Kazuichi Soda

Kazuichi Soda (左右田 和一 Sōda Kazuichi) is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

Kazuichi has the title Ultimate Mechanic (超高校級の「メカニック」chō kōkō kyū no “mekanikku”).

Kazuichi managed to survive the final trial and escape back to the real world with the other survivors at the end of the game and remained stay at Jabberwock Island.

Kazuichi also appears in a light novel titled Danganronpa: Togami as one of the antagonists and a member of Ultimate Despair.

Kazuichi returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy's Despair Volume with the other Remnants of Despair.

Appearance
Kazuichi, being a mechanic, wears a bright neon yellow jumper with a dark brown streak on both sides and several hot pink markings that goes down to his ankles. Kazuichi's shoes are also yellow, although they're a lighter shade than his jumpsuit, and seem to be Nike, but could easily be of another brand.

During his high school years, he wore a blue jumper and a cap.

Kazuichi's hair is dyed hot pink, and is somewhat badly layered. However, he covers said bad layering up with the gray beanie he wears. In addition to his punk rock appearance, he has thin eyes with hot pink prescription color contacts on them at all times. Above his eyes, his thin, pronounced eyebrows nearly touch his hairline. His teeth are sharp and resemble a shark's, giving him an intimidating grin.

Personality
Kazuichi is a highly emotional character, though he tries to play it smooth and acts carefree at first. People tend to note his scary appearance does not match his compulsive and rather timid personality. Kazuichi seems to be a very bad liar, leading him to be contradictory at times; such as when Nekomaru Nidai reveals they had tied Nagito Komaeda up, or when trying to get into the all-girls beach party.

Kazuichi has a tendency to neglect his need for a verbal filter, and blurts things he thinks out, such as when he was contemplating whether he liked Sonia Nevermind 's wetsuit or not. Kazuichi is normally trying to repair any broken items on the island with his ability and familiarity with mechanisms. He also has a great fear of dying on the island, which causes a lot of stress and panic for him. He tends to carry around a spanner/wrench.

Kazuichi is a very jumpy person, and tends to exaggerate his reactions. Kazuichi is also seen to have taken a liking to Sonia, to an extent of being a pervert and in constant jealously of Gundham Tanaka.

Like Mikan Tsumiki, Kazuichi is commonly Monokuma's and Hiyoko Saionji's target, and often ends up being the butt of their jokes.

Kazuichi is one of the few characters that seems to sympathize with the fallen. He doesn't let it get him down, but he neglects to simply let the death of his classmates be shaken off. Kazuichi even makes a small toy out of Nekomaru's robot remains for everyone in an effort to impress Sonia. Kazuichi even displays being a bit shaken up about Teruteru Hanamura's death. He is stunned, but shoved into pushing away his shock because of Hiyoko's comments. Despite this, he seems to still be heavily affected for awhile. This pattern repeats itself for nearly every death.

In Danganronpa: Togami, as Ultimate Despair, Kazuichi is ruthless and very dangerous, shooting and killing many innocent civilians without remorse or hesitation.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers for this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
Kazuichi's life before despair seemed to have been fairly tougher than a normal child's. It is noted that he and his father ran his family's bike shop, but nothing was ever sold. The bike shop wasn't always inactive, however, many customers would ask for them to fix their bike tires or inflate them. Despite this, the family was still often low on money. In result, though, Kazuichi got plenty of practice with making and building things.

As a child, Kazuichi was very skittish, and easily picked on. He had a best friend in middle school. They always did everything together, and could he talk to him about anything. One time, Kazuichi let him cheat off his test because his friend had begged him for help, but they both got caught by the teacher. He insisted that Kazuichi was the one who willingly gave him the answers. Starting from that point, his friend keep avoiding Kazuichi, though in actuality, Kazuichi didn't really care about being scolded.

Kazuichi let other children step all over him, but before he entered Hope's Peak Academy, he changed his appearance entirely. From changing his hair color, to losing his glasses, and presumably sharpening his teeth, so that he could fit in better with people around him. It seems as if it'd do the opposite, but that may just be how his mind works. At this point, he began to put up the "Tough punk" facade to avoid more bullying, which, to this day, continues to break almost constantly.

In addition to Kazuichi's rough childhood, with money and bullying problems, his Dad seems to have constantly beat him. In one of his free time events, he states that he had never been on a field trip, and spoke quite casually about his father beating him when he didn't attend school on those days. This confuses Hajime Hinata, but Kazuichi doesn't seem to register the severity of it. Such behavior suggests that he was a subject of excessive abuse.

In his past, Kazuichi also liked to mess up many things, such as his greatest invention, attaching an engine to the machine that draws the chalk lines on soccer fields. However, it escaped through the school entrance at full speed, without curving or stopping.

Chapter 1 - Byakuya-sama is God
Kazuichi first appeared in the crowd of Prague citizen's demonstration to the World Domination Proclamation. Blue Ink noticed his appearance, but decided not to approach him after the last two events. After Hiroyuki Ketouin's Merchedes-Benz has been spotted by the demonstration due to Taeko Kanai's abruptness, Kazuichi flies the baby statue from TV Tower Babies, revealing them as machine-guns. It starts to shot, targeting at civilians and Hiroyuki's Mercedes. Kazuichi, with his flying baby machine-gun, and Sonia with her armored car started a pincher attack to Hiroyuki's car. It's later revealed Kazuichi and Sonia succeeded in tracking down Byakuya due to a transmitter set in his glasses. Byakuya threw his glasses out the window, eventually allowing the group to escape from the murderous killing machines belonging to both Kazuichi and Sonia.

Prologue - Welcome to Dangan Island! Panic at the Heart-Throbbing School Trip!?
Kazuichi is first seen by Hajime hanging around in the airport along with Gundham. He confirms that all airplanes in the airport are unusable, due the engines are missing. He also adds that whoever put them on the island, plans to keep them there.

Kazuichi says that although the trip is strange he may like it due to not having to do anything bad. When Hajime displays discomfort with Usami, he adds that if you look closely at her, she might look cute.

Chapter 1 - Destination Despair
In the beginning, after Monokuma announces that they must all kill each other to escape, Kazuichi was terrified at the prospect, causing him to jump at shadows. He even tried to escape from the meeting once but ended in failure as Mahiru Koizumi caught him. However, his focus soon shifts from constant fear of dying to trying to get Sonia to be his girlfriend.

During the trial, Kazuichi suspected Peko Pekoyama as the culprit of Byakuya Togami murder. He suspected Peko because during the blackout in the old lodge, the place where the students threw party, Peko guarding the office room, the place where the old lodge electricity sourced. However, Peko proved innocent as the true culprit voted guilty and were executed by Monokuma.

Chapter 2 - Sea and Punishment, Sin and Coconuts
In the beginning of Chapter 2, Kazuichi and Nekomaru punched and chained up Nagito in order to prevent him from causing more trouble. Kazuichi also plotted to crash Sonia's all girl beach party with Hajime by hanging out at the diner until the girls arrived.

Because of this, Kazuichi and Hajime bore witness to Hiyoko leaving the crime scene a short while after the murder took place and he was also able to testify that Hiyoko had no blood on her at the time. He was the third person to discover Mahiru's body, setting off the body discovery announcement.

Chapter 3 - Trapped by the Ocean Scent
Kazuichi moved to the motel along with Hiyoko, Chiaki Nanami, Sonia and Gundham in Chapter 3 while the students afflicted with despair disease were under quarantine. He also built the video transponder which allows the motel group to communicate with the hospital.

Chapter 4 - Do Ultimate Robots Dream of Electric Clocks?
In Chapter 4, Kazuichi explored the Strawberry and Grape houses with Nagito since Sonia took off with Gundham before he could ask her. Having ended up with one of the poor rooms in the Strawberry House, he was able to hear the alarm and the rumbling sound.

On the third day in the morning, Kazuichi was awake because of the strawberry house alarm clocks ringing, he then meets with Gundham, and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu who are too busy to turn it off. He contributed to the murder investigation by fixing the elevator and the Strawberry Tower door button, as well as performing the equivalent of an autopsy on Nekomaru's mechanical body. He was also able to verify the elevator turned 180 degrees with the help of Nagito's compass.

Chapter 5 - Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair
In Chapter 5, Kazuichi stays up two nights straight, one in which he spends the night creating MiniMaru, a small robotic version of Nekomaru with multiple functions in order to cheer everyone up after his death to which Akane Owari gladly adopts as her own, this shows his more caring side to his group of friends after creating an uplifting speech on top of his gift, the 2nd night he then proceeds to create a plan to capture Nagito in order to prevent anymore killings. The plan fails and Kazuichi flat out gets blown across the room by an explosion after apprehending Nagito with Fuyuhiko and Akane. While it seems to suggest he's been injured by the bomb Nagito placed in the lobby, he's surprisingly left unharmed despite it being rather ambiguous when he hadn't spoken for a while during the aftermath. He's the most flustered person due to Nagito's threat.

Chapter 6 - This is the End Goodbye Academy of Despair
In the final chapter, Kazuichi is one of the final five students out of fifteen who enters the final class trial, along with Makoto, Togami and Kirigiri also entering the programme later. Throughout the trial he often shows signs of intense fear and almost comical reactions to the events unfolding, such as discovering he himself as an Ultimate Despair and tries to disregard it, while also being apprehensive to initiate the shutdown sequence because of his fear of what he'll become. In the end, he is convinced by Hajime to create his own future and says the choice of initiating the shutdown sequence is now incredibly easy, while on the verge of despair he managed to overcome that with hope for the future. His love for Sonia has no bounds, even in the final trial.

Epilogue - The Day before the Future
After the defeat of AI Junko Enoshima, Kazuichi and former Ultimate Despair members opted to stay on the Jabberwock Island, possibly in hopes that they could do something to help their comatose friends.

Execution
Underground Travels - Kazuichi was forced into a drilling machine. The door closes and the machine starts to drill into the ground below. It continues on drilling till it reaches the mantle of the earth, and Kazuichi melts along with the machine. This execution is only shown in the Official Fanbook.

Hajime Hinata
Hajime is a close friend of Kazuichi's. Kazuichi latches onto Hajime, calling him his "soul friend". Throughout their friendship, a brief break up ensues when he blames Hajime for "leading them" into Monokuma's trap and ends up turning to Nagito instead.

Sonia Nevermind
From the moment Kazuichi first speaks to Sonia, he bows down to her. Sonia is the only one he uses an honorific for, calling her "Lady Sonia." In addition, she is the only one he refers to on a first-name basis. Despite the amount of "respect" he gives her, he's constantly making comments about her body and appearance, in a rather gross fashion.

At first it is unclear whether Kazuichi is simply objectifying her, or truly cares about her and does not know how to go about expressing that. However, it becomes apparent that he does objectify her, considering he treats her as if she cannot do things for herself because she is a princess. He also stated that he always wanted a beautiful blonde for a girlfriend, which fits Sonia's exterior looks. Sonia dislikes his advances to the point of actively avoiding him and being disappointed that he was not the culprit of the fourth trial.

After Gundham's death Kazuichi made a speech on how the team must prevail and move forward. Though the speech seemed to move others, it is shown that he made the speech solely to impress Sonia, which she ignored.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu
At first, Kazuichi and the Ultimate Yakuza seem to be at each other's throats quite often. Kazuichi makes comments towards Fuyuhiko such as "If you didn't have that big Yakuza family, you'd be nothing but a midget!" Which, of course, is returned by Fuyuhiko's own sharp tongue.

As time passes, though, their disagreement with each other seems to dissipate, and they become tolerant of one another. This may or may not be because of the stress of being on the island.

Nagito Komaeda
After trial one, Kazuichi finds Nagito to be a nutcase. He and Nekomaru are the ones who tie up Nagito. When this happens, and everyone asks where Nagito is, Kazuichi seems extremely suspicious. He's almost immediately blamed for murder.

Despite him having such thoughts about Nagito in the beginning, Kazuichi still turns to him when he 'breaks up' with Hajime.

Gundham Tanaka
Kazuichi disliked Gundham and refused to invite him to the beach party. They had a brief childish spat during the 3rd Class Trial where they threatened to kill each other. Kazuichi disliked him even more when it became apparent that Sonia favored Gundham, resorting to name-calling ("Hamster-chan") and failed attempts to one up him during the 4th Class Trial.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * Radiosonde
 * Lilienthal's Wings
 * Small Degenerated Reactor
 * Old Timey Radio
 * Broken Warhead

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.
 * Engine
 * A rocket ship
 * Fist fight

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Handiwork - Allows you to reload two bullets at once. Effective during the Panic Talk Action.

Quotes

 * “Name's Kazuichi Soda. I'm the "Ultimate Mechanic." Nice to meet ya!”
 * “Ah well. This ain't natural, but I guess it's nothing we can't handle, right?”
 * “Those things're goin' nowhere. I mean...they're not broken - if they were just broken, we'd be flying already, y'know?” (talking about the broken airplane)
 * “Killing each other, huh... K...KILLING EACH OTHER?!”
 * “Miss Sonia! May I call you Miss Sonia? I'm gonna call you Miss Sonia!” (to Sonia Nevermind)
 * “Oi, oi... don't say things like that! You’re gonna ruin my mood!”
 * “Y...You can't scare me with your threats!”
 * “Yawn... Ah... Woke up late. S’not like me at all...”
 * “TOO EASY!”
 * “I PREPARED!”
 * “I-I'll make you look back at me! I'll work hard and make you absolutely look back at me, alright!” (to Sonia)
 * “My classmates were pretty much a bunch of boring turds so I was like, "Who cares if I don't go to school?"”
 * “Hehe...that sounds pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to working with ya, comrade!” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “What kind of guys do you think Miss Sonia likes...? Do you think she's into princes? No, she needs to feel the love of a commoner!” (talking about Sonia)
 * “At this rate, I'll take anything! A go-cart, RC toys, a baby carriage! Just let me tinker with something!”
 * “Guys definitely need something with a rumble and some bam bam bam!”
 * “Disassemble, reassemble, see how it goes... Disassemble, reassemble, see how it goes... Doing that over and over gets my brain moving!”
 * “I just...really like the feeling of an engine running.”
 * “...All right, let's get pumped up and look for a way to escape!”
 * “Can you really believe that nobody here will ever betray us...?”
 * “Humans are creatures that betray each other, y'know...”
 * “I was always...a weak, cowardly kid. All I ever did was study and tinker with machines.”
 * “So...I always believed that everyone who talked to me was a nice person. So even if I was betrayed or lied to, I always believed they had a good reason for it.”
 * “You'd be surprised how much changes when you change your appearance.”
 * “...Thanks. Because of you, I understand now. What I really hated all along wasn’t being betrayed.” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “I hated myself for being too weak to believe in others.”
 * “It's not cute to see an old guy sulk...” (to Nekomaru Nidai)
 * “You're not a tool, you're a friggin' human being!” (to Peko Pekoyama)
 * “What a wicked way of backing us into a wall... Is this his professional skill...!?” (talking about Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu)
 * “Even quick work has limits.”
 * “Don't go doubting Miss Sonia, you cretin! I'll put you and your hamsters six feet under!” (to Gundham Tanaka)
 * “A-Are you freakin' kidding me...? There's no limit to how useless you can be...!” (to Nagito Komaeda)
 * “Wh-What the heck...? This isn't a comic book, you know...!” (In response to Mikan Tsumiki explaining about the "World Ender")
 * “Why do you always side with Hajime...!? Do you have a crush on him or something!?” (to Chiaki Nanami)
 * “A blushing Miss Sonia is freaking awesome!”
 * “It's okay to reach such a happy ending, right!?”
 * “By finding out who the traitor is, our hopes will shine even brighter by overcoming that despair... That's something he'd say” (talking about Nagito)
 * “If this is a game...are my words being displayed in a text window right now!?” (Kazuichi breaking the 4th wall)
 * “A-As expected of Miss Sonia! Your knowledge of state-sanctioned torture is amaaaazing!”
 * “Just kill him right now! Then this nightmare can finally end!” (to Akane Owari)
 * “If I don't have any place to go back to, I should at least protect this place no matter what!”
 * “...People can't change that easily, y'know!” (to Fuyuhiko)
 * “Hey! I'll never forget you guys or the others!”
 * “You guys better remember me too! My name is...Kazuichi Soda!”

Trivia

 * Kazuichi originally had black hair and wore glasses.
 * Kazuichi's report card states that:
 * He likes cola and hates anything that is sugar-free,
 * His Blood type is A,
 * His chest is 34 in.
 * Kazuichi likes comic books and action movies and dislikes novels and horror movies.
 * Despite becoming a mechanic who is an expert in vehicle machines, Kazuichi has motion sickness.
 * This is most likely the reason why Kazuichi would rather take apart machines then ride them.
 * It's revealed in one of Mahiru's Free Time that Kazuichi never washed his jumpsuit.
 * Kazuichi's dream is to build a rocket ship.
 * Kazuichi appears to know how to read English, telling Hajime what a sign written in English meant.
 * The kanji for "Kazuichi" (和一) simply mean "Peaceful One", while his surname (左右田) translates as "Rice Field of Dominance" (左右 sō being an expression literally meaning "Left & Right").
 * It could be that Kazuichi's name and surname are meant to have a bit of irony to them, considering that while he originally seemed to be very self-confident and carefree, he quickly turned hysterical following the appearance of Monokuma.
 * Even on the hardest difficulty, Kazuichi's Rebuttal Showdown arguments only take a single strike to dispel in Chapter 4.
 * During Chapter 5, after discovering an e-mail in the Monobeast factory that discusses students causing a riot leading to the end of the world, Kazuichi references the popular Anime and Manga series, Death Note. He states there's no way the events in the 'story' are real because they're "more impossible than a notebook that kills people just by writing in it."