Monokuma (モノクマ Monokuma) is the main antagonist of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Future, and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. He serves as the mascot for the whole franchise.
Monokuma is known as the symbol of Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair and the true main antagonist of the series. He is a robotic stuffed toy who acts as the avatar for the mastermind in both Danganronpa and Danganronpa 2, being an AI in the second game.
In Danganronpa Monokuma executed Mukuro Ikusaba (under Junko's control) after she 'breaks school rules', while in Danganronpa 2 he nearly killed Nekomaru Nidai while trying to execute Akane Owari for attacking him, before turning his body into a robot in order to preserve his life.
In Danganronpa Another Episode, it's revealed that Monokumas were originally a series of larger killing machines created by Monaca Towa to be an army for Junko. The different variants, Kurokuma and Shirokuma, were both parts of AI Junko.
Monokuma returns in Danganronpa 3 as the preparator of the Final Killing Game, only this time it is a pre-recording of him, used as a tool by Kazuo Tengan to motivate Ryota Mitarai into using his hope brainwashing video to cure the world of despair.
Monokuma returns in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles Saga, starting a new Killing Game in Danganronpa V3, antagonizing new students with his self-proclaimed children, the Monokuma Kubs.
Personality[]
Monokuma is often described as easygoing and cheerful at first glance, but with a very sinister undertone. However, he always rather quickly reveals his evil nature by describing killing games and his desire for despair, and he is very well known for his habit to say and do whatever he wants to. He loves hysteria, violence, and chaos, summarized in one of his catchphrases "thrills, chills, kills!". He also has his own signature laughs, a sadistic "puhuhu" ("upupupu" in the Japanese version) and a mocking "ah-hahahaha".
In many ways, Monokuma represents duality both in design and personality, with his white good side and black evil side. He can sometimes act polite or cute and innocent, even patronizing, and during rare moments he even seems to give genuine positive and wise advice. However, he is mostly known for his malicious and cruel side, possessing a twisted sense of humor and a tendency to torment others and do anything for the sake of despair. He can switch between these traits at the drop of a hat, making him unpredictable for his students to deal with. He usually gets excited about the Class trials and does everything he can in order to make them entertaining for himself.
Monokuma enjoys the suffering of others, which makes him madly excited. And in turn, he gets bored and disappointed if the situation doesn't have as much despair as he hoped. Occasionally, he is so bummed out by the lack of despair that he seems to lose some of his energy and withdraws to make new plans. It's been shown that he can also get hypocritical about his ideology of despair, as he is very much willing to lie and cheat if he gets desperate enough. Still, even he seems to have some standards, as some people are so vile that they disgust even Monokuma.
Monokuma is immature and childish, often acting sarcastic and mocking towards the students, and occasionally dramatically pretending to be offended when rightfully accused. In general, he cracks a lot of jokes (especially bear puns) and breaks the fourth wall often. Monokuma is usually seen impersonating a lot of pop culture characters, this most notably seen in Danganronpa V3 as he cosplayed as Jibanyan. Monokuma doesn't seem to take the students' situation seriously, though he claims that despair is a very serious matter to him. He seizes every opportunity to belittle the students, dodging the blame and claiming that they are the ones responsible for everything bad that happens in the school. He also tends to ignore the students or act like he doesn't understand what they're talking about whenever they expose him with correct evidence.
Monokuma can be quite impatient and might attack people with his claws, his self-destruct function, threats of execution, or any other means if he is annoyed or threatened enough. However, most of the time he holds himself back, under the claim that he cannot hurt his "beloved students". His bullying and abusive nature is especially clear in the way he treats Monomi, as he gets physically and verbally abusive towards her even if he is just slightly annoyed or seemingly for no reason at all. Similarly, he is seen acting very violent towards his children if they annoy him, though originally in a very cartoony way that didn't seem to bother them. However, he turns increasingly more cruel towards his children as the game progresses, and they are shown to be quite saddened by this as they mention that Monokuma used to be much more loving towards them in the past. He also likes to make fun of K1-B0 for being a robot, even though he is also a one. In the case of the students, Monokuma generally dislikes those who don't obey him or have such optimism or intelligence that they are harder for him to manipulate, and he tends to describe these people as "annoying".
Monokuma is also very arrogant and tends to treat others in a rude manner, with Junko being the only one he refers to respectfully as "Lady Junko". Fitting his arrogance, he has multiple fake stories about his past, many of them nonsensical and with silly, dark or even thoughtful message in the end. Strangely, he seems to take great pride in his supposed role as the headmaster, demanding respect for the rules and getting angry if he is called a teddy bear instead of headmaster.
Notably, he seems to be strongly against any shameful acts that could taint his respectful school, yet he himself often incorrectly accuses the students of having dirty motives and goes into way too much detail about his suspicions. Even though he acts like he is above all that, he can aim perverted comments at his students, boys and girls alike (especially for being teens). His perverseness and love for himself becomes especially clear in V3 as he seems disturbingly attracted to his own children simply because they share his "handsome" looks and only tolerates them for his "cute look". He tends to call the Monokubs "his cute cubs" and at one point he even turned bald because of the Monokubs' cuteness.
As seen in Danganronpa: The Animation, Monokuma, befitting of his role as a bear, seems to like salmon and honey. Monokuma's favorite food is apparently salmon (due to him being a bear) and is usually seen eating salmon in Danganronpa: The Animation and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. It is also noted in Danganronpa 2 that he dislikes any kind of red food, and he is also seen eating the meat prepared by Teruteru Hanamura. It's unclear how eating works for Monokuma considering that he is a robot, but it seems to be just a part of his comical act, just like his sleeping. In the animated series, Monokuma also seems to be more visually comical than usual. He tends to have different objects with him, like a honeypot or a fish. He also refers to people in the anime as "yer" (you).
Monokuma's personality is originally one of Junko's personalities which she uses in the First Killing Game while she controls him, though the personality stays consistent even when he's an avatar for different people. According to Kodaka, Monokuma is the easiest character to write because he is the type of character that can make him say anything he wants without fear of repercussion.
LOTM: Premageddon[]
TBA[]
LOTM: Weirdmageddon[]
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LOTM: Darkmageddon[]
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Gallery[]
