Persona 5 is full of intriguing and fun characters, most of which are part of the core Confidants. One of the most underrated characters and someone who doesn’t get enough credit in Persona 5 is Mishima. He is the true helper for the Phantom Thieves and one of the earliest Confidants you meet. I love his character, even though he doesn’t get the attention he deserves, as seen in this Mishima Persona 5 guide.
I know this is a slight spoiler, but I remember thinking that Mishima would join the Phantom Thieves after his arc in the story. However, that didn’t happen at all, leaving him as one of the most underused characters in the entire JRPG. He has a fantastic personality and an intriguing storyline that would have worked better if it had the proper focus. I hope to give him the justice and attention he deserves in this Mishima Persona 5 guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Yuuki Mishima is one of the many Confidants in Persona 5. He is unique in being the first side character you genuinely get to know who isn’t officially part of the Phantom Thieves. He is revealed early on in the Kamoshida storyline and becomes a massive supporter of the main cast of characters. He also represents the Moon Arcana and is one of the Confidants you can spend time with, granting some valuable in-game benefits in the process.
Mishima Persona 5 Overview
Yuuki Mishima is the most underrated character in Persona 5. What I appreciate about this JRPG is how many unforgettable characters are in it, but it inevitably means that some characters are going to fall short in the grand scheme of things. After all, we are talking about 22 characters that you could consider the core cast, and that’s not even including the villains.
Yuuki Mishima has the unfortunate status of being part of that group and falling short of being as popular as characters in the Phantom Thieves, like Ann, Morgana, Ryuji, and others. And even in the group of side characters, he fails to live up to the popularity of some of the Confidants like Tae Takemi, Kawakami-sensei, Iwai, and others.
This is unfortunate since Mishima is one of the most unique characters in the game, feeling more like the Junpei from Persona 3 character in the group with an underrated storyline that deserved so much more attention. He honestly deserved to be part of the Phantom Thieves, and not making him one is a mistake I will never forget.
Even still, I can at least give some attention to Mishima by showing you why I care about him so much. Let’s dive deep into everything you need to know about the most underrated and underappreciated character in Persona 5.
Appearance
Yuuki Mishima has one of the plainer appearances in Persona 5, but I don’t dislike how he looks. His character design is somewhat reminiscent of the older, darker Persona 3-style characters. He has grayish-blue hair that is short-cut with sideburns and in an unkempt style.
His face looks clean and kind but somewhat depressing at the same time. He generally wears the same school uniform everyone else wears, with the checkered pants on the bottom. However, he usually switches up his shirt with a unique plain white long-sleeve shirt that is different from the other students.
Key Moments in Persona 5
Yuuki Mishima may not be an official member of the Phantom Thieves, other than the person who works for them as an unofficial supporter, but he is still a decent part of the storyline. This is especially true for his introduction during the Kamoshida arc, which is arguably the best part of the entire base game’s story. As such, here is a spoiler warning for what happens in those early moments of the JRPG.
Being the Servant of Kamoshida
At the beginning of Persona 5, Yuuki Mishima is seen by much of the school as a loser who no one wants to spend time with. This is due to his representation as the servant of Kamoshida, the volleyball coach at Shujin Academy.
When Joker arrives at the school, Mishima is already deep in his darkness of being forced to work for Kamoshida or be physically, emotionally, and mentally abused by him. As such, he is seen as a rumor-monger, spreading lies and rumors about people who Kamoshida wants to destroy.
This gives Mishima a dirty reputation as someone who no one wants to be around. He eventually becomes a rival with Joker and Ryuji as they start to investigate what is going on with Kamoshida. Over time, though, they are able to convince Mishima to turn against his master and help them learn more about him.
It is partly because of Mishima that the Phantom Thieves are able to learn enough about Kamoshida to enter his Palace in the Metaverse, steal his treasure, and change his heart. With the eventual arrest of Kamoshida, Mishima is finally free from his grasp and can be his own person.
Helping the Phantom Thieves
With the conclusion of the Kamoshida arc, it is clear to Mishima that Joker is the leader of the Phantom Thieves and the cause behind this massive change of heart for the vile man. As such, Mishima offers his services to Joker to be one of his informants and Confidants.
His primary purpose is to create the Phantom Thieves supporter website, where people submit requests for the group to take down and steal the hearts of evil people in the world. Mishima also creates various polls from which the world gives its viewpoint on the Phantom Thieves.
Throughout the course of the story, Mishima plays a mostly background supporting role in offering ideas and side missions for Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves to embark on. Occasionally, he helps out in providing information for the larger targets, too. This carries through for most of the game.
Bonding With Joker
If the player Joker bonds with Mishima more, they find out more about the storyline of the Moon Arcana representative’s life. During the bonding sequences, the player begins to find out that Mishima is someone who wishes to be popular and for others to love him.
As such, he starts to take his role as a supporter of the Phantom Thieves to his head and eventually becomes problematic in his ideas and attitude. Through the help of Joker, though, Mishima is finally able to come to grips with his victim and inferiority complexes and be the best person he can possibly be.
In the end, Mishima becomes a great friend for Joker and Ryuji, and in the canon ending where you max out his friendship, he appears during the final battle of the Persona 5 main storyline. He offers up his encouragement and is someone who rallies everyone together to send their emotional and spiritual support to the Phantom Thieves to win the fight for freedom and peace.
Special Abilities
Yuuki Mishima is no member of the Phantom Thieves or a Persona user, much to my disappointment. While he isn’t one of the party members you’ll recruit during your time in Persona 5, he does play a considerable role. This role of his is special powers in a way.
Phantom Thieves Marketer
In many ways, the primary unique ability that Yuuki Mishima has is being one of the fanatics for the Phantom Thieves. His undying support for the group is the power he uses to further the support for the group and make their name even more known worldwide.
He uses his technical expertise and social media knowledge to create the Phantom Thieves fan site. This allows him to facilitate requests that random people have and share them with the group to solve. This is his power since he is the reason that so many of the random strangers get the help they need.
People who are struggling with their bosses at work or a relationship that isn’t going so well. These people, while having pretty common issues, still have problems worth taking care of, and it is because of Mishima that the Phantom Thieves even take care of them in the first place.
Mishima Persona 5 Voice Actor
There are a couple of voice actors that Yuuki Mishima has, depending on if you play the game in English or Japanese. If you are a fan of the former, which is a surprisingly fantastic English dub, you’re going to hear the talented and rapidly growing in popularity Sean Chiplock as Mishima.
You may know Sean Chiplock from a few of his iconic roles, including his stint as the main character in the underrated The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series. If you want some games that are very similar to Persona 5 and one game (the third one) that is arguably better, be sure to hear Chiplock there.
On the other hand, if you listen to Yuuki Mishima’s Japanese voice actor, you’ll hear Daisuke Sakaguchi. Some of the other famous roles that the middle-aged actor has in the past include the main character Leonardo in Blood Blockade Battlefront (watch Don’t Forget to Don’t Forget Me), Lil Slugger in Paranoia Agent, and Sunohara in Clannad.
Key Relationships
There are only a couple of relationships that Yuuki Mishima has in Persona 5, despite his importance to the Phantom Thieves. He connects with only a couple of members of the heroes, such as his crucial relationship with Joker.
Joker and Mishima have a best buds sort of relationship at first that changes over time as they get to know each other. It turns out that Mishima is mainly using Joker and the Phantom Thieves, and their relationship turns more hostile. If anything, though, this is mainly just an example of the way that relationships evolve over time. In the end, they become best buds again.
It is similar to Mishima’s only other friend in the Phantom Thieves, Ryuji. They first see each other as rivals due to Mishima kissing the ground Kamoshida walks on. Over time, though, they come to respect each other, and Mishima ends up being a fantastic help for Ryuji and a solid bro for him.
The final relationship that is worth talking about is with Kamoshida. The evil volleyball coach is the coach for Mishima and uses this as leverage to take advantage of the teenage boy. To avoid punishment and abuse, Kamoshida is a dictator towards Mishima, forcing him to do his bidding. While Mishima obeys his every order, he secretly hates Kamoshida and wishes for nothing but him to fall in the end.
Yuuki Mishima Confidant Guide
Yuuki Mishima might not be one of the party members in Persona 5, but he is one of the 22 Confidants you can build a relationship with. He is the representative of the Moon Arcana in Persona 5, being one of the cast’s darker and more mysterious members. Here’s everything you need to know about his Confidant from start to finish.
How to Start
For starters, you don’t have to worry much about beginning the Mishima Confidant ranks. Though the rest of his ranks are optional and require you to seek him out, the beginning of it happens automatically in the main story. It begins on May 6, after taking down Kamoshida once and for all. From that point forward, you’ll need to spend the time with Mishima yourself.
Schedule
Oddly enough, Mishima has one of the weirder schedules in Persona 5 for a Confidant character. For one, there is the fact that his schedule availability is like this:
- Every single night of the week
- Also, all day during rainy days
However, he is sometimes a bit random and doesn’t show up on certain days. Furthermore, his location changes throughout the course of the game. He’ll be on the Central Street of Shibuya at the start of the game, but he eventually goes to other places like Shinjuku and Akihabara when they are later unlocked.
As such, you may want to look around for him at night whenever you’re trying to spend time with Mishima. However, spending time with Mishima and advancing his relationship has a prerequisite each time. There are Mementos requests he’ll give you that you must complete before you can rank up his Confidant levels.
Mementos Requests Explained
If you played Persona 4 before this, you might know the fox from that game. Mishima’s Confidant plays out similarly to the fox from that predecessor title. Each one of his ranks requires the player to complete a request in Mementos.
These requests come from the fan site that Mishima created to support the Phantom Thieves. Mishima will give Joker these optional requests and ask you to take care of them. Once you finish each one, you can then hang out with him and advance your relationship to the next level.
This makes his Confidant one of the more frustrating ones since there are some extra steps you must do every single time. For some players, though, it may be worth the rewards you get from completing the Confidant ranks of Mishima.
Mishima Confidant Benefits
Here are the rewards that you’ll get throughout your relationship with Mishima. Most of his rewards have to do with the experience you gain in the game in battle. As such, I recommend you rank up his levels as soon as you can in the story to take full advantage throughout the Palaces you go to.
- Rank 1: Mishima’s Support – This skill lets the reserve party members not currently in the party earn experience from battles.
- Rank 3: Mishima’s Enthusiasm – This skill lets you increase your overall XP from fights.
- Rank 5: Mishima’s Desperation – The reserve party members not in the battles will gain more experience than usual.
- Rank 7: Phanboy – This skill further increases the amount of experience that you get from fights.
- Rank 10: Salvation Wish – This final skill lets the reserve party members earn the same amount of experience from fights as the party members in the battles.
In addition to getting that final skill from maxing out Mishima’s Confidant ranks, you’ll get one other benefit, too. Players will also unlock the ability to fuse together Sandalphon, which is the final Persona in the Moon Arcana. If you play a New Game Plus after maxing out Mishima’s Confidant rank, you’ll get the Documentary Plans soon after starting your next playthrough, where you will benefit from the XP boosts right from the beginning.
FAQs
Question: Does Mishima Join the Phantom Thieves?Â
Answer: No, unfortunately, Yuuki Mishima doesn’t join the Phantom Thieves. At least not in any official capacity. He is the number one fan and supporter of the group, helping them out by creating the fan site and promoting the group to the rest of the world.
Question: Does Mishima Know who the Phantom Thieves are?Â
Answer: Yes and no. It is implied that Mishima knows who some of the Phantom Thieves are, but unlikely to be all of them. He, for sure, knows that Joker is the leader of the Phantom Thieves, but that is it. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew that Ryuji and Ann are also part of it.
Question: What Does Mishima’s Confidant do?Â
Answer: Mishima’s Confidant focuses on the experience you get from battles. The more you level up his relationship, the more XP you get from battles and the party members not currently in battle will earn more XP, too.
Which Persona 5 Confidant to Check Out Next
Yuuki Mishima is one of the more unfortunate Confidants in Persona 5. In a different world, he could have easily been one of the bros in the game, a member of the Phantom Thieves, and not just their supporter. It is unfortunate that it never went that route for his storyline, even if it was just a minor optional party member idea.
While Mishima didn’t get the love he deserved in the Persona 5 storyline, he is far from the only person suffering from that problem. Another character who is actually a party member is Goro Akechi. In the original Persona 5 story, his character arc comes far too late into the JRPG to do it any justice, and it is a failed part of the game in a way. Thankfully, it was fixed in Persona 5 Royal, making him easily the best overall character in the Persona series.
- Persona 5 Manga Guide: Where to Find All Persona 5 Manga - April 2, 2023
- Persona Tarot Cards Guide: Where and How to Buy Persona-Themed Tarot Cards - April 2, 2023
- Ishtar Persona 5 Guide: How to Unlock Ishtar in Persona 5 - March 29, 2023