Yosuke is a teenager who moved to Inaba a year before the protagonist and whose father is the owner of Inaba's Junes Department Store. In order to emphasize his origins from the city Shigenori Soejima gave him accessories such as headphones and a bicycle as well as a stylish hair. Little changes were made to his design in the making of the game. Befriending the protagonist shortly afterwards the game's beginning, Yosuke is shocked to find that his friend Saki Konishi becomes the second victim from Inaba's murders. Noticing clues between the victims and the Midnight Channel, Yosuke and the protagonist go to the TV world to investigate her death. He ends up confronting his Shadow who represents his resentment of living in a small country town with little to do, as well as his inner wish for something exciting to happen. With help from the protagonist, Yosuke accepts his other self and forms the Investigation Team alongside him to know who killed Saki.His Shadow becomes the Persona Jiraiya (ジライヤ?), a red-scarved humanoid whose head vaguely resembles that of a cartoon frog decked with shuriken for eyes and on his hands, as well as bell-bottoms. Yosuke dual wields blades ranging from blunt wrenches to knives to daggers in battle. Throughout the player's interaction with Yosuke, he overcomes Saki's death and confronts his feelings about Inaba accepting it as an enjoyable town despite his initial feelings. After this, Jiraiya evolves into Susano-o (スサノオ?), a humanoid wearing a blue jumpsuit surrounded by a large sawblade with a flame rising from his head. In the upcoming re-release Persona 4: Golden, Yosuke's Persona can evolve once more into Takehaya Susano-o (タケハヤスサノオ?), gaining a fireman's outfit, a large afro-like fireball spouting from his head, and sawblades beneath his feet. In the game's ending, he stays working in Junes, identifying the protagonist as his best friend.
Appearance
Yosuke has slightly unkempt mahogany hair, and brown eyes. At both his school and inside the Midnight Channel, he wears a school uniform of Yasogami High, along with a white V-necked with long sleeves and a pair of red headphones (save for two occasions, he is never seen without them). Yosuke also wears orange glasses during battles. During summer he wears his school summer uniform, along with another V-necked shirt with short sleeves. On weekends, he wears a white leather jacket with a orange V-necked shirt, and dark green pants. During weekends in the summer, he wears a white V-necked shirt with red motifs on the front.
During the Crossdressing School Festival he wears a school uniform for girls with a light-yellow sweater vest, a loose red ribbon, a red checkered mini skirt, black stockings, brown shoes and a strawberry red rubblehead on top of his head. Interestingly, in the anime, his socks are mysteriously changed from black to white. In Persona 4 Golden in winter he wears snow suit with white hoodie, orange goggles around his neck with light blue scarf, white pullover jacket with snow red jacket, black gloves, green camo pants, and yellow shoes. Even during colder days in winter at school, he wears sky blue pullovers jacket underneath his school uniform. In Persona 4: The Animation, his swimming trunks are orange and have a floral pattern on them, and wears Yasogami High basketball uniform when he supported Kou's last game. Then later on cross dressing change to black to white socks.
Personality
Yosuke is a clumsy, somewhat paranoid transfer-student who arrived six-months before the protagonist. He is often the target for jokes about his lack of muscles and body strength, and fights with blunt, double-handed objects - such as knives, kunais and wrenches. The protagonist first sees him crashing his bike into a garbage can - the first of many times - but he doesn't introduce himself to the protagonist until he helps Yosuke by getting him out of a garbage can. He cares deeply about Saki Konishi and fell into depression after her death. He tends to be a bit of a wannabe ladies' man and has a fascination for girls, but more so in the original game, he shows great deducing skills and is often on task of the situation on hand, and can be a very serious individual at times. He also tends to keep a good face in order to make sure the team is on their best spirits and cares a lot about Yu at times, as well as having a strong sense of justice. A notable gag is that
Yosuke seems to be at odds with Chie Satonaka several times. Yosuke serves as the player's Social Link to the Magician Arcana (魔術師 Majutsushi?), representing action, initiative, and immaturity; in the animated series, Yu's friendship with Yosuke is signified by Yu's use of Pyro Jack (ジャックランタン Jakkurantan?). He appears in Persona 4 Arena using Jiraiya, and his nickname in the game is "Captain Resentiment" (キャプテン・ルサンチマン Kyaputen Rusanchiman?). During the events of Persona 4 Arena, Yosuke is now a third-year student at Yasogami High School and he begins to hear rumors that the Midnight Channel is back. When he decides to investigate, he meets a mysterious girl. He is voiced by Showtaro Morikubo in Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in English. Lowenthal enjoyed playing Yosuke owing to the large number of events the character goes through despite being initially a comic relief. Takahisa Maeyama will portray him in the musical.
Game
Yosuke serves as the player's Social Link to the Magician Arcana (魔術師 Majutsushi?), representing action, initiative, and immaturity; in the animated series, Yu's friendship with Yosuke is signified by Yu's use of Pyro Jack (ジャックランタン Jakkurantan?). He appears in Persona 4 Arena using Jiraiya, and his nickname in the game is "Captain Resentiment" (キャプテン・ルサンチマン Kyaputen Rusanchiman?). During the events of Persona 4 Arena, Yosuke is now a third-year student at Yasogami High School and he begins to hear rumors that the Midnight Channel is back. When he decides to investigate, he meets a mysterious girl. He is voiced by Showtaro Morikubo in Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in English. Lowenthal enjoyed playing Yosuke owing to the large number of events the character goes through despite being initially a comic relief. Takahisa Maeyama will portray him in the musical.
Plot
Yosuke's role remains the same in Persona 4. When Chie, Yu, and Yosuke first enter the T.V world, they encounter the Shadows for the first time. The Shadows chase them until Yu summons his persona. Chie falls unconscious after being attacked by the shadows. When they return to Junes, Yosuke and Chie embrace each other for being back in the real world but Chie kicks him in the gut. When they get back to school, they learn of Saki's death, [1]Yosukes' despair of not accepting his other selfAdded by Minako22pushing Yosuke to go into the TV world with Yu agreeing to go with him. When they meet his Shadow, Yosuke still remains conscious when his other self transforms. Throughout the fight he continually denies the Shadow's words. Eventually, [2]Yosuke got punch by
YuAdded by Minako22Yu decides to punch him. This makes him come back to his senses and admit it's true about himself . Accepting his Shadow while in battle causes his Shadow to lose control and weaken, allowing Izanagi to do the finishing blow and defeat him. Yosuke then goes to his Shadow (who has turned back to human form) and tells him "You're me and I'm you". With this, his Shadow smiles and turns into his Persona, Jiraiya. Some time afterwards, Yu and Yosuke meet up at Junes. Yosuke reveals that he brought actual swords for the next trip to the TV world – right in front of a police officer. After this slight
delay, the two meet up with Dojima, Adachi, and Chie. The two police officers discuss the case with them and reveal that Yukiko is missing. Chie breaks down into tears after hearing this. When they arrive at Yukiko’s Castle, Chie runs ahead of the other two – while Shadows begin pouring out of the walls. Yu and Yosuke summon their Personas to fight the Shadows. While Izanagi efficiently cuts through the Shadows, Jiraiya only manages to take down two, one with a Garu and the other with a kick, while two others fly past. When they confront Chie’s Shadow, it summons a vast number of Shadows from the walls. Jiraiya uses a disk attack to cut through them. Yosuke protects Chie from her Shadow, but when his persona is injured, he feels the pain. He gets trapped by Shadow Chie's hair and it begins to strangle him until Yu switches his persona to Pyro Jack. Combining his Garu with Pryo Jack’s Agi, the Shadow is destroyed.
Upon learning that the Protagonist and Yosuke aren't responsible, Teddie promises to help, and gives them a pair of glasses which allow them to see the fog ridden Midnight Channel clearly. Eventually the Protagonist and Yosuke venture to an area resembling Yasoinaba's shopping street. Intrigued, the Protagonist and Yosuke try to enter Saki's family liquor store and begin to hear the voice of Saki Konishi echoing them. In there, Saki's voice reveals that she is tired of her life: her family liquor store's sales are falling because of the opening of Junes, and her part-time job in Junes has caused her father to detest her. Saki also reveals that she hated Yosuke, and never thought of him as a friend, but an annoying, irritating person; she was being friendly to Yosuke only because he is the son of the manager of Junes. Whether these were Saki's true feelings or fears born from Yosuke's feelings is debatable.
Hearing Saki's words, Yosuke is devastated, and tries to convince himself that everything he heard was a lie. Another 'Yosuke' appears, and openly mocks Yosuke. Shocked, Yosuke tries to answer back, but the other 'Yosuke' proceeds to taunt Yosuke by saying that in reality, he is just afraid of being alone and his cheerful facade was nothing more than just a sign of escapism. The other 'Yosuke' then mentions that Yosuke never sees anyone as a friend, including Saki, but only as things to help him to feel secure and exclaims that he knows it because he is Yosuke. Not wanting to accept these words, Yosuke angrily exclaims that the other 'Yosuke' is not him. When Yu, Yosuke, and Chie at where Yukiko and her other self are, the
chandelier was coming at them until Jiraiya try push to chandelier back put ends up taking the damaged as well as Yosuke felted where his Persona crushed to a wall with a chandelier and unable to call it out(due to his Persona distance) and Yu's Persona switch his Persona back to his current Persona to help Jiraiya out and got trapped along with Yu by the melted candles unable to move before Shadow Yukiko's transformation until the shadow flames burn the candles wax with they were to move again and help out Chie.Until he and Yu are unable to defeat Yukiko's Shadow self due to the flames blocking them except for Chie. After the shadow weaken Yosuke and Chie combined with Yu attacks and able to defeat it.
After they rescue Yukiko, they spend their normal lives until Yukiko's recovered. As the days go by he notices Yu ditching class with Ai. He finds out they're dating and later thinks that Chie is jealous. So he asks Chie to become a manager for basketball club. On the last game for Kou he ends up confused on why he's wearing basketball uniform and Kou tells him it's because they are short in players. After they lose they went to Chinese Diner Aiya and he notices one of his classmate working there.
As the few days gone by during the exam, Yosuke seemed to be taking the exam but when he got stressed, he ditched class until the exam was over. When they went to stake out on Kanji who was accompanied by Naoto, they hid in the residents area in Inaba. They were then discovered by Kanji and were chased. As they continued being chased by Kanji, he almost convinced Chie to become a decoy so that they can escape but Yukiko then convinced Chie not to be fooled.
When Yosuke and others are at the entrance of Kanji's bath house, he refused to go inside because his own interest in men along with Yu who agreed with, but Chie grabbed Yosuke by the ear to f [3]Yosuke along with Yu got poison by Tough GuyAdded by Minako22orce him to go inside. When Yukiko's persona attack the shadow with her fire spell, Yosuke got caught on fire with his persona as well, then Chie uses her persona and uses her ice spell to blast the flames on the shadows and his persona which causes him to freeze and become frozen. Yu breaks the ice with his persona and frees him. When Yosuke got subdued by tough guy when he touch his rear end, it cause him and Yu to blush before passing out.
Then during the school camp trip when he tries Chie and Yukiko's homemade curry he literally grosses out and passes out in disgust of their horribly cooking then regain consciousness but with an upset stomach so Yu brings him to the Health Association club tent for antacids. Then he saw Naoki who is Saki's younger brother. As Naoki leaves to go do his duties with the Health Association club he takes this investigation seriously and won't let anyone die again. The girls hide in the guys sleeping bags after Morooka appears outside. Chie hides in Yosuke's sleeping bag briefly while Yosuke looks over at Yu. After Morooka leaves Yosuke moves over to the same sleeping bag as Yu and Yukiko joins Chie in her sleeping bag. Then during the last day he wears orange swimsuit with a sunflower on it. He makes a perverted comment about the girls figure. So he gets pushed by Chie into the waterfall.
On June 21 at school, when Yosuke comment Rise's body and almost complare to Chie's he was kick on the stomach by Chie awhile she imitating Yosuke's persona name. Then on June 22 Yosuke was put in charge with the other members to catch the "curplit".
When the others Rise's shows all other Rises's personality with different outfits and different identify, Yosuke then amazing happy and blushing to see all different version of Risette's. As Shadow Rise shows up Yosuke then amazing happy and cheer her as he though maybe the real Rise and maybe seeing her beauty body in bikini, but hit by Chie to be quiet. When Shadow Teddie transformed and begins to suck everyone, Yosuke and Kanji holds on to the pole and unable to fight(due to his persona in bad shape) but only Yu's persona was able to defeated it.
Social Link
Should the Protagonist manage to level up the Magician Arcana Social Link to Lv.8, Yosuke reveals that when he first moved to Yasoinaba, he was resentful towards the town because he feared that the opening of Junes would make the people in the Shop District hate him. Despite this, however, Yosuke began to open up when Saki Konishi told him that "parents are parents, you (Yosuke) are you". Yosuke later exclaims that even after he knew the friendly Saki was a facade, he still loves her, and is sad to see her die. He goes as far as to say he really did not mind whether Saki liked him or not—he just wanted to make her smile. Yosuke also expresses his resentment of living in a small country town with little to do, as well as his wish to do something interesting like play hero. By the end of the Magician Arcana Social Link, Yosuke expresses that deep down inside, he didn't trust the Protagonist fully, and is jealous of his talents in combat and being a leader of the Investigation Team. Confessing his inner
thoughts, Yosuke then requests the Protagonist to punch him, so they could get even for Yosuke's jealousy. The Protagonist eventually brawls with Yosuke, with their fight ending with a tie. Yosuke then exclaims that he'll live with his true self from now onwards, and hold precious the days he spends with others. Eventually having a change in his psyche and resolution, Yosuke's Persona Jiraiya transfigures into Susano-O. Noticing his newfound powers, Yosuke exclaims that he will use the power to protect the others, and thanks the Protagonist. Should the Protagonist reach Lv 3 of the Magician Arcana Social Link, Yosuke will learn his distinctive follow-up attack, Yosuke Strike, where he performs a powerful combo with 100% critical rate on another enemy, downed or otherwise, provided the Protagonist has struck down a target.
Persona 4 Arena
During the events of Persona 4 Arena, Yosuke is now a third-year student at Yasogami High School and he begins to hear rumors that the Midnight Channel is back. When he decides to investigate, he meets a mysterious girl. As he keeps defeating his friends each round, Yosuke hears them say that the reason the Grand Prix was set up because of him and his feelings of despair and uselessness about going back to a normal life. After discovering that General Teddie from the monitor is a fake, he thought that might be his shadow dressing up like Teddie. Before heading to the announcement room, Yosuke manages to impress Labrys and even agrees to go on a date with him (much to Teddie's surprise). As Yosuke and Labrys arrive at the announcement room, he sees his shadow and just as he is about to deny it once more, his friends help him resolve his problems. But soon it becomes clear that it was not Yosuke's shadow as he used his Persona in the fight, soon General Teddie goes after Labrys and it's revealed that General Teddie was actually Shadow Labrys. She reveals Labrys' true nature as an android as another android, Aigis, appears.
Yosuke, clearly shocked by these events, chases after everyone as he gets trapped with Aigis on the roof because of the Grand Prix rules. After hearing about the true nature of Labrys and about the incident at Port Island, he resolves to go to Labrys' side and defeats Aigis. Using Aigis' words, he defeats Shadow Labrys as he helps Labrys accept herself allowing her to gain a Persona. When they are about to leave, Labrys is hijacked though Yosuke is able to hold her off. After the new enemy reveals himself, Mitsuru Kirijo suggests that they leave it to them. Yu relents as Yosuke catches on and helps to lead everyone back to the real world. After saying their goodbyes to Labrys, Yosuke and the others finally get a chance to celebrate Yu's return and announces that the Investigation Team is back in action. I
n battle, Yosuke is the fastest character in the game and performs incredibly acrobatic attacks. He has several ways he can execute his block strings and has several mix up options (from tick throwing to feints) but both his health and damage output are typically low although in initial builds of the game, he had high health. His Awakening super, Sukukaja, greatly boosts his movement to being able to dash cancel many of his attacks, allows him to move very quickly to the point of teleporting, and being able to use his Moonsault during auto combo.
His original moves are the Moonsault (leaps forward in a spiraling jump), Crescent Slash (Mikazuki Giri/Three-Day Moon Slash in JPN where he slashes upward during Moonsault), Flying Kunai (Tobi Kunai in JPN, Yosuke throws a storm kunai downward in midair), and Mirage Slash (Hengenjisou Giri/Transforming Phase Slash in JPN, here Yosuke in midair has Jiraiya appear in front of his place, covering his instant teleporting low-hitting slide slash to the ground; the Skill Boost version only teleports to the ground). He retains his Tentarafoo as a special, his Garudyne and the aforementioned Sukukaja as his SP Skills, and with his Brave Blade (Brave Zapper in JPN) being his Mortal Blow/Instant Kill. His Reversal Action involves him provoking the foe in a reversal/counter stance, and making them pratfall should they hit him allowing him to reset the situation.
Yosuke's leitmotif is called "The Hero From Junes", and its OST disc version features a few very small extra instrumentals. It also has a remixed version on the Persona 4 The ULTIMATE in MAYONAKA ARENA Original Arrange Soundtrack known as "The Hero of Junes -Electro Mix-", which features more electronic beats and guitar sounds.
Trivia
In the weeks that Nanako appears on the Midnight Channel, if the player decides to go to the Void Quest dungeon and talk to Yosuke at the entrance, he will say after his primary lines: "Our princess is in another castle, dude", referring to the Mario Bros. games by Nintendo. Yosuke has a nurse fetish. If you equip the Cleaning Uniform you receive from Sayoko Uehara in Persona 4 Golden and talk to Yosuke while in a dungeon, he'll remark on how you're lucky to work with nurses, and in Persona 4 Arena, if you play Yu's route, Teddie will ask you to get Yosuke a new nurse porn magazine, as his old one was burned.
There are some striking similarities between Yosuke Hanamura and Junpei Iori: They are both of the Magician Arcana. They are initially jealous of the protagonist's unique ability, but don't admit it until near the end of the Social Link. Yosuke imitates Junpei's victory pose when wearing the Gekkoukan High School uniform. Yosuke's relationship with his crush ends tragically, as did Junpei's relationship with Chidori.
Yosuke Hanamura was given an unique "trait" that strips him of his honor, diginity, and heroism and forces him to assume the most shameful position- literally . Whenever Yosuke is involved in an verbal or physical confrontation with any female character, he is always defeated and/or humiliated. No matter how the argument or battle transpire, when engaging in argument or combat with any girl, two events will always occur without fail - the battle will conclude with the girl as the victor and a Yosuke suffering a bitter defeat while forced into a a pose where he is on bent-over on his knees, face planted, and his butt shoved up.
Yosuke Hanamura's headphones resemble the Audio Technica ATH-FC700A or the Audio Technica ATH-ES10. On the Volume 2 cover of Persona 4: The Animation, his headphones on the artwork are called the Music Technica ATH-EF11.
During the Persona Stalker Club program, it was revealed that Yosuke, while in combat, listens to western music and film soundtracks.
In the game when Yosuke went inside Saki's Twisted Shopping District, he sees cut up photos of him and Saki working at Junes, but in the anime he sees cut up movie tickets he gave to her. As part of Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Golden promotions, Yosuke is used as his seiyuu's avatar for the BlazBlue radio show "Bururaji" chatting along with the seiyuus of BlazBlue characters Ragna the Bloodedge (Tomokazu Sugita), Noel Vermillion (Kanako Kondou) and Tsubaki Yayoi (Asami Imai). His "opening act" is similar to his first appearance in the original Persona 4 where he crashes into a trash can while riding his bicycle although this time, instead of trash can he crashes into Ragna.
Yosuke mentions several times throughout the game that he is disgusted by fish - not only the idea of eating fish, but the idea of fish in general.
On the ski trip in Persona 4 Golden, Yosuke tells a ghost story about how his friend's sister and her group of friends bullied another student. As Yosuke continues, he states that his friend's sister would lock herself up in her room, mumbling to herself, "I'm next". Worried, his friend tried asking her friends about it only to find out that they had all passed out and were in the hospital. That night, she bursts out of her room and didn't turn up until next morning where she was found unconscious outside of the school gates. This story was actually a loose retelling of the events that happened with Fuuka Yamagishi in Persona 3, with some false details being added, such as how the girl "died". Naoto mentions that she read a police report that sounded similar as well.