[1] According to Takada, he is helped in composing songs through specifications given to him by director Takayuki Sugawara and visual materials sent to him by series creator Kazutaka Kodaka.

Takada has also said that he tries to conform the music to Danganronpa's "psycho-pop" style,[2] a term coined by Kodaka meaning gruesome horror with a pop "flair".

[6] The series take frequent use of voice samples, commonly in character and trial themes, in an attempt to create hooks and to form momentum to help build players' hype.

[1][10] The soundtrack of the series' first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, was released by Sound Prestige Records in Japan on February 11, 2011, with a condensed version published for music streaming services, such as iTunes.

[5] For Trigger Happy Havoc, Takada wanted to convey a claustrophobic and mysterious atmosphere, which he attempted through the use of combinations of varying tones and phrases, as well as sudden melodies.

Both reviewers described it as electronic and jazzy, with Kotowski also noting elements of rock, trip hop, pop, and ambient music in certain tracks.

[4][5] All tracks are written by Masafumi Takada, unless otherwise notedA soundtrack album for the series' second game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, was announced at a press conference in July 2012.

Using this as his base, Takada aimed to simulate the feel of open space, the opposite of what he set out to do with the soundtrack of Trigger Happy Havoc.

Gann called Takada's task of rearranging his past work impressive and found the arrangements to typically be better than the originals, while still writing that he's "happy to listen to either version".

Chait agreed on the superiority of the arrangements and also commented on the familiarity of tracks, but criticized certain remixes for being moreso identical to the Trigger Happy Havoc versions.

[10] Chait concluded that the soundtrack lives up to Takada's past credits, but condemned the digital download release for discluding many tracks.

[16] The soundtrack consists mainly of tracks from the Trigger Happy Havoc video game, as executives Seiji Kishi and Yuji Higa had wanted the show's music to preserve Danganronpa's game-like atmosphere.

The opening, "Never Say Never", is an English-language hip hop rendition of the main Danganronpa theme, written by TKDz2b and performed by American rap duo The 49ers, with backing vocals from British vocalist Natalie Oliveri.

[15][20] All tracks are written by Masafumi Takada, unless otherwise notedThe music of the action-adventure spin-off game Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls was released by Sound Prestige Records in Japan on December 18, 2014.

With a total length of 2:47:39, the soundtrack was headed by Takada and includes three discs with 75 tracks, some arrangements of songs from Ultra Despair Girls' predecessors.

In terms of new tracks, in addition to some nonsense songs,[6] the soundtrack features two lyrical pieces: the insert song "Let's Play with Monokuma", written by Kodaka and performed by the Monokuma Kids,[21] and the game's ending theme "Progressive", composed and arranged by Tomohiro Nakatsuchi and sung by Ogata and Aya Uchida.

[22][6] When writing the soundtrack, Takada attempted to avoid reusing melodies from Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair, while still trying to maintain the general tone of the prior installments.

[26][27] A bundle of both albums, packaged with a single-track remix CD by Takada called the Happy Holidays Mix, was sold through certain online retailers.

[28] The soundtrack of Danganronpa V3 had a higher emphasize on jazz – something more "stylish than pop" – which Takada opined gave it a more mature and darker tone.

[24] All tracks are written by Masafumi TakadaA soundtrack album of songs from a 2017 stage play of Danganronpa 2 was published by Sound Prestige Records on April 4, 2017, in Japan, under the catalog number SPLR-1117~8.

Happy Holiday Mix contains a single, 21-minute long track by Takada that was originally played at a crossover livestream of Danganronpa and Gravity Rush.

Western series publisher NIS America has released five mini albums through their online store, exclusively in North America and Europe, containing tracks from Trigger Happy Havoc,[35] Goodbye Despair,[36] Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls,[37] the compilation game Danganronpa 1-2 Reload,[38] and Killing Harmony.

[42] In 2020, a short album of character songs composed by Takada, titled Danganronpa-ism, was released by Sound Prestige Records in conjunction with the franchise's 10th anniversary.

[48] "Progressive", the ending theme to Ultra Despair Girls, is performed by Megumi Ogata and Aya Uchida as the characters Makoto and Komaru Naegi, respectively.

The review attributes the emotion to the song's intense rock and Ogata and Uchida's vocals, and also lauds the high-resolution release for achieving a more energetic sound that amplifies the lyrics' vividness.

review, which referred to Ogata's vocals as the highlight of the track, with the lyrics walking on a line of good and bad luck, something indicative of Nagito's character.

"Ever Free" by Hide with Spread Beaver is used as an ending theme exclusively in the final episode, being chosen to conclude the show since Kodaka had been listening to the song during the beginning of production.

[51] The complementing opening theme, "Kamiiro Awase", is performed by the four-member music unit Binaria, made up of writer Annabel, composer Nagi Yanagi, arranger Yoshihisa Nagao, and visual artist Xai.

[52] "Kamiiro Awase" was released as a single by NBCUniversal Japan on the same day as "Zettai Kibō Birthday", and was available in both a regular and limited edition.

[69] Two lyrical songs from the series have appeared in greatest hits albums of their artists: "Zetsubōsei: Hero Chiryōyaku" in Suzumu's Zoku Kebyoningen (2015) and "Dead or Lie" in Maon Kurosaki's M.A.O.N (2017).