Kyouko Kirigiri

Kyouko Kirigiri is one of the main characters from the Danganronpa anime and games.

Kyouko is a student in Hope's Peak Academy's Class 78th, and a participant of the Killing School Life. She doesn't remember her talent at the beginning of the Killing Game, so her title is Ultimate ???.

Years later, she is a participant of the Final Killing Gamefeatured in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School with the other Future Foundation heads.

Her past as a young teenager is explored in the novel series Danganronpa Kirigiri.

Appearance
At the beginning of the Killing School Life in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Kyoko appears to be young high school-aged teenager, but due to the memory loss she is two years older than she believed. She has purple eyes, and a pale complexion. She wears long her lavender hair down with a single braid on her left side, tied with a black ribbon.

Kyoko's outfit consists of a dark purple collared jacket with six brown buttons over a zipped up long-sleeved white blouse and brown tie with a bird-like symbol on it. She also wears a black short skirt, heeled knee-high purple boots with equally knee-high light purple socks. She notably wears custom-made black studded gloves to conceal the burn marks on her hands she received when she was still a young detective.

After joining the Future Foundation and in Danganronpa 3, Kyoko wears her hair back in a pony-tail with two parts of hair loose that go down the front of her body. Her outfit consists of a dark jacket worn over a long sleeved white blouse. She wears brown belt, holding up a dull purple short skirt. Around her left leg she wears a brown satchel. Her shoes are heeled ankle-length boots. She still also wears her studded black gloves.

Personality
Kyoko is a stoic and mysterious girl who tends to hide her feelings. She has a calm demeanor and tends to be completely unfazed by most of the events that occur, even at the sight of a dead body. During the beginning of the game, Kyoko often keeps her distance from the other students while investigating. Prior to the investigation to find the way out with no casualties, Kyoko doesn't seem to cooperate with the other students and does most of the investigating by herself. She plays major roles in solving mysteries of the culprits in Class Trials and is also one of very few students that see things objectively and doesn't jump to conclusions in the trial, making her a valuable ally to Makoto.

Kyoko is very sensitive regarding the subject about the Hope's Peak Academy's headmaster (who later is revealed to be her own father), going as far as to even lose her cool and react with anger when Alter Egomentioned the possibility of him being the mastermind. She also doesn't like it when people keep secrets from her, as Makoto finds out.

Behind Kyoko's stone cold personality, she seems to easily get emotionally upset, which is masked by her strong will. Even under calm situations, she sometimes lets her emotions get the best of her as shown when Alter Ego mentions her father, the former headmaster, and when Makoto refuses to tell her about Sakura Ogami's odd rivalry with Monokuma (assumed that Makoto suspected Sakura's betrayal). Furthermore, there are some moments that cause her to be visibly surprised, and she also blushes at Makoto during some rare situations. She appears to grow fond of him during the game, as she does show him her hands, after explaining that she only shows them to people she considers her family. During her Free Time Events, Kyoko says that her emotions work fine but she deliberately hides them to make herself really hard to read, but also to give others a calm and composed person to lean on.

As seen in Danganronpa 3, Kyoko has changed quite a bit, with Kazutaka Kodaka considering her development one of his favorite parts in the anime.[4] She has become a lot more considerate of her friends and her demeanor is friendlier in their company. She is seen smiling at them and sharing physical contact, like hugging and holding hands (even taking her gloves off while holding hands with Makoto), and she trusts her friends very much. When she's with anyone but them, though, she's still very expressionless and reserved. She is also a bit sharp and annoyed in Koichi Kizakura's company. Being his boss, she is very protective of Makoto, but also admires him greatly.

In Danganronpa Kirigiri, it is revealed that many of Kyoko's emotional issues are caused by the way her grandfather raised her according to the strict family traditions. The family tradition is to take no sides in order to remain as neutral as possible, because the truth has no bias, though this tradition started during a time when being a detective was a more sacred occupation. Fuhito also refused to let Kyoko see her dying mother and even appeared to encourage Kyoko to dislike her father, as he believed that detective work comes before anything else, even a death of a family member. Notably, this was the one family tradition Kyoko didn't fully agree with. Fuhito enforced the idea that her entire sense of self is wrapped up in being a detective, giving the young girl some identity issues. He was also strictly overprotective of her, ordering her to not move outside after dark, forbid her from having a cell phone and always wanted to know what she is doing.

Ultimate Detective
Since she was a child, Kyoko has been trained as a detective by her grandfather, Fuhito. She was registered as an official detective at age 13 and her DSC number is 919. Befitting the Ultimate Detective, Kyoko is very good at analyzing clues. Kyoko can be seen as able to find the good in people's motives: for example, after the first trial (Sayaka Maizono's death), she goes to Makoto's room to tell him that she thinks that in the end, Sayaka actually wanted to make sure he didn't get the blame for her death, which is why she wrote "11037" on the wall. Another example is in the second school trial, where she points out that the broken ID card is actually Chihiro Fujisaki's. Kyoko says that Mondo Owada broke it to protect Chihiro's secret.

Trivia

 * The name "Kyōko" is composed of - "echo" or "ringing" and - meaning "child". Her name fits her composed, quiet speech and how, during the trials, she more than once guides Makoto to conclusions she has already reached herself and lets him be the one to voice them.
 * "Kirigiri" in kanji means "fog cutter", referring to her detective background.
 * In the beta version of Danganronpa, Kyoko was named Gyaru Kirigiri and the victim depending on the players choices.
 * Kyoko shares her title, the Ultimate Detective, with Shuichi Saihara.
 * The very first trailer for Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (the original release), which begins teasingly by saying that the upcoming installment of the Danganronpa series is a sports game, shows Kyoko playing basketball. The reason Kyoko was assigned this particular sport is probably because her Japanese voice actress, Yōko Hikasa, is known for her role in the basketball-themed series Ro-Kyu-Bu! as Saki Nagatsuka. Hikasa is also part of a five-girl pop group of the same name along with four of her fellow voice actress who also portrays a part of the series' main cast.


 * Kyoko is included in the collaboration of Danganronpa 3 and Guns Girl Z.
 * She is one of the few characters to have participated in two killing games and survived. The others are Makoto, Aoi, and Hajime/Izuru.
 * Kyoko's English voice actress, Erika Harlacher, also voices Kaede Akamatsu in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.