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shockersalvage · 2 months

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Salvage Showcase- Polaris P. Polanski

Assuming I get this out in time, this Showcase is dedicated to the most popular character in Danganronpa Togami has to offer in the fandom and on the day of Volume 3's release! If its not Shinobu Togami you heard about, you probably hear this girl's name dropped every now and again and for pretty understandable reasons given who she is!

Time to take a dive into the great Polaris P. Polanski!!!!

(...Who doesn't have official art so I'm just using the Vol 2 cover of DRT in its stead)

Summary

Now, Polaris is a character that plays a role in the events of the Legacy Crown Championship in the 2nd volume of Danganronpa Togami. She is Suisei Nanamura's assistant, at best 13 years old at the time, and travels to the LCC to Castle Toajo after Mitsuzo Togami hires Suisei to solve the case of mysterious killings in the competition.

Now, compared to her eccentric boss, she is very silent and has taken to pretty much following Suisei around. Suisei entrusts her to go through evidence or handle them, regardless if the contents are embarrassing or even gorey. Best shown off when, on the ninth day, Suisei announces that he has figured out the culprit - which was Kazuya Togami. During this meeting to discuss such a claim, she hands over Saburo's camera (that has been recording himself in the buff dancing) and was tasked with holding the bag that contains the severed head of Yoru. The latter piece of evidence is the nail in the coffin that had Kazuya initially tossed into the dungeon...

Only for it to 'be revealed' that Mitsuzo was the culprit in a confession note left behind as Mitsuzo appeared to have killed himself. With their client dead, Suisei leaves the LCC on a helicopter and one assumes that Polaris would have done the same.

Except! No, she doesn't! She secretly stays behind and begins working on trying to figure out the 'reliance' that will crown the winner of the LCC and heir of the Togami Conglomertate. In the end? When the chaos of the killings of the LCC had the castle burn down, Polaris would be one of the survivors: having not only figured out what the reliance was, but also finding Shinobu Togami to escort her to safety. As Shinobu wakes up, Polaris has whispered what the reliance was into a tape recorder: and was deemed correct. Thus, making her the official heir to the company!!

Or rather...he. In actuality, Polaris was just Byakuya Togami in crossdress, disguising himself as a girl to infiltrate the LCC (he figured he'd get close to it eventually while working as Suisei's assistant since the detective only takes high profile cases). Byakuya was apart of the hundreds of other Togami kids who were disqualified from even participating in the event due to their Mother's social standing and had been working to sneak himself for a long while. First by acting asa day trader and then as the aformentioned assistant to Suisei.

With his victory secured, Byakuya offers Shinobu to come with him to be his secretary with the other participants dead or missing (like her brothers) and since Shinobu lacked either Hope or Despair - aspects that'd he find use in someone that can write an untainted view of his autobiography. She accepts, though does request one thing: that he calls her big sis! Which gets him taken aback as much as your average teen boy does.

Considering Polaris is Byakuya, her personality is pretty similar to him. She's intelligent, cold, serious, and has no issues in doing unnerving tasks if it means she can get ahead or do her job. While in the LCC she maintains a quiet demeanor, very rarely speaking, when her job is done, she's free to express her usual stern, and critical nature towards others below her.

In particular, Polaris shows disdain towards how the LCC is operated by the Togami Conglomerate, primarily in regard to who is chosen based off their pedigree and acting as if someone from an unknown background can't be the heir (which might implicate Byakuya being from an unknown background himself?)

Yet, in regard to the event featuring Polaris, it should be noted that the flashback itself was a shared unreality memory for both Kazuya and Blue Ink. When we consider Byakuya's account in-game, where he says he was one of the participants, it makes rather unlikely for him to done the alter ego of Polaris or even be Suisei's assistant.

Rundown

In DRT's theming, Reality vs Unreality, and how it affects Byakuya as a character, Polaris represents a major aspect of our Ultimate Heir in using an aspect of Unreality, deceit, as a positive (if only for himself).

From tossing out his glasses that had a tracker on it, in order to fool their enemies and get them off their backs, to faking his death to even Blue Ink during a confrontation with Hasegawa Research Institute, to taking credit for the WDP in order to use it for his own domination conquest, to becoming Polaris even become the heir to the Togami Conglomerate to, most importantly, wiping away Kudan into Blue Ink: Byakuya is no stranger to deceiving both ally and enemy in the WDP in order to get ahead for himself. And this isn't a unique DRT trilogy trait either, remember Byakuya in DR1's infamous moment? Where he tampered with Chihiro's body just to reveal Genocide Jack amongst their group and know who to watch out for when/if he decided to become a blackened? Deceit, even if it makes others thinks less of him or intefers with his allies, is a valued tool of Byakuya when push comes to shove, which does make him legitimately tricky to deal with on top of his high intellect.

Which actually contrasts the other protagonists of DRT (or POV trio) remarkably well in their outings with Unreality. For both Kazuya and Blue Ink, the story makes it clear that they are pretty much being strung along by the whims of their Borges' Story AI, unable to see the truth until late into the WDP (and how they handle that is very different). As for Moleman, despite what he thinks is his past, his entire being as an alter is just a falsehood used by the main personality of Suzuhiko Otsuki to make his killings easier. Basically, all three POV Togami's are depicted as being unknowingly under and/or, even if aware, suffering from the effects of essentially living life under a lie. They are not in control of the narrative woven by others for them, at least, up until Shinobu goes through her development in Volume 3.

But Byakuya? He differs in that he's usually depicted as being the controller or just a user of Unreality. He's not generally caught up in it, but is the one crafting/going along with a false narrative that has enemies pretty much still struggling to keep up and trap him (well, that and having assistance from his few allies), despite essentially having the upperhand or dead to rights. Polaris is pretty much the epitome of this dynamic, even if probably not real, with her being able to come onto the island and take the crown without alerting anyone to her true identity, whilst almost everyone else pretty much killed each other in the mysteries of what was essentially a self-started killing game.

This also makes his actions in the final book of DRT hit that much harder. When he chose not to take over the world, it also meant he was now choosing to submit to being under Unreality, choosing to believe a lie that Ultimate Despair would have crafted that obfuscates the truth of the WDP, hinder his talent and cut his relationship with Blue Ink. All of that, just to save Blue Ink's life. For a character defined by his self-centeredness, even in the trilogy itself, him going for a major sacrifice like that is very telling of his true heart underneath his ego and what he eventually gets back post-DR1 (after some development during that killing game as well).

Personal Thoughts

Polaris is a funny case to me! As said before, she is pretty much just Byakuya and, even then, its very possible that her existence beyond Unreality is, well, non-existant. It doesn't help matters, she only appear in just a long flashback and barely has much of a role in events too until the end.

But that said, she's pretty much the most popular character to come from the DRT trilogy and its not hard to see why (...well aside from the fact she is a mainline character) ! For one, the idea of Polaris gives a layer and interest to Byakuya in a few ways. The most obvious being his interest in crossdress, even if only for a means to an end, is something that gets people's head's turning over Byakuya's sexuality in question and is just a fun concept to explore with such a serious character (and him going on to dress as a nun and state he doesn't mind wearing women's clothes is just so much fuel to use).

Another layer him being Polaris brings is his potential connection with Suisei. Byakuya crossdressing is one thing, but him being an assistant to an eccentric, yet corrupt detective? Someone's whose own arrogance and high intellect towards life reflects onto Byakuya? How much of Suisei rubbed off on Byakuya? They seemed like a stable pair working together, so is it possible Suisei knew about Byakuya's true identity all along? That's not even getting into the parallels between him and Kyoko, being stronger given her connection with Suisei in the DRK series. It's brief, but its a dynamic that has quite a bit of potential to gleam through, if you see assume that even outside of Unreality, there was a possibility that Byakuya diid become Suisei's assistant for a time.

Finally, there's the possibility of Polaris herself not coming from a well off home given her talk with Blue Ink at the end of the LCC, after she won (and her bitterness over people outside the ranking system not being able to compete). Now we know in-game Byakuya was a participant in the LCC for real, so him sneaking into the competition is just false. That said, it could still be possible he had to very much work his ass off from nothing just to be accepted into the real LCC (which is very likely given just how much of the true event is left pretty vague). It gives a real credence to his arrogance and his actual appreciation for hard work, since it means he was legitimately working himself in not just the LCC, but throughout his entire life, into become the powerful Ultimate Heir we know of him as today and gets you wondering if the reason why he's such a condescending jerk is because he's projecting his struggles and victories onto everyone else.

Though, as you all know by now, DRT is not one for making things concrete and Polaris (and what she brings to the table) is possibly just straight unreality produced by the K2K System. That said, DRT not being so concrete means its not a hard denial either of their existence in some other fashion. While Byakuya being Polaris to compete in the LCC is false, whose to say he didn't spend some time in his years posing as her before or after the fact? The details being fuzzy means those who do love Polaris are free to accept her in some fashion, while those who dislike her or think of everything in unreality is being all fake, are also not wrong in dismissing her. It's a situation where, even with unreality being in play, people on both sides can pretty much win.

For me, I like Polaris for the aformentioned layers above and think she just makes for a fun addtion to Byakuya's history. While I doubt he'd have needed or even was crossdressing in the real LCC, him just being so comfortable with himself he can wear practically anything, no matter the gender, is a confidence from Byakuya that you can't help but like and I can't help but basically accept as like a pseudo-canon trait of his.

And that ends DRT's entry! I missed the anniversary of DRT Volume 3, which sucks, but at the very least am glad to get this out a bit quicker than usual! Was inspired to make this after seeing posts of DRT floating about on that day, so managed to make this Showcase quicker than usual.

Next up is back to Killer Killer!

#salvage showcase #byakuya togami #polaris p polanski #suisei nanamura #danganronpa togami #danganronpa #dr togami #blue ink #shinobu togami

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shockersalvage · 11 months

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Salvage Showcase: Blue Ink AKA Shinobu Togami

Now it's probably no lie to say that Danganronpa Togami is probably the most controversial to disliked entry in the Danganronpa Spin-off universe. Its earned a reputation in the fandom that, for the small few who know about it, for being utterly bizarre to the point that many write it off as being non-canon.

So one can imagine that when doing it for my Showcases, I’m also under a bit of pressure on how I should approach this. In my view, DRT isn’t nearly as bad as people think it is (that honor goes to Killer Killer) and deserves at least a fair shot against its criticisms and some misunderstandings about it. Of course, there’s quite the snag when talking about its original cast. Or rather, the fact that a good chunk of the major cast are essentially crossover characters from Yuya Sato’s Kagami Family Saga series and even then, when you also include those made (likely) for DRT, well, let’s just say they have quite the limited shelf life in the trilogy which makes talking about them pretty hard. Add together a few having some...baggage, and picking the first one just became an ordeal.

So after a lot of mulling over, I decided it was probably best to do the first Showcase on the series protagonist - Blue Ink, better known in the fandom by her name of Shinobu Togami. Primarily because she is the easiest to get a clear understanding of and, of the major developed originals, has less of that ‘baggage’.

...

....Also this would be the part where I post a character’s image but, well, she doesn’t have one. The DRT trilogy doesn’t have illustrations for the cast desgins so...I guess this shot of her Borges works? Sorta?

DISCLAIMER: The following is talking about a character with history of SA. If this might make you uncomfortable, its probably best to overlook this one. I try not to mention it too much, but just to give you all a head’s up.

Summary

Blue Ink is a girl that is enrolled in Hope’s Peak Academy as the Ultimate Secretary and apart of its 77th class batch. Not only that she is the official secretary of Byakuya Togami, being responsible for writing his autobiography: Journey Under The Midnight Sun.

When the Despair Novel caused riots to break out all over the world, Byakuya was called by the Council of Global Controllers, an organization that truly ran the world, to help discuss what the fate of the world should be. Blue Ink was invited as his secretary to attend. However, what neither knew was that Sonia Nevermind, who was a member of Despair High School (AKA Ultimate Despair), had told of the location of the meeting which was in the Church of Bones in Prague. As a result, DHS operatives stormed the building, killing everyone by Byakuya (who got knocked out and clothes stolen off of him aside form his glasses), Blue Ink (who carried him to safety) Sonia (who wasn’t there) and Mukuro (who was there because she was a bodguard for one of the members...but like, he died so she kinda just left).

From there the World Domination Proclamation, started by the the Ultimate Imposter begins. The world has 24 hours to find either the pitful cattle in the world or kill Byakuya Togami. Failures results in ‘Byakuya’ taking over the world. This leads into a chaotic frenzy that has Blue Ink try and survive the bonkers event about to unfold with her Master and whatever allies that they can scrounge as literally everyone wants Byakuya, either dead or captured.

However, not everything is at it seems. First, its revealed that Blue Ink is really Shinobu Togami, older sister to Byakuya Togami via adoption. In addition, her full-blooded older brother is the Ultimate Hitman, Suzuhiko Otsuki, and both were participants in the Legacy Crown Championship. Or rather survivors of that incident.

According to memories of that incident, Shinobu was a part of fifteen participants meant to compete in the LCC to become the new heir to the Togami Congolomerate. In order to win, one must obtain the ‘reliance’ during the ten day time limit. The one who wins gets to become the new heir, while the losers are stripped of the name Togami and meant to go about normal lives. During the LCC, Shinobu isn’t just competing with Suzuhiko and the others, but with her younger adopted brother, Kazuya. Kazuya was adopted after Suzuhiko’s first hit job had him slaughter an entire village, but Kazuya, who was left alive by pure accident. But, things go awry as the participants start getting killed mysteriously one by one and the clashing of selfish personalities aiming for the throne is felt throughout the entire time.

The truth? As it turns out Kazuya was responsible for the majority of the murders, some in self-defense and others because the power had gotten to him. Due to a ‘strange power’ that he had - a light saber from his hand. This is revealed to an injured Shinobu...all whilst Kazuya ‘loved’ her wounded body. Indeed, Shinobu (with Kazuya being recent during the LCC) has been on the brunt of being sexually abused by both her brothers, more of the case with Suzuhiko, who claims what they have is ‘love’ and they were together. A confusing matter pushed aside by Takaya Togami, the final antagonistic sibling who seeks to be the last sibling standing by lighting the castle on fire and hoping the others burn to death. During this, Suzuhiko carries out an unconscious Shinobu out of the castle...

Shinobu awakens outside the castle tended to by the winner of the event: Byakuya Togami, who disguised himself as Suisei Nanamura’s girl assistant: Polaris P. Polanski. Concerning the other participants, they’re dead, except Kazuya and Suzuhiko, who have disappeared. With nowhere else to go, Shinobu passes Byakuya’s test to become his new assistant, thanks to her inability to care for Hope or Despair for her future. Thus, he has her remain in the family as his secretary and big sister. The wounds she recieved in the LCC cost her one of her arms, which replaced with a prosthetic, and an eye. For the eye, she received a gold mechanical one that she calls Borges. Borges can give her news, be a dictionary, and just in general be a hi-tech little assistant that she uses for her autobiography of Byakuya. As for her brothers, Suzuhiko reconnected with the Togamis as their hitman on standby (before he defected during the WDP) and Kazuya would reveal himself to be alive and apart of WHO as Orvin Elevator, Captain of the Infectious Disease Prevention Unit during the WDP. Both serving as antagonists that want Byakuya dead, to be with Blue Ink, and, well for Kazuya at least, desire to become Byakuya Togami. Something that Shinobu doesn’t want to make happen.

But...something is off about the entire ordeal. At least, Shinobu’s perspective of it is off. For example, the LCC she knew of...didn’t match up with another LCC where she recalled both her and Byakuya working together. Also, whenever she mentioned something like the Hasegawa Institute people seemed confused by what she was talking about or why she was referring to them as a completely different title. What was going on?

In truth, from a conversation with the creator behind Borges and its AI, a man known as K, she learns that Borges itself had been showing Shinobu unreality. By feeding into Shinobu’s desire to see Byakuya as a God, as well as taking characters and ideas from various novels, like the Kagami Family Saga, Borges had been showing her fake conversations, information, memories, and even overlaying real people in real time with characters from those novels. It isn’t until Borges is destroyed prior to talking with K that Shinobu has the chance to gradually experience the truth of her situation. To forge her own path without the aid of Borges and even giving up her Ultimate talent.

But that wasn’t the end. During the climax of the WDP, where she finally reunites with Byakuya (who had been hiding out in Prague Castle with the Imposter), she learns the full truth: she...wasn’t Shinobu Togami, the original ‘died’ in the true LCC. She was the Kudan that people were seeking after, the ticket to the Togami Family’s Prosperity with her predictions. Or rather was and she hasn’t been for years now after Byakuya had become the Ultimate Heir.

Byakuya intentionally had Borges installed in her to erase memories of her prior life and of the original Shinobu’s identity. As means to get rid of the prophecy element since to Byakuya that was cheating, a sentiment Despair High School agreed with. Regardless of her former life, Shinobu chooses to stay with Byakuya, her own journey at this point giving her the means to tackle reality head on.

Ultimately, both Byakuya and Blue Ink are given a choice. If Byakuya chooses to rule the world, Shinobu dies,. If he refuses, Shinobu will have her mind wiped again and forced to live out a new identity away from Byakuya whilst everyone of the 78th class that came to Prague (like Toko Fukawa) would have their minds tampered to muddle the incident and erase Shinobu from their memories. Byakuya refuse and, before both loses their memories, Blue Ink gives Byakuya memento of her: a blue fountain pen he keeps in his pocket. Blue Ink blacks out after ingesting the drug.

With hope that, eventually, she reunites with Byakuya in a world conquered by him!

Personality-wise, Blue Ink shares similarities with Toko Fukawa, with her most dominant traits being her severe reverence and loyalty to Byakuya, who she considers to be a God. This love manifests between almost akin to a religious fanatic, to a supportive big sister to, well, someone whose clearly in love with him (incest runs deep in Ink’s little family huh?)

She is more open and emotional that her arrogant and reserved brother, though it's been observed she’s colder than people realize. It's implied that the abuse she suffered under Suzuhiko eventually lead to her stop caring about herself personally, no matter what good or bad fate awaits her and she sort of lives with a deattachment towards life unless it involves someone she really loves, like Byakuya. She is without Hope or Despair, but throughout then ovel feeling this way does gradually bother her. This also means if a horrible fate would happen to someone else, she can quickly move from it without issue.

Concerning back to her lack of care towards herself, in a similar vein to Peko, she doesn’t see herself as ‘person’ but rather Byakuya’s property - a writing machine made manifest. Much of her development in the novel is learning to become her own person and see life for how it truly is beyond what a machine wants to tell her. Thus leading to a resolution where, while she doesn’t give up her devotion to Byakuya, she finds the strength to accept reality for what it was and move forward to a Hope created by her own original style.

Rundown

Shinobu’s character in DRT reflects on its central theme of ‘Truth and Lies’, or rather ‘Escapism/Unreality vs Reality’, if better to make it more distinct than to what V3 was going through with its ‘Truth and Lies’. With this theme, its represented in three parts with the, what I’m going to refer to them at least, the Unreality Siblings (Shinobu, Kazuya and Suzuhiko). Shinobu represents the ideal - a previously ignorant escapist being confronted with the truth and willingly choosing to accept it. The Accepter, to be brief about it.

Shinobu starts off as obsessed with Byakuya and constanlty using Borges for assistance. Throughout her journey, more and more of her fantasy gradually becomes unravelled to the point she is questioning why some people don’t know who some others were or why her memories weren’t lining up. She becomes confused, agitated and scared. This leads up to two important events that make her ar truly great.

The dinner with Hiroyuki that has her confronted properly with the idea that what she has been relying on isn’t actually as helpful to her as she thinks and her meeting with K, who serves as a harsh, yet important, teacher of the dangers of becoming lost in her own fantasies and assures her that she’ll be able to eventually see reality for what it is - as her own person this time. She becomes self-aware of the truth by her own notice, yet its with guidance towards what truly is at fault and giving her Hope of being her own individual without her ‘crutch’ that what allows her to be firm in her resolve to embrace the truth.

What’s more is that learning about her true past doesn’t throw in her in an existential crisis anymore, but she is able to take it in and weave it with her own tempered passion for Byakuya. It’s a legitimate message with her against overelying on people or technology, forming your own identity and, while you don’t have to drop your strong interests, you can at least enjoy them in a healtier mindset. Which is a far better conclusion than either Suzuhiko or Kazuya (those two are going to be a doozy...)

In many ways, with these traits, she is reflective of Toko Fukawa - writers who, after a horrible childhood past, comes to obsess over a guy who...isn’t the humblest person around, seeing him in a grander light than they would ever see themselves. Likewise, their arcs are about, while not getting over such a guy, realizing they were other avenues in life they haven’t given a try or were misguided by, with Toko finding her own goals and wants with her trusted friend Komaru and Ink coming to terms with trying to carve out her own path after seeing nothing but lies for a good deal of her life.

Personal Thoughts

Blue Ink is definitely one of the most underrated protagonists of the Danganronpa series and honestly one I feel many should at least read DRT to know more about. Similar to Komaru or Yui, Shinobu works well in bouncing off of Byakuya as his loving and loyal secretary that he actually gets along with, because Lord know Togami needs some more of that......well, not really healthy (get to that in a sec), but just positive bonds in DR. Plus, she actually does work well in bouncing off the other castmates of DR1, such as her rivalry with Toko to her banter with the Imposter back when she thought they were Kazuya and even once it was all over.

Though, there were a few hiccups. I did find it disappointing how quickly she affirmed her loyalty to Byakuya even after learning that he willingly chose to erase her first personality and memories. Would have liked for her to maybe instead have her, while not happy with it, she wants to give Togami another chance. Not because of her infatuation with him or ‘because he’s a God’, but because she has faith in Togami being more benevolent than how he acts. But that’s just personal preference.

Will also say concerning the....Unreality Mess Triangle with Ink, Suzuhiko and Kazuya and their baggage I wish it involved more outsiders, particularly of the mainline cast variety, reacting and interacting with it? A lot of time Ink is spent with her brothers apart from everyone else and it feels too isolating, in a sense? These three are at their best when they’re interacting with the mainliners, such as Ink witnessing the threeway ‘Byakuya’ discussion during their flight or watching Suzuhiko and Genocide Jack fight. Heck, this also goes especially for Ink herself being away from the other prior DR casts so much, which happens suprisingly a lot, especially in volume 3. While occasional one on one conversations are great, ultimately people are likely there to read Togami and his interactions with the main protag and both old/new casts, not just see the protag and the new cast, but little of Togami or the old ones. There needed to be a better mix of it I feel.

...Oh, right the incest too. Due to DR3 and UDH desensitizng me to this, I can say that Ink’s crush on Byakuya is something that I’m personally numb to at this point. Especially since the trilogy is determined to make being numb better than what the Hell was going on concerning her brothers. Also helps, it doesn’t come up as much as her fanaticism to Byakuya and she has more traits going for her to help balance it out.

But those are minor nitpicks, Overall, she’s just plain fun to read about and def think people should give her pov a try. (think about how many protags in this series can say they legit nearly choked out a hitman with one arm!? That’s kickass!~).

With that that’s the first DRT Showcase down! Next up is for the Minor Spin-off Squad AKA Kirigiriso/Ultra Despair Hagakure/Makoto’s Worst Day Ever. Their entries are too short and not enough cast members to give them their own distinct sections so, yeah, they’re all lumped together. To next time!

#danganronpa togami #drt #shinobu togami #blue ink #byakuya togami #dr togami #toko fukawa #kazuya togami #suzuhiko otsuki #danganronpa #danganronpa 1 #dr1 #salvage showcase

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