Ryota Mitarai entered Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Animator, celebrated for crafting animation sequences of profound emotional resonance. His physical appearance featured a frail build, light brown hair, hazel eyes, and prominent dark circles beneath them, typically clad in a Future Foundation black suit with green tie and identification badge. A childhood steeped in anime, which he regarded as personal salvation during hardships, ignited his fervent passion for the medium. This drove his mission to create hope-inspiring anime, though it manifested as an obsessive work ethic causing health neglect and social withdrawal. His animation techniques employed advanced sensory manipulation—precision coloration, eye movement guidance, and sound design—to directly influence viewers' neural pathways, a method he analogized loosely to brainwashing. During his academy tenure, he seldom attended classes, laboring obsessively in his dormitory. After collapsing from starvation, the Ultimate Imposter aided him and subsequently impersonated him. This resulted in Ryota remaining virtually unknown to classmates while the Imposter delivered food and relayed class activities. Junko Enoshima exploited his talent, reverse-engineering his methods to produce the "Despair Video." Incorporating footage of Chiaki Nanami's death, this video forcibly brainwashed Class 77-B into becoming Ultimate Despair, catalyzing the global Tragedy. Post-Tragedy, he joined the Future Foundation as Director of Branch Office 10, focusing on cultural and educational revival. He carried a perfected "Hope Video" on his phone, using hypnotic patterns and commands to brainwash viewers into a state of hope. During the Final Killing Game within Future Foundation headquarters, his NG Code barred him from utilizing his animation talents. Witnessing deaths and despair—particularly Kyoko Kirigiri's apparent demise—eroded his faith in organic hope. Manipulated by Chairman Kazuo Tengan and traumatized, he resolved to broadcast the Hope Video globally, aiming to obliterate despair by erasing free will and negative emotions like jealousy and suffering. After the killing game, he initiated the broadcast, convinced it was humanity's sole salvation. However, the restored Class 77-B—freed from their own brainwashing—intervened. Confronting him, they acknowledged shared guilt for past despair-driven actions and offered companionship in atonement. They rejected sacrificing free will, advocating mutual belief and cooperation. Persuaded by their solidarity, he halted the broadcast, destroyed his phone containing the Hope Video, and joined his classmates in exile on Jabberwock Island for collective atonement, finally exhibiting a more relaxed demeanor.