Persona 4 is another one of those series where it’s extremely tricky to pin-point one Best Girl out of the great cast. Each of the heroines are so great, yet diverse that they seem to cater to different tastes. Yukiko is the idealistic, traditional waifu, Chie has the ability to transcend beyond love and friendship with her personality, you can even have an intellectual relationship with Naoto. I had been weighing my options over the months prior to my 12 Days of Christmas posts, but in the end, I picked Rise, which was my original pick when I was still playing vanilla Persona 4.
I had always like Persona 4’s slice-of-life/funny moments, admittedly, even more so than Persona 3. One reason I think is because despite archetypal, each character’s personality bring their own dynamics to the table, and the writing just seems to mash them up together oddly well. Rise is one of those characters in the game who creates this effect especially well. To me, Rise is the Teddie of the female cast. Her personality brings in more unique dynamics to the status quo, bolstering the atmosphere with her demeanor.
However, I would admit that her personality could be a hit-or-miss for some. I personally like her cherry bubbly personality. Also, the way she teases some other characters at times had me laughing, which also relates to my previous point of bringing in unique dynamics to the status quo. She’s one year below the MC, and is arguably one of the coolest kouhai idol you could ever meet, even if she come across as a bit childish at times.
And yes, she is an idol.
That being said, she definitely has a clear advantage of being an idol, and admittedly, I personally had been quite fascinated with idols lately (idol anime.. at least). Speaking of idols, her character story also focuses on a lot of this aspect of her characterization-seeking individuality, as the main bulk of her internal struggles stem from putting up a facade for the public due to her idol activities, so much that she thought she was starting to lose her true self. It’s a nice, realistic background story centered on the mindset of idols. Also, Rise Kujikawa sounds like Rie Kugimiya, she’s the voice actor for Rise too. Were they deliberately making this reference?
Dialogue choice like this makes it hard not to like Rise.
Last but not least, I think it also clearly helps that Rise already has a crush on you very early just after you rescued her from the TV world. I can totally relate to her affections with the MC though, I mean who wouldn’t? The man got massive swag. But either way, despite Rise living in a totally different world, there is still however something wonderfully genuine and heartfelt about reciprocating her feelings she had for you all this time.
So yes, my choice is Rise, but once again, I would like to express the difficulty in choosing an absolute waifu from Persona 4. They are all great contenders to be Best Girl. I know I picked Rise, but I think if polygamy is allowed, I would just choose every single heroine.
In the words of the great Narukami Yu: “COME AT ME HAREM ROUTE!”
Narukami Yu-The Harem Meister
