Junko Enoshima

[Warning: Several spoilers from very beginning!]

Junko Enoshima (江ノ島 盾子 Enoshima Junko) is a character featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. She is the real main antagonist and has the title Ultimate Fashionista (超高校級の「ギャル」chō kōkō kyū no  “ gyaru ” ). She is also the founder of Ultimate Despair (超高校級の「絶望」chō kōkō kyū no "zetsubō"). She is the younger twin sister of Mukuro Ikusaba and had an alternate identity known as Ryoko Otonashi.

She returns in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as an AI and a virus. She was the one who messed up the New World Program.

Appearance
Junko has a tall, feminine figure. She has blue eyes and long, thick, strawberry blonde hair tied in two pigtails, with Monokuma hair clips (complete white/complete black). She wears a black cardigan over a white dress shirt loose enough to expose some of her bra, and has many accessories, including a loose black-and-white tie and red bow. Junko also wears a red miniskirt and lace-up boots. She has long, fake red nails. Her appearance and personality will often shift in sync with one another, as they are interdependent.

In the second game, she returned as an A.I controlling a giant body, which featured a cellphone which Junko used to interact with the others.

Personality
Junko was, according to Makoto, a young fashionista who took the country by storm with her extravagant tastes. Junko had wanted to be a model ever since she was a child, but was also eager to try new things.

As was her appearance at the conclusion of the Mutual Killing incident of Class 78, Junko's personality and mannerisms tended to be extremely erratic and unstable by her own autonomous design; she states in-game that keeping up one "appearance" for too long bores her. Junko often switched between "moods," which included (but was not limited to) her Monokuma persona, and four other manners of speech which included complexes of cuteness, severe depression, sophistication, and superiority; she switched between "moods" regularly, often imitating other students' expressions, which made for highly unsettling conversation to the survivors. She is also shown to be intelligent, cunning, somewhat impulsive, and very manipulative as shown by her being able to manipulate an unknown number of people into Ultimate Despair.

Above all, however, Junko was deeply obsessed with despair, having found despair to be one of the most enjoyable emotions for her, whether it be the inflicting of despair unto others, or suffering from despair wholeheartedly.

Prior to the Tragedy
As children, Junko and her twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba, had lived in abject conditions. As she puts it, she regretted the moment of her own birth, feeling that her birth into the world was a mistake.

Junko began a modeling career and quickly became an idol amongst the Japanese population, and this created a lot of unwanted attention; according to Mukuro who was at the time disguised as Junko, she claimed that the only men who were interested in Junko were  “ creeps who did not actually care about her ”. She later enrolled into Hope's Peak Academy along with her twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba. She was able to befriend her classmates of Class 78, but was already masterminding Ultimate Despair along with Mukuro. The two of them began to scheme and plan the High School Life of Mutual Killing in order to find and inflict 'true despair' upon people.

Prior to the Despair Incident, she was responsible for the deaths of several other students, including one member of Hope's Peak Academy's Steering Committee and Isshiki Madarai. During this time, Junko was testing methods for memory-erasure, and managed to successfully wipe her own with the assistance of Yasuke Matsuda.

For a period of time, she lived as an amnesiac by the name of Ryoko Otonashi, but eventually she managed to recover all of her lost memories, but not before she killed Yasuke Matsuda in a fit of despair.

High School Life of Mutual Killing
Junko 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. Junko decided, possibly on a whim, to kill Mukuro, in order to  “ set an example ”  for the students not to directly rebel against Monokuma, while the "true reason" was that the way Mukuro had acted did not resemble Junko's true personality at all; this was, of course, a lie, as the true reason Junko killed Mukuro was to bring her and her sister despair, since beyond all appearances she truly did love Mukuro. 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 Celeste and 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 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 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.

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. She 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.

Aftermath
After she 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.

Island Life of Mutual Killing
Junko Enoshima returns as a virus AI put into the programming by Izuru Kamukura. 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 comatosed bodies and also to lure the Future Foundation into the game. Once Hajime and the rest of the survivors reached the final trial and the choice to either graduate or live on the island forever, she pretended to be Naegi 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 appear in the game and Junko's full plans are revealed to the cast. She 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. Her overall goal in the end was to fill the entire world with copies of herself that she dubs "EnoshimaLand". Junko spreads her despair into the survivors and manipulates them into wanting to graduate but with the help of Chiaki, 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.

Execution

 * Main Article: The Ultimate Punishment

AI Execution

 * 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 all along 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.

It's interesting to note that the two people Junko loves the most (her sister and Yasuke) are the people shown in canon to be killed directly by Junko: Mukuro through the Spears of Gungir, and Yasuke through stabbing, whereas Jin was killed indirectly through an execution. This is likely because killing those she holds the most dear would cause her the greatest despair, and to Junko, the greater the despair, the better.

Quotes

 * “ (I had) reasons deeper and darker than the ocean! - ...Hah! As if! ”
 * “ Oh, um... I'm the mastermind. ”
 * “ Despair into tomorrow! Despair into your memories! Despair into nothingness!”
 * “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! ”
 * “To me, despair isn't goal or a cause or a way of life or an instinct... It's what defines me as Junko Enoshima! The most important thing is that i was made that way! That's how i can devote myself purely to pursuing despair! ”
 * “Thousands of human falling over like dominoes... ahhh... that sight was so beautiful! I thought my brain was gonna melt..! ”

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.
 * Her voice changes several times throughout the final school trial in order to represent her changing personalities.
 * One of her poses is the same of Dio Brando from Jojo's Bizarre Adventures; she also says his catchphrase,  “ Useless, useless, useless ”, during a Machinegun Talk Battle.
 * As a primary antagonist of the series, Junko appears in both games and both novels (also under her fake identity known as Ryoko Otonashi).
 * It is unknown how her 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 Nanami 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 Jill.
 * This makes Junko one of twelve characters who share their voice actor with another character in the Japanese version (the others being Mukuro Ikusaba, Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda, Byakuya Togami and The Ultimate Imposter, Chihiro Fujisaki and Alter Ego, Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jill, Hifumi Yamada and Jin Kirigiri).
 * She is also one of eleven characters who share their voice actor with another character in the English version (alongside Mukuro, Makoto and Nagito, Sayaka, Chihiro and Alter Ego, Toko/Jill, Byakuya and his imposter).