When so many newbies fell for the non-canon manga name that never becomes canon. I feel for you guys. But to be fair, this already happened to Yu Narukami and Makoto Yuki. It’s not unusual and was always expected.

The manga names don’t actually have that deep a meaning when you check the kanji and they’re picked by non-official people. Meanwhile, other than being picked by official people, the canon names are actually more researched and gives more meaning to the characters.

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Makoto Yuki (True Courage) vs Minato Arisato (Harbor Exist Village)

Persona 3 deals with the theme of Death. What do you think sounds more fitting?

Yu Narukami (Quiet Thunder God) vs Souji Seta (Many Torrents Govern Everything)

Which one fits the P4 protagonist more??? Even the mangaka said Souji Seta was just a name they usually used for games.

Ren Amamiya (Lotus Rain Palace) vs Akira Kurusu (Dawn/Bright Next Dwelling)



Just. Look up Lotus? Yea? Lots of stuff to read with that. And then there’s the imagery of rain for Joker all the time. I don’t even need to mention why ‘Palace’ makes sense.

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This is not to say that you’re not allowed to have any preference. I’m just saying that the canon names are picked for a reason while the non-canon (manga) names are not, and rarely mean anything namewise to the characters or the story.

And if we’re going by how the name ~sounds~ remember that what sounds weird/funny/lame to foreigners sound different to Japanese people. And it’s ignorant to judge things from different languages that way.