Sunday 7 August 2022

Death Battle Predictions: Korosensei VS Monokuma

 

🚨SPOILER WARNING!!!🚨

This blog will be referencing critical plot points from both Assassination Classroom and Danganronpa, many of which are massive spoilers for both series. Danganronpa especially is a series that focuses heavily on suspense and mystery, so if you are not familiar with the entire series, we strongly advise that you do not continue reading this blog, as we will be spoiling most of the series' twists. The same goes for Assassination Classroom, as we will be discussing major plot details from the end of the series.


Seriously. If you aren’t familiar with both, don’t read this.


…Still here? Alright, good. Enjoy!


(Korosensei art by MarchingSIN)


Korosensei, the homeroom teacher and target of the Assassination Classroom.


Monokuma, Danganronpa’s Hope’s Peak headmaster and Killing Game host.

Teachers from across the world have the important role of guiding their students, ensuring that the next generation of society is educated and safe. Allowing them to pursue all different kinds of fields and passions to bring change to the world. But there is one such subject forbidden to be taught by any teacher, the act of taking another person’s life. Yet these two have crossed that foreboding line for vastly different reasons.

One has used the skill of assassination as means to improve oneself, drawing out the passion from his students and giving them hope for a better future. The other used the act of murder to rob the futures of promising students, in order to crush the hope of the world and spread despair wherever he pleased. Pitted together, whose teaching methods will stand by the end of this? Will the anthropomorphic octopus’ methods shine bright, or will the sinister bear’s violent tendencies snuff out that light? Let's find out in this battle of hope vs despair!

In Case You’re Wondering…

Assassination Classroom stuff is pretty straightforward (especially compared to DR which is notably convoluted), but we'll be using stuff from both the manga and anime, if anyone wasn't expecting that for whatever reason.


For DR, because Danganronpa 2 takes place in a virtual world, equipment from that game like his 10^60 copies and the Monobeasts will not be taken into account. However, we can scale Monokuma to characters' feats in the virtual world, as their avatars' physical capabilities were not changed. These feats do not affect Monokuma’s stats in any meaningful way. We will also be listing the executions from DR2 (in addition to the ones from DR1 and V3) because they are fun to talk about, but note that they take place inside a simulation and thus are not actually a part of Monokuma’s real-world arsenal.


Additionally, we will be giving Monokuma feats and equipment from Danganronpa V3, despite the fact that it is unclear whether V3 is in continuity with the other titles. In V3, the mastermind Shirogane does claim that all of the previous Danganronpa entries are fictional, and that the Ultimate Academy killing game is the 53rd season of an in-universe TV show. However, it is unclear how truthful this is, as her claims are contradictory with evidence from the prologue, and Saihara questions whether she was lying about the previous killing games being fictional. It is possible that V3 takes place within its own continuity, but it is also possible that Shirogane was lying, and that it actually is canon to the other games. This is left deliberately ambiguous by the game.


Regardless, when analyzing Monokuma specifically, feats and equipment from V3 should still be usable. He is essentially the same character as he is in every other game, and nothing from V3 is particularly incongruous with what Monokuma had shown to be capable of in prior entries. There are no feats in V3 which would make him stronger at all, and the new equipment that he gets are more-or-less in line with the technology he had access to before.

As a final note, we’ll be handling this blog slightly differently from how we usually do. Of course, we’re going to be going over everything in just as much detail and in a largely similar format to any other blog, so don’t worry about that. But because those of us who worked on this have quite a bit of love for both of these series, we wanted to try to really turn this into a love letter to both, as well as make the blog as fun and entertaining to read as we possibly could. This includes unique segments, references and homages abound, and a more artistic presentation of some of the information. If that isn’t your speed and you’d prefer something more formal and information-focused, that’s fine, it probably won’t be a permanent change or something done for most blogs. Unless of course people really like it, then who knows? Regardless, we hope you enjoy. :)

Background

Korosensei

"The tentacles spoke to me, asked what I wanted to be. To be weak I said, to be flawed, vulnerable. To perceive weakness in others not to exploit but to protect. To be a guide, to be a teacher."


Class 3-E of the Kunugigaoka Junior High School, a class made entirely to segregate the “weakest” students from the school as a whole, was one of the worst positions to be in for any student. But one year, this class ended up becoming a class of well-trained assassins. Their teacher was a strange lifeform that claimed to have destroyed 70% of the Moon, and threatened to do the same to Earth, unless his students managed to kill him before the end of the school year. This being was soon dubbed “Korosensei”, literally meaning Unkillable Teacher, and strangely became an incredibly beloved teacher to his students.


But the true story behind Korosensei was far more complex than that. Originally, he was a nameless masterful assassin known only as The Reaper for his incredible skill in the field. During one of his missions, he had accidentally allowed his target’s child to witness the kill, which left the boy desiring to become a killer, just like his father’s assassin. Taking the boy in as an apprentice, The Reaper taught him everything he knew without ever truly caring for him as a student, seeing the boy merely as a tool to obtain more opportunities for assassination. This methodology eventually led The Reaper to his downfall, being betrayed by his student and captured to be experimented on by a scientist known as Kotaro Yanagisawa, who was attempting to create organic antimatter, using The Reaper’s body as a guinea pig.


But as his body was constantly experimented on, The Reaper ended up forming the first true bond of his life: a lab assistant and teacher of Class 3-E named Aguri Yukimura. By talking to her and finally opening up about his past, The Reaper finally started to grow as a person, learning about compassion and what it truly meant to be a teacher. But tragedy striking was inevitable. In a test to see what would happen with the antimatter in The Reaper’s body at the end of his lifespan, a lab rat was sent to the Moon at the end of its own lifespan and exploded… which destroyed 70% of the moon. Calculating that the same destructive event would happen to The Reaper within a year, the scientist prepared to kill him immediately to prevent the destruction of Earth. But Aguri, having learned of what was about to happen to The Reaper, told him about this, and so he used the powers he obtained from the experiments to break free. But as Yanagisawa and his men attempted to stop the rampage of the empowered assassin, Aguri ended up a victim of a weapon meant to eliminate the Reaper. In her dying words, she still believed in The Reaper’s potential as a teacher, asking him to take her place and teach Class 3-E.


Thus Korosensei was born, and throughout the school year he proved Aguri right by helping his class not only improve as students and assassins, but as people as well, creating a deep connection with all of them, and even growing from these experiences himself. Despite his eccentric mannerisms and many shenanigans, the more and more complex assassination plans developed by both the students and the government, and the enemies that attempted to take his life such as Yanagisawa and the new Reaper, Korosensei became truly beloved to all who knew him. Upon their ultimate success, the students whose goal was to kill Korosensei for so long were all driven to tears, none of them truly wishing to say goodbye to their mentor. In the end, as he died, Korosensei kept the same smile on his face, thanking Class 3-E for having given new meaning to his life.

Monokuma

"I am the god of this new world... ...and the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy! The one, the only...Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!”


Hope and Despair. Two concepts that have plagued human history since mankind was conceived by life itself. One day, a powerful girl was born, and she chose Despair as her way of life. Her name? Junko Enoshima, and little did the world know, all would learn to fear her. With her genius analytical mind and the power of anime brainwashing bullshit (thanks DR3, very cool), Junko brought the world to its knees, kickstarting a planet-wide tragedy from within their most hope-filled establishment, Hope’s Peak Academy. But in order to truly educate the world on the glory of Despair, she needed a little help. Enlisting the talents of child psycho Monaca Towa, she added some sugar, some spice, and a random bear doll she had lying around, creating an ursine menace unlike anything the world had ever known: Monokuma!


To further bring the world to Despair, Junko devised a plan involving her classmates, with whom she was locked within Hope’s Peak. She would create a Killing Game in which the students were forced to murder one another, the High School Life of Mutual Killing, better known as Danganronpa! Leading the charge while Junko worked from the shadows, Monokuma acted as the school’s headmaster, creating motives for the students, announcing the murders, and spectating the special trials that would ensue. All while pushing outsiders out and keeping the world in constant chaos. This would continue until the final six survivors banded together, outing Junko as the secret mastermind behind the game, and sending her off to a special execution. Thus ending the Ultimate Despair and her hellish Killing Game. Or so they thought.


Death didn’t stop Junko for long. As it turned out, she had created an “Alter Ego” A.I. version of herself, and with a little help from normie-turned-edgelord Izuru Kamukura, was installed into a simulation with yet another group of hopeful students, who were in the process of rehabilitating from the anime brainwashing. And thus, a new Killing Game began, with Monokuma back and better than ever! Alas, history repeats itself, and Hope was chosen over Despair once again, as Junko and Monokuma were deleted forever by fellow A.I. Usami, never to be seen again. Even with Junko gone, though, her legacy of Despair lived on, and yet another Killing Game was kickstarted by the repercussions of her actions. In the end though, Hope prevailed over Despair… again, again. Thus ending any trace of Monokuma, never to be seen again-haha sike you thought.


Not even this could end Monokuma forever - at least not in every timeline. In a separate canon (maybe, it’s complicated), Danganronpa was an anime. An anime so popular in fact, that they began to create a reality show, using real people that were memory wiped as the contestants. This ran for fifty-three seasons, until the game was ultimately ended by the contestants for good, along with Monokuma… for now. Dying with a mischievous grin, Monokuma knew that as the cycle of Despair would never end, neither would he.

Equipment

Korosensei

Entry #1: “Souvenirs”

During his time as a government target, Korosensei has collected many of these various weapons. Some consist of missiles, one of which was stated to be from a Japanese strike force. The exact type of missile is unspecified, and the appearance doesn’t perfectly match any missiles used by Japan that we can find. However, other missiles of similar size that are used by Japanese fighter jets can weigh nearly 200 pounds and move up to Mach 2.5.

Monokuma

Robot Body

As a robot, Monokuma’s body is mechanical and has a variety of applications that are useful in combat, or for terrorizing defenseless students. Both are valid! As a robot, he naturally lacks organic limitations such as getting tired, and since his body is controlled via A.I. (see Alter Ego Junko section below), destroying his body is not enough to get rid of him on his own. He also has several specific features, including:


  • Claws: Monokuma has claws made out of a strong metal alloy, capable of tearing through metal, car doors, and any poor unsuspecting victim in need of some good ol’ fashioned Despair.

  • Monokuma Eye: Monokuma’s red eye is capable of determining a target’s name, age, distance, heart rate, and velocity, though it apparently runs on a limited battery.

  • Internal Bomb: There’s a bomb installed in every Monokuma unit, which can be detonated to create a small explosion if he is attacked. These explosions are powerful enough to destroy Monokuma entirely, severely burn the corpse of Mukuro Ikusaba, and were implied to be able to kill Mondo Owada. The bombs are equipped with a motion sensor to avoid tampering unless it’s deactivated first, though Monokuma can also activate the bomb himself. It does beep before activating, however, so a sufficiently savvy opponent could use that window of time to get outside the explosion’s blast radius.

Spare Bodies / Monokuma Units

Monokuma has access to a variety of spare bodies which he can transfer his A.I. to, should his main body be destroyed. The exact number of these units is unknown (outside of the Neo World Program, where the number is much higher), though he has enough to be considered a small army.


In Ultra Despair Girls, there are also established to be a variety of other Monokuma units which are used to spread despair. These units are not A.I.-controlled like the actual Monokuma, and as such are much less intelligent, on top of being stated to be weaker than the Monokuma from Hope’s Peak. However, they each have unique gear, and make up for their lack of individual strength with numbers. All of the known types are listed below - with the exception of the skyscraper-sized Big Bang Monokuma, which requires a pilot.


  • Ball Monokumas: A rotund variant of Monokuma, which can retract its limbs into its body and attack by rolling toward an opponent at high speed and firing pieces of trash. The subject of many memes.

  • Beast Monokumas: A variant of Monokuma which moves around on all fours and attacks with animal-like ferocity.

  • Bomber Monokumas: A variant of Monokuma that fights at long-range with explosives. Bomber Monokumas wear bulletproof vests and helmets, and carry hand grenades to explode the shit out of any annoying teenagers that cross their path.

  • Destroyer Monokumas: A variant of Monokuma that carries a gas-powered flamethrower for toasting bitches. They also wear jetpacks, which grant them flight capabilities.

  • Guard Monokumas: Defensive variant of Monokuma which comes dressed in police gear and carries a riot shield for blocking attacks. Without their shield, however, they become as defenseless as any normal Monokuma unit.

  • Junk Monokumas: Disfigured variant of Monokuma which is perfect for jump-scares. They are much more durable than a normal Monokuma unit, requiring a greater amount of damage to defeat.

  • Siren Monokumas: Variant of Monokuma that is capable of activating a red siren, mobilizing nearby Monokuma units to their location.

  • Buff Monokuma: Though not a variant Monokuma from Ultra Despair Girls, Monokuma can grow his muscles in size and become completely ripped. It too has become the subject of many memes. 

Alter Ego Junko

Alter Ego Junko is an A.I. copy of the Ultimate Fashionista herself, which Junko created thanks to programming skills that she learned from the Ultimate Programmer, Chihiro Fujisaki. This A.I. helped to carry out Junko’s plans after her death. It was uploaded into two Monokuma units known as Shirokuma and Kurokuma, who manipulated the Warriors of Hope and adults of Towa City in order to keep them fighting one another. Alter Ego Junko was also capable of completely taking over the Future Foundation’s Neo World Program upon being uploaded into the simulation and even had the ability to take over the real bodies of students that were killed within the simulation had her plans not been stopped.


  • Shirokuma - A supposed pacifist Monokuma unit that was pretending to be an ally of the adults’ resistance in order to force the adults into battle. Would later on control the Big Bang Monokuma in order to cause more havoc over Towa City.

  • Kurokuma - Advisor for the Warriors of Hope who helped feed ideas to the children on ways that they could kill the adults. Would work specifically with the leader of the Warriors of Hope, Monaca, in an attempt to create the second coming of Junko Enoshima.


After Junko’s death, the Junko A.I. functions as Monokuma’s brain, controlling his actions and allowing him to remain active even after his puppet master is gone. This means that Monokuma is fully autonomous, and retains Junko’s personality, intellect, and various talents. The most notable of which being:

Ultimate Analysis

An Ultimate Talent that originally belonged to Junko, which consists of a superhuman ability to analyze information and scenarios. Monokuma shares this ability, due to the fact that his A.I. was modeled after Junko’s mind. With it, Junko has shown to be able to replicate and copy the talents and skills of others by observing and studying them, such as programming from Chihiro Fujisaki (used to create her A.I.), animation techniques from Ryota Mitarai (used to create a brainwashing video) and neurological research from Yasuke Matsuda (used to develop technology to erase specific sections of someone’s memory). Her analytical capabilities are potent enough to allow her to foresee movements to the point where it can be mistaken for precognition, predict thousands of possibilities to determine future events, and write a book that predicts events far in advance.

Monokubs

The Monokuma Kubs, affectionately dubbed the Monokubs for short, are Monokuma units that pride themselves as his, er, “children”. Though, both in and out of universe, they’re meant to really not serve much of a purpose, just being cute and adding stylish flair for Monokuma to laugh about. And upon their deaths, not much was lost.


These color-coded bears are:


  • Monotaro - The Kubs’ fearless leader, this crimson cub is a bit of a scatterbrain who comes equipped with shuriken and occasionally quotes One Piece. In spite of his quirks, he tries his best to corral his siblings together. Shame he doesn’t do very well at that.

  • Monophanie - She's the strong and sensual woman of the siblings. She also has some… interesting proclivities, loves her brother a bit too much, and is the one who gave birth to a giant robotic bug.

  • Monokid - Foul-mouthed and short-tempered, Monokid is an obnoxious bully, and as such quickly ran afoul of his greener sibling, ultimately becoming the Kubs’ first casualty.

  • Monosuke - Calm and collected but not the most mature, Monosuke finds his siblings rather annoying and commonly corrects them when they get things wrong. Can’t see much without his glasses, and as such could not escape when pushed into the path of a falling maid.

  • Monodam - The one that’s actually fun. Monodam is quiet and speaks monotonously, but even though he’s a bit creepy, he just wants everyone to get along! Even if he needs to commit fratricide (and suicide) a few times to make it happen.

Exisals

While the Monokubs themselves largely weren’t worth much, they DID pilot these giant mecha robots known as Exisals, which menaced the students of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. These huge robots are too strong for any of V3’s cast to combat, with the sole exception of K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot. They possess an unknown assortment of powerful weaponry, and have a built-in voice changer for mimicking the voice of any student.

Brainwashing Video

Your parents were right, that anime was brainwashing you. This “despair” video brainwashes those who lay their eyes on it, turning them into a twisted and depraved follower of Junko Enoshima. Originally developed by the Ultimate Animator, Ryota Mitarai, Junko used this to brainwash the 77th Class into becoming the Remnants of Despair and acting as her top lieutenants post-Tragedy. Monokuma has access to a portable version of this video.


What, you expected Junko to manipulate people the old-fashioned way, by exploiting their flaws and insecurities to corrupt them to her side? Nah, that would be way too interesting. Brainwashing is better. Thanks DR3, very cool.

Flashback Light

Used by Monokuma to help the students of the Ultimate Academy remember their past, though in reality, it was implanting false memories into them. These flashlight devices send information that’s been converted into light waves directly to the brain, causing a “deja vu” effect. This causes the brain to think the info it just received happened in the past. The Flashback Lights cannot restore memories, only implant new ones. With this, Monokuma can program a target with an entirely new personality and lifetime of memories, even giving them Ultimate Talents that are just as powerful as a talent cultivated naturally.

Blackout Light

Similar to the Flashback Light, the Blackout Light uses lightwaves to induce total memory loss in whoever gets exposed.

Abilities

Korosensei

Entry #2: Antimatter Physiology

Korosensei’s body was completely altered by the antimatter experiments, turning into a being with an octopus-like appearance and several tentacles. Due to this, no traditional weapon is effective in harming Korosensei, melting the moment they make contact with his body.


This unnatural physique also makes Koro much faster than most human beings, being capable of flying and reaching top speeds of Mach 20. And while the tentacles also bring a massive increase in power, Korosensei’s desire to become weak means he’s usually incapable of utilizing the fullest potential of his body.


Other functions of these tentacles are giving Korosensei the ability to camouflage himself like a chameleon and giving him a tongue that can melt through any substance, including Anti-Sensei materials that are normally effective tools for harming him.

Entry #3: Assassin Training

Korosensei was previously known as the Reaper, considered to be the greatest assassin in all of history. During this time, he obtained so many skills that it was believed that the only way to defeat him at all was to be better than him in every single way possible. It was these skills which he would eventually pass down to his apprentice, and later to the students of Class 3-E. He also has several specific skills which come in handy for assassin work, including the following: 


  • Clap Stunner: Technique in which Korosensei creates a specific type of sound in order to stun an opponent and incapacitate them. Normally, this technique has several conditions to be used, but Korosensei’s skill is so great that he can do it simply by yelling loud enough, or striking a surface in a certain way.

  • Invisible Scythe: Technique used by Korosensei when he was The Reaper, in which he fires a miniscule projectile to pierce the gap between muscle and bone, utilizing his knowledge of the human body in order to incur excessive bleeding. He could even do this with a projectile as mundane as a grain of sand, and was so skilled with this technique that it was considered his secret weapon.

  • Human Reading: Korosensei possesses a great aptitude for reading the facial expressions and body language of a person, allowing him to discern their intentions, or whether or not they are lying. This is beneficial in combat, since it allows him to more easily determine what a target is about to do next.

Entry #4: Combat Skill

Korosensei possesses immense skill and experience in combat due to his time as The Reaper. As the world’s best assassin, he naturally has proven capable of avoiding or countering nearly any assassination attempt that his students attempted, as well as those from professional assassins. He has even shown to be capable of defeating enemies who are even stronger and faster than he is, such as Reaper 2.0. Throughout his time as an octopus man, he developed a number of new abilities and improved in combat even beyond where he already was, demonstrating himself to be a genius fighter.

Entry #5: Intelligence/Information Gathering

Outside of combat, Korosensei is still a genius beyond anything that would be possible for any normal human. He has extensive knowledge of every topic taught in schools, to the point of being able to instruct all of his students simultaneously by dedicating an afterimage to each one of them. He is also capable of reading an entire year’s worth of manga almost instantly, and creating inventions more complex than what is possible with contemporary science. His liquefaction ability was developed through a chemical of his own design, proving him to be a brilliant chemist as well. He was also able to upgrade his A.I. student, Ritsu, adding 985 modifications within a single day.

Entry #6: Eidetic Memory

Korosensei possesses an eidetic memory, which refers to the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision after seeing it only once. This is distinct from a photographic memory in that it specifically refers to the ability to recall images, sounds, and other sensory aspects, while photographic memory pertains to things like text and numbers. Interestingly, however, Korosensei seems to be capable of the latter as well, as he was able to memorize every problem set that has ever existed in Japan for teaching purposes. Being able to draw upon everything that he has learned was a large part of what allowed Korosensei to become the world’s greatest assassin.

Entry #7: Poison Immunity

Korosensei is extremely resistant to poisons. When one of his students gave him several harmful concoctions to drink, they only managed to cause random effects on his body. Certain chemicals also have specific beneficial effects, such as granting him a liquefaction ability, or decreasing the likelihood of his antimatter self-destruct activating to less than 1%.

Entry #8: Visual Clones

Korosensei’s incredible speed allows him to create several visual clones whenever the need comes. Even in the middle of tough battles, he can still create these duplicates (although great concentration is needed to keep them from becoming deformed). Originally, he could only create a few of these afterimages at a time, due to the fact that he could not immediately accelerate to top speed within close-quarters, but over time he improved his control over his speed to the point of being able to create a much larger number of them. This ability is notably reliant on him being much faster than the perception speed of the observer, however, so a sufficiently fast opponent should be able to perceive his movements normally.

Entry #9: Facial Colors

Korosensei’s body is usually yellow, but whenever he feels certain emotions, his color will change accordingly. While mostly used for the sake of visual gags, it was revealed during the final battle against the Reaper that when the body of a tentacle being turns pitch-black, it represents them losing control over their emotions and allows them to use the fullest extent of their power. However, in order to overpower the Reaper once and for all, Korosensei managed to merge all of his colors and emotions together as one, creating an incredibly powerful white light that allowed him to instantly finish the battle.

Entry #10: Mach Whisper

Korosensei can whisper in order to implant thoughts and copy the monologues of those around him, and then leave at mach speed before anyone notices his antics. This allows him to influence the thoughts and actions of other people to a limited extent.

Entry #11: Net Creation

     

In order to save Karma from falling off a cliff while avoiding assassination, Korosensei used his tentacles to create a net below him and catch him. He was able to do this in a split second while Karma was already falling, and the web is shown to be sticky, immobilizing Karma as though he was caught in a spider-web.

Entry #12: Electricity Generation

Korosensei showcased the ability of generating electricity from one of his tentacles in order to restart Kayano’s heart in a manner similar to a defibrillator. This would involve sending an electrical signal through the heart in order to correct arrhythmia; theoretically speaking, this could also do the opposite, interfering with the electrical signals in the heart in order to disrupt or stop the heart of a living target.

Entry #13: Mucus

Korosensei’s natural mucus comes with a handful of uses, despite the nastiness of it all. The mucus is durable enough to stop bullets dead in their tracks, and can be used in a stealthy manner via making his Mach 20 movement speed nearly completely silent. It has some non-combat uses as well, such as being handy for massages and capable of creating bath foam that can eliminate dirt. He can even use it to help repair gaps on a cellular level. In addition, the mucus can also prevent Korosensei’s body from sucking up water and having his mobility hindered, adjusting the osmotic pressure by mixing it up with the water around him.

Entry #14: Water Absorption

Thanks to the nature of his body, Korosensei is able to absorb water into himself, kind of like a sponge, causing him to swell up significantly upon contact with water. This is more a weakness than anything however, as it hinders his mobility.

Entry #15: Regeneration

Should any of his tentacles receive any damage or be severed, Korosensei is able to regenerate them completely. This does come at the cost of lowering his stamina, however. His regeneration is even potent enough to regenerate his own heart after having been stabbed through it.

Entry #16: Shed Skin

Korosensei can shed his skin at will. This will completely regenerate his body from any harm done, and his molted skin can be used as a protective substance to either immobilize his opponents or protect himself. This comes at a cost however, as he will lose stamina and become slower until rejuvenated.

Entry #17: Liquid Form

After tricking Manami Okuda into making him a specific chemical concoction, Korosensei gained the ability to turn his body into a liquid state, allowing him to fit into tighter spaces and as such, making him even harder to hit. He has showcased the ability to turn into this state later on, proving that the effect of the concoction was permanent.

Entry #18: Ultimate Defense Form

A form created by compressing himself into a small ball surrounded by crystalline armor. In this form, it is established that not even a nuclear warhead would be able to scratch him. However, after a day, it’ll slowly dissipate and he’ll go back to his usual form. All previous damage done to his body will be completely restored and his energy will be rejuvenated. The main drawback of this ability is the fact that it renders him immobile, and he cannot deactivate it at will. According to Korosensei himself, it would be possible to defeat him in this form via launching him into space while he is defenseless, but it would be impossible for humanity to do that within the 24 hours that he remains in the form. It’s also not completely indestructible, as it is established that a laser made of antimatter particles could have destroyed it. 

Entry #19: Antimatter Self-Destruct

When a lifeform implanted with antimatter reaches the end of its current cellular division cycle, the antimatter in the body has a chance of expansion. A rat that had been experimented on to have antimatter in its cells eventually detonated due to this phenomena, taking 70% percent of the moon with it. It is believed this could be replicated with Korosensei. If Korosensei were to detonate, the entire Earth would be destroyed, but the actual chances of this occurring are slim (see Before the Verdicts for details).


Entry #20: Laser Beam

The final ability that Korosensei developed before his death at the end of the series, this technique allows him to, as the name suggests, shoot laser beams. As it’s tied to his emotions, it’s usually fairly weak, but after combining all of his colors into the laser, turning it white, he was able to make it much more powerful. At its strongest, it was great enough to one-shot Reaper 2.0, who was stated and shown to be much more powerful than Korosensei himself.

Monokuma

Afterimages

Monokuma has shown to be capable of moving so fast that it appears that there are more than one of him.

Camouflage

Against certain backgrounds, Monokuma can appear completely invisible, allowing him to act stealthily without being seen or otherwise detected.

Teaching Practices


For this section, we’ll be turning things over to Korosensei and Monokuma themselves, allowing them to talk about their resumes and personal pedagogical methods. A veritable highlight reel, whether it be helping young students toward their promising futures, or ending the country’s best and brightest through gruesome homicide! As a bonus, Monokuma’s executions (minus DR2) are part of his arsenal, so for all you VS lovers out there, worry not, this bit will still have stuff for you.

Korosensei

Nagisa

Superb observations Nagisa! If I wasn’t on my way to an imminent battle, I’d give you an A+ on your assassination grades!

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Ah what the heck I have time! Thanks to your mother finally loosening her grip, I’ll take you to this spectacular field I found in Nevada after class, truly a place to appreciate the serenity of nature. At least, if there isn’t a strike force behind my back.

Karma

    

Ah, Karma. You know, for someone with an unhealthy dose of sadism, you’ve really grown up this past year! School bully turned skilled assassin and math prodigy? It’s straight out of Sonic Ninja! Your future is looking quite bright young man, especially after that shiny nail polish I just applied to your fingers.

Isogai

Hello prince charming! As we’re all aware, your financial troubles are… Disheartening, but you’ve certainly made the best of it! Sports captain, class gentleman, and even luck with the ladies!


School regulations would require me asking you to quit the part time job, but that honey toast you’re serving looks real tasty…

Okajima

How’s the ladies business going? A little tip from a master to the apprentice: Don’t take nonconsensual pictures of them. Speaking of which..

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Can I see?


Okano

Busy household, huh? Those athletics must really be a pain in the back. But despair no longer! With Tentacle Torsion massage, all worries and knots will be fixed in milliseconds! Join the limited time subscriber membership for only $40 a month and the best back when the world goes kaplooie from yours truly!

Memberships unavailable March 30th due to complete planetary destruction.

I guess you could say it was tentacles all along!

Okuda

Based off first glance, people would assume you’d have poor language skills and find enjoyment in weird foods like *shudder* .. calamari. (Ew!) 


Thankfully, you’re only one of those things and hate calamari! But don’t let that get you down, your science skills are unparalleled! I’m sure you’ll find the people and place just right for you some day! (A second thanks for that liquid state, it’ll be most helpful in this blog I hope.)

Kataoka

Blackmailing friends are the worst kind of friends. 


Hopefully our lessons for $40 a month can solve all the issues you have with swimming issues from a bad person. Our resident expert Korosensei is such an expert in fact, that he can’t even enter the water to begin with!

I guess you could say it was tentacles all along!

Kayano  Akari Yukimura

I wish Aguri were here to see this. She was the best of us. Kind, intelligent, humble, I’m so sorry this had to happen.


 But don’t let the past drag you down. You have a whole life ahead of you! Whether it be acting or cooking, maybe even something else. Just know that you can do anything you want with enough hard work. After all, once you put your mind on something, you keep on rolling.

Kanzaki

I hope you’ve been enjoying this course study for the year. Letting loose and having fun is really something people should do more, especially with a teacher as great as me! Thankfully you’ve been nothing but fun times these two semesters. So fun in fact, it ended you up with me!

Takebayashi

Even with the pressure of your family dragging you down, you still chose to stay alongside Class E until the very end! I couldn’t be more proud! After this is over, let’s go to a Maid Café. I found a great one a few days ago!

Sugino

Your baseball skills have greatly improved since we first met, Sugino! You and the boys even managed to beat the main building’s Baseball Club! With those new pitches I helped you develop, I’m sure that a great career awaits you in your future. 

Chiba & Rinka

The best marksmen of Class 3-E, you two have gotten way too close at killing me! You’ve both been through a lot, but never forget that you’ll always have your friends backing you up! 


Also I would appreciate it if you stopped using my tentacles as Target Practice!

Terasaka

It’s like poetry almost, the brawns of the operation standing up for himself against TWO evil masterminds. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.. I’d help you out of the water right now, but I’m feeling a bit bloated...

Ritsu

Even though you’re an AI, you managed to fit in quite well with the rest of the class and grow like a person! Your assassination skills are also top notch, all thanks to those great upgrades I installed, of course! 


Although they did cost me most of my money…

Itona

Growing up on the streets abandoned and alone, thrown not even a bone to feed on, I know the feeling.. But no worries, we at Class 3E have just the fun times you need to grow out your shell and enjoyyyyyy the sun. 


(Also, I might need your help installing upgrades to Ritsu. Meet me after class.)

Monokuma

Executions

Rocket

This 2-in-1 iron maiden rocketship Blasts Off towards its sole passenger’s (Very) Final Frontier – reaching for the stars, truly reaching so hard… but coming up short all the same, stalling, falling and crashing back down to Earth with nothing to show for it but an extra-crispy skeleton. 


And just like that, the souls of all animals sacrificed for space travel can rest! What? They want more? They want a Second Ignition? They want the rocket to drill through the entire planet this time for extra momentum or whatever? Fine, but if the onboard Kamina cosplayer’s terminal illness kills him before the execution does, heads are gonna roll!

Spears of Gungnir 

Nobody respects the Irish anymore. Used to be that Gae Bolg was THE legendary insta-kill spear. But thanks to Marvel, it’s all about Norse Mythology these days. Case in point(s): the mighty Spears of Gungnir, which can be called upon by a righteous heart in utmost need of seeing someone turned into a pincushion from every angle! 

Pitching Machine

They call baseball “the American Pastime.” What’s with that? How can that be, if you’re American and you’re spending your pastime reading this instead of playing down at the sandlot? With this pitching machine, capable of delivering 1,000 Blows in little over a minute, you could be reinventing the sport itself! Go, go, go! After you finish with this blog, of course.

The Cage of Death

“Stop shining, you Crazy Diamond!” Sorry, I was yelling at someone else. Anyways, check out this sweet ride! She sports twin [THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN REMOVED TO COVER UP THE AUTHOR’S UTTER LACK OF AUTOMOTIVE KNOWLEDGE] and just enough mileage to drag someone into the spherical Cage of Death– where the combination of g-forces and literal greased lightning will turn any murderous scumbag into delicious, non-nutritious butter!


“I can’t Believe It’s Not Justice!”

Fire Truck 

Fire safety is very, beary important, kids. So important, in fact, that it trumps traffic safety entirely! It’s true! When it’s gotta extinguish, say, the Burning of the Versailles Witch, a fire truck can run over whoever it wants– no matter how chique their gothic lolita fashion– with zero consequences. So remember: stop, drop and die!

Excavator 

Artificial intelligence was getting too big for its britches. It was so unnerving, people couldn’t even eat their chipotle. Thankfully, this video game called “BCV: Battle Construction Vehicles” released at the dawn of a new millennium, and with it came a worldwide epiphany: 


A mere laptop is no match for an Excavator Destroyer!

Hydraulic Press

You! Yeah, you! Sleeping! In Class! Without even getting any beauty out of it! Clearly, an After School Lesson is in order. You don’t want to leave your seat? Fine! Here’s an overly-detailed seminar on how babies are made - forbidden knowledge a slacker like you would never benefit from even if you weren’t heading straight for that giant hydraulic press!


Only the teacher gets to sleep through their class.

<<LAUNCHING NEO WORLD PROGRAM>>

Attack Helicopter

Drop whatever you’re cooking, because we’ve got an order for Deep-Fried Teruteru! That’s right, it’s time to break out every five-star kitchen’s secret weapon, the Ultimate Utensil… the American Boeing AH-64 Apache twin-turboshaft attack helicopter, featuring a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisitions / night vision, and capable of delivering a bunker-busting blast of flavor with state-of-the-art, food-fueled ordinance.


Because you’re not hungry when you’re dead. 

Robo-Samurai

If I can be honest, I’m not entirely sure who invited these guys. Yes, they were facing a One-Woman Army. But should that totally excuse their poor, poor performance? If I were a shogun, I think I’d want my samurai to be in better shape!


Of course, I’d also like for them to be bears.

Syringe

Boy, I sure wish I could tell you what this massive syringe contains and what the hell it’s supposed to do! It sure would be nice if I could say “Bye-Bye, Ouchies!” and have whatever follows feel satisfying from an outside perspective! I’m sure our feeble minds simply cannot comprehend the masterful writing of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair’s third chapter! 

Animal Herd

I’ll let you in on a secret. Promise not to tell, okay? If this gets out, zoology and the natural order of things will never be the same again! You got that? Okay, here it is: lions, buffalos and rhinos carry an instinctive hatred of fruits being held just beyond their reach! If it’s proof you need, look no further than the infamous Gundham Tanaka Stampede of 2012!


Now you know! This cannot be undone! 

Tank

Please Insert Coin to operate Tank. Pretty self-explanatory. Blow the Ultimate Gamer Girl away to win! 

Pac-Man

Please Insert Coin to operate Pac-Man. Or, to be more specific, the giant Pac-Man-shaped steamroller. Say, did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You'd think it was because he looks like a hockey puck, but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase–

Tetris

Please Insert Coin to operate Tetris. [...] You can’t seriously need me to explain Tetris to you. Nope. No way. I refuse to believe that.  

<<SHUTTING DOWN NEO WORLD PROGRAM>>

Piano

Der Flohwalzer– the Flea Waltz, the pianist’s first and sometimes final performance– playfully, pleasantly, perpetually presented as Danganronpa V3’s first execution for all your ears. The piano– unique in more than sheer size– revolutionizing classical music through ingenious use of a hanging body. The giant spikes– the giant, crushing spikes, ending our morbid melody by closing the lid on Kaede Akamatsu’s time as the protagonist.

Thorny Vine

We often face choices which can change our lives forever. Many times, we won’t know them when we see them, only realizing what could’ve been after the fact. This isn’t one of those times. Right here, right now, you can either choose to climb the Strand of Agony– a long, thorny vine leading up a pit filled with razor-sharp saw blades– a path that may not even lead to salvation… 


Or you can be a party pooper and your friends will never let you live it down. Your choice!

Salt

Are you being pestered by the pesky spirit of a serial killer with way too much love for his sister and seesaws? Fret not, for the gods haven’t abandoned you (yet)! This purifying salt - the final ingredient to Korekiyo Shinguji’s Cultural Melting Pot - is guaranteed to exorcise any and all ghosts n’ ghouls, ensuring that only the afterlife has to put up with their nonsense! Your parents could use the company!


Brings a new meaning to “pouring salt on the wound,” am I right?

Big Iron Wasps

Howdy, folks! It’s time to saddle on up for some Wild West Insecticide with Sheriff Monokuma! That there Big Iron on his hip don’t fire no ordinary bullets, no siree! Mechanical wasps are the only way to get things done around these here parts! Just steer clear of the stingers, or you’re in for some painful swelling!

Flamethrower

Wasps are nice, but they don’t kill folks quite like flamethrowers do! Hoo-WEE! That no-good outlaw, Gonta Gokuhara, deserved nothin’ less than the worst! That’s what Sheriff Monokuma says, anyways, and I think y’all know better than to argue with the Big Iron on his hip.

Feats

Korosensei

Overall

  • As The Reaper, managed to breach the security of the leader of a superpower and make it appear like a natural death and ended a ten-year civil war by killing two dozen military officers in a week

  • Easily bested almost all of the assassins that attempted to take his life

  • Successfully greatly improved the grades of the entirety of Class 3-E

  • Installed over nine hundred upgrades on Ritsu on his own

  • Bested Itona in their first battle through experience and wit alone

  • Saved both Itona and Kayano from the tentacles

  • Managed to remove a tumor from a woman’s brain, healing her blindness in the process

  • Caught almost every single cell from Kayano’s fatal injury while fighting Reaper 2.0, later using them to perform a full surgery

  • Memorized every problem set that has ever existed in Japan in order to teach his students

Power

Speed

Durability

Monokuma

Overall

  • Was the mascot for Junko Enoshima’s world-ending plan of despair

  • Hosted the Hope’s Peak and Jabberwock Island Killing Games

  • Sort of hosted the Final Killing Game between the members of the Future Foundation

  • Hosted Danganronpa for 53 seasons, including the Ultimate Academy Killing Game

  • Executed at least 17 people over the course of the series

  • Took near-total control over the Neo World Program

  • Aided Monaca Towa & the Warriors of Hope in their reign of terror throughout Towa City

  • Defeated Monomi, Akane Owari, Nekomaru Nidai

  • Fought against Sakura Ogami, Mukuro Ikusaba, K1-B0

  • Created his own archive displaying all his proud contributions and achievements 

Power

Speed

Durability

Weaknesses

Korosensei

Korosensei is quick to panic, is petty, has soft punches, gets motion sickness, likes to gossip, can’t swim, is tone deaf, can’t handle spicy food, sucks at reporting, can’t draw anything other than simple cartoons, sucks at hiding, can’t sleep with pillows outside of his own, is a pervert… 


The list goes on, but the only really important weaknesses he has are his lack of brute strength, which makes him heavily rely on his speed in order to escape assassination attempts. His regenerative abilities take a considerable amount of stamina to use, which can slow him down considerably, and if his heart is completely destroyed, he will most certainly die. His reliance on speed has other drawbacks, especially when it drops to human level if he’s surprised. Anti-Sensei Weapons like the ones typically used by Class 3-E can easily destroy his unique body if they make contact with it. But most of all, he will always put the lives of Class 3-E over his own, being willing to go through any risk in order to save them if they ever find themselves in any sort of danger.

Monokuma

While still able to threaten heavy hitters, the automaton Monokuma bots are considerably weaker than the Monokuma bots controlled by Junko Enoshima during the events of the first game. Automaton Monokuma units are also vulnerable to damage targeted to their red eye. Monokuma himself is sadistic and playful, having a tendency to play with his food before he eats it, an offshoot of Junko’s obsession with Despair. Speaking of which, since Monokuma’s mind is based off of Junko’s, he shares many of her… less than sane tendencies, such as her complete dedication to spreading Despair even at the expense of herself, and the fact that she ultimately wanted to lose because… well, she gets off on that shit.


And as powerful and menacing as Monokuma is, his plans are constantly being foiled by someone with an ahoge.


He also really hates Sonic the Hedgehog.

Summary

Korosensei

"So long as I have time... I will use this as a teacher. The students you watch over, I will watch them myself. No matter what, these tentacles will not let them go."


Advantages:

  • More combat experience and skill

  • Sixth sense grants superior field awareness

  • Ability to shed his skin could allow him to escape dangerous situations

  • Near-immunity to traditional weaponry would help him against parts of Monokuma’s arsenal

  • Regeneration allows him to heal damage to his body, whereas Monokuma units (while numerous) cannot self-repair if they are destroyed

  • Antimatter Self-Destruct could force a tie, in the extremely unlikely event that it occurs

  • A better person


Disadvantages:

  • Weaker and less durable

  • Even at top speed, still considerably slower

  • Less versatile arsenal

  • At a disadvantage in sheer numbers

  • Intellect, while high, is inferior to Monokuma’s A.I. mind and Junko’s Ultimate Analysis

  • Lacks resistance against memory hax, soul exorcism, and being transmuted into butter

  • Defense form explicitly could be overcome by launching him into space, something that Monokuma is capable of doing

  • Antimatter Self-Destruct is not a viable win-condition

  • Would have difficulty fully eliminating Monokuma’s A.I. and back-up bodies

  • Is not a robot, and thus has to worry about pesky things like stamina

  • Did NOT blow up the Moon, smfh

Monokuma

"Kehehe... Interesting... Things are getting veeery interesting indeed. Puhuhu... Puuhuhuhuhuhuhu! Like I said at the beginning...I'm not a teddy bear. I am Monokuma... And I am your—I am this school's...headmaster!"


Advantages:

  • Stronger and more durable

  • Significantly faster than Korosensei’s top speed

  • More versatile arsenal

  • Flashback and Blackout Lights could be used to erase or rewrite Korosensei’s memories, while soul exorcism and transmuting people into butter are options that Korosensei has no defenses against

  • A.I. mind and Junko’s Ultimate Analysis ability make him more intelligent overall

  • Capable of contending with expert trained fighters like Sakura and Mukuro, who are likely at least somewhat comparable to Korosensei’s skill and experience

  • Could overcome Korosensei’s Ultimate Defense Form by launching him into space

  • Army of robots would provide a numbers advantage

  • A.I. and back-up bodies make him difficult to put down for good

  • Superior stamina via being a robot, and thus having indefinite stamina

  • Danganronpa music


Disadvantages:

  • Less actual combat experience

  • Incapable of repairing destroyed Monokuma units, and would have to switch bodies if his is destroyed, while Korosensei has actual regeneration

  • Korosensei’s sixth sense could allow him to predict Monokuma’s attacks and movements

  • Antimatter Self-Destruct would kill him and force a tie if activated, unlikely as that may be

  • Danganronpa 3

  • UDG

Before We Get to Verdicts

Didn’t Korosensei blow up the moon?

…Ok fine, we’ll elaborate.


Korosensei does claim at the very beginning of the series that he vaporized 70% of the Moon, and that he would do the same thing to Earth within a year. This has created an (understandable, but slightly frustrating) misconception from people who haven’t watched/read the entire series that he’s a casual moon/planet buster, which is incorrect because of one simple fact: he was lying.


As was revealed much later on, the Moon was actually destroyed due to a rat that was undergoing anti-matter experiments on its surface. The anti-matter which the rat was transplanted with became unstable and caused the rat to self-destruct, setting off a chain reaction which is what actually annihilated most of the Moon. Korosensei is transplanted with similar anti-matter, and his threat to destroy the planet was actually because he believed that he would become unstable within a year’s time and destroy the planet via self-destruction if nobody killed him before that. He lied about destroying the Moon in order to incentivize the class to kill him.


Of note, the self-destruct in question is something that Korosensei has no control over, and could only ever be activated through random chance, the odds of which are actually extremely low for a creature of Korosensei’s size. To be specific, as a result of a chemical formula that Korosensei has ingested, it has a less than 1% likelihood of occurring at all. It does not scale to his physical or combat abilities in any way, and even in the incredibly unlikely event that it did activate, the planet would be destroyed and Korosensei himself would die from the explosion as well. He is not a moon or planet buster in any manner that affects this fight at all. Stahp.

Is Korosensei really “only” Mach 20?

By far one of the most important parts of Assassination Classroom is Korosensei’s monstrous speed, as it is one of the greatest assets that make him the unkillable teacher we know him to be. And with that in mind, the series itself is extremely consistent with how fast Korosensei can move and what his limits are. And yes, that limit is Mach 20. 


The feats presented in the series are very much in line with this. There are almost no feats above Mach 20, and Korosensei was blatantly outsped by a Mach 23 rocket and the Mach 40 tentacle form of the Reaper 2.0. At one point, Nagisa believed that Korosensei was getting faster, since his afterimages were increasing in number, but as the manga explains, Korosensei usually only moves at Mach 3 speeds outside of greatly open areas, having little ability to take turns at max speed and his perception being incapable of keeping up with his movements. The increase of the amount of clones is likely due to an improvement in this regard, allowing him to move faster in short bursts, without his top speed increasing beyond Mach 20.


As far as higher feats are concerned, in a major moment of the manga, the governments of the world use the Spear of Heaven, a light-speed satellite laser, in an attempt to kill Korosensei. He managed to avoid it, however it’s established that he required his Sixth Sense to know the attack was coming, and that the satellite fired from 400 kilometers away from his location. Even though he managed to get out of the attack’s radius without dying, he was still caught by the attack, losing a few tentacles. With that in mind, and calculating how fast he would have had to go to escape the Spear of Heaven, the results… actually get pretty close to Mach 20. Huh. Can’t make this up.


Moreover, while Koro leaving contrails in the shape of his face across the planet could potentially be calculated into reaching far greater numbers, it is very likely that the scene in question was sped up, showing his travel over the course of a long period of time rather than in real time. Similar contrails from rockets can last several hours before dissipating depending on the height and atmospheric conditions, so the fact that he finishes his journey before they do so doesn’t mean the time-frame shown needs to be literal. At Mach 20, it would take him around 1.6 hours to travel twice across half of the planet’s circumference, which is within reason for the time-frame it would take for the contrails to disappear. And even taking the feat 100% at face value and assuming the video is depicting things in real time… it would be a singular, gag feat against the entirety of the series repeatedly showcasing his speed limit to be far lower.


As such, given the multitude of statements and feats supporting it, Korosensei’s top speed is Mach 20 and no higher.

Big Bang Monokuma Scaling (+ Is it consistent?)

The most impressive feat showcased in Danganronpa comes from the end of Ultra Despair Girls, in which the final boss, Big Bang Monokuma, jettisons its head and splits a large cloud formation over the top of a tower. Comparing the split’s size to the head, and calculating the kinetic energy needed to displace so much water vapor in a split second, the energy exerted here equals around 2.3 megatons of TNT, comparable to the yield of a hydrogen bomb. But does Monokuma scale to this? Does anyone scale to it? Does it even apply to Big Bang Monokuma in the first place? Wouldn’t it be an outlier anyway?


Let’s tackle the third question first and go from there. Yes, it is a feat of strength which would apply to Big Bang Monokuma. The head is blasted skyward by an explosion that the mech itself produces upon its defeat, and we can see the head to be undamaged by this blast. This means that Big Bang Monokuma can both produce and withstand the momentum needed to cause the split. To argue that Big Bang Monokuma doesn’t scale would involve arguing that it doesn’t scale to… its own feat. Which would obviously be silly.


In terms of scaling the feat to Monokuma and other characters, that’s fairly simple. Big Bang Monokuma fought against the game’s protagonists, Komaru Naegi and Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack, who were able to match it physically. Jack is able to damage the mech’s head with her Genoscissors, and parry its attacks physically, proving that she is comparable to it in physical strength as well. Even though it’s a giant mech and she’s a person. Fiction is weird sometimes. Komaru is also able to take hits from Big Bang Monokuma without dying, so her durability would scale as well.


As for Monokuma, we know for a fact that the Monokuma from Hope’s Peak was able to hold his own evenly with Sakura Ogami, to the point where Sakura mentions a couple days later that she’s still feeling aches and pains from the fight. This is important because we also know for a fact that Sakura is stronger than Genocide Jack, and as the strongest person in the world (aside from specific exceptions who aren’t relevant), she should be stronger than Komaru as well, as Komaru is established to be entirely average in-universe. Being able to match Sakura and withstand her attacks, DR1 Monokuma should easily scale to Jack and Komaru’s showings against Big Bang Monokuma, both in strength and in durability.


“But that doesn’t make sense! Big Bang Monokuma is Monokuma but bigger, and they were both manufactured by Monaca! It should be way stronger!”


Maybe it should be, but it clearly isn’t. Big Bang Monokuma lost to Genocide Jack, and DR1 Monokuma stalemated someone stronger than Jack. That’s about as clear-cut as it could possibly get. It’s also supported by the narrative; Jack states outright that the Monokuma units in UDG were weaker than the one from DR1. While she isn’t referring specifically to Big Bang Monokuma in this instance, as she didn’t know that it existed yet, it does prove that the DR1 version was produced at a higher level of quality than what Monaca was creating in UDG, which could explain why Big Bang Monokuma seems to ultimately be weaker as well, despite being larger.


“Fine, outlier then. Nothing else in the verse even comes close!”


No, that’s wrong. It’s pretty consistent. Humans in the verse very regularly do things putting them farrrrrrrr above any real person, and Monokuma is stronger than almost all of them. He should scale above the Ultimate Team Manager, Nekomaru Nidai, who was able to - get ready for this - take a titanic shit with enough force to blast through the walls of Hope’s Peak and crater 1.5 million cubic meters of forest. The energy needed to pulverize that much material is nearly 80 kilotons of TNT.


With an army of himself, DR1 Monokuma was also able to hold his own against the Ultimate Soldier, Mukuro Ikusaba, whom we know to be only slightly weaker than Sakura. This is important because in that fight, Mukuro moved so quickly that bullets appeared frozen in comparison to her, and she was able to ram Monokuma while moving at this speed. The kinetic energy of her doing so would exceed 170 kilotons of TNT. That’s two feats now that are within a similar range as the Big Bang Monokuma feat (albeit not quite as impressive).


In summary, it is consistent and Monokuma does scale.

Danganronpa Speed

Just like with its strength, Danganronpa’s best showings of speed occur in UDG. Namely, numerous characters are able to dodge shots from Komaru’s hacking gun, which is stated to shoot out program codes with electromagnetic waves (which travel at the speed of light) to hack the Monokuma units and force them to self-destruct.


A somewhat common counter-argument to these feats is that there are a few examples of said electromagnetic waves not behaving in their usual manner. Notably, they are shown applying force during gameplay and take the form of an “energy” ball with kanji on it. That being said, most of these contradictions are not present in cutscenes, and none of them are present when the weapon is shown in the DR3 anime. In the anime, the EM waves move in straight lines that exhibit no force, much more in line with how EM waves would “actually” work. In the specific cutscene where Komaru dodges a shot from the gun, it hits multiple Monokumas and doesn’t apply force (they do explode, but this is due to the hacking).


So what gives? Why are there so many different interpretations of its effects across the games and anime? It’s much more likely that the contradictions shown in the games are a game design/style choice rather than an accurate depiction of what the EM waves actually do. The gun firing EM waves is a major plot point, since that is necessary for it to hack the Monokuma units, so it would be unreasonable to assume that they do not do so because of gameplay limitations that are never reflected in any animated depiction.


Additionally, even within the game itself, there is no solid depiction of it that’s consistent throughout. Only in the anime does a consistent image of the EM waves occur, and in those depictions none of the relevant issues brought up are present. While one may argue that the game has more precedence over the anime, that would just be wrong. The anime is unfortunately canon. It is the finale to the Hope’s Peak arc. There is no reason to say the game should hold more weight than the anime.


“Okay, but is THIS an outlier? Komaru only dodges it like, once, right?”


Nope. Multiple characters in the game have or can dodge these shots. In addition to Komaru herself, Nagisa Shingetsu’s mech is capable of outspeeding the waves several times over, and even the most basic UDG Monokuma units are able to bob and weave them. There are also other unrelated feats that Monokuma scales to, which are within a similar ballpark. Mukuro was able to move so much faster than a barrage of bullets that they appeared frozen in mid-air. Comparing a human’s sprinting speed to the speed of a snail (an estimate for an object that is nearly frozen) in order to get a ratio for her speed VS the bullets, and considering the fact that the bullets came from miniguns, Mukuro would have needed to be moving at over 1% the speed of light to do so. 


In V3, K1-B0 moves in tandem with the Blast Off rocket to shield his fellow classmates, moving a considerable distance before the rocket finishes moving. This would require him to match speeds over 7000 times faster than sound, given that the rocket in question was able to travel across the planet’s diameter in moments. While these feats aren’t AS impressive as the EM wave feat, they do set a considerable precedent for what Danganronpa characters are capable of, and aren’t so far off that the EM feats are unreasonable. 


Now, this isn’t to say that every impressive DR feat is legitimate. In the (questionably-canon) Togami novels, Sakura performs a feat in which she travels from Japan to Prague in an instant, which would be a fraction of the speed of light considering the time-frame and the distance between the two locations. However, for context, she used a technique called Shukuchi (“shortened earth”) to somehow warp space and shorten the distance between the two places, ignoring space and crossing the distance instantly, rather than simply traveling that distance through pure speed. As such this is one feat that just isn’t applicable. That said, the other feats we discussed get similar or even better results, and the strongest Monokuma units should scale to all of them.

Verdict

Stats

Let's get into the stats for these two quirky teachers. As established earlier, Korosensei’s antimatter explosion isn’t viable in a fight and doesn’t scale to his regular AP. So his next best feat that is usable is when he lifted and dropped those massive iron beans across the planet. Comparing the beans’ size off of Korosensei’s height, and measuring the height at which he lifted them based on one particular shot of a real location in Japan, the potential energy needed to lift them comes out to around 117.874 kilotons of TNT, which is large town level. Pretty solid stuff, but let's get into his main attribute in combat, his speed. Korosensei is best known in combat for his super speed as he heavily relies on it to survive his many assassination attempts practically all the time. As we covered exhaustively above, it’s well-established that his top speed is Mach 20, pretty straightforward.


Now onto Monokuma. For his AP we have the Big Bang Monokuma feat as we also discussed above, which comes out to about 2.3 megatons of TNT, which is small city level. That already places Monokuma at about 20 times stronger than Korosensei. This is a large enough gap that Korosensei likely won’t be able to physically damage him, and that strikes from Monokuma will tear through his own body easily. While Koro’s skill and stronger abilities such as his laser attack have allowed him to overcome enemies stronger than him such as Reaper 2.0, we know that the Reaper is only several times stronger than him, not 20. So he has never needed to compensate for a strength gap quite this big.


But Korosensei is well-known for his speed in combat, can Monokuma stack up in that department? Well, if you read the above sections, you should know our answer. More standard Monokuma bots and even weak humans like Komaru are able to react to the EM waves from her hacking gun, which do indeed move at light-speed, as previously established. Those instances would place their reactions at roughly the speed of light, or perhaps a fraction of it, if we were to lowball it. Additionally, during Komaru’s battle with Nagisa’s mech, he was able to move much faster than the EM waves by utilizing one of the mech’s abilities to move at high speed. To be precise, it moved 4.4 times faster than the waves, which Monokuma’s reaction speed would likely scale to. This would not only make Monokuma faster than Korosensei, but allow him to blitz by a sizable margin, as he’d be 193,818 times faster than him.


Now, that might seem ridiculous. Korosensei is commonly going around creating afterimages through sheer speed and dodging bullets, right? Isn’t it kind of silly to say that Monokuma is faster than him just because some random kids dodged some random projectiles that were described in some random way? Well, that would be an argument from incredulity… but let’s talk about it anyway. Korosensei might seem faster visually, but all of his common speed feats are things that other Danganronpa characters - Monokuma included - can and have replicated before. Creating afterimages? Monokuma can do that too. Dodging bullets? Monokuma can keep up with Mukuro, who can move so quickly that bullets appear frozen in comparison to her. Catching missiles? Genocide Jack can slice multiple missiles out of the air at once. Traveling across the country at high speed? K1-B0 was able to react to a rocket which was able to travel across the entire planet at high speed. Putting the feats from both series side-by-side, Korosensei may be more visually impressive, but Monokuma’s feats match and surpass him every step of the way. Even ignoring the EM feats entirely for no good reason, Mukuro and K1-B0’s feats would still make Monokuma hundreds of times faster, so there’s not really a question at all about who will be blitzing who here.

Abilities & Equipment

So Koro’s going into the fight with a physical disadvantage, but can he turn it around with his abilities? The antimatter experiments have granted him a wide variety of powers that would likely at least surprise Monokuma for a bit. His physiology, liquid form, and regeneration would negate many conventional methods of killing, rendering many of Monokuma’s executions and conventional weaponry ultimately meaningless.


However, this isn’t as game-breaking as one might think. Korosensei is highly resistant to physical damage, but he isn’t immune, as the Reaper 2.0 was able to beat him down and leave him injured with physical attacks, proving that a sufficiently strong enemy can very much overcome Koro’s physiological advantages. Since Monokuma is stronger and faster than the Reaper, he should be able to do the same. Additionally, while many of Koro’s physiological abilities are strange enough to trip Monokuma up, and useful enough for making him hard to kill, such as shedding his skin, they largely aren’t anything that would help him end the fight nor compensate for the stat gap. Koro also frankly has a lot of weaknesses, many of which involve his abilities slowing him down or impeding him in some way. Given that Nagisa was able to pick up on these weaknesses through observation and note them down, an Ultimate level Analyst like Monokuma could likely do the same - assuming the fight lasts long enough for any of it to come into play.


On top of that, Monokuma has Korosensei beat in sheer numbers. While there isn’t an exact number of Monokumas out there, we know that there were at least over 50 in Hope’s Peak Academy (stated in DR IF), and a city-wide army’s worth of Monokuma units in Towa City. Even with Korosensei’s regeneration, it wouldn’t take long for a group of Monokumas to wear down his stamina (and by extension his healing factor), especially considering the fact that Monokuma’s own robot body doesn’t get tired. Moreover, the large number of units and replacements at his beck and call through his army will make putting Monokuma down for good significantly difficult. Koro would have his hands full taking down a single peak Monokuma unit, it would be downright impossible for him to do so over 50 times.


Monokuma also has various abilities and equipment that could end the fight immediately, which Koro has no defenses against. For starters, his Flashback/Blackout Lights and the brainwashing video could easily rewrite his memories, erase them entirely, or turn him to his side. Korosensei has never shown any resistance to mind control or memory manipulation, and Monokuma would only need to expose him to these things a single time for him to be affected. In the executions, Monokuma has also demonstrated the ability to melt souls (granted, it was a soul that was already separated from its body) and transmute people into butter, neither of which Korosensei has any resistance against either. Since Monokuma is reliably faster, he would have no problem tagging Korosensei with any of these things, and would have free reign to do whatever he pleased.


Korosensei’s Ultimate Defense Form also would not win him the fight; in fact, it would essentially be an instant loss if he were to resort to it. Make no mistake, the high-end estimate for modern nuclear bombs (which the form can withstand) is pretty much equal to Monokuma’s top strength, so it’s unlikely that Monokuma could break it. However, Koro can’t attack in this state, and would be left defenseless for 24 hours. As stated by Korosensei himself, he could be defeated by being launched into space while he’s immobile, and Monokuma’s Blast Off execution would be the perfect tool necessary to do so. The form is also not any more resistant to mind/soul/transmutation hax than Koro’s normal form, so it could likely still be defeated via being turned into the next edition of “I can’t believe it’s not Mondo butter”, or having his soul exorcized from the purified salt.


Lastly, let’s talk one last time about the antimatter self-destruct. It could destroy the planet and (obviously) kill Monokuma, but there are a lot of obvious reasons why that wouldn’t be a viable win-condition. It only activates through random chance, and Koro cannot (and would not) self-destruct at will. Thanks to his size and the chemical concoction that he drank, the chances of Koro exploding randomly are less than 1%, which as the series points out is basically zero. In a DB scenario, this means that the fight would not end this way the vast majority of the time. Additionally, even in the extremely unlikely scenario where Koro did explode and take Monokuma and the Earth with him… he would also be dead and the fight would be a tie. It isn’t like other suicide moves, where the character is choosing to activate the ability, ending the fight on their terms. It would be a random occurrence that would kill both characters equally against their will.


In the end, Korosensei’s abilities don’t really turn the fight around at all; Monokuma wins out in this regard as well. Koro’s physiology is interesting and affords him several advantages, but nothing to counter the stat gap or end the fight. Monokuma’s numbers advantage and robot body comparatively afford him much more useful advantages, his Ultimate Analysis will allow him to understand Koro’s abilities much more easily than vice-versa, and he has access to a much wider variety of equipment, including several more unusual abilities that could end the fight instantly if implemented. The Ultimate Defense Form is essentially useless, and the antimatter self-destruct is a non-factor that wouldn’t outright win the fight anyway.

Tertiary Factors

When it comes to experience and skill, Korosensei has quite the resume. Being formerly known as the Reaper back in his human days, he was considered to be the world’s most dangerous assassin after having killed a thousand people. He’s picked up a number of skills and techniques during those days and even taught a disciple of his own to follow his ways as an assassin, which should’ve lasted at around a decade or two given his apprentice’s growth from a child to an adult. These skills made it difficult for anyone to take him down, and his subsequent transformation only made things more troubling, as he gained even more powers that he learned about and improved over the course of the series. He did all this while teaching a class the art of assassination, and they were in good hands given his high intellect. 


In terms of experience, there’s no competition really. Monokuma does possess Junko’s mind, but Junko isn’t exactly a fighter for the most part. Given how the Hope’s Peak Academy students are high schoolers, she should be well below the years of combat training and experience that Koro has under his belt; he’s simply been doing this for far longer than she ever could have. Additionally, Junko aside, Monokuma himself doesn’t fight all that often, preferring to see the students tear each other apart while giving little antagonistic pushes from the side.


In terms of sheer skill, however, it’s a different story. Koro’s assassin training and combat skill make him one of the deadliest fighters in his world, and certainly the greatest assassin. However, several of the Ultimates in Danganronpa are operating on a similar level. Sakura is considered the greatest martial artist in the world, Mukuro is a world-renowned soldier who has never even been injured, Genocide Jack is a serial killer with a body count supposedly in the thousands (comparable to Koro’s body count, and dozens of times higher than the most prolific real-life serial killers), etc. And Monokuma can match all of these people, proving that he can keep up with world-class professionals like Korosensei.


Moreover, while Korosensei may be a genius with a nearly perfect memory, Monokuma’s intellect matches and surpasses that. His brain is quite literally a computer, and recall again that he possesses the same mind as Junko, whose Ultimate Analysis ability can allow her to analyze any given situation and predict thousands of possibilities for how it will play out. A bit beyond what Koro has shown to be capable of.

Conclusion

Alright, let’s do a quick recap class! Despite Korosensei’s remarkable high hypersonic speed, Monokuma ends up being thousands of times faster thanks to the EM waves scaling, coupled with a 20 times strength advantage. This is, of course, not counting the antimatter self-destruct, which isn’t viable and would be a loss for both. Beyond that, the army of Monokumas, executions, and more all counter the majority of Korosensei’s abilities, and afford Monokuma advantages that Koro wouldn’t be able to easily work around. Korosensei may have years more experience, but Monokuma can match his skill, just as he did with other comparably-talented students like Sakura or Mukuro. And finally, in terms of brains, Monokuma’s artificial brain is based around the mind of the Ultimate Analyst, which should be enough to outsmart the Yellow Squid, even if Korosensei is also very intelligent in his own right.


All-in-all, even if Korosensei seems OP in context, this is mostly in comparison to the human characters in Assassination Classroom, who are a lot more grounded and “normal” than the stuff you’ll see in Danganronpa. Comparing them directly, pretty much everything Korosensei can do, Monokuma can counter or do better. 


Let’s give it everything we’ve got! Iiiit’s VERDICT TIME!!!

Final Tally

Korosensei (3) - 『shadow』, Fintan Majora, Yultehdoof

Monokuma (16) - 2ShyShy, Andrex, Clockboxxer, Cyber, Eyebrawlerz, HeavenPiercerChris, Hyperstarman, Js250476, Meddadius, Mozza, Pasbros, Rina Antiqua, Robin, Speedy, T0m, MegaMan.EXE (the 16th voter, hiding somewhere in this blog, watch out for him)



(original art from Rignak)


“It’s always disappointing, isn’t it? Seeing your favorites lose, I mean. After all the time you’ve spent together, you want your support to matter, right? You wanna feel validated, right?? You wanna live through your faves, since life sure as heck ain’t doing YOU any favors, right???


But! What if I told you you’re going at this all wrong? 


Think about it! Take it from me! Life’s got nothing to offer someone who’s always successful besides mind-numbing boredom! No lessons to learn, no room to grow! So really, it IS doing your favorites a favor to kick ‘em to the curb every now and then!


I guess what I’m trying to say is… If you had a Korosensei that could beat me, would you even want him?”

.

.

.

“Yes, I imagine they would.”

Before We Go…

As you might have noticed, this blog came out a week ahead of schedule. This is due to the fact that DEATH BATTLE! will be returning earlier than expected, on September 4th, and as a result we have needed to speed up our time tables. Regretfully, this means that we will not be able to complete all five blogs that were planned in time for the end of the mid-season break. As such, Ash VS Yugi is officially delayed. We are sorry to have to delay it like this, but if we were to attempt to do it now, we would have to complete it and the fifth blog within a week each, which would only result in a lower-quality product than they deserve. Rest assured, Ash VS Yugi will be guaranteed a slot in next summer’s lineup of bonus blogs.


In the meantime, our final mid-season blog before it’s back to business as usual…


GOJO VS MAKIMA
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9 comments:

  1. MalcolmBelmont7 August 2022 at 13:48

    Huge Thanks to everyone for making this one of the best blogs yet

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bloodstalker5008 August 2022 at 11:31

    The only things I take issue with is using V3 as canon for Danganronpa, given that it explicitly takes place in a different universe and that the characters of Danganronpa THH and its timeline are explicitly fictional in V3. Using K1-B0's rocket feat in conjuction with Mukuro and Sakura makes no sense considering that the THH Monokuma explicitly doesn't exist in V3's world, as well as the fact that the events of V3 is literally just a show that is confirmed to use extremely realistic special effects rather than anything real (so V3 Monokuma supposedly messing with a "soul" is just as likely nothing more than a glorified light show or something for dramatic effect, no different than how the V3 students' memories and emotions for each other were technologically manipulated).

    I would also doubt the Hope's Peak students seriously being in the kilotons of power; obviously Big Bang Monokuma scales to its own head rocketing over the clouds. But Genocide Jack and Sakura supposedly being THAT strong contradicts the plot point in THH that the metal walls of the school are strong enough that the students can't physically break out, and given that it's never stated that the walls are made of any special alloy, I seriously doubt that some metal walls can stop a punch from someone able to hit with 80 kilotons of TNT.

    Most everything else is great, though; doesn't seem like the mangaka(s) of Assassination Classroom took into account that Mach 20 is actually INCREDIBLY slow compared to so many other fictional worlds. So while Korosensei is visually fast as hell, it's not actually much when the numbers are compared to a vast number of other verses.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oswald8 August 2022 at 11:44

    Well now I know junko one shots springtrap

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oswald8 August 2022 at 12:08


    "What, you expected Junko to manipulate people the old-fashioned way, by exploiting their flaws and insecurities to corrupt them to her side? Nah, that would be way too interesting. Brainwashing is better. Thanks DR3, very cool".
    You are here to write a blog not make some of the dumbest passive aggressive criticisms I have ever seen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bloodstalker5008 August 2022 at 18:07

      It's not "the dumbest", it's one of "the smartest" passive aggressive criticisms. It is a legitimate problem with the anime that made it worse for the majority of viewers with a brain, myself included, because the games set it up to be so much better.

      Also they did write a blog, so deal with it :) still wrote better than you. Peace out.

      Delete
    2. Oswald10 August 2022 at 05:50

      Found the weirdo who wrote it

      Delete
    3. Oswald22 September 2022 at 20:17

      Yes the game set it up that one person can corrupt a huge population by talking personally that makes so much and is so much more realistic. Great job dumbfuck

      Delete
  5. KoopaQueenBowsette21 December 2022 at 08:36

    Okay Monokuma probably wins regardless, but is there no calc for the afterimages for Koro Sensei? That seems like it could be faster than mach 20 with how many there were by the end

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    Replies
    1. Capejedi2 August 2023 at 00:22

      probably because that's be an outlier, given how he's otherwise consistently peaking at Mach 20

      Delete

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