Teddie

Teddie, known as Kuma (クマ, Kuma) in the Japanese version, is a playable character in Persona 4. At first, he acts as support for battles, but after the player completes the Marukyu Striptease Dungeon, he becomes a playable character while Rise Kujikawa takes over the support role.

Appearances

 * Persona 4: Playable character, Star Arcana
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Star Arcana
 * Persona 4 Golden: Playable character
 * Persona 4 Arena: Playable character
 * Catherine: Cameo

Design
Teddie's appearance is based off a stuffed animal. He is an anthropomorphic bear, having blue fur and wears a red and white jumpsuit-like clothing. Additionally, the head part of his suit has lenses which allow him to see through the fog in the Midnight Channel. Size-wise, Teddie is the shortest male party member.

After developing an ego, Teddie has blond spiky hair along with bright blue eyes and tanned skin. He is shown wearing a white blouse-like shirt with various adornments like a red rose and a flamboyantly designed collar. At the school festival when cross-dressing, Teddie has long blond hair with a blue ribbon, wears a blue dress and white stockings as well as black shoes. His cross-dressing alias is very similar to the appearance of Alice, from the 1951 Disney adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

In the True Ending epilogue of Persona 4 Golden, Teddie appears to have grown taller and has a new outfit: a blue and white striped T-shirt with an anchor design, navy shorts, and yellow shoes.

Personality
Being a comic relief character, Teddie is seen flirting with the girls of the Investigation Team on numerous occasions, but fails every time. Other than that, he is bubbly and cute and is known to cheer up the mood when investigating the case, much like Chie. He idolizes Yu, to the point to call him Sensei. In the Japanese version, he has a verbal tick, adding "-kuma" after every sentence, while in the English version his speech is filled with dozens of bear puns, like saying "Bear-sona" while summoning his Persona. He seems to care a lot about Nanako and calls her "Nana-Chan," even when she's in a near-death state after being kidnapped by Taro Namatame. In the beginning of Persona 4 The Animation, he acts much like a coward when shadows are near, but changes his ways as the story progresses.

Persona 4
Teddie was first seen in the Midnight Channel at the time when the Protagonist, Yosuke and Chie were in search for an exit, after leaving the Ominous Bedroom. Teddie, confused and irritated by their presence, asks them to leave because it's dangerous there and shows them the exit. After Saki Konishi's death the Protagonist and Yosuke entered the TV again in order to investigate. There they meet Teddie once again, but he gets suspicious and thinks that they are the ones who throw people in. After they tried to prove their innocence, Teddie asks them to find the real culprit and make them promise it in order to let them out. When the Protagonist first awakens to his Persona, Teddie, amazed by his power, immediately calls him 'Sensei'. Teddie takes the support role for the team until Rise Kujikawa joins the party.

After Teddie defeated Rise's shadow, his own Shadow appears but in a larger form of his bear costume coming out of a hole in the ground. Unlike most of the other Shadow-selves, Teddie's shadow is highly intelligent and does not wait for Teddie to deny him before attacking the party, mocking the Investigation Team's goals of seeking the truth as a waste of effort. However, this may be due to the intervention of another party, as Rise Kujikawa stated she felt the intervention of a powerful presence, most likely Izanami or Ameno-Sagiri. It is believed to represent Teddie's hiding the truth about his identity - that is, the fact that he is a lost, lonely Shadow. He learned to speak human language and became friendly with humans, taking his bear-like form so that people would like him upon meeting him. Teddie eventually takes a human form so that he can be with other humans. After gaining a personality and losing his Shadow mask, he receives his own Persona.

When the team was about to leave after the succeeded rescue of Rise and the defeat of his shadow, Teddie decides that he wants to be alone for a while and train in order for his fur to grow back and to be stronger.

Right after the death of Morooka, the team asks Teddie, who has by then came to their side, if someone was thrown in the TV while he was in, but Teddie answers negatively. The ultimate surprise came when Teddie said that that's hot outside, he tried to remove his bear suit much to Yosuke's disapproval, because he thought that Teddie was going to be empty inside, but he was not: a human body had grown by the time he was training as Teddie said. Since then, Teddie has become a front-line ally, giving the support work to Rise.

His Persona is Kintoki-Douji of the Star Arcana. It is capable of using ice spells and is also the other main healer. By completing Teddie's Social Link, Kamui will replace Kintoki-Douji.

An S.Link is automatically established with Teddie through the course of the story. Like the Fool and Judgement S.Links, this S.Link levels up periodically. If the protagonist decides not to work on any S.Links, Teddie will be the only voice the protagonist will hear in the True Ending. Once the S.Link becomes maxed out, the Protagonist can create Helel, the Light Bringer.

Persona 4 The Animation
Teddie first appeared when Yu, Yosuke and Chie first appeared in the TV world. He followed the three of them to the mysterious room with the noose. Teddie then gave Yu Narukami the glasses and fled when he sensed the shadows. He was later found by Yu, Yosuke and Chie and tells them how to leave. When Yu and Yosuke returned to investigate what had happened to Saki, they ran into Teddie again, who led them to where Saki was. When Yosuke's shadow appeared, Teddie stated that those were Yosuke's inner feelings to which Yosuke denied resulting in the following battle. After the battle, Teddie tells them that Saki and the reporter were likely killed by their shadows. Yu and Yosuke then promised Teddie that they would solve the case.

Later, instead of gathering information, they gave Teddie the bunny keychain that Kanji made by hand. Using it, he was able to sense his location and lead the team to the bath house. At the entrance, he is confused as to why the team - especially the male members - are reluctant to enter. When they find Kanji and confront his Shadow, he tries to help, but ends up slipping and falling on his face.

At Marukyu Striptease, he gives Kanji the pair of joke glasses that he'd made as a prank, enraging Kanji. After Kanji throws the goofy-looking glasses away, Teddie gives him the real pair of glasses. At the end of Rise's dungeon, Rise's Shadow manages to overpower the team and prepares to finish them off when Teddie attacks, managing to weaken her with a burst of power that ends up deflating him.

After fighting with their persona fails on Ameno-sagiri, as Teddie saw Yu in trouble, his persona evolves into Kamui and lent his power to Yu to summon the ultimate persona.

Teddie and Yu's bond is represented by the Persona Saturnus.

Persona 4 Golden
In Persona 4 Golden, Teddie has several costumes that make him appear human in the TV world as well as several outfits that feature him cross dressing.

In one event, the protagonist has the chance to kiss Teddie but he will break away and tell him that he's "giving off Kanji vibes" (rough translation).

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 Teddie 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 Teddie learns upon the development of his Social Link are also listed below.

Persona 4 Arena
Teddie returns in the sequel and hosts the P-1 Grandprix. The rest of the Investigation Team enters the TV world in order to find the truth behind Teddie's doing. It is eventually revealed that the "Teddie" behind the tournament isn't Teddie at all, but Shadow Labrys masquerading as him.

In his story mode after Yu left Inaba in Persona 4, Teddie kept busy by working at Junes. One day he can’t find Yosuke, so he dives inside the TV world to go look for him. Teddie lands inside a strange classroom with cleaning equipment nearby and uses the items to pull off a MacGyver worthy escape. He meets Labrys and is awestruck by her beauty and offers to become her "knight." Players will run into a suspicious dude with a red cloak and a "celebrity beauty" in Teddie’s tale. His story mode is unique from the other characters (Not counting Elizabeth and Labrys), because he has Kanji as his final boss rather than the Malevolent Entity or a possessed Labrys. Kanji arrives after the Malevolent Entity escapes, still thinking that everything is still a dream. He then tries to challenge someone so he can win the tournament. Teddie then accepts his challenge, after cheers from the female characters.

Additionally, in some of his win poses involve him shedding his "skin" to reveal human Teddie, clothed, naked, or cross dressing.

Play Style
Teddie is best described as a trickster character that a wide variety of tools including but not limited to: a teleport, ailment causing specials, and a wide array of throwing items that dynamically change the flow of battle. Unlike previous Arc Systems characters in the same style, his items come out in a preset order. He is also the only character that can inflict rage (via an item and his Furious Action) which allows him to create very devastating setups but also suffer increased damage from the opponent for a small amount of time if he gets caught. His Furious Action especially helps him reset the momentum (and arguably sets it to his advantage due to Rage) as even if the opponent is not hit by the move itself, the counter effect always puts Teddie at a certain distance behind the opponent making a counterattack extremely awkward to perform. Additionally, he has good range on his normals and can hit confirm into combos fairly well. As a payoff for his numerous blessings, his defense is somewhat poor and whiffing with him is a death sentence. His hitbox is very abnormal compared to the others (he is a bear after all), this leads into situations where combos may whiff on him or specific combos that apply to Teddie only. He also lacks an overhead attack, excluding his All-Out Attack which has a noticeable startup.

Score Attack

Teddie is the fourth character the player faces in Score Attack. While his damage is overall increased, what's notable is that Teddie Circus will make three trips across the screen and is faster overall.

Music
"Kuma Kuma Circus" is Teddie's theme in Persona 4 Arena. An electro-jazz upbeat music, it is composed by Shoji Meguro and plays for 2:25.

Persona 4

 * "Go, Kintoki-Douji!" (Summoning persona: Kintoki-Douji)
 * "Here goes! Kamui!" (Summoning persona: Kamui)
 * "Yay! Kamui-Moshiri!" (Summoning persona: Kamui-Moshiri)
 * "Bear-sona!" (Peru-kuma! in Japanese version) (Using a skill)
 * "It's so stubborn!" (Failure to eliminate an enemy Shadow)
 * "I'll get it next time!" (Failure to eliminate an enemy Shadow)
 * "Oh ... how cruel!" (Getting up from being knocked down/Dizzy)
 * "I'm still ticking!" (Getting up from being knocked down/Dizzy)
 * "This is my chance, how about it?" (Follow-up attack)
 * "Here I go!" (Follow-up attack after being initiated)
 * "Thank you!" (Being Healed)
 * "Thanks a bunch!" (Being Healed)
 * "Leave it to moi!" (Tactics: Act Freely)
 * "Bear pile on the enemy!" (Prompt for All-Out Attack)
 * "It's time to get wild!" (Prompt for All-Out Attack)
 * "Just say the word and it's bear time!" (Prompt for All-Out Attack)
 * "Take this! And this!" (Commencing with All-Out Attack)
 * "What a Teddie-ous fight! Heehee." (Battle Won)
 * "I'm the MVB! Wah ha ha!" (Battle Won)
 * "These are my true abilities!" (Battle Won)
 * "Whee! We won!" (Battle Won)
 * "I'm pretty good, aren't I?" (Battle Won)
 * "I've climbed the stairway to maturity!" (Level Up)
 * "Yosuke pounded an enemy!" (Yosuke defeats a Shadow)
 * "Oh, Sensei! How could you?" (MC status down)
 * "That's it, Yosuke! One enemy down!" (Yosuke does a critical hit/weakness point)
 * "Ehh!? '____', your defense is down!" (Any character gets defense down)
 * "Four/three/two enemies left!" (Defeating enough shadows to leave four/three/two enemies remaining)
 * "Hoho! Kanji, you beat an enemy!" (Kanji defeating a shadow in combat)
 * "An ambush by three enemies! Don't cry!" (Being ambushed by three shadows, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "Three enemies! Let's get through this!" (Engaging combat with three shadows, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "There are two enemies! Hang in there!" (Engaging combat with two shadows, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "Amazing, Sensei! Keep it up!" (MC does a critical hit/weakness point)
 * "Good work, Sensei! That's one so far!" (Defeating shadow, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "I smell one enemy! You can do it!" (Engaging combat with one shadow, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "That was coooool, Yosuke!" (The enemy missed attack on Yosuke)
 * "Beautiful, Yuki-chan!" (The enemy missed attack on Yukiko)
 * "Woah, Kanji, that was so cool!" (The enemy missed attack on Kanji)
 * "I smell three enemies! Don't get careless!" (Engaging combat with three shadows, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "S-Sensei! How dare you!" *growls* (MC is knocked down, prior to rescuing Rise Kujikawa)
 * "Two enemies left!" (Defeating enough shadows to leave two enemies remaining)
 * "Hang tight and go for it!" (Using rush)
 * "Victory!" (party won battle)

Persona 4 Arena

 * "No! I'm been locked up!" (trapped inside a locker)
 * "I'm a V.I.P. so I decided to show up late!" (one of his opening lines)
 * "Ladies and gentlemen, let´s play!" (another opening line)
 * "You missed!" (While performing Teddie Decoy when the opponent is attacking)
 * "Teddie Ball!" (While performing Bearscrew)
 * "Climb up the stairs to adulthood!" (While performing Teddie Warp)
 * "BEARy poisonous." (While performing PuppetTeddie)
 * "No illegal garage dumping!" (While performing Teddivision)
 * "How about this launch!" (While performing Awaken super move, Tomahawk)
 * "It's showtime!" (Performing special move, Circus Bear)
 * "Any tips are appreciated!" (After performing special move, Circus Bear)
 * "Flip the switch!" (While performing instant kill, Kamui Kablooey)
 * "Look at 'em go!" (During instant kill, Kamui Kablooey)
 * "I'm no match for Sensei...!" (Defeated by Yu)

Persona 4 Arena

 * The Bear Screw attack is based on his Bear Claw follow up attack in the original Persona 4.
 * In his Fake Bear R-Action, Teddie can still deflate his suit somehow even long after gaining a human form.
 * After landing Teddie's Kamooey Kablooey (Kamu Kamu Rocket, in Japanese version), Kintoki-Douji descends with an afro on top of its head, referencing Faust's instant kill from the Guilty Gear X where he blows both his opponent and himself up with a bomb, giving them both afros.
 * There is a cutscene that shows Teddie flexing his muscles which is also his All-Out Attack cut-in image in Persona 4: Golden.
 * When Teddie wins a match in Persona 4 Arena, the announcer will say "Kuma wins!" on the English voice setting.

Other

 * Some design sketches for Teddie indicate that he was originally planned to be female.
 * Teddie imitates Takaya Sakaki's scene at the love hotel from Persona 3 when the protagonist and the team go there for the school trip in Port Island.
 * In the Japanese version, he uses the alter ego Kumada (熊田, lit. "bear field", but can also be interpreted as クマだ, or 'It's Kuma!" or may be a pun on the name, "Yamada") instead of retaining his original name once he comes out to the real world. Kumada is a common Japanese last name.
 * Teddie makes numerous cameos throughout Atlus' game Catherine: as a stuffed animal, on a poster, on a bottle of "Bear Beer", and more.
 * When the group played "King's Game", he and Kanji kiss, regardless of number choice, but is not seen on screen when the kiss occurs. Choosing number three implies Teddie was either intoxicated, or possibly uncaring (or ignorant) of the social awkwardness of kissing a male, number one shows Teddie had simply missed.
 * Inside the DVD of Persona 4, there are some hidden audio were Teddie describes Naoto's current status in battle when he is in the supporting cast, of course it's impossible considering the timeline of the game, since player rescues Naoto after Teddie joins the party in the fighting cast. This was probably to prevent the game from crashing if Naoto was somehow hacked to join the party before she becomes a party member.
 * In the animated cutscenes of the game, Teddie's mouth of his bear suit does not move after he developed an alter ego, but in the anime his mouth moves even when he obtained his human form. This is also changed in the new animated cutscenes in Persona 4 Golden, but in the cutscenes from the original game, his mouth still doesn't move.
 * One of Teddie's usable weapons, Strega Claw is a reference to Strega from Persona 3.
 * In Persona 4 Golden, when wearing a Gekkokan High uniform (in human form), Teddie imitates Ken Amada's victory pose and says his lines. He also spins an imaginary spear in the victory pose.