The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy

The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy or Hope's Peak Academy's biggest, most awful event (希望ヶ峰学園史上最大最悪の事件) is the name given to the very first Mutual Killing game featured in Danganronpa/Zero and Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair. It was caused by Junko Enoshima. Unlike the other killing games, it is directly hosted by both Junko and Mukuro Ikusaba.

It is not to be confused with The Tragedy, the world-wide event that happened later on and which was triggered by The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy.

Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy - Side: Despair
Junko, in her desire to spread despair, forced the Student Council of Hope's Peak Academy into the first known mutual killing game, which killed all the participants except Izuru Kamukura and the heavily wounded student council president Soshun Murasame. At first, they refused to kill each other, but Junko provided motive for Karen Kisaragi and a few others to kick off the killing spree. Izuru killed off the assumed sole survivor in self-defense, and a security camera caught him.

Following the Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy, Junko sent out e-mails revealing Hope's Peak Academy's Izuru Kamukura Project, which included conducting illegal human experiments, and used security footage of the mutual killing to make it look like Hope's Peak had created a murderer. The events were broadcast to the Reserve Course, greatly upsetting them - in their view, the academy had apparently spent the exorbitant fees they had paid to create "murderers".

The reserve course then rebelled and protested, beginning the Parade, not knowing that they were being led and agitated from the shadows by Junko and her organization, Ultimate Despair. This social unrest soon became a movement that spread outside the academy's walls, with people everywhere protesting against the wealthy and talented. The movement soon engulfed the world, becoming more violent by the day, eventually creating the major event known as The Tragedy.

Results And Aftermath
The Tragedy of Hope's Peak ended with the Mastermind's victory as the Killing Game went smoothly, resulting in Izuru Kamukura and Soshun Murasame being left as the sole survivors, with the latter being left in critical condition after the events of the game, forcing him to quickly be hospitalized when he was found, while the former was framed as the mastermind, creating the cause célèbre among the Reserve Course and led to The Parade. The school tried to hide the incident by claiming that the Student Council were suddenly called to an overseas facility to study abroad.

Nonetheless, Junko felt that the forced mutual killing was too psychotic and too stiff, thus missing excitement for her. Furthermore, she determined that a mascot is necessary as well - not even a host dressed in a sort of a cartoon character outfit would do. Therefore, she modified her next planned mutual killing into games in order to make things more dramatic, resulting in the Killing School Life; it was to be hosted by a robotic bear known as Monokuma.

Trivia

 * The room that the Student Council gathered in was possibly Room 5-C. Seen in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, it was the only classroom that was covered in blood, with desks laid astray and body chalk lines drawn all over prior to the events of the game.
 * The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy contains some similarities to Battle Royale; both works involve a defiant student being shot by one of the organizers, and a couple attempting mutual suicide to escape the carnage.
 * This killing game is so far the only one in the history of the franchise to include guns as a possible weapon.
 * This killing game is the only one to be hosted by the mastermind themselves, as the idea to use Monokuma has not been developed yet.
 * In Danganronpa/Zero, Daiki mentions he killed two other people before killing Shoji. Since this does not match with the killing order seen in Danganronpa 3, it can be assumed that he only injured them and assumed he had killed them.