Sumire Yoshizawa

Sumire Yoshizawa is the Kasumi's sister and a playable character from Persona 5 Royal. She is a talented gymnast studying at Shujin Academy who gets involved with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Yoshizawa is a cheerful, elegant and friendly person with a seemingly perfect life, as she received a Shujin scholarship and was (supposedly) nearly uncontested in gymnastic competitions. She also appears to be quite clumsy and careless, as she is shown outright missing the mark at the batting cages even if her reflexes are usually excellent, and she lets her phone's battery run out while texting the protagonist. Despite the fact that she can cook, she is unpredictable and somewhat awkward at it, since she isn't sure about the ingredients, and she often uses stamina replenishing food due to her gymnast tendencies. She has high metabolism, and as such can put away a large amount of food and still ask for seconds. She always refers to her fellow friends as "Senpai" no matter the situation, since she's the youngest member of the Phantom Thieves who has an educative degree. Despite her supposedly cheerful and bold personality, she sometimes experiences bouts of depression for no apparent reason; usually if the protagonist meets with her, she will end up with a gloomy mood for the slightest of mistakes, regardless if said mistakes are real or perceived. When practicing gymnastics, she also often feels like her body isn't hers and she cannot execute complicated moves properly despite knowing how to perform them. She dislikes the very idea of the Phantom Thieves, as she believes that people should learn how to solve their own problems instead of relying on others. Although she acknowledges that the Phantom Thieves do good by helping people, she worries that people may become heavily reliant on the Thieves to solve their problems. Despite this, Yoshizawa adores the protagonist because she considers him as a mentor figure towards her, causing her Phantom Thief outfit to resemble his. In reality, her cheerful mannerisms were merely a facade; Sumire is actually a reserved and introverted person, in addition to being so suicidally depressed and convinced of her own worthlessness to the point where she resents attempts to cheer her up, although this changes for the better as the protagonist advances her Confidant. She suffered from an inferiority complex towards her near-perfect sister, fueled by being helped throughout her life by her. She has told the protagonist that Kasumi does most of the work for the sisters bar preparing dishes, including arranging her very own bedroom. Her self-loathing created a despondent reaction to Kasumi's attempt at consoling her, believing it to be patronization rather than the genuine care she had. Her negative reactions to Kasumi ultimately resulted in the tragedy that ended her sister's life. The trauma of the incident instilled even more negativity and added survivor's guilt to her piling self-deprecation. Even long before Kasumi died, she was already suffering from severe mental problems, including an escapist desire that she should become Kasumi, or die. Her encounter with Takuto Maruki ultimately provided an out by confiding in him her wish to become Kasumi, granting her mental stability by becoming her sister whom she both loved and was jealous of. This however, proved to contradict her very statement to the protagonist that people should solve their problem by themselves and caused her a new set of troubles, as when Sumire was "Kasumi," Maruki only made Sumire think that she was "Kasumi" instead of outright turning her into Kasumi, resulting in the sisters' strengths and weaknesses mixed up and colliding with each other, which contributes to her inconsistencies in gymnastics and cooking. This also explains her odd depressive fits when she was still "Kasumi," impairs her ability to perform and presumably led to her head teacher threatening revocation. Other students also alienate her as they still see her as the inferior Sumire and not Kasumi, and for them, she is undeserving of the scholarship and is merely a mentally unstable person. (Although for her, due to the cognitive manipulation making her think that she's Kasumi, she just believed that people are only jealous of her talent and special treatment.) Sumire's suicidal depression manifests itself as constant feelings of worthlessness and suicidal/self-defeating thoughts, believing that she was so worthless after her sister's death, that if she couldn't become Kasumi, she should rather just die. It's also implied that she suffers from depressive fatigue (based on her Rank 7 Confidant where she tells the protagonist that she fatigues quickly when using the devices in the fitness centre, despite the fact that she is supposed to be a very athletic person), and later on, after her survivor's guilt had taken form after Kasumi's death, a lack of enthusiasm in daily activities that she used to enjoy, such as cooking or gymnastics. Due to her near-nonexistent self-esteem, she also apologizes a lot even when it comes to unnecessary situations, sometimes even apologizing when somebody tells her that she doesn't need to apologize for something. Despite Sumire's inferiority complex towards Kasumi, she is by no means lacking as she can place high in competitions, even achieving 1st and 2nd place ranks, indicating that she is actually above average at it. Many have noted, including Kasumi herself, that she is not lagging far behind Kasumi. It is only due to her tendency to greatly underestimate her abilities that she is does not reach her full potential. Sumire fails to notice that Kasumi's self-confidence is the key to her success and that she can achieve similar results if she tries to be herself rather than emulate her sister as her coach has stated. Additionally, much unlike Kasumi, Sumire is said to be a decent cook, as when she was "Kasumi" she was able to prepare a curry bento with a similar taste as the curry served in Leblanc. During the third semester events, Sumire finds a middle ground between the two philosophies she's challenged by: she decides to finally solve her own problems and stand up for herself against the future (Kasumi's beliefs), but by deciding to take matters into her own hands, she also resolves to stop Maruki from creating the ideal reality and to help the population of Tokyo with its new crisis, and accepts others' help when needed (the Phantom Thieves' beliefs). Sumire also becomes easily flustered in pressuring situations, such as during the romance option in her Confidant, during which she stutters and freezes when the protagonist leans in to kiss her. Sumire's fashion senses are outright horrendous and is prone to choosing bad or overly gaudy clothing. In the Metaverse, Sumire is a significantly different person. She acts much more aggressively and determined, being a confident and focused fighter without any traces of her introverted tendencies in the real world. Her fighting style is graceful and precise, not dissimilar to the gymnastics she practices in the real world.