Suguru Kamoshida

Suguru Kamoshida is a character from Persona 5. He is a former Olympian athlete who has become the volleyball coach of Shujin Academy.

Appearances

 * Persona 5 / Royal: Major Character (Antagonist)
 * Persona 5 (Manga)
 * Persona 5 The Animation
 * Persona 5 The Stage
 * Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight: Cameo
 * Persona 5 Strikers: Mentioned
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth: Cameo

Design
Kamoshida has long black unkempt hair and thick eyebrows. His jawline is broad and square. He wears a white T-shirt and black track pants with double white stripes. Around his neck he wears what appears to be a red timer and a whistle. He also seems to be unnaturally tall when compared in passing to other staff members and students; he is at least a full head taller than the rest of the students which makes him appear a good 7 feet tall, towering way above the protagonist. His first name, Suguru (卓), can also be translated as "tall." He appears generally athletic, with a mildly muscular build.

His Shadow Self wears a gold crown, red heart printed cape and pink underwear, leaving his torso and hairy legs exposed.

When he transforms into Asmodeus, he becomes a large naked pink demon with multiple arms and legs as well as a thick purple tongue about as long as he himself is, while wearing his Treasure as a crown and sitting on a monstrous throne with live eyes, at the sides of said throne, lie gigantic golden balls with chained student slaves. He wears a red cape on his back, with multiple medals hidden within it. He carries golden eating utensils in his lower arms to consume the Cognitive existences of his female team members to restore his health. His upper arms carry a riding crop, which he cracks to order the creatures chained to his throne to assault a Phantom Thief with volleyballs, and a wine glass containing wine and the Cognitive Ann that he drinks when buffing himself. He also spikes explosive volleyballs at the party as an attack.

Personality
Kamoshida is a lustful, vain, cruel and utterly selfish bully who abuses his female students emotionally, physically and sexually, even going as far as pursuing a toxic relationship with ones that he had hooked an eye on. His own male students fare no better, as he subjects them to an utterly ruthless training regimen that many of them compare to torture, and will even use it as punishment if his team loses a game. His sheer egotism and vanity pushes him to sabotage a rival sport team of his own school purely because said team may rise to nationals. He believes his relative success as a coach and previous successes as an athletic champion gives him the privilege to do whatever he wants. Due to his outright repulsiveness, he is described by Ryuji Sakamoto as a monster and by Ann Takamaki as a "piece of shit" and a "son of a bitch." All of the students in Shujin unanimously dislike him, although unlike Ryuji and Ann, they chose to cover him up in fear of reprisal by the principal, to which he merely sees as a form of protection for his nonexistent kindness. In fact he denies any wrongdoing from his part, believing that both students "seek" him in order to achieve fame and that both the student body and adults protect him in what he perceives as a mutually beneficial contract in which everyone "profits".

In the real world, Kamoshida blatantly manipulates, divides and abuses his students in a predatory manner, so they couldn't stand against him together, and targets that he dislikes or wants to prey upon are isolated. His crimes are extremely obvious and blatant and he often abuses his students in the open due to his sense of untouchability (although the abuse often happens in places that he considers as "private," such as inside his PE office). Outwardly however, he seems to appear completely normal, albeit rather condescending when he isn't dealing with students privately. This proves to be his downfall against the Phantom Thieves, as despite he thinks that he's merely abusing students on private while giving himself an outward image, his abuse often leaves visual indicators, such as bruises among his victims and sometimes, auditory ones such as students screaming or making "other weird voices" out in the open. The attempted suicide of one of his victims for this proves to be a horrifying example of his crimes and later the catalyst of his defeat. He is also known to be a vicious gossip, regularly starting rumors to defame and hopefully expel students he dislikes (as seen with the protagonist if his heist arc is not completed before the deadline) and appears to be excellent in gathering personal information from his students.

His Palace takes the form of a castle over which he rules as king while the students are his slaves, showing him to be incredibly egotistical. The Palace represents his lust and desire both for success and power, resulting in his callous treatment of his athletes and his ephebophilia towards his female students. His Shadow Self, taking the form of a king who rules the place is barely distinguishable from his true self. The only difference from his real self and his Shadow self is that the latter is more open and honest about the selfishness and egotism behind his actions. Kamoshida's Shadow Self also uses the highly vulgar "Oresama" (俺様) to refer to himself by first person and "Kisama" (貴様) when addressing others in Japanese. (His normal self usually uses "Ore" (俺), which is still extremely informal but better than "Oresama," while using "Kisama" if he is extremely angered). He in fact has such an inflated sense of self-worth that his Shadow Self openly declares that he made the school into what it is, implying it would be nothing if he wasn't there.

He deliberately abuses and molests his athletes on perceived private terms (or sometimes, even out in the open with numerous spectators), which his Shadow Self admits it's more about domination than sexual attraction, even claiming that his students "came on to him" because of his fame and talent, believing this is reason enough to not be accused of sexually abusive practices (which interestingly stands in stark contrast with his claims that he is being "protected"). He has no respect for women or his students at all, viewing female students as possessions and male students as disposable props to enable his own continued success and glory, which is evident in the way both genders are displayed inside his palace, with male students being shown as chained slaves, while female ones wear skimpy and revealing clothing while entirely submissive to him. He appears more obsessed with Ann because her blonde hair makes her a rarity in Japan so by having her as his "girlfriend" she would become another of his trophies. He also claims to be driven by a deep sense of inadequacy because he's scared of people putting expectations of him, presumable in fear of losing his Olympic record, although the legitimacy of this claim is dubious, as when his Shadow mentions this, he also claims he had the right to demand "a reward" for his efforts, implying that everything he did, he felt he had earned the right to do. Ultimately he views no one, but himself, with any ounce of dignity, being visibly furious at having his prized possessions attacked in any fashion, deriding the Phantom Thieves for not seeing the value of the physical proof of his success. In fact, he further insults his slaves no matter the gender they are as being "useless" when prevented from giving him his volleyballs by the Phantom Thieves, although he is generally more welcoming of a female slave serving the ball for him.

His Shadow is shown to be quite cowardly, as it will often take hostages and act haughty and ruthless in such situations. He will even kill accidental intruders, as seen before the protagonist awakens his Persona. However, when a person awakens a Persona in front of him, he is instantly scared to the point that he flees quickly and leaves several guards to dispatch the intruders for him. When defeated he tries to flee, but feels himself ultimately unable to act as his only options are to confront the Phantom Thieves or jump from his castle, a twist of poetic justice that puts him in the same spot he pushed his students into. It is at this point that he not only begs for mercy for his misdeeds, but even claims to Ann that she can do whatever she wants since she had won. This statement might reflect the core Kamoshida's character which sees everything in a warped competitive light of absolutes of winning and losing, being entitled to all his heinous crimes because he was a "winner", and resigning himself to his fate once he became the "loser".

After the Phantom Thieves steal his Treasure, he loses his belief that he is the ruler of the school and realizes his actions have caused irrevocable pain and suffering to all his victims including his own team. He even refers to himself as "watashi" (私) instead of "ore" or "oresama". He at first offers to commit suicide before willingly resigning and submitting to arrest and therapy for his narcissism.

Persona 5
Kamoshida is a former professional athlete and Olympic volleyball champion, and an alumnus from Shujin Academy, who later became the school's volleyball coach. During his time as a teacher, Kamoshida's fame was used as a means to give Shujin Academy and its students more publicity, be it for scholarships or college applications. His ego, inflated by the clear favoritism of Principal Kobayakawa caused him to blatantly predate other students. One of the causalities was Ryuji Sakamoto, whom Kamoshida purposefully goaded into having a violent fit on him by spreading his undesirable family history around the school with the intent of ensuring that his own team stays on the frontlines, allowing him to break Ryuji's leg in an apparent case of "self-defense" resulting in the subsequent disbanding of the team.

While his Volleyball Club is voluntary instead of forced draft (and thus not all students are directly affected by his tyranny), all athletes in his own sports club are invariably abused. He sexually harasses his female athletes while subjecting male athletes to brutal physical abuse which he justified by labeling it as "training." The cognitions in his palace heavily imply that his usual methods of abusing his athletes are physically assaulting them with his fists, spiking volleyballs directly aimed at their faces and denying them water or rest even if they need it. Presumably, due to the abuse, the sounds of students screaming or other weird noises (which are implied to be of students having orgasms when being molested by him) can be often heard near the PE faculty office. Students out of the volleyball team are sometimes targeted: if he does not like a specific student, he will tell Yuuki Mishima, a volleyball athlete who he often abuses to spread unfavorable rumors about them.

Despite his blatancy, the students could not speak up against Kamoshida as the principal silenced any attempt to speak up against or otherwise report Kamoshida's actions. With no way to stop his systemic abuse at Shujin Academy, known by the students, staff and even the parents, Kamoshida began to see himself as nothing less than an untouchable ruler - a king who had the entire Shujin Academy as his own castle.

Kamoshida is first shown in a cutscene where Sadayo Kawakami complains to him about the protagonist being transferred to the school, due to fears based on his criminal record. He assures Kawakami that if anything were to happen, he would kick a student like that out right away. He also gloats about the supremacy of his Volleyball Team enough to cover for the protagonist's record. On the first day of school, he offers to give Ann Takamaki a ride, which she accepts reluctantly. After the accidental entry of his Palace by the protagonist and Ryuji, he is completely unaware of its existence, but regardless acts against the protagonist in a hostile manner simply because of his baseless criminal record and he was with Ryuji on the first day at school, with one of his aggressive acts against him is spreading rumors about his record around the school using Mishima. In Royal, he also told Kasumi to stay away from the protagonist because of how dangerous he (supposedly) is and spread the rumors that he is trying to hit on athletes (based on the first two people that he was with on the first few days of school, Ryuji and Kasumi being athletes), causing Kawakami to scold him after school. According to Kasumi on the field trip, some of the fabricated crimes that he spread against the protagonist also include murder, rape and smuggling ivory.

He often asks Ann out for dates which she repeatedly (and reluctantly) accepts under the term that she will not accept any sexual advance from him, but upon the second entry of his Palace, a cognitive copy of Ann, known as "Princess Ann" also appears alongside him in his Palace with her behavior and clothing vastly altered from the original person she is based on, revealing that he doesn't see Ann as anything other than an obedient sex slave. He is later seen spiking a volleyball aimed directly at Mishima's face in front of numerous students in the volleyball tournament, further showing the blatancy of his abuse. The protagonist and Ryuji attempt to interrogate the students in order to expose his crimes. Despite multiple athletes were heavily injured due to Kamoshida physically abusing them in the volleyball rally, the interrogations end up with no avail as all of the students refused to speak against Kamoshida out of fear of retaliation, forcing the two to act on their own.

The duo and Morgana eventually plan a heist to steal his corrupt heart at Kamoshida's Palace, initially to prevent the abuse of the volleyball team, which is indicated by the volleyball team member's Cognitive existences being subject to torture in his Palace, inferring the severity of his abusive training techniques in reality. In a private meeting with Ann, the protagonist also discovers that Kamoshida is trying to blackmail her into sexual relations with him, but to no avail. As an act of revenge against Ann rejecting his sexual advances, he sexually assaulted (and it was heavily implied that he sexually violated) her friend Shiho Suzui because Ann repeatedly refused to go to bed with him. This resulted in her attempted suicide on the next day, adding a further incentive to their original mission; indeed, it is at this point that they stop caring about potentially killing him, since the suicide attempt makes it clear just how dangerous he is. When Ryuji, the protagonist, and Mishima confront Kamoshida after Shiho's attempted suicide, he taunts them for their lack of evidence and mocks Shiho's predicament, enraging Ryuji enough to nearly attack him before being stopped by the protagonist. He then decides to threaten to manipulate the school board into expelling them, adding a deadline to their mission. Ann, furious at what he did to her friend, enters Kamoshida's Palace herself while the party is scouting it that day, and ends up awakening to a Persona and joining them.

After reaching the depths of his Palace the party discovers his treasure, which cannot be stolen until it is given form by the Palace's owner. After Morgana explains that treasures gain form once the owner is aware it is in jeopardy, Ryuji creates several calling cards and posts them all over the school. Kamoshida sees the calling cards and realizes he is under threat, causing his treasure to take on a physical form; in this case, a shiny royal crown.

His treasure at first appears to be too heavy to lift, until Shadow Kamoshida suddenly appears and changes the crown's size so he can hold it. The party is forced to fight him in order to make him surrender the treasure and he transforms into his boss form, Asmodeus, a mutated demon of lust and contains "Princess Ann" into a glass of wine that he uses to boost his attack and his cognitive female volleyball students into the Trophy of Obsession which he uses to heal himself. Once the party discovers he is healing with the trophy, they destroy it and devised a plan to knock off his crown, severely weakening him and causing his defeat.

After he is defeated, the team allows Ann to decide how to deal with him. Despite a clear desire to inflict pain on him or even kill his now cowering Shadow, Ann holds back, indicting him to return to his body and atone. The formerly haughty and lustful Shadow can do nothing except weep and comply with her instructions, finally realizing the impact of his actions.

On May 2nd, during a school assembly to address the concerns brought up by Shiho's attempted suicide, Kamoshida dramatically enters the gymnasium while declaring in a subdued tone that he has been "reborn." As he walks onto the stage, Kamoshida prostrates in front of the entire school and admits his guilt for his sexual harassment and abuse. Though the principal attempts to hush him, Kamoshida continues to openly confess to his crimes, so distraught that he offers his own life as payment to atone for his actions. Ann reprimands him, telling that Shiho was still alive after everything that drove her to her suicide attempt, and that he has no right to escape from his guilt. Kamoshida agrees and apologizes for his attempts to force Ann into having relations with him, much to the students’ immense disgust, and begs for the police to be called so that he can turn himself in and properly atone, after saying he will resign as of that day. Over the next few days, Kamoshida's confession is broadcast across Japan, leaving a legacy of shame for the former Olympic athlete.

In the real world, Kamoshida's Treasure is his Olympic medal, which the Thieves sold to Munehisa Iwai for 30,000 Yen and used it to celebrate at a buffet in Shibuya's Wilton Hotel and gave 6,000 from among them to the protagonist. Their victory and their fateful encounter with Masayoshi Shido afterward has inspired the Persona users to form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in order to reform society to its right path.

Kamoshida's scandal kickstarts the public's interest in the Phantom Thieves, although they discover that reporters have no interest in Kamoshida's story, but try to exaggerate it and even make the Phantom Thieves seem real for the sake of ratings, aware that the information they have on them is ambiguous at best and incorrect at worst.

If the party fails to clear his Palace in time, he will manipulate the school board to expel the protagonist, Ryuji, and Mishima from school, and he will file a charge against the protagonist for crimes during his probation period. This is a false recollection made by the protagonist during his interrogation with Sae. She then leaves to let the protagonist recover, in which a mysterious person takes the opportunity to assassinate him.

Near the end of the game, the Phantom Thieves encounter Kamoshida's Shadow in the Depths of Mementos, locked in the massive cell at the start of the second floor alongside their other previous targets. He, alongside the other Palace owners whose hearts have been stolen, praises the cell from which he originally escaped, declaring that he is content now that he is able to live without having to think for himself anymore. It turns out that the Phantom Thieves did not make Kamoshida atone, but instead made him a member of the apathetic public, which explains his behavior as a weeping husk instead of somebody who tries to atone for himself after the Phantom Thieves changed his heart. Despite this, he still jokingly tries to seduce Ann when he is first encountered in the cell.

Persona 5 Royal
While his role is identical to Persona 5, he now summons cognitive copies of Yuuki Mishima and Shiho Suzui to cast his killshots, once Cognitive Shiho is neutralized, the special operation begins.

In order to soothe the mental health of the students in Shujin, Kobayakawa hires Takuto Maruki to comfort the students who were victims of Kamoshida's crimes. Due to initial members of the Thieves being the victims of his most heinous activities, Maruki quickly becomes one of their greatest sponsors.

​Persona 5 Manga
Kamoshida appears in the manga adaption of the game. Here he is shown having better control over his emotions and keeps a straight face more often.

While in the palace, his Shadow Self is a great deal more cunning, having captured Ann, who in the manga adaption hasn't awakened her persona yet, as a bargaining tool for when Joker, Skull and Mona take his treasure.

Persona 5 The Animation
Kamoshida's role in the anime adaption is near identical to his game counterpart. However, it also goes more in-depth to the abuse Kamoshida dealt to various students, showing him punching Shiho with his fists and deliberately using his Olympian skills on Ren to knock his glasses off during class. (Although the latter resulted in Ren giving him a threatening glare, causing him to show signs of fear.)

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Kamoshida is briefly seen in the in-game trailer of the movie Kamoshidaman, transforming into its titular superhero when a giant burglar is wrecking havoc in the movie's city.

Strategy
Shadow Kamoshida is fairly straightforward as his primary means of attack are physical skills only, but he will attack twice per turn. It's best to take him on when the party is around level 11, where Ann gains access to Tarunda to suppress his damage output and where Morgana gains Media to keep the party in good shape. It's also beneficial to equip a Persona that resists physical attacks like Obariyon or Slime to further minimize the damage the protagonist will be taking, since all of Kamoshida's damaging skills are physical.

One of his attacks, Lick, targets Ann specifically and deals heavy Physical damage to her. Luckily, Shadow Kamoshida telegraphs this attack by "Staring" at Ann for a turn, so she can guard beforehand. Once Kamoshida's health is reduced to 3/4th, he will automatically spend his next turn fully recovering his health thanks to the trophy in front of him. Once he has performed this action, the trophy becomes targetable and needs to be destroyed in order to continue to weaken him. Once destroyed, he is automatically put into a Hold Up for an All-out Attack.

At this point, Kamoshida continues as normal, but he now gains a new attack, Gold Medal Spike, which deals heavy Physical damage to all allies. However, like Lick, this move is telegraphed in advance, thus can guard themselves from taking heavy damage. Morgana will eventually notify the protagonist that if they can take the crown off of his head, he can be severely weakened. This sets up an opening for a special order, as he will select one member of the party to try and steal it. (Though choosing Ann will automatically result as a failed attempt since Kamoshida keeps staring at her.) Doing so removes them from the party for three turns. Kamoshida must be attacked at least once per turn during this time in order to distract him. The exception being during turns he is charging up for Gold Medal Spike, when the party can guard or heal freely. After he performs three actions, the character sent will knock off the crown, significantly weakening Kamoshida's Attack and Defense. Additionally, he will occasionally skip an entire turn. The special order isn't mandatory, however, as it's still possible to defeat Kamoshida with his crown still on.

Royal
Kamoshida acts mostly identical to his Persona 5 counterpart in Royal. However, his usage of his super attacks are limited to twice after his Trophy of Obsession has been removed. He will first summon a cognitive Yuuki Mishima, which the party can guard as usual. The attack that he uses during this turn is the usual Gold Medal Spike. Then he will drive the cognitive Mishima away and replace him with a cognitive Shiho Suzui, who repeats the same pattern and will let him use Killshot of Love instead. In this instance however, the party can attack the cognitive Shiho with any skills to Down and kill her or attack Kamoshida himself, although if one wishes to do the latter, they must hit Kamoshida for a total of approximately 300 damage. Doing either one stops the Killshot.

Persona 5
Suguru "Asmodeus" Kamoshida=

Trophy of Obsession=

Persona 5 Royal

 * Cognitive Shiho can be stopped by the following methods:
 * Attack and destroy it.
 * Kamoshida takes a total of around 300 damage.

Suguru "Asmodeus" Kamoshida=

Trophy of Obsession=

Cognitive Shiho=

Battle Quotes

 * "Class is in session!" (Start of fight)
 * "You goddamn, no-good, shitty brats! Haven't you been taught not to point at people!? Huh!?"
 * "Don't underestimate me!"
 * "Hey, quit dodging!" (Player dodges an attack)
 * "A fitting end for a peasant!" (Player dies)
 * "Take this!"
 * "Taste my whip of love!" (When using Tongue Whip)
 * "Nnnnngh! I need healin'! Come at me, you pieces of shit! I ain't lettin' you sleep tonight!" (After using Libido Boost)
 * "*gasp* Hey! You don't know what this is worth, so stop touching it! Don't do it anymore, got it? I've warned you!" (After player damages Trophy of Obsession)
 * "Utterly useless!" (When using Golden Knife)
 * "No way... This was from when I won the national... You think you can get away with doing such a thing? Do you realize who I am!? ...I am Kamoshida! Don't you get it!?" (After Trophy of Obsession is destroyed)
 * Bullshit! I am above everything in this castle! I am Kamoshida! I'm the king here!"
 * "Silence! I won't let the likes of you have this!"
 * "So divine..." (When using Lustful Slurp)
 * "I'm the king...! If I'm not, then who is!?" (During a Hold Up)
 * "I want to love you!" (When using Lick)
 * "How dare you keep defying me... Looks like I gotta being out the big guns! Slaves! Bring over you-know-what! Time for my killshot from when I was active and rockin' it! Killshot... as in I'll make the kill!" (Activating Gold Medal Spike)
 * "The spike that seized the world!" (When using Gold Medal Spike)
 * "Now listen up. This school exists because I'm around. You're the only ones who don't respect me, you know!"
 * "You're misunderstanding it all! I haven't sexually harassed anyone! They came on to me because they wanted to get on my good side!"
 * "Where do you think you are going, Takamaki? You and that damn fine bod of yours!" (Sending Ann to steal the crown)
 * "Hey, Sakamoto! Why the hell can't you behave, huh!?" (Sending Ryuji to steal the crown but failing)
 * "Hey! You cat...like thing! I'll make you run laps around the school if you try anything funny!"
 * "Is there one less of you? I knew it! They're missing! Where'd they go!?" (Immediately before crown is stolen)
 * "Nooo! My... my precious...!" (After crown is stolen)
 * "Damn you!" (defeated)

Overworld Quotes
Will Seed Chambers:
 * "No one gets away from me."
 * "Just get your ass over here already."
 * "Takamaki...hehehehe......hehehehe...Yes, yes..."
 * "Wow...Shake it for me, Suzui..."
 * "Hahaha...yes, yes..."
 * "I'm the King...no one can stop me."
 * "God...you're such a hottie...Hey, I like what you got there..."

Etymology
Suguru (卓) can mean "table" or "tall" or compose phrases like "excellence" (卓越/卓抜). Kamoshida (鴨志田) is a rather common Japanese surname.

Trivia

 * While female athletes being harassed by their male coaches and the matters usually being covered are quite common worldwide, Japanese players suspect Kamoshida is based on the former Judo gold medalist (内柴 正人) who was sentenced to prison for sexual harassment and had his awards and honors revoked.
 * Kamoshida's voice is significantly different in the Japanese version than in the English version of Persona 5; In the Japanese version, his voice is high-pitched and effeminate while in the English version, it is deep and intimidating.
 * The car Kamoshida uses to take Ann to a ride is a 2008 S200 luxury sedan. This being in reference to his Shadow being a king.
 * Kamoshida can be seen patrolling the hallways of Shujin during April 18 to May 1. The protagonist may go in front of him to start a conversation. Once interacted with, he will insult him and remind him of the board meeting that would sentence him to expulsion. If spoken to again, he will tell the protagonist to get lost.
 * In an investigation by the police at Shujin Academy, the protagonist may falsely report that he's been abused and sexually assaulted. This does not seem to have any subsequent effects in-game.
 * Unlike every other target, it is impossible to view Kamoshida's "initial" security portrait in-game, as one cannot roam his Palace freely before Kamoshida is met.
 * Kamoshida cannot be defeated before all of his scripted events are resolved. If one attempts it and manages to do so, he will automatically trigger the scripted events (such as healing with the Trophy of Obsession), forcing the party to solve them first.
 * Hidden skill files in the game reveal a skill that goes by the name "Lust Sphere," which has the same description as Megido. The animation for the skill is also similar to Gold Medal Spike, indicating that this almighty skill might be intended to be his most dangerous attack instead of the Physical Gold Medal Spike.

Appearances in Other Media

 * Kyoutou Kotoba RPG: Kamoshida (Enemy > Can join as Kotodaman); Shadow (4-star), Asmodeus (5-star)