Main installments: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Danganronpa Zero | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Spin-offs: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF | Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Adaptations: Danganronpa: The Animation
As a Nightmare Fuel page, all spoilers are unmarked as per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!
"The darkness in [Nagito's] eyes shone brightly, as if layers upon layers of darkness were folding into each other... As if hope and despair had been crudely mixed together."
Being the sequel to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair tops the creepiness in more ways than one would expect.
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The game:
In General
- Much like the first game, the murders grow increasingly gruesome.
- Chapter 1's victim is "Byakuya". He gets stabbed multiple times in the chest and stomach, leaving behind a bloody scene under the table.
- Chapter 2's victim is Mahiru. Her brains are bashed in with a baseball bat.
- Chapter 3's victim is Ibuki and Hiyoko. The former is strangled with a rope, then hung, while the latter got her throat slashed.
- Chapter 4's victim is Nekomaru. He's dropped from a ceiling and dismembered (as a robot) after hitting a stone pillar.
- Chapter 5's victim is Nagito. See the "Chapter 5" section in the "Chapter by Chapter" folder for a description of it.
- This game reveals the existence of the Ultimate Despair, a group of people that was, essentially, an extension of Junko. Said group caused great part of the damage seen in the first game and probably, if they weren't captured by Future Foundation, would have done more. Even worse? The class you've come to know in the game? They're a member of it too.
- It gets worse, as the anime reveals how they becomes members of it in in first place: they were Forced to Watch as Chiaki was put in a maze where Everything Is Trying to Kill You is in full effect, with her being forced to navigate to find the exit while she was wounded. All this culminates with the wonderful image of Chiaki being impaled by several spears.
Chapter by Chapter
Prologue:
- The general atmosphere of the opening. When the main character wakes up, everything glitches until they are fully conscious. When they try to think about how they got here, the player sees a computer processing code, starting the game. It's a bizarre and unnerving image when booting up the game for the first time.
- When Hajime tries to explain more about why he strives to be a part of Hope's Peak Academy, he repeats "always" until he says "until now, I never wanted to admit how painfully ordinary I really am. That's why... hope... I might have admired talent•individuality...•but I have finally... forever⬤tried my best... finally came tru3+d" before everything turns black. It's similar to Makoto in the first game, but with glitches instead of a swirling sight.
- While Monokuma is still his usual self in this game, him appearing in Jabberwock Island is not a good sign at all, especially since he turns Usami into "Monomi", and radically changes the rules and dynamic of the island. Jabberwock Island has now become the new Hope's Peak setting from the first game.
- Him saying "Long time no see guys!" might be a fun allusion to not seeing the player in a while, but it's very sinister Foreshadowing about the classmate's true identity.
- The Monobeasts. Sure, Monokuma and Usami are mechanical animals too, but their designs were more cartoony, while the Monobeasts, while Creepy Awesome, have more "serious" contrast to them that is really unsettling.
- Monomi's initial execution. Seeing such a nice character getting gunned down like that is horrific and heartbreaking. While she does reappear no worse for wear, it certainly establishes that Monokuma is NOT messing around this time.
- The chapter end card. All of them are disturbing, but this one takes the cake since it establishes what's going to happen to everyone. Sinister music plays while a dull font is shown of the chapter and the name. Then, after END appears the students are shown in silhouette, with the surviving students ticker. Followed by pink blood, and "To be continued", followed by a female's voice echoing, "Danganronpa..."
Chapter 1:
- Togami's body discovery as it pretty much comes out of nowhere and he evidently died in a horrifying way, bringing a sad end to the loveable Team Dad.
- Nagito's VERY creepy smile in Chapter 1's trial, after Hajime exposes his true colors. Even worse, the game zooms in on his face and his eyes look like crazy spirals. There's a good reason why it's the current page image.
- And his laugh, good God...
it really hammers home the truth. The guy you thought was going to be your ally during the trials, like Kyoko from the first game? He's batshit insane.
- And his laugh, good God...
Chapter 2:
- Monokuma presents the chapter's motive for murder: A crappy arcade game called Twilight Syndrome. It sounds ridiculous on the surface until you play it, and the game is rendered in PS1-era graphics and models, with the characters in a jarring semi-realistic style compared to the Danganronpa series' cartoony anime style. The main characters discover a murdered student, but none of them report it to the authorities out of fear that they'll be suspected. Near the end, one of the girls is stalked by an offscreen threat ominiously saying "I'll never forgive you". The game ends with that girl's corpse found by her friends, which is an edited real-life photo. While Hajime is understandably confused about this since this was supposed to be based on real-life events he hasn't heard of nor would have remembered since those were part of his missing memories, Fuyuhiko was the first to discover the true ending. His prize? Photos of said events which revealed to him the first victim was his little sister.
- While Mahiru died one of the most painless deaths in the series, that doesn't make her body discovery any less creepy, especially as it comes right after a series of cute events. It's completely jarring to see the corpse of Mahiru who was so full of life and happy, lifelessly sitting in a pool of her own blood. It's made worse by the haunting and distraught look on her face.
- While Peko's Sparkling Justice performance is generally campy, it's very unnerving when she says she "did nothing wrong" in regards to beating Mahiru to death and using her corpse as a doorstopper. It gets worse when she drops the sparking justice act taking off her mask and showcasing a very creepy smirk/grimace as she explains that she's a tool and therefore Fuyuhiko is the killer, the smirk combined with how cold Peko sounds is downright frightening and a massive contrast from her usually sweet and quiet personality. Thankfully after she's voted as the killer she drops the smirk and returns to her usual quiet self and is repentant over Mahiru showing at the very least that her apparent indifference towards her crime was an act.
- While he's far from pleasant in the first chapter, Fuyuhiko's behavior throughout the second trial becomes extremely unnerving. He goes batshit insane throughout the trial, mouthing off at others with heavily abusive and murderous remarks, gleefully smirking while framing Hiyoko for Mahiru's murder, making Blatant Lies so stubbornly, and shouting like a murderous mentally unstable psychopath at Hajime by saying the sword would've been left in the shower room. Even after it's proven that Peko got the sword using the bag, Fuyuhiko still goes batshit insane nearly frothing at the mouth until Peko tells him "It's fine.". With the reveal after the trial that Peko is his childhood friend and it's strongly implied he has romantic feelings for her, his gradual Villainous Breakdown makes more sense, but doesn't make it less creepy.
- In addition his constant threats to "fucking kill" anyone who even slightly annoys him weren't bullshit as he was perfectly willing to beat Mahiru to death for pissing him off, not only that but he lured her there in the first place with the sole intent of splitting her head open(although he claims he wanted to back out). While he initially seems like a joke rival compared to Nagito, trial 2 fully showcases how dangerous he could be. Thankfully he becomes far more pleasant after this attitude directly kills Mahiru and indirectly kills Peko and to a lesser extent Hiyoko.
Chapter 3:
- How about the last time you see Ibuki alive?! You're in an incredibly dark hospital with some really creepy music, and Ibuki is just standing there in her hospital gown, and the Gullible Disease makes her mannerisms and speech quite unsettling. Her sprite during the entire scene doesn't help at all.◊ The fact that this is the last time you see her is the DEFINITION of Harsher in Hindsight and will definitely leave an impression on you.
- Ibuki's staged suicide in Chapter 3 is extremely chilling, beginning with the receiver turning on one hour before the wake-up time, and turning on to reveal a candle-lit stage with a noose at the top of a stepladder. Then, suddenly "Ibuki" walks on with a bag on her head, which only serves to add to the creepiness by hiding any discernible facial features. Then, she begins climbing up the stepladder... which looks absolutely fucking terrifying due to the creepy lighting provided by the candle. Hajime, seeing this, flips out and runs to the stage... only to find that he's too late, and Ibuki's already been hanged.
- The CG of Hiyoko walking into the venue and spotting the killer is incredibly unnerving as Hiyoko looks completely terrified. While Hiyoko was certainly flawed she died completely alone and scared without anyone to save her, brat or not she didn't deserve that.
- In both languages, the culprit of the third trial gets incredibly creepy as she's slowly cornered. Hearing Mikan go from high-pitched Shrinking Violet to chillingly calm to furious and, finally, after the trial, completely insane is just so disturbing, especially coming from a character who seemed perfectly nice earlier.
- It gets even worse come The Reveal in Chapter 6. The Despair Disease simply reverted her back to her Ultimate Despair personality. Meaning this is what Mikan was actually like while she was a member. She murdered one person for no reason other than "reciprocating" Junko's love, and brutally killed another just for being a witness, all the while going Laughing Mad and showing no remorse whatsoever. If she's this bad, imagine what the other students were like at the time...
Chapter 4:
- The motive of this chapter must be one of the cruellest in the entire franchise based on its sadistic nature. After being knocked out, the remaining students end up in the Funhouse, a cheery building. But there is a catch: they'll be locked in here with no food until a murder is commited. Seeing everyone gradually losing their energy and hope, until they're barely able to even move (your movement speed is reduced to a crawl during this chapter) is not pretty. The normal, cheerful Free Time music getting replaced with RE: All All Apologies doesn't help.
Chapter 5:
- Nagito is the victim in this chapter, and how he is found is incredible sickening. He's found tied up, laying in a spread-eagle pose, gagged with masking tape. There are also stab wounds along his thighs and left arm, and his right hand is pierced by an army knife. The most unpleasant sight of all is the spear piercing through his stomach at a perfect 90 degree angle. The worst part of it all? He inflicted all of those wounds on himself (possibly excepting the spear, which may have impaled him postmortem, or it impaled him while he was still choking on the poisonous gas that he set up). The horrified expression frozen on his face does NOT help matters. Here it is for those who want to see it in full, but be warned that this is easily one of the most, if not THE most, brutal murder in the franchise. It is also important to note that he gagged himself, despite the fact that he was kidnapped by a serial killer and now associates gags with that event.
Chapter 0:
- The atmosphere of Chapter 0 is unnerving. You are playing as a character who is known only by ???, it's not Hajime, Nagito, or any character you grew to love. Just, no one. This person constantly talks in a philosophical manner, while using the word 'boring', a lot. Nagito's presence does cut the mood a bit, but not by much.
- It turns out, we know who this person is in Chapter 6. It's Izuru Kamakura.
- During one scene, Nagito reveals one of his hands, which is smooth and has painted nails. He has one of Junko's hands. By "with one of Junko's hands", we don't mean that Nagito retrieved it from her corpse and kept it with him. We mean that he chopped off his left hand and stuck Junko's on the stump◊. It is a sickening thought how much he's been driven to despair that he wanted to become one with her.
Chapter 6:
- Due to the thing in Jabberwock Park exploding, everything has become a glitchy mess and turns into terrifying Mind Screw central. You can examine the dead kids' cottages during this time, but read at your own risk.
- Until the reveal, it almost seems like all that glitching — starting with and including the sudden reappearance of the deceased kids (sans Nagito) interacting with the survivors as if nothing happened — was a visual metaphor for the last of Hajime's neural wires fraying away.
- While dead kids' last thoughts being barely coherent gibberish is already creepy, Nagito's message being perfectly fine while Nagito himself is the only one to not reappear somehow manages to make it worse.
- The entirety of the final trial. Good. fucking. god the final trial.
- The "noise" statements you have to shoot down during arguments are all Mind Screw-worthy segments of glitched text.
- In one part of the final trial, Hajime's all of a sudden back on the beach, somehow holding a trial with all of the other kids, but they're just standing there, all glad that everything's over — except Chiaki, who breaks Hajime out of the illusion on the second cycle. But the most terrifying part? Afterwards, Hajime finds himself in a void, surrounded by a bunch of clones of Izuru Kamukura, all talking about how worthless they are and how they've crossed the Despair Event Horizon and how they can't choose any future. They're all darkened, with glowing red eyes. They speak in unison, and fittingly, ominous chanting plays in the background. That chanting? Listen carefully to it and you can clearly make out "Enoshima". That isn't just some random chanting, it's a motherfucking holy hymn.
- Then there's giant Junko, who appears with very little warning and speaks through a human-sized cell phone whose screen displays another Junko. She attempts to trick the survivors into accepting her offer of "Graduation", which would allow them to keep their memories of the game world and even bring the "dead" kids back to life...as in, their bodies become vessels for the AI Junko. And the survivors would have no clue, because all the data Junko has compiled on them would allow her to imitate them perfectly.
- The thought that if the students chose to "graduate" while Makoto, Kyoko and Byakuya were in there, those three would be stuck in the game world forever. With Junko. Sure, she wouldn't be able to kill them directly, but that probably makes it worse. Just think of all the ways she could use Loophole Abuse to torture them... forever. On second thought, don't.
- Some of the descriptions of what Ultimate Despair did to show their devotion to Junko. One turned in their own parents to her to be experimented on. One replaced his own eyeball with one of Junko's. Hajime is so horrified at that he screams at the speaker to stop before he can finish his sentence.
- This is actually worse when you look carefully and realize these are actually implied to be actions committed by the students as Despair. Note the resemblance to Fuyuhiko in the one transplanting the eye into himself.
- It's also implied that Akane was the one who starved herself. Akane is normally a Big Eater, so starving herself for despair isn't a hard connection to make...
- The localization actually makes the latter worse, because it's outright stated that some members tried to bear her child using her corpse. Much to everyone's horror, especially Hajime and Fuyuhiko going crazy.
- Players of the first game will remember just how Junko went out: being flattened by a crusher. Whatever the members of Ultimate Despair salvaged from that corpse couldn't have been pretty. It makes the above statement from the localization even more fucked-up.
- Looking closer at the pictures of the horrendous actions committed by Ultimate Despair, not only does it seem like Fuyuhiko transplanted Junko's eye into himself and Akane starved herself to skin and bones, a person wearing a hat like Kazuichi's is seen gunning down a bunch of people.
- The very concept of Izuru Kamukura. He was "created" in a project to create a student with every single Ultimate talent. How did they do this? By inflicting what can only be described as surgical Mind Rape on a Reserve Course dropout they used as a guinea pig. And yes, he did end up with every talent. But "all of his senses, emotions, thoughts and hobbies that interfere with acquiring talent" had been "excised." As the Characters page says, someone like that could barely even be described as human anymore. The process described is so horrifying that Junko approves of it! To reiterate, this is probably the one horrifying thing in the series that she didn't instigate in some way, and she loves it as much as her own twisted schemes. That... really says something about how messed up it is. And to make it even worse: he's Hajime Hinata.
- Just to make things worse, the guidebook heavily implies who Izuru's creator is. That person? Yasuke Matsuda, Ultimate Neurologist and Junko's boyfriend. Think about the implications of that.
- Just the way Makoto describes the Ultimate Despair. And he says this over a lovely background image of hundreds of people plummeting into a giant flame."Despair in human form, but utterly devoid of humanity... that's what you guys really are. The Ultimate Despairs don't care about principals or morals. They just spread despair everywhere they go. They live solely to torment everything... to burn everything... to kill everything."
To be sorted:
- One of Kazuichi's shocked faces is nearly a Nightmare Face. It looks rather haunting, and can be quite startling whenever it appears.
- Once again, the Closing Argument comics slip into this, with the creepy, Slasher Smiling featureless humanoid depictions of the culprits. Mikan and Nagito's identities being revealed are also as creepy as these have ever been (Teruteru, Peko and Gundham's avert this—Teruteru and Gundham look downright comical (with traits of a Graceful Loser in Gunhdam's pose) while Peko maintains her usual stoicism).
Executions
The executions and deaths once again.
- Chapter 1's execution, "Deep Fried Teruteru". Teruteru Hanamura is chained to a post on the beach, and up pops Monokuma in a chopper. Instead of blowing him up, the missiles Monokuma fires at Teruteru cover him in eggs and breadcrumbs, and for a moment it looks like he'll get off lightly in comparison to the previous games' executions—NOPE. Monokuma then takes the post to an active volcano and drops Teruteru into the lava. Pan to the kids staring in horror at their classmate's sizzling corpse bobbing on the surface.
- Chapter 2's execution, "One Woman Army". Peko Pekoyama is surrounded by an army of robot samurai; Monokuma holds up a straw doll with a photo of her face on it, hijacks Peko's body and starts making her cut down her enemies. Fuyuhiko somehow makes it into the "arena", as it were, and makes a beeline for Peko in the hopes of stopping her and getting her out. And he does stop her—when Monokuma releases control just long enough for her to accidentally hack him up. In remorse, she hugs his unconscious body and either doesn't notice the samurai-bots readying their swords, or actively allows them to stab her to death.
- Chapter 3's execution, "Bye-Bye Ouchies!" What Mikan Tsumiki's death lacks in cruelty, it makes up for in mind-fuckery (and squick). She's lying on a bed in an empty room, and here comes Nurse Monokuma to impale her on a massive hypodermic needle — or so you'd think. The needle instead buries itself in the arm-shaped rocket that a moment before seemed to be her bed; as he injects it with fuel(?), Mikan becomes more and more ecstatic before apparently having an orgasm (there's a split-second shot of her nude), and then the rocket takes off with her clinging for dear life. We don't actually see her die for once, but it can be safely assumed she died from oxygen starvation shortly after launch. Alternatively, it's been suggested that it's a metaphor for her orgasmic ecstasy during a death by lethal injection, reveling in despair and believing she'll be with the one she loves.
- Chapter 4's execution, "Gundham Tanaka Stampede". Staring down an oncoming stampede, Gundham Tanaka gets his hamsters to safety and draws a magic circle, the stampede getting closer by the second — and at the last moment, the circle fails and Gundham is mercilessly crushed. Abated slightly by the execution ending with his past pets carrying him off to Heaven.
- Before that is the matter of Chapter 4's victim, (Mecha) Nekomaru Nidai, who so far has the dubious honor of being the only victim to have been dismembered.
- Chapter 5's execution, "Please Insert Coin". Thanks to Nagito's bastardry, it's Chiaki Nanami and Monomi's turn. Chiaki and the remaining Monomi units are sitting at the back of what looks like a warehouse with various pixellated invader-types popping up in front of them, which Monokuma starts shooting down in a freaking tank. Chiaki spots an exit and she and the Monomi units run for dear life, with Monokuma still managing to run over all but one of the Monomis; Chiaki and the last Monomi seemingly manage to escape before smacking into a glass wall. A shutter closes behind them, and all the two can do is wait for Monokuma to crush them with Tetris blocks...
Miscellaneous
- Nagito's facial expressions in his spin-off manga reek of Nightmare Face. Not to mention the dream sequence he has at one point, which has him revisit all of his past trauma and ends with Junko's hands grabbing him by the ankle...
- Although the plans for the entire cast’s executions are unknown, there *are* plenty of fanmade executions for a good chunk of the non-killer cast, listed as follows:
- Hajime’s execution, “Scratch de Hinata”, would have him printed on a lottery ticket, as Monokuma scratches him away with a coin. After he finds out he lost, he simply throws the paper away, getting rid of Hajime for good.
- Sonia’s execution, “Princess Sonia”, would involve her being used as a Snow White puppet. Eventually, when she eats the poison apple, she does not wake up, likely due to the poison. The execution ends with a happy ending where the stepmother - portrayed by Monokuma - lives Happily Ever After.
- Mahiru’s execution, “Real Photo”, would have her being thrown into a desert, with a photo album with her name on it. Said photographs show Mahiru in the desert, and as Mahiru goes through them, a white hand clamps her neck. The final photo shows her on the ground dead, and a camera appears. As she tries to throw it away, another white hand appears behind her without her noticing, and it’s safe to say that she dies to the hands strangling her to death.
- Kazuichi’s execution, “Underground Travels”, would involve him being forced into a drilling machine, as it goes deeper into the center of the earth, before falling into a tub of acid, causing Kazuichi and the machine to melt. Way more brutal compared to the others.
- Fuyuhiko’s execution, “Best Battle”, would involve him hiding in the midst of a gang battle. A shadow resembling Peko then appears, as Fuyuhiko runs to it…only to be shot fatally. Eventually, “Peko” is revealed to be a Monokuma in disguise, as Fuyuhiko dies with a regretful smile.
- Nagito’s execution, “Rope Master”, would involve him being in a circus act. Monokuma then cuts ropes from a platform, and due to Nagito’s luck, the platform stays afloat. But do you really think Monokuma would just give up? Nope. Instead, he lights the platform on fire, as Nagito gets burned alive.
- In addition, alternative executions for Chiaki and Gundham are also included with them: Chiaki’s alternative execution would have her on a board game with all the titles being electric, and she is eventually killed by an electric shock, while Gundham’s alternative execution would have him running in a hamster wheel, running from a giant ball. He is then crushed to death by the ball, as he smiles at his 4 Dark Devas, before finally dying.
