Kazuichi Soda

Kazuichi Soda (左右田 和一 Sōda Kazuichi), is a student of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B, and a participant of the Killing School Trip featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. His title is Ultimate Mechanic (超高校級の「メカニック」chō kōkō kyū no “mekanikku” lit. Super High School Level Mechanic).

He, along with Class 77-B, return in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School to explore their school life leading up to The Tragedy.

Appearance
Kazuichi is a young man in his early twenties, around 22 at youngest. His virtual avatar in the Neo World Program appeared as his 17-year-old self.undefined

He, being a mechanic, wears a bright green-yellow jumper with a dark brown streak on both sides and several hot pink markings that go down to his ankles. Kazuichi's shoes are bright yellow sneakers. 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, giving him an intimidating grin. He also has earrings, the right one having a plus sign and the left one having a minus sign.

As the Ultimate Despair, Kazuichi has the same hair and yellow jumper, as well as black gloves. He no longer wears a hat.

Personality
Kazuichi is a highly emotional character, though he tries to play it smooth and acts carefree at first. He is a very jumpy person, easily scared and often screaming in fear. People tend to note his scary appearance does not match his compulsive and cowardly personality. Naturally, he has a great fear of dying on the island, which causes a lot of stress and panic for him.

Kazuichi also has a tendency to neglect his need for a verbal filter and blurts things out without thinking. He also seems to be a very bad liar, leading him to be contradictory at times. While he is a genius with machinery, he appears to be a bit slow-witted otherwise. Like Mikan Tsumiki, he is commonly Monokuma and Hiyoko Saionji's target and often ends up being the butt of their jokes.

Being the Ultimate Mechanic, Kazuichi normally tries to repair any broken items on the island with his ability and familiarity with mechanisms. He tends to carry around a spanner/wrench and he turns anxious if he cannot tinker with something. He has a great love for machinery, especially fast ones like rockets and bikes, which is ironic because he suffers from a bad motion sickness. At times, his love for machinery seems to reach even abnormal levels. In Island Mode, he appears to question his sexuality around Hajime Hinata (for example, he was excited and then confused reaction about taking clothes off with him and he's afraid he'll dream about a date with Hajime after he jokingly suggested a one), only to comically confess to him that he is attracted to tanks. In Chapter 3, it's also revealed that he apparently likes the idea of undressing a girl and checking out her bone structure, since he thinks it's similar to dismantling machines. He seems to think it's normal, though Hajime is weirded out by this and calls it a fetish.

Kazuichi also likes girls a lot, though in a rather perverted and shallow way. He has taken a strong liking to Sonia Nevermind, to an extent of being a pervert, somewhat stalker-like and in constant jealousy of Gundham Tanaka. He claims that he's dreamed of a beautiful blond girlfriend since he was a kid and his affection towards Sonia seems rather shallow, as he actually seems to dislike some of her actual personality traits, like her love for the occult. Sonia dislikes this behavior and calls him a stalker. According to Kazuichi, after he changed his appearance in the past, some girls took interest in him and he was actually a bit frightened by this.

Despite having some weird quirks, Kazuichi is described as the straight man and one of the more ordinary students in the group. In his Free Time Events, it's revealed that he suffers from self-esteem and trust issues. Due to a past friendship, he has a hard time trusting others and he acted especially paranoid during the beginning of the game. He also reveals his appearance was chosen for the sake of his image, not because he actually likes it. His trust issues cause him some conflict with Hajime, but he calms down quite soon and is willing to apologize. Despite some issues, he develops a close friendship with Hajime, and he considers him his "soul friend". However, Hajime can be quite annoyed with him, since he can act rather clingy and turns even whinier and threatens to bug Hajime even more if he refuses to hang out with him.

Along with most of his classmates, Kazuichi sympathizes 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 Nidai'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 a while. This pattern repeats itself for nearly every death.

Ultimate Mechanic
Back on his home, Kazuichi and his parents run a bike shop together. He is the genius mechanic of his family and always the one who's helping out at the shop since his father isn't very dependable. He has tinkered with and studied machines since he was a child and is capable of fixing anything from kids toys to household appliances. He has been surrounded by junk and tools and has grown a habit of taking things apart and putting them back together. That's the environment where the Ultimate Mechanic was raised in.

Kazuichi is known for making inventions of his own and is very passionate about his works. In his home, he makes a bike, and according to his calculations, it has a top speed of 585 mph. Even though he knows that kind of bike is street illegal and he can't even ride that bike due to his motion sickness, he is very eager to continue his incomplete project.

Kazuichi often got yelled at for modifying various things at school or at home. His greatest invention was attaching an engine to the machine that draws the chalk lines on the soccer field, but it escaped through the school entrance at full speed, without curving or stopping.

The things that Kazuichi fix always end up being some kind of vehicle. During the Killing School Trip, Kazuichi disassembled his alarm clock and when he put the gear back, he ends up making some kind of car machine. Messing with machines makes him inspired and energized. He likes all kinds of machines, especially vehicles.

With his talent, Kazuichi tries to think of every possible way to escape from Jabberwock Island. The first thing that he checked is planes that located at the airport. When he found that the planes are engineless, he didn’t stop until there. In one of his Free Time Events, he revealed that he planned to put pedals on the ship and pedal boat off the island.

Kazuichi has a dream to create a rocket ship, the biggest, fastest, and the very top of the vehicle food chain.

In other languages
Kazuichi's talent as it appears in official translations of Danganronpa.

Skilled Inventor
When reviewing Kazuichi's background, despite him being skilled in repairing machinery and various other mechanical objects and appliances he has always used his skills for his own pleasure and has an eye for creativity. This is seen by the many countless inventions that he is often seen creating, throughout his life he has created many successful inventions by using his skills as a mechanic, often these are useful tools related to his specialty field.

The many inventions which he has created include making a bike that could go at a top speed of 585 mph, adding an engine to the soccer chalk line machine. These were minor inventions that he created when learning to become a talented mechanic in his father's workshop and he inputted his innovative ideas into these various technologies, despite these inventions not being successful Kazuichi's inspired work clearly has success when it comes to motorization.

His most notable inventions include during the Killing School Trip where he disassembled Mechamaru's mechanical parts and used the undamaged components to create Minimaru, a small, lifelike representation of Nekomaru equipped with unique catchphrases, alarm clock and the ability to give the user a professional massage and relax sore muscles and pressure points. Akane is very pleased with this invention and Kazuichi stated spending all night working on the project, showing not only his dedication to inventing but his creativity, speed and success when it comes to inventing in a short amount of time.

Another invention which Kazuichi was working on during his first school year at Hope's Peak Academy is unidentifiable but it is very large and Kazuichi is very invested in this project, skipping class in order to complete his invention in a short amount of time. His passion for inventing is what allows him to build on his creativity.

When Kazuichi turned to despair he was also responsible for an enormous model of Monokuma, which was able to rampage through cities and buildings with ease. This creation, despite being for nefarious purposes, was another one of Kazuichi's successful works as an inventor and would have taken a considerable amount of work to complete, showing his skill in this field.

Prior to the Tragedy
Kazuichi's life seemed to have been fairly tougher than a normal child's. 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.

Kazuichi 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.

As a child, Kazuichi was also 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 kept avoiding Kazuichi, though, in actuality, Kazuichi didn't really care about being scolded. However, because of this, Kazuichi later developed trust issues.

Kazuichi let other children step all over him, but then he decided to change 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 seemed to have beat him at times. 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. Such behavior suggests that he was a subject of excessive abuse.

As a teen, Kazuichi attended Toushima Industry High School. Thanks to his great mechanic skills, he later enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Mechanic, in Class 77-B. He quickly developed a crush on Sonia Nevermind, a foreign princess.

Episode 01 - Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy
Kazuichi was busy working at a big machine until he noticed that Sonia came to visit him. He jumped from the machine and happily greeted Sonia. However, Sonia slowly moved away from him due to his strong smell of oil, after he questions her whether this was the case, she kindly states no, then his new homeroom teacher, Chisa Yukizome taps his shoulder with her gas mask on to Kazuichi's shock and horror.

After Kazuichi joined and retrieved Gundham, Ibuki Mioda, and Peko Pekoyama, he and his classmates came to an area outside the school to search for Nagito Komaeda. He commented that nothing good happens to him whenever Nagito is around. Soon enough, Kazuichi was hit by a truck and sustained an injury, while Nagito won a lucky streak on a vending machine when the truck flying high in the air bounced off it.

Kazuichi is later seen with all of his face bandaged due to the accident earlier (possibly treated by Mikan). Before Chisa went to retrieve two remaining students, she tasked everyone to clean the classroom. Kazuichi who denied her order had his table stabbed with two knives, threatened by his homeroom teacher playfully. He disliked Chisa at first but changed his mind soon after he heard Sonia's excitement.

After returning to the classroom, Chisa was happy to see that Kazuichi and the others had waited and that the classroom was clean. When the students once again bring up that they didn't have to go to class, so long as they have their talent, Chisa reminded them that talent isn't everything, and wanted them to build strong relationships and "hope" with each other.

Episode 02 - My Impurest Heart for You
Kazuichi and his classmates took cover on the side of the classroom when Akane Owari and Nekomaru clashed during their deadly training session, almost destroyed the whole classroom. After the training end, Kazuichi and the others repaired their classroom together. He also built a big monitor so that everyone can play games that Chiaki Nanami brought. Kazuichi proudly explained that he was the one who built the monitor to Chisa, but no one paid attention to him.

Kazuichi played a monopoly-like game with Nagito, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, and Teruteru. He mocked Nagito that almost defeated while he almost won. However, Nagito's luck reign supreme and turned the tables, making Kazuichi lost disgracefully.

During the break time, Kazuichi and the others ate nikujaga that has been cooked by Teruteru and Hiyoko. However, the food contained with aphrodisiacs itself affected everyone including Kazuichi who ate it to lost their body control and drowned in lust. When Kazuichi saw his chance to reach Sonia, Fuyuhiko desperately trying to stop him. Sometimes later, Kazuichi recovered in the nurse's office.

In the next day, He agreed with Sonia and Chisa to elect Chiaki as their class representative.

Episode 03 - A Farewell to All Futures
At the beginning of the episode, Kazuichi and his classmates walked past Hajime heading toward the Main Course building. He was bitten by Gundham's Maga-Z. Later on, Kazuichi and his classmates visited the school's park and once again playing with Gundham's Four Dark Devas of Destruction.

Episode 04 - The Melancholy, Surprise, and Disappearance of Nagito Komaeda
Kazuichi was listening to Chisa's announcement about the annual practical exam that will start tomorrow inside the classroom, still showing no spirit along with his classmates as their morale decreased greatly due to the deaths of Natsumi Kuzuryu and Sato.

Kazuichi and the others already heard the news of Chisa's transfer to the Reserve Course and when she arrived in the classroom to bid her farewell, Sonia broke in tears, surprising Kazuichi and made him unable to comfort her.

Episode 05 - The Beginning of the End
Kazuichi was part of Chisa's welcome back party in his classroom. He and Teruteru told that their classmate Fuyuhiko didn't want to come until he saw how hard Chiaki worked for the party. He was jealous when Sonia and Gundham synchronized in welcoming back their teacher using Gundham's unique way of speaking.

Episode 06 - A Despairfully Fateful Encounter
Kazuichi and his classmates moved to the new school building starting from that day. When Chisa told the class Nagito will be arriving back soon and bets they all miss him, most of them including Kazuichi told her otherwise.

Episode 07 - The Biggest, Most Atrocious Incident in Hope's Peak Academy's History
Kazuichi is seen watching Gundham as he tames a bear, cautious of Sonia getting too close to it in fear of it attacking. When Sonia worries about being a low-ranked demon, according to Gundham, Kazuichi responds by telling her that she was an angel. When Fuyuhiko notices that both Mikan and the Ultimate Imposter are missing from the classroom, Kazuichi thinks that they're doing "extracurricular studies" together. To Kazuichi's surprise, Teruteru then further describes his thoughts using a donut and a banana, Kazuichi holding the donut, Teruteru the banana, Kazuichi's face is more expressively uncomfortable and sweating as Teruteru describes the process, before Gundham's bear bites both of their hands.

After learning about the Izuru Kamukura Project and The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy via an email sent out by Junko Enoshima, the Reserve Course students begin to riot. Kazuichi is seen hugging Teruteru out of fear as he watches this from his new classroom.

Episode 08 - The Worst Reunion by Chance
Kazuichi is unimpressed when Peko conveyed that the faculty considered the Reserve Course student protest a 'parade'. When Nagito returned to the class from his suspension, they all, including Kazuichi, have a displeased look on their face when realizing it isn't Mikan. Kazuichi went outside the school grounds with the rest of the class to look for Mikan who Nagito says he saw heading for the West District.

Episode 09 - Chisa Yukizome Doesn't Smile
The class reconvenes at the school classroom as they are unable to find Mikan. Kazuichi becomes agitated, assuming Nagito lied to them about Mikan's appearance in the West District. When Chiaki reaches the classroom with an unconscious Nagito, explaining to them that Chisa is in danger, Kazuichi becomes worried by this. Nagito convincingly makes clear that it will be dangerous and there is a possibility of them dying, to which Kazuichi contemplates these concerns but Chiaki convinces him otherwise.

The Ultimate Imposter reveals his true identity, to Kazuichi's shock along with the rest of the class although they come to accept it quickly. Nagito wishes to go with them although doesn't have the strength to walk, Sonia commanding Kazuichi to give him a piggyback ride to which he agrees swiftly.

After leaving the Main Course building, the Reserve Course students seek to take them on in a battle to open placements on the Main Course, Kazuichi and the class go on ahead, leaving Nekomaru and Gundham to fend them off.

On the way down the stairway to Junko's lair, everyone becomes worried for Gundham and Nekomaru's safety although Kazuichi convinces Sonia that Gundham knows how to get things done before regretting helping his romantic rivals credibility with Sonia.

Episode 10 - Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope
Kazuichi and the class continue down the corridor after making their descent of the stairway, Mikan eventually catching up with them. Upon hearing from Mikan, who lies that Chiaki is resting her ankle in one of the nearby rooms, Kazuichi suggests that they should have left Nagito with her, feeling the effects of Nagito's weight on his back. Teruteru requests carrying Nagito, saying he falls within his 'spectrum', to Kazuichi's dismay, Teruteru begins to explain what he means, until a door is flung open, throwing Teruteru to the right and revealing two pairs of eyes from within the darkness of the room. Kazuichi screams loudly, gathering everyone's attention and shock, although Gundham and Nekomaru are the ones to appear from the darkroom to Kazuichi's relief.

Mikan, now leading the group, approaches a large red door at the end of the corridor, pressing a button which opens the door, Kazuichi and the rest of the class follow her inside. Once inside, Junko reveals multiple monitors showing Chiaki Nanami's Punishment, Kazuichi horrified by what he's seeing, wants to find a way to save Chiaki but is powerless.

Once Chiaki reaches the "goal" in her execution, she opens the door. She sees Kazuichi, the rest of the class, and Chisa on the other side. Once she reaches for Chisa's hand, spikes appear from under the ground and stab Chiaki everywhere on her body. As the broadcast ends, Kazuichi and the class fall silent, with a patterned swirl in their eyes, they are now Ultimate despair.

Episode 11 - Goodbye, Hope's Peak Academy
Kazuichi and the rest of the class have returned to the classroom, receiving their final lesson before graduation. Chisa stated she has been honored to be their teacher, and started reading a letter she prepared. Kazuichi begins to clap with gratitude, prompting the rest of the class to do the same.

After the speech, red lights turn on, and Chisa started to cry. The patterned swirled return in their eyes as they all make a declaration of what they will do upon graduation. Kazuichi expressed he will 'find the solution to air pollution'. After bidding her class a final farewell, Chisa activated a bomb that fakes the death of Class 77-B. Kazuichi and his class stand outside the school grounds as they watch Hope's Peak Academy's destruction.

Chisa's narration later reveals Kazuichi helped to infect the world with despair.

During the Tragedy
At some point after this, Kazuichi joined the Ultimate Despair group that was founded by Junko. The members of Ultimate Despair did all kinds of horrible things during the Tragedy, causing despair all over the world. Kazuichi invented and oversaw the production of many dangerous machines for the Ultimate Despair, such as giant Monokuma.

After Junko was executed, the survivors of Ultimate Despair chopped her body up and attached some of her body parts to themselves.

The remnants of Despair are later found by Future Foundation. Makoto Naegi plans to undo Junko's influence by putting them into the Neo World Program, but the program is taken over by Alter Ego Junko, right according to the Ultimate Despair's plan.

Episode 01 - Third Time's the Charm
As a member of Ultimate Despair, Kazuichi is seen in the flashback working on his Giant Monokuma project showed at the beginning of the episode.

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 a constant fear of dying to try to get Sonia to be his girlfriend.

During the trial, Kazuichi suspected Peko as the culprit of the Ultimate Imposter murder. He suspected Peko because during the blackout in the old lodge, the place where the students threw a 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 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 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 any more 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 program 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 the former Ultimate Despair members opted to stay on the Jabberwock Island, possibly in hopes that they could do something to help their comatose friends.

Real-life
After Nagito awoke from Neo World Program, he learned that all of his friends, including Kazuichi, were alive and awake from the Neo World Program. Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko both greet Nagito before he boards the boat, Nagito hugged them both strongly to their dismay. They all then boarded the boat that would take them to the Future Foundation Headquarters.

Side: Hope - The Academy of Hope and Students of Despair
Kazuichi returned in Side: Hope alongside the rest of the Class 77-B, who had been resurrected by Izuru Kamukura although Izuru was now combined with the personality and memories of Hajime. Kazuichi and his classmates arrived at the island where the Future Foundation Headquarters were situated, having left from Jabberwock Island and proceeded by rescuing Byakuya Togami and Yasuhiro Hagakure from being trapped under rubble, they then began their fight against Ryota's brainwashed rescue squad troops, including the Super High School Level Elite Task Force.

Nekomaru is seen facing off against a robot unit from the Super High School Level Elite Task Force of Future Foundation but became surrounded, fortunately, Kazuichi sent an army of remote control Mini-Mecha Nidai robots (The same design of the one he made for the class in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair) to defeat the second monobeast. Seeking Sonia's praise and admiration, he felt he had once again been ignored but she explained it was quite impressive, he blushed gleefully as she smiled in return.

Later on, Kazuichi helped convince Ryota to abandon his plan to brainwash the world. When Hajime began persuading him to join them in atonement, Kazuichi put a hand on Hajime's shoulder, pointing out how he was in the Reserve Course so anyone is worthy as a classmate.

Shortly afterword, he and the other Former Remnants of Despair shoulder the blame for the Final Killing Game in a broadcast to the Future Foundation, relieving the organization of any wrongdoing.

With the battle won, Kazuichi and the Class 77-B return to Jabberwock Island. He is last seen seeking Sonia's attention as the boat takes them home.

Relationships

 * Love Interest:

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 "Miss 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. For example, he claims in Chapter 2 that he has always wanted to see Sonia wearing a sexy swimsuit.

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. But he would often defend Sonia if somebody accuse her of murder or doubt her alibi and demand that they apologize to her.

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.

Although Sonia continues to remain uninterested in Kazuichi after the events that occurred in the Neo World Program, she is seen praising him for destroying an army of Monokumas after they arrive to assist the Future Foundation. This brings Kazuichi joy, as it's shown that Sonia now thinks of him as a friend and is at least trying to be nicer to him.


 * Class 77-B:

Gundham Tanaka
Kazuichi and Gundham didn't establish a really good relationship between them during the Killing School Trip. 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.

However in Danganronpa 3 - Despair Arc, the two of them seemingly have become friends as Kazuichi often attempt to play with Gundham's hamsters and he believed that the Ultimate Breeder is a man who can get things done when he needs to.

Teruteru Hanamura
While there are no interactions between the two in the game, Kazuichi seems to have been friends with Teruteru in high school. They are mostly seen together in group activities and are even seen hugging each other in fear during a riot caused by Reserve Course students.

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.

In Nagito's world Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko and Nagito were best friends that even considered him his brother. After Kazuichi's death, Fuyuhiko wanted to avenge his death trying to kill the murderer.

Nagito Komaeda
After trial one, Kazuichi finds Nagito to be a nutcase and is afraid of him. He and Nekomaru are the ones who tie up Nagito and Kazuichi is the one who punches him unconscious. When this happens, and everyone asks where Nagito is, Kazuichi seems extremely suspicious and he's almost immediately blamed for the murder. Later, after Kazuichi loses his trust in Hajime, he is even willing to go with Nagito to investigate instead of him.

After the events leading to Nagito's knowledge of the classes' true identity as Ultimate Despair, Nagito appears to be annoyed by Kazuichi's slow-wittedness and shows this openly after losing respect for the other students.

In Danganronpa 3, during their school years, Kazuichi claims that bad things happen to him whenever Nagito is around. For example, he loses a video game and gets hit by a truck. Kazuichi dislikes Nagito because of this, though the other boy is seemingly oblivious to it. Considering how Nagito's luck cycle works, this could imply that he wishes to be friends with Kazuichi.

In Super Danganronpa 2.5, Nagito indeed imagines Kazuichi as one of his closest friends while being inside his imaginary world, along with Fuyuhiko. The two seem to be on better terms with each other even after Nagito awakens from his coma into the real world, as Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko wait for him to greet him before boarding the boat and overall appear friendlier with him, with Kazuichi teasing him by asking him if he was dreaming about pretty girls. Though, Nagito then hugs the two, making them uncomfortable.


 * Reserve Course Students:

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. They later make up.

Free Time

 * Main article, including full dialogue: Free Time Events/Kazuichi Soda

During Free Time, Hajime can choose to talk to Kazuichi in order to learn more about him. If he gives Kazuichi a present that he likes, and chooses the correct response during their conversation, their friendship level will increase and Kazuichi will disclose something about himself. Each successful Free Time conversation adds a page to Kazuichi's Report Card in the e-Handbook menu, and grants a skill that will give Hajime an advantage during Class Trial battles after he finished Kazuichi's fifth Free Time Event.

Skills
Becoming friends with students grants Hajime special skills which can aid him during Class Trials. Becoming close with Kazuichi grants the following skills:

Island Mode Choices

 * Main article, including full dialogue and right choices: Island Mode/Kazuichi Soda

Quotes

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Trivia

 * The kanji for "Kazuichi" (和一) simply means "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.
 * Kazuichi originally had black hair and wore glasses.
 * 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 than ride them.
 * Kazuichi appears to know how to read English, telling Hajime what a sign written in English meant.
 * Kazuichi likes comic books and action movies and dislikes novels and horror movies.
 * It's revealed in one of Mahiru's Free Time Events that Kazuichi never washed his jumpsuit.
 * Even on Mean difficulty, Kazuichi's Rebuttal Showdown arguments only take a single strike to dispel in Chapter 4.
 * It was confirmed in Kazuichi's official spin-off manga titled "Super Danganronpa 2 - Zetsubōteki Ingaritsu no Naka no Sōda Kazuichi" that he can indeed sew. He learned from watching his parents.
 * Kazuichi's English voice actor Kyle Hebert also voices Danganronpa V3's Kaito Momota.

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