Through history, fiction has evolved and progressed through multiples aspects, from the paintings in the walls from the Prehistoric era to the modern days whereas stories can be written, drawn or filmed. With times, some gimmicks ended up fusing together, with the results of those combinations served for other upcoming artists to write their own characters. Unfortunately, those gimmicks ended up being overused and, if not used properly, ended up as shortcuts for either convenience or laziness. This forced new writers to think better twice when they introduce a cast of new characters when they want to begin a new fictional universe, so that the first impressions may carry out the reader's curiosity. Though, if the new cast of characters is vast, chances are, there will always be that one who will pass through the net and have much less proper use of characterization, thus condemning the concerned character to a much more pronounced theme than the others, impacting his likability in the process.

This is the case of one of Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc's main cast character, the overweighted, reclusive, socially awkward, comical, perverted, passionate artist,

the Ultimate Doujin Author, Hifumi Yamada.

Yup. For those of you who think this text sounds familiar, it's intentional. NotTheBadGuy gave me some tips… nah, just kidding. I stole it from him. Hey, my username literally means 'Fucking Copycat'. Gotta honor it somehow.

Anyway, for this first 'real' chapter, we start of with the least liked character from the whole franchise! That's right, we will begin this analysis by the lowest of the lowest liked, going up to see who had the most votes among the main cast! Then we will discuss the mascots, and then the other characters in different media as a whole! To keep things simple.

And now, comes the obvious question: 'Pupla, how do you know about this for sure?'

Well, in order to make this list, I based myself on the official Danganronpa Twitter account, and more specifically, the popularity poll that asked you who was your favorite character… from 2018. Because I couldn't find any newer poll, aside from 2019, but the settings were too different for me to make it 'fair' for some other characters. Check it out yourselves, you'll understand what I mean.

So, back to Hifumi, the guy ended up at the bottom of the bottom. Not just from his game, but from the entire franchise! With only 7 votes for him. Yup, it's that bad. And he's not that appreciated even in Japan either, being the 16th most liked character in his game. (17th if we count Syo).

So, how will I proceed with presenting and analysing the boy in question? Well… you know what? How about I show you instead of telling you?

Disclaimer: I will only say this once, the following is only my take on the characters, as well as my thoughts regarding them. You don't like it, that's fine, but don't harass me on it, be nice and respectful, and we'll be cool. Good? Good.

1: Name meaning:

"Hifumi" (一二三) are numeral kanji which, when put into the sequence as they are above, literally mean "one, two, three". This doesn't help much at first glance, but the following kanji for "Yamada" (山田) translates into "mountain rice paddy". Combined together, we get "One, two, three mountain rice paddies".

While this name doesn't seem to make much sense at first, if we dig a bit more, we learn rice is a symbol of providence and, most importantly, creation, which reflect on the character's gimmick, although not on the same theme. We can also deduce that the "one, two, three" meaning of the name can either refer to the character's physique, or its passion for the creation it does. Which feats better than the name he was going to get in Distrust, that we will come back to later.

2: Physical description:

Back to the physique, when we get a good first look on the character, we can see that he is easily the overweighted guy of the group. In fact, he is by far the number one in his category. 155 kg, which is the heaviest character in the whole franchise, as well as the largest chest of all characters, including the girls themselves, with 150 cm.

His shirt looks like it is about to burst open at any sudden movement, his hands and arms are as such larger than normal, his head quite chubby, and even the tie reflect his weight, as the two arrows on it reflect his shape, with the one going up being of normal size at the center, while the other going down grows bigger, to the point it takes the remaining space of the tie. It is honestly nothing short of a miracle that his very tiny legs could carry on such a round body for quite the time, at least when he became a teenager from my take. Truly, Kodaka went all in on the trope.

And the rest of his physical characteristics adds a more comical side to the character. For one thing, the ahoge on his head extend itself when he fells extreme emotions, like shock or fear. Even his glasses are on the nerd category, at least in my opinion.

3: Personality analysis

Hifumi Yamada is a person with a very verbose way of speaking, probably referring to his likings about medieval roleplay, as in the Japanese version, he likes to call those around him by their full name (example: Naegi Makoto-dono), with the suffix which can be translated into 'milord', while in the English translation, this was referred as 'mister'. He is very reclusive in subjects of conversations, as he likes to speak about what he likes the most, which can summarize into manga, anime, video games, doujins or fanfictions, and not in short lengths either, using a good number of terms to explain to people the reasons of his likings. He is proud of his work, as he is the one making everything, from concept to the ink of printing of it, and is so passionate that he will have no tolerance over people who don't understand his point of view.

Speaking of talent, in Japan, he is named the Ultimate Doujinshi, while the translation goes for Fanfic Creator, which is not completely accurate, as the Doujin is more recognized in big scales in Japan, while Fanfic is globally more minor and doesn't lead to a salary.

That little fact said, his personality fits his appearance in the comical department when combined with his delayed reactions are from at least one line of dialogue, like in the first trial where he is suspected to have used the janitor to delete some evidence, or in the second when he realizes Chihiro's identity. He also tends to get scared quite often, his ahoge extending being proof of that, especially when Celestia gets angry, or again, when he reacts to something shocking. He also doesn't know when someone is insulting him. He also plays the pervert card of the genre, as despite his claims only being interested into 2-D, he has made comments about Aoi's physical traits, and did mention he had some smut in his arsenal of work, not to mention volunteering to guard the janitor, presumably to go through girl's trash.

However, despite his somewhat misanthropic look on society, he will not stand for indecent crimes against those he holds in deep regard, him going as far as murdering someone over false and overall suspicious claims, showing his caring yet gullible side, which is not only helped by a free-time-even showing his addiction to Diet Coke, another typical source of nutrition for his stereotype, where his claim to wanting one so much he would kill someone already shows some unbalanced emotional side, though one could argue the stress of his situation got to him.

Another side note, it is quite ironic that he did end up doing such a thing, as in the beta known as Distrust, he was given the name Yuji Ando, which briefly alludes to peace.

All of those attributes have a reason to be here in the first place, and will play an important role later on in the story.

4: Origin and history

Hifumi's personality traits, especially his social awkwardness, can be shown in his past, very early and way before the Killing Game. Once you maximize your friendship with Hifumi, you learn that as a kid, he had some sort of distrust in others in general, especially in girls, as he kept pushing people away, going as far as screaming at people at his age, so he would be alone, even enjoying doing so as it left him to draw in his own little space.

This might explain his attachment to Princess Piggles, even though at first, he found the anime featuring her, Demon AngelPretty Pudgy Princess, as another magical girl anime, until Princess Piggles came in his dream and dated him, indicating the moment he would fall in love with this fictional character (reflecting on his attraction to Alter Ego in the game), and find his place in the world. So much in fact, that he bought all of the merch of the character he could, and drawing nothing but her for an undetermined before creating a blog where he could post his work and show his love for the character to the love.

Apparently, before this was officially recognized as a talent worthy of an Ultimate of Hope's Peak Academy, this work was recognized at a talent in his own right, though Hifumi had to convince his own middle school to open up a fanfic club, marking the tart of his reputation as an excellent doujin artist, so much in fact, that he claimed that during a festival during high school (Marufuji High School, which is named after Naomichi Marufuji, a famous Japanese wrestler), he claimed to have sold at least ten thousand copies of one of his fan comics, proving the students who thought it would taint it wrong, although the school did have some benefit from it all. This is probably the number of copies, as well as his invitation to the circles regarding his talent, that allowed him to be noticed by the school in the first place.

Coming back to his passion, he is very proud of his accomplishments, so much in fact, that when we get to his final free-time-event, he confesses that he wishes to inspire people to write their own work with one of his own, the same way he was with Princess Piggles. This can reflect to his other name 'the Alpha and the Omega' that he gives himself at his introduction, as it refers biblically 'the end and the beginning', implying that he wants people to be reborn as artists of their own. In this sense, he believes that this way, they could be reborn as he was with Princess Piggles, as it inspired him to show his love to fiction in general, and his hopes would be then that his work inspires others in a similar fashion. That would also reflect on his loneliness, as even though he set it off in the first place, he truly wished he could meet someone who could understand.

5: Plot relevance

Concerning the First Killing Game, he did nothing of value during the prologue and first chapter, aside from his role as the janitor checker, which was brought up before. The second chapter is basically the same, although it did begin to install the relationship between him and Celestia, so it could be expanded on and used on the next chapters, where he would unfortunately meet his end by his own passion.

In Chapter 3, Alter Ego is introduced. The A.I. is base on Chihiro, since he's its creator, and it reflects ion its kind nature. And since the A.I. is kind enough to listen to the others, even though the goal is to simply gather information. It didn't take more for Hifumi to fall in love, as the program listened to his passions, and was the first 'girl' to do so.

This situation created a rivalry between him and Kiyotaka, as both of them considered Alter Ego as their closest partner, rivalry that soon turned to be vengeful hatred as soon as the culprit of the chapter started her manipulations and lies, using Hifumi's attachment to the machine and his own gullible trait to her advantage to carry out a murder. Using his talent to create the murder weapons, the Justice Hammers, as well as a suit, Robo Justice, to trap a someone and frame him by making believe the others that the culprit hide himself in the suit to attack Hifumi. This would allow Hifumi to make his murder and fake the attacks with the substitute hammers, as well as his death, in order to join his accomplice, without knowing he would be the next on the chopping block… not without giving one of the hints that would be part of the culprit's and later on Mastermind's demise, as he would die with all of his regained memories.

6: How Good was Hifumi Yamada actually?

…yup. Another quote from another guy on YouTube I've stolen from. False Swipe Gaming. I am a fan of Pokemon and strategy is intriguing.

Well, back on point, Hifumi Yamada is a character that has been given a trope that can be considered as classic: the overweighted comic relief. He does his job as best as he can with the quirks his trope has in store, as he has overall not an important role until the chapter of his death, but still manages to have some importance near the end as he left out details of the truth behind the First Killing Game. Overall, a side-character with his own hidden depths behind his own gimmicks, and a useful legacy in the end.

Now, this signs up as the end of the analysis part. Now… the subjectivity can flood in. If anyone disagrees with me, that's fine. I was prepared for this anyway.

7: What do I think of Hifumi Yamada?

…honestly, I didn't mind him. Well, not too much at the very least.

Like I said before, he's on the minority when it comes to the plot, and only have real relevance in the chapters he died. Learning to bond with him doesn't bring too much personally (and I won't be counting the in-game feature you unlock for the trial, as I will not focus on the gameplay part), but it does have a nice hidden depths to his origin. He pretty much told us that he had layers himself (like an onion). It's not much when you compare it to other characters in the same-game, but it's there. I do find some of his antics annoying, especially the pervert tones and his gullible factor when it mattered, but it fits his characters and I would be a hypocrite for hating him because he do smuts… I don't like his perverted comments too much though. But again, this is something I can tolerate. The poor guy doesn't have much information about his creation on his page anyway, so… if anything sounded far-fetched, you'll know why.

…that being said…

8: What made people dislike Hifumi Yamada, in my opinion?

Because he's the stereotype of the fat, perverted otaku.

…

Yup. That's simple, but I think that sums it up.

Japan seems to have something against this type of people, as many time a character with those traits get disliked because of it. Well, mostly if you're fat. Let's be blunt here, Japan is not kind with the matter. Present them an overweight person? They'll most likely tell them to lose some weight. The Japanese government takes the problem very seriously, as the food there is usually healthy. Heck, obesity in Japan is pretty rare because of their strict diet.

So, when you add one category of otaku in the mix… yeah, that kind of otaku. The perverted otaku who mostly likes anime girls, but who is a pervert? Yeah, remind you of someone? Just the dude on the concerned TV Tropes page looks creepy enough when you don't know him! If I were going to put an example, the first important character that I can think of which fits the description, even if a bit… Itaru Hashida from Stein Gates. I know, the two are different because of their fields, but both of them have… similar tastes and behavior when it comes to their affection. I'm sorry if I offended anyone who liked him- hey, what are you doing-

PANG!

…

…holy shit, you can shoot me from the screen. Alright, soooo moving on!

9: How could we make Hifumi Yamada better?

Simple, in my opinion. Again

You keep Hifumi Yamada as he is… you let him do his own canon thingy in canon… you let him have his little admiration for Celes and his rivalry with Kiyotaka in Chapter 3…

And you make him the culprit of both murders.

…

…what? I need to explain?

Okay, so, everyone knew Celes didn't respect him at all… but what if he realized that at the last minute, anf then after he killed Ishimaru… he sees her hiding something behind her back. And when she assaults him, he understands she was just using him, and that triggers him a lot. Like… his distrust from the past explodes with his rage, and after a while, he kills her.

Only… in the argument, he hits his head against something, and slowly remembers everything as the investigation and trial goes on.

Imagine, the guy who revealed her name in canon, partially at least, because he remembered everything minutes before dying. Now, picture yourself this, that same dude who just killed the bitch that used him, remembered that he was friend with this same bitch, but also with the dude he murdered as well as all the others.

That… that has got to be an emotional roller coster. Not just for him, but most of the others as well. All that Junko would want to see.

Now, what she wouldn't want her to see was that, he would remember who is the Mastermind, and then the execution happens. Boom, chapter over.

Now, everything is not perfect in this scenario. Like… how would he explain his fake death to the others? How would Alter Ego be found?

I can think of two 'smalls' solutions: have Celes with him… and make them search Alter Ego in demand of the guy. It's not perfect, again, but if we can twinkle a bit thing then and there, I think it could work. Maybe I'll have an idea when Celes's chapter will be up.

So, for the final step…

10: How would you rate Hifumi Yamada?

Alright, so! With all of what we know about, his physique, personality, origin, plot relevance, and other things we went through, how will I rate him? The answer is… right now!

Hifumi Yamada°: Rank 3 (Don't mind them, but improvement is welcome)

There we go. Three Stars… out of Six.

What? Surprised? Hey, I've got to be original in some way! This is my tier list, I do it with my terms!

And my terms are the following: I'm going to do it Pokemon Masters style! For those who don't know how it works, as of today, you can raise the potential of your Sync Pair (the trainer and Pokemon Duo) to 5 stars maximum, even 6 for some to have additional effects. In this case… well, I think it is self-explanatory.

Those who know the Danganronpa universe may have noticed that I did not talk about Hifumi's sister! (Because yes, he does have one) Well, I won't be counting her here, because she simply does not have enough material for her to be ranked like her brother, so… I will get to her eventually, but the terms will be different.

There we go! The first analysis chapter is finally done!

I hope this first chapter satisfied your curiosity, I had some fun writing it! But I'll admit, it took some time because I was busy with… important projects.

I'll let you know what those are about soon, but I'll leaave you with this promise.

I promise you, that next month, or in October… I will update Conquering Hope! I promise, I'll do my best to hold on that!

Now, I'll leave you alone to think about it and post what you think… or go check up my sources on Twitter, because I'm sure you wanna know who's next.

Feel free to tell me your opinion, I don't bite! (As long ad you behave. And also, please do comment. It helps me develop my critisim side) See ya all guys soon!

Pupla out, Corona begone. Stay safe, people.