Makoto Niijima

Description \ Bio

Makoto Niijima is a playable character in Persona 5. She is the younger sister of Sae Niijima and student council president of Shujin Academy, and lives a double life as a Phantom Thief. Despite her position as student council president, Makoto is an extremely unpopular student at Shujin Academy. This is because she didn't do anything to stop Suguru Kamoshida's abuse, resulting in all the students labeling her as an arrogant, selfish control freak who knew about the abuse but chose to ignore it because she only cared about getting a good letter of recommendation, and the Phantom Thieves initially assume her as such. In actuality, this happens because Makoto holds no real authority at Shujin, with her position merely making her a glorified tool for the principal to use however he sees fit, and she actually wanted to do something against Kamoshida but is too scared of the principal meddling with her college record to protect the P.E. teacher. She also isn't above keeping secrets from her friends to keep her image. When Akechi reveals to the group that Sae has a Palace, Makoto admits that she knew that and she wanted to go there so Sae might repent, but she kept it a secret because she thought it was "too selfish of a reason." Way before this, it led to her hiding the true reason why she didn't stand up against Kamoshida. Feeling overshadowed by her highly successful older sister and being used as a tool, Makoto has almost no sense of self-worth, and so has made a habit of keeping her nose down and doing what is expected of her. Her submissive nature is noted by Goro Akechi, who condescendingly refers to her as "the good-girl type of pushover." She also has the poor habit of apologizing immensely, and can go as far as make an unnecessary wall of text via IM to do so. After getting involved with the Phantom Thieves, however, Makoto stops denying that she was nothing other than a tool for higher authorities, and vows from then on to fight for what she believes in, which triggers the awakening of her Persona. After the group defeats Junya Kaneshiro, Makoto decides to stay with the Phantom Thieves, saying that she's done being the "exemplary honor student" and that she's going to try to be more honest with herself. Despite appearing prim and proper on the surface, Makoto is actually more of a tomboy: she's trained in aikido, enjoys violent action movies, never wears skirts other than her school uniform (which she wears leggings under) and seems to care little about fashion other than the headband she wears in her hair. Makoto has a compliant temperament that she never breaks out of: she is a level-headed and kind person, almost to a motherly extent. That side of her would be highlighted when she'd help Futaba Sakura and at a few points Morgana. That being said, following her awakening that discipline would be self-asserted, and in turn she would be strict on others and have an unrestricted and violent way of expressing that. Aside from her athletic ways of fighting, in the English localization this branches out to her voice acting as well. Makoto would be hard on Ryuji Sakamoto due to his consistently nonchalant approach to school life, who would fear her in turn. Morgana would be afraid of her a few times, even if it's over nothing and she only spoke to him with authority, similarly to treating himself as her subordinate. The other Phantom Thieves and even Iwai of the Mementos Mission manga fear her. Additionally, this same struggle with regulations would make Makoto herself socially awkward at first, as she wouldn't yet realize that there's more to life than that, and would actively combat her ignorance with the protagonist's help. At the same time, Makoto herself is actually quite embarrassed of her excessively masculine and dramatic ways of fighting and attire: many times she would complain about her mask and would wish she'd wore anything else. Even when she's praised and admired for her looks, such as by her new friend Haru Okumura, she would only react with shame and dismissal of the topic. And if she were to genuinely get into her role, she would deeply regret it later on, as portrayed in some of her dances in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. Despite her immensely serious personality and efforts to be above the more bizarre antics of her friends, Makoto does have her own hidden meek side such as being frightened by hearing ghost stories and the dark. Her panicking would become severe, begging for her older sister's help and at one point even holding onto the protagonist's leg. Makoto is an excellent analytical thinker and strategist, known for correctly deducting how a majority of puzzles in Palaces work on first sight. Bar situations where Akechi joins the party, who directly excels with exploiting the matters of the heart, Makoto performs most of the strategic work. Makoto's relationship with her sister is highly bitter, as Sae considers her as a detriment, yet Makoto constantly attempts to please her by fulfilling the expectations of other people. When she realized her sister's true nature (Where her Leviathan form can be seen briefly appearing for a second before the party battles her), she went to a near breakdown before Akechi assures her that they will get this through. In the end, Makoto wanted to help her sister, directly telling her later that she wanted to heal her heart.