Ryoma Hoshi

Ryoma Hoshi (星 竜馬 Hoshi Ryōma) is a student in Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and participant of the Killing School Semester featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

His title is Ultimate Tennis Pro (超高校級の「テニス選手」 chō kōkō kyū no “tenisu senshu” Super High School Level Tennis Player). Despite his promising career, he killed a whole mafia organization and became a prisoner on death row before being shut in Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, earning him the nickname Killer Tennis.

Early life

 * Before Joining Danganronpa

Ryoma Hoshi was a normal talentless high school boy who participated in the 53rd Season of Danganronpa, a famous worldwide reality show made by Team Danganronpa.

Ryoma attended Fog Heights High School (霞ヶ丘高校). However, it is unclear if this memory of his is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa or if it is genuine.


 * Fabricated Past

After he successfully participated in the 53rd Killing Game, Ryoma's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows:

Ryoma was a tennis player with a promising future, world famous since his middle school days and winning many international matches.

One day, Ryoma was invited to play in an underground tournament hosted by a group of mafia. He accepted the invitation, but found out that he was fooled and was actually playing in fixed matches. At first, he played along with the mafia's plan until he decided to crush his last enemy whom he was supposed to lose to. Having destroyed the mafia's reputation, they began to massacre Ryoma's family. He managed to get his girlfriend to a safety somewhere at first, but her hiding place was located and they eventually killed her as well, leaving only Ryoma who barely escaped the massacre.

He began to kill mafia members by hitting them in the head with his custom-made steel tennis ball. The entire organization was annihilated and as a result he earned the alias Killer Tennis. He ended up a prisoner on death row, seemingly throwing his whole future away. Being an animal lover since a young age, he owned a pet cat he loved very much. However, he had to give it to an acquaintance after becoming a prisoner.

Due to losing his loved ones and becoming a murderer, Ryoma believes his former self is gone and he doesn't have much will to live, believing that even his beloved cat must have long forgotten him. He became very depressed and rather suicidal. He has also indicated that he has suffered from sexual harassment during his time in prison.

It is unclear how much, if any, of Ryoma's past before participating in the 53rd Killing Game was real, and which was fabrication by Team Danganronpa.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories created for Ryoma and the other fifteen students was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the Killing Game started. It was initiated by heads of nations from all over the world after countless meteorites crashed into Earth, spreading a deadly virus all throughout the atmosphere. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth’s destruction, the government decided to select sixteen talented students chosen by the Ultimate Initiative that also somehow happened to be immune to the virus, put them in a spaceship colony, and have them escape before the Earth's destruction. Ryoma was among these sixteen individuals.

Despite being chosen to participant however, Ryoma and the other fifteen participants had no intentions of going along with the plan, not wanting to abandon their loved ones. As a result, Ryoma chose to forget about his Ultimate talent and decided to live as a normal high school student.

Around that time an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteorites were a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, tried to stop it. As a result, the “Ultimate Hunt” started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students selected for the Gofer Project were hunted down.

The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students' deaths, calming down the “Ultimate Hunt” while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed by meteorites. Ryoma and the others went to space in the massive ark, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles, and were put to a cold sleep for several decades.

Much later on in Chapter 5, after the remaining participants cleared the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi Oma lied about being the mastermind of the Killing Game and that he was the leader of the cult bent on stopping the Gofer Project. He also lied about being the one who let Monokuma enter the spaceship, which effectively forced Ryoma and the others to participate in the Killing Game School Semester. All of this was done in order to get everyone to fall into so much despair that they would not continue the Killing Game.

However, the true Mastermind, in order to get the remaining survivors at the time to continue the Killing Game, decided to connect everyone's memories of The Gofer Project to the story of Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, the true Mastermind prepared a Flashback Light that tricked the remaining participants into thinking that everyone, including those that had died, were actually students of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy. They also remembered that the ones behind The Gofer Project were Makoto Naegi, the headmaster of the rebuilt Hopes Peak Academy, and the Future Foundation. This Flashback light also revealed that the cult bent on stopping The Gofer Project were actually the Remnants of Despair, and that Kokichi was their leader. This lie filled everyone with the determination needed to stop the despair they were faced with.

In the Mastermind's rush however, they accidentally overlooked slight inconsistencies and plot holes when linking both stories together, such as "Ultimate Despair" only referring to Junko Enoshima, and that Class 78 was trapped by the Ultimate Despair when they had actually locked themselves within the school in order to shelter themselves from the tragedy outside.

While Ryoma did remember basic details about the Ultimate Hunt in Chapter 2, he ultimately has no complete recollection of the event, as he was murdered before he actually received a complete memory about The Gofer Project by the Flashback Lights in later chapters.

Introduction
Ryoma was among the first fourteen people gathered in the gymnasium before Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara arrived. Just like everyone else, Ryoma was confused about their current predicament but was able to keep a level head. Once the Monokuma Kubs arrived and revealed themselves from within their Exisals, they gave the sixteen participants their Ultimate wardrobe, and their first memory via the Flashback Light. Ryoma and the other fifteen talentless students underwent the fabrication process, where all of their past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. He also received the talent and title of Ultimate Tennis Pro. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, Ryoma and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

Ryoma was first encountered in the game room in the basement of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles by Kaede, the Ultimate Pianist, and Shuichi, the Ultimate Detective. Because he was incarcerated before coming to Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, he says that the man known as the Ultimate Tennis Pro no longer exists and that he was nothing more than his empty shell.

Ryoma would later gather with everyone else in the gymnasium after the Monokuma Kubs made their announcement, where them and Monokuma, the Monokuma Kubs' father and the self-appointed headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, announced that they would be participating in a killing game. Ryoma questioned just how it would go about and if they would be given weapons, much to Kaito Momota's, the Ultimate Astronaut's, anger. Monokuma replied by explaining just how the killing game would work and that it was quite the "sophisticated" experience. With that, the Killing School Semester had officially begun.

Attempting the Death Road of Despair
After Monokuma commenced the killing game, Ryoma read the killing game rules on his MonoPad. The disturbing rules baffled all of the students, causing a discord among the group. Kaede saw this and immediately stopped them, saying that they should cooperate together instead of fighting if they wanted to escape. Ryoma listened to Kaede as she proposed a sound and straightforward argument. Everyone's heart was able to become one, all thanks to her speech. Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, then remembered that he found a manhole inside the boiler room behind the school building. Ryoma along with everyone else immediately followed Gonta's lead, with hope of finding a way out.

Descending the manhole, Ryoma and the others found a tunnel leading outside of the academy. Though everyone thought that the tunnel probably ended up being a trap, they still had to test every single possibility in order to escape. However, Ryoma and the others exhausted themselves both physically and mentally as they found that escaping through Death Road of Despair is next to impossible. Due to this, Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Ruler, revolted, saying that Kaede's repeated motivational speech is the source of the group's agony, added by some of her friends giving up on escaping the tunnel, Ryoma included, the group's harmony came to a swift end. The tunnel ended up being a trap set by Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs, much to everyone's dismay. Ryoma was dissapointed that their unity was able to fall apart so easily before leaving with the others and heading to his dorm room.

On The Clock
As time passed within the walls of the academy, no one including Ryoma, intended to start the Killing Game. However, Monokuma's first and additional motive, the First Blood Perk and time limit, threatened the lives of the trapped students. As the days passed and they grew closer to the time limit, Ryoma decided that he would allow himself to be killed in order to let the others survive and escape from the academy. At the morning before the time limit hit, he was arguing with Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate ???, in the dining hall on this matter, believing that they did not have any more room left for idealism. Rantaro, however, managed to persuade him to drop his proposal because he had his own way to stop the Killing Game. For the rest of the day, Ryoma remained in his room, simply waiting for the time limit to pass.

After Rantaro was murdered, Ryoma would be among the last group of people who arrived in the library. Upon seeing Rantaro's body, he mentioned how ironic it was that he himself, who didn't have any will to survive lived, and Rantaro didn't. During Shuichi and Kaede's investigation, Ryoma warned the duo that testimonies without evidence are powerless, as if telling them to be careful.

The First Class Trial
During the Class Trial, Ryoma suspected Tsumugi Shirogane disguising herself as someone else when she went to the toilet, but Kaede refuted him, saying that it would be impossible for Tsumugi to disguise herself since she has a terrible "cospox." He would later refute her yet again when arguing how on how the culprit could have gotten in and out of the library, but was refuted yet again when Kaede showed him the front entrance photo's, saying that the one who still had a ways to go was him. Later, when everyone was split down the middle on whether or not to vote for Shuichi, Ryoma was on the side that accused him, stating that if he had the receiver, he could have turned it off in order to fool Kaede.

When Shuichi accused Kaede of being the culprit, wanting to fulfill the wish she had entrusted to him, Ryoma remained skeptical. But after it was proven that she did what she did because she wanted to save everyone, Ryoma did not seem to put any of the blame on Kaede, saying that if that was a lie too, it'd be the last straw for him and that he would have nothing left to believe in. Ryoma would watch Kaede's execution with everyone else, afterwards stating that he couldn't remember the last time he had felt so irritated.

Exploring The Rest Of The Academy
The morning of the next day, everyone would gather in the dining hall once again and have a normal, but forced conversation to try and make themselves forget about the horrible events that transpired yesterday. Afterwards, the Monokuma Kubs showed up and handed out four random items that the students could use to unlock more areas in the academy.

One of the areas that would become unlocked would be the remaining second floor of the school, as well as the third floor, which contained Ryoma's Research Lab. Upon discovering it, he pretended not to care about it, saying that his days as a tennis player were over. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but stare at the tennis court that was set up for him with sad eyes.

After all the items had been used around the school, Ryoma gathered with everyone in the gymnasium once again in order to solve the mystery of the flashlight Shuichi and Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist, had discovered. Monokuma appeared and told everyone that it was a Flashback Light and that it had the ability to restore lost memories before leaving and letting the students decide what to do with it. Although everyone was skeptical at first, they eventually gave in and used it, allowing everyone, Ryoma included, to remember that they had been on the run from the "Ultimate Hunt". Though they could not remember the exact details and circumstances behind it, just that they had been on the run.

In a bonus scene in Chapter 2, Ryoma, Shuichi, Kokichi, Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Inventior, Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist, and gathered in the casino in hopes of playing a secret game with the medal that Shuichi had received from the Monomono Machine. However, Monokuma shows up and denies this, never stating such a thing in the first place and that the medal Shuichi had was just some knickknack he made for the Monokuma Kubs. Ryoma states that it's fine that the info was fake, saying that it wasn't even his reason for coming here. Thanks to Kaito's stubbornness, everyone got roped into a gambling competition, a competition that Kaito lost immensely to Ryoma each and every time. Despite his success, Ryoma claimed that it wasn't anything special and that some people have a "knack" for gambling while some don't.

Reason to Live
After the Monokuma Kubs gave everyone the second motive, Ryoma's Kubs Pad was misplaced and was instead given to Maki Harukawa. At that time, he didn't know who held his motive video, and he suggested the group to exchange and return their motive videos to their respective owners, wanting to see who in the world could be important to him. However, the majority of the group rejected that idea, because they were afraid that it cause another killing to happen. Ryoma was irritated by this, and decided to stay away from the group. Kaito was incredibly annoyed with Ryoma's attitude, wondering how the Ultimate Tennis Pro could have fallen so far from glory.

Before the day of the murder, Shuichi ran into Ryoma outside the dormitory while trying to escape from Gonta, who forcefully wanted them to join his Insect Meet and Great. He apologized to Shuichi for saying uncool things like giving up on his life. He only needed one last thing to motivate him to work alongside the group, and that was to see who was the most important people in his life by watching his motive video. He bid his farewell to Shuichi and escaped using his Shukuchi Method before Gonta knocked the Ultimate Detective unconscious.

Managing to escape Gonta's grasp, Ryoma paid Maki a visit while she was outside of her Research Lab and begged her to give him his Kubs Pad, knowing that she had his because Kokichi told him that she did when he gathered everyone's motive videos for Gonta's Insect Meet and Greet. Ryoma even went so far as to blackmail Maki because he knew her true talent thanks to having her Kubs Pad. This was the only way that he could find his will to live, as he wanted to know the people that love him and have a reason to survive with everyone else. Seeing this, Maki decided to give in and handed over his Kubs Pad, which would prove to be a fatal mistake.

Determined to find a reason for living, Ryoma watched his Kubs Pad without a second thought. When he did however, it was revealed to him that there was no one in the world that was important to him, and that there was no one who considered him important to them, his motive was utterly void and empty. This revelation managed to break his spirit of living completely.

Ryoma's Fate
That same night, Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid, paid Ryoma a visit in his Ultimate Research Lab, having invited him earlier to target him for murder. She revealed to him that she had watched her own motive video and discovered that she was the de facto prime minister of all of Japan and that she was responsible for the entire nation and its people. Upon hearing this and sensing Kirumi's intent to kill, the soul-broken Ryoma, congratulated Kirumi for having something so strong to live for, before telling her that he would pick up the tennis balls lying around his lab, turning his back to her. It was at this moment that Ryoma gave up his life to Kirumi, letting her bludgeon him in the back of the head with a wooden pole, knocking him unconscious. She then proceeded to handcuff him and drown him in the sink in his own lab's shower room, finally killing him, though not before scraping against the stone sink with his stainless steel handcuffs, unintentionally leaving behind some evidence of the struggle. His body would then be brought to the piranha tank in the gym by making use of a ropeway connecting the gym window and Ryoma's lab's window via the pool. This would ensure that when Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Magician, and Angie's magic shown began the next morning, that he would be eaten by the piranha's, as Kirumi had ample time to set this up in the gym beforehand.



The very next morning the magic show began as planned. Everyone who showed up to watch grew increasingly worried as the timer continued to count down, but Himiko had not come out of the tank yet. Gonta, in a panic, rushed up on stage to rescue her before the piranha's would fall in, but did not see her in the tank. Once the timer hit zero, the piranha's were dumped into the tank, along with Ryoma's body, which Gonta thought he saw. Once the curtains were lifted, Ryoma's lifeless body was seen floating within the tank for only a couple seconds before the piranha's stripped all the flesh off of his bones, reducing him to nothing more than a skeleton. Everyone was completely shocked and bewildered as to how Ryoma died, let alone in Himiko's magic show, but had to investigate nonetheless.

The Second Class Trial
During the second class trial, Shuichi managed to pin Kirumi as the culprit of Ryoma's murder, fully deducing how he died thanks to the inner tube and the scrap of fabric left in the pool. After everyone found out Kirumi's motive for killing, the Monokuma Kubs showed everyone Ryoma's video, showing that his motive was empty. This shocked everyone greatly, but dissapointed Kaito, calling Ryoma an idiot for giving up so easily.

Creation and Development
Ryoma's character background as a tennis player is heavily inspired by the fictional character Ryoma Echizen from the famous animanga series, . Both characters share the first name and are famous and talented tennis players. Throughout the game, Ryoma has his own catchphrase "Mada mada dana" (まだまだだな lit. No, not yet) similar to Echizen's famous catchphrase "Mada mada dane" (まだまだだね lit No, not yet). In the English version, Ryoma's catchphrase is "you still got a ways to go" while Ryoma Echizen's is "you still have a ways to go" in the English version of The Prince of Tennis anime.

Name
His given name kanji 竜馬 Ryōma, is composed of the characters for "dragon" (竜) and "horse" (馬) while his last name kanji 星 Hoshi, means "star".

Alternate Fates
In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version), Ryoma was first seen inside the lodging area along with Kirumi and Tsumugi Shirogane. After he introduced himself to Kaede, he warned her not to get close to a murderer like him.

Appearance
Ryoma is the shortest character in Danganronpa V3. Contrary to his soft appearance, he has a very deep voice. He has black eyes with no visible pupils and pale rosy cheeks.

He wears a black hat with two points that has a picture of two blue tennis rackets on it. He wears a black leather jacket, and a black and dark blue striped jumpsuit underneath, similar to that of a prisoner. He wears brown shoes and has a metal cuff attached to his left leg with a bit of a chain attached to the cuff.

His legs are notably much more muscular than the rest of his body. He always has a candy in his mouth, which may give the impression of a cigarette.

Personality
Ryoma is a hard-boiled dandy character. Though he looks like a child, it's been said that his life experience would put an adult to shame. He has a coolness that common high school students don't have, heightened by his very deep, mature voice. He is the calmest, composed, and unperturbed person in the killing game. He isn't shaken by murders nor even if he is personally harmed. He often mentions how he refuses to do something "uncool" and doesn't want to show his softer side.

Due to his grand past as an assassin, he considers himself a killer, the kind of person other people should not get close to. While generally not appearing very aggressive, he is apparently willing to harm and even kill people if he believes they deserve it, and he occasionally gives others a very piercing look as a warning. In the bonus mode Ultimate Talent Development Plan of Danganronpa V3, he is very amused by the idea of "crushing" Nagito Komaeda.

Younger Ryoma was a big animal lover with a positive and proactive nature, but he states that he is now just a shadow of his former self and his old self no longer exists. Nevertheless, he still has certain kindness in him and retains his great love for animals, and he is still interested in tennis even though he strongly denies this. He will not stand seeing an animal in trouble, considering such situation an emergency. He also empathizes with Kaede Akamatsu's wish to escape and become friends with everyone, considering it "not bad" option. However, he has a tendency to push other people away. He feels others shouldn't get close to him, because along with being a murderer he is on a death row and thus likely to die soon, which would cause his close ones emotional burden. During class trials, he generally trusts others, but doesn't hesitate to voice his doubts and use calm judgement. He is also willing to immediately apologize for incorrect doubts.

Due to his past, Ryoma appears to be depressed and suicidal, assuming he has very little time left and is unable to have any close ones. He has little regard, if any at all, for his own life. He believes that being a death row inmate automatically makes his life worth less than anyone and he is very much willing to die for the sake of the other students. In Chapter 1, he offers to have one of the others kill him so that they may escape the school, allowing everyone to continue on with the killing game. Rantaro Amami manages to convince him otherwise, but he is still in a lot of doubt. He decided to look for a reason to live, but became even more suicidal after his motive video revealed that he apparently has nobody to care about him in the outside world, causing him to find no reason to live.

Ryoma has mentioned that he doesn't feel anything anymore concerning sexual matters, supposedly due to his depression. Such situations also make him uncomfortable because he suffered from harassment while he was in prison.

Ultimate Tennis Pro
Ryoma was a tennis player with a promising future, world famous since his middle school days and winning many international matches. He is able to use the Method, a type of rapid movement that taks advantage of the opponent's blind spot. He would always enter the tennis court using his right foot, which he felt gave him good luck.

The Mastermind's claim that Ryoma's talent as the Ultimate Tennis Pro is a fabrication made by Team Danganronpa. Due to that fact, it is unclear whether Ryoma is a tennis champion in the past.

In other languages
Ryoma's talent as it appears in official translations of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

Relationships

 * Family:

Ryoma used to have a family he was very close with. However, they were murdered by the mafia. He avenged their murders by destroying the whole mafia, but in the end he was left alone with no close ones and a shell of his former self.

Pet cat
Ryoma used to own a pet cat he loved very much, supposedly a Russian Blue. However, after becoming a prisoner on death row, he had to give it away for an acquaintance. He misses the cat very much, though he gloomily assumes it must have long forgotten him.


 * Love Interests:

Girlfriend
Ryoma used to have a girlfriend he loved deeply. However, she was murdered by the mafia along with Ryoma's family. He avenged their murders, but in the end he was left alone and a shell of his former self. His Love Suite fantasy event reflects his fears of losing another loved one, either by them getting murdered due to being close with him or them mourning him after his execution. Since most of his history was faked by Team Danganronpa, she might not exist.
 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles

Kirumi Tojo
After Kirumi had discovered through a Kubs Pad given to her in chapter 2 that she was given a small country to rule over by the Prime Minister of Japan, she made Ryoma her target in order to escape, believing him to be the weakest one among them all. When told to come to his own Study Center by Kirumi, Ryoma did not hesitate to go along with her plans and willingly turned his back to her, fueling her killing intent. She hit him over the head, cuffed him, and drowned him. Ryoma seemed to strongly respect Kirumi for her will to live when he himself had none.

Kaito Momota
Ryoma thought that Kaito is an easily manipulated person, as it was shown in a bonus scene where he was persuaded to fight him in a gamble match, in which he won in a landslide victory over Kaito. The two of them has a strong beliefs, as Ryoma always say that he doesn't intend to survive due to him lacking the reason to live, which Kaito despised because his depressive and suicidal mood might get in the way for the others to survive the Killing Game. However, Ryoma declared that he won't do something so "uncool" like that.

Kokichi Oma
Ryoma dislikes the way Kokichi is acting so childishly during their trying situation in the Killing School Semester. He is irritated by Kokichi's childish behavior, saying that he only wanted to make fun and messing those around him. He also thought that Kokichi likes to provoke people and never says anything from the heart. However, Ryoma felt that Kokichi doesn't intend to survive the Killing Game, a feeling that he could easily relate to.

Free Time

 * Main article, including full dialogue: Free Time Events/Ryoma Hoshi

Quotes

 * -|DRV3 Demo=

DRV3=

List of Appearances

 * -|Games=
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version)
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 * -|Manga=
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology Volume 2

Trivia

 * Ryoma has a very deep voice despite his small appearance. This contrasts Daisaku Bandai from Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, who has a high-pitched, feminine voice with a very bulky appearance.
 * Ryoma is the shortest character in Danganronpa V3, and the shortest human character in the entire Danganronpa series.
 * Ryoma's English voice actor, Chris Tergliafera, also voices Gundham Tanaka in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
 * In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Ryoma the 15th most popular Danganronpa V3 student.
 * When investigating Ryoma's Research Lab in Chapter 2, Shuichi Saihara comments that it looks like it belongs to the Ultimate Prisoner (超高校級の囚人) instead of the Ultimate Tennis Pro.

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