Danganronpa creator finally acknowledges Hajime x orange juice meme 

It’s a big day for the Danganronpa fandom, as the series’ creator Kazutaka Kodaka recently acknowledged the existence of the long-running Hajime Hinata x orange juice meme via his personal X (Twitter) account. 

With initial mentions of it on Twitter dating back to as early as 2013, the satirical shipping of Hajime Hinata and orange juice is one of the most well-known Danganronpa memes among the English-speaking fandom. Throughout the years, the meme has given birth to numerous edits, crack videos and even fanfiction depicting the Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair character and his headcanon adoration of orange juice. 

As is usually the case with such memes, the character in question has never canonically expressed any feelings whatsoever towards orange juice. However, a single in-game scene (the party scene in Chapter One) that depicts Hajime Hinata joyfully holding a wine glass filled with orange liquid was enough for fans to snowball it into a meme that has its own AO3 and Wattpad tags. Furthermore, seeing as Hajime Hinata doesn’t remember his Ultimate talent, Hajime x orange juice shippers have pronounced him the “Ultimate Orange Drinker.” 

Now, in 2024, Kodaka himself has revealed that he knows what’s been going on with the question, “You haven’t forgotten about orange juice, have you?” This was tweeted in response to our Japanese sister-site’s article about the Japanese Danganronpa fandom’s confused reactions to western fans making collaged images of Hajime Hinata surrounded by orange juice bottles and the like. 

Kodaka’s wording implies that it’s not the first time he has found out about the Hajime x orange juice phenomenon, and it’s a bit scary to think about what other fandom shenanigans he’s been silently observing over the years. 

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is currently available for PC (Steam) and other platforms. Danganronpa 1•2 Reload, which contains the first two games, is available for PS4. The numbered Danganronpa Anniversary Edition titles, which include a gallery mode, are available for PC (Microsoft Store), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.