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 Tokyo.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Major Character

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 that of the or Principality. He initially does not transform himself after becoming his demonic form, Samael, instead summoning a golden lion made of humanoids 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 to have heavily builted muscles with springs that resemble an exercise harness wrapped all around his upper body, and emits a red aura. In his final "true" form, his muscles bulged even more to become so hot and steamy which shatter the springs and turn his skin color a bit 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 Palace, 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 annoys him. 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, making a contingency plan to prevent it just in case.

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 planned 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 his Persona's power of turning 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 wants to be acknowledged by him. 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. He is now 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 by the street when he was drunk, chasing 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 connection to the police. He lost his balance when the protagonist attempted to pull him from the woman. His forehead hit the corner and bled. Shido angrily accused the protagonist for the nonexistent violence and forced his subordinate to testify against the protagonist, causing the protagonist on probation as a minor offender. Shido also specifically ordered the arriving policemen who recognized him to conceal his name in this incident, which makes it nearly impossible for the protagonist to identify Shido to change his heart for clearing his criminal record.

When Shido, escorted by Yakuza, has been arranged an urgent meeting in Wilton Hotel with his most relied allies from politics,, information technology and TV broadcasting, he and the protagonist meet again when the protagonist are eating together at the restaurant of the same hotel with Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki and Morgana, though he does not recognize the protagonist. While waiting for the elevator to go back to the restaurant, Shido and his Yakuza escorts rudely shove them and other people who are waiting in front of the elevator away. When the protagonist and Ryuji protest that they are there first, Shido, like most of the adults in that place, only complains why students are even allowed to be in the restaurant. This convinces the protagonist, Ryuji and Ann to continue their work as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

When it has become 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 to pinpoint the form of his Palace which is required to gain access to steal his heart. After listening to Shido's voice once again when he is participating in another election campaign in Yongen-Jaya, the protagonist has finally realized that Shido is the man who accused him for the street incident and from the vague memory, he remembers Shido's drunk talk mentioned about "steering this country" and deduces that it referred to a ship's steering wheel, hence opening the way to his Palace aka the sin of Pride.

His emotions of disdain towards the current condition of society eventually transform him into Samael. He acts as the final heist target of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts at the Shido's Palace which takes the shape of a luxurious cruise ship sailing across the sunken Japan. He embodies the deadly sin 'pride'. Instead of being merely Cognitive existences, all passengers onboard the ship are fused with their corresponding Shadow Selves from reality because of 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 cause to Japan in general.

He is also revealed to be the father of Goro Akechi, who is his illegitimate son. Shido uses Akechi's fame as detective and desire to be acknowledged by him to force him to get rid of those who are opposing him to become the next Prime Minister by destroying their Palace, which results in severe mental disorders and ultimately kills them, framing the Phantom Thieves for these assassinations in the process. When the Thieves confront Shido's Shadow in his Palace, he admits that he was going to kill Akechi anyway once he became Prime Minister because he knew too much. During the fight, he finally recognizes the protagonist as the student who interfered with him before.

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. 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 gang 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. On December 18th, the day of the announcement of Shido's victory in the election, he openly confesses his crimes during the live conference. Sae Niijima is tasked with charging Shido.

Despite his confession, the general public does not show support of the Phantom Thieves but is more worried about how the future of Japan will become without Shido leading the country. Within the government, a deputy is appointed to assume the seat of the deceased SIU Director in order to cover up Shido's crimes which meets with Sae's protest. As a final desperate attempt to prevent the protagonist from getting arrested again and anymore crime by abusing the Palace, the Thieves infiltrate the depths of Mementos in order to change the public opinion where they find the now unambitious Shadow Shido being 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 has planned.

Music
Shadow Shido's battle is the first battle playing Rivers in the Desert instead of the generic boss battle theme "Blooming Villain" for previous hosts of their Palaces. 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 5 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 would 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 resistance but packs several strong Almighty attacks, including Pyramid Blast which is telegraphed by Unholy Convergence for 2 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.

Be sure to switch your party members around to suit the situation, if the Star Confidant is ranked high enough. 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 be 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 slugfest, but the sheer length of the battle can be draining on the party's collective SP. Don't falter.

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.

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 Anzable'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).