"Don't make me laugh. I feed on dumbshits like you. There's not a snowball's chance in hell that a bright future lies ahead for you!"
Junya Kaneshiro is a character from Persona 5.
Appearances
- Persona 5: Major Character (Antagonist)
- Persona 5 The Animation: Major Character (Antagonist)
Design
Kaneshiro is a short and overweight man with long slicked back brown hair. He normally wears the typical cheap suit of a higher-up in organized crime and typically wears golden jewelry.
Shadow Kaneshiro has violet skin, wears a silver business suit and has a mustache. His hair is black and has a bang covering the right side of his face.
When he transforms into Bael, his eyes become large orange compound ones and he grows insect wings, developing some fly-like behaviors (constantly twitching and rubbing his hands together). In the second phase of his fight he converts his Palace's main safe into Piggytron, a mech resembling a piggy bank, to pilot. Piggytron itself has several weapons like machine guns and missiles, and can retract its limbs to become a ball that Bael will roll at the Phantom Thieves.
Personality
"You're right...I'm a poor, ugly...idiot...how am I supposed to live a normal life like this...? It's all because of our society! Weak people can't lead a happy life, no matter what they do! I'm a victim too! Yeah, none of this is my fault!"
Kaneshiro at first glance, appears to be a ruthless, callous, and greedy crime lord, obsessed with accumulating wealth and money. His secrecy and untouchability by law makes him incredibly difficult to investigate, which piqued the fear and interest of many others and made him seem like a mysterious and dreaded leader of an untouchable crime syndicate. He even dedicates a briefcase that filled with a large amount of money which disturbs Ryuji Sakamoto and disgusts Makoto Niijima. Makoto claims he's "nothing but a disgusting fly swarming to dirty money" and a "money-grubbing asshole." He also has a habit of spending to calm himself down, then blackmailing the persons responsible for his stress to recoup the loss.
In reality, Kaneshiro is a childish, pathetic and insecure man with an artificially engineered self-ego. He was born poor, which caused him to pick up a philosophy where selflessness is a weakness with no place in monetary matters. He also has a victim complex and self-esteem issues, as he views society's prejudice towards the overweight and poor as responsible for driving him to a life of crime and he refers to himself as "ugly." Furthermore, a close inspection of the money inside his briefcase reveals that they are actually fake money, further indicating that he is nothing other than a childish man running a massive criminal industry to artificially inflate his self-ego.
Unlike Suguru Kamoshida, Ichiryusai Madarame and Masayoshi Shido whom at least tried to give themselves a public image, Kaneshiro does not make any attempts to hide his crimes and true personality as he is out of the police's ability of management and thus views himself as an untouchable person, although as mentioned before he is insecure on the inside.
Kaneshiro reluctant to part with money.
As with other major targets, he is themed after one of the Seven Deadly Sins, in his case Gluttony; Kaneshiro is already wealthy beyond any real desire for higher living and spends only as much as he needs to in order to remain at his socioeconomic bracket and run his branch of the mafia, but demands more and more money for the sake of squandering it for his own amusement. This differs from the sin of greed, as compared to Kunikazu Okumura who seeks more power and influence regardless of consequences, Kaneshiro didn't plan on doing anything with the money other than to spend on luxuries.
Profile
Persona 5
"Now, your next target was this man... Junya Kaneshiro. He doesn't compare to the previous two. Even the police had been struggling to apprehend him. So, exactly how did you take down such a well-guarded criminal? Tell me."
Kaneshiro is a mafia boss who rose in the criminal underworld through clever use of blackmail. Even the police cannot do anything against him due to him being highly elusive and well-guarded along with his vast wealth reserves. One of his scams involved having his henchmen asking high school students to deliver an envelope for him to coin lockers for a large paycheck, but the envelope contains drugs and after he delivers the paycheck he will constantly blackmail the victim for ridiculous sums of money with picture proof of the victim delivering the drugged envelope or else he will expose them to their school.
He thinks of himself as a businessman and a banker, as revealed in his Palace, a floating bank. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts plan a heist at the Kaneshiro's Palace to steal his heart under Makoto's request to prove their justice, or else she will reveal to everyone the recording that proves them to be the Phantom Thieves. At first, despite the party successfully uncovers his scams by asking his victims in Shujin Academy, they cannot even find his name despite going all over Shibuya as his henchmen refuse to give away any information. Ichiko Ohya reveals his name as Junya Kaneshiro in a personal meeting with the protagonist in a pub.
The Thieves initially had difficulty reaching his Palace as it is high up in the air and impossible to reach. However, Makoto risks herself by asking Kaneshiro's henchmen of his whereabouts in a last-ditch attempt to prove that she isn't useless, prompting the Thieves to follow her. This leads Kaneshiro to blackmail them by taking their pictures in his club and threatens to leak it to their school if they do not pay him 3 million yen within 3 weeks, adding that should they fail to pay their debt, Makoto would be forced to sell her body to pay it off.
His Palace is the entire Shibuya district transformed into a green atmosphere where the cognitions are the human-like ATM machines and the bank that acts as the main body of the Palace is floating in the air like a UFO sucking up every money, and his shadow is accompanied by copies of his henchmen. As it is high up in the air, it is usually impossible to reach, but due to Kaneshiro extorting the party and Makoto forced to sell her body, she becomes the "Special Customer" for the bank and they were allowed access to the palace by Kaneshiro's cognition. When the thieves enter the front door of the Palace, Makoto tells the Shadow guards that she was the special customer, and they let the party enter the reception office. However, it was revealed to be a setup, and Shadow Kaneshiro sends his guards to attack the party.
After returning to the front door of the Palace, Kaneshiro reveals his motives to turn Makoto's sister, Sae Niijima into his sex slave as well if the party fails to pay the debts. This greatly angers her and it results in her awakening, and she and the Thieves easily defeats his Shadow guards. However, due to the increasing security, the party is forced to leave.
The Thieves successfully locate Kaneshiro's treasure and send a series of calling cards all over Shibuya, causing his treasure to form. They then confront him and he transforms into Bael, which turns his eyes into compound eyes and he spurts fly-like wings from his back. After being defeated once he turns his vault into "Piggytron," a robot resembling a piggy bank but the machine was destroyed by the Thieves as well, cementing his defeat.
After the Thieves defeat Shadow Kaneshiro, he reveals there is a third party other than them who has the ability to manipulate the Palace for his own ends without caring about what happened to the people in reality.
Soon afterward he calls Makoto to tell her that he has canceled their debt and deleted the photo of them in the club, and that he has turned himself in to the police.
Kaneshiro's Treasure is his golden briefcase which takes the shape of several giant gold bars stored inside Piggytron, the mechanical piggy bank that assisted Shadow Kaneshiro during the battle against the Phantom Thieves. The Phantom Thieves take the briefcase into Cafe Leblanc where Makoto opens the lock by remembering its number combination when she saw it opened in Kaneshiro's club. They find it full of notes from "Children's Bank" which have Shadow Kaneshiro's portrait, symbolizing how Kaneshiro only tried to look like a powerful person. While they cannot use the fake money in the briefcase, the case itself is highly valuable and the party manage to pawn it off to celebrate in an expensive sushi restaurant in Ginza.
After defeating the TV Executive in Shido's Palace, he reveals that Kaneshiro was part of the conspiracy. The executive reveals that the money Kaneshiro earned from his drug trafficking scheme helped fund Shido's organization.
The Phantom Thieves would eventually encounter Kaneshiro's Shadow in the depths of Mementos, locked in a cell alongside their other previous targets. He, alongside the other Palace owners whose hearts have been stolen, praises the cell from which he originally escaped, declaring that he is finished of acting like a bigshot and that it doesn't matter whether or not he is stupid.
Persona 5 The Animation
Junya's counterpart in the anime adaptation of the game doesn't differ too much from his main counterpart. The differences begin to vary in the battle against his Shadow Self. In it, The Phantom Thieves burn the money in the bank in order to lure Junya out of Piggytron. Also his arrest is shown more in depth. In addition, his intentions for Makoto are more explicit, as he orders her stripped naked and photographed for "clients" when she is brought to him in the real world, and his Shadow references her paying off the debt with her body at an "affiliated shop".
Strategy
Persona 5 Boss Fight 3 Kaneshiro (1080p)
Shadow Kaneshiro boss.
During the fight with Shadow Kaneshiro, he initially fights the Phantom Thieves on foot as Bael. He doesn't do a lot of damage or take a lot of punishment before he goes down, but his ability to inflict Fear can delay the progress of the fight a bit. Once this form's health is depleted, a Hold Up and All-Out Attack are automatically initiated, advancing the fight to the next phase.
At this point, Bael will convert his vault into Piggytron and begin fighting the party from there. Defeating Piggytron will complete the boss fight. It primarily uses physical attacks and occasionally a strong Fire attack, while Fear Gas can debilitate the party by inflicting Fear on the party members. Avoid bringing Yusuke to the fight to prevent Piggytron from getting One Mores too often, and keep Energy Drop or Energy Shower handy to remove Fear.
After enough of Piggytron's health is depleted (and a few times afterwards), Bael will convert the mech into a ball-like form and then hop on top of it, rolling it at the party for massive amounts of damage after a turn of inactivity, and will probably down a party member even if they are guarding. The Thieves must damage Bael enough while he is gathering speed to knock him off, causing him to lose control of Piggytron and end up flattening himself (though he recovers quickly and hops back in). Go all-out with attacks that hit multiple targets to both interrupt Super VIP Form and deplete Piggytron's health.
After he has attempted this twice in the fight, Morgana realizes that as a Shadow, Bael possesses no self-control. A Special Order then becomes available where one of the Thieves can distract him with a very valuable item. This not only interrupts Super VIP Form, but also keeps Bael occupied for several turns and leaves Piggytron completely defenseless. It is recommended to only do this as a last resort, such as if 3 or more party members are in Fear status and the player is certain they won't be able to damage Bael enough. Also, the items that the party members attempt to offer are different, so some party members will attempt to offer not-as-valuable items such as a Life Stone or Devil Fruit, which will cause the special operation to automatically fail.
Bael will go after:
- Bead - Fully restores HP to one ally.
- Snuff Soul - Restores 50 SP to one ally.
- Soma - Fully restores HP and SP to all allies.
- Hiranya - Cures all non-special ailments for one ally.
- Physical/Magic Ointment - Reflects one Physical/Magic Attack for one Party Member.
These are unknown but offerable:
- Soul Food - Fully restores SP to one ally.
- Idaten Ofuda - Raises Accuracy/Evasion for all allies for three turns.
Stats
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Battle Quotes
- "Fight all you want, but I ain’t gonna forgive ya!"
- "Hehehehe! Bein' young is such a crime! They're naive, they're reckless, and on top of that, they don't even realize how stupid they are. Now I couldn't just sit back and not cash in on those idiots, right?"
- "Eat this!"
- "Stop whimpering like a baby!"
- "Whooa!? Gyaaaah! Friggin'... punks!" (Super VIP Form is interrupted by attacking him)
- "Ahahaha! Yeh're just gonna keep goin' at this to the bitter end, huh? No more games then. I ain't gonna forgive yeh punks for this."
- "Ngh... Aaagh... D-Dammit...! Yeh goddamn punks...!"
- "Tch... The hell? Yeh punks're stronger than you look... Looks like I gotta bring out my big guns...!"
- "Hehehe... We'll see about that... Time to roll out...! Here he is... My guardian robot! Gyahahahahaha! Yeh ready to die!? It ain't a pig, yo! This is my Palace's swine-model defensive mechanoid, Piggytron! Goin' against me's a real bad crime, yeh know? It's time for yeh all to go to hell!"
- "Yeh punks're really pissin' me off! Yeh called my Piggytron a pig earlier, right? Were yeh talkin' about me too when you said that? If you were... Imma tear yeh all to shreds! Go, Piggytron! Super VIP Fooorm!"
- "Brag all you want, but I ain’t gonna forgive ya!" (Super VIP Form transformation)
- "How's this!? Can't even speak 'cause of how scary my Piggytron is, huh? Gyahahahaha!"
- "Dammit... How dare yeh hurt my Piggytron so much...! My Piggytron's gonna lose...? No, that's impossible!"
- "Hm...? What is that!? It's got the shine of somethin' pricey! Go collect it, Piggytron! R-Right away! ...Wh-Whoooaaa! Th-This'll make us a fortune! Damn good find, yo! Oooh, this ain't half bad, yo! Maybe I can pick up a girl or two once I pawn this thing off..." (if item is given)
- "What're you thinkin', litterin' in my bank!? What kinda stuff they been teachin' yeh in school, huh!?" (if item is rejected)
Gallery
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Art.
Portrait.
Kaneshiro transforming into his Shadow.
Bael.
Icon.
Icon.
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Junya Kaneshiro in Persona 5 The Animation
Shadow Kaneshiro as he appears in Persona 5 The Animation
Bael's demon form in Persona 5 The Animation
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Etymology
Jun (潤) is usually for composing phrases like "profit" (利潤) or "damp" (湿潤); Ya (矢) means "arrow." Kaneshiro (金城) means "castle of money/gold."
Trivia
- Kaneshiro shares the chubby appearance with Tsubasa Yozawa (与沢 翼) in reality, he was a hedonistic entrepreneur who earned his initial fortune when he was 17 years old. One of his controversial businesses was an expensive course which taught the way of "earning 100 million yen in just 1 second."
- In the Japanese version, the exact phrase used by Makoto to label Kaneshiro "money-grubbing asshole" is "narikin" (成り金) which means "upstart." When the two kanjis are reversed, it looks very similar to Kaneshiro's surname (金城) and also the kanjis of "成" and "城" share the same Sino-Japanese pronunciations, namely "jō" and "sei."
- Kaneshiro's Japanese voice actor, Kazunari Tanaka, is the second voice talent who died of sickness around the initial release date of the game. The first is Chihaya Mifune's voice actress, Miyu Matsuki. Atlus Japan's Persona announcement Twitter account issued a eulogy to Tanaka's sudden death at the age of 49 on October 11th, 2016. [1] As a result, his voice actor is replaced in Royal.
- Bael's battle theme is initially the mid-boss theme "Keeper of Lust" on foot, but it becomes the normal boss theme "Blooming Villain" once Piggytron is activated.
- In human form, Shadow Kaneshiro speaks in a stereotypical upper-class and clear fashion, but as Bael he reverts to a more casual vernacular and frequent use of slang. In other words, he is literally "acting fly."
- In the anime, during the battle, he seems to be rapping during the fight.
- During his boss fight, when the All-Out-Attack is prompted, should Joker be afflicted with Fear, it gets cured.
- Despite the fact that it is possible for the protagonist to earn over 3 million yen in Persona 5, there is no option to pay Kaneshiro that sum of money when he extorts the Thieves in the nightclub.
- Kaneshiro has the fewest appearances out of any of the Phantom Thieves' main targets. His normal self only appears in the game twice, once when the Thieves initially confront him and once when his henchmen show him the calling card. Consequently, he is the only one of the Thieves' targets whose change of heart is never seen in person.
Appearances in Other Media
- Kyoutou Kotoba RPG: Kaneshiro (Enemy > Can join as Kotodaman); Shadow (4-star), Bael (5-star)
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Kaneshiro in Kyoutou Kotoba RPG
Bael in Kyoutou Kotoba RPG
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