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Kaede Akamatsu Illustration

WARNING!!! PAGE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS TO THE GAME DANGANRONPA: V3!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

"I love seeing the expressions people make when they're enjoying themselves. That's why I play piano... To see the smiles on everyone's faces. And that's why we need to expose the mastermind and end this dumb killing game! So we can smile with everyone else!" - Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Kaede Akamatsu (赤松 楓 Akamatsu Kaede) is a character featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and a participant in the Killing School Semester.

Kaede has the title of Ultimate Pianist (超高校級の「ピアニスト」 chō kōkō kyū no “Pianisuto” Super High School Level Pianist), owing to her prowess in playing the piano since childhood and winning various awards.

Appearance[]

Kaede has smooth ash blonde hair, reaching just below her shoulders, which is somewhat curved outwards to each side, making it look a lot bigger than it is. Her hair is parted to the far right, her bangs hanging low over her eyes before they're swept behind her ears, with a single arcing ahoge poking out from the back of her parting and two thin clumps of hair sitting over each shoulder, which curve outwards at the ends. Her eyes are tilted inwards a little, and are framed by quite long and pronounced upper and lower eyelashes, and in her game sprites their irises are a warm plum color, although in her official reference sheet they’re more of a light purplish-brown.

Kaede wears a pinkish off-white dress shirt with an orange tie at her neck, over which she wears a sleeveless pale pink sweater with a darker pink hem and v-neck collar, her school’s insignia adorned on the left side of her chest. She wears a short, dark purple skirt, which is patterned with 5 thin black lines with musical notes decorating them, which creates an actual melody, although it doesn’t seem to be any relevant tune, and in her bangs she wears five hair-slides of a similar design. Her knee-high socks are a much colder purple color than her skirt, bearing the same crest as her sweater on their outer sides, and on her feet she wears tan lace-up shoes with thick brown soles.

She also carries around a plain white backpack, which has a flap lid, fastened with a rectangular golden clasp, and two small pockets on the sides.

In the Prologue, Kaede wears her school uniform which consists a navy blue seifuku, her collar and skirt a slightly darker shade, with a white trim around the collar and a double one around the cuffs, and a red scarf knotted loosely over her chest. She also wears black knee-high socks and penny loafers, and the slides in her hair are regular straight ones

Personality[]

Kaede is an optimistic hard worker. As a leader type with a firm character, she has a strong will and doesn't hesitate to take action, her notable character trait being her strong sense of belief in herself and others. Her main motivation for playing the piano is to see others smiling.

Kaede has a kind personality that makes her think about others before herself. Because of this, she is unable to immediately suspect people, as demonstrated in the demo by her going as far as faking an alibi out of her trust for Makoto, with no rational basis for his innocence. She is willing to lie for good reasons, but appears uncomfortable while doing so and is quite bad at lying. Like the other protagonists before her, she has a very sensitive nature and listens to other people's troubles. However, as seen during her Free Time Events with other students, she seems to encourage other people to get better even more actively than some other protagonists do, and she isn't afraid to be bold about it and point out their flaws. It appears that she is rather quickly well-liked by the other students.

However, being a pianoholic from a young age, she has a peculiar trait of including music talk into her conversations. She even strongly avoids certain activities such as cooking and certain sports because she fears her fingers might get hurt, affecting her ability to play. After talking to Tsumugi during her Free Time Events, Kaede was quite shocked and disturbed after realizing how heavily her life and identity is centered around piano and how she doesn't really have anything else, and she became desperate to find new hobbies.

Kaede can also be a bit oblivious and silly at times. During K1-B0's Free Time Events, she unintentionally asks questions in a somewhat insensitive manner by making assumptions about his robotic nature. She also pokes Tsumugi's cheek and K1-B0's emergency button without permission, showing that she is quite childish and impulsive. Furthermore, she has a habit of making rather sexual comments towards other girls, such as repeatedly calling Tenko cute, describing Tsumugi's sexy aura and her body, threatening to lift up Tsumugi's skirt and let everyone see her panties in order to make her to talkーShuichi even points out to her that she sounds like a creepy old man. However, ironically, she seems completely oblivious when other girls talk about liking girls. During Tenko and Himiko's Free Time Events, she completely fails to understand that they refer to homosexuality when talking about "playing for the other team" and being attracted to another girl. She is also quite sensitive to vulgarity, as shown in Miu's Free Time Events. While brave and determined, she is shown to be more fearful around certain situations, such as disliking horror movies because they make her scared in the bonus mode.

While a kind and friendly person, Kaede is shown to have a quite firm, sometimes even rather easily angered personality as well, as she tends to lash at others when they annoy her enough. When Shuichi panics after they first met, she yelled at him to shut up in order to calm him down but also appeared quite annoyed by his nervousness, and later slapped Shuichi upside his head when he wasn't responsive for a short amount of time. She tries to be patient with Miu, but occasionally snaps back at her whenever she gets fed up with her insults, once even angrily telling Miu she has "nasty cow udders" after Miu repeatedly called Kaede's breasts tiny. During the investigation, she tells Himiko to be quiet and shut up multiple times, having no patience for her nonsensical and unnecessary talk about magic during such serious situation. She is also rather firm with Kokichi, bluntly telling him when she dislikes his behavior and what she thinks about him, such as believing he just wants attention and or is delusional, to which Kokichi responds by stating that Kaede really seems to know how to stand her ground. At one point, she scares off Monokid by yelling at him to shut up. She is also rather firm about illegal actions, scolding Kaito for cheating and Miu for wanting to use drugs to get high.

Indeed, Kaede's tendency to push forward with her own personal justice is her biggest flaw. She refuses to give up when it would be the sensible thing to do and when pushing forward would only make things worse. She also never doubts what she thinks is right and accepts it blindly. At one point she convinced the group to try escape via Monokuma's trap and got called out by Kokichi because of it. This pushy and bossy attitude causes her to become a bit unpopular among some students, though she does appear to feel very bad for it and genuinely just didn't seem to realize how her actions had affected the others at the time. She is also willing to lie during the Class Trials, though only to strengthen the group's unity as Kokichi put it and she feels uncomfortable doing so. When pushed to her limits, Kaede would go as far as attempting to murder the mastermind in order to save her friends from the mass execution in Chapter 1. She always has good intentions and is motivated by her dreams and wish to befriend the other students and get them out of the school. However, Kanda has pointed out that she is unsure whether or not to call Kaede a good person, stating that she doesn't have ulterior motives because she doesn't think she's wrong, and she ends up going a bit crazy when her sense of what is right turns out to be mistaken.

Later, it is revealed that Kaede's memories had been altered to make her act like a person with a completely opposite personality. In reality, Kaede was a person who hated people, having difficulties with trusting others and openly stating with a disturbingly bright smile that she had no faith in humanity. Though, it should be noted that it is left unclear whether or not this is true and it could have been a lie made by Tsumugi, as pointed out by Shuichi.

Relationships[]

Shuichi Saihara[]

Shuichi seems to strongly believe in Kaede, reassuring her and telling her that "if it's her, she can do it". Shuichi's presence appears to comfort Kaede, due to his status as a detective, although she admits that he seems unreliable. She attempts to help raise Shuichi's confidence by giving him pep talks.

At first, Shuichi admitted to not completely trusting Kaede when murders occur, which disappoints her, although she does accept this since she believes he can solve the case. However, this changed drastically after they began investigating the school together, as he came to admire her for her determination and put much trust in her. He offered to help Kaede numerous times in Chapter 1, even bowing to Miu at one point, merely because he saw Kaede doing so. They also shared a rather intimate moment in a classroom, in which Kaede held Shuichi's hand. She is fully aware that his fear of uncovering the truth prevented him to use his talent as the Ultimate Detective properly, so she encouraged to hold his head high and promised her to face the truth no matter how painful the result would be.

Kaede has been shown to care deeply for Shuichi, as shown in the first Class Trial when she attempted to steer suspicion away from him after the other students begin to accuse him. This ultimately resulted in Kaede being voted as the culprit, something which devastated Shuichi.

The two shared a tearful and emotional moment, and Kaede was driven to tears while Shuichi angrily asked her why she had murdered Rantaro, although he stopped immediately when he was reminded that Kaede would be executed. When Kaede apologized to their fellow students, her apology seemed to be mainly at Shuichi. It seems that Shuichi forgave Kaede and tried to rescue her in the beginning of her execution. In the beginning of the execution, Shuichi was shown trying to reach Kaede's hand but his attempt failed and she is now remained dead.

During the Love Suite fantasy event, Shuichi had the role of Kaede's boyfriend and they celebrated their first anniversary. Kaede seemed upset because he didn't call her "sweetheart", but by her name, instead. In the original Japanese, Shuichi was asked to call her with her first name instead of the way he usually refers her as "Akamatsu-san." However, after Shuichi tried to call her 'sweetheart' for the first time, they both find it hard to regain their composure. After that, Kaede confessed to Shuichi, which caused the latter to become too shocked to say anything. Out of blue, Kaede hugged Shuichi and they fell down on the bed. Shuichi began to panic, but Kaede asked him to hug her even tighter. Kaede admits that she likes hearing Shuichi's heartbeat and that if Shuichi encourages her, she can do anything. Finally, Kaede asks if Shuichi will "do it with her" and he pulls her closer to him. It's heavily implied that Kaede and Shuichi had sex afterward. Since Kaede specifically mentions really liking Shuichi's "passive side" during the scene, it is implied that she really is attracted to him.

Rantaro Amami[]

Rantaro admires Kaede for her leadership skills. Kaede thinks that he is a refreshing person and easy to talk to. However, Kaede was surprised how Rantaro acts so care-free and relaxed before the Class Trial in the demo starts. She states that even though things have become more complicated, Rantaro has found the way to clear the whole situation, which made her curious. She was also confused how Rantaro speaks so calmly against Monokuma during the situation and is desperate to find what Rantaro's true talent is.

During their Free Time Events, Kaede states that she wants to be friends with Rantaro no matter who he was in the past. Despite him having his talent as unknown and him being suspicious, Kaede still cares for Rantaro and respects him and believes that he is not the mastermind behind the whole Killing Game. Kaede lights his mind up with hope and made him not fall into despair. Rantaro seems to also care for Kaede, as he feels worried and commented on how she is trying to help everyone and said she should take it easy. He thinks Kaede is easy to talk to and feels ease whenever he is next to her. He calls both of them comrades amongst all of the Ultimates, since they're a bit more ordinary than some others.

Kaede tends to assume that Rantaro is a womanizer and attempting to hit on her, even though he always insists he is not that kind of person. Whenever she got invited by him to drink tea together, Kaede was curious and kept assuming if it was a dating simulator where Rantaro could hit on girls. However, Rantaro admitted that his looks may resemble a playboy, but he is a chill, friendly guy.

Later on, in Chapter 1, it was shown that these two seems to be likely in great terms with each other and get along. It was shown that Rantaro was painting Kaede's nails and suggest the nail design that Kaede needs since her nails were short. Rantaro is extremely patient with Kaede and they both have faith in each other with trust. Kaede inspired Rantaro with words that filled his heart with determination and wants to stop the Killing Game.

Later, Rantaro suggests that he should go to the library to find the secret door leading to the mastermind's secret place, but got killed by the mastermind. Without knowing, Kaede got involved at the wrong time and distracted Rantaro from the mastermind's attack. When Kaede first discovered Rantaro's corpse, her legs became to tremble and she was frightened to see Rantaro being dead. She demanded to figure out who would kill Rantaro and states how she will never forgive the person who would kill an important comrade. In the trial, Kaede believed that she was the culprit who murdered Rantaro and confesses her sins. She calls herself as a horrible murderer and is sorry for him and Shuichi directly the most and regrets for "killing" Rantaro after the trial end and later got executed.

In the non-canon Danganronpa V3 bonus mode Ultimate Talent Development Plan, Kaede was waiting for Rantaro after the Christmas party almost ended. She was aware that Rantaro would come back soon. Kaede states how she left some cake for Rantaro. In the end, they ate the leftover cake together. In a different event, Kaede stops by Rantaro's soccer game to cheer for him. He was surprised, but also very pleased by this, stating he'd do his best at the game and asking Kaede to cheer loudly for him and his team.

Kaito Momota[]

At first, Kaede is angered when Kaito informs her that he had broken the law in order to become an astronaut. However, he is later shown to be one of the few who always support her during the Killing School Semester, as they have similar optimistic way of thinking.

On occasion Kaede gave rousing speeches of optimism during times of distress when the class had first met and Kaito always responded agreeably stating he would have said the same, requesting Kaede and him hug which she graciously refused showing despite their relationship lacking affection, they both share the same mindset. Kaede is shown to appreciate his support, though she mostly seems to thank him only in her thoughts.

Kaito is highly supportive of Kaede, and compliments her on her tenacity to round up everyone and have them work together, enough to say she'd make a good astronaut in his Free Time Events. He does, however, comment on how quick she is to act on her own, to which he offers her to be his sidekick. She graciously refuses, but is uplifted by Kaito's supportive attitude.

Kaito is quick to defend Kaede's actions during Chapter 1. When Kokichi tries to persuade the other students that Kaede was forcing them into despair, Kaito becomes angered and assures Kaede that she was not at fault. After Kaede is revealed to be the culprit behind Rantaro's murder, Kaito cries and along with Gonta and Tenko, even threatens to fight for her life at first, although Kaede quickly puts a stop to this herself.

Maki Harukawa[]

After Kaede and Maki introduced themselves as Ultimates, Kaede claims that the children could see Maki's true soul and that Maki is capable of deep love.

Despite Kaede's kindness towards Maki, the latter has been shown to distrust her, openly showcasing dislike for her. She even blames Kaede for destroying the unity that she had tried to create between the students.

However, Maki seems to have a somewhat better relationship with Kaede in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan, to such a point where Kaito wonders how since they were so close. Despite she calls her relationship with Kaede an “arrangement” she is usually seen with her, a clear sign that her friendship is almost to Shuichi and Kaito’s, promising that she will find a way to make Kaede plays the piano to the children of her orphanage. At the same time, Maki still tends to be cold towards her - an example is when she offers herself to accompany Chihiro Fujisaki to Gundham Tanaka to ask for a proper burial for a deceased bird found by the latter who, surprised by the kind deed, is brief by Kaede who says that behind the caregiver's edgy surface there is a really sincere person, which Maki replies with a cold but embarrassed way, scolding Kaede that she has no need to come with them, much to the pianist’s dismay.

K1-B0[]

Although initially defensive about his robot nature, K1-B0 tells Kaede that he is glad to be her friend after discovering that she is not a robophobic.

In her Free Time Events with him, Kaede seems to be interested in K1-B0 since it's her first time interacting with a real robot. Kaede is also curious about K1-B0's features and interrogates him. K1-B0 was not aware of Kaede joking around since he finds human jokes very annoying. He states how Kaede is the first person who had to ask many questions without hesitating towards him.

During his last Free Time Event with Kaede, she presses his emergency button, rendering him unconscious for a moment. After K1-B0 is back to normal, she suggests that maybe the emergency button shouldn't be in such obvious place and he should talk to the professor about it. K1-B0 then goes on a tangent about Kaede technically becoming his mother if she influences his design, just like the professor is his father, and says that he should call her his mom from now on. Kaede feels uncomfortable by this, but K1-B0 then shows a more advanced though still a little awkward sense of humor by slightly smirking and revealing that he was just joking as a payback for messing with his body. K1-B0 then turns a little nervous as he politely asks Kaede to keep his emergency button a secret from others, and she of course agrees.

Miu Iruma[]

Kaede and Miu's relationship can be a bit negative at times, as Miu has a tendency to insult her just like she insults everyone else, and specifically calls her "Kaeidiot" (Bakamatsu in Japanese) and keeps calling her breasts tiny. However, while Kaede can be a bit annoyed by Miu's rudeness, she feels sympathetic and protective of her whenever she shows her weaker side.

In Chapter 1, when Kaede begs on her knees for Miu's help, Miu appears uncomfortable despite her usual arrogant behavior. When she agrees, the former grabs her hands in joy and causes Miu to sweat.

In Miu's second Free Time Event with Kaede, Kaede appears worried about Miu, because it seems like she has never had any friends, and wishes to help her to become better at communicating.

Miu is also noticeably distraught after Kaede is found guilty.

Miu appears to feel some attraction towards Kaede. During their first Free Time Event together, Kaede has finally had enough of Miu's rude behavior and she tells Miu that her breasts are actually pretty big. Miu then wants to rub her to make sure, saying there's no problem because they're both girls, but Kaede is uncomfortable and smacks her a little in order to defend herself. Later, in Chapter 3, Miu also tries to see if the wax figure of Kaede that Angie made is wearing any underwear.

Kokichi Oma[]

Kokichi quickly notices flaws in Kaede's judgment and optimistic way of thinking, as she is willing to push others forward even if it would be the best to give up. He also has a tendency to act saddened and complain how mean the others are towards "the poor girl", making the other students point out that he is always the first one to suspect her. Kaede thinks Kokichi is just like a mischievous child messing around and believes he is constantly lying and just wants attention.

During the beginning of his second Free Time Event with Kaede, he runs around screaming that Kaede is about to murder him, but he's just pretending and having fun. Later during the Event, after noticing how Kaede has fallen for many of his lies so far, he warns her that she'll be the first one to die if she continues to be such an easy mark. He tries to ask her to join his organization and be a cover agent pianist, but she believes all of it is just Kokichi's delusions. He then explains to her that the definition of common sense varies depending on the person and asks her why she thinks her definition is the right one. He then tells her that he is only warning her because he actually cares about her, but also tells her not to come crying back to him if things don't go her way. Considering his words nonsense, Kaede does not appear to truly listen to him.

Right before Kaede's execution, Kokichi has a blank expression (which often seems to indicate honesty in him), as he blankly states "bye" and then mentions that Kaede isn't a boring person. Coming from him, this appears to be quite a notable compliment, and it is worth noting that Kokichi had said the same phrase only to Shuichi and Kaito.

In the official art book, it is stated that even Kaede, who always wants to believe in everyone, doubts Kokichi's stories a lot and doesn't have patience with him.[14] However, she still considers him a friend along with everyone else and tells him seriously that they should cooperate in the relationship chart.

Angie Yonaga[]

Kaede sees Angie as a very religious person and is a bit creeped out when Angie asks for some blood to sacrifice to her god. Whether good girl or bad, Kaede thinks that it won't be easy to get close to her.

After Kaede was executed, Angie seemed to forgive her deed and said that she would rest in heaven, but Miu replied that Kaede had a horrible way to go.

Tsumugi Shirogane[]

Initially thought to be a life-sized doll, Kaede didn't expect that Tsumugi has the title of the Ultimate Cosplayer due to her normal-looking appearance. She states that she could feel some sort of "pheromones" that can't stop from falling of Tsumugi because she was out of costume.

In the bonus scene (triggered only if the player gave Tsumugi Nail Brush present in Chapter 1), Tsumugi offered Kaede to paint her nails which resulted in Rantaro interrupting Kaede's appointment with her. It is later revealed that Tsumugi actually holds no friendship towards Kaede. In Chapter 1, Tsumugi had figured out Kaede's plan and when she discovered that Kaede's plan failed, Tsumugi decided to kill Rantaro herself to prevent everyone else from being executed. Because of this, Tsumugi framed Kaede for the action and executed her as well.

Korekiyo Shinguji[]

During his Free Time Events, Korekiyo told Kaede about his sister, to the point that she more or less jokingly asked him if he is into incest. He seemed to get slightly angered by this and simply answered that incest is regrettable. Kaede apologized and told him she didn't mean it in a bad way, which quickly calmed him down.

Korekiyo likes Kaede and her optimistic nature very much and asks her to be his sister's friend. She agrees, and Korekiyo leaves to plan a good "method" for them to meet, heavily implying that Korekiyo might have murdered her in the future if she hadn't died so early during the Killing Game.

Kaede thinks Korekiyo is a bit creepy but assumes he is a nice person who cares about his sister. However, she is a bit unsure about it, as she doesn't know him well. She also assumes that Korekiyo is "so girly" because of his sister's influence.

Kirumi Tojo[]

Kaede thinks that Kirumi has an interesting talent who is skillful and also gives off a humble and calm atmosphere. She wondered to call her just that. Kaede states how lucky Kirumi could be since she is always busy and helps a lot of people.

During her Free Time Events with Kirumi, Kaede straightforwardly told her to stop spoiling the other students too much, as they can grow to become too dependent on her. She said that it was her best and worst quality, and by using Kirumi's aggravation toward being called as the group's mom, her words eventually get through to her as she realized that to pursue her principle of selfless devotion, she needs to start thinking about her own needs.

Tenko Chabashira[]

Kaede thinks Tenko is cute, spending a good deal of time complimenting her appearance during Free Times Events, which greatly embarrasses Tenko. Since Kaede is a girl, Tenko is willing to protect her from degenerate males.

Ruby Rose[]

Eevee[]

Jigglypuff[]

Jinx[]

Jotaro Kujo[]

Joey Wheeler[]

Tari (Meta Runner)[]

Samus Aran[]

Tracer[]

Mai Shiranui[]

Melody Pianissima[]

Widowmaker[]

Gallery[]

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