bet with Philemon.
God Kandori[]
An alternate form of Nyarlathotep can be fused in the Velvet Room by adding the "Faceless Mask" totem, dropped by God Kandori, to a fusion with a Tower Arcana Persona result. Nyarlathotep has "Worst" affinity with every party member except for Reiji Kido, Kandori's half-brother.
Appearances[]
- Megami Ibunroku Persona
- Megami Ibunroku Persona: Otherworldly Tower Chapter (mentioned)
- Persona 2: Innocent Sin (mentioned)
- Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Trivia[]
- The two spherical objects in Kandori's hands seem to be Baoding Balls, which are used to improve manual Strength and Dexterity of a person. It's also used to aid in recovering from an injury, or for meditation purposes.
- It is never specified what kind of kotodama is performed by the New World Order to revive Kandori, but given the Japanese context, it is likely to be Furu no Koto (布瑠の言).
- If the player follows Kei's route in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the player can find a document that Kandori wrote called "Research and theory on artificially creating Persona users." This would be expanded on in Tatsuya Suou's scenario in the PSP rerelease.
- Kandori's surname consists of 神—meaning "god"—and 取—meaning "to take." This fits Kandori's characterization as one who seeks to take the power of gods.
- When confronting Takeda, Kandori will attack the party with Maragi before running away from the battle. However, not only does he lack that spell when fought as a boss, but this special Maragi will affect even party members whose Personas void, drain, or repel fire attacks.
- Kandori was the 18th student council president of St. Hermelin High School, and the student council president at the time of the original Persona has him as his role model.
- Kandori bears similar regrets of being manipulated by greater powers as Lucifer from Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse; both are aware of themselves being mere pawns in a grand conspiracy, but believed that they were too entrenched into it for any sort of redemption.
- The antagonist of the Persona 2 spinoff manga trilogy Tsumi To Batsu, Yakumo Kusaka, shares several traits similar to Kandori. This includes being the CEO of a renowned conglomerate known as Nymphéa, formed of individuals capable of using Personas, intent on exploiting a special system called the Black Book to alter reality.
Cover Gallery[]
