All spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
Thanks to the Closed Circle nature of Danganronpa, most of these examples are Proximity.
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Main installments:
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
- Byakuya Togami is an Insufferable Genius and complete Jerkass who quickly distances himself from the other students and makes it clear that he's willing to kill if he has to; his umistakable sense of superiority and the perverse sort of gamesmanship he takes in the game is grating at best and infuriating at worst. If you had to name any potentially good qualities of his, you could say that he figures out important elements of murders before anyone else (besides Kirigiri) and even ends up taking Makoto Naegi under his wing as a protégé of sorts. About the only person who enjoys his company is Toko Fukawa and her Split Personality, Genocide Jack/Jill, who has a massive crush on him, though the feeling is definitely not mutual. As the franchise progresses, he warms up to his fellow survivors (although he would never admit it), electing to stick his neck out for them more than once, and he even calls them his friends once in the anime.
- In a way, Yasuhiro Hagakure. He's nearly always so off-the-cloud in the ways of thinking that nobody takes him seriously, and even Makoto ends up being appalled at him if he maxes out his Free Time Events, where he tries to get Makoto to sell his organs so he doesn't have to spend his personal savings. At that point, while he would have considered Hagakure a 'friend', Naegi still keeps his distance of him. It even outright gets meta. A lot of official group art tends to pair the students up based on their relationships. Yasuhiro, however, is usually just standing there by himself to the side. And by Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Monokuma states he was stuck outside the building where all of the action is taking place thus being excluded from the main plot, "Because nobody likes him."
- Toko Fukawa is abrasive, quick to assume the worst about others due to her trauma-induced persecution complex, and often comes up with insulting nicknames for people. Even Aoi, one of the nicest students, can't stand Toko, especially not after she, alongside Yasuhiro and Byakuya, turns on Sakura once she's outed as The Mole. Makoto can befriend her in her Free Time Events, but she doesn't seem to believe that he was being genuine since in Ultra Despair Girls, Toko claims that she never had any friends before she met his sister Komaru, whose kindness, optimism, and friendship help Toko's mental health and self-esteem immeasurably; she even begins sporting warm, genuine smiles and eventually calls Komaru "her hope."
- Toko Fukawa's alter-ego Genocide Jack/Jill. Not only is she an enthusiastically unabashed Serial Killer, she's also prone to frequent maniacal laughter and rapid, rambling speech. She usually shows up at inconvenient times when the students need to concentrate (such as during investigations and class trials). She's also obsessively in love with Byakuya and follows him around everywhere. None of the other students are very happy when she shows up, least of all Byakuya.
- One thing that Yasuhiro, Byakuya and Jack have in common is that while Makoto is able to befriend almost anyone, even those who have relatively difficult personalities that don't earn them many friends (e.g. Fukawa, Ishimaru, Celeste), he concludes that he'll likely never become friends with those three at the end of their Free Time Events.
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
- Nagito Komaeda. Thanks to his ideology based around hope, he quickly makes it known that he's completely insane and would be perfectly willing to kill anyone, or even be killed by anyone, to the point where he decides to kick off the killing game himself. He's willing to help any of the murderers get away with their crimes,
claiming that they deserve to live if their hope is stronger than the rest of the cast's. He also has No Sympathy for any of the victims or murderers, claiming that their hope is more important than their lives. Even as the students drop like flies, he remains adamant about how their deaths are serving to eliminate despair, while the remaining students slowly lose hope of surviving the killing game, and considers normal people like Hajime and Komaru (along with himself) to be stepping stones for anyone with an Ultimate Talent, having no worth beyond that. And as the cherry on top, he tends to go off on hope rants at the slightest provocation, and in the worst possible moments such as in the middle of a trial. As such, even though he's among the most intelligent characters in the game and straight up idolizes the others, the majority of them absolutely hate him and don't like being around him, and even when someone tries to figure him out, his view of the world is so bizarre that they just can't.- In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, it's shown that even before they lost their memories in the killing game, most of the class kept their distance from Nagito due to his frequent ramblings about hope. Akane even refers to him as "the idiot" when he gets himself suspended. However, after they're all brought back in the present day, the others regard him more warmly.
- Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu is extremely abrasive, refuses to integrate himself into the group dynamic, and claims that he eventually intends to commit the perfect murder and escape. However, after his childhood friend commits murder in order to get him off the island under the belief that Monokuma would accept her view of herself as his tool, he reveals his Hidden Heart of Gold and ends up making real friends.
- Hiyoko Saionji bullies most of the other students, with her only friend being Mahiru. And after Mahiru dies and evidence points to Hiyoko being the culprit, everybody except for Hajime and Ibuki believes that she did it. Even in the chapter when she died, they talked more about Ibuki's death than her own death, though Ibuki's did have more evidence pointing to the killer.
- Teruteru Hanamura is disliked by his classmates due to being a sex pest who constantly makes creepy innuendo towards everyone, male and female and in his Free Time events he drugs Hajime's food. Though some of his classmates felt bad for him after he was brutally executed (including Mahiru, who, despite not liking him or condoning what he did, sympathizes with his love for his mother), Hiyoko comments she wishes she could have spat on his corpse, and he isn't mourned nearly as much as some of his fellow classmates.
- While Chapter 4's culprit, Gundham Tanaka isn't hated per se, he does seem to be seen as an example of Loners Are Freaks, and an Ineffectual Loner, due to playing up his evil mastermind persona and preferring the company of animals to people. Very few people talk to him, with exception of Hajime (who he admits in his Free Time Events is his first friend), Sonia, Chiaki, and Kazuichi, (three of which are survivors) and the people who do are really the only ones sad about his death, with the others, either apathetic due to Hope (Nagito), are just plain thinking "Meh" in Fuyuhiko's case, or in Akane's case, hate his guts. There's also the fact he doesn't ever yield to doing it for everyone else's sake despite it being relatively straightforward that he DID care.
- Usami/Monomi. She's the original administrator of the class trip, which makes her the target of suspicion once Monokuma shows up, which isn't helped by her refusal to explain what's actually going on and her later shown connections to the "World Ender" organization. Everyone treats her as Monokuma's lackey, and even after she turns on Monokuma in the 5th trial and is executed, she isn't mourned as much as Chiaki (albeit that Chiaki, unlike Monomi, had established herself as a friend of all the students and a driving force in trials).
- Ironically enough, in the Despair Arc of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Hajime Hinata of all people is this, with Chiaki Nanami and Class 77-B's teacher Chisa being the only ones willing to give him the time of day due to being a Reserve Course student with no discernible talent. Him just wanting to be special and loved is what made him fall victim to the Izuru Kamukura experiment, which made him apathetic towards everyone, due to having every talent. Fortunately in-game he is able to make friends long before his reserve course status is revealed, and after it is nobody aside from Nagito really cares since they've already gotten to know him and he's saved their lives in the class trials.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
- Kokichi Oma. In the same vein as Nagito, Kokichi is the most intelligent character in the game and can see through the motives and murders. Unlike Nagito, he is on the side of his classmates and wants to stop the mastermind's game. However, he is a master liar and manipulator who invokes a Genghis Gambit on himself to make the other students focus during the investigations and trials, and has way too much fun trolling them with his jokes and threats, some of which go to Kick the Dog levels. Everyone quickly grows tired of his antics, and by Chapter 5 suspect him to be the mastermind due to how much fun he's having in the killing game and feel he crossed the Moral Event Horizon thanks to manipulating Gonta into murder. He even lampshades the trope in Chapter 4 by stating that he is the least well-liked student.
- Miu Iruma spends most of the game insulting the others on their appearances while arrogantly touting her talent, intelligence, and beauty as reasons why she's better than them. She is also stated that the "uglier and stupider ones should die first". In fact, during her class trial, many students stated that they probably wouldn't have been friends with her, even if they hadn't met in a killing game. This trope was once again lampshaded by Kokichi Ouma by stating that other than himself, she is the least well-liked student. K1-B0 and Gonta (the latter being her amnesiac murderer) were the only students to truly disagree with Kokichi, stating that they thought she was a good person at heart, while some of the students only responded by saying that she didn't deserve to die. The students in question being Kaito and Tsumugi, the latter of which was likely lying about her true feelings. Like with Kokichi, this is also deconstructed because, with nobody close to her except for Ki-bo, when Miu sees the state of the outside world, decides her inventions are too important to waste and that she's needed out there far more than she is in the academy, so she attempts to kill Kokichi and frame Kaito so she can escape the game, which she may not have done if she actually had a closer bond with the rest of her classmates. Whenever Shuichi spends time with her in his Free Time Events, he says "I somehow ended up growing a little closer to Miu..." as if he cannot believe he is growing close to someone like her. It's worth noting that not even Kokichi, another similarly disliked student, gets this dubious distinction.
- Korekiyo Shinguji's unpopularity is slightly downplayed at first, since his high intelligence is considered useful in investigations and he doesn't take a liking to bullying others. Aside from that, he's mostly left alone since pretty much everyone considers him a creep, and is an in-universe example of Obviously Evil, as he lampshades that he has all the traits of a potential culprit. The only person who overlooks his suspicious nature is Rantaro, who shares his passion for traveling. Kiyo's often morbid thinking, like openly admiring humanity and its ugly aspects and finding their current situation to be intriguing, makes everyone around him feel uncomfortable during class trials. And then comes Chapter 3, which plays the trope more or less straight. Not only does he murder both Angie and Tenko in cold blood, he also reveals to have murdered nearly a hundred other women simply so he could send his deceased sister some "admirable friends" in the afterlife. His incestuous relationship with the aforementioned sister comes as a shock, even for Kokichi and Monokuma. When he is eventually executed, no one protests it, unlike with Kaede and Kirumi, as well as future culprits such as Gonta and Kaito. The aftermath of Chapter 3 cements Kiyo as one of the most hated students in the cast. What he asks from Kaede whether or not she decides to become closer with him best emphasizes why Korekiyo was left alone in the first place.
Spin-offs:
Danganronpa Zero
- Isshiki Madarai is implied to be this for the Student Council, given that despite being on the Council, no one (ranging from the Headmaster to even Madarai to an extent) ever considered him an actual member, instead seeing him as a bodyguard. He isn't blind to this and is somewhat bitter of it. Even Junko, the mastermind of the Killing Games, didn't consider him one... which he finds very humiliating. Still, despite being their protector, his bond with them was implied to be pretty weak, with Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School revealing that the Council was even sent threatening videos by Junko in order to lure them to the old school building... yet, none of them bothered to contact Madarai at all to aid them.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
- Jataro Kemuri, whom none of the Warriors of Hope end up liking - to the point where he is actually booed by the audience during his battle with Komaru and Toko. However, according to his profile, he actually prefers being hated: he hates being loved. On the other hand, it's heavily implied that he just wants to be loved; he's so warped that he can't comprehend others being kind to him, outright screaming that he doesn't want anyone to look at him without his mask (though he dislikes wearing it).
- Monaca is the only Warrior for Hope who tolerates Kurokuma's presence, but even her patience for his incessant prattle is finite.
Fan games:
Danganronpa Another Episode: Another Despair Academy
- Rei Mekaru in Danganronpa Another is an Alpha Bitch, Smug Snake, and Insufferable Genius rolled into one. She actively antagonizes and condescends to everyone around her, and outright refuses to cooperate with the others during the Class Trials unless it becomes necessary because watching them struggle to figure out something she already had amused her. The only ones she sort-of respects are Kinjo and Yuki due to their investigative skills, but it doesn't stop her from calling them names every chance she gets.
Super Danganronpa Another 2 ~ The Moon of Hope and Sun of Despair ~
- Mikado Sannoji. Being exposed as the mastermind in the prologue guarantees that absolutely none of the other students want anything to do with him. While he does attempt to befriend the others, the fact that’s he’s the one responsible for everything happening to them means that the group’s usual response is to yell at or force him to leave. Although he complains about how he’s being treated, the fact that he does seem to enjoy egging the others on doesn’t help much. This even extends to the members of his terrorist group, Void, too since he lied about them having immunity in the killing game if they murdered someone, only to horrify them by executing the first blackened member anyway. By case two, the remaining members are only standing by him out of fear while one even tries to betray him.
- Syobai Hashimoto begins the game by refusing to tell anyone his name or talent, then attempting to stab another student in front of everyone. The reveal soon after that he’s the Ultimate Trafficker (Ultimate Broker in the English dub) and his refusal to give out any information whatsoever unless he’s paid causes everyone to distrust him even more. Aside from this, he spends most of the game on his own, refusing to be involved with the others whatsoever, insulting everyone, and just barely getting involved in the first two trials. While the third and fourth trials have him demonstrate just how skilled he is at investigating, he claims that the only reason he’s getting involved is because his life is on the line too and he’s not going to die because the others aren’t bothering using their brains.
