Ichirou Saikou

Ichirou Saikou
Role	CEO of Saikou Corp
Age	43 (202X Mode) 6 (1980s Mode)
Love	Mrs. Saikou (Wife)
Strength	Unknown
Appears	Unknown

Ichirou Saikou is the father of Megami Saikou, the current CEO of Saikou Corp, and the current patriarch of Saikou Family.

Appearance

Ichirou has fair skin and short, slicked-back silver hair with four pieces resembling a wing on the side of his head. It is unknown what his eye color is.

He wears a black suit with a blue undershirt, paired with black dress pants and black dress shoes. He holds a glass of red wine in his right hand.

Personality

"The founder of Saikou Corp, Saisho Saikou, had two children - a daughter born in 1970, and a son born in 1979. Saisho wished for his offspring to inherit his business empire, and intended to train his children to develop the skills and traits necessary to properly manage the multinational corporation he had built. Saisho's daughter was a cheerful and friendly girl who enjoyed creating art and spending time with animals. Saisho felt that his daughter had developed 'undesirable' personality traits and the 'wrong' interests for someone who was destined to inherit his corporation.

Throughout his daughter's life, he constantly attempted to reshape her personality and redirect her interests, but was never successful. After graduating from Akademi Academy, Saisho's daughter vanished from the public eye entirely. Theories varied wildly; some suspected that she was kidnapped for ransom, and was killed when the ransom was not paid. Others theorized that she was murdered by her father for failing to meet his expectations. However, anyone who interacted with Saisho and his daughter on a daily basis had a much different theory: they suspected that she chose to flee to a foreign country to live a life of her own choosing, instead of living under the oppressive, tyrannical control of her father.

When his daughter was only 9 years old, Saisho had already begun to consider the possibility that his daughter would fall short of his standards. This was the reason why he decided to have a second child; he recognized the 'mistakes' he made with his first child, and he was convinced that if he "tried again", he could 'get it right this time.' His second child, Ichirou Saikou, was born for the sole purpose of being a 'backup' in case his daughter failed him.

Saisho carefully designed a very specific upbringing for Ichirou in order to encourage the development of specific personality traits and interests, and discourage the development of any attribute that he considered to be 'unnecessary'. Saisho's methods proved to be incredibly effective; he successfully molded his son into the ideal heir, and crafted the boy into what he considered to be the 'ideal person'.

Although Saisho took enormous pride in his son, Ichirou would often make others feel extremely uncomfortable. The boy spoke formally at all times, never expressed emotion, and rarely changed his facial expression. He was described as 'robotic' at best, and 'soulless' at worst. The Saikou family's attendants often wondered if the boy was still capable of independent thought, or if he was simply an empty shell that had been trained to carry out his father's will. In his mid-twenties, Ichirou entered into an arranged marriage. He had two children, in accordance with his father's wishes; 'One as a backup in case the first child fails you.' Saisho micro-managed the upbringing of his grandchildren, providing his son and daughter-in-law with specific instructions for how to raise their children in order to encourage the development of specific traits and discourage the development of other traits.

Saisho recognized that his original methods produced an heir that was too dispassionate, and adjusted his instructions accordingly so that his grandchildren would turn out to be more personable than his son. Ichirou's daughter, Megami, was a perfect success of the Saisho child-rearing technique; an heir who possessed all desired attributes, as well as a charismatic personality that allowed her to instantly earn the respect and admiration of nearly anyone she spoke to. Ichirou's son, Kencho, was raised with the exact same methods but developed numerous negative personality traits. It is possible that these traits developed as a result of the boy developing an inferiority complex with his sister.

Shortly before the events of Yandere Simulator, Saisho Saikou retired and handed control of his company to his son, Ichirou. The headmaster of Akademi reports directly to Ichirou, respectfully referring to him as 'Mr. Saikou'. There are vague rumors that the Headmaster and Ichirou have some sort of agreement or 'deal' between one another, but if there is any truth to that rumor, the two of them are the only people in the world who know the details."

— Description on official website.

According to his description, Ichirou's father, Saisho Saikou, "carefully designed a very specific upbringing for Ichirou in order to encourage the development of specific personality traits and interests, and discourage the development of any attribute that he considered to be 'unnecessary'. The boy spoke formally at all times, never expressed emotion, and rarely changed his facial expression. The Saikou family's attendants often wondered if the boy was still capable of independent thought, or if he was simply an empty shell that had been trained to carry out his father's will." Additionally, his call with Kocho Shuyona at the end of Week 1 shows that he is okay with casualties if it means progress, which proves Ichirou is a cruel man. Besides these, nothing else is known about his personality.

Background

This section contains spoilers. You have been warned!

Most of Ichirou's childhood was perfectly normal. After his sister left the family, he was put through an accelerated version of his sister's training to become CEO of Saikou Corp.

While his son was young, his father kept him at his side during business meetings, most likely as a form of training.

At some point of his life, the Saikou family probably used an arranged marriage service. Then he met with a bunch of candidates until he decided who was the best choice.

After the events between his sister and father, he was told to have multiple children, in case the oldest child decides to not inherit the company.

He is aware that his son's rivalry towards his daughter is a potential problem, and so Kencho has been forbidden from attempting to interfere with Megami's life in any way.

Recently, he prevented his daughter from normally attending Akademi until Week 10 because of "family business".

Relationships

His Wife

Main article: Mrs. Saikou

His family probably used an arranged marriage service in which he met with a bunch of candidates until he decided who was the best choice, whom he married and had two children with. His wife knows him better than anyone else. They probably work closely in Saikou Corp.

Ichirou and Mrs. Saikou probably developed genuine feelings for one another to a degree, but it's probably a "marriage of convenience". Both of them appreciate each other.

His expression would not change if another man was flirting with his wife. He would just stand there and watch how she responds, feeling confident that she would politely turn down the man.

His Daughter

Main article: Megami Saikou

A conversation between Ichirou and his daughter is mostly formal and businesslike, similar to giving a report than a casual conversation.

Trivia

• Ichirou (一郎) means "First Son".
• He and Ryoba Aishi have spoken before.
• A conversation between him and Kaga Kusha would be a major spoiler.
• His model from now removed "Thanks For Playing" cutscene was re-used from The Yakuza's workers.
  • Mr. Okada also re-uses their appearance.
• YandereDev explained that the reason why Ichirou holds red wine in his illustration is a result of associating the trope with characters depicted as powerful, mysterious and being apart of a group that opposes or conflicts the protagonist or the primary goals.

Gallery

Ichirou in Yandere Simulator's current intro.

Ichirou in the Thanks For Playing cutscene at the end of the demo.

The front view.

Ditto, but without the cube that covers his face.

Quotes

Ichirou: The design tech department has hired the prototype for the next-gen processor... it will go into testing next month.
How was school?

(Megami understands that the question is not really one of news. "What accomplishments have you achieved at school lately that will help you run Saikou Corp later in life?" Her father would answer accordingly.)

Megami: I noticed that most of the Friday meetings have been running late. I restructured the agenda to eliminate redundancy, and we finished on time today.
Kencho: (Smirking, leaning back, twirling his fork in his fingers.) Sounds thrilling. (Sarcasm drips from every syllable.)
Megami: ...and you, Kencho? Aren't you going to tell them?
Kencho: ...tell them what?
Megami: About that test.
Kencho: ...how did you...?
Ichirou: (Raises an eyebrow) What test?
Kencho: (Sigh)...it's nothing.
Mrs. Saikou: It doesn't sound like it’s nothing. Something you want to come clean about?
Kencho: (After tapping his finger on the table, a few times in frustration) ...I scored 99 points on a test.
Ichirou: (Lifts his head, actually making eye contact with Kencho for the first time that day.) Oh? What did the remaining 1 point off?
Kencho: I didn’t get it wrong. My answer was right...I just...misread the question. So, I was writing down the right answer for the wrong question.
Ichirou: ...If one of my employees tried to justify his failures with an excuse like that, he’d be fired on the spot.
Kencho: (Hunches, but doesn’t argue back.)
Ichirou: ...Well, Do better next time.
(The family continues eating, with Kencho staring daggers at Megami, wondering she possibly knew the results of a test from earlier that day.)

After dinner...

Kencho: Heh.
Megami: Hm? Something on your mind?
Kencho: You must REALLY feel threatened by me.
Megami: And why do you say that?
Kencho: You're sooooo worried that if I surpass you one day that you actually spy on my school performance. How insecure. Pretty lame, sis.
Megami: The only reason I know that you scored a 99 is because your classmates overheard you trying to bribe the teacher to change your score to a 100, and started gossiping about it online. Saikou Corp's PR department has already deleted all messages about it from social media... but not before a bunch of people tagged me, begging me to react to your indiscretion.
Kencho: ...
Megami: ...
Kencho: ...so, the PR department goes through all that trouble to keep it under wraps, and then you just blab it to mom and dad at the dinner table. Do you get some sort of sick pleasure from humiliating me in front of them? Huh?
Megami: I wasn’t planning on saying a word about it. But then, you had to go and make a snide remark at dinnertime. That's when I suddenly decided that I believe strongly in accountability.
Kencho: (Scoffs) Good to know my words get under your skin that much. Like I said before: Insecure.
Megami: If you act like a child, you'll never be treated as an equal. It’s as simple as that.
(Megami turns and leaves, leaving Kencho frustrated with the way that Megami is always one step ahead of him, and even more frustrated at the fact that it matters so much to him.)

— A hypothetical dinner between the Saikou family members, which included Ichirou, his wife, Kencho, and Megami.