YMMV / Never Say Never

• Arc Fatigue: The most common criticism of Chapter 3 is that it's much longer than Chapter 1 and 2 combined. Discipline Committee Chairman Ishimaru well overstaying his welcome alongside the entire chapter suffering from Schedule Slip didn't help manners.
• Base-Breaking Character: Byakuya Togami. Granted, he's a Hate Sink, readers mostly agree that he's an unlikeable bastard. The base-breaking part comes if they agree with him or not. The former do believe that his arguments have valid points and some of his actions are justified (like Celeste's punishment, for example). The latter, however, see him as way too uncaring and cruel to really justify his actions.
• Broken Base: Chihiro is characterized as a Transgender girl in this story. Some have no problem with this interpretation of the character, others... not so much.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Leon Kuwata, of all people! He's portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, he gets more personality in comparison to the original game and is one of the first characters to receive Character Development. His likeable personality, his relationship with Sayaka and his love of sandwiches made him one of the favourite characters of this story.
• One True Pairing: hunterofcomedy's take on the Leon x Sayaka pairing has been very well received by the readers' thanks in large part due to their character development, great chemistry with each other and the many heartwarming moments the two have.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Thanks to hunterofcomedy giving every character a chance to shine, many of the less popular characters are much better received in this fanfic.
  • Mukuro Ikusaba. Using her characterization from IF, she is much more sympathetic. Her being the protagonist of the story alongside her redemption arc and receiving lots of character development have made her very liked by the readers. Even before her Heel–Face Turn, she's notably more independent of Junko which helps a lot in characterization.
  • Zig-zagged with Byakuya Togami. In one hand he's given more redeeming qualities like his secret motive, having very reasonable arguments and saving Sayaka from what could've been a stupid death. On the other hand, his jerkass tendencies, absolute disdain to everyone and authoritarian behaviour have also made his even more disliked than his canon counterpart. He's ultimately a Base-Breaking Character because of this.
  • Sayaka, using her characterization from the manga adaptation, is portrayed in a much more positive light. The story makes it clear she didn't know about the consequences of trying to commit murder and not to mention she was very indecisive of her decision most of the time. Post-first-trial, she's very guilty for trying to kill Leon and framing Makoto for it, to the point of seeing her Career-Ending Injury as karmic punishment.
  • Leon, the poor guy is just very unlucky most of the story. Him attacking Sayaka was a complete accident and he almost gets executed because of it. He does try to graduate, but that's because he didn't know Sayaka was still alive and believed he'll get killed if he got caught. He's very guilt-driven for what he did. In a more positive example, him being the Butt-Monkey of the story along with his likeable personality have made him the Ensemble Dark Horse of the story.
    • In fact, hunterofcomedy defends both characters by pointing out they were victims of circumstances who made poor choices out of desperation and weren't in full control of their situation. It helps the two have a lot of heartwarming moments that alleviate some of the dark moments in the story and are on their way to becoming an Official Couple.
  • Hifumi Yamada. Downplayed, while he does have a Heel Realization and turns against Celeste for trying to kill him, he still retains his creepy behaviour from canon and his crush on Alter Ego is still just as No Yay as in the game.
  • Celestia Ludenberg/Taeko Yasuhiro. Oh boy. Probably the most complex character in the story with so much focus in Chapter 3, you can say she's the Villain Protagonist of said chapter. Hunterofcomedy does downplay some of her Lack of Empathy moments and she's given a more sympathetic motive. He also borrows a lot of elements from her manga adaptation. Her most redeemable quality is her friendship with Hina, not present in the original game. Even her detractors admit hunterofcomedy has handled the character of Celeste much better than in canon.
  • Yasuhiro Hagakure. First, his personality is more consistent than in the game, being more erratic and idiotic from the beginning. Second, his idiocy is milked for pure comedy (for the delight of the readers and the dismay of the students). Third, the story puts more focus on his talent, some of his predictions do become true, but it's not necessarily a good thing. And lastly, it's implied that Chapter 4 will finally give him some needed character development.
• The Scrappy: Zigzagged with Kiyotaka. His transformation into Discipline Committee Chairman Ishimaru was initially well received by many readers thanks to its unique take on his character. Unfortunately, due to the longevity of Chapter 3, most fans agree he long overstayed his welcome.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: There’s used to be a small one between Makoto/Kyoko and Makoto/Mukuro. It has since been subverted as Word of God has confirmed that the "Naegiri" couple will be the official one and Shippers were thankfully understanding of his choice of pairing.
  • Seems to be heading into Pair the Spares territory as other popular characters to ship with Makoto (Sayaka and Mukuro) seem to be growing very close to Leon and Mondo respectively.
• Signature Scene: Quite a few of them, the main highlights are:
  • Mukuro surviving her execution and her hand getting impaled in the process, marking the most important turning point of the story, kickstarting her eventual Heel–Face Turn.
  • A massive one for Chapter 3, Hina luring Celeste into a sense of hope only to rip apart the first dress Celeste ever made. Solidifying her point of no return for her character arc, Innocence Lost indeed.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Hina can come off as this to some after Chapter 3. While Celeste is still the most unsympathetic Blackened, though attempted in this case, despite her Adaptational Heroism, there are those that feel that the way Hina treats her after she's convicted is much harsher than it has any right to be, especially seeing as Hina isn't the only one she tried to fool and the others, with the exception Byakuya, don't treat her nearly as cruelly, not even her intended victims Hifumi and Taka, the former even feeling sorry for her despite choosing to spare her so she'd be forced to live with the consequences. The first instance of this is seen when she not only goes along with Byakuya's punishment by personally destroying Celeste's possessions, but spitefully decides to give an already distraught Celeste a Hope Spot by feigning awe at Celeste saying the dress she's about to destroy was the first she ever made and offering them a chance at reconciliation, only to viciously tear it apart in front of her and drive Celeste further into despair, which could be seen as no different than something Monokuma would do. Plus there's her anger at Celeste daring to show up at the next Motive Announcement, despite the fact that Monokuma threatened to kill everyone who didn't show up.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Yasuhiro is hated by almost every member of the cast for his stupidity, while the readers love him for the same reasons.