Kirijo Group scientists researching Shadows in Persona 3 The Movie.
The Kirijo Group (桐条グループ, Kirijou Guruupu)? is a globally operating multinational trading company that appears in the Persona series. It is said to be involved with almost every aspect of daily life and finding someone that does not know the Kirijo Group is virtually impossible.
Appearances[]
- Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload: Company owned by Takeharu Kirijo, then Mitsuru Kirijo
- Persona 4 Arena / Ultimax: Owner of Shadow Operatives
- Persona x Detective Naoto
Profile[]
Persona 3[]
"International corporation which boasts innovations in many industries. Gekkoukan High School's sponsor."
The Kirijo Group was originally a part of the Nanjo Group, but later separated from them to form their own company. Even so, they still maintain a close relationship with the Nanjo group as a business partner, operating under the motto "Two in harmony surpasses one in perfection."
Its original leader, Kouetsu Kirijo, originally wanted used his research with Shadows to benefit humanity. However, after learning about Nyx and The Fall, he eventually became consumed with the idea of bringing about The Fall to annihilate humanity, going insane in the process. This would lead to the creation of the Dark Hour and a giant tower known as Tartarus. His plans ultimately did not fully come to fruition, however, as one of the scientists, Eiichiro Takeba, did not support the idea of using Shadows to bring about the end of the world. As a final resort, he interrupted the experiment and caused Death to fracture into thirteen pieces, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the laboratory and killing Kouetsu and several researchers in the process. As a cover-up for the incident, Gekkoukan High School was built on top of the site where the experiment took place, but Tartarus still supplants it at the end of each day when the Dark Hour phenomenon takes place. The Kirijo Group maintains control over the school (allowing Mitsuru to do things that would otherwise breach her position as a student council president such as allowing Aigis to enroll despite being a robot that supposedly cannot go to school), and a statue bearing their motto is located in the lobby of the school.
The Kirijo Group created Evokers to aid with the summoning of a Persona, and they created a series of Anti-Shadow Weapons such as Aigis and Labrys.
At some point prior to the events of the game, in hopes of better understanding the Dark Hour, the Kirijo Group rounded up one hundred orphans living on the streets from all across Japan and attempted to artificially awaken their Personas in order to have them investigate Tartarus. However, as their Personas were artificial and not awakened by natural means, the orphans had difficulty controlling their Personas. In several cases, several of the artificial Persona users were killed by their own Personas after the users lost control of them. As a result, the orphans had to take specially administered suppressant drugs to prevent their Personas from killing them. These drugs would help the users keep their Personas under control but also had lethal side effects, drastically reducing the lifespan of the ones taking them in doing so. In the end, only the three who would go on to form Strega (Takaya Sakaki, Jin Shirato and Chidori Yoshino) survived out of the original hundred orphans, and the experiment was ultimately canceled. The trauma of the experiments combined with the drastically reduced lifespan of the three ultimately had dramatically negative psychological effects, turning them into nihilists who resorted to destructive behaviors to cope with the fact that they had little life left in them, and opposing SEES's goals to remove the Dark Hour, as they depended on it due to their artificial Personas being the only thing giving their lives meaning.
Leaders[]
- Kouetsu Kirijo: ?-1999
- Takeharu Kirijo: 1999-2009
- Mitsuru Kirijo: November, 2009
Scientists during the Shadow Incident[]
Other[]
Anti-Shadow Weapons[]