Mitsuo Kubo

Mitsuo Kubo is a character from Persona 4.

Appearance

 * Persona 4: Non-player character
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Character

Design
Mitsuo has relatively short, messy black hair that is parted slightly in the middle. His skin is pale, but has a hint of orange-ness, and he has a beauty mark under his left eye. Most of the time, Mitsuo appears to be extremely tired as he has a fairly pronounced slouch, walks slowly and breathes heavily, and has droopy eyes and a rather grim expression. His school uniform is black, with a green and orange emblem and a green tie, while his casual clothes consist of video-gamed themed shirts such as with a controller design, or an alien invaders-like pattern, and jeans.

Perhaps his most notable features are his eyes, which are unlike any of the other characters in Persona 4, being extremely deep and pitch black without visible pupils, giving him somewhat of a "mind-broken" aura. Mitsuo also has long eyelashes, thin eyebrows and very pronounced lips.

His English voice is boyish and tone-filled, whereas his Japanese voice is deep and intimidating. However, his low voice sometimes breaks into more of a maddened laughing in the back of his throat when he is excited or furious, and he speaks more sweetly to Yukiko, this is likely to show that he puts on a low voice for show to seem more powerful in front of others.

Personality
Mitsuo suffers from poor self-esteem due to ridicule for his appearance, and in turn his social isolation. This causes him to be extremely self-centered, delusional, attention-dependent and aggressive. Mitsuo is extremely immature, and often throws tantrums if something makes him upset, such as tripping over a garbage bag or being rejected by Yukiko. If anyone tries to confront him about his life's emptiness, having no friends or accomplishments, he lashes out into a state of ridiculous anger and ignorance. Although he is so often alone and looked down upon, Mitsuo also has an extreme need for attention, whether it be positive or negative. To make up for his lack of good attributes, he blows things up that he does such as beating video game bosses, and grows to honestly believe that he and Yukiko love one-another; as she's the most popular girl in town, that would make him of high social standing as well. However, he merely stalks her and takes photographs of her with her friends, while harboring hatred for everyone else.

Following his rejection by Yukiko, he slowly slips to the point of performing murder, to show that he is powerful enough to kill another person, it would in turn make him more intimidating to others in his mind. During his arc, he showcases the symptoms of a "power-trip" in which he acts extremely hostile to anyone who approaches him, even going so far as to attempt to physically hurt Nanako, who is twelve years younger than himself. But, knowing that he cannot showcase his "strength" in public, he turns to the internet where he can anonymously brag about being the serial killer in Inaba, although nobody believes him. This causes him to throw a fit, destroying his room and eventually going to confess to the police and have all the murders blamed upon himself to get attention.

Mitsuo does not display any notable skills, interests or good attributes during his brief appearance in the series, other than his love for video games and the internet, as he often uses them and wears video game themed shirts. This is largely because of how empty his life is as stated by his shadow, that he has and is nothing, and why he is so resolute in neglecting his shadow. Mitsuo's lack of attributes is one of the reasons that he doubts his own existence and secretly wishes to die as referenced by his shadow. That he simply wants to end it all, and that the only reason he's obsessed with killing other people is because he thinks it's the only way that he can make an impact on the world.

Profile

 * Age 18
 * Date Of Birth: 5/24/1993
 * Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Mitsuo first appeared as a nameless student from a rival school in Yasoinaba. He appears outside the gates of Yasogami High School, waiting for Yukiko Amagi. Upon seeing her, Mitsuo addresses Yukiko as 'Yuki' and asks her out on a date, much to Yukiko's bemusement. Several students who were passing by as well mocked him for asking Yukiko on a date, and upon Yukiko's abrupt declination, Mitsuo threw a tantrum and ran away. He would be later seen standing across the street from Tatsumi Textiles, complaining about daily life.

After the rescue of Rise, the Protagonist's homeroom teacher Mr. Morooka is found hanging from a water tower, murdered via blunt force trauma to the head. Soon after that, Mitsuo disappears into the Midnight Channel. When viewed from the outside, he appears to be taunting the Protagonist and his friends, sarcastically asking them to come catch him. It turns out he is taking credit for Mayumi and Saki's murders as well as that of Morooka's, which mystifies the Investigation Team. Even though they have serious doubts about Mitsuo, they go into the TV to rescue him anyway.

Mitsuo's dungeon, Void Quest, takes the form of an old-school video game dungeon, complete with pixellated flames and graphics. The music is peppy and 8-bit, eventually scaling up into maniacal orchestra music, and the dungeon's sound effects are monotone and digital. As the party scales the dungeon, Mitsuo loses his grip on reality. He thinks of killing Mayumi, Saki and Morooka as video game fights, complete with fictional stat increases ('Excitement increases by 4! Emptiness increases by 1!') When the Protagonist reaches the Endgame, he finds Mitsuo yelling at his shadow, who refuses to say anything- even when Mitsuo hurls a hysterical question at him, the only thing he says is that he is 'nothing'.

When Mitsuo denies his Shadow, it turns into a giant baby with complex writings circling its head who can summon a pixelated 3D warrior as a barrier. It is heavily suggested by his dungeon and his Shadow's infantile appearance that Mitsuo has a very immature personality and poor self-esteem; he hides behind video games and feels he has to kill to get attention. Upon his defeat, the Shadow disappears into a cloud of smoke instead of becoming a Persona as Mitsuo is still in denial. Even so, he still claims to have perpetrated the murders of the three deceased, and says he did it all for the attention.

In reality, Mitsuo was only to blame for the murder of Morooka (hinted how the "game text" that appears only refers to how he "Defeated" Mayumi and Saki, but how he "killed" Morooka), making him nothing more than a copycat killer. When he went into the station to confess to the murders of Mayumi and Saki, he was pawned off to Adachi as it was assumed he wasn't being serious. Adachi, knowing that the abductions would stop if Mitsuo took the credit for the killings, put Mitsuo in an empty interrogation room, switched off the lights, and pushed the kid into the TV when he was still stunned. Because of that. Mitsuo had no idea who put him in- not that he would tell the Team, anyway.

Persona 4 The Animation


In the anime, he appears on April 15 on a raining day rather than April 12 which originally takes place in the game.

He didn't appear at Tasumi textiles shop were the game take place only at April 21 where he appear again but he was seen briefly in his winter uniform staring at the crowd at the Tofu Shop where Rise worked.

Mitsuo appears in Episode 11 of the anime, following his murder of Morooka and he proceeds to go on a power trip throughout the episode. He is seen stomping on a trash bag he accidently tripped over and scaring Nanako at the super market and reaching out to grab her. Soon afterward, he comes back to Yukiko's high school and tries to ask her out once again, grabbing her hand before Chie pushes him away, and then Kanji intimidates him into retreating. That night, he goes on the internet and tries to claim he is the serial killer, only to be greeted as a joke online, leading him to trash his room and confess to the police for attention. Mitsuo then appears on the Midnight Channel, laughing at the attention he has received and daring the Investigation Team to come find him.



Mitsuo appears within his dungeon, Void Quest, in episode 12 of the anime. There, he is found screaming hysterically at his Shadow who sits, playing a video game and constantly reminding him of how he is empty inside and a worthless person. Completely insane, Mitsuo constantly denies this truth until his shadow erupts in a pillar of red flames to fight him.

Upon the defeat of Mitsuo the 8-Bit Hero, he awakens surrounded by the Investigation Team, shocked that they followed him into the Television. When they ask him whether he is the killer, he claims to be responsible for all the murders, causing his Shadow to dissipate, as Mitsuo's ego is so large, he has become his shadow. He is then turned into the police, laughing manically and driven away with Adachi and another officer from Junes Department Store.

In contrast to the game, the main cast doesn't learn of Mitsuo's identity until after he's arrested by the police following the defeat of his shadow. The only person in the anime who addresses him by name is his mother, who calls him "Mitsuo-chan", and the rest of the characters from learning about his deeds mention him in passing as, "That Kubo guy." When the case is considered closed and Mitsuo has become somewhat of a minor celebrity for taking the wrap for all the murders in Inaba, the news consistently ridicules and demeans him, which sparks some anger from Kanji who believes it's rude to insult people for their social abilities and look. When the Investigation Team rescues Naoto from her dungeon, a conversation is brought up in which they realize Mitsuo can't be the killer, and was only responsible for the murder of Mooroka, and likely had no knowledge of the TV World.

Trivia

 * In one of the floors of the Void Quest dungeon's floors, a textbox will say "Good morning, you slept pretty well even with the police sirens, I wonder what happened. Would you mind buying cafe at the arcade? A girl has been murdered, the streets are not safe anymore". This is a reference to Shin Megami Tensei I when the protagonist wakes up from the strange dream and is asked to buy coffee at the mall by his mother.
 * In Persona 4: The Animation, the track I'll Face Myself from the album Never More -Reincarnation: Persona 4- is played while Yu fights Mitsuo's Shadow.
 * In Persona 4: Golden, the boss theme for Mitsuo's Shadow is a heavily syntheized, 8-bit edition of I'll Face Myself entitled "Shin Mitsuo Tensei". This bears relevance to how Mitsuo is meant to be a joke making fun of the player, and how his shadow uses video-games predominantely in its design.