Teddie

""May the manliest of all men...come on down!""

- Teddie, Persona 4 Arena

Teddie, known as Kuma in the Japanese version, is a playable character in Persona 4. At first, he acts as support for battles, but after you complete the Marukyu Striptease Dungeon, he becomes a playable character while Rise Kujikawa takes over the support role.

Appearances
Teddie's appearance is based off a stuffed animal. He is an anthropomorphic bear, having blue fur and wears a red and white jumpsuit-like clothing. Additionally, the head part of his suit has lenses which allow him to see through the fog in the Midnight Channel. Size-wise, Teddie is the shortest male party member.

After developing an ego, Teddie has blond spikey hair along with bright blue eyes and tanned skin. He is shown wearing a white blouse-like shirt with various adornements like a red rose and a flamboyantly designed collar. At the school festival when crossdressing, Teddie has long blond hair with a blue ribbon, wears a blue dress and white stockings as well as black shoes. His crossdressing alias is very similar to the appearance of Alice, from the 1951 Disney adaption of Alice in Wonderland.

In the True Ending epilogue of Persona 4 Golden, Teddie appears to have grown taller and has a new outfit: a blue and white striped t-shirt with an anchor design, navy shorts, and yellow shoes.

Personality
Being a comic relief, Teddie is seen flirting with the girls of the Investigation Team at numerous occasions, but fails all the time at it. Other than that, he is bubbly and cute and is known to cheer up the mood when investigating the case, much like Chie. In the Japanese version, he has a verbal tick, adding -kuma after every sentence while in the English version, his speech is filled with dozens of bear puns, like saying "Bear-sona" while summoning his Persona. He seems to care alot about Nanako and calls her "Nana-Chan", even when she's in a near-death state after being kidnapped by Taro Namatame. In the beginning of Persona 4: The Animation, he acts much like a coward when shadows are near, but changes his ways as the story progresses.

Persona 4 Arena

 * The Bear Screw attack is based of his Bear Claw follow up attack in the original Persona 4.
 * In his Fake Bear R-Action, Teddie can still deflate his suit somehow even long after gaining a human form.
 * After landing Teddie's Mortal Blow attack, Kintoki-Douji descends with an afro on top of its head, referencing Faust's instant kill from the Guilty Gear X where he blows both his opponent and himself up with a bomb, giving them both afros.
 * There is a cutscene that shows Teddie flexing his muscles which is also his All-Out Attack cut-in image in Persona 4: Golden.
 * When Teddie wins a match in Persona 4 Arena, the announcer will say "Kuma wins!" on the English voice setting.

Other

 * Some design sketches for Teddie indicate that he was originally planned to be female.
 * Teddie imitates Takaya Sakaki's scene at the love hotel from Persona 3 when the protagonist and the team go there for the school trip in Port Island.
 * In the Japanese version, he uses the alter ego Kumada (熊田, lit. "bear field", but can also be interpreted as クマだ, or 'It's Kuma!" or may be a pun on the name, "Yamada") instead of retaining his original name once he comes out to the real world. Kumada is a common Japanese last name.
 * Teddie makes numerous cameos throughout Atlus' game Catherine: as a stuffed animal, on a poster, on a bottle of "Bear Beer", and more.
 * When the group played "King's Game", he and Kanji kiss, regardless of number choice, but is not seen on screen when the kiss occurs. Choosing number three implies Teddie was either intoxicated, or possibly uncaring (or ignorant) of the social awkwardness of kissing a male, number one shows Teddie had simply missed.
 * Inside the DVD of Persona 4, there are some hidden audio were Teddie describes Naoto's current status in battle when he is in the supporting cast, of course it's impossible considering the timeline of the game, since player rescues Naoto after Teddie joins the party in the fighting cast. This was probably to prevent the game from crashing if Naoto was somehow hacked to join the party before she becomes a party member.
 * In the animated cutscenes of the game, Teddie's mouth of his bear suit does not move after he developed an alter ego, but in the anime his mouth moves even when he obtained his human form. This is also changed in the new animated cutscenes in Persona 4 Golden, but in the cutscenes from the original game, his mouth still doesn't move.
 * One of Teddie's usable weapons, Strega Claw is a reference to Strega from Persona 3.
 * In Persona 4: Golden, when wearing a Gekkokan High uniform (in human form), Teddie imitates Ken Amada's victory pose and says his lines. He also spins an imaginary staff in the victory pose.