The Journalist is the main antagonist of 1980s Mode in Yandere Simulator. He attempted to reveal Ryoba's crimes to the public and was the mentor of Sonoko Sakanoue.
Appearance
The Journalist has short black hair and black eyes. He also has slight facial hair.
He wears an off-white shirt with a blue tie, a long meringue coat fastened with brown buttons and tied at the waist, brown slacks, and brown dress shoes. He also wears a brown hat with a gold ribbon that often covers his face.
He is the tallest male character in 1980s Mode, standing at 184 cm (approx. 6.04 feet).[4][5]
Personality
In the 80s, a young man began a promising career as an investigative journalist. He was phenomenal at his job, and was quickly making a name for himself all throughout the nation of Japan. Unfortunately, he may have been TOO good at his job...
While investigating a murder in 1989, he correctly identified the perpetrator of the crime. Due to the unusual nature of the case - a schoolgirl accused of murdering a classmate for the sake of love - the media chose to sensationalize the case, resulting in international attention. However, the young murderess was able to escape a guilty verdict by manipulating the emotions of the court, and tricking the world into thinking that the journalist only accused her of murder for the sake of sensational headlines.
As a result of that court case, his reputation was permanently damaged, and his career as a journalist was over. He spiraled into depression and alcoholism. Nobody knows what became of him after he fell out of the public eye.
An investigative journalist who spends a lot of time trying to peek inside Akademi, attempting to find a clue to prove his theory that one of the school's students is a serial killer.
He has good intentions when stalking Ryoba Aishi and wants to do what he thinks to be 'right'. He appreciates fame, but he wouldn't just accuse a high school girl of it.
The Journalist is naturally very observant and great at finding clues. He shows that when he first deals with Ryoba, seeing her stalk Jokichi Yudasei, and a few decades later, when she stalks a young woman.
He must be very skilled, considering that he may be able to escape Ryoba after the ten weeks of the game are over if he appears in an ending.[6]
If the player proves the Mysterious Tapes false by not using the canon elimination methods for 1980s Mode[7] it is unknown what would make The Journalist say such things on the tapes.
In 1980s Mode, the Journalist's persona is ?????, but he will apprehend Ryoba by running up, spraying her with pepper spray, and then restraining her if he catches her committing murder, getting closer to him with a weapon, carrying a corpse, or being bloody, just like a student council member. If he witnesses a corpse, he will run out of the school and call the cops, just like a Loner. It's impossible for Ryoba to kill him, since he will always look at her when she's near. Ryoba cannot normally interact with him as well, like the teachers.
In his free time, he reads detective novels and keeps up with the latest news. He also enjoys solving puzzles.[8] While he prefers to widen his knowledge rather than read fiction, he would enjoy a good detective novel.[9]
Backstory
The Journalist was born in 1969, which makes him 20 in 1989.[10]
He had a relatively normal childhood, enjoying detective stories, and grew up with a desire to become similar to the fictional characters he idolized in these stories. He was sociable in his youth, but became distant from others as his interest in becoming a journalist grew more and more.[8]
As a student, he was serious. While he was not antisocial, he appeared cold and distant due to his seriousness. He was also the president of the Newspaper Club in his school.[8] He had the highest and best grades in his academic years.[11]
Not much is known about his early life, except that at some point, he began a promising career as an investigative journalist, at which he was phenomenal, and was quickly making a name for himself all throughout Japan. This was because he solved his first case immediately after leaving high school at 18 years old. This first time of successful solving through his own investigation made the experience so rewarding that he considered this single event of his to be his life calling.[8]
As revealed on the 1st Mysterious Tape, in April 1989, when his career was at its peak, The Journalist heard about a murder at the local high school, in which the police had no leads, so he decided to investigate it himself to be a hero.
As revealed on the 2nd Mysterious Tape, The Journalist couldn't walk around the school, so he tried to gather information by interviewing students outside the school gate when they entered or exited the school, and while investigating, it was at this point in time that he noticed a peculiar girl - Ryoba Aishi, who was quite obviously stalking one of her seniors. The Journalist decided to keep his eye on her, and before long, he began to observe even more disturbing behavior from her.
As revealed on the 3rd Mysterious Tape, from the school gate, The Journalist witnessed Ryoba do more than just stalk an upperclassman — she stalked any girl that spoke to him. Through student interviews, The Journalist kept tabs on what happened to those girls - they became victims of bullying, were expelled, and in some cases, they stopped coming to school, and he also frequently saw Ryoba running with a mop and a bucket. According to The Journalist, Ryoba was using manipulation, intimidation, and sometimes even violence to sabotage the boy's love life, and if she wasn't above that kind of behavior, the possibility of murder didn't seem too far off, but he didn't want to believe that a schoolgirl would actually commit murder just to keep a boy single. That's when The Journalist learned a crucial piece of information - the girl who was murdered at the beginning of the school year had a crush on the same boy who was being stalked. The Journalist knew that he had found the culprit, so he went to the Buraza Town police with his findings. It took a lot of talking, but the Journalist was eventually able to convince them to take Ryoba into custody.
As revealed on the 4th Mysterious Tape, due to the unusual nature of the case - a schoolgirl accused of murdering a classmate for the sake of love - the media chose to sensationalize the case, resulting in international attention. Word of Ryoba's arrest quickly spread throughout the entire nation, and the trial turned into a media circus. The idea of a murderous schoolgirl was enough to attract that much attention, and The Journalist became a celebrity practically overnight, though he didn't want to be a public figure; but he did want his investigative skills to be recognized, so he hoped that all the attention would boost his career. However, Ryoba was able to escape a guilty verdict by manipulating the emotions of the court, and she tricked all of Japan into thinking that the journalist only accused her of murder for the sake of sensational headlines and because he was jealous of his apprentice's skills as a detective. According to the Journalist, Ryoba put on the best act he had ever seen - she cried non-stop, feigned ignorance at every opportunity, and had an excuse for every accusation leveled at her, and the court, the media, and the entire nation fell in love with her. Ryoba called The Journalist a dirty pervert who enjoyed leering at schoolgirls and a fame-seeking yellow journalist, and the court bought every word of it. The day the judge declared Ryoba innocent, the entire country celebrated like it was a holiday.
As revealed on the 5th Mysterious Tape, immediately after the trial, the Journalist tried to escape the press by hiding in an alley behind the courthouse, and Ryoba, who had just been declared innocent, found him there. According to the Journalist, she was smiling, but her eyes were blank, empty, and soulless, like a doll's eyes, and she looked like she didn't have a single ounce of humanity in her entire body. With that smiling face, she threatened his life, then turned around and left without another word. As a result of that court case, The Journalist's reputation was permanently damaged, and his career as a journalist was over. From that day forward, The Journalist was a national disgrace, as he was known across the nation as a lecherous journalist who stalked schoolgirls and tried to throw a girl in prison to boost his own career. According to the Journalist, he saw disgust in the eyes of every person who looked at him, and his house and car were vandalized every day for weeks. Even his own parents turned away from him.[10][12]
As revealed on the 6th Mysterious Tape, The Journalist's life was a "living hell" for about a year, while the trial was still fresh in people's minds. Eventually, the hatred subsided, but it never truly died, as there was always someone who recognized The Journalist, no matter how much he tried to change his appearance. Finding employment was nearly impossible, so The Journalist drifted between part-time jobs, and he spiraled into depression and alcoholism by spending his free time drinking to ease the pain of becoming the national punching bag. It was around this point in time that he met his future wife. They met at a bar, and she didn't know who he was when they met. She casually said something like, "Nice night, huh?", and he was surprised that she didn't recognize him or try to avoid him. She asked why she should recognize him, and he told her all about his past. She listened in silence during most of his story. That night, he drank so much that he was eventually too drunk to drive himself home, so she called him a cab. When the cab arrived, he was too drunk to get inside it himself, so she helped him in. She was worried that he wouldn't even be able to open his own front door, so she got in the cab with him to make sure that he'd make it inside his own house safely. Once she opened his front door, she saw that he was living in absolute squalor; he wasn't cleaning up after himself at all. She put him to bed and then cleaned his entire house. When he woke up, she was gone, but he immediately realized that his house was completely clean. He found a note from her, saying that she was worried for him and wanted to see him again. From there, they kept meeting up, and eventually, a relationship occurred.[13] The Journalist didn't understand what she saw in him, as he was an absolute wreck, not to mention the laughingstock of the entire country, but as soon as they met, she wanted to spend every waking moment with him, wouldn't let him out of her sight, and got possessive if another woman so much as looked at him. The Journalist quickly began to depend on her for everything, and it wasn't long before he couldn't live without her, as he certainly wasn't in any state to take care of himself. According to The Journalist, he was like an "adult-sized baby" - helpless and vulnerable, and maybe that's what she was attracted to - maybe she just wanted to experience the sensation of owning a person, to keep a "human pet", and someone who she could emotionally depend on. The Journalist didn't understand why anyone would waste their time with a man like him, but none of that mattered, as, despite all his flaws, she accepted him, and that was all that he needed. She wanted to marry him very quickly, like about a month after meeting each other, but it wasn't until about six months later that The Journalist accepted her proposal.[14] They got married in a town hall, as neither of them had any friends/relatives who wanted to attend, and according to the journalist's wife, she didn't need a fancy union, since she was happy enough just being with him.[15] The Journalist may have taken his wife's name so he could "start fresh", untied to his old reputation.[16] The Journalist wanted to avoid having a child whose father was a national disgrace, which is why he waited over a decade to have one, so that the stigma would have faded by the time his child would grow up.[16] Eventually, somewhere in the early to mid-2000s, when he was in his mid-to-late 30s, his wife became pregnant.
As revealed on the 7th Mysterious Tape, The Journalist's wife died while giving birth to their only child - a girl. She died due to severe and rapid blood loss, very soon after birth, and never even got to see her child.[15] After her death, The Journalist could barely take care of himself, much less a baby. It was very difficult for the Journalist to love his daughter, knowing that his wife was dead because of her. According to The Journalist, he was a horrible father, and his daughter practically had to raise herself, as he never tried to spend much time with her, or learn about her interests, which is why he didn't know much about her, like what kind of person she's turned into, or what her everyday life is like, but he knew that she spent all of her time on her computer, which she bought herself. His daughter also seemed to have a lot of money for someone her age, but The Journalist was afraid to ask where it came from. Sometimes his daughter came home with blood on her clothing, but he couldn't tell if it was her blood or someone else's, as he tried to stay out of her business, partially out of respect for her privacy, but mostly out of fear.
As revealed on the 8th Mysterious Tape, The Journalist made the first 7 tapes because he thought it would be therapeutic to record his feelings, even if he was only talking to an obsolete machine, since he had never told anyone about any of this, never saw a shrink, and never had any friends to confide in. However, The Journalist hasn't calmed down at all, and the only thing that came out of this experience was all the anger and the hate he had kept buried for the past decades rising back to the surface. After that, The Journalist couldn't go back to the way things were before - wasting his time with part-time jobs, drinking, and sitting on a couch feeling miserable - and didn't want his life to be like this, until he saw justice served. Then, The Journalist remembered Ryoba, who had never been punished for the sins of her youth, and he didn't want to keep living in a world where monsters like her walk around in public. The Journalist knew he was the only one who knew the truth about her, and the only one who could bring her to justice, thanks to his journalistic skills - he knew how to track a person down, learn a person's secrets, and dig up the truth. For the first time in decades, he felt like he had a purpose and knew what to do with his life, so he decided to track down Ryoba and try to deliver justice to her.
As revealed on the 9th Mysterious Tape, Ryoba, after over three decades since the events of 1989, never moved out of her hometown. The Journalist began to follow Ryoba around town for a week. He noticed that she'd suddenly change direction when walking, or linger in one place for seemingly no reason. He realized she was stalking someone and figured out that her target was a young woman, just out of high school. Shortly before The Journalist began to follow Ryoba, this woman casually flirted with Ryoba's husband, Jokichi,[17] and Ryoba began to stalk her. She was probably a cashier at a convenience store or a co-worker of Jokichi.[18] Moreover, there's no guarantee that she was actually in love with Jokichi, but as a yandere, Ryoba was so over-protective of her husband that she assumed any girl who was moderately polite to him was in love with him.[19] She was suspicious of any girl who seemed to be too sweet to her husband, but didn't always take action, and probably committed a handful of murders between 1980s Mode and Story Mode.[19] It wasn't revealed whether or not Ryoba actually killed this woman or let her go.
As revealed on the 10th Mysterious Tape, Ryoba eventually caught the Journalist following her. He followed Ryoba into an alley, but lost her in the shadows, and she snuck up behind him. He then turned and ran to his house. The Journalist knew he couldn't go to the police, as he would sound like a "babbling lunatic" without any evidence, and even if they did listen to him and investigate her, they wouldn't find anything. The Journalist also knew his only option was to leave Japan altogether, but before that, he tried to get in contact with his daughter, but he couldn't, and he couldn't wait for her to come home, as he had to leave immediately. So, The Journalist recorded the 10th tape, gathered all of the recordings he had made so far, and put them where he knew his daughter would find them so she could at least know why her father disappeared so suddenly. The Journalist then went to the airport, but Ryoba followed him and saw him get on a plane to America.[18]
Routine
The Journalist starts the day by leaning against a wall. He starts patrolling the entrance gate as soon as the rival's and Jokichi Yudasei's conversation ends. Because he's aware that Ryoba might have murdered Sumire Saitozaki, the Journalist will always be hostile towards her. If the player is near him, he will threaten Ryoba that he knows she's hiding something, and he will keep an eye on her. He will speak aggressively if Ryoba gets closer to him, believing that she is trying to intimidate him. The Journalist will just stare at Ryoba with a tough look as long as she is near him until the player moves away from him, continuing his routine. If he witnesses Ryoba covered with blood, carrying a corpse, or approaching him with a weapon, he will apprehend Ryoba with pepper spray, similar to the Student Council.
The Journalist will constantly follow Ryoba if the player is outside the school grounds. When inside the school grounds, the Journalist will investigate, making it impossible for the player to commit any crime in the long walkway area outside of the school where the Journalist patrols.
If Ryoba activates an easter egg like Cyborg Mode, he will completely ignore her altogether.
Topics
The Conversational Topics towards The Journalist are Negative/Positive/Neutral as follows:
 | |
| Positive | Negative |
|---|---|
|
|
Relationships
Ryoba Aishi
- Main article: Ryoba Aishi
Their backstory and how they interacted are told throughout the Mysterious Tapes. There is some more information on the Basement Tapes.
The Journalist can almost go blind with rage when he sees Ryoba, though he still runs away from her after she finds him stalking her after a few decades. The Journalist's revenge has seemingly failed for now, but he is said to possibly appear in a secret main story mode ending, which implies that he could've gotten away.[6]
Ryoba doesn't kill the Journalist right away after the court case, and he lives until sometime shortly before Ayano's first day of school, as seen from Basement Tape #10. Ryoba follows him to America, which is why she is absent throughout gameplay, but it's currently unknown what happens next.
As shown in 1980s Mode, the Journalist is very hostile towards Ryoba and dislikes her as well, being aware that she killed Sumire Saitozaki and has been eliminating other girls who had a crush on Jokichi. He is the only person who isn't completely fooled by her deceptive acts and knows she is very manipulative. He has a strong sense of justice against Ryoba, vowing to make her pay for her crimes. He was even able to convince the Buraza Town Police to take her into custody. However, due to little evidence and despite his good investigative skills, he was still outsmarted by Ryoba, who was able to escape a guilty verdict by manipulating the emotions of the court and tricking all of Japan into thinking that the Journalist only accused her of murder for the sake of sensational headlines. Ryoba's lies caused the public to turn on the Journalist and permanently shattered his reputation, and his career ended. This increased the Journalist's grudge even more towards her as a result of ruining his life.
Even after almost three decades, the Journalist still holds a strong grudge against Ryoba for her crimes, making his life a living hell, and is even angered that she has yet to be punished for her sins of her youth, as evident in his tapes. YandereDev did say that Ryoba will most certainly get away with killing The Journalist.[20]
Family
- Main article: Minor Characters
It is unknown who his wife is; however, it is revealed that his wife died during childbirth.
Based on the 6th mysterious tape, the Journalist first met his wife at a bar. But unlike most other people, she was unaware of him, which surprised the Journalist. His wife seems to be very caring for him, when it was mentioned that she took him home, cleaned his house, and left a note saying that she was worried for him and wanted to see him again. From there, they kept meeting up, and their relationship eventually began. The Journalist didn't understand what his wife saw in him. As soon as they met, she wanted to spend every waking moment with him, wouldn't let him out of her sight, and got possessive if another woman so much as looked at him. The Journalist quickly also began to depend on her for everything, and it wasn't long before he couldn't live without his wife.
The Journalist thinks the fact he was like an "adult-sized baby" - helpless and vulnerable - was what attracted his wife to him, and she just wanted to experience the sensation of owning a person, to keep a "human pet", and someone who she could emotionally depend on. But despite all his flaws, the Journalist accepted his wife. She wanted to marry him very quickly, about a month after meeting each other, but it wasn't until about six months later that the Journalist accepted her proposal.
In his tapes, The Journalist also mentions a daughter that he doesn't spend any time with, a daughter that he knows nothing about, only that she spends a lot of time on the computer, makes a lot of money, and occasionally comes home with blood on her.
His wife will be mentioned at one point, but she will only be mentioned towards "the end of the story."[21]
Others
- Sonoko Sakanoue
- Main article: Sonoko Sakanoue
Sonoko, the tenth rival of 1980s Mode, is a disciple of the Journalist whom he uses to investigate Ryoba since he can't legally explore the school himself. Despite their relationship, there are limits, such as Sonoko keeping the matter of the Karlheinz Asylum to herself. Canonically, Ryoba befriends Sonoko, so she helps Ryoba in the trial by saying she would never commit murder, instead of siding with the Journalist.
Sonoko feels guilty for doing this, even decades after the trial.[8]
The Journalist is unaware of her past of being a former delinquent.[8]
When they don't have a job, they are searching for their next job or researching/learning things that will help them solve crimes.[22]
They were extremely successful as a duo, so if they had won the court case in 1989, they would definitely have continued to work together for many years, even solving cases worldwide.[23]
Right after solving her first big case, Sonoko began investigating another case that the Journalist was also working on. They realized that by combining their knowledge, they could solve the crime faster. After successfully identifying the perpetrator, they decided to keep working together.[24]
Sonoko saw him as a mentor, while the Journalist viewed her as a partner rather than a student. They never considered collaborating with others.[24]
They weren't romantically interested in each other, but if Ryoba had gone to jail, they might have developed feelings over time.[24] If they lived together long enough, they might develop warmth due to their mutual respect and admiration for one another. YandereDev imagines that rather than saying romantic statements, their fondness would be in the form of thinking of the other person and about them.[25]
They live structured lives, following a strict schedule to maximize time for investigations. They even prepare their lunches and sometimes dinners in advance.[26]
They don't have pets, but if they did, it would probably be a police dog.[27]
- Ui Tunesu
- Main article: Ui Tunesu
When the Journalist was at court for Ryoba's case, he mentioned everything Ui told the police that she witnessed Ryoba do, meaning that he may see that she is trustworthy.
- Kocho Shuyona
- Main article: Kocho Shuyona
The Journalist doesn't really have much interaction with Kocho, although it was mentioned that Kocho always refused to let him enter Akademi.
At the time when Ryoba is arrested and brought to trial, Kocho seems to be the only person to believe the Journalist's claims about Ryoba being the real culprit behind the murder at Akademi is a truth that caused him to also develop a grudge against Ryoba.
Trivia
- His character was first introduced in the August 12th, 2015 Build, with the tapes. He was fully implemented in the October 10th, 2021 Build.
- Journalist was added to YandereDev's "characters" on September 30th, 2016.
- He is not the person who put his tapes around the school.[28]
- His name will likely not be revealed unless there is a huge fan demand for it.[29]
- Eliminating him (unintended in the game, but possible through glitches or debug menu) makes the game display for him a randomly chosen name, as his real name is not in the game data.
- YandereDev thinks that the Saikou family is probably aware of his existence.[30]
- He may have taken his wife's surname to escape his past.[31]
- When he was a student, he likely had the Sleuth persona.[32]
- There is no way to kill him, as he will pepper spray you anyway. It is also not possible to kill him in the Snap Mode, since he simply disappeared. He is also unaffected by easter eggs.
- If he dies, it would cause a plot hole/time paradox and mess up the established timeline of the game.[33]
- If his reputation is to be put below -150 and he waits until the next day, the picture for his funeral will be a red question mark instead of his portrait.
- Opening his profile will reveal his name to be randomly generated.
- Fans have speculated that Info-chan is the daughter of the Journalist; however, YandereDev has stated that this remains a theory and has not confirmed its validity.[34]
- He is not fully Japanese, as one of his ancestors was from Romania.[8]
- The Journalist would not kidnap or kill Ayano to take revenge on Ryoba.[35]
Illustrations
.png "Osana Progress and Yakuza Thoughts (YouTube Thumbnail).png (6.21 MB)")
.png "Journalist Tapes (Content Checklist).png (1.3 MB)")
.png "S+ Rank (Content Checklist).png (159 KB)"){kind=icon}
References
- ↑
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YandereDev/status/654560770353532928
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://twitter.com/YandereDev/status/652553259702292480 (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/EDLey)
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YandereDev/status/669206116073496576 (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/v86u6)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6
- ↑
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7wo5d3/some_question_about_journalist/ (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/QRGwk)
- ↑
- ↑ https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7xcfgl/some_questions_about_journalists_family_members/
- ↑ https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/aci1ts/questions_about_journalist_wife_for_dev_12/
- ↑ https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7rtk6u/some_journalist_wife_questions_again_xd/
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/f5vw32/some_questions_about_the_wife_of_journalist/
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7wgbgs/some_questions_about_journalist_family_again/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/YandereDev/status/655901765615751174
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/a0ztz3/yesterday_i_saw_a_post_on_the_subreddit_that_make/
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 https://old.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7j2set/questions_about_yanderechans_father_and_ryoba/
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/6019x2/one_question/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/63a33w/four_questions/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/78qald/questions_about_the_saikous/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/7wgbgs/some_questions_about_journalist_family_again/
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/yandere_simulator/comments/83p92o/questions_about_the_sleuth_persona/
- ↑ https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/2022/02/18/february-18th-bug-fixing-build-2/comment-page-1/#comment-127130
- ↑
- ↑
.png){kind=link}