Persona 5: The Phantom X is out and as you can imagine, people are having a good time making their way through the free-to-play RPG. However, they’ve been confronted with what may be the most peculiar Atlus villain of all time: The Subway Slammer.
The Subway Slammer is a major antagonist in P5X’s initial chapter. He’s basically just a guy who shoulder charges women on the subway. No one does anything about it, leaving him to continue tormenting innocent people.
This may all sound a little random, but it’s very much based on reality. Men who intentionally ram into people (usually women) in a manner they can then claim is an accident are dubbed “Butsukari otoko”, or bumping man”. It’s a real, weird, horrible thing!
The community reaction to the Subway Slammer is mixed. Some are genuinely underwhelmed by what is a relatively inconsequential villain compared to other antagonists in the series. Lillie on BlueSky, in reaction to the Subway Slammer’s dialogue, wrote: “this looks like something someone would edit onto the textbox just as a joke”.
Others find the absurdity of the Subway Slammer hilarious it seems. Memes are flooding online spaces, with folks placing the Subway Slammer well above other antagonists from other properties.
Now you might think that people making memes about a Subway Slammer are a little bit out of line right? Persona games have featured themes of real-world problems, and the Subway Slammer is no different! According to Japan Today, “the severity of the bump – or in some cases even a punch – can vary quite a bit as does the purpose, whether releasing some sort of aggression, as a form of molestation, or in an attempt to claim the victim damaged an item of theirs”.
The problem is you can’t necessarily blame people for finding the depiction in P5X ridiculous, in part due to how it is portrayed. Yes, the Subway Slammer does hurt people, but he also states: “the whole Subway is mine for the Slammin'”, which let’s just say doesn’t have the degree of seriousness one would expect. These people aren’t making light of real people doing real crimes, it’s likely many of them didn’t even know about ‘bumping men’ before they played P5X, but it’s hard to take a guy called the Subway Slammer seriously.
This whole thing goes even deeper too. According to P5X writer Yusuke Nitta, the Subway Slammer is a creation of the game’s previous writer, kept anonymous in a now-deleted Tweet by Nitta. Nitta stated the writer behind the Subway Slammer was like “the lord of the palace”, and assured fans the story will get “more and more interesting from now on”.
So the mastermind behind the Subway Slammer is out of a job, but his legacy shall remain forever seared into the hearts and minds of Persona fans. What he’s doing these days remains a mystery, but if you ever find yourself catching a train, keep your head on a swivel. You never know if the Subway Slammer is lurking nearby…
If you want to learn more about Persona 5: The Phantom X, check out its Western release announcement for a good idea of what the game is like! If you do decide to give it a chance, why not grab some Persona 5 X codes to help really get things rolling.