Goro Akechi

Goro Akechi is a playable character from Persona 5. He is revered as the second coming of the detective prince (the first appeared in Persona 4), and is investigating the mysterious Phantom Thieves of Hearts case sensationalizing Japan.

Akechi eventually joins The Phantom Thieves, despite his negative stance towards them and their activities.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Playable Character; Justice Confidant
 * Persona 5 (Manga): Major Character
 * Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers: Cameo

Design
Akechi has shaggy chin-length brown hair with bangs and reddish-brown eyes. He wears a beige, striped black and white tie, black buttons, black trousers, and black gloves.

As Crow, Akechi wears a princely pure white royal outfit with red accents and a red, long-nosed mask. The artbook states his mask motif resembles that of a medieval western plague doctor, but in keeping with Akechi being as proud as a tengu, it's also got a long nose. His image is a combination of a noble's attire and a uniform worn by cavalry or guards of honor. As with his Robin Hood persona, it's meant to give the feeling of putting on the air of a champion of justice, with nothing to do with being a phantom thief, robber or burglar of any sort, invoking the image of being at the front of a stage to contrast the protagonist's image of being more of a backstage actor.

Once he reveals his true intentions, Akechi swaps his princely garb for a body-covering, black and purple striped outfit. In this form, he has several black belts strapped around his legs and arms. He also wears a dark enclosed knight helmet, similar to European armor, with a deep crimson mask resembling a sharp beak. Much like with Loki's design, it eludes to a lack of agency, is meant to give a chaotic feeling and invoke the question "what's the real you?"

Personality
Akechi is a high school student who conducts a detective business. His abilities as a detective have been widely acclaimed, since he not only has solved numerous cases, but is also able to deal with people from the investigation agency smoothly. His handsome features draw him public attention, and people comment on him as “The Second Advent of the Detective Prince.”

Behind this popularity, he is actually quite lonely and yearns to be loved. He was abandoned by his father, subsequently lost his mother to suicide, and never had any real friends. Akechi even calls himself an unwanted, cursed child. This combined with being passed around in the foster care system as an orphan has resulted in a far more jaded worldview than Akechi initially lets on. He has a desperate desire for fame, affection, and attention, which he is forthright about being the primary drive for his actions as a detective. However, the public only supports him as long as he upholds the pretense of being a charismatic idol detective, and his fans are quick to turn on him if he makes mistakes, such as when the Phantom Thieves quickly garner support from the public after their successful heist of stealing Kaneshiro's heart, and their triumph over Medjed. Akechi states he is extremely careful about his life, public image and grades, so that someone will want him around.

His wish to be acknowledged pushes him to do anything his father tells him in order to earn his acceptance. He is also unable say no to Shido due to the latter threatening him when Akechi even mildly dares question his orders. However, Akechi secretly resents his father for abandoning his mother while she was still pregnant with Akechi, as he believes having a bastard child was what caused his mother to eventually commit suicide. He's sworn revenge on his father, even going as far as being a hitman for Shido and acting as his right-hand-man, all in pursuit of his goal to ruin him when Shido is at the apex of his power.

After meeting and joining the party, he for the first time experiences how it feels to be happy together with friends, particularly the protagonist. Akechi both admires and envies him, since no matter his social standing and how others see him, the protagonist does not let anything stop him from making his own path. This made Akechi see the protagonist as the epitome of the very thing he could never have.

Near the final act of the game, his obsession to get revenge on his father and desire to be the hero of his own story overshadows his true feelings for the protagonist and the party. Before fighting the phantom thieves, Akechi reveals his plans for revenge and dismisses the concept of friends and true justice, claiming they are both meaningless and sickening. He also has a narcissistic element to his personality, wishing for others to see him a hero and those who oppose him as the villains. After learning the truth of how Shido sees him from his cognitive self, Akechi's goals change to align with the party's, and he sacrifices himself to protect the protagonist.

The official Persona 5 Artbook reveals that Akechi lives alone in a city apartment. His main skill is reasoning, and he has a habit of getting lost in thought during conversations. His hobbies include cycling (specifically, with a hybrid bicycle for easy turning in Tokyo), bouldering, and playing fashionable games like darts. His guidebook profile also states that Akechi always makes sure to try out the latest popular dishes in order to use food as a conversation piece. Waiting in long lines for this doesn't bother him. He uses his cycling hobby to ride around town, gathering stories to utilize in conversation with adults. Since he spends a lot of time with adults, he has a reputation among Tokyo’s famous hidden stores and high class restaurants, although in truth he has little interest in the food’s flavor.

Persona 5
Akechi is the illegitimate son of Masayoshi Shido, the same man responsible for the protagonist's probation period. He initially became a detective in order to make himself useful to his father and gain his trust. His mother, who was Shido's lover, was shamed by others after giving birth to Akechi, to the point where she committed suicide. When Akechi found out about this, he grew to hate his father and swore revenge. Before the start of the game, he found his chance to plan revenge after discovering The Palace and acquiring his Wild Card ability; an ability that enables Persona User to wield multiple personas. Yaldabaoth chose Akechi and subsequently the protagonist to participate in a thought experiment, a game, which then sets the stage for all the events that play out. Using his newfound power, Akechi assists in his father's goal to become prime minister of Japan, with the ulterior motive of gaining his trust and then manipulating his father once Shido accepts Akechi as his secret right-hand man. Akechi admits to the Thieves that he also wants personal fame as the man who brought down Shido.

As part of his plans for revenge and recognition, Akechi uses his powers to create accidents on Shido's orders, which he then solves as a detective, giving him a fraudulent reputation as Naoto Shirogane's inheritor. He is the one responsible for causing numerous mysterious incidents that have occurred in Shibuya by making individuals in the real world either go berserk or become an empty shell through the use of the Metaverse. His victims are those in Shido's way to be elected the prime minister or otherwise blocking Shido's rise to power. His attention quickly turns to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts when their activities quickly become known to the public after Madarame's confession on Live interview.



Prior to meeting the party, Akechi has been mentioned by Shadow Madarame as the guy with the black mask, which alerts the Phantom Thieves. He first meets the protagonist during a Shujin Academy school trip to a TV station where Akechi was scheduled to appear as a guest. Akechi greets the protagonist when he overhears him talking with Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and Morgana backstage. The next day, Akechi attends the talk show where he claims he disapproves of the Phantom Thieves' actions and sees it as no different from brainwashing. Akechi takes interest in the protagonist, who was sitting in the audience, after being impressed by his debate regarding the Phantom Thieves. He approaches him after the talk show and explains he enjoyed their conversation and hopes to speak with him again some other time. This establishes the Justice confidant as the two become acquainted with each other from that point onward.

Akechi initially doesn't pay much attention to the Phantom Thieves' activities until they change the heart of a yakuza, Junya Kaneshiro, whose Shadow reveals the existence of the black masked Persona User controlling The Palace and does not care what may happen in the real world. Thanks to Shido's corrupt co-conspirators in the Police, namely the Special Investigation Unit director, Akechi is tasked with investigating these matters together with prosecutor Sae Niijima.

During the Thieves' heist to steal the heart of Haru Okumura's father, Kunikazu Okumura, Akechi kills Shadow Kunikazu on Shido and the SIU director's orders, before Kunikazu can reveal anything about their plans, causing the real Kunikazu to die as well in the real world. Just before they entered the Palace, he also managed to snap pictures of the thieves.

Now possessing proof of their identities, Akechi becomes the main instrument in Shido's plans to destroy the thieves from the inside out by making their crimes look like the Phantom Thieves' doing. In order to get close to them, Akechi purposely states in interviews that there is a possibility that Kunikazu's death is not connected to the thieves. This surprises the thieves, leading Makoto Niijima to suggest they try to make contact with Akechi to try and get information out of him, as Makoto can no longer get any information from her sister because Sae has become more careful than before after discovering someone has hacked into her computer. Conveniently, Shujin Academy just voted for a guest speaker at the school festival and Akechi won by a landslide.

After receiving contact from Makoto, he attends their school festival and announces to the whole school that he knows the Thieves' identities, alerting the party. However, he doesn't reveal their identities and instead tells Makoto and the others that he wants to talk with them before continuing the show. Talking privately, he shows the party the photos he has taken and feigns that he had discovered the other world only a month ago. He continues to claim that he believes they are not the ones who killed Kunikazu, and says he knows the identity of the true culprit and shows them a picture of a figure in a dark mark. Akechi claims was attacked by him which led to his awakening as a Persona User. He then asks to be allowed to join them so that he can catch the real culprit and clear the Phantom Thieves' name, using the earlier photos as a blackmail should they refuse, and on the condition that they disband as Phantom Thieves once this was all over.

Left without alternatives, the thieves agree to Akechi's deal. However, the protagonist and Morgana at this point realize that Akechi most likely has an ulterior motive, due to an earlier event. They both recall Akechi mentioning pancakes after accidentally overhearing Morgana talk about the "pancake-shaped Dome Town" on his first meeting with the protagonist back in July. Since only those who have been to the Metaverse can hear Morgana's voice, this means that Akechi already awakened to his powers before meeting the party and is lying about only having gone to the Metaverse recently.



During the subsequent meetup at Cafe Leblanc, Akechi reveals that Sae has a Palace and suggests they take Sae's heart to remove her from the investigation of the Phantom Thieves to prevent her from possibly forging false evidence for an arrest. While the Thieves attempt to find the keyword to Sae's palace, Futaba Sakura plants an app on Akechi's smartphone that records his conversations. A recording of Akechi reporting to Shido reveals Shido's plans to set the thieves up and kill the Protagonist. The party realizes the true mastermind is someone much more dangerous than they could've anticipated, moreso than Akechi, if he's powerful enough to order an assassination in a police station. To thwart certain demise, the thieves come up with a plan to outsmart Shido and Akechi by getting the Protagonist purposefully arrested.

During the climax of their heist at the Niijima's Palace, Akechi leaks their plans to the police, thus leading to the protagonist's eventual arrest. Shortly after Sae's interrogation with the protagonist, he visits the protagonist in the interrogation room, shooting the guard tasked with protecting him and subsequently the protagonist. His plan is either successful or foiled depending on the player's responses to Sae's interrogation after his long reminiscence. If the protagonist tells Sae to show his smartphone to Akechi, which has been programmed by Futaba using the Palace's reality-warping ability, Akechi shoots a fake version of the Protagonist and makes it look like a suicide.

Immediately after this, Akechi reports to Shido and tells him the job is done. Unknown to Shido or Akechi, however, the Protagonist is very much alive and the thieves are already on a mission to locate Shido Masayoshi's palace and steal his treasure.

Akechi makes a public appearance where he addresses the Protagonist's "suicide" at a talk show. The public now gives Akechi their full support, although Akechi comments they likely wouldn't if they knew he was an unwanted child. A while later, Akechi receives sudden orders from Shido to kill the people involved in their schemes earlier than expected, which confuses Akechi who thought everything would settle until after the election. When he expresses some doubt about the matter, Shido immediately threatens him and asks Akechi if he knows what it means to disobey him. At this point, Akechi realizes that there is a high chance the protagonist is still alive and encroaching upon Shido's palace.

He confronts the party in the engine room of Shido's Palace, where he reveals his plans for revenge. He tells the thieves he plans to snatch Shido's victory away at the last minute by revealing the fact that he is Shido's illegitimate son, revealing his father's crimes, which would destroy Shido's credibility and career.



Before fighting, Akechi has a talk mainly directed at the protagonist where he says he wishes they could've met much earlier, when they still could've had a chance to be good rivals and perhaps even friends. However, he goes on to say there's no point in dwelling on that which didn't happen. Akechi reveals that he not only has the same ability to summon multiple Personas like the protagonist, he also has the ability to make Shadows go berserk, an ability he also used on several of his previous victims on Shido's orders.

At his first defeat, the party tries to convince him to join forces with them as they are intending to take down the same man, but Akechi is insistent as he lashes out his jealousy to the Protagonist and his friends who have everything that he doesn't have. Morgana tells him it's obvious he doesn't hate the protagonist, that Akechi should follow his true feelings, that it doesn't matter if he thinks he's unwanted, and that Akechi should be himself. In response, Akechi deflects everything Morgana says and throws a tantrum. Deciding to get serious, he unleashes his full power, revealing his true form as the black masked Persona User mentioned by Madarame and Kaneshiro.

After his second defeat, Akechi surrenders and expresses his envy of the protagonist for being surrounded by loyal friends. He goes on to say that once the Phantom Thieves defeat and expose Shido they will be seen as heroes, while his fame and trust will vanish, especially once his involvement with all the cases he "solved" is exposed. Akechi laments being unable to become someone special, but to his absolute shock, the protagonist and the others point out how he is already special in their eyes and even offer him to rejoin them to fight Shido. Akechi is visibly confused by this and tells the party to kill him if they don't want him to get in the way, and then says that they are truly beyond his comprehension.

Before anything else can happen, "Cognitive Akechi" appears, the manifestation of how Shido always viewed him: an obedient puppet. His cognitive self taunts and mocks Akechi's wish for wanting to be accepted and loved. The cognition reveals that Shido was planning to kill Akechi all along soon as the election was over, as well as planning to pin all the murders and incidents on Akechi, and then tells him to take his death as a punishment. When Akechi hears this, he realizes what a fool he's been. Cognitive Akechi then gives the real Akechi one last chance to prove himself to Captain Shido by killing the Phantom Thieves.

However, instead of shooting them, Akechi shoots his cognitive self and then shoots the switch on the wall, closing the barrier between himself and the party. Akechi says that they would have perished if they tried to protect him while fighting the shadows and that they should have left him there to die to begin with. He and his wounded cognitive self then point their guns toward each other. From the other side of the wall, the party hears Akechi's wish to change his father's heart, and the protagonist, in turn, promises to honor his wish. The party hears two gunshots, followed by silence. Afterwards, Akechi's fate is unknown, with Futaba failing to sense his presence after the shooting and Sae reporting him as missing. This may heavily imply that Akechi died along with his cognitive self.

Shido is very insecure of the exposure of his connection to Akechi as well as the fact that Akechi is his illegitimate son. When the party confronts Shadow Shido after Akechi's apparent death, he says that he would have eliminated Akechi because Akechi knew too much about him, and because Akechi's birth is a taint to his political power. Shadow Shido gloats about how he used praise to make Akechi dance in the palm of his hand, and says that he was the reason Akechi used his powers in such an effective way. The party reacts with disgust and condemns Shido for twisting Akechi in such a way and making a teenager commit murders for him.

If the player fails to finish any of the previous Palaces in time, Akechi enters the interrogation room and assassinates the protagonist after Sae leaves the room.

If the player fails to finish Shido's Palace in time, Akechi arrives with the police to arrest the protagonist for murdering a guard and deceiving Akechi with an illusion. Akechi declares that "This game is over.", and the screen returns to the regular Game Over screen, prompting the player to go back from one week.

Confidant
Akechi's Confidant is automatically established on the 10th of June. This Confidant progresses along with the story, and can only progress past Rank 7 if the player answers Sae's questions correctly during the interrogation in November. Because Akechi's stay in the party is only temporary, his battle abilities are all activated when he joins the party. Maxing this Confidant unlocks the fusion of Metatron. Goro's Confidant is one of two that does not have a farewell gift to the protagonist.

Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
Akechi makes an appearance on TV, where he is asked his opinion on the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. His response is that whether or not they truly exist, they are criminals who should be brought to justice; he goes on to denounce their actions, and believes that forcing people to change what's in their hearts is wrong.

He is later present at the arrest of Kazuya Makigami and his gang, noticing the protagonist when Kazuya saw him.

Strategy
In the first phase, Akechi is shielded by Guard Dog of Hades and Spear-wielding General.

Stats
First phase=

Second phase=

Ally

 * "Robin Hood!" (Using Persona Skill)
 * "Now, Robin!" (Using Persona Skill)
 * "My skills exceeds yours!" (Selecting Persona Skill)
 * "Taste my wrath!" (Selecting Persona Skill)
 * "Persona!" (Selecting Persona Skill)
 * "It doesn't die!" (Akechi's attack or Skill doesn't defeat the enemy)
 * "Very clever..." (Akechi misses or Skill fails to inflict damage)
 * "Someone cover me!" (Akechi misses)
 * "Saw that." (Akechi dodges)
 * "Too slow!" (Akechi dodges)
 * "It's the last one!" (Akechi reduces the enemies to one)
 * "You need my help?" (Initiating Follow-Up)
 * "Understood. Moving in!" (Follow-Up Attack)
 * "We're still fighting!" (Using Harisen Recovery on an ally)
 * "I'll use this!" (Using an Item)
 * "There." (Giving Baton Pass)
 * "I'll do my best!" (Receiving Baton Pass)
 * "Roger." (Receiving Baton Pass)
 * "This can't be..." (Incapacitated)
 * "Lucky hit..." (Incapacitated)
 * "That takes care of that. Let's move!" (Battle results)
 * "Checkmate." (Initiating Hold-Up)
 * "Freeze!" (Initiating Hold-Up)
 * "It'll be a massacre!" (Initating All-out Attack)
 * "This is what I was waiting for!" (Initiating All-out Attack)
 *  'Let's scatter!" (Initating All-out Attack)
 * "Learned your lesson?" (All-out Attack finishing touch)
 * "Stay out of our way." (All-out Attack finishing touch)
 * "That's the taste of defeat!" (All-out Attack finishing touch)
 * "Time to go, withdraw!" (Escaping from battle)

Boss Battle 1

 * "Kill them...Persona!"
 * "Take them down...Robin Hood!" (Using Megaton Raid)
 * "Perrrsonaaa!" (Using Charge)
 * "Damn you..." (Taking damage)
 * "Whoa!" (Dodges attack)
 * "Let's do this." (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)

Boss Battle 2

 * "Descend, Loki!"
 * "I'm not letting you off!"
 * "Take them down Loki!" (Using Deathbound)
 * "Eat this!" (Using Brave Blade)
 * "Die." (Using Eigaon)
 * "Incinerate!" (Using Maragion)
 * "Go to Hell!" (Using Megidolaon)
 * "What!?" (Akechi's Skill misses)
 * "Grr..." (Akechi's Skill misses)
 * "The hell was that?" (Taking damage)
 * "Too slow!" (Dodges attack)
 * "Uaaaaaggggghh!" (Defeated)
 * "Hahahaha...AHHAHAHAHA!!" (Protagonist dies)
 * "You pieces of shit!" (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
 * "Whaaat?" (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)

Etymology
"Go" (吾) of Gorō is the archaic form of the first person pronoun "I" in Chinese which carries no meaning in formal Japanese language and is merely borrowed for Chinese translation or naming. Akechi (明智) literally means "wisdom" in Chinese, the same meaning in Japanese would be "kenmei" (賢明).

Trivia

 * Goro Akechi is a reference to the name (明智 小五郎), a fictional private detective created by Japanese mystery writer  (a pseudonym for Tarō Hirai) from the story "The Case of the Murder on D. Hill" in January 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century. Edogawa Rampo is considered the father of the Japanese detective story and was a great admirer of Sir . Akechi is the first recurring detective character in Japanese fiction and is clearly inspired by Doyle’s . It also makes sense for Akechi to be the rival of the team as in the introduction to the translated version of 'The Early Cases of Kogoro Akechi' The Fiend with Twenty Faces (Akechi's main rival) is referred to as 'more of an Arsene Lupin than a Moriarty'
 * His name may also be a reference to, a retainer of the notorious daimyo and conqueror Oda Nobunaga who rebelled against him for reasons that are often interpreted as either disgust for Nobunaga's flaunting of bushido, the code of honor and ethics samurai were expected to follow, and/or jealousy of Nobunaga's success and fame. Both motives figure into Akechi's infiltration and later betrayal of the Thieves.
 * Akechi's Close Up style when he is in the player's party is similar to those from Persona 3 and Persona 4, rather than the Persona 5 style which is only used in his second boss battle.
 * After Akechi's defeat by the player, the way he atones by sacrificing himself alludes to Takahisa Kandori upon his defeat in the Undersea Ruins in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.
 * Akechi shares some similarities to Tohru Adachi from Persona 4: Both of them are detectives, they both awaken to their personas before the protagonist does, both are being manipulated by the ones who orchestrated the events of the story. However, they differ in motivation-while Adachi was motivated by boredom, spite, and jealousy of people he regarded as luckier and more talented than him, Goro is motivated by the conflicting desires to be loved and to ensure that his father is punished for his crimes, and he is shown to feel remorse for his betrayal of the Thieves after the end of his boss fight.
 * Akechi is similar to another character from Persona 4; Sho Minazuki. Both changed due to the 'betrayal' of their fathers; Sho was "abandoned" by Ikutsuki while Shido left Akechi's mother. Additionally, both grew up isolated and developed a negative view on the world. Lastly, both are Wild Cards who abuse their power for malevolent purposes.
 * However, in Sho's case, he initially rejected the contract proposed by the Velvet Room in exchange for their services in honing his power (as well as lacking a Persona to begin with, whereas Minazuki was in possession of one), in contrast to Goro, who was chosen by Yaldabaoth, posing as Igor after usurping the Velvet Room, as part of his thought experiment to see if humanity could be changed through destruction or social reform.
 * While Akechi is a Wild Card just like the protagonist, unlike him, he can only use two. The data mining of the Persona status reveals that his other Persona, Loki, belongs to the Justice Arcana like Robin Hood, Akechi's signature Arcana. That means there is no indication of him being able to possess Personas of other Arcana, another defining trait of the Wild Card Persona User.
 * This may be because of Akechi's misanthropic view, and his isolated childhood throughout much of his life. Because he had a one track mind focused on revenge, once he awakened to his power, he never bothered to form bonds. Futaba even implies that because he was focused on only lies and hatred, he couldn't reach his full potential.
 * As a Wild Card Persona user, Akechi has an interesting ability of being able to change his outfit to better match the Persona he is using. He takes advantage of this to don the regal prince outfit used while he is a party member. It's unknown whether or not the protagonist can do the same.
 * Despite being a short term party member, Akechi won first place in Sega Festival 2016 fans polling for favorite party member question.
 * Akechi's hobbies include cycling and rock climbing/bouldering.
 * According to an episode of Persona Stalker Club, Akechi's attaché case contains a laptop and documents about cases. The A mark means Akechi and is his own craftsmanship, because he likes to show off. And apparently, the period after the A indicates an abbreviation for "Answer".
 * Within the metaverse, Akechi's stance mirrors Joker's however he lacks the natural sway that Joker has, instead standing completely still.
 * It is also likely that Akechi is trained in fencing, as his attacks are overly exaggerated and dramatised as if they were being used on stage, but are fencing moves nonetheless.
 * Many of Akechi's DLC outfits hint at his status as the traitor: he is dressed as a major antagonist for three sets (Boss from Catherine, Ideo Hazama from Shin Megami Tensei: if... and General Munakata from Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army) and as a major enemy-turned-ally for the Persona 2 set, as he's the only one wearing the Kasugayama uniform - the same worn by Jun Kurosu and Eikichi Mishina, though the latter was an early member of the party.