Characters / Danganronpa: Galactic Melancholy

Late-Arrival Spoiler warning: This story assumes that the reader knows about twists that were revealed in the canon material about the characters, so there's going to be spoilers relating to each character, their backstories, and their motives.

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Male Students

Chihiro Fujisaki

The Protagonist of the story, Chihiro is the Ultimate Pianist. He severely lacks self-confidence and has trouble standing up for himself, but he has everybody's best interests at heart and is determined to solve the mysteries of the killing game. Chihiro is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Adaptational Badass: While he starts off as a meek kid, he would later on develop into a much stronger person both physically and mentally.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He developed into a much stronger and more confident individual, all in a nice tuxedo.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: An interesting case. He was able to get stronger and more confident thanks to the support he got from everyone else like Mahiru. So, in Chapter 3, when Hiyoko was suffering a Despair Event Horizon, he decided to protect her and give her hope again. As he puts it, he wanted to give her the same kindness that everyone else shared with him before.
• Berserker Tears: He suffers from a mix of crying and intense anger when he refused to forgive Byakuya for being responsible for Toko and Keebo's deaths at the end of Chapter 3.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Gives Hiyoko that promised kiss at the epilogue.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: In Chapter 4, after just three shots of alcohol, Chihiro was reduced to an agitated drunk.
• Character Development: At the start of the story, Chihiro suffered cases of lack of confidence and insecurities caused by his physically weak body and the bullying he had to endure because of that (which led to him being forced to pretend to be a girl). By the end of the story, not only did he become physically stronger and better at fighting, but he also was able to build up confidence in himself to stand up for himself; all the while still maintaining his sense of empathy and kindness for other people despite everything he went through.
• Character Tics: He has the habit of messing with his necktie whenever he's nervous or stressed.
• Crossdresser/Disguised in Drag: While he doesn't dress up in a girl during the Killing Game, he was forced to dress up as a girl. This is because of how he was bullied as a child for being a weak guy and because his agents promote him as a 'female pianist'.
• Despair Event Horizon: Suffered this in Chapter 5, when all the evidence was pointing at him as Kirumi's murderer and at least half of the survivors are convinced that he is the culprit. However, he was saved from this by Hiyoko, who refused to believe that Chihiro was the killer and instead defended him to the bitter end.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Calls out Kuma for everything he had done at the end of Chapter 5, and then again towards his father at Chapter 6.
• The Empath: Despite his Trauma Conga Line and his anger towards Kuma and his father, he was able to maintain his sense of empathy. Both Mono-Kaito and a memory of Mahiru (prior to the Killing Game) acknowledge that Chihiro's sense of empathy is strength.
• Foil: With the Big Bad, his father Taichi...
  • Both of them hated the fact about their own physical weakness. However, the major divergence is their sense of empathy. Taichi's lack of empathy meant that he had zero problem abandoning his son due to the latter's physically weak body. Even worse, he viewed things like kindness as nothing but a sign of weakness, so he tried to forcibly remove it through bad influences of the Killing Game. In contrast, Chihiro held on his sense of empathy towards other people and didn't want to abandon them, no matter who they were. He would eventually recognize his own empathy as his strength rather than his weakness.
• Friend to All Living Things: He is rather friendly with Toko's pet dog Jack and later on his new pet rabbit Aisling.
• Groin Attack: He learns to do this from Hiyoko against Nagito and later on his father.
• Mirror Character: With Nagito. Both boys suffer from parental abandonment (Chihiro with one of his parents and Nagito with his biological parents) and have a serious problem with their lack of confidence. They question their sense of worth and even have no problem in sacrificing their lives for someone else whom they see as more worthy (Chihiro with Mahiru, and Nagito with the whole class). Finally, both boys deserve to be seen as more worthy (Chihiro in seeking to become stronger, and Nagito seeking to become a 'hero').
• Muscle Angst: It becomes the reason he gets bullied early in his life and drove him into pretending to be a girl until now.
• Odd Friendship: He develops a good number of them with Himiko, Korekiyo, and Nekomaru.
• Official Couple: Becomes one with Hiyoko by the end of the story.
• The Protagonist: He is the main focus of the story.
• Rage Breaking Point: He almost hits this in Chapter 5 when he finds out that Nagito had been responsible for most of his Trauma Conga Line (Mahiru's execution for a murder that never happened, triggering/influencing all the other murders into action, trying to kill Chihiro, harming Hiyoko, murdering Kirumi, etc.). However, he ultimately lets go off his anger and instead showed pity and empathy for Nagito because Chihiro genuinely cares for him and knows that they aren't so different.
  • He does play this trope straight when he finds out that Kuma had been responsible for manipulating Nagito into doing all of this shit.
• Ship Tease: He had some with Mahiru, as they showed to be the closest starting off the story. However, it would end prematurely when Mahiru is executed as Nagito's 'killer' in Chapter 1.
  • He would later on form a new one with Hiyoko starting at Chapter 3. This would evolve in an Official Couple by the end of the story.
• Techno Wizard: Subverted. Since this is an AU, he is a pianist instead of a programmer. Hilariously, his canon version got referenced when, after getting drunk in Chapter 4, he shouted out that he wasn't a programmer.
• Tragic Keepsake: He started collecting items belonging to the blackened of each chapter. These include Mahiru's handerchief, Leon's guitar pick, Toko's pet rabbit, Korekiyo's emblem pin, and Nagito's switchknife.
• Trauma Conga Line: He suffers this with the death of his first close friend Mahiru, to the death of his detective mentor Himiko, to the death of many of his other classmates, to nearly be killed by Nagito (as the faceless) and the disease motive, to almost losing Hiyoko, to entering Despair Event Horizon due to being pushed into a corner as the accused murderer of Kirumi, to finding out that his own father is the mastermind of the Killing Game. It's a miracle that he held on to his sense of kindness and empathy to the end.

Keebo Idabashi

The Ultimate Photographer. Keebo is an extraordinarily nice person, attempting to befriend everybody. He is very naive and an open book. He is the first victim of chapter 3, his head being bashed in.

• Balls of Steel: Thanks to being a robot, he was protected from Hiyoko's Groin Attack during Chapter 2's fighting tournament.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: The reason that he sought out to be a photographer is because he wanted to be recognized as a person rather than some robot.
• Ship Tease: He shared this with Kirumi.

Nekomaru Nidai

The Ultimate Inventor. Nekomaru may be loud and have an intimidating physical appearance, but he's a proven himself to be very considerate. Nekomaru is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Dumb Muscle: Subverted. He is not only physically strong, but he is also knowledgable in machinery and some extent in programming.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He is an expert in building machines and handling electronic devices. Though, the machines he prefers to build are related to exercise.
• No Indoor Voice: Nekomaru has a bad habit of suddenly shouting, usually to show his excitement of enthusiasm. So, when Nekomaru dropped the habit to suddenly shout, Chihiro knows that something is wrong with him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Nekomaru dropped his habit to suddenly shout while taking midway in the story as a result of his body getting weaker due to his bad heart.
• Secretly Dying: He suffered from a heart condition, and he lacked the medicine for it since he was trapped in the S.S Maki Roll. Fortunately, he was able to survive long enough to finally get the treatment, thanks in part to the Lazaros drug created by Nagito and founded by Celes.

Leon Kuwata

The Ultimate Musician. Leon is very passionate about music, able to be inspired by almost anything. However, he can be emotional and insensitive at times. He is the killer of chapter 2, having attacked and killed Himiko to prevent his secret from getting out.

• The Lost Lenore: Sayaka Maizono, who Kanon killed out of jealousy; the main motive he had for killing was to stop the fact that she was pregnant with his child at the time of her death from ruining her postmortem reputation.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In chapter 2, Leon let slip that he knew about the secret slide, which only Chihiro, Kirumi, and the victim could have known about. This was one of the final pieces of evidence that he was the killer

Korekiyo Shinguji

The Ultimate Yakuza. Despite his title, Korekiyo is a very calm and collected individual and tries to make it clear he doesn't wish to harm any of the other students. He makes it clear, however, that, despite his personality, he is still a very dangerous man. He is the killer of chapter 4, having been challenged to a fight to the death by Akane and winning.

• Adaptational Heroism: He's still a killer, but he's a Noble Demon rather than Ax-Crazy.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite not appearing to be muscular, his combative skills are no joke. Though, he does rely on weapons like guns & melee weapons and he is willing to resort to underhanded tactics in a fight. He is a yakuza.
• Noble Demon: Despite his reputation as a yakuza member with blood on his hands, he isn't malicious towards his classmates nor towards ordinary people.
• Odd Friendship: With Himiko of all people, which is something considering their relationship in the canon version.
• Pet the Dog: In this AU, The Creator was kind enough to have Kiyo's sister still be alive.
• The Stoic: Korekiyo is calm and collected at all times, even after the death of Himiko, who he was arguably the closest to.
  • Not So Stoic: Subverted and then played straight. Korekiyo seemingly flies off the handle after he's accused in chapter 4, however after the vote he claims it was mostly an act. During his execution, however, he starts panicking after having his wrists severed, backing up against a wall in panic, which only furthers his demise

Byakuya Togami

The Ultimate Baseball Star. Byakuya Togami is a Smug Snake known for his arrogance and rude manners. He is an accomplice and the second victim of chapter 3.

• Asshole Victim: He died in chapter 3, but some people failed to feel sorry for him, due to his actions before his death.
• The Killer in Me: Subverted. The tape he found claimed he was the Mastermind... but as it turns out, everyone has a tape that has them claiming they were the Mastermind, and it doesn't take long after it's revealed that they were all tricked by the real Mastermind into thinking it was a much less lethal game. It provides his motive to get off the ship, however.

"Teruteru Hanamura"/"Taeko Yasuhiro"/The Imposter

The Ultimate Imposter. As Teruteru, the imposter is similar to the real Teruteru, and a major pervert. However, he really is a respectable man with great intelligence who genuinely wishes to improve his cooking abilities. Taeko is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Lovable Sex Maniac: Played with. While he isn't really a pervert, he practiced to be one because he was pretending to be Teruteru. Even after he stopped pretending to be Teruteru, he struggles to completely drop the perverted traits he had been practicing this whole time. Also, he's a nice guy.
• Ship Tease: With Celes.

Nagito Komaeda

The Ultimate Nurse. Nagito is a very creepy person, his first introduction having him ask if he could keep Chihiro's eyes, having assumed he died. Nagito seems to consider himself scum, but has proven to be good at what he does. He is also the intruder, having faked his death in Chapter 1 by injecting himself with the Lazarus formula. He dies for real in chapter 5 after it's revealed he killed Kirumi.

• Disney Death: He fakes his death in chapter 1 using his Lazarus formula.
• Groin Attack: He receives one from Hiyoko in Chapter 3 (while the latter was protecting Chihiro), revealing his gender to the surviving students. He received anoter one from Chihiro near the end of Chapter 4 out of self-defense
• Mad Doctor: He may be a very capable nurse, but he's just as unstable and insane as his canon self.
• Mirror Character: With Chihiro. Both boys suffer from parental abandonment (Chihiro with one of his parents and Nagito with his biological parents) and have a serious problem with their lack of confidence. They question their sense of worth and even have no problem in sacrificing their lives for someone else whom they see as more worthy (Chihiro with Mahiru, and Nagito with the whole class). Finally, both boys deserve to be seen as more worthy (Chihiro in seeking to become stronger, and Nagito seeking to become a 'hero').

Female Students

Mahiru Koizumi

The Ultimate Moral Compass. Despite how stern and bossy Mahiru can be, she proves herself to be a kind and intelligent woman who serves as a major source of motivation for Chihiro and helps him begin to get assertive. Mahiru is the chapter 1 killer, having been convinced by Nagito to kill him in an attempt to flush out the mastermind.

• Berserk Button: Whatever you do, do not call Mahiru a hall monitor.
  • Also, it's recommended you do not joke about death or take the deaths of real people lightly.
• Face Death with Dignity: Mahiru faces her death calmly after accepting the fact she'll be executed. She even gives each character some parting words and advice.
• Graceful Loser: After Chihiro figures out her crime, Mahiru willingly shows everybody that she does have the bomb in her coin purse and tells Chihiro to finish things off.
• Implied Love Interest: To some extent. If you didn't have the tags there, Chihiro and Mahiru's relationship could be easily read as platonic.
• Innocently Insensitive: Mahiru comes off as a little insensitive when she suggests Chihiro sit out of the first investigation because it might be too much for him. She honestly means well.
• Oh, Crap!! As mentioned in the trial, Mahiru had this reaction ended up realizing she left her pepper spray behind after incapacitating Leon and Himiko and would have to go get it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mahiru suddenly yelling at Chihiro when he accuses her of being the killer and calling him "unreliable" is certainly a sign something is going on.
• Parental Neglect: Mahiru was the victim of this, as her father was always working and didn't really care about her. He was the reason she began to hate being called a hall monitor, as her father would question her decision to be a moral compass.
• Last Request: Mahiru's last request is that Chihiro tells her mother she met the most reliable and wonderful boy she ever had the pleasure to meet.
• The Leader: Mahiru tries to take up this role and unite the group. She's as successful as you think.
• The Lost Lenore: Mahiru ends up executed, with Chihiro mourning for her and striving to better himself like she wanted him to do.
• Rage Breaking Point: Mahiru reaches hers after Nagito is killed and they aren't given time to mourn. Himiko snaps her out of it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mahiru acts as one, uniting others, telling them to keep an open-mind considering the scenario they're in, and making sure everybody can speak their mind when it comes to important decisions. This still doesn't stop her from killing to try to flush out the mastermind.
• Secret-Keeper: Briefly, she helps Chihiro hide the fact he was presented as a little girl when he performed.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being executed in chapter 1, Mahiru serves as a motivator for Chihiro and is the whole reason he tried to make himself tougher in the first place.
• Sympathetic Murderer: A variant of this. Mahiru, while killing Nagito, did so for the sake of his plan, to stop the bomb, and to gain a chance to out the mastermind. And she was very reluctant to do so.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about Mahiru without mentioning that Mahiru was the first killer, and didn't get time to become an Official Couple with Chihiro
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mahiru really did mean well when she killed Nagito. She just wanted to flush out the mastermind, and Nagito did consent to being killed.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Mahiru thinks that by bringing everybody together, she can prevent anybody from killing. Considering this is Danganronpa...

Himiko Yumeno

The Ultimate Detective. Himiko is a lazy girl who only ever seems enthusiastic when she's talking about her talent. Despite that, she's incredibly smart and earned her talent for a reason. Himiko is the victim of chapter 2, having been locked in the freezer.

• Adaptational Intelligence: Compared to her canon self, Himiko is a lot more logical and intelligent.
• Awesome by Analysis: Himiko is very good at deducing things based off simply seeing or hearing bits of information. She demonstrates a form of this at the talent show, Korekiyo naming complicated Clue murders and having her solve them.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Subverted. Himiko in general is lazy, but she is serious and focused when it comes to investigations and trials, giving it her all.
• Bad Liar: Himiko isn't a very good liar. This ends up costing her her life after Leon asks her if she read any of the secrets.
• Catch Your Death of Cold: Ultimately, Himiko ends up dying when she's locked in the freezer despite the injuries she obtained earlier.
• Comforting Comforter: Himiko takes up this role, talking to Chihiro about the events of the first chapter and helping him let out his emotions. She even comforts him when he talks about his more personal issues and his past.
• Great Detective: Obviously, given her talent.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A platonic example with Korekiyo. Korekiyo is over six feet tall. Himiko is under five feet tall. These two have an Odd Friendship and are very close.
• Blessed with Suck: Himiko is gifted as a detective and it has helped herself and many people. But while she likes helping people as a detective and takes pride in her work, she really wishes she could have a job that didn't involve people losing things and people close to them.
• I Should Have Been Better: Implied. Himiko seems to become more determined to stop people from dying after chapter 1, with implications she feels like The Load despite how useful she's been.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Himiko acted as a mentor to Chihiro, helping him with investigations and trials. But during chapter 2, she was murdered.
• My Greatest Failure: Himiko's greatest failure was a case involving Sayaka Maizono, who was killed in a car accident Himiko suspects was something more. During chapter 2, she learns she was right... which leads to her getting murdered.
• Nerves of Steel: Himiko shows this trait during the investigation, able to keep a level-head when compared to other reasonable figures like Mahiru. During the time period Leon approaches her? Not so much.
• The Obi-Wan: Serves as a mentor to Chihiro, declaring him her apprentice. She helps him with investigating and during trials. She also helps him when he's forced to confront Mahiru, and ends up becoming another source of motivation for Chihiro, even after her death.
• Odd Friendship: With Korekiyo. Despite Korekiyo being the Ultimate Yakuza and Himiko being the Ultimate Detective, the two get along well enough that Himiko has no qualms about talking about her feelings with Korekiyo. She even insists on him calling her Himiko, pointing out he doesn't have a motive to murder despite being part of the yakuza.
• The Reliable One: She picks up when Chihiro is unable to continue in trials, often making good deductions. She's also very reasonable when it comes to accusing culprits and backs Chihiro up. At least, until she herself is murdered.
• Shorter Means Smarter: One of the most intelligent of the group, and she's also one of the shortest characters there is.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Joked about. Himiko mentions that should the bomb go off she'll just sleep through it.
• Sleepy Head: Like in canon, Himiko likes to fall asleep a lot, though it's less notable than in canon.
• Slipping a Mickey: Himiko is on the receiving end of this when she takes a sip of a drugged protein shake.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Once again, Himiko, similar to Mahiru, is killed off rather early. However, she serves as a major motivator for Chihiro, having helped him learn how to investigate and have some confidence in what he does.
• Stolen Good, Returned Better: This is what Himiko intended when it came to the bomb, planning on giving it to Nekomaru so he could defuse it before she returned it.
• Teen Genius: Like all the other Ultimates, Himiko is gifted. She is a detective, however, unlike the rest of them, and shows herself to be great a deducing things very quickly with even the slightest shreds of evidence.
• You Just Had to Say It: Himiko really hates it when people make Sherlock Holmes references, and the cast seems to do so a lot in her presence.

Toko Fukawa

The Ultimate Animal Breeder. She's a very paranoid girl with a severe Inferiority Complex who is quick to point the finger at others. Still, she deeply cares for her animals, especially Jack, her Geramn Shepard. Toko is the killer of chapter 3, having assisted Byakuya in killing Keebo by delivering the final blow, before freaking out and killing Byakuya after he killed an animal in front of her.

• Berserk Button: As Byakuya found out the hard way, killing any of her animals can push her over the edge to the point of her killing him.
• Canine Companion: Her German Shepard, Jack, who is usually always by her side. He sticks around after her death and becomes a sort of Team Pet, though he is heavily grieving.
• Childhood Friends: With Byakuya.
• Crazy Homeless Person: Subverted. While Toko comes off more like her canon self at first, she's much nicer and more stable. She just happens to have chosen to be a vagrant after she lost her home and parents to a fire.
• Creepy Loner Girl: Averted! While Toko still acts the same, she's slightly more friendly than in canon, and usually has Jack, her German Shepard, around her. And she's much less creepy since she and Byakuya knew each other before this, and have a much less unhealthy relationship.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Many people are very dismissive of Toko and her accusations. However, during the first trial, she accuses Mahiru of being the killer based on a can of pepper spray. While it's treated as though she's incorrect at first, it turns out Toko was right all along.
  • Not only that, but her suggestion to investigate the bathhouse in chapter 2 is also very useful, given the evidence that turns up there.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Even by Danganronpa standards. The death, IN UNIVERSE, ends up getting censored. A bunch of mechanical hounds end up eating and tearing her apart off-screen.
• Devoted to You: Subverted. While at first she is devoted to Byakuya, claiming he isn't really a bad person, once he crosses a certain line she begins to have her doubts. And she isn't devoted enough not to kill him once he breaks his promise about hurting animals.
• Due to the Dead: Even though Leon was planning on murdering her, Toko chooses to give a farewell speech for them at a funeral the remaining students host.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Played straight and subverted. At times, Jack can sense when things are actually dangerous. At other times, he fails to and just stands by being a dog. Toko fully believes in this trope, however.
• Friend to All Living Things: While Toko isn't good with humans, she's very good with animals, supposedly able to communicate with them and read their thoughts, and they respect and care for her in return. This later ends up causing her to kill Byakuya in a blind rage after she sees him kill Klein, her Lesser False Vampire Bat.
• Genre Blindness: While Toko does end up fine after everything, she still decided to go to the "pervert wall" after a murder had been attempted there, and after the person asked her to meet them there at night with no name on it. The one smart thing she did was bring Jack but, overall, considering the setting, it was a bad idea.
• He's Okay: Despite Toko's relationship with Byakuya being healthier, there are still some negative aspects. She helps Byakuya prepare for the talent show by catching balls he throws, which, as Leon realistically points out, because of Byakuya's skill, could actually get her killed, for example.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: If one can even consider her a jerk in the first place.
• Little "No": Lets one out after hearing the news that Byakuya has been killed. Becomes worse once you learn Toko killed him.
• Minor Living Alone: Ever since her parents were killed in a fire, Toko has fit this trope.
• Not as You Know Them: Byakuya. Toko remembers the last time she saw the "real" Byakuya was when she gave him a hand-carved bat as a little kid. This newer, more vicious Byakuya isn't the person Toko cherishes.
• Odd Friendship: With Byakuya. Some people could easily view their friendship as an abusive one, with Byakuya being a abuser. However, there are many indications he really does happen to care about her, and Toko makes it clear she likes him. However, this is more because she remembers he Used to Be a Sweet Kid, and she sometimes shows signs she hates how he is now. The most notable sign is after he beats up Chihiro in front of everybody.
• The Only One I Trust: Toko only really trusts Byakuya, though she does begin to trust Chihiro a little. Once her trust in Byakuya is betrayed, she snaps, and she snaps hard.
• Permission to Speak Freely: Toko starts off by asking Byakuya for permission on basic things, like socializing with others or investigating her lab. However, she slowly starts to grow out of this trope.
• Rage Breaking Point: Toko reaches hers after she watches Byakuya kill Klein. The resulting murder and cover up illustrates this beautifully.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When she's dressed for the funeral, Toko cleans up and no longer looks like a vagrant, looking very elegant.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: A variant. Toko can hear the thoughts of animals, supposedly.
• Stunned Silence: When Chihiro tells her he doesn't think of Jack as a masterpiece, but a good friend, Toko is stunned into silence.
• Stutter Stop: As Chihiro notes, Toko stops stuttering whenever she's talking about Jack.

Hiyoko Saionji

The Ultimate Fanfic Writer. Hiyoko is a childish girl, in both appearance and personality, who has a mean streak, though it seems like there might be more to her than what her initial personality lets on. Hiyoko is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Accidental Hero: Hiyoko's attempt to kill Leon ended up saving Chihiro's life, as Leon was planning on trying to murder him.
  • This happens again when Hiyoko manages to accidentally point out the condemning piece of evidence for the third trial.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Hiyoko ends up getting a crush on Chihiro because he stands up to Celeste for her during a fight the two were having.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Hiyoko ends up having this mentality after the double murder, thinking it would be better if everybody died than them living in fear of being killed. Chihiro helps her get better.
• Blush Sticker
• Character Development: Hiyoko arguably gets the most out of any of the characters. She goes from a rude bully who fails to be useful to a girl is trying to improve her personality and was being mean because she wasn't used to people being nice, admits her faults, opens up about her insecurities, and tries to improve her trial performances and overall usefulness.
• Crush Blush: Tends to get one whenever she spends time with Chihiro.
• Daddy's Girl: Hiyoko makes it very clear she loves her father to death. This ends up causing her to attempt to commit murder in chapter 2, due to the fact her father's secret was on the line.
• Didn't Think This Through: Happens a lot during trials. Hiyoko is often the one to jump to conclusions based on her own theories rather than check the evidence. This often leads to What Were You Thinking? moments, or "Hiyoko Moments", as the class dubbed them.
• Groin Attack: Hiyoko's attack of choice. She attempts to use this on Keebo during the fighting tournament, and later uses it on the intruder so she can save Chihiro from being killed.
• Important Haircut: Hiyoko asked Kirumi to cut her hair in order to prevent the Intruder from grabbing her by her hair again. This happens in Chapter 5, after some time of seeing her underwent some major Character Development and before she takes over the MC role for the upcoming Class Trial.
• Innocently Insensitive: Hiyoko, in an effort to prevent a trial, tries to convince people not to go look at Keebo's corpse. She ends up coming off as heartless, despite the fact she was just trying to avoid a trial.
• I Regret Nothing: Even after being caught when she attempts to murder Leon, Hiyoko shows no remorse, even saying she doesn't, claiming she won't let her daddy's secret get out.
• Jerkass Realization: Hiyoko, after hearing about Chihiro's own family issues, begains to break down and apologize to him for all the mean things she did. One could argue that was the moment she really started to try and change herself.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Hiyoko is very confident in her own theories. However, she often forgets to check the updated rules, review the evidence, or investigate fully. However, this is slowly being subverted, as Hiyoko is trying to make an effort to change.
• Not Helping Your Case: During the third trial, Hiyoko ends up being accused as the murderer. She remains silent. As it turns out, Hiyoko does this due to her feeling it is Better to Die than Be Killed and get stuck in this place. Chihiro convinces her to start defending herself.
• Parental Issues: Hiyoko's mother is a lot stricter than her father, a lot more dismissive of her talent, and that leads to arguments. She has a very healthy relationship with her father, however, who constantly encourages her.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Hiyoko ends up admitting she was worried about Chihiro dying and leaving her during the Russian Flu-ette motive.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Hiyoko has officially been promoted to love interest. She started to open up to Chihiro because he stood up for her, and the author officially confirmed this. It's not in the tags to avoid people getting spoiled on the fact Mahiru's dead.
• Shout-Out: One of Hiyoko's favorite characters is professor Layton.
  • Hiyoko also mentions Professor Oak several times, and has many Pokemon plushies.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Hiyoko. She's initially presented as her canon self, a bully with a very bad attitude. She tries to find the killer in trials, only to have "Hiyoko moments" which leave her humiliated. In actuality, Hiyoko is a girl who was discouraged from her talent by her mother, and wasn't used to people sticking up for her when she was attacked. She also seems to have some form of self-esteem issues, and later chapters prove that people's comments about her usefulness have actually been getting to her.

Angie Yonaga

The Ultimate Gang Leader. A cheerful and... eccentric girl, Angie is known for her strong belief in Atua and her love for fighting and threats of violence. Angie is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Berserk Button: Implied. She hates people misusing Atua's name.
  • A temporary one for chapter 4. Don't try to tell her Akane is dead.
• Blood Knight: Angie enjoys fighting. Wanna hear about her island? Survive a punch to the head. You wanna insult her God? Time to break your hands. Just wanna spar? She's your girl.
• Blush Sticker
• Boisterous Bruiser: Angie's always in a good mood, and she's a girl who loves fighting as much as Akane loves food.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Angie has done this on multiple occasions. The best example is when she had the dream about the... interesting scenes in Danganronpa V3.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Angie claims that drinking alcohol is a regular pastime at her island, but she becomes a sobbing, drunken mess after at least five shots.
• Dissonant Serenity: Usually when it comes to murders, motives, or being attacked, Angie reacts with curiosity and a happy face. The most disturbing example is during the Russian Flu-ette motive, where Angie tries to walk, blinded, to Akane to apologize. Angie finally acts with appropriate grief once Akane's corpse is found.
• Fighting Your Friend: Angie and Akane do this a lot, though they do it in a friendly manner. In chapter 3, however, when Angie publically reveals Akane's secret, Akane straight-up attacks her. This leads to Akane breaking off their bond.
• Fist of Rage: Angie ends up punching Celeste in the face after Celeste tries to casually start investigating Akane's body while Angie is in denial.
• Genki Girl: Angie is always cheerful and full of energy. She's almost never in a bad mood, and she carries herself with confidence. As of chapter 4, she's started to show signs of losing this trait.
• Implausible Deniability: Despite the fact Akane's corpse was in front of her, Angie refused to accept the fact she was dead, claiming she was asleep.
• Innocently Insensitive: Angie manages to be insensitive a lot. The biggest example there is of this is when she casually reveals a secret of Akane's to everybody else based on her own beliefs.
• It's All About Me: Played with. While Angie doesn't think everything is about her, she thinks that everything she says is true and that people will see that she is right, no matter the situation, and things will go her way.
• Perpetual Smiler: No matter what, Angie is always in a good mood. She ends up getting drunk and bursts into tears. Afterwards, when Akane is found dead, she is no longer smiling.
• Sentimental Drunk: Of the sad variety. Once Angie gets drunk, she ends up crying and trying to apologize to Akane so they can go back to being sisters.
• Spirited Competitor: See Blood Knight above.
• Stepford Smiler: She attempts this at the end of Chapter 4 to prevent anyone from worrying about her after losing Akane. However, Chihiro saw through that fake smile and forced her let out all her emotions while he comforts her.
• Trauma Conga Line: Chapter 4. First, she ends up having all her attempts to make things up to Akane rebuffed, then she goes and gets drunk and Akane still won't accept her tearful apology. The next day, she gets affected by the Russian Flu-ette motive and ends up sick for three days. The moment she gets better, she discovers Akane, her sista, has been killed, and that her corpse has been crushed by Angie's own statue of Atua. It's understandable she begins to break.
• Token Religious Teammate: Angie believes in Atua, who is the god of her island. She often tries to get people to join her religion, partially due to believing in it and partially because of her mission.
• True Companions: With Akane. Though, as of chapter 3, this is no longer true. And sadly, due to Akane's death, they never will officially make up.
• Walking the Earth: As part of tradition, Angie must go around and get 100 people to join her religion, even if she must use force, before she can go back home. After escaping the Killing Game, she goes back to traveling the world in order to find Akane's missing family.

Celestia Ludenberg/The Real Taeko Yasuhiro

The Ultimate Princess, at least, she claims she is, Celestia is from the small, militaristic kingdom of Novoselic. She puts on a friendly front, though she seems to enjoy mind games and tormenting others. Celes is one of the six survivors at the end of the Killing Game.

• Can't Hold His Liquor: After being entangled in a drinking contest with Kirumi, she is reduced to a mostly happy-go-lucky drunk. In addition, her accent had completely slipped out during her drunken state.
• Fake Aristocrat: Celeste's lab, as well as dialogue from multiple characters, imply that Celeste is not a princess and she has a different talent. This is confirmed in Chapter 6, where it was revealed that Celeste's real talent is the Ultimate Lucky Student.
• I Hate Past Me: Not as played up as in canon, but this is still true of Celeste.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Barely survives being stabbed by Kuma in the chest.
• Official Couple: With the Ultimate Imposter by the end.
• Ship Tease: With the Imposter of all people. It later becomes an Official Couple.

Kirumi Tojo

The Ultimate Traditional Dancer, Kirumi is noticeably mature and elegant for her age. She acts as the Team Mom of sorts. She is the victim of chapter 5, having her neck slashed during an escape attempt.

• Can't Hold His Liquor: Despite her mature nature, she is quick to become an agitated drunk after being entangled in a drinking contest with Celes.
• Kimono Fanservice: Subverted. She wears a kimono properly as a result of her talent as the Ultimate Traditional Dancer. However, when she got drunk in Chapter 4, she accidentally showed some of her cleavages.
• Ship Tease: She has one with Keebo.
• Team Mom: She acts as one of the most mature and most protective members of the group.

Akane Owari

The Ultimate Tennis Pro, Akane shows no real interest in playing despite having won against a famous player without any real experience. She's more concerned with food and sparing with Angie. She's the victim of the 4th chapter, seemingly crushed by Angie's statue of Atua.

• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite not appearing to have much muscle, she is pretty strong and can keep up in a fight against Angie. This is why Korekiyo chose to bring a weapon with him when they had a death match in Chapter 4.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She has two instances of this.
  • She blames herself for what happened to her siblings as a result of her cheating in a tennis match.
  • She has another one when she realized how much she neglected Angie when she found out about the latter's terrible condition due to the disease motive in Chapter 4.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She was angry at how Angie revealed her secret to everyone in Chapter 3. This led her to dissolve her relationship with her 'sister'.

Other

Mono-Kaito

The host of the Intergalactic Killing Game, Mono-Kaito is a boisterous and bold man and captain of the S.S. Maki Roll. Despite his attempts to be seen as cool, he usually ends up as the Butt-Monkey of the scenes he's in. He was originally the homeroom teacher of the Killing Game contestants, being a genuinely nice guy. However, he got turned into an evil cyborg by the people responsible for the Killing Game.

At the end of the story, he got dismantled by the Faceless while holding the latter off in order to buy time for the escaping students to escape. He would later be finished off by the explosion he set up in order to destroy the ship and take the mastermind with him.

• Affably Evil: While he encourages the Killing Game to continue, he's genuinely friendly and is upset by a lot of the more cruel actions of his ostensible sidekick, Kuma. It makes sense, because he turns out to be blackmailed into this.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Mono-Kaito was genuinely disturbed that Kuma would torture and even try to kill Jack, a dog, just to get his point across to the escaping students. This helped Mono-Kaito finally reach his Heel–Face Turn.
• Foil: He is this to Chihiro's father Taichi.
  • Taichi is an abusive parent who abandoned his own son for just being 'too weak' instead of showing much support or care for him. Even worse, he has no problem using the Killing Game to make his son 'stronger' and sees his son's kindness as a weakness. In contrast, Mono-Kaito, unfortunately, had no children of his own. However, he is proud of Chihiro and admitted to having unconditional love and support for the boy if the former was the latter's father, no matter how Chihiro was born. In addition, he saw Chihiro's kindness as a strength. Word of God admitted that Mono-Kaito would have no problem adopting Chihiro.
• Go Out with a Smile: Mono-Kaito smiled before being blown apart by the ship's explosion after seeing that the remaining students were able to escape on time.
• Heel–Face Turn: After enough persuasion from Chihiro and seeing how sadistic Kuma had started to act, Mono-Kaito finally decided to betray his employers and activately helped Chihiro's group to escape as well as solve some of the mysteries behind the Chapter 5's murder and the Killing Game.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He doesn't actually seem to dislike the students all that much, trying repeatedly to befriend them past his duties as host. He turns out to have been their Cool Teacher before he was brainwashed, and even the brainwashing didn't actually make him malevolent - he only played along to figure out what happened to his wife.
• Was Once a Man: He was originally an Ultimate Lucky Student, but was turned into a cyborg by Maki to save him from a fatal disease.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Even in an alternate universe where he is a villain, the poor guy is still afraid of ghosts.

Kuma

Mono-Kaito's assistant. He's meek and passive, and has proven himself to have a tendency to mix things up. However, there are some who think there's a more sinister side to this "Kuma".It was later revealed that he was actually twisted and cruel, as his AI was created by a very malicious and abusive Taichi Fujisaki.Mono-Kaito broke the robot apart before what remains of Kuma got destroyed in the ship's explosion.

• Bears Are Bad News: He starts off as subverting this trope, as he is nothing more than a meek sidekick for Mono-Kaito. However, he shows signs of being bad as the story progressed. And by Chapter 4, he full-blown becomes a dangerous monster whom even Mono-Kaito can no longer control.
• Kick the Dog: The rotten bear actually tortured and even tried to kill a dog in front of the students just as a lesson for the latter's attempt on escaping the Killin Game.
• Off With Your Head: Mono-Kaito was able to destroy Kuma by tearing the latter's head off before being torn apart himself by the Faceless.

Jack

Jack is a pure-breed German Shepherd that was raised by Toko. He was raised by the Ultimate Breeder as if the former is Toko's son. Jack survived and escaped along with the remaining students.

• Evil-Detecting Dog: Toko claims that Jack is able to tell if someone is twisted or malicious. This is proven true, like when Jack can sense where a murderous intruder was hiding in the trial grounds.
• Poor Communication Kills: Played with. Jack was desperately trying to warn Chihiro that the Intruder had convinced Kirumi to help him and set up a trap to kill Chihiro. Unfortunately, because Jack is a dog incapable of human speech and the only possible person who could understand him clearly enough (Toko) is dead, nobody realized what Jack was trying to tell them until it was too late.
• Team Pet: Along with Aisling the rabbit. It's pretty obvious why.

Spoiler Characters (WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS)

The Intruder

See Nagito Komaeda

Maki Harukawa/Momota

The Ultimate Programmer, namesake of the S.S. Maki Roll, and Mono-Kaito's wife.

• Walking Spoiler: It's kind of hard to talk about her without revealing Mono-Kaito's backstory.

Taichi Fujisaki

The true Mastermind, and Chihiro's father, having created the game as an attempt to make his son a "hero."

• Adaptational Villainy: In canon, Taichi is a textbook example of Good Parents. Here he's...not.
• Archnemesis Dad / Luke, I Am Your Father: The ultimate Big Bad is, naturally, the main character's father. Invoked by him, actually, in order to provoke his son to grow.
• Walking Spoiler: As the Mastermind, and a non-student character, he's this twice over.
• Villainous Breakdown: He suffers two of them. The first one is when Chihiro actually apologized to his abusive father and even said he loved him, triggering the mastermind to lash out that his son has to be lying. The second one is when he realized that he was about to be sucked into space due to the airlock malfunctioning, causing him to beg for another to save him before he died from suffocation and his organs being crushed by the sudden change in pressure.