The Despair Arc doesn't just explain how Hope's Peak fell. It guts you by showing exactly which moment each brilliant kid stops being themselves and becomes a weapon. You watch Chisa's genuine care for her students become the tool that destroys them, and by the time you understand what's happening, there's no stopping it anymore.

Chisa Yukizome, a cheerful former student with the title of Super High School-Level Housekeeper, becomes homeroom teacher for Hope's Peak Academy's eccentric Class 77-B and sets out to fix their bad habits and bring them closer together. Meanwhile, Hajime Hinata, an ordinary boy in the Reserve Course, wishes he had a talent of his own. A chance meeting with Chiaki Nanami, the class's Super High School-Level Gamer, gives him a more hopeful outlook. Unknown to him, the academy's leadership is preparing a sinister experiment built around him, meant to turn him into the Ultimate Hope. As despair creeps into the school's daily life, a chain of tragic events gives rise to the Remnants of Despair and sets off the Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. The psychological horror mystery aired alongside Danganronpa 3: Mirai-hen.