Akihiko Sanada

Akihiko Sanada is one of the playable characters in Persona 3. He is a student at Gekkoukan High School and a member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad.

Akihiko Sanada is the captain of the Gekkoukan High School boxing team and, along with Mitsuru Kirijoand Shinjiro Aragaki, one of the original members of SEES. He and Shinjiro grew up in an orphanage together with Akihiko's little sister, Miki, who died in a fire that destroyed the orphanage. Devastated by her death and feeling powerless that he could not save her, Akihiko vowed to become stronger. He took up boxing so he could learn how to fight, becoming a champion student boxer in the process.

Shinjiro and Akihiko remained friends after Miki's death. However, an incident occurred during an early SEES mission which put a strain on Akihiko and Shinjiro's relationship. Shinjiro's Persona went berserk while combating a Shadow, killing an innocent bystander in the process. Feeling guilty, Shinjiro immediately left SEES. Akihiko used the incident as a springboard to focus even more on his strength and fighting the shadows. He began to criticize his friend for retreating when others needed his help. Throughout the game, Akihiko repeatedly tries to talk Shinjiro into joining SEES again. When Ken Amada joins the party, Akihiko, with the aid of the protagonist, forces Shinjiro to join.

During the events of the Strength and Fortune full moon battles, Akihiko is unsettled and distracted by the absence of Ken and Shinjiro. He later realizes the date: October 4, the day Shinjiro's persona killed Ken's mother. He leaves the others in search of Ken and Shinjiro, finding them both behind Port Island Stationalong with Strega member Takaya Sakaki, who has interrupted Shinjiro and Ken's conversation and intends to kill them both. He has already shot Shinjiro and was aiming to shoot Ken, but Shinjiro stops Takaya from killing Ken by taking another bullet despite knowing that Ken has made a vow to kill him to avenge his mother's death. Shinjiro's last words are a request that Akihiko take care of Ken, and he states that his death is how things should be.

Mourning the loss of his friend, Akihiko nonetheless finds himself amazed that Shinjiro could face death so bravely and vows to face difficulty head on. This resolution causes his Persona to evolve into into Caesar. He is one of the first to express his determination to fight Nyx, despite knowing she cannot be defeated.

Akihiko remains loyal to the protagonist and SEES until the end of Nyx's defeat. When the protagonist confronts Nyx's true form Death, Ken's voice is the first heard, worrying that there's nothing they can do. Akihiko's voice is then heard consoling Ken and SEES, saying that they can't give up and they must believe in him. On Graduation Day, Akihiko remembers the promise SEES made and runs to him on the roof.

Akihiko is a new Social Link if the player pursues the female protagonist's route, representing the Star Arcana. The Social Link is initiated by talking to him starting on May 25 with level 4 Charm or higher.

In this Social Link, Akihiko will express his desire to gain strength in order to protect others and concern for the well-being of the protagonist, who at earlier parts of the game he treats her as a little sister. As time passes, the player sees Akihiko as not just a "cool upperclassman" that many of the girls in school fawn over, but as a man who cannot cope with the darkness of his past and cannot socialize well with others because of it. He later on grows more anxious towards the female protagonist, to the point of asking her if there was any way for her to stop fighting.

The Social Link then freezes until after the events on October 4, where Akihiko admits that his treatment of the female protagonist, that is similar to the treatment of his deceased sister Miki, would be considered as opening up and sharing the burden with her. Thus his resolution to stop the Dark Hour now serves a different purpose: to protect the people he loves and cherishes, including the female protagonist.

At the end of the social link, Akihiko gives her a rabbit doll, stating that the doll is reminiscent of her and of his memories of a happier Miki, and finally comes to terms with his own past, at last looking forward to creating a better future. The rabbit doll grants the ability to fuse Helel, the lightbringer.

It is possible for the player to have a romantic relationship with him, though the player has to choose special dialogue choices that are scattered throughout certain ranks of his Social Link. If the player chooses all of the correct dialogue and has accepted the offer to be Akihiko's "girl" at Rank 9, the Lovers Route for this Arcana will be triggered.

Akihiko may also visit the female protagonist on the roof and he talks about how he fell in love with her. She closes her eyes and rests with Akihiko, possibly dying.

Akihiko does not originally come to see the closing of the Dorm. He only arrives after Mitsuru calls him over, and he becomes trapped in the dorm with them.

At the end of Caina, a door to Akihiko's past reveals how he was recruited to SEES after a boxing match during his years as a middle school student. Mitsuru Kirijo approached him, revealing she knew he was experiencing "something" each midnight and she was in the same situation, except she knew more about it. Mitsuru presented him with a gun and offered him a new way of fighting.

During the debate over how to use the keys to the past or the present, Akihiko chooses the present with the support of Ken Amada. He believes that the protagonist died because he used all his powers to protect everyone, and by tampering with the past, it would be disrespectful to his sacrifice.

Akihiko helps the group defeat Erebus, the grand manifestation of humanity's grief and negative emotion.

After graduating from Gekkoukan High, Akihiko went to college. He decided, however, to perfect his punch and traveled the world in his pursuit of becoming stronger. Around that time, he had also become associated with Mitsuru's Shadow Operatives and is called upon to help retrieve Labrys in the TV world in Inaba. During the "tournament," he comes across Chie Satonaka and becomes impressed by her resolve to protect Labrys, though he has never seen her before and reminds him of his reasons for fighting. After the incident, Akihiko decides that he'll eventually, in the far future, leave the Shadow Operatives and become a police officer. Mitsuru tells him, however, he needs to go back to college so she assigns Aigis to help manage Akihiko. With a new resolve, Akihiko is determined to find the mastermind behind the incident and put an end to their plot.

A TV special in Persona 5 makes an allusion to Akihiko along with Katsuya Suou as "a legendary gumshoe who took down a bear" implying that after the events of Persona 4: Arena he became a police officer.

And he is reprised by Liam O Brian in the English dub and Hikaru Midorikawa in the Japanese dub

## THEMES

* Wandering Wolf (Persona 4: The Arena) - Akihiko Sanada's Theme