While Yukiko gets teased about Yu possibly being her boyfriend (and she is one of his possible Love Interests), it's worth noting that Shadow Yukiko dubbed Chie as one of her "princes." It could just be Shadow Yukiko expressing that Yukiko and Chie are Heterosexual Life-Partners, but it's still rather suspect.Kanji's true sexuality is deliberately left ambiguous. Although Kanji questions his sexuality at several points in the game, he has an obvious crush on Naoto before and after finding out her actual gender and is just as smitten by Chihiro as Yosuke.While the games provide no Gay Option, the player is given several opportunities to have Yu express interest in the guys in the group: he can pretty blatantly hit on Yosuke and Kanji a few times, Q allows him to suggest that gender "doesn't matter" as long as there is love (which the manga runs with ), and, most fragrantly of all, he can outright kiss human Teddie in Golden, though they're interrupted.Every member of the team save for Naoto, who's an actual Kid Detective. Amateur Sleuth: A whole group of them.Naoto is Married to the Job and her own aloof nature and desire to be seen as an adult leads to her neglecting her social skills and interacting with the others.Teddie is a Shadow from a world where the other denizens aren't exactly the best conversationalists, leaving him very lonely.Rise became an idol because of her friendless childhood, but now has become consumed by the life and has begun losing her passion to the job.Kanji cultivated a "delinquent" image to protect himself from ridicule due to being teased in the past for his love of adorable and cute things by girls and boys, though the former was especially biting.Her Only Friend thus far was really Chie.
Yukiko is the heir of the local inn (considered a pride of the town) and her beauty gives her a lot of unwanted attention and she's pretty isolated from her peers because of this and the aloof reputation she was given.Her lack of traditional femininity and nature harmed her self-esteem as a woman and she had no friends besides Yukiko (and more recently, Yosuke.) Chie meanwhile is a tomboy who keeps the other guys from hounding her popular best friend.He didn't really have friends outside of Chie and his crush on Saki. Yosuke is thus treated with a bit of scorn by proxy or as a complaints' box. His dad is the manager of the new Junes, which has been hurting local businesses. Yosuke is the new kid town before yours, having moved 6 months prior.The Playable Character moved around a lot and never really had the chance to form solid and long-lasting friendships.All of the Other Reindeer: A pretty common theme with most of them is how they pretty much didn't have much if any friends for one reason or another and felt isolated from others:.Teddie flirts with all the girls, who all reject him. Kanji has a crush on Naoto, who is completely oblivious. Yosuke has an unrequited crush on Saki, Yukiko, and Rise. Rise and to a lesser degree Yukiko both have crushes on the protagonist and can potentially end up being the Romantic Runner-Up depending on the players choice. All Love Is Unrequited: A bit of a recurring trend with the Investigation Team.Adaptational Wimp: A minor example in The Animation while the game gave them weapons and some degree of fighting skills of their own, in the show, they're entirely dependent on their Personas to fight Shadows.Action Girl: Chie, with her focus on strength and physical attacks, is the most straightforward example, but Naoto and Yukiko aren't slouches either.When the Fog starts to leak into the real world late in the game, they're the only people in town who are largely unaffected by it. Because of their frequent forays into that World every member of the team eventually develops a resistance to the stuff (their Personas and "Teddie Glasses" also give them a bit of protection).
The Fog inside the TV world isn't toxic but it can make a person rather tired, even ill, after a while. Izanagi-no-Okami, on the other hand, has no weaknesses.