History Woobie / Danganronpa

* Shuichi Saihara. He is [[HeroicSelfDeprecation very insecure about his talent since he mostly solved murder cases out of luck]], though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: By the time he makes it to the final trial, his ImpliedLoveInterest and BigBrotherMentor have both died, and he has suffered from HeroicBSOD after both of their deaths. While he does uncover the mastermind's identity, he learns that he auditioned to be a part of the killing game out of boredom and that everyone's personalites were entirely fabricated. This ultimately causes him to enter the DespairEventHorizon, all the way to the point where [[TheBadGuyWins Tsumugi almost emerges victorious.]]]]

* Shuichi Saihara. He is [[HeroicSelfDeprecation very insecure about his talent since he mostly solved murder cases out of luck]], though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: By the time he makes it to the final trial, his ImpliedLoveInterest and BigBrotherMentor have both died, and he has suffered from HeroicBSOD after both of their deaths. While he does uncover the mastermind's identity, he learns that he auditioned to be a part of the killing game out of boredom and that everyone's personalites were entirely fabricated. [[BreakTheCutie This ultimately causes him to enter the DespairEventHorizon]], all the way to the point where [[TheBadGuyWins Tsumugi almost emerges victorious.]]]]

* Kirumi, after her story was told. [[spoiler:It turns out she was the prime minister for Japan. As it turns out, some "unprecedented crisis" ended up happening in her country and she needed to go back by killing Ryoma. Many students went out of their way to state they would rather have Monokuma execute them instead of her and encouraged her to escape the school, even though Kaito and Kokichi called her out on her TheNeedsOfTheMany utilitarianism.]]

* An example of a StoicWoobie is Ryoma, [[spoiler:a self-loathing DeathSeeker who wanted to find a reason to live. Come to his video in Chapter 2 where it was completely empty, showing that nobody really cares about him in the outside world, causing him to lose his will to live. It's a huge TearJerker to think about in itself, but it gets even worse when you learn that he used to have a family and a girlfriend who were murdered by the mafia, which ultimately caused him to become a killer. This could explain why his video was empty.]]

* Shuichi Saihara. He is [[HeroicSelfDeprecation very insecure about his talent since he mostly solved murder cases out of luck]], though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: Put yourself in his shoes and imagine: you've been forced to watch your friends die one by one, two of them being your LoveInterest and BigBrotherMentor. You manage to make it to the very last trial and uncover the mastermind's identity, but then you learn that the entire killing game you've endured was actually a TrumanShowPlot where the identities of you and your friends were entirely fabricated. The mastermind then shows you a video showing how you were prior to your brainwashing. It turns out your former self wanted to participate in the game out of boredom. That's right. '''''You willingly decided to partake in the killing game where your friends died horrific, gruesome deaths.''''']]

* Shuichi Saihara. He has [[HeroicSelfDeprecation a lot of self-doubt since he only solved many murder cases by chance]], though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, his LoveInterest and his BigBrotherMentor are both dead, and he does not take their deaths well at all. Later on, during the final trial, he is forced to watch an audition tape showing pre-brainwashed Shuichi expressing a desire to join Danganronpa out of boredom. This took a huge toll on him, all the way to the point where he nearly fell into despair and Tsumugi almost emerged victorious.]]

* [[spoiler: Sayaka]] is a huge StepfordSmiler whom despite being very cheerful, ended up having a crippling fear of being forgotten and abandoned which stems from [[spoiler: her workaholic father and always being alone]].
* Chihiro has absolutely zero self-confidence and [[spoiler: became a WholesomeCrossdresser in a desperate attempt to no longer be bullied for not being manly enough]].
* Kiyotaka has a FriendlessBackground and has to live with the shadow of his grandfather's crimes hanging over his head. And then his first ever friend [[spoiler: is executed for murder, causing poor Kiyotaka to have a HeroicBSOD]].
* Aoi Asahina becomes one after [[spoiler: her [[BrokenTears heartbreaking reaction]] to her best friend's death. It got worse after her brother was killed without ever getting a reunion in ''VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls'']].
* Makoto became one after ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', where he [[spoiler: hallucinates his dead classmates, including [[TheLostLenore Sayaka and Kyoko]], taunting him and outright stating he should of died instead of them.]]
* Crossing over to JerkassWoobie territory, while Toko is the type of girl who is antagonistic and assumes the worst out of everything, she has very little self-esteem from being bullied and she has a [[spoiler: SplitPersonality in the form of [[SerialKiller Genocide Jill]] making it seem she was just trying to push people away from her]].
* Also, from the Manga, Celeste can be a JerkassWoobie once it talks about her having a DarkAndTroubledPast of [[spoiler: her growing up as a GenericGirl who has zero people to love and once she discovers her talent, she does everything to be viewed as "special" even going into darker parts of her personality.]] While it is unsure if the DarkAndTroubledPast is truly canon or not, ''VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls'' seems to back this up with the thing that she loves most happens to be a ''freaking cat''.
* As for the killers that game, [[spoiler: [[JerkassWoobie Mondo]]]] came across as the most sympathetic killer of that game. [[spoiler: Why did he kill? It was an AccidentalMurder after Chihiro made an InnocentlyInsensitive comment that pushed Mondo's BerserkButton. It helps that he clearly feels terribly guilty over the whole thing and doesn't put up much of a fight.]]
* For all the work [[StoicWoobie Kyoko]] puts into convincing Makoto of her [[spoiler: dislike for her father, her reaction to the family photo leaves him unconvinced. When he sees her later on, she calls their heart-to-heart discussion on her regrets surrounding his death "rambling" (though the fact she was even willing to openly ask for his help with this issue marks some pretty serious CharacterDevelopment).]]

* As for another JerkassWoobie, Matsuda gets introduced as a massive asshole who treats Ryouko terribly, even though there are hints he does care about her. Then we learn the full deal concerning him: [[spoiler: that he was trying to protect Ryouko from herself and was ultimately his own girlfriend's UnwittingPawn, and he gets incredibly depressing.]]

* The biggest {{Woobie}} of the game has to go to Mikan for arguably having the lowest self-esteem out of all of the characters, being a FragileFlower, spending a long time being bullied, and [[spoiler: honestly believing that [[BigBad Junko Enoshima]] loved her]]. She is also implied to come from an abusive household, and bursts into tears when [[spoiler: the Ultimate Imposter]] pays her a compliment in ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' because it's the first time someone's been nice to her. [[spoiler: She was brainwashed by Junko and was subjected to ''more'' abuse, which, because she's been ''brainwashed'', she happily accepts.]]

* Also, Teruteru [[spoiler: just wanted to make sure his ill mother was alright. And once learns about Nagito's [[BlueAndOrangeMorality true nature]], he wanted Nagito to be taken care before he attempts to kill somebody only for him to commit a MurderByMistake with killing the Ultimate Imposter by accident instead.]] While he is [[TheScrappy very much hated by the fanbase]], learning about [[spoiler: his motivation for the first murder]] was enough for his haters to [[AlasPoorScrappy feel bad for him]]. In addition, if you cue in some FridgeHorror, there is a very likely chance that [[spoiler: Teruteru's mother ended not being alright as she could been killed by Despair!Teruteru.]]
* [[spoiler: AI Chiaki]] became one [[spoiler: after she committed murder just by pure accident. She then makes a HeroicSacrifice to save her fellow students and proceeds to be executed, despite never really intending to kill anybody in the first place.]]
* Hajime dreams about getting into Hope's Peak Academy, but when he does, it was [[spoiler: because he became a reserve course student who has zero talent whatsoever. He didn't enjoy getting into Hope's Peak Academy like that and he [[IJustWantToBeSpecial wanted a talent and escape his second-class status very badly]] that he went through a human experiment that ''erased his personality'', leaving behind a broken, bitter man completely bored with existence, leaving no trace of the cynical but good-hearted Hajime left.]]
** ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' ended up turning Hajime into more of a {{Woobie}} character. He feels incredibly unworthy of his LoveInterest ([[spoiler:the human Chiaki]]), and when some of his classmates are murdered he gets beaten bloody by the school's security for trying to find out what happened to them. His parents are implied to be emotionally neglectful of him, if the [[FreezeFrameBonus split second shot]] of their consent to the Kamukura Project is any indication. And when he goes through with the Kamukura Project, hoping to make himself someone he can be proud of, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding he's erased from existence and replaced with a new persona]].]]
* In ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', Mahiru attempts to be kind to Natsumi, who bullied her in middle school and sees her as a somebody to get rid of just so that Natsumi can be in the main course. At one point Mahiru attempts to break up a fight between Natsumi and Sato, only to nearly get hit by Natsumi. You get to see her trembling in fear. And once Nastumi and Sato die, she's later seen sobbing that she was not able to stop the conflict between those two girls.
* Gundham Tanaka has a FriendlessBackground in which the only people that seem to care about him is his deceased mother and his animals. He is also implied to born out of wedlock, causing him to be rejected out of both sides of the family, and he is actually very lonely beneath his dark overload persona.

* Crossing over to StoicWoobie territory, [[spoiler: Peko lived a life thinking that she was Fuyuhiko's tool after she was abandoned by her family. The fact that she thought that she killed Fuyuhiko during her execution came across a huge TearJerker.]]
* Fuyuhiko could also be viewed as sympathetic, as Chapter Two of the game was not kind to him. [[spoiler:He found out that his sister was dead and he watched Peko, who he had feelings for, be executed for something she thought was her JustFollowingOrders. You actually see him run in to try and stop the execution, only to get his eye accidentally slashed out]].

* [[spoiler: Kazuichi]] and Hiyoko are both JerkassWoobie characters. The former is actually a bullied ShrinkingViolet who only does {{Jerkass}} stuff just because he believes it's what "cool" people do. The latter ([[UnreliableExpositor assuming that she is telling the truth]]) has had to live a terrible home life where her father going went made protecting her and has her going through deadly sabotage attempts.
* After ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'', the entire cast as a whole can be considered to {{Woobie}} characters since [[spoiler: they were brainwashed into becoming members of the Ultimate Despair, and they can't return to general society after taking the fall for the final killing game.]]

* All of the Warriors of Hope have to live a life with AbusiveParents making them all very sympathetic people especially Nagisa. Hell, even [[spoiler: [[HateSink Monaca]] can be viewed as a JerkassWoobie since she was born out of wedlock, abandoned by her mother, had her brother and father never accept her, and had her brother physically abuse her out of a ''resentment complex''.]]
* Komaru can be this as well though she is more of an IronWoobie. She was trapped inside an apartment for about a year with zero idea that [[spoiler: the world has ended]]. When somebody finally set her free, she ended up being invited to a bigger nightmare in which she rather be trapped inside her apartment again. Cue in Monokuma robots and murderous children trying to go out of their way to kill her, then she should use a big hug after the game.

* All Seiko wanted was to be friends with Ruruka [[spoiler: even in her final moments]].
* Ryota, somebody who has been bullied in the past, just wants to spread hope across the world by creating anime. [[spoiler:Too bad that Junko used that anime for her to brainwash his classmates into becoming members of the Ultimate Despair. One of them, a good friend of his, also attempts to rape him after being brainwashed.]] Then, [[spoiler: a man Ryota trusts organizes a killing game of their co-workers so that he can mentally and emotionally break Ryota into committing mass brainwashing upon the world.]] This kid can't catch a break.

* With the DarkerAndEdgier storyline, some characters came across as JerkassWoobie characters-
** Natsumi (who is a reserve course student like [[spoiler: Hajime]]) has even lower self-esteem than [[spoiler: Hajime]]. She wanted to have a talent badly that she made-up her own talent as the Ultimate Little Sister, because she believes that she is unworthy of being around her brother if she is unable to have a talent of sorts.
** Juzo felt left behind for by the romance between Chisa and Munakuta. He has UndyingLoyalty towards Munakuta which leads [[spoiler: Munakuta to seemingly kill him in Episode 9 of ''Side: Future''. And the reason for Munakuta killing Juzo is because Junko knew that Juzo was gay for Munakuta, which she used to blackmail Juzo in ''Side: Despair'': he told Munakata Junko was innocent, or she'd tell him his feelings. He grudgingly goes along, which caused Munakata to believe he was a Remnant of Despair once the truth of Junko being evil came out. And after Juzo survived Munakuta's attempted murder towards him, he sacrificed himself in order to end the killing game once and for all to have Munakuta be safe. ]]
** Munakuta [[spoiler: lost both his girlfriend and his best friend. His girlfriend also turned out to be a BrainwashedAndCrazy Remnant of Despair who has been slowly corrupting him into becoming a KnightTemplar. By ''Side: Hope'', he is the only survivor to have a complete DownerEnding, which became one of the many complaints of ''Side: Hope''.]]
** While Ruruka came across as a bit of an UnintentionallyUnsympathetic AlphaBitch, she has terrible self-esteem to the point that she [[spoiler: committed suicide in a very brutal fashion. It is very telling of how much she hated herself.]]
** While the way Izayoi treats anybody who is not his girlfriend is not exactly the best thing in the world, it's hard to not feel bad for [[spoiler: somebody who was killed by their lover. Especially since that said lover (Ruruka) previously said Izayoi was the only person she trusted.]]

* Himiko. The poor girl does ''not'' take the killings well, ''especially'' the [[spoiler: deaths of Tenko (who was implied to have a crush on Himiko), Angie (her best friend), and Gonta (pretty much a big brother to her). [[IronWoobie And yet she still manages to soldier on to the end.]]]]
* Kaede. [[spoiler: She set-up a trap that was intended to kill the mastermind, but they used that trap to kill somebody else and frame Kaede for it. Believing she was the culprit of that murder, Kaede urges Shuiichi to reveal she is the killer to the others, and feigns resistance to make it more believable for them.]]
* Kirumi, after her story was told. [[spoiler: It turns out she was the prime minister for Japan. As it turns out, some "unprecedented crisis" ended up happening in her country and she needed to go back by killing Ryoma. Many students went out of their way to state they would rather have Monokuma execute them instead of her and encouraged her to escape the school, even though Kaito and Kokichi called her out on her TheNeedsOfTheMany utilitarianism.]]
* Gonta is a GentleGiant who just wants to be useful to the rest of the group in some way, but can't quite figure out how. [[spoiler: While exploring a virtual world in Chapter 4, he ends up crossing the DespairEventHorizon after learning about (what is supposedly) the state of the outside world, which ultimately leads to him deciding (with some persuading from Kokichi) to MercyKill everyone else by murdering Miu and winning the game. Unfortunatly, Gonta had gotten two wires he was supposed to plug into his virtual headset before entering the virtual world mixed up, and so when he logged out, he was unable to recall anything that happened in the virtual world. He's horrified when he finds out what he did, and is unable to understand ''why'' he did it.]]
* Kaito is also one to an extent. [[spoiler: He's SecretlyDying from a mysterious illness for most of the game, and doesn't remember when he got sick. He keeps going on as usual even as the symptoms gradually get worse, hiding his condition from the rest of the group. During the fourth chapter, he's forced to realize the flaw in his outlook and faith in his friends when he refuses to believe that Gonta is the culprit of the fourth case. In the fifth chapter, he ends up killing Kokichi (with his permission) in order to prevent Maki (who had shot Kokichi with a poisoned arrow) from being executed.]]
* Kiibo. First of all, he has little social skills and little capacity to understand a lot of things normal people say making it easy for people to mock him. Then, there is his backstory. [[spoiler: When Professor Iidabashi was severely injured, Ki-bo blamed himself for it, since he believed he broke the First Law of Robotics, and eventually [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]]. He came back, but as a blank slate, having lost all of his memories. Everything he knows prior to the incident came from Iidabashi. There is also the fact that he is an UnwittingPawn as he was completely unaware that he was built to serve as the killing game's first-person camera until the mastermind revealed it in the last trial.]]
* An example of a StoicWoobie is Ryoma, [[spoiler: a self-loathing DeathSeeker who wanted to find a reason to live. Come to his video in Chapter 2 where it was completely empty, showing that nobody really cares about him in the outside world, causing him to lose his will to live. It's a huge TearJerker to think about in itself, but it gets even worse when you learn that he used to have a family and a girlfriend who were murdered by the mafia, which ultimately caused him to become a killer. This could explain why his video was empty.]]
* Maki is an unpleasant {{Jerkass}} in the early parts of the game, but after her backstory and real nature is exposed, it's very hard not to feel sorry for her making her a JerkassWoobie.
** Another JerkassWoobie is Miu Iruma who explicitly says that she was inspired to become an inventor and help people after a brain surgeon saved her life. [[spoiler: Her decision to kill Ouma and graduate was amoral, but she was acting out of the genuine belief that, with absolute confirmation that the world had gone to absolute shit, that she was needed to help people. Her prioritizing her life over her classmates is selfish, yes, but her motive was one of pure altruism.]] There is also the fact that she is actually a shy Reluctant Fanservice Girl.
* Shuichi Saihara. He has [[HeroicSelfDeprecation a lot of self-doubt since he only solved many murder cases by chance]] though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, his LoveInterest and his BigBrotherMentor are both dead, and he does not take their deaths well at all. Later on, during the final trial, he is forced to watch an audition tape showing pre-brainwashed Shuichi expressing a desire to join Danganronpa out of boredom. This took a huge toll on him, all the way to the point where he nearly fell into despair and Tsumugi almost emerged victorious.]]

* Kirumi, after her story was told. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she was a prime minister for a country. As it turns out, some "unprecedented crisis" ended up happening in her country and she needed to go back there by killing somebody. In Chapter 2, many students went out their way to state they rather have Monokuma execute them instead of her, despite Kaito and Kokichi calling her out on her TheNeedsOfTheMany utilitarianism]]

* Shuichi Saihara. He has [[HeroicSelfDeprecation a lot of self-doubt since he only solved many murder cases by chance]] though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, his LoveInterest and his BigBrotherMentor are both dead, and he does not take their deaths well at all. Later on, during the final trial, he is forced to watch an audition tape showing Shuichi before he his brainwashing and showing a desire to join Danganronpa out of boredom. This took a huge toll on him, all the way to the point where he nearly fell into despair and Tsumugi almost emerged victorious.]]

* Shuichi Saihara. He has [[HeroicSelfDeprecation a lot of self-doubt due to how he only solved many murder cases by chance]] though he becomes more confident in his detective skills throughout the game. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, his LoveInterest and his BigBrotherMentor are both dead. He does not take the deaths of those two students along with many other deaths well in general. Along in seeing his audition tape that the old Shuichi really wanted to join Danganronpa out of boredom that really took a toll on him to the point where he nearly went with despair in the end.]]

* An example of a StoicWoobie is Ryoma, who was kinda [[spoiler: suicidal during the killing game as he wanted to find a reason to live. Come to his video in Chapter 2 where it was completely empty, showing that nobody really cares about him in the outside world. It's a huge TearJerker to think about in itself, but it gets even worse when you learn that he used to have a family and a girlfriend who were murdered by the mafia, which ultimately caused him to become a killer.]]

* Ryoma was kinda [[spoiler: suicidal in this killing game as he wanted to find a reason to live. Come to his video in Chapter 2 where it was completely empty showing that nobody really cares about him in the outside world. It is a pretty much a huge TearJerker to think about.]]

* Kaito is also one to an extent. [[spoiler: As an attempt to save Maki's life from being executed for poisoning Kokichi, both Kokichi and Kaito have willingly agreed for Kaito to kill Kokichi. In addition, he refused to believe that Gonta was the culprit.]]

* Maki is an unpleasant {{Jerkass}} in the early parts of the game and [[spoiler: giving Hoshi his motive video knowing that it would destroy any reason he had to live]], but after her backstory and real nature is exposed, it's very hard not to feel sorry for her making her a huge JerkassWoobie.

* Gonta is a GentleGiant who is a very NiceGuy. [[spoiler: Too bad he crossed the DespairEventHorizon by learning the state of the outside world in Chapter Four and attempted to "save" everybody killing Miu and MercyKill everybody else.]]

** Juzo felt left behind for by the romance between Chisa and Munakuta. He has UndyingLoyalty towards Munakuta which leads [[spoiler: Munakuta to seemingly kill him in Episode 9 of ''Side: Future''. And the reason for his loyalty is because Junko knew that Juzo was gay for Munakuta, which she used to blackmail Juzo in ''Side: Despair'': he told Munakata Junko was innocent, or she'd tell him his feelings. He grudgingly goes along, which caused Munakata to believe he was a Remnant of Despair once the truth of Junko being evil came out. And after Juzo survived Munakuta's attempted murder towards him, he sacrificed himself in order to end the killing game once and for all to have Munakuta be safe. ]]

* Himiko. The poor girl does ''not'' take the killings well, ''especially'' the [[spoiler: deaths of Tenko (her girlfriend), Angie (her best friend), and Gonta (pretty much a big brother to her). [[IronWoobie And yet she still manages to soldier on to the end.]]]]

* Kaito is also one to an extent. [[spoiler: As an attempt to save Maki's life from being executed for poisoning Kokichi, both Kokichi and Kaito have willingly agreed for Kaito to kill Kokichi.]]

* Kiyotaka has a FriendlessBackground and has to live with the shadow of his grandfather's crimes hanging over his head. And then his first ever friend [[spoiler: is executed for murdere, causing poor Kiyotaka to have a HeroicBSOD]].

* Maki is an unpleasant {{Jerkass}} in the early parts of the game and [[giving Hoshi his motive video knowing that it would destroy any reason he had to live]], but after her backstory and real nature is exposed, it's very hard not to feel sorry for her making her a huge JerkassWoobie.

* Shuichi Saihara. He also has [[HeroicSelfDeprecation a lot of self-doubt due to how he only solved many murder cases by chance]] though he becomes more confident in his detective skills. [[spoiler: By the end of the game, his LoveInterest and his BigBrotherMentor are both dead. He does not take the deaths of those two students along with many other deaths in general. Along in seeing his audition tape that the old Shuichi really wanted to join Danganronpa out of boredom that really took a toll on him to the point where he nearly went with despair in the end.]]

* [[spoiler: Kokichi Oma]], though he's more of the JerkassWoobie kind. [[spoiler: Throughout the game, Kokichi acts like an unbalanced psychopath. However, the original Kokichi Oma was just a person who wanted to make people happy and laugh. His "evil group" just ended up being a group of clowns and he came to the killing game because he ''wanted to raise money for a good cause''. For the sake of "good television", however, he gets BrainwashedAndCrazy.]]
** Another JerkassWoobie would be [[spoiler: Korekiyo]]. There's very little chance, given TheReveal, that [[spoiler: Shinguuji's BrotherSisterIncest and related motive weren't fabricated as part of the character he was turned into,]] and yet that's all he'll ever be known for, in-universe and [[NeverLiveItDown out]].
** Even the mastermind can be viewed as a JerkassWoobie, since [[spoiler: she was not safe from the brainwashing--the only reason she's the mastermind is because she was brainwashed into it.]]

* Gonta is a GentleGiant who is a very NiceGuy. [[spoiler: Too bad Kokichi put a computer bug in his VR avatar causing him to [[AccidentalMurder accidentally kill]] Miu.]]

* Kirumi, after her story was told. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she was a prime minister for a country. As it turns out, some "unprecedented crisis" ended up happening in her country and she needed to go back there by killing somebody. In Chapter 2, many students went out their way tp state they rather have Monokuma execute them instead of her, despite Kaito and Kokichi calling her out on her TheNeedsoftheMany utilitarianism]]

* [[spoiler: Sayaka]] is a huge StepfordSmiler in which despite being very cheerful, she ended up having a crippling fear of being forgotten and abandoned which stems from [[spoiler: her workaholic father and always being alone]].
* Due to having a lack of confidence as well as becoming a [[spoiler: WholesomeCrossdresser in order for a desperate attempt to no longer be bullied for not being manly enough]], Chihiro is also one.
* Kiyotaka pretty much has a FriendlessBackground in which his first ever friend [[spoiler: ended up becoming executed resulting in him having HeroicBSOD]] making people feel bad for him.
* Aoi Asahina becomes one after [[spoiler: she didn't take her best friend's death well as well as her brother dying in VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls]].
* Makoto became one after Anime/DanganRonpa3 where he [[spoiler: hallucinates his dead classmates, including [[TheLostLenore Sayaka and Kyoko]], taunting him and outright stating he should of died instead of them.]]
* Crossing over to JerkassWoobie territory, while Toko is the type of girl who is antagonistic and assumes the worst out of everything, she has very little self-esteem from being bullied and she has a [[spoiler: SplitPersonality in the form of [[SerialKiller Genocide Jill]] making it seem she was just trying to push people away from her]]. Also, from the Manga, Celeste can be a JerkassWoobie once it talks about her having a DarkAndTroubledPast of [[spoiler: her growing up as a GenericGirl who has zero people to love and once she discovers her talent, she does everything to be viewed as "special" even going into darker parts of her personality.]] While it is unsure if the DarkAndTroubledPast is truly canon or not, VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls seems to back this up with the thing that she loves most happens to be a ''freaking cat''.
* As for the killers that game, [[spoiler: [[JerkassWoobie Mondo]]]] came across as the most sympathetic killer that game as [[spoiler: he committed an AccidentalMurder after Chihiro stated an InnocentlyInsensitive comment that went on to press Mondo's BerserkButton and he clearly felt resentful of what ended up happening.]]

* Izuru, [[spoiler:the result of the Kamukura Project]], is more of the [[StoicWoobie stoic]] variety, but he still counts. His backstory is pretty nasty, what with the "no memories, human experimentation, framed for the student councils' murders" bit, but that's not what qualifies him for this. The scene of him in Anime/DanganRonpa3 [[spoiler:crying over Chiaki's body, [[YouAreTooLate having finally remembered her, but moments too late]]]], is what does. Because everything else, he gets over. [[HeartbrokenBadass He never, ever gets over that]].
* As for another JerkassWoobie, Matsuda gets introduced as a massive asshole who treats Ryouko terribly, even though there are hints he does care about her. Then we learn the full deal concerning him, [[spoiler: that he was trying to protect Ryouko from herself and was ultimately his own girlfriend's UnwittingPawn, and he gets incredibly depressing.]]

* The biggest {{Woobie}} of the game has to go to Mikan for arguably having the lowest self-esteem out of all of the characters, being a FragileFlower, spending a long time being bullied, and [[spoiler: honestly believing that [[BigBad Junko Enoshima]] loved her]]. She is also implied to come from an abusive household, and bursts into tears when [[spoiler: the Ultimate Imposter]] pays her a compliment in Anime/DanganRonpa3 because it's the first time someone's been nice to her. [[spoiler: She was brainwashed by Junko and was subjected to ''more'' abuse, which, because she's been ''brainwashed'', she happily accepts.]]
* Monomi from the same game ended up having to cope with every single student distrusting her as well as Monokuma abusing her and forcing her to watch the killing game inside the island.

* [[spoiler: AI Chiaki]] became one [[spoiler: after she committed murder just by pure accident and attempts to make a HeroicSacrifice just to save her fellow students and proceeds to be executed despite her never really intended to kill anybody in the first place.]]

** Anime/DanganRonpa3 ended up turning Hajime into more of a {{Woobie}} character. He feels incredibly unworthy of his LoveInterest, and when some of his classmates are murdered he gets beaten bloody by the school's security for trying to find out what happened to them. His parents are implied to be emotionally neglectful of him, if the [[FreezeFrameBonus split second shot]] of their consent to the Kamukura Project is any indication. And when he goes through with the Kamukura Project, hoping to make himself someone he can be proud of, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding he's erased from existence and replaced with a new persona]].]]
* In Anime/DanganRonpa3, Mahiru attempts to be kind to Natsumi, who bullied her in middle school and sees her as a somebody to get rid of just so that Natsumi can be in the main course. At one point Mahiru attempts to break up a fight between Natsumi and Sato, only to nearly get hit by Natsumi. You get to see her trembling in fear. And once Nastumi and Sato die, she's later seen sobbing that she was not able to stop the conflict between those two girls.
* Gundham Tanaka has a FriendlessBackground in which the only people that seem to care about him is his deceased mother and his animals. He is also implied to born out of wedlock causing him to be rejected out of both sides of the family and he is actually very lonely beneath his dark overload persona.

* Crossing over to StoicWoobie territory, [[spoiler: Peko lived a life thinking that she was Fuyuhiko's tool after she was abandoned by her family. The fact that she thought that she killed Fuyuhiko during her execution came across a huge TearJerker. Fuyuhiko could also be viewed as sympathetic as chapter two of the game was not kind to him as he found out that his sister was dead and he ended up watching Peko in which he gone feelings for be executed for something she thought was her JustFollowingOrders]].
* Sonia, Akane, and Nagito could all be considered IronWoobie characters with Sonia [[IJustWantToBeNormal just wanting to be normal]] and hates seeing her first ever friends kill each other, Akane living a life of poverty who even stated the Funhouse (aka a place without any food inside it) was a palace compared to her old home, and Nagito having a constant case of bad luck in which his life has been a very long TraumaCongaLine.
* [[spoiler: Kazuichi]] and Hiyoko are both JerkassWoobie characters in which the former is actually a ShrinkingViolet who only does some Jerkass stuff just because he believes that they are what "cool" people do and the latter ([[UnreliableExpositor assuming that she is telling the truth]]) having to live a terrible home life that has her father going mad from protecting rivals and has her going through deadly sabotage attempts.

** Natsumi (who is a reserve course student like [[spoiler: Hajime]]) has even lower self-esteem than [[spoiler: Hajime]] as she wanted to have a talent badly that she made-up her own talent as the Ultimate Little Sister. She believes that she is unworthy of being around her brother if she is unable to have a talent of sorts.
** Juzo felt left behind for by the romance between Chisa and Munakuta. He has UndyingLoyalty towards Munakuta which lead [[spoiler: Munakuta to seemingly kill him in Episode 9 of Side: Future. And the reason for that is because Junko Enoshima knew that Juzo was gay for Munakuta and she attempted to blackmail Juzo in Side: Despair by telling Junko Enoshima is innocent in exchange for his secret not getting out to Munakuta causing Munakuta to think that he is a remnant of despair. And after he survived Munakuta's attempted murder towards him, he sacrificed himself in order to end the killing game once and for all to have Munakuta be safe. ]]
** Munakuta ended up [[spoiler: having both his girlfriend and his best friend died in which his girlfriend turns out to be a BrainwashedAndCrazy person who has been slowly corrupting him into becoming a KnightTemplar. By Side: Hope, he is the only survivor to have a complete DownerEnding which became one of the many complaints of Side: Hope.]]
** While Ruruka came across across a bit of an UnintentionallyUnsympathetic AlphaBitch, she has terrible self-esteem to the point that she [[spoiler: committed suicide in a very brutal fashion that is very telling of how self-loathing she was.]]
** While the way Izayoi treats anybody who is not his girlfriend is not exactly the best thing in the world, it is hard to not feel bad for [[spoiler: somebody who was killed by their lover especially since that said lover that the only person Izayoi could of trusted.]]

* [[spoiler: Kokichi Oma]] though it is more of the JerkassWoobie kind. [[spoiler: Throughout the game, Kokichi acts like an unbalanced psychopath. However, the original Kokichi Oma was just a person who wanted to make people happy and laugh. His "evil group" just ended up being a group of clowns and he came to the killing game because he ''wanted to raise money for a good cause''. For the sake of "good television", however, he gets BrainwashedAndCrazy.]]

** Even the mastermind can be viewed as a JerkassWoobie since [[spoiler: she was not safe from the brainwashing as well as her entire role as the mastermind was brainwashed.]]
* Kaede. [[spoiler: She set-up a trap was intended to kill the mastermind but they used that trap Kaede made to kill somebody and use Kaede as a FrameUp. Kaede then ended up believing she was the culprit of that murder and she urges Shuiichi to reveal she is the killer to the others, and feigns resistance to make it more believable for them.]]
* Kirumi after her story was told. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she was a prime minister for a country. As it turns out, some "unprecedented crisis" ended up happening in her country and she needed to go back there by killing somebody. In Chapter 2, many students went out their way tp state they rather have Monokuma execute them instead of her despite Kaito and Kokichi calling her out on her TheNeedsoftheMany utilitarianism]]

* Kiibo. First of all, he has little social skills and little capacity to understand a lot of things normal people say making it easy for people to mock him. There is also the fact that Miu Iruma ended up raping him in the actual game. Then, there is his backstory. [[spoiler: When Professor Iidabashi was severely injured, Ki-bo blamed himself for it, since he believed he broke the First Law of Robotics, and eventually [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]]. He came back, but as a blank slate, having lost all of his memories. Everything he knows prior to the incident came from Iidabashi. There is also the fact that he is an UnwittingPawn as he was completely unaware that he was built to serve as the killing game's first-person camera until the mastermind revealed it in the last trial.]]

* Kirumi after her story was told. [[spoiler: Her master was a member of the mafia and she loved them very much, but Ryoma ended up killing them, and she was forced to take their position, putting a huge burden on her life. She sought revenge on Ryoma as a result.]]

* Kaede. [[spoiler: She set-up a trap was intended to kill the mastermind but they used that Kaede made to kill somebody and use Kaede as a FrameUp. Kaede then ended up believing she was the culprit of that murder and she urges Shuiichi to reveal she is the killer to the others, and feigns resistance to make it more believable for them.]]

* Kirumi in which [[spoiler: after Ryoma Hoshi killed her mafia master, Kirumi ended up being falsely placed blame for that. Because of that, her life ended up going to hell and she sought revenge at Ryoma for what she did to her mafia master as well as what he did to her life. Made even worst that the mastermind probably made her think that way.]]

* Crossing over to JerkassWoobie territory, while Toko is the type of girl who is antagonistic and assumes the worst out of everything, she has very little self-esteem from being bullied and she has a [[spoiler: SplitPersonality in the form of [[SerialKiller Genocide Jill]] making it seem she was just trying to push people away from her]]. Also, from the Manga, Celeste can be a JerkassWoobie once it talks about her having a DarkAndTroubledPast of [[spoiler: her growing up as a GenericGirl who has zero people to love and once she discovers, she does everything to be viewed as "special" even going into darker parts of her personality.]] While it is unsure if the DarkAndTroubledPast is truly canon or not, VideoGame/AbsoluteDespairGirls seems to back this up with the thing that she loves most happens to be a ''freaking cat''.

* Himiko. The poor girl does ''not'' take the killings well, ''especially'' the [[spoiler: deaths of Tenko (her girlfriend), Angie (her best friend), and Gonta (pretty much a big brother to her). [[IronWoobie And yet she still manages to soldier on to the end.]]

** Another JerkassWoobie would be [[spoiler: Korekiyo]]. There's very little chance, given TheReveal, that [[spoiler: Shinguuji's BrotherSisterIncest and related motive weren't fabricated as part of the character he was turned into, and yet that's all he'll ever be known for, in-universe and [[NeverLiveItDown out]].

* Gonta is a GentleGiant who is a very NiceGuy. [[spoiler: Too bad Kokichi put a computer bug in his VR avatar causing him to [[AccidentalMurder accidentally kill]] Miu.