Monokuma

Monokuma is the main antagonist from the Danganronpa series.
== Charactah Account ==
A strange, remote-controlled teddy bear who proclaims himself to be the principal of Hope's Peak Academy and initiates a life of mutual killing amongst the students. He has various copies of himself throughout the Academy and will punish, ie. kill, anyone that attempts to attack him or otherwise break the academy's rules. Much like his name, he has a monochrome appearance, with one half looking like a cute white bear and the other half looking like a sadistic black bear. Just who the mastermind controlling him is, along with his motives for bringing the students together, serve as some of the game's main mysteries.
Monokuma is known as the symbol of Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair and the true main antagonist of the series. Junko was the mastermind behind Monokuma throughout the events of Killing School Life and Killing School Trip.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Danganronpa 3: Monokuma Picture Drama
* Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Despair Arc
* Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School - Future Arc
* Danganronpa: The Animation
* Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life: Awakening Arc
=== Light Novels ===
* Danganronpa 1 ・2 Beautiful Days
* Danganronpa/Zero
* Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF
=== Manga ===
* Danganronpa 2: Ultimate Luck and Hope and Despair
* Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair
* Danganronpa: The Animation
* New Danganronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing Comic Anthology
* Super Danganronpa 2: Chiaki Nanami's Goodbye Despair Quest
* Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Academy - 4 Frames KINGS
=== Video Games ===
* Chain Chronicle
* Conception II
* Crypt of the Necrodancer
* Cyber Danganronpa VR The Class Trial
* Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
* Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
* Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp
* Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
* Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
* Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle
* Divine Gate
* Houkai School
* Identity V
== Trivia ==
* His original Japanese voice actress Nobuyo Ooyama is popular from her voice acting of Doraemon, which Spike Chunsoft purposely made Monokuma sound like. Due to her battle with dementia, she retired from voice acting, with her last in-game role being Cyber Danganronpa VR.
* His name in DISTRUST was originally Phantom.
* Monokuma also shares some similarities with Zero lll from Zero Escape including that they are highly advanced technologies structured after animals that are intermediaries behind the mastermind and the players.
** Another thing that should be noted is that both of them have highly erratic and ecstatic personalities, though occasionally lower their voices in threatening remarks. They are also voiced by TARAKO, which was likely cast in reference to Zero III since both Kotaro Uchikoshi, and Kazutaka Kodaka are known friends.
* Another similar character to Monokuma is Billy the Puppet from the Saw series. Both act as avatars to the masterminds behind their violent games, both have a black, white, and red color scheme, both revel in giving their victims a tiny chance of survival (although Billy tends to be more genuine about it than Monokuma), and both make use of elaborate traps meant to inflict grisly, ironic deaths on their victims.
** It should also be noted that Danganronpa was originally going to have a more horror look.
* In Chapter 4 of the second game, it is revealed that Monokuma and Usami both hate and are afraid of mice.
** This is another reference to his resemblance to Doraemon, who is terrified of mice ever since a robotic mouse gnawed off his iconically-absent cat ears.
** This trait is later revealed to have an important role in the story; it's a trait given to the Observer which makes sure they can't enter the Nezumi Castle, which would act as a hiding place for the students if the Observer went rogue and contains the password to escape the program. After Monokuma stole Usami's role as the Observer, he inherited her fear of mice, meaning it's a trait he doesn't normally possess.
* In one of the instances of "Monokuma Theater" in Chapter 4, Monokuma speaks in morse code. Translated, the message reads "BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR KUMATINE", a reference to A Christmas Story.
* It appears that Monokuma's “evil” left eye is meant to be similar to the symbol located on the front of Hope's Peak Academy's insignia. It is later shown in Danganronpa 3: Despair Arc that, upon arriving at the school's gates, Junko took a glance at the Hope's Peak insignia and incorporated part of it while designing Monokuma.
* As seen in various promotional beta art, Monokuma was likely going to appear in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls and have a major role in the game as he is seen running away from Komaru Naegi and Toko Fukawa.
* In the beginning of the second game's second Class Trial, after the students discuss the murders which took place in Hope's Peak Academy and inspired the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, Monokuma and Monomi (who is tied up next to his seat) get caught up in a small discussion over how violent high school students have become nowadays. The humor behind this little exchange stems for the fact that Monokuma and Monomi's voice actresses, Nobuyo Ooyama and Takako Sasuga, respectively, are both senior voice actresses who are best known for the roles they have portrayed in some of Japan's most famous, long-running animated shows since the 1970's.
* Monokuma's English voice actor, Brian Beacock, also voiced Monosuke.
* In the end of the fifth chapter of the second game, Monokuma decides, apparently on a whim, to execute his “adoptive little sister” Monomi along with Chiaki Nanami - after the latter's words motivate Monomi to “finish off” Monokuma by grabbing onto him and self-destructing repeatedly (a plan that was, however, prone to fail as Monomi had around 10 spare copies at the time while Monokuma had novemdecillion (10^60) - claiming that he “suddenly remembered that he's an only child” and that he has no reason to keep someone who does nothing but constantly interfere with his plans around. This is very reminiscent of how Junko killed her twin sister Mukuro for the sake of her personal devices - a decision Junko later admits to have made on a whim as well.
* Monokuma is Kazutaka Kodaka's favorite Danganronpa character because he is the easiest to write and because he can say whatever he wants to say.
** In a poll hosted by MyNavi, fans voted Monokuma the most popular Danganronpa V3 Monokuma Unit.
* Monokuma is a guest character in Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars, featuring as a DLC boss.
* In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Monokuma is revealed to hate Sonic the Hedgehog with passion, seemingly jealous of his fame. On November 3, 2017, Sonic the Hedgehog's official Twitter page answered to Spike Chunsoft about Monokuma's outburst using comments by Sonic, Doctor Eggman, and Shadow the Hedgehog. Doctor Eggman, of course, agrees with Monokuma's opinion while Sonic quotes Danganronpa's famous catchphrase by going "you've got that wrong" (the original quote in the English localization is "No, that's wrong"). He uses his hatred to Sonic-in-game to regain his motivation by comparing him to a crime scene in the Neo World Program .
* All of his major deaths involved him getting crushed.
== Gallery ==
File:Monokuma Render 01.png
File:Monokuma Render 02.png
File:Monokuma Render 03.png
File:Monokuma Render 04.png
File:Monokuma Render 05.png
File:Monokuma Render 06.png
File:Monokuma Render 07.png
File:Monokuma Render 08.png
== External Links ==
* Monokuma at Danganronpa Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Gender-Neutral
Category:Danganronpa