Goro Akechi

## Voices

**Goro Akechi** (明智 (あけち)  吾郎 (ごろう) , *Akechi Gorou*) is a character from *Persona 5*. He is touted by his fans and the media as the second coming of the detective prince (after the first appeared in *Persona 4*), and is investigating the mysterious Phantom Thieves of Hearts case sensationalizing Japan.

## Appearance

Akechi is a handsome man with shaggy, neck length brown hair with bangs and reddish-brown eyes. He wears a tan peacoat with black buttons, striped black and white tie, black pants, black gloves and black loafers. His casual winter outfit consists of a white long sleeve shirt with flaps under a blue argyle sweater vest, beige pants and brown shoes.

As Crow, Akechi wears a princely pure-white regalia with red accents and a red, long-nosed mask. His mask motif resembles a long-nosed Venetian mask. His image is a combination of a noble's attire, and a uniform worn by cavalry or guards of honor. As with his Robin Hood Persona, it's meant to give the feeling of putting on the air of a champion of justice, with nothing to do with being a Phantom Thief, robber or burglar of any sort, invoking the image of being at the front of a stage to contrast the Ren's image of being more of a backstage actor.

Once he reveals his true intentions, Akechi swaps his princely garb for a body-covering, black and dark blue striped outfit. In this form, he has several black studded belts strapped around his legs and arms, a short black cape and clawed gauntlets. He also wears a dark enclosed knight helmet, with a black mask tinted red, resembling a sharp beak, which breaks after his defeat. Much like with Loki's design, it alludes to a lack of agency, and is meant to give a chaotic feeling and invoke the question "what's the real you?"

During the third semester in *Royal*, Akechi's seems to have replaced his broken mask with a blue-black version. On days off, he wears a green vest and white collar shirt, both under a brown coat with black buttons, and blue pants while retaining his gloves and loafers. On school days, Akechi wears a tan coat with a red and gray plaid scarf tucked underneath, while keeping his black gloves, pants and shoes from his detective uniform.

## Personality

In public and with all of his relations, Akechi appears to be well-mannered, friendly, humble and charismatic. His achievement of being a high-school detective, coupled with his handsome features, makes him highly popular among the general public and he is commented to be "The Second Coming of the Detective Prince." His intelligence and smooth-talk earned him enough trust from the police to conduct his own investigation despite his young age, working with Sae Niijima, who fully trusts him to assist her in her investigation.

He presents himself as having a strong sense of justice, disapproving of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts for their methods. He is candid in expressing his disagreement, but he wants to hear about other people's views in an honest fashion. He quotes Hegel on this, citing that "advancement cannot occur without both thesis and antithesis." He finds an interest in Ren because he speaks his mind.

Despite supposedly being an idol detective, this identity, as well as his cheery disposition, are nothing short of a fraud that he carefully crafted to grant him a public image in the hopes that it would make people accept him and mask his real personality, which was done by artificially fabricating and solving cases via inducing mental shutdowns or psychotic breakdowns. The killings were commissioned by Shido's allies (sometimes other political players who aren't in Shido's party) to silence their foes or anyone they don't like, often in exchange for granting Shido funds or connections. Similarly, he has the public's support only if he upholds the pretense of being a charismatic idol detective, and even without knowing about his true identity, his fans are quick to turn on him if he makes mistakes, such as when the Phantom Thieves triumphed over Kaneshiro and Medjed.

Ironically, despite being one of Shido's most useful assets and being distinctively more skilled than most of his men (this is largely due to Shido's practice of hiring people who revere him unconditionally and not basing anything on their competence), Shido doesn't treat him like anything more than a disposable tool, and since he knew that Akechi would turn against him and that he isn't easily fooled by outward loyalties, he had plans to dispose of him if he ever got his way.

Shido's abandonment resulted in Akechi developing a strong hatred for his father, to the point that he swore he would get revenge on Shido for ruining both his own life and his mother's. His desire for revenge was so intense that at the time when he was 14-15 years old, he was willing to use his abilities for Shido in order to fulfill his goal of ruining his father when he was at the apex of his power. Shido took complete advantage of Akechi's vulnerable state and his abilities, forcing him to initiate mental shutdowns and commit murders, treating him as the tool for these killings while also putting him under the impression that Akechi was mostly responsible for these events via manipulating and grooming him. This shows to have an impact on him later in the third semester where he believed his life was trivial while the protagonist had to decide on accepting or denying Maruki’s deal. On Christmas Eve, he offers to testify instead of the protagonist and give himself in as the perpetrator, saving the protagonist from juvenile hall and showing how little he thought of his life if he believed he should be arrested.

After meeting the protagonist, for the first time, Akechi is able to experience a simple, normal life with a friend. Akechi admires yet envies the protagonist, who does not let anything stop him from carving his own path, and thus considers him his rival. Persona 5 Maniax states that despite being overwhelmed with jealousy and contempt for the protagonist, who is surrounded by friends, Akechi says he would have wanted to meet the protagonist earlier, and doesn't deny what Morgana says about him taking a liking to the protagonist. In an interview in Persona 5 The Royal Official Complete Guide, director Kazuhisa Wada comments that Akechi doesn't care much for other people except the protagonist. In the end, he seems to hold complicated feelings towards him.

Near the final act of Persona 5, his obsession with enacting revenge on his father and his desire to be the hero of his own story overshadows his true feelings for the protagonist and the party. He becomes so desperate that he dismisses the concept of friends and true justice, claiming they are both meaningless and sickening, and even uses his rampage ability on himself which led to him losing control. This becomes substantial to his downfall, as in spite of his commended strength, his lack of bonds alongside his single-minded goal happens to be the reason why he is defeated. However, after learning how special he is to the protagonist and the party, and the truth of how Shido sees him from the cognitive version of himself, Akechi realizes how foolish he's been for letting his hatred blind him from seeing the truth, and he seemingly sacrifices himself to protect the protagonist.

He usually speaks in a calm and polite fashion, but when he drops his guise and engages in combat as the Black Mask, his dialogue becomes wildly aggressive and profane. However, he displays this behavior only towards enemies, for example, Shadows. (Out of combat, Black Mask Akechi converses normally) In Royal, this side of him is elaborated upon further during battle, as he refers to small Shadows as "scum" and delights in killing them.
Usually Akechi will use "boku" to refer to himself and "kimi" to refer to other people, which is (usually) considered polite. However, when he's the Black Mask, Akechi will always use "ore" to refer to himself (which is also used by Ryuji) and refer to others as "kisama" or "omae" (the latter of which is used by both Morgana and Ryuji.) All of the three pronouns he uses as the Black Mask are considered extremely impolite, and are also used by Shido when he drops his facade to deal with people personally.

In the third semester of Persona 5 Royal, he believes forming or fixing any relationship would be pointless due to his (presumed) death approaching. While the localization portrays Akechi as a harsh, rude person at times, the Japanese version of him is simply a tired man. Due to his mother's death and his subsequent placement into child institutions, Akechi grew up a lonely child who yearned to be loved; this feeling persists in his teenage years. He was illegally conceived in one of Shido's sexual ventures, which would then become the basis of his incredibly misanthropic worldview.

Akechi no longer cares what others may think of him after rejoining, completely abandoning his detective prince persona. Now perfectly comfortable with his true self, he behaves more seriously and honestly. He won't bother making small talk, directing the conversation straight to the point. While Akechi seems to no longer hold any contempt for the Phantom Thieves, he is no kinder than before with them since they already know his true nature. He also shows a morbid sense of humor, dryly suggesting they kill Maruki when handing him the calling card.

When it comes to his enemies, he is still merciless, seeing no problem in killing if he feels it is necessary. During a conversation in the Thieves Den, Akechi outright states that he would have killed Madarame or Kamoshida if he were to be abused by them like Yusuke or Ann were; in turn, they respond that letting them suffer their guilt for an eternity would be a better punishment than outright killing them. Akechi does show a certain restraint to this side of him, depending on who his opponents are, as shown in Maruki's Palace when he chooses to back out and leave the protagonist to fight Sumire alone: Akechi says he doesn't want to accidentally kill her, but in the Japanese version, he states he doesn't want to accidentally hurt her. He would attempt to kill Maruki only as a last resort when he'd see no other choice.
Having been manipulated and controlled by Shido before, Akechi values free will above all else. For this reason, he is disgusted by Maruki's salvation plan that requires his memories to be distorted and changed, which Akechi sees as no different than when he was controlled by his father. He is determined to live his life following the path that he chooses for himself, without anyone dictating him, even if it means he will die doing so. Due to his relationship with the protagonist, he is alarmed and disappointed should he ever accept Maruki's reality, as he believes that it betrays his ideals and their relationship with each other. At the same time, he is relieved each time the protagonist turns Maruki's offer down, knowing that he is resolved to return to their normal reality, and accepting Maruki's offer would be a betrayal of Akechi's wishes.

Despite his reputation as a detective being a fabrication, Akechi does have excellent deduction and analysis skills, as seen during Niijima's Palace and Maruki's Palace, as well as during Persona Q2; his quick and in-depth thinking allows him to be an effective asset when an ally. He is also extremely cunning, secretly planning a means to counter Shadow Sae's last minute cheating in her Palace without the knowledge of his teammates beforehand. This proves that even without having to fabricate cases, he actually does have what it takes to become a true detective. However, his usage of the Wild Card happens to be very poor, as he relies on only two Personas based on parts of his personalities and doesn't have special bonds with anyone besides the protagonist.
The official Persona 5 Artbook states that Akechi lives alone in a city apartment. His main skill is reasoning, and he has a habit of getting lost in thought during conversations. His hobbies include cycling (specifically with a hybrid bicycle for easy turning in Tokyo,) bouldering, and playing fashionable games like darts. His guidebook profile also states that Akechi always makes sure to try out the latest popular dishes in order to use food as a conversation piece. Waiting in long lines for this does not bother him. He uses his cycling hobby to ride around town, gathering stories to utilize in conversation with adults. Since he spends a lot of time with adults, he has a reputation among Tokyo's famous hidden stores and high class restaurants, although in truth he has little interest in the food's flavor.