Characters / Persona 4: Naoto Shirogane

Persona 4 Main Character Index
The Investigation Team (Yu Narukami | Naoto Shirogane) | Shadows and Personas | Social Links and NPCs | Antagonists (The Killer)

Naoto Shirogane

"Come, Sukuna-Hikona!"

"Shall I take over?"

Arcana: Wheel of Fortune
Persona: Sukuna-Hikona, Yamato-Takeru, Yamato Sumeragi (Golden)
Weapons: Firearms
Voice actors: Anna Graves (English; Persona 4, Persona 4: Arena, and Persona 4 Golden), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English; The Animation), Valerie Arem (English; spin-offs starting with Arena: Ultimax), Romi Park (Japanese)
Stage actors: Juria Kawakami (VisuaLive Evolution), Yuki Asakura (Arena)

An androgynous girl who is a famous high-school detective, given the glorious title of "Detective Prince" by the media. Naoto is adept with revolvers, and her Persona is summoned by shooting the card. Naoto's initial Persona is Sukuna Hikona of the (Wheel of) Fortune Arcana, which later becomes Yamato Takeru. They are well-rounded with Light, Dark, Almighty and physical skills at her disposal. In Golden, her persona can evolve further into Yamato Sumeragi, which also gains the Shield of Justice ability, which creates shields around herself and her allies that will block all damage once.

Orphaned at a young age and raised by her detective grandfather, she yearns to emulate the cool male sleuths she read in novels, accepting the family tradition and aiding her grandfather in his own cases, eventually creating a favorable reputation for herself. She was sent to Inaba by the prefecture police, to gain insight for the murders happening there.

Naoto is yet another survivor of the Midnight Channel, bound by her resentment at being talked down to and treated like a child by the police, as well as her views on the police force being dominated by men. This manifests in a volatile Shadow that also creates a high-tech facility reminiscent to that of futuristic military bases from science fiction. Her Shadow wears a dress shirt and tie, while wearing an oversized white lab coat, and can act like a serious scientist one minute and like a child the next, further referencing her true feelings. Her Shadow claims she will perform "body modification" to turn Naoto into an adult male so that she can be respected by her fellow cops and cross the divide between gender roles. However, unlike other victims, she willingly put herself at risk by volunteering for a TV interview, hoping she can become a bait; she was convinced the Investigation Team had not caught the real killer. Naoto's strategy fails to uncover much except for the proof that the killer is still out there, but she awakens her Persona and joins the team.

Naoto's Shadow takes on the form of a robotic version of her and includes childish attachments like wings and twin ray guns that wouldn't look out of place on an action figure. This references her obsession with gender roles — a tomboy who likes sleuthing and science fiction — while the action-figure qualities of her Shadow mirror her resentment of having her talents belittled due to her age.

Naoto's persona, Sukuna-Hikona, is a Japanese god of sake, healing, and hot springs. He is always depicted as being very small, and a close friend of the very tall god Okuninushi. The two worked together to build the province of Izumo and develop the art of medicine. Upon completing Naoto's social link, Sukuna-Hikona evolves into Yamato-Takeru, a prince turned folk hero who wielded the legendary Kusanagi sword and whose spirit turned into a great white bird after his death. In Golden, Yamato-Takeru can further evolve into Yamato Sumeragi, an epithet for the emperor of Japan.

In her Social Link, Naoto has several of her possessions stolen and receives taunting riddles from a Gentleman Thief. Yu helps her retrieve them, and she becomes more comfortable with his assistance. It is eventually revealed that the "thief" is actually her grandfather, who simply did it to help reignite her passion. Completing her Social Link has her give the protagonist a Detective Badge, allowing him to fuse Norn. If the player openly aims so through their choices, she becomes somewhat more feminine, but will keep it mostly just to herself and the Main Character; following a series of options, she even dresses in the female school uniform on Christmas Eve.

In the extended true ending of Persona 4 Golden, she has stopped worrying about being ignored for being a woman. She now sports longer hair, along with a light, form-fitting sleeveless shirt.

During the Golden concert scene, Naoto plays the keyboard, explaining that her grandfather had her take piano lessons at an early age.

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A-H

• Absurd Phobia: Despite being an ace detective who pursues serial killers and being a badass gunslinger in the TV world, she's comically afraid of ghosts, with a mere ghost story being able to make her comically meek with fear.
• The Ace:
  • Not to the same extent as Yu, but you still got to have some respect for a 15-year-old who is already a successful enough detective that the Public Security Bureau comes to her for help and trusts her with a sidearm (in a country that has incredibly strict gun-control laws), and on top of that has excellent marksmanship, a certified genius-level intellect, looks that make boys and girls of all sexualities swoon, plays the piano, is a confident cyclist◊, and is actually a pretty good cook. (compared to every other girl on the team being a Lethal Chef).
  • By the time of The Golden, the developers seem to have realized how many people thought this of her and added a little lampshading for good measure. When it turns out that Naoto can't ski, reactions range from bemusement to shock. Naoto herself is very sore about it, and it's pointed out by Yosuke that under all of her Ace-ness she must hate losing on occasion...
• Advertised Extra: She's just as prominent in advertising as the other Investigation Team members, but in-game, she remains a fairly minor character who doesn't properly join the team until around the last third of the game, with only three dungeons left at that point. Golden downplays this, however, as she still joins fairly late but has more presence in the game because of the newly-added events and Hollow Forest dungeon.
• Anger Born of Worry: At Rank 8 of her Social Link, if the player chooses to protect her from a knife (actually a radio she made), Naoto will angrily say that she knew that the radio wasn't a real knife but the player character didn't, and that he would have been in danger. If the player has met certain conditions, this will become an opportunity to make a Love Confession.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • She claims throughout Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth that ghosts don't exist. Considering that she can go into a TV world and fight monsters with mystical powers, counts a Shadow as one of her friends and can meet Aigis (who is a humanoid robot), her leader got a boost in power from a creator goddess, and may live in the same universe as Raidou (who has met the likes of Lucifer himself), her skepticism seems most arbitrary. However, it's implied that she's actually in denial over the possibility due to being that frightened of the idea.
  • This carries over to most of her later appearances. When Yosuke tells a ghost story in Golden, she tries to debunk it but remembers that there was a police report about a similar incident^note This is a Call-Back to the scenario leading up to Fuuka's recruitment in Persona 3. In the later anime adaptation, she is asked by Yu to help out with a Christmas party. Because of his vague wording, she assumed it to be a date and attempted to rationalize it... by coming to the conclusion that he and the other girls were planning to murder her.
• Ascended Extra: In the original game, she was the last party member to join and was only playable for the last couple of months of the game. In the spin-offs like Arena and Q, which feature the entire IT from the start, she's playable from the start and gets just as much focus as the other team members.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Naoto sweeps the female vote in the beauty pageant.
• Badass Adorable: Respectively the whole team is this, but Naoto deserves a special mention. For example, she's the only party member with a license to carry weapons, specially firearms since she's a detective and she wins the school beauty pageant by bailing on it, since she reacted endearingly shy.
• Badass Bookworm: She is a teenage ace detective and a Persona user.
• Balance Buff:
  • Gets a major boost in Golden, clearly done to remove her Late Character Syndrome status, giving her a wide range of very effective abilities that make her a viable substitute for Yosuke after you get her. It's not a complete case, however - as noted above, with only the standard eight slots, she's much, much harder to use effectively.
  • Persona Q, rather than giving her new skills, opts to readjust her stats to favor her original skillset. With her Magic and Luck being among the highest in the game, paired with a respectable Agility she can wipe out just about every random encounter in the game, as well as some FOEs, with a single Mahamaon or Mamudoon before they even have a chance to attack. Her only real weakness being a near complete inability to do anything meaningful in boss fights without relying on sub Persona abilities.
  • Persona Q2 revamps her skill set without sacrificing her utility in boss and FOE fights. She now specializes in the damage-dealing Eiha and Kouha spells instead of the One-Hit Kill Hama and Mudo spells, so she stands out as an attacker well-versed in two elements. Her signature skill also reduces her skill costs for longer battles.
• Beach Kiss: Or maybe a bit more. Her Valentine's Day event takes place at the beach, and at the end of it she mentions that Yu stole her heart and wishes that he'd take all of her.
• Bifauxnen: Naoto had everyone around the country flawlessly convinced she was a Pretty Boy. She is also the only character who has a Persona of the opposite sex.
• Big Sister Instinct: In The Animation. The first time we see Naoto's true colors is when Nanako is upset about her "case," dressed up in her Detective Loveline costume. Naoto picks up Nanako's abandoned magnifying glass, hands it back to her and encourages her not to give up by telling her that a detective should see the case through until it's over. When they visit the Amagi Inn and most of the others want to stay up in the baths, Naoto falls asleep with Nanako, and the two share a bed. After Nanako's apparent death, she's among those who vouches for killing Namatame, to the extent that she's the one who suggests throwing him into the TV world to begin with.
• Blow You Away: She starts with the wind spell Garudyne.
• Blue Means Smart One: Naoto has blue hair and wears a lot of blue clothing and leads the Investigation Team's study group while also being a professional detective at the young age of 16.
• Born Detective: She was born into a family of detectives, with both her parents and her grandfather taking the profession. She followed in their footsteps and became a detective at a very early age, which is why she's known as the "Detective Prince".
• Bottomless Magazines: Never seems to need to reload her gun on camera, at least in the TV world. But since the flavor text on an enchanted gun you can get her distinguishes it by saying it never runs out of bullets presumably it's just gameplay.
• Boyish Short Hair: She keeps her hair short to complement her masculine looks. The epilogue in Golden shows she let it grow longer, which is symbolic of her accepting her feminine side more.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Deconstructed. Turns out that if you're half everybody else's age in the police force, constantly act like a stuck-up know-it-all, push everyone around and lord your incredible intellect over them, no amount of talent or success is going to stop them from kicking you out. Some professionals just aren't good enough to be afforded infinite patience. At the same time, the entire reason she acts overly assertive with her intelligence in the first place is because of her age and her gender, so she feels she has to act like such to get any respect in the first place. Furthermore, the department's unwilling to admit that the underage suspect they brought in didn't actually do it, since it'd tarnish their credibility.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She actually has a busty figure that she keeps hidden under wraps and all the girls react with awe at her size during the Hot Springs Episode though Naoto herself is pretty embarrassed about it.
• Caps Lock: Her text messages are all written like this. By comparison, Kanji of all people uses proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization in his messages, although it could be out of politeness toward his senpai. Her caps-lock texting is a relic of flip phones circa-2010 needing to cycle through all the uppercase letters in its number key before the lowercase ones. She's saving time on pressing buttons.
• Captain Obvious: Tends to explain what's evident at crucial times in the most anticlimactic way. Justified given her profession requires focusing only on facts, and that a lot of her Character Development has to do with her actually developing something of a social life rather than being a detective all the time. Once she starts relaxing around people, this mostly only occurs when the group needs to think things over without letting their own feelings get in the way.
• Chaste Heroine: Completely oblivious to Kanji's crush, but otherwise writes off advances from other classmates and Teddie. Averted in the romance branch of her Social Link, where she displays a subtle but definite sexual attraction to Yu and it can even be read that they had an encounter.
• Chick Magnet: She's popular with many girls at school, before AND after she is revealed to be a girl.
• Closet Key: Subverted for Kanji. It seemed like the game was setting Naoto up to be a Closet Key, as he was clearly infatuated when they met. Of course, The Reveal turns it into Sweet on Polly Oliver.
• The Comically Serious: She's always solemn and usually stoic, which is played for laughs given the far more unprofessional and chaotic antics of her team.
• Covert Pervert: Not outright but during the Ski Trip event where Naoto gets stranded and snowed in with the protagonist, she debunks the belief that using each others bodies to warm one another completely unprovoked. She was obviously really considering it.
• Cowardice Callout: Tells Tohru Adachi that he's a coward for self-destructively severing his ties to humanity rather than admit his fault and accept that life can be tough.
• Criminal Mind Games: Has them played on her by the "Phantom Thief", but this trope gets subverted when it turns out that there was no criminal. Her grandfather gave her stolen items to Yakushiji, the family secretary and created the riddles to challenge Naoto. His hope was that solving the riddles would convince Naoto to stop solving cases for the sake of her family name and do it because she loved it, the way she used to.
• Crippling Overspecialization: She specializes in the Light and Dark elements, allowing her to, with some luck, wipe out entire enemy encounters with ease. However, these skills don't work on bosses and her other skills — Almighty and Physical — have huge SP/HP costs, making her extremely inefficient in drawn-out fights where she can't one-shot everything. Averted in Golden, where she has a much wider movepool that allows her to adapt to far more situations.
• Crutch Character:
  • An odd example. Naoto's unique skill set lets her tear through lots of common enemies like a buzzsaw, including many only she and the protagonist/Yu can effectively fight at all. The catch: most of those same abilities are either severely inefficient or outright useless against bosses as well as they require a lot of SP to cast.
  • Golden corrects this for the most part. Naoto has the capability of learning the top tier (non-Signature Move) spells of every element, as well as Heat Riser and Mind Charge, and she also gets Angelic Grace and Invigorate which are all useful passives. If you can get her Shield of Justice ability you can also largely negate the need for the Guard command on the few boss fights left. Between all of this on top of her original kit, she becomes a very versatile party member who can be built to hit any elemental weakness. Unfortunately, she still only has eight skill slots, so you'll have to give up part of her kit no matter what.
• The Cutie: When you level her social link up, she tends to be this, especially choosing her to come to the Dojimas' residence for Christmas.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She and her Persona can seem a little sinister, plus one of her specialties is the Mudo, or "darkness element", but she's a force for law, justice and right, and quite pleasant once you get to know her.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She starts off rather cold and stand-offish to the Investigation Team, but after being rescued from the TV world and getting her Persona, she quickly opens up to them and becomes more sociable and friendly.
• Deus Exit Machina: Given her detective skills, it's likely that Naoto could have solved the entire case herself if she had access to the TV World from the start; thus, to stop her from resolving the plot too quickly, she spends most of the story busy investigating other cases in the real world, and her stand-offish personality alienates the Investigation Team and makes them unwilling to trust her. Sure enough, the team only starts to make any real progress in the case once she gets her Persona and properly joins them.
• Difficult, but Awesome: In Golden, building her up properly can make her the best damage dealer out of all your party members.
• Disconnected by Death: In the Non-Standard Game Over that triggers if you fail to stop the culprit in time this is implied to happen to her, as her attempt to warn you about the Shadows rampaging through Inaba via phone gets cut off.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Hilariously, this is what she pulls off on Kanji when you have her change into a swimsuit and he sees her.
  Naoto: Y-You! Cease looking in this direction immediately! If you refuse to cooperate, I will have you arrested!
• Dramatic Irony: Naoto's entire reason for dressing as a boy was because she feared being judged unfairly by her male peers. In doing so, she actually enabled them to judge her for her age, meaning her entire reason for disguising her gender was relatively pointless.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Her TV World dungeon, complete with an emblem that resembles the Shocker symbol.
• Even the Girls Want Her: To the point where Naoto won the beauty pageant because of the female vote and Chie, Yukiko, and Rise compliment her smooth skin.
• Fair Cop: She's a Kid Detective and a very attractive woman.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Inverted, possibly pointedly. She's the least girly of the cast, but she likes to be able to do things both accurately and well and ends up the only girl in the cast who can cook competently. She both uses a cookbook and follows the instructions properly instead of trying to get inventive, though during Valentines, she notes that she felt tempted to improvise, but stuck to the recipe since she didn't know what to do otherwise.
• Four Is Death: Not Naoto herself, but her parents, who were fourth-generation detectives and died in a car crash. This also ties in to her usage of instant-death spells.
• Fragile Speedster: Crossed with Glass Cannon, see below. Naoto can throw out powerful magic and physical attacks, and along with Yosuke is the fastest member of the team, but she can't take hits, even when you account for her lack of elemental weakness. Angelic Grace cements this, making it borderline impossible for an enemy to land hits on her if they don't have any Almighty spells.
• Gender Bender: Her Shadow attempts to do a "body-altering operation" on the real Naoto, being fueled by her resentment on how her gender would cause police officials to take her less seriously. Her second and third tier Personas also wear a mix of male and female oriented clothing, but are based around male Japanese mythical figures.
• Girliness Upgrade: During the epilogue of Golden, she's adopted a more feminine appearance (even to the point of showing off cleavage).
• Glass Cannon: In both versions of the game (but especially Golden) Naoto can throw out a variety of powerful attacks, but doesn't take that much punishment before going down, though she has no weaknesses.
• Guile Hero: Intentionally gets herself kidnapped, hoping to figure out who the kidnapper was, while at the same time completely expecting the "Investigation Team" to come to her rescue.
• The Gunslinger: Like Takaya Sakaki before her, Naoto uses revolvers because her Arcana is the (Wheel of) Fortune. As a Kid Detective she's actually allowed to carry a gun in real life and is said to be an ace marksman.
• Height Angst: In Persona Q Ken observes that her shoes have thicker than normal soles, making her seem taller than she is.
• Hidden Buxom: Mentioned once. They're implied to be of a bigger size than one would think.
  • In some extra artworks in Soejima's (character designer) artbook, she has a much more feminine appearance, with prominent lips and eyelashes. It's quite clear she no longer, uh, keeps them under wraps too.
  • The anime finally gives us the answer in the Hot Springs Episode. She's probably the bustiest of all the girls...
  • In the True Ending Epilogue, Naoto changes her attire for the summer. She does away with her hat for the time being, and seems much less concerned about whether or not people see her as a girl. Thus, her bust is much more prominent in her figure coinciding with her new threads.
  • A new scene added in Golden reveals that they can bounce. No, really.
  • During the checkup at the hospital, Teddie manages to steal papers with, among other things, the girl's measurements. Rise was fine with him threatening to reveal the information, saying hers has been public knowledge for awhile, while also teasing Chie and Yukiko for being smaller than her. Her attitude does a complete 180 when she gets a look at the papers and sees that someone has a larger bust than her.

I-Z

• Idiot Ball: As Kanji makes sure to let her know, deliberately letting the kidnapper capture her and throw her into the TV world was a very rash and idiotic decision that could have gotten her killed. Yukiko, however, points out that what she did helped the Investigation Team realize that the culprit was still out there.
• Improbable Age: Played With. Even if she's a Born Detective, a 15-year-old high schooler becoming a detective and working with the police department is very unrealistic. But her young age is actually the primary reason why she gets little respect from her peers.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Subverted. Naoto believes she's not doing a good job inheriting the detective legacy of her family. However her grandfather seems to be quite proud of her and is concerned that she believes this.
• Infinity +1 Element: Naoto has access to the Megido family of spells and is the only party member (save for Yu) that can learn them on their own.
• Informed Ability: She has an in-universe reputation as a "genius detective," but really does no better at solving the case than the rest of the Investigation Team or even the Police Department. Her first interaction with the Investigation Team, for example, is to blatantly insult them by calling their investigation a "game", thereby ensuring that three of the known victims, her best leads, will refuse to cooperate with her.
• Insane Troll Logic: Played for Laughs in The Golden Animation, where she interprets Yu asking her out on a date on Christmas Eve as a plot to blindside and murder her simply because her detective's intuition stirred suspicion around their friendship level. After all of the female members of the team get involved and Ai, as well as a kung-fu movie Chie was watching played in the background of a phone conversation leads her to the ultimate conclusion that everyone is going to betray and kill each other. Things get worse when she storms the Dojima household in SWAT gear, only to stumble upon the aftermath of a poorly-timed catfight with tomatoes.
• Insufferable Genius:
  • She comes off this way at first, and this leads to some friction between her and the police.
    Naoto: Are you a pack of imbeciles?
  • Talk to her in a dungeon when she's with Kanji, and he'll complain that she keeps trying to give him riddles as mental exercises. She responds by asking if he solved the last one yet.
  • Cue her Red Baron tagline in Arena, "The 2000-IQ Killjoy Detective."
    Naoto: K-Killjoy?! What is this?! Who came up with this demeaning epithet?!
• Just a Kid: Secretly resents the adults for belittling her age and treating her like a tool, as pointed out by her Shadow.
• Kick Them While They're Down: The Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth version of her Megido has a chance to knock down enemies, allowing player to invoke this with a bit of luck. Her ultimate skill provides a boost to her knockdown rates, making it even easier to pull off.
• Kid Detective: One of her main problems is that she's afraid no one will take her seriously because she's too young.
• The Lancer: Becomes an unofficial second one to the team. Yosuke's the one to coordinate them, but she is the one to contextualize the situation and brief the team whenever they enter the TV world.
• Last Girl Wins: If her romance is pursued, since she's the last social link to become available.
• Last-Name Basis: In the original Japanese, she refers to all other characters by their surnames with appropriate honorifics.
• Late Character Syndrome: Joins considerably later than everyone else in the team, and while characters like Yukiko and Teddie fulfill similar roles in the party with different strengths and weaknesses, she specializes in the instant death spells, which make her significantly more specialized and less versatile than everyone else. Additionally, you need both max Knowledge and max Courage before unlocking her social link, meaning you'll be hard-pressed to get any of the benefits that come with it with only 2-3 months left in-game to advance social links.
• Mage Marksman: Specializes in using guns and, in The Golden, gains a wide variety of elemental spells as well as Mind Charge.
• Magic Knight: She has almost equal Strength and Magic stats, allowing her to throw out Physical and Magic attacks just as easily.
• Magikarp Power: In P4G, through careful work and exploitation of the new bike system, she can be your party's biggest damage dealer while also having incredibly useful support skills.
• Married to the Job: Part of her Character Development has her getting over this. In the sequel she expresses surprise at herself for trying to balance her work and social life yet, as seen in the illusions presented to her, still has worries that she can't stop putting work before her friends.
• Master of All: In stark contrast to her original version, Naoto in Golden is significantly more versatile. In addition to the Light/Dark, Almighty, and Physical skills she still has, Golden gives her each of the four single-target -dyne spells, powerful passives like Invigorate and Angelic Grace, and the powerful exclusive Shield of Justice skill that shields the entire party from one hit each. Her main weaknesses are lacking any boost/amp skills and only having eight skill slots, so she won't hit as hard as her teammates who specialize in their respective elements, and she still has to give up at least some of her kit no matter what.
• Master of None: In the original PS2 game, Naoto focuses almost entirely on Light/Dark skills and Almighty attacks. While she can tear through regular enemies like a buzzsaw, she's utterly worthless against bosses - her mana pool is too low to keep using Almighty attacks (even with the Chakra Ring that halves SP costs), bosses are immune to Light/Dark, her strength isn't high enough for the physical attacks she later learns to be worth much, and her revolver isn't a terribly strong weapon. Golden fixes this by giving her access to all four single-target -dyne spells so she's not dead weight in a boss fight, giving her versatility in exchange for her damage capability.
• Meaningful Echo: When the police are about to make a move and arrest Mitsuo as a suspect, she tells the Investigation Team that their "game" will soon be over, causing them to take umbrage, and causing Rise to accuse her of the one who sees the investigation as a game. After setting the bait for the kidnapper, she tells the Investigation Team that this is not a game for her, either.
• More Dakka: In P4G, Naoto adds machine pistols to her arsenal. In Persona 4: Arena, one of Naoto's attacks has her using a Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun.
• Ms. Exposition: Her main role in the story is to piece together the clues and discuss them with the team.
• Nonuniform Uniform: While not immediately obvious, her uniform isn't even the standard male uniform. She mentioned once that she had hers custom-made to fit her with some extra modifications but not what those were. She does away with it for the Arena games.
• No-Sell: Gains Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, and Tetraja in Golden, which negate physical, magical, and instant death attacks respectively. Her unique skill, Shield of Justice stops everything from hitting all party members once. MP drain and multiple hits will get through though. Higher versions of her Persona also gain immunity to Fire, Hama, and Mudo, to protect her from any reflected attempts she would make. Angelic Grace grants her exceptional evasion against all magics except Almighty.
• No Social Skills: Naoto sometimes comes off as overly blunt and insensitive to others' feelings, particularly when she rebuffs others' advances. She admits at the start of her social link that Yosuke was right, and she has "a tin ear for other people's feelings."
• Not Now, Kiddo: A major part of what she's been suppressing and struggling with. Police have a tendency to dismiss her as a kid in part due to her attitude.
• Not So Above It All: Despite her stoic and no-nonsense nature, in The Animation, when Narukami asks for her help to solve the case of the Aiya Mega Beef Bowl, she goes along with Narukami's penchant for taking everything so seriously, and approaches it with the same seriousness as a normal case.
• Not So Stoic: During the time where Namatame is mistakenly identified as the killer, she is one of those people who insists you to throw him into the TV, even though she is the brain of the team!
• Oblivious to Love: She doesn't seem to notice that Kanji likes her. She even suspects that his inability to talk with her is proof that the opposite is true.
• One of the Boys: She pretty much grew up like a boy, never caring for dolls and dresses, but more for action figures and boyish stuff. This is reflected in her dungeon, which is designed like the lair of a tokusatsu villain. (She doesn't look down on the other girls for being more feminine, though.)
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Even after her true gender is revealed, she continues to use her "masculine" voice... unless she gets upset (like during the beauty pageant), at which point her voice goes up a couple octaves. This only applies to the English version.
• Out-of-Character Alert: As an Ace Detective, she would notice something like this. When she read the names of kidnap victims from Namatame's Diary, she found it odd that Adachi responded with "Then that settles it" ("Then that proves it!" in the anime).
• Pet the Dog: In Episode 13 of Persona 4: The Animation, Nanako is disheartened about being left alone by her father during the Summer Festival, and considers giving up pursuing the mystery behind Yu's numerous absences and odd activities. However, Naoto (who at this point comes off as cold and aloof, and hasn't bonded with the team yet) discovers her, and tells her that "the case can never be closed if the detective gives up. So don't drop the case until it's over."
• Playing with Fire: Golden adds fire spells to Naoto's default arsenal, as she was supposed to be the party's second fire user (noticeable in her Shadow's resistance to fire).
• Poisonous Person: One of her few physical skills, Blight, can inflict poison on all enemies in addition to its already high damage.
• The Power of Trust: Her decision to get herself attacked by the killer exemplifies this: She was completely willing to trust the Investigation Team to save her, even though her belief that they had the power to do so at all was only a guess. Kanji angrily calls her out for her recklessness, though.
• Raised by Grandparents: Her parents died when she was very young, so her grandfather was the one who truly raised her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She talks down to Adachi in the final confrontation, listing his crimes and dressing down his motives for the murders. She also calls Adachi's rant out as being that of an "immature, egotistic brat" and tells him he is running like a coward by blaming everyone but himself for his problems.
• Red Baron: Repeatedly referred to as "Detective Prince" in her TV interview prior to her kidnapping.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: She has blue-bobbed hair, silver/blue eyes and a short stature. Personality-wise, she's very calm and mysterious, but shows an endearing side when she warms up to the others.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Her starter weapon is a revolver, and most expanded universe materials depict revolvers as her primary weapon of choice. Makes sense given that the New Nambu M60 is one of the standard-issue police sidearms of Japan.
• Samus Is a Girl: In a bit of a switch, rather than find this out after she rescues them, they find out when they come to rescue her.
• Secret Art:
  • Her unique skill in Golden is Shield of Justice, which will protect all allies from one attack of any type.
  • Her unique skill in Persona Q is Powerhouse, which increases her chances of inflicting knockdown with her almighty spells.
  • Her unique skill in Q2 is Cost Cutter, which reduces her skill costs by a third for three turns. This upgrades to Cost Reduction, which halves her skill costs instead.
• Shame If Something Happened: Naoto notes that it would be a terrible shame if Namatame escaped through the large television set in his hospital room. Then again, there's the not entirely unwelcome possibility that he wouldn't be able to get out of it and be left at the mercy of the Shadows. Rise gets the gist of what Naoto is implying, and is horrified that Naoto is seriously suggesting it.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: If Yu chooses to spend Christmas Eve with Naoto, she will end up wearing the female school uniform to the date, and wow she looks very cute and feminine in it. She also sports a new, more feminine look in the Golden's new ending sequence. There is also the fact that by the time Persona X Detective comes, Naoto has really long hair, making her look more girly.
• Shorter Means Smarter: She's the smallest playable character and is the brains of the team.
  • Just how smart is she? She figures out that Morooka's murder is a copycat crime, that people being shown on TV are potential victims, that the disappearances are connected to the Serial Killer, and that your party is somehow rescuing the victims… and she does all this with the same limited evidence available to the Inaba police.
  • Just how short is she? She's officially the shortest member of the team (only about 152 cm, or a little less than 5'00"), and it's pretty easy to notice even though she normally wears platform soles.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: She also has a shotgun in Arena.
• Shout-Out:
  • Her Shadow looks like Kikaider combined with Astro Boy while wearing Mazinger Z's Scrander.
  • Chie compared her to (in the Japanese version) Kindaichi, protagonist of a famous line of detective novels, or (in the English version) to Raidou Kuzunoha.
  • Her ultimate Persona in Golden is a reference to Oscar from The Rose of Versailles, which ties into Naoto's character.
• Shrinking Violet:
  • Covertly; only when she is being romanced by the protagonist or otherwise needs to justify being a girl to everyone else, hence she's also a Shy Blue-Haired Girl.
  • Also when she enters the Beauty Contest. She's so cute, she wins the contest despite never showing up for the swimsuit portion.
• Signature Headgear: Naoto is rarely ever seen without a blue policeman/cabbie hat.
• Single-Target Sexuality: She's completely turned off by the idea of romance. Despite this, she does fall for the protagonist if her romance is pursued.
• Sixth Ranger: Of sorts. She's the final character to join, and before she did she had something of a rivalry with the Investigation Team.
• The Smart Girl: She has a genius-level intellect for her age and her being a detective makes her by far the most useful person in the Investigation Team when it comes to deducing things.
• Smart People Shoot: The "Detective Prince" who could crack cases the police couldn't, and is the only of the playable characters to use a ranged weapon for normal attacks, in her case a a revolver.
• The Spock: Due to her training in the arts of the detective, Naoto is big on logic, facts and rational deduction over emotion, which is her primary contribution to the team; intelligence and well-reasoned, emotion-free deductions. As a side effect of this, she tends to use Spock Speak.
• Spotting the Thread: The only member of the team who sensed that there was something "off" in Adachi's behavior (particularly his "Then that settles it" slip, see Out-of-Character Alert), though she does not speak up about it until Yu is forced to really think about the case and comes to the same conclusion.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Many women in the game itself agree that she's one hot babe.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Usually very cold and aloof to strangers, but shows a much sweeter side of herself to her friends, especially to Yu over the course of her Social Link.
• Superpower Lottery: In The Golden, Naoto falls just short of having received the wild card in regards to what her Persona can do, as she can possess EVERY kind of magic except for most status effects and healing spells. While the slot limit makes it tricky, she's still very customizable - which characters do you use most, and where do they fall short? She can probably fill that.
• Surrounded by Idiots:
  • Her initial attempt at gathering information about the case during the King's Game from the Investigation Team results in Yukiko and Rise spilling the beans about the TV World, which Naoto doesn't believe for a single bit. When Naoto later brings up how there's no alcohol in the drinks at the club, she is appropriately baffled at how the Investigation Team keep acting like they're drunk despite only being served soft drinks.
  Naoto: Are you people a pack of imbeciles?
  • This carries over to Arena, where her voice clip when she is shown during the P-1 Grand Prix is asking "Is this an army of idiots?":
    Naoto: An army of idiots, hmmm?
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Though a girl, Naoto dresses in a very boyish fashion, so much so that the Investigation Team themselves didn't know she was a girl until they rescued her from her Shadow.
• Team Mom:
  • Naoto's first action as a member of the Investigation Team? Get the party to the hospital for check-ups. No idea what that TV World could do to you, after all.
  • The Animation adds a scene where she helps a depressed Nanako get back on her feet after giving up hope on figuring out what Yu was doing all summer. She wasn't even on the team yet, and she was already looking after Nanako.
  • She's also the only one on the party besides the protagonist/Yu who has a chance at cooking anything properly.
• Teen Genius: She's a working member of the police force at age 15.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's noted that she doesn't get along well with the other police, who don't like her insisting that the case isn't over after the first suspect's arrest, and her age is also considered points against her. The final straw is when she decides to lure out the kidnapper, which results in her being taken off the case.
• Tomboyish Name: Naoto is a Japanese boy's name, which is called out by her Shadow.
• Tomboyish Voice: She deliberately speaks in a very low, deep voice, fitting her Bifauxnen nature, though how deep it is depends on the spin-off game as her voice actors have had different inflections and interpretations over the years.
• Transfer Student Uniforms: Sort of. After transferring to Yasogami, she is always wearing that school's uniform — the male version — even after her real gender is made public.
• Unmanly Secret: An Inverted Trope in that she's an ace detective who desperately wants to prove herself in a male-dominated profession, to the point of posing as a boy and not showing her girlier traits to anyone.
• Vocal Evolution: Subverted in the anime. After The Reveal, Romi Park's tone switches to a slightly more feminine tone of voice... and almost immediately reverts to the usual deep tone. Her English VA in the video games has a somewhat more feminine tone after The Reveal, which is more pronounced when Naoto's particularly emotional, though her deliveries and tone of voice also change quite a bit since Naoto's had at least three different actors playing her over the years.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Played for Laughs during the ski trip. After Teddie is caught having turned out the lights, pretending to be a ghost, and eating the food she and the other girls corner him with Naoto telling him that only people have human rights.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Persona Q, she gives one to Zen after discovering that he, as Chronos, created a fake Yasogami High from Rei's memories in an attempt to get her to open up and speak to him, and then erased her memories after she nearly gouged out her own eyes in despair. Zen openly admits that she's right.
  Naoto: A person can never come back to life... and yet, you granted Rei-san's wish that she had while she was still clinging to life. It's as if you prepared a banquet for a starving man, and then forbade them to eat it. What you did may have been cruelty on that level.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: To the point where Naoto only appears in female clothing when wearing a schoolgirl uniform for the Christmas date. An additional instance was added in the True Ending of Golden, when Yu returns to visit everyone during summer break: she's shown wearing a very feminine outfit without her normal hat and even shows a little cleavage.
• Wrench Wench: Of the electronics variety. As a child she made and modified several spy gadgets, including Gadget Watches. After joining she also makes a pair of watches that, in a limited range, tell the distance to the other, and at night or in the dungeon, can give you a machine that restores SP.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Not normally, but if you spend time at night with her in February she'll mention that Valentine's Day is near and complain that girls keep asking her what kind of chocolate she likes, despite most of them already knowing she's also female. It's possible for the MC to commiserate, and she'll be surprised and make a comment to the effect of being pre-occupied with this idea.

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"That's what comes for underestimating me!"

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