Yu Narukami [Zombie Apocalypse.]

Also known as Leader Sensei (by Teddie) Senpai (by Rise, Kanji, Naoto and Ayane) Partner (by Yosuke) Bro (by Yosuke) Big Bro (by Nanako and Teddie) Yuko (Beauty Pageant) Hilda (Group Date Café) Souji Seta (Manga) Yu Narukami (Anime, P4A, P4D, P4G) Hayato Asakawa (Visualive / The Evolution) The Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel (P4A) Stupidnotactlovemachine (By Marie, P4AU) Team Leader (By Adachi, P4AU) Composed Boy (PQ) Kingpin (PQ2) Investigation Team Boy (P5R) Occupation Student Date of Birth c. 1994 Age 17 Height 180 cm Appearance: The protagonist has bowl-shaped silver hair and gray eyes. At school and in the Midnight Channel, he wears the conventional school uniform of Yasogami High School, which consists of a black jacket with a black and white houndstooth pattern on the collar and gold pins on each side of the collar, one in the shape of a roman numeral "2" on the left and one in the shape of Yasogami High's logo, along with black pants, an untucked white button-up shirt and black loafers. In the Midnight Channel he also wears glasses with gray frames and SMPTE color bars on the side. On his days off, he wears a dark blue blazer and a gray zipped-up jacket with a turquoise ring around the collar, waistband and sleeves over a light gray turtleneck, black pants and black and gray sneakers. Personality: My friends faced their own Shadows and came out stronger for it, but I never met mine. To make up for it, though, I've had my friends to help me mature. It's my companions that I draw strength from in all of this.

In Persona 4, he is generally a silent protagonist, as in the series tradition. Except for instances where he audibly speaks when summoning a Persona and so on, with his personality ultimately based on the player's actions and decisions. This is emphasized in Persona 4 Golden, as the Investigation Team members comment on how he doesn't talk much when equipped with the Butler Suit. His dialogue choices within the game are divided by style of expression: normally, all of his statements are inherently truthful in one way or another, but he's practically limited to stating only one thing at a time. Otherwise he may state his opinion in ambiguous moments, such as when discussing the murder cases with the group. One of his most common dialogue options is "That's not true." One of the only aspects that are up to player interpretation surround his past life, such as whether he has any siblings or if he's partaken in hobbies, such as playing instruments or sports. During Social Links, the style of appropriate choices (based on yield in musical notes) is based around the truth that the other person may need to hear. Otherwise, even during regular scenes, correct dialogue choices will reward the protagonist with Social Stat points, like granting him points of Understanding for tactfulness, all the while some dialogue choices are locked behind a Courage cap. The general personality that may be picked up from his behavior is that although he's calm and neutral, he's outgoing and caring towards his friends, and he has a freedom of a sense of humor along with occasional flirtatious or silly behavior. Overall, he is portrayed through his dialogue options and actions as having a more extrovert personality than the Persona 3 protagonist, such as when both hear Jika Net Tanaka, with the former describing it as an "infectiously cheery song" unlike the latter, who describes it as an "annoying song."

However, while he seems to have a strong moral compass, there are several dialogue options that show he could be jokingly mean if he wanted it. He may be blunt and outright state he might find his friends partially annoying, like with Yosuke and Teddie: although he may tell Saki Yosuke's a great guy, he can just agree with her about finding him annoying, giving Saki a good laugh at Yosuke's expense; also, he can tell Teddie to "shut up" several times during their first impression of him. Several cases surrounding an option to help his Social Links with chores or not can also be made: in one case, when asked to stay and help clean the basketball court, the options given to him are either to stay or to "be an ass and leave," though that option isn't met with offense and is instead seen as a masculine gesture by Kou and company. He can be pretty outspoken with people that are pushy or condescending, such as Ai Ebihara or Shu Nakajima, but he can alternate with responding to them with kindness instead. Additionally, while the game portrays him as a calm and decisive individual, there are scenes that show him having limits as to how much tolerance he has. One example, in particular, is the decision to kill Namatame, as after being pushed to make a choice after vague explanations for his disagreement that everyone's being too irrational, the dialogue choice "Calm the hell down!", when selected, will demonstrates how he hardly ever shows to be this aggressive, as the Investigation Team gets surprised by his outburst at the group.

The protagonist also portrays some feminine qualities, with dialogue choices such as telling Nanako to give her Mother's Day flowers to him or advancing on Teddie when the latter asks to give him "one of those 'Honey, I'm home' kisses." He is a decent cook, capable of not only making lunches that his friends compliment well in the game, but also excellent omelets compared to the Mystery Food X that the girls made during the celebration for Mitsuo's arrest. During that event, his omelet was the only one that truly won Nanako's favor, despite Nanako claiming that the girls' omelets were "delicious" just to be polite. In the anime, manga, and stage play's adaptations (and the game, depending on the player's choices) of the School Festival, he embraces acting like a girl by exclaiming he would do his best, willingly taking the girl's side of the table in the group date café, and confidently behaving like a sukeban in the "Miss" Yasogami Beauty Pageant. Other traits of the protagonist's include his enthusiasm for video games, as he would make a video game reference when first entering the old-school Void Quest.

In the manga adaptation, Souji Seta is a distant loner who demonstrates a high level of maturity, his overly formal speaking tone and lack of any sense of humor being one of the most telling signs. When he first interacts with eventual members of the Investigation Team, he acts politely around them and does not grow much discomfort with them as seen with his welcome interactions with Kanji after his Shadow's acceptance, contrasting his portrayal with Kanji in the anime. Even when he appears extremely uncomfortable with scenarios such as entering Kanji's dungeon or the girls hogging him in the King's Game when he is chosen as king, he does not hesitate to act through it (for example, calling out Chie as number 2 for her to sit on his shoulders and answering that he is fine when Chie does get on and asks about her being heavy) and does not let these events hinder his bonds with involved friends. During much of his childhood, he was passive to his parents' constant and abrupt moves for their jobs to avoid being a nuisance to them, saving very little time for him to warm up to and preserve existing friendships or have his parents present for him at school or home. This not only built up Souji's independence, dissociation, and loneliness, but his motivation to care for Nanako when Dojima focused more on his work than spending time with her. However, his bonds with his friends helped him become familiar with having meaningful friendships and grow into a stronger person who also preserves having his friends when leaving Inaba and understands himself.

In the anime adaptation, Yu Narukami is depicted as quiet, polite and calm for most situations. Before the awakening of his Persona, Yu seemed to be emotionless and cold at times, as well as occasionally deadpan. Afterwards, however, he is shown to value the bonds of friendship between the members of the Investigation Team and is highly concerned about his friends, going to great lengths in order to help others. As he grows closer to the group he opens up more and more, and by the end, he is as unique (though still quieter) as any of the other characters. He has a dry sense of humor and sometimes does questionable things which he thinks are funny. He also seems a bit naïve and oblivious to certain situations, which somehow keeps working to his benefit; especially when dealing with the girls, as he is able to get away with things that would warrant a smack for any of the other male characters, mainly due to how little he would mean offense. He's also shown to be somewhat perverted, saying to Yosuke that he wished that he had taped "Yukiko's Hunt for Prince Charming" and repeatedly pressing his TV remote's record button during "Rise's Daring Challenge" (expressing dismay when his attempt to record it fails); however, save for his actions in the King's Game, he does not seem interested in genuine relationships, through not intentionally reciprocating romantic feelings or advances from friends like Rise or Ai. During the course of the story, it is revealed his biggest insecurity is abandonment, fearing to lose contact with all of his friends when he moves away from them. By the end of the show, he accepts his Shadow and acknowledges that he has to accept being separated from them when the time comes. In the second anime adaption, Yu appears to be friendly, reserved, determined, straightforward and has a habit of shaking people's hands when he meets new people, unlike his first anime counterpart.

In the Persona 4 Arena duology, Yu is also shown to be a fairly sarcastic and witty person, occasionally making jokes at the expense of the other members of the Investigation Team; however, for the most part, he is shown to be the most mature member of the group (an example of which is the fact that attempts to target his personal insecurities by enemies, more often than not, fall flat). He has a sharp mind and is able to quickly realize the trick behind the tournament that forces the group to fight one another. He deeply cares for his friends and one of the few ways to truly anger him is to threaten either them or Nanako which causes him to become very cold, the latter not being entirely an exaggeration from his title in the tournament, when the taunts about her being captive being the one ruse he actually falls for. He also has a great understanding of the bonds of people, which leads Aigis and Mitsuru to realize that despite their different appearances, Yu reminds them of the protagonist of Persona 3. While not above making fun of him, he trusts Yosuke completely and generally understands him best out of the entire Investigation team and vice versa, continuing the theme that the anime established that Yu and Yosuke generally lead the team side by side, as well as discussing plans with each other on serious issues.

His characterization in Persona Q is essentially a combination of the above adaptations. He's confident, mature, and affable, but also strange and a little random at times. His dialogue choices during the P4 route support this, as they're noticeably more cheery and bizarre than his Persona 3 counterpart. He visibly blushes during the group date cafe, when Yukari deems him to be boyfriend material, and when Naoto and Yukari cling onto his arms if the option to hide in Yukari's stall from the Creepy Doll was chosen. Yu's most consistent trait in all of his depictions is his need to be connected to people. He views himself as a weak person and gets his strength from his bonds and being accepted by others. in this world there was no person the dead rose from the dead and began to eat the living yu tries to survive and find Nanako.