Tofudemaru

**Tofudemaru** (more commonly referred to as **Tofu**) is the creator, artist, writer, composer, and editor for *Penguinronpa* and its bonus content. They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns. Tofu also appears in non-canon Penguinronpa bonus material, occasionally interacting with the characters.

## Appearance

Tofu tends to appear in the form of their internet persona, which is the *Pokémon* Togedemaru. The fur on top of their head is sticking up in several areas to resemble a messy hairstyle, and they wear a bright yellow jacket. Unlike Togedemaru in the *Pokémon* series, Tofu is usually depicted with yellow paw pads (toe beans) on all four of their paws.

## Creating Penguinronpa

Tofu was inspired to create a Fanganronpa on Instagram after seeing the influx of "Instaronpa" accounts on the platform. Lazyronpa, Kirbyronpa, and the original Marioronpa were some of the first accounts that made Tofu realize the concept was becoming a trend. Along with Club Penguin, Tofu also considered making an Instaronpa based off of Banjo-Kazooie or Gravity Falls, but ultimately settled on Club Penguin. One of the biggest factors in Club Penguin's favor was that the island of the game already had existing backgrounds that the series could use, rather than the standard Hope's Peak Academy backgrounds most Instaronpas were using at the time.

Tofu began developing Penguinronpa in late October 2019, and started posting the series to Instagram on December 1st, 2019. Unlike most Instaronpas, Tofu also uploads their fangan to YouTube, because they feel it's a good way to archive and easily look back on the series. On December 12th, 2019, the Prologue video was uploaded, marking the first Penguinronpa video released on the channel.

Tofu continues to change and flesh out certain aspects of Penguinronpa as they post the chapters, but has largely stuck to the original outline they wrote in 2019. Currently, Tofu has finished five full chapters of the story, and is on a hiatus from posting as they prepare for the final chapter.

## Penguinronpa Appearances

### Instagram Q+As

Tofu often does Q+As with their audience on the stories of the Penguinronpa Instagram account. Their first Q+A was on December 15th, 2019 to celebrate reaching 200 followers on the account. Their next Q+A was on August 7th, 2020 where they appeared as their human persona. They appeared shortly after in a Monobert Q+A on August 22nd, 2020 where Monobert seemed to have hijacked the Penguinronpa account. The first Q+A with Tofu to feature their Togedemaru persona was on their birthday Q+A, on December 17th, 2020. Tofu continues to do Q+As to this day, usually featuring their *Pokémon* persona.

### Penguinronpa Holiday Special (2020)

Tofu plays a major role in the end of the first Penguinronpa Holiday Special. After Agent, Dot, Klutzy, Cadence, and Franky spend the majority of the special searching for Rockhopper, they find him atop the Tallest Mountain where he confesses to hiding due to a lack of sprites. Agent suggests the only one who can give Rockhopper more sprites is Tofu, so they summon them using the notes to the song "Gadget Room". After Tofu is summoned, they reveal that they would like to give Rockhopper more sprites, but are unable to because doing so would cause the universe to collapse. Shortly after such a concept is mentioned, the universe begins to collapse anyway, and most of the characters appear with strange sprites. Tofu returns the universe to normalcy by declaring that Rockhopper will only have two sprites. At the end of the special, Tofu remarks that "the world just doesn't have enough hope for something that monumental". They also say that they've given Rockhopper another present, and that "Holiday spirit" is the key to finding it. Jeff the Ref appears and wishes everyone a Happy Holidays, which prompts Tofu to warn everyone to run.

In the credits of the special, Tofu is credited for starring as themself.

### Penguinronpa Halloween Special (2021)

Tofu does not directly appear in the Halloween Special, though they are mentioned a few times. Jeff alludes to them by saying that "someone" can get away with re-using assets by having Rory appear in the same costume as the previous Halloween Special. (The text is even highlighted yellow, referencing Tofu's favorite color.) Skip also references them when he and Jeff are warped to the Q+A universe, where he criticizes Tofu for saying "uwu" while asking for questions.

Tofu does make a brief appearance in the credits of the Halloween Special however, where they are credited as a "Small Fuzzy Ball Thing That Probably Contributed To The Production Of This Cinematic Masterpiece In Some Way Shape Or Form", along with the Elite Puffles, who are each dressed up as a Togedemaru.

### 12 Days of Penguinronpa (Holiday Special 2021)

On the first day of the Holiday Special, Agent says that they've received a new message from Tofu, saying that they actually will be doing a Holiday Special this year. The fourth day of the special occurs on December 17th, which is Tofu's birthday. Rockhopper initially suggests the importance of the date is that it's the seventh anniversary of the airing of *We Wish You a Merry Walrus*, but then realizes that it's also the birthday of "the landlubber who only gave him two sprites". During the verse, Aunt Arctic is seen holding a Jiggy-shaped present, referencing Tofu's fondness for the Banjo-Kazooie franchise. The twelfth and final day of the special ends with a framed photo of all the characters gathered together, and in the bottom right corner, Tofu's paw can be seen holding the photo, along with their yellow paw print stamped onto the picture frame.

In the YouTube exclusive ending scene of the special, Tofu is seen praising Bernie, Iggy, and Dancing Penguin for assisting with the production of the special. To make up for the fact that none of them got to sing in the special, Tofu gives the three of them a present, and quickly leaves before the three penguins actually open it. Inside the present is three envelopes, stamped shut with an emblem comprised of four Tic-Tac-Toe code symbols, translating to "PJSZ".

### Mario Day Special (2022)

Tofu makes a brief cameo in the Mario Day Special, where they are seen glaring at Luigi in anguish alongside Starlow.

In Goombella's notes in the Google Drive, she encountered Tofu after her portal transported her to the Penguinronpaverse. Tofu asks for Goombella's help with setting up the Mario Day Celebration, explaining how real characters from the Mario universe appear in the special.

### Penguinronparonpa: The Penguinronpa Danganronpa Special

Tofu is mentioned during the trial at the end of the special, where they were apparently distracted by Monobert and Junko Enoshima after being given a Nintendo 64 and a copy of *Banjo-Kazooie*, indirectly allowing Monobert and Junko to take over the Penguinronpaverse without their interference.

In the post-credits scene of the special, Tofu calls Jeff on an EPF Phone, and warns him that Plot Holes have begun appearing in the Dimensional Hub, caused by the constant breaking of reality in the non-canon universe. Tofu believes that if enough Plot Holes appear, they will have the power to destroy all worlds in the Penguinronpaverse, and says that they have to be extra careful from now on.

In a short animation at the very end, Tofu contains the Plot Holes in a magic wrench, which quickly displays a warning message to them, urging them to get away from it. Tofu unlocks the Box Portal labeled "PJSZ" with their tail, and throws the wrench inside, causing the portal to vanish completely.

### Penguinronpa Holiday Special (2022)

Unlike most Penguinronpa bonus specials, Tofu has a starring role in the 2022 Holiday Special. Tofu is seen very anxious and paranoid at the start of the special because they haven't planned anything for it yet. They ask Rockhopper, Gary, and Aunt Arctic to ad-lib a special about Rockhopper drinking Sprite Cranberry, but it quickly falls apart. Tofu declares that Penguinronpa specials need to be completely nonsensical in order to be entertaining, and then begins to rapidly change the background. They realize they might be breaking reality by doing this, and quickly check the Dimensional Hub to make sure nothing bad happened. Once they return, Gary uses his Forced-Scene-Change 3000 on Tofu to get them out of the cabin and to take a walk to clear their mind.

Once outside, Tofu encounters Agent, who accompanies them on a walk to the top of the Tallest Mountain. Tofu tells Agent that they've been focusing so much on the non-canon aspects of Penguinronpa instead of the canon story because they're not ready for it to end yet. After talking for a while, both Agent and Tofu start feeling very existential about their fictional and real lives respectively. Tofu tells Agent that it shouldn't matter whether either of them are real or not, because eventually they both won't exist anymore, and they should just be happy with the fact that they mean something to each other in the present.

Tofu and Agent return to the cabin with the others and decide to end the special with a "rushed doodle montage of cutesy holiday CGs". At the end of the montage, the drawing on-screen fades into a real-life recording of the drawing, with a Togedemaru plush staring at the screen. The script of both the Holiday Special itself and Penguinronpa Chapter 6 are shown, with dialogue from Tofu saying, "There is much to be done, and though the road ahead is long, I will waddle on."

## Trivia

* Tofu started playing *Club Penguin* in December 2007, and began to lose interest in 2012 due to drastic changes to the game. They got back into it in 2017 when the original game was shutting down.
* Tofu had two penguin accounts on the original *Club Penguin* website- A Light Blue penguin named "FuzzyFoo97", and an Orange penguin named "Timmywhobird". These penguins made a cameo appearance during the Chapter 2 motive, alongside Bernie, Iggy, and a Yellow Puffle.
* Tofu identifies as both pansexual and asexual, and realized they were non-binary because of Agent.
* Tofu is dating EmpireSpade, the creator of Ronpa & Friends series.
	+ The two pranked their Discord servers once by drawing a sprite for new characters in each others' styles, and uploading them into each others' Google Drives, leading their readers to think they accidentally leaked a new character. Spade drew Petey K, and Tofu drew Cuckoo Loca.
		- This is referenced in 12 Days of Penguinronpa, when Petey K appears with the Penguin Band on the eleventh day, a plush toy of Cuckoo Loca can be seen on the fireplace in the background.
* Tofu was interviewed by IGN about Penguinronpa, and had an article published on the site.
	+ Tofu considers this to be the funniest thing that has happened to them so far during the course of Penguinronpa's run.
* In the Penguinronpa Discord Server, the Server Owner role Tofu has is named "Director". They also have a channel called "Iceberg", where they post behind-the-scenes content and sneak peeks for Penguinronpa.
* Tofu has an art account on Instagram, where they post Penguinronpa bonus content or other unrelated artwork.

* Tofu enjoys hiding encrypted codes throughout the Penguinronpa series, and has made them more difficult to solve the faster people have figured them out. Their love of codes was inspired by the several cryptograms in *Gravity Falls.*
* In the 2022 Holiday Special, Tofu wears a yellow knit beanie hat with a smiley face on it. This is a reference to something Tofu wore in their old online persona from 2016-2017.

## External Links

* Tofu's YouTube channel
* Tofu's Twitter account
* Tofu's Instagram account
* Tofu's Twitch account
* Tofu's Tumblr account (inactive)