Nagito Komaeda

Nagito Komaeda

Today we'll be doing an in depth character analysis on the backstory of one of my favorite characters, Nagito Komaeda from "Super Danganronpa 2"

Now before we go in depth I want to mention that this will be going in depth and as such there will be MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE DANGANRONPA GAMES AND ANIME!!

Nagito was born into a rich family, but he was also born with an extraordinary type of luck and thus his life has always been a turn between extreme 'good luck' and extreme 'bad luck'. The earliest known occurrence of this is when his dear pet dog was killed after being hit by a truck. His relationship with his parents is unclear; he mentions that they took him to an amusement park, but he also mentions that his mother never complimented his appearance.

When he was only an elementary school student, Nagito and his parents went on a family vacation at San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos archipelago. When the vacation was at an end, the family boarded onto an airplane leaving from the San Cristóbal Airport. However, the plane ended up being hijacked. Both the hijacker and Nagito's parents were killed before his very eyes after a small meteor crashed into the airplane, letting him inherit all of his parents' fortune and become free to do whatever he wished, as he had no other relatives alive.

After his parents' death, during middle school, Nagito was kidnapped by a serial killer; although he was released after the police found him (it was implied that the killer let him go after they found out nobody would pay the ransom). As a form of good luck, Nagito had discovered a lottery ticket in the garbage bag the murderer kidnapped him in: It was a winning one for three million yen.

The aforementioned are just a few examples of the many, many tragic things that happened to Nagito due to his luck. His cycle of good and bad luck made sure that any chance he might have at actual happiness would be cancelled. In order to cope with this very despair-inducing way of living, he developed a strong faith in hope so that he could find meaning in his life. However, this turned into an unhealthy obsession. He didn't have any close ones, because other people were disturbed by his strange way of thinking and because he intentionally avoided other people in order to protect them from his bad luck. His bad luck caused the deaths of several people and he started to believe that only the people with "weak hope" could be killed because of the influence of someone worthless like him. His luck cycle worn him down to the point where he drifted through life without purpose, waiting to die and dreaming of becoming a stepladder for world's hope. Believing that he himself is unable to embody hope, he idolized Hope's Peak Academy and its students as the symbols of hope who are capable of creating "absolute hope" - hope that can overcome any despair.

As a teen, Nagito was diagnosed with lymphoma and frontotemporal dementia, and was given a life expectancy of half a year to a year (though, as it's later revealed, his good luck allowed him to live much longer). Though he claims he was fine with being alone before, he then realized he would die all alone and he understood that he always desired, more than anything, to be loved by someone.

After this, as a form of good luck, Nagito won a random lottery and was asked to attend Hope's Peak Academy in 2009. He refused at first, believing that he wasn't worthy, but the academy really wished to study his luck and he eventually accepted the offer. He joined Hope's Peak Academy's 77th Class and gained the title of the Ultimate Lucky Student. According to Jin Kirigiri, the headmaster, Nagito meddled with the affairs of other students and caused nothing but problems. The headmaster had to constantly worry because of him and described him as an incredibly problematic problem child. However, he understood that the boy himself didn't really mean any harm, which was the worst part of it all.

During Nagito's second year, Junko Enoshima started to manipulate students to join her Ultimate Despair. It's strongly implied that Nagito joined because he wanted to see Ultimate Despair's rise and fall, believing that no matter what hope would always win and despair would be destroyed in the end. The members of the Ultimate Despair were brainwashed and fell madly in love with Junko. However, Nagito's case was a bit different. He developed strange, conflicting feelings of both love and hatred for Junko and saw her as his sworn enemy. This was most likely a result of both the brainwashing and Nagito's own belief that hope cannot exist without despair. It's strongly implied that Nagito wanted to kill Junko at some point.

Well thats all for now, remember to keep up to date and I'll see you later!