what is danganronpa?

danganronpa (ダンガンロンパ) is a japanese visual novel franchise created by kazutaka kodaka and published by spike chunsoft since 2010. currently the franchise includes four console games and two major anime series, with associated manga, novels and stage play spin-offs and adaptations. (source)

my favorite...

game: sdr2
cast: sdr2
ships: (kiri)naegami, kuzusouda,
tsumioda, kiiruma

trigger happy havoc
characters: byakuya, touko, chihiro
chapters: 2, 4
body discovery: 2
execution: 3

goodbye despair
characters: kazuichi, ibuki, sonia,
fuyuhiko, mikan
chapters: 4, 5
body discovery: 2, 5
execution: 2, 4

killing harmony
characters: miu, kiibo
chapters: 4
body discovery: 2
execution: 1, 2, 5

danganronpa: another
characters: tsurugi, kokoro
chapters: 1-4, 2-3

my experience:

i cant say i remember how i discovered danganronpa nor why i decided to play it. i believe i started getting into it around 2019-2020; to be precise, i watched a gameplay of the first game, and then bought the pack of three games. i played sdr2 regularly, but for ndrv3 i guess i was losing focus on dr because my save files have gaps of months between them lol. my last save dated of september of 2021, and i was close to start the investigation of chapter 6 (i cant believe i was so close till finishing it yet i didnt).

in february of 2024 i was watching a lot of videos about visual novels, one of which was about the genius of chapter 2-5. i had a memory of thinking that chapter was a masterpiece when i played it for the first time, so i thought "why not replay it" and that was the trigger for a rly strong fixation on dr i had. i had soo much fun playing again so i went and replayed the whole game, and ndrv3 too. the thing about v3 is that i genuinely barely remembered Anything from my first playthrough, i knew the culprits and victims and some details but i felt as i was playing for the first time ever.

after finishing 2 and 3 i still needed more so i looked at fangames! i had played dr lapse back then in 2020 when only the first chapter was released so i was pleasantly surprised to see the whole game was finished! later i found out about the famous dr another; for the first game i watched the translated gameplay and for the second one i could find the translated version and played it

as for other media: i watched the anime adaptation back in 2019, i started dr3 (the anime) in 2024 but forgot to finish it, and i also watched the stage play of sdr2

50 questions

heres the source, also i tried my best to hide spoilers for all the games, just hover to see the text

1. What was your first exposure to Danganronpa?
i genuinely dont remember, but it was probably something i saw on tumblr?
2. Which was your first Danganronpa game?
trigger happy havoc
3. Did you have a character you hated at first, and then fell in love with? Who and why?
gundam is a character that i didnt like at first bcs it annoyed me how he didnt seem to care about other than his pets, but i think his friendship with sonia and his death made me change my opinion. same with tenko, i thought the whole "degenerate males" thing was annoying and unfunny but learning that shes genuinely very caring, protective and honest made me like her.
4. Which character can you absolutely not stand?
no amounts of character development can make me like hiyoko. im also not very fond of korekiyo
5. Which character would you hypothetically die for?
sonia or kiibo could ask me to jump into a volcano and i would do it without question.
6. Do you have a fan character? Tell us about them!
i do have some thoughts about a class of ocs, but theyre too under-developped and i dont really plan to go anywhere with them. its just fun to think about
7. You get the chance to reassign five characters new talents. Who do you choose, and which new talents do they get?
i actually did play around with randomly shuffling the talents of class 77. some of my favs were nurse kazuichi, gamer mikan, lucky student sonia, mechanic hajime and athlete ibuki
8. Who is your favorite protagonist?
makoto my beloved
9. Who is your least favorite protagonist?
v3 protags id say, but i do like them
10. Which was your favorite trial from THH?
trial 2! i think the involvement of a third party makes it interesting, also its one of the most emotionally charged trials (same as 4, which is my second favorite)
11. Which was your favorite trial from SDR2?
i love all sdr2 trials, but i cant decide between 4 and 5. i think 4 is THE most fun trial to play, but 5 was the best one logically and in terms of writing. i could replay these a hundred times and not get tired.
12. Which was your favorite trial from V3?
i dont feel strongly about these trials, even though theyre not bad at all. i think my favorite was 4, i liked the way the mystery unfolded and i think making kokichi manipulate gonta into killing is brilliant
13. What is your OTP?
kuzusouda, tsumioda and kiiruma (yaoi, yuri and normal couple /lh)
14. What is your NOTP?
...really not fond of fujimondo or whatever their name is
15. Which character do you think could benefit from a total rewrite?
maybe if they made hiyoko meaner but without her focusing on one victim i would like her (purely personal interest)
16. Do you have any ideas for a Danganronpa murder? Share!
i respect fangame writers so much for coming up with these
17. List five headcanons for your favorite characters!
1. kazuichi only takes his contacts off and uses glasses with people hes totally comfortable with
2. same with fuyuhiko and his eye-patch (post canon)
3. in v3 post canon, shuichi and maki kept doing kaitos excercises, now with himiko
4. kazuichi made a console for chiaki with scraps he found, and soon the whole class was playing videogames together
5. the order in which gd victims are revived by the survivors is actually contrary to death order, bcs the first one's files are "buried deeper" in the program and so harder to retrieve (idk if this makes sense but thats how i see it in my mind)
18. How do you feel about fangames?
i looove fangames!! i think that being so inspired by a piece of media that you wanna make something similar but in your own style is wonderful
19. What kind of fantasy creature would you make [X] character?
ive never thought about this but.. i think sonia would be a pretty mermaid.. togami could be a vampire and mikan a slime girl?
20. What is your favorite aspect of Danganronpa?
the gameplay of the class trials is soo entertaining to me. also the characters are definitely the reason why i got so attached to this game
21. What do you think could be improved about Danganronpa?
im not saying its flawless, but i cant think of anything that i could improve significatively without changing the "danganronpa experience", if this makes sense
22. What’s a setting you’d love to see for a Killing Game?
maybe a plane? i have no idea how that would work but wouldnt it be crazy
23. Which are your top three favorite beta designs?
idk about top 3 but nagito's is soo cool, all of miu's early designs are great too
24. Which character do you most identify with?
none of them i think lmao
25. Which character surprised you when they were revealed to be the blackened?
i think kirumi, bcs there was so little evidence that pointed to her, and i was also really confused by the timeline of events. also of course kaede's reveal was very surprising
26. Which character did you expect to be the blackened, but wasn’t?
i remember that i was soo sure byakuya would kill at some point, so i would suspect him every trial even if there was 0 evidence lol
27. You’re placed in a Killing Game as yourself (who you are now, no perks). How far do you believe you’d get?
eh, im not making it far.. id probably die around chapter 3-4
28. Who is your preferred rival?
byakuya is my favorite rival character but i think nagito is the best rival (hes one of the best characters in the game, in terms of writing)
29. Talent swap time! Which two characters do you think would benefit best from a talent swap?
someone on tumblr drew fanart of talent swap kuzusouda and i keep thinking about it
30. Whose design do you enjoy the most?
ibuki's is soo nice, i love the colors. i like rantaro's a lot too, hes kinda my type. celeste's is 10/10 shes so beautiful
31. Whose design do you dislike the most?
i dont dislike it but i wish akane had different clothes. if i could choose id have given her a black bra top with some cool pattern, and one of those sport skirts with shorts under.
32. Which two characters from different games do you believe would get along the most?
miu, chihiro and kazuichi are best friends actually.. one of my favorite headcanons is that they would spend so much time together building machines and experimenting and stuff
33. What is your favorite interaction from the Talent Development Program?
i havent gotten aroud to reading them yet ;;
34. What is your honest opinion on the end of V3?
its fun when you dont have a little bitch on your shoulder telling you they ruined the continuity. ok no but seriously, i think it is fun, i just wish they had left some more hints throught the rest of the game
35. Which character do you wish had more screen time? Why?
chihiro definitely, even if he does play an important role after his death
36. Have you ever wanted to run a Killing Game yourself?
yeah id love to see a bunch of highschoolers killing each other
37. Which character do you feel is too popular amongst the fans, in your opinion?
i wouldnt say a character is too popular.. like of course many fans are tired of nagito and kokichi bc theyre Everywhere, but i think their popularity makes sense and i do like them as characters
38. Which character do you feel deserves more love?
fukawa toko!!!
39. Do you celebrate character birthdays?
maybe i would if i remembered, but only for my favs
40. What is your opinion on Ultimate Talents being similar to low-level super powers?
i think its fun bcs it allows for more creativity while imagining different murder methods, and it also helps in making characters more unique/iconic
41. How do you feel about the Danganronpa fandom as a whole?
i know they have a bad reputation but idrc about that, in any way i havent really interacted with anyone from the fandom
42. Which is the most offensive Danganronpa character, in your opinion?
not sure what this question means
43. How do you feel about the anime?
same as 80% of the fandom, im pissed that the way junko converted class 77 to despair was some fcking. brainwashing anime. also the death game in the future foundation was so boring to me bcs most of the characters there arent important. tho i did like the parts about ruruka and seiko
about the thh adaptation: i dont remember much but i think it was fine
44. What is your opinion on Ultra Despair Girls?
i.. havent played it yet T-T
45. What are some of your pregame headcanons?
if pregame means the v3 characters before making it to dr then i dont really have any
46. What are some of your Remnant of Despair headcanons?
i think most of these are borrowed form fics i've read but, here are some: sonia traveled to her kingdom to spread despair there, she also killed her parents; kazuichi made so many machines and robots for junko to use; peko didnt have a free will, she just killed people by fuyuhiko's command; teruteru was a cannibal of course; akane starved herself to feel despair; ibuki composed songs that made people kill themselves when they heard it
47. Do you have any rare pairs?
idk how rare these are but.. i really like soniaki and celegami
48. Which is your least favorite installment?
id say v3 by process of elimination but its not like i hate it or anything
49. Which is your favorite installment?
goodbye despair my most beloved!!!<3