Noriaki Akitaya

Noriaki Akitaya

The protagonist (Japanese: 主人公, Hepburn: shujinkō) is a player-named character from Persona 3, a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. In the game, the protagonist is an orphan who transfers to Gekkoukan High School in Iwatodai City and discovers a phenomenon called the Dark Hour during which supernatural entities called Shadows roam freely. After awakening an ability within himself called Persona, the protagonist finds himself intertwined in the ongoing struggle against the Shadows with his new schoolmates. For PlayStation Portable's remake, a female version of the character was created by Atlus to provide more options to returning players and attract the female demographic. The male character is voiced by Akira Ishida in Japanese and by Yuri Lowenthal in English. The male was designed by Shigenori Soejima, who aimed to create an ordinary youth who the player could relate to while the female one was done to attract returning players and a female demographic. In the manga adaptation, he goes by the name Minato Arisato. His character was reworked for the animated film adaptation where director Noriaki Akitaya explained pressure in giving the silent character his own personality. In the musical adaptation Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade, his name was given as Sakuya Shiomi. In the movie adaptation and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, he goes by the name Makoto Yuki. He has also appeared in a number of series spin-off games with the female incarnation also appearing in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. Critical reception to the protagonist's character has been generally positive.

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