Persona 5 and really the whole of the Shin Megami Tensei series are well known for their inclusion of characters, monsters, demons, and lore from tons of different cultures across the world, both ancient and contemporary.
Despite the fact that so many of these characters are pretty straightforward takes on what they are pretty much lifted straight out of their home mythology, there are so many jam-packed into the game that it can be hard to keep track of them all. Aside from the fact that there are so many, the origin of these creatures isn’t immediately evident without a little bit of digging. Let’s take a look at a particularly interesting entry in the series, Makami.
10 Makami Has Some Decent Exclusives
Not only is Makami a fairly unique looking persona to acquire, but he can also be found pretty early in the game, first showing up in specific areas of Mementos and in Madarame’s palace.
Once obtained, Makami is a pretty useful little dude to have fighting on your side. Makami is the only persona in the game that can use the “Resist Despair” skill, and he’s also the first persona that the protagonist can come across with the ability “Mafrei”, which is a really useful nuclear-type attack.
9 He’s Very Helpful For Leveling Strength Relationships
Makami is really useful for getting further in your relationship with 2 characters that you by definition won’t have a great relationship with at the start of the game. Caroline and Justine who you’ll interact with pretty frequently since they’re the jailors you come into contact with in the velvet room.
If you’re playing the game with completion in mind, first of all, good luck, and second of all, make sure that you don’t skip out on maintaining some work with Makami and other strength arcana personas so that you can be sure everyone likes you as much as they can.
8 He’s Based On A Wolf Spirit In Japanese Folklore
For those of you who are familiar with Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion, you already know that wolves are incredibly important to Japanese culture. Makami is obviously a wolf-like persona, but he’s actually more than that.
Makami is based on a figure from Shinto mythology that dates back centuries, being a bit of a guardian spirit from certain natural disasters, but especially from fires. This is actually even noted in the description of the persona in the game.
7 He’s Been Around Since Shin Megami Tensei 3
If you’ve been a long-time fan of Atlus’ wildly popular Persona series, chances are likely by now that you’re aware that Persona as a franchise is a spin-off of the even bigger and older Shin Megami Tensei series.
This might sound odd at first when you take into account that Persona itself has spawned more than just a couple spin-off series, but Makami himself has been around since a game released in 2004 in the US, making its appearance in the first game in the main series to be brought to the US.
6 He Also Shows Up In Devil Summoner
Makami hasn’t just been featured in Persona, however, he’s been around for quite a lot longer even aside from the Shin Megami Tensei main series. A lesser-known Atlus series called Devil Summoner also featured the demon.
His first appearance in the Devil Summoner series was in the title Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon which is the 4th entry in the Devil Summoner series as a whole.
5 He’s Been In An Anime
While you might not think of Makami as a big part of the lore of Persona as a whole, you might just be wrong considering Atlus found him important enough to be featured in the anime adaptation of Persona 4.
It’s actually become pretty popular in the anime community as a whole, if not quite as popular as the Persona 5 anime series which saw huge success. This is most likely due to how much of a smash-hit the game it was based on was pretty much around the world.
4 He Has A Bit Of A Double Nature
While Makami might be pretty non-threatening looking in appearance, it’s noted both in the games and in Japanese folklore that the Makami isn’t necessarily a cute little puppy that you should pet if you come across it in the wild.
While it does spend a lot of time warning villages of natural disasters and saving distressed people from burning buildings like a firehouse dog, it also may or may not have a penchant for human flesh if it’s angry. It is a wolf, after all, so we can’t really pretend to be too surprised here.
3 You Might Recognize Something Like It In Another Game
For fans of Japanese video games, this character might not look too out of the ordinary. Many Japanese video games feature characters who are wolf spirits, but perhaps one of the most popular wolf spirits in these games is Amaterasu from Okami.
While Amaterasu wasn’t really associated with wolves in Japanese folklore, this game took the liberty of combining the principal deity of Shinto with the Okami archetype to create something new, and in the process, it captured the hearts of tons of action-adventure game fans.
2 …And Another Game
While this kind of muddies the waters as to what an Okami truly is, you might have noticed that there’s a wolf as a protagonist in another pretty high-profile Japanese game, specifically in The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
While this character isn’t really a new one for the series, there’s something about seeing Wolf Link rescue people from a burning building that calls to mind certain elements of the lore related to the Makami persona.
1 There Was Most Likely An Entire Cult Devoted To His Worship
Back in the day in ancient Japan, there were tons of things you could worship, especially since Shinto is widely considered an animist religion. For those not familiar with what animist belief entails, it means that everything there is imbued with life. Whether that’s a river, a specific mountain that’s revered, or the entire species of wolves, there’s a spirit that both is them and is separate from them.
There was an entire cult devoted to the worship of the Okami, which makes sense considering the mythology surrounding it. It’s a fearsome deity to be sure, but there’s also something compassionate about it. Maybe there’s something to the myth about the Okami rescuing people from fires.
NEXT: Persona 5: 10 Best Things To Do When You’re Not Raiding Palaces
