TOWER OF ANIMUS APP

[diamondo]

Player Information

Name: Redd
Personal Journal: pokerap
Age: 24
Contact Info: pokerap | AIM: writersblockredd | Email: pokerap.redd @ gmail.com
Other Characters Played: N/A

Character Information

Character Name: Mondo Oowada
Character Series: Dangan Ronpa
Character Age: Mondo believes he's 17, but he's actually 19 due to canon events that resulted in the loss of two years worth of memories.
Character Gender: Male
Game Transplant
Canon Point: Chapter two, after the second motive is handed out; post-Hunter's Game (day 15)
Former Game: huntersgame
Background Link: Dangan Ronpa @ Wikipedia | Dangan Ronpa @ DR Wiki | Dangan Ronpa @ TV Tropes

Game Background:

A full summation of Mondo's time in Hunter's game can be found here. A summation of Hunter's Game events in general can be found here with a summation of events in the graveyard here. Mondo is taken from post-game, after day fifteen.

Mondo comes from huntersgame, a roleplay where "hunters" killed "prey" each night. A trial was held every day to give the prey a chance to execute a hunter. If all the hunters were killed, the prey would win and be allowed to go free. If all the prey were killed, the hunters would be allowed to go free. Mondo was a prey without any special role. A full write-up of the events can be found here and a summation of Mondo's stay can be found here. He comes from the end of the game, day 15.

Mondo arrived in Prayer's Pass fresh from Hope's Peak Academy, right after Monobear handed out the second motive: secrets. For quite some time, Mondo did everything he could to maintain his idealistic outlook for the game - he believed they would escape together and save as many people as possible, just as he had believed in Hope's Peak.

By the seventh day and after six excruciating trials, Mondo's outlook had changed drastically. Each trial weighed heavily on him, not just because his votes count toward executing someone, but because of the constant death that surrounded them all. He quickly stopped trusting everyone's word and started second guessing not only everyone else, but also himself. He was given a gun (by Maizono, though he didn't know that at the time) and found that he couldn't possibly use it on anyone. He had changed, but he hadn't changed that much. Mondo still wasn't a killer (oh the irony). Lithuania convinced Mondo to part with the gun, then used it to shoot Hanekoma, who turned out to be prey. Mondo blamed himself for Hanekoma's death, despite having no way to know that Lithuania was going to target him.

For the most part Mondo was more of an observer than a participant in the trials. While he is a leader and does tend to naturally take the leadership role, Mondo didn't react very quickly in this crisis (just as he hadn't at the one back in Hope's Peak). Various others stepped up to be leaders and take the initiative, with Mondo following the majority votes for the most part. He refused to vote for Naegi, however, because Naegi was his friend. Nonetheless, Naegi ended up dead.

Naegi wasn't the only one of Mondo's classmates that died. Asahina, Togami, Kirigiri, and Maizono all ended up dead as well, leaving Fukawa and Mondo as the final two members of Hope's Peak who had found themselves in Prayer's Pass. Mondo tried to trust Fukawa when she asked everyone to vote for themselves, but he found that he couldn't. It wasn't necessarily that he couldn't trust her, but he couldn't trust everyone else to follow her words. Mondo had been tasked with ensuring that everyone voted for Mayu that day, and a man never goes back on his promise. Unfortunately for Mondo, everyone else chose to vote for themselves, meaning that Mayu was executed due to Mondo's vote. Horrified with what he'd done, Mondo accepted that he would most likely die that night and apologized for what he had done.

That night, as expected, Mondo was killed. He went swiftly and (mostly) painlessly thanks to a judo chop to the throat.

Instead of dying, Mondo found himself turned into a ghost and able to communicate with the other ghosts who had died during the game. He apologized for his actions, but ultimately wasn't berated for them. He reunited with his friend Robin and his classmates and was ultimately okay with his death for the most part.

Then the final hunter was killed and the remaining prey were allowed to bring the hunters back to life.

Mondo was upset at first, because it meant that he wouldn't get another chance to live. But the more he thought about it, the better it seemed. Several of his friends including Kirigiri and Naegi were hunters, so they could live again and get a second chance at life. He was content with that knowledge and prepared to disappear after the prey brought the hunters back to life.

He wasn't expecting to wake up human again. As it turned out, Critter - the creature behind all this - saw some good left in the prey. The prey had decided to revive all the hunters, even after the deaths of their friends. Critter was pleased with that and brought everyone back as a reward.

Again Mondo reunited with his classmates and friends and found forgiveness with Mayu, the girl he had voted to kill. Due to his complicated circumstances back home, Robin offered to take Mondo with her to Ylisse, her home country. Mondo eventually agreed, realizing that there was no way to be sure he could live in his own world, thanks to what Kirigiri had told him about his death. He invited Maizono to come with them and she agreed, and the three of them left Prayer's Pass together.

Mondo is still ultimately a teenager who was shoved in a terrible situation who had seen the very worst kinds of death. He's witnessed far more people die than he'd ever cared to see and he's watched videos of other deaths. Critter, like Monobear, had complete control over them and used them against one another for its own sick amusement. Mondo tried to fight it, but ultimately he gave in just as the others had, withdrawing and becoming a much darker, paranoid version of himself. He's no longer as optimistic as he once was, instead turning the blame for all those deaths on himself. He won't forget any one of them that died, and he sure as hell won't give up. It would be an insult to their memory. While

In Animus, Mondo will be more or less jaded from all the things he's seen during his stay in Prayer's Pass and Hope's Peak. He doesn't fear his own death any more, since he more or less accepted death in Critter's game. That doesn't mean he's given up hope though; instead he tried his hardest to ensure the survival of as many people as possible by ending the game. Mondo is still very adamant and stubborn, refusing to back down, even when he might actually be in the wrong. He takes things far too personally and shoulders the blame for each death regardless of whether or not he voted for the execution victims or the deaths were the result of hunters. He's grown a lot in Prayer's Pass, but it hasn't necessarily been for the better.

Personality:

Hope's Peak Academy only accepts students who are the best of the best. They are often called "Super High-School Level" students, each specializing in different areas of study. Of course, not all of their talents actually lie in schoolwork, as Mondo Oowada's title of Super High-School Level Gang Leader would imply.

Mondo is the leader of the Crazy Diamonds gang, the largest gang in all of Japan. There are quite a few traits that he needs in order to uphold that title: strength, leadership, and confidence, to name a few. Mondo is undeniably physically strong (he punches Naegi on the first day and knocks him out cold), he's very obviously a good leader to unite multiple smaller gangs into one large one, and his confidence is through the roof. That's not to say Mondo doesn't have any issues; quite the contrary in fact. He's obsessed with being seen as strong, he carries a large amount of guilt over his brother's death (and Chihiro's, though that takes place after his current canon point), and he has a horrible temper that can be set off with even the slightest provocation.

Obviously, Mondo has major issues with being seen as strong. He challenged Daiya (his brother) to a race in the first place because he wasn't seen as "strong," and with time, this obsession has only gotten worse. While he may be physically strong, he is definitely not emotionally or mentally strong. Mondo has focused more on his muscles than his brains, so he's not very bright nor is he very book-smart. What he lacks in his studies, he makes up for in street knowledge. Mondo has a lot of life experience, both as a leader and as a gang member, and he's always interested in proving himself to others.

Emotionally, Mondo is the sort to get angry very quickly. He has a horrible temper and very little control. In the very beginning he attacks Monobear. He threatens to kill Togami a few times, and makes other threats against the students as well. Well, except the girls. You don't hit girls, that's something Daiya taught him and despite his background, Mondo does try to be (sort of) a gentleman to the ladies.

Rage isn't the only emotional aspect Mondo displays, however. He can also be remarkably zen despite the horrible situation the students are placed in. This is in part due to his ability to mask his feelings and pretend that everything is perfectly fine. While he doesn't go so far as to say that everything is perfectly fine in Hope's Peak (because it obviously isn't), he can spend time with Naegi or Ishimaru and act like a normal high school boy. He puts on this front very easily and actually seems to be a decent actor, going so far as to pretend he's not behind Chihiro Fujisaki's murder.

...Oh right, that's kind of an important thing. Mondo is the second murderer at Hope's Peak.

It's not surprising that Mondo has a violent streak thanks to his rage, but what is surprising is that for someone who claims to be so strong, he could fall prey so easily to Monobear's second motive: secrets and memories. His personal motive was about Daiya's death, and Mondo couldn't have that revealed to anyone. To be fair, Mondo never made any plans to kill anyone. He never wanted to kill everyone. He never wanted his secret to get out (especially not to his gang, who would break up, which would break his promise to Daiya), but under normal circumstances, he never would have killed over it.

These weren't normal circumstances. Fujisaki sought out Mondo for training and revealed that she wasn't actually a "she." Seeing how strong Fujisaki was to reveal his secret (and work on revealing it to the rest of the class), Mondo became infuriated, believing that Fujisaki was insulting him or calling him weak for not revealing his own secret. In a fit of rage, he killed Fujisaki.

But Mondo had promised to keep Fujisaki's secret - he had made a "man's promise," a promise that he refuses to break for any reason. This was the sort of promise he made to Daiya in regards to keeping the gang alive, and this was a promise he would not break, even after Fujisaki's death. To hide the fact that Fujisaki was a boy, Mondo made it seem like Fujisaki had been killed in the girls' changing room. A man's promise is a very, very important concept to Mondo and he will refuse to break it, even going as far as potentially outing himself in a murder case because of it.

It's worth noting that Mondo is not a cold-blooded killer. He's a teenager, one who was put in a very bad situation and manipulated into playing this deadly game by Monobear and the mastermind who controlled Monobear. Normally he would not be capable of killing another person, despite being the leader of a very prominent gang. They are a high school gang, after all; they mostly focus on skipping school, defacing property, and other minor crimes in comparison to things like murder. Mondo does say at one point that he's been to jail, but that was most likely a very brief stay due to fighting a cop or something of the sort.

Guilt is another major aspect of Mondo's character. He blames himself for Daiya's death and would have done anything to keep that a secret. Well, except kill, but that happened anyway, leading to even more guilt over the death of Chihiro. He votes for himself in the murder trial and accepts his punishment without complaint, despite how badly broken up Ishimaru seems over it - yet another thing to feel guilty about. He let down both his biological brother and the one he'd found within the school. These are things that will haunt him no matter what circumstances he's placed in.

While he's normally zen most of the time, Mondo is very quick to anger. These seem to be his only two emotional states and he can go back and forth between them with enough speed to give anyone watching whiplash. This is in part due to his temper, but partially due to how he is; he simply has major mood swings that usually end in anger. He doesn't seem to find anything wrong with his temper or how easily he can pretend like everything is a-okay.

Mondo isn't just a gang leader though. He's a teenager, one who gets very passionate about the things he loves (such as riding, motorcycles, his dog, and cotton candy) and one who does have a soft spot for cute things, especially animals. Mondo doesn't feel any need to hide this, nor does he see it as a weakness, it's just something that doesn't often come up. He has a heart of gold beneath that tough-guy exterior, now if only he could curb his temper and keep from killing people...

It would be easiest to pin Mondo down with a list of tropes, but when it comes right down to it, he's not all that his appearance (and Super high-School Level talent) would suggest. He can be kind and caring, he feels massive amounts of guilt toward his actions, and aspires to make up for some of the destruction his gang has caused after he's done with school. He's got his fair share of problems though, especially his inability to control his temper - and himself. He's physically strong and emotionally weak, and with an obsession about being strong, this doesn't bode well. Mondo was stuck in an awful situation back home, and an equally awful situation in Prayer's Pass, but here he can really shine.

...And hopefully not kill anyone.

Abilities:

Mondo is a normal human teenage boy. He stands at around 6'2" and is obviously rather muscular - he knocks Naegi out in one hit early on in Dangan Ronpa. Mondo can clearly handle himself in physical confrontations and he is skilled with several weapons, as evidenced by his room in Dangan Ronpa. Aside from physical strength, Mondo is also a leader and can rally people to him without much effort. He looks out for those who follow him and usually treats them like friends, if not family.

Sample Entries:

Sample thread from Hunter's Game | Sample thread from Dear_Mun

[The video cuts in after a moment of loud cussing, revealing a young man with a ridiculous hairstyle. Mondo sits back from the terminal, looking pleased with himself.]

Alright, awesome, looks like this piece of shit's finally working.

[He pauses, completely forgetting why he was bothering with this in the first place. With a snap of his fingers, he remembers, and immediately starts questioning anyone watching.]

Okay, so I'm looking for a few people here. Is there anyone from Hope's Peak around? And is anyone familiar with Prayer's Pass? If either of those names mean anything to you, I wanna talk with you as soon as possible.

[He pauses again. Should he really just leave it on that note? There's no need to chronicle what he's been through in the past few weeks (has it really only been weeks?) but he feels like he should add something else to the video.]

I guess an explanation of this place would be good too. And these. [He tugs at the collar around his neck.] The fuck are these? Did everyone get stuck wearing one? What are they for?

I guess that's about it. Thanks for your time.

[And with that, he shuts off the feed.]