Danganronpa Chiaki Nanami / Sandbox

Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.

It's virtually impossible to list tropes for these characters without spoiling everything or creating Self Fulfilling Spoilers because of the large amount of surprising reveals and murderer/victim exclusive Tropes this game contains just like its predecessor.

Chiaki Nanami

Ultimate Gamer

"Don't you think there's something that's way more important than whether or not you have a talent?"

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

Played by: Nana Yamada (Stage)

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In General

All-Loving Heroine: Both versions of Chiaki loves and treasures all her classmates, and wants to believe in them until the very end.
Always with You:
- AI Chiaki seemingly expresses this sentiment after Hajime and the others end the final trial.
- Human Chiaki does this to Hajime in the ending of Side: Hope, appearing to him as a spirit.
Beware the Nice Ones:
- Chiaki may very well be the kindest member of the whole cast, nonetheless, both Hajime and Gundham each manage to get her slightly cross with them at different points in Chapter 3. She teases each of them in payback afterwards and each instance leaves both men bewildered.
  Gundham: (Demands a simplified explanation from Chiaki by attempting reverse psychology)
  Kazuichi: "What a jeeerk!"
  Chiaki: "Oh, I see. You want me to explain it to you, right? Because you don't understand what I'm saying, right?"
  Gundham: (Aghast at Chiaki's comeback) "An even BIGGER jerk!? Impossible!"
- She's similarly kind and friendly in 3, but is capable of mean hooks if her friends are messed with.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Both versions of Chiaki are executed in some of the most inhumane ways possible.
- Human Chiaki's death is drawn out, full of futile hope spots, gory, and painful, all the better to cause her friends despair. It makes her death in SDR2 look like nothing. The worst part is that the death traps themselves don't kill her. She instead dies a slow death from blood loss after being impaled.
- AI Chiaki and the rest of the Usami/Monomi units are in a room with pixelated models, when Monokuma comes in with a tank and starts to shoot at them. Chiaki suddenly spots an exit and she and the Monomis run, followed by Monokuma in a Pac-Man-like vehicle that crushes all but one of the Monomi units. However, her and the last Monomi reach a dead end. With no more escape routes, Monokuma begins dropping Tetris blocks in the area, eventually crushing the last Monomi, and then Chiaki. The blocks then violently explode due to Monokuma forming three perfect lines. AI Chiaki also implies that this is the case, indicating that she's never been to an amusement park with friends due not having any until she met the other students. The truth about this matter though seems related to her status as an Artificial Intelligence.
Friendless Background:
- AI Chiaki implies that she's never been to an amusement park with friends, not having any friends until she met the other students. The truth about this matter seems related to her status as an Artificial Intelligence.
- Human Chiaki also had no friends before meeting Hajime and bonded with her classmates.
Gamer Chick: Her ultimate talent is based on being one. In Danganronpa V3's bonus mode, it is revealed that she is so good at video games she can even sometimes beat Izuru.
Genius Ditz: She's a savant when it comes to playing video games, and her wide experience of genres (murder mystery, edutainment, etc.) gives her an astonishing range of general knowledge, so much so that she's one of the best members of the group to talk to when you need insight into a murder case. However, there's only one gaming genre she struggles with: dating sims.
Godlike Gamer: Chiaki Nanami is considered "the Ultimate Gamer" and excells at almost everygame she plays with little effort. The only games she's bad at are Dating Sims.
I Know Mortal Kombat: She apparently knows some fighting techniques that she learned from playing video games. She used one of these techniques to protect Hiyoko from a aphrodisiac-influenced Teruteru. Her video game experience makes her surprisingly useful for investigating the game's murders. For example, she maps out the Twilight Syndrome crime scene using her experience from dungeon crawler RPGs.
Intimate Marks: Has a mole on the inside of her right breast.
Meaningful Appearance: Her hairclip resembles the spaceship from Galaga. Fits well with her status as gamer and "space cadet".
Nice Girl: When she first meets Hajime, she gives him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech and effectively manages to cheer him up. She would normally hang out with Hajime despite his insecurities of being a school reserve course student. Her AI too is kind and good-natured to others, and comes to be considered a universally-close friend by the fifth trial. Her murder of Nagito was completely accidental because he set it up and relied on his luck to make the traitor (her) the killer. When she figures this out, she gracefully throws herself under the bus (with Hajime's help) to save everyone else.
Ship Tease:
- Plenty with Hajime in 2. Ignoring her Free Time Events, she plays a very critical role in restoring his hope to him and supporting him, and he's the most worried about forgetting about her. He also gets very flustered when seeing her in her swimsuit in Chapter 2. A couple of characters even make a few low-key remarks at their seeming connection at various points in the game.
- Very much so again in 3 with both Hajime and Izuru. She and Hajime were very fond of each other, to the point he decided to become Izuru to be better for her and she spent an entire year waiting for him; with Izuru, she recognized him as Hajime immediately and wanted to help him above all else, even while dying, while Izuru took an interest in her, turned on Junko because of her, and spent years mourning her death.
Significant Birth Date: March 14 is also the White Day, a day where boys will give cookies as a return present for the reciprocated girl's Valentine's Day chocolate, marking her role as Love Interest. Also, AI Chiaki shares her birthday with her father Chihiro Fujisaki.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She's a Nice Girl who bears no ill towards anyone, and the universe responds by having her die tragically.
- When her AI was made into Nagito's murder, without any second thoughts she proceeds to pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save her remaining friends. Exactly like her real-life counterpart
- She was brutally killed by Junko in reality specifically because she was such a lovable person. Everyone who knew and loved her was traumatized immensely.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (AI Chiaki)

An absent-minded girl who loves video games of all genres (even bad games) and is skilled at playing them. She tends to become so absorbed whilst playing that it's hard to hold a conversation with her, and has a habit of pausing for long periods of time while she mentally composes what she wishes to say. She is the mole of the group, placed there as an inside observer by the Future Foundation. Chiaki is actually an Artificial Intelligence from the same cloth as Usami, acting as a Non-Player Character within the Neo World Program. She is the accidental culprit of Chapter 5 but foils Nagito's plot to kill all of the students (except her) by confessing to the "murder", forcing her execution alongside Usami. She returns as a vision in the final trial, giving Hajime the hope to continue forward.

Accidental Murder: Played with. The fact that she killed Nagito is indeed an accident since she was merely trying to put out the fire in the warehouse, but he was banking on his luck that the one who would kill him with the poisoned bottle would be the "traitor", and she is.
Adaptation Personality Change: In her POV manga, she's shown much more cheerful and shows more emotion over the course of the story.
Ambiguous Situation: She appears to encourage Hajime in the final trial, yet what she is exactly is unclear. Hajime asks her who she is several times and wonders if she's his memory of Chiaki. Even Kodaka said she felt "a little bit off" from the Chiaki all game which is where he got the idea for her human counterpart from. It's possible she really is a spirit, Hajime's memories of her, his memories of her human self, or some combination of these.
Animal-Eared Headband: Wears a hoodie with bat ears.
Armor-Piercing Question:
- She snaps Hajime out of his Heroic BSoD by asking him how much longer he's going to be indecisive, which leads to her motivational speech.
- In the trial before, Chiaki asks a self-inflicted piercing in verbatim "If... by chance... the traitor revealed themselves during that bomb scare... what would've happened? Would it have... stopped Nagito from acting so reckless?" This is also her Declaration of Protection.
Artificial Intelligence: Since she is really just an NPC in the Jabberwock simulation. It turns out that Chihiro Fujisaki, who created another artificial intelligence in the first game, created her as well. And she's easily one of the sweetest characters in the game.
Awesome by Analysis: Chiaki spiritually succeeds Kyoko Kirigiri as the protagonist's strongest ally in the trials. She is very proactive in collecting evidence and leads discussions by suggesting how to think, not what. This foils against Nagito, who excels at this trope as well but he openly withholds evidence and ideas that prove totally central to the cases and often he alone already knows the blackened, while Chiaki works it out with everyone. Nagito in particular remarks often on her perceptive and deductive skills, praising her gaming history as a contributing factor. Chiaki especially catches on the quickest to Nagito's hints, such as Mikan's imitation murder containing a hidden truth, and she even deduces his entire murder-suicide-murder scheme down to the motive. In her Relationships Chart in the official Danganronpa 2 artbook, Monokuma states verbatim that he considers her "the real brains of the class trials." While Chiaki consistently helps Hajime analyse the evidence, the specific clues that she personally provides during investigations are especially salient to the crimes, and her findings progressively increases in importance, implying she is learning as the killings continue:
— Chapter 1 has Chiaki the most passive, with her actions consisting of guarding the only entrance (which becomes her and Fuyuhiko's alibis) and assisting Gundam in ruling out an external entrance to under the floorboards, which confirms the culprit as being inside the building.
— Chapter 2 has Chiaki preserve the footprints in the sand which eventually help to corner Hiyoko. Without confirming that she was there and then clearing her, the class likely would not have received the forged letter Hiyoko was hiding, of which the pair of letters enabled the class to establish a timeline of the crime and root out the killer's actions.
— Chapter 3 has Chiaki point out the half-cleaned bloodstain on the stage, a particularly mystifying clue as Hajime has no idea how anything is concealed by only partially cleaning the blood and with the body nearby. The class later decides that the blood only needed to be cleaned enough so as to not attract Hajime's attention when he first arrives on scene, thus enabling the falsified killing order as presented by the murderer. It is also implied that staring at the floor helped Chiaki notice the same flooring in the hospital.
— Chapter 4 has Chiaki draw attention to the fragments under the body but not on top, a vital clue that eliminates the pillar falling onto Mechamaru while suggesting the inverse was true.
— Chapter 5 has Chiaki work double time as she first draws indirect attention the incomplete Monokuma File; she then notices the smear of blood on the ceiling girder, evidence that helps Hajime work out the spear trick.
- It should be noted that the two times Chiaki hits a wall in the trials and cannot continue the discussion is when she does not have access to certain evidence: Chiaki first hits a wall in Trial 3 because she neither saw the video and thus didn't know that stepladder was clean, nor did she know of the theatre bonus prize. The second time she hits a wall is in Trial 4 while discussing the Funhouse, with Nagito withholding a picture that directly displays the building structure. In both instances, once Chiaki gains the clues, she resumes her position in leading the debates.
Benevolent A.I.: She doesn't have a mean bone in her body and is an AI. The two violent acts she commits in the game are slapping Akane and "murdering" Nagito. She slaps Akane only as a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! to stop her from choking Nagito. Her "murder" of Nagito was more of a Suicide by Cop in that he relied on his luck that she as the "traitor" would grab the poison filled flask to kill him.
Berserk Button: She drops the space cadet routine and gets very serious when mutual killing is involved.
Big Damn Heroes: Returns in Chapter 6, defying death for the second time, to give Hajime the way to destroy AI Junko's argument.
Borrowed Catchphrase:
- Shouts "No! That's wrong!" alongside Hajime when destroying AI Junko's argument.
- In a way, the character quote above. Even in real life, Chiaki had a very dim view of the Talent System of Hope's Peak Academy...
Buxom Beauty Standard: Kazuichi and Hinata both get Distracted by the Sexy when they see her in a bikini and find out she was a Hidden Buxom, or as Kazuichi puts it, has "huge jugs".
Call-Back: While it plays out differently, her execution pretty much ends the same way as Kyoko's did in the first game's bad ending: getting crushed to death.
Cannot Spit It Out:
- Enforced, as her programming prevents her from directly revealing that she's The Mole.
- It's also pretty obvious she likes Hajime but just can't quite put it into words. Rather, seeing as she's an AI, she likely believes that it's better that she doesn't tell him how she feels. The fact that she's not great at dating sims also plays into this.
Character Tic:
- Chiaki will often pause for a moment before speaking, needing time to sort out what she wants to say first.
- She also tends to say "I think" after a statement.
Cloudcuckoolander: Tends to be a little slow in responses when talking to her, often putting things in a gaming perspective. But when things get serious...
The Confidant: As well as The Conscience. When the time calls for it, she will act as both to Hajime, most blatantly in Chapter 4: when he was about to go into the Final Dead Room, she talks him out of it, reminding him of how pointless it is and that he shouldn’t push himself. After the dispute with Nagito (after he revealed that Hajime was a reserve course student), he confides in her that regardless of how he’s feeling, he will continue to pursue investigating Nekomaru’s murder. A second most blatant example is when Hajime hits his Heroic BSoD during Chapter Six and starts hallucinating. He lets out everything that has been dumped on him and is at a loss of what to do. She talks him out of being indecisive and gives him the strength to move forward.
Continuity Cameo: AI Chiaki has two appearances in Danganronpa 3. The first is a in a Flashforward of her first time meeting Hajime, after the real life Chiaki's execution and death. and the second is in Side:Hope where Hajime asks her.... Spirit? Memory? Actual self? about why the AI took the appearance of Chiaki in the first place.
Could Say It, But...: The way she hints to Hajime that she's the traitor without explicitly saying it. Her theory that the traitor may be unable to betray the future foundation is kind of odd and she makes it pretty obvious she's trying to communicate something.
Deadpan Snarker: On occasion, particularly when she feels annoyed or antagonized.
Declaration of Protection: During trial five, Chiaki states that she wanted to do was protect her classmates, and expresses sadness over not being able to protect them once she's executed.
Deuteragonist: Similar to Kyoko in the first game, although it's less obvious at first and only becomes apparent as the game progresses.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the Stage Play adaptation of Danganronpa 2, instead of being crushed by a giant Tetris block, Chiaki is impaled with spears just like her human counterpart from Danganronpa 3.
Disappeared Dad: She speaks about her dad (a programmer) in the past tense, hinting that he died. Chapter 6 reveals that her "father" was Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer who died in the original game.
Face Death with Dignity: Although it's partly due to her limited emotional range, she happily accepts her impending execution. She makes it clear to everyone else that she'll die if it means she can protect everyone else.
Foreshadowing:
- She's the only one of the students who respects Monomi and never joins in when they proceed to verbally abuse her. Makes sense given that they are both "spies" of the Future Foundation. While Sonia is never openly hostile to Monomi, she's still distrustful of her.
- As detailed under Character Tic, she has a habit of pausing before speaking. At first it seems like a quirk, but it becomes obvious after The Reveal that her AI programming is simply processing what she wants or needs to say.
- In general, a lot of her odd behavior makes far more sense when you discover she's an AI: Her small emotional range, her difficulty (and later curiosity) with social activities, her expertise with video games (save dating sims since she struggles with emotions), her lack of response to any of Monokuma's machinations...
Genre Savvy: Because of all the games that she plays. After the first murder, she is the first to suggest that someone is nominated to guard the body just because "that's the kind of thing that happens in closed-circle murder mystery games".
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Slaps Akane in Chapter 5 to bring her to her senses when she's freaking out over Nagito's plans, and trying to strangle Nagito to death.
Grew Beyond Their Programming: Her free time with Hajime has her develop a curiosity for social activities. Monomi considers her willingness to defy her protocols and reveal her identity as a "miracle."
Heroic Sacrifice: In Chapter 5, she works out that Nagito's plan was to kill everyone but the "traitor" (her). Instead, she urges everyone to vote for her as the murderer, relying on Nagito's good luck and that she was the one who accidentally killed him.
Hidden Buxom: While even in casual clothing it is rather obvious that Chiaki has a fairly large bust (she ties with Tsumiki for having the second-largest breasts among the cast of Danganronpa 2, and the two are only bested by Akane), her rather daring bikini in Chapter 2 of the game really shows off how big they really are. It is even lampshaded by Kazuichi in-game.
Kazuichi: Seriously, man... I never expected Chiaki to have such huge jugs...
Chiaki: ...Jugs?
Hidden Depths: She proves remarkably competent at the trial despite her sleepy demeanor, being the one to both expose Nagito's act and put forth the idea the killer wasn't under the table in the first trial.
Hope Bringer: Her actions throughout the game and even after her death push Hajime and the others not to give up on the future, even when things look bleakest.
The Illegible: The childish scrawl in the diary in Chapter 5 turns out to be hers, since Monomi, the alleged owner of the diary, can't write.
Implied Love Interest: She's this to Hajime, the game never says they're a thing it's quite clear that they care about eachother with Chiaki repetedly doing her best to help Hajime out and one of his biggest hangups about attempting to reset the program is the idea that she'd be permenetly erased from his memory. Heck her final free time event is her trying to take Hajime out on a date.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: As an AI who is trying to help the former Ultimate Despair students' rehabilitation process she is completely immune to any of Monokuma's motives since she can't be driven to kill any of them... Which is why Nagito had to use his luck to make her his murderer.
I Will Wait for You: In her Dangan Island ending, she tells Hajime that she'll be waiting for the day he can teach her all kinds of new things. In her return, she promises that she'll learn more about dating.
Killed Off for Real: ...Possibly. Depends on whether you interpret her last words literally or just symbolically. Like most of the character's fates at the end, it's left ambiguous.
Let's Get Dangerous!: When Nagito tries to get everyone to give up on the first trial by insisting there's no evidence and no way they can catch the killer, she suddenly stands tall and shoots back with a "You've got that wrong!" Even though she softens it a moment later by adding "...I think", it signals the start of a devastating counterargument.
Loophole Abuse: As an AI she was explicitly programed to be incapable of revealing herself as the traitor sent by the Future Foundation. She gets around this by simply revealing the fact that it's impossible for the traitor to reveal themselves even if they wanted to and let the rest of the class figure out why she knew that.
The Lost Lenore: For Hajime, as he really took her death hard. The fact that he didn't get a chance to thank her until the very end of Chapter Six doesn't help him to cope with her death. Before he returns to the real world, he makes several references that he'll never forget about her. This was one of the reasons why he was a bit hesitant on doing the force shut-down, as there was a chance he and the other survivors would forget about her existence entirely.
Meaningful Name: Chiaki, as in Chihiro Fujisaki, her creator and father.
The Mole: For the Future Foundation. However, in this case, she has the students' best interests at heart.
Nerves of Steel: Just like Kyoko Kirigiri, she will hardly ever lose her calm personality even under intense pressure. Hajime even calls her this and praises her for it.
Non-Player Character: What she really is in-universe, since the setting of the game is actually virtual reality.
Not Afraid to Die: She doesn't hesitate to sacrifice herself for the sake of the other students, though she does find the will to put up some resistance during her execution.
Not Too Dead to Save the Day: You just got told it's a game, but the Ultimate Gamer died in the last chapter. As you reach an unwinnable segment of the game, Chiaki appears and proves her talent is not so useless after all in the game...
Revision: Danganronpa 3 makes Chiaki a real person who attended Class 77-B with the rest of them, with this Chiaki being a blank-slate AI who took on her form. Kodaka stated that the Chiaki in Chapter 6 was acting too different from the Chiaki that had been present throughout the game, which is where he got the idea of her human counterpart from.
Rules Lawyer: Monokuma finds her attempts to clarify the rules and close loopholes rather irritating. It makes sense when you consider the truth about the events of the Killing Game.
The Scapegoat: An incredibly unwitting example, or much rather, an example that knows they're a scapegoat but can't tell the others. Monokuma uses her role as a Future Foundation observer to sow distrust among the students, calling her a "traitor" and making the Future Foundation look bad in front of the other students so that Junko, who Monokuma actually is, can kill the Ultimate Despair students through the killing game much easier as they fight amongst themselves. This also goes against the Future Foundation's actual goal of reviving the Ultimate Despair students, as Monokuma's interference and labeling Chiaki is what halts their rehabilitation.
Scheherezade Gambit: When she finally understands the extremist intention of Nagito's callous plan in Chapter 5, she attempts to break his gambit into shards by exploiting herself as the traitor of the group, which is not something he intended. Chiaki does this in order to protect the remaining students and encourage them to battle the mastermind.
"Second Law" My Ass!: While she admits she can't completely defy them, she does go against the Future Foundation's orders and her established programming to out herself as the traitor to save everyone.
- Possibly subverted, as her refusing to reveal herself as the traitor would have gone against the First Law (as it would allow human beings to come to harm) - a fail-safe that the Second Law already has in place.
Ship Tease: Plenty with Hajime. Ignoring her Free Time Events, she plays a very critical role in restoring his hope to him and supporting him, and he's the most worried about forgetting about her. He also gets very flustered when seeing her in her swimsuit in Chapter 2. A couple of characters even make a few low-key remarks at their seeming connection at various points in the game.
Shout-Out: Chiaki carries on Hifumi's legacy of regularly making video game references.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Delivers a few of these to Nagito and Monokuma, such as telling the former to stop badgering Teruteru near the end of the first trial. Both listen, surprisingly.
Sleepyhead: She has a habit of falling asleep in the middle of sentences. A free-time conversation reveals that she frequently plays video games for so long that she forgets to sleep.
Smarter Than You Look: One can be forgiven for thinking that she's a kind hearted but ditsy girl whose only expertise was in video games until the first trial starts up. Here, it becomes apparent that she's one of the smartest and sharpest students in the class, if not the smartest.
Snot Bubble: She's seen with one of these whenever she is sleeping... which is often.
Spirit Advisor: Becomes one to Hajime, after his mental breakdown, in the final trial.
The Spock: To Hajime's The Kirk and Nagito's The McCoy. She always keeps her cool during the trials and tends to think the most logically out of the three. Chiaki also upholds a strong "needs of the many, outweighs needs of the few" belief, or in this case, sacrificing one student to save the others, will always be a better outcome than sacrificing all the students to save just one life, even if that "one life" happens to be her own.
Sympathetic Murderer: Can't get more sympathetic than being the murderer because you accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle in a 1 in 6 chance. Then pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that your friends would continue to live.
Terrible Artist: The colorful drawings she keeps in her diary could be mistaken for a preschooler's. That said, it could be a deliberate choice since she's trying to pass it off as Monomi's diary.
Token Good Teammate: She's the only "student" that was not a member of Ultimate Despair, so technically, she is this.
Town Girls: She's the neither to Akane's butch and Sonia's feminine.
Uncertain Doom: The game treats her execution as a Permadeath and she doesn't appear at during the present storyline in Danganronpa 3 except as a vision Hajime has at the end but considering her ambiguous appearance to Hajime in chapter 6, the fact that seemingly deleted AI's like Alter Ego and Usami have came back later, and the fact that said vision ends up explaining some things to Hajime that he had no idea about. leaves her fate open ended.
Verbal Tic: Has a habit of adding "...I think." to the end of her sentences. This is not present with her real self, indicating it's part of her AI's programming flaws...
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Averted. Even after finding out she's an NPC, Hajime still sees her as a living person.
What Would X Do?: She asks Hiyoko what she would think Mahiru would say in response to Fuyuhiko attempting Seppuku.
Worthy Opponent: She views Celeste as this in Danganronpa V3 Bonus Mode, viewing her gambling skills as a match for her own gaming skills.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Chiaki is scared of swimming, due to the possibility of her falling asleep and drowning.
- Also, while not afraid of animals themselves per se, she is nervous when up close with one because she doesn't know what it might do and that kind of unpredictability frightens her.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Her pep talk to Hajime in Chapter 6 full stop.
Yuri Fan: One of the problems she has with Twilight Syndrome Murder Case is the lack of romantic chemistry between Girl A and Girl B.

Danganronpa 3 (Human Chiaki)

Ultimate Gamer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chiaki_dr3.png

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

The secondary protagonist of Side: Despair. A member of Class 77-B, as well as its Class Rep. A gamer prone to dozing off, she is the only one who regularly interacts with Hajime, much to his confusion.

Almost Dead Guy: After being impaled several times by spears, she has enough energy to talk with Izuru where she apologizes for failing to help everyone and sobs how she doesn't want to die and she wants to stay with her friends and play games with Hajime. Her final action was reaching her hand out to Izuru before perishing.
Blessed with Suck: She points out to Hajime that being the Ultimate Gamer isn't really all that useful; she can't do anything else, will always be defined by it even if she doesn't want to, and initially doesn't think she can use her talent to make friends.
Character Death: She is executed by Junko in Episode 10, and it's her death that sends her classmates into despair.
Class Rep: Chisa appoints her as this in Episode 2.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Poor girl was on the receiving end of during the second half of this episode 10.
Determinator: Refuses to give up meeting her friends after being thrown in a deadly dungeon while her friends are forced to watch, even after being impaled multiple times, she still said she wanted to live and see her friends.
Doomed by Canon: Since she appears as an AI in DR2 and isn't shown as a Remnant of Despair, her chances of surviving were null.
Early-Bird Cameo: She very briefly appeared at the end of the teaser of Danganronpa V3, though the graininess of the image combined with her face not shown meant no one could be sure it was her until the producers implicitly confirmed it.
Fatal Flaw: Her naivete and idealism are ultimately her undoing. Despite being warned that their enemy is someone they can't beat, she refuses to give up on rescuing Hajime/Izuru and Chisa, believing that The Power of Friendship will prevail and the day will be won. Instead, her rallying for a rescue leads directly to her death and the fall of her classmates into despair.
First Friend: To Hajime Hinata and vice versa, since Chiaki never had any friends to play games with before meeting him. It just makes what happens to her all the more tragic...
Geeky Turn-On: Her whole friendship with Hajime starts because he is able to recognize an old retro game that she is playing based on the music. Chiaki responds to this by acting like an excited fangirl, complete with Luminescent Blush and No Sense of Personal Space.
Greater-Scope Paragon: She dies early on amid Junko's overall plot to bring despair to the world but it is the ideals of hope she left with Izuru in her final moments that became the driving force for his actions against Junko, leading to his own merger with Hajime, the restoration of the remnants of despair (who were similarly influenced by her), the ultimate defeat of Junko as an AI, and the halting of Ryota's plan to brainwash all humanity.
Hair Color Dissonance: Her hair was silver in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, but here it's a pinkish-brown that looks more pink or more brown depending on the lighting.
The Heart: She acted like this when Chisa was in the Reserve Course, actively planning events for her class. That's why her death pushed them into despair.
Held Gaze: With Izuru at the end of Episode 8, after she recognizes him as Hajime.
I Just Want to Have Friends: She was incredibly lonely before meeting Hajime, feeling that her talent was useless when it came to making friends. This is probably why she's so invested into him and her classmates, as they were the first friends she's ever had, and Chisa (who encouraged her to reach out).
I Will Wait for You: Loves Hinata to the point that, after he disappears, she still waits for him at their normal meeting spots. A whole year later, she's still waiting.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Episode 10, Chiaki is thrown in a dungeon full of deadly traps and is impaled a few times during the way. After finally reaching the exit she is pierced by multiples spears at once, similar to Mukuro Ikusaba's death in the first game. She dies, but not instantly.
Kill the Cutie: Kind, adored by everybody, and not to mention pretty cute. Ultimately, she had one of the most, if the most brutal and painful death in entire franchise, and that is saying something.
Leeroy Jenkins: She knew confronting Junko would end badly (having seen how badly Peko was wounded from attempting the same) and did it anyway.
Legacy Character: AI Chiaki. It's revealed in Side:Hope that AI Chiaki was created based on the memories from the Remnants of Despair and their desire to see her again.
Let Them Die Happy: Tragically subverted: she dies cursing her inability to be of use to anyone and mourning the fact that she had to die so soon. However, she dies not knowing what's become of her classmates (that they became "Ultimate Despair") and believes them to still be her friends.
Living Emotional Crutch: To Hajime. He clearly struggles with the events of the game but manages to persevere thanks to her encouragement. After she dies, Hajime basically completely shuts down and wastes days doing absolutely nothing.
The Lost Lenore: Her death is what motivated Izuru to start moving against Junko—he's even seen having held onto her hairpin and clutching it tightly when thinking about her.
Love Interest: Her relationship with Hinata fills a fairly critical role in the series. Never does an episode in Side:Despair go by without it being referenced.
Luminescent Blush: A few times when she's with Hajime.
Made of Iron: Even after impaled, she could still talk and even tried to lift herself a bit. She dies after a good while of being still able to move and talk.
Magnetic Hero: After the events of episode 2, the entire class of 77-B, including Fuyuhiko and Hiyoko, absolutely adores her.
Meet Cute: With Hajime in the first episode.
Morality Pet: For Izuru; she was the only person he ever took interest in or cared about, and he was still mourning her death even after the Tragedy had finished.
No Sense of Personal Space: During the first episode of Side: Despair, Chiaki tends to stand extremely close to Hajime while interacting with him, with her face being only inches away from his own. Hajime does show some slight discomfort whenever she does this.
Only Friend: She's the only person that Hajime can truly call a friend during his time in Hope's Peak.
Rising Uppercut: Her "Heaven Slaying Dragon Fist" move.
Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: She is absent from promotional materials and even silhouetted out in the first episode's intro, in order to keep the fact that she was a real person rather than only an AI a surprise.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Even putting aside the obvious reason, her relationship with Hinata is basically doomed from the start thanks his personality complex, to the point he turns his own feelings into a justification to become Kamukura.
Teacher's Pet: Downplayed, but it's made fairly obvious she's Yukizome's favorite student, for good reason.
Throw the Dog a Bone: She catches a break in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan; she doesn’t die horribly, she’s able to stay with her friends all throughout high school, they plan to continue meeting up after graduation, and (depending on which you play as) Hajime either never disappears or she meets and befriends him as Izuru, sparing her from worrying about his fate.
Tragic Hero: She is remarkably similar to Makoto—optimistic, kind, unifies their class, holds strong beliefs in hope and friendship—save for one thing: she lacks his luck. As nothing she does goes right for her. Her attempts at convincing Hinata he's better than he thinks he is fail, her attempt to escape her execution fails, and not only does her attempt to rescue Chisa fail too, it leads directly to her death and her classmates' downfall. The only thing she actually succeeded at was getting Izuru to turn on Junko, and she had to die to do so.
Trauma Conga Line: She spent most her life alone, just playing video games by herself. Her first and best friend/Love Interest just disappears on her. She spends months waiting for him to return. Reunites with him, only for him to not remember her. Was betrayed by her favorite teacher and thrown into a dungeon. Was brutally tortured by Junko's death traps before finally being impaled by several spears. Finally, spends her last moments admitting that she doesn't want to die, and makes one final attempt to get Hajime/Izuru to remember her. The poor girl didn't deserve any of that.
Universally Beloved Leader: Chiaki is Chisa's favorite student and is well-liked by the class thanks to her efforts in uniting them. This ends up being the reason why Junko choose to kill her to drive the others students into despair. Also, in Side: Hope it is revealed that the Chiaki AI from Danganronpa 2 wasn't specifically created as such. It was a blank slate AI which was supposed to scan everyone's minds for who each of them viewed as the ideal administrator, then combine all the results into one personality, but everyone's result was Chiaki, so it just became her.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Her reciprocated affection for Hajime is part of what drives him to become Izuru Kamukura. He would rather be someone worthy of Chiaki than drag her down as a talentless person.
- She was the one who rallied her classmates to face off against the Ultimate Despair and save Chisa, even though both Peko and Nagito point out how unprepared they are (although the latter claims to be only testing them) and they should escape while they still can. The rescue mission results in Class 77-B's capture and eventual brainwashing.
Unwitting Pawn: Junko purposely allowed her to escape with Nagito in order to get the rest of Class 77-B to rescue Yukizome so she can easily capture them all.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Genuinely believes that good will always win the day and that nothing is impossible for those who try. Unfortunately, unlike the other major idealist of the series, Makoto Naegi, this gets her killed.
Wrong Genre Savvy: In Episode 9, Chiaki clearly believes that she and her classmates are about to harness The Power of Friendship to beat Junko after she delivers a Rousing Speech to convince them to mount a rescue of their beloved Cool Teacher in the face of insurmountable odds, complete with a conversation with Mikan about how far they've come together and how much Chiaki has grown into her leadership role. Which would be typical in most of her games, but (a) no-one's told her that she's in a Foregone Conclusion to a series of events that will lead to world devastation and (b) her name's not Makoto Naegi (and even he has a wobbly relationship with the The Power of Friendship). She continues to believe anything is possible with the power of friendship almost to the end, and it's actually enough for her to move a little even after being impaled from multiple angles. Unfortunately, it isn't enough. With that realization, she apologizes for failing shortly before she dies.

Sandbox / Danganronpa Chiaki Nanami

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Sandbox / Danganronpa Chiaki Nanami

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