#Madarai isshiki

[daily-mukuro-ikusaba]

Daily Mukuro Ikusaba #Day 17 🖤 (Ft: The Madarai Brothers)

[genoskissors]

Daily Danganronpa Fun Fact #195

Kodaka’s favorite characters in Danganronpa Zero were Yuto Kamishiro and Mukuro Ikusaba. Komatsuzaki’s favorite was Isshiki Madarai.

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[mijoonart]

dr zero

[gladosluver]

some interesting obscure/unpopular danganronpa ships and rarepairs ive seen

for this list "unpopular" means <100 works, most with the ship not being the main focus and is merely in the background. if there are a lot of fics, they're all written by the same person/few people (ft. a few ideas for ones i made up myself)

Daigozu (Gozu x Daisaku)

Kizajin (Koichi x Jin) probably most popular on here, but it's usually not the main focus of works it's in

Seiaya (Seiko x Miaya) also called "antidepressants"

Ryokoto/Mitaegi (Makoto x Ryota) ofc i put this on here :D. nobody say "it's popular" cuz there's like <10 works and the only art/posts are made by the same 2-3 people

Chiaiko (Chiaki x Aiko Umesawa) hoodie buddies

Kisato (Sato x Karen Kisaragi) every green danron character is anything but straight.. except monaca i hate that cucumber idiot

Muramatsu (Soshun Murasame x Yasuke Matsuda) PLEASE CONSIDER

Kamisshiki (Yuto Kamishiro x Isshiki Midarai) kinda a crackship but it's lowkey fire

Chirigiri/Kirihiro (Kyoko x Chihiro) mainly because dr: IF

Kemugisa (Jataro x Nagisa; as a platonic ship)

Taikaaki (Taichi x Takaaki Ishimaru) ik i said i hate all the old people but takaaki aint even that old and we found his page first in the udg playthrough so first come first serve free pass

Ludenkawa (Kameko x Grand Bois Cheri) yes, the cat and the bug. so goofy i love it. dont search for fics of them btw

[zxmbigirlfriend]

if no one else is gonna make the dr0 discord server then i will

[queer-devil]

There were at least 2,401 deaths on Hopes Peak’s campus. The 8 students who died in the THH killing game, Junko, Mukuro, Jin, the 14 student council members, Chiaki, Natsumi, Sato, the four Steering Council members, Yasuke, a PE teacher apparently, Yuto, Madarai brothers, Ultimate Botanist, Ultimate Secretary, and the 2,356 reserve course students.

Edit: Was watching a dgr 2 play through and realized that there were 2,357 reserve course students in total, which also includes Hajime who lived so it’s 2,356 now

[shockersalvage]

Salvage Showcase: Isshiki Madarai

An attempt by yours truly in trying to be active once again here! And what better way than by talking about the characters in Danganronpa that don’t get as much love from the fandom, mostly due to appearing in media that weren’t officially translated or just aren’t that well known. I’ll be giving my analysis on their role in their respective material and my thoughts on them!

So whose up first?

Oh.

Summary

Well, let’s start with a brief explanation. Isshiki Madarai is from Danganronpa Zero and is the Ultimate Bodyguard and is a member of the Hope’s Peak Student Council. On-paper at least. In actuality, despite officially being on the council, no one considers him a true member, instead regulating him to just being a bodyguard. Something they’re painfully aware of.

‘They’re’? Yeah, Madarai is actually one of eight octuplets with the collective talent of ‘Multiple Birth Siblings’ (henceforth will be known as MBS because that full title can take a hike). They all act under the ‘Isshiki Madarai’ name and are reoccurring antagonists for the events of Zero. Their main goal is to gain vengeance for the Student Council’s demise, with their intuition leading them to believe Ryoko had something to do with the incident and relentlessly hunting her. In the end, all eight end up being murdered by either Mukuro or Junko, with their deaths being covered up by the school as them being expelled.

Personality wise, the Madarai are all fairly similar to each other: merciless, stubborn, prideful, and ego’s easily wounded. They’re also detrimentally violent, which leads to their downfall on multiple occasions. Overall, they’re a clan that feels insulted over the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak and will stop at nothing to find the perpetrator of the incident. They also hold keen intuition and can be cautious, but they're opt to use brute force like torture or murder in order to get their way.

The Rundown

Now, the good I will say about the Madarai is how they fit in with Danganronpa Zero’s theme of identity. Or rather, lack of identity. Not to mention a theme of irrelevance (I’m not making of fun of them, being serious). As well as being contrasts to both Yuto Kamishiro and the Despair Sisters. The first thing that comes to mind is Madarai’s sibling gimmick, where eight individuals are acting as one person, effectively suppressing their own individuality for the sake of a lie for intimidation purposes.

However, in doing so they had also effectively stunted themselves. In exchange for uniformity, they had become utterly predictable to the point that Ryoko herself, a scared amnesiac, was able to knock one out after being exposed to their fighting style for long enough and Mukuro even chided that being the reason she can kick their asses so easily. In a series where Ultimates praised over their own unique individual talents, their choice to be the same effectively doomed them. This uniformity also goes against the Despair Sisters. While they may be twins, both are extremely different in terms of personality and skills - you can’t approach one like you do the other and trying for anything conventional against them is bound to get you hurt.  They’re existence pretty much slaps the Madarai’s methods in the face and given their major feat of ENDING THE WORLD you have to admit their way worked best.

As for Yuto? In general, both of their desire was to figure out the truth to the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak, albeit for different motivations. For the Madarai it was for the sake of their own wounded pride and vengeance. For Yuto? A way to increase his own fame. While the Madarai’s methods are flashy and brutal, with the culprit in their sights given their intuition- its largely ineffective and doesn’t gain much in the way of practical information and only results in them being taken out knowing nothing useful. In Yuto’s case, befitting his nature as a spy (though not his personality), he gains credible evidence and extremely useful knowledge into stuff regarding details like Izuru Kamukura. However, he is physically weak, so when he gets in way too deep, he ends up killed for his efforts. It’s one of the case where, if both had known about the other’s intentions and opted to work together, they probably could have covered way more ground and be able to make up for the others weaknesses.

What’s interesting about both is how they relate to the identity theme of Zero - or the lack of it. Yuto is the Madarai’s polar opposite. Yuto design and purpose is to be fairly simple and forgettable, much to his chagrin. But its in this lack of identity where he finds strength to get things done and showcase his information gathering skills  and become fairly close to the truth. In contrast, the Madarai’s design is supposed to stand out (for better or for worse) with his  elaborate snake-like monster design and serves as a plot roadblock. Yet, his effects on the plot when you look back is rather paper thin. At best, their attempts are good for highlighting Ryoko’s competence and Mukuro’s power. At worst, which to me they hit that way often, they are aforementioned roadblocks. Any interaction one would want to see further or plot details you want to see developed end up getting derailed with their whole invincible shtick and their own story of revenge concerning the Council’s demise. They’re purposefully made to be intrusive in the story, yet its also on purpose that their storyline never successfully goes anywhere. It ties back into their secondary theme of ‘irrelevance’.

The Madarai, technically, would have been ‘16th student’ of the Student Council killing game, but weren’t there because Junko never considered them one. She wasn’t the only one to consider this. The Headmaster, Steering Committee, Soshun Murasame, hell not even themselves if Mishiki bitterly remembering it is to go by. No one considers them a true councilman beyond just being a guardian and they had no use in-story beyond that. Mukuro even points this out that she actually doesn’t want  to fight the Madarai since it just creates more victims and it was better for the remaining Madarai to go away since the story had nothing to do with them (I’ll talk about DR0!Mukuro at a later date). To put it simply, they aren’t wanted in-story since they have no relevance to the bad guys’ plans and for, well Hope’s Peak aren’t really good guys, the administration side the Madarai’s worth as people aren’t considered beyond their talent. Once they failed no one even bats an eye at them. Even DR3 shows that, even in spite of that guardian role, no one in the Student Council bothered to alert the Madarai they received threatening messages or bring one along. It’s one of those things that retroactively gives the impression Madarai’s presence was quite the afterthought in-universe and adds a layer of a bitter tragedy to it. They stand out and have utility, but no one sees their potential and layers beyond that. Their gimmick would be interested in a more action oriented series, but in Danganronpa (a murder mystery fiction) brute strength takes a back seat for brainpower. And given DR’s nature, where Ultimates who excel in combat more than them exist (like the Ultimate Soldier) or excelling in intelligence, like the Despair Sisters the only thing awaiting a character like the Madarai is cruel defeat and to be swept under the rug just as fast.

Personal Thoughts

Now I’ll be blunt: I don’t like these guys. In fact I think they just might be my most hated Danganronpa characters of all time. Remember the whole ‘they’re intrustive’ bit I went into earlier? Yeah, them showing up again and again with the strategy of ‘we’ll beat you up until you fess up’ quickly wore thin. I know they’re supposed to be bitter hotheads and I know them acting the same is intentional, but God did it not make their antics bearable. “Yes, let’s threaten this guy’s life! Yes, let’s attack the principal’s daughter! Surely this won’t backfire on us, assuming we don’t die ourselves”. Ugh.

Side note: Also hate their designs. You want to make a snake like student? Sure designers go ahead! But you need to make sure they look decent.

Making them ridiculously buff isn’t making them decent!! It clashes with the motif and just makes them look jarring to look at it! You can have a character be strong, but this goes way overboard.

His concept art is a major improvement that I wish the other illustrations stick to.

This ends the first showcase, next time I post I’ll be going on about a character from the Danganronpa Kirigiri side of things!

[austajunk]

DR Zero makes me laugh because it introduced that Ultimate Bodyguard guy who turns out to be like eight guys who are in reality like the Ultimate Super Duper Sibs or something.

Anyways, point being, these guys were apparently the bodyguards of the Student Council and then they just… weren’t there that day the massacre happened. Really fucked their job up, didn’t they? I’d like to think that, like, Skyrim or Fallout 4 came out that week and the Octuplets just all ditched or something. And when they got back, they were just in a world of shit.

Also look at these guys! Captain Bara Hands McLickyFace! There was eight of these guys just running around and the Studen Council had to be good with that.

Between him, Kamukura, and Kiyo, I’m starting to think our beloved DR character designer has a type.

[knightscanfeeltoo]

Madarai Brothers: *About to kill poor Makoto Naegi*

Mukuro Ikusaba:

(still don't know if mukuro saves makoto because junko wants all the class 78 students alive or if muki does care for mako because i never read danganronpa zero...)

[fma03envy]

I have a lot of random dr0 headcanons that there's no evidence for but also not enough information to adequately disprove. But I think one of my favorites is that the Madarais were, like, a weird hivemind made as a test run for the Kamukura project

The basic premise would be that originally, one brother really was Ultimate Bodyguard, while the others were all reserve course. The 8 of them were contacted by the steering committee, and asked if they wanted to participate in an experiment to turn them all into ultimates. They agree, and it works in that they do all became the Ultimate Bodyguard, but only because their minds start to merge/flow into each other. When the Madarais try to tell the steering committee about his, the response is basically just "Oh well, sorry. The important thing here is that you were able to artificially receive talent. We didn't have concrete proof of that being possible before, so thanks. Time to proceed with the Kamukura project 👍"

I feel like this would be a better explanation for their perfectly in sync personalities, and give them a stronger motivation for being so aggressive in the search for the Tragedy's culprit. (They can assume that if they don't act, the school will absolutely just ignore the issue. But they can also count on being given a similarly blind eye if they do try and get revenge). Plus it would add another layer to Matsuda's whole "scientists like me are horrible people who will ignore ethics and screw people over in the name of knowledge, god I hate us them" thing

[ultimateincorrectquotes]

The Ultimate Incorrect Tournament

[genoskissors]

Everyone knows the chibi characters in DRS right?

Apparently there are more! Here are the ones not included, from what I could find:

Ryoko Otonashi, Yasuke Matsuda, Yuto Kamishiro, Isshiki Madarai, Jin Kirigiri, Yui Samidare, Young Kyoko Kirigiri, Licorne, Suisei Nanamura, Servant Nagito, Haiji Towa, and Shuichi with his hat.

I literally couldn’t find anything of better quality. If you have images in better quality feel free to share.

Also, a moment of silence for Ryota Mitarai fans. 💔

[gladosluver]

kinda removed a few categories cuz i do not feel animosity or dislike towards any of these 💜

[thebruno65]

Another Danganronpa Killing Game, but its composed of characters that have never been in one to begin with.

Randomized Killing Order, feel free to make one yourself.

[zeravmeta]

love the plot twist for Isshiki Madarai in dr zero because ryoko sees this guy basically everywhere and hes hyping himself up as the biggest bad ultimate bodyguard you Cant fucking kill me or escape me and oooh im gonna getcha. he's presented as omnipresent and only mukuro can stand up to this guy, but how is it that he gets everywhere!?!?!?

well. turns out he actually isn't everywhere, it's just that there's 8 identical twins of the guy

[despair-to-future-arcs]

Sprite Resources

//This is where I will have link to sprites and even credits for fangans

Characters from;

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Super Danganronpa 2

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy

Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer

Danganronpa Another and Super Danganronpa Another 2 -  LINUJ

Sprites from;

Chisa Yukizome | Danganronpa 3 and Sato | Miaya Gekkogahara | Natsumi Kuzuryu | Student Council, Older DRA girls and Older Setsuka | Yasuke Matsuda | Yuto Kamishiro | Ryoko Otonashi | Isshiki Madarai | Santa Shikiba | Izuru Kamukura and Sayaka’s little sister | Fashionista!Junko | Mukuro 1 and 2 | Various character expressions | Adult!Yuri, Hibiki and Kanade |  | Heterochromia! Hajime | Slash Eye!Fuyuhiko | Older!Hiyoko | FF!Makoto 1 2 3 and 4 | DR3 Kyoko | Maskless Jataro | Ted Chikatilo | Takaaki Ishimaru | Sayaka’s idol group | Takemichi Yukimaru | Kanon Nakajima 1 2 and 3 | Cure!Nagito | Teruteru’s mom | Voidswap | Diaya Oowada | Mekuru Katsuragi | Rei Shimizu | Older Komaru | DRA + SDRA2 sprite edits | Older!Komaru, Toko, Masaru and Jataro | Remnants of Despairs | HPA!Peko| Taichi Fujisaki | Algorithm and Utsuro's sister

Otherwise any sprites that you do see that aren’t credited here were made by me.