 ✓
| ||
|
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being | ||
  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
| “ | 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 action-adventure video game, Persona 5 and its 2019 updated re-release expansion, Persona 5 Royal. He is the main antagonist of the Cruiser of Pride Arc.
The seventh and final major target, Shido is a powerful and popular politician, 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. He creates a Palace inside the Metaverse where he transforms into Samael, the demon of Pride, as his belief that it is his god-given right to lead society and destroy any who dares cross him.
He is the arch-nemesis of Ren Amamiya, his son Goro Akechi, and the Phantom Thieves of Hearts as a whole (particularly towards Futaba Sakura and Haru Okumura), as he is responsible for nearly all of their hardships they face during the game.
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.
Appearance[]
Masayoshi Shido is a tall and slightly built man, with a small black goatee. His main attire of choice is a black business suit and a pair of orange-tinted square glasses.
Shadow Shido appears identical to his real world counterpart, but in battle, he is shown to wear a black army general uniform with long cape, long white gloves, and knee-high white boots, with his helmet resembling the Statue of Liberty or Principality. In his second form, he rips away his upper clothing and headgear, revealing heavily built muscles. Springs that resemble an exercise harness wrap all around his upper body, and he emits a red aura. In his final "true" form, his muscles bulge even further, which shatters the springs and turns his skin red, and he emits a dark-violet aura.
Personality[]
As a man filled with dark ambitions and a strong sense of pride, Masayoshi Shido is a heavily ruthless and power-hungry politician who is willing to crush anyone who dares stand in his way in accomplishing his goals. He is incredibly narcissistic and egotistical always looking down on others, viewing them as ants that he tends to crush. Due to his vile and callous personality, he is noted to the Phantom Thieves' most dangerous and vile target for a lot of good reasons.
To the eyes of the public and media, Shido is a skilled and passionate speaker who ultimately entrances them into supporting him using his influential speech-craft. He has a craft for giving passionate speeches that inspire the masses and speaks frankly on his opinions of current matters, making him seem more believable and credible. According to him, Japan is in severe financial and diplomatic weakness, and only by voting him to the seat of prime minister can Japan be saved and the children of the nation live a happy future, and caring deeply about his nation's future, making him come across as a noble and compassionate man. When in public, Shido even speaks in a polite, confident tone when giving out his speeches as well.
In reality, he is actually a profoundly arrogant man with a savior complex who only cares about his own ideals and beliefs of the world, inflating his self-worth as a vessel and excuse to maintain that, built on delusional beliefs than only he can run the country and that he was "chosen." He would in turn reject the individuality of the entirety of Japan, mocking and looking down on them as collectively ignorant and foolish. He is also a massive hypocrite, believing that Japan's social state is utterly corrupt and weak on the world stage, and the nation he strives for is the ultimate realization of the public's happiness. Shido is completely only interested in himself and his most obedient lapdogs while the rest of its people are irrelevant even if they fall into ruin. That being said, he is completely willing to get rid of his most loyal followers in order to clear any "loose ends", as best seen with the SIU Director, who had shown complete loyalty to his master. Shido is utterly self-assured of his fundamental righteousness, believing that he is favored and chosen by "God" to rule over Japan and steer it into a golden age where people will fear the Japan he envisions. He embraces his dark aspects fully, that his Shadow initially matches his real person in attire. Even after his defeat, he still believes that he is the stronghold of the country and the only person fit to guide it.
Another sign of Shido's cruelty is his callous regard for life. Shido is willing to hurt anyone who dares stands between him and his ambitions, even for the most smallest and prettiest reasons. He is willing to use whatever method he can, no matter how underhanded and cruel to complete his goals, but keeps his public image as clean as possible using whatever methods he can to keep those in the know silent. Sometimes, the heights of cruelty he can go to can be rather unnecessary and just petty in general, as shown when he manipulated Futaba and her family into believing she was responsible for her mother's death, which led to her trauma. He also tends to commit such unpleasant actions such as sexually harassing women or file a lawsuit on somebody, simply because he can and thinks himself as untouchable. To make matters even worse, Shido hardly remembers the victims he has killed and/or hurt and displays a lack of remorse for it, further showcasing his cruelty and lack of regard for life.
Unsurprisingly, Shido is also incredibly prone to tempers and pettiness as well. While he does seem to keep his cool from time to time, he immediately goes on a outburst should anyone or anything get in his way, and does all that he can to make sure they pay for it, and isn't above spewing insults and threats towards anyone who dares to talks to man as well. For example, he gets easily enraged towards Ren from stopping from sexually harassing a woman, and blames him for causing his head injury when he was the reason why he gain it in the first place, and sued the boy out of pettiness. Another sign of his pettiness besides suing Ren and killing Futaba's mother and framing her for it, was his callous murder of Kunikazu Okumura, as he had him murdered not only to keep his conspiracy a secret, but also because he ran against him for premiership. Sojiro even stated that during his time in the government, Shido was known for going after people even for the slightest of slights.
Despite his intelligence and observant skills, he has major flaws that ultimately makes him too irrational and stupid in his decision makings, one of the most notable ones being his pride, which mainfests as sheer ignorance, stupidity and irresponsibility. While he can be a clever man, he is actually a relatively poor mastermind on his own, as he orchestrates elaborate framing schemes and murders that would seemingly benefit him in the long run, but in reality, inevitably results in his downfall. This, when combined with his sheer ignorance, brutality and recklessness proved to be his major weaknesses, as his scheme to frame the Phantom Thieves for fabricated crimes resulted in Ren unifying all of his indirect and direct victims under the Phantom Thieves' wings to enter his palace and dispose of him.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Shido-Samael (Concept Art).jpg (31 KB)")
.jpg "Masayoshi Shido (Anime).jpg (50 KB)")
.webp "Shadow Shido (Anime).webp (20 KB)")
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 Ren 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.
External Links[]
- Masayoshi Shido on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Masayoshi Shido on the Megami Tensei Wiki
- Masayoshi Shido on the Hate Sink Wiki
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
SEBEC Route Takahisa Kandori | Nyarlathotep | Pandora Snow Queen Quest Victims of the Snow Queen Mask | Tomomi Fujimori | Night Queen
Innoncent Sin Masked Circle | Master Joker | Tatsuya Sudou | Junko Kurosu | Anna Yoshizaka | Ginji Sasaki | Akari Hoshi | Nyarlathotep Eternal Punishment New World Order | Tatsuzou Sudou | Kiyotada Sumaru | Takahisa Kandori | Chizuru Ishigami | Nyarlathotep
Strega (Takaya Sakaki | Jin Shirato | Chidori Yoshino) | Kouetsu Kirijo | Shuji Ikutsuki | Nyx Avatar Persona 3 FES
The Killer | Mitsuo Kubo | Izanami Persona 4: Arena & Persona 4: Arena Ultimax Sho Minazuki | Shadow Labrys | Hi-no Kagutsuchi
Suguru Kamoshida | Sphinx | Sae Niijima | Antisocial Force (Ichiryusai Madarame | Junya Kaneshiro | Kunikazu Okumura | The Traitor | SIU Director | Sugimura | Kobayakawa | Masayoshi Shido | Yaldabaoth) | Shiro Asakura Persona 5 Royal Persona 5 Strikers Alice Hiiragi | Ango Natsume | Mariko Hyodo | Shuzo Ubukata | Akira Konoe | Jyun Owada | Kuon Ichinose | EMMA | Lock Keepers
Teru Gojuin | Dark Yashiro | Yatsufusa Hatanaka
Persona Q Clockwork God Persona Q2 Kamoshidaman | Enlil
| ||