Fridge Brilliance / Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School

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General

• It's possibly unintentional, but look closely at the conflicts in each Side: Side:Despair is about the transformation of the classmates of Class 77-B into the Remnants of Despair at the hand of Junko and Mukuro, the original Ultimate Despairs. Side:Future is focused on the Future Foundation and the Final Killing Game they were trapped in; turns out Tengan, the leader/figurehead of the Foundation, was the Mastermind all along. And now, with Side:Hope, the final battle will be between Makoto, the Ultimate Hope, and Mitarai, who was entrusted by Tengan to end despair forever by brainwashing the entire planet into "Hope". Hell, Tengan's final message ("I entrust the world's Hope on you.") was erroneously believed to be directed at Makoto, while he was actually talking to Mitarai. In short: the name of each Side doesn't just indicate which group is the protagonist — it also references who the antagonists are.

Side:Future

• Side:Future is an Actionised Sequel. Junko was a Non-Action Big Bad, but Tengan has proven himself to be a badass. In fact, the differences in Killing Games make sense when you consider the contrast between the two Masterminds - Hope VS Despair, young woman VS old man, exploits and torments Ryota VS encourages him, etc.
• The revelation that Yukizome is a Remnant of Despair sheds new light on past events with this in mind:
  • Why was the Future Foundation always struggling in their war against Despair until Junko's death? Because Yukizome was their mole and in charge of gathering intelligence. She had been feeding the Future Foundation false intel while giving Ultimate Despair intel that was advantageous to them.
  • It also explains why the battle between the branch leaders and the Remnants of Despair on the bridge happened. It's most likely they were secretly running away from a Remnant of Despair's attack but got ambushed by Fuyuhiko and his gang due to Yukizome feeding the info of their escape route in an attempt to wipe the leaders out, or at the very least, gain their trust should the ambush failed.
  • And remember when she was talking to Makoto about how he should try and understand Munakata? How the two of them could work together to become an even greater hope? The bigger the hope, the bigger the despair if it collapses.
• In Episode 2, Mitarai makes a very random statement at Tengan that he's sexually harassing Kirigiri, despite doing nothing of the sort. It seems very odd unless you're familiar with his predicament in Side:Despair. Looks like his near-rape by Tsumiki left Mitarai with some lasting issues.
• The reveal that Miaya is a robot being used by Monaca makes a disturbing amount of sense for various reasons.
  • Miaya is oddly skilled with machinery and programming despite that not being their talent. Once we find out it's actually Monaca, a known genius with machines, their skill makes a lot of sense.
  • Miaya's contact with the outside world getting hacked makes a lot more sense: it was all smoke and mirrors to make herself look useful and benevolent. This also explains how it was surprisingly easy for Monokuma to change Usami into Monomi and how Miaya was conveniently able to acquire blueprints of the building in Episode 3.
• In a way, Monaca did succeed in becoming a better version of Junko. Junko originally rejected hope because it was too predictable, and desired to create despair since it was chaotic and unpredictable. In the end, Junko was killed as a result of her desire for despair. Monaca, however, got to see the end result of what happens to people who fall to despair in the form of Junko and Nagito. As a result, despair has now become too predictable to Monaca, who concluded that hope will always defeat despair, so there is no point in trying. This would make Monaca more knowledgeable than Junko in some regards. Monaca ultimately rejected both hope and despair and chose to live a life of nothingness, something that Junko would likely do if she ever got tired of despair.
  • Fridge Horror: this means that, in a way, Monaca is less of a Psychopathic Manchild than Junko. A disturbing conclusion to reach, considering what we know about Monaca's backstory and personality, and yet, completely logical when we look at all the ways Junko is addled by immaturity and insanity... Monaca grew up, but Junko didn't.
  • She only "grew up" in the sense that she realizes that hope vs. despair is one-sided. That mentality of "what's the point of it all, I guess I'll just be apathetic" is still very much a childhood mentality, not to mention that she doesn't exactly have a game plan after shutting herself off in space, which means she effectively committed suicide.
• While most of them look ridiculous at first glance, almost all of the NG Codes are very meticulous in their reasoning:
  • "Running in the Hallway" for Makoto. He is basically the personification of Right Makes Might and thinks everything can be resolved by his own charisma. Sure enough, this isn't the case in the Final Killing, and his NG Action renders him The Load. This also plays into his tendency to avoid direct conflict, so he cannot run away from danger.
    • In Trigger Happy Havoc, who didn't spam the run button when moving around in the halls?
  • "Be Hit With a Punch or a Kick" and "Hitting Anyone with Your Bare Hands" for Aoi and Juzo respectively. Both reflect their status as the endlessly loyal muscle to their groups, and so their NG Actions restrict them, with Aoi becoming a One-Hit-Point Wonder who has to be careful in a fight and Juzo having his best physical asset denied.
    • Also, Juzo gave a speech to Hajime in Side:Despair about how he hates the talentless (although whether he meant it or not is unknown). His NG Action basically spits his own words right back at him.
  • "Letting Someone Step on Your Shadow" for Seiko. A reference to Shiritori, a Japanese children's game that is basically a cruel play on her and Andou's broken friendship. In addition, Seiko has spent her entire life living in Andou's shadow, and now she can't let anybody step on her own shadow.
  • "Someone Leaving the Playing Field" and "Putting Food in Your Mouth" for Ruruka and Sonosuke respectively. Both are designed to intensify Rukruka's paranoia and trust issues. Sonosuke not eating her sweets intensifies her self-esteem issues and makes her think even her beloved boyfriend might betray her, which leads to her seeing the "secret exit" and freaking out at the opportunity.
  • "Opening Your Left Hand" for Koichi. A play on his laid-back nature, along with his desire to protect someone (Kyoko) from danger due to The Promise he made. Sure enough, this is what ultimately kills him. In addition, in his flashback, he injures his left hand after he fails to save a fellow teacher.
    • Also as is later revealed in Side: Despair Koichi was Jin Kirigiri’s Right-Hand Man and so now he can only use his right hand
  • "Witnessing Violence by Participants" for Daisaku. Compared to the rest of the Future Foundation, he was the neutral party during his brief time in the game due to his pacifistic nature, not picking a side even during the near end of the world. His code pretty much reflects this by making him unable to see the chaos he neither witnessed nor prevented. Also, being a farmer, Daisaku has zero combat ability and was most likely forced to watch helplessly as the world tore itself apart.
  • "Being Pinned to the Ground for a Three-Count" for the Great Gozu. His talent is wrestling, therefore, if he loses where he is strong, he will die.
    • Additionally, with The Reveal of the mastermind being Kazuo, Gozu having an NG code that kills him only if he fails makes sense, as he was Kazuo's bodyguard, and likely one of the most loyal Future Foundation members, therefore Tengan would likely not want him dead as much as Ruruka or Kyosuke.
  • Chisa's is especially sadistic: "Kyosuke Munakata Dying". She dedicated her life to him; if he's dead, then the traitor believes she no longer has a reason to live.
    • The Reveal that she was a pawn of Junko all along and was manipulating Kyosuke sheds new light on this. Perhaps Kyosuke's theory about the traitor needing Naegi alive for future plans was inaccurate; the plan was to position Munakata himself as a pawn. Thus, if Kyosuke died, the plan failed, and Chisa would be killed for her failure.
  • "Passing the Fourth Time Limit with Makoto Naegi Alive" for Kyoko. Bear in mind that in the very first game, she starts out willing to put her desires ahead of Naegi's safety and he nearly gets executed. Now she's in a situation where one of them has to die.
    • For added bonus, remember that the Fifth trial of Danganronpa 1 has two potential outcomes, with one being the bad end. The outcome of which hinges on Naegi, whom Kirigiri didn't trust enough to share her collected knowledge. If Makoto trusted Kirigiri and stayed silent in Danganronpa 1, Kirigiri would live and it is only by a miracle he survives. If he doubted her and spoke up, Kirigiri died and it was all over. In this game, Naegi cannot make or break her choices. Kirigiri holds all the power in her decision this time. Either she has her doubts and kills him and solves the mystery, or she dies for him and entrusts it all to him.
  • "Answering a Question With a Lie" for Kazuo. For years, Kazuo was the headmaster of Hope's Peak and the head of the Future Foundation, and never spoke up when both organizations started going down darker paths, instead either staying silent or lying deliberately or through omission. Now Tengan cannot lie at all.
    • Him being the mastermind adds some layer to his forbidden action. Monokuma in the past states that he never lies and mostly relies on Exact Words and Metaphorically True comments. Because of his forbidden action, he ended up having to rely on those two things as well by stating the attacker can be anybody in Future Foundation to Kyosuke.
  • "Opening a Door" for Kyosuke. It represents both how he's a one-track Knight Templar, never considering how there might be another answer than the one he thinks is right, and how he's being manipulated into that mindset. He can't open doors to go down new paths and someone else can easily close doors to trap or force him on whatever path they want him to walk. Also, Kyosuke is also the type of person to handle his issues personally and clearly doesn't really trust anybody around him. His being unable to open doors means he has no choice but to rely on other people to help him achieve his goals.
• In the OP of Side:Future, Andou and Izayoi have parallel death images; Izayoi is executed via fire, while Andou is frozen and shattered.
  • Likewise, while the correspondence between Naegi and Munakata (bullet to the head) is obvious, both men's respective love interests die by methods associated with suicide; Kirigiri is hung, while Yukizome's wrist is slit.
  • Additional, Aoi and Juzo have death images of them being killed with bladed weapons: a knife and a sword, respectively.
• Even though Kimura, Andou, and Izayoi seemly voted for Naegi as the traitor, later episodes show that Kimura thought Andou and Izayoi were the traitors and vice versa. If you rewatch Episode 2, you would notice that Seiko was actually pointing at Andou, while Andou and Izayoi were pointing at Kimura. However, since Naegi was standing between them, it looked like they voted for him. Munakata took this opportunity as an excuse to kill Naegi, and seeing as the 76th Class trio believe that Naegi is partly responsible for their current situation, they likely chose not to speak up.

Side:Despair

• Tiptoes between brilliance and horror. At first glance, some of the student's talents don't seem too useful in spreading despair, but a little analysis shows that isn't true. Take Mahiru for example. She can spread despair propaganda with her photos, edit them to twist the narrative, and even snap photos of horrific acts to encourage despair.
  • Really, all the students' talents have despair-inducing implications, no matter how benign they might seem.
    • Ultimate Cook? Distribute poisoned food out to hungry people, and/or cook up human beings.
    • Ultimate Princess? Take over your country and instigate a brutal war with your neighbours.
    • Ultimate Traditional Dancer? Team up with the Ultimate Musician and host a despair-inducing propaganda performance.
    • Ultimate Nurse? Infiltrate hospitals and clinics to secretly murder patients.
    • Ultimate Impostor? That much should be obvious.
• A detail that can be overlooked is the type of soda Nagito gets in the first episode. Dr. Hopper. At first glance, it's a parody of Dr. Pepper, but there is one minuscule detail about Hopper and Pepper. They're spelt the same except the first two letters. "HO" replaces the "PE", which spells out "HOPE", something Mr. Komaeda is more than familiar about.
• During the Student Council Killing Game, all the student council members, oddly enough, completely ignore Izuru, and instead focus on killing each other. The only time anyone pays attention to him is when there were supposedly only two participants left. But once you remember that Izuru has every talent that Hope's Peak had ever researched, this make a lot more sense. Izuru likely used a combination of Nagito's supernatural luck and Yuto Kamishiro's ability to have no presence so that he would remain unnoticed until the end of the game.
• A bit of Meta Fiction: Hajime is really only a bit part in the first half of the Despair Arc — we see him waffling about the experiment and angsting over his ordinariness, but your attention is mainly on the Ultimates and their wacky antics. When does that change? When he becomes Izuru, who is central to the events of the story. What was Hajime saying about becoming the protagonist of his own story again?
• At first, the idea that Junko used a video to turn Class 77 into Ultimate Despair might seem like lazy writing, but it actually makes a lot of sense. First, if she did methodically go through despair-ifying each of them one by one, then it would be too obvious that something was up — Mikan's disappearance already proved that. Second, Junko could easily find what fills them all with despair and put it in the video. It's quicker, easier, and more efficient to just go through them all at once if she already has access to that kind of technology. Unsurprising for someone who gets bored very easily. Third, doing this means the Remnants of Despair are actually victims in all this and Ryota is partly responsible for causing both his class and the entire world to end up in their current state. How is that not horribly despair-inducing for everyone involved? Izuru was a special case since she couldn't convert him with words but instead decided to show him how despair could alleviate his boredom.
  • Additionally, despite what has been claimed, nothing besides the Remnants has ever shown Enoshima has ever had that sort of influence. Ikusaba and Matsuda were only with her because of their personal connection to her, Kamukura was bored with life (and he isn't invested in despair either), the Warriors of Hope were fed a lie they only believed because of their abused backgrounds, and Monaka just idolized her (once she realized she was Ax-Crazy, she decided to opt-out).
  • And it's been shown that Junko has a habit of taking others' skills/talents and manipulating them for her own purposes. She approached the Warriors of Hope for Monaca's skill with machines to make the Monokuma line and took Chihiro's AI research to create AIs based on her personality. This fits with her MO.
• In the Side:Despair opening, we see the 77th class falling with a trail of darkness behind them after being blown away by Junko. This represents their descent into despair caused by Junko.
  • In the colour-muted opening, the trail is white. While it could fit in with the bland nature of the colour selection, it could also represent a warped perception that what Class 77 is doing id causing despair, but they believe it's creating hope.
  • We also see Chisa slowly falling, with her eyes closed. This means that when the colour palette for the Side:Despair opening switches and the Despairs' eyes turn red, the reveal that Chisa also fell to Despair goes unspoiled.
• The MV for OP of Side:Despair features lots of flashing frames and kaleidoscope imagery... just like Mitarai's creations.

Side:Hope

To be sorted

• The fact that Kouichi was able to accurately guess which Future Foundation member was a traitor makes a lot more sense when you remember he was Hope's Peak's talent scout. It's his job to figure out the most talented person in the room, or in this case, figure out which member of the Future Foundation has the best "talent" for deception.
  • Also considering that he scouts out future students it would make sense that he would suspect Miaya of being the traitor, as he had likely never heard of her but was smart enough to not bring attention to that because it would put a target on his back.
    • Actually, as of Episode 6 there is a real Miaya Gekkougahara, but she's found dead. Still, this trope still applies to Kizukara's accurate guess. As the scouter, he probably would have known certain facts about Miaya including her mannerisms and behavior, so when he saw that the Miaya that was with them might not have acted the way the real Miaya would've acted, it makes sense he would've guessed her to be the traitor, yet not also draw attention to it.
• In Episode 4, Munakata gives a speech including the following: "Despair in the guise of hope will cover the entire world. That is the worst possible outcome." Miaya ends up being Monaca as a robotic puppet using Usami's likeness. Usami: despair in the guise of hope.
  • Ironically, it's turned out that Munakata was being manipulated by brainwashed Chisa (despair in the guise of hope) all along.
• Why haven't Nagito and Hajime interacted with each other once in the anime? Because Nagito has strong beliefs in talent and admires the ultimates at Hope's Peak Academy. However, he can act cold towards the talentless, an example of him doing that is him constantly bringing up Hajime's status as a reserve course student in the fourth trial of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. In other words, Nagito would rather be hanging out with talented people then hanging out with talentless reserve course students at Hope's Peak Academy and interacts a lot more with Hajime in Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair when he didn't know about how Hajime got into the academy.
• Hinata having Kamukura's eyes brought lots of theories, but remember that at the end of Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair, we see Hinata with his back to the audience, meaning we did not see his eyes, or face for that matter. This hid the fact that while he returned to the real world as Hinata Hajime, some of the physical effects of the experiments to make him become Kamukura also remained.
• The fact that Asahina was put in a different branch to her friends, and was apparently of a high enough rank to attend the hearing in the actual leader's place seems kinda questionable until you read the website and realize that the 13th Branch is for food distribution. Evidently, Asahina put her donut love to good use.
• As noted in this post, Nagito's loneliness (or self-imposed isolation?) is hammered home at every opportunity without people constantly spelling it out. He gets the screen to himself in the opening credits, Chisa's the only one visiting him in the nurse's office, he's at a table by himself when the class are playing around with animals, and he's normally alone in the few end-credits images that he features in. Then Episode 6 puts the tin lid on things when his classmates scoff at Chisa's assertion that they must miss him. This makes the end of his Free Time events even Harsher in Hindsight: he admits to Hajime that he desperately wants someone's love… or at least, for someone to miss him when he's gone and remember him. Presumably, by the time he comes back, he'll have noticed that his absence was barely noticed.
  • Came true when he finally returned only to be met with disappointment and apathy. Granted, the rest of the class was really worried about Mikan, but it must have hurt that they were so concerned while she had only been missing for a few days, whereas Nagito was MIA for a whole year and no one cared at all.
• The Reveal in Side:Despair Episode 7 makes perfect sense when you think of something significant; that brainwashing Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls established the Monokuma helmets induce? Looks like we now know where Junko and Monaca got it.
• Why is the Future Foundation apparently the only force attempting to restore order to the world? You'll recall that the Ultimate Despairs are responsible for things like coup d'etats and meaningless wars, so most governments are either out of commission or are too preoccupied to really fight them.
  • Hell, they probably aren't. The other organizations (like the aforementioned governments) just have their hands so full dealing with the secondary effects of Ultimate Despair's action that they can't take the fight to the Despairs.
• If looking at the inspiration of Monokuma Hunter according to Word of God, we can see the basic frame of several people's roles within the game:
  • Tengan is The Godfather, a Villain with Good Publicity who fools Investigators.
  • Kirigiri is, no duh, the Detective.
  • Munakata is the Vigilante, as he is a victim of the Killing Game and attempts to kill the attackers. Notably, a variant rule states that the Vigilante is either removed from the game (committing suicide) or loses his ability to attack if he kills an Innocent, and his first two kills are against Despairs, as Tengan has fallen into despair and Monaca is Junko's protege (albeit disillusioned by this point). His final kill, Juzo, is the only Innocent, and after that, he stops attacking people.
  • Chisa is the Traitor, who acts like an Innocent (she doesn't actually attack anyone herself and is killed by the Attacker/suicide video) but wins with the Mafia.
  • Kimura is the Doctor, who can pick one person to save each night; if that person is targeted by the Mafia, they survive. She saves Kirigiri when her Forbidden Action triggers.
  • Andou is the Barman, a mafia member who prevents Innocents from acting at night. Kimura at one point distracts Kimura from joining Makoto's group, so they miss out on a poweful ally who probably could've saved more people if she had acted with them, and when the secret door is found, she starts desperately trying to stop anyone from getting to it, including killing Izayoi and dropping Kyoko down a trap door (which ends up getting Koichi killed).
  • Andou and Izayoi also double as the Lovers, a pair that win and lose the game together; if one Lover is a victim, the other dies too. Andou kills Izayoi, and then becomes the next victim of the Attacker.
  • The Great Gozu, Sakakura, and Kizakura are Bodyguards, who can protect a victim by dying in their place. For Gozu, it's Aoi, for Koichi, it's Kyoko, and Sakakura saves Munakata by shutting down the power. Izayoi doesn't count because his sacrifice doesn't save Ruruka.
  • Mitarai is the Survivor, the wild card who wins if he survives to the end, regardless of which side prevails. He wins if the Innocents do (because he wasn't in on the plan and gets to escape alive) or if the Despairs do (because the whole plan was to traumatize him into despair so he'd brainwash everyone, and he can't do that if he's dead).
    • This probably doesn't mean anything, but I have heard of a Mafia/Werewolf variant where there are no actual Mafia/Werewolf players, the game moderator just tells the players there are, kills someone randomly at Night, and the players have to figure this out before they lynch too many innocents. Awfully fitting, yes?
• The Future Arc largely ignores the series' gimmick of Ultimate/SHSL talents… because those talents mean very little in the post-high school world (particularly the nightmarish one that the FF find themselves in). This links back to Chiaki's advice to Hajime in the Despair Arc: the former students are trapped by their talents, and have gone from being acclaimed for their abilities to being hampered by them, and not even getting the attention and respect they were used to as Ultimate/SHSL students. That seems to be a reinforcement of the series' theme, as well as having real world echoes — remember Haru's speech at the start of Free! where he noted that people stopped caring about how "prodigious" you were once you hit twenty? That's what happened to these guys — the ones who were flexible and willing to work hard can still make good use of their talents, but those who defined themselves by their talent and relied on it as a crutch aren't able to adapt to their new circumstances, which is often their downfall.
  • Note that the Ultimate Boxer gave a speech in Side: Despair about how the talented are better than the talentless. That same guy is now (in Side: Future) forbidden from punching, rendering his talent worthless.
  • It actually provides an interesting meta point of the translation of "Super High School Level" into "Ultimate" in the English dub. "Ultimate" in the context might imply that the talented are at the top of their respective fields, bar none. While "Super High School Level" implies simply that the attendees of Hope's Peak are extremely talented for High Schoolers. Which, while impressive in its own right, doesn't necessarily mean anything for once they get beyond high school. If they work hard and make use of their talents, they have potential to go on to become big names in their fields. But, like child stars or any "gifted" or "prodicious" children, if they ride on the laurels of a high school title their whole life, they'll never go beyond that. The biggest example being Kiyotaka Ishimaru's grandfather, who was a Hope's Peak alumnus. He was a natural genius and very talented in many ways, but let that perception get to his head and make him stagnate. And possibly even directly contributed to his decline. Put simply, those who perceive their status as Hope's Peak alumni as the end-all be-all, rather than a stepping stone for growth, are doomed to never grow past the limits of their high school talents.
• Monaca referencing Kars when she says that she'll go into space and become a NEET works for her perfectly; she and Junko have both referenced two of the villains from Jojos Bizarre Adventure (Kars and Dio, respectively), but while Junko references the villain with the most overarching influence on the story (posthumously or otherwise), Monaca references a wicked but very memorable villain with some connections to the conflict (Kars was of the race that made Stone Masks, Monaca's family crafted the technology used in Junko's plans) but ultimately had no effect on the plot looking forward.
• When the poison in the bracelets of the Future Arc activate, the left side of the victim's face darkens as it fills with blood, and their left eye starts bleeding, turning it red… making them look rather like a certain murderous mascot. A callback to Monokuma's Special Poison, perhaps?
• Establishing Junko's true talent as her analytic ability explains nearly every task she has managed to pull off throughout the franchise's storyline.
  • Development of AI Junko to continue her legacy past her death would involve intricate knowledge of programming on par with the Ultimate Programmer… or analyzing the code of an already-existent AI, like Alter Ego.
  • If she can predict trends at a glance, what's stopping her from being able to completely read people as well? When AI Junko claimed that she knew enough of the Despairs to perfectly act like them in their bodies, that's probably not a lie.
  • Similarly, being able to read her classmates like an open book allows her to perfectly craft the "motivations" that Monokuma presents during the first game. Planning suitable and elaborate punishments for each individual would also become a piece of cake.
• Some of the "deaths" of the various characters in the opening are corresponded in some way to each character:
  • Makoto and Munakata are firm in their beliefs, to the point where they could kill themselves in their one-sidedness. It also symbolizes that they're foils to one another.
  • Miaya is split open and hollow inside, foreshadowing her true nature as a robotic avatar for Monaca.
  • Ruruka is frozen and smashed, which represents her cold-hearted demeanor. It could also represent her mental state by the time of her death.
  • Seiko is stabbed by a ton of syringes, referring to the day where two people took the wrong drugs from her lab, a day which ruined her life.
  • Yasuhiro is entangled in thorny vines, reflecting how he becomes trapped outside once the Killing Game begins.
• A less squicky interpretation on Monaca's "becoming an adult". The major conflict in Another Episode was Adults v. Kids with guess who as the leader of the children. There are plenty of metaphors there with Adults v. Kids/Survival v. Despair, or Abusers v. Victims (sort of, in the sense that all sides are denying responsibility). Which is to say, Monaca becoming an adult isn't just her growing up, it's her recognizing that she has to give up who she was before as a child Warrior of Hope and leave Another Episode behind. If only because the other option is to become like Nagito.
• When Izayoi was searching the room with the secret exit, he didn't look particularly concerned or wary, and yet, after that, Kyoko and the others find a room completely rigged with deadly traps. Even though Ruruka killed him out of suspicion, he was aware of her NG code, and even before warning her about the exit, he prepared the room so no one would be able to find the exit.
• For the two opposing trios in the killing game, the 78th class and the 74th class, the NG codes seem to be contrasting with each other:
  • Chisa and Kirigiri, both the Implied Love Interest (or simply Love Interest in Chisa's case) of the leader of these trios. Kirigiri's NG Code was "Letting Naegi survive past the fourth time limit", while Chisa's was "Let Munakata die." These two contrast, as Kirigiri needed to evaluate how important letting Naegi survive was compared with her survival, whereas Chisa had to ensure Munakata did not die to ensure her survival.
  • Asahina and Sakakura, the muscle of each group. Sakakura cannot hit with a punch, whereas Asahina cannot be hit with a punch or a kick. Again, a clear contrast between the two.
  • And now with the revelation of Munakata's, his and Naegi's contrast as well. Both restrict movement (Naegi can't run in the hallway, Munakata can't open the door) and both make them rely on others for safer transport. Not only that, but it seems to reflect the viewpoints both characters have taken: even slowed down, Naegi isn't giving up and pursues his goals and ideals; Munakata has stopped progressing in his way of thinking and in his goal.
• Crosses over to Fridge Horror. After realizing that class 77 was brainwashed through mind control, Despair!Nagito's actions in Chapter 0 of SDR2 make a lot more sense. He claims that he both "loves and hates" Junko, but then gets confused by his own contradiction and goes on a Madness Mantra. It's possible at this point that "True Nagito" was trying to regain control of his brainwashed alternate personality. His statement of how he loves and hates Junko is true: Despair!Nagito loves Junko, while his true personality hates her.
  • Episode 11 of Side: Despair reveals that Nagito is the only brainwashed Remnant of Despair that is aware of being a Despair, while everyone else has been brainwashed into believing that they're bringing "happiness" to the world, while in reality they're destroying it. Nagito is also the only one with a very non-neurotypical brain (SDR2 and side materials confirm that he's affected by frontotemporal dementia), which may be the reason why the brainwashing wasn't 100% effective. Maybe the illness is yet another work of his luck..?
    • Jossed, Nekomaru also points out they are Ultimate Despair as well. It's likely that at that point every member of the class, if Junko's teachings were as thorough as she mentioned, has most likely embraced their new found ecstasy that despair brings and are just that ecstatic about getting ready to pursue those hopeful things they envision and are relishing the despair knowing they'll make sure those visions won't come true.
• The despair video that Junko makes was already foreshadowed in SDR2. If one recalls the final trial, Makoto says the Force Shutdown would likely undo the "brainwashing", but they would still have to keep their memories as Ultimate Despair.
• Junko knowing how to lobotomize someone to alter their personality makes a disturbing amount of sense when you recall that one of her accomplices (although a reluctant one) was her childhood friend, Yasuke Matsuda, the Ultimate Neurologist. Also, during the final class trial of SDR2, when Junko was talking about the Izuru Kamukura project, an image of doctors inserting needles into a patient's head appeared. This implies Mukuro used a similar procedure that turned Hajime into Izuru to condition Chisa into becoming a member of Ultimate Despair. Junko would have likely gotten the data for the procedure during her search for Izuru.
• The early scene of Yukizome watching her death at the first episode of Side:Despair starts making more sense with Side: Future episode 10 showing that Yukizome wasn't cured of the brainwashing Junko had done to her. Yukizome (her real self, at least) is watching her own death from a corner of her mind.
• In Episode 9 of Side:Despair, it was revealed in Junko's student profile that she wasn't recruited by Kizakura, but as a special case by the recommendation of the Board of Directors. Seeing as Kizakura is a good judge of character, as seen when he identified Miaya as a suspicious person and correctly deduced that Ruruka was trying to hinder Kyoko's investigation, he would have likely realized how dangerous Junko is and would never allow her to go to Hope's Peak. The Board of Directors even arranged it so that Koichi and Jin weren't involved with her recruitment. Additionally, the Board of Directors likely knew how dangerous Junko could be because according to Junko's profile "responsibility of her as a student was placed upon the headmaster after her admission, with the Board removing their responsibility on her development". The Board of Directors only wanted Junko to come to their school to add her analyzing talent to the Izuru Kamukura project.
• Like the previous executions in the past installments, Chiaki's execution has aspects of Fridge Brilliance. Given she was The Heart of Class 77-B, she went on to believe that her classmates can defeat despair. Junko mocked this idea by adding Hope Spots in her execution so that she thinks that she will be able to defeat despair, only for her to die in the end.
  • In a much more Meta level, Chiaki was basically Doomed by Canon with her appearing as an AI in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, making her chances of survival not looking particularly good. Her execution plays on this as even if she survives one possible death, canon dictates that she will still die at the end.
  • On the subject of Chiaki's execution, she had an unused execution that involved her navigating deadly traps. It looks like Chiaki's old execution was still used, in a sense^note the original was her trapped in a board game, rolling a die, but that wouldn't work too well in this situation.
• More meta, but the reason why the reveal that Juzo has a crush on Munakata was so effective is because, after many installments containing merely implied Ho Yay and Les Yay, no one would have ever expected this ship to be anything more than a fandom joke or hopeless slashing, either. Unlike Komaeda's "aborted confession" and Tsumiki's vague wordings, Juzo's feelings were pretty clearly spelled out, with no room for misinterpretation.
  • Another aspect to it; Aoi and Juzo are clear foils to one another, Aoi does have some Ship Tease with Naegi and Les Yay with Kirigiri, just like Juzo was hinted at having feelings for either/both Munakata and Chisa.
• Much of Junko's actions throughout Despair have been incorporated into the Killing Game of the first Danganronpa game at some point or another.
  • The First Killing Game acts as a prototype incorporating the motives such as the implied hostage motive from the first chapter.
    • The Never My Fault Breaking Speech she gives to Ryota is very similar to how Monokuma blames the students in the Killing Game for being desperate enough to kill despite putting them in that position in the first place.
    • In episode 10, she blackmails Juzo with his secret just like she did for the second motive in the game.
    • Chiaki's execution scene shows the theme of how it is related to her and her talent with her classmates forced to watch.
    • Like in the game, she creates a traitor from within the Class 77 roster, that traitor being a brainwashed Chisa.
• When it's revealed that the victims committed suicide after watching the monitors, the Great Gozu stabbed his eyes out before he killed himself. It may be possible that he realized what was happening and tried to blind himself from the monitor before the effects took place, but it was too late.
  • Additionally, this could also possibly explain why Ruruka had candy stuffed into her corpse. It was possibly a futile effort to try and overpower the brainwashing by using her own mind control candy to stave off the effects.
  • When we see how Chisa dies, she purposely hangs herself on the chandelier and then kills herself. Compare to the others' deaths, where they tried to resist the brainwashing. Since we learned that Chisa is already brainwashed beforehand, she was more than willing to kill herself. This theory is additionally supported by the fact that she's the first victim of the Final Killing Game.
• The revelation in episode 11 that Tengan, the ex-headmaster, is the mastermind puts in a new light Monokuma's last words in the first game.
  "Yes, I'm not any old stuffed toy. I'm Monokuma. Your Headmaster, and the Headmaster of this school!"
  — Monokuma
• Monaca not knowing who the Mastermind of the Final Killing Game was makes a lot more sense when it's revealed that the "attacker" was in fact the brainwashed victim themselves. Even with Robo-Miaya active during the sleep cycles, all Monaca would have seen is the victims killing themselves. Monaca technically knew who the "attackers" were, but she was telling the truth when she was talking about the "mastermind".
• Munakata coming to the conclusion in Episode 11 that Tengan is a Remnant of Despair and is behind the Final Killing Game, despite looking every bit like the Big Good, unfortunately makes a lot of sense when you consider his final words to Munakata. "Everyone is the attacker" turns out to be mostly true since the Monokuma monitors are brainwashing people into suicide, and Tengan Cannot Tell a Lie due to his own NG Code. The only way he could know that, not be lying, and — most tellingly — not warn anyone else is if he is either the mastermind or working with the mastermind.
  • Munakata also mentions he suspected Tengan because Tengan was best-placed to make all the necessary preparations for the Killing Game.
• The anime's subtitle — "The End of Hope's Peak Academy" — takes on a different meaning depending on the "side" you refer to:
  • Side: Despair shows the series of events that led to the Tragedy, which destroyed the Academy and then the entire world.
  • Side: Future revolves around the Final Killing Game, the final plan to destroy the Future Foundation (which can be considered Hope's Peak's "successor").
  • Side: Hope, the final episode, is the Grand Finale of the entire Hope's Peak Academy Saga.
• Why did Tengan make Ryota's NG code "not using his talent"? That's because the mastermind does want the Future Foundation to be killed off, and it's possible that Ryota's hope video can override the effect of the Gloomy Sunday Video and make them work together, therefore rendering the killing game ineffective.
  • And, like other NG codes, it is ironic/poetic/a veiled critique of their character; Ryota turned his back on his talent out of shame and guilt, after he both almost self-destructed from his obsession with anime and inadvertently helped a murderous psychopath ruin society. His NG code is basically a "screw you" to him, especially in light of Tengan's final plan to convince him to brainwash people again and the fact that he could short-circuit the Killing Game with it.
• How could a meek person like Mitarai survive in a world where everyone is trying to kill each other or cause destruction? He would show people his brainwashing video and they would do what he says.
• On the surface, it seems hypocritical that Makoto wants to stop Mitarai from broadcasting the brainwashing video for hope, while he himself used the Neo World Program in an attempt to restore hope to the Remnants of Despair. However, the two methods work differently: the Neo World Program, designed with the cooperation of the Ultimate Therapist, merely removes existing brainwashing and memories, but still requires its participants to actively pursue their idea of hope by pursuing relationship bonds — thus, it's under their own volition; also, it's only done upon 15 of the worst offenders. In contrast, Mitarai's video, with only his and Tengan's input, forcibly removes human natures, and even if it somehow induced a feeling of hope, it's still done forcibly; not to mention this is done to everyone in the world. This also explains why the Neo World Program is sanctioned, but Mitarai's video is not.
  • Another factor is that the Remnants of Despair consented to the Neo World Program; Mitarai's video, much like Junko's, would be played with or without the viewer wanting to see it.
• After learning about Mitarai's hope brainwashing video, Side: Hope may not be as uplifting as people initially believed.
• The scene in Side: Hope where the former Remnants of Despair are convincing Ryota to cancel the Hope Video upload was quite clever for a few reasons. Everyone is in the exact uniform they wore in the Neo World Program, with Hajime leading the discussion, and reproduce one of their respective sprites. There's also the timer until the upload behind Ryota, and it's counting down Minutes:Seconds:Milliseconds. The whole thing is set up to resemble a Nonstop Debate!
  • In order of their appearance on the screen from left to right, here are the sprites the charcaters replicate:
    • Since Hajime is the middle Remnant and the protagonist of Danganronpa 2...
    • Nagito's.
    • Mikan's.
    • Ibuki's.
    • Teruteru's.
    • Peko's is her default sprite with an additional smile for causality.
    • Fuyuhiko's.
    • Mahiru's.
    • Nekomaru's.
    • Gundham's.
    • Hiyoko's.
    • Akane's.
    • Kazuichi's.
    • Sonia's.
    • ...And the Imposter's.
• It's obvious now who the 16th participant in the Final Killing Game is, Yasuhiro Hagakure. Mitarai's NG Bracelet and Forbidden Action were meant for Hagakure, but Tengan's panic when Mitarai showed up forced him to make Mitarai take Hagakure's place. As Hagakure's talent was the only thing he was good for (and Absolute Despair Hagakure proves he can use it to keep himself and others out of harm's way), the Forbidden Action would have fit him perfectly.
  • Considering Tengan wanted Ryota alive, any sane person would wonder why Ryota was put in the killing game in the first place; though this can be explained when you assume the mastermind actually is insane.
• Episode 8 of Side:Future, Makoto loses contact with Komaru right before he was able to tell her he will soon escape and pick her up. Those who are especially savvy of specific tropes could interpret this statement as a Death Flag. This means his own luck went into action just as he needed it again and prevented him from raising a death flag and cause a bad ending for both and/or one of the siblings.
• With the reveal that AI Nanami was originally a blank slate AI in the Neo World Program filled with the remnants' wishes and friendship for the real Nanami, it shows that in a way, Fujisaki did help in creating AI Nanami.
• Come to think of it, there was a handy visual clue to Juzo being gay in addition to the ambiguity of the Love Triangle between Kyousuke, Chisa and himself. Remember that the Japanese stereotype for a gay man is very overtly manly. Juzo, with his hot temper and his muscular frame, more or less matches that description.
• Though it's sad that Nobuyo Oyama will no longer be voicing the part, the recasting of Monokuma actually works quite well. If you think of Nobuyo's Monokuma as the one controlled by AI Junko in the first Hope's Peak and Neo World Program Killing Games, since the Final Killing Game has a different mastermind (as will the Killing Game in NDRV3, presumably), it make sense for its Monokuma to have a different voice.
• In Side:Hope, Hajime/Izuru has developed heterochromia, with a left red eye, essentially splitting him down the middle — one side Hajime, one side Izuru. Half hope and half despair. Just like Monokuma.
  • It might be more accurate to say, since the entire point of the second game was Hajime/Izuru rejecting both sides to Take a Third Option, that his heterochromia represents the merging of his personalities, rather than their separation. The green eye represents Hajime's empathy, the red eye Izuru's talent.
• The Despair Pollution Noise Music is notably absent from Side:Future with the exception of Aoi's fakeout, the guards' deaths and Sonosuke's death. This is because the music only plays for murders, while the other deaths were all suicides.
• At first, it seems odd that the members of the 78th class keep referring to Hajime/Izuru solely as Kamukura, and marveling at his talent despite the atrocities committed in order to achieve it. You'd think they'd at least acknowledge "Hajime Hinata" and be a bit more cautious about singing the praises of Hope's Peak's greatest abuses — given their status as FF members, they must have known at least some of the details, and their Big Damn Heroes moment in SDR2 proves that they know who Hajime is. But then, not only is Hajime a relative stranger to them (they'd have heard the name "Kamukura" far more often than "Hinata") the 78th class are still of the mindset that Hope's Peak were the "good guys," even if they did bad things — they blame Junko almost entirely for what happened. After all, they were directly subject to Junko's malice, while in comparison the school sheltered them, they enjoyed their time there, and the headmaster personally tried to protect them (along with being Kyoko's dad). All in all, they're fairly "pro-establishment" in terms of their school, rather than rebels like Munakata's group or Hajime (arguably, Kyoko would have a problem with glorifying the school, but she's absent until the end of the episode). Throw in the fact that they may have internalized Hope's Peak's ethos, and their quickness to dismiss Hajime's experiences as a human experiment makes more sense: they simply don't want to think of their beloved school being responsible for terrible things, so the fact that Hajime ended up using his talents for the sake of good vindicates Hope's Peak in the eyes of Naegi and Co. This mindset would also explain the questionable decision to rebuild Hope's Peak themselves.
  • In contrast, Souda cheerfully and casually addresses Hajime as "this guy" in front of Mitarai, and Nagito addresses him as "Hinata-kun," reflecting his closer relationship with the Jabberwock Island team and the fact that they prioritize his "Hajime" identity. They're probably just relieved that he woke up as more-or-less himself and don't want to think too hard about the whole Izuru Kamukura business.
• The reveal that Chiaki in SDR2 is an AI based on a real person is actually went as far back as Nagito's claim of researching his potential classmates. He knew everyone's talent except Hajime, which means it includes Chiaki, and he has no suspicion that Chiaki is the Future Foundation spy among them even to the end. If she's merely an AI inserted into the cast, Nagito would be the first who notice something is amiss and yet he didn't.
  • And while on topic of that, her being an amalgamation of her classmates' memories is supported by the fact that she has a physical feature that isn't readily visible unless she strips; Chiaki has a tiny mole on her right breast. Class 77 went to a beach in one of their outings as can be seen from the ending. For a casual observer, it's something that would be easily missed or unknown to them, much less when someone outside the Class 77 circle is designing a physical appearance of an AI based on a real person. In fact, many fans often miss it despite having already seen it; that's just how small it is. The reason why the Class 77 could possibly make that realistic of a copy is because among them, there's a resident pervert.
  • Not that this should have been much of a reveal in the first place. After all, we've already seen how the classes memories came together to form the AI Chiaki, albeit depicted metaphorically: The Side: Despair credits sequence, where photos of events that Class-77 took part in during their days at Hope's Peak are used to make a collage depicting Chiaki!
• The Monokuma Secret Exit was first thought of as a fake, but then it was revealed that the power room was inside it, where Juzo cut the power of the entire building, allowing everyone to escape the game. It was a secret exit in a way.
• Why wasn't Monaca affected by the suicide anime if she saw Gozu's death? Well, if you remember what Mitarai was saying when describing his anime to Junko, he said that it only works on decent quality screens, and without the color getting distorted. Gekkogahara's camera has a green tint to it, therefore distorting the color.
  • Alternatively, it did actually affect her partially. It seems out of character for her to be apathetic just as she is about to win, until you realize being apathetic or feeling guilty about oneself is an immediate effect of watching the suicide video effect, not to mention she effectively committed suicide by shutting herself off in space. So while it's not as strong as those who watch it directly, the effect is there.
• How did Monaca know that someone from the class 78th was gonna die because of Naegi? Munakata got the list of NG codes from Robot Miaya, so Monaca probably knew that Kirigiri's NG code is 'Passing the Fourth Time Limit with Naegi Makoto alive'.
• A meta example of Fridge Brilliance is how well the masterminds of each killing game for each numbered installment of Danganronpa matches up with the mastermind/Zero of each Deadly Game from the Zero Escape series. This would make sense since the creators of these franchises have been known to share ideas with each other. Going through the masterminds:
  • The first masterminds in both DR1 and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors were Junko Enoshima and Akane Kurashiki, respectively. Both masterminds are young women and a former classmate of the their game's main protagonist. Both of them even had their older sibling help them with setting up their game.
  • The second masterminds in SDR2 and Virtue's Last Reward are Izuru Kamukura and Dr. Sigma Klim, respectively. Both masterminds are the alter ego of the main protagonist themselves, who were unaware of their alternate identity. Additionally, both masterminds had a AI act as the host of their game, and arranged it so that an artificial copy of their deceased Love Interests would be a part of their planned game.
  • Finally, the third masterminds in DR3 and Zero Time Dilemma are Tengan and Delta, respectively. Both masterminds are old men that are Well Intentioned Extremists who hoped that their planned game could lead to the world being saved. Also, both masterminds were able to utilizes some form of mind control: Delta was able to control people through his "Mind Hacking" ability, while Tengan brainwashed people to commit suicide through the Despair video.
• The fact that Naegi just happened to be assigned a faulty room in the first installment makes even more sense given the Despair arc's reveal that Junko actually knew who Naegi was during their time at Hope's Peak, and was annoyed by him. Of course she'd assign that room to someone she disliked!
• Munakata's change of aspirations in the epilogue seems sudden, until you realize that he just spent days in exactly the sort of chaotic, dangerous situation that Hope's Peak breeds, and he can't write off this game as a fluke. His trying and failing to establish control over the Foundation during it taught Munakata that he can't and doesn't want to spend his whole life working with people like the Ultimates are groomed to be, especially since the two Ultimates he cared about most are dead now.
• Now that we know what Murasame looked like, it can now be said that the two "Naegi"s that get the most wear and tear done to them psychologically are the only two leaders lacking the standard protagonist Idiot Hair and all the responsibility that comes with it.
  • Their lack of Idiot Hair also signifies they aren't the true heroes of their own stories; despite being the "protagonists" of their respective groups, they were the only two leaders with them and their plots introduced as side stories to a main plot, dooming their groups from the start. But what really cursed their Plot Armor was the fact that an Idiot Hair character was already present (and in Murasame's case, there were two), thus showing to the audience that they were mere decoys for the real leaders.
  • How come Murasame gets the worst fate of all "Naegi"s in the Hope's Peak Saga?^note For those who don't know, after watching all his friends kill each other, he fakes catatonia, goes stark raving mad upon even hearing Junko's name again, then gets choked to death by Matsuda. As any long time viewer of Danganronpa knows, the first is always the most brutal. And as Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony also shows us, the plot doesn't like when more than one "Naegi" is in the same killing game.
• Kyosuke was so obsessed with the belief that someone from Despair caused Chisa's death… which is true, Metaphorically True. Not only was Chisa Despair, but her real self would not have died — psychologically speaking — if her love for the 77th class, who would become Despair, had not motivated her to make a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Some have raised eyebrows over how quick the Student Council seemed to be willing to murder each other, but remember that prior to that, all have been sent threatening videos, which were most likely sent while Junko was perfecting her techniques. So it is highly likely that a few, if not all, had been subliminally brainwashed to be more willing to kill each other, most likely by enhancing their paranoia or desperation; this explains why they seem to have no trouble in offing each other, as well as a few (for example Karen/Tomohiko) having looks of pleasure as time goes on.
• After the graduation speech, the 77th class are stating their plans to make unintentionally a better world. The fact that their sense of hope has been altered completely is when Teruteru is saying his part. Notice that he is holding a bunch of potato chips while saying it? Now what does Teruteru dislike? Junk food.
• While most see the events of Side:Despair as making Junko out to be a liar in SDR2, once you think about it, in a way she wasn't actually lying about the events, just that she wasn't giving the entire context about what actually happened:
  • "Izuru killed the entirety of the Student Council" is still correct. When Izuru took interest in Junko's claims of despair being unpredictable, it led to the Student Council's fate being set in stone. Plus, given the fact he did nothing to stop the madness from starting in the first place, despite having everything at his whims to do so, he still shoulders the blame for it.
  • "Junko got the Remnants one by one" still stands as well. After all, the brainwashing done to them only made it so that they would feel a sense of pleasure from the absolute despair of seeing Chiaki murdered, making them the same as Junko in that sense as UD. It doesn't mean that they would be loyal or, hell, even willing to actually do the horrific acts that they would go to commit at first (it'd be more likely that they would be more willing to kill her than to do that at first). It's likely that Junko did do the manipulation aspect afterwards, something she would have more than enough spare time to do given HPA's no mandatory class system. Plus, add together she has their teacher (who could cover for their absence) + Mikan (people who would have had known them longer and know where to hit them at their weakest), the class would still be rather scarred from seeing the gruesome execution, and the fact the class would be isolated from the outside world for a decent period of time, it isn't too much of a stretch that Junko could have won them over during that time.
  • "Junko broke Izuru's spirit" still works in a sense. Junko basically manipulated him by preying on his desire for excitement in life by using a world in despair would always interest him, something that while at first he got back during the council game, he would eventually find that would bore him by ep 11 of Despair Arc. Unfortunately, when the world became one bounded by chaos and therefore 'deadlocked', by then Izuru had realized he had only been played a fool to bring about a world only Junko would want, and by then was in too deep to break out of being an Ultimate Despair member, thus causing his spirit to break into the bitter and nihilistic Izuru in SDR2, one who wants revenge against Junko for using him (though also one that still wants to see the true clash of hope vs despair to decide which would be more interesting).
• Kazuichi complains early on that he always gets hurt whenever Nagito is around, and sure enough he's constantly on the receiving end of Nagito's bad luck. Goodbye Despair shows that Nagito's loved ones often end up in harm's way due his luck, and in his dream world Kazuichi is portrayed as being one of his best friends. It can be inferred that Nagito cares about Kazuichi and wants to be his friend which causes his luck to constantly target him. However, Nagito's self-imposed isolation might actually be the reason Kazuichi hasn't been killed, since they are never able to become actual friends.
• Ruruka's candy has the possibility to be used for mind control, yet it seems like Izayoi and her are actually in love, while she borderline bullies Seiko because she refuses to eat them. Then you realize her whole trust issues thing is about helplesness. Izayoi genuinely liked her candy, he also genuinely liked her, they had mutual trust that only broke down due to the paranoia the Final Killing Game induced on Ruruka, she didn't need to trap him at all to ensure he would stay with her, yet the option was still there in case things went wrong. Seiko on the other hand couldn't eat sugar, and Ruruka had no way to ensure she wouldn't betray her, or that she was even telling the truth, she didn't have that guarantee she could pull with anyone else, she was helpless if Seiko chose to leave her, -just like she was helpless if someone found and used the exit door.

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