This time we have a look into Makoto’s confidant episode, which are the side stories you can complete in the game for each character. I couldn’t do all the Confidants in full because…how? But I was able to complete a good chunk for each of the main characters. Makoto’s was always a bit of a weird one for me because I enjoyed and disliked it. I had fun playing it because I anticipated when I could romance Makoto (lol), and I also liked it because we got to learn a little more about Makoto’s insecurities about herself, what she’s doing in the present, and what she even wants to do in the future. It was also great that she opened up about her father too as it’s something that’s really personal for her. But the part about her Confidant I didn’t like was the plot with Eiko.
First off, the episode starts off with a tiny bit of unnecessary recap, with even more tiny moments of recap sprinkled throughout the episode. Don’t know why they needed to do this, I never understood the concept of recap when there hasn’t been that many episodes out. Thankfully we didn’t get a total recap episode.
The gang do stuff in Metaverse changing the heart of a stalker girl from Shujin. The next day Ren finds her and the boy she likes starting off fresh as friends. He goes to grab lunch and heads to the usual vending machine area and finds Makoto there, and they eat lunch together. It starts off with casual weather talk, but Makoto gets serious and starts to talk about herself as an honors student. Ren, Ann, and Ryuji were able to awaken Personas and handle the Kamoshida case on their own while she only stood there from the sidelines not doing anything. She follows orders when given, but feels useless when she actually needs to do something on her own. She’s still pretty down on herself, but she asks Ren a favor. This is Makoto being reckless again, but she asks Ren to take her to Shinjuku at night. She wants to expand her horizons some more, and so she wants to experience what it’s like to be a teenage girl lost in the red light district at night. Makoto, honey….what? She asks Ren to walk a distance behind her so the experience can feel real, and thank god he did because a creepy dude tried to lure her into whatever nasty kind of business he had. Couldn’t help but laugh a little when Ren bluntly called her a pushover. It’s then that they notice a girl from their school go into some sort of club.
That’s where we enter into Eiko’s story. Makoto and Ren call Eiko into the student council room to speak with her about the club. She says it’s no big deal, she just wears her uniforms and serves customers. Then things get off topic when she notices Makoto’s pencil case of the panda character, saying she has her own Bushimaru collection. She says Makoto is a lot more approachable than she thought because before she thought she was more like a robot, which is a passing comment Makoto thinks about later. They exchange IDs and soon become fast friends.
We get a bit of Yusuke this episode where they finally wrap up his Confidant where he comes to terms with his emotions about Madarame, still considering Madarame as his family even after all that he’s done. A little weird to include that little bit this episode, but it wasn’t bad.
Ren and Makoto hang out some more and Makoto begins doubting herself and her future. Her mock exam has dropped even though she’s still studying as much as always but she doesn’t really care. What’s the point of getting good grades? What’s the benefits for her in going to a top university? Why should she fulfill the expectations of her sister and teachers? Obviously, it’s not what she wants to do, but she doesn’t really know what she wants to do. She had thought about going into law like her sister, but she doesn’t like the idea. Poor Makoto. She spent so much time doing what others told her to do that she doesn’t know what she really wants. Continuing with the Eiko stuff, Eiko gets a boyfriend who’s a host and Makoto is suspicious of him when one day Eiko comes to her to borrow money because her boyfriend dropped an expensive bottle of champagne at work. Makoto knows of stories where hosts will dupe girls into huge debts and force them to prostitute themselves, and this is when Makoto tells Ren about her late father. Makoto’s father was a policeman who had died in action handling a case of sex trafficking of young girls, and this whole Eiko situation is similar. Makoto looks up to him for his sense of justice and the way he fought to save others, which is very sweet.
To wrap up the Eiko drama, Makoto and Ren meet up with Eiko and the gross host dude. They gather information and learn that this guy is a scammer and stuff, but Eiko doesn’t want to believe it and runs off. The host talks shit to Makoto but Ren steps in and says “You’re fight’s with me! >:(” Later the gang go to the Mementos to change the heart of this guy without the others knowing who he really is. Problem solved, and Eiko apologizes later and she and Makoto are still friends. Listen, it’s not that I don’t like Eiko, it’s not like she’s a bad person or anything, but the story revolving around Eiko was just not that interesting to me. I was way more interested in just learning more about Makoto, which we did, but the Eiko stuff…eh. But in the end, Makoto decided that she’ll become a cop just like her father, and that makes me happy. 🙂
I may not have cared too much about the Eiko stuff, but that did give the excuse to make Ren and Makoto to pretend to be a couple, making my shipper heart happy! Also, it was hilarious that Ren looked REALLY interested in that foreign romance drama and proceeded to ask Ann to help him pick out a stylish necklace for his date (without mentioning that fact). Like….OOH. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, REN?!
Anyway, next week we’ll be going back to the main plot. It was nice getting the Yusuke and Makoto confidant episodes but now I’m REALLY worried about how the rest of the story is going to be handled. Honestly, with all the story and details, having two filler episodes I think was a bad idea.
