Top 15 Favorite Danganronpa Characters [Main Trilogy]

Uh... hello? Is anyone out there?
So, long time, no see. I don't want to give some long spiel about why I've been gone, so I'll just say that I've returned once again because-- you guessed it-- I wanted to rank some things.

Specifically, I wanted to rank my favorite Danganronpa characters from the main trilogy. If you're unfamiliar, I've embedded a video below that explains the concept. The rest of this post WILL contain spoilers for the entire main trilogy, so I'd recommend checking out this video to see if you're interested.

I discovered these games last summer and played through the entire main trilogy within the span of about a month because I got SO obsessed with it. Right now, I'm in the thick of my 2nd bout of Danganronpa obsession. I've re-watched Lucahjin's Let's Plays of games 1 & 2, am keeping up with her new Let's Play of V3, & just finished Weeby Newz's Let's Play of V3. And although I have definitive favorite and least favorite characters, I hadn't yet tried to do a formal ranking. So, I figured it was time.

Also, another important thing to note is that I have just played these games-- I haven't seen the anime (I know, I'm doing things out of order) & I haven't played UDG. I know some characters on this list are in the anime, but my opinions in this post are based solely on their in-game representation & nothing else. Furthermore, my list is extremely subjective. Character complexity and role within the game are things I take into account, but my own personal opinion on each of them is the most important factor in their placement on this list.

I feel like I've already rambled enough, but lastly, I just want to say that I feel like I have pretty... basic? opinions? I'm not sure if I feel that way because I tend to gravitate toward the same types of people and therefore it's really predictable, or if it's because I generally tend to like... likable characters. Either way, I'm generally not someone who has wildly unpopular opinions, so this could end up reading like a list of the most popular Danganronpa characters. Anyway, let's begin.


Spoiler Warning-- Past this point, spoilers from all 3 main trilogy games are fair game!

15- Junko Enoshima

Ultimate Fashionista Despair

Full disclosure, I was really tempted to cut this list off at 13 because although there are many more characters I like, I couldn't make up my mind on these last two. Other options I considered were Sonia and Rantaro, but... Junko is more fun.

For all 3 games, I ranked all the characters from my favorite to least favorite after first meeting them, and I'm going to reference those lists several times when discussing my first impressions of each of these characters. Where was Junko on that list? FIRST lol. I wish I were kidding.

When I first started playing DR1, "Junko" (really Mukuro) was one of the characters I took an immediate liking to. She was the first one I chose for an FTE (partially bc my first choice was unavailable), and I was really upset when she died. Which made the reveal at the end of the game that much more mind-blowing. Regardless of which personality is speaking, she adds a really fun layer of chaos and dEsPaIr to any scene she's in. That said, though, my favorite personalities are probably finger-gun-face and rock&roll Junko. It would take way too long to analyze her character here (especially when many others have done it more articulately than I ever could), but I really enjoy how layered and how complex she is as a character.

14- Aoi Asahina

Ultimate Donut Swimming Pro

I didn't have many strong opinions on Hina when I played the game myself. In most DR games, a few of the surviving characters always feel random-- like, how did they survive?!-- and Hina was one of those for me. She's not a character archetype I generally gravitate toward, and throughout the game I thought she seemed a bit bland and pretty unhelpful in class trials, which usually annoys me. Also, she tried to get all of us killed-- that wasn't cool.

However, Lucahjin's playthrough brought out a different side of her for me. I realized how warm and caring she was, and how she was really the only person to be kind and supportive of Sakura the entire game. Yeah, she could be a bit dumb, and had flaws (which... all of them do), but she was a loyal friend and a bright presence in the game, and those aspects eventually made me warm to her, moving her this far up my list.

13- Monomi/Usami

Monomi wasn't a character I loved on my first play-though. It really took a re-watch of Lucahjin's Let's Play for her to become one of my favorites. On my first playthrough, I really wasn't sure what to think of her. Throughout the vast majority of the game, it's not really clear whose side she's on. And because of that, I don't think I ever really took her at face value. So, my second time through, when I was able to take her at face value, I saw her in a different light and found that I really liked her. She speaks and acts a lot like a little kid, which is something I usually dislike, but I guess it's more palatable when it's a stuffed animal lol. Anyway, she often added a lot of extra humor as a counterbalance to Monokuma, so I ended up really enjoying the scenes she was in, and by extension, Monomi herself.

12- Sakura Ogami

Ultimate Martial Artist

When I first played DR1, I thought it would be interesting to look back on my first impressions of each character, so I wrote everything down and ranked them from my favorite/most trusted to least favorite/trusted. Sakura was three from the bottom. My only note on her? "Seems fine, not my fave."

To decipher what I think I meant there-- I definitely didn't like her character design at first glance. She and Nekomaru have always jumped out to me as looking distinctly different from the others. Aesthetically, I've always thought they were drawn with an art style that looks a bit older, and I think my initial aversion to their character design affected my opinion of them as characters.

TBH, I'm not totally sure how much my opinion of her changed as I played the game. I think she grew on me a bit, but despite her strength in many other areas, she doesn't have an incredibly strong personality, and can often just be quietly strong and supportive, while many other people assert themselves more. I think by the end of the game, I liked her, but didn't have super strong feelings about her.

However, once again, Lucahjin's Let's Play brought out other sides of her personality for me. She's Lucah's favorite character, so seeing her through the lens that Lucah saw her through, my eyes were opened to how loyal and caring of a character she is. So many characters in the cast are rude to her or disregard her or are scared of her, but she remains unwaveringly good. Danganronpa characters are always so flawed even when they're good, but Sakura is one of the few I would say is just good. No qualifiers, no "but..." just good.

11- Kaito Momota

Ultimate Motivational Speaker LUMINARY OF THE STARS Astronaut

The Luminary of the Stars! Like with others on this list, my first impression of Kaito was... meh. I had him all the way in 10th place on that initial list I made of favorite characters upon starting the game. However, he quickly became one of my favorites, leaping all the way up to third place by the end of chapter 1, which is actually higher than where I have him now.

As much as I like Kaito, he's outside of the top 10 because of some major drawbacks that always bug me with him. As much as I love his desire to believe in everyone, there were so many moments when he was a huge annoyance in class trials simply because he refused to listen to any and all logic. Shuichi and Kaito had an entire blowup in their friendship solely because Kaito didn't want to listen to reason. As much as he's a nice guy with good intentions, he can be such a hassle to deal with, and he can easily come off as a bit of a pompous douchebag.

But despite all of his flaws, despite how frustrating he can be, his intentions are pure. He wants to be a leader, and he wants to inspire everyone else to believe in themselves the way that he (often without reason) believes in them. It's not even that he wants everyone to co-exist-- he wants everyone to get along and be friends and to use that to end the killing game. And honestly, I'd count that a success because by the time he died, everyone remaining had rallied together as both allies and friends.

10- Monokuma

Even though Monokuma is piloted by Junko and is therefore technically just an extension of her, I don't think anyone really lumps them together as one person or character. Which is why Monokuma finds himself several spots higher than Junko herself.

TBH I'm sure there could be some sort of argument made here for Stockholm Syndrome. We're stuck with Monokuma through all three games, so at some point we're going to have to grow to like him, right? I'm totally not just saying this because my Monokuma plush is glaring threateningly at me from across the room, I promise!

Monokuma is just such a great mascot for the series. Even when he's being literally deadly serious, he still really doesn't take things too seriously. There's always a bit of a lighthearted, fun edge to him, and that makes him just a bit creepier. He's not infallible, and like Junko, he has multiple sides to him and is a really layered, complex character.



Alright, just a quick note here-- these top 9 were the easiest to choose for the list. There are spots where I could definitely swap around the placements, but these are very definitively my 9 favorites.

9- Kazuichi Soda

Ultimate Mechanic

This might be my most controversial opinion on this list. Although I'm not super clued into the Danganronpa fandom as a whole, I saw the results of a favorite characters poll and Kazuichi was pretty low on that list despite being a survivor. It doesn't take a lot of deduction skills to figure out that this is likely largely due to his infatuation with Sonia.

Kinda the flip-side of Sakura, I loved Kazuichi's character design, and therefore I found myself immediately drawn to him within the game. And given that he was very quickly one of the most prominent characters, I found myself liking him more and more despite his obvious flaws. Although he certainly wasn't the brightest in class trials, he was a lot more helpful than several characters, and definitely functioned as comic relief for most of the story, which is another reason I enjoyed him. I think Fred & George Weasley being my favorite Harry Potter characters makes it pretty obvious how I feel about comic relief characters, especially when they're much more than just funny.

Above, I've embedded Weeby Newz's character analysis of Kazuichi because I think it explains a lot about his character that I really like & shows why he's a much more complex character than he seems at first glance.

8- Chiaki Nanami

Ultimate AI Gamer

Chiaki was one of the characters I was immediately drawn to on my first time through the game. Obviously, I immediately liked her because of her talent. Which is probably done purposefully-- gamers playing the game will probably also want to befriend the in-game gamer.

As I've already mentioned, one of my first instincts in Danganronpa games is to generally prefer characters who are the most logical and helpful in class trials. Since Chiaki is kinda the "helper" character of SDR2, that quickly made her one of my favorite and most-trusted characters. My love of Chiaki is probably the clearest indicator of my "I like likable characters" thing, because she's basically created to be as likable as possible. And it worked for me. She might come off as bland to some, but I like her calm, rational personality and found her really smart and yes, very likable.

7- Maki Harukawa

Ultimate Tsundere Assassin

Maki is another character I was immediately drawn to when I played V3. I put her at 4th on my initial favorite characters list. My only note?-- "child caregiver? totally not her skill." I remember being totally disappointed for the first two chapters when we barely saw her or talked to her. I could tell she was hiding something, and I wanted to figure out what it was and get to know her. So when chapter 3 rolled around and she joined our little friendship trio, I quickly fell in love with her, and that love continued throughout the rest of the game.

Originally, I had Maki in 6th place, but swapped her to 7th. I hadn't returned to V3 since my own playthrough and watching Weeby Newz's let's play of the game reminded me of some aspects of her personality that I don't like as much. Namely, although she's one of the smartest and most logical characters in the game, she's also very emotionally driven and has a tendency to act irrationally when she's emotionally distraught.

Despite that, however, her character arc is one of my favorites throughout the games. At the beginning of the game, she's really guarded and doesn't want to let anyone in. She tries to present herself as cold and unemotional, as a defense mechanism. But as the game continues on, those walls come down and we get to see who she truly is. This type of character arc is one that I really enjoy, as we'll see a bit later on the list. And apart from her great character arc, her character type-- the quiet, smart, calculated, mysterious girl-- is just one I'm going to enjoy regardless. Which, again, we'll see a bit later on the list.

6- Byakuya Togami

Ultimate Arrogant Douche Affluent Progeny

Is he an awful person? Absolutely. Is this also the character archetype I always love in media? Also absolutely. The snarky, sarcastic, arrogant, obnoxious, pretentious dude is one I always enjoy. Is it over-done? Yeah, probably. But I'm always down to have one show up in a book, movie, tv show... video game, etc.

And this is the perfect medium for me to especially love a character like Byakuya. Because despite how obnoxious he is, he's smart. And logical. And while secluding himself from the other students isn't necessarily the best way to survive the killing game, it's also really not a bad approach. And, more than anything else, he was consistently one of the most useful characters when solving the mysteries and in the class trials. As much as I love someone like Aoi, there were investigations where she just sat around doing nothing, and then had no idea what to do in the class trial. Meanwhile, Byakuya was (usually) helpful.

Even more than that, he sassed everyone for being ridiculous and dumb throughout trials. My personal favorite will always be when Hiro made them debate about whether or not Kyoko was a ghost and Byakuya was having none of it. Overall, he might be a massive douche, but I always enjoyed having him around and he made DR1 a lot more interesting just through his presence.

5- Gundham Tanaka

Ultimate Hamster Boi Cinnamon Roll Breeder

Upon first seeing the character designs for SDR2, Gundham was my favorite, because I love his dark, evil-looking, emo boi aesthetic. However, Gundham ended up being a unique case, because his "evil" schtick made me feel a bit iffier on my feelings about him. It was so heavy-handed, and he brought it into class trials, and while it was usually pretty funny, it was so heavy-handed that it felt fake... and in many ways, it was.

As I played through the game, I continued enjoying him, but he wasn't my absolute favorite. And then trial 2-4 happened, proving that he wasn't some pseudo-evil-dark-lord, but rather a sweet hamster boi who sacrificed himself to save his friends. That's a bit of a hyperbole, but the way his story ends definitely made me look at him in a different light. And then upon watching Lucahjin's playthrough (twice, bc I have a problem), seeing him in that different light really helped me warm to all of his eccentricities. And the more time I've spent with his character, the more I've grown to love him.

4- Shuichi Saihara

Ultimate Emo Boi Detective

When I started playing V3, Shuichi was immediately my favorite character. And for once, although he has one of my favorite character designs, that wasn't why I was initially drawn to him. Generally, I don't trust the first "helper" character. I immediately got sketched out by both Sayaka and Nagito-- especially Sayaka. But I trusted Shuichi immediately. Maybe it was because he was a detective, maybe it was because he shared a talent with Kyoko, but either way, I trusted him and I liked him. And that remained true throughout the rest of the game.

Although I was glad that we had our first female protagonist, I was admittedly excited when Shuichi became the protagonist, because he was the first protagonist I actually had strong opinions about. TBH, in most media I don't have strong opinions about MCs, because they typically don't have strong personalities. The Danganronpa MCs are the same. Makoto was likable but not exactly the brightest. Hajime, IMO, is the most white bread of them all. I know that for a lot of people, he's their favorite protagonist, but I never really got a ton of personality from him.

While Shuichi certainly doesn't have the strongest personality ever, he's by far my favorite protagonist. He's the smartest, most logically sound protagonist. He formed multiple deep relationships that affected him so much that he manipulated class trials to believe in his friends. The only other time that happened was with Kyoko in Trial 1-5. And his performance in the final class trial was possibly the most impressive a character has ever been in a class trial-- and it wasn't even because of the player, it was his own doing. TBH, I initially had him a few spots lower, but moved him up after re-experiencing that final trial. Overall for me, he was the protagonist I most bonded with, and one of my favorite characters overall.



Another note before we move on-- my top 3 are head and shoulders above everyone else. Each of them is my favorite character from their respective game, and none of them have moved from that spot.

3- Kyoko Kirigiri

Ultimate Best Girl Detective

I feel like a broken record at this point, but Kyoko was a character I was immediately drawn to. I loved her character design, and the fact that we didn't know her ultimate ability made me intrigued to find out about her. Even more than that, I was really drawn to her calm, cool, collected, clever personality. Even though she was meant to be a little mysterious because of her lack of a known talent, I found myself quickly trusting her. I'm not sure if it was a bit of the Rantaro effect (aka he's so suspicious that he's not suspicious at all) or if I just found her to be totally trustworthy, but even when she was still a bit cold, detached from the group, and hadn't really bonded with Makoto yet, I still trusted her.

I feel like I've already rambled way too much about the things I love in characters and the types of characters I love, so it should probably be pretty obvious that Kyoko is essentially the epitome of everything I love in characters. She's smart, logical, and analytical, and she figures out the cases and is constantly trying to figure out ways to outsmart Monokuma. DR1's cast on the whole is probably the... uh...slowest... cast, shall we say? And having someone like Kyoko around to talk some sense into them and sass Byakuya when he got too pretentious was really wonderful. Whenever there were moments when she was missing or off on her own doing things, her presence was sorely missed within the group and everything just felt off to me. In many ways, she really made DR1 for me and is probably one of the biggest factors as to why DR1 is right up there with the other two games in terms of my favorites, rather than easily in last place like it is for most people.

2- Kokichi Oma

Ultimate Liar Grape Fanta Boi Supreme Leader

You had to assume our grape fanta boi would pop up on this list somewhere, right? Obviously, as you'll see if you scroll down one more spot, I haven't put Nagito on this list, even though they're the same archetype. However, for me, there's a pretty clear distinction. Although many people might find Kokichi to be an annoyance, IMO... he wasn't boring.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. But it's true-- he made the game more interesting. He was fun. He caused chaos in an entertaining way, and I think he was a much more intricate and complex character than Nagito. IMO Nagito's chaos, while unpredictable and ultimately interesting, got a bit old and frustrating, and honestly a bit suffocating. I think he's a well-crafted, interesting character, just not one I really enjoyed (side note-- I don't dislike him, he actually falls kinda in the middle on my ranking of all DR characters). On the flip-side, Kokichi was fun. I enjoyed watching him causing chaos, and in the end, I interpret his character as someone who's incredibly flawed, but was, in fact, trying to end the killing game. Even if it was in his own twisted way.

Like with Kazuichi, I'm going to embed Weeby Newz's character analysis for Kokichi here, because it's a pretty accurate depiction of how I perceive him as well. And he's such a fascinating character to analyze due to the way that he lies. When is he telling the truth? When is he lying? Does he always lie with a purpose in mind? Are his lies told to help the group? Hurt the group? Neither? Different depending on each specific lie? He's just such a complex character and on top of that, he was one who I really enjoyed watching the entire time.

1- Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

Ultimate Baby Gangsta Best Boi Yakuza

Here we are at number one. My favorite character in all three of the main trilogy games-- Baby Gangsta. When I played SDR2, I went on an entire journey with Fuyuhiko. Based on his talent and his character design, Fuyuhiko wasn't someone I was immediately drawn to. He fell directly in the middle of the pack for my first-impression rankings. Which surprises me in hindsight because I'm typically very drawn to snarky, sarcastic, sweary, characters. But, he didn't move from the middle of my list until the end of the 2nd trial. From that point forward, he had what is IMO the best character growth of the entire trilogy. To me, it was less that he changed and became a different person, but rather that he finally opened up and allowed everyone to see who he truly was. Which, in its own way is a huge change, but I mostly see it as him finally letting down his walls. And it's a really striking evolution to watch.

The ending of the second trial has always been the most heartbreaking moment in the entire series for me, because you see Fuyuhiko's entire guarded persona fall away to reveal his true personality. And from that point forward, he tries to be a better person to those around him-- to help the group, even if it means that he gets attached to them, despite that being what he was trying to avoid throughout the first two chapters. He goes from being someone whose true intentions are shrouded in mystery to IMO the most trustworthy character in the game-- the person whose loyalty to the group is never in question.

And apart from his strong character arc, I just really enjoy him as a character-- he's brash, snarky, and funny. He's a walking contradiction-- a yakuza who yells at someone for trying to drive without a license. Angry, loud, aggressive, intimidating... and also tiny and cute. He's truly all bark and no bite, and as the game continued on, he became the one character I wanted to survive no matter what. After playing through the entire trilogy for the first time, I had a definitive favorite character from each game, but couldn't really figure out where each fell compared to each other. But, after re-watching all 3, Fuyuhiko was my clear #1.



So, those are my favorite characters in the main Danganronpa trilogy! I kinda want to do more Danganronpa posts like this-- possibly my favorite trials, characters who grew on me the most, or even least favorite characters? Because I definitely have some of those. And they're also probably similarly basic/predictable lol. Anyway, let me know some of your favorite Danganronpa characters down in the comments! Thanks for reading!