CANON HISTORY: Rise's wiki
CANON PERSONALITY:

In order to fully understand who Rise Kujikawa is, a person has to fully understand the idol known as Risette. Risette was once one of the most popular idols in all of Japan, a girl with the looks, the charm, and the popularity who appeared in commercials, films, and had a slew of adoring fans.

But she wasn't always like that.

Once upon a time, Risette was just a young girl named Rise Kujikawa who grew up with very strict parents and as an only child. She was a girl who was set to be the wallflower, a girl who was taunted by classmates for being shy. Rise's life changed one day when she was entered into an idol contest and won. She says of herself, "I wasn't interested in being an idol, but…I wanted the chance to change myself." And change she did. Rise's popularity skyrocketed and soon her name and face were everywhere. She played the part well up until the age of 15.

The real story begins the moment she moves back to Inaba for a break from the limelight, putting her career on pause and returning to her roots to work in the family tofu shop. Unknown to Rise at the time, the Investigation Team were already deep in the throughs of solving the case of the TV world.

But let's not talk about them. You're here to learn all about the great Risette, aren't you?

Even while she's on break, it's very clear there are parts of Rise's personality that spawned from her time as an idol and are so deeply rooted to herself. Rise can be described as the most bold of the girls on the team (and Chie even goes as far as to describe her early on as a "dangerous girl.") She's very outspoken and shameless most of the time, very upfront with what she wants and stopping at nothing to get it. As someone who's been in show business for years, Rise is also an incredibly competitive person and will continually up the stakes to prove that she's the best. She's bright, she's perky, and even when she's not on stage she has a flock of admirers wherever she goes.

But that's not who she really wants to be.

Rise, Rise, Rise. The most interesting part of Rise's personality is the fact that for a while, she wasn't sure if she had one. Inside the TV world, her own Shadow mocks her, citing "I'm sick of being some airhead cliche who chokes down everything she's fed and takes it all with a smile! Risette? Who the hell is she?" Rise's Shadow was born from constantly hiding the fact that she didn't have a sense of self while continuing to be exactly who everyone else wanted her to be. It takes the help of the Investigation Team and conquering her fear/accepting her Shadow to really, truly understand that these are all just different parts of herself.

It's a long process to accept who she is. As she begins to form bonds with the others on the team other aspects of her personality come into play. Rise's Persona is used to scan Shadows and heal the team, and in a way this resonates deeply with a large part of Rise herself. Despite being used to the spotlight, she is an incredibly supportive friend who not only encourages and comforts the others but continues to push them onward. In battle, she's the one who constantly cheers them on, even sometimes being playful with her updates to the party ("Ah, it's a no-brainer, I'm sure you'll win!") and she also acts as a grounding force when things get tough ("Don't be afraid, I'm here with you!") She will do anything for her friends and she will do anything to make sure they're safe. She values them so much, more than she can possibly describe, all because they see her for who she really is and she knows she doesn't have to hide pieces of herself. She's passionate about her friends and their dreams and their beliefs and her feelings toward Yu are particularly very strong. At the end of their time together, she confesses her love for him and cries at his departure from Inaba in the spring. It's evident that even with how busy her schedule gets later on she will always make time for her friends and she's always thinking of them (As an example, in later canon (specifically Dancing All Night), she arranges for the Investigation Team to perform as her back-up dancers for a special show instead of having a professional crew.)

Part of being a supportive friend is having a light personality. She generally has an upbeat attitude and will tease her friends and hold her own against them. She's prone to being overdramatic at times, more than once using over-the-top reactions in retaliation of her friends' antics and then quickly dropping them when she gets her way. She's quickly annoyed by small things but she's just as quick to bounce back from them and press forward. But even the brightest lights can have dark days. Rise has a fear of being forgotten. She's actually the one who pursues the Investigation Team, asking Yu if she can join them. The first time she realizes she's been replaced by another idol thanks to her manager, she's indignant at first but later bursts into tears and doesn't understand why she's miserable until she realizes what she's missing. She fears disappointing her fans, but she also feels trapped on how to remain true to herself. Later during her arc it becomes obvious that she also misses being an idol. She misses the attention and she misses performing, but at the same time she enjoys the ability to have friends and shape who she is as a person. However, over time Rise matures and eventually comes to realize that she can have everything. She sees that Risette isn't a fabrication of things but rather just another part of who she is, and she decides that she can be both an idol and share the other parts of her personality with the world to form a new idol…named Rise.

So really? The thing about Rise is that she goes through so many rapid changes and she wears so many traits, but she's learned how to balance everything and can finally, truly, say that she's happy with who she is.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

Persona
Like the rest of the Investigation Team, Rise is capable of wielding a Persona. When she comes to accept her Shadow she comes to accept the Persona, Himiko, into her heart. Himiko works with Rise as an information-gathering Persona and a scanner. With the help of a head scanner that Himiko holds over Rise's eyes, Rise can provide statistics for all of the Shadows in the Midnight Channel, along with the health statistics of her friends.

At the end of her Social Link, Himiko transforms into her ultimate form, Kanzeon. Kanzeon not only absorbs all of Himiko's skills but obtains new ones that provide healing and support with skills such as Full Analysis, Weakness Scan, Third Eye, Healing Wave and Certain Escape. Below is a breakdown of skills and what they do:


Full Analysis: Reveal an enemy's stats, weak points, and skills.
Treasure Radar: Reveal the location of treasure chests (probably not useable in Cerealia/could be transferred to finding other small items.)
Enemy Radar: Reveal the location of Shadows/enemies over a wide area.
Weakness Scan: Reveal an enemy's affinity at the start of battle (weakness + immunity.)
Third Eye: Reveal the effectiveness of an attack.
Healing Wave: Small recovery of health for the party after battle.
Relaxing Wave: Small recovery of magic for the party after battle.
Certain Escape: Escape random battles successfully.

Rise herself possesses no real fighting skills or weapons like the other members of the team, since she doesn't actively participate in their battles. (Though in later additions to the main franchise such as "Persona 4 Arena Ultimax" she is an active fighter character using a microphone as a melee weapon and also able to attack with magic music notes, essentially.)

In addition, what separates Rise from her friends is how she handles her Persona and her abilities. Even before she accepts her shadow and welcomes Himiko into her heart, Rise can sense things in the Midnight Channel (the most relevant example being the secret about Teddie.) Her powers become stronger when she's teamed with her Persona, of course, but it's safe to say that some of the ability spawns directly from Rise herself. Even more interesting, Rise appears to be the only one from the Investigation Team who can instantly summon her Persona without having to "break" a tarot card or perform any special moves. While this might not mean anything in the long-run, it does make her unique.