Makoto Niijima

*This article is about the **Makoto Niijima** character. For articles that share the same name, see Makoto.*

## Makoto Niijima

### Alias

Queen (クイーン, *Kuīn*) (Code Name)
Diligent-looking Student (怪盗団 (かいとうだん) の作戦 (さくせん) 参謀 (さんぼう) , *Seikimatsu hasha*)
Dignified Female Student (世紀末 (せいきまつ) 覇者 (はしゃ) 先輩 (せんぱい) , ***Dignified Female Student***)
Miss President
Ms. Post-Apocalyptic Raider (by Ryuji)
Fist of the Phantom Star (by Ryuji)
Mako-chan (by Haru and Ryuji)
MakoC (by Tsukasa, over text)
The Barbaric, Dark-haired Woman (by Okumura)
Queen, Tutor of Tactics

## Professional Status

### Occupation

Student Council President
Phantom Thief

### Affiliation

Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Shujin Academy

## Relationships

### Parents

Unnamed Father †
Unnamed Mother †

### Partner(s)

Rei Hino (Girlfriend)
Ren Amamiya (Former Crush)
Ken Ichijouji (Former Crush)

## Voice Actors

### English

Cherami Leigh

**Makoto Niijima** (新島 (にいじま)  真 (まこと) , *Nījima Makoto*) is the student council president of Shujin Academy who lives a double life as a Phantom Thief.

## Description

### Appearance

Makoto has brown hair in a bob cut with blunt bangs and a French-braid styled headband that matches her hair color. 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 is of average female height, being taller than Futaba Sakura and Haru Okumura, but slightly shorter than Ann Takamaki.

Her winter school uniform appears normal but without the standard blazer. Instead, she wears a black halter vest over a long-sleeve white shirt with a turtleneck (which is different from normal turtlenecks for female students as there is a noticeable zipper). She wears the regulation black and red pleated plaid skirt, black pantyhose and black-brown ankle boots.

Her summer school uniform is modified. She wears a white dress shirt with the High Priestess emblem ("BJ") embroidered on the collar instead of a normal polo shirt. Under the regulation skirt, she wears Capri-length black leggings and black tassel loafers with no socks.

Her winter casual clothes consist of a black turtleneck shirt under a teal blue coat, with tight black pants and two-toned brown-tan knee-high boots with dark cuffs. Her summer casual clothes consist of a white dress blouse with a black belt, black capris similar to leggings from her summer school uniform attire and black low-heeled Mary Jane shoes.

During the trip to Hawaii, Makoto wears her swimsuit, which consists of a white bikini with a skirted bottom.

Her Metaverse outfit consists of a two-toned (dark blue and black) skintight suit that is worn with a long black scarf, a dark gray corset-style leather breastplate, shoulder and knee pads with spikes mixed with boots that sport metal heels and toes, white gloves and an iron mask.

### Personality

Despite her position as student council president, Makoto is an extremely unpopular student at Shujin Academy. This is due to her not doing anything to stop Suguru Kamoshida's abuse, resulting in all the students labeling her as an arrogant, selfish control freak who knew about the abuse but chose to ignore it because she only cared about getting a good letter of recommendation. While she does give off the impression of this during the Phantom Thieves' first few encounters with her, these rumors are ultimately revealed to be completely untrue. In actuality, the abuse outraged Makoto, but she felt powerless to do anything about it due to the influence Kamoshida held over the school. In fact, Makoto holds no real authority at Shujin, with her position merely making her a glorified tool for the principal to use however he sees fit.

She also isn't above keeping secrets from her friends to keep her image. When Akechi reveals to the group that Sae has a Palace, Makoto admits that she knew that and she wanted to go there so Sae might repent, but she kept it a secret because she thought it was "too selfish of a reason." Way before this, it led to her hiding the true reason why she didn't stand up against Kamoshida.

Feeling overshadowed by her highly successful older sister and being used as a tool, Makoto has almost no sense of self-worth, and so has made a habit of keeping her nose down and doing what is expected of her. Her submissive nature is noted by Goro Akechi, who condescendingly refers to her as "the good-girl type of pushover." She also has the poor habit of apologizing immensely, and can go as far as make an unnecessary wall of text via IM to do so. After getting involved with the Phantom Thieves, however, Makoto stops denying that she was nothing other than a tool for higher authorities, and vows from then on to fight for what she believes in, which triggers the awakening of her Persona. After the group defeats Junya Kaneshiro, Makoto decides to stay with the Phantom Thieves, saying that she's done being the "exemplary honor student" and that she's going to try to be more honest with herself.

 File:MakotoArt.png
Despite appearing prim and proper on the surface, Makoto is actually more of a tomboy: she's trained in aikido, enjoys violent action movies, never wears skirts other than her school uniform (which she wears leggings under) and seems to care little about fashion other than the headband she wears in her hair.

Makoto has a compliant temperament that she never breaks out of: she is a level-headed and kind person, almost to a motherly extent. That side of her would be highlighted when she'd help Futaba Sakura and at a few points Morgana. That being said, following her awakening that discipline would be self-asserted, and in turn she would be strict on others and have an unrestricted and violent way of expressing that. Aside from her athletic ways of fighting, in the English localization this branches out to her voice acting as well. Makoto would be hard on Ryuji Sakamoto due to his consistently nonchalant approach to school life, who would fear her in turn. Morgana would be afraid of her a few times, even if it's over nothing and she only spoke to him with authority, similarly to treating himself as her subordinate. The other Phantom Thieves and even Iwai of the *Mementos Mission* manga fear her. Additionally, this same struggle with regulations would make Makoto herself socially awkward at first, as she wouldn't yet realize that there's more to life than that, and would actively combat her ignorance with Ren's help.

At the same time, Makoto herself is actually quite embarrassed of her excessively masculine and dramatic ways of fighting and attire: many times she would complain about her mask and would wish she'd wore anything else. Even when she's praised and admired for her looks, such as by her new friend Haru Okumura, she would only react with shame and dismissal of the topic. And if she were to genuinely get into her role, she would deeply regret it later on, as portrayed in some of her dances.

 File:MakotoScared.gif
Despite her immensely serious personality and efforts to be above the more bizarre antics of her friends, Makoto does have her own hidden elements such as being frightened by hearing ghost stories, as well as the dark. Her panicking would become severe, begging for her older sister's help and at one point even holding onto the protagonist's leg.

Makoto is an excellent analytical thinker and strategist, known for correctly deducting how a majority of puzzles in Palaces work on first sight. Bar situations where Akechi joins the party, who directly excels with exploiting the matters of the heart, Makoto performs most of the strategic work.

Makoto's relationship with her sister is highly bitter, as Sae considers her as a detriment, yet Makoto constantly attempts to please her by fulfilling the expectations of other people. When she realized her sister's true nature (Where her Leviathan form can be seen briefly appearing for a second before the party battles her), she went to a near breakdown before Akechi assures her that they will get this through. In the end, Makoto wanted to help her sister, directly telling her later that she wanted to heal her heart.

## Etymology

* **Makoto** (真) means **truth**.
* **Nii** (新) means **new** and **jima** (島) means **island**. The whole name is **new island**.

## Trivia

 File:P5 BikerGangOutfit.png
* Makoto has several unique navigation roles in combat:
	+ Makoto takes priority when evaluating enemies on the Analyze screen, involving their weaknesses and resistances. If she's unconscious or not present in the overall party, the role is given to the primary Navigator, that usually being Morgana or Futaba Sakura.
	+ Makoto also has the special property of making recommendations for exploiting Technical damage, which is unavailable to any other party member. For example, if an enemy is Burned, she might recommend using Wind skills on them. This follows the same rules of availability as analyses, with the exception that mainline Navigators cannot take on the role.
* Makoto doesn't like her mask.
	+ In addition she, while wandering through Mementos, complains about her Phantom Thief attire as well.
* Queen is given the role of "Phantom Thieves' Advisor" Template:J for her wisdom.
* Her summer uniform's collar has the letters B and J embroidered on it. This is a reference to Boaz and Jachin, two pillars found at the mouth of Solomon's Temple in ancient Jerusalem. These twin pillars are also depicted in the Tarot's Priestess Arcana, and are referenced with the letters "B" and "J" seen on the breasts of the boss.
	+ Additionally, her third-tier Persona, Agnes, has the letters B and J on its sides.
* In the Japanese version, Ryuji and Haru both nickname Makoto "Champion of Century's End" Template:J the first time they see her Metaverse outfit and Persona, a reference of Raoh's title from the *Fist of the North Star* series. Makoto and Raoh are both specialized in fist fighting and use a mount.
* Makoto's Metaverse outfit, especially her scarf, can be seen as a reference to Kamen Rider, especially those from the Showa Period. The reference is heightened further by Johanna's motorcycle appearance. "Rider" is also one of the suggested nicknames for her.
	+ Makoto also shares the same pronunciation of her given name with Makoto Fukami from *Kamen Rider Ghost*.
* During the time after stealing the treasure of Madarame but before deadline, if the protagonist went back home manually rather than traverse back through the map, one can see Makoto following the protagonist all along the street after school with a comic book as disguise. Sometimes the book is upside-down.
* She apparently has a fondness for Buchimaru-kun merchandise, even though it's no longer sold. This is revealed when Eiko Takao notices her pencil case is a Buchimaru-kun (and a rather old at that.)
* In the group text after she awakens her Persona, Ryuji says that it's just like that song "I'm a phantom, on a steel horse I ride...", and Makoto follows up with saying that she's not "wanted," referencing the Bon Jovi hit *Wanted Dead or Alive*.
* There are 813 books in Makoto's room.