#also fun fact 戸 is actually pronounced as “to”

[burningbread]

P3 Lore-cations

(Will contain Persona 3 spoilers)

Ok, ok, I know this may be common knowledge at this point, but I’m still reeling from the amazing amounts of lore hidden in P3’s geography and I just HAVE to talk about it.

So first of all, let’s talk about Iwatodai and Tatsumi Port island. These are fictional locations of course, but things happened and I found myself looking up on wether they had any real life equivalents. So well, do they? Well, here’s where it get a little complicated. First of all, Moonlight Bridge and Iwatodai Station in the game are said to be based off real world locations Rainbow Bridge and Shinbashi Station. This should place P3 somewhere here:

And yea, that mostly checks out geographically. However, personally I’ll like to think that Persona 3’s Iwatodai and Port island are also partly based off a different location, the city of Kobe:

Partly because the shape of the P3 map (pictured below) personally looks to be the shapes of these 2 locations mashed together, and also because as you can see from the photo of Kobe above, Tatsumi Port island is likely based off a real world location named “Port Island”, which is located near Kobe.

Now, all of that is already really interesting in and of itself, but here’s the real kicker and another part of why I believe that Persona 3’s Iwatodai and Port island are partially based of Kobe.

Kobe is written as 神戸 in Japanese kanji. When the kanji are separated, 神 translates to god, and 戸 to door.

This means that 神戸 could be technically translated as “Door God”. Sounds familiar?

It’s not like the persona 3 protag becomes half a god and turns into a door stop the end of the world or something… right?

Yep, it looks like poor Minato has been destined to be a door as soon as he Stepped foot into Iwadotai. Speaking of which, Iwatodai is written as “巌戸台” in Japanese kanji, and that second kanji should look very familiar to you as of now.

Also, here’s another fun fact about P3’s geography. The rainbow bridge is located in a part of Japan literally named “Minato”. Yes, I know Makoto is technically the more canon name? It still doesn’t deny the fact that “Minato” is technically still a canon name for the P3 protag, even if it has been cast aside for a while and never actually used in a game. Heck even “Sakuya” is technically canon all things considered, but I digress. Either way, it’s Funny that the Moonlight Bridge’s real world equivalent is located in a place named “Minato”.

Also, speaking of Moonlight bridge (aka Rainbow Bridge irl). The persona 3 protag crosses the Rainbow Bridge and meets death (sealed within him) on the other side? Yea, you can’t tell me that entire backstory was a coincidence.

#This entire post is brought to you by me pointing crazily at a cork board #also fun fact 戸 is actually pronounced as “to” #and you know #how both Minato and Makoto have a “to” in their name? #that is a major stretch but I still like the idea of it #so I’m dumping it here #hehe door-kun go brrr #full moon tonight too let’s gooo #persona 3 #p3 #p3r #persona 3 reload #persona 3 fes #persona 3 the answer #persona series #minato arisato #makoto yuki #p3 protagonist #p3 protag #p3 lore #p3 geography #door-kun #persona 3 spoilers