𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒊 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒌? a low activity private writing blog for junko enoshima of the danganronpa series, as written by mae ﹙²²˒ ˢʰᵉ/ʰᵉʳ﹚. you must be over the age of 21 to follow .
see me at ... haruhi suzumiya, yuki nagato, takumi sumino, emma rockford .
rules. extremely low activity & highly selective. unaffiliated & independent. crossover-, oc, dupe & multiverse-friendly. basic rp etiquette that can be summed up by the sentence "be nice, patient, and ask if you can do significant things to my character". firm believer of write whatever you want as long as you tag it appropriately and don't force people to read it. do not follow me if you endorse harassment of people for whatever they write. junko is an adult and deals with oversexualisation as a character, and thus smut and other nsft topics will be posted & written here.
i don’t want him to just be aroused, no… i want him to suffer from it. i want him to feel actual pain and despair because his cock is so hard and leaking so badly that his brain simply cannot function. i want him to be on the verge of tears, begging me to touch him, or to let him touch me. i don’t want him to just want me, i want him to need me to an absolutely deranged degree that should probably be illegal.
i feel a lot of people wildly misinterpret gyarus. it's understandable, mainstream media has essentially made them the quintessential 'hypersexual aggressive japanese school girl' archetype as a result of japanese media painting them as "a subculture that destroys female gender roles" lol. in fact, the concept of 'gyarus engaging in compensated dating (japanese form of sugar dating, essentially)' is a media-born stereotype that isn't actually that prevalent? gyarus typically just like... to have (and talk about having) sex with their partners. i know, that's crazy!
in actuality, gyaru culture is less about promiscuity and more about rejecting the japanese social norm of 'keeping to yourself'. yes, this can mean openly expressing their sexuality- which junko does plenty, just... look at everything she's in, but it also means openly expressing their disdain for the people around them- which junko also does plenty!
i know you're probably going to laugh, but junko is actually pretty traditional when it comes to romance. this is pretty obvious when you look at how she treats yasuke- treating him as her boyfriend and the like.
i think she sees a relationship as special: a bond that denotes you're on equal footing with someone- a bond that is above all else.
however, she doesn't necessarily categorise 'sex' as something that you can only do with your partner. in fact, sex and nudity to junko is extremely transactional in nature. this isn't to say that she'll have sex with anyone if she wants something from them- like she said, she's not that easy- what i mean is simply that she sees sexuality as "an act that happens when one wants or expects something from the other". this mindset is heavily cultivated by the industry she works in and the subculture she is a part of, particularly how other people perceive her and treat her image.
this can be backed up with a conversation she had with aoi in danganronpa s about her swimsuit. she's aware of what people who look at her photos expect from her, and she outright denies their expectations.
similarly, in danganronpa 3, there's an exchange between mukuro and junko about the steering committee member she tortured which follows along that modus operandi- the linkage between 'sex' and 'someone getting what they want', and her 'winning' the exchange by not giving the other person what they want.
junko wants the transaction that is implied in sex to be imbalanced in her favour. she's not willing to give someone sex if that's what they expect of her, but she will take what she wants from others if she pleases. she'll taunt people with it, openly talk about it, but she'll never truly give it to them as long as they actively want it. a mutually beneficial transaction places herself on equal footing with someone- which encroaches on the special pedestal she places romance on.
obviously, we know the primary difference between anime canon and game canon is how they got on board: in the anime, we're shown that they were all brainwashed by a broadcast of chiaki's execution, and that junko's encounter with them prior to that was complete chance- in fact, class 77-b was the class that attempted to stop junko with motivations that are akin to makoto-levels of hope. power of friendship, scaaary!
however, the sixth chapter of sdr2 shows a completely different version of events, which makes junko as a villain a lot more compelling- and i think adds a layer of complexity to the cast that i find lacking in the anime.
before we go on, i would like to clarify one thing: in the final class trials, junko doesn't lie. in fact, monokuma tells the sdr2 survivors that everything he's talking about in the manga he scatters around the ruins are as true as they can be- and seeing as he intends the survivors of thh to see everything that's happening, i'm inclined to take junko's words as more or less the truth.
first off, i want to talk about my favourite part: junko's motive for targetting class 77-b!
(on a tangent, one thing i find interesting about this exchange in the final trial is that it seems that junko has trained the remnants to not talk about why they became ultimate despair, assuming makoto is referring to interviewing the remnants themselves.)
junko says "if you ask me"- which means it's safe to say this is why junko targeted the class in the first place. she's not talking about the reasons the class 77-b students personally bought into her ideology- i will talk about that later in this meta. i've mentioned her reasons before in a previous thinkpiece, and i believe this exchange proves my theory right- class 77-b was targeted because they perfectly encapsulated the world that hope's peak's ideology strives for: a world in which talented people are born talented- and because of that, hold absolute power.
class 78, a.k.a junko's class, emphasise the students' hard work towards reaching ultimate status- however, in class 77-b, many of the students were either chosen to be ultimates because they were born into it. this is evident in characters like fuyuhiko and sonia, who were born into their respective families and status, e.g. saionji (who was born into an arts clan), mahiru (whose mother was a photographer), twogami (who was born without an identity), akane (who was born with natural talent), and teruteru (who runs a family business). this ties in perfectly with what class 77-b represents on a metatextual level, and why junko wanted to target them in the first place.
junko doesn't hold hope's peak's ideology of talent being hope in high regard, much less the people who buy into it. she is the antithesis to hope's peak ideology as someone who holds a talent that brings them nothing but despair. this is one of the many reasons why i believe she targeted hope's peak as ground zero for her plan to despair. this is supported by her remark when the sdr2 survivors begin to despair over whether they should graduate (and let junko take over the dead's bodies) or shut down the program (and remain ultimate despair).
she perceives their reluctance as an attempt to have their cake and eat it too, hope's peak students who want to cling onto their talent and their idyllic lives, even in a nonsensical, absurd world, which she finds boring and predictable. i feel this is another reason why monokuma was not as invested in the killing island life as he was in thh.
junko targetting class 77-b feels like her driving her point in- she wants these pinnacles of hope's peak's ideology to fall hard and be the ones to fan the flames of her despair.
in a practical sense, junko needs numbers in order to spread her despair. in the final trial of sdr2, she mentions that ultimate despair are meant to be instigators: they're there to start shit for her when she can't. they're meant to upheave societal order with their own talents.
let's move on to how she recruited them! the games make it a point to say that ultimate despair isn't a typical organisation- in fact, ultimate despair functions more like a cult. a brand that goes against hope's peak's brand, so to speak.
unlike the anime, the game says that the ultimate despairs were recruited one by one, and she took advantage of their already existing feelings.
though it's hard to say what exactly junko did to each character just by referring to the game dialogue, mikan and nagito are the two who corroborate monokuma's statement- especially mikan, with how she claims she isn't doing it for despair, but for love.
monokuma says something that interests me aboutthe new philosophy class 77-b obtained after coming into contact with junko:
compared to the anime, in which class 77-b spread despair because they genuinely thought they were bettering the world.
this makes class 77-b feel more desperate in their actions as ultimate despair: feeling like they have to do something to escape from junko's despair. i like the idea of this despair not necessarily being something that junko gives them, but instead being a looming threat. if junko gives them love, their despair would be junko taking away that love for whatever reason. if junko makes them hate, their despair would be junko turning that into love- which makes me think that each student's reasons for becoming ultimate despair are different from one another, and may not be motivated by the same feelings, or even from despair at all.
i think we've had enough talk about how class 77-b serves junko- so let's talk about how junko feels about them!
throughout sdr2, i feel that monokuma treated the class with a lot more contempt than he did the thh cast. he's more inclined to use force on them, physically dragging saionji and fuyuhiko to monokuma rock. he mocks their motives for killing by calling them boring, he outright falls asleep in one of the trials, he doesn't care about making nekomaru participate in the trial when he was taken out by his monokuma cannon, so on and so forth. even the motives he gave them were pretty weak and random.
this could be attributed to how the killing game isn't the thing junko's focusing on, because in this game junko is focused on broadcasting the killing game to the future foundation (in particular, makoto/kyoko/byakuya who went against future foundation orders to rehabilitate the remnants). but i do find monokuma's attitude throughout the game very interesting in the context of junko's feelings for class 77-b- especially with the knowledge that they are all remnants. we know from danganronpa if that ultimate despair aren't really affectionate towards each other- if they are, that means something is wrong. could that also be the reason for monokuma's hostility?
her feelings towards class 78 are simple: she loves them. there's no question about it. kodaka even calls her feelings towards them "toxic love"- but i think her feelings towards class 77-b, with what they represent to her, what purpose they serve for her, and what they ultimately become, are more complicated than just meaning nothing to her or loving them in her own way.
let's look at junko's reaction to the survivors' lack of convictions.
let's also see her reaction to hajime's resolution- and the level of her surprise, despite saying she's able to predict their behaviour because she has tons of data on them.
and her final monologue after the trial, which draws a direct link between ryoko otonashi and the remnants' avatars.
i've mentioned in a previous thinkpiece that junko, although is the antithesis to hope's peak's ideology, ultimately follows it as much as those who perfectly represent that ideology- such as class 77-b. her character is defined by the struggle to break free from that ideology as much as it is defined by chasing despair. what happens when class 77-b becomes ultimate despair?
i see many people see this line as proof that junko didn't care about them:
but we know that the remnants replaced their limbs and organs with junko's after junko's death. keeping that in mind, i believe that this line doesn't mean that they're nothing to her. instead, i think this line means that ultimate despair became one with her. they shared her ideology, her desperation, desires and hopes. people who are like her, their personal feelings towards her be damned.
why else would she tamper the graduation program for them?
why else would she insist she wants to be their friends? why else would she be fine with staying in the nwp with them?
why else would she be fine with staying in the nwp with them?
furthermore, the thh protagonist trio mentions that junko robs other people of their futures. i'm inclined to believe that this applies to herself too: junko has no future. she is actively hostile towards her future. in fact, she wants to constantly live in the present if she can help it. this is further aggravated by her susceptibility to boredom. the sdr2 cast are similar: they're fighting for a future they don't even know exists, and when they reach the end, they realise that future doesn't exist. they even gave up searching for a way to escape jabberwock island during the game unless encouraged by the observers.
i think that's why monokuma/junko constantly tells them that they're chumps, that they're only meant to play a role. because like how the remnants assigned themselves the roles of instigators for the battle between hope and despair, junko placed herself into a role: the embodiment of despair.
so, here's my conclusion: class 77-b reminds junko of herself. because of this, i don't think junko thinks of them as solely people to manipulate and use- that's more in line with how she feels about the reserve department. in fact, i think that junko is fond of them and feels a sense of camaraderie with them.
character meta: junko enoshima's boredom and despair.
i feel a lot of people tend to simplify junko's overwhelming malaise and interest in despair, especially in relation to her talent- and to be honest, i feel not even the writers themselves grasp what they've written for her. it's understandable though, since her relationship with both is so convoluted and complex that it's really hard to define. so here's my attempt at defining it!
firstly, junko does not see hope and despair as two separate, opposing forces. i want to emphasise how contradictory junko is as a character and how it enhances her themes of unpredictability, unreliability and untrustworthiness. she acknowledges that hope and despair are two sides of a coin, unable to exist without the other. junko is even willing to cultivate hope in both others and herself- she will cultivate meaningful relationships with other people, she will give the abused hope and solace, so that the despair that comes after she ruins it all is that much sweeter. it's essentially like yin-yang to her, which funnily enough, ties in with a little piece of gyaru history.
most importantly, junko is ironically hopeful, even more so than anyone else, because she finds hope in despair. she hopes to despair. she yearns for it.
furthermore, i feel that junko's relationship with hope is more nuanced than just thinking hope is boring- especially now that i've established she will spread hope if she needs to, and finds hope important for despair's existence in the first place. no, what i think she hates about hope is stubborn, pure-hearted, cliche hope- hope that naegi believes in, specifically. we can bring up nagito as evidence of this, whose hope she finds frustrating, but interesting and unpredictable- this can be seen through monokuma's commentary on nagito (who is controlled by junko in both trigger happy havoc and goodbye despair).
secondly, she craves despair because she hopes to rid herself of this perpetual boredom and ennui that plagues her entire existence. not only does it give her unpredictability that she never gets to experience normally, it also gets her to feel emotions that she never gets to feel. i think something i want to highlight is that this desire for unpredictability extends to herself- she wants to feel a despair so intense that even her own behaviour doesn't make any sense to her: why did she kill yasuke? why did she say she didn't care about him, even when she genuinely did? why does she hold onto the notebook, even when every inch of her is screaming to get rid of it and forget it all? why did she impulsively decide to kill mukuro when she was just supposed to be imprisoned? why did she force the classmates she loves so much to kill each other? it's why she changes her personality on a whim- she doesn't want to predict her own actions as much as she doesn't want to predict others.
following that- junko's interest in despair would never have developed if not for her boredom, and so we must talk about her boredom in order to further understand her relationship with despair.
her boredom stems from being able to quickly and accurately process tangible data (speech patterns, mannerisms, body language, posture) and predict someone's behaviour through analysis of that data. this is seen in danganronpa zero, in which ryoko is able to accurately predict how madarai would behave in a situation where she ran away, just from taking notes on the fight between junko and madarai. not only that, she's able to predict people's behaviour and events that may happen months in advance- and she's able to predict even her own behaviour in a scenario where she loses her memory.
we can infer from danganronpa zero that she felt isolated as a result- like she was living in her own world, separate from others. like watching a boring stage play from the sidelines, with full knowledge of what happens in the play. what she is keen on doing is derailing that stage play with anything in her possession.
as a result, i think junko doesn't pull away completely from boredom. i don't think she can. we must understand that boredom pervades every aspect of her life- junko does not know what a normal life without boredom would be like, and for better or for worse, junko is used to it and accepts it... if only because she knows exactly how to fix it. in the novel, we find insight into how her analytical powers work: she's able to hold off on predicting, but predicting is simple. so i think that holding off on predicting is a conscious choice that she has to make. analysing is like breathing to her, something that she does without really thinking about it. it's her talent, after all.
because of this, i feel that most of her relationships don't stem from finding someone interesting right off the bat- but i think junko lets herself hope that she will find someone interesting and unpredictable enough for her, and jumps into interactions on that basis.
but if that person isn't interesting enough for her, her relationship with them would work on the basis of what it can do for her/what the person can give her: can the relationship make her despair? can their relationship help her further her goals? will their own despair be entertaining to watch?
because, honestly, if she truly found you boring in both regards, she wouldn't even spare you a glance.
danganronpa zero thoughts: yuto kamishiro's speech in relation to junko enoshima and her talent.
i have a lot of thoughts about this light novel, because i found it extremely insightful when it comes to further understanding junko as a person. i want to talk about how i feel junko might have been before chasing after despair through extrapolation from the novel- but first, i want to talk about one part that stood out to me: yuto's speech in the elevator near the end of the novel. this got super long so i'll shove it all under a readmore, so feel free to read if you wanna!
yuto gives a much-needed insight into the mindset of a hope's peak academy's student, what it means to be defined by your talent, and the love-hate relationship with talent that most students have. i also want to draw parallels between yuto's speech and junko's inner thoughts after she regains her memories- yuto wanting to run away from the truth behind the tragedy of hopes peak, and junko wanting to forget the events of danganronpa zero. both of them, despite their fear and despair, refuse to run away or forget in order to push their own ideologies to the limits. for yuto, this meant to further develop his talents as a spy. for junko, it was to feel that intense despair that came after killing yasuke.
he talks about how he resents his talent, but still depends and believes in it- because it's the foundation of his identity. i feel this novel drives home what her ultimate analyst powers have done to her: it subjected her to a life of solitude- living closed off from the world, in the words of the novel.
i wouldn't be surprised if she resented her talent like yuto did- she talks about her boredom like a disease that won't go away, even as an ai version of herself. but, even when she tries to avoid boredom, she, like yuto, is still fixated on her talent like the rest- defining herself with her fight against boredom- in which she uses her own talent to fill herself with despair.
we don't get to see how exactly this manifested, but i find that ryoko's memory loss almost parallels the isolation that junko must've felt as a result of her talent: loneliness, an inability to form bonds with others, detachment. in yasuke's childhood flashback during the first chapter of volume two, junko herself says that she doesn't have any friends.
while ryoko was unable to form bonds because she wouldn't be able to remember them long-term, junko was unable to form meaningful bonds because everything was predictable, and as a result, the formation of those bonds was seen as pointless and boring. why try when you know everything they're going to do and say anyway- from their speech patterns to how your relationship would play out?
not only that, he talks about how, ultimately, ryoko came to the school because he was like him- because she wanted to develop her talents even further. junko reveals that this entire novel was a scenario fabricated by her not only to have her first true taste of despair, but to test multiple things: yasuke's memory manipulation, mukuro's junko disguise, the concept of the mutual killing game, the use of visuals to convert others into despair- but most important to this thinkpiece is that she wanted to test the limits of her talent.
why did junko accept the invitation to hope's peak in the first place? a lot of people tend to say it's because an academy centered around cultivating talent, that believes in talent as a representative of hope, would be the best starting point for her plan to spread despair and leave it at that. i do believe that's one of the reasons, don't get me wrong- i think of junko being the antithesis to hope's peak academy's beliefs and how it informs her relationship with the school! but i propose another reason: that junko wanted to push her skills to the absolute limit in hope's peak by spreading despair- because that's how she struggles with her talent.
in conclusion, i think a lot about junko being subject to her predestined fate as bestowed onto her via talent. during the mutual killing school life, we can tell that she was already getting bored with the tragedy that she caused, wanting to kill herself after the high of the ultimate despair she could experience. and i think it's sad that junko, as someone who tried their hardest to escape that fate, didn't manage to escape, even at her highest point.