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  Spoilers for Innocent Sin follow, so don't read if you want to play the game and find out for yourself. Consider yourself warned if you've only played Batsu. (A lot of the details of his backstory come from the game guide and the conversations between Kaneko Kazuma and Satomi Tadashi, if you're wondering.) PERSONALITY Eikichi is the infamous "Shinigami Banchou" of Kasugayama High School ("KasuKou"), the boys' school for juvenile delinquents. He's called that partially from his reputation as a badass, and partially because he's a Persona user. He didn't know there were any other Persona users, or even what his Persona was, so he assumed that he was unique and could summon a Shinigami to help him fight. (His first summoning call is "Let's go, Shinigami!" instead of the usual "Persona.") He claims to protect the weak from bullying in KasuKou, and is both feared and respected at both schools - despite the unfortunate nickname he's picked up among his enemies. He has a band called Gas Chamber, whose logo he wears around his left arm. (He designed the logo himself.) The other band members are Shogo, Ken, and Takeshi, and they practice in Sumaru Prison after school. They aren't terribly good. Eikichi's always ranting about how awful they sound, and Ken meekly reminds him that they haven't played instruments since they were kids - but Eikichi still thinks they'll have their big debut soon. He, of course, claims that his lyrics and vocals are good enough on their own to make the band famous. The most distinctive thing about Eikichi - besides his narcissism - is his visual-kei looks: pale, flamboyant, with a lot of makeup and rings and jewelry. That thing Eikichi wears isn't a skirt, by the way - it's a long "tunic" under his uniform top. With visual kei, the look and style is FULLY as important as the music. Basically, it's the least-traditional thing around...so Eikichi is stuck as the very modern son of a very traditional sushi chef. Eikichi's dad would throw a fit if he knew how Eikichi dressed, so everyday Eikichi sneaks out of his home, goes to a public restroom, dyes his hair blue, puts on his makeup and modifies his uniform, and then goes to school. On the way home, he reverses the process (although how can Kankichi not see his black nail polish?) and Kankichi is apparently oblivious to his son's daily transformations. (Eikichi's mom doesn't seem to mind; she's apparently the type who'd go, "My, my, isn't that nice!" and smile.) Eikichi also uses a LOT of Engrish. Unlike Eriko, who is presumably fluent and throws in random English words in roman letters, Eikichi's speech is peppered with random english phrases in katakana: MAI SUIITO SUIITO HANII, OKEI EBURIBADII, MAI FURENZU, BEIBII, RISSEN PURIIZU, and so on. He's not very good, but gosh, it's so cute. It's almost a shame to translate him because you lose all his random Engrish. Eikichi is loud, brash, and emotional, in contrast to the quiet, reserved Tatsuya. Eikichi is always loudly declaring what he feels about a situation or a person, and his exaggerated reactions are usually hysterical to watch. He's always fighting with Ginko because, really, they're more alike in personality than either would like to admit. Eikichi's narcissism isn't really because he thinks so highly of himself - he's really sensitive and has a very low self esteem, so he overcompensates with his "super-cool Michel-sama" act the way he goes overboard with the visual rock look. He's trying to become the complete opposite of how he was when he was a little kid - fat, shy, and dorky - so he overreacts when anyone reminds him of how he was. Eikichi, despite his bad reputation, is probably the nicest guy in Tsumi. He's incredibly devoted to his friends and will do anything to help them, and he blames himself if anything happens to them. For example, he cries and thinks it's all his fault when his friends turn into Shadow People, and is heartbroken when they disappear for good. When Ginko is upset and depressed, he does his best to cheer her up and says he's there for her. Hell, he'll even protect his enemies; in Tsumi, Sugimoto was a Boss Fight because he kidnapped Miyabi. But in Batsu, Eikichi breaks into a lab and risks his life to save Sugimoto, just because Eikichi is the school Banchou and he feels that it's his duty to take care of all his classmates, even the annoying assholes who want to kill him. Eikichi lives in a sushi shop, but he hates sushi (apparently his hatred of sushi is based on Kazuma Kaneko's hatred of sushi and all kinds of seafood. *laugh*) His school uniform is blue because Kaneko wanted a different color than the Sevens and Hermelin uniforms, so he picked the "color of spring" for KasuKou. ("Kasugayama" = "Spring Day Mountain") He has an after-school job in a "live house" - a club where bands perform live. RELATIONSHIPS ...with Hanakouji Miyabi In grade school, a lot of kids made fun of Eikichi. Pretty, popular Hanakouji Miyabi was his best friend despite everything. The other kids got jealous of him and pulled down his pants in front of Miyabi. To add insult to injury, someone told him that Miyabi hated fat people. His ego was essentially squished into the sidewalk by this double-whammy, and he underwent a massive weight-loss/image makeover program. He became a vegetarian and worked out to lose the weight, and he started dressing like a visual rock star and kicking people's asses to erase the image of him as a chubby, shy loser. To get revenge on the people who embarrassed him in front of Miyabi, he'd pull down the pants of everyone he beat up. But he didn't recognize Miyabi when he met her again; she was fat and went by the nickname "Hanaji" - nosebleed - and didn't tell him her real name. Even so, he kind of liked her, and wasn't at all upset to find out that she was really Miyabi, despite the teasing he got from Sugimoto for "being in love with Miss Piggy." Miyabi, however, felt unworthy of him and joined the Masquerade to become skinny again, even though she knew that she was joining Eikichi's enemies...stupid girl. (Sorry, I don't have much patience with characters who deliberately let themselves get captured and require constant rescuing. You have to rescue Miyabi TWICE in this game; that's two times too many. Compare that to Ginko, for example. When Ginko was alone with the "lolicon-bastard" Prince Taurus, Eikichi's reaction was essentially "hoo boy, we better get to them before she kills him! You know that crazy bitch!") ...with Mishina Kankichi Eikichi's dad is a sushi chef at the Gatten sushi. Eikichi is terrified by his dad, because Kankichi pretends that he knows 18 forms of martial arts - "including capoeira!" Eikichi knows his dad won't like the Michel-sama act, and knows that his dad wants him to take over the Gatten Sushi one day, so he lives in fear of his dad kicking his ass. ...with Lisa Silverman His most interesting relationship in the group is with Lisa. They are ALWAYS at each other's throats, insulting and yelling at each other. They even gave each other insulting pet names - Ginko calls him "Pantsu Banchou" - Captain Underwear - and he's the one who nicknamed her "Ginko" (I assume that it's because "gin" = silver, and she's a "freakish gaijin who speaks perfect Japanese and is always saying stupid stuff he can't understand," so she'd hate a Japanese nickname). But, despite their constant bitching and fighting, they're always the first to leap to each other's defense - even though in Ginko's case it means bitchslapping him when he nearly gets himself killed. :D Eikichi frets and worries when he knows Ginko's alone with a possible Masquerade Executive - Prince Taurus - and wants to run and rescue her, but Tatsuya stops him. Likewise, Ginko's the one who really wants to jump in and stop Sugimoto from beating Eikichi up, but, again, Tatsuya stops her. I really like them together; they bring out aspects of each other you wouldn't see normally. Without each other, Ginko would probably seem like an annoying Tatsuya-obsessed fangirl, and Eikichi would seem like an annoying egotistical rocker. So their relationship is really important in that sense; it fleshes out their characters. ...with Suou Tatsuya Eikichi basically views Tatsuya as his rival - they're both tall, skinny, good-looking guys. Conveniently, Tatsuya also can play the guitar! And Eikichi has a band! How convenient! ...with Kurosu Jun Apparently when Jun entered Kasugayama, rumors quickly spread about this scary transfer student who would seriously maim you if you picked a fight with him. Eikichi, as the self-appointed leader of the students, went to check out the new kid, decided that he was harmless, and promised to protect him. Hee! HISTORY massive spoilers follow. got that? good. When Eikichi was about 6 years old, he met a bunch of other children playing "Phoenix Corps Featherman" at Araya Shrine and he joined them as the Yellow Owl. (In this game all the kids wore masks, so they never saw one another's faces.) He was a chubby, shy boy who stuttered a lot and liked to draw manga. He was always falling down when they played together, but he loved his friends because playing with them allowed him to be someone else, someone who could do what he enjoyed without being teased for it. He also loved the middle-school girl, Big Sis, who came to play with them, and he was devastated when Big Sis announced that she was going to move away and couldn't come play with the Masquerade any more. Eikichi, Lisa, and Jun decided that if they locked Big Sis in Araya overnight, she couldn't leave them. When Tatsuya protested, they locked him in with her, and left, intending to return the next day and let them out. When the three returned the next day, Araya had been burnt to the ground, so they thought they had killed Big Sis and Tatsuya! Horrified, the three remaining children hid the five Masquerade masks in their hideout in Mt. Iwato and went their separate ways, forcing themselves to forget what had happened. FUTURE According to the lounge TV on 11/16 in Persona 3, Eikichi ends up training to take over the sushi shop. (A young man in his twenties with blue hair and a guitar case, whose birthday was the day prior.) |