Yusuke Kitagawa

Yusuke Kitagawa is a playable character from Persona 5. He is an art student from Kosei High School who becomes involved with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Playable Character; Emperor Confidant
 * Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers: Major Character

Design
Yusuke has dark blue hair with parted bangs slightly covering his left eye and gray eyes.

He wears his school's uniform within regulation. It consists of a white long sleeve dress shirt with a mandarin collar that has his -shaped school's emblem, black trousers and shoes. He is also seen carrying several silver keys attached to his belt.

His burglar outfit consists of a fox mask, black jumpsuit, white motorcycle boots, blue gloves, waist sash, and a long white fox tail with a red ribbon wrapped round it.

Personality
As cool, calm and collected as he appears on the outside, Yusuke is very methodical, intelligent and elegant as well. He holds his mentor, Madarame, in extremely high regards and greatly respects and admires him.

His whole life's passion surrounded by art, he sees an attractiveness, beauty and aesthetic in mostly everything, and has a desire to draw his fellow friends/Phantom Thieves (especially Ann).

Having been sheltered for most of his life, Yusuke is unaccustomed to the ways of the society he lives in and because of this, his naïveté shows more times than not, in particular being unaware when he is coming off as creepy and intrusive to a potential female model for his work until directly told. A running gag is Yusuke accidentally causing troubles to other members, as he landed on Ann back's and he remodeled Futaba's Phoenix Ranger Featherman R figurines without her permission.

Yusuke also truly cares for his friends, as he worries about Naoya's behavior. Yusuke suspected Naoya had family problems until his suspicion is confirmed.

Yusuke seems to admire Leonardo Da Vinci, as he desires his code name to be "Da Vinci". This is met with instant rejection by Ryuji. Ryuji suggests "Abura-age" and Yusuke accepts this, but Ann disagrees. They eventually decide on Fox.

Persona 5
Yusuke is an honor student in an art course at the Kosei High School. Orphaned at a young age, he was found to have artistic talents and he is currently a live-in disciple of a famous Japanese painter by the name of Ichiryusai Madarame.

Yusuke approaches Ann Takamaki before being misunderstood as a stalker by the protagonist and Ryuji Sakamoto. He asks Ann to become a model for his next art, inviting her to go to his master's art exhibition to consider his offer. Hearing Madarame is a fraud, the Phantom Thieves decides to accept Yusuke's offer so they can investigate Madarame. They directly ask Yusuke about this, which angers Yusuke who continuously defends his master. After hearing about Madarame's doings from his former disciple, Natsuhiko Nakanohara, and locating his Palace, Ann and Morgana try to find the proof of Madarame's deception by once again accepting Yusuke's offer to become his model, while the protagonist and Ryuji enters Madarame's Palace (although Ann does everything in her power to delay actually becoming a nude model, even dressing in so many layers that Yusuke briefly believes she has gained weight). Ann sweet-talks Yusuke into letting her enter Madarame's studio where they found the evidence of Madarame's deception. When Madarame threatened to call the police, Ann and Morgana runs away, and Yusuke follows them as well, leading him to enter Madarame's Palace. Even after seeing the proof earlier, Yusuke still wants to believe in his master, so he decides to follow the Thieves to find out the truth.

Meeting Shadow Madarame, his master's Shadow reveals that to him, Yusuke is an art slave. He admits that he has indeed been stealing his students' artwork and declares it as his own. Once Yusuke learns of this truth, his desperation to find any decent goodness in his mentor turns into that of complete and utter desire for Madarame's retribution. Yusuke awakens his Persona, Goemon. Retreating to the real world, Yusuke asks to be allowed to join the Phantom Thieves, which is permitted by Morgana.

Confronting Shadow Madarame along with the Phantom Thieves for the last time, Shadow Madarame reveals his real treasure, the original Sayuri that Yusuke's mother had painted. From this, Yusuke deduces that his mother's death is not a simple accident. Shadow Madarame confirms this, revealing that when Yusuke was a little boy, all other disciples of Madarame began to distance themselves away from him after learning of his true nature, leaving only Yusuke's single mother. Around the time Yusuke was born, his mother created an art piece of herself happily holding her newborn son in her arms. When Madarame came across this beautifully constructed work of art, he made a deal with her in which he'd agreed to let Yusuke become a new member of the family in exchange of holding on to the artwork. One tragic day, Madarame witnessed her having a seizure in front of him, and instead of easily offering medical support, he let her die in vain and made duplicates of her last piece dedicated to her son to sell to the public, which granted him the fame and credit he has today. In order to give it "mystery," Madarame altered the art by removing the baby from the picture completely. Since he was just 3 years old, Yusuke receives no credit or recognition for his brilliant work; Madarame uses them to take the credit for his own, just like he did to Yusuke's mother, Natsuhiko and his other disciples many years ago.

Now knowing the whole truth, Yusuke thanks his former mentor because now he no longer has any reason to forgive him. Eventually defeating him and stealing his heart, Yusuke retrieves the original Sayuri painting that his mother had painted for him. Yusuke deduces that "Sayuri" is just a made up title by Madarame for the painting and unlikely to be his mother's true name because of fear of exposing the scam. After the exhibition, Madarame confesses to his crimes and is swiftly punished and discredited for it. Yusuke sadly recalls the "happy family" he lived in when Madarame's other disciples were around and how as he grew older, he never lost the hope that they would come back and they all could be happy once again. Now that he is part of the Phantom Thieves, he feels like he has another "happy family" again. Wanting to let go of the past, Yusuke gives the Sayuri painting to the protagonist who then displays it at Cafe Leblanc.

If the protagonist does not complete the dungeon in time, on the day Madarame completes his exhibition, he will report Ann and the Phantom Thieves to the police for trespassing into Madarame's home and keep Yusuke as an apprentice against his will. This scenario is a false recollection made by the protagonist during Sae's interrogation, due to his mind being addled by drugs he was forcefully administered by the police. Sae proceeds to leave the room to give the protagonist time to recover, at which point Akechi takes the opportunity to assassinate him.

Confidant
Yusuke's Confidant allows him to use the ability to replicate a Skill Card requires a Blank Card per replication which can be obtained in the Palace. At higher ranks, Yusuke can copy higher end skill cards. Maxing this Confidant makes Goemon evolve into Kamu Susano-o and unlocks the fusion of Odin.

Yusuke's farewell gift to the protagonist after maxing his Confidant is the Desire and Hope painting he made during the Confidant. It unlocks the Master Duplication ability from the start of New Game+ once their Confidant has been established.

Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
Yusuke is first seen walking with Naoya Makigami and alerts the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to Naoya's post on the Phantom Aficionado Website. He convinces them that they need to stop Kazuya's gang with a more permanent solution than just reporting them to the police. Yusuke is the one to confirm that Naoya is being abused, as he notices bruises on Naoya's back and arms while they are changing clothes. He assists in fighting Kazuya's demon form, Mithras, dispatching his Onmoraki servant with Goemon's ice powers. After Kazuya's arrest, he and the other Phantom Thieves of Hearts prepare for their next heist, with Yusuke commenting that their "next prey is huge".

Battle Quotes

 * "This is my other self!" (Summoning Persona)
 * "I am thou!" (Summoning Persona)
 * "Let's go!" (Summoning Persona)
 * "Persona!" (Summoning Persona)
 * "Goemon!" (Goemon casting skill)
 * "Goemon, strike!" (Goemon casting skill)

Trivia

 * Yusuke's last name and the design of his Persona Goemon are references to (喜多川 歌麿), one of the most highly regarded practitioners of the  genre of woodblock prints, especially for his portraits of beautiful women, or bijin-ga. As an adult, he was known by the given name Yūsuke (勇助).
 * Futaba refers to Yusuke as Inari instead of Fox. This is a reference to, the Japanese god of foxes.
 * Yusuke often glitches when using the "Harisen Recovery" skill; leading to him hitting his teammates with his hand rather than a paper fan.
 * Being an artist in game, Yusuke's Confidant ability to "paint" a Skill Card on a Blank Card is reminiscent of the Tarot Card replication service in Persona 2 provided by Demon Painter, who is Kazuma Kaneko's in-game cameo.
 * After Yukiko Amagi, Yusuke is the second party member in the series regularly speaks "I am thou" when summoning Persona.
 * Yusuke is the tallest member of the Phantom Thieves, standing at 181 cm.
 * Yusuke's appearance is very similar to Jun Kurosu from Persona 2. They even share the same zodiac sign.
 * Yusuke can dress as Jonny from Catherine.