Sae Niijima is a character from Persona 5. She is the older sister and legal guardian of Makoto Niijima since their father's death a few years ago. She now works as a Public Prosecutor of the Tokyo District Special Investigation Department at the Public Prosecutors Office.
After Sae's father who was a police officer died in the line of duty three years ago, she has been obliged to act as her minor sister, Makoto Niijima's legal guardian. However, she does not treat Makoto as anything other than a burden for her to take care of, and the sisters generally do not have a good relationship with each other prior to the second half of the game.
The Niijima sisters, Makoto and Sae, are raised alone by their father, since their mother died young. Unfortunately, three years ago, their father died when solving a case. Without a sole caretaker, Sae has to take care of Makoto alone and find a job. She found a job at the prosecutor's office, where she has to maintain an indiction rate of 99% at all costs, regardless of the defendant's innocence. She felt incredibly bitter about this fate where everyone else can have a normal life while she's stuck between rigging cases against her will and raising Makoto because her father died. As a result, she came to resent both her father and Makoto, viewing both of them as a burden.
By the events of the game, Sae is a public prosecutor of the Tokyo District Special Investigation Department (independent from the police department) responsible for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts' case. In the prologue of the story, she requests interrogation of the captured protagonist, despite her dismissal from the investigation by her boss. Disgusted that he has been drugged, she asks him to truthfully remember and recollect his side of the story. The majority of the game involves events based on the testimonies that he makes for her, and his goal is to have her stay as long as possible to prevent his assassination and formulate a plan to get around his demise. While mysterious, Sae seems to care for the protagonist's welfare.
Over the course of the game she recapitulates the Thieves' activities with him. She is skeptical of his supernatural claims, such as a talking cat who can turn into a bus, alternate realities, monsters, etc, demanding him to stop fooling around and get serious so she can know the truth, unaware that these childish fantasies actually are the truth.
Sae first appears while visiting Café Leblanc before the protagonist goes out on May 4th, where she expresses concern about the mental shutdowns and the Kamoshida case, wondering how could a person's mental condition change so quickly.
She then can be seen having dinner with Makoto. Makoto asks her if her dad would support the Phantom Thieves if he were still alive. This question greatly frustrated Sae, and she proceeded to throw derogatory terms at her, up until she called Makoto a burden. This greatly distressed Makoto and Sae quickly apologized to her. It was implied that she snapped because her father's death was what caused her to face extreme pressure to both uphold the court's reputation at all costs by rigging cases and having to become a foster parent for Makoto. She then tells her that she will be eating dinner tomorrow, causing the Niijima sisters to have a fall out. When combined with Akechi calling her a pushover and Ann scolding her as useless, this resulted in Makoto throwing herself into Junya Kaneshiro and getting all of the Phantom Thieves blackmailed by him.
On July 18th, in order to investigate the mental shutdowns, Sae turns to Sojiro Sakura, an old friend of Wakaba Isshiki for help, as Wakaba researched cognitive psience and Sae attempts to get information about Wakaba's research from him. When Sojiro refuses to cooperate, Sae threatens to bring him to family court, where he would almost certainly lose custody of his adoptive daughter, Futaba Sakura, resulting in the two having a falling out.
Early in September, Makoto uses a USB device prepared by Futaba to steal data from Sae's laptop. Sae later notices the intrusion and accuses Akechi of stealing the data, offending him. In truth, Sae realized Makoto was responsible, but was unwilling to admit it.
When Akechi forces himself into the Phantom Thieves, he suggests that the gang should steal Sae's heart to stop her investigation, otherwise the Public Prosecutors Office may hold them responsible for the deaths of Kunikazu Okumura and Principal Kobayakawa.
Her sin is Envy, which turns her Palace in the courthouse into a massive, rigged casino where everything is going in the favor of the house due to rigging mechanisms, representing her view of every prosecution case as one that she must win at all costs. There is also a member's floor which contains a pitch black maze which has no easily accessible exit and an arena that claims to only offer one-on-one battles which only the protagonist could enter but repeatedly pits him against multiple enemies. As she does not see anyone in a distorted manner, the Cognitive existences of the Palace only appear as regular people. However, her Shadow appears as incredibly bitter, cynical and spiteful, which shocked her sister Makoto upon meeting her.
Upon receiving her calling card, Sae is infuriated that the Phantom Thieves would consider her unjust, but reassures Makoto that the case will be over soon, and they can spend time together as sisters again, comforting Makoto when she tearfully promises to protect Sae. Sae takes a phone call, and is shocked to realize that the investigation has ordered that she be placed on standby.
Shadow Sae's boss fight takes place on a giant roulette wheel which she occasionally spins to influence the battle depending on if the Phantom Thieves win a bet (healing the winner, damaging the loser, and so on). Initially, her wheel is just as rigged as her other games, with her placing a glass shield over the cups that prevents the ball from landing and ensuring she always wins. Eventually, a member of the Thieves is sent to use their gun to knock the ball into the cup. This surprises and angers Shadow Sae, who transforms into Leviathan and attacks out of rage, declaring that the Thieves won't be able to take the only power she has away from her, and removes the glass to prove that she can defeat them in a fair fight, transforming into a grey plated, heavily armed monstrosity. However, she was still no match for the Phantom Thieves and Akechi. Makoto then manages to convince Sae to repent and make her an ally of the Phantom Thieves. However, a massive fleet of heavily armed policemen are stationing in the Metaverse's casino, in which they catch the protagonist on his way to escape and send him to interrogation.
The outcome of this operation differs depending on the dialogue choices after the protagonist has finished his long reminiscence in the interrogation room with Sae when she starts listing his confidants and party members. If he sells out his teammates or confidants during the interrogation and has confirmed to do so, Sae will end her interrogation and leave, promising to reduce his penalty, but Akechi will appear and assassinate him after killing a police guard and plant the gun to his hand to pretend a suicide. The protagonist then finds himself in the Velvet Room, where its residents lament him for his failure and Igor imprisons him within it for the rest of his life. The credits then roll with "Freedom and Security" playing in the background.
Additionally, failure to meet a Palace deadline up to hers will result in the protagonist giving the wrong testimonies, and Sae leaves the interrogation room for him to recover, in which Akechi takes the opportunity to assassinate him.
If the protagonist did not sell out his teammates or confidants during the last part of the interrogation, it will be revealed that the Thieves already set up a plan to trick Akechi from the get-go, since they all knew he was a traitor when he can hear Morgana talk about pancakes in the TV station and nobody that hasn't ran into Morgana in the Metaverse can hear him talk in the real world. As the nearby police station that would be used to interrogate the protagonist is uninfluenced by her cognition (and thus the police station would appear exactly like its real world counterpart) and she still has subconscious control over the surroundings as her treasure is not stolen, the party thought of stealing an empty briefcase and escaping, while the protagonist deliberately lets himself get arrested using himself as a decoy. The only thing that might make the plan fail is the police drugging him before he was sent to Sae. Using this, they were capable of making Sae trick Akechi into killing the cognitive versions of the protagonist and the guard of the interrogation room after the apprehension, both born from a part of her Palace where she has little influence in. Upon realizing the real reason of being appointed to the case and the true colors of her boss and Akechi, Sae cooperates with the Thieves and transports the protagonist safely to Café Leblanc. Sae apologizes to Futaba for putting pressure on Sojiro, and reconciles with Makoto.
When the gang reveal that about the mastermind behind Akechi is Masayoshi Shido, Sae admits that she had her suspicions of Shido because he gains the most from all the victims whose deaths are connected to the Palace.
When the Thieves publicize their video of the upcoming heist of Shido's heart, Sae is blamed by the Police Department for the protagonist's feigned death but she begins to pretend that her heart has been stolen.
After the conductor's fall, she is tasked with charging Shido after the latter's confession to his crimes, but because the Public Prosecutor needs a witness and Akechi has been reported missing, she turns to the protagonist which results in his confinement in the youth detention center for two months. After his allies try every way to prove his innocence in the street assault against Shido, Sae brings the good news of Shido's case and the release of the protagonist because Shido's victim who testified against the protagonist has changed her testimony.
Sae also reveals that after Shido's case has been completely settled, she will quit her current job and become a defense attorney. She believes that this is the better way to fight for justice than in the Public Prosecutors Office.
On the protagonist's last day, Sae can be found outside the café. She gives him her business card which states that she is now a defense attorney. She also encourages him not to become influenced by terrible adults, as the corrupt adults the Phantom Thieves despised are everywhere. Sae says he should call her if anything happens, although she is not worried about him, saying he will never lose sight of himself.
Sae retains most of her roles from the original version of the game.
While she still cannot be romanced, the protagonist will receive a chocolate from her during Valentine's Day no matter what, as the protagonist always maxes her confidant.
Should certain conditions have been met to unlock the third semester, Sae would approach the protagonist and ask him to turn himself to the police as a witness like in the original game. However, Goro Akechi would reappear after his last appearance in Shido's palace seemingly unharmed and offer to testify against Shido as the culprit behind the mental shutdowns. Surprised by the turn of events, Sae asks the protagonist to forget what she said before as she walks away with Akechi to the police station.
Sae later reappears to celebrate on New Year's Eve by having a traditional meal of toshikoshi ("year-crossing noodles") with the Phantom Thieves, Kasumi Yoshizawa and Sojiro at Leblanc. While everyone is socializing and enjoying their meal, Sae offered good news of how the protagonist's verdict will be turned around thanks to the woman who acted as Shido's witness over the assault willing to change her testimony. She added that this is still not official as of yet, but it will eventually happen as soon as the case against Shido begins.
During the third semester, she is shown in Takuto Maruki's reality, living happily with her father and sharing a close sisterly bond with Makoto, as she wished that her father had never died so that Sae would not have to bear the burden as her only family and guardian. As a result, history was rewritten so that the Niijima sisters' father has never died, just like Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura. Once Makoto chooses to deny Maruki's reality, Sae will be removed from it as well.
However, the altered reality still maintained Shido's incarceration as the result of trying to overthrow the government rather than his ties to the mental shutdown incidents, and Akechi being allowed to walk free due to his crimes being completely erased. These changes in history suggest that Sae never denied Maruki's reality herself, nor did she have the chance to build her case against Shido as planned at the start of the New Year.
Soon after the Phantom Thieves defeated Maruki and restored reality to its original state, it was explained to the protagonist by Lavenza that he would be in jail in the present due to the time that transpired being restored to what it once was, including Sae's request for himself to turn to the police like in the original game. Since Akechi's appearance on that day was only thanks to the altered reality, the protagonist must go through with his imprisonment to testify against Shido (just as the original storyline followed).
Once the Phantom Thieves and his confidants rallied support and helped to find the woman who testified against the protagonist, Sae returns to meet with him about the news. Having seen the protagonist in the altered reality for a while, Sae questioned if she had actually not seen him since Christmas Day before proceeding with the news.
Later in the epilogue, Sae is seen outside a real estate shop with Makoto. Helping her sister finding accommodations to move out to for her time in college, Sae had a disagreement with Makoto's choice from the selection. The two got into a brief argument but seeing how her sister defended her choice and stood up to her for the first time only made Sae laugh together with Makoto over how much she has grown.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
And she is reprised by Elizabeth Maxwell in the English dub and Yuko Kaida in the Japanese dub.
THEMES[]
- Whims of Fate (Persona 5) - Sae's Theme