Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei The Animation

Makoto Naegi, a teenager with no remarkable talent, is surprised to learn that he has been accepted into Hope's Peak Private Academy: an elite school that gathers the best students from various fields. Despite believing his admission was just a fluke, Naegi is delighted to attend an institution known for ensuring success to those who graduate. Determined, he enters the front doors of the prestigious academy.

However, after losing consciousness inside, Naegi wakes up in a seemingly abandoned classroom. Failing to comprehend how he got there, Naegi begins to explore, and to his surprise, finds his classmates assembled in the gym. While everyone is trying to figure out what happened, they are confronted by the school principal—Monokuma, a robotic teddy bear. The mysterious toy explains that the freshmen are trapped inside the school with only one means of escape—kill a classmate without being discovered.

Tension fills the air as Naegi and his classmates realize that they are faced with two choices: participate in Monokuma's killing game, or reside together in the school for the rest of their lives.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigiri, Kyouko Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Monokuma Main

Ooyama, Nobuyo Japanese

Naegi, Makoto Main

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Enoshima, Junko Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Ludenberg, Celestia Supporting

Shiina, Hekiru Japanese

Fukawa, Touko Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Togami, Byakuya Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Fujisaki, Chihiro Supporting

Miyata, Kouki Japanese

Ishimaru, Kiyotaka Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Asahina, Aoi Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Fukura, Kei Producer

Kishi, Seiji Director

Reviews

Jul 12, 2025

Kouugam1

Recommended

this was a breath of fresh air when it was first recommended to me and when I first watched it. Honestly, still is today. Unique animation style that stands out, outstanding world building, great smokescreens and red herrings (or maybe im just dumb idk) and lastly, a masterpiece idea of a game/game concept. I re-watched this around covid and i'm still on the edge of my seat. I'm a sucker for these kinds of unique sortascifi-killing-thriller-mystery games, what stood out to me from Danganronpa is the concept of the game is easily graspable yet it's hard to make a great story out of it and ... this animation pulled off both effortlessly and you would want more of it due to its great yet curious world building, you would want to know what's happening outside of that school or why these are the people that have been chosen for that game, what is the common ground of these students etc, those type of Qs. This animation is highly comparable or at the last has touches of the Zero Escape games, but the Zero Escape games are harder to grasps (time travel bs but i loved it tho). I still haven't checked out the rest of the Danganronpa animations or even the game that is being constantly recommended to me, yet I still am curious to find out. This is a highly recommended anime for me, it's like a game that still stands outs due to it's "replayability"

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 30, 2025

suapixyreal

Mixed Feelings

Honestly it’s fine as a recap, but it’s really not a good idea to watch as your first introduction to the series. It’s not a fantastic watch and will spoil the story that’s presented a lot better in game.

The best thing about Danganronpa 1 is the setting and atmosphere but it’s almost impossible to capture that feeling of dread in 13 episodes. It’s made worse because the work it’s adapting is over 20 hours long with a lot of incredibly complicated plotlines and 15 major characters.

As a result all the characters lack depth and each storyline feels very rushed. The villain is somehow made even ... more grating and nonsensical than in the original, and the dub voice acting definitely doesn’t help.

The investigations and mysteries are also a lot less investing because they all happen so suddenly and we really aren’t given the time to really think on the clues for ourselves.

Realistically there was no way to make a story like this into a 13 episode anime and make it anything other than an ok recap of the major plot events. It really needed 24 episodes at minimum.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 16, 2025

kitsuneredFES

Not Recommended

Danganronpa 1 is an absolutely amazing game with a fantastic atmosphere and art direction, great gameplay, amazing music, and an engrossing narrative. Now take everything away from it and you get the anime adaptation

The art direction was changed pretty heavily, likely to fit an anime budget, and feels very cheap and nothing like the VN it's based on. The great narrative is still there, but heavily worsened by awful pacing trying to fit a 25-30 hour VN into a 13 episode season. A lot of the gameplay experience from the original game is obviously not here which is a major issue since a majority of ... the gameplay in this series is trying to figure out the mysteries and murders yourself in the class trials.

It's a very messy adaptation that, while still giving you the overall story of the original game, I would never recommend. If you own any current console, PC, modern phone, or even a modded PSP with the fan translation, experience that instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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