All characters are recognizable by both their names and spellings. If the only point of your edit is to change names, refrain from doing it. The same goes with the Ultimate/Super High School Level titles. Either one works.

Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.

It's virtually impossible to list tropes for these characters without spoiling everything or creating Self Fulfilling Spoilers because of the large number of surprising reveals and murderer/victim exclusive tropes this anime and its counterparts, "Future Arc" and "Hope Arc" contains.

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Class 77-B

For the tropes related to them in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, see here. For the real Ryota Mitarai, and for their homeroom teacher Chisa Yukizome, see Future Arc characters.

As a whole

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dr3_despair_wallpaper.png

Class 77-B with their teacher and Hajime

The main class of Side: Despair, talented students who would become part of Class 77-B at Hope's Peak Academy. Tragically, despairing events would occur that would change them.

The Atoner: After being freed from their brainwashing, they all decided that they would atone for the crimes they committed as Ultimate Despair.
Back for the Finale: All of them show up in the last episode to save the day.
Back from the Dead: The "dead" (comatose) students from SDR2 came back in-between installments in Side:Hope.
Badass Crew: In Side:Hope, they're able to take on the brainwashed Future Foundation by themselves, and easily win.
Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Thanks to Junko's brainwashing, they are convinced that their acts of evil that cause madness-inducing despair make the world a better place.
Big Damn Heroes: Just as Mitarai's brainwashed agents overwhelm any force the surviving Future Foundation members could muster, the 77-B class rushes in and beats all of them back.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Side:Despair Episode 10 shows that they were brainwashed by Junko, being forced to watch Chiaki die and having the footage laced with brain-altering effects by Junko to turn them into members of Ultimate Despair.
Broken Tears: As they watch Chiaki's execution, they can do nothing but cry.
Corrupt the Cutie: Junko getting all of them to watch Chiaki's execution was the only thing needed to plunge the rest into the Despair Event Horizon.
Crippling Overspecialization: Their Ultimate titles.
Devoted to You: As Remnants of Despair, they're completely and utterly devoted to Junko and spreading her ideology of spreading despair. After Junko's death, some of them even replaced parts of their own bodies with bits from her corpse in an attempt to "keep her alive within them."
Doomed by Canon: All but one of them are going to fall into despair, then ten of them are going to end up comatose.
Dystopia Justifies the Means: After being brainwashed by Junko, they follow her will of despair and cause the world to turn into a dystopia on her behalf, for no particular reason whatsoever — though, unlike Junko, they do think they're doing something good. At the end of all of this, they end up having to take the blame and are no longer accepted as normal citizens.
Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of Side:Hope, all of them get reunited, they're no longer brainwashed, and they get to live in peace on an island paradise.
Everybody Lives: Almost. Chiaki and her AI counterpart remain dead, but Side:Hope reveals everyone who went into the Neo World Program is alive and free of brainwashing.
Evil Costume Switch: After falling into Despair, they change into different dark outfits. Subverted by the Ultimate Imposter (who is just in his Byakuya disguise with night-vision goggles), Kazuichi (who wore black gloves and removed his beanie), as well as Hajime (who retains his Reserve Course uniform).
Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The opening montage indicates that even as Remnants of Despair they remain True Companions. It's most notable when they all are brainwashed into becoming Ultimate Despair, Mikan makes an "Our hearts are beating as one" speech characteristics to The Power of Friendship. It's arguably justified if you believe they didn't know that they were acting in despair's interests.
The Exile: After taking the blame for the Final Killing Game, they're fated to live the rest of their lives on Jabberwock Island, away from normal society. They don't seem to mind much.
Face–Monster Turn: It turns out that it wasn't their choice to become Ultimate Despair of their own free will. They were forced to be Ultimate Despair as a result of Junko's brainwashing program, lobotomization, and being Forced to Watch their dear friend Chiaki die right in front of them.
Faking the Dead: Episode 11 reveals they all faked their deaths in the attack on Hope's Peak Academy to have more freedom to act as the SHSL Despairs.
Flanderization: A varying amount, depending on the character, but nearly all of them aren't as three-dimensional as their game counterparts, thanks in part to being Out of Focus.
Forced to Watch: By watching Chiaki's execution on the monitors, which has Mitarai's brainwashing methods, they are unable to move their bodies and are forced to watch it.
From Nobody to Nightmare: They went from a group of quirky yet talented high-schoolers to the most dangerous, violent, and destructive gathering of terrorists in human history.
Gamer Chick: With the exception of Peko, all the girls take part in playing video games during the class social gathering that Chiaki set up in the second episode.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Have these, combined with Red Eyes, Take Warning, as the Remnants of Despair.
Heinousness Retcon: In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the Junko AI (who was admittedly a blatant Unreliable Expositor) indicated that they had all been voluntarily convinced to embrace their worst aspects in joining Ultimate Despair. This story reveals that she was lying through her teeth and they were all outright Brainwashed and Crazy.
He's Back!: All of them in Side:Hope.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: Izuru has their memories of him and his memories of them erased so that things will be more interesting if they meet again.
Laughing Mad: After Chiaki's death, as they become overwhelmed with despair they break into insane laughter.
Mind-Control Eyes: Obtain these after falling into despair. When they were being brainwashed from watching Chiaki being tortured on the monitors, they developed spiral eyes.
Obliviously Evil: During Episode 11, they all talk about their future plans, including giving medicine to hospitals, or feeding the world nutritious food. They seem to genuinely believe themselves and overall don't know that they are acting in the interests of despair to destroy the world.
Out of Focus: Most of them get hit with this hard by Side:Despair Episode 3, due to the plot shifting gears to start tying directly into Side:Future.
Religion of Evil: The Remnants of Despair are less of a terrorist organization and more of an insane Cult of Personality based around Junko Enoshima and her ideology.
The Remnant: As the Remnants of Despair following the death of Junko Enoshima.
Saved by Canon: With the exception of Chiaki. Goodbye Despair confirms that they all fell to Ultimate Despair and lived to be captured and put into the Neo World Program.
The Scapegoat: All of them bar Chiaki are scapegoats for Junko, being the ones that she tricked into carrying out her will of evil and, in turn, making them take the blame for her desires to spread despair. This also means that the Future Foundation and the entire world condemn the class for their actions in causing the Tragedy for her, making the survivors' lives hell for desires that were of Junko's fault.
Shipper on Deck: In episode 7, several characters note Mikan and the Imposter have been spending a lot of time together and promptly begin speculating about their relationship.
Taking the Heat: They take the blame for the Final Killing Game.
Terrorists Without a Cause: As part of Ultimate Despair, their only purpose is to spread suffering throughout the world.
True Companions:
- Thanks to Yukizome and Nanami, they become borderline Thicker Than Water. Their last time together with Yukizome shows that while despair corrupted them, it didn't destroy their friendship.
- After their brainwashing is undone in Side:Hope, they haven't skipped a single beat together despite, from their point of view, having killed each other the last time they were together in SDR2.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Episode 11 of Despair brings the horrifying implication that the brainwashing caused the Remnants of Despair to interpret their actions as humanitarian, to the extent that they believe they are achieving the opposite of what they are physically doing (Sonia reforming her nation into a 'war-free' territory through constant warfare, Ibuki making everyone 'happy' through her despair-inducing music, etc.).
You Can't Go Home Again: Their Zero-Approval Gambit effectively guarantees that they'll have to spend the rest of their lives in hiding.
Zero-Approval Gambit: At the end of Side: Hope, they record a video as the Remnants of Despair claiming responsibility for Tengan's killing game, because if it ever got out that the Future Foundation chairman himself was responsible for it, nobody would trust the Future Foundation ever again. Hiro falls for it.

Chiaki Nanami

Ultimate Gamer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chiaki_dr3.png

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

The secondary protagonist of Side: Despair. A member of Class 77-B, as well as its class-rep. A gamer prone to dozing off, she is the only one who regularly interacts with Hajime, much to his confusion.

All-Loving Heroine: She cares about all her friends.
Almost Dead Guy: After being impaled several times by spears, she has enough energy to talk with Izuru where she apologizes for failing to help everyone and sobs about how she doesn't want to die and she wants to stay with her friends and play games with Hajime. Her final action was reaching her hand out to Izuru before perishing.
Always with You: To Hajime Hinata. In the ending of Side: Hope, she appears to him as a spirit.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's kind and friendly, but is capable of doing a strong punch if her friends are messed with.
Blessed with Suck: She points out to Hajime that being the Ultimate Gamer isn't really all that useful; she can't do anything else, will always be defined by it even if she doesn't want to, and initially doesn't think she can use her talent to make friends.
Character Death: She is executed by Junko in Episode 10, and it's her death that sends her classmates into despair.
Class Rep: Chisa appoints her as this in Episode 2.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Poor girl was on the receiving end of during the second half of this episode 10.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Her death is drawn out, full of futile hope spots, gory, and painful, all the better to cause her friends despair. It makes her death in SDR2 look like nothing. The worst part is that the death traps themselves don't kill her. She instead dies a slow death from blood loss after being impaled.
Determinator: Refuses to give up meeting her friends after being thrown in a deadly dungeon while her friends are forced to watch, even after being impaled multiple times, she still said she wanted to live and see her friends.
Doomed by Canon: Since she appears as an AI in DR2 and isn't shown as a Remnant of Despair, her chances of surviving were null.
Early-Bird Cameo: She very briefly appeared at the end of the teaser of Danganronpa V3, though the graininess of the image combined with her face not shown meant no one could be sure it was her until the producers implicitly confirmed it.
Fatal Flaw: Her naivete and idealism are ultimately her undoing. Despite being warned that their enemy is someone they can't beat, she refuses to give up on rescuing Hajime/Izuru and Chisa, believing that The Power of Friendship will prevail and the day will be won. Instead, her rallying for a rescue leads directly to her death and the fall of her classmates into despair.
First Friend: To Hajime Hinata and vice versa, since Chiaki never had any friends to play games with before meeting him. It just makes what happens to her all the more tragic...
Friendless Background: Prior to arriving at Hope's Peak, she had no friends before Hajime and the 77th class.
Gamer Chick: Her ultimate talent is based on being one. In Danganronpa V3's bonus mode, it is revealed that she is so good at video games she can even sometimes beat Izuru.
Geeky Turn-On: Her whole friendship with Hajime starts because he is able to recognize an old retro game that she is playing based on the music. Chiaki responds to this by acting like an excited fangirl, complete with Luminescent Blush and No Sense of Personal Space.
Greater-Scope Paragon: She dies early on amid Junko's overall plot to bring despair to the world but it is the ideals of hope she left with Izuru in her final moments that became the driving force for his actions against Junko, leading to his own merger with Hajime, the restoration of the remnants of despair (who were similarly influenced by her), the ultimate defeat of Junko as an AI, and the halting of Ryota's plan to brainwash all humanity.
Hair Color Dissonance: Her hair was silver in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but here it's a pinkish-brown that looks more pink or more brown depending on the lighting.
The Heart: She acted like this when Chisa was in the Reserve Course, actively planning events for her class. That's why her death pushed them into despair.
Held Gaze: With Izuru at the end of Episode 8, after she recognizes him as Hajime.
I Know Mortal Kombat: She apparently knows some fighting techniques that she learned from playing video games. She used one of these techniques to protect Hiyoko from an aphrodisiac-influenced Teruteru.
I Just Want to Have Friends: She was incredibly lonely before meeting Hajime, feeling that her talent was useless when it came to making friends. This is probably why she's so invested in him and her classmates, as they were the first friends she's ever had, and Chisa (who encouraged her to reach out).
I Will Wait for You: Loves Hinata to the point that, after he disappears, she still waits for him at their normal meeting spots. A whole year later, she's still waiting.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Episode 10, Chiaki is thrown into a dungeon full of deadly traps and is impaled a few times along the way. After finally reaching the exit she is pierced by multiples spears at once, similar to Mukuro Ikusaba's death in the first game. She dies, but not instantly.
Kill the Cutie: Kind, adored by everybody, and not to mention pretty cute. Ultimately, she had one of the most, if not the most brutal and painful death in the entire franchise, and that is saying something.
Leeroy Jenkins: She knew confronting Junko would end badly (having seen how badly Peko was wounded from attempting the same) and did it anyway.
Legacy Character: AI Chiaki. It's revealed in Side:Hope that AI Chiaki was created based on the memories from the Remnants of Despair and their desire to see her again.
Let Them Die Happy: Tragically subverted: she dies cursing her inability to be of use to anyone and mourning the fact that she had to die so soon. However, she dies not knowing what's become of her classmates (that they became "Ultimate Despair") and believes them to still be her friends.
The Lost Lenore: Her death is what motivated Izuru to start moving against Junko—he's even seen having held onto her hairpin and clutching it tightly when thinking about her.
Love Interest: Her relationship with Hinata fills a fairly critical role in the series. Never does an episode in Side:Despair go by without it being referenced.
Luminescent Blush: A few times when she's with Hajime.
Made of Iron: Even after impaled, she could still talk and even tried to lift herself a bit. She dies after a good while of being still able to move and talk.
Magnetic Hero: After the events of episode 2, the entire class of 77-B, including Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko, absolutely adores her.
Meaningful Appearance: Wears a hairclip shaped similar to a Galaga spaceship, fitting for the Ultimate Gamer.
Meet Cute: With Hajime in the first episode.
Morality Pet: For Izuru; she was the only person he ever took interest in or cared about, and he was still mourning her death even after the Tragedy had finished.
Nice Girl: When she first meets Hajime, she gives him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech and effectively manages to cheer him up. She also hangs out with Hajime regularly despite his insecurities of being a school reserve course student.
No Sense of Personal Space: During the first episode of Side: Despair, Chiaki tends to stand extremely close to Hajime while interacting with him, with her face being only inches away from his own. Hajime does show some slight discomfort whenever she does this.
Only Friend: She's the only person that Hajime can truly call a friend during his time in Hope's Peak.
Rising Uppercut: Her "Heaven Slaying Dragon Fist" move.
Ship Tease: Heavily with both Hajime and Izuru. She and Hajime were very fond of each other, to the point he decided to become Izuru to be better for her and she spent an entire year waiting for him; with Izuru, she recognized him as Hajime immediately and wanted to help him above all else, even while dying, while Izuru took an interest in her, turned on Junko because of her, and spent years mourning her death.
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: She is absent from promotional materials and even silhouetted out in the first episode's intro, in order to keep the fact that she was a real person rather than only an AI a surprise.
Spared by the Adaptation: Chiaki lives in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan and Ultimate Summer Camp continuities, as the Chiaki in those is the real Chiaki and not the AI Chiaki from 2.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Even putting aside the obvious reason, her relationship with Hinata is basically doomed from the start thanks to his personality complex, to the point he turns his own feelings into a justification to become Kamukura.
Teacher's Pet: Downplayed, but it's made fairly obvious she's Yukizome's favourite student, for good reason.
Throw the Dog a Bone: She catches a break in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan; she doesn’t die horribly, she’s able to stay with her friends all throughout high school, and they plan to continue meeting up after graduation, and (depending on which you play as) Hajime either never disappears or she meets and befriends him as Izuru, sparing her from worrying about his fate.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Invoked. She was brutally killed by Junko specifically because she was such a lovable person.
Tragic Hero: She is remarkably similar to Makoto—optimistic, kind, unify their class, holds strong beliefs in hope and friendship—save for one thing: she lacks his luck. As nothing she does goes right for her. Her attempts at convincing Hinata he's better than he thinks he is fail, her attempt to escape her execution fails, and not only does her attempt to rescue Chisa fail too, it leads directly to her death and her classmates' downfall. The only thing she actually succeeded at was getting Izuru to turn on Junko, and she had to die to do so.
Trauma Conga Line: She spent most of her life alone, just playing video games by herself. Her first and best friend/Love Interest just disappears on her. She spends months waiting for him to return. Reunites with him, only for him to not remember her. Was betrayed by her favourite teacher and thrown into a dungeon. Was brutally tortured by Junko's death traps before finally being impaled by several spears. Finally, spends her last moments admitting that she doesn't want to die, and makes one final attempt to get Hajime/Izuru to remember her. The poor girl didn't deserve any of that.
Universally Beloved Leader: Chiaki is Chisa's favourite student and is well-liked by the class thanks to her efforts in uniting them. This ends up being the reason why Junko choose to kill her to drive the others students into despair. Also, in Side: Hope it is revealed that the Chiaki AI from Danganronpa 2 wasn't specifically created as such. It was a blank slate AI which was supposed to scan everyone's minds for who each of them viewed as the ideal administrator, then combine all the results into one personality, but everyone's result was Chiaki, so it just became her.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Her reciprocated affection for Hajime is part of what drives him to become Izuru Kamukura. He would rather be someone worthy of Chiaki than drag her down as a talentless person.
- She was the one who rallied her classmates to face off against the Ultimate Despair and save Chisa, even though both Peko and Nagito point out how unprepared they are (although the latter claims to be only testing them) and that they should escape while they still can. The rescue mission results in Class 77-B's capture and eventual brainwashing.
Unwitting Pawn: Junko purposely allowed her to escape with Nagito in order to get the rest of Class 77-B to rescue Yukizome so she can easily capture them all.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Genuinely believes that good will always win the day and that nothing is impossible for those who try. Unfortunately, unlike the other major idealist of the series, Makoto Naegi, this gets her killed.
Wrong Genre Savvy: In Episode 9, Chiaki clearly believes that she and her classmates are about to harness The Power of Friendship to beat Junko after she delivers a Rousing Speech to convince them to mount a rescue of their beloved Cool Teacher in the face of insurmountable odds, complete with a conversation with Mikan about how far they've come together and how much Chiaki has grown into her leadership role. Which would be typical in most of her games, but (a) no one's told her that she's in a Foregone Conclusion to a series of events that will lead to world devastation and (b) her name's not Makoto Naegi (and even he has a wobbly relationship with the The Power of Friendship). She continues to believe anything is possible with the power of friendship almost to the end, and it's actually enough for her to move a little even after being impaled from multiple angles. Unfortunately, it isn't enough. With that realization, she apologizes for failing shortly before she dies.

Nagito Komaeda

Ultimate Lucky Student

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_460.png

Voiced by: Megumi Ogata (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)

The Ultimate Lucky Student of Class-77. Still his ever hope obsessed self.

Click here to see his page

"Ryota Mitarai" (Imposter)

Ultimate Imposter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_481.png

^{Click here to see his real face}

Voiced by: Kanata Hongo (as "Ryota Mitarai"), Akira Ishida (as "Byakuya Togami" and his real self), Toshiyuki Morikawa (as "Kyosuke Munakata") (Japanese),

Justin Briner (as "Ryota Mitarai"), Josh Grelle (as "Byakuya Togami"), Ricco Fajardo (as "Kyoskue Munakata"), Eric Vale (real self) (English)

A young man without a name, family, or personal history to call his own. As the Ultimate Imposter, he lives by assuming the identity of another person right down to their voice and talents. In Despair Arc he attends Hope's Peak Academy as Ryota Mitarai, the Ultimate Animator. Also, he really likes food.

Acrofatic: Future Arc Episode 1 shows him to be quite fast on his feet. Hope Arc also reveals that he's a very skillful swordsman with agile, ninja-like techniques as he imitates Munakata.
Bad Powers, Good People: "Ultimate Imposter" doesn't exactly sound like a heroic skill, but the guy is nevertheless one of the most moral members of the 77th class.
Big Beautiful Man: Between his natural deep voice and his real face, he is actually quite handsome.
Big Eater: He noticeably eats more than anyone of his class excluding Akane.
Blush Sticker: Despite the real Mitarai himself not having this.
The Caretaker: For Ryota; he is literally the only reason the poor kid will remember to eat, sleep, or visit the doctor.
Character Development: Goes from saying fats and sweets are the only thing you can trust in the second episode to being willing to run out alongside his classmates in search of Mikan.
Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: For Ryouta, whose obsession with anime makes him act...rather oddly at times.
The Cynic: In episode 5, he states that the only thing you can really trust is sugar and fat.
Discard and Draw: When he assumes someone's identity, he also gains their abilities.
Gonk: Despite looking fairly normal in his debut appearance. Here, he's not only shorter, but his limbs have shrunken and he now has a very noticeable and off-putting Blush Sticker.
Hikikomori: Pretending to be Mitarai, he was one before Yukizome dragged him to class. Episode 5 reveals that he took Mitarai's identity so that Mitarai can continue to remain a shut-in and create anime while the Ultimate Imposter takes his place in class.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With the real Ryouta.
I'm Not Here to Make Friends: In sharp contrast to his attitude as Byakuya, he sees no point in any of the Hope's Peak students grouping up or making friends. Though this could be part of his ruse as Mitarai.
Master of Disguise: His talent.
Never Given a Name: He claims to not have a name.
Nice Guy: Episode 5 reaffirms him to be one of the nicest students in the series.
Only Friend: Was something of one to Mitarai. Not only did he take Mitarai's identity so Mitarai could focus on his work, but he also made sure to regularly check up on him to make sure he was healthy. When class 77-B convinces Mitarai to join them in the end, he's the first person Mitarai runs to hug.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When things get serious, his true personality tends to peek through his disguises. Nagito even points out that he had never seen him acting like he did when Nagito announced that he saw Mikan in the West area.
Parental Abandonment: He states in Episode 5 he has no name or family.
Pet the Dog: After bringing Mikan to help Ryouta, he compliments her and is generally very kind towards her, which makes Mikan burst into tears in gratitude.
Power Copying: When disguised as Munakata, he has the latter's sword skills.
The Reveal: He reveals his true talent to his classmates in episode 9, alongside his true face. Compared to his Ryota disguise, he has long black hair combed back and narrow grey eyes.
Ship Tease: With Mikan, even dropping his Shrinking Violet act when Nagito hints he knows where she is when she goes missing.
Toxic Friend Influence: Unintentionally, but by taking Ryota's identity, he enables Ryota to isolate himself and work on his anime day and night, which ends up taking tolls on his physical and mental health. In a subversion of the trope, the Ultimate Imposter eventually realizes this and informs Mikan of their facade so she can treat Ryota's declining health.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By enabling Ryota to miss class, the Ultimate Imposter allowed Ryota to work on his anime to a completely fanatical degree and caused his mental health to decline so that he was emotionally vulnerable to Junko's influence. Not to mention, if he didn't let Ryouta's health decline that much to warrant hospital visits in the first place, Ryouta wouldn't have bumped into Junko on that fateful day. And bringing Mikan to Ryouta inadvertently put her in Junko's path.

Gundham Tanaka

Ultimate Breeder

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_986.png

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Scott Frerichs (English)

A member of Class 77-B. The Ultimate Breeder who's able to tame any animal, he has been successful in breeding endangered species. He keeps four hamsters, called “The Four Dark Devas of Destruction”. His first name is forbidden, and so cannot be spoken aloud.

Adorable Evil Minions: How he sees the Four Dark Devas of Destruction/Twelve Zodiac Generals.
Antiquated Linguistics: Talks like a evil overlord.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Nekomaru against the angry Reserve Course students in Episode 9.
Badass Arm-Fold: Does this a lot.
Bash Brothers: With Nekomaru. The two challenge each other while playing Chiaki's video games, and, later, fight together against a hoard of reserve course students. This is a subtle Call-Forward to their relationship in Danganronpa 2.
The Beastmaster: As expected of the Ultimate Breeder. As a member of Ultimate Despair, Tanaka is shown commanding an army of animals. In episode 7 of the Despair arc, he randomly has a bear in the classroom with him. Yes, an actual live bear.
Boots of Toughness: Wears a pair of high boots.
Black Magic: Claims to be a practitioner of the dark arts.
Bunnies for Cuteness: He owns a rabbit, claiming to be a sacrifice to the gods and demanded Hiyoko to leave it alone to "prevent calamity from striking". She ended up having the rabbit pooping straight to her face.
Clark Kenting: Subverted. His chest size is 37 inches, but when you look at him sideways, you can see his chest is much thicker than it looks
Dark Is Not Evil: For all his talk about being a dark lord, he's actually harmless. Averted when he was brainwashed into Ultimate Despair.
Deathbringer the Adorable: His hamsters are called the Four Dark Devas of Destruction. They became the Twelve Zodiac Generals after the timeskip.
Evil Laugh: Does a ridiculously exaggerated one in Episode 5.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Throughout the Despair Arc, his hair is now considerably down. When he took down the Ultimate Falconer, the wind causes his hair to be the bizarre up-do in the video game.
Eyes Always Shut: As a Ultimate Despair.
Facial Markings: He got more tattoos in his forehead as a Despair.
Feather Boa Constrictor: Has a giant snake around his entire body as a Remnant of Despair.
Friend to All Living Things: As expected of the Ultimate Breeder, he loves animals and they love him.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Subverted. It's actually a tattoo.
Guyliner: Tanaka has never been seen with unpainted eyes.
Handwraps of Awesome: There are bandages wrapped around both of his arms. They’re to cover the bite marks from when his hamsters got into each other’s territories.
Head Pet: Keeps hamsters in his scarf.
Large Ham: As always, he’s very bombastic.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His first name is "forbidden".
Mr. Imagination: Has delusions about being a evil overlord and treats his hamsters like evil minions.
Mundane Made Awesome: Between his enthusiastic delivery, the background, and the fact we haven't heard it anywhere else in the anime, he manages to make the act of saying his first name awesome.
The Nose Knows: He claims his hamsters can track people via their scent when Mikan disappears.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: At least when he's being sane. Once he became one of the Ultimate Despairs, he's obviously very harmful.
Odd Friendship: With Sonia.
Only One Name: He calls himself Tanaka the Forbidden One during the Despair arc, he doesn't use his full name until Side:Hope.
Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a long magenta scarf.
Shipped in Shackles: As a member of Ultimate Despair, he seems to be wearing some sort of straitjacket.
Shout-Out: His new "name" makes a reference to Exodia the Forbidden One.
The Scottish Trope: His real name cannot be spoken aloud. Subverted in Side:Hope, where he triumphantly shouts his full name.
Speaks Fluent Animal: He's rumored to be able to do this.
Take Over the World: His stated goal, but of course it's all hogwash.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Implied to be this with both Nekomaru and Kazuichi.
"Wanted!" Poster: In episode 4 he put up some posters of his missing puppy reading "Wanted — Alive or Alive".

Kazuichi Soda

Ultimate Mechanic

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_683.png

Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese), Kyle Hebert (English)

A member of Class 77-B. The Ultimate Mechanic, skilled with every machine. He has a flashy appearance and an insolent personality, but is a surprisingly cowardly person. He’s often playing the straight man in his class full of oddballs. Has a crush on Sonia, but she refuses to humor him.

Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Sonia. Nothing more clear than Sonia progressively moving away from him when he first appeared.
Animals Hate Him: We see one of Gundham's hamsters biting him during the opening of Episode 3, though they seem to mellow out to him in a Freeze-Frame Bonus later.
Butt-Monkey: Even more than before - he tends to get hit with some of Nagito's bad luck, which wasn't the case in the game.
Curtains Match the Window: Pink hair and eyes, but it's dye and prescription contacts.
Delinquent Hair: It’s (dyed) bright pink.
Face of a Thug: Looks like a punk but is actually a Lovable Coward.
Fangs Are Evil: As a member of Ultimate Despair.
Flanderization: While most of the students get this to varying degrees, Kazuichi is especially hit hard by this trope. In his original game, Danganronpa 2, he was a major supporting protagonist whose technological know-how proved to be very useful to the group several times and, outside of Sonia, he was respected and taken seriously by the other students, only occasionally being the butt of the joke. Here, he's reduced to a complete joke character and every scene with him in it is either jokes about his crush on Sonia or him being a massive Butt-Monkey. Also, he does his "horror scream" expression a lot more often now.
Gadgeteer Genius: In Hope Arc, he fights a robot by using an army of Minimaru controlled by a joystick.
Hopeless Suitor: For Sonia.
Lovable Coward: As always.
Made of Iron: Gets hit by a truck in the first episode, but comes out of it without severe injuries.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family
Mr. Fixit: Just like in the game. He manages to make a giant TV monitor in apparently no time.
Naked People Are Funny: He starts trying to take off his jumpsuit whilst under the influence of Teruteru's "Sexy Sexy Soup". Fuyuhiko manages to stop him.
Scary Teeth: Sharp and pointed like a shark's.
Straight Man: He tends to comment on/react to the wacky behavior of others a lot, particularly Gundham's.
Throw the Dog a Bone: In Side:Hope, he is able to finally impress Sonia with the Mini-Mechamarus he created during the fight with the brainwashed Future Foundation solider. Also, in many background events, we see Sonia happily enjoying his company.
Villainous Widow's Peak: As an Remnant of Despair.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Apparently with Gundham despite his jealousy of Gundham's and Sonia's friendship. In the episode 9, he compliments Gundham and refers to him as someone who knows how to get things done, only instantly regret this once he realized he just help his romantic rival's credibility with Sonia.
Who's Laughing Now?: Like Mikan, he goes from a disrespected Butt-Monkey to a member of Ultimate Despair.

Teruteru Hanamura

Ultimate Cook

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6_8.png

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Todd Haberkorn (English)

The Ultimate Cook with a passion for sex equal or greater than his zeal for food. He has a wide range of types and seems down for men as well, but his talent means that he naturally is in charge of the school kitchens. Behaves like a city dweller, but at times lets a few odd regional colloquialisms slip out.

Black Bead Eyes: Has these, in contrast to the other characters.
Blush Sticker: Has two big round ones on each cheek.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Recognized as such in-universe by the Imposter.
Butt-Monkey: As much as Kazuichi, if not more so.
Call-Forward: Calls out Taylor Swift's name as an expression of physical pain...much like he would use another female musical artist's name as an expression of mental pain much later. Or at least strings of gibberish that may as well be said names.
Depraved Bisexual: Doesn't care if he's being tied up and suspended by a woman or a man. He also mentions how "the door to (his) sexuality is open".
Evil Chef: Becomes one after falling in despair.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Gets very, um, enthusiastic about imagining what Imposter and Mikan are up to when they aren't in class.
Love Potion: His "Sexy Sexy Soup" which is filled with aphrodisiacs. Unfortunately, Hiyoko got her hands on it during the second episode, and used it to cause quite a bit of mischief.
Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike the others, Teruteru looks like something from an old cartoon.
Nosebleed: A very common expression.
Repetitive Name: With the term "Teru", which when repeated means "shining".
Slasher Smile: Gains an incredibly unsettling one as a Remnant of Despair.
Supreme Chef: His talent.
Tiny Schoolboy: Shortest male character in the series until Ryoma Hoshi's debut.
Too Kinky to Torture: Yukizome's attempts at beating some sense to him only manage to get him turned on even more.
Team Chef: Of course.
Vocal Dissonance: Like in the game, his deep, sultry and sophisticated voice is contrasted by his goofy appearance and weird personality.

Nekomaru Nidai

Ultimate Team Manager

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_500_8.png

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)

The Ultimate Team Manager who has managed various sports teams. With his help, any puny school can become champion at the national level. Though he has a lively personality, he has a weak stomach, and so often has problems in the bathroom.

Alliterative Name: Nekomaru Nidai.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Gundham against the angry Reserve Course students in Episode 9.
Badass Normal: Nekomaru is strong enough to wrestle and decapitate a military robot in the series finale.
Bash Brothers: With Tanaka. The two challenge each other while playing Chiaki's video games, and, later, fight together against a hoard of reserve course students. This is a subtle Call-Forward to their relationship in Danganronpa 2.
The Big Guy: He's the tallest, biggest member of the Class 77.
Blood Knight: He really loves to fight.
Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: His first appearance has him screaming "Shit" when he finally... well, when he does so.
Chained by Fashion: Wears a giant chain draped over his shoulders.
Dumb Muscle: Not the smartest guy around.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has symmetrical scars on both of his eyes.
Hot-Blooded: So much that he starts shooting lightning from his eyes sometimes.
- Hot Blooded Sideburns
Large Ham: He has a tendency of shouting when emotional. Which is a lot.
Manly Facial Hair: His fight with Akane causes explosions, and he's got a very manly, badass beard to back it up.
No Indoor Voice: HE’S ALMOST ALWAYS YELLING!
Real Men Wear Pink: He isn't afraid to get emotional.
Ship Tease: With Akane. When under the effect of Teruteru's aphrodisiac, they nearly kiss, and in the ending theme, almost all pictures with him and Akane have them together or in close proximity of the other.
Team Spirit: As expected of the Ultimate Team Manager.
Toilet Humour: His bowel movements have the power of Saitama's punches!
Younger Than They Look: Actually as old as the other students.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

Ultimate Yakuza

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_277.png

Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio (Japanese), Aaron Dismuke (English)

The feared Ultimate Yakuza, heir to the country’s largest crime syndicate, the Kuzuryu Clan. Because he dislikes crowding and being too familiar, he keeps a bit of distance between himself and his classmates. He’s the type who takes honor and moral codes seriously, and he will open up to someone he trusts.

Bad Powers, Good People: He might be the heir to a Yakuza family, but he's not a bad guy at heart.
Badass in a Nice Suit: As a member of Ultimate Despair.
Childhood Friends: With Peko.
Curtains Match the Window: Yellow hair and yellow eyes.
Defeat Equals Friendship: Although he is initially aloof, Yukizome earns his respect when she has the guts to threaten the Ultimate Yakuza with a knife.
The Don: Seen to have become this as a member of Ultimate Despair, considering the acts Ultimate Despair are known to have committed during the Tragedy, it's very likely he earned this position through Klingon Promotion.
Eyepatch of Power: A golden one as a member of Ultimate Despair. He ditches it after he's de-brainwashed.
Eye Scream: The opening sequence of Side:Future confirms the long held Fanon that he lost his eye as despair.
Fedora of Asskicking: Wears one as a member of Ultimate Despair.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He acts as a stereotypical tough guy and loner, but (like the games) shows surprisingly conservative values such as opposition to underage sex and drinking. It's also worth noting that he is one of the few students who voluntarily attends class.
Like an Old Married Couple: Ibuki call him and Peko this in episode 6
Luminescent Blush: After he is regarded as part of the group.
The Napoleon: Very aggressive and short.
Older Than They Look: Despite his baby-face and his short stature he has the same age that his classmates.
Only Sane Man: He's usually the one that calls out the class' insanity.
Ship Tease: With Peko. They trust each other implicitly and are so close he uses her first name, and he expresses a great deal of worry when she's beaten up by Mukuro in Episode 9.
Scarf of Asskicking: As a member of Ultimate Despair.
Tiny Schoolboy: The second shortest male in class 77.
Tsundere: Has shades of this, as revealed in Episode 5 of Side:Despair, he refused to befriend the class until he saw everyone working hard on it, which he of course denies whilst blushing.
We Do Not Know Each Other: Like in the game, he tells Peko to act as though they didn't know each other prior to coming to the academy.
Yakuza: The heir-apparent to his Yakuza family and also his Ultimate talent.
Youthful Freckles: Across the bridge of his nose.

Akane Owari

Ultimate Gymnast

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_254.png

Voiced by: Romi Park (Japanese), Morgan Garrett (English)

A super athlete with a dynamic figure. Her ability is first rate, but she tends to quit anything that doesn’t pique her interest, making her a bit of a problem child. Her thoughts are almost entirely comprised of eating and fighting.

Action Girl: She loves a good fight. Just one of her sparring sessions with Nekomaru is enough to get her blood boiling, enough so that the two of them will destroy some of the walls of the school.
Amazonian Beauty: As a member of the Ultimate Despair. Having a six pack, larger beasts and wearing even less than her days as a student.
Big Eater: The class lure her out with meat, and then she eats Teruteru's food so fast she wants thirds before everyone else is even halfway through their food. Her stomach once rumbled so hard that it caused an earthquake.
Blood Knight: Like Nidai, she just can't say "no" to a fight. Her sparring sessions with Nekomaru are the highlight of her days, and she drinks a special soup from Teruteru to get even stronger.
Charles Atlas Superpower: She can scale buildings at speeds that would make Batman jealous. And she doesn't have any supernatural or magical powers to help her do it; she's just that good of an athlete.
Dumb Muscle: She’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She once asks everyone to explain what's happening to her in "smaller words".
Expository Hairstyle Change: Her hair's been grown out to past her shoulders.
Growing Muscles Sequence: When she drinks a special soup from Teruteru, her muscles expand, her skin turns bright red, her entire body ejects steam, and she roars with newfound power. Her hair also grows much longer and stands up straight, looking akin to Gon's transformed state from Hunter × Hunter.
Hot-Blooded: Very much so, especially when eating or fighting. She's a Screaming Warrior, frequently is seen with a piece of meat in her hands, and loves fighting so much that she's willing to spar with Nidai at any given opportunity.
Huge Schoolgirl: At 5' 9" she's the tallest girl in class 77.
Inappropriate Hunger: When searching for Mikan, Akane repeatedly suggests they search the cafeteria.
Le Parkour: Her Establishing Character Moment has her scaling the side of the tallest school building in about ten seconds without breaking a sweat.
Ms. Fanservice: She never properly wears her uniform; she wears a short red skirt and a shirt that's too small to fit her large bust.
The Nicknamer: Like in the game, such as calling Nekomaru "Old Man" or Nagito "the idiot."
Ship Tease: With Nekomaru. When under the effect of Teruteru's aphrodisiac, they nearly kiss, and in the ending theme, almost all pictures with her and Nekomaru have them together or in close proximity of the other.
Super-Strength: Akane is incredibly strong. It's a Charles Atlas Superpower from her constant gymnastics training and love for fighting. Her Establishing Character Moment has her scaling the side of the tallest school building in about ten seconds without breaking a sweat, then jumping back down without a scratch. Her spars with Nekomaru also destroy the walls and ceiling of the rooms their in from Akane's power, and her stomach growling can potentially cause earthquakes.
Tomboy: She loves to eat meat, is a star athlete, can't resist getting into fights for the thrill of combat, constantly wants to get stronger, and generally downplays her feminine traits. She also refers to herself with the "ore" pronoun in Japanese, which is typically reserved for boys and young men. She also has a very straightforward, blunt, and occasionally rude way of speaking to people. In short, even though she's female, Akane exhibits a lot of stereotypically masculine traits.
Trademark Favorite Food: Any kind of meat. After scaling the side of the tallest school building in about ten seconds without breaking a sweat, she smells meat on the ground, then jumps all the way from the top of the tower to go find it, all while exclaiming about how much she loves meat. When Akane is charging a fire-breathing Mook, she blocks the fire with two large slabs of meat, then chews them down.

Sonia Nevermind

Ultimate Princess

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_987.png

Voiced by: Miho Arakawa (Japanese), Natalie Hoover (English)

A study abroad student from the nation of Novoselic. Because in her home country her duties as princess prevented her from having friends her own age, she is enjoying her current school life. She is fond of trendy Japanese dramas, and sometimes uses strange Japanese.

Compliment Fishing: In episode 7, when Tanaka claims his bear will only bite demons of a high level, Sonia starts asking if she is a "demon" as well.
Cool Crown: As a Remnant of Despair, she had a white crown that had unusual sharp edges on it.
Foreign Exchange Student: From the fictional European country "Novoselic".
Funny Foreigner: As a foreigner, she's unfamiliar with Japanese culture, and expresses excitement and awe over a number of mundane things, such as just being in a men's bathroom.
Genki Girl: She's very friendly, curious and energetic.
God Save Us from the Queen!: As a member of Ultimate Despair.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Unlike Junko and Hiyoko.
Honey Trap: When helping Yukizome gather her fellow classmate so that they would attend class, she used her good looks to lure out both Teruteru and Kazuichi.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Despite being light green in the game.
Nice Girl: The kindest character in the class (not counting Chiaki) and the only one that was fully on board with Chisa Yukizome from the start.
Not So Above It All: For a "nice" character, she's definitely not above manipulating people when it suits her, see Honey Trap above.
Odd Friendship: With Tanaka, she even incorporates characteristics of his behavior.
Phenotype Stereotype: She is the only non-Japanese member of the cast after all. Strangely, her eyes were originally light green in Danganronpa 2.
Pimped-Out Dress: As a member of Ultimate Despair, she wore a white puffy dress that had a large red rose pinned on it.
Proper Lady: As expected from the Ultimate princess, she is the most refined character in the anime.
Shout-Out: A walking Homage to the famous grunge band Nirvana.
Statuesque Stunner: The third tallest female student in the series.
Strange Minds Think Alike: The foundation of her relationship with Tanaka is that they are both weird.

Hiyoko Saionji

Ultimate Traditional Dancer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_546.png

^{Click here to see how she looks after the timeskip}

Voiced by: Suzuko Mimori (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English)

The Ultimate Traditional Dancer, she is the hope of the Japanese Dance Society, who have high hopes for her future. Contrary to her child-like appearance and cute voice, she has an extremely cruel personality and often treats those weaker than her with no mercy.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Looks very cute, is actually a jerkass.
Blush Sticker: To make her appear more child-like and cutesy. She doesn't have them anymore after Episode 5.
Bratty Half-Pint: Still as much of a brat as always.
The Bully: Mainly to Mikan, though she was originally excited about "breaking" Chisa as their new teacher.
Curtains Match the Window: Yellow hair and yellow eyes.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Her pigtails are now combined into a long ponytail.
The Fake Cutie: She uses her cute appearance and childish mannerisms to gain popularity as a traditional Japanese dancer, but her personality is anything but cute.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She looks cute but in terms of personality, she's cruel and sadistic.
Griefer: When she is playing a game that totally isn't Mario Kart, she gets an invincibility power-up and plows Ibuki into the sea... and then backs up after getting ANOTHER invincibility power-up so she can do it again when Ibuki is fished out.
Hidden Buxom: Post-growth spurt Hiyoko's bio states that her bust size rivals Chiaki's and Asahina's.
Jerkass: As usual. In the episode 2, she basically drugged her classmates and teacher with Teruteru's aphrodisiac simply For the Evulz, though she's less of an asshole here than she is in the game.
Jerkass to One: Subverted. Hiyoko is the "Crueler to One" type to Mikan, but the last episode implies that she is slowly warming up to Mikan after being rescued by her.
Kick the Morality Pet: She drugs Teruteru's stew, which her "big sis" Mahiru also eats.
Kimono Is Traditional: Since she's a traditional dancer.
Laser-Guided Karma: In the sixth episode of Side:Despair, she bullies Tanaka's rabbit, causing the animal to poop on her.
Older Than She Looks: Looks like a little kid but is actually as old as the other students. Then she goes through her growth spurt, making her look her age.
Pet the Dog:
- When Sato is murdered, we see Mahiru sobbing in the classroom and Hiyoko is right by her side to comfort her.
- Even she was worried about Mikan when she disappeared.
- She cries just as much as the rest of the class when watching Chiaki's horrific murder.
- While she does yell at her for taking too long to save her, Hiyoko is grateful that Mikan saved her from a brainwashed agent. Probably the nicest she's ever been to her.
She Is All Grown Up: Come Episode Five, she got quite a growth spurt when Yukizome returned, which shocked Yukizome. Even better, when Nagito returns, he literally doesn't recognize her.
Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Though she has to rely on her mouth and psychological tactics to bully others as she's pretty weak, physically.
Token Mini-Moe: Not anymore after episode 5.
Took a Level in Kindness: It's implied in Side:Hope that since she didn't actually die from her Heel–Face Door-Slam in the game, her interrupted Character Development was able to continue, resulting in her helping out her fellow students in the climax and actually being grateful towards Mikan for saving her.

Mahiru Koizumi

Ultimate Photographer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250_7.png

Voiced by: Yuu Kobayashi (Japanese), Carrie Keranen (English)

The Ultimate Photographer, recipient of countless awards and working as a pro-camerawoman. Skilled at taking portraits, but finds selfies to be embarrassing and so does not like them. A level-headed person who often takes care of her friends’ memories, though for some reason she’s very hard on boys.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Mahiru is nowhere near as confrontational towards the men in her class as she is in the second game.
Boyish Short Hair: Her hair only reaches her neck.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: (Chisa's title of former Ultimate Housemaid appears behind her)
Mahiru: You went to this school?
Cool Big Sis: To Hiyoko, as before.
Evil Redhead: When she becomes a member of Ultimate Despair.
Heroic BSoD: When Sato dies, we see the normally dependable Mahiru sobbing at her desk.
Luminescent Blush: When she says she's planning to eat lunch with a friend.
Meta Girl: She is usually the one questioning the zany things going on around everyone, like asking why on earth Gundham has a bear in the classroom with him.
Mundane Made Awesome: She uses a Blinding Camera Flash to take out a sniper.
Nice Girl: She tries to be civil with Natsumi despite the fact that Natsumi bullied her in middle school and makes lunch for Sato.
Only Sane Woman: Shares this role with Fuyuhiko alongside their more eccentric classmates.
Power Perversion Potential: When under the influence of Teruteru's soup, she starts taking erotic photographs of herself.
Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Like Akane, her eyes have been changed from grey to green.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her friendship with Sato prompts the latter to murder Natsumi for her, which in turn leads to most of the bad things in the Despair Arc. Notably, Natsumi is partially aware of this and is horrified that she was inadvertently responsible for someone's death.
Youthful Freckles: Has some sprinkled over the bridge of her nose, to match her hair.

Mikan Tsumiki

Ultimate Nurse

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imagen_521.png

Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese), Stephanie Sheh (English)

Ultimate Nurse, who finds meaning in life by serving others. She has no confidence in herself, and her overly valiant nature is her downfall, making her seem suspicious. As such she is not blessed with friends. A clumsy girl who often falls down, she has injuries all over her body.

Accidental Pervert: Still somehow trips and effectively flashes the rest of the class at the same time. It's actually subverted - she knows very well what she's doing. Negative attention is better than no attention, after all.
Apologetic Attacker: In Episode 9, she apologizes while pushing Chiaki through a hidden panel, making her fall into a corridor below.
Apologises a Lot: Even more than in the game.
Blush Sticker: Despite not having this in the game.
Bound and Gagged: Because of crossing paths with Mukuro while trying to check on Ryota, the next thing that happens is that she gets tied up, gagged and blindfolded by Mukuro and brought to Junko and Ryota in his new 'working place'.
Break the Cutie: Thanks to Junko, she's reduced to a sadomasochistic lunatic by episode 8.
Bridal Carry: The Ultimate Imposter does this to her in episode 5 to take her to treat Ryouta. Mikan is understandably rather alarmed.
Covert Pervert:
- She might seem innocent, but look at her fanservice-y poses or suggestive grabbing of Peko's sword.
- The day after the aphrodisiac incident, everyone comments on being tired, except for Sonia and Yukizome. Mikan doesn't say anything, but she does not seem tired at all.
- After she learns about the situation with Ryota and the Ultimate Imposter, she begins taking off her clothes, thinking it's what they want.
Cute Clumsy Girl: Her habit of tripping over everything doesn't seem to have changed.
Deadly Doctor: Seems to have adopted this motif as a member of Ultimate Despair.
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted, her intention to seduce and have sex with a Mitarai scared for his life and clearly unwilling to is played as very disturbing.
Fan Disservice: After she sees Junko's brainwashing video, she starts drooling and bleeding over her own breasts, gets off from being physically and verbally abused by Junko, seems willing to rape Mitarai, and has gone insane with despair. In just one episode, the vision of her rack and orgasmic voice actually become a huge turnoff.
Fanservice Pack: Her bust was always impressive, but here it's drawn to rival Akane's.
Fighting from the Inside: Implied. She asks Chiaki to forgive her and apologizes before pushing her through the panel that ultimately led to her doom. She also wears an upset expression the whole time. Taking Junko’s prior mention of the brainwashing being imperfect into account, it would suggest some part of Mikan was aware of and trying to resist what she was doing.
Giant Medical Syringe: Sports a comically giant syringe in Side:Hope.
The Immodest Orgasm: Seemingly has one after being brainwashed by Junko and kicked around by her.
The Medic: As expected of the Ultimate Nurse.
Ms. Fanservice: Even more so than in Danganronpa 2, at least until Junko gets to her.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her concern for Mitarai brings her directly into Mukuro and Junko's path. The same sequence of events that saw her gain some courage, self-respect and real friends led to her destruction.
Secret-Keeper: The Ultimate Imposter brings her in on Mitarai's situation so he can get medical aid. Episode 7 indicates that, six months later, she's been regularly checking up on him.
She Knows Too Much: Assumes this is the Ultimate Imposter's intention when she finds out about the real Ryota Mitarai. Naturally, it's not the case.
Ship Tease: With the Imposter, who trusts her with his secret and reacts angrily when it seems like Nagito knows of her whereabouts when she disappears.
Shrinking Violet: She can barely have a conversation without bursting into tears.
Tender Tears: Being treated kindly by the Ultimate Imposter makes her start crying that nobody is usually so nice to her.
Took a Level in Badass: In Side:Hope, she's able to disable a Future Foundation Elite Mook and revive Kyoko from a near-death state. Even Hiyoko seems to respect her a bit more.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Mikan was the first person who Junko used her brainwashing technique on. It was through this that Mikan unintentionally was the one who set Junko's sights on Chiaki, gushing about how Chiaki was the glue who held the class together. That's everything Junko needed to know in order to drive the class into despair.
Who's Laughing Now?: She went from a bullied, belittled Butt-Monkey to a member of Ultimate Despair.

Peko Pekoyama

Ultimate Swordswoman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_250.png

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese), Clarine Harp (English)

The Ultimate Swordswoman, so skilled that it’s said no one can match her. She has a taciturn personality and does not engage her classmates, but appears reliable. Even when there is no club practice, she always carries her shinai sword with her.

Click here to see her page

Ibuki Mioda

Ultimate Musician

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250_2.png

Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Brina Palencia (English)

The Ultimate Musician, she used to be the guitarist for a popular girls’ band, yet they broke up thanks to musical differences. She now does solo work. Always excited, she acts as the class’s mood maker.

Anime Hair: Dark purple-black with streaks of white, neon pink, and blue, along with cones.
Brown Note: In Side: Hope, her song takes out hordes of the elite Future Foundation agents. One of them protected herself by wearing noise-cancelling headphones, but Mahiru took them off, knocking her out.
Evil Wears Black: As a member of Ultimate Despair, One of the few things that changed about Ibuki is that her clothes were different with more black.
Genki Girl: Just as energetic as ever.
Nice Girl: One of the kinder characters in Class 77.
No Indoor Voice: Almost everything she says is in shouts.
Perky Goth: Her practice looks a satanic ritual, but is extremely hyper and friendly.
Pinocchio Nose: Like in the game, She does this in Episode 1.
The Quincy Punk: Subverted. Despite her appearance, she's very cheerful and friendly.
The Rock Star: What her title basically makes her.
Shipper on Deck: For Fuyuhiko and Peko.
Shout-Out:
- To K-On!, Each kanji on her name is directly taken from the four main characters and she used to be part of a light music club band, She also shares the same birthday with the main character of K-On!, Yui Hirasawa, which is on the 27th of November.
- The name "Ibuki" may also be a reference to the Touhou Project Project character Suika Ibuki, an oni, which Ibuki Mioda also has several references to in her design.
Super-Senses: As in the game, Ibuki has excellent hearing and notices Peko and Fuyuhiko having a private conversation, commenting she's never seen them interacting alone before.
Third-Person Person: Does this all the time.

Reserve Course Students

For the tropes related to them in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, see here.

As a whole

The other students at Hope's Peak Academy. Due to lacking any distinguishing talents, these students are assigned to the Reserve Course Department, a department designed to get money from students who still hoped to earn an education due to the reputation of the School.

All of the Other Reindeer: The students in the Reserve Course are bullied by both student and faculty from the main building.
Faceless Masses: To drive home how nondescript these students are, the majority of them don't even have actual character designs, just generic blue outlines of their bodies.
Hufflepuff House: A department literally designed for the no-talent individual.
Rage Breaking Point: Danganronpa material has stated that the Reserve Course students have long been dissatisfied with the way they've been treated, but were able to keep it together. Then the Student Council Massacre and the Kamukura Project is leaked, and all the students snap.
Unwitting Pawn: When Junko exposes Hope's Peak's secrets, the Reserve Course students snap and riot. But they played right into Junko's hands for plunging the world into despair. Then they're brainwashed into doing more horrific acts.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After all is said and done, Junko "congratulates" them by sending the Suicide Video. This ends in the mass suicide of the entire Reserve Course.

Hajime Hinata/Izuru Kamukura

Ultimate Hope (Izuru)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_025.png

Click ^here to see Izuru

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (Japanese), Johnny Yong Bosch (English)

A student of the school reserve course. Having admired Hope's Peak Academy all his life, he wishes to gain his own talent.

Click here to see his page

Natsumi Kuzuryu

"Ultimate Little Sister" (self-styled)

Voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki (Japanese), Apphia Yu (English)

Fuyuhiko's little sister and a Reserve Course student. She is murdered by Sato.

Alpha Bitch: She comes from a wealthy and influential family, and spends most of her time bullying other students, so she fits the bill.
Asshole Victim: Downplayed. While she is an unpleasant, arrogant and likes to threaten those that get on her nerves, Sato outright murdering her is painted as a tragedy and Mahiru is inconsolable because while she didn't like Natsumi, she didn't want her to suffer that much Disproportionate Retribution.
Big Brother Worship: Played for Drama. She loves and respects her brother to the point she believes unless she has a talent she can't be with him, which eventually caused her death.
Big Little Sister: Despite being Fuyuhiko's little sister, she's taller by 5cm (2") and more mature looking.
Blush Sticker: Just like her brother.
The Bully: Uses her family influence to ruthlessly bully Mahiru.
The Corrupter: Inadvertently, her drive to join the main branch kept bringing up Hinata's doubts and finally her death leads him to Sakakura who broke his spirit.
Cute and Psycho: Even though she is a cute teenage girl, she is still a Mafia Princess that uses her family's influence to bully people she doesn't like. Even her brother states "She's always been totally nuts..."
Determinator: Despite everything, she never gave up joining the main branch. But it acts as a deconstruction, it's because she never gave up that Sato eventually killed her to protect Mahiru.
Doomed by Canon: Danganronpa 2 established that Sato will murder her.
Establishing Character Moment: You can already tell how her personality is just by seeing how she treated her new classmates in her introduction.
Family Theme Naming: Subverted. Her name being revealed as Natsumi lead many to believe it was spelled 夏美 (lit. "summer beauty") to match with Fuyuhiko's 冬彦 (lit. "winter boy"), but her name is actually spelled as 菜摘 (lit. "vegetable plucking").
Foil: To Hajime. Both are reserve course students that strongly desire to get into the main course. While Hajime can at least admit there are some things that are greater than talent, Natsumi believes that the only thing that truly matters is talent. Both also suffer from an extreme inferiority complex. Natsumi hides her insecurities by acting mean and egotistical, while Hajime is pretty open about his self-doubts.
Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied that her dislike of Mahiru is because Mahiru had a talent while she didn't.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Just when we are beginning to find out Natsumi isn't a complete Jerkass and needs someone to help her work through her insecurities, she is killed off in the next scene.
I Just Want to Be Special: Like Hajime, Natsumi desires to have a talent that would let her attend school with her brother in the main course. She even went as far as the given herself a self-proclaimed title, the "Ultimate Little Sister".
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Underneath her mean, egotistical exterior, is an insecure girl who is upset about not being talented enough to be with her brother.
Jerkass: Her first line in the anime is insulting her class while giving a Psychotic Smirk.
Lack of Empathy: To just about everyone except her brother.
Killed Offscreen: We do not get to see Sato killing her, just the aftermath.
Knight of Cerebus: With her introduction, Side: Despair got a lot less funny and a lot more depressing.
Mafia Princess: Well, Yakuza princess.
More Deadly Than the Male: Natsumi is even more of a hothead than her brother, and Fuyuhiko implies in the game that it was because of this that their family originally preferred Natsumi to be the heir since she had more of a killer's instinct.
Pet the Dog: The whole reason she came to Hope's Peak is so she can be with her brother, who she clearly loves. She also treats Hajime slightly better than most of the other students, not enough that one can call them friends, but enough that the two could have formed a potential friendship had they actually got to spend more time together.
Plot-Triggering Death: Her murder and subsequent cover-up by the Hope's Peak administration is the final straw that pushes Hajime into undergoing the Kamukura project.
Poor Communication Kills: Fuyuhiko spends his Free Time Events in SDR2 talking about how his sister is much better than him in every way and here she shows that she held him in the same high regards. All the incidents caused by their damaged self-esteems could have been avoided if they just talked their feelings out.
Psychotic Smirk: Delivers one in her introduction.
Rich Bitch: One of the children of a great yakuza clan, and also fully aware of how powerful her family is. She constantly lords over others and uses her status to rub it into their faces.
Small Role, Big Impact: Practically the Logical Extreme for the whole franchise. Natsumi's death leads to Juzo giving Hajime a Breaking Speech to stop him from investigating the murder, which ends up encouraging him to transform into Izuru, allowing Junko to take advantage of him and use him as a means to show him the "benefits" of despair, which leads to the apocalypse event the first game is based upon.
Spoiled Brat: Fuyuhiko mentions she begged their father to let her attend the Reserve Course.
Strong Family Resemblance: Natsumi looks and acts suspiciously like a feminine Fuyuhiko. They should have similarities, of course, being family members and living the same life. However, she looks exactly like he does, including their skin tone and body type, though their eyes are different.
Successful Sibling Syndrome: She doesn't like that Fuyuhiko was accepted into Hope's Peak Academy and separated from her. This ends up getting her put with the Reserve Course, and unfortunately, Sato takes advantage of this position to murder her for constantly bullying Mahiru.
Tsundere: Shades of this towards Hajime. While she still can be pretty abrasive, he is only the person that Natsumi seems willing to open up to, and she talks about her insecurities with him.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Barely lasts half an episode before getting killed by Sato.
Yakuza: After her brother, she is next-in-line to be the heir to her Yakuza family.

Sato

Voiced By: Ai Shimizu (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

A Reserve Course student and Mahiru's friend.

Be Careful What You Wish For: She said she wanted Mahiru's photographs to spread around the world...she couldn't have anticipated how they'd do that...
Disproportionate Retribution: Regardless of Natsumi's bullying and threats, killing her is going too far and gets Sato killed in return.
Doomed by Canon: Danganronpa 2 established that she's going to die in retribution for killing Natsumi.
Freak Out: When Hajime questions her about the circumstances of Natsumi's death, she completely loses it and runs off.
Hero-Worshipper: She saw Mahiru as the hope of their photography club and as such she was deadly loyal to her.
Killed Offscreen: We are never shown her dying, who kills her (external sources say its Fuyuhiko who kills her), or even her body; she just disappears from class and is mentioned to have been found dead.
Knight of Cerebus: Along with Natsumi, if not more so. While Natsumi is no saint, her actions never go beyond verbal abuse (at least, from what we see), plus she is not the only character, namely Hiyoko and Fuyuhiko, that regularly gives people death threats. Sato, on other hand, is the first character in Side:Despair to actually follow through with her plans to murder someone, indirectly causing the chain of events that would lead Hajime and Class 77-B to despair.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sato honestly did want to protect Mahiru, but unfortunately she ended up taking it way too far... Ironically, by killing Natsumi, she does the worst thing she could do in protecting Mahiru, and gets her turned into Ultimate Despair due to her actions semi-directly causing Hajime to become Izuru Kamukura.
Sanity Slippage: As a result of Natsumi's bullying, and later from the guilt of killing her.
Too Dumb to Live: Regardless of her motivations, she couldn't have possibly expected antagonizing, let alone murdering, the daughter of Japan's most powerful crime boss to end well for her. Sure enough, she's dead by the end of the week.
Undying Loyalty: To Mahiru, to the point she was even willing to murder Natsumi to protect her.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Her overzealous desire to protect Mahiru caused her to murder Natsumi, which later resulted in her own death at the hands of Fuyuhiko, Natsumi's older brother. In the end, Mahiru became guilt-ridden over being the motive for a senseless murder and Fuyuhiko experienced the dark desire for vengeance. Sato's murder of Natsumi was one of several tragic events that led to Class 77-B becoming the Ultimate Despair.
- Furthermore, Hajime was spurred into going through with the Kamukura Project because of the treatment he received when trying to investigate Sato and Natsumi's murders.
- Class 77-B was in mourning as a result of Sato killing Natsumi and her being killed as a revenge. This made Nagito Komaeda want to postpone their upcoming practical exams so that everyone could shine when they're at their best, going as far as to resort to a bomb threat to do so. With his luck getting him in the way of Class 76th Trio, this resulted in the trio being expelled due to being blamed for the bombing incident, as well as the fallout between Ruruka (along with Izayoi) and Seiko, resulting in them becoming mortal enemies.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Just like Natsumi, she barely lasts half an episode before dying.
Wild Hair: Long, wavy black hair.
Yandere: A platonic example for Mahiru. She killed Natsumi to protect her, much to Natsumi's horror.

Other Despair Arc characters

For the tropes related to them in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa Zero, see here and here respectively.

Junko Enoshima

See her separate page.

Mukuro Ikusaba

Ultimate Soldier

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mukuro_dr3.png

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Jamie Marchi (English)

Member of the 78th class of Hope's Peak, former Private Military Contractor and the sister of Junko Enoshima. She helps her sister plunge the world into despair.

The Ace: She's an expert in combat and certainly shows this as Junko's primary assistant. Even more than Peko, as she defeats her during one of their fights with ease.
Adaptational Personality Change: Played With. While Mukuro had always been subservient to Junko and wanted to do what would make her happy, including killing anyone in their way, Mukuro is more then willing to follow orders here, justified as this is a prequal before her character development takes course.
Affably Evil: As usual, Mukuro remains charmingly polite even when committing crimes for Junko's goals out of subservience to her, and compared to Junko's plain rudeness towards everyone around her, it's definitely not an act, at the least. However, unlike the first game, she crosses into faux like Junko during and after conducting the Student Council massacre, as she maintains a polite tone when requesting the council murder each other, when making threats to Peko while battling her during their confrontation, and when apprehending and torturing Chisa Yukizome. Then after all of that, upon seeing the following destruction as a result of following Junko's orders, she reverts back to genuine politeness while Junko continues to degrade her.
Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Brushes off her sister's endless verbal abuse and attempts to kill her as Junko's way of showing her affection and love for Mukuro.
Brains and Brawn: The Brawn to Junko's Brain.
Butt-Monkey: When she isn't kicking ass, she is usually getting abused by her sister.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Basically lobotomizes Chisa in episode 9 of Side:Despair using two needles.
Death Seeker: Debatable. Mukuro seems to take pleasure in seeing Junko trying to kill her, but she still doesn't let her succeed as Mukuro actively defends herself from her sister's attempts. Likely, she doesn't mind Junko's acts of "attempted murder", but Mukuro herself doesn't actually want to die.
Doomed by Canon: Junko kills her in Chapter 1 of Trigger Happy Havoc while she's masquerading as Junko herself.
The Dragon: To her sister's Big Bad.
Dub Personality Change: Downplayed. While her character is mostly the same, the Funimation dub gives her a Deadpan Snarker side who isn't afraid to throw shade at her sister.
Mukuro: Told them you fell down the stairs. They totally bought it. You're an accident waiting to happen in those heels.
Dumb Muscle: Junko does all the planning, Mukuro is there to kill everyone her sister tells her to.
Even Evil Has Standards: During the Izuru Kamukura infiltration, Mukuro realizes how dangerous he is and advises Junko not to challenge him. Junko, being Junko, dismisses her warnings each time and pursues Izuru regardless, and of course, all of the series-wide conflict happens afterwards as a result of Junko's persistence.
Extreme Doormat: To Junko. She is willing to do anything if it means making Junko happy.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Even though she and Naegi were genuine friends at one point, with Mukuro even being in love with him, she (along with Junko) was not among the slain 78th classmates that were shown during Naegi's Nightmare Sequence in Episode 11, when he was being brainwashed. It's probably justified by her Adaptational Villainy along with the posthumous reveal that she was Junko's accomplice causing Makoto to remember her less-than-positively.
Hidden Buxom: She has a 80cm bust, just 10cm less than her sister, but this hardly can be seen since she is always wearing a military bullet proof vest.
Hidden Depths: In episode 7 of Side:Despair, it's revealed that Mukuro is actually quite the talented singer. Sadly, the only time we find out about her beautiful singing voice is when Junko forced her to sing as a musical accompaniment for the first killing game.
Idiot Ball: When meeting Junko, she deflects all of her psychotic sister's attempts to stab her with the usual inhuman reflexes of the Ultimate Soldier. However, when Junko gets attacked by Izuru Kamukura, she uncharacteristically brute-forces her way into the attack without putting up any defenses, which ends up getting her incapacitated.
Inelegant Blubbering: She cries Tears of Joy upon seeing Ryota's anime. The snot coming out of her nose and the strange face she makes, however, makes Ryota feel less appreciative and more concerned.
Karmic Death:
- During the first killing game, Mukuro executes a girl for standing up to her and acting defiant. During the second killing game, Mukuro herself is killed for doing the same exact thing. Given that Junko was the mastermind behind both events, it's quite possible she'd deliberately invoked this trope.
- The way Mukuro was killed also bears a great resemblance to the way she tortured Chisa (an act which essentially killed who Chisa had been).
Knight Templar Big Sister: Don't interfere with Junko's plans to destroy all of humanity as part of her Despair Gambit or she will personally have you killed. Just don't do it.
Lack of Empathy: She seems complete indifferent towards other people, unless it's her sister Junko. Unlike her sister, she doesn't take any sadistic pleasure in hurting or killing people.
Lovely Angels: A villainous variation with Junko, forming the "Despair Sisters".
Love Martyr: For her sister. She's completely loyal despite Junko literally trying to kill her.
Luminescent Blush: A couple of times during her interaction with Junko.
Noble Top Enforcer: Downplayed. Mukuro is still morally better than Junko by comparison, even in action, but her actions in Side:Despair show she is very much still willing to cross certain lines as long as Junko requests them. That is, except for trying to get Izuru on their side, thinking it to be a problem and protesting against the idea until Junko drags her along with it anyway.
Obliviously Evil: Played With - while she willingly does all kinds of evils for her sister, she has no idea how far Junko planned to take them.
Perpetual Frowner: Mukuro is constantly frowning with narrowed eyes, bar few cases where she smiles out of a twisted, yet genuine, sense of happiness.
The Pig-Pen: Junko keeps complaining about Mukuro's bad body odor, which is likely a side effect of her occupation, though she herself claims that she has been taking care of her hygiene. Considering that Junko loves picking on her sister, the reliability of her claim is questionable.
Pragmatic Villainy: She wonders out loud why Junko makes the brainwashed Reserve Course students commit suicide instead of keeping them around to help, although she's quick to agree when Junko dismisses her concerns.
Saved by Canon: Since she's one of participants of the second killing game (while disguising as Junko), this is a given.
Second Episode Introduction: Like Junko, Mukuro doesn't appear until the fifth episode.
The Stoic: She never raises her voice beyond a cold, emotionless timbre unless it's during battle, and her expressions are always reserved.
Subordinate Excuse: Mukuro doesn't really care about despair, she just loves her sister and just wants to make her happy. Unfortunately, this would mean she would have to commit all kinds of horrifying crimes to please Junko.
Super-Reflexes: Was able to instinctively block all of Junko's attempts to stab her with an ice pick, while having a conversation at the same time.
Too Kinky to Torture: Her reaction to Junko's attempts to stab and blow her up? This only seems to pertain to abuse from Junko, as she clearly wasn't too happy about getting slapped around by Izuru.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She wants to fulfill her sister's desire for despair and is willing to go to great lengths to do that, but doesn't actually care about despair itself overall, in contrast to her sister.
The Worf Effect: A light slap from Izuru sends her flying, showing just how strong the Ultimate Hope is.
Yes-Man: To Junko. She occasionally asks a contrary question but accepts Junko's dismissals and abuses happily.
Youthful Freckles: Has a smattering of freckles to make her appear more innocent than her sister, although she's still evil.

Jin Kirigiri

Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese), J. Michael Tatum (English)

The headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy during the time the 77th and 78th Classes were students there.

Adaptational Heroism: Zero's ending says that he knew what Junko was up to and chose to ignore it because he thought 'despair' worked as a talent. Here, he's clearly unaware of Junko's despair fetish and wants to investigate the first Killing Game but is shut down by the Steering Committee who are more worried about their image. It's also stated that he didn't actually enroll Junko (thus implying that he'd refuse her if it were up to him), that was the Steering Committee, presumably because they just wanted to get their hands on the Ultimate Analyst talent without caring that it was attached to a crazy terrorist.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The Promise he makes with Kouichi shows that, absentee father though he may be, he still does truly love his daughter.
Disappeared Dad: To his daughter, Kyoko.
Doomed by Canon: He'll be executed by Junko.
The Dragon: To the Steering Committee, as he is the current headmaster of the school.
Everyone Has Standards: Like the Steering Committee, he tends to overlook a lot of red flags in pursuit of talent. Unlike them, he has his limits where he acknowledges that a talent couldn't bring hope.
- He covered for Nagito exploding the school gym because of Nagito's powerful luck talent but protests the same happening when Junko outright massacres the Student Council.
- It's also stated that Junko and Mukuro were admitted behind his back because he would have considered them too unstable.
Fatal Flaw: Similarly to Danganronpa Zero, he desperately protects the students for their talents, despite them being clearly unstable and dangerous. He did it with Junko after she made the first killing game and again with Nagito, after he managed to explode the school gym. This helped Junko set her plan perfectly.
Horrible Judge of Character: Seriously underestimates how dangerous his students can be, blinded as he is by his love of talent. He proves prone to severely sanctioning students who have integrity and could be valuable in dealing with the school's corruption, while letting the most evil and unstable ones run riot, just to see what happens. This comes back to bite him.
If I Do Not Return: He tells Kouichi to look after Kyouko if something happens to him.
Misplaced Retribution: He expels Seiko, Ruruka and Izayoi for accidentally triggering the explosion in the gym, while the admittedly guilty party who planned the whole thing, Nagito, got away with just a suspension.
Not So Stoic: He really loses it after hearing about the first killing game and The Steering Committee's intentions to cover it up.
Only Sane Man: He seems like one for the Hope's Peak Faculty, but it's actually debatable. His actions in Episode 4, namely deciding to keep Nagito for his talent after he planned what is essentially a terrorist attack on the school, might not be the sanest plan.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Played With. He does expel the completely-innocent Izayoi and keep Nagito (who, remember, bombed the school) in Episode 4, but when students actually start dying, he protests the cover-up.
Skewed Priorities: In his eyes, "talent" trumps safety, justice and basic common sense. Subverted in episode 7, as he was warned to not bring the Student Council Killing Game to the public, even though he wanted to so they would be able to investigate.

The Steering Committee

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steering_committee_dr0.png

Official art from Danganronpa Zero.

A secular sector (implied to be comprised of former faculty) that are the ones really running Hope's Peak Academy.

The Bad Guy Wins: They succeed in turning a Reserve Course student (Hajime) into Izuru Kamukura. How much this worked out for them in the end is still up for debate.
Doomed by Canon: If one recalls Danganronpa Zero, most of the Steering Committee members that were involved with the Izuru Kamukura project will be killed off before the first game. Good news is, they deserved it.
Dramatically Missing the Point: They claim to act for the sake of hope, but they're way too focused on pursuing talent at all costs, making it clear that they have little understanding of hope. Ultimately, their mindset is both unhealthy for their students and partially the cause of the Tragedy.
Evil Is Not a Toy: They admitted the Despair Sisters because they thought that their talents' usefulness outweighed the risks posed by the whole 'terrorist' thing. They were absolutely wrong, and Junko played them and Izuru like fiddles to create the Tragedy.
Gone Horribly Right: Their goal with the Izuru Kamukura Project was to artificially create the perfect genius, someone who excelled at every talent known to man. They succeeded in that regard; Izuru is so perfect he is utterly bored with the world and thus has no drive to be its "hope" as they'd intended. And when he is introduced to how unpredictable despair is, that kickstarts the Tragedy.
Greater-Scope Villain: Junko's the one who actually ruins the world, but she would be nowhere near as effective if she was if these guys hadn't screwed it up first. For a list:
- They admitted Junko in the first place, and rather than admit that it was a bad idea when she started using school resources to orchestrate massacres, they covered everything up until she did something so bad it completely destroyed the academy and caused unrest throughout the world. If they'd followed Jin's idea and said enough was enough after she killed the Student Council, they and a good chunk of the world would still be alive.
- They (or their predecessors) are the reason that Hope's Peak follows such a twisted perversion of 'hope', seeing it as stemming solely from talents and disconnected from humanity. Any time somebody other than Komaeda (whose particular brand of crazy is entirely his own) claims to be doing something in the name of hope while making it clear they don't actually understand what hope means, it's probably because of them.
- Because of the above, they're the ones who created the Izuru Kamukura project, which is pretty much the ultimate expression of Hope's Peak's corrupt ideology, and made an "Ultimate Hope" that not only required the sacrifice of an innocent student, but could never actually bring hope because of his disconnect from others.
Hate Sink: Need an answer as to how the Academy is as corrupt as it is and how the majority of the horrible things that have occurred over the course of the franchise were able to occur? Look no further then these guys.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: Junko's student profile reveals that the Steering Committee admitted her and her sister into the 78th class without Jin or Kizakura's involvement, presumably because they wanted the Ultimate Analyst and Soldier talents for Izuru. To say that was a huge mistake would be a massive understatement.
Irony: Despite their obsession with talent and hope, their chosen Ultimate Hope ends up fizzling out and apathetically watching the carnage, while Makoto Naegi, an Ordinary High-School Student, winds up becoming the Ultimate Hope entirely of his own accord after they die.
"It" Is Dehumanizing: They only refer to Hajime as "The Subject."
Knight Templar: They seem to believe that turning Hajime into the talented but apathetic Izuru and covering up all disasters in the academy are necessary to bring "hope" to the world.
Manipulative Bastard: At least one person on the team knew how to track down students who would be vulnerable to the Academy's coercion, and reveal enough about the project to Hajime to make it seem like an appealing prospect, while leaving out pertinent points such as "we will essentially erase you from your own mind."
Never My Fault: Written into school policy! Junko's file states that the headmaster and scout of Hope's Peak Academy are not allowed to deny Junko and Mukuro entry in the school...but once in the school, the Board of Directors is absolved of all responsibility, and they're Jin Kirigiri's problem.
The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: We rarely see them, but they seem to be as corrupt as they are all-knowing and powerful.
Pyrrhic Victory: They get their Ultimate Hope... but he's completely uninterested in actually fulfilling his role, two students whose talents they studied for him ended up destroying the academy and the world, and they're all killed off shortly after Izuru's creation.

The Student Council

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/student_council_0.png

Victims of certain Tragedy ^note

The student council of Hope's Peak Academy, who were the victims of the Tragedy of Hope's Peak. They are lead by Soushun Murasame. As mentioned in Danganronpa Zero, the other members are Suzuko Kashiki, Kiriko Nishizawa, Daiki Kubou, Shouji Yokoo, Aiko Umesawa, Shousuke Ichino, Tsubasa Kamii, Tarou Kurosaki, Tomohiko Gouryoku, Asukasei Hino, Karen Kisaragi, Ryouta Someya and Kotomi Ikuta.

And Your Little Dog, Too!: How the game started. Karen discovered that Junko had kidnapped her mother and started murdering to save her. Given that this is Junko we're talking about, Karen's mother either was killed or left alone and she didn't even know it.
Berserk Button: Sousuke Ichino kills Tsubasa and Taro when they attempt to be Together in Death. Considering that he just killed his crush (the crush in question being Kiriko Nishizawa, who was stabbed by him before he killed the two), seeing both of them choosing to die peacefully probably triggered this.
Berserker Tears: During the killing game.
Better to Die than Be Killed: Tsubasa and Taro (who were dating before the First Killing Game) attempted to invoke this. Unfortunately, they were killed before they could go through with it.
Boom, Headshot!‎: Kotomi Ikuta was killed by Mukuro in this manner when she refused to be a part of the killing game. The sad thing is her death was arguably the most merciful, as she got to die quickly, with little suffering, while the rest of her classmates (barring Murasame) had far more painful and gruesome deaths.
Break the Cutie: During the earlier parts of the killing game, the optimistic Murasame tries to keep his friends together and prevent them from attacking one another, only for his efforts to be in vain. He is forced to watch as his friends brutally kill each other, while he just barely survives. No wonder he ends up in such a traumatic state in Danganronpa Zero.
Continuity Cameo: Aiko shows up in a crowd shot in Super Danganronpa 2.5.
Characters Dropping Like Flies: Most of them end up killing each other during the killing game, with Murasame being killed by Matsuda in Danganronpa Zero later.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Pretty much all of them go out like this.
Doomed by Canon: The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, the event that looms over the entire series, was kickstarted by the first killing game. Of course none of them were going to make it out alive.
Fiery Redhead: Kotomi Ikuta, who defiantly refused to be a part of the killing game. Unfortunately her fiery personally ended up getting her a bullet to the head.
Hope Spot:
- Ryota Someya comes up with the idea to shoot Junko and Mukuro, which would prevent the game from continuing (as well as other events in the series). Of course he's killed quickly after and everyone else forgets about his idea in all the chaos.
- Aiko Umesawa is comforted by Tomohiko Gouryoku. Then he mercilessly stabs her and tosses her body at his assailant.
- Despite all the carnage he went through and the toll it took on his sanity, Asukasei Hino is relieved because he thinks he is the last one standing (Murasame is still alive at this point, but he doesn't know this). Then, he notices Izuru and tries to attack him. It ends badly.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kiriko Nishizawa, Taro Kurosaki and Tsubasa Kamii all go out like this courtesy of Sosuke Ichino. The first is very reluctant self-defense on his part, especially since he had feelings for Nishizawa, while the latter is probably vengeance over the couple getting what he didn't.
Kill the Cutie: Sadly, even the more composed, seemly and kinder members of the student council were brutally slaughtered. Special mention goes to Aiko Umesawa.
Laughing Mad: Asukasei Hino lets one out, relieved that he survived and because he thought he was the last one standing. At least, until he sees Izuru.
Living Prop: Most of them get at least one characterizing line or moment, even if a couple are Killed Offscreen, but Shouji Yokoo never spoke, never appeared outside of the background, and his corpse was never seen. The only confirmation that he even died was the portraits at the end of the sequence and the confirmation in Zero that the rest of the Council was all killed.
Mauve Shirt: They all get unique names and character designs and some of them are even given characterization, but they are all killed in a time span of about 8 minutes with the exception of Murasame, who doesn't fair much better.
Mythology Gag: The wide shot introducing them mimics the one used when Hajime meets the rest of class 77 in Danganronpa 2.
No Name Given: Zig-zagged, a Freeze-Frame Bonus reveals the full names of all the members, but aside from Murasame and Karen, none of them are directly identified. The Blu-ray box set extras rectify this.
Off with His Head!: When Izuru is attacked by Asukasei with a chainsaw, Izuru responds with a palm thrust that sends him into a wall. As he falls, Asukasei realizes too late that he's about to land neck-first on his live chainsaw.
One-Steve Limit: Someya shares his first name with Mitarai, though as is common for the franchise, the kanji used is different.
Recurring Element: Even the prototype killing game has the same types of players as its two successors.
- Aiko fills the Token Mini-Moe spot.
- Daiki has the Non-Standard Character Design.
- Gouryoku shows some traits of being a Gentle Giant: after comforting a terrified Aiko, he kills her quickly and with minimal suffering.
- Like Sayaka and Teruteru, Karen was deeply affected by her most precious loved one being taken. Like Teruteru, the victim was her mother. And like Sayaka, this revelation turned her surprisingly sadistic.
- Someya is the Tiny Schoolboy.
- Suzuko is not only the most tomboyish looking of the student council, but also is the dark-skinned girl.
Sanity Slippage: As the members are murdering their friends and crushes, they quickly lose it.
Scary Shiny Glasses: Karen has these after coming after Sosuke.
Similar Squad: Aside from the recurring elements mentioned above, they seem to share a lot of character traits of the 77th and 78th class students. For example, Murasame seem to the group's "Makoto Naegi", who spent the earlier parts of the killing game trying to keep his friends together.
- They can be considered this for Future's branch heads, as they are a group with some position of power in their establishment caught in a killing game with minimal rules, at each other's throats throughout and very willing to kill each other, and ended it with only two players (one who now associates with the Remnants of Despair, the other their group's leader) surviving the ordeal.
Slashed Throat: Or shot throat in this case. Poor Suzuko is killed by getting shot to the throat and slowly dies from asphyxiation and blood loss in horrible detail.
Slasher Smile: As their sanity goes down, the members starts sporting these.
Sole Survivor: Soushun Murasame is the only student council member to survive the killing game. It doesn't last as he is killed by Yasuke.
Student Council President: Murasame's talent. The fact that it's shared with Munakata suggests it to be hereditary.
Together in Death: Tsubasa Kamii and Taro Kurosaki outright invoke this trope, hoping to go out peacefully shooting each other. Unfortunately, their deaths aren't as peaceful as they intended it to be, thanks to a pissed-off Sosuke Ichino.
Undignified Death: Almost all of them died either in a haze of insanity or crying and begging for their life, sometimes both. Even the ones that try to die with some dignity were unable to get the death that they hoped for.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Most of them are all introduced and killed within a span of about six minutes. Doesn't make their deaths any less tragic.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Ryouta Someya suggests that they try to kill Junko and Mukuro with the weapons given to them. Unfortunately, he was killed by Karen, who just found out her mother was in danger (and likely already dead). This ends up causing the other students to attack each other instead of their captors.

Characters / Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc
aka: Dangan Ronpa 3 Side Despair