History DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc / TropesSToZ

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%%* YouWakeUpInARoom: Happens to Makoto, and presumably to all the other students.
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* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: While the game's BigBad is an AxCrazy NightmareFetishist who does things [[ForTheEvulz to satiate her despair fetish]], Junko's assistant and twin sister, Mukuro, is her [[SycophanticServant devoted servant]] who ultimately does things for Junko out of love for ''her'', and as a result, Mukuro entrusts her life to Junko. Unfortunately, Junko herself is a {{narcissist}} and sees everyone as expendable as long as it's to satiate this fetish, including her sister, whom she executes in her Monokuma form during Chapter 1. When the students find this out in the final chapter, they are understandably shocked, and though they don't show it clearly, [[SympathyForTheDevil they sympathize with Mukuro]] having to become the victim of someone who never actually loved her for who she was.

* SuddenContestFormatChange: Near the end of game, [[spoiler:Monokuma uses a [[KangarooCourt rigged trial]] to get rid of Kyoko, only for Makoto to take the fall, leading to him being executed, despite the rules saying only the person who killed the victim being valid as the correct person to be executed. Thankfully for Makoto, his talent for being BornLucky allows him to survive the execution, giving him the opportunity to confront Monokuma about this. Monokuma initially plans to declare ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem, only for Makoto and Kyoko to remind him about [[ImmoralRealityShow the killing game being broadcast]], and further cheating would heavily undermine his intended message. Monokuma then decides to challenge the six surviving students to a final trial. Instead of the standard ?figure out the killer? goal, this last trial requires them to solve the OntologicalMystery and work out who is the mastermind controlling Monokuma. Winning this trial will allow them to leave alive, while failure will lead to them all being executed. The rules change again during the trial, after the reveal that Junko Enoshima was FakingTheDead through a TwinSwitch, and as such, is the mastermind. Junko decides to try and force the students past the DespairEventHorizon, and changes it so that the vote is now between letting hope or despair win. If anyone votes for despair, Junko wins, Makoto will be executed, and everyone stays in the school. Should hope win through a unanimous vote, Junko is executed, and the remaining six will leave. Makoto successfully rouses hope in the others, allowing for hope to win, and Junko to be defeated]].

** Also, the escape switch, and the bonus movie that it unlocks, foreshadows ''Danganronpa IF''.

* SecondLawOfMetafictionalThermodynamics: Intentionally invoked: series writer Kazutaka Kodaka has said his main problem with murder mysteries was how underdeveloped the victims usually were, and so the series came to be based around a CastOfSnowflakes put through as much [[KillEmAll death]] and [[TraumaCongaLine psychological trauma as possible]]. By the end of the game, [[AfterTheEnd the entire world turns out to be effectively destroyed]] just to make them [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn their happy ending]].

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* YouBastard: Taka says this to Monokuma after the second trial.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Leon says something to this effect during the first trial.
* YouWakeUpInARoom: Happens to Makoto, and presumably to all the other students.
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* ViewersAreGoldfish: Flashbacks to not even a full scene ago happen fairly often, with one flashback showing something that happened roughly ''thirty seconds beforehand''. In particular, flashbacks to the scene where Kyoko first informs Makoto of Mukuro's existence happen on a near-constant basis.

* ViewersAreGoldfish:
** Flashbacks to not even a full scene ago happen fairly often, with one flashback showing something that happened roughly ''thirty seconds beforehand''.
** Flashbacks to the scene where Kyoko first informs Makoto of Mukuro's existence happen on a near-constant basis.

** Bullet Time Battle: Breaking through AdHominem arguments in a RhythmGame.

** Non-Stop Debate: Literally shooting down contradictions with the aforementioned truth bullets.

** Identify the Person: Choosing one of the students as the culprit.
** Closing Argument: Assembling how the murder went down by placing events on a manga-style strips.

** Non-Stop Debates: Literally shooting down contradictions with the aforementioned truth bullets.

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: School trials can be broken down into Non-Stop Debates (literally shooting down contradictions), Bullet Time Battles (breaking through AdHominem arguments in a RhythmGame), Hangman's Gambit (filling in blanks), and Closing Statements (assembling how the murder went down by placing events on a comic-style timeline).

** Cruelly, ''cruelly'' subverted with Kyoko's execution in Chapter 5's Bad End: she's crushed to death by a giant block. The subversion is that Kyoko starts with a stoic expression, then becomes fearful, then shows acceptance ''while being fearful''. So poor Kyoko's death swings from Dignified to Undignified and back again.
** Same goes with Makoto in the Good End of that chapter: he sweats bullets and almost gets crushed until Alter Ego overrides the machine and stops the block. He still ends up falling down a garbage chute, though, and Monokuma gloats that slowly starving to death on a pile of trash is actually an even worse death than just being flattened instantly.

* TeaIsClassy: Celestia Ludenberg is actually a Japanese girl named Taeko Yasuhiro who puts on airs of being an elegant, gothic European woman. She resents people finding out that gyoza is her favorite food, since she goes around telling people it's tea.

* ThisIsTheFinalBattle: Invoked by Kyoko before the last investigation, and ''The Animation'' milks this for all it's worth.

* WhamEpisode:
** Let's start with Chapter 1. The first victim is [[LoveInterest Sayaka]], and shortly after that, Junko is killed for attacking Monokuma. See NeverTrustATrailer.
** Then at the end of Chapter 2, it's revealed there is [[TheMole a mole]] among the students, ''and'' there's also a separate sixteenth student that Monokuma is hiding.
** The end of Chapter 3. After learning about it from Kyoko, Makoto finds a secret room in the boys' restroom. Before he can take a good look around, a mysterious masked man attacks him from behind, knocking him unconscious. When Makoto wakes up, he finds that the room has been cleaned out. Then, when he staggers to the gymnasium, he finds Sakura fighting Monokuma, and they have a conversation implying ''Sakura'' is TheMole.
** Chapter 4's one of the biggest wham episodes. Monokuma reveals Sakura's identity as the mole right off the bat... and then Sakura is ''killed''... and there's a bloody message with Toko's name just like with Leon! ...no wait, that was Yasuhiro framing Toko, ''he'' killed the ogre, he even confesses! ...no wait, actually his strike didn't kill Sakura, Toko and Genocide Jill confess to it... no wait, Aoi framed everyone, ''she'' confesses to the murder! ...no wait, it was actually a suicide! And Monokuma gave Aoi a fake suicide note! Nice going, Aoi... no wait, everyone decides not to punish Aoi and they're all against Monokuma now! Looks like Monokuma can't execute anyone... no wait, Alter Ego, NOOOOOO!!! And then, at the very end of the chapter? Kyoko suddenly reveals the name of the sixteenth student!
** Chapter 5's bad ending turns it into another wham episode, because this is the first episode where pointing out a lie in court, which ''the player has been doing the whole game'', results in a bad ending where Makoto, Byakuya, Aoi, and Yasuhiro, and Toko until recently all live happily ever after, with no more murders, but in a gilded cage. And if the player ''doesn't'' get the bad ending, and choose to trust Kyoko? ''Makoto'' gets judged guilty, and sent off to be executed, and it's only from a last-minute surprise interference from a virus planted by Alter Ego that he doesn't die. He's still trapped in the basement with no way of getting out, though... but then Kyoko herself comes to rescue him.
** Chapter 6 is made up of Wham Episodes. Monokuma agrees to do a re-trial of Mukuro's murder and seems to be slowly losing his sanity. Part of Monokuma's deal is that the students have to solve every mystery in the school. One of the sixteen students is the mastermind. Kyoko discovers her father's remains as well as hints that he really did care about her. Furthermore, all of the students had attended Hope's Peak before, but had their memories erased. The biggest part? Mukuro Ikusaba was disguising herself as Junko, and the real Junko was the BigBad all along.
* WhamLine:
** Chapter 2 had two of them, one about the victim ("This...this girl is...! ...is a boy!"), and the reveal of Genocide Jack's identity ("In fact, it's Toko.").
** Then in Chapter 4: "I am sorry... for keeping quiet." Spoken by Sakura, confirming that she is the mole.
** And then in the trial: "It's because I killed the ogre!!" No one expected [[ButtMonkey Yasuhiro]], of all people, to confess.
** Followed by...
--->'''Aoi''': I killed Sakura!
** And then the biggest one in that chapter:
--->'''Monokuma''': It's a suicide letter. The one Sakura wrote.\\
'''Makoto''': S... Suicide letter...!? But Hina already...!\\
'''Monokuma''': [[ForgedMessage Oh,]] [[ManipulativeBastard I wrote that one]]. It was all me, baby.
** And one more from Chapter 4, along a different tone. Up until now, Byakuya has ranged from [[{{Jerkass}} obnoxious asshole]] to [[VillainBall outright antagonist]], and has repeatedly spoken about how it's foolish to trust others in a game where the students have been challenged to kill each other. Which is what makes this line following the trial so surprising to both Monokuma and the player:
--->'''Byakuya:''' This is a life-or-death elimination match. The only way to survive... is to win. There can be no doubt that those are the rules of the game. [[HeelFaceTurn Which is why... I am bowing out of the game.]]
** From the start of Chapter 5:
--->'''Kyoko:''' Mukuro Ikusaba.\\
'''Makoto:''' What...?\\
'''Kyoko:''' Mukuro Ikusaba, the sixteenth student, lying hidden somewhere in the school. The one they call the Ultimate Despair. Watch out for her.
** From Chapter 5, which pretty much blows all others out of the water:
--->'''Monokuma:''' This school life of mutual killings is being completely broadcasted live on TV all over Japan!
** Later on:
--->'''Monokuma:''' I've been waiting until all of you get here. We can't begin without the entire group, can we?
** It might not be too shocking, but it's still big.
--->'''Kyoko:''' Because [the headmaster]'s my father.
** Invoked in Chapter 6, which doesn't seem like one until the FridgeHorror kicks in.
--->'''Monokuma: ''' There are 16 and only 16 high school students participating in this school life of mutual killing... By the way, ever since we started this game, those beary same students are the only people to have set foot in this school.
* WhamShot:
** After the fourth trial is ruled a suicide, Monokuma declares that he won't let his execution go to waste and will punish a "special guest". Makoto wonders who said guest could be... when suddenly the screen cuts to a close-up of Alter Ego's face, causing a massive OhCrap in the students (and likely the player) as they realize Monokuma's about to crush what seems like their only chance of escape at the time.
** During Makoto's "execution", we have another one when Alter Ego appears on the monitor, turning out to be NotQuiteDead.