HAJIME HINATA

Hajime Hinata is the main protagonist in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and he is one of the few characters to not possess any Ultimate talent. However, once fusing with Izuru Kamukura after exiting the Neo World Program, he also was able to possess Izuru’s abilities of using all known Ultimate talents that Hope’s Peak had researched. Unlike some of the other protagonists, Hajime is considered the more “cynical” and blunt out of all of them, but it’s better to call him a “realist.” He tends to be easily skeptical about abnormal situations, and quick to overthink if things are the tiniest ounce of suspicious. Despite his pretty serious personality, though, he is still able to joke around with his classmates and go along with their more “eccentric” personalities, even if it can make him feel a bit out of place. But because of his more serious and logical outlook, he isn’t afraid to make a few snarky comments to himself and act a bit sarcastic, and not afraid to speak his mind or snap back if you annoy him enough (and depending on who it is… it can be pretty easy). So he can be seen as a bit short-tempered and impatient to some of his classmates, especially when tired or under pressure. When pushed comes to shove, he can even resort to try to fight back physically (as seen in Dr3: Despair Arc when confronting Juzo), which the other protagonists would probably never do. Despite his more “negative” attitude in comparison to his fellow protagonists and realistic views, in reality, he’s a good guy at heart and extremely thoughtful for others, and does genuinely care for them when in trouble. According to the artbook, he likes to try to spend time or talk with anyone, regardless of gender. He also seems to be quite skilled to listening to other people’s problems and providing good advice when needed - Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu even said he could be the Ultimate Counciler based on this trait. Because of these traits, some of his friends have even teasingly referred to him as a “tsundere.” Despite not talking about it much and his attempts to hide it, Hajime is super insecure about his lack of talent - especially being surrounded by a bunch of Ultimate students. So when attending Hope’s Peak as a Reserve Course student (meant for students with no talents), he becomes even more insecure and bitter about this. However, Chiaki Nanami reassures him that he’s able to, and should, live life as he want’s to - talent or no talent, which has helped Hajime a lot.

Voices for Reference (ENG, Dr2 and V3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFSxerYAu_U

Voice for Reference (ENG Anime): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSi3L0Nt8sQ

Voices for Reference (JPN): https://youtu.be/xjq5KXyLeKQ?t=48

Voice Comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpV2hen5Kv0

IZURU KAMUKURA (CW: Human experimentation) 

Izuru Kamukura is one of the main antagonists in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and his title is the Ultimate Hope. Izuru was created by Hope’s Peak Academy by using Hajime Hinata, a Reserve Course student, as essentially a “lab rat” to research their plan of artificially creating talent and implanting it into a person who lacks talent. Because of his admiration for Hope’s Peak, and because of how people treated him during his time at the Reserve Course, Hajime finally snapped and decided to offer himself to “be their hope.” Exploiting his feelings for the sake of experimentation, they suppressed everything that made Hajime himself - they surgically excised his senses, emotions, thoughts, and hobbies. Whatever they deemed to be an “interference,” they suppressed deep into the darkest recesses of his mind, including his memories of his past life. 

Izuru is a very cold, quiet, and emotionless person, finding everything in life dull and predictable: in his words, “how boring.” Though he does have some somewhat “polite” tendencies to some, 99% of the time, he’s extremely stoic and nonchalant. According to Izuru himself, he was taught to despise people without talent, claiming theyre all “parasites” that leech off of the talented. Because of his immense boredom and lack of empathy or apathy, he’s able to witness even the most grusome things without being the slightest bit unfazed, such as the tragedy and Chisa’s brainwashing. Due to this immense boredom, he is interested in unpredictability as it may cause him to feel more emotional, but in the end, he always defaults back to feeling bored again - which is probably why Izuru first went along with Junko’s plan on the tragedy. However, as time went on, it’s revealed that despite feeling sympathy for others, Izuru doesn’t agree nor support Junko’s enjoyment and thriving on the suffering for others - possibly one of the reasons he then became an “observer” of the tragedy=y instead of an active participant, though was still classified as a remnant. However, because of Hajime’s attachment to Chiaki in his past life, Izuru does express some interest in her and the only person he actively somewhat mourns for during the tragedy, sheding tears when she dies (unbeknownst to why Izuru does it) and holding onto her hairpin.

Voices for Reference (ENG Anime): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyqo4_rt4s0

Voices for Reference (JPN): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmkrnP8GC6Q

Voices for Reference (JPN Anime): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ2dgqytuAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE8VTcHWA_o

FUSED HAJIME HINATA

At the end of Dr3: Hope Arc, It is revealed that after fusing with Izuru Kamukura after exiting the Neo World Program, he decided to live on as who he was before - Hajime Hinata. With that, he preserves his memories and recovers the old ones that he lost before becoming Izuru Kamukura. However, it seems like the two personalities of Hajime and Izuru have mixed together. While mostly behaving and acting as the Hajime he was and carrying his name, he does still tend to get easily bored and can game moments of not feeling any emotion. But for the most part, the person we see is the Hajime Hinata we all know and love.

Honestly, I'm fine with all of the interpretations for his voice here - all of his VA's did great and I think they all suit Hajime super well! So go crazy!