"Give... her back... I'm... I'm going... to save herrrrrrrrr!"
Taro Namatame is a character in Persona 4. Once a city council secretary, his affair with announcer Mayumi Yamano began a chain of important events.
Appearances
- Persona 4 / Golden: Major Character
- Persona 4 Manga: Major Character
- Persona 4 The Animation: Major Character
- Persona 4 The Golden Animation: Cameo
- Persona 4 Visualive the Evolution
Design
Taro Namatame is a man with short black hair, brown eyes, and a mole on his forehead. He wears a white collar long sleeved shirt and black pants. When he works at his family business he wears an emerald delivery uniform. During his previous job, he used to wear a black suit with a white collar and black tie, white gloves, and a white band of city council secretary on his right arm.
Personality
Taro Namatame can be best described as a good man who winds up in bad situations in which he is horribly misinterpreted due to clouded judgement from others and his inability to convey himself. Before people found out about his affair, Namatame was thought of as an outgoing man with a fun personality (though this side of him is never seen in the game).
When the protagonist interacts with him, he is timid, distraught and frightened. He speaks few words, and after he learns the truth, he offers accountability for his actions and deeply resents himself for it. Despite expressing regret for cheating on his wife, Namatame felt that Mayumi Yamano understood him far better than Misuzu Hiiragi did, and truly loved her in return, extremely heartbroken upon discovering her death.
Thanks partly to Tohru Adachi, he believed what he was doing was the right thing when discovered he could throw people into the Midnight Channel. He hoped that it would keep next victims safe, not knowing what kind of place it actually was. When faced with the world he thought was a safe haven, Namatame described it as an abomination. Unlike Adachi or the protagonist, his understanding of the Midnight Channel appears to be extremely poor, which he uses as a premise for his actions and allowing him to be easily tricked by Adachi. By the end of the game, Namatame is in a much better state than he was before at the hospital, and returns the best way he knows how to politics, motivated to do the right thing and help his fellow peers as he always wanted to do in the first place.
Profile
Persona 4
"One had not the eyes to see things as they were, and failed to awaken to his power..."
Being a city council secretary, Namatame was married to renowned enka singer Misuzu Hiiragi. However, her popularity had put a strain in their relationship. Seeking solace, he met with TV announcer Mayumi Yamano while the announcer was doing interviews with candidates for the next election.
Namatame found out that they both had come from the town of Inaba. Both understood their passion for work, and eventually began an intimate relationship. However, the affair was exposed and a scandal erupted, which led to the end of his career and his marriage. Both he and his wife Hiiragi affirmed that the enka singer chose to nullify their marriage. Namatame then fled to his hometown.
Seeing that the affair had caused a great deal of grief for Yamano, who was getting bad publicity during afternoon shows and had her shows and appearances canceled, Namatame wanted to apologize to her. However, he failed to contact her. Namatame begun to drink heavily to wash away his guilt. At the next day, it was implied that a gas station attendant taught him a rumor about the Midnight Channel.
Recalling a rumor of the bizarre channel that showed one's soulmate, Namatame sat one night in front of the television and finally saw Yamano. In the channel, Yamano appeared to be in pain. In his disbelief and anxiety, Namatame touched the screen, and discovered that he could reach literally into the television.
Dismissing it as fatigue, Namatame rested and went to the city to work the next day. He was fired on the spot, just as he had expected. He went back to Inaba, where his father offered him work with the family's delivery service to alleviate his grief. However, his grief worsens when Yamano's dead body was discovered hanging amongst television antennas.
Grieving Yamano's death, he sat in front of the television again to see a Yasogami High School student appearing in the Midnight Channel. As he had been following the news on Yamano, he realized she was Saki Konishi, the student who found Yamano's dead body. Convinced that the channel was a portent of imminent death, he tried to warn Konishi, to no avail. The next day, he learned that Konishi had died, the same way as Yamano.
Namatame tried contacting the police, and got through to Detective Adachi. Adachi suggested that Namatame keep whoever was shown on the channel safe somewhere. As he was trying to figure out where a safe place could be, another person was shown on the channel. It was Yukiko Amagi, daughter of the Amagi Inn. Namatame thought the girl in the channel was smiling, and decided to place her inside the television, where he believes she will be safe.
He first kidnaps Yukiko and placed her in the television. Days later, Yukiko apparently survived the killings, and Namatame was convinced that he should repeat the process every time a person appears in the channel. His job as a deliveryman was a perfect front for his "mission" to save people since he could approach any house in his Van and covertly throw them into a TV in the truck without raising suspicion. He repeated this plan of action for Kanji, Rise, and Naoto, all three whom he had seen on TV and later on the Midnight Channel. His last mission went slightly different as for the first time, his victim was not shown on TV. After seeing his next victim's blurred image on the Midnight Channel, he took to the newspapers where he found the picture of the girl on the TV: Nanako Dojima. However, while he was successful in kidnapping Nanako, he was immediately chased by her father who had been suspecting him for months. After a horrific car crash, Namatame flees into the TV World with Nanako, hoping to find safety in the world he deemed a safe haven for his kidnapped victims.
Kunino-Sagiri
The party fighting Kunino-sagiri.
This, however, was the turning point for him. Namatame had never realized that the place inside the television was grotesque and abominable. He could not find his way out, and discovered that a bunch of teenagers are after him. When they finally cornered him, he was caught up in his "mission to save" complex and was fully committed to "saving" Nanako. After the Investigation Team manages to secure Nanako, he became possessed by an entity called Kunino-sagiri, which appeared after Namatame merged with several Shadows. However, the Investigation Team proved to be more than a match for Kunino-Sagiri, and after its defeat, Namatame fell unconscious and was sent to the hospital under police custody.
Namatame cowering in fear in the hospital.
He woke up in the hospital bed one night, and was scared of what had transpired. As a result of his actions by dragging her into the Midnight Channel, Nanako dies. Suddenly, the Team appeared angry at him for causing her death. Finding Namatame on the ground near a giant TV, they believe that he was trying to escape. Namatame feebly attempts to express his innocence, however his Shadow appears on the TV, proclaiming the joys he received from "saving" people and how he will continue to do so once he escapes. This becomes a turning point for Namatame's fate as the player chooses how to deal with Namatame based on what has been revealed thus far.
Persona 4 ALL 3 BAD ENDINGS
All three bad endings.
Bad Ending
The boys, too riled up to believe in Namatame's words and the Shadow Namatame basically admitting that he was at fault, decide that Namatame is guilty despite his miserable attempts to deny it. Acting on impulse, they push Namatame into the TV World and he ends up dead a few days later, fully enacting justice on the supposed killer. Nanako remains dead and the fog that hangs over Inaba remains.
Neutral Ending
The protagonist calms everyone down, stating that there is something about the situation and Namatame that does not sit well with him. This ultimately allows Namatame to live and Nanako is revived, but still in critical condition. Namatame is left to the police to be dealt with. He confesses to the kidnappings but continues to deny any involvment in the murders as he prepares to stand trial.
Good Ending
Just like the Neutral Ending, the team is calmed and Nanako is revived. They decide it is best to learn his side of the story to paint the full picture. Detective Adachi decided to transport Namatame out in a couple of days, apparently without Dojima's authority. With Namatame rested, and the team decides to visit him to pull information from him.
Here, the Team managed to convince Namatame that they too could enter the television, and had reason to believe that he was not the real culprit. Namatame believed them and reveals his entire role, up to the point of Nanako's "rescue attempt." He also convinces the Team that he loved Yamano with all his heart and would not think of murdering her or hurt her in anyway, notwithstanding all the other three students he had kidnapped. He finds out from the Team that all this while his mission had only brought the people he "saved" closer to their deaths. He apologizes profusely and asks the Team to capture the real culprit — the one who had murdered Yamano and Konishi. He also reveals that Mitsuo Kubo was not kidnapped by him and was done by someone else.
As later on it was revealed that the images of people of public interest are going to be displayed anyway regardless if people are thrown in or not, this also means that Namatame's efforts to "save" people from the mysterious deaths are all for nothing and merely causes the trapped to be killed by Shadows as well as encouraging Adachi to murder more people using him as a medium.
He was transported out of the hospital the next day, and his immediate fate is left unknown. However, in the epilogue of the extended true ending to Persona 4 Golden, he can be seen running again for public office, determined to do good in Inaba as a way of penance for his actions. It is revealed that he was released from prison due to the lack of evidence to build a case against him.
Persona 5
He is mentioned by name on television on December 7th as running for public office as an independent newcomer, having worked his way up from a politician's secretary in Inaba.
Gallery
| Persona 4 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Concept art of Taro
Concept art of Taro's attires
Concept art of Taro's attires and appearance
Concept of Taro's reaction
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| Persona 4: The Animation | ||||||||||||||||||
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Taro Namatame in Persona 4 The Animation
Namatame's first brief appearance in Persona 4 The Animation.
Namatame's previous job as city council secretary.
Namatame makes a brief appearance in Ep.14.
Namatame desperately getting away from Dojima
Namatame tells Nanako that he going to "save" her
Namatame holds an unconscious Nanako captive
Namatame merging with the shadows
Namatame's shadow appears in the midnight channel
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| Persona 4 Visualive the Evolution | ||||
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Namatame as he appears in Persona 4 Visualive the Evolution
Namatame confessing in the hospital in Visualive the Evolution
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Trivia
Namatame at the shopping district.
Namatame at the riverbed.
- The protagonist can actually interact with Namatame on certain days (particularly around May) even prior to his debut in the actual game events, although he will merely say a few words. He can be found on the Samegawa Riverbed (he is seen sitting on one of the tree trunks) and/or the Central Shopping District (near the Shiroku Store). His dialogues include:
- "Who in the world could've done such a.... [pause] It's horrible... too horrible..."
- "Why...? I just had an affair, and look what it turned into... [pause] Mayumi... forgive me..."
- "I was fired from work in spring... But I'm helping with the family business now. The life here is nice too..."
- "The incidents... are they really over...? Everything was really that boy's fault?"
- "If the police can't gather the evidence... Mayumi... won't be able to rest in peace... I hope... that justice will be served..."
- In Golden, Namatame can be seen during the Junes Concert event wandering around the background around the Investigation Team, probably to confirm his doubts about the "targets" being safe or keeping them safe from harm due to their concert gig being most likely shown on TV. Only Yosuke notices him leaving in both occasions, though by that time, he doesn't make any other connections other than recognizing Namatame being close to them behind the stage the second time he sees him leave from the concert area.
- Given the evidence that Izanami gave both Adachi and the Protagonist different forms of Izanagi, it can be assumed that Namatame would have been able to summon an Izanagi of his own. It is unknown if he had ever been aware of it or not, but it is most likely that he never learned about it.
- In the English release of the game, when confronting Namatame on December 4th, he states once "I knew that the three of you who I 'saved' went back to your normal lives," when, in fact, he "saved" four of the people in the room with him: Yukiko, Naoto, Kanji, and Rise.