“Let's be honest. There's nothing great about the real world, is there? It's just dull and annoying as hell. No one accepts that's the way things are... They're just stuck with it because they can't deny it, either. Those who actually succeed in life... They just happen to be born with the magic ticket called "talent." If you don't have it, you can either accept or deny that fact until you die. That's your only choice. Once you realize that, all you have left in life is despair. The ultimate game over. Wouldn't it be better if that kind of reality was wiped away?”
Tohru Adachi is a former police detective, partner of Ryotaro Dojima, and the main antagonist of Persona 4. He is the fifth antagonist of the series.
If the protagonist chooses to keep silent about Adachi being the prime suspect on December 5th, they will be able to meet with him prior to the protagonist leaving in March and confront him about being the killer. Adachi plays innocent, pretending not to know anything, and taunts the protagonist, saying that even if he was the killer, there is no proof. In a long chain of dialogue options, if the protagonist is vague, Adachi leaves and the "neutral" bad ending (the same bad ending that happens when the protagonist fails to convince the party that Namatame is not the killer by ambiguous statements) is triggered.
He is a Persona User who wields the Persona Magatsu-Izanagi.
Physical Appearance[]
Adachi is a young adult with short, unkempt, black hair and gray eyes. He wears a black suit with a long-sleeved white dress shirt, a crooked dark red tie, and brown field boots.
Design Variants[]
Adachi appears as his Shadow self in the TV world with yellow eyes.
In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Adachi first appears wearing a yellow coat.
In-Game Appearances[]
| In-Game Appearances | |
|---|---|
 Adachi's in-game model  Adachi's portrait |
History[]
When he was a child, Adachi's parents wanted him to be successful and only cared about his grades. When he grew up, he enrolled in the police force merely to be allowed to carry a gun. However, due to a mistake, he was dispatched to Inaba to become Ryotaro Dojima's assistant detective, leading to him finding life in the town boring enough to resent it. Dojima welcomed him as a partner, but didn't treat him with high regard due to his professional incompetence. He also didn't have much income, so he had to eat boiled cabbage almost daily.
However, an opportunity to relieve his stress and boredom arose when he realized he could put his hand through the TV, unknown to him that it was from meeting the master of the collective unconsciousness disguised as a Moel Gas Station Attendant, who gave him a handshake and therefore granted him the power to enter the TV World. When the scandal between Misuzu Hiiragi, Mayumi Yamano and Taro Namatame broke, Adachi was assigned to protect Yamano, residing in the Amagi Inn to avoid media coverage, intriguing him since he had seen Yamano on the TV after hearing the Midnight Channel's rumors of showing the watcher's soulmate. When she denied giving him information about being involved with the affair, it provoked Adachi to push her into the TV in a fit of rage without planning to, resulting in her corpse being found a few days later in the real world after being attacked by Shadows, leaving Taro Namatame grief-stricken when he had seen her on the Midnight Channel beforehand. When Adachi was asked to question Saki, a student of Yasogami High School acquainted with Yosuke Hanamura and the one who discovered Yamano's corpse, he took the opportunity to make advances on her after accusing her of an affair with Namatame. When she vehemently refused and slapped him, Adachi was again irritated by being rejected, and deliberately threw her into the TV this time, leading to her death and body discovery in the same manner as Yamano's.
Namatame, who was terrified by the double homicide, contacted the police about what to do. Since no other officer would believe his testimonies and Adachi happened to be the only officer available (the others were being kept busy by the bizarre murders), he was able to manipulate Namatame. He did not know Adachi's true involvement behind the last two murders. Adachi told Namatame to put people who had been covered by the media inside a "safe place" where nobody can find them. Namatame, who had also found out about the TV World, believed it would be the safest place for them, as he thought that Yukiko was "smiling inside the TV." As a result, he started pushing people who were covered heavily by the media into TVs in order to prevent their murders. Unfortunately, this is exactly what puts their lives at risk, so Namatame was unwittingly playing into Adachi's plan. Adachi will usually perform murders through Namatame via this way for most of the investigation, although he directly put Mitsuo Kubo into the TV as an act of sadism, since Mitsuo was nihilistic enough to copycat him for a sense of recognition.
Throughout the investigation, Adachi is portrayed as a textbook lousy detective: he makes rookie mistakes, vomits at the sight of grisly murders and is seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut about the murder cases to anybody he speaks with, regardless of their involvement (or lack thereof) in the investigation. Throughout the story, Adachi gives the Investigation Team hints and updates regarding the murder cases' current status, which often influence the actions the Investigation Team later takes.
After Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi and Rise Kujikawa's abductions were all solved by the Investigation Team, Mitsuo went to the police station to confess to the murders of Mayumi and Saki out of sheer nihilism, in addition to murdering what seems to be a third victim, Kinshiro Morooka. In reality, Morooka was murdered manually by Mitsuo and not via Adachi's methods. Adachi's superiors were less than amused, and pawned Adachi off with the student. Since allowing Mitsuo to confess to the murders would effectively stop Namatame from continuing to kidnap the people appearing on TV and preventing Adachi from killing more people through him, and he couldn't bear to let his "game" of cat-and-mouse (a.k.a. his murder spree) end so quickly, he led Mitsuo to an interrogation room, turned the lights off and threw him into the Midnight Channel. Mitsuo was saved by the Investigation Team, but because Adachi turned off the lights in the interrogation room, he had no idea that Adachi was his assailant.
After Naoto attempts in-person to bait the killer and was saved by (and joined) the Investigation Team, Adachi, irritated that the Investigation Team is getting in the way of his "game," sends an anonymous letter to the Dojima residence threatening the well-being of the protagonist's loved ones should he continue saving people. After Nanako is thrown into the TV, rescued by the protagonist and seemingly dying in the hospital, Adachi remains collected. He points the group in the direction of Taro Namatame's room in the same hospital when confronted about Dojima's whereabouts, where he was escorted by police guards despite forcing himself into Namatame's room. This allows the Investigation Team to enter Namatame's room to interrogate him.
While the group lashes out at Namatame, what appears to be Namatame's Shadow Self appears on the TV to berate the team for preventing him from "saving" Nanako and that he is going to "save" as many people as he can if he is left alive, greatly enraging the Investigation Team. In reality, this was not Namatame's Shadow, but a false image manifested from the Investigation Team's subconscious eagerness to believe that he is the killer. Yosuke will then ask the protagonist a series of questions about how to dispose of Namatame. Agreeing to throw Namatame into the TV or making ambiguous statements will result in a bad ending; in either case, the mystery of Inaba remains unsolved. However, in the first variant, both Namatame and Nanako were officially deceased, while in the second variant, both remain alive, although Nanako was in critical condition and Namatame denied his crimes when being tried in court.
If they successfully rule out Namatame as the killer, they investigate further into the case and come up with bits of evidence and clues, with the threatening letter being central. During the 5th of December, the protagonist must conclude that Adachi is the killer and tell it to his friends. Failure to guess the killer twice will result in the same bad ending as making ambiguous statements that lead to Nanako being in critical condition instead of dying. After realizing this, the team is informed that Namatame is going to have his transportation, and rush to the hospital, where they trick Adachi into accidentally revealing his connection with the murder cases. In an act of desperation, Adachi runs away from them and enters the Midnight Channel as his final escape.
The Investigation Team tracks down Adachi, and finds him within the very first area the protagonist, Yosuke and Chie ended up in: Mayumi Yamano's dungeon. Upon finding Adachi, the detective exposes himself as the killer himself and explains every part of his involvement up until this point in an incredibly casual and apathetic manner, greatly unnerving the Investigation Team. He then comments that the "game" would be boring if they were unable to track him down, and mockingly congratulates them before vanishing, but not before revealing that the real world and the Midnight Channel will be fused together by the end of the year.
The "Adachi" talking to the Investigation Team in Mayumi's reality was revealed to be an illusion, therefore Rise and Teddie later found out that Adachi was already in his reality, Magatsu Inaba. When exploring, his dialogue consists of taunts directed at the Team. He also wonders aloud why they wouldn't take life simpler by just studying, growing up and getting through marriage. It was revealed that his ultimate goal was to create a large rift between the Midnight Channel and the real world, allowing the fog to completely engulf reality and making the world a place infested with shadows.
If Adachi isn't defeated by 12/24, all of Inaba will be completely covered in fog and overrun by shadows. Naoto will call the protagonist and tell him the situation before hearing her scream, supposedly being attacked by Shadows. The protagonist blacks out instantly afterwards, and is summoned to the Velvet Room where Igor offers him to go back a week earlier.
Upon reaching the final floor of Magatsu Inaba, Adachi sarcastically congratulates the team and proceeds to express his disgust and contempt towards the world and society and supposedly justifies his actions by saying that if all of humanity are turned into Shadows, they would be given an easy life of no worries or despair. The Investigation Team, however, ignores and refutes Adachi's words one by one, until Adachi's temper reaches its peak to the point something starts to take over him and he attacks them, revealing his own Persona, Magatsu-Izanagi.
After his defeat, Adachi gets fully possessed by Ameno-sagiri, who was manipulating Adachi from within and was the real mastermind behind Adachi's plans of filling the world with fog. However, Adachi later expressed that it was also partially his true desire as well and he is still to blame for the murders. Upon Ameno-sagiri's defeat, Adachi questions the Team's reluctance to kill him, asking them if that wasn't their goal in pursuing him. The team replies that killing him would essentially continue the cycle. Surprised by the team's resolution, Adachi finally gives up and willingly follows the Team out the Midnight Channel.
Outside the Midnight Channel, upon the police's arrival, an exhausted Adachi is taken out on a stretcher, a personal favor from Dojima. Further surprised by this, Adachi finally acknowledges that despite Dojima's strict orders towards him, Dojima still cares for him as his partner. Guilt-ridden and touched, Adachi swore to confess his crimes to the police, giving his full cooperation.
In the events of the True Ending, the Team receives a letter from the recently-convicted Adachi, stating his suspicions about there being a higher being orchestrating the entire thing. However, he can only give vague clues at best; and tells the protagonist it is up to him to solve the mystery. It is revealed that his, the protagonist's and Namatame's ability to enter the Midnight Channel came from seemingly chance meetings with a Moel Gas Station Attendant the day they each arrived in Inaba.
Personality[]
Adachi seems to be a cheerful and jovial detective displaying textbook incompetence, such as threatening to throw up upon being asked to investigate a murder scene. He is outright treated as comic relief, due to his irresponsible and slacking nature. He also tends to make terrible unfunny jokes and puns that only he would enjoy. He jokingly refers to himself as Dojima's slave, complaining about the workload that his partner piles on him. Adachi is shown to be rather lazy, even encouraging Nanako to take shortcuts in her homework. Adachi also often accidentally (and sometimes purposely) blurts out the police investigation results to the Investigation Team, much to his own chagrin. He can be seen hanging around the Junes Department Store, usually "killing time."
Powers & Abilities[]
Magatsu Izanagi[]
Magatsu-Izanagi is the Persona of Tohru Adachi, the one truly responsible for the murders in Inaba. It follows the form of Izanagi, as it is actually bestowed upon Adachi without Adachi's knowledge by Izanami when he first arrived in the rural town. Magatsu-Izanagi takes the form of a bloody Izanagi, and its stats and skills from Adachi's battle stats. Magatsu-Izanagi also has a hidden resistance to Physical attacks, and as a result Adachi will only take half damage from them.
Appearances[]
- Persona 4
- Persona 4 Arena (mentioned)
- Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
- Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Trivia[]
- His style in summoning his Persona is clutching his head in pain, similar to Takaya Sakaki from Persona 3.
- When Yu confronts Adachi in Persona 4 The Animation, Persona 4 The Golden Animation and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Adachi calls out his Persona's name. These are the only times he says the name of his Persona.
- Adachi's habit of eating boiled cabbage when he lacked income has been sort of a gag among the fanbase, to the point that officials made fun of it. While in Persona 4 Golden, Adachi states he doesn't like cabbage that much and could only afford it at the time due to his budget. The other adaptations, such as The Animation run with it, including his Japanese title in Ultimax.
- In the Puzzle & Dragons collaboration, a loaf of cabbage can be seen next to the artwork of his non-evolved form.
- In episode seven of Persona 4 The Golden Animation, he summons his Persona left-handed.
- Adachi's alternate costume palettes in Persona 4 Arena feature references to Persona/Atlus characters Ryotaro Dojima, Kyouji Kuzunoha, Katsuya Suou and Theodore. Outside references include Yuuki Terumi from BlazBlue, Robo Ky MK. II from Guilty Gear Isuka (other Arc System Works games), and DC villain the Joker.
- Adachi's tie was a gift from Dojima. Dojima wanted him to look proper since Adachi never wore a tie previously.
- Adachi carries a lighter on him, but it's only for giving Dojima a light for his cigarette. Adachi himself doesn't smoke. In Golden, this lighter can be used by the protagonist to burn the evidence of his involvement in the murders should the protagonist decide to cover up for him.
- As revealed on Persona Stalker Club, although Adachi, being a police detective, was legally allowed to carry a gun, he wasn't allowed to take it home with him, so he carried a toy gun on his person at those times. However, in Ultimax, it is revealed that he modified it to shoot real bullets when he first became a cop because he wasn't given a real gun right away.
- One of Adachi's hobbies is to perform maintenance on his revolver. This, alongside the point above, indicates that Adachi might have some knowledge in handling and customizing firearms.
- In Ultimax, like Yu, Adachi possesses Ziodyne as well. However, it isn't an SP Skill and is instead a Persona Rush/D attack. In addition, it is colored red rather than blue. This also applies to his Cross Slash variation.
- Magatsu-Izanagi can also use Megidola, though it uses Megidolaon in Golden.
- Heat Riser can also be used as an offensive skill, despite it being a buff.
- Adachi's Cut-in image in both Persona 4 and its anime adaptation showed him with yellow eyes. In Ultimax, however, Adachi's eyes are normal. This happens since he was fighting while being taken over in Persona 4 and its sub-media.
- Like Sho Minazuki, Elizabeth, Margaret, Marie and Shadow Labrys with Asterius, Adachi does not possess a Shadow-type form.
- Adachi and Yu Narukami share the same English voice actor while the two have opposing yet crucial roles. This is similar to how the protagonist of Persona 3 and Ryoji Mochizuki both share an English and Japanese voice actor, yet have opposing roles that greatly impact the story. However, in the Japanese version, Yu and Adachi have different voice actors.
- Adachi's role in the story was initially a red herring, according to the Official Design Works artbook.
Cover Gallery[]
