Fridge Brilliance / Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

• Once again, each of the executions is tailored to the murderer.
  • The first murderer, Teruteru, was blatantly perverted and hit on everyone, ignoring any protests. In other words, he acted like they were just there for his enjoyment — like pieces of meat. His execution involves being battered and fried up like a piece of meat.
    • Also, before Teruteru is even proven to be the culprit, you discover that the reason he insists on being called a "Chef" instead of a "Cook" is because he's lying about how sophisticated he really is—as it turns out, he grew up in the country, not in the city as he claimed. So what cooking method does Monokuma use in his execution? Flash-frying him... a cooking method associated with the poorer classes!
    • Additionally, Teruteru is stated to hate junk food. He ends up being coated in batter and deep-fried, not unlike how many junk food dishes such as onion rings or cheese sticks are prepared.
  • The second murderer gets a doubly ironic punishment. Peko cast herself as Fuyuhiko's puppet against his own wishes; Monokuma thusly transforms her into a puppet and has her 'kill' others. As much as she cared for her young master, she unintentionally hurt him by embracing the role he wanted her to reject; Monokuma ensures she hurts him physically as well. Not only that but she had zero qualms about forcing Hiyoko to find Mahiru's corpse, four hours later she'd learn the hard way how horrific it is to see someone you love get hurt.
    • While he didn't die, Fuyuhiko got Mahiru murdered because of his belief in "eye for an eye" lacking the self-awareness to realise that because he took Mahiru away from Hiyoko now Peko would be taken from him. Even more ironically, as a result of the execution Fuyuhiko literally lost his eye.
  • After breaking down after being revealed, the third murderer Mikan collects herself and tries to Face Death with Dignity, willingly going to her execution. Monokuma ensures it's extremely humiliating and degrading, mirroring the horrid treatment she couldn't escape at the hands of her peers.
    • Don't forget how she had all of her memories returned to her right before she was executed. Considering how she was one of the Ultimate Despair, it's no wonder why she seemed to have enjoyed herself a little too much.
    • Also, a possibly more vulgar interpretation, but... As a member of Ultimate Despair, the person Mikan is in love with is implied to be Junko herself. Her execution is easily the most suggestive in the game, with a split-second screen of Mikan (naked) apparently having an orgasm as she's shot into space on a giant, pulsing fist. Given that Junko's Monokuma persona frequently makes lewd comments about her classmates, it's likely that this was intentional. Also, it fits her position as the game's unwilling fanservice girl.
    • In her opening bio, it says she dislikes 'big things'. So what does Monokuma do? Stick her with a big needle, which makes her bed turn into a big arm, and she's shot into space.
    • Given that Mikan was in an aspect of her personality that coveted despair, the relative shortness of the execution could be an ironic despair by giving Mikan no chance to relish in the despair that would be her death.
    • Or for a more simplistic interpretation: the giant arm that carried Mikan into space was shot with a syringe by Monokuma and sent her into the atmosphere. The Ultimate Nurse was shot up and got high.
  • The fourth is given a Negated Moment of Awesome. Gundham always bragged about his arcane abilities and that his title was just a front. During his execution, he attempts to prove his claims were true... to no avail.
    • Also, it's indicated that Gundham knew that, no matter the circumstances, he still committed murder and decided to go down fighting as a demon. Monokuma pummels Gundham effortlessly and Gundham is, instead of going to hell as he said, taken to heaven.
  • The fifth ones (Chiaki and Monomi) are maneuvered into a no-win situation, both by the actions of the accidental victim and by Monokuma. He also deliberately manufactures a Hope Spot in order to mock their ideals.
    • Said hope spot also doubles as Foreshadowing: Chiaki and Monomi rush through the exit, only to run straight into a glass screen, reflecting the fact that Chiaki, as an Artificial Intelligence, would not have been able to leave even if the students had made the wrong choice.
    • The fact that there's no blood when Chiaki is crushed, unlike in the other executions, is another hint at her Artificial Intelligence status.
• Even when they lacked an execution for themselves, one could imagine how the victims went out to be strangely poetic as well:
  • The Ultimate Imposter impersonated as the arrogant and proud heir Byakuya Togami, but mixed in some of his true nature, as he portrayed him as showing concern for others and determined on guiding them to escaping the island (which contrasts Byakuya's loner attitude and disdain for the others). With his death, it gives merit to Byakuya's advice that cooperating with others would only lead to any early grave. Plus, the entire reason the Imposter got to where they were was because they used their impersonations as a means to survive. In a sad twist of fate, because of their choice to assist the others (essentially acting out of character), their fate had been sealed.
  • Mahiru was a very strong and independent woman who despised Fuyuhiko, she dies at the hands of Peko who loved Fuyuhiko and was the opposite of independent believing she was a tool, in addition she died because she tried to atone exposing her to the wrath of Fuyuhiko, only for him to atone and survive even though he wouldn't give her the same chance.
  • Ibuki left her band due to her different taste of music and everything about her (design, personality, and mannerisms) just show her love of being a free spirit. Her death has her act completely different from how she normally is in her final moments and she is completely powerless the entire time to do anything about it.
  • Hiyoko bullied others out of self-defense mechanism to ensure she wouldn't receive the same treatment and to show she would not be a simple target to pick off (kind of like Byakuya) and was only close to Mahiru. When chapter three rolled around, Hiyoko was starting to open to the others before being killed by Mikan. This could be taken as karma for all the bullying she did to Mikan throughout the game(although there's a pretty clear difference between Hiyoko saying rude words and Mikan cruelly slitting her throat), but as well as by allowing herself to open to the others, she left herself in the same position she warned them about: vulnerable to murder.
  • Nekomaru, despite his more than well-fit build, had a heart condition that made him unable to participate in sports activities or anything that required too much strenuous work since of the chance it could kill him. When he is turned into a cyborg, he is finally given the chance to make a difference and able to enjoy the new years ahead of him in order to protect the group, but in the end, his murder thanks to Gundham had rendered a newfound reality, yet again, a dream.
• Sonia tells Hajime in her final free time event that they are destined to rule Novoselic together, but that he must first become an expert in 30 languages, economics, international law, medicine, and other fields before he will be ready to be king. Good thing that Izuru Kamukura is an expert in all those subjects and more.
• In the very beginning of Chapter 1, when Monokuma reveals that there is a traitor in the midst of the students, Byakuya is quite adamant that there is no traitor, and even asks everyone to abandon the idea that there is. Why? Because he believes Monokuma is talking about him, the Ultimate Impostor, and they don't want their cover blown.
• Notice how the executions in this game weren't very grounded in reality (at least, compared to the first game)? They're all foreshadowing that the game takes place within a game itself.
• The execution soundtrack ‘Reach For the Stars’ only plays for the “innocent” killers. Teruteru killed the Ultimate Imposter by accident and was truly trying to stop Nagito from killing someone, Mikan killed Ibuki and Hiyoko because was turned back into Ultimate Despair by the Despair Disease, and Chiaki killed Nagito purely by accident because he rigged everything involved in his murder.
• In the original game, Mukuro has a hairclip of a rabbit when she disguises herself as Junko. Given that Mukuro reveals to Makoto that she sometimes wishes she had tried different things — basically giving herself a little hope for her future, it is especially interesting that Usami, the teacher meant to teach the students the value of friendship and hope, is a rabbit. This is most likely intentional, given that they have the same color pattern and eyes.
• Why does Chiaki take a while to respond, sometimes? It might be that she's buffering or loading a response.
  • In addition, she could also be doing what Alter Ego did when they were around. Chiaki mentions in her introduction that she talks slowly because she's thinking of how to respond, but she tends to speak faster to people the more she interacts with them. Alter Ego, her predecessor, interacted with the cast of DR1 because it was supposedly seeking out more on human interaction by speaking with them, and learned from them in doing so. Chiaki is able to speak more quickly with people the more she speaks to them because, like the other AI, she becomes better at talking the more she interacts with people.
• The very first Monokuma Theater is a "thank you" to anyone who bought the game. Guess what the islands really are...
• Nagito's jacket design features red blocks and the bottom begins to cut off in hard edges. The red blocks look like pixel blocks and the bottom of his jacket is disintegrating in a block pixel fashion. Not only does this link with how the islands are a computer simulation, but they can be connected with Nagito's decaying, disintegrating mind.
  • A more milder alternative: the end of the jacket resembles a faint outline of Chiaki's clips. Guess which two can be considered Deuteragonists to Hajime, end up unintentionally killing the other but accept their own death? Specifically:
    • Using his luck, Nagito sets up his death so that the traitor, Chiaki, would end up throwing the poison in his direction. However, his intention was to have her survive the trial.
    • Chiaki tries to put out the fire, accidentally releasing the poisonous gas that kills Nagito. Once she sees the trap, she reveals herself to be the candidate and ends up being executed because of his luck.
• There is a piece of symbolism regarding Hajime's Exotic Eye Designs: compare them to Izuru Kamukura's eyes. Hajime's eyes are a prohibition symbol, Izuru's are a target radar. This shows two things:
  • Hajime was talentless, so he considered himself worthless; he negated his personality to became Izuru, whose sole drive and aim is gaining talents.
  • The computer simulation was built to give the Ultimate Despair members new memories, negating the old ones. Hajime regains the red eyes when he decides to take his future in his own hands and follow his own objectives.
• Related to Nagito's Free Time Events: unless you had at least one scene with him before the first trial, you won't be able to get any more scenes with him. This is understandable, since Hajime won't want to be close with a psychopath... unless he knew the "friendlier" side of Nagito first, and so have a reason to keep trying to reach for him.
  • There was a similar scenario in the first game, too: Genocider Syo's Free Time Scenes. Although what changes is that A) Makoto is much more optimistic and willing to make friends than Hajime, and B) Syo has already admitted that she can't and won't kill anyone.
• Why didn't Nagito realize that Chiaki was the traitor sooner? Being a self-proclaimed Ultimate fanboy, he has admitted to looking up information regarding his classmates before coming to the school. And indeed — he provides some extra information about each student in the prologue as they do their introductions. All except for two — Hajime and Chiaki. The former because Hajime was never a proper Hope's Peak student, the latter because she doesn't even exist in the real world. In fact, Chiaki herself seemed surprised when the file containing all their profiles included hers — suggesting that she wasn't actually based on an existing Ultimate student and that her 'profile' was just a dummy made by Monokuma. Therefore, Nagito wouldn't have been able to find any information on her — which should've been immediately suspicious when he's considering possible candidates for the traitor.
  • In the Japanese version, it's implied that he did suspect the traitor was a girl, he just didn't have hard evidence. At one point in Chapter 5, Nagito refers to the traitor as "Traitor-San", a suffix he only uses to refer to girls. No one else, not even the ultra-polite Sonia, does this, and it only happens after a certain point, implying he came to some degree of a conclusion on their identity. This was lost in the English localization, where he says "Mr or Miss Traitor" instead. While it is possible he was hiding the information, the dub implied that he was in the dark about the traitor's identity.
  • Since Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School reveals that Chiaki actually was a real student at Hope's Peak, it's a bit more understandable that Nagito didn't notice anything amiss until he found the student profiles.
• Regarding the "Despair Fever" in Chapter 3:
  • Nagito becomes an insane, rambling loon who loses his Brutal Honesty and instead only lies. Nagito's overly complex plan in Chapter 5 essentially has him fake insanity and make a massive lie in order to put everyone on a wild goose chase.
  • Akane loses her strength and fervor, since she was hit hard by being indirectly responsible for Nekomaru's injuries.
  • Ibuki gets the lesser effects, as she is made Comically Serious... but still comical.
• More like Fridge Sadness but, in the Surprise House, a statue of Sakura striking the iconic death pose of Raoh can be found. It comes as rather random, but then one realizes that the New World Program was designed by the survivors of the first game and it becomes more likely Aoi honoring her deceased best friend.
• Fuyuhiko and Peko are the only ones to receive the item Antique Doll with absolute happiness. It seems completely random until you realize what the doll is: a small blond girl, just like Fuyuhiko's sister. It's very possible the doll is well received because it reminds them of home.
• Compared to the first game, where the motives could more or less push anyone, the motives Monokuma gives seem rigged to force people into killing others and seem a lot more restrictive. Why is this? Two reasons: the first being that unlike before, where things could've gone on as long as possible, the New World Program is forced to end after 51 days, meaning that Junko is under a time limit. And the other reason is simply the motive, as the purpose of the previous Mutual Killing was to prove despair to the world, something that would naturally benefit off prolonging everyone's suffering. Here, what Junko is trying to do is get everyone comatose so she can download herself into their bodies, meaning she has no reason to prolong things.
• When Monokuma first arrives, he states that Monomi is his little sister. At first, one would presume that this was just a reference to Mukuro, but remember that, in IF, it's stated that Chihiro designed the Monokuma system. Factor in that Usami/Monomi and Chiaki are referred to as Alter Ego's younger sister, and one realizes that Monokuma is speaking the truth.
  • This gets even more brilliant, as this page already mentioned how Usami and Mukuro's (when disguised as Junko) rabbit hairpin are very similar.
• In Monomi's monologues after each trial intermission, she would among other things, remind everyone to save regularly. While this might seem like it's for the benefit of the player, it also makes sense considering her connections to Chihiro Fujisaki (the Ultimate Programmer) and Chiaki (the Ultimate Gamer.) Saving frequently is a good habit for both writing programs and playing games.
• In order to get through the Final Death Room, one has to perform a game of Russian Roulette. In order to put his luck to the test, Nagito instead loads the gun with five bullets and still wins. Seems random until you realize that this symbolizes how Nagito's plan goes in Chapter 5, as it relies on the traitor being the one to grab the poisoned fire extinguisher. Hence, 5/6 means failure, 1/6 means success. He didn't just add 4 extra bullets, he took out 1 and put another 5 in.
  • Also, the Chapter 5 trial room is a metallic grey. What does this make it look like? A gun barrel.
  • One last Russian Roulette analogy; after all is said and done and the survivors figure out Nagito's plan, they themselves are forced into a game of Russian Roulette; replace the gun with the voting and the five loaded chambers and one empty one with five innocent survivors (Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, Sonia, and Akane) who will blow the group's brains out and one accidental murderess (Chiaki) who will spare the group at large.
• Nagito and Junko share a key similarity, that being that their hair is both red/pink at the tips. Danganronpa Zero heavily implies that Junko dyes her hair blond and official material imply that Nagito's unnatural white hair is the result of Disease Bleach. This highlights perfectly the key contrast between the two; Junko puts on constant acts that make it impossible to know most of the time what she's truly thinking. Nagito comes off as someone hiding their true personality, but is really exactly what he appears as on the surface and he in fact has Brutal Honesty.
• For a simple one, why is the game subtitled "Goodbye Despair Academy"? Simple, in the final trial, AI!Junko, refers to the students by "Sempai", indicating that they were 1 to 2 years above the Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc students. Essentially, this means that everyone has long since graduated. Furthermore, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is very much the Grand Finale to the saga of Hope's Peak Academy and Junko Enoshima, both this game and Danganronpa Zero make it very clear that what allowed Junko to preform the Despair Incident was the conditions that the Academy itself put out. By the end, what the survivors do at the end is leave their bloody pasts behind and create a new future. In a sense, saying goodbye to the Academy of despair and forming a new future.
• Near the end of the game, it's revealed that the password to the ruins is 11037. Now remember that Makoto would have been the one to implement that into the program and the fact that the ruins is clearly a decayed Hope's Peak Academy. What does this add? Well...
  • For starters, Sayaka was the first student in the School Life of Mutual Killing who snapped and attempted to commit murder. Who found and gave the password? Nagito, who shares Sayaka's role in starting the Mutual Killing.
  • Next, remember who was the one who put everyone in the simulation, that being Makoto Naegi. Sayaka also happened to essentially be his first love. Remember that the goal of the program was to give everyone a second chance. It makes perfect sense that he would make the password a symbol of second chance, something Sayaka was never able to get.
  • Not to mention that, similar to Sakura's statue in the Surprise House, it was a little something that Makoto made to remember two of his deceased classmates, Sayaka & Leon himself.
  • Lastly, why are the ruins Hope's Peak? Because of despair academy. Everything makes sense when you realize that it's very much a symbol denying despair.
• If you think about it, Nekomaru and Gundham's Duel to the Death in Chapter 4 was won by Gundham using his hamsters as proven in the trial summation and the finisher used in the PTA, which were most likely extensions of himself. In other words, Gundham killed Nekomaru with magic.
• The last segment of this game is even easier than the last segment of the previous game. The last Nonstop Debate consists of mashing the triangle button to "wake up", then shooting every single statement, even the ones that aren't weak points. The last Rebuttal Showdown is pretty much similar, with Hajime cutting down all of Junko's statements with the "future" Truth Sword. And unlike the last Machinegun Talk Battle of the first game, the last Panic Talk Action of this game gives you unlimited bullets, meaning all you have to do is target and fire. When you take into account the conversation with Chiaki's memory just before all of this, it's very appropriate. This isn't a game, so therefore Hinata is no longer playing along with it.
  • Added to this is a bit of Lampshade Hanging. Chiaki Nanami is the Ultimate Gamer, a talent pretty much useless throughout the story... until you are told it's a game, and Chiaki pretty much beats the game senseless!
  • Additionally, Chiaki's 'last thoughts' contain the Konami Code. At first it simply ties in to her identity as the Ultimate Gamer, but looking into the history of the Konami Code reveals something: it's rumored that it was apparently originally created by Kazuhisa Hashimoto, the creator of Gradius, due to the fact that the game was just too difficult to test without the cheat and it was left in by accident. Given that the story of SDR2 takes place in a virtual world, Chiaki referencing this game-breaking cheat makes quite a bit of sense.
    • Probably the most famous usage of the Konami Code was Contra, where it gave extra lives. With this in mind, Chiaki showing up after her death fits really well.
• One might assume that Hiyoko's reaction to Mahiru tying her kimono is a bit overdone until playing through her free time events. It turns out that the environment she grew up in saw people trying to sabotage her over her position in the family and no one that would take her side^note she might be lying about that, but more than likely in this upbringing she'd assume that it’s better to manipulate and abuse others before they manipulate or abuse you, evidenced by Hajime guessing that some of her Crocodile Tears were real. In her misanthropic mind, other people love to go on the attack at the first sign of weakness; just the sort of situation she found herself in when Akane smelled her (from her haughty attitude, no one sees anything wrong with giving her a taste of her own medicine either). In the end, Mahiru was the only one that wasn't judgmental towards her — she actually goes so far as to help Hiyoko out when experience dictates that other people only exist to knock her down at every opportunity for being better. Besides her father and you if you complete all her free time events, very few people have shown her that sort of kindness out of hand.
  • Not to mention that this is a relatively rare skill in Japan (making Mahiru's help more surprising and appreciated) and the way an obi is tied can have different implications. Take how her killer Mikan tied it to contrast. It could have just been Mikan really not knowing how to tie it correctly, but an obi tied in the front is often visual shorthand for being a whore (as it is easier to get on, and more importantly off, this way), which is also a stunt Despair!Mikan would seem likely to do. After all it would be getting back at one of her constant abusers and do it in a way Hiyoko, who would often make similar accusations about Mikan's sexuality, can't defend herself from. So Mahiru offering to help her, an act which could earn Hiyoko's trust, and proving she was worthy of her trust by not turning it against her would only make Hiyoko value this action more. Them bonding so well despite Mahiru's card stating she hates people with bad manners like Hiyoko has and Hiyoko's card making it clear she hates being lectured, scolded, or nagged as Mahiru will often do can still make them seem an odd match though.
• Sonia's name Shout-Out can even be this. All the songs on Nirvana's album Nevermind tend to be about "the general themes of teenage sexuality, loneliness, the madness that results from rejection, or an obsession over a girl"... Which all basically describes Kazuichi's entire "relationship" with her as he barely acknowledges anything about her beyond her name and title.
• The reason that Nagito was affected so badly by the Despair Disease was because his cancer had weakened his immune system, leaving him vulnerable to other diseases.
• In hindsight, Nagito's despair disease had him say a lot of things that were not really lies. For instance, he identifies Byakuya as a member of World Ender; he identifies that Nekomaru cannot be saved and that a transfer student is coming (Mechamaru); he identifies that Hajime is "a fake", which proves true later in the game; and finally, he declares that they should all die from the despair disease, and later on, he does indeed come to the conclusion that they all have to die. Ultimately, the things he's saying indicate that he did not in fact have the Lying Disease, but instead had the Remembering Disease.
  • With this in mind, some certain words he has for Hajime at the hospital take on a new connotation.
    Nagito: All alone with Hajime, huh... I can't stand being in the same room as you.
    Hajime: Don't worry, I'm leaving. You should focus on curing that crappy disease of yours.
    Nagito: Yeah, hurry up and go away. I don't want to see your face anymore.
  • Of course, it's likely that, this being Nagito, he was saying what he believed were lies, but luckily getting them right in a certain way. This makes more sense once you realized he really couldn't have known the things he got right at that point.
• In Chapter 5, when Nagito blows up a part of the hotel with a bomb, you can clearly see that the monitor in the hotel lobby was broken by the blast, which means that Nagito broke a rule, and yet Monokuma doesn't even notice. They then go on to explain that since Nagito hasn't nuked the island yet, he can't be pre-emptively punished for breaking the rule of killing more than 2 people. Since Monokuma already knows what Nagito is planning, he deliberately chooses to ignore Nagito breaking the monitor. The observer can't interfere with the students unless a rule is broken, but it doesn't mean the observer is obligated to do something in the event that someone does break the rules.
• Why is it that Chiaki seems so attached to Hajime throughout the game? Initially, it's likely because of his true status as Izuru Kamukura. The personality he has in the Neo World Program is one constructed from the few memories of his old identity the Future Foundation could dig up and piece together. Chiaki is an artificial intelligence initially designed to help the rehabilitation of the remnants of despair, so it makes sense that she would try to help Hajime/Izuru most of all. However, over the course of the game, as she bonds with the group, she starts to develop a curiosity for social activities, investigates murder trials, admits that she wants to protect everyone, and even asks Hajime to never forget about her even after he leaves the program. In the fifth class trial, she even outs herself as The Mole and asks everyone to vote for her. She was able to defy her programming so she's no longer just an AI: she's developed her own identity and personality. It's also how she manages to come back during the final trial and convince Hajime to not give up: he helped her change for the better and now she's going to help him do the same.
• Why does Chiaki never sound confident and always finishes her sentences with "I think"? It's because of her duty as an AI that supposed to help people that went through trauma and need the Hope Restoration Program. She can't just tell the people that she works with what to think. They make their own conclusions.
• Gundham's actions in Chapter 4 makes a lot of sense when you consider his knowledge of animals. Animals fight and kill each other all the time for things like food, territory, and mates. He even brings up cannibalism as a common occurrence among many species. And yet, it all comes down to the need to survive. They need to eat, need a place to live, and need mates to carry on their species. The reason he sees man as conceited is because we consider actions such as murder and cannibalism immoral, despite how often these things happen in nature. But something else that also happens often in nature is altruism: many species have been seen sharing food, supporting the weak and injured, and sometimes even sacrificing themselves so others of their kind can live. Rather than watch his friends give up and slowly die of starvation, Gundham decided to make the choice that nobody else would.
• To expand on the above: Chiaki's entire character — cute, friendly, sympathetic, encouraging, confident yet non-threatening, and a busty Gamer Chick to boot — can be pretty much attributed to in-universe Author Appeal. What other sort of AI could an insecure, quiet, short, geeky, decidedly-straight teenage boy possibly create?
  • It's revealed later that Chiaki's appearance and name aren't accidental, being based on the class representative of the same name, but the fact that it was approved was all because she ticked those boxes.
• How were the dead students able to reappear at the end of Chapter 5 if their avatars had all been deleted? Simple: they never left. Whenever a file is deleted from a computer, it's moved to a temporary directory (aka the trash), where it can still be recovered. But even when the trash bin is emptied, the deleted files are still present on the computer. Their physical location on the hard drive is only marked as empty and can used if new data needs to be stored, which was what Junko was planning to exploit in order to take over their bodies. The only things that go away when a file is erased are the pointers, which are the data used to help find the files they're referencing in memory. Even then, these files can still be found and recovered using special tools. Even with their avatars deleted, when the program began glitching out, they were able to temporarily return from digital purgatory and interact with the survivors, and even seemed to know what had happened in their absence. Which means the visions Hajime, Sonia, and Fuyuhiko had weren't just hallucinations or memories: the others really were motivating them not to give up.
• Chiaki's status as the Ultimate Gamer bothered me somewhat before The Reveal. I mean, she didn't show any extraordinary skill with video games — she was just an enthusiast and a collector. But since she's a built-in part of the New World Program, it makes sense. She's not an Ultimate, her purpose isn't to have a talent — her purpose is to rehabilitate the Ultimate Despairs. To this end, the Ultimate Despairs were put in a simulation where the goal is to make friends. Her purpose is to ensure that happens. What better way to accelerate that process than to share in some quality game time?
  • Hilariously given a callback in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School with the real Chiaki, when a massive gaming session manages to bring the entire class together in a way that even their teacher was unable to do!
• When did Monokuma dedicate time to making the Surprise House? He didn't. It was made as an alpha map to test the simulation, make sure senses like sight, sound, and touch could work.
• Considering what happens in Side:Despair, it makes sense for Chiaki to be the AI watching over them all; she was the classmate that brought them all together as students — even Hajime's connected to her through their hangouts — and her demise ultimately drove them on the path to despair. With such a powerful and memorable personality, who better a person to watch over "her" old classmates?
• In the opening sequence, every student is presented and there is an image in the background, representative of the student or their talent (for example, Mahiru having small photos pasted over a cuadriculated paper representing her speciality as the Ultimate Photographer, or Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer, having a Pong game playing in the background). Now, probably the most interesting one is the background that appears when Hajime is presented, it's an icon of a gun sight rolling. Anyone would either ignore it as it's a very basic or generic symbol, or initially assume that this is only a reference to the iconic game mechanic of "truth bullets", but there is more to it as these gun sights are representative of the fact that Hajime is actually Izuru, whose eyes have gun sight designs. But that's not all, the gun sight design also matches Hajime's personality and character, being the most generic one at first sight, but also having a lot of depth, more than any of the other background symbols.
• It seems kind of weird that five of the 77th Class lack a specific execution (Akane, Nekomaru, Hiyoko, Ibuki, and the Imposter), while everyone from the 78th Class has one, but it makes sense considering the circumstances of both killing games. For the first, that was intended to go as long as needed, so Junko likely had every single execution prepared in advance for every scenario imagined. For the second killing game, that one actually had a time limit that Junko needed to get done quickly in order for her plans to work (hence the motives being specifically made to get someone killed, instead of allowing them pushing someone mentally to do it). It's highly likely it was a combination of Junko being hard-pressed for time, her analytical abilities giving her the high probability none of the mentioned five (except Akane and, considering the position she was in for cases three/four, her odds were slim in survival) was going to live and, overall, she just didn't really gave a crap about the 77th Class.
  • Looking back for Akane, she was the one always eager to pick a fight with anyone and attacked Monokuma, but the end result was her getting defeated in a one-sided fight with the coup de grace being her getting nearly blown to bits, which were most likely Junko's way of saying that at the end of the day, her brains and technological power triumphs over whatever 'fighting spirit' Akane tried to throw against her.
• It may seem strange that while the execution less five didn't get an unused execution but the already deceased Yasuke did, but it makes sense when you remember Yasuke was one of the creators of the Neo World Program. It's likely that Junko made one as her own 'thank you' to her boyfriend for giving her a chance to spread despair out of a creation meant to help others. Plus, It also shows just how twisted, yet genuine, her love for her boyfriend was. In her eyes, this was her way of repaying him...
• The murders of the third trial follow The Wizard of Monomi 2.5D. However, due to the rule, only two people can be killed in a case, and they follow the scarecrow and the lion, leaving the tin man out. The very next trial, a "tin man" is broken into pieces and killed.
• Why does the English localization change "Miss Monomi's Practice Lesson" to "Mr. Monokuma's Practice Lesson"? Because Monokuma took everything from Usami, even her theme!
• Why does Nekomaru have an obsession with bowel movements? It's a subtle jab at the tendency for Dragon Ball (the franchise his whole character references) to have the people powering up to look like they're taking a shit.
  • Jokes aside, it could also be in part due to Nekomaru's heart condition. In his Free Time events, Nekomaru talks about how he was in and out of the hospital when he was younger due to his heart condition. One side effect of some heart medications is constipation. As well as a tendency of people with certain heart issues to have reduced blood flow to their stomach and other digestive organs.
• Fuyuhiko's anger at things like underage drinking and driving without a license actually make some sense for a yakuza boss: it's important for the leadership to keep their hands clean to make prosecuting them more difficult. Committing minor crimes like that would be an invitation for easy arrest.
• Despite Junko rather callously stating the class was a means to an end compared to her more... personal return of affection to the cast of the first game, she still shows an extreme amount of intelligence in regards to choosing to corrupt this class, as the students in the first game didn't exactly have skills that could affect the world at large. This one? Has many who can.
  • Izuru, naturally as the Ultimate Ultimate, would have been an extremely powerful weapon, able to do anything. Thankfully, his general apathy, except for his desire to avenge Chiaki, kept him from participating too much.
  • Sonia is the heir to an entire militaristic monarchy; with her as an Ultimate Despair, there would be a fighting force thousands strong of people who have forced conscription in their record, fighting purely for the sake of despair.
  • Kazuichi's mechanics skills easily verge on a superpower, it's not hard to imagine that a despair-corrupted Ultimate Mechanic could create some genuinely horrifying WMDs or machines. The mass-produced Monokumas and brainwashing helmets from Ultra Despair Girls might have even been something he helped with.
  • Unfriendly Yakuza are already terrifying, but imagine the kind of brutality Fuyuhiko would be willing to order done in the name of despair, with Peko still by his side to make sure he remained safe and personally doing anything his Yakuza would felt was crossing the line.
  • The Ultimate Imposter, with his impersonation of Byakuya, might have been the reason the Togami Corporation was destroyed in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Even if he wasn't, having a blank who can easily slide in and impersonate someone could easily cause mass chaos by imitating a world leader.
  • We see what Mikan is like as a Despair. Imagine ending up in a hospital in the middle of the Tragedy only to find your nurse is her; she could easily brainwash and torture trauma victims into new despairs.
  • Gundham seems a bit less, but if his power as the Ultimate Breeder was nearly what it was with the Dark Devas, he could easily unleash some very dangerous animals from local zoos and direct them to attack and kill people. More relevantly to his talent, he likely could (especially if paired up with more scientifically-minded Ultimates) breed new, highly dangerous varieties of animals.
  • We see a bit of what Despair Nagito can do in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls; while his luck isn't world-shaking on its own, his absolute insanity and obsession with hope and despair guide him towards making sure there's plenty of both, even if he has to help raise up a new Ultimate Despair.
  • Mahiru is a photographer, which may not seem as in-your-face amazing as some of the others...except it would be excellent when it came to spreading despair propaganda. Not to mention that as real life history can attest, a single photo of the wrong opportunity can create extreme civil unrest, it's entirely possible she might have helped blow the lid off The Tragedy when Hope's Peak tried to cover it up, leading directly to The Event.
  • Likewise, Hiyoko and Ibuki are both performers of some kind. Music and dance are wide cultural outlets that spread ideas, even subconsciously. And don't forget live concerts—having lots of fans crammed into one building creates prime opportunities for terrorist attacks.
  • Nekomaru is the Ultimate Team Manager, who puts his skill to use in leading sports teams to victory. That could just as easily be applied to managing an army, whipping new Ultimate Despairs into shape and training them to work in squads.
  • (Different Troper here) Even Teruteru has his own way of spreading despair. His food is extremely addictive and with the world basically in shambles (and as such food being scarce) most people suffering from world hunger wouldn't think twice of joining UD in exchange for full stomachs.
    • In addition, Teruteru in combination with Mikan or other medical Ultimate Despairs could easily make lots of food that's either drugged or poisoned, enabling him to kill lots of people or possibly drug them into joining UD.
• It seems ridiculous that nobody can recognize the Ultimate Imposter despite the fact that he can't change his own body shape. But if you think about it, the fact that he can fool anyone despite that flaw is proof that he is the Ultimate Imposter.
  • In fact, most first-time players will probably assume that he is the real Byakuya, and that there's some explanation forthcoming as to what he is doing on the island and why he's put on so much weight. That's right, in spite of this apparent flaw, the Imposter can fool even the players themselves.
• Upon waking up in Funhouse, Nekomaru explains that he was knocked out along with others because his Good Night Button was pressed - the one located on the back of his neck. He then assumes that Monokuma has taken advantage of the white smoke and snuck behind him...however, there's another candidate, the one who was sitting right behind Nekomaru and couldn't be seen by other students due to sitting in the back: Nagito. It wouldn't be out of his character to knock out Nekomaru to even out everyone's opportunities; however, he would obviously have to know about the button in the first place, so it could ultimately be just a coincidence.
• During Chapter 3's trial Chiaki says that Hiyoko's body was probably covered with duct tape to stop the bleeding, to which Mikan says that the bleeding would stop once the heart stopped beating anyway, so they didn't have to go that far. Sonia then says that only Mikan knows that fact, so the killer probably didn't know that...but, since Mikan is the killer, it was ultimately one of her attempts to draw suspicions from herself.
• Fuyuhiko says himself that "an eye for an eye" is the kind of world he grew up in. What does he end up losing after the deaths of both Mahiru and Peko?
• About Chapter 4: If Gundham just wanted to free the others, why did he try to get away with the murder rather than turning himself in... or for that matter not just kill himself (since, as seen in the first game, suicides still count as killings that need to be investigated)? It wasn't because he wanted to live at everyone else's expense, but rather that both Gundham and Nekomaru wanted to rebut Hajime's stance that it was better to give up and die rather than resort to killing to survive. If Gundham hadn't tried his best to get away with it, it would have meant he was giving up on life himself.
  • As a side note, Nagito points out that the similarity between the fourth murder cases was that they were both ruled a suicide. While this does throw the audience off, the true similarity between the cases was that they were both locked door mysteries - the first one being the obvious single locked door, while the second one "locking" the contact elevator and entrance to Strawberry Tower by breaking the opening mechanisms.
• Kazuichi says to Hajime, "Don't tell me you're crushin' on Peko!" after consenting with her during the first trial. While this line may not seem like anything more than a one-off remark, doing Peko's Free Time events (indicated by Hajime's thoughts during their meetings) makes it quite obvious that Hajime actually does have a crush on her.
• Kazuichi's jealousy over Sonia being interested in Gundham makes even more sense when you consider that both Kazuichi and Gundham are the Spear Counterpart of Celestia - but they differ in how they reacted to being picked on and mistreated. Kazuichi responded by trying to downplay his geeky persona and copying the accepted behaviour of his bullies, believing it's the only way to be liked and popular. Gundham, on the other hand, chose to detach himself from reality and craft and elaborate Evil Overlord personality to keep his distance from others. Despite Gundham acting in such an outlandish way, he still manages to attract the attentions of Sonia, who is a Nightmare Fetishist, but she is more interested in Gundham's "Dark Lord of Ice" act than understanding him as himself. So naturally Kazuichi's mad that his "dream girl" is interested in someone who is putting up a transparent mask, while Kazuichi has gone to great length to act more like a normal person, which is his mask.
• Monokuma was more direct with his "motive" in Chapter 4 than anywhere else: Everyone is trapped in the Funhouse with no food or water, and can only leave when someone kills someone else. Why the sudden aggressive stance? There were only 9 students left at the time, and you need at least 8 to activate the Forced Shutdown during "Graduation." One more murder and execution would make it so they can't activate it even if they wanted to, as was Junko's plan. With victory so seemingly close, it's little wonder Monokuma was in a bigger hurry than usual to make a murder happen.
• Even before chapter 4, Monokuma's motives seem a little sloppier than before. The motives in THH were all purely based on psychological manipulation, but two of the motives here aren't; the Despair Disease forcibly alters the characters of its victims until one will be willing to commit murder, and the Funhouse is based on trapping the students in a dire situation (while most of the time they're in a Gilded Cage) until somebody kills. The key to this is the creators' admission that Junko really doesn't care all that much about Class 77, but does love her classmates in her own twisted way. Junko is intimately familiar with Class 78 and has had years to work out what would get them to crack, but never really bothered to learn about Class 77 to the same level. All she has to work on in psychological motives is Fuyuhiko being mad about his sister's death (something fairly easy for Junko to learn) and Nagito being crazy, so she fills in the cracks with more generic pressure.
• Chapter 4's case has a similar correlation to that of the previous game. Both Gundham and Sakura gave some sort of speech, (the latter being post-mortem) that caused the group to reflect more on their relationship as a team, as well as being the point at which no direct murders from participants in the killing game happen after it, i.e. Nagito's Suicide by Cop.
• Looking at this game's art compared to the other main games, one might notice how much more this art style looks like Pop Art, i.e, heavier lines, more vibrant colors. This may go over one's head upon a first viewing, but this is just another way to indicate that the island, and subsequently, everything on it isn't real, but rather, a virtual world.
• Nagito's ultimate luck is established in his free time events to swing between really good luck and really bad luck. This is also apparent whenever he relies on it in the main story, as every time he directly relies on his luck for a plan he gets what he wants but gets screwed over in the process:
  • He first uses it to get cleaning duty for the shed in preparation for the party where he tricks Teruteru to try and kill him before he could murder someone. But thanks to Byakuya's preparations he was able to stop Nagito from martyring himself for the rest of the class and ended up accidently being killed by Teruteru instead. Leading to the death of one of the ultimates that he sees as better than himself and him being beaten and tied up for a while after the reveal of his attempted murder alienates the rest of the class.
  • In case 4 he uses it to survive the Russian roulette part of the final death game with only a one in sixth chance for survival due to adding four more bullets. His reward for doing it with an increased amount of bullets is a book that contains all the info of the students..... including their identities as members of the Ultimate Despair, which ends up driving him mad.
  • His gambit in case 5 was to use his luck to make sure that the traitor killed him on accident and make it impossible for the remaining students to guess who actually did the killing blow in an attempt to kill everyone but the traitor. By the end of it the traitor is the only causality of his scheme when she simply reveals herself as the traitor to save everyone else.
    • In the final case, we learn about Alter Ego Junko’s plan, which relies on as few students surviving as possible so she has more bodies to hijack by the end. Since Chiaki is the only student to not have a physical body, her graduation is the worst possible outcome, since she can't properly graduate and all the other students dying means Junko has all their bodies ready to take over. Nagito’s plan failing was probably the greatest stroke of luck in his life.
• Usami can understand Teruteru's indecipherable rambling because she's a computer program and is able to analyze and translate what he's saying.
  • Why does Ibuki seem so shocked by Usami's ability to understand Teruteru? Ibuki possesses super hearing, so the fact that Usami can understand Teruteru when she couldn't shocked and astounded her.
• Peko getting a random stomachache during the party in Chapter 1 seems awfully inconvenient given that a murder takes place and suspicion wrongly falls on her. However, it eventually turns out that Nagito orchestrated the whole incident; while attention is never brought upon it, it's perfectly sensible given his supernatural luck that a perfectly-timed stomachache would help him get away with the murder he was planning to commit.
• Hiyoko enjoying Ibuki's performance in chapter 3 seems odd at first, since it's one of the very few times she ever compliments someone or shows enjoyment in something besides her own antics. But for a somewhat sadistic girl like Hiyoko, whose pastimes include squishing bugs, insulting everyone around her, and manipulating people into getting what she wants, being a fan of violent death metal songs doesn't seem that odd.
• It's no wonder Usami was never able to talk about herself and her powers even when it would have eliminated suspicion on her; she is an AI like Chiaki, and Chiaki reveals that the AI are programmed to be incapable of revealing their true natures. So, like how Chiaki couldn't say she was the student observer even when that was the only way to save all the students, Usami simply can't reveal her background no matter how much she might want to.
• Teruteru's extremely perverted personality is due to him having to take care of his ill mother and handling the family diner for most of his life. He probably didn't had much free time before coming to Hope's Peak Academy so his hormones must be exploding.
• Kazuichi is mocked by many people during the game. Ironically, he turns out to be one of the most useful people in the island and perhaps that's the reason. Some simply can't accept they aren't as useful as Kazuichi, who has the reputation of being a coward.
• Among the colorful cast of characters Sonia easily falls into background and apart from her interest in Gundham, she's pretty much a stereotypical foreign student. Her last name is literally Nevermind.
  • Also, in Japan, you normally pronounce your last name before your name. So basically "Nevermind Sonia". Her name is literally a pun. The fact that she's also from a country no one apparently heard of is basically the cherry on the cake.
• Falls under Fridge Sadness as well but 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.
• Several deaths line up well with people's likes and dislikes:
  • Nagito dislikes noisy places and dies in a room with loud hymnal playing;
  • Ultimate Imposter dislikes commoners and gets killed by a diner cook who pretends to be a refined city chef;
  • Gundham dislikes earthly lofe and is forced to spend his last moments bleeding in dirt;
  • Teruteru dislikes junk food and is cooked similar to chicken leg in fast food restaurant;
  • Mahiru dislikes bad manners and is killed for contradicting foul mouthed Fuyuhiko;
  • Mikan is obviously killed by an oversized thing;
  • Ibuki likes napping and is killed when she is too bored to nap and starts walking around the hospital;
  • Peko dislikes candy, and a piece of candy is used to prove Hiyoko didn't commit Mahiru's murder which ruined Peko's setup and led to her death;
  • Chiaki dislikes alarm clocks. As a member of Future Foundation, she must be especially disgusted by Monokuma timer, and the murder she commits happens at the deadline of Nagito's plan.

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