Alice Hiiragi

Alice Hiiragi is a character from Persona 5 Strikers. She is a fashion artist and singer who has recently gained uncanny levels of popularity.

Appearances

 * Persona 5 Strikers: Major Character (Antagonist)

Design
Alice has light green hair with blue streaks in the front and lavender streaks on her buns, and dark purple eyes, She is around a head shorter than the protagonist. Despite her short body height, it is heavily implied that she is slightly older than Haru or Makoto.

She wears a light blue and white striped bow, a lavender ace of spades card on her bangs, a capped bottle of turquoise liquid, a yellow striped ball and another turquoise small ball on her left bun and a white teapot with lavender details, a turquoise striped ball and another small yellow ball on her right bun. In addition, she wears a simple blue choker, a blue and white striped dress with a short front with a long back with short puffy sleeves and yellow little balls together at the bottom, light green ruffles, a blue top layer, a pink heart on the left with a dark gray and white striped ribbon, a clock with a golden heart at the end of its chain, blue striped ribbons, a yellow ace of diamonds card and a lavender card on its skirt. The skirt's layer in the left has a turquoise 's face, lavender bloomers with diamonds and clovers, and a big light blue heart at the bottom around each leg. She also wears light green leggings and white boots with a pink ribbon, yellow ribbon and green ribbon and light blue soles. She also wears a blue striped ribbon around her wrists, and another one behind on each of her boots.

Her Shadow has pink hair with blue streaks, gaudy makeup and wears a provocative dominatrix outfit. She has two psychedelic eye decors on her back as her buns and wears a pair of high heels. She also appears to be significantly taller than her real world counterpart, having identical height as the protagonist instead of being shorter than him. Her crown is a purple crown with a yellow, glowing heart on top of it; if this crown is taken off, all desires from her Jail will be freed.

Her Shadow transforms into a purple skinned rabbit girl in the same provocative clothing as her human form and at around four times the height of the protagonist, although her mouth is stitched shut at and she has fangs as teeth, her tail resembles a Hablerie Shadow with "eat me" written on it. Her high-heels are replaced with fishnet stockings and two carrots wearing BDSM masks tucked into them. During the second stage of her boss battle, her tail holds her cane.

Personality
"Oh, whoops! What a terrible accident. Just like what happened on set. A terrible accident. I'm still upset about it, too, you know. Isn't it your job to take my side? Or are you asking to end up broken, like my last manager? Do you want to get stuck up in your room like he is?"

- Alice, Persona 5 Strikers

Within the public, Alice has the image of a cute and charismatic idol that can mesmerize all of Shibuya (whom she actually mesmerized with EMMA's supernatural functions) thanks to her brilliant fashion design, and acts so in public. She is also said to be quite attractive, according to Ryuji and Ann, causing the latter to wonder why she had to mesmerize people in Shibuya with EMMA in the first place.

Behind the scenes reveal a completely different person, as she will simply snap and sadistically bully any man she knows to be in a stable relationship by changing their hearts so they break up their relationship and go for her instead. If anyone tries to stop her afterwards, she will even physically attack them by stepping on them, humiliating them and taking pictures of the bullying. Her Shadow is a dominatrix queen that simply exaggerates her negative traits to extreme levels, and shows a lustful side that enjoys making brave and famous men her servants.

In reality, Alice is a depressed young woman that has incredibly low self-esteem with no friends at her former school Shujin Academy, with girls bullying her because a popular boy at school confessed to her. Before she went into fashion, she used to be highly introverted and was nothing like the Alice seen in-game. The drastic personality change was a distortion that occurred when she used EMMA to artificially inflate her self-ego, causing her personality to become not very different from the people that bullied her before.

However, one of her former bullies from Shujin spread insults based on her past school life in hopes of crushing her upstart career as well, driving her to use EMMA to exact revenge. Starting from changing the hearts of the lovers and friends of the bully who slandered her to become addicted to her instead, she starts changing the hearts of men in Shibuya so they become her lovers. She might also do this subconsciously, as soon as anyone reminds her of her former crush. If anyone questions the strange occurrences, she snaps and attacks them with the same method as the bullies in her Trauma Cell. Her paranoia is exemplified in how she views Ann Takamaki, who she immediately views as a popular bully similar to the ones who tormented her because Ann is a fashion model (when in reality Ann was a social outcast and completely lacked any aggressive impulses in school). As shown by her confused and horrified reaction to discovering the Phantom Thieves intend to steal her crown, she does not view herself as a bad person, simply one trying to survive and avoid becoming a target for bullying again. When defeated, her Shadow acknowledges that nothing she did improved her view of herself, and she was wrong to follow the example of her bullies.

Persona 5 Strikers
Alice is a talented fashion model and idol who was known for her cute looks and a colorful, unique worldview in her merchandise. She was a former alumna of Shujin Academy and knew of Ann Takamaki prior to the events of the game through magazines.

When she was at school, she had no friends and was very introverted. She was later bullied because she was to confessed by a popular boy among the school, causing some of the girls to get jealous and retaliate. It was heavily implied that the bullies stomped on top of her and took videos of the abuse, and her crush was taken away from her as well. However, one day, she found a gorgeous dress, inspiring her to become a fashion model so she would become the light of other people and thus she decided to become a fashion designer. Unfortunately, the bullies in her former school went around to spread her school life around to ruin her upstart career.

She found her gateway to revenge via the EMMA app, making her get abnormal popularity and made herself a merchandise empire, but by using the Metaverse to artificially inflate her popularity and to take revenge against the bullies who would remind her of the trauma, starting by changing the hearts of the lovers and friends of the woman who leaked her past in front of the public. If anyone happens to get their desires taken by Alice, they will break up any relationships they had before and madly fall in love with her instead. Alice's keyword is public, ensuring she can change the hearts of as many people as possible. Unwitting bystanders who inserted Alice's keyword will have their Shadows dragged into the Metaverse and get their Desires stolen by Shadows, effectively changing their hearts. This also happens to innocents who remind Alice of her past relationship; she will subconsciously use EMMA to change their hearts, with identical effect as if the Metaverse Navigator drew them in. If anyone attempted to stop or question her about the weird occurrences, she would step on them and take pictures of the humiliation. Alice coerced her past manager frequently this way, rendering him so traumatized that he is unable to leave his home.

Because of her past trauma, Alice also does not talk about her school anywhere, and all mentions of her school vanished from the internet. Despite her supposed fame, Shujin does not have any records of Alice in their list of famous personalities, indicating that she graduated well before the Phantom Thieves' members enrolled in or even prior to Makoto becoming student council president of Shujin.

She is first seen when the protagonist, Morgana and Ryuji go to Shibuya and buy camping tools, where she was seen giving people cards to "wonderland" during an advertising campaign for her merchandise in the 705 department store. It asks people to befriend her by inputting the keyword "Wonderland" in the EMMA app. Once they do, the trio gets transported to the Metaverse where Alice's Shadow Self sends out a group of Shadows to steal the desires of people. The trio attempts to escape, only to be cornered and brought to meet Shadow Alice, in which she aggressively flirts with Joker, but grows confused as to why he seems to be responding poorly to her seduction attempts, as her Jail should have made him utterly devoted to her. She drops him, Morgana and Ryuji into a junkyard where Sophia took the form of a box. Sophia transforms into a young girl and assists in their escape.

On the next day, the party finds everybody in Shibuya mesmerized by her. The weird occurrences include: fervent fans of Alice forgetting to eat or drink and collapsing in fatigue, people who are not fans of Alice being fired from their jobs, people going nearly bankrupt for buying Alice merchandise or requesting loaned money to buy them, as well as street fights against anti-Alice fans. If a married man gets his heart stolen by Alice, he will divorce his wife and become completely devoted to Alice instead.

After researching data, Ann and the protagonist go to the TV studio to attend a talk show. Before the interviewer asks about the rumors of her having a crush, he is suddenly mesmerized as Alice subconsciously changes his heart to silence him, making him beg her to marry him in front of his co-host, who is also his fiancé. The talk show is interrupted due to the abnormalities, and she exposes her true nature by smirking at the end of the scene. Ann and the protagonist lurk by the hallway trying to investigate her.

When her manager follows her and asks what is wrong, she stomps him on his chest and is verbally coercing him into submission so she can film it. She claims that her old manager got the same treatment and she broke him to the point that he refused to leave his room, and this is not the first time she physically attacked the current manager. Ann and the protagonist confront her shortly after, having witnessed what happened, before Alice tries to use the EMMA app to "befriend" the two. Alice eventually recognizes the protagonist from the 705 and, upon him and Ann leaving, ponders why it is he isn't obeying her commands similarly to the other mesmerized people.

The culprit of this change of heart case is at first directed to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, in which Zenkichi Hasegawa takes the advantage of this and uses it to blackmail them.

After investigating most of the Shibuya Jail, Zenkichi offers them information of Shujin Academy, which was revealed to be the school where Alice is graduated in, allowing the party to go into Shujin, an isolated part of the Jail. A flashback of how Alice was treated in the past is shown and a Shadow on top of a series of stacked desks bursts into the Lock Keeper, a powerful Shadow. After it is defeated, the party goes back to the real world and sends the calling card using the "Futaba Cannon" (a broadcast hijack) against all of Shibuya.

Once the party reaches the Jail to confront Alice's Shadow, she is shocked that they have learned about Shujin, but shakes it off before transforming into Mad Rabbit Alice to attack the party. They defeat her and Shadow Alice laments toward the people who bullied her, as well as those who denied her help. Ann lectures the girl that she has become no better than her bullies, and countless people suffered because of her, before reminding her that she wanted to be a ray of light for those in need. Eventually, Shadow Alice takes off her crown, then vanishes, returning to her reality self. Soon after, everyone in the Jail has their Desires returned before vanishing, free from Alice’s control.

The next day, Alice confesses her violent behavior live on camera, and her reputation is left in tatters.

However, the Jail remains and can still be revisited, and some Desires might still go back into the Jail, allowing re-exploration and quests to occur. When under police custody, she testifies that she was actually surprised when people started to confess to her after she used EMMA to appoint herself Monarch, but quickly took joy in her actions. When Zenkichi gave Alice's phone for Futaba to crack, she found out that her version of EMMA was normal, but someone was monitoring it.

Preparation
Alice is weak against Fire and Wind skills, and can nullify Psy skills. Her attacks are Physical and Psy type. It is advisable to bring Ann and Morgana, and never Makoto or Haru. The protagonist may need several Personas with Agi and Garu-type attacks. Also, remember to stock up on large amounts of healing items, as multiple members can be severely damaged and/or taken down by hard hitting Physical attacks at the same time.

During Battle
There are about nine wind poppers placed in the stage. Use those poppers to fire at Alice while she pole dances in the center, as that attack is difficult to dodge manually. The poppers don't regenerate, so they should not be wasted.

One efficient way to damage Alice is to inflict Burn on her via Fire skills, and land Technical Garu hits. The protagonist can use the Persona Jack-o-Lantern to use Agi. Meanwhile, Ann can conserve SP via her Enchant Combo Attack to turn her melee attacks's affinity into Fire. Either Ann, Morgana or the protagonist can be used to set up a pair that makes it possible for the strategy to work, but using all three together will boost the rate of inflicting Burn and/or stack damage efficiently.

One strategy is to have Ryuji in the player's control and cast Tarukaja on either himself, Ann, or Yusuke, and to conserve SP until the second half of the battle if possible. Otherwise, this can be used in succession with the aforementioned Technical strategy, whereas Ryuji can instead use Tarukaja on Morgana or the protagonist when Alice is open to Technical damage.

Sophia's Rakunda skill can also be utilized in battle, which can further sharpen the efficiency of previous techniques if used in succession.

Once Alice's health drops to 50%, she'll become aggressive and will be capable of moving around the arena quickly. It is advisable to keep distance from her and strike when she finishes her attacks, as every time she uses a Physical attack, she becomes vulnerable for a couple of seconds. She can also cast Brain Jack to inflict Brainwash, which, although easy to avoid, can be dangerous when it successfully hits multiple members, and she can now cast a Mapsio attack that covers around half of the arena, with the damage amplified as its a Technical hit. Having a Persona with Resist Physical may be useful for the protagonist.

Stats

 * HP is from the game's normal difficulty.
 * Alice will stop using the top six moves if her HP goes 50% or below and the cutscene event is triggered, using the bottom five moves instead.
 * In Painful Past+ battles, Alice's Psi skills are expanded, adding Mapsiodyne to the mix.

Etymology
Alice's last name, "Hiiragi" (柊) means "holly," after the plant. In flower language, holly represents "Defense" and "Protection." Based on her motif being Alice in Wonderland, she is effectively protecting herself with illusions.

The name "Alice" is said to mean "noble" or "exalted," which may reference Alice's narcissistic personality traits prior to her change of heart.

Trivia

 * Alice Hiiragi's design is inspired by characters from .
 * She has the same given name as the main character.
 * She has a violet ace of spades card and a teapot on her head. Making her similar to the because he too has cards on his hat, and holds tea parties.
 * She has the 's face in her dress' skirt's layer.
 * She has hearts and wears a crown in her Metaverse outfit, has Shadows as her minions, and is a Monarch ruling over a Jail in the game, making her similar to the.
 * She wields a club shaped like a flamingo, which may be a reference to the flamingo croquet match the Queen of Hearts has against Alice.
 * The clock on her dress is a reference to the . Her Mad Rabbit Alice form is also a reference to that character, as well as the name. "Mad Rabbit Alice" could also be a combination of Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, and Alice's names.
 * The original Alice enters Wonderland by dropping into a rabbit hole. Suffering from a breaking point in her life resulted in this Alice artificially creating an ego of herself with EMMA.
 * The "eat me" written on her Rabbit Form's tail is a reference to a body-altering cake Alice finds in a garden, labelled "EAT ME," that causes her to grow taller.
 * When under EMMA's influence, both Alice's shadow self and the real world Alice tell their victims "I don't want toys that don't do as they're told" while physically stepping on their bodies.
 * Her first name in the initial storyboard of the game is 有栖, which is still read as "Alice," but spelled with kanji roughly meaning "to have" and "nest," respectively.
 * Shadow Alice has an attack called "Feast your eyes" where she spins on a pole in the middle of the battlefield. This attack most likely references Shadow Rise, who may say "Feast your eyes!" when attacking, and is using a pole to do so.
 * This is the second time the first boss in a Persona game turns into a rabbit. The first time this happened is with Kamoshidaman from Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.
 * Alice appears to be left-handed, based on the way her Shadow wields its club.