Nagito Komaeda

Nagito Komaeda is a character in the Danganronpa series.

Canon
Nagito Komaeda is a character featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and a participant in the Killing School Trip.

Nagito has the title of Ultimate Lucky Student. However, his luck can be a curse, flipping between wildly extreme good luck and bad luck. He shares this title with Makoto Naegi.

Nagito returns in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School as a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B. After being brainwashed by Junko Enoshima, Nagito and his classmates succumbed to despair and became part of Ultimate Despair.

Nagito appears in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls referred to only as "Servant". He has both antagonistic and supporting role, as he transforms Komaru Naegi's surrounding areas to resemble a real game and gives her items through Monokuma Kids.

After discovering the horrible truth behind the Neo World Program in Danganronpa 2, Nagito sacrificed himself in order to kill the Remnants of Despair. He set up a "suicide" to cause Chiaki Nanami, the traitor and not a Remnant of Despair, to unknowingly deal the killing blow, and therefore become the blackened. However, the remaining students discovered his plan, and Monokuma executed Chiaki instead.

After his death in the Neo World Program, Nagito's status remains being comatosed due to the killing game taking place in Jabberwock Island, along with his classmates who also "died" on the Killing School Trip. He and the other comatose students were eventually revived. His illusory counterpart appeared as the protagonist in a 30-minutes long OVA called Super Danganronpa 2.5: Nagito Komaeda and the Destroyer of the World.

In Side: Hope, he and the former members of Ultimate Despair helped Future Foundation in stopping Ryota Mitarai's effort to brainwash the world with his brainwashing Hope Video at the Future Foundation headquarters. With his classmates, Nagito decided to atone for his sins as the former Ultimate Despair and resides in Jabberwock Island.

Ships

 * Junkomaeda - A het ship between Nagito Komaeda and Junko Enoshima.
 * Kamukoma - A slash ship between Izuru Kamukura and Nagito Komaeda.
 * Komaegi - A slash ship between Nagito Komaeda and Makoto Naegi.
 * Komahina - A slash ship between Nagito Komaeda and Hajime Hinata.
 * Komahinanami - A ship between Nagito Komaeda, Hajime Hinata and Chiaki Nanami.
 * Komamiki - A het ship between Nagito Komaeda and Mikan Tsumiki.
 * Komanami - A het ship between Nagito Komaeda and Chiaki Nanami.

Trivia

 * “Nagito” as a name means “Calm Below the Dipper”, as in the big dipper constellation, while “Komaeda” translates as “Lion-Dog Tree Branches”. Lion-Dogs are statues that protect and guard shrines in Shintoism. The kanji used are rather old and classical, which may allude to an old family line or an upper class background (of which Nagito does have).
 * Nagito is born in the 28th day of the fourth month. In Japan, 4 is considered very unlucky because one of its pronunciations (shi) is similar to how you would pronounce "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 birth day represents the double luck which cancels the aforementioned misfortune.
 * Nagito's Free-Time Events reveal that he was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant lymphoma and frontotemporal lobe dementia. While it is left ambiguous in the game, his illnesses and backstory are confirmed in the side materials as well as in his school profile in Danganronpa 3.
 * He appears to suffer from behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), which symptoms may include changes in social and personal behavior, loss of insight into the behaviors of oneself and others, inappropriate social behavior, poor impulse control and judgement, apathy, loss of empathy, mental rigidity, repetitive compulsive behavior, a decline in self-care and personal hygiene, changes in food preferences, delusions, euphoria and lack of awareness of any thinking or behavior changes. Needless to say, this explains a good deal of Nagito's unethical behavior and emotional instability.
 * Other indications of his sickly state include his complexion, hair color and breathy voice. In Island Mode, it's mentioned that he has poor stamina, very sensitive skin and he seems to dislike running. His character profiling describes his "pallid skin of the diseased" as well as his hair color, which "doesn't look like it belongs on a living person".
 * The Despair Disease had a much worse effect on Nagito than anyone else and almost killed him, presumably because he was already very ill.
 * Izuru Kamukura mentions that Nagito has a scent of someone who is "already finished", referring to the fact that he should already be dead, but his luck is keeping him alive.
 * Nagito is a dark parallel to Makoto. It should be noted however that the two characters are not actually connected (save for Makoto being Nagito's successor to the Ultimate Lucky Student title).
 * According to the official Danganronpa 2 artbook, the idea of a darker version of Makoto began with Nagito's third beta design. According to Kazutaka Kodaka, one of the ideas Nagito is based on is "a Makoto that took a step down the wrong path". He states that Nagito and Makoto are the exact opposite of each other yet still extremely alike.
 * His name is an anagram for “Na-e-gi Ma-ko-to da”, which translates to “I am Makoto Naegi”.
 * Nagito and Makoto's appearances are fairly similar, they are both deemed the Ultimate Lucky Student and share the same voice actor in both Japanese and English. While Makoto was eventually deemed the Ultimate Hope, Nagito only ever aspired to gain this title.
 * Monokuma himself mentions more than once that Nagito is definitely reminiscent of "him".
 * One of Nagito's hobbies is reading. This is implied in the main story, as Nagito likes to spend his free time in the library and later Hajime and Chiaki find several books inside his cottage. In Island Mode, he mentions that he could stay in a library for hours. He explains that reading is possibly the most peaceful way for him to spend time, because he isn't affected by his luck cycle that much while doing it. It's also mentioned that he enjoys very different kind of books.
 * He enjoys unrealistic horror movies (like ones with ghosts and zombies), but he dislikes realistic horror movies with serial killers and certain action movies because they remind him of his past experiences.
 * In Island Mode, Nagito expresses intense fear towards fighter jets and it's strongly implied that he may suffer from the fear of flying because of his past trauma. While he is generally paranoid about many things, he appears to be extremely paranoid and afraid of plane crashes as just thinking or talking about it makes him very anxious. The idea of people being trapped inside, with no way to escape and just waiting to crash, terrifies him a lot.
 * Despite this, he was seen on an airplane which crashed in Danganronpa 3 - Side Despair. It's possible that he feels more comfortable while traveling alone, as he doesn't put other people's lives at risk. Considering his wealth, it's likely that he can afford to travel all by himself.
 * All of his designs include clothes with red and green colors, implying that they might be his favorite colors.
 * His favorite ride is the carousel, because it's relaxing and feels safe.
 * He likes salty things and dislikes sweets.
 * He really likes go stones and has a habit of carrying them with him in jars, because the black (dark) and white (light) stones remind him of the battle between hope and despair. In a manga, he is seen fiddling with and staring at them with intense fascination.
 * Nagito is very good at cleaning, but he's also implied to be a terrible cook.
 * In an interview from the Otomedia magazine, it's implied that Nagito sees meteor showers quite often thanks to his luck, to the point that he considers the shining more of an annoyance than a beautiful thing. Apparently, it happens every time he feels like reading outdoors.
 * Nagito is a good singer and he has sung three songs (performed by his Japanese voice actress, Megumi Ogata). He has his own mini album due to his popularity.
 * He has his own character song called Poison -gekiyaku-.
 * Zettai Kibō Birthday, one of the two songs on the album, is also the ending theme of Danganronpa 3 - Side: Despair.
 * The other song on the album is titled Zansakura -zanka-.
 * The Servant appears as a guest character in Chain Chronicle: Brave New Continent. His Max ATK and Max HP are 7300. His weapon is an army knife and its ability is doubled attack power. His deathblow is called "Sacrifice for Hope". The death blow attack gives maximum damage to any enemies on range, but also takes the half of Servant's own health.
 * Nagito is included in the collaboration of Danganronpa 3 x Hōkai Gakuen.
 * Edmond Dantes from the Fate/GrandOrder series has often been compared to Nagito, due to their similar appearances and their status as servants.
 * Nagito is implied to have attraction to people of the same gender.
 * In his fifth free-time event, he gives an aborted declaration of love to Hajime. In the original version, he uses a very strong romantic Japanese word "aishiteru".
 * In the official drama CD, Nagito states that he loves Hajime for being willing to spend time with him even after knowing what kind of person he is.
 * In the Island Mode, he calls a cottage his and Hajime's "love nest" and he states that he doesn't mind getting naked in case Hajime wants to see that.
 * In his character song 劇薬 Poison, he mentions his love for an ambiguous "him".
 * In Danganronpa 3 - Side: Despair, he is shown to be attracted to Izuru Kamukura.
 * In Super Danganronpa 2.5, his head accidentally ending up between Mikan's legs is bad luck for him (unlike in the real world, he has only bad luck in his imaginary world). This could imply he is not interested in girls. Typically such fanservice scenes are considered good luck for the male lead, and the aforementioned scene was even described as a lucky accident in advertisement despite not really being one.
 * As a result of brainwashing, he both loves and hates Junko, though these conflicting feelings haven't been shown in an explicitly romantic and sexual manner, unlike Mikan's feelings.
 * Interestingly, the events of self-harming leading up to Nagito's suicide in Chapter 5 mirrors certain details of the deaths in the first game; Sayaka was stabbed, Chihiro was tied up, Sakura was poisoned in a locked room setting, and Mukuro was speared. Given that he knows about the murders during the Killing School Trip, as he tells Hajime in Chapter 4, it is very likely this is intentional on his part.
 * Nagito, like Nekomaru, had a fatal disease that would prevent them from living no longer than 20. Seeing however that they would be 22 by the events of Danganronpa 3, it has shown that both surpassed the illness.
 * In Nagito's case, it was most likely due to his luck.
 * In the Danganronpa V3 bonus mode, Celestia challenges him and Makoto to Mahjong to test their luck. She then suggests they add the headmaster to even things out. This is likely a reference to the art where the same event happened.
 * Even though his height is 180 cm (5' 11"), in the English localization it is written as 5' 9", which would make him 175 cm.