What We Know About Anri
(last updated 4/22/26!)
Aran Hirano, codename Anri, is a first-year student at Kiga High, and the author of popular manga Phantom Thief Family. She took an interest in the Phantom Thieves and uncovered their identities early on in the game's plot.
Aran picks the codename “Anri” after being told her codename should be something incredible/wondrous; she admits that she doesn't want to have another name in addition to her existing pen name, and explains that Anri is a portmanteau of arAN and aiRI. Using it, she feels as though her sister is fighting alongside her.
Her files are named with the codename “Polter” instead of her canon codename Anri. The exact significance of this, if any, is unknown, although this change seems to have been made towards the end of Chapter 4's release, based on when files with "Anri" appeared.
Her Japanese voice actress is Manaka Iwami.
Aran is a future Confidant of Wonder’s; it's been stated that it'll be added sometime after a "major plot point" that we haven't reached yet.
Aran first appears in the main plot in Chapter 2, riding on the train at the same time as Wonder, Motoha, and Lufel. Wonder and Lufel unknowingly catch her attention, and she digs around in her bag for her sketchbook as the train is stopped. However, when she looks back, she’s confused to find they’ve vanished into thin air (as they used the MetaNav to enter Mementos). Later, at the end of Chapter 2, she appears in a cutscene where she notices a strange app appeared on her phone, and is nearly hit by the Hit and Run Rider while crossing the street.
In Chapter 3, we see she recognizes Wonder from the train when she runs into him in Shinjuku, and seems to have taken an interest in the mystery around him. She overhears the Phantom Thieves talking about some Metaverse-related concepts, but they don't see her. She later notices Wonder meeting up with the others again, and overhears them talking about the calling card just before it pops up on everyone's phones. She also eavesdrops on them again when they return from the Metaverse with Katayama and Akashi's Treasures.
In Chapter 4, it's revealed she's the author of the manga Phantom Thief Family, and helping with Kiga High and Kokatsu Academy's co-production of a stageplay based on it. She declares (heavily implied to be lying) that the Phantom Thieves are a "perfect match" for the Phantom Thief Family play's main cast, and essentially holds Kiga's own play rights hostage in order to force the co-production to happen so she can work with them. She later helps Wonder get more information on Takami Shimotsuna, and reveals to the Phantom Thieves that she knows their identities. This leads them to be incredibly suspicious of her, especially when Riko discovers she has the MetaNav on her phone.
However, later in Chapter 4, after spending more time with Aran, they decide they can trust her, asking for more of her investigative help, and eventually even showing her Mementos. While at first she's dazzled, she's unexpectedly confronted by her own shadow, who calls her a liar, and seems to cause Aran an extreme headache, eventually resulting in her passing out. When Aran eventually wakes up, her memory of these events is hazy at best.
In Chapter 5, we finally focus on Aran, as Magatsukami decides to target her, leading to the beginning of a Palace for Aran forming, and the real Aran getting lost within it. As the Phantom Thieves navigate it and look for her, they learn that Aran was very lonely and bullied as a child, with her mother always too busy with work, and manga/art as her only escape from her life. This changed when Aran's mother married, and Aran gained a stepsister, Airi. Airi always included and encouraged Aran, and fought for her sake, leading to the two becoming very close. Aran based the protagonists of all her manga off of Airi, and Airi pursued journalism in the hopes of helping people like her sister who are treated unfairly.
However, Airi later began to investigate Magatsukami, in the early days of the Divine Justice website, and Magatsukami's retaliation put her in danger. Airi tried to push her family (including Aran) away, before abruptly committing suicide amidst massive public backlash for becoming Divine Justice's first "confirmed" Menace. Aran witnessed her suicide, and ultimately repressed all memory of her sister, as the guilt from feeling that she should have done something but was too scared of making Airi hate her was too much to bear. This resulted in Aran's shadow forming.
Magatsukami tries to push Aran into blaming herself for Airi's death, but Motoha (and the other Phantom Thieves) rescue her, and help her accept her shadow and awaken her Persona, Gentileschi, redirecting her anger towards the true culprit, Magatsukami. Aran eagerly joins the Phantom Thieves after this, wanting to get revenge for her sister and spare others from Airi's fate.
Aran is soft-spoken and often reserved, but becomes more energetic and forward when excited. She latches onto the Phantom Thieves as a point of interest, and her desire to get to know them better leads her to essentially force the inter-school collaboration to proceed, despite everyone else having just agreed to call it off. She also shows significant emotion when given the opportunity to learn more about the Phantom Thieves, and becomes visibly frustrated when Wonder then tries to dodge giving away any actual information.
Aside from her fangirl tendencies, Aran seems to have a complicated relationship with the concept of justice. Despite being such a fan of them, she doesn't really believe that the Phantom Thieves would be acting for the good of others, as opposed to purely their own personal benefit, and thinks that altruism like that only exists in fiction. While she was repressing it at the time, this likely ties into her strong desire for revenge, and the fact that she was subconsciously getting close to the Phantom Thieves because she hoped they'd help her get her revenge, not out of pure selfless interest or support.
On that note, while Aran was generally passive and nonconfrontational when she was younger, beaten down by years of bullying and disrespect from adults, after awakening her Persona, she resolves to be different, and to take challenges head-on, including deciding to attempt to sue Magatsukami for his baseless accusations of her on Divine Justice in the real world, in addition to helping the Phantom Thieves pursue him in the Metaverse. While she's still a bit quiet, there seems to be a simmering anger and resolve just beneath that now.
She also used to blame herself for her sister's death, and felt there was no point in living, prior to her and Motoha's heart-to-heart in Chapter 5. Aran claims this feeling has dissipated after that conversation, but it's likely there's still some lingering guilt and negative self image, though Aran is striving to change now.
Anri’s Persona Gentileschi (based on an Italian Baroque painter) is categorized as a Curse type, and resists Curse while being weak to Electric.
Gentileschi is a Saboteur Persona, meaning she’s focused around applying debuffs to gain an advantage. Her trait allows her to inflict the unique status effect "Sin" (up to two stacks of it can exist on the battlefield at a time): 10% of the damage taken by an enemy inflicted with Sin is copied and dealt to any other enemy with Sin (if one enemy has multiple stacks of Sin, each stack only copies 5% of the damage). When an enemy with Sin dies, the Sin is transferred to another enemy.
Her curse attack skill deals damage to one enemy, then, if the enemy has Sin, it and any other enemies who have Sin are each inflicted with two stacks of "Sinful Karma" (if the target already has Sinful Karma, this attack does 20% more damage). Sinful Karma reduces defense based on Anri's effect hit rate for two rounds (stacks up to 4).
Her support skill has a two-round cooldown, and it makes all allies reflect all damage (it also reflects 100% of the damage instead of the regular 20%, plus an additional percentage based on Anri's effect hit rate). This effects lasts for two rounds, until Anri's next turn, or until the teammate is hit with by a skill. If the enemy taking the reflected damage has Sin, it gains two stacks of Sinful Karma. This skill does not reflect any negative effects that may accompany the skill's damage.
Her status skill allows the player to select two targets to inflict Sin on (the same target can be chosen twice). Recasting the skill allows the Sin stacks to be reassigned. This skill does not use up Anri's turn, but can only be used once per turn. Sin's damage copy value is buffed based on Anri's effect hit rate.
Her passive skills buff damage dealt to enemies inflicted with Sin and buff the team's attack stats for each enemy inflicted with Sin while Anri is present.
In combat, her melee weapon is a flamberge, while her ranged weapon is a pepper-box pistol. Her Highlight is shown from 2:59 - 3:15 in this video, and it deals curse damage to one enemy, then, if the enemy has Sin, buffs the damage that all enemies with Sin take from Highlights for three rounds.
Her recommended card sets are 1) 8 of Swords (Hindrance) + Ace of Swords (Acuity), 2) 4 of Swords (Reconciliation) + Prince of Wands (Creation).
The game recommends teaming her up with 1) Sunlight Closer.
