Sakura Ogami

Sakura Ogami (大神 さくら Ōgami Sakura), nicknamed “The Ogre” online, is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She has the title Ultimate Martial Artist (超高校級の「格闘家」chō kōkō kyū no “kakutōka”). She was an expert martial artist and wrestler who became a champion in an international competition held in America. As of now, her 400-win streak has yet to be broken.

Sakura was blackmailed by Monokuma into working with him, and later committed suicide In Chapter 4 in order to cease the dispute which has arose between the other students after her secret was revealed.

Appearance
Due to her muscular build, deep voice, and decidedly fierce appearance, Sakura has often been mistaken for being a male - a prominent example being Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who realized Sakura was female only once she explicitly announced so during the first class trial. She has long white hair, reddened-dark skin, and a scar across her face. She often wore her expression in a slight frown.

She donned a white sailor school uniform with ripped sleeves and bandages on her arms and legs, and a blue skirt that barely covered her extremely muscular thighs.

Personality
Contrary to what her appearance might suggest, Sakura is a quiet and levelheaded girl. She has a habit of talking in an old, formal manner, possibly influenced by the fact that she was heir apparent to a dojo with a three-hundred-year history. She rarely loses her nerve and often sees things above any given situation.

She was also shown to be quite close with Aoi Asahina, most probably due to their mutual enthusiasm in athletic activities; she was visibly upset when someone had attempted to grievously harm Hina.

Likely inheriting a spirit of loyalty from her clan, she also greatly revered and respected her friendship with the other students of Class 78, going as far as committing suicide in order to prevent them from turning against each other.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers follow this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
As a child, Sakura trained at her family's dojo everyday with her father, until one day she defeated him and had never looked back since.

Early on before Sakura had built herself up to her muscular bulk, she was a lot slimmer and fairer, rather similar in physique to Hina, while her school uniform remained the same one as she had worn it during the Mutual Killing incident.

At the time, the only opponent that Sakura could not defeat was a man named Kenshiro, who was heavily implied to be her boyfriend; it was sometime after their parting that Sakura had begun to build herself up heavily.

She promised to fight him again and had sworn to keep that memory 'buried within her heart' sometime after she had heard that Kenshiro only had six months to live, and that he had wanted Sakura to inherit the title of “strongest fighter on Earth” from him. However, she did not keep that memory buried as she had promised, and at one point told Class 78 about her missing Kenshiro, even receiving Makoto Naegi's encouragement at the time.

It is not clear at present what might have had happened to Sakura when The Tragedy began, other than she was one of the students of Class 78 who had survived, and had been filmed, pledging to remain in school for their own safety, when the school had just begun converting itself into a shelter facility. Similarly, little was known of the time between her memory erasure and her participation in the subsequent Mutual Killing incident.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
Like the rest of Class 78, Sakura was among those who were chosen to attend Hope's Peak Academy and ended up being trapped inside the school, not knowing at the time that she had already been memory-wiped of her school life experiences of the past two years.

Some time shortly after the Mutual Killing incident began and most students were shown motivational videos of their personal lives, Sakura was blackmailed by Monokuma into becoming its mole, in exchange for the safety of her family dojo and members, instructed to bring about a killing incident should things begin to stabalize among the survivors.

However, even as a mole, her role had proven to be very limited; Leon Kuwata stabbed Sayaka Maizono “out of self-defence”, Mondo Owada bludgeoned Chihiro Fujisaki in a fit of uncontrolled rage, and Celestia Ludenberg turned out to be the mastermind who had Taka and Hifumi Yamada killed.

Noble Sacrifice for Redemption
Some time after Celeste's execution, knowing that it was time for her to comply with Monokuma, Sakura decided that she had had enough of deceiving her friends any further and she had made up her mind to crush Monokuma's twisted games once and for all. She then confronted Monokuma in the gym, witnessed by Makoto who had just woken up from being knocked out.

Before she could properly confess, however, Monokuma beat her to the punch by revealing her status as its mole, which immediately led to several animostic incidents occurring between the aloof Byakuya Togami, the love-struck Toko Fukawa and the defensive Hina, who had desperately attempted to protect Sakura from further slander.

It was Hina's injury inflicted by Genocide Jill, that prompted Sakura to finally end things once and for all. Meaning to interpret Monokuma's instructions in the least damaging way possible, she decided that the most unobtrusive way to go about fulfilling his instructions was to commit suicide.

To that end, she had her farewell letter penned in an old fashion - through the use of calligraphy.

At some unknown point of time in between this and her activities in the Recreation Room, she broke the door leading to the principal's office; this would 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 allow her to obtain some crucial information regarding Mukuro Ikusaba, the sixteenth student.

Before her final moments, Sakura had attempted to make peace with Yasuhiro Hagakure - who had been mighty defensive after the expose - as well as Toko and Byakuya. The former two did turn up to meet her at the Recreation Room, but had either severely misinterpreted her intention (Hiro) or had been triggered into action involuntarily (Toko); Byakuya never showed up in order to play matters safe for himself.

Sakura ended up being struck twice in succession by Monokuma bottles.

Hina, who was alarmed by Sakura's injury - having previously tried dissuading Sakura from meeting the trio - was asked by Sakura to make her a bottle of protein shake. Having removed Hina from the Recreation Room, the muscular girl then locked the Rec Room door, and then downed the bottle of poison she had retrieved from the Chemistry Lab cabinet, eventually vomiting blood.

Even through the pain, she died with a smile on her face, confident that her friends would not kill each other any more.

Her noble sacrifice, however, was severely complicated by both Hina and Monokuma; while Hina had attempted to mislead the rest of the students in order to get everybody killed as revenge for apparently pushing Sakura “beyond the edge”, it was later revealed that Hina was fooled and Monokuma had the real dying message, deliberately swapping the letter away so that Hina could do the dirty work for it.

Execution
Deciding Match of the Whole Galaxy - Sakura is standing in wilderness. Various space alien commanders and soldiers appear and surround her, manipulating the atmosphere. Even though Sakura successfully kicks them one after another, the enemies don't stop appearing. Eventually it becomes too cramped and she dies by the pressure of being buried. This is only described in the official Visual Fanbook.

Aoi Asahina
Hina was depicted throughout to be Sakura's very special 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; Hina 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 Jill, cut Hina on the arm. When Sakura's suicide note is found, it is mainly addressed to Hina.

Kenshiro
Kenshiro is Sakura's boyfriend. In a Free-Time Event with Makoto, Sakura had admitted that she could not defeat Kenshiro in combat, and that he apparently only had months to live.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * War God Talisman
 * Brand New Sarashi
 * Rose In Vitro
 * Tears of Asura
 * The Secret of Omoplata

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occationally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Mixed martial arts
 * Father
 * A hammer

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Breathing Technique - The Focus Gauge recovers more quickly. Effective during the Nonstop Debate, the Hangman's Gambit, and the Bullet Time Battle. Costs 4 SP.
 * Tranquility - Completely steadies your aim. Effective during the Nonstop Debate and the Hangman's gambit. Costs 3 SP.

Quotes

 * “I am Sakura Ogami.”
 * “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?”
 * “Doubting your allies is an ugly thing to do.”
 * “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.”
 * “Unless there are errands that I absolutely can’t get out of, yes, I always do my training. If I don’t, I feel restless for the rest of the day.”
 * “I don’t want to just be the best in competitions. I want to be the strongest human on Earth.”
 * “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 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.”
 * “Some would say that a woman is incapable of becoming the strongest human alive. I want to prove them wrong.”
 * “I feel like I’m getting weaker by the day... Am I supposed to just accept that? Accept my athrophy? I... I can’t do it... If something doesn’t change, I’ll... I’ll...!”
 * “Well, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of modern training techniques, which rely mainly on machinery. That’s good for building muscle mass, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to actual strength. More muscle is better, of course, but you also need to know how to use it. And if you’re not used to it, pushing your muscless too hard can lead to injury.”
 * “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.”
 * “For now, I should focus on training my mind... Hmm... You’ve taught me something today, Makoto. The importance of endurance... Sorry for making you listen to me complain... But I feel better now. I can handle this... I’m glad I talked to you. I’ll find a way to repay the favor...” (to Makoto Naegi)
 * “These days, fighting has become its own science, in a way. People studied it, it evolved, and eventually it was established as a formal sport. The idea of being invincible disappeared. Whoever develops the next great technique becomes the best. But even in this modern era, he never used that kind of scientific approach... His only teacher... is real combat. He laughs in the face of combat sports. No one can come close to him... Martial arts relies on a certain amount of luck. A lucky punch, a missed step, can decide who wins. But none of that matters to him. He never loses. There’s no strategy that can beat him. Many have studied him. All have lost. His name... is Kenshiro.” (Describing about Kenshiro)
 * “Please, try to understand. Even I... I too have the heart of a woman...”
 * “Anyway, I shall continue my story... That’s right. My lifelong rival. And... My... My first love.” (talking about Kenshiro)
 * “I’m ashamed of myself. I underestimated you. I beg your forgiveness, Makoto.” (to Makoto Naegi)
 * “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...”
 * “He’s fighting. He’s fighting an illness.” (talking about Kenshiro)
 * “He’s the strongest human alive. I admit that—no, I *believe* that.”
 * “I visitid 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.”
 * “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 Naegi)

Trivia

 * In flashbacks, Sakura is shown to have had a much slimmer figure.
 * The name “Oogami (大神)” can be translated as “large deity”.
 * Sakura's given name, being written in hiragana, is somewhat ironic. That is because Japanese given names written in hiragana are most commonly (though not exclusively) female, and would be intuitively identified as such - contrasting with Sakura's muscular build which made some of her classmates initially mistake her for a man.
 * Since Sakura's name (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 Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, there is a large statue of Sakura in the Muscat House, and Nekomaru Nidai once told Hajime Hinata that he met the person depicted in the statue once in the mountains.