Naoto Shirogane

Naoto Shirogane is a playable character in Persona 4. A skilled private detective, Naoto is a refined, serious youth, with formal speech and body language.

Appearances

 * Persona 4: Playable Character
 * Persona 4 Manga
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Fortune Arcana
 * Persona 4 Golden: Playable Character
 * Persona 4 Arena: Playable Character
 * Persona x Detective Naoto: Protagonist

Design
Naoto is androgynous in appearance, with short blue hair, gray eyes (Although blue in the Animation and the Arena), and slightly tanned skin. She wears Yasogami High's gakuran, save for one optional occasion in which she wears a seifuku-style school uniform. Naoto is often seen wearing formal clothing such as blue shirts, ties, and her trademark blue cap. On days off during winter, she wears a dark blue coat with a light blue bowtie and yellow buttons, and plaid blue pants. Naoto's summer outfit, however, is reminiscent of the clothing of Kyouji Kuzunoha and consists of a light blue shirt and a yellow necktie.

In Persona 4 Golden during the ski trip in the winter, she wears a snow suit with a white hoodie, light blue snow jacket, dark purple gloves, dark pants, and gray shoes, with a pair of goggles hanging around her neck.

In Persona 4 Arena, her appearance is the same as in the game.

In Persona x Detective, Naoto is seen with much longer, nearly waist-length hair. Her trademark cap is absent and she wears a gray suit with a white shirt and a blue tie.

Personality
Having lost both parents in a car accident during childhood, Naoto acts very mature in spite of being young of age. As a descendant of a lineage of famous detectives, she wears formal clothing and speaks formally in a deep voice, wishing to be treated as an adult, and expresses frustration at being treated like a child by the police force. It is also implied in the story that Naoto has (like the other female party members) no talent in cooking.

Persona 4
A well-known detective, Naoto was dubbed the "Detective Prince" by the media. She is first mentioned when the department which Ryotaro Dojima works has no lead upon their investigations for the bizarre murder case, resulting in Dojima's superiors employing Naoto to assist them, an action which greatly disturbs Dojima. Furthermore, Naoto claims that the only rewards she wants for solving the case is the truth, and wants no assistance from other departments, further annoying Dojima.

Naoto first appears on-screen during the Investigation Team's investigation of Kanji Tatsumi as the potential next victim. Incidentally, Naoto was also to deduce that Kanji would be the next victim, and tries to seek clues by speaking to him. During that time, Naoto expresses interest in the case, which Kanji mistakes as Naoto being interested in him. This results in Kanji becoming shocked and conflicted about his feelings towards Naoto, and more importantly, his sexuality.

Naoto later enrolls at Yasogami High School, immediately attracting the admiration of others. However, her serious nature often leads to her shunning and ignoring her admirers and classmates. Later, during one of the Investigation Team's meetings regarding the suspect of the case, Mitsuo Kubo, Naoto appears and chastises the Team's efforts, deeming their investigation as nothing more but a "game." She tells them that their game is about to end, and that Yasoinaba will soon return to its peaceful, rustic self. Annoyed by her words, Rise Kujikawa tells Naoto that she is the one who was treating the case like a game. Surprised by the idol, Naoto reluctantly accepts that what Rise said might be true, lamenting that detectives are just employed for the time being, and once the case has been solved, they are simply pushed aside.

After the arrest of Mitsuo Kubo, the first suspect of the case, Naoto remains suspicious and decides to become bait to lure the culprit. She is interviewed by a TV show and subsequently kidnapped and thrown into the Midnight Channel. Through the Team's efforts to gather clues, they found out that Naoto, despite her professional personality, is actually a workaholic who chooses to ignore the police department's advice and work alone. As such, she is often deemed a kid trying too hard by the officers.

The Investigation Team eventually manages to detect Naoto's location in the Midnight Channel, an industrial laboratory or military base filled with mechanical Shadows and falcon symbols, and sets out to rescue the detective. The Investigation Team eventually finds Naoto, along with her Shadow, who is busy preparing for a "body-altering operation." The other 'Naoto' taunts Naoto, saying that in reality Naoto is nothing more than just a child trying to play "superhero". Confused and surprised, Naoto denies the Shadow's claims. However, the Shadow then reveals a shocking secret: Naoto is actually female. It clarifies that the "body-altering operation" was to be a sex-change operation. Fueled by Naoto's rejection, her Shadow transforms and attacks the party.

Naoto's Shadow is a robotic doppelganger equipped with large toy-like laser guns, rocket feet and a jet pack, representing Naoto's resentment towards being treated like a child and not taken seriously, as well as the pressure she feels from working in an occupation dominated by men. It can also be something of a split personality, as it can talk seriously one minute, and act helpless and innocent the next, similar to how the Wheel of Fortune may act unpredictably. After defeating the Shadow, Naoto reveals that her parents were detectives as well, but were both killed in one of their investigations. She acknowledges her parents' passion for their job, and wishes to become a "hard-boiled" detective, inheriting the title of "Shirogane," but fears as long as she herself is a girl, she can never achieve her dreams.

She eventually realizing that what she wanted was not to become a man, but to be accepted as her true self, and her Shadow acknowledges her resolution, transforming into Sukuna-Hikona, her Persona. Later, during the Yasogami High cultural festival, she wins the beauty pageant despite not showing up for the second round (a swimsuit competition). In spite of her extremely masculine personality, she is a bit self-conscious of her body, as she refuses to wear a swimsuit and immediately steals her physical examination results from Teddie when Rise is about to reveal her bust size.

Social Link
The protagonist creates the Fortune Arcana Social Link with Naoto after rescuing her, and teams up with her to solve a challenge given to the Shirogane clan by the "Phantom Thief." In the events of their investigation, the Phantom Thief's identity is revealed to be Naoto's grandfather, who wishes to help her get back her passion of investigating cases for the truth, rather than investigating for the sake of the Shirogane name.

By the end of the Fortune Arcana Social Link, Naoto acknowledges her passion for investigation, and thanks the Protagonist. Having recognized the change in her psyche and resolution, Naoto's Persona, Sukuna-Hikona, transfigures into Yamato-Takeru.

To pursue a Lovers Route with Naoto, initiate the Rank 8 event. The Protagonist and Naoto will arrive at the Shopping District where Naoto claims that someone has told her that the Phantom Thief has been sighted around said area. They will then head to the shrine where a man brandishes a knife at Naoto. The player will have three options; Protect Naoto, Fight alongside Naoto or Do nothing. Doing the first one will at first cause a negative reaction from her; the second will cause the same thing, but she'll be less frustrated; the third will simply agitate her.

Afterwards, the player will be given a choice of whether to pursue a relationship with her or remain her friend. Choosing the top option(Because I love you) will cause her to become embarressed and conflicted; she'll even state that because the protagonist has said that, she can no longer look him in the eye. This will advance the link to Rank 8, and cause to run home.

In the Rank 9 event, Naoto will read off the final challange from the thief, and ask the protagonist somewhere where she likes to be; for the most positive reaction, answer "Somewhere high." She will then ask herself something she can't stand doing. Again, for the most positive reaction, answer "Throwing things away." Provided the player pursued a relationship with her, she'll blush and ask if she mentioned it before.

She and thee Protagonist will go to the hill and investigate the trash can, where she will obtain the final item, Detectives Notebook. She will begin to curse her grandfather for scheming the entire event and sit at the bench with the Protagonist. Once again, the event differs depending on the relationship that was chosen. During the Lovers Route, after Rank 9 has been reached, she will confess her love to the protagonist.

Her reward item for reaching Rank 10 is the Detective's Badge, which allows the player to fuse Norn.

Should the Protagonist choose the second option, which results in the Protagonist replying that he likes Naoto's voice higher, Naoto will wear a seifuku during Dec 24th to meet the Protagonist, should the Protagonist accept her invitation, and spend the night together with him. Her gift for him is a handmade watch that notifies him of the distance of her location, reading Distance &lt;1m. In the Japanese version, Naoto instead asks the Protagonist whether is it weird for her to use male pronouns (僕, boku) to describe herself.

Persona 4 The Animation
Her role in the animation is similar to that of the game. In the anime, the bond between Naoto and Yu is represented by the Persona Atropos.

Persona 4 Golden

 * Initial Persona: Sukuna-Hikona
 * Ultimate Persona: Yamato-Takeru
 * 3rd-Tier Ultimate Persona: Yamato Sumera Mikoto

In Persona 4 Golden, the addition of bikes for the Investigation Team introduced a unique new way of obtaining skills for party members. By going on special forms of dates with each party member, involving the use of the bikes, the player is given the option of either having the party member in question learn a brand-new skill, or relearn any old skill that they have forgotten. The bike skills available to Naoto are listed below.

Additionally, like with Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4, each party member is able to learn new skills upon the player's progression of their Social Link. The social link skills that Naoto learns upon development of her Social Link are also listed below.

Persona 4 Arena
Her story mode begins a month before the game's actual starting date, after she is contacted by a man in the Japanese Self Defence Force to help them investigate Mitsuru Kirijo, the eldest daughter of the Kirijo group. When she asks why is she needed for this, the man reveals that this involves Shadows and Personas, interesting Naoto. It seems that they have been working with an almost invisible group still under the Government's support called Shadow Operatives, mainly because of their job to exterminate Shadows (creatures this same man had seen in the past) and because they work in the shadows.

They suspect Mitsuru Kirijo to be doing this not only to exterminate Shadows and help people but because there is some dark secret she is trying to hide, and they want to make it come to light. Naoto agrees thinking it's for the better good.

After meeting Mitsuru, she takes part in the escort team of a plane carrying something really important for the Kirijo Group, with a high security label, but the plane is hijacked and the cargo disappears. Naoto manages to put a transmiter in a suspicious van, and they track the signal to Inaba, where the cargo is supposed to be at. Naoto is told by Mitsuru she shouldn't get involved any further, and asks her to leave the case. Naoto understands Mitsuru is only thinking about the better good, but decides to keep on investigating.

A month later, she is contacted by the same man at the Self Defence Force, instructing her to meet up a person close to Mitsuru Kirijo called Detective Kurosawa, a close aid of Kirijo. Later she is also contacted by Chie in order to know if she's going to make it to their meeting.

Naoto meets with Kurosawa. He gives her information about Mitsuru's group and objectives. When Naoto asks him why is he doing this, Kurosawa replies that, no matter how much they investigate, they won't be able to find anything dirty in Mitsuru, because there is none.

He leads Naoto to where Mitsuru, Aigis and Akihiko Sanada meet, before entering a TV where they suspect the cargo is. Naoto decides to follow in order to keep on investigating and make sure everything is alright in that world.

She finds herself caught up in a strange tournament which happens to contain herself and the rest of the investigation team promptly running into Yu as soon as she comes to. He tells her what's going on and she continues onward. Eventually she runs into Mitsuru and is able to defeat her. While she is still suspicious of Mitsuru, she gets a better understanding of who she is and can trust her completely. She helps her get into contact with Rise who reveals she is locked up in the announcement room and heads there after defeating Akihiko too.

As she breaks the door open, she finds Labrys after she defeated Teddie with General Teddie in the room, Naoto correctly stating that the General is really Labrys' shadow and soon Labrys herself attacks Naoto. In subduing Labrys, she continues to deny her shadow which makes Shadow Labrys become stronger. After defeating Labrys' shadow, her and Teddie go to Labrys as they explain that just as Labrys cannot escape the reality that she is an android, Naoto cannot be a man and Teddie cannot become human either. But because of this, they can rely on their friends who will accept them no matter who they are. This helps Labrys accept her shadow and allow it to become her Persona. Soon, Yu and the others begin to show up as the others are surprised to see Naoto and Mitsuru's group. Mitsuru covers up that Naoto helped guide Mitsuru through the TV World as part of her job. But when Labrys is taken over, she realizes that the true culprit is someone different and confirms it when she faces off against her own "shadow", which she correctly guesses should not happen seeing as how she just used her Persona thus revealing it to be the culprit.

After discovering the true mastermind, they decide to retire for the day. As the Investigation Team says their goodbyes to Labrys, Mitsuru pulls Naoto aside to give her blessings to the team, though she didn't immediately get it, she confirms her suspicions when Yu and Yosuke officially reform the Investigation Team during their party celebrating Yu's return. Later, she gives the report that Mitsuru and her Shadow Operatives group should not be considered a threat to public safety and that Mitsuru only means to amend for her family's sins. But Naoto realizes  that though Mitsuru is not a truly manevolent individual, the Kirijo Group still hides many secrets and that this is only the beginning.

Play Style
Naoto is best described as a morphing character who is mostly played at medium-to-long range but can shift to close range combat. As a payoff, Naoto has low health and has a hard time fending against fierce opponents. Unlike her fellow keep away characters, her strengths lie in the ability to shift her line of fire swiftly as well as being able to utilize traps, along with her original Shield of Justice (Seigi no Tate) Reversal Action being a secondary counter. Naoto also packs several creativity in her combos when her setups are properly used, such as her traps being placed in specific locations.

Unique to Naoto, her opponent is given a special Fate meter which she can deplete using several attacks. When depleted to 0, she has access to Hamaon and Mudoon to instant kill the enemy and, unlike most instant kills, is able to execute them in any round. Despite not being able to land possible OHKO's with her Hamaon and Mudoon, the former can be great for pressure as Naoto can conceal her mixups inside the light, and the latter can be used to extend combos quite well. This overall, along with Naoto having some meter to spare, gives her some of the highest damage potentials in the game. Some of her moves such as her jumping B and C can be used for long ranged pokes. Though a special glitch, Naoto is also able to perform a loop with her Niren Kiba (Double Fangs) B in the corner by breaking through Same Move Proration by performing 10 different moves on the opponent in one combo.

A notable drawback of hers in competitive play as well is that should one be too focused on her keep away, there's a chance she'll often have more Negative Warnings and Negative Penalties than most characters, severely crippling her added with her already low health and some bad direct defensive options.

Persona x Detective Naoto
Naoto is the main character in the spin-off novel. The novel is set after the game, where Naoto is in her final year of high school. However, she is in a different school and setting.

In the novel, Naoto is assigned to investigate the disappearance of her old friend, Touko Aoi, who disappeared only recently. She travels to Yagakoro City, where she is partnered with Sousei Kurogami, who is her exact opposite and introduces himself as "mechanical." By working together, they soon find out about a website called the Mayonaka Site.

Persona 4

 * Come, Sukuna-Hikona! (Enemy weak to attack/Critical with Phys skill)
 * Come, Yamato-Takeru! (Enemy weak to attack/Critical with Phys skill)
 * All yours! (Using Persona skill)
 * Let's go! (Using Persona skill)
 * Persona! (Using Persona skill)
 * Someone finish this one off! (Attack doesn't kill enemy)
 * It's quite tenacious! (Attack doesn't kill enemy)
 * I'll have my revenge for that! (recover from Down/Dizzy)
 * I see, so it won't work! (enemy immune to element)
 * I'm ready to go! Just say the word! (All-Out Attack prompt)
 * Our moment has arrived! Let's go! (All-Out Attack prompt)
 * The enemies have fallen! Let's finish them off! (All-Out Attack prompt)
 * Okay, understood! (Performing All-Out Attack)
 * Precisely! (Performing All-Out Attack)
 * Here goes! (During All-Out Attack)
 * I hope you're prepared! (During All-Out Attack)
 * Let's end this! (During All-Out Attack)
 * Shall I take over? (Follow up attack)
 * Let me do this! Please! (Follow up attack)
 * Leave this to me! (Follow up attack)
 * Now then, what's next? (Victory)
 * That's what come for underestimating me! (Victory)
 * Elimination complete! (Victory)
 * You've become even more dependable! (Protagonist level up)
 * My skills have been honed! (Level up)
 * I gained a level! (Level up)

Persona 4 Arena

 * K-Killjoy!? What is this? Who came up this demeaning epithet?! (In response to her title)
 * What is this? What's going on? (Starting Arcade Mode)
 * Is this an army of idiots? (on E3 trailer)
 * I assumed as much! (While performing Shield of Justice)
 * Freeze! (While performing Aim)
 * Steady... (While performing Snipe [Front])
 * Headshot! (While performing Snipe [Ricochet])
 * I won't miss! Fire! (While performing Snipe [Anti-Air])
 * Time to move. (While performing Cancel Aim)
 * Ready... Burst Shot! (While performing super move, Anti-S SP Pistol a)
 * This one's special... Fire! (While performing super move, Anti-S SP Pistol B)
 * Here goes! Be engulfed in light! (While performing super move, Hamaon)
 * Here goes! Be consumed by darkness! (While performing super move, Mudoon)
 * Finish it! Mudoon! (While performing super move, Mudoon)
 * Here goes! (While performing Awakening super move, Raid)
 * It over! It's too easy. (While performing Awakening super move, Critical Shot)
 * This is it! (Instant Kill)
 * Showtime! (Instant Kill)
 * Prepare yourself. That's what you get for not knowing your place. (While Naoto using Sukuna-Hikona's ablity to deliver the final shot during the Instant Kill)

Trivia

 * Naoto is the only character in the game who has a Persona of the opposite sex, possibly in reference to Naoto's androgynous appearance.
 * Shigenori Soejima, character designer and art director of Persona 4, stated in the annotations of Persona 4's artbook that Naoto was originally planned to be a boy.
 * Naoto's casual summer clothes are similar to Kyouji Kuzunoha's.
 * One of Naoto's usable weapons, "Athena Kiss R" might be a reference to Aigis' Kiss of Athena.
 * In the North American release, the gun left behind by the bonus boss in Secret Laboratory is called Algernon, with its description stating that it was named after an experiment in finding happiness. This is a reference to the book Flowers for Algernon.
 * Naoto constantly ranks in the top 3 in character popularity polls.
 * In the Japanese version, Chie compared Naoto's family to the Kindaichi family. Kosuke Kindaichi was a character in a series of detective novels that were popular in Japan and later spawned an unofficial spinoff named Hajime Kindaichi.
 * Naoto is also the only human character of the Investigation Team who doesn't wear their school uniform in Persona 4 Arena.
 * Naoto's ground throw in Persona 4 Arena is based on her Wake-Up Hit. Her awakening supers Hold Up!/Hands Up! (localized as Raid in the US versions) and Critical Shoot/Shot are both parts of her critical hit.
 * Naoto is the only character in Persona 4 Arena who does not use her Persona for her Awakening Supers.
 * She is also the only character alongside Elizabeth to have an Instant Kill system (her foes' Fate Counters for her Hamaon and Mudoon spells which are supers) aside from the universal Mortal Blow attack.
 * Like Yu Narukami, Aigis and Mitsuru Kirijo, she also gains an in-series Persona skill to her P4U moveset that is not in her original Persona(s)' skillset. In this case is the Double Fangs (Niren Kiba in Japanese) attack, though it is seen as a non-Persona attack instead.
 * Her Shield of Justice (Seigi no Tate) even evolves into a skill that is possible for Yamato Sumera Mikoto to gain in Persona 4: The Golden.
 * Naoto is the only party member whose Social Link can Reverse if you pick the wrong option during one of her Social Link events (the option that says "You're on your own." on the Rank 4 to 5 event), as well as having one of the two Social Links in the game that can be compromised in such a manner (the other being Ai Ebihara's Social Link).