Makoto Niijima

Makoto Niijima is a playable character in Persona 5.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Playable Character; Priestess Confidant

Design
Makoto has brown hair in a bob cut with blunt bangs and a headband that seemingly matches her hair. Her eyes are abnormal as they have been depicted as red, although her eye color in her portraits can be interpreted as a reddish-brown.

She wears her school's uniform without the standard blazer. Instead, she wears a black halter vest over a long sleeve white shirt with a turtleneck. She wears a black and red pleated plaid skirt. She has black tights and brown ankle boots.

Her burglar outfit consists of a skintight black leather suit that is worn with a long black scarf, shoulder and knee pads with spikes, white gloves, and wears an iron mask.

Personality
Makoto is a perfectionist that has a strong sense of responsibility and would not yield to reality. Like her previous Priestess counterparts, Makoto is intelligent, honest and very hardworking. In truth, she is a very compassionate and understanding young lady who works hard to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Makoto suffers from an inferiority complex as she feels that her older sister, Sae Niijima, is a much more remarkable person than she is. The pressure put on her by the Principal of Shujin Academy to find the Phantom Thieves as well as her older sister who accidentally blurts out that she is a burden causes Makoto to devalue herself even more, especially when she cannot produce the results they are looking for. As a result, she became reckless with no regards to her safety and to the Phantom Thieves all in the attempt to show that she is useful and dependable. Thanks to her time as a Phantom Thief, Makoto develops stronger self-confidence.



Despite her immensely serious and mature nature, she does have her hidden, humorous elements, such as being frightened hearing ghost stories. When the Thieves introduce themselves properly to Futaba Sakura, Makoto grows increasingly nervous given how Futaba enjoys keeping her house dark and quiet and reminding Makoto of a horror movie-not to mention that, due to Futaba's own astraphobia, the thunderstorm outside broke said silence with a scream. When Futaba suddenly appears and shrieks in surprise, Makoto panics and hugs the protagonist's leg, gibbering and begging for Sae to save her until she realizes Futaba isn't a ghost. Futaba herself finds this hilarious upon realizing how stoic Makoto is normally, and repeatedly teases her about her phobia of horror movies throughout the game. She also possesses excellent driving skills.

As quickly discovered when she becomes a Phantom Thief, Makoto has a great deal of suppressed anger which leaks out during her fights, unleashing a very brutal method of fighting.

Persona 5
The younger sister of Sae Niijima. After the death of her father in the line of duty, Makoto is deeply apologetic that her elder sister has to shoulder the burden of supporting the whole family on her own. Makoto studies really hard so that she can enter a top notch university and relieve Sae's burden once she graduates.

Now a third-year honor student and the president of the student council in Shujin Academy, she is asked by the principal to investigate the possibility that the Phantom Thieves are students from their school after their volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida's confession and arrest. She accepts the request and is quick to deduce that the protagonist and the others are the Phantom Thieves and starts to approach them. Ann Takamaki, in particular, does not like her presence due to a rumor that says Makoto was aware of Kamoshida's true nature but kept quiet about it like everyone else to maintain a paragon image before the faculties and receive recommendation for her own benefit, a thought that Ann bitterly tells to Makoto, which disturbs her.

She begins to tail them for a while until she finally gets the proof of them being the Phantom Thieves by recording Ryuji Sakamoto's declaration regarding their side business. However, she decides not to give this proof to the principal and instead demands the Phantom Thieves to prove their justice by reforming an unknown mafia boss who has been extorting many students around Shibuya including those go to Shujin Academy. If they can complete the task, she will not expose their identities to anyone. Deep down, Makoto actually approves of the thieves and believes her father would think the same way. This belief annoys Sae and she blurts out that Makoto is a burden to her during a heated debate.

Makoto checks on the group as they have trouble reaching the center of mafia boss Junya Kaneshiro's Palace. Ann, Ryuji, and Yusuke point out how useless she is for not doing anything that can help them but rely on the hard works of somebody else, something that greatly upsets Makoto after being told the same thing before by her sister and remembers Goro Akechi's words about her being a pushover. To prove her worth, Makoto purposely acts as bait into the mafia so that the gang can follow behind. Once there, Kaneshiro takes photos of the group being merely present in his adult-exclusive nightclub for blackmail material. He demands 3 million yen within 3 weeks for the photos which will ruin their reputations if leaked.

Makoto apologizes for her rash action and explains how this folly could ruin Sae's effort in raising her. She tries to think of a way to pay Kaneshiro, but Morgana suggests to make her an ally by bringing her along to Kaneshiro's Palace because she is now the "special customer" to Kaneshiro's extortion business. Entering the metaverse, a passageway is opened to allow the thieves and Makoto to access Kaneshiro's "floating bank". Makoto is confronted by Shadow Kaneshiro who taunts her by revealing his plan to extort her sister. Angered and disgusted by Kaneshiro, Makoto awakens her Persona power and decides to join the Phantom Thieves. After changing Kaneshiro's heart, she receives a call from Kaneshiro who tells her he has deleted the photos and is going to turn himself in, relieving Makoto and the others. She then reports to the principal that she concludes her investigation of the Phantom Thieves by simply telling him that the Phantom Thieves are justice and she does not have any proof that the Thieves are in their school, much to the principal's dismay. She even declines his recommendation letter for university when the principal persuades her once more.

Upon showing her support for the Phantom Thieves, Makoto accepts Ann's apology for wrongly accusing her previously. Makoto asks if she can address Ann directly by her given name and without honorific, to which Ann happily agrees. Makoto also begins to act as a vice leader of the Phantom Thieves by proposing direction and trouble solution for the gang. She goes so far that she installs a spyware written by Futaba Sakura in Sae's Laptop so the gang can learn the investigation progress of the Prosecutors Office.

After the Thieves come under suspicion, Makoto proposes reaching out to Goro in order to gain information, only to find that Goro has realized all of their identities. Goro says that he will release the photos of the Thieves exiting the palace to the police unless they work with him to find the true culprits behind Kunikazu and the principal's death, but the first step involves stealing Sae's heart before the investigation finds (or plants) incriminating evidence on the Thieves. Makoto admits that she has known for a while that her sister has a Palace, but had hoped to change Sae's heart through other means.

While progressing through the palace, Makoto is shocked to realize the depths of her sister's bitterness and cynicism, particularly her Shadow's belief that trials are nothing more than games to be won by any means necessary. Makoto nearly has a breakdown upon facing her sister's Shadow, but is able to defeat her before convincing her to change herself without stealing her Treasure.

If the player cannot complete Kaneshiro's Palace in time, the police comes to arrest the protagonist, claiming they have found a drugged and brutalized schoolgirl in one of Kaneshiro's nightclubs deliriously muttering his name. This scenario is a false recollection made by the protagonist during Sae's interrogation due to his mind being addled by drugs he was forcefully administered by the police. Sae proceeds to leave the room to give the protagonist time to recover, at which point Akechi takes the opportunity to assassinate him.

Confidant
Makoto's Confidant can be unlocked on June 24th after you have finished Kaneshiro's Palace. Maxing this Confidant makes Johanna evolve into Anat and unlocks the fusion of Cybele.

The item received by maxing Makoto's Confidant is "Buchi Calculator", which can analyze Shadows.

Battle Quotes

 * "Charge! Johanna!" (Exploiting enemy's weakness)
 * "Persona!" (Accessing Persona skill menu)
 * "I'll use my Persona!" (Accessing Persona skill menu)
 * "Feel my rage!" (Using offensive Skill)
 * "No holds barred!" (Using offensive Skill)
 * "Ow!" (Taking damage)
 * "Fist of justice!" (All-Out Attack finishing touch)

Trivia

 * Makoto's Personas specialize in Nuclear skills that have not appeared in the franchise since Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, even though the element has a different role in terms of battle mechanics, which is for inflicting Technical damage beyond exploiting an enemy's weakness.
 * Queen is given the role of "Phantom Thieves' Advisor" for her wisdom.
 * Makoto is the only party member to have two summoning poses. The first is when she has Johanna, where she "rides" her Persona, while her second is with Anat, which unlike Johanna has a humanoid form.
 * Her summer uniform's collar has the letter B and J. This is a reference to the pillars in the Priestess Arcana's card which also have those letters, and was also on the breasts of the boss in Persona 3.
 * Ryuji and Haru both nickname Makoto "Post-Apocalyptic Raider" the first time they see her burglar outfit and Persona, a reference of 's title from the Fist of the North Star series. Makoto and Raoh both are specialized in fist fighting and use a mount.
 * Makoto and Tatsuya Suou from Persona 2 share some similarities.
 * Both of them have older siblings that work in within the police force, Katsuya is a police officer and Sae is a prosecutor, and have strained relationships with them.
 * Both are well versed in riding motorcycles and are strongly associated with them.
 * Both had fathers in the police force, Makoto's was killed in the line of duty while Tatsuya's was framed for a crime he didn't commit and was thrown in prison.
 * Both are third year students.
 * Both feel like they can't measure up to their seemingly better older siblings.
 * Tatsuya pushes away his brother and doesn't care what he thinks while Makoto wants to please her sister and live up to Sae's expectations.
 * Makoto is a honors student while Tatsuya often skips his classes.
 * Makoto's normal attack and victory animations are reminiscent of the Persona 3 protagonist when he's equipped with glove weapons.