Shuuji Kayama

Shuuji Kayama (加山 シュウジ) is a main character in Digimon Survive.

Appearance
Shuuji is taller then the other kids of the group, befitting the fact that he is the oldest of the group. He has short black hair and wears black rimmed glasses, and is often seen wearing a dark green jacket that goes to his waist with a white T-shirt underneath and dark blue jeans with smart brown shoes.

Description
A trustworthy and reliable leader, Shuuji is the oldest of the group and has a serious personality. He took part in the extracurricular camp because he wanted to help out. Shuuji is good-natured, kind, and gentle, and is relied on by adults, often taking the role as leader. However, this is a result of his belief in that he must surpass everyone else caused by the strict educational policy of his father, and the brilliance of his older brother. He joined the camp to temporarily release that pressure.

In the alternate world, his general knowledge no longer applies, so he relies on enthusiasm to take action, revealing his weak side as he blames others and/or his surroundings. Despite this, as the oldest person there (aside from The Professor), he still sees himself as responsible for the well-being of the other kids. He feels immense pressure to be useful and he believes that it is more important to keep everyone safe than it is to try finding a way back home. This approach causes him to butt heads with more proactive characters, such as Minoru Hinata and Kaito Shinonome. He tries to push himself as the leader of the group, only for most of them to ignore his demands. The group usually go with the majority opinion — with Shuuji's opinions generally being exclusive to himself.

Shuuji is often harsh and derisive towards Lopmon. He finds Lopmon both lazy due to its innocence and useless due to its apparent weakness, so he neglects it, which upsets Lopmon and makes it feel lonely. He also sees qualities of himself in Lopmon, which irritates him further. His behavior towards Lopmon is both out of annoyance and a belief that it is the best way to toughed Lopmon up. After being tortured with illusions of his father, he becomes even more fed up with Lopmon's perceived weakness, going as far as to beat the creature in an attempt to force it to evolve. In the moral, harmonious, and wrathful routes, this leads to a dark evolution with this not ending well for Shuuji.

However, in the truthful route, Ryo Tominaga charges in and punches him in the face, calling him a dick, and telling him that Lopmon doesn't deserve to be physically beaten up and it was doing its best to keep Shuuji safe. Shuuji realizes that Ryo was right and ends up admitting to Lopmon that he saw his own weaknesses inside him and tells him that Lopmon is far stronger than he has ever been. Lopmon is happy that Shuuji was finally nice to it, with Shuuji stating that he wants to be able to protect everyone and become someone that Lopmon could be proud of. Lopmon and Shuuji are then able to become true partners. Upon turning over a new leaf, Shuuji is able to start becoming the reliable leader he wants to be, taking on board others' points of view and trusting other members of the group with tasks he feels less qualified to handle personally. This is partially down to changing his role model from his father to the Professor, deciding that the Professor is more of the sort of person he would like to grow up to be like.

Etymologies
Name used in Digimon Survive.
 * Shuuji Kayama (加山 シュウジ)