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| “ | It is not unexpected that the Dark Hour and Tartarus remain. In fact, I never intended for you to rid the world of them. Quite the opposite, actually. The 12 Shadows were parts of a whole... They were destined to be reunited. And that was accomplished in no small part, thanks to your efforts. Soon, Death, the almighty, shall arise and bring forth the Fall... The end of all shall come and free this world from despair... The death of everything... but also the beginning. | „ |
| ~ Shuji Ikutsuki reveals his treachery to S.E.E.S. |
| “ | People have filled the world, yet turned it into a void! The only hope of salvation lies in ruin! According to the prophecy... the Fall will be orchestrated by "the Prince". And once the Prince has delivered us all, he shall rule the new world as king! The man who tried it ten years ago failed. But I will not; I shall succeed! | „ |
| ~ Shuji Ikutsuki's rant, proclaiming his motives and indirectly foreshadowing Erebus's existence. |
Shuji Ikutsuki is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Takaya Sakaki) of the 2006 video game Persona 3 and its 2024 remake Persona 3 Reload, and the overarching antagonist of the spin-off games Persona 4: Arena and Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
Initially introduced as the team's supervisor, he is eventually revealed to be one of the masterminds of the game, one of the people who had a hand in the experiments on Strega, and the one who manipulated SEES into breaking the seal on Nyx, in an attempt to create a new world that he would rule over.
He is voiced by Hideyuki Hori in the Japanese versions of both the original and Reload, Dan Woren in the English version of the original, and Jake Green in the English version of Reload. Green voiced Homelander in Mortal Kombat 1 and Parasite in My Adventures with Superman.
Biography[]
Ikutsuki is the Chief Director of Gekkoukan High School and both chairman and advisor of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, SEES. His proper demeanor and bad puns lead to him being considered lame by most of the students there. He is also the adviser for the special group formed by the game's heroes. He was trained to enter the Dark Hour, although he lacks a Persona.
According to him, the Shadows and Tartarus would both disappear once the twelve shadows representing the different arcana were slain.
In truth, Ikutsuki is working toward a completely opposite end, sharing Mitsuru's grandfather Kouetsu Kirijo's dream of The Fall and the coming of Nyx. He was one of the scientists involved in the experiments at Gekkoukan ten years ago, including the creation of artificial Persona-users.
Ikutsuki manipulates S.E.E.S. as well as Strega to destroy the twelve Arcana Shadows, promising them that once they do so they will eliminate the Dark Hour. But killing the twelve Arcana Shadows actually melds them together, allowing for the re-emergence of the thirteenth Arcana, Death. It is Death's function to summon Nyx and destroy the world.
After his lies are discovered, Ikutsuki reprograms Aigis to sacrifice the members of S.E.E.S. as offerings for Nyx, and then kills Takeharu Kirijo who had taken advantage of Aigis' inner fight and tried to shoot Ikutsuki himself. When Aigis breaks the programming and frees S.E.E.S., Ikutsuki jumps to his death from the top of Gekkoukan High School's observational roof (Lower Tartarus) after being wounded in the stomach by a bullet. His mission to revive Death was already complete by the time of his death.
Even after his death and Nyx's destruction upon the world was averted, his influence upon the world proved was still great: In Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, it's revealed that Ikutsuki adopted Sho as a child and was his favored test subject, eventually putting a Plume of Dusk inside him in the hopes it would give him a persona, but that resulted in Minazuki and his own persona instead. Minazuki wouldn't obey and attempted to kill Ikutsuki for putting Sho in danger. He eventually sought to erase Minazuki, which resulted in Sho falling into a coma. Now that he was no longer useful Ikutsuki placed Sho in a hospital, where he paid the medical bills to keep him alive in this state indefinitely.
This ultimately led the events in Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Ultimax, where he proved to be indirect mastermind behind the said events.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Sho Minazuki (adoptive son)
Allies[]
- S.E.E.S. (formerly)
- Kouetsu Kirijo (formerly)
- Nyx Avatar (indirectly)
Enemies[]
- S.E.E.S.
- Makoto Yuki/Kotone Shiomi
- Yukari Takeba
- Junpei Iori
- Mitsuru Kirijo
- Akihiko Sanada
- Fuuka Yamagishi
- Aigis
- Ken Amada
- Koromaru
- Takeharu Kirijo - victim
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Despite seemingly being a helpful mentor to the protagonists, he ultimately turns out to be one of the worst that the Persona series has to offer, as in death, he even indirectly caused disastrous events in Persona 4: Arena and its sequel Ultimax.
- Ironically, his habit of making lame puns proved to be genuine instead of part of his façade to prevent SEES from suspecting the truth about him, as shown in camera footage where he looks back at the aftermath of the fight against Arcana Priestess.
- If SEES saw through Ikutsuki's manipulations much sooner, they would likely have no choice but to play along up until Death was fully restored via defeating all Arcana Shadows, at which point they would have to confront the restored Death to destroy the Dark Hour and prevent the Fall.
- To elaborate, leaving Arcana Shadows be, as per Eiichiro Takeba's pleas, would exacerbate the spread of Apathy Syndrome, thus bringing forth The Fall little-by-little.
- The Overseer from Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, one of two main antagonists of the A.I.G.I.S. segment besides the Mother Computer, has a interesting resemblance to Ikutsuki.
- What's interesting is that both the Overseer and Mother Computer both have a savior complex and have tendencies to make bad puns.
- Besides that, the game takes place before the sudden reveal of Ikutsuki being the traitor, making both the Overseer and Mother Computer a foreshadowing of Ikutsuki's true nature.
External Links[]
- Shuji Ikutsuki on the Megami Tensei Wiki
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 Villains
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SEBEC Route Takahisa Kandori | Nyarlathotep | Pandora Snow Queen Quest Victims of the Snow Queen Mask | Tomomi Fujimori | Night Queen
Innoncent Sin Masked Circle | Master Joker | Tatsuya Sudou | Junko Kurosu | Anna Yoshizaka | Ginji Sasaki | Akari Hoshi | Nyarlathotep Eternal Punishment New World Order | Tatsuzou Sudou | Kiyotada Sumaru | Takahisa Kandori | Chizuru Ishigami | Nyarlathotep
Strega (Takaya Sakaki | Jin Shirato | Chidori Yoshino) | Kouetsu Kirijo | Shuji Ikutsuki | Nyx Avatar Persona 3 FES
The Killer | Mitsuo Kubo | Izanami Persona 4: Arena & Persona 4: Arena Ultimax Sho Minazuki | Shadow Labrys | Hi-no Kagutsuchi
Suguru Kamoshida | Sphinx | Sae Niijima | Antisocial Force (Ichiryusai Madarame | Junya Kaneshiro | Kunikazu Okumura | The Traitor | SIU Director | Sugimura | Kobayakawa | Masayoshi Shido | Yaldabaoth) | Shiro Asakura Persona 5 Royal Persona 5 Strikers Alice Hiiragi | Ango Natsume | Mariko Hyodo | Shuzo Ubukata | Akira Konoe | Jyun Owada | Kuon Ichinose | EMMA | Lock Keepers
Teru Gojuin | Dark Yashiro | Yatsufusa Hatanaka
Persona Q Clockwork God Persona Q2 Kamoshidaman | Enlil
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