Hifumi Togo
Hifumi Togo is the Star Confidant in Persona 5.
Profile
Hifumi is a 2nd year student at Kosei High School. She is a shogi player who plays in the women's professional league and, thus far, has not lost a match. Due to her looks, Hifumi has been nicknamed the Venus of Shogi. Her mother acts as her manager and capitalizes on her popularity, booking Hifumi for gravure photo shoots and arranging for her to appear on TV, making her seem more like an idol. Hifumi's interest in shogi comes from her father, who also used to play shogi before he became ill. She genuinely loves shogi and is uncomfortable with some of her mother's antics, but she justifies it as spreading exposure for the sport. Her fellow shogi contemporaries are put off by her idol status, resulting in Hifumi practicing by herself at a church in Kanda. Hifumi is usually polite and soft-spoken, but when she plays shogi, Joker discovers she has become a different person: she exhibits chūnibyō-like behavior,[2] making up move names and commanding her pieces as if leading troops.
Hifumi was designed in the image of a traditional Japanese beauty.[3] On school days, she wears the Kosei High uniform, consisting of a blue blazer during winter or a blue vest during summer, and a black skirt. On days off school, her casual wear is a tan dress with navy blue and red chevrons. On the school trip to Hawaii, she wears a blue and white striped bikini to the beach. No matter the outfit, she always wears a hair ornament made of a red rope tassel.
Gameplay
- For complete gameplay information, see Gameplay:Hifumi Togo.
Game Appearances
Persona 5
After Joker hears about a shogi player in a church, he meets Hifumi and becomes her student, establishing the Star Confidant. As she teaches him how to play shogi, he learns new battle tactics for the Phantom Thieves, and she finds an outlet to confide in about her mother and her career. Hifumi mentions to Joker that her mother, Mitsuyo, has arranged for her to play an exhibition match against a professional male shogi player and ordered her to lose on purpose. Doing so would make more women interested in supporting her and turn her into an icon for women when she makes a comeback.
Hifumi is conflicted about what to do since she does not want to throw the game, but she also thinks her mother, who works in entertainment, is right about people liking comeback stories. While Hifumi has always played shogi earnestly and enjoys it, her mother, who has always wanted to be a celebrity, only sees it as a way to make Hifumi popular. They argued over the exhibition match, and Mitsuyo told her she could eventually quit playing shogi and profit from her beauty. Joker suggests they do something about this, but Hifumi does not think her mother would ever change her mind.
Joker and the Phantom Thieves find a cognition of Mitsuyo Togo in Mementos for the Mementos Request, Upstaging the Stage Mother. There, Mitsuyo's cognition reveals that even though Hifumi won a competition on her own when she was younger, most of her matches have been fixed. Mitsuyo even confesses to paying people off and hiring private investigators to look into Hifumi's opponents to build her daughter's reputation. After changing her heart, the cognition admits she has always been a loser, so she wants Hifumi to succeed.
The next time Joker meets Hifumi at the church in Kanda, Hifumi's mother has confessed to her daughter about the match-fixing. Hifumi is surprised, but in retrospect, she realizes her opponents made some strange errors during their matches. She looks down on herself for letting the victories get to her head but has decided to set the record straight: She will play in the exhibition match as planned, and she intends to confess about the match-fixing beforehand.
After Hifumi comes clean about her record, the media calls her the Phony Princess. Joker accompanies her to her exhibition match, where Hifumi is overwhelmed by her opponent and forfeits a match for the first time. As Joker's shogi teacher, Hifumi apologizes to him for her unsightly gameplay, and suggests he take it as an example of how not to play shogi. She tries to make that their last lesson, assuming she has inconvenienced Joker with her fake reputation, but he assures her that he will still stand by her, either as her good friend or her boyfriend.
Hifumi quits the women's shogi league and resolves to start over from the beginning and work her way back up. Though her mother is to blame for fixing her matches, Hifumi also sees herself to blame for being too confident in herself and wanting to believe she was a gifted player so she could be seen as something more than an idol. Hifumi knew it was too much of a coincidence that her mother had a change of heart after she told Joker about her issue. She tells him that she hopes the Phantom Thieves find her tactics useful and hopes she might be helpful to them again in the future too.
In September, Joker can meet with Hifumi during the school trip to Hawaii. On the beach, she hopes she did not bore Joker during their time together and gives him a sea turtle charm. She regrets they attend different schools, but he reminds her that they can still see each other in other ways, and the two stay on the beach until after the sun sets.
This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)
On Christmas Eve, Hifumi appears with Joker's other Confidants and encourages him to keep moving forward, just as he taught her. If Joker is dating Hifumi, he can also invite her over to Leblanc during the evening where she gifts him a pair of gloves. Hifumi had heard about the leader of the Phantom Thieves being captured and was concerned about him. Joker remembers Sae Niijima warning him about getting others involved. He does not tell Hifumi how he intends to turn himself over as he does not want to worry her even more. She can tell something is off with him, but he thinks this is for the best and also for her safety.
During January, Hifumi appears on TV and gives an interview about the match-fixing. She talks about a boy who supported her through it, but unfortunately, he is currently wrongfully serving jail time and she hopes she can help him.
- End of spoilers.
On Valentine's Day, Joker can invite Hifumi over to the cafe if they are dating. Like how they left off on Christmas, Hifumi expresses that she has been concerned for Joker and gifts him homemade chocolate. The two catch up, and Hifumi mentions that she is still called the Phony Princess, but it feels liberating. Now that she no longer has to worry about being an idol, she can focus on shogi and being with Joker. Joker breaks the bad news that he will be returning back home. Hifumi laments how little time they have left together, especially after reuniting. Things and people change, and their being far apart is yet another change in her life. Regardless, she is devoted to Joker, and he returns her feelings.
Alternatively, if Joker is dating multiple girls and does not spend Valentine's Day with Hifumi, she will show up the next day with her chocolate box and assume that Joker might be cheating on her. After beating up Joker with the other girls and somehow being convinced by Sojiro Sakura that Joker is not actually cheating, Hifumi returns home with her chocolates.
When Joker speaks to Hifumi on March 19th, she has won nine shogi matches in a row since starting over, and she has another match on the 20th. She gives Joker a Kosha Piece, which can only move forwards on the board and cannot move back until it gets promoted. If Joker is friends with Hifumi, she will remark on how much she learned from him despite being his teacher. If Joker is dating Hifumi, she will encourage him to give it his all, whether it be in shogi or romance.
Persona 5 Royal
If Joker is dating Hifumi, she has new scenes during the new Royal content.
- This section contains spoilers. (Skip Section)
If Joker maxes out the Councillor Confidant, he will no longer have to turn himself over to the police and can choose to have a longer Christmas Eve date with Hifumi. The two are fortunate enough to get a Christmas Cake, which they take back to Leblanc. Hifumi thanks him for helping her and everyone else who the Phantom Thieves have saved. She had been worried about Joker, similar to the Persona 5 Christmas Eve event, but she no longer feels worried for some reason. Hifumi sees the snow start to fall outside of Joker's attic window. Snow used to make her lonely, but now she finds it quite beautiful. As the two watch the snow fall together, Hifumi says something about how she can't believe this is real.
- End of spoilers.
On White Day, Joker first takes Hifumi to the Shinagawa Aquarium. She feels relaxed at the sight of the fish, though she also feels calmed by Joker's presence. After the fish show, Joker takes her to a restaurant with a view of Tokyo Skytree and presents her with roses. Hifumi thanks him for the gift and appreciates his thoughtfulness. She hopes to become as selfless and considerate of others as he is.
When Joker says goodbye to Hifumi on March 19th, she will continue her metaphor about the Kosha Piece if they are dating. Though the piece can only move forward initially, it can also move beside other pieces upon reaching promotion. She hopes that one day after the two of them go their respective paths and get promoted in rank, they will be able to be together again.
Anime Appearances
Persona 5 The Animation
In The Animation, Hifumi maintains her character as a professional shogi player with chūnibyō battle cries who feels she cannot defy her mother. Throughout the anime, Hifumi's image is shown on ads and apps related to shogi.
Hifumi first appears in episode 10 at the broadcasting studio where Mishima recognizes her as a famous shogi player who has been on the news recently. She appears again briefly in episode 13 when she tries to enter the church in Kanda. However, she sees Yusuke yelling at Ren to pose, so she turns around and leaves. In episode 19, Ren meets Hifumi in Hawaii when she some men start bothering her. He pretends to be her friend and helps her get away from them. Yusuke mentions that she is a professional shogi player who goes to his school.
In episode 22, Ren overhears a conversation between Hifumi, her mother, and her publicity team. Hifumi recognizes Ren from Hawaii and thanks him for his assistance. The two go to the church in Kanda and play shogi together. Hifumi says that ever since she was little, her mother has been thrilled whenever Hifumi won shogi matches. But recently, her mother is forcing her to do interviews and a gravure photoshoot. Ren suggests that she just refuse to do it, but Hifumi wants to fulfill her mother's expectations.
In episode 25, Hifumi notices Ren's sense of resolve through his shogi play. Inspired by him, she has made up her mind and is going to speak to her mother. In episode 26, Hifumi is shown practicing shogi while news of the Phantom Thieves' leader's arrest plays on TV. During the 3rd OVA, The Stars and Ours, Hifumi appears with the other Confidants and encourages Ren to keep moving forward. He later visits her at the church during the credits to say goodbye.
A Magical Valentine's Day
In Hifumi's Magical Valentine's Day, her and Ren spend time together at an indoor swimming pool. She brings up Ren leaving Tokyo soon. Since she waited for him to get released from prison, she got used to him not being there, and doesn't think it will be that difficult being apart from him again.
In Ryuji's Magical Valentine's Day, Hifumi shows up with the other girls and assumes Ren is cheating on her. After Ren admits he does want their chocolates, Hifumi tells him he is heartless to women, and the girls beat him up. After Sojiro convinces them that Ren was busy working on Valentine's Day and that he isn't cheating, the girls are all shown walking away from Leblanc together in the ending credit scroll.
Trivia
- Hifumi apparently had a name change very late in the development process. While her promotional page on the Atlus website for Persona 5 and the game names her Hifumi Togo, her image file on the official website is labeled Hifumi Shindo. [4]
- Hifumi's hobbies are researching shogi moves and collecting relaxation products.[1]
- Hifumi has a tendency to get fired up during shogi matches and view the shogi board as a battlefield with her pieces as troops that she issues over-the-top commands to.[1]
- Hifumi loves filling foods like udon and katsu curry, but her mother forces her to say likes avocado and bagels when interviewing.[1]
- During development, Atlus had decided that Makoto Niijima would be like the Phantom Thieves' military staff officer, and they also planned to have a strategist-type character who was like a more radical version of Makoto. Soejima drew a character resembling Hifumi to fulfill this role. Ultimately, the character was merged with Makoto, but while thinking of Confidants, the scrapped character came up, and her design was repurposed for an entirely different character. Knowing that she was a shogi player, Soejima added her Japanese style hair ornament to make her look smart.[3]
- In the Persona 5 Maniacus, Atlus explains more about the scrapped character whose design was repurposed for Hifumi. She was originally a party member until around half way through development and they had written her story as well. Her Confidant in Persona 5 is more or less similar to this, but some things have been re-arranged: Her character originally held a Japanese-like worldview, which was shifted to Yusuke Kitagawa, and she grew up a prisoner to adult values, which was shifted to Makoto and Haru Okumura.[1]
- Many Persona 5 Confidant characters share names with or have names similar to Japanese historical figures. Hifumi is presumed to be named after professional male shogi player Hifumi Kato (加藤 一二三) and navy admiral Heihachiro Togo (東郷 平八郎).
Nomenclature
With the kanji used, Tōgō means "eastern village," and Hifumi means "one, two, three."
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese
|
東郷 一二三 美しすぎる棋士 Utsukushisugiru Kishi 八百長姫 Yaochō-hime |
Tōgō Hifumi The Extremely Beautiful Shogi Player The Match-Fixing Princess |
Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Chapter 1: Characters", Persona 5 Maniacus, Dengeki Game Books Editorial Staff. Published by Kadokawa. Japanese. p. 58-59. ISBN-13: 978-4048928038.
- ↑ "Minor Characters", Persona 5 Official Design Works. Japanese. p. 321. ISBN-13: 978-4047331907.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Minor Characters", Persona 5 Official Design Works. Japanese. p. 322. ISBN-13: 978-4047331907.
- ↑ "https://atlus.com/persona5/img/characters/hifumi_shindo.png" Atlus, [1]. Retrieved Nov 20, 2023. Atlus.com.
![[1]](https://atlus.com/persona5/img/characters/hifumi_shindo.png){kind=link}