summary
danganronpa is a psychopop murder mystery multimedia franchise with shooter and adventure elements created by kazutaka kodaka and published by spike chunsoft. according to kazutaka, psychopop is gruesome horror with a visual flair. that's it! each instalment follows the same premise:16 students from a highschool institution focused on the development of talent are trapped on campus and are made to kill each other through the establishment of 5 motives across the runtime of the game.
the series first originated as a prototype with the title distrust, designed with the theme of 'psycho shock'- gruesome and explicit horror along the lines of splatter film. this was represented through grounded concepts: simple character designs, realistic deaths, red blood, grunge backdrops, and exposed viscera in the design of the mascot character, monokuma. however, the concept was scrapped for being too gruesome. as they developed danganronpa, they made away with the grounded concept and made the game more fantastical and 'pop'- with its iconic pink blood, gaudy deaths, and more fashionable and caricaturised characters.
themes
each main instalment has a prominent theme that is woven into the story and the characters, and each theme is dichotomous- meaning that it contains the clash of two different concepts, i.e. light and dark. the first game, danganronpa: trigger happy havoc, deals with the overarching theme of the story, hope vs despair, personified through the main character and the main antagonist, makoto naegi and junko enoshima respectively. the second game, super danganronpa 2: goodbye despair, deals with the theme of progress vs stagnancy- more aptly put as future vs past, shown through the struggles of the game's cast and their backstories. the third game, new danganronpa v3: killing harmony, has the theme of truth vs lie, which is personified through the idea of reality vs fiction.
although those are the main themes of the franchise, i find that there are a lot of other themes within the franchise that speaks to me, whether intentional on kazutaka's part or not, such as:
the lack of student support in the education system.
the elitism of poorly established meritocratic systems.
the societal disregard of teenagers and children.
absurdism and the argument against nihilism.
stories and their importance in shaping people's lives.
instalments
hope's peak series
team danganronpa series
anime
an anime adaptation of the first instalment released in 2013. no notes, it's a good adaptation- even if the way they try to replicate the art style is a bit flat. i'm also not a big fan of the way they translated the cutscenes.
an animated series that aired in the summer of 2016, meant as a conclusion to the hope's peak series, following the future foundation and the origin story of the remnants of despair in separate seasons called "arcs" that aired at the same time. the future foundation season, known as the "future arc", was aired every monday, while the remnants of despair season, known as the "despair arc", aired every thursday. fan reception to this anime was quite divided due to its poor pacing, lack of focus on fan favourites, writing decisions that contradicted previously established lore in the games, underwhelming plot reveals that were seen as "cheap", and overall poor utilisation of plot points and characters.
danganronpa was extremely popular during the mid 2010s, and had a resurgence during the early 2020s. i discovered it in 2012 and fell in love with it because of its unique atmosphere, cute character designs, and fun story. even as i revisit the franchise more than a decade later, i still find it extremely fun, zany, with iconic characters and an atmosphere that is hard to match up to, but i also can appreciate the depth that kazutaka put into the story as he was telling it, and the commentary and critiques that he put into the story while making it as entertaining and incredulous as danganronpa is.
what i really appreciate about the reception to the franchise is the sheer amount of creativity the fans have, making cosplays, their own characters, and bringing their own instalments through life through making what is called "fangans" within the community.
popular fangans
link to game, english translation.
link to game.
i've been meaning to get into this fangan- but if you ask a danganronpa fan about the first fangan at the top of their head, i believe this would be the fangan they would bring up! the danganronpa another series is a completed fangan created and published by the korean game developer linuj. although i haven't checked it out yet, i find the character designs extremely stylish and fun.
favourite fangans
project: eden's garden (delusion) is an extremely well made fangan that feels like an official instalment to the series without attempting to imitate the original instalments. the art and music in the game is a refreshing and beautiful take on the danganronpa "style", with 16 well-designed and multi-faceted characters that play off the narrative structure of the original game. for example, damon maitsu, the main character of this fangame, is a delightful take on the "protagonist" role, being the primary point of view (pov) character while acting more like an antagonist along the lines of byakuya togami, while diana valencia is a refreshing take on the "antagonist" role, being one who opposes damon's beliefs while acting more as the classic danganronpa protagonist than he does. kai montiago, although not my favourite character, is a pretty fun "support" character who reminds me of yasuhiro hagakure from the first game. other characters, such as wolfgang akire and eva tsunaka, are fun subversions of the "support" and "antagonist" roles. it's still in development, but the prologue and the first chapter has been released, and it's a fun, heart-thumping read! link to game.
danganronpa: dead end is another fangan that i'm looking forward to. compared to project: eden's garden, dead end is more faithful to the psychopop, fourth wall-breaking style of the original franchise, though with the developer's own western flair. i very much love the aesthetics of the game, which is much more traditionally artsy with its focus on the comic and newspaper cutout formats. the character designs are very unique, colourful, and the interactions between the characters in the demo are so fun to read! also, the main characters are inspired by sherlock holmes and john watson- evident by their names (jane holmes and nate watson) and fashion sense. also, i find the mascot character design to be extremely funny and a good homage to monokuma! link to trailer. link to demo.
favourite character
i want the entire world to die with that despair in its mouth!
junko enoshima is the overarching antagonist of the franchise, whether dead or alive. she's known as the ultimate gyaru in the game, but that isn't her actual talent. she's a very fun character who i enjoy reading in the game, and i find that she has hidden depths that most fans don't care to explore.
references
Farokhmanesh, M. 2015. "The original Danganronpa, Distrust, was too gruesome even for its creators." Polygon. March 11. https://www.polygon.com/2015/3/10/8176721/danganronpa-distrust-too-gruesome
Mackey, B. 2015. "Danganronpa Director Kazutaka Kodaka on the Power of "Psychopop"." USGamer. December 28. https://www.usgamer.net/articles/danganronpa-director-kazutaka-kodaka-on-the-power-of-psychopop
Deleted user. 2023. "Why do people hate the Danganronpa 3 anime?" Reddit, March 27, 2023. https://www.reddit.com/r/danganronpa/comments/1231uky/why_do_people_hate_the_danganronpa_3_anime/
bazookadreng. 2018. "Is it worth it to watch the Danganronpa 3 anime?" Reddit, August 20, 2018. https://www.reddit.com/r/danganronpa/comments/98rhqn/is_it_worth_it_to_watch_the_danganronpa_3_anime/
Google Trends. n.d. Danganronpa. Retrieved March 30, 2025, from https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F0_xc69z&hl=en-GB