Masayoshi Shido

Masayoshi Shido is one of the main antagonists of Persona 5. Appearing to the world as a powerful, highly charismatic and confident politician, Shido is in reality the leader of a grand conspiracy that secretly controls all of Tokyo.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Major Character (Antagonist)
 * Persona 5 The Animation: Major Character (Antagonist)

Design
Shido is bald and has a small black goatee. He wears a business suit and a pair of orange-tinted square glasses.

Shadow Shido initially appears identical to his counterpart. Once he boards his golden mount, he dons a black army general uniform with long cape, long white gloves, and knee-high white boots. His spiked helmet resembles the or Principality. He initially does not transform himself after becoming Samael, instead summoning a golden lion, made of humanoid figures, called the "Beast of Human Sacrifices" as a mount. As the Beast is damaged, it reconfigures itself into the "Wings of Human Sacrifices" (the previous form with bird's wings) and then the "Tomb of Human Sacrifices" (a pyramid which resembles the with a high-caliber cannon replacing its eye) before it is destroyed and he fights directly.

In his second form, he rips away his upper clothing and headgear, revealing heavily built muscles. Springs that resemble an exercise harness wrap all around his upper body, and he emits a red aura. In his final "true" form, his muscles bulge even further, which shatters the springs and turns his skin red, and he emits a dark-violet aura.

Personality
Shido is a profoundly selfish, egotistical, and arrogant man with a savior complex. He is utterly self-assured of his fundamental righteousness, believing the simple fact that the Conspiracy is able to get away with its crimes without the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and their supernatural interference, combined with his own knowledge of the Metaverse, is a sign that he is favored by God. He despises anyone who tries to stop him from any of his desires, no matter how fleeting. He is also quite litigious, threatening to sue anyone who irritates him and has no qualms with blackmailing even the police into keeping their mouth shut. However, in spite of all the heinous things he does privately, he does make a good attempt in giving himself a public image and thus the public is completely oblivious to his true personality, as they only see him as the revolutionary politician that he pretends to be.

Shido is willing to use whatever method he can, no matter how underhanded, to complete his goals, but keeps his public image as clean using whatever methods he can to keep those in the know silent. He believes that Japan's social state is utterly corrupt and weak on the world stage, completely blind to his own hypocrisy in creating a criminal conspiracy to win the election for Prime Minister unfairly. He is terrified of having his heart stolen once he realizes it is possible, creating a contingency plan to prevent it just in case.

Manipulative and charismatic, Shido is a skilled tactician, orchestrating events that benefit him in the long run and ultimately entrances the masses into supporting him using these events to his advantage. He has a craft for giving passionate speeches that inspire the masses and speaks frankly on his opinions of current matter, making him seem more believable and credible. However, he is also quite paranoid, taking precautionary measures to eliminate all who are involved in his schemes, even eliminating anyone who threatens his plans or may become a problem down the road. He is even willing to put himself into a self-induced vegetative state in a last ditch attempt to eliminate all possible enemies using the Metaverse.

As a father figure, Shido can be compared to a. He both praises and threatens Goro Akechi to manipulate him, and their conversations are always mission-based with no signs of affection. Shido claims that once he becomes Prime Minister, he will give Akechi any wish he desires, despite the fact that he plans to kill Akechi after the election. Later, Akechi speaks poorly of Shido, wanting to get revenge on him because of the emotional and psychological abuse (as well as his mother's suicide) that he suffered from as a result of Shido's neglect.

Shido uses Akechi as a tool to achieve his own goals. Two and a half years ago, Akechi offered Shido the power of his Persona to turn people psychotic, assisting Shido by turning his political rivals into suspects and prosecuting them. Shido, who dabbled in cognitive psience, then taught Akechi how to cause mental shutdowns and had him work as a hitman. Akechi has been strongly manipulated by Shido to the point that he still wishes to be acknowledged by him even if he strongly despises him enough to consider ruining him at his apex. Both Shido and Akechi are dishonest and two-faced in their relationship, and Akechi has adopted Shido's methodical way of speaking.

Persona 5
Masayoshi Shido is a politician who has been a metropolitan assemblyman and a representative in the of Japan. He is now a cabinet minister who split from the ruling party to form the United Future Party and is running for election of the next Prime Minister of Japan. Secretly, however, he is the founder of a conspiracy to obtain power by any means necessary, and is backed by Yaldabaoth, as Shido's ascent to power would cement authoritarian control over Japan and possibly the world.



The protagonist met Shido one night while walking home late. Shido, heavily intoxicated, harassed his female subordinate who attempted to flee from his car after an argument about money laundering. When Shido noticed the protagonist, he threatened the latter not to get in trouble with him because of his status as a powerful politician and his connection to the police. He lost his balance when the protagonist attempted to pull him away from the woman and fell, sustaining a minor injury. Shido angrily accused the protagonist for the nonexistent violence and forced his subordinate to testify against the protagonist. This caused the protagonist to be arrested and then later put on probation for assault. Shido also specifically ordered the arriving policemen who recognized him to conceal his involvement, which makes it nearly impossible for the protagonist to identify Shido and change his heart in order to clear his criminal record. This results in the protagonist being thrown into a rehabilitation game by "Igor,” which is actually Yaldabaoth in disguise.

Shido arranges an urgent meeting in Shibuya's Wilton Hotel with his most trusted allies — a, a politician Mr. Ooe, a TV Station President, and an IT Company President. He and the protagonist cross paths again when the protagonist, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and Morgana eat at the hotel's buffet to celebrate Kamoshida's downfall. Shido does not recognize the protagonist. While waiting for the elevator on a higher floor, the protagonist and Ryuji are pushed aside by Shido's men. When Ryuji protests the treatment, Shido dismisses them as children who have no place there. This, plus the general contempt of the other adults in the hotel, convinces them to continue their work as the Phantom Thieves.

The Phantom Thieves quickly become national news when Ichiryusai Madarame and Junya Kaneshiro confess to their own wrongdoings. Fearing that they are a threat to his plans, Shido plays a role behind the events of the story behind the scenes, employing the members of his group into building up the Phantom Thieves' notoriety by launching a fake Medjed threat of performing a national hacking attack and manipulating the Phan-site into making Kunikazu Okumura their target. The plan is successful and the Phantom Thieves's popularity explodes only for it to immediately crash after the brutal death of Kunikazu on national TV an assassinating his Shadow Self per his instructions. As a final step, he tasks Goro Akechi to join the Phantom Thieves as a mole and use Sae Niijima's palace as a means to lead to the protagonist's arrest.

The plan ultimately is successful and the protagonist is arrested. He is heavily drugged and is allowed to meet with Sae Niijima to discuss the events of the year thus far. After she completes her interrogation, Akechi enters the interrogation room of the protagonist and proceeds to shoot him, thereby eliminating the leader of the Phantom Thieves. With the main threat out of the way, he tells his group to perform surveillance on the remaining Phantom Thieves and wait until after the election is over to eliminate them.

Seventh Heist: Masayoshi Shido
In reality, the protagonist was not killed and Akechi merely killed the Cognition of the protagonist. The secrecy of his detainment, lack of officiation of his death, and the supposed disposal of his body gave the protagonist the means to escape the police headquarters. To the world, the Phantom Thieves leader was declared dead, having committed suicide. The protagonist uses his "death" as a means to investigate unopposed, but in secrecy.

When it becomes clear to the Phantom Thieves that Shido is the one behind all the deaths as a result of the bizarre mental breakdown, initially they have trouble pinpointing the form of his Palace. After listening to Shido's voice once again when he participates in another election campaign in Yongen-Jaya, the protagonist finally realizes that Shido is the man who accused him of assault. He has a vague memory of that night, and remembers Shido's drunk rambling mentioned "steering this country." He deduces that it referred to a ship's steering wheel, opening the way to Shido's Palace.

Shido's disdain towards the current condition of society eventually transforms him into Samael. He acts as the final heist target of the Phantom Thieves. His Palace takes the shape of a luxurious cruise ship sailing across a sunken Tokyo. He embodies the deadly sin of "Pride," which is represented by the cruiser's extremely luxurious appearance and it only houses his most trusted associates, the large number of member-only areas, the traps that turns the party into rats as he considers opposition to him as rats and the existence of a rigged legislative chamber where the voting results are always perfectly in his favor. The cruiser is also sailing in a sunken Tokyo and regularly crushes buildings on its way, indicating Shido has no regard for Japan's future and only cares for himself and his trusted associates.

The Thieves require five letters of introduction from VIPs in order to access the Representative Chamber where Shido's Treasure is located. These letters are held by the same people Shido met with in the Wilton Hotel as well as a "." Unlike the other, cognitive passengers aboard the ship, the VIPs are direct manifestations of their corresponding Shadow Selves, able to appear due to their strong bonds with Shido. Shido turns out to be at the center of a conspiracy to rig the election for Prime Minister in his favor, allowing him to put his highly draconian and ultra-nationalistic political beliefs into effect, uncaring of the misery this would bring to Japan in general.

Akechi, having figured out that the protagonist lives, confronts the Phantom Thieves just after they obtained their fifth letter, revealing that he is Shido's illegitimate son. Shido used Akechi's fame as the prince detective and Akechi's desire to be acknowledged by Shido to manipulate him into being his hitman, eliminating any and all opponents who would oppose him on his journey to become Prime Minister. After Akechi is defeated, Shido's Cognition of Akechi appears, stating that though he promised Akechi anything in return for his services, he planned on killing him after the election. Akechi saves the Phantom Thieves by sacrificing himself to deal with his cognition, allowing the Phantom Thieves to reach the treasure room.

The Phantom Thieves execute their plan to steal Shido's heart by hacking the broadcasting system of Japan, vocalizing their plans and also revealing that the protagonist is very much alive. Shadow Shido confronts the Phantom Thieves, revealing that he was fully aware of Akechi's intents of betraying him, but he already had planned on disposing him after the election anyways. Though the Phantom Thieves express their disgust for his statements, he brushes them off. Instead, seeing their power and worth, he offers them the chance to work for him in his grand reform, but they vehemently refuse, starting a lengthy battle between Shido and the Phantom Thieves on a mount formed by the cognition of his supporters. After the Phantom Thieves defeat the chariot of the masses, the protagonist unmasks himself causing Shido to remember the incident where he sued him. Shido proceeds to fight the Phantom Thieves on his own, but is eventually subdued. In his defeat, Shadow Shido is goaded by the Phantom Thieves into confessing his crimes.

When Shido in reality senses the change of his heart, his physician feeds him medicine to enter, hoping to collapse his Palace, protect his Treasure, and kill the Thieves in the process. This fails, as the Thieves all escape from the Palace alive. Shido begins to repent, which shocks his aides. They send him to the hospital to avoid media coverage of his mental state. He recovers on December 18th, just in time for the announcement of his landslide election victory. However, Shido begins to confess his crimes on air before they can cut him off, leaving the public in disbelief.

His Treasure is his legislator's pin which takes the form of a golden wheel of his cruiser-shaped Palace, symbolizing his ambition as a leader to 'steer' his country. While the party celebrates in Cafe Leblanc after his confession, Sojiro states that the pin itself is not valuable at all so it cannot be pawned.

Final Heist: Mementos
Despite his confession, the general public does not show support for the Phantom Thieves, but are rather more worried about the future of Japan without Shido leading the country. Within the government, a proxy is appointed to assume the seat of the deceased SIU Director in order to cover up Shido's crimes, to Sae's indignation. In order to change the public's perception of both them and Shido, the Thieves infiltrate the depths of Mementos. There, they find the now unambitious Shadow Shido locked in the "prison of regression" like many other Shadows reformed by the Thieves. He praises the prison by saying that it gives them the ultimate freedom to be liberated from struggling, and is the far better country than what he had planned.

After the Phantom Thieves unite the masses into rebelling against the true mastermind of the story, all is restored to normal and the public begin to openly discuss Shido's corruption in the political race and discuss looking for alternative candidates for Prime Minster, ultimately cementing the Phantom Thieves' victory.

Two months later, the protagonist's probation is revoked when his fellow thieves and Confidants help locate the woman involved in his incident and she testifies for the protagonist's innocence. Meanwhile, while the protagonist was incarcerated after turning himself in as a Phantom Thief, he gives valuable testimony that helps build the case against Shido for Sae Niijima.

Persona 5 The Animation
Shido appears throughout the series, and like his game counterpart, is responsible for Ren's probation. Shido primarily appears in flashbacks and occasionally on TV interviews.

In the special OVA Dark Sun..., the party directly confronts him after sending the nation-wide broadcast. His chariot is shown to be able of withstanding multiple attacks without fazing and his true form can knock Ryuji flying with his incredible strength. However, he is still no match for Ren's combination of Yoshitsune, Alice and Beelzebub.

Music
Shadow Shido's battle theme is the first occurrence of "Rivers in the Desert" instead of the generic boss battle theme "Blooming Villain" for previous Palace rulers. While the song is not used exclusively for him, the lyrics nonetheless match the scene of a sailing ship and the emotion of the Phantom Thieves when facing Shadow Shido.

Strategy
The battle with Shido will be a long one, consisting of a total of five forms, with Shido switching around each form as his health drops. The first round consists of the Beast, Wings, and Tomb of Human Sacrifice, while the second round is where he takes on his Samael form.

The Beast of Human Sacrifice is impervious to physical and gun attacks while having several physical and almighty attacks of its own, in addition to Makarakarn to make it temporarily invincible. It has a tendency to inflict the party with Rage using Wage War, causing them to auto-attack the Beast and damage themselves. If it is shown to "charge its energy," it's telegraphing its Arm of Destruction attack - guard to avoid its harmful effects.

The Wings of Human Sacrifice resists all magic and has a vast variety of single-target magic to hit weaknesses. During certain turns, it prefers to use certain elements over others - it will prioritize Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind attacks first, then Psychokinesis/Nuclear, then Curse/Bless, before using Royal Wing Blast and resetting the pattern. Have the right team members be on the defense to avoid taking too much damage at once.

The Tomb of Human Sacrifice has no weaknesses or resistances, but packs several strong Almighty attacks, including Pyramid Blast which is telegraphed by Unholy Convergence for two turns. Although the Tomb's Unholy Convergence looks intimidating, the fact that Shido assumes this form when low on health also indicates an opportunity for the party to go all-out on him to finish the first fight. He also only has one action per turn in this form as opposed to two in the previous forms, so his offensive pressure drops significantly here.

If the Star Confidant is ranked high enough, be sure to switch around party members to suit the situation. Field magic users for the Beast, and physical attackers to beat the Wings.

As for the second fight, Samael has no resistances or weaknesses. His first form focuses on buffs, debuffs, and physical attacks. Bear in mind that his Tyrant's Fist can hit hard enough to nearly one-shot any party member without buffs. Once this form is defeated, he takes on his final form, where his move repertoire greatly expands, gaining Ma-dyne skills and severe-tier single target magic on top of an additional action. When this form hits half health, he begins using Tyrant's Glare to chain a series of buffs and debuffs before unleashing Tyrant's Wave.

There are very few gimmicks to the second phase as it turns into a straight-up brawl, but the sheer length of the battle can be draining on the party's collective SP.

Stats
Beast=

Wings=

Tomb=

Samael=

True Samael=

Battle Quotes

 * "There is no need for thieves in my mighty country... Only myself and the ones who revere me are needed."
 * "Resistance is futile"
 * "I won't go easy."
 * "And stay down!"
 * "Can you endure this?"
 * "Too slow." (dodges)
 * "You lowlifes! I hope you understand what it means to turn your back on me!"
 * "You shall regret this foolish actions against me... in the afterlife!" (transformation into the Wings of Human Sacrifice)
 * "To think you'd manage this much...! Why won't you stop resisting...?! The nation I strive for... is the ultimate realisation of the public's happiness!"
 * "The weak must be sacrificed for the sake of grand ideals! This is the natural order of this world!" (transformation into the Tomb of Human Sacrifice)
 * "Useless, ignorant masses!" (fall of the Tomb of Human Sacrifice)
 * "I wouldn't expect the ignorant masses of this country to understand. Thus, I'll offer the proof... By forcefully crushing The Phantom Thieves!" (reveals Samael form)
 * "I...shall win this game!"
 * "Such impertinence!"
 * "Are you scared?"
 * "Not bad. But there is no reason for me to lose to thieves!" (50% HP)
 * "Come at me!"
 * "Nnnngh...! How are those lowlife brats beating me...?" (1% HP)
 * "Aaaaaaaahahahaha! Don't think you've won. The power held by the most elite is what rules over our society... It's vexing that I have to use it on some foolish brats... But I will educate you through and through!" (reveals True Samael form)
 * "Hmph... Die."
 * "Hmph... You will regret your actions. ...You've angered me for the last time!" (50% HP, using Tyrant's Wave first time)
 * "It's seems you still don't understand what happens when you defy me. ...I will destroy you with my two hands." (25% HP, using Tyrant's Wave second time)

Etymology
Masayoshi (正義) means "justice" which is identical to "seigi," its meaning is mentioned in the plot several times to satirize Shido's injustice deeds. Shi (獅) means "lion" and Dō (童) can compose the phrases related to "child."

Trivia

 * In the anime cutscene where Shido's full name in kanji is shown, one kanji is written differently, namely "堂" instead of "童" in-game. The typo does not change the pronunciation of his name, but the meaning of his surname is now "lion-institute" instead of "lion-child."
 * Shadow Shido's first form in battle bears a striking resemblance to from the  franchise who is also voiced by Shuichi Ikeda and Keith Silverstein in Japanese and English respectively. This fits with Shido's characterization as an authoritarian politician, as Aznable's own superiors are the fascistic Principality of Zeon.
 * Shido is very similar to Steven Armstrong from : Both are highly nationalistic politicians who lead the primary antagonistic faction for the sake of being elected leader of their respective countries (President of the United States, for Armstrong), and both fight the main protagonists, first on a vehicle (Shido's lion, Armstrong's Metal Gear EXCELSUS), then become much more muscular for a direct fight in melee in a way that discolors their skin (Armstrong's nanomachines cause his skin to turn a metallic grey whenever faced with physical trauma).
 * However, their end goals are almost polar opposites. Shido plans to turn Japan into a fascist state with himself as its sole leader (a villainous Law goal) while Armstrong plans to turn America into an anarchy where strength resolves all conflict (a typical Chaos goal).
 * While Shido doesn't seem to be based on a particular real life personality unlike Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro and Kunikazu, he shares the traits of many real life politicians, especially radical ones that hand out high but empty promises to rally the public into supporting them while being highly corrupt behind the scenes. Law enforcement and media often protects these corrupt politicians from being exposed just like how said groups had gone all the way to prevent Shido from being exposed and remove his opposition in the game.
 * Shadow Shido is the only Palace ruler in Persona 5 that the thieves don't encounter before they actually fight him.
 * After his change of heart, a chalk drawing of him confessing can be seen on the blackboard of the protagonist's class.