Aight
Junpei Iori has surprising depth to him. I can demonstrate by telling you exactly the moment I fell in love with Junpei. After the Priestess Shadow boss/the train incident, Junpei comes up to Minato in class. Tension rose during the Full Moon mission, tempers clashed, Junpei tried to wrestle the leader position from Minato
but he got beat down and Minato proved himself to be a more capable leader. And yet. Despite his bruised pride, ego, and his increased insecurity, Junpei walks up to Minato, acknowledges that he acted wrong, apologizes to Minato and offers support.
Bro characters like Junpei in anime basically never apologize sincerely
But Junpei did. He owned up to the shit he did. He gives a true apology. Right there I knew this boy would be my favourite, because he had heart and courage to say "I fucked up and I'm sorry". He's still insecure. He still wishes he was leader. He still feels inferior to Minato.
But his sincere apologies put him miles head of all the insecure jerk characters that can do no wrong and always make me suspicious that they'll turn coat or not back up the hero in the end.
Romantic ships time oh hell. Who do I not see Junpei with would be the faster answer lol. My OTP is Junpei/Akihiko, I build this OTP kingdom all by myself and I am still so proud, y'all. But Junpei is in love with all his senpais for sure. And Minato. And Minako. Boy's got a lot of love to give, maybe because he barely gets any at home.
I ship Junpei/Fuuka because of
lucineblue, and Junpei/Akihiko/Kanji because ffs Kanji needs to get with a Persona group that won't hurl homophobic insults at him randomly. Really, the only ones I don't ship him with are Ken and Koromaru, and Aigis, because Aigis is never gonna get over Minato/Minako.
I do ship Junpei/Chidori. I liked them in the game. I'm not one to believe Junpei's never allowed to move on. Heck, in my Junpei/Akihiko OTP verse, I wrote Junpei and Akihiko moving on from their obsessions together.
REALLY PLURK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY MEME RAMBLING
Non-romantic ships, uh... Junpei is a friend to all children and creatures and robot-wives idk lol.
The way Yukari treats Junpei is not "cute" and not because "she's in love with him and can't express it". They need time apart.
"Insulting each other" should not be Straight:tm: speech for "passionately in love with each other" wtf.
I know there are people really happy in their adversarial relationships but ugh. Junpei and Yukari's relationship doesn'T read like friendly teasing to me.
Anyway, my unpopular opinion about Junpei is that he's hot.
He's prrrrrrrrrrrrrrobably the most balanced Sad Kid in the Sad Kids Parade that is P3.
At least he seems to have more emotional intelligence than. Uh. All his goddamn senpais for sure.
My one wish for Junpei is that he continues to be a good man, teach little league, settle down with Akihiko or someone else he loves dearly, and lives his life to the fullest, as Minato wanted.