Alibaba, the hacker supreme, Futaba Sakura, is a child prodigy capable of breaking through any firewall and extracting any information via the internet. Futaba thinks at a mile a minute with a keen comprehension of all things digital. As a Phantom Thief, she protects the crew from cyber attacks, helps plan and hack, and serves as the gang’s navigator when they are in the Metaverse. Her noncombatant Persona, Necronomicon, is a support Persona. Therefore, she does not directly fight, instead, she offers tactical advice and occasionally will buff the team’s powers.
She is certainly an odd kid. Since her mother’s death, at the hands of a shadowy organisation, Futaba has been a recluse and shut-in. She refuses to go outside and accesses the world through her computers rather than experiencing it. She has no friends and is generally depressed – she needs to break free of her self-imposed shackles and bring justice to her mother’s killers.
Futaba’s personality is quirky; she often talks in video games and computer terminology to describe situations and feelings, reflecting her computer-centric lifestyle. She is quick to hide behind Joker if overwhelmed, but she will do whatever it takes to help the Phantom Thieves complete their mission when the chips are down.
Erica Lindbeck is the Persona 5 voice actor for Futaba Sakura’s English dub. She trained for a film career from a young age, looking to become an actor in film, but found limited success. After turning her attention to voice acting, Erica has successfully taken part in various big-name franchises, like Evangelion and Nier: Automata. She is also the voice for Barbie in various Barbie films.
She had great control and influence over the direction that she wanted to take with Futaba’s voice. While there was an established character from the initial Japanese version of Persona 5, the English Persona 5 voice actors were given a chance to make their own iterations of the cast distinct and unique. This is what Lindbeck did to create the childish, playful, and active sound that is Futaba Sakura.