Ibuki Mioda

Ibuki Mioda (澪田 唯吹 Mioda Ibuki) is one of the characters featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

Ibuki has the title Ultimate Musician (超高校級の「軽音楽部」chō kōkō kyū no “keiongaku-bu”; lit. Super High School Level Light Music Club Member''). ''

Ibuki was one of the students who contracted Despair Disease, and was later murdered by strangulation at the hands of Mikan Tsumiki along with Hiyoko Saionji, all during Chapter 3.

Appearance
Ibuki is around 20-22 years old young woman (her virtual reality avatar appears about 17 years old).

Ibuki has a style of clothing that is very unlike what one would think a Light Music Club member would wear which includes ripped thigh highs, piercings and many accessories. Ibuki also has a long scar tattoo with stitches on her left thigh.

Ibuki has long multi-coloured hair consisting of black, pink, blue and white, some of which is tied into two horns on the top of her head. She wears a school uniform.

Personality
At first, Ibuki is a bit shocking in bold and unique personality and appearance. She is one of the more upbeat people out of her classmates. She is very energetic and loves to talk, though she almost always ends up going off on bizarre, unrelated tangents. She forgets things quite quickly, so she tries to write memos to help her remember.

Ibuki is very quirky as she loves to do all sort of bizarre things and she dislikes "dull" things, like reading and studying. She has a habit of breaking the 4th wall. When she gets upset, Ibuki seems to have a bit of a verbal tic: saying things twice. She also tends to scream or froth at the mouth when she panics. She seems to really enjoy panicking when there is no real danger, like when she's watching horror movies or going into the haunted house.

In the official artbook, it's stated that Ibuki adores cute girls. She can act flirty towards both boys and girls, though she often appears to be just joking. In the Island Mode, during a more serious conversation, it's implied that she's much more interested in having a deep platonic relationship with someone she considers her "band member".

Despite her general quirkiness, Ibuki can be a startlingly wise and contemplative person, as in her last free time event she gives Hajime advice about being himself. Though she may appear a bit insensitive at times, she is actually a very caring friend.

Ibuki often refers to herself in third person and calls everyone by their first name with "-chan" honorific in the original Japanese release. Ibuki also speaks in the third person in the English version, but not as frequently.

History
[Warning: Several spoilers follow this section!]

Prior to the Tragedy
There isn't much known about Ibuki's childhood, but she almost died as a kid, when she shook a coconut tree and three coconuts fell on her head. When she was younger, she ended up on an illegal fishing boat and almost ended up in another country.

As a teen, Ibuki attended a girls-only high school and joined a light music club named "Black Cherry". They had a rival named "Summer Tree", which was a boy band. Ibuki wrote the songs she sings and her Hit single with her band is called After School Poyoyon Hour.

Ibuki later quit the club due to creative differences - when a talent scout was going to be watching one of their performances, Ibuki refused to play more traditionally appealing pop music, as she was much more into the heavy metal genre.

Ibuki later enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Musician, either in 76th or 77th Class. She befriended Mikan Tsumiki, Hiyoko Saionji, Mahiru Koizumi, and Sato. During their time together, they discovered a corpse in the music room. This was later revealed to be Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu's sister, who was murdered by Sato. A few days later, Sato was killed by Fuyuhiko. This scared Ibuki, who thought they were cursed. This part of her life was revealed in Monokuma's second motive, "Twilight Syndrome Murder Case".

At some point after this, Ibuki joined the Ultimate Despair group that was founded by Junko Enoshima.

During the Tragedy
The members of Ultimate Despair did all kinds of horrible things during the Tragedy, causing despair all over the world.

After the death of Junko, the remnants of the Ultimate Despair attached some of her body parts into their own bodies in order to make her survive within them and feel closer to her. They then agreed to an insane plan to have AI Junko take over their bodies, so they could resurrect their leader.

The remnants of Despair are later found by Future Foundation. Makoto Naegi plans to undo Junko's influence by putting them into the Neo World Program, but the program is taken over by AI Junko, right according to the Ultimate Despair's plan.

Prologue - Welcome to Dangan Island! Panic at the Heart-Throbbing School Trip!?
Hajime Hinata first finds Ibuki at the supermarket, where he goes on to introduce himself but is cut-off by Ibuki, saying that he wasn't enthusiastic enough about his introduction and proceeds to energetically introduce herself instead and then talks about the supermarket itself.

Later, after all the students had already gathering their very first Hope fragments by introducing themselves, Usami gathered them at the sandy beach to received presents from her.

Chapter 1 - Destination Despair
Later into the game, Ibuki is invited, as well as the other students, to a party that Byakuya Togami is throwing. She is super excited to go and she is seen by Hajime, telling him that she is having a 'light exercise' to make the food taste better. This party turns out to be where the first murder takes place.

Ibuki has an important role in the first trial: given that she is Ultimate Musician, Ibuki has keen hearing as evidenced by giving her input on how she heard everyone conversations during the black-out. This turns out to be vital evidence towards revealing the culprit.

Chapter 2 - Sea and Punishment, Sin and Coconuts
In Chapter 2, Ibuki is found grunting by the pool, thinking of a new music genre to forget about her 'girl band days' and asks Hajime to come and find her if he has some inspiration for her. Ibuki is then gathering with the other girls to have a beach party, along with Mikan, Chiaki Nanami, Akane Owari, Peko Pekoyama and Sonia Nevermind.

Kazuichi Soda and Hajime find her and Mikan outside the diner earlier than planned, for the boys were waiting for them inside the diner. After Kazuichi suggests that they all go swimming together, Ibuki suggests that they wait inside the diner for the others to arrive. They then see Hiyoko Saionji running in the opposite direction of the beach in tears.

Kazuichi questions if Hiyoko was originally planning to swim with the girls, but Mikan tells her that she refused the invitation. Ibuki also brings up the fact that Mahiru Koizumi also refused.

After Ibuki and the rest of the girls arrived at the diner, Kazuichi leaves to go get parasols in the beach house. Their beach party is then interrupted by the Body Announcement. The body discoverd turns out to be Mahiru's, her upper body up against a door in the beach house.

Ibuki, Peko, Chiaki, and Sonia come to the Beach House after Hajime and Kazuichi discover Mahiru's body, following the Body Announcement. It is later revealed that Mahiru had invited Ibuki, as well as Mikan and Hiyoko, to talk about the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case but Ibuki refused, seeing as she had plans to go to the beach party. It is also noted that Ibuki was one of the characters in Monokuma's game Twilight Syndrome Murder Case as Girl C.

Chapter 3 - Trapped by the Ocean Scent
In Chapter 3, if the player has a certain item, Ibuki, as well as Hiyoko and Chiaki, will do a performance in memory of Mahiru Koizumi. Ibuki is seen playing the guitar and singing, Hiyoko is dancing and Chiaki is playing the triangle.

Later, in the afternoon, Ibuki invites Hajime to come to the supermarket to come and see the fireworks at night. When Hajime asks if they'll be by themselves, she replies with “Ohoh, Hajime is quite the bold one. You want to be alone with Ibuki in the dead of night is that it?” She then assures them that they will not be alone, as Chiaki, Sonia, Mikan, Akane and Nekomaru Nidai will be there as well.

Later, after Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu is found to be okay, Ibuki invites everyone to the music venue to perform for Fuyuhiko's return. Everyone expects her to sing something light and catchy given that the song title was called “Also Reaching You”. This turns out to be the complete opposite as she sings more of a heavy metal genre, and everyone became frightened; even Gundham Tanaka saying that his hamsters fell in defeat.

The only one who seemed to like that performance was Hiyoko. After the night of the performance, Ibuki is seen to be acting strangely in the morning. Monokuma reveals that his next motive is a sickness known as 'despair disease' that has different symptoms for each person.

Ibuki catches the despair disease and her personality changes: she becomes overly gullible, to the point of letting anyone do anything for her, Monokuma called it as "Humorless Disease". She also has a more extensive vocabulary. Ibuki along with Nagito Komaeda and Akane are admitted into the hospital and are taken care of by Mikan. Hajime and Fuyuhiko were also to stay in the hospital to keep an eye out on the feverish students.

However, Mikan who nursed Ibuki and the other feverish students also caught the disease and got her own syndrome called "Remembering Syndrome". Mikan decided to murdered Ibuki in the music venue by strangulating her with a rope. However, Hiyoko suddenly step in the crime scene, witnessed Mikan who about to killed Ibuki. Not wanting a witness, Mikan had no other choice but to kill her along with Ibuki by slicing her throat.

Hajime Hinata
Ibuki and Hajime seem to be good friends, and they bond during club activities that Ibuki comes up with during her free time events. Also during her free time events, Ibuki has been trying to help Hajime remember his talent. She insists that it should've been obvious what she was trying to do, but Hajime claims that he didn't even realise it, and was touched that she was trying to help him.

Ibuki often pokes fun at Hajime, saying that he has developed a crush on her or that he is sometimes looking for an excuse to be alone with her. Ibuki also gave Hajime some advice that even when people are constantly changing, either physically or otherwise, that they are always going to be their true selves and she made Hajime promise her that he will never give up on trying to find out his true self.

Hiyoko Saionji
Ibuki appears to like Hiyoko, though she is amazed by how many tears Hiyoko can cry. They seem to have a similar taste in music, which is revealed in Ibuki's "Welcome Back" party for Fuyuhiko. Ibuki played one of her songs, but Hiyoko was the only one who enjoyed it.

Hiyoko seems to think of Ibuki as a friend as well, despite the fact that she often insults her. She joins Ibuki's improvised band as a dancer. During the events of chapter 2, it is revealed that both Ibuki and Hiyoko, along with Mahiru, Mikan, and Sato, were friends at Hope's Peak Academy. In the end, Ibuki and Hiyoko were murdered together by Mikan.

Mahiru, Mikan and Sato
Prior to The Tragedy, Ibuki got along with Mahiru, Mikan, and Sato (including Hiyoko) which was later revealed in Monokuma's second motive, “Twilight Syndrome Murder Case”.

Byakuya Togami
Ibuki seems to have a friendly relationship with Byakuya during the Island Life of Mutual Killing. She thinks he's very cool and reliable and she admires his leadership skills. During chapter 2, after his death, she states that she misses him a lot. In addition, during chapter 5 when she and the other deceased characters show up, she greets him by oinking and explaining that she said “You're so cool” in pig talk.

Presents
Obtained from the MonoMono Machine.
 * 2.5D Headphones
 * American Clacker
 * Desperation
 * Two-Sided Ukulele
 * Absolute Tuning Fork

Choices
During free time conversations, the player will occasionally be given a choice on how to respond to something that is said. These are the 'right' choices.
 * Drums
 * A sense of unity

Skills
These will aid you, usually during Class Trials.
 * Shred Guitar - Increases acceleration speed. Effective during Logic Dive.

Quotes

 * “"I," "Buki," "Mio," "Da!" Put it together and what do you get? Ibuki Mioda!”
 * “Its terrible! So terrible Ibuki has no time to capitalize her lines!”
 * “Ohh! When you cross your eyes like this, it gives you double vision!!”
 * “Oh no! This present's giving Ibuki a hard case of the feels!”
 * “As long as you feel the love, there's no problem.”
 * “Chicks go out with guys who pretend to be musicians all the time!”
 * “Drums are great 'cause you can just hit 'em to the beat, and you don't even need to know how to read music!”
 * “As long as you can move your arms and legs independently of each other, even a novice can play them real easy!”
 * “If you don't put your soul into it, the loudspeaker won't respond to you!”
 * “If you wanna learn proper music theory, training yourself in the rhythm of racing is a must.”
 * “Music has its own language too, y'know.”
 * “Man, I'm getting hellaaaaaa stoooked! I'm thirty-one flavors of stoked for all of this deliciousness!”
 * “Look! It's- hey I don't know you!”
 * “Everyone has to start somewhere. If you have enough passion it won't be a problem.”
 * “I-it wouldn't be strange if we nicknamed you 'Carrie' right now!” (to a bleeding Akane Owari, referencing the Movie of the same name).
 * “Gravel *inside* the swimsuit?! Even the ace attorney would be astonished by such a fantastic idea!” (Ibuki, referencing to Ace Attorney)
 * “Grrr! Calling me the killer with no proof!? You've got a lotta balls doing that! I've thought up a new song! The title is, I'm Gonna Dismember You for Doubting Me!” (if wrongly accused as the culprit in the second Class Trial)
 * “Yawwwwwwwwwn, I'm getting all sleepy from boredom... That means my character is gonna overlap Chiaki's! Isn't that bad!?”
 * “Playing is a big part of music clubs!”
 * “Oh my-my-my-my, are you gonna give up before you even do it?” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “Welcome to the world of girl love. It's slippery when wet!”
 * “So yakuza really do cut open their stomachs. Yep, I should use this experience to come up with a song! The name of the song will be... “Oh My God, There's Blood Everywhere!” (talking about Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu)
 * “Da boom na da mmm dum na ema...”
 * “Like I said earlier, what's most important is a sense of unity.”
 * “Technique is something you gain just by practice.”
 * “Let's continue our headbanging. This time it's for the championship! Whoever loses has to tongue kiss Monomi!” (to Hajime)
 * “No worries! On this stage, what's important is not your performance skill, but your heart!”
 * “Feeling the rhythm of running is a necessary way of training if you want to learn about the correct music theory. Even music has proper grammar. A song that's made in accordance with music theory will definitely make you feel good when you hear it, so.. It'll be easier to awaken people's emotion!”
 * “It's not just whether or not your group is suited to each other, you have to actually try or you won't understand. If you try and it doesn't work, then there's nothing more you can do. That's why Ibuki doesn't really have any feelings or regrets about that band. But... of course, going solo is pretty lonely.”
 * “Sometimes, people who search for themselves somehow go off in a faraway unknown direction. Thier true selves... won't be found anywhere like that. Because the person you are right now, right here, is always who you really are. The you that is changing everyday... That is your true self. The way to finding yourself... I think is basically accepting a self that is continually changing. Even including your troubled self who worries about who you are, that is you.” (to Hajime Hinata)
 * “One day... I want to be able to play music with friends I really trust... That is Ibuki's dream.”
 * “I think the first step to making your dreams come true is believing that if you believe, your dream will always come true!”
 * “Ukyaa! She's so cool when she speaks quietly and calmly!” (thought about Peko Pekoyama)
 * “Ibuki Mioda, the goddess of music, thought you might remember something if I stimulated your senses.” (to Hajime)
 * “It actually doesn't matter at all whether or not you remember! 'Cause...Hajime is already standing right here.” (to Hajime)
 * “I believe finding yourself means accepting that you're someone who is constantly changing.”
 * “The importance of giving your all when expressing yourself! But to expand on that, the important part is to do it together with someone!”
 * “Someday...I want to play music with someone who trusts me as much I trust them... That's always been Ibuki's dream.”
 * “I think believing that dreams come true as long as you believe is the first step toward fulfilling your dreams!”
 * “All you gotta do is believe.”
 * “So...no matter what happens from this point forward, never ever give up. It's a promise!” (to Hajime)
 * “Now today's training is... Stealing Akane's snack and kicking Nekomaru in the butt... AKA "Picking A Fierce Fight With Two Raging Demons!"”
 * “Girl C? Then I'll "C" you next Tuesday!”
 * “Could it be...the same Miss Sato who likes white rice!?” (talking about Girl E)
 * “Twilight's Hidden Passageway is the world's beeeeest!”
 * “Tahaaa! Just as I thought, I'm chosen by the gods!”
 * “...Jeez, I wish he'd just side with the enemy already so I can believe what he's saying!” (talking about Nagito Komaeda)
 * “Her personality got a hell of a lot more forceful once she stopped being a suspect!” (talking about Hiyoko Saionji)
 * “It's kinda like "In for a penny, in for a pound", so to speak. (In response to fact that Mahiru Koizumi's killer hiding inside a surfboard case, close to Hiyoko)
 * “I shouldn't say things I don't understand, like "so to speak"!”
 * “H-Helloooo...? Earth to Peko....?” (to Peko)
 * “People dying so easily... Falling like dominoes...”
 * “PP@04Yahoooooo23`*?@@please-’A;@listento:..o./onesonnnnnng:@;@” (Ibuki's cottage post-fifth trial)
 * “Oink! Oink oink, oink oink!”
 * “I said “You’re so cool!” in piggy-talk!” (to Byakuya Togami)

Trivia

 * Ibuki's report card states that:
 * She likes taking walking, napping, and gaming; and hates boredom,
 * Her Blood Type is AB,
 * Her chest is 30 in.
 * The name "Ibuki" (唯吹) means "a sole breath" or "merely breathing". This could be a reference to her demise later in the game by strangulation.
 * The name "Ibuki" may also be a reference to the Touhou Project character Suika Ibuki, an oni, which Ibuki Mioda also has several references to in her design.
 * Ibuki's last name, "Mioda" (澪田), could be translated as "rice field of the waterway".
 * Each kanji on her name is directly taken from the 4 protagonists of K-On!
 * She also shares the same birthday with the main character of K-On!, Yui Hirasawa, which is on the 27th of November.
 * While Ibuki's title in the official English translation is "Ultimate Musician", her original title, "Ultimate Light Music Club Member" is actually much more specific. "Light music" is a very common after school club activity available in many high schools across Japan. Not to be confused with the music genre know as light music whose origins are in late 19th century Britain, the Japanese "light music" (or 軽音楽 "keiongaku") genre is something similar to pop music.
 * Despite her success as a light music performer as proven by her title, Ibuki's original music, some of which she performs in the beginning of Chapter 3, reveals her musical preferences to be much closer to the heavy metal genre.
 * There are currently two known songs from Ibuki's solo repertoire: "From Me To You Too" and "I Squeezed Out The Baby But I Have No Idea Who The Father Is"; the former she performs in the beginning of chapter 3.
 * Ibuki has extremely sensitive hearing.
 * The way Ibuki calls her classmates in the Japanese version, using their first names and adding "-chan" (i.e. Hajime-chan, Hiyoko-chan, Nekomaru-chan), is considered the stereotypical way for girls to call their close female friends in Japanese. Considering her friendly nature, it is highly possible that Ibuki calling both her male and female classmates this particular way is due to a habit she picked up back at her previous high school (where all of her classmates were girls).
 * Incidentally, the story of K-On! takes place in a girls-only high school as well.
 * Ibuki's school uniform - a sailor fuku with a pink ribbon - is reminiscent of Sayaka Maizono's casual attire. This might have been the character designers' intention as both characters have talents involving a career in music.
 * Also, in a very early draft for her beta design, Ibuki looks strikingly similar to Sayaka.
 * Ibuki knows how to sew and had promised Hajime that she'd sew him a stage outfit.
 * She has screamed inside six different libraries and now isn't allowed to enter any of them.
 * During the Chapter 2 Trial, when she was told she is Girl C, she says "I guess I'll 'C' U Next Tuesday", which is a song by Pop Artist, Ke$ha. Additionally, that statement contains an obscene acronym.
 * During one of her free-time events, (at the end, specifically), she recites the beat-box portion of "Freak on a Leash" by American rock band, Korn.
 * In her last free time events, she breaking the 4th wall by saying, “After all this is the last event”.
 * Ibuki is one of the known LGBTQIA+ individuals in the Danganronpa series. In the official artbook, it's stated that Ibuki adores cute girls. She is excited about seeing Mikan Tsumiki's embarrassing poses and the others girls in bikinis, and is disappointed when Sonia didn't wear one. In a Special Event during the first chapter, she talks about holding hands with Peko (though Peko denies this happened). She can act flirtatious towards both boys and girls, and she greatly admires Byakuya Togami in a way that might be a crush.