Kaede Akamatsu

"I love seeing the expressions people make when they're enjoying themselves. That's why I play piano... To see the smiles on everyone's faces. And that's why we need to expose the mastermind and end this dumb killing game! So we can smile with everyone else!"

- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Kaede Akamatsu (赤松 楓 Akamatsu Kaede) is the main protagonist of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and a participant in the Killing School Semester.

Kaede has the title of Ultimate Pianist (超高校級の「ピアニスト」 chō kōkō kyū no “Pianisuto” Super High School Level Pianist), owing to her prowess in playing the piano since childhood and winning various awards.

Early life
{{Spoiler/for|Danganronpa V3|
 * Before Joining Danganronpa

Kaede Akamatsu is a fan of the reality show series featuring Killing Games, Danganronpa, created by Team Danganronpa. In her audition video, she revealed that she wants to join the Killing Game, believing herself to have the perfect personality for it, stating that she is an introverted woman who can't trust people around her easily.

Kaede, along with the other talentless 53rd Killing Game participants undergo the fabrication process, where all of their past memory and personality were permanently fabricated. She also received the talent and title of Ultimate Pianist. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all around the world. After the fabrication process was complete, Kaede and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as a totally different person, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

During her high school days, Kaede attended Shining Star International High School (光星国際アカデミー). However, it is unclear if this memory of her is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa.


 * Fabricated Past

After she successfully participated in the 53rd Killing Game, Kaede's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows.

Since she was a child, Kaede has been playing piano, and as a result, people called her a "piano freak". Before long, she began winning contest after contest, earning her the title of Ultimate Pianist.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories created for Kaede and the other fifteen students was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the killing game started. It was initiated by the government after countless meteorites crashed into Earth. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth's destruction, the government decided to select a number of excellent human beings, put them in a spaceship, and have them escape.

Kaede and fifteen other high school students were chosen to participate. Not wanting to abandon their loved ones, they attempted to escape from the plan.

Around that time, an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteor crashes were a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, they tried to stop it. As a result, the “Ultimate Hunt” started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students 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 bombarded by meteorites, wiping out all of humanity. Kaede and the others went to space in a massive colony spaceship, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles.

Kokichi Oma, one of the participant of the plan, declared himself as a member of Junko Enoshima's Remnants of Despair who masterminded the Killing Game and let Monokuma enter the spaceship, effectively forcing Kaede and the others to participate in the Killing Game.

It should be noted that Kaede has no complete recollection of the event, as she was executed before she actually received a complete memory about The Gofer Project by the Flashback Light in Chapter 5. }}

Killing School Semester
{{spoiler/for|Danganronpa V3| After Monokuma commenced the killing game, Kaede read the killing game rules on her MonoPad. The disturbing rules baffled all of the students, causing a discord among the group. Kaede who saw this immediately stopped them, saying that they should cooperate together instead of fighting if they wanted to escape. As Kaede proposed a sound and straightforward argument, everyone's heart was able to become one, all thanks to her speech. Gonta Gokuhara then remembered that he found a manhole inside the Boiler Room behind the school building. Kaede along with her friends immediately followed the Ultimate Entomologist's lead, with hope in finding a way out.

Descending to the manhole, Kaede and the others found a tunnel leading outside the academy. Though everyone thought that the tunnel probably ended up being a trap, they would have still to test every single possibilities to escape. However, Kaede and the others exhausted themselves both physically and mentally as they found that escaping through Death Road of Despair is impossible.

Due to this, Kokichi Oma 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, 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. Kaede, who blamed herself for making everyone break up, was comforted by Kaito and Shuichi's words who still totally support her ideal. As the nighttime announcement broadcasted, everyone including Kaede returned to their dorm room. When Kaede returned to her room, she found a key which was supposedly for her dorm. Monokid gave the key to Kaede to give her access to her room, Monokid also gave her a "hint", which was that if she stole someone's key she will get the chance to kill someone, Kaede gets annoyed and scares Monokid to make him flee.

The next day, Kaede came to the cafeteria and was greeted by Kokichi who in turn for his rebellion towards the group's harmony, created a "kind" lie that make the group consolidate again. Afterwards, Monokuma came to the cafeteria and announced the first motive, anyone who commits the first killing will graduate without holding a trial, but if no one kills, all of them will be executed during nighttime two days later. Kaede was very worried with this motive, Rantaro Amami also pointed out that this was used to invalidate the cooperative game by Kaede and make it into non cooperative game where the players don't work. After Monokuma was accidentally destroyed by the Exisals, everyone decided not to worry about the killing game, believing it to be over, and the group dissolved.

Kaede returns to her room and begin to cry silently as she was alone. A moment after that, Shuichi came to her room, telling that her beliefs are not wrong at all. In fact, Kaede was the only person Shuichi trusted enough to share the secret of the hidden door in the library. Once Kaede visited the library along with the Ultimate Detective, she was surprised that there was a hidden door behind a bookshelf, which Shuichi revealed to her. He speculated that The Mastermind might come to open the door at anytime. Kaede was very convinced with his theory, which would affect Kaede's actions from this point onward. Not wanting to appear suspicious, Shuichi suggested that they should leave for now.

Hoping to catch the mastermind, Kaede and Shuichi begged Miu Iruma to make them cameras that they would later set up in the library. They retrieved parts for Miu to make the cameras from the warehouse. While there, Kaede obtained a shot put that she secretly put in her backpack. Pushed by the motive presented by Monokuma, Kaede planned to murder the mastermind and save everyone from the killing game.

In the morning before the time limit hit, Kaede and Shuichi met Angie Yonaga who informed that there was a fight between students in the cafeteria. Originally, Kaede was supposed to retrieve the modified camera from Miu along with Shuichi, but this problem forced Kaede to split from Shuichi and head to the cafeteria with Angie. In the cafeteria, she found that Ryoma willingly wanted to be sacrificed so that everyone else could survive, however, Rantaro denied it and said that he will stop the killing game in his own way. Listening to this, Kaede's determination to save her friends became even stronger.

While setting up the cameras in the library with Shuichi, Kaede left the air duct open and arranged the books on top of the shelf in a staircase-like manner. She hoped to catch and kill the mastermind with the trap that she set up. Later on, Kaede and Shuichi were lying in wait in the classroom near the staircase to the basement. They witnessed seven people descending the staircase, which were Gonta, Kaito Momota, Tenko Chabashira, Maki Harukawa, Himiko Yumeno, Angie, and Rantaro.

While waiting for the sensor to react, Shuichi told Kaede about how he earned the title of the Ultimate Detective, a marking point where he began to be afraid in searching for the truth. Kaede told him that she was actually afraid, but with Shuichi standing by her side, she didn't hesitate to catch the mastermind. She told him that he needs to hold his head up high, and the fact that she believed in him effectively gave Shuichi the courage and strength that he needed.

Rantaro entered the library and discovers the hidden door thanks to his survival perk mono-pad. As soon as he moves the shelf, he triggers the sensor on top of it as well as the hidden camera that Kaede set up, alerting both her and Shuichi. He rushed out of the classroom, but Kaede threw her shot put into the air duct that led into the library before quickly chasing after him. Hoping that her shot put will hit her target who is none other than the mastermind behind the killing game.

Once they reach the basement, they are joined by Kaito and Tenko. They notice the bookshelf closing again as they enter the library and come upon Rantaro's corpse, who seemed to have been bludgeoned in the back of the head with Kaede's shot put. As Monokuma appears and passes out the Monokuma file, Kaede becomes secretly shocked and horrified at the thought that she killed someone other than her intended target and quickly comes to terms with the fact that she killed a dear friend. In reality however, her plan failed. Rantaro's true killer is The Mastermind of the Killing School Semester. Despite this however, the truth is obscured from everyone while Kaede is set up as the culprit.

After the investigation completed and the groups descended to the Class Trial room using an elevator, Kaede told Shuichi not to avert his eyes from the truth anymore, saying that if he was scared he had to fight against the truth, because she believes that Shuichi is a person who is capable of doing such thing.

During the class trial itself, Kaede's goal was to uncover the true identity of the mastermind before she revealed herself as the culprit of the case.

Kaede's Fate
During the class trial, Shuichi discovers the supposed "truth" that Kaede murdered Rantaro, but refuses to speak about that fact as to not condemn his friend. Unfortunately for him, this act of silence, as well as forgetting to mention the camera intervals to Kaede before-hand, catches the suspicion of nearly everyone else in the trial and he is quickly denounced as the culprit. As a result, Kaede is left with no other choice but to protect him, mentally apologizing to everyone for being unable to reveal the mastermind and save everyone. Shuichi realizes this, and vows to no longer be afraid of the truth and reveals her as the "culprit" to everyone else in the trial.

Everyone is shocked and in utter disbelief that Kaede, who wanted to end the killing game and save everyone, could be the culprit. Despite this, she goads Shuichi along as to make him reveal the whole truth about her plan, much to everyone's dismay.

After everyone casts their vote, Kaede comes clean fully and admits that she planned to kill the mastermind in order to save everyone and end the killing game. Shuichi is quick to blame himself for coming to the deduction that the mastermind would be in the library, giving Kaede that idea, but she corrects him and says that she brought this upon herself. Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs are quick to execute her, but Kaito, Tenko, and Gonta immediately jump to her defense despite facing an Exisal. Kaede urges them to stop, saying that she's ready to die. Shuichi criticized her for giving up, but she reassured him that he isn't.

She told him that she believed in him and as such, should believe in himself before being dragged to her execution. When the execution started all the students surrounded Kaede as were she is pulled by a chain, where she fell in a giant piano wee Monokuma was found to start the execution. The Monokuma Kubs pulled a rope to hang Kaede were Monokuma created a horrible melody created by Monokuma that the public would insult them, until the great end where the pull of the Monokuma Kubs ends completely hanging Kaede. When the lid of the piano was about to close to kill Kaede, Monodam has a fit of desperation and pushed Monokid to his death, being crushed by the trap of Kaede, filling with blood and leaving only his damaged head, which disturbingly falls in front of the remaining students. Both Kaede and Monokid died at the same execution.

After the trial Shuichi, with Kaito's recommendation, visited the Ultimate Pianist's Research Lab. He looked around and plays 's via the audio player and began to reminisce about Kaede. He made a vow to not look away from the truth anymore and believe in himself, essentially saying goodbye to her.

Uncovering the truth
While not physically present during the final trial, Rantaro's case, the case that Kaede was supposedly the blackened of and executed for, is re-opened by survivors Shuichi, Tsumugi Shirogane, Maki, Himiko, and K1-B0 after discovering new truth's related to that case.

During the class trial, Shuichi is eventually able to reveal the full truth about Rantaro's death, as well as Kaede's unjust execution, becoming increasingly outraged and furious at Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs for breaking their own rules and executing someone who wasn't blackened in the first place. By double-checking everyone's alibis during Rantaro's murder, Shuichi honed in on Tsumugi as the true culprit of Rantaro's murder, as well as mastermind of the Killing School Semester.

When Tsumugi and Monokuma reveal everything about the participants, including talent, personality, memory, and feelings were all fabricated, Shuichi seemingly has a mental breakdown as his thoughts were mainly on Kaede and his friendship with her along with all his others during his time at Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

In the end, Kaede could achieve her goal of defeating the mastermind as hers and Rantaro's deaths were avenged after Danganronpa finally come to its end in the last execution.}}

Name
Kaede (楓) is written and means "maple tree". Her last name Akamatsu (赤松), is the Japanese name for a kind of tree known as the "".

Alternate Fates
In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version), Kaede was doing her self-introduction before she fell into a deep sleep and awake at a strange classroom. She encountered Makoto Naegi who claimed that he was a new student at Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and recognized Kaede's name and talent from the new students roster. Kaede then read a note that told her to come to the gym.

Kaede encountered the other students along her way to the gym, introduced herself and learn a bit more about the others. Kaede finally reached the gym and was so shocked when she saw Monokuma appeared, thinking that he's a panda. Furthermore, Monokuma told her that Kaede and the other students will undergo the Killing School Semester inside the academy, where none will escape except they perform a perfect murder. Kaede was baffled by this overwhelming and despairing rules. Monokuma also informed that she will share the same room with Makoto and Hajime Hinata, which she objects because she's a girl.

Kaede then enters her room, only found signs of struggle all around the wall, bed, and floors. When she entered the shower, she discovered Yasuhiro Hagakure's body lying on the floor with a knife stabbed in his abdomen. Kaede screamed in panic when Monokuma broadcasted the dead body announcement and told the students to immediately perform an investigation before the Class Trial. While investigating, Kaede is advised by Hajime not to trust anyone since one of them is the murderer.

Kaede begin to investigate her room and Yasuhiro's body and then asking the students around the school. She also checked the knife's origin that is the kitchen. After she gathered enough evidence, Kaede and the others descend to the class trial room.

Appearance
Kaede has shoulder-length light blonde hair and a prominent ahoge. She wears silver music note hairpins and has purple eyes.

She wears her high school uniform, which consists of a long-sleeved white shirt completed with a light purple ribbed-hem sweater vest adorned with an insignia and a brownish-red tie. She wears a purple skirt adorned with a black music staves and notes pattern, purple stockings reaching below her knees and beige shoes.

Kaede also carries around a white backpack.

Personality
Kaede is an optimistic hard worker. According to Kaede's Japanese voice actress, Sayaka Kanda, she is very protagonist-like and always pulling the others along cheerfully; a typical heroine that is very dependable. As a leader type with a firm character, she has a strong will and doesn't hesitate to take action, her notable character trait being her strong sense of belief in herself and others. Her main motivation for playing piano is to see others smiling.

Kaede has a kind personality that makes her think about others before herself. Because of this, she is unable to immediately suspect people, as demonstrated in the demo by her going as far as faking an alibi out of her trust for Makoto Naegi, with no rational basis for his innocence. Like the other protagonists before her, she has a very sensitive nature and listens to other people's troubles and gives them positive advice, as evidenced in Free Time Events and her interactions with Shuichi Saihara. She is also stated to not be very idiosyncratic despite being an Ultimate, giving off the impression of being a simple girl you could meet anywhere and a person that's easy to befriend. However, being a pianoholic from a young age, she has a peculiar trait of including music talk into her conversations. It's also been shown that she even avoids certain activities such as cooking and certain sports because she fears her fingers might get hurt, affecting her ability to play.

Kaede can also be a bit oblivious and silly at times. During K1-B0's Free Time Events, she unintentionally asks questions in a somewhat insensitive manner by making assumptions about his robotic nature. She also pokes Tsumugi Shirogane's cheek and K1-B0's emergency button without permission. Furthermore, even though she repeatedly calls Tsumugi sexy and Tenko cute, she ironically seems completely oblivious when other girls talk about liking girls. During Tenko Chabashira and Himiko Yumeno's Free Time Events, she completely fails to understand that they refer to homosexuality when talking about "playing for the other team" and being attracted to another girl. In bonus mode, it's shown that she dislikes horror movies because they make her scared. She is also quite sensitive to vulgarity, as shown in Miu Iruma's Free Time Events.

Ultimate Pianist
Being the Ultimate Pianist, she is very skilled in playing the piano since her young age. She gained the title after winning a contest. Her biggest motivation to play piano is to make her audience smile, and always remember her motivation during her piano concert so she can hold her nervousness.

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

Enhanced Hearing
Kaede has enhanced hearing, similar to Ibuki Mioda from the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair that allows her to hear more than three different people's argument during the Panic Debate.

Relationships

 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles's Students:

Shuichi Saihara
Shuichi seems to strongly believe in Kaede, reassuring her and telling her that "if it's her, she can do it". Shuichi's presence appears to comfort Kaede, due to his status as a detective, although she admits that he seems unreliable. She attempts to help raise Shuichi's confidence by giving him pep talks.

Rantaro Amami
Rantaro admires Kaede for her leadership skills. Kaede thinks that he is a refreshing person and easy to talk to. However, Kaede was surprised how Rantaro acts so care-free and relaxed before the class trial in the demo starts. She states that even though things have become more complicated, Rantaro has found the way to clear the whole situation, which made her curious. She was also confused how Rantaro speaks so calmly against Monokuma during the situation and is desperate to find what Rantaro's true talent is.

Maki Harukawa
After Kaede and Maki introduced themselves as Ultimates, Kaede claims that the children could see Maki's true soul and that Maki is capable of deep love.

K1-B0
Although initially defensive about his robot nature, K1-B0 tells Kaede that he is glad to be her friend after discovering that she is not a "robo-racist."

Miu Iruma
Kaede and Miu's relationship can be a bit negative at times, as Miu has a tendency to insult her just like she insults everyone else, and specifically calls her "Kaeidiot" (Bakamatsu in Japanese) and keeps calling her breasts tiny. However, while Kaede can be a bit annoyed by Miu's rudeness, she feels sympathetic and protective of her whenever she shows her weaker side.

Angie Yonaga
Kaede sees Angie as a very religious person and is a bit creeped out when Angie asks for some blood to sacrifice to her god. Whether good girl or bad, Kaede thinks that it won't be easy to get close to her.

Tsumugi Shirogane
Initially thought to be a life-sized doll, Kaede didn't expect that Tsumugi has the title of the Ultimate Cosplayer due to her normal-looking appearance. She states that she could felt some sort of "pheromones" that can't stop from falling of Tsumugi because she was out of costume.

Kirumi Tojo
Kaede thinks that Kirumi has an interesting talent who is skillful and also gives off a humble and calm atmosphere. She wondered to call her just that. Kaede states how lucky Kirumi could be since she is always busy and helps a lot of people.

Tenko Chabashira
Kaede thinks Tenko is cute, spending a good deal of time complimenting her appearance during Free Times Events, which greatly embarrasses Tenko. Since Kaede is a girl, Tenko is willing to protect her from menaces.


 * Enemies:

Monokuma
Kaede feels intense resentment for Monokuma, who forced the students into the killing game.

Quotes

 * -|DRV3 Demo=

DRV3=

List of Appearances

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

Trivia

 * Kaede was first revealed as part of the Danganronpa V3 trailer first shown at Tokyo Game Show 2016, along with the avatars of the rest of the game's cast which up until that point were only shown as silhouettes. While all other characters were only revealed by appearance, Kaede's character name, as well as her voice actress were revealed during the trailer, and it is actually presented by herself.
 * During the trailer, Kaede introduces herself as the game's "protagonist" (主人公 shujinkō), and is shown participating in a class trial.
 * She is the first protagonist in the primary game that has a skill for a talent, along with being the first female protagonist in the primary line of the Danganronpa series.
 * Kaede's Japanese voice actress, Sayaka Kanda, has already contributed to Danganronpa franchise as a whole both as a singer (as part of the group TRUSTRICK), singing the opening to Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future Arc alongside Maon Kurosaki as well as its ending, and as a stage actress - playing Junko Enoshima (and Mukuro Ikusaba) in the Danganronpa stage plays.
 * Kanda is also married to Mondo Owada's stage actor for Danganronpa The Stage 2016, Mitsu Murata.
 * Kaede's English voice actress, Erika Harlacher, also voices Kyoko Kirigiri in Danganronpa games.
 * In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Kaede the 3rd most popular Danganronpa V3 student out of 16.

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