Makoto Naegi and his classmates at Hope's Peak Academy, a school for the country's most talented students, wake up sealed inside it. A bear named Monokuma offers one way out: kill a classmate and get away with it at the class trial. Danganronpa 3 continues in two arcs that aired side by side, Future and Despair, and ends with a one-episode finale, Hope.
4 titles · 37 episodes · ~15 hours
Start with Danganronpa: The Animation. Then watch Danganronpa 3's Future Arc and Despair Arc together, alternating one episode of each the way they aired, and finish with the one-episode Hope Arc.
Start here. Thirteen episodes adapting the first game's killing game at Hope's Peak Academy, all six chapters in order, and the introduction to Makoto Naegi and his classmates.
Makoto Naegi is caught in a new killing game. Alternate it episode by episode with the Despair Arc: Future 1, Despair 1, Future 2, and so on.
⚠ Set after the second game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, which has no anime adaptation.
Follows Hajime Hinata and his classmates from the second game during their school days, and shows how Hope's Peak Academy fell. Each episode aired three days after the matching Future Arc episode.
⚠ A prequel set before the events of Danganronpa: The Animation.
The one-episode finale that resolves both the Future Arc and the Despair Arc. Watch it only after finishing both.
⚠ Some services list it as a separate special, but it aired on September 29, 2016 as the last broadcast episode of Danganronpa 3.
Danganronpa: The Animation comes first because everything after it assumes you know how the first killing game ended. Danganronpa 3 was built as two arcs broadcast in the same week from July to September 2016: the Future Arc on Mondays and the Despair Arc on Thursdays. The Future Arc is a new killing game set after the second game, and the Despair Arc is a prequel at Hope's Peak Academy; each one answers questions the other raises, so the intended way to watch is to alternate them: Future 1, Despair 1, Future 2, Despair 2, and so on until Future 12. The Hope Arc is the single finale for both, aired on September 29, 2016, so it goes last. Series creator Kazutaka Kodaka said he wrote the Future Arc for anyone and the Despair Arc for longtime fans, and that he expected viewers to have played the first two games. The second game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, has no anime, so read up on it before Danganronpa 3 if you have not played it. Super Danganronpa 2.5 and the Monokuma Theater shorts are not in this list; the FAQ explains why.
Danganronpa has 3 seasons and 1 other entry in the main run — 37 episodes altogether.
| Title | Type | Episodes | Aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danganronpa: The Animation | TV Series | 13 episodes | June 2013 |
| Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School – Future Arc | TV Series | 12 episodes | July 2016 |
| Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School – Despair Arc | TV Series | 11 episodes | July 2016 |
| Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School – Hope Arc | Special | 1 episode | September 2016 |
4 titles · 37 episodes · ~15 hours
Danganronpa: The Animation adapts the first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, covering all six of its chapters in 13 episodes. The second game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, has no anime; Danganronpa 3 is an original story set around it and assumes you know it. Danganronpa V3 has no anime either.
Start with Danganronpa: The Animation (2013, 13 episodes). It adapts the first game and introduces the setting, Monokuma and the class trials that everything after it builds on. Then move on to Danganronpa 3.
Danganronpa: The Animation, then Danganronpa 3's Future Arc and Despair Arc alternating one episode at a time (Future 1, Despair 1, Future 2, Despair 2 and so on, ending with Future 12), then the Hope Arc. That is the order the episodes aired in 2016.
Neither on its own. The two arcs aired in the same week, the Future Arc on Mondays and the Despair Arc on Thursdays, from July to September 2016, and each answers questions the other raises. Alternate them episode by episode, starting with Future Arc episode 1. Series creator Kazutaka Kodaka said he wrote the Future Arc for anyone and the Despair Arc for longtime fans.
Yes, or at least know its story. Kazutaka Kodaka said he expected viewers to have played the first two games. The Future Arc is set after Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and the Despair Arc follows that game's cast, Hajime Hinata and his classmates. Danganronpa 2 and the later game Danganronpa V3 have no anime adaptations.
A single 24-minute episode that aired on September 29, 2016 as the finale of both the Future Arc and the Despair Arc. Some services list it as a separate special. Watch it after finishing both arcs.
Yes. Its 13 episodes adapt all six chapters of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc in order, about two episodes per chapter, so the investigations and trials are heavily condensed. The game covers the same story in much more detail.
Yes. Funimation produced English dubs for Danganronpa: The Animation and all of Danganronpa 3, including the Hope Arc. Bryce Papenbrook voices Makoto Naegi in both. The Animation's dub used a different cast from the English version of the games, while Danganronpa 3 brought in voice actors from the games, such as Johnny Yong Bosch as Hajime Hinata.
No. Danganronpa: The Animation adapts the first game's six chapters in order. Danganronpa 3 is an original story conceived by Kazutaka Kodaka rather than an adaptation of a game, so the idea of filler does not apply to it.
Super Danganronpa 2.5 is a 25-minute OVA about Nagito Komaeda that was bundled with the Japanese limited edition of the game Danganronpa V3 in January 2017; we could not find an official English release. Monokuma Theater is a set of three comedy shorts of about three minutes each that came with the Japanese Blu-ray boxes of Danganronpa 3. Neither is in the watch order, and you can skip both.
In the US, Danganronpa: The Animation and Danganronpa 3 are on Crunchyroll with English and Japanese audio. Availability varies by region.
About 15 hours: 13 episodes of The Animation, 12 of the Future Arc, 11 of the Despair Arc and the one-episode Hope Arc, 37 episodes of about 24 minutes each.
The Danganronpa 3 Hope Arc, which aired on September 29, 2016, is the latest anime and closes the Hope's Peak Academy storyline. As of October 2026 no new Danganronpa anime has been announced. The franchise continues in games: Danganronpa 2x2, a remake of the second game with a new scenario, is scheduled for January 14, 2027.
