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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | There's no need to be ruined by such incompetent fools. I will lead this country to its revival. | „ |
| ~ Masayoshi Shido on his narcissistic arrogance for dominance. |
| “ | I'll erase any who get in my way... just as I've always done! | „ |
| ~ Masayoshi Shido |
Masayoshi Shido is the main antagonist of the 2016 ATLUS action-adventure video game Persona 5 and its 2019 expansion re-release, Persona 5 Royal. He served as the main antagonist of the Cruiser of Pride arc.
He is a corrupt, arrogant, and wrathful politician who seeks to seize control over Japan. He has committed numerous selfish and heinous actions for the sake of achieving his ambitions, causing many of the events of the plot of the game to unfold. He is the arch-nemesis of Ren Amamiya, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts (particularly towards Futaba Sakura and Haru Okumura), and his son Goro Akechi.
He is voiced by Shūichi Ikeda in the Japanese version, who also the voice of Sandaaru from Ninpu Sentai Hurricanger, and Keith Silverstein in the English dub, who also voiced Juzo Mido in Code Vein, Isshiki Ōtsutsuki from Boruto, Bryan Fury in Street Fighter x Tekken, and Hammerhead from Marvel's Spider-Man.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- According to Sojiro Sakura, he was always ambitious and claimed he would be Prime Minister, although no one took him seriously, showing he was always evil from the beginning. He was known to crush anyone who oppose him, even for the most trivial of reasons, implying he ruined numerous lives before.
- In Royal, it is revealed he seduced and is heavily implied to have raped a woman, refusing to take responsibility after she got pregnant. This would result in the woman having to live in shame as a mother with a child out of wedlock as a result.
- He also abandoned his illegitimate son from the pregnancy, Goro Akechi. Even though he employs Akechi in the present, this is only because the boy now has use for him due to his ability to change hearts within the Metaverse, a realm that exists within the human subconscious.
- In Royal, he stole Takuto Maruki's research and cut off funding for his research lab, while using it to further his own plans.
- Upon employing his son Akechi after discovering his Persona abilities, he uses Akechi to commit countless mental breakdowns and murders of his political enemies and other who may be a threat to him, simply to ensure he remains in power and is constantly prepared to double-cross any of his allies to ensure his secrets remain hidden. These victims included:
- Wakaba Isshiki. After Akechi murders her, Shido frames her young daughter, Futaba Sakura, by having a suicide note forged, making it appear as though Futaba had driven her to commit suicide, and had his subordinates read it in front of Futaba herself. This would psychologically traumatize Futaba for years, causing her to become a shut-in, turning her relatives against her to the point of being abused by them and drive her close to committing suicide, which ended up manifesting her Palace in the first place and a twisted cognition of her mother.
- A journalist named Kayo Murakami, a good friend of fellow journalist Ichiko Ohya. He had a member of his conspiracy killed and framed it on Kayo, leading to her disappearing and suffering from a mental breakdown. This led to Ohya being permanently re-assigned to the entertainment articles to prevent her from investigating Kayo's case and becoming cynical as a result.
- Kunikazu Okumura. Knowing full well his heart would be stolen, he orders Akechi to murder Kunikazu. Afterwards, he framed the crime on the Phantom Thieves, ruining their reputation. This act also traumatized Haru, Kunikazu's daughter.
- In addition to the SIU Director, he plotted to murder his own son after he became Prime Minister to ensure all loose ends were tied up, even though Akechi was the only reason he was able to make it as far as he did. His Palace's cognition of Akechi further proved that Shido only ever saw Akechi as a pawn to be disposed of, no different than any of his other victims.
- Furthermore, Shido had endorsed Akechi's services onto his fellow allies, extending them to where they were allowed to request him whoever they target to have a psychotic breakdown or mental shutdown should they pledge loyalty to him, resulting in more incidents and deaths (e.g. a transmit bus incident that endangered dozens of passengers, a convenience store bombing, a fuel leak in a yacht harbor, and an airport bus crash). For example, Politician Ooe, an important member of Shido's cronies, requested the psychotic breakdown of a subway driver that led to the subway incident that sees 80 people likely killed or injured.
- According to the description of his statue in the Thieves' Den outside the game, his cognition of a golden lion made of humans, the "Beast of Human Sacrifice", is depicted to be the distortion complied altogether from the victims of the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns. Confirming how many died for the sake of his own benefits.
- When Ren Amamiya tries to stop him from sexually assaulting a woman, he had him arrested by falsely accusing him of assault and getting him a criminal record.
- Despite his claims that he will make Tokyo a better place, he doesn't actually plan on doing so. He also hypocritically stated that Japan is filled with corruption and selfish men who only care about their own interests, even though he is exactly that kind of man and fuels much of the corruption himself.
- His palace, consisting on a giant cruiser ship sailing over sunken cities, is noted by Morgana and Yusuke to be far more powerful and unusual than any other Palace they encountered, since it distorted the entire country, proving how megalomaniacal and twisted he was even in comparison to others with Palaces. This also proves that he doesn't care one bit about Japan as he believes he and he alone will survive even if his desire to rule everything with an iron fist brings the entire country down under.
- His dialogue from his palace's Will Seeds in Royal also reveals he intends to conquer the world after he becomes Prime Minister, implying he's even willing to bring ruin into the entire world just to satiate his own dark ambitions. This is also backed up by his own words of how "[his] ambition has only yet begun" after he's nearly succeeds in fulfilling his desire to "steer" Japan during his final showdown with Ren.
- He is so callous and arrogant that he cannot even bother remembering the people he killed or the atrocities he committed after a period of time. When confronted about the deaths of Wakaba, Kunikazu, and even Akechi (possibly), he regards their deaths as irrelevant and compares them with ants that need to be crushed.
- When he realizes that the Phantom Thieves have his Treasure, he temporarily kills himself in the real world to destroy his palace in the Metaverse in an attempt to take the thieves down with him.
- While the Phantom Thieves ended up changing his heart, with his Shadow apologizing for having Ren put on probation, it isn't a mitigating factor, as the changes of heart are treated as a form of brainwashing rather than the villains genuinely changing. Also, even after being defeated, he still believes he is destined to rule the country once he saw his Treasure.
- While he arguably isn't as heinous as Shuji Ikutsuki and Tohru Adachi due to their crimes being nearly escalated to global destruction (with the latter attempting a fate worse than death scenario onto humanity), Shido manages to stand out due to having a high kill count that also sees a portion of his victim gone through something similar and painful as brainwashing/mind-break on a psychological level, as well for his personal cruelty towards the people whose lives were ruined thanks to him.
Trivia[]
- Shido, alongside Suguru Kamoshida are the only Pure Evils from Persona 5.
- Ironically, Shido's Japanese voice actor, Shūichi Ikeda, also voiced Shanks in One Piece, who is Pure Good. Additionally, Keith Silverstein, Shido's English voice actor, also voiced another Pure Good character with Robert E. O. Speedwagon in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
External Links[]
- Masayoshi Shido on the Villains Wiki
- Masayoshi Shido on the VSBattles Wiki
- Masayoshi Shido on the Megami Tensei Wiki
- Masayoshi Shido on the Hate Sink Wiki