Nekomaru Nidai

Nekomaru Nidai is a character from the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair game.

Nekomaru is a student of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B, and a participant of the Killing School Trip. His title is Ultimate Team Manager.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Nekomaru is spared from canon fate. Nekomaru is a member of the Heroes Coalition as a Solo Hero.

Appearance
Nekomaru is a young man in his early twenties, around 22 at youngest. His virtual avatar in the Neo World Program appeared as his 17-year-old self. Overall, he is noted to look older than he is, especially as a teen.

He is a very tall, muscular man with black hair. He wears a white tank top under a black gakuran, as well as blue tracksuit pants and Getas. He has chains around his neck with a whistle hanging in the middle part and emits a blue electric aura from his eyes.

Nekomaru has two scars running from the top of his both eyes downwards in their own directions. He also has a towel tucked into the back of his pants. Like Peko Pekoyama, he has also been mistaken as a cosplayer due to his appearance.

As the Ultimate Despair, he wears a white jacket with golden patterns. His blue electric aura appears to have changed to red.

Personality
Nekomaru is a vigorous, boisterous, openhearted student who is passionate about supporting athletes, but suffers from dyspepsia. He frequently shouts when speaking, being a team manager. He is very optimistic and his willpower is immeasurable, but he isn't very smart and he's very bad at lying. He also really appears to enjoy fighting, often in the form of very serious training.

Nekomaru sees no shame in talking about certain things that could make others feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. For example, he never misses a chance to loudly proclaim when he needs to go to the restroom. He also tends to get too close to other people's personal space, though he does this just to check their potential as athletes. Furthermore, as the self-proclaimed Ultimate Masseur, he frequently offers his special massage to the others to the point that he forces them to receive his massage, as shown in his first and fifth Free Time Events with Hajime. He states that his massage is his own ultimate weapon that can relieve fatigue in an instant, but it also appears to be highly addictive to the receiver.

Though Nekomaru may appear scary and aggressive, he has a very kind heart. He cries quite easily and isn't afraid to show it. As a team manager, he can be quite strict, but he is very supportive and inspiring to his athletes and strives to improve them however he can. Teamwork and fighting spirit are very important to him.

In his fifth Free Time Events, he states that he will give everything he has to fully support everyone so they can escape the killing game together. True to his statement, he is the only one who willingly coached Akane by giving her a training routine and paid attention to food that she ate so she can stay fit and healthy. To prevent murders from continuing, he and Kazuichi Soda even tied Nagito Komaeda in the old lodge after he manipulated a murder to happen during the party in Chapter 1. He has a protective side to all of his classmates, Akane in particularーwithout thinking twice, he sacrificed himself to save the Ultimate Gymnast from her punishment in Chapter 3. During the surprisingly romantic moment, they share the effect of aphrodisiacs in Danganronpa 3, Nekomaru acts more tender and bashful towards her than usual.

Abilities
Many athletes become top-notch and set new records under Nekomaru's guidance. His talent, Ultimate Team Manager shouldn't be an insult, as Nekomaru states that there are no athletes who could've reached the top without a manager's help. He believes the bonds that are created between a manager and athlete are the secret of many athletes' winning.

In the past, Nekomaru had a baseball player who got an offer to join the major leagues while he was still in the middle school, a figure skater who performed six and a half spins, and a tennis player who managed to win a thirty-six-hour long match.

Nekomaru has been working in management profession for a quite long time. He could easily tell people who will have a good future as an athlete just by checking their body size. He suggested Hajime Hinata play rugby under his supervision. Even though Hajime thought that Nekomaru overestimated him, Nekomaru simply judged from Hajime's positive points such as his calm judgment skills, high degree of mobility, and knowing the importance of teamwork, which are all basic requirements to become a natural rugby player.

Nekomaru prepares different techniques to train his athletes for each sport, but he conducted that top athletes must have these three essential things including physical fitness, visual acuity, and willpower. After the athlete wishes to strengthen those three essentials, he gladly prepares a solid and effective training regiment for them. He supports each athlete to reach what they want to become and never allows himself to choose the available sports for his athletes. He said that it is a real challenge to bring out the maximum potential of each individual athlete.

Even though Nekomaru's training is a bit harsh, slowly but surely the trained athletes will get used to his principles and eventually win many competitions, as expected from athletes that are trained directly by Nekomaru.

What makes Nekomaru become a different manager from the others is his special massage. Using his talented fingers, he can instantly relax tense muscles and promote maximum blood circulation. He can push out intravenous toxins and restore fatigue in an instant; thus calling himself the Ultimate Masseur.

Not just to train athletes to make them reach the top, but it's also a manager's duty to protect and support their athletes, as Nekomaru states in one of his Free Time Events. He wanted to become the official manager of the participants of the Killing School Trip and will support them until they “win” the match by working together to escape from the island.

While not recognized by Hope's Peak Academy for his massaging talents, as a team manager he developed his abilities as a masseur in order to help his athletes grow and to fully prepare them for intense training by maximizing their blood flow. During a special event with Akane, Nekomaru gave her a full body massage and deep tissue treatment while in her cottage. He states that the title 'Ultimate Masseuse' is an alias that belongs to him, believing that he has great skills in this field. He would have likely performed these techniques on his own athletes to improve their strength and lower fatigue through massaging every pressure point. Nekomaru is very thorough when massaging his athletes and sees it a necessity not to cut corners with any massage for them to have there full effect. He gives Hajime a massage during their final Free Time Events together and Hajime states after that his body feels 'extremely light' and that he didn't want to admit that he couldn't live without Nekomaru's massage. It even allowed Hajime to do an impossible amount of training which shows the excellence of Nekomaru's massage therapy.

In physical combat, Nekomaru has been quite successful in ability to match and overcome his foes and friends. On many occasions during the Neo World Program, Nekomaru and Akane would train together. When Akane appeared at the diner in her swimsuit, she was covered in blood and said she had ran into Nekomaru and had to fight him. Her injuries and scarring were only minor but extensive showing the strength of Nekomaru's combat skills, and she explained that Nekomaru was a surprisingly 'strong opponent'. When Gundham challenged Nekomaru to a duel of life and death, Nekomaru accepted and did not run away. Gundham explained that Nekomaru 'gave it his all' to try and kill him, showing Nekomaru to be a worthy challenge.

When Nekomaru was revived by Hajime from the Neo World Program, he battled a Monobeast at Future Foundation Headquarters which was allied with the Super High School Level Elite Task Force. He was able to match the power of the robot, using his arms to block its head charge. Nekomaru overcame the robot, despite its large amount of strength so its easy to imagine how strong he his against normal human opponents in hand-to-hand combat.

Trivia

 * His first name literally means "round cat", something he was often teased about as a child.
 * Nidai means "two" and "big". His full name may translate to "Two big round cats".
 * Nekomaru's birthday, February 22, falls on Cat Day, in Japan, most likely a nodoff to his name.
 * Nekomaru's hair and clothing is probably a reference to Jotaro Kujo from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * Also, in comparison to the characteristic drawing style of the Danganronpa franchise, some of Nekomaru's features (i.e. relatively small eyes, a very defined muscular, bulky physique and the "angular" shape the scars running over his eyes give his face) seem to be inspired by the distinctive drawing style of Hirohiko Araki, the creator of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * During a secret event involving Akane in chapter 3, he is heard yelling "Atatatatatata", which is known as Kenshiro's war cry on the Fist of the North Star series.
 * Nekomaru calls himself the Ultimate Masseur because of his special massage technique for athletes that enable them to work impossible tasks for long periods of time and get them addicted to it.
 * It is uncertain whether or not he is officially recognized as the "Ultimate Masseur" by Hope's Peak Academy.
 * It should be noted that in the English version of the game Nekomaru actually calls himself "Ultimate Masseuse"; a title that is grammatically wrong considering "masseur" and "masseuse" are male- and female-exclusive nouns, respectively.
 * When Hajime first meets Nekomaru, it is implied that he used to train Leon Kuwata, as Nagito says that "he used to train that famous Japanese baseball player" and this is stated by Nekomaru himself in one of his Free Time Events by saying that he's been with various athletes and one of them is "a baseball player who got an offer to join the major leagues while he was still in middle school."
 * Nekomaru is the only killing game participant to be completely absent from one of the class trials while still being alive, as he sustained critical injuries in chapter 3.
 * The morning after Nekomaru sustains fatal injuries while protecting Akane from an attack by Monokuma, the other student ask the latter where he is. Monokuma acts as if he has forgotten who Nekomaru is in response, and asks if he's "the boy who turns into a girl when splashed with cold water" - making a reference to the Ranma ½ manga series.
 * Nekomaru, like Nagito Komaeda, has had a fatal disease that would prevent them from living no longer than 20. Seeing however that they would be 22 by the events of Danganronpa 3, it has shown that both surpassed the illness.
 * In Nekomaru's case, it could be due to him maintaining a healthy physique, following his start in becoming the Ultimate Team Manager.
 * Nekomaru's high school, First Yokoyama High School, is a probably a reference to the many athletes with the last name Yokoyama.
 * Kazutaka Kodaka states that he liked Nekomaru's fierce face and crotch bulge, but requested not to show the bulge too much.
 * Minimaru is shown occasionally in Ultra Despair Girls - Danganronpa Another Episode, appearing to Komaru Naegi in a small UFO.
 * Nekomaru's English voice actor, Patrick Seitz, also voiced Monokid[4].
 * Seitz is also the voice for the One Piece character Franky who is a cyborg as well. Both characters have been through some medical trauma that forced their bodies to become part robot in order to survive (though Nekomaru's may have been exaggerated due to Monokuma).
 * Another similarity between the two is the fact that both have some form of cola stored in their bodies. The difference being that Nekomaru can dispense cola from his right eye and Franky runs on Franky Cola as his energy source.
 * Both are also large and manly men, who also are incredible fist fighters.