Kaede Akamatsu

Height: 167 cm (5'6")
Talent: Super High School Level Pianist

A student in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and a participant in the Killing School Semester. She is the Super High School Level Pianist, or Ultimate Pianist in the English version. In the game, she is voiced by Sayaka Kanda in Japanese and Erika Harlacher in English.

The protagonist girl who has grown up with piano all her life. She’s a cheerful, optimistic hardworker with blooming talent, whose friends call her “piano idiot” because she dedicates herself to piano so thoroughly. After winning competition after another, she was given the title of "SHSL Pianist". Being a pianoholic, Kaede tends to include music talk into her conversations. She has the ability to pull everyone together very positively, thanks to her leader-like personality.

To save the students from being killed, she makes up a plan to eliminate the mastermind; unfortunately Rantaro Amami gets caught in the scene. Although Kaede's shot missed Rantaro, Tsumugi Shirogane kills him and pinpoints/frames the murder on Kaede. Kaede is executed believing she was the killer.

According to Tsumugi Shirogane, Kaede Akamatsu was a fan of a series featuring Killing Games, Danganronpa, created by Team Danganronpa. In her audition video, she revealed that she wants to join the Killing Game because she believed that she had the perfect personality for it, not having any faith in humanity.

It is also said that she had a younger twin sister who was adopted by a relative, but it is also unknown whether this is genuine or fabricated.