Izuru Kamukura

Izuru Kamukura (カムクラ イズル Kamukura Izuru), also known as Izuru 1.0, is one of the two main antagonists of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and a central antagonist in the Danganronpa series. He is an alternate identity of Hajime Hinata.

Izuru was the end product of the Hope Cultivation Plan and as a "genius out of the ordinary", Hope's Peak Academy's ultimate goal, went by the title of Ultimate Hope (超高校級の「希望」chō kōkō kyū no “kibō”). He is also named after Hope's Peak Academy's founder.

Izuru seemingly joined Ultimate Despair, after being persuaded by Junko Enoshima. However, in actuality, he wanted to see whether hope or despair was more unpredictable, following Chiaki Nanami's death.

Izuru is briefly shown in the epilogue of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.

Izuru, as the alternate identity of Hajime, returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair with the other Remnants of Despair. He also returns in Side: Future, where he is still active in Hajime's mind.

Appearance
Izuru has very long, flowing black hair. His hair is smooth, though it's also been portrayed as messy. In addition, he has red eyes (as opposed to the green eyes of Hajime) with symbols resembling target radars running across his pupils. He also seems to have a pale complexion almost gray/cadaverous.

He wears a black suit with three white buttons, a black tie and a white dress shirt inside. He also has a black belt and black loafers.

When Izuru appears in Hajime's subconscious, he is dressed in Hajime's attire.

After he exits the Neo World Program, Izuru chooses to resume his appearance as Hajime, cutting his hair short and switching his black suit for Hajime's getup.

Personality
Due to the drastic changes that the operations made to turn Hajime into Izuru, his original personality was suppressed so as to not interfere with his talent cultivation.

Izuru appears as a cold and emotionless person who finds everything and everyone boring. He expresses a disgust for talentless people that oppress those with talent instead of acknowledging their "true superiors". He believes that such people brought the world to a deadlock and created a world that has stopped evolving. He mentions that this way of thinking was taught to him by his "teachers". While he lacks sympathy for others, he differs from Junko in that he neither does not seem to enjoy the sufferings of others. The only exception is Chiaki Nanami which was due to his past life, as Hajime's attachment to her made him shed tears.

Izuru enjoys unpredictability, which can make him feel more emotional, but he also tends to quickly grow bored because his supernatural analytical skills and intuition causes him to quickly predict things with surprising accuracy. This is seen in Danganronpa 2's chapter 0, as he is visibly excited by the rocking of the boat only to find it boring a few seconds later (he is also so focused on the rocking that he doesn't even realize he's on a boat, at first). Junko eventually used this to manipulate him, as she told him to strive for the unknown of despair and chaos to free himself from the boredom.

In Danganronpa Another Episode, Izuru appears completely silent and seemingly unemotional. However, he rips the hard drives from Shirokuma and Kurokuma in a rather aggressive and seemingly annoyed manner, which is even commented on by the AI Junko.

After the Neo World Program, the person who went in as Izuru started to identify as Hajime. However, he is later seen expressing his boredom emotionlessly, similar to Izuru.

Ultimate Hope
As a result of the experiments that were conducted on him, Izuru is said to possess every known talent that has been researched at Hope’s Peak Academy. For this reason, he was proclaimed to be the Ultimate Hope by the trustees of the academy themselves. Unlike Makoto Naegi, whose Ultimate Hope comes from his unusual optimism and determination and is able to rally people to action, Izuru's Ultimate Hope comes from him being talent incarnate, making him appear to be a superhero (or superhuman, at the very least.)

The following are a list of talents that Izuru is shown to have throughout the series.

Ultimate Analyst
Much like Junko Enoshima’s, Izuru’s analytical skills are borderline superhuman. He’s able to predict things extremely quickly and with a surprising amount of accuracy, shown through his emotionless demeanor and quick reaction to when Junko suddenly tried to kill him in an effort to throw the world into despair. Izuru is also able to analyze/read people from the second he looks at them. This is seen during his second encounter with Nagito, where he quickly deduces Nagito’s true character from looking at him, merely judging him as boring afterward.

Ultimate Soldier
Izuru possesses heightened physical strength, reflexes, and speed, to the point of being superhuman. This effectively grants him the talent of Mukuro Ikusaba, only to a significantly greater degree, as he is able to send Mukuro herself flying with a simple backhand. Izuru was also able to barely dodge a bullet that he wasn’t able to see coming until the very last second.

Ultimate Secret Agent
Izuru is able to withhold his presence entirely at will, much like Yuto Kamishiro. Before and during the First Mutual Killing Game, Izuru is able to watch the members of Hope’s Peak Academy’s Student Council killing each other up close, as he was there with them. Despite this, none of the student council members notice Izuru at all until the very end, where he reveals himself.

Ultimate Lucky Student
Izuru is shown to have an excessive amount of good luck, to the point where it’s able to rival Nagito Komaeda’s point for point. This is best shown when Izuru encounters Nagito himself, the latter aiming to shoot Junko. When Nagito tries to shoot Izuru, the gun jams due to Izuru’s luck beating out Nagito’s own. However, when Izuru shoots Nagito, the bullet hit the latter’s Student Handbook instead of killing him.

Hope Cultivation Plan
Hope's Peak Academy was established for the sake of cultivating personal talent in order to create a perfect genius, who would be deemed the hope of mankind. For many years, the Academy researched the talents of the Ultimates. This project was named the Hope Cultivation Plan, though it was also called the Izuru Kamukura Project after the academy's founder.

Recently, the researchers were finally able to reach the experimental stage of the project. From there, they set their sights on the Reserve Course dropouts to use them as lab rats, as their plan to create talent artificially required test subjects that are wholly lacking in talent. From that group of Reserve Course students, the one who was finally chosen was Hajime, because he admired Hope's Peak Academy more than everybody else.

Hope's Peak Academy exploited Hajime's feelings of admiration toward hope and talent just to use him as a lab rat. All of his senses, emotions, thoughts, and hobbies that could interfere with acquiring talent were excised. All of his memories of the past were forcefully suppressed into the darkest recesses of his mind. By directly interfering with his brain, the academy transformed Hajime into a completely different person whose specialty is talent itself. He was meant to be the fruit of all the research, a genius among geniuses possessing various talents, and he was named Izuru Kamukura after the founder.

Izuru was known as the symbol of mankind's hope and he was given the title of Ultimate Hope. To protect such rare talent, the academy completely concealed all evidence of Izuru's origins and identity.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair
Izuru, as the alternate identity of Hajime returns in Danganronpa 3 - Side: Despair, where its story focuses on the story of the Remnants of Despair during The Tragedy.

Episode 06 - A Despairfully Fateful Encounter
Hajime completed the transition to Izuru Kamukura, a person destined to be the Ultimate Hope, a master of all talents. His old personality, identity, and ideals were said to be overwritten in the process. After that, he was locked in a room whose access was restricted solely to the trustees of Hope's Peak Academy.

However, Junko tricked the retina scanner securing that room by using an eyeball she obtained from a kidnapped trustee. After meeting Izuru, she lamented over the fact that he is locked up, given his talents. She then suddenly attacked him, saying that as the Ultimate Hope, his death would leave everyone in despair. Izuru easily disarmed her, as well as her sister, Mukuro Ikusaba.

Laying on the ground before him, Junko explained that Izuru needs despair as much as she does. He replied saying that he didn't see any logical reason for the need of despair. Junko then asked him what the logical reason for her attacking him was. Izuru was aware of her analytical talent and knew that she knew an attack on his life wouldn't be successful. However, he didn't understand the reason behind her actions. Junko then gave a speech to him, saying that a world full of hope would be predictable and boring, and only the chaos that comes from despair can make it exciting.

After Junko urged him to join up with her, Izuru knocks her out by stepping on her head. Before he left the room, however, he told Mukuro that he will be waiting for Junko.

Episode 07 - The Biggest, Most Atrocious Incident in Hope's Peak High School's History
Junko made her way to Izuru's room and took him outside on the school grounds. She then brought him to where the Hope's Peak Student Council would participate in the first Mutual Killing Game. For most of the game, Izuru stood on the sidelines and observed the students, but at the end, he was finally noticed by one of the members.

Izuru warned the student that fighting him was impossible, seemingly convincing the former council member to lower his gun - however, this only prompted him to attack with his chainsaw instead. Izuru easily evaded the attack and incapacitated the student with a single blow, causing him to fall neck-first on his still-running chainsaw. He then turned to leave, only for the dying student to shoot a bullet which ended up grazing Izuru's cheek just enough to draw blood. Showing just a hint of surprise, Izuru examined the wound before looking up at a security camera, aware that Junko and Mukuro were observing him from the monitoring room.

Izuru was later shown when Junko was explaining her email to the Reserve Course about Hope's Peak's ulterior motive for the Reserve Students, kick-starting the the Parade.

Episode 08 - The Worst Reunion by Chance
While Nagito Komaeda's attempted to assassinate Junko before her plans to throw the world into despair could be realized, Izuru happened to stumble upon the confrontation in Ryota Mitarai's secret room. Silently entering behind Nagito, he found himself staring down the barrel of the Ultimate Lucky Student's gun; however, the gun jammed when Nagito tried to fire. Coldly explaining that he too carried "Ultimate Luck", Izuru easily took the gun from Nagito and shot him in the chest, commenting on the strength of Nagito's luck when his Student Handbook blocked the bullet.

He then turned his attention to Chiaki Nanami, seemingly evoking a mutual recognition between them as she recognized him by his previous identity, Hajime.

Episode 09 - Chisa Yukizome Doesn't Smile
Chiaki asks "Hajime" what he has done with his hair, and Izuru asks who she is. Junko interrupts them and says she wants to become friends with Chiaki. She wants to show Chiaki the brainwashing anime, but Chisa intervenes by throwing a fire extinguisher. She sees Izuru, and recognizes. Chisa ordered Chiaki to take Nagito and escape. When Chisa is captured and subjected to the brainwashing video. Izuru stands back and watches as Mukuro tries to weaken Chisa's resistance to the video. Izuru comments on how this is all boring.

The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy
Izuru kick-started The Tragedy when he, along with the fourteen members of Hope's Peak's student council, were used by Junko to participate in the first ever Mutual Killing Game known as The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy. The academy concealed the incident.

Junko claims that Izuru himself killed all 14 participants of the Mutual Killing Game (except for Soshun Murasame). This is proved to be false in Danganronpa/Zero and in Danganronpa 3 - Side: Despair, in which the student council members killed each other; Izuru was only responsible for one death, which was in self-defense. However, Junko manipulated the video recording to depict him as the mastermind of the Mutual Killing Game.

Danganronpa/Zero
Izuru Kamukura isn't personally met by Ryoko Otonashi but is referenced throughout the novel several times.

After The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy, from which he and Soshun Murasame were the only survivors, Izuru disappeared. As his location is hidden and very few know about him, he is treated similar to a ghost story. Izuru is mentioned by Junko (who was later revealed to be Mukuro Ikusaba in disguise). Kyoko Kirigiri tried to investigate him, but eventually was forced to give up.

He is believed to be the culprit of the school's tragedy, though it is hinted that this might not be the case. Yuto Kamishiro believes that he is more like a victim.

During the Tragedy
At some point, Izuru joined Ultimate Despair, after being convinced by Junko that despair is "unknown" and can cause unpredictable things, which causes interest in Kamukura.

However he remain undecided between hope and despair and at the end choose to spend an entire year as member of Ultimate Despair to witness Junko's despair.

After the death of Junko, Izuru set up with the complicity of the others Remnants of Despair a plan to allow AI Junko to take over their bodies through the Neo World Program. However his personal goal was witness the battle between hope and despair and choose which side take once and for all.

Prologue - The Warriors of Hope
Izuru is mentioned during the prologue of the game when members of the Future Foundation are explaining The Tragedy to Komaru Naegi.

Chapter 5 - Absolute Despair Girl
In chapter 5, the Servant tells Monaca Towa that the Monokuma Kids informed him about a lone intruder in Towa City. This person is most likely Izuru, but interestingly it seems that the Servant was unaware of that despite the fact that both were supposedly members of Ultimate Despair.

Epilogue - The Changing World We Made
Izuru is seen briefly in the animated portion of the epilogue; wheel-barreling Shirokuma and Kurokuma's head somewhere in Towa City before punching them and ripping their hard drives to get a basis for the AI Junko.

Izuru looks towards the city and walks away as the scene cuts out. He has no dialogue in this game and seems to have merely been observing the situation rather than playing a role.

Capture by Future Foundation
It is currently unknown when exactly he was captured with the other Remnants of Despair. However, Makoto Naegi encountered him in an abandoned building, ultimately leading to his capture by the Future Foundation.

Chapter 0 - Heading to the School Trip
Izuru was first seen inside a boat in Chapter 0. Inside the boat, he was accompanied by Nagito, another of the Remnants of Despair, but they don't recognize each other. Izuru can easily tell the other boy's true character, but finds him boring.

Throughout the Killing Game
After Izuru entered the Neo World Program, the program dug up the memories of Hajime and rebuilt his old personality from data from the past. Izuru knew this would happen.

Izuru lived throughout as Hajime. At the end of the last trial, he and Hajime had a face to face in the latter's subconscious. During which Izuru tried to drop Hajime into despair reproach him all his weakness and talentless with the purpose to persuade Hajime to choose GRADUATION and so allow the resurrection of Junko in the real world, but Hajime, with Chiaki Nanami's help, choose to not give up and perform the SHUTDOWN deciding to face the possibility of awakening as Izuru when he exits the game.

When he awakens, despite still having his memories as Izuru, he decides to stay on the island and live as Hajime. However, it is left unclear whether Izuru's personality was overwritten or simply mixed with Hajime's.

According to Junko, Izuru was the one who brought the AI Junko to the Neo World Program, which started the serial murders. Being the same person as him, Hajime is both the protagonist and antagonist. This is confirmed by reflecting on Izuru's words during Chapter 0. He mentions that he plans to use Junko, and says that he has her "contribution" in his pocket.

Episode 06 - No Man is an Island
Izuru appears to be active in Hajime's mind, as Hajime emotionlessly expresses his boredom after seeing approaching Future Foundation peacekeepers, ready to attack Jabberwock Island under Kyosuke Munakata's orders.

True Identity
The Izuru Kamukura Project pushed Hajime’s memories into the darkest recesses of his mind and effectively erased his personality. Although Izuru is a completely different person, however, he can still be recognized as Hajime Hinata by those who knew him prior to the project. Izuru himself eventually becomes aware of his true identity because of this.

Hajime Hinata
Although Izuru was at least aware of his previous identity as Hajime, it's been confirmed that his first sixteen years of his life as Hajime were removed from his memory, and thus he is unable to recall the memory of his past self. However, Hajime does exist within him at a subconscious level, allowing him to cry at Chiaki's death despite having no idea of who she was. In addition, the Neo World Program was able to dig up his past self in order to use as an avatar. During the conversation Izuru had with Nagito in Chapter 0, Izuru stated that "he will not be able to participate in what lies ahead", most likely a reference to that fact.

Another hint to this can be the fact that during the final trial of the Killing School Trip, Makoto, Kyoko Kirigiri and Byakuya Togami were all surprised when it was revealed that Hajime and Izuru are the same person, despite the fact that they had already met and probably spoken with Izuru in the real world before putting him in the Neo World Program. Its also possible that when Izuru was secured and interrogated with the other Remnants of Despair by the Future Foundation, he presented himself as Hajime in order to hide his true identity and fool them, as Makoto and Kyoko did not know much information about Izuru Kamukura.

Ultimate Despair
While he is counted as an actual member of Ultimate Despair by the rest of the world, in actuality he was simply affiliated with it. As he remain undecided between hope and despair, he decided to stay with the other members of Ultimate Despair to witness Junko's despair. He doesn't seem to admire her like all the other members of Ultimate Despair do. This is most likely due to the fact that, unlike the other members, Junko was mainly trying to sway Izuru into joining her in filling the world with despair, instead of outright brainwashing him into doing so.

Junko Enoshima
In Chapter 0 of Danganronpa 2, Izuru acknowledges that Junko used him in the past and seems to desire for revenge, as he wants to use her like she used him. It's unclear what he meant by this and what his true plan was, but he planned to use the AI Junko in some way. Whether Izuru hates Junko or not is still unclear.

Their relationship is explored a bit more in Danganronpa 3 - Side: Despair. Junko, at first, seemingly attempts to kill Izuru because of his status as the Ultimate Hope, but her true intention was to attack him knowing she couldn't win as a way to show despair's unpredictable nature and with this in mind, Izuru wishes to see more. She makes the student council kill each other and frames Izuru to show him what despair was, and eventually convinced him that a world of hope was boring and a world of despair was too unpredictable for even an Ultimate Analyst which makes life much more exciting. Izuru once protected Junko from Nagito after he attempts to kill her with a gun, showing that he was on Junko's side. It is unclear whether he did this because he actually cares for Junko as a person or is interested in seeing more of the chaos she creates that they both find interesting.

Remnants of Despair
Izuru's relationship with the other Remnants of Despair is unknown as he is seen speaking only with Nagito. Interestingly, the two don't know each other, and Izuru considers the other boy completely boring.

However, since the Remnants of Despair entered the Neo World Program of their own will with the purpose of handing over their bodies to AI Junko in order to resurrect her, while Izuru personally installed AI Junko in the program, it can be presumed that either they planned it together, with Izuru as the plot's mastermind, or Izuru planned on betraying Junko and her plan to Junkofy mankind.

It's also possible that at least Mikan Tsumiki knew Izuru, since after regaining her memories in Chapter 3, she claimed she knew who the traitor was, meaning she knew that all the others, including Hajime/Izuru, were members of the Ultimate Despair.

Chiaki Nanami
Izuru meets Chiaki for the first time in an underground room, after he stepped in to save Junko’s life from Nagito. Chiaki, recognizing him as Hajime, quickly tries to start a conversation with him, asking what happened to his hair in the year that passed since they’ve last seen each other. Izuru merely asked who she was in response, as he was unaware of the relationship that his past self had with her. However, he is seen staring into Chiaki’s eyes until Junko interfered and personally told him to stop, heavily implying that he is showing some sort of interest in her. This is most likely due to the fact that Chiaki is the only person he knows who recognized him by someone else, and he knew that the project that created him erased all his memories of who he previously was.

In Chiaki’s final moments, Izuru comes to see her for no known definite reason. He asks Chiaki if Hajime was his previous identity, to which Chiaki, in response, desperately tries to get him to remember her. Unfortunately, despite her attempts, Izuru is still unable to recognize her, stating that all of his previous memories were erased. When Chiaki passes away, Izuru notices her hairpin and picks it up. Upon looking at it, he unconsciously begins to cry, which surprises him. This implies that he was able to remember her, just seconds after she died, as he then keeps the hairpin with him, despite there being no logical reason to do so.

Nagito Komaeda
When Izuru first meets Nagito, he attempts to kill him with a gun after the latter prepares to do the same to Junko. However, because of Nagito's luck, the bullet pierces his student handbook instead. For some reason, when the two meet again (both as members of Ultimate Despair) they do not recognize each other, and Izuru merely thinks of him as a completely boring person.

Quotes

 * "This is so boring."
 * "Despair... No matter how I logically analyze it, is not necessary."
 * "If it's good luck, I have that too." (to Nagito Komaeda)
 * “Is that who I was before?” (to Chiaki Nanami, asking about Hajime Hinata)
 * "Even in your situation, you would still try to protect someone?" (to Chiaki)

Trivia

 * His first and last names are written in katakana, but the original Izuru Kamukura's names are written in kanji.
 * "Izuru" (as 出流), which literally means "out of the current", could also mean "to go out into exile". Both of these meanings could reflect how Izuru Kamukura was a unique existence which felt very secluded due to having no peers.
 * "Kamukura" (as 神座) means "a place in which a god resides" or "a seat for gods". This could reflect how Izuru was created to be a host for superhuman talent.
 * During the Island Life of Mutual Killing Junko told the students about Izuru and that speech is the main source of information on him. During this, however, she made several large contradictions when discussing Izuru. It seems likely that Junko did this to manipulate the students. This means that much of the information on him has very questionable accuracy.
 * Technically, being the same person as Hajime Hinata, Izuru is the first character in the Danganronpa series that has participated in two Mutual Killing Games and survived.