Kotoko Utsugi

Kotoko Utsugi (空木 言子 Utsugi Kotoko) is a character from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.

Kotoko is one of the five members of the Warriors of Hope, in charge of the "Fighter" class. She has the title of Li'l Ultimate Drama (超小学生級の「学芸会の時間」chō shōgakusei kyū no “gakugeikai no jikan”).

Kotoko has a robot called FighterRobot Highlander the Great, with special attacks such as Mega Piston and Mega Splash. She also has a strange gun called Denture Launcher, which can completely paralyze an adult.

Kotoko is also the main antagonist along with Masaru Daimon in Ultra Despair Hagakure.

Appearance
Kotoko is around 11-12 year old girl with very long pink hair tied into twintails and matching pink eyes with speech bubbles acting as the irises. She wears a pink hairband with horns, which is branded with the emblem of the "Fighter" class.

She wears a frilled white shirt with a matching black jacket and skirt which both have pink accents. She also wears mismatched pink thigh-high socks, and boots.

Personality
Kotoko is a hot-headed girl who loves "adorbs" things. She collects them and seems even slightly obsessed with the concept.

Kotoko also has an odd speech pattern as she often starts to list off-topic facts she finds interesting in the middle of conversation. Sometimes they're vaguely related to the topic (for example, if the topic is too long speeches, she starts to talk about how things like elephant's nose and giraffe necks are also too long). Even still, her speech is clear and focused, unlike in the case of Jataro Kemuri.

Kotoko acts cheerful, polite and happy. While Monaca Towa states that she is nicer than most of the girls she knows, she can actually be very mean and cruel. She was shown to love her stage life, but she doesn't like to talk about it and considers it a thing far in the past. She was pampered a lot and now has quite strict, demanding personality. She also has a habit of curtsying and being rather dramatic, which also hints at her past as an actress.

It's heavily implied that a lot of Kotoko's behavior is just an act and, being the former Li'l Ultimate Drama, she is very skilled at acting. The official artbook implies that her "cutesy" personality might be a front created as a coping mechanism.

Due to her trauma caused by sexual abuse, Kotoko triggers to the word "gentle" (優しい yasashii), as the men who abused her had said they would be "gentle". When she hears this word, she becomes neurotic, and begins crying and screaming in fear, unable to calm herself down except when somebody tells her that they will not be gentle with her.

Prior to the Tragedy
Kotoko was born and raised in Towa City. She was a child prodigy and a famous child actor whose father was a dentist.

When she was about 10 year old, her parents prostituted her to producers where she was repeatedly raped. Her mother did it out of a twisted form of parental love and prostituted herself alongside Kotoko as a "mother and daughter set", believing that this was in her daughter's best interests and that it would help further Kotoko's career, make her "sparkle forever" and have the spotlight. Kotoko's mother saw youth as a great, horrifying power, a one that should be used in your advantage when you still could. She didn't care if Kotoko and the society would hate her, as she believed that her actions were completely right.

Kotoko wanted to be a normal child and didn't want to "sparkle", but she endured it all and didn't complain for the sake of her mother, because making her mother cry would've hurt Kotoko the most. Kotoko's father, on the other hand, used the money they gained for his own benefit, was cheating on his wife with his dental hygienist and overall didn't seem to care about his family at all.

Kotoko was also part of Hope's Peak Elementary School and she was put on the class of troublemakers along with Monaca Towa, Nagisa Shingetsu, Jataro Kemuri and Masaru Daimon.

Although Kotoko was on the verge of committing suicide along with the others, Junko Enoshima appeared and convinced the children that the adults were wrong and that they should create a paradise for children. Shortly afterward, she murdered her parents. She tells Komaru Naegi that she does not regret it, and that they should have died more times.

Prologue
Kotoko was first seen in the news reporting room, where she messes around with the dead newscaster's corpse along with Jataro and Masaru. She pretended to be scared by running around screaming. Monaca one of the Warriors of Hope appeared and makes a speech to the cameras while Kotoko watches from the side.

Kotoko is later seen with the other Warriors of Hope in the main hall, explaining her status as "Li'l Ultimate Drama." When Monaca arrives, she moved out of the way for her to greet Komaru. Not long after Servant arrives and set the Monokuma Bracelet to Komaru, Kotoko and the other Warriors of Hope opens a trap door, resulting in Komaru falling through and back down into Towa City. She expresses her interest in winning the Demon Hunting game, and insults Jataro when he expresses wanting to win as well.

Chapter 2
Along with Monaca and Jataro, they made a shrine for him and mourned Masaru's death. When Monaca begins to cry, Kotoko mimics her. When Nagisa begins to question Monaca, Kotoko shows her unwavering support by challenging him alongside her and Jataro. She then teases him alongside Jataro when he reveals his feelings to Monaca.

Chapter 3
Kotoko is seen with Monaca in Kurokuma's hall. She wonders if they should hold another funeral, but without Jataro to build a shrine and neither of them liking Jataro, they decide not to. Possibly influenced by Nagisa's previous outburst, she wonders aloud if Jataro really had died, because there is no body to confirm. Rather than manipulate Kotoko like Monaka had done with Nagisa, she knowingly triggers Kotoko into a panic attack using her "NG word" against her. She then psyches her up again, refueling her rage for adults.

Kotoko goes to the adult's resistance base and breaks Komaru out of her cell, tricking her into thinking that she would be let go. She kidnaps Komaru and plans to "exploit" her in the same way that she had been, but Genocide Jack appears shortly after to save her. Kotoko then challenges the two girls in an arena, a battle in which she loses, but before the Monokuma Kids take her away, Jack saves her.

Chapter 5
Later, Kotoko is seen being stranded hanging on a pole while Beast Monokumas surround her below. After Komaru and Toko Fukawa save her, she thanks them and runs away. She then appears when Komaru is making the decision to break the Monokuma controller, saying that she should not. When Toko stops Komaru from breaking the controller and Haiji Towa attacks Toko, Kotoko steps in to save her savior. After the building collapses, Kotoko walks past an injured Monaca, whom she leaves after chiding.

At the end of the game, there is a CG available called "Children After The Story", which shows that Kotoko, Nagisa, Masaru and Jataro are all alive and together.

Execution

 * Main Article: Punishment of the Fighter

Kurokuma
Kurokuma was Kotoko's advisor. However, she disliked him for his constant talking and suggested that the Warriors of Hope should get rid of him.

Monaca Towa
At first, Kotoko seemed to have a special attachment to Monaca - often stating things such as 'Monaca's favorite things, I also love!', praising her quite often and calling her "adorbs". It's eventually implied that she's actually afraid of Monaca and just tries to stay on her good side. In the end, it's revealed that she hates Monaca.

Jataro Kemuri
Kotoko is arguably the most cruel to Jataro, insulting him at every chance she gets and having a lot of fun while doing it, while the other Warriors mostly just ignore him.

After Jataro's supposed death, Kotoko and Monaca both admit that neither cared for his death, and that they mutually hated him.

Masaru Daimon
After Masaru's supposed death, Kotoko mentioned that he always acted all big and was "a perverted idiot, but a pretty good person". It's heavily implied that she's just acting sad and she attempts to fake cry along with Monaca.

However, it's hinted that she might have feelings for him given that while she portrayed the role of Cinderella in a school play Masaru played her prince.

Nagisa Shingetsu
Kotoko seemed to have some admiration for Nagisa, who is "so pure" and thinks about others. However, she was a bit frustrated by his strictness.

She is very aware of Nagisa's shy crush on Monaca and often teases him for it.

Later in the game, Nagisa personally steps in to intervene when he sees Komaru and Toko "ganging up on her". When Kotoko attempts to follow him on his mission to escort the two girls, he stops her - ultimately trying to protect her from Monaca's wrath.

One line in the official artbook implies that Nagisa thought Kotoko and Monaca were like best friends, clearly not aware of the true nature of their relationship, and he respected her for giving Monaca company.

Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack
Originally enemies, Genocide Jack saved Kotoko from the hands of the Monokuma kids. Kotoko then travels with Komaru and Toko as something of a slave. Kotoko appears to like both Toko and Genocide Jack, as seen when she saves Toko from Haiji when he tries hitting her by leaping onto him.

Junko Enoshima
Kotoko, like the other four, have a special respect and love for Junko. She stopped their joint-suicide by means of jumping off the elementary school's roof and convinced them to not only kill the source of their despair, their parents, but to create a paradise for children by murdering all adults.

Kanon Nakajima
Kanon is Kotoko's Demon target. Kotoko constantly tries to find and kill Kanon with her robot. Her first attempt at doing so ends in failure, with Kanon easily subjugating Kotoko and tying her up with her own knee socks. This led Kotoko to develop a grudge against Kanon, and she tries to kill Kanon again in the subway. She manages to injure Kanon, and uses a similar device to the one she used on Komaru to molest her. However, her attempt at murdering Kanon ends in failure.

Quotes

 * “Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome! I am Kotoko Utsugi, in charge of the "Fighters" in the Warriors of Hope. "Fighter sounds manly and all, but my biology is completely female!”
 * “My favourite food is pre-shelled chestnuts. My least favourite food is unshelled chestnuts. Kyaa! Were you surprised that they were both chestnuts?!”
 * “Speaking of strange things, a kangaroo can't jump backwards! Not only that! Another strange thing is that snakes don't have ears!”
 * “But salty things are no good. They're low-quality products that don't deserve to be eaten!”
 * “You just won at rock-paper-scissors, though.” (in response to Masaru Daimon)
 * “Jataro always takes too long when he talks. An elephant's nose is also too long, but if you say that then a girrafe's neck is too long, too. Moreover, the time you spend waiting for planes is too long, and Golden Week is also too long... At any rate you don't have to worry about Jataro. He's a latchkey kid... in an emotional sense. But I don't dislike latchkey kids. Doesn't it seem like... they have some kind of hidden power?” (talking about Jataro Kemuri)
 * “Kyaaa, Monaca's smile is so cute! Cute enough to eat with maple syrup!” (to Monaca Towa)
 * “The Warriors of Hope save the world from 'Demons'. How's that? Isn't that wonderful?”
 * “We thought she might have been 'purified', but... it looks like she's a textbook demon.” (talking about Komaru Naegi)
 * “If there are only kids, there won't be any lolicons either. Though you could say that everyone would become a lolicon.”
 * “Please don't get mad! We'll kill a lot of adults, so... so please smile!” (to Monaca)
 * “He was always an arrogant, stupid pervert, but fundamentally...he was kind of a good guy. Anyway... he was a good guy. O God, why do good people always die first?” (talking about Masaru Daimon)
 * “Digging into a girl's affairs is sexual harrassment on the level of capital punishment in adult society.”
 * “I asked the same thing. I asked over, and over, and over. The answer was, "Because you're so cute!" I'm not at fault. I'm just giving back what was done to me.” (In response to Komaru)
 * “N-No... I don't want to be treated... gently... I-I'll do anything... just don't... treat me gently...! I-I'll do my best at singing... and at plays... I beg of you...! Just don't treat me gently!!” (after Monaca "compliments" her being gentler than other girls)

Trivia

 * Kotoko's last name, “Utsugi” (空木), literally means “empty tree” and is actually the Japanese name for a genus of shrub scientifically known as Deutzia.
 * Her given name is composed of the kanji 言, meaning “word” or “say”, and 子 - “child”.
 * It's stated in her profile that Kotoko likes peeled chestnuts and "adorbs" things and dislikes un-peeled chestnuts and regular cute things.
 * Kotoko's blood type is A.
 * In the English dub, when Kotoko was inferred to be naked, she said "I mean, I'm actually 18, but, this is really too much!". This is a lie, as her real age is around 11-12.