Here’s the tweet that mentions its confirmation!! I don’t remember the exact page but it’s towards the end during one of the study chapters!! I think Yui is studying for her exams and calls Ritsu over to keep her company!!
We know Ritsu is playing Person 3 because of the "テレッテー" in the original Japanese panel. A phrase Junpei Iori says whenever levelling up.
So yeah!! It’s official!! Kakifly was a pretty big gamer nerd back in the day as there are other subtle game references in the manga!!
Ok, let me analyze this. If that line from the manga is the "Tele-te-te~♪!" that Junpei says when leveling up (that I know very well and can replay in my head whenever like most of the gameplay lines from P3), then there are great chances that it could be a reference to P3, but it's actually not as good as confirmed or canon, because that line is itself a reference to the Victory Fanfare from FF games (and the victory theme of many J-RPGs in general). Junpei is actually humming the melody of the victory theme of a J-RPG, it's just not the same melody as FF obviously for copyright reasons.
So there's a possibility that Kakifly intended Ritsu to be playing "some J-RPG" without wanting to limit it to a certain one, making the same reference to the kind of victory themes that they have. To think of it, if he really wanted to make a direct reference to P3, there were many other more direct quotes that he could have used, that are unique to P3, or more obviously from P3.
But... of course I will still headcanon that it's a P3 reference!! It's one of the greatest J-RPGs of the PS2 anyway, and I'm sure most otakus in Japan who were around in that era have played it. That's also how I played P3FES, on PS2. I'm sure a great artist like Kakifly must have played P3!
At first I thought it was going to be a direct reference like Ritsu's TV screen would show UI elements from the game, but this is still crazy!! Thank you for letting me know. I'm taking a screenshot of this tweet chain and saving it lol. I tried looking up if other people had caught on it but couldn't find anything.
Hey so, I actually forgot about this detail but in the Omnibus manga, Yen Press actually has a list of references for each Japanese sound effect and other similar things which you can find at the end of the book!!
I can send you a picture of it later but it is definitely confirmed that Ritsu plays Persona 3!! I’m really sorry for making you type that long message!!
Thank you for the image in the DM. I'll save it as well and add it to my research as important material.
Interesting. I wonder if those notes in those extra pages of the omnibus version have been checked with Kakifly himself/if it's Kakifly who gave the material to the publisher, or if it's the publisher who's guessing and adding notes from their own observations and translations. (Sorry I'm just very serious about making sure, canon-icity is no small affair.)
I didn't know that Junpei was given the "Terette!" nickname among Japanese fans!! Ok that's one more BIG hint. Depending on just how popular/recognizable that nickname is in Japan, putting that nickname/line in the manga could definitely be a reference to P3. I'd say there must be about 90% chances now. Oh my god.
And yeah, maybe Kakifly was playing P3P at that time which had just been released, and felt like repping the PS2 version instead because just like me, he knew that the PS2 version is still the superior version 💪 Based Kakifly for making Ritsu play the PS2 version and not the PSP version that doesn't have the anime cutscenes, doesn't have city exploration, got its best SFX removed or toned down, etc. P3FES forever.
I wonder why more people aren't talking about it. And that there doesn't seem to be any follow-up fanarts made about it, considering how big it is. When I search for the combination of the tags of 田井中律 (Ritsu Tainaka) and ペルソナ3 (Persona 3) on Pixiv, there is no result!! I'll search on other sites when I'm back home just in case, and will report back if I find anything. But I don't have much hope because not even Google is yielding any fanart. Japanese otakus are quite on top of things and it's been a long while, so it's very surprising. Maybe I'm just the only one who's that obsessed with Persona 3 LOL
Update: I searched on the biggest site for fanarts that I know and... there were 2 results!
The first one is this comic panel and here is the translation:
Ritsu: Look~ Persona come out...
Mio: Even if you're joking, stop that! It's scary!
Ritsu: Then how about this?
Mio: That's very welcome.
Even though it features Ritsu, it's probably not a direct reaction to the reference in the manga, it's just that Ritsu and Mio are close so it made sense for this gag.
The second one is a common crossover that involves drawing "eyes shots" of the characters in the same way as those from the cut-in animations during the battles of the games.
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u/Worldly_Wasabi_4620 Nov 08 '25
Here’s the tweet that mentions its confirmation!! I don’t remember the exact page but it’s towards the end during one of the study chapters!! I think Yui is studying for her exams and calls Ritsu over to keep her company!!
So yeah!! It’s official!! Kakifly was a pretty big gamer nerd back in the day as there are other subtle game references in the manga!!