The three main Danganronpa games is known to have multiple protagonists, as they all have a different killing game, with all of them having different settings and goals of their own. They also share the same antagonist, who made such a strong impression both in her own world as in ours, she became a symbol of her own. When it comes to other medias, on the other hand, and especially the anime, while said figure remains central, since she is no longer on the same plane of existence as the other characters, the team production of the anime needs to either find a way to put her on the same level, or to simply create another character, which will have a completely different impact all together.

This character is another one from Danganronpa 3 The End of Hope's Peak Academy, and it's none other than the old, wise, peaceful, hopeful, turned sadistic and despairful mastermind,

the chairman of the Future Foundation, Kazuo Tengan.

Oooh, boy, we keep tracking on that road, aren't we? Wouldn't you know it, the next character also comes from DR3! What a surprise!

(Yeah, no.)

Again, not many seems to like him, and this time this seems genuine. 11 votes in his favor, and compared to the others, according to the blog 'Danganronpa Headcanons', 17,3% voted for him being disliked… for 0% liking him. Yup, it's that bad.

So, is this old geezer truly unredeemable, or is there any silver lining hidden in the garbage? Let's find out!

Name meaning:

The kanji for Kazuo's first name (和夫) can translate as "Peace Man" - referencing his peaceful personality, while his last name (天願) can loosely translate as "Heaven's Hope" - possibly referring to his role as leader of Future Foundation or the fact Future Foundation is often referred to as Humanity's last hope. This is probably to set up his role in Despair for the former, and in half of Future for the latter.

Physical description:

His characterization reinforces this idea of preferring peace, as he plays the part of an elderly man who seems to rely on words to calm things down, as can show his glasses. His very sullen face, as well as his position with knees slightly bent, can reference to the experience and weight of the horrible things he has seen through his life, of course during the Tragedy, but also while he was the Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. Given his position in Hope's Peak and the Future Foundation, his clothes choices reflect it.

Personality analysis:

Trustful to his design, in the Despair side of things, we see the character as he was before the Tragedy happened: a very peaceful, good-natured man who doesn't want any conflict, as he seen trying to cheer up Hajime Hinata from the Reserve Course not to fear normality, and when we know what the school pressures them to do and Japan's ideals in general (as working hard to achieve something important), this tells us a lot. He also probably feels guilt about the Kamukura Project, being aware and against it but unable to do anything to stop both the people responsible behind, which can also be found before DR3 when he couldn't stop the Ultimate Despair or is extremist coworkers, as the second-in-command was considered to have 'the real power'.

The Tragedy has obviously hardened him a bit to the point of creating the Future Foundation to stop Despair as a whole and agreeing to those he opposed by the time the anime happened, and also fighting said comrades, Kyosuke Munakata and Juzo Sakakura when cornered and left with no other choices. That being said, the violence he witnessed made him question the violence the Future Foundation was using to save the world, and this clash of ideals with his coworkers lead him in a position of weakness.

That moment was enough to make him a prey to despair, brainwashing him (confirmed in the manga Killer Killer) into a sadist who is willing to sacrifice people for the sake of his now twisted, enabling his past peaceful and caring personality, and betraying the meaning behind his name.

Origin and history:

Again, his past is mostly unknown, before his role as Headmaster in Hope's Peak Academy before giving the torch to someone else, but we do know he helped the current Headmaster as his advisor from time to time. Then when the Tragedy happened, he founded the Future Foundation, and thus leaded the 1th Branch's Head, which role was to provide overall directions and leadership of Future Foundation, which fitted not only his past personality, but also his former position.

Plot relevance:

If Despair side only showed him as a side character considering he only supported the Headmaster with decisions, Future side showed us his own impact, especially after turning into a bad guy, which already showed his semblance to his extremist comrades in the Killer Killer manga: in order to 'save Hope', he was willing to go as far as to broadcast the video that was created by a student (which happened to be the reason why the Tragedy was triggered in the first place), given to him by a Despairs spy, sealing his fate. But this domino falling made him twist his ideals of spreading hope, and thus, inspired by both the video and the Killing School Life, he requested the Ultimate Animator's help, Ryouta Mitarai, to create a video that would brainwash people for them to feel hope. And in order to broadcast this, he felt the necessity to kill the whole Future Foundation with the exception of Ryouta, probably because of his feelings of conflict between him and the rest of his comrades, using Makoto Naegi's trial to bring all off them together, minus Ryouta. And when the Final Killing Game started (with Ryouta participating despite his preparations), while he reassured Ryouta to act and not be afraid anymore and protected Makoto, he pushed Kyosuke over the edge by revealing 'who was' the mastermind of this killing game, making sure he told him the truth as his own Forbidden Action was 'Answer a question with a lie'. And his plan succeeded… in a form of irony.

How Good was Kazuo Tengan actually?

Well, this old man is quite the complex character. His true character was in Despair side, when he was only a supporter character whose hands were tied because he didn't have the power to stop the Tragedy to happen in his own way, but it's in Future side, when this character was robbed of his identity, that is when he truly became impactful. And that is really unfortunately, because instead of remembering this character as this kind and wise old man that helped those in needs and could still put up a cool fight, he will be remembered as the monster who didn't hesitate to kill his coworkers just to get his objective that can be considered as counter-productive, considering he was a Despair.

What do I think of Kazuo Tengan?

…meh.

Honestly, I didn't mind him before the big reveal of him being the Mastermind. Heck, I liked the old geezer because of what he said to Hajime. "Don't be afraid of being normal"… in a society that pushes people to do better and who uses the Ultimates to do so (as the school collects not just people from rich families and high position, but also dangerous people as serial killers and yakuzas, not to mention people with hobbies like… clairvoyants, because apparently, bring able to read in a glass ball is a talent), I think it is important, and we can see that he was truly a good guy who couldn't do anything to stop what the people in the shadows were plotting.

Anyway, the old geezer's attitude and worries about 'is killing really the answer?' at some point at the Tragedy is maybe predictable considering his name and trop he's playing, but it makes sense. After fighting for so long a war that didn't seem to end even with violence, and considering the Tragedy was probably not the first time he's seen shit like this (who knows, maybe he's seen the results of the Steering Committee's decisions impacting badly promising students, for example), someone was bound to ask itself 'what if I end up like the people I'm killing?'

And yes, I do know he said to Kyosuke 'sacrifices are necessary to achieve hope' in the Killer Killer manga, but that was after being brainwashed, so the clash of ideals was before that. And if he says that during the Final Killing Game, well, he has an act to play.

After all, he's old and would rather want to leave the land of the living knowing the world will be in good hands instead of a broken place where violence and killing is natural. And by ending everyone who 'might' be associated with Despair, everyone who is feeling Despair, heck, everyone who is related to a fallen Despair, who will be left? Would this truly kill Despair for good, or would it only turn people against the Future Foundation who swore to protect the people and reconstruct the world? Where would be the Hope in all of this? This is a very valid concern that is relatable, because if we were in such a world, if you were in the family of one of the people wrongly accused and killed, hpow would you feel? I know I would be pissed, probably even call them fakes. Heck, maybe this also happened between Kazuo and Kyosuke in the Tragedy, and it was this incident that caused the gap in the first place! Who knows?

And then DR3 Future happened.

And Despair he ended up.

Yeah, you can expect this to come out a lot. Not just for Future side btw.

Anyway, I don't blame him for being weak at the moment. Caught between his questions and tensions, it was easy for Chisa to trap him with the Despair video so he could join the Despair. And to be honest, by the time his role was revealed, I wasn't angry at him. More like… confused. You wanna know why?

Because his plan doesn't make sense, even if he wasn't brainwashed!

What made people dislike Kazuo Tengan, in my opinion?

Well, first of all, betraying everyone in the organization to kill each other so one of your employees can get to brainwash people can do that, even if it in the name of 'hope'.

…man, sounds like another character. Maybe it's a low-cost version, I dunno.

But yeah, him being the mastermind is bad enough.

You know what's worse though? Being a mastermind of a game doesn't make sense, again! And I'll tell you why!

First off, he didn't make sure Ryouta wouldn't be able to participate to the Final Killing Game. Granted, one could say Kyosuke forced him to attend, but if you can't come up with an excuse to keep the key to your plan away from danger, and if you don't step your foot down to a guy below you in the hierarchy… yeah, you're bound to be disrespected.

Second, being responsible of pushing an already cold character into a Metal Gear/Shadow the Hedgehog mess (yes, this is how I see it) doesn't make things easier.

And the last reason I can think of is… because he is a Despair. Who asked for Ryouta a video to create Hope. He could have had easily made this whole charade, and then, when Ryouta decides to use it, it would have displayed Despair instead. Kind of like what Chisa did with Kazuo himself.

So, in other words… a Despair… end up saving the world… because he wanted to create Hope.

…

There's… something that doesn't sound right here. At least, not from my point of view.

As said on the TV Tropes page: nice job fixing it, villain!

The whole "Chairman being evil all along" was a bit too easy to predict in hindsight, and it felt rushed anyway because not only that erased the 'good' Kazuo Tengan (the one reassuring others about their insecurities), but most importantly, all of his talk about killing not bringing hope goes to the trash because of his plan! Credibility is important, you know!

How could we make Kazuo Tengan better?

Well, I can think of two suggestions

The first? Him tricking Ryouta into creating a Hope video (same as in canon), only for it to display Despair instead. And Chisa could help him with that. Hey, they both probably worked together to put this up, he couldn't have done that all by himself! Show us how the moles act!

The second, and the simplest I my point of view?

Using my first idea… but not making him the mastermind.

Let's be clear, if we put it together, if he decided to display Despair instead of Hope, his end goal would be good for an antagonist, but not as the main antagonist. Someone else would be better with this role, someone who didn't get a chance to shine, preferably.

As a secondary antagonist, we could see him work with Chisa to complicate the Future Foundation's goal more. Liiiike by riling up the population against them for instance. Or sabotaging rescue or supply missions. Heck, make him sacrifice his own comrades, like Daisaku Bandai from last chapter and make him subtly put the blame on his vice-chairman! The guy is not liked by everyone, and considering they both played comedy well and nobody connected the dots before it was too late, with all the tension going on, it wouldn't have been hard for them to make it impossible for the Future Foundation to work together!

Sure, they would suspect him after the Final Killing Game happens (if it does happen), but considering he would be a red hearing this time around, the shock of him being dead while the game goes on would throw everyone off the loop!

Speaking of the game, if there is one thing I would have left unchanged… are the Forbidden Actions. If you keep the rules as they were before, I think it makes it interesting. Restraining the 'players' in one specific way for each character, while touching a sensible part of the characters, is a good touch to the game. The only thing I would keep intact, because…

You know what, I'll tell you why I thought those changes were idiotic when I'll come to who I consider is the main perpetrator of the violence in the group, the one that allowed this to go on. I think you all know who it is. In the meantime,…

How would you rate Kazuo Tengan?

Kazuo Tengan°: 2 RANK (I dislike them to a various degree, either change them or bash them)

As I said, a guy I dislike will always be higher than a guy I don't care about, because I at least remember them. Well… almost in exceptional cases. I'll explain when I get there.

Honestly, this is a real shame. They way Kazuo was brainwashed, and how he managed to stay under the radar for so long… I feel like it could have worked, but with so much more nuance than this. Again, I blame DR3 for how it handled their characters.

And unfortunately, this won't be the last time you'll read those lines.

PERSONNAL TIER LIST UPDATE!

3 RANK (Don't mind them, but improvement is welcome)

Hifumi Yamada

2 RANK (I dislike them to a various degree, either change them or bash them)

Kazuo Tengan

1 RANK (This character isn't worth anything, we need to change it no questions asked)

Daisaku Bandai

Hmm… well, it did take me a few days, but… I didn't think I would start a new chapter this soon.

It seems like I underestimated my hatred from DR3. It gave me lots of energy.

…maybe I should get checked.

Thankfully, next chapter, we will talk about a character that didn't originate from DR3 So I should calm down by then!

…but it may take some time too… oh well. A little price to pay, I suppose.

See you around, and take care!

Pupla out, Corona begone. Stay safe, people.