Jun Kurosu

Jun Kurosu is a character from Persona 2 and a late party member in Innocent Sin. In Eternal Punishment, he is known as Jun Kashihara and has no combat role.
==Appearances==
*Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Playable Character
**Persona 2: Innocent Sin Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics)
*Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Minor Character
==Design==
Jun has brown eyes, black hair that covers his right eye, and pale skin. It's stated in-game that he's unusually attractive as either gender; his group contact with Lisa has her lament that he looks better with makeup on than she does. As a student of Kasugayama High School, Jun is usually seen wearing the school's light blue gakuran-style uniform with black loafers. He wears the silver wristwatch he received from Tatsuya on his left, and a yellow iris in the buttonhole of his jacket.
His childhood self appears similar to his present self, albeit with shorter hair. His outfit consisted of a white shirt and suspenders.
==Personality==
Jun is a rather warm and caring person who is highly protective of his friends, particularly Tatsuya, whom he had forged a tight bond with since they were children. Maya Amano was also a respected authority figure of his. However, this was taken advantage by Nyarlathotep to unleash mass world destruction by rigging the circumstances, having been implanted with false memories of the arsonist who threatened to kill Maya being Tatsuya Suou rather than Tatsuya Sudou. Nyarlathotep also indirectly killed his father via a series of rumors that led to him committing suicide, and impersonating him in order to feed on his insecurities. This led to him being transformed into the infamous Joker by Nyarlathotep's power, reducing him into a madman under Nyarlathotep's control, constantly seeking revenge against Tatsuya Suou under the belief that he committed arson against Maya.
Upon realizing that he's manipulated by Nyarlathotep, the malevolent creature continues to persuade him to fight the party, only to be snapped out by force. With Yukino Mayuzumi sacrificing her Persona to give Jun one, his bonds with his former friends were reinstated and his true personality as a courteous young man who cares about his allies show.
Hobby-wise, Jun understands flower language (花言葉, ) and likes astrology. He is also highly intelligent and philosophical; he has a patent for an orthopedic shoe, loves inventing, and excels at both math and physics. However, due to his asocial nature, he doesn't like group sports and instead prefers walking.
Jun is heavily implied to be gay, and his present feelings for Tatsuya are suggested to have extended back to their childhood; he's flustered at Maya's insistence that the two of them are alike, and is generally very happy to be likened to Tatsuya. As teenagers, Jun asks Tatsuya out to dinner, assures Tatsuya that he will never leave his side, and is considered a serious competitor alongside Lisa for Tatsuya's affections. The player may have Tatsuya choose to confess feelings for Jun, in which case Tatsuya and Jun will be treated as lovers. Jun is also repeatedly stated to have no attraction to women, as evidenced by in-game demon contacts.
==Profile==
===Persona 2===
====Innocent Sin====
Jun Kurosu is a senior student of Kasugayama High School after transferring from Seven Sisters High School due to his bullies getting gravely injured as a result of his volatile Persona. Jun first appears in front of the cast taking the form of Joker, a mystery man who supposedly can be contracted to grant any wish, although nobody recognized him as Jun for the time being. Upon being summoned, he attempts to punish the cast for the "sin" they committed: setting the Alaya Shrine on fire and supposedly killing Maya Amano, the only person he believed truly wanted to protect him, thinking of her as a mother. Tatsuya is shocked when Joker actually took aggression against him, because he doesn't expect that Joker would be someone that he was acquainted with. In reality, he was being implanted with fake memories by Nyarlathotep that Tatsuya Suou burnt down the shrine, and the arsonist is another person with a subtly different name, Tatsuya Sudou. Maya Amano was also pretty much alive.
In his (actual) childhood, Jun was neglected by his mother Junko Kurosu and his parents had one fight after another. He spent most of his free time escaping the commotion at Alaya Shrine, and became friends with Tatsuya Suou, Lisa Silverman, and Eikichi Mishina there, calling themselves the Masked Circle. Later, the children met a young, praying Maya Amano and they all became fast friends. During this time, he and Tatsuya became close and would have playdates by themselves. Even late at night, where they roused Maya and were told by her that they were very much alike like doppelgangers. When his home life got worse and worse, Jun began to hate both his mother and father, even denying that Akinari was his father when he appeared to fetch him from the shrine, and wished that Maya was his mother. After his father's death, Nyarlathotep took the form of his ideal father and, after the fire at the Alaya Shrine that nearly killed Maya, twisted his memories and manipulating him into becoming the Joker and fulfilling the prophecies of In Lak'ech. Jun is confronted by the party in the Caracol, and after being defeated, is stripped of his Persona and left to die by Nyarlathotep. However, Yukino Mayuzumi gives him her Persona using ability, allowing him to join Tatsuya's party.
At the Aquarius Temple, the Order of the Holy Lance guarding the Aquarius Skull mock Jun for being his father's pawn and for forgetting the person who should be there, later revealed to be his mother, Queen Aquarius, who had taken a fatal blow meant for him back at Caracol. Later, while traveling through Xibalba, Jun's feelings towards his mother incarnate into a metal duplicate of her, whose abuse manages to temporarily cause him to fade from existence, until he is brought back from the brink by Maya, who reminds him of how alone Tatsuya would be without him. At the Heart of Xibalba, "the Fuhrer" reveals himself to actually be the False Kashihara, who mocks Jun's feelings towards his parents by summoning crucified replicas of them, who ask for Jun's forgiveness, whom he then executes before him. He then transforms into the Great Father, and attacks the party, but is defeated. After the death of Maya and the fulfillment of In Lak'ech, Jun, Lisa and Eikichi gave up their memories to recreate the world. Before leaving Tatsuya, Jun says, "I won't forget. Not my sin. Not you. Not anyone. We'll meet again. And together, we'll save Maya. So I won't say goodbye... only thank you." In this new world, Jun's relationship with his mother and father are greatly improved, with Jun visiting his mother at work, and commenting to her that he wants to become a teacher like his father.
====Eternal Punishment====
Jun Kashihara, named as such due to his father still being alive, is lured to the Aerospace Museum by the new JOKER, actually Tatsuya Sudou wishing to awaken his memories of the other side and have him rebuild the Masked Circle, and assists Maya and her party in saving the children in danger from Sudou's bombings. Sudou attempts to rekindle Jun's memory, but is stopped by Tatsuya. While Maya and her party fight off Sudou on the blimp, Tatsuya orders Jun to drive it, remembering that Maya crashed it during Innocent Sin. Inside Xibalba, a metal version of Jun attacks Tatsuya alongside metal versions of Lisa and Eikichi, representing Tatsuya's guilt over his sin of refusing to forget the Other Side. The real Jun is captured by Nyarlathotep alongside the real Lisa and Eikichi, who attempt to reawaken their memories to undo the new world they created by giving up those memories. Maya and her group manage to save Jun as he dangles from above the scene of the last boss fight, and defeat Nyarlathotep. During the ending, Jun meets Lisa and Eikichi for the first time in this timeline at the Alaya Shrine, and shares their expression of feelings of inexplicable sorrow, confusion and regret upon seeing the place with their own eyes.
==Contact==
===Solo Contacts===
* Fawn On: Jun stutters, acting helpless for the pity of onlookers.
* Tell Horoscope: Jun tells the demon their horoscope through western Zodiac signs.
* Discuss Dreams: Jun discusses his dreams.
* Say it with Flowers: Jun attempts to charm the demon with an appropriate flower.
===Group Contacts===
* Jun + Tatsuya: Tatsuya and Jun flirt with each other. (Gained by Tatsuya saying he doesn't hate Jun before the Shadow Tatsuya fight and/or by choosing Jun as Tatsuya's lover after the Shadow Lisa fight.)
* Jun + Eikichi: Eikichi has Jun play key-tar during the "Luv Beam" song from Eikichi's "Sing" contact.
* Jun + Lisa: Lisa puts makeup on Jun, only to find that he is prettier than she is with it on.
* Jun + Maya: Maya acts like a big sister towards Jun.
* Jun + Tatsuya + Maya: Maya and Jun comment on their growth and recollect about their past. Tatsuya observes.
* Jun + Eikichi + Tatsuya: Eikichi has Jun play key-tar and Tatsuya play guitar during the "Luv Beam" song from Eikichi's "Sing" contact. (Can be gained if Tatsuya tells Eikichi that he can play the guitar when asked in the Velvet Room after Jun joins the party.)
* Jun + Lisa + Maya: Maya, Lisa, and a reluctant Jun seduce the enemy, nearly identical to Yukino + Lisa + Maya's contact.
==Battle Quotes==
* "Hehehe..." (when entering a battle)
* "I don't want to fight..." (when entering a battle)
* "Ngh, why now?" (entering a battle on low HP)
* "What a nice scent." (attacking)
* "Hah!" (when attacking)
* "Goodbye." (when attacking)
* "Come!" (when summoning a Persona)
* "I'm counting on you." (when summoning a Persona)
* "Persona!" (when summoning a Persona)
* "Back me up, please!" (when using Fusion Spells)
* "Cross Fortune!" (when using Cross Fortune with Chronos)
* "Grand Cross!" (when using Grand Cross)
* "Guh!" (when hit)
* "I'm sorry..." (after winning a battle)
* "You got in my way." (after winning a battle)
* "That flower will mark your grave." (rare victory quote)
* "Ugh, how long will this bitter fight continue?" (rare victory quote)
* "The winds of the Netherworld..." (game over)
* "I swore... to protect you all..." (game over)
* "Everyone, retreat!" (when retreating)
* "Retreat everyone!" (when retreating)
* "I have no time to deal with you." (when retreating)
* "...Incredibly positive." (part of a successful Horoscope reading contact)
* "This !" (part of a successful Say It With Flowers contact)
* "Uh-Um..." (part of a successful Fawn On contact)
* "It's my dream, after all." (part of a successful Discuss Dreams contact)
* "I'm not leaving your side." (part of a successful Tatsuya + Jun contact)
== Gallery ==
== Etymology ==
* The name Jun means "pure" (淳).
* Jun's surname Kurosu means "black" (黒) (kuro) and "ought, by all means, necessarily" (須) (su).
** His other surname Kashihara means "oak" (橿) (kashi) and "field, plain" (原) (hara).
==Trivia==
* His favorite book is by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which provides the quote engraved on his father's (later Tatsuya's) Zippo lighter.
* 
* Tatsuya and Jun's exclusive Personas are representative of the exchange of their "treasures" as children; Vulcanus and Chronos are the Roman god of fire and Greek personification of time respectively, while the most famous myth involving Apollo and Hermes is the exchange of the lyre and the caduceus between them, both of which became heavily symbolic of their owners.
* Jun wore the black Featherman mask during his childhood. This is most likely an allusion to him being the last party member in Innocent Sin, as the black hero is often the last hero to join the other heroes in shows.
* The Great Father boss features a limb representing the father of each party member. Unlike the other party members, whose fathers target their own children, Tatsuya and Jun's fathers call for and taunt each other's sons.
* Jun's game over quote "The winds of the Netherworld" is a reference (perhaps a mis-translation to and from Japanese, as the original phrase is "The winds of Hell") to a Christian hymn, Hallelujah for the Cross.
* The iris in Jun's coat is yellow in his portrait art, but appears blue on his in-game model.
* Jun is the only party member in Innocent Sin not to have a Shadow variant.
* Goro Akechi of Persona 5 can dress as Jun with Persona 2 styled DLC.
* Jun's favorite foods are chocolate and his mother's homemade omelet. He hates cup ramen because it's what he ate during his lonely childhood.
* On Jun's sexuality and romance route, according to an interview with Atlus, the appeal is based toward female Japanese fans of media that value romantic relationships between fictional male characters. The developers were wondering about whether they could satisfy said fans.:File:Persona DoubleJump Atlus Interview.png
* Jun's interests are astronomy, astrology (which he learned from his father), reading, and cooking https://twitter.com/Dastanovich_/status/1414876804788236296
* Jun's skills include playing organ (which he learned from his mother when she was still nice to him, although he later started practicing to please her), inventing things (he later won an award in craftsmanship from the ministry of education), and crossdressing (as he can look more feminine than most women).
* Jun has difficulties with his mother, noisy places, and sports (which demand too much exercise for his liking).
* His future dream is to be a person who can express their ideals to others, like Maya did when they were young.
* His favorite school subjects are physics and math.
==References==
 
Category:Persona 2 Allies
Category:Fortune Arcana
Category:Persona users