𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗘𝗗: Rise Kujikawa's True Self [P4G Analysis]

I kind of find it hard to dislike any characters in this game. So many could have been so horrendously mishandled, and Rise would probably have been the easiest to mess up. And yet, Atlus just kinda didn’t; they did everything they needed to in order to pull off this deceptively deep character.

You know, it occurs to me that Rise would make a great FemC for P4. The idea of many Rises works with the wild card pretty well, and her celebrity status could provide some interesting twists on her interactions with Inaba as a whole.

i love kanji and rise's dynamics tbh their that two friends in the friend group who always argue but you know they don't got beef, its just friendly aggressive banter.

Honestly, understanding the context behind "Marukyu Striptease" makes the creepiest dungeon in the game for me even creepier. I'd say I'm a pretty big fan of this game, and I was sympathetic to Rise before, but man. Poor girl. This series has been very educational. Thank you.

I love Rise as a character! Her moments when she flirts with MC is fun.

I liked Rise but I couldn’t fully understand the sheer weight of her plight until I listened to Jennette McCurdy’s book “I’m Glad My Mom Died.” The flip side is that Rise has a much happier ending. Idols, actors and other artists do not owe their fans anything, much less owe happiness to anyone else if it harms the performer, especially if they didn’t ask for the fame and all the baggage that comes with it. Rise is very misunderstood and underrated but god damn she is a very compelling stance on public perception and I’m very glad that she came out the other side much happier and healthier.

This series is making me fall in love with Persona 4 all over again. Can't wait to see the finished product!

man screw all that deep nerd shit, rise's the best character because she saved my ears by kicking teddie out of the narrator spot Seriously though, these are always a delight to see. Keep it going, man. You got this.

Rise has always been my favorite character in the game. On the surface it’s very easy to dislike her, call her annoying and clingy. But from the start we see that rise is desperately searching for who she is. She tries to use all these tactics for finding her true self. She wants to believe her true self exists, it’s a fear that’s likely within everyone, the fear of having no real self. So she goes through her own head and comes up with situations that will change her life. She destroys her old sense of self and builds a new persona, but that persona is not her true self either. She just builds an ideal self. Eventually she realizes she’s chasing one ideal after another and might never be satisfied. All throughout the game we see different sides of her, some negative , some positive, and some extremely thoughtful and sad. It’s what makes her my favorite. Throughout everything she still loves everyone, she’s still so selfless even while trying to benefit herself. She just wants to find herself and help other people do the same. On the surface she comes off as someone she doesn’t wanna be, and gets judged for it. She was “ loved “ by everyone but never got seen as who she actually was. She’s easily the most relatable character in the game for me and it’s sad to see how much the community hates her and just disregards her character because she’s “ annoying “. Ironically it plays into the whole seeing her fabricated self dilemma, even in the real life fanbase of persona. I think her character is already phenomenal, but with a more rise focused story, she could’ve been made even further into her potential and people would see just how heartbreaking and beautiful of a character she has

One really cool thing about Rise that I like happens not too long after she gets her persona. Once Shadow Teddie attacks, Rise immediately offers to help the team as the new navigator. Based on all of her personas’ designs, her navigation style appears to rely on vision, because each holds a visor in front of Rise’s eyes. At this point, Teddie hasn’t had a chance to make Rise the pink glasses that she wears in the Shadow World for the rest of the game. Because she doesn’t remove the glasses, we can assume that she needs them. This means that during the Teddie fight, a character whose powers revolve around her vision is fighting through the fog to help a group of people she barely knows. Pair that with the exhaustion of being trapped for days and the stress of awakening her persona, we can see that Rise shouldn’t have been half as functional as she was during the Shadow Teddie fight. I don’t know if that symbolizes anything, but I do know that Rise is an A-grade, certified badass!

Best girl for me in Persona in general. I always gravitated towards her and all the times i played P4G i have nvr not chosen her cause i cant help it

You know when you stand between two mirrors that are set up correctly and you can see hundreds of your reflections stretch off into infinity? One of the scenes in Sir Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad" (spoilers if you want to read the book.) has the villain using an octagonal mirror setup to enhance her magic. (It makes sense in the book OK.) One of the Witches who went abroad traps herself and the villain in this mirror octagon and breaks the mirrors, which traps them both in some mirror world filled with reflections but no mirrors. They are told by somebody (I read the book years ago, I can't remember who lol.) that in order to get out, they need to find their real self in amongst all the reflections. The villain goes racing off to check every single reflection to find the real one. The Witch points to herself and says "This one." The Witch is freed and gets home before her postcards do. I thought of that scene a lot while experiencing the social link for Rise for the first time. The question of "Who is the real you" has a much simpler answer than you might think as you showed in this excellent video. Diskworld is worth a read IMO.

I love Rise's character. One of the best Social Links in my opinion and one of the few characters who are consistently interesting, even in the spinoffs. Great job on the analysis! The only issue I had with her social link is how...muddled it is when it comes to her experience with the TV World. There are some implications that kidnapped victims don't fully remember everything in the TV World, so that might be why it feels like Rise forgot the lesson...or it could just be self doubt, similar to how Rise is always saying that Yu is the only one who sees the real her...yet has to ask him a few times if he's mostly interested in Risette. And I've always wondered if one of the reasons she feels such a connection with Yu is because maybe he's similar in certain regards, such as having many different "selves"? Or maybe I'm just reading too much into a gameplay mechanic. I am referring to the dialogue "Since you have [Persona], a Persona of the [Arcana] Arcana, you feel you could be closer." I always interpreted that somewhat literally. Also, it seems like Yu's dialogue options are weighted slightly depending on who he's with. For example, I notice there seems to be more "flirty" options when he's with Rise and more "smartass" options when he's with Marie than with other characters. On a minor note, it's always annoyed me that Persona fans try to claim that The Lovers Arcana has nothing to do with love...when that's clearly not the case. Obviously, there are other aspects to The Lovers Arcana, such as choice and relationships as a whole, but it always baffled me how most people try to act like there's no connection to love at all.

I was so looking forward to it and I just know that Hiding won’t disappoint. Thanks for the hard work. Really loving the series

Rise is interesting because while the protagonist mechanically embodies the aspects of the Jungian persona she embodies it narratively. In Jungian psychology we don't just have one persona, the persona is a mask that we show to the world and we all wear different masks at different times. At work your mask might be very simple, not expressing individuality to show professionalism, but at school you might have been more willing to show more of yourself. Around your family you might be more open about your negative aspects because you don't fear rejection but your sexuality is repressed while talking to them because that's an uncomfortable aspect among family members, while around your friends or romantic partners you can express your sexuality but you might hide your negative aspects. Due to how different her public and private personas had to be at such a young age she is forced to confront this fact that most people never notice but she hasn't matured enough yet to understand it. She doesn't understand that she can act very differently in different situations while still being herself yet and she has to come to terms with that to truly grasp her true self.

Rise was my favorite character, I related to her a lot, with how she could never really be seen for who she really is. Sure, she's.... very "dangerous" lol, but I feel like there's a lot to appreciate with her. She's deceptively well written.

This man's content is good I cannot stop replying them so many times.

I'll watch this later but I feel the need to pop in and let everybody know that Rise is best girl. Thank you for the great content, and have a nice day.

The search for an idealized, imaginary, unattainable "self" is a common struggle for many people. I do wish the game was clearer, more final with a "You are the sum of your actions, nothing else" message.

I get that some don’t like Rise. But I’ve always loved her character. There’s a lot going on with her understandable burnout, struggles with always seeking a new version of herself, and coming out of all of it stronger with direction. Doesn’t chase an easy goal of coming back and being more true to herself while doing it. She’s just a fun character and a good guide character to have speaking up through most of the game. Great voice acting too be it English or Japanese.