Makoto Naegi

"“'If Kirigiri had turned into Despair... and betrayed everyone... If I had to kill her to stop her... No matter what had happened, I'd still have been glad to have met her.”""—Makoto Naegi"

Makoto Naegi is the main protagonist of the 2010 adventure game Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc by Spike Chunsoft. He is a fairly optimistic but otherwise average student selected in a raffle to enroll in Hope's Peak Academy.

Why He Keeps Moving Foward

 * 1) He's infinitely approachable and being friendly is one of his defining traits. In fact, Yasuhiro Hagakure is the only student that succeeds in annoying him after six Free-Time Events.
 * 2) He's so forgiving that he refuses to blame Leon Kuwata for killing Sayaka Maizono or even Sayaka herself for trying to kill Leon and frame Makoto himself. Even Junko, who he should hate with a passion and what vengeance against after everything she did to not just him, but everyone he loved and cared about, is someone he tries to reason with in the end when she's about to execute herself. Because not even someone like her is he willing to see be killed for such a pointless reason.
 * 3) * And later when he joined the Future Foundation, he decided to put the captured Remnants of Despair into the Neo World Program in order to undo Junko's influence on them in spite of the fact that they were responsible for the tragedy (an event that plunged the entire world into a post-apocalyptic state) and almost everyone else in the Future Foundation wanting them dead. Because Makoto knew they were once people that desired hope as much as him and the rest of the Future Foundation, and decided to give them a chance at redemption.
 * 4) He's also incredibly cute.
 * 5) His merciful and sympathetic nature, in spite of the fact that it gets him called foolish, naive, overly-trusting, and soft-hearted at various points in the story. Ultimately, his disinclination to hold a grudge, give into any desires for vengeance, and judge, look down upon, or purposefully mistreat others is what saves everyone else from the despair caused by those same weaknesses. The wisdom in his thinking is what leads to Kyoko retitling him "Ultimate Hope."
 * 6) And just how friendly and nice is he? Well, during the last trial in Chapter 6, his lines about hope, love, and refusing to give into the despair crafted by the Mastermind are arguably some of the best ones in any game. In fact, finishing the game and getting the good ending has you-as-Makoto returning their hopes to the other living students, screaming 'You Must Not Lose Hope!!/Don't Lose Hope Now! among other things. Kyoko implies that this trait may mean that he may actually be Ultimate Hope instead of Ultimate Lucky Student.
 * 7) Character Development: He starts off as a self-proclaimed "average high school student", but during the first Class Trial, Kyoko Kirigiri, sees a person who can shut the Killing Game down and save the other students in Makoto, and later becomes a mentor figure to him on how to solve the murder cases that occur during the Killing Game. Over the course of not only Trigger Happy Havoc, but the series, he becomes more knowledgeable on how to solve the murders thanks to Kyoko, and also into a stronger person, to the point where he becomes a leader to the survivors and stands up to Junko Enoshima, putting an end to her Killing Game. This causes the people watching the Killing Game happen from outside the school to admire Makoto for his courage and determination not to let Junko win, and to see him as a hero and the "Ultimate Hope", a title Kyoko labeled him as earlier in the game.
 * 8) Even though he didn't take the leadership position during the beginning of the killing game in order to save the other students, he does have a reason for not doing so. As he lived his entire life as a regular person and didn't feel safe or comfortable being the one to lead his classmates out of a situation that could cost him and their lives. It also explains why he felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed when everyone started seeing his as the Ultimate Hope all of the sudden.
 * 9) Unlike some other characters, he mainly turns off swearing. In fact, the only time he does swear is during the final Trial towards Junko (in the English localization).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Even after all of his character development and all he's done for his peers, he still didn't see himself as much of a leader, let alone the Ultimate Hope. This however, is somewhat justified, given he was just all of the sudden thrust into this new role and pushed out of his comfort zone and into this very difficult position.
 * 2) His trusting and compassionate nature can be used against him, as shown in the Sayaka Maizono case and when he believed the Remnants of Despair should've been given a chance at redemption, only for it to be nearly sabotaged by Izuru Kamukura and A.I. Junko.
 * 3) He feels much more plain when compared to the rest of the cast (a running trend in the Danganronpa games).

Trivia

 * Makoto is the one of the few characters to survive more than one killing game. The others are Aoi, Kyoko and Hajime/Izuru.
 * Naegi means "seedlings" in Japanese, and Makoto means "faithfulness".
 * This could reference how he spreads hope to everyone, similar to how Junko tried to plant “seeds of despair”.
 * Byakuya and Makoto are the only characters to appear in every canon games and anime of the Hope's Peak Series.
 * Makoto is also included in the collaboration of Danganronpa 3 x Hōkai Gakuen.