When a game encounters enough success, a sequel is among the natural expectations for what comes next. One of the keys to make the sequel as good, if not better than the original, is to create new characters that manages not only to be similar to the original cast, but to be their own persons with their own goals, fitting of the main theme of the game.

One of the survivors of this new game fits this defifintion, and it is the hot-headed, brawly, gluttonous, good-looking and fast gymnast,

the Ultimate Gymnast, Akane Owari.

That's right, the first girl of this list, and the first character of the second game! With 16 votes in total, tied up with another character from the same game!

To be honest, I'm actually surprised this girl is among the lowest, considering her… attributes…

Yeah, I'm a simp. So are you guys, don't you dare lie to me.

For real, I guess there must be a 'lower girl' somewhere

Why is that? Let's see!

Name meaning:

The kanji for Akane (赤音) can be translated to "red sounds" or "red noise", while her last name Owari (終里) is composed of the characters 終 - "last" or "to finish" and 里, which has multiple meanings, including "village", "the home of one's parents", "hometown" and also an archaic Japanese unit of area, in reference of her family's antics, which will be discussed soon.

Physical description:

Akane Owari is a tall, young woman with an athletic, curvaceous physique, following the design of another well-endowed character from the previous games., Aoi Asahina She has tanned skin, dark olive-gray eyes, and unkempt, shoulder-length chestnut hair that sticks out at various angles in wavy spikes. During her high school years, her eyes appeared to be a lighter, brighter, with her hair longer in the anime.

Akane wears a short-sleeved, white, buttoned, collared shirt with a chest pocket and the top few buttons undone, exposing a large amount of cleavage. The bottom button also appears undone, exposing her navel when she moves quickly. She also wears a red pleated miniskirt and cream-colored loafers with no socks. In the anime, she also wore a white shirt, with long, cuffed, albeit rolled-up sleeves and no visible shirt pocket. She also had longer hair.

As the Ultimate Despair, Akane had the same short hair as she originally had in her first appearace. She wore a tattered white vest with ripped sleeves and hem, a cropped black tube top and black skin-tight shorts underneath, making her stomach and six pack visible. She wore sneakers and was equipped with a long kusari-fundo style chain wrapped around her right forearm, presumably for fighting.

Personality analysis:

It is clear that the body department is a reference to Aoi Asahina from the former game, but some resemblances in their personalities can be found. For example, she is one of, if not the most gloutenous character in the franchise, able to eat anything and not just donuts, going from her motto 'if you don't eat, you die'. It is linked to her past, thing we'll see later. Also, she is not the smartest in her group, as she put out some unrelated stuff to the trials, although her gut feeling can be good.

Asides from those traits, she has a fiery personality and she loves fighting, as long as there is no other weapons besides the person's own fists and body. She is eager to challenge someone to fight her and she respects those who are physically strong, but while she also loves athletic things such as climbing and running, she can actually be very lazy and unmotivated if she isn't allowed to do things her own way. She dislikes planning, training, and routines, but has a remarkable talent for inventing her own moves. In general, her mood can shift very quickly. She can bounce between bored, to happy, to angry, and to happy again. Despite her easygoing and aloof personality, she is loyal and protective towards her friends and her family, even being strict with security with the latter.

Due to her past, she is also quite clueless with sexual harassment and nudeness in general, offering her boobs as a reward for people who do as she says. She doesn't want help in general because she thinks that hesitation and worry is a sign of weakness and she hates being weak, which is why she prefers not to show her worry and not to rely on anyone. She also fears ghosts, have high tolerance for crappy stuff, and wonders what the world has to offer.

Origin and history:

With such a personality, it wouldn't be surprising if she was a simple character, but as it turns out, she has some hidden depths. Akane lived together with her several siblings and unemployed parent, that would always change and bring more siblings. Akane greatly loved her younger siblings, and tried to make them happy whenever she could by doing things like fishing with them. She spent most of her time working many part-time jobs, stealing leftovers for her family whenever she could.

In Akane's dark life, sexual harassment was the norm for her. She was often chased by perverts, which made her skilled at parkour. Her step-mother's lovers groped her when they were drunk and told her to do "weird" jobs, like serve them food while not wearing any underwear. One day, when Akane worked as an actual waitress, there was an old gymnastics coach that used to come to the cafe all the time. While the man was also a pervert, he also suggested Akane join gymnastics. After many times being persuaded, Akane finally agreed. She started doing gymnastics for money and thanks to this, Akane and her siblings were able to move out and lived together in a new home. She attended Hikarimachi High School before joining Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Gymnast

Plot relevance:

In the second game, her help started to be useful in Chapter 2's trial, but her involvement really started next chapter, challenging Monokuma and losing to him, only to be saved by Nekomaru Nidai from execution, making her blame herself for her rash decision, which is a perfect transition for her Despair Disease, making her cry all the time. This guilt will follow up in Chapter 4, on top of the hunger. Next chapter is her apprehending the crazy rival of the story.

Finally, In Danganronpa 3, nothing was added, aside from some fanservice with the shipping with Nekomaru…

…as well as some… amplifications to her physical gifts.

Oh, and she got a badass look in Despair (on top of taking advantage of her body), as well as her strange yet effective team up with Teruteru Hanamura the Cook and her happy ending in Hope, so there's that.

How Good was Akane Owari actually?

Well, this girl sure has some depths, on top of having a nice body to boot things up, faithful to her model. Despite the similarities however, Akane manages to have her own identity, and her own impact, not just by her own quirks, but by those she copied, meaning her talent, hungriness and hot-headed are up to eleven. The later is used in full mid-game, and her development is present, although slow because she manages to remain the same all the while learning lessons… although for many, this development was too light for a survivor.

What do I think of Akane Owari?

I like her.

And no, it's not just because she's a tane beauty with her advantages, nooooo…

…

…okay, the muscles help a lot with this.

Seriously, she is attaching, despite being considered to be Aoi's Discount version. She manages to have her own personality, and even when she fucks up, she is horrified by the consequences of her actions.

Granted, it didn't stick too long as we didn't get to see too much of that aside from when Chapter 4's victim is revealed, but damn it, this is still good;

Plus, yeas, she messed up… but so did her ancestor.

Aside from that, her backstory is very… messed up, yeah, but touching. How many girl, born in a poor part of town, would dedicate themselves that much for kids who comes from different people, and who keep getting more numerous? I like to think that anyone would, but I would be lying. Survival can make you do things… pretty messed up, even though your life is on the line as well.

That, and DR3 gave her that good looking long hair, and PHYSICS!

Yeah, I decided to say something good about DR3, don't get used to it.

What made people dislike Akane Owari, in my opinion?

Unfortunately, Akane being too close to Aoi in people's yes can pummel your reputation, which is a damn shame.

That, and maybe that she's not smart and say random and weird things. That has got to play a part.

Oh yeah, and her role into Nekomaru's condition. That also is important, and for one, I get that people held her accountable for this. That being said, I do think she wanted to fight Monokuma to save her own family, if not the cast. I sure hope so.

Funny, her being among the most gifted didn't do her much favor, when girls with less material are higher on the list. We'll talk about this when we get to that.

Funny story, she was supposed to be an antagonist. Surely the brawl of the brain of some kind. I'm glad she's not, I like her. I'm just sad she's this low on the list, but oh well…

How could we make Akane Owari better?

Well, maybe show us how she grew from the lessons she learned. Because, as much as it was good to see her reflect on situations, it would have been good to see her actually show that she learned from those lessons.

And since I have yet to speak of what DR3 could have done better, well…

…show us her siblings. Show us how hard it becomes to feed her own kids, as food is harder to find. One thing I find to be a wasted opportunity in DR3 is the lack of link between the 77-B Class, even though they all went together to that secret lair to save their teacher. Even after half a year, they're not together until Chiaki magically made them together… by playing video games. Knowing Akane's past, I doubt she had that luxury.

…heck, for her to fall into despair… maybe her losing her siblings would do the trick. She leaves them by themselves most of the time to get money, so Junko could make their house crumble (easy since it's poor), only making the kids blame her for not being there for them, this could work! Sad, but it would work and make her weak to the brainwashing video!

Yeah, I'm keeping that part. It was said they were brainwashed in the games, so it would make sense. How else would Junko have an army?

Plus, what did she do to her siblings, considering what the despair did in the past?! Damn it, did she kill them?! Make them starve?! I want to know!

…okay, I'm good.

To be honest, I feel like she is a bit higher than Hiro, but not much considering her lack of screen time. Again, it could have been more than baby steps. So, with that in mind…

How would you rate Akane Owari?

Akane Owari°: 4 RANK (I have a soft spot, although I wouldn't mind some improvement)

Yeah, I am partly simping for her, but I don't really care.

Honestly, I feel like I need to compensate for that low popularity score she got. Who wouldn't want a loving sister who takes care of you no matter how hard the situation is? Sure, she has her evident flaws, and she did made her mistakes, but it's obvious she was trying to help in her own way. Really, it would be like Sakura but more reckless know that I think about it.

So… yeah. Again, I like her.

PERSONNAL TIER LIST UPDATE!

4 RANK (I have a soft spot, although I wouldn't mind some improvement)

Akane Owari

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

Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure

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

It was time I did a girl this time, eh?

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

That's right, considering the next character has the same amount of vote, I decided to make two chapters this time! You're welcome, and I hope I'm forgiven for the lack of updates in January.

So, see ya next chapter… right in a minute!