Korekiyo Shinguji

"I find all aspects of humanity, even the ugly parts, to be beautiful. Our present situation is rather...intriguing. What beauty will I be able to witness here?"

- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo)

Korekiyo Shinguji (真宮寺 是清 Shingūji Korekiyo) is a character featured in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony and a participant of the Killing School Semester.

His title is Ultimate Anthropologist (超高校級の「民俗学者」chō kōkō kyū no “minzoku gakusha” lit. Super High School Level Folklorist). He has seen many places and people, and as a result, he has formed his pet theory of "humanity's unlimited beauty".

Early Life
{{Spoiler/for|Danganronpa V3|
 * Before Joining Danganronpa

Korekiyo Shinguji is a normal talentless high school boy who participated in the 53rd Season of Danganronpa, a famous worldwide reality show made by Team Danganronpa.

Korekiyo and the other talentless fifteen students undergo the fabrication process, where all of their past memory and personality were heavily fabricated. He is also received the talent and title of Ultimate Anthropologist. All of this were done for the sake of satisfying Danganronpa's audience from all around the world. After the fabrication process done, Korekiyo and the others entered the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles as a whole different person, officially commencing the 53rd killing game season known as the Killing School Semester.

During his time in high school, Korekiyo attended Sunset Hill High School (夕陽ヶ丘学園). However, it is unclear if this memory of him is a part of the fabrication made by Team Danganronpa.


 * Fabricated Past

After he successfully participated in the 53rd Killing Game, Korekiyo's memories and past were fabricated by Team Danganronpa as follows.

According to Korekiyo, he had an older sister who meant the world to him and knew him better than anyone else. She always had terrible health, and ever since Korekiyo was young, she constantly had to go to the hospital and back. Because of this, she was horribly lonely and never had any friends, and it's implied that Korekiyo spent lots of his time with her. When he was younger, he got interested in cultural anthropology while reading a book with his sister. He was surprised to find out that different people around the world have had similar ideas that turned into popular stories. His sister told him that he should research it if he was curious about it, and that motivated him to become an anthropologist.

He used to have a much simpler school uniform, but his sister thought it didn't suit him and personally tailored the unique uniform he wears now for him as a present. This took a long time due to her poor health and he treasures it, considering it his alone and truly unique clothing nobody else in the world has.

In the past, according to Korekiyo, he had an incestious relationship with his older sister. He believed it was true love and he did not care what the society thought of them. However, at some point, his sister died due to an illness. Left alone and frustrated due to his deep obsession with his sister, he begun to develop an idea of "sending admirable friends" to his sister in the afterlife, since she never had any friends while she was alive. Korekiyo began to target girls that met his requirements as his sister's "friends" by killing them, making him a serial killer, with his goal being 100 victims. He eventually got very close to this number, supposedly killing women during his constant traveling (he once visited a village where people frequently practiced bondage and he was very popular with the village's women).

In order to study folklore, Korekiyo visited various areas and met with many people. From that experience, he formed a pet theory of "humanity's unlimited beauty". At one point, while crossing an entire country, Korekiyo was attacked by local natives who "welcomed" him by tying him up and torturing him with a whip to near death. He then hallucinated an image of his deceased sister, which lead to him to develop a split personality or a {{Wiki|tulpa}} based on her as a coping mechanism. In times of distress, he talked to himself with his sister's persona in an attempt to calm himself.

It is unclear how much, if any, of Korekiyo's past before participating in the 53rd Killing Game was real, and which fabricated by Team Danganronpa. Furthermore, it should be noted that Korekiyo very likely could be quite delusional and some of his claims may not be accurate.

It's known that he wore a mask even as his former self, but his clothes were neat and in good style, and it's been stated that he may have been very popular.

The Gofer Project
Part of the fake backstories created for Korekiyo and the other fifteen students was The Gofer Project, which supposedly happened before the killing game started. It was initiated by the government after countless meteorites crashed into Earth. To try and preserve the last vestiges of mankind before the Earth’s destruction, the government decided to select a number of excellent human beings, put them in a spaceship, and have them escape.

Korekiyo and fifteen other high school students were chosen to participate. Not wanting to abandon their loved ones, they attempted to escape from the plan.

Around that time, an extremist cult came into power. They believed that the meteor crashes were a punishment humanity brought upon itself, and having heard of The Gofer Project, they tried to stop it. As a result, the “Ultimate Hunt” started and spread throughout the world, and the sixteen students were hunted down.

The government then decided to counter the situation by faking the students’ deaths, calming down the “Ultimate Hunt” while providing protection to the students. The Gofer Project was then put into action while the Earth was being destroyed. Korekiyo and the others went to the space in a massive colony spaceship, the true form of Ultimate Academy of Gifted Juveniles.

Kokichi Oma who declared himself as a member of Junko Enoshima's Remnants of Despair said that he is the mastermind behind the Killing Game who let Monokuma entered the spaceship, effectively forcing Korekiyo and the others to participate in the Killing Game.

It should be noted that Korekiyo has no complete recollection of the event, as he was executed before he actually received a complete memory about The Gofer Project by the Flashback Light in Chapter 5. }}

Killing School Semester
{{spoiler|After the Killing School Semester officially started, the situation become worst until Kaede Akamatsu was able to unify the group that impressed Korekiyo. He and the others later follow Gonta Gokuhara to investigate a manhole inside the Boiler Room behind the academy's building.

Down there, Korekiyo and the others discover a tunnel, which everyone thought as the exit from the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. However, Korekiyo and the others didn't manage to escape through the Death Road of Despair until all of them exhausted both of their physical and mental. Monokuma and the Monokuma Kubs appeared and told them that the Death Road of Despair was only a trap set by them. The group split into two; the one who doesn't want to continue and the other who tries to keep keep on going. Korekiyo was exhausted and decided to call it off that day. The group then dissolved again after they were able to be unified.

Sometime after the second trial, Korekiyo found his Research Lab in the fourth floor and immediately took an interest to it, as he discovered many interesting things such as the legendary folklore story about the destroyed witch village named Kagonoko, which is later became the guidebook of Angie's "spirit channeling."

An Unexpected Meeting
Later on, Korekiyo began to execute his plan in murdering a random girl that met his requirement as his big sister's "friend" in the afterlife. He sawed all floorboards in the three empty room on the fourth floor, just in case so he could use any one of them in the next day. When he was preparing his murder, Angie who wanted to take a candle from the empty room stumbled upon him.

Afraid that Angie might told his plan to the others, he hit Angie's head using a wooden floorboard he had removed from the floor with a saw to knock her out. He brought the unconscious Angie into her Study Center to execute his plan to silence her forever.

Korekiyo hung all four dolls of his fallen classmates wax doll created by Angie upside down in the ceiling and lock the front door of Angie's Study Center. After that, he proceed to stab Angie right in the back of her neck, killing her instantly using the golden sword that he got from his Study Center.

To make the murder look like a locked-room murder, Korekiyo stabbed the golden sword on Kaede's wax doll (the nearest doll to the back entrance), twisting the rope by turning the doll and left the room as fast as possible. With that, the doll with the sword stabbed onto her body would turn in the opposite direction and effectively lock the back entrance, all according to Korekiyo's plan.

The Summoning Ritual
After murdering Angie and messing with the crime scene, he fabricated a faux necromancy ritual as a disguise to carry out his murder plan in the next day where the students discovered Angie's body. He told the other students that it's the ritual is a method to communicate with Angie's spirit, and some of them participate in his plan while the others investigate Angie's murder.

To make things went perfectly under his plan, Korekiyo told the student that the summoning ritual must be done in a dark place where there are no source of light. Himiko immediately suggested them to use one of the empty room in the fourth floor, much to Korekiyo's joy so he could later frame Himiko for his crime because she was the one who picked the ritual location instead of him.

While preparing for the spirit channeling ritual, Korekiyo was joined by Shuichi Saihara, Kokichi, Tenko, and Himiko. Korekiyo who wanted to perform his murder on whether Himiko or Tenko told the group that the spirit medium must be a girl. With Tenko volunteered herself as the spirit medium, Korekiyo cold-heartedly murdered her in the middle of the spirit channeling process.

Korekiyo's Fate
In the Class Trial, thanks to everyone's effort they could pointed out Korekiyo as the culprit and voted him as the blackened both in Angie and Tenko's murder case. It was revealed that Korekiyo is actually a serial killer whose goal is to kill a hundred women he takes to his liking, believing that they will become "admirable friends" for his deceased older sister in the afterlife. He is later dragged into his execution.

}}

Name
His first kanji name 是清 korekiyo translated as "just and pure". Korekiyo's name is ironic because the meaning is contrary to his true self. His last name kanji is composed of the characters 真 - meaning "true", 宮 - meaning "palace" and 寺 - meaning "temple".

Interestingly, the word 宮 miya, aside from its literal meaning, is also used to refer to (usually larger and/or more significant) Shinto shrines, while the word 寺 tera is reserved for Buddhist temples. Considering how Shintoism and Buddhism are practiced side by side in Japan, and how Japanese folk culture draws heavily from both faiths, Korekiyo's last name could be said to imply at his field of expertise.

Appearance
Korekiyo is a tall, slim student with rather pale skin and long blackish blue hair. He has rather narrow golden eyes, and his mouth is covered by a black mask with a zipper on it, giving him an outlandish appearance. He wears a mask wherever he goes, and he even owns different masks for eating, showering, and other daily activities.

He wears a dark green military-style uniform with matching knee-high black boots. The uniform consists of a white shirt underneath it, a dark green button-up, a red band around his left arm, a dark green cap, and a decorative chain dangling from it. In his Free Time events, he states that his sister tailored the suit for him while she was sick. He wears what appears to be some kind of locket around his neck. Both of his hands are notably completely covered in bandages.

Personality
Korekiyo is an aloof and somewhat creepy person, but he is also very cool-headed and intelligent. He has the experience of having met to a huge variety of human beings for his cultural anthropology research and because of that, he can keep himself composed even under the confinement circumstances and believes in facing things with calm and rational approach rather than an emotional one. He has a vast knowledge of different cultures and ponders different subjects in deep and complex manner, with him occasionally starting lengthy anthropology speeches even though nobody asked. He is greatly interested in topics he does not necessarily agree with as well, as he states he does not believe in any gods, but he finds them interesting from the point of view of studying the human nature and cultures.

Thanks to all of his knowledge, he has formed a pet theory of "humanity's unlimited beauty" and he has a deep interest in it. He believes all human beings are great, and that even their ugly sides are extremely beautiful and beauty can be created from hardship. During the killing game, he observes other students with great interest in seeing what kind of beauty they will display as humans under such circumstances, seemingly not caring about their safety. His morals are stated to be a bit off and he can say unsettling things rather openly, like randomly mentioning that Gonta could use his immense strength to crush a child's skull easily. In Chapter 1, he openly states he has no problem with killing and wonders why the others do, stating that killing is perceived as wrong only because of laws made by humans and such laws do not exist in the killing game. He is aware that his appearance and behavior cause him to come across as a potential murderer, but he does not appear to care what other people think of him. He claims the others should not fear him as a potential murderer, as he merely wishes to observe.

Korekiyo usually speaks in calm and polite manner, but he nevertheless comes across rather off and makes others uncomfortable due to his strange and sometimes morbid thinking. While he is most of the time very collected, with his voice staying the same tone, he occasionally gets very excited about some topics and his voice turns notably more high-pitched. He also tends to stay calmer than the others during bad situations, as for him it's an opportunity to observe, though even his spirit begins to break during the Death Road of Despair and Gonta's Insect Meet and Greet. In Chapter 3, there is also a moment when his tone changes to more a panicky one when Kokichi touches his ancient katana without permission and he fears it might get damaged. He then disturbingly threatens to tear out all of Kokichi's nerves in anger, though his voice still remains creepily calm. In general, he tends to find noisy and vulgar people annoying, often asking them to be quiet. Furthermore, he also has an unique and somewhat creepy laugh, which sounds like "kehehehe". In the original Japanese, "kukuku" is his unique laugh's sound.

As another strange trait, he is quite fixated on keeping his mask on. During his free time events, he claims he has a different mask for different activities, like eating, bathing, sleeping and exercising. However, they all appear exactly the same and do not seem to have any kind of hole in them, yet he is somehow capable of eating and drinking.

Ultimate Anthropologist
Korekiyo is an anthropologist, to be precise, a cultural anthropologist that researches customs, legends, folklore, poetry, etc. His particular field of study is culture and ethnical customs whose historical origins have yet to be made clear, like or. He tries to inspect and elucidate those kinds of traditional customs from a rational perspective and states that cultural anthropology is like a science that tries to observe humanity itself.

In other languages
Korekiyo's talent as it appears in official translations of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

Relationships

 * Family:

Older sister

 * Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles:

Gonta Gokuhara
Even thought both of them don't interact much in the game, their relationship was revealed in the Anthology manga. Gonta saves Korekiyo's life after accidentally slipped and was about to fall, however, Gonta stepped in quick to save him. Both of them however, ended up being tangled with their hair. Because Korekiyo was because couldn't move much, the students thought this was one way for someone to not kill someone for her sister. Gonta staunchly defended Korekiyo after he explained he would not kill someone to see his sister. Both of them slept together in the Hotel Kumasutra to spend the nighttime there. Gonta apologized to Korekiyo for having to spend the day with him, and asked if Korekiyo liked bugs now. Korekiyo disagreed, but said he was interested in how bugs impacted people's lives, and Korekiyo also thanked Gonta for understanding he wouldn't kill someone to escape the school just to see his sister.

Quotes

 * -|DRV3 Demo=

Danganronpa V3=

List of Appearances

 * -|Games=
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Demo Version)
 * Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 * -|Manga=
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology
 * New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki Comic Anthology Volume 2

Trivia

 * Korekiyo's voice actor, Kenichi Suzumura, is married to Maki Harukawa's voice actress Maaya Sakamoto.
 * In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Korekiyo the 13th most popular Danganronpa V3 student.
 * Korekiyo's design seems to strongly draw inspiration from a character from Japanese musician 's music video for his song . This was most likely intentional as series creator, Kazutaka Kodaka, is a fan of hide's music.
 * Korekiyo shares his English voice actor, Todd Haberkorn, with Teruteru Hanamura.

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