App for Route

[ardent]

Player
Name: Dal
Personal Journal: dalicious
E-mail: daletchica@yahoo.com
AIM/MSN: AIM: AsylumBred
Timezone: EDT (GMT -4:00)
Current Characters in Route: N/A

Character
Name: Kiyotaka Ishimaru
Series: Dangan Ronpa
Timeline: Chapter 2, the night after "motives" have been released
Canon Resource Links: ...hahaha oh my god. Um.

Dangan Ronpa is unlicensed in the US; it hasn't been localized, nor has it been professionally translated. However, there is a very extensive Let's Play of the game, consisting of a full translation, located here. It's on the SomethingAwful forums, and sometimes a paywall is up, meaning that an account is needed to view it when that happens. A Dangan Ronpa wiki exists, but it is pathetically underdeveloped and prone to vandalism; the actual Wikipedia entry on the game itself is here, explaining the plot in a bit more detail, and there's a TVTropes page here that is pretty well-done.

However, I understand if you don't want to wade through the LP and the other links are either pretty sparse or...well, TVTropes, and so! Here is a basic overview of the canon in general, as well as Ishimaru's part in it up to his current canon point, should you prefer that (or if you just want to read it, I guess). Link obviously contains spoilers, though I tried to keep them vague!

Personality:

Kiyotaka Ishimaru is a model student.

Admittedly, it may be difficult to tell that at first glance; despite the fact that he was selected to attend Hope's Peak Academy (an elite school accepting only the most exceptional in their particular field or talent) after being noted for his proficiency as a "Super High-School Level Hall Monitor," it's very obvious that Ishimaru is a bit...special...in ways that have nothing to do with his title. He seems to have no concept of an indoor voice, and even when he's having private conversations with people his preferred manner of speaking is best described as "emphatic screaming"; on the rare occasions that he's speaking with something approaching a normal volume level, conversations with Ishimaru tend to be rather odd in general, as he comes across as blunt, forceful and demanding. He doesn't make requests so much as he tells people that they will do things, he uses honorifics with his peers that imply that he sees them as subordinates rather than equals, and despite the fact that he has such a commanding presence overall he can come across as strangely distant - he doesn't engage in idle conversations with others, he doesn't seem particularly close to anyone on a friendly level, and when it comes to following the rules, dislodging whatever stick's up his rear is going to require nothing short of an act of God. He's also prone to ridiculously insensitive comments from time to time (if anything, he blunders into upsetting or annoying people more often than he doesn't) and while he doesn't seem to act out in fits of anger, he just generally tends to come across as crazy as hell.

However, Ishimaru is one of the most genuinely decent students that's been thrown into the utter hell that Hope's Peak has become. Despite his brash and abrasive behavior, his first priority always rests with the other students and their well-being; once the nature of Monobear's "game" becomes clear and the school immediately becomes the most ironically-named place on the planet, Ishimaru is quick to take on a leadership role among the students. He organizes investigations of the school and collects verbal reports from the other students describing what they've found; he checks in with everyone every morning to make sure they're awake, all right and will at least get breakfast in them before setting about with daily activities; he runs meetings in the morning, and in the evenings after major developments, so that everyone can better keep up with each other and so he can keep track of what's going on...he basically keeps busy in keeping everyone else busy. It's something that not all of the other students appreciate or take seriously; however, Ishimaru persists in his duties, regardless of how much snark he gets for it sometimes.

It's this sort of behavior, as well as his attitude toward his situation, that make it plain why he's the Super High-School Level Hall Monitor to begin with - he's very dedicated to rules and order, but not at the expense of others. After all, Monobear has set forth "rules" that need to be followed in order for students to leave the school, but Ishimaru isn't willing to follow them, instead taking an active role in organizing the others and helping them find another way out; his sense of justice and what constitutes "right" and "wrong" are very strong, and he spends the entirety of his run in Dangan Ronpa insisting that there's no good reason to murder anyone, that there's always another option, and he refuses to throw anyone else under a bus in order to save himself. He's very idealistic and seems to want to think the best of everyone and that they'll hold themselves to the same standards - at the outset of the game, he's absolutely convinced that none of his fellow students will kill anyone, and he's hindered during trials and investigations regarding the murders that do happen because he's reluctant to suspect anyone in particular. He does join the other students in expressing suspicion toward Naegi, the protagonist, before the first trial, when most of the evidence points toward him; however, before they enter the courtroom he backpedals and apologizes, saying that he doesn't really believe Naegi to have killed anyone, no matter how suspicious it looks. (While that's admittedly a really backhanded apology and it's left up to interpretation whether this is entirely true or not, it's worth mentioning that this is the first thing he says to Naegi after accusing him earlier, he wasn't pushed or prompted to apologize at all by Naegi or anyone else, and he seems rather distressed and uncomfortable with the situation. So it's fairly safe to assume that he's at least conflicted about the issue.)

So he's idealistic. Optimistic. And pretty much a genuinely decent guy. Leaving us with just one question, really - that being "Okay yeahno, what the hell happened to cause the massive level of social idiocy described earlier?"

Not much is known about Ishimaru's personal life before his arrival at Hope's Peak - we're never shown what his first "motive" was (involving the people he considers closest to him), nor does he seem willing to talk about it. But while not many details are given regarding either his life or his family, there is one vital exception - in an optional social-link-type event in which he's spending time with Naegi, he confides that his grandfather was a genius, elected to the office of Prime Minister some time before the events of the game; however, his decision-making skills while in office were shown to be...vastly subpar, bringing disgrace upon his family. Ishimaru has taken it upon himself to restore honor to his family's name; however, while smart, he isn't intellectually gifted in any particular direction. As such, he intends to prove to society - and to some extent, to himself - that hard work, dedication and personal discipline can be just as valuable as any "genius"-level talents, and that he has the willpower to make a success of himself despite most of the odds being stacked against him.

And for the most part, he's been very successful so far. Before being selected to attend Hope's Peak, he attended a prestigious high school where he was known for being a model student through and through - he was both top of his class in academics and the leader of the school's disciplinary committee. However, due to his dedication to studying and adhering to proper conduct coming before almost everything else, he's had very little by way of a normal personal life. He expresses confusion about why anyone would people would watch TV or play video games when there's studying that can be done to pass the time; he has a very difficult time understanding things that most people are surrounded by daily (Naegi literally tells him that a hooded sweatshirt doubles as a safety helmet and Ishimaru believes him), and he doesn't really have much of a concept of having fun simply for fun's sake. He admits that he doesn't engage in normal conversations because he has no idea what to talk to his peers about, and he confides to Naegi (and, according to the manga, to Mondo Oowada as well) that he's never been able to make friends. And it's not for a lack of trying, because he mentions having tried for years with no success; rather, he can't make friends because he literally doesn't know how, a fact that distresses him greatly and tends to make him cry.

Basically, Ishimaru is a good person and rather book-smart but very poorly socialized; however, he's learned to make up for at least some of his social shortcomings by using his Hall Monitor obligations as a means to interact with others. After all, keeping everyone in line and making sure that they follow the rules also ensures that they're safe; managing everyone's time gives him an excuse to check on them, allowing him to express concern without feeling vulnerable or personally overinvested. This is probably best illustrated in the canon AU side-story Dangan Ronpa IF - at one point, Naegi feels ill and faints, only to wake up in the school infirmary the next day. It's explained that Ishimaru was very distressed upon hearing this and immediately set up a rotating 24-hour watch to make sure that Naegi's condition didn't worsen, so it can be assumed that he was told exactly what happened by one of the students that was present; however, upon Naegi's return to the group, Ishimaru immediately demands an explanation for where he was, wanting to know why he's late to join the others. Everyone else linefaces rather hard at this because the question has a completely obvious answer, but it's soon made clear that Ishimaru isn't trying to be annoying, he's concerned - he was simply checking the information he'd received against the information Naegi himself gave him. When everything matches up he seems relieved, telling Naegi to just focus on getting well, and then wanders off to set about appointing some sort of Health Committee in case something like that happens again.

At the same time, while he seems to find it easier to use his duties to socialize, that doesn't mean that he's cold or unfeeling; to the contrary, he's very passionate about...well, just about everything. He's incredibly hotblooded and has more shounen spirit than one can shake a stick at; he translates the passion into forcefulness and sheer screaming volume most of the time, and he honestly couldn't hide his emotions even if he wanted to. Ishimaru is incredibly sensitive and extremely expressive, wearing his heart on his sleeve and feeling no shame whatsoever at open displays of emotion - in particular, he cries very easily, even when he's not upset (Anger? Tears. Fear? Tears. Excitement? Tears. Happiness? Oh, look, he's laughing and - ...wow, yep, there are the tears) and he doesn't seem embarrassed or bothered by it at all.

And given how bad his current situation is, he's certainly given plenty of reasons to cry. While most of the students seem bothered by their situation and are shocked and scared by the executions, Ishimaru is shown openly grieving the deaths of the other students; following the death of someone he's close to, he starts screaming and seems unable to stop himself for quite some time. Even when he isn't close to the students in question, however, it's obvious that death hits him hard; after one of his fellow classmates is shown to be a murderer and executed as punishment for what he's done, Ishimaru is shown openly crying and grieving over the culprit's death, even though he didn't know the individual well at all. He cares deeply for the other students and wants to protect them, but he clearly doesn't think any of the culprits deserve death, either, regardless of what they've done.

However, Ishimaru is a teenager, not a saint, and he does have some rather volatile sides to his personality that will surface now and then. If he gets angry enough, he's not opposed to letting a few choice words fly at whomever is agitating him; he also isn't above insults and petty behavior toward people he feels legitimately need to better themselves, either intellectually or in terms of following the rules. This is most evident in his initial treatment of Mondo Oowada; while they aren't even all that civil to one another at first, they at least seem content to take a few verbal shots and then just deal with the fact that they won't get along and keep their distance from one another...until the beginning of Chapter Two, at which point they finally get into a direct confrontation. Mondo misunderstands one of the references that Ishimaru makes and Ishimaru is quick to call him an idiot; pleased that he finally has some way to get an upper hand over Mondo (and as a result is finally higher in the social hierarchy than someone), he spends the rest of that evening picking on Mondo for his intelligence, and claiming that Mondo has less willpower between the two of them because at least Ishimaru doesn't need to "resort to violence so easily." However, even though he doesn't like Mondo at the time and is being a tremendous brat in his direction, Ishimaru is still openly worried about him when their argument culminates in Mondo doing something reckless and incredibly dangerous, and they more than make up after the fact - they seem to bond over their passionate natures (and mutual rash stupidity, if we're going to be honest) and they quickly become inseparable. So while Ishimaru definitely isn't above stupid petty behavior, it's incredibly rare that it lasts in any way, and it doesn't directly conflict with his sense of responsibility toward the others; his personal feelings, strong though they may be, ultimately aren't allowed to conflict with his sense of justice and doing the right thing by others.

And in the end, that's what defines him as a person; despite his flaws and whatever his personal thoughts may be about someone, he wants to do what's right by others. He never treats others as though dealing with them is an inconvenience or an unpleasant obligation, and while it's definitely in his own, admittedly bizarre sort of way, he does what he can to ensure that everyone gets out of the school in one piece.

Strengths/Weaknesses:
✔ DETERMINATOR
Ishimaru's favorite life motto (and he has many, many life mottos) is "simplicity and fortitude," and it's the one that best embodies the life he's trying to lead. He wants to prove to the world that hard work and discipline can be just as valuable as any sort of inherited or genetic 'genius,' and his life goals explicitly involve trying to change the country through sheer strength of will. He's incredibly focused and driven, and he holds himself to standards that are just as high (if not higher) than those he holds everyone else to. He has ridiculous amounts of shounen spirit and he never gives up, no matter what; even if he temporarily loses faith, he finds some way to regain it eventually.

✔ DETERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY
As the Super High-School Level Hall Monitor, Ishimaru's sense of justice is very strong. He holds order and regulations in very high esteem, and he has a very firm sense of right and wrong; however, he won't take his idea of justice to extremes - he's very fair, and he doesn't believe in punishing people beyond what they deserve. He also doesn't judge people unless they're actively doing something negative - in Hope's Peak, he takes all of the students' ideas and thoughts into account, and if the ideas are valid he'll acknowledge them as such, regardless of how little he may agree with the student on a personal level.

✔ FIRST DO NO HARM
Ishimaru is generally a pacifist; he sees resorting to violence before using one's words as a sign of weakness, and he refuses to harm his fellow students even if it means a shot at saving his own life. He sees no reason for directly hurting anyone to ever be justified, and killing is even less justifiable in his eyes; while he understands that punishment is sometimes necessary, he prefers things like "detention" over "corporal punishment." About the only exception to this is if he's having one of his...er, stranger moments, detailed below - but even then, that's aimed at himself, not any of the other students.

✔ RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF KNOWLEDGE IN AREAS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT MATTER
After so many years of doing nothing but studying, Ishimaru is incredibly book-smart; he was top of his class in a famous upscale academy before attending Hope's Peak, and he was known for being a model student. He's pretty much a facts-and-trivia-spouting machine if he knows a topic well enough, and he doesn't hesitate to bring up random obscure references if he can (he...seems to think this is how one actively participates in group discussions, which is another matter entirely, but still); he's particularly skilled in the areas of logic and debate, and he's far more observant than he seems to be - while he has difficulty understanding people's behavior, he's usually the first to point out physical oddities or contradictions dealing with their surroundings.

✔/✘ LEADERSHIP SKILLS, BOTH ACTUAL AND PERCEIVED
Ishimaru is without a doubt a natural leader, and he's very good to have around in a crisis for this reason; he's capable of organizing people and seeing what needs to be done to keep everything running reasonably smoothly, and he's very authoritative and able to structure gatherings easily. He's also responsible and generally dependable as a whole, and is capable of planning for both the short- and long-term. However, he's also often stubborn and he doesn't like admitting when he's wrong; if he has a point he tends to harp on it endlessly until he's agreed with. He stops well short of flat-out bullying others to get his way, but he doesn't back down very gracefully, either, and he basically doesn't understand when it might be a good idea to shut up and take a seat. Or perhaps take several seats.

✔/✘ UNDYING FAITH IN PEOPLE
Ishimaru always strives to see the best in people; he refuses to believe that any of the students in Hope's Peak are capable of flat-out murder, and he tends to have difficulty directly accusing anyone because his idealism quite frankly tends to get in the way. This can obviously be a massive double-edged sword - he trusts too easily and tends to have far too much faith in people that may not deserve it, and he doesn't seem to realize that while he holds himself to a strict moral code, not everyone else feels the same way.

✘ SUPER HIGH-SCHOOL LEVEL SOCIAL FAILURE
Between near-constant studying and his duties with the disciplinary committee, Ishimaru is very, very poorly socialized; as such, he doesn't really understand basic social cues - most of them seem to go over his head, unless they're particularly obvious. He seems to get along better with people who either speak to him very bluntly or directly, or otherwise are very animated; on the other hand, he seems to forget that Kirigiri - a student who is very closed-off and difficult to read - even exists half the time, given that it always needs to be pointed out to him when she's absent from a meeting.

Along with the basic social difficulties above, Ishimaru himself admits that he has no idea how idle conversations work; he pretty much expects everything to be either a debate or some sort of official business, and if it's not then he tends to have some difficulty providing topics that aren't "school" or "basic merits of following the rules."

That said, Ishimaru does try to spend time with others; however, his idea of how one should spend time tends to be strange at best. He usually talks at people rather than talking to them, and he usually uses his hall monitor duties as an excuse to check on them, but when he wants to just spend free time with them...well. The results are often a little mixed. This probably has something to do with the fact that he likes to either immediately launch into some sort of lengthy debate about something literally no one but him would care about at the moment, or he approaches them in a hallway and demands that they take their clothes off.

Yes, really.

What he means is that he wants to spend time in the sauna with them, but he extends the invitations in the most bizarrely awkward way possible, complete with shouting about how the best way to know if you can trust people is to see them naked.

So he tries to solve his problems! He just does it in some really...unconventional ways.

✘ ISHIMARU PLS
Ishimaru's reactions to emotional stimuli tend to be...uh, really intense, for lack of a better term. As mentioned in the personality section, he cries at the drop of a hat, pretty much (and when he cries, he cries - he is pretty much the physical embodiment of uglycrying, we are talking tears and sweat and snot and dear god it's kind of impressively gross); outside of that, however, he also tends to have strange reactions to things going negatively, often believing them to be his fault somehow even if there's no way that it's possibly the case. And when he perceives things to be his fault, he tends to react...very badly. He doesn't lash out at others, he takes it to the other extreme: he immediately begins tearing up and carrying on about how much of a failure he is, and on at least one occasion during a fit like this he starts yelling about how much he deserves to be hit for his shortcomings - and he doesn't stop right away, either, continuing to scream and begging people to hit him until someone finally tells him to shut up, claiming that if he has the time and energy to make that much noise about it, he can just do it himself. That said, however, he's very easily soothed, and he calms down from these massive fits almost as quickly as he throws himself into them; it's not unheard of for him to be crying one minute, and laughing and thanking the person he's talking to for helping him figure something out the next.

However, though it seems contradictory given how open he is with most of his feelings, Ishimaru also has trouble presenting himself honestly when it comes to his problems - namely, he thinks he needs to handle everyone else's problems with absolutely no complaints of his own. It's not simply a matter of thinking he needs to suffer in silence such as not to be a burden to people - it's generally more severe than that. If anyone notices that he's having problems, he's quick to cry and insult himself repeatedly, calling himself things like "disgusting," "repulsive" and "deplorable" for not keeping his own negativity in check and completely hidden; he legitimately thinks he deserves to be punished for complaining to anyone about very real problems and issues that he's having, and he seems afraid that others will judge him harshly for not being able to handle everything by himself.

✘ NO BUT REALLY GUYS HOW DO I PEOPLE
Ishimaru is very book-smart, as was mentioned above, and he can be incredibly observant most of the time, but he doesn't possess a lot of common sense when it comes to dealing with others. Not only is he blunt to the point of being completely tactless and coming across as far more insensitive than he really is, but his interpersonal problem-solving skills seem to be a little on the unique side. He legitimately tries to get one of the students to confess to murder using a variant of the "raise your hand if you're stupid" game ("Everybody close your eyes - Mr. Culprit! Please raise your hand!") and he's generally just an oddball that seems to have some bizarre vision of the world that no one else quite shares.

It doesn't help that Ishimaru apparently has no idea what "fun" is - while there's nothing wrong with studying for fun, that's literally all he really knows how to do. He studies at school, then he goes home and studies to pass the time; he expresses confusion as to why people would watch television, play video games, just generally hang out, have idle conversations with people and the like. Everything has to have some sort of "deeper purpose" with him - basically, it has to help with some sort of fundamental life skill, or he wants next to nothing to do with it. This sort of mindset is a good part of the reason why he's so poorly-socialized to begin with; he doesn't let himself relax, and so he has nothing in common with his fellow students because he does nothing for pleasure's sake. When this is pointed out to him, he...well, he cries for a while first, but then he immediately perks up and says he's going to "study" television and video games for a while. It's...a start, though admittedly not a very good one...

✘ BERSERK BUTTONS IN WEIRD PLACES
You can refer to Ishimaru as a hard worker, a model student, a tactless idiot, a social moron...hell, you can even flat-out call him retarded and he literally won't care. However, don't call him gifted unless you want the temperature in the room to suddenly drop by about fifty degrees, and calling him a genius is only a good idea if you really aren't partial to the current union between your head and your body. Due to the issues with his grandfather and his family, he has serious problems with people who are considered prodigies and geniuses, and he hates being called one himself. Needless to say, what with the lack of complaining about his own issues described above, these sorts of things can cause a bit of an explosive reaction due to him having no outlet for them, and he's obviously not going to express exactly where the problem areas are lying until you've already tripped over them and he's in the process of flipping a table at you.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket member
Starter: Darumaka (+ Magikarp)
Password: Strawberry Marmalade

Samples
First Person Sample:
[Well, good afternoon, everyone! The video feed today flickers on to what appears to be a hotel room, judging from the scenery just visible behind Ishimaru's shoulder; it seems that at the very least he has worked out that he does not really need to be directly up in the device's equivalent of a grill, and while he still hasn't figured out what an indoor voice is, at least he sounds a bit less like he's going to blow the internal mic out with his usual amount of volume.

He seems a little fired up, but that's pretty much just implying that it's a day ending in Y...]

My fellow residents of this region, I come to you today with a question that's been troubling me for quite some time now!

[He folds his arms across his chest, glancing down briefly at something sitting beside him on the bed, just out of view of the camera.]

I understand that raising certain fishlike species of this world is difficult, and I'm not unwilling to put forth the hard work and effort required to raise them to their full potential! However, it seems that one of them requires procedures that I'm not familiar with - I've attempted to encourage her to no avail, and as such I've begun utilizing other tactics, but...

[Another glance downward, before he looks back at the device, his gaze piercing, as he picks up what was next to him and plunks it in his lap.

"What was next to him" being a completely confused-looking Feebas, covered in enough ribbon and glitter to make even the Super High-School Level Fashion Girl say he's being just a little bit over-the-top. No, seriously, he might as well have taken a Bedazzler to this thing as it'd have about the same effect, and the entire...sparkling fish-shaped package here comes complete with a rather elaborate bow perched at a jaunty angle on its head because of course it does.]

I understand that this species requires beauty of some sort to evolve - however, my attempts at making her appreciate the lovely gifts her parents have bestowed upon her have only been met with confusion thus far! Clearly, there's some aspect of it I'm failing at, and I would like to invite discussion regarding what should be done about this.

...however, any critique should be aimed at me and not the Pokémon, as she's very sensitive!

Third Person Sample: While Ishimaru may have been rash, acting out against the organization was, clearly, a very bad idea - as much as he detested the idea, it seemed, for the time being, that he was stuck here. He didn't have enough contacts to attempt to change the organization from within, either; it was something that had perplexed him for a while, simply because he had never been the sort to believe that justice would simply not prevail - it was just a matter of figuring out how to encourage the prevailing.

It was during his second week of frustration and listlessness that something occurred to him - while Team Rocket may have been full of criminals, it most certainly was an organization. The solution was so simple that it was almost laughable; while he wasn't going to be able to take them down, especially not on his own, not so soon after arriving, there were still things to be done to make his stance known - something that his skills were ridiculously well-suited for.

He was quite simply going to kill them with bureaucracy.

The first report sent in was an incredibly simple one: "Rocket Grunt Sarah's skirt is short to the point of being an embarrassment to the organization's integrity; it's at least an inch shorter than regulations specify." This received a lot of eyerolling when he handed it in (in person, of course, and with a rather smart salute in the process!), but he was told it would be looked into.

This, of course, was only the beginning.

"The wiring in the common rooms is arrayed in such a manner that poses a risk to health and safety, and through a lack of desire to see any of our agents suffer grievous bodily harm, I would like to request that this issue be assessed."

"Rocket Grunt Aidan was caught playing Tetris while on duty standing guard outside the elevators. Obviously, playing Tetris is not conducive to standing guard."

"Rocket Grunt Alice wasted approximately an hour of company time loitering about in the hallways outside the conference rooms. When asked to state her business, she made flustered excuses; the only possible conclusion drawn is that she was seeking Rocket Executive Proton's attention and was, in the process, being paid to waste company time."

"While I understand that working for this esteemed company bears with it a certain degree of risk, I don't believe running in the hallways to be permissible or adhering to proper rules of conduct and basic decency, particularly around the laboratory areas. I would like to request that Rocket Grunt Jeremy be reprimanded for this behavior."

"That wiring is still really awkwardly arrayed; did my previous request not process properly?"

As little as he could actually do here for the time being, Ishimaru had to admit that there was something remarkably satisfying about filling out complaint forms in triplicate.