Ryuji Sakamoto

* Ryuji
* Skull

Shotguns

**Ryuji Sakamoto** is a major character who appear in Persona Record Series. He's Ren and Ann's Classmate and he is a Member of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

## Background

Before Ryuji joins the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, He has knows about Ann Takamaki since middle school even though they are not too acquainted. Ryuji borrowed money from Ann in middle school so he could buy a stuffed dolphin for his mom from a school trip, but never paid her back, which Ann holds against him.

He originally came from a household with an abusive father, who eventually abandoned him and his mother. Later on, Ryuji got a great opportunity for his future and to ease his mother's burden by becoming a star athlete on the school's track team, where he managed to become its leader and earned fellow teammates Nakaoka, Takeshi and Ikeda's trust. The team was also on the forefront of Shujin's sports teams and one with a potential for going to internationals. However, during an unknown time prior to the game's events, Suguru Kamoshida came into the school and sets up his tyranny against its students. Ryuji's track team was one of the causalities because Kamoshida wanted his own volleyball team to be the only frontline sports team in the school, so he began telling everyone at Shujin about Ryuji's parents. This led to Ryuji attacking Kamoshida in a fit of anger, only for him to break Ryuji's leg and justify it as "self-defense." The conflict between Ryuji and Kamoshida caused the track team to disband, and the former members of his team alongside Kamoshida would label him as the track traitor due to his supposedly brash violence against Kamoshida leading to the team's disbandment. Since the team was already disbanded, they were also unable to participate in a track championship. Nakaoka and Takeshi also went to a fall-out on him since he led to the Track Team's disbanding, while Ikeda regrets being unable to stop Kamoshida as a senior, albeit not holding resentment unlike the former two.

By the time Ren Amamiya moved to Shujin academy due to a crime of assaulting others, he and Ren were dragged into the palace, causing him and Ren were given the power of Persona to defeat the shadows and change people's hearts.

After that, Ryuji joins the Phantom Thieves of Hearts with Ren, and later increases the group, Morgana, Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagawa, Makoto Niijima, Futaba Sakura, Haru Okumura, Goro Akechi, Sumire Yoshizawa, Zenkichi Hasegawa and Sophia.

## Appearance

Ryuji has short spiky dyed blond hair and dark brown eyes. According to Sadayo Kawakami, his hair is naturally black. He has a noticeable widow's peak and his eyebrows are unusual in that he lacks the outer sides. He is shown to be muscular.

### School Uniform

He wears his winter school uniform a bit modified. It consists of the standard black blazer, unbuttoned to reveal a yellow t-shirt with a comic style star symbol and the word 'ZOMG!' He has plaid trousers rolled up to reveal his ankles. His pants have black suspenders that hang down instead of being worn on his shoulders. He has a white belt. His white sneakers have a rising sun flag motif. His summer school uniform is the same as his winter's, except his yellow t-shirt is replaced with a red one reading 'NO MO RULES' and he no longer wears his blazer.

### Skull

As Skull, His outfit consists of matching black jacket with elbow pads and what appears to be a metal vertebral column attached to its back, pants with knee pads and a double-sided holster belt with ammo on each side, a red ascot, combat boots, a pair of yellow gloves with metal knuckle protectors and a skull mask.

## Personality

Ryuji is known as a disruptive "problem student" at school whose bad behavior causes all sorts of trouble for the teachers. He is quite proud of his status as a self-proclaimed "troublemaker" and his rebellious, mischievous and disobedient nature are the perfect qualities to be a Phantom Thief. He can sometimes be vulgar and aggressive, as shown in his early interactions with Yusuke Kitagawa and Makoto Niijima. He is also rather short-tempered, easily taking offense from even the slightest of comments. That said, he will never resort to violence without being legitimately provoked.

He is very straightforward when it comes to expressing his feelings, especially in regards to his hatred of selfish adults and authority figures who abuse their power. He is deeply empathetic when it comes to the plight of others: simply listening to the Ren and Yuma's story of how he got arrested makes him extremely angry, and hearing about Kamoshida's sexual abuse greatly upsets him.

Ryuji can be clumsy and overly energetic sometimes. He has a habit of yelling constantly, despite frequent warnings from Morgana to keep his voice down, which usually results in loud outbursts that often includes accidentally revealing himself and his friends as the Phantom Thieves. This, combined with his frequent density, causes him to be viewed as an idiot by his peers, Morgana in particular and makes him a source of comedic relief in various situations. Ryuji also occasionally has a hard time accepting blame for things, though it's less he doesn't recognize when he's at fault so much as he hates being held solely responsible for an incident when he feels he isn't the only issue, or if it was simply beyond the group's control. Ryuji's academic abilities are outright questionable at best and horrid at worst, as he more often than not, gets bad grades from exams, usually by oversleeping or refusing to study at all.

Deep down, he is nothing more than a kind and altrustic boy. He deeply cares for his mother and takes fervent effort as an athlete to relieve her worries. He also reveals that his father was an alcoholic who beat him and his mother and then left, so his mother is the only family he has. When he tells the group about the aftermath of his confrontation with Kamoshida, he is broken when he admits that, following a meeting with the school authorities, she apologized to him for being a single mother and not giving him a strong father-figure in life. He even calls himself a "bad son," due to him messing up his efforts to make things easier for his mother. He's generally friendly and on good terms with everyone in the Phantom Thieves (despite frequent bickering), particularly Ann, with who he shares somewhat of a love-hate relationship.

Ryuji cares a great deal for the well-being of others around him, such as when he attempts to help end the abuse of the track team, even going as far as letting them beat him up in an attempt to air out their frustrations. He also has a strong sense of right and wrong.

## Abilities

Ryuji's persona is Captain Kidd. In battle, he fights with clubs and shotguns.

## Relationship

### Ren Amamiya

Ryuji's best friend and fellow team. He's always accepting and sympathizing with Ren's story because he thinks that what happened to Ren it is unfair that he will be guilty of crimes like this. Ever since he joined the Phantom Thief, he has always been there to help and protect Ren, even if he took the risk of this kind of danger.

### Ann Takamaki

Ryuji's middle school friends and high school classmates. He and Ann often fight, but they are good friends, even though they have some love-hate relationships.

### Morgana

Ryuji's fellow team. The two often argued, but they were good friends.

### Iroha Tamaki

Ryuji's Magical girl friend. He and Iroha are close friends. Because Ren and Iroha were childhood friends, he and the Phantom Thieves of Hearts learn that she is a magical girl and join an alliance to defeat the witches and the shadows.

### Felicia Mitsuki

Ryuji's best friend. He and Felicia were the closest, because Ryuji's personality was so similar to Felicia's that one thought that they were siblings.

## Trivia

* Ryuji's birthday is on Wave Day (波の日\*), a Japanese anniversary. The origin of Wave Day comes from the pronunciation of the numbers and the word "wave" combined (なみ\*), forming 7/3. (な (7) み (3))
* Ryuji's name is referencing Ryōma Sakamoto (坂本 龍馬) from the bakumatsu period, which is supported by his Confidant subplot which is an allusion to the blade wound incident in Iguchi village (井口村刃傷事件): A lower samurai Toranoshin Ikeda (池田 寅之進)'s brother was killed by a higher samurai for possibly shoulder bumping. Informed by the witness, Ikeda quickly arrived at the scene and killed the two superiors for revenge. This serial murder stoked the tension between the lower and higher samurais in the next day. Sakamoto as a fellow lower samurai helped mediate, but things actually settled down after Ikeda had performed honor suicide by seppuku and confiscation of the salaries of Ikeda's and his brother's families, while the superiors' families received virtually no punishment for the initial killing. The unequal treatments led to desertion of many lower samurais including Sakamoto and his later comrade Shintarō Nakaoka (中岡 慎太郎) from their serving clans who were disappointed by their higher-ups' suppression.

## Gallery

Ryuji in Shujin Academy UniformRyuji face Concept ArtRyuji in Track Team formRyuji Ann and RenRyuji and Ren in their athletic attireRyuji celebrating with the Phantom ThievesRyuji, Ren and YusukeRyuji and Yusuke in HawaiiRyuji and RenThe Dream StageA Reality Without PainRyuji hiding in the bushes with the Phantom ThievesRyuji in Skull FormRyuji in Skull form Concept ArtRyuji in Skull Form (Maskless)Skull Panther and JokerRyuji and AnnRyuji and The GangRyuji and Yusuke's showtimeRyuji and Makoto's showtimeRyuji in his Skull outfitRyuji and Captain KiddRyuji, Ren and Morgana encountering Shibuya's JailSwimsuitRyuji and Ann in Hawaii