Kamoshidaman (カモシダマーン*)? is the first Labyrinth in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. It is based on Superman.
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Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth Kamoshidaman
"Kamoshidaman" Movie Trailer.
A reality in the Movie World where a superhero known as Kamoshidaman has occupied and terrorized a city known as "Kamocity" and made himself the absolute justice there, forcing the citizens to worship him out of idolatry. The police in the city are no exception, and they act as enforcers for Kamoshidaman.
During a regular exploration in Mementos, the Morgana Van goes out of control and lands directly in the city that forms this reality. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts ask the police in the world for whereabouts but they flee, and the Thieves were instantly attacked by Shadows. Afterwards, an F.O.E resembling an obese man in a giant chicken outfit appears and attacks them, forcing them to escape the screen into a movie theater, where the basics of the game begin. However, Makoto Niijima and Haru Okumura go missing, forcing the party to operate with two less members.
The second time the party enters the world, they encounter a golden Shadow which drops a film, then return to the real world due to Futaba Sakura sensing a strong presence in the staff room that not even Nagi can identify. The film is revealed to be a Persona film containing a Pixie.
The third time entering, it was due to Theodore's request for the Phantom Thieves to find the P3P heroine. In the process of searching for her, it was revealed that Makoto and Haru were caught by Kamoshidaman, who considers the Phantom Thieves as the evil disrupting the order of the city, and kidnapped for execution. He then sends wanted letters to capture the other Thieves and the citizens support him out of idolatry. They managed to find the P3P heroine, who was combatting Shadows. The Phantom Thieves helped the P3P heroine defeat the Shadows and she joins the party.
The fourth time around, the party managed to get to the center square to confront Kamoshidaman, where he claims that the weak only exist to be ruled over by the justice of the strong and he is the strongest absolute justice. The party confronts him but is easily overpowered and forced to escape. Makoto figured out that a golden statue in the square was the source of his powers due to a police officer telling her that as long as the statue exists, Kamoshidaman is unbeatable, and after the statue is removed he is powerless. Due to Makoto and Haru noticing that the statue can be easily shaken even by a gust of wind, the party also knows that the statue is actually very light and can be easily lifted. They managed to formulate a plan to steal it by shutting down the electricity of the city and tying the statue to balloons, causing it to float away.
The party then enters the reality one last time, and manages to execute their plans, severely weakening Kamoshidaman. The now weak Kamoshidaman fights them, but is completely pathetic and is prone to just doing nothing. After he is defeated, the people in Kamocity begin to doubt him true justice and were seemingly brought out of the brainwashing. However, at this time, Kamoshidaman uses a pair of carrots to transform into Super Kamoshidaman, a monstrous rabbit-like creature. They defeat it and Kamoshidaman fades, with the citizens of the city finally realizing that Kamoshidaman is not the justice they thought he was. Due to the citizens of the Labyrinth distrusting Kamoshidaman, a graffiti saying "Cool Kamoshidaman" has also been overwritten into "Fool Kamoshidaman," indicating that the cognition of the city has changed itself due to the ending's change.
The staff credits roll with Hikari and Nagi watching it with the former expressing surprise for the change of the ending of the movie into a good one. Both congratulated the party for their efforts of spreading the message of real justice and Doe creates the key that can break one of the locks in the Cinema gates, Junessic Land with a spasmodic reaction. While when Doe creates the key (which is a gray key with a golden center), Hikari seems to be in pain as well, she recovers slightly from her depression afterwards and regained the will to directly communicate with the party.
Connection with Hikari's past
Later on, it is revealed that the movie reality is based on one of Hikari's past traumas that later form her extreme depression and low self-esteem. Hikari used to view teachers as superheroes due to a movie she watched when she was young, but a particularly traumatic event broke that illusion. One day, she and other students were accused of poisoning and killing the class rabbit in her primary school by her teacher, but the other students who were responsible of feeding it were too scared to speak as she was the absolute authority in the class and nobody ever spoke against her. In reality, the food was given by the teacher, so the teacher herself was the one responsible for poisoning the rabbit. Hikari spoke against the teacher by refusing to apologize as she simply warned the other students that the food was bad. The teacher did not accept anything other than an apology, and she decrees Hikari as a bad kid. The class then together put the blame on Hikari because her teacher said so and they were too scared to speak against her. They managed to make her apologize begrudgingly despite the fact that she did not poison it.
Kamoshidaman is the cognitive existence of her teacher and the people in the city are cognitive existences of the students who acted alongside the teacher against her. The teacher appeared as Kamoshidaman as Hikari used to think that teachers are superheroes because of a movie she watched, and both her class teacher and Suguru Kamoshida are considered untouchable rulers in their respective schools, causing the cognition to take the form of a teacher who bullies their students that is also a superhero. Due to the trauma caused by the poisoning of the class rabbit, Kamoshidaman's monstrous form appears as a rabbit, representing the resentment caused by the baseless crime. As Kamoshida's form is an actor, the teacher's cognition is able to appear as a completely different person and only inheriting his host's perception towards the person he is based on.
Much like the other movies, the movie is initially not titled "Kamoshidaman," nor does it appear to have anything to do with Hikari's past until Doe appeared to change its contents. Instead, it seems to at first be a lifeless movie made out of pure negativity that Hikari is forced to watch due to Nagi's indirect manipulations, serving no purpose other than to make Hikari's already collapsing mental health worse.
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Trivia
- This labyrinth is based on an issue in modern society, as continuing the Persona 5 theme. It represents a blind following of authority, believing that it could do nothing wrong and all of its decisions are correct. The citizens in the movie reality worship Kamoshidaman as an authority figure and provide him unconditional support, despite the fact that he has done nothing good for the city and his "justice" is simply him terrorizing the citizens inside it. The dungeon also makes note of the authority lacking any substance and only maintains its status based on its control of law and jurisdiction, as the statue that acts as Kamoshidaman's power source is abnormally light and can be lifted away even by balloons.
- Kamoshidaman also mirrors Suguru Kamoshida despite not being the same person; Kamoshida considers himself as the untouchable king of Shujin Academy while Kamoshidaman considers himself as the absolute justice of Kamocity. Both entities use their obsession of power to terrorize the communities they reign over, only to be stopped by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts who are the only group that could stop them.
- The long vowel on the movie's logo is a rabbit icon. This foreshadows Kamoshidaman's monstrous form, and the basis of the movie is due to Hikari's past trauma of being blamed on the poisoning of the class rabbit by her class.