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Ain't your usual visual novel.note 
Alright, folks! The final day of your precious carefree school life has arrived! Whether that makes you wanna jump for joy or weep till ya die, doesn't matter! This is it! So for the rest of the day, do your very tippy-toppy best!
Monokuma, Danganronpa 1.2 Reload

Danganronpanote  is a series of "high-speed mystery action adventure" visual novels created by Kazutaka Kodaka, and released by Spike (now Spike Chunsoft) for the PSP, PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and iOS. The games combine mystery-solving with elements of shooting and even rhythm gameplay.

The premise of the first two main games in the series thus far take the same formula (while the third one is set in a new story arc and location, it generally sticks to this formula as well); the player takes the role of a new student at Hope's Peak Academy, a prestigious high school in Japan which only accepts the cream of the crop for its classes. This mentality extends towards any sort of niche, including unconventional ones like otaku, gamers, and even criminals. Students with these extraordinary talents are given an "Ultimate X" titlenote .

Unfortunately, things start to go awry once the new kid steps inside the school itself, as they lose consciousness and wake up elsewhere, with no memory of the interim. They soon find that all the exits and windows are locked to prevent escape, and meet several other students in the same predicament. Before long, the thing who put them there reveals himself—Monokuma, a sadistic, sapient teddy bear robot.

He quickly reveals that the students will be forced into a "school life of mutual killing". If a person murders a classmate, the rest of the student body will have a class trial to determine the killer's identity. If they get it right, the culprit is executed in a showy display tailor-made to their personality. If they get it wrong, however, the killer "graduates" and gets to leave the school, while the rest die in their place.

Of course, the students swear against something as extreme as killing each other. And yet, horrifyingly, the bodies begin to pile up. Throughout the game, Monokuma continues to give them all new motives to kill each other, and the player must find the killer in each chapter to make sure the survivors all have a shot of escaping together.

The series is rather complicated, consisting of a series of stringing plotlines over several mediums. It also has a number of translations (official and unofficial) varying in consistency, so that context may affect how certain examples are written.

The series is currently in a sort of limbo as Kodaka has left Spike Chunsoft to open his own company, Too Kyo Games and no new plans about it have been revealed while ambiguous news about whether Kodaka would be helping in a new game or not spread.

On June 15th 2021, a collection of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc-V3, as well as Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, called Danganronpa Decadence, was announced for release on the Nintendo Switch. This collection was released on November 4, 2021 in Japan, and outside of Japan on December 3, 2021.

Compare to Ace Attorney, Zero Escape and When They Cry for similar visual novels.


Danganronpa media:

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Main installments

    Main Installments 
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havocnote : The original visual novel, starring Makoto Naegi in Hope's Peak Academy. (Japanese release: 2010, English release: 2014)
  • Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair note : The official sequel to the first game, starring Hajime Hinata on the Jabberwock Island Resort. (Japanese release: 2012, English release: 2014)
  • Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: An original anime airing in the summer of 2016, split into two concurrently-airing arcs, Future Arc and Despair Arc. Acts as the Grand Finale to the Hope's Peak Academy Saga.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmonynote  - The third main series game and the beginning of the Gifted Inmates Academy Saga. Despite its name, it is confirmed by invokedWord of God to be the fourth main entry. (Release: 2017)

Spin-offs

    Spin-Off Games 
  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girlsnote : A Third-Person Shooter starring Makoto Naegi's sister Komaru; set in between the first two games and functioning as a Gaiden Game.
  • Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle: A Japan-only free-to-play iOS game similar to Monster Strike.
  • Cyber Danganronpa VR: The Class Trial: A tech demo utilizing the Play Station 4's Virtual Reality headset, the PlayStation VR.
  • Kirigiri Sou: A sound novel based around the gameplay of Chunsoft's Otogirisou, centered on Kyoko Kirigiri, a character from the first game. It was released as a pack-in with the third special edition Blu-ray box set of Danganronpa 3 in Japan.
  • Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp: An expansion of the "Ultimate Talent Development Plan" board game from Danganronpa V3 into a full standalone game, released as part of the Danganronpa Decadence collection of anniversary remasters in 2021.

    Novel/Manga Spin-Offs 
  • Danganronpa Zero: A two-part light novel prequel to the first game written by Kazutaka Kodaka released in 2011, starring Ryoko Otonashi in Hope's Peak Academy.
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF: A short story about a What If? scenario for the first game, unlocked by beating the second one, starring Mukuro Ikusaba during an alternate version of the original game.
  • Danganronpa Kirigiri: A prequel novel series about Kyoko Kirigiri, a character from the first game; the first book was released September 2013, and there are now currently five.
  • Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever: A short story released with the Danganronpa anime DVD/BD.
  • Ultra Despair Hagakure: A novel included in Ultra Despair Girls that can be unlocked after completing the game, starring Yasuhiro Hagakure, a character from the first game, caught up in the events of Ultra Despair Girls.
  • Danganronpa 1・2 Beautiful Days: A series of non-canon Doujinshi short stories written by multiple authors and officially collected by Spike Chunsoft, based around the daily lives of the respective casts of Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair.
  • Danganronpa Togami: A prequel novel series about Byakuya Togami, written by Yuya Sato.
  • Super Danganronpa 2: Kazuichi Soda in Desperate Causality: A spin-off centered on Kazuichi Soda, a character from the second game.
  • Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer: A manga spin-off written by Yuichirou Koizumi and illustrated by Sasako Mitomo. It was initially published as a standalone work, but was later rebranded as a side story to Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School with the release of the third chapter.
  • There's also a collection of supplementary manga series for the first and the second games, complementing and expanding the events depicted in the visual novels by adding missing details and using different points of view.

Animated/Live-action adaptations

    Animated/Live-Action Adaptations 
  • Danganronpa: The Animation: An Anime of the Game adapting the first visual novel.
  • Danganronpa:
    • Danganronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei The Stage: A stage play adapting the first visual novel.
    • Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen The Stage: A stage play adapting the second visual novel.
    • Danganronpa 3: The End of Kibōgamine Gakuen The Stage: A stage play adapting the Future Arc of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.

The Danganronpa franchise provides examples of:

Due to the sheer volume of spoilers resulting from the nature of the franchise's media, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

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The Ultimate Punishment

Junko is only capable of feeling pleasure through despair, even if it comes from her own death. In the stage adaption, Makoto cuts her from executing herself as the ultimate punishment for her crimes, thus sparing her in an alternate continuity.

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