Makoto Naegi

* Normal
* Future Foundation

**Makoto Naegi** (苗木 誠), is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th, and a participant of the Killing School Life featured in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. His title is the **Ultimate Lucky Student** (超高校級の「幸運」lit. Super High School Level Good Luck).

Years later, he is a participant of the Final Killing Game featured in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School with the Future Foundation Directors.

## Appearance

At the beginning of the Killing School Life in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Makoto appears to be young high school-aged teenager, but due to the memory loss he is two years older than he believed. He is notably shorter than almost all of his classmates. He has spiky, desaturated brown hair with a prominent ahoge, and washed-out hazel eyes. He wears a zipped-up dull green hoodie with a red stripe along the zipper, an open black jacket with gold buttons over the hoodie, black jeans, and red sneakers with white toes.
Makoto's hoodie has a logo of a red gas mask in a circle printed on the back of the hood, and the zipper goes all the way up to the top of the hood. He wears a pin shaped like a four-pointed star overlaid on a crescent moon; this is pinned to the lapel of his jacket.

After joining the Future Foundation post-Killing School Life, Makoto is seen wearing a black suit. In Danganronpa: Another Episode, his hair is noticeably lighter, longer, spikier, and overall slightly more detailed. In Danganronpa 3, it appears that Makoto had cut his hair, as it is considerably shorter. He also looks more mature, though still has a bit round face for his adult age. After he becomes the headmaster of the new Hope's Peak Academy, he wears a black suit and a beige tie, as well as a dark blue sweater vest with a white shirt underneath.

## Personality

According to himself, Makoto is a very ordinary person, to the point that he feels a bit insecure about it. He does have one distinguishing feature, however, and that is his unusual optimism.

Makoto is very kind, supportive and forgiving, though sometimes slightly naive. He is friendly, polite and a lot more down-to-earth than the other students. This is possibly the reason why he is capable of approaching and befriending them in Free Time sequences, even the most antisocial such as Byakuya Togami and Toko Fukawa.

Junko refers to Makoto as a "herbivore man", which means that he is likely to be the passive one in a relationship; this is reinforced in his conversations with others. He is also a bit jumpy at times and quite easily pushed around by some other characters such as Byakuya. However, even though he is sometimes a bit of a pushover, he is also capable of being a very determined and charismatic speaker.

Makoto is a firm believer in hope, having a positive attitude about the future, no matter how bad the situation is in the present. He is also a pacifist, as he believes that killing and violence isn't the answer. While he dislikes despair, believing it to be a corrupting and negative emotion which cannot benefit the world, he is very forgiving towards those who fell into despair, such as the Remnants of Despair, believing them to be victims of Junko and not inherently evil.

The only people Makoto genuinely dislikes appears to be Junko Enoshima, the True Ultimate Despair, and he considers her his enemy, and her avatar Monokuma, who he blames for the deaths of his friends in the Killing Games. However, even in her case, he felt that she didn't need to die and tried to reason with her when she was about to execute herself, which fell on deaf ears as Junko wanted to revel in the despair of defeat and executed herself anyways.

Makoto is respected by many people as the Ultimate Hope, though he himself is very humble and even a bit embarrassed of the title. In Danganronpa Zero, it's mentioned that he has incredible strength inside, despite often appearing weaker on the outside. During hard times, he is shown to have the power to provide hope for other people, and ultimately, affect their way of thinking. However, this is not always the case, as some people refuse to listen to him or simply do not accept his ideals.

However, him being called the Ultimate Hope is but a title, as he is apparently not immune to the effects of the Suicide Video.

## Talent(s) and Abilities

### Ultimate Lucky Student

Makoto got his talent as the Ultimate Lucky Student by winning a lottery out of completely ordinary students, which led to him joining Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Lucky Student. In addition to this, he was caught up in a bizarre series of events on the day of his selection which ended up catching a jewel thief and burning the selection ticket. Following the fifth trial, just before Makoto's execution can be completed, Alter Ego suddenly appears and is able to prevent Makoto from dying by opening up a door on the floor. He is then rescued by Kyoko, going on to defeat Junko herself and survive the whole ordeal.

Makoto's luck also comes into play during the events of the Final Killing Game, saving him from multiple dangerous situations. While his luck isn't nearly as powerful as his predecessor's or Izuru Kamukura's, his luck pattern is different from those two, and is difficult for Junko to analyze and predict. Thus, Junko predicted that he could possibly ruin her perfect layout plan, which ironically also made Junko allow him to live for the Killing School Life.

### Ultimate Hope

Makoto discovers his true talent as the Ultimate Hope during the sixth and final trial of the Killing School Life. Interestingly, unlike most other talents, Makoto being the Ultimate Hope isn't recognized by Hope's Peak Academy, but rather earned for defeating Junko, the True Ultimate Despair. Unlike Izuru Kamukura, who's Ultimate Hope comes from him being the embodiment of talent, Makoto's Ultimate Hope comes from his unusual amount of optimism and determination, which Makoto even comments on.

As the Ultimate Hope, Makoto proves to have an immunity to Junko's tactics, built to make people fall into despair. Combined with his luck being difficult for Junko to analyze, causes her to leave him alive because defying her would be despairful in its own right. Ultimately, Makoto’s talent aided him in defeating her by filling the other five remaining participants with hope, after they fell into despair over finding out about the state of the world they were in. Makoto is also able to convince others to act with hope simply by spreading his hope to them. When the surviving members of the game are filled with hope, they were persuaded to choose to leave the academy and go out and see what the world had in store for them. In addition, in Danganronpa IF, Makoto unwittingly convinced Mukuro Ikusaba, one of the Despair Sisters, to think of the world outside of Junko's plans to spread despair all over it.

Makoto has even been encouraged by his own hope multiple times, thanks to his friends. After finding out that Kazuo Tengan has been murdered by Kyosuke Munakata, Makoto begins to break down over the fact that he’s been unable to stop people from killing each other. However, Aoi, along with Miaya Gekkogahara (controlled by Monaca Towa), were able to cheer him up, saying that he has given them hope and that they're willing to shoulder his burden. Later, Kyoko tells Makoto that he shouldn't give up on hope, and that she'll always be there for him if his power doesn’t prove to be enough. After her apparent death, Makoto was able to use his and Kyoko's hope in order to convince Kyosuke to join him and combine their hopes together.

Makoto believes that hope is infectious. True to his words, Makoto's effort in defeating Junko, protecting the Remnants of Despair in the Neo World Program, and his firm ideals and optimism eventually become fruitful as he could overcome all despairs at the end of his adventure in the Hope's Peak Series.

## Quotes

* MTU
* TMH

*Monokuma Theater Universe*

**TBD Timeline:**

*Trigger Meme Havoc Universe*