Kanon Nakajima

Kanon Nakajima (仲島 花音 Nakajima Kanon) is a character featured in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. She is a Target for the Warriors of Hope's Demon Hunting.

Kanon is the cousin and baseball team manager of Leon Kuwata. She is also obsessively in love with him. She is the closest person to him, which is why she became a Captive for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc first motive.

Kanon is featured as one of the two main protagonists in Ultra Despair Hagakure, along with Yasuhiro Hagakure.

Appearance
Kanon is 17-18 years old teenage girl.undefined

She has shoulder length chestnut brown hair, part of which is held up by a black ribbon with white lace. Her eyes are a pale shade of yellow. She wears what seems to be a high school girls' sailor uniform.

She is mentioned to be physically fit and "pretty ripped", and she is able to run for a long time without getting out of breath. Her hands have callouses due to her constant baseball training to fulfill a bet with her cousin, Leon Kuwata.

Both Hiroko Hagakure and Komaru Naegi say that Kanon is pretty, Komaru even saying that Kanon looks like the main protagonist of a shōjo manga. She always wears a thick layer of make-up.

Personality
Kanon generally appears quite calm, but somewhat odd girl. According to Yasuhiro, she doesn't plan ahead.

She is very skilled at using the Hacking Gun. She can defeat Monokuma robots easily and she's very confident in her skill, as she doesn't seem to be afraid of the bears. However, she later says that she is freaking out on the inside.

In her official description composed by the Warriors of Hope, Kanon is said to be rather lustful and perverted. The kids said that if they send in a handsome Monokuma and show her some nice dreams she will be distracted long enough for them to kill her, meaning that she must be rather lonely.

Kanon is very devoted to Leon, to the point of very unhealthy obsession, as she believes that everything she does and her whole life is for him. She loves him more than anything, saying that he is her whole world. Her self-esteem is almost completely based around Leon - she would hate herself if Leon hated her and she doesn't see point in existence without him. She stayed persistent and hopeful for years and stalked him, even though Leon rejected her over 3000 times. It's also implied that she had violent thoughts whenever she was jealous, but she didn't do anything because she didn't want Leon to hate her. When she finds out that Leon has died due to the members of the Future Foundation, she becomes suicidal, but at first swears to take revenge. Even after his death, she loves Leon, and whispers his name in her sleep and keeps writing his name in her pocketbook.

Kanon appears to be a gyaru, dressing up in flashy clothing, wearing thick layer of make-up and using gyaru slang from the nineties - it's revealed this is not because of her personal taste, and she actually does it in order to impress Leon. She especially uses the phrase "choberipa", a gyaru slang term that was a trend around 1996's ("wack" in the official English translation).

Prior to the Tragedy
Kanon is from a rich family. Her father was a director at TAT Television, the largest television conglomerate in the world.

Kanon's father was the younger brother of Leon's father. She has been in love with her two years older cousin ever since they were both very young and she affectionately refers to him as her "big brother". She has tried forever to get Leon to notice her and love her even though he only saw her as his little sister and nothing more.

One time in Summer, when Kanon was in 7th grade, Leon and his father came to visit Kanon's family. He saw a picture of a gyaru girl in a magazine and thought she was really cute, which made Kanon feel bad, especially since she saw herself as a "fashion disaster". Kanon decided to emulate the style and at night she used her allowance to buy a trendy outfit and make-up online. 2 days later she tried the new style, thought she looked "super hot" and went to see Leon. Leon, however, was shocked by the change and told her it isn't gyaru he likes, but just cute girls in general as they can pull off any look. Ever since, Kanon has tried to wear make up and make herself more pretty in hopes he will like her.

Kanon ended up confessing to him a total of 3909 times between the ages of 6 and 15 and each time went unrequited. She attended the same schools as him and became the manager of his baseball team in middle school in order to stay close to him.

Leon became very popular with girls and he usually had a new girl with him every few days. Kanon was jealous and she always followed them, but she freaked out every time because she thought Leon saw her, and they got too much distance on her. From then on, Kanon began training physically in order to be able to follow them. After about half a year of training (running, squats, shadow boxing), she could truly blend in successfully. While following the couple, her heart hurt when she saw them laughing with each other, eating together, holding hands, and doing other things that couples do. She wanted to punish them, but she understood that none of it was really Leon's fault.

During the Summer of Kanon's freshman year of high school, when she was 15 and Leon was 17, he stayed over at her house and asked "You've been tailing me, haven't you?". Kanon tried to deny it, but Leon told her he only had a problem with it because he suspected that she was hurting. Kanon assumes that Leon finally returns her feelings, but instead he makes a bet with her: If she could throw a baseball at 160 kilometers per hour, he would think of her as a romantic prospect, but as long as she couldn't, he would forbid her to talk to him. She agrees quickly, seeing this as a bright hope. However, she later learns that the Japanese record for female pitchers is 140 km/h, which made her think that Leon had given her an impossible task to get her away. Nevertheless, Kanon practiced every day, in the rain and in the wind... even though she didn't improve at all. Others called her by mean nickname, "Needle's Eye".

The next time Kanon and Leon meet, it is during the first New Year's day since Leon went off to Hope's Peak Academy. She noticed that his hair had gotten long, and she panicked at how amazing he looked in her eyes. To her surprise, he talked to her, and asked why she hadn't been able to manage the 160 throw. She told him about the 140 record, to which he replied that he honestly didn't know. When she told him that no one else has done it before, he smiled and said that it would be extra cool then, since she would be the first. Through further conversation, she realized that Leon did not attempt to trick her: He simply believed that she could do it, believing in her potential. When he saw her hands covered in callouses from practicing every day, he went silent from awe.

Before returning to Hope's Peak Academy, Leon gave Kanon a baseball lesson in the snow, trying to show her how he does the 160 kilometers per hour pitch. However, his lesson was no help, as Leon was terrible at teaching. All the same, when Kanon saw Leon throw a pitch, she remembered the beauty and coolness of her cousin when he was playing baseball. She began to cry out of happiness, which made Leon panic, not knowing what he had done to make her unhappy. He patted her on the head to try to make her feel better, but in Kanon actually wanted to thank him for showing her something so beautiful. That day was the last time Kanon ever saw Leon.

During The Tragedy
After the two were separated once again, Kanon was at home one day when a man she didn't know came into the house, and she lost consciousness. When she awoke, she was enclosed in an apartment. During the 1 and 1/2 years she was captured, she was in pain, always thinking about Leon, and whether he was worrying about him, and wanted to see him.

Finally, Kanon is released from her enclosure by a Monokuma robot, which tries to kill her. Members of the Future Foundation arrive to rescue her, but more Monokumas appear and they get separated. Kanon gets a Hacking Gun from a deceased Future Foundation agent, but she is soon captured by the Monokumas and Monokuma Kids.

Kanon then becomes a Target for the Warriors of Hope's Demon Hunting game. She is released into the Towa City, with a wristband on her.

While hiding from Monokumas, Kanon finds a file in a public bathroom that reveals the history behind the Killing School Life. The file lists those who had died and had become the "stepping stones" for the other students to escape the school. After seeing Leon's name on the list, she then found a photo of him after his execution, bloody and tied to a pole. The file noted that the remaining students escaped and joined the Future Foundation. Kanon wonders to herself why she was still alive, since Leon was dead, and he was her life and world. Going outside in despair, she resolves herself to death by being eaten by a Monokuma. However, she then realizes that before she dies, she must take revenge and kill the Future Foundation members who killed her beloved.

Chapter 1
Kanon meets Yasuhiro by chance. Believing that he's just a random citizen, she saves him from Monokumas with her Hacking Gun. He pokes fun at her after she speaks with a gyaru slang, which causes her to break down crying because it reminded her of Leon. She learns that Yasuhiro is part of the Future Foundation, but doesn't reveal her true intentions to him.

The two manage to escape the Monokumas and find a safe place for night in a shopping mall. Kanon asks Yasuhiro about the Hacking Gun and why it's effective against Monokumas. Yasuhiro explains to her that it was made for Towa machinery. He thinks Towa Group is suspicious and possible cause of the riot, as it seems they built the Monokumas.

Chapter 2
After Yasuhiro mentions his fortune telling skills, Kanon requests that he tell her love fortune. He asks her for an immense sum of ten thousand yen for his service, which he figures she cannot pay, but she immediately gives it to him, explaining that her father is a big wig at a reputable TV station, TAT Television. He tells her fortune, saying that she is drinking tea in a garden with her destined lover. She then sighs with a smile, saying that it isn't possible, since her fated one is dead. Yasuhiro then realizes that if he brings Kanon back safely to her father, he would be able to pay off his remaining debt. From then on, he begins treating her royally.

Chapter 3
In the second day, Kanon and Yasuhiro continue to work together to go to a bridge to attempt to escape the town. Surprisingly, they find many bullets for the Hacking Gun. They stop for the night and stay in a video rental store. When Kanon uses gyaru slang again, she asks Yasuhiro to make fun of it and when he does, she suddenly hugs him because she saw Leon in him. She apologizes and lets go of him. In her sleep, Yasuhiro hears her whisper Leon's name, making him realize that she was his Captive.

In the third day, Kanon and Yasuhiro reach the bridge, but it's being bombed and they are forced to turn back. However, they are immediately found by Kotoko Utsugi on her Fighter robot, who attempts to attack them. However, Kanon is very strong, and immediately subjugates Kotoko, throws away her controller and ties her hands with her knee-socks. She tries to get information out of Kotoko and she tells them that Towa Group is responsible for kidnapping the Captives, but the Group also betrayed Junko at the worst possible time. Suddenly, Masaru Daimon comes to help Kotoko with his Hero robot. Yasuhiro 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.

Kanon tells Yasuhiro that her plan isn't to defeat the children and she implies she has own plans other than escape, which makes Yasuhiro slightly suspicious of her, but he doesn't tell her. The two decide to go to the subway station.

Chapter 4
On the way, they go inside an abandoned house so Kanon can go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Yasuhiro holds her purse and is disturbed to find out that her pocketbook features "Big Brother Leon Hell", dozens of pages with just his name up until the ink ran out. The last page reads "They're called 'Future Foundation', but it's not my future. I'm going to crush that group of hypocrites one by one." Yasuhiro realizes that Kanon loves Leon in a twisted way and blames Future Foundation for his death. Kanon returns and Yasuhiro acts like nothing happened. The two keep going and Yasuhiro gets more and more paranoid, deciding to read his own fortune and seeing two possibilities - a collapsing tunnel and Kanon crying her eyes out. Yasuhiro protests at first and tells about his fortune, but in the end they go into the subway. Kanon notices his attitude change, but thinks it's just because of the toothpick she put in his hair at night. Yasuhiro decides to ask her opinion on Future Foundation directly, which immediately makes her realize that he has read her pocketbook and might tell Future Foundation about her goal. She kicks him on the ribs without warning and starts to strangle him in an attempt to kill him.

Suddenly, Kotoko appears with her robot and she knocks Kanon off of Yasuhiro. Kanon avoids the robot's hits at first, but her right leg gets badly injured. Soon, she appears to be unable to move, and Kotoko steps off of her robot to taunt her. She calls Kanon adorbs and starts to molest her with her "portable motivation machine". Kanon starts to bleed to death because of her leg's wounds, and while she considers the situation a very shameful way to die, she thinks she is ready for it. She then reconsiders and realizes that she would rather die on her own terms and not have a sad ending like Leon did.

Meanwhile, Yasuhiro starts up an electric train and it moves towards Kanon and Kotoko at great speed. Kotoko flattens herself up against the wall and tries to stop the train with her robot. Yasuhiro picks Kanon up and starts to carry her to safety. Kanon wonders why he's helping her and he answers that he's a member of Future Foundation and he can't be the helpless student forever. Kanon tears up and feels guilt about what she did. Kotoko's robot throws the train off the tracks and she chases after Kanon and Yasuhiro. Yasuhiro's crystal ball falls, and Kanon picks it up and throws it at Kotoko with all her strength. For the first time, she managed to throw just how she wanted (though, still not like the bet required). The ball hits Kotoko's face, making her drop her controller and stop the robot. Yasuhiro tries to get to the controller before Kotoko does, but Masaru shows up again with his robot. Yasuhiro 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 realizes that she doesn't hate Yasuhiro and thus doesn't want him to die. She tells Yasuhiro to drop her so he can escape, but he tells her that it's going to be all right.

Chapter 5
Suddenly, part of the tunnel collapses just as Yasuhiro predicted and prevents the children from following them. Kanon is very glad that Yasuhiro survived and hugs him tearfully, much to his surprise. He patches up her leg the best he can and asks why she tried to save him after trying to kill him. Kanon answers that she simply doesn't want Yasuhiro to die, not anymore, but still wants the other Future Foundation members dead. She then realizes that she doesn't have a right to take revenge as Leon probably didn't even care about her or want her to do that. Yasuhiro tells Kanon that Leon truly cared about her a lot, which is confirmed by the fact that she is his Captive. Kanon starts to cry loudly as she realizes this and afterwards decided to go back to Towa City and find Future Foundation. She isn't sure if she will kill them or not and wonders if they might be good guys like Yasuhiro.

Kanon apologizes about a lot of things and thanks Yasuhiro before leaving. Yasuhiro decides to rest for a bit, but changes his mind and runs after Kanon. He walks together with her, claiming that it's for the sake of solving his eight million debt.

Leon Kuwata
Kanon is Leon's younger cousin by two years. The two had a sibling-like bond since childhood, though Kanon didn't see it this way and is in fact deeply in love with Leon. She would do anything to get Leon to notice her, stalked him and constantly pushes her feelings of love onto him. Though she is extremely devoted to Leon, to the point of very unhealthy obsession, he rejected her confessions every time as she was like a little sister to him.

When Kanon finds out that Leon had died due to the members of the Future Foundation, she swears revenge, knowing full well that the deceased Leon might hate her for it, since she wasn't even his lover. When she discovered he had died, she first tried to kill herself, and wondered why she wasn't dead already, since Leon was her world and life.

Yasuhiro later tells Kanon that she was chosen as Leon's Captive during the Killing School Life, meaning that she was extremely important to him, more than anyone else in the world.

Yasuhiro Hagakure
Kanon travels with Yasuhiro, after saving him from Monokumas. She gives him the nickname "Yasu".

After finding out that he's from Future Foundation, Kanon had a desire to kill Yasuhiro. However, he isn't anything like what she thought a member of Future Foundation would be. The more she talked to him, the less she wanted to kill him. However, she attempts to kill him after finding out that he has read her pocketbook.

Kanon sees Leon in Yasuhiro and even though she knows he is a member of the Future Foundation, aiming for her father's money and "totally lame", she eventually realizes that she doesn't hate Yasuhiro and doesn't want him to die simply because of that.

While Kanon is less forgiving to the other Future Foundation members, she is ready to give them a chance if they turn out to be good people like Yasuhiro.

Quotes

 * “But we can! As long as there's love, it doesn't matter! There's no law against it, either!”
 * “CHOBERIBA!!”

Trivia

 * Kanon's given name (花音) is written with the characters for "flower" and "sound" and her family name (仲島) means "within the island".
 * Kanon likes light novels.
 * Kanon character design has gone through many radical changes before reaching its current form. She was originally designed as a plump girl with swirl marks on her cheeks and dark hair - a design which later became the basis for Fujiko Yamada. She was later given a more slender figure while retaining the same hairstyle of two long pigtails shaped somewhat similar to baseball bats. This design, however, was replaced altogether with a very early design for Komaru's character to which very few changes were made before achieving her final look.
 * Kanon was originally supposed to be the main lead for the game, with Haiji Towa acting very much like Toko Fukawa.