Shinako Bunzai is one of the female students who attended Akademi in 1980s Mode. She was the President of the Newspaper Club.
Appearance[]
Current[]
Shinako has neck-length brown hair and brown eyes.
She wears the default 1980s uniform with teal glasses, a teal scarf, a reporter’s ID on a black lanyard around her neck and rolled down white socks, and since she is the President of the Newspaper Club, she wears the "Red Armband of Leadership" with a resemblance of a newspaper on her left arm.
Previous[]
Before the October 21st, 2024 build, she wore plain white socks, similar to Ai Doruyashi's.
Personality[]
President of the Newspaper Club. Writes the 'Akademi Daily' column in the school newspaper. Idolizes a young female detective who inspired her to pursue investigative journalism.
Among the Personas that are currently implemented in the game, Shinako is a Sleuth. Regardless of the School Atmosphere, she will take a photo of Ryoba Aishi committing murder, or the corpse/murder evidence, and run to show it to The Journalist, who is just outside the school. This will cause Ryoba to be exposed if the photo shows her face.
Background[]
Not much is known about Shinako's life other than it being very quiet and boring until she discovered Sonoko's story; then she had something to obsess over for the first time in her life.[2]
Routine[]

Shinako analyzing the newspapers.
At 7:05 AM, Shinako enters the school grounds with the rest of the Newspaper Club. She walks to the Locker Room at 7:10 AM and changes from her outdoor shoes to her indoor shoes. At 7:15 AM, she then enters the Newspaper Clubroom, stands in front of her typewriter and plans the next day's newspaper.
At 8:00 AM, Shinako walks to Classroom 3-2 and sits at her desk. She starts her morning classes at 8:30 AM. She leaves to the Newspaper Club at 1:00 PM and continue planning the next day’s newspaper with the rest of the club members. (She will eat her lunch near the Sociology Classroom with the rest of the club members during Mission Mode.)
Shinako walks back to class at 1:30 PM and participates in cleaning time between 3:30 PM and 4:00 PM. At 4:00 PM, she will head back to the Newspaper Club and continue planning the next day's newspaper until the end of the day.
If Ryoba joins the club and participates in the club activity, Shinako and the other members will help write the next day's newspaper. But if the Newspaper Club is disbanded, she will socialize with the other former members near the Akademi Daily.
Topics[]
The Conversational Topics Shinako has opinions on are as follows:
Positive | Negative |
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Relationships[]
Sonoko Sakanoue[]
- Main article: Sonoko Sakanoue
Shinako's profile implies that she idolizes Sonoko for her great investigative skills that inspired her to pursue investigative journalism. She wanted to become close with Sonoko, but after Ryoba's trial, Sonoko left Akademi and never went anywhere near it again. Shinako eventually became a newspaper editor and continued to follow Sonoko's career, and got to interview her a couple of times, but they never became friends or anything.[2]
If Sonoko had died, Shinako would be devastated.[2]
Trivia[]
- Shinako was implemented on the September 1st, 2022 build.
- Shinako was originally a male character who went by Jiichiro Takahashi.
- Shinako is based on Info-chan's original design.
- "Shin" from Shinako's first name and "Bun" from her surname together make a Japanese word, shinbun, meaning "newspaper" (新聞).
- She is the only sleuth who, regardless of the school atmosphere, photographs Ryoba Aishi as the murderer.
- Shinako is the only 1980s Mode club leader who is not a generic character with a randomly-chosen hair and name.[5]
- Shinako and Juri Nagasawa are the only 1980s characters who reused old designs from 202X characters.
- Shinako and Omi Ohara are the only female Presidents in 1980s Mode.
- Shinako replaced Sonoko as the President of the Newspaper Club after the latter dropped out of Akademi in 1988.
- Like Gema Taku, she spies on the Club Leaders Meeting.
- This is due to the fact that she's simply too shy to join.[6]
- Shinako's task involves fixing her younger sibling’s broken wooden toy. To complete this task, Ryoba can visit the table in the left side of the Workshop room and repair the toy. Once done, she can return back to Shinako and complete the task.
Illustrations[]
References[]