Dangan Ronpa 1 Characters
The fan base
Dangan Ronpa is a series that started out as a video game. The unique art style, colourful variety of characters, unusual storyline and unique gameplay has gained the series a lot of fans. The overall theme of the game can be seen clearly in its game trailer:
and the music used suits the situation they are in and really helps the player dive "into" the games atmosphere.
Due to its large fan base, Dangan Ronpa has been made into an anime, sold off a lot of merchandise and has a lot of fan-art and fan-fictions online.A lot of people argue that Dangan Ronpa is very similar to games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Zero Escape, Battle Royal and the Persona series and it can be seen why. The main similarities is that Dangan Ronpa is a game about high school students killing each other(Battle Royal), that are trapped in a closed area by a cartoon-like character(Zero Escape) and have to bond(Persona) and figure out who is the killer(Phoenix Wright) to survive. Eventhough this is true, a lot of the fans still enjoy this game and tend to not care about this fact. Out of all the elements regarding the game, what draws the fans in the most are the characters.
The characters
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Dangan Ronpa is one of those series that would not be as interesting unless the characters involved are unique and special in their own way. In the first game, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, there are characters that are visually unique like:
The first person on the left, The Ultimate Martial Artist and she is a GIRL. Other interesting looking characters are Mondo, the boy on the far right, beside the bear, and Celestia, the gothic-style dressed girl. Looks aside, some characters take a lot more talking to to see how unique they really are. For example, Ishimaru, the 10th person, the boy in white. He looks normal and throughout the game, he seems to be very boring and "normal." However, if the player uses his Free-Time events on him, they get to find out how unique and special this character can really be. The characters are(from right to left):
Sakura Ogami, Hifumi Yamada, Yasuhiro Hagakure, Toko Fukawa/Genocider Sho ,Junko Enoshima, Aoi Asahina, Makoto Naegi, Leon Kuwata, Sayaka Maizono, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Kyoko Kirigiri, Celestia Ludenberg, Byakuya Togami, Chihiro Fujisaki, Mondo Owada, and Monokuma.
Each character are known for a special talent as the only way they could have gotten into the academy was if they had a highly successful talent. They are:
Ultimate Martial Artist, Ultimate Otaku, Ultimate, Fortune Teller, Ultimate Writing Prodigy/Serial Killer, Ultimate Fashionista/Model, Ultimate Swimmer, Ultimate Luckster, Ultimate Baseball Star, Ultimate Idol, Ultimate Prefect, Ultimate ???/Detective, Ultimate Gambler, Ultimate Affluent Progeny, Ultimate Programmer and Ultimate Biker Gang Leader.
Each of them have their own free-time events and with the fact that the player cannot complete all of their events within the first play through, it makes the game worthy of multiple playthroughs as well as the fact that there are extra things after completing the game for the first time, including an extra story regarding the past of the game, before the events of Dangan Ronpa, and a free-roaming mode that allows the user to play the game without the murders and trials. In other words, it allows the player to talk to all of the characters with no worries. It plays as an alternate universe where Monokuma did not manage to take over the school.
In conclusion, the bright, colourful cast of characters play one of the many roles in making Dangan Ronpa such a great game. Their unique looks and personality make these characters really relatable and they have been redrawn by fans, cosplayed and even sold as figurines to many.
References
Danganronpa. (n.d.). Retrieved August 3, 2015, from http://danganronpa.wikia.com/wiki/Dangan_Ronpa_Wiki
Super Danganronpa 2 OST - Punishment. (n.d.). Retrieved August 4, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhtaC3ptcWM
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Trailer #1. (n.d.). Retrieved August 4, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwJeZPMhdUk