Kaito is a character I'm very fond of. He's not necessarily the deepest or most interesting character, but I think he's good at connecting with other characters in a way that brings out interesting aspects in them. A friend once asked me to fill out a questionnaire about him, so here are my answers!
How I feel about this character
I like Kaito a lot! His passion, his brashness, his determination to be your friend and make you feel better by any means necessary. I love that he always jumps in to go 'hey, don't think like that' when people start blaming themselves for the deaths of others. I need Kaito to follow me around and shout inspirational things at me in my day-to-day life.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
SHUICHI SHUICHI SHUICHI. I still can’t believe Shuichi canonically thinks ‘I shouldn’t be talking about another boy like that’ about this guy, and gets flustered by being too close to Kaito in a room with a bed. Shuichi is bisexual, he has a crush on Kaito, it’s canon, and I will go to war over this.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
I really like the Kaito-Shuichi-Maki workout trio! It's great to see the protagonist making such strong connections, and it's fascinating to see how those connections end up being tested.
My unpopular opinion about this character
Kaito/Shuichi is a severely underrated pairing. It’s not like people don’t ship it, but I’m shocked it’s not bigger than it is. Shuichi has such a clear crush, but this pairing is only 4% of the Danganronpa V3 section on AO3! (Kokichi/Shuichi, for comparison, is 30%. I can see why Kokichi/Shuichi is such a popular pairing, of course! But it's surprising to me that the difference in popularity is so vast.)
One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon
Kaito’s Love Hotel event stops just short of having Kaito confess his love, and I wish they’d included the actual confession so we could watch Shuichi have an absolute meltdown about it.