Korekiyo Shinguji... my old friend. Imagine it's 2018, you're 16, not handling your current life changes well, in new education, a new house, you just got dumped, it's the coldest winter of your life... a friend introduces you to a game, it's a killing game. You're interested. You go home and look up the characters, begin watching a playthrough, see a few spoilers here and there. One character catches your eye, mysterious, long-haired, familiar yet cold and seeping voice, none of the other characters warm up to him. You show up to college the next week, the friend asks, "who's your favourite character so far?" you confidently, brightly reply.. "Korekiyo!" and watch her excited face drop in response... The incest subplot guy. Really? But fate had been set, and you were destined to obsess near religiously over this creep for over a year.

What originally drew me to Kiyo was his design, his long hair, zipped mask, slight punk style in his uniform, his character ties to bdsm and bondage, his eerily creepy, familiar voice and mannerisms I later found out my all time favourite VA, Todd Haberkorn, voiced him! and the way other characters treated him, an outcast before he'd even given them reason not to trust. My poor mental health at the time made me latch onto him as a crazy comfort character much to my peers' dismay LOL.

I could talk for HOURS about Korekiyo's writing and story, one thing I will say on here to spare an essay is Korekiyo is a victim. He cannot be blamed for his sister's actions, the serial killer thing? All him. His sister using him? when he was a preteen no less!! Will never be his fault, and the trauma surrounding that is messy to delve into, as Danganronpa is known for its fantasised depictions of mental health LOL.

Everything from Kiyo's aesthetics, themes and dark plot points, his personality, I never had much of an interest in anthropology until I was reading all his free time events, I drew him on everything. Kiyo was on everything I owned, sometimes I still bump into remnants of my fixation on him now, a cutout taped to my lamp, art posted to accounts I never used, profile pictures on any distant site I could get my hands on, even on my old DSI. I might type up a full essay on how I believe his story actually played out, if you ignore the canon of V3s ending, that is and how his life events changed his thinking processes and personality. I'm older now, and my fixation died out years ago, but there's still a soft spot in my heart for Korekiyo and characters like him.