As this is a WMG, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!
Installments with their own pages:
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
- Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Franchise/saga-specific:
- Ultimate Accountant/Bookkeeper
- Ultimate Alchemist
- Ultimate Astronomer
- Ultimate Archer
- Ultimate Architect
- Ultimate Baker
- Ultimate Ballerina/Dancer
- Ultimate Barber/Hairdresser
- Ultimate Basketball Star
- Ultimate Band Leader/Musical Conductor
- Ultimate Blacksmith
- Sounosuke Izayoi in DR3.
- Ultimate Blogger
- Ultimate Bodyguard (last title holder deceased)
- Ultimate Boxer
- Juzo Sakakura in DR3.
- Ultimate Carpenter
- Ultimate Chemist
- Seiko Kimura in DR3.
- Ultimate Chess Player
- Ultimate Class Representative
- Ultimate Collector
- Ultimate Commander
- Ultimate Cosplayer/Disguiser
- Tsumugi Shirogane in DRV3.
- Ultimate Crime Fighter/Vigilante
- Ultimate Cult Leader
- Kokichi Oma in DRV3 is close enough.
- Ultimate Dancer
- Hiyoko doesn't count?
- Ultimate Demolitions Expert
- Ultimate Driver
- Ultimate Drug Dealer
- Ultimate Electrician
- Ultimate Engineer
- Ultimate Emergency Service Worker/Rescuer
- Ultimate Exterminator
- Oh great, now I'm imagining a Dalek in a killing game...
- Ultimate Figure Skater
- Ultimate Fisherman
- Ultimate Flower Arranger
- Ultimate Footballer/Soccer Star
- Ultimate Forensic Analyst
- Ultimate Gamemaster
- Ultimate Gardener
- Ultimate Historian
- Ultimate Hunter
- Ultimate Hypnotist
- Ultimate Ice Skater
- Ultimate Impersonator/Voice Actor
- We already had an Ultimate Imposter.
- Ultimate Internet Celebrity
- Ultimate Inventor
- Miu Iruma in DRV3.
- Ultimate Librarian
- Ultimate Locksmith
- Ultimate Magazine Editor
- Ultimate Magician
- Himiko Yumeno in DRV3.
- Ultimate Marketer/Salesman
- Ultimate Memelord
- Ultimate Movie Producer
- Ultimate Music Producer/Sound Engineer
- Ultimate Navigator
- Ultimate Ninja
- Ultimate Occultist
- Ultimate Orator
- Ultimate Painter
- Angie Yonaga in DRV3 (as the Ultimate Artist).
- Ultimate Party Planner
- Ultimate Pickpocket
- Ultimate Pilot
- Ultimate Politician
- Ultimate Porn Star (he/she would probably have been held back a few years to avoid controversy)
- This is a safe-for-work series!
- Then what's Miu?
- This is a safe-for-work series!
- Ultimate Prankster
- Ultimate Profiler
- Ultimate Puppeteer
- Ultimate Racecar Driver
- Ultimate Ramen Chef/Food Cart Operator
- Ultimate Reanimator
- Ultimate Roller Blader
- Ultimate Rugby Player
- Ultimate Runner (Track or Marathon)
- Yuta Asahina mentions that his forte is more track and field. It could be that he would have eventually been recruited as the Ultimate Runner if not for the Tragedy.
- Ultimate Salesman
- Ultimate Scout
- Ultimate Script Writer
- Ultimate Seamstress/Tailor
- Ultimate Secretary (known to be held by a character in Danganronpa Togami, whose eventual fate isn't known)
- Ultimate Sniper
- Ultimate Snowboarder
- Ultimate Special Effects Artist
- Ultimate Spy (last title holder deceased)
- Ultimate Stage Actor
- Ultimate Streamer/VTuber
- Ultimate Surveillance Officer
- Ultimate Taste Tester/Sommelier
- Ultimate Tea Ceremony Host
- Ultimate Tennis Star
- Ryoma Hoshi in DRV3.
- Ultimate Therapist - Already confirmed to at least exist.
- Miaya Gekkougaharain in DR3.
- Ultimate Thief
- Ultimate Time Traveler (This one would probably be a Big Bad for a future game)
- Ultimate Traceur/Parkour Practitioner
- Ultimate Treasurer
- Ultimate Tutor
- Ultimate Ventriloquist
- Ultimate Video Game Developer/Modder
- Ultimate Volleyball Player
- Confirmed for Danganronpa V3.
- Only confirmed case of this claim is Hifumi Yamada, who was in a near-death state.
This is also justified by the fact that Junko, or one of her oracles, always intends to make the game she creates "entertaining", and not disappointing or resulting in mass execution due to the class trial rules. She says this in different forms in each game, at first saying that she only kept the 15 featured students of the Killing School Life alive solely for entertainment purposes, secondly saying that the 16 Ultimate Despair students of the Killing School Trip are only pawns used to attract the Future Foundation, thirdly having Monaca use the game she and Nagito created to put Komaru into a situation where she's obligated to become Junko's Successor, and fourthly having Tsumugi exposition the peaceful outside world needing Danganronpa to be entertained. There's also the possibility that each case's killer is actually stating something Monokuma obligated them to state by holding something valuable of them hostage (Sakura's role as the traitor in the first game pertains to this possibility), and Monokuma actually killed each participant himself, just so an audience in question can have something to be constantly entertained by even when everyone's defying the idea of killing on their own behalf so adamantly.
Throughout each game's investigation and trial, the respective convicted killer of the case acts subtly more suspicious than the other students, which is a result of the trauma they receive from Monokuma's threatening class trial rules. Or, additionally, they could already be presenting themselves as a potential killer that's easy to provoke into murdering throughout the entire chapter they attempt to kill or succeed in killing another participant in. One of V3's rules could already show an exception to entire proposal not being a possibility by making one of its rules "Monokuma is not allowed to participate in a murder", but with Monokuma's entire existence, private action, and personality still being ambiguous and grey even after the last chapter and personality of a particular instalment, he could participate in a murder without even the convicted killer knowing themselves. Actually, to be more elaborate by adding the possibility of V3's mastermind secretly causing each trial to be incurred, Danganronpa V3 as a whole can convice the player that the burden of a class trial is truly always instigated by Tsumugi Shirogane herself and never, ever the conivicts aware of their own murder executed by forced majority vote Leon Kuawata, Mondo Owada, Celestia Ludenberg/Taeko Yasuhiro, even Junko Enoshima the 1st, Teruteru Hanamura, Peko Pekoyama, Mikan Tsumiki, Gundham Tanaka, possibly Kaede Akamatsu and/or Tsumugi Shirogane herself, Kirumi Tojo, Korekiyo Shinguji, Gonta Gokuhara, and Kaito Momota...except for that same game's fifth case. Monokuma, after 12 or 844 straightforward murder cases not having any direct effect on him finally had one of his party-blaming gambits corrupted by one of the able-bodied, slyer participants, Kokichi Oma. What contributes more to the extra possibility of the mastermind of V3's Truman Show edition actually committing every murder up to eleven is that a murder is always committed when the Daily Life sequences are also up to eleven, when a situation becomes such a problem that it loops and can only be broken by a trial.
Hypothetically, if 16 high school students were taken somewhere random and told "kill or be killed, loser students!" by a black and white plush bear, we would NEVER kill anyone unless prompted in a very specific way. One person wouldn't start to kill as quickly as Monokuma would want them to if the game started with a motive based on the past. They would still kill, but it wouldn't be done quickly. Humans work very specifically, even if we are ridiculous for misunderstanding many aspects of life simultaneously.
What else would a creator do after defining the creations, if not let them loose? This is probably the easiest Hand Wave ever for an otherwise Story-Breaker Power like hers.
For example, for example, Teruteru was copied from Hifumi's DNA, and Kokichi from Nagito's DNA.
Excluding all Fan Disservice moments, of course, because that's a completely different story.
Danganronpa's got a lot of fanservice, sexual fanservice. There are many moments involving a character in a swimsuit, naked within only an implicit moment, or under some sort of curse of teenage perversion where the perverse attitude is taken to the maximum for an erotic value. Despite all of that, though, the fanservice still has personality to it. That personality shows that it's actually trying to convey metatexual contexts to someone's character as well as "give the viewer what they want".
The number of these moments goes into the double digits throughout the entire series. Just considering all of the visual novels only chocks it up to about 15 moments, and that's just in the value of the computer graphics. There are, additionally, entire sprites involving characters giving orgasm, not as a joke but in an ironic manner of speaking. Keep in mind, both of these image types had to be completely drawn by someone for the moment. Someone had to sketch them, and put in the effort to draw the characters without clothing, all of their figures, and illustrate the texture of their skin when undressed.
So, that begs one question for anyone who randomly encounters it: Why put in so much effort for just some sexual content? Why not just make it one flashing image instead of something continuous with the characters even speaking during it? The reality supposedly is, it's meant to give hints to someone's true character beyond the surface too by making them more vulnerable by putting them in a state of undress in front of the other characters and the entire audience, and it's not just there for the sake of nothing. Exempli gratia, in V3, both of the graphics involving a character most in the foreground in a state of sexiness reveal the Ultimates are prone to hedonism; Tenko Chabashira takes pleasure in being able to fulfil her chance to become a faux celebrity by saying that she's "so happy" she was able to accomplish it while she acts extremely casual despite her previous prejudiciual moments
; Tsumugi Shirogane is the one closest to the viewer, showing off her well-endownedness the most via being completely topless and only having an armbra to censor it; generally speaking, Tsumugi is vulnerable to someone of perverted behaviour by having her boobs be the size they are with only the hand-or-object underwear trope to be able to maintain any modesty during that state, and that perverted someone actually turns out to be Angie, rather than Tenko who's going for Himiko instead, of whom harasses Tsumugi by asking to touch her boobs. What does Tsumugi Shirogane's true role turn out to be? Well, she turns out to be the mastermind, and who had the most accurate-to-reality hypothesis as to what the mastermind really did during Chapter 1, murdering the victim from behind the hidden door and then returning back inside? Angie Yonaga. So, it wouldn't be implausible to assume she'd also know who the mastermind actually was as well and take complete pleasure in torturing them for information on if they really are the mastermind, even trying to grope them if they turn out to be a girl among the group
. In the latter case, when Angie asks to touch Tsumugi's boobs, her response is to nervously say it's embarrassing to touch them with "What? I mean...it's embarrassing if you touch them," as if to imply that it would just embarrass her and not anything beyond that as if she's fine with it happening otherwise, rather than something that clearly shows she shouldn't want to be touched AT ALL like "What? Touch them? Angie, please don't do that."
This is about enough to show that Danganronpa's fanservice has meaning to it that shouldn't be ignored and isn't just a hollow excuse for self-pleasure or compliment of the girls' curvaceous appearances. Their actual characters still stray into the servicing and have some hidden depth behind them revealed within.
Mikan Tsumiki also has a secret substance, and it requires associations like the other examples. Her second trip in the second game is used against Teruteru to expose his crime, and the post-brainwashing moments with Mikan becoming much more creepily perverted towards Ryota in Danganronpa 3 both pay for her own eventual motive for murder.
Regular Japanese high schools only cover three years, since ninth grade is included in junior high, and the Hope's Peak admission requirements call for students who are already enrolled in a (different) high school, presumably to allow time to demonstrate their talent. Leon, at least, mentions the possibility of returning to his previous school during a free time event, which he couldn't have done if he was talking about junior high since he'd have already graduated. Makoto went to the same junior high as Sayaka, and the way they reminisce about it doesn't sound like it was only a few months ago. Also, there's only one more floor in the dormitory building to house all the upperclassmen.
Finally, in this case the two years they spent there, if it weren't for what happened at the end of the first year, would have put them on the brink of actual graduation.
- Possibly Jossed. The forum Makoto looks at to gather information on the other students has posts dated August 20th. And he was looking at the forum the day before he went to Hope's Peak Academy. The Japanese school year starts in April, not in September like in some countries, and summer vacation begins around July 20th and lasts for a month. It's also worth noting that the first term ends on the same day summer vacation starts. Taking that information into consideration, it's more likely that students accepted at Hope's Peak Academy spend their first term of the school year at another high school and spend the remaining terms at Hope's Peak.
- That's been retconned in Danganronpa 3; Makoto, Junko and Mukuro all arrive at the beginning of the school year (you can see Mikan gushing about being an upperclassman when the new year starts "tomorrow").
- Impossible. All second year students were characters in the first game (Junko refers to them as their classmates from the 78th class). Yet, both Kuzuryuu siblings were at school at the time, which means Fuyuhiko is a third year student from Class 77 and his sister is a first year from Class 79. Not relevant to the WMG in question, but Hiyoko, Mikan, Mahiru and Ibuki were Kuzuryuu imouto's classmates, therefore Class 79. Makoto said he is the first Ultimate Lucky Student, so Nagito is also 79. Peko is the same age as Fuyuhiko, so she is from 77. Junko refers to the surviving 5 as senpai, so it can be assumed that Hajime/Izuru, Kazuichi, Sonia and Akane were also from 79.
- Actually, a short story confirms that there's an Ultimate Lucky Student (implied to be Nagito) a year above Makoto. No information ever stated he was the first. Also, "senpai" is a term meant to refer to those above you, so those four would actually be in 77 by your logic.
- Not that it changes much, but Fuyuhiko's sister was in the same Reserve Course class as Hajime, who's the same year as Class 77.
- Seems to be confirmed by Danganronpa 3. Class 77 spends two years in Hope's Peak before graduating at the Academy; Class 78's second year was spent hiding during the Tragedy.
Or some kind of mutated form of it. You can't really deny some of the plot similarities between Dangan Ronpa and Virtue's Last Reward.
- There is a lot that might tie the Zero Escape universe to Danganronpa's. In the non-canon School Mode endings, Makoto inexplicably retains memories of the actual story in his ending with Sayaka, a key aspect in the Zero Escape franchise. The base years do make it difficult to retain as true (Radial-6 occurring in 2028 and the whole Danganronpa universe being the now passed 2012 or so), but they could be divergent time lines...
- Jossed. Refer to the earlier WMG's about The Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind for details.
Why is this? If it was really Junko who is the Biggest Bad of all, then during the reveal of what happens in the real world, why are people using Monokuma mask or plasters anything Monokuma in everything instead of anything Junko?
The answer to this is that this mysterious being only used Junko as a figurehead and had her do their bidding as they wait in the shadows and see humanity collapse. I would suspect that what Makoto and the others are fighting isn't the Crapsack World, but something of an Eldritch Abomination that is the personification of despair and wanted to ensure that it becomes the dominant thing that humanity possessed in order to either gained unlimited power to rule the universe, or For the Evulz.
In other words, she could be just an Eldritch Abomination hiding behind A Form You Are Comfortable With; A shapeshifter with no definite form (Or just does it because its real appearance is too terrifying to behold) and has abnormally powerful cognitive manipulation abilities that she uses to destroy worlds. She probably doesn't even need the "brainwashing videos" to brainwash people into despair because she can just make anything she suggests real as she wishes, effectively altering reality. This means that Hope's Peak might actually not exist at all or even an ordinary high school manipulated into thinking it was training talented people.
As for the events of V3, she might even had been deluded people that the previous stories and her very own existence are fictional, and since she couldn't destroy the world anymore she instead randomly abducts people and forces them into killing games for world entertainment (In another form.)
There's no evidence that Monaca, Tsumugi, or other "masterminds" aren't extensions of Junko or if she is truly an Eldritch Abomination, a member of her race either. Danganronpa itself can be an Elder God invasion or an Alien invasion.
- Disagree: While Junko is *Like* a Eldrich Abomination in the sense that her motives of despair fetishism and addiction just "can't" be comprehended by normal humans, I do think that she's more human than she lets on. She DID genuinely love Mukuro, Matusuda and 78. She just had to fuck them up in the worst way possible thanks to her sadomasochistic narcissism that's in turn caused by her SHSL talent. (DR0 HEAVILY implies this before being outright stated in Dr3.) This troper view's it as more of her own talent making her Go Mad from the Revelation. AND EVEN THEN: Intelligence is not the be all end all definiting trait for a person's personality. Even the most analytical of people is still completely shaped by their life experiences. Kamukura's lack of personality stims less from being omnitalented and more from not having any previous life. Junko, on the other hand, lived enough of a life in specific conditions to have personal opinions, emotions and a personal set of principles she's adherent to. And I do believe it's possible to firmly remain good even with Junko's kind of brain. This is not a Danganronpa example, but Danganronpa is so openly inspired by Manga/Medaka Box that I think Medaka Kurokami is a perfectly valid as examples of what a "good" Junko would like.
- Zero confirms that it is possible for Junko to be good (or at least neutral), as Ryoko Otanoshi is weird and somewhat callous, but remains moral and chooses hope over despair, despite being an amnesiac Junko.
Other installments:
Or, in keeping with the series tradition of killing off characters we don't expect to die first, Rantaro gets killed early again. Monokuma then makes a joke about how he's supposed to be the Ultimate Survivor, yet he keeps dying. And since we've already had the protagonist as a victim, the next step up is someone whose survival looked like a Foregone Conclusion.
The potential mindfuckery of this twist would be enormous. Was one of the Rantaros an Ultimate Imposter? Is this really a prequel? Or is it possible to use memory shenanigans to clone a dead student?
They'll in universe Retcon Kaede's death. Kaede will have become a popular character and people watching the show will be unhappy she was killed, so they decide to bring Kaede back and make her the protagonist. How? Kidnapping someone who looks like her(probably her sister, the game would imply that it is Kaede's sister but never outright confirm who the body she is using belongs to) and forcing Kaede's memories and personality into her. They will also create a Saihara Expy in the second game and make him the first victim to answer to Saihara haters complains and make an Ouma Expy(or an Amami one) the deuteragonist, as a nod to his popularity.
Of course, since this appears to be a prequel that would mean Rantaro and Kaede would be guaranteed to survive. So one of them will be the first to die. This would, of course, raise further questions.
Perhaps, as the above theory suggests, the "Kaede" in this game is a fake: another person who's been given her memories. As a further Mind Screw, they might make Kaede the Ultimate ??? for this game. It would seem pointless since we already know Kaede's talent, but if she really isn't Kaede, then it's possible her real talent is something different.
- Can this be considered Jossed already? The whole point of Kiibo was audience participation. That means V3 was aired live, with no chance to delay its release. This should've been clear after Chapter 6 when we, you know, perform Argument Armament against the audience?
- Kodaka never actually said he was done with the series; that was a mistranslation. (Anyone with a link to the original interview, please add it below.)
- It could very well be factual with the whole opening his own indie studio recently
. Even though they seem to be collaborating with Spike Chunsoft on one project.
Of course, Dangan Ronpa turning into a flat-out dating sim is highly unlikely, but it was just a thought. When was the last time anyone actually listened to and followed (for more than a week) the morals of a story?
- Alternately, IV won't be a number at all and instead represent the series dying, but being kept barely alive as if by an IV drip.
The game will also explain how she got the resources to do this, possibly as a result of ties to Junko (remember, that second AI from Ultra Despair Girls hasn't shown up yet...), and show Shuichi and the other survivors interacting with actual Hope's Peak Era characters.There might even be a scene where the three survivors encounter Future Foundation members as they leave the area of the school. It will be something like this:
- One of the survivors: "I thought you guys didn't exist!"Future Foundation member shows a badge or something:" I'm pretty sure we do."
- As much as V3 seemed to be indicating this to be the case, jossed - they've already confirmed a new action game (like Despair Girls).
The events of Danganronpa 2 and onward, however, are completely fictional.
The prologue: When the main protagonist is about to enter the college site they're so pessimistic about to complete a workload, they're verbally abused by someone hiding in a shadow who knocks the protagonist unconscious with words due to how fragile they are. Like Nagito Komaeda in Danganronpa 2's prologue, he/she walks up to the unconscious body and sprays it with Soporil β from Zero Escape to instill a random but long amount of amnesia. When the Soporil defuses, he finds himself on the interior of the college, confused like every protagonist would be, specifically in the classroom they were supposed to first visit on the day they were sprayed unconscious. He woke up multiple times beforehand, finding himself in many different situations, only to be sprayed by the culprit every time. The main protagonist finds two of their friends, naively and brashly assumes their the culprit, with one of them denying it and saying "I know just as much as you do" with the second saying "It might have been me, but can you really be sure when I say that?" They all investigate the college campus. This is where we meet the...12 other participants, because this game has reverted back to the format of 15 students, and the entire group slowly gathers as one. When searching the campus, they go to their traditional dining room and find that it has been reconstructed as a trial arena, prompting them to wonder where their diner was relocated to. After exploring, they find that all of the rooms have been transformed and shifted. With all 15 students gathered, Monocat appears in front of them physically and announces all 15 of them to go the gymnasium, which conveniently hasn't been relocated, which they all find out when they search for it splitting up from one another. One of the least reliable acquaintances of the protagonist finds its location, and is prompted to locate and tell everyone, giving them vague names like "left hall" and "college entrance." What the player has to do is search places near those vague names, instead of being given specific directions. The protagonist ends up being the 15th to enter the gymnasium. Monocat announces the new Killing Game they're involved in, the rules being explained as such: Basically exactly the same as 1, 2, and V3... Great vengeance, Shuichi, but why would these particular 15 college students be your main target for this torture? Spike Chunsoft can solve that problem. Everyone in the campus is weak, and they all collapse over in discomfort, wondering why they have to participate and get trapped in a game "similar to the reality show they were once addicted to." The prologue ends, and the first chapter begins with everyone standing up, gaining the will to do this correctly, following the orders of Monocat so they continue to live.
What the formatting of these deaths will be like: Well...you know how every official Danganronpa game involves characters having completely awkward, brutal plans that highly implicate specific people? This will be nothing like that. Everyone lives a particularly normal life here, so they don't know how to kill using methods they've witnessed in the series. Instead, they take inspiration from "the reality show they once watched," and begin to notice that all of the death involves complex mechanisms and psychological exclusions. So, they use basic methods to murder, like simple stabbing, lacerations, or violence using the structures around them, where the phrase "anyone could have done this" appears very frequently. The students would mainly use alibis and accounts to find out who the culprit is, each investigation would take an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes due to how little evidence implicating a specific person there would be, and the trials would take an average of 3 hours like V3, since the protagonist operating those trials prior has the potential to be the mastermind. The protagonists switch between all three of them in the investigation, and the trials, as they're the only students willing to cooperate with each other in the betrayal game (Well, until Chapter 4, 5, and 6, where the mastermind does something that dissuades them from cooperating with each other. Yes, Chapter 4, the time in which everyone is intended to cooperate, is the chapter where everyone stops cooperating. That means that whatever Chapter 6 incurs causes everyone to attempt to cooperate against the mastermind, like an identification problem). Oh, the motives that would cause that? They would be using human connections very frequently, and will go as such between each chapter: Saving the environment, younger siblings, older siblings, parents, grandparents, posthumous promises + important possessions having the potential to be destroyed. 6 chapters for each motive, the 7th being the one where they attempt to battle against the masterminds. The masterminds won't enter through smoke like Junko did...twice. Instead, they would disable Monokuma, walk all the way from the control room into the trial room (the player would have to ponder about what happened to them), and be revealed as demented individuals, but not in the same way Junko is demented; it's more like, demented due to being too euphoric. Danganronpa will deviate from the lack of realism it has, and amplify the "truth and lies" theme V3 has, because this one is set in a more realistic residence and education centre than the other times prior.
- Four Is Death, after all. Expect a more cynical and gruesome game on par with D3. For bonus points, it could even be stylized like the original beta Distrust.
- Adding onto this, the game will be Hotter and Sexier too; the fanservice was amped considerably between SDR2 and V3. Expect this and the above to intersect significantly, creating nasty Fan Disservice.
- Maybe we'll finally get a male bathhouse peeping scene!
- Adding onto this, the game will be Hotter and Sexier too; the fanservice was amped considerably between SDR2 and V3. Expect this and the above to intersect significantly, creating nasty Fan Disservice.
