Makoto Niijima

* Makoto
* Queen

Sae Niijima (Older Sister)

**Makoto Niijima** is a major character who appear in Persona Record Series. She's Ren, Ryuji and Ann's Senior, the student council president of Shujin Academy and she was a member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

## Background

The Niijima sisters Makoto and Sae lived alongside their father since their mother died when they were young. As he was not home often, the sisters disliked him. Unfortunately, three years ago, he was murdered by being ran over by a truck in the line of duty, forcing the elder sister Sae to juggle between handling cases in court and raising Makoto alone. In order to retain the 99% indiction rate of her country's courts, Sae also more often than not, found herself having to rig cases with a guilty charge against her will. As a result, she saw both Makoto and their father as a burden and did not hold her in high regard. Makoto also regretted disliking her father and wished that he would still be around.

Makoto was deeply apologetic that her sister has to shoulder the burden of supporting her on her own, which she absolutely hates being in a position at, and as a result studied very hard so that she can enter a top-notch university, and relieve Sae's burden once she graduates. Unfortunately, nobody in school treated her seriously, and even Sae's associates, such as Goro Akechi, mocked her for her submissive attitude. When Ren Amamiya moves in Tokyo, she has become a third-year honor student and the president of the student council in Shujin Academy, although she was dissatisfied with the situation because the students view her as incompetent and unfit for the job.

After Madarame's confession, she was asked by Principal Kobayakawa to investigate the possibility that the Phantom Thieves are students from their school after their volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida's confession and arrest. She accepts the request and is quick to deduce that Ren and the others are the Phantom Thieves and starts to approach them. Ann Takamaki, in particular, does not like her presence due to a rumor that claims Makoto was aware of Kamoshida's true nature but kept quiet about it like everyone else in order to maintain a paragon image before the faculties and receive a recommendation for her own benefit, a thought that Ann bitterly tells to Makoto, which disturbs her. (Unfortunately, this turned out to be true as she confirmed personally later on after Kaneshiro extorts the party.)

She begins to tail Ren for a time, following him whenever he is in school or even as far as Shibuya. One day, Makoto finally confirms her suspicions when she hears Ryuji Sakamoto declares out loud in the courtyard of Shujin Academy that they are the Phantom Thieves. However, she decides not to give this proof to Kobayakawa and instead demands the Phantom Thieves to prove their justice by reforming an unknown mafia boss who has been extorting many students around Shibuya, including those attending Shujin Academy. If they can complete the task, she will not expose their identities to anyone. Deep down, Makoto actually approves of the thieves and believes her father would think the same way, which she told Sae when the sisters were having dinner at home, triggering Sae's anger, causing her to call Makoto a "burden." This disheartens Makoto heavily, even if Sae quickly apologized for insulting her because of an impulsive fit of rage. Sae then tells Makoto that she will not have dinner with Makoto from that point on, implying that she still holds grudges against her.

Makoto checks on the group as they have trouble reaching the center of mafia boss Kaneshiro's Palace. Ann, Ryuji and Yusuke point out how useless she is for not doing anything that can help them but rely on the hard works of somebody else, something that greatly upsets Makoto after being told the same thing before by her sister and Akechi. To prove her worth, Makoto purposely acts as bait into the mafia so that the gang can follow behind. Once there, Kaneshiro takes photos of the group being merely present in his adult-exclusive nightclub for blackmail material. He demands 3 million yen within 3 weeks in exchange for the photos, which will ruin their reputations if leaked. Additionally, if they cannot pay the 3 million yen, he would force Makoto into prostitution to pay back the debt, adding that he may even keep Sae as his personal slave.

Makoto apologizes for her rash actions and explains how this folly could ruin Sae's effort in raising her. She tries to think of a way to pay Kaneshiro, but Morgana suggests to make her an ally by bringing her along to Kaneshiro's Palace because she is now the "special customer" to Kaneshiro's extortion business. Entering the Metaverse, a passageway is opened to allow the thieves and Makoto to access Kaneshiro's "floating bank." Makoto is confronted by Shadow Kaneshiro who taunts her by revealing his plan to extort her sister. Angered and disgusted by Kaneshiro, Makoto awakens her Persona power of Johanna and decides to join the Phantom Thieves.

## 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.

### School Uniform

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). 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.

### Queen

As Queen, Her 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." 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.

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.

While she's mostly a kind person, she can also be very bossy and is harshly critical of those who don't live up to her expectations, particularly Ryuji Sakamoto, whose case she constantly gets on due to his consistently nonchalant approach to school life, implying that she's a perfectionist. She also has a ton of repressed anger issues over being made to stand on a pedestal by adults who don't follow the same standards themselves, and as such has the worst temper of the group bar none, to the point that even Iwai has to fear her.

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.

Makoto is an excellent analytic and strategist, known for correctly deducting how a majority of puzzles in Palaces work on first sight. Bar situations where Akechi joins the party, Makoto performs most of the strategic work.

## Abilities

Makoto's persona is Johanna. In battle, she fights with Tekko and Revolvers.

## Relationship

### Ren Amamiya

Makoto's junior and Leader team. Since rumors about The Phantom Thieves of Hearts began, Makoto became suspicious of him, so she stalked him until she realized his secret that he was the Leader of Phantom Thieves. After she gained the power of Persona and joined the team, their relationship finally bonded and became friends.

### Ryuji Sakamoto

Makoto's junior and fellow team. When Ryuji causes problems, Makoto always teaches him like a boss.

### Ann Takamaki

Makoto's junior and fellow team. At first, their relationship is upset since Kamoshida assaulted the student, and the student council refuses to deal with the problem, causing a close friend of Ann to attempt suicide. After Makoto joins the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, the two finally adjust their understanding and become friends.

### Futaba Sakura

Makoto's fellow team. Makoto always understands Futaba's feelings and empathizes with Futaba, so she helps Futaba and sees her as a sister.

### Haru Okumura

Makoto's best friend. Makoto and Haru became close after Haru joined the team.

### Sae Niijima

Makoto's older sister. Although the relationship of the two sisters has been strained since their parents died. Makoto continues to try to help her sister by lightening the workload, although her sister occasionally opposes and argues with her until the relationship becomes more strained. Despite how much Makoto hates her sister, she still loves her sister dearly.

### Iroha Tamaki

Makoto's Magical girl Friend. After Makoto learned that Iroha was a magical girl, she decided to form an alliance to protect the world from witches and shadows.

### Yachiyo Nanami

Makoto and Yachiyo are always working together in planning and fighting.

## Trivia

* 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" (怪盗団の作戦参謀, *Kaitō-dan no sakusen sanbō*)**?** for her wisdom.
* Makoto is the only party member to have two summoning poses in battle. The first is when she has Johanna or Agnes, where she "rides" her Persona, while her second is with Anat, which unlike Johanna and Agnes has a humanoid form.
* 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 pronunciation of her given name with Makoto Fukami from *Kamen Rider Ghost*.
* Makoto's birthday is the same day as Reading Day or World Book Day.
* Makoto share her name with Minato Arisato, who uses a different name to hide his identity, **Makoto Yuki**.

## Gallery

Young MakotoShujin Academy UniformMakoto Face conceptMakoto reads books in the library.Makoto Sae and Her FatherMakoto in Queen formYukata Outfit