#toxic danganronpa fandom

[dangan-kagura]

Three Danganronpa Characters the Fandom Ruined for Me

I know I've shared stuff like this before, but right now, I'm having a really shitty week and felt like writing this. These are characters in Danganronpa that I feel like that fandom has ruined for me and have got me thinking just how toxic the Danganronpa fandom can be sometimes. Two of them are characters I do enjoy, while the other one is a character that makes me uncomfortable sometimes.

Shuichi Saihara

Shuichi is one of my favorites, but sometimes, I don’t like it when people call characters like Shuichi “emo” all because he dresses in black and has a very dark or negative personality. It’s not that I don’t like emo, it’s more like, I feel like people are using it the wrong way. I feel like when it comes to characters that have tall, dark, and mysterious personalities and dress in black and have eye-covered bangs, people just assume they’re emo, but I just think that’s really stupid.

Here’s something that I’ll share, during my research about what the emo stereotype is like, one fact I found was that emo claims to glorify suicide. Now in terms of music groups that carry the emo label, do you really think that a band like Fall Out Boy would sing songs about expressing suicidal thoughts? Let me share this, I’m a bit of a fan of the American Pie movies, and in terms of what songs are in the series’ soundtracks, the majority of them come from bands that carry the emo label. And let me ask you this, do you really think the cast of American Pie are emo? Would Jason Biggs’ character be any similar to how the Danganronpa fandom portrays Shuichi? Moreover, when I was doing research about a list of songs that are about suicide, only about a few songs I was familiar with came from bands that carry the emo label, the remaining songs I was familiar with came from bands that don’t carry the label.

To me, I don’t personally use the term emo, instead I use subgenre terms like pop-punk or post-hardcore. I just think that depending on the theme of a modern rock band, people could just slam the emo label on any music group even if they aren’t part of that subculture, and I don’t want to be doing that. In fact, back when the emo backlash came out during the late 2000s, I had assumed nu metal bands like Linkin Park were emo, boy was I wrong. And I would be damned if I met someone who was dumb enough to believe that the reason for Kurt Cobain’s suicide was because Kurt Cobain was influenced by emo. FUCKING FALSE!

Okay, sorry about that last one. I just feel like people should be more careful with how they use the word emo, and at this point, I feel like emo is dead. I just think that characters like Shuichi shouldn’t be treated like this.

Ibuki Mioda

If you’ve read my really long blog on why I don’t like Ibuki, you’ll know that it’s because I don’t like both Ibuki’s music and her popularity in the fandom. Having to see Ibuki make references to death metal or any similar subgenre, whether it’s in the games or the fandom, just feels like a red flag for me.

But here’s something that I will explain that I never got to fully explain. There are fans that do seem to headcanon Ibuki as being a fan of music groups that aren’t death metal. The downside is that some of them aren’t music groups I would approve of. While most fans headcanon Ibuki being into punk, I’m a little disgusted from seeing headcanons that have Ibuki being a fan of emo/screamo shit, that kind of music is just fucking disgusting for me. In fact, I find it unfortunate that most fans don’t headcanon Ibuki as a fan of hard rock and metal bands with female lead singers, examples are bands like Halestorm, Otep, and Kittie. Moreover, it’s worth mentioning that Ibuki has a FTE that references the song “Freak on a Leash” by the nu metal band Korn, and out of the three bands I mentioned, Otep and Kittie also play nu metal. I’m not saying fans should headcanon Ibuki as a fan of that particular subgenre, I just never met anyone in the fandom who likes these bands. I actually do enjoy certain nu metal bands every now and then, so I can tolerate Otep and Kittie’s music, although I’m personally more of a fan of Halestorm’s music and I think that band has a few songs Ibuki might like. Nu metal aside, I also find it unfortunate that fans don’t seem to headcanon Ibuki as a fan of kawaii metal, which is literally a fusion of metal and J-pop idol music.

Getting back to the fandom, I really don’t like seeing Ibuki make any sort of reference to crap genres involving death growls. It’s just not cool or funny, it’s just seriously dark, and I’ve never met anyone who feels the same as I do. Read my long blog for more info.

Kirumi Tojo

I’m gonna admit that there are times where Kirumi can be a comfort character for me. There are times where I’ll cry over her death, and her love suite event is comforting sometimes. The downside is that I don’t like what fans are doing to her, namely the 2B jokes. I’ve already posted a blog about why I don’t like that and that characters like Kirumi shouldn’t be treated like that.

Obviously, the reason this bothers me is because I’ve failed to see the big deal about Nier and don’t really find it to be an interesting game. In fact, I’m more bothered to see how massively popular it’s become, to the point where the game's soundtrack is apparently one of the top soundtracks on iTunes, literally. But I won’t get into too much detail as to why I don’t like Nier, I just think it’s ugly, overrated, and the fandom is probably toxic.

Getting back to Kirumi, when I first met her, she actually reminded me of the Touhou maid, Sakuya Izayoi. Earlier in the year at the time (like, mid-2021) I was already getting into Touhou after learning about Sakuya and the fangame Koumajou Densetsu II. Afterwards, I fell in love with Sakuya after learning more about her. At least Sakuya is a fan favorite in the Touhou fandom whereas Kirumi is only acknowledged for being a gothic maid that believes in selfless devotion and being the prime minister. And at least I’ve never seen anyone pull off that 2B meme on Sakuya and frankly don’t want to see that.

I just feel like my opinion about Kirumi is different from the majority and I’m sick of seeing how the majority sees her, and the more I see it, the more likely I’ll lose interest in Kirumi and I don’t want to let her go. Is it wrong for me to like Kirumi? I just don’t want to let her go because I felt something for her death and I don’t want to forget about her. But I honestly just don’t get what the big deal is with Nier, what is it about that game that everyone loves so much?

And just as I don’t like seeing people make Kirumi look like 2B, I also hate it when people make jokes about Ibuki looking like Twilight Sparkle, but that’s a different story.

In Conclusion

Overall, seeing how Shuichi, Ibuki, and Kirumi are portrayed in the fandom just bothers me. I don’t like it when fans call Shuichi emo, I don’t like seeing Ibuki sing in death growls and act like an idiot who thinks she has her shit together, and I don’t like seeing Kirumi wear a blindfold. Having to see all three of them like that makes me realize just how toxic the Danganronpa fandom can be sometimes, but that’s just my opinion.

[cannibalisticdespair]

Commissioned from TiddyMason

[galaxity]

Tokomaru taking care of the children lives in my brain.

They needed new parents so bad and Komaru obviously wants to help them she’s so mother like 🥰

Toko on the other hand- is Toko yk? But I love her 🫶

[melicraticce]

I fully believe that Kiyo was abused BUT I also like him being a freak and not just in misunderstood way, but him being full blown manipulative and toxic in regards to the way he thinks of himself and others..

[nasutchi]

No because why does almost every fandom NEED to have a group of toxic fujoshis going like “This female character is getting in the way of my ship!!!” for absolutely no reason??

Like:

There’s the Hazbin hotel fandom with RadioApple, they refuse to acknowledge that Lucifer and Alastor hate each other and erase Alastor aroace identity, plus Lucifer loves his wife Lilith

There’s the My Hero Academia fandom with Bakudeku, and Bakugo literally ruins Deku’s self esteem and is such an ass to him, when Uraka would probably treat Deku WAY better

There’s also Danganronpa with Nagito x Hajime, where people apparently blame Chiaki for getting in the way of the relationship when Nagito needs to be sent to the psyche ward for how mentally insane he is 💀

Heck, even smiling friends faces this to. Charlie canonically has his girlfriend Zoe, yet there’s Charpim shippers who hate her cause she “gets in the way”

And lastly, a lesser known fandom that I’m apart of. Amateur Surgeon: Amateur Surgeon “fans” who ship Hubralan aren’t even real fans to me, besides, I heard from a friend that people demonize Aureola (Alan’s canon wife he’s MARRIED to) even though Aureola was driven through grief. (And fyi Hubris literally canonically tried to MURDER Alan thank you very much)

[toxicsludgeyaoi]

The Toxic Sludge Yaoi Tournament has concluded!

After battling it's way against 63 other ships, we have our winner. Lawlight has taken the crown and is our most toxic yet loveable mlm ship! Congratulations, Lawlight!

[hopeymchope]

re: toxic fanbases. I'm not good at telling what fanbases are toxic. I'm both a doormat ("that rando who started yelling at me all of a sudden probably has a good reason and I'm dumb for not seeing it 👍") and a weirdo who tends to stay within very small circles. With Danganronpa, I feel like there's *something* that makes it a little jarring compared to other communities, although it's by far not the worst community I've personally interacted with.

Its popularity definitely plays a massive role; it's actually impressive to see how active Danganronpa circles remain after all this time, but the downside is that there's a lot of brainrot, distant memories, and most importantly people who've been involved with it for WAY too long. I myself have definitely grown horribly bored of having the same tired debates be brought up time and time again - I can imagine people with a different personality from mine getting very upset over that.

Though I don't feel a connection to that aspect at this time, the prevalent young fanbase also comes with its qualities and flaws.

I could go on, because this community is so large and so old that it's genuinely, like I already mentioned, jarring at times. I'll turn my back from being told DRAE is irredeemable media because it uses dark humour to see someone draw a Komaru with giant tits requesting coitus. There are times when interacting with Danganronpa fans has made me wish I'd just never known about Danganronpa at all, so all things considered, even if I can't put words on it, there's a strong negative aspect to it.

At the same time, I don't know how it being Danganronpa specifically relates to some negative experiences I had - was some of the abuse I endured as a Wiki admin related to the way the DR fandom is? Or did it have to do with Wikis more than it did with DR, with French users more than it did DR? Maybe the problem is that this series has given so many of us such intense brainrot and we can't stop getting involved with it.

Sorry if this long ask is annoying in any way - I figured you might be interested in exploring the conversation around how the DR fandom might come across as toxic, objectively or subjectively OTL

One thing I remember for sure is that when I posted Akudama Drive LGBTQ headcanons, I felt perfectly fine and happy about it - but when I decided to post my Danganronpa headcanons too, I had a strong feeling that I was taking a risk, however small. That's not a very nice feeling to get as an adult who's just trying to be a little happy and silly with PNGs.

Oh, I don't mind a long ask at all! I'm grateful for the detailed thought you put into this, honestly. :) I'm a pretty wordy person myself — you may have noticed.

I think a lot of what you're describing as negatives within the DR community are unfortunate constants with fandoms of ANY popular media these days. Not ALL of it, but....

Every piece of media is gonna be declared irredeemable/offensive/problematic by some parties now if it delves into any kind of darkness or deals with any kind of major crimes, it seems like I've seen more than one person online state — with a straight face, mind you — stuff like "Danganronpa is toxic AF, many of those characters are LITERALLY murderers" and I'm just over here thinking are you fucking serious? I don't remember seeing people say stuff like this in my fandom circles before 2019 or so, but I see it everywhere now. It seems to have grown more prevalent since the 2020s hit? There are people who just can't stand to deal with any moral grayness, any dark theming, etc — and they don't think anyone else should allowed to enjoy that stuff either. (Now I'm wondering whether there are people similarly dismissing Akudama Drive. Much smaller fandom, so maybe you don't see that. But I can imagine someone grumbling "These characters are LITERALLY criminals, wtf." LOL)

We all know Internet Rule 34, but I feel like there are certain built-in multipliers to it that increase how widespread it is. Animated media? That's a multiplier that will cause even MORE porn to exist. Japanese media? That's another multiplier. Which means there's tons of porn of DR characters — even for the teen characters that're underage in most countries like Komaru. At least I've never stumbled across porn of the small children like the Warriors of Hope, THANK FUCKING GOD. I sadly don't doubt that it exists, but I hope to god it remains in a dark corner, out of my goddamn sight.

And I definitely feel much, MUCH more afraid to say anything about LGBTQ headcanons for popular media than I do for relatively small fandoms. Maybe that's partly symptomatic of being American in an era where tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people is sliding horiffically backwards? At least I think I'm safter to share such things on Tumblr than I would be on Reddit. I'd be afraid to talk about my personal DR LGBTQ headcanons, too. I've even drafted a post about that once and then been like "You know what? No. I'm not opening myself up to abuse for this," leading me to delete it. I've done similarly for the Madoka Magica fandom as well... too active, too big = too likely to result in blowback. I believe Akudama Drive is a pretty small fandom, though, so it makes sense to me why that'd feel like a more comfortable place to talk LGBTQ concepts.

But with all of that said, I can't claim that the infighting over interpretations of characters and events that I see on the DR Wiki is something that every fandom deals with. Maybe some of them do; honestly, Fandom Wikis weren't really so huge a thing before I got deep into DR in the back half of the 2010s, and I haven't really gotten involved with any of the Fandom Wikis I've come across afterwards either. So I don't know for sure! But it seems like that could be uniquely unpleasant about the DR fandom — the way people define "canon" as a matter of personal interpretation.

Since I'm stuck on the English side of the DR Wiki, I'm not certain whether you deal with the same stuff in the French incarnation. Characters like Komaeda and Ouma are especially difficult to police — they have so many fans who think they are pure of heart, and so many fans who find them loathesomely manipulate, and you can't necessarily be certain what about them is true or false. Put all that together, and it's hard to keep things to "Just The Facts" when people fundamentally disagree on what the facts ARE, which can lead to a lot of infighting among the people editing the thing! God... even deciphering the truth about what's going on in V3 and determining how we should or shouldn't explain that haziness is an awfully sticky wicket all by itself.

[nno-user]

What is it with me hating the most popular ships in fandoms? I just can't get myself to like them. Shuichi x Kokichi? Absolutely hate it. Rengoku x Akaza? Ew, NO. Sun Wukong x Macaque? GET THAT SHIT AWAY FROM ME.

I also find it funny how I make at least one of the characters Aroace in the ship which makes it even more awful to look at (Kokichi, Rengoku, Sun Wukong)

[vampire-bite]

Me, watching with popcorn as people talk about the fandom becoming toxic, knowing full and well that 1. I have not watched a video in months and my primary interaction is reading fics and role playing self inserts and 2. the fandom probably seems like it’s becoming more toxic primarily bc of a percentage thing lol the more people in the fandom the higher the amount of toxic people

I have no opinions on the discourse I just think it’s entertaining ngl

[min0uet]

do the kirigiri haters even know about kirigirisou or the seven volume light novel prequel series abt her. say what you like about kirigiri but you CAN'T call her underdeveloped

[hecho-a-mano]

Junko Danganronpa is like a fake nerd's idea of Harley Quinn

[karmaisamess-x3]

Oh that’s gore (an awful hc that op is trying so desperately to pass as canon and is condemning other people for having a different view on the character) of my comfort character…

[weakinthekneez]

ok yes my 2021 friend group was awful but i kind of miss it

[galaxity]

Some of the Dr2 cast being silly goobers because I love them!! <33

[necrosemantic]

All Of The Fandoms In 'Fandom Stuff' From My Intro Post

My Little Pony, Homestuck, Creepypasta, Danganronoa, Sally Face, Warrior Cats, Undertale, Doki Doki Literature Club, The Amazing World Of Gumball, Invader Zim, Death Note, My Hero Academia, FNAF, Black Butler

There's denfiently more then that but that's all I can think of right now.

[technicallymaximumkitty]

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