The Naekawa Project
is a series of Danganronpa fanfics by YoungMrKusuma.
Toko Fukawa never expected Makoto Naegi to go on a date with her, but finds herself falling for the Lucky Student. The fic chronicles their adventures as they go through life, especially with Toko's numerous problems, like Genocide Syo, her horrific past, and Makoto's worry he hasn't done enough to help her.
Alongside the main series, there's also the spinoff ''The Naekawa Project: Ficlets, focusing on other events during their relationship.
The Naekawa Project provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Toko's parents are most definitely fitting for this trope, as the rumors that her father hit her and her mothers would say terrible things were apparently tamer. The stories she tells spell it out how bad they were.
- Genji, her father, hitting her is further explained, as he whipped her back raw for dropping a spoon while her second mother Shizuku called her existence a mistake.
- Himari, Toko's first mother, locked her in a closet for three days, and her father and second mother laughed about it while saying they didn't have to look at her ugly face.
- Shizuku ripped up a manuscript she'd been working on for six months and then blotted out, laughing as Toko begged her to stop.
- The Atoner: Surprisingly, Himari, Toko's first mother, shows some remorse for her abusive actions, as when Toko recounts what her childhood, Himari is shown looking down in shame, and does attempt to apologize for her behavior towards her.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Makoto is incredibly kind-hearted and gentle, but his anger is something that even Toko fears, and this comes in full force when he comes to learn how horrific the childhood of his girlfriend and eventual wife was. When Shizuku attempts to slap her for spelling out her bad her childhood was, he grabs her arm in a vice-like grip and shuts her up, replacing Shizuku's anger with fear.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: When Toko has her children, she does her best to be a good mother to them, refusing to become like her parents. This has worked wonderfully, as her kids adore her, and this is a major part of her much deserved happy ending.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: This fic gender-inverts this trope with the relationship between Toko Fukawa and Makoto Naegi. Toko is the Brooding Babe, as a lifetime of parental abuse and bullying in school has wrecked her self-esteem and body image and left her with social anxiety and a Serial Killer split-personality. By contrast, Makoto is the Gentle Guy, as a loving family and an upbeat personality makes him a naturally kind, friendly, and loving person who sees the best in people and supports them. Their relationship is shown to cause wonders for Toko's mental state, as she is able to slowly start opening up to her boyfriend, and eventual husband, becoming happier as time passes and finding a much better family in the Naegis.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Toko chews out her mothers, but especially Shizuku, for expecting her to help them after they abused and neglected her, making her childhood a living hell and riddling her with several mental scars.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Toko suffers severe parental abuse and mockery from other students, causing her to not only develop severe social anxiety and self-loathing but create a serial killer split personality in Genocider Syo. One of the biggest threads throughout the series is Makoto working to dispel a lot of her negative feelings about herself, assuring her that she's beautiful in his eyes. Fortunately, she ultimately ends up marrying Makoto, feeling more confident about herself and gaining better in-laws in the form of the Naegis, while also having two kids that utterly adore both her and Syo, with the latter stopping her serial killing.
- Entitled Bastard: Toko's second mother, Shizuku, feels that Toko owes her parents for raising her, in spite of the fact that they were horrendously abusive, denying that they were as such.
- Freudian Excuse: Beyond canon's Prank Date, a lot of Toko's insecurities and anxieties revolve around her horrendously abusive childhood, fraught with physical and psychological abuse.
- Gold Digger: Toko's parents, especially her father, are this to her, taking profits from her literature work for them to binge on expensive meals and other hedonistic pleasures. One way Toko hits them after cutting ties with them is to cut off their funding connection with her, causing their living standard to crash and burn.
- Good Parents: As could be expected, Makoto's parents, Emiko and Toshiro, are wonderful parents who greatly love their son and daughter, which Toko gets surprised by thanks to her parents being the opposite. They later become an in-law variation of this for Toko.
- Makoto and Toko are this as well to their kids, with Syo also joining in. Toko is the "Smart Mommy" who helps them with homework and answers questions about the world, while Syo is the "Fun Mommy" who plays video games and has pillow fights with them.
- Happily Married: When Makoto and Toko finally tie the knot, their relationship is beautiful, as they happily support one another and dearly love each other. This also applies to Makoto and Syo, who is just as happy.
- I Am Not Pretty: Toko's abusive childhood has destroyed her self-esteem, constantly leaving her feeling that she's ugly, and one thing Makoto works is to help her avert this trope, telling her that she's beautiful to him.
- I Reject Your Reality: Shizuku constantly denies how abusive she was in spite of Himari and Toko pointing out that it did happen. Makoto later quotes "The Narcissist's Prayer" as a result.
- Insecure Love Interest: Because of how she's been mistreated in the past, Toko is shown to be confused by what her boyfriend and eventual husband Makoto sees in her, viewing herself as ugly, and also feels that Makoto may one day leave her for someone prettier than she is. This is something that Makoto works hard on to help her with throughout the series, reassuring her that he loves her, she's beautiful to him, and isn't going anywhere. Ironically, Makoto himself feels unworthy of Toko when he learns of her Abusive Parents, feeling that he failed to protect her, and Toko finds herself working to reassure him that he's doing enough to help her in her eyes.
- Lemon: Pure Naekawa Smut is this, though also gives a glance into more of Toko's self-esteem issues, and how Makoto works to help her.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Syo is basically this, being far more excitable and spontaneous than Toko, and their children consider her the "Fun Mommy".
- Meaningful Echo: During their first date, Toko has a brief fit of anxiety of Makoto leaving midway through the movie they're watching, with him assuring her by saying "I’m not going anywhere". Later, when Makoto is nervous about proposing to Syo after doing so with Toko, she assures him that they'll work something out if she doesn't, flashing back to the first date and saying, "I’m not going anywhere".
- Nervous Wreck: Toko, like in canon, is this, constantly struggling with her shattered self-esteem and anxiety as the result of her abusive childhood. She does start to lose attributes of this thanks to her relationship with Makoto, but she can suffer from anxiety attacks if sufficiently triggered, such as a sudden blackout.
- Official Couple: Alongside Makoto and Toko, there's also Celeste and Kyoko, Aoi and Sakura, Mondo and Taka, and Leon and Chihiro.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Throughout the series, Toko slowly becomes less acerbic and snappish, slowly becoming gentler and kinder as it goes on as she gains more and more confidence in herself.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Syo may be an ex-Serial Killer, but she's still happy to use violence, and as such, she's incredibly protective of Makoto, which is shown when he gets attacked by another attendant at a convention they're at.
