Shouta Aoi , is a Japanese singer and actor. Under the stage name Showta, he debuted as a singer with the song "Negaiboshi" in 2006 and released his first studio album, Eve, in 2008. In 2009, he left his agency and briefly released music independently under the pseudonym Noboru Ryugaki .

The protagonist is a character from Persona 3, a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. In the game, the protagonist is an orphan who transfers to Gekkoukan High School in Iwatodai City and discovers a phenomenon called the Dark Hour during which supernatural entities called Shadows roam freely. After awakening an ability called Persona, the protagonist joins their classmates in forming the Specialized Extracirricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S.), dedicated to eliminating the Dark Hour and the threat of the Shadows. In the original release of Persona 3 and the updated versions Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Reload the protagonist is male; for Persona 3 Portable, Atlus added the option to play as a different character, who is female, to provide more options to returning players and attract a female demographic.