Ann Takamaki

* Ann
* Panther

**Ann Takamaki** is a major character who appears in Persona Record Series. She's Second year student at Shujin Academy, Persona-Users and a Member of The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

## Background

Before she met Ren Amamiya, she and Ryuji Sakamoto were classmates in middle school. Due to her foreign blood and living abroad before the story, she does not have many friends there and is considered an outcast in Shujin. According to the art book, her parents are away from home and she lives with "servants." Ann mentions she had a live-in caretaker, so these "servants" are likely caretakers. Both her parents are fashion designers who put on extravagant shows, and that they jump from country to country, so Ann does not see them that often. It is revealed that Ann also used to live in Finland.

Her only friend is Shiho Suzui. Ann met Shiho when she told Ann that Ann's painting sucks during art class. Despite this, as they were both outcast girls, they became friends with each other. Ann is being targeted by the volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida who had a sexual interest towards her after he spotted her in a modeling magazine. Kamoshida constantly asked her out for dates, threatening her that if Ann refuses to make appearances, Shiho will be removed from the frontlines of his team.

Because of the coercion threats, she reluctantly makes appearances with Kamoshida in order to protect her friend, although she rejects any sexual advances Kamoshida makes. Vicious rumors then began to spread around the school that she was sleeping with him, further tarnishing her name around the school. Presumably because of her mistreatment at the school before Kamoshida became the volleyball coach of Shujin, worsened by Kamoshida's sexual harrassment, Ann began to call Shujin a "sorry excuse of a school" and tried to convince herself that there was nothing wrong with her toxic coping regarding her predicament, as Shiho was her sole person of solace within the school.

After Ren moved to the Shujin academy due to the crime of assaulting others, she learns the secret about the Palace and the Metaverse, so she gains the power of Persona and joins the Phantom Thief to change people's hearts.

## Appearance

Ann has wavy platinum blonde hair that is styled in bushy pigtails with parted side bangs on the right side of her face where she accessorizes with a single yellow hair clip above her left ear as well as small circular earrings on both ears and bright blue eyes. She is of mixed ethnicity: her surname is Japanese, and her profile mentions she is 1/4 American. She is a relatively tall young woman, standing taller than both Haru Okumura and Makoto Niijima, who are both a full year older than her.

### School Uniform

Her winter school uniform is modified to fit her taste: the standard black blazer over a white varsity-like fullzip hooded sweatshirt, worn long to cover most of her short plaid skirt. Her sweatshirt has a red stripe between two blue stripes at the bottom, an 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, making her skirt more visible. She has black socks with white lining and dark brown shoes. Her hairpin is red instead of yellow, and she wears a silver necklace.

### Panther

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

## Personality

Ann is a very kind and compassionate girl, enough for it to be noted by both Morgana and Sojiro Sakura. Years of isolation due to her looks have left her very withdrawn, with the belief that she's lost her place in the world. This hasn't stopped her from opening up to the people close to her and making jokes.

As a Phantom Thief, Ann becomes far more lively and energetic, with a strong will to never be abused or let abuses run unchecked. Her Confidant deals largely with Ann's attempt to become a stronger person and come to terms with her guilt.

## Abilities

Ann's Persona is Carmen, she fights with whips and submachine guns.

## Relationship

### Ren Amamiya

Ann's classmate and fellow team. At first, she wasn't interested in him since he moved to Shujin Academy because of his own crime and caused chaos with Ryuji, until after the suicide attempt of her best friend, Ann made the decision to Join The Phantom Thieves of Hearts to take revenge for her friends.

After Ann joined the group, she adjusted her understanding with Ren and eventually became friends.

### Ryuji Sakamoto

Ann's Classmate and fellow team. Ann and Ryuji often argue with each other because of his stubbornness and chaos that Ann has to teach him all the time.

### Iroha Tamaki

Ann's Magical girl friend. She and Iroha meet in Kamihama, until she learns that Iroha is a magical girl, so Ann and the thieves decide to form an alliance to defeat the witch and the shadows.

### Yachiyo Nanami

A co-worker in a magazine shoot and she is an alliance between The Phantom Thieves of Hearts and The magical girls.

## Trivia

* The name **Ann** means "apricot" (杏).
	+ 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 from *Persona 3*, 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.
* Ann's surname **Takamaki** means "tall, high" (高) (**taka**) and "roll" (巻) (**maki**).
	+ **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) meaning "(mountaineering) detour" and Takamäki meaning "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 humanity thinks of her.
	+ This also explains her unique "uniform," and how Ann has given up trying to appease to Japanese society.

* 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.

## Gallery

Ann in her Shujin Academy UniformAnn chose her clothes with passion.Ann Ryuji and RenAnn in Panther Form