Monokuma

Monokuma is a bear whose whole face and body are divided by the center into two parts. It resembles the Yin-Yang symbol, of which there is a balance between two opposites in a way similar to a “flow”. Its right side is white and has the classic expression of teddy bear; While its left side shows a more sinister appearance. It is black, has a red, horizontal, jagged eye that resembles the Hope's Peak Academy logo and an evil smile. Although it is completely divided into two opposite sides, the only parts of Monokuma that are not affected by the division in its area are the snout and the belly, since both remain white. He also has a large, obvious belly button on the underside of his belly. His protruding navel has an "X" shaped mark on it. Inside him, he has a lot of wires due to him being a robot and a bomb. Monokuma also comically has a tongue, maybe he has a dick, but…. I don’t care. Monokuma is often described as easygoing and cheerful at first glance, but with a very sinister and hateful undertone. But he always rather quickly reveals his evil nature by showing off his desire for despair, and is very well known for his habit to say and do whatever he wants. He loves hysteria, violence, and chaos, summarized in one of his catchphrases "thrills, chills, kills!". He also has his own signature laughs, a mocking "puhuhu" ("upupupu" in the Japanese version) and a loud and bellowing "AH-HAHAHAHAHA!". In many ways, Monokuma represents duality both in design and personality, with his white good side and black evil side. He can sometimes act patronizingly cute and innocent, and during rare moments he even seems to give genuine positive and wise advice. Though he's mostly known for his sadistically malicious 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.

Monokuma thrives in the suffering of others. 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 pretends 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, where not only does he cosplay as Jibanyan at one point, but he dresses up as many different characters from various iconic movies in his Monokuma Theater segments. Monokuma can also 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. Most of the time however, he holds himself back, under the claim that he cannot hurt his "beloved students." His bullying and abusive nature is shown off best in the way he treats Monomi, as he frequently beats the crap out of her for no reason at all. Similarly, he acts 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's one himself. 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 tends to be very arrogant and tends to treat others in a rude manner, with Junko being the only one he refers to respectfully as "Lady Junko." (and even then that's more from the fact that he is Junko). Fitting his arrogance, he has multiple fake stories about his past, many of them nonsensical and with a 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 becomes especially clear in V3 as he seems disturbingly attracted to his own children, and frequently licks them until he can't take it anymore. He also gushes a lot about how cute the Monokubs are, even when they're doing things like puking their guts out or commiting suicide. 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.

During the refinement in preparation for the Killing School Life, Junko determined that a mascot is necessary as well - not even a host dressed in a sort of a cartoon character outfit would do. Therefore, during the prototype execution featuring Chiaki Nanami, she hosted the broadcast to the Class 77-B with a non-robotic stuffed bear version of Monokuma. At around the same time, she contacted Monaca, the Head of Towa Group's robotics division, to create the robotic version to be used for the Killing School Life, as well as additional units to serve as Junko's army. In order to hide the true nature of the robot, Monaca claimed that she wanted to develop a series of robots that could assist in rescue operations and other scenarios that would be dangerous for humans. The Monokuma units were then secretly distributed to the various branches of Ultimate Despair, with Junko taking several for her plot at Hope's Peak Academy. Junko also creates a personality for Monokuma in the Killing Game while she controls him. Junko was the mastermind behind Monokuma throughout the events of the Killing School Life and Killing School Trip - as she controls him -, and the creator of his concept and personality. Before Junko is exposed as the mastermind, Monokuma desperately tries to conceal her identity from the survivors. Monokuma's personality is based on one of Junko's many personalities, that she created for him, and reappears when she held him over her face while she talked. Junko is the only student that Monokuma respects, and he tends to call her "Lady Junko". Monokuma and Junko are part of the Ultimate Despair, of whom they are the original founders. In Danganronpa V3, his self-proclaimed talent references Monokuma formerly being part of the Ultimate Despair, only by adding headmaster to the title.

Usami is Monokuma's self-proclaimed adoptive little sister. When Monokuma shows up on the island, he quickly fought Usami and won, stripping away her "magical" abilities. Then he changed her appearance to resemble his own, renamed her Monomi, and forcefully adopted her as his little sister, as he thought her previous position was too wishy-washy. Monokuma does not care about Monomi at all, and constantly expresses his hatred of her, an example of this is when he executed her with the Monobeasts without any hesitation due to simply finding her sense of justice annoying. Monokuma usually beats her up whenever she irritates him, which happens often. Monokuma also likes to make fun of her, and keeps dragging her on to events with him even though she clearly dosen't want to. Monomi doesn't like to be called little sister by Monokuma and does not consider Monokuma her brother. Monomi hates Monokuma a lot due to him forcing the students participate in the Killing School Trip. Even though Monomi hates Monokuma, she still sometimes calls him "Big Brother".

Monokuma is the self-proclaimed father of Monotaro, Monokid, Monosuke, Monodam and Monophanie. He calls them his "adorable children" and even seems disturbingly attracted to them because they look like him and he loves his own looks. Despite Monokuma's constant gushing about how cute they are and that he could watch them forever, to the point where he started balding and even exploded once due to their "cuteness", it's very clear that he doesn't actually care about any of the Monokubs, and seems to be neglectful most of the time, as he apparently didn't realize that the Kubs bullied each other until the start of Chapter 2, even though that was the sole reason one of them was killed in the first place. Considering himself the headmaster, he gets annoyed whenever his children try to steal the show, and even stated in the prologue that he tolerates them only because they are so cute. Monokuma loves to lick his cubs affectionately, though this often feels like passive-aggressive punishment since almost all the cubs hate the licks, excluding Monophanie. Monotaro and Monodam usually refer to him as "father", while Monokid calls him "Papa Kuma", Monosuke "pops" and Monophanie "daddy". Out of all the Monokubs, Monokuma seems to like Monophanie the most due to her unique kind personality and general cuteness, creepily stating that he could eat her up, which startles even her. However, Monophanie's sweetness also seems to annoy Monokuma at times, since he himself is so evil. Monokid and Monotaro also greatly respect their father, with Monotaro especially loving him, and even Monodam seems fond of their father at first. Monosuke seems the most indifferent towards their father, though he still respects him in his own way.

Monokuma doesn't really seem to care whenever his Kubs die, and he even decides to kill Monotaro and Monophanie himself during Gonta's execution in Chapter 4. He gives a petty excuse that they had only been spending time together and ignoring him. (angering K1-B0) He quickly feels a mix of sadness, amusement and then laughs it all off by stating that he's probably never going to get the hang of the whole parenting thing. He is later seen grieving his Kubs, in a somewhat pretense way, but he doesn't even care enough to mention all of their names and then begins to wonder why they even exist.