Kanami Mashita

Persona 4

Kanami does not make any official appearance in Persona 4, however, she is mentioned in Rise Kujikawa's Social Link as her junior idol who works in the same agency as her. After Rise retires from show business, Kanami begins to become increasingly popular and takes over as the new center of attention as the premier cute idol. Rise is initially happy about this but becomes increasingly frustrated over the course of the Social Link, right up until her former manager, Minoru Inoue, decides to serve as Kanami's manager. Her stage name is revealed to be "Kanamin". She is also revealed to still be in middle school.

Kanami is also mentioned in the remake, Persona 4: Golden, during a new scene where Yosuke asks the Investigation Team to help him do something due to Kanami's special event being cancelled, causing Junes's big sale plan to go down the drain. Kanami is mentioned to have planned to serve as Honorary Chief at the Inaba Police Department, and there was going to be a large sale at Junes to honor the event.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night

Kanami Mashita makes her appearance in person in Persona 4: Dancing All Night as one of the main characters of the game. She is revealed to work at Takura Productions, and is the leader of a group of five idols named Kanamin Kitchen, who refer to themselves by edible meats: in Kanami's case, she refers to herself as the group's "prized cow". She is younger than Rise and is of similar height to her, but also has extremely large bust (Rise believes that she received a bust job). She is very self-conscious about her weight and size. During the game, she and her group are one of the hosts of the Love Meets Bonds festival. Kanami is shown to be cheerful and carefree and makes several catchphrases to fit her group's theme. She is very physically clumsy and has a tendency to fall over and lose her balance, often landing face-first onto the ground.

It is revealed that Kanami felt very isolated during her childhood and was inept at socializing, meaning that she didn't have many friends, and still feels isolated and does not feel connected to even her fans or her fellow idols in Kanamin Kitchen. Due to her isolation, she admired the famous idol Yuko Osada, and drew the strength to go on from Yuko's songs. She was inspired to become an idol thanks to Yuko. On the day she went to audition, however, after passing the audition, she came across Yuko and followed her into a dark room, tripping over. However, she becomes witness to Yuko committing suicide by hanging, and becomes shocked and traumatized by the event. She read through Yuko's diary, and hid it after seeing all the problems Yuko was having to conserve the noble, elegant, and shining Yuko that she admired. She is interrogated by the police the next day, but goes into shock during questioning and is taken to the hospital. After being released, Kanami's memories of the incident were sealed away and she forgot all about Yuko. Despite remembering that she admired "a certain woman" who inspired her to become an idol during the events of the game, she forgets that the woman she looked up to was Yuko Osada.

During the present events of the game, Kanami's group, Kanamin Kitchen is revealed to have been given a new song by a freelancer manager named Kyoka Ochimizu. The song was named "Calystegia", and it is revealed to be the last song written by Yuko Osada before her death: it never saw the light of day. Meanwhile, the other four members of Kanamin Kitchen mysteriously disappear, as do Ms. Ochimizu and the Investigation Team, worrying Kanami. She meets Ryotaro Dojima and Nanako Dojima while she is living her normal life, and they decide to investigate the case. Dojima decides to work with Kanami to investigate the strange rumors of a video at the LMB website, the Mass Lethargy Syndrome, and the disappearances, while Nanako befriends Kanami and decides to join in the Love Meets Bonds festival performances for fun.

During the story, Kanami suffers continual headaches when thinking about anything associated with her past regarding Yuko Osada, Calystegia, or bonds. In oddity, whenever Ochimizu brought up Calystegia's lyrics, or Yuko herself, Kanami would always forget by the next day. She also surprises Inoue when she knows Ms. Ochimizu's PIN number, 1324.

Later, after Dojima calls Kanami following his investigation with the Mass Lethargy Syndrome shaking the town, he reveals that the witness to Yuko Osada's death was Kanami herself. However, Kanami continually denies this, also denying that she knows or ever met Yuko Osada. Dojima also questions Kanami as to whose diary she is carrying. When Kanami tries to open the diary to prove that the diary is her's, she suddenly remembers Inoue's surprise over the fact that she knew Ochimizu's PIN number, which was decided on privately with a girl she used to manage. She then remembers the details regarding Yuko's death, and is dragged into the Midnight Stage by Mikuratana-no-kami, who inadvertently had been using Kanami as a host, along with the rest of the LMB audience. She is tied up by Mikuratana-no-kami and succumbs to the false bond. She is eventually talked out of it by Yu Narukami, and Ochimizu and Kanamin Kitchen arrive to save Kanami, pledging their bonds to her. Kanami, finally realizing that she does indeed have bonds, breaks free. She helps everyone deal with Mikuratana-no-kami and joins them in their dances.

Afterwards, she performs Calystegia along with the rest of Kanamin Kitchen.