Ryuji Sakamoto Husbando

Ryuji Sakamoto is a playable character from Persona 5. He is a student at Shujin Academy and a former track star who lives a double life as a Phantom Thief. He is the protagonist's best friend and the Phantom Thieves' charge commander. Ryuji has short spiky dyed blond hair and dark brown eyes. According to Sadayo Kawakami, his hair is naturally black. He has a noticeable widow's peak and his eyebrows are unusual in that he lacks the outer sides. He is shown to be muscular. He wears his winter school uniform a bit modified. It consists of the standard black blazer with red buttons, unbuttoned to reveal a yellow T-shirt with a comic style star symbol and the word "ZOMG!" He has black pants with a red plaid pattern rolled up to reveal his ankles. His pants have black suspenders that hang down instead of being worn on his shoulders, white belt and white sneakers that have a rising sun flag motif. His summer school uniform is the same as his winter's, except his yellow T-shirt is replaced with a red one reading "NO MO RULES," he no longer wears his blazer and he now wears black and white high-top sneakers. On his days off in winter, he wears a purple zip-up hoodie with red lining and the number "777" on the back, a T-black shirt with a yellow frowning face, black pants and yellow sneakers. In the summertime, he wears a yellow tank top that reads "ON UR MARK!" with red shoe prints, khaki shorts and blue sneakers with two diagonal lines on each side. In addition, he wears a chain necklace and white belt as accessories. During Persona 5 Royal's third semester, Ryuji wears a bright blue puffer jacket with brown fur lining the hood over a red sweatshirt with a graffiti paint design, a camouflage-patterned scarf with black pants and blue sneakers. At school, he wears his uniform the same, but with his pants rolled down, a new red hoodie with a black skull and the word "NOBODY" on the front underneath the blazer, a blue T-shirt and purple sneakers. Due to his injury, he walks and runs with a slight limp, and occasionally trips if he overexerts himself. Ryuji is known as a disruptive "problem student" at school whose bad behavior causes all sorts of trouble for the teachers. He is quite proud of his status as a self-proclaimed "troublemaker" and his rebellious, mischievous and disobedient nature are the perfect qualities to be a Phantom Thief. He is sometimes vulgar and aggressive, as shown in his early interactions with the protagonist, Yusuke Kitagawa and Makoto Niijima. He is also rather short-tempered, easily taking offense from even the slightest of comments, making him resort to trying to be threatening. Though there is truth to his terrible temper, this causes a misunderstanding as there is more than meets the eye, however, as Ryuji is actually upbeat, lazy and even cowardly. Though much of it only comes from his appearance, mannerisms and even his language, his lax nature in itself makes him look worse at times. In certain Mementos dialogue, Ryuji will comment that in trying to keep his eyes peeled for intel, people have told him he looks "even more of an asshole than before." Otherwise, even other party members may misunderstand him in rare cases and think he's being purely a jerk. Even then, from the beginning, Ryuji actively tries his best to be a better person, but overdoes it by showering others with unsolicited kindness. That being said, Ryuji has a strong sense of morality and lives by his beliefs of right and wrong, putting it on high priority. As such, he sees through people's attempts at excusing their actions with sympathy, and is the first to untie the twisted context of right and wrong, delivering a clear picture. Outside of that, he also has a strong common sense and isn't afraid to help his peers with the truth, often making fun of the proud Morgana for his inabilities and shortcomings and even reprimanding the passionate Yusuke Kitagawa whenever he gets carried away in his pursuits for art at the cost of real life. He also has hands-on experience and knowledge of the city, introducing the protagonist to Untouchable and Ichigaya among other places. In reality, his seemingly delinquent-like behavior is merely a coping mechanism for the loss of his reputation to Kamoshida's tyranny and his inability to continue becoming an athlete after the injury he suffered at Kamoshida's hand. Deep down, he is nothing more than a kind and altruistic boy. He deeply cares for his mother and takes fervent effort as an athlete to relieve her worries. He also reveals that his father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother and then left, so his mother is the only family he has. When he tells the group about the aftermath of his confrontation with Kamoshida, he is broken when he admits that, following a meeting with the school authorities, she apologized to him for being a single mother and not giving him a strong father-figure in life. He even calls himself a "bad son," due to him messing up his efforts to make things easier for his mother. He's generally friendly and on good terms with everyone in the Phantom Thieves (despite frequent bickering), particularly Ann, with whom he shares somewhat of a love-hate relationship. Morgana he has a brutal back-and-forth of the two constantly insulting each-other, but unlike the others, Morgana has caught up on the reality of Ryuji's disposition, and Morgana, while having thought Ryuji was a jerk at first, does vouch for his kindred soul and the changes he's underwent later on. Ryuji later becomes protective of Morgana when he's being made fun of in turn, though Morgana himself might not necessarily need his defense at that point. Ryuji's upbeat and tempestuous, being strongly dedicated and passionate towards what he cares about. He is especially protective of his friends when they're in harm's way, being nothing less than provocative towards their instigators. Not only that, but he'd go as far as to risk his life recklessly, such as when he'd enter public traffic to call the party a cab, an inevitability during a moment of crisis. He's also quite quick to make friends and be forgiving with others, in spite of negative impressions. That being said, he's quite unforgiving of Goro Akechi for his actions, although he'd recognize that his head was twisted and manipulated by Masayoshi Shido. However, Ryuji's generally aimless, and sometimes might have misguided motivations, making him do things that he would regret, even though he genuinely did it to stand up for himself or others. One of his greatest mistakes was standing up to Suguru Kamoshida, only leading to consequences for himself and his closest ones. This would persist once the group has become famous, causing him to lose himself in the group's popularity even if he was trying to pursue good intentions, a consequence that would not only hurt his friend Morgana, convincing him he doesn't belong in the team and leading him on a wild goose chase to prove himself, but the fame itself was a trap by the conspiracy that specifically exploited the group's lack of aim to frame them for a crime they didn't commit, a realization that Ryuji did not take well. Though Ryuji has a strong sense of honor, he is rather arrogant, dulling his talents in the process. Regardless, Ryuji is supported by the protagonist as his voice of reason, at times calming Ryuji down or stopping him from acting where his altruism would only confuse or worsen the situation. Not to mention, the protagonist's own life being put in danger was what encouraged Ryuji to pursue his ideals, knowing full well the emergency of the situation. Even in his rut of despair following the downfall of the group's public support, the protagonist encourages Ryuji that he can change. The protagonist would also attentively follow Ryuji's progress of self-discovery, as far as listening to him over the phone during the beginning of Shido's Palace. Morgana in particular is also another one of Ryuji's friends and voices of reason, but he more specifically reminds him of his fallbacks and makes fun of him, making them prone to fighting. The protagonist and Ryuji have an important relationship based around their partnership in reforming the world and pursuing their ideals. Both having been harmed by society, they maintain a clean bond, and Ryuji is especially respecting towards the protagonist as a partner and their leader. Their dynamic revolves around training together and sometimes goofing off. Attracting girls was one of Ryuji's most prominent ulterior motives, as he'd admit that it was one of his fantasies and driving forces during his early years of running. In the midst of Shido's Palace, he'd hatch a plan to make the female members of the group dress up in swimsuits: although he'd claim it was to attract the attention of one of their targets, his cover was blown by what the other members described as a "scary" and "creepy" face. Ryuji's academic abilities, his Japanese included, are outright questionable at best and horrid at worst, as he more often than not, gets bad grades from exams, usually by oversleeping or refusing to study at all. He's so oblivious to the real world that he'd need Makoto Niijima to use little words to help him identify certain branches of the government. Aside from his threatening way of expressing himself sometimes, he also has poor taste, as the first calling card he designed was based off of references online, and even then failed to be convincing, as Ann described it sounded like "an idiot trying to be an adult." One common punchline is that in spite of Ryuji's desire to pick up girls, nobody would actually want to go out with him. In Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, Ryuji's dancing style is also uninspired in the same fashion, as he often lifts popular street dance moves without any thought, such as the robot dance. Ryuji's frequent density causes him to be viewed as an idiot or even a little kid by his peers, Morgana and Ann in particular. Ryuji's rather fickle and follows what interests him the most. Although he has a passion for helping others, he very often gets distracted by his perverted interest in girls, which includes picking up girls. Ryuji was interested in "Victoria's Housekeeping," a maid service with adult undertones. He would also be convinced to join the school's social studies trip only upon hearing there'll be female actresses, making the excuse that he's taking up Morgana's suggestion to keep a low profile. This is also reinforced with Ann Takamaki, as he might stare at her in the Mona car while the group were traveling through the desert in Futaba's Palace. When Ann confronts him about this later, he doesn't even try to deny it, saying that "it was a great view." Unfortunately, Ryuji eventually gets caught off guard by the conspiracy's deceit. It comes to a head after the Phantom Thieves are framed down by Shido, resulting in him breaking down and calling himself "an idiot" for his past behavior. He's able to eventually reconcile his weakness after talking with the protagonist and striving to become a better person after the protagonist makes him realize he can still change as a person. Ryuji cares a great deal for the well-being of others around him, such as when he attempts to help end the abuse of the track team, even going as far as letting them beat him up in an attempt to air out their frustrations. He also has a strong sense of right and wrong. When Morgana warns him and the protagonist that stealing Kamoshida's treasure may result in his death, Ryuji is shocked and reluctant to take that risk, believing that him and the protagonist going around secretly doing whatever they wanted would make them no different from Kamoshida. He changes his mind after Shiho Suzui's attempted suicide, but even after it's done, he wonders if it really was for the best. After a chance encounter with Masayoshi Shido, however, Ryuji comes up with the idea to continue as the Phantom Thieves, in order to get rid of adults who have gone unpunished for so long and give courage to all those who need it. Furthermore, Ryuji is a rather forgiving person, as evident by his willingness to help out his former teammates on the track team despite them viewing him as a traitor, as well as being the first to voice the party's forgiveness to Makoto for recklessly getting the team blackmailed, despite having despised her up until then. He even tells Natsuhiko Nakanohara that being treated like dirt doesn't give one the right to do the same to them. In Strikers, Ryuji becomes one of Sophia's closest friends, and he came to care a lot about her, enough to give the mysterious voice in the Okinawa Jail a tongue lashing for having insulted Sophia. Hobby-wise, apart from being on the track team, he also does muscle training. He can drink a 500mL bottle of carbonated water in one go which he did as training during his track and field club days. When he was active, he could also do 1000mL bottles. He is often impatient and has a habit of tapping the ground with his toes when he's bored, and prefers to get "straight to the point" during conversations. He claims he never reads, and his artbook profile claims he only reads manga. When it comes to food, he's particularly fond of ramen, to the point of being fussy about the flavor and texture of the noodles. Though not a cook by any means, Ryuji displays some cooking skills, as he mentions a recipe involving combining honey and sliced lemons as a way of restoring stamina, something his mother taught him.