Characters / Danganronpa — Byakuya Togami

Danganronpa | Main Character Index
Monokuma
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Male Students (Makoto Naegi | Byakuya Togami) | Female Students (Kyoko Kirigiri | Toko Fukawa | Celestia Ludenberg | Junko Enoshima)
Danganronpa Zero
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Male Students (Hajime Hinata | Nagito Komaeda) | Female Students (Peko Pekoyama)
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Killer Killer
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Future Arc | Despair Arc
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony | Male Students (Kokichi Oma) | Female Students (Miu Iruma)

Byakuya Togami

Warning: Unmarked spoilers for the whole Danganronpa series

“We're done with introductions, right? How much longer are you going to stand there? Go away. I'm sick of looking at you.”

Voiced by: Akira Ishida (Japanese), Jason Wishnov (game), Jessie James Grelle (anime) (English)

Played by: Ryouta Ozawa, Yuichi Nakamura (stage)

One of the deuteragonists of the Danganronpa franchise. Byakuya is the heir of the prestigious Togami family whose influence has an international impact on business, politics, and information trading. He was selected as a student of Hope's Peak Academy's 78th class, and given the title of the Ultimate Affluent Prodigy. He and his classmates become the victims of the Killing School Life and is forced to survive as his classmates collectively try to get away with murdering each other. He helps the protagonist Makoto defeat the mastermind in the end and escape Hope's Peak with five other classmates.^note Makoto, Kyoko, Toko, Hina, and Yasuhiro

After escaping, Byakuya and his classmates join the Future Foundation, an organization dedicated to ending the Ultimate Despair and restoring the world to a peaceful state. Byakuya joins the 14th division and is tasked with rescuing his classmates' loved ones who were all taken hostage in the first game.

Byakuya has appeared in every mainline entry of the series (sans Zero) in some capacity, playing a crucial role in the plot, though he never gets stuck in another killing game.

For tropes pertaining to him in individual works, see the folders below. Beware of massive spoilers.

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In General

• Amateur Sleuth: Despite no professional experience with detective work, he proves to be an incredibly competent investigator in the Killing Game. Lending credence to his confidence in his investigative abilities, he mentions that while sequestered in his family's library he'd sometimes leaf through old cold cases and solve them... for fun.
• Bastard Bastard: As a result of a "charming" Togami family tradition. The Head of the Family never marries and instead has sex with various "extraordinary" individuals in an effort to produce children, who then compete to be chosen as the heir. As to the other kind of "bastard," well, take a good read over the rest of this page.
• Berserk Button: Being called simply an 'Affluent Progeny', with the implication that he was just fortunate to be born into wealth, seriously ticks him off. Spending time with him reveals his title of heir comes from proving himself by winning a competition against his half-siblings as a Togami family tradition to choose the fittest to lead their corporate group. The losers don't get any of the inheritance, being expected to join the "plebeians". While Byakuya admits that his family was the catalyst for success, saying that he's just an Upper-Class Twit disrespects his siblings by implying that they lost to said Upper-Class Twit. It's worth noting he is the youngest sibling.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Joins Makoto and Kyoko in saving the Remnants of Despair from the Junko AI.
  • At the beginning of Ultra Despair Girls, he saves Komaru from her prison, and gives her a weapon to fend off the Monokumas.
  • He shows up in Side:Future Episode 12, saving Makoto's life by having his bodyguards take out the brainwashed soldiers.
• Bilingual Bonus: Toko dubs him her White Knight. "Byakuya" literally means white night.
• Breakout Character: He is the only character besides Makoto who's ended up appearing in all four of the main localized installments of the Hope's Peak Academy Saga.
• But Not Too Foreign: Half-European from his mother's side, according to his Free Time Events. This half-European blood is most likely French, as he speaks the language and enjoys the cuisine.
• Character Development: In his first appearance, he's an almost irredeemably cruel Jerkass who antagonizes his classmates even amidst a life-or-death situation. Though by the end of the game, he shows some potential for redemption, and through his subsequent appearances becomes marginally nicer, slower to anger, and a major player in saving the world from the Ultimate Despair.
• The Comically Serious: Pretty much any time he gets involved with more light-hearted characters like Yasuhiro and Akane. On the one hand, he gets to show what a Deadpan Snarker he is, but also tends to find himself involved in the joke too.
• Deadpan Snarker: A rather reliable source of this.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Very much so. His reactions to characters like Monokuma and Yasuhiro make this clear.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Though he has a soul, he is very good at hiding it.
• Fetishized Abuser: This is how Toko plays his insults and betraying her trust, but Byakuya makes it very clear that he isn't interested in any relationship, least of all with her, and his abuse is just him being his Jerkass self with zero romantic connotations. Toko never listens.
• Friendship Denial: He makes several towards Makoto, even when it becomes clear they're far closer than he'd ever admit.
• Good Is Not Nice: He's fully committed to saving the world from the Ultimate Despair, but is still unpleasant with his rude behavior and arrogance.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: He refuses to use even the mildest of swears, likely due to his upbringing.
• Government Conspiracy: His family is involved in one.
• The Grinch: In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, he's one of the few students who doesn't like Christmas in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan mode.
• Icy Blue Eyes: He has blue eyes and has a very cold, sometimes cruel, personality.
• Implausible Hair Color: To stretch the trope a little further, he implies in a free time event that his mother may not have been Japanese.
• Impoverished Patrician: Courtesy of Ultimate Despair, the entire Togami clan had collapsed prior to the events of the first game as revealed in the final trial. Byakuya didn't take it well.
• Jack of All Trades: He likely has the widest breadth of knowledge of his entire class. At one point in School Mode he mentions learning multiple instruments just because it's expected of a Togami, saying any knowledge he may lack can only lead to defeat. Makoto wonders how not knowing how to play an instrument could defeat him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rude and hostile to everyone around him all the time. Even when he's being nice he still sounds like a jerk. He's particularly cruel to Toko. Though by the end of Trigger Happy Havoc he starts to develop into this trope. Aside from one Pet the Dog moment to Makoto, he is a bit less condescending than before (aside from Jill, Toko and Hiro), is visibly peeved by Makoto's execution and Kyoko's secrecy afterwards, is far more helpful, and in later games is noticeably less snappy. He takes it upon himself to help rescue Makoto's sister, Komaru, in Ultra Despair Girls. He's still rude in 3 as well, but it's clear he now cares for his True Companions as much as the rest of the former 78th class.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: He's the youngest of fifteen half-siblings, though the others were disowned when he outperformed them.
• Non-Idle Rich: It's said that he holds a number of management positions in his family's company, and his vast personal wealth from day-trading demonstrates that he does know what he's doing, financially.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Interestingly, the highest praise or approval he can heap on anyone seems to involve offering them a job (implying that person has met his lofty standards). In a late Free Time Event, he gives Makoto the chance to work for him with an appropriately massive salary, his School Mode Ending has him outright appointing Makoto to a position as his assistant, and in the game's final scene he recalls Junko mentioning that some people in the outside world are still hanging on to hope and declares his plans to find them and hire them^note But as we find out in the second game, it was ultimately them who hired him.
  • Downplayed, with his memory of his siblings. Despite his refusal to admit to any real emotional connection to them, his drive to succeed seems at least partly rooted in a desire to prove their loss had meaning. After all, there's no shame if you lose to the best.
  • It's a subtle gesture that reeks of his usual negativity, but during the last investigation, he warns Makoto not to place too much trust in Kyoko in case that decision costs him dearly. While he was obviously wrong about her trustworthiness, he wasn't trying to spread discord within the group or to increase his own likelihood of survival: he was actively saying something with the intent of looking out for Makoto's safety.
  • In Ultra Despair Girls, he's actually somewhat impressed by how Komaru Took a Level in Badass, and resolves to finish the fight against the Remnants of Despair to repay Toko and Komaru.
  • In the epilogue of Ultra Despair Girls, he easily agrees to partner with Makoto and is even shown to be smiling when he's speaking to him.
  • In the Ultimate Talent Development Program of V3, even Byakuya can't find it in him to be harsh to Gonta and humors his request to teach him how to be a gentleman.
  • In Ultimate Summer Camp, he's shockingly cordial to Hajime when explaining about the military base on Jabberwock Island and treats him almost like an equal, despite Hajime being a reserve course student. Even Hajime asking about the Monokuma plushie factory, with Byakuya not knowing has him simply admitting he doesn't know what it's for.
• Pretty Boy: It's noted by many people he's conventionally good-looking. Toko especially finds him attractive, and Genocide Jack mentions that Byakuya is the one good-looking pretty boy that she doesn't want to kill.
• Blue Blood: As a member of the Togami family.
• The Proud Elite: His capacity for kindness is extremely hard to find, but it's there. Becomes far more obvious in later installments. In Izuru's path in Ultimate Summer Camp, Byakuya is able to out-ego Izuru, and causes Izuru to consider joining the Togami conglomerate after graduating.
• Redemption Earns Life: He's the only 'rival' character in the games to eventually stop antagonizing the other students and work with them to escape, and consequently the only rival to survive his killing game.
• Smug Smiler: Any of his sprites that could be described as smiling are this. It takes until the climax of the game until he smiles genuinely. He then moves past this trait somewhat in later installments.
• Sole Survivor: Of the Togami family. We only find this out in the final trial, and Byakuya himself didn't take the news well.
• Supporting Leader: He quickly assumes this role following the fourth trial after deciding to properly join the group. He then goes on to become a high-ranking member of the Future Foundation.
• Stoic Spectacles: A smug rich jerk with glasses whose default emotion is a condescending sneer. Most of the time, at least.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • A Downplayed Trope. After learning of Sakura's suicide, he acts more cooperative to the remaining survivors in investigations. This isn't to say that he still isn't a jerk, as he still has trust issues and makes his disdain for the shortcomings of his companions known. However, he isn't competitive with them anymore.
  • He's much less selfish after the first game, and treats Makoto and Kyoko with genuine respect. He also goes out of his way to help Makoto rescue his sister Komaru. Still far from nice, though.
  • In fact, the very idea that he's willing to put himself at risk to save the remaining students, and completely put his trust in somebody other than himself at that (even though he's sure he'll still survive) would have been unthinkable of the first game's Byakuya.
  • Demonstrated in his first scene in 3 where he gives a backhanded compliment to Naegi. Later, he smiles when he reunites with Yasuhiro, relieved that he is still alive.
• Youngest Child Wins: Was the youngest among his crop of potential heirs, and wound up winning the competition to become the officially recognized scion of the Togami Family.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Ultimate Affluent Progeny

The scion of the wealthy Togami family, and one groomed to become a success since childhood. Byakuya has no intention of becoming friends with his fellow captives, seeing them as competitors in a challenge to be won. Intelligent, calculating and utterly ruthless, Byakuya is a force to be reckoned with. He tampers with the crime scene in Chapter 2 so he could scout out his competition and determine who would be the biggest threat to his own "graduation" attempt. In Chapter 4 he realizes that Monokuma has no intention of running a fair contest, and turns his crosshairs to it instead. United with the other students against Monokuma, he survives the final trial and escapes with everyone.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: In the bad ending. Little Byakuya Jr is noticeably older than the other children, suggesting he became a father even earlier than Makoto and Hiro.
• Adaptational Heroism: His tampering with the crime scene in Chapter 2 of the anime is downplayed compared to the game, and he only pragmatically states that it was done to test his classmate's deductive abilities and shake up the real culprit so that they are more easily exposed, whereas in the game it was done for purely selfish reasons.
• Always Someone Better: Kyoko (and to a lesser extent Makoto as a crimesolver overall) is this to him. Not only does Kyoko manage to solve every murder alone, or at least suspects the truth, Byakuya actually only really solved one crime on his own:
  • In Trial 1, Byakuya is aggressive in accusing Makoto and maintaining the suspicion on him until it is logically disproven, and he does not suspect Sayaka's involvement until it is illuminated by Kyoko and Makoto.
  • In Trial 2, Byakuya's confidence is through the roof, but he did not actually solve this crime - he was simply on the same floor at the same time that Mondo left the locker rooms. In fact, he did not even notice the room swap, a key aspect that disproves the suspicion that falls on him due to his framing of Genocide Jack.
  • Trial 3 is the only trial that Byakuya actually manages to solve through his own efforts, even contributing to Makoto's investigation. It should be noted that he only does so because he was sold on Yasuhiro as Robo Justice being the culprit, but once the investigation begins Makoto's doubts raise his own questions. Once the investigation completes, Byakuya clearly had Celestia in his sights.
  • In Trial 4, Byakuya is again glaringly overconfident in his assessment after the previous two trials. However, this is his Break the Haughty moment, as his suspect is Aoi, never once considering that anyone would have ever committed suicide, let alone to remove a motive for the sake of everyone else.
  • In Trial 5, Byakuya is now aggressive in accusing Kyoko. His actions night before contribute to the mastermind's plans, as they had intended by leaving the Monokuma in the gym. By leading the crusade against Kyoko, he was in reality the biggest pawn used by the mastermind, outright ignoring all attempts by Kyoko to draw attention to their machinations. Even Makoto started to doubt the case against Kyoko before Byakuya.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: He attempts to throw his weight around in this fashion twice in the fifth chapter, except both cases were refused. First was when he demanded Kyoko explain her talent or have her room key taken; second was when he boxed Makoto into a corner by implying he could have planted the locker key in Kyoko's room. Both decided to defiantly take the harder road, with Kyoko handing over her key and Naegi choosing not to deflect suspicion back onto Kyoko. He was clearly expecting them to do the opposite, and was far from happy about this result.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Less evil and more douchebag. Still, he's a rich snob who needlessly makes things harder for everyone out of a sense of entitlement and to fuel his own ego. If nothing else, he's definitely one of the most antagonistic people in Hope's Peak Academy, even though he never kills anyone.
• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: After running through the third culprit's crimes, he says their cunning is admirable.
• Bad Guys Play Pool: It's not hard to picture him making some shady, backroom dealings over a game, is it? School Mode reveals that he's quite knowledgeable on the sport and can play any style. Probably ties into him hinting in the main story about being good with firearms (confirmed outright in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls with his use of the Megaphone Hacking Gun).
• Beauty Is Bad: Probably the most conventionally pretty of all the male students, and also the most cold-hearted by far.
• Blue Blood: Comes from the incredibly wealthy Togami family. In the final trial, we find out that he is the Sole Survivor of them thanks to "The Worst, Most Despair-inducing Incident in the History of Mankind". Byakuya didn't know this until then, and he did NOT take it well.
• Bookworm: Uses a majority of his time digging through the school's library after it is rendered accessible in Chapter 2, though he's reading for hints about their situation rather than for pleasure.
• Break the Haughty: He toys with the killing game for the sake of his own amusement, but gets rather irritated when his games are found out and the other students take him to task for it. Also, the Mastermind reveals that he's actually not that wealthy after all thanks to the Tragedy, which really breaks him.
• The Bully: Byakuya mostly spends his time in the first game bullying everyone in Class 78th that isn't the hidden mastermind (including Kyoko) and strongly believes he can get away with it. Even when he reforms and defects from the Killing School Life because "it isn't entertaining", he still continues to bully his classmates because he doesn't see them as friends, only "lowly commoners". By 3, he softens up a little bit, but even then, he's still a jerk.
• Butt-Monkey: What his interactions with Jill often reduce him to. Very frequently exaggerated by Yonkoma.
• Can't Take Criticism: An unfortunate result of his belief in his own perfection is his tendency to lash out whenever things don't go as he expects them to.
• Challenge Seeker: Celeste makes it clear early on that competition and victory are a key part of his life, with one of his Free-Time Events having him claim that life in general is too easy. Chapter 4 shows just how important the game is to him when he lays all blame on Sakura as The Mole making things unfair, rather than blame The Mastermind inserting a mole into the group in the first place proving how inherently unfair the game is. This also contributes to his Heel–Face Turn at the end of the chapter; once it's clear that Monokuma is willing to cheat by planting a fake suicide note, the game holds no more interest to him.
• Conspicuous Consumption: The inside of his room has a classical violin, walls covered in fine art and a red carpet to greet him whenever he enters. One wonders where he got it all from, assuming that wasn't already his room pre-Tragedy.
• The Cynic: Much like Toko, he expects the worst of his commoner classmates. After giving his insinuations he'll usually launch into some tirade against whoever he's talking to with his own assumptions being the only evidence to that person's failings.
  Byakuya: (Upon explaining reagents in the Chem Lab) I'm surprised you can live with yourself being so ignorant.
  Makoto: Y-You don't think that's going a bit too far?
  Byakuya: Are you telling me you think studying math or chemistry are of no use in the real world? The words of a failure. They suit you, Makoto.
  Makoto: (Internally) I didn't say that...
• Desecrating the Dead: In an attempt to lure out Genocide Jack, he takes Chihiro's dead body and poses them as one of Jack's victims. The other students are disgusted by this upon finding out.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Implied by the violin seen in his room. When asked about instruments in School Mode, he says he can play "all the standard ones," and he laments not having any sheet music available, hoping to show off on the Music Room's grand piano.
• Entitled Bastard: For all of his many, many flaws, he at least averts this. In his mind, his wealth and power were things he earned, and suggesting that he was just born to them outright offends him, not least because it implicitly insults all of the half-siblings he had to beat to get to the top.
• Establishing Character Moment: Introduces himself as bluntly as possible to Makoto, then calls him an eyesore and tells him to get lost.
• "Eureka!" Moment: During one conversation, Byakuya abruptly realizes something thanks to a comment Makoto made. However, he's not about to share his revelation with him. This Is a Competition, after all.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Even he finds the Mastermind's Lack of Empathy disturbing - particularly because the Mastermind apparently found her assassinating of her own twin sister to be a pleasurable experience. By contrast, Byakuya had to out-compete all his siblings for his inheritance, and is motivated to persist out of respect for those he defeated.
  • For most of the game he disregards and/or mocks cooperative efforts like the breakfast meetings and the Night Time rule. In the first chapter, though, he stirs himself to suggest Sakura accompany boys on garbage duty after Leon accuses Hifumi of doing so with ulterior and perverted motives.
  • As cruel as he can be, he considers torture to be a barbaric method of extracting information that's utterly beneath him. He is also shown to be visibly disturbed by Leon's execution that Monokuma subjects Leon to upon declaring him guilty for Sayaka's murder.
  • He calls out Monokuma for planting a fake suicide note and effectively cheating. Because Byakuya is a Challenge Seeker, someone taking away the fairness of a game means it's no longer interesting to him.
• Fiction 500: His family's ungodly rich already, but Byakuya at one point mentions dabbling in stocks to kill time, and making millions more in one day. He only stopped because it was too easy. He casually mentions that he has a personal account with "pocket money" for private use. Said account contains forty billion Yen, or four billion dollars in the English translation (which is even more money).
• Figure It Out Yourself: Justified by his desire to solve the crimes on his own and grandly present them to his ignorant classmates during the trial.
• Fingertip Drug Analysis: He plays with this in Chapter 4 in order to prove that the contents of a vial of poison had been tampered with. By gulping it down in the courtroom and then, as Jill and Yasuhiro go nuts, announcing that it's protein powder.
• Flowery Insults: Normally he's very to-the-point with his insults, but if he's feeling "motivated" enough, he'll engage in this (as many players trying for his School Mode ending will eventually find out).
  (Upon being compared to Sakura) "Is that supposed to be funny? Sorry, but your mere existence is already enough of a joke."
• Foil: To Celeste. Both are fabulously rich teenagers who are both (allegedly) half-European, show no empathy to anyone, did not actually inherit anything by birthright, and got where they are today through their wits and through ruining the lives of others. But while Celeste puts on a mask of politeness and hides her history and intentions, Byakuya shows open contempt for everyone, and is very public about his desire to win the Deadly Game by any means necessary. Ironically, he doesn't commit any murders at all!
• Frames of Reference: Contrast his personality with Toko and Hifumi (who wear round glasses), and then note the shape of his specs...
• Freudian Excuse: Part of the reason he's so fixated on the game as a competition between the students (instead of the students ultimately having to work together to solve the mystery of Monokuma in order to escape) is because of how he was set up against his half-siblings during his childhood and was never given the option of allying with them to get out of the game. It did what it was designed to do, and caused Byakuya to deeply internalize the mindset that he'd never get anywhere in life without stepping on and crushing other people underfoot, and that the best and only due he could give them is living his best life in their place. The possibility that his siblings didn't need to be crushed at all doesn't even occur to him in the present day.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Around the fifth investigation, he starts referring to Kyoko by a Full-Name Basis, leading to this exchange.
  "And the person who hid that weapon in the dojo locker must have been... Kyoko Kirigiri. It was you...!"
• George Jetson Job Security: In his school mode ending, he threatens to fire Makoto if he slips up even once as his newly-hired assistant.
• Hard Work Fallacy: You'd assume his attitude makes him a believer in the fallacy, yet this is actually averted. In School Mode, he frequently tells Makoto to accept his position in life, because it's unreasonable to expect him to reach the level of a Togami (showing how many levels down his condescension goes). Interestingly, some of his best responses come from Makoto making it clear that he recognizes this, while still continuing to try (either to succeed or to be Byakuya's friend). This trait is implied to be what leads to Byakuya's eventual respect for him in his School Mode ending. Byakuya's attitude can be summed up as 'hard work can't get you everywhere if you don't have the right opportunity, but it can at least get you more places than doing nothing and blaming other people'. Case in point, his words upon getting the best response in his Trigger Happy Heart event:
  "If you see yourself as having a tragic life, then you'll never rise above others. Do you have what it takes to climb over them?"
• Heel–Face Turn: After Chapter 4's events, he decides to stop participating in the game and devotes himself to bringing down Monokuma. He's still a jerk, though.
• Heel Realization: Possibly one of the contributing factors to the above Heel–Face Turn was his inability to find the true culprit in Chapter 4. That along with Makoto's own victory leads to Kyoko giving Byakuya a subtle "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which drills through the mentality that Byakuya had for the entire game.
  Kyoko: You still haven't realized? We don't all act according to calculations and cost-benefit diagrams. That's what makes us so complicated. That's what you don't understand, and that's why you couldn't solve this case.
• Heroic BSoD: Seems dangerously near one thanks to Junko revealing that the rest of his family has kicked the bucket. Ultimately averted though: Instead of sinking to despair, he refuses to go back on his promise to kill the mastermind, deciding that he can rebuild the Togami family.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Byakuya manipulating the evidence of the second trial at first comes off as the peak of his being a petty jerkass but when questioned on it, Byakuya mentions that his real motive was to sus out which of his classmates could see through his deceptions and be his biggest threat in case he decided to try and play the murder game.
  • His free-time events reveal that the reason he hates being called Idle Rich isn't because he cares about what people are calling him, it's because he had to beat out all his siblings for the title of Togami heir, and if he's an Upper-Class Twit, then they're the ones who lost to a Upper-Class Twit, and he considers them worthy competitors. It's heavily implied that one of the reasons he's so driven to succeed is because there's no shame in losing to the best.
• Hypocrite: Multiple examples.
  • He regularly withholds important information so that he can try to dramatically reveal it during the trials, but gets pissed off whenever he learns somebody else knows something he doesn't. To say nothing of how outraged he is over someone else tampering with a crime scene, despite going out of his way to tamper with Chihiro's simply to make things more complicated.
  • He repeatedly points out that it's stupid to assume that everyone else thinks the same way you do, but great mistake in chapter 4 is because he does just that: he's happy to assume Aoi betrayed Sakura because he would fake a friendship to get an opportunity to betray someone, but that's not how Aoi works; she, unlike the coldly-rational Byakuya, cares deeply about her friends and is driven by her emotions. And in this case, the emotion that drove her was vengeance against the people she blamed for Sakura's death, and she was willing to sacrifice herself to kill them.
  • He claims Kyoko's lack of squeamishness around corpses she's forensically examining is unnatural when in the previous chapter he desecrated Chihiro's body and said so himself that a corpse is just an object.
  • He repeatedly tells Makoto that he shouldn't assume everyone thinks the same way, yet he's completely blindsided when he's wrong about assuming the culprit of the fourth trial murdering for gain as he would've.
  • He broke off from the group early on, to much of their dismay, over their lack of unity, yet he has the gall to be upset over being Locked Out of the Loop about Alter Ego's existence.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: And makes sure everyone understands this, multiple times. To him, this is just competition, at least until his Heel–Face Turn.
• Insufferable Genius: His intellect is rivaled only by his arrogance. He even changes a crime scene because he thinks that he's smarter than everyone else and that he can just pin it all on Toko. Byakuya does not take it well when he's found out anyway.
• Irony: He chastises Makoto for expecting everyone to share his own moral code, and not without merit. Later in Chapter 4, he's outsmarted by Aoi (of all people) because he expects everyone to be as sociopathic as him.
• It Amused Me:
  • He trolls Makoto during some of his free time events for no reason except to be a jerk.
  • He crucified Chihiro's body and placed the blame for the murder on Genocide Jack, just to make a bigger spectacle out of the second trial. Byakuya also had a secondary objective to find out who would be most likely to catch him if he decided to murder someone, but it remains a fact that his primary motivation was making it harder for the class to catch the Blackened purely because he could. And if they got it wrong, then they would have all died, Byakuya included.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In Chapter 4, after Sakura is revealed as the traitor, he claims that regardless of how kind she presented herself, it's generally not a good idea to trust a spy. Makoto begrudgingly admits that Byakuya may have been onto something there.
• Jerk Justifications: It's a flimsy justification, but a lot of his dialogue options in School Mode imply that a part of his reason for despising "commoners" so much is because while he might disparage them for their lacking circumstances, he doesn't see that as an excuse for refusing to even try to improve one's own lot, and thus sees people who don't as either incompetent or complacent. His more positive interactions with Naegi do show that he's certainly willing to support those he sees as having potential by offering them jobs under him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: While there are occasionally hints that he might admire his peers (namely Makoto and Kyoko) more than he lets on, they are few and far between - his contempt remains constant throughout his stay at Hope's Peak. Notably, even if the player completes his dialogue tree, he is the only student that Makoto never becomes friends with, save Jill. And that includes characters like Celeste and Yasuhiro, whom he's hesitant to call a friend. Later games finally develop him into a proper Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Karma Houdini: While Byakuya is certainly the personification of Good Is Not Nice in the game, he still ultimately never faces any true consequence for tampering with evidence at the crime scene of the second Trial, all in the effort to spice up the game and make himself look better. At worst, the only true consequence he faces is Makoto and Kyoko showing him up during the trial.
• Lack of Empathy: One which certainly helps him remain cold and distant to his peers. Byakuya regularly tries altering crime scenes, insulting people, and telling secrets he promised to keep hidden if he thinks it will give him an advantage. After Byakuya found out that Toko is Genocide Jack, with Toko hoping that they would go on a date once they escaped; the next class trial has Byakuya casually revealing that information, saying he was lying about keeping it secret and that he never promised to date her, without caring how much obvious distress this causes Toko.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • He isn't exactly pleased to find out the other students have been hiding Alter Ego from him. Hagakure points out that due to his cold behavior and making it clear he sees them all as competitors, no one has any reason to cooperate with him.
  • Chapter 5 sees him growing increasingly aggravated by Kyoko's cryptic behavior, and Makoto's decision not to reveal whatever secrets she lets him in on. By the end of that chapter's trial, he's visibly seething at Makoto choosing not to voice whatever flaws in Kyoko's argument he's clearly aware of to the point of Taking the Heat for her. As Makoto gets sent down the trash chute instead of being executed, he outright demands Kirigiri finally explain What Is Going On?.
• The Millstone: In Chapter 2. He knows who the real culprit is- he caught Mondo leaving the women's changing room. However, he then proceeds to frame Genocide Jack for the murder in order to make the game more interesting and scope out his competition. He only reveals that he had damning evidence that could have the trial over before it started after everyone else has dismissed his Red Herring and deduced Mondo as the culprit from other pieces of evidence.
• Must Have Caffeine: Not only does he enjoy quality coffee the most among the presents you can give him, but if you offer him a drink in School Mode, he'll demand only the finest quality drip-brew.
• Not So Above It All: After he actively joins the students in Chapter 5, his first step to defeating the mastermind is for them to cut any small talk, only to get involved in one involving him ordering Toko to not open her mouth. He even Lampshades this after Kyoko points it out.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Monokuma explicitly points out their similar mindsets, which doesn't go over well with Byakuya. He also reacts poorly to the suggestion that, like Makoto, he benefited from good fortune by being born into the right family.
• Pragmatic Villainy: While he does intend to play the game, he doesn't intend to start it, because it would be reckless to make a move without knowing your opponents' capabilities- as Sayaka proves by having her intended victim turn the tables on her. Later, part of the reason he stops playing along is that Monokuma has proven that he's willing to cheat by planting a fake suicide note. After all, there's no real point to playing a game when you don't have a fair chance of winning.
• Princely Young Man: He's the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, and Makoto notes that Byakuya has "the air of a king" around him when they first meet. And while Byakuya is definitely a Blue Blood, he's the heir to the Togami Corporation, not actually of any sort of royal bloodline. Even so, Byakuya carries himself with an air of self-importance and smugness that befits him acting as if he was royalty.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Toko during the second trial, calling her out on her naivete in trusting him with her secret, and accusing her of failing to keep her promise not to let Genocide Jack kill again. While he knows that Toko wasn't responsible for the murder, the speech is intended to push her over the edge and cause her to reveal Genocide Jack.
• Red Herring: He may as well be carrying a sign that says "will murder someone", but he doesn't - though not for lack of willingness.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: His upbringing prevented him from learning how Gashapon machines work. Learning this ends up being one of the only times in School Mode that he isn't condescending to Makoto while also being one of his best dialogue options (though he also makes sure to clarify that someone like him shouldn't be interested in such distractions). According to another dialogue option, he's apparently under the impression that sushi is a type of fast food. To be fair, for a guy who can order any food from anywhere with boxed sashimi being readily available from practically any convenience store in the country, to him it may as well be.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: He first voices his suspicions that Monokuma has planted The Mole in the class when he theorizes that the traitor stole Alter Ego. There is a mole, but it was Celestia (who isn't the mole) who hid Alter Ego as part of her murder plot.
• The Rival: Word of God noted that he was initially created to serve as Makoto's rival. He is one of the three most active participants during the class trials alongside Makoto and Kyoko, but while Kyoko serves as more of a mentor figure to Makoto, Byakuya is constantly challenging his logic, directly opposing him several times. Lessened somewhat by the circumstances they're in causing them to have to work together, and more or less gone by the end of the game.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When Makoto expresses surprise that he's allowed to play the stock market at his age...
  Makoto: Can high school students even participate in the stock market?
  Byakuya: My name is Byakuya Togami.
  Makoto: (internally) Was that... an answer to the question?
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Always seen in his impeccably fine suit-like uniform.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Often espouses the belief that the Mastermind is unstoppable and the only way to escape is to play their game. Makoto proves him wrong.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: The official art book says◊ this was an intentional design choice.
• Smug Snake: On top of being a jerk who thinks he's better than everyone, he isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is outside of the financial sphere.
• The Social Darwinist: Literally underwent a Darwinian "survival of the fittest" competition with his various half-siblings to be named the chief heir of the family. There's also a strain of regular Darwinism mixed in, given the family preoccupation with breeding capable people to pass down their traits.
• The Sociopath: A distinct possibility for his character. He crucified Chihiro's body to make the "game" more interesting. During the investigation, he calls Chihiro's body just an object, and after Mondo's execution, he claims it was a disappointing ending to their game. Also in the investigation, he doesn't care that they left Toko passed out and claims they'd be better off if she was dead. In the daily life of chapter 4, he tells Hina that he hopes Sakura would die after she's exposed as Monokuma's spy. He displays a typical smug self-importance and never acknowledges the ideals of others - believing only he is right. And the only reason he joins up with the others in the end is that he finds exposing the mastermind to be more interesting than participating in the Killing Game if no one will participate.
• Surrounded by Idiots: He says several variations on this, though he also tends to use Yasuhiro as an example of why.
• Tempting Fate: In chapter 2, Byakuya claims that dying is "not even a possibility" for him. That's just asking for trouble. Ultimately subverted however. Despite gaining the attentions of a serial killer (who, it turns out, doesn't want to kill him), Byakuya survives the despair game.
• This Is a Competition: Survival of the fittest style competition to be exact, and he plans on winning no matter what. He changes his mind later on but doesn't really drop the attitude.
• Token Evil Teammate: Shares this position with Genocide Jack among the surviving students. Before his Heel–Face Turn, Byakuya repeatedly indicates that he enjoys the challenges that the trials and murders present, refuses to reinforce the group dynamic, openly announces his intention to be a successful murderer as soon as the opportunity presents itself, and openly antagonizes everyone around him. This includes leaking that Toko and Genocide Jack are the same person, and rigs the position of Chihiro's body just because Byakuya felt like making the case harder to solve, even though this would mean his own death if the rest of the class got the killer's identity wrong.
• Tsundere:
  • This is how Toko (and Jill) interprets Byakuya's disdain for her. She's not exactly a reliable source, though.
    Jill: Hey, Master... Let's skip the part where we pretend to hate each other and go straight to the lovey-dovey...
  • And Yasuhiro.
    Yasuhiro: He's just covering up his shyness. That's what I choose to believe.
  • He also reacts this way at the end of the last case, claiming that he didn't need Makoto's encouragement to avoid succumbing to despair.
• Uncle Pennybags: In School Mode, he'll offer Makoto an invitation to the National Concert Hall upon hearing he's a fan of going to concerts... specifically so he can rub it in Makoto's face how little he'll be able to appreciate the performance (it's still one of his best dialogue options; with Byakuya you can only expect so much).
• Unwitting Pawn: His business-like organizational skills kept three of the other students safe from suspicion in the fifth chapter's trial, but also played into The Mastermind's hand to focus all of that suspicion on Kyoko (not long after taking her room key for trust's sake at that). In that same trial he also provides the evidence that leads to Makoto's conviction, should the player hold out on the evidence that would instead convict Kirigiri.
• Victory Is Boring: Quickly loses interest in something if he gets too good at it, which is why he gave up Day trading after earning 40 billion yen (500 million dollars, though the English translation changes it to the even-more-ludicrous figure of four billion dollars) just by day-trading on the stock market.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • His backstory of being set against his half-siblings to be the Togami heir means that he immediately accepts the premise of the deadly game and openly declares his desire to participate, unlike people like Makoto, Kyoko, and Sakura who recognize that the game is a farce and the only real way to win is to reject its premise and go after Monokuma directly. Lampshaded by Monokuma at the end of Chapter 2; after Byakuya dramatically states that he plans to kill Monokuma after graduation, Monokuma sneers and says "You almost sound like a protagonist! Too bad you're just a side character!"
  • He was totally caught off-guard by Aoi attempting to sacrifice the entire class because, as an irrational, altruistic (in a sense) act, it lies outside his coldly selfish mindset.
  • Of course, he does end up surviving the game and outside of Aoi's attempt to avenge Sakura no one even attempts to murder him. So, perhaps he was on to something after all.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Does not like it when Monokuma laughs "I feel like you and I are of the same mind...!"
  ...Stop it. I am nothing like a childish criminal like you.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

One of the members of the Future Foundation. He is the real Byakuya Togami, the brilliant and ruthless scion of the Togami family. After escaping from the second "School Life of Mutual Killing", he vowed to rebuild the Togami financial empire from the ground up and joined the Future Foundation. He is now working with Makoto and Kyoko to save the students from the clutches of Alter Ego Junko.

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• Exposition Beam: Has his memories returned thanks to the Future Foundation off-screen.
• Walking Spoiler: Like Kyoko, only it also spoils the fact that the other Byakuya is a fake... though the latter is obvious to people that played the first game.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

One of the survivors of the Killing School Life, heir to the now destroyed Togami Conglomerate and object of Toko's affections. Now a member of the Future Foundation, he is the one who supplied Komaru with her hacking gun. He is subsequently captured by the Warriors of Hope, and Toko's attempting to rescue him.

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• Demoted to Extra: He only appears in three scenes total; one scene in the prologue, and two scenes in the ending. And for one of those ending scenes, he isn't even on-screen.
• Distressed Dude: Spends most of the game captured by the Warriors of Hope. Toko's Imagine Spot has him naked and being a victim of constant whipping as well. In the end, he's shown to be perfectly clothed and unharmed, just locked in. And Servant reveals that Toko was blackmailed into attacking Komaru because of Toko's love for Byakuya since his safety was held over Toko's head as a bargaining chip.
• Mr. Exposition: After he finds Komaru, Byakuya hands her the Hacking Gun and gives a brief overview of the situation involving Future Foundation, the Monokumas, and the Warriors of Hope.
• Mr. Fanservice: During Toko's delusions, he's drawn much more handsome and acts much nicer to her than the real Byakuya.
• Nerves of Steel: He never shows fear or distress despite the situation at hand. Even when facing off against an army of Monokumas by himself, he remains cool-headed.
• Saved by Canon: Since he makes an appearance in the sixth chapter of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, which takes place after this game, we know for sure he will survive in this game, despite being taken hostage.
• When He Smiles: Is shown to be genuinely smiling in a CG in the epilogue.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School

A classmate of Makoto's and vice-commander of the 14th Branch. While still distant, he's learnt to value his relationships a little more. Absent from the hearing and hence the Final Killing.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Togamicchi, by Yasuhiro.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns in episode 6 when Makoto is able to get in contact with him.
• The Cameo: He briefly appears during a flashback to Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
• The Chessmaster: When communicating with Makoto and Asahina, he knew the "Miaya" with them was a fake and that the real Miaya had been killed. He decided not to reveal that information to Makoto and Asahina, knowing that robo-Miaya would likely attack them if he did. He was able to accurately deduce that Monaca was behind robo-Miaya and knew that she had to be neutralized before he could reveal any more information to his former classmates.
• Demoted to Extra: Was the tritagonist of the first game, but it takes six episodes for him to make a proper reappearance in the anime. Justified, as he isn't even in the building where the Final Killing Game is taking place.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: In Episode 7, he somehow sensed that Toko was having a perverted fantasy about him.
• Non-Action Guy: Played for laughs, as he relies on everybody else to do the heavy lifting both while clearing the entrance to the Future Foundation building and in having his subordinates attack the brainwashed soldiers threatening Makoto and Hagakure.
• Number Two: To Kirigiri.
• Trailers Always Spoil: His return was given away in a promotional piece before he appeared in the actual anime.

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