Narm / Danganronpa

All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

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In general:

In General

• In the first two main games' class trials, if your influence gauge empties, the trial will end with everyone voting for the protagonist as the blackened. While it does make sense in the first trial of Trigger Happy Havoc, since Makoto is the first actual suspect in Sayaka's murder, it's more baffling in later trials, since it'll happen not only if it's already established that the protagonist couldn't have committed the murder or has a solid alibi, but even when everyone's accusing someone else entirely. Fortunately, this doesn't happen in V3 (though it partially has to do with the fact that you play as the blackened for most of the first trial).

Main installments:

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

• In the Fan Translation, before every trial, Makoto delivers a ridiculously overblown soliloquy:
  Makoto: And then... the curtain rose on... A trial for life, and a judgment of death... Deception in life, and treachery in death... Betrayal for life, and betrayal for death... The riddles of life, and the mystery of death... Justification for life, and rationalization of death... Faith in life, and trust in death... The Class Trial to live... or the Class Trial to die...!!
• Leon shouting "idiot/stupid" without stopping, alongside his insane facial expression and bloodshot eyes during the third episode of Danganronpa: The Animation. Although, most fans can agree that his breakdown afterwards was heartbreaking.
  • Then there's the art in the manga when he's dragged away by the throat begging for his life; the angle on his face is a bit unfortunate.
• In the English dub, the culprits in the first two chapters shout a lot less than in the original. While one would think this would cut down on potential narm, this leads to a scene where Mondo flies into a violent rage and bludgeons someone to death while screaming that he's stronger than anyone while his voice clip declares, sounding somewhat irate, "You son of a bitch."
• For some, the intense Tear Jerker that took place when Kiyotaka almost crossed the Despair Event Horizon near the end of Chapter 2 was totally ruined by his ridiculous face. One can understand that Kiyotaka is extremely expressive, but in scenes like this one such thing tends to backfire badly. The Animation fixed the scene. Oh, it REALLY did.
• The fact that Hifumi and Kiyotaka were killed with what looks like a freaking toy mallet can potentially ruin the dark circumstances in which this takes place.
• Sakura fighting Monokuma, a teddy bear.
• The fact that the cataclysmic event that precedes the story is referred to as "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History"/"The Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind" makes any mention of said disaster lose some of its impact, given that it sounds like a student desperately trying to pad out the word count of their essay. It's perhaps for this reason that official translations of future games frequently shorten this to "The Tragedy". The fan translation ran with this by calling it "Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction."
• Felecia Angelle (Aoi's voice actress) admits in The Animation's DVD commentary that she's thankful for her lines being arranged in post-production, because she'd probably have trouble taking Hifumi's death seriously when he's speaking in that voice.
• This sprite of Kyoko. It's supposed to show her being horrified, but the way her face is drawn looks more like she's about to have diarrhea and can't find a toilet.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

• Hajime's Say My Name moment for Peko and Fuyuhiko after Chapter 2's class trial is rather overblown and uncharacteristic.
• Mikan's execution is almost unanimously considered to be the worst in the entire series for (among other reasons) being so utterly bizarre and nonsensical that it doesn't even feel like a death scene.
• Chiaki's speech of Always with You to Hajime is a real Tear Jerker... provided you don't pay too much attention to her mouth animation.

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

• Kyosuke's ultimatum to Makoto that he should kill himself if he truly wants a world of hope in the second episode of Side:Future is... memorable.
  • He also has this line in the dub of Side:Future's first episode:^{Some context} Makoto is about 20 in Side:Future, and Kyosuke is only about four years his senior.
    Kyosuke: "Makoto Naegi, of Future Foundation Branch 14. Dear boy, we hereby arrest you. For treason."
• Juzo's dub voice is basically a magnet for this, thanks to him sounding like Dandy making grade-school level quips.
• While Junko's always got a ridiculous side, some find the depiction of her analytic abilities more laughable than anything else.
• Ryota's running in Episode 9 of Side:Despair looks incredibly goofy.
• Another example from the English dub would be in Episode 6 of Side:Despair, when, NO LIE, Junko actually exclaims, "YAS QUEEN~!" upon first meeting Izuru. It has to be seen to be believed... Somewhat Hilarious in Hindsight with the reveal that Junko essentially destroyed the world through memes.
• Makoto's nightmare about the deaths of his friends from the first Mutual Killing Game appears horrifying at first, but when Mondo's body is shown as a puddle of melted butter, it quickly drains the tension.
  • Also, all of the victims have grim expressions and Hidden Eyes, except Hifumi, who, for some reason, is smiling and has Scary Shiny Glasses instead. All of that, alongside his already Gonk-ish appearance, makes him really stick out.
• The internet promptly lost it with laughter when, in an otherwise dead serious scene, Izuru refers to Junko's plan of spreading despair as "using memes" in Episode 11 of Side:Despair. And then proceeded to make memes of the meme comment.^note This isn't referring to Internet memes, but rather the definition of "meme" used before Internet memes became widespread.
  • And then the English dub made that scene even narmier by having Izuru say, with a completely straight face and in his usual deadpan tone, "they live and die by the meme". Cue huge swathes of the fandom indeed dying of laughter.
• The depiction of Class 77-B having been brainwashed into being members of Ultimate Despair. Namely, they all have permanently swirly eyes and are all excitedly talking about all of the good, kind, helpful things they intend on doing... through mass slaughter and destruction... somehow. It's supposed to be nightmarish, but it just comes off as incredibly goofy.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

• The spelling of Kokichi's surname as Oma can come off as laughable to anyone who speaks German or Dutch, given that "Oma" means grandmother in those languages.
• Thanks to the sheer pointlessness of it, the refute system is this by default. If you're snarky enough, you can make literally any serious scene in the game into a joke. The most common examples are making Shuichi say "Yeah, that's right!" whenever Maki asks him if he wants to die (therefore making Shuichi sound like he's suicidal, just like Ryoma), him agreeing with Monokuma about searching for the perfect porno video (Indirectly making Shuichi into a pervert), or using the rather deadpan "No, that's wrong!" to ''anything'' regarding Korekiyo and his sister which is just letting him say what everyone's thinking at that point.
• Kirumi being revealed as the prime minister of Japan is a genuine twist and brings up more questions about the cast's situation... while also feeling incredibly awkward and strange that a teenager was put in charge of a whole country.
• The murder weapon that killed Miu happens to be indestructible toilet paper, of all things. Fans understandably have a hard time taking that seriously.
• The murder in Chapter 4 happens when everyone is in the virtual reality and have freakishly cartoony "chibi" bodies. They look like something out of an early 2000's MMORPG for children, and the chapter's Closing Argument is almost entirely illustrated in this style!
• When Keebo rolls out of the way of the hydraulic press, it takes place in a CG, so he does so a frame at a time, in a way that looks fairly unnatural.
• The reveal that Kokichi was lying about being the mastermind can come across this, as the characters act as if Kokichi has lied for the first time ever inside the Ultimate Academy, and Maki actually suggested before then that Kokichi lied about being the mastermind, making it seem like they totally forgot about that statement. It may not help that it can also come across as a Captain Obvious Reveal.
• One of Ryoma's faces◊ is supposed to look horrified, but it is drawn in such Gonk-y way it more looks like Ryoma crapped his pants by accident.
• Shuichi saying that "He won't forgive the Mastermind for breaking the rules" is meant to come off as Monokuma passing a Moral Event Horizon (and it helps that said rule-breaking resulted in the death of the girl Shuichi had feelings for). But instead it sounds like Shuichi wants the killing game to be more fair instead of, you know, wanting it to end. Grant George's mopey delivery (along with his pitch being all over the place) doesn't exactly help.
• In the Love Across the Universe mode, Kirumi's event has her fantasy be a master who treats her as an equal. When Shuichi plays along with this, Kirumi eventually starts to cry Tears of Joy. However, the line delivery of her crying sounds like she's moaning. It impacts what should be a rather heartwarming scene, considering that it takes place inside of a love hotel.
• After finding Yasuhiro's body in the demo, the Monokubs show up, say they're going to give a hint and leave without doing so. Then Kaede, Ryoma and Kaito all use their "Geez" voice clips in succession.

Spin-offs:

Danganronpa Zero

• Ryoko finding Yuto's dead corpse near the end is supposed to be frightening, but the mental image of his head looking in the wrong direction borders on comical. It doesn't help that this implies Yasuke has enough strength to twist someone's head 180 degrees.

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