General Tropes | Future Arc | Despair Arc | Hope Arc
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- Advertised Extra: The anime heavily promoted the return of the entire cast of SDR2. In reality however, everyone besides Hinata, Nanami and Komaeda end up with relatively minor roles after the first two episodes.
- A Storm Is Coming: Seems to be the case in episode 8, knowing what's likely going to happen afterwards.
- Battle in the Rain: Peko vs. Mukuro in episode 8. Juzo and Kyousuke fighting off the reserve course students also applies.
- Bland-Name Product:
- In the first episode, Nagito's luck gets him several cans of "Dr Hopper" and Chiaki plays Gala Omega on her Nantendo Game Girl Advance.
- While Ryota is working on his anime in a new location in episode 7, Junko gives him a mini-fridge filled with a Red Bull knockoff, replacing the bulls with bulldogs for its logo. She also references the real life product's Catchphrase.
Junko: Have you got wings? - Blatant Lies: Even as Hajime is put under for the surgery, a scientist/doctor tells him that he may feel a bit confused when he wakes up, but he'll soon be back to normal. Apparently they didn't see fit to mention that little Death of Personality / Grand Theft Me issue. And worse, poor Hajime has no idea that this is their intent.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the second part of episode 5, Junko looks to the camera and says: "Alright! In the B-Part, it's the Enoshima time you've all been looking for!".
- Call-Forward: Being a prequel, this is to be expected.
- The building that Munakata is building in the first episode is the headquarters of the Future Foundation and the setting of Side:Future.
- In a picture during the ending song, Peko is shown with a Sparkling Justice mask.
- A picture in the ending song shows Chiaki, Ibuki, and Hiyoko having a session together, which is a special event in SDR2.
- Episode two has Kizakura referencing Celestia as a potential student he's scouting.
- Episode two also has Nekomaru playing as a robot in a fighting game. For an extra kick in the gut, his opponent, Gundham, notes that he is a worthy and determined opponent, and declares that they will fall together. This is exactly what happens in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: trapped and deprived of food, Gundham sends Nekomaru plunging to his death in the full knowledge that he himself is likely to be executed, in the hope that their deaths will save the others in the group. The idea of these two being the protectors of the class is revisited again in Episode 9, where they stay behind to fend off the angry (and probably brainwashed) Reserve Course students to buy the others time to complete their rescue mission.
- Nagito is singled out in the Despair opening, floating in front of the silhouette of a gun barrel that holds six bullets — likely the barrel of the handgun that he used to play Russian Roulette in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
- Nagito also specifically mentions the term "fragment of hope" when the class are socializing together. The Neo World Program set the students the task of collecting "hope fragments" by bonding with each other.
- Enoshima can be seen doodling in a notebook throughout Episode 5, likely the same notebook she has as Ryouko.
- During The Tragedy of Hope's Peak, Kamukura receives a graze on his cheek from a bullet, identical to the one he receives as Hinata early into SDR2.
- A less obvious example is Ibuki's leggings. In the second game, she wore a pair of ripped thigh-highs, one blue and one pink, but one of the photos from Twilight Syndrome Murder Case showed her wearing a pair of leggings with bone designs on them. Exactly what she wears here.
- The way Chiaki dies, being brutally impaled with numerous spears, will be the same death Ikusaba will receive in the second killing game, which is kind of karmic.
- Episode 10 of Side:Despair is titled "Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope". This is a reference to the fifth chapter of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: "Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair.". In both episodes, Chiaki is viciously killed in a video game-like scenario after a Hope Spot where she reaches an exit/goal. The poor girl was murdered twice in the same manner.
- It isn't very noticeable at first, but if you look closely at the collage of Chiaki in the ending song, you could see that she's holding up a star which has the same shape as the star that the hope fragments in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair form.
- Episode 11 of Side:Despair is titled "Goodbye, Hope's Peak Academy", a deliberate parallel to the (original) subtitle of Super Danganronpa 2 - "Goodbye, Despair Academy".
- When Mukuro asked Junko if they should have Makoto killed, knowing that his luck would ruin her plan, Junko decides to let him live knowing that if someone like him ruined her plan it would be very despairful for her. She has no idea how right she is.
- Censor Shadow: Used in the Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy very liberally, as well as the scene in Episode 9 in which a Reserve Course student decapitates himself with a hacksaw. The Blu-ray and DVD releases removed them.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Intentionally invoked with Side:Despair being a much Lighter and Softer contrast to Side:Future, with the first few episodes largely consisting of humorous Slice of Life moments in the 77th class. And then Junko shows up.
- Continuity Nod: Several of the expressions and poses Chiaki makes echo the ones her AI makes
in the second game. - Crapsaccharine World:
- Compared to Side:Future, the art style of this arc is full of vibrant pastel colors. This doesn't make this arc any lighter than the other one.
- In-universe, Hope's Peak sells itself as not only the pinnacle of education, but as a symbol of human potential and achievement. It has a very fancy campus, its students are allowed a lot of freedom and practically guaranteed success upon leaving school, and it's renowned across the world. In reality, the teachers really don't care about education, the whole school is a glorified laboratory for research on talent, they treat their Ultimate students like performing animals, and the whole thing is bankrolled by the badly-treated Reserve Students, who are inadvertently providing plenty of data on what happens when your Fantastic Caste System is allowed to rampage unchecked. And that's before we get into what's happening in the shadows.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Academy outright encourages this. It doesn't even require that their students attend classes to broaden their knowledge — they're free to go off and work on their talents instead (and no-one, aside from Chisa, will make too much noise if they're just goofing off instead). Chiaki mentions this to Hajime, when she notes that the Ultimates are trapped and limited by their own talents.
- Cut-and-Paste Note: In episode 4, Komaeda posts a threat letter like this saying "POSTPONE THE PRACTICAL EXAM OR BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN."
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Episode 4 functions as one for Komaeda, who had been more of a background character until that point.
- Episode 5 served as one for the Ultimate Imposter and Ryota, the latter of whom becomes a main character from there on.
- Deal with the Devil: Hajime's deal with Hope's Peak: he can attend the Academy for free (the substandard Reserve Course, of course, not the actual Ultimate-exclusive school)...but Hope's Peak require his participation in a certain project in return. At the start of the series, it's clear that they've kept him in the dark as to exactly what that project entails.
- Decoy Protagonist: Most of Class 77. While the Side:Despair trailers and posters tout Side:Despair as their story, they mostly serve as catalysts (or comic relief) in the backstories of Side:Future's cast, at least in the initial episodes. Nanami is the only one with a truly signifigant role in the narrative.
- Despair Event Horizon: Junko's whole M.O. involves throwing people over this at the speed of light. Chisa and Mikan cross it via torture and brainwashing, and the rest of Class 77-B cross it via brainwashing and trauma, as they're forced to watch Chiaki's gruesome, agonizing death, trapped in a torture-maze with no escape. Special mention to Hajime too, who crosses it when the last of his self-esteem is shattered, pushing him into becoming Izuru.
- Didn't Think This Through: It seems everyone is doing this in Episode 9. Yukizome going through with rescuing Chiaki without any backup, Class 77-B going to go rescue Yukizome without telling anyone and not considering the fact that Junko is very prepared for their arrival, and Sakakura confronting and planning to fight Junko by himself and while being surrounded by brainwashed Reserve Course students. The next episode shows just how badly they screwed up for their lack of planning as it leads to Yukizome being confirmed as brainwashed, Chiaki's death and Class 77-B being brainwashed after watching her being tortured and then killed, and Sakaura being blackmailed into lying to Munakata about Junko's involvement with the First Killing Game.
- Divide and Conquer: How Junko kick starts the first Killing Game, as per usual. A threat to a Student Council member's mother gets the ball rolling.
- Divided We Fall: Initially looks to be the way Junko gets her claws into the 77th class. Nagito is separated from his class early on, but it really starts when Junko hijacks Mitarai, then kidnaps Mikan when the Ultimate Nurse comes to his house to check his wellbeing. The rest of the class become nervous when one of their number simply vanishes... The final classmate to be separated from the pack is Chiaki. Junko then nabs the others in one fell swoop as she forces them to watch the murder of their beloved class rep.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Enforced. Notice all these examples are common in some of the more extreme hentai:
- After the murder of his crush, Sousuke Ichino decides to kill a couple attempting a lovers' suicide by repeatedly ramming a large, hard metal object into them while the boy is lying on top of the girl. What's more, after the boy dies, Sousuke keeps doing it while we're treated to a shot of the girl screaming in agony as she begs the attacker to stop, stating it hurts.
- A girl half-undressed while having an ahegao and letting out orgasmic sounds is unsettling even for some hentai watchers, and having Mikan doing all these while Junko stomps on her butt with the heel of Junko's pump at a certain area becomes a whole new level of squick.
- Chisa's literal mind rape. The orgasmic sound she let out as the camera focused on her gainaxing chest and crotch does not help.
- While Junko is clearly a villain, the ways she bullies Mitarai and Juzo are too realistic for comfort. Both feature the victim surrounded by other students as Junko looks down and mocks them. Her bullying of Juzo is cruelly, uncomfortably close to a brutal form of school bullying: not only does she out him as a closeted homosexual, she also stomps on him and humiliates him, with a lot of students laughing at him when she reveals the object of his affection. This is made worse by the fact that this situation is all too common even in real life 2016, when the show aired.
- Episode 11 showcases a pretty "interesting" scene of Junko slapping her sister's ass, knocking Mukuro on the ground and repeatedly stomping on her butt, with the heel of Junko's pump seemingly positioned in a particular area. We then get a close up of Mukuro as she is blushing, with her body moving in a rather suggestive manner in response to Junko's stomping. The fact Mukuro seemed to be out of breath after Junko was done doesn't help with the implication.
- In fact, Junko's treatment towards her sister (IE the constant attempts at killing, the physical abuse, the mental abuse, the emotional abuse), combined with Mukuro's apparent addiction and pleasure at this, is heavily remnicent of a combination of Domestic Abuse and Stockholm Syndrome (Which sadly gets worse in other materials like DanganRonpa IF).
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Megumi Ogata sings Side:Despair's ending theme.
- Doomed by Canon: Everyone in class 77 is going to fall into despair (with the exception of Chiaki). All we can do is watch it happen.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted, Mitarai's Attempted Rape by a Brainwashed and Crazy Tsumiki is played for all the horror it entails.
- Downer Ending: As the description above says: "This is a tale of hope that ends in despair." Sure enough, Class 77-B falls into despair, Nanami dies, Yukizome becomes despair and is already on her way to corrupting her lover into it, and Mitarai is left a depressed, guilt-ridden wreck. It does however end on something of an optimistic note, as his anger over Nanami's death leads Kamukura to start plotting against Junko in Revenge, leading to the events of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair and Side:Hope.
- Easter Egg: The official website changes based on key events.
- Junko, physically incapable of subtlety, is the first thing you see upon going to the website as of Episode 5. She takes up the whole page!
- By contrast, after Episode 5, where he is transformed into Izuru, Hajime vanished from his place front-and center of the Side:Despair image, on the right hand side of the official website, giving us a better look at his ominous alter-ego in the background. Poor guy got erased in the real world as well as the story...
- As of Episode 6 Hajime's empty spot has been filled by Izuru.
- Since Episode 10 every character but Chiaki now has red eyes.
- After Episode 12 of Future everything went back to normal, Izuru has been replaced by Hajime and all the red eyes are gone.
- Eye Awaken: Hajime/Izuru at the end of Episode 5.
- Faceless Masses: Non-notable characters have unique designs, but have vague features and are colored a translucent blue.
- Fair-Weather Mentor: The whole school system, for the Ultimates. Hope's Peak laps up the credit for what their talented students go on to achieve, and is even willing to cover up atrocities if it means protecting the school's reputation. However, you're on your own if you get caught before they can hide the evidence, and Chisa tells her students that failing to perform impressively enough in the end of year exams could cost them their place in the school.
- Fan Disservice:
- Mikan's Attempted Rape of Mitarai and sadomasochistic love of Junko are absolutely played for horror.
- Episode 9 graces us with a lovely shot of Chisa's breasts and groin as she's being Mind Raped, tortured, and forced to orgasm.
- Fanservice:
- Komaeda's appearance in Episode 7 gives the audience a generous shot of his naked behind while he's singing under a waterfall.
- Junko in the same episode, with specific emphasis on her breasts, ass, and lips. While Mitarai talks about how his anime induces the viewer's eye movement.
- Fanservice Extra: When Teruteru held up the magazine featuring Sayaka Maizono, she was wearing a very revealing swimsuit which shows off a rather shapely body.
- Fantastic Caste System: As described in Danganronpa Zero, Hope's Peak's student body is divided between the main course, who are scouted by the school for their talents, and the reserve course, ordinary students who have to pay colossal entrance fees for the chance to attend. The two courses have adjacent, but separate campuses, and it appears that main course students can freely wander the reserve course campus, but not the other way around.
- Flanderization: Due to the size of the cast, the necessity to cover a large amount of plot points in a fairly small amount of episodes and explore the backstories for the new characters, this hits much of the SDR2 cast hard. Soda especially gets it bad.
- Foregone Conclusion: We know that, by the end of Side:Despair, Hajime will become Izuru Kamukura, and everyone in Class 77, with the potential exception of Chiaki, will fall into despair.
- Frameup: Junko frames Izuru for killing all the student council members during the first mutual killing game to convince the Reserve Course students that Hope's Peak has been using their money to fund the experiments that created him, meaning they're all accomplices.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In Episode 4, student profiles for Komaeda and the 76th year trio are briefly shown. While it requires one to pause to read, it reveals the hijacking incident that killed Komaeda's parents, that Andou, Izayoi and Kimura are all Childhood Friends and explicitly confirms that Andou and Izayoi are an Official Couple.
- Funny Background Event: In Episode 2, for most of the huge fight sequence that is demolishing the classroom, Chiaki continues to play her game and does not react until a bit of debris bounces off her head and breaks her concentration.
- Just as funny; Nagito is also just sitting there watching. But while Chiaki leaves after getting hit by something he continues to sit there as debre magicly just misses him.
- Getting Suspended Is Awesome: Played with; instead of being expelled after blowing up the school gym in a ploy to postpone exams, Nagito is merely suspended because the school deems him too valuable to lose, and several students and faculty are scapegoated and given much harsher punishments. Not much is known about what happened during the year-long suspension, though the teachers theorize Nagito went on vacation, and he was, once again, the sole survivor of a plane crash and wound up in an island paradise.
- I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: Izuru doesn't understand why he starts crying after Chiaki dies in front of him. It's a sign that Hajime's personality wasn't entirely wiped out during the transformation.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite the radically different environment, most of the major relationships from the second game remain intact. This makes sense since, as Danganronpa Zero insinuated, the students' lost memories didn't affect their subconscious memories of each other, so the original bonds reformed quite quickly.
- Just Before the End: Side:Despair is set before both games, with characters like Jin Kirigiri, murdered in the first moments of the very first game, and Yukizome, murdered at the end of Episode 1 in Side:Future, very much alive and well. The arc begins with a much brighter and more cheerful atmosphere than the oppressive darkness of all other installments, although this doesn't last beyond the first quarter.
M-Z
- Meaningful Background Event: During Episode 9, you can see Izuru continuing to stare at Chiaki after Junko and later Chisa interrupt them. This is meaningful because it hints at his piqued interest in her, which is vital to his motivations for turning on Junko.
- Mind Screw:
- The first scene of Side:Despair is Yukizome in a movie theater watching her own death. Her own death, which is, for reference, something that happens three years from that point.
- Ryota's experimental (brainwashing) animation techniques being displayed on our screen as he's discussing them, implying that Danganronpa 3 can affect our mind similarly.
- Mind Rape: An exceptionally horrific example, overlapping with Cold-Blooded Torture, is given to Yukizome in Episode 9.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Episode 3 has a complete change in atmosphere from the previous two.
- Played even harder in Episode 4, which seems to revert to the lighter tone, only to end in a massive Downer Ending as Andou and Kimura's already unstable friendship falls apart, they along with Izayoi get expelled and Yukizome is separated from her students.
- Episode 7 is vicious, and it's obvious from the start that bad things will happen, but it still takes some time out to show us... a naked Nagito singing in a waterfall after being in yet another plane crash (he never learns). The Ultimate Lucky student once again skirts the borderline between disturbing and hilarious.
- Mythology Gag:
- One of the images of Class 77-B in the Side:Despair ED is a track photo identical in composition to the one of Class 78 from the first game.
- Hinata's former school is given the name of Kodaka High, an obvious reference to series creator Kazutaka Kodaka.
- As Junko leaks the details of the Izuru Kamukura project to the Reserve Course, the sequence of events is illustrated in a manner akin to a complete Climax Inference, right down to the background music.
- In Episode 10, Junko kicks off Chiaki's execution by declaring "It's Punishment Time!" and playing a variation of the 8-bit execution intro from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. We then see a brief shot of Chiaki with the same art style as the executions cutscenes before going to a break.
- And after it's done, the wheels of the Monokuma Vote slot machine briefly appear,
- Of course, this all works because Class 77-B ends up in the first Class Trial room from the first game.
- No One Should Survive That!: According to the newspapers reporting the practical exam building bombing, not a single person died.
- Origins Episode: The entirety of Side:Despair, which details how Ultimate Despair came to be.
- Our Founder: Hope's Peak Academy has a statue of Izuru Kamukura to this effect. It conceals a hidden room.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Chisa easily opens a protected file about the Kamukura Project. Not only is the password simply the PC owner's favorite food in plain text ("curry rice"), but it's written on a post-it note attached to the monitor. This is unfortunately an extremely common thing to do in offices, but when that password is protecting detailed notes on illegal human experimentation, maybe you should just try to remember that you like curry rice. Or pick a better password, of course.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Side:Despair is one for Chisa Yukizome, Hajime Hinata, and the rest of class 77.
- Refuge in Audacity: Nagito manages to get away with the stunt he pulls in Episode 4 partially because the sheer amount of luck it required was the perfect display of his talent. Danganronpa Zero suggests that this same attitude will backfire horribly on the staff of Hope's Peak later on when Junko starts putting her plan into motion.
- Retcon: The Chiaki who appeared in 2 was an AI built by Chihiro Fujisaki and Alter Ego; with her strong resemblance to Chihiro and referring to him as her "father", nothing indicated she was based off a real person. In fact, in 2, Nagito pressed Monokuma on the authenticity of the dossier on his fellow students he had received as a reward for winning the Russian Roulette challenge. Monokuma stated that the contents of the dossier were entirely truthful, except for the fact that he had created a fake student profile for the traitor (who later turned out to be Chiaki), because they didn't have one due to never having been a student at Hope Peak's Academy, and this absence of a paper trail would have given the traitor's identity away far too early. In 3, the AI built for the Neo World Program was really a gestalt who took the form of the human Chiaki, who was a fully-fleged student at Hope Peak's Academy, formed from the Remnants' memories of her. Her resemblance to Chihiro just happens to be coincidence.
- Revision:
- Absolutely nothing in SDR2 implied that Natsumi and Sato were Reserve Course students and not just regular HPA students. Natsumi's talent of Little Sister is turned into one she used for herself as a way of avoiding continuity errors.
- The way Class-77 was corrupted by Junko. In the game, Monokuma claims that she used More than Mind Control and recruited them one-by-one, whereas in the anime, they all get brainwashed at once by watching Chiaki's death. This might not actually be a revision, however: in the game, Makoto does say they were brainwashed, but it wasn't assumed he meant it literally because of Monokuma's previous statement.
- It's said in the game that Izuru Kamukura killed the entire student council in the first killing game. In the anime, he only killed the last guy standing, and only after said guy charged at him with a chainsaw. The other students picked each other apart. The "inconsistency" is explained as Junko framing Izuru for the rest of the deaths, and given that she was attempting to break Hajime's spirit when she told him this, it's very likely she was lying then too.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: The scientists during Hajime's conversion to Izuru Kamukura. Also, during the Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy, Karen Kisaragi just before murdering her classmate with a chainsaw.
- School of No Studying: Deliberately employed: Hope's Peak Academy's Ultimate students are free to spend time working on their talent rather than attending class (presumably because the school is actually performing research using the students — educating them is a much less important concern). Even Chisa's attempts to round up her students are more of an effort to get them to socialize rather than to learn.
- School for Scheming: Hope's Peak is horribly corrupt, and is more interested in exploiting its students as test subjects rather than actually teaching them. This is reflected in their general education policy, which essentially boils down to "let the Ultimates do whatever they want", which only furthers their Crippling Overspecialization and lays the groundwork for their fall into despair. In addition, the school quickly and ruthlessly covers up any event that could get them negative press, such as Natsumi and Sato's deaths, and Sakakura implies that the school would even resort to murder to silence any student that knows too much.
- Series Continuity Error: A Continuity Nod in Episode 4 occurs when Komaeda's school profile notes the deaths of his parents in a hijacking incident. Only problem is that the profile says he was in junior-high when they died, despite every reference to the event before placing him in elementary school.
- Ship Tease: The interactions with Hinata and later Izuru and Nanami are about as subtle as a rock to the face. The Imposter and Tsumiki also get this come Episode 5. Akane and Nekomaru also had their moment in Episode 2.
- Slave to PR: Hope's Peak will only discipline its students if they actually get caught by the wider public. They can cover up murder and human experimentation quite comfortably, but when a bomb goes off during the widely publicized exams, they have to be seen to be doing something...and promptly punish all the wrong people, as the scapegoats were the ones seen to be involved with incident, not the ones that masterminded it.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Enforced by Junko when she makes Mukuro sing "Give Me Wings", a sad yet beautiful ballad, as the student council members kill each other during the killing game.
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Spiritual Successor: Side:Despair is more or less a (much expanded) successor to Danganronpa Zero. Both are prequels that connect to the latest main series instalment, both have a romance between the main characters (Ryouko/Matsuda and Hinata/Nanami respectively) forming the backbone of the narrative and both heavily spotlight exploring the Big Bad of the prior instalments. - Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Nanami wasn't advertised at all until the week prior to premier, and has gone on to have more screentime than almost all of Class 77-B.
- Once the real Ryota is introduced, he and his anime proceed to become absolutely central to Junko's plans and thus the plot, shoving nearly everyone else in Class 77-B to the side in the process. Only Chiaki, Nagito, the Imposter and Mikan continue to have any real relevance after episode 5.
- Start of Darkness: Side:Despair serves as a prequel to the events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Ultra Despair Girls, and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, showing how Hajime/Izuru and the others became members of Ultimate Despair. As Episode 9 reveals, it is also one for Yukizome, and Side:Future Episode 12 reveals it to be one for Mitarai as well.
- The Stinger:
- The first episode of Side:Despair ends with a meeting in which one of the members present looks at a file containing information on Hajime.
- In the second episode, Hajime is introduced to a new transfer student named Natsumi Kuzuryu.
- The third episode has Hajime turning down a new game from Chiaki then arriving at the meeting.
- The fourth episode has a rather sad one, with Yukizome talking to Munakata on the phone about how she was transferred to teach the Reserve Course, and while this will help her investigation, she's quite sad about leaving the 77th class behind.
- The fifth episode ends with a smash cut right after Hajime's transformation.
- The seventh episode has Junko spreading word about the massacre that occurred among the Student Council, followed by the Reserve Course setting up a rebellion against the school.
- The eighth episode has Chiaki recognizing that Izuru Kamukura is Hajime Hinata.
- The eleventh episode (and with it the arc) ends on Hinata and Nanami reuniting in the Neo World Program. This is soon followed by the words, "Continued to the hope side".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Zig-zagged: nobody pays much attention when Akane and Nekomaru destroy classrooms and their destruction is Played for Laughs, but Komaeda's bombing of school property is taken extremely seriously. Justified in that the practical exams had a massive amount of media scrutiny, as pointed out by the Headmaster, meaning zero chance for cover-ups for what was caught live on camera.
- Tempting Fate: Chisa, the housekeeper, is mocked by Hiyoko when she proclaims that she's teaching the class. What she says specifically before Chisa deploys her insurance leaflets: "Which do you think will go first; her health, her sanity, or her social life?" How about all of the above, Hiyoko?
- Time Skip: Six months pass at the beginning of Episode 5, exemplified by the changing seasons and Hiyoko's growth spurt.
- And another six months pass in Episode 6, as the seasons change around Chiaki waiting at the Reserve Course gate for Hajime who's already been converted into Izuru.
- It's implied that another one of unknown length happens in between Episodes 10 and 11, since Junko knows how to erase memories, suggesting that the events of Danganronpa Zero have already taken place.
- Trailers Always Lie: The advertising presented the arc as a straight prequel, when in reality it functions more as the backstory to Side:Future. Consequently, Nanami (whose inclusion was unexpected to say the least despite her being a main character) and the Side:Future characters were completely excluded from most advertising until the series started.
- In much of the advertising, Hajime Hinata and Nagito Komaeda continue to appear together/mirror each other, usually dressed in their old school uniforms, suggesting that they are main players and that Nagito's role as deuteragonist will be continued. In the show itself, Nagito is Demoted to Extra and Put on a Bus in the first half, while Hajime only really becomes a main player post-Izuru Kamukura. Moreover, these two never interact while Hajime is still himself — according to the show, their entire relationship, whatever it may be, begins only when they're put into the Neo World Program, unlike the other students who lapse into their old relationships.
- Truth in Television: Some curriculums (mostly those involving "special needs" kids) really do have classes meant to teach their students social skills and/or teamwork.
- Unfazed Everyman: Chiaki has shades of this, in that she literally plays her way through all her scenes. Even when the classroom is in ruins around her.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ryota Mitarai's talent is used by Enoshima to brainwash the students of Hope's Peak. Also applies to Chiaki and Nagito in episode 9, when Junko purposely allows them to escape to get the rest of Class 77-B to rescue Yukizome so she can easily capture them all at once.
- Wacky Homeroom: Class 77-B basically takes the wackiness up to eleven.
