Makoto Niijima

Makoto Niijima is a playable character in Persona 5. She's the student council president of Shujin Academy who 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 due to her not doing 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. While she does give off the impression of this during the Phantom Thieves' first few encounters with her, these rumors are ultimately revealed to be completely untrue. In actuality, the abuse outraged Makoto, but she felt powerless to do anything about it due to the influence Kamoshida held over the school. In fact, 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. 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." 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. While she's mostly a kind person, she can also be very bossy and is harshly critical of those who don't live up to her expectations, particularly Ryuji Sakamoto, whose case she constantly gets on due to his consistently nonchalant approach to school life, implying that she's a perfectionist. She also has a ton of repressed anger issues over being made to stand on a pedestal by adults who don't follow the same standards themselves, and as such has the worst temper of the group bar none, to the point that even Iwai has to fear her, as seen during the Mementos Mission manga. Despite her immensely serious personality and efforts to be above the more bizarre antics of her friends, Makoto does have her own hidden elements such as being frightened by hearing ghost stories, as well as the dark. Being scared of the dark, Makoto seems to panic, first shown when the group decides to check out Sojiro Sakura's house and ending up being forced to go in due to a thunderstorm just rolling in. Once inside, the group hears someone screaming, causing everyone, with the exceptions of the protagonist and Makoto herself, to split up. Makoto, frightened by the mysterious scream, questions the protagonist if she can hold his hand. Futaba Sakura finds this hilarious upon realizing how stoic Makoto normally is and repeatedly teases her about her phobia of horror movies throughout the game. This even carries to Strikers where she can be instantly seen crying for her sister's help while hiding behind the protagonist's legs as soon as they infiltrate the Okinawa Jail and a can drops out from nowhere, making a ping. 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, 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.