Kunikazu Okumura

Kunikazu Okumura is a character from Persona 5.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Major Character (Antagonist)

Design
Kunikazu is a bespectacled older man who wears a business suit and an orange and brown checkerboard ascot under a white shirt.

Shadow Kunikazu wears a mostly black, form-fitting spacesuit with the same colors as his undershirt, and has blue skin. Unlike most bosses, he does not have a demon form - as Mammon, he calls out a floating chair before radioing a group of robots to protect him.The design bears a striking resemblance to Darth Vaders suit.

Personality
Kunikazu is an ambitious and career-focused professional who is always chasing his next victory. Unfortunately for his daughter, his ambitions come with a complete, deliberate ignorance of the pain he causes to his company or his family; no matter how many scandals Okumura Foods faces due to its poor safety practices and punishing work hours, or how obviously unhappy Haru is with his manipulations, Kunikazu refuses to let his nobler passions influence his business, instead behaving as ruthlessly as he feels he must to get ahead in the world. In fact, his Shadow Self admits that he sees nothing wrong with using Haru as a political pawn, as he believes it is his right as a parent to direct her life for the good of her family (ie, himself), and grows upset when he realizes Haru is "betraying" him by helping the Phantom Thieves of Hearts invade his Palace (although his Shadow seems to believe she is simply acting out and attempts to convince her to side with him repeatedly before his boss fight).

Despite his cold attitude, he is not completely heartless; as revealed as the Thieves explore the Palace, Kunikazu secretly realizes how miserable his employees are but suppresses his guilt, and realizes he is not a good parent. Eventually, during the confrontation with Shadow Kunikazu to acquire the Treasure, he admits that the Thieves are probably right to want to change his heart, but still fights back out of fear of losing the wealth he sacrificed his conscience to achieve.

He is also somewhat immature in his tastes, having been inspired for the Big Bang Burger franchise by a model kit he loved as a boy, but could never afford until he achieved success and paid off his own father's loans. Politically, it can be assumed he is a nationalist, as his Shadow reveals he believes he is helping achieve "utopia" by helping Masayoshi Shido achieve his goal of being elected to Prime Minister.

Persona 5
Kunikazu Okumura is the third president of Okumura Foods succeeded from his great-grandfather, he also has founded the fast food chain, Big Bang Burger. Kunikazu only has one daughter, Haru Okumura. He is one of the heist targets of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts at his own Palace. Initially prosecutor Sae Niijima notices Okumura's fast food business heavily benefits from his rivals' deaths from the mysterious mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns carried out by the Conspiracy, a fact that is learned by the thieves after they have stolen the investigation documents from Sae's laptop. After the Medjed incident, Okumura's heist request ranking in the Phantom Aficionado Website suddenly surges with loads of comments against his business practices. The Phantom Thieves are initially indecisive about reforming Okumura, but settle down when Haru joins them to escape her doomed marriage.

His Palace is a spaceport formed from his desire for wealth, to manipulate his employees and his childhood memory of enjoying sci-fi shows and toys, but also his refusal to acknowledge how much he is hurting Haru with his greed, tacitly oblivious to what kind of person her arranged fiance Sugimura is due to the promise of Haru marrying into wealth. His stepping stone to political power is done by sacrificing Haru's happiness, as is reflected by his Palace having a self-destruct system and escape pod; he desires to exist in complete ignorance of every negative consequence of his actions, despite the fact that he is fully aware of how miserable his employees are and violent Sugimura is, which is why he represents one of the Seven sins Greed.

Shadow Kunikazu "transforms" into Mammon in the Palace. Initially, he tries to subdue the Phantom Thieves by tricking them into separating from Haru and capturing the rest by pretending to have already reformed, but Morgana manages to escape the force field and hits the remote control he was using with the slingshot. During his boss fight, he sits on a floating chair and summons a group of his Cognitive existences, robots who represent how he sees his employees as emotionless drones. Recognizing he is not nearly strong enough to beat the Phantom Thieves directly, he activates a thirty-minute self-destruct timer and hangs back while his robots attack the party. After taking down all of his forces, Shadow Okumura is left alone, unable to fight off the thieves and is eventually brought down.

Because he is shown to genuinely care about Haru and regularly feels deeply conflicted about his obligation to his business and his daughter, the Phantom Thieves come to respect him as an opponent. When his Treasure is stolen, he attempts to reveal the identity of the head of the conspiracy that had manipulated him but the Thieves are forced to retreat because of the tight time limit. When the Shadow Self is alone, Goro Akechi kills the Shadow according to the plan.



During his press conference of October 11th, Kunikazu admits of his maltreatment of his employees. Just as he is about to reveal the true culprit behind the mental shutdowns, he suddenly suffers a heartattack-like affliction and dies on camera, much to the horror of the Phantom Thieves and much of the general public.

His heist request is manipulated by the Conspiracy by hacking into the Phan-site and pushing the heist request for Kunikazu, baiting the Phantom Thieves into the accusation of series of murders. Futaba Sakura, the Thieves' hacker, later discovers this and concludes that the said hacker is the same who imposes as Medjed and has been harassing the Phantom Thieves before her intervention.

When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace, the Shadow Self of the TV station president reveals that Kunikazu is assassinated despite his donations because the scandals around his company has attracted media coverage which is beyond their power to cover up and they fear exposure of their conspiracy.

Strategy
Before starting the fight, it is recommended to stock up on around 20 revival items, many of which can be bought at Tae's store, since many party members will likely be KOed during the fight several times. It is also important to try to conserve SP since there's a chance everyone may run out at the end. Haru's Triple Down skill is quite useful. Do not be concerned about curing Hunger as Hunger works in the player's favor during this battle. Having the Star Confidant with Hifumi Togo established before this fight makes the fight easier as each Corporobo has specific weaknesses while resisting all others. Having the ability to switch out your allies to respond to each new type helps to speed up the fight.

This battle has a special condition where the battle must be finished in 30 real world minutes. Thus, it is best not to spend too much time overthinking commands or stalling on dialogue.

This battle is not directly facing Shadow Okumura himself, but rather several waves of Corporobo minions. The player must defeat all Corporobo minions in order to directly attack Shadow Okumura and end the fight. No more than 4 Corporobo minions will be present on the field and once one wave has been defeated, the next wave is immediately deployed. If Okumura gets a turn, he will deploy new minions to fill in the ranks. Even though it is possible to knock down all of the Corporobos, All-Out Attacks are not possible as Shadow Okumura is technically an active member on the enemy team, just untargetable. Using Baton Passes are key to quickly move through each wave.

Shadow Okumura starts off with 4 Corporobo MDL-WKRs. They are weak to Wind and Fire spells so having Morgana or Ann during this phase makes it easier. Shadow Okumura will summon 10 of these total. Once the tenth Corporobo MDL-WKR has appeared, he will begin deploying Corporobo MDL-CH, who is weak to Ice and Psy spells. Yusuke and Haru are incredibly useful for taking these Corporobos down. Once the fifth Corporobo MDL-CH has appeared, he will begin deploying Corporobo MLD-AM, who are weak to Electric and Nuclear skills, so having Ryuji and Makoto out during this phase speeds things up. Once the fourth Corporobo MDL-AM has appeared, he will deploy Corporobo MDL-DM.

Corporobo MDL-DM starts the second phase of this fight as Okumura begins using new tactics. Okumura will begin using a Sacrifice Order command, causing a Corporobo to self-destruct, dealing massive damage to your party, but also killing the Corporobo as well. Your only options are to either quickly defeat the Corporobo targeted by this command before its next turn, or guard and mitigate the damage. Shadow Okumura will also begin inflicting Famine's Breath, causing hunger on one of your allies, severely reducing their damage output for three turns. Corporobo MDL-DM are weak to Wind and Bless so Morgana is great for this phase. Once the third Corporobo MDL-DM has been defeated, he summons Corporobo MDL-GMs who are weak to Curse and Psy skills so Haru is good for this phase.



After the second and final Corporobo MDL-GM is defeated, the final phase of this fight starts with the Execurobo MDL-ED appears. The Execurobo has no weakness, but also no resistances, thus the fight become a slugfest from here on out. It is recommended to favor physical skills (such as Haru's Triple Down instead of Psio, or Yusuke's Tempest Slash instead of Bufula), especially if Makarakarn is active on MDL-ED. If Haru is within the party, the Execurobo has a preference for targeting her. Since it tends to favor physical attacks, having Haru defend herself with Tetrakarn (if nothing else is being telegraphed) is a good way to keep her alive and inflict damage back at Execurobo.

Okumura continues to use Famine's Breath and occasionally Famine's Scream which inflicts Hunger on all of your allies (as mentioned previously, don't remove Hunger). Unfortunately, if an ally's Confidant has reached rank 6, they may remove Hunger with Harisen Recovery (excluding Morgana who has Harisen Recovery by now); nothing can really be done about this as delaying a Confidant isn't recommended, although it should not be a major issue. Okumura also begins to debuff your allies so if you're low on SP, it is not wise to use party-wide buffs constantly (although buffing party-wide Defense before Big Bang Challenge should be fine).

Execurobo has a dangerous attack called Big Bang Challenge which inflicts massive damage to your all party members. Thankfully, this move is telegraphed by Big Bang Order the turn before he uses it so guarding before he executes this move will mitigate the damage. Additionally, if an ally is inflicted with Hunger during the turn this move is executed, they will instead be healed and the Hunger status removed, so this ally may attack or use a turn instead of guarding which is a waste. Big Bang Order will also always be used immediately after each instance of boss dialogue during this phase of the fight.

Near the end of the fight, Execurobo keeps using Big Bang Challenge repeatedly, meaning the player must try to find a strategy to defeat it ASAP. If an ally definitely doesn't have enough HP to survive Big Bang Challenge even with guard, the player should make the most of their abilities and revive them after they are KOed.

Once the Execurobo is defeated, Shadow Okumura is forced onto the field as he has run out of allies. At this point, he no longer has the strength to fight back and can be taken down after just a few physical attacks. If he does get any turns, he will waste them hesitating.

Stats
The boss has a time limit of 30 minutes. If the player does not defeat him in time, it will trigger a unique game over cutscene. Mammon=

MDL-WKR =

MDL-CH =

MDL-AM =

MDL-DM =

MDL-GM =

MDL-ED =

Battle Quotes

 * "Give up...? Try saying that after you've taken down my company's elite soldiers!"
 * "Go, my employees! Be the foundation upon which my victory is built...!"
 * "Come to work!"
 * "Come workers!"
 * "Accept your defeat!"
 * "Every problem can be solved with more manpower... That is the strength of my company!"
 * "Hm...!? It seems ordinary workers are not fit for the job! Executive Director! Come to me!"
 * "Now then, fulfill your duty as my right-hand man! For the eternal prosperity of Okumura Foods!"
 * "Hm...!? What are you doing!? Work harder! Contribute more! The fate of my company rests upon how hard you work!"
 * "Hey! Losing is not an option here! You carry the Okumura Foods company name! Kill those thieves, even if it costs you your life!"
 * "What...!? Even him...!? Grrr, someone! Is there anyone here!? Wh-Why isn't anyone coming!?"

Etymology
Kunikazu (邦和) can loosely mean "international peace/diplomacy". Okumura (奥村) means "abstruse/deep-village".

Trivia

 * Kunikazu's death (bleeding black liquid from his orifices) is reminiscent of a scene in Persona 3 where a victim dies similarly.
 * Kunikazu's poor treatment of his employees and ambition to enter the political circle is likely based on (渡邉 美樹), who was originally the CEO of the restaurant chain where a female worker committed suicide allegedly for working severely overtime. Despite the scandal, Watanabe was elected to the House of Councillors representing the (conservative)  in 2013.
 * Shadow Kunikazu's costume is very reminiscent of the super villains in the 1980s science fictions. The panel before his torso is particularly similar to 's from the  franchise.
 * Shadow Kunikazu's plot to escape to utopia in a flying saucer and destroy everything left behind is a call back to the Millennium Kingdom project from Shin Megami Tensei II and Xibalba/Ameno Torifune from Persona 2.
 * The robot model IDs indicate various positions in corporate hierarchy:
 * WKR - Worker
 * CH - Chief Clerk
 * AM - Assistant Manager
 * DM - Division Manager
 * GM - General Manager
 * ED - Executive Director
 * Texts written on the crane devices which convey the robots in Kunikazu's boss battle are:
 * Overtime (the rest during interruption)
 * Nominal Manager (Division Manager)
 * Thanks Worldwide (Executive Director)
 * Consulting  (no one left)