oh boy, TRAVELER. kasumi motherfucking yoshizawa. buckle your ass, cause i'm about to get real fucking normal about this fictional woman.
SO. first off. her name is not kasumi. she's really sumire yoshizawa, also known by her phantom thief alias, violet.
kasumi was her older sister, who was hit by a truck and killed as a result of trying to push sumire out of harm's way.
both sisters were gymnasts. sumire blames herself for her sister's death, and thinks she is inferior to her sister. she recieves therapy after the accident.
her therapist is doctor takuto maruki, who discovers a latent power of actualization - the alteration of reality.
sumire tells maruki that she wishes she could become kasumi, as she believes that she should have died instead.
maruki uses his power (which, at this point, was not fully developed) to alter her perception of reality to make her
believe she was kasumi and that it was her younger sister, sumire, who was killed. as maruki's power was
not fully developed, reality itself was not rewritten - only her perception of it. for example, she heard her true name (sumire) as kasumi,
and altered her behavior to match that of kasumi perfectly.
fast forward. sumire (herein referred to as "kasumi") transfers to shujin academy at the same time as the protagonist of persona 5,
who is one year her senior. the two become friends. after the events surrounding suguru kamoshida, doctor maruki is hired as a guidance counselor for shujin academy.
for the majority of the game, "kasumi's" confidant (the faith arcana) is set somewhat apart - rather
than the typical 10 levels, only 5 are immediately available. furthermore, the faith arcana does not appear in the traditional rider-waite tarot deck.
fast forward a bit more. after accidentally entering the palace of doctor maruki, "kasumi" is rescued by joker, who quickly realizes that the rumored phantom thief is none other than her senpai. joker and morgana offer her a position among the phantom thieves after she initially awakens to her persona, cendrillon. she declines the offer, due to wanting to focus on her academics and gymnastics.
fast forward again. after the phantom thieves steal the treasure from sae nijima's casino of jealousy, while joker is attempting to escape,
he is surrounded by shadows. "kasumi" arrives and quickly dispatches the immediate threats, and with joker's help the two fight free. at this point,
"kasumi" stays behind to give joker time to escape. this is the last we see of her during the main story. after the defeat of yaldabaoth, maruki's powers
become fully developed - given the power vacuum left by yaldabaoth, he fills the void and is granted heightened control over reality. along with
various other alterations which joker notices, the pair (along with the returned goro akechi) reenter maruki's palace - although they do not know
who the ruler is until they encounter maruki. a recording is shown of the death of kasumi, and sumire's true nature is revealed. from here, the
thieves progress through the palace, with the relationship between joker and sumire growing deeper. if the confidant rank is high enough,
she will confess her love for joker.
she is, in my opinion, one of the best-written characters in the entire game.
furthermore, she's pretty.
i have a pinterest board of her. at the time of writing, it has 1,545 pins.