Masaru Daimon

Masaru Daimon (大門 大 Daimon Masaru), leads the "Hero" Class as a member of the Warriors of Hope and is one of the instigators of Demon Hunting featured in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. His title is the Li'l Ultimate P.E. (超小学生級の「体育の時間」lit. Super Elementary School Level P.E. Period).

Creation and Development
Originally, Masaru was going to be high school age as well as a Warrior of Hope, but this concept was abandoned as it resulted in loud laughter. Unlike in the series so far, Masaru was instead a major character from elementary school, and thus him being a child was taken into consideration while his design and behavior were created.

As the Hero type, Masaru as a character is based on stereotypical young boy protagonists and was inspired by the ones the creators saw in magazines—red head with bandages, shorts, etc and possessing a hot-headed hero type personality and a protagonist vibe. This also inspired his Ultimate talent and with him being the Li'l Ultimate P.E., he was given a scene with the 3D model in which he introduces himself by doing acrobatic flips. Furthermore, he was made to be a "bratty boss who is also an idiot", which influenced his design as well. For the origin of his name, it was intended to be an earnest leader, for a child. Megumi Han was thought to be fitting for the character with remarks and she was called upon to do the voice work.

At first, Masaru was a stereotype of a character, but his bandages and scratches hint at his background back at home. In the early concept, all the Warriors of Hope wore headphones, but Masaru became the only one to do so to represent him as a strong standing character.

Appearance
Masaru is an elementary school-aged boy, around 12-year-old. He is tan-skinned and covered in small bruises and cuts. He has red hair, bushy eyebrows, and blue eyes with a flame pattern iris.

He sports white headphones and wears a white tank top that has the emblem of the "Hero" class and the silver Warriors of Hope badge on the front, and a big number 10 on the back.

Underneath, he wears a red and black striped shirt that matches both his armband and socks, blue shorts, and sneakers. He also has a small bandage located right above his left knee, and another under his left eye.

Personality
Masaru is a cheerful, hot-headed showoff and seems to be the one who has a more goofy outlook on life. He is extremely energetic and constantly brags about his role as the Hero and leader of the Warriors of Hope, despite the circumstances of how he became "leader" (by winning in Rock, Paper, Scissors).

He loves praise and fame. He refers to himself using orecchi, a form of the Japanese pronoun ore, which can be rude depending on its context but is often used when a speaker wants to assert a feeling of superiority. He also calls himself "Lord Masaru Daimon".

He is also very playful, naughty and mischievous in nature. He likes to boss around others due to his role as the leader and seems to enjoy pranks. For example, he once locked Jataro Kemuri in the bathroom. However, he is always very considerate and respectful towards Monaca.

Masaru has been described as "bratty" and an "idiot". He seems to have a childish "boys are better than girls" way of thinking, as he thinks that girls are stupid and cowardly. Both Monaca and Kotoko call him perverted, though a line in Ultra Despair Hagakure implies that he's still very naive and doesn't really understand sexual things. He is one of the more child-like and less intelligent members of the group, enjoying very childish jokes and being completely unaware of what is truly going on. He also seems to have a habit of remembering certain words incorrectly.

Although Masaru is childish and arrogant, and very focused on becoming the ruler of Towa City and children's paradise, he is shown to genuinely care about the people he leads. He wants to make sure that the kids won't need to feel afraid anymore and he forces himself to be brave for them. He takes his role as the "Hero" very seriously and works hard to live up to certain hero tropes, like being fearless and never losing.

Though he usually appears very cheerful, he can get very upset and break down crying if he is reminded of his abusive past.

Li'l Ultimate P.E.
Masaru is very athletic. He is a very good runner and all-around athlete. During his introduction, he is shown to be standing on top of a human pyramid, most likely as a way of showing that he is #1 in sports. Masaru calls himself the "P.E. King" who can do every single exercise. He also claims that running is as easy as pie.

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

Prior to the Tragedy
Masaru was born and raised in Towa City. He was a child prodigy known as a sports legend, and his strong point was any physical activity. He could run a 365-day race in only 24 hours (as stated by himself).

Masaru also lived with his alcoholic father, who was verbally and physically abusive towards him for the smallest of reasons (for example, if Masaru coughed while the father smoked) and constantly forced his son to help supply his drinking habit. Masaru, of course, couldn't buy anything due to his age and he would repeatedly have to steal in order to do this. This made his father even angrier because it humiliated him and made him look bad in the eyes of the police.

According to the father, the physical abuse was "teaching of manners". Every time he was physically abused, Masaru forced a smile so his father wouldn't hate him. However, the father hated the smiling and considered his son abnormal and defective for it. Due to his upbringing, Masaru believed that everything was his fault because he couldn't do things properly like his father wanted and he was sorry for making his father look like "the bad guy". He was really afraid that his father would abandon him and stop being his dad.

Masaru was also a part of Hope's Peak Elementary School. He was in the class of troublemakers along with Monaca, Jataro, Kotoko, and Nagisa Shingetsu.

Although Masaru was on the verge of committing suicide along with the other four kids, Junko Enoshima appeared and convinced the children that the adults were wrong and that they should create a paradise for children. Masaru murdered his parents shortly after and did not regret it.

Prologue - The Warriors of Hope
Masaru was first seen in the news reporting room, where he messes around with the dead reporter's corpse along with Jataro and Kotoko. Nagisa tries to scold them, however, Masaru manages to rope him into their game as well. He was also shown in the background of Monaca's speech, striking poses.

Masaru is later seen with the other Warriors of Hope in the main hall, boasting about his status as "Li'l Ultimate P.E." as well as being the "leader" of the Warriors of Hope, which Kotoko responds to, saying he only got the position from winning in Janken (Rock, Paper, Scissors) against the others. When Monaca arrives, he moves out of the way for her to greet Komaru Naegi.

Masaru then explains to Komaru that they will play a game called "Demon's Hunting", the game where the Warriors of Hope release Demons into Towa City as targets. The Warriors then would compete to see who could hunt it down first. Not long after the Servant arrives and sets the Monokuma Bracelet on Komaru, Masaru and the other Warriors of Hope open a trap door, resulting in Komaru falling through it and back down into Towa City.

Chapter 1 - Crying for Love in Hell
Toko and Komaru later meet Masaru in an arena full of Monokuma Kids. Masaru then challenges them to a battle, claiming that he will kill Toko and Komaru. He then reveals the bodies of numerous adults below him, frightening Komaru and Toko.

As the Monokuma Kids continue to cheer from around the arena, Masaru begins to feel fear; something which he apparently never felt in any of his previous "demon slaying sessions". Seeing his left hand trembling, Masaru enters a state of panic, mixed with the resurfacing of his abusive past. He frantically chants to himself over and over about how "heroes aren't afraid of anything," then proceeds to beat his own left arm for trembling in fear. Komaru tries to calm him down, but after he is finished panicking, his arm now completely blue with bruises, he only seems more determined to defeat the girls.

After being defeated by Toko and Komaru, Masaru is seen recovering from the explosion, until the Monokuma Kids grab him and beat him, leaving behind his headphones. This makes him the first member of the Warriors of Hope to be executed. Monaca, Jataro and Kotoko are so saddened by his supposed death that they create a shrine for him.

Aftermath
After Masaru's defeat, Nagisa replaces him as the leader of the Warriors of Hope.

An image during the credits called "Children After The Story" shows that Masaru, Nagisa, Kotoko, and Jataro are all alive and together.

Chapter 3
Masaru Daimon comes to help Kotoko who being tied and interrogated by Kanon Nakajima and Yasuhiro Hagakure with his Hero robot. Hiro would like to run, but Kanon decides to fight as she wants more answers. Unfortunately, Kanon is out of ammo, so the two escape by running.

Chapter 5
Hiro tries to get to the Kotoko's fallen controller before Kotoko does, but Masaru shows up again with his robot. Hiro is forced to run back to Kanon, pick her up and keep escaping. Kotoko and Masaru argue at first, but then decide to work together and chase after the two. Kanon tells Hiro to drop her so he can escape, but he tells her that it's going to be all right. Suddenly, part of the tunnel collapses just as Hiro predicted and prevents the children from following them.

Episode 01 - Third Time's the Charm
Masaru and the other Warriors of Hope members excluding Monaca were briefly shown at the beginning of the episode as the Servant surrendered himself to the Warriors of Hope.

Episode 07 - Ultra Despair Girls
Masaru and the other former Warriors of Hope, excluding Monaca, are seen hiding in a hotel. Nagisa is on the phone, telling Toko and Komaru how to find Monaca while Masaru and the others watch in silence.

Super Danganronpa 2.5: Komaeda Nagito to Sekai no Hakaimono
Masaru appears as a cameo in the OVA, was shown having fun with members of Warriors of Hope.

Execution

 * Main Article: Punishment of the Hero

Relationships

 *  Warriors of Hope: 

Kurokuma
Kurokuma was Masaru's adviser. However, there was no in-game interaction between the two. In the official relationship chart, Kurokuma seems surprised that being noisy isn't cool in Masaru's book.

Monaca Towa
Like everyone else, Masaru respected Monaca, and when Komaru made her sad, he was the one to yell at her for being so mean and making Monaca cry. When Masaru later listed his goals, having Monaca to himself was among them, which implies that he had feelings for Monaca.

After Masaru's supposed death, Monaca and Kotoko mourn him, but it seems they were mostly just acting.

It's later revealed that Masaru, along with Jataro, Nagisa and Kotoko, were used as pawns by Monaca, who is revealed to not care about them at all.

Nagisa Shingetsu
Nagisa and Masaru are complete opposites of each other, personality-wise, and therefore don't get along. Nagisa was often frustrated with Masaru's arrogance and childishness, especially as a true leader should be more humble and dignified; Masaru, in turn, didn't like Nagisa's bossy attitude and inability to cut loose and have fun with the others.

One line in the official artbook implies that in the past, Masaru had a habit to ask Nagisa to do his homework for him. It also seems that Masaru and Nagisa were rivals for Monaca's affection.

After Masaru's supposed death, Nagisa was the only one adamant that Masaru may not have died, and that they should attempt a rescue mission to make sure, proving that Nagisa truly cared about Masaru.

Kotoko Utsugi
Kotoko and Masaru are seen to joke and play together. Though Kotoko calls him perverted and idiotic, she admits that he's a good person. After Masaru's defeat, Kotoko and Monaca mourn him, but it seems they were mostly just acting. Kotoko portrayed the role of Cinderella in a school play and Masaru played her prince.

Jataro Kemuri
Masaru, unlike many other Warriors, doesn't seem to be verbally mean to Jataro and mostly just ignores him. However, he seems to enjoy bossing him around, telling him to do things like buying him a Cola (as mentioned in the official artbook).

Masaru also liked to play pranks on Jataro, as he once locked him in the bathroom.

Despite his treatment, Jataro seemed to genuinely respect and admire Masaru and even wanted to make an altar for him. After Masaru's supposed death, Jataro seemed truly saddened and wished he would've died instead.
 *  Ultimate Despair Members: 

Junko Enoshima
Masaru, like the other four Warriors, has a special respect and love for Junko. She stopped their joint-suicide, which would be committed 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 the adults.

Battle phrases

 * "Take this! Super Piercing Drill Puuunch!"
 * "Special move! Mega Drive Drill!"
 * "Diiie! Demons must die!"
 * "Demons need punishment!"
 * "I-I'm the Hero... Heroes never lose!"
 * "Once I kill you and get the high score, I'm gonna be the "Demon Hunting" champ! And then, paradise, Monaca... It all belongs to the Hero!"
 * "Ora, ora!"

Trivia

 * If read using their Chinese-influenced readings, the kanji making up Masaru's name - 大門大 - can be read as dai-mondai. This pronunciation is the same as that of 大問題, meaning “big problem”- which would reference his naughty personality.
 * Masaru shares his full name with the Digimon Savers main protagonist, Masaru Daimon (called Marcus Damon in the English dub), and both use the same kanji. Both of them shares a similar "heroic" attitude as well.
 * Masaru's movements in his execution during the part where many Monokuma Kids pull him into their mob before beating him are very similar to the movements of Leon Kuwata in the beginning of his execution.
 * Masaru's cry of "Ora, ora!" during the battle with him is a reference to the cry of Star Platinum from .
 * Masaru robot's name directly referenced to a famous American action-adventure television series, .

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