Yusuke Kitagawa

Yusuke Kitagawa is a playable character from Persona 5. He is an art student from Kosei High School who becomes involved with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Appearances

 * Persona 5 / Royal: Playable Character; Emperor Confidant
 * Persona 5 (Manga): Major Character
 * Persona 5: Mementos Mission: Major Character
 * Persona 5 Dengeki Comic Anthology: Major Character
 * Persona 5 Comic à La Carte: Major Character
 * Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers: Major Character
 * Persona 5 The Animation: Major Character
 * Persona O.A.: Major Character
 * Persona 5 The Stage
 * Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight: Playable Character; Emperor Social
 * Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight: DLC support voice
 * Persona 5 Strikers: Playable Character
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Playable Character
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special

Design
Yusuke has dark blue hair with parted bangs slightly covering his left eye and gray eyes. His in-game character model is noticeably taller and thinner than those of other male characters. His fellow Phantom Thieves Ann Takamaki and Ryuji Sakamoto both describe him as a "pretty boy" on two separate occasions.

Yusuke does not wear Kosei High's regulation uniform, unlike his fellow student, Hifumi Togo. His winter-variant uniform consists of a white -style shirt embroidered with a, fitted black pants and black loafers. A silver ring that holds multiple keys is attached to his belt loop. His summer-variant uniform replaces the white dress shirt with an ultramarine colored button-down, which Yusuke wears with the sleeves rolled-up to his elbows.

His winter-variant outfit consists of a gray blazer striped with white vertical lines over a white long sleeve shirt with red and pink detail, black pants and black ankle boots. During the summer, he wears an indigo, gray and black long sleeve shirt with black pants, and black casual loafers.

For the mid-winter term in Persona 5 Royal, Yusuke wears a long teal coat with white buttons over his regular school uniform. On his days off, he wears a grey-brown coat over a patterned dark blue, electric blue and black tunic shirt. He retains the black pants and ankle boots from his previous outfit.

His Metaverse outfit consists of a traditional -style half mask, a black high-collared puff-sleeved jumpsuit with a striped sash worn across his hips, white motorcycle boots, and bright blue gloves. Attached to the jumpsuit is a white foxtail.

In Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, he retains his summer school uniform, but with the addition of a black spike-studded blazer, bright red fingerless gloves and silvery metallic sneakers.

In Persona 5 Strikers, he wears a knee-length indigo hoodie with the sleeves rolled-up to his elbows with a thick ultramarine stripe and white tassels. Underneath it he wears a black T-shirt with a white flower pattern on the left side, with white pants and black loafers. While at the festivals, he wears a white  with a black ombre at the bottom and a blue sash. For the Okinawa beach trip he wears white and blue striped swim trunks, along with a periwinkle hoodie and straw sun hat when he is out of the water.

Personality
Yusuke's entire life's passion is comprised of and surrounded by art. He searches for the aesthetic everywhere in his surroundings, from people to places. He sees every opportunity or challenge presented to him as a way to broaden his horizons, and primarily considers how it will benefit him greatly as an artist. He is captivated by the painting of "Sayuri," and seeks to capture the sense of beauty that it portrays. This passion extends to his mentor, Ichiryusai Madarame, who he believed created the painting and who took him in when he was young, completely ignorant that he is being used for Madarame's own profit. As such, Yusuke greatly admired and respected him to the point that he vehemently denied any of the rumors surrounding Madarame.

Even when he knows the rumors are true and finds actual proof supporting it, Yusuke claims that the abuse he faced was consensual as a means of keeping a roof over his head. Even after Madarame's fall, Yusuke still suffers from a serious case of towards his former mentor and still desires for Madarame to revert back into what he thinks he is, even if it is pretty clear that all of Madarame's goodwill was lost right when he was born. In Royal, this is shown when Takuto Maruki's cognition-altering powers create his ideal life, wherein Madarame is an honest and sincere teacher who never took credit for creating the Sayuri and worked tirelessly for Yusuke's mother to receive her rightful acclaim, even putting the unaltered painting in a museum.

His passion for art is admired and respected by the group, though they also view him as rather strange. His mindset plays by the beat of his own drum, and his thought process can be erratic. At one point, Ann claims that he is "on a different wavelength than other people" before taking it back and saying he's just weird. However, Yusuke is well-aware that his mind operates differently from that of most people's, to the point of admitting that he's eccentric, and is shown to be downright offended whenever someone makes fun of him for it or even points it out.

However, because of Yusuke's work as an artist, Yusuke's detached from others' influence, and is rather prickly when stating that he's not interested in others' acknowledgement. However, in spite of his introverted approach to artwork, adamant that he needs no one else's guidance to carve his path as an artist, he doesn't exclusively paint for himself, and in his Confidant he begins to add a flair of color that others can appreciate, rather than being pushy with his own views of pure beauty, ones which Yusuke himself begins to think are lofty on their own.

Despite his eccentricities, Yusuke is incredibly level-headed. He sees no use in panicking or getting nervous, as it does nothing to help the situation at hand. However, when Madarame's Shadow exposes his true self, Yusuke doesn't hide that he felt betrayed and angered. He tends to be more sincere when dealing with subjects he admires from an aesthetic standpoint. For example, he is very direct and respectful when he approaches Ann out of a desire to paint her. However, this sincerity can make him appear pushy, showing that he has a very stubborn, headstrong side, which comes out when he is very inspired.

He displays a somewhat cold and haughty behavior towards people who are behaving in what he deems as an unseemly manner, or in ways that are against his personal aesthetic. This can be seen especially during his initial encounters with Ryuji and the protagonist, and during an encounter, he has two women who attempt to flirt with him. Additionally, he can be very sharp with people who make mistakes, such as when he calls out Ryuji for getting caught or when he chastises Makoto Niijima for being reckless. This even briefly extended to the rest of the group at the point when they're framed for murder, where he angrily states they shouldn't have rushed into things. Overall, he's been particularly analytical with the irrational and inhumane behavior of the general public.

Despite his personal pursuits of art making him uninterested in other people, Yusuke does his best to understand others, acknowledging the fact that isolating himself from other people hinders the quality of his work. He is very considerate regarding Futaba's slow growth, as he knows that deep-rooted issues like hers are not something that can be fixed in a few days, and despite arguing with her from time to time, he is also one of the first members to have a normal conversation with her. Yusuke also worries about his classmate, Naoya Makigami's, behavior, suspecting family problems are the cause. His sincerity and willingness to point out what he truly thinks, despite what others' reactions may be, makes him a very loyal, honest ally. Yusuke also says he donates blood, calling it a "hobby."

Having been unhealthily sheltered for most of his life, Yusuke acts with pure intentions but ultimately is unaccustomed to many of society's norms. The naïveté born from it shows more times than not, he, in particular, being unaware when he is coming off as intrusive until being directly informed. At times, he can cause trouble for other team members, such as being energetically pushy when asking for Ann to be his art model, when he remodels Futaba Sakura's Phoenix Ranger Featherman R figurines without her permission, and his frequent criticisms of Ryuji's brashness. A running gag in the game is how Yusuke spends all his money on things that capture his attention without any foresight, such as on art books or lobsters at the beach because they are aesthetically pleasing. Despite his naïveté when it comes to social situations, Yusuke is highly intelligent and his wisdom is evident during Phantom Thief meetings and heists.

Over time, Yusuke's disconnection from reality and his blunt introduction to his mentor's vain and evil nature becomes a source of internal struggle for him. He wishes to paint purely for the sake of passion and capture the essence of the human heart but detests it if it becomes for the sake of gaining money and recognition. He realizes that the beauty he began to portray in his paintings became corrupted by society's expectations of him, deeming it as superficial without any meaning. The protagonist eventually helps him understand his calling on a deeper level and also helps him to convey his feelings on canvas properly.

As an art student, Yusuke is knowledgeable of and admires other artists as well, as he suggests that "Da Vinci" by his Phantom Thief code name, a reference to. In his Confidant, he compares the protagonist to, the brother of , who was his greatest supporter. Yusuke is talented at economical dining, using his own self-taught method that thoroughly calculates cost-performance. He likes going for walks (as a bonus, it also saves on travel expenses) and frequently watches people for artistic inspiration. His knowledge of the aesthetics of food, including information about ingredients, cooking methods and servings, is vast, and he’s committed himself to it. However, his monetary situation does not allow him to practice as much as he would like to in reality. Additionally, whenever Yusuke cooks, he tends to get creative with the ingredients, which can result in bizarre meals.

Persona 5
Yusuke is an honor student who takes an art course at Kosei High School. He was raised by Madarame as his mother died when he was three. Therefore, he does not remember her and Madarame took great care of him. As he grew up, he was tutored in art by Madarame, with his masterpiece "Sayuri" being one of his greatest inspirations for his artistic career. In reality, Madarame only raised Yusuke for the sole purpose of exhibiting his artwork using his name, and he would often give him meager rations during his tutelage. By the time the game begins, most other pupils in Madarame's shack are cast away, died because of direct or indirect abuse by him, left due to losing interest in art, and Yusuke is the last pupil living in his atelier. While he appears to be aggressively defensive to Madarame, before the events of the game, Natsuhiko Nakanohara asked him about how Madarame treated him, and he admitted that he would leave his shack if he could.

While not directly stated by him, it was heavily implied that Madarame barely treated him as a person as he grew up. He did not bother giving him proper rations, fees or a proper bed, and was always looking to sabotage his artistic career while possible. Despite this, Madarame's great care towards Yusuke had caused him to develop a severe case of Stockholm syndrome that persisted after Madarame's fall, where he still believed that his mentor and adoptive father was a good person by the time he was conceived and wished for him to apologize and reconcile together.

Second Heist: Ichiryusai Madarame
Yusuke one day develops an interest in Ann Takamaki, finding inspiration in her beauty, and develops a desire to hire her as his art model. He tails her one day, only to be stopped by the protagonist and Ryuji Sakamoto. After explaining his intentions, he invites her to go to his master's art exhibition to consider his offer. Hearing Madarame is a fraud, the Phantom Thieves decide to accept Yusuke's offer so they can investigate him. They directly ask Yusuke about this, which angers Yusuke, who continuously defends his master.

After hearing about Madarame's doings from his former disciple, Natsuhiko Nakanohara, and locating his Palace, Ann and Morgana try to find the proof of Madarame's deception by once again accepting Yusuke's offer to become his model, while the protagonist and Ryuji enter Madarame's Palace. Ann does everything in her power to delay actually becoming a nude model, dressing in so many layers that Yusuke briefly believes she has gained weight. Ann attempts to sweet-talk Yusuke into letting her enter Madarame's studio. Though her acting skills are questionable, her pushy determination and Yusuke's unwillingness to be rude to her allow them to find the evidence of Madarame's deception.

When Madarame threatens to call the police, Morgana and Ann have no choice but to escape into Madarame's Palace. Ann also drags Yusuke along for this escape, resulting in him entering the Metaverse for the first time. Even after seeing the proof earlier, Yusuke remains in shock and wants to believe in his master, so he decides to follow the Thieves to find out the truth. Despite Yusuke appearing to be protective of Madarame, according to Natsuhiko Nakanohara, if he could leave from his "care" he would, indicating that he might know that Madarame was suspicious before that happened.

When a barricade in Madarame's Palace prevents the party from proceeding further, Ann attempts to trick Yusuke to open a door in Madarame's house that matches the peacock pattern on the barricade, but to no avail due to her poor acting. Despite this, with all of his hard effort, Morgana managed to open the door, which was revealed to contain numerous copies of "Sayuri," with the original one being covered in purple cloth. Yusuke sees this in denial of the truth while Madarame barges in to investigate. He threatens Yusuke and Ann with a lawsuit using his counter-paparazzi squad, only for Ann to drag him and Morgana into the Metaverse.

As Ryuji and the protagonist reunite with Ann, Morgana and Yusuke, Yusuke was in disbelief that the golden museum in front of him is how his mentor sees his shack. Even when he hears about how the cognitive copy of him in Madarame's Palace (taking the form of painting to symbolize that Madarame treated him as a tool), he still refuses to admit that Madarame was a despicable person, up until he personally meets Shadow Madarame, who reveals to him that he is nothing other than a slave to him, and he admits and flaunts that he has indeed been stealing his students' artwork and declaring it as his own. He also tells Yusuke that he didn't take him in out of goodwill, but merely treated him and his other disciples as livestock to be disposed of after they were of no use. Furthermore, he threatens to destroy his artistic career if he ever stands against him.

Once Yusuke learns this truth, his desperation to find any decent goodness in his mentor turns into that of complete and utter desire for Madarame's retribution. Yusuke awakens his Persona, Goemon, and after dispatching Shadow Madarame's guards, Yusuke desires to confront his master's Shadow to get answers, but his awakening exhausts him, forcing the party to put the plan on hold for another day. Retreating to the real world, Yusuke asks to join the Phantom Thieves, which is permitted by Morgana. Madarame also decided to hold the lawsuit until his exhibit ends so he won't attract unnecessary attention. From this point on, he is also responsible for creating calling cards for the Phantom Thieves.

Yusuke and the Phantom Thieves successfully pull off the heist, leading to a chase. However, Shadow Madarame reveals that the stolen painting they took was a decoy. Trapping them, Shadow Madarame gloats at the Phantom Thieves, revealing his Palace's Treasure, the painting of Sayuri in its true form, showing a woman holding a baby. From this, Yusuke deduces that his mother's death is not a simple accident. Shadow Madarame confirms this, revealing that he offered tutelage to Yusuke's mother when Yusuke was a baby. Always very sickly, Yusuke's mother created an art piece of herself happily holding her newborn son in her arms so that she could immortalize the love she had for her son. When Madarame came across this beautifully constructed work of art, he planned to take the opportunity to claim the art for himself.

One tragic day, Madarame witnessed her having a seizure in front of him, and instead of easily offering medical support, he let her die in vain and made duplicates of her last piece dedicated to her son to sell to the public, which granted him the fame and credit he has today. In order to give it "mystery," Madarame altered the art by removing the baby from the painting completely, and that baby is none other than Yusuke himself. Since he was just three years old, Yusuke could not remember the original Sayuri and believed that the defaced Sayuri was its true form.

As Yusuke grew up, he developed artistic talent, which Madarame also took advantage of. Inspired by his control over Yusuke, Madarame decided to start targeting other youths in Tokyo, using them for their artistic ideas and throwing them out of the house, unsupported, if they did not comply with his wishes. None of Madarame's students receive credit or recognition for their works. Yusuke is no exception to this. Madarame uses them to take their credit for his own, just like he did to Yusuke's mother and his disciples, like Natsuhiko, many years ago.

Now knowing the whole truth, Yusuke thanks his former mentor for now giving him no reason to forgive him. Eventually defeating him and stealing his heart, Yusuke retrieves the original Sayuri painting that his mother had painted for him. Yusuke deduces that "Sayuri" is just a made-up title by Madarame for the painting, and unlikely to be his mother's true name for the fear of exposing his scam.

After the exhibition, Madarame confesses to his crimes and is swiftly punished and discredited for it. Yusuke sadly recalls the "happy family" he lived in when Madarame's other disciples were around and how as he grew older, he never lost the hope that they would come back and they all could be happy once again. Now that he is part of the Phantom Thieves, he feels like he has another "happy family" again. Wanting to let go of the past, Yusuke gives the recovered and restored Sayuri painting to the protagonist, who then displays it at Café Leblanc.

Because Yusuke no longer wishes to live with Madarame, Yusuke does not have housing. He wonders where he should go, once staying over at Café Leblanc for a night. However, he eventually decides to find residence at the dormitories of Kosei High School.

If the party does not complete the dungeon in time, on the day Madarame completes his exhibition, he will report the Phantom Thieves to the police for trespassing into his home, and he will also keep Yusuke as an apprentice against his will. This scenario is a false recollection made by the protagonist during Sae Niijima's interrogation, due to his mind being addled by the drugs he was forcefully administered to take by the police. Sae proceeds to leave the room to give the protagonist time to recover, at which point Akechi takes the opportunity to assassinate him.

Third Heist: Junya Kaneshiro
After he's moved on towards a life of his own, aside from the Phantom Thieves' agenda with the public, Yusuke would eventually be dissatisfied with the state of his school's dormitories as they intervened in his pursuit of art. On finding a place to stay, he planned on staying at Ann Takamaki's place, only to get rejected. Since he's ran out of money he spent on Japanese sweets he'd give as a thank-you gift to her parents, and Ryuji's mother not letting him bring in guests, Morgana offers that he moves in with them at Leblanc, albeit at the protagonist's expense.

Ryuji and Ann decide that while they're at it, they'll visit and make the day a celebratory party for Yusuke joining the team and for Madarame's change of heart. There, Yusuke talks with the boys, curious about their pasts in hand, such as with Ryuji's guilt over causing his mother trouble after snapping back at Suguru Kamoshida, the protagonist's shock the night he's been arrested after trying to stop a man from harassing a woman, and Morgana himself having no past at all and believing he doesn't fit in to begin with.



The next morning, while talking with Sojiro Sakura, Yusuke decided he wanted to return to the dormitories, as talking with his friends made him realize he doesn't know anything of the world and other people, which is a necessity for him to learn about in his aforementioned pursuit of art. Also, Yusuke's decided to leave Sayuri at Leblanc as thanks. Yusuke would then leave, promising he'd visit again.

Seventh Heist: Masayoshi Shido
While the Phantom Thieves have been collecting all five letters of introductions for Shido's Palace, Yusuke's role was focal for the last one against the cleaner, a member of the yakuza. On Ann's idea, she convinced the cleaner to have Yusuke draw a design for him. Although he wasn't interested in drawing for others, he was provoked to fulfill his request once his pride as an artist was put into question.

Yusuke designed a phoenix design for him, which the cleaner liked. He offered Yusuke a letter of introduction only if he's recruited for his abilities, which Yusuke refuses, as he wishes to find his own path as an artist: instead, Yusuke taunts the Shadow, insisting they'll take it from him by force.

Confidant

 * To see Yusuke's Confidant dialogue options and skills, see Confidant/Yusuke Kitagawa

Yusuke's Confidant can be started on June 18th, after completing Madarame's Palace. It revolves around the fallout of his relationship with Madarame, and his struggle to continue painting. Unlocking this Confidant allows Yusuke to replicate a Skill Card using Blank Cards, which can be obtained in the Palace, and being able to copy higher-end Skill Cards as the Rank increases. Yusuke may replicate Skill Cards in Shibuya's Underground Walkway or inside a Palace's Safe Room. However, his Confidant rank cannot go higher than 5 unless the protagonist's Proficiency stat is Rank 4 (Masterful). Maxing this Confidant makes Goemon evolve into Kamu Susano-o and unlocks the fusion of Odin.

Yusuke's Follow Up attack, granted at Confidant Rank 3, is a strong strike to a single target on the field which is guaranteed to be a Critical hit. However, this is on the low end as Follow Up attacks go, due to only striking one target.

Yusuke approaches the protagonist at Leblanc, having been caught up in a slump from his inability to paint after having learned of his former mentor Madarame's true nature, which caused him to lose his purpose to pursue for "pure beauty" and to capture the essence of Sayuri. He would also be concerned with tainting his talent with material desires, such as pursuing his passion for the sake of shelter or his risk of losing his art scholarship should he not produce any more results. Pondering over the logistics of why Sayuri works, he decides to try and better understand the human heart and how it provides beauty such as it, and asks the protagonist for assistance.

He goes with the protagonist to Mementos in order to find inspiration for a new piece to capture the contents of the heart. Shadows attack them while there but are quickly defeated, and when one drops a Blank Card, Yusuke uses it to create a real Skill Card, an ability he offers to the protagonist in exchange for helping him with his art.



Using the concept sketch he made in Mementos, Yusuke creates "Desire," a painting he eagerly decides to submit to an upcoming art exhibition, believing it will be acclaimed as a raw look into the human psyche. To his disappointment, however, it is universally panned by both critics and patrons for being "empty, devoid of meaning." Although praised for its technique, his artwork is specifically criticized to have "mediocre composition," and the subject, "Desire," is not only an old theme, but cannot uphold an abstract work if it has no individuality. Upon inspection, Yusuke realizes the painting only conveys his own blank interpretation of desire, enough to say he was "captured by desire" rather than the other way around, and considers giving up, but the protagonist convinces him to try again and work hard to integrate emotion into his artwork.

Yusuke takes the protagonist to various places to observe people and paint in order to re energize his creative spirit and tackle various aspects of the human heart as themes, only to find different aspects beyond his focus. Their trips eventually take them back to Madarame's shack, where Yusuke reminisces about his pure passion for art, his pursuit of superficial beauty and his blind acceptance of Madarame's facade as a strict but kind mentor. Yusuke reveals his fears that he, too, might be succumbing to the dark desires that corrupted Madarame, and despite discovering his dark secrets, Yusuke still partly acknowledges Madarame as his teacher and father figure, and questions what lies in both Madarame's and his own heart.

He then meets Akiko Kawanabe, the director of the Japanese Art Support Foundation, who he unknowingly met back at the exhibition. Yusuke admits he believes his pure passion for art has been lost because of Madarame, and Kawanabe offers him a spot in his foundation in exchange for being marketed as a tragic brooding artist and selling his paintings through his gallery. Yusuke angrily rejects, saying the offer has nothing to do with art, but Kawanabe only notes his immaturity and instead goads him to enter an upcoming competition with the Foundation's support as the prize. Yusuke decides to enter to prove his ability and show the true meaning of art to Kawanabe and all others who only care for wealth.

Yusuke asks for help from the protagonist, Ryuji, and Ann on deciding a subject for his piece, only to quickly lament that his paintings could never match the beauty of "Sayuri," because he is overcome by needs for money and fame. The others help him realize that there is nothing wrong with doing things for himself, but his art needs to be made for the sake of others if he wants to succeed. Yusuke comes to understand the beauty he sought on a much deeper level and, during another trip to Mementos with the protagonist, the meaning behind the "Sayuri" and its impact on him.



He is inspired to paint again and recreates the "Desire" piece as "Desire and Hope," to reflect the duality of humanity and bring hope to people lost to their inner darkness. The painting wins the competition and is given praise from Kawanabe, who reveals his taunting of Yusuke was only an act of aid from another former victim of Madarame to spark his inner drive. Kawanabe reveals he and Madarame were classmates and that despite his vanity and evil actions Madarame too was once pure and had traits of merit, caring for Yusuke when he was ill. When he offers the support of his foundation, Yusuke again declines, saying that his friends and the bonds between them, the inspiration for his piece, are his hope and with them, he will never go down the same dark path Madarame did. With newfound resolve, Yusuke finally breaks his slump and becomes eager to start his next piece causing Goemon to transform into Kamu Susano-o.

Yusuke's farewell gift to the protagonist after maxing out his Confidant is the Desire and Hope painting he made. It unlocks the Master Duplication ability from the start of New Game+ once their Confidant has been established.

Persona 5 Royal
Yusuke's role is largely the same as he is in Persona 5, aside from that he and Ryuji also hang out with the protagonist in a summer fair during the 17th of July.

Taking Back Reality
During the New Year, Madarame was released from jail and reconciled with Yusuke. He apologizes for all of his past crimes and lets him exhibit "Sayuri" in an art museum using his mother's name. This, however, is revealed to be an alternate reality created by Maruki and his Persona, for Yusuke truly wishes that Madarame could be the mentor he always thought he was and not a corrupt, greedy villain. Once the protagonist talks to him, he gets a seed of doubt, and everything returns to normal at the end of the week when Yusuke and the other thieves deny Maruki's reality, with "Sayuri" returning to Leblanc on-screen.

If the protagonist maxed his confidant, Yusuke will offer the protagonist to have a talk in his atelier, which appears identical to his room in Persona 5 Dancing. He loathes himself that he averted his eyes from reality and betrayed the protagonist's trust with him, even going as far as denouncing himself as an "utterly hopeless fool" because the protagonist gave him the strength to expose Madarame's deception, only for him to accept Maruki's reality without a second thought. After denouncing his worth in a long and self-derogatory rant, he apologizes for falling into the same mistakes and tells the protagonist how great his mother was, and the protagonist is his greatest teacher, even going as far as holding the protagonist's shoulders in joy. Realizing this transmogrifies Kamu Susano-o and Goemon into Gorokichi.

Should the protagonist accept any of Maruki's offers to completely overwrite the current reality with his own reality, he will consider transferring to Shujin. During the credits, he is seen being tutored by Madarame.

A few weeks later in Leblanc, after Maruki's defeat and restoring their original reality, each of the Phantom Thieves members revealed their own plans for moving away and pursuing their futures by themselves based on their experiences in January. Yusuke expressed his surprise and mild sadness as the only one who had no plans of moving anywhere but then acknowledges they will need to go their separate ways in life, though resolving to still carry their bonds and emotions together as the Phantom Thieves throughout his painting career.

Sometime after the group aided the protagonist in evading government officials from tracking him as he leaves Tokyo (with the help of the reformed Maruki who now works as a taxi driver), Yusuke continues to sit in front of a blank canvas inside his school's art room. As he notices a cherry blossom petal landing on top of his phone's screen that displays the Phantom Thieves logo, Yusuke finds his inspiration and begins painting his next piece.

Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
Yusuke is first seen walking with Naoya Makigami and alerts the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to Naoya's post on the Phantom Aficionado Website. He convinces them that they need to stop Kazuya's gang with a more permanent solution than just reporting them to the police. Yusuke is the one to confirm that Naoya is being abused, as he notices bruises on Naoya's back and arms while they are changing clothes. He assists in fighting Kazuya's demon form, Mithras, dispatching his Onmoraki servant with Goemon's ice powers. After Kazuya's arrest, he and the other Phantom Thieves of Hearts prepare for their next heist, with Yusuke commenting that their "next prey is huge."

Persona 5 Strikers
Six months after the protagonist and Morgana's departure, the former Phantom Thieves planned to reunite together and go on a camping trip together during their summer vacation. Yusuke and the others plan a surprise party in Café Leblanc for their reunion back home. While discussing their upcoming trip, they decide to use a recently popular mobile app called EMMA to look for their camping equipment and everything else that is necessary for their trip. After regrouping back at Leblanc after buying the preparations, he and the others learned of the existence of a new Metaverse-related incident involving a fashion designer and idol known as Alice Hiiragi using a Jail, a prison serving as an overlay in the real world, to mesmerize the public of Shibuya towards her. Knowing the threat, they all decide to investigate, reestablishing the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

During their investigation on Alice, they are approached by a police officer named Zenkichi Hasegawa, who reveals that the Phantom Thieves are the prime suspects of the recent change of heart throughout Japan. He offers them a deal to clear their names in exchange that they work together with him. Not wanting to accept the offer, the Phantom Thieves are determined to change Alice's heart. Unfortunately, their plan backfires as Alice's change of heart has made the police convinced that the Phantom Thieves are involved, leaving them no choice but to accept Zenkichi's offer.

Yusuke and his friends decide to continue their plan to go on a camping trip while also investigating the Jails. At Sendai, they meet an apparently popular novelist named Ango Natsume. However, when Yusuke tries to read Natsume's novel, Yusuke couldn't feel any passion nor feelings of the author himself. Learning that Natsume has plagiarized other people's work and the popularity of the novel only occurs at Sendai, the Phantom Thieves identified him as the Monarch of Sendai's Jail. With Zenkichi's help, they're able to attend Natsume's party in the hope of gaining his EMMA keyword. When Natsume starts insulting the Sayuri, Yusuke confronts Natsume and reveals that Sayuri was painted by his late mother, filled with her love, and tells him not to compare it to Natsume's work that only ripped off from others.

After defeating Shadow Natsume, Yusuke reminds him that the real reason that he wrote is to follow the footsteps of his real talented grandfather, Natsume Shougo. He also assures Natsume that he will accept all of the efforts he put into his work. Back to reality, Yusuke attends Natsume's press conference as he confessed to the plagiarism, convincing Natsume to write his own story once he's back to the literary world.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Yusuke and co are on a regular mission in Mementos when Morgana in mobile form unexpectedly loses control and forcefully drives into a wall, which strands them all in a new world. They manage to escape various dangers and make it to the Cinema but lose sight of both Makoto and Haru Okumura in the process. They also meet the P3P heroine, and with her help, they succeed in saving their friends.

As the team ventures through other movie worlds to find the keys to escape the Cinema, they encounter new allies along the way: the Investigation Team and SEES. With everyone trapped within the same world with no means to escape, the three groups join forces to venture through the challenges together. Yusuke learns two unison attacks by completing side quests: in one of them, Yusuke and Yukiko Amagi find artistic inspiration in each other and find an ammonite in Junessic Land. In the second one, he learns to perform the attack with Shinjiro Aragaki and Akihiko Sanada.

Once the threat is no more, everyone returns to their own respective worlds. Their memories of the adventure are erased. Yusuke is last seen with his team in a movie theater where Hikari (a girl they met in the Cinema world) presents her movie.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Yusuke Kitagawa appears as a playable character in Dancing In Starlight. Yusuke stars in two songs: "Blooming Villain," one of the boss themes, and "Life Goes On," the song that plays during exams. Neither of his songs are remixes.

Yusuke dances in a very eccentric way, and much like Akihiko Sanada, dances differently depending on the song. Yusuke seems to only do things on impulse and dances completely randomly, such as when he jumps and flails his arms or when he sits on the ground and scoots his butt and gets back up. In "Blooming Villain," he performs Kabuki Painting Poses, and poses done by Goemon.

His FEVERs are about the same, he doesn't sync with anyone aside from Ren, and when with Ryuji, the two just look at each other with intent to kill.

Etymology
Yusuke's name and the design of his Persona Goemon are references to, one of the most highly regarded practitioners of the  genre of woodblock prints, especially for his portraits of beautiful women, or bijin-ga. Born "Ichitarō", he later changed his given name to "Yūsuke". Interestingly, the real name of his former mentor and oppressor, Madarame was "Ichitaro" in a scrapped cutscene that never made it in the game.

Trivia

 * Yusuke is the designer of the official Phantom Thieves logo and the creator of most Calling Cards.
 * Futaba often refers to Yusuke as "Inari." Although the name itself comes from, the Japanese god of foxes, Futaba herself cites , a fried sushi dish that foxes had a fondness for according to Japanese folklore, as the origin of the nickname.
 * Yusuke often glitches when using the "Harisen Recovery" skill. This leads to him hitting his teammates with his hand rather than a paper fan.
 * Being an artist in-game, Yusuke's Confidant ability to "paint" a Skill Card on a Blank Card is reminiscent of the Tarot Card replication service in Persona 2 provided by Demon Painter, who is Kazuma Kaneko's in-game cameo. There is also the Skill Card replication service in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment but that requires sacrificing one for registration to make that card purchasable infinitely for a relatively high price depending on the rank of each card.
 * Yusuke is the tallest member of the Phantom Thieves, standing at 5'11" (181 cm) tall.
 * In the P5 credits, Yusuke is the only member of the Phantom Thieves who is not shown in his thief outfit within any of his clips.
 * It is implied in the game that Yusuke brings bad weather wherever he goes. The Phantom Thieves blame him for causing the rain during the fireworks festival once they learn that Yusuke has joined them in Hawaii after storms prevented Kosei High from landing in Los Angeles. This can be seen as almost every time Yusuke decides to hang out with the protagonist in Leblanc there is rain or heavy rain. His ultimate Persona, Kamu Susano-o, is the god of storms.
 * When Yusuke fiddled with Futaba's Phoenix Rangers Neo Featherman figures, the poses of the figures are reminiscent of the Ginyu Force from the  series.
 * Yusuke doesn't like his mask.
 * When opening a chest, Yusuke can wag his tail.
 * Yusuke gets carsick whenever the party drives around in Mementos.
 * Just like with Makoto Niijima, Goro Akechi, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki and Haru Okumura before, the official twitter account for the Persona series posted a "birthday reveal message" for Yusuke on January 23, 2018, five days before his actual birthday to promote an event to celebrate it on the actual day, January 28.
 * Yusuke's "harmed" portrait is slightly different between his civilian and Phantom Thief appearances. In his civilian outfit, his left eye is closed, but in his Phantom Thief outfit, his right eye is closed.
 * According to a conversation Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, Yusuke doesn't have a type of woman and believes all women are beautiful in their own way.
 * In Yusuke's Showtime in the Japanese version of Persona 5 Royal, he might sometimes say "I've cut a stupid object.", directly referencing Ishikawa Goemon XIII from , whom would say "Once again I have cut a worthless object."