Yu Narukami

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Yu Narukami is a playable character and the protagonist of Persona 4 and its spin-offs. The name Yu Narukami was originally the protagonist's name in Persona 4 The Animation, later adopted for Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4: Dancing All Night. The name became the protagonist's default name in the Steam and subsequent re-releases of Persona 4 Golden, which the game defaults to if its text language settings are changed.[1]

Profile

The protagonist of Persona 4 is a teenage boy from a large, unnamed city who moves to the smaller city of Inaba for a year to live with his uncle and cousin while his parents work overseas. He begins attending Yasogami High as a 2nd year high school student and quickly makes friends with fellow 2nd years Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi. Together, the four of them are the founding members of the Investigation Team that comes together to use their Personas to solve the serial murder case.

During his stay in Inaba, he grows close to his cousin Nanako, who greets him every day when he returns home. She begins addressing him as her big brother, and he cares for her while his uncle works late. Though he is a silent protagonist, his possible dialogue choices during the game's school and slice-of-life moments have a humorous tone, while his choices during the more serious moments help shape him as a leader who keeps the team on track. He often has the option to tell the others to calm down so they can focus on uncovering the truth of the murder incidents.

The protagonist is fairy tall with silver hair and matching eyes. He wears his school uniform with the shirt untucked and the collar high. During winter, he also wears his Yasogami jacket unbuttoned. In the TV World, he uses dark gray frame glasses with TV color bars on the temples that were made for him by Teddie.

Gameplay

For complete gameplay information, see Gameplay:Yu Narukami.

In Persona 4, the protagonist starts out with Izanagi. Unlike other party members, the protagonist can never be swapped out of battle, and having him faint will result in an automatic Game Over. He has the special property of being a Wild Card, making him able to summon and switch between different Personas in battle, as well as change his stock of Personas to an extent. This lets him swap out between multiple different strategies, as well as switch his elemental affinities.

Across his appearances through other Persona games, spin-offs, and collabs, the protagonist always has Izanagi as his Persona and uses Zio spells as well as physical abilities with his katana.

Manual

Manual Descriptions
Persona 4 The protagonist has spent his life so far in the city, but his parents were recently transferred overseas. In their absence, they made arrangements for him to live with his uncle in the rural town of Inaba, which has recently seen a spate of unusual incidents.
Persona 4 Golden The player's representative. With his parents temporarily transferred overseas, this second-year high school student is sent to live with his uncle, Ryotaro Dojima, in the rural town of Inaba.
Persona 4 Arena The young man who ended the case that rocked Inaba returns for the holidays, only to find a new mystery in the P-1 Grand Prix tournament. With his katana and Persona, Izanagi, he can hold his own in all aspects.
Persona 4 Arena
Ultimax
The young man who ended the case that rocked Inaba returns for the holidays, only to find a new mystery in the P-1 Climax tournament. With his katana and Persona, Izanagi, he can hold his own in all aspects.
Persona 4:
Dancing All Night
The protagonist of Persona 4. After solving the murder mystery, he left Inaba and returned to his old life in the city. He met up with Rise—Who had also returned to the big city to resume her idol career—when she asked him for a certain favor. It was then that odd things started happening, bringing the Investigation Team back to solve another mystery.

Game Appearances

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Reason: Lacking details about his role in the games.

Persona 4

The Hero is silent and nameless with a malleable personality like other silent protagonists in the franchise.

Persona 4 Golden

Persona 5 Royal

The protagonist makes a cameo as a DLC Challenge Battle under the name Investigation Team Boy.

Persona 4 Arena

In Arena, the protagonist talks and uses the name Yu Narukami from the 2011 Persona 4 anime.

Yu's Story Mode

Yu's story mode is one of the default story modes.

Other Characters

Yu appears in the story modes for some of the other characters.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Episode P4

Episode P3

True Ending

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Side P4: On this side he is the player character and once again silent and nameless. The Hero is referred to as Leader on this side, while the P3 Hero is referred to as Vice Leader.

Side P3: On this side he is a supporting character, despite being a vocal supporting character he is still nameless. Because of this, he is referred to as Vice Leader while the P3 Hero is referred to as Leader.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Persona 4: Colors

Anime Appearances

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Persona 4 The Animation

Persona 4 The Animation: The Factor of Hope

Persona 4 The Golden Animation

Manga Appearances

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Persona 4

Persona 4: The Magician

Persona 4: Yasoinaba Case File

Persona 4 Arena

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Roundabout

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side:P3

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side:P4

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Roundabout SP

Audio Drama Appearances

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Persona 4 Drama CD Vol. 1

Persona 4 Drama CD Vol. 2

Persona 4 Drama CD Vol. 3

Persona 4 Golden Drama CD Vol. 1

Persona 4 Golden Drama CD Vol. 2

Persona 4 The Animation Drama CD #1

Persona 4 The Animation Drama CD #2

A Day of the May Fool

Perfect Delivery

A Sense of Gratitude

Boo: I Bear a Grudge On You

Novel Appearances

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Persona 4: Kiri no Amnesia

Persona 4: Your Affection

Stage Play Appearances

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Visualive Persona 4

Visualive Persona 4: The Evolution

Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena

Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold

Other Appearances

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Weiß Schwarz

Lord of Vermilion

Yu has a cameo card drawn by Soejima that was introduced in Lord of Vermilion II Re:2. He returned with the same card artwork in Lord of Vermilion III.

Persona 4 The Slot

CR Persona 4 The Pachinko

Yu is one of the selectable avatars for the pachinko machine. When selected, his mini-portrait will appears on the player's stat screen and he does the voice over for the machine's functions. He is the subject of some probability events, such as the crossdressing pageant and the curry cooking.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle

For more information on this subject in BlazBlue, see Yu Narukami on BlazBlue Wiki.

Puzzle & Dragons

Yu is a 5★ light unit who can be obtained in the gacha during the Persona collaboration. His base card and evolution were part of the first collab in 2018, then got a reincarnated evolution and an assist during the collab's re-run in 2020.

[4376] Yu Narukami (Base)

  • Active Skill: Myriad Arrows
  • Leader Skill: Transfer Student from the City

[4377] Yu Narukami & Izanagi (Evolution)

[4401] Teddie's Glasses (Skill Up)

[6371] Yu Narukami & Izanagi-no-Okami (Reincarnated Evolution)

  • Active Skill: Myriad Truths
  • Leader Skill: The Will of So Few Surpasses the Will of All MankindSkill name references one of final boss's lines in the true ending

[6372] Persona 4: TV (Assist Evolution)

Star Ocean: Anamnesis

Yu was an ACE 5★ Defender unit who could be obtained in the gacha during the Persona 5 Royal collaboration. His collab artwork for the game was drawn by Yūhi Kijimoto. His skills were references to Persona series skills.[2]

Kotodaman

Yu appears as a unit in the Persona collab for the mobile game Kotodaman during the collab's original run in 2020, and once again during the rerun in 2024. He can be obtained by rolling in the Persona gacha. As a game unit, Yu is a 5★ light-attribute unit who can be used to form words using the syllables that make up his initials: ゆ・ゅ and な. He can be evolved into a 5★ unit. His skills are named Zionga and Ziodyne, following how Izanagi learns Zio in Persona 4.[3]

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages
Language Name Meaning
Japanese 鳴上 悠 Narukami Yū. The family name means "above the animal cry" and the given name means "calm" or "eternal."

Trivia

Design

  • When designing the protagonist, Shigenori Soejima wanted to make him look different from the Persona 3 protagonist. Instead of a boyish look, Soejima wanted the Persona 4 protagonist to look bold and rough—but in a good way. Soejima considers his eyes to be the most important part of the design, as he thought it would look neat if they were peeking out from behind his bangs, and drew him as though he's always glaring at something. The protagonist wears his Yasogami High boys uniform with the buttons undone, and the collar was purposely drawn taller than the other male characters' to help bring out his eyes.[4]
  • According to the Persona 4 Art Book, Soejima states if the P4 Hero was a Sentai Ranger he would be the Blue Ranger rather than the Red Ranger.[4]
    • Despite this, his later outfit is ironically the Red Ranger in both P4G and P4D.
  • According to the Persona 5 Art Book, the Hero is described as being designed to remind you of a dog: loyal and sincere.

Persona 4

  • In the US manual for the original Playstation 2 release of Persona 4, the protagonist is shown to be named Raidou Kuzunoha.[5] This is a reference to the character of the same name from the Devil Summoner series.
  • In the JP manual for Persona 4, the protagonist's name is Kōsuke Tsukimori, a reference to a glasses-wearing doctor from Atlus's Caduceus series. In the US, the series is known as Trauma Center and the character was renamed Derek Stiles.
  • The protagonist was nicknamed Banchō (a delinquent gang leader) by the Japanese fanbase due to Izanagi wearing a traditional boy's school uniform, how some of his Japanese dialogue options such as how he greets Dojima sound manly, the delinquent-looking Kanji having a great deal of respect for him, and him wearing a Japanese girls delinquent uniform for the crossdressing contest.[6] This was later used in his title for Persona 4 Arena, with banchō being localized as Kingpin in his English title.
  • Though the city the protagonist comes from is never named, it is implied to be Tokyo due to the green sign that says "Inoue Line for Akihabara" that can be seen in the opening movie when he boards a train, therefore making the Inoue Line a fictionalized version of the real world Yamanote Line. Akihabara would become a location in Persona 5, again using a green colored train line route on the subway map.

Other Media

  • In the manga, Soji forms bonds with both characters of the Sun and Strength Arcana, despite this being impossible in-game.
  • In the stage plays, the Hero's name is changed with each showing as the audience would choose the name.
  • Yu's cell phone in Persona 4 The Animation is the teal and silver EXILIM CA003.[7]
  • Yu Narukami has several alternate color palettes in Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle intended to reference other media.

Gallery

References

  1. "The text language setting has been changed so the main character's name will be fixed as "Yu Narukami." If you'd like to keep your original name, you must change back to the original text language setting." Persona 4 Golden (Steam).
  2. 「スターオーシャン:アナムネシス」,ペルソナシリーズ3作の主人公が登場。ジョーカー,鳴上 悠,結城 理が活躍するコラボイベントも. Published October 10, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2024. 4gamer. Article.
  3. Kotodaman - Yu Narukami Evaluation and Status. Published November 4, 2020. Retrieved January 18, 2024. GameWith. Article.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Chapter 1: Main Characters", Persona 4 Official Design Works, Atlus, Famitsu Editorial Department. Published by Famitsu (2008). Japanese. p. 21. ISBN-13: 978-4757745087.
  5. Persona 4 Game Manual, Atlus. Published by Atlus. English. p. 17.
  6. Who is Narukami Yu? (Pixiv Encyclopedia). Retrieved February 24, 2024. ピクシブ百科事典. Database.
  7. The EXILIM CA003 - Super high res digital zoom 12m camera. Published 2009. Retrieved 2023. Pho-N Watch. News Article.