Makoto Naegi

Makoto Naegi (苗木 誠 Naegi Makoto in Japan, Marcos Nagem as Brazilian fan name) is the main protagonist of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and a participant in the Killing School Life.

Makoto has the title of Ultimate Lucky Student (超高校級の「幸運」chō kōkō kyū no “kōun” lit. Super High School Level Good Luck), though he appears to have both bad and good luck. Later, his title became Ultimate Hope (超高校級の「希望」chō kōkō kyū no “kibō” lit. Super High School Level Hope), due to his unusual optimism and ability to spread hope. He is a student enrolled in Class 78th.

Appearance
Makoto has a rather thin and petite build, being shorter than almost all of his classmates. He has spiky, desaturated brown hair with a prominent ahoge, and washed-out hazel eyes. He wears a zipped-up dull green hoodie with a red stripe along the zipper, an open black jacket with gold buttons over the hoodie, black jeans, and red sneakers with white toes.

Makoto's hoodie has a logo of a red gas mask in a circle printed on the back of the hood, and the zipper goes all the way up to the top of the hood. He wears a pin shaped like a four-pointed star overlaid on a crescent moon; this is pinned to the lapel of his jacket.

Personality
According to himself, Makoto is a very ordinary person, to the point that he feels a bit insecure about it. His most distinguishing feature is his unusual optimism.

Makoto is very kind, supportive and forgiving, though sometimes slightly naive. He is friendly, polite and a lot more down-to-earth than the other students. This is possibly the reason why he is capable of approaching and befriending them in Free Time sequences, even the most antisocial such as Byakuya Togami and Toko Fukawa.

Junko refers to Makoto as a "herbivore man", which means that he is likely to be the passive one in a relationship; this is reinforced in his conversations with others. He is also a bit jumpy at times and quite easily pushed around by some other characters such as Byakuya. However, even though he is sometimes a bit of a pushover, he is also capable of being a very determined and charismatic speaker.

Makoto is a firm believer in hope, having a positive attitude about the future, no matter the bad situation in the present. He is also a pacifist, as he believes that killing and violence isn't the answer. While he dislikes despair, believing it to be a corrupting and negative emotion which cannot benefit the world, he is very forgiving towards those who fell into despair, such as the Remnants of Despair, believing them to be victims of Junko and not inherently evil.

Makoto is respected by many people as the Ultimate Hope, though he himself is very humble and even a bit embarrassed of the title. In Danganronpa/Zero, it's mentioned that he has incredible strength inside, despite often appearing weaker on the outside. During hard times, he is shown to have power to give hope for other people and affect their way of thinking. However, this is not always the case, as some people refuse to listen to him or simply do not accept his ideals.

Ultimate Lucky Student
Makoto got his talent as the Ultimate Lucky Student by winning a lottery out of completely ordinary students, which led to him joining Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Lucky Student. In addition to this, he was caught up in a bizarre series of events on the day of his selection which ended up catching a diamond thief and burning the selection ticket. Following the fifth trial, just before Makoto's execution can be completed, Alter Ego suddenly appears and is able to prevent Makoto from dying by opening up a door on the floor. He is then rescued by Kyoko, going on to defeat Junko herself and survive the whole ordeal.

Ultimate Hope
Makoto discovers his true talent as the Ultimate Hope during the sixth and final trial of the Killing School Life. Interestingly, unlike most other talents, Makoto being the Ultimate Hope isn't recognized by Hope's Peak Academy, but rather earned for defeating Junko, the True Ultimate Despair. Unlike Izuru Kamukura, who's Ultimate Hope comes from him being the embodiment of talent, Makoto's Ultimate Hope comes from his unusual amount of optimism and determination, which Makoto even comments on.

As the Ultimate Hope, Makoto proves to have an immunity to Junko's tactics, built to make people fall into despair. Combined with his luck being difficult for Junko to analyze, causes her to leave him alive because defying her would be despairful in its own right. Ultimately, Makoto’s talent aided him in defeating her by filling the other five remaining participants with hope, after they fell into despair over finding out about the state of the world they were in. Makoto is also able to convince others to act with hope simply by spreading his hope to them. When the surviving members of the game are filled with hope, they were persuaded to choose to leave the academy and go out and see what the world had in store for them.