Sakura Ogami

Sakura Ogami (大神 さくら Ōgami Sakura), is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th, and a participant of the Killing School Life featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Her title is Ultimate Martial Artist (超高校級の「格闘家」chō kōkō kyū no “kakutōka” lit. Super High School Level Fighter).

Early life
The Ogami family had maintained their dojo for over three centuries. Sakura was the only daughter born into her clan in her generation, and so was compelled to become even stronger than her male family members in order to prove her worth. As a child, Sakura trained at her family's dojo every day with her father. She fought champions of many disciplines, until slowly overtime she was able to defeat everyone she fought. She was strong despite her slim and fair build. She surpassed her own father at the age of 14 after beating him in a grappling match, never losing to him again after that day. Her goal was to become the Strongest Human Alive.

Sakura's first love and lifelong rival was a man named Kenshiro, a street fighter that she could not defeat, and the then-current Strongest Human Alive. Kenshiro developed a terminal illness with a prognosis of only six months to live. Sakura visited him soon after his diagnosis, and his condition had deteriorated quickly, becoming emaciated. Kenshiro gave Sakura his title of Strongest Human Alive, but she vowed she would earn the title herself by fighting him again after he had defeated his disease. This inspired her to begin building up her physical strength even further.

Sakura attended Shiranui High School and was later scouted by Hope's Peak Academy as part of Class 78th.

Prior To The Tragedy
Sakura was sent by Hope's Peak Academy to capture Byakuya Togami after his imposter broadcasted the World Domination Proclamation. She mistakenly believed the real Byakuya broadcasted it. Sakura was able to travel to Prague because she had learned Shukuchi, a martial arts technique which allows the user to close the distance between themselves and their opponent instantaneously, historically described as "shortening ley lines, such that a thousand lightyears (approximately 500km) ahead looks as if it is right before one's eyes".

Hiroyuki Ketouin attempted to flee by pressing down on the pedal to crush her, but Sakura managed to stopped it with her hands. His twin, Yuika Ketouin, prepared their secret weapon and they finally escaped Sakura as they move with extreme speed using Hiroyuki's jet machine.

The Tragedy

 * Main article: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair #11

During the Tragedy, Jin Kirigiri, the Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy, planned to seal the school building and let the students live forever inside the Academy in order to protect them from the destruction. The class agreed to his plan, and they sealed the building together. Sakura used her bare hands to turn the screws on the metal plates which barred the windows. The students lived peacefully inside the school building for a year without knowing that the Ultimate Despair members were already in their midst.

Killing School Life
Sakura was  among those who were chosen to attend  Hope's Peak Academy as part of Class 78th. Class 78th ended up being trapped inside the school, not knowing at the time that they had already been memory-wiped of their two years of school life together. Sakura is around 19 years old, though she believed was was only 17 because of the memory loss.

When Makoto introduces himself, he immediately becomes fearful of Sakura, due to her online reputation on the message boards he had read before becoming a student. Sakura comments that she cannot spar with Makoto due to his lack of muscles.

The students soon became forced into the mutual killing incident. As an incentive to murder in order to escape, the students were each given a DVD featuring a video from Monokuma which implied that their loved ones were in danger. Sakura was blackmailed by Monokuma into becoming its mole, in exchange for the safety of her family and Kenshiro. She was instructed to bring about a killing incident should things begin to stabilize among the survivors, although her role was very limited as mutual killing continued without her intervention.

She sometimes shared a dorm room with Aoi Asahina, who was afraid of being alone at night after the Mutual Killing Incident began, and appeared to spend the majority of her free time with her. She also voluntarily guarded the bodies alongside another student whenever a crime scene was discovered, in order to prevent tampering with the evidence.

Sakura's Confession
Some time after Celestia Ludenberg was executed, Sakura decided that she had had enough of deceiving her friends and made up her mind to stop Monokuma's twisted games. She confronted Monokuma, witnessed by Makoto who had just woken up from being knocked out, announcing that she would act against him and support her friends from then on.

Before Sakura could properly confess, however, Monokuma beat her to the punch by revealing her status as his mole, which immediately led to several incidents between the aloof Byakuya, the love-struck Toko Fukawa, and the defensive Aoi who had desperately attempted to protect Sakura from further slander. After Aoi was injured by Genocide Jack prompted Sakura to finally end things once and for all. Sakura decided that the most unobtrusive way to go about fulfilling Monokuma's mutual killing instructions was to commit suicide. Sakura wrote a calligraphic farewell letter.

Sakura broke down the door leading to the principal's office, which would later turn out to be key in allowing Kyoko Kirigiri to steal Monokuma's treasure (a key which can unlock every room in the academy), and would allow her to obtain some crucial information regarding  Mukuro Ikusaba, the sixteenth student.

Sakura's Fate
Before her final moments, Sakura had attempted to make peace with Yasuhiro Hagakure, Byakuya, and Toko - who had turned on her after her being revealed as the mole. Toko and Yasuhiro both came to the Recreation Room to meet her, but Byakuya never showed up in order to play it safe. Sakura was struck twice in succession by Monokuma Bottles.

Aoi, who was alarmed by Sakura's injury - having previously trying to disuade Sakura from meeting the trio - was asked by Sakura to make her a bottle of protein shake. After Aoi left, Sakura locked the Recreation Room door and drank a bottle of poison she had retrieved from the Chemistry Lab cabinet, which led her to vomit blood. Sakura died with a smile on her face, confident that her friends would not kill each other any more.

Sakura's noble sacrifice, however, was severely complicated when Monokuma switched her suicide note for a fake he had written personally. When Aoi received the fake note, she was lead to believe that Sakura had taken her life out of despair for the hostile situation in the academy. This drove Aoi to attempt to get everybody killed as revenge for pushing Sakura over the edge. The truth was eventually revealed, and Sakura's dying wish was fulfilled - disgusted by Monokuma's deception, the remaining students united against him, vowing to find the secrets of the academy and stop the mastermind.

Post-Killing School Life

 * Main Article: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future #11.

Sakura is seen alongside her deceased classmates in Makoto's hallucination. Sakura is later seen motionless, eyes closed and head covered in blood, when all of the deceased morph into how they looked when they died in the Killing School Life.

Creation and Development
According to Kazutaka Kodaka, the writer of the Danganronpa series, Sakura was the most difficult character to design for the first game, due to the team having many design ideas. Kodaka decided wanted Sakura to be an ultra-strong student, but other members of the team wanted her to be a pretty girl or that she should be a man.

The character designer, Rui Komatsuzaki, designed her based on the concept of a warrior high-school girl. She is based on a design he had been drawing since his school days, and he always thought he'd like to use it in a game. Her beta design, seen in the promotional materials for the scrapped DISTRUST, show Sakura's design had black hair tied behind her head, making her look like a Nio statue.

Another variant appeared similar to her final design, but with a tattered white gi that gave her the appearance of a traditional martial artist. In the end, Komatsuzaki had two design candidates - the current design, and one based on a black body builder. The current design won unanimously, though Komatsuzaki himself admits that really liked the body-builder design.

Name
Sakura (さくら) is written in the Hiragana syllabary, it is impossible to understand its meaning just by reading it. However, it is safe to assume that the name is the hiragana spelling for the kanji 桜 or 櫻, which both mean "cherry" or "cherry blossom" (which is known for being very frail and fleeting, making it an ironic name for Sakura). In Japanese, given names written in Hiragana are most commonly associated with girls, and so Hiragana names are assumed to be female, which is in contrast to her muscular build and that she is visually sometimes mistaken for a man.

Ōgami (大神) means "large deity".

Alternate Fates
In the Danganronpa Visual Fanbook, there is a description of executions for all of the characters who did not have one. Sakura's execution is called Deciding Match of the Whole Galaxy and described as the following:
 * "Sakura is standing in a wasteland. An army of aliens appear and surround her, manipulating the atmosphere. Even though Sakura successfully defeats them one after another, the enemies don't stop appearing. Eventually it becomes too cramped and she dies by the pressure of being buried in their bodies."

The Danganronpa 3 box set included a feature detailing an alternate ending of Danganronpa called Danganronpa Another End which ultimately never made it out of the development phase. In this ending, all of the students escape, at the cost of giving up their talent forever. In Sakura's ending, she resolves to spend the rest of her life on a spiritual fight rather than a physical one.

Sakura also escapes Hope's Peak alive, with the rest of her classmates, in the novel Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF.

Appearance
Sakura is 6'4" and weighs 218lbs. Her build, deep voice and stern appearance mean that Sakura is often mistaken for a man. She has long white hair, reddened-dark skin; very pale blue eyes, and a scar across her face. She often wears her expression in a slight frown. In flashback material, Sakura is shown with a much slimmer figure.

Her school uniform consists of a traditional seifuku style Japanese school uniform comprising of a white shirt a blue sailor collar, a short blue skirt, and a red tie. The sleeves on the uniform are torn off to make room for her muscular upper arms. She wears bandages wrapped around her calves and forearms. Her shoes are grey and resemble Uwabaki, with writing on the toe box, possibly meant to be her name.

Personality
Contrary to what her appearance might suggest, Sakura is a quiet, kind and level-headed girl. She rarely loses her nerve and seems able to maintain clarity in any situation. At times she can grow slightly annoyed and upset, like when people assume things like she isn't a good cook due to her looks. During more rare moments, she can lose her temper completely and become extremely intense, particularly when her friends get hurt. She also gets impatient if she cannot properly train for a long period of time. She is known for her love of protein and protein coffee, and enjoying exercising early in the morning before a large breakfast.

Due to her more old-fashioned upbringing, Sakura has a habit of talking in an old-fashioned, formal manner. Being raised as the sole heir to a dojo with a three-hundred-year history, she believes that being a martial artist is simply her destiny. Along with learning martial arts, she learned to respect nature and animals, being particularly fond of rabbits as they never seem to get frightened when she holds them.

Along with protecting her legacy as her sworn duty, Sakura wants to prove that a woman can be the Strongest Person Alive. She also believes that she must work harder than men to achieve this goal. However as a result of striving to be strong, Sakura is embarrassed of her own softer feelings and being feminine, assuming that other people would laugh at her if they knew. She is especially embarrassed about having romantic feelings for Kenshiro, thinking that it doesn't fit someone like her. However, she appeared to grow out of these insecurities after gaining real friends in high school.

Despite her gentle nature, Sakura has trouble socializing with others due to her intimidating appearance and aloof nature. Spending most of her time training, she didn't have any real friends until she attended Hope's Peak Academy. Because of this, she also has a somewhat poor knowledge on modern popular culture. For example, she knows quite little about popular modern music and doesn't understand the live music culture, or know how to sing and dance. Instead, her father taught her to appreciate traditional enka. She also dislikes action comics, because they tend to have an inaccurate view of martial arts. However, she appears shyly curious about young adult fiction, but knows very little about it.

Sakura greatly revered and respected her friendship with the other students of Class 78th, with them being her first real friends whom she trusted deeply. Likely inheriting a spirit of loyalty from her clan, she even committed suicide in order to prevent her friends from turning against each other.

Ultimate Martial Artist
As the Ultimate Martial Artist, Sakura has powerful fighting abilities. She has accumulated a 400-win streak, and won a martial arts tournament in America despite her gender. She even defeated her own father at a young age. The only opponent that she has never been able to defeat in a fight is her boyfriend and rival, Kenshiro. Sakura is proficient in many types of martial arts. She has stated her favorite is mixed martial arts (MMA), because it combines every type of martial art.

Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Bike Gang Leader, is hesitant to fight Sakura. While he claims it's because he would never hit a girl, it's likely he knows he can't defeat her.

In Danganronpa If, she was able to overwhelm Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier in one on one combat. According to Kodaka, Juzo Sakakura would most likely lose to Sakura, despite being a world champion and the Ultimate Boxer.

In other languages
Sakura's talent as it appears in official translations of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Relationships

 * Family:

Sakura was very close with her family members. They were also captured by the mastermind to be Sakura's captives along with Kenshiro since they are all very precious to her and very close to her. Monokuma blackmailed her by telling her to kill someone in exchange for their lives. In the end, Sakura commits suicide to save her family as well as her schoolmates.


 * Romances:

Kenshiro
Kenshiro is Sakura's boyfriend and her rival. In a Free Time Event with Makoto, Sakura admitted that she could not defeat Kenshiro in combat  and that he apparently only had months to live. However, Sakura was sure he could beat his condition. This was proven to be true in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, which takes place 2 years after she last saw him and shows that Kenshiro is still alive, however he is still ill. He was later captured by the mastermind to be Sakura's captive.


 * Class 78th:

Aoi Asahina
Aoi was depicted throughout to be Sakura's closest friend. The two bonded from the very beginning over their love of sports and athletics  and are rarely seen without the other. Both are fiercely protective of each other; Aoi was the only one to openly stick up for Sakura when she was accused of being the Mastermind, and in turn, Sakura became enraged when Toko, as Genocide Jack, cut Aoi on the arm. When Sakura's suicide note is found, it is mainly addressed to Aoi.

In School Mode, Sakura appears a little annoyed when Makoto attempts to ask if she and Aoi are a couple. Sakura answers that Aoi is the first real friend she's ever had and considers Makoto's earlier assumption a "Hifumi-like delusion".

Makoto Naegi
Sakura put a great deal of trust in Makoto, telling him about her past and her boyfriend Kenshiro. Makoto, in turn, told Sakura to be patient until they escaped and to embrace her femininity. Sakura stated that Makoto reminds her of Kenshiro in some ways.


 * Enemies:

Monokuma
Monokuma blackmailed Sakura into serving him or watch her family and lover Kenshiro be killed. Sakura's working relationship with Monokuma was something that she disliked however she had no choice but to interact with his plan. She soon rejected serving him in order to protect the rest of her classmates. Monokuma then decided to exposed Sakura's role as the traitor to everyone for revenge when she refused to betrayed her friends which she has no choice but dies for the sake of everyone's lives here. During her dying mesage, she promised to everyone that she will be able to destroy Monokuma's plans and will uncover the mastermind since she blames Monokuma for her death and everyone being against each other.

Free Time
During Free Time, Makoto can choose to talk to Sakura in order to learn more about her. If he gives her a present that she likes, and chooses the correct response during their conversation, their friendship level will increase and she will disclose something about herself. Each successful Free Time conversation adds a page to Sakura's Report Card in the e-Handbook menu, and grants either a skill that will give him an advantage during class trial battles, or an increase in Skill Points.

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

Dorm Room
Makoto is able to see inside Sakura's dorm room during Free Time events. Her dorm room is filled with training equipment. She has several large stacks of breaking tiles, and she has drilled wooden training dummies into the floor. A Gi and red belt hang on the clothes rack near the bathroom door.

Quotes

 * “Doubting your allies is an ugly thing to do.”
 * “I have to keep on getting stronger, because my destiny is to fight. From the day I was born, I've been fighting. Heaven sent me to live as its champion.”
 * “I don't want to just be the best in competitions. I want to be the strongest human on Earth.”
 * “If we can be beaten by force, death is an outcome we will accept. That is the way of my clan. But... I never imagined my family could be defeated so easily... How... did he manage such a thing?”
 * “In mixed martial arts, speed, agility, and endurance are all necessary parts of total body coordination. If that's your goal, you can't just focus on one aspect of your training.”
 * “My post-training break is the most relaxing time of my day. The sensation of your muscles cooling down after heating up during a workout is the only true reward. No matter how many times I experience it, I never get tired of it.”
 * “I was born into my family as an only daughter. Male or female doesn't matter. It's my duty to protect our legacy. And because I am a woman, I must be even stronger than if I were a man.”
 * “Please, try to understand. Even I... I too have the heart of a woman...”
 * “I just... didn't want to be laughed at. Can you imagine? A girl like me, using the word love? And being shy about saying it is even more girly, right? I creep myself out, to be honest...”
 * “I visited him once. He'd lost so much weight. He looked like an entirely different person. But do you know what he said? He told me that I was the Strongest Human Alive. That I had taken the title. He'd said he'd return someday to get the title back. He said I’d better not let anyone else take it. He didn't need to say the last part. I'll never give up that title, not until he gets better. And when that day comes... I will defeat Kenshiro and earn that title for real. And that's why I have to get stronger... That's my biggest reason for becoming the Strongest Human Alive.” (to Makoto Naegi about Kenshiro)
 * “I think that somehow... you remind me of him. Well, in certain ways. Your build is obviously different, but you both have a strong core. You don't have to be modest. I know strength when I see it. Okay?” (to Makoto)

List of Appearances
Games=
 * DISTRUST (Scrapped)
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
 * ''Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Referenced; her giant replica featured in Chapter 4)
 * Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle
 * Cyber Danganronpa VR The Class Trial
 * -|Anime=
 * Danganronpa: The Animation
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair
 * -|Light Novels=
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF
 * Danganronpa: Togami
 * Danganronpa 1 ・2 Beautiful Days
 * -|Manga=
 * Danganronpa: The Demo (Manga)
 * Danganronpa: The Manga
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc 4koma KINGS The Manga
 * Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair - The Animation (Manga)
 * Small Danganronpa 1・2 Light
 * -|Stage Plays=
 * Danganronpa The Stage ~Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei
 * Danganronpa The Stage 2016

Trivia

 * Sakura's statue in SDR.png  Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, there is a large statue of Sakura in the Grape House inside the Funhouse labeled "Ogre", and  Nekomaru Nidai told Hajime Hinata  that he met the person depicted in the statue once in the mountains. In School Mode, Sakura mentions she has trained in the mountains.
 * Sakura's English voice actress, Jessica Gee-George, is married to Leon Kuwata's English voice actor, Grant George.
 * Sakura's name in the FUNimation version is spellled "Sakura Ohgami".
 * Sakura and Peko Pekoyama both attended Shiranui High School.
 * In a series of tweets from Kazutaka Kodaka during Valentine's Day of February 2013, he tweeted "in-character" as several of the Danganronpa cast, including Sakura. The tweet translates into this:
 * “Take this, though I cannot vouch for how it tastes. I-It was my first time making chocolate…”

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