Rise Kujikawa

Rise Kujikawa is one of the main characters from Persona 4.

Appearances

 * Persona 4 / Golden: Major Character; Tactical Support; Lovers Social Link
 * Persona 4 Manga: Major Character; Tactical Support; Lovers Arcana
 * Persona 4 The Animation: Major Character; Tactical Support; Lovers Arcana
 * Persona 4 Arena / Manga: Information/Support Character
 * Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Playable Character
 * Persona 4: Dancing All Night: Playable Character
 * Persona x Detective Naoto: Supporting Character
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Design
Rise is a short teenager with copper hair tied in two pigtails, brown eyes and tanned skin. Her normal outfit consists of an orange shirt with puffy sleeves above a white turtleneck shirt while she is seen wearing an orange top and white pants in summer. During explorations in the Midnight Channel and at school, she is clothed in her school uniform with a white turtleneck underneath and wears pink glasses only supporting the team/members. At the summer festival, Rise is seen wearing yukata like the rest of the girls. Before transferring to Yasogami High and while working at her grandmother's shop, Rise wears a white headscarf, a pink turtleneck shirt and a short navy blue skirt.

In Persona 4 Golden, During the winter, she wears a snow suit with pink sunglasses on top of her head, high collar with pink and white stripe with her matching pink snow jacket that says "Lovers", purple gloves, darker navy snow pants, and light purple shoes. The only time she has her hair down is when she wears the new summer outfit during the Persona 4 Golden Epilogue (acquired by attaining the true ending after saving Marie in the Hollow Forest). She wore a white see-through halter top, with a pink, light blue, and orange bikini underneath it and tan pants.

In Persona 4: Dancing All Night, she wears a summer pink school uniform with open shirt parting showing her black bra, a magenta, pink, and white star platterns mini skirt that match her hair ribbons tied on her head, long black thight stocking with pink lace zippers, and pink high-heel slippers. She wears a yellow scarf around her right wrist and pink and black glove on her left hand. She also wears yellow headphones over her ears.

Personality
Rise is cheerful and bubbly, but also sweet deep down. She used to be an idol, but she quit to work at her family business (citing health reasons), after Kanji is rescued. She is stressed out, and tired of show business because she doesn't know if the Rise that everyone admires is the 'real' Rise, or the persona of Risette that she presents to the masses. Her biggest insecurity is her individuality. She fears that she has no true self and that her career is making her lose it due to constantly putting up fake faces to the general public. While she initially attempts to change this by running away she is left feeling unsatisfied. By the end of the series, she acknowledges all of those fake selves she presented to others were actually just other sides of her true personality. Upon realizing this she decides to start up her career content that she will be portraying her true self for all to see.

Rise states that she loves the Protagonist, and will show a very obvious interest in him during the storyline regardless of her Social Link standing.

Persona 4
Rise is first seen in a commercial, where she advertises the fictional diet soda "Calorie Magic". Rise, despite her uprising fame, eventually quits her job and decides to settle down in her hometown of Yasoinaba, to live with her grandmother. While being asked upon her decisions of choosing to stay in Yasoinaba despite the murder cases happening recently, Rise insisted to live in Yasoinaba, and explains that her sudden decision of quitting her job is due to stress. Following Rise's return to Yasoinaba, the whole town rustles to Rise's grandmother's tofu store, Marukyu, hoping to see Rise. Since Rise has appeared in the TV news, the Investigation Team becomes worried that Rise might get kidnapped and killed in the Midnight Channel, and goes to warn her.

Rise is portrayed as cheerful, outspoken, naughty, cute, and is quite boastful about herself. She is referred to as a "dangerous girl" by Chie Satonaka, due to her boldness in flirting with the Protagonist, and her teasing of Yosuke and Kanji. Rise is quickly annoyed by the smallest things, which ends up with her crying dramatically, and sometimes producing crocodile tears. She's rather childish and possessive; she once pouted and told the Protagonist he mustn’t call another girl “cute”. She has also shown her competitive side on many occasions, and she’s mocked Yukiko’s insecurity and her cooking. Along with Yukiko Amagi, she cries when Protagonist leaves Inaba, and she’ll profess her love to him.

Hoping to catch the culprit, the Investigation Team proposes a stakeout on the Marukyu Tofu shop, but their actions are found out by Tohru Adachi, the assistant of Detective Ryotaro Dojima. The Investigation Team eventually team up with Adachi. Through their stakeout, they eventually catch a stalker — however, the stalker anxiously denies his connection with the murder cases. Not believing his words, Adachi takes the stalker away. However, during their way back passing Marukyu, Rise's grandmother claims that Rise has gone away. Panicked, the Investigation Team decides to tune in the Midnight Channel again, and realizes that they were too late: Rise has already been kidnapped.

Eventually after gathering clues, the Investigation Team managed to detect Rise's location in the Midnight Channel, and set out to rescue her. The Investigation Team eventually finds Rise, along with the 'Other Rise'. The 'Other Rise' taunts Rise, telling her that in actuality, this is what she desired, and the fact that she knew is because she is Rise, and begins performing a pole-dance in an alluring fashion. Confused and surprised, Rise denies the Shadows' claims, and exclaims that the shadow is not her.

Fueled by Rise's declaration, the 'Other Rise' transforms into a shadow and attacks the party. However, Shadow Rise's analytical abilities proved to be more than a match, and the party was brought to the edge of defeat. Laughing at their incompetence, the Shadow Rise readies for another strike, but Teddie eventually charges towards the Shadow, performs a suicidal attack and weakens the Shadow. However, Teddie himself suffers a massive backdraft, and becomes a wrinkling, skinny bear. Accepting her true self, the Shadow nods, and transforms into Himiko, becoming Rise's Persona.

After her kidnapping, Rise shows a less-than-subtle crush towards the Protagonist, and eventually creates the Lovers Arcana Social Link with him. Through the Protagonist's interactions with Rise, she reveals that during her childhood, she was a shy, lonely child, and that nobody had high expectations of her. Due to her shyness, she was constantly bullied by her classmates, until a relative submitted her application to an idol competition, which she won. Ironically, her original motivation of accepting the prize was so once she becomes popular, she would have more friends. However, she eventually realizes that her 'friends' are only interested in the fabricated personality of teen-idol 'Risette', but not Rise Kujikawa, the young girl from Yasoinaba.

Rise later found out that after she abandons showbiz, her old manager found another rising star, which greatly irritates her. By the end of the Social Link, Rise eventually realize that 'Risette' isn't a fabricated personality, but one of her many traits. Upon her realization, Rise exclaims that she would return to her job as an idol in spring, hoping to show the world her other traits other than 'Risette'. With Rise finally finding her resolution, her persona transfigures into Kanzeon. Rise would also give the Protagonist her signed photo, bestowing the Ultimate Form of Lovers Arcana, Ishtar, the Goddess of Love. If the Protagonist decides to make an intimate relationship with Rise, and accepts Rise's invitation text message on the Christmas Eve to spend time with her, the Protagonist will receive the accessory Silver Bangle, which raises the user's Spirit Points by 50%.

Rise's cooking skills are explored later in the storyline, revealing that she enjoys using large amount of spice in her cooking, making everything she cooks very spicy and making them unable to taste the other ingredients in her food. While she often taunts Yukiko and Chie about their cooking skills, her cooking skills turns out to be just as bad as Yukiko and Chie's.

Persona 4 The Animation
In the anime, Rise is seen in the intro discussing her leave just before her concert. She then, while donning a disguise, meets Yu on June 20th, after dropping her cellphone trying to hide from her fans. Rise is then seen again by Yu and the others, when they head to Marukyu Tofu to check up on her, and warn her about the recent kidnappings.

She runs into them again after being stalked by an overzealous fan. During the incident, she is escorted out by Yu and they head to the Samegawa Flood Plain. Rise then discusses her former life as a pop star, and how no one sees her true self, but only Risette.

On June 23rd, she transfers to Yasogami High School early before she awakens her Persona. After seeing paparazzi mobbing the school's entrance, Yu takes her hand and guides her to Marukyu Tofu. Upon arriving, they come across Rise's former manager, Inoue, who's come to ask something important of her. The two discuss matters at Tatsuhime Shrine. Rise assumes he wanted her to return to show business, but Inoue instead reveals she has already been replaced, and is no longer needed. Inoue departs, leaving Rise shocked at the revelation; Yu comforts her. Yu questions her decision for taking a hiatus — she becomes upset, and accuses him of not 'seeing the real [her]' and runs away. On the same night, she is seen on the Midnight Channel.

On June 24th, Shadow Rise shows the real Rise all her different identities, and asks which is her real self; Rise struggles to answer, not knowing for certain who in fact was the 'real Rise'. After Shadow Rise transformed, she murmured Yu's name, and fell unconscious for almost the rest of the battle until she awoke to see her shadow form. She then accepted that all of the 'Other Rises' were a part of her, and that there is no 'true Rise'. This acceptance granted her a Persona: Himiko.

As Rise was accepting her true self, Teddie's true feelings were shown and Other Teddie appeared.

When Other Teddie transformed into a shadow and began to absorb in the Investigation Team and Rise, Rise told Yu that she can help to locate Teddie with her Persona. Yu, along with his Persona Izanagi, keep her grounded as Himiko scans for Teddie. She is ultimately unable to find Teddie, due to the heavy fog. Just when all seemed lost, Rise was finally able to locate Teddie, paving the way for Yu and Izanagi to defeat Shadow Teddie.

When Yu took her home, Rise asked him if she could join them to help catch the culprit. On July 10th, Rise said that she was happy to help out, and Yu gave her a pair of pink glasses so that she could see past the fog in the TV World, and as a symbol that she was now a part of the Investigation Team.

During the December event, when the second Reaper appears, Rise decided to stay behind for Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie to search for the real Adachi, while she helped out Chie and Yukiko's battle. Then during the battle with Ameno-sagiri, this is the first time Rise's Persona was sent into battle despite being a non-fighting type, however it proved too much, and all the Seeker of Truths' Personas were defeated by Ameno-sagiri. Then when Yu was in danger, Rise's Persona evolves into Kanzeon, and granted him the strength to summon the ultimate Persona, Lucifer.

At the end of Episode 26 (No One Is Alone), Rise was able to gather enough strength to confess her love to Yu when his train started.

Rise and Yu's bond is represented by the Persona, Leanan Sidhe.

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.

Additionally, like 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 Rise learns upon development of her Social Link are also listed below; the skills Rise can learn have remained unchanged from Persona 4. Rise's bike skills are unique in that, rather than being normal battle skills, they are power-ups to her All-out Attack.

Persona 4 Arena
Rise returns as a Information/Support character of the Grand Prix, however it turns out a fake version of her is hosting the matches, as she was kidnapped and locked in the Announcement Room by Shadow Labrys, who was disguised as Teddie. This was to prevent her from communicating with the others, making her unable to warn them about the real purpose of the tournament beforehand.

Eventually, General Teddie leaves the room making her able to communicate with everyone and gives the others directions to where she is. She is rescued and witnesses the revelation of Labrys' true form and the battle with Shadow Labrys. She helps support the others in helping Labrys accept her shadow and becomes friends with Labrys. The celebration doesn't last as Labrys is hacked into. She also feels a strange surge as Fuuka Yamagishi helps to dispel the hacking from outside the TV, Rise noting that Fuuka's abilities are far more powerful than hers. She joins the rest of the investigation team later to say goodbye to Labrys and to join up in celebrating Yu's return and the reformation of the Investigation Team.

Persona 4 Arena (Manga)
Like in the game Rise is kidnapped by Shadow Labrys. During the final chapter both Rise and Fuuka use their Personas to free Labrys of the Malevolent Entity's control.

Persona x Detective Naoto
Rise has returned to work as an idol and plays a minor role in this spin-off novel. She asks Naoto to come help her when another idol steps out of a gravure photo-shoot. She encourages Naoto to embrace her femininity more, but realises she is making her friend more uncomfortable.

Persona 4

 * "Alright! Level up!" (Level Up)
 * "This one's strong, watch yourself!" (Encountered Powerful Enemy)
 * "Ah, it's a no-brainer, I'm sure you'll win!" (Encountered Weak Enemy)
 * "Three enemies on the field! Be careful." (Encountered 3 Enemies)
 * "There are five enemies! Don't let 'em get you." (Encountered 5 enemies)
 * *squeals* "Senpai! That was soo cool!" (Protagonist dodges attack)
 * "Oh, nice move, Yosuke-senpai!" (Yosuke dodges attack)
 * "You hit its weakness, Yukiko-Senpai."
 * "You struck its weak-point, Chie-Senpai!"
 * "Enemy Down. Show it what you've got, Kanji-kun!"
 * "Two enemies down. Do it again, Chie-senpai!"
 * "Enemy down! That's the spirit, Teddie!" (Teddie downs enemy)
 * "Enemy defeated. Go for broke, Teddie!" (Teddie defeats 1 enemy)
 * "Enemy defeated. Keep it up, Yosuke-senpai!" (Yosuke defeats 1 enemy)
 * "You're on a roll, Senpai! Two defeated." (Protagonist defeats 2 enemies)
 * "Wow, Naoto-kun! You defeated two enemies." (Naoto defeats 2 enemies)
 * "Three enemies defeated! You're so cool, Senpai."
 * "Amazing Senpai! Four enemies defeated!"
 * "Only one enemy left! you can do it!" (One enemy left)
 * "One enemy to go! Keep it up!" (One enemy left)
 * "Only two/three enemies left!" (2/3 enemies left)
 * "Three enemies left! You can win this!" (3 enemies left)
 * "Four of them! You need to thin 'em out." (4 enemies left)
 * "It got back up, defeat it fast!" (Enemy gets up from Down)
 * "It's calling back up!  Hurry and defeat it!" ((A ____-King Shadow summoned a ____-Bambino Shadow)
 * "What's its problem?  More incoming!" (A ____-King Shadow summoned a ____-Bambino Shadow, stage 1 & 2)
 * "What, more of them?!  Gee!" (A ____-King Shadow summoned a ____-Bambino Shadow, stage2)
 * "Gee, it's like an endless stream of 'em!" (A ____-King Shadow summoned a ____-Bambino Shadow, stage 3 & up)
 * "Ehh!? ___-senpai, someone heal him/her!" (A Party Member Dying)
 * "Guys ... you're really low on health...!" (Party Is Low on Health)
 * "...shouldn't someone heal ___-senpai...?" (A Party Member Dying)
 * "Phew ... you're up! Ok, time for an counter-attack!" (Protagonist Recovers From Knocked Down/Dizzy Status)
 * "No don't be afraid, I'm here with you!" (Protagonist is Frightened)
 * "___-senpai's scared!" (A Party Member is Frightened)
 * "___-senpai is useless!" (A Party Member is Exhausted)
 * "___-senpai's persona is sealed!" (A Party Member is Silenced)
 * "Yosuke-senpai's lost it!" (Yosuke is Enraged)
 * "Yukiko-senpai's scary when she's mad." (Enraged Yukiko defeats an enemy)
 * "Kanji-kun's pissed off!" (Kanji is Enraged)
 * "Naoto-kun's pissed off! Someone calm her down!" (When Naoto is enraged)
 * "Wh-What is this thing? It feels really bad..." (Meeting the Reaper in a New Game +)
 * "That one's totally weak! Better not lose." (Analyzing Weak Enemy)
 * "Noooooo problem. It'll be over in a flash!" (Analyzing Weak Enemy)
 * "Wow, it's puny! This'll be cake." (Analyzing Weak Enemy)
 * "Physical attacks won't work on that runt?" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Physical Repel)
 * "Ice should work well, you can win this, guys!" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Ice Weakness)
 * "It's weak to ice! This should be easy!" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Ice Weakness)
 * "It's weak to fire! Hehe, this'll be easy!" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Fire Weakness)
 * "It's weak to wind! This'll be a breeze!" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Wind Weakness)
 * "It´s weak against light. Shine on!" (Analyzing Enemy w/Light Weakness)
 * "It's BEARY weak to electricity!" *giggle* (Analyzing Enemy w/ Elctricity Weakness, while imitating Teddie)
 * "You can win this, just don't use light on it." (Analyzing Enemy w/ Light Repel)
 * "Light won't work. Plan B anyone?" (Analyzing Enemy w/ Light Repel)
 * "Yes! We won! Congrats, guys." (Protagonist defeats final enemy)
 * "Hey, it's weak to fire! That's hot!" (Using Weakness Scan on Enemy w/ Fire Weakness)
 * "Its weakness is ice! Cool!" (Using Weakness Scan on Enemy w/ Ice Weakness)
 * "Its weak to electricity! Zap em'!" (Using Weakness Scan on Enemy w/ Electricity Weakness)
 * "Wind will work. Blow it away guys!" (Using Weakness scan on Enemy w/ Wind Weakness)
 * "The enemy's weakness is darkness! It's doomed!" (Using Weakness Scan on Enemy w/ Dark Weakness)
 * "Oh no you don't!" (Blocking attacks from enemies)

Persona 4 Golden

 * "It's showtime! Are you ready?" (When assisting an All-Out Attack)

Trivia

 * One of Rise's early design concepts resembles Lisa Silverman. Lisa and Rise's names are phonetically similar in Japanese (Risa to Rise) and both have stints as idol singers, in addition to being the most pronounced about their love for the main character, and being of the Lovers Arcana.
 * Some of Rise's early design concepts look similar to Ai Ebihara and Saki Konishi.
 * Rise's appearance and name resemble those of her Japanese voice actress, Rie Kugimiya.
 * During the visit in Port Island's Club Escapade, Rise reveals that she had a secret show two years ago and the power went out in the middle of her performance referencing the power outage before the first S.E.E.S. Full Moon Operation in September 2009.
 * Rise is a famous idol, but none of her songs are heard in vanilla Persona 4. However, the animation has a devoted opening is composed with Rise's VA singing. Additionally, there is also an animated cutscene with Rise singing in Persona 4 Golden.
 * Rise is the only member of the main cast who possesses a Persona not based off a figure of native Japanese descent.
 * Rise is the only character who does not have a cut-in effect when summoning her Persona in the vanilla version of Persona 4. However, Persona 4 The Animation gives Rise the cut-in effect when she first summons Himiko and in Persona 4 Golden when aiding the All-Out Attack.
 * Rise is the first information/support playable character to be involved of remake All-Out Attack in Persona 4 Golden.
 * Rise's stat-icon (the character's side-portrait displaying their HP and SP) without glasses can be viewed in the P4G game manual.
 * Rise was originally going to be an offensive character, or at least a character who actively participated in battle; she would wield a chain, but was quickly changed to supportive role when the role of "the delinquent/bully" was filled in by Kanji Tatsumi. During this design phase, she looked a lot like Ai and Saki. It wasn't until they decided on an "idol", that the Lisa Silverman-esque design was considered.
 * In Persona 4 Arena, she may occasionally say "Duel 1, Let's Rock!" or "Rebel 1, Action!" at the beginning of a match if she is chosen as Navigator. This is a reference to the round calls in the Guilty Gear series and BlazBlue series respectively.
 * She is the only main female character that reveals her weight in the Persona 4: Official Design Works. This can be said that because she is an idol, some of her personal information, like her weight, is public knowledge.
 * Like her Persona 3 Lovers counterpart, Yukari Takeba, they are both regarded as very popular and beautiful girls in their respective schools. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax takes this further establishing Yukari as a model and an actress mirroring Rise's occupation as an idol. In addition, they both have a clear affection for their respective game's protagonist outside of social links.