Ryuji Sakamoto

Ryuji Sakamoto is a playable character from Persona 5. He is a student at Shujin Academy who lives a double life as a Phantom Thief.

Appearances

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

Design
Ryuji has short spiky dyed blond hair and dark brown eyes. He has a noticeable widow's peak and his eyebrows are unusual in that he lacks the outer sides.

He wears his school's uniform a bit modified. It consists of the standard black blazer, unbuttoned to reveal a yellow t-shirt with a comic style star symbol and the word 'ZOMG!' He has plaid trousers rolled up to reveal his ankles. His pants have black suspenders that hang down instead of being worn on his shoulders. He has a white belt. His white sneakers have a rising sun flag motif.

His burglar outfit consists of matching black leather jacket and pants with knee pads, a red ascot, combat boots, a pair of yellow gloves, and a skull mask.

Due to his injury, he walks and runs with a slight limp, and occasionally trips if he overexerts himself.

Personality


Ryuji is known as a disruptive "problem student" at school whose bad behavior causes all sorts of trouble for the teachers. His rebellious, mischievous and disobedient nature are the perfect qualities to be a Phantom Thief.

He is a bit short-tempered, usually getting easy to take the slightest bit of offense from others and sometimes even resort to violence. He can be clumsy and overly energetic sometimes, which resulted him accidentally throwing an outburst of being Phantom Thieves and such in public. This consequently helped Makoto identifying him and his friends as the Phantom Thieves when she was tailing them. He has no hesitation to show his dislike directly towards someone he doesn't like.

Beneath his seemingly delinquent-like behavior, Ryuji is actually a kind person at heart who is still trying to cope with his inability to continue becoming an athlete after the injury he suffered. Around his close friends, he is upbeat, friendly, and straightforward.

Persona 5
Ryuji Sakamoto is a student of Shujin Academy and knows about Ann Takamaki since middle school even though they are not too acquainted. He is from an abusive household, but then got a great opportunity for his future by becoming a star athlete. However, this earned disdain from the volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida, who then overtrained Ryuji, breaking Ryuji's leg. To put more salt in the wound, Kamoshida spread rumors about his household to the whole school, leading Ryuji to punch him, causing the end of the track club and turning Ryuji into a school outcast.

The protagonist first meets Ryuji after Kamoshida picks up Ann by car, and Ryuji. who is nearby, calls him "pervert" before greeting the protagonist who inquires about Kamoshida. Realizing the protagonist really knows nothing about Kamoshida, Ryuji quickly assumes he is a transfer student and the two get along. The two accidentally enter Kamoshida's Palace, the embodiment of Kamoshida's Shadow erected at where the school should be. Ryuji wants to help the students trapped in the palace, but fails. They are blocked by Kamoshida at the entrance when they try to escape and are nearly killed but was saved when the protagonist awakened his Persona ability. With the help of shape-shifting cat called Morgana, they manage to escape from the Palace. When the two confronts the real Kamoshida, however, the teacher has no idea what they are talking about. To make sure whether they were dreaming or not, Ryuji suggests they once again go to the Palace using the app installed in the protagonist's smartphone, at which they succeed.

Meeting Shadow Kamoshida again, the Shadow reveals that he intentionally injured Ryuji's leg while acting as his advisor to ruin Ryuji's ability to participate in athletics again. His scheme is for the principal to invest in his volleyball team only and to gain admiration and submission from all the students of his school, but Ryuji was a great threat to him for drawing that attention. Kamoshida's true intention angers Ryuji deeply and Captain Kidd calls out Ryuji to awaken to his Persona ability for vengeance. Returning to the real world, Ryuji vows to expose Kamoshida's true self and becomes friends with the protagonist after both confide their backgrounds to each other.

Together with the protagonist, they try to get information about Kamoshida from other students, but everyone is too afraid to talk. Morgana, in cat form, then approaches Ryuji and the protagonist, suggesting they steal the source of Kamoshida's corrupt heart to make him confess his own crimes. However, when Morgana mentions that Kamoshida will die if they by chance killed his Shadow, Ryuji and the protagonist ask for time to think. Not long afterwards, Ann's friend, Shiho Suzui, attempts suicide and when Ryuji and the protagonist heard from Yuuki Mishima that Kamoshida called Shiho a day before, Ryuji and the protagonist realizes that Kamoshida has molested her. Ryuji angrily confronts Kamoshida about this, resulting in Kamoshida's intending to expel him, the protagonist and Yuuki.

Finally having enough with Kamoshida, Ryuji and the protagonist agrees with Morgana's suggestion to steal Kamoshida's treasure and make him confess his crimes. They later are joined by Ann who also wants to expose Kamoshida after hearing everything from Shiho. To agitate Shadow Kamoshida once they almost reach the treasure, Ryuji makes and attaches a calling card on the school board under the name "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" that is addressed to Kamoshida, stating he will confess his crime soon. After Kamoshida confesses his crime in front of the whole student body, Ryuji and the protagonist's expulsion is cancelled, much to their relief.

With the case over, Ryuji and the others decides to celebrate at an expensive restaurant by using the money they got after selling Kamoshida's treasure. At the restaurant, Ryuji and the protagonist meet an arrogant man named Masayoshi Shido who quickly gets on Ryuji's nerves after rudely shoving them when they were waiting for the elevator. This encounter makes Ryuji decide to continue working as Phantom Thieves to cleanse the corruption from corrupt adults' hearts. The protagonist and Ann also agree with him, so they decide to continue being the Phantom Thieves.

Confidant
Ryuji's Confidant relationship is unlocked automatically on April 12th but his first Confidant ability is only obtained at rank 2. Maxing this Confidant makes Captain Kidd evolve into Seiten Taisei and unlocks the fusion of Chi You. Ryuji's Confidant revolves around his resolve to help reestablish the track club as he faces off against Yamauchi, a coach who wanted to use the team for his own ends.

The item received by maxing Ryuji's Confidant is a sports watch which allows Whirlwind Recovery.

Persona 5 The Animation The Day Breakers
Ryuji is first seen at the subway with the protagonist, Ann and Yusuke. They transform into their Phantom Thief outfits and enter the Mementos.

After discussing with the group, Ann and Ryuji talk loudly at a restaurant and lure one of the members of the criminal gang to Cafe Le Blanc.

Later, he engages battle with Kazuya Makigami directly and changes his heart.

Battle Quotes

 * "I'm all fired up!" (Using Shotguns)
 * "Perrrrsonaaaa!" (Summoning Persona)
 * "Captain Kidd!" (Captain Kidd casting skill)
 * "Leave it to me." (Receiving Baton Touch)
 * "This is the END!" (Initating All-Out Attack)
 * "Don't come back!" (All-out Attack finishing touch)
 * "Slam!" (All-out Attack finishing touch)

Trivia

 * Ryuji's backstory shares similarities with Anna Yoshizaka from Persona 2: Both are former star athletes but become juvenile delinquents after their ability to run has been ruined.
 * In the Japanese version, Skull self-proclaims "Phantom Thieves' Captain Kirikomi" which loosely means "Assault Captain" or "Captain Foodie" (which could be an intentional double entendre.) "Captain Kirikomi" is a reference to the  card from the  series. "" precisely refers to curing fish slices from Hokkaido regional cuisine.
 * Ryuji's phantom thief attire is heavily similar to the appearance of Hell Biker.