Oh man everyone knows this is like my favorite Persona 4 pairing!  In fact, this is one of my favorite all time pairings.  Now I could go into a long, “Because they’re fucking cute,” rambling (but they totally are), but I want to go into my serious reasons.  

I think they compliment each other in that, “So different but so alike,” sort of way.  Considering their back stories, I think they can relate. Kanji lost his dad, Naoto lost both parents.  Kanji was teased for liking girly things, Naoto went so far as to pose as a boy.  They’re use to being different from everyone else, so I think they could relate to one another.

Besides that, there’s also the appeal of, on the outside, Kanji’s a moron and Naoto is this analytical person.  At face value, they would never work.  But if you look deeper than that, you can see that they would work really well together.  Deep down they’re both misunderstood.  Deep down, Naoto doesn’t want to be alone, and Kanji just wants people to accept him.  

I mean sure they interested me with Kanji’s crush, but it was when I got to Naoto’s dungeon that I really started to like them.  Mostly because Kanji just got her so well.  He said something really important then, something that definitely showed that he was more than the “tough stupid guy,” (though his dungeon did that, too).  It’s when she’s freaking out over her shadow and Chie is like, “No, don’t say it!”  And Kanji is like, “No, let the kid spill it, she needs to or she’ll keep hurting.” And in that moment it was like… wow, someone gets it!  I mean sure when you’re playing you’re thinking, “OMG DON’T SAY IT OR I’M GONNA HAVE TO FIGHT AGAIN!”  But, honestly?  You HAVE to face yourself.  You have to let it all out and face it.  (as a side note this is one thing I liked about the anime, how the characters were conscious when facing their shadows).  

In that moment it was like, wow, Kanji not only really gets her, but he gets, well, the entire message of the game.  Before anyone did.  In a way he’s the most brilliant character in the game, to me at least.  

And yeah after that the game sort of divulged into the “omg cute crush” stuff, but I never really forgot that one moment.  Like yes, this one-sided crush is cute but, omg, for that moment Kanji really, really understood what Naoto needed.  More than she herself did.