You know the drill.

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Amanda
Contact: ravenclawed
Age: 30+
Current Characters: None


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Yosuke Hanamura
Age: 18
Canon: Persona 4 Golden
Canon Point: Post-True Ending Epilogue

Background: Here

Personality: The Magician is often known as the best friend, the right hand man, and/or the second in command. Often viewed as the immature and perverted type but also those who take action and initiative, those that have an unfailing determination. Yosuke has these in spades and more. Especially with the game's theme about acceptance and seeking the truth. The acceptance is important as it's not in the usual way most stories tell this theme, but in a way where you accept the situation you are in even if you don't necessarily like it but you make the best of it as you can. However, unlike the others in the Investigation Team, his learning of acceptance wasn't due to any outside societal pressures but more that it was himself he needed to accept.

That isn't to say there isn't any outside pressure at all, obviously. He's the "Prince of Junes", he has to mind his manners so he doesn't reflect badly on his family and by extension, Junes. Even when the townspeople speak ill of him and his family, he's good at saving face and keeping up the good PR. Because he has to. Although make no mistake, Yosuke is a good kid, it's just that part of it is because he has to be, which often leads him to being a bit of a pushover. The other employees treat him like dirt, often going to him with complaints or sometimes even not coming into work at all, forcing him to scramble to get someone to cover and often asking the Protagonist at the last moment. However, that isn't the only reason Yosuke is seen being nice.

Yosuke is incredibly lonely. He's terrified of being alone especially after losing the admittedly shallow bonds he had with his friends back in the city. Ever since he moved to Inaba, which he already viewed as too small and boring, he hoped he could at least stay in touch with his only connection to the city. Spoiler: they don't keep in touch with him at all. So, he continues to try and save face, often overcompensating which leads to a bad case of Foot in Mouth syndrome and coming across as annoying, a jerk, and often a pervert due to some of things he says or does such as entering the girls in a beauty pageant they can't back out of (although he didn't know about that last bit, to be fair). Even he's aware that he's a pain in the ass sometimes too. But he desperately wants attention. He wants friends. Also, being in the boonies means he now has a lot of time on his hands considering he had no friends and nothing really to do outside of Junes, which in turn allowed him to reflect on said loneliness and the fact that he believes he doesn't really matter, that he's just this mediocre kid with a boring life. This all comes to a head when facing his Shadow, who reveals just what he's afraid to show others. That he's bored and lonely, that he's pretending to be nice and carefree, wearing a fake smile so no one can see how insecure he really is.

But, as mentioned before, Yosuke is a nice and kind individual once you get past the insecurities and lack of a filter (and let's face it, all the characters are little shits sometimes, he's not unique in this, even the Protag!). He realizes this himself and throughout the course of his social link, he begins to see that he doesn't need to be special or feel like he needs to overcompensate to try and make friends. He just needed to gain the confidence in himself to realize that even if he was mediocre, he can support others and vice versa, and that they'll still want his company. He wanted friends and he got friends and even if he does show his bad side to them, they won't hate him for it. He grows from being this insecure kid to someone whom you can rely on. He's the one who even allowed Teddie to live with him, the only one to offer actually, despite knowing how much the bear can annoy him at times.

Not mention, Yosuke can be really good at deduction and he has incredible insight. The whole game really wouldn't have happened had he not figured out Saki's murder was tied to the Midnight Channel and pushed to continue investigating, especially after their first time falling in by accident. He discusses things about the case with the protagonist the most, he's literally the second in command as well and there's a reason that the game often has the protagonist thanking Yosuke. He's his partner and he'll always have his back. Despite his pushover tendencies, it does stem from a need to feel needed, to want to help because he likes it. He likes feeling needed. He just genuinely likes to help, to try to make the best out of the situation at hand. He's a reliable guy and everyone knows it.

Yosuke Hanamura was very much a insecure teenager with worries about his future, his appearance in a town that basically hated him and his family, with no friends and terrified of loneliness and mediocrity. But by the end of the game, he's a young man with the self-confidence in both himself and his friends to ensure that he lives his life to the fullest, to love the town of Inaba, and to make sure that the protagonist knows he's his friend - his partner - and nothing, not even distance, is going to change that.


Abilities: Yosuke is able to call up a Persona, the physical manifestation of his soul. His persona is Takehaya Susano-O. With his persona, Yosuke is both the back-up healer and the team's buffer/debuffer along with being the only Garu (wind magic) user of the group. His healing is only back up because he can only cast up to Diarama, however with Takehaya Susano-O specifically, he can also cast Youthful Wind which moderately restores the whole party's HP along with buffing them with an increase in evasion and hit rate for 3 turns. His Persona also has the ability to play an epic guitar riff because why not? Dancing All Night is considered 100% canon.

Yosuke is known as having the highest amount of agility in the group, being the fastest and largely being the one to have the first shot during every battle. He generally uses uses dual-wielding weapons such as kunai, knives, and even wrenches or trout or corn on the cob along with using lots of acrobatic moves, sometimes even to summon his persona. This all makes sense given his initial Persona, Jiraiya, is a disco ninja frog using the motifs of the things Yosuke loves: Music, sentai, and cool robots among other things. It's essentially his idea of a superhero. And both Susano-O and Takehaya Susano-O are no exception.

He also has the uncanny ability to be able to fight while listening to music and responding to orders from the protagonist, it's rare to see him without his headphones and they're always on when the fight starts. Of course, it also helps that he's actually a surprisingly good dancer despite his clumsiness, which makes sense given his high agility state.


Alignment: Aiada; Yosuke's Social Link arc in particular reveals that he struggled with being jealous of the protagonist but also grows to appreciate both Inaba itself and his friends within it.

Other: As of Dancing All Night, Yosuke's Persona has reverted to Jiraiya. The Arena games explained that this is due to lack of use, but Takehaya Susano-O is still there once Yosuke decides to use his Persona more often.

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: Here and Here

Emotion Sample: While it was probably very cliche, working in some sort of retail environment was also just too familiar for Yosuke to pass up. At least for now. Besides, he needed to start making money and essentially fending for himself now that he was in a world without his parents. There were adults here, but they were strangers. It was scary to think about, but having his Persona be the calming presence in the back of his mind helped tremendously with his anxiety.

Not that it was 100% foolproof. Because of course his abysmal luck had to strike when he least expected it.

He had been stocking some books at a used bookstore, he at least was trying to keep away from any Junes style stores for now, when the title of a book caught his eyes. It was just some fantasy book (fantasy for a world like this, anyway) about kids needing to save the world and learn new powers to do so. But just the little summary alone had him feeling homesick. He blinked in confusion when a sudden drop of water hit the cover.

"Huh?" More appeared and before he knew it, there was a downpour! The bookkeeper squawked at him to get out before he ruined the book and Yosuke was only eager to oblige because he just didn't want to be wet! He realized them that the rain was following him and once he was outside, he just stood there in a rather pathetic huddle as he was just rained on from his own personal cloud. "What the hell?!"

He took a step back and promptly slipped, falling right on his ass with a harsh grunt. But, it distracted him from his homesickness long enough for the rain to finally ebb to the point that all that remained was an angry storm cloud above him.

'I know you used to be Susano-O but this is ridiculous, Jiraiya!'

All he got was a heavily confused emotion that matched his own and he groaned in his wet little heap on the ground. The book keeper finally came out when it looked like the storm passed and held out a towel for him. Yosuke took it with an embarrassed blush. "S-Sorry..."

"Don't worry about it, kiddo. Most of the books were saved. I'll make you some tea, that should make you feel better."

His eyebrows went up a little but the relieved smile that broke out on his face dispersed the last of the cloud. "Thanks, sir."


Questions: None