#chtype:ryuji

[mbtiofwhys]

Ryuji Sakamoto

ESFP

Functional Order: Se - Fi - Te - Ni

Spoiler warning

This article will cover Ryuji’s analysis and there’ll be references to both Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, alongside with events from Ryuji’s confidant.

Perceiving Functional Axis Extroverted Sensing (Se) / Introverted Intuition (Ni) 

Ryuji displays his dominant Se during the entire game. He doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions, even in dangerous situations. When the Phantom Thieves escape from Shido’s Palace, Ryuji sprints on a sinking cruise ship to reach a lifeboat and thus saving his friends, an inconsiderate action led by sheer impulsivity. 

Ryuji lives in the present and sees unexpected situations as opportunities to entertain himself. As a phantom thief he doesn’t approaches new targets as threats, but rather as a novelty factor, because they may offer an exciting experience and even a fun time.

But even if reckless, Ryuji supports the Phantom Thieves by always being proactive: he’s the one who suggests to just explore Shujin Academy to take clues and insight about Kamoshida and he doesn’t need a plan or reflection on things before taking action. 

He easily gets bored and constantly craves new experiences, especially thrilling ones. He often messages the protagonist asking for company in activities where he can live in the moment, like playing at the arcade, exercising or eating as a way to enjoy the simplest things in life.

Although carefree and energetic, Ryuji is also reckless to a point where he can become irresponsible and completely unaware of the future implication of his actions. That being said, his inferior Ni isn’t unhealthy. Ryuji surely needs to develop his Ni, but as a young Se dominant he shows a decent amount of awareness. For example, when the group decides who their next target should be, Ryuji always wants to aim at bigger targets as a way to obtain recognition from the general public, lowkey working toward a single, big goal which influences his actions. 

Judging Functional Axis Introverted Feeling (Fi) / Extroverted Thinking (Te)

Ryuji may seem unconcerned about others and always troubled by his crave for excitement and new experiences. During the game the player sees that there is more under the surface, and his confidant shows clearly how this is true. Ryuji is involved in the disbandment of his school’s track team. He tries to apologize and settle things with his past teammates because he deeply cares and thus he can’t forgive himself for his past mistakes. When he discovers that Yamaguchi -the new coach- sees the track team as a tool to gain success, Ryuji follows his strong moral code and, even if he isn’t a member of the track team anymore, he takes action and helps his past teammates to build a new group based on mutual support. 

Ryuji’s personal values can also be seen in his second life as a phantom thief: he’s genuinely concerned about reforming society and he actively does it by making rotten adults have a change of heart. Anyway, his auxiliary Fi isn’t always healthy. He may care immensely about something and if it matters to him, he’ll pour his heart into it, but at the same time he shows a naive indifference when he doesn’t feel a problem as relevant. This is especially true when Morgana leaves the Phantom Thieves feeling unwanted and useless. Ryuji is partly responsible for Morgana’s departure, but he doesn’t care and thus he can’t see the situation as problematic (“eh, he’ll be back sooner or later when he’ll get hungry”). He even finds difficult to apologize when Morgana finally rejoins the group.

His auxiliary, explosive Fi is balanced by tertiary Te. As a Se dominant Ryuji has a direct approach to problems. An ESTP would probably take time to reflect and to put everything into perspective, understanding how something works with aux Ti as a way to assist his actions. This isn’t true for Ryuji: he decides how to act by following his moral code rather than by rationally analyzing a problem.

Dominant Se and tertiary Te operate together by taking the most practical and easy way to solve a problem. The solution doesn’t need to be perfectly sound and coherent as long as it seems viable and efficient. Failure doesn’t scare Ryuji, because he has a trial and error approach and he believes that it’s better to learn from past mistakes rather than losing time in rational evaluations.