Junko enoshima

Ultimate Analyst

Ultimate Despair

Super High School Level Fashion Diva/Gyaru (Japanese)

Super High School Level Analytical Prowess (Japanese)

Super High School Level Despair (Japanese)

Despair Sister

Big Sis Junko (by Monaca Towa)

Big-Chested Despair Goddess (by Toko Fukawa)

### Occupation

Student of Hope's Peak Academy (formerly)Super High School Level Fashion Diva/Gyaru (formerly, fake talent)

Super High School Level Analytical Prowess (true talent, as Ryōko Otonashi)

Super High School Level Despair

Terrorist

Leader of Ultimate Despair

Mastermind of the Killing School Life

### Powers/Skills:

ManipulationHigh intelligence

Charisma

Superhuman analysis

Superhuman calculation

Technology skills

Despair inducement

Weapony proficiency

Fashion sense

Control over Monokuma

### Hobby

Working with her sister (formerly)Inducing despair on herself or others.

Bullying, antagonizing and torturing her classmates

### Goals

Find a way to brainwash people into despair (Danganronpa 3'; succeeded).Turn Class 77-B into Ultimate Despair (Danganronpa 3; temporarily succeeded, until Hajime brought them back to their oldselves).

Fill the world with despair (Danganronpa; mostly succeeded until it came to an end in "Hope Arc").

Start a killing game in the 78th class to throw them into despair (Danganronpa; partially succeeded until her death).

### Crimes

Mass murderAttempted world domination

Sororicide

Forced lobotomy

Mutilation

Torture

Child abuse

Kidnapping

Vandalism

Stalking

Blackmail

Terrorism

Instigating mass suicide

Worldwide destruction

Incrimination

Brainwashing

Snuff filming

Propaganda

Sabotage

Extortion

Forgery

Gaoling

Defilement

Enslavement

Unlawful imprisonment

Crimes against humanity

“ The older sister, tough and proud—that was Mukuro. The younger sister, smart and cute—that was... Hyaaaahaha! Me! Junko f\*cking Enoshima! And together, we were the Despair Sisters! AKA the Ultimate Despair! „ ~ Junko Enoshima comparing herself to her twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba, and most famous quote.

“ Puhuhu... Puhuhuhu! So this is how the despair of death feels... Ahhh, it's so wonderful! Even a tenth of this despair... Even a hundredth...! I want every last soul on this planet to taste such despair! I want the entire world to die with that despair in it's mouth! Okay, let's do this! I've reserved an extra special punishment for last! Let's give it everything we've got! It's...PUNISHMENT TIIIME! Haahahahaha! „ ~ Junko's last words before executing herself.

“ Hope is harmony. A just heart, moving toward the light. That is all. Despair is hope's polar opposite. It is messy and confusing. It swallows up love, hatred, and everything else. Because not knowing where you will end up is despair. Despair is even what you cannot predict. Only despair's unpredictability can save you from a boring future. „ ~ Junko Enoshima

**Junko Enoshima** (in Japanese: 江ノ島 盾子, *Enoshima Junko*) is the main antagonist of the *Danganronpa* franchise.

She is the main antagonist of *Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc*, a recurring antagonist in *Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Academy* and a posthumous antagonist in *New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony*, and the posthumous overarching antagonist of the *Danganronpa: Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls*.

She is also the main antagonist in the anime adaptation of *Despair Arc* and the posthumous overarching antagonist in *Future Arc*.

In the video games, she was titled **Ultimate Fashionista** and founder of **Ultimate Despair**. Junko has a hidden talent, known as **Ultimate Analyst**. She is the younger twin sister of Mukuro Ikusaba and had an alternate identity known as **Ryōko Otonashi**, which is her with memories lost and counts as a different person that was not in any of the games. In both games, she controls and interfaces with the victims of the killing games through Monokuma.

Junko is voiced by Amanda C. Miller and Erin Fitzgerald in the English dubbed versions of the games. In the anime adaptations, she was voiced by Jamie Marchi in the English dubbed version, and Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese dubbed version for both the video games and the anime adaptations.

## Personality

Junko is a young woman who took the country by storm with her extravagant tastes and cheerful charisma. Ironically, her popularity as a fashionista was due to an air of being 'not fake'. Junko's personality and mannerisms tend to be very erratic and unstable; she claims that her high level of intelligence makes her bored of even her own personality.

Her boredom is interrelated with her fascination with despair, as she believes it is the only emotion worth having. Her motives center around causing despair either in others or herself. Due to this, Junko is willing to do anything to bring about despair.

Though she initially comes off as lacking emotion, she is in fact capable of feeling genuine love. Her alternate personality, Ryōko Otonashi, is proof of this as she was very much in love with her childhood friend, Yasuke Matsuda, who in turn cared for her, though he often hid his feelings from her. Even outside of her alternate self, Junko's love extends to her sister, Mukuro, and her fellow classmates. However, because she is heavily obsessed with despair, she uses her love as a means to fulfill her desire of falling into greater despair.

Hence, she subjects her sister to constant abuse before ultimately killing her and subjecting her classmates to the torturous experience of the Killing School Life. Ultimately, she is willing to go as far to destroy any bonds and attachments she had with others as a means to fall into despair.

In overall terms of personality, she is an incredibly unpredictable, psychotic, apathetic, treacherous, and pitiless sadist by nature, and cares nothing more than to create despair and misery towards other people. She tends to unpredictably switch between different personalities, each of them more obsessed with despair than she already is. Her voice and facial expressions change several times throughout the final school trial in order to represent her changing personalities. These include (but aren't limited to) her "Monokuma persona" (in which she acts like Monokuma), "sickening cuteness" (in which she acts upbeat and typically "cute"), "severe depression" (in which she acts extremely sad), "clinical sophistication" (in which she acts similar to a stereotypical teacher), "boisterous vulgarity" (self-explanatory), "eerie stoicism" (in which she speaks extremely monotone) and "haughty superiority" (in which she acts similar to a stereotypical queen, usually speaking in a British accent and saying "peasant"). She seems to usually do this is for the purpose of imitating other students and also to satisfy the boredom of her own personality as stated before.

## Appearance

Junko appears to be 5'7' tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes, and pale strawberry blonde hair tied into twin tails with a white bear hair clip on right and a black bear hair clip on the left. She wears a black shirt with a white shirt underneath, a white and black tie with a no sign around her neck, red miniskirt, black heeled boots with red laces, red nails, a thin black choker, and a red bow hanging on the left side of her shirt.

Her "clinical sophistication" personality has a ponytail and glasses with a pen and board in her hand. The "haughty superiority" personality wears a small red and gold crown with a few jewels on her head. The "sickening cuteness" personality has bigger eyes and smoother pigtails. The "severe depression" personality appears to have tears flowing from her eyes and several mushrooms on her head, a lack of pupils, a bluish hue on her forehead, and her right-hair clip having a sad face. Her "boisterous vulgarity" personality has wild pigtails and her tongue sticking out, and throwing up the hand-horn gesture with her arms crossing each other. Her forehead is slightly reddish. Her "eerie stoicism" personality makes her do a pose facing away, covering part of her face with one hand and the other around her torso. And her Monokuma personality makes her hold Monokuma in front of her.

In the *Danganronpa 3* anime, she wears a bunny hair clip on the right side and wears a red and white bow on the left instead of wearing the bear hair clips; additionally she wears a pure white tie instead of her black/white one with the lack of a choker and bow on her shirt. Overall, her outfit is nearly the same.

As Ryōko Otonashi, her hair and eyes are red, implying that her blonde hair and blue eyes are fake and likely are meant to go with her fake "Ultimate Fashionista" talent. Her hair is very long and wears a Hope's Peak Academy uniform. She wears an open gray sweater with a white shirt with a red ribbon, gray skirt, and white socks with brown shoes.

## Biography

### Childhood

Much of Junko's early life is unknown. As children, Junko and her twin sister Mukuro lived in abject conditions and were even homeless at one point. As she puts it, she regretted the moment of her own birth, feeling that her birth into the world was a mistake.

Due to her analytical skills allowing her to predict the outcome of events, she became bored with the world. Because of that, she took an interest in despair, which she believed to be unpredictable and exciting. As a child, she was close with Yasuke Matsuda and they eventually became lovers later in life.

One particular moment between the two when they were elementary school students was when Junko spent a month building a sand sculpture modeled after the Sagrada Familia church at the public park, and she even used very advanced techniques for her age. The sculpture got closer to completion and many people from around the neighborhood came over just to watch her work.

One day, the sand castle was found destroyed just before it was completed. Junko cried continuously for almost an entire day and Yasuke went around angrily looking for the perpetrator. Not being able to find out anything useful discouraged Yasuke. While he was sitting on a bench in front of the remains of the sand sculpture, Junko ran up to him with a large smile and whispered in his ear that she was the culprit who destroyed the sculpture all along, asking him to keep it a secret. When asked for a reason, she replied that she did so by accident. Truthfully, she had done this to get Yasuke out of his house, upset that his mother's condition had led him to become more withdrawn than usual.

Junko had a strong desire to "paint the world in despair" and planned to start The Tragedy, the worst, most despair-inducing incident in the history of mankind. She called herself and her sister the Despair Sisters AKA the Ultimate Despair.

### Teenage Years

As a teen, Junko began a modeling career and quickly became an idol amongst the Japanese population. One reason for her popularity was the fact that she was using that as a cover.

Junko enrolled into Hope's Peak Academy with her twin sister Mukuro. She was able to befriend her classmates of the 78th Class and decided to use them for the High School Life of Mutual Killing in the future. During this period of time, she also influenced and corrupted many students to join Ultimate Despair with her crazy ideal of despair - including Nagito Komaeda, Mikan Tsumiki, and many others.

Junko also discovered the artificially enhanced Ultimate Hope Izuru Kamukura, and enticed him to aid her despair-inducing plans. As both Junko and Izuru had superhuman intelligence, Junko appealed to his boredom to invite him to participate in The Student Council Killing Game. After Izuru killed the only survivor of the Student Council, Junko leaked recordings of the game, blaming Izuru and enticing the Reserve Course students to a riot against Hope's Peak.

Meanwhile, she learned brainwashing techniques created by the Ultimate Animator, Ryota Mitarai. Junko used Mitarai's techniques, intended to inspire hope, to create her own Despair Video from footage of the Killing Game. During that time, she and her sister kidnapped Mikan Tsumiki, who was used as a guinea pig for her video. She intimidated her into helping her finish and perfect the Despair Video and went on to use it on the Reserve Course students.

Nagito tries to convince Chiaki to watch the Despair Video, but she is stopped by Chisa Yukizome, who, when Chiaki, Mitarai and Nagito escape, becomes subjected to the brainwashing. When the 77th Class groups together to go rescue Chisa, she goes after Mitarai and tells him she will let him go, so he can suffer the despair of being at fault for giving her the power to drown people in despair. Juzo Sakakura, the then Head of Security, tries to stop her, but is tired out by brainwashed Reserve Course students, and she blackmails him into not giving her up to Kyousuke Munakata, who was investigating the killings, in exchange for her never telling Kyousuke about Juzo's feelings for him. Out of fear of being outed, Juzo agrees and Junko flees back to her hideout.

Back in her hideout, she throws Chiaki into a death trap dungeon similar to a rogue-like game; her death is used as a live Despair Video to brainwash her classmates into becoming the Ultimate Despair. When the riot hits it's peak, with Reserve Course students killing the Main Course students, she can be seen happily enjoying the view from afar and when it's all over, she sends an alternate version of the Despair Video called "Monokuma's Gloomy Sunday", that leads the students to kill themselves.

Jin calls out the 78th Class, Mukuro and Junko included, to hide themselves inside the Hope's Peak Academy Building, leading into the events of the first game. Junko tested procedures with the reluctant assistance of Yasuke. Having succeeded in erasing her own memories with Yasuke's memory-erasing technology, she assumed the fake identity of Ryōko Otonashi and hid from suspicion, as she only had false information in a notebook and the continual deception by both Yasuke and Mukuro (who pretended to be Junko) to go off on. Around the same time, the school board members were killed one by one by Mukuro. Eventually, she managed to recover all of her lost memories and she killed Yasuke in a fit of despair. Afterwards, Junko returned to her school life and continued preparations for the 78th Class' Mutual Killing along with Mukuro.

Around the time when The Tragedy was beginning, five abused kids from Hope's Peak elementary school called Monaca Towa, Nagisa Shingetsu, Kotoko Utsugi, Masaru Daimon and Jataro Kemuri were about to commit suicide. However, Junko stopped them and took them under her wing, convincing them that the adults who abused them were wrong. She manipulated and brainwashed the children, giving them their first true hope and acting loving towards them. She made them think that they're her property. However, in truth, she was only interested in Monaca, who as a member of the Towa Group mass produced extremely dangerous Monokuma robots for Junko.

Furthermore, Junko decided to use the children to cause more despair and taught them that all the adults are Demons who need to be killed. The children started to call themselves the Warriors of Hope unaware that Junko just used them to be evil just for the fun of it. At Junko's bequest, all the Reserve students committed mass suicide, furthering the message of despair. The riots spread outside the school, both online and off, and slowly became more violent and destructive as more and more people succumbed to despair. Wars started and soon the whole world fell into despair. The whole incident was known as The Tragedy. The Ultimate Despair members worshipped Junko and spread everyplace to cause terrible things for the sake of despair. They even killed their friends and families.

Junko's classmates, the 78th Class, sealed Hope's Peak Academy and lived peacefully inside it for a year without knowing that the Ultimate Despair members were already in their midst. Junko incapacitated them somehow, executed the headmaster Jin Kirigiri, and erased her classmates' memories.

She 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 (allegedly on a whim) to kill Mukuro 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 impostor, because at the time the students were uninformed to the fact that there were actually sixteen students.

Junko continued to work in the shadows, while manipulating and motivating other students like Celestia Ludenberg and Mondo Owada to kill each other for her own entertainment.

After her classmate Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer, is killed, a program called Alter Ego is found on a repaired laptop, hidden in a locker from the cameras hidden around the school. Alter Ego is meant to emulate a person, and as such Alter Ego retains a very similar personality to their creator. Alter Ego agrees to look into the mastermind behind the events, helping the remaining students as much as possible.

Alter Ego is destroyed by Monokuma after Sakura Ogami's suicide, as Monokuma lacked someone to execute but still wished to cause additional despair. Alter Ego is believed to be completely destroyed, and the students mourn Sakura and Alter Ego's deaths.

During the course of events, Junko was able to ensure the deaths of several of the students, before realizing that Kyoko Kirigiri 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 it 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.

Junko had no choice but to call guilt on Makoto 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 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 be unable to handle the shock of the outside world they longed to go back to having already “ended” due to The Tragedy. 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 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.

Junko 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 *Bullet Time Battle* of “Hope” versus “Despair”.

Though seemingly livid over the results shortly after the vote was settled, Junko instead became perversely delighted as she realized she would be able to experience the extreme despair of painful, unnecessary death. She delightfully accepted her execution and death, but not before giving the remaining students the means to escape the Academy, as well as telling them that her death would make the school unlivable as it would cause the school's air purifier to turn off, allowing the polluted air from the destroyed outside world to come inside.

After 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.

As a back-up plan, Junko had created an AI version of herself, with the knowledge she stole from Chihiro Fujisaki. It is even implied that her death was planned right from the start. AI Junko manipulates both the Warriors of Hope and the adults of Towa City in the form of Shirokuma and Kurokuma. In the end, both robots are destroyed by Izuru Kamukura to salvage their hard-drives for their AI.

Izuru downloads AI Junko into the Neo World Program, and 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 comatose bodies and also to lure the Future Foundation into the game.

Once Hajime Hinata and the rest of the survivors reached the final trial and the choice to either graduate or live on the island forever, Junko pretended to be Makoto 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 Togami appear in the game and Junko's full plans are revealed to the cast.

Junko planned 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.

Junko's overall goal in the end was to fill the entire world with copies of herself that she dubs "Junkoland". Junko spreads her despair into the survivors and manipulates them into wanting to graduate but with the help of Chiaki Nanami, 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.

### The Killing School Semester

In the sixth trial of the Killing School Semester, after the exposure of the mastermind Tsumugi Shirogane, she cosplays as Junko and pretends to be "Junko Enoshima the 53th", claiming that even though Junko died in the Killing School Life, Despair cannot truly be killed. When the other students question her on who she really is, she changes into a cosplay of Hajime Hinata, a participant of the Killing School Trip, and states "I'm me. Nobody else." Shuichi Saihara realizes Tsumugi should not be able to cosplay as students of Hope's Peak Academy, as she'd demonstrated before that cosplaying as real life people causes her to break out in "cospox" (a condition that causes her skin to turn pink). She then asks Shuichi what his realization means, and he realizes it must mean that Hope's Peak Academy is actually fictional, which she confirms, also stating that the Future Foundation and the Remnants of Despair aren't real either, as all of those events took place in a franchise of video games and anime called *Danganronpa*, and The Killing School Semester is merely the 53th season of a reality TV series based on it developed by Team Danganronpa, the participants' memories, personalities, talents and past having been fabricated with the use of the Flashback Lights in order to create an exciting story. However, it is ultimately left ambiguous if the events surrounding Hope's Peak really are fictional or not, as Tsumugi stated that her plan for The Killing School Semester was a copy of someone else's, and Shuichi points out in the epilogue that she may have been at least partially lying about his and the other students' backstories.

## Reception

Junko Enoshima has received large amounts of praise from both critics and fans alike. She quickly became one of the most popular characters in the *Danganronpa* franchise, spawning several memes and becoming one of the most popular characters for cosplay. In 2019, Polygon ranked her as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s decade. In the 2013 poll from Anime Trend, Junko was voted as the 9th best female character of the year based on her role in the first game's anime adaptation *Danganronpa: The Animation*. In a Danganronpa: The Animation poll, Junko took the ninth place. Comic Book Resources listed her as the third most intelligent character from the franchise, citing how she manipulates most of the game's characters for the sake of entertaining herself even if costs the lives of those as close to her as her own sister. Kotaku praised her characterization in *Danganronpa Zero* for providing her with more character depth given her receiving little of it in her appearances before then.

## Quotes

### *Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School*

“ A wind blew past... It was the moment that the two, who would plunge Hope's Peak High School, and ultimately the world, into the depths of despair, first came to the school! „ ~ Junko marvelling about her plan to dye the world with despair.

“ See? Despair is an unknown. Because of my super analytic ability, I was thoroughly bored with this world. The "hope" everyone longs for is just a preexisting harmony. But despair was the one thing that was different. The heart-racing excitement of messy despair has a taste like you've never known! „ ~ Junko trying to lure Izuru Kamukura to her side.

“ Okay! To celebrate your touching reunion, let's all watch Mitarai's anime! We're going to reclaim our lost youths! „ ~ Junko convincing Mikan Tsumiki to watch Ryota Mitarai's brainwashing anime.

“ Well? Did that excite you? Then, you ain't seen nothing yet... ...of despair's wonder. We'll do something even better. I won't bore to you. „ ~ Junko to Izuru after causing The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy. “ You really do love hope, huh? To a despairful degree. „ ~ Junko to Nagito Komaeda.

“ I'm the Super High School-Level Despair, Junko Enoshima. The woman who will knock the world into despair. „ ~ Junko introducing herself to Chisa Yukizome.

“ Your students will become even more despairful than he is. In despair's name, they won't hesitate to destroy their own bodies. They'll willingly kill those most precious to them. Those are the sorts of wonderful Despairs I'll have them become! „ ~ Junko telling Chisa Yukizome her plan to throw Class 77-B into despair.

“ Run. Because that is your despair. „ ~ Junko sparing Ryota at the cost of him having to live with the knowledge that his anime was what caused her to succeed in her plans.

“ Giving me that scary look is pointless. Since you've been imprinted on my brain as a young maiden in love. The main dish awaits! I can't waste any more time on an appetizer like you. „ ~ Junko after blackmailing Juzo and preparing to execute Chiaki.

“ Chiaki Nanami... Loved by everyone, trusted by everyone, your death will stain them all with despair! „ ~ Junko taunting Chiaki as the latter struggles to make it out of her dungeon.

“ Congratulations! Now, you'll all be like me! The despair of losing someone you love... You'll have despairful emotional systems that let you get drunk with ecstasy on that despair! You'll seek out despair without end, and become the ones who will stain this world, with despair, the Super High School-Level Despairs! „ ~ Junko congratulating Class 77-B on becoming just like her after executing Chiaki in front of them.

“ Goodbye, Class Rep. And welcome to the wonderful world of despair. I look forward to working with you, my upperclassmen. „ ~ Junko following Class 77-B being turned into the Ultimate Despairs.

“ The students of Hope's Peak High School, who are the most talented in the world. Their fall into despair will be enough to send the world in the same direction in no time. Those kids are practically extensions of my will, now. They're going to infect the world with despair! „ ~ Junko raving about how Class 77-B, now the Ultimate Despairs, will carry out her plan of painting the world with despair.

“ After all, if despair were to vanish from the entire world, that would be pretty despairful in it's own way! „ ~ Junko fantasizing about the possibilities of despair while in her Monokuma personality.

“ In the end, Yukizome ended up dying her students with despair, drove her lover and her boss into conflict, and led the Future Foundation into destruction! And for the final touch, she killed herself in front of her beloved Munakata! That was despairingly sweet! „ ~ Junko to Chisa in the afterlife.

### *Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc*

“ We have been waiting! Waiting so very long for peasants like you to appear! If you swear your fealty to us, we will reward you with half of the entire world! We've even drawn up the deed already! We will grant you honor, status, and some of our home cooking! Have you made your choice? Will you serve under us? „ ~ Junko revealing herself to the students during the 6th class trial.

“ Having to play Monokuma all the time, day after day... It was like I was stuck in purgatory, or like a slow suicide. I get bored so easy, ya know? „ ~ Junko explaining her boredom of doing nothing but control Monokuma for the entire killing game.

“ What's wrong with my beautiful face? People have told me I'm cuter than a hundred chihuahuas combined. „ ~ Junko saddened over others supposedly not finding her cute.

“ Sometimes a little lie necessary to keep things moving along, wouldn't you agree? „ ~ Junko to the remaining students about killing her twin sister, Mukuro Ikusaba.

“ Maybe it's new to your dumb ass, but it bores me to tears! Answering the same questions, over and over! Just make up whatever answer you want, I don't give a shit! The truth's f\*\*\*in' lame, anyway. „ ~ Junko becoming irritated during the trial.

“ We were the Ultimate Despair, ya know? So we never had any kind of hope, or expectations. No, I've felt despair as long as I can remember, like I never should have been born at all. When I was born, I cried tears of total despair. So that's why for us, it's not a big deal whether we die or kill! We're just those kinds of people. We can do anything! We've always been filled with despair, so when we do something, we go all the way and live without regret! „ ~ Junko talking about her and Mukuro's dedication towards despair.

“ Killing my precious sister with my own two hands... That act is filled with so much despair, you can't help but put a "super" in front of it. It's like super super super super super despair. No, more than that... Super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super despair... It just feels...so...good... And my sister, too... In that moment of death, I think she must have felt that despair. After all, to be murdered by your own sister, and only as an example to someone else...? She must have died feeling such excruciating hopelessness... I'm so...jealous of her. Super jealous... „ ~ Junko in her "severe depression" mood, becoming consumed in despair and envy over having murdered Mukuro.

“ Relationships, secrets, money, betrayal... These are all pretty standard motives, right? The most normal of normal, totally middle of the road! But of course those aren't the only motives that exist in this world... In fact, there are as many reasons to kill as there are people on Earth. They compel humans to kill each other, bringing despair to the world. This is what we refer to as the seed of despair! Just as water, air, and food promote growth in living things, the seed of despair also needs nourishment... And that nourishment...is hope! Despair can grow only in the presence of hope! Two sides of the same coin, divided by a razor-thin lines... Such is hope and despair! „ ~ Junko talking about how despair motivates people to do heinous things.

“ Okey dokey! Like they say, seeing is believing! Puhuhu. I wanna see, too... See your faces sink into despair...! „ ~ Junko in her "sickening cuteness" mood, obsessing about the remaining students falling into despair.

“ Stop? And said with such authority. A peasant would dare challenge us, the avatar of divine punishment? You must learn your place, peasant! You are no longer the Ultimate Affluent Progeny! „ ~ Junko to Byakuya Togami.

“ Two years of school life. How many moments of blossoming youth have you missed out on? How many fun classes? How many school events? This was your chance to build lasting friendships, right? „ ~ Junko taunting the students about having erased two years worth of their memories.

“ In a way, I'm jealous of all of you. To give yourself over so completely to such stimulating despair... Yeah, so figure out the rest for yourselves! I'm sick of expositioning all this shit! „ ~ Junko expressing her envy towards the students.

I love you all so much... Once your school life here began, I thought about you constantly. It's only natural that I would...fall in love. So since I love you guys so much, I'll tell you all about it! All about the idea we came up with as the Ultimate Despair—our plan to bring despair to all mankind! „ ~ Junko explaining her twisted sense of "love" to the students.

“ A peasant begging for his life? How delightful! We've never witnessed such a travesty firsthand... But I'm sorry to say, begging doesn't work on me. All I want is despair. And there's no reason for it. And since there's no reason, there's no argument against it. There's just no understanding it. No argument, no understanding... What better definition of ultimate despair could there be! „ ~ Junko mocking Yasuhiro Hagakure.

“ I didn't kill anyone. I simply gave you a little nudge in the right direction. And that's all it took for you to start killing each other. You're nothing but bloodthirsty animals... That's why anyone was murdered here, peasant! Say what you want about hope, but we're all creatures of instinct, right? Despair comes naturally! Hell yes! That's funny as shit! „ ~ Junko rejecting the idea that she was responsible for the deaths that occurred during the killing game.

“ We came to this school two years ago, created our incredibly detailed plan... I even killed my own sister for it... To come this far, and fail at the very end...! It's the most ultimately ultimate despair! Don't you see? I was so hopelessly desperate! I was bored of the world the moment I was born! That's why I've been looking forward to this so desperately. This once-in-a-lifetime experience... It is my first and last colossal despair, here at the moment of death. To have the chance to taste of the highest grade despair—the utter failure of my dreams! Ahhh! I am so hopelessly happy right now! „ ~ Junko displaying her love for despair.

“ Ahh, stop it! Stop! I hate those faces you're making! To see those awful looks causes me nothing but pain... Fine, let me just say one last thing... If you guys wanna get all hung up on the word hope, that's no skin off my nose... But just be warned... From this point on, one despair after another will stand in your way. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide... Maybe you'll find some hope, but there is a very fine line dividing that hope from bitter despair. Knowing that, you still plan to cling to your hope? Shut up, shut up! That was a rhetorical question. You interrupted my monologue! I'm almost done though, so whatever... Because it's almost punishment time, right!? „ ~ Junko warning the survivors of the killing game about the despair they'll still have to face even after she's gone.

## Trivia

* Junko means "shield" coupled with "child", while Enoshima can literally mean "island of the bay", or refer to the island in the Kanagawa prefecture.
* Her Ultimate ability in the Japanese version is Gyaru; this is a Japanese way of pronouncing the English word "girl".
* Her voice and facial expressions change several times throughout the final school trial in order to represent her changing personalities. These include (but aren't limited to) her "Monokuma persona", "sickening cuteness", "severe depression", "clinical sophistication", "boisterous vulgarity", "eerie stoicism", and "haughty superiority". One of the reasons she constantly shifts from mood to mood is for the purpose of imitating other students.
* One of her poses is the same of Dio Brando from *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*; she also says his catchphrase, "Useless, useless, useless", during a Bullet Time Battle.
* At the very last part of her execution, Junko Enoshima assumes a puzzled expression as the crusher slows down and seemingly glitches. The general fan consensus is that this was purposefully done to deny her despair (although it actually was extended).
* As a prime antagonist of the series, Junko Enoshima appears in all three games (albeit only in flashbacks and as Tsumugi Shirogane's cosplay in the third one) and both novels as well as the *Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy* anime (including her fake identity as Ryōko 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.
* According to Spike Chunsoft and even Junko herself, she has no real ulterior motives as to why she commits her heinous acts other than simply that she finds life to be extremely boring and that she finds despair to be absolutely enjoyable.
* Due to her incredibly fickle and constantly changing personality, Junko has no stated likes or dislikes. Unlike many other characters in the series.
* In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition (2018), Junko was named the "Most popular game character for cosplay".
* Junko has a noticeably similar personality to her minion, Monokuma. As both enforce and generate despair and destruction onto others. But while Junko is cunning, manipulative and sadistic, Monokuma focuses more on manipulating emotions rather than the actions of others and is highly violent.
* Junko's Birthday is December 24, the number 4 of which is considered unlucky in Japan due to its pronunciation being similar to the word “death”. This matches Junko's obsession with causing death and despair.
* In 2019, Polygon ranked Junko as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s decade
* Destructoid called Junko the best character in the entire *Danganronpa* franchise for how she embodies the overall themes of the franchise as a whole that are often discussed by the casts members and for how her legacy still continues in following installments in spite of her death.
* Junko was originally conceived as an early murder victim during the earliest development of the first game (with Kyoko as the Mastermind) before being made into the irredeemable and psychotic mastermind she's known as now.
* It is a canon fact that Junko genuinely cares for her classmates and her sister, but even with this she's irredeemable due to the fact she shows her love through despair.
* In 2020, Comic Book Resources ranked Junko as the anime and manga villain with the 3rd highest body count.
* Junko is not only responsible for Chiaki's death and turning everyone in Class 77-B into the Ultimate Despair as her servants, but also responsible for the deaths of some of the students of Class 78 (Sayaka, Leon, Chihiro, Mondo, Kiyotaka, Hifumi, Celestia and Sakura) and Kyoko's father