- "I can't believe it. Except it's kind of happening, so I guess I have to. Fuck."-Madison
Tropes from the first canon round of Dangan Roleplay.
This round provides examples of:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Juniper's one-sided crush on Apollo fades on the island and she ends up dating Veronica.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Junko's appearance during the Graduation Exam in season 1.
- Bamboo Technology: Televisions embedded in, and plugged into, palm trees.
- Better as Friends: Lysandre and Archer after a messy "breakup" and weeks of awkward rage. Then comes round 2, in which there's even more awkward rage for multiple reasons... but they eventually settle into this again, if "friends" means "morally ambiguous gossip buddies."
- Body of the Week: Every Friday like clockwork. Although that doesn't mean they'd died the day/night before. Also, averted on week 8, where there was an unsuccessful murder attempt.
- Cavalry Betrayal: Junko tries to convince the students that the former SHSL Despair members who came to help are still working for her and will do this to them. She also does it for real with the Naegi illusion.
- Climactic Battle Resurrection: Veronica during the Graduation Exam.
- Creator In-Joke: The jukebox in the diner only having two songs: Tom Jones's "What's New Pussycat" and "It's Not Unusual".
- The Dead Have Names: From the third week on, Veronica carved the names of the dead into a tree as a memorial, murderers and victims alike. When the ghosts of the 78th class showed up, Aradia added them as well.
- Death by Disfigurement: Lysandre gets a robot arm after his original arm is blown off. He doesn't last too long after that.
- Deflector Shields: Attempting to damage things on the island sometimes runs into these, like when Madison chucks a rock at a tree in the intro log and it bounces right back at her.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: Roxy and Madison are equal parts shocked and entertained when Archer walks out of Lysandre's cabin one morning, dishevelled and covered in hickeys.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: Sudden-onset perfect snow happens the week of Christmas and disappears after it. Remember, this is a tropical island. But then, it's a virtual world.
- Due to the Dead: Veronica's tree to honor the deceased. See also Meaningful Funeral.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: A few game mechanics are different between this and later rounds, such as the nerfing of powers or lack thereof, the plot and setting being based on an existing DR game, and the Hope Shard system for regains rewarding interaction instead of the later Monomono Machine.
- Everybody Lives: The dead students wake up after the survivors do.
- Foreshadowing: When Sam runs out of fairy tale collections, he starts reading H.P. Lovecraft instead, even though it seems to upset him. The content of the stories hints at his true nature.
- Fiery Cover-Up: Sam blowing up his own cabin so that, if he fails to kill the others in the later bombings, they won't suspect that he was behind it.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Madison and Veronica after they mend their differences in the Russian Roulette trap.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: The whole round happens because of the reintroduction of the New World Program. It was meant to do good for the students and especially for the SDR2 kids, but it only created more victims. Round 2 also directly follows because of the events of Round 1.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Averted, save for parts of the fourth and sixth executions.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The murder of Week 9 of season 1. Like in Chapter 5 of the original Dangan Ronpa, someone was set up.
- Island of Mystery: The game starts with the cast waking up on an island they can't leave, which becomes the round's setting.
- It Gets Easier: Irisu claims this as the weeks go on, but even she acknowledges that that's not quite right: getting used to a bad situation and getting more okay with condemning your friends aren't the same.
- It's All Junk: Jimmy throwing Archer's friendship bracelet into the ocean after case 5. Considering that he even kept Dahlia's bracelet, it's a big sign of how much the betrayal hurt.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: For Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Please be advised of this should you decide to read the proceedings.
- Loophole Abuse: Since there's only a rule against attacking Monobear himself, Roxy happily attacks his food bowl instead, spilling popcorn all over the floor.
- Losing the Team Spirit: Averted after Jimmy was rescued from his execution at the end of Week 9.
- Love Is in the Air: One of Jumba's experiments causes this.
- Merry Christmas in Gotham: It would seem to be the case in Week 4, but it's quickly subverted, starting with starvation and cannibalism and not getting much better from there.
- Mistaken for Afterlife: Because this round doesn't have memory loss and so many people were taken from points where it'd be plausible (post-death, actually from the afterlife, or before, during, or after the end of the world), this happens a lot at first. (Well, when the island isn't being mistaken for prison, a reality show, or the Distortion World.)
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Veronica swears to Lysandre that she'll protect "everyone, even Madison."
- No Party Like A Monobear Party: Happened on Christmas Eve. No one discovered what or who they were eating until about halfway through the party.
- Over The Top Christmas Decorations: Week 4 covers the archipelago in seasonal decor. Monomi says that, since she's never had a Christmas before, she wants to make this the best one ever.
- Plot Coupon That Does Something: Hope Shards unlock new areas and regains and signify the progress of everyone's relationships.
- Point of Divergence: Round 1's events are this for the DRRP world versus DR canon.
- Prolonged Prologue: Unlike with later entries, this round's peace week is a true prologue. Monobear and the killing game are only introduced after it.
- Russian Roulette: Madison and Veronica have to do this in a trap. Both come out alive and with a better understanding of one another.
- Santa Claus: Jumba wears a Santa outfit for Christmas and then just keeps wearing it, deciding that he isn't done being festive yet.
- Shock Party: Monobear crashes the Case 5 afterparty.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Used to prove Lysandre's guilt in Case 5 when Roxy dials the number in Jumba's device and Lysandre starts ringing.
- Shrine to the Fallen: The tree with names carved into it.
- So Proud of You: Lysandre to Veronica in his final letter. In the epilogue, Aradia helps Chihiro's ghost tell Alter Ego this.
- Stutter Stop: Sam suddenly stops nervously stammering at his reveal video and after that.
- The Talk: Despite being high-school-aged, Jimmy has never had the Talk. Madison is kind of horrified.
- True Love is Exceptional: Subverted painfully. Madison sees Sam as a wimp and would rather have flings with wilder people, but then starts actually falling for him... until he turns out to be a scheming liar and a literal monster who never cared about her or anyone. As being used is already a major issue for her, it doesn't go well.
- Trust-Building Blunder: The peace week is filled with team-building exercises. Most of the students hate them.
- Trust Password: In the final trial, Veronica asks Madison to ask her anything to prove it's her.
- Twice Shy: Uuji and Irisu are both extremely introverted. Combine that with extremely messed up.
- Two Dun It: Case 5, where Lysandre and Archer committed a murder together in an effort to break the game.
- Voice Clip Song: Sample made one out of Madison yelling "fuck!" at varying levels and Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" at one point.
- Watching Troy Burn: One motive had photos of the characters' homes in ruins.
- Weather Dissonance: One week's motive snows everyone in... on a tropical island.
- You Are in Command Now: Veronica inherits the leader position from Lysandre, and Jimmy from Veronica.
- You Can Talk?: Veronica's reaction when she meets Hope.
- You Did the Right Thing: Veronica reads this in Lysandre's last letter, where he says he deserved to die for what he's done.
