Kiyotaka Ishimaru

Kiyotaka “Taka” Ishimaru (石丸 清多夏  Ishimaru Kiyotaka) is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and a participant in the Killing School Life.

Taka has the title Ultimate Moral Compass (超高校級の「風紀委員」chō kōkō kyū no “fūki iin.”) He is the grandson of infamous Toranosuke Ishimaru.

In Chapter 3, soon after meeting Alter Ego, Taka's soul supposedly merged with the deceased Mondo Owada's; causing him to assume the persona of "Kiyondo Ishida". He was later murdered by Hifumi Yamada, who had been manipulated into doing so by Celestia Ludenberg.

Appearance
Taka has spiky black hair and very large eyebrows. He has red eyes, with an intense look that is described as somewhat mad. His body type is muscular.

He has a white uniform with five golden buttons on each sleeve and six on his chest, along with a red and gold medal on his chest. He also wears knee-high black lace-up boots. The kanji on his arm band (風紀 fūki) mean “Public Morals”, fitting his title.

Personality
Befitting of a Ultimate Moral Compass, Taka is righteous and values order above all else. Above all things, he does not tolerate anyone running around in the school.

Because of his grandfather's tragedy, Taka considers effort most important and he is a hard worker, believing that one can achieve anything through it. He also considers genius' fate a tragedy and he considers geniuses his enemies, because they don't understand the true value of effort. He also believes that people who are easily provoked to violence are cowards. Described as "enthusiastic to the point of being mad", Taka believes that your every action must have a purpose and he absolutely hates wasting time.

Due to his extreme dedication to studying and proper conduct, Taka has difficulties in making friends and could not even hold a "normal" conversation with another person. Possibly because of the lack of social interaction, he can also be insensitive toward another at times, as evidenced in the beginning of chapter 2, when he said that Makoto Naegi would not feel too comfortable sleeping in the same room with Sayaka Maizono's corpse.

Taka believes that "when the body is naked, so is the soul", meaning that showing each other their naked bodies helps two men form a mutual trust. This is based of the traditional Japanese concept of "naked socializing" (裸の付き合い hadaka no tsukiai), which revolves around how when using a public bathhouse, where one cannot distinguish people according to social class due to the lack of clothing, people are able to form honest bonds with one another. Overall, Taka values bonds between men.

Taka also truly cares about his classmates and he is actually one of the nicest students. He is willing to take pragmatic approaches to avoid murder, such as offering to have everyone, starting with himself, reveal their secrets to avoid Monokuma's second incentive. However, he also appears to be slightly naive and maybe a bit slow-witted, as he sometimes figures things out quite slowly and it seems to be quite easy to trick him.

Taka is very expressive and intense in his manner of speech. He is almost constantly shouting. Due to his lack of social skills, he often bursts out the first thing that comes to his mind and forces his values and beliefs on others, which he's aware of and feels bad about. He wishes he could have someone to talk to, but he also feels that he might be a nuisance to others. Though he acts confidently and is quick to take the role of leadership, he suffers from low-self esteem at times and he is quite sensitive. He overreacts to everything and cries quite easily. The death of his first and best friend, Mondo Owada, renders him in a state of shock and he becomes almost completely speechless and unresponsive.

After adopting the personality of Kiyondo, he becomes more aggressive and protective of Alter Ego, whom he sees as his Bro. This causes a clash with Hifumi. He uses more aggressive language, though refuses to use vulgar language (though he does so in original version). However he still sees himself as the Ultimate Moral Compass, mentioning himself that he wouldn't perform criminal activities.

Ultimate Moral Compass
As the Ultimate Moral Compass, Taka has a strong sense of morality and duty. This talent is one of the reasons he didn't get along with Mondo until they bonded during their stamina contest in the sauna.

Prior to the Tragedy
Taka's grandfather, Toranosuke Ishimaru, was once Prime Minister of Japan; a title Taka believed he gained through his own natural genius rather than any hard work.

After only a few months in office, the public opinion of Toranosuke changed from high praise to widespread criticism due to a disastrous scandal, and he was forced to step down. After that, his business collapsed and the Ishimaru family was left mistrusted and in huge debts which Taka has stated “Still have not been paid off, and continue to trouble my family to this day” and “My family is middle-class... No, we are below even that...” His family name shamed, Taka's grandfather allegedly spent the last years of his life in shamed silence.

Upon hearing this story, Taka gained a deep resentment for his grandfather and the label of “genius” that was associated with him, though he simultaneously seemed to feel sorry for him and believed that his grandfather's tragedy was an important lesson for him. He swore to restore honor to his family name by gaining his success through hard work rather than natural talent, sacrificing hobbies and most of social interaction for study sessions and good grades. Because of this, his social skills suffered and he didn't have any friends. He was a model student in his middle school, known for participating in its disciplinary committee. He later went to Kaiseidan High School.

A few years after his grandfather died, Taka attended Hope's Peak Academy and gained the title Ultimate Moral Compass in the 78th Class. It's implied that he was especially close with Mondo Owada and Chihiro Fujisaki.

Episode 05 - The Beginning of the End
Kiyotaka's picture can be briefly seen on the pile of student registration forms that Jin Kirigirl places on his desk, along with Kyoko Kirigiri, Celestia Ludenberg and Aoi Asahina.

During The Tragedy
One year later, The Tragedy occurred. During The Tragedy, Jin Kirigiri, the Headmaster of the Academy, planned to seal the school building and let the students live forever inside the Academy in order to protect them from the destruction. His plan was agreed by the class, and they sealed the building together and lived peacefully inside it for a year without knowing that the Ultimate Despair members were already in their midst.

The true Ultimate Despair took away the 78th Class' school memories so they could participate in the Killing School Life.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
After Monokuma made his first appearance, Taka unofficially assigned himself as leader to the rest of the boys students. Every morning, he would wake the others up and urge them to go to the morning meeting at the Cafeteria.

Prologue - Welcome to Despair
After Makoto enters the main hall, Taka scolds him for being so late and states he'll report his late arrival to officials, only stopping when "Junko Enoshima" stops him. Later when Makoto introduces himself, Taka compliments Makoto's name, and states that he should live up to it by behaving and acting vigilantly.

Chapter 2 - Boy's Life of Despair
In chapter 2, Taka got into an argument with Mondo, leading to a duel where both of them sat inside the sauna in order to see which person that would manage to survive the longest. This duel was supervised by Makoto, though later he was told by two of them to return to his room. While what happened after Makoto left was left unclear in-game, the manga depicted them talking about their life, family, and dreams. It also showed that Taka was the one who lost the competition. This conversation later turned them closer than ever next morning, freaking Aoi Asahina out.

When Monokuma threatened the students to tell their most embarrassing secrets to the world as a mean to give them motive for murder, Taka immediately suggested that they should reveal each other's secrets to prevent anything from happening. However, this suggestion was turned down by most of them and Chihiro was the only one who openly consented to that. Much later, he is the first three person who discovered Chihiro's corpse along with Byakuya Togami and Makoto.

In the trial of Chihiro's murder, Taka became horrified when Mondo was fingered as the culprit by Makoto. He refused to believe it and even came to Mondo's defense in MTB. However, all his effort was for naught, since Makoto managed to figure out the truth and Mondo admit that he was the person who commit the murder of Chihiro.

When the students were asked to vote by Monokuma, Taka was the only person who did not vote for Mondo. He also promptly broke into tears afterwards, even as Monokuma revealed the reason behind Chihiro's murder.

Chapter 3 - A Next Generation Legend! Stand Stall, Galactic Hero!
The culmination of the second trial traumatized Taka so much that he was rendered completely mute in chapter 3, only responding with a small groan when spoken to. After he received news about Alter Ego (whom he mistook as Chihiro's spirit) from the other students, he immediately went to Makoto's room and asked him to guide him to Alter Ego, since he wanted to apologize to Chihiro for what Mondo had done.

When Taka and Alter Ego finally met, Alter Ego tried to console Taka by mimicking Mondo's voice and changed the display to his face. This instead caused him to turn into “Kiyondo”, a new personality, believed to have emerged due to Mondo's soul entering his body. Subsequently, he became overprotective of Alter Ego, whom he mistakenly thought to be Mondo.

Unfortunately, Taka's "Kiyondo" personality formed a clash between him and Hifumi, who had a crush on Alter Ego. This dispute was taken advantage of by Celestia Ludenberg, who would later manipulate Hifumi into killing Taka by a single blow to head, before killing Hifumi herself with the same action.

Execution
Prime Minister Kiyotaka Ishimaru's Inaugural Parade  - Taka sits on a vehicle and answers people's cheers in the middle of a huge, gorgeous parade. The crowd has posters that say things such as “Hooray for Prime Minister Ishimaru”. In the next moment, Monokuma pops up resembling Golgo 13 (a fictional assassin) and kills him with a shot through the heart. This execution is shown in the Official Fanbook.

Takaaki Ishimaru
Takaaki is Taka's father. Taka loves his father very much, as his father was the person closest to him. This is confirmed by the fact that Takaaki became Taka's Captive in Chapter 1.

Toranosuke Ishimaru
Taka considers his grandfather someone he both hates and respects. He is bitter at him, but also seems to feel sorry for him and feels that his grandfather's tragedy taught him an important lesson.

Because of Toranosuke, Taka considers genius' fate a tragedy and he believes that effort is most important. He also hates the word "genius" and dislikes geniuses, considering them his enemies.

One of Taka's main goals in life is to surpass his grandfather and reach greater accomplishments than anything he ever did, with pure effort.

Mondo Owada
At the start of the Killing School Life, Mondo and Taka didn't like each other because their personalities clashed. They had a bitter rivalry up until the beginning of chapter 2, where they decided to see who had more endurance by seeing who could stay in the sauna longer. It's not revealed in the game or anime, but the manga says after a while they started talking, and got on the subject of life goals and discovered they had a lot in common. They got extremely close after that, saying they “go together like black and white”, and by the end of the whole ordeal they were calling each other brothers.

In Chihiro's trial, Mondo appeared as the top suspect after he accidentally mentioned information he shouldn't have known. Eventually, he admitted his crime of killing Chihiro. In disbelief and shock, Taka eagerly tried to defend Mondo from any objection and even voted himself as guilty. Still, Mondo was voted guilty by the other classmates. After Mondo's execution, Taka begun to scream in agony.

Due to his friend's death, Taka became extremely depressed, muted and unresponsive for a day until he saw and talked with Alter Ego who he misunderstood as Chihiro's spirit. Taka become inspired after Alter Ego mimics Mondo to cheer him up, causing both Taka and Mondo's personality mixed and he turned as "Kiyondo Ishida".

Makoto Naegi
While Makoto was weirded out by Kiyotaka's eccentric personality, the two got along fairly well. Kiyotaka stated he liked Makoto's hoodie but didn't like it when he wore it under his school uniform. In a deleted Free Time event Makoto tried to comfort Kiyotaka after Modo's death but was chased off by Taka.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * Gloves of Tomorrow (#24)
 * Red Scarf (#28)
 * Treasured Reaction Comedy Compilation (#43)
 * Drill Chin (#88)

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occasionally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Relating to your friends
 * But it's a makeshift hardhat
 * India

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Attentive Influence - Increases your Maximum Influence by 2. Effective during the Class Trial. Costs 2 SP.
 * Steel Patience - Reduces damage to the Influence Gauge when you miss. Effective during the Nonstop Debate, the Hangman's Gambit, the Bullet Time Battle, and the Closing Argument. Costs 3 SP.

Kiyondo's Free Time Events
There are also two sets of Free Time dialogue specifically for Kiyondo. Character names are not part of the unused text and are only included below to distinguish who is speaking.

Quotes

 * “I'm Kiyotaka Ishimaru. I believe in bold simplicity! Let's work together on our educational crusade!”
 * “A student must be a studying professional! That's my motto. Studying is necessary even to have everyday conversations with other students.”
 * “Any problem you encounter in life can be overcome with extra effort! That's my motto. And to prove it, I'm going to use my extra effort to prove that the average man is greater than any genius!”
 * “I can't say that our current circumstances are favorable, that's for certain. But still... It's times like this when baring your soul can lead to building a mutual trust! And the best way to bare your soul is to bare your skin! Let's bathe together and build that trust! Alright! When the body is naked, so is the soul! So get to strippin' down!”
 * “When you see someone naked, you can tell at a glance whether they're trustworthy or not. Which is why it's necessary for us to bare ourselves to each other! So show me what you've got! Show me everything!”
 * “A student can only true shine when he has the opportunity to buckle down, study hard, and succeed!”
 * “Study, of course! I'm a student, aren't I? A student must be a studying professional! And of course my duties as the chairperson of the morals committee keep me quite busy, as well! It's my duty to foster an environment in which we can all focus on our studies!”
 * “If I have time to kill, I study!”
 * “I've tried making friends, but whenever I would make conversation, it would die after a few minutes... And now... I've finally found the answer... I need to study more games! More TV shows!”
 * “Ahh, I'm so ashamed of myself! If there was a hole somewhere around here, I'd totally go hide in it! I let it get to me, I wasted all that time... I never saw the blind spot in my studies! I'm a complete embarrassment! I'm not qualified to even be on the morals committee, let alone lead it!”
 * “As long as I live, I will protect our morals!”
 * “Students these days are utterly ignorant of proper dress code. It's quite a pain! And frankly, I don't understand youth fashion these days anyway! So this is a perfect opportunity for me to teach you all about how you should be dressing!”
 * “I wear this uniform 365 days a year, rain or shine, flood or drought, wind and hail and hurricane!”
 * “School itself may observe holidays, but there's no such thing as vacation for a student! So as long as I live the life of a student, I will always wear my uniform!”
 * “Also, I have ten sets of my uniform, so I always have a clean one. There's nothing strange about that.”
 * “Hahaha! Trust me, wearing the uniform every day helps keep you motivated! You should give it a shot!”
 * “I'm weak... So very weak... Haven't you realized? This school is missing something of utmost importance! Textbooks! Classes!”
 * “I'm just gonna come right out and say it... I'm freaking out! As we speak, we're being left in the dust by other students our age! I'm totally freaking out! If I keep involuntarily skipping class like this, I'm gonna reach dunce status in no time!”
 * “Genius...? Don't say that... I'm no genius. I'm a normal person, just like anyone else. I'm from a middle-class family, you know? Actually, they're not even middle-class... That's why I have to push so hard! I have to knock down that wall! It's not geniuses that change the world. It's ordinary people who make every effort they can. And to prove that, I have to keep on making effort after effort after effort! So don't call me a genius! Don't lump me in with those lazy clods who don't put in any effort! But I only said all that because you and me are the same. You and me, we're just normal people. We know what it means to have to make an effort. That's why I want you to know exactly how I feel...”
 * “And that's why I'm so passionate about my work on morals committee. I want to create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to give it everything they've got. That's why I put all my blood, sweat, and tears into creating that kind of environment. I want everyone else to understand that, too. In the end, you can't succeed if you don't try.”
 * “Anyone who says differently is selling something. Effort is everything! That's the only way to fix anything in this world! And I have to prove that to all the ordinary people out there so they'll keep on trying! I have to become the ordinary man who can surpass any genius! Those are the feelings I carried with me when I entered Hope's Peak Academy... But now that I'm trapped here, I've been robbed of the opportunity to make that effort... So now what am I supposed to do...?”
 * “The foundation of effort is the will to never give up. You're right. I have to try, no matter what the situation. Even without classes, without assignments... I can just look back at what I've learned already and reinforce those basic principles!”
 * “Let's work together as fellow ordinary people to show those geniuses who's boss!”
 * “Let's stack our effort one on top of the other and show those self-centered genius jerks what for!”
 * “Some consider genius fate's blessing. But I see it as a tragedy more than anything. The tragedy of finding success without understanding the importance of effort. There's nothing worse than a genius who trips and falls.”
 * “There is no greater accomplishment in life than pushing yourself to the limit, always! Isn’t that so? That’s all there is to it!”
 * “Introductions should be short and to the point! Conversations have their time and place, and now isn’t it!”
 * “The strangest thing isn’t the collective fainting, though. Did you all see the windows in the classrooms and corridors?”
 * “Weirdest of all is this very entrance hall! It looks like the entrance is blocked by this strange steel bulkhead… I don’t think it was around when I entered the school.”
 * “No, iceberg lettuces aren't cold! They're green!!”
 * “Forget-- Forget-- Forget Beam!!”
 * “You've taught me a most valuable lesson! You've earned my respect, and the title of professor!” (to Makoto Naegi)
 * (In reply to Makoto asking who won the sauna contest) “Such a silly question! The fact that we competed against each other is what's important!”
 * “Listen, Makoto... Your hoodie is awesome! You have really amazing fashion sense. Now, wearing a hoodie under your school uniform... Your public morals are ruined! Just absolutely ruined! (to Makoto Naegi)
 * “I would not advice it, brother. Your body is a precious thing your parents gave to you.” (to Mondo Owada)

Machine Talk Battle/Bullet Talk Battle Statements

 * “Show me some evidence!”
 * “You're wrong!”
 * “I won't listen!”
 * “False!”
 * “I refute you!”
 * “I refuse to vote!”
 * “You're corrupt!”
 * “Without any proof, you can't pin any of this on him!” (Final Argument)

Creation and development
Taka was first set up as a hot-blooded exceptional student. His role as a hall monitor came later, but the basic plan stayed the same.

The character designer, Rui Komatsuzaki, was asked to depict him as "enthusiastic to the point of being mad", with black googly round eyes. At first, Taka's hair was longer and stuck up. In order to highlight his madness, his design was made military-based, and he was given a school uniform and short hair. Slowly, he begun to look much more like a soldier.

Since Taka is a character rich in expression, Rui had fun drawing the many face patterns his sprites required, "Taka overreacts to everything, but more than anything I tried giving everything I had when drawing his crying expressions."

In an interview with Kodaka Kazutaka, the writer of the Danganronpa series, it was stated that they were originally planning to elaborate on Taka's middle school life but “it looked like it [was] going to turn dark, [so] we stopped”.

Trivia

 * Taka's chest size is 31 in.
 * Taka's last name, "Ishimaru", is composed of the kanji characters 石 ishi - stone, and 丸 maru, which among other things means both "circle" and "perfection". The last name could be meant to reflect Taka's stern personality, his perfectionism and his strong sense of justice.
 * The name "Kiyotaka", when written as 清多夏, could mean "a myriad pure summers".
 * The name “Ishida” which he takes, after “fusing” with Mondo's soul, comes from the first character from Taka's name and last from Mondo's - (石) ISHImaru+OwaDA (田).
 * In the English version his name is changed to "Kiyondo" which combines Taka and Mondo's first names instead of last with no regard to the characters comprising both names.
 * Since "Kiyondo Ishida" is supposedly Taka possessed by Mondo's spirit, Kiyondo-mode Taka mimics Mondo's habit of verbally expressing displeasure through excessive use of swear words. However, the swear words Kiyondo uses are actually less explicit, toned-down versions of the swear words Mondo blurts out normally (i.e. "What the fudge") - showing that despite being possessed by Mondo's spirit, Taka's own soul is still powerful enough to restrain Mondo's vocabulary.
 * Taka's birthday, August 31th, is the last day of summer vacation before the continuation of the school year in Japan, and the beginning of the new school year in many countries around the world - somewhat fitting Taka's unmatched dedication to his studies and to the preservation of proper atmosphere around the school.
 * In the original Japanese version of the game, Taka's title is "Ultimate Public Morals Committee Member". The "public morals committee", also known as the "disciplinary committee", is a student committee dedicated to the preservation of a proper learning atmosphere and enforcement of the rules around the school (two duties Taka is very dedicated to fulfilling) that is commonplace in Japanese high schools. It is apparently characteristic for disciplinary committee members to wear uniform armbands.
 * Due to the concept of disciplinary committees being relatively obscure in North America and Europe, the official English translation of the game came to translate Taka's title metaphorically as "Moral Compass". Some fan translations made before the official international release have translated the title as "Prefect" or "Hall Monitor" to convey a similar, more familiar meaning.
 * Taka believes that "when the body is naked, so is the soul", meaning that showing each other their naked bodies helps two men form a mutual trust.
 * This is based of the traditional Japanese concept of "naked socializing" (裸の付き合い hadaka no tsukiai), which revolves around how when using a public bathhouse, where one cannot distinguish people according to social class due to the lack of clothing, people are able to form honest bonds with one another.
 * Taka is interested in kendoka. He also has a practice sword in his room.
 * Taka never played video games or watched TV as a student. He would spend all his time studying.
 * Taka wears his uniform year round and has 10 of them.
 * The kanji character adorning the lapel of Taka's shirt, 参, actually represents a verb read as 参る mairu which means either "to be defeated", "to be annoyed", "to be madly in love" or "to visit a shrine/grave".
 * Taka was voted the third most popular character in the Japanese fandom.
 * The official Reload artbook reveals that his grandfather attended Hope's Peak too, with the title 'Ultimate Manager'.
 * His name may well be a direct reference to the Japanese footballer, Kiyotaka Ishimaru.
 * His former high school, fictional Kaiseidan High School (開成灘高校), is based on Kaisei Academy (開成学園) and Nada High School (灘高校), two of the top schools in Tokyo, Japan.
 * Taka stated that he disliked anime in the game's English dub (and also possibly the original Japanese dub), but in Funimation's English dub for the anime, they change his "forget it beam" to a Dragon Ball Z reference using the famous Kamehameha with a "forget it!" at the end.