Eiichirō Saiyama

"I don't need any readers who won't praise me!"

- Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer 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 High School.

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 had an obsession with seeking compliments and praise, and felt his abilities and hard work as a manga artist were 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 execution of Mukuro Ikusaba.

Trivia

 * Three murders from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc are copycatted by Eiichirō.
 * In Eiichirō's room of corpses, two victims are seen crucified by ropes, in the manner of Chihiro Fujisaki's body.
 * In one of Eiichirō's pages, a body is posed in the manner of Sayaka Maizono's corpse.
 * In another of Eiichirō's pages, Mukuro Ikusaba's death scene is seen, and this seen is mimicked when Takumi Hijirihara murders Eiichirō.


 * Danganronpa_Killer_Killer_Chapter_3_Sparkling_Justice_Trivia.png mask of Sparkling Justice, a serial killer mentioned in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, is on display in Eiichirō's room.
 * Danganronpa_Killer_Killer_Chapter_3_Manga_Trivia.png Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair there are a series of documentary manga about The Tragedy and Hope's Peak Academy. Although in-game they are attributed to Monokuma, this chapter seems to allude to the fact that Eiichirō may have been the original author, as many of his works seem to be covering the same events. In particular, one of the manga volumes seen in Chapter 6 of Danganronpa 2, a "Manga for Morons" book called "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" (人類史上最大最悪の絶望的事件) has the same title as one of the manga seen in this chapter, although with different cover art.
 * Yasuke_Matsuda_Comic_Ponpon_Danganronpa_Killer_Killer.png manga magazine Eiichirō creates content for, Comic Ponpon, is the favorite magazine of Yasuke Matsuda, one of the main characters from the novel Danganronpa/Zero. Comic Ponpon (コミックボンボン) is parody of real-world childrens' manga magazine Comic Bonbon (コミックポンポン), known for publishing many video game spin-off manga series, including, who features on the parody comic's cover.