Korekiyo Shinguji

## Talent

* Ultimate Anthropologist
* 超高校級の「民俗学者」

*chō kōkō kyū no “minzoku gakusha”*

**Alternative Localizations:**
Super High School Level Anthropologist

**Korekiyo Shinguji** (真宮寺 是清, *Shingūji Korekiyo*), also known as **Kiyo**, is the deuteragonist of *Danganronpa Super Hope Despair*. He is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 79th. His title is the **Ultimate Anthropologist** (超高校級の「民俗学者」, *chō kōkō kyū no “minzoku gakusha”*).

## Appearance

Korekiyo is a handsome, tall, slim student with rather pale skin and long ocean green hair. His hair is stated to follow an archaic image of beauty and it "puts his female colleagues to shame". He has narrowed yellow eyes, and his mouth is covered by a sage green mask, covering his mouth and neck, with a zipper where his mouth would be, giving him a sinister and mysterious appearance. He wears the mask wherever he goes, no matter where he goes, and he even owns different masks for eating, showering, and other daily activities.

He wears a dark green military-style uniform with knee-high black boots, a zipper lining the front and two straps over it. The uniform consists of a white button-up underneath it, a dark green button-up, a red armband around his left arm from his previous school, Sunset Hills High School, a green military regulation cap with his former school's insignia on the top, and a decorative chain with revolver chamber and bullet looking charms dangling from it. In his Free Time events, he states that his sister tailored his uniform for him while she was sick. He wears what appears to be some kind of silver locket around his neck. Both of his hands are completely covered in bandages, although it's likely he's not even injured and that this is actually related to sorcery.

## Personality

Korekiyo is aloof and somewhat disturbing, but he is also very cool-headed and intelligent. Having met a wide variety of human beings during his experience in cultural anthropology fieldwork, he can keep himself composed even under confinement circumstances and believes in facing things with a calm and rational approach rather than an emotional one. He tends to stay calmer than the others during dire situations. As for him, it's an opportunity to observe. However, even his spirit begins to break during the Death Road of Despair, and he becomes panicky during Gonta's Insect Meet and Greet. His morals have been described as being "a bit off." At one point, he even openly states he has no problem with killing and wonders why the others do, saying 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 shouldn't fear him as a potential murderer, as he merely wishes to observe.

He is highly passionate about his talent and can get excited when talking about it. It is shown when he panics after Kokichi touches the katana in his lab without permission, fearing that it may be damaged, and threatens to tear it out his nerves. He ponders different subjects in a deep and complex manner and occasionally shares his knowledge in lengthy, unsolicited anthropology speeches. He has formed a pet theory of "humanity's unlimited beauty," believing that all human beings are beautiful, including their "ugly sides." That beauty can be created from hardship, though, as seen in how he interacts with Kokichi and Miu, he does tend to find noisy and vulgar people annoying, often asking them to be quiet. Korekiyo is extremely interested in topics he does not necessarily agree with, as he states he does not believe in any gods. Still, he finds them interesting from the point of view of studying human nature and cultures. However, he does believe in ghosts, souls, and the afterlife and shows a fascination with communication with the dead and death in general.

Korekiyo usually speaks calmly and politely, but he nevertheless comes across as somewhat off and makes others uncomfortable due to his strange and sometimes morbid thinking. 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. It has been stated that Korekiyo is so interested in anthropology that it sometimes seems like he is not as interested in the welfare of those around him. He can say unsettling things rather openly, like randomly mentioning that Gonta could use his immense strength to crush a child's skull easily. He also possesses several idiosyncrasies. He is very fixated on keeping his mask on, taking his mask off only in front of people his sister deems trustworthy. He claims he has a different mask for different activities, like eating, bathing, sleeping, and exercising. However, they all look exactly the same, and while they have a zipper across the mouth, it does not appear that food passes through it when he eats or drinks. He has a unique and somewhat creepy laugh, written as "kehehehe" in the English localization. In the original Japanese, "kukuku" is his unique laugh sound.

Unlike most students in the series, he apparently has lots of experience with sexual relationships. He has described himself as very popular with local women in a village that commonly practiced bondage. He is sadomasochistic, enjoying the pain of others because he considers the raw emotions beautiful and enjoying his own suffering because he believed it makes him closely connected to his deceased sister and the beauty of humanity as a whole. Indeed, he is shown to be very romantic, firmly believing in the "power of love" that can make even the impossible possible. He is very fond of romance and love stories, especially ones centered around forbidden love.

## Talent

### 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 ethical customs whose historical origins have yet to be made clear, like shichigosan or setsubun. 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.

Korekiyo is very knowledgeable about folklore and customs across the world, as he stated that he had done a lot of field trip by traveling around the nation to study various culture, tradition, and custom in various places. As shown in his Free Time Events, he is very familiar with folklore from Indonesia (Hainuwele) and Greece (Medusa), as well as many folklore from his home country Japan. Myths, folklore, and legends are all inform anthropology, that's the reason why he extensively studies them as an anthropologist. He studies nursery rhymes, lullabies, and traditions and events expressed in song as well.

In his opinion, fieldwork is very important to anthropology. Hearing legends recounted firsthand, recording tools or lifestyles are examples why it is very important to do a fieldwork. Because culture is constantly changing, as an anthropologist, Korekiyo said that he must keep the present in mind while he learns about past customs.

He is shown to be a great teacher and storyteller. Korekiyo managed to pique Shuichi's interest in learning a lot of stuff related to anthropology after he got involved in extensive discussions with the Ultimate Anthropologist. In his Fifth Free Time Events with Shuichi, the two of them promise to do a fieldwork together someday, and Korekiyo is pleased to make the Ultimate Detective as his first disciple.

## Quotes

* "You wonder, "Who is this?" Yes... I shall make that clear first. My name is Korekiyo Shinguji... I am called the Ultimate Anthropologist."
* "Anthropology... studies customs legends, folk tales, songs, and much more. There may even be customs in your daily life, the origins of which you do not know. For example... certain aspects of birthday or new year celebrations. Anthropology sheds light on traditions and customs such as these through rigorous analysis. It is a study that examines the thought behind culture, faith, and customs."
* "I believe... that human beings are creatures who possess infinite beauty."
* "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?"
* "Kehe... Kehehehe... People are wonderful..."
* "We are as guinea pigs upon a lab table...We cannot be picky about our means of survival."

## Etymology

* His given name 是清 korekiyo can be translated as "just and pure". This meaning is likely meant to be ironic in regards to his true self. His last name 真宮寺 shingūji 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.

## Trivia

* Korekiyo is stated to strongly dislike Cleansing Air Freshener and gets furious whenever someone uses it, because it apparently repels ghosts and paranormal entities due to the holy water mixed in. This seems to explain his dislike for air conditioning.
* His favorite myth is the *Medusa*, knowing her original status as a mother goddess who was later depicted as a hideous monster, and believing that this is because developed human society begun to think about overcoming nature instead of being dependent of nature goddesses. He also likes the story because it shows that people can't run away from death no matter how much they overcome the nature.
* Korekiyo is the second character in the series to have a split personality, the first being Toko Fukawa. Unlike her however, his split personality is more like a tulpa than a dissociative identity disorder. He also only kills women, which is somewhat similar to Genocide Jack, who only kills men.
* He appears to be sadomasochistic and has a strong liking of BDSM, explaining why he likes straw rope. Even his mask resembles a bondage hood, or a Gimp mask.
* Korekiyo's Japanese voice actor, Kenichi Suzumura, is married to Maki Harukawa's Japanese voice actress Maaya Sakamoto.
* Korekiyo shares his English voice actor, Todd Haberkorn, with Teruteru Hanamura.