Hidetoshi Odagiri

Hidetoshi Odagiri is a non-playable character from Persona 3. He is a student supervising the Disciplinary Committee of Gekkoukan High School, and one of the Social Link characters.

Appearances

 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable: Supporting Character; Emperor Arcana Social Link
 * Persona 3 (Manga): Supporting Character; Emperor Arcana
 * Persona 3 The Movie: Supporting Character; Emperor Social Link
 * Persona 3 Character Drama CD Vol.4: Supporting Character
 * Persona 3 Drama CD: Full Moon: Supporting Character
 * Persona 3 Portable Drama CD Volume 2: Supporting Character
 * Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Souen no Kesshou-: Cameo

Design
Hidetoshi is a young man with swept back grayish black hair and black eyes. He wears a standard uniform of Gekkoukan High School with a yellow armband with "Student Council" on his left arm.

In the movie, his hair is grayish brown and matching eyes.

Personality
Hidetoshi Odagiri is a strict, serious and harsh member of the Disciplinary Committee. He is initially cold but learns the values of friendship and trust via the male protagonist. On the female protagonist's route however, he will realize love is an important value and will defend her when asked to put her in the list of suspects.

Persona 3
When Mitsuru Kirijo invites the protagonist to a student council meeting, she introduces them to Hidetoshi Odagiri, in which the Emperor Arcana Social Link is unlocked.

Hidetoshi has enlisted the protagonist's help in catching the culprit in a case where a Gekkoukan student has left a cigarette butt in one of the school's male bathrooms, a task assigned to him by a teacher. Hidetoshi accepts with the condition of receiving a recommendation to become next year's student council president, while the teacher would gain a better reputation.

During the course of the story, Hidetoshi shows some rather aggressive efforts toward catching the culprit, which involves some amount of verbal abuse toward many random boys he has accused on no basis, more or less. Over time, Hidetoshi tells the protagonist a story of a man that was made into a scapegoat and sent to jail while doing his job as a script writer, and claims that he will do whatever is needed to rise to the top to prevent incidents like those from happening. He thinks that trusting people too much will lead to them backstabbing you, like what happened with said script writer.

As the Social Link progresses, Hidetoshi is tasked with making a list of suspects for the cigarette incident. Due to some rumors of the protagonist being out late at night (because of SEES exploring Tartarus, which Hidetoshi doesn't know of course), the teacher that gave Hidetoshi the task to solve the incident tries to force him to put the protagonist's name on the list. Hidetoshi, worrying the truth will be bent and he'll be forced to part with a friend, refuses immediately, defending and trusting the protagonist. Discussing this with the protagonist, he says, "Even if the whole school turns on me, I won't sell you out."

This situation helped him realize the value of trust: as it is an emotion you cannot force people to feel, you need to build on it little by little. Realizing that bonds, trust and friendship are more important than power, Hidetoshi changes his ways and drops the cigarette incident. People are amazed because he now asks for people's opinions instead of forcing his way of thinking onto the others.

Because of Hidetoshi's change of behavior, the culprit ends up confessing and gives his lighter to him, who shows it to the protagonist as proof of the incident being solved, and gives it to the protagonist. He then reveals that the script writer in jail is actually his father, and that he now understands the true meaning of trust.

If Hidetoshi's Social Link is at level 10 by the end of the game, on one of the last two days, the protagonist can meet him at Gekkoukan. He tells the protagonist that he has decided to become a teacher in order to give better education to people and avoid incidents like the Nyx cult, and that even while most of people forgot about that cigarette butt incident, it meant a lot to himself and won't forget about it.

Portable
If the player chooses the female route, Hidetoshi will realize his love for the protagonist when defending her while being asked to put her on the list of suspects. He ends up confessing to her, but says that he doesn't want an answer and only wanted to tell her: he'll wait to tell her again until he has become worthy of her.

Spring of Birth
In the movie, he makes his appearance and he is seen talking to a female student, he thinks the reason the victims who were unconscious at the front gate was drugs and thinks they were partying all night at Port Island Station.

Winter of Rebirth
He is briefly seen with Chihiro, witnessing Nyx's arrival.

Etymology

 * The name Hidetoshi means "excellent, outstanding" (秀) (hide) and "benefit, advantage" (利) (toshi).
 * Hidetoshi's surname Odagiri means "small" (小) (o), "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da) and "paulownia" (桐) (kiri/giri).