Monaca Towa

Monaca Towa (塔和 最中 Tōwa Monaka; usually spelled as モナカ Monaka) is the main antagonist of Ultra Despair Girls - Danganronpa Another Episode. She is the life of the Warriors of Hope. She has the title of “Ultimate Homeroom Period” (超小学生級の「学活の時間」chō shōgakusei kyū no “gakkatsu no jikan”).

She is one of the five members of the group called the Soldiers of Hope, in charge of the “Mage” class. According to the other Soldiers, it is her "magic" which allows them to control the Monokuma robots.

Appearance
Monaca has short green hair, wears a red headband and a red ribbon around the white collar of her black dress. Her eyes are the same shade of green as her hair and have a very distinctive pattern of two squares overlapping at the pupil inside each iris.

Monaca wears a silver badge on her chest like every Soldiers of Hope does. Since her legs are incapacitated, she uses a red wheelchair, whose footrest is bears the emblem of the "Mage" class. She also wears black knee highs and white shoes. Her dress has an intricate design on the back tracing her spinal column, pelvis and rib cage, which can only be seen after she reveals her legs aren't really incapacitated and stands up.

Personality
During the prologue and earlier chapters her character is implied to be very amiable and caring. Showing no major flaws except acting cute in childish way of talking and occasional pouting fits when angered and get angry when her talking opponents doesn't seems to get the gist of the conversation when.

She was loved by all of the Soldiers of Hope member. When she gets angry, everyone try to calming her down by saying they will kill many adults for Monaca's sake.

Her true character is shown later to be vicious, unstable and cruel yet incredibly charismatic and manipulative akin to some of Junko Enoshima's personalities. She has little regard to her comrades' well-being, even sexually assaulting her fellow soldiers to enforce her will. In the final chapter of DR:AE, it is revealed that Monaca was faking her injury for pity and she could actually walk.

Monaca's voice actress, Aya Hirano, states,

"Monaca-chan, just based on appearance, gives you the feeling that she has some special circumstance about her, but in reality, it’s not at that level… She is a terrible little girl. She can be angelic, and she can also be a demon." She’d like you to enjoy as Monaca’s outer skin crumbles away to reveal her true character as the various mysteries in the game become clear. "She’s truly villainous."

Prior to the Tragedy
Monaca was born an unwanted child by both her father, the president of the Towa Group, and her mother, his lover out of wedlock. Monaca's mother abandoned the child soon after her birth. Monaca's father thought of giving her to an orphanage, but instead took her into his family. However, according to Monaca, she was always unwanted, and was only treated with some kindness when she pretended to be a parapalegic- a condition she said was caused by her family. Monaca once attended Hope's Peak Elementary School, and was part of the "trouble-maker's class" along with Nagisa Shingetsu, Masaru Daimon, Jataro Kemuri, and Kotoko Utsugi. She loved homeroom period where she would share and exchange opinions. Along with her fellow classmates, she planned a group suicide; however, Monaca never had any plans to commit suicide in the first place, and was planning to let the others die.

She helped Junko (knowing fully well that Junko was trying to use her) mass produce Monokumas by using her position as a representative of the Towa Group. She lied to her father and the other adults in order to produce the Monokumas, telling them that she wanted to create futuristic robots that could rescue humans during disasters and save lives. Haiji Towa, however, explains that he and his father were not tricked by Monaca- Due to her separation from the family and her genius, they decided to give her leg room to do what she wanted as long as she brought in profits to the company, and didn't delve too deeply into her plans.

When her father learned of the Monokumas' true use, her father tried to stop production, but she blackmailed him to let her continue, warning that if he stopped her, he would tell Junko to spread the fact that the ones who made the murderous Monokumas was in fact the Towa Group.

Ultra Despair Girls
Monaca first appears in the news reporting room with the other Soldiers of Hope warning any survivors that they intend to kill all adults and that they should remember them. She then says goodbye and cuts the news report.

She was appeared again in the Soldiers of Hope when they welcomed and introduced themself to Komaru Naegi who has been brought by the Servant. She forced Komaru to understand and admited the Soldiers of Hope's goal to turned Towa City as the only paradise for the children, but when her attempted failed, she suddenly get mad which made the other Soldiers of Hope tried to calmed her down by saying that they will still commenced the "Demon's Hunting" game, the game from Monaca's idea where the Soldiers of Hope released a Demon into Towa City as a targets. Then the Soldiers of Hope competed to saw who could hunt it down first. Hearing the plan, her happiness returned and made her became a cheerful person again.

Not long after The Servant arrives and set the Monokuma Bracelet to Komaru, Monaca and the other Soldiers of Hope open a trap door, resulting in Komaru falling through and back down into Towa City.

She is next seen in Chapter 2 after Masaru had been supposedly killed. Along with Kotoko and Jataro, they made a shrine for him and mourn his death. Nagisa didn't mourned his death because he stated that Masaru's current faith was still unknown due to the Monokuma Kids didn't reported Masaru's dead to the Soldiers of Hope and It only said that Masaru was captured by the adults. However Monaca thread Nagisa that Masaru confirmed dead, and later they were debating a small problem about things such as "allies" and "liking". Monaca then decides to elevate Nagisa from vice-leader to the Soldiers' new leader in place of Masaru, and later left the other Soldiers of Hope.

Her room is a shrine to her idol and 'savior' Junko who helped her find a reason to live when she was young. She even tried to create Junko Enoshima II using Komaru. She is later seen being carried away by the Servant and her current whereabouts are unknown.

Kurokuma
Kurokuma was Monaca's advisor.

Fellow Warriors of Hope
The Soldiers of Hope are extremely fond of Monaca, always caring for her well-being and hurrying to calm her down whenever she enters one of her pouting fits. Jataro even called her the Soldiers of Hope's "princess". Monaca appears to use her delicious cookies as an incentive for her comrades to work harder.

Although the care the other kids express for her seems genuine, the treatment Monaca receives is also due to practical reasons - since it is her "magic" which allows the Soldiers to control the Monokuma robots.

Monaca is revealed to not actually care about her fellow members, she is shown to sexually assult, bad mouth and even blackmail her fellow members into doing what she says.

Komaru Naegi
Monaca appears to take joy in watching Komaru, even giving her the title Onee-chan (Big Sister). She also tried to resurrect Junko's spirit into Komaru's own body, scaring Komaru in the process.

Junko Enoshima
Monaca's savior and idol. She has many pictures of Junko and attempted to resurrect her. One main photo depicts her with a younger looking Junko holding onto her wheelchair.

Toko Fukawa
While Monaca hasn't directly interacted with Toko, she appears to enjoy blackmailing her, as seen towards the end of the game, and she appears bored by Toko's speech about friendship. Toko in return sees Monaca as the worst brat of them all.

Quotes

 * “Nice to meet you citizens of Towa City. We are the Warriors of Hope, the masters of Monokuma-chan. We have decided to turn this dirty, worthless, worst of the worst city that pumps out criminals into a paradise of the children, by the children, for the children. For that reason, all of you adults out there are no longer needed! Goodbye!” (Monaca giving her speech)
 * “Monaca is called Monaca. Monaca is in charge of the "Mages" in the Soldiers of Hope. In school, Monaca was named 'Ultimate Homeroom Period'.”
 * “You'd think you can't be 'super' or 'normal' at homeroom, but being able to unite people is a great talent. But... when Monaca feels it's more like saving people than uniting them.”
 * “Mysteriously, only the most wonderful people gathered around Monaca. Monaca would be happy to see you as a wonderful person to her!”
 * “Nnn... like— I— said—! Why— don't— you— get— it—! That's— how— it— is—! If Monaca— says— so—! Then— it's— so—!”
 * “You know, even if you think about it based on your common sense and experiences, there isn't any reason. Monaca and us are like that so it can't be helped. We do it because it's fun. That's really all there is—”
 * “You were a great leder...in place of the cowards, you worked hard like a hero.” (talking about Masaru Daimon)
 * “Kotoko and Nagisa are comrades, so you have to get along.”

Trivia

 * "Towa" (塔和) means "broad harmony".
 * "Monaca" (最中) is a type of Japanese sweet made of azuki bean jam filling between two thin wafers made of mochi, like a cookie. Her name can also be read as 最中 saichuu, which literally means "in the midst of."
 * It should be noted that unlike the rest of the Soldiers of Hope and despite sounding Japanese, Monaca's name is written in katakana - which is almost never used to write Japanese names and words. The main purposes of katakana are to write foreign names, terms and loanwords, as well as made up names (e.g. Monokuma).
 * It could be that Monaca chose to present her name in katakana in order to imply at her relation to the Monokuma robots, being the one who controls them with "magic".
 * Monaca likes time for talking with others and warm futons and she dislikes spending time alone and cold food.
 * Monaca speaks in the third person sometimes.
 * Monaca is apparently very good at baking cookies.
 * Monaca is eventually revealed to not need her wheelchair. Ironically, she gets her legs crushed by rubble after the final faceoff against her.
 * There is a CG available at the end of the game which shows Monaca, dressed up as Junko, working on a computer or laptop. It is most likely that she is taking The Servant's advice and is becoming the second Junko Enoshima herself.
 * Her blood type is B.