Kiyotaka Ishimaru, often called "Taka," is the personification of order and diligence. He operates under a strict personal code, valuing hard work above innate talent—a belief rooted in his family's disgraced history. As the Ultimate Moral Compass, he is loud, intense, and socially awkward, often lecturing his peers on proper conduct and punctuality. Despite his rigid exterior, Taka is deeply lonely; his obsession with rules often alienated him from others before arriving at Hope's Peak Academy. He has short, spiky black hair, intense red eyes, and exceptionally large, thick eyebrows. Though he appears to be a standard high schooler, he is lean and surprisingly muscular. He almost exclusively wears a pristine, military-style white Japanese school uniform with golden buttons, yellow epaulettes, and a red "Public Morals" armband (fūki). He completes the look with knee-high black lace-up boots. Due to his extreme focus on studies and rules, he sacrificed his childhood—never watching TV or playing video games—leading to poor social skills and a lack of friends before the killing game. He holds a unique belief that "when the body is naked, so is the soul," suggesting that men can only truly trust each other after bathing together.