Yukari Takeba

Overview

Yukari Takeba is one of the main characters in Persona 3. She attends Gekkoukan High School as student, and is a classmate of the game's main character. She also lives in the same dormitory building as he does. She is also a member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (SEES), a group who fight shadows during the Dark Hour period. Cheerful, bright, and optimistic, she is also widely popular at school, in addition to her good looks and energetic attitude. She is skilled in using the bow and arrow during battle, and specializes in healing and wind magic. Her Personae are Io and Isis. At the start of the game, she has trouble in using her persona abilities, because she gets frightened and distressed whenever she has to point her evoker to her head (the way Persona-users release their persona's powers).

Eventually, she gets over this fear. Although she is very cheerful and friendly, underneath is a troubled and sorrowful girl haunted by her past. She is careful not to get anyone truly close to her, even most of her friends.

Voices

Yukari is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese releases of Persona 3 and Michelle Ruff in the English language versions.

Story

Upon meeting the main character when he first transfers to Gekkoukan High School, Yukari is the first to talk to him. One night, during the Dark Hour, she and the main character are attacked by Shadows at the rooftop of the dorm. This leads to the awakening of his Persona, and his induction as a fellow SEES member. Together with her classmates, they start to explore Tartarus, a mysterious giant tower that appears only during the Dark Hour. The player finds out that Yukari's father died of unknown reasons when she was younger. But later on she finds out that her father was the scientist directly responsible for the existence of Shadows, Tartarus and Dark Hour from a recorded message. This causes her to become even more sad, as she believed her father was a good man. But with all her anger and grief deep inside her, she is able to open up to the main character more than anybody in the game. This is mainly because she understands the feeling of being alone, as the main character lost his parents in a car accident years prior to the game, and became an orphan.

Late in the game, she finds out that the chairman, Shuji Ikutsuki, got his hands on her father's tape-recorded message and edited it to manipulate the SEES members to his own plan to bring about the Fall, and finish what Mitsuru's grandfather started. Yukari eventually finds the real recording of the tape, and watches it herself. In the tape, Yukari's father tried to stop the incident from happening, but could not. He warned whoever finds the tape about the Shadows and their real purpose of their existence. In the last seconds of the recording, he also said to take care of his daughter, Yukari, and he let her know that he loves her very much.

Afterwards, Yukari overcomes her inner demons, and she decided she would fight with her friends in honor of her father. Yukari also takes part in the final battle against Nyx along with all the SEES members. After they have defeated Nyx, everyone (excluding the main character and Aigis) forgets the events of the final battle. During graduation, Yukari and the others suddenly remember their memories for the whole year, and fulfill their promise of meeting on the school rooftops when they have successfully prevented Nyx from destroying mankind.

The Answer

In Persona 3: FES, there is a chapter, called "The Answer". This takes place one month after the end of the original Persona 3 game. The main character mysteriously falls into a coma and eventually dies in his sleep. The dormitory that they live in is set to be closed down as well. Yukari does not want to fight with the SEES again because she wants to move on with her life, but is forced to fight again after a new threat emerges from under their dormitory.

After defeating the threat though, she admits to Aigis that part of her reluctance to re-join SEES was that she became jealous of Aigis, who inherits the main character's powers, mainly because she inherits Orpheus. It is implied that Yukari fell in love with the main character during the events of Persona 3. But when the threat was resolved and they discover what really happened to the main character, she and Aigis reconcile and move on with their lives.

Social Link

The main character also has the option to date Yukari, but must maximize his charm level in order to ask her out. The Lovers Arcana Social Link is established with her. If the player makes the right choices, she will fall in love with him, overcome her problems, and would have the courage to mend her strained relationship with her mother.

In Persona 3 Portable (When playing as the female protagonist), the player does not need to max out any traits to activate Yukari's social link. While her social link is similar to the original P3, Yukari instead talks to the protagonist about relationships and friendship, and at the end of her social link she decides to hang out more with the protagonist and hold off on finding a boyfriend.

During the Christmas event, the player has the option to spend time with Yukari and Fuuka (Provided the player has skipped Ken/Akihiko's offer or has not maxed out their social links)

Persona 4 Arena: Climax

Yukari, left off the roster of Persona 4 Arena, will be joining the roster in its sequel, Persona 4 Arena: Climax. As with the other SEES characters, she is now two years older and a graduate of Gekkoukan High School. As in Persona 3, she fights using a bow, and her Persona is Isis. For reasons not yet known, she is also now dressed in a pink sentai heroine costume.

Quotes

"More like Stupei Ace Defective!" -

In reponse to Junpei referring to himself as an 'Ace Detective'

"Io!" - Summoning Persona Io"Isis!' - Summoning Persona Isis"Help me!" - Using Persona Skills"I won't lose!" - Using Persona Skills"Please hit!" - Attacking Enemy"I won't miss!" - Attacking Enemy"Ugh... lame!" - Attack Misses"Here's our chance for an All-Out Attack!" - All-Out Attack Prompt"Lemme at 'em!" - During All-Out Attack