Ranking all of Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc's Cases/Trials

Hey everyone, time for another Danganronpa ranking!

After a bit of contemplation, I've decided that I'm going to rank Danganronpa cases within each game first, followed by a favorite and/or least favorite overall ranking. So, of course, we're starting with the cases of Trigger Happy Havoc.

If you have no idea what Danganronpa is, check out the video linked below, because this post will contain spoilers for the entire trilogy! (explicit spoilers for game #1, Trigger Happy Havoc, vague spoilers for the other 2)

Firstly, I mostly see people talk about ranking the trials, which are definitely part of this, but in this ranking, I'm ranking the cases as a whole. So basically I'm focusing more on the mystery, how interesting it was to investigate and solve, how complicated it was, etc. Things like the trial being long/dragged out and the mechanics of the trial aren't things I have too much interest in discussing, so they're not things that will really come into play on this ranking.

Without further ado, let's jump into the list!

6- Case #1- Sayaka's Murder

It only makes sense that this is last place-- its purpose is to be an introduction into the game, and therefore it's a pretty basic case. It's rare that I go into a class trial with a definite idea of who the culprit is, but with this one... well, the writing was literally on the wall.

Although it's in last place, I think it's actually a really good first case. It's easy to follow, easy to piece things together, and has an interesting twist in it to keep you from understanding everything. However, in the grand scheme of Danganronpa cases, it's pretty simple. The cases in Trigger Happy Havoc are the worst overall, and this is the least interesting of them all. Honestly, I think that the case might have been more interesting if Leon's name wasn't literally written on the wall behind Sayaka. We've solved cases based on much less definitive evidence, and I think there were plenty of other things that pointed toward him, such as the crystal ball. Literally anything other than his name being written on the wall would've been nice.

5- Case #2- Chihiro's Murder

This case might have placed higher on this list, if not for the fact that it always feels a little off to me. To jump right in the thick of it, I'm of course talking about the handling of Chihiro's gender. I'm still not quite sure what they were going for here. The game makes it clear that Chihiro is a boy who dressed as a girl. However, something about the way the game handles this piece of information always feels like they either A- don't have a great understanding of how to discuss gender as a complex topic or B- are hinting at it being more complex than just "he's a boy who dresses like a girl", without actually saying it. Basically, they handled the topic with the grace of a bull in a china shop. And Toko's "cross-dresser" comment is always a big yikes.

Setting that aside, however, I find this case to be one of the more clever cases within the first game, and one of the most interesting to piece together. We have the introduction of Genocide Jill and both Mondo and Byakuya messing with the crime scene to confuse the case. It adds several red herrings into the mix, and even though some of them are pretty obvious (AKA-- I never thought Toko did it, and thought it was clear the locker rooms had been swapped), others actually do complicate things further and confuse the player even more, and that's the complexity that I enjoy.

The actual murder itself has always felt a little half-baked to me. I mean, Mondo flies into a blind rage and kills Chihiro without even realizing it? It just seems kinda.... cheap. However, I do think Mondo is one of the more difficult killers to figure out, because the E-Handbook issue was my personal biggest hurdle in solving the case. How they were broken, how the killer could get into both locker rooms, etc. So IMO the E-Handbooks were the most clever aspect of the case. And as much as I enjoy the introduction of Genocide Jill, I definitely didn't enjoy the whole Byakuya/Jill red herring because I was already several steps ahead, trying to figure out what actually happened.

4- Case #3- Taka and Hifumi's Murders

I know that my placement of this case is pretty unpopular-- everyone tends to really dislike the third case in each game, especially this one. I tend to have a slightly more positive opinion of the third trials as a whole. Don't crucify me, though-- it's only slightly.

This case was one of the few I had almost completely solved before setting foot into the class trial. This one seemed very straightforward to me. Maybe I've read one too many mystery novels? But what I like about the third case in each game is that it adds some element of variety to the investigation, especially in Trigger Happy Havoc and V3. Rather than discovering a body and going into a straightforward investigation, there's always a little twist. In this one, it's the element of running all over the school, trying to figure out what's happening. Or, in reality, the murderers trying to obfuscate the events surrounding the deaths. There are so many odd twists and turns before you can even investigate, and then once you've started investigating, there are still more twists. That's always refreshing to me when it happens, and the main reason why I don't have a full-on distaste for the third chapters like many people do.

Even though I personally found it pretty easy to solve and I found the wild goose chase a bit frustrating, there's just something about the way that it all comes together that I actually quite like. I think my favorite aspect is the way they utilized the body discovery announcement to further conceal the deaths. I always think it's clever when a killer uses a rule of the game to confuse people further. Unfortunately, I think the biggest downside is that it is so easy to solve. Honestly, the trial could've been over with much more quickly. One of the first things they determine is that Hiro couldn't have committed the crime in the costume. This should immediately call into question the validity of the photo evidence & thus implicate both of the people involved in faking it-- Hifumi and Celeste. But that would be too easy. Then again, solving this case was... too easy.

3- Case #4- Sakura's Suicide

This is a case that I appreciate much more than I actually like it. Because something about this case has never really appealed to me. For some reason, I've never found it incredibly compelling or interesting, despite the fact that it's probably one of the more complex mysteries in the game. I think the real flaw is that I found it painfully obvious that Sakura committed suicide. It was a locked room mystery, people were talking about poison, it seemed like something she would do... it just all slid into place for me.

I didn't have the case solved, per se, and I think that the details surrounding the suicide do a decent job of obfuscating it, but I never found myself compelled enough by any evidence to sway my hunch that it was a suicide. I think that if I were to remove my hunch from the equation, this would actually be quite a complex case to piece together, especially given that Hina tampered with the crime scene.

However, I think that unless you're like Hiro, Toko, and Byakuya and haven't warmed to Sakura throughout the game, I think most players are likely to quickly either suspect that it's a suicide or at least consider it as an option. And honestly, even if you didn't know much about Sakura, if you've ever tried to figure out a locked room murder mystery, suicide is probably going to come to your mind as a consideration at some point. Personally, it's never a twist that I enjoy, because it's kinda gone from an unexpected twist to a twist that's been done enough that it's no longer unexpected, if that makes sense. And given that I already suspected it, the conclusion of this mystery is just never satisfying, especially given that Sakura is one of my favorite characters, and the last thing I wanted was to lose her by her own hand.

2- Case #5- Mukuro's Murder

This is one of the most polarizing cases in the series, and I've generally had a difficult time deciding whether or not I like it. In the end, as you can tell, I've ranked it pretty high. It won't rank as high in comparison to cases from other games (because the cases in this game are probably the weakest, IMO), but in terms of the cases within the first game, I think this is where it belongs.

I like the variety that this case adds to the mix. It's purposely cut short at every turn, because Monokuma knows he's cornered and is doing everything in his power to stop the students from getting enough information to suspect him. Everything about it is purposely rushed, and you don't really fully understand that until you near the end of the class trial.

I think the most frustrating aspect of the case for me is how the suspects are immediately narrowed down to Makoto and Kyoko, without any room for anyone else. I get why this was done, but it removes several layers of mystery that could have been there. It makes it a very simple back and forth, instead of what could have been a very complex game of finger-pointing at everyone. Given that none of them actually did it, it would have been really cool to see them all suspecting everyone, until it's ultimately narrowed down. But alas, what could have been.

And, of course, the most polarizing aspect of the case-- the ending. Pursue the lie, Kyoko dies, and you get a really weird, short ending. Let Kyoko's lie slide, and you get punished and get the full ending. I've seen people say that this was counter-intuitive and that's why they hated it, but tbh every time I've seen someone go through it, they trusted Kyoko enough to let the lie slide, thus leading to the correct ending. I'm honestly pretty neutral on it, although this would've fit much better into V3, where a lot of the point of the game hinges around whether or not to trust your friends.

1- Case #6- Mukuro's Murder... for real

Firstly, yes I realize I literally just ranked these in the order that they happened in the game, but I genuinely believe each trial got better throughout the game. I don't love that it's that straightforward of a ranking, but hey, I'm not gonna fake my ranking just to make it more interesting lol.

I don't really have a clear idea of the fandom's opinions on the trials, apart from one video I watched of someone ranking their 5 favorite and least favorite trials. In that video, he mentioned the fandom was pretty split on whether the final trials are great or awful. And as you can tell, I'm more in the former camp. I don't think they're perfect, but rather, I tend to love them despite their flaws.

I also talk about books on here and on YouTube, and one of my more unpopular opinions is that I don't mind info-dumping. If I find the subject interesting (for example... a mystery I've been trying to solve all game?), I really don't care if you throw ALL OF THE INFORMATION at me. So I kinda enjoy unraveling everything all at once during the final trial. That said, though, I do think that this is the weakest final trial, despite IMO also being the least info-dump-y final trial. I think a lot of the most important clues about the mystery surrounding the school were already there to be somewhat figured out before that final trial, so solving everything truly felt more like actually solving a puzzle than having a bunch of information dropped on you.

I also enjoy the complexity of the fact that the previous trial really backed Monokuma into a corner, so now they're doing the trial for real this time, with all of the information. Despite it being the same case, the trials feel completely separate because they finally have all the information now.

Overall, despite being my favorite case of the game, it's unlikely to get super high on any favorites list simply because the cases in other games are that good.



That's all for this post! My plan is that the next few posts are devoted to ranking cases/trials, and next up is of course SDR2's cases, followed by V3. I still haven't decided if I'm going to rank all of the cases together after that, or if I'm going to do a 5 favorite/least favorite. idk. We'll see. I'm very excited about SDR2's case ranking, though, because that game might have my favorite cases overall. We'll see.

Let me know which Trigger Happy Havoc case is your favorite down in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Top 10 Least Favorite Danganronpa Characters [Main Trilogy]

Three posts in a row! I'm on a roll!

In the past 2 weeks, I've done 2 Danganronpa rankings, which will be linked here:
My 15 Favorite Danganronpa Characters (Main Trilogy)
My Favorite Danganronpa Character Designs (Main Trilogy)

If you have absolutely no clue what Danganronpa is, check out the video embedded below, or just click off the post because I will be discussing spoilers from all 3 Main Trilogy games!

So, now that I've done two rankings of some of my favorite things within Danganronpa, I think it's finally time to rank my least favorite things. Namely, my least favorite characters.

Since this is a ranking of my least favorite characters, remember: this is just my opinion. I think most, if not all, characters within the Danganronpa universe are really interesting, unique, and well-crafted. However, that doesn't mean I have to like all of them, and I definitely don't like all of them. For some, I have a detailed, complex reason for disliking them, but for many, they simply got on my nerves and pissed me off while I was playing the game, and that's as deep as it goes. If we disagree, cool. Differing opinions are fine. I respect yours, so please respect mine in return.

Lastly, for the other rankings, I've done 15, but for this list, I'm sticking with the standard 10 because I really don't have strong enough opinions on the characters that would place 11-15th to warrant discussion on this list.

Honorable (er... Dis-Honorable) Mentions

Tenko Chabashira- Her "degenerate males" schtick would be funny if it didn't feel a little like it was trying to make fun of feminists & if it wasn't so smotheringly overbearing. Certain characters feel like they have only a single personality trait because of how much the game beats you over the head with it, and she's one of them. However, she's grown on me a bit over time and does have a factor of likability that keeps her out of my personal top 10. 

Hiyoko Saionji- Again, her negative traits are obvious. She's a brat, and she's really mean for seemingly absolutely no reason. She dishes it, but she can't take it. Literally the only redeeming quality? At least she's entertaining. And she cares about Mahiru. 

Alright, now on to the actual list!

10- Monokubs (minus Monodam...probably)

I considered putting one of the students here, but I couldn't make this post without talking about the Monokubs. TBH, my biggest problem with them really isn't even their personalities. I actually (mostly) like Monodam, and the others each have a few funny moments here and there. My main issue with them is how much screen time they take away from Monokuma, who's one of my favorite characters. They've always been in varied tiers among my least favorite characters, but it wasn't until I watched a Let's Play that I realized that this is the biggest reason they're so frustrating.

Because... they're fine. But their fine-ness deprives us of the iconic, incomparable Monokuma. Throughout the game, we don't even really see him much outside of class trials. Meanwhile, we're being subjected to some weird incest plotline between Monotaro & Monophanie, and MonoKid screaming about his Rock Hard Rager. The entirety of their humor was already done better by Monokuma in previous games, so messing with perfection left a lot to be desired.

9- Yasuhiro Hagakure

Ultimate Con Artist 30% Success Rate Clairvoyant

I think that across the board, it's widely accepted that Hiro is, at the very least, one of the fandom's least favorite characters. If not the definitive least favorite. But I actually found myself debating whether or not to include him. Because at the end of the day, I still somewhat like him although he has practically no redeeming qualities.

The majority of my favorite characters tend to be the most logical, rational characters-- the ones who are helpful in class trials. AKA the absolute antithesis of Hiro, who forced us to argue about whether or not Kyoko was a ghost. UM. SIR. COULD YOU NOT. On top of this, his ultimate talent is basically absolute bs (70% of the time!) and he somehow manages to survive the killing game, taking a survivor spot that I really wish could have been Sakura's. I mean honestly... what. was. his. point. in the game? Why was he there? Did he do anything useful ever?

The one redeeming quality-- the reason he's lower on this list than he should be... is the so-bad-it's-good factor. He's idiotic and useless to the point that it's funny. Perhaps not in the moment, but in hindsight, it's a little endearing. But only a little lol.

8- Tsumugi Shirogane

Ultimate Plain Mastermind Cosplayer

Every time I re-experience Danganronpa V3, at some point, the same thought crosses my mind. "Y'know... Tsumugi's not so bad." And that thought stays in the back of my mind throughout most of the game. And then I re-experience the 6th class trial and am reminded why she's one of my least favorite characters. It's not necessarily the plot twist/reveal/etc itself, but rather the plot twist is just the last straw. Because at her best, even if she wasn't the villain, Tsumugi on her own is rather... wait for it... plain. Boring, unassuming, not extremely interesting. Also, she was one of the "devotees" to the Student Council, which is my least favorite thing from V3 (Given that she was the "mastermind," she was definitely faking, but still). More on that later. And then the 6th class trial comes and reminds me that there's really nothing at all to like about her. She's literally at her best when she was just plain Tsumugi. If you're at your best when you're boring... you're not a very interesting Danganronpa character. Add to that the fact that it's pretty certain many of her statements in that trial were lies, and I'm just done. Girlbye. No one wants you.

7- Sayaka Maizono

Ultimate Fake Best Girl Pop Sensation

Honestly, I was kinda glad she was the first victim. I was annoyed by her role in the game, I was annoyed by her personality, and I really just wanted her off my back.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was quickly sketched out by Sayaka, and I think that's the largest reason why she was so grating to me. I hated the way that she was so immediately... submissive?... to Makoto. Like, yes pls let me be your assistant, and also spend your first free time with me, and also let me follow you around everywhere. I mean, I get it-- a lot of that was fake just to get close to Makoto & pin a crime on him. But in order to create the plot that they wanted to for the game, they made Sayaka such an irritating, clingy, grating character. Never mind that I wanted to get to know Kyoko or "Junko." Nah, gotta hang out with Sayaka more!

The game makes it clear, both in Sayaka's reaction to her DVD and in the conclusion to the first class trial, that Sayaka had a darker side to her, willing to do really terrible things to get ahead. And I think if we'd gotten more of that first-hand rather than second-hand (her mentioning it, unraveling the case, etc), I would've enjoyed her character more. Instead, we just got sprites of her freaking out and not much more.

6- Nekomaru Nidai

Ultimate Scat Humor Team Manager

On my favorite characters list, I mentioned that I was initially not a fan of both him and Sakura because I really disliked their character designs, but unfortunately, he didn't end up growing too much in my estimation. I'd be remiss to ignore the fact that Gundham is one of my favorite characters while Nekomaru is one of my least favorites, even though they both essentially sacrificed themselves for the betterment of the group. I'm fully aware of that, and that's the main thing keeping him from being any higher on this list.

With Nekomaru, it's not that deep... I just don't really like him. Like with Tenko, his "I need to poop" schtick was alright the first couple of times, but eventually, it just felt like it overtook most of his personality. He felt pretty one-note throughout the game when he was just himself, and then he became Mechomaru and just....? IDK, I didn't dig it. I don't have some elaborate reasoning for him, I just really didn't enjoy him as a character, found him kinda annoying, and didn't really miss him much once he was gone.

5- "Byakuya Togami"

Ultimate Fake Byakuya Imposter

I feel like this shouldn't be a surprise, since Byakuya is one of my favorite characters, and the Ultimate Imposter essentially changed his personality entirely, reduced him to a walking, talking, fat joke, and did it all under the guise that this was definitely still Byakuya Togami. I hated every second of it. In this case, I can somewhat SOMEWHAT understand that they wanted to emphasize that Byakuya had gained weight, so this guy's personalization of him was mostly about food. But I really don't like when bigger characters are reduced to a joke about how much they eat, and I dislike it even more when you do that to a character with a pre-established personality that I already liked.

Even more than that, another thing that I really dislike in Danganronpa is when someone tries to overbearingly and overtly control or lead everyone. Not in the way that Kaito tried to inspire & lead everyone, or Kokichi made people do what he wanted through more subtle manipulation, but rather the overt-- "I'm the leader, everyone is going to listen to what I have to say." Yeah, that's annoying. Which we'll see even more in a bit. Real Byakuya just wants to tell you to stop being an idiot and be left alone to his books.

4- Mikan Tsumiki

Ultimate Fan Service Nurse

I know Mikan has a lot of fans, but clearly I'm not one of them. I'm not sure how exactly to word this, but in many ways, she plays into very old-fashioned, gender-norm stereotypes of what a female "should" be, and I think that's the biggest reason I don't like her. She's meek, subservient, and overly apologetic, to the point of being unable to even speak sometimes. On top of this, she's also the most blatantly "fan-service" character in SDR2 IMO, due to her clumsiness putting her into compromising situations (possibly on purpose & for attention) and the despair disease causing her to get overtly sexual with Hajime. While I understand that her character comes from a history of abuse, that still doesn't change the fact that she was written and created to be this hyper-stereotyped, fan-servicey character that plays into a bunch of tropes that I really dislike. Sure, I feel bad for her, and if she were a real human, I wouldn't have any of these criticisms. But I can't ignore the fact that she was written and created to be this way, which I really dislike. 

3- Hifumi Yamada

Ultimate 2D Fanboy Fanfic Creator

I feel like Hifumi is kinda a stock pick on lists like this, and here he is. I mean, the obvious thing is that he's creepy. The way he talks about women, his kinda incel-y complex, the constant sexual innuendos, just... no one wants that. It's creepy. Also, again, must we make every gross, creepy character also overweight? I see what you're doing here, and I don't like it. TBH I really just don't know what else to say about Hifumi. He's created to be the "pervert" of DR1's cast, and therefore, obviously, I dislike him. I know it's a super obvious choice, but there's a reason for that.

2- Angie Yonaga

Ultimate Cult Leader Brainwasher Con-Artist

Angie is the most frustrating character across the entire trilogy. There, I said it.

Angie drives me nuts. First, I will acknowledge the fact that I believe she had good intentions with the student council. However, that doesn't save it from being literally the most infuriating plot point of the entire trilogy. Idr where I saw it, but I saw someone complaining that Angie & Kokichi are viewed so differently despite "doing the same thing." Sorry, but lolno. While there are some similarities (both have very misguided ways of trying to reach their end goal), there's a clear massive difference for me.

The biggest thing for me is the god complex/brainwashing/cult aspect. People like this IRL annoy me. Cults, hive-minds, they equally fascinate and horrify me. Y'know who Angie reminds me of? HUNBOTS. Y'know, people from MLM companies who send you copy-pasted sales pitches full of emojis, trying to convince you that you're perfect for their business opportunity, even though MLMs are predatory pyramid scams that target vulnerable people. Oof I went off on a rant there, but I hope you see my point. Also, I saw someone point out that she doesn't have any sprites that aren't happy/positive/etc. Like none with true complex emotions. Another thing that I cannot stand? People who are constantly upbeat, positive, never show other emotions. It seems so fake and creepy to me.

On top of this, Atua is absolutely a figment of Angie's imagination. She uses "Atua" to convey messages that she wants to say, and make them seem more important. Just... everything about her screams SCAM! CULT! BRAINWASHED! FAKE! USED CAR SALESMAN! and those are the people IRL that I cannot stand, so clearly that's the type of person who's going to be my absolute least favorite in any game ever.

1- Teruteru Hanamura

Ultimate Sexual Predator Cook

Honestly, after going on that whole rant about Angie, I'm almost conflicted about putting Teruteru in first place. Because IMO he's (again), the most obvious worst character in the trilogy. He's disgusting. He's a perv. He's predatory. He sexually harasses the girls in the cast. He's so gross that even Nagito is offended by him. And that's essentially his only personality trait. So, yeah. Duh. Obviously he's the worst character. Because he absolutely disgusts me. But he's also so obviously terrible that it almost feels like a cop-out to put him at number one. But that's where he belongs, so I guess this is where he goes. TBH, I don't really have anything else to say about him. I mean... what else needs to be said? He's predatory and I don't like him. He wasn't funny, he wasn't entertaining, he added absolutely nothing good to the game at all. I'm just glad he was the first killer & therefore I didn't have to put up with a whole game of him.



So, there you go! My 10 least favorite characters in Danganronpa. Like I said, these are just my personal opinions, and I think many of them still serve important purposes within the game, on top of giving us people to root against, which makes the cast overall more interesting. These are just the ones I personally dislike, and it's fine if we disagree!

These 3 rankings that I've done so far are the ones that I really wanted to do, but I do have a few extras that I'd also like to do. Next up will probably be something to do with Class Trials. Not sure how I want to do it-- I think it'd be cool to talk about each individual game and then combine everything into either a full ranking or a 5 favorite/least favorite, but that might be a bit much. IDK, we'll see.

Let me know some of your least favorite Danganronpa characters down in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Top 15 Favorite Danganronpa Character Designs [Main Trilogy]

Whoa, two posts back to back?? Who even am I??

Yes, I'm back once again to do another Danganronpa ranking. If you didn't see my ranking of my favorite Danganronpa characters, you can click HERE, and if you have absolutely no clue what Danganronpa even is, check out the video embedded below for a description, because this blog post is going to contain spoilers for all 3 main trilogy games. CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING.

As you can see from the title, I decided to rank my favorite character designs. In playing Danganronpa, I found that character design was a major factor in my first impressions of characters, as well as my perceptions of them throughout the games-- in some instances heavily skewing my opinion of the character in question. So, I thought it would be fun to rank my favorites. As always, this is super biased-- I'm not saying these are the best-designed characters, just my favorites. Furthermore, I'm including my favorite sprites of each character in their respective sections.

Before jumping into the ranking, I want to mention that there are actually a couple factors at play here, making the ranking a bit more complex than it might seem at first glance. The first is the most obvious-- the basic character design. Plain & simple-- what do they look like? However, the second is their sprites. At first, I kinda considered this to be a totally separate entity, but when making this ranking, I found that I really couldn't talk rank them without taking the sprites into consideration, because some characters' designs change drastically in certain sprites. I'll discuss that in more detail when I get to it, though!

Lastly, because I've rambled enough-- Monokuma's character design is easily within my top 10 because it's so brilliantly simple, but for this list, I'm just going with students. ON TO THE LIST!

15- Kaito Momota

The Luminary of the Stars! I feel like I can't begin a discussion about Kaito without saying that lol. You'll quickly realize that there are certain colors I gravitate toward, and fortunately for Kaito, purple is one of them. His design wasn't one I loved at first glance, but there are so many details that I've grown to love. It took me a little while before I noticed the galaxy print on the inside of his jacket. It's such a nice, subtle detail. One of his best features is all of his really unique sprites. Some characters have sprites where they look like an entirely different person altogether, and Kaito is one of them. His scared sprites are hilarious, even more so than the *determined* sprite I've included above.

14- Himiko Yumeno 

Himiko is a really interesting character for me. Upon my own playthrough of the game, apart from being more than a bit annoying with her MaGiC schtick, she didn't really stand out to me-- she was V3's "literally how did this rando survive" survivor for me. However, in watching let's plays of the game, I've warmed to her and it's led to me also really enjoying her character design as well. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't love it at first glance-- the color palette is one of my faves, and I love that she looks like she's ready for Hogwarts. One of my favorite things about her design is how absolutely deadpan her "basic" sprites are. Which fits her personality perfectly.

13- Junko Enoshima 

Yes, I know one sprite is of Mukuro, not Junko, but she's here because I love her overall design, not just Junko-proper. TBH, I actually prefer Mukuro's version. The freckles were cute, and I won't hear anything to the contrary! Junko's character design is one of many reasons why I immediately liked her when I started DR1. Sure, she's the fashionista, but her sprites always portrayed her as laid-back & lighthearted, which I was immediately drawn to. Plus, throw in actual Junko's sprites and you've suddenly got tons of designs to appreciate.

12- Maki Harukawa

Maki probably has the most basic design on the list, but her design is one of many reasons she was one of my early favorite characters while playing V3. First-- the color palette. Spot on. I love dark reds and blacks. Also, red eyes are a guaranteed way for me to love a character's design. They're such a good, subtle way to show that a character has a more sinister side. And I especially like them for Maki, because I immediately didn't believe her talent. She seemed too sinister to be the ultimate child caregiver. However, I've also seen people play the game and not really second-guess it until later. Her design is just subtly dark enough that it fits who she really is, but just neutral enough that her fake persona isn't obvious to everyone at first glance. Plus, she has some really great sprites-- the crying one I included breaks my heart every time, and the one with her grabbing her pigtail is just cute enough to make you believe she might be the child caregiver.

11- Korekiyo Shinguji

When I started V3 and first saw Kiyo's design, my first thought was "ah, here's our Gundham," because he's V3's dark, eccentric character. And that type of character design always immediately intrigues me. Hello, my name is Kristen and my favorite color is black lol. Although my love of his character design didn't lead to me loving him as a character, his character did make his design even better. For the first 3 chapters, I had a theory that Kiyo was covering his face because he was either actually a woman or perhaps even a trans man. While that didn't end up really coming to fruition, the fact that he kinda combined (??) with Sister really fit his design and made the design come full circle for me.

10- Kirumi Tojo

I didn't realize I'd included so many V3 characters until I started writing each of these descriptions, but here we are I guess lol. Kirumi is one of the most frustrating characters in the trilogy for me because I loved her character design, and I even liked her quiet, stoic personality... but it was all squandered on a super bland & forgettable character arc. But regardless, it was the design that got my hopes up so high, because it's legitimately a really fantastic character design. The muted colors, the old-fashioned designs, even the cobweb on her dress-- they all create a really specific old-fashioned, even motherly mood, to the point that I forget she's supposed to be a high schooler. She always looks like an adult to me because of the old-fashioned design. Honestly, for the longest time, I found myself including her way too high on my favorite characters rankings solely due to my love of her design. Overall, it's just a really fantastic design and I'm still salty that she ended up being one of the most forgettable, bland characters because her design promises so much more.

9- Ibuki Mioda 

I'm not sure of the official development dates for SDR2 (it was released in summer 2012-- right after I graduated high school), but Ibuki is truly a product of its time because she's everything that teenage Kristen wanted to be. When I saw her hair and the fact that she was the ultimate musician, it took me right back to high school Kristen. And her personality is fitting as well, because she embodies the random=funny sense of humor from ~2010-ish as well. And although I've thankfully moved past that sense of humor (largely why she's not one of my favorite characters), I'm still a sucker for any sort of rocker/alternative sense of style, which is why I love Ibuki's character design so much. She also has lots of fun sprites-- I love the pointing sprite paired with the "pointing!" VA-- and is another character who has sprites that make her look like an entirely different human. Although she didn't end up being one of my favorite characters in the game, I was immediately interested in getting to know more about her simply because of how much I love her character design.

8- Shuichi Saihara 

Shuichi has one of the most basic character designs on this list, but as someone who usually wears all black... well, I can't really help myself. I love it. The use of the hat was really clever because it put his insecurities fully on display throughout the first chapter while also hiding his obligatory protagonist ahoge. It was such a simple detail that also provided character development when we moved on to the next chapter. Idk, I just love how... clean?... his design is, I guess? The pinstripe, the monochromatic color scheme, it's just really nice and clean and fits an aesthetic that I personally really love. Plus I love that his hair is actually more of a blue color even though it fits in nicely with his all-black aesthetic. Overall, he has a fairly simple design, but I like how clean and monotone it is.

7- Celestia Ludenberg

I feel like Celeste is kinda an obligatory inclusion on a list like this because she's such a striking character. More than any other character for me, Celeste is the one I constantly rank way too high on "favorite character" lists solely because I love her design so much. Because as a character, I don't have strong opinions on her, but that character design tho. I'm not sure if it's technically Lolita fashion, but that's definitely what her style makes me think of. She also definitely reminds me of another character from something but for the life of me I've never been able to figure it out. Either way, her pigtails are so dramatic and she's got my "obligatory" red eyes lol. She just has a really striking design, and also kinda looks like a different person when she drops her French accent. And I love her angry sprite with the finger.

6- Peko Pekoyama 

Another girl with red eyes on my list-- shocking! Peko was much like Kirumi for me, except that I liked Peko's design quite a bit more. Immediately upon seeing her design, I wanted to get to know her. The red eyes, the grey hair, the red and black uniform, she seemed like she was going to be such a cool character. But as much as I love the way that she played into Fuyuhiko's plot in the game, in the end, she didn't feel like an extremely fleshed out character on her own, separate from Fuyuhiko's story. And that was a huge disappointment given how much I loved both her design and the minimal personality development we did get in the game. Regardless, though, her design is still really cool, which is why she's this high up the list.

5- Kokichi Oma 

Kokichi is the main reason I included that discussion about character appearance versus their sprites, because Kokichi's sprites are the biggest reason for him getting this high on the list. He would've been on the list regardless, but he was quite a bit lower down until I thought more about the sprites. Of all of the characters, Kokichi has some of the most interesting and varied sprites. He has several of his "evil face" sprites that make him look like an entirely different human, and those are a highlight of his character design IMO. And then for his normal sprites, I love how playful most of them are-- he's designed to look incredibly childlike in order to play into his personality. I think because of how complex and quirky his personality is, the artists creating his sprites got to create a lot of interesting, unique sprites and that's the main reason he's so high.

4- Kazuichi Soda 

When I first saw Kazuichi, his design felt kinda familiar. There's probably a better comparison that I can't think of, but for some reason his design always makes me think of Gorillaz. His design is really bright and bold, and I assume that for some people it was a little offputting or maybe even creepy due to his pointy teeth. But as someone who loves edgy designs, I immediately loved his design and wanted to get to know him. He almost looks like he belongs inside of some sort of post-apocalyptic media. Or at least, My Chemical Romance's version of post-apocalyptic lol. I love his design in general, but his scared sprites are especially funny to me, as is the one where his eyes light up.

3- Kyoko Kirigiri 

Of all of the times I've said how I loved a character design at first glance and wanted to know more about the character, Kyoko was the first. And her ultimate talent being unknown amplified that curiosity more. But even without that, She was one of the first characters I was drawn to. The first game probably collectively has my least favorite character designs, and that made her stand out even more among the crowd. Her silvery-purple hair, her overall purple hue, and how serious she appeared were all things I immediately loved. I really like that despite her color pallette being unique colors like silvers and purples, it's all very muted to reflect how serious she is. I also appreciate that although she had a "mystery" talent, her character design didn't make her talent immediately obvious, but still fits perfectly when we discover her talent.

2- Gundham Tanaka

As a rule of thumb, if a character looks like they might be evil, I probably love their design. So, again, upon first sight of Gundham, his design was my favorite of SDR2. I didn't know anything about the characters when I started the game, and when he said he was the ultimate breeder... I was surprised, to say the least. It seemed so random when paired with his design. But now that we've seen his full arc, it makes a lot more sense. I love the sprites with his little hammies but even more, I just really think his design on its own is cool. The "scar" across his eye, the undercut, the swirl, the bandaged arm, the totally natural red eye, the hell hound earring, there are just so many cool individual details that come together to create a really unique and quirky design. 

1- Rantaro Amami 

Listen... yes, I know I've gone with Mr. Pretty Avocado Boi in first place. But I'd be lying if I said Rantaro wasn't the person I was most curious about going into their respective game. I don't remember how or why I'd seen his sprites, but I saw them before playing the game and really wanted to figure out who he was. At first, I actually thought he was a girl and was even more intrigued-- we love an androgynous queen. Regardless though, I was drawn in by the piercings and the messy hair.... mostly the piercings lol. And for me, his design really did what it was intended to, because I really wanted to know more about him and was immediately frustrated when I discovered that he was the mystery student, meaning I would have to wait until much later in the game to actually learn about him. His design is just basic enough that he doesn't have an obvious talent, but also interesting enough that (at least for me) he makes you want to know more about him. He's also another character where his character design tends to affect his placement on my favorite characters lists, because yeah, the mystery surrounding him is really interesting, but probably not enough to get him into my top 20 favorite characters on its own, and yet... there he is.




So, those are my favorite character designs in the main Danganronpa trilogy of games! I mentioned in the last post that I had a few more Danganronpa rankings I wanted to do, and this wasn't necessarily the next one I intended to do, but the more I thought about it this week, the more I wanted to do it. I think the next one I'll want to do is probably my least favorite characters... which is sure to get some people heated. But oh well lol. Stay tuned for that, probably sometime in a week or two.

Let me know some of your favorite Danganronpa character designs down in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

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!