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“Who’s the best character in the Persona series?” — ask ten fans and you’ll get ten different answers. Some of us were floored by Joker’s cool, defiant streak. Others cried through Aigis’s bittersweet coming-of-age arc. And plenty more had their hearts wrecked by Shinjiro Aragaki’s clumsy, wordless kindness.
For this feature, the SpotGeeks editorial team picked 20 characters from across the Persona series — centered on P3, P4 and P5 — and scored each one out of 100 on four axes: Personality & Appeal, Story Contribution, Persona Awakening Scene, and Fan Popularity. We cross-referenced Atlus’s official popularity polls and the reputation each character enjoys in overseas fan communities, then layered on our own take. Consider this the definitive 2026 edition.
The ranking counts down from 20th to 1st. Even the characters near the bottom spike hard on a specific axis, and if that’s the axis you care about, they’ll land for you. Read the score tables, weigh the category that matters most to you, and find your own favorite.
All 20 Persona characters: the full score comparison table
“Personality & Appeal” measures how complete and memorable the character is as a creation. “Story Contribution” measures how essential their role is to the plot. “Persona Awakening Scene” covers the impact of their awakening sequence and combat presence. “Fan Popularity” is calculated with reference to Atlus’s official polls and Japanese fan-voted ranking sites. Don’t just read the totals — pick by the axis you personally value.
| Character | Personality | Story | Awakening | Fan Popularity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ren Amamiya / Joker (P5) | 92 | 95 | 95 | 98 | 380 |
| Goro Akechi (P5) | 98 | 97 | 95 | 88 | 378 |
| Aigis (P3) | 96 | 93 | 90 | 90 | 369 |
| Shinjiro Aragaki (P3) | 95 | 90 | 88 | 92 | 365 |
| Futaba Sakura (P5) | 93 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 357 |
| Makoto Niijima (P5) | 88 | 87 | 88 | 93 | 356 |
| Kasumi Yoshizawa (P5R) | 87 | 83 | 92 | 85 | 347 |
| Naoto Shirogane (P4) | 90 | 85 | 83 | 88 | 346 |
| Makoto Yuki (P3) | 85 | 90 | 86 | 83 | 344 |
| Yu Narukami (P4) | 83 | 88 | 83 | 87 | 341 |
| Yosuke Hanamura (P4) | 88 | 82 | 78 | 88 | 336 |
| Yukiko Amagi (P4) | 87 | 83 | 82 | 83 | 335 |
| Ryuji Sakamoto (P5) | 85 | 80 | 82 | 83 | 330 |
| Ann Takamaki (P5) | 85 | 80 | 80 | 83 | 328 |
| Yusuke Kitagawa (P5) | 90 | 78 | 80 | 78 | 326 |
| Rise Kujikawa (P4) | 85 | 78 | 75 | 83 | 321 |
| Morgana (P5) | 83 | 80 | 72 | 80 | 315 |
| Kanji Tatsumi (P4) | 85 | 75 | 73 | 78 | 311 |
| Chie Satonaka (P4) | 80 | 73 | 72 | 78 | 303 |
Just two points separate first-place Ren Amamiya from second-place Goro Akechi. Joker runs away with “Fan Popularity,” but Akechi is breathing down his neck on “Personality & Appeal” and “Story Contribution.” That dead heat between the two of them is the beating heart of what Persona 5 is.
No. 19: Chie Satonaka (P4) — the scrappy brawler whose friendship is the real deal
| Personality | Story | Awakening | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 73 | 72 | 78 | 303 |
She’s the fists-first firecracker who joins your P4 party first. The whole “kung-fu nerd who idolizes Bruce Lee” setup reads as a punchline at first, but the moment you learn it grew out of her determination to protect Yukiko Amagi, it lands with real weight. Her fury at “the people who forced that fate onto Yukiko” is completely genuine.
Honestly, she gets fewer moments in the spotlight than the rest of the P4 crew, and her individual ending doesn’t hit quite as hard as some of the others. Even so, her steadiness as a partner and her knack for keeping the mood bright are the real thing — you simply can’t picture P4’s atmosphere without her.
- Her loyalty to Yukiko Amagi is rock-solid and never wavers
- That sunny personality carries the party’s slice-of-life scenes
- Her Social Link is a little light on drama compared to the rest of the cast
- She looks like my ex-wife
No. 18: Kanji Tatsumi (P4) — a pure-hearted kid wearing a delinquent’s skin
| Personality | Story | Awakening | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 75 | 73 | 78 | 311 |
Consider the gap between the scowling street-tough exterior and the guy whose hobby is embroidery. Kanji’s arc — buckling under the pressure to “be a man” and finally facing what he actually feels — is P4’s most accomplished script precisely because it tackles adolescent male anxiety head-on. Push his Social Link and watching him awkwardly open up to the protagonist is genuinely endearing; by the end, you’ll catch yourself thinking, “damn, I’ve grown fond of this kid.”
- The exterior-versus-interior gap is brutal — the embroidery reveal is must-see
- His struggle with “masculinity” is the deepest treatment of the theme in the series
- Max out his Social Link or you’ll never see how much depth is in there
No. 17: Morgana (P5) — more than “go to bed,” he’s holding the story’s biggest secret
| Personality | Story | Awakening | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | 80 | 72 | 80 | 315 |
P5’s mascot: a cat who insists, loudly, that he is not a cat. His catchphrase “go to bed already” became a full-blown internet meme, but his actual role in the story isn’t revealed until the back half. The question driving him — “what am I, exactly?” — rhymes directly with Aigis’s arc in P3, and you can’t talk about P5 without him. The “annoying mascot” reputation tends to arrive first, but play the story to the end and your opinion will change.
- His “what am I?” question ties straight into the core of P5’s second half
- He’s an excellent tutorial guide through the early hours
- Quitting in the early-to-mid game because he’s “too loud” means missing the payoff
No. 16: Rise Kujikawa (P4) — an idol’s coming-of-age search for her “true self”
| Personality | Story | Awakening | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 78 | 75 | 83 | 321 |
A chart-topping idol tearing herself apart over the distance between “Rise the idol” and who she actually is. She’s wired directly into P4’s central theme of finding the truth inside the fog, and her question — “where is the real me, anyway?” — cuts right to the center of what being a teenager feels like. In battle she’s the navigator, backing up the party from the sidelines, and as her Social Link advances, those “that’s its weakness!” scans become quietly indispensable.
- The “idol self” vs. “true self” conflict maps perfectly onto P4’s theme
- Her Social Link is a joy to work through, and the romance route delivers
- She never joins the fight directly, so her combat presence is thin
[No. 15] Yusuke Kitagawa (P5) | The Genius Whose Obsession with Art Is Both Hilarious and Moving
| Personality & Charm | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 78 | 80 | 78 | 326 |
This is a man who charges into battle with a fork clenched between his teeth while rattling off “beautiful” and “truly magnificent” — a personality that hits like a truck. A 90 in Personality & Charm puts him near the top of the entire list, not just among the Phantom Thieves, because his unhinged behavior never stops delivering laughs and double-takes. And yet the scenario built around his mentor and his search for his own identity is played completely straight, and the combination of the thief codename “Fox” with traditional Japanese painting as his weapon of choice is one of a kind.
- A 90 in Personality & Charm — he single-handedly carries P5’s comedy with sheer presence
- The balance between goofball and dead-serious never gets old
- He isn’t the narrative backbone among the party members, and his fan popularity sits a little lower as a result
[No. 14] Ann Takamaki (P5) | Panther’s Awakening, or How Insecurity Became Power
| Personality & Charm | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 80 | 80 | 83 | 328 |
Her rage at the way she was treated in Kamoshida’s gym boils over and triggers her Persona awakening early in the game. That “I’m done putting up with this” resolve makes it a flawless opening statement for P5. Watching her grow while wrestling with insecurity about her mixed heritage and the way people only ever look at her as a model is what makes her so easy to connect with. She placed sixth in Atlus’s official P5R popularity poll (2023), which speaks to rock-solid support from the series’ core audience.
- The awakening during the Kamoshida arc is the emotional high-water mark of P5’s opening hours
- Her arc about overcoming insecurity is written with real care
- After the opening arc she rarely sits at the center of the drama again, so her presence thins out in the back half
[No. 13] Ryuji Sakamoto (P5) | Skull’s Hot-Blooded Heart, Forged from Pure Anger
| Personality & Charm | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 80 | 82 | 83 | 330 |
The first party member you pick up in P5, awakened by his fury at gym teacher Kamoshida. The white skull mask and spray can that define “Skull” are among P5’s most iconic visuals — a design you can’t unsee. He landed ninth in Atlus’s official P5R popularity poll. People love to call him loud and dumb, but that is exactly the point of Ryuji, and I’d argue his friendship with Joker is the load-bearing wall holding up all of P5.
- He embodies P5’s anti-authority theme and is essential to buying into the story early on
- The buddy chemistry with Joker is the best in the series
- A certain share of players simply bounce off how emotionally loud he is
[No. 12] Yukiko Amagi (P4) | The Real Feelings Behind the Girl They Called the “Amagi Challenge”
| Personality & Charm | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87 | 83 | 82 | 83 | 335 |
The daughter of the Amagi Inn, Inaba’s long-established ryokan, raised from birth to inherit the role of its next manager. Her presence looms so large that asking her out and getting shot down has its own nickname: the “Amagi Challenge.” Underneath all that, though, a longing for freedom churns against complicated feelings about the fate handed to her. Her Shadow battle and awakening are staged with real fire, making it one of the most emotionally dense sequences in all of P4.
- The “unattainable girl bound by destiny” premise has genuine depth to it
- A P4 poster character with a devoted fanbase that spans generations
- Without pushing her Social Link, her inner life stays hidden and she can come off as passive
[No. 11] Yosuke Hanamura (P4) | Proof of a Partner — The Moment “Reach Out to the Truth” Kicks In
| Personality & Charm | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 82 | 78 | 88 | 336 |
P4’s designated best friend. He walks up to the protagonist on his very first day as a transfer student and becomes his first ally — the platinum standard for the JRPG sidekick relationship. He pulled in fourth place (2,932 votes) in the PQ2 character popularity poll, which is no small feat. The awakening scene where “Reach Out to the Truth” comes roaring in is one of P4’s early-game classics, and plenty of players will tell you it’s the exact moment they knew this game was the real deal. He spends most of his screen time firing off wisecracks, but the seriousness in his voice when he drops a line like “I was worried about you” is where you see what this character is actually made of.
- Fourth place (2,932 votes) in the official PQ2 poll — consistently popular across the whole series
- The ideal buddy character: breezy attitude, dead-serious loyalty
- His awakening sequence feels a bit plain next to the other party members’
No. 10: Yu Narukami (P4) — The Anime Is What Cemented Him as the Ultimate P4 Protagonist
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Sequence | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | 88 | 83 | 87 | 341 |
The protagonist of P4, and a character whose personality snapped into focus all at once with the anime adaptation, Persona 4 the ANIMATION. That combination of “cool but fiercely loyal to his friends,” airheaded comic timing, and deadpan reaction shots earned him fanatical support among anime fans, to the point that they coined the affectionate nickname “Invincible Yu.” He’s a silent protagonist in the game itself, but actually sit down and push his Social Links forward and a real human warmth comes through.
A Story Contribution score of 88 is exactly what you want from the lead of P4. Nobody embodies the game’s core theme — chasing down the truth — more completely, and the emotional payoff when you reach the true ending is in a class of its own. Even in 2026, P4G is the most approachable entry point into the series, and Yu himself is one of the biggest reasons why.
- The “Invincible Yu” image the anime established makes the game itself more immersive
- Huge story contribution across the whole of P4, and the true ending hits like nothing else
- He’s a silent protagonist in the game, so his personality is hard to read if you haven’t seen the anime
No. 9: Makoto Yuki (P3) — An Apathetic Boy Reexamines What It Means to Live
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Sequence | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | 90 | 86 | 83 | 344 |
The name Makoto Yuki — Kitaro, as fans took to calling him — spread through the fandom by way of the Persona 3 movie series. A boy who lost both parents as a child and went numb to the very idea of death, changing by degrees through the bonds he builds with his teammates: the whole heart of P3 is distilled into this one character. His Story Contribution score of 90 sits in the top tier of this entire ranking.
2024’s Persona 3 Reload rebuilt the visuals from the ground up, and the wave of reappraisal that followed came largely from new players. The final scene of the movie THE FINAL is a set piece fans still describe as “the ending that made me cry harder than any game ever has.” A protagonist who stares straight down themes as heavy as death and the meaning of life carries a weight almost nobody else in the series can match.
- The heaviest protagonist in Persona, interrogating death and the meaning of life
- P3 Reload (2024) brought a surge of new fans — there has never been a better time to play
- The subject matter is heavy enough that more casual players may find it a slog
No. 8: Naoto Shirogane (P4) — The Detective Prince and a Question of Identity
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Sequence | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 85 | 83 | 88 | 346 |
The fifth-generation heir to the Shirogane family, a line of detectives who have lent their intellect to the police for generations, and a celebrity who turns up on television under the nickname “Detective Prince.” The way P4 handles the boyish appearance — and the fact that Naoto is actually a girl — runs deeper thematically than almost anything else in the game. Her Social Link confronts gender as a question of identity head-on, and the road to her answer, living as herself, is superbly written.
Her Personality & Appeal score of 90 is the highest at this tier. The dark newsboy cap and that clipped, formal speech pattern give off enormous presence. Her deductive skills tie her deeply into P4’s mystery plotting as well, which makes her a character who genuinely raises the quality of the whole game.
- Personality & Appeal of 90 — the most distinctive presence in P4, striking from the first scene
- A Social Link about gender and identity that is both deep and carefully handled
- She joins after the midpoint, so unless you rush her Social Link you won’t reach the good material before the ending
No. 7: Kasumi Yoshizawa (P5R) — P5R’s Biggest Shock: The Moment Her True Self Is Revealed
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Sequence | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87 | 83 | 92 | 85 | 347 |
The gymnast added in Persona 5 Royal. At launch the first impression was “here’s a new character who suddenly won’t leave the protagonist alone,” but the shock of the moment her true self comes out is, I’ll say it flatly, the single biggest twist in all of P5R. Her Awakening Sequence score of 92 is the highest mark in the entire ranking, and the beauty of her ribbon-based combat style is a genuine feat of visual direction.
She placed third in Atlus’s official P5R popularity poll (2023). For anyone who already finished the original P5, she is one of the single biggest reasons to play Royal at all, and “I’m doing another full run just for her route” is a sentiment you hear constantly. The fresher your memory of vanilla P5, the harder that twist is going to land.
- Awakening Sequence of 92 — the top score in the whole ranking, and overwhelmingly beautiful
- Third in the official P5R poll; the shock is biggest for players who cleared vanilla P5
- Her real value is hard to feel without vanilla P5 first — play P5, then P5R
No. 6: Makoto Niijima (P5) — The Moment the Student Council President Drops the Mask: Queen Is Born
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Sequence | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 87 | 88 | 93 | 356 |
She starts out as the student council president keeping a hard eye on the protagonist’s every move, and ends up joining the Phantom Thieves as a teammate. P5 handles that turn with unusual care, and the catharsis of her awakening as “Queen” is one of the best-executed recruitment scenes the Phantom Thieves get. Her Fan Popularity score of 93 beats Goro Akechi’s 88 across this entire ranking, and she took second place in the official P5R popularity poll (2023).
Her drive to earn the approval of her prosecutor sister, paired with a Confidant arc that forces her to reexamine her own idea of justice, puts her writing in the top tier among P5’s party members. The density of standout moments — roaring in on a motorcycle, the resolve she finds after the confrontation with her sister — gives her a staying power that doesn’t dim on a first playthrough or a replay.
- Fan Popularity of 93 and second place in the official P5R poll — the numbers prove the support
- One of the best-constructed recruitment arcs of any P5 party member
- Her “watchdog” phase before joining sours a lot of first impressions — you need patience until she’s on the team
[No. 5] Futaba Sakura (P5) | The Miracle of a NEET Hacker Who Faced Her Own Shadow
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 93 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 357 |
She starts out as a shut-in NEET hacker, and then walks straight into her own Palace to confront her own Shadow. As a piece of writing, that arc hits harder emotionally than any other Palace in P5. Her 93 in Personality & Appeal is the third-highest mark in the entire ranking, and it’s earned: every one of her fidgety otaku mannerisms and reactions lands with a “I have genuinely never seen a character like this before” jolt.
She placed fourth in the official Persona 5 Royal poll. The number of players who cried during the scene where she’s finally freed from the self-loathing of “I’m the one who killed my mom” is beyond counting. And once she flips into the navigator role, supporting the Phantom Thieves as their hacker, that determined “Roger! Beginning navigation!” starts to sound genuinely reassuring.
- 93 in Personality & Appeal — the most singular character voice in P5, and impossible to forget
- Her self-liberation arc is the emotional high point of every Palace in the game
- She joins the party late, so her presence feels thin through the opening stretch
[No. 4] Shinjiro Aragaki (P3) | Hopelessly Awkward Kindness and an Exit Fans Still Talk About
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 95 | 90 | 88 | 92 | 365 |
A surly, intimidating exterior — and underneath it, a guy who quietly slips nutritional supplements to a junior member because he’s worried about his health. That gap is everything. Shinjiro Aragaki is the name that keeps coming up whenever anyone asks which Persona character makes you cry the hardest. His choice — to keep fighting to protect his friends while knowing exactly how little time he has left — left my hands shaking the first time I played through it.
Persona 3 Reload, released in 2024, rebuilt his arc with high-end visuals and full voice work, and a wave of newcomers came out of it saying “Shinji’s the part of P3R that broke me.” He also placed high in the Persona Q2 character popularity poll, and a 92 in Fan Popularity is proof of how deep that loyalty runs. An awkward man’s hopelessly awkward kindness — nothing more needs to be said.
- Holder of the “saddest Persona character” crown — his exit scene still lands no matter how many times you watch it
- Persona 3 Reload (2024) won over a whole new generation of fans
- If you don’t max out his Social Link, his departure loses half its punch — max it, no excuses
[No. 3] Aigis (P3) | How an Android Came to Have a Heart
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | 93 | 90 | 90 | 369 |
She arrives as “an android built to protect the protagonist,” and then, battle by battle, something like a heart starts to take root in her. Aigis is the character who embodies the most philosophical questions the Persona series has ever asked — what is a human being, and what is an emotion? Her 96 in Personality & Appeal is the second-highest figure in the whole ranking, and anyone who has watched the scene where she cries for the first time will understand instantly why the number is that high.
Episode Aigis, released in 2024, gave her an entire additional scenario as the lead, and alongside Persona 3 Reload it drew passionate support from first-time players. According to Pixiv Encyclopedia, Aigis has matured to the point of being human enough to cry or feel anger naturally, and that trajectory of growth is traced across the series as a whole. Episode Aigis (PS5/PS4/PC, 2024) is essential playing for anyone who cares about her at all.
- A character who literally embodies the question “what makes us human” — the deepest premise in series history
- Episode Aigis (2024) digs even further into her story
- Episode Aigis simply won’t resonate unless you’ve finished the main P3 campaign first
[No. 2] Goro Akechi (P5) | The Genius Detective Prince and the Full Weight of His Revenge
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98 | 97 | 95 | 88 | 378 |
A prodigy who tops the national mock exams and has parlayed the “high school detective” brand into genuine celebrity. When the real face behind that polished appearance and impeccably polite speech is finally revealed, it’s the single biggest twist P5 ever pulled off. He posts the highest marks in the entire ranking across three of the four axes — 98 for Personality & Appeal, 97 for Story Contribution, 95 for his Awakening scene — and purely as a piece of character design, there are plenty of places where he outclasses Joker.
His 88 in Fan Popularity trails Joker, and that comes down to how limited his screen time was in the original P5. Persona 5 Royal’s added scenario (the route that opens up from December onward) blew his reputation wide open, to the point where “Akechi’s story is the reason I love Royal” is now a common refrain. He took fifth place in the official Persona Q2 poll with 2,805 votes, so even on the popularity axis he’s hardly an underdog.
- Top marks in the ranking on Personality, Story and Awakening — the character design is simply on another level
- Royal’s extra scenario sends his stock through the roof — finish the original, then play Royal without fail
- Play only the original P5 and you’re getting maybe 70% of what this character has to offer
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[No. 1] Ren Amamiya / Joker (P5) | Take Your Heart — the Most Stylish Protagonist Persona Has Ever Had
| Personality & Appeal | Story Contribution | Awakening Scene | Fan Popularity | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92 | 95 | 95 | 98 | 380 |
Convicted on a bogus charge, shipped off to a new school in Tokyo, and reborn as a phantom thief who takes on the rot in society. The scene where he pulls on the Joker mask and transforms is, flat out, one of the great pieces of character staging in Japanese game history. The moment I opened the box and “Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There” kicked in, I knew this game was a monster.
That 98 in Fan Popularity is the highest single figure anywhere in this ranking. He won Atlas’s official P5 anniversary popularity poll (2021, as reported by Famitsu) and held the top spot again in the official Persona 5 Royal poll (2023). Some will say “of course the protagonist is popular, that’s how it works,” but that’s not quite right. Stack him against the other series leads — Makoto Yuki in P3, Yu Narukami in P4 — and Joker’s individual personality cuts through far more sharply. Above all, he’s No. 1 because no one else embodies P5’s core theme of rebellion as completely as he does.
His Super Smash Bros. appearance in 2019 sent his name recognition across the wider gaming world into orbit. In the sense of being “a character even people who’ve never touched Persona can identify,” Joker has become something bigger than the series that made him.
- 98 in Fan Popularity and back-to-back wins in official P5 polls — the numbers and the gut feeling agree completely
- His Smash Bros. appearance made him famous well beyond Persona fandom — the ideal entry point
- The transformation and Awakening sequences are, cinematically, the stuff of game history
- Because he’s the player avatar, the “I am Joker” projection runs deep, which makes judging him as a standalone character tricky
Scoring all 20 Persona characters across four axes produced a photo finish: Joker at No. 1 with 380 points, Goro Akechi at No. 2 with 378 — a gap of just two points. Judged purely on how well-built the character is in isolation, there are plenty of moments where Akechi comes out ahead, but Joker edges in front on the total package of being a protagonist who fights and grows alongside the player. The P3 contingent, Aigis and Shinjiro, take third and fourth because the sheer weight of their stories outstrips anything on the P5 side. That’s Persona’s real strength: whichever entry you start with, there’s a career-best character waiting for you.
The character density in this series is genuinely abnormal. Even Chie Satonaka down at No. 20 will worm her way into your heart the moment you actually play P4 — and that, I think, is the truly frightening thing about Persona.
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