History YMMV / Danganronpa

* ArchivePanic: Not an extreme example, but the franchise has 5 video games, 2 animes and about 20 official mangas, so checking out all of them will take quite a long time.

** ''[[VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony Killing Harmony]]'': [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Tsumugi Shirogane]] is revealed to be the the true mastermind of the Killing Game, who in actuality works for the corporation [[EvilInc Team Danganronpa]] and acts as their mole in the 53rd entry of Danganronpa. Acting as a CosplayOtakuGirl in the killing game who was usually [[ObfuscatingStupidity not the smartest]], it gets revealed that Tsumugi was the true culprit of the first trial, where she killed Rantaro Amami because Kaede Akamatsu's plan failed and wanted to ensure that the Killing Game continued, bending the rules of the game and [[AcquittedTooLate letting Kaede get executed because of it]]. Later in the last trial, Tsumugi tells the rest of the survivors about the true conditions of the world, in which the Killing Game is actually a [[SadisticGameShow game show]] called Danganronpa to entertain the uneventful and peaceful real world. Tsumugi would reveal that her company brainwashed every survivor with FalseMemories and rewrote their personalities so that they would truly act scared and helpless. Tsumugi is so obsessed with the Danganronpa franchise that when the audience watching the show were convinced by Shuichi Saihara to not want it anymore, Tsumugi would [[DrivenToSuicide let herself be killed]] alongside the studio so that she wouldn't exist in a world that doesn't want Danganronpa.]]

** ''Literature/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavocIf'': [[Characters/DanganronpaJunkoEnoshima Junko Enoshima]], in this WhatIf scenario, is the same despair-adoring psychopath and abusive younger sister of Mukuro Ikusaba who conditioned the latter into admiring despair. Having kickstarted "The Tragedy" with Mukuro, resulting in tons of destruction and riots, Junko wipes the memories of her friends at Hope's Peak Academy to have them all kill each other. Lying to Mukuro that she'll survive the killing game, after her [[SiblingMurder attempt to kill her]] fails, Junko tries to pin her and the injured [[Characters/DanganronpaMakotoNaegi Makoto Naegi]] as the masterminds behind the game. When Mukuro turns against her, Junko promises to reset the game and have an amnesiac Mukuro compete as herself to make her and everyone else suffer, later presenting the students with an impossible deadly challenge to win their freedom, knowing they will most likely fail and fall into despair.

** ''Literature/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavocIf'': Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier, is an expert combat specialist and strategist who previously assisted her sister Junko Enoshima’s plan to kickstart "The Tragedy". Collaborating with Junko in her mission to wipe out the Hope’s Peak survivors, Mukuro began to have a realization after she was saved by her friend Makoto Naegi from one of Junko’s deadly traps. Able to go hand to hand with Sakura after being accused of being the mastermind, Mukuro creates a distraction by taking advantage of Toko’s split personality Genocide Jack as she escapes with Makoto’s bleeding body to heal him. Disowned by her controlling, abusive sister, Mukuro switches sides and outwits Junko by pulling off a wild gambit to free her friends and ensure their survival. Mukuro ends the story willing to help rebuild the world, and to stop whatever plan Junko has in store.
** ''[[Theatre/{{Danganronpa}} Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen THE STAGE]]'': [[Characters/DanganronpaNagitoKomaeda Nagito Komaeda]], the Ultimate Lucky Student, is the same carefree, hopeful WildCard as his game counterpart. A well-intentioned teenager who will do anything to counter despair, Nagito often takes advantage of his luck in his goal to create hope no matter who has to die, such as setting up a murder plot and using Teruteru’s knowledge of it to make him the killer. Rewarded with a dossier after winning a game of RussianRoulette, after discovering his and his classmates’ past as Ultimate Despair, Nagito uses a fake bomb threat to set up his own murder, creating an impossible trial where everybody would be killed except for the traitor. While more comedic and less sinister than his original counterpart, Nagito nevertheless impresses and entertains even on stage.

* ArchivePanic: Not an extreme example, but the franchise has 4 video games, 2 animes and about 20 official mangas, so checking out all of them will take quite a long time.

** This trio from Characters.Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair and Characters.KillerKiller.

** [[Theatre/{{Danganronpa}} Stage plays]]: [[Characters/DanganronpaJunkoEnoshima Junko Enoshima]], the Ultimate Fashionista/Ultimate Despair, is a [[TeensAreMonsters young, chaotic psychopath]] obsessed with making everybody, even herself, feel despair. [[TheCorrupter Corrupting]] and tormenting the students of Hope's Peak Academy's Class 77 to assist her in her plans, Junko was able to use them to launch countless wars, disasters, and terrorist attacks, with millions dying in the process. Seeking to further drench the world in despair, Junko wipes the memories of the Hope's Peak survivors to force them all to kill each other to escape while being broadcasted worldwide, even [[SiblingMurder killing her own "boring" sister Mukuro Ikusaba]] to enjoy the despair of losing a loved one. [CruelMercy Forced to live out of punishment]], Junko installs an AI built from her consciousness into the Neo-World Program, forcing the recovering Class 77 students into another killing game to corrupt them all into becoming her copies to rule the world alongside her.

** This duo from Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair.

* [[IdiotPlot/{{Danganronpa}} Idiot Plot]]

** [[Characters/DanganronpaJunkoEnoshima Junko Enoshima]] sates her obsession with despair by seeking to [[HopeCrusher crush hope]] in all of humanity. To this end, Junko uses her analytical abilities to sadistically and meticulously [[ManipulativeBitch manipulate]] the students of Hope's Peak Academy, leading her classmates to murder each other in droves; brainwashing many others as they witness the atrocity; kidnapping a kind-hearted teacher to brainwash her into following Junko's cruel plans; cruelly crushing anyone in her way, eventually leading to mass killings and suicides amongst students and even a global societal collapse. In the horrific dystopian new world, Junko continues to amuse herself by tormenting a group of Hope's Peak students after wiping their memories, forcing them into a "game" where they must betray and murder each other, broadcasting it to demoralize the population at large, even [[SiblingMurder killing her own sister]] on a whim. When discovered, Junko happily asserts her devotion to causing suffering and, when she fails to break the wills of her victims, spitefully kills herself to [[RedemptionRejection refuse their attempts to offer her redemption]], aroused even at the feeling of her own despair. Creating an ArtificialIntelligence and corrupting the already-unstable Warriors of Hope as her successors to continue her murder game even after her own death, Junko cements herself as a [[AxCrazy monstrous psychopath]], so warped [[NightmareFetishist the only thing she adored was misery]], be that others' or even her own.

* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/DanganronpaNagitoKomaeda Nagito Komaeda]] is the "Ultimate Lucky Student", and a very cunning young man who believes all bad luck is destined to be offset by good luck. Nagito's plans begin in ''[[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair Goodbye Despair]]'' by setting up a clever murder plot, and abets the true killer Teruteru Hanamura, so he can see whose hope shines brightest. Throughout the game, Nagito becomes a great ally to Hajime Hinata, who, although wary of him, can't help but respect his intellect, with him having solved the murders long before Hajime manages to. After finding out his friends are members of the Ultimate Despair, Nagito starts to distrust, despite telling Hajime he likes and respects him as a friend. Setting up his own murder in Chapter 5 of ''Goodbye Despair'' so only the traitor can survive, Nagito successfully weeds out the Future Foundation traitor amongst the class, and they are subsequently executed. In the end, while Hajime doesn't quite understand Nagito, he accepts him as a useful ally and Nagito's eventual death [[AlasPoorVillain genuinely resounds with everyone]].

** Claiming that Chihiro is a trans girl will get you labeled as ignorant at best, and hateful at worst. It's only stated that Chihiro only dressed up as a girl in order to avoid being bullied for not being masculine enough, not because he identified as such. In fact, Chihiro actually ''hates'' being treated like a girl, and doing so only worsened his insecurities.

*** [[NoxiousNurse Rei Shimizu]] is a nurse who secretly sacrificed her patients to fulfill her [[NightmareFetishist morbid obsession]]. An addict of parasites, Rei would [[TheSymbiote implant their eggs]] on victims to breed them in a [[BodyHorror painful and slow process]] that lasted for a year, before killing them to extract the parasites. When her latest victim Hana was investigated, Rei played innocent, while secretly trying to kill another patient she has also placed parasite eggs on. When Takumi managed to figure her out and stop her attempted murder, Rei reveals to him her operation, showing her massive collection of parasites she extracted from previous victims before [[FusionDance merging with them]] to try killing Takumi and use his corpse as another parasite nest.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: The series basically got this treatment, especially with how many Let’s Plays and content creators the series got. (Specific incidents with certain content creators for the series did not help matters.)

** Many Danganronpa fans, especially those on Tumblr and Twitter, are also ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' fans, due to being another franchise with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters that pits teenagers against each other in a deadly game.

** [[OddFriendship Bizarrely enough]], there has been a lot of overlap between the ''Danganronpa'' fandom and ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', of all things, especially on the official TNO sub-Reddit. Also, there have been a lot of comparisons between [[BigBad Himmler]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/i2cq1o/tfw_there_is_only_despair_under_the_black_sun/ Junko]] and [[WideEyedIdealist Sablin]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/jg1f5d/hope_boi_sablin/ Makoto]] from their respective franchises. It helps that Himmler is prone to plunging people into despair, albeit via totalitarianism rather than a desire for chaos within itself, while Sablin is a HopeBringer to Russia if he remains idealistic. This eventually resulted in a fan madeand dev-loved [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQaqC1YdID4 anime opening]] for ''TNO'' done in the style of ''Danganronpa 3'''s Despair Arc.

** [[OddFriendship Bizarrely enough]], there has been a lot of overlap between the ''Danganronpa'' fandom and ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', of all things, especially on the official TNO sub-Reddit. Also, there have been a lot of comparisons between [[BigBad Himmler]] and [[spoiler:[[https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/i2cq1o/tfw_there_is_only_despair_under_the_black_sun/ Junko]]]] and [[WideEyedIdealist Sablin]] and [[https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/comments/jg1f5d/hope_boi_sablin/ Makoto]] from their respective franchises. It helps that Himmler is prone to plunging people into despair, albeit via totalitarianism rather than a desire for chaos within itself, while Sablin is a HopeBringer to Russia if he remains idealistic. This eventually resulted in a fan made and dev loved [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQaqC1YdID4 anime opening]] for ''TNO'' done in the style of the ''Danganronpa 3'' despair arc anime.

* ArchivePanic: Not an extreme example, but the franchise has over 4 games, 2 animes and 20 official mangas, so checking out all of them will take quite a long time.

** Don't refer to ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' as ''Anime/Danganronpa3'' or get the two mixed up. ''Danganronpa 3'' is the anime that culminates the Hope's Peak Academy saga, while ''Danganronpa V3'' is the third main game in the series.
** There's no ''Danganronpa V1'' or ''Danganronpa V2''. The first game is ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' and the second game is ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''. ''Danganronpa V3'' is named like that in order to differenciate it from the ''Danganronpa 3'' anime and for an in-game reason as well.
** Assuming that the ImageSong for Trigger Happy Havoc, "''Saisei -rebuild-''", is being sung by Nagito Komaeda or that the ending song of Goodbye Despair "''Shukkō -departure-''" is performed by Makoto Naegi is enough to aggravate someone. Although both characters share Creator/MegumiOgata as their voice actress, the former song is officially labeled as Makoto's song while the latter is considered to be Nagito's song.
** Claiming that Chihiro is a trans girl will get you labeled as ignorant at best, and hateful at worst. Chihiro's backstory states that he only dressed up as a girl in order to avoid being bullied for not being masculine enough, not because he identified as such. In fact, Chihiro actually ''hates'' being treated like a girl, and doing so only worsened his insecurities.

** Partially but not always as an extension of the above, you'll often find fics whose premise is [[FixFic changing the death of a particular character]], with [[VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc Mukuro]], [[Anime/Danganronpa3 human Chiaki]], and [[VisualNovel/DanganRonpaV3KillingHarmony Kaede]] being the most common recipients.