Marie

Marie is a character who originates from Persona 4 Golden. Along with Margaret, she is one of Igor's assistants in the Velvet Room.

Appearances

 * Persona 4 Golden: Major Character, Aeon Social Link
 * Persona 4 The Golden Animation: Major Character
 * Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Playable Character (DLC)
 * Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (Manga)
 * Persona 4: Dancing All Night: Playable Character (DLC)
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Supporting Character, DLC Navigator
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth - Side:P4: Supporting Character
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Supporting Character
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special

Design
Marie has pale skin, chin-length brownish black hair and gray eyes (bright green in P4GA, PQ anime cutscene, P4AU artwork/gameplay, and P4D artwork).

She wears a sleeveless white shirt, a short black necktie with various safety pins and a checkered skirt along with a black belt and a fancy, golden buckle which resembles a heart with wings. Additionally, she has black-striped red fingerless gloves and black-striped white stockings. Her black lace-up dark gray heeled boots are faintly checkered as well. She carries a deep blue bag, adorned with golden designs and matching her officer's cap with a golden button and a V gravure, most likely as a reference to the Velvet Room. She also wears a special red choker necklace with a lock, symbolizing a secret within Marie which the protagonist will have to unlock to find out what it is.

As Kusumi-no-Okami, she wears a red and white attire that includes a hood. Her left eye changes color, similar to Ameno-sagiri. She seems to be barefoot, retaining her red choker necklace with a lock.

In the True Ending epilogue, she wears a pair of black glasses, stud earrings, and a short necklace, with a white ruffled top and a black pinstriped blazer with a high collar.

Personality
"That's why...! That's why I left! Because there's no point in seeing you...! We'll just hurt each other! ...It's okay. It's all okay. I've already made enough memories of my own... Fun... Happy... Memories... If you're not going to leave now, then I'll have to make you leave by force. Please, just understand..."

- Marie to the Investigation Team in the Hollow Forest When Marie is first met, she seems to be a very cold and antisocial individual. She is sullen, cranky, sarcastic, irritable, very foul-mouthed and often prone to mood swings. She will not hesitate to voice her opinion or express her thoughts, regardless of how it would make everyone feel. The team is also weirded out when she politely apologizes, commenting that she never seemed like the type who would say sorry.

However, as the protagonist proceeds in her Social Link, it becomes apparent that her "lack of emotion" is basically just her way of dealing with her own shyness, insecurity and naïveté. Without memories, Marie is unaware of many aspects of the world and modern conveniences, such as not knowing what an electric outlet is (calling it an eclectic loutwit). She has an innocent side as well. This is also why she wants the protagonist to show her Inaba; she wants to learn about the world and who she really is.

Marie sometimes expresses her thoughts in poems which often deal with depressing themes like farewells and existentialism, questioning her own origin. Her poems are often found on the floor of the Velvet Room, left there by Margaret (according to Caroline and Justine in Persona Q2), only to be embarrassed and swipe her poems from the protagonist after he reads them. Besides this, Marie is into fashion, loves nature (another major theme in her poems) and is apparently concerned about her figure, which is why she only eats healthy food.

As the story progresses, she forms a strong bond with the protagonist and harbors feelings for him. Their relationship is close enough to make even Rise Kujikawa jealous, which always ends up with the two arguing over him, such as when Rise said that she has "reserved" the protagonist for Valentine's Day. Marie immediately brushed it off and said to cancel the reservation, since it's the same as cheating.

When flustered or embarrassed, Marie tends to speak rapidly and insult the source of her embarrassment, like "shutupIhateyouyoustupidjerk!"

Persona 4 Golden
Marie is an assistant of the Velvet Room. She will help the protagonist with creating his player card for the game's online features and is responsible for the player's skill cards. Befriending Marie will help the protagonist realize the potential of the Aeon Arcana, eventually enabling him to summon the Persona Kaguya.

She first appears in the opening sequence when the protagonist leaves the station with the Dojimas, picking up Dojima's home address note that the protagonist wrote but in an incredibly rude and sullen manner. Questioning her own existence in life and without memories, she mysteriously ends up being an assistant for the Velvet Room where the protagonist will help Marie discover her true self. Marie will be present during the whole game, with her story arc eventually culminating in rescuing her from her own dungeon.

Social Link
Should the protagonist decide to maximize her Social Link before defeating Ameno-sagiri, it is later revealed during Marie's dungeon arc that she is actually Kusumi-no-Okami, one part of a greater power like Kunino-sagiri and Ameno-sagiri, her role being to spy on the real world for Ameno-sagiri, and inform the Sagiri what the "wish of the people" was. She would absorb the mist in the real world if Ameno-sagiri is defeated; however, she did not remember this and had absorbed the fog into her body after Ameno-sagiri's defeat. The fog inside her is slowly overpowering her and will make her disappear when it gains control and begin to spread across the world once again.



She chooses to die to prevent this by going to the Hollow Forest, where she will kill herself and disappear. When the party tries to convince her not to die the fog takes control of her briefly and speaks in Izanami's voice as the fog goes out of control and starts escaping her body. The Investigation Team decides to fight to free her from the fog's control by defeating her after the fog turns her into her true form. They succeed, gaining her a bond to the real world, allowing her to exist there permanently.

After Izanami's defeat in the true ending, Marie reveals in the Velvet Room that Izanami is a part of her that split from her personality, and Marie's true name is Izanami-no-Mikoto, who wished to protect humanity while also granting humanity's wish. Marie reveals that Ameno-sagiri, Kunino-sagiri and Izanami-no-Okami have fused with her before she disappears from the Velvet Room to go to parts unknown.

On the final day, if the protagonist visits her, Marie reveals in the Velvet Room that she was born a very long time ago and she was the unconscious "wish" shared by people's minds. Her original role was to protect the world of humanity, walk the path of humanity and fulfill the "wish of the world." However, people changed and stopped wishing for truth. The "her" that wanted to protect humanity and the "her" that wanted to fulfill humanity's wish couldn't stay as one. Her other half became its own existence that was larger than herself. She was left behind with no powers or memories. She became a tiny fragment known as "Kusumi-no-Okami" that was incapable of clearing the fog without giving her life to do so. Without her powers, she became a tool manipulated by her other self (Kunino-sagiri).



When the protagonist returns to Inaba the following summer, she has reappeared in the real world, taking on the name Mariko Kusumi and is now working as a weather forecaster, since her powers as she became whole means that she does not actually forecast Inaba's weather but decides it. However, it is yet unknown if she still retains access to the Velvet Room. She does not actually meet the main characters in the epilogue, but will proclaim her love for the protagonist on TV while they are watching it, only if the protagonist pursues a relationship with Marie after maxing out her Social Link. At the end of the credits, she can be seen in a photograph together with the rest of the main characters.

Persona 4 The Golden Animation
In the anime adaptation, Marie interacted with more of the Investigation Team's activities like hanging out at the beach, watching fireworks, and being part of the band in October unlike in the game, where Marie only interacted with them in her Social Link.

In September, Yu informs the others about Marie's missing memories, with the only clue to them being a wooden comb Marie has in her possession. The group begins looking into where the comb comes from, and the owner of Daidara Metalworks suggests to them that it may come from another world. Upon hearing this, Marie experiences an intense headache and passes out. Upon waking up in Kanji's family's textile shop, Marie grows fearful when she overhears Kanji's mother mention that combs tend to represent parting. Over the weekend, Marie becomes separated from the others during a shopping trip, growing anxious until Yu manages to find her at the police station. Marie vents her frustrations over not being able to remember her own memories, and mentions that she experiences pain whenever she tries to remember. Wanting to cheer Marie up, Yu brings her to participate in a quiz show that Teddie decided to put together for everyone. As Marie finds she is able to answer some of the questions, she realizes that she has been making new memories with her friends all this time. After managing to win the quiz, Marie makes a promise to herself not to forget these new memories.

In October, after the concert, during which she and Rise sang, Marie suddenly has a pain in her chest and looks down to see Adachi, who was walking with Dojima and Nanako. She felt a bit frightened at Adachi's unknown presence after she somehow senses it.

In December, after Ameno-Sagiri was defeated, Izanami gave back Marie's memories. After she fully understood her true identity, she decided to take away all memories of her from the people she met before disappearing into the fog.

During January, Marie visits Yu in his dream to say goodbye despite Yu having no memory of her.

In August, when Yu comes back to visit Inaba, she is the weather reporter on TV. When she learns that he's in town, she gives him a personal message on-air along with confessing her love for him, causing a commotion among their friends, namely Rise.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Marie is a DLC playable character in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. After becoming complete Marie becomes a minor land goddess of Inaba, allowing her to control its weather. She appears to Yu early on in the story in the Velvet Room, where she reveals she is dealing with her own problems and is leaving it to him to deal with the ones behind the Red Fog. The transformation of Inaba has weakened her due to being tied to the land, and all disasters that happen to it can have such a result. Kaguya becomes her Persona to use at her will. Kusumi-no-Okami remains inside Marie and is used as her instant kill attack.

Her playstyle is based on what kind of weather is happening during battle. Rain recovers her HP, snow generates her SP, sunny weather gives her 20% more damage for non-SP skills and cloudy weather adds a shock element to some attacks. The name of her leitmotif is "XOXO For You."

Persona 4: Dancing All Night
Marie is a DLC playable character in Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Since she does not appear in the main storyline, she can only be available in the Free Dance only. Marie can only be a FEVER partner with Margaret. Marie's main outfit cannot be changed, but you can add accessories such as glasses, headphones, hair color and color contacts. However, unlike other characters, she has special contacts which are the Hollow Forest lenses.

However, she is vaguely mentioned in the storyline where it takes place a month before the actual story. Chie, Yosuke and Yukiko mentioned how the summer temperatures were cooler when Yu was around, and that it feels as though someone (Marie) is intentionally altering the weather because he is not in Inaba.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
A confused Marie appears in the Velvet Room after the first few floors of You in Wonderland have been cleared. She takes up managing the player's Streetpass functions. When the Persona 3 cast are introduced, she immediately takes an interest in ordering Theodore around.

Marie, along with Nanako and the Velvet Siblings, is also available as a DLC Navigator for $3. The DLC Navigators do not have additional skills, but can replace Fuuka's or Rise's voice to provide vocal support by selecting them from the "Support" section of the "Party" menu.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Marie manages Skill Cards for the party and appears in the Velvet Room after a Shadow drops a blank card in Junessic Land. Occasionally, she will drop a poem which is delivered by Caroline and Justine and read by the P5 hero, which she picks up in a fit of embarrassment. The poems she wrote appear to be written in a crude and informal fashion.

Persona 4 Golden

 * "You're too persistent!" (Using Hot Lightning)
 * "You still don't get it!?" (Using Hot Lightning)
 * "That's enough!" (Using Hot Lightning)
 * "Here goes!" (Using Megidolaon)
 * "Eat this!" (Using Megidolaon or Mind Charge)
 * "Here!" (Using Megidolaon)
 * "I said that it's useless!" (Using Shell of Denial)
 * "Leave me alone!" (Using Shell of Denial)
 * "I'm sick of this!" (Using Shell of Denial)
 * "Here goes! This is for your own good!" (Start of battle)
 * "Stay out of this! Just... Just leave me alone!" (After done more than 1000 damage)
 * "Why... Why do you still come!? All you have to do is abandon me!" (First turn of Shell of Denial)
 * "This sucks... Why don't you understand!? Just give up! (Second turn of Shell of Denial)

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

 * "Is this one of those... duels?" (Starting the round)
 * "Why are we fighting? I don't get it." (Starting the round)
 * "I can't believe this! StupidjerkIhateyou!!" (Starting the round)
 * "Are you serious? I'm sick and tired of this!" (Starting the round)
 * "My Turn."
 * "Boom!"
 * "I want you to disappear." (Using Stigma of Condemnation)
 * "Don't come near me!" (Using ShutupIhateyouyoustupidjerk)
 * "I already won this."
 * "Now that I've taken this form... I won't be able to hold back!" (Using Instant Kill)
 * "Bye-bye!" (First round victory)
 * "Hands off!" (First round victory)
 * "What is this?!" (First round victory)
 * "Ready to give up?" (First round victory)
 * "I bring you Megidola." (First round victory)
 * "My soul cries for release." (First round victory)
 * "I won... hmmm... cool." (Final round victory)
 * "Huh? It's over already?" (Final round victory)
 * "Does this mean... I won?" (Final round victory)
 * "I can't wait to see him again." (Final round victory)
 * "I had more fun that I thought." (Final round victory)

General

 * "Don't cry, and thank you... My love."
 * "No... This fog isn't the one I know of. ...Why?"
 * "I have won, that won't waver. That's because I'm... What was I?"
 * "You and I are both lonely fighters, Adieu, au revoir... mon cheri."
 * "My town that I spent time with everyone in... Who is it that's trying to destroy it?"
 * "*gasp* My heart is letting out a cry right now! I have to hurry and write this down... Hey, no looking! StupidIhateyoublockhead!"

Character Specific

 * Yu Narukami: "...I got to meet you again. Welcome back. I never forgot about you."
 * Yosuke Hanamura: "Hey, do you have any steak skewers? Huh!? Of course I'm asking you! I won!"
 * Chie Satonaka: "You're wearing green again... Well, that's okay. I think it looks really good on you after all."
 * Kanji Tatsumi: "Oh, you're that loud old... I mean, what was it? It was like Kanji or something like that..."
 * Aigis: "Huh... So you're a rowbot. Do you have an eclectic loutwit? Can I watch TV?"
 * Akihiko Sanada: "...!? He's not fully clothed! Wh-whats with you? You're taking way too much liberty!"
 * Labrys: "I-it's nice to meet you... Is that right? Then again, I punched you mercilessly..."
 * Junpei Iori: "I've seen that rod on TV. You're... not someone from TV, right? You look too plain."
 * Elizabeth: "Blue clothes... They look familiar. Could it be that you're someone from that "nose room"?"

Etymology

 * The name Mariko means "ball" (鞠) (mari) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Mariko's surname Kusumi means "long time" (久) (ku), "ought, by all means, necessarily" (須) (su) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).

Trivia

 * If her Social Link events are done in the fog, they will be slightly altered in that Marie will constantly express her irritation at the fog with even some voiced lines relating to it, hinting at her true identity.




 * Marie makes a reference to Hiimdaisy/Gigi's Persona 4 comics saying "Fsteak," offering it as an alternate shortening of "beefsteak." Despite the shout out, the line is a legitimate, more literal translation of the original Japanese dialogue in which Marie comments that 'bifuteki' should be called 'fusuteki.'
 * There is an oversight in the game where, after maxing out Marie's Social Link, if the player visits the Velvet Room at night and checks up on her, she will respond as if the Social Link is still going on.
 * In the credits of Persona 4 Golden, Marie is the only non-playable character to appear. She is one of the only two characters to not be in her Epilogue appearance (the other being the protagonist, who is wearing his Yasogami summer uniform).
 * Marie's Valentine event is the only one to happen even if you did not romance her. (Assuming rank 10 was reached.)
 * Marie is one of the only two female characters that actually kiss the protagonist within the game, on screen. The other character to do this is Margaret.
 * In Persona 4 Arena, Marie's design is the basis for an alternate palette swap for Shadow Labrys.
 * "" which is used in the mocking title of Marie in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is a kind of Japanese stock character traits. A "tsundere" character usually acts arrogant, apathetic or competitive towards the other main characters early in the story but gradually becomes emotionally attached to the others as the plot progresses.
 * Marie's appearance in her Instant Kill is that of when she resided in the Hollow Forest upon regaining her memories as Kusumi-no-Okami. One of the attacks she used while performing this is a sphere that sucks up everything, a callback to the battle against Kusumi-no-Okami in Golden.
 * In the fifth episode of the second anime, Marie plays a guitar version of Aria of the Soul. However, this ends up being the only tune she knows how to play as she is unable to read sheet music or play any other chords.
 * In the ending of Persona 4 The Golden Animation, Marie confesses her love to Narukami on the weather forecast which only happens in the game if the protagonist had romanced her. This implies that Narukami had romanced her in the anime but it is never explicitly shown.
 * Although Marie's eyes are officially gray, in other media or artwork, she has bright green eyes.
 * It is unknown what happened to Marie's duties in the Velvet Room. This is because in the epilogue of Golden, she is by then a news reporter as well as a minor goddess of Inaba. However, she wears the blue hat and bag as a reminder that she is a resident of the Velvet Room in Persona 4 spinoffs. According to the Velvet Room, should the resident abandon their duties in the room, they are not residents anymore.
 * Files of a Shadow Marie were found in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax's data.
 * Even though their katakana spellings differ, Marie's name may be a reference to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, adjusted to the pattern of the Velvet Room attendants being named after characters from the story.