I'd probably rank the characters like so. (I'm excluding Joker because obviously I'm going to like my self-insert character lol. And I'm excluding Royal and Strikers characters to keep it simple, even though I think they should be included.)
1) Makoto
Smart, cool and assertive. She brings some much needed maturity and logic to the party. Kind of crazy they don't make her the leader. I also love her fighting style and her motorcycle persona lol.
2) Futaba
I relate to Futaba in a lot of ways. She loves computers and technology, but she has social anxiety that makes it hard for her to speak with people or go out to places she wants to go to. I'm not a total shut-in and haven't suffered the same kind of trauma she has, but I can empathize with her. She's way smarter than me, though -- I'm no super hacker. Also, she had one of the best palaces and story. Also, Also, I like little sister characters.
3) Ann
For me, the best part of Persona 5 was the beginning of the game, when you're an outcast and you have a very small social network. It was refreshing compared to Persona 3 and 4. And I related to it a lot since I was also an outcast in high school and got into a lot of trouble. I transferred schools a lot and every time I did I felt more distant from everyone else. In my experience, the transfer kid does not become popular just because they're the new kid. I liked Ann because she saw through the bullshit and confided in me. Despite being a beautiful up and coming model, she did not hide behind a fake facade. She too was an outcast in ways, was deeply troubled, and needed help. I bonded with her early on and choose her for all of the special events/romance options throughout the course of the game.
4) Akechi
Akechi is really irritating, though it's by design. He's your rival; he captivates audiences with his intelligence, charm and strong sense of justice. He constantly turns public opinion against you, grounding the Thieves whenever things start going to their heads. As the story progresses, things continue to get very tense between you, leading up to several major twists. It's just a real shame that the game decided to spoil these twists for you by giving some very unsubtle hints/scenes leading up to them. I hate that shit. I didn't play vanilla Persona 5, but to my understanding his character is fleshed out a lot more in the Royal version. So I can understand why people would especially hate him if they only played Vanilla.
I don't have any great screenshots of Akechi. I didn't care much for him for most of my playthrough. Once he started to grow on me, I think the Share button had been disabled by that point. 🤷♂️
5) Ryuji
Ryuji was great at the start of the game. He was your first friend at your new school. You reluctantly bond with him because you're both outcasts and you've got no one else. Even though he's kind of annoying, he's a good guy that got done dirty by corrupt adults and now he wants to get back at them. (This is a recurring theme throughout the game that sadly loses steam as it goes on and literally almost every character has the same basic motivation, but it was cool at first.) He reminded me a lot of some friends I made in high school. People who I at first put up with only because they were all I had, but they grew on me, even if it was just a little bit. It's a shame he got kind of cast off to the side and reduced to a joke character.
6) Haru
Haru is a sweet girl, but to be honest I find her pretty boring. I like her costume and codename. I didn't really care about that much about the drama around her father's company and her position as heirass. I'm glad she got free from the creep fiance, though. Also, I deeply respect her love of coffee and cafe culture. I found it pretty weird that she was still okay with her persona powers and with hanging with the phantom thieves, even though her dad dies after her first mission.
7) Yusuke
I don't like Yusuke that much. His eccentric, starving artist bit gets old very fast. And don't even get me started on the creepy stuff with Ann. But I like his character design and sword moves. It's also interesting that he attends a different school, and his backstory was admittedly good.
8) Morgana
I hate Morgana so much. The way he always creeps on Ann. The way he always bullies Ryuji. But the final straw was all that drama bullshit that started around the beach vacation/Haru arc. Also, I wish I could erase his human form my memory.
THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK! ♥