Rise Kujikawa

Rise Kujikawa, also known by her stage name Risette, is a character from Persona 4. A famous teen idol, Rise is well-known amongst teenagers and adults, but quits her job suddenly, citing health reasons.

Appearances
Persona 4: Information/Support Character

Biography

 * Age: 15 (Start of the game, 16 when she first appears)
 * Date of Birth: June 1st, 1995
 * Zodiac: Gemini
 * Height: 155 cm
 * Weight: 41 kg
 * Bloodtype: AB
 * Initial Persona: Himiko
 * Ultimate Persona: Kanzeon
 * Arcana: Lovers

Persona 4
A cheery-looking female with reddish brown hair tied in two pigtails, Rise is first seen in a commercial, where she advertises the fictional diet soda "Calorie Magic." Rise, despite her uprising fame, eventually quits her job and decides to settle down in her hometown, Yasoinaba to live with her grandmother. While being asked upon her decisions of choosing to stay in Yasoinaba despite the murder cases happening recently, Rise insisted to live in Yasoinaba, and explains that her sudden decision of quitting her job is due to stress. Following Rise's return to Yasoinaba, the whole town rustles to Rise's grandmother's tofu store, Marukyu, hoping to see Rise. As Rise has appeared in the TV news, the Investigation Team becomes worried that Rise might get kidnapped and killed in the Midnight Channel, and goes to warn her.

Hoping to catch the culprit, the Investigation Team proposes a stake out on the Marukyu Tofu Store, but their actions are found out by Tohru Adachi, the assistant of Detective Ryotaro Dojima.The Investigation Team eventually teams up with Adachi, the assistant of Ryotaro Dojima. Through their stake out, they eventually caught a stalker, however, the stalker anxiously denies his connection with the murder cases. Not believing his words, Adachi took the stalker away. However, during their way back passing the Marukyu Store, Rise's grandmother claims that Rise has gone away. Panicked, the Investigation Team decides to tune in the Midnight Channel again, and realizes that they were too late: Rise has already been kidnapped.

Eventually after gathering clues, the Investigation Team managed to detect Rise's location in the Midnight Channel, and sets out to rescue her. The Investigation Team eventually finds Rise, along with the other 'Rise'. The other 'Rise' taunts Rise, telling her that in actuality, this is what she desired, and the fact that she knew is because she is Rise, and begins performing a pole-dance in an alluring fashion. Confused and surprised, Rise denies the Shadows' claims, and exclaims that the shadow is not her.



Fueled by Rise's declination, the other 'Rise' transforms into a shadow and attacks the party. However, Shadow Rise's analytical abilities proved to be more of a match, and the party was severely knocked back. Laughing at their incompetence, the Shadow Rise readies for another strike, but Teddie eventually charges towards the Shadow, performs a suicidal attack and weakens the Shadow. However, Teddie himself suffers a massive backdraft, and becomes a wrinkling, skinny bear. Accepting her true self, the Shadow nods, and transforms into Himiko, becoming Rise's Persona.

After her kidnapping, Rise shows a relatively less-than-subtle crush towards the Protagonist, and eventually creates the Lovers Arcana Social Link with him. Through the Protagonist's interactions with Rise, Rise reveals that during her childhood, she was a shy, lonely child, and that nobody had expectations of her. Due to her shyness, she was constantly bullied by her classmates, until a relative submitted her application to an idol competition, which she won. Ironically, her original motivation of accepting the prize was so once she becomes popular, she would have more friends. However, she eventually realizes that her 'friends' are only interested in the fabricated personality of teen-idol 'Risette', but not Rise Kujikawa, the young girl from Yasoinaba.

Rise later found out that after her continuous declination of returning to showbiz, her manager found another rising star, which greatly irritates her. By the end of the Social Link, Rise eventually realize that 'Risette' isn't a fabricated personality, but one of her many traits. Upon her realization, Rise exclaims that she would return to her job as an idol in spring, hoping to show the world her other traits other than 'Risette'. With Rise finally finding her resolution, her persona transfigures into Kanzeon. Rise would also give the Protagonist her signed photo, bestowing the Ultimate Form of Lovers Arcana, Ishtar, the Goddess of Love. If the Protagonist decides to make an intimate relationship with Rise, and accepts Rise's invitation text message on the Christmas Eve to spend time with her, the Protagonist will receive the accessory Silver Bangle, which raises the user's SP by 50%.

Rise's cooking skills has been implored later in the storyline, in there reveals that she enjoys using large amount of spice in her cooking, making everything she cooks very spicy and making them unable to taste the other ingredients in her food. While she often taunts Yukiko and Chie about their cooking skills, her cooking skills turns out to be just as bad as Yukiko and Chie's.

Rise's Persona is Himiko of The Lovers Arcana, who wears a white gown, has a satellite dish for a face and holds an object similar to the torch wielded by the actual Himiko. She will provide background and enemy information for the front lines during and outside of battles. Her Shadow is a colorful pole dancer with pigtails like hers. Her Midnight Channel dungeon is a strip club. They all represent her desire to strip away her 'idol' self so that other people will know the real Rise.

Battle Quotes

 * Alright! Level up!
 * This one's strong, watch yourself!
 * Haha Senpai, that was sooo cool!
 * Haah it's a no-brainer, i'm sure you'll win!
 * ehh!? ___-senpai, someone heal him/her!
 * Guys...you're really low on health...!
 * ...shouldn't someone heal ___-senpai...?
 * puh...you're up! ok, time for an counter-attack!
 * only one enemy left! you can do it!
 * only two/three enemies left!
 * Gee, it's like an endless stream of 'em!

Trivia

 * Rise's story gives a glance on what the entertainment scene is like in Japan - native teen and adolescent idols are followed with at least as much (if not more) zeal that Americans display while following their Stateside contemporaries, such as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers (to use a pair of up-to-date examples.) Some may argue that the top idols over there have status in Japan comparable to that of the Beatles in Britain at the height of Beatlemania.
 * Rise's appearance and name closely resemble those of her Japanese voice actress, Rie Kugimiya. Rise even wears thigh-highs like many of the female characters Rie Kugimiya voices.
 * Rise's early concept art looks somewhat like Lisa Silverman of the Persona 2 duology. This may have influenced a scene after the exams before the summer in which she says "What do I need to know English for? I can always ask for a translator!". Lisa also had trouble with the English language despite being born to American parents.
 * Rise is the only Persona 4 character to have some sort of interaction, though inderict, with characters from Persona 3 prior to the port island trip. During the cutscenes leading up to the King's Game event, Rise mentions that the owner of the club will allow the group to use the upstairs room, because he owed her for the power going out during her performance at the club two years prior. It would've been about this same time that SEES would be going after the Hermit Greater Shadow in the basement of Paulownia Mall.