Ken Amada

Ken Amada is one of the protagonists and party members from Persona 3. He is the youngest member of SEES and initially joined the group in the hope of finding who killed his mother, who died in a mysterious incident two years before the beginning of the story. His initial Persona is Nemesis and his ultimate Persona is Kala-Nemi.
He is voiced by Megumi Ogata in the Japanese version and Brianne Siddall in the English version, the former of whom also voices Shinji Ikari, Makoto Naegi and Tier Harribel. In the English dub of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and Persona Q, he is voiced by Cindy Robinson.
==Appearance==
Ken has styled short brown hair and eyes. An elementary student, he is short for his age. At school and Tartarus, he wears a school uniform of Gekkoukan Elementary, with an orange jacket under his Gekkoukan jacket, and tennis shoes with white socks. On weekends off, he is seen wearing a long orange turtleneck sweater shirt with light orange sleeves and tan shorts. On the summer days off, he wears a black turtleneck shirt underneath his orange and black jersey (with a 8 in the back, referencing his Arcana) and black shorts.
In Persona 3 Reload, Ken sports a new tactical jacket, a weapon belt strapped around his body, black fingerless gloves, and a modified SEES armband with the number 9 written.
In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Ken is now 13 years old and consequently has grown taller from his last appearance. His hair remains mostly unchanged in style, but is slightly longer. Ken now wears the standard uniform of Gekkoukan Middle School, brown shoes, a wristwatch on right wrist, and an armband with "Student Council" written on it on his left arm. He no longer wears his orange jacket, which now is worn by Koromaru, or the shorts he wore as an elementary student.
His "TV glasses" are a pair of light beige glasses.
==Personality==
Despite his young age, Ken is very intelligent and mature. It is shown that this is a coping mechanism due to the death of his mother at a young age, which more-or-less forced him to give up his childhood. His maturity is noted by Yukari, who can't believe he's in elementary school and claims that Junpei, who is a full six years older than him, could learn a thing or two from him. Fuuka also notes his maturity, and finds him cute as a result of it. Besides being mature, Ken also knows several words that boys his age don't usually know, such as "bastard," which he usually uses when referring to Strega. He is very polite to others, and never misses a chance to show respect where respect is due. He is also honest, diligent, and deeply caring towards his peers, particularly the members of SEES. Ken is shown to like and care a great deal for animals, such as Koromaru. In his video recording, there is a hamster in his room. In Persona 3 The Movie, he cares for a goldfish and in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, it is shown that he and Koromaru are now living together.
Although Ken is very mature, he still has several qualities that fit with his age and is sometimes too precocious for his own good. He finds a role-model in Akihiko, whom he admires for his boxing and fighting talents, often referring to him as "Sanada-san" as a form of respect to his senpai. He also likes to watch a children's show, Featherman R, but he prefers to keep it a secret. He seems to collect a lot of the Featherman R figurines, as well. He is also shown to be quite naive at times, such as when Junpei tricks him into believing the girls aren't wearing anything under their kimonos, which they wore on New Year's Day. Overall, Ken gives off the impression that he's just trying too hard to be something he's not i.e. an adult. Ken notes that one of the reasons he uses spears in battle is so that he'll be on even ground with an adult.
He has a strong dislike towards milk, but he forces himself to drink it believes he believes it can make him become taller. Unfortunately, it seems he may be lactose-intolerant since it often makes him sick. In the female protagonist's route, he acts shy towards her, due to the crush he develops on her if the right choices are made during his Social Link.
During the October Full Moon Event, his reason for joining SEES is revealed: he confesses to Shinjiro Aragaki that he is lonely and vengeful, desperate to avenge the killer of his mother who turns out to be Shinjiro. In The Answer, it is shown that he attempted to tell the truth about his mother's death to a police officer, but the officer dismissed it as some hallucination Ken had as a result of trauma. This convinced Ken that he couldn't rely on adults, and so resolved to track down his mother's killer on his own. Ultimately, he became completely consumed by his desire for revenge, to the point that it has become his one and only goal in life, and he even implies that he plans on killing himself once it's done. In Midsummer Knight's Dream, however, he initially thought it was just some random Shadow that killed his mother and only discovers that it was Shinjiro later on, ultimately attempting to kill him out of a feeling of betrayal. Ken is portrayed as being more polite and having more remorse over Shinjiro's death in the Japanese version compared to his portrayal in the English version. In fact, in the Japanese version, it is made very clear that Ken feels remorse by outright saying that he no longer wants to kill Shinjiro anyway. The English version however takes a more subtle approach to the scene where he laments over the fact that he can no longer be the one to take revenge on Shinjiro while crying afterwards, suggesting that he is somewhat dishonest in the English version.
After Shinjiro sacrifices himself to save him, Ken becomes depressed and guilty, losing his reason to live, and runs away from the dorm. His depression is especially shown in Falling Down, when he recalls Shinjiro's last words to him and claims that living for what the future has in store is easier said than done, since living is sometimes just as painful as dying. Later, he is confronted by Akihiko, who bluntly tells him that he's just going to have to accept his mother's death, and leaves his decision about whether or not to return in his hands. Ken then admits to himself that he had just been running away from the truth the whole time, and was really just looking for someone to blame for the death of his mother. He then decides to live for Shinjiro and his mother, which triggers the evolution of his Persona, and returns to the dorm shortly afterwards, stating he's done running away.
In The Answer, Ken seems to have grown even more mature, as he now understands why the Kirijo Group covered up the truth behind his mother's death and made it look it an accident, going so far as to say it's alright when Mitsuru expresses her sympathy. He also appears to be slightly more trusting of Metis than the others, being willing to believe that all she really wants is to protect Aigis. When the origins of the Abyss of Time are revealed, Ken notes the irony of the group trapping themselves, saying that it's "almost funny." During the dispute over what to do with the keys, he takes Akihiko's side, as the two usually agree and have the same viewpoints. He strongly disagrees with Yukari's desire to go back to before the last battle, believing it to be too big of a gamble and refuses to let the time they spent with the protagonist be for nothing, especially since he, much like Akihiko, has learned to accept that the dead are never coming back. After the group defeat Erebus, however, he admits that he can breathe easier now that he knows for sure that the protagonist gave his life for a reason.
==Gallery==
Ken_Amada_render.png|Persona 3
P3DMN_-_Ken.png|Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night
Ken.png|Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Ken_Amada_P4U_Artwork.png|Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Nemesis.jpg|Ken's initial Persona, Nemesis
Kala-Nemi.jpg|Ken's Ultimate Persona, Kala-Nemi
==Trivia==
*The Shirt of Chivalry, a type of costume for males in FES and P3P, is noted for the kanji symbols on their back that symbolizes the character. Ken's Kanji means "grudge" (怨), representing his dark past and his view towards Shinjiro.
*It is possible that he is Toru Inui, under an alias.
*In the ending of the Tragedy scene Ken's S.E.E.S redband did not show even though he is part of the S.E.E.S
*In Ken's initial design, Ken's weapon of choice was darts instead of spears.
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