Gentaro Watanabe

**Gentaro Watanabe** (渡辺 幻太郎 *Watanabe Gentaro*) is a playable character from Persona: Story. He is a fellow classmate of Akira.

## General Information

School: Avalon High

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Weapon: Bludgeons

Arcana: The Magician

Persona: Mug Ruith, Merlin

Japanese VA: Tatsuhisa Suzuki

English VA: Ben Diskin

Theme: To Be Announced

## Personality

Gentaro is responsible and gets good grades in school while still having time for his friends. He sees everything in life as a challenge that he must overcome.

## Profile

Before Gentaro was born, his parents were happy and loved each other very much. However, everything changed when Gentaro was born. His father felt trapped by all the responsibility that came with caring for a child. He ran away, getting a divorce, and leaving his mother heartbroken. Gentaro's childhood was miserable: his mother rarely was kind to him because of his father's actions.

As Gentaro's family life fell to pieces, he became crueler and rude. He started bullying people at school as a way to let out his anger. Every time he got in trouble, he didn't care about the consequences. Then one day, his bullying went too far. It resulted in a incident where he broke a kid's legs. The kid was left wheelchair bound for the rest of his life.

Gentaro couldn't believe how awful he felt knowing that he was responsible for such a tragedy. He knew that everyone at school associated him with his past behavior, and Gentaro accepted that there was nothing he could do to change that.

**Shingo's Land**

On the first day of his ??? year, he became acquaintances with a new student named Akira. At a pep rally a few days later, he asked out the popular student Sanako with Akira as his wingman. While the initial plan failed, they did agree to help Sanako that night at the library. Unfortuanetly, the tedious nature of the job quickly bored Gentaro. He began searching the library for something fun, making his way to a strange backroom with several books on a desk. After his friend Akira placed the books back into a nearby bookshelf, a strange white glow transported them into the collective unconscious. They met an owl-like Shadow named Hooter, who explained that they were inside another reality that he dubbed the World of Fiction. Learning of a nearby castle that they needed to explore, Gentaro was saved by Akira when the later awakened his Persona and saved his life. They managed to get out alive, only to be yelled at by Sanako for running off. Attempting to explain their strange encounter with Sanako fell on deaf ears.

Gentaro admits to Akira that exploring the castle was fun and that he wanted to do it again. Believing that Sanako wouldn't allow them to join her at the library again, the two broke into the school at night and went to the world of fiction once more. This time was a little different, as Hooter joined the front lines and Gentaro met his Shadow Self.

During the second assault on Shingo's Land, Shadow Gentaro constantly bugged the Grimoire Court by insulting them at every corner and saying how he could do better. Gentaro is frustrated with this, finally lashing out when his Shadow insulted him in the middle of the group's battle against one of Shingo's Elites. Finally giving up after realizing that yelling at himself would do no good, he trusted Akira and Gentaro with the secret reason behind his past as the school bully. Accepting himself as someone destined to be a thorn in everyone's side, he fuses with his Shadow and unlocks his Persona Mug Ruith.

It was Gentaro's idea to form the Grimoire Court in the first place, and was elected as the right-hand-man of the team.

**Social Link**

Gentaro's Social Link is established shortly after he joins the Grimoire Court, when he asks the protagonist to join him for some nearby community service. Gentaro can be found after school at various locations. This Social Link involves the protagonist joining Gentaro in helping to clean up a local park, while also assisting Gentaro's various attempts to hit on a young girl named ???. The protagonist can learn more specific details about his past, like what his mother is like or some of the things he did as a bully. Near the end of this Social Link, Akira and Gentaro sees ??? being beaten up by a pair of muggers. Seeing ??? in danger combined with his growing frustration over reliving his troubled past alongside Akira causes Gentaro to scare off the muggers by tapping into his previous bad boy tactics. While afraid that ??? will be afraid of him now that she has seen this side of him, he discovers that ??? actually thinks he looked cool and agrees to become his friend. In the final rank, Gentaro expresses that he actually likes having ??? as a mutual friend and says that he plans to become a police officer in the future so he can use his intimidation tactics for good. Completing this Social Link causes Gentaro's Persona to evolve into Merlin and unlocks access to the ultimate Magician Persona, Veles.

**Shadow Gentaro**

Shadow Gentaro is the embodiment of Gentaro's Enigma of his past self. This means that Shadow Gentaro acts exactly like Gentaro back when he was known as the school bully. He is very mean and always insulting other people for any mistakes that they make. Unlike Gentaro's, this version of him dresses and acts like a greaser.

### Dancing Past Midnight

* Default Outfit

Gentaro wears a fancy vest with no coat.

* School Winter Outfit
* School Summer Outfit
* Winter Outfit
* Summer Outfit
* Swimsuit Outfit
* Butler Outfit
* Velvet Room Outfit
* Halloween Outfit

Gentaro dresses up like a grey alien.

* Christmas Outfit

Gentaro dresses up in a reindeer costume.

* Featherman Outfit

Gentaro dresses like **Blue Woodpecker**, a member of Phoenix Featherman Legacy.

## Battle Quotes

* *This is going to sting! (Hitting Weak Point)*
* *Persona! Get over here! (Summoning Persona)*
* *Aw, dang it! (Fails to Eliminate Enemy)*
* *Are you freaking kidding me?! (Enemy Blocks attack)*
* *Ha! Screw you! (Dodging enemy attack)*
* *Oh, you're going to get it now! (Recover from Down/Dizzy)*
* *You go girl! (Cheering on Sanako)*
* *Let's get them! (Prompting All-Out Attack)*
* *Are you serious? (Declining All-Out Attack)*
* *Here we go! (Performing All-Out Attack)*
* *Hiya! (During All-Out Attack)*
* *Too easy! (Battle Won)*
* *The best level up! (Level Up)*

**Victory Quotes**

## Symbolism

**Fantasy character trope: The magical adviser**

* Gentaro is of the Magician Arcana.
* Gentaro often gives advice to his friends, though the advice itself is not always good.

**The Magician Arcana**

*The Magician Arcana is associated with those who have yet to realize their full potential. The positive aspects of the Magician include determination, dexterity, resourcefulness, diplomacy, pain, loss, disaster, and self-confidence. The negative aspects of the Magician include confusion, deceit, ill intentions, and disgrace.*

Gentaro is a lost soul who is unsure of who he is. He is the most confident in the groups ability to save people from Shadow Swaps and fights with an iron will. He is stated to be physically fit and has decent grades in school. He also is an excellent manipulator thanks to being a good judge of character. He does suffer from withholding vital information when he feels threatened and hates himself for his past actions.

## Etymology

The given name Gentaro has different meanings based on the kanji used. In this case, the kanji translate to meaning "illusion big son".

The last name Watanabe translates to "ferryside".

## Trivia

* Gentaro's name and appearance are inspired by Gentaro Kisaragi, the titular protagonist of *Kamen Rider Fourze*.
* Gentaro's Shadow Self takes inspiration from the novel *The Outsiders* and classical depictions of greasers.