Leon Kuwata

**Leon Kuwata** (桑田 怜恩 *Kuwata Reon*) is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th, and a participant of the Killing School Lifefeatured in *Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc*. His title is **Ultimate Baseball Star** (超高校級の「野球選手」lit. *Super High School Level Baseball Player*). However, he states he wishes to change his title to **Ultimate Musician** (超高校級の「ミュージシャン」lit. *Super High School Level Musician*).

## Appearance

Leon has dyed orange spiked hair, a goatee, and pale blue eyes. He wears a white blazer jacket with a popped collar, a white shirt with a red grunge skull design, dark blue jeans and white platform shoes with a black sole. He accessorizes with a padlocked chain necklace, two overlapping studded belts, rings, and an oversized safety pin on his lapel. He has several piercings - his labret, his tongue, and six in his right ear.
When he was practicing baseball, he wore a standard baseball jersey with his number, 18, and his family name, Kuwata, on the back. He had a shaved hairstyle, which is "traditional" according to him.
His underwear is described as "sports underoos", and are a pair of men's athletic black boxers.

## Personality

Leon is a passionate, hot-blooded young teenager. He often slacks off from studying and baseball practice; however, his baseball skills were never diminished due to his status as Ultimate Baseball Star. Leon is also very determined to change his current title to Ultimate Musician. In Leon's Free Time sequence, the reason for that determination is revealed: to win a heart of a girl that he happened to meet at the hair salon. Later, Leon himself states that he somewhat missed playing baseball; something that he used to do every day since he was young. He even invited Makoto to play baseball with him once they get out of their current situation.

During the main story, Leon is shown to be easily intimidated and agitated, such as when Makoto spends time with him for the first time and he thinks it's a trap to kill him, or during the first class trial when he asks and finds out who Sakura Ogami is. When he becomes nervous or intimidated, Leon tends to smile awkwardly, often the right corner of his mouth stretching farther.

In the official artbook, Leon is described as an optimist who wants to get better at everything he does. He is also mentioned to be a player, and he had a new girl with him every few days. He is always flirting with girls and he's single-mindedly focused on studying "the secret of success with the ladies". He's also mentioned to be into pure-hearted girls.

In School Mode, Leon is portrayed as easily offended; for example, when asked how he managed to style his hair, he immediately becomes annoyed, automatically accusing Makoto of making fun of it and saying he should shave his hair like his baseball team made him do. He also can come off as impatient and agitated at times, like instantly becoming angry and snapping at Makoto for not knowing what to talk about. School Mode also shows that whenever he's upset or depressed, Leon likes to take naps. According to Kazutaka Kodaka, Leon can't stand the heat and hot weather.[4]

## Talent

### Ultimate Baseball Star

Leon is a natural born baseball star despite his hatred towards baseball practice. His only motivation to play baseball is to become famous with girls. It also helps him to continue his school life without studying hard and taking the entrance exam. Leon's talent in baseball surpasses even his coach and teacher's pride who begged him to play so that the team could win a quick and easy win. He states that he never needs to practice because baseball is so easy to him. His pitch is clocked at 160 kilometers per hour.
Leon proves his skills with his talent during his murder of Sayaka when he threw a crystal ball through the Trash Room gate to activate a small button on the incinerator at nearly thirty feet away, followed by throwing his own blood-stained shirt into the small opening.

In *Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair*, during one of Nekomaru Nidai's Free TimeEvents and the Prologue, he mentions a baseball star he used to train that went on to become extremely popular, heavily implying it's Leon.

### "Ultimate Musician"

As seen in his Dorm Room, he has an amp and electric guitar, his skills with it, however, are unknown. His goal is to be the lead vocalist of a band, and was seeking out a song writer.

He seems to be knowledgeable about some aspects of the musical scene. During his Free Time he makes several references to real world bands. He claims he "doesn't wanna be a George, ya know? Gotta get that Paul action", referring to the British band The Beatles, he also states he wants to be like punk bands The Damned, The Clash, and The Sex Pistols.

He follows up during a Free Time Event with "if you're in a punk band, it doesn't matter if you can play or not", implying he's not very good.

## Free Time

During Free Time, Makoto can choose to talk to Leon in order to learn more about him. If he gives him a present that he likes, and chooses the correct response during their conversation, their friendship level will increase and he will disclose something about himself. Each successful Free Time conversation adds a page to Leon's Report Card in the e-Handbook menu, and grants either a skill that will give Makoto an advantage during class trial battles, or an increase in Skill Points.

1. Eternal Friendship Bracelet
2. Blueberry Perfume
3. Jimmy Decay T-Shirt
4. Project Zombie

### Skills

Becoming friends with students grants Makoto special skills which can aid him during Class Trials. Becoming close with Leon grants the following skills:

### Dorm Room

Leon's room reflects his passion for music, despite his talent of Ultimate Baseball Star. He has a large shelf full of CDs, a CD player, an electric guitar and amplifier, over-ear headphones, and a microphone on a stand. The framed art on the wall is labeled "reon" (leon), and features a skull with a wound in the head, as his shirt does - it's possible this is a logo for the band he dreams of performing in.

## Quotes

*Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc* (English)

**Prologue:**

* "Yo! The name's Leon Kuwata. What's up?"
* "My only path in life is getting into music! You can feel that star-quality aura I have, right? I'm gonna be a singer, so all I need is a songwriter and someone on guitar, and we're set! This new version of me that's chasing after my dream is, like...super cool to the max!"
* "I don't care if the school or whoever else is behind it all, this is just a really bad joke."

**Chapter 1:**

* "Goddamn, calm down! You're starting to make me nervous!"
* "There's gotta be \*something\* we can do..."
* "Anyway, there's nothing to do around here. Gonna friggin' die of boredom... And being stuck in here is keeping me from racing toward my dream, too."
* "Yeah! To become a musician! You can sense my aura, right? The strongest vocals of the century right here! God, I feel so cool getting to say that in front of a national celebrity..."
* "No way in hell am I letting someone kill me...! Alright, dammit! Let's do this!"
* "Well, I did \*my\* job. I'm counting on the rest of you from here on out!"
* "Well we can talk all we want, it's not gonna change \*that\* conclusion."
* "But if the only choice you have is to break it, you break it! There's nothing "bewildering" about it!"
* "I'm the killer!? You can't just go and say shit like that!"
* "Do I object...? Hell yes I object! Of course I do! I object, I object, I object I mean, all of this is just a bunch of stupid theories! You need evidence! Where's the evidence!? Without evidence, it's all bullshit! It's bullshit and I refuse to acknowledge it!"
* "I refuse to acknowledge you! You're stupid! Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! Stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!!!"
* "I-I didn't have a choice... It was kill or be killed! S-So that's why...I killed her first. None of you are any different! One wrong step, and you'd be the one standing here! It was complete chance that I wound up like this! I was just...unlucky! That's all..."

**Free Time Events:**

* "I'm not even afraid anymore. Now I'm just pissed off. Why?! Why is this happening to me?! This isn't fair, man! I mean, am I wrong?"
* "Well, I wanna start up a band, right? I was wondering if you know anyone who's good at writing music. Oh, but nobody too popular! I don't want anyone to overshadow my own popularity as the lead singer."
* "Damn straight! My plan is to conquer the world with punk! Cuz I mean...when it comes to punk, it doesn't really matter if you can actually play or not."
* "I was gonna use my time here to become the Ultimate Musician! ...That dream's dead now, though. I came here chasing a dream, but I never imagined it'd turn into such a nightmare... Dammit...! I have to do it! I have to become a famous musician! Stop screwing with me, world! Give me back my youth! Give me back my dreams!"
* "What better reason is there!? The whole point of becoming a musician is to be popular, right?"
* "Dammit! It's like mind control! Baseball brainwashed me! But fine, whatever! I just wanna throw the ball around a little! But I can't play baseball by myself!"
* "I don't need practice! I just wanna play the game! Even an exhibition game or whatever!"
* "Yeah, they can't just drop someone as good as me! I'm sure they'll forgive me no problem! I mean it's me, right!? I'm the up-and-coming Koshien Stadium Superstar! Hehehe! You're gonna be there rooting for me, right!?"

**TMNT X Pokemon:**

* "I can throw it from here."
* "You want a piece of me, shithead?!"
* "Why do I have to clean up their mess?"

## TMNT X Pokemon

Leon can use his Ultimate Talent to throw an object to a button to escape. Noah and Rach teaches him how to play the electric guitar so he can become the Ultimate Musician instead of Ultimate Baseball Star

## Trivia

* In the *Danganronpa 1 (Trial Version)*, unlike the actual Bullet Time Battlewith Leon that happens in the end of the first class trial, the player will engage in a Bullet Time Battle at the beginning of the trial when Leon accuses Makoto of being the killer because he stutters multiple times.
* Leon's former high school, LL Academy, might be a reference to Little League.
* Notable Trivia specifically about his execution, **The 1,000 Blows**:
	+ Due to the brutality of it, it was censored in the *Danganronpa: The Animation* when it first aired on television. However, on the anime DVD, the execution can be seen uncensored.
	+ The design on Leon's shirt foreshadows his fate, as it depicts a skull being shattered from a heavy blow.
	+ The Execution the same execution he undergoes in *DISTRUST*, the beta of the first *Danganronpa* game. This explains why his execution is more brutal and gruesome compared to the others.
* Leon's English voice actor, Grant George is married to Sakura Ogami's English voice actress, Jessica Gee-George.
	+ His voice actor also voices Shuichi Saihara in *Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony*.[8]