Junko Enoshima

Junko Enoshima (江ノ島 盾子 Enoshima Junko) is the main antagonist of the Danganronpa series. She is the younger twin sister of Mukuro Ikusaba.

Junko has the title Ultimate Fashionista (超高校級の「ギャル」chō kōkō kyū no “gyaru”), but she is also the founder of Ultimate Despair (超高校級の「絶望」chō kōkō kyū no “zetsubō”), known as the True Ultimate Despair.

Junko executed herself along with Monokuma after her despair was defeated by the survivors' hope and was voted guilty in the last trial of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Junko returns in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as an Artificial Intelligence and a virus. AI Junko also appears in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, in the form of Shirokuma and Kurokuma.

Junko also had an alternate identity known as Ryoko Otonashi in Danganronpa/Zero.

Junko returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy's Despair Volume as the person responsible for the corruption of the Remnants of Despair.

Appearance
Junko has a tall, hourglass figure. She has blue eyes and long, thick, strawberry blonde hair tied in two pigtails. She has been shown to wear a variety of hair accessories over the series, but her signature accessories are a pair of hairclips seemingly patterned after Monokuma; the right clip is completely white with dot eyes, while the left is completely black with red eyes.

In Danganronpa/Zero, it's heavily implied that Junko's real eye and hair color is dark red. It's also implied that she looks rather average without her makeup.

Due to her constantly-shifting personalities, Junko's appearance shifts slightly with her mood. This can be as simple as a new accessory (such as the crown on her "Queen" persona's head), or a complete change in appearance (such as the simplified design of her "cute" personality).

In the second game, Junko returned as an Artificial Intelligence controlling a giant avatar that resembled her appearance in the climax of the original game. The avatar also carried a heavily-decorated cellphone which Junko used to interact with the others.

Junko's usual outfit includes a black cardigan over a white dress shirt, unbuttoned enough to expose the top of her black-and-red bra. A long tie loosely dangles around her neck, equal parts black and white, with a red "X" in a circle at the point where the colors meet. Junko also wears a red miniskirt and mid-sized black boots with platform heels and red laces. She has long, possibly fake, red nails, and wears a red bowtie on the left side of her cardigan.

While attending Hope's Peak Academy prior to the events of the original Danganronpa, Junko modified her accessories to hide her role in Ultimate Despair. The red bowtie on her cardigan was removed, her Monokuma hairclips were replaced with a white bunny hairclip and a large red and white bow, and her tie was white with a pattern of stylized black bear heads. This was the outfit Junko wore when she agreed to stay locked in Hope's Peak Academy for life, and Mukuro wore it while masquerading as her sister during the Second High School Life of Mutual Killing.

In (chronologically) earlier installments of the series, such as Danganronpa/Zero and Monaca Towa's flashbacks in Ultra Despair Girls, Junko is seen in a third variation of her outfit. Her cardigan has been removed, and her dress shirt is buttoned up to hide her bra. Her red bowtie is pinned on the left side of her dress shirt, and her right pigtail is held by a black bunny clip with red eyes. She also wears a black miniskirt and a new tie that lacks the circled X and has a different balance of white and black; the collar and knot are white, while the rest is black. Junko's nails are still painted red, but they are much shorter than in her other outfits.

As the Ultimate Fashionista, Junko has also worn many other outfits, most of which are briefly glimpsed on magazine covers early on in the story.

Personality
As a young fashionista, Junko is described as simply "not fake", charismatic and eager to try new things. During her first appearances, she comes across slightly air-headed and hot-tempered. In the official art book, she is described as a person who "drips with dissatisfaction the moment she opens her mouth" and tends to be in trouble with her classmates. She is also mentioned to be a bit too talkative with overly carefree attitude.

However, Junko's real personality that is revealed at the conclusion of the Mutual Killing incident of Class 78 is notably different. Her true personality appears to be very apathetic and easily bored, to unhealthy and abnormal degree. Because of this, her behavior and mannerisms tended to be extremely erratic and unstable by her own autonomous design; keeping up one "appearance" for too long bores her, which causes her to often switch between different personas. However, she is capable of maintaining one persona for extended periods of time when necessary, such as when she was overseeing the students through Monokuma.

Junko's "moods" included (but were not limited to) her Monokuma persona, sickening cuteness, severe depression, clinical sophistication, and haughty superiority. She switched between "moods" regularly, often imitating other students' expressions, which made for highly unsettling conversation to the survivors.

Above all, Junko was deeply obsessed with despair, having found despair to be the most (and possibly the only) enjoyable emotion for her, whether it be the inflicting of despair unto others, or suffering from despair wholeheartedly. This made her extremely dangerous, as she wished to make the whole world feel absolute despair. However, this also often proved to be her biggest weakness, as she gave her opponents a "fair" chance to defeat her in order to make their despair all the greater if they fail, and happily welcomed her own despair if her plans fail. Both Junko herself and the game's creators have confirmed that she truly has no reason to do things she does other than despair itself, which makes her all the more dangerous and unable to reason with. Danganronpa/Zero proves that she wasn't born with hunger for despair, but it developed at quite young age due to an unknown reason.

As a mastermind and leader of Ultimate Despair, Junko was shown to be highly intelligent, cunning, somewhat impulsive, and extremely manipulative, violent and cruel without remorse. As revealed in Danganronpa/Zero, she possessed near supernatural analytical skills. She manipulated people into falling madly in love with her and used their weaknesses, their despair, against them. Things like hope, peace and happiness disgusted her, but she sometimes gave hope to others, only to turn it into despair later. She often manipulated people into doing bad things instead of directly doing them herself, and then had a habit of blaming these manipulated people and claiming it wasn't her fault, as a part of proving her point that despair exists in everyone and that hope will naturally lose to that despair.

While very abusive and cruel even towards her loved ones, it's implied that she felt some care for them, in her own messed-up way. It is interesting to note that the two people who Junko loved the most (her sister and Yasuke Matsuda) are the only people shown in canon to be killed directly by her: Mukuro through the Spears of Gungnir, and Yasuke Matsuda through stabbing, whereas Jin Kirigiri was killed indirectly through an execution. This is likely because killing those she holds most dear would cause her great despair, and to Junko, the greater the despair, the better.

Prior to the Tragedy
As children, Junko and her twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba, had lived in abject conditions and they were even homeless at some point. As she puts it, she regretted the moment of her own birth, feeling that her birth into the world was a mistake. Due to an unknown reason, she took an interest in despair at very young age.

As a child, she was close with Yasuke and they became lovers at older age. One particular moment between the two when they were children was when Junko spent many days building a sand castle. One day, the sand castle was found destroyed. Yasuke went around angrily looking for the perpetrator, until finally Junko approached him that it was actually her that destroyed her own sand castle in order to feel despair.

Junko had a strong desire to "paint the world in despair" and planned to start The Tragedy, the worst, most despair-inducing incident in the history of mankind. She called herself and her sister the Despair Sisters AKA the Ultimate Despair.

As a teen, Junko began a modeling career and quickly became an idol amongst the Japanese population with her extravagant tastes. One reason for her popularity was the fact that, ironically, she didn't seem fake. Her career created a lot of unwanted attention as well; she claimed that the only men who were interested in her were "creeps who did not actually care about her."

Junko was scouted into Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Fashionista along with her twin sister Mukuro, the Ultimate Soldier. She was able to befriend her classmates of 78th Class and decided to use them for the High School Life of Mutual Killing in the future. During this period of time, she also influenced and corrupted many students to join Ultimate Despair with her crazy ideal of despair - including Nagito Komaeda, Mikan Tsumiki and many others.

Junko also discovered the identity of abandoned project Izuru Kamukura, and incited him and the student council into the very first Mutual Killing situation known as The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy. Izuru was blamed for the gruesome murders of the majority of the council, and the school board immediately tried to cover it up.

The Reserve Students started rioting against the school after Junko leaked out the truth about Izuru and the student council.

Danganronpa/Zero
In preparation for the Mutual Killing of 78th Class, Junko tested procedures for memory-erasing with the reluctant assistance of Yasuke. Having succeeded in erasing her own memories with Yasuke's memory-erasing technology, she assumed the fake identity of Ryoko Otonashi and hid from suspicion.

As she no longer remembered who she was, she only had false information in a notebook and the continual deception by both Yasuke and Mukuro (who pretended to be Junko) to go off on. Around the same time, the school board members were killed one by one by Mukuro.

Eventually, she managed to recover all of her lost memories and she killed Yasuke in a fit of despair. Afterwards, Junko returned to her school life and continued preparations for the 78th Class' Mutual Killing along with Mukuro.

The Warriors of Hope
Around the time when The Tragedy was beginning, five abused kids from Hope's Peak Elementary School called Monaca, Nagisa Shingetsu, Kotoko Utsugi, Masaru Daimon and Jataro Kemuri were about to commit suicide. However, Junko stopped them and took them under her wing, convincing them that the adults who abused them were wrong.

Junko manipulated and brainwashed the children, giving them their first true hope and acting loving towards them. She made them think that they're her property. However, in truth, she was only interested in Monaca, who as a member of the Towa Group mass produced extremely dangerous Monokuma robots for Junko.

Furthermore, Junko decided to use the children to cause more despair and taught them that all the adults are Demons who need to be killed. The children started to call themselves the Warriors of Hope. The kids seemingly were loving towards Junko as well, but as later revealed in Danganronpa: Another Episode, Monaca was the only one who was ultimately loving towards her, often referring to her as "Big Sis Junko".

During The Tragedy
At Junko's bequest, all the Reserve Students committed mass suicide, furthering the message of despair. The riots spread outside the school, both online and off, and slowly became more violent and destructive as more and more people succumbed to despair. Wars started and soon the whole world fell into despair. The whole incident was known as The Tragedy.

The Ultimate Despair members worshipped Junko and spread all over the world to cause terrible things for the sake of despair. They even killed their friends and families. The Warriors of Hope started to kill adults, even their parents, in order to create a paradise for children.

Junko's classmates, the 78th Class, sealed Hope's Peak Academy and lived peacefully inside it for a year without knowing that the Ultimate Despair members were already in their midst. Junko incapacitated them somehow, executed the headmaster Jin Kirigiri, and erased her classmates' memories.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Junko starts the Mutual Killing of 78th Class and speaks to her classmates through a smaller version of Monokuma, hiding her true identity.

She worked behind the scenes and controlled Monokuma in order to cause anxiety and paranoia between the students to make them kill each other. She also began to broadcast everything as a TV program for the public to enjoy and fall into despair.

Mukuro posed among the students as Junko herself and the original plan was to have her trapped in the dungeon in order to "set an example" for the students not to directly rebel against Monokuma. However, on a whim, Junko decided to kill her sister for real and she was brutally impaled by Monokuma with numerous spears, dubbed "Spears of Gungnir". The reason Junko killed Mukuro was to bring her and her sister despair, since beyond all appearances she truly did love Mukuro. Despite this, the survivors of the Killing School Life took it as plain murder.

All of the students then believed that Junko had died, not knowing that the Junko they knew was an imposter, because at the time the students were not privy to the fact that there were actually sixteen students.

Junko continued to work in the shadows, while manipulating and motivating other students like Celestia Ludenberg and Mondo Owada to kill each other for her own entertainment.

During the course of events, Junko was able to ensure the deaths of several of the students, before realizing that Kyoko Kirigiri had somehow managed to break into the headmaster's office and steal the master key and part of Mukuro's profiled information. She then decided to break her own rules and stage a murder by using Mukuro's body.

Junko almost succeeded in her attempt to kill Makoto Naegi and frame Kyoko, but was ultimately fruitless when Kyoko saved Makoto just as she was about to stab him, and then by Makoto not calling out Kyoko's lie during the Class Trial when Kyoko announced that she would not have been able to access her own room.

With Kyoko's lie not called out, a frustrated Junko had no choice but to call guilt on Makoto, who remained under unconvincing suspicion throughout the trial. Junko's plans to execute Makoto were thwarted by Alter Ego, however, who had stopped the execution in time for Makoto to evade death. She taunted the students, still, despite the setback, and proclaimed that even if Makoto survived the execution he would eventually rot inside the school garbage dump, making his punishment worse than usual, despite her preferences on executions.

However, Junko had not counted on Kyoko jumping into the rubbish chute to save him, and was properly thwarted when both Kyoko and Makoto showed up at the gymnasium to issue an ultimatum. She was forced to accept that a retrial is necessary, but then Junko —then still in Monokuma form— decided to gradually reveal the whole truth to the students, confident that even if she was exposed, they would not be able to handle the shock of the outside world they longed to go back to having already “ended” due to The Tragedy.

During the final Class Trial, Makoto and Kyoko deduce that Junko was the one pulling the strings the entire time and she was revealed to be the mastermind behind everything at the Academy. She then confirmed the suspicion - one that emerged from the intense Class Trial debates - that she erased everyone's memories of the last two years so she could implement her plan to make the world suffer in despair.

Junko then put a vote together to have students vote for the abstract ideas of “hope” versus “despair”, where all but Makoto would live their lives out within the confines of the Academy if any one of the students chose “Despair”, and Makoto alone will take a huge punishment - meaning he would have been subjected to The Ultimate Punishment if anyone would vote for despair.

However, Makoto reassured the surviving students of a future ahead despite the difficulties, and thus was able to convince all the students to vote for “Hope”, condemning Junko to a final defeat in the climax of a Machinegun Talk Battle of “Hope” versus “Despair”.

Though seemingly livid over the results shortly after the vote was settled, Junko instead became perversely delighted as she tasted her own despair for once. She delightfully accepted her execution and death, but not before giving the remaining students the means to escape the Academy. It was also noted she was feeling the tiniest bit down because she had wanted to spread the despair she was feeling to the entire world.

Aftermath
After Junko was executed, most members of Ultimate Despair committed suicide. The surviving members hacked her body into pieces and attached those parts to themselves; one notable example was Nagito Komaeda, who took her left hand and treated it as his own, despite it being non-functional.

As a back-up plan, Junko had created an AI version of herself, with the knowledge she stole from Chihiro Fujisaki. It's even implied that her death was planned right from the start.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
AI Junko manipulates both the Warriors of Hope and the adults of the Towa City in the form of Shirokuma and Kurokuma. In the end, both robots are destroyed by Izuru to salvage their hard-drives for their AI.

After she failed to make Makoto's little sister, Komaru Naegi as the Successor of Junko Enoshima, Monaca decides to become Junko's Successor herself.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
Izuru, after being captured by the Future Foundation along with other Remnants of Despair, downloads AI Junko into the Neo World Program. Once in the game she started changing the programming surrounding the Graduation and also began the Field Trip of Mutual Killing. Her motives behind doing both things was so that she could obtain comatose bodies and also to lure the Future Foundation into the game.

Chapter 6 - This is the End, Goodbye Academy of Despair
Once Hajime Hinata and the rest of the survivors reached the final trial and the choice to either graduate or live on the island forever, Junko pretended to be Makoto and force them to graduate. After the survivors realize they are being tricked, Junko reveals herself in the form of a giant body and communicates with them through the use of a giant cell phone which displays her. As the trial carries on, Makoto, Kyoko, and Byakuya Togami appear in the game and Junko's full plans are revealed to the cast.

Junko planned to use the graduation ceremony to upload her own AI into the comatose bodies which would effectively revive her in their bodies and to also keep the members of the Future Foundation locked in the game forever as she is the one that must allow a student to graduate.

Junko's overall goal in the end was to fill the entire world with copies of herself that she dubs "Junkoland". Junko spreads her despair into the survivors and manipulates them into wanting to graduate but with the help of Chiaki Nanami, Hajime is able to become awakened and put an end to her despair. With this the eight are able to activate the Forced Shutdown, which put an end to the AI Junko for good.

First Game

 * Main Article: The Ultimate Punishment

Second Game (AI)

 * Main Article: Forced Shutdown

Mukuro Ikusaba
Mukuro is Junko's older twin sister. While Mukuro cared deeply for her younger sister, Junko had absolutely no love for her sister and sees her as a tool to do her bidding, while at the same time behaved towards Mukuro in a derogatory manner.

She seemingly displayed no concern for Mukuro and was willing to kill her (while Mukuro was disguised as her) to set an example to the remaining students, and because she was 'a poor actor'.

However, paradoxically, it was also indicated that she did truly love her sister, and that her betrayal was meant to send them both into despair, though she never knew, or tried to understand, that Mukuro's definition of despair had always differed from hers.

Yasuke Matsuda
Yasuke and Junko were childhood friends. One particular moment between the two when they were children was when Junko spent many days building a sand castle. One day, the sand castle was found destroyed. Yasuke went around angrily looking for the perpetrator, until finally Junko approached him that it was actually her that destroyed her own sand castle.

The two deeply loved each other, with Junko stating herself that Yasuke was “... the most important person to me of all...”. Ever since they were children, Yasuke would always protect her, which is especially noted when he meets the Committee and they berate her (when she was under the identity of Ryoko Otonashi). Killing him caused her despair over his death.

Ultimate Despair
Junko seems to have close relationships with some of the Ultimate Despair members. In general, they're described to be madly in love with her and shared her love for despair as a result of Junko's brainwashing. A few examples of this are Mikan Tsumiki and Nagito Komaeda.

Quotes

 * “(I had) reasons deeper and darker than the ocean! - ...Hah! As if!” (Regarding why she killed Mukuro Ikusaba)
 * “Oh, um... I'm the mastermind.”
 * “Let's give it everything we've got! IT'S... PUNISHMENT TIIIME!”
 * “The whole memory of my birth is too despairing!”
 * “The tears when I cried as a newborn were tears of despair!”
 * “Useless, Useless, Useless!”
 * “Thousands of human falling over like dominoes... ahhh... that sight was so beautiful! I thought my brain was gonna melt..!”
 * “I get easily bored of my personality. ...Like, I already got bored of my personality who gets easily bored.”
 * “I got bored of getting bored... Jeez...even when I'm dead I still get bored... This sucks...”
 * “Exuberence! We are now an AI! We have transcended humanity!”
 * “Each and every thing that happened in this world was just an event within the game.”
 * “The game where you throw my words back at me is over! So you don't really have to worry about it!”
 * “Ugh! You always had such reckless hope! I love you sooooo much that you disgust me!” (to Makoto Naegi)
 * “For me, despair is not a goal, or a set of principles, or a lifestyle, or even an instinct... It's what defines me as Junko Enoshima! It's just my characterization! That's why I'm able to pursue despair with such purity!”
 * “If shomeone like me ish born, that meansh the world ish yearning for deshpair!”
 * “People who cling to stuff like hope, talent, or admiration are truly the weakest!”
 * “Au contraire, this IS a game. The game of hope and despair that started with your killing school life.”
 * “If you saw people dying one by one with your own eyes, by the same killing game you guys played... Hope dictates that you act all high-and-mighty and say "I'm definitely gonna stop it this time!", right!?”
 * “Providing hopelessly skilled explanations is a quirk of mine.”
 * “Even if the world is happy, it's meaningless if you aren't happy.”
 * “As long as you don't yearn for hope... You'll never fall victim to despair...”
 * “Man, this is absolute despair... I feel despair upon despair and despair toward despair yet again...”
 * “Once you've experienced the despair I've suffered, there's no turning back.”
 * “Living in the shadows of past memories... That's...too sad, you know...”
 * “Ah, but I gues...I no longer...I no longer have to hope for despair...”
 * “That...is...just...so...hope...l...e...s...s...”

Machine Talk Battle/Bullet Talk Battle Statements (Game)

 * “You suck!”
 * “SO uncool!”
 * “Whaddya want!?”
 * “Hope is a joke!”
 * “Outside is only despair!”
 * “Suffer from despair!”
 * “You're gross!”
 * “You're scared, aren't you!”
 * “Who 'are' you!?”
 * “You dare to stand against us!” (Queen Personality)
 * “Your idiocy ends here!” (Serious Personality)
 * “I just love despair!” (Cute Personality)
 * “You're unbearable!” (Monokuma Personality)
 * “Would you like to die?” (Smart Personality)
 * “Everything is pointless!” (Rock Star Personality)
 * "Ew! Boy cooties!" (Cute Personality)
 * “No..!”
 * “Despair into tomorrow! Despair into your memories! Despair into nothingness!” (Final Argument)

Panic Talk Action Remarks

 * “I don't want anything!”
 * “The future's full of lies!”
 * “The future will make you suffer!”
 * “You have no argument!”
 * “There's no hope!”
 * “Any choice is despair!”
 * “Just give up already!”
 * “A miracle won't happen!”
 * “Izuru!”
 * “You're not hope!”
 * “What is this crappy feeling!?”
 * “You won't be able to do it...! You won't be able to do anything!” (Final Argument)

Trivia

 * Junko means “shield” coupled with “child”, while Enoshima refers to two things.
 * Enoshima can literally mean “island of the bay”, or refer to the island in the Kanagawa prefecture.
 * While Junko's English title is “Ultimate Fashionista”, her original Japanese title is actually the more specific “Ultimate Gyaru”. The term gyaru (the Japanese transliteration for the English world “gal”) refers to fashion- and peer-conscious young Japanese women who, through their distinctive taste in fashion, promote the latest fashion trends - making the gyaru subculture a large influence on Japan's fashion economy. Since Junko is still a high school student, she is technically a コギャル “kogyaru” (an abbreviation of 高校生ギャル kōkōsei gyaru or “high school gyaru”), although in recent years this “subtype” of gyaru has become identified with the generic term so the distinction isn't necessary.
 * Kogyaru are known for altering their school uniforms (e.g. by shortening the skirt) and their fondness of platform boots - two visible features of Junko's attire.
 * Decorating one's cellphone extensively (as well as constantly handling it) is a signature gyaru habit which explains AI Junko's choice of an over-adorned cell phone as her courtroom avatar for the final trial of the second game.
 * Gyaru in general are also fond of bleaching their hair and wearing colored contact lenses - making it highly probable that Junko has neither naturally strawberry blond hair nor naturally blue eyes.
 * Bearing this fact in mind, it is very much possible that Junko's natural hair and eye colors are those of her temporary identity, Ryoko Otonashi, considering her mental state while assuming it.
 * It's revealed in Danganronpa/Zero, that Junko possessed near supernatural analytical skills, making her one of the few Ultimates in the series to possess more than one talent, the other people being Makoto Naegi, Byakuya Togami and Izuru Kamukura.
 * Junko's voice changes several times throughout the final school trial in order to represent her changing personalities.
 * Junko's primary outfit (the one she wears when revealed as the Mastermind in the first two games) appears to be inspired by Monokuma himself. In addition to the bear hairclips and the general black-and-white color scheme, the red bowtie on the left side of Junko's cardigan evokes Monokuma's red left eye, while the circled "X" on her necktie may represent Monokuma's prominent navel.
 * One of Junko's poses (where she puts her hand in front of her face, leaving only one eye visible) is the same of Dio Brando from Jojo's Bizarre Adventures; she also says his catchphrase, “Useless, useless, useless!”, during a Machine gun Talk Battle.
 * In her haughty "Queen" personality, Junko's crown appears based on that of the King Slime from the Dragon Quest series. Notably, the first thing she says when she makes her appearance in the climax of the original Danganronpa is a direct quote of the Dragonlord from the original Dragon Quest.
 * It is unknown how Junko's body managed to stay intact for Ultimate Despair to retrieve and cut up after it was crushed during her execution.
 * AI Junko is the only character (along with Chiaki and Usami/Monomi) who dies in the second game.
 * Junko and her twin sister Mukuro are both voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version and Amanda C. Miller (who also voices Toko Fukawa) in the English version. Erin Fitzgerald, who voices some of Junko's “personalities”, also voices Genocide Jack.