Danjuro Tobita

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

Appearance
Danjuro is a man with a refined appearance. He has a slicked-back hairdo with a curl at the front and sports a handlebar mustache along with a well-kept, medium-sized beard. Similar to La Brava, he has thick black lines around his eyes resembling eyeliner which was applied by a marker.

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. He is seen using a cane to walk.

Personality
Befitting his alias, Danjuro is a polite and well-mannered person, even while committing villainous acts. He manipulates 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.

Although he means well and lacks hostility, he is shown to lack insight behind his decisions and actions. This was first demonstrated when he hindered a Pro Hero saving someone despite having good intentions. Other cases are how his videos cause more discomfort instead of the inspiration he desires, not understanding the consequences he would've truly brought to U.A. High School by sneaking into their Culture Festival, and how he was unable to stop speaking to Izuku Midoriya when they first met, which accidentally exposed his identity. This also demonstrates his incapability to voice a sound argument behind his intentions like his conversation with his life counselor in high school, his failed attempt to persuade Izuku to let him sneak into the Culture Festival, and how he was unable to fool Hound Dog when he turned himself over to protect La Brava.

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. Even more, upon finally being arrested, it was shown that deep down he still desired to be a hero, weeping with joy to hear someone say he could still turn his life around to reach his original goal.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Danjuro is a competent fighter, as he was able to swiftly defeat a group of Pro Heroes by himself, although his opponents seemed to be below average for Pro Heroes. However, it's important to note that Gentle never aims to seriously injure or kill his opponents, and thus never fights at his full capacity. He was also able to overpower Izuku Midoriya, one of the strongest students in U.A. High School, a few times during their battle, despite the latter going all out and using the extent of his abilities. After the battle, Izuku admitted that out of all the battles he has fought, the one with Danjuro was the most difficult. This is mostly due to the fact that Izuku did not want to fight him and was sympathizing with Danjuro throughout their battle, though the same can be said of Danjuro who was only aiming to incapacitate Izuku rather than seriously injure him.

Keen Intellect: Danjuro has proven himself to be highly intelligent, able to develop a nearly-successful plan to break into the U.A. School 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, making it stretchable, bendable, and bouncy. This Quirk can affect anything, from the ground to the air itself. Danjuro cannot cancel the effects himself, instead, the effect wears off on its own after time has passed.

By making the air elastic, it becomes a circular invisible membrane that floats in midair, which he can use to getting around quickly, as shields to deflect his opponent's range attacks such as Izuku’s Delaware Smash Air Force, or move them around the environment to his advantage.

Super Moves

 * Gently Rebound (ジェントリーリバウンド): Danjuro creates an aerial elastic barrier and when an enemy runs into it, they are blasted away.
 * Gently Trampoline (ジェントリートランポリン): Danjuro turns the ground into a bouncy trampoline that 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.

Equipment
Knife: Danjuro wields an elaborate knife that he uses for robberies and other villainous acts

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 robbing banks or becoming a crime boss. In the case of Mad Hatter, he wants to steal all the hats he considers priceless, including Batman's Cowl, while Gentle is looking for fame and recognition by everyone and not to be forgotten. Both wanted to be heroes when they were young, yet failing to do so had them 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.
 * It has been noted by Izuku that the way Danjuro turned out is how Izuku himself may have ended up, had he not met All Might and inherited his Quirk in order to become a hero. In other words, Danjuro effectively serves as a dark reflection of Izuku.

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