Persona 5 is a game about underdogs. The game focuses on the Phantom Thieves, a band of teenage outcasts who use their powers over Personas to strike at the people in Tokyo who misuse power and social status for personal gain. The Phantom Thieves make it their mission to fight for helpless people who don’t have special powers because they know what it’s like to feel helpless. Ultimately, Persona 5 tells a story about willpower, dedication to ideals, and the choices a person makes to make the world more fair and just in spite of the insurmountable odds in front of them.
Although Persona 5 is all about the Phantom Thieves’ journey over the course of a year, they’re not the only underdogs in the story. In fact, the silent protagonist Joker encounters tons of other downtrodden outcasts whom he can bond with as Confidants. Few of them are as important to the Phantom Thieves’ story – or as emblematic of Persona 5’s central themes – as Yuuki Mishima, Joker’s awkward Shujin Academy classmate who runs the Phantom Thieves’ fan forum. Mishima may not be as powerful or iconic as the Phantom Thieves that he supports, but his faith in their cause and determination to help the Phantom Thieves improve the world are Persona 5’s message made manifest.
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Examining Yuuki Mishima’s Character in Persona 5
Throughout much of Persona 5, Mishima is defined by his lack of independence. He often leans on other people and seeks self-worth at the foot of others. At the beginning of Persona 5, Mishima is trapped under the tyrannical Kamoshida’s heel. Later, he pledges his service to Joker and the Phantom Thieves to make up for the debt he feels he owes the Phantom Thieves after they change Kamoshida’s heart. From this point on, Mishima frequently crops up in major plot points, commenting on the Phantom Thieves’ actions and providing useful information, but rarely taking any significant actions on his own.
Interestingly, Mishima is often depicted as a big social reject. Although Mishima is a Confidant initiated by Persona 5’s plot, encouraging Joker to befriend him, Joker has tons of dialogue options that allow players to act dismissive or inattentive toward Mishima’s eager efforts to help the Phantom Thieves and establish a bond with Joker. It doesn’t help that Mishima’s limited manners and obsessive tendencies largely keep him from earning the respect of others, although he does develop some camaraderie with Ryuji. Persona 5 makes it clear that Mishima’s lack of social graces and obsession with the Internet make him an outcast even among his fellow outcasts.
All of these aspects of Mishima’s character make it sound like Mishima is a helpless, desperate person. However, the farther players get into Persona 5, the less that image is the truth. In Mishima’s Confidant arc, he learns how to use power responsibly, how to be brave, and what it means to be a hero. Mishima’s characteristic awkwardness never goes away, but it gets paired with an adamant dedication to justice and newfound self-confidence. The Phantom Thieves’ reputation fluctuates throughout Persona 5, but Mishima never stops believing in them, no matter how dire the vigilante group’s situation becomes.
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Mishima Embodies the Phantom Thieves’ Beliefs
Mishima is an imperfect person in a lot of ways, but that’s in large part how and why he represents what the Phantom Thieves stand for. The Phantom Thieves are extremely imperfect people, from the short-tempered delinquent Ryuji to the disorganized and oblivious Yusuke. Although Persona 5’s protagonists have incredible magical powers, they’re also just normal teenagers who struggle with all the foibles and flaws of their adolescence. Their imperfections don’t detract from Persona 5, though. In fact, the Phantom Thieves are more believable, sympathetic heroes because of their drive to do the right thing in spite of their own shortcomings.
Although Mishima may not be able to do the right thing with the help of a Persona, he doesn’t need a metaphysical avatar of himself to change the world. In spite of his awkwardness, anxiety, and need for validation, Mishima forever supports the Phantom Thieves and helps them make the world a better place by spreading their message and connecting the Thieves with people that need their help. At the end of the game, when humanity begins sinking into slothful apathy at the hands of a dark force, it’s Mishima that reignites Tokyo’s free will through his support for the Phantom Thieves, making everyone aware of just how much the Phantom Thieves are willing to sacrifice to protect the world. He does this with no special powers – he simply uses his words.
Morgana’s speech just after Persona 5’s final boss battle displays why Mishima’s actions are so significant. Morgana says that anybody is capable of changing the world through their perception of reality – what’s most important is that humanity never gives up hope that the world can be a better place. In spite of everything that happens in Persona 5, Mishima always has hope for the Phantom Thieves to succeed, and with that unshakable hope he actively makes it possible for the Phantom Thieves to succeed at the end of the game. Thanks to those actions, Mishima proves Persona 5’s central conceit: Anyone can change the world, no matter who they are.
Persona 5’s Many Brave Underdogs
There’s definitely other outcasts who showcase their faith in the Phantom Thieves throughout the game. Many of the game’s Confidants, particularly Sae Niijima and Sojiro Sakura, can never be dissuaded from their belief in the Phantom Thieves’ mission by the end of the game. What sets Mishima apart is his extraordinary normalcy. Some Persona 5 characters describe Mishima as plain, but his plainness is a good thing. Persona 5 sends the message that if a plain, awkward nobody like Mishima can do brave things, anybody can.
Part of the reason that Persona 5 is such a huge success is its characters. Persona 5 has a wonderfully relatable and realistic cast of characters with diverse attitudes on life and complicated backgrounds. Mishima is one of these characters. When Joker has the chance to change Mishima’s heart, he instead lets Mishima change himself – and Mishima does so. Mishima’s capacity to change both himself and the world for the better makes Persona 5’s message ring loud and clear: Anyone can be a force of good, because a person’s physical power is never as important as the power of their heart.
Persona 5 is available now for PS3 and PS4.
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