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.

## 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 *Tetris* 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 *Tron*.[1]

## Personality

"Risking our lives to stop rotten adults... That's why we're Phantom Thieves!"
—Futaba Sakura talking about Masayoshi Shido, *Persona 5*
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 *hikikomori* 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.[2]

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." [3]
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.[4] Likewise, Yusuke makes several disses at Futaba. Futaba also claims she give Yusuke a crash course on doujinshi. [5][6] As a result of their constant bickering, Futaba usually calls him "Inari" as a insult.

## Battle Quotes

* *"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)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Futaba usually helps Lina and Chihiro with analyzing their opponents. She also gives the player and her teammates useful items such as health items

## Trivia

* 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, the exit of the dungeons, or during certain nonanimated cutscenes. 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.[7] 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 Sinswhich 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 Futaba Channel (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, Jouji Nakata, 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*.

* 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.[8]
* 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.