Nagito Komaeda

Nagito Komaeda
Danganronpa character
Promotional artwork for Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
First appearance	Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (2012)
Last appearance	Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of Worlds (2017)
Created by	Kazutaka Kodaka
Designed by	Rui Komatsuzaki
Portrayed by	Hiroki Suzuki (stage play)
Voiced by	English: Bryce Papenbrook Japanese: Megumi Ogata
In-universe information
Species	Computer avatar (Nagito Komaeda) Human (The Servant)
Title	The Servant The Mastermind
Occupation	Servant of Ultimate Despair Student of Hope's Peak Academy
Affiliation	Ultimate Despair Warriors of Hope
Family	Unnamed parents †
Talent	Ultimate Lucky Student
Masters	Monaca Towa Junko Enoshima Izuru Kamukura

Nagito Komaeda (Japanese: 狛枝 凪斗, Hepburn: Komaeda Nagito), also known as The Servant (召使い, Meshitsukai), is a fictional character introduced in 2012 Spike Chunsoft visual novel action adventure game Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Nagito is a high school student from Hope's Peak Academy who gave him the title of "Ultimate Lucky Student" for his supernatural luck, and is first seen in the game's beginning when meeting the protagonist Hajime Hinata as both and multiple other students find themselves trapped in a series of tropical islands. Initially presenting a caring personality, Nagito shows his true demeanor when a bear-like robot, Monokuma, orders the students to participate in the killing game if they want to return to their homes, encouraging the killing game's progress and offering assistance to the "blackened" murderers. Nagito shows an obsession with the ideals of hope, causing mayhem under the idea that true hope can only be brought about by firstly accomplishing true despair. The Servant returns in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls as the secondary antagonist and mastermind behind Monaca Towa and the Warriors of Hope.

Kazutaka Kodaka created Nagito as a rival to Hajime as well as the successor to the previous Danganronpa protagonist Makoto Naegi. To reinforce the similarities between Nagito and Makoto, Kodaka had the characters share the same voice actors: Megumi Ogata and Bryce Papenbrook, and their names be anagrams of each other. Critical response to Nagito's character was positive based on his ambiguous nature in Goodbye Despair where he often changes his personality as well as his more comical take in the anime prequel Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.

Creation

Nagito made to be "an absolute rival" to Hajime Hinata, e.g. a relationship similar to the Joker in Batman. Komaeda's characterization was aimed to give players a confusing view in regards to Nagito's true self - based on the multiple actions he committed over the course of the game. His Japanese actress, Megumi Ogata found trouble when doing the voice for Nagito as she had no clear grasp on understanding him. Komaeda was introduced with the same Lucky Talent as Makoto Naegi. However, the staff considered them opposites based on their ideals of "hope". In regards to his design, Hajime was the earliest designed the character which generated a major contrast between his white clothing to Nagito's dark clothing.

To surprise gamers and suggest the characters are potentially the same person, both Makoto and Nagito share the same voice actress, Ogata. His name, "Nagito Komaeda", was conceived as an anagram for "Naegi Makoto da" ("I am Makoto Naegi") to infer it as a potential pseudonym; Nagito claims the name to be an alias during the third chapter. Localization member Robert Schiotis felt that finding a voice actor for the latter proved too challenging, as he is meant to clash with Makoto's ideals. In the end, Papenbrook voiced both characters, making the connections between them more interesting according to localization staff. In 2020, Kodaka revealed the anagram was used to engage fans of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc because of the lack of pre-release promotion materials for the original version of Goodbye Despair during its release year. This surprised Ogata, as the anagram had been kept secret from the other members who developed the game, including Ogata herself.

In the development of anime prequel Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Kodaka aimed to write the younger Nagito as an unpredictable character that game fans would still recognize, and make it obvious his good luck often aids him in only a random nature in reality compared to the specific nature of the Neo World Program. His character design was aimed to keep the "resembled flickering flames" present in their Servant design, something Kodaka requested to the designer to adapt properly. Kodaka was pleased with how Nagito was written in the anime, further comparing his school life and luck to the Rube Goldberg segment of the PythagoraSwitch educational television program. In the original Japanese series, there is a scene in the finale where Nagito talks in joy while holding hand with Makoto, whom he declares his idol for their similar talents but is taken by his friends before he can finish their interactions. The actor added a line for Nagito that would come across comically as homoerotic and claimed he had fun for making his two characters had a talk.

In the series' stage play, Nagito was played by Hiroki Suzuki.

Appearances

Danganronpa video games

Megumi Ogata (left) and Bryce Papenbrook (right) voiced Nagito Komaeda in Japanese and English versions, respectively.

Nagito is an apparently optimistic, subservient student who was accepted to Hope's Peak Academy by a raffle and received the title of Ultimate Lucky Student (超高校級の「幸運」, Chō-kōkō-kyū no "Kōun", lit.Super High School Level Good Luck). Initially presented as a friendly, upbeat, somewhat meek young man, he is shown to be quite deranged in his pursuit of hope, believing it to be an absolute good that only his talented classmates can achieve, willing to bring about great despair to create the greatest of hopes. Because of his beliefs, he is completely willing to let his talented classmates walk over him, for he sees himself as inferior to them, all while keeping his cheerful, optimistic attitude and frequently referring to himself as a "stepping stone for [their] hope." He remains cheerful and enthusiastic even in horrifying situations when someone has died, which results in his classmates fearing him and finding him creepy. He is highly unstable and suicidal, as the bad luck of his cycle causes catastrophes in his life that he believes are unavoidable; this is compounded by the fact that he is revealed in his Free Time Events to have a degenerative brain disease slowly eating away at his ability to think rationally, which could kill him at any moment. He also feels deep self-loathing over the nature of his talent being, in his mind, lackluster compared to his classmates' talents, seeing himself as not a true "Ultimate" compared to those around him while at the same time expressing disdain for "normal" people like himself.

Despite his self-loathing, Nagito does still see himself as being superior to normal people, and has an intense hatred for the Reserve Course, seeing them as talentless parasites leeching off the academy. In order to rid the island of the other students, he sets up a trap for the others by setting up a scenario to look like he committed suicide, while actually tricking Chiaki into inadvertently killing him with poison, hoping the end result will lead to the execution of all other students including himself and rescue Chiaki alone. However, Hajime realizes what truly happened and Chiaki takes responsibility for Nagito's death, saving the other students. After receiving a series of recorded messages from Nagito and proceeding to what appears to be Hope's Peak Academy, Hajime learns that Nagito, himself, and the others are in actuality computer avatar copies of the terrorist group known as the Remnants of Ultimate Despair existing within a virtual reality created by the Neo World Program, and that "Hajime" himself is their leader Izuru Kamukura - the group's memories having been wiped by Makoto Naegi's Future Foundation offshoot in the hope of providing them redemption, despite being responsible for the deaths of millions. The real Nagito is revealed to have implanted the hand of Junko Enoshima into his body following her death, showing also a romantic interest in Hajime's former persona, Izuru, and to have agreed to hand himself over to the Future Foundation to allow an artificial intelligence copy of Junko to inhabit his body. The computer avatar Nagito, upon learning of the truth of their reality and motivations, had arranged his own death in order to kill everyone but Chiaki, inadvertently fulfilling his real self's wishes.

In Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Nagito appears under the title of Servant (召使い Meshitsukai), serving under the Warriors of Hope who had captured him. The Warriors of Hope frequently abused him, though he took it all with a smile. It is later revealed that he was manipulating the Warriors of Hope as the true mastermind, in order to allow Komaru to grow and defeat despair through her power of hope. Even though Ultra Despair Girls took place during the 77th class's time as Ultimate Despair, the Servant was unique in that he still longed for hope in his actions, whereas the others were fighting for despair alone. Following the defeat of the Warriors of Hope, the Servant carries away Monaca Towa, informing her that he will raise her to become "the second generation of Junko Enoshima" following her failure to have Komaru Naegi assume such a title.

Danganronpa anime

In the Despair Arc of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Nagito is seen attending Hope's Peak but his good luck causes him to be expelled for determining times based on the negative impact it has on other people working there. When returning, Nagito learns of the plans of Junko Enoshima, before attempting to shoot her with a gun. However, Izuru Kamukura, having been implanted with the talent of luck like Nagito, effortlessly takes the gun from him and shoots him. Although Nagito survives, he becomes The Servant, a member of Ultimate Despair loyal to Junko, after watching Chiaki Nanami's death and coming to the conclusion that the best way to bring about hope for the world is to destroy it, driving it to the deepest levels of despair, setting up his role in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.

The Servant makes a cameo at the beginning of the Future Arc committing mass genocide alongside the Remnants of Despair after Junko is martyred. In "Ultra Despair Girls", Monaca Towa reveals that while the Servant successfully "made her an adult" and a replica of Junko, he also made her bored about the concept of both hope and despair, leading her to become a NEET.

In the Hope Arc of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Nagito and the Remnants of Despair massacre the Future Foundation forces of new mastermind Ryota Mitarai, the only one of their Hope's Peak Academy class to not originally join Ultimate Despair, and convince him to join them in the present in spreading despair worldwide explicitly in the name of hope, under the leadership of Izuru Kamukura. Before leaving, Nagito expresses excitement over briefly meeting "Ultimate Hope" Makoto Naegi in person, before being carried away by Nekomaru Nidai.

An original video animation, Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of Worlds, was also produced, featuring the alternate computer avatar Nagito trapped in a new virtual world with a constantly changing personality, until he kills himself accidentally when facing Izuru, the "Destroyer of Worlds". Shortly afterward, Nagito learns he was recreated in the virtual world by Izuru so that he could reactivate his human body. With all of his memories intact, Nagito leaves Jabberwock Island with Izuru and the other Remnants of Despair, setting up their cameo appearance in the Hope Arc.

Reception

In an "Anime! Anime!" poll, Nagito was rated as the fourth most popular character voiced by Megumi Ogata. In a popularity poll from the franchise for the collected release of Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair, Nagito took the first spot, behind Makoto Naegi. To celebrate, Rui Komatsuzaki did an illustration of the top five to be featured in the re-release of the games, Reload. In 2019, Nintenderos listed Nagito as the 25th most searched video game character in a poll involving Tumblr. Merchandings based on the character was also released alongside Hajime.

Reviewing the manga of Goodbye Despair, Anime UK News claimed that while Hajime is supposed to be the main character of the story, Nagito is more fitting for such role based on the behavior he demostrates which makes him look "deranged than most" while also highlighting how different he is from his predecessor, Makoto. Siliconera described Nagito when first seeing as the "opposite being a flaky character" to Hajime and that he was "hopeful even though both of them are caught in a desperate situation." Koi-Nya stated that his early traits featured in the game might give previous gamers a sense of nostalgic due to having a caring personality like Makoto. However, the revelation of his dark self and skills when deducing murders in class trials made the reviewer claim that Nagito might be the most mysterious character in the entire game. Touch Arcade regarded Nagito and Ibuki as the game's best characters. Manga News felt that Nagito was an ambiguously evil person based on how often he tries to committee murders, most notably in the first trial when confessing he aimed to kill Byakuya Togami, but remains innocent as Teruteru made such action in his place. Anime News Network praised the character for "standing out" within the franchise, highlighting his similarities with Makoto and how different they are the same time. The reviwer enjoyed the actions the character has performed not only in the game but also the Despair Arc anime from the franchise as despite his kind demeanor, his commentaries make Hajime become corrupted across the narrative.

Both The Fandom Post Manga.Tokyo praised how multiple types of comedy that ensues in the Despair Arc due to Nagito's lucky talent such as how he mistakes drugs and causes two of his classmates, Seiko and Ruruka, to accidentally use laxative in meals and felt that Nagito's actions feel like a parallel to famous light novel character named Haruhi Suzumiya. In a later review, the same writer from Manga.Tokyo called Nagito as one of his favorite characters, believing his calm demeanor and distinctive design make an interesting parallel to Junko Enoshima. He also compared Nagito with Hajime's alterego, Izuru, due to both of them sharing multiple similarities, mainly their talents, and wondered whether the two would fight. Anime News Network enjoyed the encounter between Nagito and Izuru based on similar ideas like Manga.Tokyo but the felt this to be a form of fanservice that would appeal to players of Goodbye Despair as the two briefly interacted in Chapter 0 of the game.

Comic Book Resources listed Nagito as the 6th most intelligent Danganronpa character based on the multiple sides of his personalities as well as how he solves cases before Hajime and the rest of the cast from Goodbye Despair and, rather than solving the trials, he decides to leave them hints. The same site also found his role as an antagonist as one of the game's strongest points, claiming he "is complex, and he doesn't hide the fact that he's not all that mentally sound from the cast." Rice Digital listed Nagito as their favorite character from the franchise based on his actions that lead to his own death in the virtual world where he often threatens his mates with the possibility of destroying the establishment only to later orchestrate his death, which shocked the audience and the cast more when it is revealed that Nagito faked his suicide to reveal that Chiaki Nanami was his actual murderer.