🤖 • K1-B0

K1-B0 (キーボ), also known as Keebo, Ki-Bo, or Kiibo is a student in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles and a participant of the Killing School Semester featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. His title is the Ultimate Robot (超高校級の「ロボット」 lit. Super High School Level Robot).

K1-B0 was created by an organization that created and featured Killing Games for the entire world's entertainment, Team Danganronpa. They decided that the main gimmick for the 53rd Season of Danganronpa would be "audience participation", K1-B0 was created for that role. The prominent ahoge on the top of his head acted as an antenna that received signals from the outside world. This would end up being the "inner voice" that K1-B0 would hear many times throughout the events of the Killing Game, which in the end was nothing more than an audience survey. His eyes would also act as a camera for the viewers, letting them see the Killing Game from his perspective.

In order for him to fulfil his role as the "connector" to the outside world, K1-B0's memory of being a part of Team Danganronpa was erased and fabricated just like any other Killing Game participant. His memories and personality were fabricated as follows:

Professor Idabashi, the leading expert in robotics engineering, created K1-B0 to be the culmination of all his research and work. He was meant to be a robot more human than any other robot before. Initially, K1-B0 had no knowledge nor awareness, and was only capable of displaying a very narrow spectrum of human emotions. The plan was to raise and develop him like a parent would their own child. However, a few years passed, and there was no improvement in his mental state.

One day, an unpredictable accident occurred during a routine experiment. K1-B0's programming went rogue and he ended up seriously maiming the professor, but fortunately he survived. After hurting the professor, K1-B0 was suddenly overcome by immense sadness, especially considering that the First Law of Robotics stated 'a robot must not harm a human being'. Even though K1-B0 wasn't punished for breaking that rule, he nevertheless felt sadness and blamed himself, feeling extremely guilty. For the first time, he understood how it felt to feel human emotions, and at that moment his AI suddenly reset as if committing suicide. He became similar to a newborn infant once again, with all of his memories deleted. In his "next life", K1-B0 called it the day of his own "death" and the day of his true "birth". After learning the story from the professor, he assumed that perhaps he had wanted to be "reborn" as the professor's son once again.

K1-B0's strength was considerably weakened after the incident, described as being similar in strength to an average senior citizen. This time, his AI matured accordingly and he learned and developed as his creator raised him like his own child, with K1-B0 considering the professor his father. Eventually, the professor even sent him to attend Īdabashi Industries High School (飯田橋工業高校) and he was recognized as being Ultimate even as a robot. However, he fears that other students will discriminate him because he is a robot.

K1-B0 was among the first fourteen people gathered in the gymnasium before Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara arrived. It is unknown how K1-B0 felt about the situation as he was never seen talking or interacting with anybody, nor is it known whether or not he actually had his memories of being a "connector" to the outside world at this time. Once the Monokuma Kubs arrived and revealed themselves from within their Exisals, they gave the sixteen participants their Ultimate wardrobe, and their first memory via the Flashback Light. K1-B0 and the other fifteen talentless students underwent the fabrication process, where all of their past memories and personalities were heavily fabricated. He also received the talent and title of Ultimate Robot. All of this was done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all over the world. After the fabrication process was completed, K1-B0 and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as totally different people, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

K1-B0 was later found in one of the classrooms on the first floor by Kaede and Shuichi, the Ultimate Detective, after deciding that they would explore and investigate the school together. Kokichi was also in that classroom, highly intrigued by the Ultimate Robot, constantly pestering him and asking him absurd questions. K1-B0 was very agitated by this, trying to get away from him and politely asking Kokichi to "leave [him] alone". K1-B0 introduced himself to Kaede and Shuichi as the Ultimate Robot, stating that he was the finest creation of Professor Idabashi, the leading authority in the field of robotics. He told the duo that the professor raised him like his own child and that he had a maturing AI inside of him, though Kokichi found his backstory to be fairly unremarkable and become more disappointed from the Ultimate Robot's lack of exciting functions, like a rocket punch. Kaede thought to herself that they were both fairly strange individuals before continuing to explore with Shuichi.

K1-B0 would later gather with everyone else in the gymnasium after the Monokubs made their announcement. Everyone conversed with each other wondering why all sixteen of them had been gathered together like this. Afterwards, the Monokubs and Monokuma, the Monokubs' father and the self-appointed headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, arrived and announced that they would be participating in a Killing Game, much to almost everyone's shock and horror. With that, the Killing School Semester had officially begun.

K1-B0 is a robot, therefore having a fully mechanical body structurally engineered to, in shape, resemble a human being. His body is mostly made up of metallic, armored plating, not wearing actual clothing, but resembling a gakuran, a school uniform worn by male high school students. He has four glowing buttons that run from his chest to his stomach down the middle of his torso, a metallic left breast pocket, and something that resembles a belt around his waist, to which two red buttons are attached.

As a robot, K1-B0 is considered sexless and lacks the means to engage in reproductive functions, but still appears masculine physically and has the voice of a teenaged boy. His face is very pale, and he doesn't appear to possess anything resembling skin anywhere else. His eyebrows press closely to his round, mechanical blue eyes, making it appear that his brows are a part of his eyes. Thick black lines run from around his eyes and down his cheeks to reach his chin. His eyes can glow a bright yellow or blue in specific circumstances and can emit light. He has a tongue, but it doesn't seem to have any other purpose than speaking, as he cannot actually eat food. He has white hair that is very sharp and swayed to the left, along with the very large ahoge on the top of his head.

K1-B0 possesses a very tall, round and metallic collar around his neck, his previous school's emblem on the left side of his collar. A thin strip of screen wraps all the way around it, displaying a constantly changing string of green text. A softer black material covers his neck entirely, but he is capable of pulling it up to cover the lower half of his face to resemble a face mask. The collar is usually open in the middle, but it's possible for him to clip the two metallic parts together to protect his neck area entirely. He doesn't seem to have actual ears, but instead possesses black, headphone shaped objects in the place where they'd normally be. He can use his ears to take recordings and play them out loud.

Later, it is revealed that K1-B0's ahoge is an antenna that receives information from Team Danganronpa, which will take the form of an "inner voice" and persuade him to take certain actions, said actions being decided through viewers' surveys.

K1-B0 is a polite and serious teenage robot, who has some trouble with human social interaction, and often comes across as unintentionally comical as a result. According to Kazutaka Kodaka, K1-B0 has both cute and cool characteristics, with him being socially awkward but serious.[8] Nevertheless, K1-B0 takes pride in his form and often boasts about his wonderfulness and efficient functions, even though the other students never seem to find them impressive, much to his disappointment. His aim is to overcome being an ordinary robot and because of this, he may get offended if he is compared to much more simple machines. While generally well-mannered, he is quickly angered by any prejudice against robots and sometimes threatens to sue people who make "discriminatory remarks". He considers robots a minority group among humans and can get slightly paranoid about "robophobia", supposedly because of past experiences. However, ironically, he himself is shown acting condescending and perpetrating "robot-on-robot abuse" towards simpler machines such as the robots with Monokuma's likeness, considering them mere stuffed animals who are beneath him.

Since he is a maturing AI, K1-B0 learns and develops similarly to a human, making him an unique existence.[9] While he has no heart nor brain, he uses his calculations to speak "as if he had a heart". Even still, he often can't read the mood around him and is oblivious to things, sometimes taking things very literally and occasionally acting insensitive. Due to being overly serious about certain topics and unable to understand sarcasm, he is an easy target for bullying as it's easy to provoke him, and he is rather easy to read. According to Izuru Kamukura in the bonus mode Ultimate Talent Development Plan, K1-B0 has a tendency to rely on others in difficult situations, and he overall gets very nervous in bad situations. This could relate to the fact that he appears to rely heavily on his "inner voice" for guidance, and might struggle to act without it, since he has presumably always been equipped with it, and, importantly, was designed to be influenced and more or less controlled by the thoughts and feelings of others (the Audience). Furthermore, he feels a bit self-conscious about the fact that he cannot strengthen his body on his own like humans, and he needs help for maintenance and upgrades. Overall, he is a bit conscious about being unable to do some things humans can, causing him to act condescending towards humans at times and proclaim that he can do lots of things humans cannot. In Chapter 4, when the students enter the program world, K1-B0 appears disappointed in his avatar and secretly wished that he might have a human body in the virtual world. In Chapter 5, he experiences an existential crisis and becomes very interested in whether or not he is considered a person by the hydraulic press' safety function and Miu's Electrohammers, even expressing a desire to test them out on himself in order to assess his humanity, despite how risky that proves. In one scene, he is scared of the idea of a huge mecha suddenly appearing, not realizing how ironic this fear is. He himself has also pointed out that he doesn't really like "sci-fi" things, even though his existence alone is quite sci-fi, and he would rather be more like other people instead of possessing things like rocket jets. He greatly loves Japanese culture, including Japanese food (though he can only look at it), kimonos and wind chimes. However, he also feels insecure about being too ordinary and not deserving his title as the Ultimate Robot, which is why he has a dream of becoming a pop star or doing some other type of work. For a short time, he even considers becoming a "tragic hero" figure in order to become more interesting, with a new tragic backstory and weapons, even though it's not something he would like. In general, he has a strong desire to be accepted and be like everyone else.

K1-B0 seems to understand most human emotions and many of their habits, though some of them only in theory, and he prefers to make decisions and actions based on logic. He claims that he works very hard every day to understand human emotions, and he's often quite hurt and saddened whenever the other students tell him that he wouldn't understand something because he is a robot. He tends to find abstract ideas frustrating and difficult, and sometimes has a hard time understanding why someone would do something that is very illogical. In general, he can get confused and a bit uncomfortable by his strange classmates, and sometimes reminds them to speak in a way he can understand. He can also get some habits a little wrong, like confusing the action of handholding and handshaking. Like a human, he blushes when he is feeling shy and feels awkward when talking about something inappropriate, though occasionally he may say inappropriate things without realizing it due to his naivety. For example, he considers nudity very shameful and embarrassing, but doesn't seem to see anything inappropriate in going to the bathroom, as he sometimes casually tells his classmates they're free to do that if they are close to a bathroom or even telling them they can do it right there even if they're in public surrounded by people, seemingly trying to be polite with this gesture. He can be very expressive with his body language since as a robot he can move his ahoge and some other parts according to his emotions. Being a robot, he is also very innocent when compared to most teenagers, and some situations make him very nervous and shy. In Chapter 3, he claims he is ticklish and it's implied that he might be able to feel pleasure similar to sexual pleasure when sensitive spots underneath his armor get touched. In general, he doesn't seem to have very much interest in sexual matters, considering it quite scandalous and claiming at one point that he would never expose Professor Idabashi's strong AI to pornography. He has also bashfully pointed out that there isn't much he can do about it anyway, since he lacks any reproductive functions. However, he secretly seems to have some interest in such subjects, as he once accidentally admitted this without thinking. When he is asked about his ability to fall in love, he says he doesn't know because he hasn't had any romantic feelings yet. In the bonus mode Love Across the Universe, it's eventually confirmed that he can fall in love and dreams of romance and intimacy. In the topic of romance, K1-B0 is shown to find the idea that robots should only date their own kind very offensive. When he does develop romantic feelings, he is shown to be very serious and surprisingly bold about the matter, assuming that you constantly have to do typical things couples do and be very dedicated in order to truly understand love. However, he is simultaneously very shy about the subject, as he gets very embarrassed, blushes a lot and stutters when he just asks to hold hands. He also seems to consider the maintenance Miu performs on his body very intimate and he is very embarrassed about it at first, especially if it's mentioned in front of others, as if it is a sexual relationship (though, it does resemble one). While he doesn't speak to Miu in explicitly romantic manner, he does care about her a lot and is even implied to be jealous of a computer she dedicates a lot of her time to.

Overall, K1-B0 appears to be quite well-meaning and kind, and he genuinely wishes to be friends with everyone (even considering Kokichi his friend during the bonus mode). He has mentioned multiple times that he wishes to make people smile and happy. He even likes comedy movies, because he enjoys the feeling of people having fun and wishes to become a robot who can make lots of people smile someday, like a comedy movie. He is also pacifistic and refuses to hurt humans, greatly respecting the First Law of Robotics, and in general dislikes violence and weapons. He also dislikes certain action movies for the way they portray robots as evil and murderous killing machines, considering it robophobic since most robots are friendly to humans. During the bonus mode, when Shuichi suggests making their own movie, K1-B0 would like to make a drama about hero stuff, which would be popular with children. K1-B0 wants to be the fearless hero while Shuichi would be the innocent citizen he saves from a villain. In Chapter 4, he even has some empathy for those he dislikes, as shown despite his grudge against Monotaro, he feels regret for Monotaro and Monophanie dying a terribly disturbing way and is upset at Monokuma for unsympathetically killing them like that.

K1-B0 often serves as the butt of jokes and is rarely taken seriously by the other students, which isn't helped by his somewhat wimpy and oversensitive personality, but he gets increasingly confident throughout the game and begins to motivate others and talk about hope and defeating despair, especially after remembering Hope's Peak Academy. During Kaito's execution, he even leaps forward to protect his friends with his more durable body. Furthermore, with his logical way of thinking, he quite often makes correct arguments and points out important things, not letting feelings cloud his judgement. He is less hesitant than others to approach unpleasant or distressing topics, such as the possibility of Gonta being the murderer, in the interest of reaching the most logical conclusions, and he tends to stay calm and sensible whenever most other students get too emotional to argue properly. Some of this could be a result of his "inner voice" — voices inside his head that guide him in difficult situations. He decides to listen to them more firmly after hearing Angie Yonaga's talk about God, treating his inner voice as his God who gives him advice and cheers for him. When he's mocked for being a robot who believes in God, he insists that robots can be religious. When his ahoge is broken during Kaito's execution, however, the voices go silent, causing everything to become "too quiet" for him and forcing him to use solely his own logic. It's later revealed that his ahoge is actually an antenna that receives information from Team Danganronpa, which takes the form of an "inner voice" that persuades him to take certain actions, said actions being decided through audience surveys.

When forced to make his own decisions without the inner voice, K1-B0 proves himself to extremely forceful and pragmatic, choosing the school's destruction and not submitting to Monokuma's expectations as the most efficient way of eradicating despair. As a result of his significantly increased power and change in behavior, he becomes much more serious and no longer displays his comical traits, with him downright ignoring some of the other students' words he considers irrelevant, such as Himiko's talk about magic and making him a real boy. He even states that he no longer has the luxury to yearn to be accepted and be just like everyone else, which used to be his biggest dream. After getting his ahoge back, he is back to his usual self and extremely remorseful for his extreme and dangerous actions. He apologizes to his friends, expecting them not to allow him to side with them anymore, and is very touched when they do. However, after the experience, K1-B0 came to realize that his true power as the Ultimate Robot is his ability to improve in a way that is impossible to humans. As a result, he finally seems to accept himself and begins to act more confident, convinced that he can use his power to save everyone.

During the final trial, despite having his inner voice back, K1-B0 refused to listen to it anymore and instead did his best to support his friends and avoid any more suffering at all costs. He was originally strongly on the side of hope, which was his role and purpose, but he abandoned the concept after Shuichi convinced him that it would only lead to more Killing Games and suffering. Because of this, the Audience took control of him and attempted to completely erase his personality, but he still managed to destroy the school and the End Wall, saving his friends at the cost of his own life. It was left ambiguous whether it was K1-B0's own doing or caused by the change of heart in the Audience. Before he exploded, K1-B0 was seen giving a final smile after making sure his friends had survived.