Kotaro Koshimizu

"I agree with Rei on one thing: stop being stupid. Stop killing yourselves. Although I have little right to say that..."

- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Kotaro Koshimizu (小清水 光太郎) was a student at Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th and participant at the Killing School Life. He got famous after redrawing and rewriting a manga's last chapters; he didn't sell it since it was not his original work. Due to all that and his posterior works as a drawer, Kotaro recieved the title of Ultimate Fanfic Creator (超高校級の同人作家, lit. Super High School Level Dojin Author).

Appearance
Kotaro was a considerably tall, slim young man with fair complex and deep eyebags under his grey eyes. He had messy, short black hair and is most of the time with a tired expression. His school uniform consisted of a black blazer and gray pants with dark green accents and red tie. Kotaro was actually incredibly neat for someone who doesn't seem to care about appearances. In addition, he always carried a sketchbook.

Personality
Kotaro was a quite rude and agressive person due to his lack of sleep. At first, he treated everyone quite badly and didn't seem to care about others at all. Although, he was the first one to easily accept their situation and was willing to open his classmates' eyes about the killing game. As the chapter passes, Kotaro showed that he was, actually, quite thoughtful about the others and valued teamwork but didn't like interacting as he is most like the lone wolf type.

He hold a huge grudge against Sapphire Tennoji due to her toxic personality and constantly teased her with curses and similar just to see her angry. It is heavily implied that he may liked her. Kotaro didn't take deaths easily and was sad for all the deaths, Sapphire's one included. He had dreams on his own but most likely didn't want to kill anyone, as Anna Kiryuin's sudden death by his hands was merely provocated by her and he even apologized to the survivors as he didn't want the game to continue.

Talent and Abilities
Kotaro was skilled drawer and did many famous works as he passed his childhood watching anime and reading manga. He gained a lot of money selling his original work and lots of fans with his fan-made comics. His style of drawing is said to be very clean but very complex at the same time, that appear to be real life at same time it doesn't, transmitting successfully the characters' emotions through differents ways of shadowing. Apparently, he sings well, too.

Early life
He was born in a normal family and always showed signs to follow the artist's path. As he started watching anime and then buying manga to read, his desire to become just like the authors of his favorite mangas. At middle school, Kotaro finally started making dojin and the first one ever released was a rewrite of a manga's ending that he didn't like; since it wasn't something entirely originl, he didn't sell it and merely posted it online. In a short space of time, it became really popular and he gained a ton of followers. In his social media network, Kotaro shared his sketches, previews of his next works and things about his personal life – many didn't believe that he was a high schooler at the time he started receiving donations from his fans so that he could continue doing his work.

He used to attend Green Valley High School (緑谷高校) before he was invited by Hope's Peak.

Killing School Life
Kotaro was between the sixteen trapped within the school. He woke up somewhere near the dorms and was found by Amaya Hayama and Yukio Shizukane who where looking around the school and introducing themselves to the other students. As Monokuma presented their eternal lives in the school, Kotaro was the first one to actually accept and clearly understand the situation they were in. He adviced his classmates to not use their own standards and points of view to judge someone else's mind.

During chapter one, Kotaro remained stoic and skeptical about everything, incluiding interacting with everyone. He didn't appear much shocked with his motive video. Before Ryo Fukukado's death, he was invited by the gambler to play in his room alongisde Miki Kagurazaka and Yukio Shizukane. After Ryo and Enju Otsuka's deaths, he opened up a little to the group. He started to enjoy pissing off Sapphire for some reason but it was like he viewed himself in her but in a worse state. He also wasn't too entusiastic about his secret being revealed. In a fatidic night, they met and talked, Kotaro noticing that she was willing to change, even if not now. The next day, she was found dead and he was quite side for that.

At the class trial, Kotaro also didn't believe at first that Mayumi Kirisaki could be the potencial killer, even if not the direct. He accepted quickly that it was her after Yukio showed them the evidence of her former identity as Takako Chigusa. He defended Sapphire and acted in an empathetic way with Mayumi, he seemed to understand her reasons. After the double execution, Kotaro was left doubfounded by Monokuma's bold attitude.

At chapter three, he was happy to find a room to pass his time. Like the others, he got worried as Alter Ego was stolen. As Monokuma presented the money motive, Kotaro didn't to be shaken by that, although deeper, he wanted that chas for himself. In a day, he met Anna Kiryuin. She asked for some paper and a pen, which he gave her (even confused by her strange behaviour). She, however, gave the paper back to him, which said that he could accomplish his dreams, he just had to believe, handing him a hammer from the repository. Kotaro thought for a moment. He knew that they both would be dead if he did what she wanted him to do, but he did that. Kotaro did kill Anna in the end.

At the class trial, Kotaro didn't fight against his classmates and admitted quickly that he was the culprit. He then apologized to everyone and got executed afterwards.

Creation and Development
Kotaro was not that hard to make as Miika just thought about some of her artist friends and how they deal with comissions and things like that. That's how Kotaro was born. His surname came from Ibuki Mioda's voice actor, Ami Koshimizu and means "little and pure water". His name means "first son of light" (光太郎) and came from his first sketch for another story.

Trivia

 * Yukio's first impression about Kotaro was follow: "Well, he seems to be in a very bad mood, but it's normal, it sucks that the drawers suffer a lot when their deadlines increase, sleeping little and getting more and more stressed, but I believe that good gifts and free time events will make him join my team of friendship."
 * Kotaro's favorite manga is Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * Kotaro's former high school name is based of in the My Hero Academia's protagonist, Izuku Midoriya.