Maya Amano

Maya Amano is the deuteragonist of Persona 2: Innocent Sin and main protagonist of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and the third protagonist of the Persona series.

She is a reporter who gets involved in a plot perpetrated by the evil Joker. She awakens his Persona in a battle with the Joker and joins his other classmates in tracking him down to stop him from killing people. The Joker is revealed to be the leader of a group called the Masked Circle who benefit from the odd occurrence of rumors becoming reality, and Maya and her allies band together to defeat them. Eventually it's revealed that the Masked Circle has come to be in league with an army led by the, once assumed, long deceased member of the Third Reich: Adolf Hitler. Maya and her friends end up defeating Joker and revealing him to be their long lost friend Jun, who joins them in attempting to defeat Hitler before he uses the powers of rumors to take Sumaru City and turn it into a space ship to destroy the rest of the world. The group enters Xibalba, the space ship that Hitler is leading, and are brought to the Collective Unconsciousness where it is revealed that Hitler is really a demon of chaos known as Nyarlathotep, who has orchestrated all of this. It is revealed that Nyarlathotep is the counterpart to Philemon, and the two of them made a bet at the beginning of time to figure out if humans are naturally good or bad. This has all been a game to them, and this is the final confrontation. Maya and her friends defeat Nyarlathotep, which he commends them for, but in doing so completes the Oracle of Maia, which leads to Maya's death. Philemon tells Tatsuya that they cannot revive her, but due to being in the Collective Consciousness, they are able to send themselves back in time to make it so these events never happened, saving Maya. However, in the process, they would all forget each other. Tatsuya and the others agree, and tell each other that they will try to still remember each other.

Before being transported back in time, Tatsuya makes the decision to remember his friends before being sent back, which creates a paradox. When the group is returned back in time, they were no longer associated with each other. Because Tatsuya remembers, his mind inhabits the body of the "new world's," Tatsuya. Because he was the Paradox in this world, there were other stragglers including Tatsuya Sudou, who attempts to get the former members of the Innocent Sin cast to remember the other world which would create a paradox and end the world. Maya, who has lost all her memories, joins Tatsuya in attempting to stop this from happening by joining Tatsuya's brother Katsuya, a man named Baofu, and her roommate Ulala, and once again ends up in the Collective Unconsciousness in the final battle with Nyarlathotep, who, once again orchestrated all these events. Maya has to watch as Tatsuya decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone by returning to his life in the "old world," saving the lives of everyone in the current world so that it is not destroyed due to the paradox.

She is a Persona-User who awakens the Persona Maia after meeting Philemon, which later evolves into Artemis once Maya acquires the Blue Swan Mask.

Appearance
Maya is a young woman in her early twenties with light skin, shoulder-length black hair styled in a flip, and purple eyes. At 5'6" (168 cm), she could be considered tall (especially in Japan where Persona 2 is set), although she is shorter than fellow party member Yukino Mayuzumi.

Her outfit is unique and appears to be custom-made: she wears a two-piece ensemble consisting of a two-tone brown jacket with distinctive pink hearts on the chest and a matching skirt trimmed in metallic silver paired with knee-high brown boots, finished off with a long navy necktie

Occasional Appearances
As a child, Maya wears a pink T-shirt with overalls with a pink heart over it.

As an older child, she wears a Sumaru City Elementary School girl's uniform.

During their investigation of the Masked Circle, Maya temporarily dons the Masked Circle masks.

Shadow Maya appears near the end of the game, who appears more sinister with red eyes.

Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Maya Amano is a writer for Kismet Publishing working on the teen magazine Coolest. Her father is Masataka Amano. In the events of hearing rumors regarding a wish-granting genie called Joker, who grants anyone any wish, Maya became intrigued and tried to investigate behind the rumors, along with her partner Yukino Mayuzumi. Her investigation ends up in the Seven Sisters High School, in which she meets Tatsuya Suou and the others, setting the events of Innocent Sin.

Although Tatsuya and his friends forced themselves to forget, Maya had known them 10 years ago, as childhood friends. They formed a group called the Masked Circle, in which they hid their identities from one another with masks. She taught them the game "Master Persona," which would allow all of them to manifest a Persona and would also save Maya's life.

However, one day Maya revealed that she would have to move away. To prevent this, she was locked inside the shrine at which they played, which the kids believed would force her to stay, if she wasn't available at the time her parents moved. Although Tatsuya wanted no part, Lisa Silverman and Eikichi Mishina did it anyway and locked him along with Maya.

During the night, the shrine was set on fire by Tatsuya Sudou. Maya was not killed thanks to her Persona awakening, but she was severely injured and developed a phobia of fire.

Jun Kurosu, one of Maya's closest friends, was led by Nyarlathotep to believe that Maya had died in the fire; furthermore, the Crawling Chaos tricked Jun into believing that the fire, far from the horrific coincidence it actually was, had been the intention all along. As a result, he developed a lingering grudge against the others, and it led to him taking the role of Joker.

While revisiting the Alaya Shrine, the party fights Shadow Maya.

After the party's final confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Ms. Ideal stabs Maya with the Spear of Destiny. Due to a rumor that wounds inflicted from it could not be healed, it inflicts a mortal wound. Even in her dying breath, Maya tells the party to be positive, telling them "Mr. Bunbun" will not be happy if they are sad, and finally dies, fulfilling the Oracle of Maia and destroying the world, with the exception of Sumaru City.

Stricken with grief and devastated over her death, the party demands Philemon to do something about it. Philemon agrees to bring her back, but in an 'alternate world' with a hefty price; everyone must forget Maya and the friendship they shared. Everyone willingly discards their memory, but during the process Tatsuya out and out refuses to forget through sheer force of will. In the events of doing so, Tatsuya ends up in the 'alternate' universe with all his memories intact, causing a paradox and setting the events of Eternal Punishment.

At the end of Innocent Sin, Maya and Tatsuya end up bumping into each other in front of a station, along with the other party members who witness this. This meeting causes Tatsuya to remember the events of Innocent Sin and Maya to develop a bruise.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Maya functions as the silent protagonist in Eternal Punishment. She still writes for Coolest, often working alongside Yukino Mayuzumi. Before the events of the game, she had bumped into a mysterious student who had felt familiar to her. After this meeting, she also developed a mysterious bruise on her chest which occasionally aches. While working on a story about JOKER, she stumbles upon JOKER himself. He forces Maya, Katsuya Suou, and Ulala Serizawa to summon their Personas, and they wind up pursuing him.

Persona 3
Maya appears in Persona 3 as the online screen name for the Hermit Social Link character, in the English version of the game. She even says, "let's think positive!"

Personality
She is famous for her rather unwavering and relentless optimism, something which begins to break down in Eternal Punishment. Maya Amano is a cheerful and compassionate woman, and works as a reporter for the teen magazine Coolest. Maya is also known for her motto, "Let's think positive!"

Powers and Abilities
Maya is a Persona User, meaning she is able to draw on the powers of her inner self to summon Demons that represent inner parts of her soul. A unique property that Maya and the other Persona 2 cast members have is the power of the Wild Card, meaning that they are not restricted to using only one Persona based on their Arcana. Maya is, in turn, able to switch Personas at will.

Maia
Maia is the initial Persona of Maya Amano. As a child, Maya was able to conjure her Persona, whom she believed to be a guardian angel. Years later when she and the other main characters are attacked by a group of monsters, she summons her Persona again to protect themselves and learns the ability to invoke her Persona at will ever since. Maia's appearance is overall pink, red and black. Her clothes seems to be a combination of Japanese traditional clothing and the Gothic style. During the arson attack 10 years ago, Maia was able to break her host out of the shrine before the flames consumed her.

Following the events of Innocent Sin, Maya has completely forgotten her memories, but she is able to summon her Persona once more when she is attacked by JOKER. Maia's appearance is somewhat changed. Her stats and battle skills remain almost the same, but now excels at the water element instead of the ice element. In Eternal Punishment's universe, Maya was never caught in the arson attack, and so never summoned her Persona until the JOKER attacked her.

Maia Prime
If the player let Maya rescue Akari Hoshi in the Sky Museum when it was on fire, after the Mt. Iwato scenario Philemon will grant her Maia Prime for overcoming her pyrophobia.

Artemis
Artemis is the ultimate Persona of Maya Amano. In order to get her, one must successfully collect the Blue Swan Mask inside Mt. Iwato. Artemis' appearance seems more futuristic with the polygons attached onto her body parts with violet blue and white serving as primary colors, in contrast to Maya's initial persona, Maia, who wears traditional clothing in red and black. Artemis reflects all magical attacks, but in turn is weak against physical attacks. Her attacks consist in dealing Ice damage, and the Crescent Mirror can be used to perform the Grand Cross fusion spell.

Artemis returns as Maya Amano's ultimate Persona, with minor cosmetic changes in Eternal Punishment. She can only be summoned once her material card has been acquired on Mt. Iwato. Her stats remain almost unchanged, but her skills have been altered somewhat.

Appearances

 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
 * Persona 3; Handle for another character; cameo
 * DemiKids Dark Version; BattleNet Opponent
 * DemiKids Light Version; BattleNet Opponent

Trivia

 * Maya is the first (and to date, only, not counting Aigis) Persona protagonist that cannot be named by the player. She's the only one to do so as protagonist in a main series game, as Aigis is the protagonist in a special episode in FES.
 * Maya is the oldest protagonist in the series at 23 years old, Tatsuya being second at 18.
 * Maya is currently the only Persona protagonist that is not a student.
 * Maya's intense guilt about her resentment of the original Masked Circle for the Alaya Shrine incident prevents her from ever accepting her own Shadow as an aspect of herself, making her unique among the series' playable characters who've interacted with their Shadows. She instead chooses to insist that her Shadow is an impostor created by the conflicting rumors about her involvement with the Masked Circle. The only other playable character in the series to ever do this is Rei.
 * This is represented by her Arcana, the Moon, which is associated with illusions, self-deception and subconscious emotions.
 * Tadashi Satomi proposed the idea of allowing Maya to speak in the bonus content of Eternal Punishment PSP remake. This was dropped due to the tradition that the protagonist must remain silent because they represent the player.
 * In the English version of Persona 3, the protagonist can befriend a player in the fictional MMO "Innocent Sin Online" (which itself is a reference to Persona 2: Innocent Sin), who uses the name "Maya," and even says "let's think positive!" In the Japanese version, that character is instead a reference to Yumiko Shirasagi.
 * In Eternal Punishment, despite being silent, Maya Amano appears to have some sort of internal monologue in character introductions: her introduction of Maya Okamura is "I sense that I've met her somewhere...?", while Tatsuya Suou is introduced as "He ran into me. For some strange reason, I feel I know him from long ago...".
 * While looking down at a dolphin brooch at Tony’s shop, Maya mentions that she’s gone scuba diving with dolphins before, but has long since gone again due to busy-ness at work
 * Maya loves ramen and one of her favourite foods is crab. She has a big appetite and is known at Kizmet for having a “black hole stomach.”
 * Maya is quite careless in her private life and her apartment is a complete mess. According to Maya her room smells like mildew from her AC because she cannot remember when she last changed the filter.
 * Maya wanted to be a journalist ever since she was a kid and feels passionately about her work, saying she’s “married to her work” and prioritizes work over finding a relationship.
 * She has a habit of touching her earlobe when she's lost in thought.
 * The right side of her chest is scarred from a bad burn in the past, and she's very self conscious about not showing it
 * Despite being terrible at driving, Maya loves driving and considers herself a durable person because no matter how many times she crashes her car she doesn't get injured.
 * Maya is very dependent on Ulala and she takes care of Maya's makeup, clothes (She doesn’t understand fashion and has all her clothes picked by Ulala), and all the cooking at home.
 * Her future dream is to become a successful journalist who can juggle her career and family.