Makoto Niijima

**Makoto Niijima** is a playable character in *Persona 5*.

## Design

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 appears taller than Futaba and Haru but slightly shorter than Ann.

Her winter school's 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.

Her winter casual clothes consists of a black turtleneck shirt under a teal blue coat, with tight black pants and brown boots.

Her summer casual clothes consists 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.

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, white gloves, and an iron mask.

In Persona 5: Dancing Star Night, she retains her Shuji academy school uniform except she wears dark grey tatter shirt with stitches and black splatter pattern design, thigh high stockings attached to her skirt by garters on the front, and maroon high-top sneaker boots. She also wears a red scarf that matches her gloves, and a chain attacked to her black belt.

## Personality

"You filthy fly on dirty money... Get the hell out of my face!"
—Makoto Niijima to Junya Kaneshiro, *Persona 5*
Makoto is a perfectionist that has a strong sense of responsibility and unyielding reality. Makoto comes across as strict, intelligent, honest and very hardworking. In truth, she is a very compassionate and understanding young lady who works hard to make sure everyone is accounted for.

Makoto suffers from an inferiority complex as she feels that her older sister, Sae Niijima, is far more remarkable than she is. The pressure put on her by the Principal of Shujin Academy to find the Phantom Thieves as well as her older sister who accidentally blurts out that she is a burden causes Makoto to devalue herself even more, especially when she fails to produce the results they are looking for. As a result, she becomes increasingly more reckless, with little regard for her own safety, all in the attempt to show that she is useful and dependable. As a Phantom Thief, Makoto gradually gains self-confidence, ultimately becoming a more well-rounded person by the game's conclusion.

Despite her immensely serious and mature nature, she does have her hidden, humorous elements, such as being frightened hearing ghost stories, as well as the dark. When the Thieves introduce themselves properly to Futaba Sakura, Makoto grows increasingly nervous given how Futaba enjoys keeping her house dark and quiet and reminding Makoto of a horror movie-not to mention that, due to Futaba's own astraphobia, the thunderstorm outside broke said silence with a scream. When Futaba suddenly appears and shrieks in surprise, Makoto panics and hugs the protagonist's leg, gibbering and begging for Sae to save her until she realizes Futaba isn't a ghost. Futaba herself finds this hilarious upon realizing how stoic Makoto is normally, and repeatedly teases her about her phobia of horror movies throughout the game. She also possesses excellent driving skills.

As quickly discovered when she becomes a Phantom Thief, Makoto has a great deal of suppressed anger which leaks out during her fights, unleashing a very brutal method of fighting.

She is incredibly serious when it comes to studying and has a tendency of making her fellow teammates keep up with their studies. She also consistently looks out for their well being, often chiding them for eating unhealthily or spending too much time playing video games. Ultimately she cares a great deal about her friends, and does not hesitate to praise them when she feels that they've earned it.[1]

According to the artbook, Makoto is talented in doing housework, and aikido. She has a habit of putting her hand on her chin when lost in thought. Her hobby is reading (regardless of genre, including sci-fi and manga) and touring (after exams finish). She is a bit of a health nut, so she’s obsessed with nutritional value and a balanced diet. She cares about things like eating 30 different foods a day (which was once a government-sanctioned nutritional plan in Japan), eating less than 5g of salt a day, etc.

## Battle Quotes

* *"Johanna! / Anat!"* (Exploiting enemy's weakness)
* *"Charge, Johanna!"* (Exploiting enemy's weakness)
* *"Anat, come!"* (Exploiting enemy's weakness)
* *"Persona!"*(Accessing Persona skill menu)
* *"I'll use my Persona!"*(Accessing Persona skill menu)
* *"You oppose us?"* (Attack with Melee Weapon)
* *"Out of our way!"* (Attack with Melee Weapon)
* *"Feel my rage!"*(Using an offensive skill)
* *"No holds barred!"* (Using offensive Skill)
* *"Ow!"*(Taking damage)
* "*One more and I'm done for..."* (Low health)
* *"The world is... spinning..."* (While Dizzy)
* *"I'd run if I could."* (While Feared)
* *"Freeze!"* (Initiating a Hold Up)
* *"They're in disarray!"* (Initiating All-Out Attack)
* *"Let's wipe 'em out!"* (Initiating All-Out Attack)
* *"We can end this right now!"* (Initiating All-Out Attack)
* *"Fists of justice!"* (All-Out Attack finishing touch)
* *"They felt that one!"* (All-Out Attack finishing touch)
* *"Done and done!"* (All-Out Attack finishing touch)
* *"I'll act accordingly."* (Tactics changed to Act Freely)
* *"Understood!"* (Tactics changed to Full Assault)
* *"I won't exert myself."* (Tactics changed to Conserve SP)
* *"Prioritizing safety."* (Tactics changed to Heal/Support)
* *"I'll leave it to you."* (Tactics changed to Direct Command)
* *"Don't forget this feeling!"* (Battle results)
* *"No time to waste!"* (Battle results)
* *"That's a new one, isn't it?"* (Protagonist gains a new Persona)
* "*The opponent is strong! Don't do anything reckless!"* (Scanning high level enemy with unknown weakness)

## TMNT X Pokemon

As a perfectionist, she wants everything to go exactly as plan and will freak out if it doesn't.

## Trivia

* Makoto doesn't like her mask.[2]
	+ In addition she, while wandering through Mementos, complains about her phantom attire as well.
* Makoto's Personas specialize in Nuclear skills that have not appeared in the franchise since *Persona 2: Eternal Punishment*, even though the element has a different role in terms of battle mechanics, which is for inflicting Technical damage beyond exploiting an enemy's weakness.
* 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. The first is when she has Johanna, where she "rides" her Persona, while her second is with Anat, which unlike Johanna has a humanoid form.
* 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 in *Persona 3*.
* Ryuji and Haru both nickname Makoto "Champion of Century's End" (世紀末覇者, *Seikimatsu Hasha*)? 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. This was changed to "Post-Apocalyptic Raider" in the English localization.
* 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.
	+ Makoto also shared her first name with *Makoto Fukami* from*Kamen Rider Ghost*.
* The official twitter account for the Persona series posted a "Happy Birthday" message for Makoto on April 23, 2017 JST.
* On 7/30 you can go with Makoto to watch a yakuza themed movie called "Like a Dragon" which Makoto seems to be fond of said genre [3]. This is a reference to the *Yakuza* series of video games by Sega (in Japan called 龍が如く "Ryū ga Gotoku" which literally translates to "Like a Dragon"). The first game in the series also got a movie adaptation "Like a Dragon" or "Yakuza: Like a Dragon" (in Japan as 龍が如く 劇場版 "Ryū ga Gotoku Gekijōban"; lit. "Like a Dragon Movie Version")
* While some may compare them to Hell Biker, her Phantom Thief outfit and persona may instead be a reference to the stand from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Born this Way.

### Appearances in Other Media

* *Chain Chronicle*: Queen, Knights class. (Article in *Chain Chronicle* Wiki)