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There's no need to be ruined by such incompetent fools. I will lead this country to its revival.
~ Shido and 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 Japanese Role-Playing video game, Persona 5 and its expansion, Persona 5 Royal. He is the main antagonist of the Cruiser of Pride Arc, as his belief that it is his god-given right to lead society and destroy any who dares cross him creates a Palace inside the Metaverse where he transforms into Samael, the demon of Pride. The seventh and final major target, Shido is the head of The Conspiracy, a powerful and popular politician, the father of Goro Akechi, and the arch-nemesis of Ren Amamiya and the Phantom Thieves as a whole.

He turns out to be at the center of a conspiracy to rig the election for Prime Minister in his favor, allowing him to put his highly draconian and ultra-nationalistic political beliefs into effect, uncaring of the misery this would cause to Japan in general. Shido's Palace is an enormous, multi-tiered cruise ship, which is imposed over the National Diet Building in the real world. His treasure in the Palace resembles a ship's steering wheel; in the real world, it manifests as his legislator's pin.

In the original Japanese version, he is voiced by Shūichi Ikeda. In the English version, he is voiced by Keith Silverstein, who also voiced Johan Liebert, Hisoka Morow, Chairman Rose, Hawk Moth, the Cat Mask Seller, Deep Sea King, Mondo Owada, Hammerhead, Deag Grav, Aaroniero Arruruerie, and Kurozumi Orochi. Both of these actors also voiced Char Aznable in the Japanese and English versions, respectively.

Biography[]

Past[]

Shido started as a colleague of Sojiro Sakura, being a minor but ambitious politician who claimed that he would one day become Prime Minister of Japan, though nobody took his claims seriously. Years before the story, he had a sexual encounter with a prostitute, which conceived Goro Akechi. Shido abandoned the prostitute before Akechi was born, leaving her to raise her son alone; unable to cope with the scorn of having a child out of wedlock, she eventually committed suicide. Therefore, Shido was responsible for Akechi's start of darkness, just as he was responsible for the protagonist's start of heroism years later.

In the years to come, Shido caught wind of an ambitious cognitive psience project being lead by Takuto Maruki, a gifted researcher who had begun peeling back the layers behind the intricacies of cognition. Realizing the benefit such research could bring him in his quest to become Prime Minister, Shido used his connections to terminate Maruki's grant and steal the research for himself. It's implied he then had Wakaba Isshiki, a prominent researcher in her own right, continue the research under his supervision to more closely keep an eye on its progress.

More than a decade later, Shido became a member of the National Diet and met a teenage Akechi, who gained his Persona after making a pact with Yaldabaoth, who was the main conductor behind Shido's later conspiracy connected to psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns. Akechi pretended to work for Shido and helped him murder Wakaba by killing her shadow self in the Metaverse, triggering a mental shutdown that lead to her actual death in the real world. This was all a ploy on Akechi's part to seek vengeance against his father, believing Shido has no knowledge he was his son. However, Shido had suspected the truth all along, since he saw that Akechi bore a physical resemblance to his mother, but Shido pretended to be oblivious, so he could use Akechi as his pawn until the time was needed to depose of him.

Wakaba's death had a severe impact on the people around her, primarily her daughter Futaba Sakura. Shido forged a fake suicide note to be read to Futaba which claimed Wakaba hated her daughter all along and she was the reason she died simply to ensure she would be too dispirited to ever seek revenge. Sojiro, who was a close friend to Wakaba and adopted Futaba as his own daughter, failed to expose Shido and was forced to retire and become the owner of his Cafe LeBlanc in order to protect Futaba. Throughout the years, Sojiro silently listened to Shido making speeches about the nation's mental shutdown crisis, but resigned himself to feeling helpless as he knew he had no way of exposing what kind of monster Shido truly was.

Shido continued directing Akechi to cause mental shutdown incidents, most notably the train derailment that caused many people to be grievously injured, creating a scandal that deposed the former Minister in charge of public safety, so that Shido could take his place. He used Principal Kobayakawa of Shujin Academy to expand his network of contacts, making him indirectly responsible for the sexual harassment of Suguru Kamoshida being concealed. He also used Ichiryusai Madarame (through his plagiarized artwork), Kunikazu Okumura (through his company's gain) and Junya Kaneshiro (through his underworld business) as his source of finance to run for Prime Minister, so that he could "steer" Japan and rule it with an iron fist. He even manipulated the SIU Director to push Sae Niijima into investigating the Phantom Thieves in an attempt to make her his unwitting pawn.

Combined with his dark influence on Akechi and Futaba's life, as well as being the one behind Akechi's involvement with the fake Medjed incident, Shido is doubtlessly the foremost figure behind every target of the Phantom Thieves before confronting him personally.

Confrontation with the Protagonist[]

One year before the start of the story, the protagonist met Shido when he was drunk, harassing a woman on the street. When Shido noticed the protagonist he threatened the latter not to get in trouble with him because of his status as a powerful politician and connection to the police. He lost his balance when the protagonist attempted to pull him from the woman. His forehead hit the corner and bled. Shido angrily accused the protagonist for the nonexistent violence and forced the woman to testify against the protagonist, causing the protagonist to be put on probation as a minor offender.

Palace of Lust Arc[]

After the protagonist created the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and stole Suguru Kamoshida's heart, the news of the Phantom Thieves' incident caught Shido's attention and he criticized the Thieves as criminals, gaining endorsement for his Prime Minister election campaign. Shido and the protagonist later meet again when the protagonist is eating together at a hotel restaurant with Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, and Morgana, though he does not recognize the protagonist.

While waiting for the elevator to go back to the restaurant, Shido and his subordinates rudely shove the protagonist and Ryuji who are waiting in front of the elevator away, much to Ryuji's anger. When the protagonist and Ryuji protest that they were there first, Shido, as usual, threatens to use his connections to sue them, while angrily complaining about seeing teenagers appearing in the restaurant with pure irritations.

While Shido was speaking, the protagonist heard his voice and started to have a familiar feeling when he took the first glace at Shido as if he met this man before, just as Shido left and Ryuji complained about his rude behavior. This convinces the protagonist, Ryuji and Ann to continue their work as Phantom Thieves.

Casino of Envy Arc[]

After framing the Phantom Thieves for the death of Principal Kobayakawa and Kunikazu Okumura due to the two's attempt of betrayal, Shido made the public to spite the Thieves and turn against them. Seeking this as an advantage to destroy the Thieves, Shido made Akechi to kill the protagonist via spying into the Phantom Thieves' team, while taking down the SIU Director to silence him.

However, while Shido succeeded in deposing the SIU Director, the other Thieves looked through their plots of murdering the Protagonist once Shadow Sae was defeated. Not only did they fake the protagonist's death, but they also managed to discover that Shido is the ringleader of the mental shutdown conspiracy, convincing a willingly redeemed Sae Niijima to join their side.

Cruiser of Pride Arc[]

Shidou shadow 1st form

Shadow Shido

After Futaba revealed that she discovered Shido was the mastermind, Sae revealed to everyone that she firmly believed Shido is the mastermind as well, due to his rise of power occurred just in time when psychotic breakdown incidents happened, while Sojiro finally confessed that Shido was the murderer of Wakaba and the stealer of her research. Later, under his disguise, the protagonist encountered Shido and recognized him as the very same man that framed him, and he deduced from Shido's exclamation that he saw the Diet Building as a ship for him to control as its captain, and that ship is the form of his Palace.

As soon as the Thieves entered the Palace of Shido, they were shocked and enraged to find out that the whole nation of Japan was flooded around the ship, while confused at Akechi's reason of serving Shido. Shido's Palace was a clear view of his own delusions and complex, an enormous ship that sails on a flooded Japan (even probably the entire world), with Shido and his followers on the ship unscathed while other citizens would drown in the ocean, truly showing his uncaring nature to the nation and its people.

ShidoPalace3

Shido's Palace

The Thieves managed to defeat five minions of Shido to get the letters of introductions they required to enter the Diet Building, right before they confronted Akechi and defeated him, but they start realizing Akechi was just another victim of Shido due to his parentage. After Akechi's defeat, Shadow Shido sent his own Cognitive Akechi to kill the real Akechi, revealing Akechi was nothing but his own puppet. Feeling horrified and guilty for his crimes, Akechi sacrificed himself to allow other the Thieves to escape, while expressing his last wish to make the Thieves change Shido's heart, a request that the Protagonist agreed to, much to Akechi's relief.

Once they discovered Shido's treasure, the Thieves then vowed to defeat Shido, realizing everyone connected to the incident was Shido's victim, even including Akechi. They immediately send a nationwide announcement to accuse Shido as a villain, which infuriated Shido and made him desperately try to stop the Thieves from changing his heart.

When the Thieves confront Shido's Shadow in his Palace, without knowledge of his son's apparent death, he admits that he was going to kill Akechi anyway once he becomes Prime Minister because he knew too much, much to the Thieves' disgust. During the fight, he finally recognizes the protagonist as the student who interfered with him before. In Royal, he also acknowledges him as a constant thorn in his side and pushes the other Thieves out of the fight to face his nemesis down alone. After the Shadow is defeated, Shido admits he was wrong for having the protagonist arrested, and vows to make amends upon returning to his real self.

His Treasure is his legislator's pin, which takes the form of a ship's wheel within his Palace, symbolizing his ambition to "steer" Japan in the direction he chooses. Despite his Shadow's apology to the Thieves, Shido, in reality, senses the change of his heart. His physician feeds him medicine to enter suspended animation, hoping to kill the gang in his Palace and stop his Treasure from being stolen.

The plan fails as all Phantom Thieves successfully escape unscathed. Shido's aides send him to the hospital to avoid media coverage of his mental state. On the day of the announcement of Shido's landslide election victory, he openly confesses his crimes during the live conference. Sae Niijima is tasked with charging Shido.

Memento Depths Arc[]

Despite Shido's confession, however, the general public does not show support for the Phantom Thieves, but are rather more worried about the future of Japan without Shido leading the country. After Shido made his confession, his remaining allies commence an all-or-nothing plan to wipe out the Phantom Thieves and maintain their corrupt choke-hold over Japan. For this plan to work, Yaldabaoth directly influences the people of Tokyo to forget Shido's crimes and blame the entire debacle on the Thieves by manipulating the slothful nature within its citizens.

When the Phantom Thieves enter the Depths of Mementos to change the hearts of the now-distorted public, they encounter the Shadows of their previous targets including Shido. No longer arrogant or ambitious, Shido is now a broken man resigning himself to Yaldabaoth's control. His personality has changed to the point that he now prefers the vision Yaldabaoth has for Japan, saying it will be a far better country than what he had tried to build.

Fortunately, after Yaldabaoth is defeated and Mementos entirely erased, public opinion promptly turns against Shido and his allies, eventually bringing an end to the Conspiracy and its schemes. In spite of this, to prove Shido's guilt, the protagonist must turn himself in as a key witness considering the laws the Thieves had to break over their months of activity in the game's original true ending.

Persona 5 Royal[]

In Royal, the protagonist doesn't need to turn himself in as Akechi comes out of the blue after being seemingly killed to confess his crimes. This is in truth a result of Maruki's new status as a god letting him overwrite reality as he saw fit through his unique "actualization" abilities he awakened to after the Thieves unknowingly passed on Yaldabaoth's powers to him. This keeps the protagonist out of jail and lets the woman who originally testified against him admit that Shido coerced her. Note that while even characters like Okumura are brought back to life and are reformed, and even Akechi himself is released from custody, Shido is left imprisoned. This implies Maruki still held a deep grudge against him for cutting off his grant funding. Although considering the type of person Shido is, it's difficult to argue Maruki isn't right to keep him in jail.

Shido's influence remains a prominent plot point in this expanded re-release, as the new final Palace, the Laboratory of Sorrow, reveals to the Thieves Shido's role in cutting off Maruki's research. This kicked off Maruki's own slow spiral downward into pain and self-loathing, increasingly desperate to stop the emotional pain that ruined people like his own fiancée, Rumi. While Yaldabaoth granted Maruki his powers as the new god of mankind, it was still Shido's cruelty and ambition that turned him into the desperate, grief-ridden man the Thieves had to deal with as their true final target.

Epilogue[]

In both true endings, with help from the Thieves and their other allies, the woman who was first coerced into testifying against the protagonist is found and admits the truth of what happened with her and Shido. Note that in Royal this technically happens twice, but thanks to Maruki's dream world being eradicated, the events that had transpired up till then are only remembered by the Thieves and Maruki, meaning she had to give testimony in the real world to finally lift Joker's sentence.

With the prior testimony against the protagonist revoked, Sae succeeds in prosecuting Shido for his crimes and proves the protagonist's innocence, ending Shido's reign of terror once and for all. With the debt repaid and their fortunes fittingly reversed, the protagonist returns to Leblanc to his friends and the future once stolen from him as a free man while Shido presumably rots in prison for the rest of his life.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Masayoshi (in Japanese: 正義) means "justice" which is identical to "seigi", its meaning is mentioned in the plot several times to satirize Shido's unjust deeds. Shi (獅) means "lion" and Dō (童) can compose the phrases related to "child".
  • In the anime cutscene where Shido's full name in kanji is shown, one kanji is written differently, namely "堂" instead of "童" in-game. The typo does not change the pronunciation of his name, but the meaning of his surname is now "lion-institute" instead of "lion-child".
  • The song that plays during his boss fight is Rivers in the Desert.
  • Shadow Shido's first form in battle bears a striking resemblance to Char Aznable from the Gundam franchise, who is also voiced by Shuichi Ikeda and Keith Silverstein in Japanese and English respectively.
  • In the anime version, when the Protagonist confronted Shido for the first time in front of the elevator, he had no sign of headache as a sign of remembering Shido's voice.
  • With three phases and five forms, the boss battle against Shadow Shido is arguably the longest-running boss battle in Persona 5 being even longer than the Yaldabaoth fight.
  • Somehow, Shido bears a striking physical resemblance to Hideki Tojo, the 27th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from October 17, 1941, to July 22, 1944, who was one of the primary figures responsible for Japanese fascism and war crimes during World War II.

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