Kanji Tatsumi: The Emperor

Kanji Tatsumi is the Emperor arcana’s representative in Persona 4.

Kanji is a year below you in school, but his imposing size and clothing choices give a different impression. You hear rumors about him long before you see his face; he’s the tough guy who beat up a whole biker gang by himself, and the cops are always watching him for trouble.

However, what you don’t hear is that he was actually just trying to get the biker gang to go away so his mom can sleep. Underneath the tough guy persona, Kanji is actually a big softie. He’s super close with his mom, is great at sewing, and enjoys cute things, having a vast collection of stuffed animals. However, girls used to ridicule him for it so much that he shunned them and wondered whether he was actually interested in men. Kanji felt forced to keep this side of himself a secret.

After helping Kanji sort out his feelings about his “masculine” side and his “feminine” side, he joins the investigation team, and you’re able to befriend him.

Tips

• To start Kanji’s social link, you’ll have to wait for June 9th, or sometime after if you’re busy on that day. Talk to a female student on the second floor of the classroom building near the stairs. Then you should be able to find him on the first floor of the practice building. Talk to him and say “Yes I do” when the option comes up, and it should establish his social link.
• Kanji is typically available to hang out on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. On school days, he’ll be on the first floor of the practice building, and on holidays and weekends he’ll be outside his family’s shop in the north end of the shopping district. Kanji is not available on rainy days.
• Bring an Emperor persona to rank up faster with Kanji.

Rank 2

• When Kanji says, “She’s always apologizing for me. She’s been sprouting more and more white hairs…”, tell him to “Apologize to her.” for +3 friendship.
• Kanji learns the Dizzy Boost skill upon reaching rank 2, which increases the chance of making an enemy dizzy with certain special attacks.

Rank 3

• Choose any answer for dialogue options this rank, since all will give you an equal number of points.

Rank 4

• When Kanji asks, “Ugh… when you met Ma at the hospital… she say anything about me?”, say “Plenty.” for +3 friendship.
• When he says “Oh, uhh… I’m gonna go now.”, offer to go with him for +3 friendship.
• When Kanji says, “Oh… Anyways, sorry ‘bout dragging you into this…”, ask “You’re giving him a new one?” for +3 to his social link.
• Kanji learns the Masukunda skill when his social link hits rank 4; this decreases all enemies’ hit and evasion rates.

Rank 5

• When Kanji says, “Hah, he said I’m cool…”, respond with “It was pretty amazing.” for +3 friendship.

Rank 6

• Choose any answers for this rank.
• Kanji learns Power Charge upon reaching rank 6. This skill uses a turn, but makes your next attack do 2.5x more physical damage.

Rank 7

• When Kanji asks, “That okay with you, “big bro”?”, tell him “I want to learn too.” for +3 friendship.
• When he asks, “There’s something else I gotta confront too, ain’t there?”, choose any answer.

Rank 8

• When the officer says “… Come with me.”, say “Kanji didn’t do anything.” or ask if he has a warrant for +3 friendship.
• When he says, “Hmph, so you admit it. Not a shred of remorse, either.”, choose either answer.
• When the officer says, “What a load of… There’s no way you’re getting me to believe that!” choose “Tell him, Kanji.” for +3 friendship.
• Kanji learns Regenerate 3 upon reaching rank 8. This skill automatically heals Kanji a bit every turn in battle, for a percentage of his max HP.
• After hitting this rank, talk to Kanji’s mom outside of her shop to get a new outfit for Kanji.

Rank 9

• When Kanji says, “It’s the first time I went on my own… Well, I had a lot to tell him.”, ask “How was it?” for +3 friendship.
• When he says, “As long as there’s someone like that snot-nosed kid to accept me, I ain’t afraid of nothing!” tell him “Good for you.” for +3 friendship.

Rank 10

• Choose any dialogue options you’d like for this conversation; points are equal for every choice.
• For maxing out Kanji’s social link, you’ll get the Cute Strap item that lets you fuse the persona Odin. Kanji will also learn Evade Wind, which passively triples his evasion rate against wind attacks, and his persona will transform into Rokuten Maou.