Ryoma Terasaka

Ryoma Terasaka (寺坂 竜馬) is a student in Korosensei's Class 3-E in Kunugigaoka Junior High School.

Appearance
Terasaka has short, spiky, brown hair which is dyed blonde around the sides. He has a bulky body which he uses to intimidate people with and light eyes (light green in the anime).

Personality
Initially Terasaka was a petty bully, passive-aggressive towards everything and anything related to school he used to bully higher achieving students into doing his own academic work for him in an attempt to assert dominance against those of a weaker build. Terasaka clearly had a brawn over brains approach to his problems and would often rely on intimidation (if not outright physical force) to get by in life while lazily forcing others to do his work for him while he vicariously achieved getting into a prestigious school through other's achievements. He seemed to have a good eye to see who was academically gifted as the first person he was shown to try and coerce at Kunugigaoka was Natsuhiko Koyama, who would go on to be one of the Big Five. Ironically the grade and academic-oriented system made Terasaka unable to bully those whom he used to, as relying on others to do his work for him only placed further away from the academic success of the school and eventually forced him to submit to those of a higher grade-point average while he was forced to waste his life away in Class E. Rather than try to improve his grades for the better Terasaka fully embraced the bitter and depressing atmosphere and took even enjoying the circumstances of Class E being at the bottom of the academic barrel. It could be surmised and sense Terasaka held no hope for himself to improve his grades anyway he enjoyed being in a position where his grades were irrelevant and he could still utilize his brawny build and parasitic nature as a bully to achieve some degree of comfort; alternatively he was simply too lazy to try and study and enjoyed being able push his weight around in an environment where he wouldn't be hounded about his grades regardless. Terasaka was, in short, the very definition of the Main Campus's definition of a Class E student, a dimwitted problem child who solved his problems though uncivil methods and made use of factors that wouldn't get him far in life to try and get by in school while not trying to improve himself for the better.

Terasaka is the classroom delinquent and the person who took the longest to adjust to Korosensei being his new teacher; in what could possibly be a reactive attachment disorder towards his philosophy of doing nothing, sheer laziness and/or a refusal to even attempt at improving himself Terasaka desired to kill Korosensei, with the bounty and having enough money to live life on the easy street being a secondary motivation if at all, so that Class E would revert back to the drab and depressing place that it used to be where his laziness thrived and he could breeze by without committing to work. Much like how his bullying nature left him behind those that were smarter then him on the main campus however he soon found himself being left behind in the ever growing and changing Class E dynamic. Unable to adjust to his surroundings as fast as they were changing was a source of frustrations which only made him deny this change more and the result was that as Class E was moving more and more ahead in life with greater confidence and abilities Terasaka was only being left further and further behind because of his lack of desire or vision to change and improve. As noted by Shiro Terasaka's refusal to follow the lead of Class E's improvement made him a useful asset as no one would find it odd if he pulled a stunt against Korosensei that would ultimately help Shiro with his assassination attempt. This fault would be told, very bluntly, by Itona right in Terasaka's face and he took it somewhat to heart repeating these words to Nagisa soon afterwards and made him even more committed to Shiro's plan to kill Korosensei.

Deep down, Terasaka seems to feel somewhat burdened by his inability to really adapt and change into his new environment: first from his bullying becoming obsolete and now becoming on the other side of the bullying by the very type of people that he used to bully for the reason that he used to bully them to his new, somewhat comfortable life in Class E being yanked from under his feet do to the requirements to kill their teacher and the newfound ambition in his fellow student's psyches in order to both escape from the destitution of the Class E life and pull themselves up to be better at school while he was both to lazy and felt unable to keep up academically which only furthered his frustrations to an eventual boiling point when his friends began to adapt and move ahead of him while he was the only one to remain solely behind. Terasaka blamed this on Korosensei as opposed to him not even trying to get better at school or what he does; in his mind the teacher trying to make them better people and teach them all that he can before the Earth is destroyed is the one at fault instead of him for not even making an attempt at school or in life. Although to be fair Korosensei was a ligitimate threat to the world as they knew it and Terasaka may not have liked that the people who were supposed to be killing him were instead becoming close to him and forming a bond. Once Terasaka did form a bond with him, he voted to kill Korosensei in order to preserve it showing that in the end he truly did value the bond that he had formed with Class E by the end of the year.

Despite this and everything else, Terasaka was not without a sense of what was right and wrong, if not something of a sense of empathy towards his classmates, if not as his classmates than as people. He was visibly mortified when he realized that by following Shiro's orders he had placed most of his class in danger and showed signs that his conscious had taken root by the gravity of the situation. Though Terasaka had long been in denial of the reality that he was in the realization of what he had allowed and helped in causing as well as Karma's blunt exposure of Terasaka allowing himself to be strung along like a puppet had allowed to happen forced him to except what he had done and he quickly moved in to rectify his mistakes. This was an important distinction between Terasaka as it showed hints of compassion and remourse and most importantly the will to change. Ultimately it would be this episode that would be the catalyst of Terasaka changing into a better person. The former bully who enjoyed picking on people and relies on others to make plans for him was no more, at least in part as he showed signs of finally turning over a new leaf.

After the incident with Shiro, Terasaka finally opts to change himself for the better and shows signs of trying to be a less lazy and more proactive person over all. One of the biggest and most noteworthy changes was his willpower; while initially a rather submissive and weak person towards those of a higher pay role and/or physical and mental strength like Shiro and Karma, Terasaka would exhibit a strength of will and character unlike any other in Class E. This was especially true when the rest of his classmates were poisoned and he withstood the same symptoms that had caused more than half of his class to be left incapacitated while he operated in good condition through sheer willpower born from the guilt of what had happened and a desire to improve himself and make it up to his friends and those he had victimized accidentally. Although it is worth noting that the poison in question had been switched with a non-lethal dose. He would begin to give encouraging advice to other characters when they need it most and has acknowledged Class E as a place full of amazing and capable people.

Terasaka would even emulate some of Korosensei's philosophies and the ability to connect to people. It would be Terasaka and his gang that would take Itona under their wing and ultimately help him realize that the power through the tentacles was the wrong way to achieve power and help him let go of it and allow Korosensei to remove the tentacles and save his life.

Terasaka's laziness is his greatest vice, the primary reason for him being in class E is because of his own slothful and parasitic approach to studying and school: getting someone else to do all of his work. Terasaka's lack of effort is the biggest flaw in his person and the main reason for his low grades as despite he has shown himself at least moderately intelligent despite constant quips at his brainpower; with a good grasp on factors and being able to come up with decently effective assassination ploys he demonstrated himself to be good at outside the box thinking and outsourcing for a unpredictable arsenal and was the only student to think of bringing in a foreign weapon (stun guns) to see if that would have any effect on Korosensei. He was able to turn a toy grenade into a working one by utilizing gunpowder and anti-sensei fiber for a rather effective suicidal bombing attack in the first chapter, and when serving as a double agent of Shiro was able to bypass a good chunk of Korosensei's usual defenses. In the Kunugigaoka finals he scored 46th showing that his intelligence was merely underutilized as opposed to being a weakness as was often the butt of many jokes.

Though not as lazy as he once was one negative trait that Terasaka was never able to fully release was his short fuse, he would remain hotheaded and quite slow-witted during these moments when his temper was flared, and would frequently swear, insult people and bang his fists when angry. Though his temper would lessen over the course of the series it was perhaps the one trait that he was never fully shown to conquer. However Terasaka would ultimately become a much happier person the last year he spent in Class E.

History
Rather than using his brains and wit to succeed in life, Terasaka relied on his strong build and loud voice to use others to his advantage. This also meant that he could bully others into submission with ease and it is implied that he also made them do his work for them, which was probably how he got into Kunugigaoka Junior High in the first place.

Upon being admitted into the school he was put in the same class as Natsuhiko Koyama, who would eventually become one of the top five scorers in the school. Though Terasaka initially attempted to persuade the hard-worker into submission, he soon found that the school, which was so focused on grades, would make his bullying ways obsolete and soon found himself in Class 3-E as a result of his poor academic skills.

Though Class 3-E was a very depressing place, Terasaka was perfectly fine with it because it meant he would not have to work hard and could just cruise through his school life without doing much (if any) work. However that all changed when Korosensei appeared and the entire class was soon drawn into the prospect of assassination and thus greatly encouraging them which did not sit well with Terasaka at first.

First Semester
Terasaka is introduced in Chapter 1 like the rest of the class. After the class's first failed attempt to collectively kill Korosensei, he and his two friends Takuya Muramatsu and Taisei Yoshida pressured fellow classmate Nagisa Shiota into carrying out their plan. Terasaka made Nagisa into a suicide bomber of sorts when the latter falls onto Korosensei with a toy grenade filled with anti sensei BBs inside around Nagisa's neck, which Terasaka then remotely detonated. However, Nagisa was unharmed by Korosensei's shedded skin, with the teacher himself very pissed off that Terasaka pulled such a stunt. To make him and the class fully understand the ramifications of such an act, Korosensei grabbed all of their family nameplates from their houses, stating that while he cannot harm the students, no condition was made to hurt their families or destroy the whole world but them. Although very scared by this, Terasaka argues back stating that an annoying being like Korosensei has to be killed by any means necessary to defend themselves, which puts Korosensei back into a good mood. While he commended the plan and Nagisa's execution of it, the fact that Terasaka and his friends did not care for Nagisa's well-being means that they cannot be called assassins.

Since then, Terasaka mainly stayed out of or did not assist his other classmates' assassination attempts. As time passed on and the students grew more friendlier with their teacher, Terasaka became increasing isolated. He gets a major spotlight in the Summertime Arc, where his isolation from the class and increasing irritation at Korosensei came to a head. Wanting things to return as it did before Korosensei's arrival, Terasaka disrupted his classmates' fun and helps Shiro and Itona in preparing their next plan, smashing a can of smoke inside the school classroom and contaminating the newly-created pool to hamper Korosensei's abilities. When Shiro's plan is completely prepared, Terasaka orders the reluctant class to help him kill the teacher at the pool. But when Terasaka unknowingly blows up the pool's dam and putting the students in the pool in danger of being killed, he realizes he'd been manipulated by Shiro, and thus helps Karma defeat Shiro and Itona's plan.

He gets even more involved with the class as he worked with his group to achieve several 1st spots in Home Economics, so as to exploit a loophole in Korosensei's bet with the class (1 top spot = shooting off 1 tentacle) and scoring multiple 1st spots in the same subject. Korosensei praised this as Home Economics had no standardized answers, making 1st place extremely difficult.

Assassination Island Arc
In the Assassination Island arc, Terasaka played a major role. Unknown to his classmates, Terasaka was infected by the food poison, but he endured the symptoms far longer than any of his classmates. Terasaka unintentionally got Karasuma hit by Smog's gas attack when he rushed forward with Yoshida.

When the group was halted by a door and two guards, Terasaka brandishes (under the suggestion of Korosensei) a pair of stun guns (which he bought off the money he acquired from Shiro, when he sabotaged the pool back then). Terasaka had Masayoshi Kimura to lure the two guards so he and Yoshida can knock them down with stun guns. After doing this, he and Yoshida found revolvers in the guards' pockets, which Korosensei instructed Chiba and Hayami to use.

Halfway through, Nagisa discovers that Terasaka was infected, but the latter forced him to be silent, saying that he has to make up for getting Karasuma gassed earlier(and to amend for his involvement with Shiro which almost drowned his entire classmates).

When Nagisa is almost goaded into a frenzy by Takaoka, Terasaka attempted to calm him down by tossing his stun gun at him while persuading him to not be a killer. Later on, Nagisa thanks Terasaka for calling out to him. Terasaka retorts that he only did it because it would be much harder to kill Korosensei with one less man, acknowledging his thanks.

Abilities
Strength: One of Terasaka's more noticeable features is his physical strength. This has been noted by both Karasuma and Itona. Terasaka is capable of body slamming huge and well-built security guards and single-handily choke soldiers.

Durability: Out of all the students of Class E, his durability is among the highest, if not the highest. He has been shown to be able to withstand direct attacks from Itona's tentacles and was able to hide his poison symptoms for hours during the Assassination Island arc, whereas his classmates succumbed in minutes upon realization.

Simplicity: As noted by Korosensei and Karma, Terasaka is capable of following instructions to the letter and executing them perfectly. Terasaka himself affirms that he is incapable of guiding himself, but wants to choose who to be controlled by. This is demonstrated in him following Karma's plan to the letter to subdue Itona at the natural pool.

Explosives:  He has at least a minor understanding of explosives as seen when he modified a toy hand grenade into a lethal one filled with anti-sensei BBs. The grenade had a remote detonator.

Itona Horibe
Itona and Terasaka are good friends despite the former continuously calling the latter stupid and idiotic. Terasaka is the one who managed to open Itona's heart and convince him to change his ways. After Itona reforms and becomes an official student of Class E, he joins Terasaka's group.

Takuya Muramatsu
During the Assassination Test of Courage, Korosensei paired Ryōma with Takuya and Kirara. Most of the times, he is often hanging out with Terasaka.

Kirara Hazama
During the Assassination Test of Courage, Korosensei paired Ryōma with Takuya and Kirara. Most of the times, she is often hanging out with Terasaka.

Taisei Yoshida
Most of the times, he is often hanging out with Terasaka.

Karma Akabane
Originally, Terasaka and Karma did not get along. Karma considered Terasaka to be clueless and Terasaka disliked Karma's high and mighty attitude. When Shiro deceived and betrayed Terasaka, the latter relied on Karma to help him showing that he acknowledges his intelligence and guile. Now, the two get along a lot better although Karma's original perception of Terasaka being an idiot has not changed. However, Terasaka in Chapter 147 notes that even though he originally believed Karma to be a genius, he actually did a lot of work behind the scenes.

Rio Nakamura
The two do not interact until 3-E’s Civil War where Rio expresses her desire to win the battle and assassinate Korosensei. Terasaka then subtly praises her, stating that Rio acts stupid and does stupid things, but in reality she was the most serious person in Class 3-E.

Later on, Terasaka refers back to that conversation which causes Rio to blush in embarrassment and hide her face telling him to shut up. She often refers to Terasaka and his group as knuckleheads or dummies.

In the graduation album, Terasaka commented on her message board saying “Doing stupid stuff is great and all, but I think that stupidly serious side of you is already plenty charming".

Nagisa Shiota
Terasaka and Nagisa have not gotten any closer since the suicide bombing incident, but the one who understands the matured Terasaka the most is Nagisa. The words Terasaka said during his second duel with Takaoka still leave a deep impression in Nagisa’s heart.

Kōtarō Takebayashi
After evangelising to him about maid cafes, they tend to meet up at around noon (to go to one). There is the vibe that Terasaka is revolving in the palm of Takebayashi’s hand.

Quotes
(To Class 3-E, mainly Isogai and Karma) "Shortsighted guys with no vision and no goals are doomed to be played by smart guys like them. But you know... at least lemme pick who's pullin' the strings."

(To Karma) "So, Karma - why don't you try controllin' me? Gimme a strategy outta that shrewd noggin of yours! I'll pull it off perfectly and save all of them!"

(To Karma) "Oh, I'll do it, all right. I'm the perpetrator who gets results."

(To Itona Horibe) "It's fine if you fail 100 times. Until March, if we kill him just once... Just with that, it's our win."

Trivia

 * His best subject is P.E., and his worst is everything else.
 * His aspiration is to be a politician, saying that he doesn't really want to do anything else.
 * His treasure are his friends.
 * His favorite food is bowl of rice with beef.
 * He didn't belong to any club before joining Class E.
 * According to his profile, Terasaka's blood type is O.
 * According to the Roll Book Time, he likes to watch pro wrestling, and one time when he left a DVD at school, Okano stole a glance at it, which winded up affecting her repertoire of skills.
 * He was called "Pseudo-Takaoka" during class 3-E training using code names. This possibly stems from classmates noting the resemblance between Takaoka and Terasaka.The one who wrote his code name was Karma.
 * He got 46th place in the latest exam (chapter 123), even though he has the lowest academic ability in Class 3-E.
 * During the Civil War, he was eliminated along with Nakamura, Yoshida and Muramatsu when Nagisa ambushed and took out all 4 of them.
 * In Koro Q, his bug is all of his magic will liquidize and come out from a certain part of his body.
 * In the tankobon extras, his statistics were listed as:
 * Physical strength: 5
 * Mobility: 3.5
 * Close-range assassination: 4.5
 * Long-range assassination: 1.5
 * Academic ability: 1
 * Characteristic skill: 4 (idiocy)