Persona

the best of noble minds

Of the three travelers, Jin is the most reserved. Talking is clearly not one of his top-rated hobbies. He generally keeps his emotions suppressed or vaguely expressed; you are more likely to feel Jin's mood than see it. It makes sense; he willingly trained under conditions that demanded total emotional, spiritual and physical devotion, requiring a great deal of self-discipline. Emotional freedom would take second fiddle.

That said, trying to strike up a friendly conversation with Jin is a bit of a chore. He's the kind of person who will answer you only if he feels like it, which is not that often. His usual reply to unwanted conversation is a careless "hm". This habit frustrates Fuu quite a bit, who goes on a whole spiel about it in her diary. He tries maintain an air of indifference, but lets his feelings show through other mediums; for instance, his facial expressions often talk for him -- you can see when he's annoyed, frustrated, embarassed, or even happy. Similarly, he controls his temper so his voice is almost always level and calm, but his careful diction speaks the truth of his feelings.

Yet, Jin is not entirely humorless -- if there's anything I love about characters like Jin, it's how they can make me laugh without explictly trying to be funny. He's skilled with slipping in sarcastic comments while still seeming completely serious. One of my favorite scenes is when an onlooker asks who Mugen is, and Jin deadpans, "An idiot".

Jin also manages to get comically out of character when food is involved -- like his companions, he's often beset by hunger and the lack of money to relieve it. Though he never steps too far from his usual image of the Stoic Warrior, he isn't afraid to show some subtly humorous desperation when it comes to food. In the manga, he (unknowingly) uses his charm with the ladies to score himself a meal.

Speaking of which, Jin is almost entirely clueless when it comes to women (Fuu and Mugen hit upon this a few times throughout the story). He is too dedicated to his swordsmanship to waste time chasing after girls like Mugen, though he does briefly fight over Yatsuha. (To be fair, the other geisha weren't particularly spectacular) He clearly doesn't know how to react when Shino speaks so amiably towards him. It shows that Jin isn't as emotionally one-sided as he would like himself to be.