Kanji Tatsumi

Kanji Tatsumi
Persona character
Kanji as seen in Persona 4
First game	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (2008)
Created by	Shigenori Soejima
Designed by	Shigenori Soejima
Voiced by (English)	Troy Baker (2008–14) Matthew Mercer (2014–present)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Tomokazu Seki

Kanji Tatsumi (Japanese: 巽 完二^?, Hepburn: Tatsumi Kanji) is a fictional character introduced in the 2008 PlayStation 2 video game Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 by Atlus. In the game Kanji is a high school student who becomes famous in television after fighting delinquents in the streets. Kanji becomes a victim of a series of kidnappings where the person is thrown to a dimension known as the TV World and the main cast of characters goes to save him from his alternate self, his Shadow. After Kanji is saved from the experience with the Shadow being turned into a power known as Persona, he joins the Investigation Team, befriending them in the process. He has also appeared in other works such as the fighting game Persona 4 Arena and the crossover Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, He is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in Japanese, and Troy Baker in English in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, Persona 4: Golden, Persona 4: Arena, and the first twelve episodes of Persona 4: The Animation; his English voice actor for the remainder of Persona 4: The Animation, as well as subsequent games, is Matthew Mercer.

Kanji has received generally positive reception for his role in Persona 4 including his Social Links where he undergoes character development. However, his ambiguous sexual preference has become one of the game's most controversial themes with several writers commenting on whether the game does a good job in explaining Kanji's personality.

Early designs of Kanji were drastically different from the final one. He was initially given the classic gang-style pompadour. His design was made by Shigenori Soejima. Both of Kanji's Personas are based on his own visual appearance.

Yu Namba, the Persona 4 Project Lead for Atlus USA, commented that while Kanji's Shadow might offend some players due to it being a gay stereotype, Kanji was nothing like a stereotype. Kanji's sexual orientation was left ambiguous to all players. Namba added "We would like everyone to play through the game and come up with their own answers to that question; there is no official answer ... What matters is that Kanji's other self cries out, 'Accept me for who I am!' I think it's a powerful message which many, if not all of us can relate to." Nich Maragos, Persona 4 Editor for Atlus USA, agreed with Namba, but personally held the opinion that Kanji was homosexual. The localization team of Persona 4 made a point of keeping as true to the original translation as possible. He cited Shadow Kanji's flamboyant personality and stated, "That flamboyance was also what the viewers of the Midnight Channel wanted to see: a typical gay person on TV that people would laugh at. The TV station broadcasts what the audience prefers to watch -- it's a stark portrayal of modern society." Namba also made some scenes which involved Kanji's sexual orientation more subtle without removing the scenes' value.