NOTE: This only includes characters from the games Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Danganronpa 2 and Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony. This will not include anime only characters, nor anyone who only appeared in Ultra Despair Girls. Sorry, not sorry.

Wow, I’m really enjoying writing today. This post is a little different, since it’s basically a big opinion ramble (or a S C R U M) about a piece of media that I adore. As my blog is quite new, it’s probably not all that apparent yet, but I adore the Danganronpa series. It was the first VN series I ever played, and I burnt through all 3 in record time. It was so unique for me, and I felt such strong feelings towards all 3 casts. I know they’re just 2D standees, but they all felt so real. So real in fact, that I’m attached enough to the point to be able to rank them all from best to worst. I shouldn’t have to say, but this post is obviously going to have VERY BIG SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.

Without further ado, here is the Danganronpa cast, ranked from the worst to best!

46. YAMADA HIFUMI (ULTIMATE FANFICTION AUTHOR)

I’m not even going to sit here and pretend like his design didn’t have something to do with him ranking low, because it did. He’s hideous to look at, and it made free time events and being in his presence in general difficult to deal with when the rest of the cast is so eclectic. But I’m not totally shallow. Aside from having a horrible design, his talent is completely mediocre, and whilst I appreciate that his talent alongside his design makes fun of the self-insert characters we so often see in anime, it isn’t enough to save him. I despise creepy, pervy characters that are there purely to make the female characters feel uncomfortable, and the fact that this trait ultimately led him to be manipulated by Celeste and finally murdered gives me some comfort from this trait. Otherwise…yeah. He didn’t make much of an impression on me besides ‘gross’, so he can start the list off.

45. SHIROGANE TSUMUGI (ULTIMATE COSPLAYER)



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God, Tsumugi is bland. She’s dull. It’s a great job her hobby allows her to be whoever she wants to be, because she really can’t offer much else. Free time events with Tsumugi are like talking to a robot with set chat functions – you pick her favourite anime character, or you don’t talk at all. Boring. You’d think that the character that is the mastermind of Danganronpa v3, when you compare her to the past mastermind she’d have…something to make her a little bit more memorable? Sure, she added a bit of a twist, but if anyone could’ve done it, then does it really make her anymore exciting? Not really.

44. KOREKIYO SHINGUJI (ULTIMATE ANTHROPOLOGIST)



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I hate this man. I don’t know what aspect I hate more. The fact I was baited into liking him, or the fact he is a textbook lunatic. Let’s start from the top. When I first met Shinguji, I was pretty sure I was going to like him. He was a little bit…eccentric, sure. But he didn’t seem malicious, and I adore his character design. Hell, he’s a good looking guy with an awesome outfit. I was even grateful to him in trials, since he kept his head pretty well and contributed some helpful stuff – a right hand man? So imagine my shock and disgust when Chapter 3 rolls around, and this asshole not only creates a ridiculously cinematic murder plan that ultimately led to his exposure (ha!) but his motivations?! My skin crawls. I’m a big fan of messed up back stories but…ew, dude. Really? He took his love for his sister a step too far, and whilst I was grateful to get Angie out of the picture, the situation panned out in its entirety left me with a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. No more anthropology for me, thanks.

43. YUMENO HIMIKO (ULTIMATE MAGICIAN)



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I was initially quite excited when I first saw Himiko. Her whole get-up reminded me of my #1 Danganronpa character ever, so I was excited at the possibility of meeting another character I adored. So imagine my disappointment when she turned out to be nothing more than ‘nyehhh’ and just a terrible annoyance in literally every situation. Chapter 2 had me about ready to delete the game due to Himiko’s lack of co-operation. We know that you’re not really a Mage, give it up. It looked like she was going to have a great character arc in Chapter 3 after losing her best friend and then she just…didn’t, and reverted back to nothing other than filling the role of token chuuni and token loli. There was probably room for a better survivor, honestly.

42. TSUMIKI MIKAN (ULTIMATE NURSE)



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For a cast that I really, really loved, Mikan really tested my love and patience during Danganronpa 2. I hate when characters are reduced to nothing more than waifu-bait, but with a talent like the Ultimate Nurse…Mikan didn’t stand a chance. Take away her panty flashes, and her boobs, and Mikan is nothing more than a meek background character. The only glimpse of anything interesting from Mikan was when she suffered from the Despair Disease in Chapter 3. I never thought that I’d root for the Ultimate Despair in any way, but in Mikan’s case, she was infinitely more interesting that way.

41. YONAGA ANGIE (ULTIMATE ARTIST)



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Angie is another case of disliking her more because I was baited into believing that I’d like her a lot more than I actually do. Her character design, for me at least, is gorgeous. She really stood out to me when I first saw the V3 cast, which says a lot when you consider their looks. But then…she opens her mouth. Cursed be to Atua. The Atua shtick got old, REALLY FAST. However, despite being so low down on my list, I didn’t really hate Angie in terms of writing. She was horribly annoying, but definitely well written. Truth be told, after the events of the Student Council in Chapter 3, I was pretty surprised when she was murdered, rather than being the murderer. She showed herself to be a master manipulator when it came to getting what she wanted. Looks are definitely deceiving with this one, but unfortunately I will not be following the ways of Atua.

40. HIYOKO SAIONIJI (ULTIMATE TRADITIONAL DANCER)



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Wow, apparently I’m not a fan of lolis. Maybe the series should make them a little more likeable. Truth be told, I don’t even hate Hiyoko. She was a bully to begin with, definitely. Her exchanges with…well, anyone, were nothing more than unpleasant, and her voice actor (who was great, by the way) really nailed the grating, annoying voice that characterises Hiyoko so well. It was difficult to endure any scene with Hiyoko, really. But then, after Mahiru’s death in Chapter 2 – the only person that could be considered a friend to Hiyoko, her character began to change and well, mature. She began to actually try and make a contribution to help the rest of the students on Jabberwock Island, and really seemed to be inspired to carry on the character that Mahiru was. Unfortunately, since she also found herself killed in this chapter, the character development was short lived. It leads me to wonder, had she not been killed in Chapter 3, would she have been higher up the list? We’ll never know..

39. KOIZUMI MAHIRU (ULTIMATE PHOTOGRAPHER)



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Again, I didn’t hate Mahiru either. But she’s just kind of, forgettable? When you’re in a cast of really big personalities, the last thing you want to do is be a wallflower. Even with her free time events, to me, Mahiru just…blended into the background. It would’ve been nice to get some kind of extension on her part in the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case (some name, huh), and maybe some more insight into her character, but I guess that’s the downside of being an early kill. Her free-time events with Hajime were very sweet, and gave a nice piece of background to her acting so coldly to the male cast (her Father was a huge deadbeat) and not just leaving the reason as ‘she’s a tsundere’, but unfortunately, it isn’t enough to boost her position.

38. HOSHI RYOMA (ULTIMATE TENNIS PLAYER)



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Hoshi is an unfortunate case, because it’s not that I dislike him, more that I just didn’t get the opportunity to get to know him very well. He very much kept to himself in Chapter 1 (though he was helpful in trials, but that’s not a lot to go on), and then in Chapter 2 he found himself eaten up by both depression and piranhas. I was instantly interested in Hoshi, since he shares an English VA with Gundham (more on him later…), and because his design was so unique. If Danganronpa met Osomatsu-san, right? Unfortunately, we lost him too early. Sucks, because I think if I’d really gotten to know him, he’d probably be way higher.

37. KUWATA LEON (ULTIMATE BASEBALL PRO)

Literally, who? I used a character sorter to do this, but honestly I have no idea how Leon got this far up, I can barely remember him. I mean, I guess he did start the entire killing game, so we have him to thank for the franchise (kinda). And of course, we now have the legendary 11037. I mean, he thought he was slick. His execution was super brutal but overall he just…exists. Sorry, Leon. You really are a side character.

36. HANAMURA TERUTERU (ULTIMATE CHEF)

I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t here for TeruTeru at the start. His design was…kind of weird (Pillsbury Doughboy, anyone?), and his constant harassment of every female in the game was annoying to say the least. Therefore, when he was found as the first murderer, there was no sympathy from me. However, after hearing his backstory and his motivations for killing, I felt pretty guilty. Turns out his family are essentially about to starve, and he just wanted the killing game to end and get off the island so he could get to help. Kind of sweet, but definitely not the way to go about it. Side props to his English VA for doing an incredible job during the trial. Seriously, incredible skills.

35. MAIZONO SAYAKA (ULTIMATE IDOL)

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It’s a good job she’s cute, because I didn’t trust this bitch from the moment I met her. Yeah, she’s adorable – who doesn’t love a school idol, right? But something about the way she was really, REALLY into Makoto, despite supposedly only ever saying about 6 words to him prior. Yeah, I was suspicious. When she got killed first, I was almost surprised, until I found out she was going to try and kill first anyway. I KNEW IT. We didn’t really see a lot of Sayaka, but she worked great as a plot device, as well as a stepping stone in Makoto’s character development.

34. SOUDA KAZUICHI (ULTIMATE MECHANIC)

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For someone that tops best boy lists actually fairly often, Kazuichi makes my blood boil. I can’t work out why a huge slice of the fandom treats TeruTeru like shit, but are all over Kazuichi, despite Kazuichi amplifying TeruTeru’s gross behaviour. Seriously, his treatment of Sonia was borderline sexual harrassment. Not to mention, he literally contributed nothing to trials. Nada. All of that aside, I really liked his character design, and I appreciated him a lot more going into the final act when he started taking the situation seriously. Wasn’t enough to save him from nearly hitting the floor of this list, though.

33. OWARI AKANE (ULTIMATE GYMNAST)

Akane was another difficult one, since I don’t really dislike her, nor would I say I have many positive feelings towards her. She’s just kind of…there, you know? I was kind of bummed about Akane, since I felt a lot of the time, her character was simply reduced to innuendos (and not in the fun way like Miu was), or just being hungry. For a survivor, I could’ve hoped for a little more character development, but the most we got was the fact that she does in fact feel sadness, as we felt her despair at the loss of Nekomaru. I stand by the idea that she should’ve died instead of Nekomaru, so we could see his development (and possibly some changes to a future chapter), but I digress. I suppose her free time events were pretty tragic, too, but I wish that they were integrated into the story a little more. They somewhat explained her actions…but not really. It’s not that Akane is a bad character she just…isn’t great?

And this concludes part one! Phew. Truth be told, I was going to do this in one post but…there are A LOT of Danganronpa characters, and apparently I have a lot to say on all of them! I’m super excited to write the rest, though, expect the rest of the posts coming over the next few days! There’s some pretty controversial characters coming up, meaning I’m gonna be saying a lot.

Have you seen your favourite character yet? Anyone I’ve completely misjudged? Let me know!

Until next time!