Main installments: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Danganronpa Zero | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Spin-offs: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls | Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF | Danganronpa Kirigiri | Danganronpa Togami | Killer Killer
General examples:
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- Abandon Shipping:
- The Reveal that Enoshima had brainwashed Tsumiki, combined with the very disturbing depiction of their relationship, basically shot down the pairing's popularity with a harpoon.
- The Andou/Izayoi ship lost a lot of fans with The Reveal that Andou murdered Izayoi and the possible implications that the candies she's been feeding him are capable of mind-control. This has left a lot of fans seeing them less as a caring couple and more as a Manipulative Bastard controlling a guy who's had an addiction since childhood. It's worth noting that in this case it's very much Alternative Character Interpretation however. Episode 9 gave some support back however, due to showing that Izayoi really loved her, and basically indicating that Andou really did love him back.
- Some who were on board with the Makoto/Mukuro ship as shown in IF jumped ship once Mukuro executes the Cold-Blooded Torture against Chisa. Even some of those left on the ship after that jumped when Side:Despair Episode 11 had her derogatorily refer to him as a "loser".
- Chisa/Juzo and Juzo/Ruruka both lost a lot of followers once Juzo was revealed to be gay and in love with Munakata.
- Aborted Arc: Danganronpa Zero is completely ignored, except for a few cameos.
- Alas, Poor Scrappy: The deaths of Ruruka and Sakakura. Their deaths, while met with some cheer from the fandom, were done in such a way that some actually felt pity for them. The former was brainwashed into killing herself in an exceptionally brutal fashion, while the latter died just as he was being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap.
- Americans Hate Tingle: Ruruka Andou is well-loved in the Japanese fandom, thanks to a combination of her talent, characterization, and her relationship with Izayoi. In the West, she is hated for: abusing Kimura, her Unintentionally Unsympathetic behavior, being an Alpha Bitch, breaking the Moral Event Horizon by killing her boyfriend and attempting to drug Juzo, and nearly killing Kyoko (and being responsible for Kizakura's death as a result) in Episode 8 of Side:Future. With full series hindsight, though, she's at least somewhat more appreciated, and arguably the most-cited example of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character in the anime. People really wanted her to survive and be The Atoner, and came around to thinking she had the potential to be one after her very sad last scenes.
- Angst? What Angst?: The events of Side:Despair Episode 3 are basically forgotten about within the space of an episode. Indeed, the fact Fuyuhiko literally murdered Sato is never once referenced.
- Anti-Climax Boss: The mastermind, Tengan, was killed by Munakata long before you learn that he was evil, and didn't get much screentime before that. Instead, the "final boss" is Mitarai, who gives up in less than five minutes when confronted with The Power of Friendship. Also, Chisa commits suicide in the first episode of Side:Future and thus is never confronted.
- Ass Pull:
- After spending a third of the anime Commuting on a Bus, Komaeda returns in Side:Despair Episode 8 with knowledge of all of Enoshima's plans (including Kamukura) without explanation. This is despite the previous episode showing him on vacation about a day ago.
- What many fans see Monaca becoming a NEET as.
- What many fans see The Reveal of Tengan engineering the Final Killing in order to get Mitarai to commit mass Brainwashing for the Greater Good. To many, it raises Fridge Logic, Plot Holes and only exists to push Mitarai into the position of Big Bad come Side:Hope.
- A particularly egregious one would be Mikan finding Kyoko who happened to stave off the Monokuma poison until someone was to help her. It was seen as so blatantly this that even the voice actress for the English dub shared the sentiment.
- Awesome Art: The higher budget and effort certainly show in a number of areas. The OP and ED for Side:Future look amazing. It's especially apparent when comparing the shots of Makoto entering the school, as seen here
. - Badass Decay: Complaints about Junko in this anime tend to involve this. Before her appearance in the anime, she was widely considered to be both a Manipulative Bastard and a Dark Messiah who could win over many with her own abilities and charisma. The anime reveals that while she was a good planner, she in fact relied on Ryota's brainwashing anime to brainwash her followers into despair. As a result, many started to think she'd lost some of her most impressive qualities. She makes up for it slightly in Episode 10 by talking Juzo down and leading Nanami and Class 77-B into inescapable traps, but she still uses brainwashing in the Class' case.
- Best Known for the Fanservice: Nagito's Shower Scene in Episode 7 of the Despair Arc gets just as much attention from the fandom as the first Killing Game.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Komaeda's Waterfall Shower scene in Side:Despair Episode 7. It comes out of nowhere, has absolutely no context, is unconnected to the five ongoing storylines and analysing the scene actually causes it to make less sense.
- The "confrontation" between Komaeda and Kamukura. Not only is it completely random, it serves little purpose than to get the former out of the scene and ends up completely irrelevant when the two get their memories of the event wiped. It basically exists for the Ship Tease.
- Complete Monster: Before this anime, Junko avoided this trope due to having elements of mystery around her atrocities. After this anime, we're shown just how monstrous Junko is, and she qualifies this trope big time. For the reasoning, see the page for the series overall.
- Contested Sequel: Both Side:Future and Side:Despair have their share of detractors and defenders; criticisms aimed at the former revolve around the expendable cast of one-note characters, the unnecessary amount of fake deaths, the poor usage of past characters like Monaca, and the infamous twist at the end. Criticism aimed at the latter mostly revolve around the pacing, the Retcons to pre-established lore, the Flanderization of most of the SDR2 cast, and how it exists more as backstory for Side:Future than attempting to stand on its own. On the other hand, the fans of Side:Future praise the grittiness, the innovative killing game, and the good writing of the characters they do develop, while fans of Side:Despair cite the bonds between the characters, Junko's villainy, and (again) the Character Development that is there as positives. Then, there is the very divisive Side:Hope ending, where you'll see opinions ranging from "deserved happiness" to "cheap pandering" and everything in between.
- Continuity Lock-Out:
- As should be obvious, watching without playing the first two games is a very bad idea. This ended up befalling many anime reviewers online, who watched the anime when the season began and ended up completely lost. And don't think for a minute you can avoid the spin-offs either, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls and Danganronpa Zero (the latter of which is Japan-only for additional fun) also end up playing a part, with Episode 7 of Side:Future in particular being practically incomprehensible to those who lack knowledge of the former.
- The anime even does it to itself, as it's written as one story divided into two arcs that air simultaneously. Watching all of one side before starting the other will have the first spoil a lot for the second, and the second won't be there to explain things from the first. Even worse, if you watch it in the broadcast order the second will spoil a lot for the first, and the first won't be there to explain things in the second. No matter what you do, you're SOL.
- Crack Pairing: Nagito Komaeda and Seiko Kimura. While it's true that he (accidentally) got her expelled and their interactions were far too brief to confirm anything, there is a small minority of fans that still agree that Nagito would have been a good friend, and even spouse, for Seiko when compared to her toxic relationship with Ruruka and Izayoi. These fans will point out that Nagito was still one of the only characters to be genuinely nice and respectful to Seiko from beginning to end with no strings attached, and there is also the scene where Seiko blushes (complete with Love Bubbles) when Nagito tells her how well her laxative worked on him. Then there's the fact that in Side:Hope, Nagito not only still remembers Seiko after so much time had passed, but he praises her for her work on the medicine that was used to save Kirigiri from dying.
- Creepy Cute: Seiko Kimura. Taken up a notch in Side:Despair, especially after being complimented by Nagito.
- Crosses the Line Twice:
- The sheer unnecessary violence and its plethora of consequences that Juzo Sakakura creates, along with his virtual lack of redeeming qualities bar his loyalty and faith in a massive Base-Breaking Character, can veer into being hilariously over-the-top.
- Naturally, Junko Enoshima carries this over from previous installments. During her first appearance in Side:Despair, she blows up a taxi cab and periodically tries to kill her sister, Mukuro, all the while being both hilarious and entertaining.
- Though the Student Council's Mutual Killing sequence is, for the most part, full on Nightmare Fuel, some couldn't help but find it silly when Aiko Umesawa was unceremoniously stabbed and thrown across the room at another student.
- While her Cold-Blooded Torture on Yukizome was her Moral Event Horizon, the fact that Mukuro actually had to read instructions before starting and while doing it had clearly no idea where she should stick the needles and seemingly missed the right spot several times before getting it right was actually kind of funny.
- Die for Our Ship:
- There is a small handful of people who ship Hajime/Nagito that feel this way about Chiaki.
- Crossing into Ship-to-Ship Combat, Juzo/Munakata fans tend to have this towards Yukizome while Yukizome/Munakata fans tend to have this towards Juzo.
- Epileptic Trees: Given their ambiguous roles and associated Mind Screws, Chiaki and Yukizome get a massive amount of this. As the series has gone on, this has begun to affect Mitarai and Gekkougahara as well. In order:
- For Chiaki, the fact that she exists at all, after the Chiaki in the second game was an AI. What is the relation between these two Chiakis? In addition, she is the only Class 77-B student in Side:Despair whose fate is unknown, leading into massive speculation about her fate.
- For Yukizome, the fact that after her death she appears in a theater watching said death, as well as her looking similar to Junko, to the point that one Junko scene caused many viewers to mistake her for Yukizome at first. The fact that the anime has her as the teacher of Class 77-B and repeatedly reminds the audience of her romance with Munakata (a point which is referenced almost every episode) does not help.
- For Mitarai, his talent as the Ultimate Animator has led several to theorize about possible meta or postmodern plot points due to the fact that he debuts in an anime. Suspicions were only increased when his storyboards were found to be Danganronpa 3 boards, and Despair Episode 7 pretty much confirms that we're supposed to be drawing parallels between his anime and the one we're watching.
- For Gekkogahara, her similarities to Monaca Towa. Those similarities ended up being a mere coincidence, as even though she was Monaca's robot, her design's actually based on the real Miaya, who had been killed and who bears a resemblance to Monaca.
- For an additional detail in regards to those first three, DR3 is meant to be a linked narrative, and Nanami, Yukizome and Mitarai are all main characters with direct connections to Class 77-B. This has only increased the speculation.
- Episode 9 made many fans go insane with theories spouted about Kirigiri's death being fake or that she was able to survive (with various inconsistencies being pointed out), whether Juzo survived being stabbed in the stomach or not, whether Ruruka's death was really caused by the attacker and what exactly is happening with the monitors, since they are shining red in every death scene. Because of the reduced number of participants, theories about Mitarai or Yukizome being the mastermind also got more intense, together with theories about who is the extra participant.
- Episode 11 brought some more theories (whether new or confirmation for existing ones) from fans on whether or not Tengan, of all people, is really the Mastermind, and who on earth the person texting Mitarai is and whether it truly is Tengan or someone claiming to be him. Likewise, there's the question of if Mitarai still really is innocent or not, and whether or not Yukizome could still be the Mastermind who orchestrated all the suicides.
- The announcement of Side:Hope saw an onslaught of theories on how the two sides were meant to converge.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: Despite Side:Hope attempting to be as happy as possible, many were very quick to point out how the sheer number of Future Foundation leaders who died would permanently cripple the organisation at best. Considering the fact that they are the world's best hope, this makes the idealistic final scene where Naegi and his friends reopen Hope's Peak Academy hard to swallow.
- There's also the fact that despite how Class 77-B is happy, alive and well, they will not only have to live with everything they've done (which includes killing their own family - remember Owari had a bunch of little siblings?), but as they took the fall for the Final Killing Game, they have no more home to go to, and who's to say another Well-Intentioned Extremist might not cause havoc or even another incident?
- Hinata is still Izuru Kamukura, albeit tempered by his real personality, and Chiaki died alone, betrayed, and in agony (and is notably the only member of Class 77-B to stay dead, leaving Hinata without that emotional anchor).
- Most glaringly, by the end of the series Munakata has lost literally everyone he loves and every single ally he's come to trust (in addition to being betrayed by at least two of its members), and it's implied he isn't The Leader of the Future Foundation either. This is especially bad since his entire motivation was built around Yukizome, so without her he has literally nothing left. It's gotten to the point that many were quick to say that Together in Death would have been a preferable fate for him, some even going as far as to suggest that his final scene was implying he would do just that.
- Fan-Disliked Explanation:
- Mitarai's brainwashing anime has had very mixed reaction to say the least, with many negatively comparing it to the Despair Book.
- Relatedly, the execution of Chiaki and brainwashing of Class 77-B. Where the visual novels implied that Junko was an expert Manipluative Bastard, who graudually turned Class 77-B to her side by exploiting their own grievances with Hope's Peak Academy and playing to their character flaws, while here she couldn't even break a single class of teenagers to despair without resorting to brainwashing. In a nutshell, the reason for Class 77-B's fall to the dark side goes from More than Mind Control, to just straight up Mind Control. Many feel that the end result makes said fall a whole lot less interesting, as it removes the agency of the cast and makes Junko into a much less impressive villain.
- The motive for the killing game, that being Tengan wanting to push Mitarai into enacting a mass broadcast of the Hope Anime, has had this reaction from fans, with many criticizing it for being bad writing, creating massive plot holes (namely why Tengan would allow Mitarai to take part in the killing game when such a thing would be a massive risk, and how Mitarai was supposed to even learn about the killing game when it wasn't being broadcast) and rendering a good deal of the story and the deaths utterly pointless. Interestingly, it appears even Kodaka himself agrees with fans here.
- When asked about the inconsistencies between some events of the second game and the anime (such as the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case), Word of God answered with "the murder case that appears in the game as Twilight Syndrome was a game Monokuma made that played up the case in order to get the killing game to continue". While it technically does fit his character, some fans still find it a lazy excuse.
- Fanfic Fuel: The whereabouts and identity of Future Foundation Branch Office 13's director. While Aoi Asahina is a member of that branch, her superior is inexplicably absent and unmentioned during the events of Side:Future, even though the heads of Branch Offices 1 through 12 and 14 are all accounted for.
- Fanon Discontinuity: Because this anime is so divisive among the fanbase, some of the fans on the "hate it" side like to pretend that it never happened and that it isn't canon to the games. Regarding the more specific parts of the anime, the brainwashing of Class 77-B is the most common victim.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Juzo/Munakata over Munakata/Chisa. Munakata is deeply in love with Chisa, who loves him back, but her brainwashed self manipulates him into despair. Consequently, people are more sympathetic to Juzo's tragically one-sided feelings and would rather he get his happy ending.
- Fandom Rivalry: The anime caused an interesting example in the divide between fans of the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and fans of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Fans who preferred the original DR1 story and its side materials accuse those who are exclusively or predominantly SDR2 fans of being subject to heavy Pandering to the Base. They claim that the creators' need to cater to this group of fans led to the story being knocked off course as the original cast and the DR3 newcomers were neglected to varying degrees. Meanwhile, many SDR2 fans complained that their own favorites were relegated to flat characters in the Despair Arc in favor of focusing on Chisa, Juzo, Junko, and Ryota(with Nanami and Izuru being the only characters from the second game who played major independent roles). This intensified after the airing of Side:Hope, as many DR1 fans panned it for being too happy / too fanservice laden / too focused on the Jabberwock Island team (who'd been absent for the entirety of the Future Arc), while SDR2 fans as a whole seem to have enjoyed it, or at least view it as compensation for the lack of an anime for the second game and/or the Out of Focus status of its cast in Despair Arc. The former group often say the latter is too easily pleased and pandered to, while latter accuse the former of never being pleased and being ungrateful to the writers. Needless to say, the usual claims as to which side are the "true fans" have sprung up as a result.
- Fountain of Memes: Everything regarding Junko's Valley Girl personality in the English dub resulted in highly quotable and very memetic lines.
H-N
- He's Just Hiding:
- With the number of dramatic and controversial deaths in the first two episodes of the Future arc, various fans have theorized that Yukizome, Bandai, and The Great Gozu aren't dead. The various odd details surrounding Yukizome's death, the Episode 2 OP listing one more living person than who's present, and Aoi's death in Episode 2 turning out to be a fakeout do not help.
- After Kirigiri's infamous demise in Side:Future Episode 9, fans were quick to noting a number of odd details surrounding it in speculation. Likewise with Juzo in the same episode, though to a lesser extent. Speculation only increased when the counter for survivors remaining in Episode 10 showed that one of the characters that was "killed" in episode 9 seemed to have survived. As it turned out, Juzo was shown to have survived in Episode 11, and Kirigiri turned out to still be alive in Side:Hope.
- After the series ended, many fans have invoked this on Sakakura, largely because of how Munakata otherwise suffers a massive Downer Ending.
- Similarly, there are also people invoking this for Chiaki, as they feel she didn't get the happy ending she deserved, by pointing out we never actually see what happens to her body and that Izuru was right there—if anyone could have pulled off a miracle, it would have been him.
- Informed Wrongness: Izayoi getting expelled for the bomb incident alongside Kimura and Andou, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with blowing up the bomb. It seems like he was expelled just because of his relationship with Andou.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: There were less people giving seething, gigantic hatred about Enoshima being actually a monstrously evil bitch, but more likely to profess their hatred towards many jerky characters around despite their reasons (Munakata, Sakakura and Andou, coincidentally, they're ALL listed as Jerkass Woobie) or another part of the fandom considering them redeemed in the end, because their jerky actions somehow hit home closer than Enoshima's grand despair-spreading plan.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
- Hajime Hinata, and his alternate persona Izuru Kamukura, were able to carry this over from SDR2. The anime offers a lot more Ship Tease material with both Junko (as Izuru) and Chiaki (both personas), and even one moment with Izuru and the mostly Out of Focus Komaeda. We can also add Natsumi Kuzuryu to the long list of characters that have been shipped with Hajime.
- Out of all the new characters, Chisa Yukizome seems to get this treatment the most from the fan base. Not only has she been shipped with her childhood friends, Kyosuke Munakata and Juzo Sakakura, but she has also been shipped with some of her students, particularly Chiaki and Nagito (it helps that she's only roughly 3 years older than her students, being an alumni of the 74th class).
- Juzo, to a lesser degree is also this. After becoming the sole Mr. Fanservice in Side:Future, fans started shipping him left and right with various characters, including Munakata, Yukizome, Gozu, Ruruka and Seiko.
- Les Yay:
- Many of Mahiru and Sato's interactions make it look like the two are a couple. In the second episode, Mahiru is noticeably blushing when Chisa asks about Sato. In the third episode, Mahiru offers to cook a meal for Sato, and is seen holding Sato's arm when frightened by Natsumi. It doesn't help that Sato tends to act like a cross between a Yandere and a Violently Protective Girlfriend for Mahiru.
- Some of the female students of Class 77-B have their moments with Chiaki. In the second episode, Sonia spontaneously gives Chiaki an affectionate hug, making her blush. In the same episode, when Akane wrapped her arm around Chiaki, she was pressing Chiaki's face against her breast.
- Kirigiri and Asahina have their moments. Asahina is now on a First-Name Basis with Kyoko, but oddly enough not with Naegi, despite Aoi's close friendship with him. Asahina is also one of the few people who could get Kyoko to smile, something that originally only Naegi could do. In Episode 4, when they reunite after spending nearly two episodes apart, Aoi runs up to Kyoko and gives her a hug. Kyoko responds by smiling, giving Asahina a pat on the back, and returning her hug.
- While the two were still friends, Seiko and Ruruka occasionally gave off this vibe. As children, Seiko offered do to anything for Ruruka. In Side:Despair, Ruruka was able to convince Seiko to give her the strength drug by acting cutesy, getting into Seiko's personal space, and offered to hand-feed her one of her treats (keep in mind that the other person that Ruruka would hand-feed is Sonosuke, her boyfriend).
- Though it's definitely meant to be more taken in a platonic sense, there's also a moment in Side:Future Episode 5, when Seiko gets angered by Ruruka's taunting and goes after her. During her maddened pursuit as Seiko punches the glass, both girls lament during that moment. While Ruruka thinks, "You were my hero, Seiko,", Seiko herself thinks, "You were my friend, Ruruka. I loved you!" Both then think, "Where did it all go wrong?" which makes it sound more like a messy break-up where both individuals got severely affected.
- Junko and Mukuro, in their own twisted way, certainly play up the Incest Subtext. The ass slap followed by a footjob pretty much cements it in the "text" category.
- The subtext between Komaru and Toko manages to carry on from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. In their very first scene in the anime, Komaru was trying to get Toko to take a bath, with the intent of washing Toko herself. Not to mention the position the two of them were in when they heard Byakuya's phone call is rather... suggestive. In Episode 7, they even hold hands when about to fight a bunch of mechas.
- Like You Would Really Do It: Subverted by Aoi's supposed "death" in Episode 2 of Side:Future. Since it was the Grand Finale for the original series, and she was easily the most minor of the DR1 survivors since then, the vast majority of fans really did think they would go through it. As of episode 9, he did it. Kyoko Kirigiri dies by triggering her NG Action: "Makoto still alive on the fourth sleeping period". However, many were quick to be skeptical there (noting among other things Kimura's pill bottle on the ground) and sure enough near the very end it's revealed she didn't die.
- Memetic Badass:
- Thanks to his added screen time, Izuru Kamukura is able to cement himself as this in the franchise. The anime firmly confirms that Junko, Mukuro, and even Nagito are no match for him. If it wasn't for his lack of motivation and curiosity, Izuru could have easily stopped Junko's plan before it even begun.
- Juzo Sakakura; just go to the memes page and look at all of the memes centered around him and just try to argue against it.
- Asahina's fans have taken up to believe her upgraded badassery puts her on the level of other fight talent characters, believing she could easily take on Juzo and Gozu. Granted, while her fighting abilities are unclear, her sheer strength is probably enough to put a fight against them, such as being able to literally carry Makoto around and pushing heavy mobile like it's nothing.
- Memetic Loser: The fans tend to treat Ryota Mitarai as a complete coward.
- Mis-blamed: A lot of the "hate" portion of the fandom loves to place blame on the anime's quality squarely on series creator Kazutaka Kodaka. However, while Kodaka did draft the original scenario, he was ultimately just a supervisor for the actual anime and had no involvement in the writing itself beyond vetoing killing off Munakata.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- By this anime, after either initiating the first Mutual Killing game, personally breaking down Ryota by tinkering his brainwashing technique and saying it's all his fault, and eventually arranging the brutal death of Chiaki while forcing everyone of Class 77 to watch, some may have second thoughts about considering Junko Enoshima evil-but-entertaining anymore, and instead consider her pure evil.
- Ruruka crossed it upon attempting to kill Kyoko which resulted in her inadvertently killing Kizakura, and by drugging Juzo. Even moreso when it turns out she looked like she did all those, including killing her boyfriend Izayoi and then tampering with his corpse, with glee and a Nightmare Face instead of intense regret, while she was actually crying when she killed Izayoi and she herself admits she is being unreasonable, but believes that this is the only way to guarantee he would never betray her.
- While Mukuro has done a lot of reprehensible things for Junko, something that was established even in media where she was portrayed sympathetically, many fans found her Cold-Blooded Torture of Chisa unforgivable. Not long afterwards, many fans declared that they no longer feel so bad about her death in the first game.
- Despite his hopeful intentions, they don't justify how Tengan caused several of his FF comrades to die horrifyingly and cruelly in order to break his emotionally fragile protege, though the only good thing is that he managed to entangle one of the remaining Remnants of Despair, Yukizome, by accident and then stopped her before she could put spread Enoshima's words further, but considering the existence of a more 'peaceful' way (Neo World Program) it still came off as harsh, since Tengan enacted the plan potentially without knowing of Yukizome's brainwashing (It's never shown, but he may have started to suspect after she handed over the two videos, even as she claimed not to have seen them).
- Narm Charm: Izayoi declaring he'll fight "For love and dewicious sweets" should be absurd, only the context instead makes it a badass Pre-Asskicking One-Liner that reinforces how much he and Andou care for each other.
O-S
- Older Than They Think:
- Some think the idea of a human Chiaki existing originated here. In an interview, Kodaka stated he actually came up with the concept while he was writing her scene with Hajime in Chapter 6 of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. That can be seen in how she knows things about Hajime (such as his inferiority issue) that her AI counterpart never did, references knowing him "from before", and some of her words there parallel hers to him and Izuru in Side:Despair.
- A lot of people tend to forget that the Remnants being brainwashed was not an invention of this anime; it was set up in the second game. Although to be fair, that was easy to miss in the massive amount of mind-blowing reveals going on at the time, and it's easy to take the comments as meaning the real-life version of brainwashing rather than the more fantastic version of it used here.
- The Reserve Course students watching the video of the Student Council killing game was previously shown in Danganronpa Zero, though their obsessive repeated watchings of it could easily be interpreted as a symptom of their obsession with despair rather than the cause of it.
- Some think the idea of a human Chiaki existing originated here. In an interview
- One-Scene Wonder:
- A surprising amount of people had this reaction when Yuto Kamishiro made a cameo in Side:Despair Episode 5.
- Fans cheered when Nagisa, Kotoko, Masaru and Jatarou appeared in Side:Future Episode 7.
- The Hope's Peak Student Council. Over a dozen new designs for characters, only two of whom were directly given a name until the Blu-Ray box set extras came out (and the others were just identified in a Freeze-Frame Bonus) and all given the sparsest of characterization, and yet watching them all do exactly what the viewers knew they would still managed to be tear-jerkingly horrifying. Particularly standing out in audience's minds were Ryota Someya whose immediate reaction to the situation was to grab a gun and try to shoot Junko and Mukuro, Aiko Umesawa who ended up quickly being stabbed and tossed, Sousuke Ichino who ends up forced to kill his crush in self-defense, then in a fit of despair gives one of the most brutal murders in the sequence to the couple who attempted to simply shoot themselves and defy the game, and Asukasei Hino who, thinking he's the Sole Survivor, charges at Izuru with a chainsaw only to be thrown at the wall and get decapitated when he falls on the chainsaw, and yet his body is still able to shoot Izuru and graze his cheek. Even the initiator, Karen Kisaragi, can count if you take note on who her voice actress was: Honoka Inoue, daughter of the veteran seiyuu Kikuko Inoue, in one of her earlier roles following her mother's footsteps.
- Fans have been waiting forever for Yasuke Matsuda to show up in the Despair arc. They got their wish in episode 8. Despite only showing up for barely a second without any dialogue, Yasuke's appearance in the anime was met with much fanfare.
- Despite the fact that it was all in Naegi's head as an effect from the brainwashing monitor driving him to despair, seeing the rest of the 78th class (except Junko and Mukuro for obvious reasons) who did not survive from the first game counted as this.
- In Side:Hope, several characters with unique designs fight the 77th class as Mitarai's Elite Mooks. From what can be gathered, these are all new (Former) Super High-school Level talents, even if their screentime amounts to jobbing to the 2nd game's cast.
- One True Threesome:
- Kyosuke Munakata/Chisa Yukizome/Juzo Sakakura. It's pretty much confirmed that Munakata and Yukizome love each other, but with Sakakura's Ho Yay moments and actually canonically being in love with Munakata, fans often just ship the three of them together.
- Seiko Kimura/ Ruruka Ando/ Sonosuke Izayoi is a surprisingly popular threesome ship.
- Impostor/Mitarai/Tsumiki also emerged in wake of Side:Despair Episode 5, thanks to the Impostor's surprisingly heartwarming interactions with both of them. Later episodes basically promote his relationship with Tsumiki to outright Ship Tease. However, they suffered a little bit of Abandon Shipping after Tsumiki's Attempted Rape on Mitarai. (Though to be fair, Mikan was not really in control of what she was doing at the time.)
- Only the Author Can Save Them Now: A retroactive example: after Tengan's plan is revealed, a review of the events show that Mitarai's survival during the game makes no sense but for plot reasons.
- Pandering to the Base: What many fans have accused Side:Hope of being, especially for fans of the second game. The entire cast of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (excluding Chiaki) comes Back from the Dead while the cast of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and this anime stay dead. Also, Kirigiri survives and Naegi becomes Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy with the implication that he and Kirigiri ended up together. Whether this is a good idea or not is up for debate.
- Paranoia Fuel: Episode 7 of Side:Despair has Ryota explain his techniques in using subtle changes in colour, eye movement, and sound to directly influence the viewer's brain, whilst a demonstration of the visual effects (such as the colour changes) happens onscreen. He then reveals that some of these techniques are actually for brainwashing, which may cause viewers to start worrying whether the earlier visual demonstration actually did something to their brain subliminally.
- Player Punch:
- The entirety of Side:Future has been an ongoing sequence of these. For whatever reason, the writers seem to be going out of their way to guarantee that the fan-favorites and most likable new characters are killed first.
- Fans were not pleased when Aoi was seemingly killed in Episode 2. The internet went into an uproar and looked close enough to picking up their pitchforks and initiating a manhunt/bearhunt on Monokuma. But it was eventually subverted, as Aoi turned out to be alive and was just stabbed with a toy knife and sprayed with tomato sauce. The death of the true victim, the well-liked Great Gozu, ended up being not as severe thanks to the relief caused by Aoi's survival (fans were sad, but it was not as much of a punch as if it had really happened to Aoi).
- A lot of fans were hoping to get a cameo of the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc cast...they got what they wanted, but as a horrifying hallucination showing them as they looked when they died.
- And meanwhile, at Side:Despair Episode 9. So about Chisa? It turns out that before this arc ended, she had been Brainwashed into Despair, meaning that the good Chisa has been gone since even before the Side:Future arc began.
- Most fans already guessed that Nanami died, but how her death played out is definitely horrifying. No one expected her death to be a Cruel and Unusual Death and the first chronological execution overall.
- The entirety of Side:Future has been an ongoing sequence of these. For whatever reason, the writers seem to be going out of their way to guarantee that the fan-favorites and most likable new characters are killed first.
- Questionable Casting:
- The reaction from practically the entire fandom when Rie Kugimiya was announced as Bandai's seiyuu. Kugimiya is most well-known for voicing cute tsundere girls, whereas Bandai is a large, muscled black man.
- Quite a few fans reacted this way when the English dub cast was revealed to include Kaiji Tang as Kizakura, largely since he was already in the game cast as Hagakure, a character in the anime. Though he did state that it was for continuity sake that he wasn't being cast as him and not to be too upset at Funimation.
- Replacement Scrappy: Ryota can be viewed as this towards Chihiro. Ryota is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute to Chihiro due to being him a feminine-looking boy who is very shy. However, Ryota largely lacks the Hidden Depths that made Chihiro so popular in the first place (namely, his willingness to overcome his insecurities) and his willingness to resort to brainwashing to make people watch his anime didn't help his popularity much. His role as the final villain in Side:Hope cemented his status as one of these, not at all helped by Chihiro's extremely limited role throughout Side:Despair.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- A gradual example with Juzo, thanks to several factors: the introduction of even worse characters like Monaca and Junko, the way he beat down even bigger Scrappy Ruruka Andou, his unrequited feelings for Munakata and humanizing fear of how he'd react to them, the fact he's gay but portrayed sympathetically at all, his genuinely sad scene of being stabbed by Munakata, the way he was able to admit his previous mistakes, and how he rescued Makoto, then ended the killing game in a Heroic Sacrifice. While he still has his haters, a great deal of fans had warmed up to him by the end of it, and an entire subreddit dedicated to hating him started losing subscribers.
- If one hated Hagakure in the earlier installments for his uselessness and selfish, unsavory traits, this anime could help, since not only did he show a considerable amount of genuine care about his friends, him being trapped outside and his antics in trying to avoid death provide genuine comic relief when compared to the extremely dark main plot, making a case of Trapped by Mountain Lions actually being considered a good thing. And even better when he finally does something useful near the end of Side:Future, namely his Big Damn Heroes moment saving Makoto from being held at a gunpoint by a bunch of soldiers, by tackling them and stalling for time until the real backup (Byakuya) arrived.
- After harsh rounds of dog-kicking and hypocritical sentences spewing that makes the fans sick of him, the fans kind of eased up on Munakata after Side:Future Episode 10, when it was revealed that he was driven mad because of his lover Yukizome deliberately pushing him over the edge without him ever realizing she was brainwashed and a member of Ultimate Despair. Naegi's speech about how he would still stay optimistic had the same thing happened to him and Kirigiri, while reminding him of the good times with the good Yukizome, allowed Munakata to finally be honest with himself and cry, burying the hatchet towards Naegi and dispelling his self-inflicted madness. One of the single biggest criticisms of Hope arc is that Munakata, the most dynamic and ostensible main character of Future, leaves the story with absolutely nobody, all his work in shambles.
- Hiyoko Saionji is another gradual example. She's always been one of the least popular SDR2 characters due to her intolerable, childish attitude, constant bullying of Mikan and Kazuichi, and just being an all-around general pain in the ass to everyone. In Side:Despair Saionji's less pleasant personality traits are noticeably toned down and, in Side:Hope, she Took a Level in Kindness, finally easing up on Mikan, and even thanking Mikan for saving her life (even if it's begrudgingly). However, some fans aren't quite so willing to let her live down her previous characterization, as this post-DR3 poll demonstrates; Hiyoko is still considered to be one of the fanbase's worst received characters from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, though Teruteru isn't far behind her on that front. For what it's worth, Saionji becoming a Base-Breaking Character is a fair step up from being an out-and-out Scrappy.
- During the show's run, Ruruka was easily the most hated character and her gruesome death was seen by many as superb Laser-Guided Karma. However, after the finale, more and more people have begun to warm up to her, believing that she had great potential for a redemption arc and that her death was a complete waste, especially since it's quickly swept aside and forgotten about both by the remaining cast and by the plot.
- Sacred Cow: Seiko Kimura. Fans will not accept people talking shit about her, since she is one of the few things all fans agree to be a great aspect of the show.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat:
- While it was never much of a fight before, the split between Hajime/Chiaki and Hajime/Nagito erupted with the anime, thanks to the series heavily pushing Hajime/Chiaki while Nagito and pre-Izuru Hajime never once get to interact.
- As of Despair Episode 6, we now a mild case with Munakata/Juzo vs. Chisa/Juzo as to who Juzo was talking about. The context of the conversation leans heavily towards his feelings being for Chisa, but he had previously had a lot of Ho Yay with Munakata, leading people to wonder. Of course, it's also creating a new OT3. Since then, this has gone from mild to bad. There have now been more, all ambiguous Ship Tease scenes, that point towards Juzo/Chisa and Juzo/Munakata. Since as time goes on, Juzo, Chisa, and Munakata have all become Base-Breaking Character, how a person interprets these moments seems to depend on which characters they find most sympathetic. Future Episode 9 has peak combat due to Juzo's possible giving of an Aborted Declaration of Love for either Munakata or Chisa. But we may never know if that was even what it was. It turns out the ambiguity was on purpose for the big reveal that it was Munakata. And Junko exploits this mercilessly. However, while this ended the debate about who it was, it did not end the shipping war, especially as Juzo and Chisa have a lot of scenes together in Despair side.
- Shocking Moments: Word of God said that he hopes every episode surprises you. He is not joking.
- Signature Scene:
- The end of Side:Future Episode 1, where the cast looks up to find Chisa's body draped over a chandelier, which falls and shatters as Monokuma announces that the killing game has already begun.
- The depiction of the first Mutual Killing in Side:Despair Episode 7, due to being an extremely powerful and horrific Tear Jerker.
- Chisa's brainwashing is infamous both for its Fan Disservice and how sad it is.
- Chiaki's Cruel and Unusual Death and the Wham Shot of Izuru crying over her body also became two of Side:Despair's most iconic moments.
- So Bad, It's Good: The English dub has so much narm that many people have called it indistinguishable from an Abridged Series. It has a lot of highly-quotable dialogue, though, especially Junko's Valley Girl voice, and many admit that it's worth a watch for the sheer hilarity.
- Spiritual Adaptation: While it gets completely thrown out the window in the latter half, the initial premise of Side: Future is basically the same as the popular party game Mafia: an unknown assailant kills someone while everyone sleeps, and the survivors have to figure out who the culprit is while they're awake. There's even a doctor who keeps one of the victims alive. The only thing missing is the lynching.
- Spoiled by the Format: This happens a lot in Side:Future. Any attempt at a climactic Cliffhanger is often spoiled by the episode count making it clear things won't be that simple. Episode 8 is especially blatant, as it ends in Sakakura trying to open the secret exit...but the fact that there's still a third of the series to go should be a dead giveaway that they aren't getting out of the Closed Circle quite that easily.
- Squick: Mitarai - and a number of fans - had this reaction when Kirigiri was able to determine that Izayoi had died from his NG code of not eating by licking his saliva and tasting the sweetness in it.
- Stoic Woobie: Izuru Kamukura. How do you turn an emotionless person into a woobie? Easy: show him crying over Chiaki's death and carrying about her hairpin for the rest of the anime.
- Strawman Has a Point: A rare case. Junko doesn't fall for Hope's Peak Academy's public image at all and sees that it's mostly a sham. She's right, of course, as the Izuru Kamukura Project reveals, which is part of why she drives the world to despair using Hope's Peak itself. However, how she goes about her sabotaging scheme is totally immoral.Junko: There's an elite high school in our future. This place is so far up its own ass they actually call it the High School of Hope!
T-W
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- During the recap for episode four of Side:Future, it was stated the reason why Hagakure was stuck outside is because nobody likes him.
- Anytime Sakakura gets his ass kicked, it's met with cheer. This is after all how Tengan rose to fan favoritism in Episode 4.
- Same thing was seen in Episode 8 where Kizakura not only taunted Juzo but also used his temper against him to get him impaled by a trap.
- As Ruruka established herself as the newest big Scrappy, Juzo's attempt to get out of the building while completely dismissing Ruruka's worry that she'd die from her NG Code can also count. The former biggest Scrappy giving the newest one this trope just sounds deliciously ironic. And then she has one of the goriest deaths in Future after a flashback fully establishes that her killing Izayoi was deliberate and entirely unreasonable.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Side:Future has been accused of this. Many find the oppressive atmosphere and frequent character deaths to be too exceedingly dark for the franchise, to the point that some accuse Kodaka of trying to piss them off. Many fan-favorites were killed off in quick succession which, while par for the course for the Danganronpa series, has demoralized a faction of the fanbase. By the end of Episode 9, nearly every character worth rooting for had been killed off, with almost all the remaining ones being base-breakers. This problem largely happens because the intention is for both halves to be watched together so as to create a balanced mood, only there's a three day airing gap between episodes, leaving people with little option but to either watch each episode individually as it comes out or risk being exposed to massive spoilers.
- Too Cool to Live: Quite a few characters in Side:Future, which include:
- The Great Gozu. He was Naegi's physically strongest ally, a Gentle Giant who called out the radicals on their senseless idea of killing each character until the traitor was found, had a cool mask and Ultimate title, and overall was shaping up to be the Sakura of Makoto's group. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to make it past Episode 3.
- As of Episode 5, Kazuo Tengan. Although it was somewhat expected he'd die along the way, for him to die not even halfway through the show, and so mercilessly at the hands of Munakata, one can't help but feel that he should've at least lived another episode or even the entire game, especially since he is the mastermind of the entire incident.
- Also, as of Episode 5, Seiko Kimura, between her Creepy Cute design, extremely useful talent, and sympathetic characteristics. Not to mention, second after Chisa, she is one of the nicest people among the Radicals, wanting to save most of the Future Foundation members, and isn't completely blinded by Black-and-White Insanity, as evidenced by her attempt to give Asahina medication before getting knocked out by Miaya.
- From Episode 6, Sonosuke Izayoi. Being one of the characters who can actually fight, and having a pretty good talent which has him capable of using a number of weapons at his disposal. Though a lot of fans guessed and theorized he'd probably also end up dead, it still caused disappointment due to this trope, as well as They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character where we don't really get to see him develop into his own character other than Andou's weapons master boyfriend.
- From Episode 8, Koichi Kizakura. Though always shown to be the Cool Old Guy and quite possibly the calmest out of the Future Foundation branch leaders, Episode 8 revealed he was quite the badass veteran when he was shown as one of the people trying to get into Hope's Peak Academy to rescue the 78th class from their Mutual Killing game. Not only that, but the way he egged on and taunted Juzo as well as noting that Ruruka might've purposely been trying to distract them from their investigation, along with finding the traps in the room, was an intriguing spectacle to behold. It was just a shame we didn't see more of it as he gets killed off in the same episode saving Kyoko from Ruruka's murder attempt.
- From Episode 11, Juzo Sakakura. By this point, the combined effort of Side:Future's last third and most of Side:Despair's plot in general had him thoroughly won over by even those remaining who had yet to feel he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, to the point where he shut down the entire killing game... And then he suffers one of the most soul-crushing deaths in the series, collateral to Munakata's complete Downer Ending.
- Trapped by Mountain Lions: Side:Future has a habit of cutting to Hagakure's antics outside, despite them almost never accomplishing anything. Tropes Are Not Bad in this case, since many fans appreciate these scenes for providing levity to the otherwise very grim first half.
- Unexpected Character:
- Nothing in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair hinted that Chiaki Nanami was even a real person and not merely an AI. Her return took fans rather by surprise.
- Played with for Mukuro Ikusaba. She has a certain lack of characterization in previous material, making the fact that she is actually Adorkable and prone to making a terrifying situation funny, a surprise to most fans. Additionally, she's portrayed far less sympathetically than before.
- Also, played with for Monaca Towa as well. Everyone expected her to show up, but not as early as she did.
- Unpopular Popular Character:
- Despite the fact that Hagakure is placed outside of the building because no one actually likes him, Western fans were more than pleased to see him return and cite his reintroduction scene as one of the best in Side:Future.
- Natsumi Kuzuryu has made a lot of enemies among the characters and everyone hates her. Some of the fandom loves her for her Hidden Depths and inferiority issues.
- The Un-Twist:
- Many viewers saw the theory that Miaya Gekkogahara was Monaca as far too obvious to be true. Both girls have similar hairstyles and use wheelchairs, and Miaya lacks a voice, something that could be used to recognize her. The viewers were proven wrong when it turned out that the theory was true. ...Sort of. Rather than directly being Monaca herself, Miaya is a robotic avatar of her. But this is made somewhat more confusing by the fact there also were a real Miaya Gekkogahara, whom Monaca had murdered in order to replace her with said robot, but their mutual resemblance were appearently just a coincidence in-universe, as the narrative doesn't comment on it either way.
- Very, very few were surprised either when it turned out that Monaca's inclusion was just a Red Herring, mostly because the above reveal was far, far too early to be the answer.
- Kyoko's survival was predicted almost immediately after Episode 9 aired.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: There was quite a bit of confusion when Gozu's design was first revealed, as he had a mask which obscured his face, a gender neutral name, and a build which to some people resembled a muscle-bound women. This was cleared up when Kenta Miyake was confirmed as his voice actor.
- Vindicated by History: The ending of this anime was extremely divisive when it came out, but the ending of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony became even more controversial; it was revealed that it took place inside a reality show, the sixteen students were just normal people, and it actually makes fun of the fans. While this anime's ending is still divisive, it was at least trying to keep fans happy instead of upsetting them, and after V3 there are more people willing to at least appreciate the effort.
- Vocal Minority:
- Chisa became a huge Base-Breaking Character after The Reveal where she was Brainwashed and Crazy and ended up playing a role in Chiaki's death. However, her haters seems to be this as a popularity poll in the Dangan Ronpa subreddit has her be placed in the top half of the list and even beating fan favorite characters such as Mikan and the Great Gozu.
- The same applies to this anime incarnation of Chiaki Nanami, another Base-Breaking Character who, despite being considered inferior to her SDR2 counterpart, still placed in the top half of the same list, being the fourth most popular anime-only character (below Seiko, Koichi and Juzo).
- And Juzo, who retains many haters over his early Jerkass behavior, but is still the third Base-Breaking Character who landed in the top half of a popularity poll (and top five of the DR3-only cast overall) despite that. Basically, despite what their haters would have you believe, all three of these characters are beloved by the fandom; their haters are just very loud.
- Chisa became a huge Base-Breaking Character after The Reveal where she was Brainwashed and Crazy and ended up playing a role in Chiaki's death. However, her haters seems to be this as a popularity poll in the Dangan Ronpa subreddit
- Win Back the Crowd:
- The first PV, both by confirming that the anime would be split into two arcs and that the latter would star the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair characters (who were previously feared to be Demoted to Extra).
- Episode 3 to Side:Future is this for people who were dumping the series over Too Bleak, Stopped Caring. Aoi's hugely controversial death is outed as a fakeout, Munakata gets some actual Character Development, and the series finally starts engaging in the more light-hearted tone the franchise is known for.
- Episode 4 of Side:Future definitely boosted the show's popularity due to it being quite the action-packed 24 minutes. Plus there's Gekkogahara's Robotic Reveal.
- Episode 6 of Side:Future definitely seems to be this. The action is picking up with the appearances of not only Byakuya, but also Toko, Komaru, and Hajime. Who may or may not still be over being Izuru.
- Episode 7 of Side:Despair assuaged one of the main complaints from fans: that it was going to be a prequel to Side:Future instead of a prequel to the whole franchise that tied itself to Side:Future. Episode 7 fixed this by focusing on Junko's actions that led to The Tragedy, particularly The First Killing Game with the student council, the brainwashing techniques Mitarai developed and how she publicly blamed Izuru for the Student Council's deaths to trigger the riot of the Reserve Course Students.
