Rantaro Amami/History


 * Before Joining Danganronpa

Rantaro Amami was a normal talentless high school boy who participated in the 52nd and 53rd Season of Danganronpa, a famous worldwide reality show made by Team Danganronpa.

Before he participated in the 52nd Killing Game, he attended Hope's Pass High School (望峠高校). However, it is unclear if this memory of his is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa.


 * Fabricated Past

After he successfully joined Danganronpa as a Killing Game participant, Rantaro's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows.

Rantaro claimed he came from a very rich family and that he was raised like a celebrity, and that he has multiple younger sisters, most of them stepsisters.

Many years ago, he and his entire family went on a boating trip. It was Rantaro's first one. He liked traveling, and once they reached a port, he got off the ship and went on an adventure. His youngest sister followed him off the boat without him realizing and as a result, she disappeared and was never found. Rantaro blamed himself for her disappearance, believing himself to be a terrible older brother and starting to fear that his sisters might hate him.

However, Rantaro was determined to find his sister, and, with his father's permission, he traveled around the world on a boat searching for her, whilst simultaneously helping with his father's business in search of new markets. He firmly believed that his sister was alive unless he was proven otherwise. The traveling was dangerous, especially when he had to cross territories. He gained his Ultimate Adventurer title during one of his journeys through the savanna when he came across a remote village and helped the villager with their research about a rare disease that only affected the people there. He began to get famous after that, traveling the world, and eventually, people were calling him the Ultimate Adventurer.

Somehow, Rantaro lost all twelve of sisters all around the world, and everyone, including his family, told him to just give up on his search. Despite this, he was still determined to reunite with his siblings, no matter how many years it would take him.


 * Danganronpa 52

While never actually seen, slight aspects of Danganronpa 52 were made clear during the Killing School Semester. Rantaro was one of its participants and had the title of Ultimate Adventurer, and in this Killing Game season, Rantaro was one of the participants who survived until the very end. Him and one other person chose to sacrifice themselves in order to let hope win, which would lead to them being punished. Rantaro was completely unaware that the form of punishment was not to have his life taken, but to participate in the next Killing Game. As a result of this punishment, his memories of Danganronpa 52 were erased, and he was given the title of Ultimate Survivor (超高校級の「生存者」 chō kōkō kyū no “Seizon-sha” lit. Super High School Level Survivor) which replaced his original talent as the Ultimate Adventurer (超高校級の「冒険家」 chō kōkō kyū no “Bōken-ka” lit. Super High School Level Adventurer). He was also given special "perks" for surviving that he could make use of however he wanted in the next Killing Game.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories created for Rantaro and the other fifteen students in the Killing School Semester was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the Killing Game started. It was initiated by heads of nations from all over the world after countless meteorites crashed into Earth, spreading a deadly virus all throughout the atmosphere. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth's destruction, the government decided to select sixteen talented students chosen by the Ultimate Initiative, who also happened to be immune to the virus, put them in a spaceship colony, and have them escape before the Earth's destruction. Rantaro was among these sixteen individuals.

Despite being chosen to participate, Rantaro and the other fifteen participants had no intention of going along with the plan, not wanting to abandon their loved ones. As a result, Rantaro chose to forget about his Ultimate talent and decided to live as a normal high school student.

Around that time, an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteorites were a punishment humanity brought upon itself and, having heard of The Gofer Project, tried to stop it. As a result, the Ultimate Hunt started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students selected for the Gofer Project were hunted down.

The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students' deaths, calming down the Ultimate Hunt while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed by meteorites. Rantaro and the others went to space in the massive ark, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles, and were put to a cold sleep for several decades.

Much later on in Chapter 5, after the remaining participants cleared the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi Oma lied about being the mastermind of the Killing Game and that he was the leader of the cult bent on stopping the Gofer Project. He also lied about being the one who let Monokuma enter the spaceship, which effectively forced Rantaro and the others to participate in the Killing School Semester. All of this was done in order to get everyone to fall into so much despair that they would not continue the Killing Game.

However, the true Mastermind, in order to get the remaining survivors at the time to continue the Killing Game, decided to connect everyone's memories of the Gofer Project to the story of Hope's Peak Academy. As a result, the true Mastermind prepared a Flashback Light that tricked the remaining participants into thinking that everyone, including those that had died, was actually students of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy. They also remembered that the ones behind the Gofer Project were Makoto Naegi, the headmaster of the rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy, and the Future Foundation. This Flashback Light also revealed that the cult bent on stopping the Gofer Project were actually the Remnants of Despair and that Kokichi was their leader. This lie filled everyone with the determination needed to stop the despair with which they were faced.

In the Mastermind's rush, however, they accidentally overlooked slight inconsistencies and plot holes when linking both stories together, such as "Ultimate Despair" only referring to Junko Enoshima and that Class 78 was trapped by the Ultimate Despair when they had actually locked themselves within the school in order to shelter themselves from the tragedy outside.

While Rantaro seemed to have an inkling about what was going on before his death, since he mentioned the Ultimate Hunt, it is unknown just how much he actually knew about the event, as he was murdered before he actually received a complete memory about the Gofer Project by the Flashback Light in Chapter 5.

Introduction
Rantaro was among the first fourteen people gathered in the gymnasium before Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara arrived. Unlike everyone else, who seemed surprised, shocked, or confused about their current predicament, Rantaro was the only person in the group who seemed to have an inkling on their current situation. He only became more suspicious after Kaede and Shuichi arrived, seeing the total number of people as an indication of what was about to transpire. Once the Monokuma Kubs arrived and revealed themselves from within their Exisals, Rantaro was confident that this was exactly what he thought it was. Despite his foresight, it was meaningless as his memory was completely overwritten by the Flashback Light, where all of his and everyone else's past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. He also received the talent and title of Ultimate Survivor due to surviving Danganronpa 52. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, Rantaro and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd Killing Game season known as the Killing School Semester.

Rantaro would later be encountered on the first floor for the first time by Kaede and Shuichi. Right off the bat, he came off as an enigmatic and mysterious individual due to not really being overly worried about their current situation, or that he couldn't remember his own talent. Despite the latter fact, he introduced himself to the duo and reassuringly promised him that he wasn't a bad guy. He later gathered in the gymnasium with everyone once the Monokuma Kubs made their announcement, where he was introduced to the five robotic teddy bears properly before their father came to break up their squabble. Their father just so happened to be Monokuma, the self-appointed headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. Monokuma announced to the sixteen high schoolers that they would be participating in a Killing Game. Once again, unlike most of the others, Rantaro was one of the only ones to not show much worry or shock about the situation. With that, the Killing School Semester had officially begun.

Attempting the Death Road of Despair
After Monokuma commenced the Killing Game, Rantaro read the Killing Game rules on his MonoPad. The disturbing rules baffled all of the students, causing discord among the group. Kaede saw this and immediately stopped them, saying that they should cooperate together instead of fighting if they wanted to escape. Rantaro listened to Kaede as she proposed a sound and straightforward argument. Everyone's heart was able to become one, all thanks to her speech. Rantaro praised her, then he eerily stated that she has what it takes to win before telling her to be careful. Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, then remembered that he found a manhole inside the boiler room behind the school building. Rantaro along with everyone else immediately followed the Gonta's lead, with hope of finding a way out.

Descending the manhole, Rantaro and the others found a tunnel leading outside of the academy. Though everyone thought that the tunnel probably ended up being a trap, they still had to test every single possibility in order to escape. However, Rantaro and the others exhausted themselves both physically and mentally as they found that escaping through Death Road of Despair was next to impossible. Due to this, Kokichi Oma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader, revolted, saying that Kaede's repeated motivational speech was the source of the group's agony, added by some of her friends giving up on escaping the tunnel, Rantaro included, the group's harmony came to a swift end. The tunnel ended up being a trap set by Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs, much to everyone's dismay. Rantaro however, remained calm and told everyone that they should conserve their strength and head to their dorms to rest.

Rantaro's Secret
As it turned out, Rantaro had lied to all of the students about forgetting his talent. He was fully aware that he held the title of Ultimate Survivor since the beginning because he had a Survivor Perk Monopad which was given to him as a reward for surviving a previous Killing Game. The Survivor Perk Monopad contained an entire map of the school; this map even included the hidden room connected to the library, though not the hidden passageway that connected it to the girl's bathroom on the first floor of the academy. The only people to know about the hidden room were himself, Shuichi and Kaede, who came across it thanks to the former's intuition, and The Mastermind. However, Rantaro's memories of the past Killing Game were wiped thanks to the Flashback Lights. As a result, he had to return to square one to discover the identity of the mastermind and end the Killing Game.

With the ominous message left on his Survivor Perk Monopad, Rantaro decided to investigate the school alone. He couldn't take the risk of trusting anybody with his information, with the threat of anyone who finds out who he really was coming after him. As a result, Rantaro decided to end the Killing Game by himself without aid from anyone after Monokuma presented the time limit motive, which would later prove to be Rantaro's downfall.

In a bonus scene in Chapter 1, Rantaro would walk in on Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, painting Kaede's nails. He claimed that he was able to paint nails as well, not for a girlfriend, but for family. He then showed his capability by painting Kaede's nails, much to Tsumugi's jealousy.

Rantaro's Plan
The final day of the time limit, Rantaro got into a dispute with Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro, in the dining hall. He was joined by Kaede and Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Artist, not long after. Ryoma was willing to give up his life for everyone else if it meant that they would survive. He wanted to escape with everyone and remain friends but believed that they had no more time left for idealism, and, as such, he was willing to die for them. Rantaro calmed him down and told him, along with everyone else present, that he would end this Killing Game himself. He warned them all not to do anything unnecessary before leaving the dining hall. His words had seemingly calmed Ryoma down for the time being.

Thanks to his Survivor Perk Monopad, Rantaro discovered that the library in the basement must have been connected to The Mastermind and planned to make his way there. As time began to run out, the monitors began to play an ominous song in order to drive the participants mad enough to begin killing. He joined Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, and five others for a strategy meeting that Kaito himself had proposed to fight Monokuma. Unbeknownst to him and the rest of the group, they were spotted by Kaede and Shuichi from the lookout classroom, the duo having a plan to catch the mastermind themselves while unaware of what Rantaro was planning.

During the strategy meeting, Rantaro left by lying to Kaito that he needed to use the bathroom in order to check the secret room in the library. While in the library, Rantaro discovered the door into the hidden room behind a bookshelf, which he promptly moved out of the way. This triggered Shuichi's sensor on top of the shelf, and Kaede's hidden camera, whose flash led him over to it. It was around this time that Kaede had thrown her shot put ball that she had retrieved from the warehouse earlier into the air duct that led into the library. The ball came out of the vent and rolled along the books on top of the shelf that she had set up. The ball failed to hit Rantaro but shocked him greatly.

During this time, Rantaro, Shuichi, and Kaede were completely unaware that someone else was aware of their plans to end the Killing Game thanks to the Nanokumas around the entire campus. That someone was the Mastermind of the Killing School Semester, Tsumugi Shirogane. Witnessing Kaede's plan fail through the hidden room, she immediately left it and made her way into the library. Rantaro was baffled as to why a shot put ball fell from up above and, while distracted, was instantly killed by Tsumugi with her own shot put ball.

Tsumugi took Kaede's shot put ball that failed to hit him, replaced it with her own, then stole Rantaro's Survivor Perk Monopad and made her way back into the hidden room, completely covering up his murder and making it look like Kaede's plan had succeeded and that she accidentally killed him in her plan to reveal and kill the mastermind.

Later on, when everyone came upon Rantaro's body, everyone was mystified as to why and how he was killed. Due to the altered crime scene and nobody other than Tsumugi knowing what really had transpired, Kaede was shocked and horrified at the thought that she had killed a dear friend instead of her intended target. As a result, everyone was fooled into believing that Kaede was the culprit during the Class Trial, including Kaede herself, who mentally apologized to Rantaro for being unable to reveal the mastermind during the trial.

After Kaede's execution, Monokuma openly mocked Rantaro, claiming that he may have stood out more as a character had he discovered his talent. The full truth of Rantaro's murder would not become clear until much later.

Uncovering the Truth
Rantaro's Research Lab opened up on the fifth floor of the academy after the fourth Class Trial had concluded, but it remained locked by Monokuma, saying that that it remained inaccessible because Rantaro had died before the lab was available.

During K1-B0's rampage after the conclusion of the fifth Class Trial, he blasted open the door that led into Rantaro's lab in order to let Shuichi investigate. He was quickly joined by Himiko Yumeno, and the two searched the room. At first, the room was ambiguous, and it was hard to judge what Rantaro's talent was based on the room's appearance. The duo found a laptop with nothing on it and a massive safe in the back of the room. Within the safe, they found a USB stick that they put into the USB port on the laptop, which revealed a video file. Shuichi accessed it, and it played a pre-recorded message by Rantaro before he had lost his memory, intended for the Rantaro after he had lost his memory. He went on to reveal that this wasn't his first Killing Game, that he had survived a previous Killing Game and earned the title of Ultimate Survivor before telling "himself" that he wanted this Killing Game and that he had to survive no matter what. Both Shuichi and Himiko were left baffled by this sudden revelation.

After the investigation had concluded, Shuichi, Himiko, Tsumugi, K1-B0, and Maki Harukawa, decide to reopen Rantaro's case after discovering new truths related to his murder. Upon revealing to everyone that Rantaro's talent was the Ultimate Survivor and proving that Kaede did in fact not murder him and was executed unjustly, Shuichi realized that the mastermind has to be one of them. By double-checking everyone's alibis during Rantaro's murder, Shuichi honed in on Tsumugi as the true culprit and mastermind of the Killing School Semester.

The clues that Rantaro had left behind would later be used by Shuichi to disprove their own supposed memories, such as the fact that, even though he had participated in a previous Killing Game, he was not present for the Killing School Life or the Killing School Trip. Rantaro would be brought up one final time near the end of the trial in order to prove Shuichi's deduction that the form of "punishment" for the two who sacrifice themselves would be to participate in the next Killing Game, which would be the final nail in the coffin to convince everyone to abandon their vote in order to end the Killing Game once and for all.

In the end, Rantaro achieved his goal of defeating the mastermind, as his and Kaede's deaths were avenged after Danganronpa finally come to its end in the last execution.