Akira Ashihara

### Relatives

Kuroto Terui (uncle)Tomoko Terui (cousin)Unnamed Father (Deceased)Unnamed Mother (Deceased)

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

**Akira Ashihara** (葦原 明, *Ashihara* *Akira*) is the main character of Persona: Story. He is a classmate of Gentaro and Sanako who is forced to move to Sapporo after his parents pass away. He now lives with his uncle Kuroto Terui and his cousin Tomoko.

## General Information

School: Avalon High

Zodiac Sign: ???

Weapon: Broadswords

Arcana: The Fool, The World

Persona: Beowulf, Kurma

Japanese VA: Nobuyuki Hiyama

English VA: Patrick Seitz

Theme Song: To Be Announced

## Design

Akira Ashihara is a blonde-haired high schooler.

## Personality

Akira was forever reshaped by the incident behind his Velvet Room contract. Being so close to death and narrowly avoiding it caused him to develop an Enigma: he didn't want to have friends anymore. He began to act standoffish towards others to avoid emotional attachments.

After his first trip to the World of Fiction, he begins to open up more and expose more of his personality. He is revealed to be charming, kind, and flexible. Sanako develops a crush on him, saying that she finds him charming and dependable.

## Profile

**Backstory**

Akira is a young man who was mysteriously saved from being hit by a car when he was 3 years old by the man named Igor. After this event, he innocently signed a contract that would allow him to receive the Velvet Rooms services in the future.

**Moving to Sapporo**

Akira moves to Sapporo after his parents both die. He is adopted by his uncle Kuroto Terui and lives in his home along with his new sister-in-law Tomoko Terui. On the first day of school, he meets a boy named Gentaro. The two become friends after they work together to help a wheelchair-bound child who is being harassed by a bully on their way to homeroom.

That night, he has a strange dream where he finds himself inside the Velvet Room. He reunites with Igor, who explains that he was the one behind the traumatic incident in his past and introduces him to Mary. Because Akira had signed a contract back then, he was permitted to use the Velvet Room's services to help him fulfill a mysterious destiny. Though not understanding at the moment, Igor says he will in due time before urging him to go back to his dreams.

**Shingo's Kingdom**

The next day, Akira reunites with Gentaro as the two of them ask out the popular girl Sanako following a school pep rally. Despite them failing, she does agree to let them help her out that night with her job at the school library due to seeing that they are genuine in wanting to help her out. Sadly, the work turns out to be very dull and Akira joins Gentaro in searching the library out of boredom. This results in them discovering a mysterious bookshelf that leads them to the World of Fiction. Once there, they meet the mysterious Shadow named Hooter, who explains the mysterious Shadow Swaps that have been happening recently. Realizing that the bully they showed up earlier could be a Shadow in disguise, they join Hooter in going to his Kingdom.

During Akira's first trip to Shingo's Kingdom, he is greeted there by a doppelganger of himself that is revealed to be his Shadow Self. Akira refuses to accept this as the truth, but deep down he knows that his Shadow is right. After some exploration, the group is cornered by a group of Lampads led by a special Shadow that calls itself an Elite. Hooter summons his Persona, King Arthur, in an attempt to protect the group only to be easily knocked back. Gentaro is targeted next only for Akira's Shadow to finally convince him to admit the truth: he cares about Gentaro as a friend. This grants Akira the courage to unite with his Shadow and awaken his Persona, Beowulf, after seeing Hooter's physical example. Using Beowulf, Akira easily defeats the Lampads and helps the group successfully escape the Shadows who block their exit. After saying goodbye to Hooter, they return to reality only to be yelled at by Sanako for ditching her. They try to explain themselves, but only make her more upset for "making up excuses".

The next day, Akira and Gentaro agree to sneak into the library that night after Sanako leaves so they can return to the World of Fiction again. This time, Hooter joins the party and Gentaro awakens his Persona Mug Ruith. Because of this incident, Sanako gets into trouble. All is forgiven after Akira and Gentaro help her escape Shingo by ducking into the World of Fiction once more. They gladly accept Sanako's apology for not believing them initially, and Sanako is rewarded by awakening a Persona of her own. The four of them decide to form the Grimoire Court to stop the Shadow Swaps from happening and elect Akira as their leader.

After successfully conquering Shingo's Kingdom, they mount a rescue attempt for the real Shingo only to be intercepted by the Shadow Shingo. Sanako attempts to calm the Shadow down by explaining why she broke up with him, but Shingo's refusal to admit his Enigma gives the Shadow the power to enter a Berserk state. It proved to be tougher than other Shadows, but together Akira led the Grimoire Court into victory. Shingo, seeing how monstrous his desires had become, finally lets go of his Enigma and agrees to be friends with Sanako and nothing more. As thanks for saving him, Shingo asked the group to join him at a local baseball game as an apology for his actions. While there, the group runs across a fellow student named Ryuga.

**Chiro's Kingdom**

*To be added*

**Shadow Akira**

Akira meets his Shadow during the team's first visit to Shingo's Land. The Shadow is silent and cold towards others. This is because he is formed of Akira's **Enigma**: his desires to push others away from him because of him being afraid of losing anyone close to him. He doesn't look any different from regular Akira because looking weird would attract attention to him. After overcoming his Enigma, Shadow Akira reunites with Akira and transforms into the Persona Beowulf.

Unlike the other Shadow Selves, Shadow Akira continues to appear even after turning into Beowulf by appearing in the Velvet Room alongside Igor and Mary. He functions as the Fool Social Link, which levels up during certain visits to the Velvet Room (often at critical points in the story). Therefore, maxing out the Fool is necessary to unlock the game's True Ending. Maxing out this Social Link unlocks access to the ending of the game, allows John Henry to be fused, and ultimately causes Beowulf to evolve into Kurma.

### Dancing Past Midnight

In Dancing Past Midnight, Akira and the Grimoire Court join Hooter's party to celebrate their victory over Mordred. However, a squadron of Shadows kidnap some of their members. Akira learns to fight the Shadows by dancing, saving everyone and destroying the horde before enjoying the best night of his life.

* Default Outfit

Akira wears a black tuxedo and a chain bracelet.

* School Winter Uniform
* School Summer Uniform
* Winter Outfit
* Summer Outfit
* Swimsuit Outfit
* Butler Outfit
* Velvet Room Outfit
* Halloween Outfit

Akira dresses up like an Egyptian pharaoh.

* Christmas Outfit

Akira dresses up in a Santa outfit.

* Featherman Outfit

Akira dresses up as **Red Cardinal**, the leader of Phoenix Featherman Legacy.

## Symbolism

**Fantasy character trope: The heroic knight**

*The knight is portrayed in classical literature as a noble figure who charges into battle fueled by nobility and chivalry. A common motivation for the knight is a damsel in distress, usually a princess who he is in love with and sometimes marries after rescuing her. Common antagonists for a knight are a fire-breathing dragon or an evil magic-user. Real life knights were loyal servants to a monarch and fought for the sake of that monarch's kingdom and the subjects serving them.*

* Akira is the main protagonist of Persona: Story, similar to knights being a common main character in classic literature.
* One of the major traits of Akira (and the Grimoire Court in general) is their nobility. Akira is very willing to accept new recruits to the Grimoire Court, often working towards making them feel like part of the group and complimenting his allies frequently.
* While Akira doesn't have a traditional 'damsel in distress' to rescue, his common goal is to rescue people who have been captured by their Shadows. He does fulfill the romantic side by being very charming and attractive towards the women he interacts with. He also is shown to be faithful, being the first protagonist in Persona history who can not date multiple girls simultaneously.
* Akira's final obstacle at the end of his journey is the Questing Beast, a monster whose design invokes the appearance of a dragon. The monster is also under the servitude of Mordred, who is himself an evil Persona-user similar to an evil wizard.
* While Akira is technically the leader of the Grimoire Court in terms of combat, Hooter is still considered the highest authority thanks to his high intelligence and deep understanding of the World of Fiction. Akira never wavers his faith in Hooter's ability to lead the team down the right path, mirroring a knight's loyalty to his king.

**The Fool Arcana**

*The Fool is generally associated with people who have begun a new part of their life with no idea what to expect. The positive aspects include innocence, spontaneity, and the leap of faith. The negative aspects include chaos, folly, lack of direction, naivety, and poor judgement.*

* Akira's move to Sapporo is a permanent one, meaning that whatever his old life was like is meaningless and ended. In short, he has begun a new chapter of his life without any knowledge of the wild adventure he would experience as leader of the Grimoire Court.
* Igor rescuing Akira from death could be viewed multiple different ways. One interpretation of the event was Akira innocently running into traffic chasing after the butterfly and Igor saved him to prevent his mistake from being a fatal one. Another is seeing him as being stupid for chasing it into an obviously dangerous environment with Igor saving him being done out of necessity rather than kindness.

## Etymology

Akira is an Asian given name that has meanings in a few different languages. In Japanese, the kanji used here can mean "the light coming from the sun", which symbolizes Akira's status as savior of the world. In Thai, the name means "the sun" or "sunlight".

Ashihara is a Japanese surname meaning "reed beds". It is also a potential reference to Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, a concept in Japanese mythology that is similar to Purgatory from Christian mythology.

## Trivia

* Akira Ashihara is this character's canon name, even though the player could use any name in a real game.