Maya Amano

Maya Amano is a playable character in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and the protagonist in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. She is the first female protagonist of the Persona series as well as the oldest.

Appearances

 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin: Major Character
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Protagonist
 * Persona 3: Handle for another character
 * DemiKids Dark Version: BattleNet Opponent
 * DemiKids Light Version: BattleNet Opponent

Design
Maya is a young woman with chin-length black hair.

She wears a long navy necktie. Her outfit looks custom-made and unique. Her jacket is beige-and-brown with silver lining. On her breasts are pink hearts with silver lining. Her skirt design matches her jacket. She wears knee-high brown boots.

Personality
She is famous for her rather unwavering and relentless optimistic outlook, something which begins to break down in Eternal Punishment. Maya Amano is a cheerful and compassionate woman, and works as a reporter for the teen magazine Coolest. Maya is also known for her motto, "Let's Think Positive!".



Maya often takes the role of a leader in the group, even in Persona 2: Innocent Sin where she is not the protagonist. Her unstoppable optimism and kindheartedness inspired and encouraged the group throughout the events of the game, making her an unforgettable force within the world they inhabited. Maya also often cheers the party up with her stuffed rabbit doll, which she calls "Mr. Bunbun".

Maya functions as the silent protagonist in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment but still retains components of her Innocent Sin personality.

Innocent Sin
Maya Amano is a writer for Kismet Publishing working on the teen magazine Coolest. In the events of hearing rumors regarding a wish-granting genie called Joker, who grants anyone any wish, Maya became intrigued and tried to investigate behind the rumors, along with her partner Yukino Mayuzumi. Her investigation ends up in the Seven Sisters High School, in which she meets Tatsuya Suou and the others, setting the events of Innocent Sin.

Although Tatsuya and his friends forced themselves to forget, Maya had known them 10 years ago, as childhood friends. They formed a group called the Masked Circle, in which they hid their identities from one another with masks. She taught them the game "Master Persona", which would allow all of them to manifest a Persona and would also save Maya's life.

However, one day Maya revealed that she would have to move away. To prevent this, she was locked inside the shrine at which they played, which the kids believed would force her to stay, if she wasn't available at the time her parents moved. Although Tatsuya Suou wanted no part, Lisa Silverman and Eikichi Mishina did it anyway and locked him along with Maya.

During the night, the shrine was set on fire by Tatsuya Sudou. Maya was not killed thanks to her Persona awakening, but she was severely injured and developed a phobia of fire.

Jun Kurosu, one of Maya's closest friends, was lead by Nyarlathotep to believe that Maya had died in the fire. As a result, he developed a lingering grudge against the others, and it lead to him taking the role of Joker.

After the party's final confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Ms. Ideal stabs Maya with the Spear of Destiny. Due to a rumor that wounds inflicted from it could not be healed, it inflicts a mortal wound.

Even in her dying breath, she tells the party to be positive, telling them "Mr. Bunbun" will not be happy if they are sad, and finally dies, fulfilling the Oracle of Maia and destroying the world, with the exception of Sumaru City. Stricken with grief and devastated over her death, the party demands Philemon to do something about it. Philemon agrees to bring her back, but in an 'alternate world' with a hefty price — everyone must forget Maya and the friendship they shared.

Everyone willingly discards their memory, but during the process Tatsuya out and out refuses to forget through sheer force of will. In the events of doing so, Tatsuya ends up in the 'alternate' universe with all his memories intact, causing a paradox and setting the events of Eternal Punishment.

At the end of Innocent Sin, Maya and Tatsuya end up bumping into each other in front of a station, along with the other party members who witness this. This meeting causes Tatsuya to remember the events of Innocent Sin and Maya to develop a bruise.

Eternal Punishment
Maya functions as the silent protagonist in Eternal Punishment. She still writes for Coolest, often working alongside Yukino Mayuzumi. Before the events of the game, she had bumped into a mysterious student who had felt familiar to her. After this meeting, she also developed a mysterious bruise on her chest which occasionally aches. While working on a story about JOKER, she stumbles upon JOKER himself. He forces Maya, Katsuya Suou, and Ulala Serizawa to summon their Personas, and they wind up pursuing him.

Persona 3
The name Maya appears in Persona 3 as the online screen name for the Hermit Social Link character, in the English version of the game. She even says "let's think positive!"

DemiKids: Light & Dark
Maya is an A-Rank BattleNet opponent that's said to be a reporter that prefers to use recovery spells and bird demons. Defeating her 25 times earns a War Crow, 30 times a Garuda.

Solo Contacts

 * Interview: Maya interviews the enemy.
 * Consult: Maya consults with the enemy.
 * Discuss Parents: Maya talks about parents.
 * Compliment: Maya compliments the enemy.

Group Contacts

 * Maya + Tatsuya: Maya tries to get Tatsuya's attention. (Gained after exiting the Air Raid shelter.)
 * Maya + Eikichi: Maya interviews Eikichi. (Gained automatically after the Club Zodiac dungeon.)
 * Maya + Yukino: Maya and Yukino perform a comedy routine. (Available from start.)
 * Maya + Eikichi + Lisa: Maya, Eikichi, and Lisa perform a comedy routine. (Gained automatically after the Club Zodiac dungeon.)
 * Maya + Lisa + Yukino: Maya, Lisa, and Yukino seduce the enemy. (Available from start.)
 * Maya + Jun: Maya acts like a big sister towards Jun.
 * Maya + Jun + Tatsuya: Maya and Jun comment on their growth and recollect about their past. Tatsuya observes.
 * Maya + Lisa + Jun: Maya and Lisa seduce the enemy, while Jun asks for the demon's mercy.

Innocent Sin

 * Ready or not, here I go! (when entering a battle)
 * It's whoop-ass time! (when entering a battle)
 * Yikes! (when entering a battle on low HP)
 * Freeze! (when attacking)
 * There! (when attacking)
 * Bulls-eye! (when attacking)
 * Huh! (when attacking)
 * Persona! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Come to me! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Ciao! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Omni Dimension! (when using Omni Dimension with Maia and Maia Prime)
 * Dark Dimension! (when Shadow Maya uses Dark Dimension, the dark counterpart to Omni Dimension, with Reverse Maia)
 * Crescent Mirror! (when using Crescent Mirror with Artemis)
 * Are you ready? Here goes! (when using Fusion Spells)
 * Grand Cross! (when using Grand Cross)
 * See you next time! (when escaping)
 * Grab your asses and run! (when escaping)
 * No... (when KO'ed)
 * I'm sorry... (after winning a battle)
 * Did I overdo it? (after winning a battle)
 * Ohhh yeah, whoop-ass complete! (rare victory quote)
 * I know they're demons, but... *sigh* I guess you get used to it. (rare victory quote)

Eternal Punishment

 * Let's do it! (when entering a battle)
 * Whoop-ass time! (when entering a battle)
 * This is not good! (when entering a battle with low HP)
 * There! (when attacking)
 * Snap shot! (when attacking)
 * Persona! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Ciao! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Now, go! (when summoning a Persona)
 * Artemis! (when using Crescent Mirror with Artemis)
 * Let's go, ready? (when using Fusion Spells)
 * Let's fuse a spell! (when using Fusion Spells)
 * Everyone, c'mon! (when using Fusion Spells)
 * Whoop-ass completed! (after winning a battle)
 * I'm sorry... (after winning a battle)
 * Hmm... Did I overdo it? (rare victory quote)
 * Is that all? (rare victory quote)
 * I've felt this before... (rare victory quote)
 * I want to meet him... Stay out of my way! (rare victory quote)
 * See - you - next - time! (when retreating)
 * Grab your asses and run! (when retreating)
 * No way! (when KO'ed)
 * I can't, not here... (game over)
 * I'm sorry... Tatsuya... (game over)

Music
The motif of Maya's theme is probably the most arranged officially in the human character's theme category of the Megami Tensei series. If one does not count the remastered tracks of PSP remakes of the Persona 2 duology, there are 4 tracks containing Maya's motif in Innocent Sin OST, 1 track in Eternal Punishment OST, 1 vocal remix from "Persona 2: Innocent Sin ~ The Errors of Their Youth", 1 rearranged track from Persona 3 FES, 2 rearranged track in the Eternal Punishment PSP remake and Persona 20th Anniversary All Time Best Album for Persona 5 deluxe version pack-in bonus soundtracks which were released exclusively to Japanese version.



"Change Your Way" is the ending theme song for Persona 2: Eternal Punishment written and sung by Elisha La'Verne with the game in mind. According to the songwriter the song is about always being available to get out of bad situations, and was based upon experiences as she grew up in London, witnessing homeless people on the streets. This echoes the protagonist Maya's motto, "Let's think positive!".

Trivia

 * Maya is the first Persona protagonist that cannot be named by the player.
 * When the party goes to get her legendary weapon from Garcon Soejima, he tells them that the only way she can get the weapon is to eat his spaghetti di kusaya (spaghetti horse mackerel in the fan translation). She states this is her hated food.
 * In Persona 3, the player can befriend a player in the fictional MMO "Innocent Sin Online" (which itself is a reference to Persona 2: Innocent Sin), who uses the name "Maya", and even says "let's think positive!".
 * The way Maya faces her shadow in Innocent Sin is the most special one among the rest of the playable characters (including those from Persona 4) in that Maya has never admitted her Shadow is a part of her, but is always denying it even after her Shadow's defeat because she does not want to admit that she hates the kids for the incident ten years ago. Instead she believes her shadow is nothing more than a fake created by the conflicting rumors of her being a part of the Masked Circle.
 * Tadashi Satomi, the story writer, proposed the idea to allow Maya to speak in Eternal Punishment in the bonus content in the official blog of the PSP remake. This was dropped due to the tradition that the protagonist must remain silent because they represent the player.
 * Maya and Katsuya both can use the same weapons, with the only difference being that Maya is shown using two guns, while Katsuya fires them in a more standard way.
 * This also means that one has to choose whether to give Maya or Katsuya the Legendary Handgun, of which only one copy can be obtained, despite both characters being able to equip it.
 * In Persona 2: Innocent Sin ~ The Errors of Their Youth, track 10, "Bomb Shelter Imitation Hell", Maya does an impression of from the manga and anime series  in which Maya's Japanese voice actress is also famous for her voice-over of Shinnosuke.