Monokuma, the bear of despair from Danganronpa.
Korosensei, the unkillable target of Assassination Classroom.
The years of youth spent in school are the most formative years of your life, and none of its contents are as impactful as the teachers with whom you spend that time. We’ve all had educators who we’ve loved, loathed, and everything in between. But I’d wager you’ve never had one quite like these two.
For today’s two scholarly scufflers, forget your common arithmetic. The only thing on the curriculum this semester is the art of the kill. Learn it. Study it. Thrive with it. Only then will you graduate, and only then will you make it out with your head still on your shoulders.
When it comes to these professors of pain, who may pass the class, and who may be given two weeks notice? Only one way to find out.
🚨 Spoiler Warning 🚨
This blog contains massive spoilers for both series (but mainly Danganronpa) even as early as the foreword. If you wish to experience these series for yourself, I suggest closing this tab and doing something else for now. I promise, this blog isn’t going anywhere!
Yes, this means you, Squid. Finish V3 already.
Foreword & Attributions
This one’s been a long time coming.
Of course, if you are even somewhat versed in VS Blog culture, you’d know that G1, the originator of the VS Blog format and generally the most well-respected group when it comes to the craft, covered this matchup some time ago. I mean no disrespect to the team or their efforts, but after having ample time to mull over it I’ve realized that there are several things about this entry that I’ve come to dislike over the years. It represents a lot of sentiments that I’ve grown to disagree with in the small sphere that is the DB community.
This is a matchup I am very fond of, and I wish to express the debate and the discussion surrounding it in as clear of a manner as possible. I believe this is an avenue in which G1 failed to meet my own admittedly lofty expectations, likely due to the situation surrounding the blog’s release window in close proximity to Death Battle’s mid-season return. This is simply my attempt to do it in a way that I personally find satisfying and conclusory.
In terms of content being used, Monokuma will be receiving all relevant information from the Danganronpa franchise, including games, anime, manga, and other avenues of media. The mainline series, which I will consider as Trigger Happy Havoc, Goodbye Despair, Ultra Despair Girls, and Danganronpa 3 will take precedence, and events that contradict them will not be considered.
However, Danganronpa as a series tends to have a rather on-and-off relationship with the concept of canonicity. There are three major examples of mainline material falling much more loosely into canon, which will be properly discerned here. All other primary forms of media, such as Killer Killer, will be assumed canon unless obviously contradictory towards the mainline series.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF is an alternate retelling of the first game in the series. It is explicitly stated as simply a different possibility of what could have happened during the events of the game, had things gone differently. As such, the feats and arsenal present within should still be applicable to the mainline counterparts of the characters.
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair takes place within an artificial simulation called the Neo World Program, which Monokuma had hijacked in order to give himself additional equipment and executions that he has no proof of possessing in real life, such as the Monobeasts and an army of one novemdecillion duplicates. All resources gained from the Neo World Program will not be considered for this assessment, though physical attributes demonstrated within the Neo World Program should still be valid, as there is no discernible difference between the physicality of the digital and real-world students, and assumedly Monokuma as well.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony takes place in a reality in which Danganronpa as a franchise itself is merely a work of fiction; the events of the game are part of a reality TV show in which the contestants willingly signed up for. As such, the Monokuma within this game is objectively an entirely different character than the one within the other mainline games. Therefore, all information that may have been gained from V3 will not be considered, such as the Flashback Lights.
When it comes to using Monokuma in these types of discussions, there’s often debate to be had on what exactly constitutes as Monokuma’s own arsenal, as Monokuma is simply one of many puppets of Junko Enoshima; reasonably speaking, one would not be wrong to say that everything at Junko’s disposal would also be available to Monokuma at any given time, since both are effectively the same entity. However, I believe that this is an inaccurate look at what Monokuma itself is physically capable of doing at a moment’s notice in these types of discussions. This blog will only account for things that Monokuma himself would reasonably have access to independent of Junko and the Remnants of Despair. This is what is colloquially known as “Headmaster Monokuma” or “Monokuma Prime”, and I believe that is what most people imagine when they use Monokuma in matchups of this scale. So, for a truncated blacklist, there will be no mention of the Remnants of Despair, the Warriors of Hope, and the Monokuma variants from Ultra Despair Girls in regards to Monokuma’s direct arsenal, as he is never shown actively wielding or commanding them within his own appearances.
Thankfully, Korosensei’s preface is much more straightforward. I will be using the manga and its anime adaptation, as well as any notable supplementary material, such as Korodan D. Korosensei Quest, while a fun spinoff, explicitly takes place in another world and, as such, will not be considered. However, Korosensei does exist in various forms throughout the narrative of Assassination Classroom; most notably, his pre and post-experiment forms. Although the two differ in many areas, both physically and mentally, post-experiment Korosensei should still be capable of doing everything he was capable of doing pre-experiment, so his time as the Reaper will be considered.
I’d like to give special mention to the following works as a resource for this blog. These preexisting works expedited the making of this blog greatly, and I dearly appreciate their indirect contributions.
And, of course, I’d like to thank EpicMonkey, ElRodz, and my fellow members of Loka’s research team for being supportive and reliable consultants throughout this blog’s tumultuous creative period. It’s been a fun ride, and I know for a fact that I couldn’t have done it without their input and advice.
Well, without further ado… let’s get into it.
Background
Monokuma
“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s PUNISHMENT TIME!”
Junko Enoshima was a curious mind. Born into poverty with her twin sister, she always saw the world for what it was with her uncanny abilities of analysis, and she believed it to be one thing, and one thing only: predictable. This drove her into an overwhelming feeling of despair, a feeling which eventually she came to wholeheartedly relish in. Despair represented a form of ambiguity. It clouded her mind, bringing surprise and intrigue back into the dull world in which she inhabited. She considered it magical. Therapeutic, even.
Thus, she sought to drench the world in it. Using her analytical abilities and powerful connections, she finessed her way into Hope’s Peak Academy under a false talent and began her plans to bring the world into utmost despair. With the help of Monaca Towa, the psychotic young heir to the powerful Towa Group, she sought to create a face to associate with the overpowering despair she would bring forth upon the world.
Thus, Monokuma was born!
Always by Junko’s side as a mascot, Monokuma became the new symbol of despair as Junko ushered in the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, commonly shortened to just “The Tragedy.” Alongside her sister, she hosted the first ever mutual killing game with the student council of Hope’s Peak, filmed the results, and had fellow ultimate Ryota Mitarai, the Ultimate Animator, turn it into a video that would brainwash all the students who watched it into becoming mindless agents of despair. They raided the school, turning the inside to scrap, before being ordered to jump from its roof in a mass suicide.
Junko filmed this event and broadcasted it to the whole world, bringing about The Tragedy and plunging the entire earth into a total apocalypse. All, that is, except for the last remaining class of Hope’s Peak: Class 78, who had sealed themselves inside the school for their own safety. However, Junko had already breached their defenses, masquerading as the Ultimate Fashionista, and began plotting what would later become known as the Killing School Life.
One day, the fifteen students of Class 78 awoke within Hope’s Peak with no memories from the past two years. Confused, they stumbled into the school’s gymnasium… only to be greeted by the Bear of Despair himself, Monokuma! Controlled remotely by Junko, Monokuma proposed a twisted game: kill a classmate to escape the confines of the school. Armed to the teeth with motives, executions, and other devices of despair, Killing School Life began… and Class 78 didn’t walk out fully alive. Including Junko herself! She had been thoroughly bested by one Makoto Naegi and inflicted a despair-inducing death upon herself as one final joyride.
The students who did walk out of Hope’s Peak went on to join an organization known as the Future Foundation, which sought to rid the world of Junko’s post-mortem despair. Monokuma, however, wasn’t done. Built with an AI that replicated Junko’s entire being, it continued to cause despair across the world, including the brainwashing of Class 77-B into the Remnants of Despair (and an attempt to hijack their rehabilitation), the Demon Hunting games of Towa City, and the infiltration of the Future Foundation and brainwashing of Kazuo Tengan to mastermind the Final Killing Game.
However, whenever despair washes over the world, hope will inevitably rise to stop it. Each and every killing game, while they all claimed at least a single life, were put to an abrupt halt before their natural conclusions. A countermeasure to brainwashing-induced despair was created, Hope’s Peak reopened with its alumni as staff, and, eventually, the world moved on from Junko Enoshima.
Perhaps that’s for the best.
Korosensei
"The difference between the novice and the master is that the master has failed more times than the novice has tried."
One day, 70% of the moon suddenly vanished.
The creature responsible for the cataclysmic event presented itself to the government, seemingly willingly. For reasons unexplained, the creature insisted on becoming a teacher for Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. He would teach the students everything they would need to rise above their assigned curriculum and pass their exams with flying colors.
So, what’s the catch? Well, the creature also claimed that it was going to blow up the earth just as easily as it did the moon. Its class would have the year to not only learn everything he taught but also everything in their power to kill him before such a fate could transpire. But, despite their best efforts… it evaded all of their attacks. With blistering Mach 20 speeds, the creature became known as the unkillable teacher: the Korosensei.
So who is this mysterious creature? Where did he come from? And why is he insisting on becoming a teacher, of all occupations? Well, that story goes back a bit further.
Before he became the yellow tentacle monster we know and love, Korosensei was The Reaper, a legendary nameless assassin raised in the slums with thousands of kills under his belt. But, unfortunately, a mission went wrong when the son of the man he was hired to assassinate witnessed the deed. But, instead of running in fear, the boy looked up to the assassin and asked to be taken in as an apprentice. The Reaper agreed, but this decision would eventually end in a betrayal that had him locked up for life and signed up for top-secret government experiments with a substance called antimatter.
During his experimentation, The Reaper eventually came to know Aguri Yukimura, the fiance of the site manager and middle school teacher of Class 3-E. They’d develop a deep bond in custody, with Aguri instilling a will to live into The Reaper, who at that point had nearly given up on life.
The antimatter experiments came to a head when it was discovered that The Reaper’s new body would cause the destruction of the planet in a year’s time, after testing destroyed a large portion of the moon. Yukimura alerted The Reaper of his incoming fate, who took this impending explosion as a sign that he had the potential to escape. The carnage of the ensuing fight left the laboratory in shambles… and Yukimura on death’s door.
Her final words were spent creating a newfound desire for life in The Reaper in the form of a favor: teach Class 3-E in her stead. The Reaper agreed, taking every necessary precaution to cover up what actually happened in that laboratory. He took a form that befitted his goals and departed for his new job, constructing a massive fake story that covered all of his bases.
Throughout the year, Korosensei gave Class 3-E hope, experience, and wonderful memories, all while dodging each and every one of their assassination attempts. Through field trips, transfer students, and hired guns galore, Korosensei proved to be a teacher first and a target second, through and through.
However, the time for Korosensei’s imminent explosion was coming near, and there was one last obstacle put in front of him; his apprentice, now empowered by the exact same experiments that gave Korosensei himself his powers. The battle was fierce, close, and utterly draining, but Korosensei finished off his very first student in one final blast. Collapsing from exhaustion, he decided that now was a better time than any to say goodbye.
With one final roll call and a smile on his face, Korosensei was fatally stabbed through the heart by Nagisa Shiota. While his body may have dissipated, the impact he had on his students never faded, as his teachings propelled them to new heights and allowed them to come out of their shells in ways thought impossible, had he not influenced them in the way he did.
In a cosmic sense, Korosensei truly was unkillable. Just… not in the way he may have imagined.
Intelligence & Experience
Monokuma
For reasons that will be explained later, Monokuma shares Junko’s intelligence. This is absolutely a plus, as Junko is undeniably a genius in several aspects. Due to her talents as Ultimate Analyst, she is incredibly aware of the world’s processes and how things will naturally play out. More on that later in the blog.
However, in terms of fighting skill, Monokuma shows little to no experience in proper martial arts or any other form of combat. While he can mimic famous martial arts moves in the Neo World Program and was able to physically contend with Sakura Ogami for a period of time, neither of these are inherently showings of skill. Rather, I’d say they’re more indicative of his pop culture awareness and physical might respectively. Monokuma fights like you’d expect a bear to fight. And, hey! That’s enough, most of the time!
Korosensei
Korosensei is an extraordinary genius in every sense of the word. Even before he was preparing to be a teacher, he was giving lectures to teachers in the subjects they already teach and was acutely aware of the exact processes of the experiments being carried out on him. Once he became a teacher, he showed far greater intellectual prowess, having his IQ being described as “off the charts, literally.” He memorized the entire Japanese high school curriculum in order to properly teach his students, and he is proficient in nearly all subjects to an inhuman degree.
Most notably, Korosensei is very proficient in the sciences. Even while being experimented on, Korosensei was able to take over his own experiments with only a month of research. He was able to create an entire artificial intelligence system for Ritsu as well as hand-make over 900 different upgrades for her over the course of a single night, developing her to the point of genuinely understanding emotions.
Not only is Korosensei a genius in an intellectual sense, but he is also an extremely skilled and experienced assassin. He was commonly regarded as the best assassin in the world before his capture, often killing the strong with smarts and the smart with strength. He always took missions and never failed a single one, even after killing thousands of targets across his career.
Equipment
Monokuma
Claws
Made from a super-strong alloy that can cut through other metals, all Monokuma units possess a pair of claws. Weaker Monokuma units have used their claws to tear down thick doors in the past, so it’s likely that Headmaster Monokuma can do the same with relative ease.
Gavel
Commonly used within the judicial system to declare order, Monokuma seems to carry his own on hand to administer punishment. I’m sure it would hurt if he smacked you with it.
Extra Bodies
From the very start, it’s made clear that Monokuma is not an individual entity. When the bear self-destructed while threatened by Mondo Owada, a new one simply popped up and took its place, continuing the killing game as if nothing happened.
But that raises the question: just how many spare bodies are there?
Well, the most we see within Trigger Happy Havoc at once is during Celeste’s execution, where a large crowd of them surround her as she begins to burn. By my count, there are about fifty in the audience, all acting independently (though idly). However, IF tells a different story. At one time, Mukuro had been surrounded by one hundred Monokumas at once. Considering there are still plenty more after this event, I think it’s safe to say that Monokuma’s army lies somewhere in the hundreds.
Brainwashing Videos
At some point before the Killing Games, Junko Enoshima blackmailed Ryota Mitarai into letting her exploit a technology he created that could subtly influence the minds of anyone who viewed his animation. She combined this technology with live footage of the prolonged and brutal execution of Chiaki Nanami, using it to brainwash the students of Class 77-B and transform them into obedient servants known as the Remnants of Despair.
She additionally created a different video using this same process, this time aiming it at Hope’s Peak’s Reserve Course. When witnessing Monokuma’s Gloomy Sunday, the student body committed mass suicide, triggering what came to be known as The Tragedy.
While some individuals affected by these videos, such as Aoi Asahina, were able to recover relatively quickly, the Remnants required extreme measures to be freed. Their recovery involved intensive therapy, including memory erasure and placement into a simulated program, in order to completely undo the effects of the brainwashing.
Executions
In the Danganronpa series, those who are found guilty of partaking in the Killing School Life will be declared the Blackened. If they truly are guilty of the crimes committed, they are sentenced to death by Monokuma’s ursine paw. Shackled by the neck and dragged off to who-knows-where, there they undergo an ironic and despair-inducing demise. Monokuma had planned fifteen executions for fifteen students, but only some actually saw any usage.
Execution of Jin Kirigiri: Blast Off!
Jin Kirigiri was found guilty of… existing, I guess? Being a deadbeat? Whatever, Monokuma killed him. He was strapped to the inside of a rocket that was launched into space, then suddenly careened back into earth, obliterating his flesh on impact and leaving nothing behind but charred bones.
Execution of Mukuro Ikusaba: Spears of Gungnir
Mukuro Ikusaba, in the guise of Junko Enoshima, violated the rules of the killing game and was impaled with several spears that ejected from the ground. She slowly bled out and collapsed, wondering why this had to have happened to her.
Execution of Leon Kuwata: The 1,000 Blows
Leon Kuwata was found guilty of murdering Sayako Maizono and was dragged by the neck to a mock batting cage. There, he was pelted mercilessly by baseballs, both shot from the launcher and batted by Monokuma, until he was eventually bludgeoned to death.
Execution of Mondo Owada: The Cage of Death
Mondo Owada was found guilty of murdering Chihiro Fujisaki and was strapped to the seat of a motorcycle. He was thrust into a spherical cage and forced to sit on the back of the motorcycle as it accelerated to ludicrous speeds. After the cage was electrified due to the sheer energy, Mondo was nowhere to be seen; instead, a small carton of butter was produced from the cage, ominously showing Mondo’s face on the lid.
Execution of Taeko Yasuhiro: The Burning of the Versailles Witch
Celestia Ludenburg, real name Taeko Yasuhiro, was found guilty of murdering Hifumi Yamada (as well as conspiring in the murder of Kiyotaka Ishimaru) and was tied to a pole to be burned at the stake. However, her grandiose death was cut short by the roar of a fire engine crashing directly into the execution site, killing her instantly in the most mundane way possible.
Execution of Alter Ego: Excavator Destroyer
Alter Ego violated the rules of the Killing Game and was executed in the place of Sakura Ogami, who died before she could be executed herself. The laptop that it resided on was repeatedly bludgeoned into scrap by a large excavator, piloted by a particularly muscular Monokuma.
Execution of Makoto Naegi: After-School Lesson
Makoto Naegi was found guilty of murdering Mukuro Ikusaba and was strapped to a chair placed on a conveyor belt. He was slowly dragged towards a large metal block that repeatedly slammed against the ground, but the mechanism was deactivated by a rogue Alter Ego before Makoto could meet his demise. Instead, he plummeted into the garbage chute below, much to Monokuma’s chagrin.
Execution of Junko Enoshima: The Ultimate Punishment
Junko Enoshima was found guilty of murdering Mukuro Ikusaba (for real), as well as being the mastermind of the killing game. She, as well as Monokuma, were run through a gauntlet of all previous executions in a row before eventually being crushed by After School Lesson.
Korosensei
Missiles
While Korosensei doesn’t keep missiles on his person, he’s been seen snagging them out of the air relatively frequently, as the airspace around him tends to be highly armed. I wonder why.
Abilities
Monokuma
Robotic Body
Monokuma is a robot. Good. I’m glad we’ve got that established.
As a robot, Monokuma lacks the need to sleep, eat, or breathe in order to function. He effectively never tires, save for an assumed finite battery life. His body possesses no internal organs, nor any sort of soul. Just cold, hard steel, adorned with wires and computer chips.
Seriously, do I need to explain what a robot is?
Alter Ego
After the death of Junko Enoshima at the end of the Killing School Life, Monokuma was revealed to be still fully operational. This is odd, considering that Monokuma was manually piloted by Junko throughout the entire killing game. However, it is possible that this is due to the fact that Monokuma possesses a form of artificial intelligence, likely based off of the mind of Junko Enoshima herself.
This is further elaborated on in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, in which a digital version of Monokuma hacks into the Neo World Program. It was revealed that this Monokuma was, in actuality, a form of Alter Ego, an AI program made by the now late Chihiro Fujisaki. This is corroborated in Danganronpa IF, where Chihiro is able to recognize his own handiwork when analyzing the destroyed Monokuma unit in the infirmary. However, while Chihiro’s Alter Ego was represented by Chihiro himself, Junko’s was… well, of course, Junko!
Alter Ego, at its core, is an advanced artificial intelligence model coined by Chihiro to generally act as human-like as possible. It was originally developed as a means to gather information about Hope’s Peak, though it also contains a world encyclopedia as well as profiles on all of Hope’s Peak’s students, as well as the means to mimic them and test their compatibility with one another. It’s considered so advanced that even NASA-level engineers couldn’t crack the program if they tried.
Due to the Alter Ego piloting Monokuma taking the form of Junko, this would mean that Monokuma would possess all of the mental faculties of Junko, including…
Ultimate Talents
Despite being a sociopathic mass murderer, Junko Enoshima was accepted into Hope’s Peak on her own merits as an Ultimate. Ultimate Talents, or Super High School Level Talents, are abilities possessed by the youth of the world that set them apart from the average person, elevating them towards being the peak of humanity. Through Hope’s Peak’s Ultimate Talent Program, students are scouted out and accepted into the school via exhibiting these talents.
These abilities can range from mere eccentricities to borderline superpowers, depending on the student. Some students are able to predict the future, create incredibly complicated codes, shatter all sorts of physical world records, or simply possess incredible amounts of luck.
Unlike most other students, Junko happens to have multiple talents! Talk about a star pupil.
Ultimate Despair
Junko’s self-proclaimed talent, and the one that likely fits her the most. Junko has an unyielding thirst for despair as a result of her disinterest in existence as a whole. To her, despair is something new, unpredictable, and exciting; it’s the only spice that life has left to give her. Naturally, Junko wishes that everyone could feel this same feeling for the rest of time, and so she’s made it her personal mission to inflict despair on everyone she meets. Including herself!
Ultimate Fashionista/Gyaru
The talent officially recognized by Hope’s Peak, and the talent that ultimately serves as Junko’s front in the common world. Junko’s fashion sense and means of presenting herself landed her countless front page spreads on popular fashion magazines, cementing her as a worldwide icon. However, Junko’s success in the world of fashion particularly spawns from her ability to predict certain fashion trends, which is a result of her true talent…
Ultimate Analytical Prowess
While Junko masqueraded as the Ultimate Fashionista, her true ultimate ability is that of Ultimate Analytical Prowess. An analytical prowess is one “who performs analysis of a topic, or has enhanced awareness of one's surroundings.” Junko Enoshima, without a doubt, represents this to a ludicrous degree.
For seemingly no special reason, Junko possesses a supernatural sense of awareness almost to the extent of blatant precognition. She knows what people are about to do and about to say before they do or say it. Under the guise of Ryoko Otonashi and well into her time as Junko Enoshima, she was capable of discerning future actions to the point of being mistaken for precognition. In one specific scenario, she led on Yasuke Matsada for nearly two decades, planning his descent into despair from the very start and orchestrating their entire journey together from the beginning. And, of course, it went off without a hitch.
She planned the Killing School Life two years in advance. She planned the executions of all of her classmates two years in advance. She planned her own death two years in advance.
Christ.
Of course, some of this is reflected in Monokuma as well through his signature red eye, which can estimate several details about any target through merely a glance. His general ability to discern all details about cases and ability to create the most thematically fitting executions is also likely an extension of this inherited ability.
It’s important to note that this ability of analysis is ultimately predicated on the information Junko readily has available to her. She makes her predictions via observing things that the average person would find impossible to observe and, as such, cannot predict anything that has no observable consequence. She is limited by her own knowledge and, as such, likely would not be able to forecast phenomena that she does not know the existence of.
Self Destruct
As a last-ditch effort, Monokuma can detonate himself in order to create a large explosion, taking out anybody within a close proximity. While this explosion has never been used effectively in canon, it was implied to be capable of killing Mondo Owada instantly, had he not anticipated and thrown the bear before its detonation.
Korosensei
Assassin Techniques
Korosensei is widely regarded as the greatest assassin that ever lived. As the original Reaper, he taught his successor everything he knew and, as such, would be widely versed in several assassination techniques and abilities. It would be quite silly for Korosensei to not be aware of basic principles, considering his expertise in the field.
Bloodlust
Assassins tend to develop a keen sense of awareness of those around them, especially fellow killers. As such, they can literally sense the bloodlust coming off of each other, reading it and using that information to accurately gauge somebody’s strength and abilities as well as compare it to their own. A strong enough bloodlust can become unreadable by other skilled assassins and can even affect the world in various ways. It can break objects in a nearby vicinity, cloak oneself in an obscuring haze that renders them intangible, or project outward to instill fear due to killing intent or create frightening hallucinations.
Pressure Points
Most, if not all, experienced assassins are able to perform strikes at specific pressure points, which can immediately knock out, put to sleep, or paralyze targets.
Stun Clap
The stun clap is a technique that is able to leave targets disoriented. By targeting their focus towards another object or by simply catching them off-guard, assassins can clap their hands incredibly fast, overwhelming the target’s senses and leaving a perfect opportunity to kill them. More advanced versions of this technique can induce full-blown bodily paralysis.
Enhanced Senses
Korosensei’s senses are a massive step above the average person, despite not having any outward appearing sensory organs. His enhanced eyesight lets him watch a different fight from kilometers away, see clearly in the dark, and observe the cellular structure of a person. He can tell when someone is sneaking up on him via their scent and track them down before they even leave the train station as well as hear somebody’s footsteps from kilometers away.
Antimatter Physiology
As a result of his human experimentation, all of Korosensei’s human cells were transformed into antimatter cells, or “sensei-cells” as they came to be known. These provide a plethora of different benefits, such as gaining the ability to stick to walls, eat otherwise inedible objects, and dissolve most things that come into contact with him, including metal bullets. He is also incredibly resilient to poisons, being generally unaffected by toxins that would kill the average person.
This transformation came with a weakness to newly developed “Anti-Sensei” technology, but it’s not likely Monokuma would be packing that anyways.
Antimatter Tentacles
Under Korosensei’s robes are an innumerable amount of tentacles, made from the same material as the rest of his body. Even Korosensei doesn’t know the exact amount of tentacles he has, though they’ve proven quite useful during his tenure as sensei.
For starters, these tentacles are incredibly precise. Korosensei uses them to great effect in his various endeavors, including using them to write, give facial routines and massages, and even perform intensive medical procedures such as harmlessly extracting malignant tumors or putting an injured body back together, cell by cell, down to the micrometer.
Additionally, the actual appearance and properties of these tentacles can change at will, according to Korosensei’s wishes. He’s stretched them across long distances, shapeshifted them into drills, strung them together into a wide sticky net, conducted electricity through them, and even created ultra-fine tentacles that couldn’t be picked up by video camera, much less by the naked eye.
To an average person, possessing these tentacles would begin to corrupt their mind, causing them to quickly slip into a madness that will kill them in mere days. They will begin to fade from their own consciousness and become mentally controlled by the tentacles like slaves. However, Korosensei himself has never shown any symptoms of this madness, likely meaning he is able to resist it or is otherwise unaffected by it.
Shapeshifting
Korosensei’s body is known to change appearance based on his mood, his condition, and other aspects. While this often is for more cosmetic purposes, he’s also used this ability to completely camouflage his body in the past.
Superhuman Speed
Korosensei’s bread and butter, and the reason behind his namesake. Korosensei is remarkably fast, able to move quick enough to the point of appearing nearly indistinguishable from teleportation at times. He’s dodged knife swings, gunfire from all directions, and a plethora of other attacks without even breaking a sweat.
For a more extensive list of his large array of speed displays, please see the Feats section.
Flight
In addition to his superhuman speed on foot, Korosensei also possesses the ability to fly at insane speeds as well. He’s used this to outfly military-grade jets and cross large portions of the globe in a matter of minutes. Thanks to his biological makeup, he doesn’t need to worry about wind resistance, as his body hardens in response to his movement and he secretes a slime that lowers air resistance.
Regeneration
Korosensei’s cells are able to regenerate within a few seconds of being destroyed. While this takes a bit of stamina and makes him slower, the reformed tentacles are as good as new. This isn’t limited to just one tentacle at a time; he’s reformed anywhere from two to seven simultaneously. Additionally, he can reform his head and body, as well as his heart if given enough time. His Absolute Defense Form, which reduces him to just a small head, is also something that he can manually regenerate from..
Skin Shedding
Once a month or so, Korosensei is able to shed a layer of his skin, much like a snake or lizard. The skin is extremely durable, as it was able to take a point-blank grenade explosion while leaving Nagisa unharmed on the inside. He’s also used it to restrain opponents as powerful as him before, as well as cure sunburns!
Liquid Form
After drinking a tonic made by Manami Okuda, Korosensei temporarily transformed into a liquid blob. He retained all of his speed while also gaining incredible malleability, now being able to fit inside very small areas and pass through even the tiniest of gaps. He seemed to retain this transformation well after consuming the tonic, so it is likely he can assume the form at will.
Energy Beams
By compressing a part of his antimatter into his tentacles, Korosensei can convert his body into massive beams of pure energy, creating massive blasts. He can also control the antimatter present in his tentacles and can crystalize it into a hard material, resulting in…
Absolute Defense Form
When backed into an absolute corner, Korosensei can activate his final trump card! With a massive explosion, he converts his body to crystalized and extremely condensed energy. In this form, he claims that not even a nuclear bomb could harm him, though the transformation does render him immobile for roughly 24 hours.
Antimatter Self Destruct
Korosensei lives life on a constant timer due to his antimatter physiology; once all of the cells in his body have finished dividing, the energy required would release in one massive burst, creating an explosion stated to be capable of destroying the planet. And it’s likely that this is an accurate prediction, given that a much smaller source of mass created a massive hole in the moon.
However, due to intensive research from both Korosensei and his students, this self-destruct sequence is unlikely to even happen. After drinking a cure that stabilizes his cells, this impending planetary doom has a less than 1% chance of even happening in the first place.
Feats
Monokuma
Overall
Acted as the symbol of the apocalypse
Caused the fall of Hope’s Peak Academy as an institution, inciting the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History
Orchestrated the Killing School Life for two years in secret
Successfully led multiple killing games to their natural conclusions
Took over the Neo World Program, subjecting its inhabitants into a virtual killing game
Briefly fought Sakura Ogami, the Ultimate Martial Artist
Has, like, a lot of rap battles for some reason
Strength
Speed
Durability
Alongside Junko, survived all of his own executions (0.54 - 2.15 tons)
Weaker Monokuma units have endured Monaca Towa blowing up her base of operations (124 megajoules)
Once again, comparable to his students
Korosensei
Overall
Is a master assassin, picking up over a thousand bodies across his career and being revered as the strongest and most skilled assassin in the world
Evaded every single assassination attempt his class threw at him for a year straight
Memorized every single problem set in the Japanese education system in order to perfectly teach Class 3-E
Only ever operates at full power when consumed by fury, drastically increasing his abilities
Fought with and defeated several other tentacle users, including Itona, Kayano, and the Reaper
Strength
Speed
Repeatedly stated to be capable of going Mach 20
Can snag missiles from midair
Blitzed a “state-of-the-art” fighter jet, which has a top speed of Mach 2.5
Casually dodges his entire class firing on him simultaneously with various weapons, all while taking attendance (Mach 3.73)
Ran a 100K in 21 seconds, for charity! (Mach 13.88)
Can dodge all the raindrops in a rainstorm
Able to fly from Iruma to the Sichuan Province in 10 minutes (Mach 16.62)
Caught up to a rocket going at least Mach 23, though he fell off shortly after due to low atmosphere
Defeated the Reaper 2.0, who had a stated top speed of Mach 40
Grabbed every one of his student’s house plates in a short timeframe (at least Mach 54.63)
Dodged the Spear of Heaven, a light-based laser launched from 400 kilometers, after it was fired and without warning, though he did lose a few tentacles (at least Mach 113.44)
Caught an entire saucepan’s worth of soup in an eyedropper before it hit the ground (Mach 149.95)
Rapidly ascended and descended through the atmosphere to shake a bag of fries (Mach 510 - 1457)
Has displayed several instances of creating independently operating afterimages
Believes himself to be capable of replicating Santa Claus’s yearly trip, as long as he had the budget for the presents (Mach 6641)
In one second, read a year’s worth of Saikyo Jump, then went out and bought a years worth of “Coracora Comic” and read that too (at least 0.02 c)
Moved fast enough to kick up dirt in order to intercept a beam of light (2.94 - 6.21 c)
Caught every individual cell from a large wound, gathered them into a sphere, and surgically reattached every single cell back into place in less than two minutes (337.39 c)
In a collaborative crossover, moved at speeds at which Saiki Kusuo could not react
Did this that one time in J Stars
Durability
Weaknesses
Monokuma
In terms of general aptitude, Monokuma inherited all of Junko’s worst traits when he became fully autonomous. He is sadistic, flippant, eccentric, and much more willing to drag things out in order to feel the tantalizing grip of despair at the back of his neck. Of course, this opens him up to moments of weakness in which he either leaves himself open or provides a clue to lead to his defeat.
Also, all Monokumas naturally share a weak point - their left eye. Targeting it deals substantially more damage, and anybody who may be good at perceiving weak spots may be able to pick that out.
Korosensei
Honestly, where do I even start?
Across the series, Nagisa had been keeping track of several weaknesses that Korosensei showed off during his tenure as sensei. For a brief summary, he’s easily distracted by sex appeal, water slows him down, and he can be fatally wounded in his heart, hidden under his necktie. Additionally, Korosensei has never really been depicted as fighting with brute force; he’s described as having “weak punches”, and speed is by far his specialty.
But, by far, his most dire “weakness” is his attachment to his students. Korosensei will actively throw himself into direct danger if it means ensuring the safety of his students, pushing himself to his natural limits and doing whatever it takes to rescue them.
Consider the Following…
No, I am not going to call this a “Before the Verdicts” section. My blog, my rules.
Is V3 Really Not Canon?
I addressed this a bit in the foreword, but I feel that it’s a topic that warrants a bit more exploration.
I stand by the fact that Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is non-canon to the mainline series of Danganronpa. The game was initially advertised as being independent from the rest of the series, with Monokuma himself being a last-minute addition to the game. Nothing pertaining to the previous entries in the series is even alluded to until Chapter 5, where the characters discover the Remnants of Despair and postulate that Kokichi might be one of them. Every reference to the previous installments were through tongue-in-cheek callbacks rather than the events of the previous games having a genuine impact on what happens now.
However, all of this is turned on its head in the final chapter, where it is revealed that Danganronpa, at least in this game, is a fictional series. The participants of the Killing Game are nothing more than volunteer actors, with their memories wiped and implanted in order to make them perfect for the show. This makes the Monokuma present within this Killing Game an entirely different entity than the one piloted by Junko, thus making any sort of comparison impossible.
Granted, our source of information on this matter is Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer and mastermind of the game. It’s possible that this story is intentionally a lie in order to instill despair into the students, but the ending is left loose-ended on the validity of her statement. We are not given a definitive answer on how much of what she said was true and how much was a lie, likely to the narrative’s deficit.
However, even if we were to assume that Tsumugi was lying out of her ass for the entire climax and the previous games did, in fact, happen, that would also mean that Junko would still be long dead by this point in the series. V3 would have to take place, at the earliest, after the events of Danganronpa 3, when Headmaster Monokuma as we know him had already faded into a distant memory.
At worst, V3 takes place in an entirely different continuity than the main series. At best, it’s so far removed from the original context of the games that Headmaster Monokuma, as it’s been defined, has no real right accessing anything within its narrative. So we’re not using it.
…but what if we did?
A sort of moot point, but, for those of you who are staunch believers in giving Monokuma V3 stuff, I feel it’s important to at least address what that entails if I’m not going to give it a proper section in the main meat of the blog.
For the most part, Monokuma gains no relevant stats from V3. Even if you were to scale him to every single character in the game’s roster, including Post-Upgrade K1-B0, the highest stuff is only around single-digit tons. Compared to the batshit insanity of Ultra Despair Girls, V3 is relatively tame.
Arsenal is what matters the most. Mainly, Monokuma would likely gain access to the Monokubs (Monotaro, Monophanie, Monodam, Monosuke, and Monokid), his five children and supplementary hosts of the killing game. Each one pilots an Exisal, a large mech with enhanced strength and firepower. At best, this is five additional bodies to throw at Korosensei, since weapons of a mundane caliber likely would have little to no effect on him.
The main thing that people think shakes up the debate is the Flashback Lights, as well as their counterpart, the Blackout Lights. These lights were engineered by Team Danganronpa to implant and remove memories respectively from a target.
Since both devices are light-based, Korosensei should have no issues reacting to the flash. Though he has no direct way to resist their effects, he would have to be caught massively off guard in order to even fall victim to such a thing. Given the speed disparity, it’s a hard sell to say that Monokuma would be hitting these consistently.
Oh yeah, and the Blackout Lights probably don’t even exist since they were only seen within a fabricated memory and have no other appearances.
While I stand by V3 not being applicable towards a discussion on what Headmaster Monokuma is capable of doing, including it is ultimately kind of arbitrary in the long run, since the things it adds range from absolutely trivial to reactable with low difficulty.
Monokuma’s Place on the Scaling Chain
Wait, is Monokuma not a top tier? It’s more likely than you’d think. Let’s talk about it.
One consistent claim in Danganronpa scaling is that, due to his match with Sakura Ogami at the end of Chapter 3 in Trigger Happy Havoc, Monokuma should be comparable to the peaks of humanity and, as such, be able to upscale from every notable feat in the series. However, there are a few things that imply that Monokuma is not quite on the caliber of his more athletic students.
Firstly, within Trigger Happy Havoc itself: Monokuma himself says that he “wasn’t able to punish” Sakura for her betrayal, likely meaning that he was unable to meaningfully harm her during their fight. Granted, this could also likely mean that the two were just evenly matched to the point of a standstill, which would also fit this definition. But there are some other things that imply that Monokuma might not believe himself to be capable of combating his more physically apt students without his pre-made executions.
Danganronpa IF has Mukuro one-shot a Monokuma, and kill several more casually throughout the course of the story. Sakura is able to hold the line against a horde of them. Mondo rides in on a motorcycle and immediately Akira slides into thirty of them, destroying them all instantly. Hell, even Leon was able to one-shot a Monokuma by throwing Yasuhiro’s crystal ball at it. And yes, these are the prime Monokumas that Genocider Syo referred to in Ultra Despair Girls as being formidable, but here are some particularly capable students who are able to not only fend them off but effortlessly destroy them en masse.
Hell, even the very beginning of the game sort of implies a physical power imbalance; if Monokuma were stronger than Mondo, why would he resort to self-destructing in order to damage him instead of attacking him normally with his claws, like he did with Sakura? There are a lot of things that, when combined, paint a picture about Monokuma’s power that not many have considered.
While there isn’t enough concrete proof that Monokuma is objectively weaker than other athletic students such as Nekomaru, I think it’s important to keep in mind that even the strongest Monokumas can and have been destroyed rather easily by even mildly athletic students, leading one to believe that he shouldn’t be defaultly listed as a top tier of the verse, despite his brief scuffle with Sakura. He should still reasonably scale to most notable feats, but to a much lesser extent than people often claim.
Big Bang Monokuma
So remember that Big Bang Monokuma feat that we mentioned before? If you’ve dipped your toes into Danganronpa scaling before, I’m sure you’ve seen this guy before. But, for the uninitiated, allow me to explain exactly why this needs a dedicated section.
The Big Bang Monokuma was the Resistance’s trump card during the events of Ultra Despair Girls. Produced by the Towa Group (with design influence from Monaca), Haiji Towa intended to pilot it in order to deal with the various Monokuma Bots that were terrorizing the city. However, the Big Bang Monokuma’s AI goes rogue (due to a certain interloper) and Komaru decides to confront it with Toko at her side.
The part that mostly matters for the purposes of this section is the finale of the fight. After the Big Bang Monokuma, which will be shortened to BBM from now on, underwent a sufficient amount of damage, Komaru and Toko poured their hope into one final shot from the Hacking Gun, which activated the BBM’s self-destruct sequence. Its head launched into the sky, splitting the clouds, and came crashing back down on top of the now decapitated body.
Many people use this feat as a means to justify Danganronpa reaching megaton-level power, as Toko Fukawa was able to block and parry attacks from the BBM. Headmaster Monokuma scales to this through scaling to Sakura Ogami, who he fought with for an extended period of time. Sakura is considered to be the world’s strongest martial artist, with very few exceptions, so she would naturally be stronger than Toko; in fact, they actually fought in IF, with Toko claiming that she would be unable to win. All checks out, right?
Well, not really. I’ve had quite a few grievances with this feat for the longest time, and it mainly stems from the means by which the BBM was defeated: the Hacking Gun.
The Hacking Gun isn’t just some powerful weapon that is used to physically harm the Monokuma units throughout UDG. It uses electromagnetic waves to send lines of code into the Monokuma unit it targets, forcing it into self-destructing. These self-destructs are entirely produced by the Monokumas and, in the case of the BBM, are never directly endured by any notable cast members. The self-destruct sequence that caused the megaton-level feat didn’t hit anybody, so it isn’t really directly comparable. While Toko did parry attacks from the BBM, we have no clue if these attacks are using the same force as the self-destruct, and simply assuming that the two are comparable is an absurd leap in logic. Via a similar train of thought, one could conclude that Korosensei’s tentacle strikes would be comparable to his Antimatter Self-Destruct.
And even if you were to argue that the protagonists scale due to Toko being able to damage the BBM with her scissors, I also believe this to be erroneous. In order to deal damage to the BBM, Toko specifically needs to attack the creature’s right eye, which is made of a thick glass and contains the robot’s “weak spot”. However, throughout the entire fight, Toko does no visible damage to it. The weak spot was only shattered after the self-destruct sequence had transpired, causing the head to careen back into the earth. Only then does the BBM receive any sort of visible damage - after it was commanded to self-destruct by the Hacking Gun and was rendered susceptible to its own processes.
Not to mention I feel like scaling most forms of Monokuma to the BBM sort of misses the narrative crux as to why the BBM was important in the story of UDG. Hell, the BBM is able to decimate dozens of Monokuma units simultaneously. While we do know that the Monokuma units created for the Demon Hunting killing game were considerably worse than the one encountered during Killing School Life, to assume that even Headmaster Monokuma would scale to the BBM would be to insinuate that an average, albeit prime, model of Monokuma would be comparable to a weapon so powerful it would be deemed a “trump card” against the war on despair as a whole. I think it’s clear that the BBM is intended to be in its own tier of power, and the Resistance had just the right tools, disposition, and hope to destroy it.
As such, I firmly believe that there is no clear way to scale any major character from Danganronpa to the Big Bang Monokuma’s self-destruct, except for debatably the Big Bang Monokuma itself. Its defeat was caused by a form of durability negation through the Hacking Gun, and its self-destruct was not created nor endured by any other figure within the cast.
FTL Danganronpa Is Fine (For the Most Part)
It’s funny how this is the least controversial topic when it comes to Danganronpa stats.
Due to the existence of Ultra Despair Girls, Danganronpa characters having light-speed reactions is genuinely pretty standard, at least in that particular game. One of the first things we see in the prologue is Komaru dodging an EMP wave point-blank, and while you could argue that Byakuya wasn’t even aiming for her, there’s still tandem movement to be seen and measured. Many characters, both friend and foe, are able to dodge the EMP waves emitted by the Hacking Gun, due to the game treating them as projectiles rather than hitscan.
However, this creates a kind of slippery slope when it comes to how these projectiles interact with the rest of the world and how we can interpret them. Since Komaru is able to dodge within the bounds of a cutscene, we know that this was somehow Kodaka’s intent and can take it at face value, but other forms of gameplay create secondary interpretations that can be seen as erroneous at best and a blatant reach for buffs at its worst.
As an obvious example, the fact that the EMP waves have a visible travel time means that Komaru’s walking speed is comparable to it, right? But obviously Komaru isn’t actually walking at a percentage of the speed of light in this instance; the projectile is simply being slowed down visually for gameplay purposes. We aren’t meant to assume that light traveling this slow in-game means that everything else in the game, no matter how mundane, is hundreds of thousands of times faster than they look because of this one comparison.
In particular, this distinction affects Nagisa’s mech. I think it’s clear that it’s meant to be taken at face value for its speed, and as such comparing it to the speed of an EMP wave is an attempt to draw a conclusion from a conclusionless piece of gameplay. I will be using Komaru’s base reaction speed that we see in the opening cutscene as Monokuma’s speed baseline, as that is the best speed feat in regards to the Hacking Gun that isn’t a dubious extrapolation from gameplay mechanics.
The Despair Video’s Practicality
Let’s be honest with ourselves here.
In a vacuum, the various brainwashing videos that Junko had “commissioned” from Ryota sound like they would be very useful in a fight. The ability to not just stun but also either completely convert to your cause or induce immediate suicide in a target is something that should not be taken lightly, regardless of its method of being administered.
But Monokuma has never done this in a fight. Hell, I’m not even sure if Monokuma has access to the Despair Videos. Junko used them, not him. I cannot find a single mention of Monokuma himself flashing somebody with either video as a form of defense, much less justification that he even has a means to do that. The two videos were kept on flash drives that ultimately ended up in the grasp of Tengan, who only played them under the false guise of a Monokuma several years after the original Killing School Life, where Headmaster Monokuma would be picked from.
Even if we assume that Monokuma’s carrying his brand-new iPhone 17 with the Despair Video loaded up on it, and even if we assume that he’d even think to pull it out of his ass to suddenly catch Korosensei off-guard and convert him to despair… well, we’ll talk about that in the verdict.
Executions, and the Death of “Standard Arsenal”
I don’t know why nobody ever really brings this up. It feels like such an obvious question to ask, but here we are.
I mentioned all of Monokuma’s canonically used executions at length in his Equipment section, but doing so was really only a formality. Realistically speaking… how the hell would these even be remotely usable in a combat setting? The Killing School Life was set up across the course of two years, and all of the executions were manually installed in the basement of Hope’s Peak Academy. They are specifically made as ironic punishments for those that they were constructed for and only serve that singular purpose throughout the entirety of not just the game but the series as a whole.
Not only would it be entirely infeasible, if not physically impossible for Monokuma to remove the executions from the basement and keep them on his person in the event of an unexpected fight, it would also go against one of the core principles of the Killing Game, that being the punishments’ individualized nature.
This is a slight tangent, but nowadays I see people list basically every single thing that a character has ever used before as part of their “arsenal”, which is fine when you’re dealing with video game characters with an inventory or otherwise in-universe justifications for being able to carry so many weapons on them, such as hammerspace. However, this sentiment has crept into the general space, and people seem much more lenient about giving characters literally everything they’ve ever used, all at once.
Monokuma pulls a gavel out of his ass all the time. I kind of have to give him that. But I doubt he’d be able to do the same thing with a motorcycle, or an excavator, or an entire classroom with a hydraulic press and conveyor belt pre-installed. He’s cartoony, but he’s not Bugs Bunny. It’s asinine to include, much less hold any significant weight in the debate.
Let’s Talk About Mach 20
This is probably the most important part of the blog. If you were to only take away one thing from it, I would prefer for it to be this. I’ve been itching to discuss this topic at length because I have some rather strong (and, from what I’ve seen, controversial) opinions regarding it.
An ongoing discussion that is commonly associated with Korosensei’s battle power is the nature of his speed. More specifically, many people claim that Mach 20, Korosensei’s stated limit within the confines of the series, is just that: a limit. Korosensei’s top speed of Mach 20 carries a certain narrative significance with it that fosters other interactions. For example, he is outsped by a rocket going at Mach 23, and he struggles against the Reaper, a character with a similarly stated top speed of Mach 40. Therefore, many people choose to simply take it as it is and list Korosensei’s speed as Mach 20.
I believe that such a thing is close-minded and ultimately serves to hinder discussion regarding Korosensei’s true speed.
Regardless of the initial postulation of Korosensei’s maximum speed’s legitimacy, it’s shown within the narrative that Korosensei seems to be getting faster as the school year continues, as he gains more control over his afterimages and seems to perform more and more impressive feats of speed. This is further compounded upon by the various instances of feats that are blatantly above Mach 20 as early as the first few chapters; gathering all of the students nameplates at the end of Chapter 1 achieves Mach 54, and catching Karma’s soup in an eyedropper achieves roughly Mach 150, both of which are multiple times higher than his perceived maximum. There come points in the series where, in one panel, Korosensei is stated to be Mach 20, and then on the same page he’s shown doing something that is clearly much faster than Mach 20 and everyone just kind of sits around and refuses to comment on it. The Speed section of Korosensei’s feats should prove sufficiently that Korosensei has moved faster than Mach 20 numerous times to the point where calling each and every one an outlier seems intentionally deceptive towards representing Korosensei’s actual speed.
Besides, we even get direct confirmation early on that Korosensei’s speed seems to be increasing as time goes on, as Nagisa comments on the improvement of his visual clones. Korosensei corroborates this sentiment multiple times, as he claims that his skills have been constantly sharpening throughout the year and firmly establishes that he gains strength through his teaching methods. Mach 20 was simply his perceived maximum at the beginning of the series; from that point, he has had numerous experiences that have allowed him to grow beyond that initial speed. Limiting Korosensei to Mach 20 is like deciding a final grade based on your first week of class; it undermines the growth undergone throughout the experience in favor of locking him into a preconceived notion that he’s made multiple valid attempts to disprove.
Doesn’t the Spear of Heaven technically disprove FTL?
Not necessarily. While the Spear of Heaven is a light-based projectile that Korosensei was unable to fully react to, Korosensei had to be taken off-guard by the attack in order to even be threatened by it. The laser was fired from space, without warning, and Korosensei was forced to use his sixth sense in order to react in time to dodge it. While the actual time it took for him to notice the laser is never properly disclosed, clearly he had to have reacted after the laser was fired. If he had known the laser was coming before it fired, he would have taken visible efforts to dodge before it was shown firing.
Korosensei is blatantly reacting to eyesight-based attacks by the final fight regardless, so he is quite obviously capable of operating somewhere close to the speed of light by the time of his death, if not further beyond.
Doesn’t the Advice Book contradict this?
A good question! You’re a really good listener. I respect that a lot about you.
In a bonus page of the manga, Korosensei reflects on his time teaching Class 3-E. He reveals the “secret of Mach 20”: in actuality, Mach 20 is only a speed he can reach within a wide, open area, such as above the ocean. Within the limited, cramped confines of the classroom, he states that he only goes at subsonic speeds, only reaching Mach 3 at most.
While this may seem like a nail in the coffin for speculation regarding Korosensei’s true speed, it must be noted that several of the feats that Korosensei performs within the classroom are above this imposed limit. In fact, the very first thing we see Korosensei do within the entire series is dodge a litany of bullets from all of his students, which has been calculated to Mach 3.73; well over his supposed indoor limit.
Some people also use this quote as a means to discredit Nagisa’s statement of Korosensei getting faster and more consistent with his visual clones as the school year passes, as he could simply have been increasingly more comfortable with reaching further into his maximum speed as the year goes on, thus never increasing his actual limit. However, two things: first, we already know that he was capable of going above his imposed Mach 3 limit as early as his first few weeks on the job, so this growth would have to be immediate enough to the point where Korosensei would not need to comment on his initial surmisal of his maximum indoor speed, as it would already be outdated. Secondly, Mach 20 could indeed be growing as a cap as the year goes on in addition to his indoor cap. Both concepts are not mutually exclusive to each other.
While this is a direct statement from Korosensei elaborating on his speed, it is simply incompatible with what we see Korosensei do within the actual narrative. This is a recurring theme with Korosensei, which ultimately leads me to believing that his claims regarding his speed limitations have little to no actual substance and should be, for the most part, disregarded when trying to find his actual speed.
But Mach 20 is so narratively consistent!
This is true. Mach 20 is repeatedly stated across the series, and it’s clear that Yusei Matsui has a very thorough understanding of just how fast Mach 20 is, as well as its limits. However, this doesn’t change how mathematically inconsistent this supposed limit actually is, as well as the several times it has been surpassed with essentially no canonical acknowledgement.
I have two explanations for this: an in-universe one and a metatextual one.
Firstly, forgive my headcanon for a moment and consider another similar major plot point surrounding Korosensei’s battle power: the destruction of 70% of the moon. Similarly to Mach 20, this is established to be something of Korosensei’s doing right from the get-go. He openly claims it, his associates corroborate it, and the students spend a majority of the series believing it. However, as said in the previous segment, we later learn that this “feat” was nothing but a lie in order to motivate his students further.
So, I posit this: why isn’t Mach 20 treated with a similar scrupulousness? The only person we hear about this Mach 20 limit from is the world government, who have been duped by Korosensei before, and Korosensei himself, which then causes his class to parrot it. It’s unlikely that Korosensei would simply let himself get tested for a maximum speed, so it’s likely that this speed is an estimate performed by the government, which leaves room for error. Perhaps Mach 20 was simply a clean, round number to settle on in order to give his students a tangible goal to work towards.
Consider the two critical moments in which Korosensei was explicitly outmatched by a force with a stated speed faster than Mach 20: the rocket, which was implied to be going at least Mach 23, and the Reaper 2.0, with a stated top speed of Mach 40. People tend to forget that Korosensei was actually able to catch up to the rocket before it eventually left Earth’s atmosphere. He had only let go at a certain altitude, likely due to the fact that Korosensei cannot survive in the vacuum of space and would surely die if he were to join the rocket’s ascent. And Korosensei, throughout the course of his fight with the Reaper 2.0, eventually grew to be able to anticipate his attacks and eventually caught him completely off guard with a massive beam of light, one that took a substantial period to charge and could have easily been avoided if the Reaper was truly twice as fast as Korosensei in all aspects.
In both of these instances, Korosensei’s speed in comparison to these supposedly higher forces is actually much more comparable than we have given him credit for in the past. Thus, I postulate that Mach 20 is not a hard limit on how fast Korosensei can travel, but rather a self-imposed limit on how fast he allows himself to travel for several differing reasons: whether that be out of safety for the planet, safety for those he travels in close proximity with, or perhaps just to give his students a finish line. Many instances of Korosensei breaking this imposed limit are when either his own life or the lives of his students are truly at stake, allowing him to push past those subconscious barriers and reach his true limit of speed.
But, ultimately, I believe that the true reason behind these speed-based inconsistencies is simply that the author chooses to allow Korosensei to be as fast as he needs to be to achieve whatever the narrative has put in front of him. Mach 20 isn’t just a stat limit - it is also a narrative limit that, if the author wished to faithfully adhere to it in all scenarios, would make many memorable scenes within Assassination Classroom impossible to pull off. Story-relevant scenes, such as the multiple instances of Korosensei’s speed clones as well as his dodging of the Spear of Heaven and his saving of Kayano, would have to be massively altered to fit this pre-established mold, likely to the narrative’s deficit. The same goes for the several more gag-like feats, such as catching Karma’s soup and reading two years’ worth of manga in a second: if they were altered to more properly coincide with Mach 20, the intended joke would likely be lost.
For example, let’s take Korosensei’s fastest quantifiable speed feat: his repairing of Kayano’s body through reattaching her somatic cells, one by one. If you wanted to adjust this feat in order to account for Mach 20, Korosensei would have to be moving almost 16.5 million times slower, which would take the feat’s previous timeframe of about 71 seconds and increase it to 1.2 billion seconds. That is a little over 37 years, and a timeframe that is absolutely not a feasible one for the narrative.
So, in the event that Yusei Matsui actually cared to fact-check all of Korosensei’s feats (which he very likely could’ve, considering his very apparent affinity for mathematics), he would have been faced with a decision: either tell the story he originally wanted to tell, or meticulously alter it in order to adhere to the Mach 20 cap. And, clearly, he chose the former.
I imagine that Mach 20 is simply a fast speed that is very easy to explain to a general audience; it’s twenty times faster than sound. To an average reader, that is incomprehensibly fast. But I’d like to ask something: how much would the narrative actually change if this number were to be adjusted? Would it be meaningfully different if he was, say, Mach 21? What about Mach 100? Mach 1000? Or even the speed of light? Hell, what if he was slower, only at around Mach 10?
All of these, to the average human, are equally incomprehensibly fast. To quote An Idiot's Guide to Everything, “to us slow humans, we really can’t tell the difference between Mach 1, Mach 2, and Mach 20. We just see it as ‘very fast’. Similarly, we can easily tell the difference between 10 lions and 1,000 lions, but by the time it gets to 1,000,000 lions or 1,000,000,000 lions, we just register the number as ‘a lot’.” From eyesight alone, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a million and a billion things if you were viewing them in isolated instances. I’d imagine that’s what Matsui was going for, here: a large number that would properly sell the sheer inhuman standards that the class would have to face. When you constantly deal with fictional characters who surpass the speed of light so casually, Mach 20 feels rather slow in the grand scheme of things, but the average reader likely would not share such a sentiment.
I believe that the Mach 20 cap that is imposed on Korosensei throughout the series shows significant holes when analyzed under even minor scrutiny. There are several encounters, feats, and implications that clearly depict Korosensei to be much faster than Mach 20, both in moments of casual interaction and desperate need. If the actions presented in the series do not seem to care about Mach 20’s significance as a cap… then, frankly, why should we?
Consistent Outliers
“Consistent outliers” is a meme in and of itself, but it’s only ever really applied in regards to series with massive amounts of content, often with multiple writers. Sure, a specific comic run may have Spider-Man deck Thanos in the face to significant effect or Deathstroke taking on skyfather-level threats, but in the long run a whopping majority of their appearances have shown them at a particular level. Even though there are multiple of these instances, we can discount them due to them ultimately being drowned out by the core idea of the characters.
Now, can we apply this to Korosensei?
We should account for the fact that Assassination Classroom was penned by a single individual: one with a single vision for how the series should play out. There are no “separate visions” that other victims of this argument, such as the aforementioned Spider-Man and Deathstroke, are held culpable towards. If there’s an inconsistency, it’s entirely on Matsui, who has clearly demonstrated to great effect that he knows exactly how fast Mach 20 is and what its limits should be.
You can call it narrative inconsistency. You can call it a lack of reverence towards the author’s words. You can call it consistent outliers… but it doesn’t change the fact that it happened. The Mach 20 “rule” is the only thing that prevents these speed feats from being viewed from a completely unbiased perspective; I can assure that, under literally any other context, these would be accepted without question. But, due to Mach 20’s existence, people tend to feel obligated to call it into question.
And, like I said before, I feel like that’s a disingenuous standard.
There are plenty of different series with theoretically imposed limits on their casts, especially in regards to speed. For example, there is a constant phenomenon of characters claiming that “nothing is faster than light”, only for characters to exceed it in speed moments later. Kill la Kill is a prominent example of this, yet we have no qualms scaling its characters well beyond the speed of light. In fact, “speedsters” in other verses such as Naoya in Jujutsu Kaisen or Quanxi in Chainsaw Man have had stated top speeds that have been blatantly broken several times by other characters. Mach 20 is no different from this; it is an arbitrary number that serves no narrative purpose other than to provide a baseline for characters and readers alike to put Korosensei’s monstrous speed into perspective.
To Summarize
TL:DR: “Mach 20” is an in-universe claim based on outdated, dubiously accurate information that Big VS has tricked you into treating as gospel for the last 4 years. Nagisa commented in-universe that Korosensei was getting faster within the first few months of the school year, corroborating the idea that Mach 20 is an outdated estimate. Additionally, Korosensei has had repeated instances of going above his stated “maximum speed” as early as the first chapters of the manga, and by the final fight he’s blatantly reacting to light-based projectiles. Ignoring these obvious feats for the sake of adhering to an unreliable limit is a semantic stop sign that fails to recognize what the character is visibly capable of achieving and, ultimately, goes against the concept of VS as a whole, that being discovering a character’s true potential.
As such, all of Korosensei’s speed feats above Mach 20 will be considered.
Drawing Song Viability
Korosensei’s Drawing Song is a decently divisive topic in terms of determining Korosensei’s abilities. It provides multiple feats that would by themselves be incredibly useful to have, but there are several things about the context surrounding it that prove that it’s not entirely cut and dry.
Firstly, the feats that people commonly cite are not present in the original manga version of the story. There, the beans are simply the size of regular beans and are placed casually within the designated areas. The massive beans were an anime-only addition, likely being adapted in that way so that the beans would logically be visible from space to help visualize the song.
Second, we have no actual proof that the events of the Drawing Song actually took place. The entire song is anecdotal and solely serves as a visualized demonstration on how to draw his own face.
However, the fact that these events may not have actually happened shouldn’t disqualify them from being considered. Korosensei never implied that the events of the song as he depicted them were things that he wasn’t capable of doing otherwise, and his students don’t ever call bullshit on these sorts of claims, so ultimately I think that this is up to personal interpretation. Use it or lose it, whatever floats your boat.
Korosensei and Energy Conversion
