Kazuichi Souda

CHARACTERISTICS

GENDER: Male HEIGHT: 172 cm (JP) 5'6" (ENG) WEIGHT: 64 kg (141 lbs) BIRTH DATE: June 29 CHEST SIZE: 86 cm (JP) 34 in (ENG) BLOOD TYPE: A LIKES: Coke DISLIKES: Sugar-free anything STATUS: Alive FAMILY: Unnamed parents

PERSONALITY

Kazuichi is a highly emotional character, though he tries to play it smooth and act carefree at first. He's jumpy person, easily scared and often screaming in fear. People tend to note his intimidating appearance doesn't match his childish and cowardly personality. Kazuichi tends to neglect his verbal filter and often blurts things out without thinking. He is also a very bad liar, leading him to be contradictory at times. While he is a genius with machinery, he appears to be a bit slow-witted otherwise. Being the Ultimate Mechanic, Kazuichi normally tries to repair any broken items on the island with his ability and familiarity with mechanisms. He tends to carry around a wrench and he gets anxious if he cannot tinker with something. He has a great love for machinery, especially fast ones like rockets and bikes, which is ironic, since he suffers from awful motion sickness. Kazuichi seems to question his sexuality around Hajime Hinata, for example, in Island Mode, he was excited and then confused about going on a date with him and he's afraid he'll dream about a date with Hajime after he jokingly suggested going on one, only to comically confess to him that he is attracted to tanks. In Chapter 3, it's also revealed that he apparently likes the idea of undressing a girl and checking out her bone structure, thinking it's similar to dismantling machines. He seems to think it's normal, though Hajime is weirded out by this and calls it a fetish. Kazuichi also likes girls a lot, though in a rather perverted and shallow way. He has a rather obsessive fixation on Sonia Nevermind who he considers his type. Kazuichi often acts childish and is rather obsessed with his manliness. In superficial or petty ways, mostly. He tends to speak in delinquent fashion, but will actively avoid stronger misfit archetypes within The Academy. Since he is, for the most part, an engineering nerd and not a biker.

BACKGROUND

Back at home, Kazuichi and his parents run a bike shop together. He is the genius mechanic of his family and always the one who's helping out at the shop since his father isn't very dependable. He has tinkered with and studied machines since he was a child and is capable of fixing anything from kids toys to household appliances. He has been surrounded by tools since he was young and has developed a habit of taking things apart and putting them back together. Kazuichi is known for making inventions of his own and is very passionate about his works. At his home, he is in the process of making a bike, and according to his calculations, it has a top speed of 585 mph. Even though he knows that kind of bike is not street legal and he will be unable to ride said bike due to his motion sickness, he is very eager to continue his incomplete project. Kazuichi often got yelled at for modifying various things at school or at home. His greatest invention was attaching an engine to the machine that draws the chalk lines on the soccer field, but it escaped through the school entrance at full speed, without curving or stopping. The things that Kazuichi fixes always end up being some kind of vehicle. During the Killing School Trip, Kazuichi disassembled his alarm clock and when he put the gear back, he ends up making a small engine. Messing with machines makes him inspired and energized. Kazuichi tries to think of every possible way to escape from Jabberwock Island. The first thing he checked is planes that located at the airport. When he found that the planes are engineless, he didn’t stop there. In one of his Free Time Events, he revealed that he planned to put pedals on the ship and pedal boat off the island. Kazuichi has a dream to create a rocket ship, the biggest, fastest, and the very top of the vehicle food chain.

ROLE

Despite having some weird quirks, Kazuichi is described as the 'straight man' and is one of the more ordinary students in the group. In his Free Time Events, it's revealed that he suffers from self-esteem and trust issues. Due to a past friendship, he has a hard time trusting others and he acted especially paranoid during the beginning of the game. He also reveals his appearance was chosen for the sake of his image, not because he actually likes it. His trust issues cause him some conflict with Hajime, but he calms down quite soon and is willing to apologize. Despite some issues, he develops a close friendship with Hajime, and he considers him his "soul friend". However, Hajime can be quite annoyed with him, since he can act rather clingy and turns even whinier and threatens to bug Hajime even more if he refuses to hang out with him.

QUOTES

"We're on a tropical island, y'know? Surrounded by a blue sea, y'know? And there's plenty of ladies here, too. So why do we have to be involved in all this killing nonsense?" "In fact...to tell you the truth, I was really excited when we first arrived at this island. Everyone here has pretty colorful personalities, but they all seem like interesting people... I was really looking forward to enjoying my youthful days here... ...Until all this crap happened." "Comrades, huh...? Hehe...that sounds pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to working with ya, comrade!" "Disassemble, reassemble, see how it goes... Disassemble, reassemble, see how it goes... Doing that over and over gets my brain moving!" "...Don't you think rockets are amazing!? They're the biggest and the fastest! They're at the very top of the vehicle food chain! But still...there's just one thing I'm worried about. No matter how hard I work to make such an awesome machine... There's no way I can give a girl a ride in one..." "...All right, let's get pumped up and look for a way to escape!" "Humans are creatures that betray each other, y'know..." "If you don't, my mind won't be settled! It's like I feel lost or something... You believe in me, but I can't believe in you at all... It's like...I betrayed you or something." "I was always...a weak, cowardly kid. All I ever did was study and tinker with machines. So...I always believed that everyone who talked to me was a nice person. So even if I was betrayed or lied to, I always believed they had a good reason for it. That's what I always believed...all because I was too scared to admit it." "...Thanks. Because of you, I understand now. What I really hated all along wasn't being betrayed. I hated myself for being too weak to believe in others. Whatever happens, I'll believe in you. That...is what being friends is all about. Let's definitely get out of here. All of us. But...it'll be different if you act suspicious. Even if you're my friend, I'll doubt you!!!"

TRIVIA

The kanji for "Kazuichi" (和一) simply means "Peaceful One", while his surname (左右田) translates as "Rice Field of Dominance" (左右 sō being an expression literally meaning "Left & Right"). It could be that Kazuichi's name and surname are meant to have a bit of irony to them, considering that while he originally seemed to be very self-confident and carefree, he quickly turned hysterical following the appearance of Monokuma. Kazuichi originally had black hair and wore glasses. Despite becoming a mechanic who is an expert in vehicle machines, Kazuichi has motion sickness. This is most likely the reason why Kazuichi would rather take apart machines than ride them. Kazuichi appears to know how to read both English and Japanese. Kazuichi likes comic books and action movies and dislikes novels and horror movies. It's revealed in one of Mahiru's Free Time Events that Kazuichi never washed his jumpsuit. Even on Mean difficulty, Kazuichi's Rebuttal Showdown arguments only take a single strike to dispel in Chapter 4. It was confirmed in Kazuichi's official spin-off manga titled "Super Danganronpa 2: Zetsubōteki Ingaritsu no Naka no Sōda Kazuichi" that he can indeed sew. He learned from watching his parents. One of Kazuichi's sprites is a reference to the horror manga "The Drifting Classroom", specifically the one used when he's shocked and his pupils appear to be in pieces.

APPEARANCE

He, being a mechanic, wears a bright green-yellow jumpsuit with a dark gray streak on the sides reaching his ankles. Kazuichi wears yellow sneakers with white laces. During his high school years, he wore a jumpsuit similar to his current one, but blue, and instead of a beanie, he wore a cap. Kazuichi's hair is dyed hot pink and badly layered with a tiny braid on the right side. He covers said bad layering with a black beanie and carries around a white hairpin as well. In addition to his punk rock appearance, he has sharp eyes with hot pink prescription color contacts on them at all times. Above his eyes, his thin, pronounced eyebrows nearly touch his hairline. His teeth are quite sharp, giving him an intimidating grin. He also has screw-shaped earrings with a minus sign on one ear and plus sign on the other. As the Ultimate Despair, Kazuichi keeps the same look but with black gloves. He no longer wears a hat and appears to have a utility belt.

EXTRA

Kazuichi is relatively immature, funny and easily attached to others. Ironically, he takes his masculine ideals to heart and constantly makes a point about what "manly men" would do... despite never quite reaching those standards. He's a relatively normal teenage boy in any other sense.