PicoBlog

Some of you are already rolling your eyes, I'm sure. Before I begin, a disclaimer: this article will discuss pedophilia and sexual exploitation of minors. If you want to NOPE out, now would be the time.

For those who have avoided the online discourse surrounding Persona 5, a common debate is around Joker's option to romance Futaba. The two major camps, best as I can tell, are:

"Futaba is a child, and it's disgusting that Joker can romance her"

versus

"Futaba is about the same age as Joker, so there's nothing wrong with her becoming Joker's girlfriend"

This might be the controversy within the Persona 5 fandom, which is why I wanted to dedicate an entire post to it. Here are two memes of questionable quality on the subject that both received over 10,000 upvotes on r/persona5.

I want to address this controversy, but not just because it's a big fandom thing. The Futaba romance path is one of the strangest and (to me) most upsetting aspects of the game, and as usual it's more complex than what the internet boils it down to.

One of Persona 5's most-discussed features is the romancing mechanic. Ten female confidants are available to be romanced, including every female party member. A lot of attention was paid upon the game's release to the fact that your teenaged protagonist can romance adult women, and (it's implied) sleep with them. This falls somewhere between "iffy" and "illegal" to Western audiences, of course.

It never bothered me. Joker initiates, does all the pursuing, and convinces the older woman to put aside her trepidation. The main issue with adults romantically pursuing minors is that the former can exploit the latter's vulnerability. Joker is obviously not being exploited - if anything, the other way around.

You may see where I'm going with this.

When people criticize the romance, they usually put it in terms of "Joker/players who romance Futaba are pedophiles" or something like that. When people defend it, they point out that Joker is 16-17 while Futaba is 15-16, and such an age gap is not at all problematic in real life.

But focusing on the biological ages of the characters is a mistake. Some considerations:

Joker may be a teenager, but he's also 6 feet tall, unflappably calm, seen as an emotional rock by anyone whose Confidant he's sufficiently progressed, likely has a part-time job, may or may not hang out in a bar, and achieves international notoriety as the leader of the Phantom Thieves. I'm not saying he isn't believable as a teenager, but he's "mature" for his age. This is also part of why I don't see any issues with him romancing older women, because he seems emotionally equipped to be in an adult relationship. Joker is also controlled by the player and serves as their avatar, so if the player is an adult, they will subconsciously view Joker as one as well.

Futaba is socially inept, shy, awkward, childish in her word choice, treated like a little sister by the other girls, notably shorter than all other characters except Kasumi, introduced as someone in need of "rescuing", and becomes deeply dependent on Joker over the course of her Confidant. There's no way to say this without sounding like a creep, but she's also far less "developed" than the other girls, something the game calls attention to more than once. Her stated age is 15ish, but she looks to be more like 12, which isn't a problem - puberty works differently for different people. 

Joker's Confidant with Futaba illustrates a relationship of significant dependence. Like, stage one is Futaba having a panic attack in an electronics store and Joker coming to her rescue, because she's completely unequipped to exist in public. That's the shape of Futaba's Confidant: helping her achieve basic social competence. You take her to school, restaurants, to work in LeBlanc, and so on. Futaba says that her late mother used to make her checklists and reward her if Futaba accomplished all of them - and she asks Joker to do the same for her. He is literally filling a parental role for her.

Futaba is portrayed as vulnerable, timid, and highly reliant on Joker. His assistance of her goes far beyond a supportive friend. Near the Confidant's end, Futaba asks Joker to pat her head, as her mom used to do as a reward. When Joker does it, Futaba leaps to her feet. "My heart feels like it's going to explode!" she declares as she runs out of the room.

To the player it's obvious: Futaba has a crush on Joker, but can't recognize her feelings because she’s too immature and naive to understand the concept of being in love. She even asks Joker, "why do I feel this way around you?" to which you can respond "because you're in love with me" (and pursue the romance) or "because we're such good teammates" (and keep things platonic).

But combining her looks with her heavy reliance on Joker and childlike worldview (again, she lacks the emotional intelligence to recognize romantic feelings as what they are) makes for a character that feels a lot younger than Joker despite their similar ages.

The reason why I'm fine with Joker dating a woman twice his age is the same reason why I'm not fine with him pursuing Futaba. The power imbalance in their relationship is extreme. Joker holds all the cards, Futaba utterly depends on him and it gives his pursuit a predatory air. It almost feels like Joker only helped Futaba to make her rely on him so he could get in her pants.

"I romanced Futaba and saw nothing creepy about it". That's fine. We're still friends. I'm just trying to explain why I find the romance, and even the option of the romance, to be unsettling.

"This is just another cultural difference. Japanese media has different standards on how young girls like Futaba are to be treated". Yes, yes, I'm fully aware of the "imouto" character archetype. I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole the fixation that some Japanese media, including Persona 5, has on sexualizing underage girls and especially cute little sister types. But I don't want my avatar to feel like a total creep taking advantage of a vulnerable young girl - if you'll recall, that's what Kamoshida did!

"If you're so upset about the sexualization of a minor, why are you fine with Ann's leather catsuit and Kasumi's leotard?" These things don't bother me because I don't feel that Ann or Kasumi are being exploited. As I mentioned back in Part 5, Ann's confident sexuality is a major part of her character, and Kasumi's outfit mimics her gymnastics leotard (which she wears multiple times outside the Metaverse.) They are both more self-possessed and independent than Futaba, who just prior was an agoraphobe with a crippling fear of strangers.

Meanwhile, Futaba is a character who doesn't feel remotely ready for any sort of romantic or sexual relationship. If she was going to get into one, it shouldn’t be with someone who serves as the core of a nascent emotional support system. And things do get romantic between those two, it should be made clear that they do nothing more intense than kiss. And if things are going to get more intimate, then Futaba should grow more independent and mature, and need Joker less by the end of her Confidant. And if she isn't going to grow more independent, then at the very least she should recognize her feelings and confess to Joker, instead of being almost manipulated into the romance.

I like Futaba. She's cute, funny, helpful and charming. But when I see the game rush to put her into a swimsuit just after her introduction, or have Mishima make jokes about her as a camgirl, or have her Persona wrap her up in tentacles, it's hard not to feel disgusted. The way her romance plays out makes those scenes feel even more creepy.

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