Ann Takamaki Guide - Persona Fans

Introduction:

Ann Takamaki is one of many Confidants in Persona 5 Royal who represents the Lovers Arcana. Ann is one of the founding members of the Phantom Thieves, who creates the first complete team when the team plans to steal Kamoshida’s heart.

Ann takes the code name “Panther” and is one of the kinder, compassionate members of the team. Her Confidant explores Ann’s attitude towards her work as a model, her background and her resolve to take matters seriously. Before we continue with our complete Ann Takamaki guide, let’s look at who Ann Takamaki is.

Description/Overview:

Ann Takamaki Overview — Image from Fandom

Ann Takamaki is a 2nd year student in Shujin Academy, who balances her schoolwork with her part-time modeling job. Ann is a mixed-race student, which leaves her isolated as students judge her for her looks or make assumptions about her. Her primary friend is Shiho Suzui, who she has known for a long time.

Ann’s journey as a Phantom Thief begins after Shiho jumps off the school building due to abuse from Kamoshida. Angry at Kamoshida and upset at her inability to help her friend, she enters Kamoshida’s Palace on her own and manages to awaken her Persona, Carmen, after being captured. After officially joining the Phantom Thieves and forming the first complete team, she becomes the team’s moral center.

Ann’s Confidant explores her journey to improve herself personally and realize that she isn’t working as hard as she should be. By trying to improve her character through her interactions with Joker and working against a rival model, Ann starts to realize her previous attitude towards her job and improving herself wasn’t an honest effort. She strives to take matters more seriously and treasure the relationships that she has made.

Starting the Lovers Confidant gives Joker the ability to stall enemies and cancel their actions or have them provide better terms when negotiating, along with improving Ann’s support abilities in battle.

Key Moments:

Ann is first met by Joker on his first day of school, where she is picked up by Kamoshida and brought to school. When Joker and Ryuji Sakamoto are trying to find proof of Kamoshida’s wrongdoings, Ann approaches them. Ryuji’s distrust of Ann sours the conversation and she leaves.

Joker eventually runs into Ann after a phone call with Kamoshida goes horribly. He chases after Ann and eventually they talk in a nearby place. Ann talks about her frustrations with Kamoshida, and feels better after talking to Joker.

Awakening Carmen

The next day, Shiho Suzui jumps off the roof of the school building and Ann rushes to the scene. After hearing from Shiho about what Kamoshida did to her, she tries to join the Phantom Thieves who are planning to steal Kamoshida’s heart. Ryuji turns her away, since she has no Persona and Palace exploration is dangerous without one.

Despite being rejected, Ann manages to find her own way into the Palace where she is captured by Kamoshida’s forces. She is tied to a cross and struggling to break free when she is found by the Phantom Thieves, and meets Shadow Kamoshida for the first time. Angry at Kamoshida’s actions and upset at herself for not being able to do anything for Shiho, Ann summons her Persona and fights back against Kamoshida’s forces.

When the group retreats from the Palace, Ann formally joins the Phantom Thieves and becomes involved in the operation to steal Kamoshida’s heart.

After stealing Kamoshida’s Treasure and defeating Shadow Kamoshida, Ann has the opportunity to destroy Shadow Kamoshida. She refuses to take the opportunity, opting for the change of heart because she wants him to suffer for his crimes.

Assisting The Phantom Thieves

During the assembly after Shiho’s incident, Kamoshida stands in front of the student body and apologizes for his crimes, with the change of heart having succeeded. Ann confronts him and manages to clear her name as well as reveal the extent of his actions to the students. This makes a few students apologize to Ann for either knowing and doing nothing or spreading rumors about Ann.

The Phantom Thieves celebrate their success at a buffet, but become uncomfortable when the other buffet participants remark at how the group is out of place. During the discussion, each member expresses their desire to stop people like Kamoshida, and the Phantom Thieves are officially created.

When Ichiryusai Madarame has been identified as the next target, the Phantom Thieves run into Yusuke Kitagawa, who is their only source of information on Madarame. He asks Ann to model for him, which she doesn’t mind until his lack of inspiration turns into a request for nude modeling. She refuses, and the Thieves manage to find a way into Madarame’s Palace without the modeling session.

Unfortunately, the team encounters a roadblock that they cannot bypass. Morgana recognizes the roadblock, having seen a matching door with the same pattern as the roadblock in the real world. Unfortunately, getting past the roadblock involves Madarame seeing the door open, and the group needs to go back in.

Ann is forced to accept the nude modeling session as a way to stall for time for Morgana to get the door open, while Joker and Ryuji are responsible for disabling the security in the Palace to avoid dealing with the roadblock again.

Ann successfully manages to stall for time, but is unable to finish the job before Madarame arrives. Morgana gets the door open at the final second, and she drags Yusuke into the room in order to avoid Madarame.

While she is caught, it turns out the locked door was hiding a room filled with duplicate paintings. Ann confronts Madarame who tries to brush it off at first, but then threatens to call security on the Phantom Thieves (despite Joker and Ryuji not being present). Ann, Morgana and Yusuke quickly flee into the Palace where they reunite with Joker and Ryuji.

After learning Yusuke’s circumstances and seeing him awaken his Persona, Ann and the other Phantom Thieves welcome him into their ranks. The team is successful in changing Madarame’s heart, which draws the attention of Makoto Niijima, who has been tracking them.

Bonding With Makoto Niijima

When Makoto is able to deduce the identity of the Phantom Thieves, Ann reveals her dislike of Makoto as she believes Makoto knew about Kamoshida and didn’t do anything to help Shiho. Makoto then enlists the Thieves in tracking down Junya Kaneshiro, the criminal mastermind behind the recent incidents of Shujin Academy students being roped into drug smuggling.

Ann’s feelings about Makoto reach a breaking point when Makoto checks in on their progress after the Thieves have been unable to reach Kaneshiro’s Palace. Ann calls Makoto useless, which makes her run off to get captured by Kaneshiro’s men. While this succeeds at helping the Phantom Thieves locate Kaneshiro, it also results in them getting blackmailed.

Makoto tries to apologize and opens up about herself, which gets Ann to tell Makoto that she is better than she thinks she is. Makoto’s actions allow the Phantom Thieves to enter Kaneshiro’s Palace, and Makoto’s Persona awakens during their initial investigation.

After the Thieves leave the Palace and Makoto formally joins the team, Ann is called into the Student Council room to meet with Makoto. Both girls have a heart-to-heart talk, where Makoto apologizes to Ann for being powerless to do anything for Shiho despite knowing about Kamoshida. Ann in turn apologizes for blaming Makoto when she herself didn’t believe in Shiho enough to step in. The two girls become friends and develop a closer relationship with each other.

Saving Tokyo

Ann’s journey with the Phantom Thieves continues without major issues until stealing the heart of Kunikazu Okumura goes horribly wrong. When public support for the Phantom Thieves dwindles, they are forced to ally with Akechi Goro, a famous detective, in order to try and clear their names. However, the Phantom Thieves become aware that Akechi is going to betray them and form a plan to stop him, which requires Joker getting captured by the authorities to bait Akechi into assassinating him.

The plan to save Joker from Akechi succeeds, and the Phantom Thieves turn their attention to Masayoshi Shido, the mastermind controlling Akechi and trying to rule Tokyo unopposed. After Shido’s defeat, she and the rest of the Phantom Thieves fight and take down Yaldabaoth, who is controlling the desires of Tokyo.

Persona 5 Royal

Should the game enter the 3rd semester, Ann’s desire is to have a wonderful friendship with Shiho, being the supportive friend that she always wanted to be. She manages to realize her new reality is fake and reunites with the rest of the Phantom Thieves to help Joker and Akechi save Sumire.

The Phantom Thieves gear up for one more mission to take down Maruki and give everyone the chance to live their own lives.

Persona 5 Strikers

In Persona 5 Strikers, Ann joins the Thieves when Joker returns to Tokyo for summer break. They eventually run into Alice Hiiragi and learn of the reappearance of their powers thanks to the return of the Metaverse (in the form of an app called EMMA) in the form of Jails. The Phantom Thieves join forces with Sophia, an AI who can summon her own Persona, in order to solve the mystery behind Alice’s Jail.

Ann is able to get invited to watch one of Alice’s shows live and Joker tags along to get information. During the show, one of the interviewers professes his love for Alice despite being married, and Ann gets to see Alice’s true attitude when they meet backstage.

The Phantom Thieves run into Zenkichi Hasegawa, who tells them that Alice used to go to Shujin Academy. Upon learning that Alice was bullied during her time there, Ann gains the resolve to try and help her.

Upon reaching Shadow Alice, Ann tries to relate to Alice but this only forces them into a battle. After their victory, Ann points out that Alice’s actions aren’t that different from the bullies who bullied her, but extends the hand of friendship once Alice atones for her actions.

After defeating Shadow Alice, Ann and the Phantom Thieves accept Zenkichi Hasegawa’s deal to travel across Japan to take care of Jails that have appeared around the country.

Ann and the rest of the Phantom Thieves manage to solve the mystery behind Sophia and her relationship with EMMA and stop the being Demiurge from taking over all of Japan.

How To Begin The Lovers Confidant

The Lovers Confidant will begin automatically on April 15th as part of the story. However, the Confidant cannot be progressed until Kamoshida’s Palace has been completed. After the events of Kamoshida’s change of heart have settled down and after you have formally named the Phantom Thieves, the Lovers Confidant can be advanced in Shujin Academy.

You will need your Kindness to be Considerate (the 2nd level) before you can begin progressing the Lovers Confidant to Rank 2 and beyond.

Lovers Confidant Benefits

Starting the Lovers Confidant gives Joker the opportunity to disrupt enemies during battle or get more favorable terms when negotiationg. At Rank 1, Ann gains Girl Talk, which gives her a chance to save a failed negotiation with any female Shadow.

At Rank 3, you unlock the Follow Up attack for Ann, which allows her to perform a follow-up attack if Joker hasn’t been able to KO an enemy.

At Rank 4, Ann unlocks the Sexy Technique, which allows her to randomly interrupt an enemy’s turn, preventing them from taking an action. This does not work on bosses and only works when Ann is in the active party line-up.

At Rank 6, Ann unlocks Harisen Recovery, which allows Ann to heal a party member affected by status ailments if she hits an enemy weakness/gets a Critical.

At Rank 8, Ann learns Endure, which allows her to withstand a fatal attack with 1 HP.

At Rank 9, Ann learns Protect, which allows her to protect Joker if he is about to take a fatal blow.

At Rank 10, Ann’s Persona Carmen will evolve into Hecate and you will be able to gain her New Game Plus item in March.

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