Boy with Earring

The Boy with Earring is the protagonist of Persona and is a student of St. Hermelin High School. He is only referred to as the "the pierced boy" in Megami Ibunroku Persona, the Japanese version, and the "Boy with Earring" in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. In the English version, Revelations: Persona, he has no piercings and thus has no referenced moniker whatsoever.

Appearances

 * Megami Ibunroku Persona: Protagonist
 * Revelations: Persona: Protagonist
 * Persona CD Drama: Protagonists as Yūya Narumi
 * Megami Ibunroku Persona: Shadow Maze: Protagonist as Jihei Suzakuin
 * Persona Manga: Protagonist as Naoya Tōdō
 * Shin Megami Tensei: Persona: Protagonist
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment: Minor Character

Design
The protagonist has black hair, brown eyes, and a piercing on his left ear. He wears the St. Hermelin uniform without alterations. He has a black wristwatch on his left arm, and black shoes.

In Revelations: Persona, his skin was paler, he had shorter red hair, and no pierced ear.

Personality
For the most part, the protagonist is silent, and his personality is controlled by the player, setting up a pattern the protagonists of later games would follow. However, the decisions that lead to the game's true ending and the gaining of the Ultimate Personas paint the Protagonist as a natural leader; a compassionate, perceptive, yet blunt person who is motivated to seek his personal reason for life and discourages hiding from the truth. In the manga, Naoya also inherited this same trait, though since he is mostly quiet and going along with everyone else, the rest of the party are surprised when he shows his hot-headed side while leading them.

Persona
The protagonist is the main player character in Persona. He is a nameless protagonist, who has to be named by the player in the start of the game. All that is known about him is that he is a second year student at St. Hermelin High School and he visits his friend Maki Sonomura in the hospital regularly.

In the true ending of the game, unlike the other students, his fate is unknown, left only for the player to decide.

The plot of this game is followed in exactly the same manner by the English adaptations of Megami Ibunroku Persona, Revelations: Persona, Persona, and in the Megami Ibunroku Persona manga.

Revelations: Persona
In this English version of Persona, the protagonist was one of the many characters redesigned to make him "more American". He has lighter hair, and no pierced ear.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
In Eriko Kirishima's flashback at Araya Shrine, it is revealed that after the events of Persona, he had to go away, and would not be able to see his friends for a while. The reason behind his departure is left up to the player to decide, as when he gives his reason, there is no text box. Later on, in the epilogue, the St. Hermelin Persona users have a reunion in Parabellum Bar. There is a knock on the door and the door opens, but the person entering is unseen. It is assumed that this is the Protagonist from Persona.

History
Naoya used to have an older twin brother named Kazuya. One day, when he was a child, he was having a cold and must stay at home with Kazuya and their mother taking care of him. After went shopping with their mother, Kazuya went out to meet their mother's acquaintance to buy a manga that Naoya wanted. On his way home, however, Kazuya was hit by a truck and passed away. Kazuya's death greatly struck their mother that she initially mistook Naoya as Kazuya when the younger twin saw his older brother's body. Naoya quickly denied that he is Kazuya, but this made his mother cried. During Kazuya's funeral, one of his relatives gave her condolences by telling how kind Kazuya was for trying to buy a manga to cheer him up that led to his death. This made Naoya felt responsible for Kazuya's death. To ease his mother who was still unable to accept Kazuya's death, Naoya started to act like Kazuya to the point he almost believed himself to be Kazuya. However, once his father came back home from his job overseas and argued with his mother, his mother accepted Kazuya's death and Naoya pierced his ear as a proof that he is not Kazuya and made himself forget the day Kazuya died out of guilt.

Plot Overview
Naoya joins the bet made between Mark and Uesugi (he placed his bet on Mark) to play Persona game. Once they played the game, a little girl suddenly appears and he along with everyone else falls unconscious and dreams about Philemon. Following their teacher's suggestion, they all went to hospital for check up and visit Maki. Naoya apologizes for not visiting her for the past few days and Maki reveals that they are childhood friends when Mark questioned their closeness. However, Maki's condition suddenly worsened that she is taken for emergency surgery, with Naoya and everyone else waiting.

In the middle of surgery, an earthquake occurs and the surgery room was blocked by a wall when they opened it. Monsters started to appear in hospital and kills people inside and attacks them. This awakened Naoya's and his friends' Personas, allowing them to escape from the hospital, but also finds out that they cannot get out of the town. On their way back to school, they met Eriko Kirishima and Maki's mother, who reveals that the organization that she was working with, SEBEC, is the one responsible behind what happened to their town.

Battle Quotes

 * "Raaah!" (when attacking)
 * "Persona!" (when summoning a Persona)
 * "Here goes!" (when summoning a Persona)
 * "Uoooah!" (when summoning a Persona)
 * "Die!" (when attacking with weapon)
 * "Ow!" (when hit)
 * "Eat this!" (using gun)
 * "Gwoah!" (when KO'ed)

Trivia

 * In the manga, the protagonist has a habit of touching his face whenever he thinks of his other self.
 * The protagonist was the one who pierced his own ear, at the age of 12.
 * This protagonist is the only one who wears his school uniform formally and correctly, unlike the other protagonists of the Persona series.