108 Fun Facts About Danganronpa

Which company develops and owns the Danganronpa series?

Spike Chunsoft owns the series, though the first game shipped in 2010 under plain Spike; the company only took its current name when Spike merged with Chunsoft in 2012.

On which platform was the first Danganronpa game originally released in 2010?

PlayStation Portable hosted the 2010 original, which stayed in Japan; English-speaking players first got the game officially through the PS Vita port in February 2014.

The word Danganronpa combines the Japanese words for what?

Dangan means bullet and ronpa means refutation, which is why you fire Truth Bullets at contradictions during class trials.

In Trigger Happy Havoc, which position does Monokuma claim to hold at the school?

Headmaster is the title Monokuma gives himself when he greets the students, though the robot bear is only a puppet, worked from a hidden control room by the real mastermind.

Monokuma's name is a mash-up of the Japanese word for bear and which English word?

Monochrome plus kuma, the Japanese for bear, reflects his black-and-white colour scheme; his English game voice is Brian Beacock.

Monokuma's original Japanese voice actress, Nobuyo Oyama, was famous for voicing which beloved character?

Doraemon was Nobuyo Oyama's role from 1979 to 2005, so Japanese players heard a beloved children's hero inside the series' villain; Tarako replaced her as Monokuma in 2016.

Which organisation of Hope's Peak alumni do the survivors of Trigger Happy Havoc join after escaping the academy?

Future Foundation was formed by Hope's Peak alumni to rebuild the world; in Danganronpa 3 its own leaders end up trapped in a killing game of their own.

What is the Japanese term that Western localisations render as 'Ultimate'?

Super High School Level is the literal meaning of chō-kōkō-kyū, which the English release shortens to Ultimate; one student a year gets the title by lottery instead of talent.

Which publisher first brought the Danganronpa games to the West, starting on PS Vita in 2014?

NIS America localised the first game for PS Vita in 2014; the Japanese developer's only specific request was that Monokuma's name stay unchanged.

What colour is the blood in the Danganronpa games?

Pink was chosen first to lower the age rating, producer Yoshinori Terasawa has said, and it also softened the gore and suited the pop-art look.

Which filmmaker does Kazutaka Kodaka cite as a major inspiration for the games?

David Lynch is the director Kodaka cites as an inspiration, while producer Yoshinori Terasawa has said his love of Saw and Cube fed the game's grotesque streak.

Who composed the music for the Danganronpa games and anime?

Masafumi Takada, who earlier scored killer7 and No More Heroes, wrote the series' music; in 2017 he joined Kodaka in founding a new studio, Too Kyo Games.

Who is the protagonist of the first game, Trigger Happy Havoc?

Makoto Naegi, picked by raffle as the Ultimate Lucky Student, narrates the first game; he and his classmates wake up locked inside Hope's Peak Academy.

How many other Ultimate students does Makoto meet when he wakes up inside Hope's Peak Academy in the first Danganronpa?

Fourteen others make fifteen students in total, though one of them is not who she claims to be.

Under Monokuma's rules, what is the only way for a student to leave the academy?

Get away with murdering a classmate and you 'graduate'; if the class votes for the wrong culprit at the trial, everyone except the killer is executed instead.

Who is the first murder victim in Trigger Happy Havoc?

Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, is killed by baseball star Leon Kuwata after her own plan to murder him goes wrong.

Which student kills programmer Chihiro Fujisaki in Trigger Happy Havoc?

Mondo Owada, the biker gang leader, kills Chihiro in a fit of envy after Chihiro confides in him; his execution straps him into a motorcycle cage of death.

Who manipulates Hifumi Yamada into killing Kiyotaka Ishimaru in Trigger Happy Havoc?

Celestia Ludenberg, the Ultimate Gambler, promises Hifumi they will escape together, then kills him too to cover her tracks.

Which Trigger Happy Havoc student takes her own life after being exposed as Monokuma's spy?

Sakura Ogami, the Ultimate Martial Artist, takes her own life in Chapter 4 after being outed as Monokuma's mole; the trial has no murderer to catch.

Junko Enoshima, mastermind of the first killing game, enrols at Hope's Peak under which Ultimate title?

The Ultimate Fashionista is Junko's public face, a celebrity model's cover for a schemer who has her own twin sister impersonate her and then kills her on a whim.

What is the name of the mastermind's fraternal twin sister who impersonated her?

Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier, is impaled by Monokuma's spears for 'breaking a rule' when she attacks him while posing as Junko.

Which Trigger Happy Havoc student cannot remember her own talent, later revealed to be Ultimate Detective?

Kyoko Kirigiri enters as the 'Ultimate ???' and turns out to be a detective, and the daughter of the academy's principal, whom the mastermind executed before the game began.

Which of these students survives to walk out of the academy at the end of Trigger Happy Havoc?

Aoi Asahina, the swimmer, leaves with Makoto, Kyoko, Byakuya, Toko and Hagakure: six survivors stepping out with no idea what has become of the world.

Which class-trial minigame in Trigger Happy Havoc is a one-on-one rhythm game against a stubborn classmate?

Bullet Time Battle has you tap in time with the beat to shoot down a classmate's denials; once their defences run out, you fire one last piece of evidence to break their final claim.

In which trial mode do you fill in the missing panels of a comic strip?

Closing Argument wraps up a trial: you rebuild the crime as a manga, panel by panel, and the finished strip plays back with the culprit named at the end.

How many copies did the first Danganronpa sell in its first week in Japan?

Famitsu charted 25,564 copies in the PSP original's first week in November 2010, a modest start; the Vita remake Danganronpa 1·2 Reload followed in 2013.

Where is Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair set?

Jabberwock Island's tropical setting turns out to exist only inside a virtual-reality program.

Who is the amnesiac protagonist of Danganronpa 2?

Hajime Hinata learns he was Izuru Kamukura, the artificial 'Ultimate Hope' created by Hope's Peak's Kamukura Project.

Which Danganronpa 2 character shares Makoto's Ultimate Lucky Student talent?

Nagito Komaeda was built to make players suspect he is Makoto: same talent, same voice actress, and a name that is an anagram of the Japanese for 'I am Makoto Naegi'.

Whom does the Ultimate Imposter pose as in Danganronpa 2?

Byakuya Togami is the disguise the Ultimate Imposter wears in Danganronpa 2: he makes himself the group's leader, vows that nobody will die on his watch, and becomes the game's first victim.

Who is the culprit in the first case of Danganronpa 2?

Teruteru Hanamura, the Ultimate Cook, stabs the wrong person in the blackout; he had meant to kill Nagito, who was plotting a murder of his own.

Who kills both Ibuki Mioda and Hiyoko Saionji in Danganronpa 2?

Mikan Tsumiki, the Ultimate Nurse, kills Ibuki and Hiyoko in Chapter 3 after she catches the Despair Disease, which turns her meek nature malevolent.

Who kills team manager Nekomaru Nidai in Danganronpa 2?

Gundham Tanaka, the Ultimate Breeder, kills Nekomaru in Chapter 4; the two fight an honourable duel so that the starving group trapped in the Funhouse can go free.

The students in Danganronpa 2 are revealed to be surviving members of which group?

Ultimate Despair's surviving Remnants are who they are: followers brainwashed by Junko Enoshima, placed in the Neo World Program so that the brainwashing can be undone.

What genre is Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls?

Third-person shooter marks a sharp break from the trial-based visual novels of the main series: Komaru Naegi fights off Monokuma robots with a megaphone-shaped gun.

Where is Ultra Despair Girls set?

Towa City, an artificial island built by the Towa Group, is the setting; Monaca Towa wants to make Komaru into Junko's successor.

Toko Fukawa, Komaru's partner in Ultra Despair Girls, has a scissor-wielding alternate personality called what?

Genocide Jack, a serial killer who pins her victims up with scissors, takes over whenever Toko sneezes or faints, and the two keep separate memories.

Which apparent protagonist of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is executed at the end of the first chapter?

Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist, is executed for a killing that the final trial pins on the mastermind instead; Shuichi Saihara takes over as protagonist.

Who is the first victim in Danganronpa V3?

Rantaro Amami is found dead in the library in Chapter 1; the first trial blames a classmate's shot-put trap, but the final trial shows the mastermind struck the blow.

In Danganronpa V3, what are Monokuma's five robot 'children' called?

The Monokubs, Monotaro, Monosuke, Monophanie, Monokid and Monodam, call Monokuma their father; each one is killed off during the game's executions.

Who is revealed as the mastermind of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony?

Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, reveals that the students are contestants on a long-running lethal reality show and that she had been posing as one of them.

According to V3's ending twist, the killing game is which season of the Danganronpa television show?

The 53rd season, styled 'Danganronpa 53', is the twist; K1-B0, the robot student, turns out to be the audience's camera, steered by viewer votes.

Which Danganronpa V3 student holds the title Ultimate Supreme Leader?

Kokichi Oma claims to lead a secret society of more than 10,000, but his D.I.C.E. turns out to be a small gang of pranksters.

Which studio animated Danganronpa: The Animation in 2013?

Lerche squeezed the whole first game into 13 episodes in 2013, then came back in 2016 to end the Hope's Peak story with an anime-only sequel, Danganronpa 3.

What is Byakuya Togami's Ultimate talent in Trigger Happy Havoc?

The Ultimate Affluent Progeny is heir to the Togami conglomerate, a place Byakuya won by beating his many half-siblings in a family contest for the succession.

Which Danganronpa board-game spin-off launched for the Switch in 2021?

Danganronpa S grew out of the board-game bonus mode bundled with V3, expanded into a standalone release for the series' tenth anniversary.

What was the working title of Kodaka's original, too-gruesome pitch that became Danganronpa?

Distrust was a straight gruesome-horror pitch; it was judged too dark to find an audience, so the team rebuilt it with a bright pop-art look as Danganronpa.

Which Sega Dreamcast game did Kodaka reveal in 2014 had inspired Danganronpa's story?

Illbleed sends a schoolgirl through a horror-themed amusement park full of traps; Kodaka said its story influenced Danganronpa and that he loved how 'crazy' the game was.

Which rhythm game features remixed Danganronpa music and skins of Makoto and Junko?

Crypt of the NecroDancer got the crossover through its Japanese PlayStation release, handled by Danganronpa's own publisher, which added the remixed soundtrack and character skins.

Who is the anterograde-amnesiac protagonist of the prequel novel Danganronpa Zero?

Ryoko Otonashi relies on her notebook because she cannot form new memories; the novel's twist is that she is Junko Enoshima, who erased her own memory.

Which Danganronpa V3 student poses as the Ultimate Child Caregiver but is really the Ultimate Assassin?

Maki Harukawa hides her true talent to avoid suspicion; she ends the game as one of only three survivors, alongside Shuichi and Himiko.

Which Danganronpa V3 student is tricked into killing Miu Iruma inside a virtual world?

Gonta Gokuhara, the gentle Ultimate Entomologist, strangles Miu after a scheming classmate tricks him; Miu had rigged the virtual world to murder that classmate herself.

Which author wrote the unlockable mini light novel Danganronpa IF, found in Goodbye Despair?

Ryohgo Narita, author of Baccano! and Durarara!!, wrote IF, a what-if in which Makoto wins an escape button from a capsule machine early in the killing game, which then unravels.

Which director helmed both Danganronpa: The Animation and Danganronpa 3?

Seiji Kishi directed the first anime and returned as chief director for Danganronpa 3, which aired a sequel arc and a prequel arc in alternating episodes before a shared finale.

Which voice actress sings 'Saisei -rebuild-', the ending theme of the first Danganronpa game?

Megumi Ogata wrote the lyrics herself under her singing name em:óu, and the song came back to close the final episode of the 2013 anime.

What does Danganronpa 2's Ultimate Breeder call his four scarf-dwelling hamsters?

The Four Dark Devas of Destruction, San-D, Jum-P, Maga-Z and Cham-P, are no ordinary pets: they are clever enough to carry out their master's orders to the letter.

Which fast-food chain apologised in 2019 after a drag queen dressed as Monokuma said its Austin, Texas branch turned her away?

Whataburger apologised on Twitter after Erika Klash said security had blocked her at the door; she had come from the city's International Drag Festival and protested that she was an artist, not a security threat.

Kodaka chose to rest after a third Danganronpa game because which film series also stopped at three?

Back to the Future was the example someone at TYPE-MOON gave him of a famous series with exactly three instalments, and he decided then that any break would come after his own third.

Danganronpa's creator asked for the dark half of Monokuma to resemble which Marvel anti-hero?

Venom was the brief Kazutaka Kodaka gave artist Rui Komatsuzaki: a bear half white and half dark, the dark side echoing the Spider-Man foe. The finished design took about 15 minutes.

Which everyday reflex flips Danganronpa novelist Toko Fukawa into her murderous second personality?

Sneezing flips the switch, as does fainting at the sight of blood. The two sides share feelings, including a crush on Byakuya Togami, but keep entirely separate memories.

The biker gang leader's cage execution in the first Danganronpa spins him until he turns into what?

Butter is the grisly punchline of 'The Cage of Death', which whirls the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader round a cage on a motorbike so fast that he liquefies.

Danganronpa's gameplay is often likened to which Capcom series?

Ace Attorney is the usual comparison, though Danganronpa puts the emphasis on speed: instead of cross-examining at leisure, you shoot statements down mid-debate with evidence loaded as ammunition.

Some staff pushed for Danganronpa's Ultra Despair Girls to be a racer like which Nintendo series?

Mario Kart was the model a few developers pushed enthusiastically. Producer Yoshinori Terasawa firmly refused, later laughing: "I was like, no way we should do that."

Which comic-book hero and villain inspired Kazutaka Kodaka when he created Danganronpa 2's unsettling rival?

Batman and the Joker were Kodaka's inspiration for a rival he found impossible to label. The rival also shares the first hero's talent and Japanese voice, so some players wondered if they were one person.

Kazutaka Kodaka said Danganronpa 2's world would be like which American TV drama in terms of scale?

Lost was Kodaka's comparison for the sequel's scale. To get away from the mystery trope of a cast shut in a small space, he put them on an island instead of in a building, and things grew from there.

Which film about a talking bear was promoted in Japan in a campaign with Danganronpa's Monokuma?

Ted, Seth MacFarlane's foul-mouthed bear, shared a 2013 Japanese poster and TV campaign with Monokuma, promoting the Blu-ray and DVD releases of both the film and Danganronpa: The Animation.

Which food is swimmer Aoi Asahina famously devoted to in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc?

Donuts are the great love of the Ultimate Swimming Pro, nicknamed Hina in the English version. She is among the handful of classmates who leave the school alive.

Which Western adventure game's creative director called Danganronpa his game of the year?

Life Is Strange had just launched when Dontnod's Jean-Maxime Moris said, 'For me Danganronpa is my game of the year,' adding that the sequel had the better writing and the biggest surprise.

Which baseball star, who would rather be a punk musician, becomes the first killer in Danganronpa?

Leon Kuwata stabs the class pop idol with her own kitchen knife after she tries to kill him first. She writes his name in blood before dying, and he is executed by a high-speed pitching machine.

Which AI left by programmer Chihiro Fujisaki saves the first Danganronpa hero from execution?

Alter Ego speaks with its creator's face and voice, and is crushed by an excavator once Monokuma finds it. A virus it left in the school network still halts the hero's execution.

Which sleepy Ultimate Gamer in Danganronpa 2 turns out to be an AI built to protect her classmates?

Chiaki Nanami confesses to an accidental killing so that the others can live, and is crushed by a giant Tetris block in an execution titled 'Please Insert Coin'.

Danganronpa 2's hero learns he came from which fee-paying department for talentless students?

Reserve Course students paid substantial fees just to attend the famous school. The first mastermind later brainwashed them into rioting, the spark for the worldwide collapse known as the Tragedy.

Danganronpa 2's hero is revealed to be which figure, surgically implanted with every known talent?

Izuru Kamukura is who the talentless hero became after volunteering for his school's experiment, which lobotomised him. The same figure first appeared in the prequel novel Danganronpa Zero.

Which reserved Ultimate Detective becomes the playable lead of Danganronpa V3 after the first trial?

Shuichi Saihara inherits the lead once the apparent heroine is executed. He doubts he deserves his title, believing he solved cases as his uncle's apprentice only by chance.

Maki Harukawa enters Danganronpa V3 as the Ultimate Child Caregiver, but what is her real talent?

Assassin is the truth, exposed in the second chapter. The orphanage that raised her sold her to a group of killers, which is why a cover story about looking after children held up.

Which Danganronpa V3 gadget is exposed in the final trial as a brainwashing device?

Flashback Light is the name of the torch, which works much like the neuralyzer in Men in Black. The mastermind uses it to write the cast's memories, talents and even personalities.

After two Danganronpa games about hope and despair, which theme did Kazutaka Kodaka choose for V3?

Lies run through Killing Harmony's design as well as its story: in a debate with no clear contradiction the player can deliberately lie, and doing so at the right moment opens hidden routes.

Rule-loving Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who dreams of high office, holds which Ultimate title in Danganronpa?

Moral Compass is the English title; the Japanese is closer to 'disciplinarian'. He wants to lead the country one day to make up for his grandfather's failures in government.

Danganronpa's Ultimate Gambler kills for graduation prize money she plans to spend on what?

A European castle is the dream of the self-styled 'Queen of Liars', whose grand name is itself an invention. Her execution begins as a witch-burning and ends under a speeding fire engine.

The hidden sixteenth student of the first Danganronpa, a soldier, served in which mercenary unit?

Fenrir is the mercenary group she fought with before posing as her own twin, a fashion model. The mastermind then killed her on a whim, simply because the original plan had grown boring.

Why does detective Kyoko Kirigiri always wear gloves in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc?

To hide burn scars is the reason revealed late in the game. The spin-off novels named after her show the injury: her hands burn as she tries to pull her assistant from an explosion.

Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess of Danganronpa 2, hails from which fictional kingdom?

Novoselic imports so much Japanese media that its princess grew up fascinated by Japan, which is why she enrolled. She also swears in her native tongue and adores horror films.

Which Danganronpa 2 swordswoman kills a classmate to shield the yakuza heir she secretly serves?

Peko Pekoyama, a kendo master and servant of his family, strikes with a baseball bat so that he will not. She then insists she was only his tool, hoping the verdict will free him.

Danganronpa V3's Ultimate Maid kills after a motivation video reveals she secretly holds which role?

Prime Minister of Japan is her job in all but name, with the official one a mere stand-in. Fearing for the nation without her, she drowns a classmate who has given up on living.

In Danganronpa V3, artist Angie Yonaga claims to be the earthly vessel of which island god?

Atua is also her muse: she credits the god with every artwork she makes. In the third chapter she founds a Student Council that strips her classmates of most of their freedoms.

Which tiny tennis pro in Danganronpa V3 was on death row for wiping out a mafia organisation?

Ryoma Hoshi speaks in a startlingly deep voice for his size. His motivation video turns out to be blank: nobody outside is waiting for him.

The first victim of Danganronpa V3 forgets his talent, later revealed to be the Ultimate what?

Survivor is the title because he had already lived through an earlier killing game. Unlike his classmates, he can coolly interrogate Monokuma and the bear cubs who assist him.

Which Danganronpa trial mode has you fire Truth Bullets at contradictions as classmates argue?

Nonstop Debate is the most common trial segment in every main game. Weak points glow as the talk scrolls past, and a wrong shot costs the player some of their standing with the class.

Which Danganronpa 2 trial minigame sends the hero snowboarding down a tube towards a conclusion?

Logic Dive debuted in the sequel alongside the Rebuttal Showdown, a sword duel in which a classmate's objections are slashed apart. Obstacles and pitfalls litter the snowboard course.

In Danganronpa's killing games, what does Monokuma call a student who has murdered a classmate?

The blackened must then get through a class trial: if the others vote correctly, the killer alone is executed, but a wrong verdict frees the killer and dooms everyone else.

Komaru's Hacking Gun in Danganronpa's Ultra Despair Girls takes the form of which everyday object?

A megaphone fires lines of code rather than lead: Break damages the robot bears, Dance stuns them by making them boogie, and Link lets the player take control of one.

Which Monokuma-made illness alters the personalities of infected students in Danganronpa 2?

Despair Disease takes a different form in each patient. In the meek class nurse it becomes the 'Remembering Disease', which brings back her old self as a devoted follower of the first mastermind.

After Monokuma hijacks Danganronpa 2's school trip, what name does he force on the rabbit teacher?

Monomi is the name Monokuma gives her after restyling her as his sister. Stripped of her authority, she still does what she can to help the students.

Which gang of gifted schoolchildren commands the Monokuma army in Danganronpa's Ultra Despair Girls?

Warriors of Hope members each take a role-playing-game class, from Hero to Mage, and call the city's adults 'Demons'. All were abused children, talked out of a suicide pact by the first mastermind.

Mobile game Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle had you shoot characters at enemies like which sport?

Billiards was the model: fighters rebounded off walls and foes until their momentum ran out. The free-to-play game drew over 700,000 sign-ups, yet closed within a year of launch.

Danganronpa producer Yoshinori Terasawa says he was inspired by Cube and which other horror film?

Saw and Cube both lock strangers inside a lethal game, the template for the school. Kazutaka Kodaka's first, grimmer pitch was turned down before the idea was reworked and approved.

Kazutaka Kodaka has said Danganronpa's theme is similar to which Japanese novel and film?

Battle Royale, Koushun Takami's 1999 novel, strands a school class on an island. Kodaka says his theme was similar but not directly inspired by it, and that he used teenagers because they are less mature than adults.

Which studio did Danganronpa's creator co-found after finishing Killing Harmony?

Too Kyo Games blends Tokyo, its home, with kyō, so the name reads as 'Too Crazy Games'. Its core members include the series' artist and composer and the creator of Zero Escape.

Which game about an amnesiac trainee detective reunited Danganronpa's writer, artist and composer?

Rain Code, in full Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, sends trainee Yuma Kokohead and a death god called Shinigami to solve murders in a city where the rain never stops.

Which Pierrot anime did Danganronpa's writer and character artist devise together in 2020?

Akudama Drive began after a Pierrot producer, Kodaka's old university classmate, met him again at a Danganronpa stage play in 2014. Its criminals were drawn by series artist Rui Komatsuzaki.

Which English-dub actor voices the Ultimate Lucky Student in each of the first two Danganronpa games?

Bryce Papenbrook was cast in both parts on purpose, mirroring the Japanese versions, where one actress voices the two. Localisers felt the shared voice made the pair's link more interesting.

Minami Takayama, the Japanese voice of Danganronpa 2's hero, stars in which famous detective anime?

Case Closed, known in Japan as Detective Conan, has her voicing its boy sleuth. The sequel's snowboarding trial minigame nods to the turbo skateboard he rides.

Which game by Goichi Suda did admirer Kazutaka Kodaka place inside Danganronpa 2 as a homage?

Twilight Syndrome was Kodaka's tribute to a designer he admires: in an interview with Suda himself, he said the games had inspired him and his colleagues.

Guinness named Danganronpa's first mastermind the most popular game character for what?

Cosplay earned her an entry in the 2018 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. Fans dress as many of the cast, thanks to artist Rui Komatsuzaki's distinctive designs.

Which children's-book bear does Kazutaka Kodaka cite as an influence on Danganronpa's Monokuma?

Winnie the Pooh fed into a mascot built on contradictions. Monokuma's white and black halves stand for innocence and guilt, fitting his role as judge and executioner.

Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka, a video game shop worker as a student, earned a degree in what?

Film studies at Nihon University College of Art was his route in: he first planned to write screenplays, then decided an original story would be easier to get made as a game.

Which company simulcast Danganronpa: The Animation and dubbed it with an almost entirely new cast?

Funimation recast almost every role for its dub, keeping only the lead actor from the games. It streamed the thirteen episodes as they aired in Japan, then issued them on disc in 2015.

Danganronpa artist Rui Komatsuzaki designed Cleopatra and Edmond Dantès for which mobile game?

Fate/Grand Order invited him as one of its many guest artists. Danganronpa had been his first job as a character designer; before that he had graduated in sculpture.