The Phantom X’s Ichigo Shikano Is Atlus Absurdity at Its Finest

As players have come to expect from Atlus, Persona 5: The Phantom X is defined in large part by its goofy and endlessly lovable cast of characters. Wonder might be a little bland himself, as he’s designed to be the player’s surrogate, but he is surrounded by throngs of memorable NPCs that breathe life into the game’s narrative and world.

Indeed, despite Persona 5: The Phantom X’s disappointing gacha systems, it still retains the series’ penchant for strong character writing. Each ally is unique and captivating in their own right, with enough charm to interest players right away, and the depth to keep them hooked for the long haul. They are also quite relatable, in many ways: it’s easy to connect with someone like Minaka Nagao, who pursues her dreams in spite of adversity and bullying. That said, there’s at least one character in P5X’s cast that can be described as a bit unhinged, being more ridiculous than relatable — and that’s perfect.

Persona 5: The Phantom X’s Ichigo Shikano Is Perfectly Over-the-Top

Ichigo Shikano Is Persona 5: The Phantom X’s Rendition of the Yandere Archetype

A common trope in Japanese media is the Yandere, someone who loves to the point of obsession and sometimes even violence. This concept has been explored in a number of different stories, though most depictions are of a woman, and they are generally more comedic than serious. In short, the Yandere trope usually applies to a boy-crazy teenage girl, which is a description that most definitely applies to Persona 5: The Phantom X’s weirdest teammate.

Ichigo Shikano is a few years older than the protagonist of P5X, but that doesn’t stop her from fawning over him like a lovestruck youngster. Their relationship begins when the player-character gifts her his menchi-katsu—a kind of Japanese meat patty—after she is unable to acquire one of her own. From this moment, she begins to see him as the main love interest in her own personal romance anime, an image born directly from her own obsession with such media.

Her love for Wonder quickly becomes rather intense, as she almost immediately starts behaving strangely around him: she gets easily flustered and seems to be lost in a fantasy world when speaking to him, one wherein she is the object of her superimposed prince’s desire. According to Ichigo’s reveal trailer, she becomes notably distressed whenever Wonder takes too long to respond to her texts, and immediately agonizes over a number of possible explanations for this delay. These anxious ruminations run the gamut from fairly straightforward jealousy (Wonder hanging out with Motoho Arai) to outlandish fantasy (Wonder actually being an alien). All the while, she is caught up in a relentless roundtable-style argument with different slices of her psyche, who all seem to have a different interpretation of the crisis.

Hopefully, Ichigo Shikano Can Become More Than Just a Yandere

Just about every aspect of Ichigo’s personality, from her obsessive love for Wonder to her hectic psychological compartmentalization, contribute to her being an entertaining character—but not a particularly deep one. As previously mentioned, the best Persona characters are the ones who are just as complex as they are charming or immediately entertaining, so one can only hope that Ichigo gets some of that depth down the road. Maybe her story could become less about being in love with Wonder and more about her own personal goals and desires, better aligning her with the themes of P5X. She’s only just been added to the global version of the game, so only time will tell.