Have you ever had to take a deep breath before, during, and after a conversation with someone? Does the mere mention of a name fill your lungs with dread that must be released through a deep sigh? While I’ve met a few characters like that over the years, few have made that list at the speed Ima from The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy demo did.

I finished this demo from the Danganronpa creators recently, and it left me mostly excited. The new mascot, Sirei, already gives Monokuma a run for his money in terms of delivering humor and conjuring fear, the defense-focused tactics gameplay is pretty satisfying, and the visuals are some of the creators’ best. While it doesn’t take long to see that the developers at Too Kyo Games could not abandon much of the DNA birthed at Spike Chunsoft, it’s clear they want to see if those genes can make a different beast. Unfortunately, some of the old beast’s worst parts still survived — specifically when it comes to the characters.

The likability of the Danganronpa series’ cast is as diverse as their personalities. I went out of my way to be best friends with people like Maki from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and Chiaki from Danganronpa 2. I loved to hate people like V3’s Kokichi Oma while dissecting his every word for lies. I’m often indifferent to a lot of the casts across the series, but most of them have their moments. But then, there are the characters I hoped to see gone sooner rather than later.

Within 1 minute of chatting with Ima Tsukumo, the gross, graphic, condescending, cliché-that-should’ve-died-already, overly-doting twin brother of Kaoko Tsukumo, I wanted him to be our first casualty.

Ima’s not the only dislikable character in this demo, but he is unquestionably the worst so far. No matter what he says, whether it gives you insight into his one-note personality or seemingly troubled history, I was always left asking: why?

Why say that? Why imply that other thing? Why, when Too Kyo Games is batting for the fences with promising twists and complete breaks from their old formula, keep one of the worst aspects from their previous entries? Ima often kills the group conversations’ momentum, currently adds nothing to the plot that another character couldn’t, and constantly carries a mocking attitude. The sister complex is just the big thorn on top. It is a trope that not even series like Spy X Family or Mashle have made less tiring over the years. It’s gross, and in the process completely overshadows his sister’s personality (which has significant room for growth, to be fair). It doesn’t help that, in true fashion for these creators’ games, his personality is cranked up to eleven.

And what’s worse, I could be stuck with him all game.

It is quickly revealed that the hemoanima ability, which lets these young soldiers create blood weapons and pull off stylish kills, also makes them immortal. There is a catch: they have to be within a certain radius of the school for the corpse retrieval drones to grab them. But, given Ima is one of the students who hasn’t stepped foot outside the school building after a 5 hour demo, it looks like he’s going to be around for a while. I haven’t lost any characters when venturing off the school grounds for resources and story beats either, but what’s the future for if not hope?

Despite Ima’s presence, I will likely still pick up The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy later. The rest of its weirdness has reeled me in. I’m invested in its story, other characters like Hiruko, Gaku, and Takemaru are fun to chat with, and the battles have yet to bore me. Plus, I was able to ignore Ima for large stretches of the demo altogether, making his interruptions more like pinpricks rather than stabs. I just hope the game doesn’t try to make me like him later, or bring in any other outdated tropes to the academy.