Tayama

Tayama
Japanese Name	タヤマ
Romaji	Tayama
First Appearance	Shin Megami Tensei IV
Affiliation	Ashura-kai
Alignment	Law
Age	48
Japanese VA	Hōchū Ōtsuka
English VA	Travis Willingham

"When people get backed into a corner, they stop thinkin' about the consequences. They don't think twice about their fellow man when their own lives are on the line."

—Tayama, Shin Megami Tensei IV

Tayama is a character from Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Appearances

• Shin Megami Tensei IV: Supporting character
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV DEMONIC GENE

Profile

Shin Megami Tensei IV

Tayama is the leader of the Ashura-kai whose name is feared in Tokyo. His goal is to bring order to the now chaotic land where humans and demons both reside whether they want to or not.

Under his Yakuza-esque command are an army of hoodlums as well as a special division dubbed the "National Defense Divinities", consisting chiefly of demons native to Japan who he has enslaved by using their mediums.

Tayama first sends a message to the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado through a Master Samurai, expressing his desire to meet with Flynn in Shibuya. He reveals to them that he is holding a Samurai hostage once they get there through the captured Samurai's gauntlet, and will only let the latter go under the condition that they off Koga Saburo, a demon that is disrupting their operations in Club Milton.

Upon fulfilling said request, Tayama invites them over to their base of operations in Roppongi Hills. He then tells the group of his plans for creating a "utopia" where humans and demons coexist, even showing a video of children being raised under his ideals.

Retaining the Samurai hostage as an ace up his sleeve, Tayama sends Flynn on another assassination mission: this time, the target is the Ring of Gaea leader Yuriko.

Yuriko reveals to the group that there's more to Tayama beyond his lofty and supposedly noble goal. Making their way to Roppongi's underground Reverse Hills facility with information obtained from Fujiwara, Flynn's group finds that Ashura-kai hunts and captures the non-affiliated subway residents to be used as livestock; their brains conditioned and processed for harvesting Red Pills, a substance that demons use for food.

The prentice Samurai are dragged back to Roppongi Hills after being incapacitated by Yaso Magatsuhi's gas. In response to Walter, Isabeau and Jonathan addressing him as "Heartless", the "True Evil" and someone who is no different from a demon, Tayama shrugs off the insults, saying that all humans are weak and will have no qualms about taking someone else's life for self-preservation. In any desperate situation, all men can figuratively become demons.

He further insists that though seemingly cruel, this is a necessary step for his envisioned utopia. Demons and humans are in the same boat: None of them can leave Tokyo's ruined borders. To that end, he feels that the best way for them to coexist is under a sort of give-and-take relationship. Demons are provided a regular supply of Red Pills in exchange for not harming the people under the Ashura-kai's wing.

If Flynn goes with Walter, Tayama will be seen deep inside the JGSDF Headquarters in Ichigaya. With a sarcastic welcome, Tayama puts them to task for siding with Yuriko and tries to stop them from opening the Yamato Perpetual Reactor. He fears that doing so will bring forth an influx of demons so numerous that their Red Pill production would never be able to keep up. Tayama tells them it's too bad they didn't do what he said as he would allow them to join the Ashura-kai, but since they opposed him he'll use their deaths as a way to show off the might of the Ashura-kai to the rest of Tokyo. He states that Tokyo is his and that he won't let anyone mess with his utopia. Tayama then summons Yamato Takeru, one of his National Defense Divinities to kill them.

Upon Yamato Takeru's defeat, Tayama freaks out at his loss and has no choice but to give up the Yamato Remote after being threatened by Walter. Scared and panicked, he makes a desperate plea to them not to activate it and will speak in the background during Flynn's choice to ask him not to press it. If Flynn pushes the button, Tayama will be pulled into the gate. His fate afterwards is mentioned, as people note that he's dead.

If Flynn follows Jonathan, Tayama will invade Tsukiji Hongwanji to try to kill Yuriko himself, but fails miserably. His body will later be found in Ichigaya, as well as the gradually fading likeness of Yamato Takeru, who mocks his corpse for thinking he could ever be king. Both were defeated by Walter before Flynn and Jonathan arrived.

A little girl in Reverse Hills mentions that she asked if she could marry him when she grew up, and Tayama said she would be the fifth one; he also mentioned "age is no barrier to love".

A woman in Shinjuku says that he supposedly graduated from a state university and studied abroad. A man in Ginza, who once worked at a high-class restaurant commented that, before the Firmament formed, Tayama was such a "small-fry" kind of man, "he wouldn't have reached the lobby" of the restaurant.

Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse

"Former Ashura-kai leader who brought relative order to Tokyo by negotiating with the demons. Whereabouts unknown.

Prior to God's Plan, Tayama was little more than a common gangster. He rose to power in the chaos caused by the sudden appearance of demons. Tayama is responsible for establishing the underground districts. He is said to wield one of the National Defense Divinities.
Tayama is currently missing. Rumors of his death persist, but to date no body has turned up."

—Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse Notes, entry - "Tayama"

Gallery

Early Tayama designs

Tayama as he appears in DEMONIC GENE

Trivia

• Tayama's earring is a green curved jade, namely magatama.