Ann Takamaki

**Ann Takamaki** is a playable character from *Persona 5*. She is a student at Shujin Academy who lives a double life as a Phantom Thief.

## Design

Ann has bright blue eyes and ash blonde wavy hair styled in bushy pigtails, with parted side bangs on the right side of her face. She accessorizes with a single yellow hair clip above her left ear, as well as small circular earrings on both ears. It is implied she is of mixed ethnicity; her surname is Japanese implying partial Japanese descent, she mentions she used to live in Finland possibly implying she is of Finnish descent, and her profile mentions she is 1/4 American.[1] She is a relatively tall young woman, standing taller than both Haru and Makoto, who are both a full year older than her.

Her winter school uniform is modified to fit her taste; the standard black blazer over a white varsity-like hoodie worn long to cover most of her short plaid skirt. Her hoodie has a zipper, a red stripe between two blue stripes at the bottom, and S symbol near the front bottom on one side, and a green four-leaf-clover symbol on the back of the hood. She wears red tights and brown boots with yellow laces.

Her summer school uniform is a white shirt with a blue jacket wrapped on her waist and the skirt is more visible. She has black socks with white lining and dark brown shoes. Her hairpin is now red instead of yellow and she wears a silver necklace.

Her summer casual clothes consists of a black tank top with "U2O" on it over a white shirt, with red sunglasses hanging from the middle of her chest. She wears blue denim short shorts with a red plaid shirt wrapped around her waist, black cropped socks, and red sneakers.

Her winter casual clothes consists of a lavender blue button shirt covered with a red and white jersey jacket with an S symbol near the front bottom on one side. She has a white skirt, black leggings and red converse shoes. She wears big red round earrings.

Her thief outfit consists of a skin tight red latex catsuit worn with a matching red panther mask, cleavage cutout, zippers, pink gloves, dark red thigh-high boots and has a clipped on tail in the back.

In *Persona 5: Dancing Star Night*, she has bright pink highlighting on each pigtail and retain some part of her Shujin Academy school uniform except she wears a red long sleeved shirt that reached above her stomach, red fingerless gloves, fishnet stockings and red sneakers. She wears a pair of silver headphones around her neck, a black basketball hat, light-blue nail-polish, golden hoops earrings, a spike bracelet on her left wrist, two matching gold bracelets on each wrist and a pink bracket on her right wrist.

## Personality

"I hear you... Carmen. You're right. No more holding back...!"
—Ann Takamaki before awakening her Persona
Ann is a very kind, sweet and compassionate girl, enough for it to be noted by both Morganaand Sojiro. Years of isolation due to her looks has left her very withdrawn and with a belief she's lost her place in the world, but that doesn't stop her from opening up to the people close to her and making jokes. This is because she's learned not to care what other people think of her, a lesson taught to her by Shiho Suzui, who was her only friend before joining the Phantom Thieves. She is shown to be a good judge of character, as she was the first person able to look past the rumors of the protagonist and see him for who he really is (while Ryujibefriended him before her, it was because he saw him as just another "troublemaker" and didn't learn his full story until later). Her good judgement of others is also shown by her willingness to forgive Makoto after learning her side of the story in the Kamoshida incident, namely that she wanted to do something but felt powerless to stop him, having realised it wasn't too different from her own situation.

As a Phantom Thief, Ann becomes far more lively and energetic with a stronger will to never be used or abused again like a subservient slave. The reason she agrees with Ryuji's desire to help those in need is because if she doesn't, she believes she'll go back to being the same as she was before. Because of her kindness, Ann initially acts as the Thieves' sole "moral center" i.e. the only one to never lose sight of the bigger picture. While Morgana only cares about restoring his true form and Ryuji often gets worked up over becoming famous, albeit in order to give people courage, Ann acts the common sense of the group, considering helping people to be the number one priority and often wondering whether what they're doing can actually be considered right. Despite this, Ann can also be rather sarcastic when annoyed or upset, particularly during her early encounters with Makoto, and isn't even above using profanity when pushed over the edge. Additionally, although she spares Kamoshida's life so he can confess his crimes and atone, she reveals later that she did it not out of kindness, but so he would end up suffering and begging for forgiveness for the rest of his life, which she considers to be a fate worse than death, much to Ryuji's shock.

Ann's hobbies include shopping and playing video games, and she in particular considers the former to be "a great stress reliever;" when Futaba points out that you can buy anything online, Ann is shocked and says that "seeing it and feeling it are the most important parts." She also has a massive sweet tooth for food such as cake and has a weakness for crepe special menus like "extra extra cream." It gets to the point that she will sometimes eat nothing but dessert and neglect normal meals. However, she dislikes carbonated drinks and seems to prefer soy milk over cow milk.

In the beginning of the game, Ann has a modeling side-job as a hobby, although she doesn't want to make a living out of it just yet as she is unsure how serious she wants to take it. On a side-note, her acting skills are noted to be terrible, yet somehow fool people often. Despite this and being generally confident about her body and physical appearance, Ann becomes flustered and embarrassed when she is forced into a situation that exposes her skin without her prior consent or desire. She has a tendency to mock or prank people who are ogling her like Ryuji and is disgusted with the idea of being used as a nude model for Yusuke. Ann can't stand it when people superficially value her for her body and nothing else, as if she is a thin-shelled hollow doll with nothing on the inside or no other redeeming qualities. Ann's Confidant involves her dealing with feeling objectified. She is also embarrassed of her Phantom Thief outfit at first, believing the tail is the only fine part of it and commenting that she could never wear out in public. Her outfit is implied to be inspired by an anime Ann watched, in which she admired a "sexy" villain who was strong and confident and took whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Ann also vehemently rejects the Phantom's attempt to give her a "classy cat burglar" codename, instead deciding on the name 'Panther' as it sounds "more ferocious."

## Battle Quotes

* "*I won't hold back!*" (Using Submachine Gun)
* "*Persona!*" (Summoning Persona)
* "*Get Ready!*" (Summoning Persona)
* "*Let's do this!*" (Summoning Persona)
* *"Go!"* (Attacking with Skill)
* "*Dance, Carmen!*" (Carmen casting skill)
* "*Dance, Hecate!"*(Hecate casting skill)
* "*This one!*" (Casting skill)
* *"That hurt!"* (Taking damage)
* "*Oh my God!*" (Getting knocked down)
* *"I'm in trouble..."* (Ann's HP is below 25% during her turn)
* *"Thanks!"* (Ann's HP is recovered by someone's skill or item)
* *"Oh, that's a big help!"*(Ann's HP is recovered by someone's skill or item)
* *"Thank you!"* (Ann's HP is recovered by someone's skill or item)
* *"Come on, keep up!"* (Using Harisen Recovery)
* "*Hey, are you okay?"*(Using Harisen Recovery)
* *"Snap out of it!"*(Using Harisen Recovery)
* *"Oh, move!"* (Shielding protagonist)
* "*Okay!*" (Receiving Baton Pass)
* *"Go get them!"* (Passing Baton Pass)
* "*Don't move!*" (Hold Up enemies)
* "*This is the chance!*" (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *"Let's get serious!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *"Let's finish this!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *"Do it with style!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* "*Let me handle this!"*(Requesting Follow-Up Attack)
* *"Can I beat that loser?*(Requesting Follow-Up Attack)
* "*On your knees!"*(During Follow-Up Attack)
* "*Squeal like a pig!"*(During Follow-Up Attack)
* "*A beautiful rose has thorns!*" (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* "*Aren't we the best?*" (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* *"How's that? Hehehe..."* (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* *"Alright, I'll do my best."* (Tactics changed to Act Freely)
* *"I'm letting loose!"* (Tactics changed to Full Assault)
* *"Saving power, huh?"* (Tactics changed to Conserve SP)
* *"So, stay out of danger!"* (Tactics changed to Heal/Support)
* *"Okay, what do I do?"* (Tactics changed to Direct Command)
* *"Feels great, huh?"* (Battle results)
* "*Oh, you want more?*" (Enemy survives her attack)
* "*I got a new power!"*(Learning new move)
* *"Whoa, a new move!"*(Learning new move)
* *"I gotta use this next time!"*(Learning new move)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Ann always help her friends as much as she can. She also wants to prove that she is just as strong as anyone else within the group.

## Trivia

* Both "Ann" and "Anne" could be considered correct names for her. The English localization uses Ann, while promotional material for the Japanese version uses Anne. This is similar to Aigis who is known as Aegis in the Japanese version. It's not that one is correct while the other is not - it is simply an artistic localization choice.
* Anne is a very common Finnish female name, and her romanized surname Takamaki could be derived from the Finnish surname Takamäki, further solidifying her connection to Finland. The meanings of said surnames are different though; Takamaki (高巻) means "(mountaineering) detour," while Takamäki means "Behind (something there is a) hill."
* Apparently, the reason why Ann wears red tights is because she doesn't care about standing out, and, at this point, couldn't care less about what society/humanity thinks of her.[2] This also explains her unique "uniform," and how Ann has given up trying to appease to Japanese society.
* In the Japanese official site, Panther is given the mocking title of "Phantom Thieves' Method Acting(?) Actress" (怪盗団の演技派(?)女優, *Kaitō-dan no engi-ha(?) Joyū*)?. Possibly refers to her stiff acting skills when she is tasked with deceiving or negotiating with the gang's target.
* Ann's Zodiac sign, Scorpio, which is noted for being a sign representing mysteriousness, may align with the fact that Carmen, her initial Persona, was a gypsy woman who used her charm to win over the hearts of unsuspecting men and then twist them to her will, and her Ultimate Persona, Hecate, was the goddess of magic and witchcraft in Greek mythology.
* Additionally, much like all of the Thieves' starting Personas, Carmen is symbolic with Ann's own story; Carmen foresaw her fate in her cards, namely that she would be killed by a former lover of hers, but accepted her fate as she refused to let herself be controlled by anyone. Similarly, Ann was well aware of the consequences of going against Kamoshida, but did so anyway as she refused to be his slave, which led to Shiho being sexually abused to the point that she attempted suicide.
* After Marie's romance in *Persona 4 Golden*, Ann's romance is the second/third romance within the *Persona 3*-*5* games to include a definite kissing scene with the protagonist, the other being Margaret.
* Ann is Soejima's favorite main character in the game.[1]
* In the japanese and asian cover of the game Ann's cleavage can just barely be seen, but this was censured and changed for the America and EU versions of the game. Atlus USA claim that it was just because Morgana's smile was being too covered by the rating tag.

* Just like with Makoto Niijima, Goro Akechi and Ryuji Sakamoto before, the official twitter account for the Persona series posted a "Happy Birthday" message for Ann on November 12, 2017 JST.
	+ Lyn along with Game Symphony Japan played the Happy Birthday song for Ann as a request from Morgana. [3]

### Appearances in Other Media

* *Lord of Vermilion Re:3*: Panther. Campaign collaboration.
* *Chain Chronicle*: Panther, Archer class. (Article in *Chain Chronicle* Wiki)