Danjuro Tobita

Danjuro Tobita (飛田 弾柔郎), also known as the villain Gentle Criminal (ジェントル・クリミナル), is an independent villain and an internet celebrity. He is the main antagonist of the U.A. Cultural Festival Arc.

Appearance
Danjuro is a man with a refined appearance. He has a slicked back hairdo with a curl at the front. He sports a handlebar mustache along with a well-kept, medium-sized beard.

Danjuro's clothes are also quite extravagant, featuring a dark purple jacket with enlarged collars and coattails, a pair of loose pinstriped pants and two belts. He also wears a pair of cuffs and a woolly scarf, and using a cane to walk.

Personality
Befitting his alias, Danjuro is a polite and well-mannered person, even while committing villainous acts. He is slightly controlling of the way he wants his crimes to play out and is not afraid of facing multiple heroes, showing an unusual amount of calmness and confidence. His mannerisms may also seem slightly over-the-top and eccentric. One of his more common theatrics is to pour coffee or tea into a cup while holding the kettle way over his head and spilling it everywhere.

Danjuro has little to no interest in money or objects of value. Instead, he chases after fame and reputation which he tries to achieve through video recordings of his criminal acts. He claims that his ultimate goal is to write his name in history and inspire others who view his actions, and is obsessed with achieving it, as he fears to fade into obscurity after his death. He is admittedly very selfish and claims to not being afraid of trampling on the dreams of others as long as it furthers his own; however, he does have a soft spot for his fan and crime partner La Brava and is capable of being self-sacrificing for her sake.

History
When he was a teenager, Danjuro failed in his classes and repeated many grades, almost destroying his dream of wanting to be a hero. One day, he was called into the office of his school and told that he would be expelled if he did not improve. Later that day, Danjuro accidentally got in the way of a hero trying to save a window cleaner falling from a skyscraper. While Danjuro tried to jump to the rescue, the Pro Hero bounced from the elastic surface Danjuro had created, making the hero too late to catch the falling man. The window cleaner received severe injuries and Danjuro was expelled from his school. Both his parents no longer supported him, therefore making him give up on his dream of becoming a hero and he left their house.

At the age of 22, while unemployed, he met an old classmate Takeshita who had become a successful Pro Hero. However, he did not recognize Danjuro when the latter greeted him. This traumatized Danjuro and made him realize that he was not fit to become a hero.

Six years later, Danjuro had become known as the villain of the media world, though he has been mostly unsuccessful at gaining popularity during his criminal career.

U.A. Cultural Festival Arc
Danjuro is robbing a store, as some Heroes try to stop him. He easily defeats them as La Brava records him. The new villain reveals himself to the world to be Gentle, a fancy and lavish-style villain, and tells La Brava that they will be going. Gentle wishes for his name to be etched in history. On top of a building, La Brava informs Gentle that their video of the store robbery is getting a lot of views. Gentle sees that he will have to accomplish a lot more if he wants people to start taking notice of him. While pouring tea, Gentle tells La Brava that he is searching for something that will make him extraordinary.

Gentle explains that he commits crimes for reasons such as attacking the J Store for hiding expiration dates of Fluffy Pudding that was about to expire even though there was evidence about the misgivings of the sales. Despite this, the pudding company selling the pudding feigned ignorance and tried to sidestep the matter. Gentle explains that he hands out punishments to those who do not act "gentlemanly" and is the Chivalrous Thief. When La Brava becomes infuriated that the video has not got any views. Gentle and La Brava think that Stain's biographical video stole the spotlight from them. Gentle talks about his next project which involves U.A. High School's Culture Festival. As the school was fortified after being attacked and is the current symbol of the Heroes, Gentle believes that if he invades the festival, then he will become the center of attention.

The next day, Gentle is seen working non-stop. As La Brava goes to fetch some tea, Gentle notes that dissatisfaction is growing towards Heroes nowadays because of their feeble-minded nature. Gentle praises U.A.'s preparations but criticizes their resourcefulness when faced with the unpredictable. La Brava wonders if Gentle will involve the U.A. students, he replies that simply invading U.A.'s Cultural Festival in and of itself is a wake-up call for them to grow stronger, which La Brava finds cool. On his computer, Gentle decides to double check the route they will take to get to U.A.'s Cultural Festival.

On the day of the attack, a disguised Gentle and La Brava run into Izuku Midoriya. Izuku apologizes while the disguised Gentle is more worried about losing the aftertaste of the Golden Tips Imperial tea he had just drunk. Gentle and La Brava attempt to leave wanting to avoid further contact. Hearing them talking about coffee, Izuku notes that the house was a coffee shop which grabs Gentle's attention. Gentle is impressed that Izuku knows of the Golden Tips Imperial tea, and Izuku admits that a friend served some to their class. Izuku finds the disguised man's voice familiar while Gentle praises Izuku's friend but soon deduces that Izuku is from U.A. Suddenly, Izuku manages to figure out his identity. Gentle sees that it is too late to cover up since Izuku is not naive, he turns around and takes his mask off asking who Izuku was referring to. Izuku tells Gentle that he saw his video; Gentle faces Izuku as he tells La Brava to turn the camera towards him. Izuku prepares himself and tells Gentle to leave U.A. alone.

Gentle praises Izuku for figuring out his identity while Izuku charges at Gentle but suddenly stops moving as he has run into an elastic sheet. Gentle reveals his Quirk's abilities. Gentle uses Gently Rebound on Izuku which blasts him across the street, as he comments on his dislike for using violence to solve his problems. Gentle and La Brava attempt to make their escape but Izuku comes charging at them. Gentle turns around and uses his Quirk on the ground. Izuku gets caught by Gentle's Gently Trampoline and is shot into the air. La Brava remembers that Izuku is from U.A's Sports Festival and tells Gentle this fact, which surprises Gentle who now wishes to not be further involved with Izuku and decides to quickly infiltrate U.A. Izuku charges Gentle and smashes him into a construction building.

Gentle's jacket is caught on a construction beam, hanging him in mid-air. Refusing to waver, he plans on going through with his infiltration. Gentle jumps into the air using an elastic trampoline, but Izuku charges at him, until he starts bouncing around Izuku at great speed by turning the construction beams around him into elastic. Gentle uses his Quirk and turns a crane's hook into elastic, planning to slingshot himself and La Brava out of the construction site. He does and the pair are flung in U.A.'s direction. Using his enhanced strength, Izuku fires a long range attack at Gentle and La Brava. Gentle dodges it and notes Izuku's tenacity.

Retreating from the construction site Gentle and La Brava discuss her quirk until they are interrupted by Izuku appearing above them. Charging at them with super speed, he manages to pin them both down on the ground. Looking at La Brava Gentle thanks her as she speaks of her love for him which grants him a power up to overthrow Izuku. As Gentle delivers an attack to Izuku, he's surprised to see Izuku unaffected.

When they are knocked back by Izuku's attack, Gentle refers to him as incorrigible. La Brava apologizes for her love not being enough but Gentle tells her nothing can prove that her feelings weren't enough. He attacks Izuku with a Gentle Sandwich claiming he must fulfill his fleeting dream. Revealing the more he tells him to give up the more determined he becomes. When he's asked why he must infiltrate the festival he says there's no other way for him to further his goals. As Izuku gets up he tries to throw him but is rebounded. They then proceed to clash with each other.

Izuku and Gentle clash with La Brava cheering Gentle on. Izuku is beginning to be overpowered by Gentle's enhanced strength which Izuku assumes to be the work of La Brava's Quirk. Gentle asks Izuku why he aspires to become a Hero. Izuku answers that just like Gentle his dream is no longer his and will achieve his dream for the sake of those who believed in him, wanting to be the man who shows everyone a brighter future. Izuku's response brings a smile to Gentle's face. As Gentle knocks back Izuku, La Brava takes the opportunity and brings out her computer and using special wireless technology plans to hack into U.A's internal network to disarm its security. However, she is out of range and tries to move closer.

Izuku sees this but Gentle plans on keeping Izuku occupied longer; Gentle jumps from his aerial elastic barrier and lunges into Izuku who manages to keep his guard up, mitigating the damage. Gentle creates several aerial elastic barriers and jumps from them all over the vicinity hitting Izuku and knocking him down. Gentle yells that he will discard his reputation and style of fighting to defeat Izuku, having developed respect for the boy. Meanwhile, La Brava has moved closer to U.A, but isn't able to proceed further as Hound Dog and several clones of Ectoplasm have caught a whiff of Izuku and Gentle's battle. On the ground, Izuku launches several wind pressure attacks which Gentle manages to evade most of but is hit by one of them. Gentle loses his balance and is stunned as a result of Izuku's air pressure attack. Using this opportunity, Izuku jumps in front of Gentle and attacks him with Shoot Style: St. Louis Smash. The strength of Izuku's St. Louis Smash is enough to finally bring down Gentle and render him immobile. Izuku apprehends Gentle and admits that out of all the battles he has fought, the one with him has been the toughest so far.

La Brava returns to Gentle and sees that he has been defeated by Izuku as Gentle orders her to run away. Devastated, a crying and flabbergasted La Brava demands Izuku to let Gentle go and while hitting Izuku, lamenting that Gentle poured his heart and soul into their U.A infiltration plan and that she is unable to live without him. Knowing that La Brava is fine with committing criminal acts as long as it's with him, Gentle realizes that if he allows La Brava to escape she will go on to committing an even worse crime. Blaming himself for La Brava's nature and knowing that she will be charged as being an accomplice, Gentle musters up the remaining strength given to him by La Brava's Quirk and pushes Izuku off and into the air, using his Quirk to bounce Izuku away. Gentle hugs La Brava as he tells Izuku to fly away for the sake of La Brava's bright future.

Hound Dog and the Ectoplasm clones find Gentle and La Brava, as Gentle declares his surrender.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Gentle is a competent fighter, as he was able to quickly defeat a group of pro heroes, though they were seemingly quite weak. He was also able to overpower Izuku Midoriya a few times during their fight, despite the latter going all out and using the extent of his abilities.

Intelligence: Danjuro has proven himself to be highly intelligent, able to develop a nearly-successful plan to break into the U.A. cultural festival despite the heavy security measures taken to prevent villain attacks. He was only prevented from making it into the festival due to a chance run-in with Izuku. His creative use of his quirk also suggests high intelligence.

Quirk
Elasticity: Danjuro's Quirk allows him to bestow the property of elasticity to anything he touches, from the ground to the air itself.

Super Moves

 * Gently Rebound (ジェントリーリバウンド): Danjuro creates an aerial elastic barrier and after an enemy runs into it, the enemy is blasted away.
 * Gently Trampoline (ジェントリートランポリン): Danjuro turns the ground into elastic and causes the enemy to bounce into the air after standing on it. Danjuro can also use this move to bounce himself through the air as a means of air travel.
 * Gently Sandwich (ジェントリーサンドイッチ): Danjuro creates a series of aerial elastic barriers and pins an opponent under them.

Weapons And Equipment

 * Knife: Danjuro wields an elaborate knife that he uses for robberies.

Battles & Events

 * Izuku Midoriya vs. Gentle & La Brava

Manami Aiba
Manami and Danjuro are partners, as Danjuro commits crimes and Manami records and uploads them. The two seem to be friendly with each other and exchange their motivations. Manami also admires Danjuro and his ideals, in return Danjuro appreciates Manami's efforts in helping him become a notorious villain. Danjuro acknowledges Manami's love for him and her dependence on him to be happy. Danjuro is even willing to give himself up to the authorities in order to lessen any punishment Manami might receive as a result of their actions.

Chizome Akaguro
Despite not personally knowing him, Danjuro holds some jealously towards Stain, who became popular in the media due to the recording of his arrest going viral. Danjuro is currently trying to surpass Stain in internet views, searching for the perfect opportunity to do so.

Izuku Midoriya
At first glance, he treated Izuku as no more of an obstacle that had to be removed, but after learning that he was a student of U.A high school he developed an interest. As they fought more, he gained a begrudging respect for the latter and steadily confined him more of his past. After he lost the match and of hearing of the young one's dream, he treated the boy as an equal and told him to keep moving forward. Izuku on the hand, at first treated him like a threat and remained hostile to him.

However, after fighting him more and finding out Danjuro's past, he treated him with more respect and care. After defeating Danjuro he remained worried about him, even after being blasted into the air.

Trivia

 * Gentle Criminal seems to be inspired by the and  of comic books, villains like, , and the  are well known for their silly antics and not trying to be serious criminals but to get the attention of people.
 * Gentle has more in common with the Mad Hatter, both are eccentric villains and are not focused on stealing banks or becoming a crime boss, in the case of the Mad Hatter, he wants to steal all the hats he considers priceless, including Batman's Cowl, while Gentle is looking for fame by everyone and not to be forgotten. Both wanted to be heroes when they were young yet they failed to do so, becoming villains later on.
 * The kanji in Danjuro “弾”(dan,lit. “bounce, bound”) “柔” (ju,lit. “softness”). and for Tobita's mean "飛" (tobi, lit. "to fly") "田"(ta, lit. "paddy, field").
 * Danjuro's favorite thing is black tea.

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Danjuro Tobita