Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.
This game has a lot of contrasting characters both within the main game, and within the Crossover-based minigame Ultimate Talent Development Plan.
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Between characters in the main story
- Miu Iruma and Korekiyo Shinguji. Both students are practitioners of BDSM, specifically enjoying bondage play. Most of the time Korekiyo acts calm and polite, although can come off as creepy. Iruma is expressive and rude, but can be rather endearingly dorky at times. Their free time events even reveal both have been through near-death experiences that fundamentally changed something about them mentally and how they view themselves, resulting in who they are today. However, Miu thinks her coma led to her becoming a "sci-fi" augmented human being, as she wasn't talented before her accident seemed to improve her and let her be able to help others with her inventions, and this is all Played for Laughs despite her attempting to hurt herself because of it. Korekiyo's incident, on the other hand, is deadly serious as it's directly connected to the creation of his "supernatural" Sister persona, general interest in painplay as a means of "connecting" with his dead sister again, and murdering nearly 100 innocent women. Also, when both were setting up their individual plans to murder someone, Iruma was shown to be extremely guilt-ridden over what she about to do, while Korekiyo showed no true remorse for his actions and comes across as excited about his plans.
- This also works with Miu and Kaede. Out of all the students, Miu has the strongest physical resemblance to Kaede. Like Kaede, Miu has long blonde hair with at least one ahoge, and a sizable bust. However, their personalities are complete opposites. Miu is rude, selfish, and weak-willed when confronted, while Kaede is a Nice Girl that cares about others and acts strong in dire situations. Incidentally, both Miu and Kaede planned to murder one of the most evil classmates, only to be Out-Gambitted by their targets. In both cases, their target used another student to counter their plan and had Miu and Kaede killed. Kaede was framed by the mastermind for Rantaro's murder and was executed. Kokichi manipulated Gonta to kill Miu during her own attempt to murder him. Also, both Miu (or her avatar to be specific) and Kaede were both killed as a result of strangulation. Additionally, Kaede is the Implied Love Interest to Shuichi, the game's true protagonist, while Miu is often Ship Tease with Ki-bo, the In-Universe protagonist.
- Maki and Tenko form a reverse-colored Red Oni, Blue Oni duo here. While they have completely opposite personalities, Maki being the very cold to others while Tenko's extremely passionate, they have very similar designs (both having choppy bangs, dark hair, a beauty mark, long pigtails and Sailor Fuku) and are staunchly defensive of those they love. They also express that love in opposite ways, as Maki tries shrugging off Kaito, who keeps coming to her and getting her involved with others anyway, while with Tenko she's the one pursuing a disinterested Himiko.
- Another example of this trope would be between Maki and Kokichi (the other major Anti-Hero in the game). While Kokichi is a Card-Carrying Villain, Maki attempted to hide her criminal past from everybody. Maki is a trained assassin, Kokichi's organization has a Thou Shall Not Kill policy. While Maki is The Stoic, Kokichi is a prankster as well as a Troll. Additionally, Maki is Kaito's Love Interest, while Kokichi and Kaito show mutual resentment towards each other.
- Kokichi is described by Hiro Shiromo as actually being quite meek; the only thing that really stops him from being a Shrinking Violet like Shuichi is his desire to be the smartest person in the room. This makes the two of them shy or introverted, up until they have an opportunity where they can be clever and make the most of their talents. For different reasons, they're both talented liars - Kokichi is because he deliberately makes the truthfulness of his words vague, while Shuichi can get away with lying because he's earned everyone's trust and they assume that, if Shuichi's saying it, it must be true. They're also both talented at telling when other people are lying, and their talents rely on being knowledgeable about crime.
- Kokichi and Keebo. Keebo is very serious and literal-minded while Oma is usually joking around or doing things for his own amusement. Keebo is very polite and careful about what he says while Oma is rude and has no filter. Keebo's motives and thoughts are straightforward while Oma is fickle and difficult to read. Their differences make Oma interested in Ki-bo while Ki-bo wants nothing to do with him. Both characters don't understand each other. Aesthetically they also contrast each other: Oma wears white and has smooth dark-purple hair, while Keebo has angular white hair and has a body made of dark metal.
- Kokichi is also one to Kaito. While Kokichi is a Card-Carrying Villain, Kaito is an Ideal Hero. While Kaito believes in trusting people, Kokichi is far too cynical and refuses to trust anybody. While Kokichi tends to look at facts to figure out who the killer is, Kaito tends to use the Power of Friendship to figure out who the killer is. Come to Chapter Four where Kokichi tries to prove Gonta guilty of killing Miu, Kaito tries to prove Gonta's innocence. This is part of the reason why they didn't get along in the killing game due to their different viewpoints.
- Kokichi and Gonta also contrast. While Kokichi is the most intelligent student in the game, Gonta is Super Gullible and naive. In addition, Gonta can initially come off as scary due to his intimidating appearance but is actually a Gentle Giant and one of the nicest characters in the game, while Kokichi looks cute at first glance but is manipulative and sly.
- Kokichi also acts as one towards Himiko. Both of those people started out as people suppressing their own thoughts and emotions. However, while Himiko is able to let out all of the emotions bottling inside her, Kokichi never once lets those emotions out until he is dying from Maki's poison. Also, during the time when they are both bottling up, Himiko calls everything a pain as well as being extremely lazy. Meanwhile, Kokichi is very proactive in disrupting the killing game at any cost. Also, both of them lie about the extent of their talents as Himiko states that she uses real magic, and Kokichi stated that he has an organization of 10,000 members when in actuality, he has ten members.
- Kokichi and Tsumugi are two of the Token Evil Teammates of this game. However, while Tsumugi is the true Big Bad of the game, Kokichi is a Red Herring who attempts to make everyone believe that he is the mastermind. While Tsumugi ended up laying low throughout the killing game, Kokichi loves to be in the center of the spotlight. Also, while Tsumugi was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, Kokichi is a Card-Carrying Villain.
- Kokichi and Angie also foil each other well as the false Token Evil Teammate of their respective genders. Both are tiny and cute-looking manipulative control freaks, but both have very different ways of trying to keep that control and reasons for it. Angie prefers to have others willingly agree to her leadership while Kokichi relies more on reverse psychology than direct orders. Angie is heavily implied to be lying about hearing the "voice of Atua" in order to give her own desires more backing in case anyone would refuse her otherwise, while Kokichi's far more open about his lies even at the cost of hiding his true feelings or lying to himself to try and help the group as a whole. They are also respected leaders in their own communities, Angie being a religious "prophet" back home and Kokichi has D.I.C.E. Kokichi and Angie have white as the primary color of their character pallets, but their secondary colors (purple and yellow respectively) are opposites which suits how Angie tries to hide her darker elements through a cheery exterior while Kokichi likes to paint himself as the bad guy whenever he can. In a meta sense Kokichi's Nazi-ish elements also play with this as while he's the "Ultimate Furher" in some translations Hitler was also an aspiring artist before going into politics, like Angie's talent.
- In a similar vein Korekiyo is one to Angie, as both serve as a Token Evil Teammate due to how they handle their personal religious/spiritual beliefs. However, Angie ended up being an Affably Evil Anti-Villain who ultimately wanted to comfort the other students about the deaths of everybody else and stop the killing game in her own way, while Korekiyo turned out to be one of the most evil characters in the entire series who killed two random people because of reasons completely unrelated to the killing game itself. Also, while Angie's personality and motivations have very little to deal with her talent, Korekiyo's talent and his interests directly related to it makes up the vast majority of his character. Both also claim to be in touch with a sort of spiritual entity, but while Angie's "God" Atua is vaguely defined, mostly benign, and may be a lie she uses to manipulate others for her benefit, the "ghost" of Korekiyo's sister is seen actively "possessing" him, encourages him to commit murder, and could just be a personal delusion as a coping mechanism for his grief. Visually they also contrast a lot as she's one of the most underdressed characters of the game and has dark skin and white hair, while his outfit covers all but the upper half of his face and has pale skin and black hair.
- Kaede and Maki can also be considered foils to one another. From the start, Kaede is seen as a friendly girl who loves everyone and smiles all the time, and then there's Maki who outright says that she isn't friendly at all. Kaede acts like the leader of the group and with her cheerful and optimistic personality, she made the group work together to get out of the academy. However, Maki is one of the people who started to dislike her bossy attitude, and bluntly said she thought it would be Kaede's fault if their group started to fall apart. When they first meet, they talk about how they are gonna get out of there and while Kaede is idealistic, Maki is more realistic and says Kaede is too naive and that there's no way they're gonna get out that easily. Both tried to kill the mastermind, but while Kaede had no idea who the mastermind was till the very end and was aiming for an unknown identity, Maki believed Kokichi was the mastermind because he made everyone believe he was, so she tried to kill him to end the Killing Game. They both acted on their own even though they already made plans with other characters to end it without killing anyone. Kaede had a plan with Shuichi while Maki made a plan with the others. Both of their murder attempts failed, Kaede's ball missed Rantaro and Kaito protected Kokichi. Their attempts led to the death of two people in each case, in Kaede's case it was Rantaro and Kaede herself while in Maki's case it was Kokichi and Kaito. Then during the trial, they both did something very different. Maki believed she was the killer and being more selfish, she tried to get everyone killed to get rid of Kokichi and respect Kaito's dying request for her to live while Kaede, being more selfless, went through with a trial that would kill her that she could have avoided just to find the mastermind and after pushing Shuichi to confront his fears of revealing a painful truth admitted her crime to save everyone.
Between characters in Ultimate Talent Development Plan
- Maki is one to Kyoko Kirigiri. Both are emotionless girls who speak from the heart, even if they come off as rude, but they eventually warm up to the protagonist as the game comes to a close. However, Kyoko didn't remember her talent in the beginning thanks to amnesia, and was comfortable with revealing her talent once she remembered it late in the game. Maki, on the other hand, hid her true talent from the others until the end of Chapter 2, when Kokichi revealed her as the Ultimate Assassin and pressured her to show the group her lab, much to her chagrin. Kyoko, being a Great Detective, actively investigates and participates in Class Trials since she often picks up information the others miss, while Maki was intially very uncooperative and disliked being involved with the group. Finally, Kyoko prefers to think logically and avoid jumping to conclusions, while Maki's immediate decision upon believing Kokichi is the mastermind is to kill him, even though the others wanted to rescue Kaito in a non-lethal manner.
- Kokichi and Celestia Ludenberg are manipulative liars and aren't exactly the nicest among the students. However, Celestia is a Faux Affably Evil girl who pretended to be on the students' side but in actuality, she was planning to murdering someone to escape and didn't really focus on beating the mastermind. Kokichi Oma is a Card-Carrying Villain who isn't interested in escaping the killing game and focuses a lot on beating the mastermind. While Celestia only got two people killed in a single chapter (heavily implied to be actually motivated by fear of death as one of the physically weakest students left) and faced execution for her murder of Hifumi, Kokichi is an Indirect Serial Killer (influenced mainly by his desire for amusement and dislike for someone having power over him) that never faced punishment for any of the deaths he caused. Finally, both of them share the same condition where they are so sucked in to their own lies and false personas that it ultimately leads to their own deaths.
- Kokichi is also one to Nagito Komaeda. While both are highly manipulative individuals who are regarded as untrustworthy by their friends, Nagito had no problem kickstarting the killing game in order to further give the others the hope they needed in order to succeed, whereas Kokichi tries to end the killing game once and for all due to hating the mastermind's control over him with any and all benefits that the other students would reap from this act being merely collateral to his plan. Nagito relied mainly on his insane luck in order to make his plans succeed, whereas Kokichi relies on actual manipulation and lies in order to have things go his way. And in the end, while both had very big schemes in their respective cases, Nagito became fully focused on killing everyone in order to "save" the traitor due to an Awful Truth he learned, whereas Kokichi's whole plan was to corner Monokuma, the one big force driving the killing game in the first place, in order to end the killing game once and for all. Note that Kokichi's grand plan happened after he pretended to be willing to kill all of his friends to spare them from an Awful Truth in order to manipulate Gonta into killing Miu, as his fake plan is very similar to what Nagito was trying to do in Chapter 5.
- Korekiyo acts as one to Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack from the Hope's Peak Saga. Both characters are serial killers with a split personality, but where hers is a more accurate to real life depiction of Dissociative Identity Disorder his is shown to be more like a delusion with possible supernatural elements. Where Toko and her alter hate each other despite being almost like sisters Korekiyo and his "Sister" insist they "love" each other to a disturbing degree. Jack was "born" due to Toko being badly bullied, going after those that wronged her and being a largely physical force, while Sister exists to help Korekiyo deal with a near death experience and cope with his grief of losing his sibling, seen acting as mostly mental and emotional support. Both exclusively kill people of the opposite sex but Jack killed out of lust and only stopped because she (and Toko) genuinely fell in love with Togami, Korekiyo started killing because his "love" died and he kills to provide his sister with platonic companionship in the afterlife. Genocide Jack only kills handsome men, focusing on appearances more than personality, while Korekiyo only kills "admirable" women which is the opposite. When their murderous histories are revealed the murder game setting leaves Jack basically creepy but harmless, as her "rules" for her kills would make her too obvious, but Korekiyo's methods are more flexible and resulted in a motiveless double murder. Toko goes on to being one of biggest heroes of the Hope's Peak Saga, partly because she's keeping Jack on a fairly tight leash, while Korekiyo ends up being one of the most vile characters in this game and when "Sister" shows up she seems to be the more in control of the two personalities.
- Kirumi is one to Peko Pekoyama from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Both of them are servants in one way or another, as well as the second killers in their respective games, but while Peko has devoted her life to serving Fuyuhiko, Kirumi serves many different masters. While both are willing to see the majority of the class executed to achieve their goals, Peko is willing to sacrifice her own life for the sake of her master, while Kirumi believes that it is her duty as acting Prime Minister to survive at all costs. After being caught, Peko apologizes to her classmates, asks them to forgive Fuyuhiko and not allow any murders, and shields Fuyuhiko with the last of her strength. Kirumi, however, defends her actions with The Needs of the Many logic, tries to convince someone to die in her place, and desperately attempts to escape her own execution.
- Maki acts as one to Gundham Tanaka. Both have a talent that is related to taking care of living things (children in Maki's case and pet animals in Gundham's case) and also embody the Dark Is Not Evil trope. But while Gundham is very protective of his Four Devas of Destruction to the point of getting them out of harm's way in his own execution, Maki does not like children very much otherwise, besides just caring enough to raise them through money earned and starts off as a Pragmatic Hero before her Character Development kicks off. In addition, Gundham's talent is genuine and Maki's is all but a cover in an attempt to hide her true talent. Gundham is also superstitious and believes that he will go to hell after his death while Maki has little (if any) faith in such supernatural things and gets irritated whenever people (usually Kaito) get freaked out because of them.
