Leon Kuwata

Leon Kuwata (桑田 怜恩 Kuwata Reon) 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. His title is Ultimate Baseball Star (超高校級の「野球選手」lit. Super High School Level Baseball Player).

Early Life

 * Main article: Ultra Despair Hagakure and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Leon was very close to his cousin, Kanon Nakajima, since they were very young. Leon's father was the older brother of Kanon's father. Kanon was in love with Leon throughout their childhood, and repeatedly tried to get him to notice her feelings for him, although he only ever saw her as a little sister. In middle school, Leon became a very skilled baseball player, and Kanon became the manager of his baseball team so she could watch him play. He was an ace in his position as the fourth batter at his school. Leon later attended LL Academy high school. To win a heart of a girl that he happened to meet at the hair salon, he became determined to change his title to Ultimate Musician. His hair and clothing style changed completely.

Leon was scouted by Hope's Peak Academy for his title of Ultimate Baseball Star. In photos found by Makoto Naegi, Leon is seen roughhousing with Mondo Owada and Chihiro Fujisaki and participating in sports events with his classmates during his time there.

The Tragedy

 * Main article: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future #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. Leon helped his classmates seal up 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

 * Main article: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Leon 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. Leon is around 19 years old, though he believed was was only 17 because of the memory loss.

When introducing himself to his classmates, Leon immediately expresses that despite his title of Ultimate Baseball Star, his real ambition is to become the vocalist of a band.

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. Leon's video showed his cousin, Kanon, and after watching it, Leon became very agitated.

Sayaka's Plot
On the day the students received the motivational DVDs, Sayaka Maizono sent Leon a note instructing him to meet her in her room. Unbeknownst to Leon, Sayaka had switched rooms with Makoto Naegi, and also switched their doorplates to disguise what she had done. When Leon entered the room, Sayaka attacked him with a kitchen knife she had taken from the kitchen. Leon managed to defend himself with an ornamental golden sword that Makoto had been storing in his room. He broke Sayaka's wrist with the sword, disarming her in the process.

Sayaka fled into the bathroom and closed the door. Leon did not know that Makoto's bathroom door was misaligned, and needed to be lifted while the handle was turned in order to open it. Because girls' rooms are the only rooms with lockable bathroom doors, and believed this to be Sayaka's room, Leon thought the room was simply locked and so left to go and retrieve his tool kit. When he returned, he destroyed the door handle. He then retrieved the kitchen knife that Sayaka had dropped and stabbed her in the stomach, killing her.

Afterwards he tried to clean the crime scene, using Makoto's lint roller to dispose of all of his distinctive red hair. He then went to the trash room, balled up his bloodied shirt and threw it into the incinerator. He turned the incinerator on by throwing Yasuhiro Hagakure's crystal ball at the activation switch. He did not realize that one of his sleeves did not fully burn, and instead fell onto the floor of the trash room, leaving behind evidence.

Leon's Fate
In the class trial, Makoto was able to pinpoint Leon as the culprit based on three major factors. Firstly, Sayaka had managed to write "11037" on the wall in blood with the last of her strength before she died; when flipped upside down, this revealed the name "LEON". Secondly, the method of disposing of the evidence was a feat only achievable by someone with extremely accurate aim in order to hit the activation button on the incinerator from such a significant distance; a skill only the Ultimate Baseball Star had. Finally, Leon had used his toolkit to break into Makoto's bathroom, and was unable to show it to the others because it would have been the only tool kit that showed evidence of being used. The students found Leon guilty, and he was sentenced to be executed by Monokuma.

Unwilling to accept his sentence, Leon begged Monokuma not to kill him, and tried to justify his actions as self-defence. However, Celestia Ludenberg pointed out that Leon could have returned to his room and stayed there after Sayaka shut herself in the bathroom, but instead he actively chose to return to Sayaka's room with his tool kit in order to attack her.

Leon is executed by being pummelled to death by baseballs shot out of a pitching machine in an execution called The 1,000 Blows.



Makoto's Hallucination

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

Leon is seen alongside his deceased classmates in Makoto's hallucination after he was brainwashed by the Suicide Video. Leon is later seen motionless, with a badly bruised, bloody and swelled face, when all of the deceased Class 78th morph into how they looked when they died in the Killing School Life.

Nagito Komaeda's Illusory World

 * Main article: Super Danganronpa 2.5

Leon appeared in Leon's imaginary world, accidentally breaking the infirmary window and worsening Nagito's injuries. As an apology, he let Nagito have his baseball and autographed it with his name.

Much later, Nagito used Leon's baseball to destroy an entire building, which led him to break loose from his imagination world and eventually wake up from the Neo World Program.

Creation and Development
Leon's beta name was Kazuo Matsuzaki (松崎和雄), likely a reference to real-life baseball player, who was the first Japanese infielder to sign with a team. The character designer, Rui Komatsuzaki, is a fan of the punk genre, so Leon's outfit was designed with details he personally likes. .

Leon and Sayaka were both used as the game's base male and female characters, respectively, to establish a base body type and height. They were both used as stand-ins during many stages of development, and their character designs are very recognizable as early as the scrapped project DISTRUST. As a result of both of their designs being relatively unchanged from the early design stages, the development team grew tired of them and so they were the first characters to be killed in the final published game. . Leon's execution, The 1,000 Blows, was virtually unchanged from the version seen in the DISTRUST promotional presentation.

Name
Leon (怜恩) can be translated as "Cunning Kindness". Kuwata (桑田) simply means "Mulberry Field".

Alternate Fates
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 Leon's ending, he is thrilled to be able to legitimately give up his baseball talent in exchange to become a musician.

Appearance
Leon has dyed red spiked hair, a goatee, and pale blue eyes. He wears a white blazer jacket with a popped collar, a white shirt with a red grunge skull design, dark blue jeans and white platform shoes with a black sole. He accessorizes with a padlocked chain necklace, two overlapping studded belts, rings, and an oversized safety pin on his lapel. He has several piercings - his, his tongue, and six in his right ear.

Personality
Leon is a passionate, hot-blooded young teenager. He often slacks off from studying and baseball practice; however, his baseball skills were never diminished due to his status as Ultimate Baseball Star. Leon is also very determined to change his current title to Ultimate Musician. In Leon's Free Time sequence, the reason for that determination is revealed: to win a heart of a girl that he happened to meet at the hair salon. Later, Leon himself states that he somewhat missed playing baseball; something that he used to do every day since he was young. He even invited Makoto to play baseball with him once they get out of their current situation.

During the main story, Leon is shown to be easily intimidated and agitated, such as when Makoto spends time with him for the first time and he thinks it's a trap to kill him, or during the first class trial when he asks and finds out who Sakura Ogami is. When he becomes nervous or intimidated, Leon tends to smile awkwardly, often the right corner of his mouth stretching farther.

In the official artbook, Leon is described as an optimist who wants to get better at everything he does. He is also mentioned to be a player, and he had a new girl with him every few days. He is always flirting with girls and he's single-mindedly focused on studying "the secret of success with the ladies". He's also mentioned to be into pure-hearted girls.

In School Mode, Leon is portrayed as easily offended; for example, when asked how he managed to style his hair, he immediately becomes annoyed, automatically accusing Makoto of making fun of it and saying he should shave his hair like his baseball team made him do. He also can come off as impatient and agitated at times, like instantly becoming angry and snapping at Makoto for not knowing what to talk about. School Mode also shows that whenever he's upset or depressed, Leon likes to take naps.

Ultimate Baseball Star
Leon is a natural born baseball star despite his hatred towards baseball practice. His only motivation to play baseball is to become famous with girls. It also helps him to continue his school life without studying hard and taking the entrance exam. Leon's talent in baseball surpasses even his coach and teacher's pride who begged him to play so that the team could win a quick and easy win. He states that he never needs to practice because baseball is so easy to him.

Leon used his talent during his murder of Sayaka by throwing a crystal ball and his own blood-stained shirt from a great distance to the incinerator inside the trash room.

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

Relationships

 * Family:

Kanon Nakajima
Kanon is Leon's younger cousin, and is two years younger than him. He viewed Kanon as his little sister and the two had a very close relationship since childhood. She constantly confessed her feelings to him, but he always responded he just didn't like her that way. It did not seem her never-ending confessions affect his view of her, but he cared for her and comforted her whenever he rejected her. He also has a lot of belief in her, believing that she could throw a 160 meters per hour ball, despite the fact that the Japanese record for women was 140. By the time of the School Life of Mutual Killing, Kanon was chosen as his Captive, being his most important person.


 * Class 78th

Sayaka Maizono
In the manga version of the game, it is shown that Leon was quite close with Sayaka, due to their similarities with music, as Sayaka was an idol, and Leon wanted to change his title to Ultimate Musician. It is also implied that during the first murder, Leon just wanted to calm Sayaka down when she locked herself in the shower. When he broke into the shower, however, he accidentally stabbed Sayaka in the stomach, which resulted in her death. This manga is considered non-canonical, however.

According to Leon's Free Time Events, Leon asked Makoto about Sayaka's interests in guys. This may mean that Leon had a crush on Sayaka. In the relationship chart featured in the art book, this is hinted even further when Leon mentions his preference for girls like Sayaka.

Makoto Naegi
During his free-time events, Leon shared a lot of experiences with Makoto and even invited him for a baseball match after they escaped the academy. Makoto didn't hold a grudge against Leon for killing Sayaka because he felt that the one at fault was Monokuma.

Mondo Owada and Chihiro Fujisaki
Even though Leon almost never showed close interaction in the Killing School Life, Leon may have been good friends with Mondo and Chihiro during their school time in Class 78th, as a picture of the three laughing was found shortly after their deaths. However, according to Leon and Mondo's relationship chart, this is contrasted with Mondo believing him to be a moron and Leon believing his style doesn't make him look popular. Chihiro, however, positively pointed out Leon's high confidence in himself, hinting Chihiro may have looked up to him at one point.

Free Time
During Free Time, Makoto can choose to talk to Leon in order to learn more about her. If he gives him a present that he likes, and chooses the correct response during their conversation, their friendship level will increase and he will disclose something about himself. Each successful Free Time conversation adds a page to Leon's Report Card in the e-Handbook menu, and grants either a skill that will give Makoto 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 Leon grants the following skills:

Dorm Room
Leon's room reflects his passion for music, despite his talent of Ultimate Baseball Star. He has a large shelf full of CDs, a CD player, an electric guitar and amplifier, over-ear headphones, and a microphone on a stand. The framed art on the wall is labeled "reon" (leon), and features a skull with a wound in the head, as his shirt does - it's possible this is a logo for the band he dreams of performing in.

Quotes

 * “Yo! My name is Leon Kuwata! What's up?”
 * “That's the worst, man. Totally the worst. And it was supposed to be such an awesome picture, you know! But it turned out so lame. Everyone on the team took a vote so I had no choice but to shave my head.”
 * “By the way, can I confess something to you!? See, I don't like baseball at all. I've never went to practice even once. So, I decided to make joining this school an excuse to quit baseball!! I have my own dreams, y'know!”
 * “I'm going to be a musician! You can tell I have that rockstar quality, right?”
 * “Y-you're not trying to get me alone so you can kill me, are you...? My fans will go all psycho on you if you do! I'm as popular as any international superstar! But if you're NOT gonna murder me, then let's hang out. I don't really wanna be alone, anyway...”
 * “Well, I hate studying, right? But I still got into this super fancy school on a sports scholarship. As long as I kept playing, I never had to study! And besides that... It made me super popular with the ladies! Booya! Ya jealous? I got to third base in more ways than one, if ya know what I'm sayin'! ...Just kidding!”
 * “Damn straight! My plan is to conquer the world with punk! Cuz I mean... when it comes to punk, it doesn't really matter if you can actually play or not.”
 * “Y-Y-Y-You can't be serious! I...! I...! I'm not the killer! These goddamn shit-for-brains have got it all wrong, I'm telling you!”
 * “Do I object...? Hell yes I object! Of course I do! I object, I object, I object! I mean, all of this is just a bunch of stupid theories! You need evidence! Where's the evidence!? Without evidence, it's all bullshit! It's bullshit and I refuse to acknowledge it!"
 * “I refuse to acknowledge you! You're stupid! Stupid Stupid Stupid! StupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupid!!”
 * “None of you are any different! One wrong step, and you'd be the one standing here! It was complete chance I wound up like this! I was just... unlucky! That's all...”
 * “H-Hey, come on...! You expect me just to accept my death!?”
 * “Don't you understand? That's exactly WHY I have to do both! An athlete can only play for so long, ya know? Even as the Ultimate Baseball Star... I know I won't be able to play for the rest of my life. But when you're a star player, you have the chance to go on talk shows and stuff, right? Pitch for a while, then go on to become "the ex-baseball star who's totally a famous singer now"! It's a totally new approach, right!?”
 * “Right? Not just a baseball player, and not just a singer. It's an all-new approach, just for me!”

List of Appearances
Games=
 * DISTRUST (scrapped)
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
 * Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle
 * Cyber Danganronpa VR: The Class Trial
 * -|Anime=
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - The Animation
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future #11
 * Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair #11
 * ''Super Danganronpa 2.5: Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of the World (mentioned)
 * -|Light Novels=
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF
 * Ultra Despair Hagakure (flashbacks)
 * Danganronpa 1 ・2 Beautiful Days
 * Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever (mentioned)
 * -|Manga=
 * Danganronpa: The Demo
 * Danganronpa: The Manga
 * Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc 4koma KINGS The Manga
 * Danganronpa: 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

 * Due to the brutality of Leon's execution, it was censored in the anime adaptation when it first aired on television. However, on the anime DVD, the execution can be seen uncensored.
 * He initially states that he dislikes baseball, but continues to play for the attention it gets him from women. After not playing baseball for a while, Leon states that he misses it and wants to continue it in the future.
 * In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, it is strongly suggested that Nekomaru Nidai used to train Leon.
 * The design on Leon's shirt foreshadows his fate, as it depicts a skull being shattered from a heavy blow.
 * In the demo of the game, unlike the actual Bullet Time Battle with Leon that happens in the end of the first class trial, the player will engage in a Bullet Time Battle at the beginning of the trial when Leon accuses Makoto of being the killer because he stutters multiple times.
 * In the Danganronpa 1.2 Reload Ultra High School Class Official Settings Guide Book, in the section where it shows execution artwork, there are two pictures of Leon being the one in Jin Kirigiri's execution. This can either lead to believe that Leon was used as a stand-in to try out execution ideas, or that originally this was supposed to be his before changing it.
 * Leon's english voice actor, Grant George is actually married in real life to Sakura's English voice actress, Jessica Gee-George.
 * Leon's execution is the same execution he undergoes in DISTRUST, the prototype of the first Danganronpa game. This explains why his execution is more brutal and gruesome compared to the others.
 * Leon's former high school, LL Academy, might be a reference to Little League.

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