"People often compare their goals to the stars. They shine brightly even after the sun goes down... fixed stars in a dark expanse."
Jun Kurosu is a character from Persona 2 and is part of the party in Innocent Sin. In Eternal Punishment, he is known as Jun Kashihara.
Appearances
- Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Playable Character
- Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Minor Character
Design
Jun has brown eyes, black hair that covers his right eye, and pale skin. It's stated in-game that he's unusually attractive as either gender - his group contact with Lisa has her lament that he looks better with makeup on than she does.
As a student of Kasugayama High School, Jun is usually seen wearing the school's uniform, a two-piece suit comprised of a light blue jacket with a mandarin collar and flap pockets, and matching creased, cuffed pants worn with black loafers. He wears the silver wristwatch he received from Tatsuya on his left, and a yellow iris in the buttonhole of coat.
His childhood self is similar in appearance to his current form, albeit with shorter hair. His outfit consisted of a white shirt and suspenders.
Personality
Jun's character is defined by his ambiguity. On the outside, he is asocial, introverted, calculating, and actively uses his beauty to manipulate other people. On the inside, however, Jun is rather warm, caring, highly protective of his friends, and wants to fulfill the dreams and wishes of humanity, even if his means of achieving this goal are questionable. Additionally, he is afraid of being marginalized by the society he's working to please. During the Aquarius Temple, he discusses the meaning of the sign and dismisses the idea of him having any of the positive traits, but the rest of the team assure him he's wrong.
Hobby-wise, Jun understands flower language (花言葉, hanakotoba) and likes astrology. He is also highly intelligent; he has a patent for an orthopedic shoe, loves inventing, and excels at math and physics. However, due to his antisocial nature, he doesn't like group sports and instead prefers walking.
Jun is heavily implied to be gay, and it's implied that this goes back to when he and Tatsuya were children. Jun cares for Tatsuya dearly. He's flustered at Maya's insistence that the two of them are alike,[1] and is generally very happy to be likened to Tatsuya.[2][3][4][5] In-game, Jun asks Tatsuya out to dinner,[6] assures Tatsuya that he will never leave his side,[7] and is considered a competent rival with Lisa for Tatsuya's affections.[8] The player may have Tatsuya choose to confess feelings for Jun, in which case Tatsuya and Jun will be questioned as "lovers?".[9] Jun is also repeatedly mentioned to have no attraction to women, as evidenced by in-game demon contacts[10] and the Persona 2: Innocent Sin World Book, which mentions female pursuers are better off staying friends.[11] The relationship between Tatsuya and Jun is also implied to be the intended official pairing of Innocent Sin in the Persona World Guidance book by Kazuma Kaneko and Satomi Tadashi in an interview question regarding their relationship.[12]
Profile
Persona 2
Innocent Sin
Jun Kurosu is a senior student of Kasugayama High School after transferring from many previous schools due to his bullies getting gravely injured as a result of his volatile Persona.
It is later revealed that he is Joker, a facade he took on to punish the cast for the sin they committed, yet cannot remember: setting the Alaya Shrine on fire and supposedly killing Maya Amano, the only person he believed truly wanted to protect him, thinking of her as a mother.
Jun and Tatsuya build a sandcastle as kids.
In his childhood, Jun was neglected by his mother Junko Kurosu and his parents had one fight after another. He spent most of his free time escaping the commotion at Alaya Shrine, and became friends with Tatsuya Suou, Lisa Silverman Eikichi Mishina there, calling themselves the Masked Circle. Later, the children met a young, praying Maya Amano and they all became fast friends. During this time, he and Tatsuya became close and would have playdates by themselves. Even late at night, where they roused Maya and were told by her that they were very much alike like doppelgangers. When his home life got worse and worse, Jun began to hate both his mother and father, even denying that Akinari was his father when he appeared to fetch him from the shrine, and wished that Maya was his mother. After his father's death, Nyarlathotep took the form of his ideal father and, after the fire at the Alaya Shrine that nearly killed Maya, twisted his memories and manipulating him into becoming the Joker and fulfilling the prophecies of In Lak'ech.
Jun is confronted by the party in the Caracol, and after being defeated, is stripped of his Persona and left to die by Nyarlathotep. However, Yukino Mayuzumi gives him her Persona using ability, allowing him to join Tatsuya's party.
At the Aquarius Temple, the Order of the Holy Lance guarding the Aquarius Skull mock Jun for being his father's pawn and for forgetting the person who should be there, later revealed to be his mother, Queen Aquarius, who had taken a fatal blow meant for him back at Caracol. Later, while traveling through Xibalba, Jun's feelings towards his mother incarnate into a metal duplicate of her, whose abuse manages to temporarily cause him to fade from existence, until he is brought back from the brink by Maya, who reminds him of how alone Tatsuya would be without him.
At the Heart of Xibalba, "the Fuhrer" reveals himself to actually be the False Kashihara, who mocks Jun's feelings towards his parents by summoning crucified replicas of them, who ask for Jun's forgiveness, whom he then executes before him. He then transforms into Great Father, and attacks the party, but is defeated.
After the death of Maya and the fulfillment of In Lak'ech, Jun, Lisa, and Eikichi gave up their memories to recreate the world. In this new world, Jun's relationship with his mother and father are greatly improved, with Jun visiting his mother at work, and commenting to her that he wants to become a teacher like his father.
Eternal Punishment
Jun Kashihara, named as such due to his father still being alive, is lured to the Air Museum by the new JOKER, actually Tatsuya Sudou wishing to awaken his memories of the other side and have him rebuild the Masked Circle, and assists Maya and her party in saving the children in danger from Sudou's bombings. Sudou attempts to rekindle Jun's memory, but is stopped by Tatsuya. While Maya and her party fight off Sudou on the blimp, Tatsuya orders Jun to drive it, remembering that Maya crashed it during Innocent Sin.
Inside Xibalba, a metal version of Jun attacks Tatsuya alongside metal versions of Lisa and Eikichi, representing Tatsuya's guilt over his sin of refusing to forget the Other Side. The real Jun is captured by Nyarlathotep alongside the real Lisa and Eikichi, who attempts to reawaken their memories to undo the new world they created by giving up those memories. Maya and her group manage to save Jun as he dangles from above the scene of the last boss fight, and defeat Nyarlathotep. During the ending, Jun meets Lisa and Eikichi for the first time in this timeline at the Alaya Shrine, and shares their expression of feelings of inexplicable sorrow, confusion and regret upon seeing the place with their own eyes.
Contact
Solo Contacts
- Fawn On: Jun stutters, acting helpless for the pity of onlookers.
- Tell Horoscope: Jun tells the demon their horoscope through western Zodiac signs.
- Discuss Dreams: Jun discusses his dreams.
- Say it with Flowers: Jun attempts to charm the demon with an appropriate flower.
Group Contacts
- Jun + Tatsuya: Tatsuya and Jun flirt with each other. (Gained by saying you don't hate Jun before the Shadow Tatsuya fight and/or by choosing Jun as Tatsuya's lover after the Shadow Lisa fight)
- Jun + Eikichi: Eikichi has Jun play key-tar during the "Luv Beam" song from Eikichi's "Sing" contact.
- Jun + Lisa: Lisa puts make up on Jun, only to find that he is prettier than she is with it on.
- Jun + Maya: Maya acts like a big sister towards Jun.
- Jun + Tatsuya + Maya: Maya and Jun comment on their growth and recollect about their past. Tatsuya observes.
- Jun + Eikichi + Tatsuya: Eikichi has Jun play key-tar and Tatsuya play guitar during the "Luv Beam" song from Eikichi's "Sing" contact. (Can be gained if Tatsuya tells Eikichi that he can play the guitar when asked in the Velvet Room after Jun joins the party).
- Jun + Lisa + Maya: Maya and Lisa seduce the enemy, while Jun asks for the demon's mercy.
Battle Quotes
- Hehehe... (when entering a battle)
- I don't want to fight... (when entering a battle)
- Ngh, why now? (entering a battle on low HP)
- What a nice scent. (attacking)
- Hah! (when attacking)
- Goodbye. (when attacking)
- Come! (when summoning a Persona)
- I'm counting on you. (when summoning a Persona)
- Persona! (when summoning a Persona)
- Back me up, please! (when using Fusion Spells)
- Cross Fortune! (when using Cross Fortune with Chronos)
- Grand Cross! (when using Grand Cross)
- Guh! (when hit)
- I'm sorry... (after winning a battle)
- You got in my way. (after winning a battle)
- That flower will mark your grave. (rare victory quote)
- Ugh, how long will this bitter fight continue? (rare victory quote)
- The winds of the Netherworld... (game over)
- I swore... to protect you all... (game over)
- Everyone, retreat! (when retreating)
- Retreat everyone! (when retreating)
- I have no time to deal with you. (when retreating)
- ...Incredibly positive. (part of a successful Horoscope reading contact)
- This salvia! (part of a successful Say It With Flowers contact)
- Uh-Um... (part of a successful Fawn On contact)
- It's my dream, after all. (part of a successful Discuss Dreams contact)
- I'm not leaving your side. (part of a successful Tatsuya + Jun contact)
Gallery
| Artwork | ||||||||||||
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Jun's original artwork from Innocent Sin
Most of Jun's expressions and his childhood self.
Artwork from the remake of Innocent Sin
Attack render
Tatsuya and Jun on a CD cover.
Jun with the group
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| Innocent Sin Portraits | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jun's normal portrait
Jun's sad portrait
Jun's crying portrait
Jun's angry portrait
Jun's surprised portrait
Jun's happy portrait
Jun tearfully smiling
Jun holding a flower
Jun with makeup
Jun panicking
Child Jun's normal portrait
Child Jun's happy portrait
Child Jun's sad portrait
Child Jun's angry portrait
Child Jun's blushing portrait
Child Jun wearing the Black Condor mask
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| Eternal Punishment portraits | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Metal Jun, a manifestation of Tatsuya's guilt over secretly breaking the pact with his friends
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| PERSONA 20th Anniversary Festival | ||
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Trivia
- His favorite book is Le Petit Prince by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
- The flower language variant that Jun uses seems to be a variant of the French one.
- Jun cosplayed the black Featherman during his childhood. This is most likely an allusion to him being the last party member in Innocent Sin, as the black hero is often the last hero to join the other heroes in Tokusatsu shows.
- The Great Father boss features a limb which represents the father of each party member, however, Tatsuya and Jun's fathers curiously call for and taunt each other's sons.
- Jun's game over quote "The winds of the Netherworld" is a reference (perhaps a mis-translation to and from Japanese, as the original phrase is "The winds of Hell") to a Christian hymn, Hallelujah for the Cross.