Main installments: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Spin-offs: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
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Other Fridge entries:
Fridge Horror
- In the prologue, it's notably strange that Nagito seems completely calm about being kidnapped, even Hajime notices it. It's only after you go through his free time events that you realise he's calm because he's been kidnapped before and in much less luxurious circumstances. Crosses with Fridge Sadness in how he's become completely numb to horrible things happening to him.
- Remember how Kazuichi kept talking about wanting to create a rocket and how he was already working on a motorcycle that could have a max speed of 940 km/h (about 584 mph) as a pet-project at home? Well... Is it really a stretch to think that he made all the machines used in the executions from the first game?
- Even a silly Memetic Mutation from the original becomes Harsher in Hindsight. All those jokes about JUNKOS? Monokuma wants to make that real.
- If you found it hilarious at first, Nagito's strange behavior becomes Harsher in Hindsight once you learn that he's suffering from frontotemporal dementia.
- Kazuichi regards Hajime as his 'Soul Friend', something which is largely Played for Laughs. Then one reaches the endgame, factors in his Free Times, and realizes both of them were willing to give up who they used to be in order to reach their goals, with one of them MUCH more successful at leaving his old identity behind.
- At the end of the first trial, before being executed, Teruteru is extremely worried about his frail old mother since he came to Hope's Peak Academy to help her. When he asks if his mother is ok, Monokuma refuses to answer. Fast forward to the end of the game, when it's mentioned that some of the students, who happened to be Ultimate Despair, sacrificed their family to Junko. Therefore, it's entirely possible that Teruteru joyfully killed his mom who he was so worried about.
- Actually, it's speculated that based on some statements from Junko about "Consuming a pig", that Teruteru actually ATE his mother.
- Speaking of the ultimate despairs sacrificing members of their family. Mahiru and Hiyoko are shown to be really fond and protective of their parents(well in Hiyoko's case only her father) and are scared of losing them.
- Also, on the topic of Teruteru, we have the subject of his death portrait in the later cases. This Troper is unsure if it was seen in Chapter 2, but in Chaper 3's Trial, Teruteru's death portrait taking his place in the stands is portrayed by a fork and knife. The horror part of this is because his seems to be the ONLY one with this unique X symbol compared to the other pictures. Given the punishment Teruteru had to face, he wasn't just killed. HE WAS EATEN.
- Not as much horrific, but this Troper also adds a sidenote since we're still on Teruteru's subject; at face value, this is brilliant because at a restaurant, crossing your fork and knife over your dish is a signal for the staff not to clean up or take your plate to clean because you are not finished with what's on it, i.e. Teruteru didn't have his closure.
- Sorry to rain on your Parade, but a few of them are personalised, not just Teruteru's. Even by Chapter 3's trial, Ibuki's portrait is crossed with drumsticks. Mikan gets a slightly rotated first aid cross for the next trial.
- Apart from Chiaki, every single member of the main cast had been broken down into destructive, despair-motivated monsters "without a shred of humanity left" by Junko. This is easy to dissociate because those memories have been taken away...but think about it on an individual basis. Every single member of the class. Even the sweetest, kindest ones. Even Nekomaru. Even Ibuki. Even Sonia. Even the Super High School Level Impostor. Your very favorite character killed their family and friends and hundreds more in awful ways and rejoiced in the despair it brought them. The player character is a mass murderer. Even with their memories gone it's hard to think of them sympathetically without totally dissociating this.
- Related: That picture of an older Hiyoko was probably taken when she was in this state. Which begs the question: why is she smiling?
- Sonia ruled over an entire country as princess. Imagine what an entire country of subjects would do if they found out their princess was a psychotic murderer, let alone part of a larger group of equally demented killers. Not to mention, she most likely killed any other members of the royal family as well, meaning this country has no leaders to protect them. Worse still, it's implied that Novoselic has a strong military presence (children take mandatory lessons on modern warfare, like how to operate tanks), and if a significant portion of that military stayed loyal to Sonia, she could have easily turned them against her subjects or even other countries.
- In the first few minutes of the first episode of Side:Future in Danganronpa 3, we see the ENTIRE NOVESELIC MILITARY WITH THE BRAINWASHING MONOKUMA HELMETS ON!
- While the limits of the Impostor's talent are unclear, they were very successful in posing as Byakuya, and a light novel suggests they might have even completely ruined his reputation. It's very possible they could have pretended to be other people of great political, economical, or military influence. What happens when a CEO starts cutting salaries and jobs, leaving countless employees in financial hardship? What happens when a head of state invades a superpower country with the worst weapons they have, on civilian targets? All this and more is at the Impostor's fingertips, and at any moment they can safely move on to their next identity and leave the real person to deal with the consequences.
- Just think about all the free time events where the students talk about their families. All of them, Akane's siblings, Hiyoko's dad, the Kuzuryu clan, Mahiru's parents, are long dead before the game even begins.
- Mikan telling Nagito that she didn't kill out of Despair, she killed out of "Love". Why Fridge Horror? It's implied that the person she "loved" and wanted to impress was Junko Fucking Enoshima.
- It might have not just been her, in the game and during his free time events Kazuichi makes it clear he has a preference for blondes (like Sonia) and that looking the way he does has a tendency to attract the attention of "those gaudy popular girls" who terrified him. Now who have we met before who fits these descriptions perfectly? Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair Fashionista. The horror aspects come from the fact that as stated above as the Ultimate Despair Mechanic he was probably the one who made the machines used in her executions and this means he might have done it because he fell in love with Junko just like Mikan did and this was his way of expressing it to her.
- Even worse; Mikan isn't the only female member of the cast implied to have bisexual tendencies. It's possible that Junko was manipulating several female lovers ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
- Better yet, Junko still would've been in a devoted relationship with her actual boyfriend at the time, who she did genuinely love (Even if she killed him in the end). Makes one wonder how much of this that Matsuda actually knew about...
- If you thought things couldn't get more messed up, here's an incredibly disturbing one. In the final trial Fake!Makoto goes through some of the horrific acts committed by Ultimate Despair and were shown a man with buzzcut transplanting Junko's right eye into himself, with the statement that they "Wanted to see the despair from Junko's eyes...'. Now, who has a buzzcut, lost his right eye and wanted to see things from a leader's perspective? Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, of course! In other words, it's possible that Fuyuhiko has Junko's eye.
- In Danganronpa 3, we see Fuyuhiko with an eyepatch in despair. He really did do it!
- Thought the Twilight Syndrome mystery, wherein Sato murders Fuyuhiko's sister because she was bullying Koizumi and is then killed by Fuyuhiko in revenge, was bad? It actually gets worse when you realize it's probably what drove Fuyuhiko and Mahiru to despair.
- Heck, pay attention to the characters' backstories and mindsets, you'll get the general picture of how Junko got her hooks into each of them. For instance, Sonia confesses she's had a hard life because of her position (being kidnapped, amongst other things) and she is a Nightmare Fetishist who idolises Genocider Syo.
- In a minor dialogue exchange, Gundham states that a hamster's lifespan is only a few years long. If one puts all the time periods in the backstory together, Gundham's hamsters should be long dead. This means that his hamsters in the game must have been just parts of the simulation.
- Which explains why they seem to "disappear" whenever Gundham is absent, like after his execution, despite Sonia being a good candidate for taking care of them in his stead, and how they only reappear during the chapter 5 glitch after he died. In all likelihood the only reason they existed in the simulation at all was because of Gundham's memories of them, as a pseudo-extension of himself. Which makes every scene of him interacting with them worse, since he has no idea that he really is completely alone, comforting himself with the "ghosts" of his dearly departed pets like how a lonely child creates imaginary friends to keep them company.
- Even worse than that, consider how it was said that the Ultimate Despair murdered all their loved ones in the name of despair. It's entirely possible that Gundham killed his beloved hamsters long before they had the chance to die of old age.
- Don't they appear in Danganronpa 3 post-rehabilitation?
- Those are the 12 Zodiac Generals, the descendants of the original 4 Devas, which means they probably did die of old age by then
- Regarding Nagito and how the game ends...
- Firstly, unlike all the other students who "died", Nagito doesn't show during the glitch sequences. Now, remember that, prior to the events of the game, he was diagnosed with two terminal illnesses, one of which is impossible to cure. This may very well indicate that Nagito, unlike the others, may very well be Killed Off for Real.
- Secondly, if Nagito wakes up (And that's a big if) what will he find out? He'd find out that his plan to get everyone killed failed and in fact would've doomed the world had it succeeded, his actions would be opposed by Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Hope, and his whole world view has been shattered. Given how unstable he is, this could very well break him.
- Lastly, regarding his relationship to the others, Nagito has no one to greet him. Hajime, the only one who was actually close to him, more or less disregards Nagito by the end of Chapter 5, outright avoiding even referring to him by name. This leaves the only people who actually felt bad for him being Chiaki, an AI who doesn't exist in the real world, and Mikan, who Nagito disregarded and stated he'd never be able to forgive. Shoot the Shaggy Dog, much?
- Well, the survivors promised that they will wait for ALL the comatose students to wake up (if they themselves don’t revert back into Despair, that is. But that’s a whole different matter), that means including Nagito, and if they can forgive what their old self did when they were in Despair, it’s likely that they will also forgive every actions taken by everybody when they were in the Mutual Killing. If it’s about Nagito’s jaded worldview is what alarmed them, those worldview are already embedded very deep and could be considered a fundamental part of him because of his shitty luck cycle, and it’s not that by abandoning despair/memoryerased!Nagito will get them anywhere. Plus back then when they were still on the island Hajime said that the reason why he tries so hard to understand Nagito is because he really doesn’t get him and it scares him being so because God-knows-what he might do next, so it’s also very unlikely that he will considers giving up this time.
- Not really. After all, while the survivors did say they would forgive their actions as despair, that was because they were fundamentally different people back then thanks to Junko. Any actions beyond that doesn't count frankly, of the murders that weren't directly caused by Nagito, one (Peko) was pretty much forgiven after everyone learnt what actually happened, another (Mikan) was preformed by their despair self and the last of those (Gundham) was a sacrifice meant to save everyone. Nagito on the other hand started the murders, made everyone feel threatened and ultimately tried to have all the remaining students killed, making it highly doubtful they'd opening accept him after he showed what a threat he was. Furthermore, Hajime said that before Nagito shifted into antagonism in Chapter 4. After that, any possible reconciliation is killed given that Nagito outright rejects any effort by Hajime to actually talk to him. Not to mention, Nagito hates despair and lost his faith in the others after finding out about despair which, factoring in his degenerative brain condition, makes it doubtful he'd be in a condition to do something like that.
- So experiencing death in the game world renders your real body brain dead due to Your Mind Makes It Real. What does this say about Nekomaru, who essentially experienced death twice in the game, once physically and once as a cyborg? Just how badly would that have messed up his real-world brain? Not to mention, if Mecha-Nekomaru survived and that version of him was uploaded into his real body, what would happen? Thinking as if you're a robot while in a flesh-and-blood body could have unfortunate consequences...
- There are two possibilities. One is that Monokuma sacrificed the data about his body (sensations etc.) to preserve his actual memories (his mind). The other is that Monokuma used the memory manipulation technology to transfer his conscience in the robot... from within a virtual world based on memory manipulation technology. If it's the latter, there could have been the chance to "upload" him again, this time in his real body, with little to no consequences.
- The happy ending of Island Mode, where all goes according to plan and after fifty days of not killing each other the cast is ready to get back to their normal lives. Um, yeah, good luck with that. Not to mention the bit where Chiaki can't go with them.
- Chiaki could still interact with them through a laptop like Alter Ego. Of course, there's still plenty of horror once they leave the virtual world, since they have Junko's body parts and the distrust of the Future Foundation, among other things.
- When Nekomaru got hit by Monokuma's bazooka, he was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Akane was distraught at this, but then she felt a heartbeat. This could very well be foreshadowing for the "glitch" in Chapter 6.
- As was made quite clear during the Chapter 6 trial, Your Mind Makes It Real in the Neo World Program. Akane's desperate hope for him to still be alive is likely what got him a pulse long enough for him to be saved.
- And what did the final five want more than anything? To get out of the game with their classmates. That "glitch" wasn't just some bug in the system - it was the hope of those left scrounging up every little bit they could of the actual avatars of everyone killed in the game.
- In one of Mikan's Free Time events she mentions that she likes that, as a nurse, she is able to tell people what to do. Fast forward to Chapter 3, where Ibuki is inflicted with gullibility from the Despair disease. It's possible that Mikan could have simply tried to tell Ibuki to hang herself (despite Ibuki showing earlier that she does still have a survival instinct in this state, meaning it could have failed if phrased incorrectly) but chose not to JUST so she could strangle her to death by hand.
- Ibuki’s strain of the Despair Disease made her believe and agree with everyone else, stripping her of showing her individuality or expressing her own thoughts and opinions. Given how she feels about individuality and left her light music club due to her creative differences, even if it was mainly played for laughs before her murder, this was her idea of the greatest despair she could experience. And if she was actually self-aware of this, as Akane, Nagito, and Mikan implied they were, imagine how witnessing Hiyoko’s murder and being coerced into cooperating during her own must have been.
- Anything concerning the preparation, procedures and experiments that turned good-natured and snarky "nobody" Hajime Hinata into the talented and lethal Izuru Kamukura.
- Junko helpfully provides us with some diagrams of a skull being operated on. Yet the details of what actually, physically happened are vague. There are brain surgeries that require the patient to be conscious, which means Hajime may have been fully aware of the unraveling of his own brain, a la Unwind. Or he may have been sedated and then didn't return to being himself until the simulation. Hope for the latter — especially if Hajime didn't realize the nature of the procedure and only became aware of what was really happening during the operation...
- How much was Hajime told about what he was volunteering for...and how much did the Academy gloss over or conceal from him? Did Hajime know he'd be effectively deleted from his own mind, or was he offered "a chance to gain talent and entry into Hope's Peak proper," rather than the reality of "we want to turn you into a blank slate so we can overwrite you with "talent"? Junko makes it sound like Hajime was responsible for what happened to him, but...well, she's Junko (or at least her A.I.). Other parts of the DR universe make it very clear that the Academy would happily stoop to tricking a "worthless" Reserve student into signing up for his own death, if it got them what they wanted.
- What about this kid's family — did they have a clue what they'd sent their son into when they forked out for his place in the Reserve Course? How did they react when their son disappeared? What about his friends? Was Hajime so entirely alone on the campus that no-one noticed that he'd vanished?
- What the entire project tells us about Hope's Peak. In the first game, we might have sympathy for them, but by the time the Hope Project comes to light, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they deserved everything they got.
- The procedure not only excised all of Hajime's thoughts, emotions, and hobbies that interfered with acquiring talent, but his senses as well. To what extent exactly? Pain could get in the way of certain talents, so did they remove his ability to feel that? He's still a teenager, so did they also remove his libido? What about things like hunger, the gag reflex, or the need to urinate? Maybe Hope's Peak intended to only cultivate his mind and leave his body to atrophy, ensuring he'd need to rely on them completely to survive.
- Mystery solved as of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School. It's just as nightmarish as players feared. To round up: the procedure wasn't just technically terrifying, involving various machines with far too many electrodes that Hajime was secured into with metal restraints, it was drawn out. It took six months to create Izuru Kamukura. And Hajime's personality was deleted little by little, with an observer noting that he was "distraught" on one occasion, only for a scientist to assure him that this was because some part of "Hajime Hinata" still remained...and not to worry, they just deleted that part. Which suggests Hajime felt himself being wiped out and got upset, perhaps even wanting to back out of the project, only to be forced to continue (presumably via sedation). He was not fully aware of what the procedure entailed, as it was sold to him as "turning him into Hope for everyone." Plus, the Academy effectively blackmailed him into participating: his parents couldn't afford the school fees, and even his place in the Reserve Course hinged on him consenting to being a guinea pig. His parents did sign off on the operation, but it's not revealed how much they knew about the nature of the experiment, and Hajime's only real friend at Hope's Peak was Chiaki — the school simply recorded him as an expelled student, and few people bothered to ask questions. And just to add insult to injury, once turned into Izuru, he was isolated and kept captive (presumably for more experiments), with no outlet for the talents they'd destroyed his mind in order to give him.
- How badly has the outside world been damaged by The Tragedy? How many have been killed? How many places have been damaged beyond repair? Some of the things that we've heard include wars, terrorism, coup d'etats, at least one mass suicide, people killing their friends families, the strong killing the weak, the weak killing the weaker, the weak ganging up to kill the strong, and images of death overflowing the media so much that people simply ate as they watched. It's not much of a stretch to think people could have also triggered a meltdown, set off a nuke, destroyed a dam, set fire to an entire forest, poisoned a water supply, destroyed a city's electrical grid, or unleashed some kind of horrible chemical or biological agent into the environment solely to cause more despair. Even with Junko dead, her influence may be felt on Earth for decades or centuries to come.
- After contracting the Despair disease, Nagito starts rambling about how the Despair disease is great, there is no such thing as hope, and that everyone has to die, before he collapses and starts foaming at the mouth. Considering that Nagito's symptom is lying nonstop, his personality was probably otherwise unaffected. It's possible that he was in a state of torment (read: And I Must Scream) and he succumbed to an overload of frustration, panic, and utter dysphoria.
- With his concurrent diagnoses of lymphoma and dementia, Nagito was given a life expectancy of 6 months to 1 year. Except he's saying this to Hajime with his memories from two years ago, which suggests, thanks to his good luck, he was able to survive. But, while patients with Stage 3 Lymphoma (Nagito seems to have Non-Hodgkin's) have a good chance of living for five years or longer, Frontotemporal Dementia has a maximum life expectancy of 2-15 years after symptoms appear. It's an incurable and irreversible condition that progressively causes large areas of the brain to rot away. Patients in later stages suffer memory loss, speech issues, coordination problems so bad that they might need a wheelchair, and difficulty with motor skills such as swallowing, breathing, and bladder control. Death usually results from infections due to the body being unable to fight it in this state. And this is what Nagito gets to look forward to if he wakes up from his coma. Lucky him.
- Junko's sheer skill to manipulate people is put on full display with the Remnants of Despair. She was able to convert every one of them into becoming completely and utterly loyal to her, in body and mind, by exploiting their flaws. Some of them would make easy targets: Mikan's need for affection, Kazuichi's low self-esteem, Hiyoko's cruel and selfish attitude, Akane's less-than-impressive intellect, Gundham's irritation with mankind, etc. But she was also able to get Ibuki of all people to join her. How? In her final free time event, Ibuki mentions that she's felt a little lonely ever since she left her band. A little lonely. That may have been enough for Junko to completely and utterly warp her into a devoted follower. No matter how small or insignificant, Junko can take a person's source of despair and twist them around to her way of thinking.
- Later revelations reveal that this wasn't the case at all— the manipulation came from exploiting their sadness from seeing Chiaki die, and brainwashed them with a live feed of her own execution. It's possible that their lingering insecurities may have fueled their despair-induced actions, but that's far and away from what Junko actually did.
- It's been stated that anyone who knows they're inside a simulation has a greater chance of waking up from their coma. One of those people was Mikan, who regained her memories after she contracted the despair disease. Does that mean, if she wakes up, she'll revert back to being her Ultimate Despair self?
- The original, non-corrupted Neo World program is pretty horrifying if you think about it from a free will perspective, assuming the participants did not consent to going into it (and Nagito seemed to have no idea what was about to happen in the flashback). Imagine if you were forced into a program that destroys your current self, removing the key memories that shaped your beliefs and personality and leaving behind a person with completely different values, effectively turning you into the very thing you oppose. Even if the alternative was death and Makoto believed he was acting in their best interests this is still a massive violation of the subjects' free will.
- The game suggests that they went into it willingly, in order to corrupt the Neo World program for Junko (except Izuru, who wanted to take her down once and for all). But that still does very little to lessen the facts of what the Neo World program is actually being used to do. A case of being not so different?
- The Neo World Program is also pretty nightmarish in its operation. It effectively creates a new life form in the form of an avatar, then forces that avatar to either commit suicide (terminate option) or bodysnatch their original (graduate option). Even if the future self consented to the process it's still a pretty traumatic choice to force on someone.
- In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Junko of all people did make a remark on how the program is just another form of brainwashing...
- Think about it...is it really that much different than what Hope's Peak Academy did to create Izuru Kamakura? After all, both involve the erasure of a previous personality (although in this case, the usage is slightly more ethical since the point is to rehab dangerous criminals).
- How is it that they would succumb to hunger in the Surprise House? They might have never. After all, they have to be fed while they're in the Neo World Program somehow. While it's hard to say if they could have actually died from hunger, they'd still feel hungry all the time, and that was likely good enough for Monokuma.
- It's as said at the end of the game. The nocebo effect. As long as the brain has utterly decided that something is happening to you, it will happen to you. The Neo World Program essentially shuts off the sensations of the bodies of the Remnants of Despair and puts everything on their brains. As long as they Believe they're starving to death, their bodies will react as though they're not getting any food. So it's entirely possible there would have been a massive die off had there not been a killing.
- So, after chapter 5's trial, Chiaki sacrifices herself so that the others can survive, but if she was merely sacrificing her life, why did she try to escape the execution? Why didn't she just sit calmly and take her punishment? Nerves get the better of her? Maybe or maybe she wasn't planning on dying at all. Sure, she sacrificed herself to be executed so that everyone else could live, knowing that she probably wouldn't make it out alive, but she would at least try to survive her execution so that she could reunite with everyone later. She didn't want to leave everyone like that. Of course, Monokuma/Junko wasn't going to let that happen.
- This becomes even sadder if you factor in Danganronpa 3 Despair Arc: Chiaki still "wasn't ready to go."
- In the Fun House, Junko provided a bathroom despite there being no food. If she wanted more bodies to take over, it would have made more sense for her to not give them one. Since a human will die faster without water than they will without food. However, this may have been her point for a couple of reasons.
- If all of them had died, Makoto and the others might have just shut down the Neo World Program if they presumed all of them were dead. And if they died slower it would give more time for someone to decide to commit murder.
- Starving to death would undoubtedly lead to despair. And we all knows there's one thing Junko loves more than anything.
- Speaking of the Fun House, it's subtly horrifying how it's decorated. Imagine slowly starving to death while surrounded by tasty-looking strawberries or yummy grapes.
- The Izuru Kamukura Project, designed to turn an ordinary person into a supergenius with every conceivable talent, might sound like fiction until you learn about Acquired Savant Syndrome. This is a very rare, but very real condition where a person who experiences injury or trauma spontaneously develops new talents or abilities, such as a man who was assaulted outside of a nightclub who became a mathematical genius
. While there are only 40 cases known worldwide, it's theorized that this is an ability potentially all brains have. For a school like Hope's Peak Academy, rich and devoted to rigorously researching talent, it's not inconceivable that they've found a way to induce this kind of thing intentionally and for whatever ability they want. In other words, Izuru Kamukura is closer to reality than you might like to think. - Despite the two being involved in a vitriolic Love Triangle with Sonia, we never see how Kazuichi reacts to Gundham's execution. For all we know, he could be internally celebrating.
- Sonia says she's not a virgin in Chapter 4 and also says she's been kidnapped twice in Free Time Events. Are they related?
- Hiyoko's death occurred because she went to the music venue in an attempt to tie her own kimono because no one else could tie it for her, no one except Mahiru who by this point was very much dead. This is why Hiyoko wanted to tie it in the first place, she wanted to make Mahiru proud and felt like she was letting her down by being unable to tie it herself. To put it simply Fuyuhiko's revenge plot didn't just lead to Mahiru and Peko's death, it also led to Hiyoko's as if Mahiru was still alive she never would have wandered into the music venue in the first place, In a sense, Fuyuhiko and Peko's cruelty towards Hiyoko put her in the state of grief that ended up killing her and for whatever reason even after his Heel–Face Turn Fuyuhiko never acknowledges his indirect role in Hiyoko's death.
- Some players at first thought that Nagito could have poisoned all of the fire extinguisher canisters in the fifth trial, to ensure everyone dies. After the game completed, they thought that Nagito could have poisoned all but one, relying on his luck to have the "traitor" get that one, leading to everyone but Chiaki, the "traitor"'s deaths. Thus, it would play entirely into Junko's hands.
Fridge Sadness
- Gundham claims he was born from a torrid affair between an angel and demon, and that his existence was shunned by both races. No one had ever bought him a toy, which is why he considers the toy ship motor from Grape House remarkable. Considering he only ever talks about his mother in a positive light, this could mean Gundham was an illegitimate or unwanted child, and may have had an extremely broken family life because of it. The origin story he gave Hajime and the group, and maybe his evil overlord persona as a whole, might be his way of coping with it. His use of the word "demon" could also have some other implications.
- Ironically, the Warriors of Hope in Another Episode were manipulated by Junko into referring to adults as "Demons" for their Demon Hunter ideology.
- Also falls under Fridge Horror but Hiyoko's death can be directly linked to her sadness and grief over losing Mahiru as if Mahiru wasn't killed she wouldn't have gone to the venue and thus wouldn't have run into Mikan. Its doubly tragic when you realise that Hiyoko died because of her desire and attempts to change and that her death was a prime example of her Hidden Heart of Gold.
- In free time Hiyoko claims that she doesn't need friends but ultimately dies because she became dependent on her friendship with Mahiru. All Hiyoko wanted deep down was a friend, which she finally got with Mahiru, but lost it and entered a state of grief that ultimately resulted in her death.
- If you choose to do her Free Time events, it becomes very clear that Hajime grows to care deeply for Peko as he gets to know her. Taking this fact into consideration, the second trial suddenly becomes even more heartbreaking than it already is if you consider Hajime's perspective. Not only does he come to the conclusion that the woman he has feelings for is a killer, but after growing to care about her as a person, he has to hear her belittle herself as a mere tool constantly. Then, he has to witness her break down crying, unable to comfort her, only to watch her get executed minutes later. Despite not showing it, one can only imagine if Hajime was just as much of a wreck over Peko's death as Fuyuhiko was, but kept his sadness to himself.
- To add to this, Peko states during one of her events that one of the reasons she wants to learn to smile better is because Mahiru told her she was the only one who never smiled for her photos, and that smiles give people power. That's right, to save Fuyuhiko, Peko ended up bludgeoning the person who inspired her to express happiness to death.
- One of Peko's first lines is about how she can kill someone with a targeted blow using her bamboo sword establishing herself as a skilled warrior with a wide knowledge of how to kill someone using blunt objects and how much force it would take to kill someone. A key aspect of Mahiru's murder is that she died instantly but Peko made it look like she survived long enough to crawl to the door when she actually carried her there. It would have been easier for Peko if she struck Mahiru with enough force to kill her but not instantly so that the hole in her plan to frame Hiyoko wasn't revealed. However, Peko genuinely cared about and liked Mahiru and so it's likely she was willing to put her plan at risk by ensuring Mahiru would die a painless death. Peko had enough humanity to not want a kind-hearted and sweet person like Mahiru to suffer since her death was already senseless enough.
- In addition Peko spends all of the investigation in the beach house with Mahiru's corpse and throughout the investigation seems very subtly upset, even agreeing with Chiaki's assertion that Mahiru's murder should never be forgiven. Unlike many other killers, Peko didn't want to turn away from the reality of what she did and she wasn't remotely proud of it. During the trial, she seems at her most genuine when she says she had no will to kill Mahiru. Once Peko's plan fails, she goes from relieved because no one else will have to die and Fuyuhiko is safe to extremely distraught once she apologizes over Mahiru and begs the class to not let a senseless killing happen again and accepts her death(at least until Fuyuhiko's confession). All of this adds up to suggest that deep down Peko hated herself for hurting the girl who inspired her to smile again. Worse still the first person who would understand this and forgive Peko would be Mahiru herself considering her belief in second chances, and it further shows that if Peko didn't have a tool mindset she absolutely would have stopped Fuyuhiko from going ahead with the plan without shedding any blood.
- Considering that the Killing School Trip was being broadcasted to the Future Foundation, there's a high chance that Ryota Mitarai watched the deaths of both the Ultimate Imposter and Mikan Tsumiki, his two best friends from Hope's Peak Academy. It's no wonder why he looks so bent out of shape when we first see him in Side:Future. Similarly, Seiko Kimura would've also watched the Sanity Slippage and death of Nagito Komaeda, the only person at Hope's Peak Academy that showed her any genuine kindness or respect.
