Persona Protagonists Staff Village Vanguard Bookstore, Get Merchandise

The lead characters of three Persona series titles are showing up for work at Village Vanguard, a Japanese bookstore. The special promotion brings Persona protagonists to Village Vanguard as a line of exclusive merchandise items [Thanks, Denfaminico Gamer!].

Village Vanguard is a bookstore chain that bills itself as an “Exciting Bookstore,” bringing in customers interested not just in books and manga, but also character merchandise, novelty items, prank toys, candy, and other things of interest to geeky customers.

That said, only three Persona protagonists will show at Village Vanguard for the promotion. Specifically, the male leads of Persona 3, 4, and 5 are on offer. The main image for the promo is an exclusive poster featuring the boys dressed in Village Vanguard staff wear.

All three are wearing Village Vanguard aprons over their school uniform undershirts. The aprons The Persona 3 protagonist also sports his headphones, which are based on the real-life Audio Technica ATH-EM7 wired headphone set. Their aprons are also decorated with buttons of their most recent respective games (Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal), and their IDs show their unique Personas (Orpheus, Izanagi, and Arsene).

As for the Persona protagonist x Village Vanguard merchandise available, the line runs a familiar selection of accessories. Keychains, clear files, posters based on the art, buttons, smartphone stands, and shirts are on offer. Folks who want art of other characters from the franchise can also purchase some acrylic name cards featuring either the protagonists in the poster art, or the original character illustrations from the games. Characters offered include Yukari, Junpei, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Ryuji, Morgana, Ann, and the Female Protagonist from Persona 3 Portable.

The special Persona x Village Vanguard promotion runs until December 18, 2022 in Japan. Village Vanguard stores will stock the items, but mail-order options are available within Japan. The games are available on various platforms, including PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5.