Eiichirō Saiyama

Eiichirō Saiyama (斎山 栄一郎, Saiyama Eiichirō) is an antagonist and killer featured in Chapter 3 of Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer, a spin off manga connected to the anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy.

Early Childhood
Eiichirō was an unpopular and dull child who felt he had no redeeming qualities, until a girl in his class praised his ability to draw, and asked if he wanted to become a manga artist. This event was the first compliment he had ever received, and it inspired him to hone his skills from then on.

Seeking Praise

 * Main article: Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer - Chapter 3

In adulthood, Eiichirō became a moderately successful manga artist, with a popular documentary manga series about The Tragedy published in Comic Ponpon manga magazine, but had still never received any praise since his childhood. His editors were uninterested in the drawings he had worked hard on, and his readers weren't passionate about his work.

In pursuit of the praise he desperately sought, Eiichirō became driven to improve the realism in his work, ultimately becoming a murderer in order to have models to pose as references for his drawings of corpses. The hyper-realism in his drawings of death became something of a sensation, only encouraging him to continue to kill people, storing their bodies in a spare room of his apartment. The hyper-realism did not go unnoticed, however, and brought him to the attention of Takumi Hijirihara, a special investigator of abnormal crimes.

Takumi arrived at Eiichirō's home in a box brought by a delivery man, and invited himself into Eiichirō's apartment. Once inside, Takumi revealed that though he was a fan of Eiichirō's work, his depictions of corpses were too realistic and must have been taken from real life. Takumi found Eiichirō's room full of corpses, and accused him of killing with no passion, only killing as a means to improve his drawing and copycatting other murders.

This angered Eiichirō, as once again he realised Takumi was a reader who would not praise his work. Eiichirō lunged towards Takumi with three giant pens held between his fingers like 's claws. Takumi dodged before he could attack, however, and impaled Eiichirō on his own pens in a murder copycatting the death the Killing School Life victim, Mukuro Ikusaba.

Description
Eiichirō is a 32 year old man with an average build, messy medium length hair, and glasses. He was driven to become a manga artist because a girl at school complimented his drawings during his childhood. This gave him a complex about receiving praise and compliments, because he never received a compliment since that day. After he is confronted by Takumi, it is shown that he is very quick to anger.

Modus Operandi
Eiichirō has an obsession with seeking compliments and praise, and feels his abilities and hard work as a manga artist are underappreciated by his colleagues and his readers. His drive to seek praise led him to murder people to use as reference models to increase the amount of realism in his documentary manga. Because his documentary manga series became successful for it's hyper-realistic portrayals of death, this encouraged him to continue in his "copycat murders", copying the M.O.s of historical murderers, then leaving the corpses in piles in a room of his apartment. After his crimes are deduced by Takumi, he attacks him with three giant metal-tipped pens, held between his fingers like, however, Takumi ultimately spears him with his own pens, copying the murder of Mukuro Ikusaba.

Trivia

 * Eiichirō's victims were depicted as crucified corpses held up by ropes, similar to the state in which Chihiro Fujisaki's body was discovered. Another victim had a knife stabbed into her stomach, lying in the same position as Sayaka Maizono did in when she died in the Killing School Life.