Kyosuke Munakata

Kyosuke Munakata (宗方 京助 Munakata Kyōsuke) is a character featured in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future.

He is the vice-leader of Future Foundation and leader of the 2nd Division. His responsibility is to oversee overall management, including any and all construction of new facilities. Despite being only vice-leader, Kyosuke is stated to hold the most power.

During his time at Hope's Peak Academy, Kyosuke's title was Ultimate Student Council President (超高校級の「生徒会長」chō kōkō kyū no "seitokaichō.") The successor to his title is Soshun Murasame.

Appearance
Kyosuke is a man in his early-to-mid twenties. He is tall and lean with a pasty white complexion. His appearance is also very colorless; he has silver hair, blue eyes, and a cold expression. He wears a pale suit with a blue dress shirt, and a faded pink necktie. His tie has a mysterious black insignia on it, and the tips of his shoes have three dots pointed in a triangle. He lost his right eye after a confrontation with Kazuo Tengan.

Personality
Kyosuke's posture suggests a commanding disposition, and he is stated to be both cold and authoritative. He holds an incredible amount of anger towards Ultimate Despair and is in favor of killing them. At one point, he was stated to be charismatic, which is demonstrated in Juzo Sakakura and Chisa Yukizome's loyalty to him, showing that he can be influential. His opinions are very radical, as he believes Despair should be eliminated at all cost, even if sacrifices, like his own death, must be made.

Kyosuke states that he does not believe solely in hope or despair, but power. He understands that (in a way similar to Nagito Komaeda) in order for hope to be fully appreciated, you need to go through a greater despair beforehand. He believes that despair breeds hope, and therefore it needs to be embraced. He disagrees with Makoto Naegi because of this, as he only wants to embrace hope.

Kysouke is decisive and overly logical, and tries to distance himself from emotional reasoning as much as possible. He is aware that he has to make tough decisions, and has resigned himself to the responsibility. Because of this, he seems to view himself as very martyr-like, as he is willing to put himself into unfavorable opinion with others in order to get things done.

Despite his coldness, Kyosuke has a strong relationship with Chisa. In Side: Despair, he is shown to treat her as an equal, and teases her. He trusts her to help him with his investigation into Hope's Peak Academy. Despite this, he is overly formal and never calls her by her first name, even after her repeatedly asking him to.

Prior to the Tragedy
Kyosuke was most likely heavily involved in his middle school's student council, which allowed him to be noticed by Hope's Peak.

He was scouted to attend Hope's Peak as part of the 74th Class as the Ultimate Student Council President. During this time he met and had a profound influence on two of his classmates, Juzo and Chisa. After attending, he graduated an estimated 3-4 years before the Tragedy. His title was succeeded by Soshun Murasame, a member of the 77th Class.

After graduating, Kyosuke left Japan to study abroad and, while away, began working with Hope's Peak to begin construction on an overseas location to help expand Hope's Peak. He worked closely with Jin Kirigiri and was able to have a lot of influence, as Jin took his recommendations for Chisa and Juzo to work there into account. He is shown to be very ambitious, with the ultimate goal of usurping the position of Hope's Peaks' headmaster from Jin.

Episode 01: Hello Again, Hope's Peak Academy
Kyosuke was brought up by name by Koichi, who asked Jin if it's true that he had recommended Chisa as his replacement for Class 1-B's teacher. He confirmed this, saying that Kyosuke had insisted that Chisa be the one to take his job. Koichi cautioned Jin to be careful, saying that Kyosuke was quickly becoming successful, despite being so young, and to watch out for him.

At the end of the school day Kyosuke, who was overseas working on an off-shore facility for Hope's Peak (later to become one of the various location for Future Foundation's leaders to meet), called Chisa to talk about how her day had gone. He was happy to hear that she was able to handle it, and reassured her that he can handle the construction himself while she is away.

Episode 02 - My Impurest Heart to You
Kyosuke, who is still working overseas on the offshore location, calls Chisa and the two discuss the Reserve Course. He realizes that the project he is currently working on is being funded by the Reserve Course because the students there have to pay such ridiculously high tuition fees, and continues to wonder what else they are planning. Both Kyosuke and Chisa agree that the Hope's Peak's board of trustees is hiding something nefarious, and continue to plot how to investigate and restore Hope's Peak to its former glory.

Episode 04 - The Melancholy, Surprise, and Disappearance of Nagito Komaeda
Kyosuke is seen talking with Chisa over the phone. He noticed that Chisa was extremely sad about leaving her class, despite the fact that her being transferred to the Reserve Course would make their investigation of Hope's Peak easier.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Academy of Despair
During the investigation portion of Chapter 6, Hajime Hinata finds several emails between Makoto Naegi and a Future Foundation executive regarding Ultimate Despair. The executive, though not named, shows distrust and hatred for Ultimate Despair and urges Makoto to hand them over for their immediate extermination, or be prosecuted for betrayal.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future
At some point in time after getting recruited by Koichi for the Future Foundation, he became the head of the 2nd Division and later became the vice-leader. His responsibility as the 2nd Division leader is to oversee overall management, including any and all construction of new facilities.

Despite being only vice-leader, Kyosuke is stated to hold the most power. Because of this and his hatred of Ultimate Despair, it's implied that he is the main force behind Makoto's arrest.

Episode 01 - Third Time's the Charm
In a flashback narrated by Kyoko Kirigiri, Kyosuke is shown on a bridge with several other Future Foundation members. Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu ordered Peko Pekoyama to attack and Kyosuke engaged her in a sword fight. After fighting, it is assumed that he was able to disarm and restrain her before taking Peko, Fuyuhiko, Nekomaru Nidai, and Akane Owari into custody with the help of Juzo and Sonosuke Izayoi.

At an off-shore location, Kyosuke is the last of the Division leaders to arrive in the boardroom, which caused everyone to divert their attention to him. He climbed onto the table to command everyone's attention and walked across it to address Kazuo Tengan directly. He attempted to get Kazuo to reconsider his position, reminding him of his "old self" and a time where Kazuo was less indecisive about Ultimate Despair.

After seating himself, he briefly showed the other leaders images of the Ultimate Despair that Makoto protected and expressed doubt when Kazuo calling him Ultimate Hope. When other leaders theorized that Makoto may have tried to save them because he was also an Ultimate Despair, Kyosuke said that it doesn't matter because, either way, he had gone against protocol and deceived them.

When Makoto entered the boardroom, Kyosuke immediately placed him under arrest and ordered Juzo to handcuff him. When people in the boardroom began to argue, Kyosuke ordered them to calm down and temporarily suspended the board meeting so that Makoto can be treated for his injuries sustained from Juzo.

While waiting for the meeting to be called back, Kyosuke is left alone in a separate room with Chisa, who was cleaning the table. He asked her if she wanted to take a break, and Chisa told him that he didn't have to be so formal when they're alone together. He ordered her to take a break, prompting Chisa to ask if he isn't tired. He stubbornly insisted that he wasn't the one who worked too hard and attempted to tell her something before stopping himself. He told her to go check on Makoto and bid her goodbye.

Kyosuke was in the boardroom as the building is under attack. He ordered Juzo to restrain Makoto, unsure if this is his doing. He asked Chisa to contact HQ for help and ordered everyone to not leave the room until they understand the situation. When the sleeping gas is released into the boardroom, Kyosuke was one of the last people to fall asleep. As he was about to pass out, he reached out to Chisa to ask if she's okay.

After waking up, Kyosuke listened to Monokuma's announcement and, slightly panicked, realized that Chisa is missing. He and Makoto notice Chisa's corpse at the exact same time, and were both horrified. As her body falls from the ceiling, he grit his teeth and remembered the words that he wanted to ask her from before: "I am not wrong, am I?"

Episode 02 - Hang the Witch
Monokuma's broadcast end and Kyosuke watched the situation as panic began to break out in the room. Makoto protested, saying that fighting with each other is exactly what Monokuma would want. Kyosuke calmly agreed, saying that something like this can't possibly deter the Future Foundation from overcoming despair.

After the situation resulting in Daisaku Bandai's death, Kyosuke commanded the room's attention and declared that they need to decide with a majority vote who the traitor is. He asked the room to point at who they believed to be the traitor and the majority pointed at Makoto. In response, Kyosuke coldly gave Makoto a chance for him to come together with him and cooperate and told him to kill himself if he really desires a world without despair as a way to test his loyalty. Chaos broke out again when Juzo then Great Gozu joined in the situation and Kyosuke readied his sword to fight. Kyoko created a diversion by filling the room with fumes from the fire extinguisher and both Makoto and Hina escaped into the hallway. When he went to pursue them, he is confronted by Great Gozu and the two fight.

Kyosuke was able to push Great Gozu back all the way into the hall and continues to fight until he becomes distracted by Hina throwing a fire extinguisher and is knocked backward by Great Gozu. He dodged the debris from Great Gozu's explosion and chased after them, stopping just outside a closed door. He looked at his bangle and realized he can't go any further.

Juzo, after waking up from being stunned by Miaya Gekkogahara, met up with Kyosuke and they discussed their next move. Kyosuke is still determined to wipe out the remaining Despairs, as well as avenge Chisa.

Episode 03 - Cruel Violence and Hollow Words
Kyosuke and Juzo reawaken after the second time limit. Kyosuke admits that he thought he had a 50/50 chance of survival, Juzo scoffs and tells him not to show off. Kyosuke retorts that it was just a logical hypothesis, saying that, if he were the attacker, he would kill himself first. Juzo agrees that, if the attacker wanted to wipe out Future Foundation, killing Kyosuke first was their best bet. Kyosuke says that he hopes that is their true goal, because there would be worst outcomes than their deaths.

The two of them remain in that room until Makoto gives his speech over the facility's intercom system. Kyosuke is moved by the speech's sentiment, but thinks Makoto's words don't hold any power, as he speaks of hope but does not know true despair. Kyosuke goes off to find Makoto in the monitor room and breaks a window in order to get inside.

Kyosuke ignores Makoto's pleas of friendship, saying that platitudes like that can't help you in a situation like this. He praises Makoto, admitting that he admired him a great deal after seeing him of the broadcast of the School Life of Mutual Killings. But he quickly realized that Makoto was only able to defeat Junko Enoshima because it was a game. The Killing Game was set up with rules that Makoto and the 78 Class could follow, meanwhile the real world had no such rules. Kyosuke expresses to Makoto the feeling of incredible despair that he and the other Future Foundation members had to go through just to survive the Tragedy. Kyosuke holds on to that feeling of despair so he can have a greater appreciation of hope, and never lose sight of his goal.

Because Makoto elects to ignore and forget his own despair, Kyosuke sees his hope as blind and naive. He sees that his words can spur people to act, but he thinks that action will lead them towards more despair. Kyosuke tells him that, instead of solely hope or solely despair, he believes in power. He believes that the despair of sacrifices can spur people to action towards hope. He believes Makoto's words are hollow and, because of that, gives him an opportunity to change his mind one last time before he chooses to kill him.

Chisa Yukizome
Kyosuke grew close to her during their time as classmates at Hope's Peak, and they maintained a strong relationship even after they graduated. He noticeably cares about her well-being, and doesn't want Chisa to push herself. He often values her opinions and discusses things that concern him with her. Despite his closeness with her, Kyosuke stays formal and often refuses to call Chisa by her first name, even at her request. Chisa is the one person Kyosuke trusts the most, aside from Juzo.

While it's implied that Chisa has romantic feelings for Kyosuke, as she stated that she won't let anyone have him and she's shown to be intimate and very loyal to him, Kyosuke acts more distant and never showed any obvious signs of being in love with Chisa. However, when Chisa is killed, Kazuo Tengan claims Kyosuke's love for her had driven him mad.

Juzo Sakakura
They have mutual respect and loyalty to one another, possibly grown during their time as classmates. After the events of the Tragedy, Kyosuke entrusted Juzo to act as his right-hand man, as someone with like-minded views about Ultimate Despair. Though he doesn't directly allow it, he relies on Juzo as a physical muscle to sway opinions in his favor.

Makoto Naegi
Kyosuke's most persistent obstacles in his desire to eliminate Ultimate Despair. Because of Kyosuke's position as vice-leader, he was successfully able to charge Makoto with treason against Future Foundation and continues to antagonize him. Rather than just punishing him, Kyosuke is in favor of executing Makoto alongside the Remnants of Despair.

Contrary to what his actions might say, Kyosuke admits to Makoto that he thinks he is impressive, and respects him. He was impressed with him during the broadcast of the School Life of Mutual Killings, and Makoto implies that they had once been friends. Despite this, Kyosuke is consistently at odds with Makoto because their viewpoints are so different.

Makoto believes solely in hope, while Kyosuke believes in power. Because of this, Kyosuke thinks that Makoto's words are hollow and meaningless, as he does not appreciate despair in the same way that he appreciates hope. Kyosuke fears how influential Makoto is, as he doesn't want him convincing people that they can win against despair without fighting, and calls his words "nonsense."

Kazuo Tengan
Despite being the leader of Future Foundation, Kyosuke undermines Kazuo's authority, attempting to push his own agenda instead. They're rivalry came to a head when Kyosuke accused Kazuo of being a traitor and killing him while losing his right eye.

Quotes

 * “So, this is humanity's last hope? Even as we speak, the Remnants of Despair are causing more damage, and more people are falling victim. Is this the time to squabble?"
 * “A world without despair... That is the future that she and I imagined!” (talking about Chisa Yukizome)

Trivia

 * Given the timeline of events, he is thought to be between 22-24.
 * His given name, Kyosuke (京助), means "capital helper/capital head." His surname, Munakata (宗方), means "important figure."
 * Kyosuke's tie design has been changed multiple times.