Kotone Shiomi

The female protagonist of Persona 3 Portable, canonically known as Kotone Shiomi (having originated from the stage play and later clarified as the default name in the 2023 re-release of the game,)  is a transfer student enrolling in Gekkoukan High School on Tatsumi Port Island. She is an orphan whose parents died on the Moonlight Bridge in their car during a fatal incident a decade prior to the game.

She is the female counterpart of Makoto Yuki: she is designed to present a fresh perspective for veteran players of the Persona 3 series. Because the rest of the Persona series takes direct reference to the original interpretation of the game involving the male protagonist, her story is effectively non-canonical and takes place in a separate timeline.

Appearances

 * Persona 3 Portable: Protagonist (Female) (Defaults to Kotone Shiomi in the 2023 release)
 * Persona 3 Portable: Velvet Blue
 * Persona 3 Portable Drama CD Volume 1
 * Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Ao no Kakusei- / -Gunjou no Meikyuu- / -Sousen no Kesshou-/Chapter 4: Ai no Seiyaku/Final Chapter: Hekikuu no Kanata e: Protagonist (Female) as Kotone Shiomi
 * Persona 3 Portable Dear Girls Comic Anthology: Protagonist as Minako
 * Persona 3 Portable Dengeki Comic Anthology: Protagonist
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Playable Character
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Roundabout Special

Design
Kotone Shiomi is the polar opposite of her male counterpart. Her Persona Orpheus is gold, while his is a pale silver, her eyes are red, while his are blue, et cetera. With red accents instead of blue. Her main weapon is a naginata that inflicts slash attacks.

Kotone has auburn hair, which she always has in a high ponytail, along with silver barrettes which form the Roman numeral XXII (22), possibly referencing that the Fool Arcana is not only Arcana 0, but also Arcana 22 with the numbers increasing while going back to the first card after The World (Arcana 21). Since she's the polar opposite of the male protagonist, it would make sense for the male protagonist to be Fool 0 while the female is Fool 22. She is seemingly shorter than the default male protagonist. She has a pale complexion and striking red eyes (and longer lashes than the other characters, like Aigis).

Her favorite colors seem to be red and orange, as most of her outfits compose of the same color scheme.

At school and at Tartarus, she wears Gekkoukan High School's winter uniform, which consists of a Gekkoukan high badge, a red ribbon tie, a neck strap MP3 player (same as the male protagonist but in the color red) and loafers. On weekends and days off, she wears a red scarf, a light orange sweater, a red plaid skirt, black leggings and red boots (along with her earphones). In the summer, at Gekkoukan, she wears a white collared shirt, a red ribbon tie, her red MP3 player and the school skirt. During the days off in the summer, she wears a short-sleeved orange shirt over a red-and-white striped spaghetti strap top, a white skirt and white sandals.

She is never seen without her earphones except in several events where such accessories would not be appropriate, such as the following: the beach excursion in Yakushima (where she wears a pink ribbon bikini); the Summer Festival (if the player chooses to wear a yukata); the brief school trip in Kyoto (in which she wears a bathrobe); and the post-New Years celebration in the nearby Shrine (in which she wears an orange kimono and replaces the usual barrettes in her hair with pink and red flower barrettes). Her High-Cut Armor is white in color. It is also said by Yukari that her ears are not pierced. She is also said to be very pretty.

When she was a young girl, she had short auburn hair down to her face, wore a red elementary school uniform, a red ribbon, dark red skirt, white socks and gray shoes.

When Shigenori Soejima was asked to create a female protagonist, he thought it would be easy to draw her. Soejima had never drawn a female protagonist in his works. It was very difficult to distinguish differences between a heroine and a female protagonist. It wasn't a problem limited to girls or boys, but with a protagonist, especially a juvenile protagonist, there will be a growth to adulthood and their personalities can not yet be solidified, the characterization of the heroine and the other characters will be different. Soejima somehow came up with the design, he felt she was a protagonist people would come to love.

Soejima drew this especially to pin facial expressions and atmosphere of the female protagonist. It was an image contrasting the cool male protagonist against the bright and lively female protagonist, the player named P3 protagonist is meant to be the player's alter ego.

Personality
She is a silent protagonist, as is the case with most Megami Tensei protagonists, although she does technically speak in battle (such as when she uses an item or summons a persona).

Unlike the male protagonist or Megami Tensei protagonists in general, she is very bubbly, funny, upbeat and cheerful. Her dialogue choices exhibit a broad spectrum of emotions, ranging from sarcasm, joking tones, utter seriousness and otherwise depending on the player's choice. She is a sharp contrast to the male protagonist who is very reserved and concise where she, on the other hand, is not afraid to interject into conversations where her male counterpart would remain silent. In addition, she is more likely to resort to violence when provoked, especially in defense of her friends, as seen in her Hermit Social Link.

She is also said to be dependable and tough, just like how a leader should be. Although she seems to be always in high spirits, she hides her suffering and burdens, which is why everyone, mostly Junpei Iori and Akihiko Sanada, worries so much about her. She is often described by the S.E.E.S members as a very tomboyish leader who takes risks to save her friends.

Ryoji Mochizuki's Fortune Social link as well as her answers after his reveal show a lot of her true personality and reveal her growth in the later parts of the game.

People around her as well as herself tend to really appreciate having close friends as seen in Rio Iwasaki, Saori Hasegawa and Yukari Takeba's Social Links as well as people loving her for how protective she is. The lack of her comrades to fight alongside her can prove to be traumatic for her and can put her into a breakdown as seen in Persona Q2 where she is the only Persona user who has to fight alone.

In some Social Links events (i.e. Magician, Star and Moon), as well as the Drama CD, she has a tendency to gorge herself on food, similar to the male protagonist in the manga adaptation, with some girls in her Social Links and SEES members saying that sometimes they are jealous on how she eats a lot and yet can stay slim all the time. In addition to this, Akihiko states that she'll get angry if someone, particularly Junpei, takes her food without permission.

Persona 3 Portable
The female protagonist shares the same backstory as her male counterpart: she is an orphan whose parents died on the Moonlight Bridge during a fatal incident a decade prior to the game. She also begins her story when she transfers to Gekkoukan, becomes aware of the Dark Hour, obtains her Persona and becomes a member of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES for short.

However, unlike the male protagonist route, her story can be slightly altered. Unlike her male counterpart, she can initiate a Social Link with all party members who will grant them skills when ranking the Fool Arcana Social Link. If she initiates the Moon Social Link with Shinjiro Aragaki and maxes it before the October 4th Full Moon Operation, his death will not occur, and he will instead spend the rest of the game in a coma, although his voice would still be heard in their battle against Nyx. During the last days of the female protagonist's route, a student will speak of his discharge from the hospital.

Another addition to the Female Route is that the player can choose who Igor's assistant is. Igor will ask the player whether they think his assistant is male or female, and selecting "male" will allow the player to unlock Theodore as Igor's assistant, rather than Elizabeth. Theodore is only available to the female protagonist, and cannot be unlocked for the male protagonist.

Other minor changes from her male counterpart is that she will have different interactions with her party members and other Social Links in certain events (i.e. Akihiko or Junpei will be inside the bath before fighting the Arcana Lovers).

The female protagonist can pursue a romance with Ryoji, Elizabeth, Theodore, Shinjiro, Akihiko, Aigis and/or Ken.

A new addition exclusive to the Female Route is that she can visit Inaba and visit locations such as Yasogami High School and the Amagi Inn when training for the volleyball / tennis rally. She meets a young Yukiko Amagi who is in her final year of middle school.

At the end of the game, she uses her power to defeat the Nyx Avatar. By default, Aigis meets with her on the roof and she dies while sleeping on top of her lap. It's also possible for Akihiko, Shinjiro, and Ken to stay with her.

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
The P3P heroine is a P3 hero from an alternate reality. Additionally, unlike the other teams of Persona users who entered the movie world, due to her unique method of entry, she enters it alone and all of her teammates were not involved in the major events of the game, which was initially unbeknown to her. She enters the movie world from the Velvet Room via a nap during her studies. The movie where she ends up in is the same as the one that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were drawn into, Kamoshidaman. She is not a silent protagonist and speaks in full sentences in this game.

Upon unlocking the Velvet Room, Theodore will ask the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to find her as she suddenly vanished from her world. When Theodore asked Nagi and Hikari about her whereabouts, the women do not have an idea where she was. Yusuke affirmed that she must be in the movie world. Theo does not have an idea about that world, but Elizabeth just forced him to believe she is there.

True to Yusuke's word, the P3P heroine is inside the movie world fending off Shadows. After defeating the Shadows, she joins the party and Theodore thanks them for sending her back to the Cinema lobby.

The female protagonist is shown to be quite skilled in martial arts, as she is shown to knock down a cognitive policeman with a well-timed chop to the neck while being cornered by the said policeman.

During the final confrontation against Kamoshidaman, when Kamoshidaman is about to go after his statue flying away, she tramples him by dropping down from the sky.

In the A.I.G.I.S labyrinth, she finally meets the Persona 3 cast, but none of them recognize her as they came from a world where they were led by the P3 hero, though they felt that she's familiar. The awkwardness is further worsened as the heroine began to call the S.E.E.S. members by name despite the fact that they do not recognize her. The events resulted in the heroine being struck with a sense of confusion and alienation that she manages to overcome towards the end of the game. Along with her male counterpart, they were the keys to create a glitch that neutralizes the security system guarding the Mother Computer.

Throughout the game, she felt out of place amongst the S.E.E.S. members because even though she knew them since they are exactly the same as the versions of them in her world, they do not recognize her since she is different from her male counterpart despite being technically the same people and it was the latter that led them. The S.E.E.S. members realize this and make various efforts to get to know her in the side quests of the game.

She was the only member of the united Persona users that did not belong to a team, as all of her real comrades did not join her in the movie world. Therefore, she felt like an outcast that was forced to fight alone. As a result of the confusion and loneliness, she relates herself to Hikari, as both were outcasts and did not have any friends from the groups that they were in.

After returning to reality from the final battle, she returns to the dorm as if she had a dream during her studies. She also had an uneasy nostalgic feeling, but could not explain why. Her real comrades in her own version of S.E.E.S. awaited her arrival and notified her that they got a sci-fi movie DVD from an unknown source and they bought snacks and drinks for her to watch the movie.

Battle Quotes

 * "Orpheus!" or the name of the current Persona she is using (Enemy weak to attack/critical with Phys skill)
 * "Messiah!" (when summoning ultimate Persona)
 * "Persona!" (When summoning Persona)
 * "I summon you!" (When summoning Persona)
 * "Here!" (When using items)
 * "Hah! Take this!" (When attack is Critical at an enemy)

Trivia

 * The in-game interface while using the female protagonist is pink, rather than blue. Also, she wears orange in the majority of her casual clothing, since orange is the complementary color of blue (the color the male protagonist usually wears) in the color wheel. Some BGMs also change, such as the battle BGM ("Wiping All Out" for female, "Mass Destruction" for male), for instance.
 * The barrettes in her hair can be seen as the roman numeral "XXII," which corresponds to the Fool Arcana (the Fool may be either 0 or 22) and is used to indicate that she is a new character (Persona 3 originally had 21 characters representing an Arcana, the female protagonist is the 22nd).
 * The name "Kotone Shiomi" saw its first usage in the Persona 3 stage play, unlike the names "Makoto Yuki," "Yu Narukami" and "Ren Amamiya" that were first used in anime adaptations.
 * She is dubbed as MShe/FeMC/Minako Arisato by Western fans and Hamuko (ハム子 / 公子) by Japanese fans, loosely interpreting the last Kanji character for shujinkou (主人公) as Katakana. This refers to the early official P3P screenshot in which her name was written as "主人 公子" or shujin kouko (which means main character girl), with "ko" as a suffix for female names. "Minako Arisato" was used in a poll by SEGA Heroes in April 2019, though it was changed to "Female Protagonist" shortly after.
 * In a Famitsu special, she was dubbed Runako Gekkou.
 * All of her attack animations use the "Slash" skill's animation, including her critical attack animation.
 * After finishing the game with the female protagonist, the credits roll only show the outline of (female) Orpheus as her silhouette passes by. This is in contrast with the rest of the SEES members and the male protagonist himself, who all have their ultimate Persona appear during the credits.
 * In her All-Out Attack artwork in Persona 3 Portable, her eyes are shown to be brown even though her Cut-in and portraits show them to be crimson.
 * When using the fusion spell Cadenza, her Orpheus portrait does not change, unlike the male protagonist.
 * As the P3P heroine enters the movie world via a dream instead of from an exploration trip like the other Persona users, it is implied that just like Hikari, the heroine that the party interacts within Persona Q2 is not the real person but merely a manifestation of her soul.
 * In Persona Q2, she does not seem to recognize Yukiko Amagi despite having encountered her on the field trip to Yasoinaba. A possible explanation is the fact that they only met twice in passing at least a month prior to the events of Q2 from the heroine's perspective and two years prior from Yukiko's perspective.
 * On July 10th 2020, she was confirmed to appear in the second crossover event of the game Puzzle & Dragons under the name Kotone Shiomi, marking the first time she has received a proper name in a video game.
 * She is the shortest Persona protagonist at 5'3".

Appearances in Other Media

 * BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle