a spitfire of a character and zero tolerance for adults who use and abuse the leverage they have over children, ryuji is fiercely protective of his friends and family, and has been shown to have a soft side to him when it comes to his mother, as he's more than willing to drop everything to help his mother should she need it, or pick up anything at the store for her. branching off of this, ryuji is a kind soul, though others may see aggressive and vulgar, those close to ryuji know that his heart is pure and his intentions never purposefully harmful. it's not to say he does not have any flaws however, as everyone has their flaws. around his friends, his personality does a 180 flip. he's outgoing, worries for his friends when they seem off and quiet, and is extremely friendly and loves to banter with his friends and enjoys spending time with them. however, he doesn't hide anything from his friends, as he's incredibly blunt with his words and straightforward, which can sometimes cause tension, like the incident that happened with morgana.

still traumatized from his past abuse, he hides that under the layers and layers there is to ryuji sakamoto. he's afraid to let others close to him until he can be absolutely sure their desires aren't distorted or warped, having seen it too many times with his father, kamoshida, and then later goro akechi. though he forgave goro for his actions in the end, knowing he was just a kid who didn't have a say in the flow of his life, it still sometimes leaves him guarded, only being able to fully open himself up to akira, as he finds himself and akira to be in extremely similar predicimants in regards to the stigma around their reputation. he holds his pride in high regard, and because of this can become explosive without meaning too if he's having a bad day, or not focusing on the manners on hand. his morals can be considered black and white, with a strict view on what is right and what is not, but he does take the time to properly assess someone before passing final judgement.

extremely over-energetic, the team most of the time has to tell ryuji to settle down before he stirs up his leg and makes himself trip. however, he has been working fervently to regain strength in that leg, and is now able to run for miles before his leg gives him trouble. he finds pride in this, and although he has no wishes to rejoin his school's track team, the fact that he can run again gives him strength in himself. he's also very mischevous, never hesitating to play a prank on a teammate, and loves sitting on his phone for hours on a slow day scrolling the internet to find memes to send to akira and futaba. he also never misses an oppurtunity to mututally drag a friend in good nature should they accidentlly slip up on something small, as it's his own brand of humor.

WARNING: ABUSE, ADULT THEMES, EXTREMELY MAJOR PERSONA 5 SPOILERS AHEAD, READ AT OWN RISK.













he remembers the stench of alcohol late at night when his father would return home, wrath in his eyes and no way of letting that anger out of his system, and watching his mother be the outlet for that anger. he'd step in for his mother countless times, to try to shield her, protect her from his father's grasp, and she'd still face most of it in the end.

he knew from there on out that the world wasn't all his seven-year-old mind chalked it up to be. it was ugly, it was pitiful, and he was hopeless to do anything about it.

he and his mother ran away one night when he was eleven. she had enough of ryuji's father's abuse, and she would not stand for it any longer. they took the few essential's they needed and they left, leaving ryuji's father in the dust.

ryuji's next memory is junior high, and meeting ann takamaki. she had talked to him, made him feel welcome, and they had even been in the same classes together! the two clicked, and he found he had a friend in the blond girl. though they were not best friends, they hung out with each other during school and split ways once the day was done.

it was high school where things started to get interesting for ryuji. a freshman and in his prime, he got a chance to become a star athlete on the track team, something he loved doing and what made things grander, it was an opportunity to pay his mother back, and to make her life easier in the future. his team were thrilled with ryuji's successes, and they had a wonderful coach that never made them feel anything less than useful.

it changed when kamoshida came on the scene. he had done something which ryuji couldn't puzzle out to make their coach get fired, and he step in for him as the track team coach. the days following became hell, and ryuji would pay for the twisted teacher's desires.

kamoshida treated the team as slaves, pushing them beyond their limits and abusing them for simple little slip ups. for some reason, the sadistic teacher had gone after ryuji the most, potentially sensing his fierce dedication to the sport, and the fact that he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and he made sure to nip that in the bud. kamoshida had intentionally trained ryuji far too harshly and for too long, causing severe damage and ultimately causing the young athlete to break his leg, therefore forfeiting his spot on the team.

it had only been a little while later that kamoshida had begun spreading rumors of ryuji's past home life, of his good for nothing father, and thats when ryuji snapped and punched kamoshida squarely in the face, ultimately having the track team be disbanded thanks to ryuji's actions. he had become angry, not wanting to deal with kamoshida acting like he owned them, but he was shunned and outcasted by his peers, his title of star athlete switched to the vulgar boy.

months pass before the new kid shows up, whispers and rumors floating that he's a criminal, shunned from his home, assault charges they say, or were they murder charges? he doesn't know, but ryuji rolls his neck and grins to himself at the news, he has competition, or maybe, just maybe, he'll have a friend.

he desperately wishes for the latter. 

they meet a rainy morning, walking to school. by chance, ryuji says out loud. by fate, he whispers to himself almost a year later. they both watch as ann, oh how she had changed from the girl he knew in middle school, climbs into kamoshida's car, that bastard had managed to sway the girl into his grasp, and there was nothing ryuji could do to make ann see otherwise.

he bumps into akira then, the boy is quiet, keeps his head bowed and doesn't speak more than a few clipped words. ryuji think's he's odd, but he doesn't question it. it's only after a brief chat he finds out that this is the famed transfer who had a criminal record. odd, he thinks, he didn't strike ryuji as the type to have an assault charge to his name.

ryuji offers to walk him to school, only to - somehow - end up in the metaverse. of course, they didn't realize it was the metaverse, they had only stumbled upon a large castle where his school was supposed to be, and eventually, he gave up out of exasperation, deciding to enter the castle with akira at his side. no more than a stranger at this point, but he felt a sense of trust to have the tousled-haired boy at his side.

they're ambushed almost the moment they step foot into the castle, battered and harassed and thrown into a cell to be dealt with later. ryuji wakes first, disoriented before everything comes back to him in a rush, and then kamoshida is there, taunting and teasing, and it makes ryuji's blood boil and he wants so, so, desperately to knock kamoshida's smug fucking smirk right off of his damn face, but his stupid guards are there too, so he's helpless and pinned against a wall.

kamoshida is threatening death, and ryuji almost wants to laugh. ironic how the man who ruined his life will now be the man to kill him. he had momentarily forgotten akira's existence until he screams at kamoshida, telling him to shut up and mocking him, saying he wouldn't stand for this. the next thing he knows, he's being dropped to the ground, vision slowly fading on the verge of a blackout when he hears akira's crazed laughter, looking up to see a mask being ripped from his face, blood pouring down and then blue flames engulfing the teenager, and then his clothes change.

ryuji's in awe, he thinks he might have ate some bad ramen and now he's hallucinating, and this is all one fucked up dream, but in the end akira pulls through and saves them both, and they run like hell to get away from kamoshida, his guards, from that stupid fucking cell. ryuji wants to laugh again, except this time from absurdity, but the adrenaline is still pumping in his system, still egging him on to get to a safe place before he laughs it all away.

they meet morgana this way, he's a prisoner trapped in one of kamoshida's cells, and he kinda... looks like a cat. ryuji thinks it's not bad ramen, he thinks someone straight up slipped him some LCD or acid into something he ate or drank, because there is no way this is a reality, and he's just going with the flow at this point, half-heartedly listening to morgana babble about things like shadows and personas and palaces.

ryuji and morgana clash heads instantly, he was more of a dog person anyway.

morgana, she all his hotblooded nature, leads them out of the castle and back to the real world. they part ways, morgana said he had things to do, and ryuji is more or less thrilled for the opportunity, though he looks back on their first encounter and regrets being so mean to him, he was probably as lost and confused as he and akira were.

at the school they get a strict lashing, mistaking fake from reality, but for some odd reason, kamoshida bailed them out. ryuji thinks it was to have one up on them so that he could hold it above their heads, ryuji is wary because of this, knowing that if he wanted too, kamoshida could ruin ryuji's entire career with a flick of his wrist. you and akira part ways, agreeing to meet on the rooftop after school to discuss just what in the fuck happened that morning.

he eventually gives up and declares it a dream out of frustration, and eventually moves on to calling himself friends with akira, saying they'd get along just fine as troublemakers. he laughs thinking back on the comment, his past-self was blissfully unaware of all the turbulence to come from his life.

i mean, it wasn't every day you get to fight a god right?

akira and ryuji decide to meet up the next morning, say fuck it and try to look for the castle again. their attempts are futile, and they begin to grow restless and agitated when one more trek proves fruitful, and they stumble upon the castle and morgana, surprised yet not angry to see the tiny cat monster, they join forces and infiltrate the palace once more.

the same thing from yesterday happens, ambush, defeat, move on, rinse and repeat. until kamoshida showed up, and then things began to get personal for ryuji, he didn't want to see kamoshida rule shujin academy anymore, wanted to see that bastard eating the dirt, and that's when the first pang hit him.

the process, which he now knew was an awakening, was the same as akira's. his persona was named captain kidd, a pirate riding on a ship, and ryuji thinks it's the most badass thing he's seen, along with his outfit. now he's able to actually help akira and morgana instead of sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, and its then that morgana suggests code names, out of fear that real names can be used to harm a persona user.

akira becomes joker for his ability to be unpredictable, morgana becomes mona, and ryuji? ryuji becomes skull, for his mask. it's the second most badass thing about his outfit, and he's living.

turns out he's a heavy hitter, he weilds bludgeons and is particularly handy with shotguns too, and ryuji's face splints into a grin, a haunting sight for most, but pure excitement and joy for the boy behind the mask. he can't wait to tear kamoshida's shadow to shreds for everything he did to him, and this will help him do that.

they return to the real world, this time with morgana in tow, and think of an action plan. they decide to gather evidence against kamoshida, but everyone is too deathly afraid to speak of the pe teacher and volleyball coach, much less help ryuji and akira get information on him. at their wit's end, morgana comes forth, saying that they can steal the source of kamoshida's distorted desires, thus changing his heart and forcing him to commit his crimes all on his own.

it's a sound plan, ryuji think's. he's ready to go right now to the metaverse to find and steal the treasure as morgana calls it, but morgana holds them back, saying there's a risk attached to this plan. if they do not manage to do this without killing kamoshida's shadow, then kamoshida himself will die. hesitant at the risks at stake, ryuji and akira ask for time to consider it, they don't want to be responsible for the death of a human being, no matter how foul.

it was during this time that ann takamaki joined their group, shortly after her best friend, shiho, tried to commit suicide after being assaulted by kamoshida. the blonde is a spitfire, more then ryuji remembers, but he tells ann to back off, not to get involved, and he leaves it at that, not knowing that ann is not a woman to take no for an answer, and she follows them into the metaverse.

ryuji is enraged, but he takes ann back to the entrance and kicks her out for her own good, and they go back to the castle, unaware that ann had returned to the metaverse on her own and was now being kept captive. it's later in their raid that they find ann on a torture device, surronded by kamoshida and his knights, with a shadow version of ann as well. ann had almost given up hope, but with ryuji and akira's strong words, ann finds faith in herself again and awakens to her persona, carmen.

they figure out what kamoshida had been doing to the volleyball team, and what he had been doing to shiho in particular, and decide they can't dally any longer, they must take action to make kamoshida pay for his crimes. ann officially joins the team, gaining the code name panther, and the team of four storms the rest of the castle, finding the treasure and returning to the real world.

ryuji, akira, and mishima, a boy who is on the volleyball team and had finally spoken up about what kamoshida had done, confront the coach on his actions. kamoshida admits his crimes, but threatens expulsion on all three boys, leaving them back to square one and backed into a corner at that. ryuji is enraged but reluctantly backs away, knowing there's nothing that he can do at this point.

bringing this news to the meeting, all four agree that they must take kamoshida's heart, there is no other option. they leave the calling card in ryuji's hands, and within the next day, they have kamoshida's treasure in hand and a successful mission. to celebrate, they go to the opening of an expensive buffet, pigging out but having a good time none-the-less.

its there they meet masayoshi shido, an arrogant man who they do not realize would play a far more major role later on in their lives in only a few months time. the encounter inspires the group of four to keep doing phantom thief work, taking on the name the phantom thieves of hearts, working to rid society of corrupt adults.

its a little while afterward that they meet yusuke kitagawa, believing him to be stalking ann through shibuya on their commutes to school. they decide to corner him, confronting him only to find out that he is an art student and wishes to use ann as a model for his next piece, and he invites her to his master, madarame's art exhibit, giving her time to think about his offer.

they learn of rumors floating about madarame, how he's a scam artist and uses his students as slaves through a memento's target named natsuhiko nakanohara. deciding to investigate further, they go to the exhibit but find nothing, and decide to direct ask yusuke himself about the manner. however, yusuke gets defensive, saying his master would do no such things, and coldly shows them the door in a manner of speaking.

they learn that madarame does, in fact, have a palace, and infiltrate it, but find a block when the next part of the palace they need to get into is blocked by a massive door. they get around this by having ann accept yusuke's request to become a model, only to find out that he would like ann to be a nude model instead. ann is hesitant, but for the sake of the palace, she did, eventually gaining access to the room they were blocked by, and able to steal madarame's treasure and change his heart with the help of yusuke joining their team of thieves.

their next target was junya kaneshiro, a leader of a crime ring in shibuya that had blackmail that he could use over the thieves. however, this only happened because of makoto nijima stalking and recording every interaction that went on between himself, akira, and ann. admittedly, it was his own fault that makoto discovered them, as he can be loud.

they went and dug up as much information as they could, and with makoto by their side, they were paying customers of kaneshiro's bank, and they were able to access it. it was during this time that makoto awakened to her own persona, leaving ryuji speechless and slightly scared of his senior. however, they accepted makoto into the phantom thieves without hesitation, and she proved to be a useful tactian to the team, and not to mention she could drive the morgana bus very efficiently.

with kaneshiro's treasure stolen, and himself turned into the police, they had welcomeing parties for both yusuke and makoto, but the peace didn't last long before medjed put out a public hit against the phantom thieves, and they were contacted by someone of the name alibaba, who had claimed that they could help the group get out of their troubles with medjed.

after a little investigation and digging, they found alibaba to be akira's caretaker's daughter, futaba sakura. she owned a palace of her own, but not by greed or corruption, but by grief and trauma of losing her mother so young. they help futaba defeat her palace, awakening to her own persona, and defeat medjed, leading futaba to become a member of the quickly growing phantom thieves.

they decide to welcome futaba to the team by taking a beach trip, in which a misunderstanding breaks out, and a split in the team occurs. ryuji comments to the team as a whole that futaba is a generally better navigator and more useful then morgana is, which leaves morgana infuriated. it comes to a head at a later meeting on whether to take down kunikazu okumura, and ryuji and morgana have a massive argument, leaving morgana to break away from the team, saying he can defeat a palace all on his own.

at first, ryuji is not sympathetic with morgana and lets him leave, but it's after they decide to take on okumura that they find morgana in the palace with a new accomplice, a girl by the name of the beauty thief. it becomes very apparent to the team that morgana put her up to a giant act, but the beauty thief stutters and stammers, not used to having all eyes on her, and breaks the act very quickly. ryuji uses this as a point to drive the nail in harder to morgana's pride, pushing the two farther away from the phantom thieves.

they discover that the beauty thief is actually a third year in shujin academy, a girl by the name of haru okumura, and they find that she's kunikazu okumura's only daughter and heir to his company. ryuji leaves akira and makoto to confront haru, asking her to join with them and take down the target together, but it's a swift and resounding no from haru, saying she did not want to align herself to a team who couldn't decide the path they want to take for themselves.

this strikes a cord with the thieves, and they have a meeting to discuss it. eventually, they agree that their wants and desires had become warped because of the fame, and they admit they lost their way. deciding to go back to their roots, they decide again they will still try to take okumura's treasure, and change his heart for the better. it's that night that the thieves find haru and morgana in an alleyway, morgana lying unconscious after being roughly kicked into a wall and haru being assaulted by a man, later revealed to be her husband to be.

the two groups become one again, and they reenter okumura's palace, haru's code name changing from the beauty thief to noir. her persona is fully awakened when she defeats her fiance's shadow, and she's fully accepted to the team. they move on without issue, and take okumura's treasure, completing a successful change of heart in haru's father.

they were not expecting the man to die on live television from a mental shutdown however, it caused distress among the thieves, as they were absolutely certain they did everything right. it was only a little bit before okumura's live death that the principal of shujin academy had died as well by similar means. makoto had come to the conclusion that they were set up, and this was all a ploy to get rid of okumura so that the actual mastermind behind it all didn't have too.

they decide to get more information on the matter by having goro akechi, a well-known ace detective be their guest speaker at the school festival. and all goes well before goro reveals he knows the true identity of the phantom thieves, and fakes a call to get makoto and the rest of the thieves alone to discuss what he knew about them. it's revealed to the group that goro has photographic evidence of them entering and leaving the metaverse, and does not believe they are behind the mental shutdowns themselves.

goro tells the group of teenagers he saw another in the metaverse with a black mask, who had shot and killed okumura's shadow without hesitation, and goro had only gotten out alive because of awakening to his own persona, and being able to flee from the dangerous situation. he tells them that he would not reveal their identities nor put the thieves behind bars if they agreed to his stipulations, which were to perform a change of heart in sae nijima and disband once the act was finished. shocked, the group asks for time to think over his demands, and goro allows it, going about his business.

later on at their meeting, makoto reveals that she knew her older sister had a palace as well, and had known for quite some time, but did not want to bring it up due to the fact that she found her reasonings selfish, and that sae nijima was not doing anyone any true harm like madarame or okumura were. however, makoto had also realized that goro had been tricking them, and that he had means of capturing akira nd putting him behind bars. makoto's plan was brilliant, and although ryuji was wary of letting his best friend walk into a lion's den, he was willing to go through with it, knowing that their leader would have the skills to pull it off efficiently, if sae cooperated with them when the time was right.

in the end, makoto's suspicions were right, and akira was ambushed on his way out of sae's palace, and taken into police custody. after a long and gruling investigation, goro akechi revealed himself to akira, and shot the cognitive version of akira, leaving the real one alive and well in the real world. thankfully, with the help of sae, akira was able to escape the interrogation room and return home to his friends. akira kurusu was a dead man to the world, but alive and well with his friends where he truly belonged.

their next order of business was defeating masayoshi shido, who had been revealed to be behind all of the mayhem in the past year with the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns, not to mention behind killing futaba's mother and haru's father. with this knowledge in mind, it was a no-brainer to the team that they would take on shido's palace and change his heart to save society.

it was also around this time that ryuji's persona had a second awakening, transforming into seiten taisei, gifting ryuji with far more power then he had before. with this new power in mind, the group took on shido's palace with ease, up until they met goro akechi. he had complimented the thieves on outsmarting him, keeping their leader alive and getting as far as this point, and then revealed that he had been behind the mental shutdown and psychotic breakdowns. he also goes on to say that he has the same ability akira does, in that he can wield more then one persona, and that he is also shido's son, but the reveals do not stop there. a shadow form of akechi appears and says that shido had been planning to kill goro once his operations were over, as a means to tie up loose ends. goro soon comes to the realization that killing the thieves will not ensure his ultimate wish, which was for shido's change of heart, and ultimately sacrifices himself for the sake of the thieves carrying out his last wish.

successfully taking the treasure, they reached a dilemma, the sink was shipping far sooner then the team had anticipated, and they needed a way out fast. ryuji had spotted the lever to bring the safety boat to his team, and had taken the task upon himself. running again with akira had proved to be helpful, as his leg was able to withstand the dash to the lever and jump to reach it. however, he was not able to make it to the ship in time, and ultimately sacrified himself in order to save his friends, putting his friends into an grieving period. however, after they had exited the palace and metaverse, ryuji is found to be alive and well, walking up to the group as if nothing had happened. angered, the girls retaliate and knock ryuji out, calmly going back to debating what to do next.

however, after changing shido's heart, the group soon realized that the publics wants were not shifting, and they were all rooting for shido as if he didn't just confess japan's greatest sins to the public. they soon realized that the publics treasures were contorting their views, and that the treasure was called the holy grail in the depths of mementos. after losing a battle to it, mementos fused with the real world, causing utter hell on the surface for the team. the team eventually fades away as the holy grail wipes them from existance, and they end up in the velvet room, thinking all hope is lost until akira rallies them up again and they regain their personas and will to fight.

together, they take on the holy grail who had transformed itself to be known as yaldaboath, and battle it for hours, all becoming weak and exhausted. however, morgana reenergizes their spirit, and with the help of the public, the team is able to summon sataneal, a god on yaldaboath's level who is able to finally defeat the god, and restore the public to its rightful cognition. however, in the process, they lose morgana, as there is no longer a velvet room or metaverse to return too, morgana can not exist either. his duty is fulfilled. the team mourns the loss of morgana, but pushes through, only to find out that akira turned himself into the police to protect his friends, and the phantom thieves come together and decide that sitting around moping will not help anything, and with the help of the friends they made along the way, the group is able to get akira released the day before valentines. it's the day before akira is released that morgana strolls back into their lives, claiming to be alive and well but waiting for the right time to come back, saying it'd be awkward to come back right away as he had just said his goodbyes.

the day for akira to return home comes too quickly, and the team plot without akira knowing that they would take akira home, but not before taking a detour to have a spring break roadtrip to the ocean. upon their arrival, ryuji had split off for a split second to find a bathroom, stepping into it only to step into the multiverse. after only just been freed from the gods grasp, ryuji sakamoto is not about to be dragged under the will of another god again, and aligns himself neutrally, setting out to find his friends and make a recollection of what exactly happened.