Kotone Shiomi

Female Protagonist
Also known as	Kotone Shiomi (Play) Headphones/Spunky/Dazzling Demon (PQ2)
Japanese Name	女性主人公 主人公
Romaji	Josei Shujinkō Shujinkō
First Appearance	Persona 3 Portable
Affiliation	SEES
Date of Birth	Unknown, 1992
Age	16-17 (P3P), 17 (at death)
Height	160 cm (5'3")
Blood Type	O
Weapon	Naginata
Arcana	The Fool, Death, Judgement, The Universe
Persona	Orpheus, Messiah, Thanatos, Orpheus Telos, Wild Card
Japanese VA	Marina Inoue
English VA	Laura Bailey

"Time never waits. It delivers all equally to the same end. You, who wish to safeguard the future, however limited it may be... You will be given one year; go forth without falter, with your heart as your guide..."

—A message for the protagonist, Persona 3 Portable

The female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable is a transfer student enrolling in Gekkoukan High School in Iwatodai City. She is an orphan whose parents died on the Moonlight Bridge in their car during a fatal incident a decade prior to the game. Her role is non-canonical in the main Persona series timeline.

Appearances

• Persona 3 Portable: Protagonist (Female)
  • Persona 3 Portable: Velvet Blue
  • Persona 3 Portable Drama CD Volume 1
  • Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Ao no Kakusei- / -Gunjou no Meikyuu- / -Sousen no Kesshou-/Chapter 4: Ai no Seiyaku/Final Chapter: Hekikuu no Kanata e: Protagonist (Female) as Kotone Shiomi (汐見 琴音, Shiomi Kotone)
• Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Playable Character
  • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special

Design

She is the polar opposite of the male protagonist. Her Persona Orpheus is gold, while his is a pale silver, her eyes are red, while his are gray, et cetera. With red accents instead of blue. Her main weapon is a Naginata that inflicts slash attacks.

The female protagonist has auburn hair, which she always has in a high ponytail, along with silver barrettes which form the Roman numeral XXII (22), possibly referencing that the Fool Arcana is not only Arcana 0, but also Arcana 22 with the numbers increasing while going back to the first card after The World (Arcana 21). Since she's the polar opposite of the male protagonist, it would make sense for the male protagonist to be Fool 0 while the female is Fool 22. She is seemingly shorter than the default male protagonist. She has a pale complexion and striking red eyes (and longer lashes than the other characters, like Aigis.)

Her favorite colors seem to be red and orange, as most of her outfits compose of the same color scheme.

At school and at Tartarus, she wears a school uniform of Gekkoukan High School. She wears a Gekkoukan high badge, a red ribbon tie, a neck strap MP3 player (same as the male protagonist but in the color red) and loafers. On weekends and days off, she seems to wear a red scarf, a light orange sweater, a red plaid skirt, black leggings and red boots (along with her earphones). During June at Gekkoukan, she wears a white collared shirt, a red ribbon tie, her red MP3 player and the school skirt. During the days off in the summer, she wears a short-sleeved orange shirt over a red-and-white striped spaghetti strap top, a white skirt and white sandals.

She is never seen without her earphones except in several events where such accessories would not be appropriate, such as the following: the beach excursion in Yakushima (where she wears a pink ribbon bikini); the Summer Festival (if the player chooses to wear a yukata); the brief school trip in Kyoto (in which she wears a bathrobe); and the post-New Years celebration in the nearby Shrine (in which she wears an orange kimono and replaces the usual barrettes in her hair with pink and red flower barrettes). Her High-Cut Armor is white in color. It is also said by Yukari that her ears are not pierced. She is also said to be very pretty.

When she was a young girl, she had short auburn hair down to her face, wore a red elementary school uniform, a red ribbon, dark red skirt, white socks and gray shoes.

When Soejima was asked to create a female protagonist, he thought it would be easy to draw her. Soejima had never drawn a female protagonist in his works. It was very difficult to distinguish differences between a heroine and a female protagonist. It wasn’t a problem limited to girls or boys, but with a protagonist, especially a juvenile protagonist, there will be a growth to adulthood and their personalities can not yet be solidified, the characterization of the heroine and the other characters will be different. Soejima somehow came up with the design, he felt she was a protagonist people would come to love.

Soejima drew this especially to pin facial expressions and atmosphere of the female protagonist. It was an image contrasting the cool male protagonist against the bright and lively female protagonist, the player named P3 protagonist is meant to be the player's alter ego.

Personality

She is a silent protagonist, as is the case with most Megami Tensei protagonists, although she does technically speak in battle when summoning a Persona and such.

Unlike the male protagonist or Megami Tensei protagonists in general, she is very bubbly, funny, upbeat and cheerful. Her dialogue choices exhibit a broad spectrum of emotions, ranging from sarcasm, joking tones, utter seriousness and otherwise depending on the player's choice. She is a sharp contrast to the male protagonist who is very reserved and concise where she, on the other hand, is not afraid to interject into conversations where her male counterpart would remain silent.

She is also said to be dependable and tough, just like how a leader should be. Although she seems to be always in high spirits, she hides her suffering and burdens, which is why everyone, mostly Junpei Iori and Akihiko Sanada, worries so much about her.

Her personality during Ryoji Mochizuki‘s Fortune Social link as well as her answers after his reveal shows a lot of her true personality and reveals her growth in the later parts of the game.

She also values a lot about her friends, and the lack of her comrades to fight alongside her can prove to be traumatic for her and can put her into a breakdown as seen in Persona Q2 where she is the only Persona user who has to fight alone.

In some Social Links events (i.e. Magician, Moon and Star), as well as the Drama CD, she has a tendency to overgorge herself on food, similar to the male protagonist in the manga adaptation, with some girls in her Social Links and SEES members saying that sometimes they are jealous on how she eats a lot and yet can stay slim all the time. In addition to this, Akihiko states that she'll get angry if someone, particularly Junpei, takes her food without permission.

Profile

Persona 3 Portable

She shares the same backstory as her male counterpart. She is an orphan whose parents died on the Moonlight Bridge during a fatal incident a decade prior to the game. She also begins her story when she transfers to Gekkoukan, becomes aware of the Dark Hour, obtains her Persona and becomes a member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES for short.

However, unlike the male protagonist route, her story can be slightly altered. If she initiates the Moon Social Link with Shinjiro Aragaki and maxes it before the October 5th Full Moon Operation, his death will not occur, and he will instead spend the rest of the game in a coma. During the last days of the female protagonist's route, a student will speak of his discharge from the hospital.

Another addition to the Female Route is that the player can choose who Igor's assistant is. Igor will ask the player whether they think his assistant is male or female, and selecting "male" will allow the player to unlock Theo as Igor's assistant, rather than Elizabeth. Theo is only available to the female protagonist, and cannot be unlocked for the male protagonist.

In the Female Route, the player can choose to pursue a romance with Ryoji, Theodore/Elizabeth, Shinjiro, Akihiko, Aigis and/or Ken.

At the end of the game, she uses her power to defeat the Nyx Avatar. By default, Aigis meets with her on the roof and she dies while sleeping on top of her lap. It's also possible for Akihiko, Shinjiro and Ken to stay with her.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

"Everyone here has had a role that they can fill, right? But, that isn't the case for me. My role was filled by "him," instead... That's why I couldn't help but to think, over and over... "What's my role here? Am I here because of some kind of mistake?" stuff like that."

—P3P heroine, Persona Q2, New Cinema Labyrinth

The P3P heroine is a P3 hero from an alternate reality. Additionally, unlike the other teams of Persona users who entered the movie world, due to her unique method of entry, she enters it alone and all of her teammates were not involved in the major events of the game, which was initially unbeknown to her. She enters the movie world from the Velvet Room via a nap during her studies. The movie where she ends up in is the same as the one that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were drawn into, Kamoshidaman. She is not a silent protagonist and speaks in full sentences in this game.

Upon unlocking the Velvet Room, Theodore will ask the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to find her as she suddenly vanished from her world. When Theodore asked Nagi and Hikari about her whereabouts, the women do not have an idea where she was. Yusuke affirmed that she must be in the movie world. Theo does not have an idea about that world, but Elizabeth just forced him to believe she is there.

True to Yusuke's word, the P3P heroine is inside the movie world fending off Shadows, in which the Phantom Thieves helped her fend off some. After defeating the Shadows, she joins the party and Theodore thanks them for sending her back to the Cinema lobby.

The female protagonist is shown to be quite skilled in martial arts, as she is shown to knock down a cognitive policeman with a well-timed chop to the neck while being ambushed by the said policeman.

During the final confrontation against Kamoshidaman, when Kamoshidaman is about to go after his statue flying away, she tramples him by dropping down from the sky.

At the labyrinth A.I.G.I.S, she finally meets the Persona 3 cast, but none of them recognized her as they came from a world where they were led by the P3 hero, though they felt that she's familiar. The awkwardness is further worsened as the heroine began to call the S.E.E.S. members by name despite the fact that they do not recognize her. The events resulted in the heroine being struck with a sense of confusion and alienation that she manages to overcome towards the end of the game. Along with her male counterpart, they were the keys to create a glitch that neutralizes the security system guarding the Mother Computer.

Throughout the game, she felt out of place amongst the S.E.E.S. members because even though she knew them since they are exactly the same as the versions of them in her world, they do not recognize her since she is different from her male counterpart despite being technically the same people and it was the latter that led them. The S.E.E.S. members realize this and make various efforts to get to know her in the side quests of the game.

She was the only member of the united Persona users that did not belong to a team, as all of her real comrades did not join her in the movie world. Therefore, she felt like an outcast that was forced to fight alone. As a result of the confusion and loneliness, she relates herself to Hikari, as both were outcasts and did not have any friends from the groups that they were in.

After returning to reality from the final battle, she returns to the dorm as if she had a dream during her studies. She also had an uneasy nostalgic feeling, but could not explain why. Her real comrades in her own version of S.E.E.S. awaited her arrival and notified her that they got a sci-fi movie DVD from an unknown source and they bought snacks and drinks for her to watch the movie.

Battle Quotes

• "Orpheus!" or the name of the current Persona she is using (Enemy weak to attack/critical with Phys skill)
• "Messiah!" (when summoning ultimate Persona)
• "Persona!" (When summoning Persona)
• "I summon you!" (When summoning Persona)
• "Here!" (When using items)
• "Hah! Take this!" (When attack is Critical at an enemy)

Gallery

Persona 3 Portable

Cut-in Fusion Spell cut-in All-Out Attack cut-in portrait Early concept art Concept art Summer and winter outfit concept art Concept art with male protagonist Female protagonist concept pose Boxart artwork Female protagonist with Theodore, Elizabeth and male protagonist Female protagonist on the left Female Protagonist’s Character art as a visual art The male and female protagonists Female protaognist with SEES Artwork from Soejima Shigenori Arts Book 2004-2010 Artwork from Soejima Shigenori Arts Book 2004-2010 Artwork from Soejima Shigenori Arts Book 2004-2010 Female protagonist's portrait Orange kimono The female protagonist as a child Female protagonist in the photo Female protagonist crucified with the others Female protagonist crucified with the others (2) The female protagonist's outfits Drama CD Vol 1 Cover

Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade

Illustration of female and male protagonist by Rokuro Saito The female protagonist as she appears in Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Ao no Kakusei- The female protagonist's full uniform shot The female protagonist as she appears in Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Gunjou no Meikyuu- The female protagonist as she appears in Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Souen no Kesshou- The female protagonist as she appears in Final Chapter: Beyond the Blue Sky

PERSONA 20th Anniversary Festival
The female protagonist with Futaba Sakura from Persona 5

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Female protagonist with the group The female protagonist in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth The female protagonist The female protagonist in the Kamoshidaman Key Art The female protagonist on the Famitsu cover The female protagonist in Kamocity police outfit The female protagonist's All-Out-Attack The female protagonist's Close Up

Others
Female protagonist and the other protagonists Female protagonist with the Persona 4 protagonist on Persona Compilation CD II Illustration of the female protagonist, Yu and the male protagonist Illustration of the female protagonist, the male protagonist, Yu and Shin

In Other Languages

Language	Titles
English	Female protagonist
Japanese	女性主人公 (Heroine)
Korean	여주인공 (Heroine)

Trivia

• The in-game interface while using the female protagonist is pink, rather than blue. Also, it can be stated that the female protagonist wears orange in the majority of her casual clothing, since orange is the complementary color of blue (the color the male protagonist usually wears) in the color wheel. Some BGMs also changes, such as the battle BGM ("Wiping All Out" for female, "Mass Destruction" for male), for instance.
• The female protagonist's bed is pink, even though her curtains are blue.
• The barrettes in her hair can be seen as the roman numeral "XXII," which corresponds to the Fool arcana (The Fool may be either 0 or 22) and is used to indicate that she is a new character (Persona 3 originally had 21 characters representing an Arcana, the female protagonist is the 22nd).
• She is dubbed as MShe/FeMC/Minako Arisato by Western fans and Hamuko (ハム子 / 公子) by Japanese fans, loosely interpreting the last Kanji character for shujinkou (主人公) as Katakana. This refers to the early official P3P screenshot in which her name was written as "主人 公子" or shujin kouko (which means main character girl) (with "ko" as a suffix for female names). "Minako Arisato" was used in a poll by SEGA Heroes in April 2019, though it was changed to "Female Protagonist" shortly after.
• In a Famitsu special, she was dubbed Runako Gekkou (月光ルナ子, Gekkō Runako).
• All of her attack animations follow the "Slash" attack animation, as well as during a critical attack.
• After finishing the game with the female protagonist, the credits roll only show the outline of (female) Orpheus as her silhouette passes by. This is in contrast with the rest of the SEES members and the male protagonist himself, who all have their ultimate Persona appear during the credits.
• For the remake of an All-Out Attack in Persona 3 Portable, her eyes are shown to be brown even though her artwork shows them to be crimson.
• When using the fusion spell Cadenza her Orpheus portrait does not change, unlike the male protagonist.
• Through the entirety of the in-game dialogue, the female protagonist is the only one to speak a full sentence.
• In Persona Q2, the P3P heroine can use Unison Attacks with any S.E.E.S member even if she does not actually know them.
• As the P3P heroine enters the movie world via a dream instead of from an exploration trip like the other persona users, it is implied that just like Hikari, the heroine that the party interacts within Persona Q2 is not the real person but merely a manifestation of her soul.