Taeko Kanai (DRT)

This article is about the character Taeko Kanai from *Danganronpa: Togami*. For other incarnations please see Taeko Kanai

## Taeko Kanai (DRT)

* Official Art
* DRT
* KFS4

## Debut

### Novel

*Danganronpa: Togami* Volume 1\*
Kagami Family Saga 4: Kagami Sisters in the Flying Classroom \*

**Taeko Kanai** (金井妙子) is a guest character, antagonist and reoccurring character featured in *Danganronpa: Togami* and the Kagami Family Saga. She saved Byakuya Togami and Blue Ink from the forces of Sonia Nevermind and is seemingly aligned with the Ketōin Conglomerate. She is known by her self-proclaimed title, **Cattle Slayer**.

#### Kagami Sisters in the Flying Classroom

Born in 1992, Taeko grew up to join the Hasegawa Research Institute as a "Torero" (Bullfighter), a group of people who were raised to fight against the "Toro" (Bullfighting), people with artificial special abilities and talents known as Kudans.

During this time, she was assigned to spy on the Ketōin Conglomerate's heirs, Yuika Ketōin and Hiroyuki Ketōin (though Hiroyuki was already aware of her true alignment to Hasegawa) and had developed an infatuation with Yuika. The reason for her becoming a spy was a result of the Ketōin Conglomerate being comprised of many Kudan makers.

For more please see Taeko Kanai (KFS).

### Working for Ketōin

*Main article: Danganronpa: Togami*
During the *World Domination Proclamation*, Taeko intercepted Sonia Nevermind and her forces from capturing Byakuya, by joining the fray and knocking out Sonia's guards with her guitar. This allowed Byakuya and Blue Ink to escape in Hiroyuki and Yuika's Mercedes. Taeko would re-unite with the group later when they were parked next to a demonstration against the *World Domination Proclamation*, proudly announcing how she defeated Sonia's forces, and snapping at Hiroyuki when he questioned her metaphor to use for it. She introduces herself to Byakuya and Blue Ink before attempting to climb in through the passenger window. However, because her chest gets stuck in the window, she is unable to enter.

Hiroyuki makes fun of her for it, and during this time she notices Yuika's sailor uniform. She immediately desires it for herself, and asks if she can have it vacuum sealed for her, but then gets it into her head then she needs to be naked in order to acquire it. As she struggles to undress herself, her commotion attracts the attention of the crowd who spot Byakuya and comes barreling towards the Mercedes. As a result, Hiroyuki has to floor it and leave her behind to deal with the protestors herself.

Taeko reappears later on at the Church of Bones, with Hiroyuki casually revealing her true alignment to Hasegawa (who had also arrived at the Church and is attacking with a Uragan that shoots air pressure), and her allies The Chief and Subordinate Kanai. She announces her presence by playing a rift from Lenny Kravitz' "Are You Gonna Go My Way" while she's on-top of the Uragan. From there, she leaps off it and attacks Sakura Ogami (who has learned about the truth of the situation and is on Byakuya's side again). She mocks Sakura for wasting her life on building her body and how she probably doesn't have a love life (which Sakura rebukes). In the end, Taeko is outmatched, but she was only trying to distract Sakura from the get go. During their fight, the Uragan was kicking up dust and hollowing the ground, which allowed Taeko to secretly plant landmines around the field, trapping Sakura. When Sakura points out that Taeko was trapped to, Taeko manages to escape by using the Hasegawa's Fulton system, allowing her to safely float away.

### Chasing Byakuya

Following the destruction of Despair High School, Taeko re-appears in a helicopter to capture Byakuya (who is in another helicopter with Aloysius Pennyworth and Blue Ink) and shoots down one of Byakuya's allied helicopters, while announcing their presence with her guitar by playing Espana Cani (which makes Blue Ink point out that Ride of the Valkyries would be more fitting for the situation). When Byakuya asks how would they go about capturing him, she presents Yuika who has been brainwashed with an octopus on her head, and is equipped with robotic tentacles that down another Byakuya allied helicopter. Taeko watches in lust as Yuika takes out Byakuya's gunner and continues to watch as Yuika uses perfect camouflage to enter the helicopter. But thanks to Blue Ink's quick thinking with her pen ink, Yuika is discovered and her camouflage is destroyed with Aloysius shotgun. When The Professor arrives on the scene with reinforcements for Hasegawa's side (all with the same weaponry as Yuika), Taeko chides him for arriving late.

Ultimately, she doesn't join in further because Aloysius kicks out Yuika from Byakuya's helicopter and she dives down with her chopper to save her. When she re-joins the aerial battle, she is enraged at Kazuichi Soda's inventions interfering with their mission (statues of various Saints that have been weaponized) and leaps out of the helicopter, statue to statue, to smash them. In the end, she fails to re-capture Byakuya, who parachutes to safety alongside Blue Ink when their helicopter comes under attack from ground forces resulting in their ride going into a free fall, with Aloysius getting forced out by the last remaining soldier of the Hasegawa Research Institute.

### Taeko's Fate

Later that day, Taeko, alongside a vast number of 'Tentacles' soldiers and being on-top of the Uragan, intercept the United Nations train convoy which had captured Byakuya, Blue Ink and the Ultimate Imposter, with the express interest of capturing the affluent progeny. As a result, her side gets into a fierce battle with the UN soldiers, leading to many casualties for both. During this fight, Taeko finds Blue Ink (who is with Kazuya Togami, the leader of the UN forces in Prague) and demands to know where Byakuya is. By this point, its been revealed to Blue Ink that the organization that Taeko works for is not the Hasegawa Research Institute, but in actuality, the Kasamori Drug Manufacturers. As such, when Blue Ink questions if she's working for Hasegawa, it only makes her confused. Because she can't waste anymore time, she tries to kill them with the Uragan, when its clear they know nothing.

Right before she can do so, a sightseeing bus crashes onto the scene, killing numerous soldiers from both sides. The bus crashes into one of the UN trains, causing a massive explosion. The one responsible for this, Suzuhiko Ōtsuki, had rushed out prior to the collision and was rapidly cutting down any stragglers with his knives. To finish things off, he rushes to the Uragan and leaps on top of it where Taeko was. She could only let out a 'hey' before Suzuhiko kills her, first by slitting her throat and then outright completely slicing her to pieces. After her death, Suzuhiko remarks the gap in talent was merely too big. Suzuhiko then steps on and squashes whats left of her corpse.

### Taeko's Identity

It is eventually revealed that Taeko Kanai is not her real name, and was an obfuscation by the K2K system. Her real identity is unknown but she worked for the Germans as apart of Kasamori Drug Manufacturers. German political figures had major stock investment in Kasamori, so using them to stage attacks against foreign invaders, and to capturing Byakuya, seemed to be their true intention. Her name, appearance, and mannerisms were all replaced in real time by Taeko Kanai from the Kagami Family Saga, specifically her first appearance in *Kagami Sisters in the Flying Classroom*. This is due to the K2K System reading such books and overlaying it with Augmented Reality, explaining how she could appear during the *World Domination Proclamation*. Thus, it remains unknown to what her true identity actually was. This also means the Kagami Family Saga book series is an in-universe novel, as well as being a real one.

## Appearance

Taeko is described as a big-breasted redhead, dressed in a blue and white schoolgirl's uniform, as well as carrying a red and white Gibson Explorer electric guitar. Since the K2K System replaced her true appearance with Taeko from the Kagami Family Saga, it is unknown what the 'true' Taeko looks like.

## Personality

Taeko is an energetic, hot-headed and crass young woman that's confident in her skills as a 'Cattle Slayer', fearlessly rushing into combat against armed forces and even one of the strongest people on the planet, Sakura Ogami, armed with only her guitar. She's also proficient in hand-to-hand combat, and her abilities to come out virtually unscathed up until her run in with Suzuhiko. Taeko has a crush on Yuika Ketōin and throughout the events in Prague, openly lusts for her to the point it can sidetrack her from her actual goal if Yuika is actually in danger or it revolves around her. That said, she is not above brainwashing her crush and forcing her to fight against her allies, showcasing a lack of care for Yuika's feelings and putting her own desires above any sense of morals. When it comes to her allies from the Kasamori Drug Manufacturers, she isn't above chiding them for lateness, but does admire and appreciate their work.

However, to anyone else, she can be rather rude and quick to anger, as well as showing no regards in even trying to kill those who go against her or her organization. She states proudly during her introduction that she only kills the weak and defeated. While brash and quick to fight, she's also willing to let other people do her job if they have the capacity to, and has shown a degree of cleverness with her landmine trick during her fight with Sakura. Taeko has also expressed musical proficiency with her guitar as she's able to play rifts from many songs without any issue, and the fact she plays these before encounters with an enemy suggests a flair for the dramatic. However, since the K2K System overlayed this new personality over her real one, it is unknown what the 'true' Taeko is like.

### Yuika Ketōin & Hiroyuki Ketōin

Taeko's mission was to spy on both Hiroyuki and Yuika for the Hasegawa Research Institute. During this time, she was willing to work with them (such as assisting in saving Byakuya from Sonia Nevermind) and genuinely became attracted to Yuika, to the point where she could lust over her belongings like her school uniform if it came from her. However, she was quite aggressive and rude with Hiroyuki, who had no qualms in making jabs about her predicaments or even leaving her to fend off a mob by herself (though this attitude could be chalked up to him knowing she was a traitor). As for Yuika, ultimately, she doesn't reciprocate any of her affection, even after she gets brainwashed by Taeko, though it doesn't stop Taeko from fawning over her. In the end, Taeko was willing to sever her ties with the Ketōin Conglomerate if it was required of her, but her feelings for Yuika lead to the kidnapping and brainwashing of the conglomerate heiress.

**Togami Corporation:**
### Byakuya Togami & Blue Ink

When Taeko initially meets both Byakuya and Blue Ink, she greets them affably, and ensures that she wouldn't hurt them (that was reserved for the weak). However, after she openly becomes their enemy, she's more than willing to go on the offensive in order to capture Byakuya, and even attack his allies if its to remove them from the situation or acquire information. Byakuya has shown irritation with her antics during their confrontations, with Blue Ink feeling the same way, albeit she acknowledges how dangerous Taeko's attempts can be. During their final meeting, Taeko outright tries to murder Blue Ink once its clear the secretary knows nothing about Byakuya's whereabouts.

**Hasegawa Research Institute:**
### The Chief, Subordinate Kanai & The Professor

Taeko is loyal to Hasegawa but isn't above doing things her own way. She is seen working together as a team with Chief and Subordinate Kanai, and later on with Professor. She is entrusted by them to go out on spying and attacking missions, including with experimental equipment such as the 'Octopussy',also known as 'Tentacles Gear', a genetically engineered and partially robotic octopus invented by Professor that can take control of a human parasitically to become a 'Tentacles' Soldier. Given the fact that in reality, she is working for the Kasamori Drug Manufacturers, and all of these people were overwritten by the K2K System, her true feelings to her comrades are unknown.

## Quotes

*Danganronpa: Togami* (Japanese)

* "How do you do? Your wellbeing is of utmost importance. Call me Taeko Kanai! I'm a cattle slayer!"
* "Pieces of trash become trashier. Tissue paper becomes flimsier. I, Taeko Kanai, bring defeat to all of the weak, and bring hell to each and every one of the defeated!"
* "Fear not. I cull the weak!!"

## Trivia

* Her first name, "Taeko" (金井), is both the Japanese for "gold" (金) and "good" (井). Her last name, "Kanai" (妙 子) translates to "strange child".
* She uses the term Torero, a male bullfighter, to describe herself. This is not a mistake as in Kagami Family Saga, the Torero Bullfighters are a group.
* Another Hasegawa researcher, Subordinate Kanai, shares the same last name and hair color as her, however it is unknown if they are related.
	+ She also shares he same first name as Taeko Yasuhiro.
* In Danganronpa: Togami, she openly shows attraction to members of the same sex, and in the Kagami Family Saga, it is confimred she is indeed openly homosexual.
* Her official artwork comes from the Kagami Family Saga's artist Icco Sasai.