Sho Minazuki is a brand new character to the series, first appearing in Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax. He is an orphan who was once one of Shuji Ikutsuki's test subjects, much like the future members of Strega. Due to his unusually aggressive tendencies and tremendous fighting potential, Ikutsuki regarded Sho as his favorite test subject. As part of the experiment, named "Project Puppetmaster," Ikutsuki isolated Sho from the world to prevent him from forming ordinary bonds and ensure that he would become the ideal soldier, relying on on combat alone to connect to others. Sho came to bond with Ikutsuki and view him as a father figure even so, a role which Ikutsuki accepted as a means to manipulate Sho.

In an attempt to induce a Persona in Sho using a Plume of Dusk, a second soul was born within Sho, referred to as "Minazuki." Ikutsuki took an interest in Minazuki, who developed a Persona independently of Sho, but found him to be a highly uncooperative subject. After Minazuki attempted to kill Ikutsuki for his abuse and manipulation of Sho, a second experiment was attempted to "erase" Minazuki while leaving his Persona behind. It ended in failure, however, and left Sho into a vegetative state. Ikutsuki placed him in an Inaba hospital on life support afterwards to allow time for him to discover a means to revive Sho for further experimentation. Sho awakened several years after Ikutsuki's death, and interpreted Ikutsuki's actions as him simply having thrown him away when he was no longer useful.

After leaving the hospital and settling in Inaba before the serial murders began, Sho developed an interest in the case and followed the investigation team around in secret, feeling that perhaps they might be able to understand him. He eventually judged this an impossibility, however, and fell into bitterness and despair. He shrugs off the notion that any person can be truly trusted or relied upon, concluding that those who do are both weaklings and fools. Sho comes to yearn for a world in which only he exists. Hinokagutsuchi manifests and responds to this wish, stating that in return for Sho and Minazuki's assistance in giving him a body, he will make Sho's world of solitude a reality.

Minazuki confesses to Labrys that he is the one responsible for hijacking her and allowing her to "run amok" during the events of the P-1 Grand Prix, revealing himself to be the "Eerie Voice" that hacked her from the previous game, and for the sake of finding out if the Plume of Dusk could hold multiple souls.

Minazuki claims he is the same as Labrys, and thus prioritizes her safety even while using her to achieve his goals. He is also the one responsible for dragging the reluctant and currently reforming Tohru Adachi into his schemes. He even stated that, should Adachi refuse to fight, then the Inaba murders would resume, presumably with Adachi as the first victim.
 

 

Page Updated:  Jan. 2nd, 2024
Sho Minazuki. How many Sho's are there in fighting games now? There's Sho. And Sho Kamui. And now there's Sho. There was no Sho in the Persona 4 RPG that I put 50-60+ hours into... so I dunno about this guy. lol. However, he's got sick moves and animations, I know that much. I like his particularly 'evil' mannerisms. In terms of "BlazBlue-style /  Persona-style" character... Sho is actually one of the more basic designs I've seen. Yeah he looks cool, definitely. Cool art style of course. He's got the Iori Yagami-colored hair.  But giving yourself red hair doesn't automatically make you cool. Something about his design seems off or weirdly-colored. He's another character who seems like his default color is actually alt. color #17. Haha. He's cool though. Sick animations of course. I don't mind this design... but he kinda pisses me off too. I feel like Haohmaru would 1 slash and Sho Minazuki would drop to the ground after his torso started blinking. He's seen the double sword style from Yagyu Jubei and doesn't fall for that sh*t anymore. I had fun with this one.
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