Kanji Tatsumi [Zombie Apocalypse.]

Appearance: Kanji is the tallest member of the Investigation Team despite his young age compared to the rest of the Investigation Team, and is bigger and more imposing than all of them. He has a bleached-blond sweptback crewcut with a widow's peak, gray eyes (blue in the animation), with a scar above his left eye. He wears multiple piercings, metal jewelry, a black long-sleeved shirt with a skull-and-crossbones design on the front under his school uniform, and a white belt. He wears black sunglasses while in the TV World. On days off, he wears a Schott-Perfecto leather jacket with a fur collar and in the summer he discards his jacket and dons a black tank top with a flaming skull design. During the campout, he wears his P.E. suit in a fashion similar to his winter uniform. Personality: Who the hell d'you think was next? His name is Kanji Tatsumi... And he wasn't in a biker gang--he's the one who beat the shit out of those leathered-up pansies. So who are you dipshits...!? Kanji seems to be a delinquent who was strong enough to fight a biker gang in middle school, earning him a town-wide reputation of wildness and toughness. He drapes his school uniform over his shoulders in a punk-ish style to emphasize the style he wishes to embody. However, when he sometimes gets flustered he tends to threaten people, occasionally getting into fights and scraps. Regardless, Kanji is a genuinely level-headed guy in spite of all that. The context of Kanji's actions comes from taking care of bad people with his own hands, normally warding off actual bullies and delinquents with his own hands. Kanji grew up with a family that is extremely open-minded and spiritual of the meaning of things, often blurting out spiritual concepts such as "Cloth is alive" or "Dyes are one with the universe," which made Kanji far more thoughtful to an emotional scale.

Because of that, although he's grown up masculine, he has a more feminine side, especially prominent in his hobbies. He actually fought down the biker gangs to prove his masculinity and to prevent them from harassing his mother, since he's sort of a mother's boy and cares for her well being more than anyone else. He cares for his mother so much that a simple mention of his mother being in a hospital severely unsettles him. Also, even though Kanji skips classes, he's surprisingly respectful and polite, responding to his peers with manners once he realized they were his upperclassmen; the Japanese script has him use formal verbal tics with the Investigation team until he becomes more comfortable with them overtime. Kanji's hobbies, include how adept and passionate he is at sewing, knitting, arts and crafts, as such things are considered feminine, and are things that males his age generally have no interest in because of the potential negative connotations that he believes such interests entail. He has been interested in arts and crafts since he was young and has been honing his skills without anyone knowing. Kanji's cutely designed works, which include knit plushies and plush hand mitts are already being sold as proper goods in the shop. He also conducts handicrafts classes for the neighbors. When it comes to crafts, Kanji is unrivaled. Kanji really wants to join his school's Sewing Club, but he feels as if he might frighten the other club members because of both his reputation as a troublemaker and his general intimidating appearance. He can be seen standing in the Sewing Club classroom, although he has made the Sewing Club members nervous. On his online profile, he is part of the social groups "Let's Sewing," "Knitting Cafe" and "I Like Hawaiian Quilts." Kanji is obsessed with details and compulsiveness at times. However, he's afraid of participating in such hobbies because girls may ridicule him for it.

Kanji's upbringing with unconventional beliefs came with a consequence of developing an insecurity in the real world which simply finds what he thinks and says to be eccentric: his feminine hobbies would be met with constant mockery by his peers of both genders, as his fellow female peers might interpret his interests as "gay" or "unmanly." He would feel shunned and treated like "some zoo animal" in the process. Worse, Kanji would be misunderstood often for his appearance and actions from his masculine side and would be thought to be a delinquent or a bully: one of the more common misconceptions is that he's part of the biker gang he got rid of. Because of that, he would develop a fear of rejection and compensates by not only hiding his hobbies, but turning his masculine side into a facade by acting tough and make other people hate him in order to avoid ridicule and rejection. This fear would turn into an outright complex, and he in particular overreacts when he's called "strange" or "odd," as noted by Naoto Shirogane. It runs so deep that he might often misinterpret the other person's words, bad enough that he might've not been referred to directly to begin with.

These circumstances surrounding his ridicule would confuse Kanji, making him not only think he dislikes girls specifically, but by blocking them out he would get confused about his sexuality, wondering if he's interested in men. Not only that, but in it all he would develop irrational feelings and desire to make everyone hate him for the sake of personal gratification and familiarity, his Shadow exaggerating his emotions and behavior to be as repulsive as possible, all the while making a point by making indiscreet romantic advances and ultimately begging people to accept him. Kanji himself admits he wanted others to hate him to avoid his fear of rejection, and that he found himself cowardly for it. After facing his feelings, Kanji's Social Link reveals that acting tough has often caused a chain of trouble for Kanji, and he wonders how to prevent such things from escalating. In his Rank 10 Social Link, he tells him about showing his works to Rise Kujikawa who would call his dolls "creepy" but after a while nevertheless compliments him as an amazing guy, he realizes that he needs to try to make others "understand" him, something which he never attempted as he immediately gave up on them, and something he hopes will prevent future misunderstandings. His Social Link also focuses on his frustrations with his father's teachings of masculinity, but at the very end he realizes that what he meant was that he had to try and get people to understand him instead of staying sheltered and letting others think whatever they want.

Kanji is put at an awkward position where his feminine side is misunderstood and his masculinity is put into question: especially by the Investigation Team, whose Shadow selves were most directly speaking the truth, whereas later Shadows would act one way in a desperate attempt to express something else: Kanji's issue was not only sandwiched in-between, but his Shadow was entirely incomprehensible. Because of these circumstances, he would give the wrong impression that his Shadow self reveals a "suppressed sexual desire." Yosuke Hanamura would most prominently make fun of him for explicitly "being attracted to men" to help him come to terms with his confusion and insecurities. Compared to the rest of the team, Kanji tends to be a bit slow on the uptake. However, he is impulsive and acts faster than he talks. Throughout the game, he realizes that his impulsive actions can drag others down, and that he can balance that by instead giving them his support. He puts his masculine side to good use by becoming more caring and protective towards others where it counts, such as offering they have Naoto Shirogane let out her true feelings as it's their job to defeat her Shadow. He would be especially flustered once Rise pointed out and teased him for caring for Naoto. Otherwise, he is irrevocably cold when need be without sympathy usually to bring sense into them, such as callously telling Tohru Adachi, the killer behind the murders, that if he finds living so hard and wants to disappear, he should just do so instead of dragging other people into his mess. Furthermore, he tends to bring people back on track with his "seeing the big picture" approach, while also respecting others' hardships as a sign of grit and relating to another person's stubbornness in general.

In addition to that, in a Social Link event with Naoki Konishi, it was revealed that the "super yummy croquettes Kanji's mom made" he had 10 years ago were actually made by Kanji himself when he was young. In other words, not only is Kanji good at crafts and sewing, he's also a decent cook. On his online profile, he is part of the social group "Delicious Shops In Inaba." He is a huge fan of popsicles and animal crackers, and is searching for the ultimate secret animal cracker: the penguin. He has a fondness for cute things, particularly animals, as he is shown to keep many stuffed toys. He does want to feel Teddie's fur and begs him several times, but he never actually gets the opportunity to and is never given permission anyways. He takes a particular liking towards Koromaru and Morgana in the Persona Q series. Kanji is terrified of having the secrets he has kept for so long, his likes and his true nature, revealed and he suspects that he really does have a "feminine" heart. As a result, on the other side of the TV, a dazzling world of love between men was created. Shadow Kanji claims that he hated women because they spoke behind his back, and that men would keep their feminine interests. Kanji's real sexuality is left ambiguous if not irrelevant, since he did mistake Naoto's "interest in him" (which is actually her suspecting that he might be the next victim of the serial murders) as a love confession, and Naoto had not been revealed as a woman during that time. In reality, implications state that he likes Naoto for her quiet and reserved nature, as he simply didn't like "loud and obnoxious" people back when he was explaining his distaste for girls. Also, he would get a nosebleed over Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi when they were in their swimsuits during Yasogami's camping trip, though in Golden's beach trip at Shichiri Beach, he would get no reaction like that over Rise.

Even after his friends have accepted his long-standing inner conflicts, his likes and hobbies, and the him who represents all those things, he still feels unsettled at times. By the end of the game, Kanji acknowledges a deeper acceptance and understanding of stereotypically "feminine" and "masculine" interests in his Social Link. In manga adaptation, Kanji's resolve to try to make others understand him for who he is apparently extends to helping those whose predicament not unlike his own. He is able to relate to Naoto's plight which saw her disguising as a boy while building up her reputation as "Detective Prince" (bound by labels and stereotypes that compromised her identity and sense of relations, in addition the desire to be an ideal detective juxtaposed with people's prejudice towards her age) not too different with how he hid his talent and passion which others dismissed as "not manly" in his own words. Because of it, he warns everyone not to intervene as Naoto is on the verge of rejecting her Shadow Self knowing that they may end up encouraging her to bottle up her feelings thus worsening the situation not unlike when he dealt his own Shadow Self prior. So instead, he advises Naoto not to let stereotypes and labels compromise her identity and sense of relations, let alone in the way of her passion. Interestingly, both Kanji and Naoto embrace their Shadow Selves as they disappear thanks to their acceptance and subsequent acquisition of their Personas. Kanji is the only child of the Tatsumi family, owners of the textile shop in Inaba's Central Shopping District. Amagi Inn patrons this textile shop. He is now a student at Yasogami High School, but he often skips class for unknown reasons.

His father died a young age and he lives alone with his mother. Before he died, he told Kanji, "If you're a man, you have to become strong" because Kanji enjoys doing feminine hobbies despite his appearance. Kanji thought his father was telling him he wasn't a real man, which angered him and caused him to become insecure about his masculinity. As a result of this, Kanji drastically changed his appearance and began isolating himself from others. At the beginning of Persona 4, Kanji has no known friends, and people in Inaba (police included) are terrified of him, to the point that when he approaches the Investigation Team, they have to run. Kanji is first seen with Naoto Shirogane after Yukiko Amagi was rescued from the Midnight Channel, after he's been interviewed on the TV during that night and a blurry image of him can be seen on the TV at the end of that day. Naoto was also able to deduce that Kanji would be the next victim, and tries to seek clues by speaking to him. During that time, Naoto expresses interest in the case, which Kanji mistakes as Naoto being romantically interested in him. The Investigation Team has to sneak up on him because he looks and acts terrifying. Since the Amagi Inn patrons his textile shop, Kanji has been pinned down as a target courtesy of the inn's involvement with Mayumi Yamano. He is eventually kidnapped and thrown in the Midnight Channel, confirmed when a clear image of him appears on the TV and Yukiko dialed his mother, telling her that he never came back after going out that day. Kanji's Midnight Channel dungeon is the "men's only" Steamy Bathhouse.

If Kanji isn't rescued by 6/4 (deadline), the protagonist will receive a call from Yukiko on that day (whose voice is breaking due to how emotional she was being after finding out about Kanji) about a body, being Kanji's. The protagonist blacks out instantly afterwards and is summoned to the Velvet Room, where Igor gives him a choice to try again 1 week prior. On the top floor, the team finds Kanji confronting Shadow Kanji. Shadow Kanji calls him out on his "charade" and tells him it's awful to deceive himself and other people, and asks Kanji what is so bad about doing what he wants to do. Shadow Kanji continues on how much he hates girls because they are arrogant, self centered, ridicule him on his hobbies and treat him as a "thing," and he prefers hanging out with men because they won't ridicule him for his feminine interests. After being denied, Shadow Kanji transforms into is a mostly nude version of himself surrounded in a bed of roses while holding two Mars symbols. It represents his sensitive side under his rough exterior which was often unappreciated and even ridiculed by girls, and being thought of as an unmanly degenerate as a result. His Shadow is also accompanied by two other Shadows, one named "Nice Guy" and the other named "Tough Guy." The party manages to defeat Kanji's Shadow, although the real Kanji still refused to accept it. The Shadow pleaded desperately with the party at this point, asking if anyone would just accept it. Kanji punched the Shadow, but soon accepted it, and so, it transformed into his Persona, Take-Mikazuchi.

Kanji's Social Link begins a set time after his rescue, and it can commence as early as June 9th, when a female student on the second floor of the classroom building accuses him of bullying other students. The protagonist can find him in the practice building on the first floor next to the sewing room. To start this Social Link, speak to Kanji and choose to talk to him. The protagonist will lead Kanji to the Samegawa Flood Plain to confront him. Choose to talk about the accusations of bullying. Kanji will then state the accusations are false. Upon seeing the protagonist as a friend, the Emperor Social Link will be established. Kanji's Social Link goes over his passive-aggressive and outright aggressive attitude towards people who have made up their mind about him being a delinquent, but with the protagonist's help, he takes the opportunity to change. As the protagonist continues through the Social Link, he will support Kanji in making dolls for a young boy who the protagonist meets around the third level of the Emperor Social Link. This will lead to Kanji eventually beginning to sell the dolls at the Textile Shop. At the final meeting, Kanji goes to the Dojima residence with the protagonist. He explains to the protagonist that his obsession with being a real man came from his father's last words. Here, he notes that he finally figured out what being a real man is and what he meant. According to Kanji, a real man is a man who does everything at one hundred percent. Kanji also admits to the protagonist that the manifestation in his personal dungeon truly did represent himself, revealing that he is becoming more comfortable with who he is, especially with his hobbies. He gives the protagonist a cute strap, and his Persona evolves to Rokuten Maou. He then states that he will start a puppet-making class, the first being in the protagonist's room.

The addition of bikes for the Investigation Team introduced a unique new way of obtaining skills for party members. By going on special forms of dates with each party member, involving the use of the bikes, the player is given the option of either having the party member in question learn a brand-new skill, or relearn any old skill that they have forgotten. The bike skills available to Kanji are listed below. Kanji can also perform a fusion spell with Naoto called "Beauty & The Beast" when the following requirements are achieved: Kanji and Naoto are both in the active party, and an "All-Out Attack" is performed, but an enemy remains. When performing "Beauty & The Beast," Kanji and Naoto will both run up to each other and summon their respective Personas. Bones will surround them and the enemy as a skull appears from the ground. The skull will emit a bright light from its mouth, damaging the enemy. Additionally, each party member is able to learn new skills upon the progression of their Social Link. The Social Link skills that Kanji learns upon the development of his Social Link are also listed below. Kanji is first seen fighting a biker gang, throwing himself wholeheartedly into the fray. He is next seen at school where he meets Yu for the first time. There, Yu notices Kanji had dropped a pink bunny keychain, which embarrasses Kanji; he snatches it back and storms off. When Kanji discovers Yosuke and Chie spying on him, he chases after them when Chie mentions the word "gay." Eventually, Kanji ends up chasing Yu and Yukiko, too. When Kanji woke up in the bathhouse, he suddenly hears someone else's inner voice talking about him; this angered him to the point of refusing his other self, who had appeared to welcome him. As the Investigation Team arrives, they become aware of the fact Kanji has been fighting his Shadow on his own, and handling himself just fine. But soon Kanji tires, and loses his energy; he suffers a backlash as if he had refused his Shadow.

Despite this, he does not fall into unconsciousness, and instead watches with what little strength he has left as his Shadow strikes him down. He regains consciousness long enough to see Yu guarding his prone body, protecting him. Kanji refuses to commit, then Yu's words bring him back to his senses, and it's enough for him to accept his Shadow. Kanji admits that the Shadow is a part of him, no matter how much he wished he could deny it. His Shadow is then reborn as his Persona, Take-Mikazuchi. During the battle with Adachi in Magatsu Inaba, Kanji teams up with Naoto to battle the first Reaper, but got moderately injured from it. After he and the other Seeker of Truths' Personas fight against Ameno-sagiri and fail, as he sees Yu in danger, his Persona evolves into Rokuten Maou and gives him the strength to summon the ultimate Persona, Lucifer. Kanji and Yu's bond is represented by the Persona, King Frost. In the game's story mode, Kanji learns that Yu is returning to Inaba for Golden Week, so he plans on knitting a doll for him. In the middle of working, he falls asleep, eventually waking up in the middle of the night but tripping and falling right into the flat screen TV in his living room. When he wakes up, he finds that he is in Yasogami High and discovers the P-1 Grand Prix tournament. Believing this is just a dream, he enters the tournament and defeats opponents one by one without hesitation. In two spots, the player has the choice of believing the entire tournament is still a dream or taking it as reality.

In the main route, Kanji eventually finds out the tournament is not a dream and deduces that the whole fiasco is a result of Shadow Kanji stirring up trouble in the guise of Teddie. At the end of many battles with his seniors, he eventually reaches Teddie and Labrys at the classroom. Teddie, half-jokingly telling Labrys to leave without him, remains alone to fight Kanji who defeats his foe with gusto but is reprimanded for his actions by Teddie himself, who reveals that he is not the same as the Teddie shown on screen or Shadow Kanji. At that moment, "Shadow Kanji" enters the room and echoes statements similar to the Shadow Kanji fight in Persona 4 only, Kanji accepts his problems very quickly and defeats Shadow Kanji without any hesitation. Once again, reprimaned for his actions, Kanji is told that the tournament was in fact a result of a new foe, Kanji had no choice but to reach the announcement room for answers, save Rise who had recently made a cry for help, and Labrys who had already rushed ahead of him. In the announcement room with no other Persona users with combat abilities, he has no choice but to defend Rise and Labrys from Shadow Labrys who has finally become berserk through Labrys' rejection. After having busted Shadow Labrys, Rise and Kanji comfort Labrys on her troubles and finally get her to accept her Shadow. The three head for the school roof which is actually the lobby and finally return home. Just before bidding Labrys farewell out in the real world, Kanji tells Labrys to stay cheerful and says goodbye with energy, "See ya!" Echoing Kanji, Labrys leaves with the Shadow Operatives and their limo with tears in her eyes. Kanji returns to his family's store and offers to look over it for the day while proudly showcasing his knit dolls for sale.

In an alternative route, Kanji still believes the entire tournament is a dream throughout most of the story. At every turn, he defeats opponents left and right without much hesitation. When he eventually encountered and defeated Naoto in one of the matches, he sheepishly demanded that Naoto call him without an honorific. Later down the line, when he finally reaches the announcement room, he encounters Aigis defending Rise from Shadow Labrys. From this, he immediately assumes that Aigis is the "good robot" and that Shadow Labrys is the "evil robot." When Aigis is knocked away by Shadow Labrys, Kanji intervenes, despite Aigis' continuous pleas for him to take Rise and escape. Thinking that it is his mission to defeat the "evil robot" to avenge the "good robot," he engages and dismantles Shadow Labrys. After the battle, everyone arrives at the announcement room. All of the Shadow Operatives comment positively on Kanji's impressive combat skills, but the Investigation Team, however, is furious at Kanji who not only beat most of them up without pulling his punches, but also still thinks that everything is a dream when it is in fact not. Kanji, having realized this, blushes furiously and apologizes to everyone especially in the context of Naoto, who herself hides her flustered face behind Yukiko. Kanji and team enter the TV world on a regular mission when the course suddenly diverts and sends them through into a world filled with dinosaurs. They encounter the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and work together to traverse through the movie worlds, encountering S.E.E.S along the way. During a sidequest, Kanji bonds with Ryuji Sakamoto and learns a unison attack with him. He also took an interest in Morgana as shown when he was introducing himself. Once the final boss, Enlil, is defeated, the combined team departs and returns to their own respective worlds, their memories of the experience erased.

Once the final boss, Enlil, is defeated, the combined team departs and returns to their own respective worlds, their memories of the experience erased. Kanji then goes to the Dojima Residence to watch a dinosaur movie with the team and Yu's cousin, Nanako. On Naoto's second day of attending Yagokoro Private School to investigate the disappearances of Miyuki Midorikawa and Shirou Konno, Kanji sends her a text expressing concern about her potentially being bullied by her classmates and reassures her that he would head over and beat them up. Naoto replies back by saying she will count on him if anything happens, and feels good knowing that her friends are doing well and that she can rely on them. Later, after successfully solving the case and returning to the police station, Sousei mentions Ai wanting a "Tatsumi-brand" stuffed animal from Junes. Kanji Tatsumi is a playable character and he stars in "Best Friends," a song from Persona 4 Arena, and "Time To Make History" (Akira Yamaoka Remix.) His dance style is the wildest out of all characters in the game. He doesn't really dance well, but can be smooth at times. Other times, he just stays on beat and has fun. He does repeat dances a lot, but he does boast longer FEVERs than other characters. During FEVERs he normally dances in his own bubble when alongside someone else, unless he's with a girl, in which he dances a bit closer, but not too close. During his FEVERs with Naoto, he normally gets embarrassed and dances worse. Kanji didn't know that the zombie apocalypse had begun, so he acted as usual, wanting to meet Naoto. In this world, the people had disappeared and it was impossible to summon them.