Baofu

Baofu, whose real name is Kaoru Saga, is a character from the Persona 2 duology.

Appearances[]

• Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Rumormonger
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Playable Character
• Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload: "Who's Who" guest
• DemiKids Light / Dark Version

Personality[]

Baofu is shown to be somewhat reclusive. He harbors a lot of profound sorrowful guilt, feeling he was responsible for the death of Miki Asai.

Profile[]

Persona 2[]

Innocent Sin[]

Kaoru Saga appears on the street as a drunkard in one of Tatsuya Suou's flashbacks. He lectures Tatsuya and Jun Kurosu about their goals in life, and refers to himself by his actual name. In the modern day, Baofu is one of the Rumormongers of the game, spreading information online through his website. The party can chat with him through the red computer in Double Slash.

In the PSP re-release, during the Climax Theater quest for St. Hermelin High School, Maya Amano asks Baofu to investigate the mysterious social website "Ambrosia." Baofu then reveals it does not actually exist as a website on any network.

Eternal Punishment[]

Baofu is an extortionist and a so-called Tap Buster. He claims that he is a native of Taiwan, but is amazingly fluent in Japanese. His weapon of choice is rather unorthodox, ranging from simple coins to special chakrams, as well as any other round object that he can flick with his thumbs, the impact of which deals about the same damage as a gunshot, if not stronger. He initially specializes in wind magic, but his ultimate Persona Prometheus will grant him earth powers later on.

Maya Amano meets him through Chief Todoroki, head of the Kuzunoha Detective Agency, who arranges a meet-up at Double Slash. They later convene at Parabellum. Baofu takes it upon himself to test the new-found property of rumors, where they come true after being spread. After assessing the situation, he joins the party under the pretense of finding out the truth about JOKER and his connection to Tatsuya, who was confined at the Morimoto Sanitarium in Mt. Mifune.

His actual purpose however, is to find and kill Yung Pao, boss of the Taiwanese Mafia Tien Tao Lien, and Tatsuzou Sudou, the foreign minister as well as the secret executive of New World Order.

Baofu's true identity is that of Kaoru Saga, a Japanese public prosecutor who was originally presumed dead. He was marked for death along with his assistant Miki by Tatsuzou Sudou for their running investigation of the money laundering between the Minister of Justice and Tien Tao Lien. Kaoru survived, awakening to Odysseus in the process, but Miki did not. Kaoru has since lived with regret in his heart and promises to avenge her, even if it necessitates going from legal means to illegal ones.

Upon Nyarlathotep's defeat, Baofu visits Miki's grave to tell her that he has stopped living in the past and has taken down his rumor website, as well as ceasing his wiretapping trade. He is now a man-searcher, and has partnered up with Ulala Serizawa.

Persona 3 / FES / Portable[]

Baofu appears on the television program Who's Who, which is hosted by Trish. He is introduced as "A man in his 30's with hair that reaches his back." Trish mentions that Baofu becomes upset if you mention his former job.

DemiKids Light & Dark[]

Baofu is a C-Rank BattleNet opponent. He is Level 22 and is described as a Japanese boy who takes advantage of weaknesses. After beating him several times, he gives his own unique Thumurai named Isunbo.

Stats[]

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment[]

This lists Baofu's base stats; the level bonuses from each Persona are not shown as they depend on the player.

Battle Quotes[]

• "I feel sorry for you" (when entering a battle)
• "You wanna go?" (when entering a battle)
• "Heh...heh...This is great..." (when entering battle on low HP)
• "Dodge this!" (when attacking)
• "Heads or Tails!" (when attacking)
• "Persona!" (when summoning a Persona)
• "Uaargh!" (when summoning a Persona)
• "Hurry up!" (when summoning a Persona)
• "Let's end this!" (when using Fusion spells)
• "Let's get this over with!" (when using Fusion spells)
• "Hey, give me a hand!" (when using Fusion spells)
• "Try death on for size!" (when using Prometheus to cast Wiseman Snap)
• "Weak" (after winning a battle)
• "They call this the logical results" (after winning a battle)
• "Jeez..." (rare victory quote)
• "You were right to die... in a world like this!" (rare victory quote)
• "You're the ones to blame!" (rare victory quote)
• "I'll take you on anytime!" (rare victory quote)
• "I don't have time for you!" (when retreating)
• "Let's beat it!" (when retreating)
• "Dammit!" (when KO'ed)
• "I'm getting too old for this..." (game over)
• "Sorry, Miki..." (game over)

Gallery[]

Innocent Sin Artwork

Kaoru Saga's drunken portrait (PSP)

Baofu's website splash

Eternal Punishment Artwork

PSP illustration

Fusion Spell cut-in portrait (PSP)

Baofu's website splash

Baofu with the group

Promotional art

Eternal Punishment Portraits

Normal portrait

Deadpan portrait

Angry portrait

Sad portrait

Hysterical portrait

Surprised/Injured portrait

PERSONA 20th Anniversary Festival

Other

Trish, Katsuya, and Baofu

Kanji and Take-Mikazuchi as Baofu and Odysseus in Persona 4 Arena

Kanji as Baofu in Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Promotional artwork for the Persona 25th Anniversary x Sega Collaboration Cafe collaboration

Trivia[]

• In the Japanese version, Baofu's name is pronounced "Paofu" (パオフゥ) because of using different Mandarin transliteration system. "Bao" (voiceless unaspirated) belongs to the more modern system to differentiate from "pao" (voiceless aspirated). Unlike Japanese or English, Chinese does not have voiced consonant, hence some linguists insist that the voiceless aspirated and unaspirated consonants in Chinese should only be denoted with the same voiceless equivalents in transliteration.
• Similar to Maia, despite the Greek origin of the Persona, Odysseus' design is heavily inspired by Japanese samurai. This is a hint that Baofu is very traditional and proud of his Japanese identity, even though he is pretending to be Taiwanese when carrying out his revenge.
• Unlike Ulala and Katsuya, Baofu's Shadow does not directly appear during the Shadow confrontation scene—instead, Reverse Odysseus takes its place, as Baofu has been blaming his Persona ability for not awakening in time to save Miki from their assassination. Baofu eventually realizes that he cannot forgive himself for Miki's death.
• There is an explanation as to why Baofu's coin attacks are damaging and even lethal: as a proficient Qi Gong practitioner and skilled martial artist, he focuses combined physical and spiritual energy onto the projectiles he uses, resulting in the bullet-like force. Naturally, the potency and effect also varies depending on the kind of weapon equipped and his current Strength statistic.
• It is a misconception that Kaoru was drunk during Tatsuya's flashback because Miki died. The flashback in Innocent Sin happened 10 years ago while Miki died 5 years ago. He was actually intoxicated because he achieved success so easily due to his innate talent but lacked direction at the same time.
• Both Baofu and Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3 have lost people named Miki.
• In the Persona 3 Portable Club Book, it is revealed that Ken Amada frequently goes to Baofu's rumor website. However, Baofu claimed that he closed the website after the final battle in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, so the website that Ken accesses is unlikely the same, at least not maintained by Baofu.
• In Persona 4 Arena Baofu is referenced as an alternate color palette for Kanji Tatsumi.
• Baofu shares the same ultimate Persona, Prometheus, with Futaba Sakura from Persona 5.
  • The allusion to Baofu also extends to the fact that Futaba performs computer hacking and wiretapping which are important to the main plots of both games.
• Trish's Who's Who program in Persona 3 makes an inconsistency regarding Baofu's age saying he's a man in his 30's. Considering that Baofu is 32 years old in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment which takes place in the year 1999, he would be 42 years old in Persona 3 which takes place in the year 2009.