Futaba Sakura

Futaba Sakura is a main character from Persona 5. She is different from the main crew of the Phantom Thieves because she is a shut-in who does not attend school and rarely, if ever, leaves her house.

Appearances

 * Persona 5: Major Character; Navigator; Hermit Confidant
 * Persona 5 The Animation: Major Character

Design
Futaba is a bespectacled girl with hip length bright orange hair. Her brown eyes also seem to have some faint purple tones in them, appearing mauve. She wears large black circular glasses, and she is always seen wearing big headphones. She seems to be very short, even compared to other girls.

Her casual winter outfit consists of multiple layers; she wears an off-shoulder white top with a red splatter-like pattern on her chest with five white asterisks (*****) which are reminiscent of a passport input system in the red splatter, a black tank top underneath that, a dark green jacket with a faux fur trimmed hood, black short shorts, black thigh highs and black knee-high boots. The green jacket has A.F.K. on the back (for "away from keyboard"), although it is difficult to see because of Futaba's long hair. She dons AKG K845BT headphones with red earpads.

Her casual summer outfit consists of a black tank top with a  image in front, with a green tank top underneath. She wears grey baggy pants with black laces on the bottom, and green sneakers.

Her nightwear outfit consists of a black shirt with "JLMK!" (presumably "just let me know") over a white-and-black striped long sleeve shirt and the black short shorts she wears with her winter outfit.

Her Metaverse costume consists of a skintight black bodysuit with fluorescent neon green glowing strips and matching black boots with neon green soles. Her mask is a pair of big black goggles with orange lenses. This outfit was inspired by sci-fi movies like .

Personality
With a case of social anxiety bordering on agoraphobia, Futaba is strongly discomfited by going outside. When the player first meets her, she is a  who does not attend school and almost never leaves her room. She communicates with the world remotely via the Internet, and her adoptive father Sojiro Sakura enables her lifestyle out of guilt that he could not protect her from trauma. Having disconnected herself from humanity and the world beyond her apartment, Futaba is lonely, lives without passion and enthusiasm, suffers from suicidal depression, and questions the point in her living. When first encountered, Futaba is so consumed with self-loathing that she suppresses her desire to live, causing her Shadow Self to develop a much more helpful personality than average, one who only desires Futaba's happiness. When she first leaves her room after her change of heart, she tends to hide behind the protagonist so that she won't be seen in public, or wears masks which make it impossible to identify her. Her room acts as a sanctuary and a refuge from the chaos and noise of the outside world.

Futaba plays video games and watches anime as a means of fantasy, escapism and to help cope with her depression, but even then, this activity is starting to grow mundane and repetitive to her. Still, Futaba's past time of playing video games results in her peppering her dialogue with video game terms, Internet slang and memes, similar to how Isako Toriumi would say "lmaonade," "roflcopter" and "1337." She comments she plays open world and sandbox games.

Futaba addresses Sojiro by given name directly, despite the fact that he is her adopted father. This is probably due to the fact that she has known him her entire life as her mother's close friend. Sojiro refers to himself as her father, and while he never insists on her calling him "dad," he becomes very pleased when she begins to occasionally.

She begins to change after meeting the protagonist and the other Phantom Thieves, opening up to them more and becoming more relaxed around them. Once she's truly comfortable around others, she shows her childish side and likes teasing her friends, particularly Ryuji and Yusuke, and sometimes Morgana. Although she still has occasional anxiety and odd habits, she comes off as bright, playful, and cheerful when with her newfound friends.

Futaba has a knack for technology, and is obsessed with computers; if the protagonist claims he built his own PC, she asks for details on the GPU, CPU, RAM, etc. She is also a skilled coder and hacker. This comes across in the design of her Persona, Necronomicon, which is a UFO, which she sits inside. Necronomicon could be symbolic of her "alienation" from everyone, as it is believed UFOs contain aliens who monitor humanity, yet rarely intervene, similar to how Futaba watches and interacts with humanity through a computer screen. She also doesn't see the point in school because she can "just look up things online." 



Futaba really enjoys eating food and claims she likes to eat organic food. She also likes cats, and when she realizes Morgana is a part of the Phantom Thieves, she begins teasing him regularly. She is a fan of the show Phoenix Ranger Featherman R evidenced by her posters and figurine collection; she is quite upset when they are fiddled with without her permission, as Yusuke Kitagawa discovers when allowed into her room during the Thieves' attempts to get around her social anxiety. While the resultant argument ends happily, this does cause Yusuke and her to get off on the wrong foot, and she is easily irritated by him. Likewise, Yusuke makes several disses at Futaba. Futaba also claims she give Yusuke a crash course on doujinshi. As a result of their constant bickering, Futaba usually calls him "Inari" as a insult.

Persona 5
Two years ago, Futaba's mother, Wakaba Isshiki, died in a suspicious manner while she was in middle school. Her relatives who have an eye on Wakaba's legacy blame the prodigy programmer for her death based on a forged "suicide note," particularly after agents of the Conspiracy used it to bully her and manipulate Wakaba's family, hoping to keep her research for themselves. Following her mother's death, custody of Futaba was passed to several of her uncaring relatives, including her uncle, Youji Isshiki, who refused to treat her as even a person, not even allowing her to bathe or have a proper bed.

This caused her to develop guilt, psychological trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, extreme social anxiety, and hallucinations. The hallucinations are often of Wakaba looking disappointed in her. She has not attended school ever since graduating middle school. By her age, she should have been a first year student in high school. Wakaba's close friend, Sojiro Sakura has adopted Futaba, paying her uncle the better part of Futaba's inheritance to leave her alone. During her isolation she tried to use her substantial hacking skills to learn about her mother's research and how it relates to her death only to find all of the information related to it had disappeared completely.

By the time of the game, her depression has worsened into outright suicidal impulses, and a delusional subconscious belief that her death would bring Wakaba back to life. Her desire for her own death causes a Palace to form in which the Sphinx, the representation of her self-loathing and belief that her mother's spirit hates her, fights Shadow Futaba for control of her mind.

Futaba finds out that the protagonist and his friends are the Phantom Thieves by listening to their conversation in Cafe Leblanc through the bug she placed there. Knowing her own impulses and realizing she has to stop, Futaba sends a message to the protagonist under the alias Alibaba, asking him to steal her heart in exchange for helping them deal with a group of hackers known as Medjed who are declaring war against the Phantom Thieves. However, when the protagonist demands more information, Futaba realizes that in order to steal her heart, they need to know more about her. This causes her to panic and hastily attempts to cancel her request while promising she won't sell them out.



When problems with Medjed start to get worse, the desperate Phantom Thieves conclude they require her hacking skills to put an end to the situation. After piecing together the facts, Makoto Niijima correctly deduces that Alibaba is in fact Futaba herself. When visiting Sojiro's house, they find out she also lives there so they directly ask her about herself to get the keyword into the Palace. Since they do not force her to come out and allow her to communicate through chat, Futaba agrees to make the deal with them once more. While the Phantom Thieves are in her Palace, she notices the appearance of the Metaverse Navigator application on her own phone, and wonders if she can enter her own palace.

She does so, encountering her Shadow and becoming her own Treasure in the process. She is forced to face her own fear as her Shadow urges her to remember her mother's death. Recalling that her mother's death was unnatural and realizing she had been deluding herself, Futaba awakens her Persona power and helps the party defeat the cognitive existence of her mother that she created, who wishes she was never born. After the battle, the image of the true, benevolent Wakaba appears before Futaba and confesses her love for her daughter then disappears. After the battle at her own Palace, Futaba holds her end of the bargain, hacking into Medjed's website to stop them from further bothering the Phantom Thieves.

If the player cannot complete her Palace in time, the police come to arrest the protagonist with charges of extortion and suspicion of being a member of the Phantom Thieves, with Sojiro also being arrested for harboring a criminal. This scenario is a false recollection made by the protagonist during Sae Niijima's interrogation, due to his mind being addled by drugs forcibly administered to him by the police. Sae proceeds to leave the room to give the protagonist time to recover, at which point an assassin takes the opportunity to kill him.

She finally comes out from her shell, starts to go outside by regularly visiting Cafe Leblanc, interacting with the protagonist and his friends and eventually joining the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to find the culprit truly responsible for her mother's death. She reveals she created the original Medjed identity and later gave her hacking scripts to a group of friends, but when counter-hacking the hostile Medjed she realizes that they do not use her distinct programs. From there, she deduces that someone else must have stolen their name. In addition, she reveals to the team the suspicious way that her mother's condition degenerated before she died, and that her physical notes were the only research that hadn't been destroyed and possibly are the only way to find the ones who forged the note that ruined her life.

After the death of Kunikazu Okumura, while cleaning Futaba's room, Sojiro accidentally finds the Phantom Thieves' calling card for Futaba that she keeps as a memento. He questions Futaba and the protagonist about this, giving the two no choice but to explain what truly happened to Futaba's mother. Sojiro only thought that the protagonist had some kind of connection to the Phantom Thieves and got Futaba involved, but Futaba's slip makes him realize that the protagonist is in fact the ringleader of the Phantom Thieves himself. Sojiro then reveals the truth about his past, and how he had realized that the Thieves' methods have some similarity with details of Wakaba's research. Hearing Futaba's wish of wanting to find her mother's killer, Sojiro immediately rejects the idea. However, after seeing how determined both Futaba and the protagonist are, Sojiro promises to keep their secret and allows them to continue their activities under the condition that if it gets too dangerous, they must stop becoming the Phantom Thieves.

Confidant
Futaba's Confidant is automatically unlocked on August 31st. Maxing this Confidant makes Necronomicon evolve into Prometheus and unlocks the fusion of Ongyo-Ki.

Her story progression revolves around her exposure to the outside world, as years of social isolation has left her completely maladjusted, and fulfilling a list of things which her mother made her do to help boost her social skills.

As she slowly rehabilitates with the protagonist, her journey leads her to reveal that even in her youth she has been bullied for her intelligence and only had one friend named Kana who was the only one to actually try to talk with her. However, one day she uncovered that her best friend's parents were abusing her (the implication is of sexual abuse, as Kana wrote in her diary of being forced to wear strange costumes and have photos taken). Although Kana stopped talking to Futaba after she discovered her secret, Futaba lied to her mother that they were still getting along.

To soothe her guilt, she tracks down Kana and discovers that the abuse has not stopped. Futaba was then entrusted with the task of stealing her parent's hearts so she can live a normal life again. After Kana and Futaba reconnect, they rebuild their friendship, and both girls resolve to attend school again. At that point the player can choose to start a romantic relationship with her or not. If they do, Futaba goes out and buys a figure on her own as proof of her independence; if they do not, she spends close to an hour exploring Akihabara on her own. Either way, she thanks the protagonist for giving her something irreplaceable: her life back.

Futaba's farewell gift after maxing her Confidant is the Promise List that she and the protagonist were using in their Confidant. This item allows Futaba to use Mementos Scan and Treasure Reboot starting from Rank 1 of her Confidant in New Game+. If the player pursues a romantic relationship with Futaba, she will gift the protagonist Headphones on Christmas, allowing the player to earn more points when using a Hermit Persona during their Confidant in NG+, and Futaba's Chocolate on Valentines Day, which fully restores SP to one ally when consumed.

Battle Quotes
Quotes video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE1rygBVVnY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tZylE1A3-c
 * "Support's on the way!" (Recovering party's HP)
 * "I'll do something about this!" (Recovering party's SP)
 * "Go! Power up!" (Bestowing Matarukaja effect to entire party)
 * "This one! Defense up!" (Bestowing Marakukaja effect to entire party)
 * "Here I go! Speed up!" (Bestowing Masukukaja effect to entire party)
 * "Here come the buffs!" (Bestowing Thermopylae buff effect to entire party)
 * "Super move! Ultra Charge!" (Bestowing Concentrate and Charge to party)
 * "Look out!" (Initiating Final Guard to block an incoming attack)
 * "Nooo!" (Initiating Final Guard to block an incoming attack)
 * "I won't let you!" (Initiating Position Hack at the start of a battle)
 * "Surprise attack: successful! Now just don't lose!" (Entering a battle via Ambush)
 * "Everyone, are you OK? Focus on healing up!" (When 2 or more party members' HP is reduced to below 25% from an enemy skill)
 * "Joker, you missed!?" (Protagonist's attack or Skill misses)
 * "Joker, are you alright!?" (Protagonist's HP is reduced to below 25% from an enemy's skill)
 * "Joker's burning! That's going to keep hurting!" (When protagonist is suffering from Burn)
 * "Joker's been brainwashed! He can't tell friend from foe!" (When protagonist is suffering from Brainwash)
 * "Joker's hungry! He's powered down!" (When protagonist is suffering from Hunger)
 * "Joker got knocked down!" (When protagonist's weakness is exploited or is struck by a critical hit)
 * "No... Hey, wake up! Please!" (Protagonist is incapacitated during Cognitive Wakaba battle)
 * "Joker!? No... Answer me!" (When protagonist is incapacitated)
 * "No... Hey, Joker?! Joker! You have to wake up!" (When protagonist is incapacitated)
 * "Joker, why!? This isn't happening..." (When protagonist is incapacitated)
 * "No, get up! Joker! Jokerrrrrrr!" (When protagonist is incapacitated during a boss battle)
 * "No, Joker... You can't lose to this guy..." (Protagonist is incapacitated during Akechi boss battle)
 * "You're joking, right? We've come so far... Please, get up!" (Protagonist is incapacitated boss battle)
 * "No... You can't die... JOKEEERRR!" (When protagonist is incapacitated during Holy Grail/Yaldabaoth boss battle)
 * "Joker, no! Don't give up!" (When protagonist is incapacitated during Holy Grail/Yaldabaoth boss battle)
 * "Bonafide Monafied!" (When Morgana exploits a enemy weakness)
 * "Mona! AIM!" (When Morgana's attack or Skill misses)
 * "Mona's down! Ooohh, not good!" (When Morgana's weakness is exploited or is struck by a critical hit)
 * "Mona got knocked out! Someone give him some support!" (When Morgana is incapacitated)
 * "Skull, you sure showed me!" (When Ryuji downs an enemy)
 * "Skull fell down! Hang in there!" (When Ryuji's weakness is exploited or is struck by a critical hit)
 * "Skull's out! Someone help him!" (When Ryuji is incapacitated)
 * "Skull, what are you doing!?" (When Ryuji's attack or skill misses)
 * "Panther's on the ground! Are you OK?" (When Ann's weakness is exploited or is struck by a critical hit)
 * "Panther's down! She needs treatment!" (When Ann is incapacitated by an enemy's skill)
 * "And Panther dodges with grace!" (When Ann's evades an enemy's attack)
 * "Queen's on the ground! You can't fail now!" (When Makoto's weakness is exploited or is struck by a critical hit)
 * "Queen's in trouble! It looks bad!" (Makoto's HP is below 25%)
 * "Queen's been taken out! You gotta cover for her!" (When Makoto is incapacitated)
 * "All right, Queen!" (When Makoto's evades an enemy's attack)
 * "Crow, you gotta watch them!" (When Akechi's attack or skill misses)
 * "Crow's down! We need backup here!" (When Akechi is incapacitated by an enemy's skill)
 * "J-Just hold on and push through! We can come back from this!" (When more than one party member is downed by a skill)
 * "We've got casualties! This is bad!" (When more than one party member is incapacitated by a skill)
 * "Whoooaaa... That was awesome!" (When the entire party evades an attack)
 * "Ooh, nice dodge!" (When a party member evades Cognitive Wakaba's attack)
 * "You're dizzy! Your attacks might not connect!" (When a party member is inflicted with Dizzy during his/her turn during Cognitive Wakaba battle)
 * "You need to deal with the despair! It's bad to just ignore it!" (When a party member is inflicted with Despair during player's turn during Cognitive Wakaba battle)
 * "No! Come on, wake up!" (When a party member other than the protagonist is incapacitated by Cognitive Wakaba)
 * "Whoa, this Shadow looks strong!" (Encountering the Reaper)
 * "Everyone's had a shot! Nice combos!" (Performing 3 Baton Passes in succession during player's turn)
 * "All-out Attack!" (Announcing All-Out Attack)
 * "They're done for!" (Announcing All-Out Attack)
 * "Beat 'em up!" (Announcing All-Out Attack)
 * "Time for a beatdown!" (Rush)
 * "OK, I'm looking for a way out!" (Attempting to escape from battle)
 * "Don't rush me! I'm trying to find you an escape route!" (Selecting "Escape" again)
 * "If you're gonna run, now's your chance!" (Party manages to escape from battle)
 * "Oh, it got away... Security's gonna be tight now..." (An enemy flees in a Palace)
 * "Huh? Who're these kids...? Awww... Those little costumes look perfect! They're so cute! Can I take them home with-Wait... What!? Whoa... for real!? These power levels...! Watch out! Those two are... monsters!" (Battling Caroline and Justine at the beginning)
 * "And they're Persona-users too!? Who ARE these girls!?" (After the first turn against Caroline and Justine)

Trivia

 * Futaba's character conflict is very similar to Jun Kurosu's in Persona 2: Innocent Sin. He faces a manifestation of his mother born from his painful memories who claims it would have been better if he was never born. Futaba  is also similar to Nanako Dojima from Persona 4 who also deeply misses her mother after a car crash.
 * While Futaba has her own costume with every DLC pack, the only times she's seen wearing them is in safe locations within Mementos and the Palaces. If she activates one of her skills while in battle, she's depicted wearing her usual Metaverse outfit instead of the equipped costume.
 * Any information about her biological father is unknown and does not play a major role in the story.
 * Futaba was originally imagined with having black hair. Original sketches show her looking a bit emo/goth, with a black jacket with a skull, and a black-and-white striped shirt. However, the character designer wanted to make her stand out and so her hair was made bright orange, as depicting a sad and suicidal character with dark hair and goth/emo clothing is a bit of a cliche. Her final clothing is also a lot less goth/emo looking, although she still wears black boots.
 * Unlike the rest of the Phantom Thieves' primary heist targets, the calling card for Futaba does not specify a sin she has committed, even though many players assume Cavum (hollowness) of the Nine Deadly Sins which is absent in the game besides the opening movie. In the English translation, her sin is identified as sloth.
 * Futaba's name is a reference to the (also known as 2chan), an imageboard in Japan that inspired the popular English-language imageboard 4chan. As a hikikomori, Futaba could be seen as representing Internet or otaku culture.
 * Her mother's name, Wakaba, is also a reference to the software that runs 2chan.
 * Futaba shares the same Ultimate Persona, Prometheus, with Baofu from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment whose Japanese voice actor,, also voiced Futaba's guardian, Sojiro Sakura.
 * The allusion to Baofu also extends to the fact that Futaba performs computer hacking and wiretapping which are important to the main plots of both games.
 * Futaba's rank 10 Confidant ability "Final Guard" was originally named "Last Guardian" (ラストガーディアン) as seen in the fourth Japanese trailer of Persona 5 ("E3 2016 trailer" in Atlus USA channel). Incidentally the action-adventure game The Last Guardian was released in the same year as the Japanese version of Persona 5.
 * Futaba's code name Oracle in the Western releases is likely taken from DC's, also known as Oracle, who uses computers as an informant and hacker for numerous DC heroes, most notably the Bat Family and the Birds of Prey. Not to mention she was crippled by Joker possibly a reference to the protagonist.
 * However, it is also possible that it comes from an ability that Fuuka Yamagishi (the navigator for the majority of the game) had in Persona 3 with her Personas Lucia and Juno. Both also have an ability called "Third Eye" which is used in the dungeons in Persona 5.
 * Another possibility: Oracles in western culture are usually associated with Greece, but actually originated in Egypt, indicating a connection to her palace.
 * She has a Catherine figurine in her room of Catherine sitting on a stool.
 * The method in which Futaba gains her Persona is more evocative of the cast of Persona 4 than other party members. Rather than having a mask to tear off, Futaba is forced to face a part of herself she was repressing (her true memories and her desire to live). When she finally admits, "I couldn't face myself," and accepts the truth, her Shadow even becomes her Persona, just like in Persona 4.
 * Futaba can equip gear and both of her Personas have stats, but these have no confirmed effect whatsoever on gameplay.
 * Futaba tap-danced at a live concert.
 * Futaba appears in the first chapter of the Persona 5 manga during the time Akira is at the Shibuya crosswalk after time freezes around him. However, due to this contradicting her character plot it could easily be a look alike or just a gag from the author.

Appearances in Other Media

 * Chain Chronicle: Oracle, Clerics class. (Article in Chain Chronicle Wiki)