Ryoma Hoshi

"You still got a ways to go."

- Ryoma's catchphrase, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

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

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

Ryoma and the other talentless fifteen students undergo the fabrication process, where all of their past memory and personality were heavily fabricated. He also received the talent and title of Ultimate Tennis Pro. All of this were done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all around the world. After the fabrication process done, Ryoma and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as a whole different person, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

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


 * 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, and he found out that he was fooled, was actually playing in fixed matches. At first, he played along the mafia's plan, until he decided to crush his last enemy where he supposed to lose to. Having destroyed the mafia's reputation, they began to massacre Ryoma's family. He managed to save his girlfriend to a safety somewhere at first, but her hiding place was located and they eventually killed her, 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 for 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 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.

Ryoma 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 destroyed. Ryoma and the others went to the space in a massive colony spaceship, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles.

Kokichi Oma who declared himself as a member of Junko Enoshima's Remnants of Despair said that he is the mastermind behind the Killing Game who let Monokuma entered the spaceship, effectively forcing Ryoma and the others to participate in the Killing Game.

It should be noted that Ryoma 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 Light in Chapter 5. }}

Killing School Semester
{{spoiler|Because he was incarcerated before coming to Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, he says that the Ultimate Tennis Pro already is no more to Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara.

As the time passes, no one including Ryoma intended to start the Killing Game. However, Monokuma's first motive, the First Blood Perk, threaten all of the lives of the trapped students, made Ryoma allow himself to be killed so the others could survive and escape from the academy. At the morning before the time limit hit, he was arguing with Rantaro Amami in the cafeteria, saying that he allowed anyone to kill him in order to save everyone's lives from being punished by Monokuma. Rantaro, however, managed to persuade him to cancel his plan, because he has his own way to stop the Killing Game.

After Rantaro was murdered, Ryoma mentioned how ironic that was. He, the one who didn't have the will to survive live, and Rantaro didn't. 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."

Reason to Live
After Monokuma Kubs gave everyone the second motive, Ryoma's Kubs Pad or his motive video was misplaced and was held by Maki Harukawa. At that time, he didn't know who hold his motive video, and he suggested the group to exchange and return their motive videos to their respective owners. However, majority of the group rejected that idea, because they were afraid that it would turn to be a motive to kill. Ryoma was irritated by this, and decided to stay away from the group.

Before the day of the murder, Ryoma met with Shuichi who was the same like him, trying to escape from Gonta Gokuhara 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 need 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 the motive video. He bid his farewell to Shuichi and espaced before Gonta knocked the Ultimate Detective unconscious.

Managed to escape from Gonta's chase, Ryoma paid Maki a visit on her Research Lab and begged her to give him his Kubs Pad. This way was the only way to build his own spirit in living, as he wanted to know the people that love him. Seeing his determination, Maki had no choice but to give him his Kubs Pad.

It was revealed that nobody appears on Ryoma's Kubs Pad, meaning he doesn't have a person that considered him precious. This managed to break his spirit of living completely. Kirumi who wanted to escape from the academy decided to choose Ryoma as her prey because she thought he is the weakest person among the others, since he have already lost his ambition to continue living.

Ryoma was invited to visit his own Research Lab by Kirumi in the middle of night. In the end, he showed no resistance and gives up his own life to Kirumi.

It was first shown that Ryoma's body was floating in the fish tank while being surrounded by piranhas, but were blocked off by a pane of glass. After Angie Yonaga and Himiko Yumeno performed their magic show, the glass was removed and piranhas begin to eat Ryoma's body until all that's left is his bones. Later in the class trial, it was revealed that Kirumi Tojo was the one who killed him by hitting him with a plank and drowning him in the sink.}}

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.

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

Relationships

 * Family:

Pet cat

 * Love Interests:

Girlfriend

 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles

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.

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