Fairly English Story

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Scooby Doo flashback!"
—Minato in chapter 83
"My name is Minato Arisato, I'm a Fool Arcana so I got a bajillion Personae, but my first one was Orpheus. I use whatever weapon I can get my hands on but I always did like Shortswords, and my favourite fictional character is Simon the Digger."
—Minato in chapter 91, introducing himself to the previous generations of Persona users.
"That thing came from you Yosuke. You have to admit it or it'll go bearzerk again." Next person that says that has this bottle shoved where the sun don't shine.
—Teddie, followed by Souji's monologue in Face Every Shadow, Chapter 7.

Persona 3: Fairly English Story started as an AU Fic of what the author thinks Persona 3: FES would have been like if Minato Arisato had been raised in England after his parents' death. Then things started to deviate from the original source material, and Stuff Happened.

It's told in first person from Minato's perspective, giving him more of a personality while still keeping the sleepy, expressionless teen that Fanon has made him out to be, while taking a few levels in badass along the way. Towards the later chapters, things start to get a little out of hand, yet it still somehow manages not to break canon most of the time, even the canon for its somewhat direct sequel, Persona 4.

It also serves as a deconstruction of the concept of the Mary Sue/Black Hole Sue. Basically, Minato reaches Sue status, then the world refuses to play by the Sue's rules.

The author has posted the first chapter of the sequel (titled For Every Soul, because get it? FES?) and there's an omake series called FESxtras, formerly called "Investigation Team Yo!". Then he goes on a two-year mission. Casey W has also begun work on an official sequel from the viewpoint of Seta Souji as he goes through the events of the altered Persona 4 canon. It's called Face Every Shadow. All tropes related should go below.

The Author recently[when?] did a prequel called Stay Awake With Me, which covers the events between Minato's parents dying and him moving to England. It's already a Tear Jerker just on its own, but if you've already read Fairly English Story, then it's just absolutely heartbreaking. A rewrite is also currently in the works, titled Rebuild of Fairly English Story. If you considered reading Fairly English Story but was put off by the poor writing quality, then check these out.


Tropes contained in Persona 3: Fairly English Story that were not included in the original game.

"Will you say Candle Jack?" Very well; Candle Jack, happy?

If anyone asks, I'll say Junpei did it.

  • Intimate Psychotherapy - Empress social link. He didn't even want to at first.
    • Turns out, part of him did.
  • In the Blood - Raidou's his granddad
  • Indy Ploy - Gods, demons, terrorists, schoolteachers, and Magnificent Bastards are all plotting against Minato. He just goes with it.
    • Author's kinda doing this too, just not so much lately.
  • Infant Immortality - Cruelly subverted.
  • Immune to Bullets - So long as they hit him in the head.
  • It Got Worse - Chapter 79 onward is made of this trope.
    • From chapter 94: "Take control over Gekkoukan High School, secure the surrender of Minato Arisoto through use of hostages. Kill hostages if target fails to comply. Do not engage the target directly, nor attempt to subdue him or take him by force, he is a lethal and ruthless leader of the terrorist organisation known as Strega, going by the handle of 'Jin'."
  • It's Up to You - At first, Minato is chosen to lead as Akihiko was injured and he was the most competent fighter out of him, Yukari and Junpei. However, once people start realising just how powerful he is, he ends up doing most of the fighting in many of the fights.
    • Then again, it's from his point of view, so he'd only really talk about the others if he can see them, and since he's almost always leading the attack, he just doesn't notice what they're doing, so they level up behind the scenes.
  • Jesus Was Way Cool - Louis Cypher agrees with Minato on this one. Turns out the reason he left heaven was because SMT's God wasn't like Jesus.
  • Karma Houdini - Justified. Adachi's one too, for the same reason.
  • Katanas Are Just Better - Averted in an epic Oh Crap moment.
  • Kill Steal - Happens in Tartarus many times.
  • Kill It with Fire - Usually works.
  • Kill It with Ice
  • Kill It with Water
  • Kinda Busy Here
  • Knife Nut - Minato has rules to stop himself from overusing them.
  • Knight of Cerebus - Ikutsuki. In more ways than one.
  • Large Ham - One of Minato's back-up plans to defeat Nyx is to shout as hard as he can.
  • Laser-Guided Karma - Minato gets this often in the first half of the story.
  • Lampshade Hanging - Minato often gets irritated at the spooky voices in his head reminding him that he's farming friends for demonic powers at the most inappropriate times.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo - Dante appeared in Nocturne, so it's okay for him to appear in this fic apparently. Even though other characters have actually played Devil May Cry.
  • Leeroy Jenkins - Minato for a while until the Senpai call him out on it.
  • The Legions of Hell - They act as Big Damn Heroes for Minato. At least, they wanted to. They retreated because they were scared Minato would slaughter them too.
  • Let's Get Dangerous - Even Minato does this. As does the Demi-Fiend.
  • Level Grinding - They call it "Training".
  • Life or Limb Decision - Minato often has to do this. He usually winds up picking the other guy's limb.
  • Line in the Sand - Done after the November Full Moon.
    • Not quite what the trope means, but the following quote was just too good to pass up on.

Minato in Chapter 59: "This is the line in the sand... To cross this line is to cross me. And to cross me is to end."

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FIASCO!? IT'S IKUTSUKI'S FAULT ISN'T IT!? I'LL SKIN HIM ALIVE!!!"

      • Rage was due to Aigis's problems on her first day at school.

"MEMO'S!!!"

"NOOOOOOOO! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!"

Well, I'd recommend calming down and getting to the front of the car and killing that Shadow. Oh, you were swearing. I was gonna say, I'm not that awesome.

  1. To the surprise of everyone, Minato's shadow WAS the narrator of the entire story! So this leaves the real Minato being different to the shadow Minato, in other words, the snide remarks, insults and sarcastic comments were all of Minato's Shadow. What The Hell?!