Hiyoko Saionji

Hiyoko Saionji, is a student of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77-B, and a participant of the Killing School Trip featured in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Her title is the Ultimate Traditional Dancer (Super High School Level Classical Dancer).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) She's a cruel bully who torments everyone, especially Mikan and Kazuichi because unlike the others who tend to either ignore her or laugh at her insults, they react to her insults the most, due to the fact that they've both had very bad experiences in the past with bullying.
 * 2) Her constant whining is exasperating, especially whenever the others try to call her out for her behavior, where she'll fake cry to earn their sympathy.
 * 3) Her voice is screechy and high-pitched, and it isn't helped by her personality.
 * 4) Hypocrisy: She has very little issue bullying other people, most notably Mikan and Kazuichi, but complains that people are bullying her at the beginning of Chapter 2 when people remark on her smelling bad due to not being able to take a bath (even though everybody is just asking questions rather than being outright malicious, unlike her).
 * 5) When Akane, Nagito, and Ibuki caught the Despair Disease, she hoped that they would kill themselves. And when Sonia called her out for it, what does she say? " "it wouldn't be that easy".
 * 6) She's actually supposed to be in her early twenties. So if anything, she has no excuse to act like a childish brat!
 * 7) Her nicknames of Mikan like "trashy skank" and "dirty bitch" are straight up sadistic.
 * 8) When Fuyuhiko apologized for Mahiru's death, something that wasn't even (entirely) his fault, he tried to prove it by cutting open his own stomach before the wound on his eye even healed, resulting in him having to get through another hospital visit. And even after that, she still didn't forgive him!
 * 9) After she breaks down crying after being suspected of having killed Mahiru, the only person she genuinely care about, Mikan, who she's been horrible to the entire time, makes a genuine effort to cheer her up. Only for Hiyoko to lash out and spit insults at her like usual instead of being touched by the gesture.
 * 10) Her cruelty doesn't even stop at people either! When she's introduced, she's squishing ants for fun, and later, she tries doing the same thing to a crab.
 * 11) In Chapter 3, Hajime notes that she's trying to be a nicer person, but she never changes up until her death.
 * 12) Despite how cruel and selfish she is, she still managed to get legions of young male fanboys.

Good Qualities

 * 1) While she is a cruel bully, she seems to find murder despicable to such a degree that she has absolutely no sympathy for the murderers' motivations.
 * 2) She does have an admittedly cute character design.
 * 3) She has a genuine friendship with Mahiru, and after the latter is killed, Hiyoko set up a memorial for the former and, while initially it scares the class, it soon becomes a welcome sight in the restaurant.
 * 4) It took a while, but Hiyoko eventually did forgive Fuyuhiko for indirectly getting Mahiru killed, and even showed up to the little get-together dedicated to celebrating his physical well-being. She denies it, of course, but it's so terribly obvious that she did, that even Hajime can see through her.
 * 5) Her quote, "I think it's a good thing to protect things that need to be protected.", is pretty touching.
 * 6) In Chapter 3, she's one of the only students who actually enjoys Ibuki's concert and even compliments her song, which Ibuki wrote herself.
 * 7) In her Dangan Island ending, she promises to protect Hajime and her father.
 * 8) Apart from the handful of occasional nice moments, she does actually go through some character development as the game goes on, if not for being killed by Mikan before it could actually be significant.
 * 9) In Danganronpa 3, after Mikan saves her life, Hiyoko was genuinely thankful for that, albeit insulting the former to her face just seconds before.
 * 10) Hiyoko's Free-Time Events reveal that her family has treated her miserably out of jealousy regarding her dance talent, and the only person who ever treated her kindly was her father. It goes a long way in explaining her cruelty towards others.

Trivia

 * Saionji (西園寺) translates to “Western garden temple” while Hiyoko (日寄子) means “Child who brings forth day”.
 * Hiyoko (as 雛) is also the Japanese word for "chick" (as in a baby bird). This association connected to Hiyoko's name matches her childish, innocent-looking appearance, as well as her hair color. She also has a chick print on her kimono, located just above its sash. Coincidentally, there is also a brand of bean jam-filled steamed buns called Hiyoko Sweets. Whether this was intentionally reflecting Hiyoko's sweet tooth or not is unknown.
 * Hiyoko has quite the sweet tooth, as she mostly eats gummies. However, she never eats yellow gummies, due to her dislike of sour food. In her report card, it states she eats flower candies and Japanese sweets.
 * In original Japanese, she is known as the Super High School Level 'buyō-ka', or a master of buyō dance, which is a traditional form of Japanese art that combines the act of moving to a rhythm and dancing.
 * Hiyoko's Japanese voice actress, Suzuko Mimori, also voiced Kiriko Nishizawa in Danganronpa 3 - Despair Arc, and her English voice actress, Kira Buckland, also voices Kirumi Tojo in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

Comments
