Characters / Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Danganronpa | Main Character Index
Monokuma
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Male Students (Makoto Naegi | Byakuya Togami) | Female Students (Kyoko Kirigiri | Toko Fukawa | Celestia Ludenberg | Junko Enoshima)
Danganronpa Zero
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Male Students (Hajime Hinata | Nagito Komaeda) | Female Students (Peko Pekoyama)
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Killer Killer
Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Future Arc | Despair Arc
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony | Male Students (Kokichi Oma) | Female Students (Miu Iruma)

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 amount of surprising reveals that the game uses. This is much like the rest of the Danganronpa franchise.
Beware of spoilers for Danganronpa 3, especially concerning this game's main characters.

Main Characters

Komaru Naegi

Komaru Naegi

Ordinary Girl with an Ultimate Big Brother

Voiced By Aya Uchida (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English), Alexis Tipton (anime)

The younger sister of Makoto Naegi, the hero of the Killing School Life. Komaru has spent the past time over the incident living as a hopeless prisoner in Towa City. Escaping after Monokuma attacks her apartment, she acquires a Hacking Gun from Byakuya to fight the Monokuma hordes. Unlike her older brother, who has been seen as the Ultimate Hope since the end of the first game, she has no special talents to call her own.

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• Action Heroine: Unlike the other heroes of the Danganronpa franchise, who solve their problems by using their intelligence and charisma, Komaru solves her problems by shooting everything that moves.
• Action Survivor: The Monokuma attack on the city absolutely traumatizes Komaru, but she still does everything she can to survive and protect the people around her.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Despite being younger than Makoto in the games, the dub of the anime has her call Makoto her little brother, likely due to a mistranslation as the dub for Danganronpa 3 doesn’t say that she’s older anymore.
• Advertised Extra: The Decadence edition features her on the boxart alongside Genocide Jack. However, their game isn't part of the collection (although she is playable in Ultimate Summer Camp).
• All-Loving Hero: Like Makoto, Komaru is a kind-hearted girl who truly means no ill will, and she only gets pushed to being aggressive with others due to the Big Bad attempting to push her into despair by force. Actually, even after defeating said Big Bad, she only gives a brief and very calm dismissal of Monaca's claim that she's like Makoto, the alternative being to give her a much harsher punishment, despite the level of suffering she caused for Komaru throughout the events of the story.
• The Aloner: She was unwillingly confined to an apartment room with almost no human interaction for a year and a half before the game's events. This is how she was initially kept in the dark about the Most Despair-Inducing Incident.
• Art Evolution: Over a year's time has passed since the video that featured her in the first game was filmed, but Komaru has definitely been fleshed out in design. Notably, she now has a protagonist-designating Idiot Hair.
• Ascended Extra: Komaru appeared in the first game for only thirty seconds during a still image of Makoto's family. Komaru wasn't named in this image, and most indications said that she was dead. Now, she's the main protagonist of this game.
• Asleep for Days: She gets told by Servant that it only took the two days she was out for Towa City to go to hell.
• Attempted Rape: Kotoko sexually assaults her in this fashion during a minigame in Chapter 3. Fortunately, Genocide Jack shows up in time to rescue her.
• Audience Surrogate: Komaru's reactions and thoughts are meant to make her a character the average player can generally relate with. Much like Makoto, Komaru says that she's nothing special, which she proves otherwise when confronted with a huge challenge.
• Badass Adorable: Considered "cute" by the fans of the game. Obviously, she has her streak of consecutive battles to compensate for that and allude to this trope.
• Badass Biker: She didn't know how to ride a motorcycle, but she drove at full speed and enjoyed it despite not having a license to drive one. Judging by their lack of injuries, Komaru managed to drive with no accidents with Haiji and Toko (who was foaming at the mouth through the ride).
• Badass Family: Just like her big brother Makoto, Komaru stands up to despair despite all the horror that she faces.
• Badass Normal: She's an ordinary high school girl with a megaphone hacking gun and a long trail of broken robots in her wake. It should also be noted she is the only protagonist character with absolutely no talent whatsoever, and still kicks ass in a dystopian hellscape. In Danganronpa 3, she holds a light-hearted conversation with Genocide Jack in the midst of a fight and even hacks Monokumas while in free fall.
• Big Brother Worship: Downplayed. While Komaru clearly respects Makoto more than she lets on, it's not an abnormal amount. Unfortunately, Toko often misinterprets any admiration as a "brother complex".
• Big Brother Attraction: Defied Trope. Toko accuses Komaru of this, because she thinks they are "too close" as siblings, simply because they like each other's company and share several interests between them. Komaru, in turn, instantly and harshly denies it. Though Toko isn't convinced. Komaru's occasional Suspiciously Specific Denial is likely to blame. This also makes her a foil to Kanon, who is most definitely in love with her "older brother".
• Big Little Sister: Downplayed. Komaru is taller than her older brother, but only slightly: she's 163 cm tall (5'4"), while Makoto is 160 cm (5'3").
• Big "NO!": If she's still conscious when getting Swallowed Whole during a game over, she'll yell one of these.
• Bilingual Bonus: Her name means "to be worried" in Japanese. This pretty much sums up how she behaves for most of the early game.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: While Komaru is otherwise completely ordinary and average, a book conversation reveals that her tastes in food are anything but ordinary, as she considers swallow's nest, tuna eyeballs, and kangaroo meat as her favorites.
• Blanket Tug O' War: When the girls finally have time to sleep, Komaru ends up hogging the blanket and monopolizing the bed space in her sleep. Toko is far from happy about this.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Komaru inadvertently quotes her brother's "No, that's wrong!" objection shout during the last phases of the fight against Big Bang Monokuma, when she resolves to embrace hope and face down despair.
• Brainless Beauty: Downplayed. Komaru is considered quite cute in-universe and happens to be a bit... spacey, appearing to lack knowledge of not just current events, but basic things. However, she grows to be quite the crack-shot with the Hacking Gun and her ignorance is somewhat justified, as she missed out on eighteen months of school.
• Break the Cutie: The plan of the Big Bad was for Komaru to be become broken, damaged, and filled with so much despair that she would take over Junko Enoshima's role as the Ultimate Despair. It almost works, but Toko is there to help Komaru find her Heroic Second Wind and become a Spanner in the Works for the plans of the Big Bad.
• Butt-Monkey: Tends to find herself the butt of jokes at several points in the game, mostly owing to her naivete or how completely out of her depth she is. The fact that Toko is a natural Deadpan Snarker certainly doesn't help matters.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: How Monaca forces her into her little excursion that is the game. She sends a Monokuma over to her shelter and forces her out of the building so she can lead her all around Towa City to "build up her hope" and eventually back to Monaca's airship for the Final Battle.
• Character Development: Starts as a nervous wreck when she is targeted by the Warriors of Hope in a killing game. After her Rousing Speech to the masses, her walking animations and holding of the Hacking Gun change to reflect how much more composed she is now. Discussed and invoked by Toko when concerning how Komaru develops, and justified as the events in the game were set up by Monaca to proliferate Komaru's hope so she can experience the worst despair and become Junko Enoshima's successor.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: As mentioned above, only made a brief appearance in the first chapter of the original game, implied to be a victim of the calamity going on in the outside world.
• Classic Anti Hero: As an ordinary girl, Komaru is left frightened and victimized for much of the game, but gradually gains courage and confidence.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Being female aside, Komaru is distinguished by being much more emotionally fragile than previous main characters, nearly giving up on more than one occasion and only being talked out of it by Toko. Komaru also takes a lot longer than her brother Makoto before she starts becoming genuinely brave.
• Cope by Pretending: This is her whole monologue in the game's opening, trying to tell herself that being imprisoned for years in the same apartment "isn't so bad" because "things could be worse." She immediately begs to be let out from captivity and reveals she actually hates doing the same things over and over every day when the Monokuma knocks on the door to the apartment she's imprisoned in right after saying this.
• Cosmic Plaything: In a very tragic way. Imagine being Komaru where her family is kidnapped by the Ultimate Despair, without her even knowing they exist, being imprisoned for a year and a half while the apocalypse happens unbeknownst to her (and the Ultimate Despair would have likely used her death as a motive for her lost brother's killing game), then being forced out by the evil machinations of an irredeemable jerkass Child Prodigy among child prodigies (while being used by who she thought was her best friend but was in fact The Mole) so that she can just be made into a successor for who is basically the world's ultimate evil, Junko Enoshima, through a well-planned gambit to break her down after building up false hope, and not once being able to catch a break from it all, even after the one who tried to break her was defeated. Thankfully, by Hope Arc and the end of Junko's reign, she gets a dang break.
• Cowardly Lion: Naturally, she's terrified of the situation she's been thrown into, but still strives to help others as best she can and fight to protect herself and her friends. Also, once she's told that she'll have to fight her way past an army of Monokumas to escape, Komaru still does it armed only with a megaphone, in spite of being scared out of her wits.
• Despair Event Horizon: Defied.
  • To avoid falling into this, she chooses to "abandon hope" — since if you don't hope, then you can't despair either. While she was confined for over a year, she explains that while she wanted to get out, she was "not expecting a miracle."
  • At the game's climax, she almost gives into despair and abandons hope. But Toko is there to tell her to "Get A Hold Of Yourself Man" and snaps Komaru out of it.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She first appears in the first game during Monokuma's despair-inducing video in the first chapter. She wasn't given a name at the time, and her appearance was slightly different...
• Expository Hair Style Change: Had longer hair and lacked the Idiot Hair in her first appearance.
• Expressive Hair: Even more than Hajime before her, her Idiot Hair changes with her emotion.
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite knowing who Genocide Jack is, Komaru never seems to put it together that Toko and Jack are the same person (or at the very least Sharing a Body via Split Personality). Komaru continues to call Jack "Toko" throughout the whole game.
• Fan Disservice:
  • She gets subjected to a Panty Shot every time she fails, which involves her getting Swallowed Whole.
  • In Chapter 3, she's strapped to Kotoko's "motivation machine" and must fend off a prolonged sexual assault at the machine's hands. It's somewhat zig-zagged, because despite the clear and present horror of Kotoko operating the machine, the narrator treats this scene in a way that indicates it was meant to be fanservicey... which only adds to the overwhelming sense of revulsion you'll get from playing through this section.
• Fangirl: She's a total devotee for Sayaka Maizono's music, and she is often adherent over all the manga volumes the player can come across. Finding a copy of "So Lingers the Ocean" reveals that she's a devotee of Toko's work as well.
• Fear of Thunder: Lightning is listed as one of her greatest dislikes.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Forms a strong attachment to Toko/Jack as the two attempt to fight their way out of the city.
• First-Name Basis: How pretty much everyone refers to her, to differentiate her from her brother. She eventually tries to start calling Toko "Toko-chan," but because Toko reacts badly to it at first, she keeps calling her "Fukawa-san" until the epilogue, where she permanently switches to her first name.
• Genre Blindness: She's rather naïve and doesn't read too much into the situation, taking things at face value. Not very smart in a game where people are keeping secrets and deceiving each other.
• Grew a Spine: She gets more courageous and determined as the game goes on. She goes from a meek, submissive, scared girl to a heroic paragon. It even gets some Gameplay and Story Integration, as her animations for running and attacking get more heroic as the game progresses. Toko notes the change as well, saying that Komaru would be crying her eyes out before when they find themselves stuck at the bottom of a sewer tunnel before, but she's looking for a way out now.
• Heroic BSoD: When she is shown her and Makoto's parents hanging from the ceiling on a monitor, she finally emotionally decomposes and falls into despair. She remains completely silent and dumbfounded after this moment, until Toko slaps her left cheek so she regains consciousness, just before Big Bang Monokuma ambushes them.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: It's implied that her denial of being as powerful as she is is her way of disassociating herself from the responsibility of becoming a true hero, whereas the gun which she places all the credit was invented by people that have taken a stand against the world in despair.
• The Hero's Journey: Invoked. Her entire story plays out like one to a tee. This was done intentionally by the villains, as part of a Despair Gambit to make her into a Fallen Hero.
• Hidden Depths: When Toko asks her about her dreams for the future, she says that she wants to be a mangaka.
• Hollywood Hacking: Downplayed by the Link bullet, being that it was designed by Future Foundation to bring down Monokumas, but the Move bullet can "move" any of Towa's products, from power generators to cars to electronic doors.
• Hope Is Scary: She mentions believing this in the first chapter. Monaca later invokes this on her, by trying to mold her into a symbol of false hope.
  Monaca: But even so... You know hope isn't always a good thing. At times, hope can be a terrible burden... It can be a drive to hurt others. Just like now.
• Humble Hero: Just like her brother, any time she's told how strong she is, she'll usually give all credit to the Megaphone Hacking Gun. For better or worse.
• I Am What I Am: These are Komaru's last words to Monaca, with Komaru saying she can never emulate her brother Makoto and doesn't plan to; she'll save the adults and the kids in her own way.
• Idiot Hair: In typical Danganronpa fashion, main character Komaru has a strand of Expressive Hair that stands out of place. And remember, she didn't have an idiot hair when she appeared in the first game.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Komaru expresses her sorrows over being "just a normal girl" plenty of times throughout the game, repeatedly, recognizing herself as a burden instead of an asset in her battle against the Warriors of Hope. After Toko gives her the encouragement to keep going every time she does this, she stops doing this by the end of the story, accepting herself as she is.
• I Miss Mom: Her parents went missing when Junko's allies kidnapped her and her parents, and she's been trying to search for them ever since. Then Monaca "reveals" that they've been dead in her torture chamber the whole time, as to push her over the edge.
• Improbable Weapon User: The hacking gun she fights hordes of Monokuma with is shaped like a normal megaphone.
• Informed Flaw: According to Toko, Komaru's public speaking skills are awful, and her Rousing Speech was complete Narm. In-Universe, the adults end up being more inspired by Shirokuma. Most players that have been following the story wouldn't say the speech was that bad.
• In Harm's Way: Toko accuses her of this after she thinks their victory came too easy, also adding that she's like her brother in that way (who had a habit of letting himself be endangered if it would lead to hope).
• I See Dead People: Mentions early on that she has had the ability to see people that nobody else could from a young age. It's how she saw and got possessed by Tokuichi Towa.
• Leg Focus: Several cutscenes focus on her thighs.
• Living Emotional Crutch: How she sees Toko. And Toko is rather surprised anyone would see her that way.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She was stuck in her own private dwelling for over a year, during which she never interacted with anybody else. From that, she not only didn't know about Towa City going to hell in record time, but didn't know about the events of the Killing Game from the original Danganronpa, not even that her big brother was involved. Toko knows all about these things, but just outright refuses to tell Komaru anything. It's Makoto himself who has to be Mr. Exposition during a video call with Komaru in Chapter 3 to bring her at least relatively up to speed.
• Lovable Coward: At the beginning of the game, her only concern is escaping her captors, and she seems on the verge of pissing herself in utter terror at all times. Given the situation she's in, nobody blames her, and even before she Grew a Spine and became a Cowardly Lion, she's compassionate and friendly.
• Made of Iron: Due to the way the game handles health, she can take an abnormal amount of punishment for a regular human girl. She's able to tank claw slashes of Monokumas, bombs, melee strikes from mechas, and more with relative ease. In fact, the grand majority of enemy attacks in the game only take off one heart, even up to Big Bang Monokuma's building-crushing melee attacks.
• Magic Skirt: Her skirt never flaps up to reveal her panties. This is done in some very improbable ways in a lot of shots during cutscenes. Subverted entirely during a Game Over, unique or otherwise.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Komaru's reprimanding sprite◊ is representative of Mahiru Koizumi's reprimanding sprite◊.
• Nice Girl: Seems to run in the family, but she's rather polite in the face of the apocalypse. She's also trying to save as many people as possible on both sides of the conflict, even at personal cost to herself, such as letting herself suffer in the name of not breaking a controller that would kill multiple people even if it would stop the Warriors of Hope.
• Odd Friendship: With Toko. Komaru is a nice girl with a loving family and friends, but no special talents, whereas Toko is a jerk with a neglectful family, no real friends and a talent for writing.
• One of the Kids: She has some childish quirks, such as using potty training seats as Save Points and boasting to children.
• Only Sane Woman: She is by far the most sane person in the whole game. The adults are insane because of the machinations of the Towa Group, Toko is a reserved Deadpan Snarker with an obsessive infatuation for Byakuya (who can change into her legitimately Ax-Crazy Serial Killer split personality Genocide Jack) who refuses to tell Komaru about her past, the Warriors of Hope are vengeful murderous children, the Warriors' servant is Ultimate Despair Nagito Komaeda who let himself get captured by the Warriors as part of his insane hope agenda, Shirokuma and Kurokuma are Junko Enoshima's AI, Haiji is just an immature, sadistic asshole, and Hiroko's the doting mother of Yasuhiro from the first game. Komaru is simply Makoto's sister, with no ulterior motives or the like, and at worst, she's just extremely sensitive.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Acknowledges this herself at the start, although she never actually attended high school due to the Tragedy. According to Servant, she greatly exceeds even her brother in ordinariness. Compared to both Makoto and Hajime, who are repeatedly shown to be unshakable Determinators, she is much more prone to having breakdowns, but still soldiers on regardless.
• Precision F-Strike: Used during her Rousing Speech. While it's far from the worst curse word in the game, Komaru has never cursed before this speech, and never curses after.
  Komaru: You're "normal," you're "weak"... How much longer are you going to use those damn excuses!?
• Promoted to Playable: Goes from a very minor character in Trigger Happy Havoc to the main playable character here.
• Prone to Tears: Goodness, does she cry a lot throughout this game, though there's reasoning for that.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: The arguments the Warriors of Hope give her before their battles prompts her to give some equivalent of this counterargument each time, rightfully pointing out how their revenge plot against the adults who abused them (by targeting adults who didn't do anything to them directly) is way out of hand.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a brief one to Toko during their argument, saying that her attitude is why Toko doesn't have any friends.
• Rousing Speech: After the Resistance receives yet another dosage of Monokuma assaults, she climbs up on top of a trailer and, just barely, manages to get everyone to stand up and fight against the children...Unfortunately, this is what Monaca was expecting her to do in order to make the adults go absolutely nuts with revenge without really caring about what could happen to the Monokuma Kids wearing the explosive helmets.
• Sailor Fuku: Wears one despite not currently being at school. She eventually explains to Toko that when she outgrew her junior high uniform, a new high school uniform was just given to Komaru by her captor, and it's apparently the only outdoor clothes she has.
• Save the Villain: She stops Genocide Jack from killing Servant despite everything he's done. Though she does it mostly because if Jack killed another human being, Toko wouldn't be allowed into the Future Foundation.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Komaru and Toko exit the hotel, exasperated, they have an argument where Toko is the pessimistic realist who believes continuing further is an impossibility, and Komaru is the optimist who believes there are many options and methods to finding out the mystery behind everything happening. Outraged by Toko's attitude, Komaru reprimands against Toko's words, saying "And that's why you don't have any friends!"
• Stunned Silence: In response to Toko's insults or eccentricities, Komaru's reaction is often Visible Silence.
• Swallowed Whole: Her final fate in a game over against a Monokuma has Komaru getting eaten whole by the bear.
• Take a Third Option: She decides against Monaca's Sadistic Choice, instead of declaring that she's going to save both the adults and the children.
• Tempting Fate: Basically, any time Komaru begins feeling hopeful something goes wrong. At the very start of the game, she narrates that she isn't expecting anything unusual to happen that will change her situation being imprisoned in her apartment. A Monokuma bursts through the door seconds later.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Says this to Jataro after his Motive Rant.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: She can be seen with one through the falling water droplets following Yuta's death, and later when she sees the bodies of her parents.
• Trauma Conga Line: The world was overrun by the forces of despair, her brother was trapped within Hope's Peak Academy, her parents are missing and possibly dead, she was imprisoned for no known reason, barely survives when Monokuma robots attack the apartment, is now on the run for her life in a city swarming with enemies, and generally suffers psychological trauma after psychological trauma throughout the game. She keeps on going in spite of it all, but finally snaps after seeing the supposed bodies of her parents put on display to taunt her into smashing the Monokuma controller, before slipping into a Heroic BSoD.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Despite her meek demeanor, Komaru will take time out of the day to gloat after defeating Monokuma Kid challenges.
• Unwitting Pawn: Monaca had control over Komaru's every action throughout her plot for a successor to Junko Enoshima, using the game itself as a means of building up her hope only to break it down during the choice between stopping the war between children and adults, or starting a war between Future Foundation and Towa City, which would have ended up breaking Komaru and turning her into the next Ultimate Despair.
• Voice of the Resistance: She becomes the representative of the adults' desire to fight back against the children upon giving them a speech. As it turns out, said rebellion of theirs was a bad thing since it was part of Monaca's planning, and Haiji's desire to outright massacre all of the children all at once using Big Bang Monokuma - and also his eventual apathy towards the lives of the brainwashed children being controlled through Monaca's remote for their helmets - ends up causing more damage than fixing it.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Played for laughs. Komaru thinks walking like a zombie will prevent the Monokumas from attacking them. It doesn't.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Komaru reminds Toko of her past, helpless self who would run away from problems rather than face them.
  • Toko also often compares Komaru to her older brother Makoto.

Toko Fukawa and Genocide Jack

Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack

Ultimate Writing Prodigy/Ultimate Murderous Fiend

Voiced By Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Amanda Céline Miller (English, as Toko), Erin Fitzgerald (English, as Jack)

Toko Fukawa is the Ultimate Writing Prodigy, and one of the survivors of the Killing School Life. She possesses a Split Personality in the form of Genocide Jack, a notorious serial killer and the Ultimate Murderous Fiend. She usually changes between the two when she sneezes, but in the time since the killing game, Toko has discovered that she can also trigger a personality switch using a controlled jolt of electricity (such as from a stun-gun). What's more, this method will also cause her to automatically change back to Toko after a fixed period of time, giving her some measure of control over Genocide Jack.

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Click here to see her page

Warriors of Hope

In General

The main antagonists of Ultra Despair Girls, the Warriors of Hope are a group of children who are scheming to kill all of Towa City's adults and create an "adult-free paradise" for all children.

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• Abusive Parents: All five of them have been abused by their parents in different ways.
  • Masaru's father was an alcoholic, and would send Masaru to buy tobacco and alcohol for him, as well as hitting him while drunk or if he wouldn't bring what he told him home. One journal told of an incident when Masaru attempted to steal alcohol for his father but was caught by the police. After his father was informed and questioned about the act, he proceeded to horribly beat his son because he was humiliated by the incident and felt it gave him a bad name. The worst part is that Masaru was willing to put up with all of this because he didn't want his dad to stop being his dad.
  • Jataro's mother emotionally abused and neglected him. She fervently wished that Jataro would die so she could live a free life, and said she felt nauseated by his face. She forced him to wear his mask, claiming that she hated looking at his face because "he didn't look like other kids". Jataro came to believe it was because he was so ugly that his face could melt away a person's eyeballs. In reality, it was because he was so beautiful, it made his mother feel like she had to put more care into him than she already had to.
  • Kotoko's parents prostituted her to producers, where she was repeatedly raped. Her mother did it out of a twisted form of parental love and prostituted herself alongside Kotoko, believing that this was in her daughter's best interests and that it would help further Kotoko's career. Her father, on the other hand, used the money they gained for his own benefit, was cheating on his wife with his dental hygienist, and was planning to sell Kotoko to the sex trafficking industry once she hit puberty.
  • Nagisa's parents essentially viewed raising a child like raising a Pokémon. They saw studying as the way to gather EXP to "level up," so they forced him to keep studying, often for three or four days straight, using IVs and medicine to keep him awake. They were also not above using harsh discipline when he stepped out of line; a CG scene implies that knives were involved. During this, he was placed under surveillance from a group of inspectors, which escalated until eventually, Nagisa was under constant 24-hour surveillance using cameras, with inspectors and his parents shining a bright light in his eyes if he tried to sleep when not allowed to. His father did all of this For Science!, as he wanted to see just how much progress a child could make before finally reaching their breaking point. He was ultimately disappointed with the results and was thinking of getting a new test subject to run the experiment on.
  • Monaca's mother abandoned her with the Towa family, who were very cold toward her. In Monaca's journal entries, she writes about how the other Towas didn't know how to treat her due to her status as a bastard child. Any time she tried to be friendly, like making an innocent joke, the room would go silent. Her father and brother, in particular, were outright abusive toward her emotionally. Takuichi and Haiji neglected her, and Takuichi only became interested in what she had to say when it was a business opportunity.
• Accentuate the Negative: Part of their role as adult-hating children is that they see no positives in adults, including Komaru Naegi herself, who means no ill will towards anyone, and isn't even affiliated with something seen as self-righteous by them as the Future Foundation like Toko and Byakuya. Nagisa eventually reveals in Chapter 4 that doing this is what drives them as a result of their Abusive Parents.
• Adapted Out: Kotoko, Nagisa, and Monaca's robots never appear in the manga.
• Adult Hater: Due to their horrible Abusive Parents and Junko's manipulations, they view all adults as "demons" and they want to kill them all.
• Anti-Villain: Nagisa is the most obvious, but all of them bar Monaca are portrayed very sympathetically by the narrative. Even Monaca has a rather pitiful Freudian Excuse, and all of them bar Monaca are implied to have made a Heel–Face Turn by the end.
• Battle Theme Music: Right here.
• Black-and-White Insanity: All adults are "demons" and the enemies of kids everywhere, and all kids are suffering under the oppression of the "demons". Therefore, all kids must be saved and all adults must die. There's no middle ground with them. It doesn't help that each of the Warriors of Hope had some nasty Abusive Parents in some form or another, which really distorted their worldview. In particular, when Komaru points out the obvious Fridge Logic that the Warriors of Hope will become adults themselves one day, Masaru just counters that he'd "rather die as a kid" than become an adult.invoked
• Boss Battle: All five of them each have their own Mini-Mecha, which Komaru must fight against in the climax of each Chapter of the game that require a certain place to shoot at with Komaru's megaphone to actually deal any damage to them. All five of the kids also seem to enjoy partaking in some Boss Banter to Komaru throughout each of their fights against their Mini-Mecha.
• Child Prodigy: The elementary school branch of Hope's Peak was created to study child prodigies. The five, however, were labelled problem children by the school, with the general implication being that their talent was on the level of normal Ultimate students.
• Cool Big Sis: How all of them view Junko Enoshima once she saved them from their suicide attempt and gave them a new purpose to their life.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Sans Jataro and Masaru.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Every single one of them grew up with extremely Abusive Parents and spent most of their lives being horribly treated. Physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, you name it. It got to the point where it drove all of them into becoming suicidal, and if it wasn't for Junko Enoshima, these kids would have killed themselves a long time ago.
• Establishing Character Moment: They get two. First, there's the news broadcast where they first appear, which has them pretending that dead man's body is a zombie and playing with it, showing that they do terrible things and are quite dangerous, but are also childish. Then there's the scene where Komaru confronts them all for the first time, which shows off their individual personalities.
• Enfant Terrible: They might be elementary school kids, but that doesn't stop them from committing heinous acts and planning to kill all the adults in the world.
• Exotic Eye Designs: All of them have variations on the series' normal eye designs. Masaru's are flames, Kotoko's are speech bubbles, Nagisa's are diamonds, and Monaca's are Manji symbols. Jataro's are the hardest to make out thanks to his mask and eye color, but represent a scalpel.
• Fairy Tale Motif: The art displays depict Kotoko as Cinderella, Monaca as Snow White, Masaru and Nagisa as their respective princes, and Jataro as the Frog Prince.
• Freudian Excuse: They all have Abusive Parents and traumatic backstories.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: This seems to be the case with all of them as thanks to their Abusive Parents, they have all felt unneeded and not wanted to the point of committing suicide, as they felt no one genuinely loved them. Enter Junko Enoshima, who gives them the love they have desired for so long and acts like a Cool Big Sis to them.
• Interrupted Suicide: All five of them were suicidal because of their abusive families, and made the decision to die together. Then Junko appeared, and it all went downhill from there. Subverted with Monaca, as she reveals in the final chapter that she never had any intention of committing suicide.
• Ironic Name: They may be known as the Warriors of Hope, but they are loyal soldiers of Junko Enoshima or the "Despair" side and are enemies of the "Hope" side represented by Makoto and led by the Future Foundation.
• Mini-Mecha: All five of them battle Komaru and Toko with one of these:
  • Masaru's is "Hero Robot Mark Guyver", a white and gold knight-like mech with two giant drills for hands. It's vulnerable to attacks to the Monokuma emblem in its chest.
  • Jataro's is "Priest Robot Doctor Von Gerolt", a floating blue mech built to look like a Sinister Minister. It's vulnerable to having its bombs deflected at it, opening the Monokuma emblem in its head.
  • Kotoko's is "Fighter Robot Highlander the Great", a horned red mech wielding an enormous axe. It's vulnerable in its chest, but its weak spot will only open if Komaru uses Paralyze to shock the Monokuma mooks that accompany it.
  • Nagisa's is "Sage Robot Hannibal X", a brown, caped mech with a distinctly military appearance and a sniper rifle. Unlike the other mechs, the weak spot in its left eye is always vulnerable — it's just extremely difficult to hit thanks to the robot's incredible speed.
  • Monaca's is "Mage Robot Black Suspirian", a gigantic Spider Tank wielding all four of the other Warriors of Hope's weapons and piloted by herself and Kurokuma. By carefully attacking its joints, Komaru can get the robot to release Kurokuma from its body, making him vulnerable.
• Self-Made Orphan: Most of them killed their own parents, and none of them regret it. Not like that's unjustified.
• Shout-Out: Their nicknames are Dragon Quest classes. Hammering this point further, a Puzzle Room is decorated with DQ-inspired motives.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Their entire MO is based on the murder of the world's adults. This is anything but normal.
• Two Girls to a Team: Kotoko and Monaca.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: They wish to create a "children's paradise" and are perfectly willing to slaughter all of Towa City's adults to achieve this. Subverted, since this was not the true motive after all... All of them save for Monaca do not know what they are doing and their true motive was to make Komaru see slaughter and turn into Junko Enoshima the 2nd. NOBODY in the Warriors of Hope but Monaca knows anything about this.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: All of them have suffered some form of parental abuse to the point that they were planning to jump off of their school roof before meeting Junko Enoshima and being convinced to take revenge against adults. This lead them to slaughter most of the adults in Towa City to make a "children's paradise" where children don't have to be afraid of adults anymore. Subverted with Monaca, who was actually going to let the other kids jump off the roof without her as a prank, and used their trauma to manipulate them into helping her with her own goal of making Komaru Junko's successor.

Masaru Daimon

Masaru Daimon, the "Hero"

Li'l Ultimate P.E.

Voiced By Megumi Han (Japanese), Tara Sands (English)

The leader of the Warriors of Hope. Cheerful and naughty in nature, his specialty is physical education.

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• Affectionate Parody: Designed to be one of a standard Shōnen protagonist. He's Hot-Blooded, a Determinator, and wants to be a hero to his friends. It's just too bad that he's on the wrong side.
• Alcoholic Dad: His father's abuses seem very tied to also being one of these. During his Villainous Breakdown, he mentions "the alcohol smell" while trying to keep himself from giving into his fear.
• Authority in Name Only: While he's the ostensible leader of the Warriors of Hope, he only earned the title in a game of rock-paper-scissors; the other four don't really defer to him in any way. From the very beginning, it's clear that Monaca is the true leader of the group that the others, Masaru included, follow without question.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He might be the "leader", but the group treat themselves as equals, Kotoko outright pointing out that Masaru only has his position because he won a game of rock-paper-scissors. Not to mention that he's defeated and seemingly killed in the first chapter.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: They put Kiyotaka to shame.
• Blatant Lies: In his pre-boss battle banter, he says that he intended to kill Komaru and Toko in the "killaseum". Toko corrects Masaru that it's pronounced "colosseum", which Masaru quickly backpedals on by saying it was a heroic joke.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Seemingly torn apart by a violent mob of Monokuma Kids until nothing but his headphones remain, though we don't see anything after the kids swarm him until his headphones drop to the ground. Subverted, since a bonus CG during the credits reveals he survived.
• Evil Redhead: Seemingly the leader of the villains with red hair. From the perspective of the kids, this is instead Red Is Heroic, with the personality to match.
• Exotic Eye Designs: His irises have flame designs.
• Fiery Redhead: Of the Hot-Blooded variant.
• Girls Have Cooties: He makes a point of talking about how "stupid little girls with no wieners are total cowards".
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Invoked. In Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, he takes a stick as a sword. He finds a hero without a sword to be pathetic.
• Hot-Blooded: He leans into this by trying to play the leader and the hero for the Warriors of Hope, shouting about his heroism and how great he is all the time.
• Large Ham: Big time. Much of his dialogue is him shouting.
• Leader Wannabe: He likes to style himself as The Leader of the Warriors of Hope, and its something he's very proud of. However, he is really only the "leader" by virtue of having won the title in a game of rock-paper-scissors and his fellow members certainly don't feel like deferring to him; at best, they just sort of humor him, at worst they outright forget that he's supposed to be in charge.
• Missing Mom: His mom is never mentioned, implying his father was a single parent.
• Never Bareheaded: Always wears headphones. They only come off of his head when he appears get torn apart by an angry mob of Monokumas after he loses his boss fight.
• Pointless Band-Aid: He wears one under his left eye.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: There is a stark difference in personalities between Nagisa and Masaru, with Nagisa being the mature, intelligent blue to Masaru's hot-blooded red.
• This Is a Drill: His Mini-Mecha, the Mark Guyver sports one on the end of each of its arms. It uses said drills to dig through the earth.
• Self-Harm: When he notices that his hands are shaking in fear, he starts repeatedly punching his own arms several times in an attempt to reassert control over them, hitting himself so severely in the process that he starts getting bruises.
• Verbal Tic: Ends most of his sentences in Japanese with "-dai".
• Villainous Breakdown: Before his boss fight, he starts crying about how no one is going to be afraid anymore, because he'll kill all the "demons" (read: adults). As Masaru says this, he starts to cry about fear, and how no one will force him to be afraid anymore. Then, his arm starts to tremble in fear. He responds by beating his arm until it's visibly bruised and no longer moving.
  Marasu Daimon: You see...? You can hear it, right? Everyone loves me... They appreciate me... Because I'm their Hero... If I... hunt down every single Demon... Then nobody has to be afraid anymore! Th-they won't have to be afraid of the violence, and the pain! W-Won't have to... Afraid... (sob) I-I won't... be... afraid... I'm not... scared... at all... I don't hafta be scared of the... The dark and the pain and the alcohol smell... Not anymore... Not anymore, not anymore! No matter how much you beat me, I won't be afraid anymore! You hear me!? Not going... be afr...aid... (notices his left arm is shaking in fear) Wha... what is this? [...] Damnit! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop, stop, stop! I said stop! I'm not scared, I'm not scared, I'm not scared! I'm not scared if anything! I'm a Hero, I'm a Hero!

Jataro Kemuri

Jataro Kemuri, the "Priest"

Li'l Ultimate Art

^{Click here to see him without his mask}

Voiced By: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)

The priest of the Warriors of Hope. His specialty is arts and crafts, as he's good at drawing and fixing things. He's hated by those around him but doesn't mind it at all.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Was frequently bullied for looking different and his behavior. The desk in his room even has "bulliedbulliedbullied" written on it to the point that the entire desk is covered with the word.
• Beautiful All Along: Right when he's about to be dragged off after his defeat, his mask comes off to show that he's actually rather cute.
• Butt-Monkey: No one seems to give him any respect. When he's about to fight the girls, the crowd of children actually boo him and cheer on Komaru. Even his fixing of the group's things is misremembered as being someone else's doing.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Not the most... normal of thought patterns.
• Cool Mask: Or whatever that mask/helmet hybrid he's wearing is. It comes off during his execution, and he isn't wearing in the epilogue CG he's in while Masaru is wearing his headphones, implying he ditched it.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Same as Masaru's, but, like him, he's revealed to have survived.
• Establishing Character Moment: Nagisa tells him to introduce himself, only for Jataro to repeatedly go off-topic before Nagisa sums everything he was actually trying to say.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: How everyone sees him, though he doesn't care.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: It's implied that, for all of Jataro's self-hatred, he genuinely wants to be loved by others. He's just so warped that he can't comprehend others being kind to him, outright screaming that he doesn't want anyone to look at him without his mask, even though he dislikes wearing it.
• In-Series Nickname: Since his name has the kanji for "snake" in it, Monaca calls him "Snake-chan". ("Taro" in the localization.)
• Mad Artist: Just have a look at his "masterpiece".
• Mood-Swinger: Just one of the many, many things off about him.
• Meaningful Name: His first name has the character for snake, likely a nod to his mask, which resembles reptile scales, while his surname is also a noun meaning smoke, which is a nod both to his colors and his talent, since artists often expose themselves to toxic fumes.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Like Mikan, he was abused so often that he started to enjoy it.
• No Social Skills: Hence his Cloud Cuckoolander tendencies and being okay with everyone hating him.
• Precocious Crush: Heavily implied to be the case in regards to Junko, going by the art display of him as the Frog Prince, the way he talks about her, and the painting of her he has in his room.
• Shipper on Deck: Implicitly, the art displays he made depict Nagisa/Monaca and Masaru/Kotoko in rather stereotypical fairy-tale romances.
• Shrinking Violet: Seems to be outright afraid of positive interaction with people, outright preferring that people hate him.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: He wears his mask all the time because he believes he's ugly, and he was bullied in the past for looking different, but, in reality, the source of his problems is that he's beautiful, not ugly. His mother neglected him and hated looking at him since she felt that his beauty meant that they had to put more effort into looking after him than they already did.
• Survivor Guilt: After Masaru is seemingly killed, Jataro mutters that he wishes it had been someone more expendable like him.
• Talkative Loon: Has a habit of rambling on length about random topics that have little to nothing to do with what's currently going on. Which makes the few moments where he's terrifyingly lucid stand out more.
• Wants to Be Hated: Thanks to his abusive mother, he takes on the belief that he's supposed to be hated, desperately trying to make people hate him more with his abhorrent actions.

Kotoko Utsugi

Kotoko Utsugi, the "Fighter"

L'il Ultimate Drama

Voiced By Kazusa Aranami (Japanese), Erica Lindbeck (English)

A former child star who functions as the "Fighter" of the Warriors of Hope. She is hotheaded and absolutely adores cute things.

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• Angry Cheek Puff: Kotoko's annoyed sprite has her puffing her cheeks, complete with a Blush Sticker, which is appropriate since she's The Cutie.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: She says she prefers to put maple syrup on her fried eggs.
• Casting Couch: Spent a lot of time on these, very much unwillingly, and is severely traumatized by it. Her mother and father basically sold Kotoko to producers to use her as a sexual plaything, all while Kotoko was still a child. Her parents did this out of an insane belief that this would somehow help Kotoko's career.
• The Chain of Harm: After the truly horrific child abuse in her past, she takes her trauma out on Komaru by using her "Motivation Machine" to sexually assault her.
• Cuteness Proximity: She fawns over "adorbs" things, and spends a lot of her time trying to look cute.
• The Cutie: Unapologetically so. Not only does she wear an outfit that's bright pink, she insults Genocide Jack for being ugly, and not at all "adorbs".
• Daddy's Girl: Averted. It was her father's idea to prostitute her out to the producers and directors. And going by Kotoko's journals, she strongly favored her mother and was willing to put up with the misery only because of her (though it's implied that she still holds some resentment toward her for trying to live through her).
• Does Not Like Spam: She really hates the taste of salty things. It's not hard to figure out why. She also dislikes chestnuts when they haven't been peeled, and she can't stand Worcestershire sauce on her fried eggs.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: After her mecha robot is defeated. It's drenched in water, blushing, throbbing at an accelerating pace, and it releases a heart-shaped fireball as it explodes.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her stockings are different on each leg.
• Fate Worse than Death: Being treated "gentle". When Toko said the word "gentle" before her boss fight, Kotoko freaks out and becomes a hysterical mess, ending with her begging to be killed over someone being "gentle".
• Former Child Star: Used to be a child actress. Unlike most examples, though, she's still quite young and didn't end her career that long ago, though the negative effects are still there...
• Heel–Face Turn: Near the end, she realizes that Monaca has been manipulating her and the other Warriors of Hope, and turns against Monaca, trying to get Komaru to not listen to what Monaca wants.
• Meta Girl: Briefly breaks the fourth wall while torturing Komaru by saying that said sequence was okay to put in a video game because it's showing how wrong child sexual abuse is (not that it would be less horrible if an adult was the victim, according to her). At the end of her mini-boss level where she's stripped down to her underwear by Genocide Jack, how she's totally eighteen thus legal in the English version.
• Parental Incest: It's implied that some of the men she was forced to share the Casting Couch with wanted a threesome with both her and her mother together.
• Pimping the Offspring: Her parents pimped her out to producers to earn her roles in movies. A journal found near the end of the game reveals that Kotoko's father was planning to sell her to human traffickers when she reached puberty.
• Pink Is Erotic: A truly disturbing example. Kotoko's hair, eyes, and color scheme all involve lots of pink — even her boss arenas are pink — and she's a victim (and perpetrator) of sexual abuse who has been prostituted since early childhood.
• Pink Means Feminine: She's super girly and a lot of her outfit is a mixture of pink and white. Even her huge stun gun is pink and girly.
• Promiscuity After Rape: She was regularly raped by producers with the knowledge and approval of her own parents, as they thought it would help her career. As for it leading to promiscuity... well, the Motivation Machine (basically a sexual torture device) she operates says it all.
• Psycho Pink: Her hair is pink, some of her outfit has said color, and she wants to kill all adults.
• Rape as Backstory: As a result of being forced into child prostitution to further her career as a child actress.
• School Idol: Adored by those around her for her talent.
• Sex Slave: Whored out by her parents to boost her career.
• Ship Tease: It's hinted that she might like Masaru, since in the Cinderella presentation he plays the role of her prince.
• Stage Mom: Even more extreme than most. Her mom saw nothing wrong with prostituting both Kotoko and herself in exchange for getting Kotoko acting roles.
• Trademark Favourite Food: Peeled chestnuts. Ironically, she hates them unpeeled.
• Trauma Button: The word "gentle". While she's fine with using the word herself, hearing others use it sets her off, as she would often be told that the men she was being prostituted to would be "gentle" with her.
• Two Girls to a Team: One of the two girls in the Warriors of Hope along with Monaca.
• Villainous Rescue: Subverted. Kotoko shows up to free Komaru from captivity after the raid on the adults' hideout, but immediately shoots her in the back and drags her off for torture.
• Wham Line: Revealing in the climax why breaking Monaca's controller is a very bad thing to do:
  Kotoko: The Monokuma Heads the kids are wearing... They're linked to the Monokumas' power source. If that power source is cut off... the helmets explode. If you destroy the controller, the Monokumas stop... But all the Monokuma heads will blow up! And then, headless children everywhere!

Nagisa Shingetsu

Nagisa Shingetsu, the "Sage"

Li'l Ultimate Social Studies

Voiced By: Mariya Ise (Japanese), Erica Mendez (English)

The vice-leader of the Warriors of Hope, Nagisa has been raised from birth to be a high achiever. Thanks to this, he speaks and acts far more maturely than the others, making it clear he doesn't like taking part in their constant games.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: Deconstructed. He tries so hard to be mature because he's deathly afraid of being unable to meet people's expectations of him. It doesn't help that his parents' abuse deprived him of a normal childhood.
• Afraid of Needles: Needles are listed as one of his major dislikes. Considering what's learned about his experiences with IV injected drugs, this is pretty justifiable.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He's the most civil and reasonable of the Warriors of Hope, and the only one willing to explain the group's motives to the heroines in a palatable way. He even helps them escape the city in Chapter 4, because they've caused so much havoc that it's more sensible to just let them go. He tries to justify the massacres with cynical indifference, claiming the murdered adults are simply casualties of war, but writes in his private memoir that he's doubting this more and more.
• Anime Hair: Putting aside the fact that it's blue, those spikes defy all laws of gravity and common sense.
• Anti-Villain: Hands down the most sympathetic of the Warriors of Hope.
• Berserk Button: Referring to anything as a "game". It's implied his distaste spawns from his parents treating his whole life as an RPG.
• Bookworm: His room is absolutely crammed with books.
• Broken Ace: His massive achievements are the result of how much his parents tried forcing him to become The Ace by pushing him to study, which in exchange for making him excel in all but PE (though Social Studies is his forte) deprived him of a childhood and gave him a massive fear of failing to meet the expectations put on him. This all leads into his breakdown in Chapter 4, where he starts screaming about how he failed everyone, his parents, Junko, and Monaca.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the manga adaptation, the fight with his robot is never shown, so Nagisa disappears without any explanation after the scene in which Monaca forcibly kisses plays mind games with him.
• Commonality Connection: In "Ultimate Summer Camp", he bonds with Kiyotaka over their dislike of geniuses.
• Covert Pervert: His room also has what appears to be an erotic magazine on the table. Monaca also accuses him of being one.
• Deadpan Snarker: More so than the rest of the current cast.
• Devilish Hair Horns: As befitting the group's diabolical Evil Genius. His "hair horns" tends to get especially pointy whenever he is plotting some evil and/or nasty scheme.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Has a rather blatant crush on Monaca, which she exploits for her own benefit.
• Education Mama: His parents are a very dark example.
• Establishing Character Moment: Spends most of the prologue being serious and telling the others to stop goofing off...But when Monaca offers to make him cookies, he is reduced to a blushing wreck.
• Expressive Hair: His "horns" straighten or drop depending on the sprite.
• Expy: Of Yasuke Matsuda. Both are highly intelligent, seemingly aloof, and are emotionally dependent on the girls they love to some degree. Said girl in both cases is the Big Bad and both Matsuda and Nagisa attempt to betray her, only to fail because of their feelings, the difference being that Shingetsu is ultimately given a second chance to redeem himself.
• Evil Genius: He fills this niche within the Warriors of Hope group, being the most technically gifted of the bunch.
• Gender-Blender Name: Nagisa is gender-neutral but mainly used in anime for girls, hence the confusion when his design and name were first revealed.
• Heel–Face Turn: Double subverted. He betrays Monaca after Kotoko is defeated and assists Komaru and Toko, only for Monaca and Servant to guilt-trip him into fighting Komaru, after which he seemingly dies. Then the credits reveal he survived and was able to properly make his Heel–Face Turn after all.
• Hidden Depths: Hidden among the books in his room is what appears to be an erotic mag. As if there were any doubt his parents were pushing him to grow up too hard...
• The Leader: Technically vice-leader, but he's the one who takes charge most of the time due to Masaru goofing off. After Masaru's supposed death, he's named leader officially.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Monaca intentionally pushes his Trauma Button and tips him over his breaking point in every possible way in Chapter 4, he proves to be an extremely violent and tactical foe when acting on it under the belief that he'll kill anyone in his way if he gets his "Paradise", having combined the losing Warriors' robots. Perhaps even more than Masaru, Jataro, and Kotoko before him.
• Loving a Shadow: He's hopelessly smitten with the sweet little girl he believes Monaca is... keyword: "believes". Monaca is as cruel and manipulative as the Ultimate Despair she looks up to...
  • Love Makes You Crazy: ...which culminates in Monaca using that attraction and selective pressing of his buttons to completely and utterly break him into submission.
• Made of Iron: Survives a robot falling on him and exploding and comes out with some bruises and a few burns.
• Not Quite Dead: Seemingly killed in Chapter 4 when his mecha falls on him and explodes, only for a bonus CG during the credits to show he actually survived, just a bit scorched.
• The Perfectionist: Played for Drama. Since birth, his parents forced him to be the "perfect" child, and after all of the abuse inflicted on him to achieve this goal, he's become unhealthily obsessed with maintaining perfection as a result.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He eventually tries to help Komaru escape Towa City, reasoning that her presence has already caused a lot of damage to the Warriors' kids-only paradise and will probably continue to do so if she sticks around, so the easiest and most rational way to render her harmless would simply be to let her leave. Unfortunately for him, Monaca has a completely different agenda that requires Komaru to stay in the city.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: There is a stark difference in personalities between Nagisa and Masaru, with Nagisa being the mature, intelligent blue to Masaru's hot-blooded red.
• Tsundere: Type B to Monaca, though he spits it out when she asks him full on if he likes her.
• Trauma Button: The words "high expectations" seem to be this for him, due to the constant pressure on him to succeed.
• Trauma Conga Line: Chapter 4 is a constant source of misery for him. In short, he's branded a traitor by the group he's trying to save, Servant sells him out, he finds out the cute girl he loved is an Ax-Crazy sociopath, gets sexually assaulted and emotionally broken by her, and then nearly dies fighting Komaru. Ouch.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Acts far more maturely than fellow members of the Warriors of Hope, to the point of Monaca at one point noting that he sounds like an adult. Deconstructed, as it's a sign of how much of a Broken Ace he really is.

Monaca Towa

Monaca Towa, the "Mage"

L'il Ultimate Homeroom

Voiced By: Aya Hirano (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)

The mage and true leader of the Warriors of Hope. A cheerful girl described as the life of any party, she loves homeroom for the opportunity to converse with her classmates. Of course, as her introduction implies, she primarily converses with people for the sake of getting them to be nice to her. Once you get past her politeness, it gradually becomes clear that Monaca's an utterly horrendous person.

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• All Your Powers Combined: Her Mini-Mecha has the abilities of all the others.
• And This Is for...: Parodied. She attempts it but forgot the names of the other Warriors of Hope.
• Ax-Crazy: When she starts showing her true colors in the later chapters of the game.
• Bad Boss: She appears curt and friendly with her fellow Warriors of Hope at first, but really she doesn't care about them or their Children's Paradise — she's just using them as a means to an end and isn't afraid to mentally break them if it furthers her own goals. She even forgets their names when invoking And This Is for... during her boss fight.
• Bastard Bastard: Born out of wedlock, and not a very nice person.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: A very twisted version, to say the least. She is utterly devoted to Junko and her schemes, because she was the only older person who had ever treated her with anything resembling respect and understanding. While she was aware Junko was manipulating her all the while, it made no real difference to her; she still deeply appreciated to have someone in her life who treated like an equal and peer rather the unwanted burden everyone else treated her as.
• Berserk Button: Denying her reality will send her into Punctuated! For! Emphasis! rants.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Junko's AI program, which is hidden within Kurokuma and Shirokuma. Each of them has their own plans for the future, and Monaca's unaware that her despair-loving mentor made such a program at all.
• Big Sister Worship: non-sibling example with Junko, and unlike the other Warriors of Hope, it's doesn't end as a Broken Pedestal. Monaca knew she was being used by Junko just like Monaca herself used others with her "cripple" act, and thus didn't hold it against her. In fact, she's doing her best to follow in her footsteps, even knowing that she could never do her job as well as Junko herself.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems nice... but it's slowly revealed to be an act as the game progresses.
• Break Them by Talking: Since she idolizes Junko Enoshima, she ends up rivaling her in this department. If any of the other Warriors of Hope start to doubt her, she's quick to find ways to push them toward the breaking point to change this — such as by purposely bringing back memories that traumatize them. Taken up to eleven with her attempts to mold Komaru into Junko's successor by pushing her into a seemingly hopeless lose/lose scenario by tricking her repeatedly before revealing her parents' fates.
• Briar Patching: One of Monaca's tactics to trick Komaru into breaking her Monokuma controller, along with threatening her into breaking it and Leaning on the Fourth Wall, tempting her with the promise of a happy ending as the savior of the adults.
• The Chessmaster: Monaca plays her cards frighteningly well for a kid who imitates the franchise's Greater-Scope Villain.
  • She produced the Towa Group robotics that Junko would eventually use in the Tragedy behind the backs of her father and her brother — as they didn't investigate further because she was earning them money. After that, she went on to produce the weaponry used to fight against those robotics. By the time they find out, things have already gone way too far for them to stop.
  • She knows she can wage war against the Resistance without fear of the Future Foundation interfering because the Resistance's leader is her brother... and he doesn't want the Future Foundation finding out about his family's involvement in the Tragedy.
  • When Byakuya — a member of the Future Foundation — shows up to rescue Komaru from the growing chaos in Towa City, Monaca immediately captures him. Instead of murdering Byakuya, she uses him as insurance to keep the Future Foundation from interfering and to string Toko along.
  • Throughout the game, she repeatedly presses her fellow Warriors of Hope's buttons to get them to do what she wants, purposely sending them after Komaru to make her come out of it stronger — all so it'll be that much more effective when she presses her buttons too. If she kills Komaru, she robs the adults of their hero, but if Monaca captures her, she gets as much time as she wants to slowly break her.
  • All of this culminates in her Xanatos Gambit in Chapter 5's climax. If Komaru breaks the controller, it will stop the Monokumas and kill the Monokuma Kids through the detonation of the helmets they're wearing. If she doesn't break it, adults will continue dying, which would vindicate their surviving peers in turning Big Bang Monokuma against the brainwashed kids. Whichever way it goes, it's a mess of dead children that will help plunge the world into further despair — with Komaru at its center. Just as planned, she utterly snaps, especially after she finds out what happened to her parents... and is saved by Toko, who takes the controller before Komaru does something she'll regret.
  • Even after that, Monaca still has one final ace in her sleeve — the key to Byakuya's cell, promising to let him go in exchange for the controller. This is where her plot finally falls apart, as she failed to anticipate Toko growing to care about Komaru just as much as she cares about Byakuya. After she chooses to save both of them, this inspires Komaru to save the kids and the adults.
• Child Prodigy: Monaca's only an elementary school student, yet she was intelligent enough to be given the position of Chief Executive of Towa Group's robotics branch.
• Cool Big Sis: Serves as this for the other Warriors of Hope despite being around their ages.
• Creepy Child: While this concerns every single member of the Warriors of Hope, she easily takes the crown here.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Uses being crippled as an excuse to get her way with her fellow Warriors of Hope and staging a sadistic killing game in Towa City.
• Dissonant Serenity: She can act disturbingly polite while she does and says downright horrific things.
• The Dragon: As Junko's protégé, she was the one who supplied her with many of her resources, including Monokuma. She is a Dragon Ascendant as of this game.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: More Gothic than most. While the front looks rather normal, the back has a skeletal design on it (spine, rib cage, and pelvis) which is often hidden by her wheelchair. Rather fitting considering the above.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Even though she's handicapped, she's the core member of the Warriors of Hope. Subverted when it turns out that she's not actually handicapped.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Genuinely devotes herself to Junko and her cause for reasons beyond fanatical devotion. It's arguably one of the only things that's sympathetic about her because it just shows how vile and corruptive Junko is.
• Evil Costume Switch: In the credits, she's shown to have ditched her Lolita outfit for an outfit extremely similar to Junko's — complete with Monokuma hair clips.
• Evil Counterpart: To Komaru. Both are younger siblings with a poor self-view of themselves who latch onto someone else to find self-worth. The key difference is who that someone is.
• Evil Cripple: She spends most of the game in a wheelchair. As for the evil part, that's undeniable. Later on, it turns out that she's faked being a "cripple" for a while.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: This is a massive understatement. Aya Hirano almost spells the trope out while talking about her.
  "Monaca-chan, just based on appearance, gives you the feeling that she has some special circumstance about her, but in reality, it is not at that level... She is a terrible little girl. She can be angelic, and she can also be a demon."
• The Fake Cutie: Monaca speaks and acts in a sickeningly cute way, no matter what situation she's in. The other Warriors of Hope clearly see her as The Cutie, constantly fussing over her. However, once her mask slips off, it becomes clear that her cutesy mannerisms are nothing more than old habits she abuses for the sole purpose of currying favor with people.
• Faux Affably Evil: She can act nice and sweet most of the time, but it doesn't really hide how manipulative and cruel she is to other people. Her defining Kick the Dog moment is when it she makes it clearly that has no reservations towards keeping Kotoko, ostensibly her friend and loyal comrade, in line by gleefully and cruelly exploiting her Trauma Button whenever she feels she steps just a little too much out of line for her liking.
• Fille Fatale: Mild, but she is aware of Nagisa's crush on her and subtly indicates she'll grant him sexual favors if he pleases her.
• Forceful Kiss: Does this to Nagisa.
• Freudian Excuse: Born out of wedlock, she was abandoned by her mother before being abused and neglected by both her father and her brother — neither of whom accepted her. Monaca felt that the only way she could get her family to be even slightly kind to her was by tricking them into thinking that her legs were broken by them so they would pity her, with the only person who ever showed her kindness being a Card-Carrying Villain of a Hope Crusher. Monaca may be an unforgivable Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but it's not hard to understand why and how she ended up that way.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Despite her Freudian Excuse, no one in-universe has any sympathy to spare for this girl once they know her true colors as the actions she chooses to take in the advancement of her Xanatos Gambit are utterly repugnant.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair. She explains before the final battle that all of the technology Junko used in the Tragedy was made by the Towa Group, having tricked them into becoming her benefactor, while it was she who mass-produced the Monokumas as well. Junko is still the franchise's main antagonist since she was Monaca's employer/mentor, but her involvement in the main games still extends pretty far for an accomplice.
• Green and Mean: Monaca does have green hair and green eyes, and her color motif is green. Granted, saying she's mean is a massive understatement.
• Hate Sink: Was created with this in mind, as the developers wanted to make a villain that was truly despicable. In addition to being quite a manipulative bitch, Monaca presses the Trauma Button of each of the Warriors of Hope, gets hundreds of people killed, tries to mentally break Komaru, revels in how much pain she's causing — and does all of this because of her crazed obsession with Junko Enoshima. And where all the other Warriors of Hope show occasional moments of hesitation, doubt about the righteousness of their actions, and even remorse, Monaca has absolutely no regrets about any of the heinous things she has done.
• The Heart: She is the "princess" of the Warriors of Hope, being the most social and caring of them, and the others appear to love her back for that. In actuality, this is definitely not the case.
• Humiliation Conga: The ending of Chapter 5 is this for her. She's possibly crippled for real and stuck under rubble thanks to the Junko-controlled Big Bang Monokuma, and everyone proceeds to refuse to give her what she wants. Komaru refuses to destroy the controller, Haiji becomes too jaded to want revenge and kill her, and Kotoko gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech before walking off. Unable to do anything else, Monaca begins giving empty threats and rants like a spoiled child.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Despite wanting to continue Junko's legacy, she claims in the ending that she might not be up to the task. Even Junko's AI program doesn't seem to have much faith in her, especially when she's perfectly capable of leading Ultimate Despair herself.
• The Irredeemable Exception: All of the Warriors of Hope are treated as misguided lost souls who eventually see the error of their ways — except her, who remains a gleeful Enfant Terrible to the bitter end even after the others defect from her side.
• Jerkass: Not only is she heavily involved in the Tragedy and countless deaths, but she's quite cruel even to her "friends."
• Laser-Guided Karma: Near the end of Chapter 5, a large amount of concrete falls on her back, quite possibly crippling her for real.
• Laughing Mad: She's horrifyingly reduced to this in her Villainous Breakdown when her plans topple over and all of her (former) pawns leave her behind to be stuck under the concrete. Well, except for Nagito, who saves her for... his own reasons.
• Manipulative Bitch: She is very good at using people's emotions to her advantage, especially when it comes to Nagisa's crush on her.
• Mature Younger Sibling: While she's an outright psychopath, Monaca is still far more aware of other people than her callous older brother is, and unlike him, is at least capable of masking it behind a believable demeanor. Haiji is seemingly a plain and immature Jerkass the whole way through.
• Meet the New Boss: She's very much like a budding Junko Enoshima, which hardly comes as a surprise since she emulates her. She manipulates everyone around her, pits friend against friend, and crafts elaborate dilemmas for the protagonists that have no happy endings — this even extends to her own allies, much like Junko did to Mukuro. She's also defeated by the heroes managing to Take a Third Option. The only real difference between the two is that Monaca doesn't have Junko's Mood-Swinger tendencies.
• Mook Maker: She created the Monokumas we all know and love.
• Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: Much like Junko, Monaca is a manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who seems to be like a Perky Female Minion, but in reality, she's one of the franchise's most effective and evil characters.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: The other Warriors of Hope genuinely want to create a children's paradise, but Monaca uses it as an excuse to further her real goal — to turn Komaru into Junko's successor as Revenge by Proxy.
• Obfuscating Disability: She pretends to be wheelchair-bound to get sympathy from others when she can actually walk around just fine. As an added bonus, her father and her brother, who would both beat her regularly, thought their abuse is what "crippled" her and started to feel guilty about the way they treated her.
• Obviously Evil: "Eviler", actually. She's introduced as a Creepy Child with a Hair-Trigger Temper who the other Warriors have to obey out of fear when Komaru first meets her on her airship. Totally doesn't have her own agenda at all.
• Only One Name: For most of the game, she's only known by her first name, and it's not even written in kanji. Towards the end of the game, her last name is finally mentioned — it's Towa, meaning she is the younger sister of the Resistance's leader.
• Perpetual Smiler: Always seems to have a smile on, with the cheerful demeanor to match.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Whenever her Berserk Button is pressed.
• Replacement Goldfish: Tried to turn Komaru into Junko's successor, as she was very attached to Junko.
• I Reject Your Reality: She grows extremely upset when people contradict her, throwing a tantrum at the messenger until they change their mind. Realizing this isn't working on Komaru provokes a Villainous Breakdown.
• Revenge by Proxy: The reason she wants to turn Komaru into Junko's successor is because Komaru's older brother Makoto foiled her mentor's plan during the Killing School Life.
• Robot Master: Her "magic" is this, as she's an engineering genius who created the Monokumas, the Monokuma Kids' helmets, and the Warriors' robots.
• Room Full of Crazy: The walls and ceiling of her room are almost completely covered in pictures of Junko.
• Sadist: This is the reason she fails at being Junko's successor herself in 3 later on. Despite Monaca allegedly wanting to copy Junko Enoshima's behavior, she forgoes the fact that Junko is a sadomasochist rather than an outright sadist, as she is just as willing to take the pain of despair as she is to give it. Compared to her idol, Monaca only gives pain out, but as she demonstrates upon her defeat, she is completely unable to take it, to the degree that she eventually forgoes her goal to become the next "Ultimate Despair" by 3 because she despises the battle between hope and despair.
• Ship Tease: She gets a fair amount of this with Nagisa. It's every bit as disturbing as you might think.
• Significant Birth Date: April Fools' Day, seeing as she fooled everyone into believing she was crippled.
• Smart People Build Robots: As the creator of Towa Corp's line of Monokuma Units, and a maniplative chessmaster to rival Junko, she certainly qualifies.
• Smug Snake: She's not nearly as charismatic as Junko, nor can she predict others to the same degree. Downplayed in that she knows this. She's also a capable schemer in her own right.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Most translations and romanizations of her name go with "Monaka," though NISA uses "Monaca."
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: After she's truly defeated in Chapter 5, she tries to goad everyone in the room into doing this. They all just ditch her, including Haiji... who is too broken to even care.
• The Sociopath: Monaca is a manipulative Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who reveals she genuinely doesn't care about anyone, not even the other Warriors of Hope or her family. She only views them as stepping stones to her goals — along with just things she can manipulate and use for her own gain and amusement. The only exception from her disdain is Junko Enoshima, whom she views as her idol.
• Third-Person Person: Has a tendency to speak like this. She also seems to insist that other people, even the other Warriors of Hope, address her as "Monaca", rather than "you", when speaking directly to her. She does speak in the first person on some occasions though, especially if she is distressed.
  Monaca: If this controller is destroyed, Monaca's plan will fail...
• Token Evil Teammate: Monaca proves to be the most malevolent of the Warriors of Hope, being the main Big Bad causing Komaru all her trouble in her twisted goal to make her into Junko Enoshima's successor. While the others use their past as Freudian Excuse for their behavior, Monaca is following Junko's legacy of doing things For the Evulz.
• Two Girls to a Team: One of the two girls in the Warriors of Hope along with Kotoko.
• The Unfavorite: She's a bastard child who was born to her father and his mistress. Her mother was quick to abandon her, and her father thought about putting her in an orphanage first before simply taking her in. Even then, she was treated with disdain and neglected and abused by both her father and her brother.
• Villainous Breakdown: She's reduced to this after losing in the final chapter. Monaca can't believe that her plan to make Komaru into the successor for Junko Enoshima didn't work, and is baffled when her attempts at being The Chessmaster all fall flat. Also, when she gets stuck under rubble, Monaca tells Haiji to kill her, but he won't even do that. This leaves all of Monaca's plans both in metaphorical and literal shambles, having gotten nothing she wanted. While Monaca pretended to throw tantrums throughout the game to get what she wanted, she actually throws a tantrum when her plans fail.
• Walking Spoiler: Despite being a Warrior of Hope, Monaca initially seems to be the nicest of them. Her true nature as a manipulative and sociopathic mastermind is only gradually revealed.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: A favorite tactic of hers.
  Monaca: "It's just like I said from the beginning. Pitiful children are the most powerful."
• Xanatos Gambit: Monaca is defeated by Komaru in Chapter 5 and hands her the controller before constantly making it look like breaking it is the best solution. That's because it would ensure every brainwashed kid wearing a Monokuma helmet will explosively kick the bucket. While Komaru decides not to break it, this only makes every enraged adult outside watching the event get more and more furious to the point they don't even care about killing the children... with Haiji's aggressive insistence not helping matters. Either way, it would ensure Monaca's victory. Komaru almost breaks it after Monaca reveals that her parents were tortured and then hanged to death, but Toko prevents her from doing so. Fortunately, Monaca's plan fails after Toko turns down her offer of getting the key to Byakuya's cell in exchange for giving the controller back to her. What's more, after Big Bang Monokuma is destroyed, it redirects the rage of the adults towards Shirokuma and allows them to forget about killing the children — all to Monaca's dismay.

Kurokuma

Kurokuma

Voiced By: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Erin Fitzgerald (English)

The personal advisor of the Warriors of Hope.

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• Affectionate Parody: Of stereotypical "gangster" characters seen in old gangster movies.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Monaca, as his programming forms half of Junko's AI program. Each of them has their own plans for the future, and Monaca's unaware that her despair-loving mentor made such a program at all.
• Character Filibuster: He claims that talking is his "whole purpose in life," to the point where he thinks shutting up will be fatal.
• Cigar Chomper: True to his whole stereotypical gangster look, his cigar is basically an accessory.
• Colorful Theme Naming: While most Monokumas are half-white, Kurokuma's pelt is split between black and a very dark grey.
• Comedic Lolicon: He's supposed to be a goofy character, but he gets one truly weird throwaway line about feeling Monaca's "little hills" touching him.
• Dream Sue: He trails off and tells the remaining Warriors of Hope about a dream he had where he's a famous musician who's friends with Jimi Hendrix.
• Evil Mentor: What his role as the Warriors of Hope's "advisor" is.
• Eyepatch of Power: Evokes this by covering his non-red eye with an eye patch. One that has a heart-shaped bedazzled pattern.
• Foreshadowing: His attitude may bring to mind both Junko's punk personality from the first game and the original Monokuma's tendency to spout irrelevant trivia.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Monaca is the only Warrior for Hope who tolerates his presence, but even her patience for his incessant prattle is finite.
• It's All About Me: He's constantly blowing off the others to talk at length about himself.
• Jerkass: A comically overblown example at times.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Early on, he mentions that he gave Monaca and the other Warriors of Hope the idea to kill off the adults in the first place, but doesn't do much to actively help them. Then the epilogue reveals that he's half of Junko Enoshima's AI program.
• Motor Mouth: He's good at machine-gun talk, meaning he talks very fast... sometimes so fast that he's impossible to understand.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Monaca orders him to be quiet whenever they're having a serious discussion. He also gets blown up, catapulting his head out of the Excalibur's window just before the game's climax.
• Worthy Opponent: When Miu is able to match him in his motor mouth and self-aggrandizing, she gets his respect in Ultimate Summer Camp. Ibuki also gets his respect when she's a match for him in headbanging and energy.

Adult Resistance

Haiji Towa

Haiji Towa

Voiced By Shin-ichiro Miki (Japanese), Matthew Mercer (English)

The leader of the Adult Resistance fighting the Warriors of Hope and the son of Towa City's founder. His right arm is covered in an orthopedic cast.

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• An Arm and a Leg: A Monokuma crushed his right arm prior to the game's events, and he will most likely be able to use it again. Even the nerve endings were damaged to the point that he can't feel any pain from it.
• Asshole Victim: Did he really deserve to have his hope crushed? On the one hand, he's been through a lot. On the other hand, the worst of it is almost entirely his fault.
• Badass Fingersnap: He does this to order the other adults to capture the two heroines.
• Bait the Dog: Comes off as a laid back and charismatic Supporting Leader initially, but is ultimately revealed to be responsible for a large amount of the conflict, and is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing to top it all off.
• Big Brother Bully: Abuses his younger sister Monaca, both emotionally and physically.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The adults at the secret base view him as a good leader, though it quickly turns out that he's not doing much to actually fight back, and he displays an extreme hatred for the kids, even calling them demons and a strong personal bias against the Future Foundation that puts him at odds with Komaru and Toko for a while. As the game progresses, he gradually starts to snap, and by the end of the game, he's hellbent on stopping the kids and getting revenge against them for their cruelty against the adults, even after finding out they were brainwashed and the most obvious means of stopping them would lead to their deaths.
• Comedic Lolicon: Admits so himself, though he says so in the context of being attracted to Komaru, who is a well-developed high school student, meaning he's more of an ephebophile.
  • However, it's more likely to be Pædo Hunt considering he later turns out to be a far more unsympathetic character than he presents himself as at first, especially given how he's treated his own kid sister.
• Despair Event Horizon: The Big Bang Monokuma's destruction completely breaks him, since he saw it as the adults' last hope for fighting back. He crosses this line so hard that it transcends regular despair, which requires deep feelings of emotion, and into a total nihilistic shutdown where he feels no longer alive but doesn't have the will or care to take his own life, meaning he will live the remainder of his day to day life an empty shell of a man simply going through motions.
• Dirty Coward: Toko accuses him of being this, stating, for all his talk, he's just walking around stroking his ego instead of trying help to people. Haiji admits at the start of Chapter 5 that Toko wasn't wrong.
• Fate Worse than Death: He ends up a mentally broken, empty shell of a man who has lost all hope and even the will to live, yet remains alive anyway because he lacks the passion or drive to even so much as attempt suicide.
• Foil: His Character Development mirrors Komaru: Both start out with very little faith in their ability to do anything about the Monokuma crisis, and place their faith in another: Toko versus the Big Bang Monokuma. However, Komaru finds her inner strength and learns how to stand alongside Toko, whereas Haiji initially finds the strength to start fighting back thanks to Shirokuma's sacrifice and Komaru's rousing speech, but ultimately depends too much on the Big Bang Monokuma and breaks when it's destroyed.
• Hate Sink: As a self-admitted pedophile who abused his sister in more ways than one without shame and was willing to manufacture Monokuma drones for the sake of profit, Haiji stands out as one of the most hateable characters in the Danganronpa franchise.
• Jerkass: A violent, perverted, selfish, and cowardly asshole with nary a redeemable quality to be seen.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Haiji has largely escaped punishment for his part in causing the Tragedy, attempting to kill thousands of innocent brainwashed children, and nearly starting a war, but in the end he's completely mentally broken and loses touch with his emotions, becoming like a living corpse who likely isn't capable of doing much leading anymore even if his position within the Adult Resistance were to still stand.
• Knight Templar: With a lot of Never My Fault. He doesn't see a single thing wrong in anything he does, to the bitter end when he stops caring, and he refuses to take the blame for Monaca's past trauma as a Big Brother Bully.
• The Leader: Of the Adult Resistance.
• Nominal Hero: One has to wonder what exactly his heroic traits really are. To make it clear, he's an ultimately unlikable Jerkass Big Brother Bully to Monaca (contributing to her Freudian Excuse), an unrepentant coward who can't admit when he's wrong about something, who has no issues killing innocent people if it means he evens out the odds between his enemies, and he rejects help from Komaru and Toko because they want to help him, and has no real issues throwing them into jail or otherwise under a crazy misunderstanding. Despite this, he's labelled a Resistance leader; that is, for a Resistance against a circumstance that is almost entirely a fault of his own. Of course, he turns out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and was actually an antagonist the whole time.
• Obviously Evil: Though he pretends to be a courteous hero fighting for the adults, his disheveled appearance and disgruntled attitude is enough of an indication that he's really a terrible person.
• Revenge Before Reason: Demands to destroy Monaca's controller, despite learning that it would fill the streets with the headless corpses of innocent children, Monaca intentionally let him and the other adults that aren't parents survive because they would show the least remorse towards children, and that the consequences of destroying the controller would escalate into a world war between the Future Foundation and the Remnants of Despair, with Towa City at the center.
• Sanity Slippage: Shows signs around Chapter 4. This comes into play in the climax.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Has shades of this for the whole game, thanks to witnessing so many of the kids' atrocities against the adults. His credit CG shows him looking utterly broken in the wake of Big Bang Monokuma's defeat.
• Stopped Caring: These are his final words onscreen as he crosses the Despair Event Horizon into his Villainous BSoD.
• Survivor Guilt: He's pretty torn up at first about surviving the Monokuma attack and witnessing his father's brutal murder.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Toko, as per usual, is stunned by how good looking he is when they first meet. She takes this back when she finds out how cowardly and downright monstrous he is.
• Villainous BSoD: His ultimate fate is to live the remainder of his life in this miserable state of emptiness.
• Wasted Beauty: Toko is initially taken aback by Haiji's Long-Haired Pretty Boy looks. Then he starts talking.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Is willing to kill thousands of children if it means putting a stop to the kids' atrocities. Brutally subverted when he's fully willing to play into Monaca's hands and get Towa City embroiled in war if it means getting revenge against the kids, even though this would screw over the adults anyway.
• Would Hurt a Child: Despises the Warriors of Hope and the Monokuma Kids for all they've done, viewing them as being more like demons, and would be willing to let thousands of brainwashed kids die for the sake of his revenge. He also physically abuses his little sister near the end of the game.
• You Killed My Father: His father was executed in front of him, giving him his main motivation for wanting revenge on the Monokuma kids, Monaca in particular. He doesn't succeed, however.
• Younger Than He Looks: He's in his early twenties but he looks at least a decade older.

Hiroko Hagakure

Hiroko Hagakure

Voiced By: Chihiro Ishiguro (Japanese), Jessica Straus (English)

Mother of Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Ultimate Clairvoyant and one of the Killing School Life survivors. An open-minded woman who subscribes to a 'live and let live' philosophy. She asks Komaru to bring her any Hit List Profiles she can find so that she can track down the other targets of the Warriors of Hope.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: In-game, she states that her age is "a secret", but the artbook mentions that she's "around 36 years old." Considering her son Yasuhiro's age, that must mean she was around 14 when she gave birth to him, if you do the math.
• Action Mom: Comes with being a former delinquent and a loving mother. Also, she's managed to survive countless Monokuma attacks to get other Hit List targets to safety and keep her location a mystery.
• Cool Big Sis: Ends up becoming this for Tenko during the Ultimate Summer Camp, which she isn't particularly comfortable about.
• Demoted to Extra: In the manga adaptation, she has only two appearances, since Komaru never turns over the Kill List entries to her.
• Favors for the Sexy: Resistance members aren't supposed to leave the base. However, Hiroko convinces others to act as her envoys and venture out on her orders through her 'womanly power' — which she tells the girls they're a little too young to tap into themselves.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: In Ultimate Summer Camp, she slaps Sonia when she's feeling bad over not finding any potential in her talent before then giving her the advice to just Be Yourself.
• Hero of Another Story: Works behind the scenes — and behind the backs of Haiji and Shirokuma — to track down the other people targeted by the Warriors of Hope and get them to safety.
• Hospital Hottie: Works as a nurse. Or used to before The Tragedy.
• Idiot Hair: Has two strands on top of her head.
• Japanese Delinquents: Used to be one.
• Ms. Exposition: She's in charge of giving Komaru and the player information about the rest of the Hit List targets.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: Prior to the official confirmation, there was debate over whether she was Yasuhiro's mother or sister (of note that prior to the release of the game, the vast majority of fan art on Pixiv had her as his older sister). When the game was first released, there was even a rumor that she was his wife! In-game, this is played for laughs since she refuses to give her actual age and Toko only picks up on her being his mother by her behavior. Ultimately, neither Komaru nor Toko can figure out how old she truly is.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Komaru and Toko "Koko" and "Fufu" respectively ("Komarucchi" and "Fukawacchi" in Japanese). Toko is mildly offended that she's instantly on First-Name Basis with Komaru but not her. This continues in Ultimate Summer Camp, with her calling Sonia "Soso", Chihiro "Chi-Chi", and Kazuichi "Kazu-Kazu".
• Only Sane Woman: While most of the adult Resistance is busy feeling sorry for themselves, wallowing in despair, or getting whipped into a raging mob, she keeps her wits about her and works to find other survivors.
• Shared Family Quirks: In the Japanese version only. Like her son, she refers to people she's friendly with using the -cchi suffix after their names. When she's angry, she slips into using Yasuhiro's Verbal Tic, ending her sentences with -be.
• Smoking Is Cool: She is always seen with a cigarette in her mouth, and she's definitely presented as one of the most competent adults in the game.
• Street Smart: As can be inferred by her delinquency days and seen with her ability to both get outside the base and survive out there as well as she does.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Inverted. Hiroko looks so physically different from Yasuhiro that it's surprising to learn that she's his mother. The only characteristic that they share is their eye color.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Loses her cool after learning about Yuta and Taichi's deaths, slipping back into her old delinquent persona while ranting about how children or not, the Warriors of Hope and their minions shouldn't be killing innocent people.
• Token Adult: Zigzagged. Other than her son, she is the only grown up participating in the Ultimate Summer Camp. She is the only parent of one of the students participating though, a fact that embarrasses Yushiro to no end.

Shirokuma

Shirokuma

Voiced By Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Amanda Céline Miller (English)

An all-white version of Monokuma who serves as the mascot for the Resistance.

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• Big Bad Ensemble: With Monaca, as his programming forms half of Junko's AI program. Each of them has their own plans for the future, and Monaca's unaware that her despair-loving mentor made such a program at all.
• Big Bad Friend: Shirokuma's an interesting example of this since he turns out to be half of Alter Ego Junko.
• Big Damn Heroes: The whole reason he's idolized by the Resistance is that he personally located most of the adult survivors and led them to safety underground. Ultimately subverted, as those particular adult survivors were chosen because they had no kids while their own loved ones were tracked down by Kurokuma and rounded up for Cold-Blooded Torture for the Resistance's members to watch.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's the most convincing example in Ultra Despair Girls thanks to Alter Ego Junko's acting skills.
• Colorful Theme Naming: As his name implies, his pelt is completely white. He gleefully Lampshades this during his introduction.
• Cowardly Lion: He's afraid of other Monokumas, but still helped save several adults. Turns out this was only so that Alter Ego Junko could enjoy the despair caused by the kid-adult war.
• Final Boss: Takes control of Big Bang Monokuma in the game's climax, though this isn't revealed until it's destroyed and Shirokuma's head falls out of it.
• Foreshadowing: His sad sprite has mushrooms growing out the top of his head and his personality is very reminiscent of Junko's cutesy personality.
• Good Counterpart: To Kurokuma and the Monokuma line in general, though not to the same extent Usami was. Ultimately subverted, as his entire personality was merely Alter Ego Junko putting up an act.
• Good Feels Good: States his AI allows him to think for himself, so he chose to do good deeds because his heart tells him it's the right thing. Subverted, as he's actually half of Junko's AI program and has been lying the entire time.
• Hope Spot: Junko's AI intended for this. He's basically supposed to be the representation of false hope for the adults, motivating them not to fight back while simultaneously encouraging it. The real end goal is making the war between children and adults grow into irreversible chaos, which is precisely what is achieved when Haiji decides to fight back purely driven by revenge.
• Love Freak: Shirokuma is all about love, altruism, and generosity — or so he claims.
• Mascot Mook: For the Resistance. Ironically, he's a remodelled version of the series' typical Mascot Mook. He's also a mascot for the game as a whole, with his head being the icon of the PC port.
• Nice Guy: His only concern is the safety and well-being of others. He takes short breaks, not because he needs to (since he's a machine), but because he knows Komaru and Toko are human. Ultimately, like all his heroic tropes, this is subverted. He's half of Junko Enoshima's AI program, with the game's climax seeing him try to kill Komaru and Toko after hijacking Big Bang Monokuma.
• Non-Action Guy: He can't fight at all, and certain segments require Komaru to protect him from danger.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Has completely renounced his identity as a Monokuma, but Toko is not so easily convinced. It turns out she was right to be suspicious.
• Start X to Stop X: He's the one who helps the Resistance fight against the Warriors of Hope, attempting to inspire the hope for others to fight back... so that the war between children and adults can be resolved. It turns out that the reason for this thought process is because he's actually Junko's "cutesy" personality taking the helm, and he's actually trying to further the war, which Komaru accidentally ends up aiding in.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Has a very feminine voice and set of mannerisms, to the point where you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a girl at first.
• Traitor Shot: Right after Big Bang Monokuma is destroyed, he falls out of its head. The crowd cheering Komaru and Toko on quickly find themselves furious that he betrayed the Resistance.

Hit List

List made of 14 individuals who are all survivors of the Tragedy and are the dearest remaining loved ones of the students that participated in the Killing School Life. It's heavily implied each of them were featured in the videos that became the first murder motives in Chapter 1. Now, every single person in the list is considered as a "demon" and is a target for assassination for Warriors of Hope. Komaru, Hiroko, and Taichi are among the people listed. Presenting one of their profiles to Hiroko will unlock a chapter in Ultra Despair Hagakure, a light novel included in the game.

Yuta Asahina 'Yutax'

Yuta Asahina

Voiced By Touko Aoyama (Japanese), Michelle Ruff (English)

A young boy said to be very naïve, but cheerful. He seems to like sports, much like his sister Aoi.

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• Always Someone Better: A minor, more friendly sibling rivalry-like example. When Toko doubts Yuta's ability to swim out into the ocean, he points out that he's actually an excellent swimmer but there was always someone better than him who he couldn't beat.
• Big Eater: Absolutely adore snacks called "Youkan" (sweet bean jelly), to the point of it being his weakness to exploit.
• Big Little Brother: He's 168cm tall while his older sister is 160cm. Not especially strange, as they are only a few years apart and both teenagers.
• Determinator: Sets out to escape Towa City, and is so determined to make it out that he's willing to swim for it.
• Explosive Leash: Like everyone else specifically targeted by the Warriors of Hope, he was forced to wear a bracelet. His winds up detonating when he swims outside the city limits.
• Keet: Shares his sister's enthusiasm for most things.
• Romantic False Lead: Gets a decent amount of Ship Tease with Komaru during his introduction, with Toko going so far as to compare them to acting like a married couple, but dies long before anything substantial can come of it.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Dies very early into the game's events, showing the sheer danger that Komaru and Toko are in.
• Shared Family Quirks: When Komaru gives him her name, he writes it in his palm three times — just like his older sister did with Komaru's older brother.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like his older sister.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed in the first chapter, mere minutes after his introduction.

Taichi Fujisaki 'Taichinchin'

Taichi Fujisaki

Voiced By Kōki Miyata (Japanese), Tony Oliver (English)

The father of Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer who was killed in the Killing School Life. Like his son, he is a meek hearted individual with a slight build and is great with computers.

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• Deathbed Confession: His final words are him admitting that he regrets not being able to meet his son one last time.
• Generation Xerox: Both father and son are Older Than They Look smart guys, rather short for their ages, and die in the second chapter, not before leaving the protagonists a computer that will help them until the end.
• History Repeats: Just like his son, he was murdered in the second chapter.
• Messy Hair: His hair looks very similar to his son's but much messier.
• Nice Guy: Just like his son, he seems to be an understanding, helpful, and friendly individual.
• Older Than He Looks: Being Chihiro's father puts him at least in his mid to late thirties. He looks maybe in his mid-twenties. Going off a photo of him at his son's enrollment, he actually seems to have aged backwards.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son Chihiro was the second one to be murdered during the killing game. He dies without knowing this, though.
• Theme Naming: Retains the "chi" character his son and spiritual granddaughter had in their first names.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: A dead-ringer for an older Chihiro with slightly longer, wavier hair and glasses.
• Uncertain Doom: While he appears to have been killed by a Monokuma, if you go back to the elevator later in the game, his body will be gone, implying that he survived his wounds.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Last only a bit longer than Yuta does.

Kanon Nakajima 'Kanondos'

Kanon Nakajima

Leon Kuwata's cousin and another target of the Warriors of Hope. Protagonizes alongside Yasuhiro Hagakure in the extra novel Ultra Despair Hagakure.

All the training she did to stalk her cousin and to win the bet they had set finally pays off after The Tragedy, for she's shown to be amazingly competent in combat and a sharpshooter. Luckily for Yasuhiro.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: A variation. Kanon is constantly mentioned to be pretty and it's also shown that Leon cares very deeply about her, but he's obviously quite uncomfortable with her affections and rejects them at every given opportunity. It's their close family bond and her refusal to accept a no what makes her pushy love abhorrent to him.
• All Love Is Unrequited: At least romantic love. She admits her feelings were never requited, and while Leon cared about her a lot, it was only as a little sister. In fact, his constant worry and evident care towards her well-being after each time he rejected her did nothing to help her move on.
• Attempted Rape: In a rather disturbing scene, Kotoko used the Feeler Machine on Kanon to successfully sexually assault her before Yasuhiro finally rescued her.
• Big Brother Attraction: Though technically cousins, they were raised together, Leon explicitly says he thinks of her as a little sister, and she calls him by the more obvious Leon-oniichan/Big Brother Leon
• Character Development: Strikingly, she goes through this as she spends time with Yasuhiro. She could have killed him right there and then when they met, but his pathetic attitude put her plan to a halt. While spending time with him, she somehow saw Leon in him, until he asked her about what she thought about the Future Foundation. After narrowly escaping Kotoko and Masaru's robots by Yasuhiro trusting in his fortune-telling in the subway tunnel collapsing, she slowly starts to understand how wrong she was to think that Leon didn't care for her through Yasuhiro's facts and that the Future Foundation was probably not at fault. She even seems to not mind in helping Yasuhiro get out of his ridiculous debt.
• Cute Sports Club Manager: She became the manager of Leon's baseball team to stay close to him.
• Detrimental Determination: Her determination and devotion would be admirable if it wasn't portrayed as unhealthy, obsessive, senseless, and ultimately tragic.
• Deuteragonist: Of Ultra Despair Hagakure.
• Driven to Suicide: Attempts to kill herself after finding out what happened to Leon.
• Expy: Of Ryoko Otonashi, as both are deeply in love with their targets of affection; so much that their whole mindset is based on them, to unhealthy levels. Both also developed a Single-Target Sexuality very early on in life and are known to display Yandere like mindsets when it comes to avenging or protecting the object of their affections.
• The Ghost: She is mentioned in Ultimate Talent Development Plan and Ultimate Summer Camp, where Leon is mentioned to be buying souvenirs for her.
• Idiot Hair: Sprouting out of her bow, no less.
• Impossible Task: Leon once proposed that he'd consider her as a dating prospect if she threw a 160 mph pitch. After learning that the Japanese record for female pitchers was 140 mph (and in real life, the world record for fastest pitch thrown ever is 105.8 mph, by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds), Kanon concluded he'd done this to get rid of her, especially since he'd forbidden her to so much as talk to him until she'd done it. However, it later appeared that he simply didn't know that trivia and was trying to encourage her to do her best because he believed in her potential to do something amazing. He also probably wanted her to focus her energies and HUGE determination onto doing something good for herself instead of stalking him every day.
• Morality Pet: Yasuhiro, of all people, becomes one for her. She repeatedly protects him, even when it's clear he's The Load, and only turns on him when she finds out he's part of the Future Foundation, which she quickly regrets. She tells him to leave her behind to save himself when they're attacked by Kotoko and Masaru and in fact, her friendship with him is even enough to get her to wonder whether the Future Foundation might be good guys.
• Odd Friendship: With Yasuhiro. A Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense Action Girl genuinely getting along with a Cowardly Lion con-man? Somehow it works.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Implied to be this by how easily she gave Yasuhiro all of her pocket money for mere fortune-telling without thinking twice, for money has never been an issue for her.
• Revenge Myopia: Initially wants to kill the six Killing Game survivors to avenge Leon. Not only did Leon commit at least second-degree (with a very good argument for first-degree) murder, the other students were forced to convict him at gunpoint as the rules of the game meant their own lives would be forfeit if he graduated. Kanon (initially) doesn't care.
• Satellite Character: How she sees herself in-universe, to rather unhealthy levels. Her entire life was based around Leon and trying to win his affections. After his death, she finds no reason to keep living and she only stops herself from committing suicide in order to claim revenge first.
• Shared Family Quirks: Despite the many differences, she's shown to be very similar to Leon in that both are hotheaded, impulsive, and don't think things through. This is brought home when she throws Yasuhiro's crystal ball to Kotoko, something that is meant to mirror what Leon did in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and the IF novel.
• Single-Target Sexuality: She is only attracted by her cousin Leon since she was 6 years old to the point of her declaring her love to him 3909 times up until the last time she saw him. He rejected her every single time.
• Stalker with a Crush: Being two years younger, she followed Leon through elementary, middle, and high school whenever she reached the appropriate grade, became the manager of his baseball team to stay close to him, and followed him around while he was dating other girls, even training herself to become a perfectly stealthy stalker.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • While sometimes she is shown to understand that her affections were never requited, her sheer refusal to accept a no (or 3909 of those) and her strong belief that Leon was her 'fated person' makes her a bit out of touch with her reality.
  • She also believes that by killing the six survivors of the killing game, she'll avenge Leon's death, when in reality they were his friends and are actually the good guys. Essentially, she's trying to do something Leon himself would disapprove of.
• Yandere:
  • If the above tropes didn't make it clear, she also admits thinking very often of inflicting "some punishment" as she stalked Leon on his dates with girls. The only reason she never acted upon those wishes was that in her eyes, Leon hadn't done anything bad yet and didn't want him to hate her.
  • And then there is the notebook Yasuhiro found, featuring dozens of pages with just Leon's name up until the ink ran out.

Takaaki Ishimaru 'Takaakix'

Takaaki Ishimaru

Kiyotaka Ishimaru's father. A police officer, as well as the son of a former Prime Minister.

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• Battle Trophy: Disturbingly, his profile urges anyone who manages to kill him to take a piece of his body as a trophy.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Like father, like son.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son, Kiyotaka, was the third victim in the killing game.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Looks like an older, more grizzled version of Kiyotaka.
• Theme Naming: The last kanji in Kiyotaka's name means 'summer', while the last kanji in Takaaki's name means 'autumn'.
• Weaksauce Weakness: His profile claims he can be defeated by tickling his sides until he can't concentrate well enough to defend himself.

Fujiko Yamada 'Madafujirus'

Fujiko Yamada

Hifumi Yamada's sister. Mangaka of 4-panel manga.

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• All Women Are Lustful: Is just as perverted as her brother, frequently draws pictures of naked men (most likely doing things with each other), and her file suggests using the corpses of naked men as bait to lure her out (though it doesn't say whether this actually works or not).
• Gonk: While her eyes and overall expression makes her "cuter" than her brother, she's drawn in the same strange way.
• Food Porn: According to Komaru, her drawings of food will make you start drooling.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Her name comes from the mangaka Fujiko F. Fujio, the author of Doraemon.
• Odango Hair: Has a massive pair of these.
• Older Than She Looks: She's Hifumi's older sister, but looks younger than him.
• Pen Name: Writes the popular manga Tara ☆ Spa under the pen name "Teacher Second Fry".
• Strong Family Resemblance: Shares her brother's peculiar design.

Ayaka Haneyama 'Ayakanegon'

Ayaka Haneyama

A member of Sayaka Maizono's idol group, whom adherents call Ayakasu.

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• Always Someone Better: Her card says she has a 'complex over being number one', and considering how Sayaka Maizono was the group leader and Ayaka was always in the far back, it probably means this trope.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Known for saying "It's not Kasu, it's Ayakasu!" (The 'Kasu' in this case translating to 'scum'.)
• Gonk: A borderline example: her extremely narrow eyes and broad nose make her stand out, particularly when compared to the other members of her troupe. In all the images she appeared in the first game, she was in the far back, in a semi-profile shot to hide the shape of her nose, and was the only idol other than Sayaka herself whose dress exposed her stomach, drawing the eye away.
• Idol Singer: What she used to be before The Tragedy.

Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg 'Nekonekomaru'

Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg

Taeko 'Celestia Ludenberg' Yasuhiro's pet cat.

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• Cats Are Mean: Described by the kids as having a "muddy, rotten soul."
• Kill It with Fire: The card says to "burn it to ash with a fire attack," which is definitely a reference to Celeste's execution.
• Picky Eater: He can't be lured with any kind of food, only his favorite.
• Right-Hand Cat: He would be, for Celeste, if it's implied that he was on Celeste's video, to go along with Celeste's dark, ruthless gambler persona.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Gyoza, just like his owner.
• Uncatty Resemblance: Jet-black fur and dressed in frilly laced collar with a bow, much like the finery his owner enjoyed wearing, and he even has the same favorite food.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: A variant — after rescuing him, Toko questions what they should do with him in the aftermath, as his owner is dead so they can't return him to her.

Kenichirō 'Kenshirox'

Kenichirō

Sakura Ogami's terminally ill boyfriend.

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• Determinator: In the original game, Sakura stated Kenichirō had about six months left to live. Given the context and timeline, this means he survived over five times that amount.
• Disease Bleach: His black hair seems to have turned white.
• Life Will Kill You: Sakura could never beat him in a fair fight — and never would, as he suffered a terminal illness that emaciated him before she entered Hope's Peak.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: As illustrated by his concept art,◊ he's emaciated from his illness.
• Only One Name: Not even the Kill Cards provide him with a surname, unlike the rest of the human targets.
• Shout-Out: He is mentioned in the original game, and received a Dub Name Change into... Kenshiro. His character art also has him performing Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, and now that his hair has turned white from the illness, he's clearly also channeling Toki.
• Technician Versus Performer: He was the 'Performer' to Sakura's Technician. He was never formally trained in martial arts (though he was apparently heir to an assassin clan) and she describes him as a 'wild' fighter, but she never could overcome him.
• Your Days Are Numbered: His illness (now specified to be a heart disease) is still affecting him, and he apparently doesn't have very long to live. Of course, the last time Sakura saw him that she could remember, he had six months, and she says that he managed to outlive that prediction.

Fuhito Kirigiri 'Kirihitotein'

Fuhito Kirigiri

Kyouko Kirigiri's grandfather and mentor.

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• All for Nothing: An interpretation of his goal to mold Kyoko into the Ultimate Detective, since the majority of her memories and his teachings get erased in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and she eventually follows in her father's footsteps as vice-principal of Hope's Peak Academy in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.
• Ascended Extra: He is a very minor character in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls but a lot more time is focused on fleshing him out in the light novel Danganronpa Kirigiri.
• Great Detective: Part of the Kirigiri line, and the man who taught Kyoko everything she knows.
• I Have No Son!: Years ago, he kicked his own son — Jin Kirigiri — out of the family and loathed him because he didn't want to become a detective. However, he dragged him back after finding out about Kyoko's birth so he could train her to be his heir instead.
• Jerkass: He disowned his son for not being a detective. Later, he refused to let seven-year-old Kyoko visit her dying mother because detective work comes before anything else. When Jin got angry with the way Fuhito treated his dying wife and abandoned the family, Fuhito encouraged Kyoko to hate her father.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Averted. His last appearance is in Ultra Despair Girls in which he hides near the Towa City Integrated Book Store for the entire game. It's implied he survives being targeted by the Warriors of Hope since Hiroko Hagakure sends men to rescue him.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Kyoko was this for Fuhito to create a successor to the title of "Ultimate Detective" after his son disappointed him.
• Outliving One's Offspring: He outlives his son Jin.
• Passing the Torch: Wants to leave his vast detective knowledge to a successor. He had wanted it to be his son, Jin, but when he rejects the legacy he instead settles on his granddaughter Kyoko.
• Stern Teacher: Fuhito taught Kyoko everything she knows about the detective business and protected her from anything he deemed a threat. However, he was also very strict about raising Kyoko as his heir and taught her to be a detective before anything else, causing the majority of Kyoko's emotional issues. Nevertheless, Kyoko loves her grandfather dearly and he encourages her friendship with Yui Samidare.

Kameko 'Kamekox'

Kameko

Toko Fukawa's pet stink bug.

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• A Lizard Named "Liz": The Japanese word for stink bug is kamemushi.
• Birds of a Feather: Toko says that Kameko is the only one who understands what she goes through; being scorned by others for their smell.
• Only Friend: She was Toko's only friend growing up. Although Toko never stops loving Kameko, she does eventually accept that she's just a normal bug and thus unable to understand her feelings.

Aloysius Pennyworth 'Gross Butlerix'

Aloysius Pennyworth

Byakuya Togami's butler.

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• Battle Butler: His card says that his power doubles when Byakuya is badmouthed, and it is advised to be careful around him.
• Berserk Button: Badmouthing Byakuya in his presence will anger him greatly.
• Creepy Good: The Warriors of Hope find him eerie and claim he has a creepy voice.
• Shout-Out: His Japanese demon name "Kimoshitsujisu" is probably one to Black Butler. Also, his last name is absolutely a reference to Alfred Pennyworth, the loyal butler of Batman, and his first name one to Aloysius Parker.
• Undying Loyalty: To Byakuya Togami.

Takemichi Yukimaru 'Gontakerus'

Takemichi Yukimaru

A member of Mondo Owada's gang.

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• Ambiguously Gay: His card says that he "doesn't look like [he] likes girl Demons". Though it's possible that he's not interested in anyone or the Warriors of Hope were just insulting him.
• The Consigliere: He is described as highly intelligent and coolheaded and often helped Mondo control his temper.
• The Creon: It is implied that Mondo made him the interim leader of the Crazy Diamonds while he was attending Hope's Peak Academy and that Takemichi fully intended to give the position back once Mondo graduated.
• Informed Attractiveness: His character design isn't too different from previous characters, but apparently he is thought of as very good-looking by Hiroko and popular enough with the women to have his own fan club.
• Instant Fan Club: Is said to have a fan club despite not being interested in romance. Or at least, not with women.
• Japanese Delinquents: Naturally, considering he is a member of the Crazy Diamonds, a Bosozoku gang.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Owada Siblings. Following Daiya's death, he became the closest person to Mondo.

Returning Characters

"The Servant"

Nagito Komaeda

Ultimate Lucky Student (Ultimate Despair)

Voiced By Megumi Ogata (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)

For tropes related to Nagito, see his separate page.

Byakuya Togami

Byakuya Togami

Ultimate Affluent Progeny

Voiced By Akira Ishida (Japanese), Jason Wishnov (English)

One of the survivors of the Killing School Life, heir to the now destroyed Togami Conglomerate and object of Toko's affections. Now a member of the Future Foundation, he is the one who supplied Komaru with her hacking gun. He is subsequently captured by the Warriors of Hope, and Toko's attempting to rescue him.

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For tropes related to Byakuya, see his separate page.

Makoto Naegi

Makoto Naegi

Ultimate Hope

Voiced By Megumi Ogata (Japanese), Bryce Papenbrook (English)

Komaru's older brother, and the hero of the Killing School Life. Now a member of the Future Foundation, Makoto supports his sister throughout the story.

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Click to read more about him

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Ultimate Clairvoyant

One of the survivors of the Killing School Life, and a member of the Future Foundation's Reserve Squad. He's featured as the protagonist of Ultra Despair Hagakure, a light novel included in the game that follows his adventures alongside Kanon Nakajima as they roam Towa City at the same time the events of the main game happen.

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• Big Damn Heroes: When he finally gets to rescue Kanon on their fight against Kotoko, instead of the other way around.
• Butt-Monkey: Old habits die hard it seems. He keeps getting attacked and couldn't even defend himself. And he would have died if it wasn't for Nakajima saving him.
• Character Development: After spending most of the novel in trouble and counting on Kanon to save him, he finally stands for himself and rescues Kanon from Kotoko. Even more importantly, he decides to help her out and stick by her instead of running away from danger on his own.
• Con Man: Subverted. He shows all the traits of a con man and behaves as such, but the novel proves that his clairvoyant abilities are absolutely genuine and he never lies about them.
• A Day in the Limelight: Ultra Despair Hagakure is mostly told from his point of view.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Some official art in the guidebook shows he ties his hair back in a ponytail now.
• Hero of Another Story: Of his own novel, happening at the same time as the main plot of the game.
• Hidden Depths: While being inept in combat, he proves to be much smarter than he let on in the first game. He is able to calculate possibilities and choose the best option once he finds himself in possible trouble.
• The Load: Pretty much stuck as one to Kanon. Subverted during the last chapter, where he proves his worth.
• Only in It for the Money: He denies it, but it's obvious his priority in Towa City is to get the money to pay his debt.
• Opportunistic Bastard: When he first arrives in Towa City, Yasuhiro is more interested in secretly stealing stuff in order to help pay off his eight million yen debt rather than actually following his assignment. This almost gets him killed.
• Plucky Comic Relief: As per usual. He even lampshades it by saying he can't keep being the comic relief anymore.
• Skewed Priorities: Considering the state of the world, his debt probably doesn't even matter all that much. Not to mention, going off a throwaway line in IF, he probably isn't in debt anymore.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Totally went to Towa City to help people and not to steal things to pay off his 8 million yen debt.

Leon Kuwata

Leon Kuwata

Ultimate Baseball Star

Kanon's cousin and the object of her affections, who was executed as the first killer of the Killing School Life.

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• Ascended Extra: In the original game, Leon was not very prominent, receiving relatively little focus until he was outed as the Chapter 1 culprit before promptly being executed. While he's dead in the present day, he forms the core motive for one of Ultra Despair Hagakure's main protagonists and Kanon's flashbacks greatly expand on his character.
• Big Brother Instinct: Downplayed. While he never shows the flashier displays sometimes associated with the trope, Leon is distressed each time he sees Kanon crying, always makes sure to reject her as gently as he can every time she confesses, and generally cares a lot about her well being. He makes a point to tell her he sees her only as his little sister, and consistently treats her and her antics as those of an Annoying Younger Sibling during the novel's flashback scenes.
• KidAnova: Previously thought to be something akin to a Casanova Wannabe, Kanon confirmed his status as both this and a Chick Magnet even before Hope's Peak.
• Kissing Cousins: Deconstructed. During one of his many rejections of Kanon, he clarifies that he doesn't have feelings for her and considers cousin marriage wrong, even if it is allowed by the law.
  "Even if it's okay law-wise, it's not gonna happen. Like, if you kill a dog, the law says that's property damage, but a dog's more than property. What I'm trying to say is that the law isn't always right, y'know?"
• Nice Guy: Leon's role in the flashbacks of Ultra Despair Hagakure gave his character more depth beyond the boisterous attitude, and highlighted the better sides of his personality thanks to his responses to Kanon's increasingly pushy behavior.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his attempts to stop Kanon from crying each time he rejected her or called out her troublesome hobbies, he unwillingly made her believe their relationship was improving and thus kept feeding her obsession.
• Living Emotional Crutch: He was one to Kanon, though he probably never knew how much. His death is Kanon's motivation for all her actions during the course of Ultra Despair Hagakure.
• Posthumous Character: Is one of the 10 victims of the Killing School Life.
• Shared Family Quirks: Both him and Kanon show the same stubbornness, impulsiveness and lack of foresight.

Junko Enoshima

Junko Enoshima

Ultimate Fashionista (Ultimate Despair)

See her separate page.

Izuru Kamukura

Izuru Kamukura

Ultimate Hope (Ultimate Despair)

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Click here to see his page

Other

Takuichi Towa

Takuichi Towa

Voiced By Junpei Asahina (Japanese)

The head of the Towa Group, as well as father to both Haiji and Monaca. Was brutally murdered by a horde of Monokuma during the initial takeover.

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• Asshole Victim: The way he went out was brutal, but given everything he did while still alive...?
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Komaru is forced to borrow his head in order to get past a door unlocked with a retinal scanner.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Monaca convinced him to treat the Incident as a business opportunity.
• Demonic Possession: His restless spirit briefly manages to possess Komaru after she borrows his body part. Toko manages to exorcise him.
• Never My Fault: He blames Junko Enoshima for Monaca being the way she is today, not even considering for a moment the mere possibility that his and Haiji's abuse and neglect may have had something to do with it.
• Parental Neglect: His daughter Monaca was born out of wedlock and he considered her an unwanted child. So he gave little to no attention to her at all.
• Poison and Cure Gambit: Part of how the Towa Group rose to power following the Incident was by creating air purifiers to counter poisonous gases that were released. Turns out the Towa Group was responsible for those releases in the first place.
• Posthumous Character: Despite Haiji claiming he just "disappeared", he's been dead from the start but we learn a fair bit about him because of all the problems he helped start. His ghost even appears later on.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: He believes Monica is indebted to him for simply taking her in, even though he ignored her as much as possible, deliberately made her feel unwelcome, and admits he "wouldn't have tolerated the pregnancy" had he known her mother wasn't capable of caring for her alone.

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