Kiyotaka Ishimaru

Kiyotaka Ishimaru (石丸清多夏 Ishimaru Kiyotaka) is one of the characters featured in Dangan Ronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair. He has the title Super High-School Level Hall Monitor (超高校級の「風紀委員」Chō Kōkō Kyū no "Fūkiīn"). He was a model student in his middle school, known for participating in its disciplinary committee, and dedicated to martial arts. He was murdered by Yamada in Chapter 3.



Appearance
Ishimaru keeps a serious face with his eyebrows extending to his hairline. He also has short, spiky black hair and red eyes. He wears a white uniform which he claims to wear all the time, even during school holidays. He also wears an armband that has "public morals" (風紀) written on it, symbolizing his talent as a Hall Monitor.

Personality
Befitting of a Super High School Level Hall Monitor, Ishimaru is righteous and values order above all else. He is also a hard worker, believing that one can achieve anything through it. In fact, he earned his title by the same means too. Due to his extreme dedication to studying and proper conduct, he has difficulties in making friends and could not even hold a "normal" conversation with another person. Ishimaru is very expressive and intense in his manner of speech. He can also be insensitive toward another at times, as evidenced in the beginning of Chapter 2, when he said that Naegi would not feel too comfortable sleeping in the same room with Maizono’s corpse. Above all things, he does not tolerate anyone running around the pool.

Pre-Despair Incident
Ishimaru's grandfather was once Prime Minister of Japan; a title Ishimaru believed he gained through his own natural genius rather than any hard work. After only a few months in office, the public opinion of his grandfather changed from high praise to widespread criticism and he was forced to step down. His family name shamed, Ishimaru's grandfather allegedly spent the last years of his life in shamed silence.

Upon hearing this story, Kiyotaka Ishimaru gained a deep resentment for his grandfather and the label of "genius" that was associated with him. He swore to restore honor to his family name by gaining his success through hard work rather than natural talent, sacrificing hobbies of any sort for study sessions and good grades.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
After Monobear made his first appearance, Ishimaru unofficially assigned himself as a leader to the rest of the students. Every morning, he would wake the others up and urge them to go to the morning meeting at the Cafeteria. In Chapter 2, he got into an argument with Oowada, 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 Naegi, though later he was told by two of them to return to his room. While what happened after Naegi left was left unclear in-game, the manga depicted them talking about their life, family, and dreams. It also showed that Ishimaru was the one who lost the competition. This conversation later turned them closer than ever next morning, freaking Asahina out.

When Monobear threatened the students to tell their most embarrassing secrets to the world as a mean to give them motive for murder, Ishimaru 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 Fujisaki was the only one who openly consented to that.

In the trial of Fujisaki’s murder, Ishimaru became horrified when Oowada was fingered as the culprit by Naegi. He refused to believe it and even came to Oowada’s defense in MTB. However, all his effort was for naught, since Naegi managed to figure out the truth. When the students were asked to vote by Monobear, Ishimaru was the only person who did not vote for Oowada. He also promptly broke into tears afterwards, even as Monobear revealed the reason behind Fujisaki’s murder.

The culmination of the second trial traumatized him so much that he was rendered completely mute at Chapter 3, only responding with a small groan when talked to. After he got the news about Alter Ego (whom he mistook as Fujisaki’s ghost) from the other students, he immediately went to Naegi’s room and asked him to guide him to the ghost, since he wanted to apologize to Fujisaki for what Oowada had done. When they finally met, Alter Ego tried to console Ishimaru by mimicking Oowada’s voice and changed the display to his face. This caused him to turn into "Ishida", a new personality, believed to have emerged due to Oowada’s soul entering his body. Subsequently, he became overprotective of Alter Ego, whom he mistakenly thought to be Oowada. Unfortunately, this formed a clash between him and Yamada, who had a crush on Alter Ego. This dispute was taken advantage of by Celes, who would later manipulate Yamada into killing Ishimaru, before killing him herself.

Execution
Prime Minister Kiyotaka Ishimaru's Inaugural Parade  - Ishimaru 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, Monobear pops up resembling Golgo 13 (an assassin) and kills him with a shot through the heart. This execution is shown in the Official Fanbook.

Mondo Oowada
Initially, Ishimaru and Oowada did not get along, due to their many differences. However, after their endurance contest, they dropped all hostilies towards each other, and become the best of friends, calling each other Bro as a sign of a brotherly bond. During Oowada's trial, Ishimaru strongly protested against Oowada being the culprit behind Fujisaki's murder. He was also the only one who didn't vote for Oowada being the villain of the murder (and even voted for himself instead). When Oowada confessed to his crimes, Ishimaru is more shocked than everyone else at the trial. When Monobear excutes his Bro, Ishimaru screams and howls with despair and sorrow, and went practically mute afterwords. Upon the news of Alter Ego's existence, Ishimaru believed it to be Fujisaki's ghost, and wanted to apologize to it for Oowada's actions. It was thanks to Alter Ego's words that Ishimaru's depressed state lifted, and he became Ishida, believed to be a fusion of Ishimaru's and Oowada's souls.

Quotes

 * “My name is Kiyotaka Ishimaru! My motto in life is Simplicity and Fortitude! Let’s all work together and study hard!”
 * “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!”
 * (In reply to Naegi asking who won the sauna contest) "Such a silly question! The fact that we competed against each other is what's important!"
 * “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!!”
 * "I would advice against it, brother. Your body is a precious thing your parents gave to you."

Trivia

 * The kanji readings for his last name are: 石 (Ishi) - Stone and 丸 (Maru) - Bullet referenceres his strong sense of justice.


 * The name "Ishida" which he takes, after fusing with Oowada's soul, most likely comes from the 1st character from Ishimaru's name and last from Oowada's - (石) ISHImaru+oowaDA (田).