Junko Enoshima

Junko Enoshima (江ノ島 盾子 Enoshima Junko) is the main antagonist of the Danganronpa series' Hope's Peak Academy Saga.

She is the younger twin sister of Mukuro Ikusaba and the founder of Ultimate Despair, also known as the True Ultimate Despair.

Junko was scouted by Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Fashionista (超高校級の「ギャル」chō kōkō kyū no “gyaru”, lit. Super High School Level Fashion Girl) for Class 78th, which allowed her to attend the school. However, multiple installments in the series have revealed that this is only a superficial talent, derived from her "true", inherent talent of being the Ultimate Analyst, which borders on superhuman.

In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy Junko appeared as the person responsible for the corruption of the Remnants of Despair. Sometimes during Side: Despair, Junko created her alternate identity known as Ryoko Otonashi in Danganronpa/Zero. During those events, she murders her beloved childhood friend and lover Yasuke Matsuda in a fit of despair. She is also the one who plotted the event known as Giboura Massacre in Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer.

During the Killing School Life, Junko executed her older sister, Mukuro, who was masquerading as her, using Monokuma.

Junko executed herself along with Monokuma after her despair was defeated by the survivors' hope and was voted guilty in the last trial of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Junko returns in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as an Artificial Intelligence and a virus. AI Junko also appears in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, in the form of Shirokuma and Kurokuma.

Despite inflicting untold damage to the world through her machinations, Junko's plans are ultimately defeated by the end of Danganronpa 3; her Remnants of Despair were cured of their brainwashing, The Tragedy was finally brought to an end, and Makoto Naegi rebuilt Hope's Peak Academy with the help of the Future Foundation. As she died at the end of the Killing School Life, Junko could only watch these events unfold in the afterlife; at the same time, she was already satisfied with what she accomplished in her life, as well as considering a world without despair to be a form of despair itself.

Mukuro Ikusaba
Mukuro is Junko's older twin sister. While Mukuro cared deeply for her younger sister, Junko had absolutely no love for her sister and sees her as a tool to do her bidding, while at the same time behaved towards Mukuro in a derogatory manner.

She seemingly displayed no concern for Mukuro and was willing to kill her (while Mukuro was disguised as her) to set an example to the remaining students, and because she was 'a poor actor'. It's revealed that before attending Hope's Peak Academy, Junko had already tried to kill Mukuro. One example of this is when Junko tried to murder her sister with an ice pick and a grenade while in a limo. Mukuro, however, did not allow her to do this, blocked Junko's attacks, and threw the grenade out the window.

However, paradoxically, it was also indicated that she did truly love her sister and that her betrayal was meant to send them both into despair (for Junko, the despair of killing her sister, and for Mukuro, the despair of being betrayed and killed by her sister). However, Junko never knew, or tried to understand, that Mukuro's definition of despair had always differed from hers.

Yasuke Matsuda
Yasuke and Junko were childhood friends and met on amicable terms during when Yasuke's unnamed mother was struck with a disease implied to be Alzheimer's, causing her to lose recognition of her son which also resulted in Yasuke being neglected and abused as a child, which later made him become majorly depressed and introverted before he met Junko while still in elementary school. One particular moment between the two when they were children was when Junko spent many days building a sand castle. One day, the sand castle was found destroyed. Yasuke went around angrily looking for the perpetrator until finally, Junko approached him that it was actually her that destroyed her own sand castle.

In the years following the death of Yasuke's mother, Junko became the person that Yasuke felt he could always lean on, in fact he didn't have any other close ones. She promised to always be there for him, which helped develop his stronger feelings towards her. She said she'll never forget Yasuke even if she forgets everything else, and that they'll always be together. For the first time in his life, Yasuke cried in front of another person, after making her promise she won't make fun of him, won't tell anyone and won't try to console him. He became dependent of her and ready to do anything for her and they eventually became lovers.

Both of them later enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy and after the school's tragedy Yasuke reluctantly assisted Junko in her plans, creating her alternative identity Ryoko Otonashi. He wanted to prevent her from ever remembering, in order to protect her from herself and to protect other people. However, Junko had already planned ahead and had murders occur in the school. Despite not enjoying despair and killing, Yasuke was willing to do unethical things for the sake of protecting Junko, even if it caused him to feel horrible guilt.

Finally, Yasuke understands and admits to himself that Junko has only been using him. He is frustrated by her love for despair and he's angered when he assumes that she never cared about him. He states that he both loves and hates her, and eventually he decides to kill her when she is still Ryoko. However, he ends up getting killed by Junko in a fit of despair, as he is one of the few people she cares about the most. He was stabbed in the side by Junko and afterwards, she kicked his body until it was a bloody unrecognizable mess. He died believing that Junko did not care about him at all, but in truth this was not the case. Junko did not view him as a mere servant or even an ally and truly did love him as he did her as killing him resulted in her sadness and grief for his death and let him die in despair for the sake of increasing her own despair, proving this with the words “... you were the most important person to me of all...” after his death.

Soshun Murasame
Due to her making his friends and classmates kill one another, Soshun greatly despises and fears Junko. Whenever he hears her name, he breaks down and starts to go insane. During these breakdowns he would say he would kill Junko.

Makoto Naegi
From the moment she first saw Makoto, she knew he would cause problems for her, due to him and his luck are unpredictable and for the same motive, Junko leaves Makoto alive because he's the only one who can defy her. Out of all of the students in Class 78th, she finds him the most annoying and odd person in her class. During the mutual killing life game Makoto foils Junko's attempt to execute Kyoko then Junko attempted to convince the other survivors to execute Makoto but they instead they vote to execute her. Makoto states that she doesn't need to die, but Junko executes herself even after his request.

Kyoko Kirigiri
Due to how close she was to discovering the truth about the killing game and her stealing her skeleton key, Junko recognized Kyoko as a threat and attempted to frame her for the murder of Mukuro, who was dead at the time, but this plan is ruined by Makoto.