Oumatsu

Oumatsu is the het ship between Kaede Akamatsu and Kokichi Oma from the Danganronpa fandom.

Canon
Kaede’s first impression of Kokichi is that of a “mischievous little kid who is bothering one of his classmates”. After Kokichi introduced himself as the Ultimate Supreme Leader during the prologue, she was surprised and began asking him about his unusual talent, saying that she didn’t understand it well and asked him to explain it. He then said that he was “just” the leader of a secret organization containing more than 10,000 members, and she was very impressed at first, but after Kokichi was revealed to be a liar, she started accusing him of lying about almost everything he says. When Kaede asks him if he was lying or not about his organization, he replies “Nishishi... I'm not telling youuuuu!”.

For Kaede, she did find Kokichi a little mysterious because of his carefree and mischievous personality, sometimes wondering what he was planning or thinking. She is also one of the only people who was kind to Kokichi and cared about him, and she was one of the only people Kokichi never hurted in any way, due to her early death in the story. For Kokichi, Kaede appeared to be one of the students he was more interested in, as he appeared to have fun while talking with her and sometimes was seen becoming more serious and enigmatic while they were talking alone, trying to open up to Kaede. He seems to enjoy her company and also likes to tease her mischievously as he loves to do with everyone, having mentioned several times how he didn’t consider her boring. He is also seen during his FTE with Kaede flirting with her. While she expresses her annoyance, she still stays with him despite his teasing.

While trying to escape from the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi calls out Kaede for “torturing” the group for not letting them give up an impossible situation and then suggests they should meet up at the dining hall. The next day, he asks Kaede if she is okay and starts defending her and calls out everyone for being rude to her, calling her “poor girl”. Keebo accuses him of blaming her first, to what Kokichi responds saying it was just a lie to make the group more united. In fact, this scene was a parallel to the Demo Version of the game in which Kokichi started accusing Kaede for the murder of Yasuhiro, but then tells everyone that suspecting her is really mean.

When Kokichi becomes more serious trying to explain things to Kaede, she seems to think about it after the conversation but doesn’t say anything, realizing that he maybe was right. When Kaede encouraged everyone not to give up in the Death Road of Despair, Kokichi was saying the same thing right after, encouraging the others with the same words as Kaede’s to help her with her pep talks. He also remarked to Kaede that she wasn’t anyone to stop people from rebelling in the dining hall, adding that, by the same token, “he wasn’t nobody to stop her from stopping them”. He then encourages her to stop them, saying that he believes in her, which Kaede takes as a lie.

During the trial, Kokichi was the first to discern Kaede’s lies, and brought them up to advance the debate. When Shuichi accuses Kaede of being the killer of Rantaro, Kokichi has a very different reaction than his usual temper. He seems sad and tries to defend Kaede, saying that it’s “pretty unfortunate“ with an angry tone, and that he can’t believe it’s Kaede, because she kept pushing them forward and urging them to cooperate, so he don’t want to believe that she would kill in cold blood. After Shuichi explained why she didn’t killed in “cold blood“, Kokichi remained silent and didn’t spoke again during the rest of the trial. After Kaede is found guilty for the murder of Rantaro, Kokichi explains her why she fell right into Monokuma’s trap, and that even if it was to protect everyone, she started the killing game the second she “allowed murder to fill her heart“. After Tsumugi and Gonta accuse him of being too hard on Kaede and says that he shouldn’t talk to her like that, Kokichi says that he feels guilty for not having been able to do anything to prevent Kaede from killing Rantaro, calling himself useless. While he was saying that, his other classmates and especially Shuichi were sure that Kokichi was lying, so he acted accordingly, claiming that it was a lie. Even though he knows that what Kaede did was bad, he still seems grateful to her for saving them from the time limit, saying that if she hadn’t done anything, everyone would have died.

After Monokuma announces that Kaede is going to be executed, Kokichi looks at her with a neutral and blank look while saying “bye” and says that she “definitely wasn’t boring”. It’s important to note that this is a notable and rare compliment from Kokichi, the highest praise he can give, and he only said that to Shuichi and Kaito. Also, the way he looked at Kaede often seemed to express the truth and authenticity of his words in him. In the Japanese version, he says “赤松ちゃん、じゃあね. キミはつまらなくはなかったよ. ” “''See you later/next time, Akamatsu-chan. You were not boring.” Kokichi’s last words to Kaito before he died were similar as the ones he said to Kaede before her execution: "At least I... wasn’t boring, right?", or “But... I was like... not boring?”'' in Japanese.

After her punishment, he says “I... I can’t believe this happened to Kaede... I liked her s-so... m-muuuuch... WAAAAH, KAAAAEEEEDEEEEEEEEE!!!!” and starts crying, but this is different in the Japanese version since he says “う、嘘だ・・・オ、オレの・・・大好きな赤松ちゃんが・・・!“ “''Ugh... Is that a lie...? My... My beloved Akamatsu-chan...!“. The kanjis used for a passage of this sentences are “大好きな Daisukina“, and “大好きな赤松ちゃん“ “My beloved/favorite Akamatsu-chan”''. Daisuki(na) is used to describe a strong love for someone, although it can be romantic as well as platonic.

Kokichi continues to think and talk about Kaede from time to time, such as when he is the first to mention her in Chapter 2, asking Shuichi if he took off his hat because of “the effect of Kaede’s death“. He also affirmed at one point in Chapter 2 that “Kaede’s death was something everyone had suffered from“, thus not excluding him as well. In Chapter 3, if the player chooses to talk to Kokichi after the meeting with Angie about the Necronomicon, Kokichi will tell Shuichi that he doesn’t really want Rantaro to be the one to come back to life, and that he would have preferred Kaede to resurrect, pretending that it was to make Shuichi happy, but then say it’s a lie. Kokichi is usually known for choosing logic over emotions, and even after everyone thought that the most logical choice was to resurrect Rantaro, he still wanted Kaede to come back. In Chapter 4, Kokichi mentionned Kaede’s name as an exemple of how people they believed in can still kill. A little later in the trial, he refers to this same line during the Scrum Debate, this time calling people like Kaede and Gonta “sweethearts“ to counter Tsumugi’s argument.

In Chapter 6, a fragment of Shuichi’s memory reveals a moment when the group is ready to start their comatose for the Gofer Project. When Kaede tells everyone that they’re now friends, Kokichi asks her ’even though you just met us and don’t even know what we’re like?’ to what Kaede answers positively.

Their first Free Time Event starts with Kokichi saying he doesn’t want to die and that Kaede can stay by his side for a while. Kaede will think “''Is Kokichi going to be okay? Maybe I should stay by his side...”'' in the english version, to which Kokichi asks her if she if she came to him to offer her life as tribute for him but then tells her not to worry, that it would be boring to kill her now so he won’t do anything of the sort. The rest of the Free Time Event is spent by Kaede comforting Kokichi, trying to prevent him from doing anything “stupid“. If the player chooses to give Kokichi a gift he’s okay with, Kokichi will tell her he’s disappointed because he thought ’they were of one heart and soul’. At the end, Kokichi asks why Kaede approached him in the first place, to which Kaede replies that she just wanted to do so, and was fine if Kokichi didn’t want to spend his free time with her. He then says he’d never turn down an invitation from her, and Kaede sighs thinking it’s a lie, and Kokichi tells her that if he’s mean to her, it’s her fault, because she forgot about him. He claims that they met before the killing game, and blames Kaede for forgetting their first meeting, while he tells her that he has never forgotten her and that he has been thinking about her this whole time. After that, Kokichi cries because she ’completely wiped him out of her memories’ and he calls her heartless. Kaede then blames herself and apologize to Kokichi, asking him to refresh her memory so that she can remember him. Kokichi replies that they met while he was run away from his enemies; Kaede secretly protected/sheltered him and raised enough money to finance his escape using her talents as the Ultimate Pianist. He will add to this that he ended up betraying her and sold her to his enemies, and that she was swiftly killed after that. Kaede understands that this is a lie from Kokichi and he confirms that the only place they met is at the Academy for Gifted Juveniles and say “Akamatsu-chan is a good-natured person to be deceived by such a lie~!“ in the Japanese Version, which has been completely mistranslated into English, ''“I can’t believe you fell for that, Kaede. You’re such a sucker”''. After questioning Kaede’s common sense, he then apologizes.

During their second Free Time Event, Kokichi warns Kaede that it is dangerous to wander alone, and then pretends that Keebo is behind her with a knife. He then accuses her of wanting to kill him, after which, if the player chooses to spend time with Kokichi, Kaede will have to chase after him, and Kaede comments on the fact that he seemed to have fun while being chased. Afterwards, Kokichi asks Kaede for a favour, which is Kaede working for him as an agent in his secret organization, as he believes Kaede will go on to “represent Japan as a pianist” and thus she could go abroad without any suspicion, and meet as many powerful figures as she likes. When she tells him she don’t know about that, he replies “''Don’t worry! I know you definitely can do it! You’ll be hyped up all over the world!”. He then tells her “...So, Kaede, lets make a deal! Join my organization, and together we’ll do as we please to all the stupid plebs in this world. Let’s sit on top of the world and look down on everyone else... And if we just wanna watch the world burn? That’s fine, too! We’ll light the whole thing up! The Ultimate Supreme Leader and the Ultimate Pianist joining forces sounds pretty sweet, huh?”'' In response, Kaede questions the existence of his secret organization, to which he retells Kaede that he is a liar. At the end of the event, Kokichi says “''But y’know I'm only saying this cuz I actually care about you, right Kaede? You can keep thinking like that, but don't come back crying to me when things don’t go your way.”''. Kaede then refuses to be an agent of his secret organization, which ends with a disappointed Kokichi. We find out later with his Motive Video that he considers his organization as his close friends and family, and that they are the most important people in his life, meaning that Kokichi asked Kaede to be part of the most important people in his life. It’s also important to note that Kokichi mentioned that Kaede “would work with him once she’d become the former Ultimate Pianist”. Considering that the Ultimate Students are no longer “Ultimate Students“ only after graduating from high school, this line implies that Kokichi planned to remain friends with Kaede even after the killing game, and provided a long-term future with her.

In Kaede and Kokichi’s respective relationships charts, Kokichi comments “What a shame!”  for Kaede, referring to her refusal to become a member of his organization. Kaede comments “力し合おうよ!“ “Let’s help each other!” or “We should cooperate!“  about Kokichi, and in fact she’s the only one of the cast who says something nice about him. While they don’t have any interactions in Danganronpa S or Danganronpa: Talent Plan, Kokichi’s 3rd Death Card shows the sentence ’Well...you definitely weren’t boring’ as his signature phrase, or even ’You...weren’t boring’ in Japanese, that being his last words to Kaede before her death. The third Death Card usually shows the line where a character started to have a character development; Shuichi talks about his promise to Kaede, Himiko about the impact of Tenko’s death, Maki says ’i’ll put on the effort so everyone can trust me’, so Kokichi having this sentence on this Death Card likely means that he started to have his character development after Kaede’s death, which connects the fact that he started to saw an interest in ruining the killing game only after her death.

In Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, an event exists where Hifumi Yamada comes to Kaede to talk with her about a shoujo manga (or fanfiction/romance in english) idea he had. He plans to write a romance between a Pianist an a ’Leader of Evil Forces’. The plot of the romance is a Pianist who fights evil forces at school with her band of musicians, while having a secret crush on the leader she fights. When Kaede hears Hifumi’s idea, she tells him that she feels close to the character, and then helps him writing the romance. Hifumi takes inspiration from his classmates to writes his characters, so with Kaede being the Pianist in the story, it’s possible that the ’Evil Leader’ was inspired by Kokichi, since no one else’s talent is so close to the character, Kokichi often referring to himself as ’Leader of Evil’.

Songs
Heaven 2 Hell | Black Gryph0n & Baasik Feat. Elsie Lovelock

The song considered “The Oumastu song” by the shippers, because of the lyrics and the personalities of Charlie and Alastor together. The song describes the opposite ideals of Kaede and Kokichi, but shows that they have the same goal.

Chapter 1
"Hey, Kaede... I don’t know what you’re so worried about. But Monokuma is dead now, there’s no way the killing game can continue, y’know?"

- Kokichi trying to comfort Kaede. ㅤ

ㅤㅤ"Hmm...I guess this isn’t *that* boring. You have pretty good taste, Kaede. Well, not as good as mine. I’ll surprise you with a gift one of these days, Kaede!"

- Kokichi’s reaction if he likes the gift Kaede gives him. ㅤㅤ"You have pretty bad taste, Kaede. I thought we were of one heart and soul!"

- Kokichi’s reaction if he’s okay with the gift Kaede gives him. ㅤㅤ

Other Chapters
"Whenever we tried to work together, Monokuma would retaliate with a plan to make us suffer. It happened when Kaede wanted us to cooperate, and again with these motive videos, right? Which means, the more we try to cooperate, the more he’ll try to make us suffer."

- Kokichi referring to Kaede's death as something that everyone suffered from (including him), Chapter 2. (English Version) ㅤㅤㅤㅤ"How long are you guys going to keep saying that? It’s easy for people to kill other people in this game, you know? Even people we believed in. We’ve seen that many times before, haven’t we? Since Kaede... many times."

- Kokichi referring to Kaede as an example of how people they believe can still kill, Chapter 4. (Japanese Version)

Fanon
The ship sailed with Kaede being the first protagonist of Danganronpa V3 and Kokichi coming off as a “rival character”, being a compulsive liar, thus representing one side of the “Truth vs. Lies” theme. Even after the reveal of Shuichi Saihara being the next protagonist of the game, the ship appealed the fans of the ships between the main character’s support characters and rivals. The ship was fueled even more because of how Kokichi said that he cared about Kaede, referring to her as “My beloved Akamatsu-chan”, and offered her to rule the world by his side. Some fans also became interested in Oumatsu after realizing that both of them died for the same reasons, “to put an end to the killing game”, Kokichi seeing Kaede as a kind of example for him. The popular beliefs of the ship are mainly the general thought of the shippers who think that Kokichi tried to stop the killing game as a tribute to Kaede, this theory being supported by the references that Kokichi makes to Kaede after Chapter 1, and the fact that he was suddenly motivated to stop the killing game only after her death.

While it’s not the most popular combination for the two, it remains among the most popular shipping choices for both characters included. The ship is overshadowed by more popular ships such as both Kaede and Kokichi’s respective ships with Shuichi, Saimatsu and Saiouma. Though, a poly ship between all three of them has been created as well, Saioumatsu, or Amasaioumatsu to include Rantaro.

Fanfictions and fanarts may often pick up a scenario where Kaede agrees to Kokichi’s offer to rule the world with her, becoming a member of D.I.C.E alongside him as a result. Fans may often headcanon Kaede as a “therapist friend” for Kokichi, because of her nature of taking care of everyone, and thinks that their relation could improve if Kaede didn’t die in Chapter 1, leaving many fans thinking that Kaede would have made a better protagonist than Shuichi.

Some fans prefers the ship in a platonic way, Kaede being like a big sister to Kokichi, but most of the shippers prefers Oumatsu in a romantic way. Some fans of the ship seem to prefer the pair with pregame Kaede and Kokichi, even though we don’t know their relationship before the killing game. Oumatsu is often considered a “steal your girlfriend/boyfriend“ meme, because Saimatsu and Saiouma are much more popular than Oumatsu, the fandom sees Kokichi and Kaede as Shuichi’s main “crushes”. Another popular meme between the two is also Kokichi’s line “But that's Kaede’s lie, isn’t it?” in the first Scrum Debate.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Akamatsu K./Oma K. on FanFiction.Net
 * Akamatsu K./Oma K. on FanFiction.Net
 * Akamatsu K./Oma K. on FanFiction.Net

FAN ART

TUMBLR

WIKI
 * on
 * on

Trivia

 * This is the third Danganronpa ship between the protagonist’s implied love interest and rival, with the first two being Togiri and Komanami.
 * Just like Komanami’s case, the love interest dies executed, and the rival murdered. Furthermore, the rival (Nagito/Kokichi) dies as a victim in Chapter 5, and the love interest (Chiaki/Kaede) becomes the blackened not knowing her target in the first place.
 * Like the other culprits, Kokichi recovered Kaede’s camera used for the murder of Rantaro Amami and kept it in his dormitory. He also has a picture of Kaede on the board in his room. It’s highly possible that he thought of keeping the objects of the murders and organizing his chart after Kaede’s death, since she was behind the first murder.
 * Danganronpa creator, Kazutaka Kodaka, liked the tweet of a cosplayer duo cosplaying as Kaede and Kokichi for Kaede’s birthday.
 * From 2017 to 2020, Kokichi and Kaede were voted in the top 3 most popular characters in New Danganronpa V3. Kokichi was 2nd while Kaede was 3rd, with the 1st being Monokuma.
 * Kaede’s Research Lab is the first lab the player discover throught the game, in the first chapter, Chapter 1, while Kokichi’s is the last one we discover, in the last chapter, Chapter 6.
 * In the first trial’s Scrum Debate, Kokichi is opposed to Kaede.
 * They are 2 of the 3 characters who died by being crushed; Kaede by the giant piano and Kokichi by the hydraulic press, with the other being the mastermind.
 * In the announcement room of the Monokubs, both are hanging from the ceiling. Kaede is hung by the feet, and Kokichi by the neck - the same way Kaede died, moreover.
 * Both of them are in some way leaders, Kaede mainly leading the group, and Kokichi leading DICE, his organization.
 * In accordance with their opposite theme, Kaede is the first culprit of the Killing Game Semester, while Kokichi is the last victim.
 * Both like 095 Home Planet, 069 Potted Banyan, 037 Travel Journal and 002 Boba Tea from the MonoMono Machine.

Variations

 * Amasaioumatsu refers to the ship between the two, Rantaro Amami and Shuichi Saihara
 * Saioumatsu refers to the ship between the two and Shuichi Saihara
 * Oumamimatsu refers to the ship between the two and Rantaro Amami
 * Momoumatsu refers to the ship between the two and Kaito Momota