| This article is about the real Kasumi Yoshizawa. For her younger sister who assumed her identity, see Sumire Yoshizawa. |
"She was so kind and strong... She was the perfect older sister. "
Kasumi Yoshizawa is a character from Persona 5 Royal. She was Sumire Yoshizawa's elder sister.
Appearances
- Persona 5 Royal: Supporting Character
Design
Kasumi is a young girl with identical facial features as Sumire Yoshizawa. However, her eyes are brown and more pointed compared to her younger sister and she has auburn hair, orange lips and a beauty mark next to her left eye. She also wears contact lenses and her gymnast outfit is pink instead of blue.
Personality
Kasumi is largely implied to have the same personality as the "Kasumi" who is actually Sumire under Maruki's spell, aside that she is much more bold and confident and is fully consistent in her performances and cheerfulness, said to be consistently at top score during gymnastic competitions and would do her best to cheer up her sister or protect her from harm. Even if Sumire actually committed suicide, she would just get over it after some time and keep on going. She is also much more nimble and has better memory than Sumire and can execute complex gymnast moves without any issues, something that the fake Kasumi cannot do. Sumire had even described her as a "perfect sister." Despite this, Kasumi does have one inferiority compared to Sumire; she cannot cook as well as her.
While possessing obviously well-meaning intent on taking care of Sumire instead of out of condescending compassion, Kasumi can be highly insensitive or oblivious to her younger sister's depression plummeting to near-suicidal levels because of her care. When Sumire's frustration and mental instability reaches a peak, her response is to joke around her, resulting in the subsequent breakdown that led to her death.
Kasumi is also said to not support handling matters for others to prevent them from being over-reliant on other people, something she doesn't follow towards Sumire.
Profile
Kasumi is an accomplished gymnast living alongside her sister Sumire Yoshizawa and the twins' father Shinichi Yoshizawa, who was the host of a talk show that often invites Goro Akechi as its guest. Aside of him, they also lived alongside their mother and grandmother. She and Sumire had been practicing gymnastics since childhood under Coach Hiraguchi who trained them with a spartan degree, although she had a much more natural and shorter learning curve compared to Sumire. She also decides most of the matters between the Yoshizawa twins including designing Sumire's bedroom, excluding preparing dishes since she cannot do it properly.
Kasumi is said to be a literal gymnastic genius who constantly goes into local competitions virtually uncontested, and many people were stunned by her bold performances. She also promised Sumire that they will go to internationals as a duo one day, although this is a promise which can no longer be fulfilled.
Kasumi's death - ENG DUB
Kasumi's death.
Unfortunately, Kasumi doing most of the things for Sumire, in addition to Sumire not being skilled enough to go into gymnast competitions uncontested like Kasumi even if they received the same training had resulted in Sumire developing a severe inferiority complex towards Kasumi and suicidal depression manifesting as a constant sense of worthlessness and (heavily implied) quick fatigue. She also had constant delusional thoughts about becoming Kasumi herself or die, despite she was actually above average at the sport. This accumulated into Sumire having a fit of running away from Kasumi and nearly throwing herself into traffic by accident a month prior to the beginning of the the protagonist's journey, and she was only alive because of Kasumi sacrificing herself to protect her.
Shinichi was seen mourning Kasumi with grief afterwards and Sumire's mental condition worsens because she thought that she was responsible for her death and she stole her dream, to the point that the survivor's guilt worsened her depression to the point that it crippled her interest towards her daily routines. Sumire was pushed by Shinichi to meet Takuto Maruki for therapy to prevent her from actually committing suicide, and as the normal banters don't work on her, Maruki (subconsiously) made her think that she is Kasumi and Sumire died instead using Adam Kadmon's powers because she wanted him to turn her into Kasumi. Since Maruki only made Sumire think she's Kasumi, other people still see this "Kasumi" as Sumire, causing people to believe that she was delusional. Sumire would also hear "Kasumi" if people said her real given name.
During Sumire's real awakening, Kasumi's soul transforms into Cendrillon and takes place for the destroyed one. Her ghost also appears in the protagonist and Sumire's Showtime.
Despite her death and Sumire's inferiority complex towards her, Sumire does genuinely respect and admire her as a person and the twins did have a genuinely great relationship with each other. Kasumi also saw Sumire as a rival on near-equal terms instead of somebody to be looked down upon.
Quotes
- "We're on. / Together. / With grace." (Showtime finisher)
Gallery
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Trivia
- Kasumi used to bring Sumire to the shrine in order to pray for good luck prior to any of their major tourneys.
- Kasumi used to fear heights when she was younger.
- Kasumi's father Shinichi used to take her to the batting cages when she was a child.
- Kasumi enjoyed going to aquariums.
- Kasumi introduced Sumire to the gym seen in her Rank 7 Confidant.
- Kasumi has similar hair color, hair style, facial features and disposition as the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable.
- Kasumi's death is foreshadowed during the animated opening of Royal, where Sumire dances while holding an umbrella on a rainy road. The real Kasumi died on a road during a rainy day while holding an umbrella.
- Kasumi died on March of 20XX, a month prior to the beginning of the protagonist's journey. This is implied by Sojiro Sakura on April 10th, who mentions a fifteen year old girl dying in a car accident.
- Kasumi has a beauty mark on the corner of her left eye. According to Chinese mole readings, people with a beauty mark on the outer corner of their eyes are generous, honest and peaceful, although they might also meet sudden death.
- Although it was later stated that Kasumi and Sumire's birthday was on March 25th, implying Kasumi passed away at fourteen, Sojiro's statement that she was fifteen contradicts her official birthday.[2]
References
- ↑ 今日3月25日は、『ペルソナ５ ザ・ロイヤル』からの新キャラクター・芳澤かすみの誕生日だぜ！ ハッピーバースデー、ヨシザワ！ #P5R, @p_kouhou (March 25th, 2020)
- ↑ Sojiro's remark about Kasumi's death