She helps establish this group in part to get revenge on one of her teachers, Suguru Kamoshida, who had been sexually harassing her and drove her friend, Shiho Suzui, to attempt suicide.

While in a world called the Metaverse, Takamaki gets supernatural powers which come from her Persona, Carmen, motivated by her vengeance towards Kamoshida for his vile actions, including towards Shiho.

Ann Takamaki was created for Persona 5 by Shigenori Soejima who uses the Phantom Thief nickname Panther to hide her identity.

Unlike the current red catsuit with a matching cat mask, she was originally going to have a black dress, goggles, a tail, and thigh-high socks.

[9] She is portrayed by motion capture actor Natsumi Uetake in Persona 5: Dancing Star Night, who scenario writer and choreographer Teppei Kobayashi felt had a similar personality to Ann.

She felt this was easy due to her similar tastes, though said that since it was a Western-style room, she had to adjust it by adding an air conditioner and power strip to make it more Japanese.

In reality, Kamoshida is attempting to coerce Ann into sexual relations, threatening to kick Shiho off her starting position in the volleyball team if she does not comply.

[15] Fellow USgamer writer Caty McCarthy was critical of how the game goes from depicting Ann's trauma in a sympathetic light to having the cast try to force her to pose nude in order to get intel, which they argued was played for laughs.

[19] Author Laurence Herfs cited author Laura Miller's assessment of "Cool Japan," an initiative by the Japanese government to spread Japanese pop culture to other countries, who considers the "visuals endorsed" by Cool Japan to "rely on a narrow and sexist kind of kawaii soft-pornographic imagery."

Herfs themselves discussed how this ideology "renders [Ann as] little more than commodified, cooperative objects, a resource for selling the nation under cool capitalism.

SyFy Wire writer Brittany Vincent disagreed with the criticism of Ann's depiction as being sexist or the game "subjecting her to untoward abuse."

"[23] Auten felt that Ann and her backstory comprised one of the best aspects of the game, calling her "one of the strongest female characters" in Persona 5.

[24] Siliconera writer Jenni Lada counted Ann as one of her favorite party members, discussing how she must already have some "inner strength," due to her protective nature towards Shiho and her aspiration to do better for the sake of her friends.

Mollica was "instantly drawn to" her for this fact, discussing how the gossiping of Ann as promiscuous stems from a stereotype of Americans as "aggressive and lewd" in Japan.

She discussed how Ann has a lack of confidence, owing to the teasing she received from her schoolmates, and despite wanting to be a model, she feels deeply uncomfortable with being seen in a way that is not on her terms.

Mollica related to this experience, having gone through similar abuse for being mixed race and having dressed in a catsuit and performed as a go-go dancer in order to "rebel and control how other people perceived me."

[26] Writing for USGamer, journalist Georgina Young praised Ann, stating that she "realistically [captures] racism and homogeneity in Japanese society.

"[27] Game Revolution writer Matthew Litley drew parallels between the historic Carmen and Ann, discussing how men seem disgusted in both of them, yet are attracted by them nonetheless.