Shadow Kanji



Shadow Kanji is a boss in Persona 4.

Appearances

 * Persona 4: Boss
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Boss
 * Persona 4 Manga

Profile
Shadow Kanji manifested from Kanji's hidden feelings concerning his sexual confusion. The Shadow first appeared as a starkly-clothed version of the real Kanji, speaking with a heavy lisp and talking flamboyantly about his interest in males.

When confronted, the Shadow outright said its preference was for a male partner, rather than a female one. This enraged Kanji, who denied the Shadow. Upon being denied, the Shadow laughed and transformed into a large half-black half-white, extremely muscular figure, with Shadow Kanji's human form situated at its top, surrounded by roses. Along with the creature were two Mars symbols and a duo of Shadows known as the Tough Guy and the Nice Guy.

After Shadow Kanji's defeat, the real Kanji still refused to accept it. When it once again slandered Kanji with homosexual banter, Kanji became even more angry. The Shadow pleaded desperately with the party at this point, asking if anyone would just accept it. Kanji punched the Shadow, but eventually accepted it — Kanji admitted that his sexual preference was not the real problem; his true fear was being rejected, as he was by both the boys and girls at his school. Upon accepting the Shadow, it transformed into Kanji's Persona, Take-Mikazuchi.

In the manga, a shadow that looks like either the Tough Guy or Nice Guy appears behind Chie but is not seen assisting Shadow Kanji.

Symbolism
As the reverse of Kanji, Shadow Kanji represents the reverse of the Emperor Arcana. The reversed Emperor is one whose will is weak, misleading, and based on corrupted intentions. While Kanji may seem strong-willed, Shadow Kanji represents his fear of being shunned and desperation for acceptance; his social ineptitude. It is also misleading, as it seems to symbolize Kanji's repressed desires for other men, it is actually his repressed soft side; his sewing and crafting skills, for example.

During the boss fight, Shadow Kanji will cast Forbidden Murmur near the start of the battle. The attack will always miss Yukiko and Chie, while Yosuke and the protagonist will always be afflicted with poison (unless guarding). Later in the battle, Shadow Kanji casts Roar of Wrath. The attack will always miss Yosuke and the protagonist, while Chie and Yukiko will always be afflicted with rage (unless guarding). This is referencing how Kanji views women as hateful and cruel and how men are poisoned by such hatred.

The rose bouquet around the head of the Shadow are a reference to a genre of manga directed at men featuring masculine men (rather than the effeminate ones found in Yaoi manga) called Bara, the Japanese word for a rose. A rose can also be seen when Kanji appears in the arcade opening in Persona 4 Arena.

Strategy
The fight with Shadow Kanji is rather difficult because of the constant assistance from Nice Guy and Tough Guy, both of which have resistances which makes the battle more difficult as they were made to limit Chie and Yukiko's abilities.

It is generally a good idea to attempt challenging Shadow Kanji when your party is at around Level 23 and above, any lower and you will have a difficult time keeping your health up. Additionally, make sure your party's armor has high protection values as the fight is entirely physical-attack oriented.

Consider investing in a lot of: Medical Kits, Dokudami Teas, and Sedatives. Buy about 6 of each, which is commonly enough but more wouldn't hurt to have. Conventional healing using SP will exhaust your party's SP in no time and will make it hard for you to keep up with Shadow Kanji's barrage of power-charged attacks so item-based healing is much more efficient.

Nice Guy
Nice Guy is strong against fire attacks and absorbs ice attacks, Nice Guy usually casts Heat Riser on Shadow Kanji which increases all of his stats or Tarukaja on Tough Guy, have Yosuke use Dekaja to counter this problem.

Getting Rid of the Nice Guy is tantamount to beating Shadow Kanji as it removes any chance of him being healed by Diarama and removes the constant buffs that take a toll on the party's health. Making the fight, much less tedious and dragged-down.

Tough Guy
Tough Guy absorbs physical and fire attacks, Tough Guy assists Shadow Kanji with the attacking and can cast Dekaja to nullify buffs, although he isn't quite as powerful as Kanji. Taking him down ensures that the buffs stay for three turns, however the player does not have to defeat him to if they do not want to, but will be given extra experience if the player does.

While Tough Guy isn't as threatening as Nice Guy, despite his name, given that his attacks aren't too powerful, he can be an annoying harasser to the party, if left unchecked, with his constant Kill Rushes and Rampages. This is made worse when Shadow Kanji enrages Chie and Yukiko, who will then take additional damage when uses one of the two skills.

Shadow Kanji
Shadow Kanji will first use Power Charge and he will always follow it with Swift Strike which can deal major damage to the party, so use Guard when he uses Power Charge. Consider getting a persona with the Tetrakarn (Such as Kaiwan) skill, as not only does this negate Swift Strike, it also returns a sizable portion of the damage back to Shadow Kanji, especially when buffed, making the fight much easier.

By the time you reduce Shadow Kanji's health enough he'll do his dialogue about wanting acceptance and start to use his other skills, such as Fanatical Spark, Roar of Wrath, and Forbidden Murmur, although he will use power-charge less frequently. Be careful about Fanatical Spark, make sure that the protagonist isn't equipped with a persona weak to electricity. Try to keep the party's HP above 80%, heal regularly, and maybe have a SP recovering items, because this will be a long battle.

By the time you reduce his health down by around 70-80%, he will start using Terakarn. This is the time to deliver the killing blow with a barrage of elemental-based skills as Shadow Kanji has no strong-points against elemental attacks.

In Persona 4 Golden, Nice Guy is now weak to Ice and Tough Guy is weak to fire.

Battle Quotes

 * "I am a shadow ... The true self ... I'm just being true to myself ... And that's why ... I'll get rid of anything in my way!" (Battle Opening)
 * "This has nothing to do with you guys anymore! Didn't I just say I'm gonna get rid of you!?"
 * "Hold me!" (Using Power Charge/Fanatical Spark)
 * "Eyes closed!" (Using Power Charge/Fanatical Spark)
 * "Mmmm, gimme more!" (Using Power Charge)
 * "Ohhhhh..." (Attacking)
 * "Oooooh..." (Attacking)
 * "You don't accept me! You'll never accept me!" (Recovering from Knock Down)
 * "Ngh, why are you trying to keep me down!?" (Recovering from Knock Down)
 * "I've already made my decision to go through with this. Get out of my way ... Or I'll crush you!" (First attack)
 * "Come with me!" (Using Roar of Wrath)
 * "So big and strong!" (Using Forbidden Murmur/Roar of Wrath)
 * "You want this?" (Using Forbidden Murmur/Roar of Wrath)
 * "Stay out of my way! What's wrong with acting however I feel like!?" (Weakening)
 * "Stay away, or I'll crush you!" (unused?)
 * "I'll be in a fix that you get in my way!"
 * "I ... I won't forgive you for that!" (unused?)
 * "My ... my pal!" (unused, most likely used if player defeats Nice/Tough Guy)
 * "Time to show you everything I got, baby!
 * "I ... I ... I've made my decision!"
 * "Ngh ... why are you trying to keep me down?!"
 * "You don't accept me! You'll never accept me!"
 * "I know you all thought I was 'weird' ... Deep down ... you don't accept me at all! No matter what, I won't lose!" (Weakening)
 * "Shall I show you what pain can be?!"
 * "Y'know, I can be very gentle towards boys!" (unused)
 * "Girls ... don't interest me, thank you." (unused)
 * "Why don't you eat this?!"
 * "Shall I show you my ... special moves?"
 * "Dammit ... dammit! I won't ... accept..."
 * "Ohhh! You're so mean!" (Upon defeat)
 * "Ohhh! ...Accept me!" (Upon defeat)