Aoi Asahina

Aoi Asahina (朝日奈 葵 Asahina Aoi) is one of the characters featured in Dangan Ronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair. She has the title Ultimate Swimming Pro (超高校級の「スイマー」Chō Kōkō Kyū no "Suimā"). She was a young sportswoman who was active in five different sport clubs. Due to her ability, Asahina was chosen as a representative at the Olympics. When Oogami committed suicide in Chapter 4, she attempted to make everyone vote for her as the culprit after being tricked into thinking that Oogami killed herself out of despair. She survived the final trial and escaped with the other survivors at the end of the game.

Appearance
Asahina has tanned skin and brown hair that she wears in a ponytail. In the game, she wears athletic shorts and a red track suit jacket over a white shirt. On the picture of this page, she wears a blue bathing suit with a white box logo on the front with some Japanese Characters and a single white stripe on the right side of her bust. Asahina also has a rather curvaceous body that is usually the subject of Fukawa/Syo's harassment.

Personality
Always energetic and friendly, Asahina is also a bit airheaded. She has difficulty remembering names. Asahina is quite emotional, as she is one of the very few students that take their friends' deaths very personally, to the extent of crying for the dying Yamada in Chapter 3.

The Free Time sequence reveals her insecurity about not being feminine enough due to her being an athlete. She is also a donut lover and secretly a fan of Jason Statham.

Pre-Despair Incident
At some point earlier in her life, Asahina enrolled in Hope’s Peak Academy and was put into the 78th classroom. She enjoyed a normal school life until The Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind occurred, which was caused by Ultimate Despair. Afterwards, headmaster Jin Kirigiri suggested that Asahina and her classmates live inside the school building until the commotion ceased. However, unbeknownst to them, two members of Ultimate Despair, Enoshima and Ikusaba, were already among their number. Using the technique she learned from Matsuda, Enoshima wiped Asahina’s and her classmates’ memories of their time in Hope’s Peak Academy.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
When they reunited at the school entrance, none of them recognized each other and they reintroduced themselves.

Maizono's Death, First False Allegations and the First Class Trial Execution
Asahina and Oogami played the key role of witness in the first trial, as they had seen Maizono enter the kitchen while they were hanging out in the cafeteria. They helped Naegi deduce that Maizono was the one who took the knife from the kitchen.

Meeting Alter Ego and the Third Trial
On the night after the conclusion of the second trial, Asahina wandered out of her room in search of donuts in the Cafeteria. However, she heard weird sounds coming from the changing room near the bath. When she approached one of the lockers in the room, she saw someone who looked similar to the recently deceased Fujisaki. In fear, she screamed and returned to her room.

The next morning, she was temporarily absent from the usual meeting under the excuse of not feeling well. When she went to the Cafeteria to eat donuts, the others just happened to return from their investigation. Concerned, they asked why she was absent during the morning meeting. To their surprise, Asahina said that she had seen Fujisaki’s spirit wandering in the changing room. When they went to the aforementioned place to confirm Asahina’s claim, they discovered that the ghost whom Asahina saw was Alter Ego, the Artificial Intelligence that was made by Fujisaki.

After searching for some time, Asahina and the others finally found Ishimaru’s and Yamada’s bodies in the art room. Devastated by the sudden death of her two friends, Asahina put Yamada’s head on her lap and cried for him. Surprisingly, Yamada regained his consciousness with enough time to speak the name of the culprit. However, he died due to his severe wounds.

Oogami's Role as a Mole and Her Noble Sacrifice
Following the conclusion of the third trial, Monobear revealed Oogami’s identity as the mole in their group. Shocked by the sudden turn of events, Asahina immediately came to Oogami’s side to protect her from Togami’s, Fukawa’s, and Hagakure’s accusation. However, this would only serve to widen the gap between them. As time went by, Asahina gradually became more emotional and even got into a fight with Togami and Fukawa. When Oogami found out about this, she decided to make a plan to meet up with Togami, Fukawa, and Hagakure in the game room to clear things up. Asahina was against the plan, but Oogami insisted on it. Oogami also sent a letter to Asahina, which contained the message that she would commit suicide in order to cease the dispute between the students. Monobear swapped the letter with a fake one, which Asahina would find and read later.

Finding herself worried about Oogami’s well-being, Asahina immediately went to the game room, only to find that Oogami was badly wounded on her head due to Hagakure’s and Fukawa’s assault. Even though she was not in a condition to speak, Oogami shrugged off Asahina’s worry and requested Asahina to get the protein from the laboratory to treat her wound. Unknown to Asahina, Oogami was planning to commit suicide that time. Upon looking at the trace of spilled poison on the laboratory floor, she finally realized what Oogami was attempting to do and immediately returned to the game room to check up on Oogami’s condition. However, the door could not be opened because a chair prevented the door handle from moving. From the outside, Asahina could see Oogami sitting on the chair, lifeless.

After Kirigiri and Naegi confirmed Oogami’s death, Asahina was at loss. On the inside, she blamed the others, since the letter had said that they were the ones who drove Oogami to suicide. Due to that, Asahina immediately resolved herself to deliberately misdirect the investigation in order to get all of them executed from fingering the wrong person as the culprit. In the trial, she became very quick to blame someone else as Oogami’s murderer. When the truth about Oogami’s suicide finally came out, she insisted that she was the one who killed Oogami. However, Naegi managed to solve the mysteries surrounding Oogami’s death and foiled Asahina’s plan.

When the trial was over, Monobear revealed that he had switched the suicide letter with the fake one. He then went on to read the contents of the letter. Most of the students, especially Asahina, were surprised to find out that Oogami sacrificed herself for their sake. Afterwards, they decided to reconcile and unite their strength in order to take down the Mastermind.

Mukuro's Death Retrial and Tensed Rivalry with Real Enoshima
As the true perpetrator was revealed as Junko Enoshima, Asahina was one of the students who was shocked that the 'Junko Enoshima' they met was actually Enoshima's twin sister, Mukuro Ikusaba, and remained stunned over the fact that world doomsday because of despair and chaos is as real as truth. As she is motivated by Naegi's words that hope is still alive, Asahina recalls Oogami's quote as if she was still alive: "Strength is only obtained through unshaken bravery'', and due to that she decided to believe in Naegi. With her support to Naegi, Asahina witnessed him managing to force Enoshima onto her knees and execute herself in a special punishment (Super Duper Nasty Torture) in the progress; which finally resulted in her 'death' and the survivors were finally free from the strings of this sadistic game.

Considering their torments are finally over, Asahina would begin to wonder if a doughnut shop would appear when she returned to the real world before she bade farewell to her fellow friends. Hence, Asahina was among the six survivors to escape the school.

Execution
Water Illusion Show - Asahina is put in a water tank. From above, Monobear dressed as a magician appears, and he waves his staff and a curtain falls, raising again with a drum roll. Many sharks can be seen in the tank, surrounding Asahina. Once again, Monobear waves his staff and the curtain falls. As the drum rolls and the curtain rises, Asahina isn't in the tank anymore, because she's been eaten by the sharks. This execution is shown in the Official Fanbook.

Sakura Oogami
Asahina and Oogami became very close friends due to their passion for sports. They also like drinking protein drinks. Asahina was very upset when Togami badmouthed Oogami, causing her to slap him. Her friend's death had a huge impact on her, accusing anyone who spoke ill of her and planning to get herself and the others killed after reading the falsified suicide note.

Quotes

 * “What, you’ve never seen this before? They say when you want to remember someone’s name, you should write it on the palm of your hand three times!”
 * "That’s definitive evidence! It’s something we can corner her with!!"
 * "It’s you two who I don’t get at all… Killing someone… and then standing here chatting and smiling…"
 * "I won’t listen to any excuses…!"
 * "You are going to be executed… Someone like you who killed Sakura-chan deserves nothing but swift execution…"
 * "I've been thinking... I've been thinking what Sakura-chan would say at a time like this..."
 * "Real strength only reveals itself when one is faced with great turmoil! Therefore, I shall always tread a thorny path!!"
 * "... She'd say something like that, wouldn't she? I think she'd definitely say something like that."
 * "So, I... Yeah. I decided!!"
 * "First thing I'm gunna do is hit up a donut shop. I'll think about my life after that."

Trivia

 * Her first name means "blue", while Asahina is a combination of "morning", "sun", and "Nara".
 * Her last name altogether would mean "the morning sun of Nara".
 * She practices a self-healing technique known as Kanpumasatsu, in which one rubs their body with a dry towel to keep illnesses such as the flu away.
 * Asahina is shown to be the mother of Naegi's, Hagakure's and presumably Togami's children in the bad ending.
 * She shares the same birthdate with Mahiru Koizumi from Super Dangan Ronpa 2.
 * Along with swimming, Asahina plays baseball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and track and field.