Akio Suzuki

The content below contains **spoilers** for **Danganronpa: Siren's Ark**. Proceed with caution.

## Characteristics

### Likes

* Puzzles
* Mystery Novels
* Dark Chocolate

### Dislikes

* Background Noise
* Technology
* Errors

### Family

* ‡ Unnamed father
* Unnamed mother
* **Emi Suzuki**

## Fangan Info

### Voice Actors

soul eater will

**Akio Suzuki** is a main character and the protagonist of **Danganronpa: Siren's Ark**, an English Fangame made by **Voncreep**. He is the **Ultimate Journalist**.

## Appearance

Akio is a tall young adult who stands at 5'8", with blue eyes and dark brown hair. Although most of his hair is slicked to the side, a lock of hair has curled into his forehead. The sides of his head have been shaved.

Akio's attire consists of a long-sleeved blue dress shirt with a neatly tucked collar and a black tie. Over top of this he wears a long brown overcoat with a capelet that has an upright collar, thin blue ribbons, a belt that hangs over his shoulders, another that wraps around his left arm, and an emblem near the leftmost side. Across his shoulder, Akio wears a dark brown bag. He also wears a pair of blue pants, and a pair of dark brown shoes. In addition to this, Akio wears a pair of dark brown gloves. In some of his sprites, Akio is revealed to carry around a notepad, pen, and a tape recorder.

## Official Description

"Often seen as a lone wolf, Akio keeps mostly to himself outside. The few who've spoken to Akio in person often describe him as **[MANIPULATIVE]**, cunning and observant. Twisting their words and editing interviews to sway it becoming an **[INSTIGATOR]** for drama, tilting opinions of people in his favour for the sake of sensational headlines. Akio's talent was brought about by his work as a ghost writer selling stories to most major newspapers globally, specifically for his interviews and stories centred around other Ultimates.

Akio grew up in a typical family, his father worked as a private eye and his mom left her job as teacher after having Akio's younger sister, Emi. His father taught Akio all he knows about investigating and to always find "the truth". Though, after Akio's father was murdered with the case only being solved by Akio the truth **▇▇▇▇▇▇** isn't always what people want to hear, shifting Akio's mindset into sensationalism and drama, more than facts."

## History

### Early Life

Little is known about Akio's life currently. He lived with his mother and younger sister, Emi, after his father's murder.

### The Ark Foundation

Akio was one of the eighty students invited to a four-week paid experiment, ran by the Ark Foundation, an organization whose main focus is unlocking the potential in humans to reach the peak in their respective fields. At an unknown point in time, Akio and at least fifteen other Ultimates were captured and taken by Jakub Nowak, the Ultimate Military Tactician, and one of the people running the experiments. Akio is taken while checking in to his flight, in spite of Gracie's, a flight attendant who witnesses these events, best efforts to help assist his escape. At a later point in time, Akio wakes up to find himself on the Ark. Amai Kimoto, and Itazura Akiyama, the Ultimate Chemist and Ultimate Matchmaker respectively, are two of the first people Akio meets upon waking up. After getting accustomed to his surroundings, Akio leaves with Itazura to meet the other Ultimates.

After they finish, an anonymous announcement gathers the group to the function room, under the impression they would be there for orientation, they instead meet the Siren's, a group of three children who run the Ark. Trapped inside the room by rigged explosives, discovered by Asi, an AI made by Crest. After the rules of the killing game are explained, the participants split up for the day. Later that day, alone in his room, Akio receives an anonymous letter telling him to go to the store room two days from then.

## Personality

Often seen as a lone wolf, Akio keeps mostly to himself outside. The few who've spoken to Akio in person often describe him as manipulative, cunning and observant. Twisting their words and editing interviews to sway it becoming an instigator for drama, tilting opinions of people in his favour for the sake of sensational headlines.

His father taught Akio all he knows about investigating and to always find "the truth". Though, after Akio's father was murdered with the case only being solved by Akio the truth isn't always what people want to hear, shifting Akio's mindset into sensationalism and drama, more than facts.

## Talent and Abilities

### Ultimate Journalist

His dad was once a private eye before his untimely death. Akio gained most of his knowledge of investigating and journalism from his father, who taught him how to "always find the truth". After his father's murder, Akio was the only one to discover the truth. At some point in his life, Akio earned his title through his work as a ghost-writer, using his knowledge and methods to interview Ultimates, to later sell the information to major publications. In addition to his work under his pen-names, Akio works as a crime reporter, reporting on open and closed criminal cases.

## Creation and Development

During production, Akio's design changed several times. In one of his earliest designs, made during the later months of 2019, Akio was instead named "Akio Shazuki", and had the title of the "Ultimate ??? / Ultimate Private Eye". In his earliest sprites, Akio's design was largely different. Instead of brown hair he had black, and instead of blue eyes he had brown. His original attire consisted of a dark blue coat, a black V-shaped vest, a white dress shirt, a black tie, and a belt that wrapped around his waist. He also wore a large blue hat with a black ribbon and an emblem. After the large-scale art update during 2021, Akio's design and name were changed, now named Akio Suzuki based on Gracie's original name, at the time Emika Suzuki. While several details are still retained in his final design, his outfit changed drastically. With this design, Akio wore a dark blue overcoat with a black twisted belt that held a small black bag, had a notepad with the word 'PRESS' underlined and held by an arm ribbon, had a white shirt, and wore a pair of black pants and brown healed shoes.

## Trivia

* Inside Akio's room, there is a reference to Among Us on his pinboard.
* In original drafts for the game, Amai was the protagonist. She was later replaced by Akio during development. At the time, Akio would've been the deuteragonist of the game, a support character for Amai.
* Akio was the fourth character created for the game.
* In his title screen sprite, Akio wears a press ID card. This cannot be seen in his other sprites, and was likely scrapped at some point.
* His ahoge droops over his face to symbolize him not wanting to stand out.
* Akio's favourite colour is blue.

## References

1. ↑ **Prologue**: Kaiya and Saiya share a talent. There are sixteen people in total taken.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 **Prologue, "Destination Unknown"**
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 **Old Intro:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G9nYdyw6LE&list=PLPwW6GJEbw7gN84NKfCoUBTEuyzeaA0tS&index=4
4. ↑ **Old Intro (2):** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-UX9xnwV68&list=PLPwW6GJEbw7gN84NKfCoUBTEuyzeaA0tS&index=8
5. ↑ **Prologue, "Destination Unknown"**: Misty's Introduction