Characters / Persona 5: Confidants

Persona 5 Main Character Index
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts (Starting Members [Joker] | Later Members [Goro Akechi | Kasumi Yoshizawa])
Confidants (Sae Niijima) | Targets - Palace Rulers / Endgame Antagonists (The Dreamer) / Minor | Other Characters
Spin-Offs: Strikers (Jail Monarchs) | Tactica | The Phantom X

NPCs in Persona 5 who you can engage in Visual Novel-esque segments with to receive various gameplay bonuses, a la the Social Links from previous games. They consist of a variety of people across Tokyo that the Protagonist can interact with over the game, eventually becoming allies to the Phantom Thieves. Referred to as "Co-operations / Co-ops" in the Japanese version.

---

In General

• All of the Other Reindeer: Basically all the Confidants are in one way or another ostracized from society, which is part of why they bond with Joker:
  • Sojiro purposely chose to hide himself away from the world after Wakaba's death to keep himself and Futaba safe.
  • Mishima was always seen as a nobody and everybody's favorite punching bag.
  • After a medical incident that she was scapegoated for, Takemi gained a bad reputation in the medical world along with the nickname "The Plague".
  • Kawakami has literally no social life between her teaching and maid jobs taking up all her time.
  • Iwai is a rather scary looking man who has distanced from his criminal past but the regular world still sees him as a criminal.
  • Ohya's stubborn pursuit to clear her former partner's name has left her unpopular with the higher ups at her paper.
  • Hifumi has been shunned by her fellow shogi players her own age for being seen as the face of shogi, leaving them deeply resentful.
  • Chihaya was driven out of her home village due to her ability to be able to predict natural disasters causing them to blame her and call her a monster.
  • Yoshida was once a Corrupt Politician who after a series of scandals was cast out of office and branded with the nickname "No Good Tora".
  • Shinya has made himself unpopular with his mom's pushing him to be "strong" by bullying others and her own fighting with others.
• Arc Villain: Most of the Confidants have someone responsible for their suffering, whose heart you have to change in Mementos. Mishima's is himself.
• Ascended Extra: In the previous two games, Social Links outside of the party had no in-game benefits other than providing more EXP in Persona Fusion and unlocking more powerful Personas when complete. Here, as Confidants level up, the player will unlock more bonuses like additional EXP or skill gain, bonus gun damage, more items in shops, etc. Also, each Confidant is now fully voiced during story events as well as the first and last rank-up, unlike in Persona 4 where they are only voiced at certain points or during the final battle. In addition, most Confidants will have an Arc Villain at some point whom the Phantom Thieves must deal with in order to proceed with their storylines.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: As Joker helps them to change their lives for the better, his Confidants repay him by rallying the people of Tokyo to support the Phantom Thieves during the final boss battle. After Joker is arrested, they spend months trying to prove his innocence, generally either calling in favors from their associates to help protest Joker's imprisonment or investigating the assault incident.
• Equivalent Exchange: True to their nature of being "confidants", most of them do not provide their services for free, often having to strike a deal with the protagonist where he fulfils something back in exchange.
  • Sojiro teaches the protagonist how to make coffee and curry in exchange for him working part-time at Leblanc.
  • Chihaya provides her fortune-telling services in return for allowing her to test the protagonist's ability to defy her predictions and beliefs. The protagonist still has to pay her money to use these services, however.
  • Iwai provides a wider selection of weapons, customization options and discounts in exchange for the protagonist working part-time at Untouchable as well as being The Mole in his shady deals.
  • Tae provides under-the-table deals for her medicine in exchange for the protagonist being her lab rat/assistant in her development of a new drug.
  • Kawakami allows the protagonist to do other activities in class and continues providing her maid services in exchange for him keeping mum about the latter job as well as being her go-to hirer.
  • Ohya writes articles to boost the Phantom Thieves' public image in exchange for him providing inside scoop on the Phantom Thieves in general.
  • Shinya teaches the protagonist gun skills in exchange for simply getting a Shout-Out from the Phantom Thieves.
  • Hifumi tutors the protagonist in shogi strategies in exchange for him being her go-to sparring partner to develop new strategies.
  • Toranosuke teaches the protagonist public speaking skills in exchange for him becoming his secretary for his speeches.
  • Goro initially teaches the protagonist sleuthing skills in exchange for him providing a second opinion for his investigations.
  • Kasumi teaches the protagonist gymnastics in exchange for him spending the time to train with her and help her through her slump.
  • Maruki teaches the protagonist mind-strengthening techniques in exchange for him taking part in his research on cognition.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Most of the Confidants aren't able to fight Shadows, but they each bring their unique, worldly talents to the table to support the Thieves from the sideline. It's enough that it's all but implied that they're all on Shido's radar for assassination thanks to The Mole.
• Immune to Mind Control: When "Igor"/Yaldabaoth creates the Qliphoth World, all of Joker's Confidants that are at Rank 10 are the only ones to notice the new reality for the hellscape that it is, dumbfounded by how no one else seems to notice. Takuto Maruki is a special case, as he also notices the Qliphoth World, but is also affected by it as Yaldabaoth had accidentally caused his Persona to awaken, causing him to become the God of Control's successor and the Arc Villain of the Third Semester Arc in Royal. Speaking of which, the other Confidants all notice that something is awry with Maruki's idealized reality, with them noticing that everyone seems far too happy, but can't quite put their fingers on what exactly it is.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: In Persona 3 and 4, the Fool and Judgment Social Link represented the Protagonist's bond with their entire party. Meanwhile in 5, the Fool and Judgement Confidants are instead represented by individual characters, Igor and Sae respectively, instead. There also isn't any general party Confidant.
• Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Each of them provides some kind of benefit for becoming acquainted with them. Some of them provide in-battle bonuses, and some provide main world bonuses, but all of them are beneficial in some way.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Many of the Confidants are named after famous Japanese figures throughout the history. For instance, Tae Takemi's namesake comes from Taro Takemi, a Japanese physician who served as 11th President of the Japan Medical Association for 25 years from 1957 to 1982, and also served as President of the World Medical Association from 1975 to 1976.
• Non-Action Guy: The Confidants are not Phantom Thieves, and most of them are normal civilians (aside from Iwai and Sae who are Badass Normal humans, Igor and Caroline/Justine who are supernaturally empowered, and Maruki, who's a Persona user). Instead, they each help the Thieves with their own special talents.
• Secret-Keeper: Some know Joker's involved with the Phantom Thieves from the start, and others find out as you progress their Confidant, particularly when various people who have been causing them trouble "conveniently" get their hearts changed after the Confidants tell Joker their full names. However, they also all swear to Joker that they won't tell anyone, due to Joker helping turn their lives around in a positive way. Takuto Maruki is an interesting example, as he knew all along that Joker was a member of the Phantom Thieves, as he saw him, Ryuji, Ann and Morgana exit Kamoshida's Palace after Ann's Awakening, but didn't tell them, thus making him a Secret Secret-Keeper.
• Secret Secret-Keeper:
  • It's implied rather earlier in their Confidants that both Ohya and Yoshida manage to deduce Joker's identity as a Phantom Thief, but opt to keep it to themselves rather than push the issue. They outright confirm it like the other Confidants do in the maxed link.
  • This also gets revealed to be the case with Maruki, who had learned since the beginning of the game after watching Joker, Ryuji and Ann emerge from Kamoshida's palace.
• Sidequest: Unlike most of the previous games' social links, most of the Confidants will require you to go into Mementos and change someone's heart at a certain point late in the link in order for you to progress further. In Mishima's case, the person in question is Mishima himself.
• Tarot Motifs: Each of the confidants are linked to a card from the major arcana, with which their character and/or story arcs share themes:
  • Igor is the Fool, a card of freedom, beginnings, and new possibilities. While Igor himself develops little in this regard, he does give Joker the tools he needs to take advantage of the paths before him and earn freedom from his "imprisonment".
  • Sojiro is the Hierophant, a card of tradition, conformity, and education. Sojiro becomes a mentor figure to Joker, passes on his knowledge of coffee and curry, and repeatedly urges him to stay out of trouble and avoid acting out, as he believes disrupting order will get Joker into trouble.
  • Chihaya is the Wheel of Fortune, a card of fate, change, and the ups and downs of luck. Chihaya finds her perception of fate challenged in her confidant, and she grows from accepting fate to be immutable and beyond her control to taking a more active approach towards affecting the future.
  • Caroline and Justine are Strength, a card of power, confidence, and facing obstacles with grace. The twins discuss the meaning of the card themselves over the course of their confidant, addressing their confusion and doubts about their identity with the interpretation of the card referring to hidden power beginning to emerge.
  • Iwai is the Hanged Man, a card of self-sacrifice, liminality, and perspective. Iwai made a series of sacrifices for the sake of his son, which included distancing himself from both the yakuza world, which he avoids to keep Kaoru safe, and the civilian one, which still sees him as a criminal.
  • Takemi is Death, a card of change and leaving the old behind so new opportunities can appear. Tae is a brilliant pharmacist and a skilled practitioner, but she is too hung up on solving an old case to see the value in her position as a back alley doctor.
  • Kawakami is Temperance, a card of moderation, balance, and the synthesis of extremes. Kawakami lives two lives, as a teacher by day and an escort by night, but the energy she pours into both drains her and prevents her from attaining her best self.
  • Ohya is the Devil, a card of obsession, addiction, and freedom from the things that chain us. While Ohya enjoys a good drink more than most, her obsession with the truth is put to good use as a journalist, and she manages to work against those who hold her back while operating within their limits.
  • Shinya Oda is the Tower, a card of upheaval, revelation, or the release of long-building tension. Shinya doesn't know how to handle the emotional toll that his mother puts on him as she falls deeper into cynicism and anger, and his attempt to keep his frustrations bottled away manifest in negative ways.
  • Hifumi is the Star, a card of calmness, openness, and hope in dark times. Despite living with an ill father and an overbearing mother, Hifumi keeps her composure and dedicates herself to her love of shogi, honing her skills so others will be able to see her for who she is and judge her on her own merits.
  • Mishima is the Moon, a card of creativity, but also of the unconscious and its darker urges. Mishima finds a purpose and a way to make a difference in running the Phan-site, but it becomes clear that there are more self-centered and deep-seated issues that motivate him.
  • Toranosuke Yoshida is the Sun, a card of mental and emotional clarity. Yoshida faces opposition in his career by both fellow politicians and the public, but stays confident in his ideals and his path.
  • Sae Niijima is Judgement, a card of great change, revelation, and renewal. As she interrogates Joker, the plot hinges on her literal judgment of his story and actions, and her actions from there signal a turning point as the orchestrator of much of the plot and the extent of the conspiracy is revealed, giving herself and the Thieves new purpose.
  • Takuto Maruki is the Councillor, a card of diplomacy, creativity, persuasion, and working around mental illness. He persuades the Thieves to let him be their outlet for stress relief, and teaches Joker creative restoration methods for the Metaverse in exchange for help with Maruki's research: looking for a way to use Cognitive Psience to heal trauma victims. This makes Maruki one of the most diplomatic adults in the game.

Igor (Fool)

"Trickster... Welcome to my Velvet Room."

Arcana: 0. Le Mat (The Fool)
Arcana Bonus: Third Eye, fusion techniques, increased Persona capacity
Voiced by: Masane Tsukayama (JP), David Lodge, Kirk Thornton (EN)

The proprietor of the Velvet Room and the confidant of the Fool Arcana, giving you the Metaverse Navigator app and the ability to negotiate, along with bonuses to Persona Fusions.

For general tropes and appearances in previous Persona games, see Characters.Persona Recurring.

---

• Ascended Extra: From an assistant in Persona 1 and 2, to running the Velvet room in 3 and 4, to becoming a confidant and an active role.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite seemingly being netural, Igor warns Joker about Black Mask's activities to help him safeguard himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite taking a level in Jerkass, Igor proactively helps Joker craft multiple Personas and wishes him well in his rehabilitation.
• Mentor Archetype: He gives the protagonist everything he needs, including the Wild Card and Third Eye ability.
• Out-of-Character Alert:
  • Igor may put out some unnerving vibes, but he's always shared Philemon's belief that Humans Are Good. Here, every line he says to Joker is either meant to taunt or berate him. After the Holy Grail fuses Mementos with the real world and causes the Phantom Thieves to fizzle out of existence due to the people's disbelief in them made real through the Metaverse's rules, he orders Caroline and Justine to execute Joker for failing.
  • In previous games, Igor was deeply tied to the Tarot, and would use a deck to perform fusions or tell fortunes like he did in the opening of Persona 4. He never does so in this game, as all fusions are forms of execution.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed. While he's still very supportive of the Protagonist's rehabilitation, he's taken to calling the Velvet Room "his" room, his Persona fusions are far more brutal than the series' previous standards, and he outright mocks you if you get a Game Over.
• Vocal Dissonance: Averted for the first time. Igor doesn't have the smooth, gentle voice he's known for, now having a deep voice with light echoing and distortion fitting for his unnerving appearance. Justified out-of-universe, since his Japanese voice actor died suddenly.
• Vocal Evolution: David Lodge's performance in Persona 5: The Animation sounds closer to Dan Woren's performance in the previous titles, noticeably lacking the voice filter used in the original game.

Sojiro Sakura (Hierophant)

"What a troublesome kid I've taken in..."

Arcana: V. Le Pape (The Hierophant)
Arcana Bonus: Crafting of SP-recovering coffee and curry.
Voiced by: Joji Nakata (JP), Jamieson Price (EN)
Stage actors: Eiji Moriyama (The Stage)

Futaba Sakura's father, who also happens to be a friend of the Protagonist's parents and the owner of Cafe Leblanc, the coffee shop the Protagonist lives in. He warns the protagonist not to get into trouble with the privileged class and drag other people into the mess.

---

• Abuse Mistake: While the party is trying to figure out who Futaba is and why she would want her heart stolen, they wonder if Sojiro is abusing her, considering that she never leaves the house and none of the neighbors know about her existence, save for the fact that Sojiro buys food for two. Sae also points out that family services would be unlikely to look favorably on Futaba's situation, and thus would revoke Sojiro's custody of her.
• Alliterative Name: Sojiro Sakura.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: He hates Shido so much, that when his heart gets changed by the Phantom Thieves, Sojiro raises a toast to his defeat.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • The Phantom Thieves walk into his house on 7/24 to find Futaba, but the power goes out, causing Makoto and Futaba to both scream. When Sojiro enters, he can make out the outline of Joker, but doesn't know it's him. Until he finds a flashlight, Sojiro is screaming at Joker to stay still.
  • When Sojiro finds a Phantom Thieves' calling card in Futaba's room — when the Phantom Thieves are being blamed for Okumura's death — he grills her over it, even causing her to cry, while also demanding why Joker "introduced such dangerous people" to Futaba. He does apologize for yelling at them, but he was just moments away from outright panic until he calmed down.
• The Atoner: Part of the reason why he's looking after Futaba is that he feels guilty over how he didn't take Wakaba seriously when she warned him that her life was in danger.
• Blaming the Victim: Despite acknowledging on the first day of gameplay that the protagonist is in the mess he's in because he tried to stop an innocent woman from being sexually harassed, he makes several comments to the effect that you have nobody to blame but yourself for your troubles. He gets better as the story progresses.
• Book Ends: He's the one who drives Joker to school for his first day, and gets stuck in traffic. At the end of the game, when Joker and Sojiro are driving back to Leblanc, he gets stuck in traffic again.
• Boring, but Practical: His Confidant bonuses are for making coffee and curry, two things that are regular, everyday things you can make/get without hassle in real life, and things in game that are pretty plain compared to other bonuses from other confidants. The fact both are easy to make and offer a reliable and consistent flow of SP restoring items makes them both some of the most useful items in the game period, and if you get Kawakami's Confidant high enough, she can make it for you, ensuring your party will be getting a slow, but always helpful supply of healing items.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad:
  • During his Rank 10 Confidant, he asks that Joker not make a move on Futaba. Only to immediately backpedal by admitting that, on second thought, he wouldn't mind it if Joker did considering how much of a positive influence he is.
  • He's shows some discomfort with Joker dating Futaba on Valentine's Day: he'll still close the shop early for them, but warns Joker not to try anything funny with her.
  • Futaba herself seems to be aware of this; since in Royal all the women with maxed out Confidants that Joker does not date hand him friendship chocolates for Valentine's, and she personally gives hers without Sojiro seeing it, as she knows he'd likely freak out over the gesture and get the wrong ideas.
• The Casanova: Zigzagged. Sojiro's first impressions — between his cynical view of society, constant phone calls, comments from various patrons, and comments he makes himself about not usually having a guy's number in his phone or sit in the front of his Improbably Cool Car — make it seem like Sojiro is a textbook heartbreaker who spends his nights on the town with a woman on each arm. It's then revealed that almost all the phone calls are from his shut-in foster daughter and he hasn't seriously thought about anyone other than said foster daughter's mother, who he was holding a torch for before her death, in a long time. That said, comments he makes to Joker during Valentine's Day (either if the player tries to romance multiple women, or if he ends up without a special someone) do all but state that he was this when he was much younger, so the act isn't entirely a fabrication.
• Cassandra Truth: He notes that part of the reason why he won't tell anyone about the protagonist and Futaba being part of the Phantom Thieves is that no one would believe him.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Ah, you're back." Spoken whenever Joker arrives back at Leblanc.
  • "Rain, huh?" Spoken whenever Joker arrives back at Leblanc on a rainy day.
  • "Let me explain!" Spoken whenever he tastes the coffee Joker can make by himself in the evening, accompanied by the game displaying some trivia related to the type of coffee you made.
  • "Make sure you close up." Spoken when the player is about to go to bed.
• Character Development: Goes from The Cynic who turns a blind eye to injustice and chides Joker for not doing the same, to an open supporter of the Phantom Thieves who wants to expose Shido's crimes and avenge Wakaba's death, openly defying the police to their faces in pursuit of that.
• Chick Magnet: Implied, given how he reminisces about his youth with a wistful "Hoo boy" and the lady who constantly tries to hit on him. In Dancing in Starlight, Futaba takes this one step further by claiming he's popular with all the girls who visit Leblanc. Old ladies, children, even the dogs seem to be interested in him.
• Consummate Liar: He's somehow able to come up with a convincing pack of lies in Joker's favour in the event that he cheats on multiple girls on Valentine's Day, which becomes increasingly complicated the more girls Joker tried to date at once, and can even include Sojiro's own daughter. This somehow works in the end, as none of them show any animosity to Joker afterwards.
• Continuity Cameo: He only appears during the introduction of Strikers to give Joker, Futaba, and the rest of the Phantom Thieves a quick send-off as they head out on their summer vacation road trip.
• Cool Car: Sojiro owns a vintage condor yellow Porsche 356. Seen first when he (reluctantly) drives the protagonist to Shujin for the first time, and then in Full Motion Video by the end of the game when he picks him up from juvie upon his release.
  Sojiro: Sheesh... Men aren't usually allowed in my passenger seat.
• Cool Old Guy: So cool that fans even gave him the nickname 'Brojiro' ('Sojibro' also works). He's a middle-aged barista who genuinely loves two of the game's most tragic characters, treating Futaba like his own daughter and becoming something of a second dad to Joker, not to mention that he's also very supportive and understanding to the rest of the party, and even lets them use Leblanc as their hideout.
• The Cynic: Chastises Joker for getting involved in the affairs of others, even if he was trying to do the right thing, and reminds him on several occasions to keep his head down and not cause trouble, because it's the only way society will tolerate his criminal record. It's later revealed this attitude is born of Sojiro's guilt over ignoring Wakaba's warnings prior to her death, and then running away instead of investigating how and why she died.
• Defrosting Ice King: Sojiro is openly hostile and distrusting of Joker at first, going as far as to threaten to kick him out and send him back home if he gets into any trouble. Over time, Sojiro warms up to him as well as his friends, even offering Yusuke a room for the night after the whole Madarame business leaves him temporarily homeless, granting Ann's request while knowing full well that she made it on the protagonist's behalf. He does eventually reach the point where he views Joker as legitimate family, especially if you pursue his Confidant. The difference is especially noticeable on replaying the game, where his attitude towards Joker at the start can be quite jarring after getting used to his behavior later on.
• Demoted to Extra: In Strikers, he only appears at the start of the game and doesn't tag along with the thieves on their road trip, with his role as the Team Dad being taken up by Zenkichi.
• Expy: His appearance — particularly his distinctive beard, haircut and nose — is based on Daisuke Jigen, a picaresque thief from the Japanese Lupin III franchise that Atlus noted as one of their inspirations for Persona 5. He even wears a trilby hat in his casual outfit reminiscent of Jigen's signature fedora.
• First-Name Basis: Futaba addresses him by his given name, though Sojiro doesn't object to being called that way despite the age gap between the two. He almost breaks into Manly Tears when she calls him "Dad" for the first time. Later dialogue options, such as around the start of Haru's Confidant, have the protagonist refer to Sojiro by his first name.
• "Friends" Rent Control: He's got a nice house, an expensive car, and regularly buys a lot of electronics for Futaba, despite running a coffee shop that never has much business. Justified given his status as a former government employee, meaning he probably has a pension he's receiving. He also mentions that what was left of Wakaba's estate paid for the cafe, so he most likely only has to pay utilities and property tax.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He's initially cold and distant toward Joker, and only really starts confiding in him around the time Futaba joins. Similarly, his Confidant is quite slow to rank up at first, and will not progress past a certain point until Futaba joins. After she does, his Confidant rank progresses much faster.
• Good Parents: To Futaba, whom he dotes on and supports. This support later extends to the protagonist as well to a lesser extent, especially after Joker and Futaba reveal that they're Phantom Thieves. He's such a good parent that in Maruki's dream world, Joker gets to move in with Sojiro permanently, indicating that Joker prefers him to his actual parents.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He smokes regularly, even inside his coffee shop, which fits fairly well with him being a Cool Old Guy.
• Hidden Depths: He's more than just a simple coffee shop owner. He worked for the government in some capacity alongside Shido back when he knew Wakaba, but "ran away" after her assassination. It's how he pinpoints Shido as the possible brains behind the Antisocial Force, which the Thieves and Sae corroborate using their evidence when they meet after Joker fakes his death.
• Hidden Heart of Gold:
  • Early on puts up a tough front because he believes Joker needs a disciplinary figure in his life. As you get to know him it becomes apparent this is just more of a front that he projects. He's also very warm and friendly to his patrons, gently turning down a woman who repeatedly tries to flirt with him even though he's honestly exasperated with her advances.
  • In Royal, he shows a bit of this to Joker at the second day of the game where they are stuck in traffic, telling Joker to be cautious around his surroundings because of the recent influx of strange incidents, including a major traffic accident where the victim was a 15 year old girl.
• Hipster: While he's too old to have run with the latest hipster incarnation he definitely nails the vibe down to even his outfit and coffee elitism.
• Hopeless Suitor: Sojiro recalls how he'd persistently try to win over Wakaba back when he was still a government worker, only for the single mother to turn him down time and time again. Though he eventually resigned himself to the knowledge that she was simply "way out of his league," there's the heavy implication that he has never truly gotten over her, continuing to hold onto her memories not just by raising her daughter, but through making the curry recipe which she loved (and invented). He also outright refuses to consider dating again. However, Futuba confides to Joker that Sojiro's feelings weren't as one-sided as he believed, with the implication Wakaba may have eventually reciprocated them had it not been for her untimely death.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: After seeing Morgana show up, he makes it clear to Joker that he's 100% responsible for taking care of him, only to then come back with a plate of food for Morgana.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: If Joker has multiple girlfriends confront him on Valentine's Day, Sojiro excuses himself to do some shopping.
• In-Series Nickname: He tells the rest of Joker's friends to call him "Boss" soon after meeting the group, which they continue to do for the majority of the game. Morgana refers to him as "the chief" on a few occasions as well.
• Ironic Name: "Leblanc" translates to "The White". And it's a coffee shop, the kind that probably even actively discourages milk in coffee.
• Jerkass Realization: Is outright hostile to Joker at the start of the game. Near the end after he picks Joker up from prison, he acknowledges how horrible he was in the beginning and reaffirms his promise that Joker will always be family.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be fairly gruff and makes no secret about how he initially isn't happy to have to look after the protagonist. That said, he gradually warms up to the protagonist and becomes quite supportive, and during certain confidant events, the protagonist senses his kindness, resulting in a boost to his own Kindness parameter.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: When Sojiro finds out that Joker took Morgana back to the shop, he lets Morgana stay but tells Joker that he's solely responsible for the cat and he won't lend any help whatsoever. That being said, he comes back seconds later with a plate of food for Morgana, claiming that the cute purring is to blame and shows interest in naming him...
• Like a Son to Me: He eventually comes to regard Joker as his own once the player's bond with him reaches maximum rank, enough to point out that, while he has mixed feelings about it, he's even okay with the prospect of Joker dating Futaba... and becoming his father-in-law. If Joker is single on Christmas Eve, he, Sojiro and Futaba celebrate it together over dinner.
  Sojiro: [to Joker] You know, I really just wanted to have you help out at the store. But you showed me so much more... You showed me I have a family I have to protect. Not just Futaba. But you too. I may not always be reliable, but feel free to come to me if anything happens. I'll be there for you... as family.
• Manly Tears: Twice, both optional. Once is towards the end of his Confidant where Futaba calls him "Dad," and the other is after Joker leaves for home if Joker gave Sojiro his journal back.
• Married to the Job: When a woman asks him why he hasn't gotten married during his Confidant, he responds that it's because he's too busy with the shop, but it's all but stated the real reason is that he never got over Futaba's mother, Wakaba.
• Meaningful Name: His café is most likely named for Maurice LeBlanc, who wrote the Arsène Lupin series.
• Mistaken for Badass: After serving fukujinzuke to Caroline and Justine in their curry, the twins come to the erroneous conclusion that he chopped up a god and served it to them as a meal. He's too weirded out by Joker's company to bother trying to correct them.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: When Futaba insists on helping out at Leblanc, one of Sojiro's regulars claims Sojiro must get tired of seeing women his age and hired her for eye candy. He casually denies this without specifying his relation to her.
• The Mourning After: Sojiro puts up a carefully constructed front about being a playboy who's Married to the Job to hide that he's still grieving over the loss of his adoptive daughter's mother, Wakaba Isshiki, who was murdered before they had the chance to become a couple.
• My Greatest Failure: In hindsight, he knew something was very off about Wakaba right before her death, and she even told him she would die soon. He didn't take her seriously, and he's regretted it ever since.
• New Parent Nomenclature Problem: Not really new, but it's implied near the end of his confidant ranking that he wishes Futaba would call him "dad" more often. Usually, she just uses his first name.
• Papa Wolf: Has elements of this. The best example is on 7/24 when he rushes from the Leblanc back to the home to check on Futaba when the power cuts out. And is ready to throw down with the person who broke into his home that caused Futaba to scream.
• Parental Substitute: Sojiro is the closest thing Joker has to a parental figure in the game. He tries to ensure that Joker stays out of trouble, constantly gives him love advice and even makes him his apprentice at his coffee shop. He's also this to Futaba as he adopted her after her mother's death.
• Parents as People: An aversion for the most part, but still faintly present. During the fourth major arc, the Phantom Thieves discover that Futaba's his daughter, and since you know absolutely nothing about her (as Joker has been living with Sojiro for three or four months at this point with not a word about her), they reluctantly consider the possibility that he might be abusing her despite his taking in Joker, but admit that they don't know the whole story — thankfully, it turns out to be completely untrue. When he adopted Futaba, it was not long after her mother was killed, and after she had been sent to live with a string of horribly abusive relatives, which didn't help her existing trauma. Despite doing his damnedest to get her the medical care she needed, all of his attempts fell flat, and at the start of the game, he's more or less given up on any chance of her recovering. All he does now is provide her needs (such as food) and protect her, and for all intents and purposes, he's completely in the dark about how utterly suicidal she actually is. That being said, Futaba's anxiety is so severe that she rarely speaks to him unless needed, and the guilt and anguish over her situation affects him far more than he lets on — at this point, the Phantom Thieves stealing her heart would be the only way she could truly recover. Sojiro even wonders whether he's really the best person to raise Futaba at a few points. And as it turns out: yes, he absolutely is.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: The Rude Hero to Youji Isshiki's Polite Villain. He's always rather cold to Youji, who's at least outwardly friendly to Sojiro. As time goes by, Sojiro is shown to be absolutely right to be wary of Youji.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He wears a pink dress shirt under a white blazer most of the time and is an excellent coffee brewer and curry maker.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He takes Joker in after their arrangement, lets him and his friends hang out in his coffee shop, and generally tries to look out for him and Futaba despite their eccentricities. He also supports the Thieves once he learns about them, after a long serious talk with Futaba and Joker. By the time of the final Palace, Leblanc goes from being your hideout in secret to "openly" being so, with your team commandeering the first floor for meetings, with Sojiro's approval.
• Recurring Element: Once again, the Hierophant Arcana bond character is an older, Reasonable Authority Figure to the protagonist, who has lost someone very important to them.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you cheat on your girlfriends, he and Morgana leave you to your beatdown to go do some shopping.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Two months after Futaba joins the Phantom Thieves, he discovers that Joker and Futaba are members of said group, after finding the calling card in Futaba's room and questioning the two of them about it. He's initially upset, but after a long talk with them, he agrees to keep it to himself. He's the first adult to support the Thieves in some capacity, followed by Sae after her Palace and Hasegawa in Strikers.
  • If the player is caught cheating by all his girlfriends on Valentine's Day, Sojiro will tell you that he's been secretly covering for you and had to make up a bunch of alibis. In a move that puts other wingmen to shame, he even convinces them not to break up with you despite everything. He'll even do this if Futaba (who — and this bears repeating — is his daughter) is one of the girls you've been two-timing. It's implied he does this because Sojiro himself may have done this sort of thing back at Joker's age.
• Secretly Wealthy: He is somehow able to afford all of Futaba’s expensive books, figures, gaming PC, and all manner of other gadgets despite running a coffee shop that doesn’t receive much business. His previous work with the government is probably where the money comes from. Futaba mentions trying to pay him back in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.
• Selective Obliviousness:
  • Sojiro starts to suspect that Joker is caught up with the Phantom Thieves as early as August, given Futaba's sudden improvement. While he manages to connect the dots, he chooses to ignore his suspicion due to figuring Futaba having a circle of friends was a good reason for her change. It's not until the media frenzy surrounding them that eventually reignites his suspicions, leading to Sojiro finding the calling card they sent to Futaba in her bedroom. The anime has him start figuring it out when Yusuke left the Sayuri in the shop, knowing he was a former student of Madarame.
  • If you get to his last Confidant Event after the above scene, he'll make a few comments about how the issue with Futaba's Uncle was resolved, then say "It was 'cause of you, wasn't it?" with an accompanying look.
• Serious Business: He's uncompromising on his principles for good food service and even threatens to throw Joker out if he brews a bad cup of coffee. He's just as serious about his curry. This is because Wakaba had formulated his famed curry-coffee combo. He wants to keep her memory alive and do her work justice by making sure that every cup of coffee and plate of curry is absolutely perfect.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • He encourages Joker to find a girlfriend and should he succeed, Sojiro will openly support him in his efforts. It's most noticeable on Valentine's Day, where Sojiro will close the shop early so Joker and his companion of choice can have a romantic date alone (albeit with reservations in Futaba's case).
  • In Royal, he gives Joker a play-by-play for the perfect White Day date, going so far as to use his name to get Joker and his girlfriend a table at a fully-booked restaurant with an amazing view.
• Single Tear: Wipes one away at the end as Joker leaves Cafe LeBlanc for the last time before heading back to his hometown.
• Stern Teacher: As a barista. He offers to teach Joker the art of brewing a good cup of coffee, but informs him that this is Serious Business to him and should be to Joker as well. He's also quick to criticize Joker's coffee for being too bland. He's also fair, however, in that he always acknowledges how Joker worked hard and followed his instructions. He also lets Joker freely use all the coffee beans on his shelves, no questions asked, even if it's just for practice, though he does note not to touch the expensive ones without his permission.
• Supreme Chef: He brews excellent coffee and makes delicious curry, which go unusually well together according to the protagonist and the cafe's patrons. He's also something of a One-Note Cook, since he only seems to make curry and coffee (not that it matters because they're all his patrons order). He considers expanding the menu during his confidant, but Futaba (and potentially Joker) insists that they be curry-related (Futaba asks for curry spaghetti, curry udon, curry croquettes, and curry pizza). As you progress along with his Confidant, you'll learn that this wasn't of his own design. Instead, Wakaba had taken his curry and coffee recipes and used her chemical know-how to make them showstoppers. Because of this, her recipes and his insistence on doing right by his customers are his way of honoring her memory.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Like Ryotaro Dojima in Persona 4, Sojiro is a Reasonable Authority Figure who provides lodging for the protagonist, has a daughter with a major role in the plot who was greatly affected by her mother's death, and serves as the representative of the Hierophant Arcana.
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Hierophant symbolizes unconventional relationships and internal reflection. Likewise, Sojiro's Confidant involves him reevaluating his principles, and his relationships are more than unconventional to say the least.
• Team Dad: While he's not a Thief himself, once he becomes aware of his surrogate kids (that is, Joker and Futaba) being two of the group, he offers his full support to the group and becomes one of their adult sponsors, helping them to solve the final aspects of the conspiracy.
• The Team Normal: By the end of the narrative, he and Sae are more or less personal advisors to Phantom Thieves themselves, given how the two actively work with the Thieves to defeat Shido and the Antisocial Force conspiracy.
• Tears of Joy: Not so subtly sobs in Rank 9 of his confidant link when Futaba finally calls him "Dad".
• Tough Love: Sojiro's early standoffish attitude towards Joker is rooted more in Sojiro's own cynicism towards society rather than antagonism. Sojiro legitimately believes that Joker's best chance is for him to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble — he's aware of Joker's good intentions in saving a woman from being raped, but points out that his intentions did him little good. Even before his Confidant begins, there are some early hints that Sojiro empathizes with Joker more than he lets on, such as his disgust with how the Shujin Academy faculty treats him during registration. By the end of the game, Sojiro apologizes to Joker for how coldly he initially treated him.
• Tragic Keepsake: The curry recipe that Wakaba came up with. If Sojiro's Confidant link is maxed, he passes her written notes on to Joker as a memento, saying that he's already memorized its contents by that point anyway.
• Tsundere: Justified. As the legal guardian of Joker for his time in Tokyo, he has to be stern to him so he can improve, but Sojiro is inherently a nice person, so his Tsundere moments are him trying to invoke Tough Love. He drops it as the game goes on, though he still has moments where he shows signs of being unwilling to admit his affections for the group.
• The Watson: He serves as this after Joker fakes his own death. Serving as the person that gets the Exposition Dump on how the Phantom Thieves figured out Akechi was a traitor and how they pulled off faking Joker's death.

Chihaya Mifune (Fortune)

"I'm just going to have to verify your power. The very power that reversed my tarot card prediction!"

Arcana: X. La Roue de Fortune (The Wheel of Fortune)
Arcana Bonus: Social stat boosts, increased money earned in battle, Confidant ability previews and boosts (Persona 5 and Royal), instantly trigger a Fusion Alarm, highlight optimal choices in Confidant conversations (Royal only).
Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki (JP, original game), Haruka Terui (JP, anime and Royal), Sarah Anne Williams (EN)

A Tarot fortune-teller with a cheerful demeanor who has a shop in Shinjuku. Her fortunes are rumored to be infallible. After she sells Joker a "Holy Stone" that’s revealed to be a scam, he challenges her idea of fate being absolute with a Mementos target whose connected to one of her clients. To prove whose theory is correct, she asks Joker to assist her business in exchange for fortune readings that improve Confidant relationships and social stats/money gains.

---

• Accent Adaptation: To portray her upbringing in a small village in the Japanese countryside, the English dub gives her a country dialect reminiscent to those found in the American Deep South.
• Accent Slip-Up: When trying to get several ADP members to see the truth about the organization and its leader, Chihaya gets so frustrated that she reverts to her country accent^note Sadly, the exchange isn't voice-acted. Being suddenly embarrassed can also cause it, such as when romanced with Joker saying something she didn't expect.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Her ability to see the destiny of other people got her discriminated against in her community, forcing her to move to Tokyo.
• Balance Buff: Chihaya's Arcana ability receives a buff in Royal, making it easier to gain affinity points in Confidant conversations. She also gained a new ability, the Celestial Reading, that automatically triggers a Fusion Alarm and increases the rate at which Fusion Alarms are earned for the rest of the day.
• Believing Their Own Lies: In a sense, Chihaya knows all along that the ADP group that she joined is a farce, but finds herself in too deep. She more or less has to convince herself that the Holy Stones actually do work, or else she'd have to live with the realization that she's been scamming desperate people out of their money.
• Cash Gate: To get her Confidant started, you need to pay 100,000¥ (a huge amount of money for the point she becomes available, at least on a first playthrough), dedicate three different days to making time to meet with her, and make one trip to Mementos to handle a request. Upon doing so, her Confidant gives you access to the best time-savers in the game, and you get the money back if you reach her ninth rank.
• Cassandra Did It: Back in her home community, her fortune-telling powers came to light after she predicted a massive earthquake, which led to her being revered as a messenger of God. When she kept doing it, however, they turned on her and began to believe she was cursed. This gradually escalated until an angry mob burned her house down.
• Church of Happyology: The organization she belongs to, the ADP, has more than a few similarities to a certain real-life "religious" organization, with brainwashing seminars, ridiculous cash gates for entry, and a disturbing amount of control over its members' lives.
• Country Mouse: She falls back on her rural accent when upset or when letting her guard down around Joker.
• Dramatic Irony: When Joker asks her what the full name of her boss is, she notices that the cards changed again, this time predicting that her future is in line with the Trickster.
• Everyone Has Standards: When you first encounter Chihaya, she's in denial about her holy stones being a scam. But when one of her clients reveals she wants one because she's suffering Domestic Abuse, Chihaya freaks out and instead tries to advise her to get the police involved.
• Expy: Shares her long blonde hair, headband, and predominantly purple outfit with Linda from the third episode of Lupin III: Part 1: "Farewell My Beloved Witch."
• The Fatalist: She is so taken aback by the Phantom Thieves' ability to Screw Destiny that she initially convinces herself that Joker is forging her readings, somehow. As later revealed, this is because she's convinced herself that selling her employers' Holy Stones is the only possible employment option she has; if fate can be changed, that means she's scammed people out of thousands of yen for no good reason.
• Forehead of Doom: Her headband covers it a bit, but her forehead is roughly the same size as Haru's notoriously large noggin.
• Fortune Teller: A fortune teller specializing in tarot cards. Before you start her Confidant route, she's even listed on the map screen as "Cheerful Fortune Teller".
• The Glomp: She will glomp onto Joker's arm and hug it if romanced while riding the Ferris Wheel.
• I Am a Monster: Chihaya considers herself a "monster with strange powers" while recounting to Ren her story of how she came to Tokyo from her country-side hometown.
• Knowledge Broker: Can provide information on other Confidants.
• Mark of the Supernatural: She has purple eyes, along with psychic abilities that are rumored to give fortunes that are always right. Late in her Confidant, it is confirmed that her abilities are indeed real.
• Money Multiplier: One of the abilities her Confidant unlocks is the Money Reading, which grants a substantial bonus to money earned in battles for the rest of the day.
• Mrs. Robinson: Downplayed, but unlike the other romanceable adult Confidants, Chihaya actually doesn't have any reservations over Joker being younger than her, even outright asking him if he Likes Older Women prior to the rank where a Relationship Upgrade can take place. However, her backstory implies that she's the closest in age to Joker out of all the romanceable adults, being in her early 20s at most.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Chizuko Mifune, a self-proclaimed psychic who became a test subject for an occult-interested psychologist. She was ridiculed as a fraud when the tests were revealed to be heavily doctored in her favor and she committed suicide shortly after.
  • Fukurai, the psychologist who studied Chizuko's abilities in reality, shares a name with the target of the Mementos mission 'Debunking the Psychic!'.
• Oblivious to Love: Chihaya is one of the few romanceable Confidants who the player can end up in a platonic relationship with even when they try to form an intimate one through not choosing specific dialogue options sometime during the Confidant. Chihaya especially fits due to her totally misinterpreting Joker’s confession of love to be something else entirely.
• Oh, Crap!: Chihaya finds herself having a crisis of conscience of following along with the ADP's con when one of her clients turns out to be the victim of spousal abuse. She struggles and tries to convince the woman to try and get authorities involved instead of buying one of the holy stones. Joker ends up stepping in and steals the heart of the lady's husband.
• Phony Psychic: Subverted. She seems like one at first, but it's quickly revealed that she does have actual divinatory ability. This is the basis of how she is able to help you advance with other Confidants. More notably, she is the only other person outside of the Velvet Room attendants to refer to Joker as "The Trickster," showing surprising awareness about his role in the grand scheme of the plot.
• Quest Giver: Early into Confidant, Chihaya, skeptical of Joker's ability to "change fate", challenges him to change the fate to one of her clients, a victim of Domestic Abuse. This involves him going into Mementos to change the abuser's heart. Later on, you have to change Fukurai's heart in order to put a stop to his organization's scams.
• Screw Destiny: A central theme in her Confidant as the player tries to convince her that you don't have to follow your destiny in order to be happy.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: While her confidant is all about taking fate into your own hands to carve your own future, there is one example in the DNA Media Comic Anthology in which her interaction with Joker results in this. She foresees that Joker will have a fight with someone precious to him by the end of the day. Predictably, Joker spends the entirety of the day trying to be as non-confrontational as he can. With five minutes left in the day, Joker is confidant that Chihaya's prophecy can't possibly be fulfilled. Unfortunately, Joker spending the entire day practically spitting on Chihaya's worldview eventually causes her to have a breakdown and they fight. With one minute left on the clock, Joker realises that Chihaya was the "precious person" and he's forced to concede her victory. Although she remains unaware of said victory, Chihaya is a rare case of the Seer fulfilling their own prophecy.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Her fortune telling powers are the real deal, but she also sells very expensive "holy stones" that aren't so genuine. It turns out that an organization is coercing her into selling these stones. Going through her Confidant gives her the courage to leave.
• Super Gullible: The man who recruited her to ADP presented himself as a fellow psychic and "predicted" that she was a runaway who was new to Tokyo. She lampshades later that it was fairly obvious since she was aimlessly wandering the streets with a luggage bag, but at the time she was so desperate for validation that she blindly believed him.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Her dress is covered in Wheel of Fortune symbols and she happens to be the Wheel of Fortune Confidant.
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Wheel of Fortune symbolizes bad luck and a resistance to change, which matches with her You Can't Fight Fate mentality and her history as being mislabeled as a portent of disaster. However, it also symbolizes breaking away from a negative cycle, which matches with how she not only accepts that fate can be changed, but also how she helps others change their fates for the better.
• You Can't Fight Fate: She thinks this, and starts getting pissed off when you complete her quests and discover that doing things causes her readings to change. She learns to roll with it.

Caroline and Justine (Strength) — (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Caroline (Left) and Justine (Right).

^{Click here to see their true form}

Lavenza

"Don't be so cocky."
"Don't be so naïve."

Arcana: XI. La Force (Strength)
Arcana Bonus: Advanced fusions, Persona-strengthening techniques, fusion bonuses, removal of fusion restrictions.
All voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (JP), Carrie Keranen (EN)

The new Attendants of the Velvet Room, a pair of young twins dressed as prison guards.

Unlike any other Confidant, which rank up at certain levels of affection or as the story progresses, their Confidant is progressed by bringing them Personas with specific abilities.

---

• Always Identical Twins: They're twins with the exact same facial features and heights. The only differences between them are their hairstyles, eyepatches, and tones of voice. Though in a subversion, we later learn that the real reason they look identical is because they're two halves of the same being.
• Ambiguously Human: They look human, but as residents of the Velvet Room are actually beings born of the collective unconscious. This is reflected in their terrible understanding of how the human world works, as Caroline mistakes a bicycle for an instrument (Dancing).
• Animal Motifs: Like Philemon, they have a butterfly association, as you hear their voice come from the one that appears to the protagonist early on, though which sister is speaking at the time is initially unclear. Turns out that's because it's less them than it is Lavenza, since that's the form she takes after she was split into the twins and is seen to have butterfly wings on the flowers of her headband once both fuse back together.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Elizabeth considers Lavenza a sassy know-it-all, though the Lavenza we see is quite the opposite. Whether Elizabeth is an Unreliable Expositor or Lavenza acts nicer around Joker is unclear.
• The Antagonist: They're the closest thing Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight has to one. The Excuse Plot revolves around them getting into an argument with Elizabeth about whose guest can dance better, and since the game takes place from S.E.E.S.'s perspective, your goal is to prove them wrong.
• Ascended Extra:
  • While in the base Persona 5 Lavenza only appears on the last day of the game and two days during its epilogue, in Royal, she appears for an extra full month and even has her own superboss fight.
  • In Strikers, while she does not play any role other than its source of exposition, she appears since the start of the game as the Velvet Room's sole resident.
  • In a similar role to Strikers, Tactica has Lavenza be the sole Velvet Room attendant to help Joker and the Phantom Thieves, provides exposition about the game's main villain and their powers, but she gets to bounce off the other cast members as she provides them with transportation to the final battle.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!:
  • Like their elder sisters Margaret and Elizabeth, they will try to overwhelm you with a non-stop onslaught of the highest-tier attacks in the game during their superboss fight. They'll back this up by baton passing to one another to throw out even more attacks should they knock one of your party members down. That said, they'll also throw out Diarahan to heal themselves in a pinch and will occasionally cast Dekaja to wipe out any buffs you have.
  • Their preference for all-out offense can be turned against them though, since they are not resistant to any kind of attack and their attack pattern is predictable until their HP hits the red. Switching Persona to reflect the attacks they will make the next turn will essentially allow you to have them defeat themselves.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Futaba immediately points out how cute they look at the start of their boss fight:
    "Huh? Who're these kids...? Awww... Those little costumes look perfect! They're so cute! Can I take them home with- Wait... What!? Whoa... for real!? These power levels...! Watch out! Those two are... monsters!"
  • Futaba's response when meeting them is consistent in Q2 and Dancing in Starlight. It appears as if Futaba really thinks that they are adorable.
  • They are also two of the most powerful beings in the game, surpassed only by Igor and the Holy Grail.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Not Caroline or Justine, but their true form, Lavenza:
  • She's very kind compared to the twins, but she's still not someone you want to push too far, as evidenced by her one-time yelling at Ryuji, and her Royal boss fight's victory screen, where she sports a terrifying Death Glare and Psychotic Smirk. Caroline's personality came from somewhere, after all.
  • In Tactica, she will ask Joker to come back to the Velvet Room when she calls for him so he can fuse personas. However, if the player opts to visit the Velvet Room before Fusion is unlocked, Lavenza will be surprised at Joker's insistence to visit before she is ready, eventually losing her patience with him. She eventually threatens Joker with treating him like an inmate, yelling at him in a tone not too dissimilar from Caroline from behind a welding mask, recomposes herself with a sweet smile on her face, and then sternly tells Joker in Justine's voice about coming back when she summons him, punctuated with Lavenza yelling "get the hell out!"
• Big Eater: During one of Caroline and Justine's hangout events, they go to Big Bang Burger with Joker and strongarm him into taking the highest-level Big Bang Challenge. When Joker struggles to get even halfway through (the burger is bigger than his head), the two quickly go on to finish it for him and are notably still hungry enough to eat a kids' meal immediately afterward.
• Big Sister Bully: They're apparently scared of their older sisters (Elizabeth and Margaret) for this very reason. Inverted in regards to Theodore, as they bully him just as much as their older sisters do although this is more the case when they were forcibly split and lost their memories. Their dialogue about him in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (when they have their memories) implies they do have respect for him under normal circumstances, though they certainly don't mind messing with him at times during the choreography.
• The Blacksmith: Due to the Kingdom's powers interfering with Joker's Wildcard abilities, Lavenza sets up shop as the Velvet Room Armory Ltd. in order to give Joker access to Fusion. Instead of the guillotines and other torturous fusion methods seen in Persona 5, Lavenza melts them down into either weapons or Sub-Personas. She also is dressed in appropriate attire for the job, wearing a heavy pair of gloves, a welding mask, and an apron over her normal dress.
• Blank White Eyes: If you induce an electric chair fusion accident with Lavenza, she makes this expression when she's shocked by the electric chair.
• Bodyguard Crush: At the end of their boss fight, Justine not so subtly hints that she's fallen in love with the Protagonist, and states that since she feels this way, Caroline probably does too, something that she fiercely denies. Lavenza even outright admits this, and at the very end of Strikers, she even confesses to Joker that he is the "strongest man in the world".
• Bond One-Liner:
  • After they've wrecked the party with their All-Out Attack: DON'T BE SO COCKY.
  • For Lavenza in Royal: DON'T BE SO NAÏVE.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: At the end of Strikers, Lavenza gives Joker the customary "You were truly a remarkable guest" send-off, as Igor isn't around for that game.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: An In-Universe Example, reaching rank 10 of their confidant allows the player to create any persona they please without a level restriction... for a modest fee of course.
• Butt-Monkey: Though not to the extent of their brother, none of the older siblings or any of the Persona users pay much attention to them and most of Joker's dialogue options involve making fun of them.
• Came Back Strong: After being bisected and reformed the first time, Lavenza learned how to do both herself, with no pain or cutting involved. Thereon, when she needs an extra set of hands- like during an All-Out Attack- she repeats the process effortlessly.
• Chainsaw Good: During a Fusion Error, the guillotines responsible for decapitating the Personas break down. Caroline fixes the issue by taking a chainsaw to the Personas with the biggest grin on her face. Lavenza whips it out herself in Royal when she takes over Fusion duties. She also uses it during her boss fight.
• Conflicting Loyalty: They have conflicting feelings about serving their master, and giving their guest a legitimate rehabilitation. When ordered to kill Joker, they side with Joker over their master. It helps that their master reveals himself to be Yaldabaoth in disguise shortly afterward.
• Creepy Good: Despite their low opinion of the protagonist, they are dedicated to rehabilitation, even if Caroline repeatedly voices her opinion of it being impossible. And even this and the "creepy" part in general is because of the Holy Grail's influence; Lavenza is otherwise a flat-out example of good.
• Creepy Twins: They're young girls who act as prison guards, and further seem to perfectly mirror each other's movements. This is perhaps a nod to the fact that they're not actually twins, or even two separate beings, but a Literal Split Personality of Lavenza.
• Cuteness Proximity: Justine is pleased when she discovers jellyfish, so much so that she tries to get a water tank installed in her and Caroline's room; Caroline is more covertly fond of orca whales.
• Dance Battler: They dance a lot during their boss fight. After performing an All-Out Attack, they perform a tango before their victory screen. In Persona Q2, their fusion sequence finishes with them dancing to complete the fusion... though a fusion accident causes Caroline to spin Justine right into a pissed-off Margaret, who drops Justine in a position opposite their normal pose, leading to the unusual result.
• Deadpan Snarker: Justine often snarks at her sister with little emotion.
• Dual Boss: As to be expected, when you fight them, you fight them together.
• Elemental Powers: Like Margaret in the previous game, the twins use abilities from all elements against you.
• Eyepatch of Power: They each have a black eyepatch on opposing sides of their faces. If previous games are any indication, they're among the most powerful characters in the setting. Their eyes are perfectly fine under there, and wearing them is meant to symbolize that they are two halves to one being.
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: It turns out that even though the Velvet Room is a magical place born from human consciousness, it still needs to be cleaned and its books kept. In Royals Thieves Den, Justine complains about Caroline slacking off from the former.
• Fate Worse than Death: Lavenza cannot die, so Yaldabaoth split her into two amnesiac pawns who were obedient to his will and remembered nothing of their identity or family.
• Fish out of Water: The twins are incredibly powerful Persona users and the toughest boss fight in the game by far, but they're woefully inept when it comes to understanding the human world. Neither of them understand what a bicycle or a bucket is on sight, mistaking the former for an instrument and struggling to understand the function of the latter. They also think Big Bang Burgers are literally from outer space.
• Flashback Nightmare: Played for Black Comedy. Lavenza has this about Yaldabaoth splitting her into the twins when Joker hangs out with her in LeBlanc. It scares her enough to wake her up instantly.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Their Confidant has them trying to figure out which one of them made the list of Persona fusions that the protagonist is working on, and why, with each of them suspecting that the other wrote it at various points. Technically, both of them did, since Lavenza made the list.
  • Although they follow the standard Velvet Room attendant color scheme of blue, black, white, and yellow, compared to the previous attendants, their blue hues are noticeably lighter. As Lavenza, her blue hue is closer to the standard.
  • Neither Justine nor Caroline, despite being Velvet Room attendants, carry a compendium or "Le Grimoire" book even though their older siblings carry them. In contrast, Lavenza carries an oversized one.
• The Gadfly: Justine, despite having a calm demeanor, enjoys needling Caroline, such as commenting on her handwriting when wondering who could have written the mysterious list of Personas for the protagonist to fuse.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Despite her meek appearance compared to Caroline and Justine, Lavenza cuts off your Personas with a chainsaw during a Fusion Accident. She also uses that chainsaw as a weapon in her bonus boss fight.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: In keeping with the Velvet Room's new form as a prison. Justine's kind demeanor while still reminding you that she thinks of you as a prisoner makes her the "good cop", while Caroline's blunt manner of speech, abrasive personality, and outright insults to Joker make her the "bad cop".
• Good Is Not Nice: The twins are wholeheartedly devoted to Joker's rehabilitation and supporting his efforts as a Phantom Thief, but they will repeatedly mock him throughout his stay in the Velvet Room. Caroline is particularly nasty and demeaning towards him. Even Justine, who initially seems like the nicer of the two, has plenty of moments that show she's really not that much better than her sister.
• Good Is Not Soft: Lavenza is much kinder to Joker than when she was split into Caroline and Justine. She also has no problems slicing your Personas in half with her oversized chainsaw, and she lets out a rather unsettling Psychotic Smirk if she happens to land one of her All-Out Attacks.
• Have We Met?: In Q2, Morgana instinctively follows their orders despite never meeting them before.
• Heel Realization: Both of them are horrified and beg for forgiveness upon realizing they've been helping the Big Bad all along.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: You can't defeat them when Yaldabaoth orders them to fight you. On the other hand, neither can they defeat you.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Lavenza (which the Twins share identical height with) is very short, especially visible when hanging out with Joker. She doesn't even reach his leg-height.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Caroline wears her hair in buns and has an eye patch over her right eye. Justine wears her hair in a braided ponytail and has an eye patch over her left eye. Also, their hats spell out every other letter of the word "oxymoron." Justine's hat reads "O-Y-O-O" and Caroline's wears "X-M-R-N".
• Improbable Power Discrepancy: Unlike the other Velvet Room Attendants, the Big Bad of this game is definitively more powerful than both Igor and Lavenza. He was able to take over the Velvet Room and split Lavenza into the amnesia-ridden twins. Despite this, in gameplay, Caroline, Justine, and Lavenza are all tougher than Yaldabaoth. This is unlike Elizabeth, whom in Persona 4: Arena regularly one-shots the Big Bad of P3, Erebus, or Margaret in Persona 4: The Animation, who gives Narukami a much tougher fight than the True Final Boss in the same episode.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Futaba's first reaction to them, should you fight them. She quickly changes her tune when she figures out how strong they are.
  Futaba: Huh? Who're these kids...? Awww... Those little costumes look perfect! They're so cute! Can I take them home with-Wait... What!? Whoa... for real!? These power levels...! Watch out! Those two are... monsters!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Caroline isn't nice, but it's quite clear she comes to respect the protagonist over the course of their social link, and eventually starts voicing her own uncertainties about whether or not Joker should even be punished. When she realizes what Yaldabaoth really is, she's just as horrified as her sister.
• Killer Rabbit: They seem to be children, and all of their Personas are either weak monsters, Adorable Evil Minions or both. But all of them will wreck you just like their three siblings did! In fact, when Futaba first saw them, she went from gushing over how cute they are to panicking over how strong they are, very much mirroring this trope.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: While Lavenza's existence is a major spoiler in Persona 5, in Persona 5 Strikers and Persona 5 Tactica, Joker meets her rather early on in both games.
• Lawman Baton: Caroline carries a baton that she uses to beat the bars of Joker's cell.
• Left-Handed Mirror: Caroline is the left-handed twin, while Justine is the right-handed one. This is more obvious during their date "assignments" in Royal, especially the one at Leblanc where Caroline eats curry holding the spoon with her left hand, and lifts her cup of coffee with the left one too. Lavenza, for the record, tends to hold her Le Grimoire in her right arm.
• Literal Split Personality: The twins are two parts of one single and distinct personality named Lavenza, having been split apart by the Big Bad. Even after they fuse back into Lavenza, she can still willingly split into the twins whenever she wants.
• Little Miss Badass: Lavenza looks slightly older than the twins and as her boss fight shows, proves to be greater than the sum of her parts. Unlike Caroline and Justine, her Personas are resistant to most types of attacks and in later stages of the fight, she can melee attack the party with a chainsaw when it's your turn. What's more is that Lavenza starts out using weak Personas, but gradually brings out stronger ones; when she decides to go all out, she uses Atavaka, Thor and Lucifer.
• Love Confession: If the protagonist speaks to Lavenza with the reward item from the superboss fight in his inventory, she tells Joker that she loves him and that he is the greatest man in the world.
• Magic Dance: They dance together to summon their Personas.
• Master of All: Their stats are all maxed out during their superboss fight. Even the Final Boss can't compare in terms of raw stats. They also possess the strongest versions of every elemental attack in the game and 999 SP to abuse them with reckless abandon.
• Meaningful Name: The Latin root of Justine is "Justice", and the German root of Caroline is "Freedom".
• Mirror Boss:
  • They're able to summon multiple Personas like the protagonist and can perform an All-Out Attack together, just like your party. They will also go out of their way to exploit the weaknesses of your party for bonus turns and will even Baton Pass to each other.
  • Lavenza in Royal trades having the Baton Pass for the use of advanced strategies that the player is likely to use. Her Personas all have as many resistances as possible, with only one element being effective at a time, she uses buffs and debuffs (her very first turn being spent dispelling the party's buffs, and casting Heat Riser on herself), as well as status ailments, if the player uses one of the barrier spells, she'll either cast one of the break spells or trigger it with an attack that her Persona either nulls or resists, and the lack of bodies doesn't impede her ability to perform All-Out Attacks, as if given the chance, she'll split herself into the Twins just to perform one.
• Misophonia Gag: Justine is disturbed by the creaking of the Skytree elevator, and in the same scene complains that Caroline talks too loudly.
• Ms. Exposition:
  • Lavenza as this in Strikers, where she briefs Joker about upcoming events like Igor once did in the past.
  • Due to Igor being absent as a result of events beyond his and Lavenza's control, she takes up this role in Tactica again, where she warns Joker about the events that are to pass as they explore and unravel the mysteries of the Kingdom. She also provides an explanation to the Phantom Thieves about the origins of the game's Greater-Scope Villain, how they're connected to Toshiro and Erina, and posits her own theories about the deity's role in the greater cosmology of the series.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Lavenza, in her latter stages, starts getting free normal attacks during your turns whenever she doesn't take damage that turn. It's weaker than her skills, but the damage can add up (especially if you need to take turns to heal), and it can be boosted if it triggers technical damage.
• Mythology Gag: After you defeat them in New Game Plus, Caroline complains about getting yelled at by her older sisters, and mentions ruling over power. Justine is confused about this, due to the memory issues they both have from being split.
• Never My Fault: Played for Laughs. During the outings with the twins in Royal, they'll occasionally cause a scene or make a mistake due to their naïveté or bickering, and then proceed to blame it on the protagonist for his "incompetence".
• Nice Girl: Lavenza is much more polite than the Tsundere Caroline or the condescending Justine.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The twins feature this dynamic with their true form, Lavenza: Lavenza herself is consistently polite and helpful, Caroline is a loud, angry Tsundere and Justine is generally cordial but has a tendency to be condescending towards Joker.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: If the party loses their superboss fight, it doesn't result in a game over. Joker is rewarded with an item depending on how much progress was made during the battle, and is sent back to Mementos.
• Note to Self: Lavenza and Caroline are constantly writing reminders to themselves, a habit which saves the former from Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Not So Above It All:
  • In Royal they ask to be taken to various places around the city for "research." At Big Bang Burger (the first place you take them), Caroline gets very obsessed with the toy spaceship that comes in a kid's meal.
  • Despite Lavenza being the more polite and mild-mannered compared to the twins, she isn't above falling into some shenanigans. She gets angry over a screwdriver that pricks her (threatening to cast Megidolaon inside Leblanc) and gets really into Joker playing a video game, cheerfully exclaiming "You did it! The world is saved!" when he beats it, before clearing her throat and recomposing herself.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Let's just say that Justine gets pretty intense during your battle, surprising even Caroline. As Lavenza, she can also get into the heat of battle and gives one hell of a sadistic look in her face in her All-Out Attack Finish, or when she whips out the chainsaw in a Fusion Accident. In Dancing in Starlight, if she is partnered with Elizabeth or Margaret, she angrily stomps her foot when they stand out more than her.
  • Lavenza's appearance in Tactica has her mostly in the stoic mentor role in place of Igor, being given temporary command of the Velvet Room due to events beyond her control. While she tries acting dignified, there are many times she loses her composure due to the malfunctioning forging equipment, causing her to take a page out of Elizabeth's book and whack it until it works properly.
  • Joker can hilariously invoke her ire after visiting the Velvet Room for the first time in Tactica, where he can repeatedly visit the room before she says it is ready, with Lavenza informing him that she will call him when she is. Visit her enough times, and she'll put on her welding mask and threaten Joker in a tone not too dissimilar from Caroline, and then, in her Justince voice, tells him to come back when she calls him, and Suddenly Shouting at Joker to "get the hell out!" If Joker visits her after that, she'll put on her welding mask and will give him a Death Glare behind it while wordlessly inching at him until he notes to come back later.
• Off with His Head!: They conduct Persona fusion through the use of guillotines, or a chainsaw in the event of an accident. Recreating Lavenza requires doing this to both of them. The Chainsaw would later become Lavenza's weapon and she will cut off the personas with it if she fails a fusion, with a rather unsettling expression on her face, no less.
• Oh, Crap!: Caroline panics when she sends Justine spinning into Margaret during a fusion accident in Q2.
• Order vs. Chaos: Justine and Caroline, with their at odds personalities and approaches to the protagonist's "rehabilitation", are associated with the concepts of justice and freedom respectively.
• Picky Eater: When Justine teases Caroline for playing with the kid's toy from the Big Bang Burger, Caroline retaliates by pointing out that Justine refused to eat the pickles on her burger. Also, neither of them can handle black coffee. When offered milk and sugar, Justine dumps so much sugar into hers that she runs out.
  Justine: Th-That wasn't food from this earth. It was clearly, ah... alien spawn of some sort.
  Caroline: WHAT?! Is this true?!
• Polar Opposite Twins: Justine is calm and kind but a bit of a Gentleman Snarker, while Caroline is comparatively rude, stubborn and bratty. This represents the duality of Joker's lifestyle.
• Polyamory: In the aforementioned love confession detailed in Bodyguard Crush above, if Joker says he can't choose between them, Caroline confusedly wonders aloud why would he do that when choosing one obviously would make the other feel bad. For her part, Justine ponders her words for a moment, finally settling on that "[she] would not resist [Joker] choosing the both of [them]", and then she asks if that is a strange thing to say. It's unclear whether their social skills are THAT bad or not. In any case, their matter-of-factly acceptance of the idea of this trope is eyebrow-raising for both the protagonist and the player, to say the least. Though of course, you're already aware of their true nature as Lavenza by the time you view this scene. Even when she splits back into two of them, she retains all of their memories.
• Precocious Crush: The twins develop a crush on the much older-looking Joker over the course of the game. However, since they're beings born from the Collective Unconsciousness, their apparent age could be just that. On the other hand, their Identity Amnesia resulting from being unwitting Literal Split Personalities from the same being means that they haven't experienced much of life beyond their duties in the Velvet Room, thus making their mental age even harder to gauge. As Lavenza, she even confesses her love in front of Joker, once during Persona 5 if you beat Caroline and Justine in their boss fight, and in Strikers after the party defeats The Reaper.
• Professional Slacker: In Royal, Justine confesses that she's been shunting her share of paperwork onto Caroline. She complains elsewhere that Caroline makes her maintain the Velvet Room's guillotine all on her own. It doesn't do them much good though, being as they are the same person.
• Promoted to Playable: Both of them (as well as Lavenza) are playable in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.
• Prestige Peril: Lavenza is calmer and more knowledgeable than her component beings, but also more somber: she remembers how much will be lost if she fails and how undeserving Joker is of the burden placed (in part by her, not that she has a choice) on him.
• Psychotic Smirk: Lavenza is very capable of these, as shown during her All-Out Attack finishing touch if you fail to pass an unlisted trial during her boss fight. Furthermore, if she fails a Persona Fusion in Royal, she will cut the Persona off with a chainsaw while making a rather unsettling smirk.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Caroline is a loud, energetic Tsundere while Justine is a calm, stoic Gentleman Snarker.
• Regular Caller: Even after Joker officially finishes his rehabilitation, the twins still summon him at will, like when they want help upstaging their sister. They give him a choice in the matter, though.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Their uncanny mirrored features were chosen to represent the Protagonist's own dual-faced nature.
  • Justine's hat reads "O-Y-O-O" and Caroline's wears "X-M-R-N". "Oxymoron" is a figure of speech that juxtaposes elements that appear to be contradictory, creating a paradoxical concept. In their case, wardens who are imprisoned.
  • When initiating their All-Out Attack, they summon Ardha together to knock everyone off their feet. In Hindu Mythology, Ardha is a being created by the god Shiva performing a Fusion Dance with his lover, Parvati.
• Shout-Out:
  • Like all of the Velvet Room attendants thus far, they are named after characters from Frankenstein; Caroline after Victor Frankenstein's mother and Justine after a servant framed for murder.
  • Lavenza is the maiden name of Frankenstein's adopted sister and eventual bride, Elizabeth.
• Sigil Spam: Their eyepatches and chainsaw have the Velvet Room's emblem on them. Lavenza has it on her lapel.
• Skilled, but Naive:
  • Like previous attendants of the Velvet Room, Caroline and Justine's vast knowledge of Personas is only matched by their cluelessness about the real world. Caroline thinks a bicycle is an instrument and immediately assumes an old sandbag is filled with ammunition and gunpowder. They quickly find themselves enamored with hot dogs and hoard them to pig out on in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.
  • In Royal, Caroline and Justine are both befuddled when Sojiro serves them curry, wondering why this brown sludge is consuming their rice. When Caroline asks about the fukujinzuke^note a type of pickled vegetable condiment, they mistake his explanation about it being named after the Seven Gods of Fortune for him killing a god and chopping it up to serve to them. They then conclude that Sojiro is a truly formidable man and that it's only natural for him to be able to rein in their inmate. They also need to have milk, sugar, and coffee explained to them.
• Sleepyhead: During the Third Term, Lavenza more often than not just dozes off when she's sitting on a sofa or bed. Whether she's this way naturally is uncertain though, as by her own admission, maintaining her existence in a world controlled by Maruki is no simple feat and the effort clearly exhausts her.
• Speaking Like Totally Teen: Downplayed. While Lavenza is the youngest looking Velvet Room attendant, she is also one of the most formal, which is evident in her speech patterns, so she tries injecting some contemporary slang in order to make her sound more human, with varying reactions.
  • During Royal's third semester, if Joker asks her why she's being so formal after saying "Hello. Thank you for coming," she is confused as she thought it was customary to exchange greetings like that. She changes her greeting to a casual "Wassup?" After a brief bit of confusion, Morgana just asks if they should start their meeting.
  • In Tactica, after Lavenza picks up the Phantom Thieves by train, Joker can ask if she wants to join in on their discussion, to which she calls it "hanging with the homies."
• The Stoic: Compared to her more hot-headed sister, Justine is quiet, soft-spoken, and shows little emotion.
• Stone Wall: In comparison to Caroline and Justine's boss fight, Lavenza weathers their attacks by being resistant to every damage type in the game. The party is forced to slowly whittle her down while she assails them with debuffs, buffs herself, and unleashes One-Hit Kill attacks like Mamudoon. She also shares her sisters' love for Megidolaon, firing it off every sixth turn to obliterate the party when her HP drops to a quarter.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Heavily implied as they have the trademark golden eyes and white hair the previous Velvet Room attendants (Elizabeth, Theodore, and Margaret) all have and those three had been confirmed to be "siblings" in earlier installments. It's later confirmed to be the case when Caroline mentions that "their sisters are gonna get mad [at them]" after you defeat the twins in their superboss battle like their siblings before them, much like what Theodore (the youngest of the set of three and said to be the only boy in the family) has made references to in the past. In addition, like her older sisters, Lavenza can be really terrifying whenever she has her adrenaline rush especially in the heat of a battle, showing how dangerous a Velvet Sibling is.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While Justine seems cold and detached at times, she often shows a caring side around Caroline and the protagonist.
• Superboss: You can fight them in New Game Plus. Defeating them earns the player the Omnipotent Orb and the Double Bookmark. Lavenza becomes an optional boss herself in Royal.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like the past few attendants, the twins also have yellow eyes, and are also of an otherworldly nature.
• Sweet Tooth: Caroline and Justine are put off by the bitterness of coffee and add so much sugar that they can feel it crunching on their teeth as they drink it.
• Tarot Motifs: When Strength is reversed, it symbolizes aggression and low energy, each one relating to the twins' personalities. It also symbolizes a lack of strength and a need to replenish it, which relates to how Yaldabaoth turned Lavenza into the twins on top of how they're all young girls.
• Time-Limit Boss:
  • A variation. Unlike Margaret, who used a version of Megidolaon that does 9999 damage every time every 50 turns, you have a certain amount of time to clear each of the twins' phases by reducing them to a certain amount of their HP, or they'll get bored with you and perform an All-Out Attack.
  • Lavenza works similarly, as you need to clear her "trials" within a certain number of turns, lest she stun the entire party for her own All-Out Attack and instantly end the fight. By the last leg of the fight, she'll also fire off Megidolaon every so often, but this is not an instant kill the way Margaret's is.
• Tsundere: Both twins develop crushes on the protagonist; however, Caroline tends to be this. This side of her gets more apparent as the protagonist advances the twins' confidant level. She tends to smile more and act nicer towards the protagonist after he completes a task, until Justine points it out or she realizes it herself. This causes her to slip back into her regular harsh personality and lash out at the protagonist. Futaba in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth outright calls Caroline a tsundere and both she and Justine take fun in poking her about it.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Caroline in particular hits a few of the bullet points. Their combined alien understanding of humanity only adds to the humor.
• Training from Hell: When taken to a gym, they are surprised to see a "training area" with no spikes or chains. Then again, Velvet attendants are significantly tougher than humans.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Despite Caroline and Justine being twin girls wearing matching prison uniforms and eyepatches with no real understanding of humanity, no one in Tokyo (barring Sojiro) seems to treat them with anything more than mild curiosity during the twins' hangout events.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight reveals that Lavenza can freely divide herself into Caroline and Justine at any time, retaining all of her memories whether she is one person or two. This ability is maintained in the third semester of Royal, where Lavenza uses it to split up for an All-Out Attack during her superboss fight.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Lavenza's very existence. The fact that the two attendants used to be a single individual is difficult to talk about without spoiling the plot twist involved.
  • Since it only takes place in a New Game Plus, their boss fight is filled with late-game spoilers, from implying that Morgana was born in Mementos, to Justine having a bookmark despite having no books, to Morgana vaguely remembering the twins if the fight is done when he's the navigator.
• Weak, but Skilled: When fighting against them in New Game Plus, they use a bunch of Personas that are considered weak.^note  e.g. Slime, Pixie, Jack Frost, Mandrake, etc. The keyword here being considered, as they have a bunch of powerful, endgame skills that can make them hand your ass to you if you're not careful. Played with regarding Lavenza's boss fight in Royal, as while she starts with traditionally-weak Personas, they quickly become stronger types you've been fusing all game—changing every turn that goes by—all of which are very powerful.
• What the Hell, Player?: Downplayed: If you quickly move through their dialogue menus, you'll be called rude for interrupting them by not letting the full voice clip play out.
• Willfully Weak: When they're ordered to kill Joker by Yaldabaoth, the twins effortlessly immobilize him before bombarding Joker with their most powerful attacks. Even though they are presumably still capable of doing so in their boss fight, they willfully choose not to in order to have more fun. They only unleash anything close to their full power if the fight drags on too long or you fail to satisfy their conditions, at which point they'll knock the entire party down before finishing them off with an All-Out Attack.
• You Are in Command Now: In Tactica, Lavenza is in charge of the Velvet Room; unlike in Strikers where Igor was presumably away on business of some kind, the Velvet Room was ripped out from his control by Salmael, forcing Lavenza to become its temporary proprietor in her master's absence. This also forces her to rework the Velvet Room's functions since the Phantom Thieves' Persona abilities have been hampered in the Kingdoms as well.

Munehisa Iwai (Hanged Man)

"You help me out with my 'business' — smugglin' goods, destroyin' evidence — and as a reward, I'll introduce you to the 'special menu,' with good prices for a punk like you."

Arcana: XII. Le Pendu (The Hanged Man)
Arcana Bonus: Gun customization and equipment discounts.
Voiced by: Hisao Egawa (JP), Kaiji Tang (EN)

The shady owner of "Untouchable", an airsoft and military surplus shop in Shibuya's back alleys. He provides the Protagonist, and by extension the Phantom Thieves, with the majority of their weapons and armor. He also offers access to his under-the-table stock in exchange for the Protagonist's help, both around the store and with his unscrupulous side-job.

---

• Abusive Parents: He grew up with a single mother who lived a very self-destructive lifestyle, and his lack of familial love drove him to join the yakuza at a young age. Iwai himself averts this through and through, as he went back to civilian life and opened the airsoft shop in order to provide for his adopted son, Kaoru.
• Animal Motifs: Geckos, which are present both on his menus and as a tattoo on his neck. He actually got the tattoo to match a scar on Kaoru's neck. The headphones he wears over his cap also bear some resemblance to the eyes of a lizard.
• Arms Dealer: He supplies the Thieves with their weapons from his surplus store. When Iwai puts two and two together, he decides to put extra effort on what he sells to Joker, though Iwai has no idea what they could be doing with fake guns and rubber knives.
• Badass Longcoat: Wears a spiffy grey longcoat.
• Brutal Honesty: He favors responses of this nature; voicing your disapproval of his formerly criminal life tend to get the most approval points out of Iwai. Early on he also approves when you point out you're helping him out of purely personal interest.
• Color Motif: His shop screen is predominantly green, tying into the military theme of his store.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He looks a lot like Jason Statham, and at one point in development was even wearing one of Statham's costumes from the 2013 film Hummingbird.
• Cop Hater: When the protagonist is first introduced to him thanks to Ryuji, he says that he doesn't want any cops to be drawn toward his business. If the protagonist says that he and Ryuji hate the police, Iwai says that he also hates them.
• Defector from Decadence: Used to be a yakuza thug, but the unexpected custody of Kaoru was enough to convince him to leave that life behind.
• Face of a Thug: He looks intimidating and being a former yakuza doesn't help.
• First-Name Basis: Late in his confidant, he starts calling the protagonist by his first name instead of "kid", having come to respect him.
• Friendly Shopkeeper: Although gruff and no-nonsense on the surface, Iwai is far from unreasonable and open to compromise. After you reach Rank 2, he will occasionally make idle comments about things like the model guns he sells or the weather during menu navigation. By the end of their confidant, he considers Joker "Kaoru's bro", and offers him discounts as well as access to some of the strongest equipment in the game even with the Velvet Room's itemization taken into account.
• Give Him a Normal Life: He doesn't give Kaoru up, but Iwai DOES go to great lengths to hide his past in the yakuza and the actual circumstances of his adoption (Kaoru believes his biological parents died in a car crash), because he fears that the resulting stigma would keep Kaoru from being accepted by society, much like he was as a child. Of course, when he learns the truth during the Rank 9 Confidant scene, Kaoru declares that it doesn't matter, saying he cares more about the fact that Iwai always worked so hard to support him.
• Good Parents: As a single dad he's one to his adopted son, Kaoru.
• Gun Nut: He's very knowledgeable in gun models, what with him running a shop that sells both fake airsoft guns as well as real ones from military surplus.
• Happily Adopted: He's the adoptive father of an abandoned boy named Kaoru. To elaborate: during Iwai's yakuza days, a random woman wanted to sell Kaoru to him to get more drug money; when Iwai refused, she left him behind anyway. Not wanting to let the boy suffer the way he did growing up, he took him in and left the Yakuza for good.
• Honor Before Reason: He still holds onto the yakuza's old codes, offering his blackmailer and former friend a trade in exchange for being left alone. It doesn't work so well.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gruff, no-nonsense demeanor aside, he's surprisingly quick to warm up to Joker. He also genuinely cares for his adopted son Kaoru and tries his damnedest to be a good parent to him.
• Leitmotif: Layer Cake, which plays whenever you're purchasing or selling stuff to him.
• Like a Son to Me: By the end of his Confidant, Iwai comes to see Joker in this light, calling him Kaoru's "bro" and thanking Joker for being such a good role model. He then goes on to hand Joker an Iwai family gecko pin and asks him to come eat with them when he visits next.
• Loser Son of Loser Dad: Nobody except the yakuza would take him in because he had a wastrel for a mother, and he's scared something similar will happen to Kaoru if word got out he used to be in the yakuza.
• Named After Somebody Famous:
  • Like most of the confidants, though his case is pretty obscure. Sokyu Imai (not Iwai) was a merchant and magistrate for the Sengoku warlord Nobunaga Oda and his successor Toyotomi. He earned a special commission to produce firearms and fireworks for the Oda army, which is quite appropriate for the proprietor of an airsoft shop who supplies the Phantom Thieves with their weapons. The allusion is subtly hinted at through the names of his son Kaoru and sworn brother Tsuda, who share names with the historical Imai's son and friend, respectively.
  • His name also serves as one half of an allusion to revered Japanese blacksmith, Masamune. Specifically, his nickname, Mune, serves as the suffix, while the prefix belongs to Tsuda's lackey, Masa. This mainly serves to highlight Iwai's proficiency in weaponry, even if the real Masamune had an affinity for swords as opposed to firearms.
• Oh, Crap!: His (very understandable) reaction when Tsuda pulls a gun on him in the eighth rank of his Confidant. It's not only the obvious threat of the gun; it shows that Tsuda has changed significantly for the worse, to the point of disregarding the code—something Iwai never expected from him.
• Oral Fixation: He always has what appears to be a cigarette or toothpick in his mouth. It's actually a lollipop. He even has a display box of them in the back of his shop.
• Papa Wolf: He is fiercely protective of Kaoru. The moment he hears that Masa kidnapped his son, he is seriously pissed. At the end of his Confidant, he even extends this same attitude towards Joker, who helped him every step of the way and became a brother figure towards Kaoru. When Joker is sent to Juvie, he uses some of his contacts to ensure that no one is allowed to touch him unless they fancy getting beaten bloody.
• Perma-Stubble: To emphasize his rough, unscrupulous nature.
• Precision F-Strike: In his Rank 9 event, he calls Masa a motherfucker after he kidnaps Kaoru.
• Put on a Bus: Isn't around in Tokyo by the time the Phantom Thieves need weapons again at the beginning of Strikers, requiring the party to find other methods of purchasing gear. Morgana suspects it might be because he's spending Summer vacation with his son.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: After Joker hands himself in to testify against Shido, if Iwai's Confidant is maxed-out, he uses his connections leading to prison to make sure no one hurts Joker while he's serving time. He also uses a rather shady yakuza/prosecutor connection to help sway more allies to Sae's side.
• Tarot Motifs: The Hanged Man symbolizes letting go, and part of his story is coming with terms with cutting ties with his old family and trying to accept his new one. However, the Reversed Hanged Man symbolizes indecision and resistance, and Iwai's stubborn adherence to keeping his yakuza past hidden from Kaoru along with his doubt as a father figure both inadvertently cause a rift between them.
• Tattooed Crook: Has a purple gecko tattoo on the side of his neck, and is a former yakuza. Ironically, the tattoo actually has nothing to do with his yakuza days; he got it to match Kaoru's scar, and because it symbolized their link as a family. Given the nature of the yakuza with how severing your ties usually means cutting oath cups and fingers, it ironically makes sense as a lizard's tail can grow back. So in spite of Iwai cutting ties with his yakuza family and his friend, he ultimately gets a new family in the form of Kaoru, and even gets to go back to his past ways by helping Joker do illegal modification for his airguns.
• Troubled, but Cute: Given his old life and past ways, the combination of his tough personality and soothingly deep voice easily make him this.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Iwai likes you better if you go with more aggressive, demanding, and cynical responses.
• We Buy Anything: He's the only person willing to buy any of the treasures from heists. However, there is one thing he will not buy — airsoft guns, claiming he can't reliably resell used merchandise, which might have after-purchase modifications.
• Yakuza: He was one in the past. He left that life to care for his son, but his Confidant drags him back into it.
• You Got Guts: He approves for being bluntly honest in general, but doubly so when it comes to saying things that could really get the crap beat out of you such as calling him pathetic or a former thug.

Tae Takemi (Death)

"Oh, well. All that matter is that thanks to you I was able to get some good data."

Arcana: XIII. L'Arcane sans nom (The Nameless Arcana, a.k.a. La Mort [Death])
Arcana Bonus: New medicines and accessories, item discounts.
Voiced By: Yuka Saito (JP), Kirsten Potter (EN, Persona 5), Abby Trott (EN, Persona 5 Royal, The Animation)

The proprietor of Takemi Medical Clinic, a back-alley practice near Leblanc. Hoping to find a source of medical assistance for their ventures, the protagonist and Morgana investigate a rumor about her prescribing "special medicine". After some negotiating, she agrees to sell him medicine under the table in return for his cooperation in a series of clinical trials for a new drug.

---

• 10-Minute Retirement: When her former superior tells her that the patient she was developing her medicine for has died, she believes that her work has lost its purpose and gives up on further clinical trials, preventing you from progressing her Confidant any further. It takes changing her superior's heart in Mementos—causing him to confess to having framed Tae and lied about the patient's death—to bring her out of her depression.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: Her checkup on Futaba serves as her formal introduction in the manga despite being one of the first confidants to be unlocked.
• Affectionate Nickname: Acting more aloof in the beginning, it's shown she takes a liking to Joker when he starts partaking in her clinical trials. She never calls him by his name, however, routinely addressing him "my little guinea pig" instead.
• Alliterative Name: "Tae Takemi".
• Back-Alley Doctor: Ignoring that her clinic is literally located in a back alley, Tae straddles the line because, while she has a legit medical license and training, she still has a reputation as one. After being fired from her prior job at a major hospital, she formed her own private practice in a literal back alley, where she treats her patients with her own brewed medication. Due to this, she's frequently under suspicion by the police. Despite this, Tae actually follows a code of ethics. For instance, she initially planned to turn Joker away the first time they met, assuming he was some junkie looking for his next fix. When that turns out not to be the case, she still only sells medicine that's the equivalent of Nyquil: Not dangerous, but might draw a lot of unnecessary attention if you buy a lot of it. Further, the medicine she has him test out for her is medicine that is already at the stage where it's safe to be tested on humans.
  • Before you start her Confidant route, the map screen even outright calls her "Back-Alley Doctor".
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Her unusual fashion sense, creepy demeanor, and morbid sense of humor aside... Dr. Takemi is a brilliantly talented physician.
• Casting Gag: This isn't the first time Kirsten Potter has played a disgraced Japanese doctor with an awful nickname (Devil Doctor for Naomi, Plague Doctor for Tae) in an ATLUS game.
• Casual Kink: Getting her in the mood during a romantic Confidant sees her go from actual doctor to parody seeking to perform a "full body examination". Completing her Confidant and finishing the game has her reward you with dog tags, likely the medical variant. But taking into account how insistent she has been that you are her guinea pig, and, well...
  • However, funnily enough, it appears that even she has her limits as she reacts with disapproval when Joker asks her to punish him more in one conversation.
  Tae: *sigh* Good god. Well, none of my medicine can cure THAT.
• Clear Their Name: Subverted. While she was framed by her boss and was blacklisted for it, she is not the least bit concerned with proving her innocence, instead focusing on perfecting the medicine to save her old patient. The player has the option of playing it straight by stealing her boss's heart and making him confess, clearing her of guilt.
• Color Motif: Her shop screen is predominantly blue and white, tying into her career as a doctor.
• Delicate and Sickly: Not now, but in the past. She mentions late in her confidant that she was a very sickly child and spent most of her childhood in hospitals with medicine being the only thing that saved her from certain death. Those experiences are what has motivated her to become a doctor.
  • Subsequently, given Tae's childhood, it's very possible that one of the reasons why Tae is so obsessed with saving Miwa-chan is that she sees herself in Miwa-chan.
• Did They or Didn't They?: If the player pursues a romance with her, their final scene heavily implies they did, with her asking if he'd like a "thorough examination" since Sojiro isn't around and that she'll "take [her] time." She even leans in and gives him a kiss as the screen fades to black. Before said final scene, her text message to Joker has her mention that coffee is a stimulant and thus won't be able to get sleep, a line that becomes much more suggestive with this context.
  • In '"A Magical Valentine's Day'' OVA, her Valentine's with Ren is more suggestive than the others, with her removing her coat as she has Ren lie down, before proceeding to join on top of him.
• First Girl Wins: In a sense, if she is romanced. She and Ann are the first romance-capable Confidants, as their links both start on the same day. However, Kawakami is the first potential romantic partner met in the story. That being said, she does get a VERY brief cameo the first day Joker arrives in Yongen-Jaya, walking past him in the alley and heading directly to her clinic.
• Friend to All Children: Tae's primary motivation for perfecting her medicine is so that she can use it to save Miwa-chan's life. Tae explicitly says that she's not doing this for money or fame but so that she can see Miwa-chan's smile. It goes to the point that she pretty much gives up on being a doctor upon hearing the false news of Miwa-chan's death.
• The Gadfly: She enjoys teasing people, particularly by saying that she's going to charge outrageous sums of money for her services and letting them sweat a little before informing them that she'll actually help for free.
• Graceful Loser: In her penultimate event, she will ask why you keep seeing her. If you say "It's for my exams," thereby implicitly rejecting her advances, she calmly says she "can take a hint."
• Heroic BSoD: Has this, along with a Twisted-Knee Collapse, when her former boss tells her that the patient she's been developing the medicine for has died. He's lying, but you only find out after you defeat him and steal his heart.
• Hidden Depths: Taking Ann to the Meiji Shrine will result in an event where they meet Takemi. Surprisingly, she turns out to be very well-versed in traditional Shinto prayer rituals.
• Hospital Hottie: Her figure gets a lot of emphasis in her shop screens.
• I Choose to Stay: Zigzagged. After her name is cleared, she is offered a position at her old hospital, suggesting that she must choose between it and her clinic. She ends up taking the job but continues running the clinic on the side.
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: For all her teasing towards Joker, she's actually shocked, somewhat unsettled, if he actually confesses to her.
• Insecure Love Interest: Once she and Joker start dating she mentions that she has never considered herself to be girlfriend material, especially for someone as heroic as Joker.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: But of course. She only wears it in the clinic though.
• Leitmotif: Butterfly Kiss, which plays when you're buying medicine from her.
• Love Epiphany: If Joker confesses to her at Rank 9 and then refuses to play it off as a joke, Takemi will try to turn him down gently as par for the course. However, she soon discovers that she just can't say the words, only then realizing she wants a relationship with him despite admitting she has no idea how to go about it because she's well aware Joker is still a minor.
• Mad Doctor: In early game footage, her public medical clinic had a prominently-displayed X-ray of a tuna fish, a warning sign depicting a teddy bear stabbed full of syringes, and a pressurized tank with a bio-hazard label. In the final game, her examination room is a whole lot more mundane (but still has the syringe-riddled teddy bear poster). Subverted when it comes to her ethics, though—her trials are completely within cautionary guidelines, and the only reason she's working out of an alley is that she actually had more morals than her former boss. She actually doesn't really want patients, so it's implicitly another way she tries to scare them away.
• Meaningful Name: One of the meanings of the name Tae in Japanese is "intelligent" which certainly fits her given that she manages to come up with a cure for a rare disease entirely on her own.
• Misfit Lab Rat: An older, subdued example, but the outfit she wears in her clinic is basically an 80's-era punk dress with a labcoat over it and platform gladiator sandals. Her casual outfit is no different: a blue dress with a white spiderweb pattern on it, a black jacket, torn black leggings, and heeled ankle boots.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Starts out as the eccentric doctor in the creepy, back-alley clinic who doesn't get a lot of patients and likes it that way. Her reputation as "the Plague" doesn't help either. This changes about halfway through, when she cures a young girl (who the hospitals couldn't or wouldn't help), to her initial chagrin. At the end of her confidant, she has built up a decent, loyal patient base, and she gladly passes up a job at the hospital to keep her clinic open.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Taro Takemi, an internationally acclaimed Japanese physician who invented the vectorcardiograph and headed both the Japan Medical Association and the World Medical Association.
• Nice Girl: For all of her weirdness, she is a genuinely caring and concerned doctor.
• Odd Name Out: Applies less to her and more her Arcana. All the other arcana seen in the game are labeled on their card image with their names in French, but hers isn't called "La Mort", even though the number and imagery indicate that it is Death like the game tells you. This is because in some versions of Tarot (like the Marseille deck that Persona 5's is based on), it was seen as unlucky to have it explicitly identified as Death, with the card literally being nameless instead.
• Perky Goth: Well, perky punk. Aside from her outfits, there's nothing punk about her. Her demeanor is friendly and professional in her coldest moments.
• Playing with Syringes: Flavor text in her shop menu encourages the player to "Take an Injection!" Combine that with her clinic's rather strange decorations...
• Put on a Bus: Sort of. When Joker and Morgana visit her clinic in Strikers to buy supplies like usual, they find out she went out of town for a conference.
• Red Baron: Due to an incident in the past, she is labeled in the medical community as "the Plague". As it turns out, it wasn't her fault, as she was scapegoated for the mistakes of her former director.
• Rule of Sexy: In Real Life, doctors need to wear pants.
• The Scapegoat: During her Confidant, it's revealed that she once worked at a University Hospital that was researching a new drug to treat a type of illness. The director of the research group wanted to move on to human testing despite Takemi telling him that it was not ready. The human trials still went through, and one of the patients got severely ill. The director panicked and pinned all the blame on Takemi, who was the lead researcher at the time, resulting in her being fired and blacklisted, and forced to work from her now iconic small alley clinic. It's revealed that the testing she does on the Protagonist is the same drug from the incident, and that she has been refining it, despite her limited funds.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: While she may seem seedy and untrustworthy at a glance, she's only working out of a back-alley clinic because her old boss rushed an experimental drug for fame and fortune and pinned it on her when it all went south. She's been spending all of her time and resources trying to perfect the drug and undo the damage he did. While she's blunt about how expensive her new medicines are, once threatening to charge a million yen^note Roughly $9,170, £6,660, or €7,550 for a single dose, she doesn't exactly expect her patients to actually pay for them and completely waives the fee when she learns that her old boss had failed to treat a girl Tae was helping.
• Secret-Keeper: Not that she bought Joker's excuse from the start, but at the end of their Confidant she outright tells him that she put two-and-two together after her old boss had a conveniently sudden change of heart after threatening to shut down her clinic and revoke her medical license.
  Tae: By the way... how have I been doing? Have I been helpful? For your escapades with the Phantom Thieves, I mean?
• Shorter Means Smarter: Without her heels, Tae is only a bit taller than Futaba, and she's a brilliant physician.
• Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Tae was a very sickly child and spent most of her childhood in hospitals with medicine being the only thing that saved her from certain death. However, she has not only made a seemingly full recovery by the start of the story but has also become one of the most brilliant doctors in Japan.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Subverted. Rumors were spread by her boss to make others believe she's a quack, but her house-made medicines are actually extremely effective and her treatments work wonders when the big hospitals are stumped.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Played with. She's friendly and would never actually want to harm a patient, but she does enjoy watching Joker squirm while trying a new medicine.
• Tarot Motifs: Reversed Death symbolizes resisting change and stagnating, and despite her skills and budding rapport with the people in Yongen, she initially vehemently denies her skills as a doctor.
• The Tease: She makes very suggestive statements from time to time to test Joker's reaction.
  Tae: Go on home before it gets dark... Or... I could give you a very special examination if you'd like.
  Tae: I'll give you a special discount on my medicine. What if you get a nosebleed from all the excitement?
• Tsundere: While calm, aloof and confident normally, she tends to get a bit flustered when complimented, praised, or when her Nice Girl side shows.
  • Towards the end of her confidant path, her texts to Joker become increasingly... confused.
  Tae: I'm just checking, but... You're not having any side effects, are you? Well, as long as you're healthy... Bye.
  Joker: I'll go to the clinic.
  Tae: Huh? We're not going to do a clinical trial. I didn't contact you because I wanted you to come over... But if you want medicine, I guess there's no helping it. OK, do as you please.
• Vague Age: Tae's age is unknown (other than that she is older than Joker). However, the fact that she is a doctor who runs her own clinic means that she has to be at least in her very late twenties or early thirties.
• The Wonka: Her weird choice in decoration and her punk medical outfit belies the fact that she singlehandedly perfected an experimental drug.

Sadayo Kawakami (Temperance)

^{Click here to see her as Becky}

"The way you opposed Mr. Kamoshida, I'd say that you're earnest and have a strong sense of justice. That being said... you called a maid service and requested me?"

Arcana: XIV. Tempérance (Temperance)
Arcana Bonus: Additional activity time slots, free crafting items, massages to allow night activity after Metaverse exploration.
Voiced by: Mai Fuchigami (JP), Michelle Ruff (EN)
Stage actors: Sawa Minami (The Stage)

The protagonist's homeroom teacher at Shujin Academy. While initially somewhat strict towards Joker, things change once he discovers her part-time job at a sketchy maid service. Fearing what would happen if her co-workers found out, she strikes a deal with him, allowing him to slack off in class in exchange for his silence.

---

• Adaptational Curves: The Animation gives her a more prominent cleavage while in her maid outfit.
• Adults Are Useless: She initially falls into this, constantly complaining about having to deal with Joker, a transfer with a criminal record (often to his face), and overall is rather apathetic about teaching. She didn't use to be this way however; she was once a rather passionate teacher who tried to give extra attention to students in need of it. However, after one such student died from overwork because of his abusive parents and Kawakami received the blame, she began to withdraw from caring. Upon completing her Confidant, she regains her passion for teaching and moves away from this.
• Almighty Janitor: A fairly mundane version- she can cook and make coffee as well as Sojiro,^note Provided you're far enough in both of their Confidants she can clean the bizarre garments recovered from the Metaverse, and she can even make Joker's infiltration tools (although she doesn't seem to question why the protagonist would need lockpicks and smoke bombs, even before she learns he's a Phantom Thief). The fact that someone so multi-talented is working as a simple high school teacher is mind-boggling, to say the least, though her Confidant makes it clear that she does it because she simply loves teaching.
• Apathetic Teacher: Upon first introduction, Kawakami gives this vibe. She's initially reluctant to take on Joker as a student because she considers having a delinquent student to be too big of a hassle. Even beyond that, she comes off as disinterested in her role as a teacher and reluctant to get invested in her students. Kawakami's Confidant reveals that the last student she took a personal investment in ended up dying in an accident after being overworked by his guardians, and Kawakami was blamed by both the school and the student's guardians for his death. Completion of her Confidant sees Kawakami develop into becoming a Cool Teacher once more.
• The Atoner: She feels guilty about canceling her tutoring for her old student, Takase, once people started criticizing her for playing favorites, as well as buying into the labels people placed on him. For this reason, she pays money to his guardians until she decides that the best way to make up for it is to be as good of a teacher as possible. Unfortunately, the Takases have a different idea of what she needs to do to make amends, since they're incredibly greedy individuals which prevent her from being able to be a teacher.
• Bad Liar: Her claim that she's using her side job as a maid to pay her sister's hospital bills seems decent enough when you first hear it. But if you mention it again, she'll be surprised you remembered, and after receiving another call from her blackmailers, she'll make up a vague excuse about her sister's condition without even naming the disease.
• Big Sister Instinct: Moonlights as a Meido for a escort agency posing as a cleaning service after school in order to support her hospitalized younger sister. She later reveals that this is a lie. In reality, she is being financially exploited by guardians of a former deceased student.
• Blackmail: At the former school that Sadayo used to teach at, she ended up tutoring one of her students who was struggling to stay caught up in class. The student was struggling because he also had a part-time job to support the debts his guardians were creating. The student ended up dying in a car accident and the guardians decided to push the blame onto Sadayo for "overworking" him, and have been exploiting her for money ever since.
• Born Unlucky: When responding to a housekeeping request as part of her job as a Meido, she ends up meeting Joker, her own student. Thankfully, he doesn't take any malicious advantage of this and she's happy to serve him. However, she is also being blackmailed by the former guardians of a deceased student who extort her for money; otherwise they'll pass her second job off as a sex worker. Thankfully, things look up for her if the Phantom Thieves reform the guardians and she resolves to be a great teacher.
• Cash Gate: With two exceptions (her Rank 7 and Rank 10 events), every meeting with Sadayo costs 5,000¥.
• Contrived Coincidence: Out of all the maids as part of Victoria's Housekeeping that could've been observed in "Operation Maidwatch", her client was Joker, who even asked for a random maid. She even lampshades it:
  Kawakami: Did you request me specifically?
• Cool Teacher:
  • At the start, stress from working two jobs left Kawakami relatively unmotivated as a teacher. Her backstory then reveals there's more to this than meets the eye. The last time she got personally invested in a student's success, he took on too heavy of a load and died in a car accident after she was forced to stop offering him tutoring. Her Confidant ultimately allows her to overcome this and reignites her passion for teaching.
  • Gameplay-wise, progressing in her Confidant will sometimes let Joker "slack off" in her class, allowing him to craft materials, read a book, get some sleep (which improves Joker's relationship with a random Confidant), or quietly study on his own (which boosts his Knowledge). A later ability will randomly have her call other teachers out of their classrooms over the PA system, letting Joker potentially do the same in any class.
• First Girl Wins: In a sense, if she is romanced. While her Confidant starts a bit later, namely midway through the Madarame arc, she is the first potential love interest that the player meets in the story.
• Good Counterpart: Arguably to Kamoshida as both a teacher and a potential love interest, staying far away from anything that could be considered abuse towards her students, whether she's romantically involved with them or not; the relationship she could have with Joker is shown to be much normal than with Kamoshida and Ann or Shiho, being far more willing to let him do what he needs to do without her getting in the way. And while Kamoshida tried to pressure Ann into sleeping with him, as a love interest, Kawakami refuses to sleep with Joker until he has graduated high school.
• Hidden Depths:
  • An optional hangout event with Ryuji at the fishing pond reveals she's into fishing, and skilled enough at it to catch the Ichigaya Guardian in broad daylight.
  • Just about everything she does as a Meido indicates that she's pretty competent at anything she puts her mind to. Her problem is that she's spreading herself so thin, she never gets to show it off.
  • Not long after Kamoshida's confession after his change of heart, Kawakami actually tells her class that she feels guilty for turning a blind eye to Kamoshida's actions. Kawakami is explicitly the only faculty member who doesn't try to downplay it and expresses guilt over her own shortcomings.
• Hot Teacher:
  • She's quite pretty, given her age. It's how she's able to keep working as a maid, even if she doesn't get as many calls as the younger maids do.
  • In episode 19 of the anime, she shows off her figure while taking selfies of herself in various swimsuits. She gets a modified version of this scene in Royal.
• Implausible Deniability: When she goes into a coughing fit as a result of overworking herself, she tries to cover herself by complaining about the dust in the room. While the attic Joker uses as his bedroom is fairly dusty, it's easy to see that it's not what's causing her to cough.
• The Ingenue: Invoked with her Becky persona; Sadayo is required to put on a peppy, cutesy personality. Her attempts at forcing it lead to a rather unsettling expression. She even admits with the right dialogue choice that she feels dumber whenever she does this, and at one point Joker can flat-out ask her to never do it again. Averted with her actual personality otherwise, which is world-weary, perceptive, and professional.
• In-Series Nickname: She uses the alias "Becky" when working her second job.
• The Jailbait Wait: Though Kawakami is willing to start a romantic relationship with Joker (if pretty uncomfortable about it at first), on Christmas eve, she outright turns down his advances to sleep with her when they get snowed in at Leblanc, not wanting to potentially ruin either of their lives by sleeping with an underaged student.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Her completely astronomical chances of showing up to a maid request placed by Joker ends up being her only lifeline out of her being stuck under a blackmail scheme since he's the one person with enough power to end it.
• Luminescent Blush: If the protagonist accepts Ryuji's invitation to hang out at the fishing pond on July 3rd, they will run into Kawakami who's taken up fishing as stress relief. After she gives them some grief for spending time like old men and encroaching on her relaxing spot, Joker gets the chance to return the favor and stun the moonlighting Meido into blushing silence with one well-chosen word:
  Ryuji: Holy crap... Kawakami could be our master fisher, [Joker]. She's hookin' fish like crazy...! […] She keeps gettin' fish even as she nags... I'm impressed!
  Joker: Call her "Master" Kawakami.
  Kawakami: (blushes) ...Once again, it's MS. Kawakami.
• Meido: Dresses as one while moonlighting as a "health delivery" girl. After she quits the job, she still dresses that way to avoid being recognized as seeing a student outside of work, even lampshading the fact that they let her keep the costume after she quit. In gameplay terms, her Confidant abilities allow Joker to call for her services. Kawakami can make coffee, cook curry, do Joker's laundry, or make one infiltration tool without causing time to pass. If you Max out her Confidant, she'll also offer a special massage that re-invigorates you after an excursion into the Metaverse, allowing you to pursue nighttime activities that evening.
• Mellow Fellow: Subverted Trope. She's fairly easy going and never loses her cool... in public. As soon as she feels free to do so, she collapses into an exhausted, miserable heap.
• Messy Hair: Outside of her second job, her hair seems about as frizzy as Joker's.
• Ms. Fanservice: In episode 19 of The Animation, she tries on various swimsuits while making rather provocative poses to herself. In Royal a similar scene gets added to the Hawaii trip.
• My Beloved Smother: Played for Laughs in her platonic Rank 10 Confidant. Kawakami will start grilling Joker on needing to pick up a better diet and the state of his room. The player even has the option to respond with "you're not my mom", which she takes in stride.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Sadayakko Kawakami was a famous Geisha who made it big in the States as an actress around the 1900's and founded the first school for actresses upon her return to Japan.
• Nice Girl: Once you get past her weariness and cynicism (which are, for the greatest part, a consequence of stress and fatigue), Kawakami is a kind, noble woman who genuinely wants to do a good job as a teacher.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The reason why she's taken a side job started when she decided to help tutor a struggling student instead of simply convincing him to transfer schools, after discovering the reason for his poor academic performance was because of covering for his guardians' debts. Kawakami was then accused of playing favorites and was threatened with firing, pressuring her into cancelling her tutoring sessions with him. Said student then died in an accident on the same day due to being exhausted from the tutoring sessions and his part-time jobs, and since then, his guardians have been blackmailing her for indirectly causing his death ever since. All this for just genuinely wanting to help a student.
• Oh, Crap!: She has this reaction when the last people she wants to see, the guardians of her dead former student, show up in her hospital room to shake her down.
• Parental Substitute: Less pronounced that Sojiro, but if you take the platonic route of Kawakami's confidant, she begins to dote on Joker, showing concern for his living condition and his diet. She also makes it known that she wants Joker to feel that he can rely on her as an authority figure and come to her if he ever needs help.
• Permanently Missable Content: Her level 8 Confidant event takes place at school during the day, so if it hasn't been completed before Joker leaves school due to faking his death her Confidant link can't be completed. Averted in Royal if the third semester is unlocked as Joker will go to school normally and the Confidant will resume.
• Platonic Prostitution: She moonlights as a Meido-style "health delivery" girl, which is considered part of Japan's sex industry, but in a role closer to a stripper or hostess — officially, they don't have sex with clients, which would cross a red line. In her Confidant link proper, Joker can certainly ask for these "other services", but she refuses to do so. Of course, that all gets thrown out the window if the player chooses to romance her and she quits said job. The potential job transfer she considers taking toward the end of her Confidant link thoroughly averts this, however — they're not even trying to pretend it's not a call girl job. It also reveals that the company she works for is smart enough to have at least one division dedicated to being a legit maid service, with the actual call girl service being deemed a "sister" company. The Takases outright accuse her of being a sex worker after she tells them she won't pay them anymore, while threatening to sue her and the school.
• Secret-Keeper: Along with the usual Confidants knowing that Joker is a Phantom Thief case of this, Sadayo also plays a part during the Shido's Palace heist. After Joker fakes his death, Sadayo informs the other staff and students at Shujin that he's going back to his hometown for a month due to "family reasons" via info obtained from Sojiro, assisted by the fact that the Antisocial Force did not release his name, allowing Joker to hide himself from the public before he reveals himself to Shido that he's still alive on their last Calling Card act.
• Secret Sex Worker: She moonlights as a meido-style call-girl. She does this to pay the relatives of a kid she once tutored who died tragically, as they are sueing her for his death. Although she's never explicitly stated to have sex with her clients, her profession is still considered a form of Platonic Prostitution, with her arriving at clients homes to cook and clean for them while wearing a maid outfit. When Joker first finds out about her second job, she has him promise to keep it a secret, as anyone finding out about what she does after school would obviously be scandalous.
• Self-Deprecation: Kawakami has a habit of falling into this due to feeling ashamed about her second job and considers herself a "rotten" teacher. As you learn more about her backstory, it becomes apparent that the ordeal of one of her students dying, the subsequent blackmail by the student's guardians, and the stress it's causing her over money are doing a number to her self-esteem.
• Something Only They Would Say: Her recognizing Mishima and Ryuji's panicking in the anime is what confirms Ren's suspicions about "Becky".
• Stepford Smiler: Between her teaching and Maid career, Sadayo puts up the front of being carefree and upbeat despite the two jobs being a physical strain on her. And then it's revealed that she is being blackmailed by the guardians of one of her former students who passed away, which is the root of all her troubles and guilt.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: The day after Joker finds out about her maid job during "Operation: Maidwatch", she's being grilled by Ms. Chouno, who finds her sporadic timing of work hours suspicious. If Joker intervenes, Ms. Chouno thinks that it's because Kawakami gives him private lessons as support. She goes along with this, permanently getting Ms. Chouno off her back.
• Tarot Motifs: Reversed Temperance is viewed as a sign that you need to find balance in your life due to various reasons, one of which being negative thought processes, like how Kawakami blames herself for the death of one of her students.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Yes, you can actually romance her. That said, the idea of going out with her is hit with Deconstruction, in that she's legitimately concerned about the stigma, and she repeatedly urges Joker to put it on hold until he graduates — outright telling him I Will Wait for You at the end of the game. It's also played with during her penultimate rank up event: if you choose to pursue her, you have to respond affirmatively two more times to romance her; answer with a platonic choice even once, and this gets averted.
• The Tease: In The Animation, Kawakami actually propositions Ren several times, offering her some of her extended services like massages and actually gets disappointed when he doesn't take her up on her offer. This is a far cry from the game where, even after coming to an agreement she's still conflicted over Joker requesting her services.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: During an optional hangout event with Ryuji at the fishing pond, she repeatedly reminds Ryuji to refer to her as Ms. Kawakami.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Early on, Sadayo actually doesn't want Joker to be one of her students because of all the rumors surrounding him. After he stands up to Kamoshida, she starts to warm up to him.
• Unkempt Beauty: She usually looks like she has a serious bedhead going on, and her clothes aren't the nicest or most well-kept, but she's still quite pretty.
• Vague Age: While her age is not officially confirmed in-game, the official art book implies that Kawakami is at least somewhere in her thirties.
• Verbal Backspace: If you call her over to do your laundry, she'll be annoyed that you called her just for that, but quickly transitions into cheerily charging you the standard 5,000¥. She also does this when she's about to complain about Joker's filthy attic room.
• Visual Pun: In The Animation and Royal, she has a beach top with the number 14 on it, which happens to be the number of the Temperance Arcana.
• Working Through the Cold: Around rank 6, she's come down with a cough, which turns into mentioning having a headache and shivers, which she makes the dubious decision to power through with energy drinks. Contacting her afterwards has a nurse answer, as Kawakami had collapsed and been hospitalized.

Ichiko Ohya (Devil)

"Hey, how 'bout we do this... You supply me with info on the Phantom Thieves and I'll write articles based on what you tell me about them."

Arcana: XV. Le Diable (The Devil)
Arcana Bonus: Decreased alert levels when spotted, increased alert level reduction from successful ambushes (Persona 5 and Royal), decreases Alert level when a Safe Room is found, lower starting Alert levels, easier ambushes (Royal only).
Voiced by: Yumi Uchiyama (JP), Amanda Winn-Lee (EN)

A gossipy reporter for a tabloid newspaper, Ichiko Ohya first encounters the Thieves while they're staking out the home of Ichiryuusai Madarame. Once they decide to target Junya Kaneshiro, they decide to seek her out in the hopes that she has dirt on the mob boss, finding her at the Crossroads Bar in Shinjuku. After some negotiating, she agrees to help the protagonist in exchange for an inside scoop on the Thieves.

---

• Balance Buff: Ohya's Arcana Bonus was rather infamous in the original P5's release for being one of the most useless utility-wise. ^note Her bonus decreased alert level gains when spotted and increased the removal of alert levels after a successful ambush. The problem being, since the Alert Levels always started at 0, this was only beneficial to players who struggled with the stealth mechanics and successful ambushes.Royal addresses this by raising the default Alert Level of Palaces up to 40%, making it more difficult to traverse around a Palace without Ohya's bonuses.
• Clear Their Name: Ohya used to work with a photographer named Kayo in exposing political corruption. One night, their latest target — whom Kayo had been tailing — turned up dead in a love hotel, and Kayo disappeared, leading the police to believe she'd been involved. Ohya was moved to the entertainment section ostensibly for the sake of protecting her reputation, but as her boss continually interferes with her personal investigation of the case, it becomes clear that Kayo was set up to take the fall for the real killer, a member of Shido's conspiracy. At the end of her Confidant, she's putting together a case to prove Kayo's innocence. At the end of the game, she also does this for Joker to try and get him out of juvenile hall if the player finishes her Confidant, going so far as to visit his hometown and staying up all night questioning people about his character and circumstances around his initial arrest.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: She's a downplayed version for Maya Amano from Persona 2. Whereas Maya is cheery, caring reporter whose always looking for a hot scoop and gets involved with the action, Ohya is a jaded and cynical paparazza who twists the truth for sales and is only involved as a supporting confidant. But she does have a few similarities to Maya, such as regaining her Intrepid Reporter status by the end, and how like Maya depending on the choices for the latter, lost her photography partner due to a mental shutdown.
• Friend in the Press: Ohya for Joker, as Joker provides non-confidential information regarding the Thieves while Ohya writes articles that would improve the Phantom Thieves Public Reputation.
• Fun T-Shirt: Ichiko's reads "Low Life Fight the Power" in a graffiti-styled font.
• The Gambling Addict: One of the Thieves Den conversations implies Ohya suffered from a gambling addiction at some point.
  Tae: [regarding the Giant Slot Machine] Looks right up your alley. Are you going to play?
  Ohya: Better not... I've got nothing but bad memories with these things. Once I get going, things go downhill quick...
• Generic Cuteness: In her Undercover as Lovers ruse to her boss, he expresses skepticism because she's allegedly not pretty enough to attract a guy like Joker. She'll say something similar if romanced, but her animation model depicts her at worst as a bit skinny.
• Going for the Big Scoop: She did this in the past, but it got a friend of hers fired after she was arrested for murder. It was actually a set-up by the Antisocial Force when Ohya's reporter friend got too close. Completing Ohya's Confidant will have her continue her friend's work, even though what she might uncover won't be pretty.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She leaves the strongest impression on Joker and Morgana when they meet up in a bar to trade intel on Junya Kaneshiro (who is, at this point, an unnamed mafia boss) and The Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Several times when the player addresses her, especially early on in her Confidant, she's visibly drunk.
• Hero of Another Story: She was already working to bring Shido down prior to the events of the story, having long suspected him to be involved in Kayo's breakdown. Her boss puts the kibosh on that until you intervene. If you max your relationship with her, she's explicitly the one who tracks down the woman that Shido blackmailed into framing Ren, which forces a dismissal of his charges.
• Hidden Depths: She used to be a political reporter, but stopped for some reason. It's because her old partner started digging for the truth and got in trouble. Despite seeming to just be an alcoholic mess at first glance, she is very perceptive. The final rank of her confidant has her all but state she knew Joker was one of the Phantom Thieves rather early on, something that is given credence by the fact that she is one of the few confidants that will be seen cheering on the Phantom Thieves the night they go to steal Shido's heart even if she isn't maxed out yet, expressing her amazement and approval that he would go after Shido.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Ichiko's well aware that she's not exactly the prettiest girl in town and has some unflattering habits to match, so she reacts with skepticism when a young, charismatic stud like Joker shows genuine interest in someone like her — even stating how she's already resigned to the all-likelihood that he'll end up dumping her sooner or later. Nonetheless, she's very happy and hopes to make the most of their time together while it lasts.
• Intrepid Reporter: A somewhat less-than put together example than most.
• It's All My Fault: Her former partner, Kayo, actually started out working on children's books and nature magazines before Ohya convinced her to start covering political scandals. As a result, she feels responsible for Kayo's disappearance and the fact that she's wanted by the police, as well as her suffering a mental shutdown and needing to be institutionalized.
• It's Personal: Aside from most of the other confidants aside from Sojiro and Sae, she, like the Phantom Thieves, was directly affected by the Antisocial Force, as she had someone (her partner, Kayo) taken from her by Shido's machinations. As a result, by the end of her storyline, she explicitly is working with them to take Shido down in her own way.
• Knowledge Broker: Her role for the Phantom Thieves. Notably, she provided them with the name of the criminal responsible of the blackmailing schemes going around Shibuya, allowing the Phantom Thieves to target Kaneshiro.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Sōichi Ōya, an acclaimed Japanese journalist and essayist best known for documenting the popular culture of early-to-mid-20th-century Japan.
• Not-So-Small Role: In a sense, her Confidant is a little more plot-relevant than most of the other optional ones, as the culprit in the murder that her partner was framed for was a member of Shido's conspiracy, and her partner became a mental shutdown victim. Depending on how early the player does her Confidant, this could be their first hint that Shido is going to be a major antagonist.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's implied by the end of her Confidant that Ohya had figured out early on that Joker was a Phantom Thief because he was so obvious. Most other Confidants find out after the person causing them problems suddenly has a change of heart after telling Joker that person's name. This is given more credibility by the fact that she is one of the few confidants that goes to cheer on the Phantom Thieves (and more specifically Joker) the night they announce that they are stealing Shido's heart even if she isn't maxed out.
• Precision F-Strike: During her Rank 5 event, when recounting how her partner was falsely accused of murder without any evidence, she claims that "it's pretty damn fucked up to make allegations like that without any evidence!"
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Devil is known to come up in times when you're about to have a breakthrough but are about to encounter something that will inhibit your progression, like how Ohya was given too much work to be able to delve into her personal investigation by her boss. It also symbolizes detachment from a bad habit, like drinking.
• Twisting the Words: How she gets more sales.
• Undercover as Lovers: During her Confidant, to convince her Chief that she's not trying to continue a case left by her missing partner, Ichiko instead tells him that the thing she is trying to keep discreet is the fact that she's dating the under-aged Protagonist.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Lala Escargot. Ohya often teases Lala, and in return, gets criticized for being The Alcoholic, but Lala is one of the few people besides Joker that Ohya trusts.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Unless the player is rather terrible at/doesn't care about the game's stealth, her Confidant abilities can be considered rather trivial. They are a bit more useful in Royal, as instead of starting at 0%, Palace's security levels start at 40% for every visit.

Shinya Oda (Tower)

"Are you taking this seriously!? You gotta focus on your second shot!"

Arcana: XVI. La Maison Dieu (The Tower)
Arcana Bonus: Instant knockdown ability, increased gun ammo, pre-battle damage to enemies, reduced enemy gun resistance, increased chance of guns inflicting status ailments (Royal only).
Voiced by: Aki Kanada (JP), Barbara Goodson (EN), Eden Riegel (EN, The Animation)

After receiving a request to change the heart of a trolling cheater in the popular online shooter "Gun About", the thieves discover that the cheater's belief that he's invincible in the game makes him impossible to harm in the cognitive world. To defeat him, the protagonist is directed to the one person who has beaten him in the game — Shinya Oda, Akihabara's infamous "Gamer King" and a huge Phanboy.

---

• Abusive Parents: His mother is a somewhat emotional one. Due to the lack of her husband, she is very hostile and aggressive in everything she perceives as a threat and encourages her son to do the same to be strong, which has caused him to become obsessed with winning. She's the target whose heart you must change in Mementos before you can complete Shinya's Confidant.
• The Bully: Purposefully subverted. While he is on the route of being one due to his hostility, he's actually a good kid who's following harmful advice from his mother and one of the things you do is to permanently steer him off this path.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A non-villainous example. If the protagonist goes with Mishima to an amusement park, the two of them will run into Shinya. Mishima reveals that the two of them competed in a tournament before, but Shinya says he has played against too many people to remember any of them.
• Child Prodigy: He is regarded as one due to his proficiency in an online shooter game.
• Cool Big Bro: The essence of the relationship the protagonist develops with him, he slowly treats the protagonist like an older sibling he can confide in. He actually lampshades it within the middle of your route.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end of one against Takekuma in his fourth rank (though that was due to him cheating), which is a big impetus of his later Character Development. Then reversed when Takekuma is effortlessly beaten by Shinya in the final rank.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: His preview trailer has him relentlessly criticize the protagonist's performance, and the narration even suggests that he treats this like a boot camp.
  • In his final rank, he's a lot calmer and more encouraging.
• Four Is Death: Shinya loses his first Gun About game during — you guessed it — the fourth rank of his social link, befitting of his role as The Tower confidant.
• Good Feels Good: Once he grows out of being obsessed with winning, he realizes how much better it is to be a good person and have genuine respect and friendship and decides that he wants to be someone who helps others.
• Guns Akimbo: In his first gaming session, he's shown wielding two Gun About controllers simultaneously, thereby essentially playing as two players at once.
• Hero-Worshipper: He's a big fan of the Phantom Thieves and only begins teaching you after you convince him you know the Phantom Thieves personally by having Futaba hack the logo onto the top of the Gun About website.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: He wants to be strong like the Phantom Thieves. Interestingly enough, changing this is part of his Character Development as he still admires them, but for their morality and doing the right thing instead of their ability to kick ass and take names.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: His skill with light gun games means that he can teach the protagonist how to be better with guns. This includes a technique that knocks opponents down at the cost of all your bullets (and the cost becomes lower through your Confidant arc with him) or a surprise shooting attack with your comrades. At Rank 10 of his Confidant, he'll be such a good teacher that he teaches Joker how to ignore enemy gun resistance.
• Jerkass Realization: He undergoes this when one of the kids he bullied tells him that he deserves to be judged by the Phantom Thieves.
• Mouthy Kid: While he can get harsh when he's teaching the protagonist how to shoot, he does give praise where it's due.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Oda Nobunaga was an infamous warlord at the end of the Sengoku period. He was known for a fondness for and skillful application of firearms, like Shinya's knack for shooting games. Nobunaga was said to be a precocious brat in his youth, and many recorded him to be somewhat rude or insulting in person, though he respected competent people. Sound familiar?
• No Fair Cheating: Joker initiates his Confidant when he needs help reforming a target in Mementos who is known for his cheating; this bled into his Shadow, who dodges all of the party's attacks when they first respond to him.
• Red Baron: People call him "The King" because of his incredible skill at Gun About.
• Sore Loser: When a popular E-Sports player by the name of Takekuma beats him at Gun About, Shinya flips and ends up challenging him to 10 rematches in a row, all of which he loses. While it later turns out that Takekuma was cheating, Shinya losing his composure causes no one to believe him when he accuses Takekuma of cheating.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's actually a pretty decent kid, but his personality does a 180 when he's playing a game.
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Tower symbolizes personal transformation, and Shinya's confidant is about helping him break away from his obsession with winning and strength.
• Trademark Favorite Food: His favorite food is hamburger steak. His mom makes it for him after the Phantom Thieves reform her as part of her way of apologizing to him for her bad parenting as of late.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His harshness is because he is trying to follow his mother's footsteps in what she defines as being strong. He overcomes this when he realizes his mother is in the wrong and is quite happy when his mom is reformed.

Hifumi Togo (Star)

"It's checkmate no matter how you look at it."

Arcana: XVII. L'Étoile (The Star)
Arcana Bonus: Mid-battle party swap, increased follow-up attacks, easier escapes, extra money on ambushes.
Voiced by: Tomomi Isomura (JP), Eden Riegel (EN)

A professional Shōgi player who attends Kosei High School, renowned for both her skill and beauty. She teaches Joker a number of skills in battle, such as switching party members mid-battle.

---

• All the Other Reindeer: Hifumi reveals that the reason she plays Shogi by herself in church is because she's been ostracized by other shogi players her age. Hifumi is the source of resentment because she's been propped on a pedestal as "the face of shogi" and her contemporaries can't stand her for it. This later takes a darker turn when it's revealed that Hifumi's mother has been fixing her matches, implying that they weren't resenting her for being good at a young age, they hated her because they thought she was in on it.
• Ambiguously Christian: She hangs out at a church run by a "shogi friend" and is named after a Catholic Shogi player. However, none of her dialogue reflects any sort of faith or religion in particular.
• Brainless Beauty: Invoked, discussed at length, and deconstructed. Hifumi is very bitter at people assuming she's become famous more due to her good looks than shogi skills, and is resentful of her mom's attempts to slowly transition her from a professional player to a model. She struggles to prove that she's a great player on her own right, planning to win in the big competition so that people finally realize she's got brains, too, which is why she is so shocked to find out that her mom has been rigging her games in her favor. In other words, Hifumi's assurance that her detractors are just jealous or wrong and that she really is smart, rather than just beautiful, was founded on victories she didn't really earn. When she enters the big competition and refuses to play by her mom's rules, the opponent wipes the floor with her... Leading to her resolving to become a truly great shogi player this time around.
• Chuunibyou: When playing Shogi, Hifumi likes to envision the board as a battlefield with herself serving as the Queen to her pieces, which results in imperious dialogue and naming her moves. It was the way her father taught her how to play, though she's actually still a bit self-conscious about it.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Her talent may be (somewhat) fake, but the strategic abilities her bond grants Joker in battle during Palace/Mementos excursions are very real.
• Contractual Purity: Invoked Trope, Hifumi's mother shoots down the idea of Hifumi and Joker dating because it would ruin the Shogi Idol image that she is trying to cultivate.
• Daddy's Girl: Implied early on, Hifumi states that it was her dad who taught her how to play shogi and even encourage her theatrics. The reason why Hifumi puts up with her mother's Stage Mom decisions is because she wants to support her sick father.
• Dude Magnet: She has tons of male fans, and often gets approached by them.
• Fanservice Model: In addition to being a shogi player, she's also a gravure idol (a glamour model who poses in skimpy outfits), something she absolutely loathes. The player never actually gets to see any of her modeling work, but she constantly describes it with nothing but contempt, and when she asks Joker if he's seen a photoshoot she recently did, saying no will cause her to sigh in relief.Her mother, on the other hand, is absolutely dead set on furthering Hifumi's modeling career.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: A very downplayed example but this is how her Arcana bonuses work. During her Confidant scenes, Joker first plays Shogi puzzle games with her so she can study obscure moves; this raises Joker's strategic knowledge. Fittingly enough, you learn how to escape battles immediately in the same event in which Hifumi forfeits a match for the first time.
• Graceful Loser: She believes in accepting defeat with grace and dignity. Choosing to play your doomed initial match against her to the end will cause her to think less of you, and she herself forfeits the important match against a professional shogi player when it turns out he's way too strong for her.
  Hifumi: One must lose with grace... With dignity until the very end, as a queen should...
• Humble Hero: Despite her fame, Hifumi is very down-to-earth and is actually embarrassed by all the media attention that she has received.
• Irony: The girl who hangs out at the church and is Ambiguously Christian? Maxing out her confidant allows you to summon Lucifer.
• Large Ham: She gets intense while playing Shogi. Apparently, she learned these mannerisms from her dad, who also plays shogi.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Hifumi is left in the dark that her mother has been fixing all of her Shogi matches.
• Money Multiplier: After reaching Rank 7 in her Confidant, the Narikin ability, referring to the promotion of a naru piece into a major or gold piece, doubles the amount of money the Thieves earn from a fight if they successfully ambush a Shadow and finish it in one turn.
• Ms. Fanservice: In A Magical Valentine's Day OVA, she spends her Valentine's with Joker in her swimwear, complete with a few instances of Male Gaze from Joker's point of view. Her introduction in The Animation takes place during the Hawaii trip, meaning that we first see her in a bikini.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Her name is derived from Hifumi Kato, who's a well-known 9-dan shogi player in Japan.
• Nice Girl: She's a good-natured and very polite person at heart.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her appearance and reputation as a gorgeous and skilled female shogi player is likely based off of Manao Kagawa, who is renowned for her beauty (remarkable mostly because she was very plain-looking and a rather boyish in her teenage years) and is one of a handful of female shogi players to hold professional status.
• Propaganda Hero: Due to her winning streak in Shogi, Hifumi has become something as an idol and is essentially The Face of Female Shogi players. As it turns out, unbeknownst to Hifumi, her mother has been fixing her shogi matches to quicken her rise to fame. Hifumi, noticing in retrospect that her opponents had made careless mistakes at convenient times, comes to realize that she's not as good of a shogi player as she initially believed.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Is black-haired and very pale skinned.
• Red Baron: Hifumi's publicly known as the "Beautiful Shogi Player" for her beauty while being a skilled shogi player. At the end of her Confidant, it's inverted, she's instead known as the "Phony Princess". She's fine with her reputation crashing down, though, and sees it as a chance to start fresh on her own terms.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: An off-screen, yet still prominent Deconstruction. At one point in her Confidant, she will angrily tell Joker that she didn't start playing shogi to become an idol. She is utterly relieved when Joker tells her that he hasn't seen a recent photoshoot of hers.
• Skilled, but Naive: What she's eventually revealed to be. Hifumi's skills are likely the real deal, but due to her mother fixing her matches, she's not been able to cultivate them against opponents actually trying to beat her, which causes her to overestimate how skilled she really is. At the conclusion of her Confidant, she quits the league she's a part of in order to start her shogi career over on her terms.
• Stage Mom: She has one, but not for her shogi. Instead, Hifumi's mother wants her to be a gravure idol and get the most out of her youth when she could not. It's also because Hifumi's father played shogi to the point that he became extremely ill, and her mother doesn't want her to suffer the same fate, in spite of Hifumi's wishes. Her Mementos mission name references this trope by name.
• The Strategist: She teaches the player how to perform strategic maneuvers like swapping party members in and out of a fight, escaping while surrounded by enemies, and giving party members a chance to follow-up on attacks if Joker downs an enemy.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Her uniform's blazer has a star as part of the school crest.
• Tarot Motifs: When the Star is reversed, it signifies that you're going through a test of faith as well as experiencing disengagement with various aspects of your life, leaving you wondering if you should stick with what you have or make a change. Likewise, Hifumi feels burnt out in regards to shogi due to her mom forcing her to model, leaving her wondering if that's the best choice and if she should ditch one for the other.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Downplayed example; at the protagonist's request, Hifumi takes him on as her Shogi protege, teaching him how to play and tutoring him in battle strategies. She can also potentially be romanced. Despite that, she actually gets embarrassed anytime the protagonist refers to her as master.
• Theme Naming: Her given name translates to "one two three" while her mother Mitsuyo's translates to "three four".
• Trying Not to Cry: Of the potential romances, Hifumi definitely takes it the hardest when she learns that Joker will be moving back home in a month during their Valentine's date. Hifumi's voice cracks quite a few times as she tries to recompose herself.

Yuuki Mishima (Moon)

"It's not just Japan anymore. The whole world's waiting to see the Phantom Thieves' next move."

Arcana: XVIII. La Lune (The Moon)
Arcana Bonus: EXP bonuses, increased EXP earned by party members not participating in battle.
Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi (JP), Sean Chiplock (EN)
Stage actors: Taishu Nukanobu (The Stage #1 & 2), Shogo Tamura (The Stage #3)

One of the protagonist's homeroom classmates and a member of the volleyball team. At Kamoshida's behest, he was forced to spread nasty rumors about the protagonist to speed along his expulsion, but eventually turned on the abusive coach when things went too far. After Kamoshida's sudden change of heart, he deduces Ryuji and Joker's identities, and does his best to support them as the owner and admin of their official fansite.

---

• Accidental Misnaming: Futaba keeps calling him "Nishima".
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Though he admits he was always motivated on some level by boosting his own status just as much as the Phantom Thieves', the growing popularity of the Phan-site exacerbates this across his Confidant line, peaking with him brazenly suggesting that the Phantom Thieves purge the nonbelievers. It gets to the point where they literally go into Mementos to talk sense into his Shadow, though he manages to avoid requiring a fight or a formal change of heart, realizing the error of his ways of his own volition.
• Apologizes a Lot: Due to his passive and submissive nature, he tends to apologize whenever he feels like he's being an inconvenience to others.
• The Atoner: He works to make up for doing Kamoshida's bidding, such as spreading rumors about Joker. And again after his little power trip from managing the Phansite, after which he vows to continue using the Phansite to help people as it was originally intended to. Royal adds an extra layer to his atonement: He's the one who Kamoshida sent to fetch Shiho... right before Kamoshida sexually assaulted her. Mishima outright expresses his guilt over Shiho's resulting suicide attempt.
• Badass Bystander: Levels up into one near the end of his Confidant, scaring a group of bullies away by threatening to get them arrested... even if he does wet himself a little. If you progress his Confidant, Mishima will ultimately save the Phantom Thieves by rallying the people of Tokyo to cheer for them, empowering Joker and depowering Yaldabaoth.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Becomes the Phantom Thieves' Knowledge Broker because Joker and Ryuji defended him against Kamoshida.
• Best Friend: He definitely sees Joker this way. It's up to you whether Joker reciprocates.
• Big Damn Heroes: As the Phantom Thieves are on the verge of losing to the Demiurge, Mishima rallies the people of Tokyo (including the other Confidants) to cheer for the Thieves, giving them the strength to continue fighting and allowing Joker to summon his Ultimate Persona, Satanael.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A downplayed example. While Mishima still remains meek and passive throughout Joker's confidant, as the confidant progresses, he begins showing a nastier and more arrogant side to him to the point he wants Joker to change the hearts of the Phantom Thieves' critics. He eventually grows out of it on his own after Joker confronts his Shadow.
• Boring, but Practical: His Confidant skills are all based around increasing the amount of experience the party gains, as well as making it possible the entire party to get experience even when not fighting. It's the least interactive Confidant skill set in the game, but it is also the most consistently useful one thanks to ensuring the party stays together in terms of levels. Plus the fact that Mishima is, excluding automatically leveling up Confidants like Sae, one of the easiest Confidants to level up in the game (every meeting is a rank-up), means that you can miss almost all the other Confidants and still be able to beat the game without much trouble.
• Born Unlucky: He is defined by his terrible luck.
• Butt-Monkey: The poor guy really can't catch a break. In fact, he outright states to Joker that he's always been the butt of jokes and just kind of came to accept it until the Phantom Thieves came into the picture.
  • From a meta point of view, he can end up as this, as he is one of the few Confidants where building points to rank up is irrelevant, as long as you've cleared the request he gives you, you will rank up with him. This means you are under no obligation to treat him well in your dialogue options. You can choose the most insulting options without suffering any downsides, compared to everyone else who you generally want to try to be nice to for optimal ranking up.
• Covert Pervert: It's implied that when he's not working on the Phansite, he hangs out on some rather family-unfriendly websites. Notably, when he hears that Futaba spends a lot of time on the internet, his immediate reaction is to wonder aloud if she's a camgirl.^note Not explicitly, though. He offers to subscribe to her streaming channel if she has one, before asking if she runs "one of those racy channels."
  • He jokes that "It's a secret" if you ask him if the "M" stands for Mishima while he's texting you about Hikari Shimizu and her unhealthy "S&M" relationship.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He appeared and talked in cutscenes shown in the trailers before being formally introduced. Considering his fairly integral role in providing sidequests, this isn't terribly surprising in retrospect.
• Experience Booster: One of his bonuses is increasing experience gained by the party.
• Extreme Doormat: He was essentially Kamoshida's whipping boy, but his Confidant reveals that he had pretty much always been this in his previous school and was receptive of the bullying he received because he believed it was simply his lot in life. His Shadow actually blames the Phantom Thieves for his sudden power trip, since it wasn't until they showed up that he finally realized he had more to offer than just being everyone's punching bag.
• Failed a Spot Check: Like Ryuji, he had plain sight of "Becky's" face during "Operation Maidwatch", failing to recognise her as Kawakami. Even worse considering she's his homeroom teacher.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He's a weird Downplayed mix of this and a Honorary True Companion at the same time. He's not really close to anyone on the team except for Ryuji and Joker (with the latter having the option of expressing annoyance with him). Morgana gets annoyed whenever he sends a text not related to being a Thief (though this is Morgana). Ann meanwhile does not seem too close to him yet she is completely okay being with him along with Joker and Ryuji when in Hawaii. He only interacted once with Yusuke which was mixed (though that was him following up on Yusuke's... eccentric behavior) while Futaba called him an NPC to his face. Royal gives him a couple of interactions with Haru during an event in the park and Makoto at the Planetarium. However, the Thieves do appreciate the work he does for him and show concern when Shadow Mishima begins emerging.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Mishima sees himself as the unofficial PR person for the Phantom Thieves, being the admin of their Phan-site. Naturally, the bonuses his Confidant offers allows them to work better as unit and grow: increasing the amount of EXP active and passive members gain from Battle.
• The Generic Guy: "Overwhelmingly forgettable appearance, generic speech style, and total lack of sex appeal," as Futaba eloquently describes him, before outright declaring him to be an NPC. It's deconstructed though, as this mentality has led to a very low self-esteem and serves as the crux of his issues.
• Hartman Hips: A rare male example; his sweater bunches at the waist, creating the impression of wide hips.
• Herald: He connects the Thieves with all sorts of people who need their help- mostly victims who are too beaten down to confess their fears anywhere but the Internet.
• Heel Realization: Even after he starts treading a bad path, he seems to be aware of it and even asks the protagonist if the Phantom Thieves are going to come after his heart too. It's thanks to this that they're able to avoid a fight with his Shadow, since he already knew what he was doing was wrong.
• Hero-Worshipper: Towards the main character. Chihaya notes that Mishima seems less like a friend and more like a fanboy, something Mishima doesn't even try to deny.
• Honorary True Companion: He's an odd mix of this and The Friend Nobody Likes at the same time. He's in the know from pretty much the start about the Phantom Thieves and plays an important role in their daily activities (heck, the developers pretty much consider him part of the team and was designed as their grounded member.) While his relationship with them individually is pretty lackluster (barring Joker and Ryuji and even then the latter can be vitriolic on Joker's side if you choose.) Outside of Phantom Thieves work, he does hang out with the founding three during their Hawaii trip, and Joker trusts him enough to enlist his help with Futaba.
• I Just Want to Be Special: He was a nobody in middle school and a punch-bag for Kamoshida, so his sudden rise in self-confidence is a fairly recent development. This desire influences his running the website more than he'd like to admit. This is also presumably why, despite his lack of athletic potential and status as Kamoshida's whipping boy, he stuck with the volleyball team and its abuse.
• I Read It for the Articles: He claims that his involvement in "Operation: Maidwatch" is purely for the investigation of Victoria's Housekeeping Service to see if they're a legit business and not a scam.
• I Should Write a Book About This: By the end of his Confidant and the end of the game, Mishima expresses interest in making a documentary or writing a biography about the Phantom Thieves.
• Insult Backfire: One of the potential hangout events in the game can have Joker and Mishima run into Chihaya at the Electronics Store. Chihaya picks up that Mishima seems less like Joker's friend and more like his fanboy. Mishima is completely unfazed by this and is actually impressed that she was able to pick up on his Hero Worship so easily.
• Keet: After Kamoshida's defeat, he's a much more upbeat person, especially when the Phantom Thieves are the subject of discussion.
• Knowledge Broker: His primary role is to provide sidequests for the party to take on.
• Last-Name Basis: He's referred to by his last name, and generally does the same for others.
• Leaked Experience: One of his bonuses allows backup party members to gain EXP.
• A Man Is Always Eager: He's pretty desperate. When he overhears Joker and Ryuji planning to call a sketchy "maid" service, he outright demands that he be let in on it, and he also gets really excited when Joker arranges for him to meet up with Ohya, thinking that it's a blind date when in reality Ohya is just a reporter who wants to interview him. He also seems disappointed when Futaba says she's just gonna head home after having dinner with him and Joker.
• Meaningful Name: He's named after Yukio Mishima, one of the preeminent Japanese authors of the 20th century noted for writing a number of Picaresque stories. In fact, his first novel was titled Thieves. His given name means "courage," a concept that's central to his character arc.
• Mission Control: In a sense (at least where the sidequests in Mementos are concerned), as he's the webmaster for the Phan-Site, where people can post requests for changes of heart.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Shiho attempts suicide, Mishima immediately realizes what happened when he called her in to see Kamoshida the previous day, and runs from the scene.
• My Greatest Failure: At the coercion of Kamoshida, Yuuki is actually the one responsible for spreading the nasty rumors about the Protagonist. Feeling guilty over this, Yuuki makes up for it by supporting the Phantom Thieves.
• Nice Guy: He's an overall an easy-going, decent, and earnest guy, even though his insecurities and newfound influence start influencing him negatively.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His idea to add a "target poll" to the Phansite so users can suggest potential targets to the Phantom Thieves ends up playing a part in the plans of The Conspiracy upon finding out, so they spam it with requests to target Okumura so they can frame them for his mental shutdown later.
• The Reliable One: He may have his faults, but Yuuki Mishima is steadfast, loyal and dependable when it comes to supporting the Phantom Thieves. According to the character anthology, he was designed to be the "grounded" member of the Phantom Thieves.
• The Scapegoat: For Kamoshida, who has him spread rumors about the protagonist. When confronted, Kamoshida has the temerity to try to have Mishima expelled for revealing confidential information.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • He is at least partially aware of who the Phantom Thieves really are, near-immediately pointing as much out to Joker's face. During the Medjed/Futaba arc, it's shown that he also knows that Ryuji is one of the thieves.
  • Royal does away with a lot of the subtlety with Mishima more overtly knowing that Joker, Ryuji and Ann are all Phantom Thieves, even inviting them out to his attempt at a stakeout.
• Secretly Selfish: His intentions in creating the Phansite aren't entirely noble, as they're rooted in his own insecurities. His Confidant is about dealing with his issues.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Played With. His self-confidence was non-existent prior to creating the Phansite, but the power of managing the site quickly goes to his head. Furthermore, he tries to influence the Thieves to start going after their critics. Joker is able to get him back down to Earth and the fact his Shadow was already somewhat admitting this shows Mishima was already pretty aware of his issues.
• Spanner in the Works: During the final battle against Yaldabaoth, Yuuki begins cheering on the Phantom Thieves despite all hope being lost and nobody else believing in the Thieves. This inspires everyone else to begin cheering the Thieves on, restoring belief in them, which encourages the Thieves to stand up and empowers the Protagonist with his Ultimate Persona, Satanael. This doesn't work out if Joker doesn't progress much in his Confidant.
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Moon symbolizes repressed emotion and confusion, both of which become more noticeable though his Shadow and how he reveals Mishima's jealousy towards the Phantom Thieves' success and popularity.
• The Team Wannabe: It becomes a bit of a running gag that Mishima awkwardly butts himself into conversations that the actual Phantom Thieves tend to have. Ryuji ends up Lampshade Hanging this during the Cleaning Event in Royal.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: If you spend Valentine's day alone with Ryuji, the latter notes that he expected Mishima to join them, leading him and the protagonist to the realization that the poor guy finally got a date. Naturally, they declare him a traitor for this.
• Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of his confidant, he develops from someone who lacked the courage to stand up to Kamoshida to someone who'd risk his life on a bluff to save someone who bullied him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Initially a very meek and awkward teenager who has dealt with bullying throughout most of his school life, he becomes increasingly self-centered and big-headed as you progress through his Confidant, outright threatening users who badmouth the Phantom Thieves in his forum. Ultimately, the Phantom Thieves decide to track down his Shadow in Mementos and give him a dressing down.
• Undying Loyalty: Even if you don't complete his Confidant Mishima is apologetically a Phantom Thieves fanboy through and through, even after the public turns against them when they get framed for President Okumura's death.
• The Unfought: You don't actually fight his Shadow, as he's able to realize how wrongful his actions were all on his own, with just a little encouragement from Joker.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As it turns out, putting the polls up in the first place so people can suggest targets for the Phantom Thieves leads to Okumura's death and them being framed for it. Akechi strategizes with the IT President to hack into the website just like Futaba had demonstrated was possible to alter the rankings and keep Okumura's name at the top, luring the group into their trap.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • While there's plenty of opportunities to be rude to the other Confidants, most players will avoid them because those answers tend to yield fewer affinity points. Mishima's Confidant is solely leveled up through Mementos missions however, so you're basically being incentivized to be as Brutally Honest as possible. Heck, Brutal Honesty is quite often the nicest way you can respond to him.
  • Shortly after the start of Ohya's confidant, Joker gives her Mishima's contact information to learn more about the Phantom Thieves. When following up with Mishima about it afterwards, Joker can then lie and tell him he's setting him up on a date with an older woman.
• Walking Spoiler: Most Confidants require you to change the heart of someone in Mementos in order to progress their links. Who's the one you have to change for Yuuki's? Yuuki himself, although he has his change of heart all on his own and you never have to fight him. It doesn't even count as an actual Mementos trip!

Toranosuke Yoshida (Sun)

"The next generation will lead us into the future, and yet they have no plan for how to arrive there!"

Arcana: XIX. Le Soleil (The Sun)
Arcana Bonus: Chance to skip negotiation, chance for better negotiation rewards, allows recruitment of Shadows of a higher level than Joker (Royal only).
Voiced by: Keiichi Noda (JP), William Salyers (EN)

A former member of the Diet who was forced to resign after a series of political scandals twenty years ago. Since then, he's been reduced to giving speeches on a soapbox in Shibuya Square, having lost seven straight elections. Despite all of this hardship, he remains determined to make a difference and give the people of Japan a voice.

---

• The Atoner: Yoshida originally entered politics for personal gain, but years of self-reflection and loss of reputation has made him strive to become a Diet member again for the sake of helping others, and admits he's ashamed of the person he used to be.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: In the final stages of his link, he reveals that he deduced Joker's Secret Identity on his own simply through observing his mannerisms and seeing him as someone who has experienced injustice, which coincide with the ideas of the Phantom Thieves.
• Badass Normal: Once Yoshida has confidence in himself again as a result of his relationship to Joker, he's able to take on his problems with very little additional help from the player, all with his talent for speech and wealth of political speaking. With the exceptions of Sae (who ranks up via story progression) and Mishima (whose Shadow is unfought but still requires a stern telling-off), Yoshida is one of the few ordinary allies who does not require Joker to aid him and blow his cover via changing someone's heart in Mementos. And then he even deduces that Joker is one of the Phantom Thieves, regardless.
• Bad Powers, Good People: His Confidant bonuses include things like 'Manipulation' or 'Mind Control,' but he's still a decent person trying to right his past wrongs and make the world a better place.
• Break the Haughty: He initially entered politics for his own self-gain, but his decades of failure taught him to empathize with the struggles of the weak, transforming him into someone who genuinely cares about reforming the world.
• Cool Old Guy: He's one of the oldest Confidants (probably late 40s/early 50s), and runs on a sincere and progressive political platform aimed at helping the younger generation succeed in life. Also an example of a honest good politician amongst the seas of evil or corrupt politicians Joker encounters in his adventures. Indeed, most of Yoshida's followers are young folks.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: If you max out his Confidant, he gets elected, and will message Joker with the good news on the same night as Shido's confession. He returns the favor by rallying the National Diet to help get Joker out of juvie in the epilogue.
• Embarrassing Nickname: He's known as "No-Good Tora"^note "Failnosuke" in the original Japanese to the few people that even remember his time as a Dietman. In the early stages of his Confidant, it causes him to lose his composure. By the end, he's able to overcome it.
• The Final Temptation: Towards the end of his Confidant, a powerful incumbent Dietman offers Yoshida the chance to expose his corrupt former mentor, the true culprit behind the scandal that destroyed his career, in exchange for Yoshida becoming that Dietman's personal assistant. Yoshida turns him down because he will accept nothing less than getting into the Diet himself and on his own merits, and you get maximum Confidant points for agreeing with him that this is the right decision.
• Good Counterpart: Acts as one to Shido, in that both are in the running for Japan's elections to enact change within the system. However, Yoshida is content with being a member of the National Diet rather than the leader if it means he can enact the change he wants for the people and wishes to gain that position legitimately. Shido, on the other hand, is willing to murder if it means he'll be prime minister in order to enact the change he wants for himself.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Over two decades of consecutive losses in elections from people not forgiving him for his actions as "No-Good Tora" have greatly diminished his self-esteem, to the point at which he isn't even confident in his public speaking skills. As his Confidant progresses, his confidence is gradually restored and thanks Joker for helping him recapture his lost conviction.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Though the embezzlement scandal has a big part in his inability to be elected, it's clear that Yoshida's real trouble is his lack of self-esteem making him hesitate. Fittingly, once Yoshida is able to believe in himself again thanks to Joker's moral support, he's able to resolve his troubles on his own with his words alone.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Joker. It's also implied that his few supporters are mostly local youths.
• Is This Thing Still On?: He tells Joker that he was ousted from his position for three reasons, the last of which was when he slipped up and called the voters "idiots" in the middle of his own public apology for his other indiscretions.
• Karmic Jackpot: Towards the end of his confidant link, he learns that the person who framed him for embezzling funds was his mentor. When an old friend of Yoshida's gives him an opportunity to reveal this to the world, and offers to protect him if he goes public with it, Yoshida turns down his offer and gives a speech like he usually does, saying that whatever happened is in the past and he has no desire to dredge it up and drag his mentor's name through the mud. Eventually, the truth is revealed anyway and it makes Yoshida look extremely good, not only because one of his "Three Strikes" is lifted, but also because of the respect he showed to his mentor by choosing not to reveal his crimes.
• The Last DJ: He isn't interested in politics for money, power, or fame, but because he cares about the addressing the problems of society. On top of that, despite his past scandals keeping his reputation in the dumps and his chances of getting elected slim to none, he continues to run for office and make public speeches advocating for his positions, because no one else will. Even after his name is cleared and he's given an offer to rejoin the ruling party, he refuses because it would mean compromising his principles.
• The Mentor: Towards Joker; his Confidant sees Tora taking Joker under his wing and training him on being a politician. Plays even straighter if you have Joker show a legitimate interest in becoming a politician.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Torajiro Yoshida, an intellectual in late Edo Japan who mentored and inspired many of the activists of the Meiji Restoration.
• Nice Guy: By the time Joker meets him, he's become a kind and honest man who sincerely wants the best for his city. He will also thank Joker at every opportunity for sticking by him.
• No Party Given: It's not indicated which political party of Japan he belongs to, but it's mentioned that he's running as an independent candidate.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The biggest reason for his lack of political success — nobody is willing to forgive him for his gaffes twenty years ago despite having changed. Despite the fact that the embezzlement wasn't his fault. However, his mentor is exposed in the final stage of his Confidant, which clears Yoshida's name. If rank 10 is reached, the same night Shido is supposed to be elected as Prime Minister, Yoshida is finally re-elected to the Diet.
• Permanently Missable Content: His Confidant can't be progressed further after November 13 due to the upcoming in-game election where he needs to focus on his campaign. He will at least send you a text over a week in advance if you haven't hit Max rank with him at that point.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: If his Confidant is maxed out, he becomes the Phantom Thieves's link to the Diet Building as he gets elected. Should this happen, this comes into play when Tora rallies everyone at the Diet to help get Joker out of juvie.
• Rousing Speech: His Confidant link improves the player's ability to negotiate with Shadows, allowing them to ask for more money, increase the chances of getting rare items, and outright mind controlling them to increase their chances of becoming your Persona. He also gives a rather touching one after he deduces the Joker is one of the Phantom Thieves. By the end of his Confidant, he's drawing huge crowds to his speeches to nearly universal acclaim.
  Yoshida: Does anyone out there have something they aspire to do? I met a certain young man. Through a method that differs from mine, he was trying to reform the world. As you know, that is a very large mountain to cross. Unfortunately, I am unable to travel the same path as him. However, I will not say goodbye, because we will surely meet at the peak. He is desperately doing what he aspires to do. So I encourage you all, please find what it is that YOU aspire to do. And I will support you. Because that is what I aspire to do.
• Stealing from the Till: He admits to taking public funds for his own use, although surprisingly enough, this was only his second strike. Except it wasn't. He was merely Taking the Heat for his mentor, who did commit the crime. Completing his Confidant will have his mentor's role in the crime be revealed, ultimately clearing Yoshida's name.
• Tarot Motifs: The Reversed Sun symbolizes struggling to see the upside and an overabundance of confidence. In the past, he went into the political circus too eagerly and became No-Good Tora because of it. In the present, this leaves him struggling to believe in himself and his speeches. The overwhelming popularity of Shido doesn't help in that regard either.
• Theme Naming: "Tora" means tiger, which means both he and Shido are named after big cats. It may have been unintentional, but Toranosuke is quite the contrast to the lion-themed Shido.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He used to be an aspiring politician in his younger days, but got fired from his job due to him missing an important meeting for a personal vacation, using political funds for personal use (although he turned out to be framed for this), and calling the voters "idiots" in a public appearance meant to address the previous issues. By the time Joker meets him, however, Yoshida has become a very Nice Guy following years of self-reflection and Character Development.

Sae Niijima (Judgement)

See Persona 5: Sae Niijima

Takuto Maruki (Councillor)

"Thanks for taking my counseling into consideration."

Arcana: 1. Le Consultant (The Councillor)
Arcana Bonus: Chance of auto-Concentrate and auto-Charge at the start of battle, chance to instantly remove negative status effects, chance to recover Joker's SP when low, increases max SP, triggers events exclusive to Royal upon being maxed
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (JP), Billy Kametz (EN)

A new confidant added in Persona 5 Royal. A part-time counselor who is hired to work at Shujin Academy after Kamoshida's change of heart, he helps the students that were affected by Kamoshida's actions.

---

• Anti-Mentor: Downplayed. Maruki isn't a terrible therapist, and he does genuinely help the thieves, but if you have any experience with therapy then it becomes clear that he isn't particularly good at being one and comes across as emotionally manipulative. This is justified since therapy isn't his specialty and he has severe mental baggage of his own.
• Awesomeness by Analysis:
  • Zigzagged. He was able to figure out that Masayoshi Shido was the mastermind behind the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns using cognitive psience, a field he, like Wakaba, is an expert in, though he only made the connection thanks to Shido's confession.
  • A more straightforward example is how he figures out Joker and his friends are the Phantom Thieves. Maruki had witnessed Joker's group exit Kamoshida's palace very early on, though was not initially sure if it was anything but a trick of the eye. Once Kamoshida had a change of heart, Maruki thought back on it and figured that there was no other explanation than that the two incidents were connected somehow, which led him to conclude that they had to be the Phantom Thieves.
• Bad "Bad Acting": In Rank 4 of his Confidant, he tries to act "sad" by turning on the melodrama, complete with his arm over his eyes and overly-dramatic speech. Joker can even tell Maruki to knock it off.
• Blatant Lies: In Rank 8 of his Confidant, he says that Rumi broke up with him because he "was just too spineless," when the truth is much less pleasant. His friend, Shibusawa is visibly uncomfortable but doesn't say anything.They broke up because she went into an Angst Coma after the deaths of her parents.
• But Now I Must Go: He leaves Shujin in November, with his final speech being telling the students that it's okay to escape negative situations and not to dwell on the bad.
• Butt-Monkey: Maruki is frequently subjected to physical comedy due to his clumsiness, being a big part of his Establishing Character Moment.
• Chick Magnet: Several girls comment on how attractive he is during the assembly that introduces him to the students. By the time he leaves in November it's clear a lot of the students had a crush on him. Unlike Kamoshida though, he never shows any interest in any of them.
• Closest Thing We Got: Isn't actually a licensed therapist, but he's the closest thing the students have due to the principal doing the least amount possible to cover his own ass.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Despite being a therapist, it’s quite clear that he’s very troubled himself. This ends up factoring into his relative incompetence as a therapist since someone with severe, untreated issues themselves probably isn’t qualified to help people who are also troubled, especially since therapy isn’t his field of expertise.
• Curtains Match the Window: He has light brown hair and eyes.
• Disc-One Nuke: His Detox X and Flow abilities, which are the first abilities unlocked in his Confidant at Rank 2 and 3, respectively, are randomly activated but massively powerful. The former can heal Joker from a negative status effect as soon as it hits him, while the latter gives Joker a chance to start a battle with a free Charge and Concentrate effect.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Is seen walking near the school during the events of April 15, when Joker, Ann and Ryuji exit the alley. This is how Maruki figures the protagonists out.
• Establishing Character Moment: At an assembly, Kobayakawa introduces Dr. Maruki to the students, who are naturally wary of him since it hasn't been long since the Kamoshida incident. He tries to introduce himself to the students, but the microphone malfunctions just as he's about to tell them his name. When he fixes it and properly introduces himself, he goes in to bow... and promptly smacks his head against the microphone, much to their amusement. As far as first impressions go, it shows he's a well-meaning professional, but also a dork and makes him off quite endearing.
• Food as Bribe: After the assembly that introduces him, Maruki tries to bribe Joker, Ryuji, and Ann into coming to his therapy sessions by saying that he has snacks for them. Maruki brings up snacks a few more times in his Confidant and always gives Joker one at the end of his sessions.
• Hidden Depths:
  • For all of his talk of psychology, he's hiding some rather deep emotional pain. It's also the reason why he's researching matters of the heart.
  • Despite the fact that he's currently a temp therapist hired by a high school, he's actually a genius. In fact, it was HIS work that single handedly opened research into the field of Cognitive Science; Futaba's mother Wakaba's research was built on his work. Part of Maruki's descent into despair was when Shido stole Maruki's work and shut his research down right when he was truly gaining ground.
• Hippie Teacher: While Maruki's primary role at Shujin is a guidance counselor, he's also shown giving classroom lectures about psychology to the students, like a teacher would. He has messy hair and scraggly facial hair, a casual style of dress that includes rolled-up pants and sandals, and is interested in fostering his students' emotional development in addition to their intellects.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He once saved a cat from a tree, though he received a scratched hand for his troubles, and later elaborates that he fell out of the tree as well.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Wears it during the school day as his work attire. Outside of Shujin, he sports a brown overcoat instead.
• Leitmotif: Ideal and the Real, which plays during his counselling sessions.
• Loved by All: You'd be hard pressed to find a member of Shujin's student body who doesn't like Maruki, especially among the female students. By the time he has to leave, many of the students express sadness at his departure due to all the help he's provided them and he ends up being crowded by so many students that the Phantom Thieves, who have each visited and interacted with him at certain times, feel that they won't be able to say their own goodbyes.
• Magic Is Mental: Increasing his Confidant rank will have Maruki give Joker mental training, which increases Joker's maximum SP by five points every time Maruki's rank goes up.
• Meaningful Background Event: He is in the background walking by when the Phantom Thieves return from Kamoshida's Palace on April 15th, the day of Ann's Awakening. But it's not just a Freeze-Frame Bonus because this is how he deduces Joker and his friends are the Phantom Thieves. Doubles as an Early-Bird Cameo since he does not get formally introduced by the Principal until May 13th, almost a month later.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Previous Social Links/Confidants have their arcana originate from either the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck or the Thoth tarot deck (Hunger, Aeon, Universe). The Consultant is the first arcana originating from the El Gran Tarot Esoterico tarot deck as an alternative to the Magician, a first for any Persona game thus far.
• Mistaken Identity: When visiting Leblanc, Maruki mentions his interest in cognitive psience to Futaba. Sojiro is immediately put on the defensive, because of what happened to Futaba's mother over research in that subject, and assumes that Maruki works for someone shady and has come to threaten them. Futaba defends Maruki, saying he is not whatever Sojiro is assuming he is, though this was so she can talk to someone else about cognitive psience. In this case, Maruki was actually victimized by Shido, much like Wakaba, due to his research.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Played With. At first glance, for many unassuming players who may not have much experience with counselors, much like the Thieves, then Maruki comes across as a bumbling but ultimately well-meaning man trying his best to help the students through their trauma. Look a bit underneath or for those who have experience, then Maruki comes off differently, having a dominant position in influencing the students he's supposed to be counseling and can come off as emotionally manipulative. At the same time, his specialty lies in research rather than counseling. It becomes clear his sessions with the students serve a secondary purpose; namely to further his research and psientific essay based on what he finds out. However, none of this actually makes him bad as he very much cares about the well-being of his students, is open and honest with them and becomes quite beloved by the student body, including the Phantom Thieves. Additionally, his research is still based on similar principles as counseling, albeit the research done for preventative therapy. However, it should be noted that therapy is perceived and handled quite differently in Japan, so it's unknown how applicable this is.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Discussed in his Confidant. His research concerns emotional pain, and he wonders if there's a way to avoid it altogether, wanting Joker's help with it.
• Nice Guy: A friendly and sympathetic man who genuinely wants to help out the students of Shujin. He is also willing to help people outside of his job description, such as when Yusuke (a student from another school) approached him after hearing from the rest of his team how nice he is, and Maruki actually does offer him a counseling session.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While he's never meant to be depicted as an idiot, considering he's a trained doctor, he comes across as rather ditzy. He is actually a scientific genius, a pioneer in cognitive science, and the originator of study about the Metaverse. Wakaba, Futaba's mom, was a genius in her own right, but her extensive work on studying the Metaverse was built on the the foundation Maruki created after it was stolen from him under Shido's orders.
• Permanently Missable Content: If his Confidant isn't at Rank 9 on November 18th, it will remain incomplete, and the third term will be inaccessible.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Maruki was created for Royal so that there could be a sympathetic adult character towards the protagonists at the start of the game. Sure enough, he's one of the few adults in Shujin who is a decent person, often advocating for the students against less sympathetic faculty members.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: He reveals in Rank 10 of his Confidant that he has known all along that Joker was a Phantom Thief, as he saw him, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana exit Kamoshida's Palace. This was the real reason he initially approached them and not that he had been told to do so. However, he then decided not to reveal it to them because he expected that they wouldn't trust him to begin with anyway and didn't want to want to make it worse by telling them.
• The Shrink: His job description. He's brought on to help Kamoshida's victims by using talk therapy. Ann openly speculates that Shujin hired him because they're worried that doing nothing for their students after Kamoshida's abuse would make them look even worse. Maruki more-or-less confirms this in a conversation.
  • Maruki is also willing to offer his services to Yusuke for free, despite Yusuke being a student at Kosei and Maruki having no obligation to do any counseling for him.
• Spotting the Thread: Maruki is leaving Shujin when the Phantom Thieves end up in an alley after leaving Kamoshida's Palace. He happened to notice how the group seemingly appeared from thin air and, after Kamoshida underwent a change of heart, was half-convinced Joker and the others knew how to access a person's cognitive world. The Phantom Thieves' later exploits confirmed his suspicions.
• Stupid Good: In a Thieves Den conversation with Akechi and Kasumi, he recounts how an old man took advantage of his kindness to con him out of some train fare.
• Supreme Chef: Mostly subverted. Maruki appears to believe himself to be skilled in cooking and makes it part of his image along with his snacks. He is the lead chef at Shujin's cleanup of Inokashira Park in May. He claims to cook for himself all the time at home instead of going out to eat and knows how to properly prepare taro. At the event he tries to show off by throwing the salt like the Saltbae meme and none of it gets into the soup as the salt gets blown into the wind. Additionally, when counseling Sumire for the first time, he explains how he tried to make shrimp in chili sauce with apples to try to match a flavor like sweet-and-sour pork with pineapples. Sumire correctly suspects it did not end up very good and shows Maruki is rather short-sighted when it comes to cooking.
• There Are No Therapists: Zig-zagged. It appears to be an aversion at first, as Principal Kobayakawa hires Maruki so the students have someone to help them process the fallout from Kamoshida's abuses. However, as Ryuji and Ann discuss, it looks more like the principal is doing damage control than actually giving a damn about the student body's mental health. Their fears are justified, as Maruki quickly reveals himself to be a psychology researcher who may not even have a therapist's license; Kobayakama hired a postdoc student on the grounds that he asked for a job, purely to look like he was doing something. Pretty par for the course for Shujin. The students are lucky that Maruki is at least genuinely trying to help and often advocates for them against other faculty members.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Apples, usually the juice variant. He's almost always got a box of it nearby, and gives a coupon for free juice to Ryuji like it's handing him money.
• Unkempt Beauty: He is not well groomed, but is still noted to be very attractive in-universe.
• Vague Age: Maruki is said to be middle-aged in a conversation, which could mean anywhere from late 30s to early 50s. Due to not having many visible signs of aging, he ends up looking a lot younger than other middle aged characters like Yoshida, Kamoshida, or Okumura.

---