The Cupheadronpa logo, drawn by jet_pack_reco.
Cupheadronpa is an ongoing instagram webcomic created by jet_pack_reco. It is a crossover between Danganronpa and Cuphead and can be found here
.The story follows Cuphead, the Ultimate Gunner, as he wakes up in a strange room and meets up with friends and enemies in what they soon discover to be a killing game, where one has to kill another participant in order to escape the building they're trapped in.
Cupheadronpa provides examples of:
- Adaptational Modesty: Cagney, Cala, Wheezy, Pirouletta and Chips, while wearing little to no clothing in the original game, all get full outfits here.
- Adaptational Villainy: Mugman. While a hero in the original game, here he is one of the masterminds behind the killing game, though his motive for being one isn't entirely clear.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: A lot of the cast get their originally black eyes swapped out for colorful ones. A notable case of this is Cagney, who has heterochromia in this work.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Happens in chapter 3 to Werner. He gets his left arm cut off by Monocuppa as part of that chapter's motive.
- Happens again in chapter 4 to Cagney, who gets an arm cut during his execution.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: After each main chapter of the story there is an intermission chapter, focusing on the people outside of the killing game.
- This also happens within the main story from time to time, switching the point of view from Cuphead to Chips. King Dice ends up becoming the focus character in chapter 5.
- Art Evolution: Over the course of chapters 3 and 4, both the main and intermission casts got newly updated sprite sets of increased quality.
- Being Evil Sucks: While the host of the game, Monocuppa, is initially keen on helping out its organizers, their situation takes a dive into this trope once they find out that the killing game is real and not just a simulation like they were led to believe. They are forced to execute people, carry out motives, including cutting their own father's arm off, and to top it all off, they can't defect due to their parents being used as leverage against them.
- Big Bad: The masterminds who organized the killing game.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While Baroness von Bon Bon appears to be a calm and friendly person at first, often being the voice of reason within the group, her true colors are revealed in chapter 2, where she kills Pirouletta without remorse and then proceeds to be a jerk to everyone during the trial.
- Character Narrator: The story is told from the point of view of Cuphead (and sometimes Chips or King Dice) in the main story and Blind Spectre in the intermissions.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The executions, in standard Danganronpa fashion:
- In chapter 1, Hopus gets slashed and knocked around using several magic trick contraptions, until eventually he slices his own stomach open with a giant knife.
- In chapter 2, Bon Bon gets attacked by robotic replicas of Cuphead and Mugman, which she... easily fights off. As such, she ends up being pushed into the giant oven present in the execution room by an enraged Dice.
- In chapter 3, Beppi gets strapped to one of those rotating wheels with Monocuppa throwing darts at him. All of them miss, until the wheel stops spinning and Cuppa throws one last dart, which pops Beppi's head, as he is made of balloons. While we don't get to see this happen, it's made additionally gruesome when you consider the fact that it's been confirmed that Beppi still has blood and organs, so when his head popped, all of that just flew out. Yuck.
- In Chapter 4, Cagney is forced to run through a maze of hedges, all the while various cutting tools are swinging at him, ultimately leading to him getting his arm sliced off. Hilda and Dice nearly manage to save him, only for Monocuppa to drop him through a trap door to his doom.
- Death by Adaptation: With the setting being a killing game, this happens to a lot of characters: so far Brineybeard, Hopus, Pirouletta, Baroness von Bon Bon, Djimmi, Sally, Beppi, Mugman and Cagney have all bit the dust. The chapter 3 intermission also reveals that Rumour Honeybottoms is dead as well while the chapter 4 one reveals that Ribby and Croaks bit it as well.
- Empty Chair Memorial: Just like in the original Danganronpa games, a portrait is put on dead participants' trail room pedestals.
- Face Death with Dignity: Hopus. He doesn't object to his execution, but actually encourages it, pressing the punishment time button himself, and finishing himself off when Cuppa hesitates to do so. He stated in a QnA that he did so to be fair to the rules - he kills someone, he gets caught, he dies, that's how it goes.
- Family of Choice: The casino crew and the Devil - they all generally consider each other family, the Devil also sees the rest as his kids, and Chips and Dice see each other as brothers.
- As revealed in chapter 3, Cuppa, Kahl and Werner are also this, with Kahl and Werner finding Cuppa alone at the junkyard at the age of 4 and taking them in. Arguably also includes Kahl's robot, due to him stating that they're like a kid to him.
- Foreshadowing: A bunch of it leading up to the reveal that Kahl and Werner are Cuppa's adoptive parents.:
- At one point in chapter 1, Cuppa stutters before saying Dr Kahl's name. Looking back, they were most likely going to call him 'Dad' here, and corrected themself at the last minute.
- We see several instances of Werner and Kahl being uncharacteristically protective of Cuppa, with Werner even stating that he 'knows them better than anyone else'.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Kahl and Werner, being the Ultimate Inventor and Ultimate Mechanic respectively. They managed to draw up blueprints for a device to aid the cast's escape out of the killing game with the extremely limited materials the first 2 floors of the building they're trapped in provide. Admittedly, at this point in the story they haven't actually finished it yet, but they ARE building it and that counts for something.
- The Heart: Chips for the casino crew. He's described by Dice as being the 'glue' that holds the group together - as demonstrated in chapter 1, with him out of the picture, they start fighting amongst each other.
- Heroic BSoD: Cuphead undergoes a brutal one, bordering on Despair Event Horizon, when he discovers Mugman's body in chapter four. All he can do is scream and Chips and some of the others have to literally drag him back to his room to recover. It ends up getting worse once it's discovered that Mugman was attempting to kill someone before he died himself. At first, Cuphead is screaming denials but as things come together, all he can do as sob and quietly accept it.
- Implied Love Interest:
- Mugman and Cala Maria are extremely close and are often found together, but it's not confirmed what their relationship is.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- King Dice. While generally a sarcastic jerk, he's shown to have a soft side to him, which is especially prominent in his interactions with the rest of the casino crew.
- The Devil. He's usually rude and snappy to everyone around him, but is shown to care deeply for the casino crew and even see them as its kids.
- Hope Spot: During chapter 4's execution, Hilda and Dice nearly manage to save Cagney, only for Monocuppa to drop him through a trap door to his death.
- The Klutz: Werner while affected by the despair disease, a motive which changes a person's personality. In his case, it made him very clumsy and scatterbrained.
- Laughing Mad: Happens to Dice near the end of chapter 2. When confronted by Cagney about killing Baroness during her execution, he starts laughing uncontrollably and goes off on a rant about how despite condemning it now, all the participants were willing to commit murder in the past to save their lives.
- Loophole Abuse: At the end of chapter 3, it seemed like Werner was going to get executed for messing with the elevator leading into the trial room, thus breaking the rule that prohibits trying to enter locked areas. He was saved at the last minute by Hilda, who pointed out that technically, Werner was supposed to be in the trial room and was absent only due to being unconscious, as well as the fact that the elevator wasn't actually locked anyway.
- Original Character: The killing game's host, Monocuppa.
- Shout-Out: At one point in chapter 1, Werner says "Ha cha cha", which is the catchphrase of one Mortimer Mouse. This is a reference to the fact that Werner's design in Cuphead resembles Mortimer.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Cuphead's reaction when he sees Mugman's dead body.
- Time Skip: The story takes place 2 years after the events of Cuphead.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Cuppa becomes much more blunt and snappy in chapter 4 in place of their earlier friendliness.
- We Used to Be Friends: Cagney and Dice used to be very close friends as children, but an (as of yet) unknown event caused the former to resent the latter.
- Wham Line: "The savior of the isles... working with me... How do you think Cuphead would feel about that... Mugman?", revealing Mugman's status as one of the masterminds of the killing game.
- Your Head A-Splode: Happens to the third blackened during his execution.
