Nagito Komaeda

"“This little incident will just be a stepping stone for you all! In the end, hope always wins! That's what I believe!'”""—Nagito Komaeda"

Nagito Komaeda (狛枝 凪斗), is a student of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B, and a participant of the Killing School Trip featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. His title is the Ultimate Lucky Student (超高校級の「幸運」 lit. Super High School Level Good Luck).

Why He Rocks

 * 1) His character design stands out from the other character, mainly due to the fact that, no matter how stylized he is, he's still easily recognizable.
 * 2) In spite of his instability he's also extremely intelligent. He can figure out the killer in advance, plan ahead very well, and put his plans to use. Not only is he smart, but he also uses it in certain ways where it makes him at advantage.
 * 3) He has the ability to stay collected under completely overwhelming situations. He does not freak out much, mainly because he believes in hope, and secondly his luck.
 * 4) And speaking of that, his trust in his luck and hope is impressing. He isn't scared to try out things and believe in his abilities and is even willing to go miles to make sure he can accomplish what he wants to.
 * 5) Having so many different layers and intricacies to his personality. It's almost like he's two or three different characters rolled up into one. This makes him one of the more complex characters in the entire series.
 * 6) Even after solving all the mysteries he did in the cases of the second game before anyone else, but never wants any credit. Instead, he drops hints so others can think they solved it.
 * 7) While he is insane, his beliefs that all bad things that happen in life are simply stepping stones to overcome despair make him a very interesting a complex character. And his attitude leaves the player hooked, speculating his motives, reasoning, and what he'll say or do next.
 * 8) Despite him treating him terribly upon learning the truth about him being a Reserve Course student and part of the Ultimate Despairs, he still genuinely  cares about Hajime, and in his final video message states that he should hold back on being too harsh on him.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) His goal to create and witness the ultimate hope has him do some rather, off, things. As he would happily kill his friends or drive them against each other or even allow himself to be killed if the despair from such events might give birth to an even stronger hope. His opinions on hope and despair resulted in a rather strange relationship with Junko Enoshima, to say the least.
 * 2) His self-esteem is incredibly low, commonly calling himself "trash", particularly in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope Peak's High School.
 * 3) He often preaches about how murdering each other is "cultivating true hope." Everyone is appalled by his twisted obsession causing them to lose respect and alienate him out of fear he will keep his words.
 * 4) He can be very unaccepting towards those without a talent, as shown with Hajime and Komaru Naegi.

Trivia

 * He really likes go stones, because the black (dark) and white (light) stones remind him of the battle between hope and despair. In Danganronpa 3 - Despair Arc's Episode 4, two go stone jars can be seen inside his bag, along with the bomb switch and Dr. Hopper cans.
 * It was revealed that Nagito Komaeda is an anagram of "Naegi Makoto da" which means "I'm Makoto Naegi" in Japanese. According to Kodaka and Yoshinori Terasawa, the anagram was made as a hook to Danganronpa 1 fans due to the lack of promotion materials pre-release of the original version of Danganronpa 2 in 2012. Kodaka wanted the fans to speculate that somehow Makoto and Nagito are connected in a way, and even cast the Japanese voice actress of Makoto, Megumi Ogata, to elaborate that idea even further.
 * Nagito is born on the 28th day of the fourth month. In Japan and China, 4 is considered very unlucky because one of its pronunciations (shi) is similar to the one for "death". In China, 8 is a very lucky number because it is pronounced similarly to the word "fortune" (ba or fa). The word is also phonetically similar to the word for a "hundred" (bai), alluding to greater wealth, and the laid down 8 is a symbol of infinity. 28 equates to "double luck", meaning that his birth month represents bad luck while his birthday represents the double luck which cancels the aforementioned misfortune