Character

Ann Takamaki

高巻 杏

Ann Takamaki is a playable character from Persona 5. She is a student at Shujin Academy who lives a double life as a Phantom Thief. __Appearance__ Ann has wavy platinum blonde hair that is styled in bushy pigtails with parted side bangs on the right side of her face where she accessorizes with a single yellow hair clip above her left ear as well as small circular earrings on both ears and bright blue eyes. She is of mixed ethnicity: her surname is Japanese, and her profile mentions she is 1/4 American. She is a relatively tall young woman, standing taller than both Haru Okumura and Makoto Niijima, who are both a full year older than her. For her days off, she wears a black leather jacket over an orange and purple plaid shirt, faded ripped jeans with a heart patch on the left pocket, and red ankle boots. When she is outside, she wears a red scarf and earmuffs. Her phantom thief outfit consists of a skin-tight red latex catsuit with a cleavage cutout and zippers, a matching red panther mask, pink gloves, dark red thigh-high boots, a clipped on tail on the back of her catsuit. Her cognitive copy in Kamoshida's Palace appears as a scantily clad version of her in a provocative, purple bikini with panther-like patterns on it and wears high heels and wears a pair of cat ears and a pink crown on top of her head. __Personality__ Ann is a very kind and compassionate girl, enough for it to be noted by both Morgana and Sojiro Sakura. Years of isolation due to her looks have left her very withdrawn, with the belief that she's lost her place in the world. This hasn't stopped her from opening up to the people close to her and making jokes. She's able to press on without caring about the opinion of others due to her friendship with Shiho Suzui, who was her first real friend in Japan before joining the Phantom Thieves. She is shown to be a good judge of character, as she was the first person able to look past the rumors of the protagonist and see him for who he really is. As a Phantom Thief, Ann becomes far more lively and energetic, with a strong will to never be abused or let abuses run unchecked. She agrees with Ryuji's desire to help those in need is because she believes that if she doesn't, she'll go back to being the same as she was before (ie. someone who could only look on while other people suffered instead of stepping in.) Although she understands that Kamoshida is ultimately the one at fault for what happened to Shiho, she can't help but feel partially responsible as well, due to frequently pushing Shiho to keep with the volleyball team despite the effect it was having on her. She also believes that she should have dared Kamoshida to take Shiho off the team when he threatened, as he wouldn't have done anything that would risk costing him games, but ultimately feels that she didn't believe in Shiho's ability. She reacts better to being told that she may be right rather than she can't blame herself, implying that she prefers people to be honest rather than sympathetic. Because of her kindness, Ann initially acts as the Thieves' sole "moral center," i.e. the only one to never lose sight of the bigger picture. While Morgana can become distracted by his desire to restore his memories and Ryuji often gets worked up over becoming famous, Ann acts as the common sense of the group, considering helping people to be the number one priority, and often wondering whether what they're doing can actually be considered right. She's also the one to suggest the "unanimous decision" rule, since she didn't like the idea of just picking targets at random. Despite all of this, Ann can also be rather sarcastic when annoyed or upset, particularly during her early encounters with Makoto, and isn't even above using profanity when pushed over the edge. Ann's personable nature let's her get along extremely well with her friends in the Phantom Thieves. She is notably quite close with Ryuji, as the two are often seen hanging out together outside of Phantom Thief activities (such as during Ann's confidant or the school cleanup event). However, they frequently bicker and exchange jabs with each other (though it's always in good fun). Ann's hobbies include shopping and playing video games, and she in particular considers the former to be "a great stress reliever." When Futaba points out that you can buy anything online, Ann is shocked by her approach, and says that "seeing and feeling it are the most important parts." She also has a massive sweet tooth for food such as cake, and has a weakness for crepe special menus like "extra extra cream." It gets to the point that she will sometimes eat nothing but dessert and neglect normal meals. However, she dislikes carbonated drinks and seems to prefer soy milk over cow milk. As revealed in a Mementos conversation, Ann has friends from overseas, who she seems to regularly keep in contact with. While not as bad as Ryuji, Ann is rather book dumb, doing poorly in every subject except English, which she mainly aces due to being bilingual. She can also be rather air-headed, particularly when it comes to her attempts to "strengthen her heart." Nevertheless, Ann is very smart in her own right. On a side-note, her acting skills are noted to be terrible, yet somehow fool people often. In Mementos, she reveals that her poor grades are actually the result of a lack of willingness to study, saying that whenever she tries, she ends up playing games instead. In the beginning of the game, Ann has a modeling side-job as a hobby, although she doesn't want to make a living out of it just yet, as she is unsure how serious she wants to take it. Despite this and being generally confident about her body and physical appearance, Ann becomes flustered and embarrassed when she is forced into a situation that exposes her skin without her prior consent or desire. She has a tendency to mock or prank people who are ogling (such as Ryuji) and is disgusted with the idea of being used as a nude model for Yusuke's art. Ann can't stand it when people superficially value her for her body and nothing else, as if she is a thin-shelled, hollow doll with nothing on the inside or no other redeeming qualities. She is also embarrassed by her Phantom Thief outfit at first, believing the tail is the only fine part of it, and commenting that she could never wear something like it out in public. Ann also vehemently rejects the Phantom's attempt to give her a "classy cat burglar" codename, instead deciding on the name "Panther," as it sounds "more ferocious." Her outfit is implied to be inspired by an anime Ann watched, in which she admired a "sexy" villain who was strong and confident, and took whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. In Mementos, she states that she likes using whips, and has gotten pretty good at handling one, before adding that she's not sure if that's something to be proud of. Ryuji even compares her to a dominatrix.