Dangan Ronpa: Seekers of a New World
by darkblade is a fanfic for Danganronpa which stars 26 original characters. These new students from around the world are trapped in a mysterious facility by the crazy and sadistic robot bear Monokuma. Monokuma gives two options for the students: stay here for the rest of their lives or commit a murder without getting caught. Naturally, it's a story of betrayal and frustration that leads to murder that the surviving students need to solve or face certain death. In order to escape, they need to uncover the mysteries of this facilities as well as a mysterious group called the Seekers of a New World.
A story made in a script format, which allows the reader to see through the point of view of two main characters. It also allows the readers to have an effect on the story by allowing people to vote on freetime to further understand these characters, albeit not affecting the overall story. The Class Trials, events that happen once a murder occurs, are presented in a format that allows the reader to solve the murder along with our two main characters. A story that focus more on drama and hidden feelings then friendships and quirkiness; it is more appropriate to people who enjoy character interaction
Features potential spoilers for both games and tropes below may spoil the story. Just be warned!
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Eirin's parents, or at least her father, lock her up if she doesn't follow her mentor's instructions. Also Li's parents restrict all of her freedom to force her to follow their footsteps.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Kristoph gives one to Amanda just before his execution.
- Arc Words: Humanity's nature. Every character, including Kyon, mentions bad things happening due to human nature.
- Asshole Victim: Chapter 1's victim Stella, due to planning to commit a murder, which backfired and led to her death. Subverted when her past reveals she wasn't completely stable, due to her being replaced by her parents after she was kidnapped when she was 10, and that the only reason she became the SHSL Merchant was to gain her parents' attention again. This is what Monokuma used to push her into planning a murder.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- It looks like Eirin was going to become the victim of Chapter 1, due to everyone distrusting her, and both Jack and Lisa mentioning that she was in danger because she was keeping secrets on Kyon's order. However, in the end it was Stella who became the victim of Chapter 1.
- Another in the middle of the Class Trial of Chapter 1. Jack was set up to be the culprit of the case, even having a P.T.A with Lisa. But despite that, in the end it's revealed Jack wasn't the culprit.
- Big Bad: Both Torohime and Kyon assume that the one controlling Monokuma is one of the other students. It is revealed that there are 3 of them: Nigel Dela Cruz, the SHSL Generic Guy/Despair, Jiaming, SHSL Business Man/Future Foundation, and the The Man Behind the Man Delilah Mias, SHSL Environmentalist.
- Body of the Week: With the only way out being murder, every chapter will have someone end up dead. Not even the prologue is safe from this.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Kenji shows that, while he is a very capable strategist, he uses his smarts for pranks instead.
- Broken Ace: Torohime. Because of her talent, it caused jealousy among her peers, and it lead her to become an outcast. The effects are shown in Chapter 1, when Torohime has a massive emotional breakdown due to that and the situation Monokuma has placed them in.
- Brutal Honesty: The more serious characters definitely are not subtle with their remarks. Jack and Lisa show this to Kyon when confronting him about keeping secrets from others.
- Crapsack World: Many of the characters believe this even before they were trapped from the outside world.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Kenji's freetime shows that he's a prankster, not in a way to mess with people, but to showcase his tactical skill. He even takes his schemes very seriously, like a general in war.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Being Dangan Ronpa, naturally the executions.
- Nigel Dela Cruz is strapped to an electric chair which transmits electricity towards the collar attached to his neck. Nigel suffers a severe heart attack due to the excessive of electricity placed on him.
- Kristoph is placed in the principal's office. Monokumas dress up as students trying to break their way in while throwing stones outside through the window. Kristoph tries to stop it, but the Monokumas succeed and drag Kristoph out, eventually leading him outside to hang him with the flag pole.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Stella was kidnapped at a young age and forced to become a slave for her captors for years. And when she finally escaped and tracked down her parents, she found she was replaced.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Torohime is revealed to have them when her involvement with the murder is discovered. It's even how they describe some of her stances after the reveal.
- Everything's Better with Samurai: Kaz is your stereotypical samurai. He even talks in a very old fashion.
- Expy: Kyon Utsurugi to an actual character in Dangan Ronpa, Kyouko Kirigiri. Both are SHSL Detectives and are one of the more serious characters in the story. They are both The Stoic. Both of them also have secrets that they keep away from others, and while they both interact with the others, they don't reveal much about themselves. They both also spearhead the Class Trials.
- Freak Out:
- Torohime goes through this in the beginning of Chapter 1, after Nigel's execution
- Lisa has one when Kyon accuses her brother Jack as the killer of Chapter 1
- Friendless Background: Li, because she wasn't allowed by her parents to interact with others, due to their obsession with making Li one of the best students.
- Genius Ditz: Nir, despite being easily scared, has showcased in the investigations that she is a very capable investigation partner.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: When Kyon, Jing, Nir and Torohime know about a motive coming up, they become hesitant to inform the others about it. They try to unite the students with a group activity in order for the motive to be less effective, but their discussion is overheard by Eirin and Li, who also decide to keep it a secret. When Monokuma crashes their get-together, he reveals that someone among them knew the motive before anyone else and was keeping it a secret. And due to Eirin revealing she knew and being hesitant to inform the others despite being a leader, she was deemed dishonest and untrustworthy.
- Hidden Depths: Every character, whether in freetime or Class Trials. One noticeable example is when Nir calls out everyone's surprise and confusion on Stella's death. Even Jing and Kyon were at a loss of words when that happened!
- Informed Loner: Despite being a cheerful and serious girl, Jeanne was surprisingly considered a loner in her old school since she didn't agree with the thoughts of the other students.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Iiang may be an ass, but he genuinely cares about the others and gets angry if any of them gets hurt.
- Kick the Dog: Monokuma destroys Kristoph's bracelet in front of Amanda after Kristoph was just executed. And the bracelet was the one Amanda gave Kristoph as a gift.
- The Leader: Eirin, Silver, Jing and Kyon are given this role through a vote.
- Manipulative Bastard: Kenji explains that you need to be able to manipulate people in order for a prank to be successful. And there is no need to mention where the bastard part comes from.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Kyon figures out that Stella wasn't a completely innocent victim in the murder case of Chapter 1, Silver loses his cool and stubbornly argues against it, despite him being the one who provided the testimony that led to Stella being involved with the crime.
- Properly Paranoid: It makes sense why Torohime and Kyon are afraid of being betrayed. Even Lute reveals that she doesn't trust anyone.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Nigel, the SHSL Generic Guy, to showcase how much danger the cast is really in and that Monokuma isn't messing around.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Kyon has this response when Aya refers to Torohime as Kyon's girlfriend during the prologue.
- Shout-Out: There are shout outs to other alternative cast fanfic works, such as to Dangan Ronpa Forever Despair and Dangan Ronpa: Legacy of Despair.
- Smoking Is Cool: Jason, the cool guy of the group, is a heavy smoker.
- Team Mom: Stella acts like this despite being The Tease, watching over the other students and trying to get them together. Torohime also by comforting and helping others with their problems.
- Teen Genius: Many of the students here are geniuses in their respective field of work; Lute is the most exceptional one, being the SHSL Prodigy.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Jack and Lisa give one to Kyon when they confront him for not telling the others about Monokuma, giving a motive that day despite Monokuma telling him two days ago. But the reason isn't just not telling the others, but also to have Eirin seen as the bad guy because she had to confess about knowing the motive was coming, when Monokuma said that one of them was informed about it before anyone else. And she only knew since she overheard Kyon about it and was instructed not to tell anyone. This causes people not to trust Eirin and possibly made her a target for murder.
