The Danganronpa games see you locked away from the rest of the world and getting to know a handful of your classmates, each with an 'Ultimate' talent, before you’re instructed to murder one another. With each character so markedly different from one another, it’s not hard for fans to pick favorites, but it is hard to see them meet their grisly, untimely demises at each other's hands.
You’ve got a set amount of free time in the game with which to get to know your classmates, and each will reveal more about themselves and their lives before attending Hopes Peak as the game progresses. However, there are too many characters to be able to spend time with each of them (unless you play the post-game mode that allows for just such a thing), so we wanted to dive back into this classic and point out a few interesting tidbits about these characters that you may have missed.
10 Akane Is Perceptive, Tough, And Forgetful
Our Ultimate Gymnast is several things throughout the course of the game, but one thing Akane is more than anything is perceptive. While most of her personality is about athleticism and eating, we see throughout the events of the game that Akane is also incredibly discerning.
While she doesn’t come across as very book-smart, she’s incredibly keen. She can tell who’ll be a strong opponent whether they’re physically strong or not, she routinely trusts her gut feelings, and she has a very sharp sense of smell. To counter this, she’s also rather forgetful, as evidenced by her calling Hajime several H-names that aren’t his.
9 Mahiru's Photography Lineage
Unless you spend some of your free time with Mahiru, as a quiet and relatively unassuming girl, she can be easy to overlook. However, once you get to know her, you learn about her background in photography, which is anything but.
Her interest came from her mother, a renowned wartime photographer. In sharp contrast to the grimness of her mother’s portfolio, Mahiru enjoys taking photos of people smiling. It’s her dream to travel the world and take pictures and happy people. She’s won many awards for her work but scoffs that it’s considered less daring than her mother’s.
8 Sonia Is Combat-Trained
There’s, of course, a lot that goes into being royalty that we commoners wouldn’t know, but one of the surprising things we learn about The Ultimate Princess is that she’s more than able to hold her own in a fight. She says this is a result of being a princess and needing to be prepared for absolutely anything.
On the subject, Sonia’s actually gotten several traits from her royal lineage. She’s typically the calmest of the group, saying she’s got a duty as a princess to keep her people calm in times of trouble. She’s also shown to be good at political analysis on account of her place in the government of her country, Novoselic.
7 Ibuki's Mixed Feelings On Feelings
Colorful, fun, and spunky, Ibuki makes herself rather difficult to overlook in Danganronpa 2. And while she’s loud and out-there in group settings, talking to her during free time gives you a look into her more reserved side.
The Danganronpa artbook says Ibuki is a sucker for cute girls, and she can be seen flirting with both boys and girls on the Class Trip. However, in talking to her, she tells you that there are many things more important than romantic, physical relationships, and that her interests lie more in nurturing a close, platonic friendship instead. She wants to find her “destined one,” sure, but it’s not her priority.
6 Bold, Insecure Fuyuhiko
When we were first introduced to the new students, Fuyuhiko didn’t seem high on anyone’s list of classmates to get to know. He’s mean, reserved, and really sensitive about his youthful appearance, and he makes it no secret he finds friendship to be a waste of time.
However, once Peko is executed, his demeanor changes. If you spend any of your free time with him, you come to know him as a tender-hearted softy instead of the callous side-character he cast himself as at first. He very admirably tells you he wants to become strong enough to lead his yakuza clan, instead of being seen as strong by default on account of his hierarchical birthright to lead them.
5 Hiyoko Is Passionate About Japan
While it’s easy enough to see on the surface, given her talent and attire, Hiyoko is an avid supporter of the culture and customs of Japan. She falls heavily into the belief that Japan is the most superior country and says you don’t need to import “lesser” items or people from abroad.
This comes from her background as an heiress (as does her inability to tie her own obi – someone always did it for her), as she was raised in a hyper-nationalistic family and holds customs and traditions in esteem. You learn that there have been attempts on her life because of her prestigious status and that her family is overbearing, lending insight into why she’s so mean and defensively all the time.
4 Mikan's Meekness
Depending on your stance on fanservice in anime, you may or may not have spent a lot of time with Mikan, the island’s resident nurse. A cute, demure lady, she’s notedly clumsy, tripping often, which results in several not-at-all subtle upskirt shots.
Despite this, Mikan has cripplingly low self-esteem, and we see this evidenced a number of times throughout her stay on Jabberwock Island. While she’s working, she’s confident in her abilities, but Mikan is painfully shy. She was both bullied and abused as a kid, but tells you she likes being on the Class Trip because she’s able to feel both useful and seen by her peers.
3 Gundham Wears Plenty Of Clothes – Except Underwear?
Admittedly, we weren’t expecting a talent as wholesome as “Ultimate Breeder” to be what Gundham Tanaka was known for, but he’s not all purities. While he wears layers upon layers of dark clothing and accessories, what he doesn’t have on is underwear.
Maxing out anyone’s friendship on the Island will reward you with their underwear (because of course it does). Gundham, however, hands you the outline of boxer shorts. Checking them in the game’s menu says, “You can’t tell if it’s really there or not. Apparently, humans with low astral vision cannot see it.”
2 "Byakuya Togami"
Fans had mixed feelings when “Byakuya Togami,” infamously pompous jerk from the first game, returned in the sequel, even if he did double in size between games. But they didn't have to deal with him for long in Danganronpa 2 – he’s the very first murder victim.
You learn later on, though, that Byakuya is still very much alive. You’ll find his school file in Chapter Five, where you see all his stats listed as question marks, except for his talent: “Ultimate Imposter.” This is hammered in when the real Byakuya Togami shows up in the final trial of the game alongside Makoto and Kyoko, exactly the same as he was in Trigger Happy Havoc – in appearance and attitude.
1 Hajime's True Roots
The Danganronpa games have proven themselves excellent at pulling bait-and-switches on their fans when it comes to protagonists. And while at first, Hajime doesn’t seem like anything special at first, you find out that that’s incorrect – he’s actually the MOST special.
The Izuru Kamakura Project aimed to inject one Hope's Peak student with each known Ultimate talent in order to cultivate hope among the students, and Hajime was the intended reserve course student to receive this in exchange for having his tuition waived. They lobotomized him during this procedure, so he doesn’t really remember who he used to be. His immense talents left him apathetic to how mundane normal life can be, a hiccup exploited by Junko as she set her plans for The Tragedy in motion.
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