All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
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Main installments:
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
- Toko Fukawa is the type of girl who's antagonistic and assumes the worst out of everything, often talking bad of people who just want to help her (especially people who just so happen to have large breasts), and her split-personality is no better, a Serial Killer Cloud Cuckoo Lander who is basically Toko's most negative traits amped up to the extreme. Despite that, the poor girl has had it rough. He developed her split personality to cope with the abuse that her father subjected her into alongside her two mothers, and she was often neglected by them. In middle school, she only got a date due to one boy losing a bet with his friends, and in elementary school, she got her letter of love pinned to the bulletin board and ridiculed for it, only picking it up as her talent due to her teacher praising her writing. And then she gets trapped in the killing game, with her obsession (Byakuya Togami) constantly abusing her verbally and sees a lot of people get killed (with her fainting into Genocide Jill everytime she sees blood), and when she escapes, she gets to witness the world being plunged into despair, having the kids of a city putting the adults into getting killed by Monokuma robots. No wonder she barely keeps it together..
- From the manga, Celestia Ludenberg can be one once it talks about her having a Dark and Troubled Past of her growing up as a Generic Girl who had zero people to love, and once she discovered her talent, she did everything to be viewed as "special", even going into darker parts of her personality. While it's unsure if the Dark and Troubled Past is truly canon or not, some dialogue in School Mode in the game's re-release seems to back it up. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls takes it even further, where the thing that she loves most happens to be a freaking cat, and Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp having several events where she is likened to a child perpetually playing make-believe (as "Celestia Ludenburg") rather than face a painful reality (as "Taeko Yasuhiro").
- Mondo Owada was the teenage biker gang leader and the Ultimate Biker. His story first begins when he was younger, unwittingly causing his elder brother: Daiya Owada, to die in a traffic accident while motorcycling, sacrificing his life so that Mondo could live. As he became biker gang leader, Mondo was constantly judged and criticized for not being his brother, being weak, and not being the leader the gang deserved. Yet, despite all the criticism thrown his way, he still carried on. Sometime before the events of the first game when he was attending a different school, Mondo met the young computer genius, Chihiro Fujisaki. He grew fond of the young prodigy and hung out with him and Leon Kuwata. During the Killing Game, after a dare with Kiyotaka Ishimaru, the Ultimate Moral Compass, he began to respect him and the two became friends. One night, vowing to become stronger, Chihiro unknowingly caused a bit of PTSD by asking Mondo to train him. In a fit of rage, Mondo beat Chihiro over the head with a dumbbell and before he knew it, Chihiro was on the ground, dead. Wanting to keep Chihiro's secret about actually being a guy a secret, as a man-to-man promise, he changed the carpet from the girl's locker room and the bloodied poster and moved it all to the girl's locker. He then tossed Chihiro's e-Handbook into the sauna as his also broke when it was exposed to high temperature. During the trial, when cornered by Makoto Naegi, Mondo admits everything much to Kiyotaka's surprise and horror and gets executed by a motorbike in an electric cage which somehow turns him into butter. In the end, despite his brash exterior and rough attitude, he was really a pretty cool guy underneath it all.
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
- Some of Kazuichi Soda's Jerkass tendencies come from his attempts to make friends by mimicking the boys who often bullied him growing up, mistaking these behaviors as being "strong" or "normal", and considering how casually he talked about his father beating him up for skipping a middle school field trip since, among other reasons, he knew his family might be too poor to afford it in his free times his home life doesn't sound much better. The fact his final one has him confess a good portion of his positive attitude is a deliberate act to hide how utterly terrified he still is, thanks in part to his many trust issues and the situation at hand, doesn't help. Not to mention that Kazuichi knows he used to be badly-received, but he doesn't understand that his new attitude is also detrimental to his attempts to make friends for different reasons.
- Hiyoko Saionji's Free-Time Events (assuming she's telling the truth) also confirm she had a pretty terrible home life, including but not limited to having her beloved father go mad trying to protect her from her rivals (which lead to her grandmother cutting her off from both her parents) and seeing/experiencing sabotage attempts which could have easily turned deadly. Chapter 2 elevates this as she is drugged by Fuyuhiko and Peko who then proceed to murder Mahiru, her first-ever friend and force her to find Mahiru's blood-covered corpse. To make things worse she's framed for it and after she's cleared, she finds out the reasons for Mahiru's death were utterly senseless and idiotic. Throughout chapter 3 she's utterly depressed because of Mahiru's murder made worse by the reappearance of Fuyuhiko. And then just as she starts to move past it, she gets brutally murdered just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu becomes this starting around the end of Chapter 2. Not only he ended up finding out that his sister was dead, he nearly killed Mahiru who was accused of being the accomplice for the killer of his sister in a fit of rage only for Peko to grab the bat and kill Mahiru herself believing she was Just Following Orders. After he heavily defended Peko at the class trial and she was found guilty, he breaks down into tears and begins screaming that he never wanted Peko to be his tool - he just wanted her by his side. After he was nearly killed by Peko in her execution, he ended up having to wear an eye patch, attempted to commit suicide because of his guilt over Mahiru's murder, and becomes a reformed Broken Haughty having to deal with the fact that the two women that he cares about the most ended up dying and that he also realised that his actions towards Mahiru were extremely cruel. And in the final class trial, the only thing that he wants to do is see Peko again.
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School
- As both series went on, Juzo Sakakura began to show more than a few traits of this. Feeling left behind by Yukizome and Munakata's romance, his Undying Loyalty to Munakata leads to him unhesitatingly trying time and time again to kill for him throughout the events of Future. He endures severe, bloody physical injuries time and time again, and even shrugs off mind control for his sake, only to be brutally stabbed by him in a very tense scene. Furthermore, episode 10 of Side:Despair made him look more pitiful as not only did he fail to stop Enoshima, she uncovered his hidden secret: He's gay for Munakata. Considering the ostracization given towards gay people even in real life, as well as Juzo seemingly not having any other friends outside of his trio, Sakakura has to pretty much hide that one secret in fear of being shunned by even his very straight object of interest, making his overall violence look like his way to vent his frustration over that fact. Enoshima used that secret to blackmail him into telling Munakata that she's innocent. He grudgingly went along, which caused Munakata to believe he was a Remnant of Despair once the truth of Junko being evil came out. And after Juzo survived Munakuta's attempted murder towards him, he sacrificed himself in order to end the killing game once and for all to have Munakuta be safe.
- Kyosuke Munakata lost both his girlfriend and his best friend. His girlfriend also turned out to be a Brainwashed and Crazy Remnant of Despair who has been slowly corrupting him into becoming a Knight Templar. For added fun, he killed the aforementioned best friend out of paranoia that he was also a Remnant of Despair. Despite Munakata wanting to ask Juzo for his forgiveness after he finds out that his friend actually survived the attack, he's too late, as Juzo had already bled out moments before he reached him. His only consolation is that he died with a smile on his face and that Makoto had previously told him that Juzo was the one who shut the final killing game down. By Side:Hope, he is the only survivor to have a complete Downer Ending, which became one of the many complaints of Side:Hope.
- Ruruka Ando. Despite acting like a massive Alpha Bitch and treating her former best friend terribly, flashbacks reveal that her terrible self-esteem and severe case of Hero Worship towards Kimura led to their friendship being strained until the bombing incident caused their relationship to basically go into meltdown, ruining both of their lives. The fact that she committed suicide in such a brutal way shows how much self-loathing the poor girl probably had.
- Natsumi Kuzuryu (who is a reserve course student like Hajime) has even lower self-esteem than Hajime. She wanted to have a talent so badly that she made up her own talent as the Ultimate Little Sister because she believes that she's unworthy of being around her brother if she's unable to have a talent of sorts.
- While the way Sonosuke Izayoi treats anybody who is not his girlfriend is not exactly the best thing in the world, it's hard to not feel bad for somebody who was killed by their lover, especially since that said lover (Ruruka) previously said Izayoi was the only person she trusted.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
- Maki Harukawa is an unpleasant Jerkass in the early parts of the game, and a few believe she gave Ryoma his motive video knowing that it would destroy any reason he had to live, but after her backstory and real nature are exposed, it's very hard not to feel sorry for her.
- Miu Iruma. She may be a nuisance with a penchant for making crass remarks, but her Free Time Events reveal that she has no malicious intent, but rather that she has no idea that her inability to filter herself tends to drive people away, in no small part because of her Friendless Background. It is also noted that her hammy aggressive self serves as emotional armor, and it does not take a lot to get Miu to back down. She also explicitly says that she was inspired to become an inventor and help people after a brain surgeon saved her life. Her decision to kill Kokichi and graduate was amoral, but she was acting out of the genuine belief that the world had gone to absolute shit and that her talent as an inventor was needed to help people, as well as attempting to get back at Kokichi, who constantly abused her. Her prioritizing her life over her classmates is selfish, yes, but her motive was one of pure altruism. Her Love Suite Event with Shuichi, although it gets derailed into Black Comedy shenanigans in the end, shows some sad characteristics about her, like how she is secretly very lonely and has major abandonment issues; her fantasy is a Childhood Friend Romance in which she falls in love with a friend who has cared for her and supported her ever since they were kids. She then tries to invoke a Baby Trap plan on him, believing that it is the only sure way that he would not abandon her.
- Kirumi Tojo, at least purely in the scope of the Chapter 2 trial. Though she votes for Shuichi out of spite and attempts to use the others' pity to save her life right until the end, the immense pressure on a young woman to run a country and her ultimately noble and selfless motivation still make even these actions hard not to sympathize with, and that's without even touching on the fact she's a kind and caring Team Mom prior to this.
- Out of all the Monokubs, Monodam and Monotaro are the most sympathetic.
- Monodam just wants to get along with his family members and do what's best for them, but his repeated failures at doing so drives him to suicide.
- Monotaro is not very bright, and can easily be led astray, even when he attempts to better himself as seen in Chapter 4. He's also the most heartbreakingly panicked at his impending death at his own father's paws in Chapter 6.
Spin-offs:
Danganronpa Zero
- Yasuke Matsuda is introduced as a massive asshole who treats Ryouko terribly, even though there are hints he does care about her. Then we learn the full deal concerning him: he was trying to protect Ryouko from herself and was ultimately his own girlfriend's Unwitting Pawn, and he gets incredibly depressing.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
- Monaca Towa can be viewed as a Jerkass Woobie (as well as Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and a Wheelchair Woobie, at least until the reveal) since all of her unsympathetic nature, including her incredible manipulation skills and exploitation of other people's traumas, are a result of her childhood circumstances. She was born out of wedlock, abandoned by her mother, had her brother and father never accept her and treat her as an alien, giving her looks when she even attempted jokes around them. Her father and brother also physically abused her out of a resentment complex to the point where it was believable to them when she faked being wheelchair-bound because of them. She then crossed paths with Junko Enoshima whom she began to idolize and learn from...
